Hey everyone, this is a recently updated chapter 1. I seem to be getting questions on whether or not this is just Sakura imaginative dream, or if Sasuke is using his Sharingan on her. The answer is: neither. Sakura did meet up with Sasuke, and everything that she is dreaming, happened. It is a past memory haunting her dreams.

Hope that clarifies things up.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

Dreams of Forever

Chapter 1

Night had long since come to the Village Hidden in the Leaves. All was quiet, save for the shriek of the night owl, the soft blowing of the wind through the village. However, inside one home, all was not peaceful or restful. A woman grown with skeins of silky pink hair lay like a fan across her pillow, her closed eyes dreaming. A mixture of longing and confusion lay across her features, had anyone seen her face. "Sasuke…" she whispered, unaware that she called out the voice of the one she wanted so desperately to forget….but never could and now that memory resurfaced and she could not escape it…..

"Sakura." His voice, a smooth tone like cold steel, seemed oddly relaxed upon seeing his former teammate now turned ANBU. Sakura steeled herself against the seductive, husky tones of Sasuke Uchiha. She knew the sound of his voice very well, that silk over steel, ice cold yet oddly compelling, and stood before the man she once called friend and teammate. "Sasuke Uchiha, by order of the Sixth Hokage of Konoha, I am to take you into custody for your transgression against the Village Hidden in the Leaves."

Sakura was proud of the way her voice did not shake, sounding confident and commanding. All too well that knowing smirk came to the dark-eyed Uchiha's lips. "You think you alone will take be back?" his tone was a sinister whisper, yet he made no move against her. She leveled him with an icy look to rival his own, her green eyes like chipped emeralds.

"I can and I will. Do not make this harder on yourself." Sasuke looked at her, hard. His eyes were not of the Sharingan, but of his own deep obsidian. Drowning pools of darkness that Sakura also knew very well. How long had those same eyes haunted her dreams?

He moved determinedly to her, and Sakura changed her stance, balancing her weight on the balls of her feet, ready to pull a kunai, or a fist, whichever style he chose first. She would not lose to this man. She was not the crybaby genin he remembered from their Team Seven days.

However, much to her shock he merely walked up to her, inches from her own body. "How you have changed, Sakura." He murmured softly, his eyes intense and searching, His voice washing over her body as her name came out like a caress against her skin. Sakura wished, vehemently, that he would stop using her name so familiarly. It was distracting.

His hand moved swiftly and Sakura went for a kunai, but stopped mid-motion, frozen in place, as his lean strong fingers ran through the short locks of her bangs that framed her face. She could only stare, wide-eyed, at that single gesture of contact. What is he doing? She thought blankly, and then snarled at her self for becoming distracted. Sasuke was a Jouinine, a master of manipulation and tactics. Obviously he was trying to throw her off balance.

She slapped his hand away, hard, and jumped back. "Do not touch me, Uchiha. Now are you going to come willingly, or do I have to drag you back to Konoha myself?" her voice, normally a lovely dulcet, sounded angry and annoyed at the same time.

This time he did smirk, his arms folded across his chest. "I will go nowhere, unless I choose to. ANBU though you are, Sakura, you cannot stop me." Sakura flashing jade eyes narrowed at that. "Then you leave me no choice, Uchiha." She told him, refusing to use his name. She pulled her katana from its sheath, and held it in guard position.

Sasuke's eyes narrowed at the obviously aggressive stance and shook his head, his long black locks shielding his eyes for a single moment. "Do not, Sakura. You cannot win." He told her, turning his back on her, as if to walk away. With a silent snarl, she leapt at him, her blade flashing in sunlight.

Sasuke turned, his blade already meeting and blocking that deadly thrust. The power behind her blade made the Uchiha's eyes widened for a fraction, before narrowing once more. "Do not turn your back on me!" she growled at him. "We are no longer children, and this is no longer a game!" she moved quickly, her sword flashing in a blur, but he was faster and blocked every single thrust of the blade, each parry.

"It was never a game to begin with." He told her softly, bringing his blade down in a slashing motion, but Sakura blocked it, using her chakra to enhance her muscles to that she could take the shock of force without giving ground.

"You've improved." He told her, his voice holding a deadly stillness to it. She gave a silent growl and pushed back hard, sending the Uchiha flying. But the S-rank ninja merely flipped mid-air, landing with a cat-like grace. Always was too damn good, she thought with frustration mixed with admiration. Even now, amidst their battle, she could only admire his speed and agility.

"I'm full of surprises." She told him, her voice a lethal whisper. She raced at him, but his blade was already deflecting hers, as she suspected and with her other hand, she pulled a kunai, slashing across his face, drawing a thin line of blood across his cheekbone.

He looked at her, his obsidian eyes suddenly blood red with triple irises. "You would not have been able to do that a year ago." His voice held no emotion, yet Sakura got the distinct impression he had been surprised by her bold moves. "Much has changed in a year. I am not the girl you knew. I am a woman grown. A kounoichi of Konoha."

Sakura stared into those shifting eyes and the slightest unease grew in the pit of her stomach. Sasuke Uchiha was the most gifted Shinobi of their time, he had yet to be beaten by anyone in the Konoha village, including Naruto. As she stared at him, across the grounds, she realized that he had changed as well.

He no longer wore the garb of Orochimaru, but pure black from head to toe, even the rope belt around his waist was black. The garb was form fitting, showing off the strong muscles in his arms, wrapped in bandages. He no longer wore a headband to any village, but bandages wrapped around his head. The strong cheek-bones, that cruel sensuous mouth, eyes that invaded ones soul, all heightened making him appear to be a fallen angel. He was, she realized, the dark avenger personified.

And he was watching her with an intensity she did not fully understand. "So it would seem. Very well, if you are so insistent…." His voice trailed off and suddenly he was there, with furious slashes of his blade that Sakura, even with her extensive ANBU training, could barely dodge, let alone counter. She, with dawning apprehension, realized that he had been holding back on her. Shit, she thought uncharacteristically, he's improved as well.

He was far, far stronger that she ever remembered. Each thrust of the blade, each strike, was cold and calculating, meant more to wear her down, than actually harm her. With a final slash of his blade, she lost the grip on her katana and it went flying, burying itself hilt deep into the sand.

Sakura glared at the blade, as though it had betrayed her. She looked back at the man, who was standing there calmly, watching her. Waiting. He seemed in no hurry to finish her off. Sakura narrowed her eyes at him, something was definitely off with him. She just couldn't understand what it was….

Sakura tossed in her bed, her pink hair becoming more tussled, her face becoming flush as the dream sped on. "Sasuke…." She whispered again, this one of passion and longing….

Sakura lay panting against the bark of one of the few tree's still standing. Ever since he rid her of her blade, she had resorted to hand to hand tactics, the results that the surrounding area now looked like a massive earthquake had hit. Besides the cut on the Uchiha's cheek from her kunai, he sustained no other injuries. He had blocked and dodged each of her attacks, managing not to break any bones in the process, and now silently watched her as her left hand rested on the tree.

Damn it, what is wrong with him! She screamed silently in her mind, staring hard at the blood-red eyes of Sasuke. Many times she knew he could have easily evaded her attacks, or if she were truly being honest, he could have used his chidori to incapacitate her, or even kill her. But he hadn't. He seemed to be...testing her.

"Alright, Uchiha." She told him, pulling away from the tree, but making no move to attack him. "What are you doing?" Sasuke raised a single winged eyebrow, and lowered his sword. "Are you done fighting?" he asked mildly.

Sakura narrowed her eyes at him, a blistering retort upon her lips, but then stopped and regarded him warily. "I am not ready to concede this fight." She hedged slowly. "But I am not naïve enough to think that this is all you have. So I ask again, what are you doing? Why are you toying with me? Do you really think that I will not turn you over to my Hokage?" she demanded of him, her voice getting more heated.

"Sakura…" he trailed off, caressing her name, making her damn him to the seventh hell for that fluttering sensation that appeared once more in her stomach. She watched with apprehension as he walked closer to her, his sword still drawn but lowered.

She couldn't predict his actions, no matter how hard she tried. He wasn't with his team, called the Hawk. When she appeared before him, he hadn't sneered at her and told her to get lost, only that she couldn't win this fight. And every time her name….it was like a caress. She just didn't understand what was driving his actions anymore.

Sakura let out a small gasp when he was suddenly, once more, inches from her body. "What are-…" she began hotly when her mouth snapped shut as he buried his katana into the smooth bark, inches from her head. She swallowed, hard. On one side was his katana, on the other side, his arm. She was trapped, and she knew it.

"Get back!" she hissed at him, but he merely gave her that knowing smirk that she had known so well, and moved closer, so that their bodies were touching, no longer separated by that thin space. Sakura sucked in a ragged breath at their physical contact. The feel of him….the hard planes of his body….the heat radiating off his skin….each part burned her when they touched.

"S-stop it Sasuke!" she growled at him, her eyes widening as she said his name. "Ah, finally, my name from you lips. Sakura." He murmured softly, his lips at the hollow of her neck. Sakura gasped, flinging her head back, trying to get out of his reach, pulling her fists up to drive him away when both his hands came up, catching each of her palms, holding them in place against the tree.

He moved to press her body into the tree, feeling each soft contour mold to his own harder frame, his lips at the hollow of her throat, tasting the salty-sweat of her skin, inhaling the scent of jasmine that clung to her skin.

Sakura gasped again at the firm contact of his lips, her lids dropping over her eyes involuntarily, her traitorous body arching into his. "S-Sasuke!" she gasped out, as he bit down very gently at the junction between her neck and collarbone, sending her already heated blood out of control. Spirals of heat licked at her stomach, making her womb clench, her body to shake.

"W-why…?" she barely managed to gasp out, as he began to kiss up her neck, her mind becoming hazy with the desire he evoked like a tide. "Why?" he replied, repeating her question. He pulled his lips from her neck so that he could stare into her unblinking green eyes.

"Because…..I have waited long enough."

Her eyes, clouding over with desire, swiftly turned to confusion. "Waiting? I don't understand?" she whispered, her voice a throaty dulcet. Sasuke smirked again, his lips once more finding the hollow of her neck. "Twelve was far too young for you to give yourself to me. We were both still children…..still growing." He murmured against her neck, biting down gently once more, making her squirm against his body. His lips curved up into a smile she could not see at the obvious needs of her body.

"Sixteen was...better. You were still young, though. Still unsure about yourself, and I….I had a mission I could not depart from. Not even for you, my Sakura."

Sakura closed her eyes, her mind a hazy fog of desire and confusion as she listened to Sasuke's words. "Now though…I am done waiting. As you so boldly stated, you are no longer a girl, but a woman grown."

"But…but…" Sakura started, trying to organize her thoughts at this rapid turn of events. She had come out here to bring Sasuke back to the village, not be seduced by him!

"But you hate me! You never wanted me…" she began but was silenced as his mouth abruptly closed over hers; causing whatever argument she had to die completely. He let go of her imprisoned hands, and without thought she used them to thread through his hair, cursing the fact that she still had her gloves and could not feel the cool silky strands of his hair.

She put everything into that one kiss. Her long years of suppressed desire for this man, the longing of him, the pain of his leaving. The tears she pushed down deep inside when she became ANBU and he an S-rank Shinobi.

She gasped again, her gasp turning to a low moan as he caught that kiss, and returned it, his tongue snaking into her mouth, capturing her lips, causing her to burn once more.

Abruptly he pulled away from that searing kiss. Her lids were half closed over her eyes, her lips lush and swollen from his kiss. Her pink hair, held back by her Leaf headband looked tousled and wind swept.

"I never hated you." He told her, his voice husky and low, "but it was the only way to protect you." "Protect me?" she asked, her voice holding her confusion. He reached out and removed a few strands of pink hair clinging to her face. "From me. From what I had to do. I am what they now call me. The Dark Avenger. Fallen Shinobi. I am all this and more."

His lips went back to the hollow of her throat, unable to resist the sweet curve of her neck, nor the shudder her body gave whenever his lips found that vulnerable spot. "But, I am still a man. A man who has desired you for a very, very, long time." Each word was punctuated by a small nip to her neck, causing her to tighten her grip in his hair in response.

"Sasuke…" she whispered helplessly at his confession. He pulled away once more and she swallowed back her cry at the sudden release of contact between them. He captured her eyes once more with his obsidian gaze.

"I am a man, Sakura. Let me love you as one. Not as ANBU and Rogue. Not as two Shinobi. But as a man and a woman."

"Let me love you, Sakura."

Sakura swallowed hard, knowing that what he asked was impossible. All of her training, all of her duties and obligations told her to push him away. To tell him no, that they were too far gone for that. She opened her mouth to answer him.

"Yes, Sasuke."