Teach Me

**Warning**: There is a rape scene in this chapter. If you can’t handle that, don’t read the chapter. The story will probably still flow okay for you and I’d rather not get angry reviews if you don’t mind. Rape is horrible, but I’m putting it in for a reason. You’ve been warned.


Strangers in the Night

Sakura’s friends often teased her about being a heavy sleeper, saying she slept so hard an elephant could stomp through the room and she’d be oblivious. That wasn’t true, of course. She wouldn’t have lived as a kunoichi for quite so long if it were. The fact was that she simply ignored the non-threatening things, like Naruto jumping on her bed or Ino pounding on her door. Even Kakashi’s infamous morning pot banging didn’t bother her. Why should it? They were all very annoying, more than any buzzing alarm clock, but they weren’t a threat.

What was a threat were the two presences that had just slipped silently through her bedroom window, and Sakura was anything but dead to the world. Unfortunately she was on her belly and couldn’t even see the silhouettes of her visitors.

She didn’t tense, knowing they would sense it, but she did make a sleepy sound and shifted just enough to give them pause and to get her hand under her pillow. It wasn’t the first time she’d been a kidnapper’s target, or an assassin’s for that matter. She had important friends and she’d become rather powerful in her own right. That was the precise reason that she kept a kunai under her pillow, the very one that her fingers were tightening around.

“Mm, none of that now,” a low male voice sighed, entirely too close to her ear. She did tense then, shocked at how quickly he’d moved and at how familiar the voice was. She couldn’t quite place it and his chakra was so well masked she couldn’t identify its owner. Even his smell was familiar but she couldn’t quite nail it down. Kind of earthy and dry, but not defined enough for her to make a solid guess. She’d bet anything that he was ANBU, what with the careful masked chakra and quiet speed of his movement.

A thrill, much of it fear, ran down her spine, as the other man laughed softly, his voice also vaguely familiar. There were two men she knew in her room, but didn’t recognize, and since a mission hadn’t immediately been announced, that probably wasn’t their reason for being here. It could be anyone she’d ever met or fought.

“Who are you?” she asked softly, not daring to turn around with them on the alert and so close. She didn’t know what weapons they had out or why they were even here. Despite being on a team with Mr. Run In Screaming and Kicking, she tended to be more cautious. Perhaps she was because of Naruto’s tendency to blow their cover. Either way, she would be wise to take it slow with these two, until she knew why they were here.

“I’m disappointed in you Sakura,” the first sighed huskily. “You should have figured it out already; you’re supposed to be ANBU now. Though, I suppose you might figure it out as we progress through the long night we have planned.” She felt a cold wash of dread slide through her body. How long did they plan to torment her? “If you don’t figure it out, it doesn’t really matter much. After all you’re just interested in sex, not actually loving your partner, right? ANBU’s new, sweet little whore.”

She did react to that and tried to spin and stab him with the kunai. He caught her wrist and in a blur of motion she was on her belly again with her arm twisted behind her. It wasn’t painful, he was careful of that at least, but it was a firm hold. “I’m not anyone’s whore!” she hissed angrily.

“No?” the other man mused coming around the side of the bed and squatting down so she could just see the red swirls painted on his white mask. Oh gods they were ANBU…. “Word going around ANBU is that you are our newest member in training.”

“What does that have to do with anything?” she growled in annoyance and a bit of fear. If they really were ANBU she might have some difficulty getting out of this. They really might be able to hold her captive the whole night. She struggled against her captor’s hold, trying to dig her kunai into his arm.

He sighed and plucked the weapon out of her hand. She felt him shift and sit down on her thighs, her bare thighs. She panicked inwardly when she mournfully remembered she hadn’t bothered to dress before bed. Of all the nights to actually get attacked, one of the naked nights would be it! Murphy’s Law of the Shinobi! Sasuke was right to criticize her about this particular habit and now she wished she’d listened. Anything to create a barrier against these men would have been welcome.

“It has everything to do with you joining ANBU,” the squatting man said softly in her ear. “You see every woman in ANBU goes through a rather unique training period. And don’t worry, the men go through a similar one too. No one really talks about it, but we all know about it. I suppose I’m a little surprised Inuzuka didn’t warn you in some way, but that just makes it more interesting doesn’t it? The surprise of all of this will be a much better lesson to you. I doubt we’ll be the first to visit you Sakura-chan. We take the training of our members very seriously.”

“Yeah right, you just came to get off,” she snarled back, wrenching her head and trying to smack him in the face.

“Perhaps,” he agreed, easily dodging the attack, his clothing rustling slight in what was probably a shrug. She couldn’t see through the curtain of her hair. She felt her stomach drop out. They’d given a few hints to their identity, none really that were helpful. She didn’t think that many people knew about Kiba, but then she’d told Ino, so maybe everyone knew now. Only her friends and close classmates would have heard her talking about some of the places she kept weapons, since it usually only came up on missions and only when she actually trusted them. Trust was a rotten thing at the moment. She didn’t want to think that either of them were her friends.

“Don’t do this,” she whispered. “Not you. You’re both ANBU. You’re supposed to be better than this. We will have to work together after this.”

“So you think you’ll figure it out huh?” he questioned softly. “We’ll see I suppose. I think you’ll be surprised to find out who we really are. I do expect you to figure it out to. And we’ll be waiting for your retaliation, because what we’re about to do will definitely warrant a response from you in the future.”

Sakura shivered, half in alarm and fear, as warm breath drifted over her ear and shoulder. The protective layer her sheet provided was quite suddenly yanked away, leaving her more exposed than she’d ever been before. “Please,” she said softly. “Don’t do this. Leave now and we’ll never mention this again.” She tugged at his firm hold, inwardly wailing at the steely grasp the man, behind, had on her. The position was awkward and without her hands to form a seal of any kind, she would just have to wait for a chance to escape him later.

He hummed thoughtfully and moved to straddle her rear. “Can’t do that. Orders to follow and all.”

“Someone ordered you two to rape me?” she asked, a tiny sob breaking her voice. Why hadn’t anyone warned her about this possibility? Deep down she knew that it was because rape was never expected, so being prepared for it really wouldn’t have taught her a thing.

“Yes,” he replied honestly. His free hand shifted against her bottom and suddenly warm flesh was rubbing against her. “So don’t make this any more difficult than it needs to be. We can do this quickly and leave or I can tie you up and we’ll do it the hard way. The hard way will take much longer.”

“I don’t believe this!” she cried in horror. She tried to escape his hold once more, a sob of desperation pouring from her lips. She didn’t even think about how she’d escape the second man as well, she just wanted to get away from the man’s punishing grip. “Who would order such a thing?”

“Our beloved Hokage of course,” he replied, shifting and tugging her roughly to her knees. “Just think how much worse this would be if I was a complete stranger dragging you into an alley or tying you up in his dungeon. Maybe worse there’d be six men tying you up in a dungeon. Trust me, as horrible as this is going to be for you, it will be worse when your enemy is doing it to you, because he won’t care how you come out of it at the other end. At least we aren’t going to kill you. You should be thankful of that at least. This won’t be so bad, I assure you.”

“Like you’d know,” she said bitterly. “Have you ever been raped?”

“Yes,” he replied, shoving his hand down hard on her back so she was firmly pinned in place. The second man watched from a few feet away, waiting to see if he’d need to help his partner, but otherwise remaining silent now. “His friends held me down while he carved ‘whore’ into my skin with a kunai,” he said softly before shoving himself hard into her unprepared body.

Sakura screamed and thrashed against the tearing invasion. She couldn’t believe he’d follow an order to do this to her, and worse that it had been given at all. How could Tsunade do this to her? How could he do this to her? “Please,” she gasped. “Please stop.” She had known in a small way that this might happen to her one day, but like all kunoichi, didn’t dwell on the possibility. What normal person did?

Ignoring her pleas, he continued to thrust hard into her, disgust welling up in him until he was sure he’d vomit. She’d never trust him again after this, at least if she ever found out who he was. Granted they weren’t close, but they had been on friendly terms before this night. If she found him out, she’d never look at him with those shining eyes and smiling mouth. He knew all he’d receive were the cold, icy stares that she reserved for her enemies. The thought filled him with cold horror.

As he listened to her sobs he wondered why he’d taken the assignment. Maybe it was because he’d seen the unholy gleam in several men’s eyes at mention of the new recruit, or maybe it was because he thought this was the only way he’d ever really have her. She had become a beautiful woman that half the men in the village wanted to possess, yet she didn’t seem to realize that. When she did, she could have any man she wanted.

Despite his disgust with having her in such a foul manner, it was hard to ignore the demands of his body. Though he was a bit surprised that he’d been able to maintain an erection in the first place, let alone achieve any kind of superficial pleasure from his actions. Having his partner along to supervise hadn’t helped much either. With a grunt he yanked himself from her body as a halfhearted orgasm tore through his groin, spilling his seed across her back. He grimaced at the mess and the sound of her sobs. Keeping a firm grip on her wrists, he used his free hand to stuff himself back into his pants, trying to ignore the stickiness of blood on the softening length.

Sighing in resignation, he then pulled a handkerchief from his pocket and wiped her back clean. Tossing the handkerchief on the bed, he pulled back slowly. She didn’t immediate turn on him, which was rather disappointing. At least if she’d beaten the shit out of him, he’d feel a little bit of atonement for what he’d just done to her. Instead she curled up and sobbed softly. He glanced at his partner with a sigh and a shake of his head. Tsunade was going to be disappointed about this reaction. He frowned, realizing it’d likely mean that Sakura would be getting other visitors, as Tsunade groomed her student to respond appropriately to such an attack. If he’d been a true enemy, this would have been her chance to turn on him, catching him in that brief moment of sluggishness and distraction right after orgasm.

Swallowing the bile that rose in his throat, he rose and turned toward the window, gesturing for his partner to follow. “You should go to the hospital in the morning and get checked out. I felt some tearing, I think,” he said softly. “Others will come until you learn what must be done in a situation like this. Know that we were probably the kindest of them all. The men that follow will likely push you further than we could ever stomach. I’m sorry Sakura. So very, very sorry.” Then, both men were out the window just as silently as they’d come, leaving her alone in her misery.

Wincing she sat up and stared at the open window, processing his echoed threat. More would come, but with luck, not tonight. With a gasp of pain she rolled off the bed and walked toward it. A glance outside the window revealed nothing of the attackers that had graced her room only moments ago, though with so few ANBU she could probably eventually figure out who they’d been.

She gave a shuddering sigh and shut and locked the window. Letting her forehead thump against the cool glass, she let herself cry again, not for her abused body or the betrayal of her mentor, but for the betrayal and loss of what might be a dear friend. They had been wrong. Six men in a dark alley, twenty men in a dark alley, would have been welcome compared to the experience of being violated by a colleague. The ‘Rookie Nine’ as they’d once been called, and the much vaunted members of Gai’s team, had all grown up close. They were comrades, friends, and a family. The possibility of being betrayed by one of them, once again, hurt horribly. Nothing was worse than that.

***
By morning Sakura had worked herself from self pity and despair into a rare rage, one that had people scrambling to get out of her way. The first to get the brunt of that bitterness was her once trusted mentor.

Tsunade had known she’d be coming. She’d cleared her schedule and was sitting quietly at her desk; waiting for the storm she knew was coming. The first rumbles of that storm began at about 8:00 that morning. The sound of yelling voices coming up the stairs, accompanied by several crashes and cries of pain prompted her to stand and wait for what was to come.

Tsunade was rather proud that she didn’t flinch when the door exploded inward and Sakura stood before her in a swirl of splinters and dust, eyes puffy and mouth drawn in a furious line. “Sakura,” she said in greeting, ignoring the trickle of blood on her cheek from a stray piece of debris slicing through her smooth skin.

Sakura stared at her for a moment and then walked forward slowly, her chakra crackling around her like a living thing. She came to a stop in front of the beautiful blond. “Why?” she finally asked through clenched teeth. “Why did this happen?”

“In ANBU you have to be prepared…” Tsunade started.

Sakura slammed her fist into the desk, crumpling the corner of it like it was made of spun sugar. “Bullshit! In ANBU you never have to be prepared to be raped by your comrades. That doesn’t happen on an ANBU mission! Now if you’d hired a few thugs from a crappy little bar downtown, that I could have believed.”

“You would have killed them before they did anything. The lesson required someone that could restrain you and accomplish the mission,” Tsunade said coolly, ignoring her desk and the growing crowd of people outside her door. “And before you ask why we didn’t hire a foreign ANBU to do it, we can’t trust anyone with someone as valuable as you.”

“Valuable? According to the men who did this to me, I’m little more than ANBU’s newest whore! Man after man will apparently visit me in the night until I ‘get’ whatever the lesson is supposed to be!” Sakura screamed furiously. “Is that what I’ve trained to become? A highly paid, whore for the other ANBU members? I could have sworn I signed up to be a medic and a respected member of the team.”

“Everyone goes through this training in some form or another; it’s tradition and it’s vital to see if they can withstand the rigors of ANBU. The men don’t study seduction like the women do, not as in-depth at least, but they are visited like you were. Some are raped, some beaten within an inch of their life, some tortured until they pass out. Don’t come to me asking for pity or even an apology. You are a kunoichi, a Leaf Shinobi! You knew what you were getting into the moment I handed you those books and your promotion. Did you think it would be all seduction and pleasure and fun? If you did, you’re a fool!” Tsunade snarled. “So you were violated. They didn’t kill you, carve up your body, or toss you to their friends, part of which happened to one of them. His ‘teacher’ carved up his back and then held him down while two of his comrades took their turn. From his report, his lesson to you lasted all of five minutes, where he promptly left and spent the rest of the night vomiting and considering resignation. The other didn’t even touch you, despite my orders to draw it out and test you fully. I’d say you got off rather lightly, don’t you think?”

Tsunade rounded the damaged desk and paused just inches from her student. “So Sakura, suck it up and deal with it, or get the hell out of ANBU. I won’t have an ANBU kunoichi that goes all to pieces when someone does something she doesn’t like. If you want this, study your ass off and get better, so the next time I send one of your friends through your window, he returns with a limp and you walk away untouched. Kunoichi don’t cry when some asshole sticks his dick where it isn’t welcome. Kunoichi gut him for even thinking about it and then spit on his body. Remember that when the next man comes through your bedroom window. Next time they won’t go so easy on you and you will get hurt, I promise you that.” She stared at the furious pink haired woman a moment longer. “Dismissed,” she spat harshly.

Sakura blinked, still pissed as hell, but knowing the conversation was over. She turned with a snarl and stormed out, scattering the staff at the door. Tsunade glared at all of them. “What in the fuck do you all think you’re looking at? Do you all think this is actually any of your business?” They quickly dispersed, leaving Tsunade to slump again her ruined desk and stare at the floor.

After a long moment of silence, she finally sighed and reached over to punch the intercom button on her desk. “Suzune, bring me a drink. Make it a strong one. Then send in the ANBU from this list I gave you.”

“Yes ma’am,” Suzune’s voice responded softly from the speaker. “Give me ten minutes.”

***
“Take your shirts off,” Sakura demanded as she stalked up to Naruto and Sasuke fifteen minutes later.

Both men looked up from their position on the ground, where they’d ended up in a fierce wrestling match. Sasuke released his headlock on Naruto, and Naruto untangled his legs from Sasuke’s. “Pardon?” Sasuke asked in surprise.

“Just do it!” she said, her voice a little more shrill and fragile than she’d wanted it to be. “Now!”

Both men looked at each other, realization of what she was demanding filling their eyes. Both of them knew who’d been assigned to for ‘training’ and both knew about the scars. They may not openly talk about this particular rite of passage in ANBU but word tended to get around, usually when the furious recipient came looking for blood. “Sakura,” Naruto said, his eyes darkening, “It wasn’t us, either of us. You have to know that we couldn’t accept the mission once we found out it was you.” There was a rumor floating around about what had happened during the night, and neither could believe that she’d think them capable of touching her like that.

“Yet you didn’t bother to tell me about it in advance. Forgive me if I don’t trust you in this matter,” she growled. “They knew about the kunai. They knew about Kiba. They knew just what my weaknesses were and how to keep me from fighting back. They knew too much to just be some randomly assigned pair of ANBU.” She took a shuddering breath and closed her eyes. “Now take off your shirts and turn around.”

She opened her eyes as she heard soft rustling and found herself looking at two well muscled, scarred backs. Stepping forward, she tugged downward a bit on the waistline of each man’s pants, making sure the scars in question weren’t hidden underneath. Even Sasuke, who hated to be touched, didn’t protest the action.

Eyes watering in relief, she realized that none of the scars resemble words in any way. “Oh thank the gods,” she whispered. She knew for a fact it wasn’t Kakashi either, since she’d seen his back just a few nights before in her own bed. Plus she was sadly positive that he would have been far more thorough had he been the one to come, and he wouldn’t have thrown up over it.

Collapsing into the grass she began to sob half in relief, half in despair. She was relieved it wasn’t one of her boys, but horrified that she’d allowed someone else she might know do that to her. She was one of the best kunoichi in Konoha. She should have fought back, tried a little harder, something! Tsunade was right. She hadn’t done what she needed to do. “I’m a fucking coward! I just laid there. I didn’t even try to attack either of them!”

“Sakura,” Naruto sighed crouching next to her. “There are only rumors about what happened, I don’t know for sure what they did, but it isn’t your fault. It’s never the victim’s fault. You know that,” he said rubbing her back gently.

“So every time someone gets through your defenses and lands a punch or a kick, you’re an innocent victim?” she growled.

“That’s different Sakura,” he muttered.

“If I were a civilian I could believe that, Naruto. If I were a sweet mother of three running a bakery in the market, I could believe I was a victim. In this line of work, however thin the boundary line might be, what happened could be looked at as little more than a sparring session gone horribly wrong. If I’m a victim, who protects the sweet baker and her kids from the bad men?”

She clenched her hands in her hair. “I know it was wrong, and he hurt and violated me, but at the same time I’ve been hurt far more seriously training with any three of you and with Tsunade. He managed to slip through my defenses and he landed his attack. I’m pissed and scared and hurt, but I won’t ever let this happen again. That is a promise!” she growled furiously.

“What are you going to do when you meet up with them again?” Sasuke asked softly. “They may have been under orders to do it, but you could still kill them for it. They did accept after all. I mean…they did…it wasn’t just a beating right?”

“No it was more than that,” she whispered, making both men flinch and study her in concern. “What did you do to your attacker?” she asked seriously after a moment.

“I wasn’t assigned one,” Sasuke sighed, running a hand through his hair. “They didn’t feel it necessary considering what I went through during the massacre and when I was with Orochimaru. Despite what I said before, Naruto wasn’t really the first.” Naruto and Sakura both looked at him grimly. They knew about his brother raping him the night of the Uchiha massacre, and they knew that Orochimaru had taken special delight in torturing his pupil, trying to make him stronger through each survival.

“And Naruto?” she ask softly.

“A high level Sound shinobi was set on me, ordered to drug me and beat me down as best he could. They told him if he completed the mission he’d be free to go and he’d be removed from the bingo book,” Naruto said pulling his shirt over his head. “He was strong and got a few good hits in. He’s dead now,” he said with a slight shrug. “I don’t know what they were thinking on that one actually. I’ve taken down far more difficult opponents. Maybe I was just his executioner,” he sighed.

“So we really all deal with the same thing?” she asked in horror.

“More or less. Not all of us get what you did. You might be taken by Ibiki and tortured or half a dozen ANBU are set on you to kick the shit out of you, but yeah, we’re all tested. They want to see what our limits are, and pushing us to extremes is the only way to see that. I doubt you were pushed to yours, since we’re pretty sure that we know who you got. He’s too soft to do what he was supposed to do. I didn’t even see him around the ANBU office this morning. He’s probably hiding out, ashamed of what he did or afraid one of us will come after him.”

“He told me that he had a long night planned for me, but in the end it only lasted a few minutes,” she said softly, nodding in agreement. “He even pulled out right at the end and cleaned me up a little. Tsunade said that he threw up afterwards and thought of resigning from ANBU. His friend didn’t do more than taunt me a little.”

Sasuke sighed and nodded. “The orders were, apparently, for the volunteers to restrain you and break you down over the course of the night, to push you as far as they could. They failed in some respects there, so don’t be surprised by a repeat from someone much worse. Someone like Ibiki.”

She shuddered softly at his warning. “If he didn’t want to do it, why did he take the mission? Who was it? Who was his partner?”

“I can’t tell you that. It’s classified information that neither of us should even know about,” Sasuke said after hesitating a moment. “But apparently he’d told one of the other ANBU that he didn’t like to looks some of the men were wearing. We weren’t there, but apparently some of the guys were looking forward to it a little too much,” Naruto growled. “I really have to tell you that ANBU may be elite, but not all of us are all that stable. Be careful Sakura. Don’t let your guard down for an instant in these next few weeks. Tsunade is going to test you hard and she’s going to be cruel about it. I suggest you do everything you can to get through it.”

“Plus, you’re ANBU’s new little princess. You’re young and pretty and sweet. Others are going to latch on to that like a dog on a bone and try to tear you apart. You’ll need to work hard Sakura,” Naruto said. “No matter how mad you are or how hurt, it’ll only get worse and you need to prepare.”

Sakura looked into his dead serious eyes and then to the grim face of the last Uchiha, before nodding slowly. “I will. And maybe you two could help me?” The both nodded, reaching out to tug her to her feet. “Thank you,” she whispered. “I can’t let that happen again and I won’t let her beat me. I will pass her little test and I will be the best there is.”


AN: Please don’t flame me. I’m not trying to trivialize rape. It’s awful and should never be done to anyone, but it’s part of my story.