Author's note:- Hmmmm, I think I am not really good at this writing thing... I am not really good at writing long chapters, I guess I am just plain lazy.

Thankyou to those to who still read this and encourage my mundane writing lol

Disclaimer:- I do not own Naruto.

Chapter 9

Tonight when she unlocks the hurt lament in him
she let's her captor seek refuge in her

Sakura entered Sas-suk's room to see him completely immersed in reading a scroll; she idly wondered what he could possibly be reading about.

He hadn't noticed her entrance, too thusly occupied in perusal.

She scanty noticed that his room was quite similar to her own, the walls adorned with Uchiwa fan and small hieroglyphics. The furniture was a bare minimum though; a wooden desk lay in left-side with large amount of books and scrolls mounted on it. A white linen couch lay adjacent to it with a lone canopy bed with impressive gilded wooden work sprawled in the centre. It featured four posts at each of the four corners extending six feet high above the mattress- an ornate red fabric draped across the upper space between the posts.

"Sas-suk" she called out to him, her treacherous heart fluttering slightly under his gaze.

Sas-suk lifted his head to meet her eyes. Propping an elbow onto the desk, he rested his chin on the surface of his palm while motioning her to take a seat next to him with his unoccupied hand.

"Sakura, I had been waiting for you."

Noticing a flash of a displeased scowl of Sakura's visage which momentarily appeared, he arched his brow at her.

"What has set you off now?" he inquired, his tone laced with hints of concern.

You being alive for one, she whiskered away the thought to give her wordings a voice. Getting on his bad side doesn't really seem to be helping her one bit but she was a habitual offender by now, "The list is pretty long."

Her snarl hardened further when he returned her agitations with an amused smirk.

"I have time to listen."

She didn't like the glint in his eyes when he mouthed his words. Why was she the only one being rattled?

"It's been days since you have brought me here." She clenched her hand, her fist shaking with subdued anger.

"I have all of these questions inside me, when will I go home? What's your next move? What could you possibly achieve by all this?" She got up from her seat, turning around so her back was facing him. A lone frustrated tear escaped from her eye which she blinked away, crying won't do her any good.

"What do you want from me, Sasuke? To be your doll-to do and say what pleases you?"

Her breath got caught in her throat as he emerged in front of her blurred teary vision.

"You're not my prisoner Sakura." His voice came out like a whisper but soon became more resolute, "I know all this is taxing on you but give me time."

She laughed bitterly; he doesn't get it, does he?

"What would time do, Sas-suk? It won't bring back the shadow of the one you long to see in me, it won't bring back my friends and it won't..." she turned her head defiantly, bracing herself not to be too inconspicuous in her approach.

"Won't what? Say it."

"Say it" he repeated and waited for her to finish what she started.

Go on. Say it.

His eyes locked onto hers. Daring her. Challenging her.

Say it.

"IT WON'T BRING BACK THE CHILD YOU LOST, YOUR KINGDOM, YOUR WIFE-ALL OF IT IS LONG GONE"

"Enough" he said emotionless but Sakura could see the pain taking form in eyes. He might be wearing a mask of concrete indifference but she knows that he is being enslaved by the clutches of his past- all the agony and grief that encompasses it.

Her heart falters as a painful reminder of his tears flashes in her mind. Willing herself to continue, she fuels his anger, igniting him to reveal anything substantial that she could provide to Ino.

"Revenge will not give you happiness"

He edges closer to her, so close that they share the same breath. His finger latched onto her pink tresses, mockingly caressing it. He dipped his head next to her ear, his breath heavy so contradicting to his whisper. She could feel his control over his rage deter as his nostrils flare in volatile anger

"Who said this is about happiness?" he chuckled darkly feeling her shiver under his grasps.

"This is about getting even- trumping with the cards that had been once dealt with already" his voice was dark and ominous, "could you even bare to imagine how it feels to hold everything you love in your arms only for it to fade away? You love to speak of justice and mercy quite a lot, Sakura." He grips her shoulder tight, her skin blanching white under his strong hold. "Tell me what conquer of territory is greater than the blood of your kin, what fortune is so vast to end the life of an innocent woman and what justice is there in god's realm when a parent loses his child without even embracing him once?"

"TELL ME,SAKURA" he shakes her harshly as if he wanted her to wake up from her facade, to see the color of this world through his eyes. He hates himself further when her expression turns hopeless and tired.

But he can't get out of this cycle of self-loathing and plotting, it's all that had kept his going for centuries- it's all that he had envisioned about.

To get his pound of flesh, to sought for revenge against the wrong done to him.

Justice, he knows is bleak-only those who have the will to prevail it, can pursue for it.

He could never truly be in peace knowing that all that he loves could be taken from him again, he has lost his family twice- he's learned all there is needed to be known about treachery and betrayal. He knows better than to trust, better than to leave things to faith because all he holds precious can disappear like a whisk of smoke- as if it wasn't even there to begin with.

"It haunts me." He whispers so softly that she almost couldn't hear him and just like that her heart and resolution breaks while she embraces her enemy. She doesn't know what causes her to comfort him- in the instant she feels his sorrow intertwine in her, his pain echoing deep.

Without meaning to her eyes weep for him because he wouldn't cry-couldn't break. Her soul prays for him because he doesn't have any faith left in him.

She presses her lips against his- initiating contact by herself for the first time.

She doesn't know what reason pertains her to do so but for now, whether these feelings were disguised in the delusion of pity or mirth, she was completely inept in her hate for him perhaps only for this moment; her will surrendered if only for now but her heart was mourning for all that he had loved and lost.

Clasping her hands into his, she felt how his fingers were inhumanly cold and yet his lips that were connected with her's were as hot as fire. The kiss was itched with a frenzied passion, so desperate in motion to forget the world around them- so both the past and present won't be able to curtail and divide them anymore.

She doesn't know how but she ends up under him on the bed. Their laboured breaths huffing and arms roaming, lips parting and meeting rhythmically.

She wants to take away the hurt, the same sorrow that she had dismissively caused without knowing just how it wrenched her heart to anguish him- to see his pretence falter.

What had it accomplished? She had meant to peel away all his layers, his masks- to make him vulnerable only for her to drown in all his sufferings.

She wasn't a type of person to cause pain when it could be helped yet she had done exactly that- she had cut him where his wound were still fresh and flinched in ignorance when she saw him bleed.

He pressed bruising kisses to her pulse point making her inhale raggedly, her chest falling and risings in a tempo.

Her apple green eyes drifted taking sight of the man kissing her drunk with passion. He was so beautiful, filled with layers and complexity- temptation incarnate.

Her heart beat so fiercely with every touch that she was almost afraid it would burst open. She fluttered her eyes shut, losing to feel.

The sensations and desire sweeping in her made her shudder. His large hands roamed over her the length of her entire body, hands sliding past her ribcage to grab hold of her aching breasts.

She opened her mouth in a small gasp, moaning his name. Her head turning sideways as his thumb grazed her hardened nipple.

With a hard tug on his raven-hued hair, she brought his mouth against her's. He groaned in her mouth, the sound venerating through her. The sinuous stoking of his tongue along her own send in waves of pleasure right down to her core. She relished the feverish movements of his lips, his touches igniting warmth to pool in her lower belly.

When they parted apart finally on the pretext of catching air, both let a comfortable silence embark on them for a few minutes.

"Fine" she heard Sas-suk mummer against the nape of her neck.

"What?" she blinked perplexed.

"I- I will give it a chance." She stood in a sitting position instantly, her eyes widening like saucers. Perhaps the kiss made me so light-headed that I am over-hearing thing?

He sighted, clearly hating to repeat himself again. "I will give your way a chance."

"Sas-suk" she whispered his name unable to believe that he gave in to her. "You mean-

"Yes" he caught her hand and pulled her against him, "We will leave tomorrow" catching her lips in a delicate kiss, he continued his previous ministrations, smiling when he felt her gasp on surprise at his sudden change of course.