31. Public Confessions.
Fuck, I'm late!
She slammed the locker room door shut in the women's room in the hospital and gripped her messenger back simultaneously. She lept out of the door and began to jog out of the vacant room, through the near empty and gloomy hospital and out of the door.
Room keys jostling in her baggy pockets, back getting moist she extended her stride and could see hope just a few paces away.
The bus stop wasn't too far from the parking lot in any case she'd make it just in t-
The city bus usually rolled in at around every thirty minutes all day long but tonight it had came two minutes earlier than scheduled.
There was a man with a bike waiting. The bus came to a wailing stop and the man began to board.
"Hey!" Sakura shouted from the lot but her voice didn't carry on the wings of the wind it just fell flat onto the cement and the man couldn't hear her.
She could see him easing his way down the aisle and a couple descend down the stairs and down the street arm and arm, cotton candy in their hands.
The fair is still going on...Damn, this had to be the worst disadvantage of not knowing how to drive..
She stopped running and turned up the back of her wrist to monitor the time on her tiny feminine wrist watch.
I'm SOL because the next one doesn't come within an half an hour...fuck..
She crossed her arms beneath her chest and urged forward.
The apartment is just too far away, I'll be damn near dead if I even tried...I'll just wait, fuck that, I'll just walk...I could use the walk it'll give me time to reflect how I'm going to spend an entire time month without working. I can't do that! I've never had that much time to myself and god only knows all of the things that can kill me just by running through my mind...I have to develop some kind of hobby...maybe I'll get a part time job at the gas station or Ichiraku's bar and grill. I mean is that crazy?..
I miss my palm planner. That little guy kept me full of joy with it's jingles of reminders. He practically thought for me.
I should just buy a new one to manage my days.
It took her a half an hour to reach her block but once she had, she wiped over her forehead with the back of her hand and smiled at peace with herself, that is, until she spotted a man sitting down on her welcome mat.
For a moment she froze halfway down the hall waiting for him to acknowledged her and then apologize for trespassing but she realized that he was going to do that.
There was a dark bottle of liquor dangling between his middle and index finger and he laughed gently.
"Are you cheating on me.." he slurred.
Sakura didn't respond figuring that maybe he was just one of those bums with issues.
It wouldn't be the first time she had encountered one of those.
She slowly began to reach into her messenger bag for the mace the hospital had given all of the women after one of the male nurses got sexually assaulted during the graveyard shift.
He laughed.
"...can't be...right?...right!"
She realized it was Sasuke the moment he turned to look at her and the bottle came harpooning, nearly smashing into her skull. If she hadn't moved she wasn't sure what kind of demon would have came out of her and murdered Sasuke continually.
She gritted her teeth and heard the bottle shatter against the wall behind her.
Sasuke, groggily and very unstable attempted to stand several times before actually accomplishing that very menial task.
He bit on his bottom lip and wobbled once he took a step nearly staggering back into his original position on the ground.
"Your ridiculous..." she said with disgust and began to walk the rest of the way to her door. She gripped began to dig out her key from her pockets and move towards the door.
The liquor on Sasuke's breath was so potent that it burned her nostrils and annoyed her eyes.
"Me?" he asked in a shrill of some kind and then chuckled loudly, she wrestled with the door trying to get the right key in.
"Go home Sasuke...your going to get killed walking around like that."
For a while he didn't answer.
"Areeee you, go-ing to kill me...Sa-(hick)-ku-(hick)-rah?"
"Maybe, don't tempt me."
He chuckled wildly at that, slapping his knee.
"YOU...are such a fucking fox bay-bay...look at that juicy sweet azz..."
She felt him violate her, smacking her backside and squeezing it in harshly.
"What the fuck...look, I know your drunk but that doesn't give you a reason to touch me...get off!"
She was suddenly angry due to the fact that he was there and publicly attacking her. He laughed darkly and didn't release her cheek, instead he grabbed the other.
"Don't preeeeeten...that this isn't driving you crazy...red"
He whispered, pressing his lips to her ear, his body fell clumsily against her's and she quickly bumped him off her.
Sakura rolled her eyes and turned around, smacking his tense fingers from her being. Face flustered lips balled she pointed at him and issued a stern look.
"Don't you fucking touch me...I'm not drunk and I don't want you..so just leave me alone, I'm too old for these games your playing."
"Games?" he asked raising a quizzical brow.
"Yes, games...giving me alcohol every time we talk...trying to lure me in. I'm never having sex with you again. That was the shittiest thing I've ever done and for the life of me I can't understand how you got me to go along with it. I don't know what you've got up your sleeve but Sasuke Uchiha your a fucked up man." She twisted violently away from him and just as violently he jerked her back taking in both her wrist and yanking her around like a rag doll.
"Here's the secret...you wanted to fuck meh!" he said hoarsely. "...oh ya, newws flash everyone is fucked up...some just show it more than others...you know, like your dad...now he, was a fucked up mother fucker..."
"...don't talk about him, you didn't even know him, so shut your fucking mouth!"
She screamed at him. She watched his lips tilt up into a demented smile and he threw her into the wall so hard that her brain spun momentarily.
"You talked about him...you told me all about him...and the things he did to you...remember?...the things you try to forget, you think you imagined it...like your father coming into your bedroom at night..."
Sakura trembled and stared at his grinning lips. Her head boiled and the room spun around her. She breathed harshly and Sasuke slammed gripped both her hands and slammed them against the wall over her head.
"Fuck you!" She spat at him and then spit in his face.
Sasuke hardly flinched at the assault and for a moment she thought it didn't bother him but then his face turned into a severe look of hate and he crossed both her wrist and tacked one hand over both of them, over her head.
"Fuck me?" he asked.
"Are you deaf you asshole, fuck you!"
His hair was over his eyes but the grin there was very apparent.
"Tonight's your lucky night." He uttered and with his free hand he gripped the neck of her flowery blouse and tore it apart, yanking it violently from her skin and in a fluid motion he pulled her up around his hips.
"What...what are you doing..."
"Nothing that you haven't been craving."
She realized what he was doing and began to wiggle and fight to get out of it.
Anger seethed through her pours, she fought with everything in her soul and almost made it out a few times but Sasuke's veins tensed and he over powered her very easily. He wrestled her down to the ground, ignoring her kicking, her screaming.
He locked her wrist and locked them over her head with a single hand.
Their bodies rubbed against the carpet.
In the distance she could hear a cop car wail but a moment later it faded.
"Somebody!" She screamed.
Sasuke covered her mouth with one hand and stared into her aquamarine eyes, flooding over with tears.
The weight of his body was too heavy, cutting off her breath.
He stared into her eyes and all Sakura could see was a wounded man.
"Shhh..." he whispered in a haunting lilt that still sent flutters down her spine even though he had said it several minutes ago.
She breathed heavily, nose flaring and snotty.
"...you want me...stop lying to me..."
Sakura shook her head.
"Fuck you..." she murmured, if she could spit again she would.
He smiled as if he appreciated it and then he moved in slowly, his eyes very low and hooded with lust.
She tried to scream but his hand muffled everything, until he removed it.
A cry like streak came from her but his lips covered it and he released her hands, sliding his hands down her arms and then beneath her breast where he cupped them from the bottom and squeezed the life out of them withdrawing a moan against Sakura's will.
He grinned against her lips and kissed her rapidly, without a single breath. Sakura wasn't willing to accept his behavior, she turned from side to side to try and deter him but he grabbed her jaw and sucked on her swollen lips.
Sakura pulled at his hair with both hands, he reached back and pried her hands out of his hair and locked them back down over her head.
She wiggled her body, tears running down her cheeks, eyes wide open and staring at Sasuke. A single tear fell from his eyes and onto her face and he opened his eyes just slightly to see her watching him.
Sakura stared into his eyes and slowly, her lips began to respond, very gently to the little kisses that sent enormous vibrations down her spine and then she cling to him feeling something fill up the empty piece inside of her.
A voice in her head questioned it but as Sasuke motions evolved and it became clear that he was truly hurting more than any man she had witnessed before the voice grew smaller and smaller and the only thing in her ears were their breaths and Sasuke's anguish moans.
He took a chance and released her hands and she helped him out of his T-shirt, scratching at his back in the process, muscles coursed into action around his shoulders and his shoulder blades protruded slightly.
"We...can't...do this.." Sakura whispered through a sob that she couldn't contain. Sasuke pulled her face towards his and tilted his head kissing her deeply holding the back of her neck, his thumb rubbing up and down the bone leading to her spine, he was so in tuned with her every breath, every move he made seemed to demand that she make it with him.
What is going...what is happ..
Her skin prickled with fear and other things that she would never dream of letting herself feel.
They twisted in the small hall way, lips moving feverishly quick, Sasuke gently massaging his tongue against hers, his fingers slipping through his hair, he grabbed her thigh and Sakura hoisted herself up on top of him, never breaking the rhythm of that sultry kiss. She straddled him, Sakura shivered at the feeling of his protruding member tough as steel between his legs.
Her body trembled and she arched her back as Sasuke began to hug her with one of his arms around her waist.
"...I can't...I can't..." She gasped for enough air to speak, she sat up straight but he followed her yanking her mangled white blouse down her shoulders and revealing her perky small breast.
"I know..." he whispered pressing his face into her chest, kissing the tender flesh there and then rubbing his hot tongue over hard cherry nipples. He did this slowly the fist two times, drawing a moan from her lips. She tilted her head back and he did it once again before his wet hot breath closed in around it along with his lips and his tongue flickered over it.
She gripped his shoulders and he ran both his hands up the length of her back pulling her into him deeper.
Sakura gaped and then closed her eyes thoroughly disgusted in herself but the tantalizing feeling wouldn't let her dismiss what was happening, it only made her thirsty for more.
Sasuke's fingers, applied presser and worked their way all the way down to her butt and he grabbed both and squeezed so hard that it drew a small, 'ouch' out of Sakura just before he caught her lips again.
"...stop please.." She whispered gripping his shoulders tightly, feeling his fingers caress their way into the top of her pants and beneath her panties.
Her hips undulated, trying to flee his humid touch. He moaned and let out an impatient breath.
"Tell me what I want to hear..."
he whispered.
"I don't know what your expecting."
"Bullshit, you know!"
"Why are you doing this..."
"..because I like being right...and I'm right aren't I.."
He paused for a moment, both their breaths colliding as they lay in the hallway.
Sakura stared into his eyes for a moment and then, slowly she nodded, lips trembling.
Sasuke stared at her without explanation on his face for a moment and then leaned himself up, using the back of his hands to stay balanced and pressed a very innocent kiss to her lips.
He lingered, his fingers slipping up her neck and gripping the side of her face.
"...I think about you..." was all he whispered but that was enough to make her heart give a complicated thud.
"I can't deal with this right now..."
"I don't care...I'm sick of the lies."
"You have a girlfriend and I have a boyfriend."
"Temari, is not my girlfriend...and who cares what we have, let's not label this...it feels good right?"
She nodded.
"Let's just leave it at that...fuck everything..."
"This is...crazy...I-I'm in love with him..." she whispered.
"He's not even around, what does that say about him?" he says, wrapping his arms around her waist and hugging her against him.
I-I don't know...
32. Morning Bliss.
The birds chatter outside of her window awoke her the next morning. She woke withdrawn yawn and stared out of the window from of her bedroom at the tall tree slightly slanted. It had been sunny today, no obstinate clouds clogged the sky and the sun loomed hot and crisp over the city.
She could hear the bustle of traffic and smell the aroma of the city seeping through the half cracked window. Cigarette smoke clang to her nostrils and she realized something very definite and clear...
No...I couldn't, I wouldn't.
She yanked the covers from her body and sighed with relief, seeing herself clothed and no part of her body sore and tender.
She was in her night gown and honestly she didn't remember getting into one last night.
A knock on the door made her flinch and she turned over and spotted Itachi in the doorway.
Something in her chest fluttered and she nearly cried at the sight of him. Her heart felt like a liar all night but just seeing his face made her feel like herself again, not the mess that she was with Sasuke last night but herself, the one who had written those letters to him.
He was grinning and holding a bag of food.
"Breakfast?" he asked her.
Sakura fled the bed and ran to him, she clang to him and hugged him around the neck tightly.
For a moment he didn't respond to the affection, than slowly he wrapped his arms around her waist, bag making a rustle.
Birds sung in the silence between them and then he let out a heavy breath.
He doesn't smell like cigarettes, maybe it had been Sasuke...had he gone, did Itachi see him? He couldn't have...the scene wouldn't be this way if he had...I didn't sleep with him but what I did...it's worse...what he said to me...it's worse than just sex, sex...isn't binding but feeling...
Feelings...
Itachi's nose touched her cheek and he kissed the corner of her lip and breathed her in.
"Have you been drinking, you smell like a bouquet of liquor...and smoke."
Sakura's blood drained from her forehead and she denied it quickly.
"No, I was sitting next to a drunk on the bus last night...I was too exhausted to shower last night." She lied, cursing herself for it afterwards.
Itachi thought on it for a moment and then his fingers trickled down her inner arm and caught on to her hand.
"We can take one after breakfast."
She smiled at what he was suggesting and allowed him to drag her back to bed.
"We?" she asked with a smirk, she leaned over his shoulder and kissed his cheek multiple times. He grinned.
"I worked pretty late about time I got home mom was K.O'ed and I missed you."
"I missed you too.."
More than you know...more than I knew.
Her heart was ticking wildly in her chest, she felt like Hiko, whom nagged Itachi every second that he was under her roof.
I knew that cat was gay...
Itachi stripped off his jacket to reveal his work shirt, a black and red shirt that read, 'The bite'.
Sakura eyes widened and she pointed at the shirt.
"Your working at a club?"
He was proud that she had realized the club, he modeled the shirt better than any employer their she had ever scene, of course the bartenders wore it in a different way than the other staff.
With their white bow ties.
Sakura saw it hanging loose from his collar.
"For now." he answered. "..being a bartender was never a dream of mine but I have to start from somewhere..."
"Ya...but...The Bite...it's a gay club."
Itachi laughed.
"Then I guess you have nothing to worry about then." he teased.
She rolled her eyes.
"What did they do to make you join, free blowjob?"
"That's a bit dirty, what's gotten into you this morning, I hardly recognize it but...I like it." He said softly sanking down onto her bed and then pulling her down on his lap. He placed the food down on the bed and then stared at the charm around her neck.
"...they didn't do anything, someone thought I was sexy 'eye candy' and offered the job. It pays decently and...I get the mornings off so..we can have more time."
Sakura looked down at him and found her hands to be oddly engaged and enthralled by the silkiness of his hair. It had been the same as his brothers, very lustrous and thick. She watched his bang slip through her fingers and then she felt his muscles tense up as he hugged her to him.
"I really hate this." he said quietly.
Sakura rested her head on top of his and felt self conscious about her heart having an attack near his ear.
"What..."
"I don't have anything here...no money, no place of my own...I don't even have a high school diploma. I feel like shit...like, I'm one of the sexiest hobos on the planet..."
Sakura laughed and rocked them back and fourth.
"...and the most conceited one too." She sighed and hugged him, caressing his locks of raven hair.
"I can't take care of you...I'm barely able to supply for myself-"
"Itachi...your being irrational, the times have changed, I know your old fashion and all but you don't have to take care of me...and I don't find it demeaning, so, neither should you."
"Sakura I'm a man, so do you know what I just heard coming out of your mouth?"
She smirked.
"What?"
"I heard you saying that you'd cut off my dick and throw it into the river..."
Sakura resisted laughing because he seemed very serious about it. Her face slipped against his until their foreheads were touching and they were eye to eye.
"Is it really that bad?"
"No...but I just don't like how things are going for me...when I was in school everything seemed so promising in high school. I had plans and then those plans fell to the wayside...they were never really set in stone but all my life I imagined they would have been, it was so easy for me to just go along with my fathers plans to give his company over to me."
"Is that what you wanted?"
"It didn't matter what I wanted because he wouldn't have allowed it." He informed her yawning slightly and then falling back onto the bed tiredly. She continued to sit on his lap, looking down at his livid eyes, deprived of much sleep.
"Itachi, your smart...you found a way out of that plan your father had for you."
"Only to fall into the fight of my life...every day, I was one step closer to death. There was a fine line...and I always managed to cross it without the consequences...if you knew me...if you saw the things I did you would run away from me."
Sakura frowned, she couldn't believe he thought she was so intermittent and easily swayed.
She eased herself down to lay on his chest. She stared at his closed eyes, his breath came slowly from his nostrils and then his eyes fluttered open and for several long seconds she lost herself again in those gentle mysterious eyes of his.
They always seemed to challenge her.
She felt his heated fingers rubbing at her backside very tediously.
"How many people...do you think you killed?" She ventured to ask him, stepping up to the challenge of his eyes. He swallowed and closed his eyes.
"What makes you think I've counted."
"...because you probably regretted them all because...that's not what type of person wrote those letters to me...sent me blades of grass and leaves. That person writing me, he was poetic and gentle...sweet and unimaginable...but I fell in love with both of those people. The poet and the hunter because together they make the greatest man in the world...and I couldn't imagine my life without him, until I didn't have him and honestly...I was blind..."
His eyes opened slowly and his fingers cupped her cheek.
"Two-thousand seventy eight." he said in a husk low.
She reflected on that number for a moment, breath a flutter as she tried to ignore the images of each encounter spiraling through her mind.
"I was a sniper when I wasn't in the air. The good thing about either job is that you don't have to see the kill up close, you don't have to look into anyone's eyes." he laughed bitterly.
"I used to think of killing people like a video game. If they got me, I loose the game and my life but if I attacked without any caution...any feeling, I'd be rewarded at the end...I'd reach a new level again and again and my enemies would fear me. I was sick, I developed the mind of a killer and I made myself believe I was killing for a good reason but there is never a good reason to take someone's life. Who am I...to decide to destroy some one...send them off to heaven or hell."
"You were only trying to save your life, protecting your city."
"Wars." he laughed. "Wars are pointless, it is just a reason for mankind to eliminate one another...to prove who is the better man by crushing everyone else in the process. Bloodshed means nothing to people anymore...the novelty of love, is lost and the word is thrown around so freely that it's lost it's appeal."
Sakura closed her eyes and rested her head on his chest, she could hear the buzz of his deep voice and the faint sound of his heat.
His fingers ran through her hair and his words seemed very familiar because she had heard them in a letter before.
"Your in your dark corner of depression again..."
Every time he shared stories with her Sakura would warn him when he veered off into a direction she didn't want them to go. His voice always got so haunting and he sounded like someone she didn't recognize, someone she never wanted to know.
His whole prospective of life seemed to be conflicted because of the war and Sakura didn't want him to be conflicted.
He sighed sharply and took a deep breath and more followed as if he was waking from a nightmare.
He was quiet for a moment and then laughed.
"I'll stop telling you scary stories...I'll just scare the living shit out of all of our children with them."
For a moment she hadn't thought much about what he had said but when it sunk in, deeply, her heart sped up.
Children..
She somehow couldn't think about that, about being a mother...there were just too many things to take into account and she wasn't ready, to think about that, to dream that she was capable.
She shivered.
"I want you to meet my Uncle...he lives in the country."
"You've never mentioned him."
"For awhile we haven't been on the best terms but that's beginning to change."
"Oh, well then, I'd love to meet him...what's he like?"
"He's...a son of a bitch."
"In your family...that doesn't surprise me."
Itachi laughed.
"Let's shower, eat and get dressed...we'll take a little trip down there..."
"What...wait, I can't, I'm going to finally get to see the Hokage and the Kaze...maybe we can reschedule..?"
"It won't take long...let's get out of Konoha for a little while, the city is more filthy than you realize." he goaded.
Sakura stared up at him and he looked at her with those piercing eyes that somehow looked red, instead of their original color.
"Ok...as long as we're back before five p.m."
He hesitated with the answer for a moment but then nodded.
"Five it is.."
33. Bonus: The Three Phases Of Destruction.
Meanwhile at the Konoha International airport ...
"Hm, so this is how the leaf live...it's a festering pot of black suites and important fools who could use a little art in their pointless existence. Look at them, no respect, for colors. A shame, you know, sasori-danna, there is really not that big of a difference between Suna and Konoha after all...Suna needs to hire a new architect, sand, isn't an element strong enough to withstand the nukes.."
"Deidara."
"Kisa-sama?"
"Get your head outta your ass and pay attention...Sasori, what is the game plan."
"It's quite simple, there are no plans...only a duel execution...a symphony of catastrophe is just what the leaf needs. They're no stronger than Suna and it's time we bring them down a notch."
"Heh. I like the idea!...a couple of fake I.D's and a few weapons will get you a long way evidently...the fools..."
"Are you both clear on our marks?"
"Hai."
"Ya, ya."
"Then let's split up...and when I receive word from the other's we'll meet back up for phase four..."
Phase one of seven-
Recruit members who believe in the same cause, brothers.
Phase two of seven-
Spill the blood of the Kaze and turn the nations against one another, death befall all who don't accept peace. (All will die)
Phase three of seven-
Eliminate the five main powers on the continent.
(Hokage, Kazekage,-Mizukage, Raikage, Tsuchikage-)
Half of that phase is already complete, sure, this moment took way too long to get to but we're here now...three down and only two to go, we have time to spare until the others catch up.
I'd say, we're ahead of schedule.
"Sasori-danna...won't you need one of the big bag of surprises we snuck in, catch."
"No, you hold on to them...I have something much more proficient..."
34. Muses Of Fuses.
The funeral is in a few day's, no one thought it could be done but your grandma and I were actually able to coexist under the same roof and it was slightly tranquil. The women is still the biggest shrew of all time and manages to prove my point time and time again but I suppose those are just qualities ingrained in your fathers side of the family. Anyway the invitation was sent to you, think on it sweet pea and call me, I haven't heard from you since the wedding and I'm honestly contemplating checking in on you, I know you don't want that, so you had better call your ma-ma soon. Or you'll force my hand.
I love you.
-Mom
Never get pregnant! It's an endless bloat fess that ur stuck with with for nine eternal months and I know I can't fit into my shorts but goddammit I have all day to squeeze this BOOTIFUL ass and stomach into my Eagles. Or I'll just have to make some adjustments, a few snippets here and there to accommodate my disturbingly ample new curves because I refuse to get rid of them or sell them...or dress in baggy preggo jeans like Shikamaru keep's suggesting. Is he out of his mind? Allow me to answer that. Yes, he's fucking insane if he thinks I'm just going to lay low and waste away like preggy people tend to do. I'm hiring a personal trainer and getting his booty-doo as tight as it can go. Anyway u should come by and keep me company since u've been being a blue falcon and not texting or visiting me. Bitch e_e. Well I'm sorry for this paragraph text. ILY bitch, I just wanted to know how you are...
-Maddam Pigglet
Sakura forgot how peaceful it was.
Out of the bustle of the sleepless city the world seemed to look different.
The world seemed quiet and gorgeous, like a picture you could only find on a postcard or in a painting stashed away in a museum for the sole purpose of teasing one's fantasy and driving them to dream.
It's a beautiful night.
She stared out the window on the passenger side and watched the trees and rural houses dash past her in an endless mural of lush green and barch. A few times things were evenly spaced out and she could see little flits of motion from the deers within the forest.
She watched it in awe as the headlights of Itachi's mothers car pierced through the imminent darkness and the car tires sloshed through the puddles in the road.
A gentle wind crept across her face from the slightly cracked window and her hair rolled back gently. She raked her hair back and leaned closer to the window as she got more and more lost in the scenery.
Itachi's fingers descended down on her hands and for a moment they only sheltered her and then he squeezed them into fist within his, a moment later he laced their fingers and sighed.
"Are you a person of your word...?" he questioned suddenly in his unearthly voice, there was no possible way that she could describe the tone of Itachi, the closest thing she could compare it to was a husk of serenity, a lull that could probably put her to sleep if it were to sing.
She smiled at him and rubbed her thumb along his knuckles, her palm snug from the weight of his own.
"I'd like to think so but of course opinions would vary on that matter.." she admitted looking over to judge his expression.
He was grinning, dark eyes looking out of the front window, one hand maneuvering the steering wheel smoothly as he lulled back carelessly.
"...but I'm asking you because I care very little for someone's opinion based on other people, people are biased even when they believe they're impartial at heart...so, do you stand on your word? " He asked her once more.
Sakura thought that over in her mind and then shrugged.
"I do when it benefits me..." She said with a grin.
Itachi looked over at her for a brief moment and then the corner of his lip tilted up.
"Being difficult as usual, anyway, it's going to rain."
Sakura stared out the window and raised a brow.
"You sound pretty self assured but then again you always sound self assured, are you apart of the population that watches the news?"
"No, I was born here, lived here all my life...there are a few tell-tell signs." he said, leaning forward to look at the sky.
"Look over there.." he nudged his head towards a strange shape cloud. "It looks pretty small huh?"
Sakura leaned forward and nodded, studying the dark obstinate shadow that tainted the dark blanket of night.
"It looks small...it's just a little cloud"
"It hasn't reached the country yet, it's just coming from the ocean so give it time to accumulate...and if I'm wrong, I'll take you home."
Sakura grinned and stared at the cloud again.
"...and if I'm wrong?" she asked.
He thought on it for a long moment and then laughed gently to himself.
"If your wrong, you owe me a favor..." he informed her, clenching and then un-clenching the hold he had on her hand.
She leered at him.
"A favor huh...your going to cause me to kill myself thinking about what it might be."
"Don't even bother thinking about it, my favors aren't the most common and miniscule endeavors and they don't happen at this moment in time it's usually occurs when I genuinely need you to obey."
He said with the same smile that hadn't fled his lips, there was a menacing tone to his voice.
Sakura's eyes lingered on his face for a moment.
"That's new."
"I'm one of a kind."
Sakura rolled her eyes but couldn't help grinning.
"Where are you taking me?"
For a moment he seemed to think long and hard on that, his lips moved to form words a few times but none of them came out.
He sighed.
"Honestly?" he said and his smile fell slightly.
"Honestly..." Sakura said breathlessly watching the conflict in his facial expressions. His jaw was firm for a moment, his shoulders stiff but a second later he sighed and his face relaxed again.
"You'll find out sooner or later...but for right now, let's just say I'm kidnapping you.."
Sakura laughed at that thought.
You can't kidnap the willing genius...
"You didn't kidnap me though.."
He smiled.
"No, not yet." was all he said quietly and she shivered because he seemed to say it as thought it were the unflinching truth, no smile.
Sakura laughed once more at how ridiculous he seemed in that moment. She squeezed his hand with both her hands and stared at his side profile.
"Itachi, I'd go with you anywhere..."
He looked over at her, her head was against the chair and her eyes were groggy. She yawned and sighed.
"We're not going to be back at five, are we..."
She knew for a fact that they weren't. She hadn't told him but she saw him stuffing some of her clothes into a duffel bag and she heard him tell someone over the phone that he wasn't sure when he'd come back.
Standing there, listening to him, she wasn't sure if she'd actually say yes to this trip but after what happened with Sasuke...and after all the times that Itachi had been gone she needed to make a decision. The right decision and the right decision was to leave with Itachi, the man she loved because there was something wrong with him.
She couldn't put her finger on it or narrow it down to a digit but there was something off about him, like he had things to hide and all she wanted was to figure out what was wrong and get as far away from temptation as she could.
She couldn't face Sasuke again, she wasn't sure what his obsession was with bringing the worse out of her but if he had his way she would be completely stuck between the two and she wasn't ready to be torn away from Itachi. The idea of loving another man half as much as she loved him scared her and although she wasn't assured of just how much she cared for Sasuke she knew that in no way, had it reached that level of the way she craved his brother.
Body, mind and soul.
He was an art, he moved like no man she had ever known and his eyes had always enthralled her to the point of no return.
It was overwhelming, loving someone this much and it frightened her that he was clearly hiding something big from her but she couldn't exactly demand to know him inside out.
There was a difference in their letters than it had been now.
They could actually see one another, sense a waver in their emotions. It had always been something Sakura wanted to experience and it was everything that she dreamed of but she knew there could be a negative reaction as well.
She could set off something in her or he could do the same in her and one of them could lash out and hurt the other and if that happened, things would never be the same.
"No." he said finally answering her question. Sakura stared at his face and felt a tiny prickle of concern for his answer and the way that he said it but all she could do is try to think of the reasons he was doing it and only one was clear enough.
"I'm really ok...about my dad.." She said softly.
He seemed confused for a moment but then shook his head.
"We don't have to talk about him."
"No, no...really...the man I knew as my father, he was already dead...this man who died, he's a doppelganger...he had his face but...not his heart...not his.."
she took a deep breath trying to ignore the sharp pain in her chest, the burning in her eyes.
"...not his.." she gasped, her lips trembling.
Itachi squeezed her hand.
"It's alright to be sad about it babe, he was your father...you can cry for him even though he hurt you, even though you probably think you hate him. He did things out of love and they probably didn't make sense to you but...he wasn't trying to hurt you, he just thought he was doing the right thing. Sometimes believing in something drives us to extremes.."
he said, pulling her hands up to his lips.
"...we are blinded by that belief and we can't see shit else but what we think is right. Your father thought he was protecting you from me and he was probably right, I'm a man that he had no idea of...I was in your life and he wasn't informed. Automatically he believes that I'm there to steal you and corrupt your mind, to use you against him and do anything and everything except love you...but he was wrong. I can't blame him, for doing what he did. If I should one day have a daughter I can't say that I wouldn't have reacted the same way..."
He informed her kissing each of her knuckles and staring out the window.
"...maybe he was jealous..." was all Sakura whispered.
Itachi furrowed a brow.
"..Jealous, why.."
If I could tell someone like Sasuke about this...then I could tell Itachi...I could tell him everything and anything because he was mine and he would always listen to me and comfort me. Some people would look at me in another way if I told them the things that occurred between me and my father but this was Itachi...and I am hoping that, that, he will never look at me any differently than he does now.
She hesitated. Eyes puffy, chest fragile and tender from pain.
"...my father, he and my mom weren't doing so well and he always came to me to talk about it...a lot...when I was little I stayed out of my parents affairs. They were hardly ever around enough for me to wonder. My first boyfriend..." she paused and tried to get out a breath, she trembled and thought about not telling him. It had been the deepest secret she had ever owned and yet she had relayed it to someone like Sasuke and now she couldn't even say it to Itachi.
Her lips trembled and she closed her eyes.
"...I can't.." was all she whispered, she closed her eyes and Itachi sighed.
"It's alright...tell me whenever your ready, I can be patient."
For a moment they were both silent and the hum of the car gliding through the night was the only sound. Sakura was half way to sleep when she began to yawn again.
"Why did you give me this necklace...and don't say some ancient crap about it being my birthday...because I looked it up and I know what you were doing but what I don't know, was why..."
She could see a sad grin touch his lips for a moment and then fade.
"I guess I just liked the idea." he let that hover over them for a moment. "...I liked the idea of you having a part of me...I felt like I was marking you for myself and that if you kept that necklace on...any man would know that you belonged to someone. After all, that necklace is very authentic in history as the meaning of...'matrimony'. So, in a way...I was being a selfish bastard but at the time I didn't care...and in a way I still don't. If someone tried to take you away from me...I can't say that I would be...as rational and calm as I am talking about it. I've worked hard for you and so...it would be the smartest thing for you to not lead anyone on...especially not, my little brother.."
35. Unveil Me.
It rained.
That was an understatement.
There was a plummet of sorts descending harshly down on the car and with a nearly motionless dexterity Itachi turned the wheel to the left and pulled over on the side of the road.
He parked the car, engaged both blinkers and turned up the heat.
Sakura watched his motions, still appalled by the knowledge he just abruptly displayed regarding Sasuke. While his fingers were active she moved her hands into her lap and sighed.
...Ino wouldn't have told...
"I can't see.." was all he said. "...and it sounds pretty nasty out there so we'll wait for awhile, if you don't mind."
"No. It's ok.."
It's not like we were making it back at five anyway..
He took a breath and Sakura's thoughts continued to derail with thoughts of the mystery. For maybe thirty minutes they were both silent, listening to the rain crack against the car like tiny pebbles falling from the sky. The windshield wipers droned on and on, swiping back and fourth against the rain on the window and clearing the view.
"I saw you..." he said quietly.
Sakura looked at him, his face unreadable, face turned towards the wipers, seemingly engulfed in his thoughts.
"...in the hospital that day sitting beside him." He explained reverently. "...I brought your lunch that day, the two of you were sitting there talking and I thought it would be rude to interrupt so...I stayed behind, I watched...waited."
"There's nothing going on..."
Sakura answered him softly. She couldn't look at him and say it, she felt wary saying it to him, as if this would come back to bite her in the ass later.
She shrugged.
"How did you meet him...when, did you meet him.."
"What makes you think that I even knew him?"
"I know my brother, there are only two types of women he approaches at random." he informs her holding up two fingers.
"Sluts and women he'll benefit from in more way's than one."
Itachi turns to her when she doesn't speak and the two just stare at one another before Itachi breaks it and looks back out into the shower.
"Which one of those are you.." he asked in the softest tone.
Sakura shivered and felt her heart yanking away in her chest. Her stomach churned at the realization that he knew something about this to a certain degree.
She opened her mouth to speak but it snapped shut.
He doesn't know...but he will if you don't get it together. Take a deep breath, your not with Sasuke and you don't want Sasuke.
"Neither...he was a blind date that Ino set up for me...and I met him two months ago...it's nothing more than that."
"It's not you I don't trust...it's him. My brother has a nag for manipulation, he's like the carbon copy of our father. He's...vindictive, cold blooded and he's never given a fuck about anyone but himself...much like our father he's inherited the gene to be a complete dilly dick. Since I've been here we've avoided one another and I'm fine with that, it's for the best because I don't know what I'd do to him if I ran into him at this point."
He was lulling back in the chair with his eyes closed, he sighed.
Sakura took a deep breath realizing that he didn't know as much as she thought he had.
She had braced herself for him to bring up the sex tape or their tryst in the hallway the other night but it seemed he didn't know a thing about those things and for this she felt relief inside.
She wasn't sure how much both of those things could damage their relationship...it had already been doing damage to her, keeping something like that from Itachi.
...with his brother...what the hell was I thinking...I know who Sasuke is now and I still just...let him get to me. Well, not anymore, I can't play around with Sasuke and loose the only person who's ever mattered because of it. I'm better than that...
"Do you talk to him often?"
"No.."
"It didn't seem that way."
"Well I don't...he was just hurting about something."
Itachi laughed to himself.
"Sasuke doesn't hurt...he was just trying to lure you into his fucked up scheme, stay away from him, he'll only hurt you.."
Sakura frowned and looked over at him.
"You can't tell me who to hang around...and I told you before there is nothing between us, I stay away from him all the time."
but he doesn't stay away from me..
"I'm not telling you to stay away from him, Sakura, I'm demanding you to stay away from him...for his sake. I don't want to hurt anyone but if it's a task I feel deemable or necessary to enforce...I will."
Sakura was shocked at the way his voice sounded, his fist clinched in his lap and his eyes opened slowly to stare at the ceiling. He seemed a little dark in that moment, the fog of his personality too thick to cut.
Sitting in the quiet car for a moment she felt a jitter of fear because he was being unusually quiet and he hadn't assured her of his tone for a moment now.
He was still, unmoving and Sakura could have sworn that a breath hadn't passed through him for the past thirty minutes now.
Anger gripped onto her shoulders like a long lost lover and she balled up her fist.
"I'm going to take a walk." Without another word she opened the door and the full throttle of the rain unleashed in 3D. splattering her face and neck the moment she stepped out of the car.
"Sakura.." Itachi called out languidly to her but she slammed the door and ran because her mind was telling her to run, there were red and yellow lights flashing in her conscious mind telling her that something was going to happen and she wasn't sure what it was but despite not wanting it to be Itachi she knew it would be him.
I'll be safe in the rain, he can't see right now so he'll never find me...I'll find some gas station or someone to get me back home because I can't stay out here with him, when he's like this, when he's cold and unfamiliar.
Who was that...because it's not you...
The ran felt like jagged icicles being harpooned at her being, it cut across her face and body, the wind tossed her back and fourth and her hair matted over her eyes and around her face.
She raked her hair back away from her eyes and followed the trail of road that she could still see, in a blur. Her jeans were already beginning to feel heavy from the rain and she felt like a messy child who had spilled everything under the sun on themselves.
Maybe this is the real side of him, possessive and mildly controlling. It wouldn't surprise me...given his situation it wouldn't be that out of wack that he thinks that he can control me...tell me who I'm supposed to see and not supposed to see. I've heard plenty of time that the men in infantry are insane.
She walked and walked for several hours before she saw no point in going any further. There was no sign of civilization and she was starting to realize that maybe Itachi had intended that for them, to be stuck in the woods without any real destination in mind.
She paused in the downpour with a shiver and didn't want to believe the thoughts her mind had conjured up about the love of her life.
This is Itachi...my A.R...he wouldn't do that...he's different he would never set out to hurt me intentionally. He has the best heart...
She twisted towards where she had walked from and spotted a figure behind her, walking very slowly. She stood there for a moment thinking it couldn't be Itachi.
A flutter of extreme panic rose in her chest and she tried to swallow it back down because she didn't know why it was there.
The road was dark, the only light that was offered was from a piece of sky not covered in a dark cloud.
"Why are you running from me!"
Itachi shouted at her and then began to laugh.
"You know I can't see shit, how cruel is that."
"I told you I was taking a walk!" She shouted feet slipping backwards, heart wailing in her chest.
Itachi seemed to float above the pavement. His pursuit was mute.
"You ran...I don't have to see you to hear you."
"Your scaring me."
"How, I'm the blind one and I was concerned."
Sakura shook her head and stepped back faster, heart racing and anticipating.
His eyes looked like amber in the dark, like the devils.
She swallowed back sorrow.
"Concerned...for what, he's your brother, not a threat..."
"Sakura are you going to make me chase you and carry you back to the car, it's dark, it's raining and there's no telling what can happen to you...on this deserted street...when we're one hundred and fifty miles from any hope of civilization."
"One hundred and fifty...you sa-"
"Anything necessary to get you out of Konoha."
"...but why...WHAT ARE YOU HIDING!"
She pause from her walk, shouting at him and her voice carried to him despite the rumble of thunder in the distance.
A blue streak of lightening skidded faintly across the sea of black sky and touched Itachi's features. She couldn't see a pupil or the face of the man that she had just been talking to.
She saw someone else in his place, someone completely unreachable and scarred from years and years of hopeless struggle.
"There's a possibility that, the city you know won't exist anymore...neither will the people."
What do you...mean...
Sakura thought to herself feeling a sense of vertigo envelope her, she staggered backwards and her body weight suddenly felt like she was crumbling under the weight of two bodies.
"What...did you do...?" she asked weakly, her voice drained, her vision began to play tricks on her making her think Itachi was further and at the same time he was closer.
Until finally she felt him bend over and lift her off her feet. In her mind she was fighting him but in reality her bones were too heavy to move.
"Let the sleeping syrum run it's course...Sakura, there's no use in fighting it."
Sleeping syrum...you poisoned me!...you..
She could hardly breathe rationally, her heart was breaking more and more with pin needles of pain and none of this made any sense to her. Horrible thoughts about Itachi crossed her mind very briefly but the feeling of his quickly paced heart on her shoulder and the heavy breath coming from his chest seemed to imply that he was worried about something.
Sakura stared up at his chin, her head bobbling over his arm and she tucked herself into his chest.
"...You...can see?" She asked groggily.
He didn't answer her for awhile, boots sloshing though the street.
"When you lose your sight your other sense seem to develop almost inhumanly. I can hear your heart, I can smell your scent and I can feel the heat of another human being...this makes me a bigger threat than most. I don't need to see ever again because I've seen the only thing that matters."
"W-...hat are you going...to do to..ee?"
"Keep you safe...just in case my plan goes up in flames...betrayal is difficult to accept but it's the kind of betrayal that is the hardest to swallow. So, before you began to harbor bad feelings towards me...think hard on it."
I can't believe you would do this to me...after...after everything...I can't...
Sakura passed out a moment later with a quick breath of slumber and Itachi made it to the car thirty minutes later. He placed the unconscious girl into the back seat and stared at her wet face. He brushed her hair away from her face and leaned in to peck her lips slowly.
His face hovered upside down over her's.
"I'm sorry."