Sakura felt loads better after a decent meal and a bath, but to say she wasn't suspicious about Kabuto's motives was an understatement. After the scene she'd made with Orochimaru, she had been expecting to be thrown back in her cell and left to die, now that he had his information (however false).
What she had not been expecting was to be assigned a small, plain, but comfortable room beside Kabuto's.
They were planning something, she realized, something that would require her to be in relative health. Kabuto had been frustratingly vague during his medical examination (a procedure she vowed to kill him for; as a medic, she knew that dehydration was not treated via molestation), but the fact that she was alive, fed, clean, and left alone for the moment raised a number of red flags.
There were guards posted outside her door, and beneath the small window as well, the same as when she had been kept under house arrest prior to her deposition. Her bedroom, she knew, had been commandeered by Lady Karin, but this little one, even if it lacked the comfort and familiarity of her former room, was more than enough for a prisoner.
So what was their plan?
Sakura knew better than to relax in the face of her relative freedom. The fact that they were keeping her alive was ominous enough; the fact that she was required to keep herself healthy had diabolical undertones, and escape was crucial now more than ever.
She didn't know where Tsunade and the rebels were located. Her only clue to the entire thing was Tenten, whom she hadn't seen in days.
Sakura hoped her friend was all right. If she'd been discovered helping one of Orochimaru's prisoners...
She shook the thought away. Dwelling on the worst case scenarios wouldn't get her out of this mess, and she had to leave before Orochimaru's cruel intentions for her were revealed.
With that in mind, she sat on the little bed in the corner and began to plan.
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Sasuke planned to send word to Tsunade about the recent developments at the palace, but came up short. How could he put into a few coded words what Sakura had done for the rebellion without completely giving her (and himself) away?
He decided against it in the end. At the festival, he would see everyone in person and reveal to them what he knew. In the meantime, he needed to figure out what Orochimaru planned for Sakura. That he hadn't killed her yet was not reassuring. It meant that he had something far more sinister in mind for her.
He'd been charged with the mission of finding the various traitors in Orochimaru's employ, and as he stalked back to his room, he relished the opportunity. He would pick Orochimaru's most powerful, most notorious subjects and point them out as traitors. Perhaps, thanks to Sakura's quick thinking, they could crush the invasion from within.
She knew of Orochimaru's paranoia, he thought, slightly proud of her, though he'd never actually admit it. And used it against him.
Perhaps he had underestimated Sakura's usefulness as an ally. He'd thought her only a figurehead, the symbol of the rebellion; he hadn't factored in her uncommon intelligence and fierce loyalty to Konoha. Even under the duress of losing her family and her freedom, even under torture and confinement that would have broken men twice her years and three times her size, she not only kept herself alive, but completely fooled her enemy into embarking on a wild goose chase.
She would make one hell of a queen, he knew.
He returned to his room and was unsurprised to see Karin lounging on his bed. The sight made his stomach turn, but he remembered her fountain of knowledge into Orochimaru's schemes, and decided not to stain his sheets with her blood.
"What the hell are you doing here," he growled.
She smirked at him. "Proving my value to the Uchiha Clan," she replied fearlessly. Again, he admired her courage, but reviled her stupidity. "Tell me, Sasuke-kun, who would be more suited to you than I am? Who would make a more beautiful, more powerful addition to your Clan than I would?"
A fleeting image of Sakura's smiling face was banished to the furthest recesses of his mind. Sasuke's lip curled.
"Beauty will not sway me, and as for power, you have none. You sleep in a stolen room, dress yourself in stolen clothes, and wear a stolen title like a crown."
Karin's eyes flashed fire and panic. She sprang to her feet at his acidic words and countered, "Orochimaru-sama is the king of this country, and he named me Lady of Konoha! You claim I have stolen that which is not rightfully mind, when it was entitled to me by our lord and master!"
"While the princess still lives, she holds ownership over that which you have commandeered," Sasuke provoked, seeing that she was close to spilling something important in her anger. "What will become of you, should she reclaim her heritage?"
"That will never happen!" Karin shouted, her hands clenched into fists. "Don't you know what Orochimaru-sama intends for her?"
"Hn," he replied, his heart racing. Tell me, you delusional fanatic, he thought.
"Of course he'll have told you, you've always been his favorite, his most trusted pupil." She changed tactics completely and was applying the same simpering, pandering, cloying adoration that he'd so completely detested his whole life. "He will turn her into a palace whore, Sasuke-kun, that is what becomes of those who defy Orochimaru-sama! He rewards those most loyal to him," she gestured to herself, "with riches and titles and nobility, and he punishes the weak and disloyal with sentences befitting of their crimes. Sakura will never be able to reclaim her heritage, as you say. She will be bought and sold and bought and resold by members of Orochimaru-sama's court, used like the common trash she is!"
So that was it, then. Sasuke's stomach turned to stone at the idea, but part of him had already known Sakura's fate. Like many conquered women, Orochimaru planned to force her into prostitution, profit off of her forced sexual liasions with men willing to pay for her body. She was beautiful enough to be desired by many of the unsavory men serving Orochimaru. It was a cruel, ruthless punishment, designed both to degrade the former princess by dragging her down to the level of a common whore, and break the spirit of a notoriously loyal competitor.
His heart sank. He could not allow that to happen. He would need to engineer her escape quickly.
"They're having the auction in three days' time," Karin said smugly. "Is a convicted prostitute the woman you would choose as the matriarch of your noble Clan? Certainly not. Not when you can have her superior successor! Orochimaru-sama will name you his heir, and together we will rule this kingdom as King and Queen!"
"Get out of my room," he said coolly. "You've proven nothing to me that would suggest I should choose you for my matriarch."
Karin did not look the slightest bit deterred. She sauntered confidently to the door and paused in the threshold on her way out. "I soon shall," she vowed. Then, in a sweep of fine silks and satins and a stifling cloud of perfume, she was gone.
Sasuke seized a scroll and began penning an urgent message to Tsunade.
"Granny,
Bad news here. They're keeping the cherry blossom tree healthy only so they can sell it to mean men! I want to move it but people would see me and I'd get in big trouble since the mean men want to sell it for a lot of money! What do you think I should do?
-Chiha-kun"
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note.. Thanks, everyone, for the continued support! I'm changing the rating of this story from T to M, for violence and sexuality. The story I had originally conceived of was nowhere near as dark as this one is turning out to be, and I don't want to offend anyone with a rating that does not accurately reflect the tone of the story. Thank you to everyone who alerts, favorites, and reviews because it really keeps me inspired! Have a nice day, see you soon! xoxo Daisyyyy