Chapter 11 A Sliver of Hope
Finding Sakura alive was looking slimmer and slimmer. It was about seven months after the initial attack, and no trace of her could be found. Sasuke had gone back out to find Sakura everyday for the past month, but nothing indicated where she was.
Naruto had found blood up in the mountains, but there was no way of knowing if it was hers or not. There seemed to be nothing anyone could do.
Tsunade had informed them that there had been others that had been captured, and slowly, over the past month, most had been found dead scattered along the grove of trees surrounding the village. Most of the villagers figured all the hostages were dead and wanted a funeral, but Tsunade wouldn’t hear of it. Not all the bodies were accounted for, so there wasn’t going to be a funeral for someone that could very well be alive.
Except for Sasuke and all of Sakura’s close friends, everyone had gone back to the normal routine of life. They acted as if it was just another everyday occurrence, but Sasuke never doubted that he would find Sakura alive and well.
Bags under his eyes were a beacon for everyone saying he spent much of his nights out and about. Nothing else mattered, and most of the villagers called him fool hearted. Maybe he was a fool, but he was a fool in love.
Two months later. “Sasuke, let’s go,” Naruto poked his head into the shop. He spoke with such urgency that Sasuke didn’t question him until they were out running through the village towards the forest.
“What’s going on?” Sasuke asked.
“There has been a report. Someone thinks they saw Sakura. I thought you might want to check it out with me,” Naruto shrugged.
Sasuke didn’t have to reply, Naruto knew how much he was happy to have been given the choice. Sasuke was afraid to hope, afraid to think. What if it wasn’t her? What if she was found dead, not alive?
Pushing those dreary thoughts from his head, he thought only of seeing her face again. Pushing himself faster, he left Naruto in his dust. He wanted to see Sakura first. Searching the through the trees, he glanced something pink and followed it.
Suddenly, he felt a hand grab his throat and thrust him against a tree. Opening his eyes, he saw the person he had been searching for right in front of him. Though, she was much paler. A symbol on her forehead suggested that she was being possessed. Her normal emerald green eyes were now almost black with hatred. Sasuke wanted to gape at her. She was so different. So powerful.
“Sakura, please. It’s me!” Sasuke pleaded, struggling against her hold on his neck. Her hand didn’t budge.
“Keep pleading. It’ll only make your demise that much sweeter,” Sakura smiled grimly. If Sasuke didn’t know any better, he’d wonder who this really was.
“Sasuke!” Naruto crashed through the brush and knocked Sakura back. Sasuke dropped to his knees as he gasped for breath.
“She’s being possessed. Find the ones behind it and take them out. I’ll handle Sakura,” Sasuke ordered.
“Are you sure?”
“Go!”
Naruto disappeared, and Sasuke finally got a good look at Sakura. Her stomach was huge! She was pregnant?! With whose kid? Was it his?
Suddenly a dark voice pierced the night air, “Well, if it isn’t Sasuke Uchiha. Here to meet your demise?” A man with black hair and eyes appeared behind Sakura. He wrapped his arm around her and kissed her full on the lips.
“What have you done to Sakura?” Sasuke demanded. He wanted to ask who knocked her up, but he was afraid of the answer.
“Why, I merely showed her what life would be like outside the leaf village,” he answered.
“She never would have gone to your side of her own will. What did you do to her?” Sasuke charged at him and pinned him to the ground.
He only laughed. “It wasn’t easy, I’ll admit. She has an iron will, but once I broke it, I broke her. She does anything I ask of her without any hesitation.”
“Whose kid is it?”
“Mine, of course. I need an heir to carry on my legacy.”
Sasuke’s blood was ready to boil. It just couldn’t be true. He refused to believe it. There was no way he could bring himself to believe it, for if he did, his will would surely die with him.
“No. You lie!” Sasuke was ready to slash at him with his kunei, but a hand grabbed his wrist and threw him off of the man that had stolen Sakura from him.
Back flipping, he pushed off of a tree and landed on his feet. Sakura placed herself between Sasuke and him. She would fight to the death in order to save him. Sasuke stood up. He had always said that Sakura would be the death of him.
Sasuke figured that if he killed the guy, then his hold over Sakura would be broken. But, how was he supposed to get to him without hurting Sakura as well?
Proceeding with caution, Sasuke took tiny steps forward wondering how he was going to win in this situation. Suddenly, Sakura charged at him and beat him across the area, where Sasuke landed with a thud against a tree.
Picking himself up, he was unprepared for when Sakura was on top of him again, beating his face into the ground. She pulled back, ready to finish him off when her hand wavered.
“Sakura, please. You know I love you. Don’t kill me. Please. Wake up. Don’t let this creep control you. You’re stronger than that. Please.” Sasuke pleaded, not knowing if the real Sakura could hear him at all.
“I love… S- Mitsume,” she mumbled.
“That’s right. She loves me,” Mitsume came up behind her and eased her off of him, so he could pick Sasuke up and throw him against another tree. “You mean absolutely nothing to him. Face it, your old news.”
Rising to his feet, Sasuke wiped the blood from his face. “Your word means nothing to me. She hesitated against you, Mitsume. You aren’t all powerful like you think. Just face it. Her love for me out wins your undying evil.”
Mitsume ran at Sasuke again, but Sasuke was ready and slashed him across the chest with a shuriken. Then, Sasuke kicked him in the stomach and sent him flying against a tree.
“I want her back, and I think that by killing you, your hold over her will vanish,” Sasuke told him.
“Very perceptive, but you have to actually be able to hold up your end. You won’t be able to touch me again. Sakura, attack!”
Sakura lunged at Sasuke with kunei in hand. Sasuke dodged. “Sakura, snap out of it. Don’t let this guy keep his hold over you. You’re stronger than that!” Sasuke figured if he kept talking to her, she would slowly be able to come out of it.
“He has no hold over me. I fight for him of my own free will,” Sakura told him, her voice monotone.
Sasuke knew better, but it still stung to hear her actually say it. He just kept dodging her wild attacks.
He had seen a glimmer of hope. He just needed to find it again.
