Hey everyone!

So, a lot happens in this chapter. To me it feels rushed, but it was the best I could do. I'm really trying not to take so long between updates and Why the Caged Bird Sings is my main project right now, so this is the product. I think it's well-written enough, but I believe it feel rushed because SO MUCH HAPPENS.

And for some of you, this chapter may be discouraging, but all I'll say is stick around. Things might get better. :)

Warning: Attempted rape this chapter, or rather, sorta-kinda rape. You'll see. If you don't like that, just skim around the halfway point, but I can't censor it because it's important to the rest of the chapter AND the story. REALLY important.

Enjoy!

11

-Shift-

His eyes were boring into her, but Sakura forced herself to stay strong. She wouldn't back down from this; she needed an answer. While she doubted he could give one that would be anywhere near satisfactory, it was a necessary task. She wanted to know why, and she wanted to know the truth.

"Unfortunately, I have a meeting with my lawyer in thirty minutes," Madara told her. However, as though this was a battle of wills, he never broke eye contact. That alone told Sakura that this interaction meant something, that it was a defining moment in her peril.

She glared until her eyes watered and anyone else might have thought she was about to cry. Instead, she was experiencing a fury that was unparalleled by any other emotion she had ever felt before.

"So, that's it then. You're running away. Am I getting too close to the truth, Madara-sama?" she taunted. "That there isn't a good reason for why you doing this, that you're just a lonely little boy who has to force people to get what he wants?" She smiled, but it was more like baring her teeth. "No wonder you're not married yet. You can get them in bed, can't you, but you can't make them stay? So you have to force a young, helpless woman into marrying you because no sane woman would ever actually want you for more than a quick fuck."

Something in Madara's eyes hardened and flashed, and Sakura took an involuntary step backwards, ready to flee. However, she still didn't break eye contact. Then, he smirked easily, though there was now a glint in his eyes that unsettled something in Sakura's stomach. "Brave words for a frightened little girl," he taunted right back. "You must feel so proud of yourself, standing up to the big, bad villain."

He took a step forward and Sakura mirrored him, taking another step back. Their staring contest went on, but Sakura was having a very hard time not fleeing. It was clear that she had pissed him off, and in his territory, too. If he wanted to, he could kill her, hide the body, and no one would be any the wiser. Sasuke might know, but with the power Madara had, it would take some awfully damning evidence to even have him charged.

Madara advanced again and Sakura took another step back. His smirk had morphed into a malicious grin and it was quite clear that she was the prey right now. There was the strongest urge in her to flee—but she had no doubt that turning her back on him would be the worst thing to do in her position right now.

It occurred to her, in light of everything that had happened, that she did not truly know what this man was capable of.

He took another step forward, his long strides closing the distance faster than her short stature would allow her to. "Stop," she said, trying to channel Naruto's bravery. "I'm not playing this game. Don't you have a meeting to go to, anyways? I'll be here when you get back—it's not like I have a way to get back home, after all."

The goal right now was not to win the battle, but rather to subvert it. Right now, with that gleam in his eyes, she had to stop the antagonism and, while perhaps she wouldn't roll over and submit, it would be best to not be the one he took his anger out on. She had said quite a lot when taunting him, so she wasn't sure what it was that had pushed his proverbial button, but that was something that could be analyzed later. For now, she just had to get off the warpath.

He seemed to relax, and some of the tension in the air faded. "Hm, I suppose you're right," he conceded. Suddenly, he looked quite smug. Something told Sakura that she wasn't quite off the hook yet, but this was a step in the right direction, although she really didn't like the self-satisfied look on his face. Madara turned and picked up a black leather briefcase, checked the contents after propping it on his bed, and after making sure that everything that he needed was there, closed it and tucked it under his arm.

Sakura watched him warily as he prepared himself, still not willing to turn her back on him. She didn't feel that it would be wise to accept his reaction at face value.

Finally, it seemed that he was ready to go, because with his briefcase in hand, he left the bedroom. His eyes were laughing at her when she pressed herself up against the hallway wall when he passed, but he didn't comment on it.

"I'll be back in an hour," he told her as he slipped on his shoes. "Do try to behave."

Sakura nodded her agreement, a blatant lie.

He smirked, as if knowing that she was trying to deceive him. "Very well then."

And then he left the house. Sakura waited until his car had pulled out of the driveway before she began to search for a house phone.

She had to call Sasuke back.

The search was fruitless and it occurred to Sakura that if this had been his plan all along, he probably would have hidden the house phones from her reach. Or, perhaps he was just so rich that he didn't need a house phone. Either way, there was no way to contact Sasuke.

After half an hour of futility, Sakura slumped down onto the couch and staring listlessly at the ceiling.

Should she make a run for it?

She had hoped that Sasuke would be alarmed by the abrupt end of the phone call, that he would think to go to Madara's house to see if she was there, if her story panned out, but there was no sign of him. Then again, she didn't know the distance from Sasuke's house to Madara's—he might be on his way and all she had to do was just wait a little longer.

The front door opening jolted her from her reverie and Sakura was immediately upright and stiff. Madara was back! She glanced at the clock on the wall and realized that it had actually been almost an hour and a half. How long had she just sat there, staring off into nothing? She cursed herself for wasting time.

But then Madara entered the living room at a brusque pace, his briefcase nowhere to be seen.

Sakura then realized that he was making a beeline for her. There was intent in his eyes and she had a pretty good idea of what that intent might be.

Just as she was scrambling to stand and possibly make a run for it, he was crushing her into the couch, his lips pressed insistently against hers. Screaming, she made to shove him off her, but he only grasped her wrists and pinned them painfully over her head. They were now horizontal across the couch, Sakura's legs spread at an awkward angle as one was trapped into the crook where the cushions met and the other dangling off. Madara was kneeling in between her thighs and she could already feel a horrible bulge against her abdomen.

He pulled away from her, panting, but before she could scream, he clamped his hand over her mouth.

"If you want any answers, you will make love to me," he told her. Sakura's eyes widened in shocked horror and the atrocity of what he wanted her to consent to made the screams die in her throat. "Nothing is free in this world, hime. Everything has a price."

The decision was easy. She shook her head, glaring defiantly at him. She wouldn't cheat on Sasuke—never. She had been drugged and raped last night; she would never have done anything with Madara willingly, and that was not going to change for a few measly answers that could very well be lies.

He smirked at her vehemence. "You know," he said, squeezing her wrists together so hard they hurt, "if you hadn't lost your temper, things might not have turned out this way. I might have told you honestly for free." His eyes hardened frighteningly and Sakura had a feeling that whether or not she said yes or no, he was going to take her anyway. She whimpered and began to buck underneath him, attempting to dislodge her. He groaned and rocked his hips back against hers and she froze.

Madara went on. "But, of course, you lost your temper. There are consequences for everything, hime."

The hand covering her mouth moved and she immediately began thrashing, saving her breath for fighting. Madara was strong, though, and she knew that bucking her hips would only excite him, so she tried getting leverage to kick him instead.

His lips were on hers again and he didn't seem at all disgruntled by her fighting. Hot fingertips tugged at the loose waist of the borrowed sweatpants and Sakura did scream then, but out of fear rather than to try and alert anyone.

Madara swallowed her scream with his mouth and wrenched at the sweatpants, forcing them down past her hips. He immediately cupped her sex, parting her lower lips and stroking her clit roughly. Sakura felt tears spill from her eyes and in her desperation, she butted her head against his as hard as she could.

This took him by surprise and he jerked away, giving her a split second to act. She kneed him in the stomach—unfortunately, because of the angle it was only a glancing blow—and attempted to flee.

All she succeeded in doing was angering him though. Growling, he moved to go after her, but he needn't have worried about her getting away. The pants had been pulled so low, her underwear with them, that when she tried to run they tripped her. Panting, she scrabbled to pull them up and try again, but Madara was dragging her up by the waist and pinning her to his body, back to front.

"Unwise, Sakura, unwise," he hissed in her ear, and it was the most foreboding tone she had ever heard. He threw her back towards the couch and she smacked the back on her head on the wall. Crying out in pain and terror, she attempted to get away again, but he was already on top of her, pinning her down once more.

The sweatpants were discarded in short order despite her protests and thrashing. He wasn't even bothering to fully take off his pants; he merely unzipped them and freed his cock.

"You shouldn't have angered me, hime," he whispered into her ear. Her legs were flailing ineffectively as he knelt between them, his member pressing against her core intimately but not penetrating. A ragged sob tore from her throat and she struggled against his hold on her wrists. "I never wanted to hurt you."

And then Madara was pushing into her. She wasn't ready, oh gods, she wasn't ready and it hurt.

"Please!" she begged. "It-please! It hurts!"

At the sound of her pained pleading he paused and there was something in his eyes that seemed to shift. "Shh," he soothed, pulling her head into his chest. He was in about halfway and she could feel him throbbing inside her, her tight, dry walls protesting with every heartbeat. She whimpered at the pain.

"Please, stop," she pleaded. "Please…"

"I will not," Madara said, but there wasn't any coldness or even a hard edge to his tone. It was stated like a fact of life and suddenly, it was obvious that they weren't talking about the rape anymore. Something inside her shifted, surrendered.

"Then…please don't hurt me anymore," she whispered into his chest, biting back her sobs. It was nearly inaudible, but she knew he heard her because the hand once pinning her wrists slipped between their bodies and he began to rub her clit gently. At first it was merely uncomfortable, and she was still crying helplessly against him, but then he started touching her just right and a zing of pleasure sparked in her abdomen. He must have noticed a change in her demeanor—perhaps her breathing—because he continued to touch her just like that.

He lied her back down on the couch and slipped his hand from around her head to under her shirt. Madara kneaded her breasts gently, pinching her nipples softly while never stopping the attention to her clit.

Sakura was still crying, barely able to believe that this was happening, that she was being raped again, the she had asked him to stop it from hurting anymore, that he had listened to her. It felt like an ugly dream.

When he slid the rest of the way in, she groaned at the discomfort of something so large inside her, but it didn't hurt the way it had before. He leaned down to kiss her and she didn't fight, but she didn't kiss back either.

Still working to relax her body, to possibly bring her pleasure—she swore that he would fail, she would not let him have that—he began to move inside her slowly. She gritted her teeth and whimpered and he stopped. She knew it had hurt the night before because she had lost her virginity, but was it still supposed to hurt this much?

"Shh, hime," he whispered. "Relax. Breathe."

Something in her mind shattered at the fact that she was listening to her rapist and allowing him to help her relax, but she couldn't help it. She took deep, ragged breaths, and as she did so he began to move again.

It was still uncomfortable and she hated it with everything she was, but if she just kept breathing, if she imagined that she was somewhere else…

Madara's hands moved to her hips, abandoning his attempt to pleasure her, and pulled her closer to him. Now he filled her to the brim and the feel of his tip pressing insistently against her cervix was painful and frightening.

"Please, stop-" she begged, afraid that he had lied, afraid that he was going to hurt her again.

"Shh, shh," he cooed into her ear. "Relax."

But she couldn't relax. She was being raped! She was being raped and gods was this cheating on Sasuke because she had asked him to make it stop hurting so did that mean she was cheating because that couldn't be giving consent he had already be raping her at the time and-

Suddenly, she felt him pull out, and the feeling of relief was immediate. She hadn't realized it but she was hyperventilating and crying at the same time, miserable sobs tearing from her throat.

And Madara was holding her, moving so that he wasn't on top of her anymore but rather beside her. He pulled her face into his chest and held her tightly, rubbing her back soothingly and whispering sweet nothings into her ear.

Eventually her sobs lessened and her breathing slowed, but she was still trembling in fear. Now that she had calmed down, would he continue?

He was stroking her hair gently. "I'm sorry," he said, and it sounded like he actually meant it.

Sakura whimpered and more tears seeped into his shirt. It didn't matter that he was sorry—he had raped her, or rather made an honest attempt to rape her, yet again. Just because he was sorry—he was fucking sorry?—didn't make it okay. It didn't mean she would ever forgive him.

But it didn't make sense that he had stopped this time, when last night he had felt no remorse for her tears or her screams of pain. He hadn't cared then, so why did he care now? What had changed?

Was it because she had given in?

"Do you remember when we first met?" he asked after a long moment. Sakura nodded hesitantly. Where was he going with this? "You were beautiful that night, even though you were so young. I knew you were sixteen, but you didn't act like it. You enraptured me. I didn't care how old you were. You were intelligent, smart, witty, and so very genuine. You didn't recognize me, or else I'm certain you would have acted much differently, but nonetheless, it was refreshing. A young, beautiful woman with no ulterior motive or any interest in me beyond an intellectual conversation."

Sakura could hardly breathe. He was telling her why this was happening, why he was ruining her life. The tears were drying now, but she didn't dare move an inch or even breathe too loudly for fear that he would stop telling her. This was a moment of strange vulnerability, and she knew that if she didn't treat it with respect, she would lose any chance she had at convincing him to stop the madness.

Hearing him talk here, he sounded so…human. He didn't sound like the sort of man who would destroy someone's life just so that he could dangle its repair in exchange for something he wanted. He just sounded like a man…a lonely man.

"-just a lonely little boy-"

"There was something about you that I couldn't forget after that night. You appealed to me in a way no woman ever has before. I think I fell in love with you that night, Sakura. Of course, there was never a chance with you—it was always Sasuke. Even I knew you were in love with him and I barely knew you. But I get what I want, Sakura, and you arewhat I want. You will learn to love me in time."

The moment of vulnerability was over, she realized belatedly. He had that hard, unyielding tone of voice now—the one that had drugged her, raped her, told her she had to marry him or else. It was almost like there were two sides of him, but not in the split-personality type of way. It was like he was both light and dark, two sides warring with each other for dominance. Sakura didn't know what to think of it. It seemed, however, that his dark side was what she had to contend with most of the time.

When Sakura didn't respond, he went on, "It wasn't originally my intent to trap you like this. I would have liked it to be on yours terms. However, I wasn't going to let you be with Sasuke, either, so you forced my hand."

As though she no longer had control of her tear ducts, Sakura started crying again. "Why?" she asked desperately. "Why couldn't you have told me th-this first? Why-why did you have to r-rape me, and-and do all those horrible things? Even if I wanted to, I can't marry my rapist! I can't forgive you, not for that!" She sobbed harder. The compassionate part of her understood unrequited love very, very much, and she truly felt badly for that part of him despite everything. She had lived in the hell of unrequited love for some very long years before all this, partially by her own fault. But…never would she have forced Sasuke to be with her. It wouldn't be real, it wouldn't mean anything because he didn't love her back.

But she knew this argument wouldn't work with Madara, no matter how good it was. He was under the impression that with enough time, she would come to love him. It just…it just didn't work that way. Maybe in arranged marriages when there was no bad blood already, just indifference, but not in situations like these. The only way she would ever feel affection for him is if she developed Stockholm Syndrome.

However, maybe Madara didn't care if she loved him. Maybe it was one of those nice-to-haves.

"It doesn't matter if you forgive me, Sakura," Madara said quietly but with great certainty. "Even if you do not choose me, you will not be able to be with Sasuke."

By now, Sakura was aware that Madara didn't say things like that if he couldn't back them up. Pulling away, she stared at him fearfully. "What did you do?" she barely dared to ask.

"Clans have their own laws to follow, as well as those of the government. I met with my lawyer today to finalize some agreements and consult with the Uzumaki clan head."

He paused, and Sakura held her breath. She didn't like where this was going, even though she wasn't sure what he was talking about yet.

"As the Uchiha clan head, I am allowed to arrange marriages. I'm sure you're wondering why Sasuke isn't here—it is because he is most likely being told at this very moment about his impending marriage. After my talk with Kisuke, the marriage contract has been both signed and finalized. The Uzumaki are more than willing to align themselves with our clan." At her incredulous look, he continued, "The arrangement was last minute, I do admit, but they have a daughter of age who is more than willing to be a fine wife for Sasuke and the Uzumaki have wanted to marry into the Uchiha clan for quite a while. They were quite eager for this meeting when the papers were served to them on Thursday. Tomorrow the two will meet, and if all goes well enough, they will be married on May thirty-first."

Sakura felt as though she was going to be sick. Sasuke…was going to marry someone else? Even if she defied Madara, she wouldn't even have Sasuke…?

She looked at Madara miserably. "I didn't know it was possible to hate someone as much as I hate you," she confessed, her throat aching with more unshed tears. "I think-I think I'm going to be sick."

Without another word, Sakura rushed for the toilet. The only location she knew of was Madara's bathroom, so that was the one she ran to. She made it just in time to vomit into the bowl, and not long after she felt Madara holding her hair back for her.

How could he make her feel this way and then happily comfort her as though he wasn't the cause of her distress?

After she had finished being sick and was crying again, she whispered, "Please, just let me be alone for a while."

Madara heard her, even though her words were barely audible, and he left her alone on the bathroom floor.

Sakura slumped against the wall and sobbed quietly.

Her life…everything she knew…

It was over.

So, yeah, shit sucks right now. But don't worry - it's always darkest before the dawn. We didn't see Sasuke this chapter because if I wanted to write that scene it would take a lot longer to get this out. But, since I'm trying to do more frequent updates, it shouldn't be too long before he appears again, probably with Naruto, too.

If you have any questions, please ask them. I don't know what is unclear in this. Some of it is MEANT to be unclear, so there's that, but if there's anything else that isn't supposed to be, ask and the questions will be answered next chapter or by PM.

Cheers!