Pearl

Tonight you're mine completely

Sakura was panicking. The man pressing her into the counter was not going to kill her quickly. He was going to drag it out. Make her miserable.

A sick grin was playing across his scarred face as he trailed a kunai down her bare calf. Warm blood was trickling down her leg, clinging in fat drops on her toes and plopping deafeningly on the tile floor. The only sounds were her quick breathing, the assassin's occasional chuckles and the ominous dripping of blood.

His blade was carving strange patterns and characters into the pale skin of her legs. Fear was making her chest cold and tight, but the liquid pouring from her wounds was distractingly warm. The steady drip, drip, drip of the blood falling to the floor was resonating in her head, making it hard to focus.

"You aren't going to cry are you, Sakura?" Sasuke's voice sounded from the back of her mind, mocking her. Narrowing her terror-dialated eyes, she began to plan. I am not weak!

With a strained groan, she kicked out, catching the blade on the arch of her foot. Gasping at the sting of the weapon biting into her sole, she squeezed her eyes shut and finished shifting her momentum. At the sound of a clatter of metal on tile, Sakura's eyes shot open. She'd done it. Jerking her head forward, she caught the still stunned man's nose in a crushing headbutt. He staggered away from her place ontop of the counter, cursing and clutching his gushing face.

Snapping her bloodied legs together, the Leaf kunoichi twisted her body off of the tiled surface, landing awkwardly. A pained cry escaped her throat as her ankle buckled under her weight, sending a shockwave through her injured legs. Sucking in a shallow breath, she began to vigorously work her bound hands. When the man had caught her off-guard in the living room, he had torn her obi from her. After she had stomped with monster strength on his instep, he'd caught up with her in the kitchen, disarmed her and tied her hands behind her back.

Sakura flinched when an ungodly scream ripped from the doorway. Her hands froze. Whipping her eyes up to find the source of the sound, she nearly fainted at the sight of her assassin. He was in pieces. As she choked on rising bile, her eyes met the feral red gaze of her savior.

A sound that sank into her bones rumbled from him. "MINE."

You give your love so sweetly

As he stepped into his home: Red. It was all Sasuke could see. Red blood. Sakura's blood. His Seal spread a little further at the realization. Who? His head was throbbing and his hands were clenching around his hilt until his fingers were numb. Sharingnan eyes settled on Tsurugi's hunched form. Without another moment of thought, he struck. The wounds he cleaved hadn't even begun to bleed as the man's remains sloshed to the floor. It was only once they made impact that blood began to flood the white tile in a sickening tide.

Thick, warm liquid flowed into the open toes of his nin-sandals as he looked up again to find black-green eyes fixated on him. The beast rushed forward in his brain as he roared, "MINE."

The puddle of blood at his feet was hardly disturbed as he flash-stepped from the doorway to tower in front of Sakura. Grasping the obi binding her hands, he sheathed his blade and freed her hands. Her emerald green irises were hardly more than a thin ring--they were so dilated with fear and disgust. His low, concerned growl made her jump back slightly, only infuriating him further.

Hot breath fanned across her blanched face as he stooped down to snarl into her face. Why was she running from him? She was HIS.

Sakura's heart was racing as she stared insanity in the face. Her beloved teammate. Her Sasuke was buried, hijacked by an animalistic and basic being. Feral bloodlust and something just as dark, but oh so different was barreling back at her. A long forgotten memory was washing to the forefront of her mind. Hadn't her presence, her affection calmed him once? In the Forest of Death...

Not allowing herself to think any further, she threw her arms over the bloody man-possessed's shoulders and clung desperately to him. When she felt him coil as if to strike, she whispered frantically, still teary and afraid, "Sasuke-kun?"

Slowly, almost painfully slowly, his muscles untensed. A rattling breath rushed from the elite-nin's lungs as he dropped his head onto the pinkette's slim shoulder. As his Curse receded, he gripped the silky fabric at her back and asked in an infinitely calmer voice, "Why are you bleeding? Just--," he pressed his face tighter into her neck, "heal it."

Tonight the light of love is in your eyes

Pulling back to lock her eyes with Sasuke, she mumbled, "I can't." At the look on his face she hastily added, "I used the last of my chakra on..." Ducking to avoid his still red-tinted gaze, she didn't complete the thought.

Sasuke didn't answer, he just let his body lean back further, still holding her at the base of her spine. As he assessed her bloody legs, his face tightened. Without warning, he swept her up into a bridal hold and flash-stepped past the carnage on the floor between the kitchen and the living room.

When Sakura opened her eyes, she was back in the bathroom she'd used just that morning. Pacing past the shower, Sasuke sat her on the lip of the sunken bathtub. After he adjusted the taps for a steady stream of warm water, he turned back to her and slowly tugged her kimono top from her shoulders. Without the obi to hold the jacket closed, it slipped off easily. Body limp with exhaustion both physical and mental, Sakura simply sat by trustingly as her former teammate lifted the mesh top from her body. Soon she was left with only a thin camisole and shorts on the edge of the bath basin.

Stepping back for a moment to drop the articles into a hamper by the door, Sasuke shrugged his bloodied white shirt off and dropped it in as well. Without turning back to the girl sitting quietly by the tub, he toed off his soaked sandals. He ignored the faint, pink footprints he left on the floor as he returned to Sakura's side.

The water pouring from the faucet had filled the bath nearly half way. Sasuke seated himself so that his legs remained outside the tub while Sakura's dangled within, the dried blood on her feet already starting to disappear.

Reaching to the shelf nearby, Sasuke grabbed a bathcloth and soaked it in the warm bathwater. He kept his eyes on his hand as he slowly began to rinse the rusty taint from Sakura's pale skin. The motions of rinsing, rewetting and ringing the cloth became repetitive and calming. The last vestiges of red faded from his eyes.

Is this a lasting treasure?

Sakura watched with dazed amazement as her longtime crush slowly bathed her injured legs. Chakra exhaution, the warm water and his gentle scrubbing were making her head fuzzy. Her eyes roamed over the broad surface of his back as he turned to rinse the cloth in his hand, she silently mapped the many scars criss-crossing his flesh. An 'x-shaped' on on his left bicep was catching her attention particularly. The way it shifted as he flexed the muscles of his upper arm. Breathing deeply and moving her gaze away from the arm braced beside her, she noticed a glint of green against Sasuke's chest.

There, hanging on a silvery chain, was her ring! Its single, emerald stone winked at her under the overhead lighting of the bathroom.

Her thoughts still clouded with a tired fog and faint happiness at seeing the familiar object in all the chaos around her, Sakura murmured, "You still have my ring. I thought--"

Catching the hand extended to touch the bauble in a tight grip, Sasuke inspected her face for a moment before he asked lowly, "What makes it so special?"

The pinkette frowned and let her eyes slip shut as she tried to focus. "Someone important gave it to me. I would...be really sad if I lost it." Inhaling the water-laden air around her blissfully, green eyes flickered open to stare into steely black ones. Sakura started slightly as she realized how close he had come in a literal blink of her eyes. The wet hand clutching hers was making water trickle down her forearm to as she squinted at him. "Wha--"

Her question was cut short by the lips descending onto hers.

Or just a moment's pleasure?

A low sound tumbled from Sasuke's lips as he pressed against Sakura. Still dripping hands found their way to her small waist as he pulled her halfway from the tub and against his body. Warm water soaked through the thin fabric of her top, leaving a distinct imprint of his hands on the sweet indent above her hips. A smirk pulled at his mouth at the thought. He liked the idea of leaving his mark on her little body.

Distantly he wondered what that might mean but dismissed the thread in favor of working his way down her neck. Pressing nipping kisses against the line of her jaw, he began to drop onto the column of her throat. The bruises that he found there gave him pause. Laving the darkening marks with his tongue, he reflected that he should have killed the bastard who'd given them to her more slowly.

The little mewling sound she made when he found a special spot at the base of her neck made him smile against her cool skin. Tightening his grip at her waist, he repeated the motion. An identical sound met his ears and he rumbled in return. He had begun to make his way back to her mouth when she trailed one hand from his arm up to his neck en route to his hair. Her slim fingers stopped abruptly when they passed over the thin chain that held her ring.

A reedy intake of air and she gasped, "Sasu--" Before she could form the last sounds of his name, he reared back and recaptured her mouth once more. As he pressed commandingly against her pliant form, he refocused her attention on him. On his actions. On what he was making her feel. Skating a hand up to cup the back of her head, just under her heavy braid, he thought doggedly, 'I don't want to hear her ask for the gods-damned ring.' A nip to her full bottom lip encouraged her to let him slip past her lips and into the cavern beyond. As he teasingly stroked the line of her teeth, he brooded, 'I don't want to hear that she's happy with someone else. She can't be.'

Pulling back abruptly to scoop her unresisting body into his arms again, he lifted her to straddle his waist as he stood. 'I won't let her.'

Can I believe the magic of your sighs?

As her back sank into the bare mattress in the bedroom, Sakura wondered just what the hell she was doing. But large hands were sliding with a rasping sort of friction against the flesh of her sides and she could no longer question, just observe. Warm lips and cool teeth were hovering across her ribcage as she reflected. Uchiha Sasuke was being undeniably affectionate with her. Rolling her eyes toward the ceiling as a wet tongue dipped into her bellybutton, she gripped his surprisingly soft hair and wondered what the fuck was going through the head between her palms. The scrape of his teeth at the seam of her skin and the cloth of her shorts made her hips arch up and away from the bed beneath her. As his fingers deftly pulled the zipper and then the pants from her body, she wondered what would happen tomorrow. Once all this heat was gone.

A callous caught on the edge of one of the half-healed cuts scattered across her inner thigh and she squirmed--not from pain, but from something a hundred times achier. Deep and husky, a moan tumbled from her throat. The skin beneath the hand on his shoulder shuttered at the sound. Intrigued, she repeated the groan, this time a little deeper. His chest vibrated as he pulled back, caging her in with his arms as he stared down at her with half-mast eyes.

His dark eyes were utterly black as he drank in the sight of her in her cotton panties and bunched-up undershirt, her hair ribbon lost. Coral pink locks fanned from her deteriorated braid to the bare mattress under her head and her dilated eyes pinned him to the spot. He watched, intranced, as she drew in a slow breath. "Sasuke, I--"

Descending on her again, he let his hips fall into the cradle of her bare thighs as he groaned raggedly against her lips, "Just. Don't. Talk."

She gasped at the rolling motion of his hips against hers, forgetting utterly what she had wanted to say in the first place. Simply nodding her head, Sakura let one hand bury itself in the short hairs at his nape as the other skimmed over to his braced arm. Tracing the scar that had caught her eye earlier with her fingernail, the pinkette smiled as she felt Sasuke's groan. It began as a rumble against her belly and ended in a puff of air against the bridge of her nose. Rubbing her cheek against the underside of his chin as he repeated the roll with his pelvis, she gradually shifted her legs to wrap around his narrow hips.

Tonight with words unspoken, you tell me I'm the only one

Her soft skin under his hands was making him insane. To his rough, battle-hardened hands, she seemed softer than the silk she wore. The fact that he'd nearly lost her. That the shallow, partially healed cuts on her legs were his fault. It was all pressing down on his head until he just wanted to reaffirm that she was alive...that she was his. Irrevocably so.

That in mind, he curved his back until he could reach the sweet spot he'd discovered in the bathroom. Once he could, he began dragging long, wet kisses against the small hallow. As the skin gradually pinkened, he began biting and soothing the patch intermittently. A smirk curved his lips as the spot flushed a ruby red and he pulled back to assess his work. There would be a mark there by morning and it would just show above the neckline of her top.

Straightening and dropping a kiss into the delicate skin below her chin, he muttered, "You have to stay inside the house, Sakura."

At this, she simply nodded, grinding her hips against his and groaning before asking, "When can I leave?"

Sasuke froze. Leave? She couldn't. Dropping his full weight onto her smaller frame, he hissed against her ear, "You can't."

Her reaction was immediate. A fist smashed against his shoulder as she tried to squirm out from underneath him. "I have to! I have things, people to get back to in--"

A snarl broke loose from his chest as he pressed down more fully against her. "Who?"

Dazed, Sakura couldn't answer quickly enough.

But will my heart be broken?

Red-tinted eyes bored into hers as he leaned so close she could feel the cool surface of her ring come to rest against her breastbone. She was starring wide-eyed when he continued, "Who's so fucking important that he's all you can think about?"

Pounding a hand into the bed next to her shocked face, he demanded, "Who?"

Sakura choked on her own words as she tried to form a response. Worming side to side more desperately, she jumped when he screamed, "Answer me!"

Her patience snapped. "Fuck you!"

A coarse grin split his face as his eyes flared red. "No," he growled as he pressed his hips into hers crudely, "fuck you."

The mortified look that fluttered across her face for an instant made him laugh cynically as he rolled off the bed and gathered a few articles of clothing before slamming the sliding door behind him.

Wincing at the loud bang, the pinkette's face crumpled as she curled into a fetal position. Her shoulders began to shake with repressed sobs as the full toll of the past few days began to bare down on her. She'd been kidnapped, brutally attacked, had her hand shattered and whatever had just happened...It was all just too much.

After a few solid minutes of quiet crying, she too stood from the bed and dressed herself in an oversized shirt from a drawer with shaking hands. The rest of her things were still dirty and she didn't have the time or attention to spend on laundry.

When the night meets the morning star

A spring rainstorm had blown in around three in the morning, and Sakura was sitting on the porch that surrounded the entire house, watching it blow in. The deep peels of thunder and occasional bursts of lightening against the dawn-pale sky helped to calm her scattered wits. Warm droplets of rain were gusting lazily from the laden clouds overhead and she was letting one foot dangle absently from the edge of her perch. Rain was coating her skin, but the temperature was too moderate to give her a chill.

As she watched the blurry horizon begin to flare with daylight, the pinkette tried to decide what to do. She could remain here, in Sound, with the Sasuke that seemed to be...interested in her. She squashed the rebellious side of her mind that cheered at the idea. Or she could try to escape...make it back to Konoha. Even if she didn't make it all the way, there were probably patrols out looking for her. Her stomach lurched at what Tsunade would say if she could see her pupil now.

Setting her beryl gaze on the rising sun, Sakura opted to plan an escape. She would have to wait until Sasuke was gone for the day and...

Before she could plan any further, a rustling sound caught her attention. A second later, the folded form of her kimono top landed a little ways behind her where the ground was dry. She knew without looking up who had returned.

"Come inside." His icy tone booked no room for argument. For a moment, she considered backtalking, but decided that he would get his soon enough. She would be long gone and he would be unable to do anything about it by the time he realized. Smiling a little to herself and taking one last look at the breaking dawn, Sakura did as she was told.

Scooping up the bundle of silk he'd dropped near her hip, she unfurled it as she stood to follow him when he made his way back into the house. Her heart skipped a beat at what was emblazoned at the back. A large, Uchiha fan.

I'd like to know that your love is love I can be sure of...

End Chapter Four: Pearl. It's a little short, but I figured the limey-ness would make up for it. :3 YaY for bastard!Sasuke. Not.

Thanks for reading and please review!

Lyrics: Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow (Cover) by Amy Winehouse NOT MINE