Hey, everyone!

So, I got a review today that said basically, instead of my update schedule, I pretty much update monthly. I'm sorry! I try to stick to it, but I have so many stories going right now that it's impossible to keep up with all the ideas, especially since I'm writing more original fiction these days, too. My bad; I'm sorry for leaving you all hanging for so long. I'm trying to get better, I really am, but life happens. This is the best I can do and I'm sorry, but I can't do any better.

I hope it's enough. :(

Anyways, this chapter is a bridge chapter. It's important and you'll see why when you finish it.

10

-The Hard Questions-

When they arrived back at his house, Sakura followed Madara inside numbly. She barely registered slipping off her shoes and following him into the dining room. She took a seat at the large table, hardly caring that he had pulled the chair out for her to sit in, and then he left to do kami knew what. Glassy green eyes stared blankly at the polished wood in front of her and she could feel her hands trembling in her lap ever so slightly.

Sakura wasn't sure how long she had sat there in the dining room, her mind blank with horror. Even now, she wasn't sure what had spurred her decision to stay. She knew logically that it was because of the threat that bastard had made against her otou-san, but that shouldn't have stopped her from leaving. She should have stood strong, should have believed in herself and Kakashi. They were strong; they could survive whatever this madman had done to them and would do to them. However, she was also keenly aware that the fact she had stayed meant something, even if it didn't mean what she wanted it to mean.

It didn't seem that Madara was returning anytime soon, so Sakura pulled out her phone. If nothing else, she should let her otou-san know where she…or rather, that she would be gone for a while. Technically, at her age she didn't have to justify with whom or where she went, but it was a courtesy she extended to him for safety's sake and also so he didn't have to worry about her. Unfortunately, she could only text him and tell him that she was okay and was just taking some time to wrap her head around their situation.

But she wasn't wrapping her head around the situation at all; she was spinning headlong into the mess her life had become, blindly groping around for an answer because the only one she had been presented with wasn't acceptable.

Just as Sakura was closing her phone, she heard the small ding relaying a received text. She wasn't sure she wanted to deal with anyone right now—in fact, she knew she didn't—but curiosity had her open her phone and see who it was anyway.

When she saw the named "Uchiha Sasuke" in the headliner, her heart stopped beating. Taking a steadying breath, she closed her eyes for a moment before opening them again and then tapping on the icon to show the screen.

It had just one word; one simple, meaningful word.

Why?

Sakura felt tears prick her eyes, but the fact that Sasuke was reaching out to her at all was a good sign. It wouldn't have been unlike him to save his pride and never talk to her again—at least if he fully believed Madara's story. Which Sakura, despite herself, wouldn't have blamed him for in any other situation. However, whether or not he believed everything Madara had told him—whatever Madara had told him—Sakura knew that the fact that he was willing to talk to her about it meant that their relationship could be saved, that she could be saved. Sasuke's parents had a car, she realized, and he could come pick her up.

Screw Madara.

She had made a mistake staying in the car with him—she should have reiterated the sentiment that he should go fuck himself and left.

Sakura stood up and checked the nearby hallways for signs of Madara. Finding none, she crept towards the front of the house. Quietly, she opened the front door and slipped out into the afternoon sun.

Dialing his number as quickly as possible—she wasn't sure if there was some kind of security system that would alert Madara to those leaving and entering the house—Sakura waited for the phone to ring.

"…Hello."

"Sasuke-kun!" she breathed, hardly believing that he had picked up. She knew he wasn't one much to talk on the phone, but this was too important to be said over text. The tears pricking her eyes leaked over her eyelashes and dripping down her cheeks. "Oh, Sasuke-kun…" And then she was sobbing hysterically into the phone, trying to stay quiet but probably not succeeding.

"Why did you do it?" he asked bluntly, not seeming to care much for her tears. He seemed entirely indifferent, although even if he hated her for the supposed cheating, she knew he wasn't. There was an edge of hurt to his tone that spoke volumes.

Relieved as she was to hear his voice, Sakura didn't care about the accusation in his tone. She took a few gasping sobs to calm herself before blurting, "He drugged me. He raped me!" And then she couldn't stop crying.

Sasuke was quiet for a long time while he tried to comprehend this, or maybe he was just deciding whether or not to believe her side of the story—the truth. Sakura, for her part, couldn't stop crying, although she tried to keep the volume down as much as possible. She would not allow Madara to interrupt this and she knew that he would if he had the chance.

"…Why?" Sasuke asked at last. "Why should I believe you? Why would he even do that? Sakura, he-"

"Don't say it, Sasuke-kun," she hissed. She suddenly realized that she had created a problem by not telling Sasuke about her life falling apart; she would be springing so much on him at once and it would be a particularly difficult story to believe when told backwards. "I know he can get any woman he wants. But you know that I didn't want him! Are you saying that I lied to you?"

Before Sasuke could even give time to think a response to that question, Sakura went on.

"Even if you do think I lied to you—which brings into question what kind of girl do you think I am—why would I do it? You don't know this because it had just happened Thursday, but Otou-san and I are going to be homeless by next week if…if I don't…" She wanted to tell him, wanted to tell him so badly, but even as it was about leave her lips she couldn't bring herself to say it. How could she make Sasuke believe it when she could hardly believe it herself?

"If you don't what?" Sasuke asked in a tone so blank she wondered if he even knew what he was feeling right now.

"…It doesn't matter. But my life's gone to hell, Sasuke-kun. I can't do this without you. Please…there's a lot I can't tell you right now. You wouldn't believe me. I don't know if I would believe me if it hadn't happened to me." She laughed bitterly. "It's-it's stupid. It's insane. It's the kind of thing that only happens in really sick, abusive romance novels, like that one Grey book. It's the kind of thing people don't believe unless it happens to them. It-"

"Sakura, you're rambling," Sasuke said. A little bit of warmth had unexpectedly crept into his voice, but she didn't imagine he was smiling just yet.

"C-can you please pick me up? I need to see you, and I have to get a-"

"Changed your mind already, Sa-ku-ra?"

Her voice caught in her throat and the phone clattered to the ground as she panicked, twisting around to face her captor. Madara towered over her, a dark look in his eyes. It was frightening and terrifyingly reminiscent of the night before, when she'd started to overcome the drug and he wouldn't take no for an answer.

He began to advance on her and she backed away quickly, not intending to let him close the distance. Sakura knew that she couldn't let Madara win this. If Sasuke heard Madara's voice, if he heard her scream, it would be more than enough evidence to condemn this bastard of a man. Besides, the look in his eyes was promising something. What that something was, she couldn't be sure, but she knew it wasn't good. He was obviously angered.

"Sasu-" she began to screech.

Crunch.

Her phone was now a mangled mess beneath Madara's shoe, but he twisted his foot and stomped a few extra times to ensure the deed was done.

"I'm disappointed in you, Sakura," Madara said lowly. He kicked the twisted contraption of cracked screen and broken wires off into the hedges lining the house's exterior. "A 'sick, abusive romance novel'? I have not abused you."

"You raped-"

She hadn't realized how closed he'd gotten until he lunged forward and captured her lips with his. Pinned against a wall, she could only shove against him as his lips ravaged hers. She attempted to scream—they might as well have been in public with how famous Madara was—but it only let him force his tongue inside her mouth.

Wildly, she reached for his long mane of hair and yanked at it. This made him growl deeply and he lifted her flailing body up before bodily forcing her back into the house.

Realizing that her chance was gone, Sakura stopped fighting and released his hair, waiting for him to release her. She was pretty sure he had only kissed her to stop her from proclaiming to the world that he had raped her—while not entirely believable, that kind of confrontation on his property and not in a place meant for prying eyes was more damning than her storming in on him at a business meeting and screaming the same thing at him.

But he didn't stop. The kiss grew more passionate when she stopped fighting and he pushed her up against the nearest wall, his fingers entwining in her hair and twisting gently.

His lips began to trail lower, leaving her mouth and kissing down her jawline to her neck, and that was when Sakura realized, with terrible certainty, that while he might have kissed her to shut her up, the look in his eyes before hadn't been anger.

It had been jealousy.

"St-stop," she said fearfully, knowing that this would end badly if he got…aroused. "Stop! Stop!" She began to shove at him with all her strength.

To her extreme disbelief, he placed one final, lingering kiss on her collarbone—probably to show her that he was choosing to stop, not forced to—before pulling away.

"You're right," he said, straightening the collar of his shirt. "It wouldn't do to wear you out this early in the relationship."

Sakura stiffened with anger. "You're assuming that I said yes! I've just postponed the decision!"

Madara nodded in agreement, looking at her for one long, calculating moment before turning away. "Indeed. However, it would be wise to make your decision before Monday. The meeting to decide upon Hatake's future employment at Uchiha Corp. takes place at 8am."

Sakura's stomach dropped.

"This is a life-changing decision!" she argued, following after him into the living room. "You're giving me what, less than seventy-two hours to decide? How is that fair?"

"Nothing in life is fair, Sakura," Madara replied easily. When he went into his room, she stopped at the doorway. If she went in there with him, it might give him…ideas. For all she knew, just walking into his room voluntarily was signing a permission slip for him to rape her again.

"That's stupid," Sakura spat. "You have the control in this—you could make it fair! Hell, you don't even have to change your mind about this-this madness, but you could at least give me a little more time to figure out what the rest of my life is going to be like!"

Madara stepped into his closet and there was the rustling of clothes as he responded. "There's nothing to 'figure out.' You have two options: you and your only remaining family will be starved, homeless, and penniless, or you will marry me and have everything you could ever want in life. Hatake will be able to retire early and I will even purchase him a new life elsewhere."

"…Wait. New life? Elsewhere?" Sakura asked, her mind whirring. "Why would he need that?"

Madara paused for a moment, perhaps deciding on what he was going to wear. She wasn't really sure why he was changing clothes anyway. "Only if he wanted it."

But Sakura knew he was deflecting something, hiding something. "No. Why would he even want that? His only family is here! What are you trying to pull?" She was screaming now, but she wasn't sure if it was anger or fear.

Madara stepped out of the closet half-dressed, his pants changed into black slacks and his white button-up undone. "It was merely a thought, Sakura. Don't pay it any mind." He wasn't answering her and obviously wasn't going to, because his tone of voice clearly said that the conversation was over with.

"If you don't tell me, I'll never say yes," she threatened.

He raised an eyebrow and smirked. "Remember what I told you in the car, Sakura?"

She nodded sharply, hate in her eyes.

"Consider it a new term of our agreement: if I do not receive my answer before 8am on Monday, Hatake's future is set in stone. Nothing you can or will do thereafter will change that."

Sakura gritted her teeth and cradled her face in her hands. She wasn't sure if she was holding in tears or a scream of fury. Slowly, after taking a few deep breaths, she said venomously, "You're not giving me much of a choice."

"That's very much the point."

Taking another calming breath, Sakura focused her mind.

"I'm not saying yes," she said, "but whether or not I do, I think I deserve to know why you're doing this at all. You could have any trophy wife out there. It didn't have to be me."

Now fully dressed, he stepped out of the closet, looking immaculately handsome. Sakura ignored everything else in favor of searching out his dark eyes.

When she caught his gaze and held it, she said calmly, "Before anything else, I want to know why."

So, next chapter? We find out Madara's perspective on this whole mess and...dun dun dun...*maybe* Sasuke shows up! How or why and especially the outcome of that is anyone's guess, but that's what's coming next chapter! I hope to get it out as soon as possible.

On poll results:

The winner was not who I expected, honestly. And I'm sorry to tell those who didn't read the last chapter, but if you didn't vote in the poll itself (read: clicked on my profile, clicked the link at the top of the page, and submitted your choice to the poll) then your vote DID NOT COUNT. I explicitly stated that in the previous chapter and I'm afraid that a lot of people didn't listen to me. The poll has been concluded and I'm not going to go back and count who voted in reviews and who didn't. A lot of you had great reasoning behind your votes, but if you didn't click the link, your vote DID NOT COUNT. Unfortunately, the poll was accidentally deleted and while I clearly remember who won, so it cannot be posted or opened again.

Now, with that concluded, please review!

Reviews are love and I love you!