A/N: Welcome back friends! Hope you've been having a wonderful summer. School has been kicking mah butt but I've got the next couple weeks off hehe.

CW: Sakura gets a bit roughed up in this chapter :( Also minor themes of non-con, sex trafficking and branding. And some cheesy dialogue lel

Chapter Seventeen: Fuse

"What gave me away?" he asked.

Sasuke's words cut as sharp and frigid as a blade down her spine. Of the dozen-odd scenarios Sakura had anticipated for her face-off against Scorpion, this was by far the most emergent. With crystal gem, Scorpion could wield more than corpses.

He could wield living flesh.

Sasuke-kun.

She swallowed. Don't panic. She took in the clearing: the head-frame collapsed on its side, and its momentum had yanked the elevator clean out of the mineshaft. Where the platform once stood was a gaping dark hole into the earth, into the mine. "Let him go," she said. "It's me you're after." If she could just make it past him…

"An eye for an eye," he said.

"What do you mean?"

"You owe me a puppet." Sasuke said. "Do you have any idea how difficult they are to preserve? Your procurer is a little scrawny for my taste, but look at this face," he purred, touching his own cheek. "I can't wait to kill him."

Bile rose in her stomach, as she took in the fallen construction workers littering the mine. "These were innocent civilians," she accused.

"Innocent? They were Higa's men."

"They were doing their jobs—"

"They were complicit," Sasuke hissed. "But you'd know all about that, wouldn't you? Protecting Higa, when you know what he plans to do. What's that expression— duty before honor? I bet you always do what you're told, Nanami."

There was something familiar about the cadence of her pseudonym on his tongue. Sable black hair. Sharp eyes. What's your name, darling—

"R-Riku?"

"Yes." Sasuke blinked. "Who else?"

"You're Scorpion?" Sakura was incredulous. Memories of the stench of the enormous, armored man rose. "But in the tundra, that man I fought—"

"— was me. I wanted to figure out what village sent you two. 'I am not your enemy,'" Sasuke mimicked in the monster's voice. "See? I'm a very convincing puppeteer. It's all I've been doing for the past ten years." He sank into a crouch. "But no more."

Sasuke aimed a roundhouse kick at her head. Sakura dropped. His leg scythed through the air, and then his other foot was cutting low at her knees. Technically, this was their first hand-to-hand fight. As genin, he had no interest in sparring her, and she had no interest in sparring in general. After the war, he trained with ANBU while she trained with the ancillary division.

Sasuke jabbed with his right fist. Sakura twisted out of the way, with more ease than expected. Riku commanded Sasuke's strength, but none his honed grace. The undead monstrosity that she'd fought was far more agile. Perhaps this was a limitation of Riku's power, that she needed time to become acclimated with a new puppet? Or because Sasuke was alive?

And he was alive, Sakura assured herself, checking for his chakra signal once again. Whether or not he was aware was the question—

Hot pain pierced her torso. A blade protruded six inches between her breasts. Kusanagi. She'd forgotten about jiton. Sakura sank to her knees, black spots forming in her eyes.

"You should have accepted my offer," Sasuke said, his eyes glinting red in the sun. He circled around her and his boot landed on her shoulder for purchase. He yanked the sword out of her. The air sucked out of her lungs. A rush of copper filled her mouth.

"Stupid little girl." As he crouched before her, the damaged seal on his arm blossomed to life, faster than last night. She was running out of time.

Sakura grit her teeth. A blinding pain blossomed between her eyes, and Byakugo released like a bucket of hot water dumped over her head. Chakra roared through her veins. The laceration in her chest sealed, and air returned to her lungs like clean water.

"How did you—"

Sakura yanked at the steel elbow overhead, pivoting it on a hinge and pinning Sasuke's arms at his sides.

"Who the hell are you?" he hissed.

Sakura wiped the blood off her chin. "I'm Nanami." She leapt into mine-shaft and plunged into darkness.

I'll save you, Sasuke-kun.

The metal walls of the mineshaft zipped past as she free-fell into the depths of the Earth. Blindly, she scrambled against the grooves of the metal plates, her fingers and soles heating with friction.

When she found purchase, she stopped to catch her breath. The air underground was warm and gritty, with the unpleasant scent of old eggs in someone's forgotten lunch. Overhead, the bright sky was but a distant star in a pitch black night; below, the bottom of the mineshaft was a small square, haloed in a green glow.

How far down did this mine go?

Not too far, she hoped. She had to clamber back up with Riku in tow. As Sakura descended, the metal trembled under her hands, and every so often, the whole shaft reverberated with a low, ominous groan. At the end of the shaft, Sakura pushed chakra into the walls, trying to sketch a map of the mine in her mind, and…

It was useless.

The stony heart of the mountain pulsed like living flesh, and the mine below the great belly of the beast. In her mind's eye, the crystal gem embedded in the soil burned as bright as fire, too blinding to discern from other signals.

It could be Riku or an entire army down there.

Hanging from the ceiling, Sakura crawled out of the mineshaft.

A vast cavern opened below her, nearly as wide across as the excavation pit above. Construction must have progressed since Sasuke visited with Higa. The smooth ceiling sloped against support beams, and steel tram carts rested on double-wooden rails that split into a network of dark tunnels. Singular lightbulbs hung from the ceiling, but their glow was dimmed by lurid veins of yellow-green threading the walls, coalescing at a tangle so bright it was nearly blinding.

Sakura's eyes adjusted to the cavern's single occupant at the center: lithe frame, black hair, and sharp eyes narrowing over a gas mask—

"You should've run while you had the chance," Riku said.

Her left hand was held in the tiger seal while her right grasped the wall, wielding the crystal gem... and Sasuke.

If she severed that connection, he would be freed.

She'd need to act quickly. The odor was much stronger down here, and Sakura belatedly remembered the malfunctioning ventilation shaft. Byakugo could heal wounds and grant strength, but it could not turn sulfur to oxygen.

"You lied about Higa. He had nothing to do with Matsuo." Sakura lunged at Riku, close enough to watch shock flash in her eyes. "It was you."

A wall of earth shot up, blocking her punch inches from Riku's face. It crumbled in a spray. Riku spat dirt from her mouth. "And I'd do it again."

Chakra pulsed through the cave. Shiny spikes erupted from the ground, piercing the sole of Sakura's shoe. She limped back. Another pulse, and the ring of iron stalagmites encircled Riku.

Her foot healed instantly. "But why? Your father—"

"—was devastated to see his precious mine go. I tried to save him. He chose to jump," Riku said.

What? "And Higa?"

Riku shrugged. "He failed my test."

"What test?"

Riku's expression darkened. "Do you know what scorpions symbolize in Eastern Rai?"

"No."

"They're omens. Evil spirits that feed off of female sexuality and shame." With her free hand, Riku wrenched the cross collar of her top open. "This was wider when it was fresh."

Sakura's jaw slacked. A gruesome, pink scar stretched from Riku's sternum to collarbone, just between the flesh of her breasts— a scorpion with its stinger raised, carved with crude strokes of a knife. "Who did that to you?"

"The madam," Riku said. "The madams and procurers marked all the girls, so they'd know, and the men would know, that no matter who's bed they were in, they were property owned. When she branded me, I told myself I wasn't like the other girls. I was a kunoichi, I had purpose."

"What do you mean?"

"That's how Kumo trains new swallows. Two years undercover in a brothel," Riku said, the eastern tinge in her accent unmistakable now. She traced her scar. "Hideous, isn't it?"

Sakura was horrified. She couldn't imagine.

"Do you know what Higa said when he saw this in bed?"

Sakura shook her head.

Riku smiled, without humor. "'Turn around'. He preferred my back. Wanted to get his dick wet without looking at this eyesore. He never asked about this. Never cared. None of them did."

"Who's them?" Sakura asked.

"My targets. The men I seduced in the name of Kumo. I memorized all of their names, you know. Every man who touched me that I was forced to leave alive."

The stalagmites glinted around Riku's feet. She held the field advantage— the soil here was rich with metal, easily manipulated with jiton. Sakura had to exercise caution with her strength or risk collapsing the mine.

"Since the day I defected, I lived out of spite, knowing that I'd exact my revenge."

Sakura analyzed. Riku was tethered to the wall. She lacked mobility. If she could just get close enough to land a hit, she could free Sasuke…

"And now, after ten years, I've finally gotten my hands on crystal gem, I'm going to show them what it's like to be powerless over their own bodies, to be played like a puppet on a string, and I'm going to use them to raze Hidden Cloud to the ground. They're all going to pay for what they did to me."

"You don't have to do this, Riku. You're free," Sakura said.

"Free?" Riku laughed bitterly. "I'll be free when I lay them into a bed of dirt."

The pain in her eyes took Sakura five years back. An idea blossomed. "It'll eat you alive, if you let it. I— I can help."

"How?" Riku asked, incredulous.

Sakura unbuttoned her tunic, baring own collarbones. "You don't have to wear that mark."

Riku's eyes widened. "But— but I stabbed you."

Sakura knew the skin on her chest where Kusanagi had pierced not minutes ago was unmarred. "Let me help you."

Cautiously, she approached Riku, until she was close enough to press her palm against her chest. The ruined flesh stitched closed and mended to healthy skin.

Riku froze, eyes cast down. "You..."

Now!

Sakura wrenched Riku from the wall, breaking her hold seconds before a wave stalagmites burst through the floor. She darted back, onto a row of tram carts filled with rubble.

Riku shrieked and her chakra flared. The tram carts lifted behind her. Sakura ducked just as one careened past, into the cavern wall, sending boulders and earth in its wake. Sakura broke into a run, caught her ribs in a roundhouse kick.

Riku sailed across the cavern until her left shoulder caught on a support beam. She screamed and dropped to all fours. Sakura gave chase, but was intercepted by a steel support beam, hurling recklessly through the cavern. Riku's control was fraught, and it clanged against other beams, loosening rubble from the ceiling. At this rate, Riku would entomb them both.

A powerful pulse of chakra was Sakura's only warning before a familiar arm wrapped around her waist.

Sakura looked up. Red eyes, sandalwood and—

— the walls glowed green—

— Sasuke threw her.

Sakura's skull cracked against the stone of the cavern wall. Pain exploded across her back. He yanked her back by the hair, making her eyes water. But she couldn't break free.

"What's the matter? Can't hurt him?" Riku cackled, back at the wall, crystal gem at hand.

Damn it. It was all for nothing.

His hand closed around her ankle and Sakura twisted in his grasp. The black marks of the Senju seal crossed his jaw, and his sharingan flickered. Terror set in. She couldn't fix the seal. Only a Senju could. So what could she do?

He drew back his fist. Sakura rolled. His punch shattered the ground, making her ear ring. She bucked him off, but as she stood, the cavern lurched.

Not enough air. She'd forgotten about the sulfuric fumes.

Strong fingers seized her throat.

Pressure built between her temples. "You would've lived if you hadn't chased him," came Riku's distant voice, barely audible over the thunderous pounding in her ears.

Sasuke lifted her off the ground, thumb against her throat. Blood welled from the corners of his blank eyes. The arm before her was black to the shoulder, his seal hanging by mere threads.

The clock had run out.

No—

Sakura gripped his wrist with both hands. I can't lose you. Her finger tips dug into the invisible junction that once divided Uchiha flesh from Senju. Tendons, vessels and chakra pathways, old anastomoses that she'd created one by one all those years ago. Honjo-sensei's first rule of medical ninjutsu was self-preservation at all costs.

But Sakura was Tsunade's pupil through and through.

NOW!

With one last breath, she directed all her chakra into him. His skin glowed lavender with her chakra filling him like a torrent. Every nerve ending came to life without the analgesia of Byakugo, but she pushed on harderfastermore until—

His seal broke with the force of a detonation.

The lightbulbs shattered. The ground quaked as chunks of stone were jostled from the walls. The lumen of the steel shaft compressed with a grisly groan. There was a sickening crunch, and all the lime-yellow crystal gem lights blinked out.

Sakura's heartbeat pounded loud in her ears as she laid on the ground.

Sasuke-kun. Did it work? Was he okay? She tried to call out, but her lips were numb. A dim red light-filled the cave. Or was it just some blood in her eye?

The tavern tilted on its side and her body lifted through the air. Through her spotting vision, she glimpsed a nightmarish sight that made her blood run cold.

A hypnotizing eye, with concentric rings. All-seeing, all-powerful. Madara's jeer rang through her ears. Dying together is teamwork too.

Sakura whimpered, and then she saw nothing.

Five years ago:

"You lot haven't forgotten my lesson to steal my bells, have you?" Kakashi asked, a hand rubbing at his regenerated eye.

"Of course not," Naruto said. "Teamwork is key!" His sage chakra burned gold through the rubble of the broken terrain, stronger than it'd ever been.

But would it be enough?

Their enemy had mastered the Rinnegan and could vaporize enemies with a touch. Right on cue, the air twisted and materialized into a tall man with glowing, purple eyes. "In that case, dying together is teamwork too," Madara said, obsidian rod in hand. His gaze dragged to Sakura, taking in her shock of pink hair and war-weathered vest.

Sakura stumbled back and trembled like cornered prey. Sasuke didn't blame her. She'd improved, but few could stand their own before the powerful Uchiha ancestor. The safest thing for her to do was run and—

Her weight shifted to her heel.

No, she wouldn't.

Madara's rods could pierce the flesh of chakra beasts. Moreover, they prevented the user from healing. She knew that. But Sakura was stubborn, and if she gave him an opening against their formidable enemy… he'd be a fool to waste it. Sasuke drew chakra to his left hand.

When Sakura broke into a sprint, so did he.

"I'll be the diversion!" she declared.

"Wait no! Sakura!" Naruto shouted.

They attacked as one. Her fist soared toward Madara's face, and in that split second, Sasuke jabbed his lightning spear towards the pulse at his neck and—

Boom!

The spear struck an invisible barrier, and the recoil flung him a hundred feet back alongside Naruto, holding Sakura in his arms.

He'd failed. He—

Wait. The obsidian rod protruded from Sakura's chest like a wayward flag pole. Sasuke froze. The rod inhibits healing.

"Sakura!" Naruto set her gently on the ground and pulled the rod out. The damp spot in her vest grew. Sakura slumped against his chest, breath labored. She looked so small in his arms.

Sasuke's chest tightened. Tch. It had been her choice to barrel in, headlong. He was focused on the defeating the enemy, the primary objective.

"Are you okay, Sakura-chan?"

A dull glow of chakra emanated from her chest, stopping the bleeding, and Sasuke exhaled. "Don't worry about me," she mumbled. "I'm alright." Her eyes shifted to him.

Sasuke looked away. It didn't matter what she thought of him. If she blamed him, it was for the better. On the field, Madara's chakra swelled and he produced another rod. Fury swelled. Sasuke was going to tear him to pieces. "Naruto," he growled.

"I know."

They lept toward Madara, side by side. Naruto looked at him, but said nothing.

He didn't have to. Sasuke knew that look. It was the same look he'd levied at Samurai bridge, when he'd broken the unspoken agreement that they'd upheld since the mission in the Land of Waves: protect Sakura, no matter what.

But things were different now. They weren't teammates anymore. Moreover, Sakura didn't need protecting. Yet still, he couldn't shake the weight of Naruto's stare.

You broke your promise. You let her get hurt.

Shame on you, Sasuke.

A/N: We're coming up on the final arc of this chapter! The last chapters have been some of my fave to write and I can't wait for yall to read it :) Thanks for all the reviews