A/N: -Insert random trumpet playing here- Tada! I bring you... random song fic/oneshot number...three? Yeah, I think this would be the third... anyways, here ya go. It's angsty like the others, but then again, you guys seem to be liking those lol...

Song: Broken Pieces
By: Apocalyptica feat. Lacey Sturm (Flyleaf)

Too late, this is not the answer.
I need to pack it in.

You were always the one mystery I could never explain, no matter how much and how hard I would wrack my brain for some sort of solution. I couldn't figure you out back when we were kids, and I sure as hell can't figure you out now.

Sasuke had Sakura pinned against the forest floor, his katana at her neck and her own kunai at his jugular. One false move from either of them, and death would ensue. Sakura sighed.

This was supposed to be a simple mission – gather information on the Akatuski's current whereabouts and plans in the Hidden Rain Village, come home in one week, report in, and mission complete. She never envisioned seeing him there. She never envisioned he'd be alone.

"Sakura," his voice was cold as his coal black eyes bore down into her own green ones. Their resolve against one another was both strong, and neither would surely hesitate to kill the other.

'And there certainly wouldn't be a repeat of last time. To hell with all of our memories, to hell with loving him until the day I die. I can't keep doing this to myself. I could never heal him; he wouldn't let me in enough to try. I also know that he won'' be coming back. Ever. I'll let him speak, but the second he tries to kill me... I'm going to strike without hesitation.'

I can't pull your heart together,
With just my voice alone.

"Sasuke-kun." That damn suffix, oh how she wished it hadn't grown into such a habit. He wasn't worth of the affectionate title; they were never really that close anyhow. She was infatuated. No... she was in love. But everything changed the moment she saw him pull his blade on Naruto at Orochimaru's hide out. Her love turned into disgust. His actions spoke miles worth of words that day, and it cut her like the shards of a broken mirror.

A thousand shards of glass,
I came to meet you and,
And you cut the peace out of me.

"Hn. What are you doing here?" His words were colder than ice and she felt a shiver run down her spine. It truly was amazing how he still had that same effect on her after all of these years.

The last time she had seen him, he was in the process of killing the female member of his new team. On that day, she was a stupid, stupid girl. She confessed her undying love for him, again. And again, she begged him to take her with him. That was also the day he did wouldn't have hesitated to kill her, despite her hesitating to kill him.

It was her hesitation that would surely be the death of her someday, she knew. But even so, she knew in the back of her mind that no matter how much she could ever force herself to hate him, no matter how much he did everything in his power to hurt her – she could never harm him; she didn't have the nerve to truly try.

The blade of her kunai pressed itself deeper into Sasuke's jugular, not enough to do any damage, but just enough to inform him that if he made a single false move, his life would be over. He, however, had no intention of setting her off and so he kept his own blade against her slender neck, his eyes never leaving her face.

"It's none of your damn business!" she spat at him, her words cold and void of any emotion. Sasuke's expression never changed, and his impassive expression irked her to no end. Then again, Her impassive expression irked him as well, though he couldn't place why.

The rain that day was a slow drizzle, and by now, both of them were soaked to their skin as they lay out on the forest ground, both holding their own respective blades to each others throats. Why did the worst of things always have to happen to her? This mission was supposed to be simple, and quite frankly, it barely concerned Sasuke's current whereabouts—nobody even knew where he was since he and Madara went into hiding after the incident at the Kage summit.

Looking into his eyes, she knew in her heart that this was not the same Sasuke she used to love. No, the man in front of her was a hollow shell of her former comrade, and quite frankly, she didn't care to find out who exactly the person underneath his emotionless mask was.

It was rather strange how every time Sakura and Sasuke encountered one another, her mind would always wander back to the night he left the village, and his final "thank you" always ended up playing itself over again in her mind like a mantra. To this very day, she always wondered what exactly he was thanking her for that night, and she was half tempted in this very situation to ask him what he meant by it. A part of her, however, was afraid of knowing the answer.

That day would forever hold a huge piece of her heart, for that was the day that he managed to completely shatter it by refusing her once and for all. It wasn't the fact that he—yet again—called her "annoying", or that he denied her request for him to take her with him. No, it was the fact that him leaving the place he once called "home" had absolutely no emotional (or mental) effect on him whatsoever.

And as you ripped it all apart
That when I turned to watch you.
And as the light with you in dark
I saw you turn to shadow

But alas, here they were again, fighting what seemed to be their final battle against one another. Come to think of it, she had never really had a genuine fight with Sasuke before now, though at least she knew what to expect from him in terms of skills and power.

He was more powerful than her, that was a given, but she had her own strength and her own knowledge—knowledge that she could effectively use against him if she needed to—as well as her own skills that could prove to be deadly towards him. Because not only was she now a powerful kunoichi, but she was also a medic nin. And although they are often underrated in battle, medic shinobi had more lethal capability when fighting their opponents at close range than regular shinobi did. Because their knowledge of killing a person almost effortlessly was nearly endless.

If you would salvage some part of you
That once you loved.
But I'm losing this,
And I'm losing you.

He wouldn't have hesitated to kill her had she left him the opportunity to do so, but it seemed she put him in quite a predicament that he wasn't sure he could get out of. He had heard the rumors and he knew that she had matured and grown stronger since the days when they were Genin. He also knew that she could easily kill him if she so pleased, he just wasn't positive as to why she hadn't done so already and returned home. After all, that is what a truly skilled shinobi would have done in this case.

She currently had the upper hand in this situation, because although he could have cut her throught right then and there, it wouldn't have been before she took the opportunity to jam the blade of her kunai into his jugular, thus killing him instantly. He assumed that her infatuation with him in the past may have had a major factor in her reasoning for not making a move. And so, he humored her by speaking to her, rather than make a move to further fight her. At least, not for now.

Oh, I've gotta turn and run
From faces that you've never seen.

Every nerve in her body was telling her to try to call this fight a draw, her instincts tempting her to just run away like she always had when things got tough. But she could barely speak to him – she didn't know what she would say. It wasn't like her mission had been a total success, considering she hadn't gained too much valuable information despite having spent several days questioning everyone she could.

Save herself. She knew that above all else, she was going to have to save herself in the end, because this was a solo mission, and neither Naruto nor anyone else from the newly formed Team 7 would be rushing in to save her like they always had used to. No, this was a situation that in order to escape, she would have to do so by herself.

Oh, I've gotta save my blood,
From all that you've broken,
I hold these pieces of me.

"What are you doing here, Sasuke?" She asked before letting out a long sigh, the tension between them slowly dying into casualty, though neither dared to draw their weapons away. That would be foolish and cost one of them their lives, that much was very certain. His face remained void of a single hint of emotion as he stared down at her coldly.

"That is no business of yours. What was your mission?" he asked before activating his sharingan, the pattern of it's tomoes being much different than they had been before.

'Is that... the Mangekyou Sharingan? How the hell did he attain that...?'

Her fear peaked itself greatly the moment she caught site of his newly evolved sharingan eyes, and she had no doubt in her mind that he would use it on her to attain whatever information he wanted to know from her if she so happened to gaze into his eyes.

It's too late now to stop the process.
This was your choice, you let it in.

She had to get out of this situation, but she had no idea how to do so without it costing her life. Suddenly, she was struck by an idea and she slid her leg between his and used her foot to kick him a distance off of her.

Sasuke's eyes widened a bit at being caught off guard, but he immediately regained his footing, his body going into an attack stance while Sakura's own body did the same. Using one of her gloved hands, she reached into her weapons holster on her thigh and pulled out three shuriken, her hands instantly placing them between her fingers as her arm reached neck level. One move, and she'd strike him, though considering the fact that it was in fact Sasuke she was dealing with, her strike accuracy had a very low chance at making it.

"Hn. Don't make this difficult on yourself, Sakura. Considering you are alone, I'm assuming you are on a mission to gather information of some sort within this village. Am I correct?" he asked raising a slender eyebrow at her. Sakura's eyes grew large in astonishment.

'How the hell did he figure that out?'

"Judging by your expression, I can assume that I am correct," he said monotonously.

'Shit...'

"It's none of your business, as I've said already, Uchiha!"

She moved like lightning and fired her three shuriken at him. He barely had enough time to dodge them all and she had managed to land a rather deep cut on his cheek, her eyes darting towards the wound as she felt a small ounce of pride knowing that she had at least managed to land a hit on him.

It was at that moment he decided to lunge at her, his body flickering towards her at a blinding speed and she was just barely able to meet his blade with her own kunai, thus effectively blocking the fatal hit to her neck. There was no doubt in her mind that he would have beheaded her right then and there had she not went to defend herself.

Sasuke's body strength and size out weighed her own and the pressure he was applying on his katana was forcing her body backwards, her shinobi sandals dragging deeply in the now wet mud below them.

"Sasuke-kun! I didn't come here to fight you, but dammit, I will not hesitate to kill you!" Sasuke inwardly smirked at her comment, doubting her threat entirely despite knowing that it still was plausible.

"Hn. You couldn't do that even if you tried," he gritted out, his arms pressing his katana harder against her kunai in attempts to overpower her; in attempts to killher.

She swung a leg up towards his side, his other arm immediately blocking it and grabbing her. Using this to her advantage, she swung her other leg up and landed a blow on his opposite side nearly wrapping her legs around his waist in the process. Both of their blades finally separated and their bodies were sent to more of a distance away from one another.

As their battle against one another carried on, Sasuke was growing more and more irritated and wanted nothing more for things to be done and over with. It shocked him to realize that he had yet to land a single hit on her, though meanwhile she had gotten two in on him already. He blamed that, however, on his underestimating her strength and would make sure not to make the same mistake again.

Once again, he lunged at her with a murderous gleam in his eyes and Sakura was still stunned by his expression. He was so full of rage and hatred, it was hard to believe that this heartless person was really the same Sasuke she knew from her childhood. It was almost as if he were leading some sort of double life.

This double life you lead
Is eating you up from within.
A thousand shards of glass,
You pushed beneath my skin.
Left me lying there to bleed.

In her slight moment of hesitation, he got a hit in on her, and Sakura choked on some blood that began to pour from her mouth as she looked down at his katana, which was now protruding from her abdomen. Judging by the location of his blade, he hadn't done too much serious damage, and she would easily be able to heal herself as soon as he took the blade out.

If he took the blade out.

The wound was right next to a large scar and Sasuke looked down at it curiously. It wasn't a very long line, but it was about the same width as his katana and he wondered where she had gotten it. It was actually the scar from when she had fought Sasori, and it was too deep for her to completely heal at the time.

And as you showed me your scars, I only held you closer.
And as the light in you went dark,
I saw you turn over.

Despite the blade not hitting any of her vital organs, she was still losing a lot of blood. She screamed in a horror-filled pain as he ripped the blade out of her stomach, her body hitting her knees instantly as her hands covered the wound.

The first thoughts that popped into her head was that she forgave him, even though he'd never ask her to. The second thing that came to mind was the fact that despite it all, she still loved him and still wanted him. Those were two things that would someday be her downfall, she had always stuck by that fact. This incident itself was actual proof of that being true.

I wanted always to be there for you and close to you.
But I'm losing this,
And I'm losing you.

She immediately began healing herself, and it took mere seconds before the wound was closed and she was fine again. She didn't bother trying to stand up, she knew that he had won this fight and wouldn't hesitate now to kill her. Severing the bonds. That's all he would consider something like this being. There would be no remorse, because he didn't care about her. He never cared about her.

Honestly, she didn't want to die, but she couldn't help but feel defeat. Her bright green eyes glanced up at his own black eyes, his expression just a little less cold than it was before, but the slight hint of emotion he was currently showing, she couldn't quite place.

'Even if you were to be the one that would end me, I'd still love you... Sasuke-kun.'

Oh, I've gotta turn and run
From faces that you've never seen.
Oh, I've gotta save my blood
From all that you've broken.
I hold these pieces of me.

It was strange how after all that he'd done to her, he still had her heart in the palm of his hand. She looked up at him with so much love and forgiveness, he couldn't quite wrap his head around the meaning of it all. How could she sit there after nearly dying and still have a hint of a smile on her face?

Sasuke crouched down in front of Sakura and met her eye-to-eye. She was waiting for the final blow, but from the looks of things, he had something to say to her first. And he did.

"Why do you still have that same look in your eyes... from all of those years ago?"

Sakura's eyes widened, instantly realizing what he was referring to. He wanted to know why she still held such love and adoration for him. She smiled a sad smile as she responded to his question.

"Because it seems that no matter what you ever do to me, my heart will always ache for you... Sasuke-kun."

The broken pieces
I hold these pieces of me
The broken pieces
I hold these pieces

He was wracking his brain for some sort of response, unsure entirely why he even felt as though he owed her a response. He was going to sever his bonds once and for all, so nothing she said or did mattered. Even so...

"I just wanted to take you home." She added, his eyes shifting off to the side a bit.

"Why won't you both understand that Konoha is no longer my home? Has it ever occurred to either of you that I have no desire to return there? The fact that both of you try so hard to bring me back is rather selfish."

To say she was shocked by his words would be an understatement. Although all of his words rang true, she also knew that Konoha would always be his home, and he couldn't be happy again unless he came back to his home and let them try to make him happy.

Maybe without me you'll return
To all the beauty I once knew.
But if I stay, I know
We will both be drowned
By your holding onto me.

She hadn't felt so helpless before him since the night he left her on that bench. She wanted to somehow get through to him; to somehow make him realize that they would be able to make him happy—that she would be able to make him happy. In a desperate attempt to make him feel something, she grabbed the collar of his shirt and roughly pulled him towards her in a hug, her lips leaning towards his ear to whisper her pleas.

Oh, I've gotta turn and run
From faces that you've never seen.

"Stop running away, Sasuke. If you'd just let me, I could make you happy... you just have to give me a chance to. I can try to make you feel alive again."

Immediately, she felt him stiffen and she paused in order to pull back somewhat, her eyes going to his face in search of his reaction to her words. He looked at her as if she were insane, and she realized that her words hadn't quite rang clear enough for him. They were kneeling there in the rain merely inches before one another, and their eyes never parted glances. Suddenly getting an idea, Sakura pulled him towards her again, only this time, her lips were pressed against his in a gentle, passionate manor.

Neither of them moved as they remained still, their lips unmoving against one another as they took in everything around them. Surprisingly, Sasuke was the first one to respond to the kiss, Sakura immediately following suit.

'Perhaps I am getting to him now... I can only hope...'

Oh, I've gotta save my blood
From all that you've broken.
I hold these pieces of me.

For the first time in a long time, Sasuke Uchiha lost control of everything—his emotions, his cool, his willpower. The moment Sakura pressed her lips against his own, it was all over. He dropped his katana at his side and immediately entwined his fingers into her hair, his hands pulling her closer to himself and deepening the kiss as he slowly began sliding his fingertips along the curves of her body.

As his hands brushed along her hips, she tilted her neck back arching herself towards him.

"Sasuke-kun... come home..." He stilled with her words and let out a sigh.

"I can't do that, Sakura." As he pulled his hand away, she snapped her head to look into his coal black eyes again, her resolve strong.

"You can do anything you want, Sasuke." Frowning a bit at her words, he shook his head once as he stared at her. Finally, she pulled away from him and stood up bitterly looking down at Sasuke who was still on the ground looking up at her.

"Then the next time we meet, we'll fight to the death. But leave Naruto alone... even though I know he won't do the same for you... The next time we meet, I will kill you..." Her words were colder than how she was feeling in her heart at that very moment and she knew then and there that nothing she could ever say would get through to Sasuke.

She felt his hand pulling her own to the ground, and before she could even respond, Sasuke had her pinned to the ground again, his lips covering her own desperately. He didn't want things to be like this but it was his destiny as an avenger. He would wipe out Konoha and everything it ever represented. But right now, he was conflicted because there was a part of himself that desired to be with her instead of getting revenge. There was a part of him that needed her right now.

Her arms hesitantly encircled around his neck, pulling him down closer towards her. Sakura wasn't sure why he was kissing her now after everything but she wouldn't dwell too much on it, considering she felt her medic's vest being unzipped by Sasuke's frantic hands.

Instantly, his lips moved towards her neck and he began trailing kisses along her pulse, which was rapidly speeding up as time progressed. She was panting heavily, the heat of the moment growing frantic. Why was he doing this knowing how things would turn out in the end? Did he want to make them that much more difficult when the time came to fight one another again?

Sasuke wasn't sure why he was doing this, but he did know one thing—he needed her, now. Because her kiss earlier sent a wave of emotion—of happiness—through his broken soul, and he craved that right now more than ever. And so, here he was, unbuckling her medic skirt and discarding it to the side. Her hands immediately went towards his top and she began parting the folds before sliding it off of his shoulders.

Suddenly, his lips were on her own again, his kiss filled with passion and sorrow upon knowing how things would someday end. He knew there would come a day when he would be faced with either killing her or freeing her, and right now, he wasn't sure he could do the former. He was repairing their bonds, but neither of them had any idea why.

The broken pieces
I hold these pieces of me

When he entered her, he was frantic, not even giving her time to prepare for the pain. She was a kunoichi, however, and she had felt much worse pain. In fact, if anything, the feeling of being so stretched was more of an irritating pain if anything and so she sunk her nails into his back and took it all in stride. Her clawing was only motivation for Sasuke to continue his rough thrusts as he hooked his arms under Sakura's knees, pulling her closer towards himself.

It didn't take long before their breathing began to grow heavier as they continued meeting one another for every thrust. There were no words, only the heat of this very moment. Sasuke leaned forward and kissed Sakura once again as he continued thrusting himself in and out of her heat, Sakura's lips releasing soft moans every so often.

When they reached their climax, it was almost simultaneous. And as he turned to leave her again, he hesitated for a long time.

'Things have to be this way... this is our fate as shinobi...'

Things didn't seem fair to him anymore, though considering the life he's led before this moment in time, that's how things always worked out for him.

As he kissed her goodbye, their hearts strained from the pain of knowing the future that would surely come to them both. They would be the death of one another, and the moment that happened, these newly found bonds would be severed once more.

And in the end, they were both broken into pieces again.

The broken pieces
I hold these pieces of me

A/N: Sorry about the ending being so rushed, that's just how it all played out in my head xD Anyways I hope you enjoy. I may be writing another one in the future considering I've been so inspired as of lately so keep posted. Dunno what the coupling will be though considering I've been kinda stuck on Sasu/Saku. :P R&R!