The Last Uchiha's eyes opened suddenly and she felt panic grip her heart. She felt the cold bite of the terror that overtook her body suddenly disappear, and only warmth and an incredible feeling of simple safety washed over her. She shivered, unwillingly letting her body show her discomfort, yet she felt herself relaxing under the effects of the warmth that covered her.
She blinked a few times and her sight came into focus, the blurry images that had been truly unrecognizable suddenly taking the shape of Sakura's face, tears spilling from the jade eyes that Satsuki had never been more glad to see.
"W-What happened?" Satsuki asked, looking around.
"I… I don't know… I saw… I saw them rip off your panties but then I… I blacked out and…" Sakura sobbed. "It… it was so horrifying… We… The lessons… the academy never prepared us for something… something so vile and disgusting—"
"Sakura… are you… did they…"
"No." Sakura spoke, suddenly yet focused. "They… they couldn't… before I blacked out." She took a deep breath, trying to calm herself so her voice wouldn't keep cracking whenever she tried to speak.
Satsuki herself was living up to her ice princess moniker, remaining cool and calm outwardly despite any terror she might feel within. Sakura admired her for it, admired that composure that hadn't broken even when they'd been put through the ultimate test of their resolves this day. Sakura had cracked under the pressure and felt more panic and terror than she'd ever felt before, her fear affecting her even now, even though she was safe.
She could still feel their filthy, grimy and rough hands, gripping her body and keeping her still, spreading her legs and roaming all over her body and she felt like returning her breakfast to the outside… which she'd already done before, if the fact that there was a bucket filled with vomit not too far away was any indication.
"Something saved us." Satsuki concluded. Then she shivered, realizing there was nothing covering her lower body but a blanket thrown on top of her. She desperately wanted to take a bath, to scrub herself raw to remove the filthy taint of the insignificant maggots that had dared touch her body. She recalled their faces, their lecherous expressions and their man parts, and she shivered once again. "I will find them and kill them all."
"It's a little too late for that." A sudden interruption cut off her musings as the blonde from Kumo entered the room, distracting Satsuki from her anger and rage. Satsuki narrowed her eyes and glared at the kunoichi that came in, but the girl merely raised her hands in the universal symbol for a cease fire. "None of us was raped. An attempt was certainly made, but our teacher and your third teammate rescued us in the nick of time and killed all the pirates off."
While it was an admittedly reassuring thought, Satsuki immediately seized on the fact that she had just recalled this was a planned pirate attack that could not have possibly been so successful that they would have finished in such a short amount of time. Satsuki had to guess that most of the staff had been replaced with infiltrators, which left the question… "The attack. Is it over!?" she nearly snarled, hoping she'd have a chance to seek some payback.
"Yes." The blonde said. "As a whole, the ninja aboard the ship were able to repel the attack, though one genin from Iwa was raped and murdered. We were not the only ones intended to be sold as slaves after our captures. Every one of the pirates was found and either killed in battle or tortured to death by the jounin, while most genin suffered minor to major injuries. Most of the jounin suffered minor injuries, although our teacher, and yours, remain unharmed. Your third teammate, though…"
"N-Naruko!" Sakura squeaked. "She saved us, didn't she!? How is she!? Please, tell me!" Sakura nearly yelled.
Satsuki growled at how the blond ninja seemed to suddenly clamp down. The most developed kunoichi in the room took a deep breath. "She's… cool." She said, closing her eyes. "She's with your teacher right now…"
There was a note of… awe? Fear? Definitely something along these lines, in her voice. It caused Satsuki to blink. "What…"
"You… better take a bath and change your clothes." The blond kunoichi said, looking a little green. She was probably quite under the weather herself, though Satsuki had to admit she fit the 'Ice Princess' moniker even better than herself, given how well she'd kept her cool.
"I… see… thank you for your help, uh…"
"Samui." The girl provided. "While we might not be allies, we have shared a horrible experience. I was hoping we could be… friends." She said, sounding a little doubtful about her words, hesitant and shy, most likely.
Sakura tried to smile, but it came out weak and she faltered. She couldn't say no, even if she wanted to, because she dearly wanted to remind herself that she had avoided a horrible fate, and Samui reminded her of both the horrible event and their amazing fortune in being rescued in the nick of time.
The blonde left soon after, confirming to them that she would go check on her teammates, who were similarly distraught, and invited them over to drink some hot chocolate in their room with their sensei, stressing the safety that his presence would bring. At this point, Kakashi felt too unreliable, and meeting the man who'd been one of their rescuers was an enticing idea for both of the Konoha kunoichi.
It took a very, very long time for Sakura to let go of Satsuki. Even then, she was still incredibly clingy as she helped the last Uchiha off the bed she'd been placed in and, minding the Uchiha's wobbly legs product of the bruises lining them, helped her walk as they moved to the suite's built in bathroom.
Satsuki mused that, with all the commotion, she hadn't even thought that the room she was in was surprisingly fancy, something that her cheapskate of a sensei would never have sprung for unless something had forced him to. Both she and Sakura, however, agreed that the price was far too high for them and totally not worth it, even as they peeled off their clothes and walked into the showers together. Neither wanted to be alone right now.
It was funny how much both of them found themselves missing Naruko right now. She'd make a stupid joke that would be so unfunny it'd be funny, which would make them laugh and momentarily forget about the ordeal they'd just been through. She'd just smile and tell them everything would be okay and somehow they'd be able to believe her no matter what.
She'd be able to take the feeling of dirtiness clinging to them away, without having to scrub their skin a raw pink to do so. Lacking Naruko, however, both kunoichi had to content themselves with the act of rubbing a soapy washing cloth over their bodies with enough strength to peel off layers of their skin, taking away with it whatever remained of the monsters's bodily fluids.
Because that's what they had been. Remorseless, monstrous entities who would perform horrible acts and enjoy them.
Satsuki growled at herself. The dirty feeling covered her just didn't go away! She couldn't wash their filthy touch away! She scrubbed and scrubbed and scrubbed, ignoring the ever increasing pain in her legs in favor of the ever increasing panic…
…until a soft, soapy hand stopped her. Satsuki felt incredibly weak, her chakra was not up to the task of boosting her strength to make up for her deficiency yet. She didn't even realize, nor notice with the spray of the showerhead, that tears were running down her face. She felt a soft hand cup her chin and tilt it up, meeting those jade eyes that told her she was looking Sakura in the eye. "Satsuki-san…" Sakura mumbled.
"Why..?" Asked the Uchiha. "Why am I so weak?" She clarified, uncaring of Sakura's reaction. "I try and try, I train hard, I put my everything into every mission, every exercise and every book and scroll I can get my hands on!" A sob wracked her body. "Why am I so weak?! Why can't I get any stronger!? Everything I do always turns out to be in vain and somebody has to save me because I'm just a weak and foolish little girl who can't do anything right! I'm just a useless stain on the history of the Uchiha clan! I wasn't even a distant second best to Itachi, I didn't even register in his radar!"
"T-That's not true! You're not useless or weak at all!" Sakura spoke, her tone at first doubtful, yet filling with conviction as she continued. "You're Satsuki, the Rookie of the Year who got top marks in nearly everything in the academy!"
"And what good is that!? I'm a pathetic embarrassment to the Uchiha Clan's Legacy! My father was right, I'm not even a worthy fucking spare for Itachi! I can't do anything right! I couldn't learn that fucking fireball, I don't even have my stupid Sharingan!" Ranted the Uchiha, her fist moving with speed and strength she didn't know she possessed as she struck the tiles that lined the shower walls. "I couldn't do anything and the goddamn dead last had to come and save me! I should just give up trying to be a ninja! What point is there in even trying!? I should just worry about becoming a mother so that I can atleast fulfill one of my goals in life, rearing children is probably all I'm good for, if even that!"
The resounding crack of a slap cut through the sound of water hitting the floor and the sting cut through the grief and sorrow that had taken possession of the young Uchiha. Her pink haired teammate scowled at her, and Satsuki realized she'd fallen on her butt and was now cradling her stinging cheek. "You're wrong." Sakura informed her, her tone clipped and unnervingly calm. "Satsuki, you were incredibly brave! If you don't believe me, I'm sure Kakashi-sensei would back me up on this! I… I was so terrified I couldn't even think when that man tied us up, but you were the one who tried to chew through our ropes and didn't give up even after things looked grim! Don't sell yourself short!"
Satsuki felt another sob wrack her body. "What good is all that courage if I don't have the skill or ability to back it up!?"
The pinkette kneeled so she was face to face with the Uchiha, locking jade green with onyx black. "Satsuki… The man who restrained us was a jounin. And a very good one if his proficiency with the sealing arts is anything to go by. He drew seals on us using only our chakra, that takes a lot of skill, according to the books I read on it. Plus, he was clearly able to plan a very elaborate attack that only failed because he underestimated the quality of some of the genin and jounin on board." Sakura explained, placing her arms on Satsuki's shoulders and ignoring the unpleasantly hot water that hit her back. "We couldn't honestly be expected to win that fight. Even… even Kakashi sensei would have had trouble with him, at our age, and he was already a jounin by then."
Satsuki had a grim expression on her face. She was just reminded that she didn't meet Kakashi's standards for training. Yet another prodigious genius had deigned her unworthy… "I'm supposed to be a prodigy…" She mumbled.
Sakura didn't speak. She just pulled Satsuki close to her and held her, letting the Uchiha work out her frustration and rage at herself through her tears. Sakura felt much like crying herself, but just as Satsuki had been a pillar of strength all throughout the academy, representing what Sakura wanted to be seen as, a strong, competent and driven kunoichi, during their academy days, Sakura would now be a pillar of strength that would try to glue the pieces of the Uchiha back together.
It was only fair, after all, to repay her for the inspiration.
Strangely, Sakura thought that the fact that Satsuki was a human being who fell prey to the same sorrows and weaknesses that other humans fell to, only further enhanced her strength. And it would show, because Sakura fervently believed that the Uchiha would not be kept down by something like this. She had suffered horribly before and gotten back up. The strength necessary to do that was what Sakura had admired so much from the Uchiha, and she knew that it was still there.
Everyone needs somebody they can rely on, every once in a while.
Neither truly wished to move much after their bath as they climbed into bed together, holding onto each other for comfort and warmth beneath the blankets, dressed in the night clothing offered to them by a few concerned and thankful nobles (finer silks than anything they'd ever worn before).