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.

51. Chapter 50

Very sorry for my lack of activity. I've been going through a lot of changes in life and writing on here regrettably became the least pressing of my priorities.

Thank you for remaining patient and I hope you will find this chapter was worth the wait.

If you're interested, please visit my profile to listen to the tracks I was hearing while typing certain scenes. This is a HUGE read so please ensure you take regular breaks!

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Chapter L

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Come with me; I will show you Hell,

Burning, eternal, inescapable fire,

Hear the dreadful toll of the ringing bell,

As you stand upon the brink of your funeral pyre,

Here - the resting place for wretched souls,

Here - your reckoning - this prison for fools,

My grasp on your throat - the only thing,

Keeping the flames of damnation,

From singeing your skin.

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What have I done?

Sakura gripped the reins tightly in her hands, her entire body quivering violently as the full impact of her actions crashed into her, prompting her to release a broken, strangled sob.

She had never wanted any of this, knew Sasuke would eventually make her pay for it. How long did she realistically hope to run? How did one go about eluding Death? She had just damned herself to hell for certain, ruined any hopes of salvation. Sasuke would recover, he would find her in a heartbeat, and then…

Then he would terminate her pitiful existence.

It didn't matter that he had forced her hand, that his actions had been wrong to begin with when he'd decided to steal her away into his world. Her moral reasoning held little weight against the reality of her situation; that Sasuke was a god, and not just any god. The King of the Underworld, the very one who passed judgement upon the dead.

She knew she was gambling with her life, throwing everything away just to see her mother and friends again. But that hadn't solely been the reason that had spurned her to ultimately go ahead with the betrayal. In reality, after learning the truth about the pomegranate fruit, she had just wanted to wound Sasuke in the same manner he had hurt her. The only way she could think of that would harm him.

Physically, she stood no chance. An emotional attack had been the only way to strike a successful blow.

Besides, it would make things so much easier for them both if Sasuke did hate her. So much less complicated. And Sakura knew that after this, he surely would. He would loathe and detest her and want nothing more to do with her.

Eos finally drew to a halt at Sakura's command. She hurriedly jumped off the horse, eyes darting frantically in the dimness, seeking out Suigetsu's cell. Immediately it materialised, and his amethyst gaze widened at the sight of her, her rose hair dishevelled, cheeks tear-stained and flushed with exertion.

"Holy shit," he gaped. "What happened?"

Sakura stumbled over to him, extending the sword. Suddenly she couldn't stand holding it, wanted nothing more than to be rid of it, like a felon seeking to hastily do away with the guilty evidence of their crime.

Suigetsu whistled in amazement, visibly astonished. "Whoa… you actually did it…" Then he shook his head. "And Sasuke…?"

"He's in the palace," Sakura swallowed. "The poison worked. But Karin… she told him about our plan before I could make it to the training dome. She almost messed everything up!"

The ocean deity didn't look surprised at all. "Aha… she did…?"

The hand holding the sword lowered. Sakura's heart skipped a beat. She'd interacted enough with Suigetsu to know his reaction was a little too lukewarm in intensity.

"You… aren't angry…?"

Suigetsu shrugged it off. "C'mon, hurry up and slide the sword through the bars. It negates electrical energy, so you won't get hurt."

But Sakura stared at him in horror. "You knew?" she accused. "About Karin?"

Suigetsu rolled his eyes. "Okay, okay! Fine, I knew. I didn't think you'd pull through on your own, okay? So I got Karin to interfere and hurry things along. She doesn't really want to leave this place, anyway. She's too obsessed with that loser." At Sakura's indignant look, he waved his hands at her. "Look, it doesn't even really matter now-"

It didn't matter? She'd never felt as utterly terrified as she had been the moment when Sasuke had turned his eyes up to her after she'd overheard Karin revealing her treachery to him.

"You-! Do you even know what I went through? We already agreed on a plan! I almost panicked- I could've messed up- I thought he was going to kill me!" Sakura cried.

"But he didn't." Suigetsu looked bored and wholly unconcerned by her distress. "And I told you, he won't. Things worked out fine. It was a precaution. A backup, just in case. Look," he sighed. "My bad, alright? I shouldn't have ever doubted you. But can you blame me, after all the hesitating?" He shook his head again, and quickly went on before Sakura could protest any further. "You can try and kick my ass for it later. Now's not the time to argue - give me that sword!"

"Wait," Sakura set her jaw firmly, staring hard at him. She'd had enough of trickery, games and plans being made behind her back. There was something she needed to be absolutely sure about before she handed Kusanagi over. "Do I have your word? Promise me first!"

"Promise you what?" Suigetsu asked impatiently.

"Give me your word that you're taking me back to my mother and my friends!"

"Seriously?" he gave her a look of pure exasperation. "Would I have stuck it out in this place for as long as I did if that wasn't my intention?"

"Give me your word!" Sakura pressed.

"Okay, fine, you have my word. I'll return you to your mother." He rolled his eyes, then exclaimed, "Are we done? Don't you think we've idled around here a little too long now?!"

Sakura was still upset at the stunt he'd pulled; however she was fully conscious that time was of the essence and finally passed the weapon over to him. Smirking, he grabbed the hilt, and with a quick swipe across the bars, dispelled them and stepped out free. She took a step back unthinkingly – he was a lot taller than he had appeared to be in the cell.

"Oh yeah! That's what I'm talking about! Finally!" Suigetsu grinned, hoisting Kusanagi triumphantly into the air. Then he chuckled. "Man, that's gotta sting. That asshole is gonna be so pissed at having his precious weapon stolen. This'll make a nice addition to my sword collection." Turning back to Sakura, his luminous purple eyes cast an appreciative look over her. "Heh. You look so innocent, Pinky. Who would've thought you'd have the guts to double-cross a death god? I'm impressed," he winked. "We'll catch up properly later. Let's get out of this hell-hole, first. Follow me!"

Behind Sakura, Eos whinnied, as if she understood what was happening – as if she knew that her mistress was abandoning her. Sakura hesitated for a moment, looking back at the beautiful horse.

"I'm sorry," she murmured, stretching out her free hand to caress her mount one final time. Part of Sakura wished she could take her along. But she knew Eos belonged in the Underworld. Besides, it didn't feel right to keep any of Sasuke's gifts - not even the one she liked best.

"Are you fucking kidding me?" An incredulous Suigetsu tugged unrelentingly on her arm, began to drag her away. "Forget the stupid horse! We'll be able to slip out quieter on foot. Plenty of nice horses up on the surface. We don't know how long the poison will last. We've got to go. Now, Sakura! We can't waste any more time!"

Eos neighed again, stomping her hooves, visibly restless. Sakura shook her head regretfully – and then turned away, allowing Suigetsu to pull her along and lead the way as they fled together into the shadows toward the river bank. When they finally slipped through the gap in the rock-face that led around to the central isle where souls were forming two distinct queues, Suigetsu crouched low, tugging Sakura down beside him.

"How are we going to get past them?" Sakura whispered as she looked anxiously toward the tall, leather-clad men who were patrolling each line, their weapons brandished menacingly.

"It's not them I'm worried about," Suigetsu answered in hushed tones, slipping Kusanagi under his cloak to conceal it from view. "I'm a deity, so they have no business with me. It's that Juugo. He's definitely noticed Karin's absence by now, and us turning up… well, he'll put two and two together and might go berserk on our butts. We can't afford to waste any time getting held up in a fight."

Sakura's eyes stopped on the orange-haired goliath of a man who was calmly ushering souls into their correct lines.

"Berserk?" she echoed, frowning in confusion.

"Hah…" Suigetsu laughed almost nervously. "Yeah, he… uh… how should I put this…?" The ocean king scratched his head. "He can be a little mentally, uh… unstable when he gets mad."

Juugo had seemed nothing but perfectly polite and gentle whenever Sakura had interacted with him. But then, she had only ever spoken a few sentences.

"Wait, you know him?"

"Knew him before he came down to this dump to serve His Royal Grouchiness. But never mind that, now." Suigetsu shifted to turn his gaze onto her again. "Rushing across isn't an option, someone is bound to spot us. So we'll wait until his back is turned, and walk over. If we're lucky, we can make a dash for it before he turns around again."

"Before the ferryman's boat arrives?" Sakura questioned dubiously.

Suigetsu scoffed. "C'mon. Give me some credit, Pinky." He waved a hand. "Ocean God, remember? I can get us across in a flash. We don't need any stupid boat. Once we get past Juugo, we should be clear."

"Wouldn't we save time by just teleporting to the surface?"

Suigetsu shook his head regretfully. "If only it were that easy. The instant treason is committed here in the Underworld, all teleportation is negated by an automatic lock-down barrier. Like it or not, Sasuke's will rules every last speck of dust in this forsaken land."

Sakura's heart sank a little. The odds seemed to be stacking overwhelmingly against them. "You mean that even you can't teleport out?"

The sea deity met her eyes evenly. "Mortals, gods… nobody can leave without the ruler's permission. Only through the gates, and only with the key."

"The sword," Sakura exhaled in realisation.

"Right," Suigetsu nodded, before turning his eyes back to the riverbank. "There's no other way for us to sneak around either, so if we can just make it off this landing, we'll be free to continue. Get ready. Come on, big guy," he quietly willed. "C'mon, c'mon, c'mon…!"

It didn't take long for Juugo's back to turn as he tended to the lines of souls. The instant it did, they crept slowly toward the river's edge. They had almost reached it, when Juugo unexpectedly swivelled around again, catching sight of them almost immediately. Sakura's stomach lurched, and she froze immediately in place.

"Shit," Suigetsu cursed under his breath. Then, to Sakura, he hissed, "I'll handle this." Plastering a sunny smile onto his face, he approached Juugo, mimicking a false sense of camaraderie by slapping him on the back in greeting, whilst keeping Kusanagi carefully concealed beneath his cloak. "Hey, hey! Big guy! Long time, eh? How's it going?"

Juugo's sunset-hued, red-orange eyes lingered on Sakura, who smiled just a brightly at him, attempting to feign some semblance of normality. Then he turned his attention to Suigetsu beside him.

"Lord Suigetsu," he greeted politely.

"Ah, c'mon, how many times have I told you to cut the 'lord' bull? I mean, it does have a certain ring to it, but you and I go back a long way, right?"

Juugo seemed to consider this, before nodding slowly.

"So, say, you've met Sakura-chan, right?" Suigetsu angled his head toward her. Sakura balked. What did he think he was doing? Wasn't he supposed to be distracting Juugo's attention away from her? Why was he doing the opposite, instead?

"Isn't she pretty? She is, right?" Suigetsu continued, surprising Sakura, who did her best to hold Juugo's gaze as it fixed onto her again. "Like those flowers you loved to look at on the surface. Remember? You like pretty things, right? Well, I'm just showing this pretty thing around the Underworld." He clapped the taller man on the back once more. "You carry on; don't let us disturb you-"

"Without Lord Sasuke?" Juugo interrupted.

Suigetsu waved dismissively. "Oh, he's around. He'll be along shortly, said he had some business to take care of. Hey, real good job you're doing here. We won't keep you." Turning back to Sakura, he said cheerfully, slinging an arm casually around her shoulders as he steered her closer toward the river's edge, "So, ready to see the other side of the riverbank, Pinky? I hear it's got a view to die for…"

"You... have the Master's permission to take her away?" Juugo questioned, looking thoroughly perplexed. And, Sakura nervously noted, rather unconvinced.

"Of course!" Suigetsu waved back. "Hey, it's not like I'd do something so stupid as try to steal this girl out of this depressing pla- oh shit!" he abruptly shoved Sakura bodily backwards away from him. Stunned, Sakura yelped, tripped, lost her footing, and looked up, startled and bewildered- only for her eyes to widen in horror when they rested on Juugo's form. He looked visibly enraged, and she then realised why Suigetsu had pushed her aside. Juugo had aimed a left hook straight at them – with an arm that had physically engorged to four times its normal size. Sharp, thick appendages had sprouted on his darkened skin, and he was breathing heavily, the sclerae of his eyes blackened, his pupils a disconcerting shade of pale yellow.

"Hah," Suigetsu sneered, whipping out Kusanagi from under his cloak. "Guess you grew a few more brain cells over the centuries, huh?"

"MUST… KILL… ALL… TRAITORS!" Juugo boomed, his eyes lacking all focus and sense. He looked deranged, furious – and deadly.

Sakura gaped at him as she got back to her feet, utterly appalled. What had happened to him, and how, in a matter of seconds, had his form altered to become such a monstrosity? The transformation had been immediate and was devastating.

But she wasn't granted the luxury of solving the mystery. Juugo lumbered toward them like a killing machine, and swung his arm back again, readying another blow, the ground rumbling beneath his weight. Suigetsu and Sakura scattered, narrowly avoiding his swipe. His gigantic fist slammed into the floor instead, sending rock and debris flying into the air.

"Pinky, catch!" Suigetsu threw Sasuke's blade to Sakura, who caught it and watched, her inner dread growing by the second, as Suigetsu held out his hand and plucked a large, chunky, razor-sharp sword from thin-air. The blade, Sakura glimpsed, had a circle cut out close to the top and a semi-circle above the handle. It looked to her like a decapitation instrument.

They were going to fight? Whatever happened to the idea of avoiding confrontation? They were losing valuable time!

"Remember this baby?" Suigetsu grinned at Juugo, brandishing his own sword with pride. Then he rolled his eyes. "No, of course not… you can't understand a single thing I'm saying to you right now, can you, you bird-brained brute?"

"Suigetsu!" Sakura exclaimed. "What the hell are you doing? We don't have any time to-!"

"That bastard's obviously not so incapacitated if he's already sent out word to his lackeys that we're planning on breaking out," Suigetsu interjected, keeping his eyes trained closely on their obstacle. "There's no other way Juugo would have known to attack us so quickly. Get behind me!"

Sakura inched behind him and glanced involuntarily toward the lines of souls. They had noticed the commotion, were turning away and growing visibly uneasy. She felt a stab of remorse for disturbing their journey. Sasuke's other servants had grown aware, too. One of the brawny men, wielding a spiked club, came stomping toward them, looking menacing. Kusanagi's hilt seemed to singe against Sakura's skin, a visible token of her guilt and treachery. She was just beginning to come to terms with the fact that she might have to use Sasuke's prized weapon to protect herself- when Juugo released a chilling, incensed yell and launched himself at them once more.

The next few seconds were a chaotic blur. One moment she had flung herself out of Juugo's crazed attack path once more, and briefly caught sight of Suigetsu's sword crashing down… in the next, the ocean deity had nimbly grabbed onto her arm and before Sakura could even blink, she had been hoisted onto his back, and they were gliding – yes, gliding – speedily over the water's surface.

"Haha! Losers!" Suigetsu crowed triumphantly over the whistling of air and the pounding of blood in Sakura's ears. "That was too easy!" Then, to Sakura, "We're good, Pinky!"

"Won't they come after us?"

"They aren't allowed to leave their posts!"

Sakura clung to him, arms wrapped tightly around his shoulders, trying to recollect her thoughts. The river seemed to span on endlessly in all directions, and the speed at which they were travelling made everything pass in a head-spinning rush of darkness. Strands of her hair whipped into her face, further blinding her to her surroundings. She didn't even see them pass the ferryman's soul-loaded boat.

"You hold onto that sword," Suigetsu called to her. "Be prepared to use it – there's no way Sasuke will let us escape so easily, even if he is compromised. Now stay focused. What you're going to see on the other side of the river's not pretty!"

Finally they touched down on the opposite side of the river bank – and Sakura, slipping off Suigetsu's back, immediately understood what he had meant.

Nothing could have prepared her for the impact of the sight that awaited her. Souls - countless souls - littered the place, souls belonging to bodies of all ages, shapes and sizes. Many were weeping by the edge of the river, clawing out their eyes, wailing or desperately searching their phantom torsos or the ground for something they clearly did not possess. They seemed lost and in despair – whilst others queued silently, clutching something in their wraith-like hands. Sakura slowed as they walked right through the bodies, too disturbed and distressed to recall Suigetsu's warning. Their moans and cries echoed in her ears – the most disheartening of laments.

When she stumbled on an unseen dip in the sloping, rocky ground, Suigetsu's hand shot out, gripping onto her left shoulder to steady her.

"Watch it, Pinky!" Sakura finally turned her face and blinked at him, dazed. He clucked his tongue disapprovingly. "Geez, I told you to stay focused… but I guess you can fully hear them now, huh?"

"What are they holding in their hands?" she asked, looking around them again at the masses of ghostly spirits. "What are so many of them looking for?"

"Some of these souls have been waiting here for centuries," Suigetsu said. "Without a coin to give to the ferryman, they can't pass over. They stay here in some sort of messed up limbo. Now keep moving!"

Sakura continued ahead, feeling chilled every time she passed through a cold, phantom form. What a terrible fate it was, to be caught in an endless state of unrest because they had no payment to offer for transport across the river. Everywhere she looked, there were souls, masses and masses of them, merging into one another, yet seemingly oblivious of each other. And was it her imagination, or did they appear somewhat brighter to her eyes? Her own soul seemed to weigh heavily inside her chest - almost as if it were somehow attuned to the sorrow around her. She wondered if eating from the forbidden fruit had anything to do with her heightened sense of awareness, and clamped her hands over her ears, trying to drown out the dreadful sounds.

Suigetsu led her further onwards, hurrying ahead, and they ran until the masses of spirits were but ghostly glows far behind them. But streams of newly-deceased souls kept inflowing steadily past them as they continued in their journey toward the Underworld's exit. Sakura did her best to ignore the wraithlike forms.

The terrain blended back into rocky darkness as they travelled over uneven ground. Sakura noted that the landscape seemed barren and empty, with no signs of enchanting forests or hidden, delightful caverns. It seemed clear that the jewel of sights the Underworld had to offer were hidden deeply in its centre, and could be reached only once the river was crossed. Her heart raced as her thoughts turned again to Sasuke. Was he still writhing in agony on the ground where she had left him? Had he passed out entirely? Or was he struggling to get to his feet, seething and vengeful?

If he had already alerted his servants, then was he already on his way to them?

Don't think about him now! She urged herself. It's done. It's finished! Keep going!

"We're nearing the bridge!" Suigetsu called ahead of her, climbing up a set of stone steps set into rock. "Once we get past there, the gates aren't much farther-" he abruptly halted, just as Sakura began to climb the steps. She scrambled up to join him, alarmed by the sudden tension she saw lining his body, and how silent he had fallen.

"Suigetsu?" she huffed. "What's wrong…?" her voice trailed off as her eyes followed his line of sight, to find three slender women materialising from wisps of mist before them.

They slunk into existence, their figures slender and graceful – yet something about them was so terrible, so dreadful. Their luminous, feline gold eyes, lacking pupils or irises, fixed immediately on Sakura, and she felt the blood in her veins turn to ice.

These women were anything but ordinary. They were inhuman. Dangerous. Deadly. There was something so wild, almost feral about them – so angry. The silver hair on each woman's head was an untamed mass of curls that coiled like serpents, and their skin glistened a shade that lay between grey and onyx. Faint silvery veins snaked along their flesh. It appeared as if they were made entirely from shadow.

They were dressed identically in loose, black toga dresses that grazed their knees. The hems of the skirts were all shredded. Sakura noticed how their sharp nails seemed more akin to razor-sharp claws – and as they fully took form, saw that each of them possessed a pair of large, black, bat-like wings on their back.

Suigetsu cursed. He had been hoping that he and Sakura would avoid this confrontation entirely, and that Sasuke was too incapacitated to summon them. But the water deity supposed that the appearance of the female entities was automatic. After all, Sakura had committed treason against an immortal by poisoning the Underworld's King.

Without taking her eyes off them, Sakura whispered uncertainly, "Suigetsu…?"

'This could be trouble…' his voice echoed in her mind, as the tallest of the women slunk forward, a serpentine-like tongue flicking from her lips as she sneered openly at them.

'What are they?' Sakura questioned telepathically.

'Erinyes. Also known as The Furies. Sister deities of vengeance. They serve Sasuke and punish any person that commits a crime or treason in the Underworld. They won't stop chasing you until you're driven mad by torment.'

Sakura stared at the Erinyes in horror. Somehow, the possibility of a psychological assault seemed even more terrifying than physical danger.

'I've never dealt with them before,' Suigetsu went on. 'They're part of the natural order here. We can't waste any time fighting them; our best bet is to try to outrun them. If we can just get to the gates, they won't be able to follow. But they're going to do everything they can to slow us down and stop us!'

'How do we hold them back?'

'Use Sasuke's sword…' Suigetsu ordered. 'They aren't allowed to lay hands on it, and they won't touch you physically, but they will get into your head. Keep running and if they get too close, swing at them! Got it?!'

Sakura nodded, her heart in her throat.

The three women then spoke, in a language that was at first foreign to Sakura's ears. They seemed to talk without moving their mouths, their voices blending together like a demonic nightmare. They reverberated in the air, vicious, furious, a malicious hiss.

She tried to block out the words, but somehow her body felt compelled to hear them, and the closer she listened, the more the words increasingly grew intelligible, until every one of them rang with pristine clarity in her ears.

"O' Daughter of the Harvessst, you have sssinned against the Lord of the Dead. All who commit treassson against the godsss shall know our wrath and fall unto ruin…" As they spoke, they began to circle Suigetsu and Sakura, like predators preparing to strike.

"Shit," Suigetsu muttered, "This isn't going to be easy… you have to try and block out their voices, Sakura! Don't listen too closely! They want you to feel guilt… they won't stop until they incapacitate you. No time to lose. RUN!"

They bolted, and the Erinyes released a high-pitched, shrill shriek of disapproval, so loud and awful that Sakura felt it in her bones and was forced to shield her ears. But the weight of Sasuke's sword made it difficult to keep both ears covered, and a stab of pain shot through her mind, as the frightening winged women gave relentless chase, taking to the air far swifter and more fluidly in movement than she and Suigetsu could travel on foot.

"Treacherousss wench!" The three voices screeched in rage. "You will know the flamesss of Tartarusss. There will be no sssalvation for your sssoul!"

One of the women swooped down toward Sakura, snarling, claws extended. Sakura screamed, trying to block out the continuing voices that echoed around her with the sound of her own, and slashed wildly to parry the Fury away. Just as Suigetsu had said, the Fury changed course, avoiding Kusanagi with another deafening wail, as if touching the blade would scorch her. The Ocean Deity kept behind her, swiping at the other two, summoning violent flurries of gushing water, trying to keep them at bay as the pair hurried toward the stone bridge.

Sakura cried out as another of the winged deities lunged toward her, shrieking so loudly she was sure her ears were on the verge of bleeding. Once more, she stabbed at the vengeful entity, gaining precious seconds of distance.

"Don't listen, keep moving!" Suigetsu yelled, blasting another wave of water at the Fury to force her back farther. She dissipated into mist at contact before effortlessly reappearing and pursuing again.

Their voices were like something out of a crippling nightmare, like the inescapable pull of gravity, a crushing, heavy force weighing on her mind, body and soul, threatening to hinder her movements and thoughts. Her legs begged her to stop, to rest, just for a moment. But she pushed on, somehow certain that if she let the voices bring her to her knees, she would never get up again. She willed herself onwards, striking left and right with Sasuke's sword, even when her shoulder screamed from over-exertion.

Two of the Furies changed course, and blinked out of sight, leaving smoky mist behind them. Suigetsu's heart thundered, his eyes alternating frenziedly between tracking the air and Sakura's movements ahead of him. Where had the blasted creatures gone? Alarm spiked through him when the remaining visible entity dove into the ground and vanished in turn. He knew it didn't bode well for them that the deities of vengeance had disappeared from sight. More than likely, they were formulating some devious plan to separate him from Sakura.

The bridge loomed ever closer, a beautiful, imposing structure carved intricately from stone. But it lacked any balustrades, and as Sakura and Suigetsu set foot upon it, the sea deity realised right away that getting across was likely going to be a perilous venture. He had to carry Sakura. The Furies would have no reservations about driving her over the edge and chasing her down into the misty, bottomless chasm below.

But just as he moved to grab her, all three Erinyes abruptly rematerialized right before them, circling them in a vehement whirlwind of shrieking fury. Suigetsu shouted out, briefly losing his balance. Sakura screeched, forced backward from the shock of their sudden appearance, and lost her footing, toppling toward the edge of the bridge. The Furies broke from their circle and savagely surrounded her, tearing at her clothing and hair with the force of the air that accompanied their hurricane movements. Somehow they were able to damage the fabric without physically touching her with their claws. Sakura, alarmed, lost grip of Kusanagi, and shielded her head instinctively, protectively, screaming as the horrible, sanity-stealing voices raged mercilessly in her ears.

"Traitor!"

"Thisss shall be your tomb!"

"Damned isss your sssoul!"

"NO!" Sakura ground out through tightly grit teeth, beads of perspiration forming on her brow from the concentrated effort of trying to block the hellish voices out. "Get out… of my head…!"

But no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't stop their words from resonating inside her skull.

An angry yell split through the air, as Suigetsu retrieved Sasuke's sword and lunged at where the Furies were moving in a cyclone of rage around Sakura. He stabbed at them with the blade, forcing them to briefly part, but they retaliated aggressively and quickly. Two of them dissipated into plumes of smoke as he attacked them with a combination of Sasuke's blade and powerful waves of water, only to reappear, screaming with such force, that even the water deity's ears were afflicted, and he momentarily lost sight of Sakura in the pandemonium the Furies caused.

That brief moment was all the third Erinye needed to assault a disorientated Sakura, who stumbled, lost her footing – and plummeted straight over the edge of the bridge, her piercing scream echoing loudly in the hollow darkness.

"Shit! SAKURA!" Suigetsu's stomach lurched. With a snarl of frustration, he forced the Erinyes back with another powerful wave of rotating water, and raced forward, his eyes frantically seeking Sakura's falling form in the bottomless abyss far below-

-only to find her clinging onto the underside of the bridge with a precariously glowing hand that looked like she'd channelled…

He blinked in surprise, briefly awe-struck.

Was that… chakra energy?

He didn't have even a second to contemplate how she was doing it or to be impressed. He wasted no time in reaching down and grabbing her, hauling her back up onto the bridge – at the precise moment the Furies regrouped and charged at them again.

Suigetsu knelt with his back to Sakura, summoning a howling wall of water around them.

"Get on!" He shouted. Sakura, half-gasping, half-sobbing, crawled onto his back, gripping onto him as if her life depended on it. Immediately he sprung forward, the defensive funnel of water continuing to rotate around them, warding the Furies back as Suigetsu transported them over the bridge as fast as his immortal legs could carry him. Clenching his teeth with resolve, he summoned another surge of flowing water that rose up from the ground and hopped onto it, riding it like a wave, allowing them much faster passage. He hadn't wanted to resort to using too much of his abilities, because he needed to preserve chakra in case they ran into any further hiccups along the way. However, Suigetsu realised that the only real chance they had at escaping the vicious Furies and getting to the surface was for him to fully utilise the power of his element.

The Erinyes chased them tirelessly, their features terrible, contorted with cold wrath. Sakura's stomach lurched as Suigetsu glided over the liquid ripple he'd summoned, surfing left and right, taking sharp turns and rollercoaster circles that made her head spin. She briefly lost track of everything over the combined noise of the whirling force-field of water, the shrill cries of the vengeful Furies and the throbbing of her head. When the world finally stopped revolving, she found that Suigetsu had drawn to a stop beside a pair of gargantuan, beautifully carved gates set between rock faces that seemed to tower up endlessly above them, disappearing into darkness. The gates were flanked and illuminated by a pair of large torches that blazed blue flame. Beyond the metal barrier was endless mist that billowed through the bars, freezing to the touch.

Sakura blinked dazedly as Suigetsu let her down, the magnitude of realisation hitting her as she spied the precise, thin slot set in a large, circular steel Uchiha crest, located in the middle of the gates. A slot meant for a sword.

These were the very gates she had sought for so long. The gates that led into the Underworld – and out of it. Souls filtered steadily through them – but nobody could escape. Not without the very key they possessed.

She had a mere second to comprehend this, for the wails of the pursuing Erinyes stabbed through her ears and mind torturously again.

"Sakura!" Suigetsu yelled as he tossed Kusanagi to her and with both hands, "I can't hold them off for long! Hurry! Use the sword to unlock the gates!"

Sakura caught the sword and wasted no time in sliding the end of the blade into the lock set centrally in the crest. She tried to twist Kusanagi to uopen the doors, but it appeared to become stuck in place and would not budge. She glanced back anxiously over her shoulder to where Suigetsu was sending wave after wave of water at the hateful Erinyes.

She looked back at the sword, panicking as she tried to get it to budge, to do something, but with no luck.

"Please!" she pleaded, heaving with all her might. "Please, please, please-!"

One of the Erinyes evaded Suigetsu's liquid offence and swept straight toward Sakura, her livid cry so ear-shattering that Sakura buckled to her knees, gripping onto Kusanagi's hilt with both hands. She couldn't dislodge the sword to protect herself, and flinched in expectation of a deadly, final attack – when the blade suddenly glowed a bright blue-white, and she heard the audible 'click' of the sword unlocking the doors. The Erinyes screamed in rage, causing the entire air to pulsate as the heavy gates rumbled and began to part. Sakura, near out of her mind and desperate to escape the Furies, scrambled through the opening as soon as she could fit and collapsed in relief, gasping on the other side, leaving Kusanagi embedded in the Uchiha crest.

Suigetsu yanked Sasuke's blade out the keyhole and dove through the gates after her. As soon as he removed the sword, the gates swung shut with a finality that was deafening. Suigetsu and Sakura remained on the ground, surrounded by icy mist, catching their breaths. The Erinyes hovered behind the closed gates, snarling and screeching in fury. Finally Suigetsu got to his feet, and sneered at them.

"Hah! Mess with the Ocean god? I don't think so!"

They hissed in response, clawed at them through the bars, but were unable to proceed any further. Suigetsu then turned to Sakura.

"That sure was close, huh? You okay, Pinky?"

Sakura most decidedly was not. Her head throbbed and her body ached. Her lungs felt like they were on fire. But she managed a nod and rose to stand, quick to move away from the gates. She didn't want to spend another second looking at the terrible entities of vengeance. Their ear-splitting shrieks of frustration echoed behind them as they ventured forward through the dense mist. Sakura shivered, chilled to the bone as they traversed over gravelly ground. She thought she could feel a breeze beyond the icy fog, and it made her heart pound faster. Surely the surface had to be close!

A sudden grip on her arm made her halt. She turned back to look questioningly at Suigetsu, who handed her Kusanagi once again and hefted his own blade up onto his shoulder. Then he pulled her to the left, until she felt their backs touch a rocky wall.

"We're almost there; the surface isn't much farther up ahead. But there's one last obstacle we need to get past."

"What?" Sakura asked, as she followed the ocean deity forward. When he didn't immediately reply, she pressed, "Suigetsu, what?"

It wasn't long before the answer reached her over-straining ears. A deep rumble resonated in the air, growing louder with every step they took. It seemed to make the very ground beneath their feet tremor. Sakura tensed in anticipation, uncertain of what to expect. Her eyes, struggling to see beyond the rolling mist, finally thought they could discern something up ahead. A shadowy figure. A tall shadowy figure.

A tall, broad, humongous shadowy figure with two… no… four…no… six glowing eyes…

Sakura's own gaze widened as the fog gradually cleared enough for her mind to recognise what she was looking at. A triple-headed, black-coated canine slowly materialised into view, a gigantic behemoth forged of pure, steely muscle.

Suigetsu finally answered her.

"The Hell Hound of the Underworld. Cerberus."

Sakura gaped up at the beast. It looked like an indestructible killing machine capable of tearing anything it set its teeth upon into shreds. Its coat was black and blood-stained claws sprouted from its gargantuan, shackle-bound paws. The shackles, Sakura noted, glowed with eerie blow light, engraved with characters she could not decipher. At the creature's rear was a spiked, lashing tail and around each head were heavy, spiked iron collars. Smoke billowed from its snarling muzzle as its feral, wild eyes, blazing like molten flame, fixed keenly onto them.

"I mean," Suigetsu mused aloud, knowing there was no point in trying to sneak past the Underworld's formidable guardian. Nothing slipped by Cerberus's watch. "Normal people, you see, they keep nice pets. Cats. Birds. Hamsters. Rabbits. But Sasuke…? Noooo, he just has to own his very own slobbering, mangy, repulsive, demonic, three-headed monstrosity."

Sakura was barely listening. The hound – Cerberus – was frightening and clearly deadly – but also magnificent to gaze upon… in a sort of knowing-you-can-be-torn-to-pieces-in-seconds sort of morbid way. He radiated raw danger and lethal strength and was regarding her intently like she was his next meal.

She nervously noticed the scattered, crushed bones on the ground. The cold air was pungent with the stench of feral hound and damp rock. Sakura then heard Suigetsu mutter, "There's nothing for it, Pinky. Only way to get through is to run. Cerberus can't leave his post, but he'll do everything in his power to stop you from leaving. Our best bet is to split ways. I'll hold him off as best as I can; you keep running, and when you get to the stairs, keep going… don't look back or stop – got it?!"

Sakura nodded.

The beast's heads released a unified, ominous growl. Saliva dripped from his ravenous jowls. Cerberus's body tensed, the only warning they received – before he lunged at them, snarling, the sounds of chains clanking and thunderous barking echoing loudly in the air.

"Sakura, GO!" Suigetsu yelled.

Sakura bolted forward as fast as she could.

---

Karin pushed the doors open slowly, cautiously. After witnessing Sakura's hasty exit from the palace, she had hurried up to locate Sasuke. The fact that the little tramp had managed to leave and in such a hurry only confirmed that the death deity had to have been greatly wounded. Her heart raced. She hoped she wasn't too late to-

Her thoughts scattered and her scarlet eyes widened as the doors parted to reveal the mighty King of the Underworld doubled over on the floor, writhing in pain. The sight of Sasuke, usually so proud, so composed and aloof, curled up before her and incapacitated helplessly on the ground, was disconcerting beyond measure. Karin didn't stop to hesitate, instinct and concern urging her forward. Immediately she rushed toward him, pulling up her sleeve, exposing the flesh of her slender, pale arm, which was marred with the old scarred remains of once deep teeth-inflicted puncture wounds.

"Sasuke!" she cried. "I'm here! I can help-!"

A blood-curdling snarl of pain mingled with anger reached her ears in response as Sasuke clawed at the ground. She dropped to the floor beside him, reached out to help him sit up, only to note in shock the blood that trickled from the corner of his mouth, the cold sweat on his skin, the dark circles under his eyes. She mentally reached out and sensed his inner chakra network. It had always been unstable and thrumming with raw power, a dark, deadly menacing aura, but at that moment it was nothing like what she was accustomed to, and sent an altogether different kind of shiver down her spine to the usual she experienced whenever she stood in his vicinity.

It was chaotic, tainted, poisoned. She sensed his unbearable discomfort, was briefly rendered breathless by it, as she watched him cough up more blood. She swallowed as he reached out and clutched blindly onto her wrist, as if seeking some form, any form, of relief and salvation from his suffering, squeezing so tightly that Karin felt the force of his iron-grip would snap her hand from her arm altogether.

Guilt flooded through the nymph. She hadn't realised the venom would be so crippling…

Don't think about that now, stupid! She censured herself. Sasuke needs your help. Now's your chance, to show him how valuable you are, to make him see you at last…

Excitement and anticipation filled her, as she extended her arm to him. She had a special gift… the gift of healing. There was very little that her chakra could not restore.

"Bite me, Sasuke!" she urged. "My chakra can help fight the poison!"

But another wave of anguish turned the Death God away from her. Karin's pulse galloped faster. She had no choice but to force him to feed from her energy! Setting her jaw, she yanked hold of his unruly raven hair… so soft and fine, she thought distractedly to herself… before jutting her arm right in front of his mouth, and pressing her skin against his lips, enticing him to clamp his teeth into her flesh.

"Garghh…!" Sasuke uttered another exclamation of pain, and jerked his head once more as if he would turn away. Karin, growing frustrated and impatient, pushed his head back down against her arm, expecting resistance again, only to gasp when his teeth abruptly sank into her hard. She was wholly unprepared for the intensity of her body's reaction as her chakra flared up immediately, irresistibly drawn to his signature aura like a moth to flame.

She moaned huskily as he drew from her life-force hungrily, her energy flooding into his veins, merging with the venom raging in his blood-stream. Sasuke bit instinctively harder as the battle between the poison and Karin's healing life-force blazed inside him. His entire body felt like it had been set on fire, as if he'd been thrown into the very pits of hell he governed. It seemed to him an age before finally, finally, the torment of the potent venom began to abate enough for the room to cease its violent spinning, and his head to clear enough to become conscious of the fact that he was still taking from Karin's chakra supply. Her fingers were digging into his scalp, and he could hear her rapid breaths, coupled with the almost erotic moans leaving her lips.

But the first coherent thought that formed in his mind was wholly unrelated to her.

Sakura.

He snarled in fury, straightening up, and reached out to grab hold of her arm more firmly, feeding further, paying little heed to how much he was gluttonously taking. He didn't have time to heal fully, but knew he needed as much as possible to keep the poison at bay long enough to take care of the traitors that had committed treason against him.

The room began to tilt precariously as Karin grew lightheaded, the pleasure of having Sasuke's lips on her skin rapidly diminishing to a feeling of nausea as the Underworld ruler began borrowing far too much chakra. She tried to jerk her arm back, but his hold on her did not relent, and he just kept on taking and taking and taking…

"Sa-Sasu…" she struggled to form words. Just when her vision began to alarmingly grow faint, Sasuke finally drew back, shoving her arm away from his mouth, spitting out the remainder of her blood on the ground as he sat up, another kind of fire altogether igniting in his veins. That of livid and unadulterated rage.

The God of Death rose to his feet as a groaning Karin doubled over, severely weakened. He paid her struggle no heed, as he stared ahead, his onyx irises bleeding to crimson as he telepathically connected with his subjects. The distant response he received from the Erinyes spurned him to flicker immediately out of sight. He didn't have a second to lose.

Suigetsu was succeeding in using his gift of the oceans to hold back and hinder an enraged Cerberus.

Sakura had almost reached the surface.

---

Sakura panted breathlessly, her legs feeling they were on the verge of collapsing under her. But as Suigetsu had instructed, she did not look back behind her. Even when Cerberus's terrifying growls and barks sounded far too alarmingly close, even when the ground shook from the heavy fall of the monster's mighty paws, even when Suigetsu's shouts resonated in the air, and even when rocks, debris and lashing droplets of summoned water hailed down at her from the scuffle taking place between deity and hellhound at her back, she continued to push on through the rapidly thinning mist. She knew that stopping to check on Suigetsu would be costly – they didn't have even a moment to spare; she had to take full advantage of the distraction he was making to allow her to go on ahead.

Finally the vast entrance cavern before her tapered off into a narrowing, climbing, vine-strewn tunnel. Sakura saw the time-worn stone steps Suigetsu had told her about, and paused only fractionally to suck air into her lungs, before running up the incline. It seemed to go on forever, and was pure torture for her screaming limbs. She pushed on and on, near sobbing from exhaustion, thoughts of her mother and her friends filling her mind, adrenaline fuelling her to continue on – and then, at last, she saw it up ahead.

Light.

Her legs forgot all about their agony and seemed to fly the remainder of the way up, until she reached a curtain of vines. She pushed through it, and stumbled out to find-

The surface. She had made it!

A broken sob flew from her lips as she collapsed to the ground in relief. A dense forest full of bare, tall trees surrounded her. The ground was littered with old, dried, shrivelled leaves and twigs and barren soil that only managed to sprout odd patches of mossy grass. For a long moment, Sakura remained on the ground, left cheek pressed into the dirt, her fingers clawing the shrivelled leaves, smelling the natural scent of dried soil. Somehow, she found great comfort in it, and her worn body seemed reluctant to move, as if it were drawing energy and comfort from the earth. But she forced herself to sit up, tears rolling down her cheeks as she felt the cool wind against her skin. She turned her face up to the sky, and released a short, hoarse laugh of delight. The sun peeked out from between intermittent grey clouds, filtering faintly through the gaps in the trees high above her.

Suigetsu burst through the opening in the tunnel a minute later, breathing hard, a triumphant grin on his face. He looked a state, his silver hair a mess, his face marred with dirt stains and scratches of blood, but was otherwise exuberant with the thrill of victory.

"Alright! That's how it's done! I haven't had a good training work-out like that in a long time!" Then he peered down at where Sakura was still resting on the ground. "You okay there?"

Sakura managed to nod, wiping away at her tears. Then she used Kusanagi to stand onto shaky feet and looked at him.

"Thank you," she said earnestly.

Suigetsu waved off her gratitude. "Ah, it's nothing. We're both winners here. You get to see your mother and friends again. I get back their trust, a place on the Council again and what was promised to me."

"A place on the council?" Sakura looked bemused.

"Heh. You'll find out soon enough what that is. Your mother's gotta come clean about everything now!"

"What was promised to you?" Sakura questioned.

Suigetsu smiled widely. "A sword."

"A sword?" Sakura repeated in surprise. So that was why Suigetsu had stuck it out – for a blade? "You did all this for a sword?"

"It's not just any sword… it's one I've been hunting forever, the final piece to add to my collection!" He summoned a whirl of water from the ground and hopped onto it. "C'mon, let's move!"

"Are you taking me to my mother, now?" Sakura asked, moving toward him.

"Sure…" Suigetsu tilted his head at her, grinning toothily. "Right after we stop at my kingdom and I make sure she and the others deliver the goods."

Sakura stopped abruptly in her advance. "Wait. What?" He was going to take her to his place, now?

"We had a deal," the ocean god said cheerfully. "They hand over the sword… I hand over you. In that order. You don't need to worry, Pinky… your mother's a woman of her word, right?"

Sakura stared hard up at him, suddenly wary. "And if she doesn't hand the sword over right away?" she demanded.

Suigetsu shrugged, a sly, cunning smirk gracing his lips. "Then I guess I don't hand you over until she does."

Her patience snapped. Sakura erupted. She was fed up… fed up of being a pawn in some game she didn't want to partake in, fed up of being taken to the dwelling places of deities at their whim. She'd gone through hell, almost literally, to make it back up to the surface, only to be taken to a destination she hadn't agreed to first? She'd had ENOUGH!

"Like HELL you are!" she exploded at him. "That wasn't what you told me before! You said you're taking me straight home!"

"We weren't out before. And I am taking you home… right after they uphold their end of the deal. Besides, what are you getting so pissy over? I could've not told you… could've just kidnapped you there, but hey, that's more another asshole's style than mine. Now quit the drama and hop on, we've got no time to waste-"

"If you think I'm going to be held as some bargaining tool-"

"So much for gratitude," Suigetsu scoffed, and held out a palm to her. "Guess we'll have to do this the harder way."

Sakura was horrified when a bubble of water rose up around her, enclosing her within. She tried to push at it, but it wouldn't budge.

You have got to be kidding me, her inner voice raged. This CAN'T be happening- you're getting abducted to an underwater palace now? You should've damn well known he'd have tricks up his sleeve; after all, you know less about him than Sasuke!

"Suigetsu!" she exclaimed angrily. "You- you liar!"

"Lying and withholding information aren't exactly the same thing…" Suigetsu quipped, as the bubble began to rotate around Sakura and she felt herself rising from the ground. She shouted out in alarm and frustration, slashed at the bubble with Kusanagi, but the displaced water just flowed back into place.

"No!" she cried. "Put me down! You said you'd take me straight home!"

"I am going to uphold my word and take you back… right after I get the sword that was promised to me."

Sakura looked down and saw that the bubble was beginning to levitate from the floor. Before she could protest any further, she felt a strange sensation shoot up along her right hand, like a freezing current of ice.

She sucked in a sharp breath, her eyes widening, her heart leaping into her throat as Kusanagi suddenly glowed blue-white, before discharging electricity that snaked jaggedly outwards. She tried to discard the sword, but her skin seemed to be glued to it. She heard Suigetsu curse, forced to dispel the water out of fear of her getting electrocuted. The bubble burst and Sakura fell back onto the soaked ground, landing on her knees. She lifted her head as she stood again, her eyes frantically flying ahead of them.

Sasuke slunk out of the opening of the tunnel like a silent, deadly, dangerous hunter, his eyes lowered.

"Well, that's just great," Suigetsu muttered, shooting a glare at Sakura. Mentally he reprimanded her, 'Thanks for wasting enough time to let him catch up with us, you stupid bitch!'

'You lied to me! If my mother doesn't hand over your stupid sword first, you'll keep me prisoner, too, and that's no different to what I was here!'

'Well all she has to do is make sure she does!' Suigetsu snapped back. 'She said she can get hold of it… you just have to hope she found it in the time you've been cooped up in the Underworld!'

Their telepathic connection was abruptly broken off when Sasuke suddenly raised his left palm, fingers splayed open. Sakura felt a forceful tug on her right hand, and then Kusanagi flew out of her grasp, back into its Master's rightful hold.

Sasuke's eyelashes then swept upward and his gaze locked onto Suigetsu, directing a crimson, hateful glare that was full of such malicious intent that Sakura knew they were both in serious trouble. She felt a violent stab of inexplicable remorse looking upon him, the remains of dried blood staining the corners of his mouth, his eyes blood-shot, dark shadows marring the pale skin beneath them. She wondered how he had recovered quickly enough to be standing once again.

"So you caught up, huh?" Suigetsu observed, mirroring her thoughts. "Either that poison wasn't as effective as it was meant to be… or that crazy bitch lent you enough of her chakra to ward it off a little while."

Sakura blinked. Did he mean Karin?

Sasuke did not respond. He began to walk in a slow circle, dragging a crackling Kusanagi's tip behind him on the ground, never taking his eyes off Suigetsu, not once looking Sakura's way or acknowledging her presence.

"Yeah, I know I'm right." Suigetsu smirked. "But it doesn't matter. You really wanna fight when you're not at a hundred percent?"

Still, Sasuke did not reply.

"You know you have to let us go, now," Suigetsu went on. "So what's the point in fighting? Everyone is gonna know what you've done, even if you do somehow manage to-"

He didn't get the chance to finish his sentence. In a flash of movement that was breathtakingly swift for somehow who was supposedly compromised, Sasuke sprung at Suigetsu, summoning a screeching current of electricity that spiked outward in a wide radius toward the King of the Oceans.

"Hah!" Suigetsu grinned, relishing the chance for another duel, determined to teach Sasuke a lesson once and for all. "Have it your way then, you arrogant bastard! I'll kick your ass!" he exclaimed, and parried by dissolving in a puddle of water, disappearing from view.

Sakura stood, glued to the spot, watching in fascination as two ancient gods battled it out. Now that they were on more neutral territory, and were both not at full strength due to chakra-depletion and poisoning respectively, there was no clear indication of who the victor would be. Suigetsu reappeared behind Sasuke in a flurry of liquid and cleaved down at the Underworld's ruler's head with his hefty blade. Sasuke ducked low then side-stepped Suigetsu's next swipe, and delivered a kick to the ocean deity's mid-section – only for his foot to break through water as Suigetsu liquefied at will. Suigetsu retaliated by summoning a funnel of violently rotating water that forced Sasuke back and then summoned sprouts of water that erupted from the ground, tailing him, tracking his movements.

Sasuke threw Kusanagi high up into the air with force, so that its blade embedded deeply into the trunk of a tree. He flickered up beside it, evading the water cyclones below by hanging off the hilt, regarding Suigetsu from above like a hawk ready to swoop down upon its prey.

Suigetsu looked up and taunted him. "You fucked up bad, Sasuke!" he called up to the death god, open hostility burning in his bright amethyst eyes. "Real bad. Not only with the rest of us, but with Pinky here, too," he angled his head toward a visibly distressed Sakura, without taking his gaze off the death deity for even a split second. He didn't miss the way Sasuke's eyes narrowed upon hearing the far too familiar pet name. Flashing a mocking grin, the sea ruler added, "And not in the way you planned it, either. I mean, did you seriously believe she'd want to stay in that gloomy dump of a place after all the shit you pulled? Did you really think she'd give a damn about you and the hell-hole you call your kingdom? Did you really think," his lips curled back to form a disgusted, condescending sneer, and he seemed to finish with emphatic relish, "that she'd ever want a heartless monster like you?"

Sakura opened her mouth to silence him. He wasn't helping! Antagonizing Sasuke wasn't a smart idea; surely he was livid enough without requiring any extra goading! She felt physically sick. Because everything Suigetsu was saying held weight, was perfectly justified… Sasuke had acted awfully beyond justification - and yet she felt no satisfaction in hearing it.

"…" The death deity's eyes finally flicked onto Sakura for the briefest of instances, and Sakura could discern their intensity even from their great distance apart. Then he retrieved Kusanagi and alighted to another tree, forming rapid hand seals.

Suigetsu's eyes widened. He recognised those seals. Sasuke had to have slightly more chakra than he'd anticipated to be preparing the likes of a kirin gaze darted to the sky. It was soon going to rain… which he could use to his advantage – but he knew that Sasuke was able to harness electrical energy from the skies, too.

Flashes of summoned lightning illuminated the clouds as Sasuke lifted Kusanagi into the air like a storm mast, drawing to it all electrical charges in the air. The clouds darkened high above the trees, rumbling ominously, answering his call. Suigetsu responded quickly, throwing himself at the tree Sasuke was stationed upon, and hewed the trunk apart effortlessly, causing the great limb to fall to the ground, and forcing Sasuke to move, slowing down the formation of his offensive technique. He alighted to the trees and slashed at Sasuke with his blade. Sakura watched them exchange sword blows, the clash of metal against metal echoing loudly above her, then took a step back, shaking her head.

Returning to the Underworld with Sasuke was not an option after her treachery. Neither could she leave with Suigetsu. Only one option remained open to her, as hopeless as it seemed.

She had to run and hope their scuffle lasted long enough for her to find her way out of the forest, onto a main road somehow, for her to be able to escape them both. Turning away, she began to run as fast as she could.

High up in the trees, Sasuke deflected Suigetsu's attack and flash-stepped to higher ground, his eyes leaving his enemy briefly to track Sakura's movements, watching as she navigated through the forest floor far below. He cursed the burning in his veins. The poison was still in his system, draining his energy every minute, and he didn't have enough chakra at his disposal to summon the stronger techniques required to subdue Suigetsu with ease such as Susano'o or Amaterasu. He instead had to rely on only the basic elements he could command.

Lifting two fingers to his lips, he directed a raging ball of fire at the ocean deity who immediately aimed back bullets of water which reduced the effectiveness of Sasuke's attack. Knowing his best bet was to use lightning to negate the water advantage Suigetsu otherwise had, Sasuke blinked out of reach once more. Even weakened, he was the faster deity out of them, and raised Kusanagi, charging it up with more static from the sky.

Suigetsu landed back on the ground and formed rapid seals, enclosing himself in a bubble of liquid, and summoned a damaging hurricane of water which shot up straight toward Sasuke. The death deity retaliated by finally releasing his technique, striking down with Kusanagi, unleashing kirin in a blinding stream of dangerously focused lightning. It slammed into the ground in a musical screech, charging the water lethally, the combined power of both techniques causing great clumps of earth to fly into the air, and the water funnel to dissipate into a wall that flooded down onto the forest floor.

Sasuke watched the path the crackling water was heading in. His brief lapse in attention almost cost him his arm as Suigetsu swung at him with a loud yell, stabbing his hefty sword into the trunk of the tree upon which Sasuke had landed. Snarling in frustration, the Underworld's king directed another electrical stream at Suigetsu – and finally connected as the ocean deity struggled to free his sword.

"Gwah!" Suigetsu yelled in pain as lightning electrocuted his body. Turning into water-form would make the damage worse, so he ground his teeth hard and rode out the freezing, burning waves of electricity as they jagged through him in painful, spiking waves. Sasuke used this to his favour and directed a violent kick to Suigetsu's mid-section that winded the pale-haired god and sent him toppling back to the forest floor below. Sasuke used the precious seconds he gained of ground to immediately vanish out of sight.

Sakura threw a glance back over her shoulder to find a massive wave of water cascading straight toward her. It was sizzling with electricity. Her heart rammed against her rib-cage, sickening realisation dawning upon her. If it touched her, she'd die! She needed to get to higher ground! But the water was already crashing down faster than her worn-out legs could carry her, and there was no way she could climb high enough before the torrent was absorbed by the earth.

A hand suddenly clamped tightly around her left arm, its hold as unbreakable as steel. In a single jerk, Sakura was yanked forcefully backwards. She tripped over a vine and lost her footing, her eyes turning up just in time to clash with blazing crimson. Her heart thundered chaotically, its beat as erratic as the multitude of panicked thoughts that hurtled through her mind. Before she could even attempt to recover, she felt an arm close around her waist, her feet swept off the ground, and the next thing she was conscious of was her back slamming roughly against the trunk of a tree. The air fractured cleanly in her lungs and stars swam momentarily across her vision. When the haze cleared, she met a baleful glare, finding Sasuke's narrowed eyes. She felt the cool kiss of steel pressing against her throat, as he held the sharp blade hostilely against her tender flesh.

One slight movement and Sakura knew that the sword would slice straight through her jugular with the ease of a hot knife cleaving butter.

The callousness Sakura saw glinting within those striking, blood-shot irises was enough to turn her blood to ice. It finally made the reality of her situation hit home, of what would inevitably happen to her when Sasuke finally got his hands on her without hindrance.

But he just saved me, she thought dazedly. He took me off the ground, away from the water. Why?

Somehow his unexpected gesture was even more frightening than his wrath.

"Why?" Sakura's voice shook unsteadily, causing the blade to press with greater pressure against her skin slightly as she spoke. "Why are you helping me?!" she cried angrily. "After everything I've done-!" Her words choked off, the air fleeing her lungs. Fresh tears blurred her vision as she continued to stare into his eyes. They weren't just furious, she suddenly recognised.

They were exhausted. Disorientated from the venom she could clearly see was still ravaging his bloodstream. Fighting to remain focused.

He was hurt.

"Sasuke-" she began hoarsely.

"Shut up," the death deity seethed, his barely-composed tone revealing the true extent of his underlying ire, and Sakura wondered why he would bother getting her to safety when everything about his expression and tone suggested that he was about to sever her life right there and then. "You're-"

The whistling sound of a blade slicing through the air caused the Death God to tense and abandon what he had been about to say. With a hiss of annoyance, he shoved Sakura to the side, seconds before the trunk she'd been thrown against was splintered by an alarmingly broad sword. Sasuke skidded back, his eyes training fleetingly onto Sakura, who had managed to land safely on a lower branch, before turning coldly onto the person who dared to intervene.

Suigetsu, who had caught up to them again, flashed a mischievous grin, hoisting his sword back onto his right shoulder as he landed in front of Sakura.

"I know they say women like it rough, but you just go overboard, don't you?" he mocked. "I don't think Pinky over here appreciates the way you handle her."

Sasuke's withering glower was full of such contempt and malice, Sakura was certain that any mortal man would surely have shrivelled into a pulp on the spot. Suigetsu, however, looked unperturbed. Like he was relishing every second spent provoking the Underworld's ruler.

"Move," Sasuke uttered frostily, as he swung down to join them on the same branch.

Suigetsu sighed heavily in response and rolled his eyes. "Still giving me orders like you're top dog? In case you didn't notice, we aren't in your gloomy little neighbourhood anymore, and there's no way you're going to win. So give it up, Sasuke. Thanks to the natural order of things, we're not allowed to kill each other, which is pretty unfortunate, but we obviously can't fight it out here forever. So back the fuck up. I'm leaving, and the girl's going with me."

That piercing gaze shifted to her again. Sasuke's expression was unreadable once more, but the aura radiating from him was one of pure killing intent.

They weren't allowed to kill one another? Sakura wasn't so sure that Sasuke looked like he was going to honour any rules that ensured the balance of nature remained intact.

"You've got no right to keep a living human in your world, and you know it! You're gonna have to answer for all the shit you pulled," Suigetsu jeered on. "So just face it. You've lost. Once everybody finds out what you've done, you're dead. No pun intend- shit!"

Sakura gasped as without warning, Sasuke lunged gracefully forward, Kusanagi drawn back and screaming with snapping coils of lightning. She watched, rooted by a twisted kind of fascination, as the gods battled once more, moving in blurs of movement that were suddenly too fast for her eyes to keep up with. Then her mind yelled to her that she was wasting precious time. Suigetsu had Sasuke distracted again – which meant she needed to place as far a distance between them as was physically possible.

She looked down to find that the water's electrical current had vanished, negated by the earth. She didn't have time to climb down, and in desperation, jumped the manageable distance. But her descent onto the saturated ground was awkward and her ankle twisted painfully as she landed. Ignoring it, she continued to hobble onwards, throwing back frantic glances behind her to ensure both gods were still occupied with their brawl. The air had become thick with mist, and made it near impossible to calculate her route clearly. She kept tripping over unseen tree limbs. But she forced herself onwards. There was no other option.

She began to believe she was covering good ground – when something akin to a pulsating wave of violent energy suddenly slammed painfully into her back, winding her, flinging her body forward like a rag-doll tossed weightlessly into the air. She landed hard on the ground, the side of her head smacking into a rock, and red-hot pain exploded behind her eyes as she felt something impale deeply into her right thigh.

The scream was torn from her lungs as she lay, semi-conscious, limply on the forest floor, the world spinning around her, her head throbbing.

Sasuke landed back onto the ground, and looked away from Sakura's still form, his eyes meeting Suigetsu's in unbridled rage.

The ocean deity blinked in surprise. It was unfortunate that Sakura had gotten hurt from his previous attack – a brutal liquid dragon summon that he had only managed to sustain with chakra briefly enough to overwhelm Sasuke with water – but did Sasuke really care? He doubted it, although the death deity did seem genuinely irked. How interesting, Suigetsu thought to himself. Then, tilting his head quizzically at his fellow immortal, he mused, "Oh c'mon, don't act like you really give a shit about her well-being after she stabbed you in the back…" When Sasuke continued to glare at him, he defended indifferently, "This is your fault. If you'd just let her leave with me, she wouldn't have had to get-"

He broke off as a water-drenched Sasuke flash-stepped behind him at great speed and stabbed his blade into his left shoulder, a precise aim that connected and drew blood. Suigetsu cursed in pain and liquefied right before a debilitating stream of chidori could be pumped through him.

Sakura groaned, and Sasuke's eyes instinctively moved to check on her for a fraction of a section – which was all Suigetsu needed to get behind him and swipe at his mid-section. The sharp end of his sword shaved into Sasuke's left side, breaking flesh, wounding him deeply. Sasuke hissed, swung at the sea god to force him away and drew back, bent over, clutching his injured side. Blood welled up against his palm, dripping to the ground.

He didn't possess enough chakra to heal. The poison was draining him again now that Karin's borrowed chakra was fading, and he could feel the reserves he had drawn dwindling dangerously low. It was all he could manage to remain standing; he had just about enough left in him to defend from any final blow Suigetsu was no doubt about to aim his way.

Shit, Sasuke inwardly cursed, coughing up blood, as Suigetsu, who clearly was faring better on his chakra supply, howled in triumph, laughing gleefully, the thrill of victory causing him to momentarily ignore the wound Sasuke had inflicted.

"I guess this is the end of the line, bastard," he taunted smugly, drawing his sword back for the finishing strike. "The day I finally put the great Uchiha Sasuke in his place…" He charged forward, his amethyst eyes on fire. "You're FINISHED!"

Sasuke tensed, began to raise his sword, even when he knew he lacked the strength needed to block – and then a blinding light came between them, so bright that they were both forced to shield their eyes. He heard Suigetsu's loud, surprised shout, followed by angry expletives that seemed to get further and further away.

"What the-?! No! Damn it! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! NO… ARRRHHHHH!"

Then silence filled the air, punctured only by the laborious, rasping breaths escaping Sasuke's heaving lungs.

The God of the Dead dropped to his knees on the ground, gripping onto Kusanagi in an attempt to stay upright. He looked up, felt warmth dripping down his face, blinked through the blood he hadn't even realised was falling from there.

The Sharingan receded, as the last vestige of chakra left his over-exerted, poison-ravaged body. His vision blurred, and he tried to move to his feet, to get to Sakura… only to collapse forward onto the damp ground helplessly, nausea and exhaustion pulling him unwillingly into the grasps of unconsciousness.

Just before he passed out, he heard a familiar voice clucking disapprovingly, followed by a warm palm pressing against his forehead.

"My, my… what a state you young ones are in." Then a dry, ironic cackle. "I do not think this is quite what he had in mind, when he intended for you both to find one another again…"

He…? Sasuke thought groggily. Who… what… does she… mean…?

But even as he tried to cling onto the thought it evaded him, like sand slipping through his fingers, and the world faded away to nothingness and black.

---

The crackling sound of fire burning was what finally drew Sakura out of her dreamless, unconscious state. Slowly, she began to come back around, blinking groggily, unable to make out much at first beyond the haze of golden firelight and dancing shadows. She felt a pleasant warmth on top of her, which her seeking fingers felt was a fur blanket of some sort, and the heady smell of brewing herbs drifted to her nose.

"At last you are waking," a familiar voice observed quietly.

She swallowed, her throat parched, closing her eyes in exhaustion again. A hand lifted the back of her head gently, supporting her enough to press a deep wooden spoon of cool water to her lips. Sakura drank thirstily, and struggled to remain conscious as she was set carefully back down.

"Wha... what…" she attempted to speak, but with great difficulty. Her entire body felt like it was a dead weight, and even thinking seemed to be laborious.

"Do not over-exert yourself," the voice – a woman's – advised. "You required a great deal of healing, and your body needs rest."

Sakura blinked sleepily as the ceiling finally came into focus. Recognition slowly trickled in her mind. She was in Chiyo's hut.

She was alive… and had evidently been healed, but was back in the very place she had fought to escape from - the Underworld.

Then a panicked thought exploded in her head, chasing away some of the drowsiness.

Sasuke!

She tried to move, to sit up, to make sense of what had happened. But her body would not let her.

"I said keep still, child," Chiyo admonished.

Sakura swallowed. The only movement she could muster the strength to complete was to turn her head to the right slightly – only to tense at what she saw.

Sasuke lay on his back beside her on the fur rug, beneath the same heavy blanket. His forehead was dressed with bandages and he was out cold, clearly still unconscious.

Sakura stared at the profile of his face in confusion. Had he ended up passing out, too? She remembered hitting her head and nothing else after that. But how had they ended up in Chiyo's hut? Where was Suigetsu? What had happened?

"It is a strange thing indeed," Chiyo mused, "that we are often at most violent war with those we ought to keep closest to us."

Sakura didn't understand what she meant. All she could think about was that Sasuke was certainly going to kill her when he woke up.

Noticing Sakura's distress, Chiyo's wise voice croaked, "You need not fear, little blossom. Perhaps things are not as terrible as you perceive them to be. Rest, now."

The last word seemed to command her lethargic body back into the clutches of sleep, for Sakura's eyelids suddenly felt impossibly heavy to keep open.

"One day, you will both know your true selves…" the words drifted to her ears, so quiet, that Sakura wasn't sure whether they were real or a figment of her fuzzy mind.

"After all, it is exactly as he foresaw it would be…"

Sakura's eyes closed and the world melted away into warm slumber once more.

---

When she came back around again, Sakura was immediately and acutely aware that she was no longer in Chiyo's cosy hut. She blinked up at the elaborate canopy above her, her mind feeling sharper, her body better rested.

This isn't my room, she realised in alarm – and sat up, a little too quickly, causing her surroundings to spin briefly. Her suspicions were confirmed when her wide eyes rested on the person lying on the rich, silken sheets beside her.

Sakura gulped. She was back in Sasuke's palace. In the king's quarters. On his bed.

The death deity was still unconscious. She noted he was shirtless, and from the extent of the heavy bandaging around his torso, Sakura guessed that he had been grievously wounded at some point after she had lost consciousness on the surface.

Her pulse began to pick up pace. In a moment of mindless anxiety, she lifted her hands, gripping onto fistfuls of her hair. No! This couldn't be happening! How had they gotten back? Had Chiyo used her powers to transport them together? Or had Sasuke woken up after Chiyo had purged the venom from his system, and carried her back – only to pass out again beside her?

She stared at him, as if trying to find clues in the sound of his deep, steady, even breathing, trying to piece together what little she knew about this unexpected turn of events.

Suigetsu was clearly gone. How or why, she could not tell. Had Chiyo had something to do with his disappearance? And what of Sasuke? Had he ended up being defeated by the ocean deity, or triumphed, only for his poison ravaged system to give up on him completely?

Does it matter? A voice whispered in her mind. This changes nothing. Now's your chance to get out while he's still sleeping.

She began to move instinctively – only for her shoulders to slump when reality quickly slammed into her.

I can't, she acknowledged miserably. She couldn't possibly get across the river, fight off the Erinyes, and slip past Cerberus all over again. There was no way out... not unless she called for Chiyo to assist her, but something told her that the old crone wouldn't likely answer her, if she had been the one to send them both back here.

She had no option but to wait for Sasuke to wake up, and to confront him then.

There was no use, Sakura thought to herself, of being afraid of his reaction. She knew what her fate was going to be. She had to accept it. At least in this way, she wouldn't spend the rest of her life worrying about him showing up to achieve retribution for her treachery. She shook her head and carefully slipped off the bed. There was nothing for it now; what was done was done, and there was no changing it. She had gone through with Suigetsu's plan, and it had all gone catastrophically wrong.

Even if she had left with the sea king, she would have effectively ended up a prisoner in another deity's abode. He had lied about taking her right home first – and as far as Sakura was concerned, that had meant she couldn't trust him, even if he had insisted that he'd uphold his promise. For all she knew, he could have used her as a bargaining chip to make other demands.

She exited Sasuke's room, and slowly made her way around to the stables. As she walked, she wondered if there was anything she could have done differently. But she had tried everything. Every way she could to get home without betraying Sasuke. Nothing had worked… and after she'd learned the truth about the pomegranate seeds, she had just wanted out the quickest route she could take.

Now she felt nothing but oddly hollow and numb. She was tired of struggling, tired of fighting. She just wanted it all to be over.

As she neared the stables, her face lit up as she spied a small comfort. Eos had returned. Sakura approached her, and immediately the horse extended her head, seeking her mistress's touch.

"Well," Sakura said softly. "I bet you didn't expect to see me so soon again, huh…?"

From their separate enclosure, Sasuke's steeds snorted, their nostrils billowing smoke. Sakura refused to look at them. She wondered if they were able to sense that she had committed treason somehow, too. Stroking her hand down the side of Eos's head, she leant her forehead against the horse's and sighed heavily, closing her eyes.

"My Lady?" A surprised voice reached her ears, and she turned to find Chizu blinking at her. She held a pile of folded clothes in her hands.

"Chizu," Sakura greeted.

"Are you well, Mistress?" Chizu inquired, concern marring her brow. "I do not mean to pry, but you left in such a distressed hurry earlier…"

The sudden urge to confide everything to the woman overwhelmed Sakura. She needed someone to listen – to understand. But she bit back the urge to speak. She didn't want to drag Ume and Chizu into her problems; and besides, these women were loyal to Sasuke and served him. He had merely assigned them to attend to her during her stay.

"I'm fine," Sakura mustered a small smile. "How's Ume?"

Chizu hesitated, but sensing that her charge did not wish to speak any further, went along with the change in subject. "She is well, My Lady. She is tending to the gardens. I was just heading right to you."

"How did I get back here?" Sakura questioned, anxious for an explanation, stroking Eos's mane when the horse neighed gently for attention.

"Ume found you and the Master asleep in the Master's chambers when she entered into it to clean the quarters, Mistress," Chizu answered.

"But you don't know how we got there?" Sakura pressed, disappointed.

The older of the maids shook her head. Then she held out the clothes in her hands. "Your clothes, My Lady."

Sakura looked down at the pile in confusion. "My clothes…?" she echoed, before recognising that they were the same ones she'd come to the Underworld in, so long ago. But why was Chizu giving it to her, now?

"The Master instructed us to return your clothing to you," Chizu answered, as if reading the unspoken question on her face.

Sakura was even more puzzled. "He did?" she shook her head. "Why?"

That was when Chizu disclosed something that left Sakura reeling with shock.

"He instructed us to return all your possessions, Mistress. I believe that the Master meant that you were leaving us and returning to the surface, but you departed in such a hurry before I could deliver them to you."

Sakura's hand fell from Eos. She sucked in a sharp breath.

Sasuke. Sasuke had ordered them to return her belongings – because he had intended to return her to the surface himself?

She bit back a wave of nausea. Was this some kind of cruel trick? But she could see from Chizu's face that the woman was being earnest.

He would've released me…?

Somehow her mind struggled to accept the idea. It was the last thing she would have expected from him. Had he been working to arrange it all along? She raised a trembling hand to her mouth. Tears stung her eyes, but she was not sure whether they were tears of dismay, anger, guilt, or all three combined.

Had Suigetsu known? Because if he had… if he had known and all along, kept the truth from her, and made her follow a course of action she could have avoided altogether-

Then that changed everything she knew about the ocean deity… and a lot of what she had been led to believe about the apparently heartlessness of the God of Death.

"I am sorry, My Lady," Chizu, misreading her dismayed countenance, apologised. "I am sorry that it took us so long."

"No," Sakura managed to get out, accepting the clothes. "No, you have nothing to be sorry about. I…" she looked away, back in the direction that led toward Sasuke's chambers. The tears refused to be pushed down by her rapid blinking, and she knew she had to leave Chizu's presence before she broke down into a bubbling mess. Her emotions were overwhelmed. She needed a moment of privacy to digest everything that had happened. "I'm sorry… thank you for returning my belongings. Please excuse me."

With that, she hurried away, leaving a puzzled Chizu staring after her.

Making her way back to her room, Sakura hastily changed her clothing and washed her face, trying to compose herself. As she glanced up at the mirror above the faucet, she was momentarily startled by the reflection she saw on the other side of the hair, which had fallen out of its bindings, was a tangled mass of pastel rose, much lighter than it had been when she had first entered Sasuke's realm. Her skin was paler… why hadn't she really paid attention to just how pale she looked before? There was something so different about her face. It looked so burdened. So incredibly tired and sad. Her chest was heavy with the new-found knowledge that Sasuke had planned to take her back to the surface. She had to go back to him. She had to find out the truth.

Bolstering her courage, she made her way back to his quarters, her pulse quickening with every step she took. Taking a deep breath, she knocked lightly on the doors and waited. When she received no response, she wondered whether he was still asleep, and pushed them cautiously open, stepping into the magnificently furnished, spacious chamber once more.

Her gaze went straight to the bed, her heart pounding harder upon discovering that it was empty. Then she found him. He was standing by the fireplace, his back turned to her, and had thrown a long, loose black shirt over his bandaged torso.

For a long moment, Sakura simply stared at him, a tumultuous rush of thoughts flooding through her mind simultaneously. What could she say? Where was the best place to begin? Would he even listen?

She had resignedly told herself there was no use in being afraid. There was nothing she could do to defend herself, whether she was armed with a weapon or not. However, that didn't stop the assault of nervousness that streamed through her. Taking a deep breath, she addressed him, softly, quietly.

"Is it true…?"

She caught the way his shoulders tensed as her voice reached his ears. She shook her head slightly. She was so tired of being on edge. She couldn't accept silence for an answer. She needed to know.

"Is it true what Chizu told me, that you ordered my belongings to be returned to me because you were going to let me go?"

Again she received no reply. Her sense of unrest escalating by the second, she tried again, "Sasuke…?"

The only response was the sound of the fire, crackling steadily in the magnificent hearth.

Sakura battled to keep her frustration in check. Of course she had expected either murderous rage or chilly indifference. Everything had changed between them the moment she had double-crossed him. But whether Sasuke liked it or not, he had to turn around and confront her eventually.

"Tell me," she pressed, as he remained still and silent. Her feet carried her cautiously forward, step by hesitant step, as if she were approaching a wild, fierce, deadly tiger that was capable of lashing out unexpectedly at any moment. "I have to know."

Still he remained unresponsive. She stared at him in a combination of dismay and exasperation. Just what was he thinking about? Was he even listening to her? What did he hope to gain or achieve by shutting her out? If he was trying to make her feel guilty, Sakura resolutely told herself that none of this would have ever happened had he not selfishly abducted her to the shades of his realm to begin with, had he not offered her the food of the dead, knowing full well what it meant if she consumed its seeds.

He had forced her hand and in many ways gotten what he deserved – even though knowing that he had been supposedly on the verge of releasing her willingly did make her angry at Suigetsu for putting her through the conflict and peril of treason.

The deafening quiet continued – and Sakura's patience finally snapped. She suddenly felt reckless, furious, wanted a reaction – something – anything – from the stoic deity standing before her.

"Damn it…" she began, her voice wavering with poorly suppressed emotion. She wasn't like him… she couldn't act detached and retreat into a shell, even though he deserved the same treatment he was giving her. "Why won't you say anything? I know you're mad, but if you think you're upset, what about everything that you did to ME?" Sakura could hear her voice steadily rising as she ranted on, "You gave me the pomegranate, you knew what it'd do, but you didn't care, you did it anyway! It's always been about you!"

So absorbed was she by the flurry of words tumbling from her lips she didn't witness the way his hands balled into tight fists by his sides.

"What choice did I have?" she raged on. "What choice did you leave me with? I don't need to justify a thing, it's you who has to answer for what you've done. I've been here for months,Sasuke, months, and you never once mentioned anything about letting me go back. Suigetsu's plan was the only way out that I saw, the only chance I had, and even after everything you did to me, I didn't want to go through with it – until I found out the truth about the seeds, and I couldn't take any more of the deception, the games, the plans everyone else thinks they have the right to make for me!"

"Deception?" His voice finally rang out, and cut through the air like a slicing blade, cold and sharp– yet there was an edge of bitter disbelief to his tone, as if he couldn't quite believe what he was hearing. He didn't turn to look at her, as he continued, "You speak to me of deception?"

"You could've told me that's what you were going to do-!"

He whipped around to face her then, quick as a striking rattlesnake, and spat back, "What difference would it have made?"

His question caught her off-guard. Sakura floundered wordlessly for an answer, but to her horror, she could articulate nothing. One corner of Sasuke's proud lips drew back in a sneer, as if her silence had proven his very point.

"Well, Sakura?" he advanced on her, and Sakura fought the urge to step back, to retreat. She knew what was going to happen. She would not cower before him! At least, if he chose to end her life, she would die with dignity.

Lifting her chin as he came to stand toe-to-toe with her, she met his obsidian gaze squarely, and with a quivering lower lip, whispered, "You weren't the victim in all of this. I'm not sorry- hhh!?"

Her breath snagged in her throat when his left hand shot out swifter than she could even blink and closed in an iron-like hold around her neck. She watched as his eyes bled to crimson. He was like a breath-taking force of nature, undeniably beautiful, yet destructive, untamed, merciless. She forced herself to maintain that terrible, mesmerising, penetrating gaze, even as her heart drummed chaotically within her.

The end was coming. Suigetsu had been wrong.

Sasuke was going to kill her. She could see his fury, and literally nothing stood between her and death now.

But still she would not plead. She kept her arms passively by her sides. Struggling would do no good. What use was it to try to stop him from crushing her windpipe when he could easily still her breathing with a single glance?

"Not sorry, Sakura…?" he echoed, his voice frighteningly hollow. "Do you know the fate of those who commit treachery in my realm?"

When she simply looked defiantly back at him, he tilted his head, his eyes narrowing menacingly.

"Maybe," he uttered ominously, "it's time you know."

Before she had a moment to register what he meant, a great gust of wind seemed to cyclone around them and she felt the ground give way beneath her feet as Sasuke teleported them out of the palace. When the world ceased its violent spinning and they touched rocky ground again, Sakura saw red all around her. A sweltering haze of flame and smoke. Sasuke still held her firmly by the neck, so she struggled to see clearly, but she didn't need to; for she felt the answer to where they were in her very bones.

Sasuke had brought her to a place he had kept from her eyes for the entire duration of her stay in the Underworld.

He had transported her to the most feared place known to mortals. To hell itself.

The horrifying sounds of screams and moans, cries of insanity, cursing, weeping and incessant, wailing and pleading drifted to her ears. Sasuke released her then, only to shove her around, so that she looked upon the terrain with dreadful clarity.

The frightful view was enough to turn Sakura's legs to jelly and almost caused her to sink to her knees in pure despair. She surely would have, were it not for Sasuke's vice-like grip at the back of her neck.

They stood at the edge of a ginormous, volcanic-like crater, which was fed by streams of pure molten flame that branched off a larger river she could just about make out bubbling across the yawning chasm. As she looked upon the bottomless infernal pit, she glimpsed cages set into the rock face. Desperate hands clawed through bars. A stair pathway that spiralled down the pit, set against the wall, led to the cells. Sakura saw some being opened by shadowy entities, who drug hysterical bodies out and flung them into the endless pit. Fire – more fire than she had ever seen – blasted upwards like a raging inferno, and the end of the crater disappeared in a swirl of flame and smoke.

A plume of smoke and ash blew upwards, assaulting her face with a blast of excruciatingly hot air. She had only been there a few seconds and could feel herself sweating profusely. The blistering air made her eyes water and the suffocating and heavy residue of ash particles in the air, coupled with the oppressive stench of acid and decay made breathing laborious. The air around them was so oppressively searing that it seemed to ripple visibly everywhere Sakura looked.

She heard someone sucking in fast gasps and realised it was the sound of her own lungs struggling to take in a clear breath as geysers littering around the radius of the crater released clouds of sulphuric gas.

"This," Sasuke's voice hissed into her right ear, as he stood behind her, and gazed down at the infernal pit. "This is Tartarus. The resting place of the damned. This is the penalty for treason."

It was the most horrific thing Sakura had ever seen. He steered her closer to the edge of the crater, and Sakura released a choked sound of resistance as she pushed back against his hold, her sandaled feet digging into and slipping on rock that was so sizzling she could feel it through the soles of her footwear. She was afraid. Not for her life. For her very soul. Her body would perish, but what would become of her soul? It would writhe in agony eternally in the endless deep below.

How could she endure such a wretched fate?

Don't you dare! Her inner voice yelled at her, as mindless hysteria mounted and the instinct for survival, to throw herself at his feet and whimper for forgiveness threatened to take over her senses. Don't you DARE BEG!

She sobbed without a sound, the tears blessedly blurring her vision so that she didn't have to look with awful clarity at the nightmarish scene of torment and hopelessness before her anymore.

Sasuke then spun her back around to face him. "Do you understand now, Sakura?" He demanded. "Do you see now what this world is… what I am? What the price of treason is?"

But instead of cowering, Sakura summoned the courage to lift her chin once more. She held his crimson gaze and stood her ground, even as her insides quivered and a smothering sense of all-encompassing doom washed over her.

"Do it," she whispered. "Kill me."

She expected the fingers wrapped around her throat to tighten. Instead Sasuke's eyes narrowed, and he simply glared back at her as if he hoped the intensity of his glower would do the job for him and terminate her existence.

Licking her lips, which had become parched and dry from the unbearable heat, she went on, knowing it was reckless, unwise, and utterly insane to dare to provoke his anger any further, but reasoned that she had no hope of salvation anyway, "You did this. You let this all happen by keeping me here! By frightening me! By leaving me no choice! You gave me the Fruit… you kept that from me! If you'd just told me the truth about it instead of letting me eat it without knowing, none of this would've had to happen!"

He didn't tell her to be quiet. Sasuke was looking at her in a manner she had never seen him look at her before. But she was so distressed, she couldn't read it, and had thrown all caution to the wind, was running errant on the side of compliance. Once she started she couldn't seem to stop again – it was as if her tongue wanted to remind him of every awful thing he had done to her since he'd stolen her away before he passed the judgement she knew he already had; that she was guilty and deserved to perish for her betrayal of the King of the Dead.

"You hurt me!" she choked out, over the horrendous groans and cries of the damned that ricocheted in her ears. "You hurt me the day you kidnapped me and you just kept on doing it. It didn't have to be like this. I tried to find another way. I tried to understand why you did it, why you took me, that maybe it had to do with whatever happened in the past in the war between the gods. But when it became clear that you planned to trap me here all along, I couldn't justify your actions anymore! I was angry and afraid! But…" her voice shook with emotion. "I'm so tired. So tired of being afraid, and looking behind my shoulder all the time. I… I won't… I won't be afraid anymore! So if you're going to kill me, just do it!"

She saw something dance transiently across his glowing irises, but it was gone before she could read it. It might have been a startled look – or perhaps that was just whimsical thinking on Sakura's part.

"Do it!" she cried hoarsely. "Free us both!"

The death deity seemed to be struggling internally, so much so that Sakura could profoundly see the conflict raging across his features – but then he released an incomprehensible sound through clenched teeth.

"You hate me!" Sakura exclaimed. "This is where you've made it clear I'll end up anyway, so just do it-!"

She broke off with a gasp as Sasuke abruptly hauled her closer, his hand slipping to the back of her neck as he grabbed a fistful of her hair, and before Sakura could even register what was happening, she felt his lips crash against hers with a kind of intensity that caused an altogether different kind of heat to zig-zag through her, one that was accompanied by freezing ice and crackling lightning. She blinked, her lips automatically parting, thoroughly surprised and taken aback by both his unexpected action and her body's alarming reaction – but just as quickly as he had kissed her, the death deity drew roughly back, leaving Sakura stunned and breathless, her heart galloping uncontrollably inside her chest.

"You," he hissed, keeping her held close enough so that their faces remained inches apart, close enough that she could look straight into the spinning kaleidoscopes of his eyes, "are so annoying."

An unsettling sense of déjà vu swam over her upon hearing those words.

Then, without any semblance of warning, Sasuke shoved her roughly back away from him, and Sakura's shocked scream caught in her throat as she felt herself falling, panic exploding into her as her arms flailed instinctively to catch something, anything, to save herself. But her fingers grabbed at nothing except humid air, and her heart seemed to leap out her throat entirely. She squeezed her eyes shut, waiting for the agony, the unimaginable searing pain, waiting for the fire to swallow her up.

But it never came. Instead, she saw the vivid imprint of the spinning Sharingan in her mind, and then lost consciousness as her entire world faded away to murky shadow.

---

Author's Note:

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OMG! Sasukeeeee! What have you done!? Don't worry… all will be cleared up next chapter in flashback form :D WHO does Chiyo mean by HE? Questions, questions! Thanks for reading and I'd LOVE to know your thoughts about this chapter!