(Re-Edited Version)
This is uncalled for, starting new stories when I tend to ignore the ones that are still up there. –shakes head- Bad habit, but as the saying goes, old habits die hard.
Disclaimer: ME NOW OWN. YOU NO SUE. Gets?
Gods of Vindication
Part One: Step Away
"Come."
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"Sasuke-kun, she is the girl, right?"
"..."
"Kukukuku… she's just like hime, hardworking to catch up…
"She's so smart, isn't she?
"And she's so vulnerable too.
"Clumsy at times, but I know that you still hold her dear.
"Tell me, Sasuke-kun, what will you do, hm?
"You wouldn't want to do anything.
"You just want her to stay as she is, away from danger. From you.
"But now, you couldn't, because you need to.
"Emotions tie you down, Sasuke-kun. You are an avenger.
"She will always be the girl calling for you.
"She will drop anything, detach herself if she must.
"She will do anything if the order comes from 'Sasuke-kun'.
"And I will take advantage of that, hm?
"So listen closely,
"Because you can do nothing but obey.
"And besides, you shouldn't care for her.
"So, sacrifice her to me, and I will grant you more power.
"Do you agree?"
"Yes, Orochimaru."
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He walks past the gates, effectively using his index and middle fingers to strike out at points in the guards' necks to knock them out. Staring at the bodies falling to the ground with final groans of alarm and protest, Sasuke pulls the gray hood over his spiked head and the cloak tighter around his form as he searches the surroundings with emotionless eyes. No one watches, and those at the towers do not seem to even detect the new presence manifesting itself inside the borders.
Such lousy barriers Konoha has set. Do they believe they would be protected by these precautions, if these could even be determined as something to protect themselves with? Imbeciles.
It was a good decision to have fled this place. He did not know how he would have been brought up had he ever wavered into deciding to stay. Probably going about pulling out the weeds in someone's garden, or accompanying feudal lords, grown men shamefully afraid their own shadow would strike them dead if they didn't watch it.
Whether he liked it or not the fact remained that Orochimaru had known of his potential, and was the only one who managed to tap into it successfully, made good use of it. Sure, Kakashi had been a good teacher and all but he had still prevented him from his real growth. He had tried to stop him from making use of his real ability. That was one thing he could not forgive.
Since Orochimaru had spoken to him of this… mission, he knew at once one thing. There might be the remote chance that finally, finally his teacher had cracked. Or he was merely toying with him, because his demeanor was of wide grins and twisting tongues.
In a sense though, almost all his meetings with the sannin has been laced with his venomous words and oily speech, sending him provocated to the greatest extent. Orochimaru had never deceived him, after all. The few times he has turned out all for his own good. Of Uchiha Sasuke's growth in strength. It remains as the sole reason why he trusts his mentor.
He had told him of what he thought of him, a nutcase, insane and unhinged, and the reason had been given to him in exchange. He was shown the plan. Just retrieve her, was all he was told to do. To bring her without fail back to Sound. And he had made it clear he wanted her alive.
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"Sasuke-kun, she is the girl, right?"
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Breathe in… breathe out… breathe in… breathe out… Sasuke repeats the words in his head.
He usually never has any qualms about killing but each time he comes close to actually doing it, there always is this sudden pause making itself known in the very pit of his stomach. Closing his eyes, hiding his sharingan from the world, he repeats the mantra, Breathe in, breathe out… (oh what a pathetic weakling you are, what would aniki say?)
Opening these scarlet lenses once more, he raises his eyes up the high border wall and takes the first step in scaling the space to the person at the watch tower. With every shred of chakra he draws to his feet he walks faster, attaching himself without effort to the concrete, steps growing quicker, pacing swifter the closer to the top until he dissolves into a blur of ferocious intent.
Unseen, and in less than a few seconds, he reaches his destination undetected. Nor heard.
For a heartbeat he is frozen suspended, held in place only by the lull of drained inertia as his cloak splays out from the momentum of his speed. It bleeds into full spread like giant wings, a phantom the last thing his poor victim will ever see.
Orochimaru wanted this to be perfect, and he could not risk the slightest chance he would be found out. In his views, being in Konoha itself is a sin for him, and if anyone knew of it, the plan had failed.
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"..."
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The night's crisp air is spilled with the spray of blood staining the border gates. It is dark, almost black, glinting in the moonlight and following the merciless pattern showing the graceful arc sweep of a kunai, soon sliding down the rusted iron. The head of one guard is impaled upon his own generic-issue sword, the bodies left on their posts to be found out by whoever will be filling in the next shift.
A short distance away Sasuke's billowing gray cloak flutters in the wind as he walks off pristine, stainless, nothing to could logically pin the blame on him. He will blame it on Orochimaru. It will never be his fault they died, because it was an order. It wasn't he who wanted them dead, so let them be. It wasn't his doing. He didn't want to see it that way. He wanted to think it was Orochimaru who had killed them.
He walks down the familiar avenue. He'd walked down that path a million times in his memories. The dried leaves swirl around him, brushing past his cloak with the occasional unfortunate one crunching under his sandaled feet.
He continues, stopping only upon spotting the familiar grove of trees; stopping in the place where he knew she stood before, waiting for him in a feeble attempt to put a stop to his reckless actions. Before, in that part of his memory, everything looked like they had at the height of spring — bursting with life and full of hope, of the color of blossoms and the green of leaves.
As of late the branches were bare, the colossal amount of nature's dried children swirling in the zephyrs passing him. This was what they were now.
Like perfect timing his trained ears hear the stepping of feet, trudging, a few times scraping pebbles on the walkway. And soon enough he watches her form rise out of the shadows and emerge into the path, into moonlight.
Same way he had seen her before, wearing a sleeveless red shirt and tan skirt, arms bare except for cloth elbow guards, forehead protector worn like a headband. He knows she had come from meeting her own guardian, the one who stands opposite his own teacher. The Tsunade to Orochimaru, this is how Sakura is to him. They were different, far more than what either of them imagined.
He discerns the heavy books cradled in her arms, how she tries to keep them balanced though she has the strength to carry them. Volume upon heavy volume piled in front of her, the tower of books stopping at her lips.
He could only see half of her expression and yet that half is enough to tell him she still hadn't recognized him. As she draws closer the column of books quivers, threatening to fall, making her carefully shift the stack to avoid crashing it all around her and offer more to do at the rather ungodly hour.
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"Kukukuku… she's just like hime, hardworking to catch up…
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That is when she finally notices there is a figure standing there in the middle of the way, watching her with eyes glittering under the hood's shade, his face unseen.
He watches her stop and glare as well, thinking that defiant expression hauntingly matches her unpredictable personality. He could see the ticking inside her mind as she assesses this new persona who appears to have popped out of nowhere to harass her (which is exactly what you're planning to do...). He knows her well enough to at least predict the most possible way of how she would react. She's thinking of how to find out why someone like him was out at night, his intentions, and what he could possibly want from her.
The thoughts make him acknowledge at least a smirk across his lips, still unnoticed behind the shadows swathing around him. Her pink brows furrows in thought, jade eyes narrowing in suspicion directed at him.
Sasuke could feel she already knows he is some hostile presence, his eyes perceiving a hand inching to the leather gloves hung at the belt bag around her waist. She only uses them either when training or about to enjoin someone in a fight. He knows she would pull them on without a thought.
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"She's so smart, isn't she?
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"Who are you?" she asks him, and he simply cocks his head to the side.
What is the most effortless way he could break her? Penetrate her shields without causing any stir for an alarm?
The answer is easy. A normally windy spring season pulls back the hood from his head with invisible hands of a sudden powerful gust of wind, coldly exposing him to her, and he secretly shivers at the coolness of the air on his scalp as his hair tangles free from the rough material. Black spikes fleetingly claw at the air as he pushes away them from his face, raking them back with a hand.
He sees her blanch.
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"And she's so vulnerable too.
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The books betray her.
The top one slipping away pulls the rest with its weight, dragging them along, the column toppling over to the stone ground with heavy dull thunks. Some of them fall open, pages flipping wildly in the wind. Papers wedged between them pull free but they go ignored as the girl in front of him could only stare, with lips parted in shock, her own hair whipping around lasciviously by the currents.
White sheets of paper, what seems like medical records and notes, dance along with the dried leaves pervading the air.
Sasuke steps closer, just a couple feet away from where she stands frozen in place, taking in her reaction. Reveling in it.
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"Clumsy at times, but I know that you still hold her dear.
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A condescending smirk starts to manifest itself on his features, gradually darkening into sheer repugnance of how she never seems to change. Repugnance of how she is always weak, of how she never tries to hide that about her. Repugnance at how she is always swayed by how she feels about someone.
"Who am I?" he asks softly, parody of her own question.
The tremor of baritone in his voice reaches out to wash over her. With the stark moonlight and brittle leaves swirling around them, his cloak bursts open and billows out to her sides as if wanting to swallow her in the shadows it forms, flowing and flapping in the heavy wind.
He knew it; it is that easy to strip her of her defenses.
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"Tell me, Sasuke-kun, what will you do, hm?
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Reaching out, he lets his obsidian gaze flicker from holding her eyes to follow his own pale hand rising to her hair. He pulls away one of those brown leaves, withered and dry, caught in a small net of pink strands.
It speaks of autumn, and he lets it free into the air, loosens the fragile material from between his fingers, returning his dark eyes to look back at her once again.
Had someone who didn't know who they are catch them at that very moment, they would think they were lovers separated and reunited after a length of time. The timing, there are no people around this ungodly romantic hour. The place, had it not been holding more painful memories, breathtaking. Only the emotions are different.
Most importantly are the intentions of this meeting. He will need to break her down to be able to use her.
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"You wouldn't want to do anything.
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"Sasuke…"
She is now getting over the initial shock of seeing him and she is searching, prying as if to elicit any kind of answer from his cryptic demeanor. The tone she uses hints somewhere between questioning and rebuking him.
Her green eyes rove over his face, judging his almost-blank reaction, acting like a caged animal who is cornered, trying to squirm and back away from the one closing in on it even when it knows it couldn't stay away any farther.
Yet also like a caged animal, she isn't willing to let him out of her sight.
It can be easy for him to just stop intimidating her, stop manipulating this creature. Step back and give her space, turn around and walk away. Leave her alone. He can vaguely discern there is this part of him wanting to do that, and his mind was trying to find that part to try to understand why.
But everything is covered in fog. It makes all what is happening and all what he is thinking too hard to understand. So he remains rooted there, forming the image of him being the captor, towering over his captive.
The last shred of shame and humanity is thrown away for his purpose. I'm sorry.
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"You just want her to stay as she is, away from danger. From you.
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"Yes," he answers, voice filled with as much coldness and hatred as he could muster. "I am Sasuke, in case you forget how I look like."
The tremble in her lower lip, the sweep of her tongue across it as a nervous habit. The tremble in her breathing. The tremble in her bravery showing she is starting to wane to his manipulations. The trembling of her form is clearer than ever.
Sarcasm is not something he was new at, but throughout the time he spent away from the tame Konoha he has become more accustomed to it, realizing how he could use it to bring about guilt and shame to people he used it on. Exactly what he has been doing just now.
He slowly raises his hand up to her face to test the waters, see how she would react. Seeing the confusion splash across her features he slowly runs his fingertips across the curve of her jaw, hiding the sudden rush of adrenaline spiking through his body when she seized his hand and held it away from her face, startling him.
She holds those huge eyes closed with uncertainty still written all over her.
He needs to read her more carefully. He has to know when he would say which words, how he would tell them to her, or if he had crossed the line or not. If there is any mistake in how he delivers what he is supposed to say, he would need to use force on her to bring her to Sound. And fighting someone like her in a village like Konoha would be far too dangerous.
Those sad, luminescent eyes finally train on him again, and upon realizing he is paying attention she lets go of his hand.
She's going to give in. He is going to make her, even if it goes across his morals to succumb to the dirty play incited by Orochimaru into his conscience. She is going to be the key to unlock more of the power he needs, the factor heightening the possibility of killing his brother. He would do everything it takes.
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"But now, you couldn't, because you need to.
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Someone like him shouldn't be feeling anything. It is a disgrace. He just had let his mother, his clan, his blood, he let them die and he was even shamefully left behind.
The least he could do is take back the life that isn't supposed to be walking here in the land of the living, someone who had wrongfully taken theirs. He should assassinate that life the way it had done not only for those it had killed, but because his own future had been destroyed. He needs to appease the dead. He should just be an empty shell of a person now, not caring for anything except what he has already been cut out for.
This is why he has to shed himself of the humiliating thing called "feelings", those that could cause not only his destruction, but also which can take away his revenge.
These people who he had left behind, they misunderstand him. He doesn't want the recognition of being a powerful ninja; he doesn't even want to be known, hating being in the light where people adore him, try to catch his attention, and respect him. It is all so fake. No one seems to see the falseness of it all, so he had to make his own path. Alone.
It is the reason he left them all behind. They just don't know what he wanted, and never will. They are those who could not comprehend how it was important for him to gain the strength to finally beat his brother. No one does.
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"Emotions tie you down, Sasuke-kun. You are an avenger.
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"Sasuke… Why are you here?"
A glimmer of hope traces across those naïve features, and he remains silent and watching, playing like how a predator does to its prey when it knows that it can.
"Tell me," she says, blinking away the sheen of tears.
Crybaby. She shouldn't be letting her own weaknesses out. That was where she was always weak at. Everyone would know in an instant what to use against her, giving too much care to those who surrounded her. She doesn't fit the life of a shinobi. She should just quit it.
She is disgustingly soft-hearted, another thing he couldn't tolerate. She had always tried to gather his attention as well.
He hates it, loathes that expression. That kindness she always manages to show, seeping in deep into the cracks of those whose souls were too broken. She wants to preserve life, when the job she has is supposed to be taking it. It is too much, just too much for him. She is so damn perfect, only in the way he didn't expect her to be.
"Sasuke, are you here because… you've come home?"
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"She will always be the girl calling for you.
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Her voice cracks, he notices, when she asks the question in that small, pitiful voice. There it is. Finally, the flaw he sought in her. Something small, but a flaw nonetheless.
"No," he whispers, the words ghosting past his pale lips in a frozen answer, and to spite her, added, "I'll be taking you there."
As expected emerald eyes glaze with tears, the defiance in her character becoming more and more apparent the more he watches her.
He smirks, enjoying the inner torment he is causing her.
He has to do this for his only aim to come true. At this very moment he could almost taste his brother's blood that would spurt from his torn heart and scatter over his being.
It keeps him going, using everything he has within his reach, leveraging it to his favor. Even things he knows will be far too harsh, like toying with people and their emotions, knowing he is bastard enough to even consider it. And without reluctance he will go straight to emotionally ripping her apart, if it gains him an advantage.
Same place they are standing on, this is where she had told him something he can use.
"You promised me before that you would do anything. Even help in my retribution," he says in the low tone of his voice, words falling like molten lead, contracting guilt into her distressed face. "I'm counting on that."
Watching her grit her teeth, he gives a small shrug of his shoulders. "Or maybe not. By not accepting, you raise my chances of being found dead."
"No," she says, stressing the word before blinking and looking away. "It's not fair for you to use that."
"You said it. You said you don't know what would happen, but you'll still do anything – "
"Sasuke!" she hisses as she shifts her eyes back to him, hopelessly trying to stop him from saying anything else. Angry and pleading, but helpless and almost in tears.
"… as long as I take you with me."
"No… not like this. Anything else, just not…"
He looks away, cutting her short, anywhere except the entreating girl.
With what he is offering her, if he still knew her to be that person who might be rational yet impulsive, therein lies his answer. Make her go with him, and if his brother ends up dead somewhere it will be worth all this trouble.
He slowly draws his ace, knowing it would crush her.
"It was a promise I had been counting on. And you just couldn't keep it."
There is no sound of any stifled crying that could be heard, unlike before. This time she is quiet, the tears falling down from the edges of her eyes and continuing down her face.
He is playing on the stupid fraction of her mind wanting to go with him, yet he is also aware there is a coherent part of her which knows it would be wrong. There are many things she doesn't do right, so if she would to decide to leave with him, she could be placed as the same league as Uchiha Sasuke: Traitor.
Turning her back on her own village is serious enough to scare her, knowing she still abided by the rules and laws of society and order. But he is Sasuke, the person who she always wanted to be there for, the one who she always holds when he is down.
"I relied on you before when you were there. I'm expecting you to be here now."
"Sas– "
A sob. Sasuke has her now, he knows. Rejecting her makes her come back for more.
When he turns back to face her trembling form her face buried is in the palms of her hands. The books lie forlornly on the ground, their leaves being tossed by the wind as his own cape continues to engulf and lull her into an atmosphere of pending gloom. She is already broken down, and if she ever tries to draw something inside her to resist him one last time, it would be far too easy to brush it away. She is his now.
He hears her take a shaky breath and then watches as she combs back the pink tresses covering her face with her hands. She isn't even looking at him.
Her eyes are ringed with red as she tries to stop the tears from falling.
"Sasuke," she says in a detached voice, raising her eyes as though forcing them to meet his, her arms embracing herself in a defensive manner, "You know that… you're making me choose. Between you and–"
"I'll go now," he answers coldly, cutting her off again. He didn't want to see her reaction. Turning around his cloak brushes against her when he turns on his heel, continuing to flap in the streaming wind.
He barely even takes a step before he hears her shout,
"Wait!"
Arms are suddenly thrown around his torso, tightly embracing him through the thick material of his coat, her head resting between his shoulder blades as she silently cried.
The wind is strong, and she is surprisingly warm. He has broken her, body and spirit, so she is no longer of most reason. This is the reason he didn't want to feel any attachment, as they greatly cloud any judgment to be made.
"You choose me over the village?" he asks in that same harsh, low timbre.
"Yes," she answers, the small vibrations of a hauntingly calm voice felt inside his chest when she speaks into his back.
"Just… don't leave like that again…"
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"She will drop anything, detach herself if she must.
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He smiles. One light curve of his lips, yet still sinister in form, going unseen. The clouds chose that time to descend upon the moon, preventing most of its light from reaching the ground and plunging them deeper in shadows.
This is final. It feels like his life is in his very hands. An ugly smirk tugs at his mouth. No more can Itachi deign over him and try to hurt him more than he already has. That bastard is finally going to die.
She agrees to him, at long last. The saying that revenge is sweet is a total lie. Victory is sweeter. Far, far, sweeter. He could say it is like honey, thick and satisfyingly leaving behind an aftertaste to remind him of it. Having her on his side is like securing that prospect of triumph.
The only thing he needed now is to get her to where his mentor was. And given what he already managed to do, this will need little persuasion on his part.
"You will come with me, and I'll bring you to where Orochimaru is."
He feels her nod against his back, causing his small smile to twist into a malevolent grin.
"You will do as I say."
"Anything," he hears her say, once more feeling her quiet voice tingling through his system.
He chuckles to himself, looking over his shoulder at the swathe of pink hair splayed across his shoulder, almost feeling the wetness of her tears through his clothes. Trailing his own hands across her arms still around him, the sadism Orochimaru infused upon him is coming into play.
"Are you sure…?"
"Yes," she repeats heavily, looking up into his dark gray eyes.
The outburst of emotion Sakura is showing him through those forest hued eyes sends raging the maniacal glee primed by hatred at the twelfth of his years, the promise he had made to kill his brother turning into a mad frenzy. No one can stop him.
"Are you sure?" he pushes, tone rising, pulling free of her and turning around so he could look down on her, the cruel smirk on his lips baring a hint of his teeth.
"I said anything!" she responds, beseeching him to stop asking that distressing question. Her expression tells him it is like him asking her to repeatedly claim she is defrauding her own village.
Tears are starting to flow again, his fingers digging into her arms as she hides her face in her hands, embarrassed of what kind of traitor she has become. She hasn't even left the village yet and here she is, already deceiving it by choosing to go with Sasuke. Just like him.
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"She will do anything if the order comes from 'Sasuke-kun'.
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He gives a short laugh, watching her breaking down. Because of him. He knows to attain something, one must have sacrifices. That will always have to play a part.
For Itachi, he isn't sure what he did was for anything at all. He did say it was only to test himself. And he hates him for that. He detests him badly. And for him? He had given up his chance at a peaceful life. All to kill that runaway bastard.
Peaceful life? Hah, life is sure peaceful if you were him. No one could lay down and have an easy rest being always tormented by images of your own brother slaying everyone, the people you grew up with. It's why he was left behind.
He is the only one now who can play the role of avenging them, hopefully righting what is wrong. One is strong when the enemy has nothing to use against them, nothing perceivable to hinder your goal. It is the reason he broke his bonds. He had to get rid of them, so Itachi wouldn't hurt him through those. No more.
And if using those bonds will allow him to be able to kill that murderer, he will do it.
"You will heal Orochimaru's arms," he says venomously, their hair mingling around them, ebony and pink threading through each other in the strong wind.
At that moment he feels her falter, and then watch her lingeringly shake her head.
"No…"
Anger reared its ugly head right then and there inside of Sasuke, and he fought back the thundering rush boiling at the back of his mind that almost makes him want to really make her hurt, instead channeling the force into clenching her arms so tightly she lets out a cry of pain.
"You will heal the bastard's arms," he hisses, pulling her closer to him, to his shadows lurching and stretching out as the moon once again reveals itself in its silver glory, breaking free behind the clouds.
"No, I won't," she forces through a pained countenance, forest green eyes pleading mercy at his hands. "Please, not –"
"You will."
He is feeding off her fear. He could almost taste it in the air, see it in how her features are waning before him, and he hasn't even shown he was truly angry at her.
Orochimaru had shown him the monstrous manipulations he has always been using, an example being Kabuto himself, but he never knew playing the manipulator is this… gratifying. He is rather appalled to find himself enjoying Sakura's dread, but it is there. No use denying what is real.
She is squirming, trying to wrench away again and flee from his calm fury communicated though his eyes. Seeing her take a step backward, he pulls her nearer, tightening his grip.
She refuses, still trying for release, but his iron hold remained, keeping her under the power of mere threat by his presence.
"You're hurting me…"
That faint, tight tone makes him aware of how hard he is actually gripping her arm but he doesn't waver, instead jerking her roughly towards him and insinuating another strangled cry.
Leveling their faces, he stares into those tear-stained innocent emerald irises, getting his point across without repeating himself again as his hands loosens from her upper arms and slowly slides to her wrists without breaking contact. He compulsorily doesn't hurt her, admitting what he was doing is painful and that he needs her to give reticence.
"You will heal his arms," he says more evenly, his own dark eyes wandering down to her supposedly pink-tinged lips already redder than ever from being bitten down on, "Because I said so."
Burning his words into her mind. Making her know he isn't just fooling around. Letting her see it isn't her who is in control, and that he wouldn't give a damn if she would at least cooperate so he would hurt her no more.
To have her know those tears pooling below those green eyes are worthless, and they are making him want to harm her further. Let her succumb to him, using ploy after nasty ploy to get her to follow him, terrorizing her, tasting those salty tears with a flick of his tongue as she tries not to sob. Kissing lightly the side of her mouth to appease her, at the same time leaving something akin to a promise.
His hands at her wrists take hold of her gloves and he gives a forcible yank without any protest, at last managing to take off the leather gloves and dropping them to join the books at their feet.
Taking them off is like taking away the last offensive intentions she has left. She is so docile, and open, she could easily be likened to a puppet.
Well, hasn't she been before? Always acting like she has no mind of her own, always following what she is told, yet not pursuing the chance to do something for herself when the opportunity comes along.
But now that he has broken her, she is going to be worse than a person whose actions are dictated by another. She would be an object. A thing.
"You will leave this village."
Tears once more are trying to be repressed and she blinks as he straightens up, his hot breath on her cheek. Not enough damage? Or is it the cruel streak flowing out of him?
"You will leave your life."
She shakes her head in that hopeless way, bare hands coming up to cover her mouth and keep herself in check. Keep a sob from escaping.
"You will leave Tsunade. Hinata, Kiba, Lee, whoever those were."
"How can you say that about them?" she asks in the slightly frenetic tone spiked with her breathlessness. It suffices to say she is depressed and disappointed.
"You will leave all you had."
She is thinking about what she will gain and lose, and if she is as predictable as he thinks she is, no way will there be any backing out.
"You'll leave Ino. Kakashi. And especially Naruto."
A soft "No…" can be heard and he smirks, knowing full well it is pure rhetoric. Something niggling in the back of his head is screaming at him to hurt her even more, and he couldn't help but reconsider what he was doing.
Is it enough or what? He doesn't seem to know any longer. There is no right or wrong anymore, losing himself in the satisfying manipulation of the moment.
"You will."
She nodded, the least she could do as he watches her fall to her knees, cradling her face in the palm of her hands as she laments everything she is fast losing.
So she agreed, his faithful martyr, and he couldn't help but feel disdain for her. She is down there, in the length of his shadow, as the moonlight streams from behind him. Like a symbolism of how finally he took her.
Like in some myths, the Angel of Dread, only he isn't one.
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"And I will take advantage of that, hm?
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He kneels down on one knee, mirth filling his eyes and a bitter smile showing on his lips as he pulls away her hands from her wracking frame, gazing at that face he doesn't know if he loathes or loves.
Letting his own fingers travel to the back of her neck and trace her cheeks, he ignores the clear warning shouts of his conscience he already had done enough. And that he should leave her alone; her small hands trying to push him away was another caveat.
"Sasuke, enough…"
"Listen closely…"
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"So listen closely,
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She winces, expecting another bout of emotional thrashing. He isn't done with her yet.
"No! I already agreed to go with you, isn't that enough?"
"... Because you can do nothing but obey."
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"Because you can do nothing but obey.
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Fresh drops roll down those pale cheeks flushed red with pain and humiliation. Tears laced with regret. He only manages to let his gaze roam over those starkly lit features.
"And besides, you shouldn't care anymore."
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"And besides, you shouldn't care for her.
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Her hands were clamping hard at the cloak's rough material clustered at his throat, shaking with either the cold or the fear. Or the pain that he is causing her. She has those glaring, angry eyes directed at him.
"Stop it. I'll go heal him and I won't bother you anymore. I'll heal him but I'll come back home."
That soft, warm voice. Pleading.
He watches with an openly amused expression as she tries to fight back her own justifications of what is happening. But it is only him who could do that right now, and she knows that, trying to forestall what he was going to say, because he knows she knows she is too weak to fight it.
"Sacrifice yourself to me…"
"Shut up. Please."
With that he watches with morbid fascination as she leans her head on his shoulder, still grasping his overcoat like it was her lifeline, her hot breath into the crook of his neck adding to the warmth against the cold wind.
"… and I will grant you my company."
A torn decision. But a decision made.
.
"So, sacrifice her to me, and I will grant you more power.
.
"Do you agree…?"
.
"Do you agree?"
.
"… yes, Sasuke," Sakura whispers.
.
"Yes, Orochimaru."
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AN: Uh… Manipulative!Sasuke right there. Probably it's only me who has a problem with him as the ultimate sadistic bastard, or is it only me who has a problem with him as the ultimate sadistic bastard? Both? Or is it the overload of reading DHr fics in the Harry Potter fandom? –gets conked on the head - xD
Nar, surprisingly I have no solid plot yet set for this, and I'm not really up to doing this if that's what happens. O.O This is just an experiment, so you mind giving constructive criticisms?