Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
Author's Note: With Kabuto's return to the manga, I just had to write another KabuSaku fic (partly inspired by Meg and Dia's Monster, so I totally recommend listening to that while reading)! So enjoy!
Monster
"You..."
"It's been a long time, hasn't it?"
That was how they met, and how their battle began. It was destined to happened: both had something of a similarity in mind when it came to a certain avenger. However, where one wanted deep down to save the boy lost in the dark, the other wanted revenge by killing him.
Only ten minutes have passed by in their fight, and the ground in which they've stood was already altered from its original flatness, littered with kunai and shuriken from their relentless attacks. They were panting softly, but neither were ready to give up. After all, it was a fight for their lives, for the life of the boy, for the future of so many things.
For Kabuto Yakushi and Sakura Haruno, this fight was the start – or end – to everything.
"You've gotten stronger. Much stronger," he complimented, a gleam of light reflecting off of his glasses, his lips forming a smirk as he spoke. Sakura didn't speak; her emerald eyes flared her tired and angry emotions that bubbled inside.
She attacked again; he defended.
He countered; she found a way to reflect.
It was a never-ending cycle.
"You're sickening," she said at last, her voice cold, "At one point, I respected you. Now when I look at you, all I see is..."
He chuckled, "A monster? Perhaps that's what I truly am, Sakura-san. A vile monster."
The fighting continued for a few minutes more. Cloth ripped, blood splattered onto the ground, the world began to spin and collide in abnormal ways. Kabuto's hood had fallen, revealing his snake-like skin and golden eyes; Sakura had a wound across her stomach that had now started to drip down her side and coat her left leg red.
Their breathing became heavier, harder; they began to sweat and curse and bleed profusely. Sakura closed her eyes for a moment in order to rub the sweat and blood that trickled down them.
When she opened them a few seconds later, she noticed Kabuto was gone. Her breath hitched when she felt cold, scaly fingers at her neck, gripping at her skin enough to make puncture wounds into the appendage.
"A deadly mistake to close your eyes in the middle of a fight."
"I see that now."
They stood there in silence, save for the sound of their breathing.
"Tell me, Sakura, how do you feel? Do you feel fear? Or possibly an adrenaline rush? What, or who, are you thinking of? Are you thinking of Konoha, your precious home?" he rambled, his voice dark and teasing, "Are you thinking of your teammates? Naruto-kun, Sai, Kakashi? Or even Sasuke-kun?"
"How do you think I should feel, monster?," she asked back, almost barking back her response, "Should I feel fear in the face of a person who was too cowardly to use his own power and instead draws on that of his dead master? If I do, I'd be the most pathetic person in this world."
"So bold."
"Too true."
His nails dug deeper into her neck and her breath hitched again. He felt the blood pool out under his touch, "Perhaps I'm not the only monster here, Sakura-san."
Faintly smirking, Sakura moved her arms, pushing his grip from her neck and sending a kunai into his arm, temporarily stunning him, "Quite true. I became a monster a long time ago."
So the battle began again.