You SasuSaku fans are lucky that I find those two easy to write. This is for you.

Disclaimer: I so do not look like Kishi.

The Odds
Oneshot

"Because sometimes small things can bring nostalgia."

She just lay there in her bed, staring through the window that she could see from the other side of the room. It was nighttime already, probably at around early morning, but still she couldn't sleep, a thousand thoughts plundering her mind. This was one of those sleepless nights that she's been having, caused by those morose shifts that she's been made to do at the hospital. They'd be calling her to spend nights treating patients over there, the schedule she has to fill in usually needing her to sacrifice a few more hours of precious sleep that sometimes she had to go for days without any shut-eye. What can she say? She was used to it.

From somewhere outside an owl hooted, calling out a few times before finally resting its voice. Sakura grimaced, closing her eyes and turning away from the window and pulling the heavy blanket over her head to hide from the moon's probing rays that found its way inside her room. She wanted to sleep, but all she could think about was fire. Fire, yes, that orange thing that flutters upward and steals the life in the air around it. The one that burns. And that all was making her wistful. It dances, and if you watch it long enough, it's really going to draw you in. Naruto nowadays had to practically pull her away from the campfire to drag her to wherever they were going.

Sakura closed her eyes. Even if she was there on her bed, in her room, where a glass of water is sitting on her table, she could feel the heat of the flames that were licking at the wood that they had gathered for a crude barbeque. The smell of the heady smoke was still there in her hair, and she never got tired of taking a few locks of the pastel tresses and inhaling what scent was left. Others who would find out what she thought about it might say it's an addiction to fire, that she has some fetish for it.

But it was no fetish, not some odd sort of addiction. How could they not understand what she sees? They just need to see deeper and they'd find out why she likes fire so much, why she's so fascinated with it. Sure, they can blame her for some cases of "accidental" spreading of fires that weren't looked after when she was camping out with her team, but to say that she was crazy might be a bit too far.

There was also the constant reprimanding of Kurenai-sensei to her when she went overboard with the fire hallucinations she tried to perform. Two months from now Orochimaru would most likely take over the body of that avenger, and so Naruto was training hard under Kakashi. She went to Kurenai, taking that she was a pro at genjutsu and that she had a natural affinity with illusions herself, but what she usually projected was fire. And in some way, her new teacher was always telling her off to stop torturing using fire. She said it was a bit much, that it would cause complications. It made her wonder. She just… likes those dancing orange flames.

And Sasuke was fire.

Her forest-hued eyes opened as she threw her blanket aside and turned on her back to face the ceiling. Three years. It was almost three years since he left the village. And now, a couple of months more and there'll be a chance of meeting him. Once more.

Swinging her legs down to the floor Sakura held her head at the sudden lightheadedness that struck her, waiting for a few moments for her vision to clear before reaching over and opening the heavy drawer of her desk with a screeching, dragging sound. Extending her hand into the blackness inside that couldn't be reached by the moon's light, she fumbled around while holding the edge of the table for support, and finally finding what she wanted, pulled out the small box into the pale light.

Taking out a matchstick (yes, she had been keeping matches, but she never did smoke), she struck it once against the side. Twice, then the third time the tip sparked and ignited, Sakura waving away the strong pungent smoke of the phosphorus before the hissing died down to a tamer shine.

She could only watch in awed silence, broken by the constant chirping outside, as that small glow crawled nearer to her fingers, transforming the thin wood into a gnarled wire of coal. It was the only light in that room of hers, unevenly lighting the surroundings with its flickering hue, especially Sakura's face as a smile spread across her features.

The tiny fire was moving even nearer, and she took the burnt tip between her left fingers, ignoring the small glow the burnt matchstick head still had and successfully transferred it to her other hand. Its light soon died out silently, that yellowish-orange glow diminishing into small curls of smoke that rose and disappeared into the air.

Flicking the thin charred wire where it would land (let it take care of itself, be it satisfied by being crushed under footsteps or swept away tomorrow morning), Sakura carelessly dropped the matchbox onto the floor with the other matchsticks inside clattering against each other as she plopped herself back onto her bed, reveling in the pain in her thumb and forefinger where she had held the glowing red wood.

Lifting one of the violated fingers she sucked at the injury, only causing more pain to it with the warmth of her tongue. She could taste the raw skin. It was a nice feeling, actually, before her automatic medical chakra had found its way toward it and the pain drained away. Casuistically clucking at her habitual ability to heal, she let her hand return to her side as she stared at the empty ceiling once more. It was… what? Probably three in the morning? She still had about two hours to burn off before she can go and train.

Or not. She turned to her side and buried her face into her pillow in shame. There was a reason why she liked fire. Only one to make her so obsessed. It was easy to guess who, but the incentive to make her keep on hoping made her wish that sooner or later, they would meet again.

Dark hair, dark eyes, pale skin. Uchiha Sasuke. Uchiha clan. The fire fan was their symbol. It was the first thing that she had noticed, a few days before he left the village. And there were his fire techniques, that he graced the display to his teammates whenever they were on missions as team seven. Even during training, when he was sparring with Naruto, the constant use of those jutsus had imbedded themselves in her mind. That's where she learned to connect the fire to Sasuke, supposedly worthy of being a Konoha shinobi of the Fire country.

But no. He just had to leave and run straight to Orochimaru, didn't he? That lust for more power was a sickening idea to her, but in a way, she was happy for him. What the old snake sannin could make him learn, the shinobi back here in Konoha wouldn't be able to match up. Whether she liked the idea or not (but seriously, she just didn't like it), Orochimaru was one of the strongest people she knew, along with Tsunade and Jiraiya. They weren't called the Legendary Sannin for nothing. And Orochimaru just happened to use kinjutsus and what not.

He surely made Sasuke far stronger from the genin who left her on the bench that night. Seeing him those months ago just showed them all how much the avenger had improved. The only thing she was wishing for him was to escape before Orochimaru managed to take over his body, because evidently, if that happens, he was lost.

The clock on the table beside her was ticking away, and when she raised her head to take a look at it, the glowing numbers told her that at least half an hour passed since she last checked.

Three forty-six, she thought to herself, checking out the window in hopes to see a lightening sky. Still nothing, the same inky darkness that had a tinge of orange from the city lights. This was crap.

Giving up on waiting for sunrise to get out, she dragged herself to the bathroom and splashed cool water on her face to get rid of the tired feeling that settled on her skin. Exhausted, yes, but she couldn't sleep.

It was only a matter of moments before she locked the door of her apartment behind her, wearing her usual red top and beige skirt as she made her way through the empty streets to the usual training grounds of team seven. She spotted a few beggars, leaning against the brick walls of shops with the yellowish street lamps shining down on them, wearing heavy layers of tattered gray clothes that provided dirty warmth. Every now and then she searched for a few stray coins in her pockets and dropped them in their hands that were still held out even in those early hours.

Her feet led her to turn at a familiar corner, stepping down the lush grasses, encroaching into the area where in the morning was filled with lively activity, sounds of blades hitting against wood and each other, constant yells that accompanied taijutsu attacks, or on occasion, the sound of some snaps of splintering bone. At night, the training place was filled with the sound of crickets and some other insects, constant hooting of owls, or if it was early morning (like right now where she was standing and taking in her surroundings) the owls are replaced by the screeching of the birds who sound like they had just discovered their eggs were smashed by their own weight.

Walking over to a spot on the ground that stood out because it was inside a ring of rocks, the ground dry and burnt black, Sakura kneeled beside it and started taking the pile of twigs and wood beside it and tossed it onto the dark patch. Creating a small bonfire had become her habit, and Naruto and Kakashi had welcomed it even with the constant teasing of Sai to her of "inferno girl" to which she responded with a gift of a broken jaw.

It just took the simplest fire jutsu to start the flickering light to dance in the still-dark morning hush, Sakura sitting by its side and staring into its depths, the orange ruddiness forever moving and casting moving light and shadow on her features. If she just closed eyes, she can easily imagine that particular raven-head blowing out a fireball near her, the flames that formed from his chakra forced out through his lips and fingers.

Logic was simple. Sasuke was just her fire, and just like how she was drawn to his natural element, it wasn't forced, but it was learned through their time together. Her act of a pyromaniac was just a cover for the loss of his presence.

ooo000ooo

The responsibility to tending a garden is something Sasuke always took to mind. Even when he underwent the transition from Konoha to Oto, the habit of taking care of a piece of land still remained in him. Sometimes thinking about that reached past the deep nights and into the early mornings, just like what he was doing now.

He was crouching beside a small plot of loose land, hands soiled by the dark and fertile earth as he carefully weeded the garden that he owned, all under the wash of moonlight. Some people may think that Sound was a barren, run-down place, but all those presumptions were literally wrong. It was a small village, maybe, but it was bursting with life and nature's works. It was only lacking in the power and influence that other hidden villages have, but it was independent and can stand on its own. The whole area under it was a gold mine when it came to fruitfulness that most of the civilians there were farmers. It was a nice place, save for the human experimentation that happened behind an innocent façade.

Seeing the snake sannin's own pet (he suspected that's what they called him behind his back) going down and dirty would make a few tongues wag in the village. But he couldn't care less, because he loved it. Either way, if it annoyed him too much, he can easily dispose of the taunter without batting an eyelid. They asked for it, so there would be no argument.

Skimming his fingers over the silky soil for a moment, he sometimes thought of the family he left back in his former village. Naruto, Kakashi, Sakura, the rest of the others who had gone to desperate lengths to bring him back. He can imagine them right now. Probably his teacher (ex-teacher, he corrected himself), was either sleeping right now or he was up reading that orange book of his (which they suspected was not porn, but super-porn, taken that it was Jiraiya who wrote it). Naruto, his best friend if that's what you call him, would be snoring his lungs out on his futon, arms and legs carelessly splayed about, and through all his constant moving in his sleep his nightcap refusing to fall off. A couple of hours from now he would be bounding down to Ichiraku and demand his ramen.

As for Sakura, he didn't know how to decipher that complex personality she had. The first time they met, she was all clingy and constantly reminding him of shallow affection, but through time, as the team seven were forged through missions and trials, she went into a phase where she worried over him rather than annoyingly proclaiming her love. Then a little less than three years ago, she seemed to have matured well enough to catch him off guard when he was about to finally leave them behind. After all that, a few months ago when they met and he almost killed them all, she had no hesitation in attacking him even if she knew that he could just obliterate her whenever he wanted (actually, he was thankful that Yamato had intruded and prevented him from running kusanagi through her).

Sasuke yanked on a particularly stubborn weed, breaking it off right where its roots started that he had to dig it out a bit to take away the spreading whitish fibers from the ground. At the same time he noticed a fallen cherry blossom hiding under the leaf of a tomato plant, and he froze.

What could she be doing right now? There are a lot of possibilities when it came to her. Probably sleeping, hoping for a better "tomorrow" that will come within a few hours. Probably crying for some reason he didn't know and didn't care (though a nagging suspicion told him it was most likely him). Probably awake and contemplating about missions and information she had read in medical books. That's most likely. Though the thought that she might be somewhere in a barren training ground sitting beside a small bonfire crossed him mind, he dismissed it immediately as "something as impossible as Lee shaving his eyebrows."

He found out later that Lee indeed tried to shave those hairy monstrosities from Kabuto (who was, once again, spying in his home village), though he grew them back again (the doctor told him that Lee said thin eyebrows didn't suit him).

But as of now, he didn't think that about her, and plucked away the small pink blossom and set it aside. The sakura trees that were scattered all around in Sound village were already in beautiful bloom and started shedding, thus the appearance of that small flower in his garden.

In a way, nature (and that included his constant gardening) reminded him of his ex-teammate. He says "ex" because it's only a slim chance that he'll be going back to them. With those forest-green eyes and cherry-pink hair, it wasn't hard to be reminiscent. And much to his surprise, he didn't find it that annoying. Instead that was what he held on to, knowing that through some way, he might be connected to them without actually being there.

Sitting on his haunches Sasuke finally decides that he's done for now, and stands up slowly and stretches a bit to get his muscles out of their strain. He cracks his knuckles one by one and walks over the bucket of water he always brings and soaks his dirty hands in them, rubbing off the soil in the way he did hundreds of times before.

Picking a bright red tomato out of the newly weeded garden of his without even caring to dry his hands, Sasuke took respite at the base of one of the biggest cherry blossom trees in the area, its thick pink tendrils fluttering around and giving up a few showers of its pale pink flowers, he couldn't care less as he bit tentatively into the smooth skin of the fruit (or vegetable, whatever it was, he didn't care).

One thing was on his mind as he sat there looking at the brightening sky through the natural pink curtain of the tree. Maybe his mornings (where he couldn't sleep the whole night and tended to find his way to his garden) would be much comfortable with a small fire? You know, just to ease the cold dawn of loneliness.

ooo000ooo

Where Sakura was, she just watched as the sky was already turning from indigo to lighter shades. The chirping of the birds were getting a bit louder, and she looked up from the fire that was fighting away the cold from reaching her. Yes, her mornings were warm, but it was still that empty.

Deciding that maybe the market stalls were starting to open, she stood up and brushed off the few grass blades off herself before setting off once more, planning on buying some tomatoes (a consolation that she can be reminded of Sasuke) for a little snack back at the fire.

AN: I can stab the plot bunny if you want.