Words: 1,414

Rating: T

Synopsis: Sink or swim… fall or fly... it doesn't matter he's dead anyway. An ancient warrior comes back from the dead to claim his long lost love.

Disclaimer: not mine 

She had loved him till his dying breath, and then some.

For three thousand years she had lived and for three thousand years she had regretted it was him and not her. He was always the one to believe, the one to keep hope, but it had been so many years since she had last seen him she wasn't sure she could hold on any more.

They had been on opposite sides of a deadly war, one that had been raging for millennia. It was the war between the humans and those who were something else.

She had met him on a cool night; she could remember it like it was yesterday. The crisp air around her and the cool grass beneath her feet, she had been breathing hard as the wind sent her pink hair flying around her in disarray.

She had thought he was an angel at first. He looked like one, with his soft hair spiked up and shining like sunlight. Cerulean eyes that had the potential to be both warm and cold were bright with excitement.

When he had first spotted her, looking tired and stooped over leaning against a tree, he was surprised. His long, lean body stopped for a moment as his head tilted to the side in a curious movement.

He had stiffened and looked ready to put up a fight, but then he saw the tears just drying on her face over the feint shadowing of a bruise and the backpack in her hands.

He had slowly made his way over to her and sat down a meter away. He looked at her and made a movement with his hand indicating that she should sit. He had looked at her for a moment longer before slinging a pack of his own off his back and reaching inside to grab something.

Pulling out a handkerchief, he passed it to her and leaned back on his fore arms. He had then proceeded to ask her what she was doing out in the middle of the night when creatures could be lurking around every corner.

She had answered that she was sick of being mistreated by her father and was running away. He had then told her something she remembers to the present day.

"Running away never solves anything, it only prolongs the inevitable."

He told her he had somewhere he needed to be but if she would go home he would meet her back here tomorrow night.

At first she didn't know what to make of that, it was as if he wanted to be with her to talk with her some more and she hadn't said two words to him.

So she asked, "Why would you want to see me again? You barely even know me."

He had smiled at that and replied,

"I want to know you, and that makes the difference."

She barely caught his answer as she was too distracted b his smile. It was like the sun coming out after weeks of rain. She didn't know this boy, but she wanted to.

She stood as he did and promised to return to her home if he would meet her the next night. He boyishly grinned at her, leaving her with a burst delight as he whirled at her in a blur of colour.

For a moment everything was misplaced but then she found herself on the back of her unexpected saviour flying through the clouds and over the forest.

Giving a squeal she buried her head into the crevice between his neck and shoulder. Then her feet were on the ground and she was facing him, with a dazed expression on her face.

Looking up at his inhumanly bright eyes, she thought to herself, He's not human, he's supposed to be the enemy, and yet I sense no evil intent.

"I will see you tomorrow." He spoke in a hushed voice.

She looked away at that, used to the empty promises of her family and those who she called friends.

A sudden shifting of movement and suddenly her face was cupped in his hands and he stared down into her green eyes.

"Hey, I will be there tomorrow, believe it." And with that he was gone.

Starring at the spot her was standing at just a moment ago, she shook her head, life gives us many surprises but this one takes the cake. And will most likely eat it too.

The next night he was where he said he would be and the next and the next, till it was tradition for her to meet him at the tree on the top of the hill, over looking her manor.

For amny weeks they talked and laughed and joked. They got along well; he had a cheeky sense of humour and a ready smile. He told her of his life as a vampire and she told him of her life in the castle.

She was the daughter of a lord and such was given a rich and luxurious life. It was imprisonment for her, she could never be what her parents and siblings wanted her to be so they made her life hell.

It was on the three month anniversary of their first meeting, when he first kissed her. He was so nervous and it was awkward at first, but after a few tries they had got it right.

Everything was perfect. Until they were caught that is.

They had been secretly seeing each other for six months. She had found out that he was a lower vampire and was just coming into his power. In return for this information she had told him about her life at the castle. He had asked her to go away with him, to become a vampire like him.

And she had said yes.

Having his blood in her system and the conversion taking place was the only way she had survived what happened next.

Her father had sprung onto there conversation that night and shot her one true love. It was the only way he was able to do what he had done next.

Tying him up on a tree, our tree, with iron chains, left him there and took her to a tree that was in direct line of sight of the other. Tying her there with rope he left.

So they waited, calling soft notions to each other and saying the words I love you until the sun finally appeared above the horizon.

Tears streaming down her face as he told her to look him in the eyes and not look away, his hair as golden as the sun he would never be able to see was the first part of him to tough the light.

Never looking away from her eyes, he slowly started to disappear. Blue light, the exact colour of his eyes flittered around him as his form was becoming blurred and distorted. Then he was just gone and all that was left behind was the echo of his final words:

"I Love you"

Not yet vampire enough that the sunlight hurts her, but strong enough to finally break her bonds she ran.

And never looked back.

Until now.

Touching the tree she had last seen the love of her life alive on, she turned away. Placing flowers at the bottom, as she did every year, she walked away.

And ran into something solid.

Jumping back ready to defend her self she saw something she thought she would never see again.

He was tall with familiar blonde hair.

Gasping she took a step forward at the same time he did. Swept into his arms she clung to the man she thought she would never see again. Clinging to him he sat with her in his lap and buried his face in her neck. When they both finally pulled back, they saw the differences.

The sadness in her eyes and the maturity she had grown in his absence. He himself had changed defying death and coming back as a demon did that to people.

What ever they had been through apart would only get easier together, so with that thought he lowered his face back to her neck a breathed in the scent he had been dreaming of for three thousand years.

Things would only get better.

She sighed and murmured the one thing that she hadn't said since his death.

"I love you, Naruto."

With his murmured echo,

"I love you, Sakura,"

Not my usual pairing but it just came to me 