QOTC:

Sasuke: You love him. Reality or illusion?
Sakura: Sasuke, I loved you. It was real. But it isn't now.
***********************************************
Chapter 74: Heartbreaker

*P L A Y S O N G*

"Rise and shine, nephew." Someone threw a bucket of cold water at Sasuke's morning face. "There is someone I'd like you to meet."

Touched by paranoia and an angry effect of being disturbed, the katana that was laid on the side of his bed was placed scarcely against Obito throat. Sakura didn't say anything. He knew the risks of theeatening a hundred-year-old (likely) man yet he tried---for temper.

Uchihas needed to work on their temper problems.

They took the secret passageway inside the house. Sakura was grateful for the Akatsuki's absence, knowing of Deidara's bloodlust, and the very fact that he believed Sasuke was long gone, she needed not to remind him of the quick things he'd failed at; not now.

Taka had been good to her. She was surprised they'd even recognize her---the girl who'd evolved from a strange curious medic into a braver woman. Sakura wore the Akatsuki cloak that was once Itachi's and she assumed nothing was wrong with it.

Sometimes the world she looked out seemed so wrong, sometimes she said to herself: all the things that lay in front of you is a mere oblivion. One day oblivion will sweep everything and the sun will come and burn us. People will burn. Can you see it now? She looked at Obito, who just stared back with those mesmerizing eyes.

He was listening at the same time dazzled by amusement, his Sharingan switched in a lucent light.

Sakura thought, one day she'd have lots of children and name her first boy Obito.

Sasuke's head suddenly swung up towards Sakura. His ill-doing had been gone, releasing the hem of Obito's shirt. Impossible, those crow-colored eyes said that left his mouth parting. Sakura is here. Sakura was away. Sakura was married.

A ray of pink started falling like the rain. They were cherry blossom, falling endlessly from the blue skies above.

It was Sasuke's genjutsu.

Sakura didn't think she'd be able to see one again in her lifetime.

⍨⍨⍨⍨⍨ ɐɥıɥɔu pɹıɥʇ ǝɥʇ ⍨⍨⍨⍨⍨
DEMONS FROM HELL

"Well, this is a very romantic reunion. Ladies and gentlemen, to the outside!"

One snap and the door was opened. Obito could have gotten them out with karui but he chose the longer way, meaning there was a message he'd been wanting to convey.

No one of Taka said a word. Even Karin never managed to anything. Wow, Sakura wanted to disperse Karin's friendly gesture. When she was new Karin had been so mean to her, and now that she was back it's as if she never left.

Suigetsu was the first friend she made in the Akatsuki, the not-so bad boy. He still wore his pastel purple cropped top that often reminded him of Sai. His muscles had gotten bigger, his skin no longer thin as stick. He was thicker.

Jūgo never changed. The birds never left his side, and if there was a time Jūgo would go on a rampage or distress anyone, Sakura would have no money. He towered them all with his giant nature and surrounded Sasuke with a barrier of protection and an invisible guarantee of a lifetime service. Sometimes she wondered if Sasuke still showed him an image of Kimimaro: wasted, torn to shreds, still handsome.

To Sakura's surprise, Obito wasn't smirking when he left that door.

Marvelously the door shut.

Sakura didn't move an inch.

Sakura didn't say a word.

Sakura didn't get any close.

Sakura's expression was blank.

There were too many words, a ball of unending hatred she planted in her heart. So many pain. The screams were onto her; she heard all the voices that gave her the attempt to suicide again. Pregnancy was painful, so was the feeling of death.

She looked at Sasuke the same way he would look at her all those three years back. She recalled a song verse that made her inner ask, would you still trade all your tomorrows? Would you be the good girl or the good girl gone bad?

"You're here." Sasuke said first. The way he said it was emotional, forsakingly unbelievable. "You're fvcking here."

There was not enough time. It was a rush minute that Sasuke stepped forward causing Sakura to move backwards. The first thing Sasuke thought of was kissing her---his mouth pulling her in, his hands in hers. No more touching, kissing was enough.

But, no.

She looked to him as if he were a total stranger; a ghost from a past life.

"Why'd you do it? Why'd you leave?" Sakura asked hardly, pinning his voice. Sasuke recalled a list of reasons he had to do it---had to put a child's safety before hers. The mere thought of it belittled Sasuke's confidence.

Sasuke would have to tell the truth.

Sasuke was a sucker for telling what was real from the lies.

All this time he had just been gone, a leaf in the wind, someone who flew from a happy family tree and followed the tempting breeze. His reasons were legit at the same time complicated. But wasn't he always a gordian man? Someone who did things cruelly and not on purpose?

Sakura frowned(as expected). She looked down to her one-month-old belly and stroked it. When she looked up, her eyes were sparkling greener. "Was it because of the baby? Or you never knew there was one?"

The baby. Sasuke wanted to scratch his head, perhaps smash a hammer into his duckbutt head. He was so stupid. Frankly he may surpass Naruto's stupidity. Damn that dobe, he wanted to pummel him, to strangle him with his bare electric hands.

"You're a coward." Sakura muttered, her voice low.

Monster, devil, unhuman. It echoed in Sasuke's ears like water falling from bridge pillars on a mute cave. I am not a coward. I am doing what's best. I am doing what is right and I'll do it my way. If you can't see it, things may be better that way.

"So you're really not going to say anything?"

I'm sorry. I'm not really good in feelings and expressing my emotions, but, I'm sorry. I truly am.

"Say something, Sasuke!"

"What do you want me to say, Sakura?? You're married. That dobe thinks that's his child!" Sasuke responded. He was wearing his arm protectors that showed when he used an apprehensive hand gesture.

Sakura stared at him, a raising fighting spirit worn like a dark aurora. "Because you never did anything! I was trying to move on with my life, finding a way if somehow it's possible to get this child out alive. I had to be selfish for once. I had to be like you."

Sasuke raked his hands in his hair. For the first time, he was swollen with jealousy and pride. He turned around since he couldn't bother to look at the pinkette. He couldn't possibly look at her when fidelity was surfacing. "Naruto. You love him?"

Sakura looked to the other side. "Why are we talking about this?"

"Answer my question, Sakura." Sasuke turned around, finally willing to face this fear that insisted on growing. "You love him. Reality or illusion?"

"What else can you do?" Sakura asked before leaving for the Leaf, a cute smile in her face as Sasuke turned around and saw her wearing a crochet top and shorts. "Illusion, manipulation, Chidori, Fire Style..."

Sasuke was smiling inwardly as he zipped his baggage. Kiba and the others were blabbering outside since Naruto was treating drinks---a cold refreshing morning for a tiresome afternoon later at the train station. Sakura decided to stay with Sasuke as he took care of the inn's associations: he paid the whole summer vacation with his his money (he had obtained his fair share of Orochimaru's gold), no tricks intended.

"Well, what else do you want to know?" Sasuke asked, finally zipping the last of them. The inn was simple and grand at some ways; it was large enough for the senseis and a whole gang of 12 to fit in, tear into pillow fights, go into inconvenient matters. Not that the inn cared.

"Alright. What's it like being Uchiha Sasuke?" Said Sakura. "Cold, badass, strong and you had a brother that loved you. Until now."

"He's dead, Sakura." Sasuke said, no offense taken.

"Yeah, but I heard spirits can watch us any time. They're free to be here." Now Sasuke had pulled her hand, kissed her in the cheek. He gave her a 'let's-go' gesture as he carried the bags with one hand. "Seriously, are you twins or anything? I saw the Binggo Book and all I saw was you. Sasuke, Sasuke, Sasuke. Of course I never told anyone. They're gonna think I'm crazy." Sakura laughed, clinging onto his hand. Sasuke managed to smile softly, enjoying her little shroud happiness. "Let's play a game. It's called reality or illusion."

"You're annoying."

"I'm serious, baby. Reality if it's true, illusion if it's a lie." Sasuke didn't say anything, which meant that typically his answer depended on the person if he liked them or not. One look on Karin and it's a no, Neji challenging him on an arm wrestling made him smirk. "Let's start. Obito as your biological uncle."

"Reality." Sasuke responded in a funereal tone.

"You and Karin..."

"Illusion."

"Rin Hatake."

"Reality."

"Madara's intentions of destroying our world."

"Reality."

Sakura was silent for a bit, a chilling wind that caught her voice. They had reached the porch where in the rookies gladly ate, making boisterous noises that she bet it'd awake the dead. She caught sight of Naruto and frowned. "He'll come for us, right? He'll find his way back."

And when he does, I still haven't decided which side I'm on. Sasuke didn't say anything.

"Sasuke, I loved you." Sakura said. "It was real. But it isn't now." She had placed two of her fingers into a release sign. The flowers stopped falling. "No more lies."

"You told me to go away."

"I never said good bye, Sasuke."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Sasuke was not getting better.

Hotaru had tucked the sheets above his chest this morning. Sakura did a bitchy move earlier, and it couldn't be helped. Taka was sent far away on a mission by Obito, and with the Akatsuki marched inside the hideout, they realized the raven wouldn't be so bad without them. They fled from the hideout as early as possible, grabbing their Akatsuki mantles, and vanished.

Wakana was locked at her cell like she was when she was an impure. To Obito and Zetsu's thought, it had been for the best. The Akatsuki lingering at their couch doing whatever Kami knew and it was a bad sight for her to see. And no one said Nohara Rin's soul lurking around their newly furbished hideout was a good augery.

Hotaru had dedicated herself as the chorekeeper. A professional Cinderella, swiping floors (not much but with the help of magic the hideout looked rather as a five-star hotel), spraying perfume scents whenever the usual Deidara would play with his bombs. Once, when he did a general cleaning of the house he spotted Sasori fixing something upon his parents' puppets. Maybe art was a serious issue to someone. Or maybe it was a metaphor to them. How could she know?

She was part of the table when Obito had summoned for a meeting, and she was grateful.

"We need to excercise extreme precautions. Doesn't mean you're undead doesn't mean you can't be dead." Obito said, sitting on Pein's chair. "The Nations will find a way. Once they catch you and seal you, rest of you be assured, I cannot find my way to rescue you like spoiled brats."

"What of Konoha?" Sasori asked without raising a hand.

"The Leaf village is the last of our concerns. Now that Sakura is with us, the jinchuuriki is the only thing undisposable. I'm sure he'll find us here and want us dead."

"And we'll wait until Naruto gets here? You are a coward." Konan blurted, obviously hating Obito more than anyone.

"I am simply doing the easier way. You folks march into battle like thousand-year-olds! Don't you even know the reason why you are all dead??"

"Those Leaf assholes did this to us." Hidan grumbled.

"We want revenge, Tobi." Said Deidara.

"To whom? To Konoha? Or Sasuke." Obito smirked. "All of you are called back here because your purpose had not yet been fullfilled. I suggest you choose them correctly. If you want revenge, I'll give you that. In time."

"We've waited long enough." Kakuzu mumbled.

"Long enough?" Obito chuckled. "You just arrived here. Take a rest. Train. Wait until Kabuto and our little medic finish this magical jutsu that can finalize your reanimation. You can swim on a large waterfall to have your wounds cleansed. I hear there are mermaids that swim in these waters."

Hotaru lingered at the kitchen as if waiting for a shooting star to cross her path. She thought of activating her wings but dropped the risky idea. When you've become pregnant, it was then you'd realize you could not possibly act like a child, not even once.

She crossed her arms and decided to feed herself. She grabbed some chocolates and strawberries Obito once bought went he went on a grocery with Kakashi's daughter(to her utmost surprise), sugar, milk and anything sweet. A cookie jar she'd placed all of it on a plate and laid it on a table in case if someone went hungry. It was like the old times.

This time, things would be better.

This time, she promised never to leave anyone's side.

Hotaru felt huge amounts of chakra approaching. Deidara. "My man, I'm telling you. Art is a flick of the wind. There's no beauty in something that is old."

"If you're a true artist, Deidara, you'd believe that there is true beauty in art that is forever." Forever, Hotaru laughed silently, a teaspon in her mouth. If immortality were the answer, would she make an exemplary?

"What's art if there's no money in it," Kakuzu said in his injustified voice, "I hope when you talk of those crap you'd make a quid out of them."

"Why won't you two be a painter?" Hotaru joined them bringing a tray of cookies, biscuits and such. "Cookies?" Meanwhile Kisame sat on the arm of the couch, eating a popstickle. Hidan was laying on his bed catching some zzz's. He looked younger this way--the grey-haired man with purple eyes. His scythe was still linked on his hand, his triangle necklace hanging on his neck. "What? You can't say you don't eat sweets."

Kisame chuckled. Going back to the subject, he said, "their art room would explode."

Kakuzu grabbed a cookie, hesistant at first when Hotaru said, "there's no payment." She almost forgot Kakuzu no longer wore a mask. She smiled at the thought of it, as if the people were starting to become more of themselves---bare. Women looked even more beutiful without make-up. Anything natural shouted simplicity, and Hotaru believed in beauty that could not be found easily. The mark on Gaara's upper right forehead made an important notice.

"I'm telling you, my men." Deidara bragged. He took out a C1 and instantly a bird flew out of nowhere like a rabbit coming out of a hat. "Art---" he continued, the bird fleeing towards Hidan's nose, "is a blast. A beautiful blast."

"Kakuzu, tell these people to shut the fvck up!! Can't you see I'm trying to get a fvcking sleep here??"

"You did just dig your way up from hell." Said Kisame, patting him in the back. Hidan held onto his scythe like a teddybear, something if given a chance to take it up in heavens, a bloody weapon would be an option.

Hotaru chuckled. Hidan was so oblivious with the ash smudged on his nose. "Um, you have a..."

"Shh..." Someone was shushing her. She gazed her head to spot Deidara who shot her a cute wink. "Don't be a killjoy."

"Where is Konan, anyway? I haven't seen her." Said Kisame.

"Probably to that guy who looked like a goodie version of Leader." Sasori said.

"He hasn't been awake for like twenty years. You guys have only gone for what--a year? Some of you probably have been dead for only months." Hotaru said.

"Can you believe a woman outtook us? Konan was the last person who died." Deidara said, sitting impatiently. He wasn't wearing his Akatsuki cloak, which gave anyone the impression that the Deidara Itachi discovered years ago wouldn't be the same nineteen-year-old boy who died of daredevilry. "Now we wake up and see that some idiot boy who used to be so stupid and weird outsmarted us." He paused for a second. "And a very blue guy who loves to go fishing."

"I woke up and found out that the kunoichi we rescued had been the person who took my life." Said Sasori.

"Did you regret it?" Hotaru asked, when it was silent. "Dying."

"No." He just said. "I don't even see the reason why I'm here."

"Is there anything else we should be overwhelmed of? The way I see it, we missed a lot. Damn it, it sure sucks to be dead." Deidara said, sipping the straw of his beverage.

"Well, any of you still remember Kakashi?" Kisame smirked. He looked at Hotaru and immediately she left to get something at the hall.

"That copy-nin brat? Of course I do." Kakuzu said. "Who do you think finished me twice?"

At the spark of hatred upon Kakuzu's voice, Kisame felt himself stretching thin as stick. "Yeah. Forget I said that."

The house's corridor was like a maze on some ways---long and it could get your head sway dizzily due to the colors of the wall. Hotaru sometimes wondered where did Kabuto purchase the hideout.

She knocked on Wakana's door. "Wakana, are you there?"

Hotaru felt suspicious. As an original fairy and an impure, her senses were leveled to the point she would hear anyone's conversation next door, or teleport through waters and fly to the moon.

She leaned her ear to the red door, placed her palm against it.

"I told you, Obito told me not to play with you." Wakana's voice warped. "Because you're dead? And dead people should be where they're supposed to be resting."

"Oh, does that mean I'm lost? I just want to play." Rin Nohara said. "I haven't been here for a long time."

"But you look older today. How old were you again?" Wakana asked. She pinned herself against the door, trying to persuade herself that she was a vampire---a living proof compared to a lost ghost who did not seem to be capable of touching objects.

"Thirteen."

"You look seventeen."

"I'm aging. I'm catching up with the universe." Rin said, as if the world she saw was imperfectly perfect. "Isn't that wonderful?"

"H-how is that possible? Aren't you dead?"

"Wakana, I'm coming in." Hotaru declared.

"Will she see you?"

The door swung open. Wakana turned around as if she'd been caught by the authority, or bunch of hunter-nins---blinding her, torturing her. "Who are you talking to?" Hotaru asked. She reached for her hand. "Come on, there are people I'd like you to meet."

Wakana turned her head. Rin was still behind her. She knew Hotaru heard them, and that was an insurance hazard she might had been driving insane. Wakana was afraid that Obito would know. There was something special about Nohara Rin that sparked her interest, her attention drawn towards her daddy's first love and first serious kill. Worse, this was the girl Obito had given up his life for. So what was the harm?

Looks can be deceiving, little girl. Zetsu's voice rang on the back of her head, an alarm that sooner or later she would be entering this terror stage called pubescence and think like a woman.

"Rin," Hotaru said. "Come on."

Wakana didn't look back at the girl. She took the fairy-nin's enchanted hand. She always admired those pretty yellowish hands; they weren't cold and they gave off magic from the good side. It's not often you get to be fetched by a beautiful, pregnant girl of a blended breed: half fairy, half impure, born in sweet immortality.

And so walked away, though this time temptation hit her. 'Just one time. One more look.'

Rin Nohara's chest was bleeding, suddenly there was blood that dripped in her mouth, blood that bathed her thirteen-year-old clothes. Still, she had no knowledge of it.

"What the hell?"

"Trust me. I overreacted more than you did." Kisame bragged, still sitting like a sassy boss.

"What is she like??" Deidara spat bitterly, as if she was wrapped with toxic poison. As he heard the word "Kakashi" and "kid", the only conclusion on his answer sheet was a girl who loved to play toys and held kunais recklessly but aimed straightly to her chase.

"Well, she's more fun more than she looks like. And trust me, you don't wanna mess with her."

"Why? Is she somehow immortal?"

"She's Kakashi's child, idiots. She's ten and she survived Kabuto's experiment. Consider her the youngest brat who ever made it out of hell." He replied, and realized he ran out of water. He stood up for the kitchen.

"Psh. Who gives a fvck about some dork kid whose father is a fvckboy and can't even walk around without a ma---"

Hidan stopped. A little girl was in the hall, her hair tied on two pig tails. She was neat and tiny as a dwarf princess. She wore ripped gloves, a bubbled grey sunday dress. She wasn't those kids whose bodies had outgrown shapes, and if there was one word to describe her, that would be small and uncorrupt.

"Wakana, these are the formerly deceased members of the Akatsuki. They're the original ones. Akatsuki, meet Wakana. This is Kakashi's daughter."

Deidara, Sasori and the others were speechless. The first person she went to was Kakuzu. 'The next generation will always surpass the previous one. It's one of the never-ending cycles in life.' Those were the last words Kakashi said to him before lightning was blown in his guts, his soul finally free. "Hi," she said. "I'm Rin. You can call me Wakana."

"Is this some kind of joke??" Hidan said. "Tell me this isn't what it looks like."

"I know you." Wakana smiled, touched the pendant in his necklace. "Okay, kid, don't fvcking screw with me and you fvcking let go of that." Wakana smirked. "You're the guy Shikamaru killed right?" She directed her gaze towards Sasori, Deidara then to Kakuzu accordingly. "Sakura-one took you down, Sasuke-nee sassed the shit out of you, and you---" she stared at the thousand-year-old man. She let off a childlish smile. "My father killed you."

"You make it sound as if it wasn't a big deal, but I won't kill you." Kakuzu said, holding Wakana's hand as if they were grandfather-and-daughter from an outer space, "you're here now. You are with us. You chose your side. And we're going to have so much fun together."

*******************************************
6.4.15
Uh oh, Kakuzu's hyped.
I'm sorry this chappy got a little... Brutal.