Sasuke squinted his eyes. It was Sakura. So she wasn't inside. He suddenly felt a little twinge of guilt as he saw a look of sadness flood over her eyes. She seemed troubled. Why wasn't she inside? Well, he could guess. It's because of me, isn't it... He thought. All this time. He'd been looking down on Sakura and getting in the way of her having a full and happy life. He had created a rift in their friendship.
By their, he meant Team 7. Formerly Team 7. Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke. Flashbacks of genin training came back to him as he blinked and made his way further up the hill. At this point Sakura was looking at him...straight at him. And as he saw her eyes widen, he knew she had recognised him. Increasing his pace to a kind of jog, Sasuke finally reached the top of the hill and stood right in front of the girl he had let down years ago when he should have been there with her. He looked at her intensely. "Hello, Sakura-chan."
Sakura stood, frozen on the spot as she saw the shadow figure that looked like Sasuke rapidly come more and more towards her. She knew she should move, should run. But she couldn't. It was like she was paralyzed, with his eyes boring into hers, even from the distance between them. Memories flashed into her mind. Crying over his -apparently- dead body, waking up to see he'd saved her.
Oh, and watching him break that guy from the wind village's arms because he'd hurt her. Back then he'd been a boy, 13 years old. Now it was 3 years later, and he was 16 like she, and undoubtedly not a boy anymore, but a young man, like she was a young woman. She knew she should be angry, should yell for Tsunade that a traitor had appeared. But she couldn't. Because it was Sasuke.
Finally, when he came to a stop in front of her, she looked up into his face, learning that he was now quite a bit taller than she, at least a head. Her eyes locked with his, and she heard him greet her, using her name, the way it sounded right, as always. "Sasuke-kun..." she breathed, hating herself for using the respect suffix, even if she still loved him. He'd betrayed them all.
Sasuke screwed up his face and his eyes filled with tears. It was almost unbelievable. Sasuke had not cried since he was a young boy...Since that night...A tear rolled down his face. He had kept his feelings bottled up all these years. Now he, Sasuke was letting it all out in tears...in front of Sakura, the girl, now almost a woman, that he loved and probably always would. He always had.
He had just been distracting himself with things which he thought were more important. Training, destroying his brother and everything else, until that night right here where it all changed. And now he was back in the same spot, with the same girl, and just wanted to tell her he loved her. She must think him a fool, a traitor. He shook his head and wiped away his tears. He was weak! He could not BELIEVE that he was crying!
Sakura felt her own bright green eyes fill with tears. "Sasuke, what are you doing here?" she asked in a whisper, tears leaking down her cheeks, joining at her chin. She, however, didn't bother to wipe hers away. They were clasped together, to resist throwing her arms around him like she wanted to. She noted that he too was crying, and wondered distantly why. Did he miss the village?
And if so, why hadn't he stayed like she'd asked --begged him to. And why did he taunt her now, pretending to care about her. And on the very spot where he'd left her, unconscious, cold and shaking nearly half a decade ago. By now all thoughts of calling Tsunade had faded away. She just couldn't do it, damnit. Sasuke broke through her shield of strength and reduced her to the weak little girl she had been before.