Disclaimer- I don't know if people still do this, but just in case: Do not be confused by the fact that I share the same birthday as Kishimoto; I do not own Naruto. I'd give an outlandish example of how I would have changed it if I had, but I prefer to rant in private as opposed to public.
For the first time EVER, I'm going to give a Sasuke/Sakura pairing a shot. Now, know that I'm not Sasuke's biggest supporter, but I do hope that I stayed enough in character for him to make this plausible. There's not much else to say, so, I hope you enjoy the read.
He was used to the darkness.
Even before his eyes were sealed and he was bound, locked away in the Hidden Leaf's most secure prison, Sasuke had lived in the dark. From the time that he had left the village, abandoning everyone within and severing all ties, the sole remaining Uchiha had rid himself of any desire to live in the light.
And yet every day, he felt that he was losing himself more and more. Each passing second of each passing minute, Sasuke could feel his mind degenerating into madness. But it was not the darkness, nor the concept of ever opening his eyes again that left him writhing in mental agony.
It was the silence.
With the loss of his sight, stolen by the paper seals that covered them to bind his heritage, the remaining senses had improved greatly.
The stench of the rot, the unabashed odors that filled his prison were the first of what he perceived to be the Hidden Leaf's attempts to drive him to the brink of his sanity.
There was no possible way to describe what filled the air, but it was certainly not the earth that surrounded it. What was it that he first compared it to the many months ago it had been since he was stored away and left to stew in his own hatred?
Sasuke couldn't quite recall. The words 'fish', 'sulfur', and 'decay' lingered in his mind, but was that enough? No, not nearly. The combination of those three was a perfume in comparison to what it was that he first caught scent of upon entrance.
But eventually, he acclimated. It was hardly a concern for him now, despite his augmented sense of smell.
No, Sasuke's cell merely smelled of 'home'.
The thought toiled in his mind. Had it truly been that long that he had accepted this misery as home?
There was only one scent that ever freed him that of 'home'.
As it crossed his mind, he recalled the first time it filled his room.
'Is this what you call friendship?!' Sasuke demanded inwardly, bound and unmoving, a mere heap on the floor of the cell in which he had been placed.
It was mere days ago, days, that the so-called final battle took place between himself and Uzumaki Naruto, the one now hailed across the world as a hero.
As they convened for one last time, Sasuke understood that to truly lose himself forever in the darkness, he had to extinguish the one shining light that pursued him. As long as there was no hope of redemption, he understood that the Uchiha could rest peacefully knowing their last survivor carried on their legacy.
Kakashi's wound from the battle against the Ten Tails had removed him from the equation, and Sakura was no threat. She was never a threat. She was nothing, just as she had always been despite her apparent prowess at medical ninjutsu.
No, it was just him and Naruto.
Even as it started out slow, the battle quickly escalated. Sasuke's Sharingan gave him a clear advantage, or so he thought, and it was more than enough to remove Naruto from his life once and for all!
But it was not meant to be. Time and again his eyes failed him. The loser, the drop-out, the one who had become the bane of Sasuke's existence had a response to everything he could throw.
Every genjutsu was instantly taken out of play. No matter what illusion Sasuke attempted, it was dissolved before it had been completed. It had to have been the beast within Naruto, working in tandem just as the Eight Tails had released its container.
"That's not it at all, Sasuke. It's just that now I can see through the darkness! You can't hide in there anymore, Sasuke!" Naruto howled in response.
Lies, all of it! The Uchiha were the undisputed masters at the arts of illusion! The Sharingan reigned supreme as their ultimate weapon, undefeatable except by another Sharingan, yet he dared to acclaim that it would no longer work on him?!
"The fool!" Sasuke snarled before erupting into a fit of coughs. The smell was horrid, and he couldn't breathe.
But this was his punishment for failure. His clan looked upon him from the afterlife and scorned him. They had to. This was their wrath.
His coughing subsided, just in time to hear the a slow, melodic clap upon the cold and hard concrete. As it approached, the sound resonated more and more. Someone had come, and as he was the only remaining prisoner, it must be for him.
It must be Naruto.
"Leave!" he demanded, screaming out through the endless void in which he was lost.
"No, Sasuke. Not after I came all this way..." came his answer in a soft, gentle voice.
It wasn't Naruto's. It was her.
"I don't know why you're here, but go! I don't need your pity!" Sasuke snarled, frustrated that no matter how hard he tried to wash his hands of his past, it haunted him endlessly.
"It's not pity that brings me here, Sasuke. You know that." she answered in the same measured, yet hesitant voice.
"This can't be your food." she whispered.
He had had it with her. Sasuke was sick of Sakura following him around like a lost puppy! Whether she was following him or trying to kill him or trying to reason with him or even trying to spend time with him, she was annoying. She had always been annoying. And she will always be annoying.
And so he remained silent.
"You would think Naruto would do something about this, I mean he's almost on the same level as Chouji when it comes to appreciation for food."
"Don't you DARE say his name!" he erupted, breaking his silence not seconds after its establishment.
A nervous laugh rang through his ears.
"Fine, fine. I won't mention Chouji to you ever again."
As he worked up the strength to reply, Sasuke was cut off as he caught a whiff of something new that filled the air.
"Well, I better leave. They don't want me down here too long. Next time, I'll bring you some real food, Sasuke..." Sakura promised softly before he could hear the clap against the cement as she walked away.
Still, he bathed in what he hadn't noticed before. Replacing the repugnant stench of the prison, Sasuke couldn't help but notice the lingering aroma left behind by Sakura. It smelled like... spring. But strangely, he was sure it wasn't perfume.
That's right...
Out of everyone in the village, everyone he had ever known, only two dared visit one of the former most wanted men in the entire world. Not even Kakashi could bring himself to make the visit. Perhaps he had finally, truly given up on Sasuke.
Every time Naruto came, it erupted into an argument between them. Naruto never rubbed Sasuke's imprisonment in his face, nor even their final conflict in which Naruto finally defeated him at the cost of neither of their lives (contrary to what he said).
They would trade verbal blows for minutes on end, infuriating Sasuke to no end. They weren't taunts. They weren't mocks. It was just an exchange that the two had always made ever since their first meeting. Yes, that was what gnawed at him. It was as if they were friends again.
'But I will never be your friend, Naruto.' Sasuke took a moment to remind himself.
Even though he mulled his own thoughts over, he didn't have to remind himself that Naruto's visits were few and far in between. He had become a successful ninja in his own right, a hero even. From what Sasuke understood, requests for Naruto must be coming in waves, otherwise he'd return to Sasuke's 'home' every day. Right?
Yet far more often did he hear the sound of the only other person to ever delve into this Hell, Sakura.
It must be a prank of the Gods that as she crossed his mind, he heard the methodical clip clop of someone making their way down the corridor towards his cell. No, it wasn't Sakura. The Gods had a sense of humor. Rather, it was one of the ninja assigned as a guard in the prison.
"Dinnertime." he announced coldly, thrusting the tray through the single opening in the cell towards the bottom and sliding along on a collision course with Sasuke, still laid out helplessly in the floor.
This daily occurrence reminded Sasuke of the harsh reality enforced on the loser of a confrontation.
It also reminded him of one more thing. Her.
He ate like an animal.
One meal a day was all Sasuke was allotted. Yes, this was the generosity of the Hidden Leaf, widely hailed as the most humane of the hidden villages.
With his hands bound, never to be removed from that which contains them, his legs never fully healing from his last fight, Sasuke understood that he could never leave the ground. Like a snake, he could do no more than crawl on his stomach and rely on his sense of smell to navigate through the darkness towards the one vile meal he was given.
And like an animal, he could only eat by burying his face in the tray and relying on his tongue to scoop what he could. It was sickening, it was humiliating. It fueled his anger and his hatred. He could never be free from what he had become.
It was all because his ninjutsu had failed him.
Once Naruto had broken free from the constraints of Sasuke's genjutsu illusions, it fell onto another specialty of the Sharingan- Ninjutsu.
As an Uchiha, he was superior! His techniques were stronger, more versatile. He had mastered each and every one, and was confident- no, arrogant- that they were unmatched, even by Naruto's Rasengan that had at one time impressed him.
Sasuke's hand seals flashed by like a series of blinking lights, the speed unreadable without a Sharingan. Each usage of chakra was carefully measured, and each one had a use to bring him one step closer to true freedom and Naruto to death.
But once again, Naruto always had a response.
Whether it was application of Shadow Clones, brute force, or even Naruto's own improved speed, nothing Sasuke threw could graze him. Naruto would have to be taken out with the one technique that he couldn't defend against.
As a Chidori began to shred the air and illuminate the darkening area, Sasuke rushed, using his own Godlike speed to side step and outmaneuver every clone, every Rasengan, and all of its variants. Stepping by all of them, he finally had Naruto cornered with no place to go!
Straining his eyes, in an instant, Sasuke lit the area where Naruto stood in the black flames of Amaterasu, the Sharingan's ultimate ninjutsu!
Even as his momentum would not allow him to escape diving into the flames himself, it was just a matter of extinguishing them from himself. But that was only after taking good measure to drive his Chidori in one final strike through Naruto's chest. Once and for all.
But inches away from the flames waiting to lick their burns into his flesh, Sasuke found his momentum halted as he felt something slam into him from his right. Crashing into a wall, Sasuke caught a glimpse of Naruto standing before the flames, untouched.
His pupils had elongated, the eyes' azure color now a golden-yellow. Even the pigment around the outside of the eyes had darkened into a shade of red. What was this?!
'Enough.' he told himself, having lost all appetite for what he was sure, although he couldn't see, was garbage piled onto a tray.
Then he heard it once more.
Clip. Clop. Clip. Clop.
It was more melodious than the ninja that guarded him. He had heard it just yesterday.
"Sakura..."
"Good evening, Sasuke..." she answered in return, her voice lifted from its sullen tone the day before.
"What do you-" he began, cut off as the aroma once again erased that of the prison. Springtime, yes. But there was something new mixed in with it.
"I brought you some real food, just like I promised. Of course, they had to check it thoroughly, first so it might be a little cold." Sakura laughed anxiously.
"I don't want it. I'm not hungry."
"O-oh..." Sakura's voice had dropped once more. "I see... W-well, I guess I'll just leave it here for you, then if you want it later..."
"I don't want it!" he yelled.
Sakura spoke another word that day, silently sliding the small package through the opening on the ground.
As she walked away, he pulled himself up, slumping back against the wall. He could still smell the spring. As the footsteps receded, Sasuke grew silent as well.
An hour later when the guard came to recover Sasuke's dinner tray, he also removed the empty box that Sakura must have left behind.
Naruto had come not too long after that. He didn't stay long, and he seemed winded. Tired, even. That wasn't like him. He told Sasuke that the village had decided that he would never be freed from his cell. Uchiha Sasuke would rot in this prison for the remainder of his life, which Sasuke had begun to hope was short.
However, Naruto promised not to give up. He believed he could convince Tsunade and the council that if Sasuke wanted to be saved, he could be. And from that, he would fight for Sasuke's freedom. Naruto promised to pay for the celebration.
'But I will never be saved as you say, Naruto... I can't be. Not anymore' Sasuke reminded himself solemnly.
The smell he'd overcome. It did take awhile, yes, but eventually it just became another aspect of his life and was tucked away out of his mind. Even the food had become a thing of the past. With Sakura's visits becoming more and more regularly, Sasuke admittedly began to wait for her arrival.
He refused to eat any of the food the prison itself served him, choosing to go days without food in wait for hers. He could feel himself getting weaker, but it really was no longer his choice. Sasuke knew that after tasting her lunches, her dinners, he couldn't stomach garbage any longer.
But he knew that never again would he feel the touch of another human being. It comforted him. Even if the prison's odor could take down death itself and the food was, in hindsight, probably what caused the smell, Sasuke was happy he'd never feel again.
It made things easier.
But it wasn't meant to be.
Taijutsu was the only option Sasuke had remaining. Somehow, Naruto had quashed all of his illusions. They would no longer work on him. Naruto had proven himself above Sasuke's ninjutsu! Even Amaterasu couldn't touch him.
The fight finally came down to hand-to-hand combat. It started out with complex movements, each one setting the other up for a wallop. But both were too experienced, too far beyond each other's combination attacks.
Sasuke could easily outmatch Naruto's Shadow Clones; he was just so hap hazardous with them. But Naruto himself was in a whole other league. Whatever he had done to cause those physical changes, they were impressive.
His strength was beyond anything Sasuke had ever seen. His speed was matching Sasuke's own. How did Naruto become such a proficient ninja?! What happened that make that loser something that even he was having trouble with?!
The ponderings, the thoughts, even the possibility of Naruto coming out victorious lit the fire within Sasuke's heart. Ever in the darkness, he burned and smoldered. With each blow they traded, they felt each other's souls.
In the end, Sasuke found himself resorting to Susano-o to protect himself from Naruto of all people!
One punch, two punch.
"Susano-o is the ultimate shield!" Sasuke proclaimed, his own dark blood flowing from beneath each swollen eye.
Three punch, four punch.
"You can never reach me within the darkness!"
Five punch, six punch.
"Why won't you give up, Naruto?!"
Seven punch, eight punch.
"Answer me, Naruto!"
And with the ninth punch, Susano-o shattered.
It was difficult to recall what happened next. Sasuke's memory was fuzzy, but he felt as if everyone stood beside Naruto, standing over him. Words unbound by his conscious mind came forth.
"H-how... Na... Naruto?" Sasuke begged, having to know the source of his strength.
"Those bonds you shattered, Sasuke, are what build me up to what I am today. Without everyone here by my side, I'd still be the kid Kakashi-sensei tied to the monument the day of our Genin Exam."
And Sasuke blacked out.
But as he lay in his cell, willingly eating like an animal, he could hear Sakura from the other side of his door call out.
"Is it good, Sasuke? I tried something new today, but... I think you'll like it."
He didn't respond. He couldn't. Her lunch was so good, so incredibly, unbelievably good that not even he had the willpower to stop. Not until the last bite, when it was no longer up to him.
"You know, Sasuke, I-" she stopped, hearing sounds so foreign to eating, but ones that she'd heard before.
"Guard! Guard, help! I need your help!" she cried.
Behind the opaque steel door, Sasuke coughed and coughed. His body had weakened considerably, and with the very last bite lodged in his throat, he didn't have the strength to swallow. Was this finally how he was going to end? He defeated Orochimaru. He defeated Itachi. But he would leave this world, choking on food that he had eaten like a dog?
As his thoughts began to fade, Sasuke heard the panicked clip-clop of the guards bolting down the corridor. Pops and clicks, heavy screeches filled the air as one after another, he heard the locks that kept the cell door secure began to become undone.
"Sasuke!" he heard Sakura cry, her forceful strength rolling him over. Not that he could resist anyway.
His shirt was ripped open, the lodged food dealt with in an instant. Was she always really such an incredible medic? Such an incredible person?
It wasn't just the food, Sasuke thought he heard her say as waves of warmth washed over him, soothing his every ache, including his very mind. Was he truly going to die? Yes... Yes, but it wouldn't be so bad.
The last thing he remembered was that of Sakura's hand on his face.
It had been a week since that incident, and Sasuke had not received a single visit from Sakura since. Had she forgotten about him? Given up him like Kakashi? Not even Naruto showed up anymore. Sasuke was finally alone.
It was his the silence that was slowly killing him now. Uchiha Sasuke, the last of his kind, the avenger, the snake, the prisoner, whatever you may call him, over the time he had spent locked away had grown dependent on her voice, on her laughter, on the way she said his name.
Over the past week, Sasuke had been writhing in agony. The silence was overwhelming. Where was she? Did she abandon him, too? Why did she abandon him? He needed her. He needed Sakura.
"Please... please..." Sasuke began, tears filling his eyes behind the paper seals with nowhere to go.
"I need you... Sakura..." he begged, feeling himself getting choked up. He was wrong. He was wrong about it all.
He writhed on the floor.
Naruto couldn't save him. But she could.
"I need you, Sakura!" he called, his voice echoing down the corridor, bouncing off of each wall and each cell. He didn't care that the guards would hear him.
He wanted it all back.
He wanted to be near her, to smell the springtime all year round. He wanted to bathe in her essence, to never let it go. His loss of sight had awakened him to her natural fragrance.
He wanted to be with her, to enjoy the taste of freedom, to enjoy her cooking, her taste. His loss of sight had awakened him to the warmth of the love she mixed into every meal that she cooked for him.
He wanted to be alongside her, to feel her soft vibrant skin, to hold her hand, to caress and hold her close, and to be held close by her. His loss of sight had awakened him to addictive tenderness of her touch.
He wanted to be around her, to hear her sweet melodic voice each and every second of the day, to hear her say his name again and again and again. His love of sight had awakened him to feelings and characteristics that defined her by her voice.
He felt like he knew her now better than he'd known anyone in his life. Better than anyone had ever known him.
But even that wasn't enough.
He wanted to be together with her, to gaze upon her face, to see and enjoy that face that expression she's always looked at him with. He wanted to see her face when she saw his own gazing back at her.
He wanted to be saved...
"Please... save... me..." he cried.
He needed her more than he ever knew.
"I will, Sasuke." her voice whispered from beyond the cell.
"I promise."
For the first time in a long time, Sasuke smiled brightly through his tears.
"Thank you..."
Thanks for taking the time to read. I hope you enjoyed my first ever attempt at a Sasuke/Sakura story. It was actually somewhat fun to write, so with any luck it was enjoyable for you to read. Fingers crossed.