I'm surprised with this story's success, really, when I started writing it I didn't think it would get as many reviews as it did, so I feel okay with the fact that the second chapter got the least of the reviews because I wasn't thinking 185 for this chapter and I wasn't thinking it would do better than my Her Reunion story. Surprises all around.
So not to confuse you, the italics symbolize a flashback.
I want to thank everyone for submitting their reviews and extra thanks to the people who managed to get in a review from the first chapter to the very last:
Laura-chan
cuito (What? No way! You're like a celebrity to me… a celebrity is hugging me, I'm freaking out!)
HPBabe91
Coquettish Siren
sleepykittycat
Angel Blossoms
yourdarkdesire (I can't do that.)
TamerofDragons
thexpariah
TentenPanda
Ur2tRoUbLeSoMe90 (All the begging in the world can't make me make this story happy, it's angst.)
KeyHole-Gardian (My… you're hostile. And about drawing something up about this I say go for it, though I don't know what would be drawn. Just make sure you let me see it.)
Uchiha Sasume
c-Chiaki-c (I think I would be the same way if I got caught cheating with someone else's spouse. Of course in this society the woman would probably try to kill me where I made Sasuke's wife just talk things out with her.)
Baka Kunoichi
xrose45623 (I'm not sure why you're so surprised you're the one who asked how many chapters and I told you. I have one more story I want to put up before I take a vacation from fanfiction.)
petite.ina
qqq102
Sakurablossoms742
MyLadyTopaz
NoOnesGal1848 (I'm sure you'll take your rating down a notch after you read this chapter, it'll probably be a 1/10.)
animedreamerz05
pinkis
Wolfgirl21
moodiful819
Spread-My-Wingz-And-Soar (I've come to accept my role as a disappointment.)
capricornT
Paprika012345 (Oh, thank you, finally someone one who doesn't see her as a witch or a bitch.)
Merridaine (He did tell her.)
TooLazyToThinkOfName
Lusiana Malfoy
latoya (I'm okay with not being forgiven.)
asuka02redeva
Decorinne (Me… brilliant, gosh, that's so sweet!)
Mysterious-Moon06
Serena of the Moon
The precious moments are all lost in the tide…
What a strange feeling…
She no longer seemed to have a body; she was weightless in a sea of green and bright yellows and blues. The smell of wildflowers, so calming, mixed with the stench of blood. She felt so weak; she was so low on chakra.
She was cold in the front, her back warm where the blood pooled around her, she blinked heavy lashes and looked at the evening sky. So pretty, the clouds were thin, wispy, making like breaks in an endless sea. The sun was a dim yellow, not bright enough to sting her eyes.
"Sakura!" a voice, a beautiful voice, laced with frustration and concern… she could hear it from a distance, calling repeatedly, calling her name.
"Please, not like this… don't find me…" she muttered as the voice came closer. She could hear the sound of the grass and flowers bowing under the weight of running feet. Again, she heard her name; the sound surrounding her, it was desperate.
"I'm not in the mood for your games, Sakura!" Games… when she was little, she loved to play hide-and-seek, she always loved to hide, it was more exhilarating than seeking.
The thought of someone startling her so badly that her heart beat a fierce tattoo against her chest, adrenaline running along every nerve- she giggled at the memory, blood gurgling from the back of her throat, bubbling at her lips and coating her teeth red.
She closed her eyes, oh the pain was there, at the back of her skull when she had fallen, despite feeling completely weightless she moved her arm… at least she thought she was moving her arm, and pressed her fingers over where the kunai had penetrated her ribs, buried under skin, muscles, between ribs.
Her hand was wet with crimson and she coughed, her eyes back on the sky, watching the clouds sail the blue sky. Blue… like Naruto's eyes, she smiled again.
Team seven, what a wonderful team they had been… her boys, her men, her lovers… "I'll die knowing I was loved." She suddenly felt cold all over, her blood cooling, painting the grass red, an unnatural, yet strangely beautiful color.
"What are you talking about, you're going to be okay." she shifted her gaze to see the handsome face of her first love, the only man she could ever love with all the hurt that came with it.
She glared at him, remembering how he had left her so long ago, breaking all her happy memories, immersing her in tears, worry, and even resentment. Oh, he was beautiful and she could feel his hand… those hands that brought pleasure to her body when he took her time after time.
"Sasuke-kun… will you… kiss me?"
"Anything." he said, bending over her, his hands pressed into the grass, both arms astride at her head.
Sakura stared up at the ceiling of her bathroom. The showerhead still shot out warm water. Two arms tightened their hold around her torso, holding her tight. Almost too tight, it almost hurt. She turned her head and the water pelted the right side of her face as she looked up at the stoic face of Sasuke. His eyes were distant as if he was not there with her, not really.
"I'm sorry."
"You already said that." he said, turning emotionless eyes down to her. She lifted her hand, but thought better of it and lowered her hand into the rising water. He grabbed her hand and pressed it to his face, the water slid down the side of her hand and she looked up at him, pain etched over his handsome features.
His lips were like the hot summer sun to her cold lips. The contact between their lips was too chaste, she needed more, if this was going to be her last moments on this planet she had to have him kiss her the way he always did.
"Mm… more…" she mumbled against his lips, who knew how long she had… she gave up on God so long ago, even when Sasuke willingly walked back into Konoha after killing master and brother. He pressed a little harder, careful not to cause her anymore pain.
His hands came away from the bloodied ground and he framed her face with his hands as he put more pressure to her lips with his own. His thumbs dragged a red streak across her cheeks. She exhaled in frustration and opened her mouth, urging him to touch her tongue with his, in his harsh demanding ways.
He turned her face towards his and sealed his lips over hers. It was a needy kiss that he bestowed to her. His hand came up from around her waist and cupped her breast, his thumb flicking over the stiff nipple. He moved his hand up to her face and pulled her closer.
She got around, the water washing gently against her waist as she straddled his lap, she stroked her hands up his stomach, gliding up to his chest, tracing lazy circles against the wet skin, the only sound between them was the hissing of water coming from the fixture and splashing onto her back and into the bathwater.
Sasuke licked along the serrated edges of her teeth, he tickled the soft palate, his tongue pretty much down her throat, one hand moving away from her face to wrap around her throat, not squeezing, just touching. He pulled away, his eyes clouded over with restrained lust, his lips smeared with her blood, he touched her hair, fanned out and tinted with her own blood.
Sasuke wiped the blood off his mouth with his sleeve. "This is going to hurt, take my hand." his voice was unusually soft, she smiled and blinked, looking up at the sky as his hand wrapped around the hilt of the kunai imbedded in her side. "Take my hand."
"Do you think- God will punish me?" he looked at her, away from his hand on the hilt, the look on his face made her think maybe he thought she had grown two heads.
"Why would He punish you?" he asked, "If He's going to punish anyone, it's going to be me, I'm a bad man, remember?"
"So am I. I slept with you remember?" he closed his eyes and shook his head, caressed her face, she was cold to the touch, but sweat was secreting on her brow.
"Doesn't matter, everyone is allowed one sin, I've committed too many for entrance. You, however, won't go because you're not dying." End of discussion, no room for anymore words, he would have his way if it were the last thing he would do.
He lifted her up out of the water and moved so he was no longer reclining against the slope then he lowered her down against the tip of his erection and slipped inside her, her head fell back and her lips parted, a soft sigh coming from her mouth as she sank down until he was deep inside her.
"Take my hand."
Sakura's face hovered over his. Her hair rained water in a straight line down over his shoulders, gliding over his shoulders and chest rolling into the water, creating ripples along the surface. Reaching up she entangled her fingers in Sasuke's drenched locks, feeling rivulets of water trickle along the insides of her wrists.
"I love you, Sasuke-kun." he traced the curve of her closed eyelids, over the silken eyelashes smudged against her cheekbones.
He made a noise deep in his throat a half-groan, half-growl and he pushed into her hard, dragging out a strangled cry from her. Then he shuddered and pulled out. "Please, don't tell me you're done." the look on his face was dark, he got a better hold on her waist and he lifted her out of the tub and he shut off the water.
"I wouldn't do that to you." his tone was dark and the feeling behind it made her think he wanted to hurt her emotionally. It knotted her stomach.
"Good, because I love you, too, now do what I'm telling you, Sakura." she took his hand and there was a strange sort of soft smile playing on her lips, he smiled back at her, working his fingers around hers, bringing them to his lips and kissing softly.
Once in the bedroom, Sasuke tossed Sakura onto the bed and was back inside her before the mattress stopped bouncing. "Better?" he asked in a condescending voice. She did not respond, but the swell in her chest drove a distressed cry from her. Tears stung between her eyes but she did not weep.
Sakura closed her eyes and arched into him. She was rolling her hips against his in time with each of his thrusts, he was holding her head immobile, his fingers in her hair, his lips were bruising and hard against hers, his teeth dragging against her cheek, jaw, and throat and collarbone because he felt enraged, wanted to give her pleasure, but not without some pain.
How dare she claim she love him and tell him that she would be with him and then go back on her word, just because some stupid woman- who he married because she was carrying his child- told her some sob story.
How dare she choose to take the dobe for her husband, share her body and her bed with some dead-last loser after claiming that she loved Sasuke and would make sure that everyday was 'fun'. "You said 'anything' for me, right?"
Sasuke looked down at her, he had to be quick, but gentle, had to make sure to close the wound lest she bleed out. "If I do go to heaven, I'll be sure to put in a good word for you," she coughed very lightly, without any strength. He almost believed her, almost, because she was not going to heaven, not yet at least.
He was going to have to ruin her life, she would hate him for a while, but after this… after seeing her in a near-death state… he was going to tell Naruto about them. He had to marry her, had to have her everyday without sneaking around. He would make her the happiest wife ever, definitely.
He lifted his hips up against hers, holding onto her waist, because he had switched their positions, he watched her breasts from time to time, her stomach, her hips where he tightened his grip, but for most of the time his eyes were on her face, she could only stand his stare for so long, but he didn't mind.
When he did get to see the green of her eyes he could not look away, no matter how angry he was he just could not stay that way with her. He reached his hand up and glided his fingertips up the side of her face and into her still thoroughly wet hair, his thumb stroking the arc of her damp eyebrow, she frowned and closed her eyes, whimpering softly and pausing in her thrust.
Sasuke sat up and used his other arm to press her close. His mouth was on the curve of her neck, amid the scent of sweat and sex, he could still smell the aroma of soap and water; she tasted like the latter.
He gripped the kunai and she did not even bat an eye. She was watching the clouds in the sky, but she made a sound as he pulled free the kunai, blood flowed, seeping out from her side.
He pressed his hands to her gapping wound, blood slicked the palms of his hands and filling between his the spaces of his fingers. She smiled, closing her eyes, once, twice… did not open them again.
"Sakura…?"
She gasped, slumped against his body, both of them sleek with sweat. At last her orgasm had found her and she moved her lips against his neck, her fingers dancing over the mark marred into his flesh at his nape. "Why Naruto?" he asked, his chest heaving against hers. "You never told me why."
"You weren't there," she sobbed into the hollow of his neck and shoulder. "I love you Sasuke-kun, I swear it, I do, but I can't hurt Naruto… I… can't."
"I love you too," He held her fast, for as long as she would allow him. "With all that's left of my heart." He brought the blanket over her shoulders to keep her warm; she was precious to him, the only one for him.
"Sasuke-kun can you tell Naruto… tell him I'm sorry for everything starting way back…" he refused to dignify that with an answer, she was going to live. He could hear Naruto coming now.
"You can tell him yourself." She managed to open her eyes. "He's coming, can't you hear that stupid mouth of his?" she tilted her head like a puppy who heard a sound, most curious. She blinked, the sound of her lungs rattling wet against her ribs.
"…you." she whispered, her chest raising less, "I love…" She lowered her lashes, her chest stilled; she was colder than ever, under the blood her lips were a very pale blue, the blue of her veins more apparent. He laughed a nervous quick burst.
"Sakura… open your eyes, koishii." he cupped her face, while the other hand moved over the bloody wound that stopped flowing moments ago.
"Sasuke-teme, did you find her?" Naruto yelled, he ran closer and then he skidded, breaking grass under his feet, he dropped to his knees, "Sakura-chan?" He reached out to touch her as if to prove that it was not real, that Sakura could not possibly be lying in a pool of her own blood.
It was an S-rank mission, but it had nothing to do with assassinations, it was just a transportation of classified documents. Naruto told her he did not think she should take the mission. Out of the squad members, only one survived, the one carrying the document brought to Konoha from another village.
Sakura had persuaded him to go while she held off the assailant and he returned and told Naruto and the Godaime that Sakura was still out there. Naruto told Sasuke and they went as back-up.
The perimeter was ruined and the attacker was dead, but then so was Sakura. She was not supposed to be dead. She was a medic for God's sake! "This isn't right!" Naruto ground out, holding Sakura's lifeless body close to him.
Sasuke sat back, his hands going to his eyes, to hide that he was crying, but he could not hide the anguished sounds of sobs falling from his mouth. His heart shot; there was nothing left now and his pain only doubled when he heard the soft mumbling from Naruto.
"Oh, God the baby, oh, God the baby!" he mourned against her shoulder, stroking her hair. It started raining, a little at a time, the heavens joining the anguish cry of the two grown men.
Sakura opened the door and found Sasuke standing there. "What are you doing here? You shouldn't be here; Naruto's coming over later to help me move my stuff in with him."
"I want to know if it's true."
"Know if what's true?" she asked, pushing away from the door and walking into her box infested living room. Sasuke came in and closed the door.
"…If you're pregnant." she whirled around so fast that she almost tripped over one of the boxes, he reached out and grabbed her wrist and steadied her, she snatched back her hand, her green eyes flashing a warning.
"What? Where did you get a stupid idea like that?"
"Your mother…" she tripped over her tongue and she tuned around, heading into the kitchen, which also contained several boxes, one still opened. She started stuffing cups inside the box, it was not things she needed; he also knew that she was giving many of her things to her mother.
"Since when did you start talking to my mother?"
"I wasn't, she was talking to Ino down at the flower shop, please answer the question."
"Well, you must have misheard her, I'm not pregnant."
"You're lying." she looked back at him, her eyes flashing that same warning from earlier, he met her stare and did not flinch, he wasn't an easily unnerved man. She should know that by now. "If it's mine, Sakura, I want to know."
"I already told you… I'm not or ever have been pregnant."
Fuck, she was pregnant, God… she was going to be a mother and now- now she was not. He wanted her back, could not even hold her. She died telling him what he always wanted to hear, died and took a child with her and with all his dumb luck, a child that was probably his and not Naruto's child.
…
"It's such a shame to see two of the best shinobi lose their lives the way they did." A woman said to another and Naruto laid his cheek against the table and Hinata sat with him, she always sat with him, never saying anything unless he wanted her too.
His best friend was dead… his fiancée and her child dead, it could have been his child, but the odds were most likely in Sasuke's favor. Uchiha Sasuke was the one who got everything that Naruto wanted, no matter how strong he got, or how much he changed…
That bastard, he was always so selfish, had to have everything, and could not even let Naruto have his fantasy. Naruto knew Sakura would never love him the way she loved that calloused bastard, but she had told him the child was his, partly because it was what he wanted to hear and partly because maybe she was not sure whose child it was.
She had slept with them both, not because she was whore, if she had felt she had a choice she would have been with Sasuke and no one else. Sakura was always trying to please everyone at once, she just had too big of a heart, and too little self-confidence.
Sakura told him that she loved him, because of everything he had been through just to ensure she kept on smiling and pretended ignorance when she would sneak off to be with Sasuke instead.
Just once, though, Naruto had wished Sakura had looked at him and not seen the idiot everyone believed he was. He only kept his mouth shut about her unfaithfulness because she was always coming back to him, because they were the public couple and once, for a year after the initial return of Sasuke, she had been his alone.
Now they were both dead. The people Naruto had grown up with, the two people he loved more than his own damn self. So selfish, Uchiha Sasuke was always so damn selfish.
A/N: It's no use death threatening me, the story is over, your words ineffectually pass over me. Plus, you don't know where I am and you wouldn't waste time or money to find me.
Song Lyrics appearing in Sick Cycle Carousel by album, song title and artist:
No Name Face, Sick Cycle Carousel, Lifehouse
Century Child, Feel For You, Nightwish
O, The Blower's Daughter, Damien Rice
The Open Door, Lithium, Evanescence
Crossfade, The Unknown, Crossfade
Origin, Anywhere, Evanescence
Back To Bedlam, Goodbye My Lover, James Blunt
Testimony, It Is You I Have Loved, Dana Glover
Surfacing, Adia, Sarah McLachlan
Hopes And Fears, Somewhere Only We Know, Keane
Fallen, Imaginary, Evanescence
Ashanti, Baby, Ashanti
Special 2004, Exodus, Evanescence
How To Save A Life, Trust Me, The Fray
14 Shades Of Grey, So Far Away, Staind
Cry, One, Faith Hill
Love Crimes, Please Don't Forget About Me, Ruff Endz
Never Gone, Incomplete, Backstreet Boys
14:59, Someday, Sugar Ray
Listen To Your Heart, Listen To Your Heart, DHT