title: Grave
pairing: Sasuke/Sakura
genre: sci-fi/romance
rating: T
summary: "I just don't want you to be his Persephone." AU. Sasuke/Sakura.
disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.
"You have only grown more beautiful."
The man who spoke was tall. Most men were taller than her and so most times, unless they were a paying customer at the restaurant, she would avoid talking to them as it strained her neck and all they thought about was sex anyway. Well—she smiled and thought to the photo of him—there were some who were decent.
Kakashi was an exception though. Sure, sex was on his mind too, but she would overlook that because he assured her she was young and he preferred much older, 'bustier,' women. Whatever. Kakashi was an old friend. She would put up with his erotic male mind.
"You've gotten older," she replied.
He was in his late twenties. He had a mature handsomeness to him which he usually used to deceive people. He had unkempt silver hair, wore a white bandage over his left eye, and a dark blue mask that hid the lower half of his face.
She never asked about the bandage.
"You've always been into older men," he countered with ease. He grabbed her duffel bag from her and led the way.
They were the only one's walking. It seemed like it would be that way for miles.
"It's become more quiet," Sakura noted, looking around at the gray buildings and the endless stretch of gray road. There were parked cars by the side of a store or in front of a fire hydrant; they probably didn't run. The two quietly walked by dusty shops that never recovered from the war and stepped over snow-covered welcome mats and fallen signs.
Kakashi nodded. "A new group appeared out of nowhere recently. Red clouds—that's the sign they're using. I suppose it's something like, 'We'll make it rain blood—'"
"—how poetic—"
"—or something equally morbid. Tsunade would've arranged a meeting of compromise but they're not the negotiating type—we found that out when they blew apart the town next door."
"Did she call for a medic?"
"No," Kakashi replied. He seemed hesitant when he continued. "It was Danzo who asked for you. The old man is putting together an assassination team. He's planning on fighting back the Akatsuki."
The two got to an alley that led to the underground sewage channel. Sakura stood staring as far back as her eyes could reach. A small boy, the first living person she's seen since Kakashi, was quickly running down the steps and disappeared.
Apparently she had been moving toward the alleyway because Kakashi had grab her wrist and stopped her. He looked down at her sternly—it reminded her that he was the one who saved her from that life. She was an orphan, among so many others, but they met and he just grabbed her wrist and pulled her along. She had nightmares of what would've happened to her if he hadn't taken her from that place.
Probably dead in a gutter somewhere or stripped of all her dignity in a whorehouse.
Kakashi sighed and released his grasp. "Danzo's waiting. You'll meet the others. I don't know how much you'll like them, but if it's any consolation—"
"He's confident I'll take the job?" It's not like she desperately needed the money. Being back in the city, she felt it again—the despair. She was afraid it was going to eat her up.
"Well, he wouldn't have made Tsunade call you, and have you make a trip, if he wasn't positive you would accept."
She lifted her brow, meeting her savior's concealed face.
"He'll pay you in information, Sakura," and it was the first time he's said her name in so long. "I have reason to believe he knows about your family," she froze, "useful information."
"He knows I want to recover my memories." He knew her weakness.
Kakashi turned away, guilty for knowing what she wishes people didn't, and began walking again. He would've pulled her along, like he had done in the past, but Sakura had grown—matured. Four years of not seeing her, and seeing her now—strong, determined—he wondered for how much longer could he pretend to be unattracted to her.
"We're almost there," he said breezily. "Tsunade changed the meeting house after the town next door was obliterated. Let's hurry."
"Whoever she is, she's probably dead by now, don't you think?"
Madara always had a way of saying demented things with and easy grace and a twisted smile. "If she's staying downtown… well," Madara looked innocently at the boy pretending to be focused on opening his guitar case, "you heard the gunshots for yourself. Akatsuki has been merciless lately."
Although Sasuke put up with Madara, he didn't like the man. Despised would've been suitable. But their relationship was one in which they used each other, so it wasn't like Sasuke felt obliged to like him or anything.
"Aren't you the one behind the Akatsuki," Sasuke stated rather than asked.
"You've become more observant," Madara replied in delight, remembering the boy who only knew to scowl and glare back then. "You have to be observant in this field of work," he said with a nod.
Whatever. Sasuke could do without the tasteless praise. "Just tell me the job. Who is it that's giving you enough trouble to personally contact me?"
Sasuke opened the guitar case to reveal an array of weapons. The girls on the train wouldn't have sent him those adoring stares if they had known—he wondered what her reaction would've been.
"Naruto." Madara threw a file onto the couch. "He's your age," he said as he went to pour himself a glass of wine.
Sasuke didn't reach for the file.
"The Akatsuki can't kill a nineteen-year-old boy? They've been slacking. You must be upset."
Madara was not one to play into the childish trap Sasuke had set for him. He merely shrugged and continued. "Uzumaki, Naruto. Yondaime died in the war, but he left one hell of a legacy and a son who knows how to survive just as much as you know how to kill."
Sasuke pulled his katana out of its sheath. He inspected the cool blade.
"I want you to kill him. Tonight, and by all means. After tonight he could be in the company of the Konoha Protection Force. Once he's with them, you'll have to expend more energy to kill him." Madara's voice turned sickeningly sweet, "I would hate for you to have to stay here any longer than you have to."
Sasuke scoffed beneath his breath. "How considerate you've gotten."
Then Madara was in front of him, placing a wine glass onto the coffee table, beside the guitar case that held no guitar. "If you're thinking of looking for the girl at the Protection Center, I'm going to have to discourage you." There was a pause and Sasuke went on with inspecting the row of kunai. "Even if she was lucky enough to be saved, you wouldn't be able to see her. They don't allow in Uchihas, you see."
Sasuke didn't respond.
"It's best to just think of her as dead," Madara proposed nonchalantly.
When the saw each, they just sort of stood there—staring.
It was like they wanted to run and give each other a hug, but Tsunade kept to her professional façade and Sakura wasn't one to get emotional. Not in front of Danzo anyway.
The old man greeted her with a nod. The right half of his face was covered in bandages that Sakura could care less about.
She didn't like him—neither did Tsunade or Kakashi. But she couldn't deny that he's saved more lives than she could count. So she told herself not hate the man, as it would've made her petty and ignorant. And him, a hero.
The four stood in the hallway of a closed down movie theater.
"The other two are inside," the old man said.
He walked to Theater 2 where two men guarded the double-doors. They opened the doors for him and waited for Tsunade, Kakashi, and Sakura to walk through before closing it.
Inside, the theater was silent.
In the front row two seats were occupied.
After sorting out his weapons and choosing which he would use on this particular job, Sasuke left the stuffy, over-furnished apartment and found himself standing in front of the train station, looking in the direction where she had disappeared.
Madara had gone to meet with Akatsuki to tell them to back down for the night—Sasuke worked alone. Anyone else would just be an interference.
The boy reached into his right side jean pocket and pulled out the photo. She had kissed him, he thought with displeasure. Sure, girls had thrown themselves at him before, but no one had dared to kiss him.
He supposed that it was his bad luck to have met her. But it didn't make sense that he was partly grateful for having said bad luck.
What kind of person was she? What was she doing right now? He thought about these things.
As his discontentment grew—she could have left her number at least—he decided to dismiss such meaningless things and return to the apartment.
He would sleep till the sun fell and then he would do the job and go—look for her—home. He would just get back on the train and go home.
The two others were a guy and a girl.
Sakura assumed them to be dating.
The girl had baby blue eyes and long blonde hair that she tied up. The boy had bored brown eyes with brown hair that was tied in a way that with his head, could create the silhouette of a pineapple.
Sakura recognized the boy.
Nara, Shikamaru. He was a genius and was sometimes on the newspapers that customers brought in. The girl sitting beside him looked like his whiny, cheerleader girlfriend. When she saw Sakura, her eyes narrowed. And, like the whiny, cheerleader girlfriend Sakura suspected her to be, the girl grabbed onto her boyfriend's arm like, "He's my man."
Sakura just rolled her eyes. Kakashi chuckled beside her.
The two rose once everyone was gathered in the front where the screen rose to the ceiling.
Danzo didn't bother with introductions and started speaking.
"Shikamaru, Ino," which Sakura suspected was the girl's name, "Kakashi, you three are to infiltrate the nearest Akatsuki base—my men will take you there. Ino, you will be the distraction in order to create an opening for Kakashi and Shikamaru. You two," he said, turning to the other two and ignoring the girl, "will use the opening to get into their planning room. There, Kakashi will stand guard and the main objective is for Shikamaru to memorize the maps they have. Every single one." The two nodded, unfazed by the quick and directness of the order.
"Why not just steal them?" Ino asked, to which she received a glare from Danzo and an under-the-breath 'idiot,' from Shikamaru.
"We don't want to tip them off that we're planning on destroying their organization," Tsunade clarified, saving Danzo the irritation and the girl from a lecture.
Ino retreated into silence beside Shikamaru.
Then Danzo turned to Sakura.
"As for you," out of the corner of her eye, she saw Tsunade stiffen, "you'll be reuniting with an old friend."
The night brought in a storm and snow fell steadily, covering the gray buildings in soft white.
Madara was asleep on the couch—Sasuke had already packed his things so that he would leave for the station once he got back—and the hired assassin left soundlessly.
Before he left he had flipped through the file and made note of the blonde hair and blue eyes of the one who would die by his blade tonight. The file was a lie, as it had no useful information about Naruto—it was actually more of a composition of things pertaining to his father.
Madara knew little about the exact whereabouts of the boy.
Sasuke didn't mind the challenge, or the greater pay.
Madara had told him that Naruto was somewhere downtown, making use of alleyways and abandoned buildings to hide his tracks and was heading towards the Protection Center. Madara didn't know whether Naruto was a fighter or not—it could be assumed so—but he trusted that Sasuke could handle the kid, whatever the case.
It was another tasteless compliment.
The assassin cleared his mind and set out into the night.
When Naruto saw her, he got all teary-eyed. Her pulled her into his arms and hugged her. It was neither awkward nor uncomfortable—just warm and familiar.
But she didn't remember him. Not like he remembered her.
"I thought I'd never see you again," he said when he finally pulled back to look into her face. "But I remember the hair, and god, the eyes." He looked fearlessly into the sucking emerald pools and just pulled her close again. "I've missed you, Sakura," he said in a whisper.
She had a billion questions for him. How do you know me? Did you know my family? Where did I lived? Were we friends? What happened to us? What happened to me? But that wasn't part of the job. And her only source of information was in danger.
"You're not safe," she said into his shoulder. "We need to get out of here and to the center."
He pulled her back and looked into her eyes. He nodded in understanding and the two left through the window.
They climbed onto the roof of the abandoned flower shop and proceeded carefully from roof to roof. Though Naruto felt that it completely exposed them, he could see that it would help them in spotting any incoming threat. Mostly, he just trusted her.
She felt him following behind her. She felt him smiling at her back. And she felt the warmth of being with him despite it snowing on them and them being a good meter apart.
She felt that she knew him. This person.
And then she saw the flicker, faster than a blink, sweeping across the white, glowing snow, far in the distance.
"Down," and the two helped each other slip into a building.
"They're here," Naruto said when they had settled into the spacious, dark room.
"No." She stared out the window. "There's only one."
Sasuke entered through the front door of the dance studio.
There's was no need to mask his presence, they already knew he was there. And if they thought they could manage to outrun him… it would be a rude awakening, wouldn't it?
There were two.
One of them was Naruto, the other unimportant.
On the third floor, he felt their presence, as he knew they felt his. Though it was dark, he heard the breathing from the far corner, by the window.
Naruto would be the one to jump out and run, the other would stay behind—stupidly sacrificing himself. He would be able to catch up to Naruto in no time.
Sasuke took a step forward.
.
.
.
Sakura took a step back.
The room was silent, and then—
Naruto jumped at Sakura's push; the assassin caught his face in the moonlight of the window. There was a thud as the blonde landed and then there was running.
Before Sakura could make a clear distinction of the enemy, he was standing in front of her, his right hand clasped mercilessly around her throat and she felt the cool blade piercing into her gut. But all she could think about was protecting Naruto and keeping herself alive.
She threw a punch into the assassin's gut.
It was weaker than her usually punches which could break buildings, but it was enough that she heard the grunt of having the air knocked out of him, and the dark figure falling back into the still blackness.
And then he was back.
Sasuke grabbed the opponent and threw him against the right-side mirrored wall of the dance studio.
They fought in the darkness and the more they pushed and pulled against each other, the more he noticed the thin arms and thin legs—
—a girl.
He was fighting with a girl.
They wrestled and Sakura felt the blood, the glass in her skin.
She felt her strength deteriorating and the assassin getting stronger. And stronger. Till he pressed her to the floor and used his weight to hold her down.
She heard the katana being slid out of its sheath.
She closed her eyes.
And then—
"SAKURA!"
The weight was off her and all she could think was, Why didn't you run?
And then—
She saw him.
The black of his hair. The white of his skin. And the red in his eyes. All illuminated by the moonlight that poured into the room, revealing everything.
Their eyes met—
—and then the world went black.
.
.
.
Those eyes.
The eyes that existed in her nightmares.
.
.
.
tbc.