Chapter Thirteen
"Will we ever know what the answer to life really is?"

Here's a reason why I disliked taking chances so much:

In a matter of seconds, I blew all the credit I built in all those years on one wrong bet. Everyone seemed to pretty much hate me for hitting a teammate, ally, and a girl foremost. The previous Angel Witch members refused to talk to me altogether. The rest of the Order tried to stay in contact with me as little as possible. The only exception was Naruto; my best friend didn't so much hate me as he'd settled on just disliking me. Which, of course, he took as an invitation to remind me of my stupidity every time he had the chance.

Hence why I preferred to lock myself in my room most of the time, unless absolutely necessary.

Chouji shot me a disgusting look as he slapped some leftovers of last night's dinner on a dirty plate and threw it on the counter without a word. I thanked him by showing him one of the fiercest death glares the Uchiha family had in store, took the plate of what could hardly be called food and flopped down on a random chair in the refectory. In silence, I ate my food, and made my way to the shooting range.

Along the way, Kiba, Deidara and Tenten all 'accidentally' bumped into me, but I stopped caring after a few days. After having throwing knives swish past your head by inches because someone 'mistook her targets', people bashing my shoulder were nothing.

The funny thing is that no one would have made such a big deal out of it had it been Naruto or Suigetsu or any other male in Sakura's place. It was just how the world worked; hitting, abusing, raping and killing girls was something beasts like vampires did. Normal human beings had the dignity to respect females for what they were: beautiful creatures of nature. Harming one of them was blasphemy. Of course, when you encountered a girl on one of your contracts, you were free to act as you pleased. That was the only exception, and even then one didn't just go around killing ladies without following an unwritten honor code.

I didn't know how long I spent at the shooting range, or how many bullets I shot at the countless target dummies. All I knew was that each of them represented a share of my anger, which was still boiling inside of me. Which said more about my feelings than the amount of bullets - I loathed myself.

I kept at it for one more hour when Jiraiya himself suddenly paid a visit. He was followed by every member of the Order, until all of us were crammed into the small lobby that lead into the Pit. Usually when Jiraiya showed his face, something was going down. It depended on his mood whether it was good or bad.

"My dear brothers and sisters," the white-haired hermit started. "Today seemed like a good day to monitor the results of this investment. I want to see how all your hours you put into practicing battle situations paid off." He pulled out a list and put it on display. "I divided you in two-man units, and for the sake of improving teamwork, I broke up the standard teams of, say, Naruto and Sasuke."

A mocking snicker escaped my mouth, not too eager to find out who had the misfortune of being my co-op partner instead of the only member who admitted guilty of still talking to me. Jiraiya ignored my gesture like everyone else ignored me and continued.

"Each team has a time limit of ten minutes to clear the course, with an average of seven," Jiraiya continued. "Other than that, standard rules apply. Seven minutes should be more than enough for a Black Rose duo to clear the course. The teams are as follows..."

Itachi Uchiha - Kurenai Yuuhi
Kakashi Hatake - Deidara
Anko Mitarashi - Konan
Tsunade Senju - Inoichi Yamanaka
Shikaku Nara - Shizune
Shikamaru Nara - Chouji Akimichi
Naruto Uzumaki - Konohamaru Sarutobi
Shino Aburame - Kiba Inuzuka
Suigetsu Hozuki - Karin
Ino Yamanaka - Tenten
Sasuke Uchiha - Sakura Haruno

I rolled my eyes and cursed my luck.

Of all the choices Jiraiya could've made, he had to choose the single person in the Order I tried to avoid the most. It's almost as if he knew that something was going on between me and Sakura (something bad, that is).

"I assume that no one lets personal grudges or similar insignificant problems stand in the way of superior teamwork. I expect a demonstration as to why we are the top of the assassin's world."

Scratch that. It was clear that Jiraiya knew that Sakura and I had unfinished business, and he was trying to see if, and if so how much, it influenced the Order. Which could also be interpreted as an opportunity to set a few things straight. And I was willing to take it, if only she would listen. She really was something different, I thought; never before had a girl been so much on my mind as she was. And that was a good thing, for the most part.

I looked over to Sakura, the poor soul condemned to be the partner of Sasuke Uchiha. She avoided my eyes, so I let it slide. It was rude to force your thoughts onto someone who didn't want them, is what Itachi always taught me about our mental communication talents.

The group scattered into teams of two, some people already starting to make game plans with their assigned partners. Having ran the Pit countless times with Naruto, and once with Kiba, I knew the course pretty much blindly. Which didn't mean that I could count on either of their experience, or my knowledge of their abilities for that matter. I knew what Sakura was capable of, but with recent events in mind, I couldn't take a thing for granted with her. Conclusion: we had to set up our own GP.

Easier said than done when she pretty much couldn't stand being near me.

Jiraiya gave us two hours to set up our plans, so the majority of people left the crammed room to get some breathing space and keep certain details a secret. After all, this was still a competition. I loitered in the room until everyone with the intention to leave had done so, and walked up to Sakura. She purposefully kept avoiding my gaze.

"I believe we have work to do," I said deadpan. She just nodded. I sighed. "C'mon."

I could tell by only looking that she, too, was broken. Then again, I would be the last person on Earth (or what remains of it) to blame her. Losing a close friend is a feeling of betrayal that no man should ever wish upon even his worst enemy. I could tell.

In the end, it was me who ended up doing all the talking and planning. She just nodded occasionally. It pissed me off beyond recognition, but I tried my hardest not to raise my voice and lose my cool. After an hour, I gave up with a weary sigh.

"Sakura, I know it's hell to be stuck with me right now. But at least use that to your advantage and pretend every bot you shoot through the head is me, or something. Don't make us look bad in front of the entire order."

She looked down and muttered "And what if I don't want to?"

I blinked. "What?"

She didn't look up, still unable and/or unwilling to face me. "I don't want to shoot you or whatever. I didn't want our friendship or whatever the fuck we had to end like this. I just -"

"I deserved it," I finished her sentence, my voice drenched in remorse.

She bit her lower lip. "I just don't know. I don't know if I'm able trust you anymore... Even if I want to."

I allowed the silence to linger for a few seconds, thinking how I should approach this. I settled on just asking "What's the cause of this struggle?"

"I..." She sighed. "On one hand, I don't want this distance between us any longer."

I nodded understandingly. "But on the other hand, you're having issues trusting me."

She gulped at my statement. "...Yes."

"I understand," I admitted. "And I'm not blaming you for it, after what happened." I mentally cursed myself once again and looked down in grief. "I know what it feels like to lose a close friend." My mind couldn't be stopped from creating vivid images of Kabuto Yakushi, and the first of a series of realizations that life on this god-forsaken planer really was all that bad. Even though our so-called 'leaders' claimed the fallout to be only a minor setback.

Heh. No one tells me what to do and especially what to believe.

However, despair does weird things to a person's mind. Even so much as nine years onward, the majority of people still believed the situation to be fixed in a year or two. Hell, there were people that believed that only a few weeks had passed since some dude pressed all the red buttons that said 'nuke - DO NOT PRESS'. Whether it was a result of radioactive radiation or just insanity from extensive mental stress, people didn't know - and in all honesty, I didn't have much hope people really cared all that much either.

"Do you think..." She started. I looked up, snapping out of my musings, and for the first time in weeks, the black of my eyes clashed with emerald. Her gaze held a middle between sadness, pain, desperation and a plea for help. I gestured her to go on. She gulped.

"Do you think there's a way we can bring back the days before - before it happened?..."

"What do you want me to do?" I replied instantly, without batting an eye. This was the chance I'd been waiting for, but too much of a coward to impose.

Sakura shrugged. "Prove to me that you're trustworthy, Sasuke Uchiha."

"How much for helping you to the top score in this little contest of ours?"

What I saw next was the first smile, however small and weak, I'd seen on her lips since what felt like forever. It lingered for about half a second, but the memory of that smile was carved into my mind for eternity.

"It's a start."

Chapter Fourteen
"To be trusted is a greater compliment than to be loved."

I flung my gun around my index finger, armed with the expensive multi-purpose bullets. Bored and maybe even a bit eager to show off (still being an Uchiha), I watched Kakashi clock the top time of six minutes and twenty-five seconds flat, less than a second faster than Itachi and his partner. The two glared at each other; no glare of hatred or hostility, but pure rivalry that even they were vulnerable to.

People came and went. Shikamaru (and his father, for that matter) had both pulled off a strategy that was as exceptional as it was damn near insane. An hour passed, most people failing to even get near to Kakashi's time.

I looked at Sakura. She tried her best to keep her composure, but my enhanced eyes could see the nerves growing inside her petite form by the second. I couldn't resist a small smirk. "Relax."

"What?" She looked at me, obviously in conflict whether she should be calmed, enraged or just embarassed by my calm state of mind. I repeated my sentence. She sighed, and tried to heed my advice as best as possible.

"Sakura," I said sternly. She gulped. "I need your full attention. Drop the nerves, that'll only slow us down."

"Well excuse me for not being the top shooter in the Order, thank you very much!" she snapped at me, hissing it all through her teeth. To her further annoyance, I started to snicker. "And what's so funny, Uchiha?"

"Nothing, nevermind," I said shaking my head slightly. She kept looking at me with a demanding curiosity hidden beneath the angry glare, and I eventually yielded, sighing as Kiba and Shino were just diving into the Pit.

"I just hope it's a good sign that you're snapping witty remarks at me again," I said shrugging. Matter of fact, I did hope it was a good sign. Living without the chaos that Sakura and certainly Naruto provided was... Boring, to say the least. Never thought I'd start missing it either, but here I was admitting that dreaded fact to myself.

Sakura, meanwhile, tried to hide the blush that was starting to show on her pretty (...wait, what?) face by looking away from me. I couldn't help but smile. Things were turning out right.

Finally, Ino and Tenten finished up their run in six minutes and forty-seven seconds. It was my - no, our time to shine. Sakura looked at me, and this time, I saw a fair share of determination in the emerald gems people generally referred to as eyes.

Looking in each other's eyes one last time, I asked the pink-haired assassin if I could access her mind for a strategy update whenever one was needed. She nodded. The sound of her whispered reply was drowned out by the annoyingly loud buzzer that signaled the start of our ten minutes. I never bothered to ask again, because my instincts instantly went on full alert mode and there was no time for pointless chatter.

Perfectly in sync with each other, we ducked into cover on opposite sides of the artificial war zone. I was on the left, while she took the right side. Scanning the surroundings and the area where we were headed in the blink of an eye (literally), I gave the all clear sign and we rushed up to the door of the first building we had to clear out. I couldn't help but notice that the sniper from the last time was gone; too predictable, possibly. Oh well, one less annoying enemy to worry about.

Sakura used her Fracture magic to disintegrate the door, a neat trick that I forgot about in the adrenaline high I was experiencing. Too bad I couldn't use my own magic to create flammable ammo. It'd just melt the rubber tips right off my bullets. That, and Shikamaru would throw a fit for destroying the expensive bots.

Inside, four hostiles were waiting for us.

Within mere seconds, Sakura had delivered two of them a clean head shot and crippled a third. The fourth never even got the chance to process what was going on, because a bullet bounced off the pressure-sensitive plating in the region where a human heart would be. I was proud to claim that kill. She genuinely smiled to me again.

"Nice work, Uchiha."

I briefly looked at the three bots that hat suffered her wrath and smirked. "Back at you. By the way, what was that you said about not being the top shooter in the Order earlier?"

Her face lit up slightly, and I wouldn't have been able to notice if it wasn't for my enhanced genes. I did feel a slight sense of disappointment at her use of my last name, though. We were far from where we started off, and it was on display for everyone.

Taking a moment to reload, we progressed throughout the first building into the second, where my favorite vantage point would be. This time around, though, we didn't have time to take thirty seconds per shot, as we were on a quite tight deadline here. Hence why I didn't bring my long-ranged rifle to begin with - carrying extra weight would only slow me down, and the first thing assassins learn is that victory lies in preparation.

Using my magic to create a distraction in the form of a fiery bird soaring over the heads of our opponents, Sakura and I swiftly picked them off one by one. Karma decided to be a bitch to us, though, as reinforcements chose that moment to show up. In the end, it landed us with ten extra enemies to get through, and we were tight on ammo to begin with. The rules had clearly stated that taking the bots apart using magical or physical force was strictly prohibited.

"Here's what we're gonna do," I thought to Sakura. "I have a trick up my sleeve that will help us out, but it won't be without risk."

"What are you talking about?" She hissed, ducking away from a barrage of assault rifle fire and crawling her way over to my hiding spot.

"A little magic trick I've been working on," I replied, looking her in the eye with a hint of discourage in my own. "A new level of Scorch; it's called Static. It's a charge of electricity that short-circuits up to five of them at once." She nodded sharply, understanding situation perfectly. I always suspected her to be one of the brighter people.

Thus, I wasn't surprised to hear her question.

"What's the catch?"

I looked away. "I... have to get within three feet of them for it to work. I'm still developing it."

Never failing to amaze me with her swift insight, she shot a quick glance at the enemies that were unmoving, rooted to their spot and cursed. "Five is the maximum?" I nodded solemnly. She cursed.

"So you want me to take the other five out."

I inwardly smirked. She caught on quick. "Positive."

"How do I know you'll actually take five of them?" I was slightly taken aback by the half-accusing look in her eyes. She noticed that I had said 'up to five', as well, just as I had expected. And the funny thing was that it was all according to plan.

I allowed the silence to linger for a few moments before returning her look with a sort of pleading reassurance. "Afraid you're gonna have to trust me."

Trust.

That word still had a disgusting ring to it, in my opinion. Especially when spoken by someone who doesn't live by its true meaning, in this case referring to myself.

Sakura hissed something I couldn't hear well, because one of the bots had recorded a disturbance in the scenery and opened fire. We instantly ducked for more cover, also being warped back to reality that we were on a time limit and didn't want to end up the joke of the Order. That would be too much for my already damaged ego to handle, even though I wouldn't admit that to save my life.

Ironically, it was also the one thing that I deserved most, if you would look deep inside my proud heart. I harmed a girl, and foremost an ally. But inflicting that shame on me would mean dragging Sakura along with me, and that would certainly destroy the flimsy remains of our friendship as it was.

I closed my mind off from any outside influences; the sound of gunfire, the smell of human sweat and gunpowder, the taste of adrenaline that ravaged my body. I dug deep for the source of my fire magic, the spark of focused human energy, the epicentre of magic in humanoid beings. Collecting all the energy I could spare, I could feel the heat of flames building up in every nerve. Instead of releasing it, I pushed myself to and maybe a few notches over the limit of human possibility. I wouldn't be able to keep it up for long, so now was the time.

In a flash, I opened my eyes and alerted my partner using my telepathic abilities that it was time. My heightened speed in combination with my trained senses allowed me to shadow-step into the middle of the circle of enemies, like an honest-to-goodness ninja. I clutched my gun tightly, and set off the built-up magical energy I had been drawing from. Discharging the electricity using the metal of my weapon, a shockwave of lightning erupted from my body, the burning sensation of magical electricity putting a strain on every fibre of my being. I couldn't see or feel much, as lightning numbed my senses, and would have blacked out if one thing didn't keep me up and running.

Sakura.

[Author's Note]

Because I skipped the last deadline, here's a double chapter for you guys to enjoy. And I think apologies are in order as well, but I have been crazy busy with all kinds of school stuff. It's hell, and I laugh at the irony for my school being strict Christian. Oh well.

I'll try to make next week, but I'm not gonna make any promises, got it? I can't promise shit, because I don't know how much work I have next week.

Signed,
VictimofYourOwnCreation