Uchiha Sasuke walked up the familiar pathway to Konoha. It felt strange, yet oddly, this was the freedom he'd been dreaming about for the last 8 years. The last 8 years cramped in that dirty, grave-like lair of Orochimaru's , not knowing what time of day it was, or the weather outside. Once in a while, the "snake monster" would let him venture out of the lair though it was almost always in the black of the night, when everything was invisible. A small smirk played on his lips as he thought how he'd wished he has Hyuuga Neji's Byakugan to see in the darkness. But it was impenetrable…almost like black gelatin.

He'd already forgotten what he was here in Konoha for. But it came back as fast and as suddenly as a bolt of lighting. He was here to see Team 7. The Uchiha had known he'd crossed the line as soon as he'd walked out of Konoha that he'd made a mistake. Yet there was no turning back… it was do or die; either under Orochimaru's attack, or under the law of Konoha. He remembered as if it was yesterday. The fight with his Naruto, his best friend…his lust for power…and more power… and that night. The night he'd felt like his soul was ripped apart, and could never be put back again. That's how much it hurt…when he'd left Haruno Sakura in tears on the cold cement bench. But he didn't know what he'd done. He didn't know she was different from all those fangirls. He didn't know he'd been stabbing himself in the heart… every time he'd replied coldly to her concerns for him because Uchiha Sasuke was power hungry.

Already there. In the midst of the village he once loved, then threw away. A smile was already forming in the corner of his mouth. Home at last. "Uchiha." He spun around, and froze. He had been waiting to see her for what seemed like forever. Now he could see. Her bubblegum pink hair hanging down her back, a new, slick black outfit now embracing every curve. Yet there was something about her posture, about the look in her eyes, that convinced him that this was a different Sakura. "Take a picture. It would last much longer." Her voice cut through his thoughts like a katana. Unspoken words flooded through his mind. "Sakura, I'm sorry.", he wanted to say. " Sorry for all those things I did to you 8 years ago. I've come back for you." A cool female voice cut through his thoughts. " That won't work on me, you know." He'd spoken the words aloud. She smirked. " Eight years is quite a long time, my friend… too long a period of time to leave a lovesick girl alone in the world. She could find someone else…someone worthy of her love." She approached him swiftly, and stopped a foot in front of him, and continued. "But she can't forget about you. It was too difficult. The only way, was to take your life." She jabbed a katana at his ribs. " But she couldn't find you. She would stumble, alone and afraid in the pitch darkness… until she was too tired and too in pain to go on. So she tried inducing pain enough to make her lose memory. Banging her head against the cement floor nonstop. But somehow, someone was always able to restrain her after 10 bangs. So she trained. Day and night she trained until her muscles ripped, and she fell into a coma of 5 months." A cold, ruthless smile had crept up on her face, and she had removed the katana. "But now, she has the opportunity to end his life, and she wants to do it slowly, painfully, to make him feel all the pain she'd felt." She suddenly raised a fist and slammed it into his stomach, her new strength sending him flying a good 30 feet backwards. He coughed, sending a jet of blood spewing onto the floor, gracing it in a shower of deep crimson. Before he recovered, she sent a flying kick at his back, making him slide forward and knocking him down. She smiled at his evident pain. "Growing weaker, are we?" She sent him slamming against the wall with a flick of her forearm, and tossed 5 shuriken at him, 4 pinning him against the wall, and 1 landing in his chest. She walked toward him slowly, stopping just 5 inches away from his face. "Any last words?" She'd expected him to have fought back, or at least made an angry retort, but hey, why not take advantage? But the next thing he did sent shivers down her spine, just like when she was a 12 year old fan girl. He smiled.