Hey everyone!

So I've been writing a lot lately and since Chapter Eleven is near finished, I thought I might post Chapter Ten prematurely to make up for my inconsistent updating. Chapter Eleven is making my heart soar, so I hope you all look forward to that. But this chapter's pretty good, too.

Chapter Ten:

Ai No Kizuna

"Bonds of Love"

"Okaa-san, I don't understand why we're here. I had to cancel with Miyumi." Sasuke asked, trying not to let his annoyance show as they sat in the dining room. He had had to cancel a date for that night because they had been invited to Madara's home for dinner, which he wasn't too happy about. At the same time, he knew that the date would have been miserable. Most of the girls were; that was why he moved immediately from dinner to sex, then to sleeping until the girl left in the morning.

He had needed a distraction from his thoughts of Sakura at the very least.

Mikoto smiled at her son. "This is a very special occasion, Sasuke. Madara has found a woman he wants to marry and has announced that she will bear an heir for the Uchiha clan. You should feel honored that we are the first family to be invited to meet her."

Sasuke nodded, but didn't quite understand. "Why us?"

At that, Mikoto faltered, although the smile never left her face. "I'm not sure. But we'll see soon enough."

Sasuke leaned against the dining room wall, not ready to take a seat yet. He was anxious. Something felt off about this, but he supposed that his father and Madara were relatively close. However, the butler had led them immediately to the dining room, stating that it would be about fifteen minutes until Madara and his bride were ready, leaving no time for menial conversation or greetings.

For some reason, Sasuke couldn't get the memory of his and Sakura's last conversation out of his head. She had left him with so many questions. How did she know of his…ways? He had specifically told Naruto not to tell anyone—although he hadn't mentioned Sakura particularly—and he made sure to date tourists or those from out-of-town, and on a bad day he would take a girl in from the outskirts of Tokyo. But he never touched anyone who Sakura might find out about.

Unless Naruto told her, which Naruto had vehemently denied after he got off the phone with Sakura, there was no way she should have known. His mother knew that he was 'looking for a girlfriend,' but she didn't know the extent of his activities and therefore could not tell anyone. Dating around, yes. Sleeping around, though, was not known to Mikoto and should not have been known to Sakura.

And then there was the disturbing sentence near the end of the phone call, only a few seconds before she'd hung up.

"You don't understand! You have no I what I've been through with your-"

"With my what?"

"No one. Nothing." What she didn't know was that he'd heard her start crying just before she'd hung up.

His concern was acute, and he was actually very worried about her.

The butler returned a few minutes later, interrupting Sasuke's thoughts. "Pardon my rudeness, Uchiha-san," he said to Fugaku. "Would you or your family require any refreshments?"

Fugaku shook his head, then indicated for Mikoto and Sasuke to respond. Mikoto smiled and nodded, saying, "Yes, some hot tea would be wonderful. Sasuke?"

Uncharacteristically, Sasuke ignored his mother and stared straight at the butler. Of course the butler would tell him. "Who is Madara-sama's wife?"

The butler looked at him, startled, before regaining composure. "Uchiha-sama has asked for me not to reveal that and leave it as a surprise."

Sasuke looked at the butler warily. "What's the big secret? It can't be that big of a-"

"Ah, Sasuke-kun. How fortunate it is to see you are well. You as well, Fugaku-san and Mikoto-san. Thank you for coming." The entire family bowed to Madara, but Sasuke took his time in complying. He kept his eyes on Madara the entire time.

Madara had waltzed in, a satisfied smirk on his face and his eyes alight with mirth. He looked different, Sasuke realized. He was not serious, instead playful, and his demeanor was much different than the last time he'd seen him. It was odd, seeing the usually dark, cold man look so…light. When Madara had addressed him, there had genuinely been no mockery, no sarcasm, which was usually expected from the dark-haired man.

Madara seemed…happy.

Sasuke watched him, unsure of this new Madara. Even when Madara was playing a cruel joke, the punch-line carefully hidden and his coldness suppressed, there was an air of falsity that gave Sasuke, personally, the creeps. He could always tell when Madara was up to something, even though he could never guess what it was and it always took him by surprise, no matter how hard he tried to figure it out. Madara was on a level of his own when it came to life; he was so superior to the world, to everything, that it gave him a larger-than-life attitude. What Sasuke found interesting was that despite Madara's arrogance, none of his opinions of himself were all that far from the truth. His grandiosity was well-warranted.

While Sasuke had stared and pondered what had changed Madara, the man in question was speaking quietly to Fugaku. Sasuke didn't pay attention, suddenly putting the pieces of the puzzle together to create the answer.

Madara was happy now that he had found his wife-to-be.

Personally, Sasuke was unsure of this revelation, but it made sense. He couldn't imagine anybody in the world who would make him so happy his demeanor would change. Who made him feel special, loved, cared for, happy, the way that Madara obviously was?

Sakura.

The name popped in his head unbidden, and no matter how he tried to force it down, he couldn't. The thought persisted, and suddenly he heard her sweet voice in his head, talking idly about how good the coffee she'd been drinking was, heard her voice telling him that she would rather be friends than nothing at all, that she was over him—and how that had hurt on a deep level he hadn't understood. He saw her pink hair, blowing in the wind on the gusty first day of college, her green eyes full of joy when she looked at him, the sad smile on her face when he'd confirmed that he would prefer to be her friend than anything else, that he would give her a chance to be his friend.

Unthinking, Sasuke picked up his phone, told his mother he had to call someone, and walked to the foyer. It was currently vacant of servants, so he was free to make his call. He tapped Sakura's number on the screen and put the phone to his ear.

Ring.

Ring.

Ring.

Ring.

Ring.

By the fifth ring, Sasuke knew it would go to voicemail. Frustrated, he tried two more times, none of which were answered. Finally, he put his phone back in his pocket and went back to the dining room, for some reason furious.

How dare she ignore him!

He walked back into the dining room and noticed everyone was sitting down, although the wife-to-be still wasn't present. Sasuke sat down next to his father, while Mikoto sat across from Sasuke and left the seat to the right of Madara unoccupied.

Madara checked his watch, not a hair out of place as he frowned lightly. He looked up and smiled pleasantly—genuinely pleasantly, Sasuke noticed. "My wife-to-be should be here any minute now."

Sasuke noticed how Madara still hadn't said her name, instead referring her as his wife-to-be. It was suspicious, to say the least. He turned to Madara and asked politely, "One of the help told me he couldn't tell me her name. Who is she?"

Madara smiled at him and suddenly Sasuke had an unidentifiable, funny feeling in his gut.

"You'll see soon enough. Don't worry, I'm very sure you'll like her."

Sasuke tried to contain his annoyance and stared down at the empty plate in front of him.

This was going to be a long night.

Sakura had stared forlornly at her phone for the longest time, gazing at the three missed calls from Sasuke. He was here, in the dining room, Madara had told her, and Madara was going to go downstairs and greet 'their' guests. Had he told them already? She somehow felt as though that was something he would do. That was probably why Sasuke had called her three times, something which had never happened during her entire lifetime.

He knew, she was sure of it. And that was why she was standing in front of the elevator, delaying her trip downstairs.

She had dressed her best, exactly as Madara had instructed her. She had on black mascara, dark brown eyeliner to accentuate her green eyes, and lightly put blush on her pale cheeks. Sakura had forced herself to stop crying, to think of something else other than what had just happened or was happening, because she didn't want to think of what would happen if she ruined this for Madara. He'd punish her, and she was now convinced that he would find much more heinous ways to punish her than just rape. If that was the worst he could do, she knew she would learn to numb it out eventually. He also wouldn't have used his worst weapon on her so early; Madara was too smart for that.

Madara had strictly instructed her to smile and look happy, to lie to people she truly cared about. She wasn't sure how she was going to deal with Sasuke…it hurt to think that him seeing her with the head of his clan would ruin her chance with him forever, but she had to remind herself harshly that she hadn't had a chance anyway. All that Madara was doing was finalizing that. Sakura felt her eyes tear up, staring hard at the steel elevator doors, knowing that Sasuke was seeing other girls anyway.

Then why did this hurt so much?

Turning her heart into steel harder than that of the elevator door, she pressed the button to go down.

There were mirrors on the upper half of the walls in the elevator, and Sakura inspected herself. She had been surprised at how beautiful the kimono was. It had been simple and possible to put on by herself, but she had seen that Madara had picked other, more expensive and elegant kimonos, for other occasions.

It was a pure, milky white, and sakura blossom petals swept upwards from the bottom left side, heavily concentrated at the start and then thinning and separating as they moved upwards, as though a gust of wind was blowing them away. It was a beautiful article of clothing and Sakura thought how jealous her girlfriends at school would be, seeing her in this gorgeous kimono.

And then she reminded herself that it wasn't her kimono, and that the man who was letting her wear it had raped her not even an hour previous. She gripped the banister that ran around the middle of the elevator with a death grip, digging her nails into the wood. The pain almost served to distract her from the pain in her heart.

The elevator dinged and she stepped out. It was now or never. She walked through the halls, following the voices she heard.

Finally, she arrived. She stood in the doorway, visible to only Madara, and waited for him to notice her, as her voice had disappeared upon the approach.

The first thing she noticed as she waited was that Madara was different around Sasuke's family. He seemed warm, content, happy. He was talkative and seemed somehow genuine, like he wasn't waging a war on everyone around her. He wasn't the cold bastard who had brutally taken her-

Don't you dare think about that now.

She corrected herself, moving on to other topics in her mind. Unfortunately, she couldn't think of anything without tears creeping up to the corners of her eyes, so she stopped thinking and stared blankly, wondering if she should wave.

Nonetheless, it was not lost on her that something had changed with Madara. It was lost on her of what could possibly have caused this sudden change.

She suddenly noticed that Madara had stood. He told the guests that he would be right back, and food would be served soon. Sakura's heart froze when he approached her.

"You will behave," he commanded, but not exactly coldly. Madara didn't smile at her, didn't show warmth, but at the same time, he wasn't cold or cruel to her. It was simply a command, an expectation. A mission she could not fail. Unfortunately, it felt a lot like the American movie Mission Impossible, and she knew she didn't have a director or a producer to save her from the result of failure.

"Yes, I will, Madara," she said quietly. He had told her to drop the honorific and simply call him by his given name, now that they were to be married.

Her insides were screaming as he took her hand and led her into the room.

"Fugaku, and Mikoto, I present to you my bride." Sakura felt her blood rushing in her ears at the quiet at the table. She watched Fugaku and Mikoto's reactions.

Secretly, Sakura had hoped that Mikoto would have seen through the façade she put up, but Mikoto stood with a genuine smile on her face and moved to embrace Sakura.

"Oh, Sakura-chan! I'm so happy for you!"

Sakura hugged her back, her heart breaking that the closest mother figure she'd had in her life knew nothing of her sorrow. When Mikoto released her, Fugaku stood and bowed to her. Sakura blanched, not understanding, and then she remembered Shisui's words. She would soon be married to the most powerful man in Tokyo and possibly Japan. Of course the stolid man would at least acknowledge her new-found power.

Sakura felt relieved, however, that Sasuke wasn't there. Maybe he hadn't come.

"Don't worry, Sakura," Madara said, mock-soothingly. "Sasuke-kun will return shortly."

Just as they were about to sit, Sasuke returned.

He froze.

Sakura looked at Sasuke.

Sasuke looked back at Sakura.

There was deafening silence.

Suddenly, Sasuke exploded.

"Madara, you fucking bastard!"

Not even I was expecting Sasuke to react like that. He surprised me and I wrote it. So Sasuke's going through some major character change.