Black Rose

Author: Moe-shi

Summary: After leaving an abusive relationship, Sakura finds solace in Naruto's arms. AU. NaruSaku Warning: Violence

Rating: T

Reviews for the last chapter:

Muerte-chan: Haha, thanks! And yeah, it is definitely an alternate universe, because... well, Sakura wouldn't have gotten beaten up in the first place! :) Anyway, thanks for the review, and I'm updating now!

Twinitech 2: Thanks, that was my goal! :P

Echo Uchiha: Exactly! :) Thanks for the review!

mrgirmjaw: Aww, thanks so much!

Lazy Gaga: Thanks! And yeah, the first couple of months were great, but then... we had exams (dun dun duuuunnn...). Haha, I have time now that they're over for me, so I figured, why not update?

...this person didn't give a name: Thank you so much unknown reviewer! :) I'll definitely keep going, I already have 16 reviews! I'm very happy with how it's turning out!

drama3chic: Aww, thanks so much! I'm updating now, hope you enjoy the new chapter!

Disclaimer: I don't own anything in this story, which is so sad! :O

Chapter 3

Sakura slowly opened her eyelids, peering around the empty bedroom. It was morning, she thought decidedly, as she noticed small bits of sunlight making its way through the closed curtains.

She pulled herself into a sitting position, her legs crossed beneath her, as she reached her arms above her head and stretched, wincing slightly as she heard her back crack. Rubbing her sore shoulders, she glanced beside her, only to see the beautiful face of her childhood friend. He was sleeping peacefully, a soft smile on his face, and Sakura could almost imagine what he was dreaming about.

Probably pounding Sasuke, she giggled inwardly, slipping out from under the covers and grabbing a sweater of Naruto's from off a chair. She slipped it on, and it fell loosely against her lean frame. It smelled similarly of how the shirt had smelled the night before, except maybe a little stronger...

Mmm... Sakura inhaled the familiar smells of the shirt, He smells so- wait... this is really creepy. She stopped mid-sniff, peering at the boy out of the corner of her eyes, Good... he's still sleeping.

Glancing back at Naruto once more, she slipped (the better word being stumbled) out of the bedroom, moving towards the kitchen as her stomach let out a loud growl. "So... hungry..." she moaned softly, stopping at the bathroom to brush her teeth.

Before going to bed last night - and no, they did not do anything, Naruto had attempted to bandage her wounds... the key word being attempted. As of now, the messily done bandages were practically falling off of her body, and Sakura knew she would have to redo them herself, no matter how hard it would prove to be.

Given the fact that one of her arms was broken (or maybe just fractured – but hey, it hurt like hell), she knew that this was probably a bad idea. A very bad idea. But what other choice did she have? None, she reminded herself, letting out a sigh as she left the bathroom, wobbling into the kitchen.

She carefully sat Naruto's old, worn, leather couch, observing the familiar tears and stains on it. It may sound weird, but she had many good memories on this couch.

Flashback

A group of teens stumbled into the messy apartment, giggling as one of them fell over drunkenly. "Get up Kiba-kun!" Sakura pointed a shaky finger towards the dog boy, laughing as he attempted to stand, before falling down again.

"You're like a... like a turtle!" Naruto shouted, and Kiba glared at the blonde boy.

"At least... at least..." Kiba trailed off, continuing to glare as Naruto smirked triumphantly, trying to look cool as he went to lean on the door frame. Unfortunately, he missed it entirely, joining Kiba in a heap on the floor.

More laughter filled the room, as Sakura giggled, falling atop of the two boys, "Party on the apartment floor!" she sang, changing the lyrics to a song they had heard in the club earlier that night.

"Fore-Forehead!" a high pitched drunken voice interrupted their laughter, as a blonde girl stumbled forward, giggling girlishly, "You're going to wr-wrinkle my new designer shirt-t-t!" she whined, crossing her arms, as she glared at her best friend.

"Shut u-up Piggy!" Sakura kicked her friend playfully in the leg, who responded, by falling on top of her, leaving Sakura to moan under the weight, "Pig, why... are you... so heavy?"

Ino immediately sat up, glaring dangerously at her friend, "What did you just say?"

Sakura froze, her emerald green eyes narrowing, "I sai- I sai-" Sakura made a noise in her throat, "I said, that you need to lose a couple of pounds!"

They stared at each other with contempt for a moment, before finally running at each other, fighting and throwing words back and forth.

To an innocent bystander that didn't know the two girls, they looked like they were about to murder each other, hate burning in their eyes.

However, if you weren't an innocent bystander, than you would see something below the hate. You would see a playfulness, and you would see small smiles on their faces, and you would notice how those words weren't the ones that would really hurt them, or that the hits weren't really that strong.

"Sakura-chan, Ino, stop-stop fighting!" Naruto moaned, trying to get his foot out from underneath of Sakura and Ino. "I can't stand up!"

Sakura paused mid hair-pull, "Are-are you saying we're fat?"

And with that, both girls were unleashed upon him.

Later that night, the whole crew was situated on Naruto's leather couch, a television blaring in the background. They'd started a movie, but had fallen asleep in the first five minutes.

Naruto sat in the middle of Sakura and Ino, 2 large bumps in the middle of his head.

End Flashback

She placed a pack of medical supplies beside her, as she began to unravel an old bandage, grimacing at the gory sight beneath it.

There was a huge gash, that although wasn't very long, was very deep. The bandages that were previously wrapping the cut, were soaked in dark red blood. She cleaned the cut to the best of her ability, before re-wrapping it with her skilled doctor hands.

"Ow!" she let out a small yelp of pain as she put pressure on her right arm, attempting to mask the large amount of pain she was feeling. If only she could just... but no, that was impossible.

After she was done with her wounds, she cleaned up the mess she had made, making sure that there weren't any blood stains on the couch. Faintly, though, the smell of disinfectant still hung in the air.

She stood up slowly, attempting to swat away the smell with her hand, as she waved it back and forth. Her nose crunched up in distaste, because although she sometimes found comfort in the smell, currently it made her want to throw up.

Sighing, Sakura went into the kitchen, attempting to find some food. Unfortunately, that task turned out to be far more difficult than she had hoped. Eventually, she just settled for a bowl of cereal. After opening the fridge, she opted to go without milk, as Naruto's looked old and covered in mold. She wrinkled her nose in disgust.

Hadn't he just gone shopping? Sakura sighed, remembering that she saw a bunch of instant ramen containers inside of the shopping bags. She had just assumed that was only the top layer, that he had gotten some healthy food, but apparently not.

She was going to have to go shopping.

She plopped onto the couch, turning the television on with a click. There wasn't really much on, and so despite her inner cries of horror, she flipped to the news.

She hated the news.

"-was broken into last night, and the police are currently unaware of the resident's location." she caught the news mid-story, settling deeper into the couch as she plopped a dry flake into her mouth.

"This picture was taken of the house, shortly after the police arrived. If anyone has any information on the robber, or of the resident's location, please call in at..." Sakura tuned out of the news cast, staring at the TV in dumb shock. That-that was her house!

Sasuke... a small voice in head chimed, he must have broken into her house last night! Thanks god she hadn't went there. She would be... well, she wouldn't be okay, that was for sure.

If she still wasn't a little scared of what they might do, she would have called into the news station, but she had a feeling that would be a horrible idea.

"Sakura?" a voice called to her from the doorway, and she quickly used the remote to shut the television off, before turning towards Naruto.

"Morning..." she smiled warmly at him, and she hoped he hadn't heard the news cast.

"What were you doing?" he asked curiously, and Sakura sighed in relief, he definitely hadn't.

"Just watching TV, and eating some cereal." she glanced down at the barely touched cereal in her hands, and smiled sheepishly at Naruto.

He chuckled lightly, glancing at her form, "We need to head over to your place and pick up your clothes... not that you don't look good in my clothes, but..."

Her eyes widened slightly as he spoke, before she quickly shouted, "No!" he looked at her curiously, "I mean, um... I don't really have many clothes back at my apartment. They are... uh... all at Sasuke's... so I think I'll have to buy some for the time being."

He looked a little annoyed (not at her, she knew, at the mention of Sasuke instead), but he nodded anyway. "Okay, I'll get Hinata to take you later today. Do you remember her from high school? She's been hanging with us a bit, because Neji has to watch over her, and... well, anyway, she would probably be better at that than me."

Sakura grinned, "Hinata-chan? She worked at the hospital with me, she wanted to be a doctor so bad, so I apprenticed her a bit last year. I wonder how she's doing..."

She can look at my wounds too! Sakura thought excitedly, getting off the couch as fast as she could without causing herself pain. But what to wear?

"Naruto..." Sakura limped past him, towards his closet. "don't you have some old clothes of mine somewhere? I mean, I'm sure I left something..."

She rummaged through the clothes for a couple of minutes, ignoring the half ass answer she received, until she victoriously pulled out an old summer dress. "Yes! I knew it!"

She turned towards Naruto, "Do you think you could call Hinata and tell her to bring a pair of sandals or something over? I don't have any shoes, and our feet are the same size." when she saw him move towards the phone in the room, Sakura pointed towards the door, "Out! I'm getting changed."

She would have gone over and punched him when he hesitated, but she couldn't move fast enough, and soon he was out of the room.

Sakura rolled her eyes. What a pervert.

Carefully, she slipped on her old summer dress. It was pretty old, maybe 3 or 4 years, something that she had worn during the summer. If she remembered correctly, it was from the night of Neji's 16th birthday. It was a huge celebration, because that meant that someone in their group could finally drive. Sometimes it was good to have a friend a year older than yourself.

After the party, she had been planning to head to Ino's house, but unfortunately the Yamanka's decided to return from a business trip. In Ino's house, no friends were allowed over... ever. Her dad was way too overprotective. So, parents = no sleepover. That meant she had nowhere to stay.

Although she would never tell her parents this (it was easy to say that she had been allowed to stay at Ino's), she had ended up sleeping over at Naruto's that night. He was her best friend, and she knew he would never touch her, but her parents didn't know that.

She'd had a change of clothes, and had accidentally forgotten the dress there when she left the next morning. When Naruto asked if she wanted it back, she had laughed and shrugged. She figured that having a dress lying around wouldn't be a bad thing.

Thank goodness she was so smart.

When she finally had the dress on her body, she realized that she needed it zipped up. Naruto.

"Naruto-kun..." she called out, hoping that he would hear her. I hope he's not still on the phone. "Can you come in here please?"

It only took 8 seconds (Sakura counted) until Naruto burst in the room. "What do you need, Sakura-chan?"

She sweat dropped, "Uh... would you mind zipping my dress up?"

Naruto seemed to deflate thn, grumbling slightly to himself, as he wandered over to where she was standing, "I thought I was going to get lucky..." he mumbled quietly to himself, until he was right behind her.

Sakura's eyes widened as she processed what he had just said, turning and bopping Naruto on the head, as she shrieked, "Hentai! Hentai!"

"Mou... Sakura-chan..." he rubbed his head, and she turned her back to him, waiting until she felt his warm hands on her back, "Are you ready?"

"Mhm..." she confirmed, sucking in slightly as she felt her dress being zipped up from the back. "Thank you, Naruto." she smiled at him, turning around and wrapping her arms around his neck so that their foreheads touched.

"Anytime Sakura-chan." he grinned at her, pressing his lips to hers in a quick kiss.

"When is Hinata-chan coming over?" Sakura enquired, pulling away from the boy teasingly. She smiled discreetly as she saw him pout. That's what you get, you pervert.

"Uh..." Naruto rubbed the back of his neck, "she said... um..."

"You forgot, didn't you?" Sakura gave him a menacing look, narrowing her eyes as he continued to stand there helplessly.

"Well... you see..." he babbled on for a moment more, before finally nodding his head lamely, as Sakura glared at him with her emerald green eyes. She was about to limp forward and smack him on the arm, when they both heard a soft pounding.

"Hinata-chan!" Sakura excitedly turned around, totally forgetting all of her previous anger. She wobbled as quick as she could toward the front door, getting there in record time. Zealously, she opened the cherry door. "Ohayo!"

"O-ohayo gozaimasu Sakura-chan." Hinata said softly, timidly smiling up at the doctor, as she handed her a bag, "The-these are the shoes you w-wanted..." she paused, glancing down at the floor in embarrassment as Sakura said a quick thank you, "How are you feeling?"

Sakura grinned at her friend, surprising the young woman by pulling her into a hug. She softly whispered into her hair, "Well... I'm a little beaten up, but that's to be expected, ne?"

Hinata nodded timidly, looking up and finally noticing the bandages covering the rosette's body. Her eye's widened, "Sakura-chan, you're hurt!"

Sakura nodded lamely as her friend quickly went into doctor mode (Just like I taught her, the pinkette couldn't help but think proudly), examining the bruises and cuts that covered the young girls body. "This isn't good..." Hinata looked at a gash that trailed up her friends back, the previous stutter gone.

"It was... it was from Sasuke." Sakura mumbled, wincing slightly as she felt it being cleaned by disinfectant.

"Ah." was her only reply.

With Hinata's capable hands, she was properly bandaged and fixed up in no time. "A break..." Hinata had said while observing her right arm. She had made her a makeshift cast for the time being, until they could get her a real one.

"Arigatou Hinata-chan!" Sakura smiled at her friend, who looked proud to have impressed her mentor.

"Your welcome S-Sakura-chan..." she timidly looked down at her hands, and Sakura grinned, the girl was so shy. Until they became reacquainted, Sakura knew she would have to do most of the talking.

"Hinata-chan!" Naruto broke into Sakura's thoughts as he entered the room, jumping forward and embracing the blushing blue haired woman.

"Ohayo N-Naruto-kun..." she smiled brightly, her face turning a cherry red tomato colour. "H-how a-are you?"

"Eh... I'm fine... but how are you?" he asked, pulling away from her and leaning against the door frame. "I heard that you're not going to inherit your dad's company anymore."

Hinata blushed, "N-no... I think that N-Neji would d-do a m-much better j-job..."

Naruto nodded and the two continued to converse, as Sakura watched curiously. Before, Hinata's stutter had been almost gone, but now, here it was again... full force. Why?

She watched out of the corner of her eye as Naruto touched Hinata's arm, and the girl looked like she was going to faint, smiling brighter than she had all morning. Suddenly, something clicked in her mind. Hinata likes Naruto?

She had known the girl had harboured a small crush on the boy back in grade school, but... that was so long ago! How did she still... ? He's mine.

Sakura felt a surge of jealousy bloom in her heart, and she was surprised. She wasn't jealous, was she? It's not like... like Naruto likes Hinata or anything... right? She tried to convince herself, pulling nervously at her pink locks as Naruto leaned forward to ruffle Hinata's hair softly. He does that to me!

Suddenly, all that mattered was stopping their interaction.

"So, are you ready to go?" Sakura broke in, standing up and staggering toward the door. She separated the two, making sure to make a show of turning towards Naruto and embracing him. She went up on her tiptoes, and pushed her lips against his, whispering quietly, "Bye, Naruto-kun."

Naruto blushed, kissing her again on the lips again, reluctantly pulling away after a moment. As she turned to leave, his hand lingered on her arm, and she felt a shiver run up her spine. Mission success.

She casually turned toward Hinata, immediately regretting her previous actions. The hurt and sadness was apparent in the timid girl's eyes, and Sakura wished she could re-do the last 5 minutes.

"Um... let's go..." she said awkwardly, trying to break the silence. She marched out of the apartment, Hinata following quietly behind her.

They both left the apartment silently, the guilt still tearing at Sakura's heart. "Hinata... I'm sorry."

Hinata looked at her mentor curiously, "W-why are you sorry?

"I..." Sakura bit her lip, looking in the opposite direction, "I didn't know that you liked Naruto before he and I... but when I saw him with you, I felt so jealous, and-and I had to show you he was mine! I feel so badly now, because I know you didn't deserve it. It was my own selfishness."

It was silent for another moment, until Hinata turned toward her, smiling, "Sakura-chan, e-even though I like Naruto-kun, it doesn't mean that I want to take him from you. T-truthfully, I don't think we're that great of a match..." she shrugged her shoulders, "B-but you guys... you guys were made for each o-other."

Sakura smiled at her friend and pulled her in for a hug, "I'm so glad we're okay!" she laughed as Hinata nodded cutely, "Do you really think that we'll be good together?" She looked down at her hands, attempting to disguise the real worry on her face as curiosity.

Hinata giggled, "Of course... y-you guys are perfect together! To tell the t-truth, the only reason I had a bit of a chance with Naruto is b-because you were always ignoring him. You have to be blind not to s-see your guys' connection."

Sakura smiled, "Really?"

"Really." Hinata confirmed, nodding her head curtly. "H-how about we get you some clothes now?"

Sakura grinned brightly, and they entered one of her favourite shops, about to buy Sakura a much needed new wardrobe.

O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o

"Naruto, I'm back!" she closed the door behind her, hauling in the many bags of clothes, "Hinata decided to go home, because she has some dumb clan meeting to attend to. Anyway-" she broke off mid-word, finally becoming aware of the person in front of her. She narrowed her eyes, trying not to show the fear that was edging into her heart, "Sasuke."

"Sakura," the Uchiha nodded to her, smirking as he saw her flinch, "what, did you think you could hide from me forever?"

Sakura looked away, trying to avoid his mesmerizing gaze. Even now, cleaned up, he sent shivers down her spine. After what he did, even just a look from him made her want to scream in fright. "What do you want, S-Sasuke?"

Damn, I stuttered.

He chuckled, "Well, I'm not going to just let you get away. You're mine Sakura, don't you forget that."

Sakura was about to say that she was her own person and she did not belong to anyone, but something suddenly occurred to her, "Sasuke, where is Naruto?"

A sly look came over his face, and she felt her stomach drop, attempting to prepare herself for the words that came next, "He's... not with us right now."

She gasped, staggering backwards and holding onto the frame of the door for support. "W-what? Sasuke," she began to tear up, "give him back! Please, he didn't do anything to you!"

"He took my girl away from me." Sasuke said simply, glaring at the wall as Sakura's eyes widened.

"Your girl? You have no right to call me your-your girl after what you did to me!" she screeched at him, attempting to make her voice loud enough that the neighbours would hear. Hopefully these weren't the kind of neighbours that pretended they didn't hear anything while a murder was going on.

"Sakura, do we need a repeat of last night?" he asked smoothly, crossing his arms in a confrontational manor.

Sakura stared at him in shock. That was only yesterday? It felt... so long ago... so much has changed.

"W-why won't you just leave me alone?" she stuttered, having a hard time maintaining eye contact with the monster.

"Because, like I said..." he smiled at her in a way that was partially sadistic, and partially just plain... creepy, "you never dump an Uchiha." he took a step towards her, and Sakura stiffened.

"S-Sasuke... you're scaring me." she backed out of the apartment, so that she was just outside of the room, "Please... please, just leave me alone!"

"Never..." he said the word in an almost whisper, gliding towards her gracefully, forcing her to back up until her back was slammed against the wall. He used a pale hand to tilt her chin up, "Look at me Sakura."

She forced her chin out of his grasp, looking in the other direction. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Sasuke's gaze harden as he grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her. "Sakura, look at me!"

As tears began cascading down her cheeks, Sakura still refused to look up at the young man, hoping – wishing that somebody would hear her pleas. Please...

She looked desperately down the hallway, willing for someone to come through the elevator doors, but they remained closed. This is it... she thought, sighing, as she let Sasuke control her, forcing her to look into his eyes, Nobody will come for me now. So... this is it.

His black, obsidian eyes were different than she used to remember them. When she was younger, and he was part of their group (he had hung around them in grade school, but in high school had branched out to hang with the 'popular kids'), she remembered his eyes as deep pools of loneliness. Reaching out to her, calling her... beckoning her to take a swim.

Now all she saw was a dark prison, threatening to lock her up.

As she felt herself being bound, her arms behind her back – cast forgotten on the floor, she began to feel her mind wander. She felt very detached from the situation. Smiling thoughtfully to herself, she couldn't help but muse, It's almost like I'm not here...

"Why are you smiling?" Sasuke barked, shoving her forward. The harshness almost made her weak knees collapse, but she stayed strong. After all, if she was going to go out, than she was going to go out strong.

Sakura turned back to look at him, the smile still settled on her lips, "I won't cry because it's over... I'll smile because it happened."

She watched as his expression became raged, and she saw as he lifted his fist back to knock her out. After the impact came, there were three seconds of consciousness. In the first, all she could think about was how much that hurt, and whether she was going to wake up or not. The next second was when she heard something.

In the distance, she heard the noise of a door opening, and the sound of footsteps running up to her. The last second of awareness, she realized she knew exactly who this was.

"Sakura!"

End Chapter 3

I'm so glad that so many people are enjoying this story so far! I'll try and update as soon as I can! I figure it will be pretty soon, because I have so much free time now. -.- Haha, anyways, if anybody has any questions about what is going on so far, don't be afraid to ask! And don't forget to review :),

Yours truly,

Moe-shi