Chapter Two: Black and White Cherry
Authro's Note: So here we are! Lookie, lookie, I typed up a new chapter! Happy Dance for Me!
So A lot has happened lately for me, lots of discoveries and discussions and confusions and happiness and introspection and whatnot... So that's what has taken so long. HOWEVER, I am DESPERATELY trying to be a good Libra and finish things I start... heh heh. That includes this Fanfic. For some reason, I have troubles with the number two, so that's another reason...
Chapter 2 is a Sasuke/Sakura shot. Again, I'm giving forewarnings so that you can skip this if you're not SasuSaku friendly. And, for those who have weak constitutions against smut, I previously promised to include a warning for lemons. And guess what? NO LEMONS for this chapter. So, in retrospect, be prepared for fluff meets angst. Of course, Sasuke is almost always angst-y... but I still like emo-boy.
Previously in A Shot at Love with Temari?, some kind soul left a remark that "Wait, isn't Tayuya dead?" Well, yeah. And Tsuchi and Itachi, but I used the almighty power of artistic license. So, as my ancestors once said, Pbbbblt. And !SPOILER! I know that Konoha really is the bad guys, sorta, and the Akatsuki had things right, and then Sasuke tried to fight Konoha, and all that Jazz. Well, this would take place in the kind of sort of future, after things even out a bit, and Sasuke, while back and staying officially, has still been rather moody and indifferent (and EMO... Said with love, of course). If you have read my pre-quel, then you know he still argues with my newly resurrected Itachi.
If you HAVEN'T read the prequel... What the heck are you doing? That's the better story! Go back and read it first, now!
Characters property of Kishimoto-sensei... Strange new twists? Yuppers, that's all my doing. Please resist throwing rotten vegetables now.
(Oh, my aforementioned contest still lacks a winner... Come on, give it a shot! No Pun intended.)
-oOo-
Sakura bowed her head respectfully as she stepped out of the elimination room. She was a little surprised, in one manner, as to why Temari had chosen Shikamaru.
On the other hand, she smiled to herself, she had a gut feeling about it all along. Maybe the two argued a lot, but the way Shikamaru looked at Temari when others were NOT eliminated, edging closer to his own possible fate, reminded Sakura of herself, and the way she still looked at Sasuke.
She opened the door with her eyes closed, hoping to avoid eye contact with anyone else. The pink-haired Kunoichi closed the door slowly behind her, and, taking a small breath, turned around.
She was far from prepared to see Sasuke waiting for her.
"Hey," the dark-haired boy waved from his spot leaning against the wall.
"Sasuke-kun...?" she questioned cautiously, looking around. Surely this was some kind of mistake. She had figured before hand that Naruto would meet her after the bout, having previously been booted off, and she wouldn't have put it past him to disguise himself as Sasuke-- No, that wasn't fair. Maybe the younger Naruto would have, but even HE had matured. Still, she had grown used to Kakashi-sensei (maybe even Iruka-Sensei in one memorable occurrence) setting training traps with Sasuke-clones. Best to be careful.
Sasuke rolled his eyes slightly when she didn't say anything. "It's me."
"Sorry, I'm not used to you ever being there." Sakura bit her lip. That had come out a lot more bitter than she had intended.
Apparently, Sasuke had caught the bad taste of the words as well, his eyes widening (only momentarily) in surprise before he recovered and shrugged.
"So... what are you doing here?" the Medic Nin covered quickly, her voice eagerly straining to sound nice again. She still had feelings for Sasuke, after all.
Sasuke shrugged again. "I certainly wasn't aware I'd see you leave the room next. Figured Nara was the one in trouble, and Tsunade-sama wanted me to grab him for a mission. Guess he managed to muddle through somehow. I'll find somebody else." The youngest Uchiha pulled himself to a standing position as he turned to leave.
"W-Wait!" Sakura sighed. "Maybe I can go with you? Instead of Shikamaru-kun, I mean."
"Whatever," Sasuke mumbled. As the two walked, Sakura couldn't help but find herself staring at him. He may not realize it for anything, but this was one of their rare moments alone, and Sakura savored it.
She struggled to make conversation; such time spent apart still had hurt their communication paths, and it had been SO hard to get him to open up... in the beginning... "So... where are the others?"
"Kakashi-sensei is still a referee for that contest," Sasuke mumbled without hesitation, "I have no idea where that Sai character is, and Naruto-kun's..." He paused. "...on a date."
"Wait, what?" Sakura stammered. "Naruto's on a date? Who? For that matter, how?"
Sasuke shrugged. "Yes, it threw me off, too. Hyuga Hinata."
So that was it! Hinata had finally managed to say something? OR maybe it was just serendipitous for the Hyuga Heiress, and Naruto had grabbed her out of coincidence? Sakura couldn't help but giggle slightly.
"...What?" the Uchiha asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Oh, nothing," his Kunoichi Company smiled back. As clever as he was, she still knew Sasuke, like any male, seemed to have problems with female insight. "Sasuke-kun? I really don't mind going on that mission with you. You know, if you don't have someone else in mind..."
He shrugged again. "Whatever. It's just a D-Rank escort anyway. Some old lady needs help getting her groceries in the morning. Her nephew, who normally helps her, is sick, so he hired Shinobi for the job." The Sharingan User looked down at nothing in particular. "I'm not even sure why they need two ninja for--"
"I'll be there!" Sakura smiled nonchalantly.
Sasuke narrowed his eyes slightly. "Okay, I'll see you at the grocery store at seven, then."
-oOo-
It didn't take long for Sasuke to realize why the nephew had felt his grandaunt required an extra Shinobi for a simple shopping trip.
"Oh, drat, this coupon is expired. I need to go back and get the right one."
"I want the one on the top shelf because it's untouched."
"No, no, no, you're bagging that wrong; it's waaay too heavy. Less items in there. You better double bag everything, too."
"No, this is the wrong one. I need the diet one."
"That's too expensive; put that back and get the smaller one."
"How big is the small? Oh, it's too big; I'll never use all that..."
Only Sakura's forced smile managed to keep Sasuke from knocking the old bat out.
"...That was a waste of time," he grumbled as the two finally convinced the lady that, yes, she was done, and no, she didn't forget anything.
"I can't say I disagree," Sakura growled as the two walked away from the woman's house. Sasuke made a mental note to either avoid that house for all time or --more tempting-- find a way to set it aflame and make it look like an accident.
The youngest Uchiha hadn't gone very far before realizing Sakura was still there. He sighed. "Sakura, you're not hiding very well."
"I wasn't trying."
At that, Sasuke turned to face the pink-haired Kunoichi. She was standing in plain sight, her smaller feet planted firmly in mid-path. Her green eyes didn't shy away from him, and her skin didn't blush at his stare. He was a bit taken aback as the knot in his stomach twisted in an odd way.
"I... wanted to talk to you," she said simply. The Sharingan Prodigy pulled his gaze away as she continued. "I mean, just us."
"Hmmph," Sasuke sighed. "If you think--"
"I'm not thinking anything special's going to come of this, Sasuke-kun. You and I... well, you established some time ago where we were. I just... want to talk. As comrades."
Sasuke turned his dark eyes back to her for a short instant. Stoically, he gestured lightly that he was going to continue walking, and if she wanted to follow, fine.
-oOo-
Sakura bit her bottom lip, trying to find the best way to phrase things as Sasuke finally settled on a still place-- atop a wall bordering Konoha, gazing in the direction of the forests.
Finally, she took a deep breath. She had grown so much over the years, had promised to herself that she could and would show her strong side to Sasuke, if-- no, when-- they met again. But now, like always, her heart clenched at seeing him, the words threatening to catch in her throat and never come out at all or --worse-- come out sounding like the little girl she had been when the object of her affection had left so long ago.
"What is it, then?" the Uchiha said calmly, and Sakura was relieved to hear the relaxed note in his tone. Had she chosen a better time to do this, she certainly wouldn't have chosen an arguing old biddy to ruin the previous hours.
Now or never. "First off... I'm sorry."
Sasuke was silent, eyes not visible.
"Come on, girl, don't give up now! CHA!" her Inner-self chanted.
"I know it's late, but you may not have understood the first attempt at this," she continued. That's it; keep going! "But I know that I... hurt you... saying things without thinking, not realizing... with your family..."
"Sakura," he interrupted smoothly. "You know things have changed. I know more meanings to events in my life, and..." He sighed. "There's no point apologizing for what happened when we were kids."
Sakura nodded. "Oh. Right."
The raven-haired boy sighed again. "But if you need to hear it... I accept anyway. I accepted it the first time."
Sakura smiled. All right. One part down. "Thank you." She stiffened her resolve--here was the tough part. "I... wanted to tell you... my feelings for you--"
"Sakura--" he started.
"--Have changed."
He turned to her, eyes askance and a bit shocked.
The pink-haired Kunoichi softened her smile. "When we were little, for the longest time, I idolized you. I wanted to be strong and beautiful for you." Now that the words had started, it was easier than she had feared. "Because, well... I was the most pathetic of fangirls, really."
Sasuke's eyebrow twitched ever so slightly and he turned his back to her again.
"So I fell in love with you, and... told you..." The memories of that night were crystal clear in her dual mind. "And you... left. But you thanked me."
A longer silence hung in the air.
"I... was going to ask you... why?" she sighed finally to break the stillness.
Sakura was the one surprised when his answer didn't hesitate. "You... asked me to stay. You even offered to go with me... It was a loyalty I...didn't expect."
Sakura's eyes fell to her feet. Now that the words were coming out, she was certain that she would start babbling, but wasn't sure how to avoid it. "I was. Am... I never stopped looking for you. I just needed to know... what happened. I was worried about you, I was always hoping that you'd come back, but also, I knew how much pain you must have been in. I realized that, after a while, that burden you placed on yourself... the vengeance, it must have been..." She tightly closed her watering eyes. She didn't want to cry this time. "...And I know you felt like I was dragging you down, I'm sure. And I was. Because you always were stronger, and better, and... I just couldn't be what you needed. What you needed was someone to take the burden from you, and I could barely understand what it was at the time."
She took another deep breath, swallowing the feeling of dread and pain that was shaking in her throat. "I guess what I'm trying to say is... I'm glad you're okay. And I know you'll never notice me, so... I'm okay with that."
After saying it, she knew it was the right thing, to let him be so he could be happy. But it cut like a knife, and felt like a lie. Sakura opened her eyes from their clenching, glad she managed not to have cried. Just barely.
But Sasuke wasn't there.
-oOo-
He watched her shoulders slump over, watched her lightly pink skin flush, and licked his lips. Was she upset? Angry? His eyes trailed over the features of her lean back, and he touched, ever so lightly, a hand to her pink tresses.
"Sakura."
A small gasp escaped her lips, but she didn't turn. He supposed it felt like a bit of a flashback to her. He didn't want that. This was different.
"You kept looking?" he asked simply, his hands still playing with those tresses. He remembered how she had cut her hair with that kunai years ago, and he guessed that she must have liked the short hair after that, to have kept it that way.
Sakura nodded, a shudder in her voice. "Of course."
"And what would you have done," Sasuke asked, trailing his hand across her shoulder, again, ever so lightly, "if you had found me?"
"Asked you to stay. To train, to get ready for accomplishing your goals, or..." she gulped, "...or ask if you could have benefited from any kind of assistance. Or if that wouldn't work..."
The Sharingan User almost recoiled instinctively when her hand moved to grab his. Almost. He stayed still as an ANBU in enemy territory as she turned around to face him.
"Then at least, if you could write... so we could have stayed friends. Comrades. And you could have benefited at least from knowing what was going on through our letters. And maybe you could have had help when you had discovered that Orochimaru was planning on using you. Assuming you would have believed any of it."
The straight-forwardness of Sakura was a bit different for him. Not upsetting, no... just different. She used to be very strong-willed, yes, but never with him, like this. She had grown. She had gotten stronger. And apparently she had thought a lot of this out. He moved a hand to rest lightly on her cheek. She shivered, a soft sigh escaping her lips as she moved into his motion.
"I'm surprised," he finally settled on saying. "So... you are telling me that... you don't love me?" Sakura stepped back about an inch, her eyes gazing at him indecipherably. They had lost too much time... he couldn't read her like before...and yet...
She shook her head. "No." She shuddered and looked down. "No, it's just... different."
-oOo-
This was strange for her, but not unwelcome. Sakura had longed to talk to Sasuke like this, candidly, for years, so long that it now seemed like a dream.
"I still love you. It's just... a different love now. It doesn't ache... as much..." Her hand gripped at her heart. "Because I know you're alive and well, and your goals have been reached. I know you're happy, so the worry is gone, I suppose."
She glanced up at him. His dark eyes looked so focused, so clear looking back at her, it was almost soothing. "I don't idolize you, now... I just want you at peace."
Sasuke's hand brushed her cheek again, and she nearly felt a tear fall from her eyes. "Less... of that fangirl, it sounds... Less because of what I am to the world, and more of who..." his voice answered, softer than she was used to, but it sent shivers down her spine all the same.
"It was always who, Sasuke," Sakura sighed, her voice sounding now far away. "I just didn't realize it."
Sasuke said nothing. But as his lips landed lightly on hers, and Sakura's world melted into his arms, and the dams of her eyes burst, he didn't have to. He'd never have to explain to her, she realized, as he kissed the tears lightly, muttering her name ever so slightly. And saying thank you, again and again.
She had pushed the fairy tale away, hid it in the darkest corners of her mind. Because fairy tales didn't come true; the pieces never fell into place.
And now that she was seeing it before her eyes, she barely recognized it. But there it was. Her fairy tale, with a new cover and a new title, written in black and white but with so many colors. Her Fairy Tale hadn't come true...
...but it was close enough.
-oOo-
Author's Note: RAAAAAAWR!! I FINISHED CHAPTER TWO!! I ROCK!
Okay, so it didn't have as much fluff as I wanted, but... as previously stated, Pbbbblt. Artistic license, Yo.
Okay, so the next one, I really, really, really, REALLY hope takes way less time. Thank you so much to my readers that have patiently waited this long. I'm sorry this little shot was the only thing I could give you, but I hope it sated some of your appetite.
Next Chapter is Ino and Kiba, so stayed tuned!