Dragonfly Heart
Challenge was to write a Kbuto/Sakura angst in 1K or less. Here's 998 words thanks to the prompting words of thefreckledone on Tumblr but I'm not sure how I did on angst, oh well.
"An organic life form you say? Your alchemy has truly progressed to have accomplished such work. Will she expire traditionally?"
Kabuto swallowed before addressing his spymaster. Sasori was as charming as his namesake, but for what he lacked he made up for in ruthless efficiency. Hesitation earned Kabuto no merit here.
"She won't age, and unless her soul gem is shattered she won't expire, sir."
Sasori hummed more to himself than in reply. WIth hands made for a piano, or maybe a spider's web, he reached out and traced the shape of the girl's face, stopping to test the silky texture of her hair.
"You don't think she's a bit too beautiful for spywork?"
Kabuto had fashioned Sakura out of cherry blossoms petals and belladonna roots with an amber heart encasing the prehistoric dragonfly for her soul. Nothing else he tried would generate independent life. She had the grace of a swan, stolen from one's bones, and the strength of a cobra, salvaged from its scales.
Kabuto hadn't considered himself an artist but when she opened her eyes, he wept.
"She's perfect," he answered a bit too breathlessly.
And she was.
Before long, Sakura was the top source in Sasori's spynetwork and Kabuto couldn't have been prouder. Being a creation, she possessed the knowledge of kings alongside a child's innocence. More than once he found himself playing the role of teacher in ways he had never anticipated.
"It hurts," she confessed to Kabuto one day. "Please, fix it."
Fear made him quick. "What's wrong, where does it hurt?"
Sakura's breathing was shallow but she grabbed at the fabric above her breastbone. "Needles are piercing me here. Stop them," she begged.
There was no wound, and Kabuto fel a unique dread settle in his gut as he regarded the girl too beautiful to be real. "What were you thinking about to make your heart hurt?" he asked in as calm a voice he could muster. "Was it a person?"
"You read those words and it made me like this. Are they magic words?"
"Words? What are you…" the words trailed off as he remembered the book of poetry he had read to her. The poems were love letters from a princess to a servant boy over a thousand years ago.
Sakura's hand found the fabric above his heart and he felt petrified by her touch. She had made him stone once more, for he dared not move as long as she was there.
"While the moon hugged the sky-frightened by loneliness, I called out in search for you, blinded by tears."
Kabuto could see himself reflected in her eyes, far too green and clear. The beginnings of tears had collected in the corners. He swallowed and reached to pull her hand away, but instead settled his atop hers and listened to her recite the rest of the poem.
"Hold me tight enough to break me. If I can see you again even just in a dream, please give me eternal sleep."
The first of her tears fell on his knuckles.
"Why do these words hurt me so?"
"Sakura," he tried.
"Tell me why it hurts! I can see the story like you told me to. I saw the ending. I did it right, so why does it pain me?"
"Sometimes, you can feel the pain others are feeling. It's called empathy and some humans never learn it." He brushed back a stray curl. "I had hoped fate would spare you, but I can see I was mistaken. I should have given you a spider for a heart. This dragonfly feels too much."
It's a long moment before Sakura pulls away and wipes her eyes clean. "I don't want you to do that. I don't want to not feel things. There are good things too."
"Oh, like what? Tell me." Kabuto was eager to distract her from unpleasant thoughts.
"I like how I feel when I'm with you." She touched her hair. "When you hold me, and talk to me. It makes the dragonfly wings beat."
Kabuto swallows. "Th-that's impossible. The dragonfly is stuck in amber," he laughs.
"And there really weren't any needles, but still…." Sakura touched her chest.
Kabuto left her before she could see how breathless she made him.
"I'd like you to give her to me. She'll fare better than any of my puppets."
"I-is there something wrong with my deployment of Sakura?" he asked Sasori.
Sasori leveled the much younger man with a look of boredom. "It's your own damn fault for making her so perfect. Bring her in, tell her she'll be mine starting today."
Kabuto felt numb as he did as his boss instructed.
Sakura had perfectly obeyed every command with unwavering loyalty. This order would be no different.
She looked both males over, reading their expressions before facing Sasori. Sasori never looked anything more than vaguely satisfied in his life, but when her gaze landed on him Kabuto recognized the reaction and knew the exact moment Sasori caught sight of himself in her eyes.
Caught.
Sakura's voice was a melody when she spoke. "I don't want to."
"You don't have wants, you're a creation and you're mine now. Kabuto is your master but I'm his boss and I say you're mine."
Sakura's eyes narrowed dangerously. "You're not the boss of me and I have plenty of wants." She finished speaking then turned towards Kabuto, triggering a smile as sweet as cherry blossoms. His hands reached for her on their own and he called out her name but it came out a gurgle as his throat welled with blood.
Sakura screamed and ran for him, but the wires were already separating him into pieces she couldn't fix. Kabuto watched her reach him and paw helplessly at his body, unable to stop the blood. Sasori was behind her and he reached for her, whispering something in her ear.
"Anything," she sobbed.
Sasori grinned and that's the last thing Kabuto saw before the world went black.
