I still don't understand where this story came from… And I'm still listening to Breaking Benjamin. Can you guess which song I'm listening to?
Disclaimer: Still not mine.
Dedication: To Sara, because we not only share a name, we share a birthday! Weird, huh? (Actually, it's more like awesome.)
---
The second day was harder then the first. Neither of us woke up before noon, but, even then, there were empty hours we had to fill.
And I didn't really want to fill them talking to Uchiha, because that could causer me serious mental trauma. Spending so much time around one stupid person can do that do you, you know.
So I left early (one in the afternoon is not early, but… whatever), and wandered. I like wandering. It's nice.
I'm not stupid, and I was packing a silenced Glock in my bag, and it was full of bullets. Ever since the incident with Hinata, I never went anywhere without a full cartridge of bullets. It had never happened before, and it wasn't going to happen again. Blah.
I glared at the ground as I walked, when I should have been glaring around me. I had no idea where my feet were taking me, but I just let them go. I was totally zoned out, and I didn't realize how late it was getting.
Eventually, I bumped into some random person, and, in the process of knocking them over, I realized how long I'd been walking. I wasn't tired, not even close, but I knew I'd better get back. There's no telling what Uchiha would have done had, had I not been back before dark.
As it was, he freaked out.
"YOU STUPID BITCH, WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?!" He stressed the last word, his anger at the world spilling over and onto me.
"Stop yelling at me." I was not amused by his stupidity. See, what did I tell you? Spending too much time around stupid people is bad for your health! And his voice level was getting on my already-frazzled nerves.
He took two, calming breaths, breathing through his nose, and I gave him an annoyed look. Seriously, the dude needed to calm down. When he looked calm enough to speak without yelling at me, I spoke. "Get dressed, you loser. I have things to do, places to go, leeches to kill. And you're slowing me down."
He glared at me furiously, and went to get changed. I smiled benignly at him as he passed (actually, it was the exact same smile Kakashi gives me when he's trying to play the innocent), and he paused and looked down at me.
Okay, okay, too close! I try slipping out from under his arm, while avoiding touching any part of his body. Of course, I forget that he had hands (I'm a stupid bitch… I don't even argue it anymore), and his fingers clamped around my wrist.
His touch sends needles of icy fire through my body, and I freeze don't-touch-me-don't-touch-me-don't-touch-me-I'm-bad-for-you. He just held me there, his fingers around my wrist, and I wasn't even facing him, so I couldn't see his face.
It was unfair.
I wrenched my hand out of his grip, and pulled it against my chest, cradling it there like he'd burn me. And really, in a way, the jerk had.
"Don't touch me," was all I hissed out at him, and then I shoved past him into the bathroom and locked the door. He could change in the other room, I needed to hide right now.
Because I knew that if I saw his face, I would smack him so hard, he wouldn't be able to feel his cheek for a week. I was not happy with the boy at the moment.
And then, of course, came the simpering apology. Well, Uchiha didn't simper, at the very least, but his voice was muffled through the door. "Princess, get out of there."
"Screw off!" I hissed at him. My hand still felt like there were needles running through it.
"Sakura, come out please."
"No. I refuse." He can kiss my ass if he wants to be like that.
"Sakura, either you come out, or I come in, and I don't think you'll like that."
I laughed sardonically at him. "Go ahead, break the door down. You'll be paying for the damages, not me, understand?"
I thought that would stop him. It didn't.
He kicked the door in.
The resulting crash made me shriek. I really hadn't thought he'd do that, for fuck's sake, no one does that! No one breaks down a door to talk to someone! I stood up, my entire body simply fury, and I slapped him.
It snapped his head to the side, and it obviously took him by surprise. Satisfaction radiated through my being from a place close to my stomach (stomach? Why stomach?) and I glared at him.
"If you blame this on a lover's spat to the owner, I am going to kick you so hard, you won't be able to have children. And I'll do it in front of the entire world, whether you like it or not."
He smirked at me, and I groaned. I'd just given him an idea. I must remind myself to never ever speak to him again, because
He loomed over me, and I snarled up at him. "Uchiha, if you touch me again, I will make you feel extreme pain."
"You can't hurt me if you can't move, princess." And then he backed me up against the sink.
Wow. This felt eerily familiar. Déjà vu, anyone? This time, though, both of my wrists were held in one of his (damn having small appendages), and he was smirking at me like there was no tomorrow.
"Get off me, you big oaf." Why did I pick the word 'oaf'? I have no idea. I'm just weird like that. Wait, why am I thinking things like this? What the fuck is wrong with me recently?!
"And what if I don't want to move?"
"I'll knee you." My voice is rough, tinged with embarrassment, and my violence level was getting a little bit over the top. I wanted to murder him.
"You still can't move, princess Sa-ku-ra." He drew my name out. I hated the fact that he was right. I hated that fact a lot of the time, when I think about it now.
I snarled something unintelligible at him (I don't even know what it was I said… oh, the shame, the shame) and I tried to wrench my hands out of his grip again. It didn't work. He just kept me there, neither of us moving, daggers flying from my eyes.
And if looks could kill, he'd be way more then six feet under the ground. He'd be at least double that. Or triple, depends on how much I hated him at that particular moment. There's no…nothing, here. Nothing at all.
And I'm not ready to die for him. I'm not ready to die for anyone.
I managed to push him away, and I got out from underneath his arm again. "Get changed. We go on patrol in half an hour," and then I went over to the bed, and plopped myself down, and flicked on the TV.
The shitty reception made me smile. It reminded me so thoroughly of how Kakashi liked to keep our TV at home, that it made me laugh softly to myself. Suddenly, I missed him and Anko so much that it hurt.
I laid back on the couch, crossed my arms under my head, and just listened to the muted rambling of the TV. I heard the shower turn on, and I felt like something was just about to break.
What was about to break though, I had no idea.
And I wouldn't know until it was too late.
---
I was burning paper I was so bored by the time Uchiha finally finished in the bathroom. God, he took longer showers then any girl I'd ever met, including myself, and that was saying something. That half-hour-until-patrol-thing? Yeah, it went out the window.
Actually, no it went out the front door, and took the pagoda with it.
But it didn't matter right then, because I was wearing another hated dress (I despise dresses almost as much as I despise the cold. Leeches, the cold, and dresses. They're my top three most hated things. But Uchiha is working his way up, rest assured.), and Uchiha was glaring at me thoroughly.
I glared right back. "What? Is there something on my face?"
He just glowered at me. "Put some clothes on."
"Excuse me?!" I voice ripped through a half-octave.
"Hn. Never mind."
Okay, now I really wanted to kick him. So the dress was short, too short for my liking, actually, but how is that my fault? Tsunade sent me off what she wanted to send me off with! How can he blame me for that?
"Urgh. Whatever. Can we go now?"
He nodded, still unhappy with the dress, obviously. What was his problem with it? I just growled at him every time he gave me a disapproving glare, and I eventually just flipped him off. He was getting on my nerves, and frazzling them even more then they had been frazzled before. Grawr.
He shoved his hands into his pockets, and we left the room. Just before we reached the dingy lobby, his fingers curled around mine, and, just as we came into view of other people, I changed the snarl on my lips to a sappy smile.
The ice in my eyes though, that didn't change, nor did the resolve in his. I wasn't in the mood for Uchiha's bullshit right now. I didn't know what the resolution in his eyes was for, and I didn't want to know.
Considering it was Uchiha, I didn't even want to know. And that's a rare thing for me. I want to know everything.
Together we slipped out of the lobby, the receptionist still staring hungrily at me. I seriously did not like that dude. He was a creeper. Uchiha sent him a scowl so fierce; I would not be surprised if the dude pissed his pants. Tee-hee.
The whole situation was exactly like it had been yesterday. Only, there was no sun today, no bloody red light, not even a fraction of the warmth I so craved. Damn. I hate the cold. Like, really. It is despicable.
We're out of the public eye tonight, in a side corner, watching as humans pass each other by. We stand here in the shadow of a dilapidated building, and I shiver because it's cold.
Uchiha drops his coat over my shoulders again. I blink up at him, astounded. No one was watching us here, so he had no reason to give it to me. I gawked at him. He was staring determinedly in the other direction. I shrugged to myself. He's a weirdo.
"You're not cold anymore, right?" he asked, softly softly-softly-trying-not-to-catch-your-attention-softly, and I nodded.
His jacket was warm. And I tried not to think about the fact that it was him, nor about the fact that it smelled like him. And I'm sure I've mentioned how amazing he smells. It's absolutely unreal how amazing he smells. Unfair.
Damn, he was being nice. Why can't he just be rude, and let me hate him all I want? Why does he have to be… him?! Why god, why?! But of course he has to be annoying and jerk-ish and rude and sweet and frustrating all at the same time.
And, of course, he has no idea he's doing it, either. Boys are so weird.
I looked up at the sky, and noted that it was getting darker again. There were still clouds, no stars at all, and no moon. Not a good night to be out. Not as good night to be out especially if you were human.
'Blood will drain tonight', I thought to myself with a shudder. 'And people will die. And I can't save them. It's not fair.'
"C'mon Uchiha, dance with the devil. Tomorrow we can start figuring out why there are so many leeches from different lines here. It's not normal, and it bothers me, but it's the only lead we've got."
He nodded once, and I skipped out into the open, putting a bullet through a very ugly leech's head. Ew, how had he even survived this long? That doesn't make sense. I wanted to shoot him a few more times to make sure he was dead, but I didn't have the bullets or the time to waste.
I called over my shoulder to Uchiha "Meet you back here in an hour, okay?"
Either he didn't hear me, or he did, but I didn't hear a reply, so I took it as affirmation that he would, in fact, meet me back at this spot in hour.
I took off running. I was determined to 'exorcize' (Tsunade says I have to clean up my leech language, or at least make it more pleasant) at least enough to make a difference. They were all here, so why not have some fun while I was at it, right?
---
I giggled as I went, filling everything that had red eyes with holes as I ran past them. It was beyond late, and no humans were out. In the human news, there had been so many deaths in these parts that there had been a curfew installed, not that many heeded it.
But it was late enough (or early enough, depending on how you looked at it) that everything with a soul had gone to bed, and I was the only thing alive and awake for a good few miles.
Oh, wait, Uchiha, right. Forgot about him.
Oh, yeah, I was supposed to go meet him, wasn't I? I should probably get on that…
And then something went screaming past me, and I forgot all about Uchiha.
It was a girl, with rivulets of blood coursing down her neck. Oh, come on, that's not good! That meant… I hissed at myself. That meant that I hadn't been able to save this girl. And one of the leeches had been feeding. How could I have missed that? She tripped, and hit the pavement. I winced as I saw the asphalt-burn. That had to hurt.
I knelt down next to her. "Are you alright?"
She shook her head, no, and pointed behind me. I whipped around, and saw, to my great delight, a leech. Yay!
He was wiping his mouth with the back of his hand, and his eyes were wild and crazy. The bloodlust in them was unmistakable. But when he turned his eyes on me, it was like the bloodlust in them hit a wall. Bloody hell, what's he doing here?!
"Hello, Hatake's evil spawn, how are you?"
I kept my Glock trained on his head, and I smiled menacingly (or so I hope) at him. "Hello there, Silver, I've been fine. What's it been like without Argent?"
He snarled at me as his previous mate's name rolled off my lips. I'd 'exorcized' her, on a previous mission, when Kakashi and Anko and I had been in New York. Why does the worst stuff always happen in New York? Although, considering, meeting Silver here isn't a good thing… Silver always shows up in the places where there's the most leech activity, because he likes annoying people. He certainly likes annoying me, the bastard.
He hissed out "One day, small one, you too will understand what it's like to lose the one you adore the most, the one you planned to spend eternity with. Argent will be avenged when you lose that which is most precious to you."
I spat at him. "Argent was trying to feed off my mother. If I hadn't killed her, Kakashi would have, and then come after you, too. So piss off Silver, before I put a hole through your head."
He, strangely, half-smiled at me. "RedCard was right. That fire of your's has gotten stronger. It's too bad the last Uchiha killed him; he was a good friend."
"Your kind doesn't have friends, Silver. You have servants, and you know it. Now get out of my sight. Actually, wait, I have a question. Why are you here? You only show up in places where the shit is about to hit the fan. Care to tell?"
"Very sorry, evil spawn, that's not a question I'm at liberty to answer that question of yours. I'll take my leave, now."
I shot at him, just as he said it, but by the time the bullet got to where his head had been, he had already turned into mist. I muttered ungratefully under my breath. I hated everyone from his line; they had this bad habit of disappearing when I was just about to kill them. Sigh. And how dare he call me evil spawn?!
I walked back over to the girl, and gently helped her up. The bleeding from her neck had stopped, and I checked the wound carefully. I wouldn't touch her, though, until I knew for sure that she'd not taken any of his blood in return.
"Did he force you to drink anything?"
She shook her head, her eyes wide and fearful. I sighed in relief. Leeches don't turn other people into leeches by the bite. No, they change humans by making them drink the immortal blood that flows through their vein. It's strange, because there is definitely blood in them, but they never bleed. Actually, it's really weird, now that I think about it.
"Okay, good. C'mon, get up. Do you live near here?"
She nodded, and pointed to a house across the street. I blinked. Why had she been out so late? As if hearing my unasked question, she blushed and murmured "I was out getting some cough medicine for my brother. He's really sick, and I wanted him to get some sleep."
I nodded, and sent her home. She still had the medicine on her, so she'd be fine. But I warned her against going outside late at night. "Bad stuff's happening, and not even we know why. So don't go outside when it's cloudy or when it's dark, 'kay?"
She nodded, and I sent her off. She'd be fine, I thought, and I went to find Sasuke.
When I did eventually find him, I winced at the tone of his voice. It was two in the morning, and I was tired. "Uchiha, you can yell at me tomorrow, okay? I'm about to fall over, I'm so tired."
"You said an hour, Sakura. Do you have any idea-"
I cut him off. "Yeah, yeah, Kakashi would have killed you if anything had happened to me, I know, I know. Can we go now? I'm about to fall over."
I was so exhausted, even walking was taking its toll on me. I knew I'd probably sleep the day away tomorrow, but that was an unfortunate side effect of staying up all night. I stumbled, right myself, and kept walking.
I stumbled a second time, the ground yawning up at me, and I winced and waited to feel the impact of me hitting said ground, but it never came. Uchiha had grabbed me as I was falling, and thrown me over his shoulder. Again.
I hate him. So much. It's not even funny anymore.
"Put. Me. Down. Now." I growled out at him, unhappy with this predicament.
"No."
"Uchiha, put me down, you fucker!" I beat my fists pointlessly against his back, and eventually gave up. I'm no lightweight, and the fact that he was carrying and extra hundred pounds could not be nice.
Mwahaha. I laugh evilly at him, inside my head of course. Don't want everyone thinking I'm totally insane. We've already got plenty evidence of that.
When we finally got back to the hotel, I was yawning so hard that I couldn't really see where I was walking. Uchiha put me down (gently again, too. Why must he be so nice?!), and let me scale the wall first.
It was so tiring, because I was already so close to passing out, I didn't even realize that Uchiha waited until I was in the room's window to come up. He gave me the opening to lock the window on him, figuring that I'd be too tired to lock it on him. He was right.
I collapsed on the bed, exhaustion taking over the little that was left of my sanity. I didn't even change out of the hated dress, I just crawled under the covers, closed my eyes, and fell asleep.
I didn't even feel it when Uchiha crawled in next to me.