Title: Forbidden Fruit

Author: AishiteSubete

Rating: T

Summary: Since that very first time, it was a game of cat-and-mouse. I wanted his heart, he wanted my death. SasuSaku.

Putting on my shoes-the new ones that Tsunade bought me-was a bit of a challenge. I've fought and destroyed S-rank criminals and nearly killed one of the deadliest rogue shinobi in the world, yet I was still defeated by eight simple buckles on each of my boots. I sighed, taking them off; I didn't have time to finish fighting my footwear tonight. Shizune would have my head if I didn't get to my shift in time. With that in mind, I tossed the present-shoes behind my couch and slipped into the sandals by the door.

I was at my post right on time, and Shizune barely uttered a word as I took my position. It was eleven at night, and nobody in Konoha was stirring; in fact, most of the shinobi who were even in town were catnapping and only half-aware. When I analytically broke down the situation I was in, I realized that I was the only line of defense that stood between a sleeping Konoha and fatal enemies. It was such a daunting concept that I had never considered before, despite its truth. But when I realized the effect the thought had on me (such as making me shake and dart my eyes around the area) I stopped thinking it; within moments, I was back in my happy place, keeping a careful watch over the peaceful gates of Konoha.

Or so I thought.

I felt a bandaged hand over my mouth, effortlessly shattering any delusions I had about a peaceful watch shift, and I responded quickly: I bit the hand of whoever tried to grab me. It was such a rudimentary response-one that many shinobi forgot to even use-that it took my attacker off guard. The man yelped (the timber of the pained sound clued me in to the gender) and my self-defense one-oh-one skills kicked into overdrive. I extended my leg with the force of a train, catching my assailant in the groin; another howl was emitted, and it egged me on further. A sharp shove on the chest and a jab at the solar plexus had the mystery man backed against the city gates, my left hand at his throat and a kunai placed precariously above his heart. My breathing fell a little heavier than it did forty-five seconds earlier, and I also felt my attacker's chest heaving under the pressure of my weapon. The adrenaline was addictive, and I didn't remember how long it had been since I had felt this rush; it definitely had been a while, ever since I had quit taking missions to specialize in city defense.

A solitary cumulus cloud moved from its position from the moon, illuminating the gates of Konoha with a radiant, silvery light. It was with the aid of the moon that I was able to make out the facial features on the man in front of me; coal black eyes, raven hair (kind of styled like a duck's rear end, to be honest), a toned chest exposed by a low v-neck shirt, and a large purple rope encircling his waist. I looked over the male multiple times, trying to soak in the appearance-every little detail. I paid attention to the thin layer of sweat that coated his forehead, and the small trail of blood that ran over his pecs and his ribs, flowing from the point of my kunai. "Uchiha Sasuke-san." I watched as his lips, dry and slightly chapped, curled upward into the faintest trace of a grin.

"Sakura." His voice struck a nerve with me, the way he said my name-my given name with no honorific-hit even harder. With an inaudible snarl, I tightened my grip on his throat and pressed the kunai a little deeper into his chest, to the point of discomfort for him.

"Don't address me like you know me," I growled, lifting my green eyes to stare into his for the first time tonight. He only smiled, keeping the eye contact going, his orbs carrying no emotion other than passive boredom. Everything he did enraged me, and I knew he did it on purpose. So I continued to bare down on his throat and chest, never breaking the contact. "You've never known me, and you've never cared to; don't start acting like that now. Acting as such won't change the fact that I have the upper hand." He chuckled.

"I thought that having the element of surprise would give me the upper hand," he shrugged, causing the kunai to tear a small, linear wound on his chest. I looked down at it interestedly, realizing that I was now doing what so many had failed to: I have put the great Uchiha Sasuke, the murderer of Uchiha Itachi, in my mercy. I controlled whether he lived or died, whether or not he would take another breath. It was intoxicating. "Though you seem to react pretty well to shock," Sasuke continued his miniature monologue and chuckled, like he was laughing at his own joke.

"Why are you here?" I asked, keeping the hard edge in my voice to show him that I was no longer a pushover like I had once been. He laughed a little more, staring down at me, almost as though I was supposed to know the answer. He hadn't activated his Sharingan yet-something which came to me as a shock. "Answer me."

"I've tried twice to kill you," Sasuke said simply, glowering down at me. "The third time's always the charm." He chuckled darkly, and I could see the hint of insanity that lurked in his eyes. I felt a tremor of fear run through my body, and I know he felt it too, for his laughter rose in pitch.

I narrowed my eyes at him. "Why do you want to kill me, Sasuke-san?"

"You love me." He said it as if it were the most logical thing in the world-he wanted to kill me because I loved him.

"I don't love you!" I said defensively, tightening my grip on his throat even more; the fact that he was still able to talk surprised me. "My heart has changed since then; my affections have turned to Naruto. I don't love traitors."

He grinned ferally and within a moment, the kunai was knocked from my hand and my grip on his neck was destroyed. The last Uchiha stood behind me, his lips right near my ear. "But Sakura-"

"Sakura-san!" I corrected with a loud yell. His usage of honorifics-or lack thereof-was grating my nerves, threatening to destroy my usually calm disposition. I wish I fully understood why his manner had such an effect on me instead of just speculating at it. Was my heart becoming something I didn't understand anymore?

"Sakura-san," he caved in and used the honorific, the attached word acting like a salve to my nerves. "I'm more than your average traitor; I was your first love. At one point, you destroyed friendships to try and capture my love. You would have died for me, would have killed for me, and it was in a situation not much unlike this one that you would have betrayed your homeland to be with me-if it meant spending the rest of your life by my side, you would have betrayed our village, too."

Uchiha Sasuke was telling me the truth in the harshest words possible. He had thrown my infatuation for him under a microscope and studied every little thing I did. He knew that I got rid of my first true friendship with Yamanaka Ino in hopes of wooing him; he knew that I would have fought to the death with the Otogakure shinobi to protect him, would have killed the Sound Four or Yakushi Kabuto or whomever to keep him safe. Uchiha Sasuke also knew that a few years ago I would have thrown away my life and everything I cared for to go with him. And now he's using it against me.

"All I wanted then, Sasuke-san, was your heart." I took a steadying breath to help hold back the tears that threatened to spill. When he said those words into the open night air, he had hit the nail on the head. He knew that, even now, there were still a lot of things that I would do for him. Though my devotion has ebbed, it also stood firm, refusing to leave under even the most extreme circumstances-like tonight.

Sasuke put his arms around me, pulling me closer to his chest. I knew what he was doing; it was a maneuver to throw me off, to confuse me, distract me. "If I give you my heart, will it bring you to death sooner?" Those words stabbed me like knives; he was going to give me his heart, his love, like a trade. His heart for my destruction. I didn't respond to him, for it was a trade that I wasn't sure if I wanted to make.

Then his lips met mine, and I knew his taste.

It was a brief moment (well, brief to me) of colliding lips and wrestling tongues. It was a rush of two emotions-ecstasy and disgust-that washed over me like tidal waves, each threatening to drown me, or worse yet, control my motions. I didn't push the Uchiha away, nor did I melt into his arms; that being said, I did respond, but just enough. I couldn't believe that, after so many years of pining away for him and thirsting for his love, we were now connected in this way. When the Uchiha pulled away, he said, "I'll collect my share of the trade at random; you'll never see it coming. From this moment 'till the moment you take your last breath, my heart belongs to you, Haruno Sakura."

Then he was gone.

It had been less than twelve hours since my encounter with the sole heir of the Uchiha clan, and I had told no one of our meeting. Even when Hinata came to relieve me of my duty, I said nothing to her about what had transpired. I spent most of the morning feeling guilty. My brief nap from eight to noon was restless, for I kept dreaming of Sasuke, kept wondering when he was going to pop from the shadows to claim his part of our trade.

At lunch, I sat up from my resting position on the couch and stretched, soon standing to maneuver into the kitchen. I wasn't too hungry (the incident weighed on my mind tremendously, destroying my appetite), so I grabbed an apple from the fruit bowl on my kitchen table and bit down on it. I had never really liked apples to begin with, and after two bites, I liked them even less. They tasted just like Sasuke.

Moving the apple away from my lips, I looked at it intensely, studying the two bite marks that had come to form a white heart against the fruit's skin. It was funny, really; they had always said that the apple was once viewed as a forbidden fruit. It was said to have once represented something so beautiful and so desirable that you would take a bite of it anyway, and regret it the moment you swallowed, being instantaneously given knowledge of all the wrongs you had done in your life, and all that you were going to do in the future. I laughed, a dark, sinister sound, as I watched the white heart begin to change to brown, becoming contaminated with airborne bacteria. I threw the fruit into the wastebasket without a second thought. Today was a new day; maybe I'd finally defeat those boots that Tsunade had bought me as a birthday present.

I'd try to forget that Sasuke was my forbidden fruit.

A/N: Yes yes, I know I should really be working on my latest update for Embargo, but I swear to god this was one potent little plot bunny! I'm thinking of writing a sequel-what do you guys think?