I'm losing sight of our reality
Satellites singing serenity
Send out a signal, please remember me
Send out a signal, come set me free
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Kakashi stared down at the newspaper in his hands, his grip so tight, his fingers nearly ripped right through the announcements section. All around him, the village was alive for the Sunday markets with families making their way to the different shops, oblivious to the torment tearing him apart inside. Families walked by, happily holding hands, their smiling faces closing in around him and he felt as if he were being suffocated. He couldn't breathe, couldn't move. His surroundings faded into nothing and all he could see was Sakura's face in her wedding announcement, sitting beside that jackass who didn't deserve her. He could only hear the sound of his own breath in his ears as her face blurred on the page before him.
He didn't know what had happened. Last week she had been in his house, in his bed, telling him that she was ending her engagement and now this...Now, the wedding was happening after all? He didn't want to look but his morbid curiosity made him read the date in the small paragraph detailing the wedding. Three days...She was going to be out of his life in such a short time and there was absolutely nothing he could do. Her choice was clearly made.
Did he actually think they would be together in the end? Was there even a future for them when they came together through lies, secrecy and hurt?
He crushed the newspaper in his hands and tossed it into a nearby trashcan, torn between the need to scream or beat something and the defeat he felt weighing him down. He swallowed hard and turned away from the busy marketplace, not knowing where he was even going. He couldn't go home. His sheets still smelled of her and he couldn't bring himself to wash her out of them. Not yet.
Kakashi turned, his stomach clenching tightly as he looked up toward the towering building he had only stepped into on one occasion. He wondered if she were there now, picking out flower arrangements and seating charts. What would she do if he went there, demanded to see her and told her that he loved her. He should have done it a long time ago. He had missed his chance...she wasn't his and never was aside from the brief moments they had shared together, no matter how much he wanted her to be. He had stood by and let her slip away and there was no one to blame but himself. No, he wouldn't storm into her life, and disrupt her happiness. He loved her too much to do that to her. Instead, he turned and headed toward the Academy, to the Hokage's office.
In three days, Sakura would be married to someone who didn't fit her, didn't deserve her, who wasn't him and he wasn't going to be here when that happened.
Everything hurt. From the cold tile floor at her back to the sound of the water dripping from the bathtub faucet, it all pounded in her head and through her muscles like blows from a hammer. She stared up at the ceiling as she lay on the bathroom floor, her head resting against the plush, white rug in front of the sink. It had been four days that she had been a prisoner of Kyo's. Four days of not knowing whether her parents were alive, if anyone was looking for her, or if anyone even cared.
Kyo had made her hand write letters to Shizune and Tsunade, requesting several weeks off for her wedding and honeymoon that would follow. He had stood over her shoulder as she wrote every word as flawlessly as she could. Any tremor of her hand, any sign that she wasn't being genuine, he would force her to do it all over again. They would never know, no matter how much she was silently begging every stroke of the pen to tell them where she was. With her parents as much as a prisoner as she was, he wasn't too worried anyone would be suspicious.
Sakura had spent the first few days hoping and praying that Ino knew better...and was safe. Surely, their last conversation would be a clue to look for her, that there was no way she was just going to change her mind and marry Kyo anyway.
But, the hours ticked by and no one came. No one suspected anything. Why should they? Kyo had hidden his plans and true self well. He was a wolf in sheep's clothing, playing the part of the concerned, compassionate doctor who everyone in the village loved and looked up to. He had slipped in and no one knew what he truly was except for Sakura.
There was no one coming to rescue her...Not Ino, not Tsunade, not Naruto and not Kakashi. God, it killed her to think of him and she had struggled to take a deep breath, tears prickling the corners of her eyes. The light fixture above her blurred and she dug her palms into her eyes, wishing she could get the image of him out of her head. She couldn't forget the way he had looked at her as she left his apartment...as if he would never see her again. Why hadn't she stayed?
Angrily, Sakura pounded her fists into the perfectly pristine tile floor, longing for the crack of the marble but she was too weak. Whatever poison Kyo had blown into her face had rendered her completely useless and pathetic. She could feel her chakra, warm and flowing like sunlight, hidden behind an impenetrable wall that she couldn't get through despite spending hours desperately trying to pick her way through. She was twelve years old all over again, helpless to those stronger, more ruthless than she was.
Outside the bathroom, the front door of the apartment opened and slammed shut. Fear gripped Sakura's heart and she flinched, squeezing her eyes shut tight as the footsteps echoed around her. The crunch of drywall beneath Kyo's feet, the tap of his heels on the hardwood floors, it all made her body ache just a bit more. His nearness was a pain she had never experienced before and seeing him step into the doorway sickened her. "Still feeling angry, Darling?" He smiled down at her but she didn't move.
She had been trapped in his apartment for the past four days, wandering around their home like a ghost. The walls were still crumbling from their fight, his office completely destroyed and Sakura had spent hours retracing her steps, trying to figure out what she had missed. Books and bits of wood spilled out into the hallway but she made no move to clear it out of the way. This was her prison, not a home any longer. The thought of living how she once had made her sick and she refused to sleep in their bed.
The bathroom was where she had stayed, the only bright room in the building. It was funny how she had hated the bright, white tiles and marble for so long and now longed for it amidst the rubble of her former life. "I want to show you something." Kyo said, leaning against the doorframe with his arms crossed leisurely over his chest.
Sakura kept her eyes fixed on the blinding lighty above her. "I'm not interested." The words were barely out of her mouth before Kyo reached down and wrenched her arm up, pulling her to her feet as if she were a rag doll. He shoved her roughly against the door, rattling it on its hinges as she cracked the back of her head against it. Sakura hissed in pain as he kept her pinned against the door, his face inches from hers and full of anger. As much as it hurt, it brought her a bit of joy to piss him off.
She looked up at him, her ragged breath blowing her hair from her face and the corner of her lips twitched. She hid it quickly behind a grimace as he stepped away from her, straightening his shirt. Kyo cleared his throat and eyed her closely. "You test my patience, Sakura. I thought I showed you what happens when you resist. Shall I gather more of your loved ones to give you another example?"
"No."
"Good." He took her arm in his grip, pulling her by her elbow toward the front door. Her heart skipped a beat as she tried to imagine what he could be showing her. Would he be stupid enough to let her go outside? Surely he knew that she would scream for help if he did. She was half dragged and half pushed through the rubble in the hallway as he led her out into the hallway and toward the elevator.
Memories of her night with Kakashi came flooding back to her and she hated that she had cried, had mourned her ruined feelings for Kyo. If only she had known he didn't deserve her tears...She was pushed against the gold plated wall and turned to glare at him as he shut the door and pressed a thumb into the number '3' button. The elevator whirred to life, making Sakura feel a bit nauseous. It had been a while since she had eaten a proper meal and though she knew it would make her feel less weak, she hated accepting anything from Kyo.
A moment later, the bell above the doors chimed and the third floor opened up before them. Sakura had never been on this floor, had never even thought about what could be between the ground and their apartment. She stared with wide eyes at the expansive space. There wasn't much in it aside from an area to the left with a dozen or so cots set up and a wall of computer screens pushed into the back left corner. The windows were all covered with thick, black fabric blocking any sunlight from shining through or spying eyes from looking in.
Kyo marched them both toward the back of the floor, not giving any explanation as to why there were cots set up or what this room even was. "Since you destroyed my office, I've had to move things down here." He jerked her into a chair and the look in his eyes was icy, daring her to make a break for the elevator doors. She swallowed hard, glancing around the strange space before turning her attention to the wall of screens to her back.
He typed quickly at a keyboard and in a flash, the screens came to life, all showing her the interior of what looked like a warehouse. She could see an endless row of barrels on one screen before glancing above it to a laboratory of some kind with men working away at long tables filled with beakers and bubbling concoctions. Her mind spun as she looked from screen to screen, inching closer to them, searching the faces for anyone she knew. She was thankful that she couldn't recognize any of them. "What is this?" She asked, hesitantly glancing up at him.
"That," He pointed to the screen with the store of barrels, "Is Suna. And this," his finger shifted to another screen. "Is Amegakure. Ishigakura, Hoshigakure, Iwagakure." Kyo took a step back as he spread he hands out toward the screens, his face beaming with pride and something Sakura couldn't quite read. He almost looked crazed, a glint of madness glittering in his eyes. "This is what I'm working for, what you'll soon be a part of."
Confused, Sakura shook her head and turned back to the screens, each one flashing through her mind as she tried to figure it all out. Could this be bigger than she had imagined? Was this all his? "This is...yours?"
"Ours, Sakura. Konoha isn't the first on my list of villages that need to be purged. It's one of the last. I have enough support from the surrounding countries, entire clans who have bowed to me and know that this is the future." He knelt down beside Sakura's chair, taking her hands in his but she couldn't look away from the computer screens. "Konoha will follow their example with your help. You're the key to the Hokage, to Naruto, to the Yamanaka and Hyuuga clans."
Sakura swallowed down bile that threatened to spill and stared in horror at the screens, still unsure what they all had to do with him. She shook her head, her lips suddenly dry. "I think you're making a mistake. These people are my friends, but they won't follow me if I tell them to go along with this."
Kyo stood to his feet and heaved a sigh as he pinched the bridge of his nose. "If they won't, then this is what will happen." He tapped a few keys and the screens shifted to the warehouse filled with barrels. From different angles, Sakura could see men loading carts up with barrels before they would head out the enormous double doors. "That," Kyo pointed to the screen. "Is what is waiting for Konoha. Remember getting a lungful of powder? That was only a fraction of what I have prepared. I'll cover the entire village and thousands of people will either succumb to my will, or die. As I said, Sakura...this all depends on you and whether you can convince them to bend the knee."
Furious rage bubbled up inside her as she looked up at this monster standing before her. She could feel her fingers trembling as she gripped the chair beneath her so hard she could have sworn she felt the metal crack. Red spots clouded the corner of her vision as she stared up at his smug, cruel smile. "You'd kill innocent people?" Her voice quivered through clenched teeth.
Kyo slowly bent down until he was inches from her face, his hands crushing her wrists as he held her tightly to the chair. "I will happily burn this entire world and out of the ashes, I will create a new one. It's up to you whether that happens or not."
Inside her mind, the wall that stood blocking her chakra splintered and a thin ray of light poured out through her, warm and familiar. She had broken through...It was only a crack, but it was a start...She would break it down and she would destroy him.
"Sir. A message from Suna.." One of his soldiers at the far end of the room spoke up and Kyo stood and looked away from her. She was thankful for the moment away from his scrutiny. As he stepped away from her to address what the shinobi wanted she turned to the computer screens, the corner of her lips lifted in a smile that she couldn't hide away. For the first time in days, she could see a tiny, glimmer of hope bursting through the darkness that clouded her mind. She would be the one to stop this madness, to kill Kyo and save her loved ones. But first, she needed to make a plan.
