I would have had this out before, but yesterday I had a headache that I rarely have, and then as evening fell, I got nauseated that I had to cease writing the last of this until I was well again. For a moment, Grandma and I thought it was the flu, but it turned out to just be a case of food poisoning. I'd made catfish in the oven, and the baked potato with it wasn't cooked all the way as I wanted it, so before I went to bed, I ended up throwing it up as confirmation. Sorry to give those details. :&

Named after one of my favorite Tales From the Crypt episodes.

Chapter Ten

None But the Lonely Heart

So, she finally told Kiba a couple days later that she wasn't interested in him the way he was interested in her. She half-expected him to fly into a childish tantrum, but his response was cool. She wanted to keep a friendship, however, but she wasn't sure if she meant that as much because of...

"Sakura, come on. I know you got a lot going on, but I'm willing to wait. I know this is right." Even now, still trying. This was her last chance.

"This isn't about my schedule -"

And just like that, he cut her off before she could say anything. "Then until the time comes, I'll wait." He left without another word.

Not long after, Sasuke called her and told her he wanted nothing for her to do, but to talk about something. Although before she could leave the house, her dad came home in a mood that dampened the spirits. "Dad, what happened?" she cried, going to his side when he collapsed in the love chair.

"That horrible, horrible man, Sakura. They...fired me."

Something inside her sank and then exploded like an underwater volcano. "...what? Why?!" she demanded. What had her father done now that they let him go...?

Kizashi looked her square when he answered. "They got a call," he said, and when she was told the name, she snapped and was out the door in a flash.

Sasuke Uchiha.

She drove in a rage, but made sure she didn't kill anyone or herself on the way. She was livid and heartbroken. He...Sasuke...he betrayed her. Was it all an act, what she thought they had? Was he just toying with her all this time? He played with her, tested her, pretended they had a relationship in the making...only to call her father's workplace and have him fired?

Had he planned all this time?!

When she arrived, Kabuto called to her, but she ignored him and ran to find the man responsible for her father's disgrace. He was going to pay, powerful man or not. And to strike him like she did the time he threw the book into the hot tub made her feel better, but she couldn't hold back her tears as she threw everything she could at him. How could she have allowed herself to give in to him the way she did?!

When she finally called him the "Beast", the agony was there in his eyes. Good, I got him. He deserves it. When she turned to stalk out, she didn't want to hear whatever he had to say.

Her father heard her come home, but she didn't want to talk to him. She wanted to be alone. He said nothing, just continued to watch the television in the living room. He was suffering as much as she was.

All those times they talked about their families, his revelation of what everyone said about him, giving his side...he manipulated her feelings. He knew nothing about love, or even the human heart. He humiliated her. There's no such thing as true love. I trusted my heart with him, and look where it got me.

In the privacy of her room, she cried harder than she did when Mebuki died. She was never going back to him again.

~o~

Every day after that for a week, he tried calling her, to receive no answer. He had never felt so melancholy, which might as well be an understatement.

Life wasn't the same without Sakura.

What had happened was a question he would never stop asking himself. Kabuto even had no answers that could help. He was probably just as sad when she left; he even tried to talk to her when she was leaving, but she was too broken to speak to him. "Whatever it was," Kabuto said gravely, "it's torn her up."

"But why won't she tell me what I did?" Sasuke had to say one day, downing himself in chamomile, but it did nothing to soothe him. He refused anything like honey and lemon because it reminded him too much of her. In fact, every room he went in now, it made him think about her - including his own bedroom, for obvious reasons.

The basketball court didn't help either. Missing the hoop reminded him of the one thing - or should he say person? - that was gone now. And in the gym meant he wished he could pull a muscle, as his way of causing himself pain.

She had moved on with her life, was all he could tell himself. By the end of the week, he all but gave up phoning her, and when he did try once at the house, she heard his voice and just hung up without a word. Now he made his decision to drive up to the house - and the one who answered was none other than Kizashi Haruno, the man who was responsible for this change in his life. And the look he gave Sasuke was no different than his daughter.

"Sasuke Uchiha, you have a lot of nerve, you know that? Maybe you think you can get away with anything, but you won't hurt me or my daughter anymore. Go away. I'm busy looking for a job."

The door slammed into his face without another word. That was all it took for Sasuke to turn away, and for the first time since the night his brother took everything away from him, he burst into tears as soon as he was inside his car. He bowed his head forward and sobbed for a long time.

But that wasn't all. Before closing the door, that was when he remembered the last thing Haruno said besides the harm to his family: "Go away. I'm busy looking for a job."

Wait.

Now his brain was beginning to turn in the wheels. With that, Sasuke burst the engine to life and raced back - without causing an accident - to the estate to get on the phone with the repair company. "...yes, this is Sasuke Uchiha," he said when they answered.

"Uchiha-san, this is a surprise. What can we do for you? Do you need another repair?"

"No, everything is fine here. But I was wondering: is there a Haruno-san still working for you?"

A pause before the answer. "No, sir. Kizashi Haruno was fired because you requested it last week, remember?"

Sasuke held his breath for a second. So...his suspicions were right. Someone called them after all to have him fired, but someone impersonated him. They pretended to be Sasuke just to - "No, that wasn't me who called to have him fired. Whoever it was, they masqueraded as me, and I'm going to get to the bottom of it," he swore. "This has all been a grave misunderstanding..."

~o~

Ino knew she wasn't fine even though she said she was, and the pinkette agreed with her. "What that Uchiha did to you was terrible," her friend said. Terrible? Such as trusting him and going far to let him have my virginity after only a month of "knowing" him? After that, she busied herself with work and homework as usual, even had her days off so she could be at home more, and finally spend time with Ino - and yes, Kiba - like she should have for a long time.

But why did she feel so empty and hated it so much?

"Dad, why are you in such a good mood?" A week had gone by since he was fired - because of that bastard - but now she came home to find him smiling.

"I got my job back, kumquat," Kizashi answered, voice almost high-pitched with joy. She felt her eyes pop out of their sockets and almost dropped her book bag.

"R-Really? How did that happen?" she exclaimed. But in her mind, she already knew: Uchiha. He was no longer just Sasuke in her mind.

Her dad shrugged. "Guess the guilt got to him," he answered simply, tilting his head back and sighing. "But how about celebrating?" By celebrating, he meant opening up that old bottle of wine that neither had since Mebuki passed away. It had been in her side of the family for the longest time. She decided it was a good time after all.

Later that night she felt like the television, which Kizashi noted was what she loved to do when she wasn't doing homework, laundry or being at the center. "Just taking a break from catching up on everything," she told him. And hoping to distract myself from HIM.

But then he surprised her when he said he was almost glad he was fired, which shocked her. "Because you don't have to put up with all the Uchiha hassle anymore."

"...that was more his doing than mine." But I was happy to do it.

"But you gave up a lot. Just like you did when your mother died."

Sakura sat up straighter at the mention. "But that wasn't a big deal, Dad," she insisted, but he wasn't done.

"And while I've always been proud of you, I want you to start looking out for yourself. I know you made the choice to come home after she died, but you've more than earned the right to a little happiness. Just go out and find it for YOU."

He was purposefully telling her that he wanted her to stop thinking about him and to focus on herself. He was not giving her permission; he was insisting. Sakura needed more time to think about this, but at the same time, she wasn't sure, because she tried doing that for herself, and he almost ruined them.

However, the next day at work, she got one more call from the Beast himself - and enough was enough. "Stop...calling," she ground out, but then against her will, she let him speak just because the guilt had gotten to him that he had chosen to let her dad back into his job.

"Sakura, if you would just let me explain -"

She didn't want to hear. "Thank you for getting my dad's job back, but I've had enough of you."

"It was all a mistake!"

"Yes, it was!" she snapped. "You never should have held my dad's job over his head in the first place." She hung up then and there. Spoiled rich boy who lost his parents, his brother's fault, Kiba's bullying - but later in life, it was all his fault when it came to her father and her.

~o~

The mobile slipped out of his hand as soon as she hung up on him. That was when Sasuke Uchiha decided that his life was all over once more...but this time, the one who helped him would no longer be in it.

"You never should have held my dad's job over his head in the first place."

You're right. I never should have...but it brought me to you.

And now she was gone. Him getting her father's job back wasn't enough; why should he have expected it to? His own life came crashing back down, and what else was there to pull him back to sanity? His brother took everything from him before, and now whoever did so now had done the permanent damage.

The razor in the glass box shone in the sunlight radiating off it.

~o~

That morning, Sakura was done seeing a current patient, a sweet little girl of eight who had lost her father last year in a car crash, when Ino found the time to once more bring up Uchiha, but not before asking her if she was working later. "What do you mean?"

"You know who I mean."

Of course. "No," she said simply.

Ino furrowed her brows as she set about opening the jar of surface wipes for the desk counter. "Sorry for asking. But have you talked to him again?" Sakura nodded, and related how it just involved her telling him off on using her dad's job over their heads, and how stupid she had been to think they could have been so much more. And then it ended with him saying it was all a mistake, and that was it.

"Yes, I did," Sakura said, her answers becoming short now. The less there was spoken about Sasuke Uchiha, the better, but her friend, as always, wasn't letting it go.

"You're still ticked at him," Ino stated as she scrubbed the surface on her side until it was sparkling and shining. But for the pinkette, the marble surface now reminded her too much of the kitchen and banisters of Uchiha Estate. She scoffed.

"Wouldn't you be?" she returned. He went back on their deal just because a sliver of conscience got to him. That did NOT mean she had to do anything for him in return.

Ino just laughed and apologized. "Yes, I would, but he tried to make it up to you, didn't he? And let me tell you something, since I gave you all this time to sort it out. Maybe you should think, for a second, that maybe he could have been a wretched man once, but after doing all of THAT with you...would he really snap in a day or two when he started trusting you himself?"

Sakura had no time to answer before her friend and coworker was gone, stunned to her core. And not long after, Kiba came in and offered his sympathies, saying he heard what happened from Ino about her dad losing his job, and if she wanted someone to take her mind off things, he was here.

Sakura would manage, but on the other hand, she was considering.

~o~

Kabuto watched how his master and best friend was suffering since Sakura left them. During the time that passed, he thought about getting a hold of her himself, but by the looks of it, Sasuke really tried doing everything by himself; it didn't surprise him that the raven didn't get another assistant, because no one could EVER replace Sakura Haruno.

So, what do you know? He is in love with her, just like I always knew. But now...

In short, what Sasuke did was his business. Although, when he tried calling her, he'd get no answers, and one time he went to the house only for her father to slam it in his face - and that was when Kabuto heard Sasuke on the phone with Kizashi Haruno's workplace, mentioning that he never called to have him fired, which was all the silver-haired man needed. Someone did this, but it wasn't Sasuke. And he tried to tell Sakura, but she wants nothing to do with him. He cringed.

To watch Sasuke with all those reports that the pink-haired woman used to do for him was wrenching to his core - and once he saw his master collapse at the bottom of the stairs, staying there to wallow in his tears, which he hadn't done since he was a child. To even look at anything that reminded him of Sakura - the novel that once belonged to Mikoto and turned out to be the pinkette's favorite - and to be in any room where they had their moments...and the only place Kabuto ever saw him go was his mother's gardens, still slumbering until spring in the next month.

This was when Kabuto decided enough was enough. He let Sasuke handle it himself this far; he wasn't going to just let him go back to the way he was. When the Uchiha was outside, he reached for his mobile and tried the number that had been given to him a few years ago when the person returned to let him know he was still alive and well - and very much concerned for Sasuke, as always, and from the shadows.

"...Kabuto, is this you?"

The one I needed - the one who knows exactly what to do. "It certainly is. Long time no hear," Kabuto answered with a sneaky smile.

~o~

She was at the grocery store when she picked up some things for herself and her dad, with the intention of making a whole chicken in the oven along with herbal potatoes and grilled asparagus, at the end of this very same day. She was bringing them all to put into the trunk of her car when a shadow stood before her. Sakura halted, reaching into her pocket for the alarm that was one of the latest devices in self-defense - but the voice made her freeze.

"You don't really need that. I'm not here to fight you, but I wish to have a word with you...Haruno-san."

She spun around and glared at the speaker. He was in a maroon sweatshirt, the hood pulled over his head, and his pants were navy blue, with dark boots ending at the knees. But his face was seen for her eyes...a face she never thought she would see with her own two eyes. Onyx eyes, an aristocratic nose, the slanted tear troughs which appeared much deeper now. And the resemblance to the one who ruined her life...but he ruined his own brother's life, too.

"Itachi...Uchiha," she spat, closing her fist around her little weapon. "What do you want with me? I've dealt enough with your brother, so is it your turn now - especially after what you did to him? It takes some guts to show your face back here." His expression didn't change at all, but his voice - it was deeper than Sasuke's, almost velvety. But no way in hell would the other Uchiha, a wanted murderer, sway her.

"So I have heard, especially the troubles regarding my younger brother," he answered calmly. Both his hands were in his pockets, and who knew what was hiding in there. A knife, or a gun, maybe. And then he withdrew one of them, setting off the alarm bell, but she had no pepper spray or a pistol in return. "But now is not the time to speak about Sasuke. What I have to say to you is for your ears alone." Sakura continued to scowl at him as she kept one hand in her jacket pocket, safely around her alarm device, but before she could push the button, he flourished a piece of yellow sticky paper before her eyes.

It was an address and room number. He wanted to speak to her in private, not here. It was about Sasuke, but she'd made it loud and clear that she wanted nothing to do with him again, and this made Itachi frown.

"I'm afraid I do not take no for an answer, Haruno-san. You thought my brother broke your heart and destroyed your father, but that is far from the truth. Just as you know there is more about me than what you have heard."

I knew I would bring Itachi back, but towards the end, and the reason the end of this story took a little longer was because I needed a good excuse to allow him to return, for an important reason: Sasuke. Let's see what he has to say to Sakura...