Founding Love
Chapter Four
Sakura was left alone for several days. She could hear the boards creak as people passed by. Some chakra signatures were low and their footsteps light. Often this was Aoki or other clans women with lower statures. Others were more intense, presumably men based on the heavy steps. She assumed these were guards elected to monitor her in case she were to flee or attempt something. Not that she would, but she knew she would be cautious of some unknown person with the capability of fighting a clan head with no qualms on death. Sometimes though on rare occasions in the night, Sakura could feel the immense pressure of stifling chakra which she had engraved in her mind as Madara. It was often fleeting, but he never bothered to enter her enclosed room.
Aoki came by a couple times a day with food on a tray, usually rice and beans with some vegetables. Dinner was often light as well. Sakura craved chicken or steak sometimes, but she never asked for anything more substantial. She knew as an unwelcome visitor she didn't have much choice in her selection of food. So far nothing was poisoned either, so either they were trying to win her trust or just trying to stifle the return of her chakra by keeping her weak. Guaranteed due to her immense training under her Shishou, she was used to chakra depletion and her naturally replenished quicker over a shorter timespan.
At this time, Sakura was in a false pretense of relaxation. Her room was quaint and soothing with the few candles placed on a low table. She had no windows, being it was an interior room, but if she focused hard enough she could hear the trickling of the outside world: birds chirping, children laughing, and even the murmur of small conversation. Sakura was lulled into her easy routine. Aoki would sit with her for a couple hours at a time. At first, Sakura refused to talk and Aoki never pried. After awhile, Sakura was stir crazy. She'd pry into relaxed conversation with the younger woman, and even though Aoki was hesitant, she'd answer in a soft murmur.
It was quite nice considering all things. Nothing often came of these conversations, but Sakura was at peace in those moments.
This morning, though, she found a thick, heavy hand weaved in her hair pulling her out of her bed. She jerked and opened her mouth with a silent cry as she reached up to ease the hand on the crown of her head. She fought on the futon to kick off the covers to better leverage herself against her assailant. With one hand, she tried to grab his wrist, but her fingers couldn't enclose entirely around the appendage. Her other hand was wrapped around a thick forearm, and she lifted herself into a squatted position to try to lean back.
"Let go!" Sakura hissed, pushing her bottom back, and forcing her full weight on one leg.
Sakura kicked upward with her free leg, and caught the ribcage of the man behind her. He grunted, and he dipped forward over her frame. She caught sight of his long black hair, and she grabbed at it to pull him over her. He growled low in his throat, a rumbling sound in her ear, and she tugged harder trying to move him. He rocked forward a bit before sharply pulling her own hair.
She cried out, falling backwards against his legs, but never did she release his hair. She gave a pull herself, and he hissed in her hair.
"Don't like it, do you?" She mocked, pulling harder. "Now let go!"
"You ingrate!" He barked.
Sakura froze in realization of just whose hair she was trying to rip out, and she momentarily eased her grip. Her mistake was exaggerated by his quick flip of his hair away from her, and his other hand made its way underneath her arm into the crook of her armpit. He hoisted her up easily, and she squeaked in protest.
"Madara," another voice called from the hall, a tone much gentler than the man handling her.
"Not now, Izuna." He belted, dragging her off her futon.
Sakura's legs were entrapped in her sleeping kimono, and she stumbled backwards following Madara. Her left hand gripped at the material of his pants and she held tight begging Kami not to fall. Madara was backpedaling quickly, her bare feet not able to find purchase at any point, and he whipped her around in the door frame. She jolted to her side, and found herself tipping her head back to stare into the scrunching face of the young Uchiha brother.
Her mouth was gaping open and her eyes wide, when Izuna reached toward her. She jerked back instinctively into the firm body of Madara, and Madara's hand loosened in her hair. She flinched when Izuna tugged at her kimono, pulling it closed. She flushed embarrassed suddenly at the implication. It must have opened in her tousle with Madara, and she inwardly groaned at what possibly either brother caught sight of. Women apparently in this time were not fond of chest bindings, and Sakura could only imagine with a grimace what her chest looked liked so exposed.
Izuna was still slightly frowning, when Madara began dragging her again into the hall. She stumbled to keep pace with him pressing harshly behind her.
"Where are you taking me?" Sakura chewed on her lip, stepping lightly on her toes to keep steady.
He didn't answer her and she protested in her throat. A sea of dark hair and black eyes parted before them in the hall. Some people openly stared as they passed a group, and some people turned away shyly. Sakura begged with her eyes to anyone she could make eye contact with, but no one stepped forward to approach the angry man. She focused instead on which directions he was leading her in, and suddenly she found herself stepping off the porch onto the green grass.
Madara shoved her none too gently and she stumbled to her knees in a thick patch of grass. Sakura fixed a glare over her shoulder at the brooding Uchiha, and she eased the tension in her shoulders when Izuna stood hovering on the porch not too far off.
"Heal it." Madara barked, folding his arms across his broad chest.
Sakura narrowed her eyes further, "Why would I heal anything for you?"
"You did once."
Sakura blinked once and then twice, before letting a breath slowly through her nose.
"Heal it, and perhaps we can find purpose in you staying here alive."
Heat blossomed in her chest and crept up her throat. She snubbed him, nose pointed high and she stared down at him with long lashes.
"I would almost rather die if this is how you plan on treating me."
He stepped forward menacingly, his chakra pouring out from his body in dark waves. He was a force to be reckoned with, and Sakura felt her body shiver in fear at his appearance. He stopped in front of her, his hakama pants brushing her heels.
"I can arrange to be considerably worse."
Sakura counted her blessings slowly to reason with herself. She was being fed, bathed, and clothed. She wasn't able to leave her established room, sure, but she wasn't forced to share it with anyone either. Most situations she thought of as a prisoner meant being tortured or used as a concubine. Images of a dark dungeon and being left hung to dry passed through her mind. None were options she would rather be in.
Perhaps he was the lesser evil, for now.
She met his hard eyes, and she spoke softly to not incite his wrath further. "What am I healing?"
He nodded before her, and she turned her eyes to scan the patch of forestry he led her to. She focused and tried to find anybody, but there was no one else nearby. She glanced over her shoulder at him again, and he raised an eyebrow at her. He lifted his chin again nodding before her, and she turned back to look into the grass.
On her hands and knees, she crawled forward to a tiny feathered lump hidden in some leaves. Gently she parted the grass, and stared at the small feather creature. With her fingers, she prodded it softly and it squawked at her, startling her. She felt the warmth of embarrassment crept in her chest again at jumping at the noise knowing full well both men saw.
She cleared her throat, and turned the bird over slowly. It's beady black eyes blinked up at her, and she felt her heart melt. It squawked again in a mild protest, and she frowned.
"Its wing is broken." She murmured.
"So fix it."
Sakura grit her teeth at his response, and she lifted the broken wing with tender fingers. The bird tried to flap in response, and she stilled its movement with a coo. Sakura then called forth her chakra, and poured it gently in slow steady waves to soothe the bird. It stopped squirming, and leaned back into her hand. It chirped a few times, and she focused on mending the wing.
She wasn't too sure exactly how to mend it, having really only healed animals a few times; Akamaru once or twice, and from what she practiced on fish, but she imagined the wing in her mind, and she trusted her instincts to follow through.
In a short moment, the wing was healed as best as she could imagine, and she released small steady bursts of chakra to liven the bird up. Sakura smiled suddenly when the bird jumped to its feet and hopped about stretching its wings in the grass.
She giggled as it pressed its feet into the grass and pranced with its wings stretched upwards. Sakura's smile widened when it flapped its wings expertly and took off into the closest tree. She sat there for a moment, and shifted to watch it fly from branch to branch before it settled into a tree happily chirping.
"Hm." The man behind her murmured before she heard rustling.
She turned around, and saw Izuna now standing beside his brother watching in silence. She flushed for a third time, not used to being watched so closely, and she nodded at Madara who peered down at her.
"That raven will probably stick around for awhile now." Izuna muttered to his brother.
Madara stood over the pinkette, and flashed his gaze towards the young man, before settling on the bird again.
"A raven?" Sakura asked.
She remembered vaguely Itachi being familiar with such birds, and she wondered where that stemmed from. Did the Uchiha build their contracts in forms of kindness like this? Or were their contracts similar to her own slug summons? She wondered.
She was pulled from her musings, when Madara shuffled away from the two of them. She assumed he was appeased with her skills for the meantime, as he disappeared from her eyes. Sakura fidgeted with her hands as her attention was now left with the man she had prior thought was Sasuke.
Her heart nervously clenched and she turned her head away from him to look at the happy raven prancing in the treetop. Though he resembled Sasuke, his face was too lean and his nose straighter. Sasuke had a full face from youth, and his nose was slightly crooked from where she had laid a well placed punch years ago. She cringed at the memory, and her chest felt tight.
"I apologize for my brother's handling of you this morning." He spoke, stepping next to her. He glanced down at her. "Would you like to stay out here for a bit?"
Sakura avoided his gaze, taking a deep breath in through her nose. She ran her fingers through the blades of grass and she watched the raven dance. Sakura let the breeze ruffle her hair, and she glanced back up at Izuna fleetingly.
"Yes, thank you." She whispered.
They stayed like that for a good bit of time. The silence stretching between them and the fresh air blowing around them. Sakura at first sat uncomfortably, shifting her weight between her legs, before deciding to sit on the ground with her knees bent next to her. She leaned her weight on her arm, and she tilted her head back to enjoy the outdoors. She eventually settled into the grass, her fingers playing idly in the dirt.
Izuna stood like a statue beside her the whole time. His presence was calming and soft unlike his brother who was fierce and hard. She mused on the differences such brothers could have, and imagined Sasuke and his own brother, Itachi. Perhaps she could find the similarities between these two Uchiha in time. If she ever had the patience to do so, she thought with a sigh.
"What is your name?"
Blinking away her musings, she tilted her chin up and stared openly at the Uchiha. He phrased his question again slower and slightly softer in tone, as if he was trying to not scare a child. Sakura frowned and turned away from him. Quickly running through her options, she knew she couldn't lie because she was quite known to be terribly at it. Even so, she had mistakenly given her first name to Aoki, who she assumed had told the clan brothers.
"Sakura." She murmured.
She was clenching her fingers in the blades of grass harshly debating if her surname was important or not. She had come from a lineage of merchants, but beyond that knowledge she actually wasn't sure where from. As far as she knew, her family had always settled in Konoha.
"Fitting, but not exactly what I meant."
Her head tilted back and a frown marred her face. He had been staring at her and the corner of his lip upturned ever so slightly at her reaction. She tsk'ed and clicked her tongue on the roof of her mouth in a huff.
"There's more to me than just a name." She balked.
Izuna's eyebrow rose a fraction of a millimeter from what she could see in her peripheral. "Aren't all Senju original?"
She tilted her chin up defiantly and snorted in an unladylike manner.
"Good thing I'm not a Senju!"
She regretted it immediately when he shifted closer, his legs bending and his torso leaning over her frame slightly. She felt crowded suddenly, and under his eyes, she felt small.
"Then what are you?"
She turned to study this man under her long lashes. He may not be as imposing nor as impossible as his brother, but perhaps she needed to be more careful of her loose lips while in his care. He seemed more analytical, a trait she distinctly recalled Itachi having. All the more dangerous then.
"Isn't it considered rude to ask such questions when you haven't provided them yourself?" She was playing into a game which she wasn't sure she'd win.
The atmosphere was shifting darker, and heavier. A fierceness was lit in the seemingly delicate man, and she wasn't sure on how to broach his inquiry.
"You already know who I am, so formal introductions aren't necessary." He was leaning closer. "Besides if it looks like a Senju and acts like a Senju, how can it not be a Senju?"
Sakura narrowed her eyes and shifted her weight off her hands slowly.
"Because I would have no qualms about putting you back in the condition I found you in whereas the Senju apparently would."
His hand was darting out quickly and she flung herself back into the grass to avoid his grasp, her own hand buzzing green in case he were to come closer. He was frozen above her and she held her breath ready to kick out at him if need be. She was reacting on pure instinct, and her dilated eyes were zipping around his body to avoid his eyes just in case he were to activate his Sharingan. His hand was posed above her in the space she had occupied, and his fingers were curling slowly inward. She was reminded of how devastatingly quick the Uchiha could be and how even quicker their temper was.
Like playing with fire, she thought.
Izuna was leaning back with a tightness in his shoulders which lied about the softness in his face. His mouth was tilted upwards in a snide smirk.
"I suppose you would not."
Izuna moved again to stand straight and he stepped away from her to the porch. At that moment, she didn't realize she had attracted the unwanted audience of Madara, his own piercing presence posed in fake calmness. From her place on the ground, she watched the brothers interact in a subtle manner. A message passed between the two of them with no words, and Izuna stood beside his brother with his attention returning to her. Both of their charcoal eyes piercing her in place.
Sakura dissipated the chakra from her hand, and sat up sharply. She didn't bother to brush the leaves from her hair and she sat still. Frozen even. Her chest was shaking from the force it was taking to hold her breath, and she nearly jumped startled when the raven flew down in front of her. It was squawking loudly and hopping about. It's black beady eyes flickering between the brothers with sharp turns of its head.
It stopped its chatter when Madara made a hum in his throat.
"Seems you have found yourself a companion." Madara chuckled.
The sound was interesting to Sakura. She never pictured hearing such a thing from him, and the noise was surprising and enjoyable in itself. She mentally shook the thought away. Nothing was enjoyable about that mass murderer.
With that finality in his tone, he sauntered off, his brother in tow. Sakura was flabbergasted and confused. Her head was spinning and the adrenaline was pumping loudly in her ears. The bird was shifting its head to and fro keeping the brothers insight before it started hopping around her with a chirp. When it flew off into the trees, Sakura followed the movement and let her emotions drain into her shoulders. She let go of the breath and huffed before throwing herself down into the grass dramatically.
She had the unmistakable idea she had signed her fate here.
It had been several hours at this point that she was resigned to either waiting for someone to retrieve her or that she would attempt to escape. In her twisted head, she was too scared to try to leave because she had thought it was a ploy. She had reasoned that they left her unattended to test her. Surely, she'd be caught easily by the brothers, being as that she was not at her full strength as of yet and that they had better knowledge of the landscape.
Sakura wished she had paid better attention to geography and history. Her mind drawing blanks when she mulled the idea over.
She felt like a lost cause. And here she now was, waiting and plucking the grass out in her frustration and nervousness.
She was awakened from her musings about midday when she heard some children laughing not too far off. She sighed content with the sound when she heard a crying. She sat up with a frown and turned over towards the noise where she heard a commotion of other children. She stood up, glancing around to see if anyone had come to check on her.
Seeing no one in sight, she trudged over to where the crying grew louder and the laughter was higher pitched. She came around the side of the building into a courtyard where in the center there was a small group of children around the ages of seven or so. She could see some boys pointing and laughing at a small girl in the center who was wailing and rubbing her eyes. One boy, holding a ball, was kicking up dirt at her and stomping around her.
Sakura fumed and stepped forward, anger burning deep in her stomach.
"Hey!" She yelled causing the boys to spin around at her unexpected entrance.
"Knock it off!" She yelled again making a show of puffing her chest and storming to the center of the scene.
The little girl was wiping her swollen eyes, and the boy with the ball stood in front of her with a fierce pout.
"No." He shoved his shoulders back as if to make himself bigger and Sakura stared him down.
"Leave her alone." Sakura bit out pushing past the other boys who were shaking.
"No!" He barked again before kicking more dirt at the girl. She began crying harder, and Sakura had enough.
"Listen here, you little brat," Sakura grabbed his arm and stomped her foot on the ground. When the ground shook beneath them, his face dropped and he let go of the ball.
"You won't dare pick on her again if you know what's best for you." Sakura wagged her finger in his face and jerked his arm upright to stand him up taller. "You need to learn to play fair, and this isn't fair behavior. Got it?"
The boy began to sink to his knees, and she jerked him up again. With a stern face, she wagged her finger again at him, and he nodded his head quickly.
"Now apologize." Sakura commanded, turning him around to face the little girl.
The little girl was sniffling and wiping the snot on the sleeve of her kimono. The dark haired boy grunted, and Sakura stomped her foot again. Quickly, he apologized under his breath.
"Say it louder so we can all hear." Sakura pinched his side.
With a yelp, he came to his senses and shouted, "Sorry!"
"Good, now go play elsewhere." With a soft shove in the direction of the other scared boys, she sent him off. He glared at her over his shoulder, and she stood proudly in front of the little girl.
Once the boys were out of sight, she turned back around to the girl who was still sniffling. She kneeled down and with the sleeve of her sleeping kimono, she wiped the girl's face.
"It's ok." Sakura cooed gently, "you're going to be ok."
The girl looked up at her with her big brown eyes and tried to slow her hyperventilating down. "Are you sure?"
"Yes," Sakura melted, dabbing the girl's eyes. "Sometimes people can be mean, but that doesn't mean you have to accept it. You're going to be ok, but you need to be strong."
The little girl frowned rubbing her cheeks with her tiny palms. Sakura felt tender and the little girl reminded her of when she herself was a small child. Memories of Ino standing up for her had Sakura sympathizing with the girl.
"Don't be afraid to stand up for yourself." Sakura smiled, gently pulling the girl's hands from her face.
"But they're bigger!" The girl cried tears beginning to pool again.
"But you can be just as strong! Teach them a lesson!" Sakura waived her fist for good measure.
The girl giggled and Sakura grinned. She handed the child the ball and patted her head before sending her off to play. Sakura stood from her place, and put her hands firmly on her hips as the girl wandered off with a pep in her step.
"You're going to be a pest, I can see." Madara's voice called out, and Sakura fitted him with a glare.
Sakura didn't bother with a response to him, but turned around regardless to head in his direction. She had felt better helping the poor girl, but Madara was seemingly ready to rain on her parade.
"You have children of your own?" She asked.
The question must have offset him, as his brows furrowed. She had the impression he didn't.
"Neither do I, but that doesn't mean we can't help raise children not of our own to be better people." Sakura added despite his lack of a response.
He hummed low in his throat, and she waited to step up on the porch enclosing the building. When he made no hostile move, she stepped on the porch and moved so she was angled slightly behind him. He didn't so much as flinch at her movement, instead moving to give her some space.
"Come, kunoichi." He commanded, and he took off headed further into the compound.
Sakura huffed indignantly, not being used to being directed in such a manner, but she kept pace. She was a mess of emotion, but based on his response to her as of yet, she was at least heading in a better direction.
