Title: A Certain Kind of Inclination
Pairing: Sasuke x Sakura

Chapter Summary: "Love isn't supposed to hurt, Sasuke." He noted the lack of suffix. "Not like this."

Notes: Here it is, my first anthology. I have no idea how many one-shots I am going to write, but I am open for ideas and requests. Actually, I would LOVE ideas and requests and prompts. I do want each one-shot to contain at least some reference to love and how it works or shouldn't work, but it doesn't have to be the primary focus of the one-shot (as you will see below). I hope you enjoy!

01. Wait for me

"It's never going to be me, is it?"

Sasuke simply stared at his former teammate, who was bruised and battered from the war that was going on around them. If only for curiosity's sake, he wondered what she was doing here. He wondered, but he would never ask.

"Don't just look at me, Sasuke-kun." She ordered, her voice conveying a conglomeration of different emotions—anger, sadness, exasperation, and a barely detectable glimmer of hope. She was broken; he could see that much. It didn't matter how hard she tried to keep up her outward appearance. "Answer me." This order much less a command than a request—a plea. A plea for help. A plea for anything.

Sasuke did not answer and turned away. He did not have the time to deal with such insignificant matters. He needed to catch up with his teammates and the snake son of a bitch, who he had already told to go ahead.

"Please Sasuke-kun!" She shouted. A few tears escaped from her eyes as she stomped her foot, shattering the earth around her.

A part of Sasuke—only a small part, the small part he'd buried away for years, the part he thought died when he found out the truth about his brother—felt for her. So he paused and turned around.

"Che—weak." He snarled, amused by the irony that this girl could smash boulders with her pinky finger but couldn't fight back her foolish tears.

At this, Sakura stopped crying. "I know."

Her eyes were dimmer than what he remembered, and Sasuke questioned briefly if they had been this way the last time they met. Something was missing from them. That glimmer of hope, he realized—it was gone from them now.

"I love you with all my heart," she uttered, the words being quite familiar even if the scene was somewhat different. At least this time, she wasn't shouting them at his back.

Sasuke remained apathetic. He briefly pondered why he hadn't simply killed her, but stopped before he would find his answer. He didn't want to find an answer.

"I know it's never going to be me, Sasuke-kun. I know. I know it's always going to be someone, something else." She choked out the words. She was determined to finish what she had to say, even if each word she voiced felt like another dagger digging deeper into her own heart. "Itachi, the elders, who knows what you're after now."

She paused, her eyes closed—either fighting back tears or carefully deliberating her next words. Or both. Probably both.

"I just—I thought…"

"Sakura," Sasuke interrupted. His voice was cold, harsh. "What do you want?"

"I want you love me Sasuke-kun!" She bit. "But I know that isn't going to happen. So I want you to say it. That it's never going to be me. So I can hear it. So I can hear it from you and hopefully move on. Not from loving you. But at least from the pain." Tears were streaming down her face now, her arms wrapped around herself, trying to hold it all together.

Her next words were the first ones Sasuke had ever really heard Sakura say in his life.

"Love isn't supposed to hurt, Sasuke." He noted the lack of suffix. "Not like this."

She paused, waiting for him to answer. Waiting for him to say those words that would break her heart a hundred times again.

But Sasuke—he said nothing.

"I can't keep waiting for you," She spat. She was angry that he couldn't at least give her this. Closure. Anything but pain and heartache. "I have to go, Sasuke-kun. I have a war to get back to."

And with that, she turned to leave so that for once in his life, Sasuke would see her back walking away.

But there was a pull on her wrist, a grip, a hand that she hadn't felt in a long time. Before she knew it, Sasuke's lips were crashing upon hers. And their kiss was rough and passionate and bitter and deep and angry and – hopeful. And then it was over. And Sasuke was gone.

"Wait for me, Saukra. Just a little bit longer."

A/N: Reviews will be loved!