Chapter 29: She was his drug.

"How long has he been sleeping already?" Naruto asks, taking a swig of water. He sits at the edge of Sakura's bed and looks at the unmoving man.

"Almost two days now."

October had rolled in full force, though it was only the first day. The leaves were changing slowly and the wind carried the beginnings of winter in its grasp. Rain fell from gray skies and the soil overflowed with the moisture. Two days had felt like two weeks.

Sakura sent Ino away a short time ago. Her home was too small to house everyone sufficiently, and Naruto refused to leave Sasuke's side. Said man only awoke to use the restroom (and god, that had been a mess. Thank goodness Naruto was here.)—he hadn't even eaten.

She watches her hand move from his respirations—up, down, up, down—and it's the most beautiful thing she's seen. Even though Sasuke's lips are cracked and his eyes are squeezed shut in pain, she can't help but notice his timeless elegance. The second she pulled her hand away from him, he would smooth it back down over his bellybutton or between his pectorals.

Honestly, Sakura was considering moving a little, just to feel his pressure.

"Did Shizune make an antidote yet?"

"There's no need." She replies, blinking away her exhaustion and embarrassment. "If I can keep the toxin from nearing his heart, his body will naturally do the rest. I'm letting him sleep for now, though. It doesn't look like he's able to fight it off when he's unconscious."

The curtains shake violently from a powerful breeze. She shivers and cranes her neck to rid herself of the stiffness. Fatigue consumes her. It's been fourteen hours since Sasuke's woken up to pee, and fourteen hours since Sakura's moved from her position.

The room is silent, which is unusual in the presence of Naruto. He's worried and the evidence is on his face for all to see. He knows that Sasuke is in good hands, and although it's hard seeing him so weak, Naruto understands it's only fleeting.

They were ninja, and they didn't allow themselves time to heal. Sasuke was going to rest better in his unconscious state.

Hinata comes by every so often and switches out the untouched meals. She's the most kind and caring person Sakura has ever met—she does things that wouldn't even cross the medics mind. The laundry was done and the pillows were fluffed and her house was as spotless as it's ever been. She was so motherly, so benevolent.

"You can watch some TV if you'd like." Sakura says, jerking her head to the abandoned remote on her vanity. "We can see how far along the exams are progressing."

Naruto obeys and searches through the channels emotionlessly. The announcer's voice is loud and plummy when she finally pops up on the screen, dressed in a blue pencil skirt and a purple cardigan. Upbeat music sounds off in the background as she spouts off her report.

"The first round of examinees will be wrapping up soon! There are only seven more groups of participants left, and then the next forty people will start."

"That doesn't sound like it's "wrapping up" at all, Suki!" A red-headed man replies. His hair is thinning at the top. "I don't understand why those people are even being recorded. The best have already made it through!"

Suki laughs and pats his knee. "Oh Joruri, you certainly have an attachment to the Rookie 9, don't you? Who all has made it?"

"Naruto and Hinata Uzumaki, obviously," He begins. "Sasuke and Sakura Uchiha—"

"Don't be so silly, it's Sakura Haruno! Uchiha's don't wed outside of their clan!"

Sakura watched as the two broadcasters bickered on, and the crowd let out a forced laugh.

"There isn't an Uchiha clan anymore. He's got to wed someone! I think there's something seriously strange going on between these two, anyways."

The camera pans to the audience where a green-haired civilian woman stands. A microphone is shoved in her face. "I don't know much about the Uchiha's." She says. "I see their symbol in parts of our village that hadn't been demolished. Like, why were they so important?"

Joruri seemed to be an expert in the subject.

"The Uchiha have a very special kekkei-genkai—the Sharingan. It's one of the strongest visual prowesses in the ninja world. Way back when, the Uchiha ran the Konoha Police Force. Tragedy tore them down and they went from many, to two."

Another audience member stands. "I've always heard of the "tragedy". What exactly happened? Do we know?"

Suki clasps her hands together in excitement. She knows they are bringing in viewers, but Sakura cannot help but think how incredibly morbid the entire thing was. More and more these days, the sanctity of television was becoming blurred. Every detail of someone's death was broadcasted, cursing became more prevalent, and no one had any respect left.

"It's been said that they were wiped out in a single night," the red-head begins, as if speaking about some dark fairytale.

Sakura pushes her hand deeper into Sasuke's chest as Naruto raises the volume. She needs to calm her rage.

"A single child slaughtered the lives of so many innocent. Men, women, children—they all fell at the hands of their brother. Itachi Uchiha was a thirteen year old ANBU captain when he defected. Some say he went insane, some say he was acting on order. The truth may never come out."

"Sasuke Uchiha defected, too, didn't he?" Suki asks, even though she already knows the answer. "It seems that thirteen is a rough year for that kind. It might be better if their clan dies out with this one."

What the fuck? Hot tears pour from Sakura's face and she grinds her teeth. She does not cry in sadness or despair—she's infuriated.

Naruto stands, feeling her same wrath tenfold. "Who they hell do they think they are, the bastards!"

"Is this how people really see him?" She asks, spreading her fingers along Sasuke's bare sternum. This man had suffered more than any one should ever have to. No one deserved this.

Sasuke was serious, it was true. He judged and killed with a precise intelligence, doing whatever he could to reach his goal. Those mismatched eyes were always calculating—always watching, and he was terrifying in most situations.

But Sasuke was more than that.

Behind his guarded and competitive exterior sat a man that only wanted what he thought was best. There had been many like him—doing bad things for reasons they thought were just. His thoughts and ideas had been jaded from abuse and neglect.

Carefully, Sakura brushes a thick lock of hair from his forehead and he stirs from her touch. Her hand caresses his cheek, his jawline, the curve of his ear.

How could he be so beautiful? Sasuke reminded her of winter—fleeting, cold and breathtaking. "He's so broken, Naruto. Yet they continue to beat him while he's down."

Naruto leans back in his chair and listens as she speaks. The TV does not interest him anymore.

Sakura had a way of taking the attention of an entire room when she spoke. Her voice could be both authoritarian and harsh, when needed. But it's splintery in this moment, shattering between her pausing sobs.

"I try to help him—I really do. We kissed you know."

He didn't know.

"I thought it was perfect. It was right here, on this bed. I leaned into him and—would you believe it—I missed!" Her laugh holds no humor. "I kissed him over and over until he fell asleep."

"He cares about you," the man says. Naruto isn't sure if Sasuke even knew. If he allowed her to kiss him, then wasn't that proof enough? It was never easy for the coal-haired man. He's loved and lost, and now, maybe he's lost in love.

Sakura shakes her head. "I want to think that he does. But I…I think he feels obligated to care, either by your blackmail, or…because he has no idea how to repent for his sins. He wants people to do whatever they need to do to heal."

"Or," Naruto repeats. "Maybe he cares about you."

"There was no sign of a struggle. He let someone poison him. He knew who did it and he didn't even try to fight back. Just like,"

She pauses and shuts her eyes together tightly. "…just like when I asked to kiss him."

Sasuke's finger twitches, but he is not alert. He's drifting in and out floating through trees and walking among seas.

"I'm going to kill whoever hurt him. I swear it," She says, grating her molars together.

Naruto stands to close the window. It's too chilly. "You can't take care of Sasuke and me if you're in jail."

She snarls. "That's another thing! These people have no idea what Sasuke went through. He had reasons for leaving—I'm not sure I would have sided with our village either if I would have known what they did to him! This whole system is messed up. They put Sasuke in jail when he returned. They repay him, for saving literally everyone, by throwing him in prison? I saw him once, Naruto. They wouldn't let me speak to him, but I saw him. He was in a straightjacket and his eyes were sealed like he'd actually attack us."

Her voice cracks but Naruto doesn't pay any mind.

"How could they do that to him—to you? You were just kids. You were just kids and all you needed was love and friendship and no one ever bothered to offer it to you. It sickens me."

Sakura can't stop her tears from wetting Sasuke's exposed skin. The sheet crinkles from her pressure.

"I was just as disgusting. I hated you because it's what my mother told me to do. "Watch out for him. Oh no, you're in his class? Don't let him touch you. He doesn't act right because he doesn't have any discipline." What the hell did she know? Fuck her!"

Sasuke's eyes open briefly during her speech. He sees her—her face is rosy and salt trails stain her skin. It's like he's underwater—everything is blurry and sound reverberates every which way.

What is she saying?

What's wrong?

Naruto's heart throbs with sadness. He takes a seat next to Sakura and carefully tucks her pink hair behind her ear, trying his best to console her.

Naruto used to think that he must have been a very, very bad person in his past life. Maybe he had been murderer or a thief; some kind of degenerate who was destined to be cursed for all of eternity, because he couldn't understand why he was always treated so poorly. He remembers lonely nights and cold rooms and numbness—tears that wouldn't fall any longer.

It wasn't like that anymore.

In his bed, his wife lays. She is curled between the sheets that smell like him. Hinata wears his shirt around their house, and wakes up early every morning to make sure he eats well. And after long days, when the sun falls and the moon finds its place among the stars, he takes her—tastes everything she has to offer and devours everything she has to give. They fall asleep between huffing breathes and in gentle embraces, just like a man and a woman should.

Naruto had found his true peace in her arms.

Life was funny, the way it worked. "You didn't know better, and I don't blame you. It will all work out in the end. I know it did for me." Naruto says, and it is full of truth. There was no point in crying about the past, because the future was too bright to ignore. "Tsunade and Kakashi did what they thought was fair for everyone."

"For everyone," She replies. "Where's Sasuke in that? Why is he doomed to live a life of repentance? How is that fair?"

The kyuubi sucks up a deep breath and takes another swig of his water. He knows just how unkind this world could be firsthand. Bad things happened to good people and vice versa. Sasuke was neither bad, nor good. He was simply a perfectly flawed human being who leaned more towards "bad" for a while.

"Sasuke made his own decisions, Sakura. Just like Itachi did."

She stares at him. Naruto was…not a child, anymore. He was mature, and he saw the world in a different way. Slowly the man began understanding the ebbs and flows of nature—of light and dark.

"Sasuke made horrible choices. I know that he was influenced, Sakura, but in the end…his choices were his alone." He fists the cloth of his pants, as if he needed something to squeeze.

"I…would rather die than harm an innocent person. I would take my own life before I worked alongside someone as evil as Orochimaru was. Sasuke didn't. Sasuke had a plan to kill each and every person in Konoha—you, me, everyone we've ever glanced at and never spoke to. Not everyone will welcome him like we do. Not everyone has the capacity to forgive."

His shoulder is sturdy so she leans on it for support. He didn't smell like cheap ramen and river water anymore. Perhaps that scent would be nostalgic, from now on.

"Why does it hurt so much, knowing that he may never be accepted? It feels as though my heart is splitting in two, because I know that he truly doesn't deserve any of this. "

Naruto looks up at the ceiling. "He needs you now, more than ever. You just have to decide if you're willing to be with a man that can't love you like those silly novels Jiraiya wrote."

Sakura had to know that any romance with Sasuke Uchiha was bound to be full of more angst than fluff. Could she handle waking up to an empty bed, when he left her once more? Sasuke would probably never hold her hand openly or kiss her for all to see. He wouldn't declare his unfathomable love—nor would he probably even say the words. What was better; being in love with him, or being in love without him?

To Sakura, none of that mattered.

She didn't love Sasuke for petty reasons, and it wasn't something she could simply turn off with the flick of a switch. She didn't care if she'd never get to flaunt their togetherness. And, even if he found his place in some other woman's arms, Sakura knew that, more than anything, she wanted to be there for him.

If Sasuke wanted to belong to the stars, she would be the night that cradled him. If Sasuke wanted to drift like a feather, she would be the wind that took him far, far away.

Forever and for always, she wants to remain by his side.

"I'm more than willing." Sakura feels her throat closing. "Even if Sasuke can never return these feelings, I know that my resolve will never falter. I don't care if I become an outcast. " Dropping her head onto Sasuke's chest, Sakura continues. Her voice is small but it carries in the dull drone of the room.

"I don't care if loving him kills me, or that my soul and spirit are slowly being broken, b-because…"

…they are his for the taking.

She does not get the chance to speak her final words.

Sasuke has awoken.


Puce forelocks stretch down the length of her face, dancing in his vision like the petals of a cherry tree. Her smile is genuine and tired as she checks his vitals professionally. Dancing her fingertips along the skin of his throat and the swell of his inner wrist, she murmurs to him. "Everything is finally normal."

She looks happy, opposing her morose words.

Nebulas of emotion twirl around his core—confusion, guilt, anger. Sasuke knew what he was and wasn't entitled to…and Sakura could never belong to him. He'd reached an epiphany, and sadly, he wanted nothing more than to leave her presence entirely.

Sakura was being dulled by Sasuke's influence, and being close to her only caused her more pain. He had always thought of Sakura as heaven, even as a young boy. She was headstrong but fragile, too innocent to belong to a world of killing and death. Sasuke belonged to that place, the underworld, and he refused to be her downfall.

He refused to clip her wings.

"I'm so happy you're alright." The woman says shyly. She wipes her cheek with the back of her hand.

Her touch is not something he can handle right now, so he tries to sit up.

"You can't move just yet. What do you need? Are you hungry? Are you thirsty?"

"No," The man says. His voice is gruff and strict.

Naruto is already out of the room, leaving the two alone briefly. She adjusts the sheet, draping the cloth low on his hips so she can check the color of his skin. He feels her grab his hand and her touch his feather light as she massages blood back into the unfeeling digits. The pads of her thumb rub circles against his knuckles.

"I want a shower,"

Sakura looks into his dark eye. The other is covered behind a black fringe of hair, making him look mysterious and sensual. How did he manage to look so beautiful even when he was caked in layers of perspiration and dried blood?

Naruto reenters and climbs onto the other side of the bed with a beverage.

"Hey, fucker," He greets.

Sasuke groans as the man places a cold bottle of water to the side of his cheeks, stinging his flesh.

Sakura thumps the Kyuubi's ear. "Stop pestering him! Help him to the bathroom and bring a change of clothes with you."

Now, it's his turn to groan. "Gross, you want to me help him bathe? Am I supposed to undress him, too?"

"He's already naked." The woman says with a shrug of her shoulder.

"You say that so easily. I'm just gonna assume this isn't the first time he's been in your bed like this."

This time, it's Sasuke that does the hitting.


Sasuke drags his nails against his scalp and down the length of his chest. He washes away layers of grunge under the steaming tap, watching his skin redden under his harsh scrub. Soap runs freely, frothing from the powerful spray of water.

"What's taking you so long? Are you jerking off or something?" Naruto yells, banging on the door. Without the smallest shred of decency, the man turns the knob and makes his way into the steamy bathroom. "It's so hot in here, I can't breathe."

"Good, die." Sasuke bites out, cleaning under his fingernails.

"Big words, coming from someone who really did die," the man replies, propping himself up on the sink's counter. He swings his legs back and forth, drumming his heel against the drawers beneath.

"If you think those are big words, you're even dumber than I thought." Sasuke turns off the shower and steps out, pulling a towel off of the rack. "Why are you in here?"

"I know you heard what Sakura and I said, before you woke up. I guess we need to talk about it."

Naruto thought that, of all of the times Sasuke had to wake up, it had to be then. Maybe it wasn't his place to keep prodding between his and Sakura's…whatever the hell they had going on…but Sakura was his slap in the face when it came to Hinata. He wishes she'd have done it, sooner.

Now it's his turn to slap Sasuke.

"There's nothing to talk about." He says with a sigh.

"Then listen."

Sasuke shrugs on his shirt and walks out of the room and into the foyer. He walks past Sakura briskly, tugging on his abandoned boots in the foyer before his feet have even had a chance to dry properly. "Whatever,"

Sakura watches their exchange with hesitance. What was going on? "Sasuke, you're too weak to leave just yet. Why don't you rest a bit more?"

He completely ignores her and pulls on his cloak. Naruto, sensing the imminent battle, pulls on his own shoes before calmly walking out of the front door.

He cannot hear if they are speaking or arguing, and he hopes it's the former. Sasuke was always really good at keeping his emotions under control. But that also meant he was prone to snapping, and snapping out at Sakura would end up biting him in the ass.

People walk by and greet him politely as he fiddles with her wreath, picking away at loose trinkets.

Sakura gnaws her lip as Sasuke buttons his jacket. It was much too cold, and much too early for him to start moving around. "Where are you going?"

"Food," He says curtly. His hand reaches for the doorknob but Sakura places hers over it, halting his escape.

Her voice is thin, but not sad or brittle. Sakura may not understand all of Sasuke's feelings, but trepidation and annoyance were his most prevalent emotions and she'd seen them enough to recognize the apprehension.

"You're mad at me,"

It's not a question.

Sasuke looks down at her. Her soft, dancing eyelashes and kaleidoscope irises peer from behind a curtain of fairy-floss pink. Her lip was vacillating between her upper and lower teeth, tempting him with the plumpness.

He wasn't mad at her—he was mad at himself. Sasuke was going to leave, regardless of what transpired between them, and that would leave an even bigger hole in her already wounded heart. Sasuke was distraught.

Was he leading her on by letting his barriers fall? Nothing she did could make him stay—love, sex, lust—because it was his duty as a ninja to follow through with this mission. And honestly, Sasuke couldn't stand staying in this place longer than necessary.

"I'm not," He finally says.

The woman presses herself into Sasuke until the wooden door halts any further movements. She looks up at him, reflecting his own imagine within.

Her words rang painfully in his ears. I don't care if loving him kills me.

Well, Sakura may not care—but Sasuke certainly did.

She cradled his face within her hands. At first, he jerks his head away, but when her fingertips flutter across his jaw he has no choice but to meet her gaze fully. "What have I done?"

Nothing, he wants to say. She was perfect in every way, undeserving of the curse of the Uchiha. He could not be the man that held her every night, and declared his love to the world. In fact, Sasuke didn't think he could ever come to terms with his own feelings—what was this, anyways?

Could he call it love, truly, or was it a warped sense of lust that stemmed from what he knew of their younger innocence? Maybe he did not want to take her like he'd been taken.

And Sakura feels his turmoil. She's losing him before he was even hers.

She's desperate—more than anything she wishes Cy-Lan could share his thoughts with her. It was so much easier to understand him when his barriers were down. She wants him to tell her that everything is alright, but Sasuke was not one for flowery words.

Sakura knows that Sasuke was looking for redemption. He would do almost anything to get others to forgive him. She knew that Sasuke would not deny her his lips, and she feels manipulative by wanting to ask. Sakura was weak, though. With the smallest whisper she asks, "Can I kiss you?"

And she knows her question is wrong, but she cannot help it. She wants to feel him—she wants to pretend everything was okay. She suppresses the guilt.

Sasuke automatically answers. "Do whatever you want."

So she does.

She stretches out on her tiptoes but she's still too short to touch his mouth. Dipping his head low he allows her to press against his mouth and linger. So sweet, so gentle—he could take her right there.

Her lips move against his and timidly her tongue darts out, tasting his flesh. She was a drug, but he was strong willed. He pulls away from her body and exits her apartment, fading into the evening.