Ok...this was an awkward chapter to write. It is indeed the long-awaited Sakura vs. Sasuke confrontation. I didn't want to make it violent or "big", so some of you may be (a bit) disappointed. But we all know that Sakura wouldn't waste her time physically kicking her enemy's ass (which would be difficult) when she could do it another way...

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

Warning: May be more OOC than usual!

Puppet in Pink

11. Mental Challenge

Men will tell of thy dishonor

Both now

and in times to come.

And to a man who is

In honor,

Dishonor is more than death.

-The Bhagavad Gita

"Hey, Sakura, don't get left behind."

As soon as the words left his mouth, Sasuke felt the slightest tinge of guilt. Here he was, picking on someone obviously weaker than him, who had just lost the last person in the world that she truly loved. That wasn't right...

As soon as those thoughts entered his mind, he erased them. Here he was, talking about "true love". "True love" didn't exist, not in the real world. He was starting to sound almost like Sakura. And what was the difference between "right" and "wrong" anyway? They were all meaningless words that relied on someone's opinion for their meanings. Reliance was a sign of weakness.

He couldn't be weak. No matter what the little voices insisted, Uchiha Sasuke was more than ready to follow through on his words.

The raven-haired boy smirked, waiting for the reaction that was sure to follow. He wanted to see Sakura's final breakdown, wanted to see her finally realize how useless she was. Maybe then she would get it through her thick head that she was only a nuisance, the millstone around all their necks—maybe then she would figure out that if she really cared about "Team 7", she would do them all a favor and stay home. And---

=Say that again.=

A voice hissed, breaking into his thoughts. Sasuke whirled around, to find himself face-to-face with a pair of eerie green eyes.

=Say that again.=

The voice repeated. It seemed to come from his mind...

Those eyes...they were sucking at his soul. Sasuke tried to look away, but couldn't. It was as if the eyes were paralyzing him, controlling his body like the strings of a marionette.

Who's the puppet now?

Was this Sakura? Green eyes, green orbs, green spheres, green spears that sliced through his consciousness. Another minute and he would go insane.

All of these years spent building up your muscles, raising your chakra and stamina to inhuman levels, training to run faster, jump higher, leap farther...it's all useless. You've spent more time pruning your body than your mind...keeping the perfect outer garden but letting the inner one grow untended. If that's not weakness, Uchiha, I don't know what is.

=It seems that the Uchiha cannot back his words.=

The voice had a cool, almost ethereal tone. Like an angel...or something worse.

=I'm not one for picking on the weak. But from now on...=The voice dropped to a sinister whisper.
=...You should be more careful about what you say...and what you think.=

And then the green vanished, leaving nothing in its place.

The Uchiha boy was known for his love of silence. Some said it was the only thing he loved. But whatever attachment Sasuke felt towards the quiet was lost on this. This wasn't silence. This was noiselessness.

Even in "complete" silence, there are things to hear. The rustle of leaves. A far-off bird call. Your own heartbeat. There is no way to escape sound.

This was different. Malevolently different. There was nothing to hear, nothing to see, nothing to sense. There was no color, no shape, no sound, no sight. Sasuke didn't know how long he could take it...

When the elders of Konoha talked about the horrible tortures that scarred the skin of unfortunate ninja corpses found in the lairs of the enemy, Sasuke thought that was the worst way to die. To die slowly, in so much agony that you couldn't summon your voice to scream.

Now he knew what was worse. Dieing from the inside, watching your mind and body separate, so painful in its painlessness.

When Sasuke woke up he was standing in the middle of the training grounds, exactly where he'd been before. So I didn't die...Of course, it was his own amazing, prodigious strength and ultimate power of mind that had gotten him through.

Not.

=I'm not one for picking on the weak...=

Sakura sat in the forest, practicing another technique. She was still proud of herself for mastering the second level of the scroll she'd been working on a few days earlier.

I wish I'd killed that Uchiha boy. I'm too merciful for my own good.

Ah, well. She had given him enough of a fright to plague him with nightmares for at least a week. Sakura had been ready to use the second level, but was surprised to discover that the boy's mind was almost too flimsy to withstand the first.

How odd, that someone known as a "Ninja Genius" would have the weakest mind of them all.

The pink-haired girl laughed at the irony of it all. Sasuke had more chakra than he knew what to do with, but he was unable to break an illusion.

That's because this illusion doesn't obey the orders of chakra. Only someone with a stronger will than the user can see through it and break out. It doesn't matter how much energy you have.

That was something that the Uchiha would never understand. A person like him, whose sanity relied on dividing the world into categories, who labeled all around him either "Weak" or "Strong"...he wouldn't get it.

Weakness is a lack of something. As is strength.

But strength is the ability to adapt to that lack.

And Sasuke didn't have that.

Aagh...this was so confusing for me to write. I know that Sasuke is OOC throughout this chapter, no need to tell me that...and it may have seemed like Sakura had too easy a win...

To dreaming star-sama: Yeah, I did change my source for the poetic quotes. I didn't think anyone would notice...but you did! n.n
And about Sakura killing all the other characters...I wish! But it's a bit soon for that, and Sakura would have quite some trouble in killing Kakashi...I sooo wanted Sasuke to die in this chapter but that would have been...erm, a bit incongruous. Heh.

Thanks to all who reviewed on the last chapter! This will most likely be my last post before school officially starts...so have a little patience...and remember to review for this chapter...