Chapter Three

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Author's Note: Thank you again for all of the reviews, favorites, and follows!

I am going to go ahead and say that I am declaring all of the (future) chapters to be Rated M just to be safe. This chapter is very dark. Viewer discretion is advised.

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Sakura

Sakura was one-hundred percent sure that someone above either hated her, or was not too happy with her at the moment. Standing in front of her with his hand on his head to stop the bleeding was Uchiha Sasuke himself. As she stared at him with a shocked look, he did not smile, laugh, or even smirk- he just stared at her.

As Sasuke continued to sit on the bed, Sakura finally closed her shocked mouth and stepped into the room. She closed the door slowly and felt her soul leave her body at the sound of it clicking shut.

She turned back to Sasuke and slowly placed the folders on the counter to her left. "So…you got hit with a wooden board?" Sakura asked as she turned her back on Sasuke and began to wash her hands in the sink. If she was going to have to care for him, she might as hell make it less awkward than what it already was going to be.

She heard Sasuke sigh and grunt as the sound of the bed shifting was overheard. He had probably pressed too hard on his head when adjusting and had hurt himself. "Yeah," he retorted. "There was some loon that escaped the prison and took these two women and a child hostage in the grocery store."

Sakura widened her eyes at his words and found herself whirling around to face him. She saw Sasuke's eyes widen from both her sudden movement, and her pink hair flying through the air violently. "Is the child okay?"

She saw Sasuke's soften and that let her know that he remembered how much she loved kids. She had always told him and Naruto back in the day that she wanted to have at least three kids. Of course, being the older brother, Naruto always shook his head and gloated on something about her never growing up and never being allowed to marry someone.

Thinking about Naruto always telling Sakura these types of things in the past had caused a faint smile to kiss her lips, but it quickly vanished when she realized who she was standing in front of.

"They're fine," replied Sasuke and Sakura mentally let out a relieved sigh. Sakura did not say anything else as she slowly slipped her hands into a blue glove. She walked close to Sasuke and it almost seemed that the closer she was to him, the more she wanted to cry, or even run away.

"Let me see the damage," she said to him as she removed the gauze from his head and peered down at his wound. It was pretty deep, but thankfully it wasn't too far into his skull where it would have been considered severe or near-death related. He would need some stitches, however.

"You're going to need about eight stitches. I'm going to give you a shot to help-"

"Don't bother," interrupted Sasuke. "You know as well as I do that those shots do not work on me."

That's right, thought Sakura as she faintly remembered Naruto and her driving to the hospital one day after Sasuke had gotten in a wreck from his street bike. Someone had drove through a red light and had hit Sasuke head-on. Sasuke was bleeding from head to toe and despite everything that the doctors tried, no shots or medicine helped dull the pain for the boy's body. Still, as they were stitching him up, he made no sound or cried.

"Okay. I'll just start stitching your head up then," she replied before she walked towards the cabinets and began to gather everything that she would need to either cleanse or stitch his wound. "This may hurt," she said as she brought some clear liquid close to him.

She watched as Sasuke narrowed his eyes, knowing damn well that it will hurt. Sakura dabbed the liquid on a clean gauze and gently began to cleanse his wound, nearly wincing as she heard the man in front of her hiss in pain. She muttered a faint apology before she began to stitch his head up carefully.

"Itachi had a child," he said out of the blue and Sakura had even stopped her work for a moment. Mostly because of what he said. Itachi had a child? That almost sounded like a lie. Itachi was well-known for not wanting to be married or have kids when he was younger.

"Is he with the mother?" When Sasuke nodded his head to her question, Sakura was sure that this was nowhere near the same Itachi she had known in the past.

"He's married to her, actually. I've never seen the idiot so happier in my life. They had a little four-year-old girl. Suki." As he was saying these words to her, he was fishing into his left pocket and slowly pulling out his black Samsung Galaxy S7 edge. As Sakura continued to work on his head, Sasuke unlocked his phone and browsed through his gallery before he found a photo of Suki clinging onto Kane.

Sakura glanced past his head and smiled when she saw the photo. "God, she looks just like an Uchiha. She's got the black hair, black eyes, and even the fair skin." As she continued to stare at the beautiful, little girl, Sakura found herself glancing over at the dog that Suki was hanging onto.

"Bruce looks like he hadn't aged a day."

Sakura looked back at Sasuke's head to continue her work, but stopped when she noticed Sasuke's body tensing. She knew something was off.

"That's actually his son, Kane," he replied, his voice solemn and soft. "Bruce…died almost three years ago. Someone broke in my house and they shot him when they ran off."

Sakura widened her eyes and had almost felt her body crashing to the ground. Bruce was dead? The dog that had saved her life countless of times? The dog that would lick her face when she came over, until it was covered in slobber…was dead?

"D-did you ever find out who did it?" She asked and instantly became pissed when Sasuke shook his head. Sakura knew that Bruce was his favorite and only pet growing up, and to hear about him dying from someone breaking into his house infuriated her to no end.

"What the fuck did they break into your house for?" She began working on his head and slowly stitched the sixth stitch in.

"The only thing that was gone was the white gold bracelet that was passed down in the Uchiha family for the women."

Sakura paused for a moment, thinking of the item that he was talking about. Then, she remembered being at the Uchiha residence when she was young and Mikoto showing her the beautiful bracelet. "This will be yours someday, dear," is what Mikoto had always said to her. Little to their knowledge, did they ever think that Sasuke and Sakura would no longer be a pair. The bracelet was always said to be worth of a million dollars because of how many diamonds were in it, and how old it was.

"Bastard," she hissed under her breath and could have sworn that she heard Sasuke chuckle. "So, how old is Kane?" She decided it would be better to change the subject instead of staying fumed like she was now.

"He just turned two. He was almost one when the burglar had broken in. I was actually out with Kane for his protection classes when it had happened. Something had told me that day to bring Bruce, but I didn't."

Sakura furrowed her brows as she stitched the last stitch in. Sighing, she ripped the gloves off of her hands and discarded them in the waste bin. "It wasn't your fault. Quit blaming yourself," she said as she began to clean everything else up.

"It almost seems like everything is my fault these days. My dog's death, the bracelet missing, us…"

Sakura widened her eyes and turned to look as Sasuke who was now staring at her. He had no emotion on his face, but Sakura's held a mixture of anger and pain.

"Don't even dare bring up the past," she spat at him as she grabbed the folders that were on the counter. "I am working right now. I have a fiancé, a wonderful job, and the last thing that I need is for you to come and fuck it up."

Sasuke slowly stood up and took once step towards her. Sakura narrowed her eyes at him and took one step back. "We need to talk about this one day, you know that. Damn it, Sakura! I told you that I was sorry!" Sasuke's voice wasn't loud, but it was definitely stern.

"And I told you to not bring the past up, Sasuke! It was your actions that caused us to break up, and it was your actions that had caused all of this crap! You were the one who had ditched me on our date, just so you could go and fuck some other girl!"

Sakura's face was red with anger and Sasuke just stood there emotionless, and that pissed her off even more. He was staring at her like it was her fault! "I told you that I was sorry," he muttered softly as he continued to stare at her.

"And I am telling you now to fuck off and leave me alone!" Sakura whirled her body, opened the door, and stepped into the hallway. The sound of the door slamming shut hard was enough for Sasuke to wince slightly.

Sasuke

He didn't blame her that she was pissed. Hell, he would have been acting the same way if the tables were turned. To this day, he still has no logical explanation for his actions except that he was a fucking idiot, who thought the college girl with big boobs was hot enough to cause his manhood to arise.

With a heavy sigh, Sasuke shook his head and opened the hallway door. It was obvious that the entire faculty had heard their commotion, because as soon as he stepped out, everyone's head had turned to see who was in the other room. When they had noticed that it was the chief, a few eyes widened, and whispers began.

Sasuke mumbled a few incoherent curse words under his breath and walked towards the elevator. Neji had sent him a text earlier, explaining that he and Kiba had dropped off his squad car at the hospital. As much as they all aggravated the piss out of him sometimes, Sasuke was pretty thankful for them all. They saved his ass many times, as he had done to them.

As Sasuke exited the elevator and stepped onto the main lobby, he found his eyes slowly searching around for a pink-haired doctor that would probably be punching a wall in knowing how pissed she was. When he saw no sign of her, Sasuke exited the main hospital doors and walked to his squad car that was parked in the front. Climbing inside of the vehicle, Sasuke yawned and buckled himself up slowly, before he starting the ignition.

As he pulled out of the parking lot and headed towards his house, Sasuke leaned his head against his left hand on the window, and used his right hand on the steering wheel to guide the car. He slowly found himself smirking as he remembered how much of a spitfire Sakura was when she was young. He was only four years older than her, but there were definitely some days in the past where he could have sworn that she was the older one.

Sakura was always the problem solver with words, while Sasuke was a problem solver with his fists. Sasuke remembered some guy (who was clearly from out of town) passing Sakura and giving her a heavy smack on the ass. Not even an hour later was the man in the hospital nearly dead, and Sasuke being lectured by a fuming pink-haired girl. Because of how beautiful she was, there were many occasions where Sasuke had gotten into fists fights.

Sasuke chuckled to himself as he even remembered how he had asked the girl to be his girlfriend, and how she had responded. Sasuke had been planning on asking Sakura to be his girlfriend for months, but between school, family, and an annoying Naruto popping up, there was never a good time to ask her. So, when Sasuke was able to be alone with her for once, he took her on the lake to go canoeing. With the sound of the birds chirping, the sky being bright blue, and the water clear as ever, he had asked her right then and there.

Of course, after minutes of crying and screaming, she had said yes. Sakura was always a crier, and he was sure that she still was. The two had gone to the pound one day to look at a kitten, and Sakura hadn't even been in the building for five minutes before her green eyes were erupting tears down her face. Sasuke had taken her out for ice-cream that day so she would calm down; he always hated seeing her cry.

Sasuke sighed and bit his bottom lip gently as he stared at the road in front of his car. He hated making her cry, but yet, he had gone and broken her heart. It was the day of her birthday, too. Sasuke had promised her a night out in the city like Sakura had always wanted. Well, thirty missed calls and sixty messages later, Sasuke was back home explaining to Sakura what he had done. There was crying, screaming, hitting (mostly Sakura doing the hitting), and silence before a faint "we're through" was heard.

Sasuke had gone through hell after that. Sure, he had graduated academy and was beginning to work at the station, but he didn't have Sakura to support him by his side. She had flown aboard to Ireland to study. Hell, Naruto wasn't even around that much either. He was off to college and was probably settling down with his now wife, Hinata.

As Sasuke pulled onto his longer driveway, the view of his large, white house with many windows came into view. On the right was his house, and on the left was the large lake that he owned along with it. Sasuke had bought the house just two years ago and still has yet to grow old of it. With him living so far from everyone, and living so close to the wilderness, he would always see different animals everyday ranging from deer, to foxes, to beavers.

Parking his squad car next to his Audi, Sasuke switched off the ignition and stepped out of the vehicle. Instantly, the smell of fresh, open air filled his nose, and the sound of running water from both the lake and creek became prominent to his ears. Sasuke could already hear Kane barking from the house and he took that as a cue to go ahead and let the dog out. Stepping onto his wooden porch, Sasuke opened the door and greeted the dog with a pat to the head, before watching as the dog ran off into the woods to empty his bladder.

As he waited for Kane to come back, Sasuke sat in one of the wooden rocking chairs and stared at the beautiful lake in front of him. Ironically, having a house that faces a lake was one of Sakura's dreams when she was younger. Whether it was the same or had changed, Sasuke didn't know.

Sasuke stared at all of the trees that were surrounding his house and noticed how some of them were beginning to fade from green, to either yellow, orange, or brown. Even though it was still hot on many days, and rained occasionally on some, Sasuke knew that it would be winter soon.

And that meant Christmas shopping.

Sasuke was one of the many few people out there in the world that absolutely hated Christmas shopping. Spending money wasn't the issue for him, it was what to buy for people that was. Suki was pretty easy for the moment. If it was pink, a Barbie, or even a doll house, she was pretty contempt. Itachi, his mother, and father, on the other hand, were difficult. His parents were always buying for each other, as well as Yumi and Itachi.

Should he just opt out on buying people, besides Suki, presents this year? It almost seemed like the better thing to do anymore. He didn't have a significant other to get presents for. All he really had was his niece.

The sound of heavy panting caused Sasuke to glance over towards the right. Kane sat there, tongue hanging out, and chest heaving as he panted heavily. He must have been chasing something, Sasuke thought as he rose from the chair. He opened the door to his house and stepped inside with Kane right on his tail. As he closed the door shut, Sasuke heard the dog frantically run into the kitchen where he began to practically inhale his water from the dog bowl.

Sasuke chuckled and slipped out of his light jacket, and hung it on the white coat rack that was nailed to the wail. A shower sounded nice, but with the stitches in his head, he couldn't wash his hair. A groan left the man's lips as he realized he could only scrub his body and not his hair, too.

Sakura

Sakura sighed as she walked into her apartment after a long, and very, stressful day at work. Between the other interns glaring at her right left and right, to the Uchiha coming into her work and the two of them practically screaming at each other. The second that the chief had left the building, questions instantly swarmed at Sakura like a bat-out-of-hell, but she paid no mind to them.

Sakura slipped off her nude heels and placed her keys on the same table as yesterday. Her white coat was in her locker at the hospital, so thankfully, she did not have to bring it home. If it ever got dirty, the staff would just give her a new one and wash the old one.

Sakura glanced up and peered at the clocking, feeling a sudden uneasiness as she realized Sai would be getting off work soon. If he came home to no food at the table, he would surely be pissed. Quickly thinking of something good to put together, Sakura headed towards the kitchen and opened the fridge and freezer. She grabbed a little bit of everything before she swiftly filled some pots with water and placed them on the stove. With the water heating up, and an idea of what to cook in her head, it would be ready just in time for Sai to arrive home.

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Five hours.

That's how long Sakura has been sitting at the dining room table, food untouched as she waited for Sai. He was usually home just after 5:00, so with it almost hitting 10:00, Sakura was growing curious on where the man could be. With her pondering in thought, the sound of the front door opening caught Sakura's attention, and she instantly rose to her feet. She walked towards the door and saw Sai drunkenly walk inside. His hair was tousled, his tie was gone, and his clothes were wrinkled.

But none of that really mattered to Sakura, not even the fact that he was obviously plastered from alcohol.

What mattered was the pink lipstick stains on his clothes and face.

He was cheating, she realized. That was why he was taking so long. He wasn't just having a drink with some co-workers, he was fucking some other girl, too.

Sakura watched as Sai made no contact with her, or even said a word, as he stumbled to their bedroom. She watched as he slammed the door shut, and that sound was enough to make the girl broil.

She had slaved herself on cooking, doing the damned dishes, and even waiting on his pathetic ass to come home! She had even started to think that he was hurt, or in trouble!

Sakura clenched her hands into a fist as she stormed into their bedroom, her body practically slamming through the white door as she ripped it open. The second that she stepped in the door, Sai turned (and nearly tripped on doing so) and looked at the girl with a glare.

"What?"

What? What?!

Sakura swore that she saw red then. "I fucking cooked the second that I got home from work, waited on you, and received no call or anything, only for you to show up four hours later reeking of alcohol, sex, and cheap perfume! You even have a damn lipstick stain on both your clothes and body? That's what!"

Sai stared at the girl for a couple more seconds before he scoffed, rolled his eyes, and turned back around as he muttered something about Sakura being a 'drama queen'.

"You're cheating on me, and yet I am here being fucking faithful to you as ever! You're a lowlife prick!"

It all happened so fast.

One second she was staring Sai right in the eye, the next, she was slammed against the ground with a tight grip around her throat.

Sakura gasped for air and clawed Sai's hands as she struggled to get the slightest bit of air. He was literally trying to kill her!

"I'm a lowlife prick!?" He began shouting and Sakura felt tears prick her eyes from both fear and lack of oxygen. She was so pissed and riled-up, that she had forgotten entirely on the power that he holds on her.

The grip tightened on her neck and Sakura felt the tears pool down her face.

"So what if I was cheating on you? What are you going to do? Leave me?!" Sai laughed darkly and released the grip on the girl's throat, but seconds later had a new hold on her hair. Sakura screamed and thrashed around as she was thrown onto the bed like a rag doll.

Sai instantly pinned the girl to his bed with his weight and stared down at her. "You forget something, Sakura. I own you! I took everything that you have ever had, and if you leave me, you bet your ass that you will have nothing! Your car will be mine, your job will be mine, and this damn apartment will be mine."

Sai leaned closer to Sakura and smirked. The girl could feel the bile in her stomach rising up at the smell of what seemed to be Fireball Cinnamon Whisky on his breath. "You are not leaving me, sweet cheeks," he began to speak before an evil smirk kissed his lips. "I will make sure of that."

Despite the drunken state that he was in, Sai continued to hold the girl down as he practically ripped the girl's outfit off, along with her undergarments. Sakura struggled and fought against her fiancée, but that did not stop the man from holding her down, soon covering her mouth, and taking her again, and again, and again that night.