Author's Notes: I am stunned with the response I have received lately. All your words of encouragement buoy up my spirits like nothing else can. I thank you all from the bottom of my heart. Here's hoping I can return the favor. Enjoy the next chapter. Until Next Time! Constructive criticism is always welcomed.
Disclaimer: This is never going to end will it? Take a wild guess.
Chapter Eight: Bonds of Trust & Things Left Unsaid
Sakura rolled over in her bed and studied the light drifting in through the window. Her mind rushing through the events leading up to now in the blink of an eye, she tried to put everything in order.
Itachi killed his entire clan, but Sasuke. Then he started collecting heirs as insurance, knowing no one would dare go against him lest he really did kill them. He's holding the lives of everyone over each other's heads. Even his own brother's…
I too am a piece in his collection, with hardly any more freedom than the servants he's fashioned the rest of them into.
Naruto is free for the moment…no; Itachi is holding Hinata and her cousin's life over him.
She thought over Ino's words from the previous day. The resistance is still holding. It sounds like one is forming within these very walls. Did Itachi not realize that one-time enemies would band together to fight against him? Even if they had been fighting amongst themselves not too long ago?
And what am I going to do? I didn't like Itachi before. I tolerated him out of respect, and because of the contract, but…can the contract with him still hold if my original fiancé still lives?
She vividly recalled the time and concentration of healing said previous fiancé's wounds. Although, at the rate that they're encountering each other I don't think that will become an issue. Hopefully the idiot doesn't try anything in his condition now.
She frowned. He'd probably try anyway.
Muttering to herself, Sakura rolled herself out of bed and dressed more readily for the remainder of the day. She snatched her medical kit from beneath her bed, having found it there when she had returned to her room the night before, and made her way out the door. As she walked she thought of Naruto and Hinata.
They're so lucky. Even Ino and Shikamaru have had everything work out for them. Granted, neither pair is in the ideal situation they had hoped to be, but still…
"Where's my happy ending?" She hissed, punching at a wall as she passed by. She was startled when the force opened another hidden stairwell in the wall. She stood blinking at it for a moment before entering through without a second thought. She followed seemingly endless halls, always heading down, familiarity leaking through her every step of the way.
She ended in front of a door she partially recognized as having burst through it not even twenty-four hours ago. "Well, I'll be," she whispered in astonishment. She eased the door open with long-time practice to meet several startled faces, all immediately on their guard.
"How did you get back down here?" Ino asked sharply.
"Misplaced anger," Sakura replied with a shrug. "And if I recall correctly, you were the one who dragged me here in the first place."
Ino stood where she was, gaping like a fish out of water.
Sakura turned to the person seated next to her. "How's the patient today?"
Shikamaru sighed in exasperation. "You're a determined one, aren't you?" He mumbled to himself, before replying. "From the look of things, the same as when you left yesterday."
Sakura nodded, "Good," as Naruto stepped out from the door in which said patient was resting. He looked at her and smiled.
"Hello Princess, You're here earlier than I thought."
Sakura raised a delicate eyebrow at him. "Really?"
Naruto shrugged in comment. "You should go in and take a look at him."
A trace of worry laced her words. "Why? Is something wrong?"
Naruto shrugged again, grinning broadly. "See for yourself."
A concerned frown crossed Sakura's face as she entered through the door Naruto held open for her alone. Ino made to follow, but Shikamaru held her back with a sharp shake of his head.
"But-!"
"Leave them alone."
She growled in frustration, but didn't push it any further, choosing instead to plop herself down next to him.
Sakura's footsteps faltered when she entered the room.
There stood her patient attempting to pull on a shirt while gingerly trying not to use his right arm, the splint tied tightly to it keeping him off balance. Sakura sighed and walked quietly up to him; she pulled the shirt over his head and guided his arm through its sleeve gently. And they say I'm stubborn.
"You shouldn't be moving around you know," Sakura scolded lightly.
Sasuke froze at the sound of her voice, and didn't turn around.
"What? Were you expecting me to be Naruto? I'm sorry to disappoint you." She wasn't sure why her tone was coming out much harsher than she intended, but she couldn't stop it either. She waited several moments, but he didn't respond, and she ignored the echoes resounding in her heart, but finally relented a little. "How are you feeling today?"
"Fine," his answer came cold, short, and quick. He still refused to look at her.
Her face fell. "Good," her hollow tone sounded dead even to her own ears. She felt her chest constrict. I need air. Now. She turned to leave.
"So you know now?" Sasuke's voice finally reached her ears in more than a one-syllable answer.
She halted in mid-step, but didn't turn around either. "Yes."
Deafening silence followed, and Sakura closed her eyes to listen to the echoes that couldn't be heard by anyone else but herself.
Fear. Confusion. Hope. Curiosity. Anger. Everything was such a blur and changing so rapidly that she could barely keep up long enough to recognize half of them.
She stepped carefully and tentatively. "I know now why you never said a word, and I'm sorry that I never came looking for you…Ino was right."
The echoes changed subtly. Regret…Betrayal.
"Are you going to tell him?" Sasuke's voice bit back at her.
Sakura whirled around, aghast. "Why would I ever-? How could you possibly think I would do something like that?"
Sasuke's voice was bitter. "You're his fiancée now. Why wouldn't you?"
Sakura felt her blood begin to boil in indignation, and she let her temper go unhampered. "Because, in case you didn't get it through your head the first time I said it, I love you Sasuke. You."
He snorted in disbelief.
Sakura marched over to her first fiancé furious, and whirled him around. He was now facing her, but still refusing to meet her eyes. She stared up into his face, anger and rejection alighting her every features.
"Do you think I'm happy about it? That I want this? I died inside that day! And now here you are, alive, and I can't do a damn thing! Do you have any idea what that's like? To not be able to do a thing, but stand by and watch?"
Sasuke looked her in the eyes for the first time since they had been reunited, and Sakura nearly stumbled back from the glare he threw at her, hatred swirling in his dark eyes.
"Yes. I do," his voice was tight with barely concealed rage.
Sakura winced internally, recalling exactly what he was referring to, but continued on, fueled on by her own growing emotions.
"Don't think you're the only one affected by that."
"Why does it concern you?"
"It concerns everyone Sasuke!" She gestured toward the shut door, not realizing that their voices were carrying beyond it. "Take a good look at what Itachi's doing to everyone! To you!"
He glared at her again. "I'm fine."
"You were almost dead!" Sakura's voice raised another octave, her voice heard by everyone in the adjoining room, and much louder than she had intended to be. Tears finally sprung to her eyes, and her voice came out nearly in a whisper as she spoke to the floor. "I thought you were dead. For so long…and now that I know your not…" The tears sprang forth freely, sliding down her cheeks like crystallized stars. "I fell in love with you when we were six years old. Six years old Sasuke!"
She raised her eyes again to look back at a startled Sasuke. "I knew we were to marry one day and I was so happy. I even thought that you might love me too one day. But…" her gaze fell to her hands as they wrung against each other from far too long suppressed emotions. "…I was right all along. Fairytales are just stories. They never come true. There's no such thing as a happy ending after all…"
The silence between them was thicker than before.
She tried to wipe her face dry in vain, as she stood before him, forlorn and lost. She didn't meet his eyes again, but could feel him staring at her as silent as ever. "I'm sorry to have bothered you," she apologized quietly. "Just forget that I was even here."
She turned and ran out the door, slamming it behind her. She stood with her back against the door long enough to trust her voice for a moment. "Make sure he doesn't do anything stupid," she managed to get out before trudging across the shocked room and heading toward the exit.
"Are you going to tell Itachi anything?" A voice from behind Sakura asked.
She whirled around with a glare to match Sasuke's and yelled at the room's occupants. "Just how stupid do all of you think I am?" With that she finally fled through the door, feeling the echoes of Regret and Remorse pulse through her.
Someone whistled in the room Sakura had just ran from. "I don't know about the rest of you, but I think they're a lot more alike than everyone gives them credit for."
----------
"Let me get this straight. You want me to stay engaged to Itachi?" An incredulous Sakura asked Naruto several days later.
Sakura had rarely come out of her room unless it was to keep Hinata company, or forcefully eat her evening meal with the man she was starting to get sick at seeing the sight of. Naruto had finally managed to coax her into talking to him that late afternoon with a plea to see his own fiancée afterwards. Reluctantly she had agreed, for Hinata's benefit she assured herself, and since she personally didn't really have anything against Naruto himself.
First, however, Naruto had managed to convince her to follow him out to the old training grounds to talk first, insisting that she needed the fresh air. And as Sakura was growing increasingly tired of staring at the same four walls constantly she had agreed to go along.
"Yes," Naruto replied, happy that she understood him so well thus far.
"Why would I want to?" Sakura asked, dumbfounded, since, as far as she knew, she still was engaged to Itachi, although, that area had become increasingly gray over the past several weeks.
Naruto shrugged his shoulders. "You used to love him. Bring back those feelings from memory."
Sakura froze and looked at Naruto unblinkingly. "What?"
"You know, pretend. Act," Naruto tried to clarify.
"No, no, the first part," Sakura corrected him. She looked at Naruto like she had never seen him before. "You think I love Itachi?"
"Well," Naruto scratched his cheek in confusion. "Yes, or at least you must have at one point. Didn't you?"
"Never," Sakura explained exasperatedly. What is with everyone here? Is there something that I'm not getting across to them all?
Naruto frowned at her. "Then why are you marrying him?"
Sakura avoided his eyes and studied the faded target still attached to a tree near her, memories flashing as fast as the small knife-like instruments that were thrown at it. "Because I have to."
"Care to elaborate?"
"Not particularly, but I know you won't drop it unless I give you an explanation, right?"
"Pretty much."
Sakura sighed heavily and dropped down in the moss around her, again not caring about the mess she would look like later with leaves and duff sticking to her navy blue dress. She closed her eyes, and leaned her head against a trunk behind her. "Sasuke never told you?"
She heard Naruto plop down onto a nearby rock. "He doesn't talk about much of anything, much less the past."
Sakura laughed not unkindly once. "Why can I find that so easy to believe?" She could almost hear the wide grin that must have been plastered all over Naruto's face. She opened her eyes and watched the brilliant array of leaves above her, scattered sunlight filtering through to decorate whatever it could reach, and began.
"My kingdom is small compared to most. It's nestled up against the sea in the West, the water stretching on for miles in both directions. The sun sets over its waters every day in an amazing mass of colors…Because of its position, it is a very strategic place to reach other kingdoms and has many ports in which to trade from nearly every corner of the world. 'Small but rich with diversity,' my father always says. 'The Pearl of the World.'
"Needless to say, with how often every kingdom has been fighting each other over the last several generations, my kingdom, which has always tried to remain neutral, was about to be drawn into the horrors of it all. We're too small and peaceful to have a large enough army to fight most other kingdoms off. So, my family decided to strike an alliance with a larger, stronger kingdom. This was done through the usual way, a contract with an arranged marriage.
"Being the sole child, naturally, I was the prize. My father, with the aide of his advisors, made the alliance with the Uchiha kingdom. Mother and I traveled here when I was six to sign and finalize the contract, and in the process introduce me to the Uchiha royal family. As you know, the King and Queen had two sons, and it had not been completely decided upon who I was to share the contract with.
"I met Sasuke, fell in love almost immediately, and declared it loudly as we were leaving. Which I am sure you and everyone heard the other day."
Naruto blushed in embarrassment. He hadn't been able to help it with how loud she had shouted, but Sakura didn't comment or notice.
"You know how the story followed. Itachi murdered the Uchiha's, apparently, but the contract still held. With Sasuke being dead, as we assumed, I was now promised to Itachi. He allowed us to remain in relative peace for twelve years, but soon he began to demand that he collect on 'his payment' for his protection all those years." She looked over at Naruto to see him raise his eyebrows at her in surprise.
"Oh yes," she assured him. "He kept his end of the bargain. He's held off other kingdoms from trying to conquer us the entire time."
Naruto snorted in disbelief. "So he figured out a way to hold something over your kingdom's head without resorting to violence. How nice."
"It leads to the same end," Sakura muttered detached. "We're all caught up in his web of control. One way or another."
Sakura furrowed her brows together. "Sasuke really never told you any of this before?"
Naruto shrugged. "He might have, vaguely. He doesn't mention the past much. He can't forget it, but…." He trailed off.
"Typical," Sakura mumbled. Her gaze darkened. "And now, if Itachi ever finds out that I know about his past he'll kill Sasuke." Her fists clenched involuntarily; no matter how infuriated she was with him, her body seemed to have a mind of its own.
Naruto noticed. "…You really love him don't you?"
Sakura studied her hands and then placed them in her lap, trying to relax them and give her palms a chance to rid themselves of the gouges from her fingernails. "I always have," she replied without hesitation. "And I'll do just about anything to prove it."
"Good luck with that," Naruto flashed a grin at her.
"Thanks," she replied sarcastically.
"And here's another one of those chances to prove it," Naruto said as he looked at something behind her.
"What?" Sakura asked, confused. She followed his gaze down the path that they had traversed to arrive in the secluded spot, and stood up in alarm. "Sasuke?!"
Sure enough, the very same person who seemed to be the topic of most conversations lately was trudging through the leaves and brush in a somewhat unsteady motion towards them. His head jerked up when he heard Sakura's voice and immediately looked like he regretted that he was there.
Sakura, who had still been refusing to feel the echoes since their last encounter, had never sensed his approach. She also hadn't been down to check up on him the entire time as well. Tsunade would have scolded her uproariously had she ever known, but Sakura was allowing her stubborn pride to get in the way.
But of course, that hadn't stopped her mind from fretting and worrying about him every time she allowed her mind to relax slightly. "What are you doing?! You shouldn't be up and moving around like this yet! You'll strain the stitches and re-open everything!" She scolded him, anxiety overriding her obstinate pride, and her barriers crashing around her in the process.
The look on Sasuke's face was priceless to Naruto. It flushed in embarrassment as he frantically searched for a scathingly reply or reasonable-sounding excuse. Naruto smirked. "Yes teme, just what are you doing out here?" knowing full well exactly why Sasuke had ventured so far out there.
The glare he received in return only increased Naruto's smugness and meaningful look. Then he dropped it and threw his close comrade a serious gaze. "Itachi did a number on you last time." He crossed his arms across his chest and planted himself in front of Sasuke's immobile form. "You should really take the Princess's advice and relax."
"Speaking of which," Sakura interceded. "What was that all about?" Naruto and Sasuke looked at Sakura in puzzlement, but she directed her question toward Naruto. "You once mentioned that every time Itachi and Sasuke meet, Sasuke tries to kill Itachi."
"We try to keep Sasuke away from him, but it proves difficult at times." Naruto sidestepped her question. "He's fixated on revenge."
A mixture of pity and exasperation flooded through Sakura. "Oh Sasuke…" She sighed.
Sasuke ignored her unwanted look of pity and glared at Naruto. "It's getting dark dobe. The meeting is about to start."
"Hai, hai." Naruto pushed himself up and off the rock, knowing that tone all too well. It clearly screamed 'Drop it if you value your life.' "I'm coming."
Sakura was now studying Sasuke, scrutinizing him carefully. "Who helped you get here Sasuke? You're going to need help getting back you know."
An angry blush flushed across Sasuke's face.
Naruto didn't need the Gift of Sakura's to feel the waves of Embarrassment pulsate off him.
Once again a wicked grin flashed across Naruto's face. "Well then Princess, I leave him in your capable hands." He took off and was gone in a flash down the beaten path, waving his hand behind him. "See you there, teme!"
"What?" Sakura's jaw dropped open. "Hey- Naruto! Wait!"
He was gone with only the leaves whispering in his wake to mark his presence.
She glanced at Sasuke. He was glaring down the path murderously. She sighed. Well, there's no avoiding it now. "Come on Sasuke. I'll help you." She tried to brush off her skirts, preparing to head back.
"I don't need your help," he replied back in such a cold, scathing voice that anyone else would have took off in the opposite direction. Fast.
But Sakura knew better. She had dealt with difficult patients before. She crossed her arms and tapped her foot, smiling at him innocently. "I'd like to see you try and get back on your own."
She struggled to keep her smile from spreading when she was filled with echoes of Anger, Frustration, and Embarrassment. She breathed in deeply and let it out silently, finally releasing her own frustrations and settling somewhere between relief and understanding. "Stop being stubborn," she continued as she walked right up to him.
He tried to flinch away from her, but he accidentally jerked his right arm, and winced in pain. She grasped on to his good arm determinedly with gentle but firm motions and guided it over her own shoulders. "Lean on me," she encouraged.
His frustrated blush increased and the sour look on his face deepened, but allowed himself to put some of his weight on to her.
Sakura took heart from his actions, knowing that he wouldn't have even considered following her instructions if he hadn't been feeling the throbbing ache in his body so strongly. "Now was that so painful?"
They carefully started back down the path together, Sakura watching the ground itself to keep an eye out for possible hazards. It was silent except for their movements for a moment.
Then Sakura plucked up her courage and spoke the words that had been floating around in her head for a while now. "You know Sasuke," she started quietly. "You can trust me." She put her heart into her words, hoping that he would believe her, if no one else would. "I swear I'll never say a word to Itachi."
Again there was silence and Sakura felt her heart begin to drop once more until-
"I know."
Sakura's heart pounded fiercely in her chest. He believed her! But then- "Why?"
"…"
"I'll never leave you again," she promised in a whisper.
He didn't answer her with words, but his grip tightened ever so slightly around her.
She closed her eyes for a brief moment and focused in on the echoes, listening for a moment before a quiet smile broke out across her face.
