- Eighteen -
(a.k.a., final chapter)
Home stretch guys. I know this has been so delayed, so hopefully the ending will be satisfying enough for you all.
Thank you for taking this lovely journey with me, all delayed eighteen chapters. Mind you, Eternity is as of this chapter, sorry if you hoped I would continue.
I am, however, in the midst of starting Mockingbird, my newest Saso/Saku fic. It's up on my profile if you're interested.
Thank you for all the reviews/favorites/etc. It means a lot guys!
Konohagakure was, for lack of a different description, serene. The breeze that blew was gentle, pushing through the trees and making wind chimes dance in a light-hearted melody from where they dangled outside shops and homes. The streets of the city and the market bustled with interaction, the sun high in the midday sky; perfect weather to permit one to go out and enjoy the glorious day.
"I've missed home," Sakura murmured thoughtfully, a wry smile curving onto her pale lips. The blonde walking next to her looked over and flashed her a toothy grin.
"Yeah," Naruto agreed, looking around with a perpetual curve on his lips. "No matter what happens, I don't think I could ever call anywhere else home."
How long had it been that they had been back since their treacherous journey? Then again, did it truly matter? Everyone seemed happy, or at the very least, content. It was better than it had been in quite a while.
"One day, I'll be the king of this city!" Naruto cried, a dopey grin on his face as he struck an outrageous pose. Sakura shook her head and muttered something under her breath, contemplating how a clown like Naruto could ever purposefully run Konohagakure.
"Everyone, be excited for the day that I call you my people!" Naruto voiced, eliciting a few strange looks from passerby. "One day...and it will be the best day of my life!"
"Oi," Sakura groaned, eying her former teammate curiously. "Don't you know there are a lot of things to live for, baka? What about finding love, having a future, anything else?"
Naruto mused on this for a second before childishly returning to his previous rant.
"Those will all be great, you know? But imagine it; me, Uzumaki Naruto, as Hokage."
As much as Sakura had faith in the eccentric blonde, she couldn't help but question how he would manage being a figure of power and authority. Naruto had come a long way throughout their lives as shinobi, but it seemed he had a long way to go.
"Just enjoy today, will you?" Sakura admonished, arcing an eyebrow and sighing. "You get ahead of yourself far too often."
"Yeah, yeah," Naruto commented, not really paying Sakura's commentary any mind. "Look - Ichiraku! Let's go get ramen Sakura-chan!"
The cherry blossom rolled her neck, listening to it pop in various places as they edged their way through the throng of people over to Naruto's favorite and seemingly only restaurant of interest. Truthfully, Sakura wasn't a huge ramen fan, but Naruto had invited her out on the town, and she wasn't about to say no.
As she waited for her vegetable ramen, Sakura gazed around dreamily. There was something about this city that was so...different. Maybe it wasn't Konohagakure that was different; maybe it was her.
People watching was an interesting hobby, and Sakura couldn't help taking in the sights of the people walking by. It was during this semi-amusing pastime that Sakura caught sight of something she probably would not have noticed otherwise.
On the other side of a street, hidden beneath overhangs and behind the mass of bodies moving around, a flash of red.
Sakura felt her stomach lurch and drop, mouth slightly agape as she stared, paralyzed.
"Sakura-chan." Naruto was shaking her arm. "Ramen's ready."
Sakura blinked to take her attention off the unexpected sight, and turned around to gaze straight into a bowl of broth and noodles. There was no logical reason that would be the case. In all honesty, red as a color just happened to make her nervous lately.
Was there a technical term for the fear of the color red? Moreover, the fear of redheaded people?
Sakura laughed a little, ashamed and nervous about the thoughts running through her head. On one hand, it sounded completely ridiculous. On the other, it made perfect sense to her to still be cautious and a little wary once in a while.
Delicately pulling noodles from the bowl, Sakura found herself gazing around out of her peripherals, not that you could see much while sitting on a stool in Ichiraku. It had been just the right timing, peeking through one of the cracks in the flaps surrounding the noodle bar and a gust of wind to push it aside to catch sight of it.
There was no way...right?
Naruto was too engaged in noisily chowing down to notice the troubled look on his friend's face. Not that Sakura wanted him to notice; that would be more trouble that she did not need at the moment.
Sakura silently finished the ramen before her, somehow forcing the task of eating to hold her attention and allow her mind to remain blank through the five or ten minutes it took to finish her bowl. Her one bowl to Naruto's four.
"That was great." Naruto had an excessively joyous smile on his face while he wiped his mouth with the back of his arm and stretched, as if he had just partook in a four-course meal and was ready to head home and crawl into bed.
Did four bowls of ramen count as a four-course meal?
"Yeah..." Sakura trailed off, scouting the crowd for any signs of something amiss. It was paranoia, this confirmed by her sudden contemplation of if she could possibly be suffering from post traumatic stress disorder.
Really. How inane.
The sun had dipped a little to the west in the time they had been making their way through town and had stopped to eat. Despite the early hour and the free time they both had, Naruto looked anxious and bouncy.
"Hey, Sakura-chan, I think I'm going to head off for the day," he told her, waving his hands in indecipherable gestures. "Is that okay?"
"That's fine," Sakura agreed, nodding her head slightly, eyes still picking apart the crowd around her. When Naruto said his goodbyes, she waved in his general direction and muttered something that she was not sure had been any form of a goodbye. At this moment, she was too fixated on everything else around her.
It was time to go home.
Opening the door to her apartment, Sakura was greeted by the scent of flowers and fresh fruit that it almost always smelled of. The clean smell eased her a bit, and grabbing some water from the fridge, she headed into her room to relax.
The sight she was faced with was so...simplistic, yet invoked a level of fear into her that one could not easily comprehend. Approaching the piece of paper set on her windowsill, Sakura unrolled it with shaking hands.
It has been so long, Sakura. Meet me by the bridge at sundown.
Meet them by the bridge. It wasn't something she could be forced into, or so she would liked to have believed, but the fear within her drove her to make the decision to go. How long was it until dusk, anyway?
It didn't matter. She just wanted something to keep her mind off of it, something to keep her from staring viciously at her bedside clock, counting the minutes.
Pulling out a book from her nightstand drawer, she settled against the pillows and took to occupying herself with the fictional life of others.
Stars were beginning to appear in the east while the sun slowly dipped down toward the horizon in the west. If there had been any ordinary reason to be out, Sakura would have been enjoying the perfect temperature the day had graciously given them as well as the beautiful mixture of day and night overhead.
Instead, she was walking hesitantly toward a place she used to train, feeling unusually uncomfortable in her own skin. Why was she Haruno Sakura? Why, at this moment, could she not be anyone else?
The bridge was still a ways off, and she was in absolutely no hurry to appear there. If they had to wait, they would wait. If this, whatever it was, happened to be of the utmost importance, they could wait for her to make an appearance.
Slowly verging off the paths of the city streets, Sakura could feel something sick twisting in her stomach. Her hands were lightly trembling, and despite the warm breeze, she was chilled.
This. This was the perfect physical embodiment of fear; raw, hungry fear that fed on a person without hesitation.
Coming to the bridge, Sakura leaned herself up against one of the railings, eyes darting around nervously. In her mind, she had already depicted how this would go, already knew who was out there waiting for her. Turning to face the west, Sakura watched as the sun went downward and disappeared beneath the horizon.
This was it; the moment she had never wanted to be faced with in her life.
There was a rustling behind her, and a lump formed in her throat, momentarily cutting off the flow of oxygen traveling to and from her lungs. Once she had caught her breath, Sakura came to realize her eyes were screwed shut, and that she was on the verge of tears.
"Sakura."
Her eyes opened, and while her heart sped faster than normal, it slowed from its sprinting pace. That voice...it wasn't...
That voice did not belong to Akasuna no Sasori. That voice...
"Sasuke?"
Spinning around, Sakura was met with the sight of a tall, raven-haired boy with piercing obsidian eyes. The sight was altogether shocking, and made her heart drop in a way that was neither good or bad.
"Sasuke."
Wary that it could be a trick, Sakura took a step toward him and came to a halt.
"Is it really you?"
The boy before her kept a blank face, but she watched his eyes turn a sinful red, and listened to the sound of his throaty voice pierce the night air.
"Move."
Sakura did as she was told, preparing a medical jutsu he should not have been readily capable of doing. In turn, she watched his movements mimic hers perfectly, and fade as hers did.
"It...it's really you, Sasuke," Sakura choked out, eyes wide and hand clenched over her heart. "Why are you back?"
"I need a favor." His voice came out in a gentle whisper; a mannerism completely opposite of how she had come to view him since his departure so many years ago.
"Yes?"
The raven-haired male held out a scroll to her, which she lightly grasped and slowly pulled from him. All of this was surreal; Sakura expected it to melt away at any moment, pulling her into the hell she had been anticipating all this time.
"Take that to Naruto," he murmured, eyes serious and cold. Sasuke had changed, but so much of him was still as she remembered. It was pitiful, to find herself choking back tears like she was twelve again.
"Okay," she quietly agreed, clasping the scroll tight and watching him without so much as a blink, afraid if she made such a movement that he would be gone.
"Thank you, Sakura," he stated graciously, turning around and disappearing.
"Sasuke-!"
He was gone. He had been there, and then he was gone, like it was absolutely nothing. All that for a scroll.
How it surprised her, she wasn't quite sure.
Sitting at home, Sakura stared at the scroll sitting on her nightstand. It would not be proper to open it, seeing as it had not been intended for her, but curiosity tugged relentlessly at her.
Sakura closed her eyes and shook her head, pulling her attention away from the rolled paper sitting beside her. It was not her place. It was in her possession, but it was not hers.
Sakura could not remember ever being this impatient; then again, it was not every day that Uchiha Sasuke came back to Konohagakure, asking to see her, even if it was just to deliver something to Uzumaki Naruto.
Boys. There were complicated, not to mention confusing beyond belief.
Sakura was not sure what she had been hoping for when she had been faced with the sight of the boy she had not been expecting. Sasuke was not the type of being to come running back to something he had purposefully left behind because he had, while being away, discovered an attachment he had never realized he'd had. Sakura sighed; it was petty to have hoped for such a thing.
Either way, it had been reassuring to see him rather than the one person (demon, murderer, sadist) that she had never longed to see again so long as she was breathing.
Thank heavens for coincidence. If that note had been from anyone else, there was a distinct possibility that Sakura would not have made it home once more.
The thought made tears well up in her eyes for the second time that evening. It was trivial, but at that moment Sakura found herself wishing for Sasuke to come back, to be her hero.
Her hero? Uchiha Sasuke?
It was a nonsensical thought. Sasuke wasn't even an antihero; by now, he had become no better than all those who proved menacing and heartless before him, a true villain. There was no way, no matter what the past had been and what situation his former teammate and friend was in now, that he had any intention of saving her.
Haruno Sakura was a strong female. It was unnecessary to have a man protect her.
At least, that's what she liked telling herself.
Lying in bed, the feeling wouldn't leave her. It felt like a blanket of dread had draped itself over her, and no matter how hard she tried, she could not get out from under it. There was something in the air tonight that just wasn't right...
Whether it had been Sasuke or not out there, something lingered with her now that made her stomach twist and churn. There had to be some way to alleviate this feeling, some way to ease her anxiety and allow her to - at the very least - slip into a peaceful sleep.
A tapping on her window cause her to grasp tightly to her blankets, eyes screwing shut forcefully. It had to be the elements; this could not be occurring.
Impossible. It just had to be impossible, or...
As she got up and ambled to the window, she looked around hesitantly, her guard up.
It had not been enough.
"Sakura," a venomous voice drawled from behind her. Once again her stomach dropped, accompanied by immediately tearing eyes and irregular breathing. "I thought I told you I will always be watching."
"What do you want?" she half cried and half snapped, turning around to face the redhead sitting lazily on her bed. Sasori's eyes flicked up at her, looking bored, before back down to the leaf he was twirling between his fingertips.
"You like him, don't you?" he inquired, peering at her once more from beneath his shaggy bangs and long, dark eyelashes. "That's a shame, truly."
"You won't! You can't!"
Sasori snickered lightly, standing from his place on her bed and allowing the leaf to drift from his hand to the ground.
"Sakura," he repeated her name, letting it fall from his lips menacingly. "I don't care who it is; no one is a challenge enough to stop me from keeping you to myself."
"He isn't interested in me like that. Why does it matter to you?"
Sasori stopped, halfway from her bed to her.
"Why?" he echoed, eyes lighting up with malice. "You should have thought about that before you got that sparkling glint in your eyes, before you stuttered his name."
"It...it was you!"
Sasori sneered and turned his gaze on her.
"No, it wasn't. That's why I'm angry; I'm not going to test your loyalty to me, I simply expected you to keep it without me having to resort to such petty means."
Sakura could feel herself staring in disbelief, looking like an animal knowing it was being preyed upon.
"It's not like that! You shouldn't even be here!"
Sasori edged closer to her still, until he had her with her back pressed to the window.
"I should not be here, should I?" he mimicked, eying her suspiciously. "You should have thought of that sooner, Sakura."
Her breathing was cut off as his hand curled around her throat and lifted her off the ground. Sakura grasped and clawed desperately at his hand, making a feeble attempt to free herself. Without having anticipated this altercation, she was on the losing side. It was taking all she had to keep what little breathe was in her while he held her up in a tight grasp.
Abruptly, he dropped her, sending her crashing to the ground while she coughed and wheezed. Sakura unabashedly inhaled deep, ragged breaths, struggling to regain the air she had lost while Sasori had her by the throat. Skin sore to the touch, Sakura could tell bruises were already forming.
Sasori had bent down, his face right in front of hers.
"Have you changed your mind, Sakura? Do you want to accept being loyal to me?"
Tears swelled helplessly in her emerald eyes, threatening to pour over at any moment. The feeling was horrible, but she knew if she did not agree, Sasori would more than likely go hunt down Sasuke, or any other male he was wary of.
"O-okay," she stammered, wincing and turning away from him slightly, fearful.
"Do you mean that?" Sasori's tone had lightened somewhat, although it still sounded harsh and demanding.
"Yes," Sakura breathed hoarsely, not thinking twice as she agreed, praying that this decision would save whoever his suspicions included.
"Good girl," Sasori purred, reaching out and running his fingers down her face. "Now let's test that."
"Sakura's eyes grew wide, expecting him to go off at that very moment in fury and blood lust to go apprehend his victim. Before she could so much as make a sound, his mouth was on hers, and she felt a sharp pain as he bit hard into her lip.
A coppery taste dribbled from the split skin, and she felt queasy as his tongue ran along the edge of her mouth, tasting the warm liquid. When he pulled away, his lifeless lips were stained red from her blood, giving him the appearance of being a little more human.
Sakura sat there in awe, feeling blood continually trickle from her lip, but not caring. The look in his eyes was horrific; this was worse than before. It was obsession, fixation, and something inexplicably demonic.
"You..."
Sasori nuzzled her face and dropped his face into the crook of her neck, lightly biting there and pulling back.
"I love you, Sakura. Be with me forever."
The words made tears harshly spill from her eyes, and soft sobs began to overtake her. The man crouched before her ignored this, sitting back and pulling her arms around him.
Sakura froze, looking at the devilish grin curling onto the man's lips.
"What did you do?" she cried, feeling an unexpected pull at her body. The way he ran his tongue hungrily over the blood that was drying on his lips indicated that the bite, the withdraw of her DNA, had been a part of something she had not noticed.
"You are mine now, Sakura," Sasori told her, tugging at something she could not see to allow her hand to rest against his cheek. "My first and only flesh puppet."
Tears continued pooling in and running out of her eyes, although she found she could not blink.
My first and only flesh puppet.
She would rather die, whether it be homicide or suicide. Yet there she was, sitting on the wooden floor of her bedroom, being controlled by the Akatsuki's puppeteer.
What was there to say? Unless someone killed him, she was trapped.
"Mine," Sasori gloated, an almost sweet smile on his face, although she knew it was nothing short of cynical. "Mine forever, aren't you Sakura?"
Her mind was free, but her body had become a toy. Sickness flooded over her in a wave as she contemplated what would become of her from here on out.
It was best to not think. If she was lucky, if he brought her home, Hidan would get a hold of her and use her for sacrifice.
Her life was over. There was nothing left.
Gasping, Sakura sat up in bed, hand flying to her mouth to feel for a cut that was not there.
It was all a dream; a vicious nightmare.
Sighing, she lay back down, comfortable in the darkness of her room.
"I would never harm you, Sakura," a voice reassured her while a hand stroked her hair. Eyes flickering open as fast as they had when she awoke, she took in the sight of a man sitting on the floor beside her. He trailed his hand across her cheek, something cold and sticky accompanying it.
As he withdrew his hand altogether, she noticed a dark stain running from the tips of his fingers to his wrist.
"I would only hurt them, never you," he repeated, bloodstained fingers running over her hair again.
"What did you do?" she cried, pushing herself up and failing to push herself away. Sasori laughed lightly.
"Sakura, I could not have you being captivated by another boy. I did what I had to."
This had to be a dream, another nightmare perhaps. It was sickening to notice all the immaculately accurate details of her room, the fact that at four in the morning the moon was in the exact place it should have been, and turning around, she could see the scroll still perfectly in place on her nightstand.
"I would never hurt you, Sakura. I love you."
The pink-haired girl spun around, but he was gone. Yet the sticky cold feeling still remained on her cheek, slowly drying.
This was what it had come to.
With her freedom came the cost of their lives. Sakura sat there, tears unwillingly slipping from her eyes.
She could not so much as look at someone the wrong way, or they would suffer whatever he had done...
Sakura allowed her face to fall into her hands, sobbing relentlessly.
She still lived, but her life was over.
There was nothing left for her, anymore.
- Fin -
I hope you all liked this; I tried to draw out the last chapter especially for you all.
Sorry if it's still short D:
Anyways, there are quite a few implications at the end involving death...it's a bit objective, i.e. take it as you will. I have my own idea set in my head, but I will allow you to yours.
Thank you so much for everything involving this story - every review, favorite, anything meant a lot to me.
I would still love reviews, if you would all be so kind. Thank you again, and hopefully some of you can find enjoyment out of Mockingbird just as you did Eternity.
I can honestly say it is finally finished. Once again, I am sorry if you wanted me to keep going, but Eternity is officially done.
Hopefully I'll hear from some of you in my other fic(s).
Thank you again~
I tried so hard, and got so far, but in the end it doesn't even matter.
I had to fall to lose it all, but in the end it doesn't even matter.
- Linkin Park