Chill, guys. I prostrate myself before you for what happened last chapter. :)

Thanks Arcaina for giving me the fanfiception. :D And of course all you guys who've been waiting for me to finish this update.

Here. Feast on Sakura's vengeance. :)

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto and nor do I profit from writing about it.

Gods of Vindication
Part XII: Dolor

"I was the man who never lied, never lied until today. But I just couldn't break your heart like you did mine yesterday."

A stunning jolt shot through Sasuke with the door banging open, his instincts pulling him out of Karin as he was locked onto those green, green, judgmental eyes burning through his soul. It was like a raikiri ramming through his chest and sizzling, crackling in his heart.

"Sak..." came the ragged breath, her name tumbling off his lips, unable to utter anything else.

She stood there, messy hair lit up in a halo by moonlight, individual strands gently swaying from some soft breeze making it into the house, utter shock on her face, pink lips open, small white teeth catching the light falling across her disgusted face. Pure impulse gripped Sasuke in its control.

"Sakura!"

He tried to be quick but she was faster, her boots crunching and squeaking on the hardwood floor as she disappeared down the hall with a flick of silver hair, his heart stopping cold and his body chilled like ice as he disentangled himself from the redhead.

Shit. Understatement of the week. Understatement of his week, which was about the total duration of her stay. Shit!

He had time enough only to struggle with his shorts, nabbed from the mess strewn on the floor, as he stumbled after his former teammate without paying heed to the muted harping of Karin calling out his name. His world only revolved around the wet footsteps slippery under his bare feet and her broken door up ahead of him hurtling to close.

It slammed shut in his face forcing him to halt himself, both hands smacking onto the wall beside the cracked doorway he had previously wrecked, the gaping splintered debris of the heavy oak merely bouncing off and unable to latch on as what Sakura had intended. He stood there out of breath, skin swept in goosebumps as the door's weight creaked itself open to reveal her standing only a few feet away, shoulders hunched and head hung low.

He could still hear the pounding in his ears, feel it in his veins as his heart gradually slowed back to normal.

She was there, within reach, but he couldn't find it in himself to cross the threshold. Not when those small hands wrapped in wool gloves clenched painfully at her sides. He'd done something that didn't agree with her, that much was clear.

Swallowing, throat dry, he could only watch the situation sink in for her. She was even wearing the plaid coat (his mother's plaid coat which he'd taken out of the cherry wood chest in his parents' bedroom because he knew he'd bring her here and shit he shouldn't have because it's now a part of her, a part of this insipid girl, making her invade memories of kaa-san...) fitting perfectly over her rising, falling shoulders.

Sasuke knew it was impossible for her not to know he was there, just her hard headed pride not wanting to turn around and face him. The door was ruined — when he'd kicked it off its hinges earlier, when nothing but a growing rage filled him at the thought there were hidden agendas she wouldn't share — and even if she could manage to slam what was left of it in his face, she wouldn't be able to hide anywhere. If this situation were some version of forethought on his part, he thanked whatever gods there were about it.

Mud caked her shoes and was strewn across the opulent carpet where she'd walked, streaking it with clumped earth and matted grass, and he heaved a deep sigh.

Because kami-sama, she's overreacting. She couldn't be more wrong about what she understood about him, and this was exactly why. There was nothing else he could have done to make it theatrically obvious he was going to entertain nothing between him and this stupid little pink-haired girl. Blonde. No. Pink again, because fuck, the false color was fading.

The quiet was almost deafening.

"I can explain," the words like lead on his tongue.

The weight of what he'd said registered a split second later, the Uchiha holding his breath as Sakura straightened her posture, turning around for dagger green eyes to meet his.

Yes, he could explain things. Like how she had no right act this way with him, with how her jaw was tightening as though he'd done her wrong by having the impudence not to be locked out of her room. Funny, in a way, because he'd be able to make his way inside even if the door hadn't been destroyed. He'd burn the house down to get to her if it came down to it.

In fact, why did it have to be him to wear this malignant heaviness on his heart? He had nothing to hide. He was guilty of nothing.

If she'd just gather all those little scattered brain cells and stop letting her emotions ransack her rationality, he'd make her understand she had no business getting worked up with what she saw because there was nothing between the two of them which warranted an explanation on his part. Nothing.

Sasuke wanted to be angry, wanted rabidly to know why there were ridiculous reasons popping up in his head to console her, as if appeasing this annoying shit of a kunoichi would rectify the situation. Wanting to win back some modicum of trust from the pathetic girl foolish enough to follow him here.

The chasmal hollow hole inside him was only getting bigger. What was wrong with him? Why did he even owe her an explanation in the first place?

"You can't go barging into my room like that," his words accusatorily reverberating in the space of her room.

Emerald eyes snapped onto him, sharp and grim, a resurgence of wrath glossing over her un-shinobi-like features for the briefest of moments. It faded away as she checked herself, Sasuke staying quiet as bit by bit the signs of her emotional discomfort disappeared.

To say it disconcerted him wasn't enough. Her big eyes were blankly acknowledging his presence, her large forehead smooth from worry creases, pink lips soft and relaxed. Like nothing happened.

The sudden change of her behavior was strange, as if all the time he'd known her was all a sham and only now she'd become serious enough to wear the standard unfeeling mask mandatory to every shinobi churned out from the Academy. The silence would have been deafening were it not for the whistling wind.

She exhaled loudly, more a sigh of irritation he'd come to understand was the way she made her discontent known without saying a word. Feeble, weak Sakura had changed. There was something off in the way she was behaving, something he couldn't pick out but made him extremely sure of the growing annoyance he felt. The more he dwelled on it, the more her expression resembled that double-crossing artist with the blasphemous appearance.

Sai, hissed an angry conscience. Never was there another time he wanted kill his doppelganger so much as now.

He'd never realized how quickly there would be a replacement for him until the moment that disgusting marionette appeared at their base, reeking of espionage and fake modesty. He had assumed, theoretically, Konoha changing the team he grew up in wouldn't affect him in the least. It ruled in his head, a faceless blob of muscle and sinew taking his place where he once stood by Team Seven, and there was never a twinge of anything.

But he turned out to have a face. His face, in fact, and a personality the rest have come to accept as their own. They've assimilated him to the point weak little Sakura-chan was picking up on Sai's corruption.

"Sasuke," she started with a flicker of unsureness, "I need to talk to you."

Yes, of course you do, came the automatic response in his thoughts. It was a second later he noticed she'd dropped the suffix of his name.

Words were welling up inside him, trying to push out the tumor of maddening exasperation in a storm of ruthless curses and irrational ire. Sakura would, of course, jump to conclusions and emotional assumptions fueled by nothing but the gaping hole he left behind. He had no obligation to her, made no promises or romantic attachments she could use as a foothold to grab onto him. The argument had already played out in his head, and he would win it.

"I... I'm here because I promised someone I'd look out for you," a catch in her voice etching confusion in his face. "Someone really important."

"You don't have to bring Naruto into this," he replied, not liking the sunshine the mere mention of the name brought to those green eyes. "He doesn't have a say in what I choose to do. Neither do you, so while we're at it stop pretending like you're all better at living my life."

Sakura colored.

She was just an arm's length away and there was a buzz of excitement he relished at the shame he effectively threw her in. Was it worth the risk to step closer and scare her, or stay where he stood before the broken door slammed in his face?

"It's not Naruto," she retorted, her arms defensively coming up to wrap around her and he found himself standing still. "It's just... kami-sama, Sasuke. I need to tell you something."

Those emerald eyes were so clear, so unwavering with a determination he had not seen since the first night she tried to stop him from leaving. She was frail, so open with her weakness of body and spirit she was visibly shaken. Yet there it was, a powerful will of fire burning through.

It made him mad – no, livid – she wasn't the sodden broken mess he expected her to be, not incoherent and bubbling on the floor. Not capitulating to him, instead trying to butt her ideals against his as though she would win. Pitiful how she did not falter, no sign of relenting even as she would end up hurt. She was shaking like a leaf in the wind, showing how absolutely terrified she felt deep down inside. Whether it was whatever they conversed, treacherous Sakura and treacherous snake, or whether it was his and Karin's fault she was acting like this, he couldn't care less. No matter how much courage it was taking her to keep fighting for him to listen, it was a lost cause.

Did she expect him to coddle her, comfort her with lies and pretend to be concerned? And shit, what the fuck else could he possibly say to make her feeble, emotional head understand? Was she being incrementally dense?

Quiet did not suit her. Pleading did, with her vexed and entreating towards him. It told him there was something wrong, something bubbling beneath the surface waiting to be broken out. Fuck this. One wrong word and he would not stand to see her running away and ruining his plans. Never. He'd force her down and make her choke on her morals.

Nothing was more important right now than keeping her here in this shit hole, in the Land of Iron. He'd make her stay.

"I don't care about whoever told you to look out for me. I don't care what anyone has to say about what I do, because no one can dictate however the rest of my life goes." It was an effort not to raise his voice at his former teammate. It really was. He could appreciate the delicateness of the situation because he was not as fuckingly dense as Naruto. "If this someone were really interested in my safety, they'd shut up and let me be."

If she were any other girl it would only take the microscopic amount of derision for her to back off him, the tiniest threat for her to shoot off into nowhere with her assumptions and his plans. But of course she wasn't any other girl.

Sasuke could degrade her all he wanted and she'd only be back to help him, against her will even. She never maintained distance no matter how much he'd pushed her back, the bleeding heart of Team Seven who didn't know how to give up. Probably driven to try and fix him because he didn't fit nicely in what should be right in her world. "I can decide things for myself. As much as you don't like it, that includes who I screw. You're not my mother, Sakura."

There it was, the flicker of revulsion ghosting on her false, blank mask. At least he was getting somewhere.

"Oh, okay." She nodded slowly, hair sliding out from behind her ear. "Then will you shut up long enough to listen to me, when I say that what I'm supposed to tell you is more important than who you fuck," a pause in the chilling bite of her tone, drawling on his name, "Sasuke?"

The reality struck him much too late to save face. She wasn't interested in Karin. She wasn't interested in him, in his petty little mind games and tricks, in the smoke and mirrors she allowed him to show to herself for delusion from the existence of his snake mentor. He swallowed, taking in the sight of Sakura's petite form, a bundle of frazzled emotions and condemning green eyes.

He watched her blink, frown deepening to display the pinpoint dimple beside her pink lips as she looked at somewhere on the carpet (or was it disgust? judgment? for what she was seeing behind all his hatred? because she was so seethingly pure she could ride her high horse and trample over him?). She made it excruciatingly obvious how she saw him. Just like Orochimaru.

No. It was exactly like Orochimaru.

You're so fucking disgusting. I shouldn't even be the one making all the fucking effort for you. Dark eyes narrowed at her tight expression, judging her back for all the world it meant. There was an unexplainable hollowness in his chest, a void sucking more and more of his patience for her that he was torn between shouting raging obscenities at her and simply storming off.

"So you... don't mind?" he monotonously asked, trying for normalcy. "Not even one bit?"

"What?" her demeanor changed, a short, clipped sigh indicating exasperation, how dare she. "I don't... understand."

Fuck you!

Standing before her right after what she'd seen, shirtless and weaponless, was psychologically trying on his part. She was fully clothed, with requisite earmuffs and mittens and dark green scarf already sweeping the carpet, heavy winter boots still wet with dirt and snow. And he only wore what he'd been able to randomly snatch. It only exacerbated the sensation of guilt when he was not supposed to care.

"About earlier," he hissed, grabbing onto the only thing he could use against her at this point. "About you barging into my room and– "

"What?" She had the nerve to look incredulous.

"About me. And Karin," he ground out, trying not to spit the words. "You don't care?"

Sakura glared, a feral glint of teeth, infuriating him. "What the hell are you trying to get at?"

"Why did you run away?" he demanded, fighting to keep from grabbing her when her posture morphed into a defensive stance, her body tensing like a tightened spring.

"Did you expect me to actually watch you, Sasuke?" she shot back. "Kami-sama, you're just as perverse as Naruto!"

"Do not bring that dumbass into this," he responded scathingly, feeling the rent in his soul pulling wide into a yawning void. He wanted to be rational about this. He really did not like how he was growing only more furious the more she looked at him as if he'd done something wrong. An ugly turmoil boiling inside him, he didn't understand how his voice was rising because fuck he wasn't supposed to be affected. "You ran, Sakura. You slammed the door in my face and you're saying you don't care. Are you seriously taking me as an idiot, Sak?"

There were tears dripping from dark pink lashes, an expression frozen by shocked hurt, and it was ruining him how he could care less. She was quietly livid, basing it on the way she held her own arms in a vice with the dark blotches on her cheeks, and didn't want to admit it to him. When she finally spoke her voice was soft and muted in the dim room.

"You are such an asshole."

She sniffled, hiding her eyes from him as she wiped at them with her sleeve.

It caught him off guard, so much he was speechless. Unable to walk past the disintegrating doorway, unable to offer any semblance of comfort. Unable to deal with the crushing weight of what he made her witness, the stifling of her crying the only perceivable sound in the room.

After what felt like an eternity, having gathered herself together, she breathed a sigh and looked straight at him. And then smiled.

He wanted to angrily wipe that smile off, with lips and tongue and teeth.

"Sasuke, I can't force you to feel the same way I do," she started, his ears burning. "I can't even force myself not to feel this way about you. But I never said I didn't care."

He could see the self-restraint she exercised to avoid breaking down completely. It was in how she formed her expressions, in how she spoke her words. It was in the small dimple of her cheek, the tiredness of her eyes, the creases of her forehead. Most of all it was in the ruddiness of her lips, swollen from being bit on and pressed together, colored by her increased heart rate, her shame in telling a never-ending confession to him.

"I'm... trying not to impose on you, because I know you hate it." Her arms dropped to her sides. "If you want me to keep on staying here, I'll stay without bothering you. I'm not going to keep annoying you to bring me home, because I need to be here this time. Just listen to what I need to tell you."

"Go on," he muttered hoarsely, surprising himself at finding the words quick enough. Whatever it was didn't feel good. This was the only time she was keen on staying with them.

Hesitating, she shuffled her feet, tucking hair behind an ear. For so long he had wanted to know the reason of fate for bringing them together once more. Now he wasn't sure how to take it.

"I was adopted."

"I know."

"My biological father is Orochimaru."

She wasn't looking at him, instead staring at a spot on the carpet. Seconds ticked by and what Sakura said did not register for him.

Out of the corner of his eye there was a flash of white in the darkness of the hallway, Sasuke numbly turning his head in time to see Karin emerge from his room at the end of the hall. She was flicking out the length of tousled red hair from his shirt, adjusting it to cover just enough of her nakedness.

There was a click of the pieces falling into place for him, so sudden it jarred his sentience into motion.

Karin knew.

The only reason they'd been able to avoid confrontation from Sakura for so long was the inherent ability of this girl to sense even dormant chakra, a sensor type so highly sensitive they could fool the medic. He'd kept things hidden from Sakura not for the sake of her trivial feelings getting hurt, but for the convenience it posed within the close quarters they moved in.

At this train of thought Karin looked up and smiled at him, walking over with quiet footsteps. What Sakura said about her father may have not registered in its importance, but what did was the realization that Karin knew.

The Uchiha turned to the blonde-haired (pink-haired...) girl, a deep unsettling reality coming over him.

The redhead could not pretend she did not know, did not sense Sakura's harried run, the windbitten cheeks and snow-melted hair. The carpet beneath her boots were soaked, wet footsteps tracing his room to hers. She never was fast enough for him to miss. The chance for a tracker? Next to impossible.

"Hey, everything all right?" Karin asked.

He could feel her coming to a stop beside him at the doorway, witness the beseeching eyes of Sakura turn into hard glints of emerald, have his own hands curl at his sides, tugging at his induratized heart.

For some reason, Karin singlehandedly decided to let Sakura know about them, and in the worst possible way.

"Get back in the room," he ordered, the menacing silence punctuated with the howl of the winds outside. It wasn't what he intended to say but it came spilling out, a command reaching from the depth of emotion he was swimming in. There was much more information than what he could process, his head a whirl of linking them and not understanding.

He wanted quiet. He wanted peace. He did not need, or want, the presence of the redhead.

"I also want to know," she complained, insisting Sasuke comply with her. "Don't you think I have a right to this?"

No. She stepped out of line, making a decision not hers to make. She had no right to tromp over and waive around her inanely personal vendetta around. Not with the way Sakura was glaring, her jawline clenching tight.

He was contemplating how to rebuke his teammate when the medic spoke, her voice light, expression dark.

"I need to talk to Sasuke."

The emphasis weighed on the last word, Karin turning to face Sakura at this seemingly benign request. It was not heavy with meaning, spoken in a tone playing at being harmless.

"Whatever you say to him, you can say to me," came the obtuse response.

You're stupidly bullheaded as ever, he thought. It was ironic if Karin were as socially dense as not to pick up on cues, or she was doing this on purpose, wedging herself between him and his former teammate to try and assert her current standing in his life. He should have known it would come to this.

Any agreements he and Sakura had come to were strictly followed because it concerned only him and her. Only the two of them, both in a vicious give and take cycle which seemingly only they understood. And now Karin had sensed this and was trying to inject herself into a bond she had no business being in, whether out of spite or jealousy it did not matter. You fucking moron.

"I need to talk to Sasuke. Alone," Sakura repeated, careful with each syllable she uttered.

He noticed the green gaze growing only darker, her body relaxing in contrast. Even with the heavy winter attire, he knew her muscles were tensing below her calm surface.

"Sakura, weren't you listening?" Karin's tone was too light to be oblivious. "I'm on Sasuke's side, just like you. I wouldn't– "

Sakura's gloved hand suddenly yanked the collar of his shirt his teammate was wearing, catching both of them off guard and jerking the redhead toward her with an undignified yelp, green eyes flashing malice as an arm cocked backward a gloved fist.

"Sak!" came his shocked response. Never had Sasuke seen his former teammate's face contorted with so much roiling rage.

The name had tumbled off his lips more out of shock than concern for Karin when the punch landed, aiming sideways and powering into the shelf beside the girls, the crackling of decades-old book spines muffling the crumble of concrete as the tremor shook the house, reverberations of the impact traveling along the floorboards beneath his bare feet. The house groaned from sustained damage to a supporting column, what silence followed being broken only by the audible bits of powder and pieces of stone falling through the hole into the other room.

Karin's original struggle to draw back, trying to undo the hand fisting the shirt, was stalled, her backside partly exposed because of Sakura's pull on the cloth. For a tranquil moment there was calm.

Sasuke watched with surprised disbelief at the restraint the medic showed, choosing to land the blow onto the bookcase instead. As disturbing as the unadultered hatred was, it melted off the pink-blonde's face, a neutral expression Fugaku would have loved taking its place.

"I need to talk to Sasuke, alone," she repeated for the third time, voice as distractingly light as snow. This was followed by a particularly rough shove of the other girl as though she had been holding something unpleasant, a stern look shot towards him daring him to interfere.

Karin's crimson eyes were beckoning him to just listen, because damn it, wasn't she the one he'd entrusted with his plan? Wasn't she the original one who he'd approached with a call for help?

It made complete sense to the Uchiha. And he wanted to laugh, because he didn't want to let her in anymore. She messed with whatever had been planned by trying to go about it on her own, slipping inconsequential information to Sakura which all of them could have done without. He wanted her to stay away for now, until he sorted this out.

Sakura pulled her arm out from the wreck, shifting the pulverized rocks and tattered books, dragging out debris to litter the floor. It was a wicked rush, seeing her fighting back instead of being the great pushover she'd always been. He wanted to fight her back down to her subservient place, where he led the pack of Team Seven and she lagged behind to be saved.

The insecurity haunted him.

"Sasuke?" the redhead practically begged him for help, hurt by his silence.

"Do as she says," he muttered.

He couldn't even bear to look at Karin. She would be mad at him for this, but he knew enough. A little persuasion and she'd be back groveling to stay on his side. It was a fatal personality flaw, really. It just so happened he was the object of her affections, something he could clearly use to his advantage. It was why he could completely write off any delirious tantrum of hers, including the one where she was right now marching down the hall in aggressive footfalls.

Sakura just stood there, trying to hide triumphant glee as she narrowed green eyes at him like a dare. Her words came back like a ghost. His suspicions resurfaced, the theory he'd been pondering on coming back with a vengeance.

"My biological father is Orochimaru."

So this was what the viperous shit had been planning all along.

"Orochimaru really is your father?" he repeated sarcastically after the door down the hall slammed shut. "He would never sire any children."

The victory she was tasting evaporated, to his amusement. A wry smile twisted his lips.

"Are you saying he lied to me?" she demanded, taken aback by his reaction.

"You– " silken skin, slender boned hands, deceptively shallow personalities on the surface... "don't even look like him. You don't have any of his skills. How could you believe someone like him?"

"You'd very much like to know, don't you?"

She'd fallen for his lies.

The minutest possibility it could be true was something he couldn't accept. Was it beyond him, the worst sennin, to find a long lost daughter and unearth her from the ravages of memory and time, only to use her against him? Was his detachment so great, his humanity so removed he'd actually ruin the lives for a superficial pursuit?

To Sasuke, the chance he'd just lied was greater.

"He is not your father." She didn't understand, either. That goddamned snake again. If he'd managed to make Sakura believe in whatever bullcrap he fed her... Shit. "Do you seriously believe Orochimaru? Are we even talking about the same person here?"

Something she'd never done before, rolling her eyes at him. It was mildly nostalgic to be on the receiving end of behavior she usually received for the dobe.

"He doesn't care about you, Sakura. He'd destroy you if you really think he does."

"You know what?" she conclusively snapped, shaking her head that the tips of her hair brushed on the hood of her coat. "You're so self-centered you've started to think it's always about you. Well, it's not! Stop thinking everyone's world revolves around you. This time, Sasuke, it's not about you. It never was!"

"You– "

"I am staying here whether you like it or not," she cut him off, chest heaving, small hands curled. The squall outside only blew harder, her running her gloves through her hair and messing it even more. "I'm doing this for my own reasons, not for you any longer. I walked out on him because I also thought it too far of a shot for him to be my father, but I need to find out more. I've tried telling you for the sake of someone who cares about you, but now it's done. I'm done and I don't have to do anything for you anymore. And you know what's the best part?"

Sasuke mouth ran dry, all the wrath in his head building up into a white noise blinding out every other coherent consideration.

"The best part," Sakura said, half-laughing with scorn, "is you telling me not to believe Orochimaru, when you fell for his lies three years ago!"

All his numb thoughts screeched silent, the cacophony dying out.

"You're right," he murmured roughly. Then walked away.

~x~

Sakura watched in horror as the Uchiha's gaze darkened, branching shadows on his aristocratic features because of her runaway mouth.

"You're right," was what he quietly said.

The tormented soul she tried to save – who stole her heart repeatedly and broke it just as many times, who she tried to lure back to where home was in the green forests of Fire – turned on his heel and padded back down the hall, the creaking open of his door shooting daggers through her chest.

Unbidden tears were already rolling hotly down her face before she realized what was happening, and she sniffled, holding the back of a sleeve to her mouth, alone in the chaos her room. Knees dropping to the soft tendrils of the carpet, sobs wracking her chest, she couldn't breathe.

She tried to stop it, as she almost always managed to do, but it only grew more painful. More sobs spilling from her lips, more tears stinging at her eyes and dripping onto her pants. It was an untruth trying to pretend she was stronger than she was.

This was entirely her fault, of course. She'd let Sasuke get to her.

She thought she was strong enough now, wiser after he'd left her and all of them behind. Where before she had willingly let him in and openly allowed him to ruin her, she wouldn't permit him the same now of course. She'd kept telling herself she was ready to take him on, take him home. That she wouldn't be hurt any longer because she knew better than to let him back in. That she would be the one who would get under his skin.

She fell even more in love, in the end. And he crushed her for it.

I hate you for making me like this. Sasuke didn't, wouldn't understand. A nagging feeling told her this part of her could have been something given to her by Orochimaru, and it petrified her. I hate you! I hate you!

Lies. All lies.

There was nothing else for her to do but cover her face with her hands and weep. All of the exertion from the first moment she met him again was for nothing.

Coming to this place, dealing with Orochimaru, dealing with Kabuto. Meeting Itachi and wholeheartedly promising one of the most dangerous criminals she'd help his brother. It took every ounce of effort she had not to just scream out her frustrations, not to chase him down the hall and wrench him out of Karin's arms. Not to give in to all her berserk emotions.

Out of the silence cold hands wrapped around her wrists, her shocked face greeted by his glare, pulling her stumbling to her feet.

"Sasu– "

The Uchiha dragged her after him toward the entrance to her balcony and unlatched the hook, a frightening gale bursting the door into the room to slam against the walls, howling like a tempest as a swirl of flurries surrounded them.

Sakura noticed he'd changed, worn the traveler's cloak grown familiar to her through all the time she'd spent staring at it as he ran ahead of her upon fleeing Konoha. Now the material kept blasting back from the force of the gusts, hair as black as his brother's tangling in the wind. She was wordless as they stepped out onto the slippery concrete fraught with ice, Sasuke turning to her with molten fire in granite eyes.

When she felt him try to pull her closer her instincts reared wildly, the images of him and Karin burning painfully as she bucked backward, just in time to see the anger flare on his handsome face.

"I'll bring you home," he snapped over the whistle of nature, refusing to let her go, his hands tightening, bending bones in her wrist. "I need to talk to you. But not here."

"Why!?" she shouted as loud as she could over the noise, hoping he could hear her, half of her voice carried off by the snow. "I told you I'm not going home!"

At that moment a brilliant flash of red sparked in her peripheral vision, turning her head round to find Karin had reentered her darkened room, barely able to see her from all the weather. A knife twisted in Sakura's heart, catching the meaningful look the Uchiha threw to her, his grip relaxing as he moved back inside to talk to the other girl.

Through the haze and snow she could still make them out, still see Karin pleading to him about something, feeling grim satisfaction at the sternness his silhouette radiated. I'll bring you home. His promise rippled.

Like hell. Emerald eyes narrowed at the two just out of the reach of the in-pouring blast. If he even dared try to bring that fucking bitch along, if that stupid slut would try to come closer, she wouldn't hold back slapping her halfway to the whirlpools of Wave. Her gloves stretched over the fists at her sides. You don't dare.

After what seemed like an eternity feeding her growing impatience with every passing second Sasuke turned to her, the wariness he expressed about her making her want to pound it out with her fists.

The gods granted her ill-borne wish, and a grim triumphant smugness overtook her. He appeared to speak something and that red hair flicked for what would hopefully be the last time in her life, Karin huffily turning on her heel and faded back stomping into the gloom of the hallway. The avenger stood there, unmoving, unperturbed, until he slowly turned to look at the side over to her.

Her heart skipped a beat.

Sakura tried to appear busy by tugging the unruly muffler off completely and donning it properly, winding it through a loop just as Sasuke stepped back out beside her.

"You're not going to need that," he said over the blistering air currents, his voice echoing in her chest. He was pulling on his arm guards and adjusting them.

There was no time for her to ask why when a blast of hot air whooshed past and engulfed her, Sasuke taking a bracing step before leaping atop the balustrade with the hard-packed ice instantly sublimating into clouds of vapor. His soles landed on dry concrete, the atmosphere immediately around him boosting higher in temperature as wave after wave of his energy filled the air. The stormy gusts still blew past them, breaching an unseen barrier where it swelled in heat and warmed the wind-bitten skin on her face.

But what made her pause was the sight of the Uchiha, hunkered on the banister with black as night hair and cape thrashing about. It was an irrefutable truth he was so much like his brother, a most cruel resemblance the gods played.

Knees bending, spine bowing as though he were about to take flight, just like the fallen angel crouching on the windowsill, Sakura thought to herself, unable to tear her eyes away.

He looked over his shoulder at her, coal black eyes cold and unreadable. There was a lull and Sasuke stretched out his hand for her to take, a gesture he'd rarely done. A gesture she inadvertently flinched from, because the searing memories of what he'd done returned in a flood and she glared at the open palm he offered.

How dare you, she seethed inwardly. And just when she started to pity him, too.

He seemed to have noticed her unease, a nostalgically annoyed frown creasing his brow.

"If you really think your cause is more important than what I do, then be a fucking professional and take my hand," he sneered, dark shadows clouding his expression.

You asshole. Not like it wasn't tempting – or completely in the right, because it was the truth – to say it to his face a second time around just to drill it into his tiny little mind, but she knew it would only be childish and petty of her if she kept picking on his character flaw. He had been and always would be an asshole. She knew it. He knew it. Everyone who came in contact with him and six degrees away knew it. The mere presence of that pretentious scowl growing on his face was enough to tell anyone who saw it he was a spoiled, miserable kid who thought the world revolved around him.

"I can get by on my own," Sakura snapped back, turning away and stepping back away from the cocoon of heat emanating from the Uchiha. The arctic draft snaked beneath the shelter of her hair and stirred at the back of her neck, whispering against her decision to move.

Ignoring the flints sparking in his eyes she laid a hand against the solid ice caking the top of the balustrade, knowing how stubborn she was being. Pulling herself up onto the platform, endeavoring not the show any frustration at finding her footing dangerously slippery even with a chakra grip, she shakily stood up with a huff.

Then threw Sasuke an obstinately challenging look.

The last thing Sakura saw was his stooped form uncurling, straightening to his full height of dark features and light cape beating in the wind, each swift step towards her exploding the ice beneath his feet into sheer mist. The last thing Sakura remembered was him snatching her elbow, the metal of his arm guard biting into her flesh, her letting out a pained cry as he roughly pulled her towards him.

Her eyes grew wide as the pain thudded at her nape, her rebellious mouth issuing the last words she struggled to form.

"You asshole," she hissed to the black stains bleeding into her vision, the stench of fire the last scent lingering in her senses.

Before the shadows claimed her she heard his voice, the final thing Sakura would remember until she woke again.

"I said, I'm bringing you home."

Catch