Sakura woke up the next morning feeling just as tired as she did when she fell asleep. She just laid there without opening her eyes, hoping she would just fall back asleep peacefully this time. She kept having nightmares about Sasori, about what things might be happening to him. Small tears fell from her eyes at the thought of her brother being harmed for someone else's problem.
A hand wiped her tear away and she opened her eyes to see Sasuke looking at her with concern on his face. "Please don't cry" She asked her softly. She didn't say anything nor did she move. She just laid there for another thirty seconds before slowly getting up.
"You were restless all night. And cried quite a bit. I take it you had a very bad nightmare." He said to her. She didn't vocally respond, she just nodded looking down at the blankets. "Want to talk about it?" He asked her. She shook her head.
"Okay then, if you decide you want to talk about it, then come to me and I'll listen." He stated gently kissing her forehead. "I made breakfast…. Well, technically I had help since I burned it the first time. But Tada!" He spoke excitedly hoping to cheer her up with food. "Pancakes, eggs, bacon, sausage, hash browns, more bacon, orange juice, milk, muffins…. bacon."
She giggled. She didn't think Sasuke liked bacon that much. "Thank you. This must've taken you a lot of time to make." She said to him as she reached for a piece of bacon. As she was about to bite the piece Sasuke snatched it from her and ate it himself.
"What?" She asked him surprised that he would steal the food he made for her. Not just the food he made for her, but the piece she was about to eat. There was plenty of bacon on the plate for him to take, why the piece she was about to eat? She narrowed her eyes at him playfully and he did the same.
"You ever hear the phrase 'All is fair in love and war'? Well, this is food we are dealing with, and that means war!" He declared before he snatched the next piece she picked up. She looked at him with wide eyes and then glared at him with a playful smile. "So be it!" She said and snatched the full plate of bacon and ran out the door.
"Wha- Hey!" He yelled and ran after her. She laughed and ran even faster after glancing over her shoulder seeing him catch up to her quickly. Just as he was about to catch her, she suddenly turned the corner of one of the hallway corridors and began to run even faster. All the while laughing, she made it to the open doors leading to the outside of the back of the mansion.
She sidestepped Naruto as he was coming in, still laughing. "Whoa! What the-" He glanced behind him to see Sakura running, then continued to walk inside, but this time someone ran into him hard.
"Oomph!" Sasuke slammed into Naruto and fell back. Without saying anything he quickly got up to run after Sakura.
"Ow dammit!" He yelled. "What the hell! Slow down!" He said at the person who rammed into him, but when he didn't hear a response he looked up and saw no one there. He got up and quickly looked outside to see if could spot the maniac who did a hit and run on him.
He groaned when he spotted Sasuke and then smiled noticing that he was chasing after Sakura who was 223
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unning toward the pool house.
Sasuke knew he would probably1
have a bruise later but he didn't care, he didn't know Sakura was so fast. He was just happy to keep her
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happy even just for a little bit.
When he finally reached her they were right by the pool. He caught her by her arm and tried to spin her around, but he slipped and landed in the pool.
He broke the surface and took a huge breath of air. Then he turned his head to Sakura who was laughing at him even harder. She had put the plate of bacon down on the lounge chair just so she could hold her stomach while she doubled over with laughter. He had a look of un-amusement on his face because he was still in the pool…with his belongings in his pocket. Oh well, He needed a new phone anyways. He swam to the edge and held out his hand.
"Truce?" He called over to her
After a few seconds of calming herself down she walked over to him eyeing his hand wearily.
"You aren't going to push me in right?" She asked, and he smiled widely.
"I Swear I won't push you in" He told her still smiling
"Okay then, truce" She grabbed his hand and he quickly pulled her in.
"Ahhh!" She screamed. She swam to the edge and glared daggers at Sasuke who was laughing at her
"You promised" She stated
"I promised I wouldn't push you in, what just happened was me pulling you in. Big difference.: He told her and laughed again. 3
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e splashed water in his face.
"For that you forfeit all your side of the bacon." She told him and tried to get out of the pull to get the plate before he could. Unfortunately, Sasuke was faster than her this time and succeeded in getting the plate before she could.
"Mine!" He shouted and ran back towards the mansion.
"Fine! Keep it!" She yelled out chucking. She got really tired from running and laughing.
She laid on her back with her legs dangling in the huge pool. Sasuke stood over her holding the plate in one hand and holding a piece of bacon in the other while taking a bite out of it, all the while he was just looking at her laying there.
"Want to go swimming?" He asked.
"Sure, we are out here anyways. I need a bathing suit though" She answered him trying to sitting up.
He nodded and headed towards the pool house. He came back with a red and black bikini and held it out to her.
She raised an eyebrow at him questioningly.
"What? Ino got that for you, and a few other ones, but I'm sure you'd prefer this one." He said pointing at the black and red material on the hanger.
"Oh yeah we'll see about that, show me the rest" She demanded walking towards the pool house He walked a step ahead of her and lead her to the room with all the pool toys and the rack holding an assortment of men's and women's swim wear.
"Holy shit! You weren't kidding" She mumbled
He chuckled and nudged her arm before grabbing a pair of swim trunks to change into. "I'll be in the other room changing. Come out when you are ready… or you can just swim in your birthday suit." He smirked at her. "No" She deadpanned and threw a pool noodle at him. He left the room and closed the door behind him.
After quickly changing into her bikini Sasuke had chosen, she looked around at the rest slowly going through them. She saw a white bikini with cherry blossoms on it. it looked really pretty, it showed a bit more than the one she was wearing, but decided to change into those ones instead, normally she would prefer a pair of swim trunk and a dark tank top, but since they stole all clothes that made her look like a boy she had no choice to wear all the…. girly clothes.
She shrugged and grabbed the bikini to quickly put it on. After changing she looked at the tall mirror that was hanging on the door. She turned slightly to see if it looked decent on her and to make sure nothing showed more than it should. She jumped a few times to make sure nothing fell out of the small material. Everything seemed perfect and she smiled.
Knock Knock
"Are you ready Sakura? You've been in there for a long time." Sasuke asked through the door.
"I'm fine, I will be out right now, Just a sec." She said, then hurried to pick up her clothes on the floor and put them on the small basket in the corner by the door.
She opened the door and saw Sasuke right there leaning against the wall wearing a pair of dark blue swim trunks.
"I'm ready now." She said and walked towards him
"Finally!" He retorted. He stood up straight and looked at her and quickly turned around
"Are you ok?" She asked. Did it look bad on her?
"What happened to the first one? The one that I chose for you?" He asked still facing away from her.
"I saw this one and thought it looked cute… Ah, it looks weird huh?" She looked down "I'll go change" She said and as she was about to turn away to go back into the room Sasuke grabbed her hand.
"You don't have to, I just didn't think you'd choose a different bikini. It looks perfect on you." He said his face turning pink. She smiled, but didn't tease him about it.
"Let's go swimming" She said and grabbed his hand dragging him back outside. For the next few hours they were swimming, after the first 15 minutes of them getting in the pool Naruto saw them and invited everyone in the house to have a pool party. So, by now there was Music playing and Everyone was having fun.
Itachi got out of the pool because one of the butlers told him he had a phone call. He was gone for about 5 minutes before he came back with a hardened look on his face.
He walked right up to Sakura "We need to talk, come inside for a minute"
She looked over to where Sasuke was. He was about to jump off the high dive. He looked at her to see if she was watching and he did a double front flip into the pool as soon as he saw he had her attention. He swam back over to the surface smiling at where Sakura was sitting, but his smile disappeared because he saw Sakura walking towards the house with Itachi.
His brows furrowed… Then his eyes got wide. He quickly swam to the edge of the pool and got out. He quickly grabbed a towel and ran to where Sakura and his brother were.
"What happened?" She heard her ask his brother.
"I got a call just now." He said and looked over at Sasuke who just entered through the door.
"Who was it?" Sasuke asked before Sakura could.
"It was one of the men who kidnapped Sasori." He said bluntly
"What did he say?" Sakura asked fearing the worst.
"They said they will give you three days to decide whether you want your brother back alive" He stated
"And what's the catch? I seriously doubt that they will give him back to her out of the goodness of their black hole of a heart?" Sasuke demanded.
Itachi looked away and crossed his arms. Sakura took a deep breath before speaking again
"What is it?" She asked.
They are giving you three days to decide…if you want your brother back alive then…" He stopped and took a deep breath and continued to explain "Then you would have to take his place." He finished.
Sasuke was horror struck and Itachi was glaring at the wall beside him, he looked at Sakura who was just looking down at the floor.
"So, he is still alive?" She asked him
"For now, yes. They put him on the phone briefly to prove that he was still alive, but... I'm going to be honest Sakura, he didn't sound like he was doing too good."
Sakura looked away for a brief moment, then looked back Itachi.
"Fine, I'll trade places with him" She spoke with a determined voice
For the first time ever, Sasuke did something he never did even once in his life. He smacked a girl upside her head. Not hard, but enough to know that he thought that he didn't agree with her.
"Ow! What the hell you violent over grown albino twat monkey?" She cursed at him, rubbing the right side of her head.
Twat monkey? Itachi mouthed lifting an eyebrow at her choice of insults towards his little brother.
"I did that so maybe some sense can come back into that small brain that's hiding behind that huge forehead of yours!" He growled at her
"Thanks, I'm sure you smacked my IQ down to your level now" She responded turning back towards Itachi "I just want Sasori to be safe" She told them both.
"You do realize what will happen once you are with them right?" Sasuke shouted at her
"I'm sure I would be beaten within an inch of my life, forced to sell drugs… something along those lines right?" She asked worriedly.
Sasuke once again smacked her upside her head, but this time he didn't smack her as hard as he did the first time. Though the first time wasn't even hard to begin with.
"Ow! Stop hitting me you-"
"Yeah, I get it overgrown albino twat monkey. You need to understand something Sakura, what those men have in mind for you is different. You are a female Sakura, and I am pretty sure that they want you bad enough to threaten your brother's life to get you. If they do, they will probably end up raping you or selling you off." Sasuke explained to her.
She looked down again. She didn't consider the rape or being sold off. She just wanted her brother to be alive and out of harm's way
She looked up at Sasuke with tear filled eyes "I just want him safe." She let her tears fall and Sasuke grabbed her and pulled her into a hug. He looked over at his brother briefly before shutting his eyes and holding her closer to him.
After a few minutes she removed herself from Sasuke's embrace and faced Itachi once again who was very interested in his shoes.
"What can we do? There has to be something we can do to save Sasori right?" She asked
"Nothing without putting you in danger, which my brother and I agree not to do. I'll think of something Sakura, we have three days." Itachi explained
"But they could be hurting him Itachi! We need to do something! Anything!" She cried.
"We'll do everything we can Sakura" Sasuke reassured her.
"We need to do something now… I have an Idea" She stated looking at Sasuke.
"As long as you won't be in any danger." Itachi responded
"Well,… a little bit, but-"
"My answer is no" Itachi interrupted her before she could explain her plan.
"But you didn't even hear what I had to say!" She yelled
"It doesn't matter, I won't go with anything that will put you in any danger. Sasori would never forgive me if I put you in harm's way. And I'm sure he would rather let himself get hurt rather than let them take you, but I do promise you Sakura, that I will get him No Matter What." Itachi told her hoping she would just have faith in him to bring her brother home. Sasori and Itachi are good friends and so was Deidara before he was killed.
"Just hear me out please?" She pleaded
He sighed. This girl was just too stubborn. "Fine, there is no harm in listening."
"Are you serious?" Sasuke asked sounded annoyed that his brother even considered listening to an idea that could hurt Sakura.
"She is just going to explain her plan, and there is no harm in that. I'm just listening. It doesn't mean that I am going to go through with whatever she says. So just calm down. I don't want to deal with two stubborn teenagers." Itachi explained, calming Sasuke down
"Fine" He responded. "What's your great idea?"
"How about we pretend that we are going to trade Sasori for me. We will pick the place and just have back up waiting nearby surrounding our meet up spot so we can safely get my brother away from them and there will be no way in hell they could get me either. Plus, they will be caught and thrown in jail. It's a win all around!"
There was silence. She looked at Itachi with a hopeful look in her eyes silently wishing that he would say yes to her plan. Sasuke on the other hand still didn't want to risk Sakura's safety. Itachi was contemplating her Idea. It was a very good one and he had to admit, if he could get enough of his "Hired help" to get involved in this plan then it could work. They just needed the right place and enough people.
He knew that they most likely wouldn't let him choose the place where they can make their trade for Sakura, so he had a lot to work out if this was the best choice. He would come up with other plans, but it would do good to have an extra in mind. Just in case.
"You're not serious?" Sasuke asked his brother seeing the contemplating look in his eyes.
"I'll think about it" Was all he said before leaving the room.
Sakura breathed in a sigh of relief before she turned to a very angry Sasuke.
"What?" She asked when he just stood there in front of her glaring daggers at her.
"Your stupid plan! What if this all goes wrong? Itachi is a good strategist, if he comes up with a plan it'll be the best one that makes sure everyone is safe without as much danger as your plan is putting. Do you realize all the things that could happen if this fails? You could get killed, kidnapped! Hell, your brother could get killed if they think that they are getting screwed over! Do you even care how everyone will feel if one of you get killed? You know what? Never mind. We'll talk about this later. I need to go talk with my brother." He ranted and stormed off towards the direction that Itachi just left to.
Sakura stepped outside for a brief moment before deciding to just go back to her room. Her mood just ruined by the threat/ransom of her brother and the yelling from Sasuke. Once in her room she just sat there on the edge of her bed with the door locked and a dresser sitting in front of it. She wanted to make sure that no one could bother her. She just sat there silently crying.
About an hour after being in her room by herself she heard knocking at the door
"Sakura? Open the door please I know you are in there." She recognized the voice immediately. Sasuke must be done talking to his brother. She didn't answer him back. She just wanted to be alone for the rest of the day and the whole night with her thoughts. Was this a really good idea? Is there a different way? She thought to herself
"Sakura, please let me in" Sasuke pleaded
She still didn't answer
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to yell at you. I just… don't want anything to happen to you." He sounded worried, but she still didn't reply. "I know that there is a better way, a way where everyone comes out okay and yours and your brother's safety are guaranteed. So please… let me in"
She wanted to respond to him, but she felt that she needed to be alone. She heard him sigh through the door "Please?" He asked softly. She heard him sigh through the door. "Fine, I'll leave you be for right now. I'll be back later with something to eat"
She heard his footsteps walk away and she sighed. She covered her face with her hands and took a deep breath.
She walked to her window and saw on the other side of the grounds where the pool was. Everyone was starting to get out now. The music no longer playing and only half as many people as there was when she first left the pool. She saw Sasuke walking over to where everyone was drying off.
What is he doing? She thought
He stopped in front of Ino and Hinata. Must be telling them everything that happened. She sighed again and went to take a shower. A nice hot shower.
After she got out she quickly put a pair of pajamas on. Some nice white and navy blue flannel pajama short and a matching spaghetti strap pajama shirt. It was still too early to call it a night, but she really didn't want any company.
Knock knock knock…
No answer.
Again, Knock knock knock…
And again, No answer.
Bang Bang Bang!
Damn it, can't she just be alone? She groaned
"Open the door forehead or I'll break it down!" Ino threatened
She didn't respond. The same way she responded to Sasuke. She wasn't worried about the door. It was barricaded.
BANG BANG BANG!
"Open the door! I just want to talk forehead! Don't avoid me!" Ino yelled through the door.
"Ino, please, calm down. She is probably just sleeping" She heard Hinata talking to Ino.
Ino snorted "Yeah right, I seriously doubt she is sleeping! Especially with me pounding on the door." She heard Ino respond.
Sakura sighed and searched for her headphones. She didn't want to be bothered anymore.
"Open the door Sakura! I just want to tell you something!" Ino tried to persuade.
Still, Sakura didn't respond, she just continued to look for her headphones.
"We can do this the easy way or the hard way!" She threatened.
"She still not coming out?" She heard Sasuke ask.
"No, that idiot is too stubborn." Ino retorted
She heard Sasuke sigh.
Knock knock knock
"Sakura, I brought food for you." Sasuke told her. No answer. "And Itachi wanted you to go to his office, he said that he wanted to talk to you about your idea." Her ears perked up at that
"You're lying" She finally responded
"Holy shit! She's alive!" Ino yelled out
"I'm not. Itachi wanted to talk to you about it. He just changed a few things to your idea, but he wanted you to know about it too since it involves you." He explained.
With a sigh she started to move the big dresser. The sound of it being heard on the other side of the door.
"Did this wench really barricade herself in there? For real?" Ino asked sounding annoyed.
She unlocked the door and saw all three of them rush into her room, Sasuke rolling a small food cart into her room.
"What are you doing? We need to go to Itachi, remember?" Sakura asked now annoyed
"I lied" Was all he said before tending to the food cart.
"I knew it…" She said quietly and tried to run into her bathroom.
"Oh no you don't!" Ino said as she grabbed Sakura's arm.
"I just want to be alone! Okay? By myself. I thought that was pretty obvious but you guys seem to be too dense to understand that!" Sakura yelled.
"You're acting really childish! Grow up Sakura! If there are people in your life here that sincerely want to help you, then let them. Its too sad that you're too dense to understand that!" Ino yelled. She huffed and started to storm out of the room. Before she left she turned to speak one more time. "It's sad that you have two brothers, and even though one isn't here right now, you've completely ignored the other. Childish and selfish!"
Hinata didn't say anything, she just walked right out of the room. She didn't want to hurt Sakura's feeling, but her own were hurt and she needed to calm Ino down.
"Feel better?" Sasuke asked after a few minutes of silence.
"Do I look like I feel better?" She asked sarcastically
He sighed "They were only here to help you. It's okay to lean on someone once in a while, it's okay to ask for help. So please Just let us. Talk to us. Depend on us to help you." He told her
"Fine, I'm sorry I didn't mean to yell. I'll find Ino and Hinata later and apologize to them too. I just, needed to think." She explained
"You've been in here for hours, I think you had enough time to think. Lets Just eat relax and watch a ,ovie to get our minds off of everything okay?" He asked
"Alright. Lets watch an action movie, or a scary movie." She suggested
"Alright, a scary movie it is." He agreed
So for the rest of the night they watched movies until they both fell asleep.