Kitty-chan: Well, no special occasion. I just decided to update this soon. I hope you guys like it.

Itachi: Kitty-chan does not own Naruto.

Traipsing Darkness Chapter 4

Sakura wasn't surprised when Sasuke didn't take her to the airshow but instead took her to have a "romantic" dinner at his place.

Sakura mentally rolled her eyes at this. It was all just a ploy to get into her pants, and she would be a bitch every step of the way.

She sat through the meal, zoning out as Sasuke babbled about how rich his family was and how great he was. Every now and then she would insert her own snarky comment, but it was as if he hadn't heard her. Seriously; when did Sasuke Uchiha get so talkative?

It wasn't until she felt a hand being placed on her shoulder and something—someone—warm pressing against her back that she realized he was no longer sitting across from her. She stiffened.

"I finally have your attention," the Uchiha chuckled. She could hear the smirk in his voice.

"Stop touching me," Sakura commanded, her voice low.

"Don't be like that, babe," Sasuke purred, rubbing her arms in a way she was sure was supposed to be seductive. In her opinion, it was actually kind of creepy.

"Let go of me," she snapped, wrenching herself from his grasp and away from her seat.

He had her pinned down in her seat again before she could react.

"What the hell, Uchiha! Let me go!" she squirmed under his tight grip. She didn't like where this was going.

Sasuke leaned in and . . . sniffed? her.

"Mmm . . . you smell so delicious, Sa-ku-ra," he practically moaned. Creepy much?

Sakura rolled her eyes and lifted her leg in a swift kick to his groin. The unsuspecting Uchiha hit the ground like a sack of bricks.

"Don't ever touch me again," she spat.

Sasuke recovered faster than she expected—apparently being a man whore and most likely get laid every night helps with these kinds of things—because by the time she had made it to the door he had grabbed her, slamming the door shut in the process.

"Where the fuck do you think you're going?" he hissed in her ear, his hands roughly roaming her body

"Tip from the wise, dude: if you want to sleep with someone, you gotta be a little less clingy," she growled, trying to wriggle her way out of his grasp. Sasuke was very good at holding a girl captive though, so it took her a few tries.

When she finally managed to pull away from him, she punched him in the face. Or at least she tried to. He grabbed her wrist before her fist could come in contact and smirked.

"What are you trying to do, Sakura?" he asked, squeezing her wrist painfully.

"Go home, duh," she bit back.

"I'm not through with you yet," he chuckled darkly.

"I say you are," Sakura retorted, trying to hit Sasuke again. Sasuke grabbed her fist once more and smacked her across the face.

"Know your place, bitch!" he snapped in a fit of rage. He recovered quickly, smirking at—what he thought was—her shocked face.

Sakura didn't cry out in pain, nor did she respond. She didn't know what was going on, but no matter how hard she tried to move, she couldn't.

Sasuke had thought the pinkette had lost consciousness, and sneered, shoving her to the ground and preparing himself to fuck her.

As soon as he had unbuttoned his pants, his erection straining against the fabric of his jeans, something strange happened around Sakura.

Shadows started leaking from her body. A darkness Sasuke had never seen even in his worst nightmares.

It took form in the shape of a man, but somehow remained shapeless. Sasuke's erection immediately fell. When he saw the golden eyes of the demon boring holes in him he thought he was going to faint.

"You would be wise to never touch my master's woman again," the thing hissed—a grin showing off all of the shadow's sharp teeth—blossomed in the space below its eyes.

'His master's woman? Did Sakura have a boyfriend she was returning to? What the fuck is going on?' Sasuke thought frantically.

"You could say that," the shadow chuckled.

Sasuke didn't get the chance to say anything before the lights flickered off and then on. Sakura and the shadow were gone.

'Good fucking riddance,' the Uchiha shuddered.

~(^-^)~

Sakura regained mobility outside her house. The shadow was nowhere to be found, but she had this growing feeling, that she had kept since first leaving Gaara in the shadow world as she so called it, that it was still around watching over her.

The pinkette grumbled to herself about how creeped on she felt before opening the front door and nearly running into her mother. A small squeal left her as she stumbled over her feet to make sure the box and herself didn't fall.

"You're right on time. I'm just now loading the last box into the U-Haul," her mother chirped as if Sakura hadn't just had a mini heart attack. "Are you ready to go?" she added.

"Um . . . sure?" Sakura raised brow at her mother's antics.

She went up to her room to make sure her mother had gotten everything and then back downstairs and out the door to the car, clutching a picture she had forgotten to box up. It was a picture of her and Sabaku siblings, when their father had decided they all take a group picture. They all refused unless Sakura was in the picture since she was practically family anyway. Sakura smiled at the memory. She was looking forward to ride home. Her real home.

~(^-^)~

Everything was so dark. She couldn't see anything. She looked right. Nothing. She looked left. Nothing. She turned around to look behind her, and there was still nothing. So when she turned back around to her original position, she was surprised to see a mass of black, darker than the darkness that surrounded her, staring at her with large golden eyes and flashing a sharp-toothed grin.

"Who are you?" Sakura finally managed to ask. It chuckled.

"You don't remember, Sakura?" it asked, its voice bounding toward her in a feral hiss. Well, yeah that was a stupid question to ask, since this shadow-demon-thing had bugged her in her dreams for the past few months.

"Yeah . . . how could I forget? But I meant: What is your name?" she corrected herself.

"Well then, excuse me for my bad manners. My name is Shukaku," it introduced itself.

'Well that was easy," Sakura thought.

"What are you?" she questioned.

"Hehehe . . . That, my dear, is a secret," it chuckled. Sakura shivered at the evil grin it flashed.

"I'm sorry, but can't you be something a little more . . . substantial?" she asked, hoping it would say yes. Instead of answering her, it simply changed. Now it took the shape of a large raccoon looking beast that was at least the height of a fifteen story building. It looked menacing and evil and frightened Sakura.

"Okay, okay. I take it back. You look better as a shadow-blob-thing. I liked that form way better," she declared quickly.

Shukaku evaporated quickly back into the shadow form it once was. It chuckled darkly.

"I can see what that boy saw in you," he declared.

"I know it's pointless to ask, but where is Gaara?" she asked. This was probably the hundredth time this monster-shadow-demon- thing visited her in her dreams and probably the hundredth time she'd asked where Gaara was. Each time the result was the same.

"Hmm . . . what would I get in return if I told you?" this was different.

"I-I don't know . . . What would you want?" Sakura fumbled for words. She wasn't expecting this.

"Hmm . . . What would I want?" the shadow questioned itself, but from the gleam in its eyes, Sakura knew it had already decided.

"Stop stalling and just tell me," Sakura huffed.

"I want you to be my wife and rule over the shadow world with me as my queen to pay for the boy's soul. And of course this means you have to leave him and everyone else you know and love. He gets his soul back, but I get yours," the shadow hissed.

"I'll give you three d—"

"Deal," Sakura agreed, holding out her hand.

She would do anything to save and protect Gaara. Even if that meant she had to leave him.

Shukaku grinned maliciously.

"You would give up your own soul for another? For him?" it cackled.

"Especially for him," Sakura declared bravely although tears were stinging her eyes.

"Fine then . . . I'll give you the three days I was going to give you to decide to say goodbye to everyone. You won't be able to see them anymore after that," he grinned.

Kitty-chan: If you like it, thanks. Please review. If you didn't like, please review. Tell me how you feel. Thank you for reading, and I hope you liked it. I'll try to post the next chapter soon.