Salvation
Disclaimer: All rights belong to Masashi Kishimoto
Chapter Eleven
…..
"The human body can survive three weeks without sustenance, yet you seem to be withering away at only two. And you called yourself a shinobi? Pathetic."
Her scalp screamed in pain as her captor held her hardly conscious form by a knot of hair. A set of crimson eyes bore into her as she sneered defiantly through her exhausted and hardly lucid state, offering no subsidence to the bastard standing over her.
"Well aren't you in a bad mood… what? S-sick of the hateful looks 'your' villagers give you? Or is the sky too blue your majesty?" She panted heavily, unable to stop her words from slurring as her tongue stuck to the roof of her dry mouth.
The inky haired Uchiha standing over her didn't look amused in the least as he tossed her backwards against the cement wall as if she were a scrap of bone to throw to the dogs. She hit the wall with a hiss of pain, but kept her tears locked away.
"Look at you, the fifth Hokage's prized possession, piss soaked and locked in a cell." He sneered at her. An amused glint shimmering in those deep, cruel eyes that scorned into her flesh like red hot iron.
She bared her teeth to the man, "Better… better than bowing down to trash like you-"
A harsh kick to her side had her lurching forward, unable to vomit as she had not eaten in at the very least, two weeks. Her ribs fractured under the pressure and she shifted her weight to avoid her bones from curling inwards and puncturing something.
"I'd be careful how you spoke to Sasuke-Sama, bitch." A high-pitched voice spat from the background. It was Sasuke's little pet, some redheaded woman who conducted the better portion of cruel experiments on Sakura and the other members of the rebellion.
"Hah… 'Sama'. As- as if you'll ever be half the man Naruto was." The pinkette urged, unable to keep her mouth shut. "Compared to him, Sasuke's no weaker than the Uchiha that were slaughtered in the massacre-"
A secondary harsh blow sent her flying back against a corner, to weak with hunger to fight back she simply propped herself up, using the pad of her thumb to brush away the blood dripping from the side of her mouth. He'd definitely knocked out one of her back teeth with that one-
"What? Tell me… C… can you still hear mommy and daddy's screams, Sasuke?" Sakura laughed bitterly, making eye contact with the sharringan wielder, "Do you hear them screaming for their second born son- the disappointment?"
"You will learn to hold your tongue!" Sasuke snarled, gripping the lower half of her face in his palm. She considered biting his hand but doubted she could, settling for making a low growling noise.
"Long live the Sixth." She snarled loudly through the fingers encasing her mouth.
Sakura jolted forward, a sheen of sweat over her body as she fearfully pulled the thin white linen sheets to her form. Shoulders shaking with fear as if trying to match the vibrations of her crazed heartbeat, she inched toward the corner of her bedroom. Once her back touched the wall she was able to catch her breath- but no sooner than that did the anger and anxiety set in.
She ran a hand through her choppy locks, eyes burning with the sting of salty tears. Why? Why did he still affect her so? She was finally stronger than him- she'd been given more than one opportunity to kill him, so why couldn't she?
Because it would devastate Naruto… He couldn't even face the truth back then… She thought mournfully to herself. She had no choice but to allow him to live longer, no matter how much harder it made her own life. She was doing it for Naruto, whom she owed her life a thousand times over.
Even what she was doing now isn't nearly enough to repay the great debt her and the other members of the Konoha rebellion owed him. Not even if she rescued him a million times over- she could never do what he did.
Instinctively, she found herself searching for the flask of rice wine she used to keep hidden in her bra. Only to remember that it was no longer there. No, nothing was the same as it was the last time she had stepped foot in the leaf village.
And if she could help it, it never would be.
She'd bet it on her life.
…
