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Be my woman or I'll kill him.

The ultimatum was as simple as that.

Sakura Haruno stared with stiff unfeeling eyes up at Sasuke Uchiha, reigning King and tyrant of the entire Shinobi world right now.

It had been more than ten years since she had last stepped foot in the Leaf village but even before her return, Sakura had heard news about the takeover. How Sasuke Uchiha had joined with a group of shinobi terrorists called the Akatsuki bent on unification of all villages through force.

They had been a terrorist group for a long time before Sasuke joined but had only had mild success in their endeavors, most through their singular power source/leader Pain that created devastation wherever he went. But the man had been getting on in his years and it had been feared by his subordinates that with his death would come the end of Akatsuki. There had been only one man that had the potential to replace Pain inside Akatsuki and he had went by the name of Orochimaru, a missing-nin that had defected from Konoha long ago, Pain's right hand man and considered to be just as ruthless if not significantly less powerful than the man's legendary Rinnegan prowess.

It had been the villages' hope that once Pain passed and ruling went to Orochimaru, Akatsuki would start its decline and eventually face its undoing.

But then Sasuke Uchiha came into the equation.

And he was a force to be reckoned with, literally. No one. No one could match his strength and tactical genius in battle and with his addition, Akatsuki finally managed to gain the one footrest they'd needed to turn the tide against the villages.

The tailed beasts.

The jinchurikis.

One by one, each individual housing the spirit of a tailed beast was abducted…and never seen again.

It wasn't until the abduction of Gaara, the Kazekage of Suna at the time, did the villages finally learn the truth: the jinchurikis were being sacrificed and their beasts extracted so that the power of the beasts could be used to awaken a tailed beast stronger than all others combined.

Ten Tails.

When Naruto Uzumaki was the only jinchuriki left, Pain had long since passed and the reigns of Akatsuki had fallen to Sasuke, a brutal force of malevolent fury and merciless blood lust.

And the best friend he'd grown up with.

It had broken Naruto's heart to have to face Sasuke in combat, and he'd put it off for as long as he could, choosing to tackle any battle where Sasuke was not at the forefront but reality forced their confrontation imminently.

Most of villages had been annexed by then and the remaining ones had either low morale (especially when news of Gaara's death passed into the world) or were on the verge of surrendering. Only Konohagakure alone, stood as the main powerhouse of the dwindling resistance.

Some say it was Naruto's love for his best friend that had ended up being the blond boy's downfall. Others say Sasuke was just better than the man and bested him fair and square. A few others say that Naruto had been too heartbroken in the end to continue fighting –they say the boy spent every moment of their battle trying to convince the Uchiha to rescind his ways, to ascertain the reason of why had defected, to ask why he had killed so many people, what he would gain if he won this war…and supposedly, the answer that Naruto received had taken the last of his fighting spirit; that he had willingly let his best friend kill him in the end.

Whatever the truth was, Naruto was killed. His body found disfigured and broken across the war torn battlefield.

And along with his death, went the last of the resistance. The few that didn't find refuge underground and continued to fight were quickly mowed down by Sasuke's unyielding army.

And soon Sasuke saw his first day as king of Shinobi world. The moment he had every village unified, before he set up any other decree, he sent out a royal edict to find one person.

Sakura Haruno.

The woman he had never once stopped thinking about since the day she left him, abandoned and heartbroken on the bench outside of Konoha's exit path. The reason he'd chosen this dark path of blood, power and vengeance.

He became an avenger for her.

Because he vowed to break her will.

To make her as his own. To make her weak and obsequious, desperate and pining for his affections, eager to please her like he'd once done for her, that shameful shameful night he'd pleaded with her to stay. That had been the first and last time he'd ever begged with anyone.

Sakura had changed him that night.

She had let him see the only thing that mattered in life was power.

Because she'd been stronger than him, because he hadn't amassed enough strength, she'd been able to leave, been able to incapacitate him.

Sasuke had known he'd been living life too easily before; too much comfort and moral restraint that had led to indolence and complacency of being "among the best" in those around him instead of "the best" in the world. He'd let himself be constrained by moral and familial obligations…

But not anymore.

When his defection was discovered, when his role in Akatsuki was discovered, when his double agent status had been revealed and they'd been on the verge of incarcerating him, Sasuke had told the Uchiha dispatched to arrest him that he would not let anything stand in his way of attaining his goal. That anyone, even his own blood, would be spilled if they chose to stand in his way.

That they could choose to fight with him and live, or fight against him and eventually die.

And then he'd left, never again setting foot inside Konoha until the first day of his conquest.

Most of the Uchiha clan had chosen his side, including his parents but the few Uchiha clan members that chose to side with the Leaf were slaughtered and their names erased from the clan's archives. Itachi originally had taken a neutral side for most of the war, refusing to fight or abet his brother regardless of how much his parents implored the older Uchiha.

Itachi, a man always shrouded in mystery, seemed to have his own agenda in terms of the war, not that anyone ever knew what it was for he eventually decided to join Sasuke in the end anyway, but it wasn't until they were near the final stretch: when only Suna and Konoha was left, more than a year after Gaara's murder and Sasuke was right about to lay siege to the disheartened Sunagakure.

With Itachi's addition, Akatsuki very quickly and easily overtook Suna.

And now Sasuke stood reigning overlord with Itachi as his right hand man, the older Uchiha having had no desire to rule himself.

And Sakura Haruno was finally beneath him, kneeling on the ground with her arms bound behind her as she stared with large doe like green eyes up at him, no doubt still taking in the ultimatum he had just given: become his woman or he would kill Miki.

Miki was the four year old boy she had been imprisoned with since the day of her capture by Sasuke's men. It had taken more than two years since the war ended for his men to find Sakura with how agile and adept she was in hiding and outwitting her chasers. She'd been captured on four separate occasions and each time she'd been able to escape before they could ship her to Konoha, where Sasuke stayed in most of the time, inside the newly revamped Hokage building.

On her fifth and final capture, Sakura hadn't been able to escape because Sasuke himself had come personally to ensure her arrest.

He'd kissed her the moment his eyes met her spring green ones again, right in the middle of his armed ANBU troops, all bloodied and wounded as they always were whenever they tried apprehending the Haruno girl. Sakura's face had been coated in sweat, dirt and earthly grime but she still looked immaculate in Sasuke's eyes.

Perfect.

With her arms bound behind her in chakra inhibiting ropes, and then a chakra sealing net for safe measure also constricting from her shoulders down to her ankles, all Sakura could do was glare with defiant fierce green eyes as Sasuke cupped her face with his hands and claimed her mouth.

After so many years, she still tasted the exact same: every bit as succulent and delicious as he remembered.

He'd been tempted -very tempted, to have sex with Sakura that very same night, just inside that camping tent of his, surrounded by all his men in their assigned camps. Sasuke wouldn't have minded the inevitable voyeurism –he knew he would have still taken Sakura even if everyone in the world stood witness.

It was the fact that he would have to force her that stopped him.

Sasuke didn't want to rape Sakura.

He wanted her to submit, willingly and complacently to him.

Completely and wholeheartedly become his, and that was far beyond any kind of sexual gratification.

And so his ingenious mind had come up with a plan to curb her stubborn nature to him: he'd thrown her in a cell with a four year old boy that had been sexually, emotionally and physically abused by his parents.

And he'd let reality and his apt knowledge of human nature do the rest.

Of course Sakura took to comforting the boy when he had one of his many nervous breakdowns. Of course she grew attached to the child in just the span of four short months. Of course when he sent a convicted pedophile into the same cell who immediately tried to assault Miki, Sakura had killed the man even with all of her chakra sealed.

Okay, so he hadn't anticipated that last part.

He'd just thought she would injure, maybe incapacitate the dude, not necessarily resort straight to taking a life, even one as vile as that pedophile's may have been, but Sasuke supposed the war and the years in between had hardened Sakura's already pretty firm heart just as it had hardened his.

The same result came when he tried separating Miki and Sakura; she straight up killed the two ANBU sent in to restrain her before the other two guards even had a chance to take a hold of Miki's small arms (the original plan was obviously for two people to restrain her while the other two pulled the kid out before Sakura could interfere). And soon the other two guards fell just like their colleagues, dead and brutally torn apart by Sakura's fists.

Sasuke had underestimated Sakura's basic strength. How the hell was she this strong without any chakra?! She barely looked like she had any bit of muscle on her person!

No matter, Sasuke had acknowledged aggravatingly, this facet of hers wasn't exactly hard to deal with.

He started drugging her foods, which he suspected Sakura would discover but all the same would have no way of defending herself from giving him his intended goal: her weakened disposition. Even if she chose to abstain from eating the drugged food, he would still get his desired result.

And soon, Sasuke's guards had no problem separating and detaining the boy; Sakura was subsequently pulled into Sasuke's office, bound, detained and enervated as she was. Sasuke had been right to assume she would discover the sedatives in her food; Sakura had found out the first meal, the very instant the foods had touched her lips actually -she'd been able to detect the supposedly tasteless, colorless, and allegedly undetectable drug –to Sasuke's deep bewilderment.

Regardless, he still got her weakened and prone before him.

"Be your woman…" Sakura reiterated his demand weakly, the request she'd rejected long ago, the order he'd given to her since the first day he'd captured her. Give me your heart. Submit to me.

"I'll give you anything."

"Okay," Sakura reiterated with a deep resigned sigh, eyes closed and head not angled up to even look at Sasuke had her eyes been open. She knew what he must look like: smug, satisfied and content that his plan had worked.

Of course she knew Miki had only ever been a manipulation tool the Uchiha could use as leverage over her; she'd known from the first day she his damaged, shaking quivering form. Nonetheless, she could not help growing attached to the boy.

She theorized Sasuke had selected the boy out of all other damaged children because of his cherubic round face and large round endearing eyes, perhaps thinking these facets of him would make it more likely for Sakura's cold heart to care for the child.

Sasuke really had no clue about who she really was.

But he was quite ingenious, and she had to concede this round to him.

"You will submit yourself to me, body and soul? Do anything I ask of you, willingly and without resistance or complaint?" Sasuke asked her perhaps a bit more ardently that he would have liked to reveal but he couldn't help it, the fantasy, the dream of having Sakura pleasure him, wanting to please and willingly submit to anything he asked of her had too long seemed like an elusive dream in the back of his head.

He of course wanted more than just her coerced cessation, he wanted her to submit to him without the threat of him harming someone she loved, but Sasuke had other plans to ensure that next step occurred. This was the first procedure: to win her acquiescence, by any means.

Sakura nodded dully before him.

She looked completely exhausted, finally accepting that she could not surpass his will, like he always wanted.

Sasuke smiled. It was a sincere one that spread from one side of his jaw to the other through sealed lips. It was filled with smug satisfaction and self-aggrandizement. He knew -he'd known- he would eventually defeat her.

But try as he might, Sasuke could not stop the other emotion that flooded just as insistently, if not much more, than his satisfaction: deep, relieving elation.

He really did love her.

Sasuke found himself unable to deny this truth any longer as he stared at her kneeling form before him, still avoiding looking at his eyes. Yes…he loved her, as much as he didn't want to. As much as she didn't deserve him to.

-as much as he'd told himself that he would abandon her, throw her away like she'd done to him, as soon as his plan worked –as soon as he had her weak and vulnerable, dependent and sycophantic to his will…Sasuke knew he would never be able to separate himself from her.

He cupped her pale face now with both hands so he could look her straight in the face; he saw that she still had her eyes closed.

"Look at me," he ordered in a not-at-all-threatening-or-authoritative tone, as much as he tried to force that kind of cadence; his words came out breathy and…goddammit, desperate sounding.

But Sakura still obeyed. Her large green doe like orbs met his coal black ones. In them he saw anger, irritation, forlorn defeat and genuine enmity that didn't seem to have an end to. But most of all he saw acceptance and exhaustion. She really meant to give him what he wanted, so long as he didn't harm Miki.

Sasuke had done everything in his life up to this point just to see this look in her eyes.

He had expected tears from her but he was glad there weren't any, to his own surprise. He would have thought the idea of her sobbing, pathetic, and defeated would make him joyous but instead he only found the prospect revolting. It would mar her appeal, the very reason he had fallen so much in love with her: her unending strength and perseverance.

He did not want to see her break because then she would not be the woman he had fallen in love with.

He just wanted to make her weak enough to accept him, so he could coax her into loving him.

Sasuke found his own breath escaping in short fragmented exhales through his parted lips, unable to inhale as he acknowledged this daunting epiphany -all the while unable to tear his widened to the max eyes away from Sakura's beautiful pale emotionless countenance.

Even now she was fearless before him.

Sasuke was emotionally floored; internally defeated and realizing that he had trapped himself. Forever doomed into loving this incredible woman before him; by making her the pivotal core of his entire life, the reason he'd done anything for the last decade and more, he had cemented her position in his heart.

He was hers in every definition of the phrase and there was nothing he could do about it.

Sasuke knew now that he would never be able to harm Miki, not if it brought Sakura sadness. Not if it made her unhappy.

He was her slave.

"Just kiss me already Sasuke," Sakura stated suddenly in an exasperated voice, breaking him out of his deep thoughts and it was only then that Sasuke realized he was the one crying. Two cold wet tear streaks lined the sides of his photogenic cheekbones and down his sculpted jaw line.

Dammit.

Sasuke very quickly let go of Sakura and furiously wiped away his tears on his sleeve.

He could never keep his indifferent nature up when it came to Sakura. Another thing he hated, and unfortunately loved, about her.

A sudden loud thud occurred behind him and Sasuke looked back to find with horror that Sakura had fainted, probably out of malnutrition from too much fasting.

He was by her side in seconds, cradling her thin –too thin- form with his callused hands, lightly shaking her. "Sakura, Sakura…Sakura!"

He was right about to call for his best medical-nins when Sakura's eyelids weakly stirred, and then a couple more seconds later opened, to his great relief. Sasuke let out the breath he didn't know he'd been holding.

He lifted her into his arms and quickly moved her onto his bed. He tried to place her lying down but Sakura weakly shook her head and asked to be placed sitting up against the headboard.

"I'm hungry…Sasuke," she stated weakly through half lidded eyes. "And thirsty…can I have some coffee?"

Sasuke pursed his lips.

"Coffee will only dehydrate you more," he said with genuine concern. Sakura seemed ready to argue more but in that moment, Sasuke chose to phone for the medical-nin, as well as calling for a full course dinner to be brought up to his room as well, before he could hang up, Sakura requested weakly: "Please…bring tea…I need something hot and strong."

Sasuke could not help the sexual images of her taking him through her lips and sucking him off because of her choice of words and immediately chastised his mind for going there when she was so very obviously malnourished.

All in good time. Sasuke mentally told himself as he ordered a pot of tea in addition to Sakura's meal.

In just five minutes, the medics came up and in another two minutes, Sakura had four different IVs stuck into her arms, blood pressure cuffs on her arm and both of her legs recording her chakra flow, and many other various medical devices testing some part of her to diagnose what Sasuke already knew was wrong with her: malnutrition. Sasuke theorized that she'd been starving herself for well over a week now; her letting herself starve to death had never been a fear he'd had towards Sakura.

He knew her will would never let herself commit suicide, much less when someone's life depended on hers.

But he still worried about her diminishing health the entire time his guards reported to him about her not touching her food, only drinking a small sip from her cup of water every time. If she hadn't gotten weak enough by the second week, Sasuke was ready to force feed the sedatives into her.

But luckily he hadn't had to do that.

Sakura lied complacently the entire time his doctors and nurses tended to her, sending chakra into her wherever they deemed necessary for her survival while still not giving her enough to fight her way out. They had untied her chakra suppression rope binds by now, bidding Sasuke's instructions since they had caused deep painful looking bruises on her wrists and also because he knew she wouldn't dare do anything so long as Miki was in their custody.

And also because he'd already implanted a chakra blocking implant into the back of her neck, at the start of her spine when she'd finally passed out in her cell.

Sasuke doubted she knew about the implant but he didn't want to underestimate her just the same. He had no doubt that she would still try to escape if ever given the chance. He knew he had to breakdown her resistance slowly.

Sakura was just finishing her third cup of tea, and was pouring a fourth cup when the nurses deemed her stable enough for Sasuke to come near her again. He cautiously moved to sit at her bed side and took the half-finished cup of tea that she had been intending on chugging down (like she'd done with the other three cups) from her hands.

"Slow down Sakura, no one's going to steal it from you," Sasuke said with only good intentions, but realized how unintentionally taunting it sounded. He refused to take it back though.

Sakura didn't look at him and just offered a small acknowledging nod; her eyelids were dropped half closed as she came to stare at him through her lashes.

Her thoughts, as always, were obscured from him through her expression. All he saw through her face was that same form of tired exhaustion. Sasuke wished he knew what she was thinking.

She opened her mouth as if to say something but seemed to change her mind, and closed it a second later, too tired. She spoke through a barely conscious voice: "That…tea…was decaffeinated?"

Sasuke nodded. "It is too late for something caffeinated."

Sasuke mentally swore at himself. Dammit. That statement once again revealed too much of his concern for her. Recovering quickly he said in a commanding voice: "Get some sleep, Sakura."

He made to draw the covers over her but a hand came to close over his elbow, stopping him, to his surprise.

"You're not going to fuck me?"

Why were his ears suddenly burning? What the fuck. It took every ounce of his self-control to conceal his embarrassment/anxiety from his expression and voice but he succeeded. He spoke with feigned disinterest and distaste: "You're hardly healthy enough for that, Sakura."

He added a second later: "I will you take though, don't think that is a fate you can avoid."

Sasuke hated that sentence as soon as it came out. Again, it made him sound too desperate. Too needing of her. Made her too important to him. Also made him sound like some desperate pubescent teenage boy needing gratification as if it was oxygen.

He didn't hear a reply from her and Sasuke placed that to be anxiety or perhaps mental determination to prove him wrong while also not wanting to reveal her desire to escape.

Feeling the air become too awkward, Sasuke moved to stand up and leave the room.

It was only when he was on the threshold of stepping out the door that he heard Sakura's voice finally replying to his rhetorical declaration: "I never thought I could avoid that fate."

I know a lot of people thought I abandoned this lol, sorry for this long update. Please review!