Why? – Chapter 4

"Are you or are you not Haruno Sakura?" he lashed out at her. Sakura remained tense and still in her crouched position, not daring to move or speak. Her chance would come soon enough…

"Chikishou, aapaa!" he growled, withdrawing his blade and grabbing her arm, yanking her to her feet.

Sakura grunted softly at the unexpected movement but reluctantly did as she was bid. When she was spun to face him, she avoided Sasuke's gaze completely. Closing her jade eyes and tilting her head away, she awaited her moment…

"Baka, tell me your name or I will kill you," he snapped. He couldn't keep his frustration from showing anymore. "Iyada, kusokurae!" she snapped back. Sasuke seemed taken aback, his dark hair giving his eyes a dark, menacing shadow that they so properly deserved.

"Fine, have it your way," he muttered, raising his bloody sword to her throat. He used his free hand to push her against the trunk of the tree and lift her mask from her face. A few wispy pink strands of her hair had gotten loose of its ties and fell over her sweat soaked face.

Uchiha paused, letting his arms fall to his side. Sakura's jade green eyes never looked at him. Not once. They were hard, half closed, and fixed on the ground at his feet.

"Satisfied?" she mumbled. Sasuke threw her mask back at her and grabbed her arm once again in a painful grip that made her wince.

"Look, I'm sick of being chased after. Tell the Hokage to fuck off. I'm not going back, and neither you nor anyone else can bring me back," he growled, moving dangerously close to her face.

It started to rain then. The rain drops were soft and warm, drizzling slowly from the dark blue heavens. It was as if the clouds knew what she felt like inside. But her stronger half knew that it was now or never…

"Uchiha Sasuke? You will…" she paused, inconspicuously drawing Chakra to her hands, "atone for nothing?" she asked, finally looking up to meet his Sharingan eyes. He shook his head slightly. "I refuse to go back," he said simply, letting her arm go. He stepped back and watched her face closely for a moment.

She had changed. Her eyes were more understanding and deep. Her pink hair was still short and framed her now womanly face. He dazedly wondered what she had been through in the past. He quickly mentally kicked the shit out of himself for that thought. No, he didn't care about her or anyone for that matter. He wasn't going to go back!

"Sasuke-Kun…I missed you," she whispered suddenly, pulling away from the tree and tightly wrapping her arms around his waist once again. Sasuke was so shocked that he was frozen for an instant. And here he thought she had changed…

A sharp driving pain into his spine instantly told him otherwise. "Fuck!" he yelled, dropping to his knees infront of a smiling Sakura. "Who's the baka now?" she asked smugly, holding up her slowly fading Chakra filled hand.

Sasuke's eyes dimmed to their original onyx, the colour she remembered the most. "You…" he tried but failed at cursing her before he slouched forwards, pitched off balance and falling from the tree.

The last thing he remembered before he was swallowed by darkness was a soft touch, catching him before he hit the ground.

Sakura grunted with the effort of holding up his heavy body in the air before she touched down. 'Damn, is he a rock or something?' she asked herself. She laid him gently on the ground before going up to retrieve the body of the ANBU.

When she was sure they were ok and secure, she clapped her hands together in a few hands signs, making three clones of herself. And so she sat there, watching her clones go out to find the rest of her team. She was dimly aware of her surroundings as she was starting to doze.

"What happened?" the harsh voice of her squad captain rang through her head. "I got him. I messed up the muscles in his back and shoulders and I disabled his spine and nerve system so he can't get away…but he…he killed…" she muttered.

"It's ok. At least we can account for the dead," the captain responded quietly. He didn't want to think right now about how this one girl could take down this man when he destroyed the ANBU team so easily.

"Sakura-San, can you take one of the bodies? We lost two good men this mission…" "Two?" she asked. She thought she had healed the other two who were injured.

"One died from poison. Uchiha's sword was covered in it," the captain explained simply. "That's impossible! If there was poison, I would have sensed it when I was healing him!" she explained. The Taichou shook his head, "We can have Hokage-Sama look when we get back. Right now, let's just get home."

Sadly, Sakura ended up carrying the man she hated most at the moment. There was nothing she'd rather do than to just leave him here, helpless in the forest. 'I'll bring him back, Sakura-Chan! It's a promise of a lifetime!' Naruto's promise rang through her thoughts.

Yeah, she remembered that. Naruto was tired of seeing her so sad. He would've done anything, given anything to make her happy. Now, it just seemed that her goal from years ago was doing nothing but making her sad.

--

The journey back to Konoha was simple and uneventful. Sakura had made sure that Sasuke never woke up once during the trip. But because it was a three day trip and he hadn't eaten for two, she figured she would be a little nice and feed him.

"Uchiha, wake up," she demanded, using her chakra to force his mind to wakefulness. Said man groaned and furrowed his brows in pain. His dark black orbs opened half way, blinking a few times. Why did he feel so weak?

"Now, I'm going to heal you so you can eat. But don't try anything funny, you have a Chakra depleting bracelet on so your powers are temporarily gone," she explained harshly. Sasuke glanced down at his hands and saw the thick black metal bracelet and growled.

He felt his old team mate move to sit behind him and felt a warm, tingling sensation on his back while she healed his torn muscles and restored his nerve system back to normal.

"Better?" she asked quickly, standing and rummaging through her pack for her rations.

The rest of the ANBU group, or what was left of it, were sleeping, Sakura saying she would take first watch. The three ANBU, the Taichou, Second in Command, and another, were all sleeping in one tent and had wrapped the deceased in body bags, placing them underneath the shelter of nearby trees. One lone tent was set up for Sakura, seeing as she was the only woman.

Sasuke observed all of this without emotion as he watched Sakura kneel infront of him once more. "Eat," she ordered, setting a few hard rice cakes infront of him. In truth, Sasuke was ravenous and would have loved to eat anything the girl offered, but only his dignity and caution kept him from doing so.

He nodded shortly and reached for one of the cakes. Biting into it slowly, he noticed that they were actually quite delicious. He savored the slightly sweet and salty taste and rolled the morsel around in his mouth before swallowing and eagerly taking another bite. This was delicious!

Sakura grinned slightly, "I made them myself," noting with smug satisfactory that he was enjoying it before she told him. All of a sudden now, he almost seemed to lose his appetite. But because of his hunger, he kept eating, just less enthusiastically.

Sakura went and sat by the fire that was set in the middle of their camp. Sitting straight, she stared into the flames blankly. She was lost in her thoughts as she stared at the licking flames. She added another log and watched lazily as it caught fire. Then the outer bark flamed, being devoured slowly, then gradually letting the flame work its way to the inside wood. That's the way our body was. A protective outer shell, but once you got past that, you were consumed easily.

"That was some act you pulled off before," his voice startled her from her thoughts. He had made his way over to the fire and sat somewhat beside her. But she scooted away, "What of it?" she asked.

"You caught me," he stated in a simple tone. With his hands bound together and with the chakra depleting bracelet, he seemed harmless, but his air of command was still dominating and very intimidating.

"And?" she asked, staring into the fire once more. "Sakura," he started but was cut off, "Don't speak so familiarly with me. You're a stranger to me, Uchiha. And you mean nothing to me. Not after what you did," she explained quietly.

He didn't seem to care, "Sakura, you can't bring me back to the village. You do know that I'll probably get the death sentence if I show my face there again, right?" he tried to coax her into some sympathy. Maybe she still had a fan-girl in there somewhere that he could warm up to?

"And your point?" Ok…maybe not.

"Sakura, why is it all of a sudden this cold hatred?" he asked. It just wasn't like him to be doing this, but if it meant saving his life, he would do it. And he remembered a time, five years ago, when this girl would do anything for him.

"Hmm, kashira," she spat, moving a little further away from him. Ok, maybe he deserved that.

"Uchiha…you weren't ever going to come back, were you?" she asked, her jade orbs glazed over as they stared unseeingly into the fire. She wanted to hear his answer. She didn't want to be feeling any heartbreak. But it was too late to fix that. Things could never go back to the way they were before. Never.

Sasuke had known that this was coming. He knew Sakura would have a moment when she truly wanted to speak with him. But he never knew it would be this question. Was he going to go back? Orochimaru was defeated long ago, and so was his brother. Itachi was destroyed by Sasuke just over a year ago. There was no reason not to go back. But he never thought he would be accepted back, so he had avoided the village all together.

"Iie," he answered. He was honest, and Sakura would give him points for that. But his answer had hurt. She and Naruto had been searching and desperate to bring their friend back…and he just didn't care. What was she doing with her life?

"Fine. It's time for bed so I'll wake the next guard," she stated, standing abruptly and entering into the men's' tent. A moment later Sakura returned with the Taichou. "Sleep well, Sakura-San," he told his comrade, watching as she slipped into her lone tent.

Taichou took a quick look up at the dark, midnight sky and sniffed. Then he glanced at the annoyed Uchiha, "Do you smell it too?" he asked. "Aa," he answered quickly, none too happy.

"Sakura-San, it's going to rain soon," the Captain informed her through her tent. "I'm aware," she answered. Judging by the sounds from the tent, she was pulling her sleeping bag over her head. The watchman sighed, knowing she was being difficult, "You're aware of what that means, right?" he asked calmly.

"It's going to get wet," she answered grumpily. "You know we can't leave Uchiha outside." "He was doing fine before," she retorted quickly. "I'm sorry, Sakura-San, but I won't allow our prisoner to get sick. And there is no more room in out tent," he explained calmly.

"He can stay under a tree or dig a hole. Personally, I don't care," she snapped. And by the sound of her voice, she was starting to doze off.

"Sakura-San…" "OK! FINE! Uchiha, get your ass in here!" her angry voice sounded, followed by the rustling that suggested she was setting up for him as well. Sasuke grunted, "I can stay outside," he stated. The Taichou glared at him. A look that said that there would be absolutely no questions about his decision.

Sighing with frustration at being told what to do, he stood up weakly and made his way to Sakura's tent. Crouching infront of it, he paused, "You decent?" he asked.

"Of course I am. Get in here," she demanded. Sasuke scowled and did as he was told, crawling inside slowly. The inside of the tent seemed a little cramped. It was obviously a one, possibly a two person tent. Nothing more. "Take off your sandals. "You can borrow my shirt if you want to change yours," she said quickly, throwing him a large ANBU shirt that was her spare. "Hn," he answered, "I can't exactly change my shirt, now can I?" he spat angrily. He was seriously annoyed at not being able to have his arms to himself, though he couldn't blame them.

"Then live without changing till you get the prison uniform in Konoha," she retorted from her sleeping bag. Ouch, that stung. Sasuke grunted and laid down as comfortably as he could on the hard ground. He figured that he would be getting no sympathy from Sakura so he didn't dare ask for a blanket. No. He was Uchiha Sasuke, the last Uchiha. He could last one night without warmth. No big deal.

But no matter what they tried, the Uchiha and Haruno could not sleep. They found the tent air tense and uncomfortable. And though Sakura tried to deny it, it did somehow seem right. It seemed…comfortable.

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