Konoha was a village of sunshine. Though stitches of pain coursed through it, there were smiles every day, every moment. The fiery will of love in Konoha protected it from anything and everything, sustaining it through time despite tragedy that might occur. Konoha was a village of sunshine and happiness. It was a village of life and love, of family.
Or, to Uchiha Sasuke, a family lost, drowned in blood and darkness. To Uchiha Sasuke, just like everywhere else in his life, Konoha was a place of nighttime, of sorrows and severed friendships, of blood and betrayal and disappointment. And so it was only fitting to return when there was no sun of propaganda to mock him in his solitude.
No weak, fake sunlight to hold him back from his only purpose, rays of sun grasping at him like brittle, ghostly fingers of what he had once called friends.
Impenetrable black eyes slid from side to side in their gelatin sockets, at once lazy and utterly alert for any sign of an enemy shinobi. Sasuke knew that the sappy Konoha ninja that he had once counted himself among would more than likely not try to kill him at all if he were found, but he bore the attire of an enemy to Konoha; he would not be welcome, as it should be. A light wind was picking up in the dead silence of the night, stirring black hair and tiny almond-shaped leaves like old skeletons of half-meant words. Almost as if the wind had realized its trespass, that it belonged to the day and that the night was not its friend, it died down at once though.
The traitor shinobi found nothing distressing in his sweep of the environment, but his alert aura did not relax. Someone could appear at any time. That, if nothing else in this life, was certain. No matter what happened, there would always be a fresh enemy ready to lie, cheat, and steal just to get close enough to stab you in the back. Without even waiting until you trust them first. Trust no one, love nothing.
Wait. A slight movement. An Anbu mask. Tipping forward, as though in a skeptical tilt of the head. Sasuke's eyes narrowed, ready for anything, but not willing to acknowledge the Anbu member was a real threat. By the figure's shape and the style of short black hair, he gained that the ninja was female, but nothing more. He waited. The glare of light on the Konoha forehead protector looped around her waist caught his eye.
"Uchiha Sasuke… So Konoha's wind finally blew you back to the village. Or did the snakes just abandon you for a fatter piece of meat?" The voice that spoke to him was harsh and scornful, and though he was convinced by now that the kunoichi was somewhere near his own age, perhaps, he could not place that voice.
"Who are you?" he said tersely, not deigning to waste words. A dark chuckle resonated, the Anbu mask warping it to become inhuman and hollow. Or perhaps it had been that way all along.
"Oh, don't you remember me?" the female ninja said, a fake sweetness edging her voice just a little bit. "Well, I suppose you wouldn't…" One gloved thumb was hooking under the Anbu mask, ready to push it up. "…would you…" the sweetness was gone. It was the voice of someone for whom Konoha was a village of nighttime as well. The curve of a familiar cheekbone caught his glance, the hard, solid stare of a sharp green eye. The kunoichi clasped her hands before her mockingly, and uttered the final words that drove the point home to Sasuke in such a way that there could be no mistaking it any longer.
"…Sasuke-kun?" Fuck.
"Sakura?" It wasn't a question, but it certainly bore some uncertainty. The last time he remembered those green eyes looking upon him, they bore a longing and tenderness in them. It seemed the medical ninja had dyed all traces of her formerly pink hair diligently with black to hide it. The girl that Sasuke had known was gone, and with her (apparently) Sakura's affection for him. Sasuke resisted the urge to snort. Well, that had taken long enough. There was something unnerving about the sight of Sakura staring at him in that cold, uncaring manner, though.
"Ten points to the emo kid," Sakura replied scathingly. Sasuke didn't have time to be indignant because before he knew it, there was a fist sinking into his stomach. A fist that knocked the breath from his body and sent him sprawling. A fist that he would never have guessed connected to Sakura's arm.
"So tell me, Sasuke, how've you been?" The words were light and airy as Sakura swung him by his foot and slammed him into a building. "Long time no see, Sasuke-kun." Each punch was like a drop kick toward unconciousness.
"Sakura," he gasped, sucking in a breath as she dropped him carelessly, "what happened to you…?"
"It's funny, actually," the hardened Anbu member said scornfully as she continued to beat him senseless. "All those years ago, I thought you stole my heart. Back in the Academy, and in group seven…" Sasuke was hearing less and less of what she was saying, and Sakura must have caught on, because she straightened, lifting him into the air by his collar.
"Listen to me, Uchiha Sasuke!" she commanded sharply. "Like I said, I thought you stole my heart. But I was wrong. That night you left, that night you left me unconcious on a bench while you left with those Sound sons of bitches after I begged you like a child to stay, that's when you took my heart. That's when my heart wasn't mine anymore, that's when I didn't know it from another. And I don't know where you went and left my beating heart, Uchiha, because I don't feel it coming back to me."
Sasuke didn't understand.
"But it's too bad for you that you don't have my heart anymore," she said, "maybe if you hadn't lost it, I'd have some kindness left for you." Sasuke's bleeding lips twitched, trying to speak. He couldn't. Sakura's chakra-infused punches had left him far beyond the realm of speechlessness.
"I have no compassion for my enemies anymore," she finished, an evil glint flashing in her emerald eyes.