Chapter 3

Hope

The apartment was amazing. She couldn't contain her giddiness as she ran into the forefront of her own living quarters for the next six months. She looked back at the Uchiha guards, like she was about to say something.

Maybe "Can you believe this?!" but she immediately saw that the sight was no surprise to them. Sakura supposed they didn't look at the barren apartment through the same rose colored glasses as she did. For her, it was an emblem of hope. It was the slight chance that her future might become better. She just had to last the next six months and be careful to save the money she earned and then she'd hightail it out of the city.

By their unimpressed looks, she could guess that they didn't see it's potential. Sakura was painfully reminded of her economic status. To these people, this apartment was like their child's room plus their own private bathroom.

She didn't care if they didn't share her sentiments. For the first time in years Sakura felt like her life was going upwards instead of downwards. She was riding a wave as high as the new building she lived in. It was achingly obvious how little she had to her name. Her mattress and one kitchen stool were the only furniture she had. The stool looked comical in the bareness of the room. She had relied on her roommates for other things, like a kitchen table for one.

She had a small assemble of belongings, some books she had bought when she had a bit of extra money. A nokia phone, a poor gathering of clothes and makeup. She was so used to relying on Hinata for toiletries she didn't even have toilet paper with her. Sakura made up for it by doing her part of the housework. Tooth paste was a luxury at this point.

Her mind wandered to Hinata. Her pale complexion, so translucent that when she was in her panties you could almost see her blue veins underneath her skin close to her groin area-… Sakura shook her head. She hadn't been there when she packed all her things and left. And her friendship with her was already strained. Maybe calling their relationship a friendship was an overstatement.

Sakura still missed her a bit, despite all of her flaws.

But what annoyed Sakura most, wasn't her laziness or carelessness but that the bluette was actually capable of making a life for herself. She had money for sure, she lived off a trust fund so she wouldn't have to work. Something Sakura envied greatly. She spent her days either on the couch smoking weed visiting drug houses and hitting up some ecstasy. She wanted to shake Hinata until she came to her senses.

"Stop destroying yourself!" Sakura had screamed at her once in rage. Hinata stormed out of the apartment and didn't come back for three days.

Hinata… had thrown away so much Sakura would have wanted. She had a supportive family, the Hyuga clan. Her family banished her for her reckless behavior and failures after a long time of bending back and forth to her whims. Hinata then had to rent an apartment with other roommates in order to get access to her trust fund. It was a last ditch effort on their parents' behalf to get her out of the house and making her independent. Hinata didn't have anyone close and now Sakura wondered if anyone would look after the quiet girl.

The other roommates wouldn't.

Sakura felt bitter about the whole situation. Watching that young girl throw her life away…

An idea popped in her mind. She dismissed it immediately. She wouldn't invite Hinata to live with her here. It wasn't appropriate. They weren't that close.

Why did she even think Hinata would want to hang around her? Hinata had always been neutral towards her. Not friendly. She'd think Sakura was bordering on creepy or lonely, maybe both.

Which wouldn't be a wrong assumption necessarily.

Her mind got defensive. Why would she even want that lazy slob here? It's not like she did anything around the house but make messes.

With her nose turned up into the air, Sakura went ahead to take a better look at the cupboards and the furnishings of the apartment.

-

She had been enjoying her very first bath for years when there was a knock on the door. Her heart almost stopped beating for a moment, when she imagined someone from the high and prestigious Uchiha clan walking in on her bathing. She had locked the door but she suspected she wasn't the only one with the key. With adrenaline as fuel she jerked her head from under the water.

Jumping out of her bath in a hurry, pulling clothes on, forgoing her bra and panties she yelled at the guest.

"W-Wait a minute!"

Shit. Her body was so wet it was hard to slide the clothes on. The right bottom of her jeans got stuck on the ball of her feet. She kicked ferociously into the air to get them to untangle-cause someone was still waiting by the door!

She knew she had no way in hell of putting those socks on within an acceptable time limit so she went to open the door.

"Coming!"

Her fingers locked around the knob and turned. When the door opened Sakura could feel her body shiver. The man in front of her had such a resemble to Sasuke that for a moment she started panicking, thinking Sasuke had finally come to make due on their contract about more sexual favors in exchange for the hospitality. She knew it would happen sooner rather than later.

But there were slight differences she mused. He was more tanned than Sasuke and calmer. Sasuke's body screamed unstable, his movements barely concealing his anger, while this man radiated class. His eyes were a somber black and his hair matched. He was a bit more built, but retained a cat like posture that made him seem lithe and sly.

"Hello." She breathed out in one sigh, stunned by the man in front of her.

The man quirked his lip.

"Sakura-san, I am pleased to meet your acquaintance." He bowed slightly and Sakura jerked herself down to a hearty bow to show her respect. She was a bit shameful to be caught staring. She was intimidated by this man by his appearance alone.

"Ah, yes, you too! Your name is…?" She trailed off. Something flickered in his eyes.

"Itachi Uchiha. I am Sasuke's older brother." Sasuke's brother? Sakura felt herself grow cold and detached. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree…Could the same be extended to someone's sibling instead of parent? She didn't want to take any chances with a man that had been raised alongside Sasuke Uchiha.

"Mhm… Pleased to meet you, Uchiha-sama." She coughed out. She made sure to advert her eyes down, doing her best to appear as non-threatening as she could. When Itachi made no try to reply to her she got even more nervous. She shifted her eyes up and was surprised when he was looking directly into her emerald ones.

"Just Itachi-san, thank you." His voice was low, quiet, like he was testing out new waters.

"… Itachi-san." She nodded to him, feeling slightly frightened. She didn't have the gall to actually call him –san but she couldn't deny his direct request.

"Do you mind if I come in for a while?" He inquired. Her body still felt like someone had turned off all heaters in the building. Her hairs rose on her arms. She motioned him to come inside, hesitating when he saw the lack of furniture.

"I don't have a lot of stuff." She apologized.

"No, you do not." He agreed, as his eyes swept the apartment. Seeing no chairs to sit on and possibly tired of the small talk, he turned around and faced her.

"Sakura-san, I have been briefed on your relationship with Sasuke. I know how my brother can be. I would like to make your stay here as pleasant as possible."

Sakura was surprised, her eyebrows almost left her forehead. This man, Sasuke's brother seemed like a decent person, why was he being so polite to her?

"I…" Stupid bitch. Can't get anything out right. Everything she tried to say sounded stupid. It was impossible to settle on a reply. Her hands took turns on clenching and unclenching. Seeing her dumbfounded state, he continued.

"And seeing how empty this place is, I think it might be a good idea to go to the mall." His voice was completely monotone when he spoke.

Sakura waited to hear the punchline. It didn't come. Was he joking? The silence that followed implied that no, he was not.

"I actually don't have a lot of money to spend right now." She felt like a broken record. Sakura Haruno was nothing. It was humiliating admitting the truth to that kind stranger. He'd probably get freaked out by the pathetic-ness and leave.

"That's not a problem." He added, as if it was nothing.

Sakura's chest deflated. No, he wasn't freaked out. He was pitying her. Was that worse than the first option?

"I'm not a charity case." She said with a low voice, looking down. He seemed to understand her plight when he replied.

"It's not free. Look at it as pre-payment for three encounters with a client." Sakura stiffened, reality rearing its ugly head.

His eyes met hers and she knew he could see the fear as plain as day.

"Sakura-san, it is not my place to discuss this but do I have your permission to speak freely?"

She slowly nodded her head, anxious that this social affair would end badly.

"I don't agree with this Sakura-san. At the moment my hands are tied, Sasuke will isolate you if he knows I'm helping you for your interest but not mine. If I set it up in such a way that the payments are a "gift" I intend to distribute later to a select few, he'll be less suspicious." His eyes had hardened a bit when he spoke. His kind visage replaced by malice.

Her mouth formed into an "o".

"I see." She uttered slowly, mulling over the situation.

On one hand she would be agreeing to prostituting herself to three separate men. She didn't know if she was ready for that step yet. Sasuke was the only man she had professionally… sold herself to.

She didn't know what their requests would be, their appearances or intent. Sakura knew her encounters with Sasuke were on the rough end of prostituting. But some intuition told her that chances were that Itachi would pick a client that had mellow tastes.

A dark voice whispered in the back of her mind that she would already be used as a fuck-toy for the remainder of her stay there. Did it matter what cock was slamming into her?

But the whisper was all talk, no bark. It did matter to her. She didn't want to expose herself endlessly to a barrage of new people.

But Sasuke still hadn't required her services and that meant she could get a mental head start of being prepared for his presence. She did feel like she was about to snap, cornered into this new situation, having left all that was familiar to her behind. And Hinata too, she added afterwards.

But on the other hand she didn't feel mentally stable enough to deal with some political conspiracy to trick Sasuke. God knew she was already bad at lying and keeping secrets.

But she was reminded that she was really, really short on toiletries and she would have her period in a week. She also didn't have food.

Thinking about agreeing to Itachi's offer was awfully like how she felt when she signed the contract with Sasuke. But… it was a choice between a rock and a hard place. And she really didn't feel like dealing with Sasuke like this. He didn't like her unclean. She was already rancid enough. She didn't even have shampoo.

He'd probably spray her down with a water hose.

Three months before.

Sasuke's fingers caught her hair by the roots at the back of her head and forced her to kiss him. His lips slammed onto hers. It hurt and Sakura gave a small whine of pain. He liked to bite a little too hard on her lips, sometimes her tongue if she was unlucky. She'd have a swollen red lower lips afterwards. But unlike usual he didn't continue with his assault.

"You smell fucking disgusting." He pulled away from her, looking down at her face like she was a particularly nasty bag of trash.

"Did you eat a dead rat? Or is it just natural?" He jibed at her while he fished something out of his car.

Sakura blushed in shame. She had been purging in the bathroom before their meeting. He had come so quickly that she didn't have time to wash her mouth of the stomach acid that still remained. She should have known better. He advanced on her with a bottle of water and erratically brought it up to her lips.

She was scared of his unpredictable movements and less than excited to trust him to give her water while holding the bottle. Kindness wasn't in his vocabulary. But the hand at the back of her head didn't care and pulled her closer to the foreign object. He tilted the water bottle and grabbed her lower jaw and pushed it apart from her upper jaw by squeezing his fingers in between her cheeks.

Her mouth opened with great reluctance and it didn't take any more for him to force the plastic bottle down to the back of her throat. The water filled her lungs as she instinctively inhaled it and she freaked, failing desperately in his arms and making the bottle bruise against her throat at the unfortunate angle.

She coughed and coughed, crying and hiccupping as he held her still with a death grip. The water had already either gone to her mouth or the ground. Sasuke batted the bottle away like it was a nuisance.

"Alright Sakura-chan. Breathe into my face." He said smugly, relaxing his grip on her.

She didn't even look at him, too busy turning around, stumbling then falling. She crouched on the ground and puked her guts out. It was all just water. It hurt so much, she felt like she was dying. Her lungs were so desperate for air and her diaphragm contracted violently each time she tried to get an intake of breath.

She couldn't focus on breathing when Sasuke brought his foot to her back and pushed down. She slammed ungracefully with her head on the di-

Present.

She looked at Itachi.

"On second thought, Itachi-san, I think that's a good idea." Her words were measured and she didn't let any emotion flicker through.

And for the first time since Sakura saw him, his eyes visibly brightened with satisfaction.

A/N: What do you readers think? Is there more to Hinata than the lazy image Sakura has her pinned for? When I'm typing from Sakura's point of view, it is literally from her point of view. Narrators can be unreliable.

FYI: I will be using some terms that new readers might not recognize in this particular context. I will explain them in the A/N's.

Purge: A way for to forcibly extract food from your stomach by abusing your gag reflex. Purging is also used when patients with ED's use laxatives in an abusive manner to lose weight or feel "clean".