(Re-Written Version)
Previous notes stated that Hebi is formed. And that Sakura does not have a definite past in canon. Take that any way you want. ;)
Yes. Yes, I see all of you, followers and reviewers alike. I do try to respond to everyone but sometimes it's just not possible. Others are anonymous, some have PMs turned off. However, be assured that I love gloating over your reviews because I get to read them in the middle of the muck of my work. xD And I just love them.
I just had to update this in place of my other story's update, because something had gone so wrong and files went missing. So hey, I finished this! Nee-han93, ParagonAnna, AdotD, abriel, sunxkissed'starr, sundance1989, imaginary, Hersheys, shkh4ever, Fist Of Fire, Haiichan94, SabrineSabrine, BloodyGirl, BlackRose2142, Who's Name Is War, Anoni Mos, C.A.M.E.O.1 and Only, 2oatmealcookies... you guys are all just LOVE. I hope the blonde thing was cleared up, haha. It was my bad, seriously.
Here's the update. If you catch any typos or loopholes or something wrong, please copy-paste to me the sentence it's in so I know where to find and correct it. :D Comments, complaints, and harrassments are all very welcome.
Disclaimer: Nothing is mine.
Gods of Vindication
Part V: Darkest Honor
"And I don't want the world to see me, 'cause I don't think that they'd understand…"
Snow. Before them spanned an immaculate white landscape, a sprawling rural town caught in the middle of a never ending winter as they viewed the expanse from an overhanging cliff a good distance away. Sasuke had heard of the existence of this place, yet never been here before. The glaring cleanness was everywhere, blanketing the ground in a thick, white swathe of ice crystals glinting in pale sunlight. Gray wisps curled out of smokestacks, and they were close enough to see ant sized people milling about brick streets and muddy slush. The settlement was in no aspect small, stretching far out on either side of their vantage point. How his mentor got wind of this place, he would never know.
"Wow," breathed Sakura behind him taking in the view, "it's beautiful."
"Of course, honey," replied the redhead's sultrier voice, sounding proud, "nothing but the best for Orochi-sama."
Sasuke remained quiet at the term his teammate used. The town made him fairly uneasy. The largeness did not deter from the fact it was a civilian village. Under no circumstances were they going to be able to productively train in this place. Whatever the sannin had in mind for his now-blonde companion all the more nagged at his suspicions.
"I thought you knew where he stayed?" he asked, turning around to face the two but directing his question to Karin. "Why are we still here?"
"He just told me to come here," she answered, playing with her scarf as she tried to concentrate. He knew she was focusing, searching using her special skill as she closed her eyes. "He said he'd meet us."
It was so like him to not want to be caught off guard. That old man always was too cautious and he doubted there would be any other way he could outwit him other than a head to head battle. Of course, seeing as he was taught everything by the sannin, he would need to come up with a couple underhanded tactics to be able to slip away from his slithering den of snakes. His revenge would not be in vain.
"I can feel Kabuto."
He followed her gaze as all three of them turned away from the village and the edge of the cliff, looking to see for a shadow of the medic nin in the forest of evergreens. He felt a frown try to pinch at his mouth but kept his face impassive. Out of the white, too-perfect background he appeared between the trees, walking up to them wrapped up in a heavy beige coat and snow crunching beneath his feet. The edges of his glasses, like Karin's, were fogging up but those blank, mocking eyes remained clear.
The Uchiha's onyx glare hardened. He was about to open his mouth and deliver a scathing demand when following after the medic was the sannin. When he turned to the redhead to wonder if she had deliberately said nothing, she was in as much surprise as he was, albeit more pleasant about it.
"Orochimaru-sama."
Tall and pale, the illustrious sheen of black hair caught idly falling snowflakes as he practically floated towards them like a ghost. His earrings became visible each time the wind blew his glossy hair back, reflecting gold winks when it caught the morning light. Something was different. Something was definitely wrong. There was no sign of the evil, conniving smile he almost always wore, instead a neutrally calm expression taking its place. The sannin he had known, dark and disgusting and jeering, was not present, but Sasuke would rather believe he could be hiding it. One could not always tell with this man.
When the two stopped before them, before Karin and Sakura, but watching those glittering eyes long enough, they were solely focused on him. His hunch was noticeably gone, full height palpable and the violet markings around his eyes the only seeming splash of color on his person. That small gesture was his acknowledgment, the spreading sickening grin his reward of a job well done. A wordless meeting of the mind was enough, a look of shared understanding enough.
The pressure of his golden sinister gaze flickered to his former teammate a foot in front of him and wearing his mother's wine colored cloak, the symbol of his past whose pink tresses he had defaced hidden in the hood. Orochimaru had merely told him not to hurt her. Nothing was said about him tarnishing the kunoichi.
"Ah, you're here," the sannin gestured with a slender arm wide open to her.
Sasuke could feel the tightness in her shoulders himself, see her flexing fingers into tight balls. Too obvious, very easily hostile. His teammate had also picked up on it and was closely watching every muscle movement as indifferently as the redhead could. He could not blame her, though, even though he wanted to. Here was the man who attacked their team in the mad crush of the Forest of Death, attacked the village, and singlehandedly murdered the Kazekage and Hokage at the time. And he had taunted Naruto's pathetic growth the last time they ran chasing after him. She was protective of that idiot, wasn't she?
Long, spindly digits stretched forward in a shadow of what she had presented Karin the night before, a gesture of keeping your enemy close. His smile was something truly, disturbingly his and chilled him though he was not its recipient as it focused intently on Sakura, a pale hand reaching out for a handshake. For a moment she paused, staring down ambiguously at the action, before she slowly lifted her own slender palm. In a swift movement before their hands met, she slapped it away, emerald eyes blazing as she glared up at Orochimaru.
"You fucking bitch!"
The high pitched voice rang through the icy air. It took him a split second to grab Karin around the waist, his body reacting instinctively and lunging away to the side as she reached arms over his shoulder in a last attempt to seize at his former teammate. Kabuto's short "Ha!" was all he heard when he felt a brutal jerk snagging in his attempt to separate the redhead from the other girl, a yelp of surprise behind them.
Turning his head back, he was met with the sight of Sakura on the ground, the girl he was holding managing to seize the hood of the dark coat, still gripping it tightly, knuckles white. Fuck. They were really so goddamn annoying. He could only see the back of her fiery hair but not the redhead's reaction. Sakura's furious scowl was all that occupied his vision, light gold hair messed with the powder white of snow in her face. She looked livid, like a wild animal.
"How dare you do that to Orochimaru-sama!"
"What would a cunt like you know!?" she snapped back, breathing ragged and swift. He knew at once what was meant, doubting the redhead would know.
"You have no right!"
"That is enough," came the icy demarcation of the sannin to the exchange, his darkly feminine voice enough to quell the two as all heads turned toward him. Sasuke could feel a strange unsettling in in his bones. The old man no longer looked as composed as earlier, his mistrustful smirk having slid off and replaced with a firm line of disapproval, and he dared to think a disturbing aberration suffused into his features. There was a tightness ringing those snake slit irises, and when the Uchiha slowly followed his line of sight, silently swallowed the lump in his throat.
He was glaring. Definitely. Nothing could deny him that, as his teacher watched his former teammate, he was hiding something turbulent beneath his exterior. The girl on his shoulder suddenly was breathing hard, as livid as the one at his feet.
"But she was going to—"
"I said enough," interjected Orochimaru, not taking his eyes off their now-blonde companion. For a moment Sasuke could imagine Karin continuing, her hands trembling as if they couldn't release their hold on the thick cloth.
"Karin," he muttered.
It seemed forever before she finally let go, shoulders and arms slackening. Then flinging the material toward's the blonde's face. Twisting, he shoved Karin off his shoulder farther away from the girl on the ground to place his body between them. The naked red anger leaking off her fueled his own. That last move was irritatingly childish, a flaying strongly appealing to him. Turning back to Sakura, he realized she did not turn away from Orochiimaru, but those small hands curled, crunching in the snow.
She was not in her own element here, surrounded by enemies leaving her kneeling, and one not as good at controlling her reactions as the rest. His action of saving her from his teammate's wrath was merely to keep her under wraps, so incredibly immature. But it did not save her from the fact that she too had the same brand of kid reflexes causing this to fall on her. More emotion than reason. He was maddeningly disappointed in her. Fathoming this scenario from happening had not been what he anticipated. This was simply unacceptable.
He was about to step towards her, to roughly pull her to her feet because she looked so chaotically trodden over, when the sannin made his move before he could do so. Sleek and agile, the tall man moved forward, black cloak hanging on his slim frame like a sheet as he stooped over to take Sakura's hands in his and helping her up. She behaved. The mix of emotions on her face, cheeks rouged red from the frost and hostile viridian irises, probably mirrored his own. He didn't know, didn't care.
When those long fingers raked back the mess of blonde hair back to her scalp, he could not come to terms with the fear suddenly gripping him. Realization enlightened by those arms, those arms. There was no problem with those arms. He could use them seemingly without any pain. Orochimaru had told him to take his former teammate back, sick and in agony on his throne of granite and limestone, arms dead and decaying as black worthless stumps.
Obsidian eyes narrowed suspiciously at the alien expression of hidden disbelief on the sannin's face. What do you have in mind for her?
"I suspect this was Sasuke's idea?" the man suddenly said, looking at a slice of silvery gold hair between his fingers and turning those glittering irises at him, eerily the same color as his former teammate's new hair.
The man was changed, and for some reason the Uchiha did not feel this was a good idea. For more than two and a half years he knew what he was getting into, what he was doing, what he was planning, how to escape the madness he plunged into. This time, the lack of knowledge terrorized him inside more than he wanted to admit. Having Sakura in the mix made things complicated but he did not care what was in store for the kunoichi. What made him scared was the not knowing, the darkness and lack of any comprehension of what he was about to do.
"Security purposes," he clipped out, searching for anything, desperate of a clue in those leery eyes.
He needed everything going for him when the time came for his body to be taken over but here he was, now lost and practically delivering a tentative ace to the sannin's hand. A glimmer of his dubious smirk came upon those pale lips and the man draped his long arm around Sakura's shoulders. There was something very wrong about the two being together.
"Everyone needs to cool down," he impressed heavily, giving all the rest of them his dangerous smile. "So I'll take our little guest and spend time with her. Kabuto can take both of you back."
For the first time in his life, Sasuke did nothing when Sakura threw him a glance written in the glamour of help.
ooo000ooo
"You're home! Where did you go?"
Sakura couldn't feel more petty, the redhead sitting crosslegged on one of the couches looking up as she came in through the heavy oak door of the large abode. Orochimaru behind her faded up the stairs into the shadows and she was left uneasily standing and feeling out of place. She had no idea what she was supposed to do here. Earlier, this Karin had tried to attack her and now suddenly she was all smiling like nothing had happened. As far as she could tell, it was real. Pupils slightly dilated, body language easy, voice normal pitch for excitement. Then again, it might be because of the sannin's presence.
When she frowned, the other girl gave her a look atop her spectacles and cocked an eyebrow. There was a thick book on her lap with a worn paper cover, an image on one of the leafs it was opened to looking like a medical instrument. Her gaze turned to the other couches facing the fireplace wherein a familiar form had lain down, deceptively asleep. Sasuke-kun.
"Hey," interrupted Karin, her eyes returning to the redhead. "You really must be from the same place as Sasuke. It's rude to not respond, you know."
"As if you're one who should talk."
Before she knew it the words shot out of her mouth, her reply immediately met by scarlet irises burning behind glasses, the other thin red brow joining its pair in mild surprise. The wooden floor's surface gleamed and reflected the fire dancing in the hearth being the only light casting dancing shadows across the room. The warmth inside the house was a welcome change from outside's frosty climate, feeling the heat at her soles, and Sakura wanted to slap herself for the sudden outburst.
She was the one on the receiving end of what happened, but she still felt absurdly bad for snapping at this other girl. The moment was long gone and she did not want to be nasty to someone being relatively nice in the present and appeared to be over the argument.
Sighing exaggeratedly, Karin patted the space beside her, as if to ask her to join, eyes softening as she finally said, "Look, I'm sorry for what I did earlier. Sasuke talked to me. I was wrong with what I did."
It still made her skeptical, and she felt bad for it. Females were notorious for the ability to hold a grudge until it died, preserving its remains and keeping it nailed on a wall. Sasuke was close to this girl, at the same time from what she'd seen, she seemed to be more attached to Orochimaru. She wondered what her traitor teammate had told this one about Konoha.
What bothered her was especially was how much Karin might know about her. It was unnerving how she seemed to be able to turn faces around so quickly, fast but real. Not unlike you before he left, huh?
The idea the redhead was similar to her was an uncomfortable feeling, envy coming to fill her heart as she stared at her, still waiting for her offer to be answered. He had been unnaturally close to her in bringing her here, extremely physical with a touch of insanity, too different from when they were at Team Seven. A painful hunch made itself know that this girl, Karin, must be the reason for his change in countenance. What was that phrase again that Sai had read and asked them about? Oh, right. Keep your friends close, your enemies closer. Despite being a socially barbaric twat, in certain instances Sai had his uses.
Sakura smiled at the tall girl on the tan leather couch, hoping it wasn't obvious it was forced. She'd be stuck here for kami-sama knows how long, best be it she did not die somewhere along the way before she even got the chance to convince Sasuke to come home.
Accepting the proffered seat, she reclined into the deep cushions and took the liberty of resting beside the redhead, gaze falling to the one who lay before them on the opposite end of the fireplace, his back turned to them, muscles with a certain laxness appropriate to those in deep slumber. She would never grow tired of watching him, trying to withdraw from the sight of his sleeping countenance, from the dark hair and red and white fan emblazoned on his back. Pulling her knees to her chest, she instead transferred her attention to the page of the book in the flickering light.
"Hey," came Karin's dulcet notes, and upon slightly turning her head to the girl, was met with an acute vermillion gaze. It was an intense focus on her, the redhead's face serious with the edge of her full lips glistening in lip gloss reflecting the yellow gold from the fireplace. "Sakura, right?"
"Yes?" she answered, quite unsure as an arm arched around her shoulders, feeling strange as that keen stare sharpened in close range.
"If you ever try to hurt Sasuke or Orochimaru-sama," went the low whisper sending a sweeping flash of raising hair across her arms and behind her neck, "I will fucking kill you."
In her mind the formerly pink-haired Konoha kunoichi had pegged this girl to be psychotic, however this confined threat made her feel she might be underestimating just how much loose screws the Uchiha's new teammate had. She swallowed, wide-eyed, and was unable to move for fear she might do something more drastic. The hand behind her neck might be holding a blade for all she knew.
"I..." the words caught in her throat. There was no way this girl would be able to beat her. There was no way she'd get left behind in Sasuke's eyes. "I'm going to kill myself first before I place Sasuke-kun in any danger."
For a moment her muscles were cramped in tenseness, begging for a release as the russet gaze did not relent. Then as fast as the heavy air rose between them, it disappeared when Karin suddenly laughed lightly and gave her a nudge as she rose to her feet, dropping the heavy book where she previously sat.
"Seems we're on the same side then, anyway," she said, a hand on her hip watching down at her, cocky smile returning to her features, making Sakura wonder how long it'd take before the redhead would end up on the receiving end of her chakra enhanced blows. Her singsong tone flattened. "Just... you know, don't trust Kabuto too much."
The finality of what she said lingered, leaving Sakura confused. Isn't Kabuto on your side?
"So, I'm gonna be preparing tonkatsu," she abruptly cut off, laughing and waving a hand as if it were nothing, "you gonna help me or what?"
There was a certain Naruto-like semblance in the other girl's expressions that lent the blonde a sense of security, however small, in this strange new world she'd been dragged into. A million questions were whirring in her head but she let them flit behind at the outstretched palm. She had given Karin her open hand the night they met, as a truce and a peace treaty, and now the girl was doing the same to her. Her admiration for Sasuke was not hidden, at for that Sakura was sure enough she would do nothing for harm to come to him. Her shady loyalty to Orochimaru loomed like a menacing cloud of untrustworthiness, however it was a gamble she was willing to risk. She did not come all the way from her village to stumble on this.
Naruto, through sheer convincing power, managed to win people over to believe in the ideals he had faith in. If there was any chance she could get Sasuke to return to Konoha, she would have to try to do the same. Starting with this Karin, whoever she was. There had to be a side of normalcy in there, to be able to sympathize with others, no matter how corrupted she was by the vilest of realities that was Orochimaru. If there was a lighter side she could turn to, that was enough. If she were able to help Sasuke, she was important enough.
Sakura took the hand, and was pulled to her feet, glinting glasses grinning in firelight.
"Sure."
~x~
He could feel the wetness sliding down his face, mingling with the blood sticky on his hands from clutching the sheets so hard he was punctured holes through it into his skin. He really shouldn't cry. This wasn't new. Biting into the pillow to keep from making a sound, he wanted to scream, pleasure coursing through his system. He was not supposed to like this. He wasn't supposed to like this. He wasn't supposed to—
The sweat was slick across his back and he tried not to notice, every now and then pushing back the damp hair constantly entering his eyes with trembling fingers stained in crimson. He could feel those rough hands on his waist, on his back, shoulders, and felt the dirtiest he was in his life. He clenched his hand tighter, trying to drown every other feeling with the pain he was causing himself.
It was a madness consuming him, but he could only see that face everywhere, mocking him, those hands reaching out to clutch him, suffocate him, robbing him of every innocence and morality he tried to hold on to. Flinching as the blinding clench of muscles began, he reached out, stretching out his arms to kill, rip that fucking throat out, get this fucking over with—
~x~
"Sasuke!"
He opened his eyes to Karin's harsh, commanding voice overrunning his dream, ripping him back into reality, crashing through the blurry haze and everything focusing into vision. Astonished green eyes and fine silvery hair splayed over the gloss of the hardwood floor, his hand clawed, biting into that girlish neck of hers, feeling the throb of her pulse at his fingertips, wetness distinct on his hand... Sakura!
"Sasuke, stop it!"
Arms around him yanked him back, angry bright eyes through heavy-rimmed spectacles meeting his as he was pulled off the girl on the floor, the solid color of blood on his hands maroon in the detrimental light where it shined like spilled ink. The red hair flicked at his face as his teammate whipped around to the fallen form and help her up, a stain spreading down her shirt even as their hands tried to stem the flow. Those green orbs found him and for a moment he felt like his heart would stop, the rabid fear in his dream still drumming a tattoo on his heart.
You... he almost choked on a swallow as he felt sick, his former teammate's face so pale and in grim concentration, the familiar green glow appearing beneath the spread of their fingers. Shit.
It had carried over, that abysmal nightmare. He never meant for this to happen. He had dreamed of hurting her, punishing her for unfettered insolence, but not this way. He did not want to drag her into the mess of the other side he lived on. She must have been close enough to be within grasping range and...
Onyx eyes roved over to his teammate, busy with enough to deal with as she pressed into the punctures on one side of Sakura's neck, applying pressure in a first aid attempt while the rest of the wounds were being healed. His confused stare hardened at the splash of fiery color against the back of the lilac turtleneck. Karin knew. She had known him for quite a while now, known about his violent tendencies in his sleep, known enough to not disturb him in deep slumber.
A hand rose to wipe at his mouth, momentarily forgetting sullied fingers, until the raw tang reached his nose and besmirched a crimson mark across the lower part of his face. The thick odor made him feel sick, coiling like a rancid snake in his stomach, but rendered him unable to bring the stained hand away from his face. He wished her hurt and corruption, all his hatred focused on the formerly pink haired girl sitting almost motionless on the floor. But he did not expect this.
He swallowed hard.
"Get out," came a shrill command, the redhead turning to face him, standing up as Sakura's hands slowly and surely transferred to the other side, patching up the row of open marks.
"That's not-"
"I said get out!" Red eyes blazed at him as she shoved him towards the stairs, all crimson strands fluttering in the air like a war goddess. His own temper suddenly burst, the raging rush of emotion getting the better of him.
"You knew," he snapped back, voice rising. "You knew but you let her get close. What were you trying to do!?"
"I did nothing of the sort," she returned as heated as him, "I tried to stop her! She was insisting and—"
"You knew!" cutting her off completely disregarding what she was telling him, an animalistic snarl emerging from his throat. "How dare you—"
"My, my. Not even a day and there's blood already?"
The simplistic statement was silken yet jarred the escalating violence to a sudden halt, Kabuto's voice easily causing silence to reign both him and Karin and root them to the spot. When he turned his head, the male medic was kneeling before the blonde on the floor, upper body turned around as his flat eyes focused on him alone and wearing a casual grin. The annoyance he felt at Karin's mishap bloomed into white anger that he trembled where he stood. The redhead was open in her disbelief, red irises meeting the dark gray turmoil of his, full of meaning.
Stop, he read, something the medics would not pick up as she had her back against them. Get away. I'll handle this.
When his attention roved back to the one he hurt, he wished he hadn't felt as guilty as he did earlier. Raven hair fell unevenly across the emotion across his face as he stared at her through the slits of black. Sadness and confusion were in those green eyes bathed in the brightness of anxiety. How she dared be the one disappointed. If only she knew.
In stormy temperament the Uchiha turned on his heel, his ill timed dream towing everything that shouldn't be into this world. The redhead was the first to know and had stood by him. He could not possibly drag another one into this disarrayed existence he lived in. Once again, he refused her speechless begging of him, that emerald look full of expectation, dark red spilling between her fingers and dripping all over the place, the fire crackling behind their forms. He was not sorry. He would never be.
ooo000ooo
"Does she know already?"
"No."
The brilliant deep sky rained gentle snow onto the village. On the balcony two silhouettes conversed, passers by who could not look closely enough fooled by the lack of illumination and going blissfully ignorant on their way. One was leaning into the railing, watching the tranquil scene he had chosen for this job.
"You plan on telling her any time soon?"
"Maybe not. And quit badgering me about this, it's getting boring."
The gray-haired medic pushed up his glasses using his middle finger and smiled mockingly. Amber eyes watched the yellow light cast on the ground through the house's windows by the fire inside. Being dead serious was something he used to do around three decades ago. He stopped thinking too much after that, becoming a disdainful and acrimonious person hardened by the way his life was led. He began being insolent to everyone, and he was bemused Tsunade and Jiraiya hadn't ended up the same way as him.
She was Hokage now, and he still stayed by her side. They all aged and turned old within time, yet here he remained, defying the natural aspect of living. He never wanted to wind up a brittle bag of bones to be cared for like some newborn babe. There was a time he would have gladly spent the rest of his years with them, to be able to grow wise and cynical with the people he had been closest to and be laughed at by children, only to scare them away from bothering them. But now it has all changed. It all seemed so long ago. Being a helpless withered man wasn't an aspiration he would welcome this soon; there was a great deal of things he hadn't achieved yet.
This Sakura, she was one of the strangest people he knew. The point Sasuke dyed it aside, she had hair the color of the cherry blossoms on the trees, and eyes that were of lush grass, a rather exotic combination that told you she was a child of spring. Go any deeper than that and others wouldn't have seen anything special. Well, not that he had, but he wanted her here for a reason. He wanted to see if he could prove something to right. He would have to be patient and simply wait for now.
Intertwining his long, slender fingers together into a steeple before him, touching it to his thin lips as he stared out into the open white oblivion, Orochimaru sighed deeply. One week before his arms would be too painful to move freely, three weeks before they wither into rotten husks. He maybe not able to use techniques but at least he had regained some ease from the agony, however brief. It was enough time. This show unfolding before him would be a very amusing one indeed.
ooo000ooo
Konoha's sunshine warming her back as the golden sun rose in the sky was something she never imagined she would miss. There was simply nothing else in the world she wished more to experience than the balmy breeze through her clothes and hair... her hair that was now a white gold color that matched the eternal winter in this village she had ended up in, no more the pink of cherry blossoms in full bloom during spring.
The other medic's hands were cold as they trailed along her neck in the room allotted her by the sannin, all high ceiling and tall windows, heavy draperies and a four poster bed. This was a house. A home. She shuddered and tried not to imagine what had been done to take this estate over. Sitting still on a stool in the middle of the room full of books and writing desks, her toes curled into the thick carpet as a scalpel flashed silver in the muted incandescent lights.
"This will feel like a pinch," came Kabuto's even voice and she closed green eyes against the snowfall scene through the large panes. "This is the last one and we're done."
The familiar slice of the fine blade through her skin drew across where Sasuke's thumb had gouged through her jugular and almost crushed her throat and she did her best not to move away. Almost immediately she felt his intricate chakra weave through her skin, painfully sorting completely healed flesh into position. The spur of the moment had caused her to panic and heal herself to stem a hemorrhaging blood loss and to go on automatic. It was when those accusing Uchiha eyes were glowering at her that Orochimaru's assistant appeared and helped her, Sasuke walking out without so much as remorse.
He had never hurt her. Not physically. She remembered he tried when they first found him after those two years he was gone, back with Sai and Naruto and Yamato at another of their hideouts. He tried to kill her but nothing happened. This time, it was different. There was blood drawn, and hers unsurprisingly.
"Done."
Even she had to admit she had not imagined Kabuto would be this incredibly good at being a medic. Where she had expected torn scars to remain after her hurried mend, before the hand mirror he handed her she could see perfectly reconstructed skin as if nothing had happened. She was taught as a battle medic to not to worry about aesthetic quality as long as her patient lived. She'd seen Tsunade perform painstakingly long operations to craft and regenerate skin to its formerly flawless state. The gray-haired medic's technique lasted fifteen minutes at most.
The feat made her feel incredible inferior and out of their league. There was so much to learn, so much to improve on, so much to accomplish, so little time. Sighing, she returned the mirror to her companion and was rewarded a smile. She did not know whether he was sincere or merely played the part. He had fooled her, them, once in the Forest of Death. There was no telling if he was doing the same thing to her right now.
"Would you kill me," she started, carefully approaching the subject, "if you had the chance?"
"Be careful what you ask," he said, lips stretching even more to reveal white teeth. "By any means Orochimaru-sama doesn't want you damaged, so at the moment I have no wish to do so."
Sakura's brow wrinkled at his response. She was obviously predictable, gullible to the misleading kindness that he possessed. If ever there was something that she could do to prevent anyone from guessing her moves, then she would be having the upper hand against all of them. Until then, she was live bait for them to use as they wished. To control as they wished. A professional at deceit and treachery was something she was taught not to engage in, this man being one of the best she encountered. She trained with Ino in psychological proficiency but that in itself was not yet proven through actual application. Even then, during practice, there was very little she could do against the Yamanaka.
The spy medic was folding the soiled instrument into a rag, wiping bloodied fingers into the unsullied cloth. He had fooled her before and nothing was stopping him from doing it again. For an instant, as he was fixing his tools at her feet, the image of his muscles in his arms resurrected the feeling she could not pinpoint earlier. The fine hairs on her own arms rose, freezing her to the chair.
"What does Orochimaru really want from me?" she asked bluntly. There was no other way to put it. He was able to use his arms, supposedly what she was to heal and followed after the Uchiha avenger for. "What is he planning?"
Kabuto did not pause in his ministrations, lenses of his glasses catching the glare of the warm lights and hiding whatever feeling he had not managed to hide. Straightening up and slowly walking out of the room as if hearing nothing, he suddenly paused by the doorway, a bare hand on the frame and head slightly turned to the side.
"I am not at liberty to disclose anything of this," he shrugged, free hand sliding to the knob. "But he definitely gets what he wants."
Glancing at the outside scene once more, she could see green eyes telling too much of what she felt reflected transparently on the surface of the glass. The blonde hair was a welcome change, she felt. She was not Sakura. Naruto's Sakura... Konoha's Sakura... that person would never do this. She would never stay. She would leave as soon as everyone thought she was settled in.
No matter how much she wanted to convince herself, just the thought of being alone out in this weather, leaving the warmth, leaving this place where hope was, she didn't want to do it. It was easy. Throw open the large windows and grab a cloak, she'd be on her way home. But seconds later when she heard the door click shut and close her eyes to hide in the darkness, she knew she couldn't leave Sasuke.
Love