The only Japanese will be names and cuss words. And they still will have the asterisks (*) and translations in at the bottom. If they're not here, they're in a previous chapter.

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http : / / www . fanfiction . net / s / 6677059 / 1 / How _ To _ Fail _ a_ Kidnapping

You know, I haven't received any reviews on the appearance of Sakura's mother… Did you make any connections? Sigh…

R&R! Enjoy!

Sasuke watched as Sakura waded into the water. Suigetsu welcomed her with a cold splash. Sakura gasped and pushed a stronger wave to him. She laughed, saying, "I came here to protect you!" Sasuke didn't know whether to smirk or frown. He remembered Sakura doing this with Naruto when they were in a river trying to get food or something. He remembered intervening with an angry expression, telling them that they needed to eat and that playing around wouldn't help them with that; on the inside, he remembered being really happy that he had people around him that don't mind getting into a playful fight every now and then, that they supported him.

Suigetsu laughed and growled back, forgetting Karin almost instantly, "I'm in my own element! I can protect myself!" He hissed at the pain in his jaw.

Sakura splashed him again, a scolding. "I told you not to talk, you dummy!"

Sasuke watched as Sakura's pink hair sank under the water. She was swimming away, Sasuke thought. Suigetsu grabbed her leg before she had the chance to kick away from him.

"Sui! Let go! I need the kuso soap!" she ordered, laughing. Her voice was muffled half by the water she was gargling. Suigetsu's pale hand let go of her, watching as she grabbed the soap and threw it at him, her aim perfect. "Hah!" she hooted, watching as Suigetsu rubbed his eye. "That's what you get! Sucker!"

The Uchiha shook his head, though if it was in amusement or disapproval he himself did not know. He turned around to the waterfall, where the rush drowned out all the laughter. He needed to think. He needed to be alone and think about what he planned to do next.

He rounded the waters to the waterfall. Behind it, he couldn't hear anything other than his own thoughts.

He had honestly thought that getting Sakura would have taken a longer time. He had been so focused on Sakura and what she was doing, or Suigetsu and how he looked at Sakura, or rubbing Karin off his arm, that he hadn't thought ahead. Sasuke knew that they had to keep Sakura. He wouldn't let her go after she knew that he was alive, that he was alive and well. He had to keep her to worry Naruto. He had to enrage him.

But how to get Sakura to do it on her own account? How to get her to not run for him when they got to Konoha? How to—

"Sasuke-kun?"

Seikō.

Karin hugged his arm flirtatiously. "Sasuke-kun, can we talk?" she asked, rather distracted with the way his strong muscle felt under her fingers. The sinew under his skin tightened as he tensed. His dark eyes narrowed. Did she not know how much he hated her? Hated was not a strong enough word—loathed, despised, detested… The words were still not strong enough.

Sasuke brushed her off. There was a reason Suigetsu found pleasure in angering her, and Sasuke was starting to see it. The reason was so that he could piss her off before she did he. "Go away," he ordered, the two words stiff and clipped.

Karin stomped her foot in the water, but it didn't have the same effect as she wanted them to have. Even the water was against her today. Her arms crossed over her chest. She, too, was in her bindings. They didn't have the same pull on his eyes as Sakura's did. "Sasuke-kun," she said sternly, "we need to talk."

Sasuke glared at her. "I told you to go away."

Karin frowned at the water. She didn't have the strength to look into his now red eyes like Sakura had last night; she hated herself for it. She really wanted to look at Sasuke, look into the captivating red of his lovely eyes and tell him how much she wanted her part in the relationship—whatever relationship it may be, whether it be friendship, partnership, or what she wanted it to be, courtship—but she couldn't. She was scared. She also didn't want to disobey Sasuke-kun. It might ruin her chances, however slim they may be, with him.

"Fine," the redhead sighed, "but we really need to talk about Sakura."

Sasuke's eyes dimmed from red to black as Karin waded her way out. He grabbed her shoulder and stopped her. "What of Sakura?" he asked.

Karin's eyes stayed the same, but her heart flared with anger. That was all it took? The simple mention of Sakura! What did Sakura have that she didn't? Karin watched his eyes as they creased. "Well," she said, turning her head to the rushing of the falls, where past it she could see Suigetsu and Sakura splashing each other, "its just that she seems to get along with Suigetsu really well. I was thinking that maybe she wanted something…more, I guess…with him. She is a ninja after all, maybe she wants to sleep with him and get answers from him." How Karin loved the anger blossoming in his charka.

Sasuke glared at the nebulous figures of blue and pink beyond the rushing water. Sakura wouldn't do that. She was too respectful. She only knew Suigetsu for about three days. A fire smoldered in the pit of his stomach at the thought of them two…at the thought of Suigetsu taking advantage of her like that…at the thought of Sakura wanting to… His skin flamed irritably, as if his own chidori had lit his skin.

He grit his teeth at the evidence. There was still a bond with her, he knew. But he didn't let himself register it. Instead, Sasuke growled in his mind, I have no ties.

Karin watched as Sasuke glared, watched as his lips moved, watched as he said, "I'll talk to her." She couldn't be more disappointed. If it was someone else, like herself for example, the first thing he would do would be to grab the kusanagi and threaten him or her at knifepoint. But all he said was 'I'll talk to her'! What the jigoku! Karin bit the inside of her lower lip and walked away, her tail between her legs.

Sasuke took a deep breath, trying to calm himself. Reminding himself that Sakura only ever responded to good treatment, that otherwise, she would get pissed and try to run away again. He didn't need her running away. They were close to Oto, but they were also close to Konoha and Takigakure, which was allies with Konoha. She might run into some unlucky camper before he had the time to drag her back.

The deep breath still in his lungs, the sole Uchiha went underwater, hoping that the rushing water in his ears would clear his mind.

Gasping as he came up, his hair strait and lying on shoulders, Sasuke smirked. His eyes glowed red. He had the answer all the time.

Sakura laughed, wringing her hair out. Her latex leggings hadn't soaked through. Water rolled off them and into her long, pale, and scarred legs. Suigetsu noticed that her whole body was designed with scars, crisscrossing in a disorderly fashion. Half of them were white and soft, like Orochimaru's skin, and others were pink and bright. Those worried him. A long, thin gash ran across her flat stomach, fresh and vivid. Suigetsu's eyes creased questioningly as he ran a finger along it.

The rosette swatted his hand away. "What?" she asked, self-conscious. Her green eyes saw the inquiry in his violet eyes. Her own fingers went from her hair, where they had retreated to when she swatted, to the diagonal, rough scar atop her navel. She traced it, its thin ends and larger middle. "I got slashed by a booby-trap, alright?"

Suigetsu wanted to ask where, but the pain in his mouth wouldn't let him. He just nodded and leaned back on the sakura tree. Sakura pulled on her skirt and sighed. She left her shirt on the forest floor. It was too hot. She felt the H2O heat and turn to water vapor on her body, and she didn't want to put on the top.

"It's so hot here! I didn't think there was a place hotter than Konoha," Sakura complained.

Suigetsu nodded. "Well, it's a forest it gets—hot seikō!" he cussed, rubbing his cheek as his jaw burned.

Sakura sighed, "I told you."

Her eyes searched around for Sasuke and Karin. She hadn't seen them for a while. Her eyes explored the running river. It was large, and Sasuke could hold his breath for a long time. He could be underwater. But where was Karin?

Sakura looked at her bare feet, wondering if she still knew how to do it. Naruto had showed her, if she remembered correctly. It had been so long ago. Her toes flexed and the paint on her toenails glowed a little bit brighter. She shrugged and took one step into the water. It had been so long since she had walked on water. She didn't remember the almost solid-almost liquid-not-quite-either feel under her feet. Sakura walked over the nine-yard width of the lake to be greeted with the red of Karin's hair.

Suigetsu watched her. He could never walk on water. He always became it when he tried. He had to get her to teach him!

"Hey, Karin," Sakura called, "what happened? You just left." The Haruno still had hopes of resurrecting the friendship she had with her when she was Maze.

"Nothing, mesu. Go away, I'm getting dressed," came her voice.

Sakura shrugged. "Alright. Whatever. Where's Sasuke?"

"That's not your bees-wax!" the redhead shouted back childishly. Sakura rolled her green eyes and walked back to the water, deciding to check the waterfall. He had always liked the sound of rushing water.

Sasuke's wet back welcomed her. Droplets of water ran down the tendons of his back. His strength was evident in the size of his muscles; they were of a magnitude that would make even the worst bandits think twice about doing anything. Water sprayed her body, but she didn't care, just giving herself a chance to enjoy the view, knowing he had already noticed her.

Sasuke grinned, knowing of Sakura's enjoyment. She had never looked at Suigetsu like that, he'd bet. Sasuke felt the weight of her eyes traveling down his back as he ran the soap across his stomach. He felt the weight of her eyes on his relaxing muscles. Some part of him sighed. He still had it, thank Kami. He used his looks to get the weaker sex to tell him things. Having Sakura, the new Sakura with the darker eyes, watch him assured him that there still was some of that fan-girl in her. Assured him that she was still weak, no matter how many stronger outer skins she had put on.

"What is it, Sakura?" he asked, letting the soap sink into the bottom of the spring.

Sakura pushed herself off the rock damp rock wall and walked onto the water. "Sasuke," she sighed, and sat on the water, floating above it, "I need to ask you something."

Sasuke waited for the question. He ran his fingers through his lip hair, looking at the little waves in Sakura's not-quite dry hair. Her bangs were in little ringlets, curling from the water.

The rosette's eyes stared into Sasuke's depthless, soulless eyes. She thought back to her mother's abducting. "It was Orochimaru's doing, alright," she remembered Tsunade saying. She remembered crying heavily into her father's uncaring chest; remembered her father drone on about how her tears were useless. Sakura chewed on the inside of her cheek before deciding to start her inquiry with, "Orochimaru snatched my mother long ago… I haven't seen her years… You were his apprentice back then…" Her question had many pauses, hesitating as she watched his unwavering eyes. "Do you…know anything? Like, did he tell you anything?"

That was the pain in her eyes, Sasuke understood. That was the hell that darkened her eyes. The loss of her mother. A mother who might still be alive, though Sasuke doubted it. He did know that Orochimaru kept some of the women he stole as prizes for his better ninja. Most of them didn't make it out of the bedroom. Some did.

"What did she look like?" Sasuke asked, walking over where the girl floated.

Robāto gripped the iron bars of his cell.

What kind of daughter would do this to her father? What kind of children would put their own father in jail? It was his right to abuse and bruise her as he wanted! That was why he was the man of the house! It was why he wore the pants! It was why he wore briefs instead of panties! He was the dictator—he commanded each part of his family and life! It was because of him that the ungrateful spawn of his was a ninja! He could have said no! He could have refused to let her enroll!

The Haruno shook the bars as forcefully as he could.

She had turned out just like her mother. Just like her stubborn, loving mother who wouldn't let anyone put a finger on her or her child. The woman who had been captured pregnant with a child that wasn't his. He really wished he hadn't sent her away. Wished he hadn't kicked her out of his house. Wished that he had heard from her in the past four years.

Guess who Sakura's mother is! I'll give you a hint: It is not O********u. (Censored because you need to figure it out!)

R&R!