Heart-Shaped Box

Inner Sakura had been acting up lately.  That was her excuse and she was sticking to it.  Under normal circumstances she would in no way, shape, form or fashion even consider smoking marijuana.  But these weren’t normal circumstances.  She wondered if life for her would ever be what she considered normal again. 

She was having second thoughts.  Second thoughts that it was way too late to be having since she was currently waiting around to be captured and sold to a brothel where she would whore herself out for her sensei—or maybe someone else.  You couldn’t exactly blame her for her actions. 

Yes, she was on duty.  But it didn’t exactly require skill to allow yourself to be kidnapped.  Now Sakura had never smoked anything in her life and she really didn’t have a lighter and a fire jutsu was out of the question.  So she figured it would be alright if she just chewed the marijuana. 

And she was sooo right.  Sakura began to giggle uncontrollably when one of the trees winked at her.  She knew she was cute.  It didn’t have to be fresh.  Why hadn’t she done this before?  She knew for a fact that she had the skills to kick someone’s—

“Look what we have here.”  A voice filled with dark amusement said interrupting her euphoria.  Sakura stuck her lips out pouting exaggeratingly.  And then she realized who they were and what they wanted her for which meant they were idiots.  Did they really think she’d be good as a whore?  She wasn’t good at anything.  The joke was sure on them.  A fresh set of giggles almost overtook Sakura once more. 

“Another one of those pot head villagers.  You’d think they’d have the sense to just sell the stuff and not smoke it.”

“Doesn’t matter.  Makes things easier on us.” 

Sakura was then hauled unceremoniously up into a pair of strong arms that she swatted at.  “Hey! Let me go.  Do you know who I am?” A hand swatted her rear and she yelped in response.    

“Quiet and later I’ll give you more of your favorite plant back there.”

Sakura promptly shut up.

HSB

“She’s been captured.”  Pakkun said immediately but Kakashi could sense that something else was on Pakkun’s mind.  He really wasn’t sure he wanted to know what it was but he as obligated to ask anyway.  “What is it?”  Kakashi asked grabbing his things and preparing to go after Sakura.

“She accidentally got into some hemp plant.”  Kakashi blinked slowly. 

“I see. “  Accidentally his ass.   She had deliberately disobeyed his orders.  What was she thinking?  What if they tried to rape her if she was in that condition?  How would she defend herself? 

Wait.

Did Sakura ever defend herself?  Okay, she did but it was so rare that he only had vague recollections of such incidents.

“Show me where they took her.” 

Kakashi followed Pakkun noticing that his path had deviated from where the known brothel was causing him to frown.  The Hokage had suspected that there were more but he had hoped the woman was wrong.  That just made things a little messier.  It may have been better if they had sent two kunoichi in instead of one in order to shorten the time of this mission.  Kakashi shook his head.  He wouldn’t subject anyone else to what he and Sakura were about to go through.  He’d wait and see how things played out and if he needed to contact the Godaime later then he would.

Kakashi blinked realizing that his body was moving on autopilot.  He didn’t remember Pakkun leading the way but suddenly they had reached their destination.  Pakkun stopped a good distance away in a spot that made it easy for them to survey the place without a high risk of being detected.  What Kakashi saw wasn’t what he was expecting at all.  He expected some seedy place in a dark alley somewhere.  He expected to see whores outside beckoning him to come inside.  He expected the stench of alcohol to reach his nose way before he reached the entrance.  This was why he tried not to have expectations.  They threw you off guard and made you have to change everything you thought you knew.  This was not what he expected and Kakashi knew that he was going to have to adapt to this change.

The ‘brothel’ screamed affluence.   In fact, it didn’t even look like a brothel at all.  It looked like a lovely summer home of the damiyo of Fire country.  In the air he could smell water telling him there was probably a lake in the back where guests swam when they felt the need to cool off.  This didn’t bode well for him or for Sakura.  He needed to think about this.

:::

Dunking your head underwater yourself is fine.  Having it dunked underwater by someone else is not fine.  Not only is it ‘not fine’ it can actually be tortuous--especially when it’s done over and over and over again. 

Sakura broke the surface of the water spluttering and yelling a stream of curses which caused her to be hit in the mouth with what she assumed to be a ruler(since the water in her eyes didn’t allow for eyesight at the moment) before someone proceeded to wash her mouth out with soap.

Soap didn’t taste good.  In fact, it was one of the most unappetizing things in the world. She learned that lesson at five years of age when she had said a few of the same words and her mother proceeded to show her exactly why she shouldn’t.   She had never forgotten it and really wished whoever it was that grabbed hold her hadn’t felt she needed a refresher course. 

“Ladies do not swear.”  Sakura rubbed at her eyes with the back of her arm in an attempt to regain her vision.

“It’s a good thing I’m no lady.”  That earned her another hard whack with a ruler this time over her knuckles.  It around this time that Sakura was started to believe she wasn’t in any whorehouse.  “Ow!  That hurts!”

“Good.  It’s supposed to.” Sakura narrowed her eyes and the woman who was literally scrubbing her body.  She hadn’t been bathed by someone else since she was three years old.  It was humiliating.  Not to mention the fact that the woman was beating her with a stick whenever the opportunity arose.  “Stop touching me!  What are you doing?  I can wash myself.”

“That’s a surprise.  Most girls that come this way wouldn’t know what soap was even if it was explained to them.”

“…I’m not most girls.”

“I can see that since most girls your age don’t have a mouth filthier than a sailor.” 

“I’m precocious.”  Sakura stated before snatching the towel out of the woman’s hand and cleaning her own body.  The woman simply raised a brow and watched her inquisitively.  “Where am I?  What am I doing here?”

“That would have been the first question out of a normal child’s mouth.”

Sakura scowled.  “Not if they regained consciousness to someone trying to drown them.”

She chuckled and Sakura felt relieved that she had somehow alleviated the suspicion that was suddenly upon her.  “Don’t forget to wash behind your ears.”

“Who are you?  My mother?”  At Sakura’s question her expression immediately changed.

“No.  I am your Madam and you are to address me as such.”

Sakura took a good look at her then.  She looked to be a woman in her mid-thirties maybe older.  She had dark brown hair that tumbled down her back like some sort of waving waterfall.  Sakura took several seconds to be envious of the sheen in her hair.  It was moments like this that she missed the hair she had cut off for the chunin exams.    Her eyes then traveled to the woman’s pert nose and pouty lips.  Her eyes were green like her own but the hue was more brilliant.  She wasn’t much taller than Sakura but her bosom was three times the size of her own.  It was a wonder that she didn’t lean forward while she walked.  Although Sakura was certain that was the unearthing of cattiness talking because all in all, the woman was gorgeous.

“You’re a whore.”

An odd light flitted across the woman’s eyes before she corrected her.  “On the contrary, little girl, you are the whore.”