Hey everyone!

Here is a one-shot about Sakura and Madara. If it seems incomplete, it is; it is basically the prologue/preliminary to a new story I'm writing, called Not Who You Once Knew. More about that will be coming out soon when I post Chapter One.

For all of you from my blog: "Not Who You Once Knew" is a revamp of "Faking a Smile; Living the Lie." It will be a better (and less rapey) story that follows Faking a Smile's general story line. Obviously, a little more will be added to make it a more interesting and more viable story, but nonetheless! I hope you'll read it!

Enjoy!

How It Should Be

"Hey, Sasuke-kun," she said shyly, standing nervously on his porch. She'd never been allowed to spend the night at the Uchiha household for such an extended period of time and she shifted the heavy, filled-to-the-brim backpack on her shoulders uncomfortably.

"Hn, took you long enough," Sasuke responded in greeting, opening the door wider and allowing her to slip inside.

Sakura bowed to Itachi, her best friend's older brother, as he walked past her toward the kitchen in the forefront of the three-bedroom apartment. He tipped his head with a small smile. "Hello, Sakura-chan. How have you been?"

She smiled back warmly. "I've been well. Okaasan sends her regards and says thanks for letting me stay with you all while she's in New York."

He shook his head. "It's nothing. You've done wonders for my otouto's attitude."

Sasuke, closing the door as she slipped off her shoes, hmphed and rolled his eyes.

"Apparently not that much," Sakura joked, giving Sasuke a teasing grin. He smirked wryly but said nothing, waving her to follow him to his room.

"Good to see you, Itachi-kun," she called as she was led to the room she'd be staying in. Once they entered, Sasuke closed the door for privacy.

"Aniki said it would be best if you took my bed. I'll sleep on the couch," Sasuke said, and even though he didn't sound bothered in the slightest, Sakura wasn't fooled.

"It's okay, I'll take the couch," she responded assertively. Sasuke raised his eyebrows in surprise.

"You know you'll see him," the raven-haired boy said softly. "And Kimiko is coming over tonight."

Sakura's stomach plummeted. "Eh…is she?"

Her best friend looked at her, a mix of comfort and sympathy in his eyes. "Yeah. I don't know if she's spending the night, but…" He trailed off meaningfully. "The walls in my room insulate sounds a lot better than the living room."

She gave her bravest smile. "It's okay, Sasuke-kun. I need to get over him anyways. It's not like I can keep hoping something will come of it. I did think after I turned twenty, maybe…but you know. He's never seen me like that."

Sasuke said nothing to either confirm or deny and she sighed. It would obviously hurt more if he would just outright say that his cousin was not and had never been interested, but at least then she could hear it. However, Sasuke was too sensitive to her feelings. He hadn't always been, but after Naruto died, they'd become even closer and he sometimes treated her like she was a china doll. He didn't want to chance her crumbling the way she had when their best friend, their candle in the darkness, the reason that they were even friends in the first place, had been in the car crash that had killed his entire family.

Sakura understood his reasoning, but she really needed someone to crack the rose-colored glasses that seemed to materialize when he came in the room.

Sasuke heaved a sigh. "If you're sure. You can always change your mind—at any time."

She grinned, the pit of dread forming in her stomach at the thought of seeing him with his girlfriend solidifying despite her courageous exterior. "It'll be good for me. Maybe it'll…you know…change things. Seeing them together and…well, happy, it might knock some sense into me."

He frowned but said nothing, simply shaking his head. "Leave your stuff in here, anyway. You're not changing in the living room."

She laughed and let her backpack drop to the ground with a thud, immediately stretching the muscles that cried out with relief as the weight was removed.

Sasuke sniffed. "Go take a shower. You stink."

"Hey!" she huffed. "That thing is heavy. And it's hot out."

He snorted. "Shower. Now."

"Whatever," she growled playfully before opening up her backpack, grabbing a random outfit, and then making her way to the shower that was housed between the brothers' rooms.

"Sasuke!" yelled a deep, masculine voice. "We're out of sake. Go get some, Kimiko's going to be here in thirty minutes."

Sakura froze momentarily before walking past the kitchen, where he was. She was too worried about the 28-year-old realizing that his younger cousin's best friend had a crush on him, so she made herself act the complete opposite that she would if he was single and hadn't shown even slightest bit of interest in the last five years that she had known him.

You're pathetic, she thought with a good dose of self-directed anger. You've been crushing on him since the day you met him. GET OVER IT.

"Hai, hai. Ornery bastard," Sasuke grumbled, albeit half-heartedly. He nodded at Sakura as he went towards the door. He gave her a reassuring smile—rare as they were—and grabbed his keys. "I'll be back in ten."

Sasuke had just disappeared out the front door and she had just passed the kitchen when he stepped out and said, "Sakura-chan? What are you doing here?"

"Oh, uh, hi Madara-kun! Well, my mom's on a business trip in New York. She asked Itachi if I could stay with you guys while she's gone, so…"

The tall man pinched the bridge of his nose in exasperation. "I swear, they never tell me anything these days. I might be the oldest, but I'm not old," he said, more to himself than her. He removed his hand from his face and smirked at her. "Very well then. Enjoy your stay. Kimiko and I will be going out tonight, so you don't have to see much of us." He smiled and she couldn't help but blush, nodding and then as soon as he turned away, she high-tailed it to the bathroom.

Hanging up her clothes on the hooks nailed into the door, Sakura sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose much like her crush had done not even a minute ago.

"Pathetic," she mumbled. "I'm pathetic."

Madara stormed to Itachi's room, where his cousin was reclining on his bed, reading a chess strategy book.

"And you didn't tell me she was coming over why?"

Itachi glanced up at him. "Is something the matter, dear cousin?"

"That girl is here again, and you didn't tell me. And Kimiko is coming over. What the hell, Itachi?"

"I thought maybe seeing the two of them in the same room might set your priorities straight, but it's a well-known fact you keep them away from each other for a reason. I thought maybe a change of pace might open your eyes a bit."

The elder of the two sighed. "Sakura is a wonderful young lady, but that's the problem. She's young. She doesn't know what she wants."

Itachi sighed and sat up, putting down the book after marking his place. "When you were eight you said you wanted to become a neurosurgeon, or so oji says. Now, you're a neurosurgeon. Were you too young then to know what you wanted?"

"This is different."

"Yes, in some ways it is. In other ways, it isn't. You know how she feels and you know how long she's been feeling it. Has she had even one boyfriend since she met you?"

Madara raised his eyebrow skeptically. "She's never had a boyfriend."

"There was Rock Lee, if I do recall."

"That was out of pity and they only went on one date."

Itachi changed the subject. "I suppose pity is a good motivator…how did you meet Kimiko-chan again?"

"Not now, Itachi."

"If I do recall, her parents had just died and you let her live with us until she got on her feet. Three days straight of fucking later, she's your girlfriend.

"Itachi…"

"Although I do find it strange that she dyes her hair that garish hot pink and has green eyes, much like someone else you know and like…"

Madara slammed his fist into the door, denting the wood. "Cease this stupidity."

Itachi smirked infuriatingly. "Is it stupidity or is it insight?"

"I don't have time for this, cousin. I have to find a place for us to go tonight. I told her we'd be staying in, but now I have to make last-minute reservations—no thanks to you."

"Of course, you must lavish your girlfriend with money to make up for the obvious lack of affection you feel towards her." Itachi was still smirking, his eyes challenging.

"Sleep with one eye open tonight," Madara hissed. "Lest you find yourself in an emergency lobotomy when you wake."

"If Kimiko stays the night, I won't be sleeping at all. That woman is like an EMS siren."

"You'd best be glad I don't go to the dojo every day like I used to. Otherwise, I'd kick your ass."

"Of course, dear cousin, of course. Close the door on your way out, I'd like to enjoy my peace and quiet before the ambulance arrives."

Madara made sure to slam the door so hard it rattled on its hinges.

Sakura emerged from her hot shower, toweling herself off loosely before donning her one of her favorite black bras and matching lacy panties. She slipped on a long burgundy tank-top that was long enough to reach mid-thigh and then slipped on black leggings and a choker, reapplying her light eyeliner and mascara. If she put on lip gloss, it would be too obvious that was trying to impress, so she smeared her lips with chapstick and left it at that.

She could lie to herself and say that she had brought the best of her wardrobe because she wanted to look presentable to the Uchiha who were from such a prominent family, but it wasn't the case. Despite her acknowledgment that she was being pathetic—she told herself this at least a hundred times every time she dressed up just in case she would be in the presence of her crush—she couldn't help that she wanted to look attractive, even if he had never acknowledged her as anything but a sort of little-sister figure.

Glancing at her appearance once more in the mirror, Sakura ran her fingers through her hair and cursed that she'd forgotten a brush. Despite that she had cut it short in honor of Naruto, it had grown out to her shoulders now and brushes really were necessary.

Nevertheless, she accepted that Itachi would kill her if she borrowed his fancy designer brush and she didn't dare ask Madara, and so exited the bathroom just in time to hear the doorbell ring.

Even as her heart was crushed at the peck Kimiko greeted Madara with, Sakura gave off the air of nonchalance as she went into the kitchen and poured herself a glass of water.

"Ohhh, is that Sakura-san? The one with the pink hair?" Kimiko asked Madara loudly. Sakura stiffened. She had never actually been introduced to the person who had ruined her chance of ever being with her crush, so he had obviously talked to Kimiko about her. For some reason, that disgusted and elated her all at the same time.

Putting on her most gracious smile, Sakura turned to the woman. "Hi, you must be Kimiko-san. You're right, I'm Haruno Sakura. I'm a friend of Sasuke's."

"Hi Sakura! My name is Hinamura Kimiko." She bowed. "It's so nice to meet you!"

Sakura bowed back but couldn't take her eyes off the bright, gaudy pink head of hair that was Kimiko's hair color. There's no way that's natural…if my hair was that pink, I would dye over it, no questions asked.

It was a little alarming, though, how much she and Kimiko looked alike. Kimiko's hair was longer than hers, although in the same general style, and her eyes were a dark green. They both had pale skin—although Kimiko's was chalkboard white and a little scary while Sakura's was more creamy and natural—and were of about the same stature. Kimiko had a larger bust and was decidedly curvier, and other than the difference in facial features and last names, they could have been construed as related.

Thank god we're not… Sakura was certain that moment was a time to be grateful for the little blessings in life.

"So, what's your natural color?" Sakura asked conversationally, pouring Kimiko a glass of water as she and Madara entered the kitchen and stood around the island.

"Oh, black," Kimiko replied airily. "But Madara-kun said he liked less natural hair colors, so I thought I'd do this for him. I think it suits me, what about you?"

Sakura did not miss but also did not understand the flash of annoyance in Madara's eyes as Kimiko spoke, so she ignored it and smiling as kindly—while also trying to make it seem genuine—as she could, she responded, "I think it fits."

Pure, utter, unadulterated bullshit, but it was all she could say without sounding a like a jealous bitch.

"Kimiko," Madara finally cut in. "We are not going to be staying in tonight. I reserved us a table at the Olive Garden downtown—the American restaurant that just came to town."

"Oh, Madara-kun, you're just too sweet." Kimiko kissed him happily and Sakura averted her eyes, immediately trying to come up with a way to escape the lovebirds. "It's the things like this that make me love you."

All thoughts processes ending with escape promptly halted and then went off like explosions in her mind. They were in love? Since when? It had only been six months…

Chest aching, Sakura bowed to them without a word and removed herself from the situation, only saying, "It was nice to meet you, Hinamura-san. Have a nice date."

Before Kimiko could insist she be called by her given name, Sakura had fled the room.

"What an odd girl…" Kimiko looked up at her boyfriend, confusion in her usually-vacant green eyes.

Madara usually invited Kimiko in, but one glance at Sakura, who was watching TV contentedly and sprawled haphazardly on the couch—he had to dismiss the immediate sexual position that came to mind seeing her legs parted with one propped up like that—made him change trajectory rather quickly.

"Good-bye, Kimiko," he said. "I have work early tomorrow, so I'd best go to bed early."

Kimiko suspected nothing. "Oh, alright Madara-kun!" Her oblivious-to-the-world cheer had gotten on his nerves more than usual that night, anyway, so after allowing her to give him a goodnight kiss, he promptly closed the door and sighed, leaning heavily against it.

It was only when Sakura propped herself up on her elbows and timidly asked, "Are you alright?" that he straightened.

"I'm fine," he responded. "Long day, early morning tomorrow."

She laughed softly. "Well, you'd better get to bed then. Goodnight." She leaned back more fully into the couch and then, after a few moments immersed again in the movie she was watching, burst into laughter at the scene on the TV.

It piqued his curiosity—he denied that it had to do with wanting intelligent company after a trying night with someone with so little brainpower—so he walked over and sat down on the couch where she was too short to take up space.

"What are you watching?"

Sakura glanced at him, a pale pink dusting on her cheeks barely visible in the white light of the television. "The Three Amigos. It's an American comedy with Chevy Chase, Steve Martin, and Martin Short. It's silly but still entertaining. I guess that's what you get when you involve three comedians in the same film."

Madara nodded and leaned back, averting his eyes to the TV, although he was more focused on the warmth that being so close to her caused him.

When he was sure she was fully watching the movie and had no attention elsewhere, he peeked at her from the corner of his eye. A small but beautiful smile was on her face and she'd laugh occasionally, the sound angelic to his ears instead of loud and grating like Kimiko's. When his eyes fell to the thin black t-shirt and athletic shorts she was wearing to bed and he realized she wasn't wearing a bra, he felt blood rush to regions that should not be awakened when Kimiko wasn't around.

He wasn't one to cheat, but when Sakura laughed her pretty laugh again and sat up to grab the remote—probably to rewind the scene in order to watch it again, he preemptively snatched the remote away from her before she could pick it up and paused the movie.

She looked at him questioningly, but when she saw the obvious look of lust in his eyes, any words she might have said disappeared.

The sexual tension in the air was palpable. He knew she liked him—perhaps she was even in love with him—and in that moment he was quite aware that there were feelings on his end, too…then again, he'd always known. Without a second thought, he pulled her to him and pressed a passionate kiss to her lips.

She was stunned for all of three seconds before she gripped his shirt and kissed him back. He laid her back and straddled her, nipping her bottom lip with his teeth. After a second of hesitation, she parted her lips and he slid his tongue into her hot, sweet mouth, reveling in the taste of her.

He was in heaven as her hands released his shirt and traveled down his chest, ghosting over his abs and pectoral muscles. Fisting his hand in her short hair, he arched her back to press her into him and let his other hand trail down to slip under her shirt, to feel her soft globes of flesh and make her moan.

He wanted—no, needed—to hear her voice laced with passion. He needed to hear her moaning and screaming, feel her tight, wet walls clench around him, to bring her to the brink of ecstasy and then pull her down into the depths of an orgasm, to make her scream his name and hold onto him and never let go.

Madara was just about to cup her breasts when she suddenly pulled away from him, gently pushing him off of her. He frowned, almost angrily, that she would deny him.

"Kimiko," she gasped, pushing a little harder when he refused to budge.

"Doesn't matter," he finished for her, claiming her lips again. However, this time she did not reciprocate.

"No," she panted, pulling away a little more forcefully this time. "No, you can't do that to her. I won't let you."

"Since when are you concerned with loyalty?" he snapped. "The fact that she exists hasn't stopped you from loving me anyway."

Her face was a myriad of emotions all at once—shock, anger, horror, embarrassment, but mostly a decided brokenness, all of which evolved into a grim determination.

"Yeah, and apparently I have bad taste," she spat. "It's a good thing I've been trying to get over you." She shoved at him to get off her. Instead he gripped her wrists and pushed her back down, angered that she would suddenly turn on him like that.

"Take it back," he demanded. It shouldn't have mattered to him that she was suddenly denouncing her feelings, but nonetheless it stung. He wanted her—and not just in a sexual sense, he realized. She wasn't going to be allowed to love him for all these years and then, as soon as he reciprocated any kind of emotion, turn her back on him.

Sakura glared at him hard. "You let me go now or else I'll scream."

"Sakura…" he softened his eyes, trying to convince her to stay—in the very least, stay.

"I'm not going to be used the way you use Kimiko," she said coldly.

"I'm not using Kimiko," he replied harshly, although in many ways what he said was a lie.

"If you can cheat on her, then you don't love her and you're using her. I'm not going to let that happen to me. Now get. Off."

He didn't relent and she was about to scream when he pressed a soft, chaste kiss to her lips. She hesitated and before she could do anything else, he was off and away from her, already headed to his room.

He had much to think about.

"…and then he left."

Sasuke couldn't bear to see Sakura so dejected, so broken, so destroyed over what his stupid cousin had done. She had burst into his room crying at midnight and was there now, sobbing quietly and cradling her face in her hands.

"He didn't hurt you though, did he?" Given the temper his cousin was known to have when provoked and the high emotional charge of situation, he wanted to be sure.

Sakura laughed mirthlessly. "Depends on how you define 'hurt.' Kami, I wanted him to like me but not as one of his toys!"

Sasuke shook his head but said nothing. There really wasn't anything to say. All he could do was hold her in his arms while she cried the tears of rejection she should have cried years ago.

Madara left to stay with a friend for the week after that night and Sakura thanked her lucky stars. Her mother returned shortly after with the news that she was being transferred to New York as the financing manager of one of her company's divisions and Sakura's tears were bittersweet until her mother told her that she wouldn't be coming with her.

'You have a life here, Sakura. I wouldn't take you away from that.'

Sakura had been torn about whether or not to beg to go with her—nothing really remained for her in Japan. There were better schools in America anyways and her mother could always sign her up for a crash-course in English. However, Sakura knew that she couldn't make any major decisions while the pain of Madara's blatant rejection—he probably didn't see it like that, but Sakura wouldn't be with someone who could likely cheat on her—was still on her mind, so she asked her mom to go ahead but give her to option to come to America if she decided to. Her mother, always the intuitive one, understood and said she would get a two-bedroom in New York just in case.

A week after her mother had come home, flowers were delivered to her home with an apology note. It was from Madara, telling her that he'd broken up with Kimiko and that she was right that he had been using her. There was no indication that he wanted anything more, so Sakura knew in that moment that what he'd felt in that passionate moment on the couch was nothing to him.

It solidified what she'd thought and then next day, she told her mother she would go with her to America.

"Sasuke! Where are you going? The clan meeting starts in thirty minutes and we have to be there, or did you forget?" Madara's tone was scathing.

Sasuke glanced over his shoulder with equal anger. "I'm not going. I have to say good-bye to Sakura."

Madara halted. "Where is she going?" he demanded. Sasuke rolled his eyes.

"She's moving to America."

A low growl formed in Madara's chest.

Not all had been well in the Uchiha men's household after the fateful week when Sakura stayed over. Sasuke had become cold towards his once-favorite cousin and even Itachi seemed a little upset that things had not gone as he had planned. Madara, however, was the angriest of them all, as he had seen neither hide nor hair of the girl he'd obsessed about since that night.

He'd sent an apology with flowers, but had chosen not to include that he wanted to take her on a date—he assumed that given that she had been so uptight about him and Kimiko being together that apologizing and asking for a date at the same time wouldn't sit right with her. Now, four days after the apology had been sent, he'd still not heard a word from or about her except that she was moving to America—and that he had heard just as she was leaving.

"When did she plan this?" he asked, trying to keep his cool. How dare she just leave?

"Not that it's your business, but her mom got transferred to New York and Sakura decided to go with her." Sasuke opened the front door but didn't bother to slam it behind him because it was obvious Madara wasn't done with this topic.

"How long ago?"

"She made her decision three days ago."

Madara stopped short. He'd sent her an apology and she thanked him by moving to America?

Fury settled in his heart.

"Do you have anything you want me to tell her?" Sasuke asked in a surprising moment of acknowledgement of the situation.

"Tell her that I will be in touch."

Sasuke nodded and then got in his car, turning the ignition and speeding away.

Yes, he would be in touch. He knew he couldn't stop her from leaving at this point…but that didn't mean he had to let her go.

"As they say, Sakura dear, absence makes the heart grow fonder. And I assure you, when I see you next…my heart will have grown very fond of you, indeed."

Sakura waved happily at Sasuke as he appeared. The only thing she really felt like she was leaving behind was Sasuke, and that was something very big to leave behind, but he had promised to visit and maybe even follow at some point along the line.

"Bye, Sasuke-kun! Promise you'll call, write letters, send me emails-"

Sasuke nodded at her tearful blabbering, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. "You know I will if you do too."

"Of course I will!" she huffed indignantly. Suddenly she wrapped him in a crushing embrace. "I'll miss you…Promise you'll visit?"

"Promise. And don't be a stranger, you can always come home if you want to."

Sakura pulled away, tears shining in her eyes. "Oh, I will. I might go to school in America, but Japan is my home. Tell Itachi that he's obligated to write and call and visit, too."

In that moment, Sasuke fleetingly remembered what Madara had told him to tell her. However, the moment was so sweet, so pure, that he decided to omit it. She didn't need anything holding her back while she was in America. Besides, Madara would forget her just as Sakura was already striving to do for him; nothing good would come of that relationship, anyways.

"Sakura-chan, we're boarding now!" her mother called. "Good-bye, Sasuke-kun. I assume you'll visit though?"

"Hai, Haruno-sama," Sasuke said, bowing deeply. "I have scheduled school vacation in September, so I can fly over then."

Sakura gave him a brilliant smile. "Bring Itachi, too, if you can."

Sasuke nodded before shooing them both away. "You'd better get going, your flight's going to leave without you."

Tears in her eyes, Sakura gave him one last embrace. "This won't be the last time I see you. I swear."

Sasuke nodded, gently hugging her back. "I know."

With that one last farewell, Sakura boarded her flight, waving to Sasuke all the while. She grinned to herself happily as she took her seat on the plane. She realized that she did not miss Madara and did not regret deciding to leave. She was going to go to school and become a doctor and she would excel. She would be a strong independent woman who needed no man in her life. If anything, she was thankful for her encounter with her now ex-crush. She realized many things about herself in the days of the rejection afterward and now she knew what she wanted, where she was going, and who she was going to be.

She smiled softly and said to no one, "This is how it should be."

Alrighty! I hope you all enjoyed! I hope you'll read this story's sequel when it comes out! (Shouldn't be too long from now, it'll probably be up sometime this weekend.)

Cheers!

Of Healing Love