Hollow

Sasuke has never felt so hollow until now.

He had no idea what to do, where to go. Once he had soaked his hands in Itachi's blood and watched him fall to his death, the revenge Sasuke had sought for was over. Finally over, but now, he had no idea what to do.

Find another goal. Another revenge. Just – just something.

The young Uchiha now desperately needed his mind preoccupied in order to move forward. He could not allow himself to be held back by the past anymore, including both Itachi and team seven.

Move forward, move forward, just move forward.

Repeating those words in his head, Sasuke dashed forward through the thick black forest. He felt a single presence coming his way, but the little chant in his head let him ignore and continue on.

Move forward, move forward…

Sakura.

Damn it, it's Sakura.

Was he still supposed to move forward? Abruptly, Sasuke stopped and masked himself by a thick tree. The presence that was dashing his way was Sakura, his former teammate, the girl-who-confessed, the medic nin, the annoying girl.

Coal black eyes gazed toward the back. Sasuke wanted to move forward, and if Sakura gets in the way, let her be. He would do anything just to move forward.

He would, he really would. He had tried to kill her before, didn't he?

And so the fool dashed forward again.

. . .

Sakura hadn't meant to go on the mission alone. It was a mere C-rank where she had to deliver an item to some rich merchant. The mission had originally been meant for Shikamaru's genin students, but at the last minute, they changed their mind to poke their heads around a B-rank mission.

Can't say I don't understand them though…

Sakura thought, as she reminisced team seven complaining about D-rank missions. But that, that was a long time ago. And it would continue to be longer still. She realized this after her last reunion with Sasuke, when he had tried to kill her.

That bastard really tried.

Her hands wrapped around her arms, as though remembering the faint electric current from Sasuke's attempted attack. The attack that never was. The love that never was.

Suddenly, Sakura felt an approaching presence ahead, perhaps only a hundred meters away.

Damn it, I should have noticed earlier!

Readying herself to a defensive position, Sakura paused to make out her enemy. Perhaps, if lucky, it was just another Konoha ninja. But the chakra she faintly felt signalled danger, and whoever's chakra it was, she had certainly come across it before. It was masked so heavily though, and so Sakura decided not to take a risk and instead hide herself by the treetops.

One, two, three…

… nineteen, twenty.

Those twenty seconds she had counted in her head should have been enough for the disguised enemy to have gone past her. Instead, her enemy had stopped right by the tree she was hiding.

Okay, this leaves me no choice. Let's get ready for a fight!

Sakura told herself as she slowly entwined her fingers around a poisoned kunai. Her enemy was patient enough to wait for her to come out, and so she would. Cautiously, Sakura stepped out from the shadows, ready to face her enemy, ready to –

A gasp.

"Sasuke."

. . .

When Sasuke had dashed forward, he had fully expected an encounter (perhaps disastrous) with Sakura. Instead, she had only hidden herself in the forest, waiting for him to move on.

And he should have.

Forward, damn it, forward!

But his feet stopped and planted themselves right by the tree Sakura was hiding.

Will she come out? Does she know it's me? She should be coming out any time now. No, maybe she won't. What if she just stays there until I move on? Does she honestly not realize it's me?

A gasp.

"Sasuke."

That single word was enough to stop him from thinking, from moving, from feeling. No, maybe it was too much thinking, too much moving, too much feeling. He couldn't know.

"Sakura."

So… now what?

Sasuke realized that perhaps he didn't have to make any choice. Sakura would. She would decide whether to fight him, to plead him to come back, or to continue her way. The last choice was unthinkable. Knowing Sakura, she would most likely try to convince him to return to Konoha, to her, to Naruto and Kakashi, to team seven.

"Sasuke," Sakura finally opened her dry mouth. Unconsciously, she moistened her lips and continued, "Will you come back home?"

Home? Where? Konoha isn't my home. So where?

The question revolved round and round inside Sasuke. Suppressing the urge to ask, he instead answered, as icily as possible, "No."

What then flashed in Sakura's face, he could not make out. It could have been obvious disappointment, or sadness, or relief, or contempt.

"You know we'll welcome you back anytime." Sakura replied with a grin, clearly forced.

And then she backed slowly away, with a slight smile and a wave.

. . .

Sakura dared not show her back. At least, not until she backed away twenty feet or so. She hadn't realized it, at least not consciously, but she dared not show her back to the man who had once tried to kill her, and who could easily do so again.

I'm letting you go, Sasuke, I'm letting you go.

Or perhaps it was he who was letting her go. Sakura had no wish to fight him whatsoever, but if Sasuke had, he was just letting her go.

"Wait."

Or not.

Sakura turned toward the voice that sounded so commanding and indifferent, yet when she saw his hand slightly poised toward her, perhaps even Sasuke had an inch of desperation inside him.

"Are you going to report seeing me?"

Oh, of course. What else could he have stopped me for?

"As a student and assistant of the Hokage, yes, I should." Holding his gaze, the intense pool of black that she had once so loved before, she finished, "But I won't."

She won't, because for the first time, she saw how empty his eyes were. She had always guessed that it was filled with revenge and hatred, but right now…

How hollow…

How… lonely.

"Sasuke, I meant it. We'll welcome you back anytime."

So don't torture yourself. Don't be so alone.

To this there was no reply. So once again, Sakura turned to go.

. . .

Sasuke had no idea why he moved the way he did. Something like instinct took hold of him when he saw Sakura back away. As though repeating the night he had left Konoha several years ago, his body moved to stand behind Sakura, to block her from walking away any further.

And then what happened was the last thing he expected. It should have been his first, really.

"NO!" Sakura screamed as her fingers reflexively worked around the poisoned kunai and struck at the figure that appeared behind her.

No chidori, no malice, and yet the familiar electric current and the familiar face and the familiar position… They were all too familiar for her to re-live the moment Sasuke had almost killed her.

The kunai had struck Sasuke's chest, missed only by an inch from his heart when Sasuke stepped back at the very last moment.

"Sasuke! Why? Why didn't you…?"

The poison was immediate and a massive white began to engulf him whole…

. . .

Why didn't he move? He could have easily dodged my attack! Why did he get behind me in the first place? If he had meant to attack me… He would have done so before I even had a chance to reach for the kunai. Why?

Why?

Streams of questions ran through her head as Sakura kneeled down beside Sasuke's fallen form. A surge of warm, green glow flowed from her and onto Sasuke, instantly working to extract the poison.

. . .

Lying semi-conscious on the ground, Sasuke felt Sakura hunched over his chest, grabbing his shirt and sobbing, crying out "Sasuke-kun" in between. Her long, pink locks gently tickled his skin, some shivering violently from her sobs.

Her tears soaked through his clothes, through his lips and right to his heart, spreading warmth from there.

For him to be filled by Sakura's tears… that was the last thing he deserved.

And so he realized that maybe… maybe he should tell her that he had not meant to kill her in their last reunion.

He had not meant to hurt her that way.

. . .

Oh, he's waking up now.

Sakura pulled back her hands and waited for Sasuke to wake up. Maybe he would tell her everything, anything she wanted to know. And then again, he probably wouldn't.

His black eyes, somehow not empty, somehow filled by something she couldn't quite make out, gazed intently at her.

"Sakura," He softly spoke as he propped himself up by a tree trunk. "I knew Naruto had been there. I knew he'd come and save you."

"Huh?"

What's he talking about?

"That day – I didn't mean to try to kill you."

Oh.

"Sakura."

"Yeah?"

"Take me home."

Notes: I don't know whether I'll continue this or just end it as a one-shot... Hope everyone enjoyed anyway.
Sleepy now... Good night!