Love is inevitable. Whether you're the most ruthless, cold blooded murderer or the sweetest bean to ever live, love will always find you.

He never thought it to be true, after all he had suffered more loss than love in his short lifetime. At just the age of 8 he became an orphan at the hands of the man he looked up to the most, the man he loved more than anything and the one person who he thought could do no wrong- his older brother. He had been alone ever since, and even though it was entirely his own fault, it was a very cold and heartbreaking existence.

Growing up, he would catch swift glances of the other children at play. Pretending to be ninja, throwing sticks and stones and handfuls of sand at one another. He envied them, he wanted to join and laugh and dance and play and get dirty, but why would he? He would have no-one to run home to, to laugh to, to tell exaggerated details of his day to. There would be no mother to scold him for getting dirty while laughing as he did a horrible reenactment of his shenanigans. He wouldn't be able to hear his fathers voice, telling him to spend less time goofing off and more time training hard and fiercely because that was the shinobi thing to do. His best friend would no longer be there, to tease him, to encourage him, to help him with his homework and then carry him upstairs on his back once he had fallen asleep.

Once he made it further up in the ninja academy, fellow students would often approach him and offer to spar with him after class, request his help in certain areas such as genjutsu, or just ask him to hang out after they were finished for the day. He always declined with a harsh retort of some kind. He wanted them to understand that he wanted to be alone, he wanted to appear unapproachable, cold, unfriendly. It worked for the most part, with the exception of the pack of squealing fan girls who seemed to follow him constantly.

No, there was no point in idle banter and childish antics. So he would hurry passed the screaming, laughing children and run straight to his apartment that was currently being paid for by the village. He had no family, and very little income, so the third Hokage had it set up so the town would take care of him until he got himself a steady job and a steady flow of cash. It was just a small, one bedroom apartment that was located above a tea shop. Mostly seniors and mature folk went there so it was a very quiet neighbourhood, and he liked it like that. He could concentrate on his training, and study in peace without distraction. It was a quiet life, but it was also an unbearably lonely life.

It was entirely of his own doing. And he was content with living out the rest of his days in solitude.

That is... until he met her.

When he first laid eyes on her, he felt time slow stop for a single moment. He tried not to stare, he tried to ignore her, and he had tried time and time again to revert back to his cold and uncaring facade, but once he heard her laughing or carrying on with their classmates, his attention was once more ripped away from his studies. He had vowed years ago to remain single until he had completed his goal, to prevent any distractions and to make sure nothing, and no-one, slowed him down.

But every time he looked at her... he thought more and more about breaking that vow.

She was beautiful. She was enchanting. She was Ankoku Tsubasa.

And Sasuke Uchiha was undeniably, inevitably, and hopelessly in love with her.


Ankoku Tsubasa was a popular girl, there was no denying it. She was almost like... the Sasuke Uchiha among the males. Her long, wavy black hair paired perfectly with her striking red eyes making her look like a vampire seductress straight out of the movies but it was her personality that made her to die for. She was the sweetest genin in all of Konoha, she was kind and gentle and would give you every ryo in her bank account if you needed it. Her infectious laugh turned heads and her smile could melt even the most merciless demon himself.

So it was no surprise that she had quite the following of admirers, and even though it was commonly known that she had no interest in dating, that didn't stop any of her potential suitors from trying their best anyway.

As for her skills as a shinobi, they went very well with the natural colour scheme she was born with but not so much with her personality. You see, the Tsubasa clan is known for being very in-tune with the realm of the dead. They excel in shadow jutsu, much like the Uchiha are known for their fire jutsu, and they can sometimes feel the emotions and feelings of those who have passed by, and they can reincarnate the dead to fight for them in battle, and although the reanimated beings are strong they only last for a short while but even so they are proven to be very beneficial and they get the job done nonetheless.

So needless to say, when Sasuke had first seen her in action he was shocked. To watch her summon a zombie-like samurai from the depths of the Earth, use it to take out two practice dummies before it dissipated into a cloud of ash and smoke, was as stunning as it was amazing. Her skills as a Tsubasa clan member weren't up to par yet with the rest of her family, but she seemed content to go at her own pace and seemed to be in no rush to be perfect anytime soon.

The two of them had exchanged no more than a few words here and there. He mostly spent his time focusing on his ninja studies while sneaking quick glances at her from time to time. She was a social butterfly and spent a large chunk of her class time socializing unlike him who ate, slept and breathed studying, but even so her marks seemed to be very good despite all the gossip and goofing off.

One day, Iruka-sensei paired them up to do a project together and she had treated him no differently than how she would treat any of her other friends which was to be expected. Sasuke had tried to be his usual emotionless uncaring self but it was hard when he really liked this woman, and those emotions were strange to him and they made him nervous. There were a few times when she caught him staring at her instead of paying attention to the words that were coming out of her mouth, and when she asked him if he was okay he lied and said he was tired and didn't feel good. At first he regretted his on-the-spot excuse, because it made him seem weak and pathetic and that hurt his pride, but after their lunch break when she returned with some home made tea and some cut up fruit from her house he didn't feel so bad. Seeing her worry about him was reassuring and made his heart flutter, which pissed him off.

'Stupid human emotions' he internally cursed.

He was often plagued with thoughts of what it would be like to actually have a girlfriend. More specifically, what it would be like to have Ankoku as his girlfriend. He usually just tried to shake these emotions off and distract himself at the training grounds to destroy a few trees but he couldn't deny that the thought has crossed his mind several dozen times. He had just turned 16 a few months ago, and Ankoku was 15 herself, so he was at that age where his hormones were going beserk and it was frustrating him to no end. There were a few times where he set out towards the academy with the goal in mind to ask her out for ramen or to train with him, but once he entered the classroom and saw her his nerves got the better of him and he spent the entire day kicking himself in the ass while simultaneously avoiding her

Sometimes while they were at school he would try to sit or stand as close to her as possible, hoping to find some excuse to strike up a conversation with her, but there were so many of them in one classroom, so many of them around who could overhear and think differently about him, and she always had so many people chatting her up at all times of the day that he could never will himself to say anything. He often envied Sakura, or Ino, for how ballsy and uncaring the two were. They stood up and screamed their love for him at the top of their lungs on a daily basis, everyone knew and everyone could hear and they didn't care, they just wanted him to know how that they were crazy about him. If only he were that brave, that unafraid to make a move or to let his feelings be known. The image of him standing up at the front of the class and declaring his love for Ankoku Tsubasa in front of dozens of staring eyes made him feel uncomfortable and he shuddered at the thought.

All the citizens of Konoha assumed that all of Sasuke Uchiha's emotions died along with his family that day, but if anything they were amplified tenfold. He felt so much, he yearned for so much, he ached for so much but yet he denied himself all pleasures in life and focused only on bettering himself and bringing himself closer and closer to his goal for revenge. He may be a very cold, often unapproachable guy but he was still human, he still had feelings. It would still shock anyone into unconsciousness if they had knew that he had strong feelings for a woman, had thoughts about that woman and yearned for that woman.

Hell, it shocked the hell out of him. But he was a human being after all, and its human nature to feel these things. No matter how hard you try to fight it, love will always win the battle. You can put up as many barriers, as many walls and layers as you want and it will find even the smallest of cracks and slip through your defences, rendering you paralyzed.

All of these thoughts were racing through the young mans head as he stood in front of the classroom doors. His hands were clammy, his knees were weak and his heart felt as though it were about to rip through his chest cavity. 'Today is the day...' he thought to himself, taking in a deep breathe before entering the room. 'No more messing around... you can do this.'

Today was the day he had thought about for so long. The one that was constantly in his daydreams, he one he tried to make a reality over and over again for months and months without much success. The day that would make him... or break him.

Today was the day that he would finally ask her out on a date.

He was terrified and way out of his comfort zone.