All characters are property of Masashi Kishimoto.
Warning: sexual content, language, violence, and the general ironic angst that tends to come with my writing.
Now that we have made sure that I can not be sued, on with the fic!
On the first night, Sakura saw him again.
It was late: past midnight. The stars were shimmering high above a miniscule town in a small territory ruled by rogue ninjas and low life scum. This town also happened to be the current destination for a solo B rank mission that Sakura had begrudgingly undertaken in the hopes that she could earn a few extra dollars to help pay this month's rent. It had been a long day of battling low rank shinobi, who didn't seem to understand that they stood no real chance against an elite Konoha jonin. Bones had been broken, flesh torn, chakra expelled, and now she was so tiered. Both Mentally and Physically.
She had started her long trek back toward the fire country, the scroll she had been sent to retrieve tucked securely in her pack. It had always seemed so ridiculous that villages were willing to literally kill for a stupid piece of paper.
The journey back would most likely last all night and well into the next day, even if she were to sprint through the tree tops. Her feet were killing her, she was aching all over, and not to mention the persistent exhaustion tempting her to welcome a well deserved good night's sleep. It was at this moment the Sakura realized she could use a break...and possibly a drink.
She had dragged herself then into a shabby dank pub. It was far from what she would normally consider charming. It was the kind of place where black market deals were discussed openly without worry, and criminals would rendezvous and drink till they passed out. The air smelled thick and moist with sweat and booze; its lighting dark and its patrons darker. But it had been conveniently located on the main road, and she had no amount of extra energy left to turn back and continue until she found somewhere more respectable.
The petite woman had sauntered her way up to the counter, her knee high boots creaking against the old floor boards. The majority of the men turned to look her up and down; a few wolf whistling, one going so far as to holler just what he would like to do to her. She paid them no mind however, as she reached the counter, putting down some coins and uttering her order to the bartender who was also eyeing her suggestively.
It would only take a tap of her heel against the ground to set these drooling low lives straight, but at that moment Haruno Sakura just didn't feel it was worth even that much trouble.
Keeping her fiery temper in check, she took a seat on the nearest stool to await her drink. She flicked her gaze from left to right, observing the colorful mix of low life patrons. Groups of men sat around tables slurring and laughing with each other, the occasional scantily clad woman among them. A few sat alone, eyes cast downward, cloaks obscuring their features. One in particular caught her eye. She couldn't see much of him though. He too was wearing a mysterious cloak. Something about him though made Sakura alert, like she should know this man.
"Here ya go sweetheart," the bartender said as he placed her drink in front of her. She forgot the curious man behind her, her interest now on the small dusty glass in front of her.
After spending a generous amount of time knocking back small glasses full of potent liquor, each one burning her throat deliciously as the warm fuzzy feeling began to settle into her skin. She turned to lay her heavy head on her hand, while focusing her attention back on the man who seemed to now be preoccupied with a scroll laid on the table in front of him.
I should know him
His aura radiated a dark, dangerous power. He sat arrogantly in his seat, his posture perfect like he had spent his life in the company of nobles. He still continued to hover over the scroll, his elbows resting on the table, his hands clasped. That's when it hit her. She jolted upright again almost immediately; the self inflicted haze dissipated. There, not but a few feet away, was the one person she never expected to see.
"Sasuke…"
It was barely above a whisper. And as if on queue, the tall mysterious man with wild ebony hair flicked his eyes from his drink and paperwork and locked them directly with hers.
To say the least Sakura had envisioned a grand out-of-the-movies reunion; in which she would give her award winning speech and Sasuke would listen to every word and suddenly realize what a complete imbecile he had been and decide to screw it all and just come home. Happily Ever After.
Seeing him there in that moment had been such a complete shock. It was the first time she had laid eyes upon him after over four years. They had briefly met once or twice when they were fifteen, (bloody battles ensuing shortly then afterward) but she had always been expecting to see him them. Naruto had been at her side as well.
And now this extraordinarily unexpected meeting between Haruno Sakura and Uchiha Sasuke had proven to be so… un-extraordinary.
He was just plainly sitting their on an old bar stool, in this dark tavern, a mug clutched in his hand, and a cloak drawn up over his strong shoulders. It was so plain; he was just another boy, (man, he was a man now as Sakura reminded herself,) just sitting there having a drink; like every other normal person would. Except he was so far from normal: he was Sasuke. The Last Uchiha and missing S class ninja Sasuke.
It then began to register that at that very moment, Sasuke was looking straight at her. His eyes boring directly through her, examining every detail they could take in. His lips pressed together tightly and features constricted into a brief flash of unguarded surprise. It seemed as though she had not been expected either.
She became very aware of herself in that instant and how plain she looked. She was tiered and scraped from her mission; her hair pulled back into a short messy pony tail. Her clothes were slightly torn from a kunai thrown her way, and her fingernails caked with dirt. She was far from glamorous. The way Sasuke's piercing gaze continued to weigh her down didn't help much with her confidence either.
Okay. So we just ran into Sasuke, no big deal.
Option A: We can pretend as if we are completely uninterested and just simply leave and forget that we ever laid eyes on him.
Option B: We can act on our orders and beat him so hard he'll forget he ever left konoha in the first place or….
Option C: We can go over and calmly and civilly talk to him. Come to think of it, Naruto, Kakashi, and I have never seriously just been able to sit down and tell him why we need him to come back.
Swallowing her fear and inhibitions, Sakura gathered herself and made her way to the spot where the man she had been searching nearly seven years for was currently sitting. His eyes never digressed from her as she took bold steps toward him, her mind reeling with what she should say to her ex-teammate turned cold blooded killer.
"…Sasuke…"
"Sakura."
"…it's been awhile."
"Hn."
She scoffed at his signature reply.
For a moment, he looked taken aback by this. Or what Sakura imagined was Sasuke's equivalent of taken aback. As long as she had known him, the man had never betrayed his feelings, even when they were 12 year old kids. He had been even more withdrawn and cold as a 15 year old, and now at 20 she figured he had gained an even thicker emotional barrier.
She realized then that she did not know this man sitting across from her; he might as well have been a complete stranger. From the way his cruel calculating eyes stared and the way the corner of his mouth was drawn into a half smirk, like he was enjoying his own private joke. He sat cordially upright, something that had probably been drilled into him by his clan at a young age. It was one of the things that she had identified him with when his face had been turned away from her.
He looked as ironic as it was… like his brother. She shouldn't have expected anything different though, Sakura knew better than anyone else that time and motivations could change a person.
"You… What are you doing here?"
"I could ask the same of you," he smirked. "This isn't the kind of place for a sweet little blossom to be running around in, you might get into some trouble."
Sakura was at a loss for words. He continued, "So have you come over here to try and drag me back to your little village with you?"
After all this time, even after he had seen her punch craters into the ground a few years previous, he still thought of her as a weak and troublesome little girl. She supposed she had still been fangirling over him then however. Sakura swallowed, and for the first time ever, defended herself against the Uchiha genius.
"You do realize that I am on my way back from shattering the skulls of 20 or so men closely resembling the thugs inhabiting this delightful little establishment. I could take out everyone here with my pinky toe. I'm not one to fuck with Sasuke, so don't think you can just sit there like the condescending bastard you are and talk down to a high ranking konoha jounin and apprentice of the hokage herself. Stop being so goddamned annoying. You're lucky I'm tipsy or else I'd have immediately acted on my orders to eliminate you Sasuke-kun."
Sasuke looked for a moment as though he had been slapped in the face and was ready to let loose on a murderous rampage. Quickly remembering himself however, his expression returned to one of condescending amusement/annoyance (she still wasn't sure how it was possible for him to do that, but she was just thankful that he had regained any spec of emotion at all) He stood up, towering over her.
Dark onyx looked straight down into bright teal, and teal returned the gaze, completely uninhibited.
That's when he kissed her.
His hand had grabbed the back of her neck, pulling her forward as his cool lips came crashing down onto hers. Her hands had come up to grab his shoulders, in hopes of keeping her balance in this earth shattering assault on her lips.
This wasn't right. She must have had too much sake and was currently passed out on the floor instead of actually kissing the long term object of her misguided affections.
This certainly wasn't Sasuke. Sasuke did not do public displays of affection. Sasuke did not do affection period. (Especially with long lost friends whom he had previously tried to murder on a whim) So how could she be here now? Leaning against a rickety old table pressed up against Sasuke's muscular chest as he continued to kiss her like it was the last thing her would ever do.
Maybe this was the last thing she would ever do. He could be more volatile than she realized, and could be planning to slit her throat afterwards.
But despite logical reason, Sakura did the only thing she could think of at that moment; she wound her arms around his neck and kissed him back. It was so raw and erotic; that 1 bar-room kiss they shared, in plain view for all to see. In retrospect Sakura supposed that this sort of thing went on all the time in run down questionable establishments such as this. What made it so out of the ordinary was the kiss itself. It was just Sasuke and Sakura and their kiss. That was all that mattered. There were no other drunken patrons around, just their lips locking and relocking in a fierce dance of passion.
When they finally parted, Sakura let out a deep sigh that she had been holding in.
I forgot to breath
Without an ounce of regard, he reached around her. Tearing a strip from one of the napkins lying on the table, he quickly scribbled something on it before folding it in half and handing it to a baffled pink haired girl. He looked at her once more, and then pulled her close to him so that their fronts were cemented together. He took her hand in his, glancing from the intertwined limbs back up to her eyes; testing her reactions to his advances. He placed the strip of paper against her palm and then turned away from her and swept from the tavern.
Sakura imagined that if anyone had looked at her in that instant they would have seen an expression similar to the one she wore when she had finally seen underneath Kakashi-sensei's mask. Shocked. Distressed. A little turned on.
As her composure finally returned to her, Sakura remembered the piece of paper folded in her hand. There in neat print, Sasuke had etched a brief message:
"Midnight tomorrow. Room 212. come if you want."
What it implied was not lost on Sakura. This surely wasn't Sasuke. Sasuke would never propose something like this. Until a minute ago she had thought the man to be completely asexual, not intimate in anyway. But Sakura was not naïve anymore; she knew that this was not the beginning of a long love filled relationship. Sasuke was not looking for romance. It was one night of no strings attached lust filled hormone driven toe curling passion.
She supposed that she shouldn't be surprised; no matter how withdrawn Sasuke was, he had always been rather upfront about what he wanted and she should have known better than to think that he was above any physical desire like he had seemed to be when he was 12 or 15.
He wants you.
The voice chimed in her head. As unreal as it seemed, it was true. Sasuke had taken one look and had listened to the angry words she had spoken and decided he wanted to screw her brains out. It was not a declaration of adoration; but as far as Sakura was concerned it was enough. It meant that he still felt some sort of bond between them; even if he were to deny it.
No matter how hard she tried Sakura knew she still harbored deep feelings for him. It was not the desperate worship of him as it once had been though. It seemed after all the years of begging and pining for his attention, all it had taken was a look of disgust and an insult and Sasuke had given her the most mind blowing kiss she had ever received.
It was tragically ironic. This however proved there was still hope for him yet, and maybe if she went tomorrow night Sasuke would realize all that he had left behind.
Sakura collected her pack and returned to the counter where the barman stood snickering.
"I need a room for tonight." She placed some bills in the man's chubby mitts and he in return handed her a rusty key.
"There you go baby, have fun."
Sakura, ignoring the comment, reluctantly turned toward the stairs that Sasuke had climbed minutes before. She needed to get some sleep. Tomorrow was going to be a long night.
Reveiws would be great. It's nice to hear what I did right and wrong. Ready... Set… GO!
