Disclaimer: Sure, why not? Hahahahaha—no, not really. Carry on.

Suigetsu waited until he was sure that Sasuke was fully immersed in training before he drifted away under the pretext of being thirsty—and he actually was in need of a drink, but his true objective was to sneak into Sasuke's wholly off-limits room and investigate the mysterious girl that Sasuke had taken.

Once they'd returned from the scouting mission they'd been on (the one they'd intercepted the kunoichi on), Sasuke had disappeared with her. After that, they never saw her, and when questioned about it, Sasuke would either ignore the person that was addressing him or get snippy about it being 'none of their business.'

Yesterday, however, Karin had stormed up to Juugo and Suigetsu and promptly begun complaining about "that stupid pink-haired slut, sleeping in Sasuke's room—how dare she?!"

Immediately curious, Suigetsu had asked her about it, and Karin had told him that she'd gone into Sasuke's room because his chakra had flared—Suigetsu interpreted that as meaning that she'd been looking for an opportunity to jump their team leader's bones—and come upon the girl sitting on a spare futon set up on the floor beside Sasuke's bed.

Karin had launched into a fit of histrionics after that, but Suigetsu had stopped listening, absorbed in musings. So the girl had been in Sasuke's room all along—Suigetsu had assumed as much. He really wasn't sure what to make of the situation. It was definitely not normal to keep a hostage or a prisoner in one's bedroom, though Sasuke had always been a little strange. And if she had her own futon, Sasuke probably wasn't using her for sex.

So…what? Sasuke kidnapped her and just kept her in his room like a pet? The girl was a kunoichi from Konoha. Perhaps she'd been a friend of Sasuke's, back when Sasuke had also been a shinobi of the Leaf? But now Sasuke's sole goal in life was to bring about the downfall of Konoha.

That same frustrating knot of unanswered questions was precisely why Suigetsu now stood before Sasuke's room, intent on getting some answers from the girl herself. He paused, thought about it, then shrugged and barged into the room without knocking.

The first thing Suigetsu noticed upon entering the room was that a spare futon was indeed set up on the floor. The second thing was that the girl that had previously been lounging on it immediately shot up into what he recognized as a defensive position, all of her muscles taut and her green eyes narrowed intensely.

Her eyes, Suigetsu observed absently. She really was much more attractive when one could see the bright green of her eyes. He said as much aloud, curious about how she'd react to the random statement.

Sakura, for her part, could easily be labeled as bewildered. She'd been lying on her futon reading one of her new medical texts when a guy strode in and informed her that she was "definitely hotter with her eyes open."

Although she didn't relax out of her ready stance, she felt it necessary to ask, "Uh, excuse me?"

The youth grinned, exposing unusually pointed teeth. "You were pretty enough when you were unconscious in Sasuke's arms, but you're a lot more attractive with your eyes open."

"Thanks," Sakura said cautiously, watching him apprehensively. Something told her to be wary of him—his eyes were sharp and keen, and there was something lurking in them that told her he wasn't exactly a benevolent soul. He was lean and wiry, two or three inches shorter than Sasuke. He moved like a fighter, a swordsman to be exact; however, she couldn't discern that he meant her any harm at the moment, so she accordingly adjusted her posture until it was more casual, though she still remained on her guard.

Suigetsu resisted the urge to smirk when he noted the way that she sized him up, obviously trying to figure out whether or not he was a threat. Apparently she decided not, as she relaxed from her defensive position. Her expression remained guarded, however, and he was rather pleased to affirm that she was not a fool.

He tilted his head. "What's your name?"

Deciding to play it safe, at least for the moment, Sakura voiced calmly, "I'm not sure I want you to know."

He shrugged, nonplussed. "I'm Suigetsu."

She took a second to file away the name before venturing, "Did Sasuke send you?"

Suigetsu paused, trying to uncover any particular inflection in her voice when she'd said Sasuke's name in an attempt to gauge her relationship with him. His efforts proved mostly fruitless; the girl's voice was casual to the point of indifferent, supplying no insight as to her feelings for the Uchiha.

"No," he answered her question. "I actually had to sneak in here—Sasuke's very touchy about people being in his room." 'Which is why, he mused, it's so weird that you're here.'

Sakura nodded, recalling how Sasuke had reminded Karin to never enter his room without permission. "Which means," she surmised, "that you're either here to see me or raid Sasuke's closet. I'll tell you now that he's got nothing interesting in there."

He loosed a quick laugh. "Tell me about it. No, I'm here to see you. Specifically, I'm here to ask you who you are to Sasuke and why he's decided to arrange for an extended sleep-over with you."

Sakura grimaced. "The truth is that I know neither of the answers to your questions."

"What do you know?" he pressed.

She shrugged, becoming more comfortable with him. "I know that I was on my way home from a mission when Sasuke knocked me out. And then I woke up here and the only thing that Sasuke has conceded to share with me is that he…" she trailed off, her voice cracking just the slightest bit. "Is that he joined the Akatsuki," she finished before regarding Suigetsu. "Are you also a member?"

He also shrugged. "More or less, I suppose. So you knew Sasuke? Before he kidnapped you, I mean."

Sakura tried not to convey how his question struck a chord within her. "I liked to think so," she said finally, before she changed the subject. "So…where are we? I mean, what's outside of this room?"

Suigetsu stared at her, not quite understanding what she was trying to ask. "…More rooms?" he hazarded.

"Seriously," Sakura rolled her eyes. "Like, where the hell are we? Since the moment I woke up two days ago, I haven't been outside of Sasuke's room. I don't even know what country we're in."

Suigetsu almost gaped at her. "Wow. I mean, I knew you weren't getting out a lot because no one had seen you, but Sasuke hasn't let you out at all?"

She scowled darkly and held up her wrists for his inspection. "These stupid chakra-manacles shock me whenever I try to open the door," she explained.

He whistled under his breath. That explained why the door had thrummed with Sasuke's chakra when he opened it. "Well, anyway. We're in the Land of Rain—specifically, we're in Hatekyo." He smirked when her eyes widened. "You've heard of it, I gather?"

"Who hasn't?" Sakura muttered, her mind reeling. Hatekyo was infamous for being a rat's nest of illegal activities. Missing-nin, drug-dealers, rebels, and all sorts of criminals flocked to it. It was in a total state of bloody anarchy. Many of its inhabitants were unfriendly towards Konoha and the other great shinobi villages. The reason that none of the Hidden Villages had done anything about Hatekyo's thriving prosperity off anything and everything illegal was because it would be a monumental task that none of the villages ever had enough manpower to deal with. The typical attitude was to cast a blind eye on Hatekyo and hope that it spontaneously ceased to exist.

'Ignorance is bliss until it bites you in the ass,' Sakura despaired mentally.

-x-

After he finished training, Sasuke strode purposefully through the halls, intent upon checking on Sakura and bringing her a meal, which was why he held a tray of food in his hands. She was bound to be going stir-crazy after being confined to a single room for two days, but Sasuke couldn't seem to come up with a better solution. He certainly couldn't let her wander freely, and taking her with him entailed its own risks.

For the moment, Sakura would have to stay put.

As he came closer to his room, he noticed that Suigetsu's chakra signature was present; right alongside Sakura's extremely muted one. After his initial moment of irritation and exasperation that no one seemed to be respecting his personal boundaries anymore, he felt a surge of alarm course through him.

Sakura was weak on the best of days, but virtually defenseless with the chakra-manacles on. Sasuke increased his stride. He couldn't think of any reason for Suigetsu to attack Sakura, but he was aware that the other male possessed a prominent streak of cruelty, as evident in the way he tortured his victims.

When he was just outside his door, however, he realized that the situation was not what he had expected. Sakura and Suigetsu's voices could be heard through the door.

"So Sasuke really didn't tell you anything?" came Suigetsu's incredulous query. Sasuke's irritation grew when he realized that they were talking about him.

"Slow on the uptake, aren't you? Sasuke never tells anyone anything," was Sakura's dry response. Sasuke couldn't help but feel slightly betrayed.

Suigetsu laughed. "True. Sasuke's—"

"—right here," Sasuke finished for him, deciding it was time to make his presence known by entering the room. The sight of Sakura and Suigetsu facing each other on the floor, sitting cross-legged greeted him. Both of them looked up at his interjection—Sakura's eyes widened then narrowed, and Suigetsu grimaced.

He shot to his feet as Sasuke set the tray of food on the floor. "Sasuke. Hi. Come here often?"

Sakura snickered quietly behind her hand, but Sasuke was admittedly less amused. "You know that I don't permit you to enter my room," he said, enunciating slowly, leaving no room for miscomprehension.

Suigetsu sighed a martyred sigh. "Yeah, I know. I just wanted to talk to—" he broke off, turning to the girl on the floor behind him. "Hey, you never did tell me your name."

Sakura blinked. "Oh. Sakura." She frowned sullenly. She'd really begun to enjoy Suigetsu's company—being cooped up for two days with only Sasuke to talk to was very bleak, and although she was still a bit edgy about Suigetsu, he was rather fun.

'Leave it to Sasuke to ruin it,' she thought resentfully.

She turned her attention back to Suigetsu. "Hey, can you come back tomorrow?"

He looked at her, amused. "You want me to?" 'This pink-haired girl of Sasuke's is very interesting,' he mused.

Sakura gave him a deadpan look. "For the past two days I've had no one to talk to but Sasuke—and he's not exactly the poster-child for a stimulating conversationalist, you know?" Suigetsu's presence lightened her mood considerably—it opened up all other sort of revenue for thought, drawing her mind away from thought of Naruto and Konoha and Sasuke's coldness.

Sasuke, disgruntled at being ignored, drew Sakura's attention back to him. "You cannot invite people to my room," he informed her.

She blinked owlishly at him. "You can come too, if you want." She felt it might appease him to offer.

Suigetsu was smirking, obviously taking the entire conversation in a dirty way.

Sasuke sent him a chilly glance. "Suigetsu, leave."

Suigetsu compliantly headed out the door, mildly relieved he had escaped an un-permitted venture into Sasuke's room with only a few sharp words.

Sakura threw Sasuke a sulky look. "Now what am I supposed to do?"

He glared at her, fed up. "I got you your stupid books—read them."

She rolled her eyes. "Perusing medical textbooks all day gets really old really fast."

Sasuke ran a hand through his hair, trying to bite back an angry retort. He'd already garnered that anger and hostility didn't gain him much ground with Sakura, not as she was now. "You're very high-maintenance," he pointed out dully as he brought her tray to her. "Eat." Now that he was closer to her, he realized that she must have taken a shower, as she smelled of his shampoo and soap. It briefly unsettled him.

Sakura thought about it. Her campaign against food really wasn't getting her very far. In actuality she was only hurting herself. "If you answer me one question," she compromised.

His lips formed a grim line. "Depends on the question."

"How long will I…be here?" she asked surprisingly softly.

Sasuke hadn't been expecting that question. He couldn't see any harm in answering, and he wanted her to eat, so he did a few mental calculations. "About three months," he answered.

Sakura's eyes widened. Three months—seriously? But why? She'd already decided that the best way to get information from Sasuke was slowly and gradually, so she bit back those questions in favor of: "And then I can go back to Konoha?"

In three months, there wouldn't be a Konoha for her to go back to. Sasuke didn't feel like lying to her, so he said carefully, "In three months, I'll let you leave."

She nodded slowly and picked up the tray, breaking apart the chopsticks. Then she raised her head to see Sasuke watching her intently. Although it irritated her to no end, having his undivided attention like that—just watching her—flustered her a bit. "Stop staring at me," she protested defensively.

His only response was to turn towards the door. As his hand was on the knob, Sakura realized something. "Hey, Sasuke?"

He paused, letting her know that he was listening. "Um…if I'm going to be here for three months, I'm kinda going to need more clothes, you know?"

The line of thought had occurred to her earlier in the day after she'd taken a shower. (As Sasuke's shampoo and soap were the only toiletries in there, they were the ones she'd had to use, and she'd marvel at how she had smelled like him afterwards. Except she was missing something—there was more to the scent she identified as Sasuke's other than just his soap and shampoo.) She'd had to change back into the dirty clothes she'd been wearing for what had to be three days now, and it was getting seriously uncomfortable.

She had debated on whether or not to just snag clothes from Sasuke's closet, but had opted not to as a) they wouldn't fit and b) although, as indifferent as Sasuke was towards her he probably wouldn't notice, she had a feeling he'd be less than pleased if he did notice, to put it mildly.

Sasuke continued on his way out the door without responding, but as he'd gotten her medical books without any prompting whatsoever, she trusted him to handle her clothing issue as well.

All she really could do was trust him.

A/N--I seriously don't think Becca and I will ever write the A/N for our own chapters. Not much to say except that I sort of fail at keeping Sasuke IC--I would apologize, but really, you guys need to stop writing such wonderful overpossesive!Sasuke fics, because not only does it cause me to fangirl like an idiot, it also makes me want to write it. Constantly--but I'll try as much as I can to keep bastard!Sasuke. For now, at any point, since this IS a SasuSaku fic. If you review you get...OH. YOU WILL GET THE CHOCOLATE PEANUT BUTTER CUP ICE CREAM THAT I WOULD SACRIFICE SEVERAL SMALL COUNTRIES FOR A LIFETIME SUPPLY OF. You so want some. I don't blame you, that stuff is my crack. BUT YOU CAN ONLY GET SOME IF YOU REVIEW.