Chapter 29

I.

Let her remain where she is. A constellation away.

- Gamalinda

II.

When Sasori and Hikari came back, Sakura was asleep on the couch. Hikari quickly went upstairs with a new app on his iPad he discovered, and Sasori gently woke Sakura up.

Sakura seemed dizzy for a few seconds before she came to, and held onto her stomach, "You're back. Where's Hikari?"

Sasori held her against his chest, "I did. He's upstairs, we ate already. How are you feelings?"

Sakura sighed a long sigh. "He apologized to me. After all these time..."

They sat in silence.

Sasori said, "A man can be in a completely different state of mind when he's a bit older."

She sighed once more, "I wish he'd leave me alone. He has taken all I had to offer, and there's nothing left."

They sat there a while longer, until the sky went dark, and the roaring thunder clouds came crashing down on the little house, and bits of rain dropped on the bamboo mats out front.

Sasori said finally, "I'm leaving soon."

Sakura doesn't seem surprised. "How soon?"

"In a few minutes. I'll send someone for my things and some cleanup for the messes I've made."

"So soon?" She was startled, getting up to look at him.

"Yes." Sasori frowned a little, holding back something painful. However he sat straight up too, holding Sakura's shoulders and asked her straight, "Would you come with me?"

"Come? Where?" Sakura was startled.

"To inner Suna, where my family resides. I heard my sister's back too. You'll meet my family, you'll stay with us."

"Under... which pretense" Sakura blinked, "I... How can I?"

"As my... girlfriend." Sasori trailed off, even he doesn't believe it. In this world and culture, a women who has had a child almost have no chance of marrying off to another eligible man again. Especially when he has so many other choices. Societal and familial pressure will crush her like a bug.

Sakura laughed at him. Her laughter sounded like bells.

Sasori stared at her, and then he got mad and ashamed all at once. He yelled, "I'm not joking!" He let her go and started sulking on the couch. "I'm leaving now. I'm really leaving."

Sakura edged forward and held onto his arm from behind. "I'll miss you. We'll both miss you, so will Potato."

He turned around, pulled her in to the warmest and biggest hug, "Come with me, please. Please."

She almost did, his words lit a flame shot up from the pit of her stomach and it spread all over, even to the depth of her deep, dark, heart.

They knew they had to separate, it wasn't meant to be. Sasori knew this is not his story, he's merely a passerby in her life. They'll remember each other, sure, but that's the extent of their relationship.

They sat in silence for a long time holding each other's hands. Sakura laid her head back on the couch. It started to rain, just a pitter-patter drizzle.

Sasori said in the softest voice possible, "You should come with me. I don't have much, well, not as much as my brother, but I still have some. I have a property in the city that's entirely mine, a penthouse that over looks all the sky scrapers. I have some shares, and I have a lake house too. We can live in the lakehouse, I bet you haven't seen a lake in like forever in Suna. It's a beautiful little house, and I used to stay there a lot when I was a child. There's a stream running past the front yard, and I remember pickling up all sorts of bugs by the stream and Temari would collect all the pretty stones polished by years and years of running water. We'd put our collection in a jar, and the maid would throw my bugs out and I hate her for it... I can teach Hikari on how to pick cicidas off a willow tree... It's incredibly easy you see, Use a bamboo stick and put some glue at the tip... Ah... I can't seem to remember what type of glue. I haven't been there in a long time... a long, long time."

Sakura listened intently, hanging on to his every word.

"Good bye, Sakura, I really like you, goodbye."

He was smiling when he said that, and he stood by the door, in the pouring rain, looking at her in the most tender and loving way. It reminded Sakura of many months ago, when she first met him, he's standing at that exact place, tall and handsome, giving her a flashy and cunning smile. She was holding a baseball bat in one hand, screaming for him to get off her mat. The first thing he said was, "My name is Sasori and I used to live here. I just want to check out this place-Don't hit me! My father's really rich-"

Sasori turned away from her and walked out into the rain, and closed the gate behind him.

Tears gushed down her eyes.

III.

Sasori and Sasuke had a conversation prior to him leaving. It was during the ride back, when Hikari was playing on a playground, Sasuke was in the limo with Sasori. Gaara stepped out to watch Hikari as well as making various phone calls. Sasori faced Sasuke and felt like he's staring down at a tiger's mouth.

"If I taker her away, you won't be able to find us." Sasori said, his eyes shooting daggers, "I can get a passport for her, I can-"

"You can't." Sasuke interrupted him, not rudely. "She has a record, she can't fly. Even if you tried, your family is not powerful enough to extend that grasp within mainland governments."

Sasori hated him even more. "Do you want to bet? I'm not my brother, everything and anything can be traded."

"She won't leave." Sasuke said with a gentle confidence, almost to himself, "as long as I'm here, she won't leave." His voice leaked out bitterness towards the end. "She'll grow old, Hikari will need someone to take care of him. Are you willing to be saddled with this burden for the rest of your life? You may be able to make her feel better for a short while, but every pain she's feeling was caused by me. I can bring her comfort and the cure for her pain. I can make sure she live like a queen. I can provide her with everything she needs. I can fight for her and use everything in my power, including everything I own, to tie her down with me-can you?"

Sasori spat out in contempt, "I'm able to defy my destiny but have to conform to life."

"You'll grow older, you'll fall in love, and you'll start a family. You may think she's interesting or fascinating. You might want to get to know her and spend your time making her feel better, but you're both just pass by in each other's journey of life. You're unable to walk into her heart, and she doesn't want to interrupt your life. This is something you can't achieve, no matter what you do. There's a difference between a man in his twenties versus when he's in his thirties. You have yet to let ambition and desire for power take over you, you've yet to experience the feeling of absolute control. You already have all the unconditional love in the world and you'll have a easy life moving forward because of your birth and status. You will succeed, maybe even better and more powerful than I will ever be. but you will never love her as much as I do at this moment, right now."

Sasuke said in the most calming tone, as if stating a fact. He leaned against the door and closed his eyes when he said them and suddenly felt so very tired. Maybe years of working 80 hour weeks have caught up to him, and everything he worked for drifting away in front of him and he can't be bothered to catch it.

Sasori stared at him for a minute before stepping out of the limo, "I really, really hate you."

IV.

Sasuke moved in.

Hikari got used to having Sasuke within the house quite soon. He doesn't remember much from before, and Sasuke's the master of manipulation. A few simple toys and just the right amount of attention is able to win the little boy over, and since Sasuke abandoned all work and begin to take care of things around the house, Hikari senses his mother made no move to stop it, so he let it happen.

Sakura begin to sleep more and more. She got up to make Hikari's breakfast, often just drinking some water or tea herself, and then went back to sleep. She stay in her room until Hikari gets back from school, and make him supper.

Sasuke begin to do all the housework. It was a strange sensation for him, and he had to search online what type of apparatus to purchase when he wanted to get rid of dust versus when he had to get rid of a stain. Potato doesn't make it much easier, he jumps and flaunts around the house as if he's a king, and Sasuke puts up with it.

Hikari treated Sasuke with a childlike courtesy, but nothing more. He sometimes asks for help with homework, sometimes he watches TV for hours, and sometimes he plays by himself. It was then when Sasuke realized how different he was from his cousin. Hikari is able to play with the dog or with his own toy for hours without bothering Sakura, because he was used to facing someone who is emotionally crippled. A parent who cannot offer excessive love and affection when they themselves are struggling with devastating depression is bound to affect the child.

They lived like complete strangers for a month, with minimal interaction, when one day Sakura came down to eat some dinner, there was a table full of food prepared by Sasuke.

She said monotonously, "I didn't know you could cook."

"Neither did I." He said gently, smiling.

She ate a bite of chicken and put down her chopsticks.

"I know it's not very good." He said, almost apologetically, "I'm improving."

"He is." Hikari added, "In the beginning even Potato wouldn't eat it."

Sakura smiled at him slightly, before wiping away her fingers and got up from the table. She slowly ascended up the stairs. She stayed in her room for the rest of the night.

In the middle of the night, long after Hikari went to sleep, she opened her door and walked down the stairs and into the kitchen, and saw Sasuke sitting at the kitchen table, smoking a cigarette. in the dark.

He saw Sakura and straightened up a bit. And suddenly he felt a bit silly, because this is what he did whenever Itachi walked into the room.

"Why are you here? Really." Sakura asked, "You're not dragging me on to the plane yet."

Sasuke put the cigarette down, and Sakura picked it up.

"I don't exactly know." He replied finally, "I just wanted to see you."

"Why don't you go back?" She asked, "you're still young, you have so much money, so much power, you could do anything and everything you wanted with life, and yet you're here, demeaning yourself to servitude."

His face was shadowed by the dark, and his voice muffed with depression, "maybe. But I consider myself quite fortunate to sit here with you and talk from time to time. It's better than the life I've been living."

Sakura finished the cigarette and got up to throw it away in an ashtray. "Uchiha-san, I have nothing left to offer you."

"I'm not looking for a way in." Sasuke said, "I just wanted to be near your proximity."

This must have been the only time in his life when he sound this pathetic without playing a role.

Sakura suddenly felt extremely angry. She wanted to scorn and say he's a waste of oxygen by being in this house, but she knew it wouldn't do any good. He isn't a man someone could reason with. He's selfish from the core. He knew exactly what he wants and it's his desire that drives his actions in everything he does. He can bend to anyone's will, and he can put himself through tremendous amount of suffering. He has extreme self control and patience to achieve his goal, and no one could ever change his state of mind.

She looked back at him, and under the moon light she could see his ebony hair, dark eyes, defined features, and perfect posture. He met her eye and stared intently at her.

"Whatever." She finally said, dragging her feet up the stairs, whistling quietly, but Potato heard, and he quickly trotted along and followed her into her room.

Sasuke doesn't exactly know how long he sat there in the dark without a single trace of sleepiness. It started to rain again, with occasional thunder echoing through the sky.

Suddenly there was the sound and vibrating of a something fell coming from the upstairs, and he heard the dog barking in the most vicious way. He quickly stood up, looking at the upstairs bedroom with horror.

The barking sounds terrifying in this quiet night. He ran up the stairs and tried to open her door, but it was locked from the inside.

Hikari woke up too, and stood in his doorway. "What's going on?"

Sasuke quickly said, "nothing major, your mother's not responding to me. I'm about to kick down the door, I'm not angry, can you turn around and hold your years and count to ten?"

Hikari nodded and quickly turned.

Sasuke begin to pound the door, and then took a couple steps back to kick it down.

"Sakura!" He screamed, but there wasn't anything else except for the barking.

He kicked the door over and over, until the wood creaked a bit. He begin to panic, and used more force for the final blow.

It came down, and the whole room was dark. Potato was still barking, but circling around Sasuke this time. Sasuke stepped over the door frame and turned on the light. He saw Sakura on the floor, heads up, crouching and holding her stomach, and face as white as a sheet, and blood pooling aound her.

She was in so much pain she can't talk, but her eyes stared at Sasuke as clear as day.

His heart skipped a couple beats, "Sakura."

"Mama!" Hikari yelled behind him. "I'll call 911."

Sasuke's head felt as if he has been hit with a blunt force. His brain buzzed and could not think straight. He knelt down beside her and smoothed away her hair from her face, and found his fingers are trembling. "What's going on? Sakura? What's wrong?" He held onto her head and hugged her close to him, "Sakura, Sakura... Please... Sakura..."

Sakura looked up at him and opened her mouth, but only wheezing and croaking came out.

"The ambulance is coming in a few minutes." Hikari said.

Sasuke looked up at him, the small boy who is obviously panicking but managed to stay calmer than he is. "Good...good job."

Hikari begin to go through his mother's closet and rummage through some essentials.

His young age betrayed his spite, "Well, I've done this before."

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A/N: I cannot believe I started this story 5 years ago and I skipped a whole year in updating it. I still write, but I can't seem to find the right inspiration for this story. Thank you for reviews to remind me to update, I do it because of the recent review and pleads. I love you guys so so much, honestly it's the only reason I write.

I'm updating another story more frequently, it's called Paradox. It's equally interesting... I think. I hope!

Thank you!