Wow, I'm SO EXCITED to share this chapter with you! It's my favorite so far!

A very special thanks to my reviewers:

Plain. Toast. II Seriously, you have mind-reader capabilities ! Rock! On!

Neko the kawatta cat :)

dazynl8 my fingers are too short for guitar, I play ukulele! But guitars are super sexy:)

Alright, enjoy, enjoy!

Chapter 11

Sea And Sky

Slowly the ivy on the stones
Becomes the stones. Women become

The cities, children become the fields
And men in waves become the sea.

It is the chord that falsifies.
The sea returns upon the men,

The fields entrap the children, brick
Is a weed and all the flies are caught,

Wingless and withered, but living alive.
The discord merely magnified.

Deeper within the belly's dark
Of time, time grows upon the rock.

The Blue Guitar, Stanza XI, Wallace Stevens

Things had been so busy at the hospital lately, Sakura had to send Naruto to visit their imprisoned compatriot by himself two days in a row. Just as Sakura finished with her last patient, she glanced at the her watch- It's already 9 o'clock? Kami, I haven't even had dinner! Her stomach growled in protest as she washed her hands. Sakura promised herself she would pick up dinner on the way home, but who should meet her in the hallway than the Hokage.

"Hey, Sakura-chan, I need to ask you a favor!"

"Hmmm? I'm starving Naruto, can this wait?"

Naruto shook his head. "I wasn't able to make it over to visit Sasuke yet today, and I'm already running late for a...meeting, heh..."

Sakura chuckled at his blush. "If I didn't know better, it looks like you have a date...and I wonder if it is with an adorable, dark haired Hyuga heiress..."

Naruto's blush deepened under her teasing. "Hmmm, so would you mind hanging out with the dobe tonight? Just stop by for a few minutes, you know, like Tsunade said, it's good for him to have regular visitors..."

"Sure, sure. Just do me a favor? Pick me up two miso ramens with extra pork to go? Because I know you have a three-pronged kunai stashed at Ichiraku's! And then you can hiraishin on back over to me, since I have that nifty little chakra tattoo, and I'll be on my way."

Naruto gave her a thumbs up- "Be back in a flash!"- and then he was gone.

"Troublesome!" Sakura chuckled. That hiraishin really did come in handy.

As Sakura was locking up the hospital, a yellow flash greeted her. "Here you are Sakura-chaaaaaan- I got you those sweet dumplings you like too. Got to run!" Before she could even say thank-you, he was gone. "Have fun on your date!", she replied dryly to the empty air. Sighing, she began walking towards the prison- but not before she stopped by the liquor store just before they closed. For when I get home!, she promised herself. After a long grueling day replete with three difficult surgeries and a visit to Uchiha Sasuke, she was going to need it.

Feet dragging, she made it to the prison at half past nine. The guard asked her brusquely, "What's your business?" Sakura wordlessly threw back the hood of her jacket and glared.

"Oh- sorry ma'am, go right ahead. Forgive me!" Sakura nodded and strode ahead, slightly smug that she had made the stoic guard blanch in fear. I do enjoy being sadistic, especially at the end of a long day...

As she walked down the long, dark corridor, Sakura could hear the faint sounds of music growing louder as she approached- it was a gentle, sad melody that drifted around her like a melancholy moan, echoing off the cold stone. Then, abruptly, it ceased as Sakura drew near.

Sakura fished out her own personal copy to Sasuke's cell and opened the door. "Hey, sorry it's kind of late. You still up for a visit?"

"Sure." Sasuke casually put the guitar behind him on the bed and sat cross-legged.

Sakura sank down into the hard folding chair and placed her things on the table. "That was... a really pretty song you were playing..."

"Hn."

Sakura snorted. "I'll take that as your way of saying thanks. Hey, I brought you some ramen if you want-"

Sakura's sentence was broken by Sasuke's groan.

"Nani? I'm sure it's better than the prison food!"

Sasuke shrugged apologetically and replied, "It is, hn. Just Naruto's been force feeding me the stuff for the past two days...I just get tired of him going on long ramen tirades. As long as you agree that ramen isn't nectar of the gods, I'd love to have some."

Sakura snorted as he sat down across from her. "I would have picked something else up if I knew- Naruto brought it for me."

"Figures. I'm sure Ichiraku's was the first place he stashed a three-pronged kunai when he learned how to hiraishin." Sasuke smirked and broke his chopsticks apart.

"Well, even if it isn't ambrosia, it's still an alright dinner. Enjoy." Sakura intoned tartly before gobbling down her portion.

Sasuke remarked sardonically, "Hey, slow down there, you're going to choke on your noodles."

Sakura replied through a mouth full of noodles, "Hungry!"

"You've been working too hard again."

Sakura swallowed her food loudly and cooly replied, "Well, a lot of people are...injured..." She omitted the words "from the war", but it hung in the air between them like a dark cloud. Feeling awkward, Sakura gulped down the rest of her soup.

"So," she continued nonchalantly, "you've been playing the guitar?"

"A little."

Sakura chortled. "Lier, I can see your calloused finger-pads from here."

"Hn."

"I'm glad you're enjoying it."

Sasuke picked up his bowl and drank the last bits of his soup, then replied, "Hn."

"Here, have a dumpling. They're my favorite."

"It's not made out of ramen is it? Thanks."

"Don't make me impale you with the skewer, baka." She ate her dumpling in thoughtful silence. So much easier to pretend that Sasuke is just Naruto and hurl sarcastic banter at him...makes for less awkward conversations.

After she finished chewing, she quietly asked, "Sasuke, play me a song."

"Hn. Ok." Sasuke wiped his hands on his pants and gently, so gently, retrieved the guitar from the bed, as if the guitar had been sleeping and he was afraid to wake it suddenly. He struck a few strings softly, and then dived into the song Sakura had heard whispering down the hall when she had first come in.

It started low and soft, Sakura closed her eyes to savor the sound- it made her think of the sun rising oh-so-slowly on a foggy morning, sun beams blunted and hazy through a gray sky. Then a low moaning sound, like a muffled cry in e minor, hovering on the gray horizon between the hanging fog and the waves of the sea- the yearning of the sea for the sky, the impossible distance between the iron sky and the depths of the ocean. But the scenery changed as Sasuke's fingers wandered over passages in b seven and a minor seven, like a flock of doleful gulls who searched the sea in vain for fish, the fog hanging heavy on their wings like a weight- and the weight of the clouds and the hunger and the vast nothingness that closed in on them made the birds fly low, in that space between the sea and sky that encompassed all the empty and unfulfilled longings of the horizon.

Then his fingers strummed a constellation of chords Sakura couldn't name, jazz chords that rang in beautiful discord, the sound of the waves roiling and crashing and sucking in the nothingness of the salty air, reaching out long water fingers towards the birds but never touching them. The music became cold and deep, as if she had just fallen into the ocean- the salt water stung her eyes, and she felt like she was bleeding and the salt of the sea made her burn with her sadness, sinking deeper and deeper into the ocean until the faint light of the sunrise could no longer reach her-

But the music gently pulled her up to the surface again, to see that the sun was gone, dead in a pool of crimson sky and cadmium clouds; a pale sliver of moon had taken her place in the now clear sky, hanging like a crooked smile. Sasuke played chillingly high notes, notes Sakura didn't even know could emerge from a guitar, and she felt the cold wind whip mercilessly at her wet skin, tearing her flesh open even more; she felt blood weeping from her open wounds.

Suddenly, the music stopped. There was a moment of silence.

"Why did you stop?" Sakura asked plaintively.

He replied, evenly, "Because. You're crying."

Surprised, Sakura raised a shaking hand to her eyes. "Oh."

She sniffled and wiped her tears away with the back of her hand.

"Please-finish."

"But-"

"I want you to."

Sasuke breathed deeply and played the high notes again- Sakura felt herself shivering, but she didn't care. She closed her eyes and saw the stark violet sky studded with painfully bright stars and the moon smiling like a Cheshire cat. The cold wind snaked in her hair, bit at her lips until they bled, and stung her eyes until she thought she'd go blind. And then, the music became gentle again, and the ocean carried her, if she were a dead bird being cradled by the tide, sweeping her up onto the sand. And as the last notes in a minor seven rang on her ears, she swore she could feel moonbeams piercing her body- covered in salt, and blood, and wind- with cold light.

She opened her eyes and realized she was weeping again, weeping while Sasuke sat stoically holding the blue guitar. "Sasuke...that was..."

"Hn."

Idiot. How could he shake her down to her soul and just say "Hn?"

Absurd.

As Sakura fished for a tissue in her purse, her keys fell against the bottle of sake and make a high pitched "clink", which echoed glassily in the stone room. "I think...I think I need a drink..." Sakura pried the bottle open with a kunai and gulped the bitter liquid down.

Sasuke swiveled in his chair and replaced the guitar on the bed while Sakura desperately tried to drown her sorrow in alcohol. She took his hand and guided it to the sake, saying, "Shit Sasuke, I didn't know you could play like that..."

"Hn." Sasuke took a swig. "Ah. It's been a while since I had alcohol." He took another drink while Sakura studied the inscrutable lines of his face.

"Where did you learn that song?" Sakura asked, making her voice as steady as possible.

"Nowhere. I made it up today."

"Does it- have a name?"

Sasuke shook his head no, and passed the bottle of sake back to her. Sakura downed a few cups worth and muttered, "It reminded me...of a foggy day. At the ocean. A cold, gray horizon..." Sakura trailed off, at a loss for how to describe it all adequately, and feeling like an idiot because of it.

"Horizon...that's a good name." Sasuke held out his hand, and Sakura slowly passed the sake to him. Her fingers lingered on his momentarily, before he withdrew with the green bottle and pressed it greedily to his lips.

"You'll let me name the song?"

Sasuke laughed coldly. "If you let me finish the bottle..."

Sakura mulled it over, and then replied quietly, "Sure. Good deal." Sasuke raised the bottle to her, as if he were toasting their agreement, and drained the rest of the sake.

Sakura sighed, saying simply, "I should go." She gathered up her things slowly, as she was slightly inebriated and said, "I had a nice time seeing you, Sasuke. Kun."

Sasuke nodded, "Here, take this or I'll get in trouble." He held out the empty wine bottle. As she reached out to take it, their fingers brushed again and Sakura felt cold goosebumps covering her arm. "A-arigato..." She shoved the evidence in her bag and turned to leave.

She whispered, "I-"

She was stopped short as she felt warm hands snaking around her waist. Transfixed and trembling like a terrified animal, his breath on her neck, and then his lips on hers, soft at first, then crashing like stormy waves on the rocky shore, biting her until she tasted her own blood. He finally pulled away, and she dimly realized their bodies were enmeshed, that she was panting for breath, and drowning in alcohol and sweat and blood.

"I want you." He said simply.

No-no-no-no!

"I-"

Again, she was not allowed to speak, as he pressed her up against the cold stone wall, his hands traveling up her thigh and up her shirt, robbing the breath from her lungs with his lips. There were no words, no more thoughts as he bit her neck until he drew blood. Her nerveless fingers lay useless by her side. She moaned as his lips traveled down to her heart, and then suddenly, as if a jolt of electricity were stabbing her chest, her arms pushed him away with chakra enhanced strength.

"Do. You. Love. Me." It was more like a statement, but in her present state of mind, it was all she could manage.

"I want you." He repeated.

Drawing in shallow breaths and steadying her spinning head, she spat, "That's not good enough, asshole."

He smacked her outstretched hand out of the way, then grabbed and held her wrists over her head, breathing in her ear, "I know you want me too." He bit her earlobe and breathed down her neck, making her body shudder. She could feel him pressing up against her harder, her back shoved up against the cold stone wall, his bites traveling down her neck and blood pooling in the hollow of her clavicle- she feebly tried to move her hands, but he wouldn't let go, and she was intoxicated by his musky scent, the alcohol coursing in her veins, the rush of pain and pleasure and blood-

"Sasuke-" She whispered, pleading, as his mouth traveled down to the swell of her breasts-

Gritting her teeth, she forced chakra into her legs and managed to kick him straight across the room, his back hitting the far wall with a heavy thud.

"Sasuke." She spat his name, like a curse, feeling the anger rising in her, "Don't you ever. Don't you ever..." Realizing if she stayed any longer she would risk either murdering or fucking the Uchiha, she gathered her things and ran to the door, locking it quickly behind her.

"Goodbye. Sasuke." It was silent as she made her way down the dark corridor.

Darlings, please review- I worked so hard on this chapter!