Sakura had fallen asleep listening to his heartbeat.

And she woke up to the thrumming of his hands, against her tempo as his fingers combed her hair.

Green eyes flashed open; her head was lying on the base of his lap and her beautiful pink hair was fanned out behind her, being admired by Sasuke's elegant lacy fingers. The man may have been one of the most masculine, handsome man across the Shinobi world but he still had hands that could have been mistaken for a princess, lithe and slender.

Sakura's eyes wandered over the hand that wasn't running through her locks, the one that stood listlessly in front of her face, resting on top of his knee. It was alabaster white, like the rest of him and undeniably beautiful looking, even with the tiny (though numerous) calluses on his finger joints. No doubt they had come from too many years of intense fighting.

Part of her never wanted to leave this moment, as much as her Inner Sakura told her she should.

He was a kidnapper. He was a rapist. He was psycho-

Give it up! Sakura shouted suddenly inside her mind.

Yes, he was all these things and it was so wrong for her to feel this way but she couldn't help it.

It'd been a year since she'd had any sort of relationship, of any kind, from anybody. No friends. No family. No love…

-except for what Sasuke was continually offering her.

That she'd always rejected.

AND SHOULD STILL REJECT!

Sakura scrunched her eyes shut. She was only human…and-

She wasn't a strong girl. People always thought she was but she was really quite weak on the inside.

-she just wanted the ache in her heart to go away.

Even if he had been the one to put it there.

"Sasuke…"

The man hadn't been expecting her to speak when she did; he'd already known that she was awake but had chosen not to acknowledge it, for the sheer reason that he wanted to stay like this with her for a little longer.

"Why me?" she asked him and it took all his willpower not to stiffen up with…unease.

She didn't have to clarify; he knew exactly what she was asking.

"Because…" he trailed off for a moment, thinking of the right words. Then finally intoning: "You and I-"

"…we were…-"

Sasuke cleared his throat, he had had enough; he shoved her off of him, not-so-gently and stood up from the bed. "Go take a bath, I've already taken one and you still smell like from when I came back earlier."

Oh yeah, he'd completely smothered her while he'd still been caked in battle grime and blood. Sakura had to bite back a scowl for him telling her to get clean when he was the reason she needed to in the first place.

He moved to stand in front of the window once again, folding his arms and standing on guard.

Who was he always weary of?

Tsunade?

Sai?

…Naruto?

Had the blond haired boy finally come back from his voyage across sea with Might Guy, Aoba and Yamato? They had taken him to train and do a secret S-rank mission together but wasn't supposed to be due back for another four years, at least, which was why Sakura hadn't placed him high on her potential-people-to-rescue-her-from-Sasuke list.

But now that she thought about it, next to Tsunade and the current Kages, Naruto probably was the only one that could confront Sasuke.

Naruto.

Truth be told she missed the boy. He'd been the closest she'd ever gotten to a boyfriend…and things may have prospered further if he hadn't been assigned away by the Hokage, leaving her alone at seventeen and the year right before her abduction.

She'd never known about his feelings until after he'd left, after a weary Sai (her usually silent teammate in Team 7) had grown weary of Naruto's idleness and decided that Sakura needed to know.

After all, Naruto had loved her since "their very first days as Genin underneath Kakashi-sensai." A statement that Sakura had reacted to with stunned wide eyes and initial skepticism. She…hadn't known how to make of it at the time, having only ever given her thoughts into her studies due to her parent's strict guidelines.

In the end, Naruto had sailed away and Sakura still hadn't been able to make up her mind.

Then Sasuke had appeared.

And her life had turned from happiness to inner turmoil.

What should she feel for this man? For Naruto?

Hatred.

Anger.

Bitterness.

Love.

Longing.

All of these feelings could be applied to either one of the men, really. The harsh feelings on Naruto because he'd abandoned her when she'd needed him the most…and Sasuke, well for being Sasuke.

And suddenly Sakura felt really angry at the dark haired man that currently stood with his back to her.

Take a shower. Say she loved him. Don't runaway. Be obedient. Order after order and yet the man refused to give her anything in return! Nothing she wanted he ever gave to her, unless he also got something in return and the sick unfair duality of their relationship was finally grating on Sakura.

Who was she kidding? How could she ever love a man this selfish.

Sasuke turned after Sakura's prolonged immobility at listening to his orders. He came to glare threateningly at her but found the same kind of look staring back at him, the first time in a long time.

"What are you doing?" he asked her strictly and Sakura only continued staring at him hard. Unbeknownst to him, her fists were clenching tight at her sides now.

"Wh-" He was interrupted when the pinkette suddenly lunged towards him with her fists.

She didn't care. She didn't care. She didn't care.

Whatever the consequences were, she had to teach this man that he couldn't get away with treating her like…like-

-nothing.

Sakura's fist aimed for his right cheek but Sasuke caught it easily and his hand tightened mercilessly against the closed appendage.

"AH!" Sakura screamed as her nails, still inside the fist, were forcibly stabbed into the flesh of her palm due to his constricting. Tears leaked into her eyes from the pain but she wasn't going to be stopped.

Her knee came up to try and jab him in the abdomen but Sasuke evaded it too by twisting her shockingly fast so that his front now pressed against her backside while her arm was twisted in a grotesque angle behind her.

Something popped in her shoulder, causing Sakura to scream in agony again.

Sasuke gritted his teeth; he never enjoyed hurting her. "Had enough yet?"

"NO!" Sakura cried before moving to bite the hand locked presently on her shoulder (to leverage her arm behind her while the other hand still held onto her fist). Sasuke felt the immense pain from her bite but he endured in his scream, as he threw her onto the soft padding of the mattress again.

Sakura fell in a pitiful heap of messy pink hair and raking sobs.

She was so weak, it was pathetic.

Sakura tried to move into a fetal position but she found herself completely unable to move her left arm. It must have been sprained, if not utterly dislocated. Sakura's crying only became deeper at this acknowledgement; now she was truly defenseless against him.

Not that she could really protect herself to begin with.

Sasuke tsked at her weeping sight; she'd brought all this upon herself.

And yet, he couldn't help the flood of guilt that rushed through his core right then, directed solely towards the frail pink girl that lied broken, in almost every sense of the word, before him.

After a second, Sasuke sighed and moved towards the bed.

Sakura whimpered in fear when she heard the footsteps but could do nothing else when she felt his weight across the bed and then strong arms drawing her sitting up. He propped her up against the headboard of the bed and picked up her listless arm into one of his hands, causing her to wince in the process.

Without warning, he snapped the joint back in place.

"AGH!" Sakura cried, tears of pure pain marring her cheeks instead of ones from sadness.

As soon as she could move properly again, Sakura scampered to as far at the end of the mattress as she could manage from him, hugging her knees to herself.

Sasuke tsked again at her sight. She was acting so much like a stubborn child. "Don't take a bath right now, if you so wish. Just know that I'll expect you clean by the time I get back."

And with that Sasuke got off the bed and made to leave for the door to their suite, when something Sakura said caught his ears.

"Excuse me?" he turned to face her once again, anger completely gracing his elegant features, far more than it had a few moments ago.

"I SAID I'LL HAVE KILLED MYSELF BY THE TIME YOU GET BACK!" Sakura shouted at the top of her lungs. Sasuke grimaced; he'd been wondering if their minor brawl earlier would have drawn attention to anyone but now he was certain that it had.

They had to leave, fast.

The thought of her rebelling again during their vacation had occurred to him but Sasuke had counted on him having broken the fight out of her by now.

Apparently not.

Though, even if he hadn't counted on them having to hastily runaway, for the exact reason of her dissenting, he had still prepared for the worst: he had packed only disposable things or them.

After all, he hadn't been called a genius by being careless.

Sasuke's movements were so fast that Sakura's eyes couldn't follow them all. In an instant he'd hauled her up by the collar of her white robe, before picking her up into his arms. The pinkette swallowed in paralyzing fear at the fury inside his black irises.

That now didn't look so black anymore.

They were the deadest red. He was doing it again. Sakura always saw this on him before he cast some kind of jutsu on her. Both of his eyes would get a black pupil, red irides, and black sclerae.

She didn't know what they were.

Was this some kind of technique?

She didn't have time to think anymore as Sasuke suddenly vanished with her from within their suite. They teleported, in a manner of speaking, with chakra.

In an instant, Sakura found herself underneath the radiance of a full moon that hung large and ominously close looking behind her.

But that wasn't what caught her attention most right then. They were standing on water! Or rather Sasuke was as he held her. Absolute waves completely surrounded her on all sides without even a shred of land.

They were on the ocean.

She was suddenly faced with the imminent fear that if Sasuke dropped her right then, she would most likely drown without chakra to stand like he was right now upon its surface. Sakura could swim but was doubtful she could make it to any shoreline before her muscles gave way to parethesia and she was overtaken by the current.

Green met red in seeking confusion.

Sasuke was wearing his usual v-neck white shirt and rope binded pants (he must have gotten dressed while she was still asleep) while Sakura was still in the inn's issued white bathrobe. The way he held her, with one arm under her knees and the other supporting her shoulders, caused the majority of her weight to shift to her center. As a result, the white sash -and only thing keeping her robe close- was loosened significantly in every part except her waistline, where the knot was strongest.

A hefty amount of her legs and cleavage was revealed to Sasuke then but he for once didn't pay notice.

"You want to die? Fine." Was all he said before Sakura found herself falling, suddenly having water flood into every one of her orifices.

"Ah…bugh…agh!" Sakura's head bobbed up and down as she struggled, in her nervous fear, to gain buoyancy. Sasuke knelt on one knee, balancing still on the waves with chakra, to look down on her.

"What do you want, Sa-ku-ra? Tell me," he said conceitedly above her.

She. Hated. Him.

So much right then.

Sakura knew he wanted to hear her call out, for him to help her in that moment. So she would admit to needing him.

DREAM ON.

Sakura kicked the base of her legs, herself, causing the intuitive pain that came from a rough bruise and her legs stopped their reflexive kicking. Sakura's arms fell to her sides and she started falling-

-only to not fall?

Sakura's eyes burst open and she saw herself, standing in shallow water that just barely touched her calves. She looked around herself and found that not only was it not an ocean they were standing on but that it was a pond, in the center of a forested area. Deep evergreen trees surrounded the fifty feet diameter of the pool they were presently in the center of.

Her dark haired captor stood right before her.

As soon as she opened her mouth to speak, Sasuke pounced on her, knocking her straight into the shallow pond. The crystal clear lake was just as clean as it looked, there was no sedimentary earth that was unsettled upon her entry and the water felt cool against her skin, though she was more concerned with Sasuke's wandering hands than anything else.

They sought and groped her flesh while simultaneously shoving the now soppy heavy white robe into the water, leaving Sakura naked beneath him.

"Did you really think I was going to let you leave me, so easily?" Sasuke asked heavily, after separating their kiss to suck on her neckline.

The pinkette realized what had just happened to her: genjutsu. Sasuke had placed her under it as soon as they left the inn.

Not even to make her give in…just to torture her.

"St-stop!" Sakura pleaded while her hands tried desperately to keep him away. Sasuke let his deep v-neck shirt fall behind his shoulders to reveal his complete upper half as he bent down towards the pinkette again.

He kissed her with longing need and deep hunger that shook Sakura to the core.

The girl tried to squirm out of the lip lock but his strong palms came to lock her head in place again.

A knee came to stick in between her legs, forcing them apart-

"Why me?!" Sakura cried only after he broke apart their kiss to lick down her throat line; he hadn't thought it was possible but the clear water made her skin taste even sweeter than it normally did.

Deep sobs rose up in her chest but Sakura gave in by then, letting her arms fall to her sides. Why had she even bothered fighting? There was absolutely no point in doing anything against him.

"I'm so in love with you, I can't even stand it!"

"If you would only be with me…"

The memories flooded back to Sasuke right as he penetrated her, forcing her deeper into the floor of the pond. Sakura's scream resonated deep in the otherwise, empty forest canopy.

"I'm begging you…don't go!"

More and more that night, near the exit of Konoha, filled his mind.

And Sasuke didn't know why.

He growled in…frustration, anger…resentment? Right against her skin as he suckled her nipple, causing a throaty moan to part from Sakura's lips, who placed his painful force on his desires.

Water nearly covered her entire body on all sides and flooded more than halfway up the thickness of her body lying on her back. It was all she could do to prevent herself from drowning while being aroused by Sasuke's tender touches.

Her short hair was fanned out around her while a few stray strands clung uncomfortably to Sakura's face, though she didn't bother to swipe them away.

Soon, Sakura felt the familiar coiling inside her abdomen and she found herself aroused once again, against her will. She gasped in wanton desire when he started the initial slow rhythm, no longer trying to hide it. Sasuke knew what he was dong to her and he knew what she felt.

What was the point?

Soon, Sasuke was all but pounding into her and it was all Sakura could do not to scream his name in pleasure, as her hips reacted intuitively to meet his, again and again. As soon as she did this, Sasuke's thrusting intensified three fold as his pleasure grew near its peak.

Sakura felt his lips capture hers again, tongue seeking and ravishing.

"Sakura…" he whispered heavily against her cheek, once their kiss broke.

"If you have to go…"

"Ah!" she couldn't help the final cry of euphoria as he stayed tense and deep within her, right before he filled her to the core.

"…take me with you."

"…don't ever leave me."