(AN) Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

-Warning – there is mention of violence and original character death in this chapter.

large bodies of text like this are memories of past events.

Please R&R!

Drip.

Drip.

Drip. Drip. Drip.

Sakura ground her teeth together as the incessant dripping continued, not even having the decency to fall in a relatively rhythmic fashion, let alone consistently.

Drip. Drip.

No wonder this was a form of torture.

...

...

...

Drip.

She suspected, however, that this was an unexpected, unintentional torturous bonus her captors had not planned.

Shifting in her chair, Sakura didn't make a sound as the chakra laced rope that bound her hands behind her back chafed against the raw skin on her wrists. She would not give off any signs of discomfort, even while she was alone in the room.

Squinting against the darkness, Sakura looked about her prison. She didn't expect to see any glorious opportunities for escape, but a cursory glance was necessary. It was a relatively small chamber; with grimy grey brick walls covered in splatters of – unfortunately, that probably was blood and not just the result of an irritated interior designer being fed up with their employer or that particular shade of red.

There was a single door. A single entrance and exit; wood but sturdy. The other side of the barrier was probably supported by larger plank of wood that crossed over the entrance and locked the door in place. Maybe even several metal bolts were used.

The stone ground was wet, covered in a thin sheet of dirty water that managed to make the awful smell of the room permeate quite effectively. She didn't want to guess at what was mixed with the water to create such a smell – it wasn't relevant, unless she either got desperate enough to consider trying to drink it or bored enough to enjoy that kind of guessing game.

The later was out of the question, unfortunately, since her captors didn't enjoy giving her many moments of peace, and she used the few reprieves she was given to escape into her mind and try to get a grasp of the situation – try to hold on to her sanity.

Drip.

Her team had been ambushed. That was a cold, hard fact she was still struggling to come to terms with. Ambushed, and slaughtered. Jin, Aiko, Isamu... all jounins and all murdered in cold blood. They were all skilled at their craft, but the missing-nins who had assaulted them... Her team of five had been outnumbered and overpowered. Akane, the fifth member of her team and her second in command... Sakura didn't know what had happened to her.

The violet-eyed brunette had taken a kunai to the chest and had been bleeding profusely. Sakura had managed to slit the throat of her attacker and had been rushing to Akane's aid when she had been grabbed herself. Sakura had struggled violently to free herself and save her only teammate left standing, but she had soon realized that she'd been administered some sort of drug when her world started to blur and fade.

Had Akane managed to escape? Sakura could only hope.

At the same time, the thought of the blood thirsty nin who had attacked them leaving one of the Konoha shinobi left standing seemed absurd.

But so did taking a prisoner after that kind of an attack.

Drip.

What did that mean?

A cold chill washed over Sakura, and she knew it had little to do with the general dankness of her cell or the coldness in her bones from blood loss.

The whole situation reeked of a set-up. That many skilled missing-nin didn't just trip over a reconnaissance party and decide to murder everyone in their path, rounding up their pink-haired leader and depositing her into a rancid cell simply because they felt like it.

Murder them all, maybe. Some nin left their villages because there wasn't enough bloodshed in their job description. But to take a prisoner? That pushed the boundaries of a simple knee jerk reaction and warranted some serious thought.

Drip.

Sakura shook her head violently, her pink ponytail falling over her shoulder as she leaned her head forward, clamping her eyes shut and trying and failing to divert her attention from the single droplet of blood that was trickling, painfully slowly, down the side of her face.

How had her team been set-up? Why had they been set-up?

Their mission had been a simple one, and taking a team of five had almost seemed excessive. Now, a five man team just seemed wasteful. Images of her deceased teammates' bloodied and mangled bodies were burned into her mind. They were the last thing she had seen before her world went black.

A scroll. All this pain, blood and death over a single scroll. Her mission, handed to her by the Hokage, had been to retrieve a scroll containing information pertaining to the truce between Konoha and Kiri.

"We're picking up their mail?" Jin asked incredulously, slouching against the doorway to the Hokage's office.

Sakura cast a warning glance at the nin she'd chosen as her third for this mission on Naruto's request. Why he felt she needed so many shinobi to travel with her was definitely going to be a topic of discussion after the meeting was adjourned.

Jin merely raised an eyebrow at her and tilted his head to look questioning at Naruto as the blond leaned back in his chair behind his desk, tossing a rolled scroll back and forth between his hands.

"Nah, it's not like that," Naruto corrected as he sat up more fully in his chair and dropped the scroll on the desk, "the Mizukage sent a courier with the scroll through the mountains to deliver it to us. Apparently the nin didn't make it through the pass. They have reason to believe a group of bandits have taken up residence there and killed the guy, stealing the scroll thinking it was something top secret."

"So as a show of good faith, Konoha sends shinobi to retrieve the scroll and dispatch the bandits," Sakura mused as she touched a finger to her chin, "since Kirigakure already lost a nin trying to deliver the scroll."

Naruto smiled up at Sakura as he leaned his arms onto his desk, nodding.

"Yeah, that's the idea."

"Why only send one ninja through the pass if they suspected bandits were holed up there?" Akane spoke up from her perch by the window, spinning a kunai around by a finger through the looped end. She was Sakura's second and a good friend. Young and beautiful with her short auburn hair and striking violet eyes, Akane's appearance was deceiving. She was a powerful shinobi, blessed with speed, agility and deadly accuracy.

"I guess now they suspect there are bandits there and weren't too worried before," Naruto shrugged.

"Still," Jin voiced his opinion once more, "I guess the info on that scroll wasn't important enough to warrant more than a single guard. Why not just write up a new one and send more shinobi this time?"

Sakura had to admit that thought had crossed her mind, if only for a tiny moment, when she'd first heard the briefing about this mission.

"Because it's better not to have multiple copies of documents like that floating around. They underestimated the bandit presence, and now we're going to go finish the job." Sakura answered, looking to Naruto to see if he was going to correct her assumption.

Naruto nodded and flashed a huge grin. "Yup, that's the plan!"

The blond made a face as if a thought had suddenly come to him and began rummaging through the piles of papers on his desk, looking for something.

"Aha!" he cheered, holding a small sheet of paper in hand. His blue eyes quickly scanned the page. "The Mizukage admits that the courier they sent was an inexperienced chuunin, so an average group of bandits – five or ten against one, maybe? – could probably have taken him down. Especially if they had the element of surprise in the pass."

Sakura nodded, accepting the mission scroll Naruto was reaching forward to place in her hand. As her eyes scanned the page, Naruto added, "It shouldn't take too long to get out there, get the job done and retrieve the scroll. Three or four days tops."

Sakura cast Naruto a pointed look as she lifted her eyes from the scroll before turning to focus on Akane.

"Hokage-sama wants this to be a five man team. Akane and Jin, you'll be my second and third respectively. Akane, go find me Isamu-san and Aiko-san and let them know I want them on my team. We'll meet at the gate at dawn."

With a curt nod and a wave, Akane left the Hokage's office in search of Sakura's chosen teammates. Jin quietly slipped out of the room, aware that his presence was no longer required.

Drip.

Sakura's team choice had been fantastic. No one would fault her on that or blame their mission failure on the Konoha shinobi in question.

Jin, despite his cocky demeanour, was an incredibly skilled team player and constantly looked out for their safety. He was a proficient swordsman and knew many jutsus, using his abilities to get their team out of any tight spots.

Isamu was a man of the shadows, a huge fan of the old cloak and dagger approach. He thrived in the darkness and made no sound with either his movements or his actions. If Sakura ever needed something difficult done fast and quietly, Isamu had been her man.

Aiko knew a deadly arsenal of jutsus from her time spent travelling. No matter what element Sakura's team ended up against, Aiko would know a way to counter it or develop an incredibly effective strategy.

Drip.

And now they were all dead.

They were all dead, they had failed their mission, and Sakura was being held prisoner by the band of sadistic nin who had slaughtered her friends and teammates.

This mission was supposed to have been relatively easy. A B-rank at best. The concept had been a simple one. Take a team of five well-trained shinobi, travel to the mountain pass, neutralize the bandits, retrieve the scroll, and be back at home before nightfall on the fourth day.

Sakura had suspected her assignment to such a short mission was contrived by Naruto and had stuck around his office to make her own inquiries.

The door clicked shut behind Jin, and Sakura turned to look at Naruto as he came out from around his desk and perched on the edge of the wooden top.

"Want to explain this to me?" Sakura questioned the blond, a hand on her hip and the other gesturing with the mission scroll. "This should be short and sweet. Why do I need a five man team and why is it so short? Uzumaki Naruto, if you're doing this to me on purpose –"

"H-Hey, Saaaakura!" Naruto whined softly as he waved his hands in front of him, trying to quell her obviously rising temper.

She softened her glare at him but still quietly waited for him to answer her and justify his mission decision.

"I don't know how many bandits there actually are, so I want you to go with a team of five to be safe and no, Sakura-chan, don't look at me like that. I'm not babying you or doubting your abilities – we were a team, remember?" Naruto rubbed the back of his head and shot her a pleading look, "I just don't like the lack of details about this mission. I want to stay on the safe side, y'know?"

Sakura sighed and placed the mission scroll temporarily down on his desk.

"The safe side for the team."

"Yes, for the team."

Smiling sweetly, Sakura stepped closer and pinched his cheek between her forefinger and her thumb. "Okay, Naruto. I believe you."

Naruto gave her a relieved smile, even as he followed it up by puffing out his cheeks childishly and trying to narrow his eyes on her abusing fingers. Even as the Hokage and with the responsibility of the village, Naruto still managed to maintain his playful self. The thought warmed Sakura's heart.

"And the length of the mission...?" She prompted as she stepped closer to him. Naruto stiffened somewhat and seemed to forget about her pinching fingers as she closed in on him.

"Well, the job really shouldn't take all that long," He answered seriously, trying and failing to suppress the grin making its way onto his face. "And you'd be a great team leader for it considering your experience with retrieval missions-"

"Naruto..." She growled threateningly, although the effect was ruined somewhat by the strong hint of playfulness in her voice.

"It's a win-win situation!" Naruto protested loudly, "You get a mission, and I –"

"Get me back in your bed in a few days time?" Sakura supplied helpfully.

"I was going to say don't have to live without you for longer than I can bare," Naruto grumbled as she released his cheek from her hold, "I'm not that lecherous!"

"But you still want us to leave tomorrow morning so you can have tonight with me." Sakura said as she stepped between his legs and wrapped her arms around his neck.

"Please?" Naruto smiled at her, his blue eyes alight. He placed his hands on her hips and pulled her closer.

"Of course," Sakura assured him as she leaned her forehead against his, "You know I wouldn't leave for a mission without properly kissing you goodbye," Sakura teased as she slanted her head.

"It's still polite to ask..." Naruto trailed off as he leaned forward and pressed his lips against hers. Sakura smiled against his soft lips as she moved hers against his, sucking his bottom lip into her mouth. Teenaged Naruto had never been one to do things simply because it was polite. Perhaps this was the Hokage talking with a mixture of sweet desperation that she'd leave without his touch just to spite him.

As Naruto slipped his tongue into her mouth and ran a hand up the small of her back, Sakura moaned into his mouth and wondered why he would ever think she could stay away.

Drip. Drip.

Since the ambush, Sakura had lost track of time.

It had been midday on the second day and her team had been making plans to scout the mountain area under the cover of night and get a feel for how many bandits there were and their positions. Check to see if they followed rotation patterns or simply were holed up in camp, patting each other on the back over a job well done.

But Akane had come to Sakura with a bad feeling, a tingling sensation that they were being followed that the brunette beauty hadn't wanted to ignore. Sakura had been hoping it had only been her own imagination that had given her similar premonitions and had been slightly dismayed by Akane's concerns.

Sakura shifted in her chair, trying to ease the discomfort of the pounding knot of muscles in her left shoulder blade as best she could. The movement only seemed to worsen the pain and Sakura grit her teeth once more, sucking in deep breaths through her teeth as she resigned herself to waiting it out.

Sakura had barely had enough time to warn her teammates about the impending attack before a barrage of kunai and shuriken had erupted from the forestry around them. Weapons and tactics that average bandits didn't use.

They had been a band of missing-nin, jounin level, Sakura had determined from the skills her attackers had displayed. Over a dozen of them, bursting out of the tree line and engaging in a tight and practiced formation.

The team of Konoha nin hadn't stood a chance against their numbers, but still they had fought hard until three had fallen, Sakura was taken and Akane... Sakura could only wonder.

At the metallic taste in her mouth, Sakura leaned over her chair and coughed over the water, watching as the blood fell from her mouth and melded with the water underfoot. Leaning back, Sakura tilted her head towards the roof of her prison.

She had no idea where she was or how long she had been here. There was no window, and so she could not gauge the flow of time through the rising and falling of the sun. What she did know was that there were much more than a dozen nin roaming the base where she was being held.

Drip.

She knew that no bandits had taken that scroll; only these nin with an ulterior motive beyond obstructing the flow of information between Kiri and Konoha.

Drip.

She knew they had a reason for killing all her comrades but sparing her life alone by taking her prisoner. Sakura would be a fool if she thought they wanted nothing more than a ragdoll to torture and prod and gain sick satisfaction from hearing her scream and seeing her bleed. That, she thought, was just a bonus.

Somehow, someway, her team had been set-up, and Sakura had led them right into their trap.

Drip. Drip.

Sakura glanced around the room once more, morbid curiosity driving her to try and find where the water was coming into her cell. Exerting the effort was stupid, she knew, especially since knowing the location of the leak would only irk her as she'd have no way to stop it. She'd just suffer the knowledge and find herself staring at it and willing it to dry up.

Sighing, Sakura focused her eyes on her lap. Her skirt was torn and bloodied. Her own blood.

She had cuts all over her body, a combination of the battle wherein she had taken down four of the attacking nin, but also the vicious wake-up and welcome she'd received from her captors as recompense for their fallen teammates.

Who knew missing-nin cared so much? Sakura thought mirthlessly.

They cared enough about their goal to keep her alive. They hurt her in places they knew would not kill her. The knowledge of that was incredibly disconcerting. Sakura tried to not find herself wondering if she would live, but rather how soon until she would be allowed to die.

She would not think that way.

These shinobi had a plan, and she needed to figure it out.

Sakura didn't waste a minute in wondering if Konoha had had a hand in the set-up.

Naruto would never do that to his village. Her teammates. Her.

Never.

The missing-nin must have known a team would come to retrieve the stolen scroll; that much was obvious.

Had they simply wanted a hostage, or had they wanted her specifically? Sakura closed her eyes and tried to force back the wave of nausea that struck her. The feeling had been on and off since she had woken. Whether it was a side-effect of the drug or her own body's reaction to her bad physical state she didn't know.

If they had wanted a hostage, why didn't they capture the original courier? Had the chuunin not been enough leverage for what they wanted? She suspected that was the case. Most villages conveniently forgot about the existence of captured shinobi. They became only liabilities because of the information they may reveal.

What information did she have to reveal?

The little voice in the back of her head was chirping that she had a goldmine of information on Konoha.

On the Hokage.

Sakura clenched her fists together vehemently. She would tell them nothing. She would die before she betrayed her village. Anyone who knew her clearly knew this.

Sakura's jade eyes shot open.

Did these shinobi know her? Know of her? Had they heard the rumours of the pink-haired kunoichi who had captured the Hokage's heart? Sakura felt ill all over again.

Naruto had expressed concern that this could happen. She had told him that it was an occupational hazard, and that she would not give up him or being a kunoichi, even though she knew he would never have asked for the later.

They had had fights over time over his hesitancy to send her out on difficult missions in enemy countries. She had always assured him that she could take care of herself, and she always had, returning safely back to Konoha and back into his arms.

But not this time.

Not this time on a mission that was so close to home that the irony burned worse than the jagged soreness of her throat.

The large wooden door to her cell creaked open, followed by the small splashes of water as a pair of boots trudged across the wet floor. Sakura looked up and stared the man straight in the eyes.

This was the sadistic one. She would always remember him.

"Awake, beautiful?" He cooed as he stopped just short of her chair, reaching out a gloved hand to grasp her chin and forcefully turn her chin from side to side, examining the trails of blood down her temples from the gash in her hairline.

Sakura said nothing. The sadistic man picked up on her deliberate silence and chuckled, the deep sound, low and eerie, echoing around her dank prison.

"Ain't got no rush for you to speak, Pinky." He said in a disturbingly jovial manor as he crouched down in front of her, slipping a kunai out of his sleeve and using it to pick the grime out from under his fingernails, his fingers left exposed by the fingerless fabric of his gloves.

Sakura swore to herself she would not flinch. She would not budge.

"It's only a matter a' time before what we want comes to us," He spoke in a friendly, conversational manner as he trailed the kunai up and down her exposed legs, lightly so as not to break the skin. Sakura did her best to breath normally.

He quirked a thick eyebrow at her silent form.

"You ain't curious? Not e'en just a little?" He gave her a disappointed look, "You certainly ain't one for conversation. I ain't see'in what he sees in you, other than that pretty lil' body o' yours," He grinned at her then, several of his teeth blackened.

"Then again, maybe your silence is a virtue," Standing back up to his full height, the sadistic man began to circle her chair, twirling the kunai around his finger much the same way Akane had done when she thought. "and you're a fighter," he shrugged his shoulders and mumbled, "attractive quality, that."

Sakura's stomach was in knots.

"I like bein' a lucky man," he spoke as he stopped behind her chair, exactly where he knew she couldn't see him at all in her peripheral vision, "an' I can tell you I am a lucky man." He leaned his head down next to hers and whispered in her ear.

"We took a gamble in hopin' your Kage would send you with his team to retrieve that scroll," he told her quietly, his breath tickling her throat and drowning her in disgust, "and we won, 'cause I'm a lucky man."

Sakura felt as if a hundred bricks were being piled upon her chest. Her; they had specifically wanted her. They'd killed her teammates so they could take her. They had gambled on her presence and won. She couldn't force herself to remain silent any longer.

"What is it," her voice cracked with the dryness and soreness of a throat that had not spoken a word in days but had been abused by involuntary screams, "that you hope to receive from this?"

"Ah! So she speaks!" He cheered, still not coming out from behind her as she had hoped he would, "What a pretty voice. More's the pity, since we'll be gettin' rid of you once he comes to rescue you."

Sakura visibly tensed at the mention of Naruto; she knew for sure he was talking about him.

"I got no doubt he'll be comin' our way shortly," the nin behind her volunteered helpfully, "we got his cherry blossom and I'm bettin' that don't sit well with him."

Oh no, no no.

He came back around her chair then, resuming his crouched position in front of her.

"What better way to break a Kage than to kill his woman right in front of his eyes?"

Try as she might, Sakura couldn't hide all the horror in her eyes. Naruto... she didn't know if he could survive witnessing that.

The man forcefully slapped a hand to her thigh as he stood up. "We got lots of uses for a broken Kage. But if killin' you don't do the trick, we can just kill 'im, too." He pouted slightly as he nicked the kunai across her thigh, drawing blood. "Less fun, but really, just as effective in the long run."

And with that, the pain loving man turned on his heels with a swoosh of water and headed out the door, slamming it shut behind him, leaving Sakura alone once more.

Drip.

Sakura refused to cry; she would not suffer the tell-tale water marks on her bloody and grimy face that would reveal her weakness.

She willed herself to calm down, to take deep, even breaths.

They seemed to think Naruto knew where she was; that he would come for her.

She wasn't so sure.

Naruto was the Hokage and took his responsibility to the village very seriously. Sending a team to rescue her would be a courtesy not paid to every ninja who was captured on a mission.

Still, Sakura knew that if Naruto knew she was alive and held prisoner, he wouldn't hesitate to dispatch a team of Konoha's best.

Being a member of the team himself would be irresponsible. It would endanger the village if something were to happen to him. He could not come.

He should not come.

And yet Sakura knew, deep in her heart, that he wouldn't be able to not come.

As soon as he knew something had happened to her and her team, Naruto was going to assemble a team and head out to find her.

Sakura hung her head as the nausea returned with a powerful force.

He would be ambushed, just as she had, and the band of missing-nin would kill Konoha's elite, take Naruto prisoner, and murder her in front of his beautiful blue eyes.

There was no way Naruto could know how many nin there were; how skilled they were. He would inevitably be taken by surprise.

And he would eventually die, because of her.

Sakura willed herself to remember the feeling of his hands as he lovingly touched her skin. She brought to the forefront of her mind the way his soft lips had felt as they kissed down her neck, his fingers playing with her hair.

She tried to escape her cell by remembering the sound of his voice as he whispered how much he loved her in her ear. As he kissed her lips and told her to be safe and come home to him soon.

She was being pessimistic, she knew, but still she desperately tried to escape into her thoughts of making love with Naruto; to let her memories of their moments shared together since the days of Team Seven captivate her mind.

Drip.

Sakura slowed her breathing and let sleep take her for the moment. In her dream, she sat at the Ichiraku Ramen stand with Naruto, enjoying his favourite meal with him as she and the rest of the Konoha Eleven celebrated him and his achieving his dream of becoming Hokage.

Naruto had been smiling and laughing, telling her, and everyone else, that if they believed they could achieve something and tried their best, eventually they would pull through and succeed.

It was a replay of a very real moment and, for the time being, she was at peace in her memories.

When she awoke some short time later from her body's vicious shaking, the coolness of the chamber having seeped into her bones, Sakura sincerely hoped that her desire to keep him safe would be enough.

It had to be, because she didn't know what she could do to stop the battle from ending in his death.

Drip.

There was nothing else she could conceivably do.

What could a single kunoichi, battered, bloody and bonded, do to save her friends, her village, and her Hokage?

Her love?

At that very moment, Sakura still didn't quite know.

...

...

...

Drip.

(AN) Sakura's in a dark place =( I don't know what got this idea stuck in my head, but stuck it was and I had to write it. It turned out more dark than I had originally intended, and I'm not entirely satisfied with the writing. I can't decide if Sakura is OOC, mainly because she's such an easily malleable character, and as an older more experienced kunoichi, I'm not really sure how she'd handle this situation.

I was initially going to end this story here as an angsty one-shot, wherein you all could just decide how things panned out for her and Naruto, but I figure you want a rescue sequence, amiright? More memories of their romance next chapter to add some light in the darkness.

Review please and share with me your thoughts!

~dancer-me