Chapter 18

Ashy grey eyes bore into her. Sakura looks at Sasuke's face— pale skin, a well-defined jawline, and sophisticated eyebrows that drew together in frustration. He was so tragically beautiful. The hands that had protected her as a girl, now wrapped around the narrow of her neck. They always do. She's seen this vision a thousand times. Sakura can feel her trachea collapse.

Why doesn't she just give in already?

It seemed he'd been squeezing for centuries. Oxygen stopped circulating to her muscles long ago, which caused her hands to still. They could only dangle limply by her side as exhaustion overcame her. The sandman lulled her in with the promise of an eternal sleep. Nothing had ever been so enticing.

For the first few hours of her strangulation, Sakura had fought, as one would. No matter how hard she hit and kicked Sasuke, he simply wouldn't budge. Her words wouldn't reach him. Her fist couldn't harm. The man had become a hellish being that did not react.

His flint eyes never wavered. His face never changed.

Throughout all of this, Sakura feels a shine of dark humor twinkle in her gut. It was an incredibly poetic and tragic way to die—one that should be on the soap operas played for elderly women.

Oh, sweet soul that dies by an unrequited hand,

May the Gods have mercy on you!

Cast your pity upon thee!

Woe is she. Woe is she.

"Sakura,"

From the shadows of this place, a copy emerges. Sasuke bounds into the area haphazardly, keeping his narrowed gaze upon her. This one is angry, too. "Release him."

Release…him? How could she? It's not as though she didn't try. Sakura tried so hard, she did everything she could. Pleading, punching, the outcome was always the same. It was her destiny.

Ignoring the newcomer, she closes her eyes in acceptance.

"You're not weak. You aren't a coward," The other Sasuke says. "Let him go."

Another figure immerges. It's herself—a mimicry—standing with squared shoulders and crossed arms. An air of superiority wafts around them, as if they were combined forces fighting against a common cause.

Inner Sakura speaks. "He has no power here. You're the only one that can stop this."

Sasuke removes his hands from her neck and Sakura falls to the floor. The drop is dizzying. Before she has a chance to breathe or steady herself, the sound of one thousand birds twitter into existence.

How can I stop this? I have to nothing left in me.

Sasuke wasn't always so cruel. Sure, he'd been reserved and broken, but his heart showed true warmth. So many people had failed him in his life. But things were okay now, right? He'd completed his goals, Naruto had saved him. He was back home. Sasuke…poked her forehead and smiled—"Thank you,", "I'm sorry, for everything.", "Maybe next time."—he wouldn't hurt her again.

This Sasuke's not real. This Sasuke's not real. This Sasuke's not real.

…he feels real.

Sasuke had hurt her so much. He'd hurt a lot of people, all in the name of revenge and under the influence of hatred. He always said he was alone but he wasn't. Naruto, Kakashi, herself, they all would have helped him reach his goals.

"You're annoying."

"Don't you think you should be training?"

"You could never understand my pain."

Sasuke could hurt her. Sasuke has hurt her.

The electricity crackled, searing her skin as he stepped closer. Hot tears streamed down her face hopelessly. She is a tired soul, coming to terms with her broken heart. Love meant nothing to an unaccepting heart. Love didn't conquer all. Love was for the birds.

Inner Sakura's fingers grasp her shoulder so tightly that she has no other option but to look up and into the reflection. She's as angry as she's ever been. "Stop this pity right now!"

"It's not pity! It's honesty! I can't do this anymore!"

Sasuke watches the internal debate, unable to proceed any farther. The psychological struggle within the mind of the two-spirited woman caused the space around them to fracture. Light drizzled in from multiple directions. Something was breaking.

What would happen, if one dominated the other?

Sakura's real voice came out in a brittle and mournful cry. "I'm so tired. I'm never respected or acknowledged unless I prove myself—I constantly have to prove myself. I hate how far away my dreams are. I hate that, because I have never personally experienced the pain of others, I won't ever be taken seriously."

"I know—."

"I just want to help. I want to do right by others. I want to heal."

Just then, a burning, wet liquid coats the top of Sakura's chest and neck. Fearfully opening her eyes, she sees Sasuke's blackened hand as it penetrates though Inner Sakura.

It smells of blood.

Sasuke heaves sideways and rips his arm through Inner Sakura's ribcage. The entity drops to the floor in a crumbled, destroyed mess, staring blankly with frozen eyes. It's as though apart of her has died. Inner Sakura was everything that Sakura wished she could say and do. She was powerful, strong and unapologetically brave.

She is gone.

What does this mean?

Baring his cold eyes into the next victim, Sasuke raises his hand once more, showing no ounce of regret or hesitation. "You're next."

But nothing happens.

"I've got you," someone says, squeezing her tightly.

His voice is husky and undertone, only loud enough to spiral into the shell of her ear. She blinks slowly, relishing the safety of their grip around her body. At that moment, everything around them changes. The pure whiteness of this space does not turn dark and dreary, but instead, it bleeds into purples, pinks, and hints of blue.

Stars speckle around, twinkling like glitter in a galaxy.

"Sasuke," Sakura says, looking at both the bandaged and unbandage arms that encircle her. "You're here?"

"I'm here." Sasuke replies as he burrows his nose against the back of her head. "I'm sorry it took so long."

Turning around slowly, still in his grasp, Sakura slips her arms around his shoulders and presses their noses together. Brushing away his forelocks and tangling her fingers within them, Sakura exposes those unequal eyes, just to be sure.

The blackness of Itachi's eye and the deep lavender of the rinnegan stare right back. They share the same air, only inches away from one another. "Was I hard to find?"

Sasuke raises his hand to her face and runs his thumb over the drops leaking from her eyes. His other remains firmly on the small of her back. "Not hard. You were just far away."

Without warning, another body presses into his back and digs its face into his spine. Sakura feels the entity beyond Sasuke. When she touches the monotone figure, their bodies begin to merge.

"We're not going to be separated anymore," Inner Sakura says. "You don't need to suppress your thoughts and actions."

Pressing her face into Sasuke's chest, Sakura speaks back. "What do I do if I become lost? I don't want to be alone."

Inside of her head, her own voice answers back. "You have friends that will find you, just like they found Sasuke."

Opening his eyes, Sasuke looks at his hands after escaping the genjutsu. Gentle pants fill the air, coming from Sakura who still lays supine. Her shoulders shake from the emotional roller coaster they've both just experienced.

Sasuke knew he should wake her, but it was quiet, and he was finally in control of his own thoughts and emotions. Wandering through Sakura's head was such a dangerous and unique experience. He knew so much more about her, now, like why her actions were either incredibly calculated or spontaneously suicidal.

Sasuke himself never found shelter or comfort in anything but redemption. Maybe as a boy, he'd sought his mother's embrace or Itachi's company. But there was nothing to steady him, in this life. Alcohol didn't affect him, thanks to Orochimaru's experimentation. Drugs lost their potency. Fucking was dull.

But in Sakura's head, syncing to her emotions, Sasuke found that he craved the weightlessness of it all. Yes, Sakura hurt. She also loved. Sasuke wanted to allow himself such peace…

…wanted to, but couldn't.

"Ah, Sasuke?"

Face contorting from unseen emotion, Sakura bats open her eyes and rubs them with the heel of her hand. Her cheeks are red and blushing, evidence that her memories of the genjutsu she'd been under had been retained. "How-how long were we out?"

"I'm not sure. It took me longer to find you than it did for you to break the illusion."

She covers her mouth with her hands as a yawn escapes. It's not the time to show she was tired, but she couldn't help it. Sakura hadn't been fully healed when she went into that battle. Her thigh was still wrapped in gauze, though it's disheveled from the battle with the android. The tips of her fingers are blue from unconsciousness. Her legs feel static-y. Her heart won't stop pounding.

Sasuke takes in her weary condition and looks up to the void sky, planning their next movements. "We need to rest."

Sakura nods and struggles to stand upright. It would be impossible to rest here, after all. The threat of ambush was ever looming, especially since the robot hadn't technically been defeated yet. Still, rest meant separation. That made Sakura anxious. Would she fall for a trap like this again?

"I don't think I can trust myself to sleep alone."

Sasuke responds too quickly. "Do you want to sleep with me?"

He knows it's the wrong phrase of words before the sentence even finishes. It happened so fast—he's so exhausted. An awkward silence settles between them, and it's the last thing they need to be worried about right now. Who knows how long is left until sunrise?

Sasuke rubs his face and opens his mouth to speak, but Sakura interjects. "I think, if we stay in the same room together, we can take shifts resting. Our enemy would have a hard time if it ambushed us."

They don't even have to move. Data forms around them, constructing four walls and a entrance once more. Sasuke isn't suspicious of the lodging, per se, but its sudden appearance proved that they really were being watched. That didn't sit right. How much, exactly, had the others seen? What was going to be shown to the public?

Opening the door first, Sakura unsurely peers inside. The layout was a bit different from the room she'd stayed in earlier. There were two beds, full-sized, along with a large dining table. Hot food sat atop a bamboo steam rack, beckoning to her.

"There are buns inside," She whispered to Sasuke. "Is this a trap?"

Sasuke steps past her, scanning the room for rabbit creatures or enimies or flying arrows. It's silent, but not ominous. "Clean your wound, and eat. I'll take first watch."

Sakura thought that, maybe she should have rebutted. Yes, perhaps Sasuke had gotten more rest than she had, but his doujutsu ate away at chakra like crazy. I'm sorry it took so long. He'd said. He must have had a hard time navigating through her head.

What exactly did he see?

Making her way to the bathroom dutifully, Sakura's hands work from muscle memory. Preparing for rest and dressing injuries didn't draw much mental stimulation from her. It was almost like putting a puzzle together—strangely relaxing. Cupping her hands, Sakura captures the water that flows from the faucet and washes her face in the mirror.

Oh, that mirror, that mirror that did not discriminate or lie. It showed back a view that Sakura did not always want to see. Unkempt hair, swollen lips (she'd undoubtedly been gnawing on them) eyelashes tangled from sweat— her exhaustion was beyond evident. Using her fingers to comb through her braid, Sakura disrobed and headed for the shower.

Sasuke watches Sakura exit in a plume of steam. One foot in front of the other, the woman wades to the bed lethargically, as though she's already asleep. He doesn't bother offering her food. Realistically, they'd only eaten hours before, and she doesn't seem too interested in it anyways.

Sakura kicked away the blanket until it gathered at her feet, and fell down upon the crisp sheets. Like a bird building its nest, the woman lifts, folds, and kneads until the pile becomes sleepable.

The second her head dips down, she's already out.

How can she sleep like that, next to someone like me?

There they were, those thoughts again. Not giving him even a moment to rest, Sasuke's head tumbled as watched his partner sleep.

This genjutsu had shown him many things. It was obvious that Sakura was haunted by his past as much as he was. Not just that—his current self also bothered her deeply as well. Sasuke was unkind, murderous, and didn't think highly of her skills at all.

At least, the Sasuke in her consciousness did.

Life had given him a second chance. Hurting Sakura, in any way, was never something that he wanted. The Uchiha realizes that he'd been going about this the wrong way—Sakura loved him and he couldn't change her mind. He could change his actions towards her, however..

Shaking his head from the endless path his thoughts headed down, he searched for a clock. The walls were bare. Sasuke was always a no-nonsense sort of person who found no use in decorations. Even still, he at least owned a clock. Hadn't the other room had one?

"Time is different here." CYLAN says, with no prompting. It seemed to listen to everything—private and otherwise.

"How can I tell how long we should rest, then?"

"Rest until you're prompted otherwise."

Sakura needed sleep. Beyond physical exhaustion, her mental state by now must be wearing thin. Between CYLAN's direct route to their thoughts and the genjutsu she fell under, plus being injured from their previous battle, it was amazing she'd made it this far.

Stamina was something Orochimaru had hammered into every nerve ending of Sasuke's network. Endurance, in all aspects, came naturally to him at this point. Naruto also had no problems going long hours with no breaks. Looking at Sakura, he could tell she didn't have it quite as easy as her teammates did. Her delicate structure sent him back to a forgotten memory that seemed hidden in the recesses of his mind.

When he was a child, Itachi had brought a kitten home. A heavy rain had befallen Konoha, and he'd heard mewling just beyond a street gutter. The white ball barely fit in the palm of his brother's hand, too timid and tiny to fend for itself.

Fugaku had turned it out, stating that nature did not negotiate. If it was destined to drown, then such was life. Itachi was obedient, unlike Sasuke. As soon as his brother abandoned the cat by their muddy porch, the rebellious boy swooped in and stuffed the kit in his pocket.

For two weeks, in the wee hours of morning, Sasuke would milk his aunt's goat and let that kitten drink from his pinky. As time passed on, the runt became strong and it was ready to face the world with a good foundation. The cat had relied on him. It would nuzzle into his heat, safe in his presence.

He stood and walked to the bathroom, needing a small escape. He eyed the mess of self-adherent bandages and antiseptic spray thrown on the counter messily. Leaving the door open, just in case another surprise was imminent, Sasuke decided to clean.

With ritual movements, he rolled the tape in on itself and wiped the counter down. Capping the disinfectant and throwing away the empty wrappers, he re-traced Sakura's footfalls, looking for any other things he could tidy. A shoe here, a stray bandage there…she'd somehow fallen asleep with her right boot on.

Before he knew it, he was standing by the bed, reaching for her foot before he could stop himself.

Sakura, who was half-covered, had her upper torso tangled in the duvet. She might have been suffocating for all he knew. With steady fingers, he works on her laces and yanks the blanket back, repositioning it properly over her sprawled out body. She was a kitten, perhaps. Maybe he needed to take care of her…just until she was ready—until she had a foundation of her own.

Do I push her away? Do I coddle her?

Sitting in the floor, he curled his legs underneath him lotus-style. Meditation would keep him from sleeping, and leave his body active enough to thwart any ambushes. Sasuke needed to clear his mind and make sense of the experiences he'd gone through since returning to Konoha. Besides, if he kept listening to her breathing, and relating her to soft pets, he'd have half a mind to lay down with her.

Sasuke had never had the urge to sleep with a woman in the least sexual sense of the word.

Slowly sighing, the coils of tension unraveled, and stress that plagued him flittered into nonexistence.

It felt as if Sakura's head cracked in two. The headache throbbed relentlessly, ebbing from the back of her skull. With the pain too prevalent to rest, the woman awoke and examined her unfamiliar environment.

She was cold, dressed only in a thick pair of tear-resistant shorts and a long sleeve shirt with "08" on each shoulder. She held her forehead in her hand, letting pink bangs knot in her pale fingers. She wiped the dampness that had gathered overnight.

"Let's head out."

Sakura whipped her head around and saw Sasuke standing behind the table, holding a shower-rod in his hand. Realization almost sent a groan past her lips. It was still just the second day of the Jōnin Exams, part 2. Her body ached from trauma and soreness.

Rubbing the sleep from her eyes, she lifted her gaze back towards her partner and hoped she looked better than she felt.

"What's that?" She asks, gesturing to the pole. Her feet were always the first to get up. Sakura swung her slender legs to the side of the bed and let her toe tap around until she felt the smooth floor beneath.

"I've seen Naruto wake you up before."

Sakura felt a genuine laugh bubble out of her mouth, and before she could catch it, the chuckle resonated around the room. Shaking her head and pulling the hem of her shorts down a bit more, she cleared her throat. "That's probably a good way to do it. I don't like being startled…"

Sasuke threw the dowel onto the ground and wiped his eyes, sending blood back into the slightly purpled skin. He didn't act tired in the least, but Sakura knew how coy the Uchiha could be. Your body doesn't lie. "Don't you need to rest?"

Before he could speak, the walls disintegrated. Wind whipped around as though a storm was imminent, and the groan of metal on metal forced both ninja to double back just as the cabled arm of GA1 slammed into their previous position.

"Are you kidding me? I just woke up!" She yelled.

Sasuke leapt onto the robots limb without hesitation and activated his kekkei-genkai, ready to end this battle swiftly. The glass panel that exposed the androids camera suddenly hid into its body, successfully hindering the blazing red sharingan.

Sasuke cursed, making his way to the freshly immersed depression at the top of GA's body. He held on as the machine bounced and dipped in an effort to remove him, trying to wedge anything larger than his fingernail into the crevice without avail.

GA would not attack itself, unlike its predecessor. It seemed as though they were evolving, actively processing information that could deter Sakura and himself. The longer the fight lasted, the more they knew.

It was a dangerous dance.

Sakura watched as the agile Sasuke back flipped away from each fatal slam. His eyebrows knitted together in annoyance. Catching view of her figure across the way he flickers towards her, sapping his chakra within his core.

"Open it up," he says, gesturing towards his adversary. "You're stronger than I am."

Nodding, the woman cracks her knuckles. She stands a little taller. "It has to open its visual porthole to fend me off. I can't use taijutsu or ninjutsu against it, though."

"When it opens up, I'll catch it. I can use my body-flicker to move you out of the way if you're compromised." I'll make sure you don't get hurt again.

Letting Sasuke take her arm and swing her around, Sakura propelled towards the incredibly powerful droid as nothing more than a decoy. With Sasuke in the vicinity, it was less likely to open its eye. Still, Sakura kept a weary lookout, not wanting to enter its genjutsu again.

With all those appendages flailing around, dodging was near impossible. Each one aimed for a different part of Sakura—her foot, her arm, and even her stomach. The rolling wheels backed away as she progressed.

"Destroy the wheels first," Sasuke tells her as he covers her back. "Keep it from fleeing."

As soon as the words leave his mouth, six arms barreled towards him. He was more of a threat, after all. Its multidirectional camera peeked out only a sliver, but it was just enough for Sakura to take notice.

"It's opening again." She called as Sasuke magnetized the bottom of his feet with chakra. He ran up the length of an arm, sharingan spinning, only for a pincer-like claw to capture and throw him. Flying through the air, he prepared to roll upon impact.

It seemed it really was trying to separate them. If Sasuke had too much distance away from Sakura, GA would try to force her back into the never-ending repeat of his hands around her throat, or kill her.

Neither were good options.

"CYLAN, open a direct route." The kunoichi commanded as she watched Sasuke hit the ground. She kept her eyes closed tight, listing to the robot as it neared.

Hearing Cylan's question, Sasuke allowed their minds to interchange and sent Sakura a question. "What's the plan?"

"Keep it busy. If I can take off some of the arms, it won't have anything to throw at us."

Accepting her expertise, Sasuke rises from the ground and rubs his sore rib. Keeping his kekkei-genkai activated the man forces his way to the frontlines, ready to juke and duck.

Each wave and hit looked delayed with his eyes. With a professional leap, Sasuke bent his body through a looped tentacle just as another arm followed. The machine twisted in its own wires, leaving only four of the six branches mobile. That should help Sakura at least a bit.

Said woman was climbing. Her hands were sweating and slick when they tried to curl around jutting protrusions on the object. She isn't aiming for any of the limbs, however, and this causes Sasuke to question her actions. What is she up to?

Change of plans. She transfers to Sasuke, working herself upright. Be ready.

The camera had almost sunk down completely, leaving only a small ledge that only her pinky could wedge between. If Sakura could wrestle it open, they might be able to use Sasuke's eyes to end the battle.

She narrowed her chakra into the single digit, using as much strength as she could muster to hoist the opening from its body. It groaned in retaliation, shaking as it fended off Sasuke and reached for the top of its head simultaneously.

The hatch lifted just enough for her ring and index finger to slip underneath, and with one final tug, the entire portal erupted upwards. Sasuke caught the object in his genjutsu almost immediately.

While GA was immobile under Sasuke's prowess, Sakura worked on removing each arm, driving chakra to the thick muscles of her thighs as she heaved. One by one, all six cords detached and fell to the ground with a screech. It wasn't as gruesome of a job as dismembering a human, but Sakura still felt practiced.