Disclaimer: Of course I don't own Naruto.
Where...
The pain in her fingers was agonizing, if she could feel them through the numbness in her head. Her feet hurt, but the pain was dull. Her foggy mind was trying to go to sleep, but she didn't let herself. She had a concussion. She knew, because she'd had one before. And head wounds were tricky.
Chances were, if she closed her eyes, she'd never wake up again.
So she stared at the ceiling carefully, and looked at something else when it began to swim before her eyes.
She wanted to impress him. Itachi.
Because that meant that Naruto was still alive.
"Where is he?"
Not here.
"If you tell me where he is, I can take you to Sasuke."
He'll kill you.
"Mangekyou Sharingan."
Ninjas had a limited life expectancy, despite the Third Hokage's living nearly seventy years. If your job was to spy, kill or defend, you rarely put on many years.
If you were captured by the enemy, your life expectancy was reduced to days and weeks instead of months and years. If you were captured by Akatsuki, chances were your life expectancy dropped down to seconds and minutes instead of days. And if you had information, a will stronger than steel, and were really lucky, you had a small chance of rising to hours instead of minutes.
Since Sakura had been Itachi's captive for two days already, she figured that she could rate among God status. If she ever made it back to Kohona, she could bump straight to Jounin, and be Hyuuga Neji's superior.
Just the thought made her smile. She wondered what he'd think about that.
"There's a simple way to stop this."
But I'm having so much fun.
"Just tell me where the demon is, and I'll let you live."
Liar.
"Mangekyou Sharingan."
If she thought about it, Itachi wasn't so bad. He never put her through more than an hour's torture. He wanted her to talk.
He made her stronger.
He'd been surprised when she'd devised a way to combat his Mangekyou Sharingan. That she could disappear to a place he could never find her, even when in her head. That she could close her eyes while he stabbed her repeatedly, and not even feel him anymore.
He'd been curious. So he'd tested her. One finger at a time, he broke them all. In the real world. And he'd watched her eyes closely, watched her try to stare him down. Try not to flinch. And disappear within herself.
Interesting, he'd told her.
Then she began to see it. Every time he tortured her. Afterward, he'd give her a sip of water. And there would be affection in his eyes.
Because she wasn't weak?
"Do you still resist?"
I won't let you touch him.
"It won't last. We will find him."
You'll die.
"Mangekyou Sharingan."
When she had a spare moment, she tried to understand how she could resist. She guessed it was because of her other self. When she was in pain, it would protect her. It would get her away from it all. He wouldn't understand that because in her head, he saw only what he wanted to see. He didn't know how to look for another.
Since Sasuke's disappearance, under Tsunade's influence, she'd learned how to let Inner Sakura out more. She'd begun to merge the two personalities. Itachi had been the object that separated the two once more. As much as Sakura grew, Inner Sakura was becoming a battle-hardened veteran. Sakura decided that she could live with that, surrender that.
If it kept her alive, and relatively sane, suffering from Multiple Personality Disorder was a small price to pay.
"Orochimaru is planning a strike against Kohana."
He won't be there.
"He would be elsewhere when his home village is attacked? Heartless."
It's your home, too. Heartless.
"Mangekyou Sharingan."
The pain in her fingers continued to chip away at the numbness of her head, the result from Mangekyou Sharingan's recent use. While they attacked the fog from the sides, the pain in her feet attacked the bottom, effectively making her absolutely miserable.
The first day, they had broken her feet, so that she couldn't get away. They also bound her hands, so she couldn't make any seals. It wasn't because they knew she was a medical nin. It was because they knew she was a ninja.
Being a medical nin was her trump card. If Itachi hadn't broken her fingers, she could fix her feet and get away. She just had to be sneaky, fearless, strong, and very, very lucky.
She was lucky now that Itachi had finally softened up enough that she was no longer bound. It was because he knew that even if her feet were fixed, her head was too woozy for her to stand up without falling down. And as she was in the storage room, anything she knocked into if she fell would make noise, and alert the guards.
Of course, she still didn't understand why there were guards. She was, of course, the only captive that stayed alive for more than an hour.
Note: The first scene (dialogue) happened in my other Naruto fanfic, Happy Birthday, Sasuke.
What's really funny, that I've noticed, is that my Naruto fanfics are always more abstract and introspective than they otherwise would be. Hopefully the next chapter will be different.
Also, in case you were wondering, Four Seasons was slightly inspired by another Naruto fanfic I was plotting called Cherry Blossom: Waiting for Spring. I was going to write that one...but I couldn't quite feel it when I started. But the roles of the four seasons are as follows:
Winter Itachi (because Spring doesn't come until Winter leaves)
Spring Sasuke (because Spring is cold before it becomes warm)
Summer Naruto (because it comes after Spring, and most people like it)
Fall Orochimaru (you figure it out)
Though technically, the chapter ends here, I was inspired to write more when the Internet crashed, rendering me without tunes. Therefore, I wrote more, in the form of a spoof. Please enjoy. And laugh. A lot. Chances are, this actually happened (in the fanfic).
"I see you're still awake."
I have to pee.
"Why didn't you go earlier?"
The guards won't let me.
"Oh, God. Fine. Here."
"Are you done yet?"
Yeah.
"You decent?"
Sure.
"Thank God."
"You're still not going to tell me where he is, are you?"
Are you asking?
"Yes."
No.
"Mangekyou Sharingan."