65Title: The Price you pay
Summary: Sasuke agrees to sell his soul to a powerful being who in turn will give him the power he needs to fight and kill Itatchi. Sasuke returns to his old home to find that something far more valuable to him than his soul has been taken in collateral. With Itatchi still at large will Sasuke be willing to give up that power to save the one he loves? Or is it already too late? SasuSasku
Rating: T
Disclaimer: Are Sasuke and Sakura madly in love? Is Naruto the Sixth Hokage? Does Kakashi still wear that mask? No you say? Well then… I don't own it…
A/N: Oh.. Btw it's kinda AU… Sasuke is out on his own searching for just Itatchi
Sasuke felt the hot blood ooze from his wound. The sticky red liquid slowly began to seep from his stomach. He had been stabbed nearly ten times. He winced as he held the wound and tried to stand up. He kept thinking that if he could just reach the nearest village he could live to fight Itatchi just one more time. That's all he needed. He had spent too much time fighting on his own to notice that he needed people to tell him when to stop. People to watch his back. Especially people to love him.
He shook his head as he shakily pulled himself up against a tree and leaned against it for support. He didn't need love. What fueled him was hatred, Hatred and hatred alone. If he took Naruto and Sakura with him.. They'd only be problems. They'd get in the way. They'd die.
He shuddered violently as an image of Sakura, her eyes dead and cold and her skin covered in blood, entered his mind.
He'd never let that happen.
He stumbled wildly through the forest, holding his wound, using anything he could find for support. He was loosing blood and fast. He saw a light up ahead and his body cried with relief. As he reached closer to the light his head began to spin and he became dizzy with the loss of blood.
'Sasuke come on' he urged himself. 'only a little farther'
His body wouldn't comply it was beginning to break down, and he couldn't stop it.
'give me one more chance' he prayed to the sky. 'I need to see her one more time'
His body fell heavily into the cold earth. He felt the heavens begin to pour out their souls upon the thirsty mother earth…and then…nothing.
When he woke next he no longer found himself out in the cold rain, dying. But rather in a warm dry bed, fully bandaged, next to a roaring fire.
He was alone.
Footsteps echoed in the back of his mind. A woman not very tall, probably around Seventeen. He heard her shyly walk up behind him. He could hear her hesitant breathing. She was afraid of him.
"I won't eat you." He said, quietly to the girl behind him.
He heard her jump in fright and then step closer. He could sense that something about her was familiar. He tried to move to get a better look at his savoir. The pain from his stabs sent shocks through his whole body. He jolted up as the pain took him over and he let out a painful yell.
"You need to be careful." The voice said quietly. "the stitches haven't healed and you lost a lot of blood."
His mind whispered to him that this girl sounded familiar as well. He shook his head. He was too far from anywhere he was familiar with for him to know her. Yet his mind urged him on.
She walked next to him her pink hair pulled back into a head band that symbolized the leaf village. Only now there was a strike through it at a half way point. She kept her eyes down and rung out a cloth. He reached out to touch her to make sure she was real. She grabbed his hand quickly and continued to clean out the clothe. She looked up at him her emerald eyes making contact with his onyx eyes. They rung true yet deeper than Sakura's.
"Sasuke-kun." she whispered. "I've been waiting for you."
She smiled lightly and let go of his hand. She picked up the cloth and pulled up his shirt. He looked down at the red painful mess that his stomach was. Yet the wounds looked to be healing quickly and his broken leg no longer hurt.
"Sakura?" He asked. He knew he sounded stupid, yet Sakura was so much younger and so much more naive than the girl that kneeled before him.
"I used up a lot of my chakra healing you." She said looking intently at his wounds. "I'm sorry I didn't finish."
He looked up at the ceiling.
"I'm sorry." He whispered to her.
"For what?" She said, trying to pretend that night never happened.
"I left you and Naruto. I was a fool to think I could handle this all on my own." Sasuke said.
"You did what was best for you." Sakura whispered. "That's all that I ever wanted."
"Sakura," He said sadly. "why is it that no matter what I do to you, you still take care of me?"
"Because, Sasuke-Kun, I love you." She didn't even look up at him when she said this. She kept her eye on her work as she stitched up a stubborn wound.
Silence enveloped them both. A few moments passed.
"Am I what you want?" Sakura asked. She looked up at him with her beautiful eyes.
"What?" Sasuke asked, confusion evident in his voice.
"Do you want me?" Sakura asked. "Because I could stay with you. I could help you."
"Sakura!" He nearly shouted. "I do not want you!"
She backed away. "I'm sorry."
Sasuke threw his head back in frustration and he yelled in pain. He took a few deep breaths and looked her square in the eye. "I didn't mean that, Sakura."
She nodded silently.
"I want power." He finally said. "I can't have anyone or anything… until I kill Itatchi!"
She nodded and turned back to the fire.
"I understand." Her voice changed slightly in pitch.
He painfully pulled himself up to a sitting position.
"Sakura, Itatchi will kill anyone that I care about. I cannot let him get you." Sasuke said. He felt like he was choking up. It must have been the drugs, because Sasuke Uchiha did not cry.
She turned around and her eyes prang into a fiery red, her voice sounded odd and she began to change.
"Sasuke Uchiha." The venomous voice spit out at him.
In front of him stood a woman of about 6 feet her hair a dark brown that hung shoulder length. Her eyes a deep blood red and her skin a pale white. She looked down on Sasuke like an ant. She rolled her head and cracked her neck.
"I've been waiting for you." She said. "If power is what you desire, I'll be willing to strike up a deal… and power is what you will get."
He blinked and then grew angry. "WHERE IS SAKURA!"
"She's safe at home in her bed, dreaming of you. Like she does every night. She thinks a bout you all the time. Last night she dreamt that she found you… she was so sad when she woke up to find her arms empty and her bed cold." The woman sneered.
"Who are you!" Sasuke growled.
"I am Akki." She said evilly. "I am the Devil, so to speak."
"What do you want." Sasuke asked.
She sat down next him and ran a finger down his chest.
"This isn't about me. This is about you Sasuke-kun." Her voice sounded like Sakura's again. "You see, love, you're dying, slowly. I am your salvation. I will heal you and give you all the power you need to kill Itatchi."
"And if I accept?" Sasuke growled.
"I'll ask for a small fee." Akki said sweetly. "I give you what ever your hearts desire is.. And I will take the most precious thing to you, as mine."
"You mean my soul?" Sasuke asked.
"You could say that." Akki said, a smile n her face. "All you need to do is sign this contract in your blood."
A piece of ancient scroll fell open and rolled along the bed to Sasuke's face where a blank spot stood at the bottom of the names of many men and woman written in blood. He looked down at it and then to Akki.
"And if I refuse?" Sasuke asked.
"Then you die. Or rather.. I leave you back on that muddy earth and see if you can make it twenty steps with those wounds."
Sasuke's mind flashed back to Sakura's face. He looked up at Akki once more before pricking his finger. He sloppily signed his name in blood.
"Sasuke Uchiha"
The paper disappeared and Akki smiled.
"Wise choice." She said standing up and brushing her long black kimono down with her slender hands. She turned her back on Sasuke and walked out the door.
Sasuke looked heatedly at her. "Akki!"
She turned around. "What Sasuke." She said, sounding like Sakura again.
"What about my power?" He asked.
She smiled. "Some one is impatient."
"I need power!" He shouted.
"Good things come to those who wait." Akki said, mockingly. "You chose not to build your power, but rather give up the most important thing to you to obtain it. You'll live long enough to wait a few minutes whilst I pick up a few things."
He glared at her. She smiled. "Don't worry Sasuke. I never go back on my word. I just hope you don't go back on yours."
And she vanished in a puff of smoke.
A/N: Sooo.. What you think? I know kinda slow at first… Also.. It's unbeated.. Because I have no beta…