"A place where someone still thinks of you; that's a place you can call home."
- Jiraiya
Juugo's voice was rough with disuse but the certainty behind it was unmistakable. "I'm not leaving you."
Unluckily for Juugo, Sakura knew that nine times out of ten, Sasuke always got his way. She watched the proceedings unfold with crossed arms and attentive ears; Sasuke's crimson eyes flickered to her as he mentally debated whether or not he should knock her out so she wouldn't hear the following exchange.
"The rest of Akatsuki thinks you're dead. If you return then you will only complicate things. You need you go to Nekobaa," Sasuke ground out firmly.
The foreign name made Sakura perk up and Juugo's brow only furrowed further. He looked as though he was going to press Sasuke further, but the scarlet warning glare silenced him.
Juugo asked, "But what will the rest of you do while I'm gone?"
"We will follow you as soon as we can with Sakura."
Sakura's head snapped in Sasuke's direction, her face the picture of confusion. Her lips parted in the semblance of a question and Sasuke neatly cut her off, "Wait for us and let Nekobaa know the rest of us are coming."
Juugo fell into quiet contemplation, his intense gaze whirling with thoughts he couldn't voice in Sakura's presence. Vaguely, he stated, "My condition."
"Make sure to inform Nekobaa of it so she can make preparations for you. There's a chance she may be able to help you, or at least lessen the frequency of the attacks," Sasuke explained.
The corners of Juugo's lips twitched in dry amusement. "I don't think that's likely, but I appreciate the encouragement. I'll see you there."
The loose fabric of Sasuke's clothes rustled in the wake of Juugo's sudden departure and Sakura tucked her windblown hair behind one ear, squinting at the forceful gust that raced through the tiny clearing and made her eyes sting. Once all traces of Juugo's chakra were gone, she approached Sasuke slowly.
"So what could make the mighty Team Hawk flee from Amegekure with their tails between their legs?" she asked dryly.
His jaw tightened at the accusation and he turned to her, his eyes unreadable. He explained curtly, "We're no longer interested in working with Akatsuki."
"Did you decide this before or after someone tried to off Juugo?" she asked dryly.
"It's true that that may have contributed to our final decision, yes."
"What did you mean when you said you were bringing me with you?"
Sasuke watched her quietly, taking in the controlled line of her mouth; as though it was sucking away her spirit to keep herself from hoping for too much. He replied, "Exactly what I meant."
"So you're saying you're going to help bust me out of Amegakure?"
"You'll be travelling with us until we let you go."
"And what do you mean by 'until we let you go'?"
"We will take you to a neutral area out of Amegakure and Konoha's borders and release you there. It'll be up to you to make your own way home," he explained.
Her arms remained folded and her stance as wary as ever. "Why would you want to help me get home? What do you get out of this?"
His right eyebrow raised fractionally, as though completely floored by the stupidity of her question. He replied matter-of-factly, "Your assistance."
Sakura had vehemently protested to letting Sasuke knock her out, and so he'd had to sit and wait for her to induce her own blissful state of unconsciousness. Granted, it had only taken several seconds for her to do so, but the blatant lack of trust grated against his nerves. As he slipped through the gates, he realised that he was carrying her too intimately, like a groom would a bride over a threshold, and was sorely reminded of Madara.
- you hold her like you love her presumptions are said to hold fractions of the truth in them but he didn't love Sakura, he just didn't want her to break-
Her head felt heavy against his chest. She was like a doll in his arms and he had the power to shatter her, the power to destroy Naruto from the inside out. He could potentially start a war if he killed Sakura now. After Jiraiya's death, Team Hawk's assassination of Tazuna and various other missions Akatsuki had executed, murdering the Hokage's prized apprentice would probably drive Konoha to battle against Amegakure.
Team Hawk would be able to fight against Konoha's Council of Elders sooner than he could have imagined.
Her head felt so heavy against his chest. His arms pressed against her arms, her face against his chest, skin against skin and it was unbearable.
- you hold her like you -
And even though he could feel her against him, it felt like she had forced her way under his ribcage. She was gnawing away at his insides, wearing his soul thin with confusion, and it was all he could do to keep her from bursting from his fraying seams.
Sasuke slipped like a shadow into the compound, but a smooth voice greeted him, "I see you retrieved our runaway."
Sasuke didn't turn.
Madara watched in amusement as Sasuke's arm tightened around Sakura, as the corded muscles in his back drew taut. He walked towards Sasuke, footsteps echoing as the slaps reverberated against the high ceiling, and then came to a stop barely a metre apart from him.
"She's really not worth the trouble. It's been nearly a month and the demon child hasn't come to save her. I guess she really doesn't mean anything to him at all," Madara continued conversationally. Something about the way he looked at Sakura was chilling.
Sasuke insisted, "He loves her. You know as well as I do that Naruto is being heavily guarded. He wants to save her."
"Hmm, but simply wanting to save her won't bring him here, will it?" Madara mused.
Silence fell between them.
"It's a shame," Madara sighed. "You had so much faith in your demon friend. As it is now, the girl is a pain to handle and useless to us. We'd be so much better off without her."
"If you kill her, you'll begin a war with Konoha. I was under the impression that you wanted to wait until we had collected all the jinchuuriki."
"Unfortunately, life doesn't conform to even the best of plans. You may want to return to your room quickly, by the way." Madara brushed past Sasuke. "I believe she's waking up."
Even after he could no longer detect Madara's presence, every muscle in his body remained as tense as a coiled spring. Sakura shifted and he instinctively tightened his arm around her waist, stilling her immediately.
"Don't move," he ordered her beneath his breath, careful not to move his lips.
Instead of kicking up a fuss as she was prone to doing, she obeyed him. Slowly, Sasuke put one foot after another and repeated the process, his mind whirling around other things. It wasn't until his bedroom door clicked shut behind him that the tension began to leave him.
He approached his bed mindlessly and bent over, sliding Sakura onto it. The mattress sank on either side of Sakura's head as he braced his palms against it, so that he wouldn't crush her. Sasuke's expression was almost painfully blank and he didn't pull away from her, their face mere millimetres apart. His breath curled across her cheeks, long bangs brushing her forehead-
Sakura felt fear spike within her as Naruto's face flitted across her mind. She called his name sharply, "Sasuke."
If she had offended him, he didn't let it show on his face. He stood up immediately and went to the balcony, leaving so much distance between them it was like being universes apart. She straightened up, staring at her hands as Sasuke watched the sky fall through glass doors.
"We're leaving tonight," he told her.
"Tonight?" she blurted incredulously.
"Make sure you're ready to leave at any time."
Then he was gone from the room, as though he'd never been there to begin with. But Sakura could still feel the lingering warmth his hands had left in the imprints on the bed, incriminating evidence of his lapse in control.
"We're leaving tonight," Sasuke commanded.
There was a split second pause where Karin fought to process what he had just said. It wasn't something she could rationally wrap her head around, Sasuke – Sasuke – was basically ordering the complete annihilation of a plan they'd been working towards for the better part of two years. If they left now, they would have no allies to help weaken and distract Konoha while they launched an assault on the Council Elders. All they would have were enemies they couldn't afford to have, enemies that could raze a country to the ground in a blink of an eye.
"Sasuke-kun," she began slowly, warily. "Are you sure about this?"
His eyes flickered. No, he wasn't sure. But the situation was spinning out of control and this was the only way he could possibly salvage it (the only way he could protect Sakura) and he hated her for driving him into this rut. As hard as he tried to convince himself that he was only doing this to repay his debt to her for saving Juugo's life, he could feel the truth clawing at the insides of his lips and snapping at his tongue. He wasn't himself.
"You should think this over first," she was advising him, but he couldn't hear her over the war for himself in his head, "give it a week and if you're really serious about leaving Akatsuki, we can come up with a plan-"
"No. We need to leave tonight," Sasuke reiterated.
Something in her gaze shifted, a puzzle piece falling into place. "We can't rush into something like this. We need to come up with a plan first that will give us as much time as possible to distance ourselves from Amegakure, since Sakura doesn't have any chakra to enhance her speed."
How had she known he wanted to take Sakura along with them?
"After what she did for Juugo, I'd be surprised if you didn't bring her along," she explained his unspoken question simply. "You were born and raised a Konoha ninja, it's not surprising you still uphold some of their naïve ideals."
"I'm no longer a ninja of Konoha," he told her coldly, curtly. "I once believed in their stupid ideals, but that time is long behind me."
She returned his icy gaze levelly. "I never said they were stupid. I said they were naïve."
Silence claimed Sasuke.
Something changed in Karin's expression. "What-"
Her voice broke and she glanced away self-consciously, adjusting her glasses. "What about Suigetsu?"
Sasuke had been expecting this question, but that didn't mean he was fully prepared for it. "What about Suigetsu?"
"He comes back with Hoshigaki-san in two days," she told him.
"So?"
Her eyes flickered. "I really think we should tell him about this."
"He's not a part of Team Hawk any longer. We have no obligation to him-"
"Sasuke-kun, please," her voice took on a more pleading note.
Karin had never been one to beg for anything and Sasuke nearly wavered. But Sasuke was proud, and Sasuke was an Uchiha, and Suigetsu had humiliated him by leaving Team Hawk to take on Sasuke's own punishment. He fell into silence again, hard crimson eyes staring at Karin emotionlessly.
Then he detected a foreign chakra signature in his room.
It burst into life like fireworks at midnight- violent, garish and impossible to ignore. The only person meant to be in his room was Sakura, and he could feel her chakra signature brushing against his senses like silk. This new chakra was everything hers wasn't, rough where hers was smooth, brutal and erratic where hers was calm and controlled.
He was at his bedroom door before Karin could confirm who it belonged to. He already knew. His cold fingers crushed the doorknob beneath his grip. Sakura's chakra spiked suddenly, as though she had thrown herself into a fight and he all but tore the door open. He flinched as blinding white light attacked his tortured corneas, ripping his nerves to shreds, and then suddenly he could sense nobody inside the room.
His eyes adjusted. His room was barren. Rainwater leaked in from the open balcony doors, spattering and staining the carpeted floor with dark flecks of moisture. Bed sheets lay crumpled and defeated on the floor, messy holes gaping upwards at the ceiling. And there was this overwhelming sense of loneliness, as though the life had been sucked from the walls and the lumpy couch. Something smashed against his chest from the inside, winding him in ways that he never knew possible.
Sakura was gone.
WHERE THE EFF WERE YOU?
Two horrible, horrible words. Writer's block. I really should have planned this story, huh?
Okay fine. You're back. Have you made a decision on who Sakura's going to wind up with?
I have!
Sasuke's so emotional in this chapter. What happened to your characterisation?
I think this is the first chapter where I've actually written everything from his perspective. My characterisation probably is a little rusty, but I do genuinely believe Sasuke is not a robot. I think he's starting to realise how much Sakura means to him and that would terrify him.
Holy snap. Sakura and Sasuke nearly kissed.
Sakura would have fought against him if he'd tried to go any further. She's a very honorable character and she would never do that as long as she was still dating Naruto.
Speaking of Naruto, when are we going to see that son of a gun again?
Well, not until Sakura returns to Konoha. That's going to be roughly two chapters' time, so no worries gaizz! He and Sakura will be reunited very soon, but that of course means that things are going to get very awkward and angsty.
And love triangles are all about romantic angst, which has been kind of dead throughout this fic.
I'M GOING TO MAKE UP FOR IT IN THE KONOHA ARC. It'll just be pages and pages and pages of angsting. Be prepared to smash all three characters in the face at some point in time, they will probably get annoying.
Why is this chapter so pathetically short?
I've decided to start stopping chapters at points where they actually seem to end, and cutting out anything unnecessary. I was rereading Say and I've realised there's just all this useless stuff that I could probably cull, because it just slows down the pace. And plus, I like the cliff hanger.
Don't you have something you should say to all of your amazing readers/reviewers?
I am so sorry, I know I let you guys down by delaying this for ages. Thank you so much for all of your support so far, I really appreciate it and I have to admit, I'm thankful to you guys for shouting at me to get off my ass and update. Without you guys, I probably would have just given into writer's block and ditched Say forever and ever. Thanks so much again, I really don't deserve readers/reviewers like you but I'm so grateful you chose to stick around and support Say. I hope you continue to support this fic, thanks so much for everything so far!
- selandora