All of my stories are set in the same world before or during Sasuke and Sakura's relationship. This is while they're dating. Italics are what the POV character is thinking.

Backstory: Sasuke returned to the village after killing Itachi and getting his revenge. He doesn't know the truth about Danto's involvement and Itachi's true motives. He has been dating Sakura for 8 months.

0o0

8:48 pm, Sasuke's POV

Sasuke was walking back to his apartment. He just finished having a late dinner with his girlfriend Sakura after she finished her shift at the hospital. He kissed her goodbye and they went their separate ways; him to his apartment and her to her parent's house. He was turning 17 in a month and Sakura turned 17 three months ago so she still lived with her mother and father. It was getting dark and cold so Sasuke pulled his sweater close and hustled down the street. He rounded a corner and something caught his attention: his apartment lights were on.

I turned those off, who's there? Burglars? What thief would be stupid enough to steal this early? Nobody else has a key to my place. I have a spare key but I was going to give it to Sakura if she wanted to move in—focus! I'll ask her later, but for now, who the fuck is here?

Sasuke ran up the stairs and approached his front door which was left ajar. He pushed it open lightly and walked in silently. He wants the element of surprise. He took a few steps in when he heard a noise come from the kitchen. He stood where he was.

"Who's there!?" he called out.

From around the corner was his old teammate, Karin. When Sasuke killed Orochimaru he recruited a few other criminals to help him find Itachi. After killing his brother he collapsed in exhaustion and Sakura, Naruto and Kakashi found him before Obito could. He was easily pardoned and restarted his life in Konoha thinking his revenge was over and he never knew what happened to the team he started. He also didn't care.

"Karin? What are you doing here?" he asked.

"I heard you coming. Stealth was never your forte," she calmly replied.

"Why are you here?" Sasuke retorted.

"We waited for you ya know," Karin told him as she walked into his living room. She looked at some framed pictures of Sasuke's friends such as Naruto, Sakura, Kakashi and some other academy acquaintances, "oh, they don't know you. No, not like I do."

"What the fuck are you talking about?" he demanded from her.

"You're so cute trying to live here. We did things out there. Did you really tell them everything?"

"Fuck off," he spat at her.

"Would they really accept you if they knew what we did? What you did?"

"That was a long time ago. Besides, killing two S-class criminals goes a long way. Killing you here would probably get me a promotion," he calmly explained while glaring at her with hate. He wasn't going to do anything suddenly; he knew Karin always had a plan.

"Oh yeah!" she laughed, "I saw you playing ANBU. Adorable." She waggled her finger at him playfully.

"You don't know anything," he told her and then activated sharingan.

"I know you're an ANBU captain which tells me you haven't confessed everything. I know you're dating the dumb little pink-haired girl. I know—"

"Why shouldn't I kill you here and now!?" he yelled.

She took an envelope from her bag and dropped it on his coffee table and said, "Take a look at this, and don't worry, I made copies."

"What the fuck do you want?"

"I want you back! We had something special, Sasuke-kun. I'm talking about more than the missions…"

I've had a lot of practice noticing when girls like me and it's obvious Karin likes me. Or loves me. Doesn't matter. I thought she'd have forgotten me by now.

She continued ignoring Sasuke's death stare, "First, I want you to break up with Sakura."

"No," he replied instantly. That was all he'd entertain that crazy idea.

She giggled and began walking towards him, "Jūgo has the copies so don't even think of touching me." As she expected, she walked right past Sasuke and out of his apartment without trouble.

"Fuck you," he cursed without turning around.

"Don't worry Sasuke-kun, I forgive you. It's okay you're upset, but, in time, we'll be together. I'll come back tomorrow, same time. Don't worry, I have a key!" she sang the last sentence with glee.

She left his apartment and ran off quickly and silently. Sasuke sat on his couch; he didn't even bother closing the door. He stared at the envelope for a long time. He was Sasuke Uchiha and Sasuke Uchiha wasn't scared of anything. That said, she seemed really confident that whatever was in this envelope would make him break up with the person he cared for most.

He picked up the package and flipped it over. On the other side was a Post It note that read:

Dump her before I see you again :)

Sasuke crumpled the little yellow paper up and dropped it to the floor. He opened the envelope and a dumped the contents out. A few letters and pictures fell to his table. Sasuke's face looked horrified as he examined the contents….

-The Next Day-

12:27 pm, Sakura's POV

Sakura just finished putting stitches in some kids arm. This was the last piece of work she had to do before she could take her lunch break. Her boyfriend would take her out for lunch when he wasn't busy training his ANBU team or going out on dangerous missions. She was so proud he achieved such a high rank in the year he's been back. They loved each other very much, and told each other so, which was a dream come true. Luckily, this was one of her lucky days. There was a knock at the door and Sasuke walked in.

"Hey," he said kind of shakily.

"Hi Sasuke-kun!" Sakura greeted.

"Is it your lunch break?" asked Sasuke dryly.

"Yeah you came at the perfect time," she dropped her medical equipment.

Sasuke said nothing. He just walked out into the hallway. Sakura caught up to him and walked by his side.

"Sasuke-kun, are you feeling okay?" Sakura asked concerned.

"Fine. I'm fine," Sasuke said slowly and meticulously.

"Did you, I don't know, sleep okay?"

"I'm fine!" he burst out loud enough for several nurses to stare at them.

Sasuke was walking just fast enough for Sakura to struggle to keep up. Sasuke didn't say anything until they reached Ichiraku ramen. They sat down and Sasuke ordered their regular meals; he knew her well enough to order for her.

There's something wrong with him. I can tell. He hasn't been this quiet towards me since before he left the village.

She asked him, "How's your day been?"

"Normal. How's yours been?" he replied coldly.

"It's, uh, good. I'm good," she replied dumbfounded at his bluntness.

Their food arrived and they began eating in silence. There's never been this much awkwardness or tension between them. To her delight, it was him who broke it:

"Sakura, we need to talk."

"What's up?"

"Well, for a long time—"

"Sakura! Sasuke! Glad we found you!" Naruto ran up to the couple with Hinata close behind him.

Hinata exclaimed, "We have some big news!"

"We're getting married!" Naruto burst out.

Hinata extended her hand to show off a diamond ring on her finger.

"Oh my God congratulations you two!" Sakura yelped, her mood completely changing. She stood up and hugged Hinata and looked at the ring.

"Congrats Naruto," Sasuke complimented. Naruto wrapped his arms around his best friend. Sasuke patted him on the back; hugging wasn't something he did much, well, except for Sakura.

They chatted for a few minutes about how Naruto purposed, when they wanted to get married and how excited they were. As Naruto and Hinata were about to leave Naruto called back,

"And Sasuke, of course I want you to be my best man."

For the first time since last night Sasuke managed to crack a smile, he looked to Sakura, then back to his best friend, "Yes. I'd love to."

Naruto smiled, and walked away with his fiancée, both with huge smiles plastered on their faces.

"You seem to be in a better mood," Sakura observed.

Sasuke looked her deep in her eyes and kissed her suddenly and passionately.

"I love you."

"I love you too."

8:00 pm, Sasuke's POV

Sasuke sat on his couch. He didn't break up with his girlfriend. Maybe it was seeing how happy Naruto and Hinata were or maybe he realized he was way too strong to let this happen. If the contents of that envelope were shown to Tsunade he would be kicked out of ANBU without a doubt. He would probably be arrested and after that, who knows? That was a long time ago, but if he couldn't forgive himself, how could anyone else? But he couldn't break up with Sakura over Karin's jealousy. He was going to wait here for Karin to come back and he would convince her to back off, or, at least play her little game without hurting Sakura.

He sat there with his eyes fixed on his door.

8:15 pm, Sasuke's POV

The silhouette of a person passed his window barely visible through his curtains. It passed the window to the right of the door but not the one to the left. Two shadows covered up the line of light under his door. The sound of a key entering his door and turning was loud enough to penetrate Sasuke's ears. Now, the moment he waited for arrived. The door slowly creaked open. Sasuke tensed up. Into his apartment stepped, to his surprise, not Karin. It was Mr. Haruno, Sakura's father.

Sasuke bolted up, "Mr. Haruno, what are you doing here?"

The man stepped inside and closed the door behind him. He was a large man who had been a well-respected Jonin before he was injured in the previous war. Some say if he hadn't been hurt he would have been a contender to become the fourth hokage. His eyes locked with Sasuke's. They had met a few times before, always on good terms, but now he had a scowl on his face.

"Sasuke, I received a letter today."

Sasuke turned white as a sheet and his eyes looked to the ground in shame. "What was in it?"

"We both know what was in it," he told him with anger in his voice.

He couldn't look back up to his, hopefully, future father-in-law, "That was a long time ago. I thought—"

"Stop. Stop fucking talking!" he bellowed, "I don't want to hear it. I want your relationship with my daughter to end."

Sasuke looked back up immediately. His jaw dropped and he was about to say something when Mr. Haruno cut him off before he even had a chance to speak:

"She'll never listen to me. She'll hate me and more importantly, she will ignore me. It has to be you. Either break up with my daughter or I will show the hokage the evidence I got today."

"Mr. Har—"

"No! Just listen. I've always liked you. You've made my daughter very happy which is why I'm giving you this chance. I won't show this to Tsunade-sama on the condition that you break up with Sakura and leave her alone. If you ever say anything about this meeting, or if you ever contact Sakura beyond a professional level I will arrest you myself. I'll know if you say anything extra. Am I clear?!"

"…yes," he meekly replied with tears building up behind his eyes. He hasn't cried since the massacre.

Mr. Haruno turned around, opened the door and took a step out. He craned his head to the side, "I know she will be sad. Just, let her down easy, but don't give any false hope. Do it tomorrow. She'll get over you."

He slammed the door leaving Sasuke all alone. He sat back on his couch and put his head down in his hands. He felt like crying but he wouldn't let himself. There were plenty of times when he wanted to cry: the anniversary of the massacre, whenever someone mentioned his family or whenever he hurt Sakura, but, he never let himself then and he wasn't going to now. He bottled his emotions as best as he could. He was racking his brain on how he could get around this when his door was unlocked again.

In walked Karin. Sasuke glared up at her.

"Wow, that sounded rough," she taunted, "I wish it hadn't come to that." Karin began walking to him, "I made some copies of your key by the way."

"What do you want?" Sasuke asked in a defeated tone.

Karin got close to him, bent over in a sexual way exposing a lot of cleavage, and kissed him on the lips. He didn't kiss back, but he was at her mercy.

"Just that…for now," Karin teased, "See you tomorrow!"

"Wait!" he called out.

"Yes, Sasuke-kun?"

"Leave Sakura out of this. Whatever, 'this' is.

"Oh Sasuke. If you break up with her I won't have to hurt her. Don't think about telling her about our little meetings."

"Why?"

"It'd ruin the fun," Karin giggled and winked.

8:42 pm, Sasuke's POV

He didn't move from his spot on the couch. He was rethinking the events of the past 24 hours and couldn't think of a way out of it. If he breaks up with her they will both be devastated, obviously. If he doesn't, her father will hate him, expose what he did outside of the village and he will be arrested. There was no foreseeable solution. Besides, Sasuke knows how unstable Karin can be. If she wanted to hurt Sakura she could and would. He couldn't tell Sakura the truth; if Karin found out he couldn't imagine the horrible things Karin would do. Maybe if he breaks up with Sakura, as much as he hated that idea, he could see what else Karin wanted and then he could stop her then.

So his decision was final. He would break up with Sakura.