AN: Sorry for the long wait. I know apologies can't save me at this point, but hey, ah well. I've been stuck with an English project that takes at least three months to complete, but now I am half way through it, and I have a break, so I am excited and a little relieved. Felt a stroke of inspiration, and here I am… again. I actually enjoyed writing this chapter despite the long time it took to write it, hope you all do too.

Chapter 13: Downfall

……

Darkness surrounded him. He had no idea where he was, or whom he was with. The only thing he could register was a shock and a sudden shot of pleasure that ran through his body. If this was heaven, it was far from what he'd pictured. It was still pleasant… right? He wanted to feel again… It had been so long…

……

"Leave them here." Sasuke instructed as he and Shikamaru arrived at the mansion and went promptly to Naruto's quarters. Shikamaru settled Hinata on the bed.

"Watch over him." He told her in a dangerously low tone. "He will wake soon." She nodded graciously and managed a smile. Shikamaru and Sasuke exited the room leaving Hinata alone with Naruto's unconscious body. She turned to the blonde and stared at him sorrowfully. 'I'm sorry…' She felt that it was all her fault. Her pale hand rested on his cold forehead, but she pulled back flinching, the skin on her hands crumbled. As thankful as she was for her power, the consequences were just too painful. She didn't know if she could take another healing.

Naruto's brow crinkled. He was beginning to wake. She quickly pulled her hand away and cast her gaze somewhere else. "Hi there." He said hoarsely and rubbed his head. "I must've fallen asleep while you guys were carrying me back." He let out a small cough. "I feel like shit." Hinata turned and smiled warmly at him, discretely hiding her hands beneath her thighs. "Ne… Hinata-chan, is… everything-you know… okay now?" He asked slowly, unsure of her answer.

"Y-yes." She replied quietly. An awkward silence settled between the two of them for a while. Naruto had no idea how to approach her on the subject. What would she think of him? Would he seem hypocritical to her? She knew he didn't like to kill and yet… at the cabin… Naruto fisted the sheets. As the scrunched beneath his fingers, the fabric ground against the skin on Hinata's hands, which her underneath her thighs.

She tried to suppress the small cry of pain, but a small, strangled whimper came out and caught Naruto's attention. "Is something wrong?" He asked her worriedly.

"No, n-not at all." She replied as normally as she could. Naruto raised an eyebrow and noticed her hidden hands. His curiosity perked, and he tugged at the sheets a little more. Again, her expression changed and a small cry escaped her lips.

"Hinata-chan let me see your hands." He looked straight at her. She met his gaze defiantly and shook her head. "Hinata-chan." He demanded again.

"I'm fine, Naruto-kun," she lied.

"Then why do you react so painfully when I tug on the sheets?" He said seriously. Hinata shrugged and gave an odd smile, which caused Naruto to blink a few times. His question had been answered. He noticed an odd speck of something falling from his face, and immediately, his hand traveled to his forehead. He did a quick swipe and noticed an odd crumble. 'Skin…?' He wanted to be disgusted, he really did, but noting Hinata's odd behavior and his new found discovery, Naruto now had to see what was wrong with her.

"Hinata-chan…" he mumbled lowly, thinking of a quick way to get her to talk. He had tried to read her thoughts, but only came out with small phrases like, 'I can't let him see…' It only made him want to find out more. 'What's the best way to shock a girl?' He thought up.

'I could… spank-no; she's sitting down…bite? Grab?' So far he was coming up with no luck, and her uncomfortable gaze was starting to make him feel uneasy, so he did the only think left that he could think of. "N-Naruto-kun?"

Her question was cut off. Naruto hooked his arms around her shoulders, and kissed her.

……

"Damn you Orochimaru! Let me GO!" Anko struggled against the chains holding her to the wall.

"Fool, you thought you could get away with this? What makes you think you hold enough power to stop me?" He grasped her chin with his thumb and index finger. "You're lucky I even spared you for your betrayal." His tongue flicked out at her. Anko gave a disgusted look at him.

"Bastard. You won't get away with this. If Kakashi-." Orochimaru slapped her hard across the face.

"Kakashi is not completely here right now is he? And it's all thanks to you..." He smirked.

"What have you done to him?" She seethed through clenched teeth and glanced over at her fallen silver-haired companion.

"Let's just say he's just a corpse at my disposal." Orochimaru gave a hearty laugh at Anko's face. "Now why the stricken look my dear? He's still here, somewhat." He grabbed Kakashi's face mockingly and wriggled it a few times. "See? The only difference is that I control his every move." Orochimaru snapped his fingers. Kakashi's zombie like corpse approached Anko. "Kakashi," The king commanded, "kill her."

The silver-haired man awoke and seemed to be nothing more than a dead corpse. His skin was twice as pale; it seemed to glow in the dark castle. Kakashi apparently had not fed for quite sometime. Anko glared at him. It was a mystery to her how he was still alive. Her eyes traveled across the room and landed on a blonde girl sitting in the corner. Her body was slumped, but she was still mumbling some incoherent words. 'Mind control?' She gasped. "Ino!"

Ino did not respond, instead she merely continued her odd chanting. "Orochimaru what have you done?!"

"So Ino's mind control broke, big deal. She's a little crazy." He laughed and walked over to the blonde. "I figured since she can't tell me where the mansion is, and Shikamaru has yet to show his face, I'd kill you now in the cruelest way I possibly can using this moron." He stroked Ino's cheek. "You're such a pest, Anko." He returned to his prisoner. "Kakashi, kill her. Now." Orochimaru said again. Kakashi didn't move, only his wooden steak remained at her chest.

Anko's eyes traveled from Kakashi to Orochimaru and back to Kakashi. The stake pressed onto her skin. She flinched slightly. A low growl escaped her lips as she called out, "Ino!" The blonde did not move. "Ino snap out of it!" She screamed at the top of her lungs. Orochimaru quickly clamped his hand over Anko's mouth.

"Shut the hell up." He commanded angrily. Anko glared bitterly at the psycho. She felt the stake press into her chest a little farther before it ripped away some of her pale flesh and scattered little amounts of blood onto the stone walls of the castle. A slow, breathless gasp escaped from her as she slumped against the chains holding her against the wall.

……

"Sakura?" Sasuke opened the door to their room. He called out her name but received no reply. His eyes narrowed and scanned the room for a good, long minute before he stepped out and sought his wife. He walked throughout the corridors of the mansion, down the dark hallway, up the staircase, and into the library where he would usually find her, but she apparently didn't want to be found. He began to grow frustrated. He'd been angry most of the time and needed a good comfortable lay, and she had yet to show up.

Sasuke crossed his arms and closed his eyes to at least hear where she was. His eyes snapped open; he immediately spun his heel and walked toward his dark gardens. And surely, there she was, at the middle of the sanctuary with her head down on the fountain rail. He felt his heart slacken a little, but he swallowed that feeling. He had no idea what she could be moping around about. They were reunited again, wasn't that what mattered?

He quietly advanced toward her, careful not to disturb her in anyway. However, as soon as he approached, her head snapped up, and to his surprise, a small, bloody tear fell down her cheek. His brows knitted. "Sakura," he said her name flatly and kneeled down to her level. His eyes sought hers out, trying to figure out what exactly was going on.

Sasuke felt anger boiling inside him. He wondered briefly who caused her such grief, to the point where she would cry tears of blood, his blood and hers together… His hand grasped her cheek and smeared the crimson tear away. She flinched and pulled from him. His eyes narrowed in suspicion. He reached out toward her again, but she scurried away from him with a fretful look in her eyes.

"What are you doing?" He questioned sharply, feeling that rare sense of hurt inside.

"Get away from me." She mumbled bitterly and cast her gaze away.

Sasuke glared at her and ignored her abrupt statement, knowing well that something happened when he was gone. 'I knew I shouldn't have left her alone…' "Sakura." He said again. She didn't turn to look at him. "What's wrong with you?" He approached her again.

"Don't touch me!" She yelled at him. Sasuke inwardly flinched. He felt anger and hurt.

"What's going on, Sakura?" He asked as calmly as he could.

"Just leave me alone." She muttered bitterly. Sasuke was beginning to think she'd been around Ino for too long. She had mood swings just like the blonde anyway. He grabbed her shoulders and forced her to look at him.

"Sakura, you will not shut me out. Don't start this right now. What's wrong with you?" He felt his anger rise. He didn't want her to distance herself from him, not when they were together again after so long… Sakura tried to pull out of his grip, but he grabbed her wrists and stopped her struggle. "Damn it, Look at me!" He yelled.

Sakura froze and cried sullenly. She wanted nothing more than to fall into his arms, but she would not allow herself to. She had to know, "Sasuke, after I died, and you went with Orochimaru," she swallowed, "you met Ino, didn't you?" He didn't respond right away.

"Ino. So this is what your upset about?" He brought his hand up to her cheek, his thoughts instantly settling on bringing the blonde as much pain as possible. "That stupid bitch, I knew I shouldn't have-."

"Stop it." She seethed, "Why do you talk so lowly of her, if the two of you have had such a 'brilliant' affair." Sakura's fists clenched. Sasuke stiffened.

"I-I what?" He managed to get out blandly.

"You heard me. You had an affair with her after you were taken by Orochimaru, didn't you?" Sakura accused. "I was still alive!" Sasuke glared at her.

"Just what are you trying to say, Sakura?"

"Why did you bring me back? Why didn't you come back? Why did you have to do this!? Was it to make her jealous?"

Sasuke almost gagged. "No."

"Are you trying to make my life miserable?!" Sakura's voice rose.

"No!" Sasuke yelled. "Why are you asking such stupid questions?!"

"Why did you even bother?! You should've just left me there with those people! I would've been better off!" Sakura pulled her wrists out of his hands and stood up.

"You were being abused, Sakura, you'd give up what we have to go back to that?!" He questioned her.

"And just what do we have?!" She asked back. "Nothing! This is all unreal and I'm not even alive! I feel dead inside, Sasuke, I hate it!" His arms wrapped around her waist despite her violent struggle.

"Just what has Ino been telling you?" He asked her suddenly. Her eyes met his in a piercing glare. She didn't respond. "Answer me, Sakura!" He demanded. She tried to get out of his grip, but he held her still. "I don't need this right now-."

"You bastard. Don't touch me, let me go." Sakura hissed.

"Not until you tell me." His grip tightened. Sakura let out a small cry. Sasuke sighed knowing that she would not tell him anything until he explained himself. "Look, it was a long time ago, and I- I couldn't go back so... I- it was one night, and she just-." He stuttered, unused to speaking so much.

"You had sex with her. How could you?!" Sakura pushed away from him.

"Why would that matter?!"

"We had a child Sasuke!" Sakura sank down to her knees and buried her face in her hands. "I didn't want to remember… I didn't want to remember that we lost our only baby, and you had to go flaunting around! Did you even care about me?! That we had lost our baby, that we even had a child?! Why didn't you just come back?! You knew it wouldn't have mattered to me what you were…"

Sasuke grew stiff with the sudden news. "W-we had a baby…?" He said unbelievingly. He took her into his arms. "This isn't even about Ino anymore is it…" Sakura sulked into his chest and gripped the fabric of his shirt. "I--I didn't know."

"So you didn't come back. You left me there, alone with our child. Tell me how was it fucking my best friend? Did she bring you more pleasure than I did?" Sakura mocked him. Sasuke pulled away from her.

"Sakura, stop it. It was never like that- I couldn't go back! I didn't know! If you would've told me I wouldn't have gone out that night." Sasuke retorted in a frustrated tone.

"Hn." She bit her lip and got up from the ground, but she dragged her eyes away from him. "I was going to tell you the night you left, but apparently, you didn't want to hear about anything I had to say. Regardless of the situation you were in, you didn't even attempt to come back to me, instead you went sleeping around, and with Ino of all people!" She took a deep breath, "All I had left was our baby, and it was the only part of you I had left. The night I was killed, I was raped and our baby was torn out of me!" Sasuke's eyes widened, and he took a slow step toward her. "Sakura…" His anger increased with each word that came out of her mouth, knowing that he wasn't there to stop it, or protect her, or to help her. His thoughts mingled with the possibilities of who might've done this to his wife and to his unborn child.

"Now that I find this," she continued, "I regret ever being happy, especially when my baby is dead…" Sakura turned to face him with solemn eyes. "You should've left me with my aunt and uncle. You should've just let her beat me to death because it sure as hell would've felt much better than what ever happiness this is." And she broke in to an exhausted frenzy of emotions and tears. Her legs wobbled beneath her. She felt herself growing tired.

Sasuke moved quickly and caught her before she hit the floor. Sakura cried tears of blood mingled with slight moisture as she clutched onto him, knowing that she could change nothing, knowing that she was helpless, and he was all she had left. He stroked her hair tenderly and pressed a delicate kiss to her temple.

'Sakura…' He wrapped his arms around his bride's petite waist, and pressed her closer to his body afraid that she might be torn from his grasp again.

……

Neji walked sorrowfully throughout the mansion trying to rid his guilty thoughts of Tenten. Her body still lay in his bedroom, stiff, dead, and pale, unlike her body stature when she came in with him, laughing. He closed his eyes. Her laughter still rang in his ears. His fists clenched. He needed a way to bring her back, and as luck would have it, as he walked past Naruto's room, he found the answer to all of his solutions… A sinister smirk made its way onto Neji's face.

……

"Ino?" Shikamaru called out. He wandered aimlessly around the mansion calling out her name, but received no reply. He knew Ino wandered in and out of the mansion all the time, so it didn't come as a big surprise to him. Still, he felt that troublesome feeling of disappointment because she had left so abruptly and without saying good-bye.

"Ino!" He called out again. Only the echo of her name gave him any reply. "Forget it…" he muttered and walked back to his room. Shikamaru didn't know what to do. 'Why the hell do I even bother?' He questioned himself angrily.

Shikamaru sat in silence in his quarters without thought, but his pointless task was interrupted by Sasuke and Sakura's presence. "Hey you two." They both stopped. He couldn't help but smirk a little. Never in all the years he had known Sasuke did he ever see the stoic vampire clutch onto anything so possessively. Knowing fully Sasuke's patience capacity was met for the night, he decided to make their conversation short and directly to the point.

"Has your wife seen Ino?" He had forgotten her name. Sakura smiled, feeling a little giddy at the fact that she was called Sasuke's wife. Sasuke cast his gaze down at her, questioning.

"No, I haven't." She replied meekly. Sakura had no real desire to speak of her friend. "Why, did she leave?" Shikamaru nodded his head. A sudden thought occurred to her. "I'm not surprised. She was acting strangely… she muttered something about Orochimaru and then-." Both the men's heads snapped up at the mention of the king's name.

"W-what did you just say?" Shikamaru asked disbelievingly. "Orochimaru?"

Sakura nodded. "Well, yes, and then she just-…" It didn't take much confirmation from her before Shikamaru bolted out of the room past the couple.

"Shit!" He cursed.

"Shikamaru…" Sasuke said, freezing him in his tracks. "Look, we don't know if he even did anything. You're being rash."

"Whenever something involves that old bat, nothing can be certain. If he contacted Ino again, you know what would happen." He replied. Sasuke nodded.

"You can't go alone though."

"I'll be fine." Shikamaru turned and smirked at him. Sasuke gave him a doubting look.

"I'll follow shortly." Sakura looked up at him nervously and clutched onto his shirt. He took her hand reassuringly and gaze Shikamaru a nod.

Shikamaru spun his heel and took his leave. 'What have you done, Orochimaru?'

……

The two of them broke apart breathlessly, staring at each other with unsaid words of knowledge, and an odd understanding of what had happened. He was abruptly brought back on task. Naruto quickly grabbed her hands in her dazed state.

Hinata flinched when his thumbs traveled over her palms. She let out a hiss and tried to pull from his grip, but Naruto did not let go. Now, he was upset. He knew exactly what happened, and he could feel himself becoming angrier with himself for every moment he thought about it. 'How could I've been so ignorant?'

Naruto couldn't look at her. Instead, he concentrated on her hands. "Why did you try to hide this?" She didn't answer him. "Hinata-chan." She pulled her hands out of his. He raised his eyebrow.

Hinata glared distastefully at the floor, knowing that she couldn't beat Naruto's azure gaze without crumbling. She was upset, more than anything, about the kiss she had unwillingly received, and even more, he had only given it to her see her disfigured hands. She knew Naruto wasn't that bright all the time, but this is as shallow as she'd even seen him. Naruto grabbed her wrist. "Let me go." She demanded in a frail voice.

"Look, I'm sorry-."

She turned around and glared at him. Naruto clamped his mouth shut. "You really shouldn't have done that." Hinata reprimanded him. His eyes held sorrow in them. She felt her insides churn. In the short time she had known him, as shallow as he was, and as little as he thought, she knew how much Naruto had helped her. He kept her alive, saved her from Neji, protected her and guided her. Hinata finally decided to meet his stare dead on. 'I enjoyed his kiss…' and that made Naruto smirk.

……

AN: Tender sasusaku moment I just had to write in as well as a naruhina. I believe Sasuke is a little OOC, but I tried to keep him in character as much as I possibly could. It turned out well I think, besides, the boy should be past the stoic stage just a little bit by now don't you think? Well, I'm getting closer to the climax… Squee!!