Here's the next chapter! Sorry for the delay, I just finished up my finals.

warning(?): there is a verrrrrryyyyy light M in this chapter

Please read, review & enjoy!

Seduction

Standing in Orochimaru's office, Sasuke wants to peel his skin off.

Orochimaru's skin, that is.

Despite having completed his last mission perfectly, Sasuke has been receiving a lecture for the past five minutes about shit he just doesn't give a shit about.

"You need to stop taking those afternoon naps," the sannin presses on. Sasuke rolls his eyes. "I'm serious. I'll be taking your body soon and I don't want to get tired in the middle of the day."

Out of the corner of his eye, Sasuke sees Sakura flinch almost imperceptibly. The closer the three-year deadline has gotten, the more on edge she's been.

"Now, Sakura-chan," Orochimaru digresses, eyes sliding to the pink-haired rogue. "I have something exciting for you."

Sakura straightens in surprise. "Really?"

"Yes," he says, face splitting into his signature creepy smile. He hands her a scroll. "Your first seduction mission."

"O-oh," Sakura murmurs, lips turning down in an uneasy frown. She unfurls the scroll and looks over its contents.

Sasuke has a different reaction.

"What the fuck," he shouts. "She can't do a seduction mission. She's sixteen!"

Orochimaru shrugs, looking utterly pleased at Sasuke's distress. "The age of consent in Otogakure is fourteen."

"Yeah, because you're a fucking pedophile," Sasuke spits.

"Sasuke-kun, it's fine," Sakura interjects, reaching out to brush his arm. "This is just part of being a kunoichi."

Sasuke's frustration only grows at her words. There's no reason she should be comforting him about this. She's the one that has to fuck some sleazy lowlife, and all because he decided to drag her down with him three years ago. "Hn. Whatever," he grumbles, turning away. He's out the door before Orochimaru has a chance to dismiss him.

Sasuke hears Sakura enter her room at roughly nine o'clock. He waits until eleven before heading over.

She's on him the moment he closes the door behind him, tugging at his collar and pressing her lips to his.

"Someone's excited," he hums between kisses, pushing her towards the bed. She plops onto the mattress, and Sasuke's eyes drop to her breasts as they bounce in time with the spring of the bed. He notices that she's wearing only knickers and a thin tank-top.

"I've been waiting for you for two hours," she breathes, pursing her lips in an attractive pout. If he didn't know any better, he'd think she might be trying to seduce him.

Sasuke slips off his sandals and kicks them towards the door. "Hn. Really?"

She grasps at his shirt and pulls him onto the bed with her. "As if you didn't know," she gasps out before sucking his tongue into her mouth. One of Sakura's hands roams under his shirt while the other finds purchase in his hair. He grips her waist and tries to kiss her back with as much vigor as she's displaying.

Suddenly, she pushes him into a sitting position, clambers onto his lap, and rejoins their lips. Sasuke only allows himself to be startled for half a second before returning his hands to her waist. After a minute or so, Sakura breaks away from him and promptly tears her shirt off. His brain short-circuits at the sight of her bared chest. "Sasuke-kun," she purrs, leaning in once more to lick a path up his neck. Still completely stunned, it's all Sasuke can do to nuzzle her hair with his cheek and run a hand down her naked back. It's only when she places her hand on the growing bulge of his pants that his mind comes back to him.

He grips her wrist and pulls her hand away. "What are you doing?" Frowning, Sakura looks down at the sheets. She shrugs, clearly not intending to answer him. "Sakura," he says, tone reproachful.

Finally meeting his eyes again, she sighs in her typical over-the-top manner. "I just wanted my first time to mean something."

Ah, Sasuke thinks, so that's what this is about.

"Look," Sasuke tells her, maneuvering her off his lap. He stands and picks her shirt off the floor before handing it back to her. He keeps his eyes on the floor until she pulls it over her head. "It shouldn't be this way."

"You don't think I know that," she cries, jumping off the bed and coming to stand in front of him, fire in her eyes. "But that's the situation. These are the circumstances—my circumstances." Then all at once, she deflates, eyes cast down again. "I'd rather it be with you than some criminal."

Unable to process the emotional gravity behind anything she's said, he simply retorts, "I'm a criminal."

She laughs, but there's no humor behind the sound. "You know what I mean."

A moment of heavy silence ensues, which both of them spend gazing at the ground instead of each other. At long last, Sasuke voices what's been on his mind all day. "Just don't go on the mission."

"Yeah, right," she snorts, conveying her incredulity. "Orochimaru would have to die tomorrow for that to happen."

Sasuke places his hand under her chin and tilts her head up. "So maybe he dies tomorrow."

Sasuke has Sakura distract Kabuto while he kills Orochimaru.

At first, part of him is worried he won't be able to defeat the sannin as he'd only finalized his plans to kill the decrepit snake the night before. However, when Orochimaru opens up the private dimension for the body transfer jutsu and he's able to see all the vulnerable cracks in the old man's mind, he knows he's won.

Soon after his victory, Sakura stumbles into the doorway looking a little worse for wear. He continues to stand still in the middle of the room. Eventually, he turns and walks past her.

She stops him as he's making his way down the hall. "Right now, which one are you?"

Looking back at her, an accomplished smile graces his lips. "Who do you think?"

Before she has the chance to answer, he pulls her into Orochimaru's crumbling dimension. Bewildered, she surveys the carnage he left behind.

He releases her mind, and she asks, "So, Orochimaru is dead?" He says nothing, and she goes on, "No, this is like . . ."

Grinning again, he affirms, "I took him over."

With that, he turns and continues on his way.

P.S. I accidentally uploaded the fourth chapter of a diff story when trying to update this one, so sorry for any confusion!