"You've a good heart. Sometimes that's enough to see you safe wherever you go. But mostly, it's not."
-
Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman


The atmosphere in Sasuke's room was frigid to the point that it was nearly unbearable. Sasuke was going out of his way to ignore Sakura and hadn't said a single word to her ever since their explosive argument the night before, he was clearly still angry. And Sakura didn't care if he was mad or not, she was ever angrier at him for being so immature.

Instead of looking at Sakura, Sasuke stared out of the rain-streaked balcony window, his crimson eyes emotionless and blank. A memory flashed in his mind-

- it's a test, Sasuke-san and Zetsu's sickening amber eyes had bored through him, seeing nothing but an object and not a soul, then something had erupted painfully in his chest, something that clawed at his insides with acid tipped talons-

The polite knock at the door made both of them start and look up, eyes dull and tired from a lack of sleep. Sasuke rose slowly to his feet and Sakura almost glanced at him instinctively, but forced herself to keep her gaze trained on the white, white door.

Click.

The noise echoed in Sakura's ears, instinctively causing her heartbeat to race at a hundred miles a minute. Sasuke's warning rang in her mind incessantly nothing you've been taught and she felt her hands begin to sweat as she will prepare you for tomorrow as she swallowed nothing nothing nothing-

"Sasuke-san. I've come for the girl."


The room was black and dark. Sakura couldn't see anything and had been sitting on the floor for so long, she had lost all perception of time. Silence filled every corner of the room, choking in its intensity, and it was beginning to drive her a little insane. Even the sound of her own voice wasn't enough to soothe her, she wanted to see where she was, she wanted to hear someone anyone, she needed-

SCREEEEECH.

And then there was noise, a long endless screech that made her want to cover her ears and sink into the walls. She wanted that silence again, not this shrieking, screeching, because her mind was warping the noise into something more painful.

- Naruto was screaming, screaming as the red blood red chakra was ripped from his stomach -

Her body curled in on itself and she gritted her teeth, grinding them so hard it felt like they were going to shatter. She tried to focus on something, anything, but the room was too dark and she couldn't even see her own body in front of her. The screaming went on and on, on and on, and she tensed every last muscle in her body in some attempt to escape the sound, her eyes squeezed shut.

Then the screeching stopped.

Her heavy breathing was the only thing that filled the silence of the room, in and out, in and out. She focussed on the sound of her inhales and exhales, forcing away all memory of the screeching, and her body relaxed. Sakura felt so tired, fatigued, and she let herself sag against the wall behind her, her eyes shut.

SCREEEEECH.

The next day came and she was pulled from the darkness, away from the incessant screeching. The light had hurt her eyes and blinded her, she had barely processed where she was being dragged to. Sakura was exhausted and was barely able to recall any of the information she'd gathered on torture and interrogation, she hadn't slept all night because of the endless noise.

She was forced into a chair and she struggled against Zetsu as he pressed her down, but his fingernails dug into her flesh. Pain, so acute and fleeting, flooded through her entire body and it made her nerves spasm against their own will. Her back met the cold plastic of the chair she had fought not to sit in and her entire body went rigid. The chair had been laced with chakra that had rendered her immobile and it frustrated her, she could do nothing to fight back against him. In front of her sat a long table and she forced herself to look at it, nothing else.

Zetsu's voice was cold and emotionless. "Your name is Haruno Sakura."

"Didn't even need my help there," she quipped.

Hands like ice fisted in her hair and yanked it sharply, she felt her hair tear from her scalp painfully. She didn't flinch however and watched as Zetsu let the pink strands of hair fall from his mismatched black and white fingers.

A voice as rough as sandpaper emerged from Zetsu's throat, different from the one earlier. "I'm not as kind as Sasuke. Don't talk back to me."

"Fuck you, I'll do whatever I like," she snarled at him angrily.

Zetsu gripped her face this time, the pain erupting from wherever his fingers came into contact with her cheek. He was releasing harmful chakra from the pores of his skin and it attacked her nervous system. It felt like someone had stabbed metal pins into her body and passed an electric current through them, electrocuting her. She gritted her teeth as hard as she could, returning his amber gaze defiantly, and her entire body tensed. He let the pain last longer this time and she counted the seconds in her head, finding something else to distract her from the agony.

"Even at the age of fifteen, you're nothing but a chuunin," he told her, his words condescending.

She opened her mouth to speak, but his hand curled in her hair again and shook her sharply. The words died on her lips and he snarled, "You're weak. By now, most people would already be jounin-class."

She argued, "I'm a medic, of course I wouldn't have the time to take the jounin exams-"

He pressed his fingers against her skin again and the pain flooded through her, rendering her breathless.

"More than half of the jounin nowadays were upgraded without taking the examination. Even though you're praised for being the Godaime's apprentice, you haven't been upgraded to jounin. If you really were as good as everyone makes you out to be, you'd be jounin already," he pointed out ruthlessly.

"Do you think I care about something stupid like that?" she snapped angrily.

"You do."

His sickly golden eyes gleamed at her and he exuded superiority and arrogance. It made her angry just to look at him and Zetsu continued, "If you didn't, you wouldn't have spent the past three years training under the Godaime Hokage."

Sakura wanted to laugh at him. She hadn't been training to become a jounin, she had been training so that she wouldn't be left behind by her team mates anymore, so that she could protect people instead of being the one that was always protected. She hadn't done it to become one of the strongest in the village, she had done it to prove that she could look after herself and others. Zetsu didn't understand her at all.

Zetsu's voice became softer, gentler. "If you work with us to bring the jinchuuriki to Amegakure, we can help you become stronger. All you need to do is convince the jinchuuriki to come here."

"Good luck convincing him on your own," she snarled angrily.


The darkness that enclosed Sakura was broken by a small grating noise. A tiny flap in the door was pushed open and she could vaguely make out the outline of a tray being placed on the floor. She instinctively lunged towards the flap in a doomed to fail escape, but it shut before she could grab it and she let out a sigh of frustration, sinking to the ground.

Her hands groped around in the darkness and she made out the outline of a Styrofoam cup and a tiny bowl of rice. As she lifted the cup to her mouth-

"Fuck, don't drink it!" a voice that came from inside the cup warned her and she dropped it in surprise, spilling the liquid inside all over the floor.

"What the hell?" she asked aloud, wondering if she was going insane already.

A hand grabbed her ankle from out of nowhere and she jerked, kicking out instinctively. There was a 'whoosh' as breath was forced to flee from a pair of lungs and a dry cough. She realised that the voice belonged to somebody male.

"Shit, you can kick."

"Who's there?"

The hand tightened around her ankle. "Shh, keep it down!"

"Who're you?"

"Sasuke's team mate. Suigetsu."

"Sasuke didn't send you here, did he?"

"Hell no."

"Then what're you doing here?"

"I was curious about you."

"How did you even get in here?"

"That's a secret. Damn it, I wish there was some light in here-"

SCREEEEECH.

"Fuck! What the hell was that noise?"

"It comes every now and again."

"Sakura, is it? I'd hate to be you."

"Gee, thanks."

"Why're you even in here?"

"You mean, you don't know why I'm here? Why you kidnapped me?"

"It's not like Sasuke tells us anything, being the asshole he is."

"I take it you don't like him either?"

"Can't stand the bastard, but I'm stuck with him."

"Why should I tell you?"

"I came all this way to say hi to you, you could be a little grateful-"

SCREEEEECH.

"-fuck, that's annoying."

"Well, if you helped me get out of here then we wouldn't have to live through it."

"No chance in hell. I'd be killed by all of Akatsuki and Sasuke, and I kind of like living."

"It was worth a shot."

"So, you going to tell me why you're here or what?"

"I don't really see why I should."

"Well, even if you tell me, it's not going to have any effect on you. You'd still be locked up in here, so there's really no harm in telling me."

"You say that like I should be happy."

"Of course you should be, it's not like I'm going to use the information against you or anything."

"Hooray for consolation."

SCREEEEECH.

"…you're not going to tell me, are you?"

"Nope. Go ask Sasuke."

"Hmm, you're a bitch, but I like you."


The light that filled the room was blinding and Sakura instinctively threw her arm up as it pained her eyes. She was roughly yanked to her feet and the arm was torn away from her eyes, she realised belatedly that Zetsu was the one manhandling her.

Sakura lashed out at him with her free arm and it hit Zetsu in the shoulder, however the man didn't flinch at all. He grabbed her arm and twisted it painfully behind her back to stop her from attacking him, but then she ground her heels into the floor, refusing to move. She was going to do everything she could to make his life as difficult as possible and Zetsu slammed his shin into the back of Sakura's knees. They buckled on instinct and she fell forwards.

He all but dragged Sakura into the interrogation room and hurled her into the chair, it teetered on its legs as though it were going to topple over from the force. She felt her entire body go rigid and struggled feebly against the binding chakra, feeling helpless and frustrated as she found she could no longer move.

"I haven't changed my mind about anything," Sakura snarled viciously at Zetsu.

He knelt down at Sakura's side, right beside the arm rest. His expression was blank and his eyes were cold as he raised his jet black hand, placing it over hers. She returned his gaze, challenging him, and out of the corner of her eye she saw his fingers move.

Crack.

He bent her thumb backwards suddenly and it snapped with a loud, sickening crack. She inhaled sharply through her nose instinctively. Zetsu said nothing but then his hand moved onto the next finger, her index finger, and his unmoving gaze remained on hers.

Crack.

Sakura said nothing, but chanted in her head you've only got ten fingers, you've only got ten fingers, you've only got-

"Are you sure about that?" he asked her coolly.

Crack.

Taking a deep breath in, she mentally prepared herself for the next round of pain. "I'm pretty sure, asshole."

Cracracrack-

White hot pain laced through Sakura, dizzying her with the intensity of it as he bent back all of her fingers, breaking the ones that weren't already destroyed and aggravating the ones that were. She gritted her teeth, she was in so much pain that she couldn't bring herself to make any noise. She tried to distract herself from the pain as she thought of bright blue eyes and golden hair, a grin so wide it could swallow the world, a voice so loud that it could drown out everything and anything.

His voice was smug as he asked, "Not so talkative anymore, are you?"

Sakura opened her mouth to reply, but then he slammed his fist down on her hand as hard as he could. Agony burst within her and stole the words from her lips, but she endured the pain. For Naruto, for Konoha, for Naruto, for Konoha-

"You're pathetic," he told her.

He lifted her two thumbs and she felt all the bone shards shift against one another, grating against nerve endings. Slowly, he began to rotate them and she forced herself to keep on staring at the table in front of her. Her breath came out in a sharp hiss before she could help it and her vision blurred, it felt like he was carving symbols into her hand with a poisoned knife.

"You're here enduring all this torture for the jinchuuriki, but he hasn't even once tried to come and save you."


Crack. Crack.

"What the hell are you doing?"

"I'm resetting my fingers."

"Oh, so Zetsu's broken them already?"

Crack. Crack-

"Don't you have other things to do? Villages to burn, babies to mutilate-"

"Yeesh, you're not in a good mood today."

"I wonder why."

"Sasuke's not back yet, so I've got nothing else to do but hang out with you."

Crack.

"Sasuke's not here?"

"Nope, he was sent out on a mission a couple of days ago. The rest of Team Hawk only takes orders from Sasuke, so we're stuck doing nothing in the mean time. What is your connection to Sasuke, anyways? You two don't exactly seem like strangers."

Crack.

"We used to be team mates."

"Hm, really? He hasn't mentioned you before."

"I'd be surprised if he had."

"Ah, were you two dating?"

Crack.

"Fuck you."

"Oops, didn't realise that was a sensitive topic. Must've been a pretty bad break up then-"

"There was nothing to break up."

Crack.

"Urgh, that crack sounded painful."

"Just go crawl back into that stupid cup, Suigetsu."

"Oh, you've worked out my jutsu then?"

"You can break down your body into water particles, right? You just hide yourself in my cup as water so that Zetsu carries you in here whenever I have to eat."

"Hmm, smart girl. By the way, Sasuke comes back tomorrow."

Crack.

"What makes you think I care about Sasuke?"

"Don't you?"

Crack.

"I don't."

"My mistake then."


When Zetsu dragged her into the interrogation room again, Sakura froze momentarily at the sight on the table. Zetsu used her shock to his advantage and slammed her down into the restricting chair before she could fight back, she was already incapacitated before she could protest.

Before her on the long table lay a spread eagled, naked girl. She looked about Sakura's age and she had been bound to each of the table legs, her body stretched painfully. Zetsu walked over to the girl's head and ran his fingers through the dark brown strands there, mocking a lover's caress, and the girl moaned in pain.

Sakura shouted at him, her anger getting the best of her, "You bastard, what the fuck do you-"

Zetsu pulled sharply on the girl's long hair and she let out a terrified, ear splitting scream. It made Sakura flinch and she snarled, "Stop it! She has nothing to do with this!"

A chalk white hand pressed against the girl's hollow stomach, Zetsu never once let his yellow eyes leave Sakura's. The girl had begun to sob, knowing what was coming next, and Sakura felt frustration flood through her, she wanted to help her-

"Accept our offer and the girl will live," he deadpanned.

Sakura hesitated, unable to say anything, she couldn't, she couldn't and Zetsu pushed his hand down, chakra glowing at his fingertips. The girl threw her head back and began to writhe, screaming, screaming, screaming-

- and for a moment, Sakura imagined Naruto in her place not Naruto, not Naruto -

Sakura couldn't say anything.

Zetsu unbound the cord that held the girl's left arm and Sakura realised with a jolt that her hands were already broken. She had already been subject to torture and Sakura could do nothing but watch as Zetsu opened his mouth, slipping the girl's fingers inside.

No, no, he wasn't-

There was a loud sickening crunch.

The girl was screaming and the blood dripped onto the white linoleum floor, marring it crimson, and Sakura felt like her world was toppling around her. She squeezed her eyes shut and heard the girl screaming, "Please! Please, make it stop- no more!"

Zetsu's voice was cold and unaffected. "Accept our offer."

There was another crunch and another scream, Sakura's entire body convulsed as though she were the one being tortured-

Sakura blurted, "I don't- I won't-"

"Please! Please, just say yes-"

A scream cut off the girl's begging and Sakura's eyes flashed open for a second, but a second was more than enough time to witness torture at its worst. His golden eyes locked onto Sakura's emotionlessly, he was completely oblivious to the girl's screaming and pleading, and Sakura could see the blood smeared around his mismatched lips, the bone shards jutting from mangled flesh, the-

Zetsu's voice was cold. "If you accept now, I will end this here and the girl will go free. If you don't, I will continue until nothing is left of her."

And the girl's voice became hysterical and she sobbed, her chest rising and falling erratically. Sakura wanted to stand up and scream, to give in and let this girl live- but giving in had consequences that would affect hundreds of thousands of people. If Akatsuki got their hands on Naruto, on the Kyuubi, more people would die, more people would be tortured and it would be at least partially Sakura's fault.

This wasn't just about three people in a whitewashed torture chamber. This wasn't just about a girl too young to die and another girl who was too compassionate. This was about the entire world, about Konoha, about Ame, about Akatsuki-

It was the single most difficult thing Sakura had ever done and she could feel the tears burning at the corners of her eyes. She met the terrified gaze of the girl and forced herself to look at her, to remember her forever and ever and ever.

"I'm sorry," Sakura whispered, the words ripping all the strength from her.

There was a silence in which nobody said anything. Sakura was so close to breaking and wanted nothing more than to look away, but she couldn't. She held eye contact with the girl, through everything, and read the hatred in her eyes and the unending fear.

Then Zetsu slipped the girl's stump of a wrist into his mouth again.


SCREEEEECH.

Silence.

SCREEEEECH.

Silence.

SCREEEEECH.

"Fuck!"

"I'm kind of surprised you've lasted this long."

"Fuck you, Suigetsu!"

"Well, for what it's worth, Zetsu would have killed her anyways."

"You don't understand. I'm a medic, I could have saved her life but I didn't. I'm meant to save lives, she was begging me for help but I didn't say anything and he fucking ate her alive, he-"

"You-"

SCREEEEECH.

"God damn it, that noise!"

"Sakura-"

"Fuck you, just leave me alone!"

SCREEEEECH.

"Sakura, Sasuke wanted me to tell you something."

Silence.

SCREEEEECH.

"He says that Naruto's still in Konoha."

Quiet, muffled sobbing began.


Sakura still fought and struggled with Zetsu as he wrestled her to the interrogation room, but her body was so tired and all she wanted to do was sleep. She had gone without sleep for too long and it was destroying her, ruining her. Zetsu forced her into the chakra chair again without as much trouble as before and she found herself sitting opposite Sasuke.

Her voice was hoarse. "Sasuke?"

His face was expressionless and he seemed barely affected by her presence, she might not have been sitting there at all. Zetsu rifled for something in his robes and withdrew a long syringe and needle. Sakura's eyes flickered to it and she noted that it contained a colourless substance, but it could be anything at all. Sasuke kept his eyes on Sakura as Zetsu approached her.

She snarled, "Don't touch me, you-"

All the words in the world meant nothing to Zetsu. He was unmoved by her protests and stabbed her mercilessly in the arm with the needle, injecting her with the substance.

Zetsu told her, "I've injected poison into you. It will kill you in four minutes. If you agree to help us, then I will give you the antidote."

Zetsu put another syringe that held the antidote on the table in front of Sakura and she stared at the glass contraption, as though she didn't quite believe it. She had always thought her last hope would look a little more glamorous, a little more impressive-

All the insults and screaming in the world would do nothing against Zetsu, she couldn't move a single muscle. The chemical he had injected into her began to flow through her bloodstream, but it seemed to be taking no effect. Sasuke watched her calmly, his crimson eyes burning into her emerald ones.

Then the pain began.

It was barely noticeable at first, like a pinprick. It gradually built up and it was manageable for a while, but then suddenly it flooded through her, slamming itself against every nerve ending in her body. Her body convulsed and her eyes rolled back as she focused on the ceiling, her mouth parting as she fought to breathe.

Coldly, Zetsu informed her, "Two minutes have passed already, Sakura. You have two more minutes before you die."

She blinked and her eyes shut for a little longer this time, she forced herself to open them and brought her head up.

Her gaze met Sasuke's.

- you won't achieve anything by killing yourself and his words had struck her harder than any blow ever would, but she would never kill Naruto -

"I'd rather die than help you kill Naruto," she snarled viciously.

Zetsu watched her in silence.

Sakura convulsed again, her muscles bulging against the chakra restraints. Icy cold sweat trickled down her burning skin, but she was beyond caring. Her lungs were giving in on her and her breaths were coming noisily now, in and out, in and out, in and out, in and out-

"Zetsu, stop this," Sasuke spoke finally.

Zetsu said nothing as the poison continued killing her, as her lips turned purple and her face grew pale-

"Zetsu, enough," he repeated himself, louder this time.

His blood red eyes met Sakura's emerald ones, and he knew without a doubt that she was planning on dying. Her eyes were filled with acceptance and it angered him, she was throwing away her life for something so stupid and why didn't she just give up-?

"You have ten more seconds," Zetsu stated.

Ten

Nine

Eight

Seven

Sakura was forming words now, her eyes never leaving Sasuke's as she trembled uncontrollably-

Help Naruto

Sasuke's chair shrieked on the linoleum and he snatched up the syringe, but Zetsu gripped his wrist, rendering it immobile. He threw Zetsu away from him, his hand clenched around the syringe and he stabbed it into Sakura's arm, desperate to administer it in time. She threw her head back and he gripped her other arm tightly, forcing the antidote into her body.

Her eyes were wide with surprise and he pulled the syringe out of her body, letting it drop to the ground beside her. It shattered against the pristine white linoleum floor, reflecting warped images of a broken saviour and a corpse white figure. He flipped a switch on the back of the chair and Sakura could move again, but she was much too weak now. Zetsu was rising to his feet just as Sasuke was lifting Sakura into his arms and he opened his mouth to speak.

Sasuke interrupted him sharply, "You almost let our only hostage die. We still need her to lure out Naruto."

Zetsu said coolly, "You have no right to interfere with my torture methods, Sasuke."

"Don't touch her again."

Zetsu began, "Sasu-"

The door to the interrogation room shut with a slam behind them and Sakura was so tired. After more than a week of torture, she was exhausted and she just wanted to sleep, to go to sleep and not wake up for a very long time. Maybe she'd wake up and find that she had just been dreaming, that all of this wasn't real…Her body was still incredibly tense in his arms, she couldn't relax anymore, and her head was throbbing from the poison. She felt so sick, so dead, and Sasuke said nothing.

Her voice was fatigued and filled with a mix of emotions. "You didn't have to save me. I didn't need you to save me-"

"You weren't being strong back there, Sakura. You were being stupid," he told her coldly.

"You bastard," she told him, but there was no venom behind her words.

Her hand slowly, gradually fisted in the fabric of his white shirt and she turned her head into his bare chest, her breaths coming shorter. She didn't want him to see her like this. The weight of everything pressed down on her all at once and she closed her eyes. It was all too much.

"You bastard," she repeated again, her voice choked in her throat. "You bastard…"


Next chapter preview: bridges that burn

"We have no choice. We have to bring Sakura with us on the mission in Grass Country."

"Hatake, you and your team will be escorting Tazuna to Grass Country."

"Sasuke, don't- Kakashi-sensei!"


Does Sasuke really think Sakura is useless?
He still thinks she needs defending, definitely. And he also thinks she's always getting in the way. I wouldn't go as far as to say useless though.

Oh my God. That was kind of disturbing.
Um. Well, I think it's worse to write. I'm really getting in touch with my twisted side for this story, I'm not sure I like it. : S Hopefully the torture chapter lived up to expectations, I was really nervous about it.

Kakashi? In the next chapter?
YEAAAAAH. He's there. And so are Team Hawk and Sakura. (This can't be good.)

These relationships are developing really quickly. What the heck?
Urgh, relationship progression is really killing me. I think it's more my characterisation of Sasuke that's really messing it up, he's a tough cookie to write. He's meaner than my version of Itachi but also really immature and stubborn and- gah. I'm really sorry, I'm trying my best to progress as slowly as possible but my fingers tend to run away on the keyboard.

What does Sakura really think of Sasuke?
Um, well, from experience I think that when you like someone, you're always attracted to them a little bit no matter what. I think Sakura would still have a little bit of a thing for him and she does her best to deny it, because she really does hate him as well. It's a funny relationship.

Why did Sasuke freak out about Zetsu in the last chapter?
As you can see, he had more than enough reason to freak out from his torture methods. I'm not sure if I made this obvious, but Sasuke has been tortured by Zetsu before and he knows what it's like. He still underestimates Sakura and he, Naruto and Kakashi used to protect her in Team 7 (gah, the number of times they saved her ass before the time skip is pitiful), so he still sees her as that naïve little girl who needs protecting. Deep down, I think he would still feel obligated to protect her.

Naruto? Where's Naruto? What happened to Naruto? Where the hell's Naruto-
Ahh, calm down. He's not going to come in for a little while. I'm going to screw with Sakura's head first.

You read Ripples by Yellow Mask?
OH MY GOD YES. THAT SHIT IS AMAZING. I worship Yellow Mask. I actually started ripples a long time ago but then I lost the link and forgot the title. I was really upset and then I really have whenifallxx to thank for reuniting me with it. I finished it in two days and I have a strong urge to reread it. It's so crazy. It's CRAZY. It's epic. I can't do it justice here, I am just so in love with it. If it was a man, I'd rape it. Repeatedly. Oh my God. I'm reading so much fanfiction nowadays, I've been introduced to and have found so many crazy amazing ones. I'm so happy. 2009 is a good year for fanfiction.


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