Quickly, after seeing a multitude of her memories from before her death, Sakura began to understand the life of Sasuke Uchiha.
His clan had been destroyed, specifically by his brother, in allegedly a quest to become stronger. This caused Sasuke to grow up cold and alone, fixated on vengeance more than anything else. This quest for power eventually made him defect from Konoha and Team Seven to join Otogakure, which had been the scene she'd seen earlier.
Two and a half years passed and Sakura soon saw her grown up self, still slightly younger than her present state, standing alongside a similarly old Naruto. After searching for all that time, Sasuke finally appeared before them once again.
He was stronger than both herself and Naruto combined.
Actually, Sakura found that she was weaker in her "real" memories than her "fake" memories had lead her to believe. She'd seen so many incidents of her own weakness causing someone else to have to come to her aid. Was she really this much weaker than everyone else?
And Sasuke he...still didn't care about her.
After he finally killed his brother, the boy realized his dire mistake in killing the man. He vowed revenge on Konoha for making his brother miserable and blamed the Leaf for causing his clan to want to rebel.
Sakura saw EVERYTHING.
She finally understood everything about Sasuke and his past.
And her past, with the psychotic man...before he turned into a rapist. Actually, feminine appeal had hardly seemed to appeal to him in the past. Sakura had seen that she wasn't the only one to admire the stoic beautiful man...but really any girl that placed eyes on him.
And he had ignored them all.
Even herself.
So what had changed?
Unfortunately, that was still a question Sakura didn't know the answer to, because every memory she'd seen of her life before death, had been up to right before the end of the war, when Ten Tails had been summoned by the real Madara Uchiha and Tobi Uchiha.
She'd even seen other reanimated Shinobi during the war, fighting for Kabuto that had resurrected them. But they really didn't look like her. They had patched chakra sheets on their "skin" that made them look like the way they were before their deaths...but not really. Everyone's eyes were always dark shallow marbles and even their movements, obedient and droned, had made them seem like zombies.
But Sakura had none of that. She looked just like the way she did in the most recent memory she'd seen of herself: right as Sasuke rejoined their team, remaking Team Seven again after four and a half years of being apart.
But then that's where the memories ended.
Sakura never saw anything after that time, even if this was the time she most wanted to know about.
At first it was hard for her to keep her mind straight with the memories of her "fake" past and "real" past but Sakura eventually got them right by just thinking of the latter memories like a story. She knew they were her real experiences but for now, she didn't feel anything for them. Mainly because she hadn't lived through them. They hadn't even appeared to her like a flashback -allowing her to live through it again, but rather like a movie, surrounding the white space with their events.
Perhaps it was because she still hadn't gotten back all her memories from before. Maybe if she finally learned about the last few months of her life, Sakura's mind would clear itself and she'd be left with just the real memories.
The first thing Sakura felt was warmth. Deep, soft and comforting warmth that encapsulated her on all sides, making her feel safe and...relaxed.
A smile graced her lips as she opened her eyes.
The first thing Sakura laid eyes on was that familiar metal ceiling. She was inside the cage again. Sakura moved to sit up but realized that two strong arms were currently holding onto her waist, hugging her into a warm chest. She had a good idea of who it would be, even before turning to see.
Sasuke slept on her side with his arms wrapped around her body and his face in the crook of her neck. His warm breath blew against her white skin and Sakura realized that he'd been the warmth she'd felt.
Sakura knew this was her chance.
Her one chance...she had to think of a plan to deal with Sasuke before he woke up.
She knew she had to lie to him...but how?
Which way was the best? Literally there were dozens of scenarios flying through her mind, all seeming very plausible…but in the end only one seemed practical.
She had to pretend to be the old Sakura.
She had to pretend that she was her old self, so that Sasuke would think she loved him once again.
She may have had her old memories back but Sakura didn't have her old feelings. Not in the infatuation at least. She didn't love him...but for right now she had to pretend that she did.
So Sakura could gain his trust and get him to tell her more about how she originally died.
...but then again what about sex? What would she do if he wanted to consummate her confession?
Sakura bit her lip here, hesitating.
Oh god. What was she to do?
In that minute, Sasuke started stirring in his sleep.
Sakura quickly slipped back down next to him, closing her eyes, about two seconds before he opened his.
The pinkette felt movement next to her and a second later felt lips on her temple; he had kissed her forehead.
Sakura had to use all her willpower to suppress the...tension from growing within her at this action. Luckily, Sasuke didn't seem to notice this because he moved away and seemed to be getting up from bed.
A few seconds later, Sakura heard his footsteps leaving the room.
Waiting about three seconds, Sakura sat back up. He was indeed gone, and he'd left the door to her room open!
Sakura quickly withdrew the covers and saw that her ankle lock was also not present, most likely because he expected her to stay comatose for much longer than now.
Without hesitation, the kunoichi ripped out her IVs and hopped off the bed.
To her surprise, her muscles weren't even stiff from long disuse. Sasuke must have performed chakra therapy on her while she'd been asleep.
How...thoughtful of him.
Sakura stepped towards the open door but found herself hesitating right at the threshold. What would leaving do for her? Most likely she would run into Sasuke before she found the exit, and then he would probably get angry at her, deducing that she had been trying to run from him.
...no she had to avoid angering him, for now anyway.
Because she needed him to answer her questions.
So in the end Sakura decided to stand at the end of her bed, waiting with her arms hooked meekly in front of her, until Sasuke came back. She would face him head on…with the plan she had already formed.
And sure enough, within minutes, Sasuke came back to her room, carrying a metal tray of syringes and glucose IV bag.
But that entire tray dropped to the ground as soon as he laid eyes on her.
Sakura smiled. "Hello Sasuke."
"Sakura…" he spoke weakly. Sakura opened her mouth to say something but in that instant he ran up to embrace her. His grip was so tight, Sakura found it hard to breathe.
"Sa-Sa…" she rasped out while gingerly returning the hug. "S-Sasuke, I can't really-"
"Shh," he hushed her while keeping his arms tight around her body, though his grip did loosen slightly. "Just be quiet and let me hold you…"
Another order.
Another command.
He was always so demanding...but this time Sakura found a blush creep up into her cheeks at his blatant affectionate action. He may have been psychopath, he may have been a rapist...but he did care a lot about her. And Sakura couldn't help being moved slightly by his feelings.
Sasuke wanted to keep his feelings for her a secret but it was obvious in this moment he couldn't help himself. He just wanted to hold the woman he'd once again come so close to losing.
"Please Sasuke, I just want to get out of this room and stretch my legs. I swear I won't do anything!" Sakura pleaded after the boy refused to let her out of the ankle lock of the bed to eat, insisting on bringing her the food.
The boy's stare remained adamant, keeping his arms crossed the entire time as she maintained eye contact with him. Sakura managed to stand right up against the side of the bed (using the maximum amount of slack on the ankle chain) so that she could him at eye level. "Please Sasuke, I've been trapped in this bed for already three months...I want to practice walking again-"
"I performed chakra therapy on your muscles the entire time you were in a coma, you don't need to go anywhere," he stated matter-of-factly.
Sakura bit her lip. It's true she still didn't feel any sort of numbness in her limbs...but she wasn't giving up.
"Sasuke, it's not just to stretch my legs, I...I want to get some-" she bit her lip, stopping the word 'fresh' and continued with: "-air, just inside this building, wherever it is. I swear I'll stay by your side the entire time!"
Sakura felt awkward because she was standing at an extremely tight distance away from the bed, pulling the ankle restraint to it's maximum length. However, she kept this away from her expression and merely showed her weak desperation.
Sasuke seemed to just stare at her for a very long time. His eyes were steel cold as he contemplated...then in a second, he started walking away.
"No! NO!" Sakura screamed as she pleaded at the top of her voice, watching him go and once more leaving her to rot inside this metal cell.
No...not again. Sakura found the strength in her legs drained; she fell to her knees a second later and collapsed into the side of the bed. The crippled kunoichi cried into the coverlets of her bed while she felt all hope inside herself drain away.
However, in a few moments, she felt Sasuke's presence return, this time carrying the electric scan key he always used to...unlock her! And that's exactly what he did as he knelt down by her feet and trembling huddled form, scanning the electric screen of the ankle lock with the black key.
The lock opened and Sakura felt elation fill her heart. Before Sasuke knew what was going on, he felt her arms around his neck, hugging him tightly.
"Thank you, thank you, Sasuke," she cried again and again while kissing his cheek, almost having tears in her eyes.
So much of her actions was mixed with duplicity and genuine emotions that even Sakura couldn't really tell them apart from each other.
The Uchiha seemed...unsure of how to react to her affectionate gestures. Unused to and yet familiar with this type of scenario, all at once.
Finally, he cleared his throat and moved away from Sakura. He pulled her to her feet and firmly gripped her wrist behind him as he led the two of the out of the room.
This time Sakura made sure to remember the way the paths twisted and turned around her inside this shadowed hallway. By the end of it, she had the path they'd taken memorized but it didn't seem like it would do her any sort of good because the path just led to a kitchen.
The dusty white tiled floor was flashed with clean footprints when Sasuke turned on a light switch near the entrance. Sakura took in the sight of the place she'd never seen before in her entire time here: it was huge kitchen, at least the size of one suited for restaurant, if not, maybe a hotel then. There were seven stoves and ovens in total, a variety of electronic kitchen utensils including mixers, food processors, choppers, mandolins...so much more than Sakura could have ever imagined.
But most of them had a thick layer of dust on them, as if they hadn't been used in a very long time.
The whole area probably could have fed at least...a hundred, maybe twice that amount, if it ran at it's max.
This must be another sort of sanctuary for the Uchiha clan, hidden somewhere in the mountains or across a deep valley so that no one could ever find it. The kitchen was so large because it had probably been used to cook the food for some sort of Uchiha conference for all of their elite or something like that. The reason why these tools hadn't been used in a long time was because Sasuke was the only one left who knew of this place's existence (well besides Tobi -and god knew where that guy was).
At the thought of Tobi, Sakura immediately thought of Gaara but just as soon as it had arrived, she squashed the thoughts back down. Sakura knew she would get emotional quickly if she was thinking about the Kazekage which would blow her cover immediately before Sasuke.
No, she had to keep calm. She had to keep a level head. Like Sasuke always did. She had to beat him at his own game.
Sakura kept her head trained purposely demure and down to the ground as Sasuke made her something.
She tried thinking of ways to convince him she'd fallen for him...but then realized that Sasuke would grow suspicious if she simply threw herself at him without cause.
And she couldn't stop fearing him.
That would definitely draw his suspicions.
As such, when Sasuke brought the plate of food he'd prepared for her: a plate of cooked gyoza with soy sauce dipping, Sakura purposely twitched as he reached across to place the food in front of her.
Sasuke said nothing as he moved to sit adjacent to her.
Sakura wanted to take the opportunity to speak to him but truth be told she was hungry. And damn her questions could wait until after the food right?
The entire time she ate, Sakura felt Sasuke's prying eyes on her form, holding her in place with genuine discomfort and paralyzing unease.
But of course she said nothing about it.
Sakura's appetite had shrank with months of not eating so she quickly grew full, with more than two-thirds of the dumplings still left over.
Sasuke opened his mouth, probably to tell her to eat more but Sakura quickly chimed in: "Sasuke, I-I had a dream about you."
The man's eyes immediately widened but they recovered soon and regained his typical stoic expression as he asked coldly: "What about?"
Sakura knew she had him here. She purposely shook her head. "I don't remember all of it...I...think I was being attacked, by that masked man, by that bad guy..."
"What else?"
Sakura kept her gaze purposely trained on the ground. "Well….you came to save me, you defeated him and…"
Sasuke cleared his throat, obviously losing interest as he moved and gathered up her plate with the remaining food before heading to the sink.
Sakura quickly blurted out: "You told me you loved me."
Sasuke's grip on the plate slipped so hard it crashed onto the ground, smashing into tiny pieces intermixed with broken dumplings.
His reaction startled Sakura and the crash made her jump, alongside Sasuke's now prominent glare shooting towards her. He hated losing his resolve, and Sakura was always the cause of it!
Sakura gulped at his intense scowl. She quickly added: "I know it's not true, I'm not stupid enough to think y-you feel that way for me...I know I'm not good enough."
She purposely dropped her gaze to the ground here as she played on his ego, swallowing a nervous gulp just loud enough for Sasuke to hear. "I-I-I know it's not like that between you and me…"
Her head slowly raised itself to look at Sasuke again, whose expression was no longer angry but had once again gained that emotionless cold look, interest subtly piqued.
Sakura swallowed again, this time genuinely to calm her nerves. She sure hoped this worked.
"But I realized…from that dream, that I...I love you Sasuke!" Sakura shouted that final phrase standing about five feet from Sasuke. The dark haired man widened his eyes in shock at her sudden declaration and Sakura used his momentary lapse in defenses to her advantage. She ran up and immediately embraced him, head falling into the softness of his white shirt.
"I'm sorry it took me so long to realize this but please, please don't hate me!" Sakura was purposely using dialogue from the scene she'd seen from her younger self pleading for Sasuke not to leave Konoha. She hoped this would convince Sasuke that she was telling the truth, as she'd done so long ago. Sakura made her body tremble as she clutched onto his body, shaking with "emotion" and inner turmoil.
"I know it's sick, I know it's not right...but I just can't help myself," Sakura continued. "If you would only be with me, I'll make you happy, I swear I will, so please Sasuke..."
She spoke all of this into his white tunic while he'd stayed motionless, standing inside her hold without a word of rejection or acceptance…
Sakura began to doubt herself after just a few more seconds. Had it all been a dream? Had the white room not really existed? And all the memories she'd seen just been some hallucination brought on by her diminished health?
Had Sasuke not really confessed his feelings to her during her birthday? Did he really not hold feelings for her? But just as she thought that, Sakura felt arms reciprocating in hugging her.
His grip drew her in closer, tighter. Sakura felt his head fit into the crook of her neck, before his lips came right next to her ear: "Sakura…"
"Sasuke...I don't want to lie to you. Back in Konoha, Tsunade told me the truth…" Sakura knew she had to confess to this, because Sasuke had probably already deduced that they would have told her anyway, and if he saw her trying to conceal her knowledge…
The man's grip loosened as he wrenched her forward to bring her eyes back to locking on his. "What? What did she tell you?"
Sakura chewed her lower lip, using her real fear to her advantage. "Sh-she told me that I was...a reanimated. That I had...died."
Sasuke's eyes narrowed. "And?"
Sakura quickly shook her head. "And nothing else, I swear, she offered to tell me more but I declined because...because...I was really confused...and I didn't want to be more confused..."
Sakura looked up to flash wide innocent eyes at the man. "Sasuke...I won't...ask you right now, because I don't want you to think this is just some ploy of mine to get answers from you, but, sometime, in the future, could you clarify my life for me?"
"Could you tell me who I am?" Sakura asked, a second before Sasuke let go of her, not-so-gently.
Sakura stumbled backwards, landing to her surprise, perfectly back into her dinner chair. His eyes stared intensely into hers. She knew he was contemplating whether she was telling the truth or not.
She also knew Sasuke considered her dumber than she actually was, which always agitated her in the past but now Sakura was hoping this would come to her advantage.
Not too long later, Sasuke came back to her and jerked her up to her feet again with a furious grip on her upper arm. Sakura winced, genuinely, as she asked: "What's wrong?"
"Are you trying to use me, Sakura? Do you think that I'm some lovesick sycophant just willing to do anything for a confession?"
Sakura scrunched her eyebrows in distress as she shook her head. "Sasuke, you're hurting me!"
"ANSWER ME."
Sakura bit her lip; she knew that if she messed this up she would never get a second chance. She used all the strength within her to keep her voice even while she intoned: "Sasuke, I swear I'm telling the truth, I love you."
His grip on her arm only tightened further.
"What will it take to make you trust me?!" Sakura cried distressingly.
The man scoffed and flashed a smirk. "A lot more than what you'd be willing to endure for a lie, that's for sure."
Sakura pursed her lips; she couldn't get mad, she couldn't get mad. The pinkette knew this argument would eventually turn towards sex, that if she loved him she'd be willing to prove it. Luckily, Sakura had a trump card for this exact matter.
"Sasuke, I-I said it before...I don't want to lie to you anymore, about anything, so I'm going to tell you the truth...you scare me...how can you not? You kept me imprisoned for an entire year, y-you did things...to me, against my will and made me sad-"
"And yet you love me?" Sasuke scoffed. "How does that make any sense?"
Sakura chewed her lip again. "I-I don't know how to make sense of it either. But I just love you, alright? I can't explain how I feel...I just follow it."
The man fell silent here and Sakura knew she had him with this point. After all, he couldn't explain his own feelings for her either.
But just as she thought she was in the safe zone, his hand suddenly caught hers into his, holding it up in between them and squeezing it agonizingly tight until Sakura was wincing. "I swear, if you're lying-"
"What could I possibly gain by lying to you?"
Sasuke tsked, half smirking once again. "Quite a bit, Sakura, though I'm sure you already know this better than I do. You could be trying to deceive me, to lure me into a false sense of security so that I will take you out of this prison where you can then break away from me."
"But you crippled my chakra points, Sasuke. I can't run from you-"
"Exactly," Sasuke continued, now stepping to slowly circle around her. "So, instead of running away, you might have something deeper, more intricate planned."
Dammit, why did he have to be so intelligent?
She raised her hands to catch onto his upper arm, stopping him. "Sasuke…"
Sakura bit her lip, looking nervous...and actually being nervous. She had to play her cards perfectly.
"Sasuke, the truth is, I don't think I could leave, even if I wanted to."
The boy's eyes focused here, staring right into her eyes. "Not even because I can't defeat you, not even because I don't have my chakra...but because I...just need to be with you."
She lowered her forehead so that it pressed itself into his white zipped up shirt just beneath his high collar. "Sasuke, I love you."
She felt his form stiffen in her hold and Sakura made sure to keep her hold evenly firm as she lifted her head to look into his eyes again.
"Tobi told me about how we're married. At first...I was confused and even a little angry...but now I really enjoy the idea of being your wife."
"Why?"
Sakura smiled while stating her already prepared answer: "Because you take care of me...because I can't help the way I feel...and because I-"
-she hesitated, cutting off her third thought, unfortunately Sasuke had already heard it's beginning.
"You what?" he questioned her.
Sakura bit her lip. "I-I know that you care about me too..."
She quickly added before Sasuke could react in fury. "I-I mean, why else would you go to all the trouble of rescuing me from Konoha? Of keeping me locked away with only you as company? You may not love me but you can't deny...that you are concerned about me."
Tentative and slow, her hand laced with his. "Why else would you bring me back from the dead?"
Sasuke didn't answer, his eyes merely stayed rooted with hers. After only a few seconds, he came at her with a slew of questions.
"What about your family?"
Sakura felt her heart quicken, her expression faltered for a second but she used it to her advantage by casting her eyes down in a depressed manner. "I'm...pretty sure they're dead. Ino said that they were coming back from a sea voyage but I still haven't heard any word from them."
Sasuke hesitated for a moment, as if he knew something more to that fact. But when he spoke again he merely asked a new query: "What about your friends?"
Sakura offered a half smile, indicating her loyalty to him. "I love them but...you're more important."
"What if I said you couldn't see them again?"
Sakura knew he wasn't just trying to pick a fight with her. He actually meant what he said. Well, if she got what she wanted from him in the end, and got her chakra back...she wouldn't have to be afraid of this threat coming true.
As such, she said: "I would be sad, I don't deny that...but I would know, eventually, in my heart, that I had made the right choice, since it was either you or them."
"What about Gaara?" His voice was particularly bitter when he said the man's name and Sakura knew this was her chance. If she messed up the answer to this, it was all over.
"I really just think of him as a friend, Sas-" she was interrupted as the grip on her wrist turned merciless with Sasuke stabbing his fingers into her skin. Sakura couldn't help crying out in genuine pain from the torture.
"You held his hand, you kissed him."
"I've told you he pulled me into that one! He was too strong and I couldn't pull away. I-I don't know how he feels about me but I know for sure I only think of him as a friend!" She cried purposely in desperation, showing her weak side. "Sasuke! I held his hand because he was injured! Tobi was going to kill him! How could I just let someone who had saved my life die?"
Sasuke kept his expression trained coldly on her, scrutinizing her credibility...but he asked no more.
In a few seconds, his eyes looked away and Sakura knew she had won this round.
But just as she thought that, Sasuke came back to her, this time forcing his mouth over hers and pushing her up against the wall. His kiss ravaged her being and stole her breath; just as she thought he was going to take it further, Sasuke broke it and whispered close up against her lips.
"I swear, if you're lying to me, Sakura Haruno…I will cripple you," he threatened without hesitation. "I will break you to make you stay. I mean it. If I have to whittle you down into nothing but a torso that can do nothing except cry and speak, I will."