UPROOT||SASUSAKU||COMPELET

chapter 1

She woke up in the middle of the night with cold sweat beads running down her temples, and infusing with the soft strands of pink hair. Bringing her hand up to wipe the sweat away from her forehead, her green eyes cracked slightly and she began to sit up.
The cold and musty smell of her room overtook her body as she began to remember where she was; it had been the same room for her for the past three years. Nothing but stone walls and a stone floor, a small desk in the corner of her room, and a bed perched in the opposite corner, accompanied by a small night stand.
Pushing the wet strands of pink hair from her face, she began to lay her head and body back down on her firm bed and pillow, and brought the sheets up to her chest, resting them softly against her steady moving body.
As she slowly closed her eyelids over green orbs, a sharp inhale filled the cold room with noise.
Don’t do it.
She thought to herself as a tear threatened to escape the corner of her eye.
She squeezed her eyes shut, locking in any tear that attempted to roll down her cheeks.
Good. Count to five.
The woman exhaled slowly through her nose as she began the countdown in her head, slender fingers gripping at the sheet that laid across her body.
One.
A vision of a small blonde hair girl handing her a red ribbon and encouraging her to be confident with herself flashed through her mind in the darkness.
Two.
Multiple days spent in the fields in the Fire Country, picking flowers while she was learning to be a kunoichi flickered from the corner of her mind.
Three.
She finally passed her final exam at the academy and became a Genin. Her forehead protector then replaced the red ribbon that had been given to her from her once blonde haired friend; the visions began to focus and become clear in her mind.
Four.
She had been assigned to her team; Team 7, with Naruto Uzumaki and Sasuke Uchiha, Kakashi Hatake was their sensei.
Five.
The pain that she felt course through her neck as the Grass Ninja clamped down, hard. The mere memory of her jumping in front of her love, Sasuke Uchiha, and being granted the black inky curse mark shattered any hope that she had flowing through her mind. Her hands began to rip the sheets as the memory ate away at the corner of her mind. The muscles in her body pulsed as the curse mark began to throb in her dark and shadow covered room. Small gasps began to escape her mouth.
As she let go of her hold on the tears that sat impatiently at her clenched eyelids, the hot tears began to flow down her perfect cheek bones; some landing in her hair, others landing on the bed that held her small body.
I only wanted to protect you, Sasuke. And now, I want to become strong for you. Show you that I, too, am capable of being strong.
The thought of Sasuke catching her body once the venom from the curse mark entered in through her neck, overtook her mind, and images of the worry that coated the young Uchiha’s face danced through her mind.
xxx
He sat there, Sasuke did, perched on the branch, paralyzed, as Sakura finally came to her senses and realized that the Grass Nin was heading straight for Sasuke; sharp, venomous teeth aimed for his neck.
Pushing her mind to reach out to her legs, she finally had the will power and was propelling ever so gracefully towards the raven haired boy.
“Sasuke!” A shrill shriek escaped the pink maned girl as she lowered her shoulder, and knocked the Uchiha to the side; her shoulder engaging with his ribcage. His body flew to the side like a ragdoll and merely made contact with her emerald eyes as the Grass Nin bit down on her neck, hard. Pain coated her eyes as they glazed over and darkened.
An immediate scream escaped from her small mouth as the Grass Nin let go, smirking.
“My, my. What timing, darling.” The Grass Nin snickered as she began to back away, wiping the saliva from the corners of her mouth. “You aren’t an Uchiha, but we can make it work.”
“Like hell you will!” The Uchiha came in, full force, kicking the jaw of the snake like woman. Loud cracks could be heard as her jaw hung there, obviously broken. A smirk graced the corner of the woman’s face as she watched the Uchiha pick the lifeless pinkette up and cradle her in his arms.
“Sakura!” Sasuke yelled, as he looked at the blood began to bubble up and out of the two holes from the sharp teeth, black marks soon bubbled up onto her cream skin. They looked like three oddly placed tear drops; pitch black and mysterious.
Inhumane chuckles creaked from the Grass Nin as she began to fade from the scene.
“She’ll do just fine.”
The Sharingan in the Uchiha’s eyes began to spin as he caressed Sakura, wiping the sweat and dirt from her face as he picked her up and cradled her in his arms.
“Sakura, please wake up…” He began to flee from the scene, looking for their orange coated friend. Panic and worry overtook his features as he found Naruto; just as lifeless as Sakura was.
Alone, again.
The Uchiha carried his teammates to safety, and protected them from any surrounding threats; keeping a close eye on them both. He denied every thought that coursed through his head that they were dead, just like his clan.
xxx
As her mind was brought back to reality and the memories faded, she whipped her head to the side as light began to pour in from the cracked door. A shadow covered face poked in, small reflections bouncing off the lenses that balanced on the nose of the human; Kabuto. Her body sat up and she narrowed her emerald orbs.
“Sakura-chan,” the white haired medic sneered. “Orochimaru is waiting for you. You’re late for training.”
Sakura’s eyebrows knit together and her teeth sunk into her lower lip. She hated Kabuto; although he was the shinobi who had overseen her medical training and worked on her chakra control, as well as teaching her to adjust and use the damned curse mark. She instantly lifted a small hand to case around the left side of her neck; finger nails digging in.
“Get going.” It was an order before the door clicked shut and Sakura was now up and standing by her bed.
She pulled on the clothing that she had picked out herself while under the training of Orochimaru since she hated his standard white shirt, black pants, and the signature purple rope that all of his underlings wore. Instead, she wore a black tank top, a very exaggerated v-cut down the front of the tank and ended at the top of her belly button. A blood red bandou sat underneath the mesh armour that was pulled skin tight against her torso. Cream colored short shorts sat snuggly around her waist, and stopped above half way down her thigh. She kept the black spandex look that she had worn as a Genin in Konoha, keeping her respectable woman parts covered, but having enough movement in the small amount of clothing that she wore. She had her wrists and forearms taped and wrapped in bandages, along with her upper right thigh; kunai pouch tightly attached to her thigh.
As she zipped her boots up and snapped the buttons closed, she smoothed her hair and tied the purple ribbon – only to please Orochimaru, since she refused to wear his purple rope – around her head, pink locks falling and brushing the backs of her arms.
Sasuke likes girls with long hair.
She thought to herself as she reached for the knob of the door and turned it. Sakura existed her dark room and walked into the light filled corridor that was surrounded by nothing but stone. The pink haired woman began her walk towards Orochimaru.
“Ah, Sakura-chan.” The snake Sannin’s words slid smoothly out of his mouth, slithering almost. “It seems as though you’re late, child.” His voice filled the large and dim-lighted room. This room was also surrounded in dirty stones, emitting a yellow hue. Six large pillars ran from the floor all the way up to the ceiling, and snake designs had been carved into every single one. The way their bodies flowed up the stone pillars was almost hypnotizing; a very unique design. The carved serpent’s bodies looked like they danced when the torches flickered their orange and red hues; shadows descending over the bumpy textures of their bodies.
Sakura kept her eyes on the ground and her fists at her sides; white knuckles ached from how hard she squeezed them shut. She hated the way that both Kabuto and Orochimaru said her name, the way it fell off of their lips. It made her skin crawl with disgust. The pink haired woman always wanted to leave, she didn’t even want to be here. Her motivation to being here was only for the boy that she loved.
Sasuke.
She left her beloved village, left it all behind her. Sakura sought out Orochimaru for the power and strength that she desired; she wanted it to show that she wasn’t weak anymore. She wanted to prove to Sasuke that she wasn’t a mere child who was useless. Her cherry blossom hair tickled her shoulder blades as she felt the breeze from someone walk by her; Kabuto.
“You know, you really need to quit that day dreaming. It’s getting annoying.” Kabuto hissed to her in an aggressive whisper as he made his way to Orochimaru’s sitting form.
Annoying.
A whirwind of memories swept through Sakura’s mind as she thought about Sasuke. She craved to be able to see him, see what he had become. Show him what she had done over the course of her three years of being away from him, from Naruto, from the Hidden Leaf.
“Whatever.” The sharp remark filled the large room. She felt the intense glare from yellow and dark eyes that looked at her, tension filling the void. Kabuto smirked as Orochimaru pushed himself up and away from his seat, stalking towards the pink haired woman; like a snake slithering towards its prey.
“Sakura-chan, what’s wrong?” His body was perched right in front of hers, and he brought a pale and cold hand up to her chin and grabbed at it. Pulling her face to look up and into his eyes. The black slits in his eyes narrowing as her emerald eyes darkened. “We had an agreement. You came to me in order to save your beloved Uchiha. I agreed not to make his body my next vessel, yours either. But here we are. You’re ignoring everything I’ve been saying lately. Sleeping in, not showing up to training, mouthing off. That temper of yours is going to get you in trouble, child.”
The snake Sannin dropped her chin and narrowed his eyes at her before turning his back and walking the other direction. He had made two steps into his journey back to his chair, until cold blade sat at the bottom of his spine; a stinging sensation overtook his body as the kunai pressed into a pressure point. Kabuto’s eye widened at the sudden realization that Sakura had moved quickly and quietly and was now pushed up and against Orochimaru’s back.
“My, Sakura-”
His words were cut off when the hum of chakra and the burning of hot metal seared against his skin. The searing put on his pressure point began to ring and burn through his body as he twisted slightly, trying to look at the ignorant woman.
“Don’t talk about Sasuke.” Sakura threatened, digging the kunai deeper into his clothed back. Blood began to seep through the wound and stain his light shirt.
Sakura received nothing more than a nod and she felt the body that her kunai was plunging deeper into relax. Canceling the chakra that she sent through her kunai, she pulled it out and turned her back to the Sannin, beginning her walk back to where she stood previously.
As she suspected, Kabuto was already at her side with chakra infused scalpels forming at the tips of his fingers.
You idiot.
She smirked to herself as he flung his hand forward, aimed at her abdomen. Making contact with the pink haired woman’s body, a mere log took her spot through a puff of smoke and his face dropped at the rookie move.
Substitution.
As she had timed it perfectly, her chakra infused fist was already making contact with his jaw, knocking his glasses off of his face and sending his body flying into a pillar.
The smirk remained on Sakura’s face as she cracked her knuckles, looking at the heavily breathing medic. “Thanks for all the chakra control lessons, Kabuto. They’ve come in handy.” She mocked as she turned towards the chuckling Orochimaru.
“Damn you, Sakura!” Kabuto spit out between gasps of air, blood trickling from the corners of his mouth. The white haired shinobi’s eyes were squinting at the dimly lit figure with pink hair.
“Sakura-chan, Kabuto, that’s enough.” Orochimaru hissed before grabbing Sakura’s arm and pulling her roughly towards the doors of the room. “Do something useful with that temper of yours, or I’ll get rid of you.” Her body was then pushed out of the room; Kabuto’s scoff could be heard as the doors shut.
And with that, Sakura was walking her angry and throbbing body back down to her room. Just as she reached the door that housed her stuff, she nearly ripped it off the hinges during her fit. Throwing her body down on her bed, the hot tears that had been bottled up since she was thrown out of the training room began to roll.
Just as she brought her hand up to wipe the tears away, she noticed the smooth and flowing traces of the black curse that stretched out and over her arm. The all too familiar pattern had etched itself inside the pink haired woman’s mind; smooth black lines with jagged spikes that submerged from the solid line. It had almost looked like vines with thorns that stuck out, and whenever she lost her temper, the smooth vine and thorn look submerged from the curse seal on her neck.
Count to five.
Inner Sakura hadn’t been the same since she left Konoha. Instead of the rowdy and happy-go-lucky conscious, she was quiet and mellow. She acted as the light that stood out in the midst of all the stress and troubles that coursed through Sakura’s mind.
As she reached five, the curse seal was neatly tucked away in the base of Sakura’s neck and no longer throbbed. She could see clearly again, and at that, she pushed herself up from the bed and made her way towards the exit of the hideout.
She’d put her temper to use by training. Training and thinking of ideas on how she would escape; escape and never return to this dark and damp place. Sakura tightened the purple ribbon around her head and pushed chakra to her feet, sprinting towards the light filled exit.
I’ll escape and come back to the village. I’ll make up for what I’ve done. I want to see my family, my friends, Sasuke.
Sweat drenched the charcoal gray shirt of the shinobi as he dowsed his target in the orange and red flames from his clan’s signature jutsu. The flames lunged and bit viciously at the orange clothed ninja as he ducked and lunged out of the way; the tips of his blonde hair had been singed.
Blue eyes flicked to the attacker and immediate whining started bellowing out of his loud mouth.
“Oi! Watch it, teme!”
“Be on your toes, Naruto.” Their silver haired sensei watched from the trees; he sat atop a branch, watching lazily as his students faced off to their heart’s content. Kakashi looked back down at his orange covered book after being interrupted by a yell from the loud mouthed shinobi.
Naruto knitted his eyebrows together as he glared at his opponent; the dark haired man with history that weighed down on his shoulders. His rebellious black spikes made the man stand out in a crowd, and his pale, porcelain features acted as a magnet to multiple girls and women. He had a sculpted, well built body; toned down to every last muscle in his body. His spinning Sharingan made eye contact with bright blue eyes, and a smirk graced the man’s lips.
Sasuke Uchiha.
“When are you going to stop messing around and actually fight me?” The Uchiha mocked his blonde haired friend before dodging multiple punches and kicks.
Naruto brought his leg up to kick the dark haired man’s jaw, but was grabbed almost instantly out of the air. A rib crushing knee to the ribcage suddenly brought Naruto to the ground, grasping his side and gasping for air instantaneously.
Sweat mixed with blood dripped from both of the men; one standing and one kneeling on the ground.
“Damn, teme. That actually hurt.” Naruto coughed out before standing up, arm still cradling his ribcage. “I may need to go to the hospital for once.”
Sasuke merely smirked and patted Naruto on the back before walking away. “I’ll see you around.”
The Uchiha pulled his sweat drenched shirt off over his head and off of his body as he made his walk towards his apartment, the cool breeze felt nice against his hot and aching body. The sky above him was beginning to glow orange from the setting sun, and he was in the mood for a cold shower, dinner, and going to sleep tonight. His thoughts began to wander as he made his way through the village, straight in through his apartment door, and right to his shower.
Sasuke shed his clothes off his body and stood under cold running water, soothing the aches and bruises that decorated his body. As he let the water run, he began to think of his clan, his brother. His Genin days, and back to the day of the Chunin exams when he was caught paralyzed.
He thought about her.
Her name was taboo to him, and just hearing her name made him shudder. His muscles would tense and his stomach would tighten up, feeling as though it had shriveled up inside of him. His heart would stutter and miss a beat, and his body would go numb.
No one understood why she left Konoha; she lived and breathed for this village. The Uchiha would dream of her constantly, remembering the feel of her against his arms, the way she would say his name, the way she cared for him. His teeth clenched as he thought of her, cool water streaming in through the corners of his mouth.
The memories of how sweet she had always been to him always haunted his dreams. Deep down, Sasuke had cared for the pink haired girl, but goals and motives had pushed and nudged him towards the darkness that called for him. He ignored every attempt that she tried of wanting to be with him.
He ignored her.
Except for that one day that changed fate, the day that she saved him. Not from the darkness, but from himself.
Dark hair was now surrounding his face as he was hunched over in the shower, fists slammed again the tiled walls in his shower. The cold liquid began to burn into his skin as he came back to reality. His hands and fingers were now wrinkled and pruned from the time he had spent day dreaming in the shower, and the texture of the cotton towel felt foreign to him.
He quickly dried his pale body off, slipped into some sweats, and left his bathroom and went straight to the comfort of his bed; dinner hadn’t sounded appealing to him anymore.
The comfort of his bed soon started to seep into his muscles and his tired onyx eyes began to glaze over as exhaustion seeped into his mind.
Exhaling deeply, he let his conscious slip into a deep slumber; his dreams welcomed the thoughts of a pink haired girl with exotic emerald eyes.
Why did you leave, Sakura?