Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Pink Thread Of Silk ❯ Diminished ( Chapter 1 )

Pink Thread of Silk

 

Chapter 1: Diminished

 

She sat, still, in the shadows of her bathroom. The cold tiled floor beneath her legs seemed to give no comfort to her burning skin. She gazed numbly at the dagger in her hand; it was a pretty but deadly ornament. The only thing her mother had ever given her. Sakura almost laughed at how ironic it was, that her own mother would give her something that could cause only pain. It was like she knew right from the start what Sakura would become.

 

The sharp silver blade gleamed dangerously in the moonlight that sifted through the blinds of the four ceiling to floor windows that seemed to make her average sized bathroom look like a glass box. She didn't notice nor care anymore. To her it was all the same, the place she had to call home was not a home, more a prison with innocent people trapped by them, trapped by him.

 

Her pale hand gripped the knife harder at the thought of the man who held her captive. The emeralds and diamonds embroidered into the sliver handle dug into her delicate skin. She squeezed it harder, trying her best to not remember those cursed scarlet eyes, so scarlet that to her they were the colour of blood. Of all the blood he had caused, all the pain.

 

“Uchiha,” She mumbled into the cool night air.

 

When Sakura had first laid her emerald orbs on his face she was a mere beginning medic nin working in the heart of Konoha to better herself. She had been training in the woods surrounding the village when he and two other men seemed to appear out of the shadows, out of thin air.

 

She had only been thirteen years old back then. His blood eyes settled on her form in those woods and she had become overcome with naïve feelings of lust. Even at that tender age there was something that had deeply attracted her to the older nin. Who could have blamed her, he after all was perfection in human form, the only anyone could see, would see for time to come.

 

A single tear rolled down Sakura's pale cheek as she remembered that day. She had been so innocent back then, so young, so foolish, so naïve. She had shed so many tears since then, so many painful experiences.

 

He didn't need to say a word to her back then in the forest. He and the two men accompanying him had walked right past her as if they hadn't even seen her. But she, a stupid young girl had followed him. She couldn't believe how naive she was, for all she knew he could have been a murderer, a killer, a rapist, a man with no morals.

 

And he was…

 

But she had followed him anyway; she was never more than fifty meters behind him. The thought of her parents, of her so called friends, of her life had been ripped out of her mind. All she could see was his scarlet orbs in her head. She followed him until her feet couldn't carry her any further; until her body could no longer keep her up, until her eyes could no longer stay open. Until her mind could no longer see red.

 

Sakura grazed the sharp edge of the dagger over the soft skin oh her wrist. He would expect that from her, to give up, to end it all in this cowardly motion. To be the weak and naïve girl she had always been.

 

But she wasn't like that anymore.

 

She had woken up back then in the room that her bathroom door led to now. The same room she had been trapped in over the past four years. Sakura hadn't seen those scarlet eyes until two months later. She had been enrolled in geisha training in that time and was well into the lessons. She was doing well, she was proud that for once she could excel in something. Be better then the other girls were. She after all was the one to get the praise. Sakura had ignored the looks of distaste on the other girls' faces. She wanted to be the best so she could impress him… she after all was in love.

 

Sakura chuckled deep in her throat, so low it was almost missed by the world around her. Love? Who could ever love some thing like him? She doubted the man knew the meaning of the word let alone ever experienced it.

 

But she believed she was back then. She had sneaked out of her room one night on a mission to find him, to show him what a woman she was and the woman she had become. To tell him how much she loved him, to expect warmth, desire and an honest reply. Well she did get one…

 

She found him in the living room, staring darkly into the fireplace, watching as the flames danced and crackled. Listening to the groans of pain from the pieces of wood as they gave way under their assassin. She had hesitated to interrupt him but she found she was once again trapped in the thought of being with him.

 

She was about to get a very different response to what she was expecting. She was hoping for a prince, a knight in shining armour that had whisked her away from her life back there, when she felt alone and weak.

 

The blade in the rose haired woman's hand clattered on the tiles as she let it slip through her fingers. She had no longer the strength to hold it. It wasn't heavy; it was designed for a woman, for a true geisha. But suddenly she seemed to have to hold the weight of her past on her shoulders. She was tired and more alone then ever.

 

The anger in his eyes that night scared her till this day. He had hit her, countless times, held her by her throat against the brick wall, banging her head into it until she lost consciousness. She hadn't woken up after that incident for a month. She had fallen behind in her geisha training and she no longer was the best. The scars took years to heal. She had never looked in those eyes again.

 

But Sakura couldn't figure out why he had kept her. Even after her assault he had ordered the women to tend to her, countless medic nin to heal her. He had even paid for private geisha lessons so she could catch up once she recovered. But she hadn't seen him once in all of that time. She was glad…

 

Over the years she learnt the hard way, the truth behind the Uchiha genius. He had no heart to his name, let alone a soul. No conscience had ever been present in the shell of his body. He seemed perfect on outside, but inside he was more broken than a shattered china doll. With no heart came no meaning to life.

 

She had heard he killed his entire family. She suspected he done it so he could feel something, anything in the emptiness he called his heart. She also understood it was to gain power; his sharingan was a curse too. A broken man given more power than he could handle was never a good combination. She had heard he only spared his brother, his younger brother. It was a sick attempt, to her, of breaking another soul, if he couldn't be whole then why should anyone else be?

 

She suspected that was why she was here too…

 

After all, that night when she was in the forest training. When she met him. She had never questioned why he was there. Why he and those two men were at her home village. It had been only last year that she found out the answer.

 

To kill it.

 

To kill them…

 

To kill her family, to kill the people she understood now, had been her friends. She had followed willingly the man that had sliced open her mother's throat. Who had stabbed her father with no mercy, with no reason.

 

She hadn't wanted to believe it a year ago, but she knew it was true. Something like that she couldn't put past him.

 

Sakura's emerald orbs dropped to the dagger again. It looked so welcoming, something that finally could bring peace to her suffering. Separate her from him.

 

It was ironic that once she found the truth about him she no longer was smittened with him. She no longer blushed when his eyes looked her over. He had been there over the past two years at every show she performed in, every tea party she led. He was considered her `Danna' though they shared no kind of relationship apart from him keeping her trapped in him home. She hated him right to the core of her being.

 

She had also grown into a cold and empty shell. No-one around her cared about her, she had no-one but her own mind to speak to, to tell her secrets to. She was hated by all women outside her prison; she after all was under Uchiha Itachi's care. The only woman the ruthless killer had ever lusted over.

 

Yes, after four years of torture, Uchiha Itachi seemed to have moulded Sakura into the cold hearted woman she was now. Into the empty shell that no longer had any energy to fight. Her spirit had flown away into a land she doubted she could ever retrieve it from again. Especially after it had been driven further from her grasp the night Itachi had come home from a mission and…

 

…raped her.

 

She wondered now, what would he do if she didn't wake up in the morning? Probably curse her to hell for wasting his time and money into perfecting her into the woman he wanted her to be. He would probably kidnap another girl, who at first thinks she's in love with the brooding genius, then like her discovers her grave mistake. Or maybe she was the only stupid one that would fall so easily for an offer too good to be true.

 

Sakura's head travelled to the glass ceiling above her. The back of her head leaning on the edge of the bathtub she was propped up against.

 

He liked watching her. He had done it every time she was around him, like his eyes were glued to her and her only. If he wasn't the monster that she had grown up to know he was, she would have thought all the attention was romantic. But with Itachi it was anything but.

 

She could feel his gaze on her now. Her head twist to her right; out of the glass wall she could see him. She could see his silhouette facing her from his own ceiling to floor window in his own private bathroom, but his only had two windows at either side. One to watch who came near him home. The other to watch her. His hands were pressed up against the glass as all she saw apart from his dark form in the low lighting of the clouded stars, were his scarlet eyes.

 

She needed a way out. Her orbs immediately fell on the blade. But she no longer had enough will in her spirit to die.

 

“Another night,” She whispered to him. Almost expecting him to hear though she doubted he did. She stood up, giving him one last cold hard look, before she walked into her bedroom and prepared to start another long day.

 

***

 

Sakura gazed lazily at the food that was laid before her. There were many women walking around her, making sure everything she wanted and needed was given to her without the need for her to utter a word. She wondered sometimes if they thought they were psychic, after all, they appeared to think they knew what she wanted before she knew it herself.

 

She glared at one of the younger maids who was making slow progress of setting her rice bowl in front of her. She didn't have the heart any more to be kind, to be patient. She after all was the geisha under the Uchiha protection, under his training and his lust.

 

Thinking of the devil she thought but her thoughts had no amusement in them at all. Her cold emerald orbs watched as the Uchiha genius walked through the door and strode into the room to stand opposite her kneeling form.

 

“Sire,” Sakura bowed her head, though she couldn't feel less respect for any other human being.

 

He was silent for a while, watching her as she returned to the posture she held before his entrance. She picked up her chopstick quickly and elegantly like the true geisha she had become. The rose haired woman began eating her food, almost like she had forgotten he was there.

 

“Why were you up so late last night?” He asked curious. She seemed to have been doing that a lot these past few weeks. Leaning against the bath tub with that dagger she kept strapped to her thigh at all times.

 

It was Sakura's turn to be silent. She was taking her time in thinking of an answer that would end all questions.

 

“That is none of you concern Sire,” She replied in a fake pleasant voice. “I'm sure your mind should show concern for someone more deserving than I.”

 

He smirked.

 

Itachi walked around the table she was kneeling by and grabbed her arm, dragging her up to her full height, though her eyes never lifted to meet his. The maids took this as a sign to leave and suddenly the room was quieter than Sakura was comfortable with.

 

He slammed her into the wall, but Sakura wasn't scared any more. What happened to her body was no longer any of her concern, her soul, her heart and her dignity had left years ago. His lips were making quick way down her neck and began to lick and nip at her collar.

 

“I have a mission for you,” He muttered between kisses.

 

Sakura's mind had drifted back from the daydream of her dagger and her death, to the man whose hands were currently making quick work of her obi and yukata. He had her pressed against the wall hard but she was intrigued.

 

“A mission?” She asked as the man's lips slowly rose to leave the last kiss at the corner of her lips.

 

“I want you to seduce my brother,” He said as he stared hard into her eyes. No emotion was shown as he finished his sentence, she only looked slightly curious as to why he presumed. “I want you to lead him to me, I hear he's given up on killing me, that he wants to start a family and I can't have that.”

 

There was an evil gleam in the man's eyes that Sakura knew all too well. He wouldn't allow his little brother to lead a fuller life than he ever could. He was always selfish.

 

“I don't want him to touch you though, flirt all you like, that is why I'm sending you,” He continued with a smirk. “But if I find out he's touched my woman,” Itachi put a severe emphasis on the `my' part. Sakura had to try her hardest not to roll her eyes at that part. “There will be hell to pay, and not just by him,”

 

The dark look he sent her seemed to bring back the memories of his eyes when he had gotten angry with her for the first time. She whimpered slightly under his gaze, his hands untying the obi finally and discarding it, then slipping his palms under the two layer casual yet still expensive yukata to reveal her naked form. His hands wrapped around her waist as he pulled her closer to him leaving no room between their bodies. She knew he could feel the swell of her breasts through the material of his own black silk yukata.

 

“Remember, you are my property,” He hissed in her ear. “I own you,”

 

With that he pushed himself away. By the time Sakura had managed to get a grasp on her bearings he had already left through the door. The maids ran in only to gasp at the sight before them. Sakura had fallen to her knees, not bothering to tie the yukata up so her naked from was revealed to the other women.

 

The only thing Sakura could think was. She had shown weakness to him again. She still wasn't numb enough to go against his assault. She had to die more inside to finally be able to stand his mental torture. To block out those scarlet eyes.