Reviewers;

St3rfire: White and Black eh? So then I suppose you have a hard time loving or hating pandas and zebras? (hehe) The last part of your review I had initially planned, but that has changed into what I feel is a phychological breakdown.

7th Demon of Razgriz: You can wonder all you want, but not anymore since this next chapter is now out.

Czar Joseph: She is realizing that once again, magic can only help someone so far. You need people around you to support you. But maybe Sakura can find an answer in a final realization? The story is not over until I describe how a witch dies of course, so stay with me for a little bit longer.

Duh Bomb: You make my story sound so melancholy, it's sad! I didn't know I could write this sad until I was done with it really. With your profile picture, I did envision that your favorite color Would be Blue.

AN: So Sakura's heart is proven to be too soft for that of a witch. She can use her knowledge of strategy, defense, and swordsmanship to stop and win swordfights, but until she reaches into the darker side of herself, she will not be able to harm others. It is said that killing another person is the hardest thing to do for people, and I believe that. Some are just not cut out for those kind of things, and Sakura seems to be one of them.

Fire & Ice

Arc 1: Conceal It

Chapter 18: The Final Choice to Choose

Sakura struggled against the bonds that held her in place that were in the hands of Sasuke's elite guards, knights that pledged to him and not his brother. They were not like Itachi's knights at all, who smiled warmly at her and other young girls and women, but were as sick as Sasuke himself.

Sakura was pushed behind Sasuke as he walked out of the throne room, Sakura being forced to walk forward to her death. She had supposed that it would be slow and humiliating, but somewhere in the back of her mind, she had hoped that it would be a quick death. It was obvious that she was wrong.

Sakura made it outside into the vast hallways of her castle and squeaked when some men in arms began to casually grope her body, waist, and breasts as she passed them, and held her head high, keeping her tears in check. She would die with honor, but these men; she soo wanted to kill them.

But still, every man she passed groped her in some way, the knights not stopping them at all and Sakura squeaked repeatedly and thought back to her last time with Naruto. She had had the chance to have Naruto take her then in that last time he was with her.

He could have laid with her before he left, and then she wouldn't be squeaking and moaning now, because her body would at least have known what this was like. But No! She was a crying mess and Naruto and she had just sat there like a blissful couple. Oh how Sakura wished she could go back to that day and take it all back. But her power had no control over time. Why couldn't she have that instead of being stuck in the past as her present body would not live to see the future?

Sakura's eyes looked around the castle, happy that all of her magic she had placed on them had made sure that the castle was relatively protected besides the doors. This was how it would stay forever, trapped in the ice for generations. When Sakura had let her magic be absorbed onto this castle, she had made sure that when she breathed no more, her magic would stay and seal the doors once more, and only Ino, would be able to break the magic by touching it. When she did, the gold fire inside her magic would thaw the ice and all would be as it once was, but if Sasuke was going to burn the city to the ground, then she didn't want anyone to have anything of her ancestors as a tiny and minuscule request.

Sakura's eyes shimmered as they passed by the lowest archway and appeared in the main courtyard before Sakura gulped as many men and soldiers were grinning madly at her, and cheering for her death. Did they really hate her so? Sakura looked down at her smooth feminine hands, which had now been chained together in front of her with freshly made metal links of bondage.

She had lived her life trying to be selfless, and the only thing she had wanted was her love to be returned. Her parents returned it and now they were gone. Ino loved her like a sister, but now she was gone. And Naruto…Sakura let a small stream of tears fall as they passed the gates to the bridge that led into the main city.

How would Naruto feel when he heard the news? W-would he…kill himself? Go mad from sadness like she had? Would he be angry with her? Sakura deserved only his wrath from pushing him away. It was now almost two years since she had seen him and he her. If he didn't love her anymore, well…it hurt her heart to think of that.

Sakura may not know how Naruto felt, but she knew her heart was frozen in place. She would always love Naruto. And a true love lasted over eternity, and Sakura had to let Naruto move on, love another, have a family; things like these could not happen as long as she was still alive and with Sakura pulling Naruto away from those who could make him happy. She had to let him go, for his sake, just as she had done with everything in her life.

Sakura looked up and saw the sun at its zenith in the sky, shining proudly, and saw the moon, as clear as the sun next to it today. That's right; there was a special event today. The blue solar eclipse, something that happened once every hundred years or so. Maybe instead of going to hell, on this day God would allow her to be reincarnated back on this earth and she swore in her mind that if she ever lived again, she would be as selfish as she could, taking anything she desired.

She would do everything for herself, and no one else. She would lie down with man after man who pleased her and she would not please them, for they would be there for simply her pleasure. Sakura smiled at that thought. She was dying, and she was already planning her afterlife? Ha! She was going to burn for eternity as all witches did in the pits of hell.

Sakura's eyes focused on only the steps in front of her, and her squeaks stopped all together. Men still groped her, but they did nothing compared to what she knew that Naruto could do to her. They were nothing to her, and so they did not matter at all. Finally, after a while of being pushed and prodded forward, Sakura stumbled into the main town square which could hold her entire city's population within it, and checked her surroundings.

Sakura cast her eyes around the square, seeing all the eyes upon her and smiled darkly. Sakura felt a small wind blow around this giant square and something caught her eye, for in the center was a platform made of wood, hastily constructed, probably as Sasuke tore through the streets. Two long cubes of wood were formed together in an upside down L, and on the edge with a thick cord of rope, as thick as two or three fingers in width, swaying lightly in that slight wind, with a small circle tied off at the end.

Sakura gasped slowly, her eyes widening, and her feet stopped in place as she looked at Sasuke as he smiled even darker than the men around him. "A noose?...Y-you're going to…h-hang me?" Sakura trembled in disgust.

"You are a witch, Sakura. You do not get an honorable royal's death. While I burn your city into ash, I will allow your people to come back to mourn over your hanging body, and they will know just how wicked you really were."

A shove from behind hit her shoulder and Sakura continued forward until she was standing in the center of the grounds, right on the very stones of the street that lay in front of the platform. Sakura saw the lever elevated on the wooden ground as well as the executioner next to it and gulped. This was her funeral, surrounded by the truth of what she was, something that was to not be of this world. Sakura hung her head as she readied herself to be taken up to the platform, and soon that push came and Sakura walked up the wooden steps and stood before the rope that stopped at her chin only a foot before her at her eyes height.

"Wait!" Sasuke called before pulling Sakura's chained hands forward and Sakura stepped over the trap door, expecting it to open, but it didn't and soon, Sakura stood before the rope and Sasuke made a gesture and soon screams and pleas sounded near the back of the square.

"I want you to bow to me, Sakura."

"I would never-" Sakura began to shout when Sasuke smiled and laughed.

"Oh I know you would never willingly do it on your own, but I will not force you to do so. You are going to die either way, but I will give you a choice. Surrender yourself, or let your people suffer." Sasuke smirked as sobbing echoed, and Sakura gasped for air as the crowd parted and fifty men and women and children were pushed into the area before the platform and were forced to their knees, and as many swordsman moved from the crowd to stand behind each of them, their swords drawn as each held their prisoner's hair in their other glove.

The captured prisoners sobbed and cried and tried to remain strong among the situation, but their heads were pushed forward, and Sakura knew that at Sasuke's command, their throats would be cut, and they would bleed out to death, choking on their own blood for air.

"W-What is the meaning of this? Where did they-" Sakura asked before realizing the situation. "You attacked a neutral ship?!"

"It was far from neutral, Sakura. It had Haruno soldiers guarding it and they died a nice quick death, but these civilians won't. Bow Sakura, as they bow to you, and beg for mercy. And if I am pleased, they may go free."

"How do I know you won't kill them anyways?"

"You don't." Sasuke smiled and Sakura turned her head to look at the faces. They all looked so familiar. The couple who she had helped with their farm a few months ago, the fisherman's teenage daughter and mother who had been rescued from pirates, the cellar night guard who always stole a little food, but was told to just take it as a bonus by Sakura herself. All of these people she had saved and now, they were to die with her?

Sakura hung her head in shame, and turned to Sasuke. He knew that she loved her people more than her own pride. Sakura's knees began to bend.

"Don't do it, Lady Haruno!"

"Let us die with you!"

Sakura widened her eyes and stared at the ones who called out, and shook her head in shame. "I'm sorry, but I can't let that happen." And Slowly, Sakura's knees lowered her entire body to the ground, and her knees hit the wooden platform before Sakura bent her nose down to just above the wood and laid her hands flat against the raised floor.

"Please…M-my L-L-Lord," Sakura spoke, hating this humiliation. To bow in respect was a great honor, but to do it in this way was the ultimate humiliation. "P-please. Spare their lives. I…"

"Say it." Sasuke smiled.

"I beg you….I beg you."

"Hmm." Sasuke voiced and he walked to Sakura's side, facing the crowd. Sakura closed her eyes, hearing his footsteps.

(WHACK)

Sakura gasped as her air left her lungs as Sasuke's metal foot came in contact with her stomach and Sakura felt a rib break. Sakura breathed in a controlled fashion, coughing as she did so, but Sasuke would have no satisfaction. Sasuke kicked again and Sakura's hip bruised as she was pushed out of her position by the force of the kick and rolled over the side of the platform, her breath leaving her again as she hit the stone floor.

Sasuke jumped down to stand in front of her, and walked around her before stepping on her leg and holding it straight as he raised his metallic gloves. "I want to hear you scream, MY LADY!" Sasuke mocked before bringing down his hand and Sakura grit her teeth as her right leg broke once….twice…three times!

Sasuke grunted and stood up and signaled to his men and they took off the civilians' bindings and let them go. "My Lady!" Some yelled and tried to move forward, only to be hit in the back and pushed towards their ship in the harbor.

Sasuke took out his knife and had his men take her arms and raised her in his eye's level as they held her against the beam holding up the platform while he randomly cut into her royal gown, and Sakura's glazed eyes looked up at the sky as the beautiful moon, began to cover up the sun. But Sasuke slid his knife back in his belt and smiled as over a dozen cuts in the gown left little to hide besides the most intimate of parts of the young Queen.

"Admit that I'm better than you." Sasuke smiled, and his eyes twinkled as Sakura continued to watch the moon's slow ascent. But a smile graced her face.

"You are lower than the lowest thief, Sasuke. You are forever worthless to me."

"You can barely stand, Witch." Sasuke smiled as Sakura's feet shook as she stood on her bruised left foot as her right was broken in four places, as her right arm held her stomach as blood slipped out of her lips as the internal bleeding did its work.

"And I stand in your way with my very life."

"Then let's get this over with." Sasuke smiled and jumped back onto the platform, but before Sakura could turn around, Sasuke had grabbed her left hand and held it directly behind her against the floor of the platform as Sakura whimpered and fell lower as if the movement of her hand forced her to do so.

"You love using your magic to hurt others."

"N-no."

"Yes, you do. So now, it is time to hurt your magic."

"P-Please! D-Don-" Sakura began to plead before a crunch sounded and Sakura's elbow popped out of place, soon followed by that of her shoulder, and the final snapping of her wrist forced all the pain of her body to surface and Sakura cried in full force from this excruciating pain that could only grow worse as Sasuke pulled her up by that very broken arm.

Sakura cried on her right side, holding her left arm in her right and let her body slump down against the wood. But Sasuke grabbed her hair from the back and lifted her back up, and Sakura wobbled from the pain, her eyesight dizzy and fuzzy. She breathed quickly and suddenly her arms were unchained and Sakura experienced more pain as they were pulled behind her and rechained that way.

A chant began to sing all over the square. "Kill the witch….Kill the Witch…. KILL THE WITCH!"

They repeated it over and over as if a festival was about to begin, and suddenly Sasuke was in front of her, holding his knife once again, and looked pensive for a second before smiling. Sakura gasped as Sasuke brought her head down to his knee as it rammed into her head and blood dripped down the side of her face.

Sasuke grabbed the loop of rope and draped it over Sakura's head and as the rope peeled a part of her skin, Sakura shivered as tears fell as Sasuke tightened it around her neck. Sakura's eyes widened again at the sound of ripped cloth echoed in her ringing ears. And then she felt it, the cold metal at the side of her stomach, punching a long line of death straight into her left lung as it collapsed around the blade.

Sakura's breathing began to go in rapid fashion as Sasuke retracted his knife. He smiled as he, a royal but still a male, groped her body, starting with her cheeks and brought his hand to rest on her hip. "You know, after you're gone, I'm going to blow that ship out of the water."

Sakura's couldn't speak as blood filled her throat and Sasuke smiled. "They won't make it out of the harbor. But maybe if you satisfy me further," Sasuke spoke as his hand moved lower to a ripped gap in her gown, and Sakura's body shivered as it began to shut down, "if you do that, maybe they can get away. Shall we test that theory?"

Sakura closed her eyes, waiting for this last horror, but it did not come. Instead a scream was heard that was more feminine than most girls.

"AWWWWWW!" Sasuke screamed and fell backwards, as his sword arm, the arm moving towards the Queen spewed red blood as teeth as razor sharp as an eagle's talons and as white as ivory sunk deep into it, breaking the armor on the arm in the process.

Sasuke tried to attack the muzzle gripping his arm but the muzzle had a swipe of the paw and Sasuke flew off the platform, the front of his armor cut halfway through as Tanya appeared in front of her master.

"T-Tan-" Sakura tried to speak, but the blood forced her to cough it up and some landed on Tanya's tail, and Tanya whimpered to her master. 'I told her to hide.' Sakura thought as Tanya growled at the soldiers who surrounded her, but she forced them back. 'Please Tanya, run away. I couldn't stand it if you-'

A rope found its way around Tanya's left paw and the men pulled and Tanya fell off the platform, dragged to the ground as two soldiers put their weight on the strong wolf as others tied her feet together. Sasuke pushed himself up after all of this and drew his sword with his left hand and smiled crazily as Sakura shook her head rapidly to stop him.

'NO…NO…NO…NO-'

Sasuke placed his sword above Tanya's back and plunged the metal deep into the fur. And a few seconds later, the executioner pulled on the lever, and a body dropped below the platform.

AN: ...Question: Do you believe in Heaven? Hell? and where do you think you are going?