!M rating content is in this chapter!
If that's not your cup of tea, when things heat up too much in Ancient times just skip to the last paragraph of that part. And then later in the present day while Sasuke and Sakura talk there is a part that borders the rating.
Chapter Thirty-Five: The Offering
I Loved You as Icarus Loved the Sun,
Too close, too much.
-David Jones
Ancient Greece:
The rays of high noon sunlight trickled down from the blue skies, bringing its warmth as it filtered through the olive trees surrounding them. The tree leaves danced in the salty breeze that came in from the sea that surrounded the isle. Each leaf alternated between deep green and a paler, almost silver toned green, as they caught the light of the sun each time they rusted in the wind.
Sasuke sat beneath one of the trees. Leaning against the trunk of the tree he shaded himself as he watched the woman before him. She spoke so animatedly that it was as if watching a play act of the mortal story she was reciting. But her movements were so graceful and charming that it felt more like an expressive dance than a play enactment.
Like many times, she had constructed a crown from whatever plants she could delicately weave, today a few switches from an olive tree. The green leaves, rich and contrasting against her rosette hair where the circlet now sat atop her head after having failed several attempts to place it on his own. The only reason he could bring himself to reject the attempts was that the flora crown suited her more. It was times like this-when she looked like this- that he found himself almost believing the myths she told him of her mortal beliefs of gods, goddesses, and heroes. The image of her looking every bit of a spring goddess whenever she donned her head with flowers and smiled at him with more love and adoration than he ever thought possible for a person to feel for another.
He would not believe it, thinking it a trick of the eye or a mirage if he himself did not think the same way but for her. What he saw in her expressive face, he felt in the very marrow of his bones. It pulsed throughout the entirety of his body with each beat his heart. Sometimes it terrified him just how much he felt for her. For centuries he was ignorant of the capacity in which such emotions and feelings could grow to be, and in just a few short months, he was finding that growth exponential. The rate of these feelings worried him. Just how much more could he feel for her? What effect would these feelings have in the long run? Already he felt that if she asked for it, he would give her this entire world. And he did not mean this tiny island that was all she knew of, but the entire globe of the mortal realm would be hers. And if this continued, what would he be willing to give and do for her in a few years? Months? Centuries? Were there even enough worlds to compensate?
"Are you even listening?"
Sasuke blinked and took in the woman who had ceased her fluid movements as she stood at his feet with her hands on her hips and lips pulled into a pout. His own lips went into a smirk as he imagined how those lips felt against his own.
"Yes," he assured. "Continue."
To be honest he had absolutely no idea what her story was about, he had long since stopped listening when he became too distracted when her shawl slipped from her shoulder to hang from the crook of her arm, leaving her hair to graze against her bare shoulder. The image caused him to begin to think about the smoothness and softness that both pieces of her offered. The silky softness of her hair and the smooth creamy feel of her skin. And as tempting as it was to halt her story for an intermission of love making, he knew how much Sakura loved to hear and tell whimsical tales. And so long as she was content, he was content, therefore he was willing to listen.
Sakura gave him a long look as she seemed to be judging if he was telling the truth or not, to which he tilted his head and gave her an expectant look. Silently he waited patiently until her skeptic façade broke and she smiled at him.
"After he gifted Ariadne with the clew that helped guide Theseus from the labyrinth, King Minos had Daedalus imprisoned on an island for helping his enemy. Determined to escape Daedalus fashioned two pairs of wings out of wax. One for himself and one for his son, Icarus.
"Just before they made their escape, Daedalus warned Icarus not to fly too close to the sun, nor too close to the sea. He was to only follow the path of flight that his father took. As any good sun would do, Icarus gave him his word and the both took flight. Spreading their arms wide, they rose in the air and took to the skies, sailing away from their prison and over the seas to their freedom."
Sakura spread her arms out, lifting her shawl from the edges with her hands. As the fabric spread out behind her it was as if she herself had a pair of wings. She tilted her head up to look at the sky and smiled as she slowly spun in the sunlight. Her pink hair cascading down her back as it flowed out from the centrifugal force of her movements. The crown of olive branches slipped slightly to the side but she seemed to pay it no mind.
"But as all young sons would," she continued, "Icarus became overcome by the exhilaration that flying lent him. Eager to test his new found abilities, Icarus began to flap his wings, bringing himself higher and higher into the sky. As he soared upwards, Icarus became determined to reach where Apollo's own chariot pulls Helios across the sky. But in the process, he came too close to the sun itself, and the wax of his wings became too heated."
Sakura slowly stopped spinning and her arms slowly began to descend back down to her sides.
"Ignorant of his mistake, Icarus kept flapping his wings but soon realized that he was only flapping his bare arms as he plummeted into the sea and drowned. Grieved from the loss, Daedalus wept for his son and named the nearest land in which he found freedom Icaria, in memory of him."
As she finished in a somber tone, her bright and cheery warmth seemed to dim as she sympathized with the sadness of the story. In the same moment, a cloud seemed to cross over them, dimming the daylight as if nature itself was commanded by her emotions. There was a strange beauty to her, even when shadowed. But Sasuke did not like the idea of such things. He did not trust the shadows.
"I thought you didn't like sad tales?" he questioned, leaning his head to the side as he looked at her.
"I don't," she remarked. "But I still find it a beautiful story."
Sasuke shook his head as he sat up straighter. He beckoned her to come closer, continuing until she was standing right before him, he feet on either side of his thighs as she stood over his stretched out legs. Reaching up, he grabbed a hold of her arms and tugged her down into his lap.
Sakura let out a startled yelp but let herself fall down as he drew his legs up, bending his knees as her back rested against him as she settled naturally into the saddle of his lap. He released her hands, only for them to automatically come to rest at his chest. Slowly he raised his hands and adjusted the crown of leaves on her head, straightening the circlet before letting one hand fall down to her hip. The other hand smoothed her hair as it slowly dropped down to cradle her neck and immediately pulled her in for a gentle kiss.
"I do not understand you sometimes," he whispered when he pulled away enough to speak, their breaths still mingling together as they breathed as one.
And then he was pulling her in again, this time deeper and more passionately. His tongue crossed over hers, tasting her and stealing her breath. When she responded by pressing herself closer to him, grinding into him and wrapping her arms around his neck where her fingers laced themselves into the back of his hair. After that, he could not contain himself.
Twisting to the side, he expertly changed their position without breaking away from her. He settled above her, leaning against his forearm as she lay on her back. His knee rested between her thighs and soon he felt the one leg not trapped beneath him slowly rise as she bent her knee, grazing his hip as she wrapped her leg behind him.
Automatically his hand went to her thigh, his fingers brushed the hem of her dress as it fell up to her hips and his fingers flexed when they came into contact with her bare skin. Slowly, Sasuke broke away, relishing the mournful moan that escaped her as he looked down at her wanting face. He gazed into her heady eyes, darkened with lust and want as she bit her bottom lip when his thumb grazed between her legs.
Her breath hitched and he repeated the movement, causing her head to fall back, her crown of leaves laying in the grass as her body arched into his touch. Sasuke continued his ministrations, adding more as he leaned down to kiss the crest of her breast that had become exposed. Soon her breaths were coming in heavy, her chest heaving as the fingers of one hand grasped at the earth, uprooting the grass she clung to. Her other hand found purchase in his hair, grasping to his ebony strands as she pulled his mouth closer, encouraging him to continue until she released a cry of ecstasy, her body trembling beneath his touch as he continued to touch her in the places she needed.
As she came down from her high, Sasuke slowly raised his body to hover over her, his dark eyes gazing down at her flushed face as she gasped out satisfied breaths beneath heavy lidded eyes. Soon her green gaze moved up to focus on his face, she tilted her head to the side to look at him observingly. He felt his face changing, causing her hand to slowly slip from behind his hair as she grazed his cheek. Lazily she traced the curve of his lips as she looked up at him, a mesmerized expression on her face as she gazed up at him.
"I like it when you smile," she said, giving him her own warmth of a smile, full of grateful adoration, as she traced the upturned curvature of his lips again.
Present Day:
Sasuke's mouth was pulled into a deep scowl. His lips pressed into a thin line as his obsidian eyes focused ahead with a hardness that matched the stone that surrounded them. From behind he could hear the pitter patter of Sakura following in his silent wake, obviously purposely lagging behind as the exactness of her measured distance of two steps behind him never came closer than that. Even when he slowed his pace to keep from the jarring of his earlier heavy stride that was now causing the sharp pain in his side as the aftermath of his battle with the eight tails began to settle in, she too seemed to slow down as well.
No longer rushed with adrenaline nor distracted by Sakura's continuous questions or the odd familiarity of the feel of her hand in his, the pain began to escalate. Sasuke felt the burning tightness in his ribs and chest each time he breathed too deeply, indicating he had several cracked ribs and possibly some fully broken ones. The naturally accelerated self healing that came with being a seraph would cure his ailment by the end of a week, but at the moment he silently suffered. All while he tried to ignore the soreness in his back which was most likely already black and blue from when he had been thrown against the wall.
He would be annoyed at Sakura for having sustained these injuries, as it was from her plain stupidity that had gotten her into trouble and in need of saving in the first place. However, her earlier words had disturbed him far too greatly to be bothered to be annoyed. For the briefest of moments, he had felt like she had been really there with him, that it was his Sakura telling him stories, grasping his hand, and smiling expectantly up at him. And then he remembered, they were in a shadowed world, centuries later, and she was not her. But if that was the reality, just who was the girl currently walking the halls with him. Because Sasuke had gathered enough to know that this was far from a coincidental doppelganger.
Sasuke peeked back behind him only to find Sakura frowning back at him. Her hands, which had been just a little while ago been grasped in his, were now nervously twisting at the hem of the white tee shirt she was wearing. So mortal looking yet again, and so deceivingly innocent. His face twisted into a more sour expression as he snapped his head back around, quickening his pace so that he could go to his room and try to finish what he had started-before waking abruptly in the middle of the night to rescue a foolish woman- to collect his thoughts. Which seemed about as simple of a task as it was to grasp a handful of sand without dropping a single grain.
Sasuke's silence the rest of the way back was more than just a stoic muteness, it was a heavy dark cloud of omen that told her something was off. Something was bothering him and she didn't know how to bring back the ease that she had felt while he guided her by hand and spoke with her. Not just bantering and warnings as had been all of their exchanges since coming here, but an actual friendly conversation.
As they turned down the familiar hall that their rooms were located in, Sakura became distracted from the worries of what he was thinking, to what had him walking so stiffly with his arm wrapped tightly against his torso. He was holding himself stiffly, back rigidly straight as his gait was calculatingly altered to hide the fact that he was suffering with each step. She thought back to the labyrinth, how the minotaur like creature had seized him in his crushing grip. Surely even a seraph's bones could not have withstood the force of such a strong creature. Not to mention the impact in which he had been thrown against the wall and fallen to the ground. The battle had not been long. It had been over within a matter of minutes. But if there was one thing Sakura had learned from mending and fixing seraphs who had trained too hard with their partners or had been caught up with a demon after dark, it was that the length of a battle had little to do with the resulting damage dealt.
He came to a stop in the middle of the hall between their two doors. Sasuke's long arm stiffly lifted as he gestured to her door, his other arm still tightly hugging his side. "Go in and stay there," he instructed. Then added in a tired tone, "Please."
He turned to approach his own door but Sakura quickly reached out, her small hand gently latching onto the crook of his elbow. "You're hurt," she observed.
"It's nothing," he brushed off.
He moved to push her hand away but she grabbed more tightly and moved towards his door. Flinging it open she practically dragged him across the room, his feet struggling to keep up while still trying to minimize the pain. She could not help it, but she gained the smallest of satisfaction from it after being dragged around by him all this time. Once inside, she shut the door and turned back to him.
"Let me look at it," she said, reaching for his side.
He shoved her hands away, backing away from her as he glared at her, his teeth clenched tightly as pain shot through his side at the movement. "I told you I am fine," he barked in irritation at being man handled by something so much smaller than him. She was unnaturally, naturally strong for one of her size, even for a seraph.
She raised a challenging brow. "Really?" she asked.
"Yes," he insisted. "I already said it's noth-" He cut himself off with a hiss of pain when Sakura's hand quickly darted out and she jabbed him in the side.
His pain caused her to smirk at him, as if she had gained some sort of sadistic satisfaction from his pain. "Doesn't really seem like nothing to me," she commented dryly. Before he could say anything she was pushing him towards the bed and reaching up to try and push down on his shoulders. Unfortunately, even with her strength, her short stature failed her. She glared up to see him looking down at her with a smugness. "Sit down!" she snapped, her cheeks puffing out annoyance and doing little to help with her intimidation.
Surprisingly he obeyed. Slowly lowering himself onto the mattress where he was still relatively eye to eye with her, despite her standing and him sitting. She gave him a satisfied nod before slowly reaching out and prodding at his sides. He shifted uncomfortable from the pressure of her examination and she pulled her hands away. Moving up to the top button of his shirt.
His hand snapped up to hers. "What are you doing?" he questioned, causing her to look up from her busy hands and meet his ebony gaze. He watched as her cheeks slightly pinked before looking down to concentrate on her fingers as they began to nimbly work the top button again.
"I need to get a better look at the injuries," she explained, gently nudging his halting hand away. "I am confident you have at least one broken rib and it will help to see better."
For a short second he stiffly sat but then her close proximity brought in the familiar scent that she carried with her and he could not help but relax. He leaned back slightly and watched her undo each button painstakingly slow. When she finished the last one, Sasuke found himself swallowing thickly, his mind racing to void any treacherous thoughts as she squatted between his knees to undress him. A task that was difficult when she slowly rose back up, her hands running up to his shoulders as her body came closer again. She leaned closer to push the now unbuttoned shirt back from his shoulders. His breath hitched when she exhaled too close and her breath tickled the newly revealed skin at the juncture of his shoulder and neck as she slid the linen shirt down his muscular arms.
In desperation, Sasuke preoccupied himself with helping to free his arms from the sleeves of his shirt in hopes to quickly get her out of such close proximity, her scent slowly intoxicating him to not think straight. However once he was free of his shirt and he tossed it to his side, he was not granted any relief from his struggle. Instead her fingers reached out and smoothed themselves across the skin of his chest, traveling down the purple bruises as her green eyes examined the surface of his skin closely. It took everything within him to keep from shuddering under her touch.
In front of him, Sakura was doing her best to only see the purple and damaged skin in front of her instead of the hard planes of muscle that perfectly sculpted his bare chest. Moving her hand from his skin she moved to his other side that he had been favoring more, indicating where the most damage was.
She reached out to him, her fingers just about to graze his skin when she paused. Itachi's most recent warning played in her mind, just as it had when Madara asked of her powers. Looking up at Sasuke, she tried to weigh the outcome of what could happen. She did not fully understand Itachi's reasoning as to why she would want to be hesitant to share her gift...but a part of her trusted him. However, a part of her trusted Sasuke as well. Some would say it was a case of Stockholm syndrome but this was deeper than that. Faint, but true.
And he had been hurt as a result of helping her. She had liked to think she would have been able to escape, but after knowing the mechanics of the labyrinth, she knew better than to devalue what he did. She had done well but she would have been trapped there for an eternity without his help.
He was watching Sakura closely as she came to sit sideways on the bed next to him. She had been reaching out to him when she suddenly paused and her face scrunched up, deep in thought as her fingers curled into her palm. But just as quickly as she hesitated, she was moving again before he could even question what was going on in her mind she was reaching out again.
Her fingertips touched him first, sending a chill across the skin of his abdomen as her cold hands moved across his skin until her palm was firmly pressed into the side of his rib cage. He swallowed a groan of pain as he took in a too deep of breath from the shock of her cold hand and the sudden pressure against the injury. But just as quickly the discomfort came, a warmth that flooded his body began to seep from her. Along with it was a foreign rush of energy that had him wanting to pull away, but she whispered a request not to move that had him ceasing his resistance.
Looking down at her hand he noticed that faint green glow that he had learned to identify as her chakra signature, seeping from her hand and pouring into him. He felt a sharp pain in his side right before a cool relief of the tight ache that had set in to his side and he took in a breath. A full, nearly painless breath. And then as if drawing out the color, the bruising at his side began to fade away.
The sound caught her attention and she looked up at him, her eyes rich with color as pink strands escaped the ponytail that had come loose, most likely during her evasion of the eight tails.
"Who are you?"
The question slipped from his mouth as he stared down at her with perplexion. She faltered to hold his gaze as she silently moved her hand to the other side of his ribs and proceeded to mend the bruising from the eight tails tight grasp. He watched her, his eyes boring into the top of her bowed head with a demand for her attention.
"I am Sakura, the seraph," Sakura said, trying her best to be truthful but vague, however secretly hoping he would read more into her answer. She was tired of this game, tired of this façade. But at the same time it just didn't fully feel right to be the one to tell him, not when she had hardly a full memory of her previous life as a mortal. How was she to expect him to believe her when she herself could hardly still believe it.
"Are you Senju?" he demanded.
"No," was her quiet reply, not looking up at him as her fingers moved to the center of his chest where she began to erase a large contusion across his sternum.
He grabbed her hand and wrapped his hand around her fingers, looking down at her rounded nails. "Then how do you have this power?"
She raised her eyes to look at him. "I don't know," she said, honesty in her voice. She withdrew her hand from his and shifted from the bed to kneel on the ground between his knees as she tried to focus on a mark at his hip. "I just…" she trailed off as her eyes slowly closed, he could see she was struggling with something. She was holding back and he could see she did not want to do it.
He found himself reaching out to her, his fingers touching beneath her chin to raise her face to him. "What did you mean about not remembering me? Earlier, you said I was nothing like you remember...What do you remember me from, Sakura?"
The sound of her name coming from his lips made her want to loosen her own lips and let everything within her pour out. She wanted to tell him she was Sakura, because she wanted to be her. She wanted him to look at her the way he had in those glimpses of memories Madara had brought forth, she wanted things to feel the way she had felt back in New York as they walked among the mortals, him telling her stories as they gazed out across the body of water that surrounded the metropolis from the pier. It had all felt so right, so familiar. She had felt complete.
But then that look of hatred and contempt he had given her in the park on that stormy night when everything had come crashing down, just as she had when he struck her down from the sky like the very lightening he could hold in his hand. It was as she had said, he was nothing like she remembered. And that was not the only reason. The look of disgust that had been on his face that same night and the utter rejection she had felt...could she bare that again? Would he even truly accept what she wanted to say?
From what she had experienced, Sasuke was paranoid and unaccepting to reason. After everything, if she told him, she doubted he would just believe her. In fact she was convinced he would only think more lowly of her than he already did for attempting to toy with him and deceive him again.
"You are different than you were before...in New York, before you knew of my celestial form," she hedged. It was the truth but she still felt the prickling guilt.
Sasuke was quiet for a long time. She did not dare look away from his bare chest too afraid to meet the intensity of his eyes. The heavy weight of his stare was already enough on her without actually seeing it.
Sasuke thought for a moment, pondering her words. Then they triggered a recollection that had been bothering him ever since that night in which she had referred to. Holding her gaze as he looked thoughtfully down at her.
"What did you mean that night?"
"What?" She asked, genuinely ignorant of his meaning.
"That night in the park, in the mortal realm. You kept apologizing for not being worthy of a second life," he prompted, causing her to still. But when she did not comment, he pushed further, angling his head down to watch her face as he spoke. "You said you didn't ask to be made."
Sakura's attention went to the smallest of scrapes on his arm and she reached out to heal it unnecessarily. The minimality of the abrasion would have been healed by morning but she needed to preoccupy herself with something.
"I don't know what you are talking about," she murmured.
She traced the scratch, erasing it away as her hand slowly trailed to his hand. She moved to pour chakra out to heal a small contusion on his scraped knuckles, but he twisted his hand and caught her wrist. She looked up at him.
"Sakura."
She shook her head. "I was scared back then and desperate to survive. I was just stuttering and speaking nonsense. I am sure I said a lot of things that I am sure I did not mean."
"You do not strike as someone who does not mean what they say," he said sternly.
She moved to pull her hands away from him and stand. Desperate to put some distance between them but he grabbed onto her hand, tugging her onto the bed beside him before crawling over her and trapping her.
"I just saved your life," he spat. "You. Owe. Me."
His words caused any softness or temptation towards him to vanish. Pushing against his body, she tossed him off of her as she rolled herself to reverse their position. She hovered over his abdomen, her knees hugging his sides as her arms came to rest on the bed near his head. She grasped at the dark comforter as she looked at him with hard eyes. She was not one for dubious guilt. It was a vile weapon that people used against innocent and kind people to manipulate them. She was not sure why it angered her so much that he would use it, given he was a demon.
"One good deed does not make you saint. You forget that you are the very reason why I am here and in danger," she replied fiercely into his slightly taken aback face.
She stared down into his eyes and found herself becoming slightly lost in the dark abyss of them. When he blinked she became highly aware of their position. And it seemed he did too as she felt his arm run up the side of her thigh, causing her body to shiver and lose its rigidity as he began to sit up. Her body moved with his until she found herself seated in his lap as they came face to face on the bed.
His eyes seemed to sweep across her face, taking in her forehead before curving the right side of her face and settling on her lips. There they stayed as his head tilted slightly as if studying her.
"You are right," he admitted.
He leaned closer, until he was so close that if he straightened his head, their noses would brush. His eyes flickered up to hers and he smirked when her breath hitched.
"I have been cruel to you, Sakura," he said, his tone drenched with seduction that had Sakura's body instantly reacting. She became even more aware of the way his chest was brushing up against hers and how the way his fingers slightly curled into the soft parts of her hips. "And perhaps I can make it up to you?"
He was doing it again. Using his demon methods to try and gain what he wanted. But this time, it felt different. She felt his legs slowly draw up behind her, his knees coming to rest against her back as she slipped closer into his lap. From within the brief flashes of memories she had collected earlier that night at dinner, an event that seemed so long ago than just the several hours that had actually only passed, she felt a familiarity with this position. A thrilled chill ran up her arms as his hand grazed against the bare skin of her elbow. And suddenly her body seemed to react with the memory of how his touch could do more than just a small shiver up her arm.
"I-if…" She swallowed thickly. "If you think you can seduce me like some mortal you are wrong."
It bothered her how affected she sounded and it did very little to endorse her statement. The smirk on his face told her so. And to her mind's horror and body's pleasure he began to lean forward.
"You do not sound so confident, Sakura" he purred.
She licked her lips, meaning to say something but it felt more like it had been in anticipation for his own mouth which were slowly drawing closer. His lips grazed hers, fleeting and light like a moth's wing tips. She let out a short gasp as her lips parted and her eyes widened as they looked into his. It was a mistaken action because she found herself caught. His obsidian shined in the candle light of the dim room, beneath the glossy surface she could make out his sharingan just underlying the luster of black. And while she knew at the moment those eyes held no power, it felt like she was caught in the hypnotizing allure that was barely hidden beneath the surface.
And she had to have been. She had to have been under some transic illusion that made her do what she did. Raising her hands to his face, she placed a palm on either side, her fingertips touching his hairline and curling around his ears as she gently grasped his face and pulled him closer.
He had started out as the enticer, yet somehow, when she had hooked her hands into his hair and pulled him towards her, he became the victim of seduction. He breathed in through his nose catching the scent that sent him back centuries to another world and he found his eyes lifting to see her half lidded ones gazing down at him with an expression he had seen countless times. Their lips whispered across each other, then she gently brushed her lips against his like the beginnings of a tantalizing dance. But the gentle and delicate kiss was hardly enough to satisfy him.
He pulled her in so that their lips meet fully and he sealed his over hers. She let out a surprised breath but pressed in closer to him, molding to his body as his arms encircled around her, ensuring she stayed firmly pressed against him. It was like the halves of one thing, coming together and locking together perfectly. His hand came down around her neck, fingers spreading out to touch as much of the smooth warmth of her as he could. He could feel her heartbeat where his thumb rested against her pulse. He felt it quicken and slow then speed up again, adjusting its pace until it was beating rapidly in sync with his own heart that was vigorously pounding within his chest.
His arm around her back tightened as he braced her to him before suddenly shifting, bringing her around to lie on the bed as he settled over her. The movement caused them to break away, their heavy breathing filling the room as their chests heaved to catch up on the lacking oxygen supply. But while short on breath, Sasuke felt starved for her, he needed more of her.
Sakura looked up from where she lay, her chest heaving beneath his braced body as she watched his face. There was a delicious hunger in his eyes that made her body react. A warmth began to pool within her and she shivered under his gaze.
It was as if he was starved but all he needed was her to survive. That feeling of being so desired and wanted was irresistible. The enticement of that look had her easily falling to his will. Letting him consume her as he moved from her lips and began to make his way down her jaw bone and to her neck. He found a point at the juncture that had her body pressing into him, encouraging the grazing of his teeth right before his tongue ran along the skin, wetting it just enough that when he breathed out it sent a refreshing thrill through her body.
"Sakura," he murmured.
The way he said her name, the gentle tone, the neediness within it. It was beautiful and something she could listen to for an eternity. But as enticing and alluring as the beckoning sound of her name coming from his lips was, in that moment, it was also shockingly awakening. Like an ice cold bucket of water that broke her from the haze that had consumed them. Because as many times that her name had rolled from his tongue, as many times as he had purred her name, and said it with such alluring tones over the past weeks, she had not heard him say her name in such a way since before he knew she was seraph. Which made this moment not real, not genuine. As wondrous as it felt, it was all wrong. She wanted him to want her like this because of her, in the here and now, not a memory of what she was. And for that to happen he needed to know the truth.
"Sasuke, wait," Sakura said, tapping him on the shoulder.
But it was as if he had not heard her. She felt his hand, which at some point hand found its way beneath her shirt and was now moving up her stomach. His palm and fingers curled around her lower ribs as his thumb swept across her stomach, grazing the underside of her breast and causing a sensation that had her eyes rolling backwards as a heady moan escaped her. And it took everything within her to not give into that touch completely. Mentally and physically she struggled but she eventually managed to get her hands between them where she pushed against his chest. It was not aggressive, but it was with enough force to ensure that he would know she was not encouraging him with touches but instead pushing him away.
"Sasuke, please don't," she quietly whispered, causing Sasuke to pull away with heavily lidded eyes. He looked befuddled by her sudden ceasement and looked as if it physically hurt to keep himself from closing the gap between them. Sakura swallowed, doing her best to regain her voice and explain instead of pulling him back to her. "I know why you are doing this, but I don't want it, not like this."
Sasuke blinked down at her, suddenly feeling like he was waking from a vivid dream and was disoriented to find what he had been dreaming had been pulled into reality along with his conscious mind. He took her in. Pink hair fanned out against the dark comforter of the bed, breasts heaving and face flushed, and he realized what he had just let happen.
The woman before him was just so perfectly identical and held such a familiarity that it was so easy to imagine her as the real thing. In fact he had found himself often playing with the idea, considering the temptation. With her, it seemed it would be so easy to pretend. And it must have been. Because for a moment he had convinced himself that this had been his mortal Sakura beneath him and not the stranger that happened to look like her. It was like he had been consumed and fueled by a desperate need.
He shifted to the side of her and she quickly crawled out from under him, sliding off the bed, and taking a hesitant stand at the end of the bed. She looked down at her hands as they grasped at her shirt, straightening out the disheveled look. Slowly she looked up at him as he moved to sit at the edge of the bed, his long legs stretched out as he looked up at her.
"I know you blame me and hate me for the part I played in deceiving you. I understand and empathize with you more than you could possibly imagine. I understand why you feel the way you do, and while I cannot say your actions are good and deserving, I understand why you have done what you have done. I too was kept in the dark for a very, very long time." Her voice became slightly unsteady as she thought about the centuries in which those she thought of as family and friends had lied to her. Swallowing she refocused her thoughts. "It is no secret that you have been lied to and there are things, truths, that I possess and you desire."
She watched as his dark eyes gained a lacquered intrigue. She watched as he opened his mouth, but she quickly held up a hand, pausing him and asking him to let her finish. Her fingers curled into her palm and she held her hand to her chest.
"Please believe me when I say this..." She licked her lips nervously. "You have no idea how much I confusingly want this, how much I want to tell you everything," she emphasized her words with so much conviction and sincerity she could feel it flowing from her through the connecting line where he seemed to physically jolt from the flood of her emotions. "You deserve the truth.
But…" The halting conjunction caused the hopeful desperate glint that had developed in Sasuke's eyes to dim. "Ultimately it comes down to this," Sakura began to conclude. "I do not know you. At least not enough to build my own trust or put any faith in you. You cannot deny that your actions and mannerisms towards me have done little to build such foundations. However, I do know Naruto and Kakashi. And while they themselves are not innocent in their own actions against me, Naruto and Kakashi do know you. And so long as they are unsure of trusting you-" she took in a deep breath, struggling to speak her verdict- "I cannot answer what you ask of me. I-I just can't, no matter how much it pains me inside to deprive a fellow victim, I cannot answer your questions. It might be selfish, but I cannot endanger myself for you. And I ask that you understand that."
If there was ever a speech that made him want to press more, it was this. But there was something within her voice, and the emotions that leaked between their bond that persuaded him to grant her request. Mulling over her words, he finally nodded. Silently watching her as she seemed to relax. She let out a sigh as her head fell back to look up at the jagged ceiling of his room. For a long moment she stood like that, staring up at the stalactites until the silence and stillness began to press in on them uncomfortably. It was then she excused herself, slipping out of his room, leaving him alone.
As soon as she was gone Sasuke fell back onto his bed. He felt guilty and ashamed. Itachi had told him to give this woman a chance but that...that was not a chance. That was him trying to use her by pretending she was someone else, however similar they may be and no matter how much his very soul screamed at him otherwise. Logically he knew. And this woman did not deserve that. That was one thing that he was uncomfortably becoming more and aware of. Sakura was innocent in all of this yet after what she had just left him with, he could not ignore the inkling that she was the very center to all of this as well.
The guttural croak suddenly sounded from the floor. Raising from the mattress, Sasuke gazed down to the floor where his feet rested on the rolled out rug that leaked out from under his bed. There, sitting on the intricate pattern of blue and red threads right next to his foot, was a toad. Grasped between the webbed toes of its front feet was a rolled scroll.
Sasuke knew immediately from whom it was from. Naruto. He had been incinerating messages and sending the toad familiars back to the spiritual realm on the daily for a month now.
Naruto and Kakashi do know you. And so long as they are unsure of trusting you I cannot answer what you ask of me.
Sakura's recently spoken words drifted into his mind and had him doing something he had not done since that first night. He reached down, causing the toad to quiver in fear as anytime it had been caught delivering its messages Sasuke would squash it, stab it, or burn it. It was not like you could actually kill a familiar. They were just forced back to the spiritual realm where they dwelt. But all the same, it was not exactly comfortable being burned, maimed, or stabbed repeatedly.
However, to the relief of the toad, Sasuke did none of those this time. Instead he plucked the scroll from the toads grasps and slowly unrolled it to read. His dark eyes stared down at the scrawled handwriting, reading and rereading the words.
Bastard,
We need to talk, you need to know.
N
The Heavens: Three Weeks Ago
From behind the closed doors of the throne room came the sounds of heated argument. None of which was audible as those within all shouted at once, each voice trying to drown out the rest. Madara's sudden rise from the shadows had caused an uproar and the council was divided.
A third of them shouted they go to war, under the pretense that what had happened with the fallen was just a repeat of peace accords that led to the destruction of Konoha. They argued it was only a matter of time before Madara would lay siege and thus the blessed should act first, attack the underworld before they had time to make preparations.
Their claims and words of war only served to terrify others. Having already been scared by how easily Madara had sullied their sacred gardens with his presence, they worried he would return again. They cried for all portals to be closed while they only conducted their dealings within the mortal realm within the safety of daylight.
And then finally there were of course the select number of individuals who turned on their own leader. They accused Tsunade of bringing in one of their own kind, calling Sakura a demon spy that had been planted amongst them and had been working with them all along. They even went so far as to question Tsunade's dedication and ability to rule the blessed. Some of them even brought in ancient histories and claimed they would dispose of anyone who had lineage or ties to the fallen line.
It was that final group that had Tsunade fuming, for she knew of whom they spoke of. Not long after Tsunade was born, in one of the earliest attempts of peace between the two factions of seraphs, there had been a marriage between a fallen and a blessed. It was a marriage that lasted as long as the peace. And while that time period was short, it was long enough for the woman to conceive a child, who then had their own children. Those that were descendants of the child produced between the matrimony of the blessed woman and fallen man, were come to be known as jinchuriki.
And despite the woman who had been married to the demon being from clan that was one of the first main branches that stemmed from Asura's bloodline, just as the Senju, the individuals that descended from that family line were ostracized for having demon blood running through their veins; and those who descended from the woman, slowly died out before they could produce any children of their own. All except one woman, a woman who descended from a long line of prestigious and well known seraphim. Her name was Kushina Uzimaki, Naruto's mother.
The fact that Naruto had demon blood within him was one that was kept nearly as secret as Sakura's own mortal origins. But there were a select few that were still aware and remembered the sulling of the Uzimaki bloodline. It was despicable how easily their kind forgot the heroes that self sacrificed in hopes for peace and turned those offerings into blasphemies. Infuriated by their counterproductive cries for blood, retribution, and cowardice, Tsunade roared out above her subjects voices, her voice crashing loudly like the very thunder in the clouds in which they dwelt. While she wanted to rip Madara apart and beat Sasuke with all the strength she had for what they did, she would not allow a witch hunt of jinchuriki to be enacted.
"All of you get out!"
The command was immediately obeyed as all those present had no desire to remain behind should the ruler of the heavens feel inclined to deal out punishments to those who did not follow orders quickly enough to her liking. This had been the new normal since the peace meetings had been intercepted by the unexpected, and since then, the very air of the realm was tense with unease. And Tsunade's blunt and short tempered mood did little to make her subjects feel any more safe from her than Madara.
From her throne, Tsunade watched the council members scuffling about to flee, some pushing and shoving as they urgently made their way to the exit. As she watched them, her honey amber eyes fell upon two particular individuals who were skirting the edge of the room towards one of the side doors.
"You two," she snapped. Two of the departers froze at the dangerous tone in their mistress' voice, both knowing to whom she was speaking without even looking around to see if she was in fact directing her attention at them. Slowly their heads swiveled, Kakashi's single graphite eye and Naruto's pair of electric blue eyes looking back to find she was pointing directly at them. "You two, stay behind."
The silver haired seraph and his sunshine topped pupil, slowly turned to one another, silently exchanging a look that indicated they were thoroughly debating if it was worth it to bolt now and suffer later, or just endure the inevitable. There was a low creak of wood straining beneath Tsunade's ever tightening hands on the arm rests of her throne, giving out a suggestive warning and ultimately deciding the decision for the two males. Apprehensive, they turned back from their escape to freedom and approached the throne, both of them coming up short and maintaining a safe distance.
"You two have been avoiding me," Tsunade said lowly.
Naruto balked, instantly starting to sweat as he rubbed the back of his head. "Whaaaaa?" he let out a nervous high pitched laugh. "No, we would never. We've just been busy, ya know…"
As Naruto continued to dig himself a hole that was dangerously close to a grave now, Tsunade cast her narrowed eyes to his companion. The moment the silver haired man fell into her sights, he quickly raised a book in front of his face and cleared his throat innocently.
"Kakashi if I do not receive an answer in the next three seconds, I will have it and every print of it thrown into the earth's core," she gritted out.
Kakashi peeked out from behind his book. His one lone eye wide with worry, knowing full well she would make good on her threat. Snapping the book shut he quickly tucked it away protectively before bringing a hand up to Naruto's mouth and silencing the still rambling seraph.
"Yamato has dug deep into his underground networks and we have searched all of Orochimaru's old hideouts," Kakashi relayed. "But as far as we can conclude, we are guessing they are keeping Sakura in the underworld."
Tsunade stared at him for a long moment, silently processing his words. "You guess?" She questioned in a sharp tone. She slammed a fist down onto her chair. "This is Sakura we are talking about! And you are playing the guessing game, Kakashi!" She stood up from her throne, taking a few steps down as she raged. Her fearsome face looked between them. "Do you two even care!?"
Naruto's eyes went wide as he gasped. But surprisingly it was Kakashi who was the first to speak his outrage at her claim. Unfolding his crossed arms, he took a step forward.
"Of course we care," Kakashi barked back with a tone as sharp as one of his own canine familiars. He gestured between himself and Naruto. "Why do you think Naruto and I have spent countless nights scouring the earth and venturing down into the deep caverns, listening for any hint of her. You knew starting out that this would take time. But with Madara back in power, our sources have become drastically limited. Rogues are quickly giving their allegiances and returning to the underworld. Those who would normally work with us are hesitant to make a deal without first considering how they could possibly better benefit with siding with the fallen."
"It's been a week, Kakashi," Tsunande's strained voice echoed around them and fell silent as she slowly lowered herself in defeat. "It's been seven days. I just…I want my daughter back and safe."
Kakashi ventured up to the bottom of the dais and squatted down in front of her. "We all do," he said with a forlorn sigh.
Then Naruto joined him. "We cannot worry too much, Granny. Remember, Sakura is strong."
His ever optimistic words were full of some much conviction, Tsunade found herself doing what Naruto always told people. She believed it.
"And I know Sasuke would never do anything to hurt her," he added, to which these words did not have the same effect as earlier.
Her eyes looked up at him worriedly. "While I believe that once those words could be true, I cannot feel so sure. Forgive me, but I can not feel that way when he does not know who she is anymore." She let out a sigh and covered her hands. "I was foolish. I never should have let her leave the heavens."
"No," Kakashi quickly disagreed. "We never should have lied. We should have been truthful from the beginning, to both of them."
Tsunade looked up giving him a long stare. "Well it is too late for that now, the consequences have been laid out."
Kakashi raised a brow. "Come on, you cannot tell me you have lived an eternity, guiding and aiding wandering souls onto a righter path, and not learned that you can always reorient yourself. It may not always fix everything or put it into place as it could have been, but it will give opportunity for the inevitable to be avoided. The past is set in stone, but the future is ever changing."
Tsunade chewed at her lip. "And how is he to learn the truth. He has yet to respond to any of our previous messages to talk and while I doubt Sakura would even tell him given the many warnings we had laid on her, who would say he would even believe her. She has no means to prove the claim."
"Then we will tell him," Naruto said. "He will believe us, we will make him."
Kakashi nodded. "Naruto is right, he and I can convince Sasuke. We just need to wait and continue reaching out. I have a feeling after being around Sakura for long enough, he will begin to question. I bet right now he has already been questioning. Why else would he take her if not to observe her. And when he does become curious enough, we will be ready to offer an answer. We just have to be patient."
.
.
.
The Heavens: Current Day
Naruto slurped at a bowl of instant ramen he had brought back with him from the mortal realm as he watched Tsunade pace back and forth in the room as Kakashi lazily sat in a window sill with his nose in a book.
"Why has that brat not responded, yet" Tsunade growled.
"It is Sasuke," Kakashi calmly replied, turning the pages of his book. "Give him some time."
"It's been a month," she snapped back. She paused and jabbed an accusing finger at him. "This is your fault, you were the one who said we should contact him."
"Granny you can't blame him because that constipated bastard is such a bastard!"
Tsunade's warm colored eyes looked at him with an opposingly chilly glare. "You're right," Tsunade intoned. "I shouldn't blame Kakashi, I should be blaming you. This is your fault since you were in charge of contacting him. Are you even sure your familiars have been reaching him?"
Naruto was offended enough to abandon his ramen momentarily to defend himself. "Of course!" he exclaimed. "But hardly any of them will go back anymore. They aren't fond of the way Sasuke had been responding, and keeps sending them back to the spiritual realm in some not so pleasant ways," he said, shivering at the recounts that some of them had told them upon their refusals. "The only one who is willing is Gamatasu. And let's be honest, I think that one has a screw or two loose. All he thinks about is food. He has gone so many times I am afraid he is going to get too fat to even travel down there anymore with how many cream puffs he demans with each delivery!"
There was a sudden puff of smoke that seemed to come from nowhere in the middle of the table next to his ramen bowl. All three seraphs became alert as a croak echoed out from the dissipating smoke and found themselves eventually staring down at a chubby yellow toad.
"Gamatasu!" Naruto said in surprised disbelief. "You're back!"
"Hi friend!" the toad said in a cheerful high voice that was out of place for the discussion he had just dropped in on.
His webbed fingers held out a small note which Naruto quickly grabbed and read as Gamatasu began helping himself to Naruto's ramen. Naruto stared down at the words with disbelief.
"What is it?" Tsunade pressed. "What does it say?"
Naruto looked up from the note, his face dazed but his eyes filled with hope as he took them in. "It's from Sasuke. He said he will meet us."
Happy early storyversary! Can't believe it has been almost two years since I first posted the prologue! I have been so excited to share this chapter because we get to have a moment in the Ancient Greece timeline which I did not realize I missed so much until legasset made me miss it and I got inspired. I was going to wait until the 26th but I finished early. So I hope you all liked it because I really loved how it turned out. Next chapter Sasuke will be meeting with Naruto and Kakashi and finally learning the truth then of course facing Sakura with the truth. So excited to finally be there as I never planned for this story to be this long! Still not even sure how long it will end up being but I would say Part II will be about the same as Part I in chapters. But we shall see.
New chapter updates may start becoming less frequent as they have been over the past few months. I am just making some changes (good changes) in my life that may or may not effect the amount of free time I currently have.
As always please take care and take some time for yourselves :)
