A/N: Finally another update.
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. But I can write about him...Hip, Hip Horay!
I heard Sasuke moving about the house cleaning up the remnants of the emergency get together. I'd ditched my friends and family to be alone in my room. Jiraiya had asked me to forgive, to forgive the people who had hurt me. But the hurt was buried deep inside that it felt like a cancer growing within me. I was angry, it was like that monster in the Lord of the Rings, the Fire and Shadow creature that had stolen Gandalf from Frodo, but instead of pulling a single wizard in I was pulling my friends and family down into that endless pit and I don't think that they'll survive the fall. At least not as my friends anymore.
The bone deep ache radiated up my left leg and pulled me from the darkness back into the real world. Wincing, I messaged the muscles praying for them to loosen and the ache to decrease to bearable tolerance. I pulled the loose sleep pants up to feel the muscles better. The pain started just below the first scar on my calf. It was long and twisted around my leg to vanish just behind the knee.
Tsunade had done a good job of sewing it up so it wasn't a hideous knot of flesh and plastic surgery had done even more wonders on reducing it so that it was now just a thin silvery-white line that wound up my leg. The surgeon had tried to joke by saying that I should get a tattoo of a vine over the wound and no one would even know it was there. I hadn't said a word to the surgeon and he'd dropped it with an embarrassed smile.
A gash high on my thigh had narrowly missed the artery in my leg, even if it had been nicked I would have bled to death in seconds. Tsunade thought that they had tried for it and failed. Morino agreed but had added that who ever it was had left in a hurry so wasn't able to finish the job.
A whimper escaped me as the muscles tightened, contracting into a hard ball of flesh.
I wanted to yell but bit my lip instead and closed my eyes. I was too preoccupied with keeping the scream inside that I didn't hear the door open but at the first touch of hands brushing my ineffective ones away had my eyes shooting open to connect with deep black pools.
"I don't nee--"
"Shut it, apparently you do need someone but are to stubborn to ask." Sasuke's finger dug into the knot and I gasped in air and grabbed onto the comforter underneath me. My eyes rolled up into my head at the agony that he drew from me but he didn't relent until the muscle surrendered its grip on me. A white flag was soon raised as the intense pain subsided to become a more malleable piece of meat. Sasuke didn't quit the message when the pain left but continued to rub my calf and knee.
"Its gone now, you can stop," I muttered relinquishing the grip on the blankets.
"Hn."
I lay back and went about ignoring the man as I stared up at the ceiling. I tried to concentrate on picturing the pine knots as eyes in profiles on the wood instead of the heat coming from strong callused hands that were making the muscles that had been on the verge of a mutiny into docile, purring puddles.
"Tell me about your second year of marriage." Sasuke's voice had lowered and become mesmerizing. I wondered if he used that voice to get suspects to talk because it sure made me want to break into speech.
But I hesitated. The second year had become much worse.
"It started with a planned dinner with his uncle, Orochimaru," I whispered.
I had labeled it the year of learning. Sakon had invited his uncle to join us for dinner on our anniversary. I hadn't argued, I'd stood there nodding agreement as he told me everything he wanted for this dinner. Most of it with French names that I couldn't even begin to understand. He'd given me an impossible mission. What I hadn't understood at the time was that it was the beginning of my lessons in being a good wife to Sakon. Looking back I saw that the first year had been to break my spirit and my mind.
The house was expected to spotless, and the dinner was expected to be on the table promptly at eight. I'd picked everything up and stashed it away, done a quick vacuum job on the main rooms, and dusted them before looking up the dishes that he'd specified on the internet. Boeuf Bourguignon seemed simple enough, Elegant Oyster Soup, Crème BruLee, and h'ordurves. Each recipe was worse than the last and more complicated. I felt my heart stop. There wasn't any way that I would be able to make all of this in the time that was allotted to me.
There wasn't anything for it. Hopefully I could delay the time some with the appetizers. I had four hours.
It started when Sakon walked through the doors at seven. He looked around the house wearing a pleasant smile which fell a little as his eyes stopped on things that I'd missed in my rush to clean before starting dinner. The small wadded up receipt that was tucked under the edge of the couch, a line of dust across the black coffee table…. As his eyes lingered I could see a little more anger surface and I quickly grew more and more nervous.
"How is dinner coming along?"
My heart stopped before hammering in my chest. He was going to lock me up again.
"I—I…i—it will take a l—little l—longer--"
I doubled over as my breath rushed out in one quick whoosh. Sakon's fist buried in my stomach.
"I'm not going to punish you until later, but your work is unacceptable. I gave you a simple list of things to accomplish while I'm out working my ass off to provide for you and I come back to a house that is unclean and a lazy wife." He sneered as he pushed me away from him. I landed on the floor dazed and confused at what I'd done wrong. I could have sworn that I had worked really hard to clean and cook for Sakon and his uncle. Maybe…I was lazy.
Orochimaru came and I eventually was able to serve dinner. The h'ordurves were a little worse for wear, the soup had burnt black specks floated on the surface, the roast was blackened on the outside and raw in the center, and the crème brulee looked more like scrambled soup. Sakon's uncle had looked at the feast a smug smile on his lips before he announced that it was alright because his nephew hadn't married me for my ability to cook, then he looked slyly at Sakon and asked when he would be seeing grandnephews or nieces.
Sakon had smirked. "Soon, Uncle, soon."
Not long after that Orochimaru had stood up, slapped Sakon on the back, and said his good nights. I'd watched as my only escape walked out the door.
I don't remember much about that night. I remembered him grabbing my arm then looking deep into my eyes with a look of enjoyment on his face before he snapped the bones in two.
I woke up in the hospital with my concerned and frightened husband telling the doctors and the nurses that I tripped and fallen down a flight of stairs. I wasn't given the chance to talk to anyone because Sakon never left the room. I had a concussion from the 'fall', as well as the broken arm, and some deep tissue bruising. Sakon played his roll to the hilt and soon the nurses were bringing him treats and hovering over him as he worried about me. I was released with the mild warning to be more careful, I'd nodded, and Sakon had swept me into the car thanking the nurses for their generosity and understanding. If I'd been myself, I probably would have started gagging on all the sweetness he put off.
But my lessons had only just started. Everyday before work, Sakon gave me a lists of things to do as well as meals to prepare by the time he got home and if they weren't done by the time he walked through the doors….Well, there was more than one time that I woke up in a hospital. It was never the same hospital either. I learned to clean quickly, and to double check everything for the hidden traps that Sakon would leave. As for the meals…I learned how to make them by keeping the TV on the food network channel and catching things here and there. I learned to be the perfect Stepford wife to Sakon and the beatings lessened.
But they didn't stop completely. Nor did the birth control. I'd once questioned him about it because his uncle seemed set on seeing little Sakon's running around. Sakon had carefully explained with perfect precision why he didn't want the little bastards messing up his life. He still wanted a career in music and having children would take that away from him, he also didn't want people (women) looking at him and seeing a father instead of the man (playboy, player) he was. He'd also told me that if I did become pregnant the child would be killed and I would never, ever have the possibility of having kids again. I'd religiously, obsessively taken those little pink pills. The next time Orochimaru had asked about children, Sakon had explained that I was barren.
***
I felt the hand still on my leg and I looked at Sasuke startled out of the memories. I thought for a second that the ebony orbs had flashed red in the dimness of the room.
"I'm almost glad that Sakon didn't want children," he mumbled before pulling my other leg into his lap tucking the foot and toes against the heat of his stomach as he pushed the sleep pants up above my knee. His fingers then went on a quest for tight muscles in that calf. My eyes closed and I nearly let out a purr as I felt the ache being rubbed out of that leg as well.
"I am happy that we didn't have children. I wouldn't have been able to stand subjecting them to that man." I wouldn't have been able to protect them nor would I have been able to live if any of my children had to go through what I went through.
"Hn. Kiba and I went to the Academy together," Sasuke said. Distracted I looked up my head tilted to the side and he smirked in satisfaction. He'd accomplished what he wanted. "We even roomed together."
"Oh my god, how the hell did you keep from killing him?" I remembered how Sasuke had threatened numerous times during out growing years that if he had to be in the same room with Kiba for more than five minutes then he was going to murder the dog boy.
"I learned patience."
"Yeah, right!"
"Okay, he learned how to shut up and it helped that I threatened to post that picture of him kissing Akamaru in the lobby, e-mailing it to everyone, and sending it to Hinata."
I knew exactly which picture he was talking about. We'd had a camping trip with Sasuke, me, Sakura, Kiba, Akamaru (his dog that he insisted he couldn't leave behind), Lee and Ino. It was the first morning and Sasuke and I had heard mumbling coming from Kiba's tent. We went to investigate and found him mumbling about loving someone then he'd grabbed onto Akamaru and started kissing him. To this day I don't thing that poor dog has recovered and when Kiba goes to sleep, the dog slinks under the table and away from the clutches of his owner. I'd suppressed my laughter long enough to grab Sasuke's camera and snap off a few shots of the boy and the horrified Akamaru. Unable to contain it I'd broke down and woken the shaggy haired boy immediately. He jumped up and tired to grab the camera that was dangling in my grip but Sasuke had stopped him, he'd then been reduced to begging that no one, no one see those pictures. We'd agreed eventually, after we had learned the name of the girl that Kiba was dreaming about. One Hinata Hyuuga, cousin to Neji, and adored daughter of Hiashi Hyuuga, a man that would and could hire ten thugs to kill you and never have the thread traced back to him.
"I can't imagine that shutting him up for long."
"Hn."
Sasuke patted my leg before moving it to the side. "Lets get something to eat."
I thought about it before nodding. My stomach wasn't as tight as it normally was at the thought of food.
We moved from my bedroom and into the kitchen where Sasuke began pulling out a sauce pan, filling it with water and setting it on the stove to boil.
"What are you making?"
I saw the smirk curl his lips before he answered. "Ramen."
"Hn." I haven't had ramen since high school. During college, I'd eaten out a lot or had dinner at Sakon's, one of his friends, or with his uncle. "You hate ramen," I pointed out.
"Yeah, well, a couple of weeks ago it started sounding pretty good."
"Um, what about the fact that it has no nutritional value?"
"I can live with the off the charts sodium intake."
I found my lips twitching with an odd urge and my chest tighten as sound slipped past. I chuckled unable to help myself. I looked at the floor as the warm, long forgot, feeling of amusement seeped into me. When I looked up I was met with dark eyes that held an unfathomable expression that I couldn't name and for the first time since I came home Sasuke's lips formed a genuine smile before he turned and continued fixing the ramen.
"Did you know that I used to think that ramen could fix everything?" I asked him.
"Hn."
"I was sure that if the medical community would give it a chance that it would even heal cancer."
"Dobe."
My eyes began to sting and water at the name. Once upon a time a dark haired boy in a sand box had screamed it at a blond haired girl who had growled at him to take it back and tackled said boy to the ground punching him and screaming for him to take it back. It had taken two parents to pull the two apart but as soon as they weren't trying to kill each other they had began struggling in their parents grip. The girl was crying that she was sorry and she didn't mean to dump the bucket that Sasuke had filled. Sasuke had in his Uchiha way accepted the apology and said he was sorry too before the girl had slipped free of her fathers grasp and hugged the boy.
"T—teme…"
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A/N: I'm sorry, its a short chapter, but I figured it was okay, so that I could update! So..what do you think?
I have to take a personal moment here...I'm deeply saddened. I've lost a fan...I'm truely sorry, to said fan if I offended you in anyway, and I wish that you were back telling me how much you love the story...I miss your reviews!
To everyone else who has stuck with me, favorited, and or reviewed! THANK YOU and a shipment of cookies will be arriving on your door step tomorrow! Seriously, though please for the sake of the author's mind (and the story held hostage) please leave a review, or comment! or just read and run its okay as long as the stats keep going up! The more the merrier or so I'm told. Oh, I know...have a party and make your guests read this then force them to review...it would make my poor heart happy (and satisfy the ransom demand!)
Thanks everybody!
ZEN
