Radium

Sometimes I feel I've got to run away

Rapid chakra regeneration was not a pleasant feeling. As the warm heat bloomed from her hand through her capillaries to veins then arteries and pumping at last into her heart, Sakura felt like her blood was boiling. It was like the life-giving liquid was expanding in her chest, exceeding the volume she could handle. Roiling, unbridled energy was twisting, roaring into her system. The technique she was using to keep it from overloading her body was draining her almost as quickly as she regained chakra. That was why her modification of the Genesis Rebirth Technique was always a last resort.

The stored energy she was drawing from was like a poison in her system, replenishing her energy even as it distracted her mind. It wasa double-edged sword.The sheer concentration it took to direct the chakra through her body, keeping it from building up too much in any particular place was beyond difficult. Pairing it with her battle consciousness was impossible. She physically couldn't conduct the cascading energy and fight.

When she had designed the technique, it had been to use as an emergency 'refill' of sorts. Rather than use for battle, she'd intended it to be used to preform surgeries that would be impossible otherwise. It was like having a secondary stash of her own chakra at her fingertips, almost literally. What she was doing now was not the ring's normal purpose at all. Hell, she wasn't even sure that it wouldn't backfire. She'd never used it before. The risk of serious injury or even fatality was high when she had the time to sit down and meld the chakra into her system calmly.Yet here she was panicky and fleeing through an enemy forest, the huge influx of energy ripping through her frame. The excess chakra was leaving craters in the trees she kicked off from, even felling some. At the loud crash of one impacting the ground behind her, she knew that subtlety was out of the question. She was going to have to try and out run the fastest shinobi she'd ever encountered.

Sakura had to make a straight shot to Konoha. She couldn't afford to make any stops to even fend off Sasuke. She could not engage.The consequences of her pausing, breaking her concentration for even a moment, were sure to be dire.

You drive into the heart of me

Irrational quantities of rage and curse seal energy were flooding Sasuke's mind. It was reminiscent of the sensation lava would convey if it were coursing through him in place of his blood. He was on fire. His eyes were flickering between the sickly yellow of the curse and bloody red. Energy was enhancing his leaps until he seemed to be flying rather than jumping. Wind was ripping past him and he could almost hear his prey.

The scar of fallen trees had been easy to follow and he was sure he was gaining on her even now. Her path was erratic and zigzagging. Still half-coherent eyes narrowed in thought. If she was trying to run, she wasn't being very smart about it. The enormous destruction she was leaving in her wake was pointless and chakra-wasting. This escape was impulsive and poorly planned.

Almost as the thought occurred tohim, the sound of a distant crash reached his hypersensitive hearing. He was catching up to her. The surrounding branches and boughs were still swaying with the quickness of her passing. Soon he could even smell her. She was trailing an intoxicating blend of fresh linens,whatever earthy herb she'd been dicing and his personal scent of sandalwood. The fact that she had acquired the latter from close, recent contact with his bed made his head swim. He was going to drag her back and...

A smirk spread like a disease over his savage features. He was going to make sure she never ran from him again.

Once I ran to you

A deeply ingrained instinct made Sakura jerk her body to the left when she heard a low, whistling sound. A moment later, a swirl of steel and air ripped past her hip with only inches to spare. The fuuma shurikan she dodged tore cleanly through the tree she'd been planning to boost herself off of. With a quiet curse, the kunoichi touched off of the ground and launched back up, aiming for another canopy. She was nearly there when the bough she had set her sights on crashed downward.

This time a slight scream fell from her throat as she plunged downward once more. Rolling body and checking her momentum, she controlled her fall and hit the forest floor running. Panic and terror welled in her chest, fueling the burn of the expanding chakra to mind-numbing heights.With a gasp, she tried to gulp in a breath of air only to feel as if her lungs were full. Her eyes widened as she frantically directed pooling energy away from her chest. The moment her level was normal again, she could inhale.

Her concentration was slipping. It was making it hard for her body to function as she ran and avoided attacks. She was running on instinct thus far, but much more resistance andshe was going to be in trouble. That though echoing in her mind, she changed her path, making it erratic and looping.

If her assumption was correct, Sasuke only had a vague idea of where she was. He wasn't close enough to physically engage her. The weapons that had impeded her path so far where all long-range. As another windmill blade whizzed through the air above her, leveling several treetops, she pulled her body right. Narrowly escaping the collapsing canopies, Sakura stumbled as chakra overloaded her thigh muscle. At the cost of precious seconds, she paused and rerouted the energy from the locked limb.Tension clamped her jaw tightly as she rocketed off once more, unsure of where she was headed.

She was running blind in the forest outside Sound Village and Sasuke wasn't far behind.

Now I run from you

Launching another summoned blade with a snarl, Sasuke continued to propel himself through the ravaged treescape behind Sakura. He could hear her clearly now, down to her rapid footfalls. The tiny scream she'd released had spurred him on until her scent was heavy on the evening breeze. But he could not yet caught sight of her. The width of the trees told him that they still weren't far from Orochimaru's Village, though. They were no where near the mammoth size of those that bordered Konoha.

A sharp backtrack in her trail made surprised him. She was running back toward the town. Twisting his body mid-leap, he stayed on track without losing his pace. Feral eyes searched the path ahead. It was random and maze-like.

This wasn't like his cleaver little teammate at all. It was illogical and pointless to jag back and forth so much. Slinging another fuuma shurikan toward her, he sped up a little more. As the thunder of a toppling giant trunk sounded, he heard a squealof pain. The bough he'd stopped on to toss the weapon splintered into oblivion when he took off once more, tearing after the sound.

Seconds later he reached the most recently chopped tree. It was an enormous one and had only lost a single branch to his distanced attack. The bough, however, was wider by far than two grown men could wrap their arms around. He was just dropping down to investigate when the entire log went airborne. Growling and wrenching himself backward, Sasuke scarcely dodged the arc of the enormous branch. As he lit once more onto a nearby tree, he looked down into the space the fallen bough had once occupied.

His petite teammate was laying in the hollow where itonce rested, her arms still thrown out after tossing the weight from her form. An eerie green outlined her entire body. She was literally exuding chakra from her pores. Before his very eyes, herscrapes and contusions she sustained as the tree toppled onto her evaporated in little wisps of smoke. A rattling cough rose from her body as she struggled to stand.

Without another moment's hesitation, Sasuke descended onto her.

Tainted love

The deafening groan of the tree behind her falling was not lost on Sakura. She was already redirecting her trajectory when a chakra-induced cramp made her double over as it spasmed her abdominal muscles. The sensation of the smaller branches of the bough slapping her contorted back was nothing in comparison to the entire weight of the log that bared down on her only an instant later. She didn't even remember screaming.

Even as the crushing mass of wood snapped her ribs, her rampaging chakra funneled in, healing them as they broke. She had the distinct pleasure of feeling her bones cracking only to have the remnants not-so-gently rearranged seconds later. The sensation was beyond description and for a moment, she blacked out. Her eyes rolled back in her skull as the breaking and repairing process slowed to a halt.

The press of the wood and still rushing chakra pulled her back only a moment later. Unable to draw breath, Sakura shoved desperately, leaving severe chakra-release burns on her palms as she blasted the fallen log from her prone body. It was another few seconds before she could inhale as her oxygen-depraved mind tired sluggishly to command her energy.

Pressing her injured hand into the compacted dirt at her sides, the kunoichi slowly sat up. She glanced down to her ring, noting its pale green color. It was almost finished. Her chakra was almost done pouring recklessly into her body. As soon as the stone was clear once more, she would be able to handle her energy levels normally.

Her relief was cut savagely short as she forced herself to stand. Her heart nearly stopped when she saw a shadow drop from the treeline in front of her. Only one shinobi moved like that. Sasuke.

I've got to get away

The moment she spotted him, she took off again. A snarl ripped from his throat as he thought, 'Wrong decision.'

His entire body simply disappeared as he launched himself at Sakura's fleeing form. It wasn't difficult for him to keep up with her panicky flight. In fact, after a moment of analyzing her movement, he began to manipulate her direction with a few well-placed blades. He was going to corral her back toward Sound.

A few minutes of rapid travel passed and a break in the thick undergrowth became apparent on the horizon. A second later, they breached it and the sprawling yard of his homecame into view. He smirked at the sound of Sakura's curse. His plan had worked.

Another rain of steel was enough to pause her retreat toward the forest. Twirling a final kunai around his finger, Sasuke stalked toward his frozen prey. A lazy flick of his wrist and the final part of his trap was sprung.

The tossed knife had pinned the dangling chain connected to Sakua's precious ring.The unbreakable necklace was wedged firmly between the steely kunai and the wood of the tree Sasuke had backed her into. He watched with smug delight was the kunoichi tugged desperately, attempting to break the chain rather than dislodge the knife. Her panic would be her downfall.

Her eyes widened as she noticed the smoldering exploding tag connected to the hilt. In a rasp, he taunted, "Loose the ring or loose your hand, Sakura.Choose quickly."

I've got to run away

Sakura wrenched the band from her finger just in time to be tossed back mercilessly as the tag detonated. As she flew back through the air in a sickly free fall, she cursed as the chakra continued to pour into her system as she lost consciousness. How could she direct the energy if she wasn't awake? A terrible feeling settled low in her stomach. She had been unable to breath after blacking out for only a moment. Previous experience with being this close to a detonating tag told her she would be out of it long than that this time. Was she going to die?

Sasuke shot forward, catching the knocked-out form of the little pinkette. The fool was supposed to make her decision before the tag exploded. Nevertheless, he easily plucked her out of her fall, just short of gently. He hardly had the time to grasp her wrist and pull her down to himself when suddenly she locked up. Her entire body went rigid in his grasp as he caught her. Turning her deftly in his arms, he stiffened at the terrified look on her face. She had good reason to be afraid, but the abject horror of her expression twisting her sleeping features was something else entirely.

Shifting his small burden, Sasuke noticed something off about her body. Her chest wasn't rising and falling. Sakura wasn't breathing.

His grip tightened reflexively around her little body as the realization hit him. He had cut off the chakra supply, why was this happening? His blood hued eyes watched the pulsating green glow that haloed her for a moment. Her levels were still high enough to produce the aura?A viscous curse tore from his lips as he sprinted for his house. He needed to syphon off some of the excess chakra before it was too late.

This tainted love you've given

It took himless than two minutes to drop Sakura safely onto his bed and find the blade he needed. Pulsing a little of his malevolent energy into the wicked looking dagger, Sasuke slashed along cut into his dying teammate's palm. A dark, deep black light flared to life around the bloodied weapon in his hand. As the dark light grew, green chakra began to trickle from the slash he'd made. At first the flow was slow and hesitant, but as the blood poured more and more heavily from the cut, so did her chakra.

Soon her clenched muscles began to go slack. After what seemed like a small eternity, she drew a breath. As she regained a steady pattern, Sasuke left her side for a moment. He returned after stashing away the sinister weapon and retrieving a bandage.Wrapping the gash he'd made and securely tying the ends off, the Uchiha settled down in a chair to wait. He wasn't sure at this point how long it would be until she woke. But he knew how long he'd wait.

As the curse seal slowly receded with her prolonged proximity, Sasuke remembered that he was to have met Orochimaru...he glanced at the clock, three hours ago. A grim look overcame his features. The snake would have towait. Refocusing on the prone figure on his bed, he decided he had other matters to attend to first.

The spilled laundry basket and clothesline still lying on the floor in the hall caught his eye and he remembered seeing herjust that morning, hanging the laundry. Black eyes darkened imperceptibly as he decided that she wouldn't be doing anything without his presence from now on.She'd lost that privilege.

Settling back and crossing his arms, Sasuke waited.

I toss and turn, I can't sleep at night

Sakura felt as if she'd been deconstructed molecule by molecule and shoved back together carelessly. Her entire body felt like a collection of mismatched, jagged edges forced to fit against one and other. A pained groan pulled from her as she opened her eyes and took in her surroundings. Blank, grey walls stared back at her. The heavy warmth that surrounded her was a spring blanket. She was back in Sasuke's room.

The thought rebounded in her mind for only a millisecond before she forced herself into motion. She didn't even make it to the door.

A hard body pinned her firmly, face-first against the wall and hot breath made her hair stand on end. A low voice rumbled into her ear, "Did you really think you'd get away from me?" Sakura's head had been forced to turn to avoid cracking her chin and she tried in vain to glare at him over her shoulder. When he pressed more tightly against her, awaiting ananswer, she trilled, "I thought so, yes."

Even his next breath sounded furious. He twisted one of her captured hands up, tearing away a bandage and forcing it into her face. "Do you know what this is?"

The hand was so close that it hurt her eyes to focus on the cut she saw there. Angry red welts rose on either side of the abrasion and were resistant to her instinctual attempt to heal them. Blinking to rid herself of the strain, she replied, "A chakra burn? Wha--"

She could feeling him laughing against her back when he said, "Not a chakra burn like you're used to. This one's not from overexertion. Think about it, Sakura."

Possibilities swirled in her mind as she put the pieces together. The burn, the fact she wasn't dead despite her overload... "You have something that absorbs chakra."

Pressing a kiss into her nape, he hissed, "Right in one." Sakura jerked her head in spite, though she could go no where.The shinobi just laughed again and added, "Now that you know that, I'll let you in on what that means to you." Spinning the trapped kunoichi so he could stare her down, Sasuke growled, "I'm going to keep your level so low you can barely walk. You won't go outside. You won't even leave this room."

Pressing his forehead against hers in a mockery of an affectionate gesture, he finished, "You should have listened to me Sakura. Now you're going to be sorry."

Tainted love, tainted love...

Still a little short, but it's a necessary chapter to lead up to what's coming.:3 Updates will bemore frequent thisweek, since it's the last one before my Spring Break starts. SWEET FREEDOM! XD Expect another post by, say...Wednesday.

Sorry for any smushed-together words. The 'Documents' feature is being strange!

Thanks for reading and please review!

Lyricsfrom Tainted Love by Soft Cell NOT MINE