(Re-Edited Version)
Ohoho :D Take the time to check out a fanart given to me by Laniol for this story. It's osum, link at lanie-mccarry (insert dot here) tumblr (insert another dot) com (forward slash) image/51266054057 or try the one at my profile page, whatever humps your camels. Virtual cookies to those who can guess which scene it is. :D
There were those who were sorta... disturbed by the implications of the last chapter, and then those who seemed to not catch it. Well, not even sort of. They were extremely disturbed. lol
Ah, my apologies. That was the purpose of it though. If you're part of the unfortunate (fortunate?) ones who have not caught the "implication", let's have a refresher, shall we? :D
Reviews and criticisms are always welcome!
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, only the theories presented here and your soul.
Gods of Vindication
Part IX: Razbliuto
"You love me but you don't know who I am, I'm torn between this life I lead and where I stand…"
She bridged the gap between the netherworlds of sleep and Lee-awakened-ness in a millisecond, snapping up in the bed and wondering what had happened for her to be on high strung alert.
Aware she was breathing carefully as if treading dangerous ground, Sakura ran a hand through silvery pink hair to get it out of her face. Something felt awfully wrong yet when green eyes were cast to her surroundings, the room was as normal as could be. The four poster bed was all tangled up with her, a mess of scrolls and papers overflowing the huge darkwood desk, book spines all waxed in their places on the span of shelves across the wall. Nothing strange, but she felt it as if it were hiding in plain sight.
Swinging her legs over the side of the bed to try and investigate, what woke her suddenly made itself known.
"Oh, you think I don't see what the fuck you're doing?"
Sakura grimaced. Way to ruin a morning, Karin.
The redhead's voice carried through the heavy oaken door of her room as though she was standing just outside it, anywhere along the hallway. By the bluish dawn light filtering through the windows of her room, she could safely assume it was early morning and slumped back into bed, already diving under the covers to catch some sleep.
"Oh my, what big accusations you have," the responding oily tone caught her unawares and froze her from pulling the comforter over her head. It was so soft she almost missed it and her lips pressed together in concentration. "First that Uchiha brat, now you? I won't be surprised if our guest would suddenly mouth off at me then."
That's...
She remained stock still as though they could see her listening in on their private conversation, straining to be able to hear clearly. Eavesdropping wasn't exactly something she liked to do and actually frowned upon, but it admittedly was a tool a shinobi needed to survive. She couldn't exactly call her case a life and death situation though it would serve to her benefit to happen across any information. Her curiosity was intensely piqued.
During ordinary days there was nothing of importance passed on to her, only the facade needed to put up day to day living with the rest of the inhabitants of the house. Sasuke was too tight lipped and refused to allow any leeway for her in whatever he was planning. Karin was chattier, indulging her in what the avenger lacked in the speech department, yet she also would not talk about anything risky. Kabuto and Orochimaru weren't exactly social with the rest of them, and her meetings with either involved only one on one interaction which her old teammate, as per usual his paranoid self, found unacceptable.
"This was supposed to be over, god damn you! And I find him yesterday like you—"
"Like I what, exactly? Pray Karin, raise your voice because I'm pretty sure the neighbor across the street can't hear you yet."
Sakura could feel her heart thrumming a quick, breathless beat in her chest, her hands shaking. She always felt uncomfortable when people argued where she could hear them, wiping sweating palms on her pajama legs. Despite not caring whether either of the people outside in the hallway killed each other — good riddance — the negative vibes bothered her even enough though she had the least idea of what they were talking about.
More muffled wordings and low voices replaced what she could originally hear and she redoubled her efforts to listen in, swinging her legs over the side of the bed and sinking her feet into the thick lushness of the carpet. Squinting at the door in the darkness of the early morning, making sure to keep her breathing in check and her chakra down, she was rewarded for her effort when she caught harsh whispers.
"—serious!? You're doing to him what you did to every one of us who wanted Orochimaru's favor. You might let him believe you'd moved on but you can't fool me."
"Are you listening to yourself? This is just rich. Where do you get the gall to accuse me? Did he send you?"
"You're fucking unbelievable."
"Don't tell me you're cornering me just to lecture me, are you?"
Sakura's brow furrowed as she stared at the gold patterns on the dark blue carpet. The mocking tone used by the medic seemed to have effectively silenced the redhead, hearing nothing but the street noise and barking dogs filtering into her room no matter how hard she tried. It became mildly annoying how daytime chatter managed to infiltrate this section of the village.
Tucking a lock of pinkish gold hair behind an ear, she eased back into the deep mattress of her bed when the male voice picked up again in a condescending, brash admonition.
"It's been a year. Just give it up already."
A long, drawn-out pause.
"You're maybe a bit older but just between the two of us? You give up."
"Oh, yes. Of course, I did that already. Mind you, he wouldn't have been the one who kept coming back if wasn't even remotely consensual. "
Karin's snort of disbelief followed.
Despite the chilly air and the thin cloth of her shirt, Sakura felt her cheeks redden at the insinuations flying back and forth. Much more interesting love lives than mine. Although she was in no way concerned over what was being discussed or why, she wondered at the burning need to continue listening in on this nonsense. And the feeling of wrongness returned, as though there was something important she was missing. What was it? Who are you talking about?
"Remotely consensual? Not what he tells me. Orochimaru might want to know how you lie."
Clapping and a short laugh. It took her a few moments to realize it was to mock Karin.
"I just knew you were going to use that on me. Do you think he even cares who the—"
The wind whistled through the window crevices, muffling their voices.
By now her pulse was hammering in her throat and she felt she was running out of breath, with a very distinct desire to curl up under her thick blanket to block out the rest of their words. An inking of who they were pertaining to was beginning to fester in her head, something she felt was too strange for the person in her suspicions. There had to be someone else. It couldn't be him.
Closer. She needed to get closer, ever more closer to the door, she had to hear who it was. There had to be confirmation somewhere in their conversation. She wished she had the courage to get down on all fours and press her ear against the cold dark oak.
"—stay away from him. You keep forgetting you tried the same thing on me, I can see right through your fucking mask!"
His dark chuckle. It made the fine hairs on Sakura's arm rise. It did not matter that she was barely able to hear them, or that they weren't even shouting. The whole thing made her feel queasy.
"Tried the same thing on you? Are you so deluded you forget you were throwing yourself at me once you found out I was Orochimaru's right hand man?"
The slap cracked the morning air and it jolted through her. She found her hands clenching the bed sheets. What was wrong with these people? The following reply by the gray-haired medic was clear as day in a monotone, puzzling her even further.
"Surprising the girl I knew would turn traitor for a pretty face."
Another stinging slap of skin on skin rang in her ears, followed by a loud huff and stomping feet that faded away into the early morning. Deep in the secure darkness and soft comfort of her bed, Sakura felt cold.
ooo000ooo
The door slammed close behind him and he trembled in his rain soaked clothes that gathered a pool beneath his sandals. Sasuke glared at him sitting down by the table reading his books, ignoring the stinging sensation of ripped flesh from the festering wound in his side.
"You're late."
His deceptively sunny voice made him twitch, made his blood run cold in this already dank underground lair. Shadows lurked everywhere, only warded off by the lone lamp swinging by the table. His mislike of the place did nothing to ease his discomfort at having to deal with the people who tested his patience. Even as droplets slid into his dark eyes from his equally dark hair, he never took his gaze off him just sitting there.
This was a long time coming. He wasn't numb to the happenings, to the accidental brushes, lingering looks.
Slowly unraveling the white cloth on his arms, he never looked away from the bored gaze, chin in hand on the table. When the damp bloodstained strips dropped to the floor by his feet his glare turned to the fire burning orange and red, flitting around in its little grate as though mocking him.
His mood soured further, defiantly meeting his eyes with dark gray insolence.
"I don't remember asking for you." The hearth crackled behind him as he stepped forward, warming his back and heating the skin parted in a wet red smile.
"No one sent me."
"Just go away," Sasuke seethed, hating how he was shivering.
"I just want to help," he shrugged lackadaisically. "You're bleeding."
"Stop bullshitting me," he spat, black hair rebelliously slithering back to curtain his face even as he raked it back into his scalp. "I know what you want from me. You're not making me do it."
"Really now?" He wanted to wipe that smirk on the floor. "You're going to pretend you're not bleeding yourself half to death?"
He glared, feeling his nails trace crescent half moons into his palm. When he stood up he took an instinctive step closer to the fireplace, hissing a curse and tasting bile rising in his throat.
"One step closer and I swear, kami-sama, I'll kill you," he threatened, molten anger finding its way to his head. He was tired from training but exhaustion would not stop him from doing what he yearned to do for so long. The older one's mere presence was poison.
"That's funny. I thought you believed in the will of fire, not gods, Sasuke-kun."
He crossed the line, moving out of the way of the table, and he lunged with blade in hand.
Defeat was potently bitter as in a fluid motion he was slammed into the floor, head shoved down against the stone hearth and face close to the embers. The Uchiha were known for their control of fire, it could not hurt him, but this was a painful blow to his ego. He could chalk up the weight holding him down to the unnatural circumstances he was in, the hand twisting his arm, the knee drove into his back.
With as much vile intensity as he could come up with, in a low voice intoned, "Whatever you do to me, he's not gonna value you the way he values me."
ooo000ooo
The black wood felt as smooth and cold as marble beneath her bare feet, gold slit-irised eyes watching her with an intensity always present in the snake sennin's composure whenever he asked her to do this. She felt a bead of sweat roll down the side of her face despite the chill of the air.
"How interesting," he murmured, finally breaking into the eerie grin embodying his whole personality. "Tsunade-hime is quite the slacker."
She lay silent.
The first time he did this to her, she was promptly sat down on the piano bench in his apartments on the top floor of the house, locked under a fierce stare for the longest ten minutes of her life. He did nothing to her. Simply watched in intense quiet, she endured his roving his gaze from head to foot as his slow gait brought him walking around her. The inspection had made her feel as if she were a particularly interesting piece of specimen he were about to dissect.
As it went on her thoughts were jumping to all sorts of conclusions. He was mad, insanely intelligent. What would he do to her? What was he thinking? Why was he doing this? She'd imagined he would sooner or later grab her or beat her or rape her, make her hurt. Torture her for information or simply for fun. She would face anything he was planning with a mental mantra, and she could see herself bathing in her own blood and keeping her silence for the sake of Konoha.
Any of it would have fit the description she was fed over the years. Orochimaru was wicked. Yet he had done nothing. His pale lips smirked and his expression unnerved but that was the extent of it. Once the sennin had leaned back against the polished baby grand and began with mundane questions, it blew away all the stories she heard of this man.
She even had tried discerning whether he was tacitly trying to interrogate her. Nothing, and now again his eyes were glued to her face like there was nothing else in the world he could do. Each time he asked for her he'd spend a couple of hours with light chatting and that would be the gist of the whole time she spent in her enemy's company.
Sakura wondered if this man, tall and legendary and scary, finally went crazy.
Every session he'd ask for a vivid description of what her own mentor did, a third of the Legendary Three. Every session he'd wait quietly for her to finish without as much as an interruption. He'd nod once she was done and begin with his queries. At first she balked and he had told her to withhold anything she thought was too important to share and she began with the boring details of an ordinary working day. In fact, she could stretch it and call him gracious.
"So," he started, blinking slowly like a cat after the end of her telling of another stressful day of the Hokage, "I think that's it for now."
"No questions?" she curiously asked after a brief pause. The way he was always satisfied by what she told him was strange.
"Well," the sennin grinned, suddenly getting to his feet and shooing her off the chair before he pulled it up to the piano. His talking had taken on a more energetic tone as though he held his excitement in check. "Since you're very adamant today, do you play?"
Her eyebrows rose and she stepped closer, watching as deft hands raised the cover and exposed the black and yellowing keys. Immediately soft notes took to the thin, frigid air. Orochimaru's fingers smoothly flowed and pressed with a familiar precision, a foot against the pedals, and Sakura watched as the man lost himself in the light, quick tune of a few notes before pausing to smile at her and wait for an answer.
It was bizarre, seeing a murderer and traitor devoted to such a simple thing. Remnants of a bedtime story tugged at her consciousness, of a bard hired to drive out a plague of demons with his songs in some small town. When they refused what was due him, he played so beautifully that the children of the town followed him away and never were seen again. She was probably the latest child.
She knew he created Hidden Sound and though it never crossed her mind before, it made sense he was adept at music. Never in her life did she anticipate something like this. It's like he's a different person.
"My dear, you mustn't have a sickly old man wait all day like this," he tsked, moving over to make space on the leather bench before taking her wrist in a cool hand and pulling her beside him.
Sakura didn't know how, but those sharp eyes were hawking how she tried to imitate his poise, feeling awkward and unsure as one set of white fingers descended upon a matching set of keys and an impatient glint of gold urged her to do the same. The sound of three strings merging into one unified resonance lingered in the air.
Kami-sama, he's weird.
"Go on."
What was it that Tsunade had always admired about her? Wasn't it how she was able to imitate her actions during an operation, able to successfully go through it step by step as if she were a natural? It all lay in the basics, of how she took in information. She could treat this stupid little thing like one of Tsunade's exercises to humor the snake sennin. Just watch what he does, those snowy hands brighter than the ivory they lay on. This would be easy.
It took her a few moments to get the note right, her hand finding the arrangement of the keys strange as she stretched them to find the right ones. There was a humph of appreciation as now both of Orochimaru's hands moved and pressed into a different set. She felt the embarrassment warming her cheeks and she struggled to catch up to his familiarity of the instrument.
Change. Copy. Change. Copy. The sound the piano made was a halting melody, like a record skipping.
"Did you also make Sasuke do this?" came blurting out of her mouth as her frustration mounted. He was too fast, and as soon as she managed to do what he was doing, or what she thought he was doing, those long fingers moved gracefully and flitted to the next form.
A dark, feminine chuckle came beside her and she looked up in surprise, at the gleeful smirk of the man who destroyed her perfect team.
"No, my darling," he answered, teeth as white as his skin. He continued playing, she continued following. "You see, Sasuke-kun is such an impatient child. And I imagine you must know how he... shall we put it, rages when he thinks it's a waste of time. Very practical, he imagines himself. The poor dear, unable to enjoy the wonderful pleasures life is offering him."
He moved faster, closer to the pace he played earlier before he asked her to join him, pressuring her to do the same. His words barely registered in her mind as it took all of her concentration not to break to pace, feeling the beginning of an adrenaline rush at the satisfaction she was getting out of not missing a beat.
The edges of her lips were being pulled up into a smile she was resisting. She was supposed to be exasperated after being held up for far too long on something she expected to have been finished days ago. One did not have fun under the influence of Konoha's monstrous child. But the enjoyment kept tugging at her mouth.
Orochimaru was vexing as hell, but he was also entertaining with all his oddities and everything else that came with a fucked up, fifty-plus-year-old, awfully talented Sannin. Why he was lax when it came to her, she left it to the reason of why he wanted her brought here.
Suddenly those slender fingers changed pace, no longer forming the simple notes Sakura was accustoming herself to just now, and they flowed on their own in a more complicated, harmonious melody. Too surprised by the development, her own hands abruptly froze as she stared at the source of the flowering tune until the last twinkling note was done.
Only then did she realize she was holding her breath.
His laugh made reality come crashing back down, the held breath escaping in a puff of air moving the blonde tangles in front of her eyes. Seeing their hands so close together on the keyboard, the similarity struck her, her fingers curling back loosely into her palms as a reflex to hide what she'd seen.
As casually as she managed, she folded her hands on her lap. Too effeminate for such a man, the sennin was known to be bordering on asexuality. How he had hands like a woman's did not bother her. It was the way they looked too much like her own. A knot of uncertainty was heavy in her chest.
But... wasn't this not his real body?
"Much too advanced for you, my dear," he lisped, giving her a pale smile. His next words were dripping in heavy meaning and flicked a switch. "It's just so entertaining to have you around. I'm sorry if I get so carried away."
Out of nowhere came Sasuke's repeated pressing of her to know the reason for her presence, how each time she felt the urgency and even slight desperation on his part. For him it meant a world of difference, a perfect timing of events she had no notion of and no part to play in. She was the wrench in his gears, and the secrecy was now stirring her own suspicions of the old man's intentions.
In a heartbeat she'd forsake Orochimaru's proposals for her avenger. All that it took to win the Uchiha back to Leaf, she'd do it.
"What am I doing here?" she asked almost timidly, meeting his stare with genuine green curiosity. "I don't think you just want to talk to me about the Godaime-sama's business."
The smirk disappeared, a cool neutral expression taking its place. For a moment she thought an anger smoldered beneath the gold placidity. The silence filled the air where the sweet melody had been previously, and then he spoke.
"Do you sing?"
"Do I, what?" Sakura almost choked on her own spit. "Sing? No, I don't."
He barely moved. A short, clipped nod of the head and a slow dread filled her at the way his eyes roamed her features, not dissimilar to how he first made her sit down and took in every physical detail of her person.
"Before she ruined it with sake and that horrible screeching all over the place when she gambled, Tsunade-hime had a nice voice," he told her in a low tone. "She and Jiraiya, they would sing after our missions at the bar we frequented."
By now, and she noticed with great difficulty, he tore away his gaze from her and a single fair, feminine hand stroked a last few tunes of the melody from the instrument and stopped.
"I was not blessed with their voice, but I made up for it with talent," he continued, sighing with theatrical lassitude. She merely wondered why he was telling her all this. It was... so unlike him. The way he was waxing sentimental about the whole ordeal made her squirm.
"And so I would no longer envy them because I was part of their happiness. Of course, all things have to come to an end, and so we all ended when we began leaving the village," the familiar unctuous smile filled his face when he faced her. "They lost their passion for the arts, I still have mine. Very sad, I must tell you, but such is life."
Clueless and lacking words to respond to that, Sakura nodded.
"Now, my child, I'm dreadfully tired. Be a dear and get on with what else you do," Orochimaru grinned, using a finger to tuck away a silvery pink tress from her face. The slits of his pupils narrowed, turning into a viper's golden eyes. "Be a bit more patient for a few more days, I shall let you know what you should do then."
When she descended the stairs, a broken sonnet resumed behind her. Although not as a professional like the country's commoners and royalty who did not fight for a living, she had a decent enough voice. In the shower, in the public baths for the heck of it. When she was alone and heartbroken and happy. After missions if Naruto and Sai made her drink too much with Yamato-sensei helpless to stop all three of them. She could sing.
ooo000ooo
He pushed open the door and found Sakura curled up before the humongous desk in her room, wrapped up in a quilt on the hardwood chair and poring over an unraveled scroll. A pair of green barrettes pulled back her now two-toned hair on one side of her face, the color of her eyes. But what he focused on was Kabuto standing behind her, his lanky form crouched over her shoulder with both arms splayed on both her sides and hands firmly on either end of the scroll they were looking at. Brilliant sunlight streamed in from all the windows surrounding them.
"Get out," rasped from Sasuke's throat before he realized how he was reacting, his hand holding tightly onto the doorknob.
They responded too slow for his liking, the bespectacled man turning to his direction with a sly sneer.
"Oh, if it isn't Sasuke-kun."
He refused to meet those condescending eyes and turned to his former teammate, frowning at how she was so insipidly stupid to continue even talking to the pathetic excuse of a person behind her.
"Did you want something?" she asked innocently, emerald eyes darting from him to the paper in her hands. "We're kind of busy, so if it's not important..."
How fucking naive.
"Get. Out," he warned, directing the order to Kabuto but keeping dark gray eyes pinned on her, cutting off whatever else she had to say. To be so infantile as to assume he would approach her without purpose. If it wasn't important he wouldn't be here. If it wasn't important she wouldn't be here at all.
The sarcastic laughter from the older medic thinned his lips, irresistibly pulling his attention to the way he openly mocked his person.
"I'll come back at a better time," he leaned in to her ear, saying it loud enough for Sasuke's benefit.
The way he straightened, in how he sauntered towards him in the doorway, everything about the man made his blood curdle. They were of a height and when he refused to budge when he passed by, the way the medic's shoulder brushed against him made him clutch at the metal door handle else he'd throw a fist at his smiling face. Not wanting to extend the torture, he slammed the heavy oak panel behind him.
An unhappily worried Sakura swaddled in the thick blanket awaited his rebuke.
"I told you to stay away from him," he said flatly. In all honesty he tried to be patient. He wanted to know what made her so hardheaded she wouldn't listen to sound, logical orders.
As though she found cause in him to be disappointed, she sighed deeply. Averting her eyes, she turned them onto the scrollwork in front of her and pursed her lips. He did not like her mood. He liked how the plastic emerald barrettes matched her irises despite the ruin of her hair, but that was beside the point.
"I'm not stupid, Sasuke," she finally answered dejectedly, finally looking up to meet his gaze. He could see how she was deliberating within herself how to continue. "Although unlike you, I'm actually human. I need someone who gives me some sort of emotional response."
He narrowed his eyes at his former teammate, thinking hard along the lines of, What the fuck is she talking about?
"You can talk to Karin," he responded.
Yes. Her talking to Karin, he could take that. Kabuto could go grow molds in his mouth. But it seemed to be a compromise Sakura didn't want because she was now holding her head in her hands. Of all things, he noticed she'd also painted her nails green.
His brow creased. It was a perfectly rational answer to her problem of having someone giving emotional responses. The redhead had so much emotional responses to anything a single conversation with her contained enough dramatics he could handle for a lifetime.
"It's not that," she said, the beginnings of mild frustration appearing across her face. "I... need to be able to talk to Kabuto. He's a medic, like me. We have enough in common for me to learn from him."
Sasuke frowned at the way she stressed her need as though she'd die if she wasn't able to get her way.
Though all semblance of wanting to kill her pathetic excuse of an existence disappeared when she managed to disarm him and turn around the fight they had the night before, he still was unnerved by how Sakura remained so gullible about practically everything. Kabuto was bad news. And she was flocking to him like a tomcat in heat. It was as if she was born with all her survival instincts working the other way around.
"Fine," he groused, rolling his eyes and walking over to lean back against the table in front of her. "Explain."
He crossed his arms across his chest, staring down at her and exerting a good amount of willpower to not throttle all the fight out of her on this issue. Whatever reason she had for this, he was willing to try and understand as long as it wasn't insane.
"Sasuke, it's not related to anything I'm here for. I swear on the will of fire, there's nothing wrong in what he's teaching me."
"Not good enough," he disapproved bluntly. He could care less about what they talked about.
"After this, I'm going back to Konoha, right?" asked Sakura, silvery gold brows drawing together. "You don't even want me around at all."
"And?" Get to the point.
"I'm a medic," she stressed, taking a dry writing brush and toying with it. She couldn't even look at him with the way he glared down on her fiddling. "Back in the village you left, I have a life to get back to. It's... I didn't make a clean getaway, you know that." Her green eyes flicked back up at him for a fraction of a second before she continued twiddling the rough bristles. "After we're done here, I'm going back to clinic duty and learning from Tsunade-sama and... and it's going to be hard, I know, but I still love what I do. What Kabuto is teaching me, it's going to help that part of my life, my real life."
Sasuke remained silent, watching the silver pink head bob even lower in shame or self-reproach. All she said was, for some strange reason, a painful truth.
Nothing changed, was what he'd believed in when he was her the night of her abduction. In a sense, nothing did. She did come willingly with him after all, after just persuasion on his part. She could not resist him no matter how much she tried, how obviously she kept fighting the urge to give in to whatever mindless game he'd play her with. It was exactly the same as three years ago, only now he'd actually bother to tap into the potential of how he held sway over the most mundane decisions she made. Do this, do that, stop it, get out. She'd do it all.
Sakura would do it all, because she was cut off from the rest of her life.
The only reason she was in this far flung village with the Three Wolves the only landmark in sight, was because he was here. He'd made her come here and she was stuck in the company of people she didn't know or trust. It was why he'd been so powerful when it came to whatever was happening with her. At this point, he was her only lifeline and he held every second of her life in his hands.
It was not to say he was not well aware of how she'd be like if they were in Konoha. She would have reasons, excuses to save her from what he wanted. Reports and sessions and duty that called in the middle of the night, papers to fill out and forms to pass. She'd had friends to save her, excuses at every turn to keep him at bay. She had survived three years without him, a life where he wasn't part of every day. And she gave importance to it. She cherished it like it was the only thing she had.
Heck, she was doing something here, in the only godforsaken place she was blessed to have his presence, and she was planning things of what she'd do once she got back. It was what made her her, after all. Sakura had grown because he wasn't there. It made painful fucking sense. It was so irritating.
He could feel a scowl tweak at his mouth and resisted opening with, I don't give a flying fuck. I still don't want you talking to him.
"So," he said with the air of a reprimand, running one hand over his face and trying to come up with something sensible to say. He shrugged as casually as possible. "What could Kabuto possibly teach you that Tsunade can't?" Isn't she supposed to be the greatest medic who lived or something?
There was a light in her eyes, a spark of something reignited at his question. Suddenly it spread into a smile and he realized he'd touched upon the passion on which his former teammate had thrown herself at in his absence.
"Well, I suppose you wouldn't know the difference, not specializing in medicine, but I guess... um, I'd say it's different. Tsunade-sama has her own way of doing things, and most of it is in accordance to the law of Konoha," she babbled, immediately losing him as he tried to force his face into its familiar state of being stoic instead of grimacing and walking out. Kami, she was even randomly gesturing now, her hands trying to capture whatever it was she was talking on about.
"The thing is, Kabuto's methods are... they're unorthodox. Of course he's learned from Orochimaru so that would be obvious, but... I'm talking about the difference it can make. I can save someone on the field and they'd be none the wiser. And there's so much potential for other techniques," she was running out of breath at this point and paused to inhale deeply. "It can make me better, I guess is what I'm saying. Stronger." Shining green eyes were smiling up at him. "I won't just rely on Tsunade-sama's teachings. I'd make my own."
Sasuke raised a dark eyebrow skeptically. As though she realized what she'd been saying and just who she had been talking to, the enthusiasm faded from her face and she annoyingly fiddled with the paintbrush once more.
"Or, something like that I suppose," she added meekly, biting her lower lip.
She was startled when Sasuke suddenly snatched the writing tool out of her hands, slapping it down on the table. Her fidgeting habit was getting to be increasingly frustrating to watch and he couldn't stand it a minute longer.
"It's Kabuto," he said, mentioning the name as though it burned him. "Do you really think he cares?"
Her mouth dropped open, clearly shocked by what he was asking, and he wanted to slap her for not seeing things the way he did. As usual, she needed him to explain to her every little thing for her to understand the big picture. She too fucking soft for this it was ridiculous.
"He's... teaching me already," Sakura replied slowly, but the doubt he planted was beginning to fester. Green eyes lingered on the writings scrawled on the parchment he was leaning on. "They're all legitimate techniques, he shows me... He does them and he tells me how to do it."
It gave him a black satisfaction to see her grasping at straws.
"I've tried them repeatedly," she said, as though pleading for the avenger to try and be more open for once. "They work."
"And what do you think he gets out of your arrangement?" he asked testily, narrowing dark gray eyes at his former teammate. If she didn't connect the dots at this point he might lose it and do something rash. She was vexing as hell. Her silence judged her guilty and he restrained from trying to hurt her. Bruise those unapologetic lips and mark her for the sheer stupidity emanating from her being.
The Uchiha bent forward with his arms still crossed, bringing him up close to those lost, doubting, emerald eyes.
"He's doing this for your trust," he hissed. Sasuke leaned back, smug with satisfaction. However, he did not expect the angered warp in her typically docile face.
"Sasuke, I would never trust him," she said through gritted teeth, feet dropping down to the carpet as she pushed herself to her full height. "Not one bit! I'm just taking all what I can while I'm still here, and that includes what he's offering me. Have you been even listening to me? I..."
Her face crumpled, completely losing her momentum. Shoulders sagging, she looked defeated. She gives up, a small dark voice told him at the back of his head. She's giving up and she's mine and she wouldn't fight.
"You can't always have what you want," she said, a shuddering exhale escaping her. "Orochimaru said I could be going in a couple of days. Just please, allow me this."
A couple of days. Sasuke was stunned.
No more harassing the gray-haired medic for going against his warnings. No more Orochimaru slithering away from his questions. No more Sakura to disgrace whatever good he remembered of Konoha. No more memories she'd revive. No more blonde, pink-haired girl intruding in his life and tactlessly talking about his brother.
No more restraint on his anger at her ignorance. No more caring about what she wanted to do with her life as she toyed with fate by messing with Kabuto. No more hitches when the time was ripe to rip apart the snake and move on with Hebi.
Only a couple of days more before he'd taste freedom. It was so sudden it was as if the floor dropped from under him, emerald irises pleading with him for a minutiae of understanding, a drop of compassion somewhere in his conscience. He should be happy she'd be gone.
It did not feel like a relief. It felt like an emptiness within him, a gaping void and a vacuum searching for something to fill it. What held him back from voicing the resounding No! in his mind was the utmost confusion at why he didn't want her to go.
The complex clutter of feelings he was swamping in only angered him. He wanted to grab her by the hair at the back of her blonde-pink head, push her onto the bed and force himself on Sakura in the most painful way possible. This was bad. He was losing control of himself. He needed to get away from her poisonous presence so he'd think straight. He needed... air.
"Do whatever you want," he said acidly, turning away sharply from her and walking out of her room. He slammed the door shut behind him.
ooo000ooo
"Have you seen Sasuke-kun?" she asked, putting aside the medical texts she was reading to look at Karin.
The redhead was using her lap as a pillow, sharing the couch with her as her stocking clad legs took up the length of the sofa. Kabuto was napping on the other, the fireplace dancing with yellow flames. It was already after dinner and the Uchiha was nowhere to be found. Curiously not one of them saw a glimpse of him since this morning, around the time where he walked out on her.
Sakura bit her lip. The windows were frosting as the iron sky already turned into indigo, night falling with snow. Where did you go?
"No," replied Karin, looking up from reading the black, leatherbound notebook belonging to the Hokage. She had borrowed it, out of boredom. "Any problems?"
"Oh, no. Nevermind. I just haven't seen him since this morning," she replied. His absence was worrying her, partly because she believed their argument had something to do with it. "Get up, I'm going to get a blanket."
The redhead sat up to let her go and Sakura ascended the stairs, ignoring the thumps on the stairs even though the other medic was asleep.
The second landing was dark, no lights turned on with the wind whispering at the windows. She had to feel her way to her room, both arms stretched out and careful not to slip. When her hand closed upon the doorway, she noticed it was partly open.
Pushing the door fully open and stepping inside, she noticed a silhouette sitting on the edge of her bed, red sharingan glinting like coals in the shadows. None of her curtains were pulled open except the one above the desk, the streetlamps shedding a single silver block of light onto her table and slicing the carpet halfway across her room.
"You don't just enter without asking, you know," Sakura said, recognizing the eyes and turning around to close the heavy, oak panel behind her. She could hear the shift of the bed as Sasuke changed positions, reaching out to the switch nearby and flicking it open. Light flooded the room and she turned to face him. "We were downst…"
The words died on her lips.
Her heart pounded like the psychotics she had as patients in the mental wards, banging again and again against the glass wall, pounding heavily in her chest, heavily pulsing in her throat and ears as she recognized who it was sitting on the edge of her bed.
He was playing with her forehead protector, slowly tracing the engraved leaf symbol with slender fingers, nails painted a dark purple it was almost black. On his right hand, ring finger, there was a gold band with a glinting red emblem.
It… it can't be… it's not possible…
"You must forgive me," he started, looking up at her with those domineering, scarlet eyes. His voice was dulcetly low in the silence hanging thickly between them. "But you also understand I wouldn't be welcome if I was seen anywhere else in this house."
Sakura swallowed when he stood up, his black cloak sliding smoothly like water off the bed, gracefully taking a step towards her without a single sound. Her heart was still hammering madly but she didn't know if she should hold her tongue, attack or flee. He was looking at her through raven bangs, his own hiai-ate on his forehead displaying a slash across their village symbol. His ponytail was slung forward over a shoulder that she could see because the black robe (with red clouds that remind you of early morning sunrises…) was open, ebony strands reflecting the light overhead.
At the edge of her vision she barely noticed a bird had appeared, landing in front of the only window whose curtains were drawn back, dark feathers gleaming in the light that was a mixture of the sliver of streetlamps and orange of her room. It flapped its pitch black wings, slowly cocking its head to the side, watching her with beady ocher eyes. A soft caw, its scaly feet disturbing the snow piled against the glass as it hopped about.
"It's Haruno Sakura-san, isn't it?" he asked softly, unrelentingly keeping his powerful gaze on her. She couldn't say anything else in reply, his name stumbling through her lips.
"Uchiha Itachi…"
Hush