Quietus

by Seraphina Scribes

When first he laid eyes upon her, he thought her the very personification of spring. He watches, from the depths of shadow; waiting to steal her away from the land of the living. Waiting to make her Queen of the Dead. Hades/Persephone retold. SasuSaku/AU.

47. Chapter 46

Thanks to everyone who kindly took the time to leave comments for the last chapter.

The revelations aren't slowing down by any means this two in one bumper chapter.

If you'd like, please visit the links on my profile page to listen to the tracks that were playing when I wrote the sparring scene and the scene at the end. I will be updating the list soon to include the track names rather than just links, just in case the videos don't load, so you can look them up yourselves.

This one is very long, you have been forewarned!

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Chapter XLVI

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Beware the cunning deity whose solicitous grin,

Offers false promises that would lure you in,

Whose liquid assurances seek to swerve your path,

To the dark route of betrayal, and Death's perilous wrath,

No care has he, for the trust he would claim,

You're naught but a pawn in his immortal game,

No pity, no kindness, has he for your loss,

You're no more than a tool - the price of a cost.

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After they returned to the palace and left their mounts in the waiting hands of the stable-boy, Sasuke wordlessly gestured for Sakura to follow him. Curious and somewhat grateful for the invitation to not be left alone to her fretful thoughts, Sakura trailed compliantly after the death deity as he silently led her to a sprawling wing on the upper floor that she had not ventured through before. They passed through many doors and passages, taking so many turns that Sakura soon lost track of the route. It was only once they began to climb dizzying sets of spiralling stone staircases that realisation finally kicked in; Sasuke was leading them up one of the many towering turrets that she had glimpsed from outside the majestic building.

As she shadowed his steps, Sakura tried her best not to dwell on the kiss they had shared on his mother's bridge, in front of the cascading waterfall. They hadn't spoken a word to each other for the duration of the ride back to the palace – but then, their horses had flown far too swiftly through the Underworld for them to exchange any conversation.

If the strange, crackling tension that had existed between them had been uncomfortably stifling before, it was now near unbearable. Sakura was suddenly hyper-aware of Sasuke, in a way she had never been before. Of course, his physical presence had always set her on edge, but she'd always previously attributed that to apprehension and nerves, as well as his status and the deadly aura of danger that crackled around his form like an ominous storm cloud.

But now her heart was thudding for entirely different reasons. The lingering memory of his tantalisingly sensual kiss tormented her. She swore she could still feel the remnants of butterfly wings fluttering agitatedly in the depths of her stomach when his lips had caressed hers.

The sensation was entirely unsettling. Sakura was completely adrift in a sea of bothersome, conflicting emotions, told herself she had to be insane to be unable to dismiss it as nothing. But she wasn't fool enough to retreat into the shell of denial any longer. As much as it pained and horrified her to admit it, her body, despite her mind's screaming, indignant protests, despite her better sense of judgement, was drawn to him. She had always found Sasuke attractive, of course – she'd conceded that a long time ago. Admitting - and coming to terms with - the feelings that he sparked to life inside her was another matter entirely, however.

But there was no way to hide from it; Sasuke's touches set her nerve-endings alight so intensely, that simply thinking of his kiss made foreign tingles surface in all sorts of uncomfortable and worrisome places.

It was an extremely concerning development, but what startled Sakura most was how she hadn't even thought to recoil from his kiss, the way she had on the previous two occasions when he'd made a move on her. More alarming still was how eagerly her body had seemed to melt against his. How it had slotted snugly against his side like a missing puzzle piece - and how the feelings that had zigzagged through her like lightning had been frightening in their intensity, left her mind reeling in turmoil.

And most terrifying of all was how Sakura wasn't even sure this time whether she had hated the unchartered sensations completely – or whether a part of her had almost craved the head-spinning rush they provided.

Why didn't I push him away? She censured herself for the millionth time. I knew it would just make things even messier between us, but I carried on, anyway.

She already knew the answer. She had nobody to blame but her herself.

Sasuke hadn't preyed on her weakness. In her vulnerable state, she had been the one to seek comfort from him. And he had certainly delivered, and succeeded in diverting her thoughts from their agonising focus of her entire world being turned upside down – if only for a brief while.

But it had been wrong of her to accept his kiss, she knew in hindsight. It was decidedly easier to be furious with her foolish actions now; back then, however, she hadn't been able to muster even half the strength required to resist him.

Sasuke was gorgeous, and she was a young woman. Sakura tried to console herself that it was surely only natural, for her to feel some degree of physical attraction toward him. But it definitely wasn't alright for her to encourage it. Even if she did have some damned goddess fragment or whatever it was that was locked inside her – they were still from completely different worlds.

He had still abducted her.

And there, Sakura acknowledged, was the real root of the problem. While she certainly understood why he had done it a lot better than she had in the past, Sakura still couldn't find it in herself to forgive him.

She wondered if she ever would. She wondered if he felt even a sliver of remorse for his actions – for the emotional trauma he had caused her.

Still, unshakeable guilt gnawed away inside her; hadn't letting him touch her led him on? That hadn't been her intention at all. And surely Sasuke had to realise it, too, to know, deep down, how impossible it was for them to be together in the way he had made it all too evident he wanted.

It wasn't the right time to confront him about it, she knew, but Sakura was also acutely aware that the time was fast approaching when she couldn't delay the subject any longer. Especially given the stressful fact that the longer she spent time with him, the blurrier and more convoluted everything was becoming.

She couldn't allow another kiss to happen again, Sakura admonished herself fiercely. She couldn't let Sasuke touch her like that anymore. She was petrified of what it would do to her, if he did. Now that she had been unable to fight him off once, she dreaded to think what would happen if she gave him the chance to close in again.

Her mind then turned fleetingly to Suigetsu. He had been right. The more she dragged this out, the riskier her situation became. The more her resolve shook. She had to steel her courage and take action – very soon. Even though it made her feel wretched and treacherous; after all, Sasuke had lifted the veil of deceit from her vision, awoken her to the reality of her existence.

But she couldn't stay with him. She had to get back home, to her mother, to try to make concrete sense of everything Sasuke had told her. She couldn't afford to delay for much longer; it was simply getting too dangerous. Her pounding heart was testament to that fact.

However, Sakura still didn't like the idea of poisoning the King of the Underworld. In fact, she now liked that option even less than she had before. Surely there had to be a less painful, less callous way to trick him out of relinquishing Kusanagi?

She swallowed down bitter remorse, her eyes fixed on the red and white uchiwa emblem stitched proudly onto Sasuke's back. Suddenly her throat felt oddly dry. She knew she was emotionally overwhelmed. Switching the focus of her musings to the subject of her mother, and the unpleasant truths she had learnt, seemed to help to temporarily distract her from all the upsetting contemplations pertaining to the Death God.

At last, Sasuke drew to a stop by a sold, arched wooden door at the landing of the staircase. Sakura thought that all the training they'd done together was surely paying off, for she was not breathless. Neither did the muscles of her legs ache. She watched as he unlocked the door with a large, bronze key which he fetched from the small pouch attached to the plaited leather belt at his waist.

"Where are we going?" she finally asked.

In response, he pushed the door open and stepped into the darkness beyond. A flare of flame ignited upon his index finger, and he used it to light the multitude of candles stationed about the room, before directing a precisely controlled blast of katon at the iron-carved fireplace.

Sakura followed after him. It was a surprisingly spacious circular space. Its walls and floor were cold, grey stone, and it was packed full of bookshelves, holding a massive collection of thick, leather bound books.

He gestured for her to take a seat on the plush, dark blue rug by the hearth as he closed the door behind her. Sakura did as she was told, her curiosity multiplying ten-fold. The room was chilly, but she didn't want to let Sasuke notice that it bothered her. The air smelled of that strangely pleasant scent of old books – and burning, cinnamon wood-smoke. There was a smooth, curved oak table pressed against the left wall.

Sakura held her hands out to the cosy, warming fire, and glanced nosily around as Sasuke searched for something on one of the bookshelves. Her inner book-worm was intrigued as she eyed the multitude of other objects around her with keen interest; several gold chests of varying sizes, she marvelled, worn out scrolls, painting frames covered by heavy cloth - and a large world globe that looked very different to any she had seen on the surface.

It was like she had wandered into an attic of ancient, untold wonders – minus the cobwebs and dust. There was even a large, antique-looking wardrobe lined against the right wall, chained shut with a padlock, and a single, high arched window, showing nothing except expected darkness beyond. But as eager as Sakura was to explore everything, she remained patiently in place.

Finally, Sasuke turned back to her. He had an impressively large book in his hands. As he deposited it into her lap, she protested, "It's heavy!"

"Hn." In response, he moved it to the rug and sat down, cross-legged, beside her. When she simply stared at him uncertainly, his eyebrows drew together.

"Open it."

Bemused, Sakura lifted the time-worn, faded front cover to reveal the title page. It was written in a language she couldn't comprehend.

"Uh," she began awkwardly. "I can't read this."

His left palm passed briefly over her eyes, and she blinked. Suddenly, the characters were as clear to her as her own native tongue.

Now perfectly capable, she read the title page: An Illustrative Guide to Surface Gods and Goddesses.

Her heart leapt a little in surprise, and she glanced at him, to find his eyes were on her. He nodded briefly. She looked back down. She had searched for books just like this – in vain – in the humungous library. Now she knew why she had never been able to find them. Sasuke obviously stored them in a different section of the palace entirely, hidden behind a locked door. And now he was granting her permission to look through one. The significance of that was not lost on Sakura.

As she flipped to the contents page, she found a very lengthy list of mostly unfamiliar names, arranged in alphabetical order. Deciding to start at the beginning, rather than try to find any she recognised, Sakura turned to the first god in the guide under the letter A - one she could not identify.

Each page had a detailed sketch of a deity above their name and role. The sketches were drawn in colours that had faded to varying shades of dull orange and brown by the wear of time, making it difficult to accurately make out distinguishing features such as hair and eye colour. There was no other information, which Sakura supposed made sense; Sasuke had purposefully chosen to show her a book that would not overwhelm her already overloaded mind. Although the volume was ancient, the book was generally in surprisingly good condition.

Sasuke watched her from the corner of his vision. Sakura was fully absorbed in what she was reading, as always, eager to obtain new knowledge. He waited for her to find the first familiar face as she leafed through the thick, old parchment pages.

He didn't have to wait very long. He saw her hand visibly freeze and heard her sharp intake of breath as she came across a drawing she immediately recognised.

Aphrodite.

Goddess of Love, Desire and Beauty.

Sakura's mind screeched to a stunned halt as she instantly identified her best friend. Her lips parted in astonishment, and her heartbeat quickened. So it really was true – Ino was a goddess, and those were certainly her attractive features.

But there was something decidedly different about her, too. Perhaps, Sakura thought, it was the fall of her even longer, rippling hair, the unfamiliar clothing, or the lavish jewels adorning her scantily-clad, voluptuous slender frame. She was reclined seductively upon a resplendent chair, one very similar in style to what Sakura had found herself lying upon when she'd awoken from the sleep Sasuke had enforced on her. But she recognised that mischievous, sassy twinkle in 'Aphrodite's' eyes right away. It was unquestionably Ino.

Although it hurt dreadfully, to have the undeniable truth pierce painfully through her all over again, Sakura found it awfully apt – almost ironic, really – that Ino would have such a function. So that accounted for her obsession with romance, how men grovelled at her feet and her enthusiastic attempts at match-making. Of course it fit her perfectly.

And so did everybody else's roles, she discovered. When her eyes stopped next on Apollo, another startling jolt of recognition struck her. Handsome and radiant, she clearly made out Naruto's features in the characteristically cheeky grin. His hair was a little longer, a little more unruly. But it was definitely her boisterous friend.

"The Sun God," she whispered, half caught between wanting to break down again and laugh out loud at the absurdity of it. That explained how everything he touched was filled with such exuberance and warmth, such optimism and joy. He was the source of light itself.

Beside her, Sasuke had tensed. He wanted to tear the stupid page out and fling it into the fire where the fool it depicted belonged. But he reeled in his irritation and loathing, giving Sakura however long she needed to gaze at each page and come to terms with the true identities of those closest to her.

Sakura quietly continued, recognising Kurenai as Artemis, Goddess of the Hunt and Shikamaru as Athenos, the God of Wisdom. With each face she identified, her anger escalated. A thick lump then formed in her throat, one that stubbornly refused to budge, when she came across the sketch of Demeter, Goddess of the Harvest.

Sasuke eyed the picture with carefully refined aversion. Sakura's hands had balled into fists. A quick glance at her betrayed the tension in her soft jaw, the fresh tears that shimmered in her eyes, threatening to spill anew. It was a long time before she managed to speak again.

"Why?" her voice quivered with barely-restrained fury. "Why would she keep all this from me?" When her question was met with silence, she turned pleading eyes to the death deity next to her for answers.

"She wanted a normal life for you," he replied.

Sakura shook her head incredulously, as her gaze returned to the sketch bearing her mother's likeness.

"But why, when I'm not normal?"

"..." Sasuke didn't want to answer that one. It skirted far too close to hazardous territory. He couldn't tell her the real reason why she had been kept in the dark; that someone who had killed her in the past was searching for the very same power contained within her.

That was a conversation, he thought, that would be better left to her incompetent mother.

Sakura, however, exhaled, forming her own conclusion. "She thought I couldn't handle it, didn't she?" She swallowed, before continuing, "How could hiding the truth for all these years possibly protect me? They thought keeping me wrapped up in cotton wool would be better than discovering that my entire life has been based on lies?"

There was another long silence. Then Sasuke suddenly asked flatly, "Would you rather have not known?"

Sakura glanced at him, surprised by the abruptness of the question. Sasuke was staring ahead, watching the flames dancing in the hearth. Following the line of his gaze, she pondered whether she would have preferred to continue living in ignorant bliss.

Of course it would have hurt much less. But her life wouldn't have been real. The people she'd considered closest to her had fed her nothing but deceit, a false existence, for all of nineteen years.

"No," she murmured. "I needed to know." Then she vented, "But when I think of all the lies… it just makes me so mad. I always believed I had some kind of medical condition. All those blood tests… she should have been honest with me from the beginning!" Shaking her head, she looked back to the book. Now that she'd had the time to absorb the facts, she could ask the questions she hadn't thought of during the initial shock of discovery.

"I can't believe I've lived my entire life oblivious to the fact that my own mother is a goddess. And a harvest goddess! What does that even involve, exactly?"

"She is responsible for sustaining life on the surface," said the death deity.

This confused Sakura further. Meeting Sasuke's eyes, she frowned, "But harvest? She works at the hospital, saving people's lives. Shouldn't she be some kind of- I don't know, gardener or farmer or something, instead?"

Sasuke moved his head slightly, signalling a negative. "There can be no life without crops, Sakura. And humans in turn must live to harvest them."

The two were connected, Sakura understood.

"So my mother blesses the crops to grow each year? And she tries to maintain human life as much as possible so everything balances out?"

He nodded once.

Sakura pondered this as she stared down at the sketch, her emotions swirling turbulently inside her. After another minute, she continued to leaf through the pages, identifying a masked Kakashi as Hephaestus, God of Craftsmanship. He was masked, even in his past guise.

"You've got to be kidding me," she muttered to herself. Kakashi, who never arrived to his lessons on time!

Sai, as expected, was Hermes, the Messenger of the Gods – and Shizune was Hestia, Goddess of the Hearth.

Sakura guessed she understood why Shizune and her mother were so close, now.

She carried on flipping through portraits of other deities she did not recognise – when her attention was suddenly caught by the sketch of a smiling girl with large, doe-like eyes and an abundance of flowers in her hair.

Persephone, she read. Goddess of Spring.

She stiffened and straightened. Spring. Like the piece that was locked away inside her!

"…" Sasuke's eyes slipped onto her. He watched her stare down at the drawing, her eyebrows furrowed in confusion, as if she was trying to piece together something that she couldn't quite figure out.

Or perhaps her subconscious was trying to recognise her past self – and failing.

"Is it hers?" Sakura asked at length, her voice a hushed whisper. "The fragment inside me – does it belong to her?"

"She is the only Spring Goddess recorded here."

"But the girl I've had dreams about… her name was Kore," said Sakura, her thoughts muddled.

"An informal name, maybe." Eying the beautiful portrait, Sasuke prompted, "Does she look familiar?"

Sakura shook her head. She couldn't tell. Her visions of 'Kore' had always been from an inside perspective, as if she had been living the memories through the goddess's eyes directly.

"I don't know what she looked like." She was certain that she didn't recognise her – and yet, looking at the sketch, she felt something stir inexplicably deep inside the most distant catacombs of her mind. As if in some distant, far-off dream, she might have known this face. The disconcerting feeling made her skin crawl; it was nothing short of perturbing. She shuddered, and reasoned that it was probably just the fragment that was responsible; after all, she didn't understand how it functioned, how conscious it was inside her.

"Sakura," Sasuke immediately picked up on the goose-pimples that had surfaced on the skin of her forearms.

"It's nothing," she assured him. "I just-" she struggled for a second, to express exactly what she was feeling. "Looking at her makes me feel kind of weird. It's crazy. I don't know why."

Sasuke did. But he clenched his jaw, to stop himself from saying anything he knew he would regret.

After another pause, she asked softly, "What happened to her, Sasuke? How did she die?" Tracing a finger over the lovely face almost unconsciously, she added, "How did her power end up as something that chooses human bodies as hosts to survive?"

The death deity wanted to tell her everything. But he couldn't. He feared what it would do to her, if she knew too much, too soon.

So he was forced to withhold information once again. "Maybe she died during the war. Many gods passed to the void, back then."

Sakura interpreted this to mean that he did not know for sure. But hadn't Kore known him as Hades? How was it that Sasuke didn't seem to have any memory of her? She was about to question him about that particular mystery again – but then remembered his previous, unfavourable responses, how he had made it clear that he hadn't personally known the goddess - and thought that maybe it would be better to bring it up at another time.

She blinked, tried to push back the lingering feelings of discomfort as she continued turning the pages. She recognised Hinata as Selene, the Moon Goddess. She could see the resemblance clearly. Her friend was certainly as ethereally beautiful as her function suggested. As she flipped through the remainder of the book, she quietly recognised Suigetsu as Poseidon, God of the Oceans, but was careful not to loiter on the page. The final deity she recognised from the vision Sasuke had showed her was Zeus – King of the Gods. Handsome and resplendent, he had an air of charm and authority in his poise and expression. Something about his features reminded her oddly of Naruto. She quietly wondered if that, too, was a coincidence – or more.

She then remembered the additional names Sasuke had given her, whose faces she hadn't spotted while leafing through the pages. "What about the others? Iruka and Gai-sensei, Neji and Lee?"

"Seraphs," Sasuke informed her.

They were angels? Sakura's astonishment was complete. Exhaling quietly, she closed the book and sat in silence, slowly taking in what she had discovered. To have inescapable reality set even further into stone was difficult to digest. Her mind was spinning in a violent cyclone of questions.

Why had all her surface friends kept her in the dark about their true identities? Why hadn't her mother thought she could handle the truth? Had she authorised the fragment to be sealed inside her, or had she somehow sealed it in herself? How was Sakura even her mother's daughter, if she was human like Sasuke insisted? And just who was her father? What had happened to him? Why had the fragment deemed her – out of all the girls in the world - a suitable body to inhabit? What, exactly, had happened to the goddess it had originally belonged to, the Kore Sakura kept dreaming about?

And what of the attacks that afflicted her every spring? What if they became worse? Did their increasing intensity have something to do with her not being on the surface? Was she really safe from harm?

Sakura didn't expect that Sasuke would answer all these questions – in fact, she was quite certain that there was a high probability that he would choose not to comment on the majority of them. The only people who could give her the absolute closure she so desperately needed were her mother and friends.

But that didn't mean that Sasuke couldn't shed light on other aspects.

"Why aren't there any records like this on the surface?" she wondered aloud. "Does it have something to do with what happened in the war?"

Sasuke's lips twitched – not quite a sardonic smirk, as his gaze remained locked on the fireplace. "Cronus burned them all."

Her wide eyes returned to study his handsome profile. "Why would he do that?"

"He wanted to erase all records of the surface gods," the God of Death disclosed.

Sakura frowned. "Wouldn't people have remembered, though, and passed down the knowledge, anyway?"

The Underworld ruler shook his head slightly.

"The effects of the war made most humans lose faith," he began. "Eventually, their descendants replaced us with other deities. Over time, we were forgotten."

Sakura hesitated only momentarily, before venturing, "I'd understand if you might not want to talk about it, but… why did Cronus start a war?"

She saw him visibly tense, and knew she had infringed on a sensitive topic.

"…" It was a private subject that Sasuke never discussed with anyone. He did not even like to visit it in his own mind. The memories were just too painful. But he was also conscious of the skewed, biased picture that would be painted to Sakura if she heard the truth from other sources.

It was probably for the best and in his favour, Sasuke decided right then, for her to hear it directly from him.

He opened his mouth to answer – then clamped it tightly shut again. This was never easy to talk about, and he was not even certain where to begin. After a lengthy pause, however, he forced himself to speak. The words that fell from his lips felt foreign, even to his own ears. Such was how unaccustomed Sasuke was to sharing any details of his past with others.

"Zeus and his followers…" he started rigidly. "They maintained life on the surface. They were worshipped and revered by humans. But our Clan…" he paused, struggling with the bitterness that pooled into him at the recollection – before he continued matter-of-factly, "…we were feared. Never honoured. Mortals wouldn't pray to us."

Sakura waited with baited breath, both pleasantly surprised and somewhat nervous that Sasuke was finally shedding more light on what had happened back then. And he was doing it willingly. She didn't dare to speak or even move, for fear that he would decide against revealing more.

"This angered Cronus," he went on after another stretching moment of silence. "The gods who were exalted by humans held the greatest power and influence on the surface. But he had worked to maintain the cosmos long before Zeus had even been born." Sasuke's hands curled into disgusted, angry fists as the image of his war-mongering, treacherous ancestor drifted through his mind. "He watched Zeus's steady climb to power, while he remained confined to the shadows and chaos beneath the ground."

"But how did he end up underground?" Sakura couldn't help but blurt out.

Sasuke's midnight eyes found hers.

"His father, Uranus, ruled over the skies. He knew how much Cronus craved the throne. But his powers were destructive, and Uranus saw greater potential and stability in Crius, his other son." Sasuke's lips curled back to form a sneer of disdain as he looked back to the fireplace. "To make Cronus prove his worth, he set him a test."

"What kind of test?"

"He sent him down to the surface, and instructed him to build a world unaffected by the ravages of time." Sasuke paused again. "It seemed impossible; Cronus manipulated and devoured time. But his quest eventually led him underneath the surface, where he found a dark world that responded to the chaos within him, one in which he could manipulate time and shadows at will."

A world untouched by time's flow - Sasuke had told her long ago that time passed differently in his Kingdom.

"So he created his own Kingdom, and named it the Underworld. He established order, founded the system that all Kings who followed after him inherited. It eventually became the place where souls were sent to be judged."

Sakura released a silent breath of fascination. So Cronus had been the one who had essentially fashioned the Underworld into what it was today? She hadn't ever really considered who might have constructed Sasuke's realm in the past. She had simply assumed that it had always just existed.

"So where did all the human souls go before the Underworld was created?" she wondered curiously.

"There was no afterlife," said Sasuke flatly. "The Fates wove and cut the thread of life, and souls were devoured by chaos and shadows, until they were no more. Crius took pity on humans and their strife, and wanted a place where their choices in life could be measured and rewarded – or punished, if they acted wrongly."

Sakura thought that she could understand why Uranus had favoured Crius of the two brothers. Sasuke fell quiet again, and she patiently waited for more.

"But… he lacked the abilities to make this come to pass," the death deity spoke up slowly. "So he called upon another sky god, one who had the power to influence weather, law, order and fate."

"Zeus," Sakura exhaled in understanding.

Sasuke nodded. "Zeus shared his vision, and they worked together with Cronus to create the scales of good and evil. They established a system of judgement for humans in the Underworld – with Cronus as the overseer. For the first time, the mortal world became truly balanced."

Sakura rested her chin in her palm, turning her face toward him as she listened intently to every word. Sasuke rarely spoke to her in depth like this, seldom gave her such detailed explanations. There was something mesmerising about his voice; it was almost melodious in its fluency and flow, and caressed her ears with its silky smoothness.

She didn't want him to stop talking.

Sakura was then suddenly struck by the stark realisation that she had certainly gotten what she'd aimed for at the very start; Sasuke was telling her this because he clearly afforded her more than a slight degree of trust.

It had taken almost four surface months, but she had proven successful in the task she'd been given, after all. The guilt of this, however, was crushing. Sakura struggled with the thought of how her betrayal would impact the god who was sitting beside her; this proud, regal King who was sharing a significant segment of his past, hidden history with her because he deemed her worthy enough to know it.

She bit down on her lower lip. She couldn't afford to think about that now.

Sasuke was going on. "But when Cronus returned to his father to share his accomplishments, his brother was still favoured and chosen to rule over the sky, regardless. In his rage, Cronus killed their father and waged a war with his brother - a war that upset the balance of life and death."

Sakura released a horrified gasp. For Cronus to kill his father; his own flesh and blood!

"That was when Crius called upon Zeus's aid once more." Sasuke tilted his head slightly. "Zeus wasn't alone; he had a large following of powerful deities. The very same god Cronus had worked with to create order defeated him, and was eventually handed dominion of the sky after Crius passed to the void. Cronus was forced to accept defeat – but recognised by all the other deities as a King in his own right."

So there had been a war before the one she'd been told about? Sakura's mind was swimming.

"King of the Underworld," she clarified.

Sasuke nodded. "Both sides agreed a truce," he said. "It lasted for a long time. But it was never enough for Cronus. The humans scorned him, despised him and his descendants. We were nothing but darkness and death, cursed for the ruin humans believed we wrought."

"But you don't bring death," Sakura remembered what Sasuke had told her before about the nature of his abilities – that although he had inherited the power to terminate lives if the need absolutely arose due to being the last of his kind, it wasn't his function as King to do so. "You judge and oversee the destination of souls."

Sasuke was silent. His expression had darkened considerably. Finally he answered stiffly, "There was one."

Sakura's lips parted. Death – true death – had actually had a physical form back then? Someone had gone around, personally reaping souls from their bodies?

Was that why mortals had feared Sasuke's Clan so much?

She hesitated – then dared to whisper, "Who?"

The muscles in his chiselled jaw visibly tensed. Pain stabbed through his heart. No. He wasn't ready. He wasn't ready to talk about Itachi - about Thanatos – the deity humans had dreaded and despised more than any other.

He wasn't yet ready to tell her about his older brother.

Sakura sensed the rapid plunge in mood, and hastily diverted the subject back to its original course.

"So… what did Cronus do next?"

Sasuke blinked, as if her voice withdrew him from the shadows of his thoughts. He didn't much feel like continuing – but knew that he had to see the story through to its end. He had already come too far to turn back.

"Humans didn't see that Zeus had assisted in setting up this system, too," he went on tersely. "Eventually Cronus appointed my father as his successor and stepped down from his duties as King. While Zeus and the others revelled in the worship of mortals, we were confined to the shades, to a world without light. Enslaved to the very race that cursed us."

Sakura's eyes lowered. She had never thought of it from that perspective. It seemed like a harsh fate, indeed.

"We were shunned, our services dismissed and unacknowledged. There were no temples built in our name. But Cronus was determined to find a way to make mortals recognise and honour us. And he thought the only way to do that was to take the throne he had been tricked out of claiming. Olympus."

There was another lengthy silence. When it became apparent that Sasuke wasn't going to say anymore on the subject, Sakura shook her head.

"And your Clan…" she started quietly. "They wanted recognition too, so they fought with him."

"He was our Leader," Sasuke uttered shortly. He said no more. He didn't add that Cronus had deceived them all – had promised them reverence and respect, only for them all to discover, far too late on the battlefield, that they'd been used as sacrificial pawns in his deranged plan to enslave all of humanity to his will. He'd broken all the rules in his lust to attain absolute power. So many deities had gone against their intended functions that day. It was for that precise reason that his entire Clan had been lost to the void.

The bitter regret of that and watching helplessly as his family had been annihilated in cold blood was still far too painful to recount. Sasuke had only been spared the same fate because he had been the last Uchiha left. Sakura had already glimpsed that section of history.

She watched him. His sooty-lashed eyes had lowered broodingly from the fireplace.

Then something terrible suddenly occurred to her.

"You-" she sucked in a sharp breath. "You and my friends – and my mother. You fought against each other back then?"

She could tell from the manner in which he visibly tensed that she was right.

And that was when it hit her. It wasn't that Sasuke and the surface gods simply didn't like each other. They were sworn enemies. On opposing sides of a bloody feud that had ended terribly – with Sasuke's entire family wiped out.

Finally, her kidnapping made absolute sense. Sasuke had taken her because her mother would never have permitted him to come anywhere near her. She could almost picture Tsunade's - Demeter's – rage. The only way for the death deity to acquire her had been to snatch her away from the surface, from right under her mother's nose.

She thought of how awful it had to have been for a King as proud and loyal to his Clan as Sasuke was, to desire the daughter of someone who had been his family's enemy.

Then she thought of how awful it was for her, if his actions were somehow a form of revenge over her friends and mother, too.

The disturbing realisation both angered and devastated her. Inside her chest, her heart was slamming against her ribcage. All at once, she felt physically sick.

"That's why-" she began. "That's why you had to-" – only for Sasuke to reach for the book before rising fluidly – as if he anticipated where the conversation was heading and did not want to traverse down that path.

"We're finished here," he announced curtly.

Sakura bit her lower lip as he replaced the book on its shelf and opened the heavy wooden door that led back down the spiralling stone steps. The candles in the room immediately snuffed out, clearly signalling that the conversation was over.

He didn't want to talk about it, Sakura knew. It only made the determination inside her burn even stronger. He couldn't keep putting it off forever, she told herself fiercely. Eventually, he would have to account for his actions – to give her the long-overdue explanation he owed to her.

But she reluctantly let it go then, for he had already furnished her with a great wealth of new information. As he locked the door and began to guide her back down the tower, Sakura kept her eyes fixed onto his back, vowing to herself that now that everything made sense, this would be the last time she stayed her tongue.

---

They did not speak to one another for the remainder of the route back to the palace's entrance hall. The silence between them was tense. Suffocating. When they finally reached the grand staircase, Sakura stood at the top landing and watched as he made his way down without a word of parting, before he disappeared in the direction of the throne room.

She finally let out the breath she hadn't even realised she'd been withholding. She felt edgy. Restless. She knew exactly what she needed to do next.

She turned and made her way back to her chamber. Entering the bathroom without a moment of hesitation, she crossed to the toilet door and locked herself in. Yanking the plug viciously into place in the sink, she turned the taps on full-blast, filling the basin hastily to half-way before she twisted them shut and called angrily out to the deity she wanted to interrogate next.

'Suigetsu! I know you can hear me!'

'Who the hell wouldn't, with a yell like that? Way to give me a headache,' was the immediate, sarcasm-loaded response, before his face rippled into being upon the water's surface. Something about his expression told Sakura that he didn't seem to be in a particularly cheerful mood.

'It's true, isn't it?' She wasted no time firing at him, her pulse galloping. 'My mother is a goddess, and she sent you down here to get me back!'

A startled Suigetsu's eyes widened – before quickly narrowing to form slits. Tsunade had sworn him to absolute secrecy, but it seemed that Sasuke had opened his big mouth at last and spilled the beans – something that came as quite the surprise to the Ocean God considering that the moody Lord of the Dead rarely ever strung a complete sentence together.

'I already know it is,' Sakura gripped the sides of the sink. 'So don't try to deny it!'

'Why would I?' He shocked her by flashing a razor-sharp smile that did not reach his eyes. 'You've obviously got everything figured out already, Sakura. Now, aren't you clever?'

'Why didn't you tell me?' she demanded. His patronising words only made her angrier.

'Look.' He raised an index finger at her, not taking a liking to her tone. 'Let's just make this perfectly clear. I don't owe you anything, kiddo. Your mother gave me a job, and I took it up. All these little extra details aren't included in my contract.'

'So she really did send you down here?' Sakura asked.

Suigetsu snorted. 'She had no clue where you were. That's why she asked me to look around places for you. I came here all on my own.'

So her mother really did know Suigetsu personally – and clearly well enough to request his tracking services. Her interest was snagged by the mention of a 'contract'.

'So what is it?' Sakura pressed. 'What do you win for getting me out of here?'

'A headache,' Suigetsu retorted. 'Seriously, Pinky, if I'd know how headstrong you'd turn out to be, and how long I'd spend cooped up in some dingy cell waiting for you to get your act together, I would've thought twice about agreeing to this shit.'

Sakura ignored this. 'You knew all along, and you never told me!'

'Hey, quit bitching at me,' the sea deity glared. 'Blame your mother. She's the one who was all hush-hush-don't-say-a-word-to-Sakura about it. How should I know why she'd want to keep you so clueless about everything? I don't even care about that. All that matters to me is that I get you home and that she delivers on her end of our bargain.'

'What bargain?' she demanded again.

'You really are a nosy little snoop, aren't you?' he lifted his silver eyebrows. 'But that's really none of your business, so butt out.'

'I want to know,' she persisted.

'What's with all this urgent questioning?' he stretched his arms behind his head, a thoroughly relaxed gesture that only served to heighten Sakura's frustration further. 'Isn't it enough knowing your mother trusts me to get the job done? Do you really think she'd send me if she didn't? Maybe you need to show me a little more faith, because I'm starting to feel cold-shouldered, right now.'

Sakura faltered despite herself. It was true; her mother obviously had to have some form of trust in the Ocean God. And surely that meant that she could afford to trust him, too?

'You could've been honest with me from the start!' she mentally exclaimed.

'Nope. Because your mother made me promise not to tell you anything,' he answered. 'She was really insistent about it, too. And you know what her temper is like.'

Sakura raked a hand stressfully through her rose tresses. So it was really true; her mother had kept everything from her because she believed she couldn't handle reality!

'They're all gods and goddesses,' she ranted. 'My mother, my friends – and I had no idea, because nobody ever told me!'

Suigetsu pulled a comical face. 'Life sucks, eh? I get that you're upset about it, but it really has nothing to do with me. Actually, I'm kind of surprised His Royal Grouchiness never told you sooner.'

'He told me about Cronus, and why he started the war,' Sakura revealed. She saw amazement dance visibly over the sea deity's features again as he registered this.

His jaw dropped. 'You're kidding me,' he gaped in astonishment. 'He actually talked to you about all that?'

Sakura nodded.

'Well,' Suigetsu mused, reluctantly impressed. She'd gotten even further with Sasuke than he had anticipated. 'Look at you. Getting him to share the skeletons in his closet.' He seemed to find this saying inappropriately funny, and snickered at his own little joke.

Sakura was in no mood to jest. She only wanted her answers.

'Did you fight on my mother's side during the war? Against Sasuke? Is that why you hate him so much?'

Suigetsu blinked, caught somewhat off-guard by the unexpected line of questioning. 'I… uh… well. I was more of a neutral, back then.'

Something about his tone whispered to Sakura that he wasn't being entirely honest with her on the subject.

'So you didn't help?' she was immediately suspicious.

Suigetsu looked irritated, and moved his arms so that he was holding up his palms defensively. 'Whoa, whoa, hold up a second!' he shook his head. 'What's with the interrogation? What does all this even have to do with us? Nothing's different.'

It was her turn to stare in open-mouthed disbelief down at him. Nothing was different, he claimed? Everything was different, couldn't he see that? Nothing was the same!

'We're still breaking out of here together,' he continued. Then his luminous eyes narrowed. 'Or are you gonna tell me that this has somehow thrown another spanner in the works? Because let me tell you now, Pinky; I don't want to hear that.'

Sakura swallowed, and took a deep breath. Then she said it. 'I'll get us out – but I don't want to do it by poisoning him. Not after everything he's told me.'

Suigetsu struggled with the sudden swell of exasperated fury that flared inside his chest. He couldn't believe it – he couldn't believe they were going over this again. And yet, he had almost anticipated this the moment he had witnessed the kiss Sasuke and Sakura had shared at the waterfall.

That was it, he told himself. The final line she had crossed. He'd had enough, had given her more than enough chances to see sense. He was now going to make her comply once and for all – or he'd take matters into his own hands.

Which wouldn't bode so well for her.

Sakura's heart skipped a beat as she watched his expression change entirely. His usually amiable, playful features morphed into something cold and condescending and absolutely terrifying.

It was at that precise moment that the first, very real ripples of alarm stirred inside Sakura's veins, as the stark realisation that she knew absolutely nothing about this deity and his real nature - other than that her mother had sent him - hit her once again.

Suddenly, he didn't look so friendly. Suddenly, he looked cruel and capricious and downright malicious.

Had Tsunade really sent him because she genuinely trusted him? Or because she had been desperate? Didn't the fact that they'd made some sort of deal suggest the latter? If Suigetsu was truly an ally of her mother's, though, wouldn't he have offered his services for free?

Shocked by the abrupt change in his disposition, she could only listen mutely as he spoke words that caused a freezing iciness to creep up her spine.

'Tell me,' he sneered. 'How else do you plan to get us out? Huh? You gonna bat those pretty eyelashes at him and ask him to let you go? I wonder why I never thought of that brilliant idea.' He laughed - a sharp, brittle sound. 'Or how about this? Maybe you could ditch the pleasantries completely and give him the fuck he's really after, see if that works?'

An affronted Sakura could feel her cheeks reddening with anger. What did he take her for, a ditzy air-head? Some kind of fool who didn't have a clue who or what she was messing with? It was precisely because she had grown to understand Sasuke better that she knew poisoning him was the worst possible way to go about escaping. She'd agreed to it at a time when she hadn't known much about him at all.

'That's disgusting-' she began furiously.

Suigetsu was swift to cut her off before she could communicate anything else. 'You know, I thought you were just being a bit of a chicken at the start, which I kind of understood. But now I know that you're not scared; you're just fucking stupid. I thought we were already clear that this is the only way we can get out of this hellhole. And now we're back to square one again?' He threw his hands into the air. 'What part of this can't you get through your dense head? You're choosing to give him the benefit of the doubt, over someone your own mother asked to save you? Seriously?' His lips curled back to reveal pearly rows of jagged teeth.

Then he said it – the words that made Sakura's heart plummet to her feet. 'I know what this is all really about. It's not just that you think the manipulative little asshole has been honest with you. I saw what happened at the waterfall. Don't try to weasel your way out of this one; you weren't faking that!'

Sakura's cheeks burned. She could no longer contain herself. 'So what?' she bluffed, brushing it aside as nothing. 'Isn't that what you've wanted me to do?'

'I told you to string him along, not to fall in fucking love with him!'

She bristled, horrified. 'I am not!' she rejected vehemently.

'Maybe not right now,' Suigetsu conceded, glowering up at her. 'But keep this shit up for any longer, and you might as well be!' He held up a silencing palm when she tried to protest and pressed his fingers to his forehead in frustration. 'I can't believe this.' He muttered telepathically. 'Who in their right mind would ever have feelings for a heartless psychopath like that? I thought only Karin was fucked up enough to pine for him.'

Sakura was aghast. Karin was in love with Sasuke?

'If you'd just hear me out!' Sakura tried again. She was ready to punch something in her exasperation.

'No,' the ocean deity's eyes snapped up again and he jabbed an index finger straight at her, one that caused the water's surface to ripple. 'No, you listen to me, Sakura. I've had it with all this bullshit. Either you're in on our original plan, or I'm taking matters into my own hands.'

Her heart was now racing. She wanted to explain that she felt like she had finally gained Sasuke's trust – that surely there was a small chance that she could reach some sort of compromise with him. How could she be sure if she didn't even try? And if that didn't work, then she would be forced to go along with Suigetsu's option. But every time she tried to get a word in, she was interrupted. All she could do was simmer in silence as he ranted on.

'You really think he'll agree to anything you suggest? Like he's actually reasonable? Like he's actually capable of pity? Just because you shared a little smooch and he's told you a few things, you think you can get through to him? Give me a fucking break!'

But he hadn't seen what Sakura had. She was recalling the way she had been able to still Sasuke's vengeful hand when he'd been hell-bent on annihilating Sai. Hadn't that been a form of compassion? But how could she possibly make Suigetsu understand? How could she describe in words what she knew in her heart was true and had seen with her own eyes on several occasions; that she seemed to be able to influence Sasuke's moods and actions – even if only to a slight degree – that he seemed to somehow be directly affected by her – at least, on some emotional spectrum that she still hadn't completely figured out.

'Let me guess,' Suigetsu jeered, hitting the nail right on the head. 'You think he's opening up to you. You think you can get through to him. You're feeling pity. For the very same bastard who didn't think twice about ruining your life! You think he's some kind of tortured and misunderstood soul who needs saving, or something – is that it?'

Sakura felt her eyes sting. She was silent. All she could think of was the pained expression in Sasuke's eyes, just before he'd kissed her - when he'd seen her cry. And she knew it was insane. Suigetsu's anger at her was nothing compared to her internal loathing toward her pitiful self. What was wrong with her? Everything the ocean deity was saying was true. Sasuke had kidnapped her! He was enemies with her mother and her friends. He deserved every awful thing that came his way and yet…

And yet…

She knew she was making this so much more difficult and complicated than it had to be. All she needed to do was spike his drink. It sounded so simple. It ought to be simple. But her kind nature simply wouldn't allow her to do something so deplorable, without absolutely exhausting all other options first.

'You think I've given you nothing except lies about the monster he really is?' Suigetsu laughed again, an unkind sound. 'Reality check: he only lets you see what he wants you to see. But what the heck, stuff my promise to your mother. Here are a few more truths for you. If he told you about his loony ancestor Cronus, then you've probably figured out that he fought against your mother and your friends back then. And I don't know what bullshit he's fed you, but he wasn't just taking orders, either. He wanted to kill them. Especially that Apollo. Oh, what name does he go by, these days?' Suigetsu tapped his chin in mock thought. 'Oh, yeah; Naruto.'

Sakura gasped in dismay. She felt something construct tightly inside her chest. Her heart.

'He- he knows Naruto…?' she managed.

'Knows him?' Suigetsu's eyebrows shot up. 'I guess he hasn't told you this part. They were always hanging around together!'

Sakura felt as though someone had physically stabbed her in her stomach. All at once, she couldn't breathe.

Sasuke… and Naruto… not only knew each other personally – but had actually been close, back then?

She couldn't believe it. What had happened? Just how much more was there that she still didn't know?

'And how'd he treat him, huh?' Suigetsu took advantage of her visible horror. 'He stabbed him in the back, the way he does with everyone once he finishes with them. The way he'll do to you, once he gets what he wants! But he's blinded you so much, you refuse to see it.'

'I'm not…' Sakura began, enraged, her eyes welling with tears. Her hands closed to form livid fists. 'I'm not blind! I'll never be blind again!'

'Oh yeah?' Suigetsu challenged. 'Then prove it. Because right now, you're playing right into his hands by feeling sorry for him. He doesn't deserve it, Sakura. Someone like you – he doesn't deserve you!'

Sakura released a shuddering breath. She tried to push away the haunting onyx eyes that drifted into her head, the Sasuke who had watched the stars with her in Elysium, the Sasuke who had kissed her so gently – tried desperately to replace them with the image of the Sasuke she had first met in the banqueting hall, who had told her, with ice in his voice and gaze – that he'd kidnapped her on a mere whim.

Maybe what Suigetsu was saying was true; maybe Sasuke was heartless and cruel with the rest of the world. But with her… he was different. She had seen it, more than enough times.

With her, she knew the pain and hesitancy in his eyes - eyes that viewed everything else with such disinterest and contempt - were no lies. She hadn't imagined it. With her, he showed glimpses of a side that was concealed from the rest of the world, enclosed beneath an impenetrable cocoon of pure titanium.

A cocoon that seemed to tremble and crumble entirely when he held her in his arms. When he kissed her.

And that was when it struck her. A most terrible and treacherous thought. How to go ahead with Suigetsu's plan, in a ruthless manner that Sasuke would never suspect.

The tears pooling in her eyes spilled. Sakura's head bowed and she sobbed without a sound, tortured by the internal conflict that was clawing her insides to shreds.

If what Suigetsu was really saying was true… if Sasuke had really been out to hurt her friends and family back then – if he still despised them enough to hurt them - then he really didn't deserve mercy. But how could she even be sure that was what had really happened, when she didn't know Sasuke or Naruto's sides of the story?

All she had was an ocean king's word – someone who had been promised a reward to bring her back, one he obviously wanted to do everything in his power to make sure he acquired.

Suigetsu was merciless in the face of her tears. There was no concern in his eyes. Nothing but hardness and disgust.

'If you really knew everything there was to know about him, you'd never hesitate.' He communicated. 'You wouldn't shed a single tear for his undeserving, sorry ass. Snap out of it and use the damned poison. Show that arrogant bastard that he hasn't won this game!'

A pressured Sakura felt like she was cornered. Like she had no more options left. Time had run out – and she was no more ready than she had been at the start.

And it was entirely her fault. She had nobody to blame but herself, for ever allowing things to come this far.

Sensing her resolve wavering, Suigetsu pounced for the kill.

'You want to see your mother, don't you?' he questioned, much more quietly. 'You want to understand why she kept everything from you, right? You'll never see her if you don't go through with this. And if you don't get back onto the surface soon… it'll mean trouble for you.'

Her head jerked up at that. Inhaling sharply, she demanded, 'What do you mean - it'll mean trouble for me?'

'Why don't you ask your new boyfriend to explain?' Suigetsu sneered derisively. 'I hear he's pretty good at clearing things up for you. Maybe he'll even clear up some of the cobwebs he's put in that ditzy little head of yours.'

It was the worst possible thing he could say. Sakura's crestfallen expression immediately evaporated, replaced with the fiery walls of rage.

'I'll do this myself,' she stated with finality, making it transparent that she did not appreciate being belittled.

Suigetsu's own fury flared once more. He closed his eyes briefly – and then surprised Sakura by grinning. 'Heh,' he shook his head, and shrugged. 'So that's your decision, huh? Fine.' His eyes rose again to lock onto hers and Sakura saw something perilous swirling inside those strange irises; something that almost, almost, made her falter in her resolve. But she steeled herself; she would not back down. She would try her way, first.

'You do it your way. And I'll carry on with mine. We'll see who actually gets anywhere first. But when you mess up big-time, and your sorry little ass comes crawling back to me for help…' he pointed a finger at her, mimicking a gun and its trigger. 'I might not want to listen to your crap, next time.'

Sakura's eyes widened. She didn't know what he planned to do by himself, cooped up in his cell – but suddenly, she didn't care. He had insulted her enough. Guilt-tripped her enough. All deities, she was starting to unpleasantly discover, were manipulative in their own ways, played with human emotions to get what they wanted.

She'd had enough of being a pawn on the chessboard of the gods. She was going to do what she felt was right – rather than blindly follow cold logic.

Without a word, she grabbed the chain and yanked the plug almost violently out of the sink. She didn't bother to wait for the water to swirl all the way down the drain before she spun away, slamming the door shut crossly behind her.

---

Karin cast a nervous glance back over her shoulder. She knew, from the odd look he had directed her way when she'd excused herself briefly from the riverbank, that she'd aroused Juugo's suspicions. He was more than likely wondering where it was she was sneaking off to, and really, the red-haired nymph couldn't blame him.

She just hoped that her sexy master wasn't patrolling nearby enough to notice her strolling around off-duty. Or maybe she did secretly want to bump into him? That, Karin thought to herself with a wistful sigh, would certainly make a delightful change to her mundane and thoroughly drab schedule.

She had no such luck, however, and the path she took to Suigetsu's cell was uneventful. Once she reached it, she made a show of huffing loudly and folding her arms unhappily. She hated it when he summoned her. She hated it even more when she always ended up going to him.

'What is it, you idiot?' she greeted rudely.

'I'm kind of impressed,' Suigetsu teased, making his form visible to her. 'You didn't take forever, this time.'

He was leaning against the back wall of his rocky cage, looking utterly bored. It wasn't surprising to Karin. After all, the little pink-haired brat was sure taking her time pulling off their grand escape plan.

'Shut up,' Karin snarled back. 'What the hell do you want, you freak?'

'Bitch,' the Ocean God quipped back with a sneer. 'Don't think I called you here to look at your ugly face.'

She stiffened and flushed, reacting in precisely the manner he savoured. Her right hand flew to adjust her spectacles. 'You- you stupid asshole!' she snapped. 'I should've known better than to listen to you-!'

'Calm down, Karin,' he rolled his eyes. 'This is an emergency meeting.'

She turned her nose haughtily into the air and sniffed. 'You screwed up?' she jibed. 'Figures. You're so stupid, you can't do anything right.'

He blinked. Then he glared, 'Hey. Shut your ugly mouth.'

'It's not even open, stupid,' she smirked, pointing to her pursed lips.

His eyes glinted with mischief. 'Not now, but I remember it being open when we-'

She hurtled a rock at his cell. It immediately disintegrated upon impact with the lightning-charged bars. 'Y-you stupid dick!' she spluttered back, all indignant. 'I don't know what you're talking about!'

'Yeah, sure,' Suigetsu grinned smugly. Then he shook his head. 'Look, let's stop arguing for a second. We need a change in strategy.'

'Why?' Karin demanded, placing her hands impatiently on her hips.

Suigetsu's eyes narrowed. It gave him no pleasure to disclose what followed. 'Stupid little Sakura doesn't want to use the poison.'

The nymph's eyes widened. 'WHAT?' she telepathically shrieked. After she had gone through such trouble and risk to acquire it from the old crone?

'I know - she's as thick as a brick. So we need to set things off ourselves, because if we leave it to her, I'll be stuck here forever.'

'Wait a minute,' Karin tried to make sense of what she was being told. 'Why isn't that tramp using the poison?'

Suigetsu eyed her. He anticipated that his response would cause quite the reaction – and he wasn't disappointed.

'Because she's starting to have…' he wrinkled his nose, '…feelings for that son-of-a-bitch.'

There was a deadly pause. And then Karin erupted, 'WHAT?!'

The sea deity went on gleefully, 'Oh yeah, I saw them kissing at the waterfall. They looked really into each other, too. Wouldn't be surprised if they were fucking each other's brains out, right now.'

Karin's jaw dropped. 'Don't screw around with me!' she mentally screeched, and began to pace agitatedly about, her heart pounding in her chest. The mere concept of Suckura returning Sasuke's affections made her nauseous. How could this happen! But could she really hold the foolish girl at fault? After all, Sasuke was irresistibly alluring.

'If this is some kind of sick joke-' she started, grasping at her uneven tresses.

'It's not!' Suigetsu abruptly lost all his humour, and glowered at her. 'I don't know how the hell it's happened, either, but we're going to put a quick end to their little love story, got it?'

'That ugly freak,' the nymph vented. How dare Sakura make a move on her Sasuke? Karin absolutely could not accept or allow it. 'That stupid little, good-for-nothing-'

'She's gotta be good with her mouth,' Suigetsu couldn't help but antagonise her further. 'I mean, maybe that's why Sasuke keeps her around, because he really likes the way she-'

'SHUT UP!' Karin pointed at him furiously. She could not stand to hear anymore. 'Just tell me what I've gotta do, idiot!'

Suigetsu blinked. He'd wound her up enough. Then he smirked, a sly, sinister, callous smirk. Oh, Sakura was going to comply and use the poison, alright. He wasn't going to give her a choice in the matter.

'I've got the perfect solution,' he winked.

---

Sakura sat back against the wall, breathing heavily, her sword lowered by her side. She'd just discarded five ugly, green goblins in the third level of the battle simulator on her own, and was taking a breather ahead of descending to the fourth.

She had stormed out of her room following her argument with Suigetsu, tried to cool the volcano brewing inside her by going to the gardens. It hadn't helped. She'd restlessly gone to the art gallery next. The library. To Eos. She'd even gone walking aimlessly down the halls. Nothing had worked. The only small mercy was that she hadn't encountered Sasuke along the way. She knew she wouldn't have been able to keep her composure if she had. Then she had returned to her chamber and changed into a black sparring outfit, unconsciously choosing a colour that reflected her sour mood. Almost automatically, her feet had led her down to the training dome in the hopes of clearing her head. She knew she was too worked up, needed to calm down, and had reasoned that hitting something would help let out her inner frustration. She'd struck the wooden posts in the default arena until they had ended up looking a little worse for wear. But after a while, hacking and slashing at inanimate objects hadn't been enough. She'd wanted to punch something, to pulverise with her fists, to vent out all the internal anger boiling inside her in the form of solid, physical aggression.

So she'd made the potentially risky decision to activate the lever that had parted the circular platform and revealed the winding staircase that led down to the combat simulator. A metal platform attached to a set of tracks spiralling down the stairs - which she had somehow completely overlooked the previous time - had offered a handy alternative to climbing down. Sakura had taken it, enjoying the smoothness and tranquillity of the gently rotating ride.

She supposed that Sasuke wouldn't be too pleased if he discovered that she was fighting monsters completely unsupervised. She didn't really care. She was sick of deities telling her what she could and couldn't do. She was sick of feeling manipulated by everyone and everything around her.

Besides, the very real danger of meeting an unexpected foe gave her precisely the kind of adrenaline kick she was currently craving. While fighting enemies, she could at least focus her mind on one purpose and one alone – survival. It was definitely helping her to chase away the red haze in her head.

She wasn't relying on her sword alone, though. She'd kicked and punched the smaller, clumsier creatures in the manner Sasuke had taught her to do in some of their previous, hand-to-hand combat sessions. It felt good, to rely on herself, to put to use the skills she had acquired.

Exhaling, she rose to her feet and moved over to the lever, pushing a wayward lock of her braided hair out of her eyes. She reached out to activate it, to cause the platform to rotate to the next level down – when a hand suddenly shot out from behind her. It clamped down on her wrist and she was spun abruptly around.

"What are you doing?" Sasuke's dark eyes were like hard, smoky diamonds. He wore a dark navy tunic top that was sleeveless, showing off his smoothly muscled arms, and a teasing glimpse of his well-defined chest. His forearms were wrapped in dark blue bandages up to his elbows. His trousers were black, and so were the sandals on his feet. The circlet earring in his left ear lobe flashed as he tilted his head questioningly at her. Sapphire and diamond stone, Sakura guessed distractedly.

Her heart, of course, fluttered at the sight of him, in a thoroughly vexing manner that only infuriated her even further. She tugged her arm back, was pleased when she managed to disengage her wrist from his grasp.

"Training," she answered shortly. Wasn't it obvious enough?

"I meant," Sasuke intoned, unaffected by her sarcasm, "what are you doing here alone?"

"Training," she repeated, raising her eyebrows at him. "I've already finished three levels on my own. Now I'm on level four, so if you don't mind-"

Sasuke had figured that much out already. "No," he uttered.

"No?" she echoed, frowning at him. This really wasn't what she needed to hear. "I'm fine, Sasuke. I was only going to try the first five levels, anyway."

They stared at each other. She looked good in black, Sasuke thought, but something seemed different about her, which flagged up his suspicions. She seemed flustered, preoccupied, and her eyes kept shifting oddly away from him.

He wasn't sure what was going on – whether it had anything to do with the tense manner in which they had parted ways earlier – but he was going to get to the bottom of it.

"You're angry," he observed. He knew that emotion all too well, and she was doing a poor job of disguising it.

Great, Sakura chewed the inside of her cheek. Was it any surprise he could read her so well? It was in his job description, to suss out expressions.

It was just a shame that he was emotionally constipated himself.

Not meeting his gaze, she shrugged. "I want to rely on myself."

That, Sasuke knew, was probably true, but not the real reason. What was up with her? She was acting strangely reckless. She knew it was perilous to enter the simulator without supervision. What would she have done if a higher-level opponent like the Kraken had come crawling out of one of the gates? There was no escape once a level was engaged. She already knew that.

"I want to train," she said again stiffly, and turned back to the lever. She reached out – only for Sasuke to intercept again. Sakura bit down on her lower lip in frustration as he knocked her arm back once more.

"Sasuke," she began, struggling with exasperation. "Could you not just-?"

He unclasped Kusanagi from the black belt at his waist and tossed its sheath aside. Lifting his bandaged hands into a ready position, he ordered, "Fight me."

Sakura blinked. Something told her this was probably a bad idea. What if her emotions got the better of her, and she ended up blurting out the things that were weighing so heavily on her mind? The things Suigetsu had told her, the ones she couldn't let him know she knew – such as the fact he had apparently tried to kill one of her best friends in the long ago past?

But then, he was offering her the kind of close-range combat she had wanted. She had the feeling that if she refused, he'd just end her attempts to train altogether, and she wasn't ready to stop. Besides, maybe hitting him would help her feel better.

If she could score a hit; their previous, lengthy sessions had mostly consisted of him sweeping her feet - less than graciously – out from underneath her, or twisting her arms painfully behind her back while making demands for her to yield.

A bright idea then presented itself to her.

"Lend me some chakra," she said suddenly. Sasuke inclined a dark eyebrow at her suggestion.

"I want to be able to keep up with you," she explained. "I want it to be fair, this time."

He snorted. They would never be evenly matched – even if he gave her a massive stash of his resources. But he complied, reasoning that it would certainly liven up their session, and summoned a surge of freezing energy into his palm. Sakura began to reach out – but he drew his right hand beyond her reach.

She blinked in surprise when he tapped her forehead lightly with his first two fingers, instantaneously transferring a small stream of chakra to her, one corner of his lips curving to form the ghost of a smirk at her slightly bewildered expression.

She exhaled as the freezing, numbing, potent energy zigzagged through her, was reminded of its exhilarating power. She remembered how she had moulded it before, and concentrated hard. Once more she felt an almost painful tug inside her chest – as if something deep inside her was responding to the divine energy – and then the warmth that accompanied her own natural chakra network surging forth to direct Sasuke's fluidly to her arms and legs.

She looked up to find his sharingan activated. He could see her chakra merging with his own, watched with keen interest as she effortlessly redirected its flow.

Impressive, he silently conceded.

She readied herself, lifting her hands into fists in turn. Her senses heightened, she watched him closely. They circled each other slowly. He seemed to be waiting for her to make the first move, so Sakura did just that. She lunged forward, arm drawn back, and he side-stepped fluidly to avoid her. As she landed, Sakura held herself steady as her feet impacted upon the ground, sending vibrations up her calves. Sasuke didn't give her much time to adjust to the augmented speed of her movements. He closed in, dropped low with the intention of sweeping her feet out from underneath her.

Sakura had sworn the previous time that she would not let him catch her with that blasted move again, and jumped lithely away, before leaping forward, foot raised to deliver a forceful kick. Sasuke's hand shot up, lightning fast, and caught her ankle. Sakura used her grounded foot to push up into the air, pirouetting in a motion that forced him to release his grip.

"Hn," he tilted his head. So she had remembered that aerial hold-breaker. With his chakra boosting the accuracy and flow of her movements, she was almost graceful.

She threw herself forward, attempting a left hook. He blocked, and she countered with an uppercut drive, her actions much more precise than usual. So this was Sakura's potential under the influence of deity chakra, Sasuke thought, as he directed a jab at her right side. She twisted out the way and hit back with a heeled stomp toward his shins.

He hopped away, and circled her unhurriedly again. He definitely approved of what he was seeing. She was getting better. But it still wasn't anywhere near enough to match him.

Sakura braced herself as he attacked again, striking this time to her left. She blocked, grasping his wrist, but failed to deflect the follow up blow that impacted with her right shoulder, knocking her backwards. The pain was slight – Sasuke wasn't even trying, she realised – and that only made her angrier. With a shout she ran at him again, her fists flying in a flurry of wild movements.

His eyes, deactivated of their sharingan, still caught them all, deflecting each attempt expertly. Left hook. Right jab. Uppercut. Elbow drive. Mid-section swipe. He watched as her expression, tense with concentrated effort, grew increasingly frustrated with every failed attempt at landing a clean blow on him. He caught both her wrists in his hands and spun her around, holding her arms behind her back with one hand, fisting her hair with the other, and pushed her head down so that she was forced to bend over in front of him.

"Calm down," he censured, staring down at the back of her head. "You're not focusing."

Something was definitely troubling her. But what?

Sakura, breathing heavily, responded by kicking back at his legs with a foot. He evaded, releasing her, and she pivoted, ramming an elbow toward his left rib. He caught it, and also halted the follow up punch she swung at his face, locking her in a position that forced her to look up at him.

"Sakura," his eyes narrowed when she tried to pull out of the hold incorrectly, further confirming to him that she was not fully concentrating.

She panted angrily, her eyes a darker shade of green than usual. "I'll get a hit on you this time!"

He sincerely doubted it, but her conviction was inspiring, nevertheless. She struggled some more, her mind racing to remind her body of the correct way to break it. Then it came to her. She lifted her right knee, aiming a jab to his gut. It forced him to release one hand, which she used to direct a punch right at his head.

He batted her fist away with an open palm. She pushed against his thigh with her foot, and the momentum of the motion succeeded in tearing her other captive wrist out of his grasp. She skirted away, catching her breath as she eyed him closely for her next opening.

Strands of jet-black hair had fallen into his eyes. He held out his hands, almost as if daring her to close in again.

The arrogant, sexy jerk. Sakura rued the fact that it was extremely unlikely that she could ever connect a fist straight into that smug, too-perfect face. She came at him again, and he once more diverted her attempts. He seemed to be blocking more than attacking, which only irked her even more.

"Don't hold back!" she exclaimed through tightly ground teeth, as she kicked at his ankles again.

In response he placed a hand on her right shoulder, and used her body as a leverage point to somersault gracefully over her head. Sakura blinked, and whirled around – just in time for him to aim a jarring kick right at her stomach. Her arms shot down to protect the vulnerable area, but the power of his attack made her stagger backwards. Her arm muscles protested at the strength of impact, but his cooling chakra quickly rushed up to repair the aches.

As if complying directly with her request, Sasuke prowled towards her like a slinky black panther – then suddenly darted agilely forward, his left arm drawn back, hand set flat to direct a stabbing jab to her ribs. Sakura dropped low to duck, evading, and kicked out with her right leg, trying to knock him off balance the same way he did so often to her. He easily avoided it, and answered with his own swift, round-house kick, which missed her tumbling form by inches. Then he caught her left arm as she rose, tugging so forcefully that her shoulder screamed in protest as she was hauled forward at great speed.

Before she could even register what was happening, she had been slammed, face first, against the wall. The air was knocked cleanly out of her lungs, and she blinked, her vision briefly spinning. When it cleared a moment later, she found herself being pressed against the hard bricks, both her hands twisted uncomfortably behind her back. She tried to squirm free, but Sasuke's weight crushed against her, rendering any movement difficult.

She inhaled sharply when she felt his lips stir the hair above her left ear, "If I wasn't holding back," he breathed, "you'd be dead."

"Ungh!" she grunted, trying to push back against him, but to no avail. It only heightened her awareness of the warmth and strong solidity of his body confining hers in position, made her racing heart hammer even faster in her chest. He was so close, that she felt like her entire body was thrumming with the same, strange, tantalising electricity his proximity seemed to spark inside her.

"Get off me!" she finally managed to grind out indignantly.

"Make me," he challenged – and as if to prove a point, he pushed even harder against her. Sakura's eyes widened when she felt the tip of his nose brush against the side of her neck – as if to taunt her helplessness.

When he released a puff of air over the sensitive skin there, Sakura could barely suppress the shudder that shot down her spine.

"What's the matter? Sakura." His lips were bare inches from tasting the flesh of her throat.

She bit her lower lip. They both knew this was his winning hold. Sakura fumed to herself. He'd twist her arms until she shrieked for him to stop - until she yielded.

No, she thought irately to herself. No, I won't give in this time!

Her thoughts cycled frantically. There had to be a way out, some way she could manipulate Sasuke's borrowed chakra to work to her advantage. Then it came to her; a decidedly underhanded shot, but one that was capable of doing real damage thanks to the divine energy streaming through her veins.

She felt the front of his sandals against her heels, estimated the rough position and angle without being able to look. Then, without warning, she lifted her right leg, and stomped down – hard.

The growl that flew from his lips, as well as the jar of impact informed her that she had struck a successful blow at last. Sasuke's hold on her loosened – and that was enough for Sakura to shove back against him. He was swift to draw away, hastily channelling chakra to heal his aching foot, glaring at her triumphant face as he did so.

"Resorting to cheap moves, Sakura?" he sneered.

"Sorry," she smiled insincerely, feigning concern as the adrenaline rush of fulfilling her goal at last coursed through her. "Did that hurt, Sasuke?" she exhaled. "As long as it does the job, it doesn't matter which move I use, right?"

His expression darkened. "Don't get too cocky."

She almost laughed at that. That was some hypocritical advice, coming from the King of Arrogance.

"I told you I'd land a hit," she informed him.

He was clearly disgruntled. "Hn. That wasn't a proper-" he started dismissively – but Sakura was already rushing at him again. She aimed a bone-snapping kick straight at his left shin – only for his snake-fast reflexes to catch her ankle again with his hand.

She prepared the same aerial twist to get her out of the foot-lock – but this time, the death deity was faster. Sakura's heart skipped a beat upon witnessing the small, conceited smirk that danced on his lips. Abruptly, he jerked her trapped leg violently upwards, sending Sakura flying off balance and forcing her floored foot out from underneath her. She flipped once in the air then landed flatly on her back with an audible "Oof!" on the ground, the force of the fall once again causing the oxygen to completely abandon her lungs.

She wheezed for breath, her vision swimming with stars for a few brief seconds – and forced herself back into a sitting position, just in time to see Sasuke advancing. A frustrated sound tore from her throat and she launched herself at his mid-section, like a mini canon-ball. Sasuke, thoroughly surprised by her very physical choice of attack, let her take him down without resistance. A second later, she was sitting on his stomach, her legs straddling his sides, her right hand drawn back into a threatening, ready fist.

"…" He stared up at her. Her eyes were fiery. She was breathing heavily. She looked delicious.

She gazed down at him angrily. His hair was in tousled disarray, and he looked peculiarly resigned, almost like he wouldn't necessarily stop her if she really wanted to connect her knuckles to his jaw.

But she lowered her hand, and grabbed onto the collar of his top, instead.

"Are you going to act like you haven't lost, again?" she demanded.

Sasuke scoffed to himself. This wasn't over. Not really. He had let her pin him. Mostly because he liked the view of her, on top…

But he knew she was upset. Something was really distressing her. And so he did not mock her, but chose to answer quietly, "No."

Her eyes widened. The tight grip on his shirt loosened.

Was he… was he telling her that she had won? She couldn't believe it-

That was when he suddenly moved. One second, Sakura had been on top of him. The next he had swiftly reversed their positions with admirable fluidity and grace. All at once, Sasuke was above her, but his hold was not oppressive. His left hand cradled the back of her head, while his right encircled her left wrist loosely.

Panting, she blinked up at him. A silence fell over them, in which they stared at each other.

Sasuke's intense features relaxed as he studied her – and then he lowered his forehead and pressed it lightly against her own.

"Sakura," he mumbled, closing his eyes briefly. It was impossible – but he suddenly seemed so resigned.

It was funny, Sakura thought distantly. How unguarded he seemed all of a sudden. She was bewildered. Why would he look like that? So completely at odds, once again, with the description Suigetsu had painted of him? Wide-gazed, Sakura remained frozen in place, unsure of how to react. He wasn't being hostile. It seemed inappropriate to shove him back. His eyelashes then swept up, and those smoky depths were so close that they seemed to suck her in like inescapable black holes. She couldn't look away.

She caught her breath a moment later when she felt his upper lip brush fleetingly over her lower one; a tantalising, barely-there, experimental touch that left her skin tingling.

"Hhh…!" she exhaled shakily. Her mind was triggering blaring alarm sirens, and they were deafening. She had told herself- she had sworn to herself that she wouldn't let this happen again; that she wouldn't allow him to trap her in a situation just like this one anymore. And so soon after the last-

But it was like her body had completely forgotten. Or didn't even seem to care. What was even more riotous than the frantic warnings inside her head was the wild pounding of her own pulse in her ears, which drowned out everything else.

"Sasuke…" she whispered. His mouth still hovered dangerously over hers, and his eyes were consuming what was left of her rational thoughts. Their scorching heat seemed to evaporate all resistance. Something inside her was quivering violently. She didn't understand it. She was afraid of it. "Please-"

He kissed her. Deeply. Passionately. And the startling manner in which Sakura's heart positively lurched within her was nothing short of terrifying.

It was nothing like the chaste kiss they had shared at the waterfall. It was hard and demanding, fiery and unreservedly ravenous. A detonation that set off an immediate and unsettling chain reaction inside Sakura - put her on slow burn. She could feel his hunger, the frightening depth of his need, and just like before, her entire body was instantly responding, strewn alight by the volatile catalyst that was his touch. Before she knew it, before she could even control it, her lips were parting for him, as if in a subconscious – but hopeless - effort to drag much needed air into her depleted lungs.

Or as if some slumbering part of Sakura - one that was wholly alien to her - wanted this.

His right hand released her wrist, trailed sensually up the side of her neck, cupped her cheek, before moving to caress her hair, his fingers lacing through the silky locks. Unbidden, Sakura's back arched reflexively, unintentionally pushing her front more firmly against his as Sasuke deepened the kiss further.

The feel of her body pressing against his set him aflame, and he was so overcome by it, that it left him spent of breath entirely. He was completely immersed in the feel and taste of her. Sasuke didn't care if he never lifted his head for air again. He didn't need it.

He needed only her.

"Uhmph…" a muffled moan escaped her throat, and Sakura was so diverted, so out of her element completely, that she didn't even register that it was her own voice making that sound.

It was the most erotic, beautiful thing Sasuke had ever heard. By Elysium, he wanted her to make that sinful whimper again. The exhilarated rush coursing through his veins was like pure, liquid sunshine, a blazing, unstoppable force that warmed his blood, chased away the ice and darkness, which he'd not even realised, up until then, had completely frozen him inside. The sensations flooding through him were rendered all the sweeter when he realised that once again, Sakura was not fighting him.

Sakura's mind had disconnected itself entirely. Like it refused to acknowledge she was actually experiencing this, and worse, allowing it. Her body was now its own master, and it wanted to explore and understand the unknown, trembling sensations he was eliciting, rather than flee from them. It was warring against all reason, everything she had told herself before about not allowing Sasuke to pull her any deeper into the entangled mess that he seemed hell-bent on dragging her into.

But he was pulling. And she could feel the shackles tightening around her, was all at once losing track of everything, everything but the way her heart was racing.

The spell of pure insanity that had fallen over her, however, was abruptly and harshly broken when his hot tongue suddenly prodded her mouth for entry. And then it was like someone had thrown a bucket of ice-water all over her, jerking her mercilessly awake. Sakura's eyes, which she hadn't even realised had fluttered shut at some point – flew open in horrified alarm, as the foreign heat and tingles that seemed to be concentrating particularly in her lower belly intensified.

What was happening? Had she completely taken leave of her senses? Here she was, in the exact situation she feared so greatly- only a thousand times worse.

She thought then of Suigetsu. Of his condescending words and insults. Of his accusations.

'I told you to string him along, not to fall in fucking love with him!'

'… You're playing right into his hands …'

No. NO! Pure, unbridled rage exploded through her. Fury at herself – and at Sasuke, for overwhelming her body with all the things she told herself she did not want – sensations she knew were wrong for her to feel with him. Her heart beat like a ferocious drum. Panicking, she did the first thing that entered her frantic mind. The only thing she could think to do, to free herself from her terrible predicament.

She bit down on his lower lip. Hard.

A pained hiss escaped through his teeth. Sasuke was caught completely off-guard, and the slight leeway was all Sakura needed to shove him viciously off. Kicking back, she scrambled away from him, her eyes ablaze with fury.

The death deity's own lifted and locked onto hers. His chest was heaving. He raised a hand to his bleeding lip, touched his fingertips to it as if in disbelief – before he angrily spat out the blood onto the ground. Immediately the wound began to heal.

Something flickered in his charcoal irises. Something that scared Sakura; because of the way it made her heart wrench - so agitatedly.

"Stop-!" she panted, her cheeks an inferno of heat. "Stop!" she raised a hand, as if to ward him away from advancing. He remained in position, though, resting back almost too casually – as if he believed that what had just occurred between them was nothing to get all flushed and upset about.

This only made Sakura's despair swell, and finally, finally, she snapped. She couldn't hold it back anymore – the inevitable confrontation that she had stemmed in the tower room, and on so many other previous occasions.

Did he honestly think - just because of what had happened at the waterfall - that somehow she had opened her doors to him? That she would just accept him? That somehow, she was indebted to him, just because of everything he had told her?

He was preying on her confusion! Using it to his advantage, to lure her in. Her fury flared like a tumultuous furnace, completely beyond her control – and Sakura, stricken and breathless from its devastating intensity, found herself screaming tearfully at him.

"Why are you doing this?"

"…" He looked completely detached. Wholly unapologetic. But there were shadows in his gaze, that hadn't been there before.

Why? Sasuke struggled with the stifling tide of his own conflicting emotions. Perhaps she would like to answer why she was doing this to him.

"You have to stop!" she cried, gripping senselessly onto her dishevelled hair with one hand. "You can't do this, Sasuke! We can't do this!"

"Why." It was more a statement, a demand, than a question. His voice was clipped, deceptively cool – but something about the coiled tension she glimpsed in his posture suggested that he was holding back his own anger.

"Why?!" she gasped in astonishment. Surely he had to know all the reasons that made their situation so impossible. But as she looked upon him, she realised with a sinking feeling that he genuinely did not seem to be aware of them. Or perhaps, he was simply too proud, too used to getting exactly what he wanted when he wanted it, to care about the reasons or even acknowledge them.

"Sasuke- you kidnapped me!"

He blinked. Then he sneered, "Is that it?"

Was that it? Sakura was so livid that she could practically feel her blood pressure rocketing to dangerous levels. All the months of emotional turmoil she had suffered at his hands – was still suffering – he thought them insignificant?

"You-" she was near-trembling with rage. "You think that's nothing?"

"What did you expect?" he snarled defensively. "That I'd go to your mother?" He loaded the final word with heavy disgust.

It confirmed Sakura's earlier theory; that Sasuke hadn't had any other way of getting to her. But that still didn't make it right, and she somehow had to make him understand that.

"Even if you had no other option," she exclaimed, "that doesn't excuse your actions! What were you thinking? That I'd just get over it, and adjust, and everything would just- fall into place and be fine? You took me away from my home! You kept me in the dark about everything!"

He looked affronted. He had kept her in the dark? What nonsense was she prattling? Had he not been the one to tell her the very truth which her precious surface companions had kept concealed from her?

"Until recently," Sakura conceded, "but you could have been honest with me from the beginning. You could have explained why you kidnapped me, and maybe, just maybe I might have understood, Sasuke! Maybe I wouldn't have had to feel so afraid at the start, not knowing what this place was, or what you were, or why you'd even want me!" She exhaled shakily, suddenly becoming conscious of dampness against her cheeks. It was strange. She couldn't even recall exactly when she had started to cry.

"Do you have any idea how much I've suffered emotionally? What it's been like for me, to be trapped here, how hard it's been for me, having to adjust to a completely new world, how scary it's been, thinking that any wrong move I pull will make you mad, will make you kill me! How awful it's been, to find out everything I've ever known has been a lie! Have you even thought about any of those things? Or do you only think about yourself, and what you want?!"

He was completely silent. Appeared defiantly unrepentant.

"You…" Sakura despaired at the lack of a visible reaction. It was like he wasn't even listening to her. "You have no idea what I've been through! And you can't just kidnap me and expect me to- to just accept you! You can't force feelings, Sasuke! Maybe you can force anything else you want to happen in the world, but feelings… they take time, and they have to be given freely! You can't just expect to get them, like you have some kind of god-given right. That's not the way it works! I-" she broke off. She didn't even really know what she wanted to say, anymore. Her mind was a jumbled mess, and she seemed to be blurting things out automatically, without much thought.

Still he did not speak a word. Simply watched her with those hawk-like eyes.

"Do you expect me to just forgive and forget?" Sakura continued to rant. "To accept everything like nothing about this entire situation is messed up and wrong? Everything about it is wrong, Sasuke! Everything!"

Finally, he spoke. His voice chilled her; it was cold, hard fury. "No. Everything about your life with them is wrong."

"They're still my family! My friends!" she leapt to her feet. "I want to understand why they kept everything from me! But I can't do that if I'm down here. If you-" she swallowed, heart thundering. "If you would take me back, then maybe, maybe I could forgive you-"

Forgive him? He was suddenly on his feet too, his hands closing to form tight fists.

"Forgiveness?" he echoed the word sarcastically - contemptuously. "You think I want that?"

"You don't want it," she told him. "You need it, because I know that deep down inside you, you know it was wrong to kidnap me!"

He glared daggers at her. Was she so preposterous to assume what it was he wanted and needed? He could scarcely believe his ears.

"I told you," he bit out acrimoniously. "It was the only way." He spoke it as if he did not understand why she could not comprehend this and accept it as a reasonable excuse for his actions. What else had she expected him to do? He had wanted her – he had tried to find other ways – but to no avail. Did she think it had brought him pleasure, to pine senselessly for something he hadn't even understood at first? To long for the daughter of an enemy? She accused him of having no idea what she had been through – yet Sasuke thought that it was she, who hadn't the faintest idea of what torture had endured for the two and a half years he'd spent watching her from the shadows, feeling himself burn and yearn and not know why.

But he couldn't express this to her. He didn't know how, and his pride stubbornly refused to find the words.

So instead, he advanced toward her, and it took every ounce of willpower that Sakura possessed to stand her ground, to keep from backing away.

"You think I asked for this, Sakura?" he seethed.

She caught her breath, aghast. For some reason, she had never really thought about how Sasuke would feel about the matter. She had just assumed that he'd seen her at the funeral, and spent the rest of the time planning her abduction.

She had never really stopped to consider how much he might have struggled inside. A god as cold and unfeeling as he was, who had lived in the shadows for so long alone - to desire something unfamiliar for the first time – and not just anything; the daughter of one of his family's sworn enemies.

"You could have just ignored me… forgotten about me…" she was all at once confused. Thrown by the line of thought.

He surprised her by exhaling a sound that only vaguely resembled a laugh. It was short. Sharp. Brittle. Like breaking glass. He tilted his head mockingly, his eyes piercing into hers as he stopped within arm's reach in front of her.

It was then that she realised, from the bitterness she could see all too clearly in his features that Sasuke couldn't have. He'd kidnapped her for that exact reason. Because he had likely fought against it - but hadn't been able to shut her out of his head.

Unbidden, the memory of his eyes on her, when they'd first met at the Carousel, drifted through her mind. She felt dizzy. Smothered.

"But you…" There was a growing discomfort inside her chest, and she tried her best to ignore it. "You told me you took me on a whim…"

One corner of his lips twitched. Not quite forming a sneer. Perhaps he had passed it off as a whim, at first. Before he had discovered that his craving for Sakura was anything but a fleeting fancy.

He didn't need to say anything else, though. Sakura understood.

"But you're selfish," Sakura whispered. "You didn't think once about my feelings! Even now, it's all about you, what you want, and I-!"

Indignant fury flashed across those irises. "You didn't stop me," he snapped pointedly, referring to the kiss.

"I-!" Sakura was mortified when she could find no quick-fire response for that. What could she say? That she had obviously been distracted? That he had caught her off-guard? Neither was true. The best thing she could manage was, "I was- you confuse me! Sometimes I feel like I can't even think when you…"

He stared at her.

Sakura gestured frantically at him, as if he was proving her point. "When you look at me like that!"

Sasuke scowled, and bristled defensively. What was she talking about? He wasn't looking at her like anything.

Sakura could see that he did not comprehend what it was she was trying to express. She covered her face hopelessly with her hands, closed her eyes for a moment. Oh, what a mess Fate had strung them both into. What an impossible, horrible mess. She felt strangely exhausted following her outburst, and the discomfort in her chest was steadily growing into a heavy ache. But she still wasn't anywhere near finished.

"That isn't all," she shook her head at him. "We're completely different, Sasuke. You're a god, and I'm human!"

His eyes narrowed, and he pounced, "What if you weren't?"

"What?" She glanced up at him again with startled eyes. After a speechless moment, she managed, "That's like saying what if you were human! We are what we are, Sasuke. There's no way this – whatever this is – whatever you want it to be - can ever work!"

Sasuke was silent. She didn't know what he knew. And the death deity was quite certain, that once she found out, the issue of them being different would no longer be an objection. He looked away from her. Sakura could see the tension lining his clenched jaw. The way anger seemed to coil like icy tendrils from his form. Still she continued, wincing, even as the ache inside spiked to a sharp, unexpected stab of pain.

"You're the King of the Underworld, and I belong on the surface." Her voice began to rise again, as fresh tears threatened to spill from her eyes. "We're from two completely different worlds! You knew that from the beginning, and still you-!" her breath hitched, when a sudden, pulsating stab of stronger pain throbbed inside her chest.

Sasuke's head immediately swivelled back to her.

"Ugh…" she clutched her hands above her racing heart, felt the familiar dreaded tightening of her windpipe that accompanied another oncoming attack.

"No-" she whimpered. Not now!

Sasuke could see that she had worked herself up into quite a distressed state. He was moving towards her instantly, without a second of hesitation.

"Sakura-" Concern made him reach for her.

She batted his hands away. "No," she wheezed again, as she stumbled backwards, trying to compose her breathing, to fight back the encroaching sense of panic and doom. "Don't – don't touch me! Unh!" She turned away, meaning to place distance between them – but her legs suddenly felt like dead-weights, and the room spun violently as another wave of agonising pain gripped her.

She collapsed to her knees and doubled over, squeezing her eyes shut. It would pass she tried to reassure herself, as long as she remained calm. It would hopefully be a quick, brief spell – that was all. She would be fine. She would be-

But she knew, from the high-pitched whining assaulting her ears that this was anything but a light attack. She bit down on her tongue, trying to keep her cries from leaving her mouth. She didn't- she didn't want Sasuke's help!

Despair made the tears flow anew. Suigetsu had been right about him. He had no pity. What had she realistically expected? An apology? From Sasuke? She hadn't even finished saying everything she'd wanted to say; hadn't had the chance to ask him to let her go. She was certain that even if she had, he would have flatly refused. Somehow, this only made her heart hurt even more.

But the Death God was by her side regardless of her wishes, gripping onto her shoulders to pull her back up. Sakura resisted, curling tighter into a ball of agony as she sobbed on the ground, her fingernails digging into her palms.

"Ghnn…" she uttered through clenched teeth.

"Sit up," Sasuke ordered.

"It hurts," she wept. "It hurts!"

Sasuke's heart pounded. Her body was so tense. And as he finally succeeded in drawing her up, he saw how pale and clammy her skin had already become - skin that had been flushed red with anger just moments earlier.

She needed ambrosia. Paying no heed to her weak, protesting struggles, he gathered her into his arms and transported them to the banqueting hall in an instant. Settling her into one of the chairs, he grabbed a glass and poured the rich golden liquid into it, nearly spilling it in his haste to get it to her. Then he took the cup to Sakura, and lifted it to her lips.

"Drink," he urged her.

But she turned her face away, groaning in agony. He grabbed her chin and forced the liquid down. She coughed and spluttered, but finally accepted it, drinking almost greedily, as if parched of thirst. Sasuke remained by her side, watching her closely, waiting, with baited breath, for the wine to kick in.

A minute passed. Two minutes. Three, and her pain was still escalating. She was doubled over in the chair, breathless and gasping, her nails clawing at her chest so hard that they left angry red scratch marks. Sasuke gripped her wrists to stop her from hurting herself any further, stared with wild-eyed alarm when he realised with a sinking feeling in his gut that the drink was not working.

Did she need more? But a glass had always been enough in the past!

"Sakura-"

She was screaming, now, and it was the most dreadful sound he had ever heard, more chilling than anything he'd heard in his realm. It reverberated in his skull, tore him to pieces. He let go of her briefly, to fill another cup, feeling powerless to do anything else. But when he turned back to her, Sakura had dropped onto the floor, writhing and sobbing. Her eyes were glazed. Her breaths were rapid and shallow.

"H-he-elp me…" she struggled to speak. The world around her had turned into a haze of pain. She was disorientated, unable to make out anything beyond it.

He raised the glass to her mouth – but a sudden thrash of her left arm sent it flying from Sasuke's grasp and clattering to the floor. He cursed, was about to get another – when her right hand blindly grabbed his, squeezing with such force, that Sasuke, too, felt pain.

Her face turned up to his in sightless desperation as she clutched onto him. She didn't want to die. She wasn't ready. She wanted to tell him that, to ask him to break the rules just once, and not let her pass.

"H-h-h-!" But she failed to form any words this time. Her body was starting to convulse, and a horrified Sasuke felt as though his heart was being wrenched out of his body, skewered by a spiked iron rod that ruptured the organ to pieces.

Why wasn't the ambrosia working?!

"Sakura!" He drew her body – a body far too fragile to carry such a terrible burden - into his arms, trying to keep her still, to keep her safe. But he could sense her heartbeat – could feel how unnatural its rhythm was – and he knew the second he saw her eyes start to roll back into her head, and the way her lips began to turn blue, that this was no ordinary attack.

The fragment wasn't just trying to trigger spring again.

This time, it was hell-bent on achieving it, and if it did not- if it did not- then this body- this innocent girl who had become such an integral part of his existence- she would…

No, Sasuke was numb with shock and denial, as the very real possibility of losing her right then slammed into him.

No. No! Damn it!

His Sharingan activated, he watched in wordless horror as her inner chakra network ran rampant, firing off pulse after pulse of disturbed energy. There was something different about its irregular flow and colour. The Essence was responsible, he knew, and suddenly he hated it, hated the very thing that had created Sakura. He pressed a palm to her chest, over her erratic heart, trying to steady it. But each time he succeeded, it reverted back to its frantic beat.

It was just as he had been warned. He had no control, no sway over what was inside her. It was its own life-force – and one that did not answer to him.

What did he do? What did he do? For the first time since the demise of his Clan, a panic-stricken Sasuke felt completely helpless, completely shaken. A complete failure. The feeling of vulnerability frightened him more than anything, knowing, as he stared down at the tortured girl in his arms, that there was nothing he could do for her, nothing he could do to take this pain away.

All his great power and immortal wisdom was reduced to nothing in that moment.

"S-S-Sa-" she stuttered, her dazed eyes focusing unseeingly on his face.

He raised his right hand to her icy cheek. Cradled her close against him.

"Hold on," he whispered, willing her to, with every fibre of his being. "Sakura."

She convulsed again, her breaths laboured, fitful.

'You must take her to the surface.' A voice suddenly echoed in his head.

He released a breath at the sudden, unexpected life-line he was given. 'Chiyo-?'

The old goddess's tone was urgent. 'To the concealed woods that are on the borders of your realm. Hurry, little King!'

Sasuke didn't need to be told again. In a heartbeat, he had flickered to the entrance of the Underworld. Passing Cerberus without a glance, he hurried through the fog-shrouded cavern, bypassing the steps that led up to the surface entirely by flash-stepping over them. He alighted in the misty forest that was concealed from human and deity gazes by a powerful illusionary technique, a vast area that formed the outer-most borders of his Kingdom, and the hidden route all had to cross in order to reach the mouth of the Underworld.

It was the one and only remaining place where his realm merged with the upper world, a hazy boundary between life and death. The dense trees here were forever without leaves, tall and slender and towering high to the sky, but devoid of all life. Splintered wooden logs, sticks and shrivelled old leaves and vines littered the earthy ground. But nothing new grew in it.

'Set her down,' Chiyo's voice reached him again.

Sasuke did so, crouching down, his arms still around her as he placed her gently onto the damp ground. When nothing happened, he called out to the goddess again.

'What now?!' he demanded, too diverted and apprehensive to even care that he was actually asking the old crone for help.

'Now watch.'

It was difficult, but Sasuke did, his pulse hurtling, as the contact with the soil seemed to have an immediate impact and helped soothed Sakura's violently trembling body. Her eyes were now closed, and her head fell back against his shoulder as she released a shaky breath. In a few seconds, she had stopped tremoring entirely.

He watched her face intently; saw how the frown lines betraying her lingering pain increased briefly – before smoothing away. That was when his eyes abruptly lowered – and he saw her left hand.

Her fingers were curled into the soil. They were moving, as if grasping at the damp particles, raking deeply through them, over and over. Her lips were moving without a sound. A heavy sigh then escaped them – as if she had found blessed relief at last.

Like the earth itself was healing her. Like she needed the contact to end her suffering.

Sasuke exhaled unsteadily, his eyebrows drawing together – as if pained. He listened to her breaths slowly become steady again, sensed her pulse return to its normal, healthy rhythm. Her skin regained colour, and warmth returned to her.

And that was when he realised; when it finally struck him at last, as surely as a bolt of lightning. The last piece of evidence he did not need, of the precise nature of Sakura's tie to the surface.

He saw, with his own wide, astonished eyes, the tiny, slender shoots of green that were starting to form in the soil around her fingers. Growing in earth that could not normally sustain any form of life.

He gazed down at her, the full and true extent of his actions – and the consequences they'd had on her - hitting him at last. Like a rude, bitter, harsh awakening, he suddenly understood, with perfect clarity, what he had allowed to happen. The ticking time-bomb he had unwittingly set off, the moment he had stolen her into his Kingdom.

Sakura. I…

The intensity of the guilt he felt at that moment was crippling. Devastating. He did not know how to deal with it. Could do nothing but lower his head and press the tip of his nose to her hair as he inhaled silently, shakily.

She had almost died because of him.

I… The words he sought would not form in his mind. It was as though a barricade kept them from him.

It wasn't the fragment that had caused her such suffering during her stay in his world. It was just trying to fulfil its purpose, like it did every year. He had been the one who had let it hurt her so much. So unnecessarily. And the longer he kept her from her home – the more dangerous and unstable the Essence inside her became. It was getting worse, too. Because it was now nearly July, and the earth had only just over one more month in which to flourish and yield the fruits of summer – until the following year.

But it could not do it without Sakura. And in such a tight, unnatural space of time in which to trigger growth all over the surface, she suffered more acutely, felt pain so much more intensely. It put her life at greater risk.

He was the one responsible.

And that was when Sasuke fully realised, that desiring to keep her with him went far beyond his own wants and his needs.

It wasn't only simply the selfish case that he wanted her to stay by his side.

It was the crushing weight of knowing that he had to let Sakura return to the surface before the start of autumn. Or she would not make it to the following spring.

---

Author's note

The next chapter will consist almost entirely of flashbacks between Hades and Kore, with some more of Sasuke watching guiltily over Sakura's unconscious form.

I wanted to show the massive shift in Sasuke's character development, here. Isn't it ironic, that Sakura is looking for a way out of his Kingdom – when he has started to realise it for himself, how important it is that she goes back home, here?

I hope you guys enjoyed reading this mammoth chapter! If you could leave your thoughts, I'd really appreciate it. See you next update!