A/N: Warning. Sasuke is a bit OOC

Disclaimer: I am not Japanese, therefore me no own Naruto.


Weapons littered the ground around the woman as she stood in the moonlight in the middle of the large clearing, back to him.

"Why don't you just kill me already? Please." The heartbreak was evident in her voice. "I'm not going to fight you."

The silence stretched between them as he stared at her silhouette from the edge of the clearing.

"No. I did not come here to fight you or kill you." His voice was like ice, just like it had always been.

She whirled to face him. "Then why?"

"I came to bring you back with me."

Her eyes widened. He came for me?

"They need your medical skills, Sakura."

Her eyes narrowed as she turned around and crossed her arms. "I see."

He took in the sight of her. Her skin was radiant and her elbow-length pink hair seemed to glow in the moonlight as it blew in the gentle breeze. She had changed a lot during the last twelve years. She had gotten taller and had developed womanly curves that were no doubt envied by women and sought after by men. Not to mention how she had grown in skill. She had become twice as powerful as Tsunade, which surprised him since she had been the weakest of Team Seven. Now, she could definitely hold her own, if not surpass, him and Naruto.

Sakura sighed. "You haven't changed a bit, have you?"

After a pause, he replied. "I have."

She rounded to face him once more, fury in her gaze. "Really now. How, exactly, did you change? You're still the same cold, distant, arrogant, little twelve year-old boy who thinks that I will just fall at your feet like I had done as a genin. You're still hungry for power, and you'll kill innocent people to get what you want. You don't even care about your old team, do you? No, you probably don't. Because the great human rock known as Uchiha Sasuke never shows his emotions or he wouldn't be perfect. Not to mention the fact that you nearly killed Naruto and Kakashi or that you left me on a freakin' bench! So please, tell me. Tell me how you've changed. Tell me if what I've said is wrong."

The Uchiha only stared at the glaring woman in front of him, rendered speechless. Never had she spoken to him like that, and never had she looked more beautiful than she did right now with that fire in her emotion-filled eyes and her perfect kissable mouth.

She frowned at the man before her. "I thought as much."

She turned and summoned her weapons with a jutsu Tenten taught her, when his voice stopped her.

He stepped towards her, out of the shadow and into the moonlight.

"Wrong."

She turned her head to look at him. "Pardon me?"

"You're wrong."

Her whole body turned to face him and she crossed her arms.

"Oh, really. Tell me how then."

"I'm not like I was twelve years ago. I am not arrogant, nor am I as "cold and distant" as you put it." He stepped towards her. "I do not hunger for power, have not for quite sometime because I realized there are more important things in life. I have never, and will never, kill innocent people. Actually, I do care for my team. Otherwise, you would have been killed a long time ago. And, yes, I do show emotions." As he talked, he closed the space between them until he was right in front of her. "I'll prove it to you."

She looked up at him in surprise and had no time to react before his lips were on hers. All thoughts of hers (and his, for that matter) flew out the window as her arms wound themselves around his neck, while one of his wrapped around her waist while his other hand wound itself in her hair. They pulled apart for air, and he smiled down at the blushing woman in his arms. Ever softening onyx met deep emerald pools.

"Haruno Sakura," he began, his voice husky and breathless, "You have no idea how long I have wanted to do that." He gently tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. "God, I've missed you Sakura. These last twelve years have been hell without you. Every waking and sleeping moment, you were there in my thoughts."

She watched his face as he pulled out a small box and held it out to her. She stared at it, eyes wide. Timidly, she took it from him and opened it.

"Oh my God!" she gasped. "Sasuke, it's beautiful."

"I know." He smiled, looking at her.

Inside the box was a silver necklace with a jade pendant carved with intricate designs. She looked up at him with big, shining eyes and a heart-stopping smile.

"Thank you. Um, will you..?" she gestured to the necklace.

"Of course."

As he reached around her to put the necklace on her, Sakura gasped as the Uchiha symbol on the back caught the moonlight and looked up at him once more. He saw the question in her eyes and answered.

"It was my mother's, and before her, my grandmother's, and so on. Every Uchiha matriarch has received this necklace, and then passes it down to either her oldest son or the next head of family to give to the woman he loves the most."

"Does that mean…?" she ventures.

"It means that I love you, Haruno Sakura, and I was a fool to leave you."

"Really?" was the only intelligible answer she could voice, and when he nodded (blushing, of course), she pulled him down for another searing kiss that left them both breathless and smiling.

"Well then," she looked up at him with a smile. "Guess we better go to those people who need my skills."

"I guess we shall." He replied, eyes shining.

"So where are we going?" she asked as they walked.

"Konoha."

"Konoha?" she looked at him surprised, and that's when she noticed, for the first time, that he was wearing the standard gear of an ANBU captain and an unslashed Leaf headband.

He took her had in his and smiled.

"Yep."

That meant he had gone back to Konoha sometime in the last nine years that she had spent training herself as well as an apprentice, who had left her tutelage two years ago, and traveling.

"When did you return?"

"About eight years ago, I think. You were the reason, you know. When I came back, I was on two years of probation. Imagine my surprise to find that you were gone, and no one knew where you were. So as soon as I was off probation, I went to the Hokage to get permission to search for you. Of course, I got permission, but I had to be an ANBU captain first. So I trained, and that took me four years. As soon as I passed the test and went through the whole promotion ceremony, Naruto made it a mission to find you, if only to keep me from leaving in the middle of the night without persmission. Took me two years, but I finally found you." He smiled down at the petite woman. "For such a unique and remarkable woman, you are very hard to find."

"You spent two years… on me?" The thought rendered her speechless, when she realized something else. "Wait, Naruto gave you a mission?"

"He's Hokage now; has been for five years." He chuckled. "The dobe got the title, and tied the knot with Hinata two years ago."

"About time! He started courting her ten years ago. So, if Naruto is Hokage, what happened to Tsunade?" she asked worriedly.

"Well, she was last seen a few years ago with Orochimaru."

Her eyes widened. "What? Well, what was the outcome of the battle?"

"Well, you see… They weren't, uh… exactly, um, fighting."

Confusion lit her features. "Huh?"

"They were… Eloping."