Sasuke glanced at her again, checking the progress of her healing. He hadn't said anything to her yet. He had spoken with his eyes to Madara, at first promising death and then looking away to tell him how little he and what he did mattered. He had hoped his disinterest would cause Madara to give up. He hadn't looked directly at Sakura from the moment Madara first began to cut her.
As he looked at her, she had finished healing the worst of her injuries and was leaning tiredly on the cool metal of her cell door. She looked back at him, and he had to turn away. She shouldn't have been there in the first place. She wasn't Madara's business; she shouldn't be tortured for whatever he did against Madara. But above all else, he shouldn't have cared that much.
"Did you talk to him?"
Sasuke was startled out of his inner rant by her voice.
Blinking, he said the first thing that came to his mind, "Who, Madara?"
Sakura rolled her eyes at him from her reclined position, arms crossed and voice thick with sarcasm, "Sure Sasuke, I'm asking if you've talked to your captor after being here while you spoke to him not even a few minutes ago."
She paused, sighing heavily, and dropping her head a moment before speaking again, the sarcastic tone gone, "I'm sorry Sasuke, that came out a little harsher than I meant."
When Sasuke said nothing, she proceeded, "I meant did you talk to Itachi?"
Sasuke visibly flinched at his brother's name, but still didn't answer her, choosing to glare at the floor in front of him instead.
"Sasuke, I saw you two, you were talking," Sakura began, trying to find the right words to encourage him, "I know how hard – "
Sasuke leapt to his feet, looking her directly in the eye for the first time since her presence had been revealed to him, his voice rising, "You don't know anything Sakura! You can't possibly understand. You've never been through anything like what I've – "
"I HAVE SASUKE," Sakura shouted with a snarl, glaring right back at him. She opened her mouth to berate him, but paused once more, clenching and unclenching her fists.
They both gradually backed down, never breaking eye contact. Sasuke incredulously wanted to hear her excuses, if for no other reason than to logically tear them to shreds. He challenged her with his eyes to keep going.
"I have lost people now too. I know, even if just a little, what that's like," Sakura trailed off and looked at the floor, tears pooling and threatening to spill over, "And then I've had to fight them on the battlefield, used by the enemy like puppets against their will."
Sasuke looked at her for a long time, studying the changes in her. She had bruises and cuts, some from the battleground and some from Madara's punishment. She was obviously a decent healer, seeing as how she had healed those wounds, and perhaps equally as impressive was how she received the new injuries without so much as flinching. Madara had even removed her gag so she could scream easier.
He didn't know who all she had lost. He could ask and try to point out how those relationships were nothing like losing your family.
But had she lost her parents? It was possible he supposed, they were former ninja that could have been called back to service for the war.
He did not want to bring it up in case she had lost them. It wouldn't help his argument.
He nearly voiced the thought of these loved ones being used by Kabuto to conquer the world was not nearly as cruel and wrong as Itachi's beloved village using him like their puppet to ensure their own comfort and peace. The only reason he hesitated was that he didn't know how much she knew about the massacre. If she didn't know, he did not think he could explain it all to her with a straight face in this situation.
"What happened Sakura? Since I passed out when you were trying to heal me," Sasuke tried to change the subject.
Sakura raised her eyebrows at him, indignant, "I successfully healed you, baka, not tried." Lowering her hands to her hips, she continued, "Just in case your stupid pride prevents you from comprehending: I apprenticed under the greatest medical ninja in the world, I worked myself to the bone to learn, and I was the one to pull you from the brink of death!"
Sasuke bristled at her verbal jabs, giving her a harsh glare. She smiled bitterly at him in response, "I'm not twelve anymore Sasuke; I've grown up. I've fought in this war since it started, and I don't have time to sugar coat things for you and I won't let you insult me."
Her smile began fading into a frown. She crossed her arms over her chest and leaned back on the bars, "I continued to heal you after you went unconscious. Then Madara showed up, looking ready to tear you a new one. I knew he was too high caliber for me, so I tried to retreat with you rather than fight him. Turns out he's fast even without his space/time jutsu. I wound up fighting him, or rather annoying him it felt like, and he somehow sucked both of us up in his jutsu, because the next thing I know, we're at this base."
She turned to him again, this time determined, "Sasuke, I got the gist of my being here as something to control you because we used to be teammates, right or wrong of him to assume, but listen to me, we are going to get out of here, so don't worry about me. I can take care of myself. I have a hare-brained idea, but if you'll cooperate with me, we might be able to pull this off."
"Do you even have a clue where we are Sakura? What's the point of escaping if we don't know where we're going," Sasuke glared at her again, but with patronizing contempt this time.
Sakura scowled at him, "Well that didn't seem to stop you from trying earlier – "
He glared at her with malice before she could finish, interrupting her, "I could've seriously injured him, and then it wouldn't have mattered, because he wouldn't be a threat."
Sakura then returned his glare back to him, "Listen," Sakura practically hissed. "You and your pride can take a hike, cause last time I checked you failed at your assassination attempt."
He glowered at her, trying to bully her into silence with his stare, but she started laughing suddenly, the unexpected action causing him to scowl instead. Had she lost her mind?
"Well," she continued chuckling, "at least you're a source of entertainment while I'm stuck here! I can't take you seriously when you look like you sucked on a lemon."
Sasuke turned away from her, his pride and ego bruised. He whipped his head back the moment her laughter stopped, the same moment that Madara used his space/time technique to appear in between their cells.
They glared at him as one. Madara raised a barely visible eyebrow at the two's antics but chose not to comment. He instead opened Sakura's door and entered her cell. She straitened her back but remained where she was.
Sasuke growled out, "What do you want with her?"
Madara ignored his question as he fisted his hand Sakura's hair and pulled taunt before she could react. She instinctively grabbed at his hand with hers, trying to get free, but he slammed her head into the metal bar and she was stunned momentarily.
He pulled her forward, "Come on little blossom, let's go visit little Sasuke next door." Madara spoke the words cheerfully, as if he was playing Tobi again. Sakura came back to her senses, glaring at him best she could as he pushed her towards Sasuke's cell, opening it with his free hand. He pushed her hard in the back, knocking her down beside Sasuke. As he turned to leave, his lone Sharingan eye stared menacingly at her, "Heal him, but do it quickly because I'll be back shortly for him." Madara then disappeared into a spiral with his jutsu after locking the cell door.
Sakura whispered, just in case Madara was still listening in on them, "Can you use your Sharingan?"
"Why," Sasuke asked. He was trying to conserve his chakra after all. He shouldn't waste the precious little he had.
Sakura sighed but gently tugged him down from his sitting position to settle him on the floor, "All I need is a 'yes' or a 'no'. If you can turn it on, I'll be quick."
Sasuke flashed the crimson to his eyes, and Sakura mouthed her plan to him as she mended the remainder of his wounds. He begrudgingly nodded his consent to her plan and closed his eyes as she finished. He found himself lulled by her warm, gentle healing chakra.
She removed her hands from his head and leaned back, drained not only by the healing, but also by the seals on the cell walls. "Sakura," Sasuke began but paused, looking away from her as he sat back up.
She gently laid her hand on his shoulder to let him know she was there. Despite her more abrasive exterior, she was just as head over heels for him as she had always been. She was here for him if he wanted her support.
"Sakura, you were right, I did talk to Itachi," he trailed off again, a sudden lump in his throat. He tried to shallow it away, but the lump maintained its tightening of his airway. It wasn't that he wanted to
"You don't have to tell me Sasuke," Sakura said sadly, still a little sorry for yelling at him earlier.
Sasuke looked into her understanding eyes, and he felt something in his heart soften, "He told me a little more about Madara, and it lined up with what Naruto said when I fought him. Itachi apologized to me. Apologized to me! I should be the one apologizing to him!"
Sasuke had to stop, feeling the sting of tears gathering. He turned away from Sakura, ashamed and upset. Her petite arms wrapped around his shoulders, and she pressed her small body against his own. "I know Sasuke," she did her best to comfort him, "I'm sorry you had to go through that." He gradually relaxed into her embrace as her presence reassured him; she had always had that effect on him.
He sighed before continuing, "Itachi told me some things about our parents, things I didn't know. And I told him how sorry I was for everything I did to him."
"Was there anything else did Sasuke," she asked after a moment of silence, not wanting to rush him, but knowing they needed to start getting ready to enact her plan.
Instead of answering, he twisted in her hold to face her, accidently brushing their lips together in the process. They froze and stared at each other for a long time. It had been a moment Sakura dreamed of for so long, and yet it happened on accident.
There was a lot of water under their bridge now, times that they tried to kill each other. She had to let him know, "I still love you, Sasuke."
Her feelings hadn't changed since they were thirteen. All that had happened over the years to drive them apart couldn't change them.
Sasuke was about to reply when Madara reappeared outside the cell.