Chapter 8: Life is Never Fair

It was silent in the glass room that held a raven haired young man captive throughout the still night with the twinkling of tiny stars on the outside world. As the hours of darkness showed an obsidian sky, the young man sat on the pale bed set for him with memories running through his head to no end. Every thought, every memory always involved a young woman with unique pink hair.

As Sasuke's knees supported his body which lent on them using his elbows to maintain his position, he stared down at his white shoes with his now normal black eyes. His eyes weren't the blood red colour nor did his arms flare with dangerous flames anymore. Only his steady breathing could be heard in the space that he was in at the moment.

'Sakura was always the happy one, but when the time came when she was down, I was always there for her, always.' He thought as he reminisced certain times in his life with the girl. 'Oh and I remember that time when she freaked when I came to her house bright and early. I still remember her angelic face as she dreamt peacefully. I could never really get that face out of my mine since I first lay my eyes on her.'

He shifted his position and was now lying with his back on the bed and his legs hanging over the end of the bed. 'I never really got to tell her that I loved her.' The thought suddenly walked into his mind. 'But then how could I with that stupid red head always there. He sticks to her like glue! But then,' he chuckled to himself. 'I wouldn't ever leave her side either.'

He sat up and just shook every negative thought out. 'No, I should just tell her and get it over with. Just because she has a boyfriend doesn't mean that she's officially gone.' He reassured himself with that thought.

He stood up and walked over to one of the glass windows. The window was just about as long as he was and twice as wide as the length. He stared out but at himself through his reflection. "Look at yourself, locked up in this prison they call a room. You should be out there getting Sakura back, but no you had to freaking lose control of yourself again."

He scolded himself and then flared on of his arms and punched the glass as hard has he could. He knew it wouldn't work but he had nothing else to do.

Over the many hours of sitting and scolding himself, he figured out a few ways to control his energy which fed the flames. He had spent almost half the night practicing to control his energy and he had just stopped a few moments ago; before he began to remember things. He still didn't have full control, but he was determined to get it right.

Up till now, he still hadn't slept. It was very early in the morning but he didn't care. He couldn't do much; it had been several hours since Sakura was kidnapped and he cursed himself for now being able to get out of the glass cage.

Suddenly, the glass door slid open revealing a hooded figure. All Sasuke did was step back from the window and stare with calm and perilous eyes.

The cold night breeze blew swiftly past the blonde boy's face as his head stuck out of an open car window. The driver held a steady, tranquil posture as his left hand held the wheel and he right hand rested on his lap. The car was an amazingly fast one, complete with stereos and GPS.

They've been driving for almost six hours and still, their target never ceased to be on the move. A red eye flashed with purpose as he stared at the empty road before him. 'Orochimaru is not going to hurt another life this time.' His thoughts were interrupted by a curious question.

"Kakashi, how do you know Orochimaru?" Kakashi was taken aback. "Why would you think I knew him?" he asked cautiously. "Well, it's just that when I, or anyone for that matter, mention his name, you suddenly grow impatient." Naruto answered intellectually.

There was silence then, "Orochimaru," Naruto suddenly said. Kakashi just glared at him for a moment and then set his eyes back on the road. "See?" Naruto crossed his arms in front of his chest and waited for Kakashi to start.

"Orochimaru was and still is an evil, sly man. He had deceived my family and loved ones once," he began. "And I won't let him do it again. Not to Sasuke, not to you, not to anyone. You guys are my responsibility." His eyes never left the road.

"Am I allowed to ask how he deceived you?" Now, Naruto was sitting back in his chair properly and looking straight ahead. Kakashi could tell that Naruto wasn't playing around. If he was, he would have laughed a long time ago about something rather idiotic.

"It's just, he was my father's friend and fellow assassin. He just didn't really want to stay friends with my father, more like kill him for his position." Both Kakashi and Naruto grew silent. Naruto knew that Kakashi's father was a great leader of the assassin society but he never knew Orochimaru was the cause of his death.

Kakashi stared back onto the road lost in his memories. As he recalled everything, he ran his free hand down the left side of his face, only to feel the indent of his scar through his white bandana.

A young boy of about ten years old held onto his fathers hand as they walked slowly towards the meeting room accompanied by four other bodyguards. The little silver head of hair stared around in amazement as he looked around at the large windows and all of the neatly cut couches and tables. He had never seen what his father's work place befor he knew he was the greatest assassin that ever lived.

The taller silver haired man brought his son along with him into the meeting because he was coming of age and would soon start working at the society as well. He was very proud of his son and he could tell that it would bring great joy to the child if he finally saw where he worked.

His friend had called them into a meeting considering that it was a time of great crimes. "Please take a seat Mr. Hatake. Oh and young sir please take a seat next to your father as well." It was Orochimaru with a young, sophisticated face. In fact he actually looked human with a small smile faintly seen on his face.

"Father?" Kakashi lost grip of his father's hand as he stared into Orochimaru's eyes. There was something evil there, he could tell. Orochimaru stared back into the child's innocent and curious eyes and bent down so he was eye level with Kakashi. "Don't worry; things will go by in a flash." There was a glint in Orochimaru's eye as his kind smile turned into an evil grin.

Then, ear piercing screams were omitted from the taller silver headed man. Kakashi snapped his head towards his father and saw that a small dagger stuck out from his chest as he slowly fell giving off a loud groan. "Father? No, Father!" Kakashi screamed as water began to trickle down his cheeks.

He had just witnessed his father's death and now the same men who stabbed his father were walking slowly towards him. He ran for his life.

He ran down long corridors and marble staircases until he came to a large glass door. He pushed it open a found his surroundings rather odd. He was in a laboratory with glowing green substances contained in glass bottles.

He turned around Orochimaru was standing right above him. Kakashi gave out a loud scream as a knife struck him on the left side of his face. He fell backward and the green substance landed on his wound, causing him to scream even more in pain.

"Boy, you need to die here and now. I promise I will make good use of the society. Don't worry; I'll only kill a few million people." Orochimaru chuckled evilly and then got his knife ready. Kakashi screamed and threw something at his attacker. He didn't know or care what he threw; all he cared about was the chance to escape.

Orochimaru groaned as green slimy material covered his body and entered through wounds and such. He threw the knife at the little rascal but missed.

Kakashi ran for his life, not wanting to look back at his father's dead body.

Two figures ran down the back alley of the headquarters building, headed for a bright red car in the distance. One had a hooded cape while the other had a hooded sweater. It was still as dark as ever as morning crept up slowly. The only light was coming from the full moon that hung in the dark black pool in the sky.

"Are you positive you know where she is?" the individual with the hooded sweater asked to the other. "I mean, we might be doing this for nothing!" the same person looked cautiously around the corner of the wall they were leaning against. "Good, no one in sight."

"You know what? You really should relax! I know where she is," the other one pulled out a small mechanism that seemed to have a red dot on it that blinked continuously. "See? They already stopped at the outskirts of town. Seems like the old castle ruins,"

Before the sentence could be finished, the person was tugged sharply towards the bright red car by her companion. The sudden gesture pulled the hood off, revealing blonde hair and a diamond on the person's forehead.

"Oy! Sasuke! Don't do that," Tsunade said briskly as she pulled the hood back over her head. "I don't wanna get caught out here you know! You're lucky enough to even have me come all the way over here to save your sorry butt." She complained endlessly until they got to the car.

"I'm driving." Sasuke said immediately during Tsunade's rampage of complaints. "No you can't I have the keys," She held the keys as if tauntingly. "I don't care about those stupid keys. I'll just high wire the stupid vehicle."

Sasuke was going to get into the drivers seat when Tsunade suddenly smacked the back of his head. "Ow!" he rubbed the sore spot. "No one's driving this car but me." she got into the drivers seat, waiting for Sasuke to get into the passenger seat. He just gave a loud groan and ran to the other side of the car.

With the two car doors fully shut, all that could be seen in the light of the silver moon was a red blur.

Sakura had long given up on getting out of the truck that was carrying her away mile by mile to a place unknown to her. She had tear-stained cheeks and puffy eyes; evidence of hours of crying. She had tried countless times to get herself out of the moving prison but every attempt was brushed of by the large metal vehicle.

"What the hell did I do to deserve this?" she asked herself. She was sitting, leaning against one of the four walls that surrounded her, and her knees were up to her chest with her arms wrapped around them. "I don't even know what he wants with me, let alone why everyone seems to know about it more than I do. I just wanna go home." She laid her head down on her arms. 'Sasuke, why is it I keep thinking about you.'

Then the whole vehicle suddenly stopped, making Sakura jolt her head up and using her hands as support so that she wouldn't fall over. "What?" she got up slowly and looked out one of the windows. There was nothing but green meadows and an old worn down castle. "Now what?" she suddenly got angry at the thought of being dragged all the way out of Tokyo to a stupid castle that looked like it would fall apart at any moment.

The doors swung open, causing Sakura to jerk back and gasp. It was none other than Gaara. 'Not him again,' She thought, fear visible in her eyes.

Gaara had an emotionless face plastered onto his face as he just waited at the entrance of the truck. His crimson eyes glared through the darkness of the space, spotting pink hair. "Better come out now, you wouldn't want me to go in there and get you." His voice echoed through the truck. Sakura shivered from fear and got up slowly, walking out.

As soon as she hit the ground, Gaara grabbed her arm and dragged her to the castle. "Orochimaru wouldn't want you to be late." He said, not looking back at her. Struggle all she could, she couldn't match Gaara's strength, or even conquer her fear of him.

Gaara just dragged her into the castle ruins with Sakura in tow.

Sasuke's hair lashed about as the car window gave passage to the wind. He didn't mind though, he just stared out at the many sakura trees they had passed and began to remember things. The day he first met her came to mind as soon as many sakura petals flew into the car onto his lap.

He gently took a petal into his hand. The soft delicate object caught his full attention as everything else around him disappeared. His gaze never left the petal as his mind raced through memories.

'Her smile, her laugh, just her. I can't believe she was taken away from me and by the freak too.' He began to scold himself for not being able to save her, protect her. He really did wish he was a normal teenager. 'Maybe if I didn't take this stupid job I wouldn't have gotten her into this mess. But then again,' as if his mind had a mind of its own, it began to argue back. 'I wouldn't have met her.' He grimaced at the thought of not meeting her. She had changed him, more than he would ever know.

"Sakura on your mind I see." Tsunade finally spoke up, seeing the young boy stare at the sakura petal that gracefully flew in through the open window.

It was more of a statement than a question to Sasuke. "Hn…" was all he said back. Again, while he said that, his gaze never left the petal. He couldn't quite get it but he couldn't get his mind off of her.

"Sasuke," Tsunade started. "You know, she does love you, I know that much." This caught Sasuke's attention. "I've never seen her that happy since Gaara was still alive." Sasuke interrupted here. "You're wrong, she still loves him." He gritted his teeth. "Did you see him? He's alive," he looked at her but there was no surprise.

"Okay so he's alive, but couldn't you see she was enjoying her life with you? I was there with her when she first answered Gaara and I do admit she couldn't have been happier at the time but," they stopped at a stop light. "When I saw her with you, I couldn't believe my eyes. She was happy again. You may not have seen her laugh or smile, but she always talked about you."

The light turned green but Tsunade didn't notice. "Just get it through your think head Uchiha, even if Gaara's back, do you think she would forget all the times she had with you? I doubt that. She's just going through a hard time," horns began to honk as cars lined up behind Tsunade's car.

She looked ahead at the open road before her but didn't move the car. "Love is like a seed Sasuke, fragile. It can be lost easily if not watched over. If not taken care of, the flower will wither. If rushed, all the patience and hard work would be for nothing." She then looked back at him. "But when the seed is given enough time, space, and care, it will blossom into the most beautiful flower of them all." He just looked at her, absorbing all that was told to him. 'She's right.'

With that, she stepped on the gas and the car sped down the open road.

Sakura was dragged down a long staircase until they made it to a huge underground room with a door at the far end. 'What's going on?' then she saw Orochimaru in the center of the room. The room was dim with nothing but candles to keep the place lit up. The candles were lined up all along the walls, flickering continuously. The space was really quite big. 'How the heck did they get a room like this under a castle?' she was snapped out of her thoughts when she noticed she was still being pulled around like a rag doll.

"Okay, you know what? Let go of me!" she wrenched her arm out of Gaara's grip and looked at the two. "First, who the hell are you? And second, why the hell am I here?" she looked at the door. "It's not like all three of us can pull that door open."

Orochimaru snickered. "Oh but my dear," his voice still as slimy as ever, "You are the only one who can open it." his evil eyes glared down at her. "You are the only one who can use the key, but sadly, I'll have to kill you afterwards." He laughed. "At least you're leaving the world in good hands." He puts his arms up as if saying he was the one she was leaving the world to.

"Key? What are you talking about? I think you've been left alone for way too long. You're starting to go crazy old man." She glared at him then at Gaara. "And what did you do to my boyfriend? He didn't do anything to you!" she clenched her fists.

"Oh really? Well it wasn't me that got him into this, it was you. Meeting him at all was a bad idea. Making anyone close to you was a bad idea. Your destiny is nothing but guarding the key to this door, nothing more."

He began to walk slowly towards her as Gaara just crossed his arms across his chest and stood in place. "You see, I've been trying to find this door all my life. When I did though, the stupid legend said that it couldn't be opened by a mere human. It had to be the Haruno who held the key." He was now standing next to Gaara. "Too bad you had to be the last Haruno."

"The last Haruno? I thought Tsunade--" then she just shut her mouth and said bitterly, "She's in this too isn't she? She knows about all of this and my life, I know she does." She just tried to suppress her anger. "I'm the only one who doesn't know anything about this," she stated. "It's always been like that. I knew it wouldn't change."

"Well now that you don't feel like part of the world," Orochimaru approached her once more. "Why don't you get this all over with?"

"I don't have the key so don't even try. I have never seen or heard of a key like that, so why would I have it." she stared up into Orochimaru's eyes bravely. "Oh, yeah about that," Orochimaru just glared back down at her. "I can take care of the key part."

Sakura felt something slice through her skin on the left side of her stomach. She screamed and bent over holding the spot where she was bleeding. She took a look at the spot and saw a deep cut about as long as her hand. "What-t was that?" she looked up at Orochimaru who was holding a dagger with a crystal clear handle. It glimmered in the candle light.

"This is the Haruno family heirloom," he twisted the knife around in his hand. "Your blood was all that was needed." All the while, Gaara just watched, unflinching.

"W-why couldn't you j-just take blood from my parents-s?" she could barely talk, she was loosing blood at a slow pace but the pain was unbearable. "Well, you were the only one that the knife would respond to," the knife in his hand began to glow a bright white colour. "See? Don't you think I've already tried with your parents?"

"No," she looked at him with horror. "Y-you killed them? But I thought it was a car crash," she just couldn't believe it. Her family had already felt the wrath of this snake freak? "It was a car crash only," he grinned. "Set up."

Sakura was now on her knees, sitting on her legs. She clutched a hand full of sand. "It's your fault why I had to move, it's your fault that my parents died, it's your fault that my life ended up like this!" she got up slowly, not looking up, letting the sand slide through her fingers.

A single tear drop fell onto the sand covered ground. "It's your fault that I don't know who to love anymore; that sand using murderer behind you or the liar that flares up like an out of control forest fire."

Then her wound began to close slowly, easily seen through the torn clothes, giving a loud hissing noise in the process.

OKAY chapter 8. How'd you guys like it? Schools starting tomorrow so updates may take a while but I WILL update don't worry about it. Oh and after this story I'm planning on writing a new one with KakashixOC. It was a request by HikariStar77 and I thank her because now I have a good idea for a new story. It's going to be pure romance though but it should be pretty good. But I don't know. This story, The Life of an Assassin, was just like, yeah I'll write it but I didn't have much inspiration so I thought it wouldn't be that good, but hey look at what happened! Hahah so I'll just follow along with what my hands do with a pencil on paper and what they do when typing.

REVIEWS PLEASE. Oh and thanks for everyone who gave reviews…yeah I know you guys know I don't own Naruto. I know you guys are smart enough so I don't really say it. heh. Oh and I don't do previews anymore ; cause I don't know what to put in the next chapter. Ever since like chapter 7 or something I've been improvising. So yeah that explains that.

- --writingzeaL