Cowardice
The river of people swarming through the main streets of Konoha elicited what sounded like a quiet murmur of sound at this distance – a conglomerate of individual voices and footsteps. Somewhere, a woman was herding her children home, elsewhere, a man haggling over the price of some trinket, but from where he stood on the dark side streets of the village, he heard none of it. The sounds blended into the dark of the night, just as he hoped to. He'd been through it before, the looks and stares. They ranged anywhere from stares of pity to stares of outright hatred, but there were always stares.
His slinking in the shadows, hiding from the masses – it wasn't for fear of the attention of large crowds; he was hiding from the attention of a certain someone who might be hiding in that crowd, the voice that might be blended with the rest. He was the kind of man who could face down any adversary; any fight, but still hid away from his teammate, one of his closest allies, if he could still use the term. Attempting to kill a person tended to freeze over an alliance.
So here he was, hiding in the shadows, the last of the great Uchiha, a coward. Cowardice was the price that he'd have to pay to make up for his faults. The pain that he'd caused in the past was enough; she didn't need to see him again to reopen old wounds. Tonight, like every night since his return, and every night in the future, he'd stay hidden away from the blossom that had once been his to take. He didn't deserve her now. Sakura…
Hey everyone, thanks for reading the first chapter of my first attempt at writing SasuSaku. If you liked it, or if you didn't like it and have something that you want me to work on, add a review and let me know! I'm hoping to learn from those of you with a little more experience, but I'm really excited about this fic, and I hope you are too! Thanks again!