Having just completed "The Beast's Flower", I found it in me to extend a scene from its twelfth chapter titled "Night Music" - in which Sasuke returns to Sakura while still in his permanent second stage of the Curse Mark, and this is the first time in a month since they reunited, but of course, we all know how it ended in original canon when Naruto and gang failed to bring him back to the Leaf Village - this AU is no exception. For those who didn't read "The Beast's Flower", you're more than welcome if you wish to avoid confusion with this one. This is a oneshot, and told in Sakura's voice.

Disclaimer: it should be obvious who Naruto belongs to, and it's NOT me. ;P I also named this shot after the song from Phantom of the Opera.

He was back tonight, just for this one night, and she was determined to make it last while it could.

He'd taken a BIG risk coming here when ANBU or fellow Shinobi could catch on and sense his chakra maybe - he came here when he knew he could put her in jeopardy. She kissed him, letting herself go with the truth of how deeply she missed him arose. He returned the embrace, not saying it in the same way she had, but he missed her, too. He only came here because his brother insisted - that bastard, the both of them - but was there even a small part that had been his choice?

Sasuke...why are you such an ass?

Yet somehow, that part of him was the one she knew and loved when she was a child - but back then, that was what they were: childish feelings. What they had that night, a month ago, was real. It was short-lived, but that did not mean it was never meant to happen. Everything in life happened for a reason - just like his happy childhood and his family were ripped from him, his heart of gold...but that also did not mean there were no traces left inside him.

Sakura let him stay with her, made him a real dinner which was in contrast to that wild hunt he always caught and any fruits and veggies he borrowed from local villages, including his favorite tomatoes. She let him eat and be himself within that beastly shell of his. To see him like that brought forth old memories, when she wondered if he had a sweet tooth like Naruto, only to learn it was the opposite. She shared her special tea with him...and it was as though nothing consequential was happening. It felt like old times, only different. His appearance, for one: the long blue-gray hair which flared like a lion's mane, his ashen brown skin, the black arrow-cross over his nose, the little fangs in his mouth, those long terrible claws, and finally his eyes permanently ablaze with his Sharingan.

"Sakura...my heart is black as hell." No, you believe that, but I don't. "Look into my eyes, then - what do you see, hn?"

Those eyes filled with so much of what Naruto and I never had - the hate, anger, loneliness and pain...except the latter two he shared with Naruto. So different but similar at the same time.

The eyes of a demon...but leading into a soul of turmoil in need of guidance even when he doesn't need it.

Her sensei strictly forbade her and Naruto from ever going after him again in the near future, but here he was, and once more judging himself in front of her and saying Lady Tsunade was right when she didn't want her and Naruto to be after him again. Each time tried and failed - but here he was, in her home and caught between his own decision and that murderous brother of his. What gave Itachi Uchiha the right to stick his nose where it didn't belong?

Sasuke was suffering because of both his brother and one snake who made him the way he was now.

Sakura leaned across the table, making the decision to kiss him when he tried to protest once again. She was done with this. They talked enough, debated enough, and she would prove that she still loved him - and more than the hormonal crush when they were younger. She would give him her heart tonight again, if it came to that. She was fully prepared; if last time led to that, she wanted it again.

And she could sense that he wanted it, as well.

But he HAD to say he was sorry when the kiss ended.

The fire tingled on her lips. She wasn't sorry in the slightest. Why the hell is he saying he's sorry? Last time...

Last time, he tore up your panties and devoured you from head to toe! Just like her inner self to get nasty at this time.

Sasuke was uncomfortable with this, even when she found it in herself to tell him their attentions were back to Orochimaru and saving his lost humanity; she would never give that up, no matter how many years had gone by, and if Sasuke quit, that was his problem to sulk. Why should she bother trying to cheer him up and failing?

Telling him about her sensei and his didn't make it easier, either. The blush on his dark skin - as dark as it could be - formed along with the twist of his mouth in disgust. Orochimaru and Tsunade...too much like us, his eyes told her. His face twisted more when she told him that when they matched the semen discovered in the corpse of Karin Uzumaki - "I lost it. I thought a part of me died to know it was you, and she was there for me. She confided in me about her and Orochimaru...and I thought of asking her if she ever loved him the way I still love you; I didn't want to push the wrong button. Because how can you...love someone who did terrible things to innocent people and the village you love?"

She should have expected him to be trapping her to the sink the way he did as soon as she finished with the dishes. His intense, fiery gaze burned into hers when he asked her why she still loved him after everything he'd done, and she wasn't lying when she said, "It is what it is." Everything happens for a reason, without a spoken explanation or being written in stone.

He was turned on by her entrapment; she could feel it through her short gown and the worn wrap around his masculine waist. It made her gulp. "Hn, if that is the case..." He picked her up then and proceeded to carry her to the bedroom, but paused to let her turn off the lights, before depositing her onto the edge of her bed. She felt her skirt come up to reveal more of her skin but continue to cover where she was also aroused. The heat in his eyes as he noticed this made the liquid burn hotter and sensitize her feminine bud. He wasted no time in removing the purple rope and the garment, displaying his monstrous manhood in all its glory, springing forth from muscular thighs and crowned with wild blue-gray curls. He's beautiful. Even in his trapped monstrous state, he's a work of art in himself.

Sakura found herself naked as he was, and he had crawled onto the bed because she reached for him, examining her body and the lingering scars he'd given her: on her hips and the dark hickey on her left shoulder, near her neck - just like the place where Orochimaru bit him and cursed him forever. He felt her back where he clawed her, and she shivered under his touch. It was just as he'd breathed against her - these marks meant she was all his. She was no other man's to touch and claim because he'd already taken her. She had not been with another whereas he'd had many...but she was special enough to have waited for him.

"...let's make some night music."

He ravished her breasts with vigor before he gently bit the mark on her neck and sucked, drawing her under his spell. "No one else touches you but me, Sakura," he said darkly, making her breasts ache and the blood boil in her groin. Through this, she felt his hard need tent against her smoldering spot. Her nails had been scratching down his back, but not painfully as he'd done to her, though she was tempted to give him that treatment so they were even...

...and a very rich and dark idea lit up in her mind like a light bulb.

If they were going to make some night music, as he said, she knew how to oblige. Her teeth moved to the left side of his neck and bit as hard as she could without bruising and drawing blood. He hissed, squeezing his eyes shut and pulling his lips back to bare his teeth. Sharp nails grasped her hips and set her flesh on fire.

"Damn it, Sakura!"

She grinned at him. "We're even now, Sasuke," she retorted, leaning up to kiss him chastely on the plump purple lips. He growled at her and attacked her mouth with greater fervor, pulling her closer to him, but she had no intentions of letting him dominate her in her own bedroom. He already did that to her in his territory; he was now in hers. She scratched his back a little harder, enjoying the moist, hardened outlines of his muscles, but didn't draw blood. She decided to push the boundaries and grasp both of his buttocks, kneading them in her hands and making him buck against her. This time, he struck the outside of her sensitive spot and made her jolt.

"Sakura, you're testing me," he snarled against her, returning the treatment by grabbing her left cheek and bringing the other up to her breast and suckling hard. One of his fangs grazed over, threatening to pierce the important, sensitive flesh. She whimpered and threw her head back. She couldn't take this anymore. The night wouldn't last, but she didn't want this to be over, either.

"Lay back, please, Sasuke-kun?" She hadn't called him that since they were children.

He paused in his ministrations and looked up at her with narrowed eyes, saying nothing. She half-expected him to bite back that he was not happy with being overpowered by her, but when he laid back as she asked and propped his head against her pillows, the moonlight streamed over his body and illuminated every outline of his dangerous, inhuman beauty. His shock-wave hair spilled in a strange halo around his head, his red-and-black eyes glowing seductively as he eyed her movements. She felt her breasts sway as she crawled over him, the sight causing his gaze to become darker and primal.

Sakura placed another kiss on his lips again. "You're beautiful, Sasuke," she said softly, unafraid.

His brow twitched in response. "Hn." He didn't know what to make of being called that word when another person who saw him would say otherwise - the boy Ryuu he'd saved, but the child hadn't called him what she had. But he wasn't afraid of him, either. She began to descend down his body, exploring the contours of his sculpture and the sensitive peaks on his chest, making him hiss softly. He tasted just as she remembered, his muscles trembled beneath her, and the waves of heat caressed her face when she reached his manhood just like the first time. She'd done this to him only once; the taste was in her memory, and she did like it. His response was more than her enjoying the flavor of his seed on her tongue. The tip was now leaking a pearl or two of it; her tongue lapped it up and then around the swollen, vein-popping length - and the harsh groans tore from his throat when she took him in to suck and swallow. She moaned, sending him into a frenzy and pooling more liquid fire below her waist.

Just look at his face: he's definitely losing it! You got him wrapped around your finger!

Yeah, inner Sakura was right. Looking at his face from her position, his pubic hair wisping over her nose and the lower half of her face as she continued to deep-throat him, his closed eyelids relaxed and his lips parted to breathe audibly. His chest gently rose up and down with each breath he took, his hard nipples taut. She felt his bulge against her gag reflex, threatening to erupt down her throat, but that wasn't a good idea, not that she didn't want it. She stopped what she was doing, unlike last time when he had been the one to ask her to stop so he could bring this part of himself down to her own region. Now it was her turn because she needed him THAT bad.

He arched against her when she brought him in, her hips aligning with his. She threw her head back and cried with him to the moon streaming on them from her window. They synchronized in harmony, adjoining fire between their bodies, and coalescing into molten lava in their lower halves. She no longer cared if anyone heard; it was not like she had the television on and had screaming neighbors. She threw herself up and over him like her life depended on it, losing control but relishing this one she had over him. His claws grasped her hips and held them in place whilst guiding her movements.

Oh, hell yeah, he's losing it, alright, Sakura agreed with her inner self, leaning over him then so her swaying breasts were over his face. It took Sasuke a long moment to realize the movement and opened both his eyes again to darkly gaze at the sight, then leaned up to take the nearest nipple into his teeth. She bared her own at him.

"You bite this off, and I'll tear your balls off with my bare hands," she warned.

"I'd love to see you try."

"Bastard." The challenge was followed by him pushing her off just before they both could reach the climax. She glared up at him as she lay on her side; he sat up and stretched himself, his erect manhood jutting proudly between those legs of his. "What was that for?" she snapped.

His mouth twitched with snide amusement as he crawled over her and took her by the sides again. "I've been wanting to try something with you," he said simply, before flipping her over on her stomach without warning, and he entered her still-wet sex from behind. Sakura cried out at the sudden intrusion even though he'd already been in. But to think of him riding her like this from behind, like a real animal rutting his captive mate - it caused her muscles to close around him and bring him further in. He groaned. "Sakura, you're going to kill me like this."

"And you're killing me already," she returned, bringing a jut forward of his hips against her ass, pushing her forward on all fours. Each thrust brought them towards one hell of an orgasm coming very soon. Never in her wildest dreams did Sakura Haruno envision Sasuke Uchiha - in human or even present beast form - taking her like this. Ooh, this feels damned good...better than last time!

What can I say? You're his bitch in heat, not like I haven't called you one before!

She growled at her other half to shut up, at the same time Sasuke hoisted her up while still keeping her connected to him. She found herself situated on his lap now, his pelvis bumping against her rear and taking her with him through the flames. She threw her head backwards against his shoulder while her arms came up and around to grasp on both of them for dear life, at the same time his hands began to explore the front of her soaked body. One hand reached down to cup her blazing wet womanhood, his nails poking through the curls and gently scratching her sensitive flesh; his other went north to alternate between her breasts which were bouncing up and down with each thrust.

They were both in heaven, reaching paradise in a white-hot explosion that sent them both over the edge, falling forward onto the bed.

He was still sheathed inside her from behind, his larger body laying atop hers as his untamed mane spilled over them in a thick curtain. His pants came in erratic, rasping breaths. He turned his face in the other direction, away from the juncture of her neck and shoulder, to breathe out, "That seemed to have...taken quite a lot out of us."

Sakura was still recovering from that hell of a bursting bloom, and all she could do was laugh heartily. That had to be the BEST they ever had, for a second time around. She shifted beneath him and turned her face in his direction, getting a view of the back of his head. "Was that the music you wanted to hear?" she teased, turning his words back onto him.

Sasuke grunted noncommittally before turning his face back to her. His features were weary from the act, eyes lidded with drowsiness - but he managed a slight smile as the answer, and that was good enough for her. She leaned over to peck a kiss on his nose before leaving him and slipping under the covers, begging him to join her. He sighed, having wanted to leave soon after just so he could go back to his sanctuary behind Hokage Mountain, but his body was too tired for flight.

Last time, she slept in his embrace for his wings to close around them; now, they fell asleep in her bed as lovers were made to.

REVIEWS APPRECIATED. :D No flames, pretty please.