Enjoy! (while I sit here drinking my second glass of wine and silently judging myself for procrastinating my homework with this story)

The letter lay forgotten on the floor, buried beneath Sasuke's discarded uniform. Sakura was pressed against the wall in a corner of her room, legs hoisted around Sasuke's waist. Beside them, the freshly lit fire crackled. His tongue laved at the crook of her neck, teeth biting to the point that she cried out in pain, only to moan at the friction created by his hardened member being ground against her drenched core. She shifted her hips, feeling the blunt head of his cock striking her entrance. His biceps flexed under the savage hold of her fingers and he groaned against her skin peppered with his passionate bruising.

Sasuke kissed a trail along her jaw up to her lips where he coaxed her into an ardent lock. He moved with false thrusts, causing her to clench at the anticipation of his intrusion. Although, deep down, she knew it was useless. They could only torture themselves with their shared dream; it was a fabricated promise. She knew that if she gave herself to him she would be deemed useless by her future husband, soiled completely by Sasuke's affection. For now, she could only pretend that he had not already stained her heart.

His hands moved to cup her behind and her neck as he walked them over to her bed. He dropped her on top of the sheets and she squealed. They both shared a laugh before his mouth descended on hers again. Then, he moved down her body, suspending his path only to mark her with a new purple blemish. Finally, his tongue swiped her sex and her fingers flew to his hair, pulling him closer as she moaned her pleasure.

"So eager," his breath felt cool at the heat of her opening, "So wet," he worried her clit between his teeth softly and she arched into the touch, "All for me," his voice rivaled the darkness of the night that fell around them. They had closed her curtains and soon he would not be able to see the flush that graced her skin.

"Mmm, Sasuke-kun," she purred, peering down at him buried between her legs. He sucked her nub between his lips and she keened, bucking against him.

"Desperate little thing," he cooed and slipped a finger inside of her, pressing the pad against her upper walls. She sobbed, eyes screwing shut as arousal flared to life within her, but in the back of her mind she noted that she would return his favor of sweet torture one day. She felt the prodding of a second finger and bit her lip to silence her bittersweet cries as he worked it in. He stretched her open gradually, to which she felt a gratifying burn and a satisfaction to the empty ache.

"Oohh, Sasuke-kun!" his name slipped out of her as though it were pulled by a string. His tongue flicked her swollen nub as his fingers pumped rhythmically in and out of her drenched core. Sakura tensed, muscles pulling taut as she found herself at the base of her release; Sasuke was working her up to the top, guiding her.

"I imagine your tight cunt would feel like heaven around me," his voice was dripping with want and he reached his free hand up to her breasts to pinch her nipple. She squealed in surprise and clenched around his fingers at his words. They had caused her heart to skip and her already dizzied mind to become further muddled by the pleasure he inflicted upon her. Sasuke was driven by the depraved thoughts playing through his mind. He wished to drive his cock so deeply within her that she felt every inch of his length and not one iota of her hot passage was hidden from him. He twisted his fingers inside of her, creating a unique friction that had her trembling uncontrollably. Spurred by her licentious moans, he pushed his digits further within her. She choked on a cry as she felt a slight pinch, but it was quickly whited out by the feel of his continued plunging.

Very fast and without much warning, she felt herself at the precipice of her release but she did not want it to end yet.

"I want you to come for me," she whined and shook her head as he curled his fingers sharply within her. He grazed her upper walls once again and her back flew off the bed, nails digging into his scalp for stability. He groaned against her, the soft vibrations pushing her over into the bottomlessness of her orgasm. She finished with a long cry of his name, bucking her hips so fiercely that he had to hold her down as he continued to lick and thrust into her.

He brought her back slowly, fingers beginning to dawdle and tongue subduing to softer bats at her clit. When she had regained some of her consciousness, she pulled him up by the hold she had on his hair. He twisted his fingers in the sheets as he held himself above her, her lips attacking his in a feverish move.

"I want you inside of me," she whispered as they caught their breath. He groaned at her admission, forehead falling to rest at her shoulder. Her legs skimmed his as she lifted her hips to grind her sex against his member, "I have never desired something so much."

"Sakura," his hand was at the back of her neck, clutching tighter when she began to caress his length with her delicate fingers. His words became strained by his struggle for control, "I would like nothing more, but you are not thinking correctly."

"I have not thought correctly for a long time, then," she hooked her leg around him and urged him to flip onto his back. He obeyed, but found a steady hold on her thighs to keep her still. Though night was upon them, his eyes had adjusted slightly and he could somewhat make out the ardor of her gaze. Sweat had stuck her hair to her face and her chest swelled with each hurdling breath. She appeared a feral creature atop her prey. A scenario he was all too pleased to be a part of and one that caused him to throb so persistently against the wet heat of her entrance, "Do you desire me like this?"

"Yes," his throat was thick and his grip was tight. He could imagine her riding him, merciless in her search for completion. She took his hands in hers, prying them from her waist so that she could slide down his body, breasts flush to his skin. She stopped eye level to his turgid cock, fingers circled the base, "You are even more beautiful in the throes of ecstasy."

"Hmmm," she pressed her lips to the underside of his member, along the line of his pulse. He hissed, head falling back to the pillows. "Your syntax rivals that of my suitors," her tone became humorous, "I've told you, Sasuke-kun, you should write poetry."

Before he could retort, she licked a smooth line up the side of his cock, cutting his words into an unrestrained groan. He fumbled with the sheets at his sides, scrambling for a semblance of control when she took him partially through her parted lips. She pushed him further into the hot cave of her mouth and swallowed against him when the head of his length hit the back of her throat. Sasuke gave a profane exhale and thrusted his hips upwards. He sunk deeper which caused Sakura to choke on his thickness. She pulled back, a string of spit following her. Through half-lidded, devious eyes he watched her eagerly envelop his throbbing cock once more.

She hummed his name around his width and it reverberated through him, pleasure coiling stiffly in his abdomen. Her eyes shimmered with a frantic lust and it struck him with an electrifying shock that buzzed through his body, straight to his heart. She had taken his length almost to the base and still she looked at him as though she were insatiable.

"Fuck, Sakura," she moaned at the desperation in his voice and rather than revel in the feeling it created, a distant, entombed thought rose to the surface. Would she do this for her husband when she married? She took him to the base, choking briefly before inhaling sharply through her nose and swallowing against the throbbing flesh again. He pulled air through his teeth and shut his eyes. How could she do that? How could he let her? Pleasure spiked through his blood and he felt himself approaching his own release. She sucked harshly and wrenched him through his own razing orgasm, whiting out his tempestuous thoughts.

"It is not safe for us to meet like this," Kabuto said as he was hurried through the door.

"Quiet," Sasori hissed, pacing the length of one of the rooms in the barracks, "We have been left vulnerable now."

"We should leave," Deidara snapped, "We are dead if we stay. Orochimaru will find out they have failed, it is only a matter of time."

"Which is the reason we must move now," Sasori persisted, "We will return to Orochimaru with the others. For that our initiation will surely be completed."

"And how will you tell him we were not at our posts that night? It is because of us that they failed in the first place!" Kabuto bellowed. Sasori hushed him sharply, striding within a breadth's space of him.

"It was due to your own impishness that we were not there to help them take the girl," Sasori's eyes were darkened by rage, "I leave it with you to tell Orochimaru why we were not there for assistance. Or, you may tell him that we were betrayed by those two. It is our word against those of slain men."

Kabuto considered him for a moment, caught between the fear of Orochimaru's wrath and the anxiety of being a rat in a maze.

"And if he believes us?" Deidara questions, "What then?"

"We will become members of the Akatsuki," Sasori swept his eyes over his fellow soldiers, "And we will bring upon the downfall of the Haruno empire."

"What did my father want?" Sakura's fingers inched across his chest, her legs tangled with his.

"They have found more spies," Sasuke's hand at her waist tightened considerably and he felt her tense beneath it.

"More?" her throat ran dry.

"More than I thought," he admitted, eyes tracing the soft lines created in her features from her concerned frown and scrunched brow. He let his fingers run up the curve of her torso and the slope of her shoulder to caress her cheek, "I do not want you to worry."

"I am not worried, Sasuke-kun," she put her hand over his, succumbing to tremors, "I am terrified. I do not think you incapable of protecting me, but what if they kill you?"

"Then I hope it will have been to save your life," he said softly. Her eyes began to tear and so she shut them. Sakura took a deep, shuddering breath and shook her head.

"Please, do not say such a thing," her voice broke as a tear rolled down her cheek, but he was quick to wipe it away. He took her in his arms and urged her against him, until she went slack, "That is not something I want to endure."

He kissed the crown of her head, at a loss for words. She curled into him, clutching his back with desperate fingers. The feelings she held for him were palpable in that moment and he relished in the glow that it enveloped him in. The contact of her skin against his, the sweat drying from their previous tryst - the intimacy of it all put Sasuke in a dizzying high.

"Just the same, I do not wish to see you succumb to such a fate," he spoke softly.

"My life is not more important than yours," she whispered against him.

"More is at stake," Sasuke argued, "The weight of a nation does not sit on my shoulders."

Sakura pushed away from him then, donning her robe. She stalked to the crackling fire to stare into its depths.

"What good will my life be if you are not in it?" he could barely hear her admission, but he did not move closer, only sat up sharply to watch her.

"Some day you will have to know," he leaned against the headboard, clenching and unclenching his hands tightly, rhythmically. Her shoulders bunched and her head lowered. She was teeming with fury and could not control the harsh snap of her tone.

"Why do you seek to remind me of these things? You say you do not want me miserable, but this does make me miserable," she turned to face him, "As does your secrecy from me. I have attempted to be passive, but it is difficult, Sasuke-kun."

A heavy silence fell between them and the space from where he sat to where she stood seemed an expanse of endless proportion. The room was becoming darker, the fire offering an ambient light that fell very starkly against the animosity they exuded.

"Your father has offered me a position of higher ranking as soon as he finds another to look after you," Sasuke's eyes dropped to the wrinkled sheets of her bed.

"Will you accept his offer?" Sakura did not hide her crushing disappointment, the storm of anger within her calming to a gentle swell.

"I do not desire to be so far from you," Sasuke could not meet her eyes, "Not at this time."

"Just now, then?" she mused.

"I do not know if I ever will," he admitted, dropping his head into his hands. He had set himself on a treacherous road that wound through his heart, igniting it to life as he'd never known to be possible. There was little he could do to keep him from getting lost on that twisting path, but he began to think of those secrets he kept from her as the few pieces of himself he still had. The more he spoke with her, shared with her, divulged in her, he knew, the more unfathomable it would become to extricate himself from her and his heart from her grasp.

"Would you tell me your secrets if I were a different person?"

"Who?" Sasuke looked up to her enjoining eyes.

"Who would it take for you to confide in me?" she had come to cross her arms over her chest, guarding her heart from whatever words he might expel.

"There is nothing wrong with you, Sakura," he said quietly, "It is only a circumstance of 'what,' not a matter of who."

"How can I change that circumstance?"

"The past is not so easily altered," Sasuke frowned and her gaze fell. He saw her fingers tighten around her arms, pinching the silk that covered them.

"Perhaps you should stay in your own room tonight," Sakura turned back to the fire, hiding her face.

"Very well," she heard him shuffle off the bed, heard his footsteps as he picked up the discarded articles of his clothes, his pack as well, and finally, heard her door shut behind him. Sakura placed a hand on the mantle of the fireplace to steady herself. Her body quaked in the aftermath of his absence, a strange vulnerability overcoming her. It had not taken but a night for her to expect his arms around her as she fell to sleep. She had come to know the patterns of his breath, his movements as he slept. She turned to her bed, knowing it would feel quite empty that night.

Sasuke shucked on a pair of cotton pants and sat on the edge of his bed. He fingered the crumpled paper she hadn't known he'd swiped off the floor. Despite his dubious feelings on whether or not he should read the letter, he opened the parchment, curiosity winning out.

My dearest Sakura-chan,

I understand you have been feeling less than favorable recently, even before this unfortunate event with the Akatsuki. I know you were secluding yourself in your chambers and not calling on your ladies. I can only imagine how that night only added to your discomfort. I want you to know I think of you every evening, especially if I have not seen you in the day. It is because I can not imagine my life without you. The sun does not rise in your absence and I fear for every moment I can not be with you. I apologize for how crass and obtrusive my feelings might seem, but I feel compelled to be honest with you.

My heart is yours to keep, but I do hope my sentiments are shared, for you are the only one I wish to call mine. Your laughter haunts me to the point I feel delirious if I do not hear it. The sound of my name off of your lips is the sweetest gift you could bestow my ears. I hope it is a gift I can continue to receive. Until I can hear the lullaby of your voice, I entreat you to keep me in your thoughts as I so do you. And until I can see your stunning beauty again, know that I am counting the seconds.

Yours faithfully,

Lee-san

Those words could have been plucked from Sasuke's own mind. The passion behind them mirrored his own. Was he just like one of her suitors? Was he no different from the noblemen that sought after her affections? Sasuke tore the paper down the middle, at the sides, wherever he could until it was shredded at his feet, a dissident rage flowing through him. Then, he blanched, fingers shaking with his subsiding fury. What had he done? How could he explain this to Sakura? He frowned and bent to his knees on the floor, scooping up the pitiful scraps, then walking to the fireplace to set them on the mantle.

Stop.

Please, stop.

She opened her mouth, but nothing passed through and all that she felt was a scorching heat, pain that demolished every nerve in her body until she was numb.

Stop it.

The pain wasn't happening to her, but she could feel it, experience it in a way that he couldn't.

Don't hurt him.

Her thoughts could not stall the sword that struck Sasuke through and through. Blood gurgled up his throat and from his lips; he fell limply to the floor.

Sakura groped the space beside her, tears hot on her cheeks, but came up empty. She whimpered and clutched the sheets as sobs wracked her fragile frame. She felt a chasm opening in her chest, a phantom sense of despair at the prospect of his death. A desperate pull wound at her heart and tugged her sharply from her bed. She left her room and padded to his door. Hesitant, she clutched the knob and turned it slowly, finding it unlocked. It never occurred to her, as it might have before they grew to be so intimate, that she would perhaps burden him with her thoughts; her only concern was to seek out his comfort.

"Sakura?" he heard the door creak shut and turned on his back, opening his eyes. She sobbed, but did not answer as she walked to the bed and laid beside him. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close, fingers reaching up to swipe at her tears, "What is it?"

She could only shake her head, crying because of the fear her nightmare had left in her and crying because of the relief his touch gave her. He kissed her cheek, and clutched the back of her robe tightly. She responded by catching his lips with hers, probing his mouth with a forceful passion.

"I dreamt you had died before me," her voice was a dulcet whimper when they pulled away, "I can not stand the thought."

"Is it the Akatsuki?"

"Yes," she nodded and buried her face in his neck, wetting the skin there with her persistent tears, "But in these dreams I fear not for my life; I fear for yours."

Sasuke sighed heavily, his heart constricting in his chest. He slipped his hand beneath the fabric of her robe to feel her skin against his. He roamed her curves with soothing strokes until her breast ceased its shudders.

"You do not need to fear for me," Sasuke's voice became a low growl, "These men will pay for their allegiance and it will all be over then. Do not think on it any more."

"How can I not, Sasuke-kun?" she whimpered, "I do not feel safe in my own bed. I do not feel safe when I am not with you."

"Then do not stray from me," he urged her, against his better judgement and for his own selfish needs.

"I feel so useless," her words were whispered on an exhale, "I desire the skills you possess; I wish I could defend myself."

"That is not your duty," he responded, hands settling at her lower back in a protective grip, "But it is my pleasure."

"Am I to rely on you for the rest of my life then?" he was startled by how opposed she sounded to the idea. He was not sure where they would be in the years to come, or even in the next day, but her question had him thinking on it.

"Would you not like to?"

"I would like to feel safe when I am alone," she lifted her head to peer at him in the darkness, "I would like to have confidence in myself," she swallowed audibly, "I would like to know how to use a weapon. Would you teach me?"

He scowled, ready to argue the safety of what she requested of him, but once more he found her candor causing him to soften. Once more her passing thoughts captivated his attention. Her passion for pastimes not indicative of her title stirred a familiar fascination within him. He was certain she would never cease to surprise him.

"Very well," he conceded, shifting so that his leg slid between hers, "But for tonight, let me take care of you."

She smiled meekly, eyes still wet with tears, but she kissed him with immeasurable enthusiasm to which he matched.

A veritable blizzard had come to life outside the building that held the prisoners, but the guards before the doors did not budge, except when Sasori approached them. They stiffened as though they were addressing a higher officer.

"Tomorrow night," he said, "That is when we make our move."

"How?" one of the guards asked. Sasori held out a folded piece of parchment.

"This is our only chance for redemption," his words were more brittle than the air around them, "Do not fail Orochimaru a second time."