Title: After Time
Fandom: Naruto
Pairing: Sasuke/Sakura
Rating: PG
Word Count: 606
Summary/Description: Sakura knows that this is the mistake she will always and forever continue to make.
Warning/Spoilers: Angst?
A/N: 31 days, February 14th: our swords shall play the orators for us. I love writing SasuSaku fight scenes, though this isn't one of my best.
Disclaimer: Naruto is not mine. Sasuke is, bitches. Hands off.
It starts like this:
Five weeks after Sasuke has come home (though it will be a while before Konoha is a home for him once again; so many doors have shut, there is venom in so many hearts), Sakura asks him if he would like to train with her. She asks because he is bored, and she knows it; he will not be given any missions for five months, and the inertia is killing him. Naruto trains with him, of course, but she thinks that maybe he could do with a change now and again.
She does not really expect him to agree; he surprises her by doing just that. They set out one early morning while the dew still glistens and the sun is but a premonition on the horizon. The training grounds are fully occupied by students training for the Chuunin Exams, so they head for a little known clearing in the forest.
They start slowly, building up a pace as they go along; mostly taijutsu with the occasional ninjutsu to strengthen it. Sakura whips and turns and pivots with lazy strength, mainly dodging and defending, until he ups the ante and really starts attacking, with cold analytical precision. He has already noticed that she is favouring her left leg just slightly, and has no qualms about exploiting the weakness. He sends a flurry of kunai her way, and when she dodges left, there is a roiling Katon no Jutsu coming at her from that direction.
She blocks as effectively as she can with a Suiton no Jutsu, then sends a shuriken spinning his way. As he dodges, she quickly makes the battle a close range one; within seconds, she is upon him, leg arching up and then down to deliver a blow that could easily crush him. He evades deftly, and it creates a crater in the forest floor instead. Undaunted, Sakura parries his next attack with a fist, and then grabs his arm and twists. He is pressed face first against a tree with her knee in his lower back before he can blink.
Sasuke's eyebrows rise in what might be surprise. She has gotten a lot faster; she is glad he has noticed.
"Hn," he says. And something in Sakura snaps a little.
She isn't prepared for the elbow to the stomach that makes her loosen her grip, but she manages to duck the blow that follows it. She doesn't know when he activated the Sharingan, but the black wheels are spinning and he is shaping seals that she does not recognise. She doesn't give him a chance to complete the jutsu; she disappears from sight only to reappear an inch from his face, hand closing into a fist that he cannot avoid.
The blow sends him crashing into the face of a rock, and Sakura finds herself feeling inexplicably angry. She speeds towards him, even as he gets to his feet, planning to immobilise him with one blow, but when she is a breath away and those eyes focus on her almost expectantly… she loses momentum. Her movements still. He is standing before her, making no move to attack, and neither does she. All of a sudden, she cannot.
"You have gotten stronger," he says, voice devoid of emotion. Sakura's hands tremble and shake with memory, and she knows that this is the mistake she will always and forever continue to make. This is her choice.
It ends like this: Sakura grabbing him by the collar as his hands fall to his sides, pressing salty wet kisses to his unmoving lips, trying to tell him that she still loves him.
A/N: Ahhh, it's so long since I wrote SasuSaku. :) Tell me what you think?