Chapter 8

"I heard from Pain that you were injured during your last retrieval. Is that true?"

It's been two days since Madara woke up to the news that Sakura had saved his life. He's always healed quickly and has a very high pain tolerance, so the stitches were covered with a bandage, and the man carried about like everything was normal.

"It's nothing serious. I'm ready to continue."

So far, he's stolen a painting, a fancy-looking pistol, and the ruby ring he nearly gave his life for. Christmas Eve was coming quickly; it was already December first.

Konan surprised him by speaking up, "The way I heard it, you were half dead before even leaving the grounds. How'd you make it out alive? Did you have a car waiting?"

Madara turned his gaze onto her with a warning glare, "What I do is none of your business. The job get's done, and I don't get caught. Everyone's happy."

Danzo laughed amusedly, resting his elbows on his desk and loosely interlacing his fingers, "If what Angel says is true, then I'd love to meet this accomplice of yours. Is he looking for employment? He's already doing the work, so why not get paid?"

"No," Madara's hand twitched at his side when he realized he'd answered much too quickly.

Just the thought of Sakura being in the same room as that twisted man made his blood boil. The Uchiha man has seen how the powerful figure treats women. Even those under his employment were at risk of mistreatment in more ways than one. Konan's made it so far up the ranks without being affected because her partner is her husband, and the duo never works separately. Therefore, Danzo's never gotten a chance to be alone with her.

The three others in the room looked at him with guarded surprise, but he kept his face neutral, "I work alone."

His boss chuckled, the tension in the room thankfully melting, "Yes, I suppose you've never really played well with others."

When Madara left the office later, he was on edge. He's known Danzo for an entire decade, and he knows that grin he plastered on earlier was fake as can be. The man didn't believe him; he knew he'd been lied to. That means one thing: Madara was likely to be tailed when completing each of his jobs. So long as nothing like what happened with the ring happens again, his boss would likely give up within a week or two.

While driving back to the apartment, his fingers squeezed the steering wheel harder than necessary.

The time had finally arrived that Madara wanted out.

He's always been disgusted by the nature of his work, but the benefits were just too good to pass up. It was wrong and evil, and the Uchiha man didn't try to justify that. All his life, he's been a selfish man. If it meant he'd be fed, warm, and safe, it didn't matter who had to suffer.

Around two years ago, he was seemingly snapped out of his apathetic daze. Though he's done hundreds of unforgivable things, he always carefully selected his jobs to avoid harming women, children, or the elderly. At that time, he took on a headhunting job in Amegakure.

The target was an upper-middle-class attorney who would take on cases for lower rates than others of his caliber, but his clients wouldn't know that he was being paid by the opposing team to throw it. So, he was receiving twice the amount of income and allowing potentially innocent people to be convicted just to line his pockets. Naturally, he'd win a case here and there to keep up appearances, but dozens of people suffered.

Madara had no problem killing a crook like that.

In fact, that was the only type of work he'd accept: where the target was someone who deserved what they were getting. It didn't make it okay for him to hurt, steal from, and sometimes kill them, but it made the guilt more palatable.

When he read through the job details, the file said the man had a wife half his age, obviously having married him for money, and zero children. So, the Uchiha man did the deed, discreetly taking out his target when he was leaving the bar he frequented.

It was only afterward, when the murder hit the news that Madara regretted his actions. He was at a cafe, checking his email on his phone, when the television in the corner of the shop showed a thirty-something-year-old woman with two young boys in mourning. The man had a secret family, one he hid from the public because he didn't want them to get caught up in things if one of his clients found out they'd been stabbed in the back.

The trophy wife he publicly flaunted was paid to play the role.

Madara will never be able to forget their faces. The younger boy couldn't have been more than seven years old, and he'll grow up without a father because of what the Uchiha man did. As someone who didn't have the best childhood or parents, he couldn't forgive himself.

Since then, it's been like each job has been eating away a little more of his soul. Someone he cares for potentially being put in real danger was the push he needed to begin making plans.

Due to his work's lucrative nature, Madara had bank accounts under different aliases all over the country and even in some foreign countries. If he were to withdraw all the funds from every account, he'd have enough money to last multiple lifetimes; it was just a matter of retrieving it. It became tedious to constantly seek out trustworthy people to prepare legal documents like IDs and birth certificates, so the Uchiha man learned how to do it around the age of twenty-three.

If he could get the money, all that was left was to evade Danzo and his people. He and Sakura could-

'What the hell am I thinking? I can't ask her to uproot her life and run away with me! She has family here and wants to finish school to become a doctor.'

Though it saddened him to think of saying goodbye to her, even if it was just for a while until things died down, Madara couldn't bring himself to get angry. The fact that Sakura has a dream, and she's spent years working hard to make it come true, makes him unbelievably proud. There've been a couple of nights where he'd get up to get a glass of water, only to find her studying in the early morning or passed out with a textbook in her lap.

'She'll make a hell of a doctor, too. She saved my life with a first aid kit and some fishing wire,' he smiled fondly, a bittersweet warmth in his chest.

As Madara rode the elevator up to the fourth floor, he made a decision. He'll prepare everything as though she's going to join him, but he won't say anything until after Christmas when this final job is complete. If she says yes, all they'll have to do is pack clothes and leave. If she says no, he'll have at least gotten to spend that much time with her.

The doors opened with a ding, and the man stepped out, walking through the wide hall toward his apartment.

~

When Sakura woke up after they spoke while she had a fever, she appeared to not remember most of it. If he wants even a chance of her saying yes, he'll have to bite the bullet and make a move soon.

Sakura remembered it all, everything she and Madara said to one another while she was sick, and he was injured. Waking up with his palm resting over her lower abdomen and his slow, even breaths tickling the back of her neck sent a wave of something heated down between her legs more intense than she recalls ever experiencing.

She wants him, and she wants him bad.

Every time they've met eyes since then, the poor woman couldn't help but picture the very non-frigid things she'd like to do to him, that she'd like him to do to her.

Sasuke's sex drive has been lower than hers since forever, but Sakura still didn't lust after him like she was for the older Uchiha man. With Sasuke, it was something they did that proved they loved one another, and it just so happened to feel good. The woman wasn't sure because they'd obviously never slept together, but she had an inkling that a night with Madara wouldn't be so casual.

For some reason, she panicked when the man awoke that day, and she pretended to be ignorant of the words they both said the night before. That was two days ago.

It was hard not to avoid him because her initial response to such intense emotions was to act, but she couldn't do that without potentially ruining the wonderful friendship they'd created. Plus, they still hadn't sat down to talk about what happened the night he'd been shot. Sakura got the feeling he was avoiding her a little, too, because he didn't want to have that conversation. So, the pair has been tiptoeing around one another and pretending everything was back to normal when they both knew it very much wasn't, for multiple reasons.

Sakura lay on the floor with her feet on the edge of the coffee table, her knees bent, and her phone in her hands as she browsed for a new sofa to replace the ruined one that'd finally been thrown out of her apartment. Her toenails were freshly painted, cherry red, and were drying; that's why she was lying that way, so nothing would mess it up before it could dry.

Dinner was already ready and in the oven to keep warm until Madara returned.

"Welcome home," she called lazily when she heard the door open and close.

Her eyes left the screen of her phone when the man walked around her, him offering a warm look of greeting before disappearing down the hall, likely to change out of his work clothes.

Even though the situation was as serious as it could get, she found it funny that he wore professional attire each day. Whether he's a master thief, a hitman, or something else, it was amusing. When he reappeared, he turned into the kitchen, and the woman sneakily glanced at his backside before averting her gaze back to the device in her hand, blushing. He looked damn good in everything he wore, too.

A while later, while they were eating, Sakura informed him of something she very much didn't want to talk about, "Sasuke'll be back tomorrow." The week of his absence created a sense of security that left her a bit shaken now that he would soon reappear. The bruises on her back only just completely faded.

Dark eyes lifted to lock onto hers, and she read them as easily as a book, "I talked to the apartment manager. He said they should be done by tomorrow evening, so I can safely sleep there."

The fact that their little bout of playing house was coming to an end disappointed Sakura. Though the past seven days were filled with drama and stress, she'd felt more alive than ever.

"Take the spare key," Madara's voice was low and blunt, proving her hypothesis that he, too, wasn't happy about her ex-boyfriend's return. Though he's likely only giving it to her so she'll have somewhere to go that Sasuke won't have access to, she blushed.

"I'll get you a copy of mine, too, 'kay?"

That night, after Madara had gone to bed, Sakura lay awake and stared at the living room ceiling with a frown. Experiencing what it's like to be around another man than her ex, the woman realized how unhealthy their relationship had become over the years. Since she never let him walk all over her, she'd felt as though they were on equal footing, but she'd been wrong.

Sasuke was suffocating her, squeezing out every last bit of her personality until all that was left was an exhausted woman who studied, went to school, worked, and catered to him; nothing more and nothing less.

Sakura still had love for him, but it wasn't romantic anymore. No, it was the same love she had for Ino, and admitting that to herself took the edge off of her anxiety. 'I think that's why we didn't work out. I still see him as a friend, but he'll never see me as anything but an ex-girlfriend.'

Tomorrow, the woman will confront him. She'll tell him how she feels regardless of how angry or hurt he gets because she owes to both him and herself to be honest. They've already wasted six years on one another. Anything more would be beating a dead horse.

It wasn't a lack of self-respect or confidence that prepared her to forgive the man. It was actually the opposite.

Sakura deserves to be with someone who won't ask her to change, and she had a specific person in mind, but even if that doesn't work out, she'd rather be single and sad than spend one more day fretting over whether Sasuke was going to hurt her.

Then, when the fallout from their breakup cleared, she'd confess to Madara. It didn't feel right to do so while things were still so messed up with her ex, so she'd just have to keep her composure a bit longer.

'I'll wait until after Christmas to tell him how I feel. That way, if he doesn't reciprocate, we'll have at least enjoyed the holiday.'

Luckily, Sakura didn't have work the next day, so she stopped and made Madara a copy of her apartment key on her way home. Then, she ordered her new sofa, scheduled the delivery, and returned to the complex to retrieve her belongings from her neighbor's unit.

He was still at work when she was finished, around four o'clock in the evening. She left a note on the coffee table with the key beside it. It was thanking him for allowing her to stay over yet again.

When she entered her apartment, she sighed. The old shag carpet ruined by the burst pipe was gone. Rather than re-carpet it, the complex decided to inlay tiles closely resembling hardwood floors. The living room area looked so empty without a sofa or television. She had the movers who'd removed her ruined couch take the destroyed electronic, too. The pink-haired woman cleaned and organized her apartment since it hadn't been lived in for a week.

The sun was setting outside when she heard the door open behind her. "What happened in here?" Sakura turned to see Sasuke unraveling his scarf from his neck and hanging it on one of the hooks by the door. His eyes were on the new flooring.

"A pipe burst. They had to remove the carpet."

"Ah," the man shrugged off his coat, hung it up, and removed his shoes.

The Uchiha man looked the same as he always used to, handsome, brooding, and bored. When he crossed the room to where she was tidying the magazines on her dining table, Sakura straightened her spine and pressed her hands to his chest. She didn't shove him but held him at bay so he couldn't kiss her.

A glint of annoyance met his gaze, and she frowned, "Can we talk, Sasuke?" His expression said he knew what it was about, but he nodded with a glare.

The woman had pondered what she'd say to him for the past twenty-four hours, but it didn't make her less nervous. Slowly, she ran her hands down his front before grasping his and holding them between their bodies. Sasuke's eyes darted down but quickly returned to her face.

"I still love you."

Sakura watched as surprise and the slightest hint of hope lightened his demeanor. It was almost painful to see it disappear when she continued, "But the type of love I feel towards you isn't the same as it used to be."

The anger from the last time she'd seen him returned, but she cut him off before he could start insulting her, "Please, Sasuke, think about things realistically. We gave it our best shot, but do you think either of us would be happy if we got married?"

His hands turned over in hers, their fingers interlacing as he stepped closer, "We'll find a way to make it work."

Sakura squeezed his hands gently, her brow furrowing as she searched his face earnestly, "But we shouldn't have to. Love shouldn't be exhausting like this."

Sasuke's jaw flexed, and he closed his eyes, coming forward to press his forehead gently to hers, "If I hadn't fucked up, we'd still be together. Things would be normal."

Sakura closed her eyes, too, feeling as though she was somehow actually getting through to him, "It's not just you. There are things I could've and probably should've done that I didn't. We both fucked things up, but that doesn't mean we have to hate each other."

Their hands lowered slowly until their fingers were unlaced, but they kept hold.

Sasuke's voice was quiet, "I just want things to go back to how they were, Sakura."

The pink-haired woman made a sad sound in her chest before pulling away and opening her eyes to meet his gaze, "It'll never happen, and I think you know that. We can still love each other, Sasuke, but as friends. It won't be easy. Hell, it'll probably be awkward for a while, but I care about you too much to just give up without trying."

The Uchiha man searched her face for a long time, but he didn't speak, so she added with an expression that wordlessly begged him to really listen to what she was saying, "I'll forgive you for everything, but I need you to meet me halfway."

In her heart of hearts, Sakura truly believed they could be good, regular childhood friends someday after the dust settled. The way he was looking at her and not lashing out in rage like he has so often lately encouraged the thought.

"Okay."

Sakura's eyes widened, and she blinked, unsure if she'd heard correctly, "What?"

"I said okay," Sasuke repeated, a sad, slightly-angry expression on his face.

Tears filled her eyes as relief flooded her chest, and she gently cupped his face, allowing him to kiss her because it would be the last time. It was their way of saying goodbye. One of his hands cupped her cheek, and the other wrapped around one of her wrists.

When they parted, Sakura stepped away while wiping at her tears, "Thank you. I know how hard this has been."

His brow furrowed, and she finally saw it, the regret of what he'd done, intimidating and shoving her around like he had. She shook her head when he opened his mouth, almost definitely to apologize, "It happened; we both know it was wrong, but it's in the past. I said I'd forgive you, and I do."

Looking past the physical aspect of what he'd done, leaving bruises on her skin, was almost harder than facing the fact that he cheated, but Sakura would be a hypocrite if she didn't agree to restart with a clean slate.

She knows that wasn't who Sasuke really was. He was spiraling and didn't know how to manage those kinds of emotions. That didn't make it okay by any means. It was just something Sakura could understand since she was so familiar with how his mind worked.

So, when the Haruno woman laid down in her own bed for the first time in a week, she had a smile on her face. Saying goodbye to a relationship that so much time and effort had been put into wasn't fun, and it still hurt when she really sat and thought about it, but it truly was for the best.