Disclaimer: I DO NOT own Naruto.
Hey guys! So sorry that it's been so long! :(
I updated one of my other fan fictions, Love Like This, a few days ago, so if you read that one then you'll know that I'm going to be trying a lot harder to update. In fact, I was at my bf's house just tonight. Yea, I got another bf. Not like my love life's a revolving door or something cause before him it'd been almost 6 months since I'd had a "serious" relationship. It's just that there's like a month in between updates usually, so a lot can happen in that span of time. However, it was careless of me to let it go to TWO months… I really am sorry :(((
I hope that you all can forgive me!
PLEASE REMEMBER TO R&R! ^(^0^)^ *WOOT!*
Sasuke slowly rose out of bed. It's been almost a week since he'd lost Sakura. He still didn't know where she was or could be, and neither did anyone else. He was a tragic wreck beyond what seemed repairable. Naruto, Sai, and Kakashi had arrived just the other night and Naruto nearly beat the crap out of Sasuke for loosing Sakura, especially when Sakura was pregnant with a child. If Madara got a hold on that child's power and manages to brain wash it then the Uchiha clan would be diminished to the lowest of reputations, contrary to their previous status of being one of the strongest and most reputable clans around. Sasuke wouldn't allow his unborn child to fall under the influence of such a rotten person. He also didn't want to expose Sakura and his son to unspeakably horrific experiments Kabuto was sure to perform, if he hadn't already. Sasuke when he had apprenticed under Orochimaru had seen the horrifying things Kabuto and his former sensei had done to those bodies, and sometimes to corpses. They didn't care if they disrespected the dead or if they violated the living. They would experiment until they satisfied themselves with the sick cries for mercy that came from the innocent human lab rats.
"Sasuke" Naruto said rather gruffly snapping the Uchiha from his day-nightmare.
When the Sasuke looked at Naruto approaching he could see Naruto's silhouette beneath his cloths and could predict every footstep before he made it. His sharingan had activated itself while Sasuke was in his self-induced fit of rage. Sasuke had never felt more embarrassed in his life for letting his powers take control of him like that.
"You look like crap" Sai said unceremoniously yawning as he walked into the room and stood next to Naruto.
Sai's observation wasn't without grounds. Sasuke did indeed, look like crap. His hair had grown slightly shaggy, his facial hair was unshaved, and worst of all his eyes were bloodshot from lack of sleep.
Sasuke just narrowed his eyes at the black haired boy. He'd never much liked Sai. It's only natural since Sai was essentially his replacement after he'd left team 7, but Sasuke didn't think that was the reason why he truly disliked the sociopathic look-alike. It was probably because Sai was the only person less emotional then him, especially at this particular moment in time when his emotions were even controlling his powers.
Kakashi walked up beside the other two boys then looked down at Sasuke sitting up in his bed and told him, "Go wash up and fix yourself you lazy disgrace."
Sasuke narrowed his eyes at his first sensei then hissed, "You people have some nerve coming in here and ordering me around."
Kakashi didn't hesitate to get in Sasuke's face this time and tell him exactly what was on his mind, "Look at yourself" he snapped, "You sound like some female genin who has her panties in a wad. You're a grown man Sasuke, act like one. Ok, so you lost the love of your life and you don't know where she is, so you stop looking for her? Sure, she's carrying your unborn son, so that's more of a reason to stop looking for her? What the hell's the matter with you? You've turned from a human ice cube to a human mood-ring, except I don't think there are enough colors for all your moods. Now go take your hormonally unbalanced ass into that bathroom and make yourself presentable."
Sasuke simply scowled, but complied. He was being taken for a fool and he wouldn't have it. He wasn't one to cooperate, but he knew that Kakashi was right, even though he'd never admit it or allow anyone to think that was the truth of the matter, that he had given up so easily, so he was wallowing in unwarranted self-pity. He now realized that he should have pushed himself further and driven himself harder.
"You tell him!" Naruto cheered as Sasuke closed the bathroom door behind him. The cottage they had been staying at was running out of room with all of the uninvited guests showing up to help, but Sasuke still was granted his own private room, the one Sakura had been in, which also came with its own bathroom as well.
"Do you think we even did any good telling him that stuff?" Sai asked as they were walking out of the room.
Kakashi scratched the back of his head as he muttered, but audibly, "I know it wasn't what he wanted to hear, but it got to him."
Sai just nodded without any facial expression.
Shikamaru was outside helping some of the village people with repairs on their market stands and houses. Since Sakura had gone missing there had been several attacks on the village which made the trading go down severely. People were now going hungry and dying of starvation. Shikamaru did all he could to help, but at this rate, their cover was blown. They very people they sought to conceal their presence from had taken one of them. Other than causing general chaos, the attacks also prevented Shikamaru from sending out any search parties to help scout out where Madara and Kabuto might be. With all of the attacks on the village it was easy to assume that it wasn't far away. Madara could kill Sakura if he took her too far away in her already unstable condition. The fact that they still hadn't found any trace of her except the blood stains in the shack where she was last seen unnerved him. It was eerie how someone could be so untraceable. It meant that Madara must be a master concealer.
Shikamaru continued to supervise reconstruction since there was no one else there that could really manage the job correctly and as efficiently as him.
The daily tasks for everyone were: Shikamaru would go into the village to help direct construction and also keep a look out for enemy attacks, Ino would stay home and do domestic chores, Kakashi's "team 7" would either assist all the other platoons protecting the village or they would go off on a quick investigation to look for traces of Sakura, and Sasuke after a week of searching would simply lie in bed all day and basically wallow in his self-pity for something he hadn't even completely lost yet. There was still a chance that she was alive and out there, and that his son was still growing healthily inside of her, but Sasuke tended to be the apitimy of pessimism, so he never thought that way and just mentally beat himself to a pulp.
After a few days without an attack Shikamaru deemed it safe enough to send two search platoons out, team 7 and one other squad as well. When they all came back team 7 had come back surprisingly empty handed, but another group came back with a token they'd all been waiting for. They found Sakura's hitai-ate leaf head band. They knew it was hers because of the red cloth the leaf symbol was attached to. Sasuke was still back at the house helping out because he didn't feel like he had the energy yet to search, but Naruto took the liberty of snatching the head band and running to Sasuke with it. Naruto dashed through the trees towards the cabin and burst into Sasuke's room. The Uchiha raised a brow as he stepped closer to Naruto to see that the blond was presenting the scratched, dented, and ragged headband to him. Sasuke reached out and took it in disbelief. After a week of having nothing they all finally had a glimmer of hope. Soon after, Kakashi burst into Sasuke's room as well with his ninja hounds that sniffed the band for the rosette's sent. Luckily they found it, but Kakashi knew that it'd be best to move out in the morning, it wasn't wise to attack them at night, especially with Sasuke in the condition that he was. The raven haired man lost his need to sleep due to his excitement, but finally feeling that Sakura might be alright gave him the peace of mind to get a good night's rest before their reconnaissance in the morning.
Down in a low and dingy cave covered with mold from the damp conditions of water trickling through cracks in the rocks, Sakura was still and unmoving. She was sure that her baby inside of her was gone. They hadn't fed her since she got there. The only thing they ever gave her was some occasional water to just barely keep her alive. Sakura could feel her ankles throbbing. They had broken them, both of them, so she would only be able to escape if she crawled. Sakura could feel the dirt and grime built up on her face, she felt horridly disgusting, even with discharge from her nose dripping down falling from the platform of her upper lip. Sakura just couldn't find the energy inside herself to wipe the disgusting iniquities away off her face. She had a strong will only a few days ago that she would be found, but hour by hour her hope was diminishing. Kabuto knew it and took advantage of her melting self-confidence every chance he got.
"Good night, Cherry Blossom" Kabuto said with false sincerity, "I hope your friends don't leave you down here to wilt for too much longer, oh, that's right, they still haven't come looking for you."
"You're wrong…" Sakura growled with her hair covering her eyes, but her lack of energy cause her voice to go unheard by the sinister silver haired nin.
"Try not to stay up too late feeling sorry for yourself Sakura dear. You have a big day tomorrow" Kabuto menacingly chuckled.
After Kabuto said the last statement he snapped his fingers causing a gust of wind to blow out the candles providing any illumination in the ominous cave. Sakura wasn't much for being afraid of the dark, but this darkness of being a victim, not knowing what's happening and what's going to happen, that kind of darkness terrified her. It showed too as tears ran down her cheeks and some dripped off the end of her nose and landed on her slowly withering thighs. She was able to with extreme concentration and effort, creep her forearm up into her lap where her hand could rest on her abdomen. She couldn't feel any life-force inside of her. More tears poured down her face as she softly sobbed. She failed again. She was given a second chance and she was so stupid to mess it up again. If only she'd been smarter about meeting some complete stranger, then none of this would've happened. She kept telling herself that it was safe where they were, they were only gathering intelligence of an enemy threat. Sakura kept scolding herself about her naïveté in being so oblivious. If they were searching for an enemy threat of course it wouldn't be safe! Sakura kept telling herself that Kabuto was wrong, that her friends were looking for her, but as time passed by the hour, her confidence dwindled over and over again.
"Let's move" came Kakashi's level-headed command for the squad of four that leapt up into the trees hurrying through the trees to the cave that they'd found the coordinates from an intelligence hawk that had followed Kakashi's nin-hounds.
Sasuke's focus was straight ahead. He could feel Sakura's aura closing in as soon as the natural woods turned into a jungle that was definitely not part of the original ecosystem.
"This is Kabuto's doing…" Naruto growled as he looked around at all the dense vegetation, but no one responded to his comment.
As soon as they came to a rock wall covered by vines Sasuke activated his Sharingan and not only could he detect that there was a cave opening through the vines, but also that the vines were laced with chakra making their strength nearly that of metal. Sasuke told everyone step back and asked Kakashi for his assistance in infusing his Katana with double the strength of a regular chidori. Sasuke quickly took the blade and cut through the vines in one solid slash.
"They know we're here" Sasuke said scowling, "There's a good chance that they had an alarm attached to those vines that's alerted them."
"Move fast" Kakashi said as they ran into the cave.
They moved quickly through several corridors trying to trace Sakura's chakra, but someone was masking it.
"Good morning Sakura" Kabuto said casually as he unlocked the prison cell door picked the pinkette up off the cave floor, "We're going to have a doctor's visit today, you don't look so good."
As much as Sakura wanted to scream, cry out, do something, she couldn't. All she could do is helplessly feel and see herself being carried away by the man she feared the most at the moment, the one who was sure to torture her more than he already has.
"You could've let her keep her legs…" Madara commented as he noticed Sakura's broken ankles, "Then you wouldn't have to carry her around like a ragdoll."
Kabuto smirked as he said, "If I had done that she would've escaped by now. You don't give this girl enough credit Madara-sama."
Madara just shrugged as he opened a steel door that had thousands of mutations lining the wall in some sort of green solution. Sakura whimpered softly as Kabuto set her down on a metal table and strapped her down with her arms at her sides.
"What are you planning on doing?" Madara asked.
"I want a new specimen of course" Kabuto replied.
Madara grew angry as he hissed, "I thought I told you I wanted to raise that child to rebuild the Uchiha clan in it's true image!"
Kabuto pushed his glasses further up his nose as he calmly replied, "The baby died days ago, I can't resurrect the developing dead. I can only salvage what DNA is left in it."
Sakura felt tears running down her face as her suspicions were confirmed, that the baby was in fact, dead.
"They're here" Madara said almost angrily as he headed for the door but turned around to tell Kabuto one last thing, "You better not have killed that baby on purpose, and don't you dare kill the girl."
With that last statement, Madara went storming out of the room. Madara wasn't a fool he wasn't going to stick around and fight a battle he couldn't win. Kabuto was on his own, he couldn't easily kidnap the pinkette another time. His main priority now was to get away and erase his tracks.
"Where the hell is she Sasuke growled as he stormed into a lower room that looked much like a dungeon with a few candles lining the walls providing little illumination.
The others followed behind him and were just as curious about the room as he was. There was water dripping in random locations from cracks in the rock so Sasuke figured there was an underground river somewhere around here. The room was dead silent except for the dripping water splashing against the rock.
"Come look over here" Naruto said as he pointed to an open prison sell that had blood stains against the back wall where it was evident someone was sitting.
Sasuke briskly walked over then entered the cell scowling as he looked at the blood stains. He wiped his hand over the wall, some of it was still fresh blood. As he concentrated on the life chakra inside the blood he soon discovered it was what he thought it was. It was Sakura's blood.
"Damnit!" He shouted as he stood up and punched the wall causing the wall the crack in several directions and the room shook some.
"Easy there" Naruto tried to calm him, "You're going to bring this place down if you do that again."
"They took her again!" he shouted, "We came so close! But they took her!"
Kakashi put his hand on his student's shoulder in an attempt to calm him saying, "Things aren't always as they appear, use your senses Sasuke, she's still here."
"Where?" he growled ravenously.
He was beyond mad. He was furious. He could commit genocide at that moment and not bat an eyelash. His homicidal instincts had him in overdrive, and he could soon sense Sakura's presence on the other far end of the cave. It was being masked, but whoever was masking it was losing their focus from doing something else. Sasuke quickly panicked and went racing off head strong towards where he sensed the pinkette. Everyone else was following behind him.
Sakura's eyes grew large as Kabuto took a needle with a blue solution in it. He was told not to kill the girl, but that didn't mean he couldn't numb her temporarily. Kabuto flicked up and down her arm for a vein and found one.
"Don't worry" he falsely reassured her, "This won't hurt one bit."
He pushed the needle into her arm and injected the fluid as her body started to convulse. She felt pain in every cell of her body. She actually mistook the feeling for dying, was he killing her? No, but the pain was. After 15 seconds of agony she'd never known before, she couldn't feel anything, nothing. She couldn't feel her skin. She couldn't feel her throat when she breathed. She couldn't even feel if she was breathing, she just assumed she was. Her eyes widened in fright as she saw Kabuto look at a tray of cutting tools, eventually deciding on the scalpel.
"Ready for your caesarian?" he asked chuckling with a sick smile.
Sakura started crying, but couldn't even move. Kabuto cut a slit in her cloths over her abdomen and then cut the skin. Even though Sakura couldn't feel anything she could see what was happened. Kabuto eventually cut through the uterine wall and pulled out the half developed fetus. Sakura watched in horror as he deceased, unborn child, was pulled from her body. She couldn't help hold it anymore. Even though she hadn't eaten anything, she threw up.
"Disgusted by your own child?" Kabuto asked snidely.
At that moment Sakura was still throwing up the door busted open as four horror plastered faces look inside. Even Sai had an expression of absolute horror.
"No…" Sasuke growled clenching his fists at his side, "No…"
Naruto was about to yell at the disgusting experimental nin, but Sasuke beat him to it, "You bastard!"
Sasuke yelled those words and charged at the four-eyes. He didn't expect to hit Kabuto on the first strike, but the man was so distracted by his newly acquired "prize" that Sasuke ran him straight through. Naruto and Sai immediately ran over to Sakura's aide. The baby that was in Kabuto's hand was dead, that was for certain, but Sakura could still be saved. Naruto wasn't about to let Sasuke loose his child and the love of his life in one foul swoop.
"Sakura!" Naruto yelled, "Wake up!"
Tears started to run down the blond's face as her eyes remained open and unmoving as he screamed her name. Naruto thought she was dead and started sobbing, but Sai took a closer look. He found the empty syringe on a tray near them that had administered the numbing solution. Sai knew what it was because there was some of it still in the tube.
"She's not dead" he said flatly, "She's been overdosed."
Naruto looked up at Sai with side eyes still glassy with tears falling every so often, "She's not?" he asked.
"No" he confirmed, "But she will be if we don't act fast."
"Stay here" Sai said as he looked for a cure around the lab facility.
Kabuto had to keep a catalyst to all his serums in case they went horribly wrong, like now.
Kabuto looked at Sasuke with a smirk saying, "That Sharingan isn't going to be just yours for long."
Sasuke ran his blade through the man further cause him to grunt and clutch the blade slicing his fingers in the process. Kakashi tried to lend a helping hand by starting a chidori, but Sasuke quickly put his hand out in front of his sensei.
"No" he growled, "Let me exact my own vengeance."
Kakashi nodded and disbanded the lighting blade taking a step back. He respected Sasuke wishes, and with Kabuto in the state he's in, it wouldn't be too hard to kill him right now, for anyone. Sai continued to wander around the shelves looking at labels until he came across what he was looking for. He quickly grabbed the syringe full of orange liquid and ran back over to where Naruto was holding Sakura's hand. He quickly flicked Sakura's arm for a vein. As soon as he found one he wasted no time in injecting the antidote.
"Find me a needle and plastic thread!" he yelled quickly after he injected it. Naruto scrambled looking across the trays and found what Sai requested and quickly bringing it over to him.
"This isn't going to work…" he growled to himself. Kabuto had made such a small cut in her cloths that he couldn't stitch it closed without sowing her cloths into her skin, "Forgive me Sasuke…" he muttered as he ripped her lower cloths in half exposing everything she had down there.
Sai didn't have feelings for Sakura so it didn't faze him at all. Her life was on the line and that was way more important to him to anything, so much so that he didn't even blink as he stitched up her uterine wall that Kabuto had sloppily cut in a hurry to get the dead Uchiha fetus. Sai soon closed up her skin and then looked for something to cover Sakura's lower region with, there was no reason to expose her loner than what was necessary.
Sasuke looked Kabuto in the eye and soon discovered that the man had snapped. He wasn't himself. Sasuke knew this fight was going to end way too soon for his taste. He wanted to see Kabuto suffer and even cry uncle before he died. Sasuke wanted to see him suffer for everything he put Sakura through. He was going to hurtle it back on Kabuto ten-fold.
"Prepare your soul…" Sasuke menacingly growled as he looked up at Kabuto with fiery-red eyes.
Kabuto didn't let the fear show on his face, but he knew he was dead. Sasuke slowly ran his blade the rest of the way through Kabuto down to the hilt. Then Sasuke crudely twisted the blade 90 degrees. Kabuto yelled out in pain and feel to his knees. Sasuke kept the furious look on his face and he slowly sliced through Kabuto's side causing not only Kabuto's insides to spill out, but blood went everywhere, including on Sasuke. Kakashi couldn't look anymore and had to turn around. It was up to his student to do what he felt was right. It's not like Kakashi felt sorry for Kabuto after the sight they witnessed. Kakashi couldn't imagine the pain Sasuke was in right now.
"Please!" he yelled, "Please don't!"
Sasuke eventually got his blade the rest of the way out through Kabuto's side and flicked the blood off as he kicked Kabuto onto his back and stood over him.
"Don't what?" he sneered angrily, "Don't kill you? Like how you spared my unborn child? Don't torture you like how you tortured Sakura? I don't think so."
Sasuke put the tip of his blade on Kabuto's forehead and slowly put pressure on his to cut through the skin cause a small stream of blood to trickle down the side of his forehead and off his ear. Sasuke continued to put pressure on the blade as it slowly went through Kabuto's skull as soon as Sasuke was sure it was through the skull and just barely touching Kabuto's brain, he decided to deal the final blow.
"Burn in hell" Sasuke said soon followed by, "Chidori!"
The blade came to life with a blue glow. Kabuto let out a shrill scream at his brain being fried, Naruto and Sai looked away. The sheer pressure of the electrocution caused Kabuto's eyes to pop out of his sockets and rest on each side of his head. As soon as Sasuke was sure that the silver haired man was dead he pulled his sword up and shook Kabuto's head off of it. After he wiped his sword off he returned it to his sheath. He then realized that Sakura was over on the table and quickly rushed over to see if she was dead like he thought she was from her lifeless gaze earlier.
"She's fine" Sai said as soon as the Uchiha made it over to the table, "But don't let your breath out just yet, you need to take her to a medic, and fast. I only just stabilized her, just barely. I'm not a medic, so I couldn't do everything that she needs. She's malnourished and dehydrated. Go. We'll take care of things here."
Sasuke nodded and picked Sakura up off the table gingerly keeping the cloth Sai had put around her waist to cover what wasn't supposed to be exposed. Sasuke eventually made it back to the village where half the village's nin-forces for staked out. He ran through the crowd and soon found a tent with a medical symbol on it. He burst through the flaps of the tent and saw Ino who immediately turned around and gasped.
"Give her to me!" Ino shrieked as she laid Sakura down on a medical mat, "I'll do what I can" she assured him as she ushered him out of the tent.
Sasuke tripped over himself as he was pushed out of the tent and into the camp. He fell to his hands and knees as he began to heavily breathe. He'd finally found her, and she was going to be ok, but he'd failed her. He wasn't there to help her last time, and he failed to protect her this time too. Eventually he was able to get back up and walked to the cabin where they'd been staying. As soon as he walked through the door he found Shikamaru bent over a stack of papers.
"Hey" came the stoic man's greeting.
Sasuke nodded at him then said, "We found her."
Shikamaru shot up from his seat asking, "What happened? Where is she? Is she ok?"
Sasuke took his time answering but eventually said, "Yes, she's ok, and she's in the medical tent with Ino."
Shikamaru scowled then scoffed, "Damn that woman, I told her not to work in her current condition…" and walked towards the door but turned around to say, "Go shower and get some sleep, you look like crap."
"Thanks…" Sasuke muttered as the door closed with Shikamaru on the other side.
Sasuke hopped in the shower watching the bottom of the tub turn red with almost dried blood, Kabuto's blood. Sasuke was grateful that creep was finally dead. He's was even more grateful that he'd been able to do the deed himself allowing him to get back at Kabuto with immense torture not quite equal to Sakura's. She'd lost yet another child. Sasuke knew that she must feel horrible for not being able to protect herself and her child, but he knew that was his responsibility, not hers. He would get the chance to finally talk to her, hold her, kiss her, love her before tomorrow was over. That thought alone, knowing she was safe with Ino in the medical tent, allowed him to close his eyes for once without regret.
To Be Continued…
I'm So happy I finally got this done! It's amazing! I must say I really outdid myself this time! I actually feel like I really put good length on this one as far as Microsoft word is concerned, this is 4,500 words!
PLEASE REVIEW! I LOVE YOU ALL! ^(^0^)^ *WOOT!*