:: Author: Boriqua-chan ::
But of course life just wasn't that easy. It has never been for the Uchiha Clan, ever. Sasuke thought that the world just personally hated him and anyone who had ever loved him—namely his family. The universe either had its balls well attached or was stupider than Naruto, because no one messed with the Uchiha. Sasuke was not above kicking empty air and pretending it was the cosmic force that had it out for him and his reviving family. And, of course, he was thinking all of this while Orochimaru's slithery voice whooped and his slimy hands clapped.
"Sssssuch a beautiful family, Sssssssasuke-kun," he was saying. "Oh—and with Sssssakura-chan!" Here, the clapping got louder. "I remember when you were sssssmall! Didn't you try to kill her, Sssssasuke-kun?"
That struck a nerve. He had been a confused little boy made insane by this slithering snake; he had almost killed the best thing in his life because of it. It wasn't one kunai that was sent at the voice, but two. Sakura was angry with him too. "Shut up!" she shouted. Oh, god, Sasuke noticed, her voice was cracking. "Shut up, you slimy bastard! You should be fucking dead! Sasuke killed you once, he can kill you again!"
Another kunai was sent flying. Sakura was no longer kneeled next to her daughter; she was standing, trying desperately not to cry in front of her already-scared child, scanning around to see where to shoot her next projectile. "You tried to take my baby! Why would you need my baby! Wasn't having Sasuke for eight years pleasure enough? I don't care anyway—you can't have any of my babies!"
Her awkwardness was gone, replaced by a burning anger and a chilling reminder of the Cold Years—the time when Sasuke wasn't around. She was gripping her kunai so hard that her knuckles were white.
"Ah, but Sssssakura-chan, that'sss where you're wrong."
Two kunai were aimed at the direction his voice was coming from. Neither Sakura's nor Sasuke's seemed to hit Orochimaru.
:: ::
The silence in the huge Uchiha household was everlasting. The sun had been up for at least an hour now, and still no one had opened the door that they were all staring at with such intensity. No one was slamming the door into the wall, yelling a hello, before stomping up stairs. No one was opening the door carefully, checking if her daughter had broken the hinges, before smiling at her kids and hugging them as if she hadn't seen them in thousands of years. No one was opening the door like the house was the most comfortable place on earth as he smirked a happy smirk at his family.
It was already 7:30. It has been an hour since Naruto had woken them all up. God knows how long Sasuke and Sakura had been out, let alone Kaede.
Akira's stomach growled like a ferial animal that's been attacked. "Jiro, can you?" the eldest brother asked.
Jiro was knee-deep in his father's papers. Open-mouthed and wide-eyed, the young onyx-eyed cook didn't bother to look up from the file. This was the best novel he'd ever read. He was at the part where his father had been reunited with Team Seven. "Cook it…" he muttered, his mind focused mostly on the file, "yourself…"
"But I burn everything!" Akira shouted. Jiro didn't even bother answering. "Naruto?"
Blue eyes wide, Naruto shook his head and shouted a firm, "Uh-uh!"
"Mommy and Daddy left some miso chicken in the fridge," Ai said through her sleepy haze. All this information had her tired. "We didn't have dinner yesterday."
Akira grinned at his little sister, picking her up from their uncle's lap and spinning her around. "I love this kid!" he announced to no one. Then, he asked his sister, "How do you do it?"
But Ai was hugging herself to her brother, green eyes dropping and pink hair messy; she was already asleep in Akira's arms. She'd always thought Akira had comfortable hugs whenever he could stop being a perverted old freak like Grandpa Kakashi.
"Okay, so…she's asleep," Akira muttered, holding her tight and walking up the stairs already.
:: Author: KillerMay ::
Sakura dropped to her knees and covered her mouth to hold in sobs as the voice continued to taunt them. Tears were pricking around her eyes but she was not going to cry, damn it.
Kaede didn't know what was going on but she crawled over to her mother and hugged her.
"Oh Ssssakura, sstill sso young," he taunted. He laughed.
Sasuke dropped down next to Sakura. He started shaking and he was breathing heavy. He felt like that same eight-year old boy who came home late. He felt like he was walking through the Uchiha complex all over again and seeing the bodies of his cousins, his aunt and uncle that he had spoken to earlier, all of them littering the ground, lifelessly.
He shut his eyes tightly. He could see the same old scene in his head.
He was confused. He was afraid.
He felt that same feeling he felt so long ago (yet he remembered it like it was yesterday) of I'm going to die tonight.
He inhaled a large breath and opened his eyes. He felt water on his face and he couldn't see anything—there was just darkness. He coughed and looked around.
He was confused. He was afraid. He was alone.
His eyes hardened and he was pissed.
Now he felt like he was sixteen again. He started laughing randomly. Someone was going to die tonight—and it sure as hell wasn't going to be him.
:: ::
"Mom?" Kaede said, looking around. It was dark again. So, so dark. Sakura didn't answer. "...Dad?" There was no answer to that either.
This... This was just some kind of genjutsu, right? She wasn't really alone, right?
She tried to move her heads to form the seal to break it. She was stuck. She could move them a couple centimeters above the table before her movement was completely restricted. It was the same with her legs too.
Lights flicked on, she squinted her eyes to try and let as little light in as possible while still being able to see.
She glanced around the room. She was on some kind of table type of thing that was on top of a platform. She was, in fact, chained up. She looked to left—was that...was that a scalpel?
Oh dear God...
:: Author: Boriqua-chan ::
Oh god. Oh Jesus. Oh Holy Spirit. Oh Zeus. Oh Athena. Oh Apollo. Oh Ra. Oh Ma'at. Oh all gods that cared and would hear. Oh—
That thing was coming closer! It was sliver and sharp, shimmering in the light that Kaede couldn't see. The scalpel was its own light. It was closing in on her face! It was coming closer; it was too close. Kaede could even see that there was a design on it, one to identify the doctor it belonged to. She felt her jaw drop as a horror-filled scream readied itself.
That design was a single sakura flower. Her mother's sign.
This couldn't be happening. No, it just couldn't, despite all the facts otherwise. Her mother had just pummeled a guy to death for trying to rape her, cussed out a snakelike creep, and shot kunai in the air just to get the guy away from her. She couldn't be trying to dissect her. No. It was a genjutsu.
Kaede knew with sudden clarity that it was, in fact, a genjutsu. She had to get out—she had to find a way to get out of it, to come back to reality before that scalpel cut her eyes out.
Her mother had told her a story once, long ago, about how one of her teammates during the chūnin exams had been put under a genjutsu and was frozen. Thanking back, Kaede had a feeling that that teammate had to have been her father. How did her mother's teammate get out?
He'd cut himself! Pain got him out of the illusion.
But Kaede could t feel anything to do that with. She would use that scalpel coming at her, but she knew it had to be real pain, not illusion pain. She had to have something on her; when she'd been kidnapped she hadn't taken off her gear. There had to be something in her kunai pouch. She just couldn't feel anything strapped to her arm—and that scalpel was way, way too close.
The lights flickered again. She could see her arms, strapped to the table. Her left upper arm had to have her pouch! But she couldn't see it, couldn't feel it. It had to be there.
Kaede tried to reach for it; the straps broke with only the smallest hint of a fight. God how she loved being the child of Uchiha Sakura! If she hadn't inherited her mother's strength, she'd be fighting the straps. Her fingers felt around for a kunai, a senbon, anything. She couldn't feel them, but she knew they were there.
So she grabbed at the air, hoping she was holding it right, and made the motion to cut at her arm.
:: Author: KillerMay ::
She bit her lip to stop herself from screaming and she shut her eyes tight as to not cry (tears came out anyways). She eventually blinked the tears away. She first looked at her now-bleeding arms and put her hand over it to try and stop the bleeding. It hurt. Badly.
Looking around, she saw that she was in the same place as before. Only this time, her mother was on the ground next to her and her dad was gone.
She crawled over to her mother as best as she could while clutching onto her arm like her life depended on it. She removed her hand and took in a sharp intake of breath. Ignoring it, she reached over and shook her mother until she was awake.
:: ::
Naruto was trying his hardest to stay awake. It was hard though. They were all so... so quiet. He yawned. A few minutes couldn't hurt anyone, right?
He yawned again and then blinked his eyes closed.
As soon as the soft snores went through the room, Ai—who was lying on the floor next to her empty bowl of ramen—snapped one eye open.
Seeing the sleeping Naruto, she smirked and fought back a snicker.
Why she was going alone with something Akira had come up with, she didn't know. It made her feel like she was doing something bad and she enjoyed that. Besides, they weren't hurting anyone.
Rolling over to where her oldest brother was laying, she punched him in the back.
He let out a sharp "Oomf!" making her flip around and make sure Naruto hadn't woken up. He stirred a bit, but he was quite tired and wanted to sleep.
"Are you sure about this?" Jiro asked nervously, looking around.
Akira grinned, sitting up. "This is going to be awesome," he whispered back.
:: ::
Sakura felt like she had just woken up from a nap. She yawned and stretched and—what a weird dream. She looked sleepily over to Kaede who had woken her and then blinked violently until she felt she could open her eyes wider.
And then she looked around.
Damn it.
This happened to often. Something bad would happen and she'd wake up the next morning, thinking it was all a dream. Like when Sasuke left. But then... Well, she was on a bench.
"Mom," Kaede hissed to get her attention. Sakura looked over at her eldest daughter.
"Hmm?" she asked. Kaede held her arm up. It was bleeding heavily.
Sakura's eyes widened at first (one of the hardest parts of being a medic was dealing with all of the blood—she figured she'd get used to it during the war but that didn't happen) but then she slowly calmed herself and dropped into medic mode, healing her daughter.
It had been a long night.
When she realized that Sasuke wasn't next to her, she sighed inwardly.
The night was only going to get so much longer.