sasusaku chap 1

Sasusaku chap 1
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

The moon hung high overhead as the first signs of nightfall arrived. The gentle, cool night air blew his hood off as he walked alone. The sound of crickets chirping in the background went unheard as the young Uchiha used all of his senses to keep track of his team and anyone around him. His sharingan activated, he scanned the empty streets.

‘This is the spot.’ He thought to himself, coming to a stop in the middle of the village. ‘He should be here…’

As if his thoughts were read, a young woman came stumbling out of an alleyway, bowing deeply before him. “E – excuse my tardiness, Uchiha-sama… my m – master has been awaiting your arrival.” She said quietly, her long, midnight black hair billowing around her face and shoulders.

He frowned as her long tresses revealed her torso. She was bruised, and red spots adorned her neck. Her clothes looked like they had been ripped off of her many times, and her feet were without shoes. ‘She looks like she’s been raped… what kind of man am I seeing?’ He thought, disgusted.

Slowly, as not to scare her, he made his way towards the girl. She flinched when he stopped in front of her, not raising from her low bow. “I – I’m sorry you had been waiting… Uchiha-sama.” She stammered, as if silently pleading her apology was interpreted correctly.

“What’s your name?” He asked quietly.

“I – I – it’s Tsuyu…” She replied, trembling.

“I won’t hurt you.” He said quietly. “What happened to you?”

“I – I… M – my master – he… uses us as his toys! Many have been killed, if he finds out I’m talking to you like this, I’ll be next… p – please, don’t say anything to him…” She
pleaded, falling to her hands and knees, placing her head to the ground, bowing deeper.

Sasuke knelt down before the girl, placing his hand on her shoulder. She looked up at him, terror in her eyes. “You’re not going back to him.” He said, helping the girl to stand. She stumbled into him.

“I – I have to! If I don’t return, he’ll come looking for me…” She said.

“Your ankle is broken.” Sasuke stated. He looked behind him. “Suigetsu.”

A young man, with white-blue hair appeared in front of Sasuke. “What?” He asked, looking at the trembling girl, curiously, then back to Sasuke.

“There’s a change in plans. I’m going to kill him after I get the information I need.”

“What about her?” Suigetsu asked.

Sasuke didn’t answer, instead he turned to the girl he was supporting. “How many are there?”

“T – there’s ten of us. The most recent that had been brought was a week ago. She’s a – a… ninja, I think. They had her wrists and neck bound with a weird wire… it made her weak.” She answered quietly.

“How many are injured?” Suigetsu asked.

“Only me… and the new girl. She broke free of the wire, so they put her in a different room than us. I only saw her once after they brought her into that room; that was when my master went in there and I saw a glimpse of her…” The girl paused, tears in her eyes. “S – she… I don’t know what it was – she was still bound with the wire – but she had a mask on her face, drugging her. I think he took advantage of her while she was unconscious! He – he…”

“It’s ok…” Sasuke said. “We’ll get all of you out. Where is the room?”

“A – all of us are kept in one room when we aren’t being used. It’s easy to find; last door in the left hallway. Her room is at the end of the hall from the Lords’ office… that’s probably where he’ll be waiting for you. The hallway is on the right side…”

“Sasuke… I’m not missing part in this.” Suigetsu stated, his fists clenching.

Sasuke nodded. “Alright. Get Karin and Juugo, then come back here.” Suigetsu didn’t wait for him to finish and left. Minutes later, Karin appeared next to Suigetsu, looking at Sasuke with a frown on her face. Juugo appeared behind them.

“What’s the new plan, Sasuke?” Karin asked.

“We kill him.”

Juugo nodded. “What of the girl?”

“Karin, take her back to camp.” She was about to protest, but he interrupted her. “She and another are the only ones injured. I need you to prepare a spot for the other one; she’s apparently worse.” He looked at the girl sitting on the ground; she nodded.

“Yes, alright. Fine.” Karin stated moodily. She looked over at the girl sitting on the ground, shaking. “Come on, get on my back.” She said, bending down so the girl could climb on. With that done, she ran out of the village, atop the buildings.

“Suigetsu, you work on getting all of the others out of there. Juugo, kill his men if there are any and then help Suigetsu.” Both men nodded and disappeared into the night. Sasuke looked at the alleyway the girl came from, seeing one door. Assuming this is where to go, he went in.

s-S-s

Sasuke walked down the halls slowly, looking in all directions. He could already sense Juugo taking out men, silently, and Suigetsu waiting for the right moment to lead all of the girls out. But, Sasuke’s job, as he decided, was to get the information of his brother he needed, kill the Lord, and get the other girl out of the room. Eventually, he found the main hallway; seeing one door near the back. He walked slowly, glancing at the door the girl was in and frowned. Once at the end, he entered the last door.

“Ah, Sasuke, I assume the girl I sent to you is dead. You’re late. I hope you killed her for her tardiness; I would have killed her if you hadn’t anyways.” The man sitting in the middle of the room was large. His double chin jiggled with every word spoken, and his fat fingers held onto a teacup. Two young girls, no older than Sasuke himself, sat beside him, fanning him and giving him grapes. They too, wore clothes that were ripped and dirty.

Sasuke looked at the man, disgusted. In one swift movement, he had the Lord pinned to the wall with his katana at the man’s throat. Sasuke glared at the man and pushed the katana through the flesh on his neck, drawing blood. He whimpered in pain.

“Get out of here. There is someone escorting the others out. Don’t worry about the girl in the room, I’ll get her out.” He said to the two on the floor. They were shaking, but nodded their thanks and fled. “Tell me,” Sasuke started, looking at the man he had pinned, “where is Uchiha Itachi?”

“I don’t know where he is exactly; b – but I heard that he was last spotted in the rock village.” The Lord muttered quickly, sweating.

“What else do you know about him?”

“H – he travels with a man named Kisame Hoshigaki. He belongs to a group of missing nin and S-class criminals called the Akatsuki. They’re gathering the jinchuriki and tailed beasts.”

“What do they want with them?”

“I – I don’t know! Please, don’t kill me!”

“Too late for that. You make me sick, using these girls like this. But, I have one more question.” Sasuke stated, “What is the drug you’re giving the girl?” The lord only stared at his captor and smirked, teasing him and accepting death. Sasuke scoffed and sliced the mans’ throat. He cleaned off his katana before sheathing it, and ran out of the room, to the end of the hall. He stopped at the closed door and placed his ear to it. All he could hear was the ‘whoosh’ as the drug was being emitted and quick, ragged breathing. No one else was in the room, so he went in.

Sasuke stopped dead in his tracks at the girl sprawled on the floor. She was unconscious and lay on her stomach. The wire wrapped around her neck was connected to the wire at her wrists. Her head lay on it’s side so Sasuke could see a mask strapped to her face, a tube connected to it, giving her a yellow looking gas to breathe. She was in a cold sweat and looked to be having trouble breathing, it was almost as if she was hyperventilating, taking in fast, small gasps raggedly. The wire around her neck did nothing to help.

Her appearance and the state she was in wasn’t what had him frozen. It wasn’t that she was wearing peasants’ clothes; a small white sundress, rather than her ninja attire. It wasn’t the sickly pale colour of her face, and it wasn’t the bruises on her bare arms and legs or the inflamed cuts on her wrists and neck from the wire digging into her skin; it was her hair. The shocking light pink, long hair had him frozen to the spot; his ex-teammate, Haruno Sakura.

He hadn’t seen her in over three years and here she was, malnourished and close to death in front of him. Once his mind registered that she was there, that she desperately needed his help, he moved; all memory of breaking his bonds with her gone. None of that mattered anymore; not at this moment. All thoughts of revenge momentarily disappeared as he kneeled next to her and turned her onto her back. The wires suppressing her chakra had her hands strapped to her neck, stopping her from struggling.

Anger automatically flowed through Sasuke’s body. Quickly, he removed the gas mask from her mouth, allowing her to have oxygen for the first time in days. Sakura immediately started coughing, almost as if she was suffocating. Reaching for a kunai, he forced his chakra into it, and waited for her to stop coughing so he didn’t cut her. When she did, his chakra blade cut through the wire and released her. Her arms fell limply to the floor.

A feeling of nauseousness and dizziness began to wash over him and Sasuke realised that the gas was still mixing in with the oxygen in the room, causing him and Sakura to breathe it in. Staying for a little longer, he looked at the tank full of the drug and tried to figure out what it was. It had no label. Cursing, he lifted Sakura off of the floor, and ran out of the room, out into the streets. The cool, sweet, night air filled his lungs; the nauseous feeling slowly leaving.

He looked down at Sakura. She was still having trouble breathing; air entering her lungs in ragged breaths. He set her on the pavement of the alley and took out his water canteen. Lifting her from the ground, he put it to her lips and let the water go down her throat. She started to cough weakly after a minute and winced in unconsciousness.

‘How did she end up there?’ He asked himself, lifting her up off of the ground again, and headed out of the village, towards his teams’ camp. ‘Where were Kakashi and Naruto?’

s-S-s

Sasuke landed with a soft thud in the clearing; his team waiting for him. The girl Karin helped was sleeping by the fire. “Finally Sasuke. What took you?” Suigetsu asked, looking over at Sasuke.

“Is that her?” Karin asked.

Sasuke nodded. “Yeah… I don’t know what the drug was though… she’s still having trouble breathing.”

“She’ll be fine. Just put her in the bed and leave her.” Karin said glumly; she didn’t like Sasuke holding another girl like that. Sasuke sent her angrily and walked by her, into his own tent, past the bedroll Karin had set up. Karin watched him go into his tent; her eyes wide and mouth open in disbelief.

“What the hell, Sasuke?” She yelled, storming towards his tent. “You made me go out of my way to make her a bed, and you ignore it and put her in your own bed? Do you know her or something?!” She threw back the flap and stepped in.

“Karin, shut-up. Leave if it bothers you so much.” Sasuke answered, taking one of Sakura’s hands in his and began to clean her wrist.

“Do you know her, Sasuke?” Karin repeated, her voice level.

Sasuke sighed and turned to glare at Karin, sharingan activated. “Yes I do, now get out if you’re going to be useless.”

Karin’s eyes narrowed. “Alright, what do you need me to do?”

“Go in my bag and get some clothes out. You’ll change her when I’m done.”

Karin nodded sourly and glared at Sakura. “Alright.” She walked over to Sasuke’s bag and began to look through it, attempting to find clothes. As she did, she couldn’t help but ask questions. “What’s her name?”

“Haruno Sakura.”

“Where do you know her from?”

Sasuke didn’t answer, just continued on to her other wrist. Karin watched him as he focussed on the task at hand. She had never seen him this intent on something other than finding Itachi. “Why are you so focussed on her, Sasuke? What about Itachi? Did you even get the information you needed? Or were you too intent on saving her?” Karin tried again.

Sasuke paused in dressing the wound to glance up at Karin. “She was my teammate when I was still in Konoha. I haven’t seen her in three years.” Sasuke looked back at Sakura’s wrist and wrapped the bandage tightly, tying the ends. He then moved to her neck. “Itachi was supposedly last seen in the Rock country.”

“What’s he doing there? Did he say?”

“No he didn’t really specify. He just told me that the group he’s with, Akatsuki, is gathering the jinchuriki and tailed beasts. For what, he didn’t say.”

“So maybe he’s tracking one of them…” Karin mumbled. “Well, I’ve got some clothes… is this what you meant?” She asked, holding up a t-shirt and shorts. Sasuke spared a glance and nodded. He was now wrapping the bandage loosely around her neck. Her breath hitched at the contact and Sasuke stopped, staring at her intently, seeing of she was waking up. She didn’t; instead, she started coughing again. When she stopped, her breathing was turning back to normal, no longer coming in gasps.

Sighing, Sasuke finished and left his tent, leaving Karin to change her. Suigetsu and Juugo looked up at him when he sat by the fire. “You know her, Sasuke?” Juugo asked. Sasuke nodded mutely. “From where?”

“She was my teammate in Konoha… I haven’t seen her in over three years…”

“That explains it! You were more interested in her than Itachi, it had me wondering.” Suigetsu said, happy he discovered the truth. “Is she going to live?”

Sasuke nodded and didn’t say anything.

“What’s her name?” Juugo asked.

“Haruno Sakura.” Sasuke stated simply, his eyes distant. He was unsure of what to do. Should he take her to the nearest hospital, so she wouldn’t see him? Should he wait out her recovery and help her back to Konoha? ‘She’ll probably beg me to return again…’ He thought numbly, remembering what she had said to him that night. During his train of thought, Karin sat next to him; a little too closely in his opinion. “Karin, back off.” He growled.

Karin did as told and slid away from him. “Just to let you know, her whole body is bruised.” She told him dryly. “What are we going to do with those two?” She asked. Sasuke looked at the girl sleeping in front of the fire, her broken ankle wrapped tightly and his thoughts moving to his tent, the girl unconscious in his bed. He shook his head.

“She,” He said gesturing to the girl by the fire, “can do whatever she wants.”

“What of Sakura?” Juugo asked.

Sasuke stayed silent, staring back into the flames, back to thinking. “I don’t know.”

“We should just leave her here and when she wakes up she can go back home.” Karin suggested hopefully.

“She won’t be able to fend for herself until a couple of days, Karin.” Suigetsu stated, angry at the girl’s selfishness. “And what was she breathing in for a week?”  

Juugo nodded in agreement while Sasuke glared daggers at Karin. “She’s staying with us until she wants to leave.” He said and left to his tent, and added, “Karin, you take watch tonight.”

Karin huffed and turned back to the fire, glaring. “Stupid pink-haired bitch. She just had to come along, didn’t she?” She mumbled dangerously.

“Relax, Karin. You’re just jealous that Sakura has Sasuke’s attention and you don’t. It’s not like you ever will, anyways.” Suigetsu sneered.

Karin was outraged. “Shut the fuck up, Suigetsu! No one asked you!”

“I agree with Suigetsu.” Juugo said, and tilted his head back, staring at the stars. Karin scoffed and continued to vent her anger by glaring at the never-ending flames of the fire. “We should have left the lot of them there.” She mumbled again.

s-S-s

Sasuke sat next to Sakura in his tent, staring at her. ‘She grew her hair out again…” He thought. Her forehead was of average size, and she no longer held the title as ‘billboard brow.’  Her bangs were much shorter than her hair, stopping at her jaw line.

Catching himself staring at her he looked away and cursed himself. ‘I should have just dropped her off in a hospital somewhere… this is just going to cause trouble. Like last time…’

-Flashback-

Sasuke was in his room Orochimaru assigned him, resting after learning and mastering a new technique. He lay on his bed, facing the wall, and that’s when he sensed it. A flicker of chakra; attempted to be masked. He recognised it as Naruto’s. ‘So he’s still untalented as ever…’ He thought before getting up. He stood there for a moment, debating. ‘Should I go meet them… let them find me… or… get away so it doesn’t cause trouble? Everyone else is basically gone except for the snake and Kabuto.’

Coming to his decision, he ran out of his room and fled; getting away from all of the problems it would cause if they had seen each other. Orochimaru and Kabuto seemed to be waiting on his decision, for not moments after he got out of the hideout; they were beside him, smirking as the hideout exploded.

-End flashback-