AN: In this writer’s work, we’re ‘inspired’ by canon but not exactly ‘bound’ by it. This AU is based in the Naruto-verse with divergences. Sasuke left & joined Orochimaru. He stayed at Orochimaru’s side. No Fourth Great Ninja War in this story. Everyone is in their early 20s-ish. 

Squicks: manipulation, confinement, NSFW, cruelty, mentions of human experimentation (mentions that it's happening, not what it is/no details), Dom/sub, dark

The Bait

Sakura’s eyes widened as a heavy weight settled across her shoulders. The aftershave scent of musk and cinnamon and the faintest, earthy traces of training ground dirt wafted to her nose. She immediately relaxed on her stool at Ichiraku Ramen.

“Thanks.”

“No problem,” said Naruto, wrapping an arm around her. His familiar orange coat hung from around Sakura’s shoulders. “You looked cold. Is it the storm coming?”

Shrugging and tugging Naruto’s cloak closer, Sakura shook her head and grinned at him. “Nah, just me feeling twitchy.”
He studied her and she bumped her shoulder into his. “Really. Bad dreams all week and me needing a break from them. It’s just been a weird time.”

Some of the teasing leaked from Naruto’s expression and he nodded, more resigned. “Ah.” 

Of course it was a strange time. It was the tenth anniversary of their fellow teammate’s defection. The two of them met up frequently to spend time together, but they had never quite mended the rift that tore through their team when Sasuke sought out Orochimaru as a teacher.

“I never thought he would stay away,” admitted Naruto quietly.

Sakura exhaled equally quietly. “Me neither. I always felt like he would just up and appear out of nowhere again, at some point, you know?”

As silence stretched between the pair of shinobi, Teuchi slid a bowl of ramen before each of them, their usual. Sakura smiled and nodded at Teuchi, who gave her a comforting, fatherly nod before returning to his pots and pans.

“Well, here’s to waiting for another ten years,” sighed Sakura, lifting her bowl to chime it with Naruto’s. “A ramen kampai is somehow sacrilegious.”

“Nah, that’s just you. Anything can be toasted for kampai, as long as the intention is true,” corrected Naruto. His bowl clinked with hers and they both grinned. “To ten more years. Hopefully less,” he added.

Their bowls clinked again and Sakura separated her chopsticks while Naruto began inhaling his supper. 

Sakura nodded to herself. “And to the successful removal, or at least reduction in size, of the giant kunai that was always stuck up his ass.”

Naruto choked.

—just as an explosion rocked the village’s front gates, sending a plume of smoke and debris up into the air.

“Shit,” she muttered and smacked Naruto on the back so hard his food shot clear through the stall’s kitchen.

“Thanks,” croaked Naruto, eyes still bulging. He tossed money on the counter and Teuchi waved them both off as he raced to close up his stall.

“Do you think it’s a distraction?” asked Sakura. Her leather gloves creaked as she tightened them and studied the village skyline.

“Won’t know ‘til we go check it out, c’mon!”

They bounded to the nearest roof and raced towards the gates, only for a surprising lightning strike to throw them off course, separating them.

Naruto spun around, gaping. “What the—”

“Naruto!” called Sakura, only for her words to fade as she, too, choked. Long-fingered, strong fingers closed around her throat and the stirrings of lightning tickled her skin in warning. 

The enemy nin had appeared out of nowhere. Where had he been hiding? Had he been listening to them talk? How had they not sensed his chakra?

“Hn,” murmured an ominously familiar voice in her ear. “Still so slow… and annoying.”

Then she recognized the ash and sandalwood scent of him, the dark hair that brushed against her collar as he yanked her back against his chest.

“Sasuke,” Sakura tried to growl. 

Her chakra-flooded fingers tore at his exposed forearm but Sasuke ignored her, his eyes on Naruto.

“Let her go,” demanded Naruto, his cerulean eyes flashing bloody red. The whiskers on his face darkened and his fists bunched at his sides. A reddish gold glow haloed him and his first tail appeared.

Sasuke huffed in derision.

No Naruto, thought Sakura desperately, still clawing at Sasuke. It was a trap. He’s using me as bait. Run!

Across the rooftop, Naruto’s second, third, and fourth tails appeared in rapid succession as the pressure around Sakura’s throat increased, closing off her airways. Adding insult to injury, Sasuke then lifted her just enough so her toes couldn’t reach the roofing tiles. He’d grown tall in their decade apart.

Shoving down the emotions that tried to smother her, Sakura closed her eyes, focused, and released her grip on Sasuke’s wrists. Then she summoned a spike of chakra through her hands and directly into Sasuke, sinking her nails into the flesh of his chest and pumping more through him as he jerked and shook her violently.

“Stop—,” he snarled through clenched teeth, though his fingers loosened.

“No,” wheezed Sakura. 

—but then a scream tore from her throat and her vision went white.

“Sakura—” shouted Naruto.

The hand around her throat was on fire and burning through her skin in record time and Sakura could no longer hear the shouts around her as more shinobi arrived on the scene and she fell to her knees, refusing to let go.

The air around her thinned and Sakura swayed, falling into Sasuke. The fire had burned up the nearby oxygen as fuel. Her eyes shut and she sent one last, desperate shot of chakra through Sasuke’s chest, straight to his heart.

He stumbled.

And then Sakura couldn’t feel anything anymore.

***

The Trick

When Sakura woke, the ceiling spun several times, the pattern of ancient, thick camphor beams blending into each other like globs of paint. Her stomach heaved and she swallowed down the bile that rose and burned her throat, clenching her eyes shut until the roiling mess subsided—

—her throat!

Panting, Sakura sent tendrils of chakra through her system to scout out the severity of her injuries. Taking deep breaths, she counted slowly back from twenty, reminding herself it was normal for her body and chakra to respond sluggishly after a period of unconsciousness, everything would be fine, what the Hell happened, was Naruto OK, where was she, where was Sasuke, was this a trap—

Then she tried again.

And swallowed, trying again.

After the fifth attempt, trembling, she took another deep breath.

Nothing.

A dull, throbbing emptiness echoed through her where her chakra used to course beneath her skin.

Her mouth fell open as a whimper escaped her in spite of herself. No. No no no no no—

A rustle of clothing to her left silenced her.

“You sleep like the dead,” he remarked.

Closing her eyes again, Sakura exhaled slowly. The rage consuming her would not serve her… yet.

“Sasuke,” she replied calmly, opening her eyes to her new reality. 

She lay on a very wide bed, surrounded by white comforters and cushions. The windows let in early morning light that bathed the room in a promising glow, though the room was still chilly. Turning her head, her throat pulled, the tight skin still sore and healing. But it was enough to meet his impassive gaze where he sat up, back against the headboard, his legs stretched out just a few inches to her side. 

What kind of mockery of intimacy was this? Whose bed was this? Why wasn’t she in the hospital? Or a prison cell? Or…

Her jaw ached with tension. There was so much to catch up on. 

Then she spoke the words she’d longed to say for too long. “Welcome home, traitor.”

He regarded her from the corner of his eye, sheathed the kunai he’d been polishing. His undiluted attention unnerved her and she genuinely couldn’t tell if he did it to unsettle her intentionally or not.

“I don’t have all day. Get up and get dressed,” he said, swinging his legs over his side of the bed. 

Sakura wasn’t done with him yet, though. If he hadn’t killed her then he had a reason to keep her alive. She just had to figure out what it was. Which meant pushing him until he lashed out and revealed himself. 

Well, Sasuke had always had a temper. She knew how to push his buttons.

“What, no comeback for the ‘traitor’ comment?”

“You’ll find, when you eventually get out of bed and step outside, that I am no longer the traitor,” intoned Sasuke. 

He added insult to injury by keeping his back to her. 

Sakura scoffed, tentatively pushing away the bed covers. Looking down, she discovered herself in a simple pair of men’s navy blue pyjamas. They were far too big. Her anxiety spiked. 

Whose clothes were these? 

Her throat remained sore and weak, but she forced herself up to sitting and glowered at him.

“Ten years doesn’t change in a day, Sasuke. You don’t stop being a traitor overnight.” She swallowed painfully at the memories she had held so dear, of the hope that somehow, all this time, he would be pardoned and they could be a team together again. Those hopes were dashed like waves upon a rocky breakwater.

“It does,” said Sasuke evenly. He looked over his shoulder at her. “I did.”

Sakura’s brows furrowed.

He turned away again and Sakura could only stare at his back as his words sank in. He had to be lying.

Standing, she glanced around and found a pair of simple gray ninja uniform pants, loose, with clean wrappings for her legs. There was also a fresh pair of shoes and two shirts, one a lightweight, fitted mesh and the other a looser long-sleeved, v-neck t-shirt. 

A breeze rippled through the room and Sakura’s attention was drawn to another issue.

“Where are my regular clothes? My… underwear,” she asked.

Sasuke ignored her.

“Get out,” she said.

Sasuke ignored her.

“Are you some kind of pervert now? Is that it?” demanded Sakura.

“You can get dressed in the next thirty seconds or I will take you out and strip you in front of my team and you get to earn your clothes back one at a time by serving them, at their leisure.”

Sasuke knew exactly how to twist a knife, Sakura learned, and decided against testing his patience… for now.

They left the room at exactly thirty seconds, Sakura relieved that Sasuke had not peeked at her, at least.

***

The Snare

“You’re late.”

“Hn.”

Orochimaru’s golden eyes took in Sakura’s quiet presence at Sasuke’s shoulder and a slow, oily grin spread across his lips.

“Well done,” he praised.

Sasuke nodded.

The shaking of her clenched fists reminded Sakura that she needed more information before she lashed out at them. And she still had to figure out what happened to her chakra.

Wait until you have the advantage, she reminded herself as Sasuke (and therefore she) followed Orochimaru out of the house and into the… Uchiha District?

Sakura’s head spun.

Around them, hammers, roofers, gardeners and repair-folk worked like a small army to renovate the dilapidated mini-village.

They were still in Konoha?

Why… why were they here? What happened? Where was the rest of the village? Why wasn’t anyone fighting to get through and defeat Orochimaru and Sasuke?

“Come,” said Orochimaru.

The trio made their way through the District and Sakura couldn’t help noticing how every worker ducked their head or turned away from her when she tried to catch their eye.

***

At the raised dais, surrounded by silent Konoha citizens with downcast eyes and rounded shoulders, Sakura learned the truth.

Everyone in the Tower had been slaughtered.

Naruto had been captured and imprisoned, Sasuke’s Sharingan having subdued the bijuu.

The Aburame, Nara and Akamichi were imprisoned. The Hyuuga had disappeared without a trace and that concerned Sakura the most given Orochimaru’s penchant for experimentation. No one just disappeared, even if they were ninja. Especially an entire clan with a highly prized doujutsu. Sakura’s stomach sank as she imagined where the Hyuuga likely were… and in what state.

As Orochimaru addressed the quietly huddled assembly, Sakura took the opportunity to look around. She recognized a few civilian faces, but few of her former nin. Genma was off to the left, stiff and still. Tenten stood a dozen meters away, her expression stony. Perhaps the one that gutted her was Lee, who sat silently, his youth sapped and abundance of energy nowhere to be found. His thick bowlcut lay limp against the sides of his hollow cheeks.

What made her antsy was the lack of children anywhere. No sounds of running feet. No signs of their play, no toys left out, no parents holding their youngest near to them. No hints the village contained children of any kind.

What the Hell happened here, she wondered in horror.

His slimy, nasal voice droning on while she took in the semi-apocalyptic scene, Sakura initially didn’t catch on to Konoha’s newest leader’s Prime Directive as he pontificated from the dais. Then certain words clicked and Sakura froze.

“... to bolster our numbers following the unfortunate recent losses, the marriage law will also provide an opportunity for Konoha’s citizens, new and established, to learn about each other and create a new generation of powerful, intelligent nin… Officiants have been designated for each district within the village and will assign partners to any who have not already engaged themselves in the previously encouraged directive…”

Marriage Law.
Marriage… Law…

Was this a farce?

Out of the corner of her eye she caught Sasuke glancing at her similarly out of the corner of his eye.

“... as we would never ask the population to do something we would not ourselves support and comply with, I would like to introduce you to Mr and Mrs Sasuke Uchiha. They will no doubt be announcing the good news of the continuation of the Uchiha clan and its famed Sharingan in the briefest delay possible,” he added meaningfully.

What.

Sakura looked around. Sasuke was married? Then why had he been in her bed when she woke up? What kind of cheating asshole was he?

So intent was Sakura on trying to figure out the identity of Sasuke’s mystery wife that she missed the sharp, narrow-eyed glare Orochimaru shot her way, and then at Sasuke. She stilled when someone tugged her arm through theirs and instinctively tried to yank her arm free, only for Sasuke’s fingers to dig into her forearms, holding her in place. 

Then he walked the two of them to the front of the dais.

“Oh, perhaps it isn’t clear to anyone standing at the back,” added Orochimaru. “You may recognize Mrs Uchiha from her previous role in Konoha General hospital. She is the nin formerly known as Sakura Haruno.”

***

The Snap

The announcement of her engagement may have gone more smoothly if Sakura had not immediately attempted to murder her husband in front of the assembled crowd.

There were gasps, quickly followed by screams as she spun on her heel and punched him hard enough to smash him through the boards of the wooden dais. An explosion of dirt, splinters and sawdust erupted and sent the villagers running. Sakura may not have had her chakra, but she still had a vicious pair of fists.

Sasuke didn’t stay down long, however, and his expression turned stony as he shot from the small crater and launched himself at Sakura. He tried to pin her shoulders but she rolled, taking him with her and throwing him off with a snarl.

It was probably for the best that Konoha’s children were absent given the language she used to express her dissatisfaction with the ‘generous’ offer of marriage.

All the while, Orochimaru laughed.

When, nearly a quarter hour later, Sasuke eventually subdued Sakura, his knee dug into her spine and he shoved her face in the dirt.

His sweat dripped down his red face as he glared at her, jaw clenched. His clothes were torn and blood seeped from the cut on his cheek from where she had clawed at him. 

In spite of the dirt digging into her cheek, Sakura smirked at him. There was no way she was rolling over for him. 

“Do as you’re told,” he seethed, panting.

“Fuck you,” she wheezed, then giggled. Hysteria was setting in. 

His lips pressed together in a firm line.

She just made out the snap of his sleeves as his fist connected with her temple and suddenly it was night.

***

The Job

Sakura moaned softly into the cold, damp stones beneath her as she came to. Swallowing down the nausea—concussion, she diagnosed—she pressed herself up onto all fours and took deep, even breaths. After blinking several times without any success to perceive her surroundings, she sighed and gingerly rolled up onto her knees. 

Without her chakra, this was not going to be pleasant.

“One step,” she told herself, reaching forward. “One step.” Her feet shuffled forward and she explored her prison, a few inches at a time. Every so often she wobbled on her feet and stumbled—she sorely wished she had her chakra to heal herself—but it just made her more determined. After an hour she had mapped the dimensions of the room to some degree. The stone walls were slimy in places, likely from mold, and foetid muck squished up between her toes in one area she hoped she would never have to come across again. There was no tap or means to drink, no source of fresh water or daylight. No door, at least that she could reach, nor any ceiling that she could touch, though when she clapped her hands, there was  a negligible echo. The floor was a mix of dirt and stone and what felt like tiny bones that she accidentally crushed beneath her bare feet. Mice or rat skeletons.

“You can ask for a light.”

Sasuke’s voice instantly put Sakura on guard and she backed up against the wall, searching for him in the darkness. It was no use. He’d come from her left, but she had no idea how long he’d been there. 

Or, if he’d been there the entire time, watching her…

“Let there be light.”

His huff of amusement was as dark as her prison.

“Sakura,” he said, and his voice shifted. He was moving. When he next spoke, he was but a few feet in front of her. “There are rules to the new order.”

“You never made it past genin, you’re in no position to make up rules,” said Sakura, straining her ears to make out his footsteps, his breath, the swish of his knotted hakama. Silence.

“You’re in no position to refuse,” he countered, his breath warm across her hair. 

She swung at him but he chuckled and disappeared out of reach again. She clenched her jaw and winced. Stupid concussion.

“What is this, Sasuke? A game? Sport? Revenge?”

The faintest scent of soap reached her nose and she focused her entire being on it while refusing to turn towards it. 

Let him get closer. Don’t let on that you can sense him, coaxed Inner.

“We aren’t the type to play games, Sakura. Compete perhaps.”

“It’s not a fair competition if I don’t…” Sakura swallowed her words. If I don’t know the rules. He lied. It was a game to him. “What do you want?”

“It’s not what I want, it’s what you need. Training.”

“There are training grounds for that.”

“Not that kind of training.”

Sakura stilled.

“What is this? Does this have to do with Orochimaru’s sick jokes?”

His voice came from her other side.

“Ah,” he breathed against her throat and she pivoted on her heel but he was faster, pinning her roughly to the rock wall. 

Disgusted, Sakura bucked against him but he jammed his forearm across her throat, cutting off her airway.

—Then he caressed her cheek with the tip of his nose, trailing it over the apple of her cheek until it was buried in her hair. Sakura froze when his lips murmured against the shell of her ear,

“You’re going to learn how to obey… how to submit… how to beg, Sakura. You’re going to learn how to please me and anyone else I tell you to, and you’re going to surrender to me completely.”

His breath was warm and lifted goosebumps across her skin in spite of the rush of disgust that flooded her.

“You’re delusional.”

“If you want to keep the others safe from Orochimaru’s experiments… start learning.”

The arm fell away from her and Sakura launched herself outward, fists flying, only for Sasuke’s amused huff to resonate and echo through the room before fading away.

“See you tomorrow… pet.”

***

The Rules

It wasn’t true.

It couldn’t be true.

He wouldn’t… 

She bit her lip. She had no idea how long she’d been in the dark prison and had lost all sense of time. No food or water had appeared that she’d been able to find. She had tried to call for help but she couldn’t make out a single sound from outside the stone chamber. All she knew was that it was likely underground, going by the constant chill and the damp conditions. Was she hidden beneath the Uchiha District?

His words came back to her and she couldn’t stop turning them over in her head.
Experiments, he’d said. 

The nin in her wanted to fight the notion, the medic in her dreaded its potential truth.

Would Sasuke do that to the citizens of Konoha? Their home village?
Her nails dug into her palms as they fisted at her side. 

Would he… would he really try and… break her?

She didn’t know. She didn’t know him well enough anymore to guess, either.

She knew she had to get out of the prison before she could do anything to help anyone, though.

Finding as close to the driest part of the room as she could, Sakura sat down and leaned against the chilled wall. 

“Sasuke-sensei,” she called out, her shoulders sagging. “What is my first lesson?”

Nothing.

Exhaling angrily, Sakura closed her eyes. 

***

What felt like hours later, a heavy blanket fell over her.

Sakura startled, then groaned. Her stiff muscles ached at the sudden movement. Too grateful to shove it away, Sakura wrapped it around herself to try and warm up.

“Ah ah ah, what do you say?”

“Took you long enough.”

The blanket was ripped from her shoulders and Sakura caught herself on her hands and knees, the force of the movement throwing her forward.

“Wrong.”

“May I please have the blanket?” asked Sakura, her nails digging into the filthy floor.

“... what are you willing to do for it?”

“Not kill you in your sleep on the first night of our ‘honeymoon’.”

Sasuke’s disappointed exhale couldn’t reach her physically but it struck her emotionally. He hadn’t said the words, but she knew what he intended with that sound.

“Do you need to think about it for another two days?”

Two days? He’d left her down there for two whole days? No wonder her stomach felt like it was gnawing at her insides.

“Please, may I have the blanket? I will… do as you say.”

“What will you do?”

Sakura rolled her swollen tongue around her bitter mouth. “What would you like me to do?”

“Use your manners.”

She swallowed to try and wet her mouth and lips. “OK.”

“Yes, sir,” he corrected her.

Every joint in Sakura’s body protested at the order, but she inhaled thinly and nodded. “Yes, sir.” She reached for the blanket, but it slipped through her grasp. She crawled forward another few steps on her hands and knees. He’d pulled it away from her. “Is there something else, sir?”

“Speak only when I speak to you,” he said.

“O—Yes, sir.”

“Good girl. You will wear what I tell you to wear.”

Sakura counted backwards from ten to maintain her composure. “Yes, sir.”

“And you will do exactly as I say.”

The ache in her head worsened at how tightly Sakura clenched her jaw before she measured her voice and replied, “Yes, sir.”

“You understand the rules? You understand my authority?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Was that a growl, pet?”

“No, sir.”

He chuckled darkly.

“You may wear the blanket.”

“Thank you—” Sakura’s outstretched hand gripped the blanket but it stayed firmly in Sasuke’s grip. “... Sir?”

The silence stretched.

“... only the blanket.”

Pressing her lips together and reassuring herself it was fine, it was dark, no one would see her anyway—Sasuke had turned his back before—Sakura released the blanket.

One article at a time, she removed the shinobi uniform he’d given her when she first woke in that room with him in the Uchiha District. They were soiled but they were something against the chill, against the vulnerability and all-too-humanising nudity. When the layers piled at her feet, she reached again, but the blanket was gone.

Sakura’s stomach dropped. She immediately grabbed for her clothes again, but something had whisked them away. Panic grabbed her with both hands. She was completely exposed.

“M-may I have the blanket, please?” she asked from between clenched teeth.

“Hn. Tomorrow.”

Ignoring her nakedness, she ran in the direction of his voice, but he was nowhere to be found.

Trembling, Sakura turned around, trying to see or hear anything in the dark.

Nothing.

—until she was blinded by a burst of light.

Her hands flew up in front of her to protect her sensitive eyes, and instinctively she shrugged away from it—

—then she remembered she was naked and curled up into a protective ball, desperate to hide herself from whatever, whoever, was shining the spotlight on her. Colours had erupted in front of her eyes and she couldn’t see past them, and without her chakra, she couldn’t sense anyone or their intent. Like an animal, she huddled away in the corner she fell into.

When nothing else happened after a few seconds, and her eyes had adjusted a bit, she glanced around her.

Overbright light flooded the empty room. She still couldn’t find the door because the ceiling blinded her with its harsh whiteness.

“Sasuke?” she called. Her right hand shaded her eyes as she tried to find any hint of him. 

“You forgot rule number two already, Sakura.”

His voice sounded right beside her ear and Sakura turned, but he wasn’t there.

“Think on today’s lessons. I will see you tomorrow.”

“The blanket, please, sir—” stumbled Sakura, her throat closing up.

Silence.

But now Sakura was alone, exposed, in the light.

(She wished for the dark.)