Reign Of Gods (A SasuSaku AU)

VIII. Green And Gold

The waiter shrieks from somewhere behind me. This is not looking good. Something grey is in the outline of a thin hand which is transferred to a bigger outline of a hand. I can vaguely make out the grey disproportionate rectangle and only know it as a knife when cool metal touches the skin at my collar.

My body finally reacts and my arms move violently, sudden enough to startle my assailant into loosening his grip. My vision is returning too. He tries to pin me down and then, my hands do something I will remain proud of forever. The loud music of my slap resonates throughout the diner, followed by a stunned silence.

"Biggest mistake of your short life," the man growls.

My eyes instinctively squeezed shut. "Sasuke!"

My heart is beating frantically. I can hear the blood in my ears. I won't dare open my eyes. Is this it? He will kill me for sure. Did Sasuke hear me? No, he can't. He's too caught up with the rest of those bastards. I can feel the liquid on my cheek. Fuck, am I .. crying? When nothing happens in the next second, I dare to open one eye. An eyelid parts to give way to green and both my eyes widen.

A fair hand was holding back a knife - the knife, which I can now make out as a butcher's. Wow, this guy was not playing around. Travelling up the fair hand and black sleeve, there's the strangest sight. Sasuke is glaring at the now frozen perv but, his eyeballs appear red. Must be a reflective thing. I groan and get up just in time to see my attacker's face lose all colour. He staggers backwards, almost tripping and escapes from the diner like a frightened child. When I look out the glass, he is shouting something at his mates and when they look at Sasuke, horror strikes their faces too and they are all found running away.

I can't stifle my laugh. This is so funny. I don't know what on earth was I so worried about. I should trust Sasuke more. Albeit a bit shakily, with some - only some, mind you - assistance from the Uchiha, I manage to stand up straight. I am still laughing when I turn to him, saying, "Holy shit, Sasuke! Did you see that! Hilari-"

And that's when it comes to my notice, he isn't laughing. Or smiling. Okay, so he doesn't find it funny. He observes me with a frown. "Are you alright, Sakura?" He gently asks me, putting a hand on my shoulder. My heart skips a beat at the concern flitting in his eyes. Then I realize, he must be worried enough to take the humour out of the situation.

"Y-yes," I stutter. Why am I stuttering, you ask? Its because this amazing man who just saved my life is holding my shoulder reassuringly and is showing obvious care. The look on his face is one that any girl would die to be on the receiving end of.

"Good," he comments, then releases me and I almost want to protest. I'm thankful for my self control and Sasuke's recent inability to read my mind. I smile at him gratefully and soon as I reach ahead to hug him, my eyes catch sight of his other hand.

"What the fuck, Sasuke!?" I panic. Grabbing the handle of the butcher's knife he still held at the blade, I toss it aside. The sound of the metal clattering to the floor cuts the silence that his reply was. I hastily grab his hand for the wound that must surely have formed. I can feel the warm blood on my fingers where I held him as I bring his palm up for inspection. Another shock settles over me then, when oozing from his gash is rich blood, not the red of velvet, but a sparkling gold.

My mind is shoved into overdrive. I blink furiously, yet the gold liquid stays on his hand and on my fingers and feels just like blood but isn't blood - or it is blood of some irregular kind or maybe .. maybe..

I need to calm down. Maybe - and I cannot believe I am entertaining this idea but, apparently, I am - maybe Sasuke was telling the truth afterall. And soon as that thought occurs to me, I know it to be true. This shimmering liquid on my fingers here is proof of it. One thousand thoughts are sprinting through my head right now. Somehow, things that didn't make sense till now, suddenly do.

"I suppose, you believe me now," his voice cuts through my frenzied mind. I raise my eyes that refuse to blink and meet his. Why the fuck is he looking so amused? Excuse my language. It takes on more colourful combinations of alphabets when I am going through extremes of emotions.

I frown and finally blink, nodding once, almost invisibly. "You.." I look down at the golden blood, then back up at him. He smirks. "Took me a whole hassle and some bloodshed to make you believe me. You really are something else, Sakura Haruno."

"You can read me again," I manage to comment through my heated cheek, not knowing whether to take it as a compliment, yet, feeling the blush anyway.
"I don't need to read you. Common sense is enough," he replies.

I know I've been startled to my core when I have no remark, no witty comeback, nothing, in reply to Sasuke's sarcasm. He snaps his fingers before my eyes. I blink again, thrice. My eyes narrow at the entertainment he seems to be drawing from my bewilderment.

"Why, now I am amused," Sasuke says with a glint.

"I can see that," I tell him dryly. He holds his chin up triumphantly, regardless of my own less-than-amused state.

Its official then. Sasuke Uchiha, my houseguest, my colleague, my friend, is an actual, in the flesh, god. I gulp. I haven't been very nice to him. I hope he isn't the god of the underworld. That may not work out so well for me.

Before I can word anything, his attention moves to the third presence in the room, silently standing by a booth at the left corner. "You," he calls. The waiter shakily points to himself in a questioning manner and steps forth.

"You were going to sell her to the enemy," Sasuke accuses.

My head snaps to the frail looking man. He was going to what?

"In exchange for your safe escape, you agreed to bring him that blade to threaten Sakura. You should be ashamed of yourself, young man," he continued his reprimand.

The man's eyes widened and fell on the floor. He took a step back when Sasuke took one forward. I know how intimidating this raven-haired man - correction, god - can be.

When the waiter began stuttering out apologies, I actually felt bad for him, even though I just discovered he almost traded my life for his own.

"It isn't me you need to apologize to, Jake," Sasuke stated.

Jake. So that is his name. I can still not wrap my head around it. The Sasuke who has been living with me for the past month and a half is a god. Everything he said was the truth and I didn't believe him. Shit, that means my other houseguest is an actual god too!

Jake mutters an apology to me that I can tell is insincere. He's probably still holding a grudge against me over his broken phone. Oh, well. Can't help it now. Sasuke tells him to leave and he clearly has no second thoughts complying.

"You didn't have to terrify him like that. I did smash his phone," I tell Sasuke.

"Objects can be acquired again, Sakura. Humans have just one life, if you exclude the cycle of rebirth."

I nod at him. At the god. I am still mindblown. Its going to take some getting used to. "You know, if you had just walked away from the scene with me, it would have been much less.." I fish for the word, "..messy."

Sasuke looks at me meaningfully. "I can't do that. I am too involved now."

Another heartbeat is skipped. I want to say something but, I don't know what. I can't even ask what he means by 'he is too involved now'. When I fail to respond, he grabs my hand and begins leading me out the diner. "Come on."

Stopping his action, I go back and grab my purse. Pulling out a - luckily - unused handkerchief, I take his hand in mine and tie the cloth around the gash. "Now, lets go."

Sasuke looks at me for a quiet moment before he begins walking out with me. Home would be the best stop to make now.

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Hey guys!

Sorry about the delay. I had severe writer's block and was considering giving up the story. But, here I am, after a lot of redoing :D

Hope you enjoyed the chapter. Please tell me how you felt.