A/N: A second chapter so soon? :o
Chapter 2
The six days Sakura spends with Shizune in the Konoha dungeons under the Hokage tower are harder than the four months alone after the execution.
Sai along with another Root agent lead a heavily restrained Sakura into a medium-sized cell. Already she can see the bars, beset with runes that will prevent her from using her chakra. The door clangs shut behind her and she can sense Sai hovering, hoping she will look at him. He does not.
He leaves.
Sakura studies the cold stone wall before her for a solid minute before looking over to her neighboring cells. The cell next to hers holds another living body. It's not until the person shifts slightly and shows her badly bruised face, does she realize that Shizune is the one peering at her through swollen eyes.
Sakura gasps, heart lodging in her throat. She runs to the bars and clutches them with an almighty effort, wishing for her monstrous strength. "Shizune," Sakura whispers. She hates that she sounds like a frightened little girl.
Shizune makes a monumental effort and drags herself over to Sakura. She leans against the bars and breathes heavily. She has the strength to lift her hand and twine her fingers with Sakura's.
Immediately Sakura tries to pump healing chakra into her, but nothing happens. Sakura makes a pitifully helpless sound.
"Sakura," Shizune rasps, and she manages to sound reprimanding. "What the hell are you doing here? I told you to leave."
Sakura is openly crying now. Tears run down and sting the small cuts on her face courtesy of her earlier fight. "I c-couldn't leave you, Shizune. I-I," —she gently places her finger pads on Shizune's brutalized face—, "I'm so sorry I couldn't save you."
Shizune's crying now too, but there's really nothing more to say. Shizune is trapped down here and now so is Sakura. And they will both probably die down here.
…
Sakura estimates about roughly two days pass before Danzō deigns to visit them. She hears the faint clunk of Danzō's cane hitting the stone floor over and over again before she even sees him.
Before the group reaches them, Shizune turns as swift as she can in Sakura's direction. "Sakura," she whispers fiercely, "Danzō is in possession of a multitude of sharingan. He has them on his body—" the group reaches them before she can finish. Sakura doesn't have time to process that information before Danzō is in front of her.
She was still holding out a slim hope for Kakashi. He had said he would be back in three days time and even though there is a small chance that he can actually accomplish rescuing them, Sakura knows he will try.
Danzō has his Root cronies beat Sakura for information. She curls around her belly and lets them do their worst. Thankfully, Sai is not ordered to help in the interrogation.
Of course, they don't believe her when she says she doesn't know anything, even though it's the truth. If Shizune was telling the truth, and not just talking from the delirium induced from her many injuries, then Danzō has no need to have his lackeys beat her when he can extract the information from her with the use of a sharingan.
A kick to the head finally sends her into unconsciousness.
…
The next day they return without Danzō and place glowing hot pokers on Shizune's already bruised skin until her screams fill the prison.
…
On the fourth day…
On the fourth day, Danzō has a Root interrogator cut out Shizune's tongue while he makes Sakura watch.
"Since you do not have any other valuable information for me, you should have no more use for it," Danzō states in a cold voice.
Pure, undiluted terror is something Sakura thought she has felt before.
But she is absolutely wrong.
Watching someone you love in so much pain because of another is not something anyone can ever prepare for.
The trembling helplessness as she watches Shizune scream through a mouthful of blood until she can't anymore, the unrestrained fear that courses through her body as all she can do is sob and clutch the bars to Shizune's cell, is all-consuming.
After, when Shizune is quietly choking and laying sobbing on the floor of her cell, Danzō turns to a numb Sakura and asks, "Well, have you information on the whereabouts of your colleagues now?"
Sakura turns to him, face blank and crusted dry from her tears, and feels her fury rising up in her, smoldering and then raging like an inferno. There was no need to brutalize Shizune so—he could have used the sharingan to extract that information. He would have had to wrench the nonexistent information unpleasantly from their memories, but he would not have had to resort to torture. He basks in her suffering, she realizes. He basks in the suffering of those he deems less than him, those who dare oppose him.
She screams all manner of expletives at him, unrestrainedly banging on the bars until she feels her skin break. She tells him that even if she cuts out her tongue next, she will still not know anything. She tells him that Naruto is going to come back and kill him and take everything he had murdered and connived to obtain. She screams until her throat is raw.
…
Kakashi does not come.
…
On the fifth day, Sakura tries to keep a fading Shizune awake, afraid that she will slip away while she sleeps. He black eyes blink every now and again, but she only stares at Sakura with pitiful appreciation and affection.
They have both not been fed throughout the five days, and have only been given minimal amounts of water. Sakura can barely sit up right while she tries to keep Shizune with her.
Danzō comes back with another interrogator and has him place hot pokers on the bottom of Sakura's feet.
She finds that she still has the energy to scream. Danzō tells them that their execution is scheduled for the following day. Sakura is grateful.
Eventually, as she starts falling back into unconsciousness, she tucks her arms wearily around her middle.
Before she succumbs, she sees Danzō lower the bindings on the left side of his face and body, exposing a multitude of sharingan on his person. She summons only a minuscule feeling of horror and disgust before her consciousness leaves her.
…
She thinks of her friends throughout what seems endless days. Wonders about how they will handle her and Shizune's execution. She also thinks of how grateful she is that her mother is no longer on this earth to witness her daughter's death. No mother should have to witness that kind of horror.
She regrets not going with Kakashi when he insisted if only for the life she's still not sure is growing inside her. Her period has never been late before. Now it is two weeks late. She doesn't voice her suspicion to Shizune; the news would only sadden her more.
But then Shizune makes a monumental effort and reaches out to hold Sakura's hand. While they grasp each other tightly, Sakura is grateful, at least, that she has Shizune for comfort in her last moments. Hopefully, Shizune feels the same.
…
On the sixth day, the day of their execution, Sakura and Shizune are dragged out of their cells in the early morning. At least she thinks it is the early morning—time is an elusive issue down in these dark halls. Their wrists are manacled with silver cuffs bearing the same runes as the prison bars.
Adrenaline courses through Sakura's, her body not yet ready to give up and so she puts up a fearsome fight. She manages to knock over two burly Root members before she is subdued.
On her knees, she hears a now familiar clunking before Danzō appears in her line of sight.
"Take them," Danzō commands. He holds out a hand as Sakura passes before him, signaling the Root agent to stop. He leans toward her, breath ghosting across her face in a nauseating wave of heat. "I know your secret," he says in a low tone, looking her straight in the eyes with his lone eye. "I saw what is growing inside you last night," he taps his left arm and then, very pointedly, he looks down at her abdomen.
Sakura blanches.
She renews her vigor and trashes from side to side, the Root agent is expecting her to fight this time and holds her in a bruising grip.
No, it can't be true!
SHE IS ABOUT TO DIE IT CAN'T BE TRUE!
Her mind rages when her body cannot. She despairs at whatever fate brought her here at this moment about to be executed when there is life growing inside her. She hates Kakashi at that moment, hates him for not listening to her when she was about to tell him, hates him for not coming back. She knows the feeling is unfair—she is entirely to blame for her stubborn nature—but she can't seem to think straight or rationally. Days of little water and almost no food have taken their toll on her. She is amazed that the malnutrition, extreme stress, and days of torture have not led to a miscarriage yet.
They are led up several sets of stairs before being led out of the Hokage tower into early morning light. The Root agent keeps a tight grip on her arm as they match through a couple streets.
They are heading to the main square that now serves as the gallows.
A crowd stands awaiting their arrival. She can barely make out the faces though, or her surroundings because she is becoming increasingly dizzy and can barely stand. Faintly she sees a camera, or at least she thinks she does, and hopes no one she knows has their television turned on.
Up another small set of stars and then both her and Shizune are being roughly forced down onto their knees. Her knees hit the wooden deck with a bone-jarring thud.
Even though her senses are gradually failing her, she notices the deathly silence that accompanies their appearance.
Events seem to happen very quickly from that point, to Sakura's foggy mind—and maybe it is because they do.
Danzō comes clunking up behind them and makes a short speech that she can't discern the words of through her foggy mind.
Her heart is pounding viciously as if trying to escape a body that it knows will no longer support life in a few moments. There is a thin sheen of sweat on her skin and her breath comes out shallowly.
Sakura tilts her head up and studies the clear sky.
What a beautiful day, she thinks absently.
She has lived a good life.
Naruto's sunny smile flashes before her eyes, so bright like the sun sometimes you can't directly look.
More shallow breaths that she realizes are not coming from her catch her attention. She turns her head to see Shizune struggling to stay upright on her knees. She catches Sakura's eyes. Sakura's heart, already fit to burst with adrenaline and fear, manages to hold just enough affection to comfort her dear friend in their last moments. Courage, Sakura mouths, courage for our friends.
—Ino's hugs, oh, Ino's hugs; full bosom and hair tickling your nose that smells sweet.
Shizune, always so strong, nods resolutely at her. Determination to die with courage blazing on her eyes.
When the Root agent slices her throat open, Sakura looks away, but doesn't cry out.
—Sasuke...Sasuke is there with her too, in thought. He reminds her of her innocent childhood, so carefree and full of possibility.
She has lived a good life.
—Kakashi—she holds back a sob—her silent companion through all the years, silent, but warm, familiar, gracious, unimaginably amusing and always, always there.
The ghost of soft lips press into hers, a memory of strong arms wrapped around her not so long ago. She goes with him in her memory for a few seconds, goes with him to a sunny day under the fresh shade of trees. The image is blinding behind her eyelids and she tries, oh how she tries to keep the illusion with her.
And then Danzō is kneeling by her ear, shattering her pleasant illusion. He whispers all words afoul. "You are just like her. Tsunade," he sneers, "and I despise you for it, you embody every foolhardy thought and sentiment that has led to this village becoming decrepit and soft. If I did not have an image to uphold, I would take that kunai and bury it under your chin myself...but you still have use to me. When the time comes, I am going to rip that child from your womb and use it in whatever way I please. Or, if it manages to survive after what you will undergo in my care and is born defective, I will strangle it to death right in front of you. This is my promise to you." He shifts the bandage on his hand and allows her to see the spinning red eye grotesquely embedded there.
When before she saw blurry images in passing, now everything is a blinding, cataclysmic, furious red. Danzō's face is close enough that when she spits in his direction, the gob of spit lands right on his cheek.
A loud, desperately furious scream, rips out of her when the Root agent that brought her here starts dragging her off of the dais, struggling and thrashing. No one looks in her direction. Their faces stare directly at the spot where Sakura had just been, with horrified expressions.
A genjutsu...but not activated for her to fall prey to. She thinks of the camera, and the thousands of people that are most likely to be seeing what they think is her death.
She screams again as she takes one last grief-stricken look at a mutilated Shizune. Her blood, which reaches Sakura's knees, leaves a thick trail behind her as she is dragged from the platform. The Root agent hauls her through a deserted street before they both disappear and reappear in a puff of smoke in her previous cell; he shoves her roughly to the floor before exiting. Although she cannot see his face she memorizes the back of his head—the color of his hair, the set of his shoulders—and makes him second on her list. Danzo first, always first.
What seems minutes later, she hears a now too familiar thud of a cane against the stone floor.
Sakura explodes against the bars when she sees Danzō's bandaged face. Fury and grief still coursing through her trembling body. "You should have killed me," she spits. Her hands clench around the bars with a bruising grip. "You should have killed me, because you are not going to get another chance. Look at me. Look at me!" She stares him hard in his eye, unyielding. "I am going to kill you. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but I promise you that the last thing you are going to see in this world is my face as I slit your throat open."
His eye narrows and she sees the shadow of apprehension in his gaze before he blinks the feeling away. "I vow to keep my promise to you as well, Haruno. I suggest you do not exert yourself too much in your condition; it is bad for the growing fetus." He then turns and walks away, leaving her in the dark.
Sakura clenches her teeth, placing a hand on her still flat abdomen.
…
Danzō might have decided against taking her life because she was holding an innocent one, but he didn't seem to mind her and her child's death by malnutrition.
Over the next two days, all she receives are a piece of stale bread and a cup of water.
She can't seem to stop crying everytime she glances at Shizune's empty cell even though she knows she is dispossessing precious liquid.
…
On the third day, Sai comes to visit her.
Sakura doesn't look in his direction and leaves her gaze fixed listlessly at the wall.
Sai is not a man of many words, Sakura knows, so if she will not initiate conversation, she knows he won't either. Irrationally, again, she's angry with him even though none of this is his fault and he can't do anything to help her escape.
When she doesn't look at him, she hears him sigh, fumble in his clothes for a bit, then roll something across the floor in her direction with a rattling sound.
Sakura's head snaps in his direction—hope of escaping a flare through her body—to see Sai walking away.
She crawls over to what he rolled in her direction, hoping for some kind of weapon to find only a pill bottle.
For a moment, she thinks he means for her to take her own life through overdose, but then squints her eyes and reads the label by the poor light.
Prenatal vitamins.
At first she wants to hurl the bottle and its contents at his retreating back, but then reason enters her mind and she stuffs the bottle deep into her filthy vest.
…
Sai comes by every other day to give small offerings. Sometimes he tosses apples, oranges, more nutritious foods in her direction, other times it's clothes or extra water. He never stays for long and they never talk. After a few visits he can no longer seem to look at her any longer, although she starts trying to catch his eye.
She can't take the vitamins on an empty stomach—an unfortunate realization she discovered when she tried the week before. The vitamins on an empty stomach make her throw up the nonexistent contents of her belly. All she accomplishes is puking bile, and further risking dehydration.
Sakura resigns herself to taking a vitamin only when she has ingested food.
…
Danzō seems to forget about her for weeks before he suddenly gets the urge to inflict some sort of small torture on her body.
She fears she might be going mad in these dank, dark hallways when she starts hearing the clanking of a wooden cane against stone in the middle of the night, only to wake screaming.
...
"Sakura," Kakashi gently chides. He looks at her patiently with a lone eye—a look he perfected when they had started missions together more frequently. They had started to see more of each other once she had turned nineteen, after years of sporadic run-ins with each other since she was young. "Don't eat so much of the food, we won't have enough to make it back to Konoha."
"Are you calling me fat?" Sakura raises a speculative eyebrow. She doesn't know yet, but crumbs are currently stuck to her chin.
She crouches by her stolen nourishment, like some kind of creeping goblin over a pile of riches as Kakashi looks at her disapprovingly.
Somewhere in the depths of her unconscious mind, Sakura recognizes this memory from two years ago. Her and Kakashi had gone on a mission to Kiri.
"No, I'm calling you a voracious beast," Kakashi responds, not skipping a beat. "You're eating my portion."
Sakura smiles sweetly at him, a smile that she knows works even on his listless and hard-tack personality. She's all fluttering lashes and dimpled cheeks when she stands to face him. "You don't really mind though, right? Not for your favorite student? You don't even like dehydrated nigiri anyway."
Kakashi stares a bit longer at her, emotionless eyes and all, before his gaze softens and he quickly rolls his eyes. There's a smile there now, just for her.
"Guess not," he mumbles, looking out into the leafy green trees. He abruptly turns back to her and brushes his thumb across her chin, dislodging crumbs."You should really try getting it into your mouth instead of all over your face, though." She remembers that clearly: the soft action of his skin against her's, how he didn't move away so quickly as would have been appropriate and how she hadn't minded.
Sakura grins back, a small grin that brightens her eyes. She thinks about making an inappropriate joke in response to his last sentence, but that's where the dream-memory starts to change.
Instead of taking his hand back, Kakashi keeps his half-smile in place and moves his hand down to linger softly over the suddenly round belly she carries.
She is light and warmth incarnate as she looks back into his eyes and places her hand on top of his.
Sakura gasps, eyes flying open.
She tries not to cry out in pain, tearing at her heart, when she realizes she's still in hell.
...
Some days she wishes for death for her and her growing child. What a relief they would both feel.
…
Other days, she feels ashamed for thinking such things.
She starts to sing lullabies to the almost nonexistent bump on her lower belly.
…
About two months into her imprisonment, or so she estimates, Sai stops coming. He would visit her regularly, and so she finds his absence concerning.
Days pass and she hadn't realized how much she has relied on Sai's presence to keep her semi-sane.
Her health starts deteriorating even further than before Sai had started giving her extra food.
When she runs her hand over her abdomen, she can barely feel a bump.
…
A month later she spots Sai around a corner, bringing in another prisoner. He does not even glance in her direction.
She does notice though, his right hand—the one that he draws with—which is missing the index finger and thumb.
…
Sakura can feel her chakra within her, floating uselessly. She might not be able to use it, but her skill with chakra has always been bordering on the edge of becoming a mastered skill beyond what even Tsunade could do. She calls on that skill now and manipulates the chakra within her body. The act takes a monumental effort of will and skill, but she finally manages to move most of her chakra to her womb to wrap around her growing baby. Chakra in itself is pure energy and because she is not able to feed herself, and in turn her baby nutritious food on a regular basis, she is pleading that this will be enough to see the child born.
She slumps back against the cold wall sweating and exhausted.
...
Two weeks later, Danzō remembers she is still alive and seems enraged by it. He has the same black-haired bastard Root agent clap her hands into iron manacles suspended on the wall. He seems to enjoy pushing her around. She's facing the wall, on her knees, heart pounding for the new torture she will endure.
Somebody rips the back of her shirt open and cold air runs up her spine, leaving goosebumps.
She clenches her hands suspended above her.
She knows what is going to happen.
Danzō tells his cronies to stop at twenty lashes.
She wonders if her back is actually shredded or if it just feels that way.
Sakura curls in on her stomach and the more pronounced bump even though her back screams at her in agonizing pain when she does so. She had been feeling odd cramps the past few days and feels them again now, only sharper. Sakura does not know much about obstetrics, but she's sure that the contractions at her stage are not a good sign.
Please, stay in. Please, let me hold you until you are fully grown, she begs silently. She didn't know when it happened—maybe even when she suspected that she was pregnant—but she loves the child growing inside her already. Of course, she hadn't been prepared emotionally, but the baby has grown with life, so she is determined to protect her child or try until the effort takes her own.
She hears movement outside her cell and dreads that Danzō is back for more before she spots Sai's glittering black eyes in the faint light from the sconces.
"Sai, please," she pleads, voice a desperate whisper in the night. "Please. My baby is going to die."
Sakura never thought she would ever beg for anything in her life. She thought herself too proud to do so, even for her own life.
She has found something worth begging for.
Sai comes up to the bars and grips them tightly: his mangled left hand stands out starkly in the dim light. His face, already pale in normality, is now blanched as he takes her in. "I'm trying, Sakura. I swear to you, I'm trying."
She falls unconscious to the sight of his pale face against the bars.
…
A/N: Can the effects of a genjutsu travel through a camera? In my story it can.
Also, do you all know how much it killed me to kill off Tsunade and Shizune? I love them so. I suffered.
I appreciate the nice reviews so far!