One Step Ahead

Epilogue


"Five years…gone."

Sakura glanced up at Sasuke as they trudged along the dusty road. The sickening battle arena had been left far behind, and they were beginning the long journey home. All they needed to do was cross an ocean, brave through two countries full of ninja, and the welcoming gates of the Leaf village would be looming over them before they knew it.

"It…it could be worse…" Sakura murmured, attempting to remain optimistic. And failing.

"Sakura, it's five years. Everyone at the village probably thinks we're dead. And a lot of weird stuff happened during that five years."

Sakura lowered her eyes back to the road. Five years away from home. Away from the warm calm of the village.

Five years not entirely forgotten. They both had retained the memories from their demon forms. The dark recollections of being captured, forced into various shipping containers and taken away from their homes, made to fight and kill others like them, others cursed as they had been.

She glanced down at herself, still amazed that once in place of her slender legs had been a serpent's tail while Sasuke's back had once carried the weight of gigantic wings. Five years had also made quite a difference, even in their normal forms. Going suddenly from fourteen to nineteen had them both feeling a little awkward in their own skins.

They had shared their respective stories with each other at the beginning of the journey, knowing it would be important for when they would have to explain themselves to the Hokage.

Sasuke had been knocked out after attaining the second curse seal form, and had been placed under some jutsu the keepers used to prevent their captives from changing back into their human forms. He had been captured, stuffed into a disturbingly grimy coffin, and shipped over a whole ocean to the land they were currently in the action of exiting.

He had been bought and sold numerous times in this land, until finally ending up in the hands of Iyashii Bakuchi, a fighting-demon keeper with an addiction to gambling. The chain-smoking man had realized his potential immediately, and from the very first day had forced him to battle for his life against others under the curse.

Sakura had been attacked by a rogue ninja suspected to be Orochimaru while searching for Sasuke with Naruto. She had survived being bitten and receiving an Earth curse seal, marking her as the replacement for the former bearer of that seal and the counterpart to whoever held the Heaven seal. In an unstable outburst later that month, she had transformed almost instantly while out on a mission by herself, also getting caught by demon-traders.

While others around her were sold as labor slaves or gladiators, she had caught the eye of an old, retired fighter-demon keeper who bought her on sight. She had been kept as a pet for a while, then was accidentally entered in a small-town tournament where she amazed her owner by decimating the competition. He had kept her as a warrior ever since.

Sakura's mind ran through the events leading up to their departure. She felt so guilty about what she had done to her old teammate, even though they had both agreed that nothing they had done while under the curse was their fault.

But she had practically seduced him. The only thing that had been on her mind during that whole fight was how to get him to mate with her. Animal instincts had ruled almost her every move. Why else would she have licked, preened and even kissed him?

As guilty as she felt, the whole kissing incident was the most wonderful thing she'd ever experienced. His demon form had readily accepted her feelings for him, kissing her in return and swearing silently to protect her from anything. But now that they were back to normal, she was stuck feeling guilty and he had returned as the human icicle.

But what if their demon forms' behavior was a manifestation of their subconscious emotions? Of course, she loved him and would probably want to…mate if they were ever married. But him? What did he feel from having acted so out of character towards her?

She flinched at feeling his hand on her shoulder.

"Sakura," he said, gazing at her with his normal, coal-black eyes. "You're getting all worked up over something. Don't."

"I…I'm sorry, Sasuke…" she murmured, imagining instead being held tightly in his shielding embrace just one more time.

He sighed, and tugged at the sleeve of the white yukata his keeper had given him when he had outgrown his old clothing.

"Next town we find, we're getting some new clothes," he murmured. "These frequent breezes are driving me nuts."

Sakura blushed a little, and glanced down at her feet. She herself was wearing only a tank top under a mercifully baggy kimono. Now that her snake tail was gone, she felt just as uncomfortable about having anything below her knee-length robe left bare as he did.

"You should keep that afterwards," he murmured, noticing her staring at herself. "Black looks…nice on you."

Sakura stopped walking and stared. There was no way this was Sasuke. He had just given her a compliment. The real Sasuke would never do that.

She flinched when his blood-red gaze met hers.

"It's me, stupid. I can say nice things too, you know."

"Oh," she squeaked, blushing quite a bit. "I'm sorry, Sasuke."

She walked in front of him instead, hoping to not have to meet his gaze.

Which also meant she couldn't see him secretly eyeing her curves that had appeared over the past five years.

Sasuke shook his head. No, there was no way he was going to let it happen again. It being the very thing that he prayed Sakura had forgotten about ever since they had left the arena town far, far behind.

It being the fact that ever so slowly, he had started looking at her more. Not just more than usual, he really stared at her when she wasn't paying attention. His demon form's animalistic thought about her were not-so-easily shoved into the back of his mind. As much as he hated to admit it, he had enjoyed being touched by her. He had secretly ran over the memories of her licking his cheek over and over again, though in his mind he denied it. He shivered a little every time he thought of her soft, pink lips against his. He almost had to stop himself from spinning her around just to kiss her like that again on at least two occasions.

His uptight side temporarily giving up the mental fight, he thought about how there would be plenty of time for staring on the thousands-of-miles journey back home. She'd never notice. She never did. Maybe because he always managed to stay one step ahead of her.

One step ahead. Would she ever catch up?

Probably.


The end!

Dear God, that was fun to write :P How I do lub demons...