A/N: Hello everyone! Though the title of this chapter is similar with the movie of Anne Hathaway and Jake Gyllenhaal, this chapter is in no way similar to the story of that movie (BTW, if you haven't watched it yet. Please do.)

WARNING: Character deaths ahead. Proceed with caution.

Enjoy! (^^,)

CHAPTER 35: Love and Other Drugs

Tobirama stepped out from where he was hiding and shot continuously at the wide floor-to-ceiling glass window.

His actions surprised Orochimaru but that did not stop the latter from shooting at him.

However, Tobirama began running while successfully dodging most of the bullets shot at him. When he passed by Orochimaru, he flashed him a little smirk before he dropped the grenade in front of him.

"You piece of shit." Orochimaru sneered as Tobirama crashed himself on the broken window and jumped from the building's 53rd floor.

Kakashi had just shot a man in the face when he heard the explosion above.

[Kakashi…] his ear piece crackled, [Focus. Your father's safe. Ebisu made it in time to save him.]

Sai said as he watched the video footage of Ebisu's impeccable timing in lowering the rope ladder from the helicopter just in time for Tobirama to grab on to it before the explosion took place.

[Dr. Senju will be with us shortly... Right now, I've got a visual on Sakura.]

"How is she?" Kakashi asked. It had been so long since he last saw Sakura that he couldn't help but be worried and angry at the same time.

[She's unconscious. But she's with the Mitarashi woman and some other guy. They're taking the elevator. I'll send them your way.] Sai informed Kakashi as the former accessed the controls to the elevators.

"How about the others?" Kakashi asked, pertaining to Sasuke and his team, including Sasuke's brother, Itachi Uchiha.

While talking over his ear piece, Sai could hear the sound of guns going off, but Kakashi didn't even let out a single grunt while Sai watched in another monitor how Kakashi took out every nuisance in his way.

[I've located the older brother. I'll be sending Genma and Yamato to him later. As for team Sasuke, though I couldn't get through him, it seems that he had given them his own orders. As of the moment, they're clearing paths for our team. Orochimaru's men just wouldn't stop coming.]

"Very well. Continue to monitor everyone else. I'll be waiting here for the one you sent me." Kakashi said as he grabbed a hidden weapon beneath the table close to him and emptied the magazine on the man who dared to swing a dagger right at his face.

"Goddamit! Move faster!" Anko screamed at Kabuto who was carrying Sakura on his back as she dragged him inside the executive elevator—one that supposedly led them straight to the 21st floor parking garage where her car was.

However, it made Anko even more furious when it went straight up ahead and stopped at the 41st floor.

"What's happening?" Kabuto asked, bewildered when the elevator did not stop at the 21st floor when Anko clearly pushed the correct button.

"I don't know! I think the elevator's jammed or something." Anko furiously retorted as she pushed the button once more in order to close the panel doors so they could try again. Unfortunately, this time, the doors seemed stuck which gave them no choice but to step out and seek for another elevator…or the stairs, whichever one is closer.

They could still hear the series of gunshots from a distance and were surprised to see several dead bodies in their search for the nearest elevator, but such did not even faze Anko as she searched for weapons on the dead bodies and armed herself with it. She also gave Kabuto one fully loaded gun as they continued to move forward.

On their next turn, the company office was up ahead and Anko knew that there was an elevator right in front of it. However, as they made their way towards it, Anko was met with another disappointment as the elevator had been totally wrecked because of some unknown explosion. What's more, when she turned, she saw a man in a suit standing beside the wide floor-to-ceiling window.

The man seemed to be staring at the droplets of rain on the glass, but Anko noticed that just like her, he too, was holding a gun. She had stood there for a full second, frozen for what seemed like an eternity as she gazed at the man who was as still as a perfectly sculpted statue despite the debris and dead bodies lying around him. Despite that, the man, the intruder, didn't seem to notice them. It was only when Kabuto swiftly pulled her to the side that she got back to her senses and remembered why they were in hiding and in such a hurry.

"What the fuck are you doing?!" Kabuto whispered in annoyance.

"I know that man." Anko answered as she tried to take a peek once again.

"Did it ever cross your mind that that man may be the reason why there are so many dead bodies in here?!"

"I don't care. You don't know him like I do."

"Goddamit Anko! Use your fucking head. We're under attack and it may be because of this woman." Kabuto reasoned as he pertained to Sakura. "If that man is who I think he is? He sure isn't waiting for you. He's here for her."

"Shut up! Shut up!" Anko hissed as she refused to listen to what Kabuto was saying. "Listen to me. Here's what you're going to do..."

"No."

"Stop being a fucking piece of shit and listen to me! This is what father would want. He's probably waiting in his lab right now, so what I need you to do is to go there and help him finish with his drug experiment. Understand? And take this woman with you. Since apparently, she's useless for the Topaz, Father wants her as his guinea pig."

Because Kabuto wasn't as loyal to Anko as he was to Orochimaru, the thought of serving his true master and developing a new drug with him delighted him to a great extent. His master had shown him the beauty and power behind his experiments, that the more it transgressed with what is moral, the more it peaked his interests. That's why he had no second thoughts on leaving Anko behind, because unlike him, the woman had no interests on whatever it is that Orochimaru does.

There was no ounce of passion in her. Only greed and selfishness. Kabuto thought.

"Don't ever tell me I didn't warn you."

Anko only gave him a snide glance as he said those words.

"If he's really here for that woman, then I'd just have to make sure that they don't meet! That woman's dead meat anyway. So be sure to dispose of her after you've used her!" Anko said as she stood up.

"Wait, do you have the drug?" Kabuto reminded her.

"Of course." Anko smiled broadly before she entered the office doors to meet the man by the window.

The sound of Anko's heels clicked on the tiled floor as she approached Kakashi. However, even when she made no effort to conceal her presence, Kakashi still hasn't looked at her as though he always knew that she was there all along, and that nothing could surprise him.

"If you're looking for that pink haired tramp, I suggest you give up now." Anko advised as she appeared before Kakashi.

Kakashi, on the other hand, merely gave Anko an uninterested glance as he returned his gaze on the glass window. However, he noticed when she took a step forward—and so he spoke.

"Why'd you do it Anko? Why did you take her away?" Kakashi asked in a deep, solemn voice.

There was a moment of silence that stretched out like a dark shadow, but when Anko spoke, she said it loud enough for Kakashi to hear as she refused to let her words be drowned by the rain.

"Because she took you away from me, Kakashi!"

"I was never yours, Anko." He deadpanned.

"Yes you were! You were mine, Kakashi!" Anko screamed as she pointed the gun at him and locked her finger on the trigger. Kakashi could see the trembling in her limbs because of anger but he remained unfazed by it. He even faced Anko as he placed his hands in his pockets which pissed Anko off even more.

"Do you have any idea how much I love you?!" Anko demanded.

"There's a very thin line between love and obsession." Kakashi simply answered.

"I don't care!" Anko bellowed as she eventually dropped the gun and took shaky steps towards Kakashi. "I don't care... because for you, I feel both." She sobbed. "It's your fault Kakashi. It's your fault why I turned out like this." Anko blamed him as she stopped right in front of his chest, only to grab on to his suit and cry her heart out.

"Was there ever a time where you loved me?" Anko asked as her arms circled Kakashi's neck in order for her to hold him closer while she stared deeply into his eyes. Since she knew what his answer would be, she had already uncapped the syringe which Kabuto left her. If he was never going to be hers then why let others take him right?

But then, Kakashi answered…

"There was…" and he began enumerating those things which he claimed he loved about her. The, at the end of that list…

"I loved you the most during those times where you weren't trying so hard for me to notice you. I have always seen you, Anko. The problem was, you never saw that." He trailed off.

Anko was genuinely surprised. She had always thought that it was only her who loved, that it was only her who felt something for Kakashi. She was used to men bowing down before her because she had the body to manipulate them all. But with Kakashi, it was different.

Yes, he had been a challenge to tame, but it was only because of him that she felt like being hit by a freight train the first time she saw him on the corridors of the university. Maybe it was the thrill, maybe it was the challenge—but she got addicted to Kakashi like she would on ecstasy that even when she was aware that she was nothing but a sex buddy for him, she had whole heartedly accepted it because her brain said she loved him, while her body had undoubtedly craved for him.

Somehow, she understood what Kakashi meant about the thin line between love and obsession because she does feel both of it when it came to him. To her, Kakashi had been both everything she could ever want, and nothing she could ever have…but she knew it had always been him.

"Can't you love me again?" She asked because maybe, just maybe, she had a chance. He told her he loved her right? So maybe…

"You changed." Kakashi told her, and she found the strength to grip on the syringe that was hovering on the back of his neck. "You wanted so much attention that you began hurting my family… my sister… Sakura. And that, I could never forgive."

"Sakura?!" She huffed as she decided to finally pull away from him while Kakashi made no move even when he saw the syringe in her hand. "Ever since I saw her in your apartment, I knew she was your whore!" She accused. "I am so glad on what I did to that bitch. Best of luck on saving her. You might get her alive, but she's already dead on the inside."

Anko began laughing wickedly as she gripped the syringe she was holding. Kakashi had always known about the syringe but he did not brace himself for an attack even when the needle was about to pierce his skin. He was positive that Anko wouldn't do it, because the Anko he knew fed off of attention even up to the last minute.

Kakashi watched as Anko injected herself with the rust colored liquid while her sinister laugh continued…

"I want you to bury in your mind that it was you who killed me, Kakashi! Is falling in love that much of a mistake? Is being obsessed with the person you love so wrong?! My only fault was that I fell so in love with you, but then you killed me. You killed me, Kakashi! This one's on you!" She said as she fell to the ground and began contorting in pain until her lips turned blue and her mouth began to bubble as her eyes slowly rolled to the back of her head.

Kakashi watched as the last of Anko's tremors died down. The poison's effect was fast, faster than any he had witnessed. Then, he crouched beside her body as he gently glided his hand over her face to close her eyes.

Falling in love was never your mistake. Not knowing when to let go was. You shouldn't have been too attached on someone whom you know could never be yours. I didn't kill you. Your obsession did. He whispered as he stood up and walked away.

Kakashi had prepared a much more gruesome death for her, that was why he was waiting, but this was the path Anko chose…then so be it.

Kabuto was successful in locating the nearest staircase which led him the way down. Like the floor he had just been into, the staircase was full of scattered dead bodies as the sound of gun shots and explosions could still be heard from a distance.

He was careful not to step on any of the bodies so as not to trip and fall over until he found an elevator which seemed to be fully functioning still.

Kabuto's goal now was to get out of the building and to bring Sakura to his master. He pressed the button corresponding to floor #21 and hoped that it would work. When the elevator doors closed and the lift began moving, he sighed with relief as he adjusted Sakura on his back.

"If I were you, I'd leave me here and escape." She suddenly whispered which surprised Kabuto. True enough, her voice was weak, but he was still amazed of the fact that the woman still had the energy to be conscious and could still form words out of her mouth to speak.

"My master finds you too valuable to let go. And with your resilience, you'll be the perfect specimen for our research. I can't wait to test the new drug I have in mind for you." Kabuto giddily responded, however, Sakura answered him with a weak, painful laugh.

"Then I guess you'd die here." Sakura whispered as she fell unconscious once more.

Kabuto frowned and huffed because of what Sakura said. "If there's someone who's going to die, it's going to be you." He talked back, and just in time when the elevator doors opened to the 21st floor, Kabuto saw a familiar back that was Sasuke's and called him over as he brought Sakura down from his.

"Hey, you! Carry this woman over to that car over there. We're gonna leave this building. This woman needs to be secured for the master..."

Unfortunately, even before Kabuto could finish what he was saying, he felt something hard pierce through his flesh. It felt like a molten, hot iron just skewered his heart, and when he looked down, there was a hole in his chest where fresh blood was freely oozing its way out.

Kabuto tried his best to stop it. He covered the burning hole with his hand but the thick red liquid merely stained his palms and continued to flow out through his fingers.

"N-no. This…isn't...happening." He whispered as he staggered back to the wall of the elevator and fell just as the panel doors closed.

Sasuke swiftly rushed towards the elevator where Sakura was and pushed the button to open it. When the doors opened, he saw Kabuto's dead body lying on top of Sakura's, so he immediately pulled the body off her and used it as a block to prevent the elevator doors from closing.

He then placed his gun on the floor as he searched for the different syringes, which he knew Kabuto always had with him. When he emptied Kabuto's pockets, there were only two syringes left…

In the days where he was given the opportunity to observe what they did to Sakura, Sasuke noticed the three types of syringes Kabuto always carried with him.

First was the pain inducer they often times used on Sakura—it was the clear blue liquid; next was an unknown drug, the color of rust, and the last was a clear viscous liquid which he was positive was adrenaline because he saw Kabuto once extracted some of it from a vial labeled as such. The rust colored one was missing.

Sasuke failed to figure out why Kabuto was carrying such drugs with him, but he was positive on what adrenaline does to a body when injected directly to the heart.

'Here goes nothing.' He thought as he felt for Sakura's heartbeat through her clothes.

However, when Sasuke was about to inject it, Sakura opened her eyes and screamed.

"Sakura! Sakura! Sshh. Stop. It's okay! It's okay!" He assured her but Sakura tried her best to fight him off despite how weak she was.

She was screaming and crying at him that Sasuke had to pin her down with his forearms just to give her the necessary shot if he wanted her to survive the chaos happening inside the building.

Once the liquid had been injected, Sakura gasped as though electrified, and Sasuke saw how the pupils in her eyes narrow and dilate while the drug worked its magic.

At first it looked like Sakura was desperately gasping for air, so, Sasuke helped her in sitting upright. When her breathing slowed to a normal, Sakura startled him when she made a grab for the gun he previously put down, unclipped the safety and emptied the magazine by shooting right at him.

Sasuke froze as he felt the bullets passed by his face. He was so grateful that his gun was equipped with a silencer or else he would've been rendered completely deaf right at that very moment.

When there was nothing but clicking left on the gun, he looked behind him only to see three, new, dead bodies lying on the floor. The shots were clearly aimed on the parts of their body that would instantly kill them, and Sakura succeeded in doing just that.

Left with nothing coherent to say, Sasuke immediately stood up and helped Sakura on her feet. When they got out of the elevator, Sasuke immediately removed his bullet proofed coat and wrapped it around Sakura's shoulders.

"Wear this and don't remove it until we're sure that we're out of danger."

When Sasuke began to move, he was stopped when he felt something tug at his shirt. He looked back and saw Sakura looking at him.

"I need a gun." She whispered, but her words were sure. And seeing as how Sakura knew how to handle such weapon, Sasuke crouched beside the dead bodies without question and grabbed one gun, while he took the loaded magazines of the other two of similar model.

He handed the weapon to Sakura and placed the magazines on his coat pocket which she was now wearing. He then began to walk.

When he was already a few steps away, he frowned when he felt that something was amiss. He looked back again towards Sakura only to find out that she had not followed him, and instead, remained at the place where she was last standing.

.

.

.

Then she shot him.

A/N: Alas! We finally see Sakura in this chapter! Hooray! You go girl! And thank you Sasuke for that intracardiac injection which isn't really advisable to do in real life situations except on movies and stories like these. Hoho!

Also, I did prepare a much more gruesome death for Anko, but I felt that the way she died in here was appropriate. Initially, I imagined Kakashi killing her, like with all the guns and shit, then getting pushed off of the building, entrails scattering wherever! ***ooh! What joy!*** but my Kakashi here told the truth when he said that he did love her, and as a character created with a pure, unadulterated soul (what?!) he wouldn't go so far as to killing a woman he once loved though we all know that Anko deserved it. Lol. Sorry.

Lastly, falling in love, being in love, or love in general could definitely make anyone do a lot of crazy things. Sometimes, that love turns into obsession, and that can't be helped. However, in this chapter and in the previous ones, we saw the unhealthy kind of obsession, and I believe that's where the song Too much love will kill you comes in.

Ah, love is indeed a mysterious thing *gazes out of the window as the mind drifts far away*...

Thank you, everyone for the continued support and admiration on this story. The next chapter will probably be the conclusion.

P.S. I don't hate Anko or Kabuto. :)

TBC