Here you are, down on your knees again,
Trying to find air to breathe again,
And only surrender will help you now.
~Again~
Sakura looked at Sasuke, her eyebrows furrowed. What truth had he discovered? What did he mean? She wasn't sure that she wanted to know the truth if it did to people what it did to Sasuke. Would she become as broken as he was? She leaned back into her chair and stared him straight in the eye, the debate between her head and heart evident in her mistrusting gaze.
"What's the matter, Sakura?" Sasuke's lip twitched as he fought the crazed smirk trying to stretch his mouth. "Aren't you curious?"
"You'd tell me?" she asked uncertain. "Before…you wouldn't before."
"Not that it's any of your business," he replied coldly. "I didn't have all the facts before."
"Even if you didn't have the facts, you could have told me. I would have listened. I wanted to be there for you," Sakura replied with tears in her eyes.
Sasuke's face transformed in that moment, his shielded eyes becoming menacing and his lips parting to reveal a terrible smirk. Sakura tried to shrink back into her chair, but he leaned closer to her.
"Do you really think that you're something special?"
Her eyes widened, but she could find no words to defend herself or even the voice to speak.
"You can't fathom the depth of my pain, the strength of my hate," he continued. "You won't be able to do anything when I burn your beloved village to the ground."
"Maybe not," she replied, accepting that she truly had no power over her weakness. "But Naruto will stop you."
Sasuke snarled and grabbed her throat just under her bruised jaw, making Sakura gasp. "You're wrong!" He squeezed his fingers into her soft flesh and watched her face distort with the need for air. "When he comes for you, I will kill him."
Sakura watched him through widened, bloodshot eyes, her throat burning. Fear clawed at her chest. "N-no," she rasped. "Let me g-go…"
She felt his hands tighten around her throat and her vision swirled. Her body felt like it was burning, and darkness clouded her eyes. Suddenly, her head dropped to her chest and air filled her lungs. Sasuke watched her with a disgusted sneer on his face. He swiftly reached forward and Sakura cried when he sharply pulled on her hair, yanking her head back. She opened her bleary eyes to see Sasuke staring down at her bruised face. She saw his other hand coming toward her and she shut her eyes, fearing he would hit her again. When she felt cold fingers lightly tracing her jaw, she trembled.
"You are such a pathetic girl," he said in a low voice. "So dependent on others. So naïve to think that they won't let you down or stab you in the back," he growled.
His words reminded Sakura of the day she went to Iron Country. She remembered how she had lied to Naruto, gassed her teammates, deceived Sasuke, and tried to kill him. She tried to stab him in the back, but she couldn't do it. She couldn't kill the man she so desperately wanted to save and bring home. Back then, she thought there was still hope for him, that Naruto would change him. Perhaps she'd been wrong. If she had gone through with it, if she had plunged her kunai deep into his back, deep enough to puncture a lung or sever his spinal cord, she wouldn't be here. She wouldn't be his prisoner. Yet…at the same time, she wouldn't be able to live with herself. Perhaps she would be dead, unable to continue knowing that he was gone for good. She loved him. Even now, she couldn't find it in her heart to feel any hatred toward him.
Tears streamed down her face. "But I didn't," she whispered. "I couldn't."
His eyes narrowed. "Nothing you say will make me forget what you did. I will never forgive you for your betrayal."
"I didn't betray you," she replied. "You betrayed me!"
He yanked harder on her hair and she winced at the pain in her scalp. "I protected you!"
Her eyes sparkled as she stared at him in disbelief. "What?"
Sasuke's eyes widened as if he realized he'd said something wrong. Finally, he released her hair and returned to his chair across from her. He leaned back and crossed his arms over his chest, watching her with hollow eyes.
"That's all."
"What do you mean, that's all?" Sakura asked furiously. "You're done smacking me around for the day? You're done messing with my head? You're done speaking because you're afraid of what you might say?"
"I said that's all," he replied flatly.
Sakura struggled in her binds. "Well, I'm not done!" She squirmed and bounced her chair and raged, her hair flailing in all directions. "I won't let you kill Naruto! If you go that far, you'll never come back and I can't let that happen!" She was crying now. "You can kill me and it might not mean a thing, I don't know. But I do know that if you kill Naruto, it will destroy you."
"Shut up," Sasuke said through clenched teeth.
"You might be broken and you might break me, but you will never break Naruto. He's better than you."
"Shut up."
"I will not shut up!" she screamed. "You will listen to me, Uchiha Sasuke! I will never be able to physically stop you—not because I don't have the power, but because my heart won't let me. I only have my words and, maybe one day, you'll remember what I said and it might just make a difference."
Sasuke stood and once again grabbed Sakura by the throat in an attempt to silence her and, though she sputtered for a moment, she fixed him with her fiercest glare.
"I told you to shut up. It's in your best interest to do as I say."
She moved her lips in an attempt to speak, but her voice came out in a breathy rasp. "S-Sasuke-k-kun…stop b-before you c-can't."
Sasuke towered over her, squeezing harder. "It's already too late."
A/N: Sorry for the long wait, my beta and I are both super busy. It's been a long summer, thankfully it's almost over. Hopefully, life will slow down a bit.
Good news, I already have the next chapter of "Remember the Sunlight" written and sent out for betaing. I know wingedmercury is out for a while to do some other business she's got going on, so I'm not sure when that will be out. As for me, I have all day off and I plan to spend it writing. I've got the next chapter of "We are Extinct" to write and hopefully I can jump onto chapter 4 of this story.
Like a lot of you, I am in school so I can't give you exact dates for when my stories will be updated, so please be patient with me.
As always, thanks to my lovely reviewers and to the ever nonsuckish amazing wingedmercury for her awesome betaing.
Till next time...
