Wow. First off, I have to apologize for taking so long. This was ridiculous. Months! _'

Also, I haven't done this before, but I think I should at least once.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. Characters do not belong to me.

Itachi and Kisame stopped at the base they shared with Sasori and Deidara before reporting to Leader-sama and delivering the ring. The Uchiha immediately noticed that the other team was currently gone from the base. He couldn't decide if that was a good thing or bad thing considering the kunnoichi's condition.

Kisame waited in the kitchen as Itachi carried Sakura into her temporary room there. The Uchiha set her down on her bed and leaned over her. With the sharingan, he watched the flow of her chakra. Now that he had time to focus, he tried to see what exactly was going on inside of her.

It was silent in the dark room besides her soft breaths as Itachi watched her own chakra being systematically transformed and tainted into a weapon within her. The chakra from the bite wound was constantly at work eating at the new, clean chakra her body was producing. For now, it all seemed dormant, lying in wait for something to happen. It was no longer attacking her like it had been back in the lab.

Itachi recalled that she had started screaming in pain only after using a large amount of chakra. Was that the key? Pulling out chakra through the chakra points caused it to activate and start its destruction...

Curious, Itachi lifted her arm by the wrist and slowly inserted a tiny bit of his own chakra into her flesh. He watched with his sharingan as her chakra flared up, pounced on his own and began to tear it apart. He also watched as it tore a little at Sakura's chakra walls, causing her to wince in her sleep. He glanced at her face before pressing his cool fingers across the area as the chakra died back down. His eyes narrowed in thought. The situation looked dire.

Itachi rose and left the room, locking it with a chakra seal. He doubted she would wake up before they returned, but he wasn't taking the risk. Shortly, he and Kisame left the base for the main headquarters located in the midst of the Rain Village. Pein wouldn't like it if he was held up any longer because of the leaf kunnoichi that he already was.

Blame it on her ninja instincts, but when Sakura came to a little later, she couldn't find the cause of her awakening for a moment. Then she caught sight of the pair of red eyes gleaming in the dark not far from her bedside. She flinched, startled, before closing her eyes and sighing.

"What are you doing in my room, Uchiha?"

She slowly sat up as she said this, rubbing her eyes sleepily.

"You don't seem surprised to see me..." She froze and her eyes shot open at the unexpected response.

Sakura's mouth parted slightly as her head whipped back to look at the figure shrouded in darkness. The red sharingan eyes had narrowed and as her eyes began to adjust to the darkness, sure enough she could make out the spiky silhouette of his hair.

"S-sasuke?"

She stared up at him in shock as he rose and stood above her. He bent down and she slid backwards as he reached towards her. The Uchiha grabbed the collar of her shirt and pulled.

"Hey!"

Her cheeks flared red as she prepared to slap the pervert. She didn't even get close, as her arm was grabbed in a fierce hold. Then she saw what he was doing. She looked to her shoulder where Sasuke's attention was and out of the corner of her eye could make out black marks swirling out from the bite wound.

Finally, Sasuke stepped away, closing his eyes and letting out a sigh. Sakura's mouth was a grim line as she smoothed her shirt back into place. She looked down, avoiding looking at him. And here she had been hoping to prove to him finally that she wasn't weak only for him to see her like this.

"I guess you won't be able to help me..." His voice sounded irritated.

Her tired eyes snapped to him, struggling in the dark to assess the meaning of his words. As her medic's gaze roved over him, she spotted a bandage wrapped around his leg. A sinking feeling came over her as she guessed that what lay beneath those bandages matched the wound on her shoulder.

She opened her mouth to speak, but his voice cut her off.

"You can't do anything about it."

Sakura's eyes narrowed. Did he not know of her medical capabilities? "Sasuke, I can-"

"No you can't" He cut her off, "This curse... is very different from the one Orochimaru gave me in the chuunin exams. It won't benefit its host."

The girl's eyes widened. "Then...?" She thought back to when the chakra had begun rapidly attacking her. "I can't..." She lifted her hands from her lap staring at them. Then her gaze went to his face. He was watching her with cold eyes. Her voice became a whisper. "You can't..."

Sasuke looked away from her. He couldn't stand to see her openly expressing her worry and fear over their predicament. He had been doing very well in ignoring such feelings and she wasn't helping. She had always been bad at controlling her emotions. He was somewhat glad to see she hadn't changed in that aspect.

His gaze had landed on the bandages on his leg. He could feel the dark chakra still flaring up from having to use chakra to unseal Sakura's door. It was obvious that she was being held here against her will.

When he had first seen his brother appear and enter the base, carrying in his arms none other than his ex-teammate, he had been... worried. He had felt rage at the idea that she was in his presence, despite knowing how he felt about his elder brother. Considering the rumors currently circulating about the kunnoichi, he supposed this betrayal just fit right in.

It was these dark thoughts swirling in his head that had prompted him to hold off on confronting his brother and having his team wait outside while he... 'reacquainted himself with an old friend'. He had a feeling that if his brother had left her in the base, he had intentions of coming back for her. Having already been curious about Sakura's whereabouts earlier and having a need for medical assistance, Sasuke had decided that his revenge could wait. His odds would be better if he wasn't sporting an injury from the beginning anyways, he told himself.

So he had entered the base, reigning in his feelings of betrayal for the sake of medical attention. But, upon getting closer and feeling how weak her chakra was as well as the barrier of chakra locking her inside, he had felt slightly foolish for his earlier thoughts. Then a new rage built up inside of the young Uchiha directed toward a familiar target. Itachi...

"Sasuke, I bet that if you would come back to the village, you would be forgiven for leaving and welcomed back."

The Uchiha studied her innocent face. Since he had entered this room, he had come to the conclusion that he was correct in believing that she was Itachi's hostage and not his guest. Although, she was a surprisingly well-treated hostage... His eyes narrowed, but he steered clear of the thoughts. No. She was obviously the same childish girl he had left behind. He could see it in the way her eyes were glimmering as she waited for a response to her invitation. How hopeless...

"Please, Sasuke-kun. You need to be healed." He supposed she didn't even realize she had added the suffix.

Sasuke watched her carefully as he finally spoke. It was time to find how much truth was in the things he had been hearing about her lately.

"Sakura. No one in Konoha can help me."

At this Sakura snorted. "Who do you think trained me? Tsunade-sama will be able to fix us in no time I bet. Please..." her eyes slid sideways as she paused before looking back up at him, pleading, "give up this hate you've kept for your brother."

Sasuke's eyes hardened. She should know after all this time what his revenge means to him after all the times team seven has tried to stop him. He could see that she was sincere about the first part she said, but he was too annoyed to take the time to sugar coat this next message.

"Tsunade is dead."

Sakura's face remained in the same pleading expression for little more than three seconds before his words sunk in. Seeing the hard look in Sasuke's eyes fall slightly after the words came out, she knew he wasn't lying. Even still... it didn't make sense to her.

Sasuke watched her face as what he said slowly sank in. Her eyes were gradually growing wider by the second and her lips parted in a stuttered whisper.

"W-what?"

He didn't really feel like saying it again. He already regretted the first time. It turned out he didn't need to. Pain flashed across her face as she found that she had heard him correctly.

"No!"

Suddenly she was angry and grabbing at his collar.

"How do you know this?! Why have I not heard of this?!" She was being stubborn. She used his surprise to yank him to his feet. "You're lying!"

Man, she was strong! She shouldn't have done that, though. Standing, he had a height advantage. He removed her hand from his shirt and glared down at her with the sharingan warning her not to pick a fight with him. She wasn't backing down, though. Her fist went towards his face, but he caught it. Then, came the other fist, which he also caught. It was a deadlock.

Tears were rolling own her face by this point, so she obviously didn't really believe he was lying. She was just taking her pain out on him.

"Tch. Annoying."

And that was something he shouldn't have done. Curse be damned, Sakura's arms burst to life with chakra, gaining the upper hand. Sasuke found himself losing ground as he was pushed backwards. So foolish... But then, he could be foolish too. He followed in her footsteps, calling forth his own chakra. From inside the sleeves of his shirt, white snakes slithered down his arms. They curled themselves around Sakura's wrists and she found her arms being pulled together until the snakes tangled, becoming a living, breathing, set of handcuffs. Another, larger snake wrapped itself around her legs as she attempted to swipe his feet from under him.

Sasuke had gained the upper hand back and he used it to back her against the bedroom wall. Her struggles didn't continue long after that as both of them were burdened by the effects of the curse. For a while, there was nothing but labored breathing and the tiny sounds of tears dripping off of her cheeks onto their intertwined arms. Sasuke spoke first.

"It's true... stop pretending you don't realize it. You're a kunnoichi. Act like one."

Sakura's eyes burst to life with renewed fire. It was always the same with him. Annoying Sakura. Showing her emotions... Useless girl... No. She was not letting him treat her like he had in the past.

"That's easy for you to say! A traitor like you, who killed his own master, could never understand! All you know how to do is betray, Sasuke!" her voice broke and her head lowered until she was looking at her bound hands, "She was like a mother to me..." A fresh tear rolled down her cheek.

She choked a little on her sobs, memories of her mentor flashing through her mind bringing fresh waves of pain and regret. Then, she lifted her face back towards Sasuke. She stared up at his slightly less impassive face, her eyes glimmering in the dim light of the room.

"Surely you can understand that..."

The Uchiha's eyes lit up with emotion for once. First there was pain showing in his eyes from distant memories. But then, a different emotion burst through which she hadn't expected to call forth with her words. Fury.

At first, her heart froze because she thought it was directed at her as his grip tightened almost painfully.

"I will kill him" He almost spat the words. "Sakura, I'll kill him..."

Sakura's eyes widened in horror. He didn't mean...? No... he had to be talking about his own experience with his brother...right?

"It was Itachi?" She asked in disbelief.

This gave Sasuke pause. It struck him odd somewhere in the back of his mind the way she sounded like she desperately didn't want to believe it was him. It stayed in the back of his mind as he stumbled over his words for a second.

"Well.. no... It wasn't, but" He watched her eye him in confusion, questioningly, before he grabbed hold of her shoulders locking eyes with her, needing for her to understand. "Everything is his fault. Everything bad that has ever happened is because of him. If you hadn't been here taken hostage, do you think you would've let the hokage be killed?"

Sakura's head slowly shook back and forth. The look in his eye was one of a man driven insane by hatred. Despite knowing that he wasn't thinking logically, she was unable to say anything for the Uchiha was seething again.

"He took everything from me once. And now he's taken someone from you, too. He cannot be allowed to live..." His eyes were those of an avenger. He had not lost an ounce of the pure hatred that he had contained back when they were team seven in Konoha. "He must be destroyed..." Crimson sharingan pulsed dangerously above her in the dark.

Sakura hated what she was seeing. She hadn't personally witnessed most of his hate-fueled actions... Naruto had been the one to see those and had told most of it to her. She had always known he had been holding some of the worst back from her, trying to spare her...

"No..."

The whisper escaped her lips as she stared at his changed face in poorly concealed agony. That maddened gaze dropped to hers, misreading her meaning.

"No?"

He asked the word in disbelief. Was she going to try to stop him? Was team seven trying to keep him from his revenge yet again? How could she not want him to kill his brother? Especially now... after all Itachi had done to her. His blood boiled as his thoughts darted away from the imagined horrors not for the first time. He honestly didn't think he could stomach it. His voice dropped to an anxious whisper.

"Don't you see, Sakura? I have to kill him. I'm so close. I can feel it coursing through me."

"Stop, Sasuke." She couldn't stand to see him spiraling like this.

"He will be back soon and I will have my revenge. I'll make him pay for what he's done to me. What he's done to you. To us."

In the midst of his ravings, his grip on her tightened. At first she didn't notice, too horrified by the way he sounded like a psychopath, but on the word 'us', the way he had spoken it had caused the seemingly sudden lack of space between his face and hers to jump out at her.

He was obviously a wreck. No way would he ever in normal circumstances be slowly leaning closer to her. His hate for his brother, his eagerness at the proximity to him, the shock of seeing an old teammate, along with an unknown amount of other emotions were unusually swirling about in him, leading him to think that he actually had some feelings for her.

Suddenly, he closed the distance between the two. His lips captured hers and for a few moments, Sakura didn't know what to do. This was probably because her mind was trying to catch up to the fact that after so long, so many times imagining what it would be like to kiss him, here they were.

After a couple of seconds of lips barely brushing, his began to move. For a moment, she gave in and let him kiss her. She had always wanted it, after all, and she was finding it far too hard to fight.

Her conscious was getting in the way, though. She hadn't seen him in years. He had never showed interest in her before he left and certainly not after. It had always been a constant in her dreams that he would earn back her favor and then she'd forgive him and they'd kiss. Now, she was simply feeling used. She pulled away from him.

"Stop it, Sasuke. You have to stop."

Sasuke pulled back in confusion. She still cared about him, he could see it in her eyes. The desperate girl that used to follow him around lovesick in the past was now telling him to stop kissing her? He watched her lips move as she began to speak again.

"You can't just play with me because of things with your brother. Pull yourself together!" She let her voice grow stern towards the end as she noticed how his eyes refused to pull away from her lips to look at her. "You can't kill Itachi right now. You're too weakened."

At this, his eyes finally snapped up to look at hers, anger glowing behind them again. 'Stop?' 'Can't kill Itachi?' What was it with her thinking she could tell him what he couldn't do? She and the rest of team seven have endlessly tried to keep him from killing his brother. Suspicion nagged at him, causing his temper to rise even higher.

"Tell me... Sakura." His voice was menacing. "Why exactly do you not want me to kill Itachi... Why is it that you no longer want me?"

Sakura was speechless. She could see where he was going with this, and she didn't even know what to think. It was ridiculous!

"Perhaps your stay with these monsters has ruined you after all."Sakura's head slowly moved back and forth. His grip on her was tighter than ever as he shot more accusations at her.

"Did you find yourself a different Uchiha to satisfy your needs, evil deeds be damned?" His sharingan was spinning, his glare condemning her.

She knew. It didn't matter what she said next. Without finding the truth first, he was already churning with hatred for her.

Sakura's eyes were brimming with fresh tears, yet her eyes filled with acceptance. She should have figured it out long ago. Sasuke was far too damaged to ever truly love her. Too quick, his love was capable of changing to hate. Slowly, her eyes closed.

"Sasuke..." Her voice was calm again. It held a no-nonsense finality. "Let me go." She was done here.

"...Well, he can't have you."

The tone of his voice made her eyes snap open. His eyes held hers with a new kind of darkness. For the first time, she was frightened for her life. She was like a deer in headlights as his mouth descended back to hers, no trace of the previous tenderness.

Sakura felt the snakes holding her in place slithering tighter up her sides. She found herself being forced to bend backwards, where Sasuke had a better angle at her mouth. Her mind went blank. She was too shocked to do anything, her heart hammering. Stop...

Her eyes squeezed shut and she tried to pretend this wasn't happening. It hurt too much, thinking about how much he had changed. She wished she didn't care about him. It would hurt less, being treated like his possession to play with as he pleased.

A chill suddenly went through the room. She hadn't even realized how hot it had gotten...

"Sasuke."

The hands that had wandered too close to where they shouldn't have been, halted in their movements. Both of their eyes were widened, for the authoritative voice belonged to neither of them. She couldn't see much past Sasuke's head, but she recognized the voice. Shame washed through her at their position despite it not being of her choosing.

Sakura had a full view of Sasuke's face. His expression was one she would describe as that of a child caught with his hand in the cookie jar. She found it strange that he would care about being caught by his hated older brother. But, then his face underwent a drastic change. His eyes widened, appearing demented. His lips curled into a wicked grin.

Sasuke's head slowly turned. "Nii-san..."

A shiver passed through her whole body at the tone in which he said it. His new countenance made her even more uneasy. She could picture in her mind's eye all the tortures Sasuke was imagining putting upon his brother. To her annoyance, she could feel a familiar dread that tightened itself around her throat every time he vowed vengeance on Itachi. It unnerved her. She should want the elder Uchiha to pay for his crimes at the hand of his younger brother... right? There were several things wrong with this scenario though...

Was this it, then? Was their final match going to occur right here in this room of all places? As Sasuke shifted to keep Itachi in his sights, Sakura could finally see Itachi from where he stood in the doorway. She had never seen his face so masked. His usual calm expression, which was already good at hiding his emotions, was replaced by an even stonier one that hid them better. Was it because Sasuke was here? He seemed like a different person. She could almost believe that he was the psycho killer that everyone said he was. This was the person that Sasuke had been tracking down to kill.

As she watched him, his scarlet eyes shifted from Sasuke's face to hers. She unconsciously held her breath, the intensity of the look in his eyes holding her lungs hostage. Then something subtly shifted. His eyes were closed before she could tell what it was, releasing her from his hold. When he reopened them, his eyes were back on Sasuke.

Silence weighed heavily in the room. She could tell Sasuke was waiting for him to say something, but nothing happened. She felt him shift uneasily, then the snakes around her began to move again. Her eyes flicked to his face, but he wasn't paying attention to her.

"What's the matter, Itachi?" Sasuke's voice was mocking. He pointedly glanced at Sakura without actually looking at her. "... didn't mother always tell us to share our toys?"

Itachi's eyebrows creased and Sakura's actually twitched. She was distracted, though, as suddenly, the snakes binding her loosened.

"Oh wait, that's right!" Sasuke choked out a laugh, "You murdered her!"

The snakes slipped off her entirely, and Sasuke launched himself towards the doorway. Sakura reacted on instinct.

Halfway to Itachi, Sakura's leg shot out and swept beneath Sasuke's feet. He lost his balance and she used the moment to catch him off his guard with a chakra loaded elbow to the side of his ribs. He was sent staggering sideways with a grunt where he leaned against the bedroom wall for support. Sakura spared one second to appreciate the shock all over his face before she sent him through the wall with a fist full of chakra.

"I'm not your toy! ..or anyone else's!" She fumed at the dark hole before her, "...bastard!"

When she didn't get any form of a reply besides the faint rustling of clothes and the sound of bits and pieces of crumbling wall shifting, she stepped into the darkness after him.

Through all of this, Sakura forced herself to momentarily ignore the wildfire spreading throughout her cells leaving damage in its wake. She would pay the consequences of her actions after she finished what needed to be done.

Author's note:

So, there you have it at last. Sasuke and Sakura reunited. One of the reasons it took soo long to get out is because I really didn't want to write the whole Sasuke basically trying to molest Sakura thing. But, Sakura had to find out somehow that Sasuke isn't the Sasuke she fell in love with anymore.

I could have not left it as cliffhanger-ish as I did, but I figured it had been long enough since my last chapter update ^-^' Let's all pray the next one doesn't take near as long.

As always, reviews would be so helpful! Thanks for reading ^v^