5.
A/N: I've spoken to some of you about your thoughts, and for those that are confused: Sakura only agreed to marry Itachi because she's angry at the socio-political system of the world and also because she suspects Itachi had something to do with the death of his family. Why does Itachi want to take down the government? Well that's a mystery for now... ;) To make things even more complicated, Sakura believes that Itachi took advantage of her by getting her intoxicated.
For those of you disappointed/angry for how things turned out last chapter, if you've read 'Daylight'... you should know that 'Evermore' is and will be nothing like it. Evermore is based on songs from Taylor Swift's album with the same name and if you've heard the songs, you'll know to expect to get hurt. The intention of this fanfic is to break my readers and reduce you to tears, so I hope I accomplish that. I say that in the kindest way possible x
Beats pulse to the ear of a fractured heart, and with every fraction of a second, they fade away into the distance. It is a moment before Sakura realises that the beats are his footsteps as they remove himself from her once again. The sound of his footsteps is all she hears, the blurring sight of him is all she sees; so close, yet so far. For how long has she been praying for him, hoping he was okay? For how long has she wondered about if he would ever reach out to her?
How dare he walk away?
The sight of him receding from her lulls memories back from a past that was filled with light-hearted moments to lift the weight of all the troubles of the world:
A twelve year old Sakura returns to Konoha and joins Konoha Academy, and as she finds her seat as per the seating plan, she busies herself trying to scold the blonde-headed boy on her right to stop slobbering over her pink her.
"Touch me one more time and I swear I'll kick you in the nuts!" Sakura yells.
"Aw come on, Sakura-chan. You don't have to be so mean. I won't touch your hair again, I promise. But just one date?" the boy named Naruto whined.
"I don't even know you!" Sakura declared.
"Then come and get to know me-"
"Just leave her alone, you loser," came a calm and collected voice from her left. Sakura had been so absorbed into protecting herself from strange and grimy boys that she hadn't bothered to look to who was sitting on her left - or rather, she hadn't been given the off-chance to even check for the loudmouth who sat on her right.
The voice that she would hear in her dreams... the voice that she had been told she had imagined by her parents and all those therapists in Suna and Kiri... the gentle and soft voice of the boy she had been adamant that he existed fluttered into her right ear. Sakura turned around slowly, her long pink hair brushing against both boys slightly, and right before her eyes sat the boy she had been told to forget for, according to her parents, he wasn't real and she had imagined him to cope with bullying as a child.
"Sa-Sasuke-kun?" escaped the hopeful whisper out of her dainty mouth. Tears struck her eyes and a lump evolved into her throat. The hustling of the room became white noise to Sakura as she took in the teenage boy who sat with his hands crossed together under his chin, as if contemplating how best to cover up a homicide.
His eyes flickered towards her, eyes that seemed duller than she remembered. "Sakura, huh?" he simply said.
Emotions overtook her and before she could stop herself, Sakura lunged at him and pulled him into an embrace, her tears shedding onto his blue t-shirt.
"WHA- Sakura... Stop being annoying... People are watching," he grumbled as Naruto threw profanities directed at Sasuke for being the boy that 'always gets all the chicks'.
Sakura collected herself and apologised with a smile as she brushed her tears away. "I'm sorry, it's just that it's just been so long since we-"
"Hey jerk! Stop talking to her. Sakura was about to agree to go on a date with me, you ass!"
Sakura whipped around to face Naruto and was prepared to speak her mind when Sasuke cut in.
"Don't mind him, Sakura," his tone immediately relaxed her as he fought to gain control over both his long-lost friend and the only person he had since the world stole everything else dear to him. "Naruto's a friend. He's a loser, and is extremely loud and obnoxious but he means well. Ignore him as I do. He..."
Sakura frowned as a dark gaze befell Sasuke once more, halting him from speaking whatever he was about to say. Before she could probe him further, however, the commotion in the classroom was shut down by their homeroom teacher.
"I'm Mr Umino. Some of you may already know me as Iruka, but from here on out, there will be no first-name basis. This is the classroom we will meet in the morning for our registers and assemblies. Your English teacher is Mr Hatake, your PE teacher will be Mr Guy..."
Years that had been solidified into their hearts and minds, years of friendship together as three - with Naruto, who she later learnt had met Sasuke at the orphanage - was just crumbling away as the younger Uchiha brother left her stranded, with only her thoughts for comfort.
Naruto, as she'd always known him, had been a ray of sunshine always brightening up a room whenever he entered. But she had heard the rumours from Ino and Kiba and some other civilians, that before Sasuke had been admitted to the orphanage, Naruto struggled emotionally. The pain of being socially outcast; for some reason being scrutinised for the death of a previous Hokage for the mere criminal of having been near the site during his own birth; the pain of never being chosen for adoption - it had been all too much, until of course, the lone Uchiha survivor had been left at the orphanage.
The Uchiha who refused to be adopted, no matter how rich the potential parents were, no matter that Mr Shimura had asked him for himself. The Uchiha had turned them all down, and Sakura learnt from Naruto, that that had been the start to their friendship. She also learnt from Naruto the words Sasuke had swallowed before reciting on the day of their reunion:
"What's the deal with Sasuke? He's been so off. I don't ever remember seeing his eyes so sad, not even when his brother and father used to have their heated arguments. You've been friends with Sasuke for a while, right, Naruto? Would you know anything?" a twelve year old Sakura asked Naruto as they ate lunch together just outside Konoha Academy, waiting for Sasuke to arrive with his own lunch.
"Hmm," Naruto rubbed the back of his head as he squinted his eyes, lost in deep thought. "Well, I don't think it's my place to tell you this... but I met Sasuke in the orphanage."
Sakura's world had stopped at that last word. The revelation caused her to drop her spoon on the ground, and for a second she swore she forgot how to breathe. Suddenly, the slight coldness she had felt around Sasuke made sense. His lack of conversation. His dulled eyes - he was aching with grief so deep, there was no way she could bring him back to the boy she once knew.
"...and so, yeah. Me and Sasuke were never adopted. I was constantly playing pranks on him and everyone else around the village, and although Sasuke seemed like he resented me for it, deep down, even I could tell that he saw me as a brother. So now Mr Hiruzen, the Hokage, has us living together and gives us allowances with Mr Umino and Mr Hatake over-seeing our welfare," Naruto explained.
At the sight of Sasuke approaching them with a tray in hand, Naruto added quickly, "But don't let Sasuke know I told you all this just yet. Or he'll definitely kick my ass this time. It's best if you speak with him yourself."
"Of course..." Sakura had replied, still shaken by the revelation that the family that she had come to know as a child had been eradicated, with only two survivors left, one of them no where to be found, at that.
Sasuke... who even at the age of twelve still felt shackled to his own demons, had soon felt his burdens weigh a little lighter with both Naruto and Sakura there to help him sink out of his own darkness. She had helped him. She had told him she always would, for he had helped her once.
And here he was now, tarnishing what was once shiny and bright, by tearing it all away. But no matter how much life had changed them, had torn them apart, she would not give up on their friendship. She would not give up on him. Even now, he needed her. He did not know it, but she had a few more answers to his questions, and indeed, he needed her.
Sakura gathered her wits and ran towards her target, the blood coursing through her body wildly as her limbs moved in tandem. Running, running. But not fast enough. She could barely see him as she took a pause - allowed her breath to catch up to her. She flitted her head left to right, aimlessly searching for the man who refused to let her come too close. Why had he gone? As she looked to her right, she thought she spied wild dark hair and so she went onward towards him... and on and on and on... she could see his back in midst of a crowded street, and he didn't seem to have noticed that she was just mere inches behind him. Her hands drew forward, ready to grasp at his hand or his back when in a whirlwind, he had turned to face her and grabbed her wrist, causing her to almost topple over.
His grip on her wrist was firm, but not as firm as the glare that was being burrowed into her.
"Sasuke!" she gasped out. "What are you doing here? What has happened to you? Why did you walk away from me?"
He pulls her closer to him until she could feel his breath dancing atop of her skin.
"Why am I here? I could ask you the same thing," Sasuke grimaced. His words dripped out of his scowl like acid, leaking onto her, meant to sting and erode away at all her convictions. "You need to stop tracking me. You think I don't know about how you've been asking around for me? You know why I left. Go home, Sakura. There's no space for people like you in this world. Go back to where you belong."
He lets go, and he is about to turn away again when she grabs his wrist this time and forces him to hear her out.
"Stop walking away!" she demands. "You don't know a thing! You're right, there is no space for me in this world - but not for the reasons you think. I'm no longer that passive girl you once thought me to be. Too much has happened, Sasuke! And I don't belong in Konoha, or at least not yet with how things are..."
"So tell me, where is it you think you belong?" he interrogates, eyes digging into her soul, searching for answers.
"I... I haven't figured that out yet. But listen, about Itachi, I know that's why you left. To find him, and I need you to know-"
Her words are halted by the maddening rage beginning to fester in his dark eyes. The scowl imprinted on his face contorts into a snarl as his hand lands between her breasts and catches at the pendant that rests between.
He bends his head lower towards her so none of the passer-by's can notice that anything is amiss between the 'exotic young woman and her lover'.
"Where did you get this?" he rasps out to her in a menacing whisper. But before she can answer, the twinkle on her left hand that holds his right catches at his eye. It is evident that shock flickers through his face through the way his lips part and his eyes widen. "This... How do you..." His voice is almost childlike, as if he is lost in a sort of reverie. However, the moment only lasts for a second before he is back to grimacing at her as if a predator ready to devour its prey. "Sakura. What the fuck have you done?"
Gently, she brings her right hand to close around his hand that is still tightened around the pendant. A touch which she hopes brings him some sort of solace, before she brings the world crushing over him.
"Sasuke... You know I would never do anything to hurt you," she begins. "I need you to hear me out, without interruption. Can you do that?"
He nods. But he doesn't let her begin until after he says, "But not here. I don't trust this place."
So they walk side by side, feet stepping along cobblestones; shoulders brushing, a whisper of stories; shadows of their pasts merging.
She tells him about the socio-political dynamic of Konoha. The truth she learnt at eighteen - that her parents had been right all along: there was no space for a girl of her stature from such a lowly social class to even dream of rising to the top.
"...Those people that I asked about you, were also the same people I fucked over, with the illusion that I was befriending and helping them. Naruto and Ino understand my situation, and so I hope you can too," she begins with a disclaimer. But when he says nothing, she interprets it that he holds no judgement, or so she hopes, and that she is free to continue.
"You're right. I have been trying to track you as you're a dear friend to me and I wanted to know how you have been faring, but none of my researching has ever amounted to anything. So when I received a letter thinking it to be from you, I was confused and elated, but mostly confused. I didn't understand why you were reaching out to me, or what you thought of the woman I had become, but all I knew was that you needed me and I would do anything to help you."
She pauses when she hears Sasuke take in a sharp breath, but he stays true to his word and does not interrupt, and so she continues. "Obviously it wasn't you that wrote the letter to me. But I was so sure that it was because of the handwriting, every flick and stroke of the pen was yours I swear it was."
At this, Sasuke intervenes. "I never told you this, but as a child I had perfected my handwriting so that it could mimic Itachi's..." he admits. His voice is hollow and unyielding of emotion, but even she can tell that he has come to the realisation of where her narrative leads. A step. Two. The traders and customers around them bustle around but all she hears is the pregnant silence between them, bearing the truth that goes unspoken. She is unsure if she should continue as he has clearly delved deep into his own thoughts. However, the spell is broken when he says, "You found him, didn't you? Itachi."
Sakura reveals the truth with a slight nod before she speaks. "Yes," she confirms. "He was at the place we used to play when we were seven. He has a mansion there. I was expecting to find you, but it was your brother. He's the one who..." She holds up her left hand and allows the gleam of the ruby ring to speak for itself, before touching the pendant with the same hand. He sports a slight scowl, but for the most part, his face is unreadable as he gives her the time to explain.
"He said he wants me to be the matriarch. It's not what I want, Sasuke. You of all people would know that. I've never cared for love stories or romance, not really. And I certainly hold no romantic feelings for your brother, that's for sure. Ever since I found out about you losing your family... and once I got to know Naruto... Sasuke, you know my dream ever since then has been to become a doctor and open a mental health clinic for children, specifically for orphans, to help children like you and Naruto. That's always been my dream since I was twelve. But I can't do that in this system that we have where only the rich and powerful stay the rich and powerful, and everyone else can go fuck themselves. It's not fair. The system needs to change, and Itachi somehow knew this about me. He knew and he gave me certain terms. We marry and bring the government down together."
She notices the slight wince of Sasuke's face, but other than that, he remains impassive.
"But there's another reason I agreed to his terms..." she reveals. "Sasuke, your brother isn't the brother you remember, or at least the brother you think you knew. He..." She studies his face and wonders how to tell him that she has an inkling that his beloved older brother may have been the culprit behind the explosion that killed his entire family.
Sasuke stops his feet at the sudden stop in her words. His hands clamp onto her shoulders as he forces her to face him. His face is nothing short of seriousness as his watches her like a hawk with his piercing gaze, his head slightly tinted down to observe every muscle, every twitch, in her own feminine form.
"Sakura, tell me," he commands.
She gulps.
"Itachi, he..." The grip on her shoulders tightens as he beckons her to disclose what she knows, what she suspects. Her voice comes out as a startling whisper, as if not to frighten away a stray, vulnerable animal. "I believe he had something to do with what happened to your family."
Her suspicions have been spoken aloud, never to be taken back again. She suspects her words to grow to the magnitude of the distance between them, to erase their connected pasts, and leave them unchained for evermore. But instead, he says, "I think so too."
"What?" she blurts out.
One hand leaves her shoulder, and covers half of his face before he drops his hand again and looks at her steady.
"The last ten months that I've been trying to track Itachi... I've never found him. There's been times that I swear I've come close to finding him, but to no avail. It's like he's been leading me on, to find clues of our family's history... Things that never made sense- I'm slowly finding pieces unravelling before my very eyes, but now it's even more in a disarray than before... Nothing makes sense. But someone, a man named Orochimaru revealed himself to me. He said he could help me track Itachi down, and through him I also uncovered more Uchiha secrets that tell me something and nothing at once. But it was because of Orochimaru that I came to this place... Did you see the stone of that fountain I was near earlier? It has the same picture as your pendant," Sasuke informs her. His hand slips from her shoulder and lands between her breasts again, holding the named jewellery. "It's the Uchiha crest - my family's emblem. I've always wondered what it symbolised... and now I know a bit more."
A dark shadow passes over Sasuke's face as he reveals, "It is a fan to flames... The Uchiha have been responsible for multitudes of deaths over decades. Sakura, do you know what that means? My family has caused bloodshed too many times to count. I come from a tainted lineage."
Sakura is left stunned into silence. But it is not the myriad of his family secrets that silences her, no. It is the name of which he uttered: Orochimaru. Where had she heard that before?
The memory strikes her. "Sasuke! That man - Orochimaru! I don't think you should get too close to him. Itachi informed me that Orochimaru worked with Mr Shimura to murder and cover up Mr Sarutobi's death! He's a snake - or at least that's how Itachi described him," she tells him in a rush, trying to remember the bits and pieces that Itachi had disclosed to her in their 'meetings'.
Sasuke quirks a brow. "He's more of a snake than you know... But tell me, how much of what Itachi tells you do you believe?"
"I take everything he says with a pinch of salt," Sakura admits. "He's not to be trusted either. I've only stuck by him for the week because I wanted to get information out of him about your family for you, Sasuke. But now he wants to have this whole grand engagement party, and butlers and the like that I've never seen before are swarming the mansion trying to dress me up like some doll. I've had enough. I won't play the seductive fiance anymore-"
"Butlers? Sakura, were you followed?" Sasuke's eyes erratically glance around the crowded street, trying to affirm if anyone has been observing them for far too long.
"Huh? No, well at least I don't think so. Why do you say that?" she lets out in a rush, bemused.
Just at that moment a group of men on the other side of the street are heard looking for a certain Haruno Sakura, pink hair and green eyes. Women are heard saying they've seen the 'love-struck darling' looking for her beloved, and before Sakura could even react, she feels her wrist being encircled by a masculine hand and then tugged into an alleyway. Her back hits the hard wall of bricks and her front is trapped by the hardened chest of the man she once knew as her best friend. His chest pushes against her heart, and they can feel each other's heartbeats race. The adrenaline courses through them, and fear almost pricks at their hearts. However, the warmth of their bodies remind each other that they have a friend close to their heart, so close that they can hear it beat. Their faces are both pushed towards the side as their breaths almost mingle together. They watch for movement on the main street, listen to the call of her name and footsteps, hoping the commotion dies down. They are so entranced by what is happening around them that they do not realise their closeness, and how their bodies meld together so well. Their faces are distorted by the bright lights of the lanterns that hang from the windows of houses as twilight greets the sky, and the crowd simmers away. Both Sasuke and Sakura are still acutely aware of the street that lies before them, and together, if they were aware of each other's presence, they may have noticed that they have transgressed lifetimes watching as ninjas - samurais - cowboys - men in suits with radios were hunting her down, looking for her. But they are left unaware, and do not realise how their bodies naturally call out to each other, and cling for the other, finding solace and comfort - a remedy that cannot be found in all the lands over the world; found only in each other.
They do not know that they are magnets to each other, and that fate binds them time and time again through lifetimes, to be together evermore.
When the night falls around the town, clasping it within its dark hands, Sakura finally lets out a long breath.
She turns her face towards Sasuke and admits, "I can't go back. If I go back I'll only want to kill him." She has chosen to opt not to tell Sasuke of how his older brother has defiled her, ruined her, taking away the only innocence she had left. Already he has too much to bear with, and she will not allow herself to burden Sasuke with anymore.
But Sasuke refuses her wish to be let free, to be unshackled from the chains of torment she has found herself in.
"Listen to me Sakura! You have to stay. It's the only way," he pleads. "It's the only way to keep tabs on Itachi. He trusts you enough to disclose some truth to you. Continue to coax him if need be-"
"I can't, Sasuke," she tries to escape this damned fate of hers.
"You can. I believe in you, Sakura. It's the only way I'll be able to find peace. Isn't that what you want?"
She frowns up at him. He was never known to manipulate others emotions, but then again, neither was she. She bites the inside of her cheek before she agrees. "Fine. But only because it's you. But I'm not marrying that man. I know he's your brother, but I hate the way he looks at me like I'm something to be devoured."
"You won't have to," he promises. "We'll be done with him before then. And you won't be alone either. If the mansion will be as busy as you say, then it'll be no feat for me to meet you. I'll stay in touch. Take care, Sakura."
And with that he brushes a stray hair from her forehead and lightly taps her in the centre, before he leaves.
In the darkness, she swears she saw the same gentle smile that she remembers that could caress all her nightmares away. But she is unsure, and maybe it was just a trick of the moonlight.
A/N: Check out my Twitter thread to see which Evermore lyrics inspired different scenes of this chapter: RezuuRoar/status/1366023931363274755