Eye for an Eye

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of its characters and make no money from this.

Chapter Sixteen:

When the couple finally reach their comrades' hiding spot, there was only a brief and warm welcome from Naruto before they moved on, sprinting away from the location of their crime as fast as possible. Nobody was supposed to realize anything had happened after they got back to their senses, but you could never be too cautious. Sakura was running beside Sasuke, who was still gripping her hand. He seemed intent on not letting go.


Kakashi trailed several feet behind them. His heart was pounding painfully against his chest and his eye couldn't tear itself away from the joined hands of the two shinobi ahead of him. She reeked of him. Her delicate scent was laced with his. Images of what they had done infiltrated his thoughts. He bit on the inside of his cheek, swallowing the blood that spilled from it mindlessly. No. No. No. No was the single word that repeated itself over and over in his head. It couldn't have happened. They could have been caught! That was a stupid risk to take for both of them.

Or it wasn't. If they had really done this to... conceive a child for the Uchiha, it was clear that it had to be done without the Copy Nin being able to interrupt, it had to happen when he wouldn't be aware of it. A child was worth wreaking havoc with the daimyos to him. It didn't matter, he would probably only have killed anyone he had to to get them free. The blame would fall on the crazed Uchiha who had deserted the Leaf, whilst she would be free. In Sakura's case... She valued Konoha above all. He didn't doubt she would make that sacrifice now that he had to face this reality. He hadn't considered this option before he had thought she would never accept to offer her body to Sasuke, but he knew he had been blind, blinded by his love for her and his inability to accept the fact that she would let harm come her way if it was for the safety of all her friends.

He tried to silence the conflict building up in him, but he was powerless against him. He contemplated attacking the man in front of him, try to kill him to cool his rage and pain. He replayed in his mind any moment that he could have acted differently, any way that he could have prevented this. Any way that he could have saved his poor cherry blossom from this sick person. He had no concern for what happened to him, as long as she was safe and happy. He had already been tortured numerous times, been so close to death on so many occasions. It didn't matter what happened to him. As long as his little pink gem was safe and happy.

A heavy weight was placed on his shoulders and they slumped further. It was already done. There was nothing that he could do to take this back. He had been unable to protect her. He could only hope that their encounter wouldn't be successful. If she wasn't pregnant yet, he could at the least stop this devil from touching her again.

Their presence had never been noticed. No one but Kakashi had been aware of what had transpired between a certain kunoichi and missng nin. It wasn't something any of them wanted to share. In the past few days, the silver-haired jonin had tried numerous times to approach the girl, but she pratically ignored him. Her actions were cold towards him and her eyes distant. She remained close to the Uchiha, never leave him his side. Heck, she looked like a mindless drone, obeying his every single command.

Sakura hadn't meant to hurt her ex-sensei. She couldn't bring herself to face him, couldn't bear to deal with the hurt and guilt she saw in his eye. Every time she glanced his way, images of what happened at the daimyo's estate flashed before her. She didn't want to relive that moment. Ever. Her head shot up to look at Sasuke when his hand grasped her shoulder, pulling her out of her thoughts.

"Are you tired?" His question was benign, but it still made her shudder. Truth be told, she had been exhausted long before the sun had set a couple of hours ago. It was probably she had refused to swallow a single bite of food for two days. A loud gasp came out of her as he scooped her up bridal-style in his arms without warning.

"Sasuke, I can walk!" She protested, gripping his arms and trying to push herself out of his reach, to no avail. The way he looked at her told her everthing. You're carrying my child. I will not let you do anything to make this pregnancy anything but perfect.

Their next goal was Konoha. It wasn't yet the time to bring Danzo down. The daimyos would be contacting the Kages only in about a month. Sakura had convinced Sasuke to let them reach their home first. She wanted Tsunade out of there before the Hokage was aware of their plan against him, or else she feared he would use her shishou to convince them to stop everything before it was too late. They still wouldn't attempt to smuggle her out of the city before the last second, though. It would expose them and Hinata probably wouldn't be safe for long.

Their plan was to wait for the inevitable Kage summit that Danzo would be invited to, where the other Kages would share the information the daimyos had offered them with the elders, who would decide of the Hokage's fate. It was clear that things wouldn't go smoothly over there, but they trusted the leaders to deal with it just fine.

Unexpected news had come to them whilst they made their way to Konoha, althought they should all have expected it. The news were of a certain Hyuuga heiress having given birth to a beautiful blonde baby girl. Hinata's pregnancy had been quite advanced when they had left Kumogakure, after all. Sai and Sakura had desperately tried to comfort their whiskered teammate, but he seemed unreachable.

He had howled in pain and shame and they had backed off, giving him the space to deal with this. He didn't want anyone around him. He had missed the birth of his first born. He could never forgive himself for that. Amidst all these horrible feelings, all he wanted was to be with the girl he loved, and hold the newborn he knew he would fall in love with as soon as he saw her.

He could just imagine her. Short, scruffy blonde her with her mother's eyes. He wondered if she had inherited his whiskers, the rumors didn't tell. It was his only comfort in this dark moment. Images of his lover holding their baby up in the air and playing with her, feeding her or lulling her to sleep. It felt beautiful. He couldn't wait to be able to hold them both in his arms for the first time. He was impatient for their plan to come into motion, to say the least, but he remained impasive and silent. This new behavior spooked his teammates, to say the least, but they didn't say a word. They could understand.

Hiding a day away from their beloved village, they stood on their toes. Four years of work was finally coming to its conclusion. If they somehow failed, they doubted any of them would survive. Their only ally left would be Gaara, but he would be powerless against every other nation. Sakura was nonetheless confident that everything would go over relatively well. Everything had been planned as perfectly as possible. They couldn't fail. Konoha would be theirs once more.

It was somewhat agreed that Sai and Sasuke would be the ones to retrieve Tsunade. Sasuke had refused to let Sakura go into the city, though he lied about his reasons, saying it was for her own safety and that the fact that they were going for her shishou would impact her ability to react and plan negatively. Kakashi had noticed the smug look on his face as he thought he would be the one to stay and protect her. Sadly for him, his ex-teacher had come up with the brilliant plan of using Sasuke's Susano'o in the middle of the city to get every guard to move from their post.

Naruto, on his side, took no part in this plan. He would be too heavy a target. Everyone would be out for him. When they two black haired boys left for their two-man retrieval mission, Kakashi had thrown a look at the blonde. Somehow, it seemed that he understood what the jonin wanted from him and he excused himself to do some 'personnal business back in the woods' and left them together. Sakura gulped as she watched her friend leave, wishing him to stay but her prayers went unanswered.

"So... That's what he asked you, a child?" Kakashi's voice came, hesitant and barely audible. Sakura refused to look away from the a foot print in the snow she had taken particular interest in. She had to come up with something.

"No. He asked nothing, I told you." She said, repeating her previous answer.

"Then what is it? Why did he..." He found himself unable to finish his sentence. The hand he leaned on clawed at the snow, leaving deep trails in it.

"Why did he fuck me? Because I let him." Her response was harsh and cruel. She knew it. She didn't know what she was doing or why, but she let her lips move of their own accord, not making a single effort to stop them.

"Why would you do that?" Came his shocked reply. It was a good question.

"I couldn't forget him." It was only half-true. She had almost given into him the first time for that reason. She was shooting Kakashi down for that reason now. She couldn't forget how he touched her, what he was putting her through. She couldn't pull Kakashi down with her in this hell. There was a long, awkward pause between them.

"I-It's okay. I love you, Sakura. Just come back to me and we'll get through this." His voice was shaky. He stuttered. Was that even possible or were her ears tricking her?

"I'm sorry, Kakashi. All this was a mistake. Sasuke is all I ever wanted." Her voice felt foreign to her. She didn't recognize herself in it. These words were not hers, there were Sasuke's. It was what she knew he wanted. Kakashi out of their way. It wasn't like she could face him after letting herself be defiled by another man anyway.

"Sakura, you can't possibly mean that!"He protested, kneeling in front of her and grasping her shoulders.

"Look at me, for fuck's sake!" He roared when she averted her eyes from his again. His voice made her flinch and she tried to scramble away from him, but he caught her immediately, wrapping one arm around her waist while the other was around her torso. He pulled her back against his, crushing her back to his chest.

"Sakura, I'm not going to hurt you, you know that. Sasuke is just using you, you-" He was cut off by
her violent struggle and the scream that escaped her lips.

"Let me go! You don't know what he did! You have no idea what he is!" She shouted, still trapped in his embrace. She growled and flailed harder, incousciouly using chakra to raise her strength. She heard her captor grunt in in pain when she pulled his arm away from her body, not realising she had almost snapped the bone in two.

"Sakura! What's wrong with you?" He asked after he'd dropped her and held the sensitive spot on his arm carefully. He saw guilt flash in her eyes as she noticed she had hurt him, but it was gone in a second, replaced with that distant expression he'd come to loathe this past week.

"Nothing's wrong with me. S-Sasuke finally came back to me." She muttered and turned away from him, sitting down to hug her knees to her chest while she watched branches sway softly in the wind that had risen.

"I'm not stupid, Sakura. He wants a kid from you. I understand what you did. But why you're acting like this is beyond me. So I'll repeat myself, what is wrong with you?" His voice was even, quiet but demanding. She didn't know what to answer anymore. Tears slid down her cheeks freely. She felt like there was a hurricane inside of her. Everything was flying everwhere, there was so much noise she couldn't hear her own thoughts anymore.

Her eyes unconsciously followed Kakashi as he walked around her and bent down to take her hand in his. He tugged at it, helping her up. She stood up with his help and he pulled her in a delicate embrace, praying she wouldn't push him away again. To his relief, her hands placed themselves on his back and she pressed herself against him, seemingly taking in his warmth and accepting his comfort.

"Can you really still look at me as if nothing happened?" Insecurity was evident in her question, serving only to fuel his desire to protect and hold her.

"You did what you had to do for Konoha. It's honorable." His reply was strained. She knew he was praising her, but it didn't make her feel better. She cared about what he thought of her as his lover, not as a ninja fulfilling her duty to her village.

"I'm not pregnant." She stated as if she was saying the sky was blue. Her eyes had moved up to meet his and they didn't break eye contact for a long time.

"Y-You're not? Isn't it too soon to tell?" He asked incredulously, feeling a weight lift off of him nonetheless.

"Contraception jutsu. I lied to him. I didn't undo it." She explained dully, nuzzling her cheek against his chest.

"Oh, thank Kami." He breathed in relief, hugging her tighter. "I'm so sorry, Sakura. I swear I'll never let him close to you again. I'll prote-" She cut him off quickly before he could finish what he had to say. She didn't want to hear it.

"No. Let me handle this. I need him to believe that I am pregnant if I don't want him to suspect anything and turn on us. Okay?" He took a second to process everything she had just said. He really had no desire to leave her alone in this, but the determination in her eyes told him he stood no chance in changing her mind.

"I trust you ." He said simply, hoping he wasn't wrong to do this. He couldn't forgive himself if anything else happened to her because he was too dumb to see she needed help.

"I'll be distant from you, Kakashi. I'm sorry if I've hurt you, but it's easier if Sasuke thinks I'm helpless against him. If he thinks I'm his, he'll be careless. We can take care of him when all of this is over." Something about what she had just said sounded wrong to him, but he couldn't pinpoint what.

"Just let me handle it." She repeated, breaking his train of thoughts. He nodded and decided to put his trust blindly into her. She had a plan. She had something going that he couldn't interrupt. She had proven to him alreay four years ago when escaping from Konoha that she was a perfectly capable shinobi. He had to let go, trust her, and follow her lead. She was his equal now.


Chapter Seventeen: Click Here