Hey everyone!

Short chapter here, it's kind of an interlude. Next chapter will have lemon/rape in it, but you'll only find the explicit version on my blog. Also on my blog (starting next chapter), you'll find a link to my original novel. It's not out in Kindle form yet, but please check it out! I promise it will be worth your time!

Note: Chapter is not heavily edited by any means. Read on with caution.

6

-Thoughtless-

Sakura sat on her bed, tears streaming down her face as she stared, unseeing, at the cloudy grey skies. A storm was coming soon, this she knew, but she couldn't tell if the storm was going to be battering her rooftop or her life.

It seemed the world was conspiring against her, starting today, the third Thursday of April. Saturday had gone blessedly well, going on a date with Sasuke after her shift at the hospital like she had dreamed of doing for the past five years at least. They went to a nice restaurant for early dinner and then had spent the rest of the evening sitting in a park, watching the sunset. He had walked her home and they had kissed—truly kissed, even with a little bit of tongue. She had tasted him for the first time and it had been better than she could have ever imagined. What had been even better was the fact that he kissed her back just as passionately and with the same fervor.

Sunday she had put the finishing touches on her essay for ECL and studied for the test she knew she had on Tuesday.

Monday, she had gone to class, hung out with Sasuke and the flabbergasted Naruto, who hadn't realized until just then that his two best friends were now dating. Sakura had taken advantage of that to not-so-subtly nudge the blond in Hyuuga Hinata's direction. She and Sasuke had kissed again and she was almost surprised at how heated his kisses were. She didn't want to move too fast, but whenever his lips touched hers, pulses of arousal shot to her abdomen and she had known immediately that when they finally did have sex—or make love, as she would call it—it would be fantastic. Hadn't it always been her dream to give herself, all of herself, to him?

Tuesday, she took her test and felt that she had done a very good job. Her grades were exemplary and her teacher had even congratulated her on them. That kind of boost was always good to have. Again, she spent lots of time with Sasuke that day, letting Naruto attend to his homework—after much whining and complaining at being left behind—while they went out to Sakura's favorite tempura restaurant. Sakura would never have thought even two weeks ago that she would ever be able to spend so much time with Sasuke as her boyfriend.

Sasuke was surprisingly sweet and gentle in his own way. He still carried around his surly attitude, but she knew him well enough to see the softening of his eyes when he looked at her, to appreciate the way that his grunts slowly turned into short sentences, and to understand that for some reason, he was really trying to show more affection in a week than she had ever seen him give in all the years that she had known him combined.

Wednesday had been a perfectly normal day. She hadn't spent much time with Sasuke that day other than class, and it had been a little galling when a pack of his fangirls verbally assaulted her—but when Sasuke actually came to her rescue, a warmth she had never felt before had spread through her like wildfire. She had gone to bed happy that night.

When she woke up on Thursday and went to the kitchen to reheat leftovers for breakfast, she had been surprised to see her otou-san there on the phone. Five things had happened shortly after in such rapid succession it was unreal.

One: Kakashi had handed her the eviction notice while arguing with the landlord, apparently about the unjustified complaints that were suddenly being wagered against them in an attempt to uproot them from their home.

Two: An hour and a half later, Sakura had told the school she wouldn't be coming in that day because of familial issues—someone had to take care of the possibility of apartment hunting while her father went to work. They had told her not to worry about it and oh, by the way, she was suspended because of lack of funds from her scholarship. She told them it was impossible and when they wouldn't be swayed, went to check both her bank account and the scholarship fund.

Three: She found that both her bank account and scholarship fund were on hold indefinitely. Without calling the school back, she had immediately tackled calling Byakugan Bank, her banker. After a half-hour spent waiting on hold, she was told that there had been suspicious activity on her account and that no money was to be spent until the matter had been investigated and the case closed. When she asked about how she was to pay for anything in that interim, the phone line had suspiciously cut out.

Four: She called apartment complexes in the area and found that absolutely nobody had an availability—even though results were popping up online. She told them she was willing to settle for any floor plan in any part of town and every single one had changed tune the moment she had given her name. By the end, she wasn't telling them her name, but apparently they still didn't have any openings. If her otou-san couldn't figure out things with this apartment complex, it was possible that they would be homeless.

Five: Kakashi came home and told her that he was currently on probation from his job because they were finding that he might not be truly qualified for the promotion he'd been given. It was possible he would not only the position itself, but his place at Senju, Inc. entirely.

And thus, Sakura's entire world had fallen apart in the span of twelve hours.

Looming ahead of her was the friendly 'date' with Madara and although she had initially wanted to cancel it, she realized that if nothing else, her best bet for saving her otou-san's job was going to the man who had promoted him in the first place. It was likely that Madara knew nothing of Kakashi's plight and if she could only convince him to investigate the matter, of course her otou-san position would be saved—Madara had given it to him in the first place. From what she could tell, the Uchiha was a smart man and would be able to make a fair decision. Even if her otou-san lost the position, surely Madara could stop him from being fired altogether.

It made her feel somewhat dirty that she would be willing to employ very minimal advantage of his clear attraction to her to get it done, but this was her life. No, not her life—her family's life. At this point, things were starting to look extremely dire. By this time next week, if everything hadn't been sorted out, the Hatake-Haruno family would be homeless, destitute, and without an available penny to their names.

Tears starting to form once again in her eyes, Sakura glanced at her phone. It was ringing and Sasuke's number appeared on the screen.

She wanted to talk to him so badly, but her family pride would not allow her to share her plight with him and she knew that there would be nothing she could say to anybody right now that wouldn't concern the sudden destruction of her life, brick by brick.

Ignoring the love of her life's phone call, Sakura leaned back in bed, stared at the ceiling, and allowed herself to continue crying silently.

He had wanted to butter her up, sweeten her to the idea of being with him.

He had wanted to show her the kind of life she would lead if she chose to stay by his side, to show her that she would be lavished with anything and everything she could ever want if she only chose him and not Sasuke.

He had almost wanted to take things slow, to relish the pursuit of her feelings for him so that when he finally caught her, when she finally surrendered herself to him, it would be the most rapturous feeling in the world.

He wanted to feel her gentle kisses first, touch her everywhere slowly and tantalizingly until she was begging for more before he took her. He hadn't wanted things to be like this.

But now he had no choice; she had chosen Sasuke before he'd even begun to pursue her and now he had to play his hand and force her because he wouldn't let them grow any closer than they already were. Sasuke had beaten him unwittingly, but that would not last for long. Sakura would be his whether or not she chose him. He had wanted to give her a chance to choose correctly, but she'd already failed that.

He was furious that he had to force her into marrying him—he had wanted so badly for it to be of her own volition—but now there was no choice. He wanted to be her first, her only, and having Sasuke near her in this romantic sense endangered that. He wanted her all to himself and if she would not come willingly, he had no other choice than to make her.

Thus, he had to put his contingency plan into action much sooner than he had hoped to. If he had his way, he never would have had to use it in the first place, but unfortunately things had not turned out the way he planned. Somehow, things had spun out of his control—temporarily, of course, but Madara was not a man who liked to be powerless in regards to anything he wanted, or really life at all. He hadn't worked so hard to get to this position of power only to be denied what he truly wanted. Given how dull the rest of his life had gotten despite all the hard work he had put into his company, it was only fair that he obtain the only thing—person—he truly wanted in life.

He deserved to be happy; he deserved Sakura.

Leaning back in his office chair, he contemplated the next evening hours. It was nine o'clock at night on Thursday evening. Not even twenty-four hours stood in between him and possessing his prize. Anticipation like fire roared in him and he was starting to doubt that he would be able to restrain himself when he finally had Sakura alone in his home with him. If she had known that the impromptu destination for their date was his house, preferably in his bedroom by the end of it, she would not have agreed to the date, so of course he had made it a 'surprise.' The only way she would be overdressed would be if she was wearing more than two layers.

It was typically bad business to deal with the black market, but for the supplies he had needed to ensure her cooperation it had been the only place he could go. A young man named Akasuna Sasori, who was a mutual acquaintance of his great-cousin Itachi, happened to be quite proficient in mixing poisons and other certain…concoctions. If he plied Sakura with alcohol and his drug of choice for the evening, she would be putty in his hands before he even took her shirt off.

Sasori had made it so that the effects of the aphrodisiac were hard to notice if one was under the influence. The symptoms of ingesting it were subtle but potent and Sakura would likely not notice that she had been drugged. Even if she did, there was no proof to show her, no evidence to discover. For all she would know, she had fallen victim to Madara's seduction, even though she had a boyfriend who she surely thought she was wholly faithful to.

It occurred to him then that Sakura was a woman fit to be his wife, ergo, she might actually be smart enough to realize what had happened and resist the effects of the drug. He did not want to rape her—he didn't want to put the distance of trauma between them—but he decided that if Sakura did not reciprocate his actions, it was something that he was not obligated to take responsibility for.

While he did not want it to come down to rape, it would be impossible for her to really do anything about it. With his threats against her family should she refuse his marriage proposal, it would be completely out of character for her to be selfish and let her only living family member suffer for her actions. Of course, if she tried to 'cry rape'—even though there was a chance that it might truly be—it would be more or less harmless to him. A high-standing businessman with ties to the political party governing Japan at the moment, it would almost be expected for some unrecognized nobody to try to sue for all the money she could get for what would undoubtedly be a 'night gone wrong.' Sakura, who was not an unrecognized nobody, at least to him, would probably try to put him in jail and stop his machinations against her rather than attempt to take something from his veritably endless bank account.

However, given the fact that his closest contact in the political scene was, in fact, the Prime Minister, even if Sakura were to present overwhelmingly damning proof, it would easily be swept under the rug before the media could sink their claws into it.

All in all, Haruno Sakura was as good as his and he couldn't wait to finally have her.

So yes, Madara's going to be a sneaky bastard next chapter. And an all-around bastard, too. Poor, poor Sakura. I'm so cruel to her...