Shattered Minds

Chapter 18

Disclaimer: I do not own any part of Naruto.

Author's Note:

(–dances–) Happy Sweet Sixteenth to me! This is a bit of a birthday gift to you all, along with Wicked Little Pieces (which I would love for you guys to take a look at!). It's so exciting to be finally 16! I remember when I first started writing, I lied and said I was 14 instead of 12. I lied for three years, and now, finally, I'm actually the age I say I am!

Well, enough of that! An update for Shattered Minds and not a minute too soon! Finally, summer is here and I am allowed to right as much as I please–right after I finish my Spanish class, SAT prep classes, and volunteer work, of course.

This is the first year since joining in summer of 2002 that I haven't switched fandoms! That must mean I like this place a lot, haha. In any case, I will probably start a new story soon... We'll see. Don't worry, this is still my first priority!

I'm glad everyone enjoyed the last chapter, and thanks to everyone for not killing me after I left the cliffhanger (again—it's getting to be a bad habit). Muchos gracias to all who left a review! Your support keeps me going strong!

What are you hiding

Behind your empty mask?

Emotion, desire, fear

Come out to play.

"Itachi?" The name came out like a hiss, full of fury and anger.

Sakura looked at him with an unwavering gaze. "He sent me the invitation last night. I couldn't refuse." The unspoken words hung in the air. 'You weren't there.'

Though on the outside she seemed strong, she was actually shaking on the inside. How was she going to tell Sasuke that his brother already knew about the entire mission? He would undoubtably be more furious than she had ever seen him, his entire plan shattered to pieces. Would she be able to face that?

If she didn't tell him, on the other hand, and Itachi attacked, then Sasuke would be less prepared because of her, and could get hurt, even die, and that would hurt her even more.

"What happened?" Sasuke was impatiently waiting, his eyes burning into her as he waited for her to speak.

She gnawed her lower lip worriedly, the wheels in her head spinning as she tried to think of an answer that would please them both. "I... I merely met him. For dinner," she finally replied.

"What did he ask you?" The question was a demand for truth, to further piece together a plan for murder.

She shrugged her shoulders as nonchalantly as she could, knowing full well that she had already started spinning her lie and that, damn it, she might as well continue. There was no way yet for her to know that this was the wrong path to have taken. "Nothing important."

"He showed no suspicion, then?" Frantic just moments before, Sasuke seemed to calm down and regain some of his composure. The taut shoulders relaxed just the slightest bit.

"No, no. He didn't." Sakura wondered when she had become so good at lying, especially around someone with eyes as piercing as Sasuke's. "It was just dinner. I didn't find anything out... I'm sorry."

Sasuke stared at her for what seemed like a minute. "It's better to take it slow and have him find nothing out. Eventually something will slip." He looked away, suddenly remembering what had transpired between them the last time they had seen each other. "You did well by accepting."

She felt the corners of her lips quirk upwards in a slight smile as she realized he was complimenting her in his own way, then stopped herself as she realized that this was all because of a lie told on her part. Unsettled, Sakura shrugged again with a brief, "I suppose so."

The air in the room grew heavy as silence penetrated the space between them.

Dragging the thoughts of Itachi and her lie forcibly from her mind, Sakura instead concentrated on Sasuke.

He sat with his back to the wall, the moonlight spilling over his shoulders and lending his hair a navy tint. The spiky bangs that covered his forehead shadowed his dark eyes as he once again shifted back, slouching slightly.

"What... What did you come here for, Sasuke? Originally?"

He was silent for so long she feared that he suspected her story. The very thought of her lie being uncovered sent Sakura into a state of fidgety paranoia. When he finally replied, his answer did nothing to help her relieve those fears.

"I wanted to know if you prepared or not." His lips were set in a grim line. "The end result depends entirely on you."

"I'm ready," she quickly replied, looking down upon her kimono in sudden interest. "Ino's a good teacher."

His eyes suddenly focused on her garment. "Where did you get that?" he asked sharply.

Sakura was taken aback. Before she could contemplate a reasonable explanation, she found herself blurting out the truth. "It was delivered along with the invitation."

"He gave it to you?"

"Yes. Is there anything wrong?"

His entire expression tightened in displeasure, though she could think of no reason as to why it should have angered him. It was just a kimono, abet a rather expensive one.

When he didn't answer, Sakura stepped backwards a few feet, towards the sleeping yukata lying on her bed. "If it bothers you, I'll just change out of it." She laughed nervously. "It's too fancy to be comfortable, anyway." She swooped down to pick up the white robe and stepped behind a screen.

Hands working frantically behind her back to undo the obi, Sakura found herself tightening the ties instead. For a moment she paced in the tiny space behind the screen, fingers digging into the silk, but to no avail. With a trembling voice, Sakura asked for help. "I-I'm sorry, but... I'm sorry, I'm not used to undoing these things by myself. C-could you, please... Help me?"

She cursed herself inside, berating herself on her hasty behavior, wondering if she should have called for a maid instead.

However, before she could think any further, she felt his hands brush against back, his fingers deftly undoing the elaborate knot. He was silent as he worked, cooly professional in his efforts to free her from her outfit. She felt the robe grow slack, then loosen further. A breath of wind caressed her neck as he stepped back, leaving her to her privacy before the robe slid forward to reveal more creamy skin.

Her face red and entire body quivering with mortification, Sakura rushed to peel off the kimono and hurriedly slid on the more familiar cotton yukata. She roughly combed her hair by raking her fingers through the pink locks. Looking down upon her body to make sure nothing was out of place, Sakura took a deep breath and stepped out from behind the screen.

"T-thank you. That was stupid I me... Ino or someone else usually helps me with the untying, so I'm not really used to it. Thank you... For helping me," she finished lamely.

He didn't grace her with a reply, merely giving her a curt nod instead. "Keep up the act with Itachi as long as you need. Don't risk anything." He looked back at her slightly, then turned his head and started for the window, preparing to leave.

"W-wait!" She didn't know why she had called out.

He paused before the window, waiting for an elaboration to her cry.

Her hand, which had reached out as if to stop him from leaving, dropped slowly to her side. "Will you... Would you take a walk with me?" Realizing just how foolish her request sounded, she quickly added, "I know it's late, but I want to clear my head. Please?"

Sasuke turned around fully, an eyebrow raised slightly. When he saw her rather pained expression, however, the eyebrow dropped. "Get your shoes."

For some reason, she found herself smiling at him, fully and without restraint. "Okay." Silently sliding the shoji door open, she walked towards the front door and picked up her informal geta, then hurried back to her room. She was confident that everyone else in the house was sound asleep.

"Through the window?" she asked, tilting her chin towards it as she walked back into her room.

He nodded once, then stepped onto window sill and deftly jumped out.

Sakura bit her lip nervously, hands clutching the sandals. She walked to the window, stopping before the sill. She ran her fingers over the smooth wood, staring down at the space below–there was a good four feet between the window sill and the ground.

"Jump," his voice commanded from the side.

She gulped hard, raising herself onto the sill. She squeezed closed her eyes and then pushed herself off. When she tilted forward, however, she lost her balance against the smooth rocks that had broken her fall.

His hands found her waist and steadied her before her face met the gravel, sure and strong. "Watch your balance next time."

Sakura opened her eyes slowly, wincing slightly. "I will. Sorry."

He released her and began to walk towards the gate, not waiting for her. She hurriedly slipped on the woven sandals and rushed after him.

Catching up and keeping in step with him, they were side by side when they reached the back gate. He eyed the lock warily, then looked at her.

"We'll jump the wall."

"What?" She looked at him with slight panic in her eyes. "How?"

He grimaced slightly, then grabbed her waist, holding her tightly in his arms. Before she could protest or say another word, he had jumped, carrying her in his arms, over the wall.

He set her down gentle enough, as calm as ever as she gasped for breath, massaging her chest.

When the gasps for air turned into gasps of laughter, however, his eyes widened. She steadied herself against the wall as she laughed herself out. "T-that was fun," she finally finished, looking up to him.

He was taken aback at the shining, green irises, her amusement making her smile luminous. Her bangs were disheveled and the robe crooked on her slim shoulders, but in his opinion, she had never looked so beautiful.

Realizing what he had just thought, Sasuke's eyes quickly shifted away towards the empty streets, his hands jamming into his pockets.

She stopped laughing long enough to admire just the way he looked, his profile illuminated by the moon–the proud, aristocratic nose and shapely lips, so perfect that they were almost effeminate.

"Do you want to go or not?" he asked after she paused for breath, turning his head to look at her.

Sakura quickly wiped her face of expression and gave a small smile. "Yes. Let's go."

He had turned and started walking off before she even had the chance to finish her answer. She caught up without a work and the two slowly started.

At first the silence felt almost discerning to Sakura. Then she realized that it was Sasuke's nature to stay quiet, and that trying to start a conversation would only make the situation more awkward. Hadn't she asked enough by forcing him to walk with her, and after she had lied to him, too? Wasn't she content enough by just being with him?

Yes, she was, she noticed after a few long moments. They were almost companionable in the lonely streets of Dream, quiet and becoming even more so as they neared the outskirts of town.

The road started disintegrating more and more as the forest grew thicker, but Sakura plowed ahead, determined to escape anything that reminded her of her mission. For once she didn't feel nervous around Sasuke, and that was something to be thankful of.

When they reached a clearing surrounded by a groove of trees, Sakura suddenly stopped, her head tilted as she stared at the moon. "It's beautiful, isn't it?" she whispered.

"Aa." He stopped along with her and leaned back against the trunk of a tree. She had no way of knowing that he wasn't talking entirely about the moon.

Her lips curved into a smile as she plopped down on the ground, her back against a tree facing his. Her attention wasn't on him, however, as she was rather entranced by the night sky.

"When I was little," she started, "I always looked at the moon with my parents. It was our thing." Her eyes flashed to his, meeting his gaze before flickering back to the stars. "Did you?"

He watched her as she stretched out her legs on the cool grass, watched as she smoothed the skirt to modestly cover her slim thighs and knees. "I did."

He realized then how alike they were at that moment, two jaded souls, one, a murderer, the other, a whore, as they drank in the moonlight and compared childhood rituals. She continued to smile.

"Did you watch the moon with your brother, too?" She knew exactly what she was asking, knew that she was risking the tranquility of the moment by bringing up his hated older sibling. "With Itachi?"

To her surprise, he didn't rise in anger like he always did when someone mentioned Itachi. He seemed to be basking in the shadows of the tree. "I did." His voice was hushed; she wondered briefly if she had imagined hearing it.

"And then? Later? Who did you enjoy the moon with?" She was baiting a dangerous man, but she had been so close to death that night that Sakura really stopped caring.

His onyx eyes caught hers, their gazes latching together. "No one."

She swore she forgot to breath as she started rising, her body moving on its own. She was drunk from the crisp night air–she had forgotten what being rational was about–and she had started towards Sasuke.

"Me too." The rustling of leaves and the humming buzz of the cicadas were all she heard as she neared him, her hands fluttering like dying leaves as they rose and fell in confusion. When her steps had taken her almost face to face to him, she stopped. She dropped her gaze to his chest, watching it rise steadily.

"I-I'm glad... that I found someone to share it with again." Her words were true, and it seemed her lips had a mind of their own. Suddenly shy, Sakura's cheeks turned the shade of early summer strawberries.

She looked up at him timidly from below her thick lashes as he stayed silent and still, his face shadowed just enough so that she couldn't see his expression.

She forgot herself, Itachi, everything, as the world seemed to spin a little around them. It wasn't just that he was handsome, or that he was strong, or alluring... It was that with him, she didn't feel so different. They were two separate creatures in a harsh, indifferent world, but with each other, they were not so... Alone. Her world shone of him and she couldn't stop herself for initiating what happened next.

She slowly raised herself on her tippy-toes, closing her eyes demurely. Then, slowly, pressing her lips against his.

The kiss was innocent, chaste, just like her. She sweetly squeezed herself against him, hands resting lightly on his chest. He savored her for a second, allowed her to lead for a moment, before falling into her.

His arms wrapped around her form–he was once again struck by how small and delicate she was–as he pulled her closer to him. This kiss wasn't like their previous one, when he had been punishing and hard. This kiss was different, subtle in its tenderness. It spoke and he could feel her melt against him.

They broke apart for air, her chest meeting his in every rise and fall. Sakura's eyes opened to study his face for a moment before he bent his head and took her lips again, a dangerous drug that allowed him to escape his sins.

Each kiss, each press of body against body, seemed to bring him alive. She felt something for him–she was his in more ways than one. He could have her right at that moment and she would let him, but something in his mind refused him of that kind of contact, choosing instead to allow his tongue to explore her mouth, his hands the slight hollows of her hips and slope of her back.

It wasn't as if he had been without women–in fact, far from it. But, she was different from them, a blossoming girl who would become the most beautiful of flowers, and, somehow, she had dug into him.

He cared for her.

There it was, plain and simple. He cared for her safety, he had feared when he heard that she had been with Itachi. He wanted to protect her.

The notion was so ironic he could have cried. Still, he couldn't stop.

"Sasuke..." her voice was breathy with passion, her chin tilting upwards as his lips descended to feed on her flower-stem neck. She mewed as he sucked on her pulse, brushing against him as her arms wrapped around his neck tenderly.

His mouth detached itself from her skin as he stared at her heatedly for a moment, then bent to kiss her again, lips meeting in a firework explosion of emotion.

When they finally broke apart, they were panting, tangled against each other. "We have to go," he huskily murmured against her cheek.

"I know..." She let a sigh and leaned against him, showing no sign of getting up to leave.

The entire scene had been so uncharacteristic of her, so unlike the Sakura who would have sworn eternal celibacy if she could after the years spent in the whore house. Sasuke always did this to her, made her forget and remember and feel and touch and breathe. His caresses were like drugs.

She should be running away from him, or should have pushed him away when his tongue teased her bottom lip to ask for acceptance, or should have never asked him to walk with her in the first place, but she didn't, couldn't will herself to. She was so weak for wanting someone to comfort her, if only for an hour, after her brush with Itachi.

He gently removed her arms from his neck, stepping backwards so she could compose herself after his flurry of kisses. His shoved her hands back into his pockets and kept his eyes on the ground as she smoothed the yukata into place.

"Okay. Let's go," she quietly murmured, unsure of how to act after their moment of ardor.

Last time, he had kissed her and left. This time, she kissed him, or at least had started to. Now, she didn't know what to do.

He seemed to sense her uncertainty and looked back at her, eyes dark. "This doesn't change anything."

Her mouth opened in an 'O' as she realized he was telling her they should still act the same. She nodded quickly, more grateful than hurt as she started following him back to the geisha house.

They were silent in their trek, each wrapped in their own thoughts and almost unaware of the other's presence. Still, that didn't stop Sakura from noticing that his steps were smaller to accommodate her slower gait, or Sasuke from seeing the glow of Sakura's slight smile.

They reached the back gate within half an hour; Sasuke once again carried Sakura over. As he helped her over the window sill and back into the room, Sakura once more leaned close to Sasuke. For a moment he thought–hoped–she would kiss him again, but instead she smiled bashfully towards him. "Thank you," she finally whispered.

He nodded once, then turned his head to go.

Sakura nodded back in reply, then dropped her gaze and walked back into the room. As she collapsed onto the futon and closed her eyes in sleep, she could have sworn that he had smiled before he looked away.

It was a start, rationality be damned.

Really, it was starting to get far too easy.

The girl was in love with his younger brother, who, it seemed, had feelings for her of his own. It was almost laughable, watching the foolish boy try to understand what he felt for her and pushing her away instead.

He hadn't expected his crushing of Sasuke to be so easy. No, he had thought that it would be at least mildly challenging, so he could feel alive again. He had left the boy alive so he would understand the importance of strength, but now, it seemed that it would be impossible. The boy was a fool.

Too stupid to realize the girl was in love with him. Too stupid to realize he was condemning her to death. Too stupid to know that he was playing right into his dear brother's hands.

Really, it was too easy.

Ending Note: I hope you guys enjoyed reading that as much as I enjoyed writing it! Amazingly, I was able to do it in one sitting. Seriously! I got up once or twice to get food, but it's rather freaky seeing how I have such a short attention span, it usually takes me days to finish.

Well, the plot is turning more and more dark as Sasuke and Sakura fall more and more into luuuurrrve. I promise not to drag anything out, though I really was in this chapter (what's this? No plot development whatsoever?). Then again, I think we all deserve some fluff, especially after all these no SasuSaku chapters. I hope you guys all enjoyed it!

Please leave a comment (as a birthday gift –puppy dog eyes–, please?) to tell me what you thought of it! I'm not too confident on my romance (even though I write it all the time, sheesh!) and critique would always be welcomed!