"You will eventually have to get up, you know."
Sakura didn't deign her inner voice's statement worthy of a response, but she did know it was right. Albeit, she was begrudging about it. The sun had been up for an hour and Sakura had done nothing but stay in bed, urging it to go back down so that she may sleep a little more. She hadn't gotten into bed until well after midnight. During that time, she had stayed up so late with Deidara, whispering secrets and stealing affections under the guise of night. Nighttime had made her feel so brave. Now, as the sun rose and reminded Sakura of her meager four hours of sleep, she felt much less superhuman. But, despite the sandy feeling in her eyes, she had not one regret.
With the reminder that she had survived on days without sleep before, Sakura dragged herself up and out of bed. She missed the sheets wrapped around her the moment they were gone, but it was time to trade them in for her clothes and weapon pouch. She wanted to go out again and further explore her surroundings. The mission she'd had over a day ago had made her restless, she wanted to get out again. She wanted to continue training and honing her skills in a proper way, out of range of those who could control how she grew.
In the mirror, Sakura didn't meet with the scraggy girl from before. In that girl's place, she saw a young and grinning woman, who looked quite determined, if a bit tired. Reaching up with her fingertips, Sakura grazed them against her lower lip. The ghost of memories from last night still tingled there. Sakura began to feel the beginnings of a blush heating up her face, so she took off before she could see her cheeks redden in the mirror. She hurried out of her bedroom and padded down the hallway. She couldn't hear any signs that anyone else was awake, so it surprised her to see Konan near the entry of the base. The woman didn't have a hair out of place, but her eyes held a glaze of weariness that told Sakura she had been up most of the night.
Konan afforded Sakura a smile, clasping her hands together as she stepped aside to allow the teenager past her. "Good morning, Sakura. It's quite early to be awake, isn't it?"
Sakura rubbed the back of her neck, chasing away the stiffness in her muscles. "I just wanted to get out and look around before it got too warm. Besides, I like getting a head start on things." Sakura was cheerful, but she spoke a little too fast and smiled a little too wide. Thankfully, Konan seemed to accept it as decent, and nodded her head in affirmation.
"I don't blame you, it's difficult trying to find your way amongst things here." Sakura's shoulders sagged in relief when Konan began to head away, likely to catch a little sleep of her own. The woman paused just outside of the entry to the corridor. "I just thought you might like to sleep in, since you and Deidara were out for so long last night."
Sakura blanched. Stuttering out a response, she tripped over her words and couldn't manage to form a complete excuse. Not that it would have been necessary, Konan had already walked away, a good-natured smile on her face. It was impossible to keep secrets from someone who was already past that age.
Maybe it was a good idea to leave before she could get any more flustered. With her face almost rivaling her hair in color, Sakura was thankful for the outside breeze. It helped cool her off a little. She had anticipated feeling regret this morning, as she worried about how she would keep secrets and deceit to herself. What she was doing with Deidara, whatever they may call it, it had to be breaking protocol. In Konoha, such relationships between comrades were uncommon, frowned upon, even. Of course, people broke those rules, but Sakura expected there to be harsher consequences, here. She was a prisoner, she had to remind herself of that. A broken rule could mean a broken bone. She hadn't expected to be so transparent to Konan, nor had she known the woman could keep such a cool exterior no matter what came her way. Sakura envied that about her female comrade, and wondered if she might someday possess the same profundity and calm.
There were no clear-cut pathways out in the direction Sakura had chosen, today. Blankets of grass and broken-off branches covered the ground, and everything was overgrown. There were only faint wisps of sunlight peeking through the abundance of green leaves above her. They even seemed to block out sound, because Sakura hadn't even heard a bird's call for several minutes. No forest should be silent, not mid-morning. Sakura began to slow her pace, tuning her hearing to pay better attention.
A sudden crinkling of leaves came from her left as something stepped out of the grove of trees and onto the trail. With her fingers wrapped around the handle of her kunai, Sakura's legs shifted as she twisted her body to face the oncoming threat. Poised for attack, the only threat in front of Sakura came in the form of a small, grey rabbit. The animal was completely oblivious to the danger it had been in and continued shuffling along through a berry bush. Sakura smiled at her own paranoia and relaxed her shoulders in relief. "There's nothing to be afraid of out here," she reminded herself firmly.
Sakura began to turn around. Her words had hardly left her mouth, but she felt her voice freeze on her tongue. Ahead of her, standing in one of the arbitrary patches of sunlight, stood a man. She narrowed her eyes, cold with suspicion, in hopes of getting a better look at him. When he lifted his head, his eyes glittered crimson, and Sakura knew she had to run.
She turned on her heel without looking back, sending the leaves beneath her feet scattering about in a flurry of crinkling noise. Branches whipped at her arms as she darted past them, scratching at her like clawed hands reaching from the foliage. That didn't deter Sakura at all, she only grit her teeth and continued running. The forest could tear her to shreds before she would ever allow a man to do so.
Pushing and tearing through the underbrush, Sakura couldn't hear anything behind her. That did nothing to quell her panicked brain. Had he left? Had he simply come to find where she was and deliver that information back to the village? Yes, that had to be it. She could get back to the base and warn them about the oncoming threat. She was almost there, she was so close. The bend in the pathway was coming up and she would only be about ten minutes from getting out of the forest. She could make it if she just—
The air changed around the forest, almost like the entire earth had taken a sudden shift. Sakura's heart jumped into her throat, choking her. It was the only reason she didn't scream. Her muscles froze up on her and she doubted she could have taken another step had she tried, but that wouldn't have mattered either way. A cold hand wrapped around Sakura's arm, so tight and frigid, it was almost like an iron cuff. She found herself lurching sideways as a great force shoved her against the jagged bark of an oak tree. Even that felt soft, compared to the hand around her flesh.
"Sakura."
The coarse voice was a hiss in Sakura's ear, sending an involuntary shudder jerking through her bones. With jarring aggression, the attacker yanked Sakura's arm backwards and pinned it against her back. All while he leaned his weight into her and forced her into the tree trunk. Sakura squeezed one of her eyes shut in a wince as the bark scraped into her skin. She was at the physical disadvantage here, but that didn't stop her, it never had before.
"Uchiha," Sakura spat the name out, as if tasting it burned her tongue. Sasuke was crushing her lungs with the way he had her chest pressed into the tree. Still, despite it, Sakura tried to gather enough air into them so that she could scream. She lost the chance to when a palm clapped over her mouth.
Screaming may not have done the girl much good way out here to begin with, but she had to exhaust every option. The only thing that was not an option here was giving up; no, that would never happen again. Sakura would not sit idle and allow Sasuke to have everything he wanted. Not the way everyone else had, when they'd served everything to the Uchiha on a gold plate.
"You've been hard to track down, Haruno." Sasuke's voice was cool, but Sakura knew what hid beneath the calm tone. There was a seething hiss, a monster that hungered to claw to the surface; a monster everyone else was either blind to or just chose to ignore. Sakura had met it in the past, and she didn't wish to again. "I don't have the patience to track you down again. I suggest, unless you want your legs broken, you cooperate." Sasuke punctuated the threat by tightening his grip on Sakura's arm, reminding the trapped girl that she had nowhere to go.
Well, she would have to make a way then, wouldn't she? Sakura sank her teeth into Sasuke's hand, ripping the flesh open. As Sasuke tore his hand free from her mouth, blood splattered against the tree and dripped down Sakura's lips and chin. Snatching Sakura by her hair, Sasuke wrenched her head back and caused her to grit her teeth in a pained snarl. "You've always been a stubborn girl, Sakura." Sasuke yanked Sakura back, making her stumble over her own feet and fall onto the ground. Dizzy, Sakura began to push herself up, but a foot planted itself on her stomach and kicked her over onto her back. Heaving a cough, Sakura found it impossible to drag any air into her body for several moments.
Staring blindly ahead, Sakura's green eyes were wide and glassy. Sasuke stood over her, the crimson sheen of his Sharingan emitting an eerie glow in the dimness surrounding them. "The elders want you dead, Sakura." The familiar curve of his lips sent Sakura's heart thudding against her ribcage. He wasn't reaching for her yet, merely watching her. She knew he trusted her to be too weak to move, too compliant and obedient to make any efforts to fight him. She never had dared speak a word against her beloved Sasuke-kun, why would she, now? "But I have unfinished business with you, and I don't intend to let you go a second time."
Fury encompassed Sakura. It balled her fist and sent her arm lunging forward to collide the punch with Sasuke's flesh. There was a satisfying crunch beneath her knuckles when she hit him in the jaw, but she didn't sit back to observe the damage. As soon as she'd knocked him off balance, Sakura was up and running again. Sprinkles of blood speckled her glove, no doubt from where Sasuke's teeth cut into his lip. From somewhere behind her came the sound of a metallic clank, the sound of a sword drawn from its sheath. Dread crawled up Sakura's throat and threatened to block her airways. He was going to kill her; if Sasuke couldn't get what he wanted from her, then he was going to kill her.
Time ticked by like the seconds on a bomb's countdown. Sakura waited for cold steel to shove through her sternum, she knew it was coming. Instead of the silver sword, however, there was a thundering boom echoing to her side. Fire erupted around her, engulfing the trees. Sasuke was going to cut off her exit routes. Making a sharp detour, Sakura slid downhill on a dip in the forest ground while flames licked at the edges of her vision. Sweat was starting to drip into her eyes. She cast a frantic look over her shoulder to calculate Sasuke's position, but he wasn't there. Stilling for a moment, Sakura narrowed her eyes. Where did he—
Behind her.
Sakura was fast on her feet, and it was the only thing that saved her from having her throat slit. With a kunai in hand, she whirled around to counter Sasuke's attack. The sound of metal screeching against metal was painful in her ears. Sasuke stared down at her with cold indifference, and Sakura wasn't sure how she felt about it. Should it make it easier? Or should it make it worse, knowing that all this time Sasuke had seen her as so expendable? That if she lost her use to him he could kill her with doubtless ease?
"You're a monster!" Sakura hissed at her former teammate, her sharp voice ringing with realization. Sasuke's teeth bared in a sneer that looked far from sane on his once beautiful face. Sasuke shifted his weight, an action that caught Sakura off guard. His sword slid against her kunai and threw her off balance. With her attention on the weapon, Sasuke's right arm lashed out and circled his fingers around Sakura's wrist. The grasp tightened as he yanked it to the side at an odd angle, wrenching her back and snapping a bone in her arm.
Sakura, so startled by the burst of pain in her arm, couldn't even make a squeak. Stumbling onto the grass below her, Sakura's left arm was limp at her side. The handle of the sword slammed into her shoulder, causing her to cry out in pain and to fall onto her side. Bleariness misted over Sakura's eyes as she struggled to regain her bearings again.
Bile rose in her throat when she felt Sasuke's weight settle onto her hips, keeping her lower body pinned into the grass. "You shouldn't have defied me the first time, Sakura. You will give me a child. You had the chance to do it willingly, but you gave that up." Sasuke's teeth were grit as he snarled the words, wrapping his hand around Sakura's throat and slamming her head into the ground. A sharp rock cut her, and she soon felt blood pooling beneath her head.
"You're a coward," Sakura was breathless with pain and terror. Sasuke didn't respond to that, instead she felt his nails dig into her waist as he began trying to remove her pants.
Sakura screamed this time. She didn't, the first time. She only cried, wept, plead, and demanded answers that didn't have questions preceding them. Now she screamed; a scream that turned the embers in her lungs into a raging wildfire. She didn't just scream into the air, no, she screamed a name, the first one that popped her into mind. "Deidara!"
The name bounced off the trees and echoed into the sky. Sakura wretched dryly when Sasuke slammed his fist into her abdomen, winding her. "Shut up," he hissed into her face, his bloodied lips hovering above her own. Sakura lurched, her whole body arching and bucking beneath Sasuke's in violent attempts to throw him off. She was beginning to feel faint from blood loss, the trauma was catching up to her and she began to black out.
The blurred vision of Sasuke above her was beginning to turn dark as blackness crept into the edges of her vision. Moments after she felt his hand slide past her stomach, Sakura swore she heard a faint, masculine voice calling out.
"Hold on, hold on! Don't you dare give out on me now!"
Distantly, Sakura heard something big landing on the ground. Sasuke stiffened above her. Not a second after, a small but thundering explosion separated him from Sakura. The girl winced, but she was unable to open her eyes even as the gust of wind from the aftermath of the tiny bomb rocked the small clearing.
Gentle hands touched her face, brushing away her hair that was damp with sweat and blood. "Shit…" Sakura heard the deep voice curse and wanted to open to her eyes, to affirm it was him. "Hold on Sakura. Don't pass out, I'll get you home soon, un." Sakura began to drift in and out of consciousness as he picked her carefully off the ground and carried her. Faintly grasping onto lucidity, she mouthed a single word.
"Deidara..."
"You're telling me that you don't know where he went?"
"No, I don't. I was a little more concerned about Sakura, un."
"We have to find him. He has to be on his way to Konoha. He'll tell the council immediately."
"He didn't find the base, yeah. Sakura was pretty far out into the forest."
"He'll tell them about the forest she was in. We must watch over her, she'll be confused when she wakes up."
There were voices ricocheting about in Sakura's mind and she couldn't quite tell which one might be her own. At last, the others trailed off, aside from one angry, grumbling one. Sakura could usually decipher her inner voice apart from her own thoughts. But, with her mind so jumbled, everything felt scattered. Where she was and what had happened was cloudy, and not knowing was making Sakura begin to grow worried.
Cracking her eyes open to face the light of the room didn't feel much different from having her eyeballs seared by fire, Sakura would imagine. It was blinding and painful, not to mention she couldn't even see for several seconds after opening them. When her vision began to return to her, it was watery, but still clear enough to make most things out. Blinking upwards, her gaze slid down to the pristine white sheets pulled up around her waist. Bandages covered her arm and, when she raised it a few inches, she was relieved to feel that it was no longer broken. Her body healed itself when unconscious, but not enough to mend a broken bone. She was curious about who here was so adept at medical ninjutsu.
"Sakura?"
Sakura started when she heard her name. She began to try and sit up, but a hand on her shoulder advised her against doing so. "Don't move too much yet, un. Give yourself time to wake up a bit. Do you need water?"
Sakura, numb, answered with a nod. She was unable to even swallow due to how dry her mouth and throat were. To her right, she felt a slight tug on her arm followed by a prick on her skin. Startled, Sakura glanced down to see slim fingers holding a cotton ball to her arm. Konan had just removed an IV needle. "Sit up slowly, you lost a lot of blood from the wound on your head," the older woman cautioned. She helped Sakura into sitting position so that she may lean back against the headboard of the bed.
"How long was I out?" Sakura asked in a hoarse voice, grateful when Deidara handed her a glass of water. She took greedy swallows from the cup, soothing her parched throat. Deidara eyed her as she drank, a somber expression on his face. It made him look older, more hardened.
"A few hours. It's nearing evening, now," Konan answered. Sakura winced as she stood, feeling rather creaky as she straightened up and stretched out her worn limbs. Her head still spun and she felt the oncoming throbbing of a migraine approaching. Cradling her head, Sakura's hand emanated a peaceful green glow as she worked to heal the lingering pain.
"Are you okay to walk?" The uncertainty in Deidara's voice made Sakura furrow her brow. She lifted her head to face him again.
"Don't worry, my body heals itself even when I'm unconscious. I'm fine." She flashed him a weary smile, one that Deidara didn't return. He was beginning to put her on edge.
"Come on, I'll walk you back, un." Deidara nodded his head towards the door and waited for Sakura to walk through first. Konan watched the two young adults leave before she shook her head, exhaling a worried sigh.
The walk to Sakura's room was silent and tense. Growing concerned, Sakura folded her arms over her chest. She couldn't take the silence anymore. "Deidara, I'm sorry that—"
"Why were you out so far by yourself?" Sakura stiffened when Deidara cut her apology off. She turned around to face him, lifting her chin so that she could look up at him.
"I was just mapping out a few places to visit, I'm allowed to go where I want, you know." Her pointed statement seemed to irritate Deidara, whose jaw clenched.
"He could have killed you, Sakura. Had I not gotten there when I did, then..." Deidara, thankfully, trailed off, leaving what was already known to be unspoken.
Sakura's eyes took on a steely glint. "Well, I'm alive, and I'm unhurt now. I won't make the same mistake twice. I didn't expect him trying to hunt us down, but I won't let my guard down so foolishly again. I've made a lot of mistakes in my life, but I don't make them twice!" Sakura's seething voice grew louder and louder until she was shouting at Deidara. To his credit, he stood unflinching, allowing her to exorcise her anger.
Once finished, she was panting, her shoulders heaving with each breath. Deidara stared at her and she stared back, daring him to open his mouth, to say something else that would drive her rage. But, he didn't. Nothing else was said. Deidara simply opened his arms to hug Sakura, pressing her face against his shoulder. She was stiff, still ready for defense, but she let Deidara hug her. "I'm sorry, Sakura," Deidara told her, his voice sober with sincerity. "You're not alone, un. We won't let this go unpunished." With that vague promise, Deidara's lips met Sakura's forehead in a brief kiss.
Sakura took a deep breath to calm her nerves. "Thank you," she whispered, pulling away and placing her hand on her doorknob. She needed time to herself, to think for a while. Deidara understood (or at least, she hoped he did) and bid her goodbye for the night. Sakura listened as his footsteps departed while she leaned on her door for a moment. There was a tiredness in her bones, a tiredness she wasn't sure she was going to sleep off. At least, not tonight. She wanted to abandon her body for a while, to sink into sleep and forget Sasuke's hands on her body. She wanted to scrub away his touch, his words, the feeling of his eyes on her...she wanted it off her body. It was her body. She repeated that to herself; her body, hers, hers, hers!
When she opened her door, a cool gust of air burst from her room and made her shiver. As chilly as it may be, it was still welcoming. Closing the door felt like closing away the rest of the world for a bit. As she collapsed onto her bed, Sakura curled up, hugging her pillow close to her chest for comfort. Tonight had been so close, so terribly close. She had held on to the hope that Sasuke had grown bored of her, tired of her refusals and had moved on. But instead, he had held onto the fact she'd scorned him, denied him, and now he was seeking to punish her for it. Sakura slammed her hand into the pillow, leaving a dent in the malleable object. Why couldn't he leave her alone? Why was it only her whose life he sought to tear apart?
Sasuke was no different from the council of Konoha, from the countless soldiers who had taught and raised Sakura to be the very same. They all wanted her body for selfish, indulgent purposes. War, battle, protection, and sex.
Sakura wanted her mind and her body to be her own.
Deidara didn't head to his own quarters when he left Sakura to herself. Had he stayed cooped up, he might have very well blown up his own room. Fury crackled at his fingertips, demanding he use them for destruction. His footsteps were quick and quiet against the floor, his eyes creased, and teeth grit together. He understood Konoha to be stubborn, but to have the audacity to send an Uchiha after her? Sasuke had dared to lay a hand on Sakura, with the intent of forcing onto her a vile act. It was enough to make Deidara cringe with disgust, with what empathy he had left. He would blow the Uchiha's hands off his body.
"Deidara." A voice that commanded attention made Deidara pause, giving the woman a chance to speak. Konan was a woman whose voice demanded respect, and she was not a person Deidara often brushed off. "Deidara, you need to stop. You are thinking irrationally. Sakura is safe, healed up, and in her own room. You making a rash decision won't help. Sakura won't appreciate you handling this on your own."
Deidara scoffed at Konan, garnering some annoyance from her. "We can't let this slide past us. He entered our territory to attack one of us. You really expect me to just forget about what he did to her?"
"No. I expect you to wait, to follow orders. This is Sakura's battle, it's not solely yours and you need to understand that. I understand you care about her, but we must be wise about this." Konan spoke with carefully chosen words. She trusted Deidara's abilities, but not his judgment.
Care about her? "You don't know what you're talking about," Deidara growled, ready to put an end to this conversation.
Konan, unblinking, watched him retreat. "You don't do much of anything slow, do you? You always put your entire heart into it. If something is meant to be, then allow it to be. Don't destroy it because it's the only way you understand."
Deidara snapped around to give Konan a piece of his mind for cutting in to where she wasn't welcome. But, the woman was already gone, leaving no trace she'd been there at all. Deidara cursed at her despite her absence and stormed off again. Nausea nibbled at his insides the whole way, making him feel ill and cagey. How could he keep Sakura safe if everything else prevented from destroying the source of the threat? Every time she seemed to progress, another wound was torn open. Another scar left to spill fresh trauma into an already cracked psyche.
A few clouds dotted the star-speckled sky and the air was quiet. It reminded Deidara much of the night he'd brought Sakura out here. The way her eyes lit up with delight, the chiming of her laughter, and the way her hand felt on his shoulder. Like she was struggling to heal wounds she couldn't even see. Deidara stared out at the rising moon, the bitter taste of rage still in his mouth. The village had burned their final bridge, and Sasuke had signed his own death certificate. Deidara's hand itched to swing the executioner's axe, to take vengeance for what Sakura had suffered through. A graceful clay butterfly flapped its fragile wings, flying away from Deidara. Critical blue eyes observed the creature, coolly regarding it. Mania pulled Deidara's lips into a sadistic sneer.
"Katsu."
