Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, nor any of its characters. Although I do own a cool Sakura cosplay, three very sharp shiruken, and way too many DVD's. I am making no money for this, and no copywrite infringement is intended.

Author's Note: My muse just won't let me finish either of my in-progress stories, so here is yet another new one. I keep hoping that if I do what she wants she'll let me start writing my Bleach series again. This is basically an excuse for a Sakura/Sasuke lemon, because I was challenged a while back to find a way to do a shorter story with them that was a lemon and still kept them in-character. I hadn't considered writing Naruto at the time, but apparently my muse had other ideas. Please enjoy, and tell me what you think. The second and last part should be out in a few days. This is set a few months before the start of Shippuuden.

Perfect Illusion

By Lady Callista

Chapter 1: Found

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"Dreams die hard. We hold them in our hands long after they have turned to dust."

from "Dragonheart"

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"Tsunade-sama. Uchiha Sasuke has been spotted."

Sakura froze outside the partially open door to her teacher's office, quickly moving so that she couldn't be seen from inside. She muffled her gasp with a hand to her mouth, and strained her ears to hear the man in the office.

"When? Where?" Tsunade snapped out.

"About five miles outside of town." The man replied. "One of the far sentries saw him, but as per your standing order didn't try to engage him. The sentry came straight to ANBU headquarters, and I came here at once. Uchiha was moving along the main road from Suna, looking to be headed back to Orochimaru's territory. We're not sure why he came this way."

Without waiting to hear more, Sakura moved quietly back down the hallway, moving as quickly as she dared. She didn't want to draw attention to herself, but she knew that Tsunade would be sending out teams to capture or kill Sasuke as soon as she could get them organized.

But they wouldn't know exactly where to look, and Sakura thought that she might. The location the ANBU officer had described was only a few miles from a small clearing in the woods where Sasuke had always liked to go to meditate. She couldn't imagine why he would suddenly want to go there, but it seemed like a good place to start.

She wished Naruto was back, but he was still off training with the perverted old sage. She would have told him if he had been here, and the two of them would have gone off after Sasuke together. But there was no one else she wanted to tell. No one else she wanted to go with her. No one else she thought could convince Sasuke to return home.

Not that I did such a great job convincing him not to leave. Sakura thought as she walked rapidly through town towards the main gate, her tan cloak snapping in the cool winter breeze. But talking him into returning should be easier.

He had been gone for years, away from all his friends. He had to miss them, just like they all missed him. She hoped, anyway.

Or maybe he was strong enough now. Maybe he had achieved his goal, and was ready to come home. Maybe he just didn't know if he would be welcome.

Although Sakura didn't think that was likely, she had kept up hope for so long. And now he was so close. If she could just see him, talk to him…

"Sakura-san."

Rock Lee's voice pulled her out of her thoughts, and although she hissed internally at the distraction she stopped and plastered a smile on her face as she turned to look at him. "Lee-kun, how are you?"

"I'm good, Sakura-san. I just finished running around the town five hundred times, and after lunch I'm planning on training even more!"

Sakura sighed as the overly-enthusiastic shinobi struck a dramatic pose. "That's, uh, that's nice. I was just heading out to do some training myself."

"Well, I will join you as soon as I finish eating." Lee declared. "My youthful energy will be so high that I'm sure we…"

"Umm, I really just want to train by myself today." Sakura said quickly even as she began backing away.

Lee fell into step beside her as she continued to move towards the main gate. "But you haven't been training with people lately, and Gai-sensei always says that…"

"Look, uh…" Sakura tried to think of a way to get him to leave, then realized that telling someone where she was going might not be a bad idea. Although she had gotten a lot stronger over the past two years, Sasuke likely had as well, and she wasn't sure she was strong enough to defeat him and drag him home on her own. She wanted to try first, and try alone, to talk him into it, but if that didn't work and there was a fight… "After you have lunch, do five hundred push-ups, then meet-up with me." She gave him directions to the clearing where she hoped to find Sasuke.

Lee agreed enthusiastically, and took off at a run.

Giving up on being discreet, Sakura broke into a run as well, trying to make up for the time she had lost. Even is Sasuke was going where she hoped, he might not stay long.

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Sakura came to a halt high in a tree overlooking the clearing, crouching down on a thick branch as she cast her eyes around hopefully.

She found him immediately, a dark figure seated on the cold snow in the middle of the clearing. Before she could even think about what to do next, which plan that she had come up with on her run out here to use, she heard his voice.

"Sakura." He didn't even look her way, and his tone of voice was as cold as the air around them. "Should I be expecting Naruto as well?"

"Just me." Sakura said softly as she leapt down to stand behind him.

He was on his feet in an instant, spinning around to face her. His face was a cold as his voice.

"I knew it was a mistake to stop here." Sasuke said flatly. "Just go home and forget you saw me."

"I can't do that." Sakura said with determination. If he still thought her the weak, besotted child he had left behind he had another thing coming. "Tsunade-sama knows you're around. Teams are already out looking for you. But I wanted to be the one to bring you home."

Sasuke snorted derisively. "I'm not going back to Konoha."

"We miss you Sasuke-kun." Sakura said softly, taking a step forward. "I miss you. I think I understand now why you left, why you felt you had to leave, but just come home. Please."

"Konoha is not my home." Sasuke said impassively. "Just leave me be."

Sakura's feelings switched to fury in a heartbeat as he turned his back on her and began to walk away. Rapidly gathering chakra into her hand, Sakura fisted it and punched at an angle towards the ground.

Sasuke jumped aside as the ground beneath him trembled, then broke open. He spun to face Sakura, surprise on his face. "That's Tsunade's attack."

"I've been training, Sasuke-kun. Just like you left to do. Only I didn't leave." Sakura snapped. "I didn't leave behind all my friends. I didn't betray everyone who loves me. Come back! You can get stronger in Konoha as easily as you can anywhere else."

"I'm not going back." Sasuke replied, his face once again blank. Then a corner of his mouth twitched slightly. "And although it sounds childish to say, you can't make me."

"The only way you're leaving is if you kill me." Sakura challenged as she gathered chakra into her fist again.

His eyes sparked, and lightning began to crackle in his hand.

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"Two-hundred. One hundred ninety-nine. One hundred ninety-eight. One hun…"

"Lee, what are you doing?" Tenten asked as she walked into the clearing where Team Gai still often practiced, and found her enthusiastic teammate in a handstand, doing inverted push-ups. Which wasn't unusual but, "Why are you counting down?"

Lee flipped to his feet. "Sakura-san said that once I finished lunch, I should do 500 push-ups, and then Sakura-san and I…

"You've seen Sakura?" Neji suddenly popped into the clearing. His face was blank as always, but there was both urgency and worry in his voice.

Tenten took a step towards him, one hand automatically going to one of her weapon's scrolls. "Neji, what's wrong?"

"Uchiha Sasuke was sighted a few miles from here." Neji said without preamble. "The Hokage is organizing teams to go after him, and for the first time she's authorized them to kill if they cannot capture."

Tenten gaped at him for a second, then spun to face Lee. "Do you think Sakura-chan…"

"She was really in a rush." Rock Lee cut her off. "At first she didn't want to train with me at all, but then she seemed to think of something, and she told me to have lunch and do five hundred push-ups, and then I could go meet her to train."

"Where?" Neji snapped.

"She gave me directions to a place, but why would…"

"Because she thinks she knows where he'll go and she's going after him." Tenten realized at once, immediately terrified for her friend. Sakura had grown a great deal as a kunoichi in the past few years, but Sasuke had always been exceptional, and there was no way of knowing how much stronger he had become.

Lee's voice was almost a whine. "I still don't see why…"

"Because she doesn't think she'll win." Neji said at once, glancing quickly at Tenten. At her determined nod, he automatically checked his weapon's pouch even as he saw her doing the same. "Lee, lead us to the place."

To his credit, Lee didn't go into a spiel about how of course Sakura would win. He didn't go into a stupid pose, or argue that he hadn't finished his push-ups.

His old team following behind him, Rock Lee took to the trees.

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The once peaceful clearing was in ruins.

Dozens of trees lay on the ground, some still smoldering. Huge patches of earth were ruined, some by rock protruding feet above the ground, others with gaping holes deep enough to reach below the frost-line.

Breathing heavily, her chakra nearly gone, Sakura let out a grunt of pain as Sasuke slammed her body back into a tree. His one hand pinned hers over her head, and without chakra she wasn't strong enough to break away. His body trapped her own, his hips and chest shoved against her to keep her from moving.

Yet the hand posed for a deadly attack to her throat did not strike.

Something went through his eyes that Sakura couldn't understand, and he dropped her hands and took a small step back. "You're not going to win, Sakura. Go home and give up your silly dream of saving me."

Panting, Sakura reached out and fisted her hands in his shirt. "Come with me." And before she could second guess herself she pulled him back against her body and kissed him. It was brief, and hard, and full of years of pent-up longing and frustration. "I love you."

Sakura pulled back and opened her eyes, staring into red and black eyes that were wide with shock. And something else that made her heart leap.

She felt his chakra flair, and before she could react, or even figure out what he was doing, she felt the edges of her world starting to turn grey. Then the world went completely black, and she passed out.

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Sakura came to consciousness slowly, although years of training kept her from opening her eyes. Her aching body remained still and her breathing even as she tried to remember what had happened.

She remembered fighting with Sasuke, and kissing him, and then nothing else.

She felt her cloak spread beneath her and around her, and from the hardness under it she was laying on a wooden floor. She heard the crackle of a fire, and sensed the chakra of another person. The instant she recognized the presence, every muscle in her body tensed.

"I know you're awake."

Sakura let her eyes slid open, quickly taking in her surroundings. She was laying on the floor of a small wooden hut, which was completely empty except for some wood stacked by a small corner fireplace.

Sasuke sat no more than four feet from her, propped against the wall with his sword resting across his lap. His black cloak was missing, and belatedly Sakura realized that she wasn't just wrapped in her cloak; she was laying on her own and his was covering her.

His arms were bare, as were his feet, and she saw his long gloves and boots laying on the floor by the fire.

"Where are we?" Her voice was calm, although inside she was trembling. She had expected to wake up alone in the forest where they had been fighting, or not wake up at all.

"A cabin not far from the clearing. I used to stay here sometimes." Sasuke said in a flat voice, tilting his face to catch her fully with his intense dark eyes. "How can you mean what you said?"

Sakura knew immediately what he meant, and smiled slightly as she sat up slowly, being careful not to make any sudden moves. "Because it's true." She said softly. "You may have been gone for over two years, but that doesn't change anything for me."

"How can it not?" Sasuke's voice was still emotionless, but she could see feelings flitting through his eyes. "I left you. I betrayed you. I almost killed Naruto."

Sakura still felt the pain his actions had caused her, but she was so much stronger than the little girl who had begged him to take her with him. "But you didn't kill him. You could have, but you didn't. I don't think you could kill him, or me. It's why I wanted to be the one to come after you, Sasuke-kun. There was always something special between the three of us, and Naruto is gone right now, so that made it my job. We promised each other that we would never give up on you. Never."

"I'm not the boy who left you, Sakura." Sasuke's voice was beginning to thaw, but he sounded more resigned than anything else. "And I was never the boy you thought I was, never the boy you wanted me to be. You can say you love me, but you don't know me. You don't know what I've done, what I've become…"

"I know you're stronger than me. I know you could have killed me during our fight. Instead you brought me here, and you're talking to me." Sakura said softly as she moved closer to him. She ignored the way his hand clenched on the hilt of his sword, and simply scooted over until she sat against the wall beside him. "You put your cloak over me so I wouldn't be cold, and when I… when I kissed you I saw something other than hate move through your eyes. I may not know what you've done, I may not understand what's driving you, but I know your heart."

"Sakura…" There was pain in his voice, and his gaze shifted to the fire. "It doesn't matter if my heart holds more than hate, because the hate is what I have to listen to. My entire life, I lived for only one thing. Revenge. Nothing else was supposed to matter to me, not until my brother was dead."

Sakura pondered his phrasing. If my heart holds… Was supposed to matter… "What else does your heart hold? What else matters?"

Without looking at her, his hand reached out to cover her own. "You know the answer to that."

"Sasuke-kun." She knew her hand trembled as she turned it over to clasp his. "You can still come home. You can still train, and get stronger, and… and if you really need to kill your brother, I'll go with you. You know Naruto will as well. You don't have to be alone."

"I was always alone." Sasuke said softly. "I never wanted to get close to anyone, because I knew I would just be leaving some day. But you and Naruto… you just wouldn't let me be. You drew me in, and you heaped all these feelings on me, and you expected me to be able to survive them…."

"You did survive them." Sakura said gently, moving her other hand so that his was held between her own. "You were happy with us."

"And that's why I had to leave." Sasuke whispered. "If I had stayed with you any longer, I wouldn't have been able to leave. I would have betrayed the memory of my family. I would have forgotten that I only live to avenge them. When you tried to stop me, you don't know how close you came to… How much harder you made it…"

"Sasuke-kun…" Sakura whispered when he trailed off, then felt her breath hitch when his head whipped around to face her, a dozen emotions playing across his face.

"I barely managed to leave you once." His voice was so low she actually leaned closer to him to hear it, and he took a sudden deep breath as the scent of her seemed to wrap around him. "I don't know if I can do it again."

"Then don't." Her eyes were huge, and only her willpower was keeping them from filling with tears. She could feel the battle within him, and knew this was the turning point. If he said no this time it would be final. "Stay with me, please."

TBC….