When Naruto heard a knock at his door he groaned. paisong his game he checked the time to find that it was too late for someone to be out. Least of all at his door.

Who could it be at two in the morning? He wondered as he rose from his seat. And its raining, he noted, trudging to the entrance. When he opened up he did not expect to see,

"Sakura?"

Her skin was flushed and clotyes completely soaked through. She didnt look at him directly as her bangs were obscuring her vision.

"You didn't answer you phone." Despite the darkness that came with a stormy night, her viridian orbs seemed to shine with words unsaid and allure.

He rushed her in, securing his front door then directing her to his room. He pulled out a clean pair of underwear and a fresh tee.

"Where are you coming from?" He asked as he went to retrieve a towel. "Did you walk?"

"Hidan," he groaned inwardly at the name, that group was nothing but trouble, "threw a wild party. Drugs, alcohol, the usual." Her tone was hollow to him as if she'd lost something she held dear but it wasn't hers to begin with. "I woke up in his bathtub."

He noticed her clothes were a bit torn and that sent alarm bells and anger coursing through him. "Sakura--" he started but she cut him off.

With a small smirk she said, "I was running from stray dogs for a bit. They didn't touch me but the gates caught on my clothes."

He relaxed a bit, turning away from her to give her a bit more privacy. "So, you were ay Hidan's, why didn't you go to Ino's?"

He stiffened when he felt her cold but also warm body against his own. She nuzzled her face into his spine and whispered gently, "I needed to see you, Naruto."

His heart rate picked up speed, he knew she could feel it. He forced himself to not outwardly display his whirlwind of emotions. "Sakura, please," he quietly begged knowing such would do little to sway her.

"I love you."

The blond removed her hold on him to face her. Gazing deep within those dimmed emeralds he could tell she meant it. Her gaze never flinched from his or showed anything with intent to hurt him. She always meant it and, he supposed, maybe that was the worst part. She loved him but they couldn't be together. She loved him but had to deny it everywhere else. She loved him but only when it was jusy them two.

His patience for her was waning. Such would never be enough for him to stop loving her. Never enough to make him move on or even try to. She was his everything.

"Don't you love me, Naruto-kun?" She kissed the corner of his mouth sending a chill of forbidden excitement through every inch of his body.

"Sakura..." he tried again as her hands caresses him like the feathers of angels or maybe the gentle claws of yokai was more accurate. "I love you more than you'll ever know."

"Show me~" she whispered coquettishly in his ear.

Like the obdient mutt she trained him to be, he obliged.

That morning Uzumaki Naruto woke with a void in his chest. Dull ceruleans watched the cracks in the ceiling dance in mockery of him. He wouldn't bother reaching over to touch her, she wouldn't be there.

Like the creatures of night, she was gone before the sun rose.

"Sakura..." he mumured as that familiar and intoxicating heat invaded his head. The flood gates were going to open and there was nary a thing he could do to stop it.

Tears rained freely from shadowed, once briliant, blues. Silently, he wished all his pain would leave with yhe small droplets of salt water sorrow.

He knew that as long as he was involved with her, he would always be troubled. He had to get out. Runaway, anything to free himself of her.

Laying flat on his stomach his arms wrapped themselves around his pillow only to have them rub against something. He encased it in his hand and pulled out a small box made of beechwood with a small sun engraved on the top. Opening it, his breath caught.

It was a gold gimmel ring. The heart between the hands was the color of his birthstone while inside it were their initials. She even left a note;

Forever and Always, Naruto-kun ~Sakura

He choked out a bittersweet sob, fresh tears gracing his cheeks. Free? Of her? My soul had surrendered itself to her long before I know of my own feelings for her.