An Avenger's Gift
Chapter 1
Four Years. Four dreading and painful years.
It has been that long since Konoha was turned into ashes, since smiles were replaced by tears, since love turned into hatred...into disgust. It may have been years of hope and healing for the lucky survivors of the war but for a certain pink-haired kunoichi, those four years was beyond the pains of hell. At the now delicate age of 20, it is vivid to her mind the memories of that cursed night.
Flashback
Sakura was caught in the middle of a huge war as well as any other shinobi existing in Konoha. Most of them started to fight for the security of their village but as years pass them painfully slow, there fight turn into a fight for their own lives for their initial reason was long gone. Konoha is gone, literally.
Being Konoha's best medical ninja after the Sanin Tsunade entails a huge responsibility and a handful of unwanted attention. Sakura being... well Sakura, jumps from branch to branch after draining almost all of her chakra in order to save people, may they be allies or not. It was part of her code of duty but mostly of her almost ridiculous sense of piety.
She then caught a glimpse of a young girl whose clothes were soaked with her own blood. Her face was touching the ground with a huge wound on her abdomen. Sakura let out a sigh of relief as she picks up a weakening chakra but a chakra still. Sakura quickly almost desperately pump chakra to her hands and starts healing the young child that is slowly letting go of the line of her dear life. As she burrowed her brows in concentration, she felt an undistinguished chakra yet ironically, familiar with her in some sort. As her amazing sense of hearing caught the sound of a sword being drawn out she instinctively stood up and get on her defensive pose in front of the child with a kunai on hand. "Show yourself." she demanded in she hope as a terrifying manner, she could not risk battling a strong opponent after that chakra-draining activities. As her opponent leaves the comfort of darkness and grace her emerald eyes with his features, her breath was caught up with in her chest as her traitor eyes let out a tear or two. She uttered in an almost inaudible voice his name that she didn't even knew she is capable of." Sasuke."
The said man is covered with blood, not his own, Sakura assumed sensing his still smooth chakra flow. "Move aside." His demanding and supposed to be terrifying voice came cunning and alluring to her. For the years that he left her...or ratherthem, Sakura created a new her, a cool, collected and mature her but all her hard work crumbled down with the sound of his voice. She almost wanted to laugh for her stupidity of assuming that he will not anymore affect her like he did when they were twelve. With just those two words that came out from his mouth, she felt that little fan-girl of herself wake up and dominate her being. A grunt given out by the forgotten dying girl brought her back to reality. She collected all that is remaining of her new self and desperately put on a calm demeanour, at least on the outside. "No." she said in voice intoxicated with determination that will falter any shinobi alive but Sasuke wasn't any Shinobi to say the least. Her determined eyes were met with her blazing glare.
Sasuke was a man of few words but most importantly he does not possess the length of patience a normal human should have. With a blink of an eye, he charged at the direction of the little body lying on the floor. But to his dismay and Sakura's relief, the said kunoichi was able to grab the child onto safer ground causing Sakura a wounded arm. "She's just a kid." she said as if her words will knock some sense to the shinobi. He looked at her with disbelief then turned into a mocking expression as he choke out a" She is an enemy". She watched as his onyx eyes turned to spinning red. Those eyes that never fail to entice when she is younger and she is not surprised that it still has the same effect on her years after. As she was at loss in his eyes that have lost its brightness, a realization hit her. Sasuke was no longer the twelve year old boy she fantasizes and love. He is now a man who is capable of putting on a cold and stoic demeanour when he kills thousands. Shivers were sent to her spine as Sasuke once again attacked them. Unfortunately, he didn't fail this time.
The child's tiny body was cut into half as blood started to stain Sakura's feet. She fell into her knees as she stared down at the lifeless body in front of her. Sasuke turned around to leave to kill yet another life that is considered enemy. Sasuke was not the type to spare lives but he considered Sakura as an exception, seeing the girl's state of mind right now he believes that Sakura will be too affected to fight him or get over a child's death whose name is even unknown to her. He always saw Sakura that way. Weak. Annoyingly weak.
He stopped at his tracks as he felt her stand up. In a speed that can match up light, Sakura stood in front of Sasuke with his ever stoic face but with a hint of surprise in his eyes. She faces him with her now tear-stained cheeks, burrowed eyebrows and flushed face. He noticed her shoulder slightly trembling and her fist clutching too hard it began to draw blood from her palms. "How could you..."she weakly utters in a voice that made Sasuke can't help but feel bad for leading her in this state. Her palm connects with his right cheek in the most painful way, breaking Sasuke's cold demeanour. Of all the people, Sakura was on the bottom of Sasuke's list of the possible person who could kill or hurt him, maybe Naruto but never Sakura.
She threw quite a few strong punches as tears starts to leak from her eyes; most of it not dodged by Sasuke. It even confused him why he did so and his lack of desire to neither fight back nor defend his self. The last punch sent him flying in a nearby tree as he heard one of his ribs crack as he collided with the trunk. He keep his eyes to his nearing attacker but never making an attempt to fight back, run away or at least stand up. His actions surely hurt his ego and his Uchiha pride but that is the least of his concerns right now. Sakura knelt in front of him as she threw another batch of punches but now weak compared to the previous ones. "How could you..." she said once again as if begging the man to make up some sort of excuse to relish her of this horrible feeling, but Sasuke was too honest for that... brutally honest if you allow. "That kid was dying anyways." he said in a whisper but Sakura caught every word. She looked straight into his eyes. "Why, Sasuke-kun?" she said letting go of her strong facade and allowing the little girl she once was to take over. Years under that Snake Sannin was nothing but the desire for revenge. He did not for once have something that surpass nor tied this need. Yet it only took him to look at her emerald eyes to experience a strong different feeling of desire... a desire of having her. Lips crushed into her as she experience the most painful yet sweetest kiss. His kisses filled up her being as she was loss to this new but welcomed feeling. Through their fuzzy mind, both knew this was wrong in all ways possible but their sanity was eventually covered with desires they didn't even knew existed within them. She felt him take all of her, allowing Sasuke leading her to another degree of ecstasy. Then her eyes failed her, she saw complete darkness. She woke up on the same bench just like she did years ago when he decided to leave the village. She can't help to let her tears out as she grimace on her stupidity of making the same mistake twice... falling in love with him again.
End of Flashback
Sasuke being labelled as an ice cube human lived with this title through his heartless actions and cold personality. He never once hurt Sakura physically yet he killed her emotionally. Ironically, when he did not have any emotions to start with. And for the third time in her life Sakura once again created a new her. This time stronger, more mature that the previous ones. Her feelings for Sasuke was now much stronger but not that dreamy feeling of love from when she was twelve nor the sympathetic feeling she had when she was sixteen, her twenty year old self is mad- not just mad but furious and dreadful of him. She had to hold on to hatred as much as she dreaded to do so because she has to live not only for herself but for those dependent of her. Because Sasuke leaved her with a child.
End of Chapter