No one knew how much time had passed.
Sakura was curled up in the corner of the massage bed.
The flimsy massage outfit had long since become a wrinkled mess, barely covering her body.
Her hands clutched that pitiful scrap of cloth so tightly her knuckles had gone white.
Her whole body would not stop trembling.
"This can't be real..."
Her lips shook as she spoke. Her voice was so faint it sounded like sleep-talking, or the final struggle of someone at the end of their rope.
"This can't be real... this can't be real..."
She repeated the same words over and over.
As if saying them enough times
could turn all of this into a nightmare.
As if once she woke up, everything would return to normal.
She would still be Sakura, the girl secretly in love with Sasuke.
Still an ordinary genin.
Still the same...
"This can't be real? Then what is real?"
A voice tinged with mockery came from above her.
Sakura jerked her head up and met Teizawa's half-smiling eyes.
He had already straightened his clothes.
His dark gold robe hung neatly over him once more, making him look perfectly composed.
As though nothing had happened at all.
"You were awfully responsive just now."
Teizawa adjusted his belt with deliberate calm as he spoke in that casual, almost lazy tone.
"You leaned right into the illusion so easily."
"Y-you..."
Sakura's face flushed red in an instant.
Anger and humiliation tangled together, making her shake even harder.
"I... I thought you were Sasuke!"
"So what?"
Teizawa looked at her with complete indifference, the curve of his mouth full of ridicule.
"But I'm not Sasuke."
Sakura froze.
Tears burst from her eyes.
More than before. Harder than before.
That was right. He was not Sasuke.
From beginning to end, he never had been.
All that joy, all that hope, all those secret little sparks of sweetness - all of it had been an illusion.
She had thought she was reaching for the person she loved.
In reality, it had been a stranger.
An enemy.
A bastard.
"How could this... happen..."
she muttered, her voice shattered beyond repair.
Tears slid down her face
and soaked into the massage bed, spreading into dark stains.
Teizawa looked down at her without the slightest trace of guilt.
He only said flatly,
"It doesn't matter now. Be here again tomorrow night."
Sakura shot her head up, disbelief filling her eyes.
"You... how can you do something like this as the Kazekage? I... I'll..."
"You'll what?"
Teizawa suddenly bent down and caught her chin in his hand.
His grip was not brutal, but it was firm enough that she could not break free.
Sakura tried to resist.
But her body was still weak, limp as soaked cloth.
She had no strength to fight back.
Teizawa leaned in closer, a dangerous smile curling at his lips.
"Tell the Hokage?"
He let out a quiet laugh.
"Tell the Hokage you were lured into a trap by the Kazekage?"
Sakura's pupils shrank violently.
"Do you think Tsunade would tear everything apart over one little genin?"
There was undisguised mockery in his tone.
"This is the Sand Village, not Konoha."
"The two nations have only just reaffirmed their alliance. Konoha still needs Suna's cooperation."
"Do you really think Tsunade would destroy that agreement and go to war with the Sand Village because of you?"
Sakura's face turned deathly pale.
"And besides..."
Teizawa leaned in even closer, his voice dropping low beside her ear like a demon's whisper.
"Aren't you afraid Sasuke would find out?"
Sakura's whole body jolted.
"Aren't you afraid he'd learn that the pure, devoted Sakura he never valued was deceived so easily?"
He dragged the words out on purpose.
"That her illusion was shattered?"
"N-no..."
Sakura's lips trembled, her voice full of panic.
"Don't... please don't say that..."
"Would he be disgusted by you?"
Teizawa released her chin and looked down at her from above.
"Would he think you were tainted?"
"Would he never even want to look at you again?"
Each word was like a knife driving straight into Sakura's heart.
She thought of Sasuke's eternally cold face, of the way he had never truly looked at her, of the merciless way he always walked away without once looking back...
If he found out...
If he knew she had been tricked like this...
Sakura felt cold all over.
It was the kind of cold that spread out from the marrow of her bones
and left her shivering uncontrollably.
He would despise her.
He definitely would.
Under no circumstances...
could he ever know.
No one could ever know.
Teizawa watched the changes in her expression, and the corner of his mouth lifted.
He reached out and patted her face.
Hard.
Smack. Smack.
Two crisp sounds rang out, and faint red marks rose on Sakura's cheeks.
"Be good."
Teizawa smiled, but there was not a trace of warmth in his eyes.
"Come again tomorrow night."
"Don't think about running. And don't think about telling anyone."
He straightened up and adjusted his clothes.
"You can't get away."
With that, he turned and strode toward the door.
Sakura opened her mouth.
She wanted to shout, to curse him, to damn him...
But every word jammed in her throat.
She could not force out a single sound.
All she could do was watch that retreating back
disappear through the doorway.
The door closed softly.
The room fell back into a dead silence.
Sakura curled into herself in the corner, arms wrapped around her body, trembling all over.
A long time passed.
A very, very long time.
And at last, she could not hold it in anymore.
She buried her face in her knees and broke down sobbing.
There was fear in that crying.
Humiliation.
Despair.
But more than anything else...
there was a deep, unspeakable hopelessness.
Moonlight spilled in through the window and fell across her pale face.
Across that fair skin,
still marked by what had happened.
She cried.
And cried.
Until no sound came out anymore.
Her world had completely collapsed.
...
"Still think you can't be broken?"
Teizawa let out a cold laugh as he pushed open the door and stepped into the hallway.
The door shut softly behind him,
cutting off the faint sound of sobbing from inside.
He was in a very good mood.
An extremely good mood.
Sakura's reaction had been even better than he expected.
That plunge from illusion to reality.
That twisted mix of despair and humiliation.
And that final, hopeless look in her eyes...
Perfect.
He strolled leisurely toward the center of the corridor.
Then he noticed a figure standing there in silence.
Sen.
She wore a fitted Sand Village uniform, her hands folded neatly in front of her, posture graceful and proper.
But in those usually cool, beautiful eyes
there was a complicated emotion flickering now.
When she saw him come out, she parted her lips as if to speak, then hesitated.
Teizawa glanced at her.
"What is it? Say it."
Sen was silent for a moment.
Then...
"Kazekage-sama."
There was a rare note of hesitation in her voice.
"If you want women... the Sand Village has no shortage of them."
"I... and Yukata, Matsuri, even Temari... we all belong to you..."
"So why did it have to be... someone from Konoha..."
She did not finish the sentence.
But the meaning was obvious enough.
Teizawa's movement paused slightly.
He looked at Sen and realized that on her cool, striking face,
there was actually a trace of resentment.
Yes. Resentment.
The kind that said, You already have us, so why go after someone else?
For a moment, Teizawa found it a little amusing.
He thought back to everything that had just happened in the room.
Which meant she had heard everything from beginning to end.
All those sounds. All those words. All of it.
His gaze rested on Sen's face for a moment.
Her cheeks were faintly flushed, and her breathing was a little less steady than usual.
Clearly, she had been standing there listening the whole time.
Long enough that even she had become unsettled.
"You don't understand."
Teizawa smiled and casually adjusted his collar.
His fingers brushed against the fabric with an easy, familiar motion.
Sen's body stiffened slightly.
But she did not move away.
"This is sentiment."
Teizawa said it as though that explained everything.
Sen blinked, completely baffled.
Sentiment?
(End of Chapter)
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