Disclaimer: Please refer back to chapter one for a disclaimer. If for some reason you are unable to do that, well…sucks for you, doesn't it?
Sasuke allowed the Sharingan to fade out of his eyes as he approached the slumped figure of his former teammate. He vaguely recalled his reunion with her at the Sound base, but he had been more focused on Naruto and hadn't paid all that much attention to her, except for when she charged at him.
Therefore, he took the time to study her clinically, impersonally, and only out of mild curiosity. She was taller and more filled-out, which was to be expected, but she had changed in ways that he hadn't expected her to. Her hair was choppily cut, almost wild, and it seemed lighter, as if bleached by long days spent in the sun. He thought distantly that it might even pass for pale blond or white in dim lighting (and perhaps from far away; but no matter what, Sakura would always have that pink hair she was known for). The baby fat that had softened her face three years ago was all but gone, making her cheekbones stand out more prominently.
As he knelt down beside her, he saw that her arms and legs were still slender, but toned now, as well as tanned, further making him believe that she'd been spending long amounts of times in the sun during his absence. It briefly occurred to him that Sakura had grown up, possibly even moved on. Sasuke easily dismissed the notion; Sakura was Sakura, the childish, naïve girl that he had known as a genin, the last person in the world cut out to be a shinobi.
That might have been what prompted him to slide her out of her sleeping bag and into his arms. Sasuke admitted to himself that when he formulated his plan for Konoha's destruction, Sakura had been a variable that he wasn't sure of. While his hatred for the Elders had spread to include all of Konoha's shinobi, Sakura…it was like he had known all along: Sakura was not a true shinobi, not a kunoichi. She was weak and defenseless, guaranteed to be one of the first slaughtered. Sakura, while annoying and a hindrance, didn't deserve that.
This presented an ideal opportunity to solve the dilemma: if Sasuke's took her now and kept her away from Konoha until he had succeeded in bringing upon its downfall, he could just let her go afterwards and that would be that. And so, with one arm under her knees and the other around her shoulders, he alighted to the trees and sped back to where he had left Suigetsu and the rest, but not before casting a jutsu to burn all of Sakura's things to ashes, thus destroying all clues as to Sakura's whereabouts.
As he jumped from tree limb to tree limb, he noticed that her hair smelled of rosemary and mint.
-x-
When Karin alerted Juugo and Suigetsu that Sasuke's chakra was approaching, as well as the muted, dormant presence of an unconscious shinobi, Suigetsu wasn't sure what to think. About half an hour earlier they had been returning from a scouting mission when Karin had felt a lone chakra signature near them. Sasuke had departed by himself to go check it out, and was clearly now returning—but with the (now unconscious) person that Karin had sensed?
Suigetsu frowned and waited for Sasuke to appear visually. When their team leader did, Suigetsu's eyes widened, as did Karin's and Juugo's. In Sasuke's arms was a pink-haired kunoichi wearing a Konoha forehead-protector. What Suigetsu found most surprising was that Sasuke carried her as if…as if it came naturally to him, as if it—maybe even the girl herself—was familiar to him. Also, Sasuke's grip on her, while far from gentle, was careful, mindful. But who was she?
Karin beat him to voicing the question aloud. "Who is that?" she asked distastefully, her suspicion-laden gaze resting on the pink-haired girl.
Sasuke shot her a chilly glance. "None of your concern," he informed her.
"Are we taking her with us?" Juugo asked curiously.
When Sasuke grunted a reluctant affirmative, Suigetsu stepped closer for a better look at her. She was pretty in a nothing-special kind of way, aside from her uncommon hair. He wondered what color her eyes were, and moved to lift up one of her eyelids to check.
Sasuke watched warily as Suigetsu walked forward, his eyes roaming over Sakura as if he were analyzing her, his expression brimming with interest. Sasuke grudgingly allowed him to, but when Suigetsu's hand rose to touch her face, Sasuke took a swift step backwards, effectively bringing Sakura out of his reach. He shot the other male a stern look. "Enough. We're leaving."
Suigetsu paused, looking both affronted and speculative, but he subsided under Sasuke's intense stare. He put up both of his hands in a mollifying gesture. "Alright, alright. I guess we'll find out who the mystery girl is later, huh?"
Sasuke's only response was to take to the trees, with Juugo behind him a beat later. Karin huffed and followed, with Suigetsu bringing up the rear, musing over the meaning of the incident.
-x-
Sakura woke with a start and tried to jump to a standing, defensive position, but found her legs tangled in a blanket. Her gaze darted around to check out her surroundings, bewildered and wary.
She was in what appeared to be a spacious bedroom, as it was furnished by a large, luxurious bed, a night-stand, a dresser, a desk equipped with a chair, and three doors which she assumed led to a bathroom, a closet, and a way out, respectively. Sakura found herself to be lying on what seemed to be a spare futon near the bed. There were no windows, so it was impossible to tell the time of day, or even what day it was.
Sakura was already calculating all of the possible scenarios that could have led to this when she noticed something: both of her wrists felt heavy, weighed down. She glanced down to assess this issue and realized that two strips of iron had been secured around her wrists, with the kanji "deplete" carved into each. Chakra manacles, designed to drain a shinobi of their chakra.
Livid and feeling strangely violated, she tried to flex her chakra and came to the conclusion that, indeed, her chakra was already greatly diminished. What should have been a steady hum was now only a low drone, barely enough to manage even the simplest of healing jutsus, much less the power required to punch her way through the stone walls to freedom.
On the verge of panicking, Sakura struggled to take deep breaths. 'Calm and composed, calm and composed, calm and composed…dammit, I am calm and freaking composed!' she thought, her frustration mounting, as she checked herself over for any wounds.
She was wholly unharmed, aside from a pounding headache that threatened to split her head in half. It took all of her willpower to be able to concentrate and remember just what had happened. She'd made camp, fallen asleep…and then she'd woken up, and…an image of the whirling Sharingan flashed in her mind's eye.
Sasuke.
For some reason she found herself scanning the room again, as if expecting him to jump out of the dresser and yell "Surprise!" Alas, no such luck.
Warily, Sakura got to her feet, wincing as her stiff limbs protested, and padded around the room, surveying everything more closely, searching for anything that would aid her in escaping. Everything was clean and orderly, but there was so little in it that it would have been difficult for it to be otherwise. She opened two of the doors and noted that they did lead to where she had expected.
The utilities in the bathroom were carved out of expensive marble, but in terms of bathroom products and the like, it contained only the bare necessities. Inside the closet hung the clothing of what she estimated to be a tall male. Everything was black, white, or blue, with the occasional splash of gray, so she didn't look very far back in it. Was she in…Sasuke's bedroom? The thought was both disconcerting and exhilarating.
When she tried to open the third door, however, the one that she had assumed was a way out, she received a nasty surprise. She put her right hand on the knob and made to twist it open, but the manacle on her right wrist emitted a shock up her arm, and she fell to her knees, gasping in pain.
'Great,' she thought bitterly. 'I'm shock-collared like a dog.'
Left with no other option, she settled down to wait.
-x-
When Sasuke put his hand on the doorknob to his bedroom and twisted, he found that he was almost apprehensive. Sakura was bound to be awake by now, and she was sure to have questions—questions that he didn't want to answer. Still, he opened the door and strode in, projecting an image of confidence.
Sakura was leaning against the far wall, her arms crossed over her chest and her chin jutting out stubbornly. Her eyes widened when she saw him, but her expression remained steadfast and resolute. Sasuke closed the door and returned her stare impassively, allowing no hint of emotion to highlight his face.
When she saw him, her heart stopped for a beat before starting again, thrumming erratically against her chest, as if it was trying to break free and fly to him. Determined not to let him know how much the sight of his blank, punishingly lovely face affected her, she thrust her chin out and held his gaze.
They stood in such that way for many long moments, an impasse of wills. Unsurprisingly, it was Sakura who broke the tense silence first. "Where am I?" she asked quietly, afraid that her emotions would be betrayed by her voice if she raised it.
Sasuke turned away, realizing that his venture into the bedroom had been completely purposeless. In all actuality, he had come simply to check on her. He ignored her question and pretended to rummage through one of the drawers in his desk, pulling out a piece of paper that he didn't need at the moment, but pocketed anyway.
Sakura watched him as he took a piece of paper from his desk, frustrated that he had ignored her question—but hadn't he always? Well, she wasn't going to put up with it any longer. "Hey, I asked you a question."
Sasuke glanced at her out of the corner of his eye and noticed the red weal on her right wrist, where the manacle he had placed on her was. "You tried to open the door," he observed dispassionately.
Although Sakura's heart skipped another beat when she heard his voice, she glared at him. "No, actually, I figured, 'hey, I've been kidnapped and taken to who knows where for god knows what, this would be a great time to try and slit my wrist!'" she mocked sharply.
Sasuke's only response to her sarcasm was a cool look before he strode fluidly across the room to the door. Impulsively, Sakura unhitched herself from the wall and tried to follow him as he opened the door.
He narrowed his eyes at her. "You're staying here."
She was sorely tempted to stick her tongue out at him. "I don't want to," she said instead, which actually was almost as childish.
"I don't care," Sasuke informed her bluntly.
Her reaction was not what he had expected. The stubborn glare she had worn previously melted off her face, leaving in its place a self-disparaging smile. "Yeah," she said softly, "I know."
Sasuke looked at her for a moment longer before he shut the door and strode off, telling himself that her words didn't affect him in the least.
-x-
Sakura looked up when Sasuke re-entered the room, after what she estimated to have been about two or three hours. She was sitting on her futon, her knees tucked to her chest and her arms wrapped around them, and she noticed that Sasuke was carrying a tray with food on it. She assumed that he had brought himself dinner to eat in his room, and was surprised when he approached her and set the tray before her.
"Eat," Sasuke ordered, before sliding his sword from his belt and propping it up against the wall near his bed. He sat on the edge of his bed and had already begun removing his sandals when he noticed that Sakura hadn't even deigned to touch the tray, instead turning to face the wall.
He was annoyed by her juvenile behavior, but reasoned that she would eat when she got hungry, and that if he pushed her to eat, it might have seemed as if whether she ate or not had some power over him, which it did not.
Two hours later, though, the food remained untouched. Sasuke, fed up, crouched down beside the despondent girl. "I told you to eat," he intoned, a hint of menace creeping into his voice.
She met his eyes calmly. "Not until you tell me what's going on." Sakura resisted the urge to shrink against the wall, intimidated by his threatening proximity.
"I have no need to tell you anything," Sasuke declared loftily, almost unnerved by the harsh, unyielding brightness of her eyes.
Sakura shrugged casually. "Then I won't eat." She meant what she said—she was too sick to eat, as confused, worried, and aggravated as she was.
Sasuke exhaled slowly, as if trying to be patient. "You're a fool," he said simply, irritated that he couldn't get a reaction out of her. When her expression didn't waver, he threw in a last barb. "And you're still annoying."
This broke her impassive expression. She glared at him savagely. "Shut up."
Sasuke smirked smugly at her and walked over to his dresser, extracted folded clothing, and disappeared into the bathroom. Sakura heard the sink run, and he emerged five minutes later, wearing loose, low-slung (what she assumed to be) black pajama pants, as well as a dark blue T-shirt of some sort of cloth material.
He didn't spare her another glance, instead climbing into his bed wordlessly after turning off the light. Sakura pushed the tray away and curled up in a miserable little ball on her futon, sick at heart and desperate for answers that Sasuke was unwilling to give.
A/N--HAI GAIZ. Still here? Awesome.
Becca wrote this chapter; I'm merely posting cause Becca is at her Homecoming. (In case I didn't mention it, we switch off on writing chapters.) I also came here to address something: Becca came to me a few days ago after school and told me something interesting, that someone had PMed another author and claimed they stole their idea from our story. LifeofDeath, however, wrote her story before we posted FFY. I'm not saying this is based off of her story, either, just that the general plot is used by many. So please, no harassment of other authors, okay?
No muffins this time, 'cause Becca ate them all. INSTEAD, YOU GUYS ALL GET FREE NO-HOMEWORK PASSES, OKAY? For a limited time time only, review and get yours now!
(And this is me, Becca, just adding a little note. Could you guys all look out for and tell me if you find any or all of the following: OOC-ness, plot-holes, bad grammar, and/or just general un-coolness. Much appreciated. And, um, sorry about the muffins. I feel fat. -despairs-)
Ignore Becca, guys. She's just paranoid. Though seriously, anything in need of corrections you guys find, remember to tell us! (Me especially, cause Missa hates grammar/spelling mistakes, fo srs.)