Just want to say that I don't really like this chapter that much. Might rewrite it.

It was Sasuke Uchiha's worst nightmare come true: she knew everything. Everything he'd tried so hard to keep hidden.

Everything he had wanted to pretend to have never happened.

And as she stood in front of him now, eyes widened to their max width, shaking from repressed anger and fury…he knew he had lost her completely now.

She made to take one step forward and Sasuke backed up three, his body trembling more than hers.

Sakura's voice cracked while a single tear trailed silently down the side of her face. "How could you?"

Sasuke shook his head, as if that answered everything. His foot stumbled beneath him when he made to take another step back, causing him to fall on his side.

Sakura towered above him for once, even as he scrambled to get back on his two feet.

Sasuke's mouth opened to form words but…nothing came out.

Two long solemn tear trails now streamed quietly down Sakura's face. When the vision shattered, her entire heart and soul had shattered too.

She had always wanted to learn the truth of everything but now that she knew it, she wish she could forget once again.

And Sakura knew exactly why too, as much as it shamed her to admit it.

Because she had fallen for Sasuke Uchiha once again.

Even without any memory of their past, she had still let him steal her soul, despite his cruelty, despite his selfishness, despite everything.

Because she had wanted so badly to be wrapped inside that everlasting affection, be the most important and absolute thing in his life.

But that was just it. He viewed her as a thing. Not as a person.

He never has.

And Sakura only realized now that he would never change, and she'd been stupid enough to hope that he would.

Just as she came to that realization, Sasuke took off. His body disappeared at chakra speed and she very briefly saw the path he took across the tree canopies before disappearing out of her vision.

Not that she cared.

The last of her affection and confusion towards Sasuke had disappeared once the vision ended.

Which was both a relief and slight problem for her, because she wondered what she would tell Itachi.

The one stipulation the man had made in accordance to him restoring her chakra and re-training her to use them again was for her to agree to not make up her mind about Sasuke, about how she felt and thought about the man until the very end, until she found out everything.

"My brother…" the dark haired man that looked so much like Sasuke, had stated with a heavy tired sigh, "…is very complicated. He is troubled and unhinged because I haven't been the best brother to him."

"I have to take a great deal of responsibility in the way he's turned out, and…the crimes he has committed, Sakura…" His eyes trained to hers. "Which is why I'm doing all this. To make amends, to both you and my brother."

"I will restore your chakra and help you regain your previous strength from two years ago. You will be able to confront Sasuke head on, by yourself, during which you will have a chance to uncover the secrets of your death."

Sakura's eyes had widened to their maximum girth at this statement of his.

"The one thing I ask of you in return is that you not make up your mind about my brother until you discover the full story. There is more to your history with Sasuke than you think, more than what you've already been told."

Sakura furrowed her eyebrows, confused. "Then why can't you just tell me the truth, right here right now?

Itachi shook his head. "Because you have to find it out on your own. Otherwise, you may never understand my brother."

Sakura of course had been initially reluctant to accept this agreement. Part of her knew that Itachi was just trying to get her to forgive his brother so that she would give that psychopath what he wanted.

But…Itachi had won her over with one other stipulation.

His last agreement: that once she learned of everything, including the way she was brought back he would help her revive her parents using the First Myael.

And Sakura had immediately agreed.

Which was the dilemma she had right now. What was she going to tell Itachi?

Luckily, she wouldn't have to face the man until the end, so Sakura supposed she could just lie at the end that she had only then decided to end everything with Sasuke.

Yeah that would have to do.

Her gaze dropped to the loose ground, the markings of where Sasuke and her had fallen together still visibly present. There in the center of those streaks, was the memory parchment Itachi had sewn together using bamboo threads, his chakra and then written on it using a mixture of his blood and ink.

As she expected, as soon as she picked the discarded paper up, it started to glow inside her palm, intermittently radiating bursts of dim white light, like a living iridescent organism.

Itachi had been right.

Sasuke had been able to break out of the jutsu before all the memories were revealed.

The older Uchiha knew his younger brother very well and as such, had predicted the younger one's strength increasing during the forced revelations, because of his anger.

Everything Sakura had seen….must have been like torture for Sasuke to have to live through again.

….

He regretted his actions.

Sakura hated giving him this excuse, giving him any kind of explanation that didn't come straight from his lips -if he was really repentant, he wouldn't have runaway. And Sakura refused to give him any kind of sympathy or rationale for the things he'd done to her.

She'd given him her life, literally, and he-

-he'd almost destroyed her. Almost broken her like a doll only for his own use.

He was disgusting. Vile and inexcuse-

Sakura bit her lip, stopping her thoughts because she remembered the deal she'd made with Itachi.

So pushing past her emotions, she knelt down on one knee while placing the parchment flat onto the dirt Earth. Concentrating, Sakura folded the complex hand signs Itachi had taught her. The entire process took about ten minutes and during the last few signs, Sakura literally felt her fingers turn heavy and lead-like, slogging through the air like iron weights.

All high end, powerful jutsus were hard to complete, especially near the end since they usually called upon the forces of nature to abet the jutsu invoker. Forces that accumulated and were hard to contain.

But Sakura found it easy to complete, having been personally trained by Itachi for six full months. One of the things he'd made sure to prepare her for was exactly this.

When the last sign was complete, ending with her fingers laced through the knuckles and her thumbs pressed together. The parchment rose up into the air, level at her eyes.

Lightly, she whispered: "Faruka Truth Jutsu."

The parchment suddenly came to wrap itself around her wrist, not loose though not constricting either, firm like a wristband. The intermittent radiance had stopped now but she could still feel that faint warmth against her skin, like wearing a scarf that had just been freshly ironed.

Its power still present, reminding her of the failsafe Itachi had ingeniously instilled: Sasuke's memories had been copied to the parchment the instant it'd affected him.

Now that she'd activated them, they would be triggered once she came into contact with the physical environments in which the memories had taken place in. Sakura would be pulled into a flashback.

Of course Itachi had designed it so that the parchment only copied memories that involved her and Sasuke after the war. Itachi had been a genius: on the high chance that Sasuke broke free before Sakura found out everything, the parchment would allow her to continue searching.

Closing her eyes, Sakura focused, calling on the power that now radiated from her wrist, commanding the parchment to show her next destination, the next memory that had to be revealed.

A series of images flashed through her mind: a cold damp cavern, dangerously long stalactites hung down from the rock ceiling, ready to skewer anyone that stepped beneath it. A single cadaver, recently killed and only just starting to decompose lied on the cave's ground.

The vision widened and receded, showing Sakura the entirety of the cave: revealing slithering shadows that danced across the walls. It backed up still, showing the cavern's entrance, then out onto the path leading into it, the road that diverted inwards.

More and more the landscape receded, showing the grand image of a desolate plain on the Northern rim of a wheat farmland, it pushed back still…finally Sakura recognized the landscape: it was the Land of Earth, specifically in the Western side, close to the border.

The vision faded and Sakura gasped in shock, unaccustomed to Itachi's power.

The man had explained that the places she visited would eventually reveal to her the First Myael, the specifics on how Sasuke brought her back, which she would then be able to use for her parents.

Sakura hated how…persuasive he was. It felt like he was giving her exactly what she wanted, which she wasn't opposed to, of course.

But…it felt like she was falling right into his calculations. If her recovered memories taught her anything, it was that Itachi Uchiha was not someone to be messed with, that was an incredibly ingenious and beguiling person. Even Sasuke, as intellect as he was, hadn't been able to escape his brother's machinations.

Even if she overlooked the fact that he was renowned for his deception skills, overlooked that he had lied to his own brother for the better part of the man's life, overlooked that he had already lied to her before, very recently in fact.

She knew he wanted her to forgive Sasuke. For her to live happily with the man.

And for that alone, Sakura didn't want to follow anything he said. That everything he was telling her to do was not in her best interest.

But…if going back to Sasuke meant bringing her parents back, then Sakura was willing to make that sacrifice.

They had to settle things eventually.

Sakura sighed and took out from within her shirt, a compass that hung on a silver chain around her neck (the very same silver chain that kept Sasuke from locating her). The needle of the compass glowed blue radiance, enchanted by Itachi to follow where the parchment wanted her to go. All Sakura had to do was travel in the direction of the needle.

Even if she didn't completely trust Itachi, the man at least kept his word.

Though night had already fallen, Sakura set off nonetheless. She didn't feel tired; just the opposite actually, fueled by adrenaline at finally getting her life back.

Alone.

Always alone.

He'd ran for as far long as he could, until his legs had given out beneath him. He was probably some seventy miles from where Sakura had been.

Because he couldn't stand seeing that look in her eyes.

He could bear her fearing, loathing, even despising him but not...that look.

That look of pure repugnance.

Like he was worth absolutely nothing in her eyes.

Sasuke knew that the only thing she felt for him was absolute disgust. When the vision ended for them both, all of Sakura's emotions had turned to ice in regards to him.

But wasn't that always the case for her?

No.

Simply put, that wasn't the case, and Sasuke knew that. He was a genius after all, he could tell when Sakura was faking affection towards him and when...she wasn't.

When she genuinely cared about him again, despite her own pride. Yes, he knew she had conflicting feelings for him.

Deep inside, he could see the self hate she had for herself whenever he came in after days on end without seeing her inside that cage. The way she despised herself for finding comfort in him (even if he was all she had anymore), for finding comfort in someone that had torn her life apart.

She hated herself every time he hugged her and her heart raced. Every time he kissed her and she enjoyed it. Some part of her, a small distant corner of her soul, had never truly hated him.

Despite all the cruelty he'd showered on her.

It was just like their childhood all over again.

Him abusing her without relent, and seemingly without remorse, but her always taking it down with a smile and that undying resilience. Taking it down and loving him even more because of it.

Because she'd wanted to save him.

Always wanted to help him.

Sasuke had deduced a long time ago that that was why she'd fallen for him growing up. Why she'd never truly been able to abandon her feelings for him and only have those feelings grow the longer he stayed from her.

Because she was too compassionate. She had a need to help anyone and everyone around her. And some part of her, maybe a foolish part, felt that she could help him the most.

Or maybe that he needed her the most.

Sasuke couldn't be sure, but he knew it was something along these lines. It was Sakura's compassion that had been her downfall in Team Seven, the reason why Kakashi, Naruto and Sasuke himself had always felt the need to protect her.

Because she was too soft, everyone could hurt her because she showed her weakness too readily: her feelings for her friends and family.

She wasn't calculating enough to think of long term ways to help them, only ever living in the moment. Never training herself in truly strong combat jutsus. Sure she had immense strength, but that was crude.

Even her most skilled ninjutsu directly opposed combat: she healed people's injuries, specifically their outer, most recent lacerations and wounds. She had no skill to protect someone long term.

She never realized that the wounds she healed wouldn't need healing if they were prevented in the first place.

Or maybe she did, but she sure never got around to learning anything like the extent of a Rasengan or Chidori, like Naruto and himself respectively did.

And that was fine. He had long stopped judging her for that. It was fine that she was healer. In fact, he liked that about her. He was a fighter, she was a healer; they were perfect for each other.

He'd realized this after she'd helped restore his chakra. Realized what a truly amazing and selfless woman she was.

Maybe even a little foolishly selfless at times but that wasn't a problem. He was going to protect her, even from herself.

Besides preventing other people from taking her and sending her back to the land of the dead, Sasuke imprisoned her for one other reason: to keep her feelings to herself.

Or rather to him, but it equated to the same thing.

Sakura's compassion was too prolific, it spread like a plague to anything and everyone around her and he refused to let other people bask in what was meant to be his bounty. They didn't deserve it. Also it left Sakura too weak for the world: the more people she cared for, the more leverage people could potentially have over her.

Take her parents for example: they were already dead but Sasuke had still been able to exploit her love for them by creating doppelgangers of them to hold over her. If it had been any time before her death, probably any hostage from Konoha could have gotten Sakura to do something for them.

He had locked her away so that she would learn to love him and only him, so that he would be the last person to ever blackmail her for anything.

And it had almost worked too.

Sasuke's lithe hand traced his lower lip, remembering the feel of Sakura kissing him willingly. He could remember the way she had grasped the back of his neck with her small hands, pushing his mouth against hers…

More tears streamed down his face as he thought back to the only time she'd initiated sex...

That one time…

Sasuke stood standing and hunched over at the very top, hugging his shaking form with his own hands, as he sobbed.

She…she knew everything now.

He had blamed her for everything because a large part of him was genuinely furious at her; for softening him, for making him think about her nonstop.

For making him care about her more than he cared about himself.

He was always self-serving, throughout his entire life: his vengeance, his chakra, his power. No matter who or what stood behind him, he would abandon if it meant advancing his own interests.

That's why he'd left Konoha. Left Naruto and Kakashi behind, shunning their attempts to help and support him. He'd ignored the hurt that his departure would have undoubtedly caused.

They would get over it, he'd rationalized.

Team Seven had always been a "means to an end" in his eyes, a way for him to grow stronger, train better and ultimately give him enough skill to kill Itachi.

He'd left because other people could offer him more power. Make him better. And for the longest time in his life that was the only thing he cared about: himself.

Now things were different.

…weren't they?

Sasuke's mind spun in a million circles right now, unable to stop or restrain itself: wasn't…all this still about himself? Just in a slightly different way?

It was his love for Sakura that lead him to do all these things to her, his love that made him keep her against her will, his love that had driven him to rationalize all the wrongs he'd done to her was for the greater good. That she would love and forgive him all in the end.

It was all because he wanted things to be this way for the two of them.

Sakura had never had any say in any of this.

…but that was her own fault. She had to come back and just had to forget all about him.

It was her fault, not his. She made him have to force her to stay so that she wouldn't run away, so that others wouldn't send her back, so that he could have time to make her remember him.

Because she'd promised to be his, forever.

Long ago, when he first defected from Konoha, near the exit, she'd vowed to do anything for him, as long as he kept her by his side.

It was much later but he still upheld her to those words.

She'd promised to do anything for him that night, whenever he asked of it. And he refused to let her back out of that promise, even if she couldn't remember.

But now…

Sasuke's mind once more flashed in that look of hers. That look of pure enmity and revulsion.

He knew from that look that there was nothing left between the two of them now.

And for that, he couldn't stop crying.