Please read and review! Especially on this chapter because I really need to know what you guys think on this turn of events.
"Sasuke?" Sakura's voice was soft and gentle, timid, as she stepped up to the man currently resting with his back leaned against the headboard of the bed. "Please, please let me speak to my parents. You can stay with me the entire time, I promise I won't try anything."
The man who had been reading a kanji book, waiting for when the kunoichi came out of the shower, now turned to face Sakura who was dressed in one of the resort's pure white robes. Her hands were folded demurely in front of her with her head and eyes downcast to the ground; she looked so…adorable.
In a second, he'd pulled her into his lap, surprising her into yelping. Sasuke laughed.
He kept her balanced on his lap as he stated: "Maybe if you can persuade me."
Sakura bit her lip; she knew it would come to this.
He pressed his mouth against her ear. "I like it when you're like this, Sakura."
She looked at him, confused. "Like what?"
He pushed her to lie on her back on the bed, before moving on top of her. "Soft and obedient."
Sakura felt like she was being suffocated but she stayed silent. Sasuke smiled and petted the side of her head, playing with her pink hair. Sakura didn't know what to do, she was afraid that if she acted too happy he would get mad at her for being deceptive again. All she could think to do was stare at him wide eyed, apprehensive for his next actions.
"Tell me you love me," he instructed.
"I-I love you," Sakura stated quietly.
"Say it again."
"I love you," she tried once more, louder this time.
Sasuke stared at her. His gaze made her bristle but she tried best to stay still. He leaned down as if to kiss her but stopped just millimeters above her lips.
Sakura shivered, afraid she had offended him. "What's wrong?"
To her surprise, Sasuke traced the outside edge of her face with his index finger slowly, not doing anything else for a long time.
"Act like it," he suddenly said.
Sakura blinked. "Act like what?"
"Like you love me."
Sakura's eyes widened. How…how was she supposed to do that? What did a person in love even act like? Her mind went back to the memories she'd recovered of her adolescence.
Gingerly, she sat up, Sasuke allowing her leverage as she straightened her back so that she could meet his eyes. Her tone became softer, sweeter and slightly higher.
"Sasuke," she said his name slowly. "I-I…"
Love you? She couldn't just keeping saying that. She thought for a second and decided on: "…how was your day?"
What? Where did that come from? Sakura was embarrassed at the stereotypical question.
The inane comment made a small smile appear on Sasuke's face, amused. This was the first time Sakura had ever seen him laugh, not derisively at her.
"It was fine," he answered with a chuckle. He started tracing the edge of her face again.
Sakura bit her lower lip. What did he want from her? What else did he want her to say?
Something she was genuinely curious about occurred in her mind then and Sakura felt she might as well try to ask it, even if he didn't answer her.
"Aren't we looking for Tobi?"
Sasuke's eyes widened slightly at her inquisition and Sakura bit her lip again. "I-I'm sorry, I was just curious because that was why you took me out in the first-"
He hushed her and she immediately grew quiet.
"We're going to see him in two days," was all he said and Sakura gave an understanding nod, showing him she wasn't going to ask anymore.
Sasuke closed his eyes for a few seconds and inhaled. It took Sakura a second to realize he was smelling her.
Sakura felt unimaginably awkward right now. What…what was she supposed to do in this situation?
"Want to have sex?" The question came out of her desperate anxiety in the awkward silence around them. She'd rather have sex than have to deal with the silence and him sniffing her.
However, to her surprise, this made Sasuke angry. His expression turned dourly grim and Sakura gulped as he sat up quick, turning away. He made towards the door and Sakura realized he was leaving. She quickly hopped off and stopped him in the doorway.
"WAIT! I-I'm sorry, I didn't mean- I was just meaning, if-if you wanted to- we could-" she was stammering, desperate to get back on his good side.
Sasuke had his back turned against her but his knuckles were chalk white as he clutched the edge of the open door.
In a second, he'd closed the door to the empty hallway (as far as Sakura could tell this looked like an empty resort so far, especially when she'd looked through the glass windows to see the frozen pool).
Suddenly, Sasuke whirled on her, grabbing by her upper arm. She winced at the bruising force.
"Act like it." He barked out the command this time, devoid of patience.
"That's why I said we should-"
"Is that all you think I want from you?" He was furious, his grip on her only getting tighter. "Is that all you think I'm interested in you for?"
Sakura gulped.
Well, yeah, actually she did. It was a sexual obsession but an obsession nonetheless. She knew better than to say so however.
Sasuke gritted his teeth, once again advancing on her, with her arm still being restricted in his grip, Sakura was forced to back up until she was up against the wall. "Act like it!"
Sakura was so confused. Her voice was still gentle but visibly distressed. "Like what?"
Sasuke suddenly grabbed her head by both sides, making her eyes widen in surprise as he drew her face in close but not for a kiss.
"Act like you need me, act like you can't stand the thought of losing me. Like a moment without me is like a moment in hell."
Sakura's heart thudded in her chest. Her eyes softened genuinely and real pity flooded into her heart for the man. Sympathy...and condolence."Sasuke…I-"
"You figured out my reasons for the things I do to you, so I won't try to deny it anymore." He locked gazes with her, his nails digging into the back of her head painfully. "I love you."
His confession was not at all endearing or romantic. It was bitter and resentful. Like she'd forced this on him.
"You came back and you didn't know anything about me." He pressed his mouth tightly, furiously, against her lips, kissing her with nothing but malice. "That drove me insane."
Sakura yelped weakly when he yanked her hair, forcing her to turn her head so he could seethe into her ear: "You made this unfair...because you're supposed to be the one obsessed!"
Sakura gasped.
"You're supposed to be the one that pursues me…pathetically, adamantly and blindly so." Sasuke stated almost despairingly so, because he was so ashamed at himself for letting this simple girl pierce his defenses.
"You're supposed to be where I am now!" He breathed every syllable in desperate fury. "Frustrated and miserable, unrequited…and trapped."
Sakura realized that he was in her exact same shoes when they were younger.
Sasuke…how…what…she didn't know how to feel about the man.
What was she supposed to think? She wanted to be angry. Furious and...and outraged, because she knew this was no justification for him imprisoning and degrading her. For blackmailing her and threatening her parents. He was an evil diabolical man!
And yet, a quiet voice in the back of her mind, told her that he'd only had to resort to doing this because she'd threatened to take her own life. Because he'd been desperate to keep her.
But he'd still selfishly kidnapped and imprisoned her! He'd raped her all because she couldn't remember him. it wasn't even her fault that she'd lost her memories! She never asked to be brought back! None of this was on her!
There was so much injustice in his logic...and yet she couldn't bring herself to hate him as much as she used to.
Because…she was so moved. She was everything to this man. In her whole life, Sakura had never been remarkable or special at anything...but she was special to Sasuke. He was completely dedicated to her and...
For the first time, Sakura wondered what would have occurred between them if she had kept her memories after being revived. Would he have treated her better if she'd been reciprocating? If she'd been willing? He would never have had to use force on her and...and...
She had acted before she realized: Sakura had brought his lips down to kiss, her tongue delving into his mouth.
Sasuke gasped in surprise but didn't break the contact; this was the first time she'd willingly initiated, and he loved it. His tongue delved into her mouth and swept over her teeth, ravishing and drinking in everything that was her. He inhaled furiously through his nose, letting Sakura's soft scent overwhelm him.
Take this. All of this.
Because she was his.
And he was hers.
For once in their entire history together, Sasuke gave himself to Sakura, in every sense. His heart. His soul. Everything. The dream only one of them had foreseen but now both of them wanted.
His body and hands trembled as Sakura pulled him closer, tighter...evermore closer because she knew she wanted this. Sasuke's fingers shook as he reached to untie the sash around her waist, all the while Sakura pulled his robe, revealing his firm alabaster chest. Her mouth attacked him, sucking and licking at wherever it found flesh as her own robe came to dangle limply in the crook of her elbows.
She'd just come out of the shower so Sakura had nothing on beneath the robe.
For once, she didn't mind as Sasuke moved to press her back flat up against the wall, his hands wrapping around her thighs and making her straddle him vertically.
Sakura wanted this connection, right now, but in her heart she knew he didn't deserve this. Knew she didn't owe him anything, knew there was nothing he could do to redeem himself of what he'd done to her but...
Her heart couldn't help moving, if infinitesimally, closer to him. For his honesty. For his insecurity. For his…devotion.
And while she knew there was no future for them, that eventually everything would have to come to a head between them…she knew she couldn't let herself hate him.
Because it just wasn't who she was; she could never hate anyone that loved her this much, if for no other reason, just in sympathy and pity for them.
But she knew she felt more than that for Sasuke. Call it her own stupidity, call it her naivete or even romanticism, but she just wanted this one moment with him, and his confession.
"Sasuke..." Sakura whispered as he kissed her throat, sucking at the pale flesh. She wanted to say something but the words that orated her feelings just didn't know how to form.
Or refused to form.
Either way she ended up biting her lip as the man stopped momentarily, in all his actions, to look down and meet her eyes. His usually cold onyx gaze looked so vulnerable and weak right now. Despite her pride, tears welled up inside her eyes as she stared up at him.
Dammit.
She really hated herself right now.
"Sasuke...I...I-"
Maybe he feared what she would say. Maybe he thought she would say she still hated him. Maybe he'd just gotten impatient about her stuttering. But whatever his reason was, Sasuke cut her off then and didn't give her another chance to speak for the rest of their union.
Against the wall, they danced carnally and for once consensually.
Sakura knew she would regret this someday, probably really soon, but what would matter if she just let herself do this one time? It wasn't like this was the first time for them and it probably wouldn't be the last either, knowing Sasuke, so what difference would it make?
She rationalized in her mind, that while this wasn't just sex between them anymore, she would still never love him back. She could let herself get away with doing this because her mixed feelings deserved this, just once, before she escaped this man.
That night, as Sakura slept, Sasuke got up from the bed. Donning on his clothes, he took his katana and stepped out of their room, making a sealed jutsu across the doors and windows before he left. No one could get in and no one could get out.
He travelled quick and without rest through the night, leaping across canopy trees at chakra speed. He had to get to his destination before sunrise.
Soon, he came across a large stone cave that sat at the base of a wet marsh. He entered and found his goal: the masked man that had tried to kill his Sakura.
Before the man saw him, Sasuke moved at chakra speed to place him in a choke hold, his kunai slicing into the man's neck.
"How did you know I would be here?"
"I set the Aukerbad resort as a meeting place for two reasons, because I knew the resort was closed during the winter and so there would be no one if I broke inside, two, because the plane of Kiot are all flat wetlands and there are only a few places one can hide strategically here overnight. That's why this land is hardly ever subject to war times from other villages."
Tobi laughed. "Orochimaru taught you well."
Sasuke pressed the kusunagi tighter across the masked man's neck. "Give. Me. The. Crystal."
Tobi laughed. In the matter of seconds, he took out from within his Akatsuki robes, Sakura's crystal ball. "Take it then."
Quick as lightning, Sasuke grabbed the glass sphere before pushing him away. After examining it closely for a few seconds, Sasuke tucked it safely inside his robes, satisfied it was the real thing, before turning back to face Tobi.
"What are you up to?" he asked. "What exactly is even your goal? Why are you doing all this?"
Tobi shrugged.
Sasuke gritted his teeth. "Answer me."
Tobi scoffed. "Always so impatient, dear nephew. It'll cost you something very important one day."
The evil man cross his arms in front of his chest, mocking him. "Or maybe it already has."
Sasuke gasped. Sakura.
The kunoichi was woken up by the sound of clashing metal. Sitting up, she saw that Sasuke was gone and she was still naked. Blushing, she wrapped the covers around herself as she strolled over to the window to examine the source of the noise.
To her surprise, in the air straight across from her window (some twenty feet away), she saw that shark toothed white haired man called Suigetsu, fighting TenTen and her scroll of weapons. Beneath them, at the base of the resort tower, were hordes of ANBU ops, storming the base, trying to break the sealed kanji slips Sasuke had placed across the entrances.
Wh-what on Earth?
Hurrying, she got dressed and collected any weapon she found across the room: two kunais and one bomb sphere. She made to leave through the door of her room but found it locked on the inside as well.
Instantly, she knew this was Sasuke's doing. What if there was a fire? That crazy bastard.
Rolling her eyes, Sakura tried to find some other means to escape the room. There was none. And to make matters worse, she could hear thundering footsteps beneath in the resort, signaling that the ANBU had broken in.
Oh god.
Why were they even hunting her anyway? Was it really so wrong for her to be a reanimated shinobi? Or was there some other reason that everyone was so against her?
Right as she thought that a large explosion occurred next to her window, shattering the glass and causing Sakura yelp. She wasn't able to duck fast enough and the glass came flying straight towards her.
But she didn't get hit by anything.
Sakura opened her eyes and saw that there was an invisible shimmering line occurring around her, like some magic shield.
Her mind whirled at this realization but didn't have time to comprehend it because three masked ANBU figures came rushing towards her; a figure of pink hair and a maroon shirt moved in front of her and intercepted their attack with an identical shield of her own.
Sakura saw that she had long hair in a slightly darker shade of pink than her own and had black glasses. She recognized the woman from her revived memories: Karin.
She was one of Sasuke's subordinates in team Hebe.
Another figure moved in front of her, joining their minority side. This one had orange hair and was a virile serene looking man.
"Take the girl, Jugo, I'll hold them off," Karin stated before the orange haired man grabbed Sakura by the wrist and ran with her out of the newly created exit.
Halfway through them leaping in the air, a wide tenchi blade came slashing down through the air aiming for where Jugo held onto Sakura's wrist. To avoid having his wrist sliced off, Jugo was forced to let Sakura go but knowing she would plummet to her death in an instant, Jugo threw her sideways across the air instead, hoping he would be able to catch her once he evaded the attack.
But the man was unable to avoid the tenchi blade completely and a large bloody gash appeared on his arm.
Sakura screamed as she fell, knowing she was going to die…but right before she hit a nearby tree trunk, someone caught her. Before she was able to see who it was, a moist cloth got pressed across her nose and mouth.
Oh god, was the last thought she had before blacking out.
Sasuke cursed himself for falling for Tobi's trick when he finally got back to the resort. He had known that the Kiot plane was small and virtually impossible to hide in outside of the three main towns that surrounded a main tourist attraction of Aukerbad.
The three towns were populated but the resort was empty.
He had thought that even if Tobi had managed to find them, the seals he placed would keep the evil man at bay. He never expected Tobi to alert the entirty of the ANBUs currently hunting them! His seals could stop one shinobi not a hundred.
And now Suigetsu lied dead while Sakura had been captured. Dammit!
He couldn't find Karin or Jugo's body at least. He had had to put the prior in a genjutsu to get her to agree to protect Sakura but he at least cared enough about her to wish she wasn't dead.
Sakura woke to the sensation of cold steel around her wrists and ankles. She groggily opened her eyes to see that she was inside a metal prison cell. Her senses were assailed by the stench of rotting flesh and mildew across her. It made her want to vomit. Jugo and Karin sat across from her, the latter unconscious while the prior was staring straight out the steel bars.
When Sakura shifted and Jugo turned to face her. "You're awake? How are you feeling?"
Sakura tried to speak but found her mouth unbelievably dry. Jugo saw this and handed over to her a black beggar's bowl fill with which was water.
At least they gave her clean water, Sakura thought while pinching her nose to avoid the rotting stench as she drank.
She downed the entire bowl in a second and asked for more but Jugo replied that that was the last until the guard made his rounds.
Sakura sighed. "Where are we? What are we doing here?"
Jugo answered patiently. "We're in Sunagakure, waiting for our trial which is to take place tonight."
Suna…
"What are we being charged with, do you know Jugo?" she asked inquisitively.
"We-" Jugo gesticulated a finger between him and Karin, "-are being charged with high treason and abetting terrorism against the Five Villages."
Sakura gulped, waiting for him to tell her why she had been arrested. But Jugo just stayed silent afterwards, so Sakura had to ask. "Why am I here?"
Jugo took a moment to think about his words. "How much do you know about yourself?"
Sakura knew this was her chance. She could find out what she needed from this man. "Hardly anything at all. I know I died soon after the Fourth Shinobi War, Sasuke brought me back but my memories got screwed up-"
"That's correct," Jugo answered, adding: "But there is something else you must know. The procedure Sasuke used to revive you is one of three forbidden Myael jutsus that goes against the very force of nature. Kabuto's resurrection jutsu was a superficial replica of the real reanimation jutsu, that's why his shinobi always came back half dead and were simply paper clones of the original."
"What Sasuke used on you, straight forces your old body to take in the soul that was lost when you died. However, the Myael jutsus are forbidden because the universe literally calls for compensation whenever they are used."
Sakura was afraid to ask her next question but she did it anyway.
"Wh-what kind of compensation?"
Jugo bowed his head. "Do you know what happened to your parents, Sakura?"
She nodded. "Sasuke kidnapped them."
Jugo frowned, confused. "What?"
She explained to him about how the man had locked them away in an undisclosed location and had used them as leverage to prevent her from killing herself.
Jugo blinked a few times, thinking to himself. It was a long while before he spoke again. "I think he was lying to you."
Sakura gasped. Jugo nodded his resolve. "Your parents are dead, Sakura, truly they are. I am sorry."
Sakura's head shook while her heart pounded in her chest. "What? No! Th-that can't be!"
Right after the first time Sasuke had shown her the mirror of her parents, Sakura had been blindfolded and lead to where her parents had been chained and gagged against the wall, unconscious. She'd pleaded for the man to let her talk to them but Sasuke refused. Before he left, he'd made sure to send a kunai knife straight into her father's foot, severing off a pinky toe.
Her father had woken up, screaming through his gag and Sakura had cried, begging for Sasuke to stop, that she would do anything if he let them go but Sasuke had just cradled her teary countenance inside his palms, warning her that if he ever felt disobedience from her again. He would kill them.
And Sakura had been able to do was nod submissively before letting him hug her.
She explained to Jugo now that she'd seen her father take the full impact of the kunai, that if it had been an illusion jutsu, her father would have vanished in a puff of smoke and in it's place would be a log, which was exactly why Sasuke had thrown it.
Jugo pursed his lips. "Then perhaps I'm wrong, my apologies, Sakura."
But the pinkette was now curious. "What made you think they were dead? And what does that have to do with what we were talking about?"
Jugo thought for a few seconds before answering. "I could be wrong, but…the word around the Shinobi world right now is that after Sasuke resurrected you by invoking a Myael jutsu, he unwittingly threw the force of this world off balance. As such, as long as you are alive, natural disasters will plague, such as the giant whirlpool that occurred across the Land of The Sea."
"Your parents had been sailing across the sea looking for you, ever since first word came back that you had been seen with Sasuke Uchiha several months after your supposed death. They were sailing across the Land of The Sea when the whirlpool took them down, along with thirteen other ships that day, both commercial and shinobi alike. 800 people lost their lives."
Sakura couldn't believe what she was hearing. So that's why Ino had been so hesitant to tell her about where her parents were. She didn't want Sakura to blame herself. And the same could be said about Tsunade, and everyone else. That's why everyone had been avoiding telling her the truth.
All to protect her.
What fucking bullshit.
She wasn't some fucking child. She could handle the truth. Why was everyone thinking so little of her?
Her head felt like it was about to split open. Turning away from Jugo, Sakura made to face the wall so she could lean her skull against the cold surface, but before she got there a surge of nausea surged through her and she ended up vomiting across the already putrid surface.
Sakura ended up crying herself to sleep against the cold pewter walls, next to her own vomit and a pile of rat feces. While normal circumstances like this would have kept her from sleeping, the sanitation around her was the last thing on Sakura's mind at that point.
Jugo didn't try to talk to her after that; while he pitied her, he was never good with crying girls and knew even less how to comfort someone so he merely let her have her space.
Sakura fell asleep to thoughts and questions like: How could Tsunade treat her like this? How could her friends and relatives do this to her? How could the world be this cruel to her?
Jugo and Karin were brought out for their trial before her, leaving Sakura alone and in the rotting dungeon with nothing but her own thoughts, and the last of his words:
"The crystal ball Sasuke has contains the very essence of your reanimation. It cannot be shattered by conventional means but can be used in conjunction with an undoing ceremony to send you back. That is the only way they can placate the natural disasters, if you were to die of any means besides the undoing jutsu then the world would still see the Myael jutsu in your place and would not reestablish itself."
It all made sense now.
Sasuke kept her desperately away from everyone because he knew they would try to undo her reanimation. The natural disasters demanded them to.
She almost wanted to laugh at the absurdness of everything. If everyone had just told her the truth from the beginning, given her the respect of making her own decisions, then all of their problems would have been solved already.
She would have offered herself up way before now. Because she was at her wits end.
What was even left in this world for her?
She contemplated this thought the entire way out of the dungeon and as the ANBU led her up the wooden steps up onto the square stage that been built in the center of Sunagakure's plaza, which had been purposely isolated for this sole purpose tonight.
Surrounding the stage, stabbed into the sandy landscape, were a series of wooden poles alight with flames on the top that flickered in the night's wind.
Sand blew into Sakura's eyes and she had to duck her head down as they lead her to the top of the podium, chained and manacled. They made her kneel in front of a wooden stool, sitting on top of which was her crystal ball. Briefly, she wondered how they had managed to get it back from Tobi.
The only other residents besides herself and the three dozen ANBU ops stationed across the deserted plaza, were all Five Kages that were now walking up the stage. Tsunade being the last one of them. The Hokage ran up to hug Sakura when she past her but the pinkette made no sign that she had seen or heard her old mentor.
Just fragments of the blond woman's apology came through: "I'm so…sorry…Sakura…everyone will miss…find peace…"
The hokage had genuine tears in her eyes for not being able to save her pupil but Sakura paid no notice.
The ceremony started with the four Kages standing around Sakura in a circle, doing a series of complex hand signs Sakura didn't care to distinguish. Finally, when they were done, they each pointed with two fingers towards the crystal ball that stood in front of her.
A series of red beams emitted from them to connect with the spear, causing it to change from transparent to glowing red hot. More and more the sphere grew redder and redder until-
-it shattered.
Blinding white light encompassed Sakura's vision and she swore she had gone blind, before the world melted away.
Sakura gasped awake, sitting up with a plethora of sweat beaded across her forehead. She found herself sitting in the exact opposite of what she'd last seen as far as surroundings.
Absolute black surrounded her on all sides. At first it just looked like an empty shadowed landscape but after her eyes had adjusted, Sakura realized that there was actually a lot of furniture around her. It was just all shadowed in shades of black.
Even the four poster rectangular bed she slept on, had black sheets and coverlets. The corners of the wooden posts were even stained with black varnish.
Where on Earth was she?
She strained her eyes farther in the dark; faintly, she could make out that the room had a lot of furniture and was quite spacious. If there was just light, and you know, everything wasn't stained like the pits of Hell, it would actually be pretty nice.
Sakura gingerly sat up and immediately fell back down, her head feeling too dizzy. After a minute of resting, she tried again and this time managed to swing her legs over the edge of the mattress. Slowly, she stood up.
She groped around until she felt a wall, careful not to trip on anything. When she found the wall, Sakura started walking around the edge of the bedroom, with both hands flat against the surface, looking for a light switch.
It was when she got about halfway across the room did she actually find one, but flicking it did nothing. Sakura sighed and gave up. She turned around and tried to move back the way she'd come but she suddenly ran into a solid tall surface like a man's chest. She looked up and though her eyes were still strained in the dark, she could distinctly make out the iconic swirl over his mask.
"Tobi!" she gasped out his name as she stumbled backwards, her foot caught against something on the ground and tripped. She would have fallen but Tobi reached out a slender arm and caught her.
"LET GO OF ME!" she cried, thinking back to when he'd stabbed her.
"Calm down Sakura." That voice didn't belong to Tobi. She stopped her thrashing and came to look up at the man that was definitely wearing the villain's mask.
As if on cue, the individual reached up and lifted the mask off.
At first she wanted to scream again, thinking she was looking at Sasuke but then something clicked from her recovered memories, a name that came to her mind.
"Itachi."
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Pretty please with sugar on top?