Taken

"I wonder, does that make me the villain of this story? Have I committed the crime of thievery? Or have I merely fought for my dreams? Is my husband the reward of perseverance, or the spoils of war? Judge me as you may. I am still unequivocally happy, and never once did it have to be at the cost of anyone else. They are the causes of their own misery."

The tracker is on the nightstand. By the time Sakura exits the shower, I have already exited the fire escape, four blocks away. She will not chase me.

She will depart and be reunited with my brother in Germany. I will not have contact with either of them.

Naruto finds me four months later at a law firm in New York. As long as I am in the United States, he will always find me. He delivers an official paper package, of which I rip, without opening, in front of his eyes and return back to him in two.

He punches me.

I let him.

In under a month, the wedding becomes international news, publicized in the exact format and manner Itachi and Sakura want to publicize it, the unification of the dragon and phoenix in front of millions under the waving red of China. They are deified, the new rulers of the most populous country in the world. It makes the political message of the century, and sends both sides of the hemisphere shivering.

It is not unexpected, but I do wonder if my presence could have prevented this, downgraded the entire spectacle to a private event far more humble in the hills and vineyards of California. A place where the skies are not grey, but blue, the sun is not violent, but joyous, and the stars are not dreams, but visible, bright, endless.

Very soon, the rings of fire, the dance of the acrobats, the choirs of a proud nation dim down, replaced by news stations broadcasting the new transition in power. A girl barely twenty four years old as chief executive of the largest empire. They will not be able to tear her apart; Sakura has skin thicker than a bull's, and Itachi will guide her every step of the way. His will and vision will press on.

Sakura fairs better beyond anyone's expectations. The fears of political instability, economic recession is choked away; China contributes to a boom on an unprecedented scale. The United States slips to a grudging mutual territory.

At least, until the incident. And with the renewed chaos and violence, we declare our enemies.

The news shuts off.

"I'm sorry. I can't stand hearing those bigots."

I chuckle, as my bartender slams down the remote and returns with my drink.

"On me," she says, then grins at my reaction. "Only congratulatory. And as a farewell."

I bring the premium to my lips. Then, after a year and half, I finally bother to ask, "Where are you going?"

She raises an eyebrow.

"Which firm."

And that is when she understands, and bursts out into laughter. "Oh man, Sasuke. I don't know, maybe I'll tell you after I graduate..."

I blink. She is a year below me. The possibility escaped my mind; our lecture had been catered to third years. I was in my second year of the time.

"... from a law school in four years or so," she finishes, containing her chuckles. "Sasuke, I'm an undergraduate in Anthropology. I wasn't actually enrolled in Federal; I just followed along and did a lot of independent study on the topics to get closer to you. Stupid, isn't it?"

Yes. But she would have passed with one of the highest marks. I set down my drink. "Extraordinary women have always entered my life."

She is surprised. "Hot damn, is that a compliment?"

"Only conversational. And as a farewell."

"I know," she smiles, as she snatches my glass. "And I know better than to chase the taken."

Springs cycle. Things rebuild, regrow. When I was a child, I expected life would change.

It doesn't.

It doesn't, because I paved my path from beginning to end a long, long time ago, the construct of the objective, and I will follow routine, the spins of the wheel. It takes only my will to change the tracks, but I don't. Once you reach a certain height, the view looks the same no matter how much higher you climb.

Three years pass, before I find myself in a pictureless room, staring at the mountainsides out the window. I hear the sound of the door unlock.

"Sasuke?"

"Did you know the United States have been in alliance for nine weeks now." I toss the newspaper down on the coffee table. The sunlight scatters through a sheen of light fog. Everything is mild, serene, and as I examine my brother, plain clothes and living, my eyes land on the ring around his finger, and the scar across the back of his hand. I'm not the only one who's changed.

Itachi recovers, gives an apologetic smile.

"Would you like some tea," he offers, setting down the groceries. "I'm glad I bought an especially good kind this time. It is not every day my little brother visits from the other side of the earth."

He washes the kettle. "Visits from anyone on the outside are rare, actually. How did you find me?"

"Karin has her talents. Afterwards, I need only a hundred yuan for the cat lady to show me inside."

"Ah, you were cheated then. For her, you need only polite words... and ten yuan," he chuckles. He still lies. Anyone in the neighborhood could easily have recognized me and let me in for free. I am no secret to them; Itachi isn't ashamed, he speaks of his little brother with pride.

He places the teacup in front of me, and settles for the opposite chair. "How have you been, Sasuke?"

I slide a pack of playing cards across the table. "Fine."

With curiosity, he opens the pack, and pulls out the ace, imprinted in gold. He unfolds the card, then calmly lowers it and smiles, "This is a little more than fine, Sasuke."

"Hinata's family owns estate and several wineyards in Ramona. The steam has settled down, and you should be able to cross our borders without getting arrested by the government."

"Who else is coming?"

"Mother and Father already made acquaintance with the Hyuuga family. Naruto self-invited. Same goes for Suigetsu, Juugo, Karin... if you still remember them."

"I do."

"... and Sakura, although I would imagine she would delete every last pixel of the invitation as soon as it lands in her inbox."

"No, I believe she would be doubling over in laughter at your audacity, as irony dictates."

I don't conceal my scowl. I had wished for the former, even if my bitterness has long diminished. I hate her; she has tested out words that she knew would make me hate her, but our bond undeniably exists on both sides. Bonds formed from familiarity, history, and respect last. And after the leaked news of the Berlin ambush, I understand it would continue to last.

We have always been on the same side – Sakura didn't take an assault on her hard-earned husband well, and personally shot the offender with a .38 Colt. In the news, the bullet hit the shooter's leg; in reality, it went straight through his brain.

Itachi dares question how long I will stay; the answer is enough for him to brighten considerably, and ready to prepare dinner for two.

I grab his wrist before he can.

The haze of New Haven. The mist in the outskirts of Chengdu. A road we go back to again and again in an almost never ending cycle, wash, rinse, repeat, but it never tunnels through and we fall apart before it can.

Without looking at him, I shakily state, "Last chance." He knows I don't want a simple redo, a replay with a more acceptable ending.

Emotions of irrationality, actions of paradox. Mind of the incomprehensible, meandering, barriers upon barriers, strings upon strings of reason, of fact, of deceit all interwoven into one intricate, cohesive web. It is the way to live in court, and in life.

The best of lies always have a blend of truth, and Sakura isn't the only one to have given up trying to differentiate the two apart. I have also stopped trying. To me, the truth sounds like lies, the lies sound like truth. No one will be able to untangle me, because I have convinced myself.

The only one who can see the actual truth is my brother. He has always been able to see me as clear as water since the day I was born. And he understands that this entire confusing complexity can be reduced down to one, single, simple word.

The day is mild and serene. The room quiet and empty. Itachi's expression is gentle.

"I will support whatever you decide, Sasuke. But I cannot decide for you."

My grip tightens. I can't say anything, except, "I want to leave."

"And you want me to follow."

"Spain."

There is a silence.

Sighing, Itachi settles down next to me and stares out the window. "Ambition is strength. Ambition is defiance. Ambition is governance." He looks at me, without judgment. "Ambition is dissatisfaction. Ambition is desire. Ambition is greed. Ambition is a gamble that can cost you severely, deprive you enjoyment of something already beautiful."

I do not let go. "Ambition makes me."

A chuckle. "Then what would you have me do? Would you like me to crash your wedding, Sasuke, as you would have liked with mine?"

"Unfair to Hinata."

Itachi is pleasantly surprised, as well as amused. "But it would have been fair to Sakura."

"She's strong enough handle it."

"And Miss Hinata can be another unfortunate casualty."

"She already is." I learn Itachi keeps true to his word, and does not resist when I take his lips. There is not the slightest remonstrance, as he slides down the chaise, accepts me into his arms. After twenty six years, I am finally as convinced of my brother's stance as he is with mine, and all it took was the interjection of one lousy ex-girlfriend.

When we break away, he whispers cautiously, "Will you be fine transgressing the very laws you have been devoted to," still pretending as if he doesn't know I've only had one law and one devotion, and they were synonymous. Everything else always has, and always will be arbitrary, and easily bent to my side.

"Justice..." I say, yanking the wedding band from my brother's finger. It rolls off on the ground. "... is however I define it."

I kiss him again, and there is no more pretense.

A/N: Yes, the end. You are welcome to pelt me with tomatoes and hang me from twenty nooses now. And since we're done... I am free to taint you all with author bias!

Sasuke's POV? Never again. Well, unless I'm feeling masochistic enough to delve into extensive brainfuckery from an unreliable narrator with questionably-justifiable egotism and ten thousand psychological constructs, the most blatant of which being denial of the nth degree. I thought Itachi's POV would be the worst. Wrong. Itachi's mind is construed, counter-intuitive, and paradoxical, but he makes damn sense and you can expect him to be consistent. Here, I'll let you guys judge what's sincere, what's fabricated, what's utter bullshit.

I honestly didn't know the story would end like this. You see, on one side, there's reality. And on the other, there's idealism. Adulterous homosexual incest in not-so-commie-China happens to have lied somewhere in between, and I landed on it when I let everything play out naturally and realized, well, ain't Sasuke just the stubborn sore loser. Not the way I personally would have preferred as an end, but I'm a sardonic cynic whose idea of aesthetic beauty is in leave everything in the most deplorable of states, with a high percentage of the cast dead, so... yeah, my opinion's out.

In any case, writing this story has been enjoyable. I wanted to deconstruct the idea of a romance-drama, tear some things apart, play some things straight, remain faithful to some beloved cliches (I even killed someone... don't I make Korean dramas everywhere proud xD). I also just wanted to chuck in as many assholes as I could possibly get in, and have a fun AU to work with. Ah, if I had my way, I would have loved chucking Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura into their respected Ivies: Princeton, Yale, Harvard. It's even color-coded!

Love me, hate me, I thank everyone so much for following me through. I give special thanks to fanofthisfanfiction for... wow, reviewing every chapter and flattering me to a pile of mush.

Cheers to the New Years!