The silence between them wasn't just quiet it was suffocating.
Sakura stared down at the crisp parchment laid on the table before her, her fingers trembling as they hovered above the black ink that spelled out her fate. The Uchiha seal was already stamped in crimson wax at the bottom. All it needed now was her signature.
"This contract… is this really necessary?" she asked quietly, not looking up. Her voice was brittle, as though one wrong breath would shatter her.
Across from her, Sasuke stood with his arms folded, shadows cutting across the sharp planes of his face from the flickering lantern between them. "It's protection," he said flatly. "For you. For the village. For me."
"But it feels like a prison."
His gaze didn't falter. "Then consider it one where only we hold the key."
The ink smelled of iron. Her heart beat loudly in her ears as she read the terms again:
Absolute silence about the marriage.
No public acknowledgment.
No interference with his mission or duties.
Contact only through the secure channel.
In exchange: protection, housing, monthly stipend, and full discretion.
And the final clause written in the smallest script cut deeper than any blade:
Breaking the contract results in immediate annulment, and the memory seal will be enacted without consent.
Her hands curled into fists. "You're threatening to erase me."
"I'm protecting what matters," he replied coldly. "If you ever became a weakness "
"I won't," she snapped. "I never have."
For a brief second, the mask cracked. His jaw clenched. His eyes darkened, as if haunted by ghosts only he could see. "That's why this contract exists."
He walked to the window and pulled aside the curtain. Outside, the moon was almost full. Pale light draped over the rooftops of Konoha, the village that had survived war, betrayal, and pain yet somehow remained blind to the most dangerous truth in its midst.
That its last Uchiha wasn't alone.
That the girl he had once walked away from was now the only one who knew the burden he carried.
"I was never supposed to love you," he said quietly, without turning around.
Her breath caught in her throat.
"I was supposed to disappear. I came back for redemption, not for… this."
Sakura stood, the contract still trembling in her hand. "Then why did you marry me?"
He turned slowly. "Because I couldn't let anyone else have you."
The words pierced her in a way she hadn't expected.
"Sasuke"
"But love alone isn't enough." He stepped closer. "If they find out if the Council, if Naruto, if Kakashi"
"You think I don't know that?" she whispered. "I live it every day. I see them laugh and trust me and tell me how proud they are of me… not knowing I belong to the one man they'll never forgive."
He exhaled through his nose, the tension in his body rigid like a wire pulled taut.
"I miss you when you're gone," she said, tears brimming. "And when you're here, I miss what we could be if we weren't hiding."
Sasuke reached out and gently took the contract from her hand. He laid it on the table, then handed her the inked brush.
"Sign it."
She hesitated.
"If you don't," he added, "I'll be forced to put distance between us. Permanently."
A tear slid down her cheek. Her fingers gripped the brush. With slow, deliberate strokes, she wrote:
Haruno Sakura Uchiha no more.
The ink dried in silence. Neither moved. The seal was done.
She felt like she had just signed away her voice.
But then Sasuke did something unexpected he knelt before her, eyes lowered. "Thank you."
She stared, stunned. "For what?"
"For still choosing me, even when I can't choose you fully."
His hand reached for hers. Not with the passion of a lover, nor the duty of a husband. But with the desperation of a man torn between duty and desire.
"I will protect this secret," he vowed. "Even if it kills me."
The next day, the contract was sealed inside a coded scroll and placed within the vault beneath the Uchiha shrine. Only two people in the world knew of its existence.
Sakura walked the village streets as if nothing had changed.
But everything had.
She passed by Naruto at the Hokage tower. His grin was bright, and he offered her ramen later that night. She nodded.
Inside, she bled.
Back at her apartment, she placed a single rose in a vase by the window. It was from him. No note. No name.
Just a reminder.
Of the man who owned her heart but could never hold her hand.
Meanwhile, Sasuke stood atop the Hokage Monument, watching the city breathe beneath him.
His Sharingan scanned the horizon.
Not for enemies.
But for shadows that dared
come close to what he now had to protect at all costs.
Her silence.
Their vow.
A marriage the world must never know.