A/N: Hey guys! Nice to see you again! So this is my first Naruto fic and my first attempt at writing on my freaking iPod. XD I plan for it to be a multi chapter fic, but I'm not sure if it will have a thick plot. As far as I know, it's going to follow Sakura and Sasuke post-canon and expound on recovery and their relationship. I got this idea because I went on a SasuSaku spree and so many of them are more often than not a very possessive and selfishly loving Sasuke. I wanted to touch on his redemption /and/ his lack of social skills. He never really gave himself time to develope as a person since he was consumed by the need for revenge, even after Itachi was killed. So this will be considering that lack of development and will make for some cute and awkward Sasuke. I'm trying to write him realistically as still a stiff prickly Uchiha, but also striving to redeem himself.

This will be Post-Canon so it will have spoilers for the manga/show.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, all rights go to Kishimto, yadayada.

Enjoy the prologue!

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Prologue

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He didn't know how it happened. One day, she was Sakura, idiot control, there for Naruto whenever he went too far, there for Sai whenever he said something wrong, the young and pink kunoichi who grew from an insecure little girl to the strongest shinobi in the Land of Fire underneath the Fifth Hokage. The next, she was... different. He noticed the way the sun caught her eyes, gold mingling with green and sparkling with a vibrance that he had never seen (or noticed) before. Her smile, when watching Sai and Naruto bicker, or her Sensei patronize them both, her head tilted back and teeth showing. He never recalled seeing her so alive.

The Sakura he knew still ducked under his gaze, flinched at his remarks, chased after him, eyes red rimmed and always leaking tears. The desperate little girl who was so annoying.

Now all he could see was a cherry blossom in full bloom. Stalk strong from weathering storm after storm, petals large and full and always catching the sun. He saw a young woman carrying confidence with each step. Her head always held high, but never so high that she had to look down on those around her.

But then he would walk by. Step in her blind spot. Catch her eye from afar. Those bright emerald eyes would flicker, her high head would flinch, those sharp fists would go slack as they itched for a kunai, that straight spine would bend ever so slightly in the beginnings of a defensive stance. He was an eclipse, the moon blocking the sun from her view.

And he hated it. He didn't know why he cared. He didn't used to, and he didn't remember when he started to. He didn't want to care. But Team 7 had somehow already sunk its teeth in when he wasn't looking. And now he didn't know which would hurt worse; leaving them in or working them out.

The dobe still stood at her side, sheltering her flame whenever it flickered. His dreams were somehow still in tact and he still paved his own way forward, never stopping to look back but always making sure his comrades were at his side. If one of them tripped, if one of them wasn't strong enough to keep up, he would carry them on his back.

The deathly pale idiot always showed up and didn't look like he had any plans to leave. He followed behind Naruto and Sakura with an unwavering (but still sometimes annoying) loyalty. As the first month since Sasuke's return crawled by, Sai's smiles, his compliments, slowly but surely got more and more genuine.

Kakashi, the backdrop behind the rest of Team 7, the ground beneath their feet, the hand on their shoulder. He had walked in a straight line behind them, trying (and sometimes failing) to keep them all on the straight and narrow.

Then there was Sakura. The beginnings of a road were starting to grow ahead of her. She was finally able to catch up to them, to pick up the scattered pieces of herself and put them back together by sheer force of will. She was paving her own trail, her own future that was shaping to be brighter than the past.

And he was the man on the sidelines. Meeting her gaze and making her falter, her vision blur, her future dim. A flash of memory accompanied by shadow, a reminder of past mistakes, of an uncertain future and of an unstable present. He shook her foundation, however briefly, and made her question herself, her ideas, her resolve.

All his life, he tore down. Disregarded support. His treatment of others always depended on how valuable an asset they were to him. Darkness not only covered him, but he beckoned to it, clung to it like the pathetic child he was. Any light that dared to shine in his presence, he made sure to snuff it out.

But now that darkness was taken from him. Drowned out by a light that cleared his head but also stripped him of his ambitions. He was aimless. Useless. A far too overused weapon no longer needed in combat. His future was dark, but this time with uncertainty. He needed a goal to pull him forward or the light would become to much for his shade to handle and drown him. He needed a goal to survive.

When he looked at Team 7, he felt a tug within his soul. A hand reaching out for him to take. Encouraging him to use his hands to build up. To accept support and to support others in return. To treat others as important, not tools at his disposal. To treat them like the humans they were, not to manipulate them for power, or throw them aside as worthless. To help clear the path for his friends, for Sakura, the path he had previously clouded and had set stumbling blocks on. The hand offered to him promised a new goal, a purpose. A reason to live another day.

Redemption.

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A/N: Tell me what you think!