Widowmaker

Chapter Nine

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A/N: One-hundred thousand yen is roughly $875 US dollars. Seventeen-million yen is roughly $152,000 US dollars.

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Breakfast in the Haruno household the next morning was quiet, to say the least. To say the most, one would say the atmosphere was choking. However, Sakura had to give Sasuke credit; he was clearly doing his best to stay civil with her mother. It was obvious though that his patience was wearing thin.

"So, do you just kill people or what?" Sakura's mother asked, feigning interest. Sasuke didn't look up from his meal. Sakura wondered if he even heard the question until she saw his hand slightly tighten around his chopsticks. She didn't think he was going to answer for a few moments.

Then, finally, "Yep."

Sakura's mother sniffed and took another bite of her breakfast.

On the other hand, Sakura's father seemed to be taking a liking to Sasuke now that he was getting used to him. Good old dad had listened to his wife's theatrics the night before and had come to breakfast with a haughty attitude to match her own. He had been fully prepared to hate Sasuke. He and his wife had every intention of kicking Sasuke out of the house within the hour with a parting statement of "We'll send you the divorce papers!"

Then, Sasuke had started to grow on Sakura's father once he actually got to know the younger assassin. The Uchiha was quiet, but respectful. To add to Sasuke's politeness, good old dad suddenly seemed to remember how Sasuke had gotten his daughter out of a jam, and he was left wondering why he had even gotten worked up along with his wife. They owed gratitude to this man, not maliciousness.

"How much do you make on a… job?" Sakura's father asked, searching for the right word to make it sound less like murder. "A hundred thousand yen?"

Sasuke actually paid his hostess's father the respect of looking at him when he spoke—something the Uchiha man wasn't too apt to give the mother who was glaring him down.

"Yes, I do make about a hundred thousand. An hour."

Sakura spit up some of her tea. "An hour!"

Sasuke turned slightly in his chair to face her. "Yes," he confirmed calmly. "After all, it is usually governments or powerful organizations that hire me."

Sakura silently did the math in her head. Sasuke had been staying with her for about a week. That would be twenty-four hours times seven days. One-hundred sixty-eight hours. She looked up at the ceiling as she mentally calculated, sipping her tea. Had he been paid for his job in helping Sakura, he would have made almost seventeen-million yen. …Seventeen-million yen! Sakura spit up her tea again.

Sasuke glanced over at her again and mouthed, "What the hell's your problem?"

Sakura didn't notice. Seventeen-million yen! Maybe he only made that much for assassinations. She couldn't fathom paying him that much for merely protecting her from the Hyuugas and provoking Hinata into standing up for herself.

The rosy-haired kunoichi eyed Sasuke with curiosity. He must be filthy rich, but what did he do with all of his money?

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An hour later, Sakura went up to her bedroom to change out of her pajamas and into her normal clothing of red top, white skirt with black shorts underneath. After changing, she exited her room and heard a crash from inside the guest room across the hall.

Worriedly, she crossed the hall and knocked on the door. "Are you all right?"

After a few seconds, there was still no reply. Throwing privacy out the window, she opened the door and stepped inside. It was dark inside the room. It was already a rainy day outside, and the fact that the blinds were closed on the window shut out any possible outside light. "Sasuke? I heard a crash."

After surveying the room, she spotted him on the floor next to the bed. She made her way over to him and squatted down next to him. He was picking up pieces of glass. Sakura spotted a picture frame on the floor next to him, and she picked it up.

Smiling, she said, "We were just twelve here." It was a photo of Kakashi, Sakura, and Naruto from their first year as a genin team. Kakashi had an arm around each of them while Sakura waved and Naruto stared at her with a goofy look on his face. He had had a crush on her up until they were about sixteen. The photo brought back such good memories that Sakura had made copies of it for nearly every room in the house.

"Sorry," Sasuke mumbled. "I bumped it."

Sakura shrugged. "It's no big deal. I'll just get a new frame." Then she noticed crimson liquid contrasting highly against the pale skin of his hand.

"You're bleeding!" she exclaimed.

"Nice observation, airhead."

She made an offended sound and shoved him. That was the second time he had called her an airhead since she had met him. She longed to boast about how she graduated top of the class at the academy, but figured such bragging would be petty.

"Come into the bathroom," she told him, standing up.

Sasuke followed Sakura out of the room and down the hall to the next door. Once in the bathroom, Sakura started to wipe his hand with a damp towel.

"It's just a scratch," he protested quietly.

"I'm a medinin. It's my job."

After Sakura was finished cleaning up the cut on Sasuke's palm, she looked up at his face and gasped. His face was mere inches from hers, and his sinful eyes were focused intently on her lighter ones.

"Thanks," he said in a throaty voice.

Sakura wanted to lean back from him, but she was already up against the wall. He's so close. I could hug him, or kiss him, or…! She gulped and focused on a spot below his face. He was only wearing loose, black pants and a black tank top, so her eyes were drawn to the strange black mark on the left side of his neck.

"Where did you get that mark from?" she asked, shifting her gaze back up to his face.

Sasuke lifted a hand to finger the mark. He had never told anyone what it was in all of the four years he had it. He didn't know why, but he wanted to tell her.

"It's a curse mark."

"Oh, I see," Sakura replied, nodding her head. Then she paused. "Wait, come again? A curse mark?"

The assassin gazed into her wide eyes, and he wondered if he should have kept quiet. Slowly, he asked, "Does that scare you?" He leaned toward her more, placing a hand on the wall next to her shoulder.

She faltered for a moment before finally shaking her head. "No, you don't frighten me anymore. But," she paused, "what does a curse mark do?"

"Anytime I try to use a lot of chakra, the curse mark takes over me and I lose control. My sensei back in Cloud sealed it, but I still have to be cautious."

"Lose control?"

He nodded with a strange smile coming over his features. He lifted the other hand at his side and twirled a strand of her hair around it. Her breathing sped up. "Yes," he drawled. "You never know who I might hurt." He released her hair to cup her chin.

This is it! He'll kiss me for sure this time! Ignoring her flipflopping stomach, Sakura's eyes fluttered closed and she puckered up her lips slightly. After a moment, she heard soft chuckling. Her eyes slowly opened again.

Sasuke's eyes were full of humor and he was shaking his head as he laughed quietly. "You amuse me." He released her chin and lowered his other hand from the wall back to his side. He stepped away from her and faced the bathroom mirror.

Sakura looked confused. "Amuse you?"

Sasuke nodded. "You really wanted me to kiss you that time, didn't you?"

The kunoichi's eyes widened in realization, and she cried out quietly in offense. She quickly averted her eyes to try to hide the hurt in them. "You are a horrible person to play with me like that."

"Horrible, am I?" he asked in an amused tone.

Angrily, her eyes darted back to his face and she nodded fiercely. "Yes! You think you're some gift to women or something? You disgust me!"

She turned to leave the bathroom, but he caught her by the arm and pulled her back and into his chest. He bent his head to her neck, inhaling the scent of her. "Mmm," he murmured. "You smell like honey."

She pushed away from him and slapped him across the face. His hand rose to his face. It did not hurt as much as her punch had a few days before, but he wondered if he had gone too far. She was clearly upset by his little "game."

"I'm not some joke," she hissed quietly before leaving the bathroom.

Sasuke stared at the wall she had been pressed up against for a few minutes before smirking. How fun it was to rile her up. It was too bad he was getting ready to leave the village. He wouldn't mind playing with her for a little while longer.

She was the only person who made him want to smile. He wasn't bored when she was around. Oh well. He figured that all interesting things must come to an end.

He left the bathroom to go retrieve his katana from the guest room. After tying the sword to his back, he searched the room for pen and paper. He walked over to the bedside table and opened the drawer. There was a small notepad and pencil in it, so he pulled them out and quickly jotted down a note.

Send the papers to the Hidden Cloud village at 4 Pine St and I'll send them back, signed.

He figured she would know he was talking about annulment papers. Then he realized that they would need divorce papers now instead. He shrugged. It didn't make any difference to him.

He wasn't sure when he was going back to the old man's house, but he would pick up the divorce papers when he did. He would just have to make sure he didn't wait several months.

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Sakura screamed inwardly. He was so rude! How dare he play with her like a toy? He thought it was funny to provoke her like that? She was so embarrassed that she had been welcoming a kiss from him when he wasn't even serious. What did he care anyway about a silly kiss? He had already gotten the whole package, even if he didn't remember. Well, good riddance to him! If she never saw his smirking face again, it would only be too soon.

She couldn't believe she had ever felt sorry for him. He was a manipulative jerk who delighted in making her squirm. She should have been suspicious when he kept getting closer to her in the bathroom. He had not shown any sexual interest in her (while sober); why would that change all of a sudden?

"Bastard!" she shrieked, stamping her foot. She decided to go see Ino. She knew Sasuke would be leaving anytime, and she didn't want to take a chance of seeing him on the streets.

Sakura glanced around to see how close she was to Ino's house. She didn't recognize the street she was on. In fact, it was more like an alleyway since it dead-ended a little ways up. She sighed and turned around to go back out the alleyway.

"All alone, are we?" a voice asked. Sakura whirled around to see a grey-haired man smiling at her. Within a blink, he had appeared behind her, bestowing a blow to her neck and knocking her out.

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"Are you certain this is the one?"

"Yes. I saw her with him."

"And what make you think her fate matters to him?"

"Well, they were getting married when I saw them."

"How can that be? Our Sasuke? Married?"

Sakura opened her eyes, rubbing her head which was throbbing in pain. She sat up quickly when she saw two men sitting across from her, the one closest to her being the one who appeared before her in the alleyway.

"Who are you?" she demanded.

The grey-haired man didn't acknowledge her, but the man next to him smiled at Sakura. The smile sent shivers down her spine.

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Yes, yes, I'm a slow-poke. Review and let me know I'm cared about! XD