Shots Fired in the Dark
by Moonraker One

A/N: Sorry to all you SasuSaku fans, this is how I think it should be. If certain characters are OOC, just remember this is about fifteen years in the future from the timeskip, and they're late twenties/early thirties.

The chill of the autumn air leaked into the pub from outside every time the doors opened. Seated at a far table just ten feet from the bar was a lone kunoichi, after hours. She stared at the patterns in the wood tabletop without regard to the loud music or the customers glancing her way occasionally. Every now and then, in between the infrequent tear she wiped away, she'd lift her glass and take a long drink, making love to her sake for just a moment. Then she'd set the glass down, wait for the alcohol to hit her, then stare at the wood again. Her chest felt empty; a deep black hole swirling within her rib cage, in place of her heart, sucking the life out of her soul one day at a time. She still had the same routine and situation she always did. She still got up every morning and did her rounds at the Konoha hospital (the only kunoichi with a perfect healing record), went to change her clothes and shower, then came here and drank before going home to sleep. Her situation hadn't changed in almost ten years since the Orochimaru incident. There was, however, one important distinction between then and now; her life was gone.

She thought about how long she'd pined for him in her teenage years, and how pitiful her life had become as a result. Sasuke Uchiha, the dark-haired survivor of the Uchiha clan, had been the resident teen heartthrob, and no bigger fangirl of his existed than Sakura. As she sat at her table, drinking her pain away, she thought of him. It made her laugh in irony for but a moment before the pain came back; he was the first thing she thought of when she thought she drank him away. A man tried to walk by her table and hit on her, but she didn't even look at him and he walked away. He returned to his table and she overheard the whispering. "Don't talk to her," they'd whisper to the uneducated. "Sakura is not to be disturbed. She's really emotional, or something."

She left her money on the table and staggered out of the bar. The world swaying left and right as she tried her best to navigate her drunken eyesight, she somehow made it down the pathway towards her house without stumbling and falling. However, on this particular evening, as opposed to the previous months, she decided to swallow her fear (or rather, the alcohol decided she should swallow her fear), and she made a slight detour.

Naruto heard the banging on his door that nearly unhinged it. He pulled it open. She tried her best to get up his two-step stairway to his house but the alcohol decided against it. His hand shot up and snatched the back of her shirt, pulling her up the step before she had a chance to fall. "S...Sakura-chan?" he asked. "Is everything okay."

"N...No...It ain't...isn't...not okay...okay at all..." she slurred. Every time she opened her mouth a foul alcohol stench came out; he said nothing and did not betray his disappointment. "My life...my life ha...has gone...gone to shit...fuck my life I...I don't think I'll ever stop hurting..." He closed his eyes a moment to prevent her from seeing him roll his eyes. Her legs gave in, so he dragged her to his couch and put her in a seated position, sitting across from her.

"What's wrong?" he asked, knowing automatically the problem. Sasuke is what's wrong.

She shook her head. "Fuck," she swore. Sasuke isn't with me, she would have said.

"Sakura, I'll let you spend the night here tonight if you want, but you have to leave in the morning."

She looked hurt, as though he'd stabbed her. "Wh...why can...can't you trust...me?"

He cringed, as though revealing the truth would get him killed. "I...can't afford to. The last time you got drunk and spent the night here, I let you stay for two days; you went through my stuff and stole money from me, to go out drinking some more."

She looked down. "Fu...ck...did I...really do that?" She shook her head. "Oh, God...I'm...I'm sorry, Naru-kun."

She's mispronouncing my name, he noticed. She only does that when she's REALLY stoned. He cleared his throat. "Let me give you some water, it'll help the hangover in the morning." He left and went to the kitchen to get a glass of water.

She leaned over and lifted a picture from the table to her field of vision. It was Naruto, and Hinata; they never looked happier than in the photo as they clutched each other tight on a camping trip three years ago. Hinata with that nervous grin, Naruto with that stupid look he always had, holding onto each other as if to let go would mean death. Why couldn't she have had that with Sasuke?

He came back from the kitchen and gave her the water. "Than...you," she slurred again.

"Anything," he replied.

"Narut...o...kun...I'm sorry I had to burden...you li...like this, you mus...must hate me..."

He smiled. "I can't hate you."

She looked at him, shocked. "What?"

He looked her in the eyes. "I have never hated you."

"What do you mean?" she forced herself to sober up at least a bit; she had to hear this.

He shook his head; he didn't want to say it. Finally, he figured, what the hell, she's drunk and won't remember this in the morning. "I've always loved you."

She felt as though she'd been hit by a truck. "Always...loved me?" How could such a thing be? She'd never noticed it before. "I always...always thought you were just a friend."

"From the moment I saw you, you stole my heart," he confessed. "I wanted to be with you the first time you walked up to me and ordered me to move so you could sit next to Sasuke. It was love at first sight, I'm not lying or exaggerating."

She could have died that moment. "Then...what happened between you and me?"

He wanted to strangle her when she asked such an obvious question, but swallowed his anger and spoke gently. "Sakura-chan, Sasuke always got in the way. I wanted you; I needed you. You never wanted or needed me. You never loved me the way I loved you. You made that clear countless times. You never looked at me that way or even saw what I was feeling; you treated me like shit. Sasuke left, I hate to say this, but I thought bam! That'd be the chance for us to get together because he was out of the way! No, the first thing you did was ask me to bring him back."

Tears started to form; she fought them back. Nothing would prevent her from hearing the whole story. Although, she wanted to rip her own heart out to get out of hearing it. "Then why...why didn't you say no? Why didn't you tell me then?"

He laughed. Each chuckle cut her like a knife. "Sakura-chan, I've never been able to say no to you! I've loved you too much."

She forced herself to a standing position. "I've...got to...got to go..."

He stood up, rubbing her hair with a warm smile. "I'm with Hinata now. I care about her more than anything in this world." He looked at her sad eyes. "There will always be a place in my heart for you; I've tried for years but I can't stop loving you." HE began to tear up. "But I can't stay with you; I can't live with you because when I tried the pain was too great."

Sakura left the house. She tripped going down the two steps and fell face first into dirt. Her tears poured full force and turned some of the dirt to mud. His words had torn a hole through her soul. Finally the truth had been told. She didn't want to move, didn't want to go home, she just wanted to die. To smother herself in the soil, but when she saw that people wouldn't let her, she moved on. In the privacy of her home, no one cared what happened. So she entered the door of her empty home, surrounded by her material possessions.

"Why didn't I see it?...!" she screeched. "Why did I push him aside until he couldn't stand me anymore! WHY!...?"

She pushed a chair under one of the ceiling beams. Going out to her shed she found a section of rope. Her training had taught her exactly how to die a perfect knot. So she tied a knot and looped some around her neck in a lasso style. The other side she tied to the beam and pulled it taught so she could jump and end it all. She closed her eyes and a lone tear hit the floor. I'm sorry, Naruto. You won't have to suffer because of me anymore.

RAP. RAP.

She could have laughed at the situation; someone knocking on her door, right as she was about to kill herself. She couldn't let them see, so she undid the rope from the beam and her neck and put it under the couch. "Coming!" she said, hiding her emotions. She answered the door.

"Sakura-chan," Sasuke answered.

She activated chakra in her brain, expecting it to be genjutsu; no. This was him. Her initial desire was to throw herself upon him and kiss him forever. Then she saw his outfit. He's wearing Orochimaru's get up, she noticed. It was him indeed; he had none of the snake ninja's actions or personality quirks. But the outfit proved he still recognized the sannin as his lord.

"I came back as part of Sound Village's new treaty with Konohagakure now that Orochimaru is dead," he told her. "I figured if there's one person I could visit during this business trip it's you. Just wanted to show you I'm still alive and okay."

She glared at him; again, he said nothing of her. It was all about him once again. Naruto's words boiled up; a hatred she never knew she had came with it. "So why'd you come here?" she asked him.

"I figured I'd let you know I'm okay! Geez. Why're you so angry?"

She stood open-mouthed. "Why am I so angry? DID YOU SERIOUSLY JUST ASK SUCH A FUCKING STUPID QUESTION?...!"

He stood back like a wounded animal. "What's wrong?" Cripes, why's she like this? She'd always welcome me back with open arms before!

"I CARED ABOUT YOU, DICK-HEAD! I SPENT MY TEENAGE YEARS PINING FOR YOU!"

"We can have that again! Just come back with me to Otogak..."

"Oh, so now you can just waltz back into my life after abandoning me! Fuck you, Sasuke!"

"Sakura, calm down!"

She persisted despite his backing away. "Fuck you and your calm down! When we were fifteen Naruto almost died trying to bring you back! That was almost fourteen years ago! I was so obsessed with you I never noticed that Naruto loved me when you didn't!"

He got angry. "Naruto, loves you and I don't, you say?"

She shook her head. THERE'S the Sasuke I knew. "See? You don't give a fuck about me! You just came to find out if Naruto took the one prize you always had to flaunt!"

"Well...I..."

"Fuck you! Naruto married Hinata because I was too much into you to notice love when it was practically grabbing my hair!" She composed herself. "But you know what? That's a mistake I don't intend to continue. Get off my porch, get out of my life, I never fucking want to see you again. Leave. NOW."

He walked away, no guilt, no remorse at all. The past meant nothing to him, just as she suspected. She looked inside at the chair and the beam. No, she decided. If I do it he wins; fuck him. She walked on. Maybe the ramen stand had some food good for hangover treatment.

A set of footsteps she heard behind her. "Sasuke, I thought I told you...Lee?"

"I saw what you did back there," he told her. "I have to say, I was surprised at what you said."

She smiled. "Thank you."

"You smell drunk, Sakura. I'll take you home and sober you up. My curry is the best ever!"

The alcohol came back, and she stumbled. He draped her arm around his neck. "I'll take...you up on that, Lee..." she said, as he carried her back to his house. I get to hold Sakura as I help her walk! YOSH!

"You'll be great in the morning if you eat my curry tonight."

"You're a...a real...a real pal...Lee..."

He would take her home after she fell asleep, but at least he got to hold her as her feet dragged.

From down the path, Naruto stood on his porch. He smiled.