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Covenant
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Synopsis: Everyone is dead or hunted. The Allies lost. The war is over.
Treacherous seal marring her neck as a collar, Madara parades her like a victory trophy.
And though he gave her to his patriarch—betrayed her in the worst of ways—
Here, in The End, Sasuke Uchiha is all Sakura has left.
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2:2. Friends
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SHE WOULDN'T give them the satisfaction of seeing it affect her. She wasn't whole, but she wasn't yet so ruined that she couldn't at least do this much.
Madara had to be lying. He had to be. If he wasn't, and he truly held a Yamanaka captive, it surely wasn't anyone she was close with. It couldn't be.
The only Yamanaka she held dear was—
And she'd been—
Feeling her mind slipping away, Sakura clenched her jaw and wrangled it back with brute force. Madara was intentionally vague to trick her into thinking the worst. That was that. That's all it was.
She'd seen Ibiki employ the same strategy during interrogations in the first half of the war.
So she didn't take the bait. She didn't ask Madara what he meant, and she kept her thoughts caged in a safe, quiet place.
And when Suigetsu pulled her out of the room minutes later, she let him. Following his heel, blindly stumbling, she kept the cage locked until they were in the hallway, where she collapsed against the wall with a shaky breath. Head still swimming from Madara's knuckles. She was sure a welt had already formed.
Her lower body was a mess of breaks and fractures. There wasn't any way she'd make it walking more than a corridor before the pain would knock her out. Not only had she not been healed from the final battle, but her pathways remained shut from the Black Receivers. Even if she had access to more chakra, she wasn't sure how long it'd take her to mend the channels after a month of being sealed.
Every fiber of her being felt unnaturally rigid—ready to snap at the slightest provocation, under a single more pound; a limb about to fall, and crush, and break.
To his credit, Suigetsu didn't yank her forward.
"What is it?" he asked, sounding bored as he backtracked to her side. The passageway was cut small and lit with a single firelight before veering away into the earth, painting his pale skin a ghoul in the dark.
"I—" She hesitated—was it better to lie or tell the truth? And then, defeated, she crumpled further into the wall, realizing it didn't matter either way. What more could he possibly do to her? "I can't keep walking."
His sudden step and reach forward made her flinch back.
"Don't touch me..." She'd meant for the warning to hold more gravity than the trembling gust it was.
With a raised brow, Suigetsu turned his outstretched hands palm-up in a show of trust. "So you can't walk, but I can't touch you. What's the plan on getting back to the cell, then?"
Sakura stared at his hands, the barren walls closing in around them, and felt the tears tighten her throat and burn her eyes.
She'd mostly held it together during the meeting. She'd managed to not completely fall apart. Seeing Madara, however—whole and healthy on his plush, fabric throne, was the final nail in her coffin.
Her memory of that open field of chained Allies was painfully clear. She'd known he won. She was aware the war was over the moment she broke the treeline.
But knowing something happened and witnessing its born fruits were entirely different things.
A slaughtered army was familiar. She'd seen scores of battlefields, hundreds of skirmishes and ambushes. Thousands upon thousands of dead people. Death and loss she could understand; a calm and composed Madara she could not.
How had it come to this?
After five years—five years—how could the war just...end like that? How?
For all her intellect and analytical talent, she couldn't wrap her brain around it. One battle ended everything? One? One surprise attack was all it took for Madara to overwhelm the whole Allied army? A fight that hadn't even lasted the length of a winter sun?
Had the war always been a single battle away from ending? Were all wars that simple? Is that all war amounted to in the end?
Five years of loss and struggle—five years of tent living, muted anguish, and desperate hope guillotined in less than 12 hours. The precious few who remained to her gutted on Lightning Country soil. Blood of thousands of sacrifices washed with futility.
The Allies reduced to nothing but prisoners of a war they'd lost in a single afternoon, too broken to walk, quivering in a hallway deep underground. Forced to rely on an enemy to make it back to their cage.
"We gonna wait here for Madara to come out or what?" Suigetsu intoned sarcastically.
It made her sick. It made her angry—angrier than she felt capable of even handling anymore. They'd given up everything! EVERYTHING! For fucking nothing.
And even now, it didn't matter at all.
She wanted to scream. She wanted to cry. She wanted to disappear. Why was she still alive? Why?
Pools of hot water swelled then rivered down her cheeks. "Knock me out if you have to carry me," she whispered, closing her eyes.
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Sasuke snorts. Peace?
He's before her in a cavern large enough to fit two platoons. Enemies line the walls, sneering. Sai's on his hands and knees, barely more than mutilated meat, smiling up at her bruised and crimson and why is he here? WHY IS HE SMILING?! HOW COULD—
Kusanagi alights with lightning. I don't care about peace. I only care about winning.
Tsunade falls—head first, body second, into the snow.
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Fingers grip her chin tightly, tipping her head back in the bright Uzushiogakure sun. You are merely a contact, nothing more. She's tipsy, and he's warm and smirking and whispering, We aren't teammates again. We aren't friends.
His pointer finger skims her ear lobe, hand sliding around to the back of her head—tangling into her hair, cupping the nape of her neck. You and I are nothing, you understand? Strangers.
Sasuke kisses her.
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The next time she was shaken awake, Suigetsu hovered over her. They'd installed a single bulb on the high ceiling; it merely brought to light how large an empty prison she'd been gracefully granted.
It was cold. Empty. Grey. The walls were as damp as she'd imagined them to look. They shone with desolation and hopelessness and—
She wished they'd left her in the dark. Even this sliver of light was too agonizing.
"A healer should be here soon. I didn't realize how injured you still were. There weren't any open wounds."
Confusion flashed on her face at the worry on his. Although it was difficult for her to walk, the pain wasn't particularly overwhelming when she lay down like this. So long as she didn't fidget around. She'd gotten skilled at sleeping without irritating her injuries in the isolation.
Then she noticed the rattle of her breath and the wetness across her face and realized she was crying. She frowned—did Suigetsu think broken bones were enough to bring a kunoichi to tears?
"I'm sorry," he added, to her puzzlement.
It swiftly morphed into anger. "For what?" spat Sakura, wiping her nose feebly and turning away from him to face the opposite bars. "This is what you wanted, right? Hardly matters what condition I'm in."
"In case you weren't paying attention a few days ago, it does matter."
"Not to me," she mumbled. "Fuck off already."
"Wish I could, kid, but an order's an order. So let's not fight today! Forcing you sucks. It's gross touching in your mouth and having you drool all over me. You even threw up once—eugh. Just eat what I brought, and you can quickly go back to dreamland. I won't bother you again 'til tomorrow."
Back to him, she shut her eyes, intending to return to dreamland immediately. That Madara explicitly wanted her healthy was all the more reason to defy Suigetsu's request.
"And stop calling me kid." She hated how familiar it sounded. Hated that it hurt to think this man betrayed her. Hated the fact she'd grown to trust him over the months—an enemy that she never should've removed from that designation.
Hated that she'd known better.
"Eat this bread nicely and I'll swear to stop." When she made no move to respond, Suigetsu gave an exasperated sigh. "You seriously don't care about that friend of yours? I thought Konoha shinobi were all about community and loyalty and flowers and shit."
Sakura flexed her jaw. Since being re-caged, she'd spent most of her time asleep, hoping not to wake up. In the brief, unfortunate slips she did, she spent every second falling back asleep straining not to think about that.
"God, you're damned stubborn," he criticized a moment later, seeming to recognize she wasn't taking the bait. "It took Orochimaru days to convince Madara not to kill her, you know." First, a cup of rice must be ground. Then three mountain flowers, no larger than an inch, should be quickly dried and mashed into a paste. Seeds of the—"She's got this seal on her tongue that—"
Sakura spun around, heart jumping from her chest. If there was pain from her quick movement, her body never registered it. She lunged for him, Suigetsu's eyes going wide. Fingers digging into his shoulders, pulling him to her, begging the amethyst to display anything but honesty.
"What seal?" she breathed.
"Dunno," he answered, craning back. "Never seen it before... Madara says it came outta Root."
Blood pounded in her ears. Only those Classed 8 and higher had directives to use that seal. Only those Classed 8 and higher even knew about it.
Only commander-level shinobi were Classed 8.
By the end, only one Yamanaka commander remained.
Please say no. "Is it Ino?" Say no. Lie. I don't care—just say no. Suigetsu blinked at her, confused, and Sakura felt her voice raise an octave as she shook him weakly. "Ino Yamanaka! Long blond hair, blue eyes, beautiful—is it Ino?!"
There was recognition in his gaze. An affirmation that fell upon her like ice water. LIE! Please—
"I thought you already knew?"
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Suigetsu was there again when she awoke. He sat outside the cage, back leaned on the bars she hadn't been able to touch.
Evidently, she'd passed out from the news—clearly, she was truly in a dangerously dreadful condition if the shock was enough to knock her out. She kept as still as possible, not wanting to alert him to her consciousness. Needing time alone to process the news.
Ino was alive.
Had Orochimaru listened to her plea on that snowy field and saved the linker? Was their plan always to capture Ino? Did they stab her just because they could? Because they knew Sakura would react?
Ino was alive—kept as a prisoner. A captive like she was. Did she have her own cell? Was she on the same base? What condition was she in?
A haunted feeling filled her barren bones.
That Ino was alive meant she still had an opportunity to get out—that she was alive meant nothing but torture awaited her so long as she couldn't escape. Sakura felt like she was seeing Sai lifted onto the podium a second time, the same elation and dread drawing swords to one another in her gut.
If Sugietsu was telling the truth, and Ino had the Eradication Seal, then she was completely useless for information.
The caster's death was the only way to remove the seal, though Sakura doubted Madara knew that with any certainty. And it was impossible to cast the jutsu on oneself. Assuming Madara did know how to do it, he'd first have to figure out who placed the seal on Ino and then find that person.
It could be anyone; only commanders could use the seal, but they were permitted to tell another Ally the jutsu to place it on them in emergencies. Ino probably had someone in the Yamanaka clan seal her and sent them away before being captured.
As it was, Ino couldn't provide anything to Madara.
Her only value was as coercion.
And Sakura loathed that Madara had calculated correctly; she'd never let Ino die. Not like this. Not for anything. So long as the slimmest of odds existed that Ino might escape, Sakura would do anything in her power to keep her alive.
Everyone else was dead. She refused to lose Ino, too.
If it meant getting healthy, she'd get healthy. If it meant some cooperation, she'd feign cooperation. If it meant that she couldn't break, then God damn it all to hell, she'd hold herself together one way or another. Anything. Ino absolutely could not die.
So long as one person she loved survived this, it would be enough. Now, it would be enough. It must.
Five years couldn't have been for nothing. Ino must live.
"I'll eat," said Sakura decidedly, pushing herself into a sitting position. When Suigetsu didn't move, she added, a little louder, "Hey! I said I'll eat!"
He stirred, head lolling to squint incredulously at her with a yawn. "Eh? A month of fighting, and you're giving up like that?"
Her sights fell to the floor. "...Have they been starving her?"
"Maybe. Dunno. Haven't seen her, but probably not. I managed to keep your refusing to eat mostly under wraps. Now Madara's seen you, though. It'll be hard to hide it from her keepers any longer. They'll start withholding food soon if you don't cooperate a bit."
"I just said I would, didn't I?" she muttered.
Suigetsu stood, tugging open the metal cage door and striding into her cell with a box and a flask. "I'll believe it when I see it. The last few weeks watching over you were torture." He scratched his head sheepishly before plopping down in front of her. "Er, not like torture torture, but—well, you know. Anyway. Here."
Laying the items between them like an offering, Suigetsu watched her with an anticipatory air. She reached for the box and opened it gently, hunger suddenly rousing. Inside was a small loaf of bread and three pieces of jerky.
Suigetsu hummed when she took her first bite, lips lifting as he leaned back on his hands. "See? Isn't this better for the both of us? Gosh, I just hate it when we fight." He paused, smirking. "Did I sound like I'm from Konoha just now?"
But she only half heard his teasings. Her muddled thoughts were picking apart his earlier statements. Something in the comments rang disconnected from the reality she'd faced, though she wasn't sharp enough at the moment to figure it out without more digging.
"Was our meeting the first time Madara ordered that?" she asked.
"Ordered what?"
"...That Ino be—starved if I don't eat."
"Nah, it's been the order all along. I would've warned you sooner, but you weren't ever really awake. Didn't realize you didn't even know she was here."
"So you—weren't telling anyone I wasn't eating?" she slowly queried, studying his posture for any signs of lying. "So Ino would get fed?"
Suigetsu rolled his eyes. "What do I care if that bitch gets food?"
"Don't call her—"
"Yeah, yeah. She's not a bitch, yada yada. Keep eating."
She hesitated half a second before dropping the issue. Arguing over his name-calling wasn't the best use of her limited time with him.
Suigetsu was a talker. There were many things she'd gotten wrong about the Kiri nukenin, but that assuredly wasn't one of them. If she played her cards right, she could probably get him to admit almost anything. She was lucky he was assigned to her, and not someone with more tact.
So she started on a piece of jerky. "Why not tell anyone I was refusing food, then?"
"I told some people. Can't you see yourself? It'd be impossible to hide how skinny you've gotten from everyone."
Sakura successfully bit back a scowl. "Why?"
"Thought it'd make things less complicated. Sasuke was always gonna come back eventually." Her whole body reacted to his name this time, shuddering with too many emotions to name. If Suigetsu noticed, he expertly shrugged it off. "I figured you'd get even worse if your friend died, and I know that'd come back on me since I was supposed to watch you. Madara was busy anyway, so it didn't matter. 'Til now, I guess."
She was fast losing energy. This relatively short discussion had already drained her enough that it was difficult even to retain his words. It was best to return to this topic when she could focus.
With a nod, she let the conversation lapse, thoughts singling onto the half-loaf of bread and piece of meat left.
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Sakura spent the next week and a half like that: sleeping less, eating more, and swindling any intelligence she could from her keeper.
Suigetsu brought her three meals a day. The food gradually increased from bread and jerky to soup and vegetables, and occasionally meat that wasn't salted dry.
For the first couple of days, Suigetsu would sit and watch her every bite, snapping at her to finish it all when she showed signs of slowing or stopping. He was bringing his own meals into the cell by the fourth day, chatting with her as if he hadn't the opportunity to talk any place else. Sitting beside her on the frigid, clammy dungeon floor.
Their interactions were puzzling.
She distinctly recalled him carrying her through a jungle and depositing her at Madara's feet. Remembered his cruel words and rigid hands and how tightly he'd fisted her hair to keep her watching a massacre. Still felt the ache of betrayal every time he opened the jail door to leave while she remained behind, chained to the ground.
But for how he treated her when they were alone, one would never know these things had happened.
He had the Lightning Release removed from the bars and brought her new, thicker bedding. Not once did he exercise his power over her to force her into doing something. He never disciplined her when she didn't eat all he'd brought her nor when she talked back. He spoke casually, with the same graceless teasing and biting honesty as when they were allies.
If he was ever an ally, she'd had to remind herself.
But Suigetsu's behavior was unsettling. What was the point in acting like they were friends?
Was he trying to butter her up for something? Hoping to lower her guard and make her spill secrets? Had Madara given him special instructions to gain her trust?
It'd be better if he just acted like a captor, she thought. Because, though she knew it wasn't wise, it was increasingly challenging to continue hating the man keeping her alive. Especially when he was her only real human interaction.
If he'd simply be cold and cruel as a prison guard ought to be, it wouldn't be so hard. She could detest him like a prisoner of war should detest an enemy.
Instead, Sakura found herself counting the minutes between meals, anxious for his return and the company it brought. Grateful for the way his presence staved off the ghastly visions and wraiths that haunted the cell when she was left alone. When she should've been concocting ways to kill him and escape, she'd glance about his person, worried about new bruises and abrasions donning his skin.
Utterly abhorrent, it was.
She much preferred when he brought the civilians in to wash her or the healer to tend to her wounds. During these visits Suigetsu would adopt an imperious tone, ordering her about as was expected in their power dynamic. Recognizing her position and his role in it was much easier those days.
Regardless, Suigetsu was a wealth of information; for that, Sakura was thankful.
She learned that some Allies remained free and alive—a number large enough that Madara had sent hundreds of hunting parties across the map to weed them out. Suigetsu refused to speculate who might be leading the guerrilla group or name anyone suspected to have escaped Lightning Country.
She learned Madara and Orochimaru went to Earth Country to secure the last cultivation of Hashirama's cells. A large base was erected on top of the hidden room there, under Hidan's leadership. Madara's body allegedly never recovered from fending off both Might Guy's and the Tsuchikage's attack, and the cells hadn't yet multiplied enough to provide him adequate replacements.
Suigetsu claimed the leader didn't even fight in the last battle, running when the Raikage found him.
And finally, on the eighth day, he told her about Ino.
They'd captured her and several other Yamanakas prior to the battle starting. A group of Madara's men infiltrated the intelligence tents an hour before the fighting began, hoping to take out the Kage's ability to mindlink with the army. It was easy, Suigetsu said, since Madara used spies he'd planted in the army months ago. Their signatures wouldn't have set off any alarms.
The original plan was to keep them all as prisoners. Lock them up and torture them for information. But then they'd captured the Hokage, and their value lessened significantly. Everyone agreed it was easier and more efficient to keep one vital hostage than numerous, less important ones.
Guarding a Kage would've taken too much manpower to keep many additional captives.
Madara ordered the Yamanakas be chained with the others. In the ensuing chaos, three got away, one killed themselves, and the last had a seal on her tongue when the dust settled.
Ino lived because Orochimaru did indeed staunch the bleeding and called on a healer to mend her stab wound. He received a lashing for it when Madara found out. Yet, the Sannin maintained that the Yamanaka should be kept alive—and Madara ultimately came to agree, despite the seal.
"The snake said she'd be good leverage on you," explained Suigetsu as if commenting on the weather, and not disclosing ways they intended to mentally torture her using one of her best friends.
"Where is she?"
"With the other prisoners."
"On this base?"
"Mhm. Over in the east wing. You got the executive suite." He smirked as he sipped his canteen.
"Who else got caught?"
"Probably no one you know. Heard you two are the only ones on this base from Konoha. I don't visit the other cells though, so couldn't say for sure. Don't know who you're friends with, either."
"Can you let me see her? Or bring her here?"
"You're joking, right?"
Sakura leveled him with a look that begged, What do you think?
Suigetsu scoffed. "No way."
"I'm only asking for a few minutes. I'll do whatever—"
"Listen, kid. Maybe you haven't realized since I'm amazing and all, but I follow orders around here. Now that the fighting's over, my usefulness is on the outs. I got no plans to bring Madara's anger my way. If you wanna break the rules, talk to the bossman, not to me." His eyes swept over her ragged appearance, lip curling slightly. "And anyway, I thought this was a stupid plan from the start."
She hadn't expected him to agree, but she had to at least try asking. Moving forward, she intended to ask it of him every day. His resolve may be whittled in time if she bothered him enough.
It didn't need to happen today, but her immediate goal was to see Ino. She couldn't start forming any escape schemes without first knowing Ino's location and condition.
It took Sakura a minute to realize she'd nearly missed something. "...What plan?"
He nodded her way. "You. Here. Like this."
The words crept into her, re-bricking the walls she'd let slowly crumble during their daily chitchats. When he so candidly answered nearly any question she voiced, it was easy to forget that he wasn't a friendly presence.
Sakura glared at the sandwich in her hands, at the shackles on her wrists. Irate with herself for feeling bitter about his admission. Suigetsu was a pawn of Madara—not her ally. Definitely not her pal.
Of course he thought her better off dead. "Better that I died, is that what you're saying?"
"You'd already be dead if I thought that, don'tcha think?"
"Then you should've let me kill myself when I was trying," she growled.
He chuckled. "Listen, all I'm sayin' is I'd never let myself get caught."
Sakura's mouth dropped at his implication. "You think I wanted to be here?"
"Didn't understand it—still don't." He clicked his teeth. "Konoha and Iwa have the strangest shinobi."
The dungeon door at the top of the stairs flew open the following second, interrupting her next investigation.
Suigetsu jumped up, turning his back to her, blocking her view. She was fine with that. No one she'd come into contact with on this base besides Suigetsu treated her with any decency. Being invisible was better than blatant scorn. Sakura ducked further behind his legs, lowering her head so whoever it was couldn't see her face.
"I thought I'd made it clear that no one should interrupt me while I'm down here with the prisoner," barked Suigetsu.
"I-I'm sorry!" came a high-pitched stutter. "B-but also, you said—when he got here, you wanted—" The girl, young by her tone, seemed to take a breath and gather herself. "Uchiha-sama is back!"
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He didn't see her for two days. And for the whole two days, she spent every waking hour battling nausea, waiting for him to inevitably materialize in her cell. So convoluted was her inner turmoil on the matter that in the hours between Suigetsu leaving in a flurry and his returning with dinner, she'd hoped more than anything that Uchiha-sama meant Madara.
It didn't.
Sasuke was on base.
She would've known he was there as soon as he arrived if she wasn't sealing off the covenant seal's effect with her chakra. She might've even been able to assess how far away he roomed. Could likely even invade his thoughts with her curses and damnations he was so close.
But all those things meant opening up the connection for him to influence her. And in the end, Sakura kept the seal boxed away, choosing to handle him as blind as she'd gone it before the pacts.
Her decision meant that when he eventually came to her, she was caught unaware.
She was weeping over Tenten's lifeless body when the clamor of field medical hushed into whispers. Tenten's crimson half-corpse faded into the back of her eyelids, and she choked back a sob. There is Tenten leaving forever.
"—look like this?"
"She is a prisoner. How else should she look?"
"I'm in no mood for your semantics, Orochimaru!"
"Calm down. She's improving. A few more days of meals and she'll be good as new."
"Don't tell me to calm down. You had orders—"
"The captive is awake. Let's continue this conversation later, hm?"
Sakura opened her eyes right into Sasuke's waiting face. He'd kneeled over her, shaggy bangs parted around both spinning dojutsu, a frown on his lips. Pristine and unmarred and healthy. Blocking the ceiling bulb's light behind him like God's messenger come to deliver his commandment to the pious.
She hated the way her stomach leaped into her throat. Hated that she traveled the length of him for injury—hated that she thought, So handsome, before her wits caught up to the moment. Hated how her heart pounded in her ears in a way that sounded nothing like hate.
And then reality righted itself, and she pushed herself away from him with a muttered curse.
"As you can see, she's still rather lively," said Orochimaru from the cell's door.
Sasuke ignored him, pinning her with his gaze. "You're moving to a new base. Think you've got it in you for a continental port? From Lightning to Earth."
The words rang in her ears loud and formless as waves crashing. All Sakura could do was stare at him, shocked at how casually he appeared before her. At how easily he addressed her. She didn't know where to start.
"How dare you," she whispered, thoughts tumbling into one another. Too many things wished to seep out of her at once that it was almost impossible to form a coherent sentence. "Was this your plan from the beginning? I trusted you—I fucking—how could you!" Ending on a scream, she crab-crawled away from him until her back hit the metal bars. "How—you—TSUNADE, SASUKE! You killed Tsunade!"
The shout reverberated into nothing in the cavern. Breath left her in short bursts as she struggled to keep up with the blood pumping too fast through her veins.
This man—this traitor…! This absolute piece of shit!
She was shaking. Tears blurred her vision and dragged down her cheeks, puddling on her soiled shirt.
It shouldn't hurt this much. She shouldn't care so much. After everything, another shinobi in her position would never put such weakness on display. In the first place, they'd never cultivate the weakness at all.
But—
"I thought we were friends. I thought you—" The words caught in her throat.
Though she still met his eyes; weathered his Rinnegan. Face wet, skin vibrating—she had to look wretched as she stared down the devil without fear.
Because what more could he possibly do? What more could he take from her?
There were no ways left in which he could betray her.
Everything was over. He'd won.
Could he hear her thoughts even though she'd secluded the seal? Could he hear how much she loathed him? Did he know how painfully she wished him dead for what he'd done?
These truths she was fine with him learning.
If it were the only things he might come to know, she'd unlock the covenant and let him withstand the brunt of it. This would be so easy if all she felt were rage.
She'd seen Sasuke countless times in the past month. He invaded every dream, every nightmare. He stood on the edge of every battlefield and hovered on the periphery of every memory. Having him before her in the flesh, however—inhaling the hint of hemlock smoke, noticing the fourth-day stubble on his jaw, seeing his broad shoulders and the smooth tendons up his neck—
Tucked away, far beneath the contempt and fury, still, after everything—was innocence. There is Sasuke, a 5-year-old boy, eating a rice ball over a railing.
Hope. A 12-year-old Sasuke reminds her he knows she's the smartest on the squad.
Sakura wanted to throw up. There was acceptance. Her kunai freezes behind his 15-year-old back—she can't do it.
Desire. He's 21 and shirtless and washing beside her in a river.
And love. So much love she couldn't stand it. So much love it could suffocate her. It didn't make any sense—
It was a betrayal against everyone she lost; all those who died because this man hadn't kept his word. She hated herself even more than the overwhelming animosity she felt for Sasuke. All she could do was glare at him, steeped in too much contradiction to do more. Wishing to heave all the sick adoration onto him in one hot-bile retch and be rid of it forever.
He'd ruined her.
For the briefest moment, she almost thought his chakra brushed her consciousness. Almost believed he truly could hear her crave him severed from her for good.
"We were never friends, Sakura."
If he meant for the cruelty to wound, he failed. She'd heard a variation of that sentence so many times in sleep it skimmed over her like a breeze now.
Tomoe slowing, his appraisal moved from her face down to her chest, her legs, her feet. His brow cinched before he lifted his sights back onto hers. She didn't even blink as his dojutsu dimmed back to onyx.
Then he was standing, hand held out to her, offering to help her up. "You need a bath. Then we'll port."
"Shall I call for a female attendant?" asked Orochimaru.
"No." Sasuke looked down upon her. "Come on. Hurry up."
He was so austere. So distant above her only an arm's reach away. Nothing like the man who'd kept her safe in the Land of Tea, or the one who'd held her in Uzushiogakure.
It was all a lie. He'd tricked her.
And the worst part of it: He'd warned her as much from the start.
…There was no trick at all.
The walls felt unbearably close. The air was impossibly heavy. Her lungs too full and too empty in the same breath.
"I regret loving you," she quietly confessed. And she meant it—she despised that horrid feeling, twisting her up even as she spoke. "I wish we never met."
His expression was still as a summer field.
He didn't care. He never had.
Her chest constricted like paper crushed in a fist. Stop fucking crying! she seethed at herself.
This is what she hated most about Sasuke Uchiha: how strongly her subconscious blindly believed in him even after every horrible thing he'd done. How her heart shattered no matter how many times he proved himself cruel and aloof, as if it'd been thinking all along, This time will be different.
How impossible it seemed to smother hope that the genin boy who cherished his teammates lurked just out of sight. The boy who'd jumped in front of her during danger, who was willing to torture because she was hurt, who always waited for her to take the first bite before eating. Who came at every call.
Team Seven always thought if they tried hard enough, he'd come back to them. If they were given enough time, they could pull that boy back out. It felt ingrained. Natural.
But there was no Team Seven now. There was only her, chained and broken. And Sasuke, who'd forsaken their team endlessly in spite of it all, listening to her wish their bonds broken with indifference.
It was time to abandon hope. Finally. Finally.
All it'd taken was losing a war.
Turning her back to him, she laid down and curled up as if to fall asleep, trying to ignore the dozens of swords sinking into her chest and lungs. She'd stop caring, too. She'd carve him out of her with a knife, if she must. She'd stop feeling all this insufferable betrayal.
She would not love him any longer.
"...Don't make me carry you out," he warned, voice low. "Have some dignity."
"Find some loyalty," she bit back. "And go fuck yourself while you're at it."
Orochimaru chuckled; she'd forgotten he was there. "This turned out wonderfully."
Sakura knew it was coming before it happened. So when warm, familiar fingers brushed the nape of her neck, she welcomed the darkness that followed.
Yay! It was so nice seeing comments from the same readers, back again!
And from new readers who just joined :)
You all are the best. It's a joy to see so many people enjoying the story.
.
thanks for reading, as always.
and thanks to Leech for beta-reading