The rain fell, beating the grey pavement and my toned body. It always reminded me of her. She was like the rain; she could be harsh and unforgiving, but gentle and loving. I watched her walk. Dirty water flowed off her body like wine from a bottle. It looked like she had been training for days. My vision became blurred. The rain had started to pound down harder.

I squinted. I could still see her, but in the few seconds that my vision had left me, she seemed to have gotten father away. I sped up, my eyes locked on the short pink hair I knew so well, and on the womanly curves my brain hadn't gotten used to. When had she gotten so gorgeous? No, that wasn't it. She had always been gorgeous. I just noticed it more.

I thought about what she had most likely done when I had left. Watching her strong, lean body, I knew that it might not be what I imaged. She was different. She was changed. I knew she wouldn't be the same, I just didn't ever think she would be that strong, or that beautiful.

I thought about what happened after I had left. The days ran into weeks, weeks into months, and months into years. I would train and train and train and kill. I would wash the blood off my hands and start again. I was a monster with a cause, which only made it worse.

And yet… every lonely night I thought of her. Every rainy, hazy second without her, my brain played a ever constant reel of her. A flash of long pink hair flowing lazily in the end. A flash of silver as she sliced through her thick mane to save me. A warm feeling as she hugs me. A twang of guilt for leaving her. My heart was obsessed with her being. My soul was taken with her fullness of life. My body lusted after those curves. And yet. And yet, my brain would not accept that I loved her. My brain refused to. It rejected it. It tired to fight it.

And then I saw her for the first time in three years.

She looked stronger, faster, smarter.

She looked like she wasn't a crybaby anymore.

I was proud. She had become strong. She must have worked hard.

Her head turned. As her hair swished and her neck turned, I smirked. And then I saw those pure Emerald eyes for the first time. Even though my face held no trace of anything then arrogance, my heart skipped a beat.

The rain was coming down harder now, and it took more effort then I was accustomed to, to move with my usual stealth. I watched her as she continued walking down the pathway, blissfully unaware of my presence.

For a moment, I wondered if she had perhaps forgotten about me. I wondered if she erased me from her life, like I had tried to do with her. Even though I had failed, miserably, I wondered if she had tried. A pang of deep sorrow struck me deep in the heart at the thought of her not wanting me anymore.

Sometimes, I hated myself for what I had done for her. I remember the stages I had gone through. Denial. I had left her, unconscious, laying on a stone cold bench. It was the perfect metaphor for our relationship. I was cold while she was warm. I kept telling myself that she deserved it. She was a stupid fangirl. I was an avenger. We were different. We would never be the same. We would never follow the same path. I kept repeating this to myself for days. The days turned to weeks, the weeks, to months, the months to a year. One day I had stumbled across a girl with green eyes. They reminded me so much of her. Her lover had been chosen by Orochimaru to become a container within twenty to thirty years time. It seemed like forever, but with this boy's unique bloodline trait, it would mean nothing. He had the ability to not only heal his wounds, he would also live to an incredible age before his skin would fall to a single wrinkle. He was perfect for Orochimaru's growing arsenal.

We had raided the village, looking for him. It had been cleared out, but in the last little hunt, under a hidden trap door, down a stone spiral stair case, to a cold limestone room, with ancient looking torches sending an ancient looking glow across the room, sat a boy, whom looked to be my age, maybe slightly older, with a completely blank face.

A girl sat behind him, her arms wrapped around his stomach, her face buried into his back, her body shaking with such force from the gushing of tears that she moved them both. As she let out a particularly long sob, a flicker of anguish flashed across the boys face.

I stopped as the girl pulled her head up to look at me. Her eyes glistened with tears. Those eyes were like my Sakura's. Those eyes held a truth that I didn't want to know. Those eyes held the pain I didn't want to withstand. I looked at them.

I walked up to them. I had pulled a kunai from my thigh holster. I walked up to the boy. He stared blankly ahead, but tears slowly streamed from his eyes. The girl cried harder, her long black hair bouncing around from the force of her angst. I was stood in front of them the girl let out a long, dramatic sob. The boy spoke.

"Please, Aryn, do not cry. I wish to be taken with honor."

I sliced through the skin on his arms. He let out a short cry, but it was soon extinguished. The girl had stopped making noise, but I saw her eyes open wide in horror was warm blood flowed on to her fore arms, and her hands and fingers.

As I looked in her eyes, I saw a girl trying to protect a boy she loved.
As I looked in her eyes, I saw a girl I once knew.
As I looked in her eyes, I saw what I had done to her.
As I looked in her eyes, I saw a truth I didn't want to know.

"Take off your shirt. Wipe your blood all over it. Give me your Hitai-ate and run. Don't ever stop running. Don't ever stop running until you know he's dead. Don't ever stop running until you know, deep down inside, he'll never come after you. Take her. Leave and never come back. Forget what's happened. Forget my face. Forget the curse mark. This is nothing but a dream. This is nothing but a figment of time. This, this is nothing."

They both looked at me with shock etched across their faces, but quickly the boy did as he was told. As soon as they had finished, the girl threw herself at my feet and said,

"Thank you. Thank you."

My heart hardened. She sounded so much like my Sakura.

"But why?"

I looked down at the ground. Then across at the stone wall.

"Because you reminded me why I live." I responded before I knocked them both out, smeared his blood across my body, and his Hitai-ate and slowly walked up the spiral stone stair case.

Questions had been asked, and answered. He had killed himself, and his lover, in order to escape the horror of Orochimaru's dungeons. I had suffered a slight consequence, for not preventing this, but nothing I hadn't dealt with.

I still couldn't understand why I had let them go free, to grow old in their love, to make love, and carry on a lineage.

I chalked it up to a weakness for green eyes.

I crept closer to her, flying from to tree to tree behind her. I became to recognize the path she walked. She ventured to where I had left her all those years ago. She walked to a place that stirred memories and emotions.

I remember the second stage. Anger. The night I had let the lovers free, I tortured myself. And then again the night after that, and then again the night after that, and then again and again until days dragged to weeks, and months and then a year. I would not forgive myself. I would not make it stop. I would never let it go.

And then I had seen those green eyes. It was in a dream, a flash of a memory played in a restless night of sleep. A flash of emerald green, with a sound of laughter and the sight of pink hair flowing in the wind. I remember that she wasn't any girl.

She was my Sakura.

And my Sakura was stronger now. My Sakura was not a quitter. My Sakura, was my Sakura. She would understand. She would grow up. She would move on.

I had moved on to the final stage of acceptance.

I watched as the rain pelted us both harder. It came down in great sleets from the heavens, and it seemed the gods were trying to prevent me from getting to her. I would get to her. She was my Sakura.

I jumped from a tree, on to the stone pavement. I made no sound. Like lighting, I was in a flash behind her. She had stopped and been looking at the ground. She now looked up, and for the first time in such a long time, I heard her sweet voice;

"Hello Sasuke-kun."

Her words rolled out in the rain, and the chill of the air froze the moisture within them, making puffs of condensation rise from her lips. I leaned in, positioning my lips by the nape of her neck, before responding;

"It's been a long time Sakura." I knew my breath would tickle her senses. I knew it would warm her, even if it was for only a second in time.

She then responded with an expected phrase.

"Are you going to kill me, Sasuke-kun?" I knew she expected it. I knew she had heard the stories. I also knew the story she couldn't even dream of. I smiled.
"Do you expect me to, Sakura?" My breath played at her ear.
"I do, Sasuke." I stepped closer, my body warmth combinding with hers, mingling with hers, becoming one with hers.

Up close, I noticed how strong she had become. I noticed how gorgeous she was. I noticed that she had nothing to give the impression she was involved with another man.

"And why would I do that? It seems as if you've been waiting for me." I responded, cool and calculated. I was so close to her now. I wasn't even touching her but every cell in my body was alive. Every pore wanted to soak her in. Every essence of my being had missed this cherry blossom.

"I do still love you, Sasuke-kun." She whispered and I exploded. I let the words sink into my brain. I let them sink into my core. I let them sink into my being.

I listened to the beautiful song of a bird sing, of the rain falling, and of time stopping.

"I know." Was all that I whispered in her ear before I was infront of her, kissing her with passion I didn't know I had. Kissing her in a way I didn't think was possible. In way I had only heard in fairy tales. I kissed her and kissed her and kissed her until we both couldn't seem to breathe.

We took a breath. We took a breath and she was crying, and holding on to me with everything she had one second, and then banging her fists against my chest with no real anger, but with a heavy amount of sadness. I wrapped my arms around her. She broke down in my arms. I picked her up.

I ran. I ran to the only place I had once remembered as home. I ran through the soggy streets, through the rain, through the doubt, and the anger, the hatred, and sadness and into the love of Sakura's heart. I ran and reached a side of town so worn down it seemed nonexistent. I was home. I was home and I was never going to leave. I was home and she would always be there with me.

I walked, her body shaking against mine. Her arms wrapped around her neck. Her tears streaming down my chest. I walked through our broken community. I walked until I came to our house.

I went through the gateway and after setting Sakura on her feet for a second, I opened the door. In the doorway, I removed our shoes, and then picked her up again. She was terribly fatigued, I could tell. I was too. We needed sleep.

I walked to my parents old room, because I knew it would have the biggest bed. I forgot the painful memories that filled this place, that crept under floorboards and seeped through the ceiling and focused on the pink haired girl in my arms. I slide open the door to my parents room, and walked through.

It was cold, I immediately noticed, and Sakura shook in my arms. I pulled back old blankets, that had somehow fought and won against the test of time, and looked at the fire place, which was located at the foot of the bed. Deciding to put Sakura in the bed for now, I lowered her down and detached her body from hers. As much as I regretted her warmth leaving mine, I knew it would return later. After venturing out into the rain for wood, I returned to find Sakura, completely encased by the old blankets sitting on the floor in front of the fire place. Her ninja supplies, and over dress sat on a chair by a desk on the right of the room. She looked up when I entered.

"I thought it was a dream." She whispered. I lay the firewood down inside the fireplace, and lit it. We immediately had a crackling fire. I sat down on her left. She hesitated before leaning into me, enveloping my body in her cocoon of blankets. I slowly removed my shirt, and placed it on the ground behind me, before laying on top of it, her small body resting against mine.

The rain pounded on the roof. The rain pounded on the ground. The rain pounded on the trees. The rain pounded on the broken bits of wood that lay strewn about outside. But the rain no longer pounded on my heart, and with the warmth of Sakura's silky skin against me, I fell asleep.