Title: Moments in Time: A Close Up
Author: AppleL0V3R
Beta-reader: Terror-Of-The-Crimson-Night
Fandom: Naruto
Pairing: Uchiha, Itachi and Haruno, Sakura
Chapter: Forty-Five – #77 Suicide: End Goal
Rating: T
Type: One-shot – Complete
Summary: Prompts from Moments in Time that I was requested to expand on. 45. 77 – Suicide: End Goal. For the first time, Itachi had a second opinion about his plan for his life.
Word Count: 4,000
Disclaimer: If you've heard of it before, then it's obviously not mine.
Note: As the summary states these were skits I was asked to turn into actually works. I will always put which one it was and the skit just before the chapter. They won't be in numerical order because I'm doing them as I'm requested. They won't be any more than one-shots though they may become two to five –shots (I will forewarn when that happens) but they won't become stories unless I choose to.
Request by: Anime Freak456
..:Xx0o0xX:..
77. Suicide (Itachi)
She had a more violent reaction than he had anticipated. In fact he hadn't expected her to even care, let alone glare at him with so many emotions. Fury, disappointment, disbelief, concern, hatred, compassion. Each one ran into the next and she didn't bother to veil them in big, expressive green eyes.
"I can't believe you." Her voice was soft, quiet. It shook with emotion.
He didn't respond.
"I wouldn't have pegged you for suicidal." More of a growl now.
He narrowed his eyes. "You wanted to hear."
"You planned your death! You wanted to make Sasuke a hero? All he'll do is suffer with your plan. Isolated, hateful, angry, empty. It's not going to go away when he kills you. The least you could have done was spare him the pain, you suicidal moron."
..:Xx0o0xX:..
He'd learned first hand that messing with fire always ended up getting someone burnt. But he'd learned over the years to tame that fire, bend it to his will so that he never ran that risk. Not till now.
Sakura wasn't tamable; she couldn't be pushed or trapped into anything, not even with her hands tied to the point of cutting into her wrists, her mouth gagged and her energy depleted. She didn't bend unless she wanted to. And that was because she wasn't just fire. Her green eyes danced bright with fire and Itachi knew that green fire, though very exotic, was a lot hotter than any normal fire. It was second only to blue fire and she definitely had the strength to show it.
But she didn't scream and kick; she didn't use underhanded tricks either. She took everything thrown at her with a head held high and smoldering eyes that promised retribution. That didn't mean though, that she wasn't above loopholes. She took every opportunity to be as uncooperative as possible without raising a fuss or doing anything that would warrant any emotions stronger than irritation. He knew it was because she felt that if they were going to make her uncomfortable than she wasn't going to allow them to be satisfied either.
And though he could applaud her strength, right now it was hindering him. Stopping him from getting what he wanted and Uchiha, Itachi had never been too fond of being kept from his goals.
He had her in his custody because she knew exactly where his little brother was, but she wouldn't speak. She wouldn't even go near the topic, ignoring him completely if she had to. It was irksome and he couldn't figure out why in the world she would protect his brat. The boy had done nothing but shun and hurt her, yet here she was doing everything within her power to shelter him, to keep him from what she viewed as an enemy.
Itachi blinked. That was it. She thought he was the enemy, if he could make her see that he was not, that he wanted what was best for Sasuke as well, then there was every chance that she'd tell him what he wanted to know. Standing from his seemingly relaxed position in the chair he headed for the door to the hallway. Kisame watched him pass without a word, but grinned, clearly the blue man already knew what he was up to. That was why the Uchiha liked his partner, he was just intuitive enough that Itachi didn't need to even say what he was doing and unless the swordsman had a problem with it, didn't do anything to contradict.
His booted feet took him down the hallway of the small building that he had been using as a safe house. It was on the edge of Kiri, right outside the border where the Fire Country and Wave Country meet the gray area that was no-man's-land. He'd found this place by accident when he was fifteen, and had never gotten caught in the sparingly little time he was within its walls.
Stopping at the end of the hall, he rapped the back of his knuckles softly on the door before entering. The bed was directly opposite the door and there were no windows in the room, nor was there any other doors. It was the only room in the house that was like this and since anyone entering or leaving the room could be clearly seen from the living room, it had been the most ideal to put her in. The kunoichi herself had her body twisted in an uncomfortable looking way on the bed, clearly using her abundance of time to get some sleep. Upon his entrance, she'd opened the one eye that wasn't buried in the pillow before promptly letting it fall shut once more.
He knew she wasn't dismissing him or the threat that he posed, but he'd obviously caught her in a groggy state. His stopped by the bed and crouched down, but didn't say anything at all to her, his vantage point of mere feet away allowed him to observe this side of her. With all her spirit and spunk, she'd refused to let them see even the slightest bit of vulnerability. And yet here she was letting her eyes stay shut without even fidgeting even though she knew he was right there. He could see that she'd maneuvered her body so that her legs were slightly bent, keeping her on her side while she'd crossed her arms at her wrists behind her back.
Her arms must be aching; he hadn't once let the restraints even so much as loosen in the short time he'd been keeping her here. She shifted a little, placing one of her legs a closer to him and moved the other half the distance. Itachi kept quiet, instinctively guessing that she was trying to talk herself into sitting up and meeting him head on like a she had been all this time. But the fact that she was stalling told him something new, she was getting tired. Not just physically, but emotionally. Did she know how much more fight she had left in her? Did she know she was giving herself away right this very moment?
When she still hadn't even opened her eyes after a few moments, he decided to test a new theory. Reaching over her with one arm, he grasped her elbow with a light but firm grip, keeping a steady eye on her the entire while. This time, both green eyes came into full view, but she didn't do much further than that as her body went rigid. How intelligent they looked, he mused, so much knowledge and instinct and emotion laid bare for all the world to see. There was so much there, that it was almost impossible to pick one thing out as dominate, almost too hard to catch her train of thought.
Slowly, as if making a show of not paying her any mind even though he'd locked eyes with her, he let go of her elbow to trail fingertips down the flesh of her skin. Only briefly did he flicker his crimson eyes to his hand as he did so when he saw a slight tremor go through her, and noted the gooseflesh in the wake of his idle hands with piqued interest. With this new found interest, he chose on a whim to explore it further, it wasn't like there was any reason he shouldn't, she wasn't objecting. In fact her body had relaxed once more and green eyes slipped shut when his focused elsewhere.
A corner of his mouth lifted slightly, still watching his hand and her flesh as it finally got to the bindings. They'd been there long enough that even though they were still firmly in place – she hadn't even tried to sabotage them it seemed – he could see how raw it had made her pale skin and felt the complete lack of chakra in her completely. It took a brave shinobi to stay so still and relaxed in her circumstances. More points in her favor.
With a sudden, quick tug, the bindings wore torn from her limbs and discarded beneath them. This time, more than her eyelids moved, her eyes came open, large yet narrowed, and her upper body raised a little. When he'd removed the chakra wire, he'd once more seized her wrists, both of them just to be on the safe side, but she hadn't even tried to get one of them under her at the very least. Her head was off the pillow and her legs more curled in so that her feet were only a few inches from their hands, but otherwise she didn't do anything. Staying as still as death, she seemed to wait for him to make the next move.
Gliding his eyes along her body, he found himself complimenting her instincts and wisdom once more. Had she done any more or even made the slightest move to get free and run he would have had a knife to and possible cutting into her throat as he pushed her back down. But that wasn't the case, she'd come right to the line and stopped. Yes, he definitely would have loved to play with this one a lot more.
"Do you have no fear, Kunoichi?"
"My name is Sakura, I'm sure you know that by now."
He tilted his head slightly and waited for a proper answer.
Scowling at him, she let her body go limp once more, flopping back down into the bed. This time, more on her back and had to wiggle to urge him into moving his arm so that she could do so with both wrists crossed and completely in his grasp. In the end she got the position she wanted, but it had caused him to lean forward slightly and rest his arm across the length of her abdomen. It was nicely toned under his weight, he noted idly.
"I assure you, I have healthy quota of fear. No sane person wouldn't."
He chuckled lightly at her added insinuation, "A sane person would indeed, but that's not what I asked."
"Yes it is, you said 'do you have no fear' and I told you that I did. Implied questions don't count."
Pausing for only a moment, he conceded to that, "What would you do if I let go of your wrists right now?"
"Rub them."
He almost blinked at the simple answer. Curiosity got the better of him and so he did just that, let go of her. True to her words, she pulled one out from under her to rub the raw skin at a more comfortable position. Pulling his hand back, he simply watched, waiting to see what she would do when she was satisfied. When she finally did, she clasped her hands and let them drop onto her stomach. Then she turned her head to look him in the eye once more.
For such a docile action, he knew the belying message. And he also knew it was in direct correlation to his first question. Choosing not to halt it, he let his lip tug upward into a small smirk of wry amusement once more.
To his surprise it drew a smile out of her, followed by her flipping her body onto its side yet again, ending up in the same position as she had been when he first entered. But this time she'd moved one arm to support her head in the crook of her elbow, hand disappearing from view as the other rested lightly on her hip.
"So what's next?"
"If you're good, you stay untied."
"Good…I think I can manage that."
He raised an eyebrow, "Even if that means completely answering my questions?"
The smile was gone in instant and she put both arms out in front of her, "Might as well as bind them now."
He ignored them, shifting his weight to one foot as he did so. "Where is Sasuke?"
Locking her jaw she stared back at him. Clearly, she still wasn't going to speak, but this time around, he had no intention of budging. And thus, they were stuck in a stare down of sorts.
"Why'd you do it?"
Again he tilted his head slightly, inquiringly. That wasn't the response that he'd been looking for, but if she was willing to go near the topic he wasn't going to pass up the chance for a simple captor-captive complex. As far as he was concerned she knew full well who was in charge here and that he was letting her play this game so no real harm was being done. "Do what?"
"Torture him like that? I get that you were ordered to kill your family, screwed up as it is, I get that. I also get that you, for your own reasons, wouldn't kill Sasuke. But why turn compassion to sadism? Why kill him like that?"
"I did not kill him." That was not something he would have on his conscious on top of everything else, never once had endangered the boy's life. Not once and he wouldn't have it mistaken otherwise.
"Have you seen his eyes recently? Dead. So why?"
The knowledge was disheartening, because no, he had not even seen a glimpse of his precious little brat since he was twelve. And at that time, the emotions swimming in his eyes had been more than proof of life, even though they kept alternating mostly between anger and hatred at the time.
"To make him stronger."
"Bull. He was eight. Why'd you do it to him?"
He was quite for a moment, assessing her, surprised with how quickly he'd called his bluff. A bluff he'd been shoving down his own throat all these years, telling himself that it was the only reason that mattered.
"To show him he didn't need me."
She snorted, "Hell of a way to do it."
Frowning, he found himself starting to get irritated for the first time in a long time. "Kunoichi, you are trying my patience."
"Play with me a little longer." Her voice had lost its listless and nonchalant edge. No longer was it mild and causal, but it was quiet and seeking. "Tell me the story. The whole thing, facts don't mean any more to me than numbers do. If you'll tell me the whole story, from your point of view, no political crap or red tape or anything of the sort, I will tell you exactly where Sasuke is and what condition he's in."
He froze for a moment, "Condition?"
Sakura shook her head, "Story first."
Calculating eyes ran over her once more, this intriguing little thing that he had to admit would be good company. After a long moment, he sought her eyes out once more – they were his favorite part of her, so big and green, so exotic and powerful – and finally nodded.
She smiled faintly and scooted over to make room for him on the old mattress.
..:Xx0o0xX:..
She had a more violent reaction than he had anticipated. In fact he hadn't expected her to even care, let alone glare at him with so many emotions. Fury, disappointment, disbelief, concern, hatred, compassion. Each one ran into the next and she didn't bother to veil them in big, expressive green eyes.
"I can't believe you." Her voice was soft, quiet. It shook with emotion.
He didn't respond.
"I wouldn't have pegged you for suicidal." More of a growl now.
He narrowed his eyes. "You wanted to hear."
"You planned your death! You wanted to make Sasuke a hero? All he'll do is suffer with your plan. Isolated, hateful, angry, empty. It's not going to go away when he kills you. The least you could have done was spare him the pain, you suicidal moron."
Quicker than lightning, he was on top of her, pushing her down even though she hadn't moved since she'd first settled into the position nearly an hour ago. He pushed her onto her back, easily finding her arms and trapping them above her at the wrists – skin still red and new – as he leaned down until his necklace rested on the crease between her lips and his nose almost touched hers. "I humored you, that does not mean that I will simply let you insult me, Kunoichi." His voice was quiet and deadly.
He was about to push backwards when she opened her mouth and tugged on the intricate but simple chain. "Sasuke is at the Sand and Rain boarder, just inside the Wind Country, right next to the where the two lands meet with the third one, the one to the left of Ame."
Stilling, he waited for her to continue, ignoring how she struck him as alluring with his one precious memento – the one and only thing his mother had given to him as a child – in her mouth.
"He's in a comatose state. Before you say anything, I induced it, his mind would have killed him from the amount of pain he was in if I hadn't. Right now, his body is still recuperating and he will wake up, if I'm not wrong, he should be lucid and coherent – if left to do so by himself – in two weeks. Shorter if a medic speeds up the process, however that isn't advisable, all things considered." She paused, seeming to go over some list in her mind as she did so. "I'm assuming you know that Madara has had contact with him?"
Itachi frowned. He had not been aware.
"Well, that's why he ended up the way he did in the first place. Madara seriously messed up his train of thought and goals and everything, in the end Sasuke came a hares breadth from clinically insane. That's also why I put him in that state, it's so his mind can sort out all the crap it's been overloaded with."
She sighed, the chain clinking slightly with her teeth as she did so, "I honestly don't know how he's going to react to you. That's why I wanted to know what happened back then. As far as I can guess, there is a very real possibility his mind might label everything Madara said as hallucinations and never happened, or to cope his mind could have blanked itself completely. In other words, amnesia and I have no way of knowing if it's permanent or not."
He shifted slightly, nestling his knees a little more comfortably against her hips as he did so, but still didn't pull back. "There is nothing more you can do for him?"
She shook her head slightly, not enough for the chain to ever fall out of her mouth, "No, the rest is all him and his mind and rationale. And time, there's no telling how long the actually recovery process could take, if it's even possible."
He nodded, absently letting go over wrists to more fully support his weight.
Finally. He was going to get what he wanted, and no, he hadn't expected to be easy, but this wasn't going to be any trickery than he'd originally anticipated. But Sasuke was completely across the lands, all the way in Suna. He paused at that, "You said he was inside the Wind Country."
She nodded slowly, clearly not seeing the point of the statement. Not at first but after a moment it clicked, "Remember Sabaku no Gaara? Naruto isn't his only best friend from Konoha. I've helped him out enough that he didn't have any object to having Sasuke there so long as it was on the borders and there was no threat to his people."
Itachi decided to file that bit of knowledge away with all the other things that pertained to this woman and her usefulness. Speaking of which, it was about time he did something about his necklace being between her teeth. "Sakura. Is there any particular reason you are biting my necklace?"
She blinked and to his surprise blushed a pretty pink, quickly pushing said object out of her mouth as she did so, squeaking a quick 'no' and 'sorry' in the processes. He let his gaze sweep over her yet again, this time to compare the image to the one just moments before. He wondered if she looked in such a way with other things in her mouth, or if it only had any effect when those things belonged to him. Picking up his hand once more, he placed fingertips against her cheek and much as he had to her arm, he trailed it lightly across the skin.
The flush darkened, but he was more focused on the path of his fingers. In soft slight designs, he let them dance to the edge of her mouth, skirting under and over but not quite touching. He dimly registered her pulling her arms down so that she grasp fistfuls of his shirt or the way her breathing got shallow. After a little more of this, he dragged his middle and index fingers along her full bottom lip, adding pressure as he did so.
A soft sound vibrated from the back of her throat as not for the first time, her eyes slid closed. She was clearly enjoying the sensations, but he had yet to answer his idle question so he had no intention of exploring into just how many sounds she could make even with her mouth closed. Not yet.
Pressing one finger more fully against her skin at the center of her mouth, closer to the crease so that the flesh would yield more easily, he tugged on her jaw slightly, to get his finger passed her teeth. He paused like that, sweeping his assessing eyes once more. It was when the thing in her mouth belonged to him, he decided finally. It was so much more…satisfying. Slowly, almost reluctantly he pulled his hand back; in doing so he got a slight sound of protest out of her.
Smirk back in place, he reached behind his neck to unclasp the chain. He'd had the simple thing for so long that it felt almost odd to remove it now, but he was finding there were many theories he wanted to test on her. And many curiosities, one after the other. Pushing aside her long pink hair – strangely, he didn't see it as exotic as her eyes – and linked the chain so that it wouldn't come off of her. Settling back he decided he liked the sight he was met with.
She peeked an eye open at him, curious but not shy, as she pulled one of her own hands back to touch the new weight on her skin. She blinked with surprise, her eyes full of askance once more, but the smile was in place.
"I've changed my mind, Sakura. You won't be going anywhere."
"Oh? Then I'm assuming you want something else from me."
He tilted his head, never once losing eye contact, "Something like that."
She hummed. "I think I can live with that."
