1. Crash (SasuSaku)

The fall from a high horse hurt, the crash to the painful ground was like having the darkness coil around his heart and break away the veins and snap the nerves from his spinal cord and devour them whole. He crashed to the ground when Sakura managed to get around his team, when she pulled back her gloved fist, and he could see the chakra swirl around in her hand and how it would form a very painful punch and the realization that not only he had grown, but the rest of Team seven, his friends, all of Konoha had grown as well. Sasuke grit his teeth and let vengeance take a hold of his mind once again even as Sakura's fist smashed down over his nose; he was here for a reason, a reason, damnit, and he wasn't going to mess this one up as well. Itachi needed to die before he could even feel pity for the people, the life, he left when he let the final blow plow across Naruto.

Sakura reeled back and contracted her muscles and Sasuke could see the tears smearing down her checks and could see her next move. So he stepped aside and pulled out his blade, one hand holding Sakura by the neck.

If he said her name then, things might had have turned out different.

He could hear Naruto behind him, screaming and yelling and he could feel the red chakra lash his back but more than ever he could feel Sakura's heart-beat. Fast, erratic, terribly moral and petty. Sasuke didn't even flinch when Sakura broke his thumb while trying to pry his hand off her throat.

"Sasuke," She managed to get out from behind gritted teeth and the tone was so painful but so lost when it funneled in one ear and out the other.

The final blow was quick and unforgiving, and not nearly as fatal as it should have been. Orochimaru had said he was still too soft. Sasuke turned to Naruto and he knew, when it came to his final blow, that he wouldn't fail again, because he had one reason to live and unfortunately, Sakura and Naruto only stood in his way like they always had.

When Sasuke moved away from Sakura, leaving her panting and gasping and bleeding, he didn't spare her even a glance.

2. Eternal (SasuSaku)

She strived, day in day out, to gain power. She wasn't like Naruto, who had been cursed with his personal demon which side effects included chakra that just didn't stop flowing and a power source that kept pumping out power even when his body was rendered useless. She needed more power, if not for herself then for that bastard.

Power is eternal, the only real thing that could sway tides. Friendship was expendable, family was expendable and Sakura didn't know when she had become so cynical. She had cried daily for so long maybe she had just run out of tears sometime, run out of all those emotions that made man compassionate.

She needed to train; she needed power to bring Sasuke back to convince herself that the world wasn't so cruel- that bonds, heavy bonds laden with subtext and dependence, couldn't be so easily shattered. She knew she was being incredibly selfish but she swore this would be the last self-indulgence she'd give herself as every chakra-bound blow hit the target and warped it beyond recognition.

3. Dismiss (NaruSasu)

Sasuke had always just waved Naruto off as a dobe, as dead-last, as worth nothing but dog shit on the bottom of his shoe, but at some point Naruto had transformed like something had snapped and broken and shattered inside the blond idiot and Sasuke wasn't sure if he should have been scared of just amused because not matter how hard Naruto tried he'd just never reach the level Sasuke was perched on. It just wouldn't happen and Sasuke knew Naruto knew and Sasuke was so amused by the futile attempts at trying to restore his faith in Konoha.

His eyes sometimes flickered with nostalgia, with yearning, when he remember the way Naruto had held him so tightly, the way the tears plopped on his cheeks and how viscous that red chakra had felt; he had been dead but he could still feel the anguish, the rage. The hate that rivaled his hate for Itachi.

The way his heart clenched and how his throat tightened as he ran his fingers over the tiny pin-point scars that decorated his neck was painful and Sasuke had easily dismissed the feeling like he dismissed Naruto's attempts at getting to his level of power.

4. Cheat (NaruSasuSaku)

It smelt a little like alcohol; the apartment, that is, the one Naruto lived in. Sakura could hear the blond grunting as he trained and pushed his body and made himself spasm in a fit of pain and how he just kept on going and going. She could vaguely hear Naruto chanting something that sounded a lot like "Trash, trash, trash, dead last, trash," And it didn't come as new news that Naruto was still doing the stupid things he had done in the beginning, back when Team 7 was actually Team 7 and Sakura could feel the emotional strain it had on her, she could feel her mental wellbeing unravel everyday she was away from Sasuke and she knew, she just had the gut feeling it was hurting Naruto more because he just couldn't stop needing and pushing and wanting and cursing Sasuke.

Sakura closed her eyes and sat down by the coffee table, her legs folded underneath her and her green eyes closed tight as she started to organize Naruto's scrolls and magazines and whatever else he had thrown half-mindedly to the table.

Sakura would be the last to admit that she needed, wanted, strived for Sasuke just as much as Naruto did just for face, because she knew Naruto would only complement her for her fighting spirit and being so clingy and stupid and star-crossed was the last thing she wanted to be praised for.

As she cleaned and organized, she heard the chant clearer than she had before. Trash, dead last, bastard, cheater, dobe, trash, trash, trash…"

5. Glass (NaruSaku)

So many things were made of glass: windows, doors, hearts, bonds… and it hurt every time one shattered, every time he stepped on the shards and how they dug into his feet and how kyuubi healed the soles so fast that the glass was trapped inside and it was cutting open tendon and flesh and it hurt so bad every time something shattered and every time Sakura wasn't there to remove the shards from his foot.

There were still shards that Sakura couldn't touch, couldn't heal, couldn't remove from his being.

Kyuubi, isolation, desolation, Sasuke. They hurt and stung and dug and Naruto could only howl in pain as they clawed into him and tore tiny paths and Naruto wished Sakura could fix everything, any thing, but she just couldn't and Naruto couldn't place that burden on her lithe shoulders and he didn't want to shoulder it himself but he had to because it was the right thing to do. So when Sakura sat next to him in Ichiraku Ramen and picked at the noodles half heartedly, Naruto would lean over and lean his head on her shoulder, "Someday, Sakura, someday soon you won't need to try anymore."

The way Sakura didn't reply signaled to Naruto that she knew what he was talking about.