Chapter XIII
~x~
They proclaim that ignorance,
Is heavenly bliss,
Verily no saying,
Is truer than this,
So brace thy frame,
For tempestuous rain,
When clarity dawns,
So too shall pain.
~x~
Tsunade alighted behind the forms of her steadfast companions. Asuma and Gai immediately sensed her presence and turned to their friend, troubled expressions weighing upon both their faces.
"Well?" she questioned expectantly, a one-word request for them to explain why they had summoned her with such urgency.
"We have scoured every body of water there is," Gai informed her. "There is no sign of her."
Tsunade nodded stiffly. Jiraiya had already informed her as much.
"Furthermore," Asuma continued, "we have noticed that there have been some strange disturbances in the waters over the last few hours."
Tsunade's gaze darted between the men. "What do you mean?"
They gestured for her to step forward. Tsunade did so, moving to peer over the edge of the precipice.
The waves far below were tempestuous, unsettled. They crashed against the cliff with cold, liquid vengeance, as if seeking to devour the rock-face. Tsunade's eyes trailed slowly over the raging sea. There had been no reports of an impending storm; why was the body of water so unbridled in its fury?
She pursed her lips. "Have you called to Suigetsu?"
"Five times at least," Asuma nodded. "His subjects aren't answering us, either."
Tsunade frowned and focused her mind, channelling a mental call to the water element's god. Nothing but the sound of angry waves and crying seagulls met her ears. She strained to hear Suigetsu's response over the din, for his voice was one with the oceans, but there was no doubt about it; he was either uncharacteristically ignoring them, or not present in his throne-room at the bottom of the sea-bed.
Her mind raced. Suigetsu was as changeable and mischievous as the seas he commanded, but he always answered their calls, unless he was particularly busy overseeing the vast depths of his realm. Suspicion flared; was he purposefully choosing to neglect her summon? Was he hiding something from them?
She would have believed it with conviction – were it not for the scene of disorder she was witnessing before her very eyes. The waves were angry – which meant their master was also.
The question was, why?
There was now no doubt in Tsunade's mind; the fact that something – or someone- had actually succeeded in riling a laid-back and lackadaisical Suigetsu was proof enough that something was very wrong indeed.
~x~
Sasuke paced the room that housed the black orb, scowling irritably. Sakura had locked herself in her chamber for almost two hours. What was she doing? She certainly wasn't slumbering; the connection offered by the possessive shackles he'd bonded to her ankles informed him as much.
He'd considered finding out in person, but had stayed the impulse. He'd done a good enough job of unsettling her in the library. She needed space – though that fact gnawed on his rapidly thinning patience. His face darkened further. He had not transported the girl to his domain for her to shut him out and avoid him. But humans were complicated things, and if he wanted to get her to eat the binding food of his realm, then she needed to lower her guard. And the only way to do that was not to startle her, to somehow coax her into relaxing. Charging into her room unannounced would not help his cause.
Sasuke knew what a large part of the problem was, of course; Sakura still didn't realise what he was. She was on the brink of grasping it, yes – but the possibility of him being a deity was clearly too outrageous for her mind to grasp, much less accept. He ran a frustrated hand through his raven hair. Did he have to spell it out?
"Show me Sakura," he snapped, whirling abruptly to the orb. It glowed and began to clear obediently at his harsh command. She was sitting in the armchair by the fireplace, staring into the hearth. Likely thinking of her damned mother again.
There was a way for Sasuke to make her forget everything. It trickled through his mind, a whispering suggestion that argued his task would be so much easier if he accepted the tempting proposition. To make her drink from the River of Forgetfulness, Lethe, so that she could no longer recall where she had come from, and why she was with him. He would then be free to weave any story of his choice upon her. Poor little Sakura would be none the wiser.
But… she wouldn't be the same. Sasuke exhaled as he acknowledged that he could do no such thing to her. Besides, it would be too easy. She'd be little more than a mindless puppet in his hands. She would no longer be the Sakura he had watched for so long, desired for so long.
He lowered his head and placed his hands on the sides of the column supporting the orb, allowing the image of a silent Sakura to fade slowly from view. Yearning for her, to understand her, was like an unbearable ache that crushed heavily upon him. How much longer could he and would he endure it? When the very sight of her set his blood alight, when she drew him in like nothing he had ever known…?
Sasuke clenched his jaw tightly as he wondered whether his inexplicable fixation with her would ever wane, or whether seeking any manner of closeness to her would cause it to flare beyond even his control, until his actions destroyed them both.
Sakura, he thought, and even her name inflicted torture upon his mind. You…
The words that had been ready to follow were swallowed into oblivion as Sasuke's head suddenly snapped up, the longing and frustration in his eyes immediately replaced by coldness as Juugo's mental call reached him. There was a disturbance on the shore, one his subjects were struggling to contain.
In the blink of an eye, the death deity vanished.
~x~
Sakura had no grasp of just how long she remained seated by the fireplace. She derived a strange source of comfort from its warmth and the hypnotising way in which the flames danced within the hearth. Her thoughts had been occupied by her mother and her friends back on the surface. Was Naruto doing a good job of keeping everybody positive, as he had never failed to do in the past? Or was he despairing also?
The notion of her sunny, knuckle-headed friend giving into despondency caused Sakura's heart to swell. No. Naruto never gave up. She knew he was scouring every corner of the earth for her at that very moment, whilst keeping everybody else's hopes alive.
The fond smile on her lips immediately waned as darker thoughts began to infringe on her happier recollections. She wasn't on the surface; how would Naruto, her mother, or any of her other precious people know where to find her?
Her mind went blank, for it had no answer to supply to such a question. After what seemed to Sakura to be a couple of hours at least, she finally stirred, stretching out the legs she'd drawn up close to her chest. Then she rose to her feet and looked around the luxurious room. She was thirsty again, and no water had been left for her to drink. She considered calling to Ume and Chizu, but quickly shook the thought out of her head. She would be better off descending to the banqueting hall - which she guiltily recalled she had quite childishly wrecked - and obtaining a thirst-quencher from there. At least then she would be free to explore on her own once again, without the watchful eyes of her attendants upon her.
Sakura approached the doors and opened them, peering tentatively out into the hallway. It was empty. She stepped out of her bedchamber, securing the sash of the night-robe around her waist tightly as she made her way toward the ground floor. As she stepped off the final stair, she hesitated before the palace's imposing entrance doors, recalling the two individuals she had encountered by the river's edge. Juugo and Karin. Perhaps they would be able to shed further light on her situation? She had all but given up on obtaining information from Chizu and Ume; their lips were clearly firmly sealed by Sasuke's command.
But Juugo - he had been the first person to tell her where she was. Maybe, if she played her cards correctly, she could learn more from him. Sakura's teeth indented anxiously into her lower lip. What if she couldn't find her way back to the bank with the boats? She had done so by complete chance the first time around; did she really want to go back out into the cold, gloomy dimness and wander aimlessly about with absolutely no sense of direction?
The alternative was to resume her tour around the palace. But what could she realistically hope to discover within it? Sakura was almost completely certain that her escape route lay beyond the towering doors before her. She would walk around calmly this time, rationally, and pay better attention to her surroundings.
There was just one small problem, of course. Sasuke. His handsome profile flashed behind her eyes, causing her to exhale. She had left her abductor in the library, and there was no telling where he was at that moment. Her skin began to crawl as sudden paranoia crept over her. What if he was somehow watching her? She quickly pushed the idea out of her head before it could branch out enough to change her mind. If he was tracking her, she reasoned, she would soon find out. He had told her she could roam wherever she pleased – she was only taking up the kind invitation.
And if she got really, really lost, well; she was sure that a glaring Sasuke would eventually appear to retrieve her – however uncomfortable the thought was.
Her decision made, Sakura decided to disregard her thirst and stepped up to the doors. She expected she would have to push against them to get them to budge, but they parted silently before her palms even contacted with their surface. She stepped out onto the landing overlooking the tree-lined route ahead of her, noted once again how dark the sky was. But she didn't waste any time deliberating over it – like a soldier on a mission she marched down the long path. The strangely beautiful trees shed their petals as she passed them like crimson tear-drops. Eventually, Sakura reached the colossal walls and eerily glowing gates that enclosed the palace grounds and swallowed nervously when she stared out into the endless mist beyond them once again.
It's alright, she reassured her trembling hands as they reached out to grip onto the coiled gates. You've done this once; you can do it again. The gates swung open at her touch, leaving her facing the thick white haze with no protecting barrier. Taking a deep gulp of oxygen to calm her thundering heart, Sakura stepped forward, flinching as the fog closed rapidly over her like a freezing blanket. She shuffled forward, teeth chattering, and prayed that nothing would sneak up on her from behind as she made her way along what she could only hope was the silver pathway. Eventually, however, she knew that she had drifted off it as she had the previous time when she heard gravel crunching beneath her feet.
The stones dug uncomfortably through the thin soles of her slippers and Sakura scowled at herself. If she had actually planned her actions carefully, she would have bothered to go back up to her bedroom to grab a pair of sandals. But she might have encountered Ume and Chizu along the way, or even worse, Sasuke. And so she decided that her little oversight with regards to her choice of footwear was excusable in that instance.
Time seemed to drag on at a phenomenally slow pace and Sakura was starting to think she was unwittingly moving in circles when the mist blessedly began to clear before her. After walking several further metres she finally stepped out into the dimness of the yawning caverns that formed the landscape beyond Sasuke's palace. Her eyes darted left and right, but found no tell-tale blue-fire torches. Neither could she see the silver path that she had followed the last time. The cavern stretched on endlessly in both directions and Sakura was uncertain of which route to take. Hadn't she gone left before? But she was certain she had stepped out into a different section. The stalactites that hung from the walls here bore an eerie red hue.
She frowned lightly, placing a hand to her head as she tried to recall what the area she had drifted into the previous time looked like; similar, certainly, but not the same.
Calm down, she ordered herself; maybe this place has paths that interlink? Just go left again; see what happens.
Left she ventured, and wandered for quite a while in the dimness, her ears straining to hear any sound at all. Nothing but unsettling silence and the even more unsettling crunching of her feet over gravel echoed throughout the gigantic cave. Again she was struck by its sheer size; Sasuke had surely stolen her away to a most remote location and one that nobody was likely to discover any time soon.
Her eyes kept searching for other bodies, any other sign of life. They found none. The caverns were, quite literally, dead. And when she finally came to a collection of boulders and sat to rest on them, she was ready to despair all over again. She should have known better than to take such a stupid chance. Her poor little feet hurt, she was utterly lost, and was convinced that she had been walking for half an hour at the very minimum.
"Perfect," she mumbled, running her fingers through her hair in frustration. Where were the damned lights? Had Sasuke removed them to make her quest for escape all the more difficult?
That… that bastard, she internally fumed, and was startled at the vehemence behind the thought. She rarely used such language; but then, she had never hated anyone as much as she despised Sasuke. Civil conversation with him? What had she been thinking? He didn't deserve an ounce of her courtesy. He deserved a fist to the face – if her inner, braver counterpart ever overcame its endless battle with her more demure and ladylike self. She almost released a snort, a sound her mother would have scowled at her for making. Who was she fooling? She'd lost her temper with Sasuke already, but the second he closed the distance between them, her nerve completely abandoned her. She'd never have the courage to truly confront him. She was a wimp, pathetic, didn't even have the power to defend herself and had all the bravery of a timid, cowardly kitten-
"Well," a cool, light voice suddenly spoke up unexpectedly from the darkness, causing Sakura's body to stiffen in surprise and her heart to almost leap out of her throat, "at least the reason I'm cooped up in here is worth it, after all."
Her head whipped around, ears trying to locate the direction from which the voice had radiated. When all remained quiet for several minutes, she was ready to tear her hair out in certainty that she was hearing things and so had to have lost her mind, when it spoke again.
"Aren't you gonna come over here, kid?"
Sakura jumped to her feet, instantly alert. "Where are you?" she questioned, her eyes darting anxiously around her. But she couldn't see anything – nothing but dimness.
"Move left," the male voice instructed, before releasing a disapproving tut. "No, turn around first; now side-step to your left."
Sakura did so, waiting for him to stop her
"Now stop and walk forward about eight paces."
Sakura complied and was perplexed when she found nothing but blackness once again. "I can't see anything," she informed the voice, frowning confusedly around her.
"Of course you can't," snorted the stranger. "That bastard's cloaked the cell from your mortal eyes. But I've still got a few tricks up my sleeve," he added slyly. A moment later bright blue light flared to her left like a blazing fire-torch, and Sakura yelped in surprise, instinctively stepping away from the sudden sight of glowing cell bars enclosing a rocky alcove. Beyond the bars was a hovering ball of light, illuminating a tall, pale-haired young man with pleasant features and an athletic build. He was cloaked in purple and white and was grinning toothily at her. Sakura stared back uncertainly. His almond-shaped eyes were bright – and a little too interested. She had the sudden and uncanny sensation that she was an interesting experiment under the scrutiny of an over-enthusiastic scientist.
"Hey there," he greeted, his gaze trailing appreciatively over her. "You're cute."
Sakura's jaw lowered in astonishment. The bold manner in which the compliment had been paid caused heat to creep into her cheeks. Embarrassed, she chose to ignore his flattery, and replied instead, "Who are you?"
"You interested?" he quipped back. Again, Sakura faltered. She didn't exactly have a great track-record of dealing with shameless flirts as this stranger appeared to be; usually Ino managed creepy nuisances for her, always promising a most painful death behind her dazzling smile.
"Um," she shifted uncomfortably on her feet, "I'm-"
"Sakura Haruno," he interjected casually. "Yeah, I know who you are."
"You do?" Sakura blinked back, stunned. Her heartbeat began to accelerate; another stranger who knew who she was? What was going on?
"Don't look so surprised," the stranger remarked. "You're breaking news on the surface."
Sakura inhaled sharply as hope blossomed within her. "You know my mother?"
The pale-haired young man tilted his head quizzically at her. "Maybe, maybe not," he answered cryptically.
Sakura stepped forward, reaching out to grip the bars. "Please, I'm-"
"I wouldn't touch those if I were you. He's charged them with lightning. Although, I'm not sure it'd kill you," the stranger mused. "He obviously doesn't want you dead, and I can see why." He flashed another grin as he added, "I wouldn't want you dead, either."
"Huh?" Sakura frowned, staring at the innocently glowing bars. They didn't look harmful to her. But she decided to listen to the warning and lowered her arms, peering through the narrow gaps at the prisoner within. "Did he put you in there?" she questioned.
The stranger's expression darkened and Sakura's heart leapt. All of a sudden, he didn't look friendly. He seemed somewhat frightening. Menacing, even.
"That arrogant bastard's gonna be sorry when I get out."
Sakura shook her head. "Who are you?" she tried again.
The young man continued to sulk for a moment, before blinking his attention back to her. "Oh, me? Name's Suigetsu."
Suigetsu. Sakura looked him carefully over. He was a captive, much like she was, but could she trust him? She nervously fidgeted with her fingers - a gesture that made her fleetingly remember Hinata – before venturing tentatively, "Please… can you help me?"
Suigetsu tossed her a look. "Why would I want to do that?" he enquired, his tone a lazy drawl. "Tried that once and look where I ended up."
Sakura's eyebrows drew together to form a soft frown. What did he mean by that? Shaking her head, she persisted, "Please; I can try and get you out."
A peculiar look passed briefly over Suigetsu's face, as he said, "You sure you want to let me out of here? How do you know I don't want to harm you?" His strange, jagged teeth curved to form another smile that didn't quite reach his eyes as he added, "I'm thinking some pretty unfriendly things right now."
Sakura hesitated despite herself – and then shook her head once again. "You're trapped here, too."
He scoffed. "Only temporarily." Then he seemed to reconsider. "You'd really offer your help to a stranger you know nothing about?"
Sakura nodded. Suigetsu looked thoughtful – and then shrugged his shoulders. "If I help you, then you've got to promise me a favour later."
Uncertainty fluttered through her. Did she really want to give her word to a man she knew nothing about? But surely he wasn't as bad as Sasuke. Nobody could be as heartlessly evil as her kidnapper was. And besides, what other choice did she have? She obviously wasn't going to be finding her own way out of the underground caverns anytime soon. She needed all the help she could get.
Taking a deep breath, she agreed, "Deal."
Suigetsu looked pleased. "Heh. Smart girl. You know, Sasuke'll be pretty pissed off when he finds out we've talked. In fact, I'm surprised he isn't here already. There has to be a good reason for that, but I'm not complaining." He folded his arms and leaned casually back against the right wall of his prison to regard her askance. "Listen up, Pinky; you know what this place is, right?"
Sakura's heart was pounding. Finally, she was about to gain some answers! "No," she said, ignoring the overly familiar nickname and trying to contain the eagerness in her voice.
"Huh?" Suigetsu blinked incredulously at her. "You mean Sasuke hasn't actually told you-?" he broke off abruptly, narrowing his eyes at her. It caused Sakura's stomach to tighten. This Suigetsu switched from perfectly amiable to perfectly intimidating in a matter of seconds. It was disconcerting, and she was finding it difficult to keep up with his mercurial mood swings.
"Do you even know who he is?"
The manner in which the question was posed to her made Sakura's pulse quicken further. Caused dread to whisper through her veins once again. She stared back at Suigetsu through the bars, her eyes wide, fearful. "He- he said this is his domain. He's some kind of ruler, but I thought he was just crazy-"
Suigetsu blinked at her twice - then threw his head back and laughed. A lot. Sakura swallowed, feeling thoroughly perplexed, her frustration rapidly cresting. It wasn't her fault that she didn't understand when Sasuke had refused to explain anything to her.
"Oh, man," Suigetsu managed between snickers of amusement. "What a bastard! To think he hasn't even told you that; he has the social skills of a caveman. Can you blame him, being cooped down here for all these centuries? At least Itachi was courteous and eloquent. But that Sasuke, he's an embarrassment – a fucking joke."
Sakura didn't recognise the other name Suigetsu had mentioned. Her mind was too engrossed with something else he'd allowed to slip; specifically the fact that Sasuke had seemingly been underground for centuries. But she couldn't and downright refused to acknowledge the statement, so much so that she found herself laughing in turn. A hysterical, disbelieving sound that ended with her exclaiming, "You aren't serious- centuries…?" She shook her head, before quickly accusing, "You- you're in on his little game too, aren't you? He probably set this up to-"
But the flash of anger in Suigetsu's eyes could not have been fabricated. He looked genuinely insulted. "In league with that asshole? Hah! No way. I made that mistake once; I wouldn't do something so stupid again."
Sakura released a shaky breath. She had confronted Sasuke about his not being human, but to hear open confirmation, and the fact that Sasuke was apparently hundreds and hundreds of years old – no, it was crazy, impossible. He didn't look much older than her, perhaps pushing twenty-one at the very most. If he really was as old as Suigetsu was claiming, then how in the world did he look so young?
Unless – unless the beautiful, flawless exterior was not in fact his true form. A smothering sense of horror began to overcome Sakura. She half-wanted to cover her ears, to save herself from whatever else Suigetsu was surely about to divulge to her. But she couldn't. She couldn't help but listen.
"Yeah," Suigetsu was continuing, "this is Sasuke's haunt. He's King of the Underworld. And judging from those clasps around your ankles," here he nodded towards Sakura's feet, "I'd say that he's planning on keeping you for a while."
Sakura glanced down at the gold bracelets peeking out from the bottom hem of her night-dress and frowned.
"I woke up with them," she began, returning her gaze to the imprisoned young man.
"He probably put them on to keep tabs on you."
Sakura was horrified. The bangles were some kind of tracking devices? Suddenly it all made awful sense; that was why Sasuke hadn't followed her when she'd first attempted to escape - because he had known precisely where she'd been heading. She looked down again and was ready to try to tear them off once more, but Suigetsu seemed to read her mind.
"Don't bother," he remarked. "They're fused onto your skin with magic. Only he can remove them."
Sakura was dismayed to feel tears of frustration prickling at her eyes. She fought them back, and whispered, "I don't understand; why is he doing this to me?"
Suigetsu was silent for a brief moment – and then he released a scornful snort. "Really? You haven't figured it out, Pinky? It's pretty obvious. I mean, just look at you." When Sakura simply blinked large, perplexed eyes at him, he sighed, "Listen. Sasuke doesn't need a reason. He just takes whatever he wants without giving a fuck about the consequences. He's a spoilt, arrogant asshole."
Sakura silently seconded his accurate description of her captor. Resentment caused her hands to tighten into fists. "He can't just kidnap me and force me to stay here with him!"
"Hey, don't get mad at me," Suigetsu raised his hands. "I'm stuck here too, no thanks to you."
"What?" Sakura stared at him.
"That bastard killed my sirens. I came to confront him about it; I didn't think he'd get so touchy over you, though."
Sakura gasped. Sasuke had killed the singing women in the spring? She felt physically sick, needed to sit down. He was a murderer and far more dangerous than she had initially realised. She reached out to steady herself against the rock face beside the glowing bars. Then, when she had collected her thoughts enough to speak again, she managed, "You sent them? They knew my mother's song…"
"Well, fancy that," Suigetsu quipped lightly.
Sakura drew a deep breath, desperately trying to regulate her breathing, to calm her galloping heart. "This is…" she began, her voice shaking precariously, "this is just- so crazy. He can't- he has no right to do this!"
And that was when Suigetsu said it; something that caused Sakura to feel like she was being sucked into a terrifying, suffocating black hole. All at once she couldn't see, couldn't think. Her world was falling apart all over again.
"Yeah, well; he's the God of Death. It's his job to ruin lives."
~x~
It was well past midnight when Sai finally trudged up the stairs leading to his apartment. The guilt weighing upon his chest was so devastating that he was finding it difficult to draw breath. The cycle back from the park had felt like the longest of his existence as he'd tried to determine a way to do Sasuke's bidding. But anything he had come up with hadn't been good enough, or conceivable. Kakashi and the others were going to read him like an open book. And when they eventually found out the truth, and that Sai had unwillingly concealed it from them, he knew that Sasuke would not hesitate to erase him, forever, from both the Earth's surface and the afterlife.
He raised his right arm, placing the key into the lock – and froze when his distracted gaze finally noticed that a light was on in his cosy-sized living room. It peeked out between the small gaps formed by hastily drawn curtains. He knew who was present therein. He could sense them as surely as they sensed him.
It was time. He couldn't keep running and avoiding them. Drawing a deep breath, Sai twisted the key and stepped into his apartment. The familiar, wooden floors and black and white décor were supposed to be a comforting sight to his tired eyes – but Sai was feeling anything but relaxed. He was tense as he deposited his backpack by the stairs and walked rigidly into the lounge through the door opening on his left – to find three familiar figures seated on the two leather sofas arranged around a plain glass coffee table.
Naruto and Kakashi he had expected, but as the third person turned to regard him with a stern blue gaze, Sai felt his gut churn with dread.
Inoichi Yamanaka. It was over. He was doomed.
And yet, even knowing this, the blank mask he always portrayed to the world was already slipping in place.
"Ah," he greeted, pleased that he could at least manage to compose his voice despite the way his heart was pounding within him. "This is- unexpected."
"Sai," Naruto was the first to rise to his feet. "We've come to-"
"Sit him down," Inoichi hissed to Kakashi, who reached out to yank a spluttering Naruto back into his seat.
"We've been waiting for you, Sai," Kakashi began carefully. "For an hour, at least"
Sai stared blankly back, hearing the unspoken question in the silver-haired man's words. Then he shrugged. "Forgive me; I could not sleep. So I decided to take a walk."
Kakashi nodded. Then, his lone eye looking apologetic, he continued, "Sai. Rest assured that Inoichi is here as a last resort. We'd really prefer not to call on his abilities-"
Sai released a light sigh. "You believe I am withholding information from you," he said quietly.
Inoichi said stiffly, "Not without good reason, we're sure. You have only ever been loyal to us in the past, Sai."
The guilt became a smothering deadweight. For a horrible minute, Sai couldn't form any words. Luckily, Naruto spoke up, saving him.
"Just tell us what you know, already!"
Sai's mind raced. How could he possibly get out of this situation? But before he had even properly thought his strategy through, he blurted, "You are right."
They all stared at him in surprise. When an uncertain and heavy silence ensued, Naruto prompted, "Huh?"
"I have not been entirely honest with you," Sai conceded, lowering himself to sit on the unoccupied space beside Inoichi. Casting an inky-black glance at the blond-haired man, he added, "Your intervention is not required here, Inoichi-san. I will tell you all I know."
Inoichi nodded. He almost looked relieved.
Naruto was on his feet again in an instant, his blue eyes wide. "You know where Sakura-chan is?"
Sai slowly shook his head. "That I cannot tell for certain," he replied, and was surprised by how convincing he sounded. Self-loathing overcame him as he recalled Sasuke's final, echoing words to him once he had reappeared back in the park.
'Suigetsu is anchored to my realm. Choose wisely, messenger.'
It suddenly occurred to Sai that the words hadn't been a random imparting of information – Sasuke had offered it to him as a lifeline of sorts. If the Sea God was also missing, then he couldn't be confronted. Sasuke had let him know – because he expected Sai to use the fact that Suigetsu was also trapped in the Underworld to his advantage.
It would essentially lead the men who were staring so expectantly at him on a wild-goose chase; which seemed to be precisely what Sasuke wanted. It would buy the Death God time – but for what purpose, Sai did not know.
It was the only choice he had. The only convincing, buyable story that would get them off his back – if only for a short time – whilst allowing him to assist them, and to become actively involved in the search for Sakura.
And so Sai did what he had adept skill at doing; he killed his emotions for the sake of survival.
"On the day of the festival, I received a vision in the afternoon, and somehow I knew that the carousel sketch meant something – something relating to Sakura," he paused. That much, at least, was no lie. "And when I arrived, and discovered that she was missing, I somehow knew where to search. After Ino and I had found her, I remained behind. I…" he hesitated, before continuing, "I sensed another presence and was confronted by the Sea God."
Naruto's eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets in disbelief. "Suigetsu?" he practically shrieked.
Sai was silent. He was, in some horrible, twisted way, telling the truth – just substituting the true perpetrator's name with the water deity's. He supposed that Suigetsu would wish to kill him too once he inevitably found out. The odds were, undoubtedly, entirely stacked against him.
"And," Kakashi questioned, reaching out to tug Naruto back beside him again, "what did he say?"
Sai closed his eyes. "Forgive me," he apologised. "Forgive me for withholding this from you, but he threatened me. He told me that I had interfered, somehow; as if my finding Sakura by the carousel was a hindrance to him."
"That- that bastard!" Naruto raged. They all knew that Suigetsu liked to play games – but this time he had gone too far.
"Now, wait a minute," Inoichi frowned in confusion. "Suigetsu is assisting Tsunade, is he not?"
"To throw us off his trail, it seems," said Kakashi quietly.
"But why would he do this? It seems a little far-fetched, even for him," Inoichi argued.
Sai's heart was racing. Swallowing, he added, "And the vision of the flower-field-"
Naruto inhaled sharply. "Damn it; there was a large lake right behind that field!" He turned furious eyes to Kakashi. "He took her! That bastard took Sakura-chan!"
"Sai," Kakashi met the pale-youth's gaze directly. "Are you quite certain that that is all you know?"
"Yes," Sai nodded. "But if you would like to make absolutely certain, then please, Inoichi-san," he said to the blue-eyed man, who regarded him intently. Sai's pulse thundered even faster. He had to resist the overwhelming urge to avert his gaze guiltily.
"Kakashi?" Inoichi glanced questioningly at his friend. "Do you still wish me to examine his mind?"
Kakashi regarded Sai for a long moment, and slowly shook his head. "That won't be necessary now; I'm sure Sai is telling us the truth. We have to relay this information to Tsunade-"
"I'm going to kill him!" Naruto snarled, and before anyone could stop him, he leapt off the couch and stormed out of the apartment.
Kakashi sighed heavily. "I'll follow him," he said. Then, to Inoichi and Sai, "Inform Tsunade immediately; I'll be in touch as soon as I retrieve Naruto and calm him down."
In a blur of movement, he disappeared after the outraged blond.
~x~
It took Sakura a whole minute before she could clear the chaos in her mind enough to form coherent words. And even then, all she could manage was an incredulous whisper.
"Wh-what did you say…?"
Suigetsu rolled his eyes in exasperation. "Oh, come on, Pinky. Don't tell me you didn't even manage to figure that one out? Why else do you think he lives in a place full of dead people? Haven't you noticed how cheerful the bastard is?"
Oh, thought Sakura. Oh. Of course it made perfect sense, and explained almost everything; the palace, the boats bearing souls onto the next part of their journey, Sasuke's unashamed arrogance, his expectance for her to comply with his wishes, his unearthly beauty, his breath-taking reflexes, how he'd hypnotised her into eating and how he'd managed to suspend a goblet in mid-air. How he'd watched her without her knowledge, and how he had caused the earth to split effortlessly beneath her feet.
But a god. A god. She had been abducted… by a deity…?
Suigetsu observed that the blood had all but drained from Sakura's pretty cheeks. Sighing, he added, "Look; you'd better get going. As much as I enjoy spoiling Sasuke's fun, if he catches us now, we won't talk again."
But Sakura was scarcely listening. She felt shell-shocked, numbed. Part of her screamed it was all a sick, disgusting stunt – but she now knew better. Suigetsu wasn't lying to her. It wasn't a joke. What had happened and what was happening were very real, and if she didn't accept it, she surely would be driven to insanity.
"A death god…?" she shook her head, feeling dizzy, faint. "He- he kills people?"
Suigetsu cast a wary glance out at their surroundings from behind the restricting view offered by the bars. "No, he collects souls and sends them on their way. You must've seen the boats?"
Sakura nodded.
"Listen; it's fucked up of him to keep all this from you, but there's no time for us to-" Suigetsu began, but Sakura interrupted him, her eyes impossibly wide.
"A god? L-like, the one people say their prayers to?" she stammered stupidly.
Suigetsu blinked, hiking an eyebrow. The girl looked like she was on the verge of having a nervous breakdown – not that he could blame her. Their existence was meant to be concealed from humankind for the precise reason he was witnessing before him – mortals couldn't accept that deities could adopt human-like forms too. In their minds, they believed that sacred beings were invisible.
"Yeah, something like that; he's just one god, though, and nobody worships Sasuke – well, anymore. He does a good enough job worshipping himself, the bastard," Suigetsu paused, before adding, "Nowadays you humans confuse him with the angel of death, but that isn't what he is. He decides when it's time for someone to die. And he decides where souls go, depending on their actions in life."
"Oh," said Sakura weakly, clutching senselessly at her chest. Suddenly the words Sasuke had spoken to her made sense. He had told her that she couldn't die unless he permitted it. Now she knew precisely why.
"You get it now?" Suigetsu enquired casually. "Okay, lesson's over. Get going, Pinky. I'd tell you not to tell him that we've met, but it's written all over your pretty face. Oh well," he sighed. "He'll find out anyway, and when he comes to confront me about it, I'll kick his ass this time."
"Please," Sakura said desperately. The revelation that Sasuke was far beyond anything her mind had even been able to measure sent panic spiralling out of control within her. The same panic she had worked so hard to contain within a box of composure. She was staggered far beyond disbelief. Sasuke was a god. Just one of apparently many. How many ordinary people knew that, apart from her? "What does a- a god want with me?"
Suigetsu merely stared back at her. His silence caused Sakura's fear to escalate to hysteria-inducing heights. Her eyes fixed onto the tell-tale hovering orb of light by his face, as she squeaked, "You're one too?"
"Maybe, maybe not," he answered, though the small, amused grin on his face was all the confirmation Sakura needed.
She released a stricken breath. "Help me!" she begged him.
Suigetsu looked away. "Get going," he ordered again.
"But I…" Sakura began helplessly, and trailed off when Suigetsu's eyes locked warningly back onto her.
How could he drop such a bombshell on her and expect her to deal with it alone?
"How will I find you again?" she whispered.
All traces of amity vanished from Suigetsu's face as he urged seriously, "I'll contact you. Keep your eyes open. Now get out of here!"
The intensity of his command seemed to spurn her frozen body into action at last. Sakura stumbled away from his cell, and the light flickered swiftly out, leaving her gazing at a plain rock-face once again. Then she was running, blindly, unthinkingly, her thoughts hurtling at a thousand miles an hour.
What did Sasuke want? She was oddly relieved to know that he wasn't human after all; it made her situation easier to deal with somehow – though marginally. But it made her reasons for being abducted all the more mind-boggling. Was she being judged, somehow? Tested? And if so, why?
Her breath caught in her throat as her legs continued to propel her sightlessly forward. Was this her punishment for cursing death so often? For hating it with every fibre of her being? If so, then she was sorry. She accepted that death was part of life. Maybe if she explained that to Sasuke, he would let her go.
So lost was she in compiling a list of possible reasons for her imprisonment beneath the Earth's surface, that Sakura only noticed she'd been inadvertently following a silver path when she stepped out of a passage between two rock faces to find herself back at the river bank she'd been searching for to begin with. She came to a sudden halt, her lungs heaving, her legs aching. She had no idea how long she'd been running for, and her feet felt like they were bruised beyond repair.
Without bothering to catch her breath, she hurried forward, following the gentle curve of rock as it tapered off to reveal the large area of land upon which souls waited to board their boats – and abruptly stopped, her lips parting in astonishment as her wide eyes immediately locked onto the sight directly ahead of her.
Sasuke stood, his back turned to her – and a middle-aged, hysterical woman was on her knees at his feet, clutching tightly onto his left wrist, sobbing, pleading for clemency.
"Please! I beg of you, most merciful god! Most just, most wise, most eternal; have pity on my wretched, sinful soul! Let me be with my child! Oh, I beg of you, I beg of you!"
Sakura's body trembled so violently that she struggled to remain standing. Her legs retreated, until her back hit the end of the rock-face behind her. Her blood turned to ice as undeniable reality crashed like a ruthless wave upon her, drowning out the last slips of composure. The scene that was unfolding before her very eyes was confirmation of all that Suigetsu had told her – and her mind was flung into turmoil.
Sasuke's shoulders were set proudly, regally, his face tilted aloofly back to regard the pitiful soul clutching so desperately onto him – when he seemed to sense Sakura at last, and shifted his head to direct a piercing look over his left shoulder.
Sakura met his smouldering dark gaze, and time seemed to suspend for a moment as they stared at each other – and when it resumed, her entire body was overcome with blind, choking terror. She released an alarmed gasp, feeling as though she had been caught seeing something that Sasuke had never intended for her to see – and then she was stumbling back, the only coherent thought in her head being that she needed to get away from him.
But even as she was directing her reeling head to her left, she knew it was hopeless. How did one outsmart, outrun, out-anything a god? When a steely hand clamped onto her right arm mere moments later, she babbled incoherently, her knees buckling beneath her so that the only things keeping her standing were Sasuke's hard arms as they wrapped around her.
"P-p-pleasedon'tkillme," Sakura panted in a hysteria-induced rush, her words blending nonsensically together. She was unable to keep her shaking at bay. A sense of impending doom was rapidly closing in on her, and she could do nothing to ward it off. "Ohgodplease, I-I'm only eight-t-teen, don't w-wantadie- please-!"
"Sakura," his voice was like cool, liquid silk brushing over her. She wildly registered from his tone that he seemed to be trying to calm her down, but she couldn't, she couldn't possibly calm down. She was being held by Death itself; by an all-powerful, all-knowing god who decreed precisely which hour a human died, where they died, and in which manner.
"I'm s-sorry," she sobbed, clutching as senselessly onto him as the woman she had witnessed at his feet. She was trying to avoid his gaze, trying to keep herself from looking into that face. "I'm- I-"
"Be still," he said, and again his voice seemed to be softer, quieter – as though he understood what the weight of her realisation was making her feel. Petrified, she tried to obey, but her body wouldn't cease its trembling. And her heart – could he feel it thundering against him? She felt cold, and wanted her mother more than ever. But nobody else was there to comfort her. Nobody but Sasuke.
"Please," she whimpered again.
"I told you," Sasuke murmured. "It is not my will to kill you."
Her eyes did fly up to meet his, then. He was regarding her solemnly, and with such serious intensity. And although she believed him, his verbal assurance did little to lessen her fear. Their faces were very close – close enough for her to feel the warmth of his breath when he spoke.
He breathed like a human. And yet he wasn't one. He was something far greater, far older than her mind could even begin to comprehend. Sasuke's gaze held hers, swallowed her up, directing her attention away from what was about to happen around them. The rushing of air was all the warning Sakura received before she was whisked off her feet and engulfed in a blinding whirlwind of blue-white light.
Directly opposite the spot where they had vanished from sight, a scarlet-haired young woman stood, frozen in place, her bespectacled eyes wide, her lips parted in open, incredulous shock.
Karin had seen the placating manner in which her master had quietened the hysterical girl. She had seen everything.
~x~