eclipsed

by DeathberryLove

Konoha's gate alarms don't ring off but Sakura knows better than to question her instincts a second time.

He arrives just as she has her arms around her daughter and is hitching her off from the kitchen top.

"Mina-chan, take your brother and activate the seal in your room. I'll come for you once it's safe." She whispers into her daughter's pink hair that smells freshly of orchid and lavender from shampoo. Her heart calms a little as her daughter sensibly scoops up her crying baby brother and disappears up the stairs and he doesn't make a move for them. She finally sets her eyes on the man before her and she feels nothing but hatred. The sight of him makes her heart skip but not from the same emotions as before.

"How dare you." She musters all her strength to stop the shaking in her voice. "How dare you come back here of all places."

His hair is longer, unkempt and untamed but she can clearly see red eyes from beneath the tickle of his bangs. He's taller from the last time she saw him and she is startled by his frame and build, wondering how much power they contain within. She, on the other hand, is dressed in an apron and sweats, her long pink hair tied messily into a knot - with no weapons on her, she's in no position to fight.

"Heal me." He orders and she is chilled by how his voice has only gone deeper. She is not surprised of his request; after all she has heard the rumours.

"You're wrong if you think you can seek help or repentance here. You killed the only person who ever cared so strongly about you. I'm not the same."

He scoffs at this and she hates how she will never have the upper hand. "Do I look like I'm here for forgiveness? I'm here because you have what I need. You were the easiest and most convenient option, that's all."

She knows his choice of words weren't arbitrary. They sting and she doesn't know how to reply.

"Come on Sakura, it's easy enough. Here I am, asking you for help."

"Don't mock me!" she snaps and he laughs manically like he did those many years ago at the waterfall.

In an instance she feels the familiar choking hold around her neck as he appears in front of her and pushes her back, locking her body in between his and the sink and cabinets. She tightens her fist in preparation but his next move takes her completely off guard. He touches his forehead against hers and roughly mashes his lips against hers. She loses all coherent thought at the much missed warmth of a body pressed so tightly against hers in intimacy.

"Funny." He breathes against her lips. "I'd have to wait twenty years to taste the easiest woman of all."

She freezes at the smarting of his harsh, demeaning words and as she feels his tongue against her lips she manages to snap awake and tear her face away, throwing a chakra-filled punch.

Sakura sends him hurtling across the dining table, crashing through the large windows and out onto the street. She feels herself slide to the floor in a helpless heap as her mind reels with pleasure and disgust. The emotions and memories of a teenager flood back into her mind, but hearing the yelling of her son and daughter, she picks herself off from the floor. His footsteps approaching amidst the crumbling rubble sharpens her senses.

Sakura, snap out of it.

Before he makes a move she slams her feet into his face as she propels herself from the breaking table and round kicks him in the face. He's down again and she's quick to follow, bouncing on the balls of her feet to warm up, well aware that if he draws his sword she's a goner.

I can do this.

She uses all her might to smash in his jaw and he's bleeding profusely but he blocks her continuous onslaught, jumping back to create distance.

Shit!

She hears the Konoha gate alarms resounding through the village. He unsheathes his katana and before she knows it, the sound of a thousand birds screeching pierces the air and she finds herself screaming in unimaginable pain, writhing on the ground.

"The procedure itself takes several days. There's no way I can do this in one night, let alone the minutes we have before they catch you." Sakura flips the pages of notes and books before her, sprawled on the ground on her knees. She feels the cold blade held at her neck move a little closer.

"Bullshit."

Sakura throws up her hands in exasperation. "You're asking me to find a cure for a century-old disease in your bloodline. This isn't as simple as a transplant!"

"Don't make me threaten your children."

She shakes her head. "I need time."

"Then I'll come back tomorrow night. And the next. Spin some story to your comrades until you've healed me completely."

She wants to laugh at the ridiculousness of it all as she heard explosions overhead. They are deep in one of the old vaulted archives underneath the Hokage tower but it wouldn't take the shinobi forever to put together the pieces once they saw her damaged house. "If you get out tonight, there is no way you're getting back into Konoha a second time."

"You don't have to worry about that."

Sakura stares blankly at the books she gathered to do with ocular diseases. At last she sighs. "I can start with short preparations tonight just to examine your current state."

If I can even just numb his senses and block his chakra lines, he'll be weakened immensely.

As he lies down and closes his eyes, she kneels beside him and carefully changes the usual warm green glow that comes with the healing of wounds to something darker. She's halfway done before she feels him twitch beneath her hands as he senses the changes to his body.

Impulsively, she reaches for the emergency kunai pouch stored in every vault that she found and hid when looking through the shelves earlier. She stabs it right down at his abdomen and he convulses. She straddles his hips and holds the kunai firmly in place while placing a hand on his chest to continue the internal damage to his nerves and chakra. Her position is one of triumph, but the guttural pounding in her chest is the worst feeling in the world. It's only a few moments later before she realizes he isn't struggling, that he hasn't even tried to reach for his katana, only a few inches from his hand. Realization dawns on her.

"What a cowardly way to die."

He coughs a little but his voice is still clear. "I never said I was anything else besides an avenger. And now, you've gotten your revenge."

"You handed it to me." She laughs bitterly. "You can't just let me redeem myself in front of you, can you?"

Blood dribbles from his lips but he pulls them upward in a smirk. "I came to say goodbye to twelve-year old Haruno Sakura. I could care less about who you are in front of me right now."

She slaps him. Not with a palm filled with chakra. But a simple slap one would've seen in TV dramas when either the girl's being petty or the boy's a jerk. She hears the shouting of fellow shinobi finally getting closer.

"You two have beautiful children."

"Tell him yourself before you go to hell."

Her hand moves up to Sasuke's chest and she can feel his system shutting down.

"You're an asshole." She tells him, as unbidden tears stream down her face.

He doesn't disagree.

/note: I would totally sympathize with you if the story felt really muddled, forced or didn't make much sense. Writing this was really more of way for me to vent out my feelings about the Sasuke-Sakura relationship as of now: how she never will have the chance to beat the crap out of him for all the stuff he's done, how he'll never acknowledge her as someone worthy of being his opponent and despite being a SasuSaku fan, I think she'd be able to grow out of her shell and becoming a stronger person without him, stuff like that. Feel free to share any thoughts on this, I'd love some feedback (: