DISCLAIMER: I DON'T OWN YADAYADAYADAYADAYADA... YOU GET THE PICTURE.
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Hidan whipped his head around to glare at the opposite end of the alley.
Sakura peeked over his shoulder as well, curious about the interloper who'd probably just saved her.
The only thing wrong was that he knew Hidan's name. Which meant he wasn't there to save her.
"Kisame! What are you doing here?" Hidan's grip on Sakura tightened painfully, and she gritted her teeth, determined not to make a sound.
"I'm here to keep you from going too far. Sasuke loves that girl, you can't make her yours yet." Kisame was adamant, even as he approached them. Sakura was pulled ever closer to Hidan's firm body, and attempted to shift into a different, more comfortable, position. She shifted the wrong way and gasped when she felt his hard member brush against her thigh. Hidan laughed softly, enjoying her discomfort.
She stamped on his foot and grabbed his hair hoping it would make him relinquish his hold, but it accomplished nothing, she just got a hard pinch to the ribs to remind her that he was the one in control of the situation. She glared at him when he turned to smile cockily at her and he shook his head before returning his attention to the bluehaired man standing just before them.
"And if I already have?" Hidan grinned cockily, tilting his head so that he could look Kisame in the face.
"You lie." the other man's face darkened and Sakura flinched.
"Do not. Look." Hidan spun Sakura around roughly and yanked her shirt up so that Kisame coud see the faint white lines that made up Hidan's initials.
"That is so like you. When?" Kisame sighed, one hand massaging his temple, contemplating the consequences of the Jashinist's actions.
"After I showed her mother a way to escape the hardships of the world, of course."
Sakura gasped.
So, he had killed her mother as well.
Why?
Why did she need her parents taken away from her?
Why did she have to suffer through the humiliation Hidan had put her through?
Why?
Why?
Whywhywhywhywhywhywhy?
It was so unfair.
She'd loved her parents.
They hadn't done anything to harm her and had only thought about her wellbeing.
Was that so bad?
Someone was crying, and she opened her eyes to see who, but soon figured out that she was the one crying.
"Whoops. Sensitive subject?" the albino asked, smiling at her again. Kisame didn't look quite as amused, one eyebrow quirked as he watched Hidan mentally abuse the girl in his grasp. "Still wanna kill me? There's no point. It won't bring your parents back, you know." he leaned in closer, using one hand to force her to listen by pulling her head closer. "You have nothing. Noone. Is there any reason to hate me any more? You were unhappy as a noble anyway."
"That's not-"
"Don't lie to me. I hate liars." his teeth were at her ear, nibbling softly.
Eeeeewwwww! Get the hell away! I can't even stand it when a guy my own age does that!
She smacked him then looked at her hand in surprise. The reaction had been involuntary, a habit learned from being hit on by men way too old for her.
Kisame laughed at the dumbfounded expression on Hidan's face, where a red handshaped mark was beginning to show.
"She smacked me. She actually fucking smacked me."
"She's surprised too. Look at her face." Kisame chuckled, pointing at Sakura's still shocked face.
Sakura hastily tried to change her expression to one of anger, but she knew she hadn't done it quickly enough when Hidan laughed as well.
"So she is. Well. Let's just get us home now. I can't wait to reunite her and her little boyfriend." Hidan was sneering at her distraught expression, the one that had flitted onto her face at the mention of Sasuke.
They were using me! Shit! Sasuke'll hate me forever!
And I hurt him before I left.
Sasuke, I'm so sorry.
She found herself being lifted and slung over Hidan's shoulder and screeched with displeasure, pounding on his back with her fists.
"Give it a rest. I'm getting angry." Hidan said, voice dripping with barely disguised fury, probably because he hadn't gotten to hurt her again.
"Hey! Put her down!" the voice came from the roof above them and both Hidan and Sakura looked up in surprise. Kisame scoffed.
"And what's a gang of streetkids gonna do to us?" Hidan sneered. "We have your friend and won't hesitate to hurt her to get out of here."
Kiba! Lee! Don't!
Sakura opened her mouth to warn them but Hidan swung her off his shoulder and clamped a hand over her mouth, as if reading her thoughts.
"No warning them now. They started this fight, we'll finish it." he hissed in her ear, jerking his head at the two boys.
Kisame grinned, showing pointed teeth, and used the walls of the buildings surrounding them to reach the roof, leaping back and forth between them.
Kiba and Lee had no time to react before the large man grabbed both their heads and smacked them together with a sickeningly loud crack.
Sakura screamed, scratching and kicking at Hidan, who held her all the more tightly.
Kiba! Lee! Oh, no. Oh, no. God, please no! Don't let them be dead. Don't let them be dead! It's all my fault!
She continued to squirm, tears flooding her cheeks.
Kisame hopped lightly down, wiping his hands on his pants.
"You bastard!" she screamed at him, "You fucking bastard! I'll kill you! I'll kill you..." Sakura sobbed, curling up on herself, her hands clawing her sides.
"Aw, shit. Now look what you did, Kisame. Who's the one who was telling me not to hurt her?"
"Not my fault. Besides, I meant physically, not emotionally. She'll get over it." the blue man shrugged it off.
---
"No, we're not. Do you realize just how selfish you sound? You fucking rich bastard, you don't think about anyone but yourself. You don't have friends, how could you possibly know what I'm feeling?"
She must really hate me.
How could I have said that? I didn't have any idea what was going on, I just-
I assumed.
Sasuke pounded his fist into the concrete wall of the room he was being held in, and ignored the pain that shot through his knuckles and up his arm. He deserved to hurt. He'd hurt her. He'd been jealous. Selfish.
The boy with brown hair had taken him here then left him in the dark.
Sasuke hated the dark. It was annoying. You couldn't get anything done and it messed with your mind, making you imagine noises that put you on edge.
Which was why, after napping lightly, he thought he imagined the snuffling noises coming from the corner.
He ignored it until he heard a sob and the soft 'shshsh' sound of cloth rubbing on cloth.
"Who's there?" his voice was shaky. It unnerved him that there'd been someone in the cell with him and he hadn't noticed.
"Sa- Sasuke?"
Sakura? What's she doing in here?
Don't answer. Don't answer. If she knows it's you, she'll hate you.
"Sasuke, where are you?"
Fuck. Too late.
"I'm over here. Against the back wall." he told her, standing slowly, not quite sure where the ceiling was. His head didn't meet the ceiling so it was safe to stand upright at least. He knew one of the cells in the Uchiha compound was designed so that whatever wretch was thrown in there would have to stay bent over if they wished to stand, and if they were kept in there long enough, their back would remain permanently bent.
He heard her light shuffling footsteps and grabbed her before they collided.
"Sorry, I can't see." she spoke softly, her voice still slightly choked.
"It's fine, I can't see either."
They were being too polite to each other. Neither wanted to offend the other and be locked in the same room with them for an extended period of time.
She was shivering. He could feel the goosebumps forming on her arms, which he was still holding. He let go abruptly, startling her.
"Sasuke, are- are you okay?"
No, I'm not fucking okay! I acted like a heartless, jealous bastard back there! Why the hell are you being concerned for me? You should hate me!
"Hate me."
"What? Sasuke-"
"Hate me! I deserve it!" he roared, pushing her aside and going to the opposite side of the small space.
"Sasuke!" Sakura was getting fed up.
"Why don't you fucking hate me? Why? What I said before was unforgivable!"
"Sasuke, that fight before, it was both our faults." she was behind him, touching him gently, so gently he almost couldn't feel her skin on his.
"No, it wasn't. It was-"
She smacked him. Not hard, but just hard enough that he shut up.
"Now, you listen to me. I won't have you throwing a pity party while we're in here. I'm going to explain everything, and you're gonna listen, and then if you wanna have a pity party you can throw it yourself. Understood?" her voice was low, and told him immediately that there would be no arguing.
"Yes." he was being sullen, but he would listen.
"This whole thing starts three years ago. Do you get the importance of the number of years? Three years. The Uchiha were moving up, pushing the Haruno down ever further into debt."
"Why are the Haruno-" he began to ask, confused about the mention of that clan.
"Because I am a Haruno." Sakura growled. Sasuke couldn't tell why she was angry, there could have been several reasons.
Him interrupting.
Or the mention of her past as a rich noble.
But that wasn't what kept him silent.
She's a member of that clan, the one we broke. She must have been the- his eyes widened with shock as he realized just why she had known what he needed when he was breaking down.
"You were the Haruno heiress?" he breathed.
"Yes. Now let me continue. The Uchiha had been spying on my family. I knew it, but my parents, dense as they were, content with their wealth, never noticed. Not even when caravans began to disappear. They just figured it was bandits and that we'd been sending out goods at exactly the wrong times. They were stupid. There was one man in particular...
---
(flashback)
Sakura did a double take when she saw the white haired man slip in through the gardener's entrance to the yard.
Father didn't hire him... Maybe he's visiting? But why use that gate? And isn't that the man I saw in the market when I was with Mother?
She shrugged but went onto her balcony, the one she shared with her father's study. She saw him go into the door that led directly to the kitchens and frowned, her brow creasing.
Almost all the cooks are gone, maybe he wants to work cheaply as a cook.
That fit perfectly. She smiled, pleased that she had found the real reason for the man coming into their house.
There was a crash from downstairs and she sighed. It was probably their clutzy maid knocking over another vase. She decided to complain to her father about the maid and had the heavy French doors partially opened so that she could enter his study when she heard someone knock on his study door.
No fair. It's probably Mother complaining about the maid before I do.
Wait. Isn't Mother having tea with the Hyugas today?
She waited, knowing that if someone was in the study with her father and she interrupted, she'd get in trouble. But that didn't stop her from peeking through the crack she'd made between the doors.
It was the white haired man.
Why is he talking to Father? She blinked, and suddenly, Father's head was on the floor and the white haired man was wiping his katana clean on her father's shirt.
Some of the blood had spurted across the study and hit the doors, some slipping between the crack to hit her in the face.
She brought her hand up to her face, not sure what had just happened, and stared blankly at the red liquid smeared across her fingertips.
Go. I have to go. That man is dangerous! Run! her legs felt like lead, but she moved, barely managing to make it back to her own room and shut her balcony doors.
She was breathing heavily, as if she'd just run a mile, and she dove under her bed just as her door opened. Whoever it was walked a few steps into the room turned and left, shutting the door behind them.
She began to cry, her tears sliding through the now smeared blood on her face and turning pink.
Father was dead.
He could never come back.
(end flashback)
---
"I saw the whitehaired man just once after that, a month or so later. By then I had learned his name and was pickpocketing a little. It was still clumsy, though. I kept getting caught and having to run." Sakura took a deep breath. "He caught me, coming home late and he did an awful thing to me, Sasuke. Then, when he was finished, he carved his initials into me, like I was livestock. I only just found out that he had made my mother hang herself. I passed out after I saw her hanging from the rafters."
"Sakura-" Sasuke began, but he stopped himself. He didn't know what it felt like to lose parents, how could he comfort her?
"I met Naruto and the rest of the gang not long after. Naruto taught me how to be a better pickpocket and how to distract the men so that we could rob them or their stalls." Sakura laughed. "It was fun. I was doing that for nearly three years before I landed on you. I felt- close to you. But at first, I wanted to use you to get to Hidan. I will admit. It was wrong of me."
There were footsteps approaching the cell, and the two of them squinted in the yellow light of the lantern that preceded Hidan's entrance into the cell.
"What do you want, bastard?"
"I'm here to pick up Sasuke, don't worry. But later, you will join me for dinner." Hidan replied, hand held out to Sasuke.
"No way. You poison food." Sakura spat.
"Aw, come on. It was an accident! Your little boyfriend over there was supposed to get poisoned, not you." Hidan whined.
"Fucker! That's why she was late!" Sasuke was trembling with rage.
"Oh, you think that's bad? Wait til you see who's behind this whole plot." Hidan smiled knowingly.
"Sasuke, it's your-"
"Now, now, Sakura, don't spoil the surprise." Hidan slapped a hand over Sakura's mouth and motioned for Sasuke to leave the cell. "Sasuke will find out when they meet. It'll be a pleasant reunion, I think."
Sakura glared daggers at him as he shut the door once more, leaving her alone in the heavy darkness of the cell.
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A/N: You thought I was gonna spill, didn't you? Nuh-uh. Not until next chap. This is a long chap so it should make up for the wait. Anyway, R&R!!