Title: A stroke of hope

Characters: Sasuke + Sakura,

Genres: Romance, Friendship

Rating: T

For my lovely followers and friends on tumblr/FFnet who are waiting for the SasuSaku moment in chapter 628 that is sure to come.

Sakura just finished healing another wounded comrade when she heard whispering, yelling and arguing outside the small medic tent she was in. She still had many patients waiting for her but she couldn't concentrate with such a commotion going on for no apparent reason.

Just as she stepped outside, she was blinded by the sunlight for a second, having spend a day's worth of time in the semi-darkness. The first thing she saw was a mob of ninja's on the clearing in between the tents.

Sakura had to forcefully push her way through the angry mob to see what was going on, seeing aas she was small in comparison to the many male ninja's.

As she reached the last row of people blocking her way, she gave a last push and then stood in the half-circle, a few meters away from her ex-team-mate Sasuke.

Sakura didn't waste any time with thinking of how or why the Uchiha could be there, she just took a few steps so that she hardly stood a feet away from him.

Sasuke looked down to her face and waited for her to cling to him like he thought she'd do. But instead, she slapped him. His quick reflexes allowed him to evade the majority of the force she had used to hit him, but he wasn't fast enough to completely get out of her reach.

An angry growl escaped him but Sakura cut into his thoughts.

"What are you doing here?! This is the wrong end of the battlefield you bastard!" She yelled into his face.

"I didn't know you were low enough to attack from the back, the wounded even!" She added furiously.

Sasuke watched her carefully, this time wanting to be prepared for an attack. He could almost laugh at her believe of him to do such low things, though he refrained himself,

He came to do good, to make up what he had done and stand up for the village his brother had so strongly wanted to protect.

He grabbed Sakura's upper arm, swiftly evaded the kunai she held in the other and blantly ignored the loud and obnoxious yelling of the strongly and lightly wounded ninja's around him.

"I'm not here to fight against Konoha. I want to fight alongside you." He sharply whispered in her ear. Sakura stood there like paralyzed while her thoughts her racing.

"My team and the past Hokage are already on the battlefield, helping you wield of the ten-tails." Sasuke continued and slowly but surely took the kunai that Sakura still clutched onto like a life-line.

"Mind coming along?" He asked and knew that she was thinking hard about what he had said. He took a step back but stopped when he felt her hand on his arm.

"How can I trust you?" She asked and looked sternly into his black eyes. Sasuke smirked at her and shrugged.

"You can't." He simply stated and then silently watched as Sakura shook her head. Her hand slipped from his arm and fell back to her side.

"I have duty here, I'm one of the two only experienced Medic-Nins here." She explained and tried to suppress the weird mix of doubt and happiness that was pooling in her stomach. Sasuke acknowledged this with a nod.

"I'm glad you're back then...you are, aren't you?" She asked, a gleam in her eyes. Sasuke nodded again before he swiftly ducked his head down and pressed his lips to hers.

To say the least, Sakura was startled, though she couldn't fight with herself or Sasuke at that matter so she soon gave in. She melted into Sasuke and had to press him away from her to be able to breathe again.

"Me too." Sasuke answered with a smirk before he let it fade. Sakura put her hand onto his cheek and smiled sincerely.

"Please come back." She said and cast he head down, hiding her eyes behind the bangs of her pink hair.

"Ah." He said before he stepped back a bit and then jumped int the forest. Sakura stood there for a long time, watching his back vanish between the trees, straight to the battlefield.