Blossoms & Ashes

Chapter 4: His Cage

Sasuke had held her hand until they got to what she thought was an enormous village. It was big and beautiful with fan symbols all over the place. They were soaking wet and she was cold, but with all the walking she had nearly forgotten.

"What's this place?" Sakura questioned out loud, looking around her in amazement. There were people all over the place attending their duties, in a way it was a lot like where she'd lived. The only difference was that this place was less depressing, and she could see the sky and feel the wind. It was beautiful.

"This is the Uchiha compound, renovated not too long ago. What do you think?" He asked studying her closely.

"I love it." She smiled, turning her head toward him. Something in his clothes caught her eye; it was a fan marking in his left sleeve. "Is this your home?" She asked suddenly, surprised.

"Yes. I'm Sasuke Uchiha, the last of my clan." He smirked slightly at her, turning his gaze back to his house. Even though it was the Uchiha compound, it was sad that there was only one survivor. He had accomplished all of his goals except two. He turned his attention back to her, "Let's go inside, it's still raining out here." He tugged her with him leading her inside the main building in the compound.

Already inside she could see the house wasn't really a home. There weren't any decoration aside some fans on the wall, the Uchiha symbol, and there wasn't any more than just the necessary furniture. She also noticed there were no pictures hanging anywhere around the house.

She then noticed a female voice near them. "Welcome home, Sasuke." She turned just to see a woman, probably around her age, with red hair and red eyes behind glasses. She was smiling warmly at Sasuke, still not noticing she was there. She tried breaking Sasuke's grip on her hand, but to no avail, he would have none of that.

The girl then let her eyes fall on Sakura, she glared at her and asked, "What is she doing here?" the way she thought a jealous lover would speak.

"I found her outside." He said, sparing no more details at the red haired girl. Then he turned to Sakura. "This is Karin, she's a…resident here. She will take you to a bath and get you some clothes." He finished, finally letting her hand go. He started to walk away but first paused and told Karin not sparing her a glance, "Take care of her and after you're finished take her to my office."

Sakura felt somewhat out of place. The way he said she was a resident made it obvious there was more to it than that, plus the way she looked at him. For some reason it all made her feel uncomfortable.

"Follow me." She glared at her, Sakura could tell she didn't like the job she was given. Having to take care of her wasn't in her interests.

Sakura did as she was told; she was beginning to shiver again, noticing once again that she was wet and cold. Something she had forgotten as she walked with Sasuke. Karin led her though a series of hallways and she was sure that if the red haired girl left her there she would never find her way back to the entrance. Karin made no conversation on the way, just walked not looking back at her. She finally took a stop to open one of the doors and went inside, Sakura just quickly followed.

They were in a bathroom, way bigger than what she was used to. Karin handed her over a white towel she had taken from some cabinets beneath the sink. "Take a bath; someone will be over with some clothes for you." She finished pushing up her glasses and turning to walk away. Sakura could've sworn she saw her smirk before leaving.

She took off the wet cloak and clothes she was wearing. She stepped into the shower turning it on after a moment; she let the warm water fall over her. She closed her eyes trying to relax; it had been a long day.

Naruto kicked the walls containing him in the cell and punched it several times. He hated being locked up, not being able to do anything. He felt powerless. He had already tried to get out, but there was no way. It was design to keep ninja's in and visitors out. He couldn't let Danzo go on with his plan, but he had no choice.

"Damn it!" He cursed out loud, his hands balling into fist beside him, his back to the bars containing him to the cell.

Sasuke had already hurt Sakura once, though no one knew what happened, he could guess. He knew it was Sasuke's fault. That was the only thing Naruto couldn't forgive him for, hurting the one that they were always supposed to protect. He had sworn he would kill him, for her, yet here he was stuck in a cell while Danzo handed Sakura over to Sasuke.

Naruto couldn't understand Danzo's plan, it didn't seem to make any sense. How could Sakura infiltrating help, she didn't remember anything. There was no way they could destroy Sasuke from the inside by using Sakura. "What the hell is he planning?" He murmured under his breath.

"Naruto." He heard a quiet voice say, he then turn to see Hinata standing at the other side of the bars, her eyes puffy red. She played with her hands looking at everywhere but him.

"Hey, Hinata, what brings you here?" He smiled at her cheerfully, Hinata had always been nice to him, and he found it cute that she was so shy. Yet every time he'd tried to get close to her she would start stuttering and find a way to get away from him. Apparently he was too little for her.

"No one's seen you since yesterday… and I-I heard about someone talking about you- you being locked up. I came to- to see how you are…" She finally directed her attention to Naruto, blushing slightly.

"I'm as good as I can be stuck here in a cell." He told Hinata, laughing bitterly.

"I'm- I'm sorry, Naruto…" She looked down, feeling stupid and small.

"Don't worry Hinata, it's not your fault. As you probably know, this is Neji's and Shikamaru's fault…who would've thought they would be on his side." He comforted Hinata and mused aloud. As he turned to smile at Hinata he could see she was shocked as she heard the ones responsible for him being there.

"Wh- what? Neji and Shikamaru…? That can't be…" Her wide pearl eyes staring at the blue eyed boy in front of her. She couldn't believe that her cousin would do something like that to Naruto, and that he would take Danzo's side when they both knew he wasn't any good.

"You didn't know…" Naruto suddenly realized. It was too late to take his words back. Hinata then turned away quickly and ran away, he knew where she was going, to try and face Neji. He remembered last time she did that and it didn't end well.

"Hinata!" He screamed after her, running to the bars blocking his way, wanting to get out and to stop her, but knowing he couldn't. "Hinata!" He screamed again, but he knew she was long gone. He silently cursed himself for being so stupid, and looked down at his feet once again feeling powerless.

Tsunade heard Naruto screams as he called out after Hinata who had just rushed running beside her, the poor girl had found out what happened to Naruto. She just wondered why she ran away. She wanted to see Naruto, but she couldn't bear to tell him that she hadn't been able to do anything to stop Danzo from handing Sakura over to his old rival and former best friend.

She heard Naruto screams coming from the right so she headed left. She knew that Danzo would most likely keep them on opposite sides.

"Excuse me, lady Tsunade, where are you going?" Asked Kotetsu, he was one of the few who were still loyal to Tsunade, even though he worked with Danzo.

"I'm looking for Kakashi Hatake. I'm guessing he's this way since Naruto's screams are coming from that way." She pointed to the opposite direction in which she was headed. She could still hear Naruto cursing loudly.

"You're right, go straight from here to the last cell, there you'll find him. By the way, I heard that the Hyuga and another ninja took Sakura Haruno outside, I also heard they came back without her." He commented, knowing that she was Tsunade's student before the incident.

"Yeah, I heard… Try and find any information you can and let me know." She told him before she walked away. Kotetsu had always been of help, but Danzo had never trusted him enough to tell him anything of utter importance.

She walked looking around at the other cells, filled with every ninja in the village who had betrayed Danzo. It wasn't that you couldn't betray Danzo or be against him, you just couldn't show it. She could guess that was the reason why the Hyuga and Nara boys were currently on Danzo's side. The only reason Tsunade herself wasn't stuck in a cell was because Danzo needed everyone to see that Tsunade wouldn't dare do anything against him. If she was found in a cell people would know she had tried to rebel and more would follow in her footsteps.

As she reached the last cell she could see Kakashi, he sat in the corner of the cell looking ahead. He seemed bored. She was finally at front of his cell when he noticed she was there. "Lady Tsunade." He recognized with respect. "What brings you here?" He asked then putting a hand on his chin, wondering.

"Well I came to see how you were doing and to tell you how things are outside the cell you're in." She smiled sadly at the gray haired ninja.

"Well I'm as bored as I can be; Danzo came in yesterday and took away my book." He said bitterly.

"I guessed he would, so I brought you one." She took out the book and threw it to him.

He smiled under his mask as he caught the book, at least his stay in the cell would be better now. "Thanks." He chuckled slightly. "So how are things out there?" He questioned her as he eyed the book in his hands.

"Well Danzo started with his plan, Neji Hyuga and Shikamaru Nara were assigned with the task of taking her outside. When they came back she wasn't with them, so she is either with Sasuke, roaming around or dead. What do you think?" She asked her face hard; she was trying to hide her anger at herself for not doing anything to stop Danzo. "Oh, and Naruto managed to do something to upset the Hyuga girl even behind bars." She told him in an amused tone, trying to lighten up the mood.

"Well I think he won't hurt her… We don't know what happened that night, but we do know she came out of it alive, he didn't kill her. Back then she was the one they both always protected, he could have betrayed us, the village, and even himself. Yet as his teacher I do believe he wouldn't kill her. I have my own theories about what happened that night." He told Tsunade, lost in thought.

Maybe he believed too much in Sasuke, he had tried to kill Naruto before, but he remembered back then how he used to protect Sakura. He just hoped he was still deep down the Sasuke that was once in Team 7.

Sakura having washed finally for the day was happy and more relaxed. She got out of the shower wrapping herself in the white towel Karin had handed over to her. She turned around and saw herself in the mirror. She stared the question she had already asked Sasuke earlier lingering in her head. "Who are you?"

Suddenly someone opened the door. She held the tower wrapped around her more tightly and turn to look at whoever entered. She found herself face to face with a young man with light blue hair, he was smirking at her and she could see his pointed teeth.

"Well, well, who would have thought, the blossom. What brings you here?" He asked looking at her up and down. That made her noticed she was in no more than a towel and she suddenly screamed.

"Don't worry, you're Sasuke's guest, I can't do anything to you, sadly. I was just sent here to bring you your clothes. Sasuke asked them to find you something red, don't know why." He placed the clothes on the counter aside the sink and left her to dress.

She saw that he had sent her a dress, a red kimono. She started putting it on and as she finished and looked in the mirror she loved it, it was just a little bit above her knees. She wondered why he had chosen red. The kimono's belt was white and in both sleeves there was the same fan symbol she'd seen on his shirt earlier.

She took the towel and tried drying her hair a bit with it so it wouldn't ruin the dress. Then she combed her hair with her hands letting it fall on her shoulders. Looking in the mirror once again she noticed how different she looked comparing with how she used to dress. She was always given black clothing a color she didn't particularly like.

She decided to finally step out of the bathroom and as she did she saw Karin outside smirking at her. She had sent the guy to bring her the clothes to give her a scare and she had probably heard her scream. The smirk faded as soon as she saw what she was wearing. Her gaze lingered on the fan symbol on her sleeve and she then glared at Sakura.

"Hurry up and come." She said as she walked away quickly. She led her through the corridors once again and didn't even bother to explain what where the places they had passed. She came to a stop suddenly, "Suigetsu." She called, Sakura saw the guy that brought her the clothes and looked away.

"Why is she wearing that?" She hissed at him.

"Don't know, Sasuke asked to bring her that, he wanted red." He looked over at Sakura and his eyes widened; he knew why Karin was so mad.

Karin groaned out loud turning away from him and resumed her walk. Sakura looked at Suigetsu who had an amused look on his face then she followed Karin. She was walking even quicker than before. She turned around every corner not looking back for her; glaring at everyone who passed near her. Eventually she came to a stop in front of a pair of doors and knocked. "Just tell her to enter and leave." Sasuke told her from the other side of the door.

Karin turned slowly to face Sakura still glaring at her. "You're always trying to get in my way." She hissed at Sakura and stomped away. Sakura stood there for a moment watching Karin leave and she couldn't help but feel Karin knew who she was.

Sakura entered slowly in the room and found herself in an office. Sasuke sat in a desk near the farthest wall in the room. At the other two walls stood bookcases filled with books. Once again as she met his onyx eyes the world seemed to stop for her and her heart pounded in her chest.