Yay, last chapter! Sorry it took me a while, I was just being a lazy. Anyways, enjoy!
~*~
Not dead. These words were the first to come to mind as the pink-haired ANBU slipped slowly back into consciousness, eyelids heavy, body like a feather. I wouldn't feel this crappy if I were dead. She tried to find her voice, and successfully let out a tired grunt. Aha! So I'm not dead. Sakura grunted again, happy to feel the familiar vibrating in her throat. Everything hurt it seemed, every muscle, every inch of skin, every hair on her body ached. Yes, she was definitely alive alright. Now, if I could just open my eyes. They were so heavy, and now as she tried to open them she found them sealed closed. Huh? Her body moved off its own accord as she raised a hand painfully to meet her eye, only to find it encrusted in sleep. I must've been tearing. she thought, raking the gunk off her eyelashes and lids.
Slowly she opened her eyes and lay there blinking for a few minutes, waiting out the clouding of blurriness to disappear from her eyes. She let the darkness she was laying in register before she slowly sat up, her head sent reeling into a dizzy spell. Man I feel like shit. Sakura slowly recalled the happenings that had occurred before she had left reality for the enticement of darkness, the ninja, getting injured, healing Sasuke, dying. But now she found that last part didn't happen, although search her if she knew why exactly she was not well off and deceased.
Her green eyes scoped her surroundings. She was in a tent, the kind her and Sasuke used for camping out while on missions. Black bedding lay in a tangled mess around her, and she could tell without a mirror that she probably look a little worse for wear. Sighing she raked her hands through her knotted, Easter-egg pink locks, deciding to make the best of her current situation.
The nin found her regular ANBU clothes conveniently folded beside her. First thing's first, she thought, eyeing the clothes with mild skepticism; I need to get properly dressed. Silently she shrugged on the white ANBU vest over her tank top, pulling on her black pants over her shorts soon after. Used to doing this routine every morning she unwrapped her shins, ankles, and feet and re-wrapped them over her pants so the bottoms wouldn't trip her if she needed to make a quick getaway.
The pink-haired ANBU pulled her mask on and to the side of her face, then proceeded to crawl out of the tent and into the cool, fresh air of night. She breathed in deeply as she made her way to the campfire only a few yards from the tent, coming up behind a certain recognizable Uchiha.
She glared at the back of his head and flicked him, causing him to jump.
"No need to flinch," she muttered, going around the fire to sit across from him, "you should've sensed my chakra anyway." Sasuke shrugged, poking at the fire with a stick he had found.
"I was spacing out. Besides, there's no one dangerous around here, it's the middle of nowhere." Sakura glanced at the trees plentiful with green leaves huddled around them, concluding their location in a foresty area. "How do you feel?"
"Like bird poop….can I ask a question?" Sasuke looked up at her, stopping his prodding at the fire for a moment.
"What?"
"Why is my name not on the grieving stone in Konoha?" Sasuke smiled, looking back into the shuddering orange flames of the fire.
"Because Kami must owe you a pretty big favor." Sakura sighed, resting her chin on her palm.
"No, I mean, I'm healed. Who the hell-"
"You wouldn't believe how many people around here are skilled healers." Sasuke said, cutting his teammate off, "Although most of the false ninjas were the healers, and they were all killed." Sakura shook her head.
"I am way too lucky, this is not happening. I really, really hope you're not going to say I was healed by one of those random villagers that just happened to be a healer are you?" Sasuke looked up and grinned.
"Yes, that's exactly what I was going to say." Sakura groaned. "He was really old and stuff, and he just kind of hobbled over and healed you. Although it took a seriously long time, you were practically dead when he finally started pumping his chakra into you." Sakura just glared at her companion.
"I can't believe this, its waaaay too lucky. And where the hell did he get training? Why is he living out here? Agh! It's as if someone is just dictating this as they go, making some strange, impossible dumb luck just suddenly occur! (Valkyrie-o_0 Jesus she's good.)" Sakura looked down, and then back up at Sasuke. "Well?" He stared back at her, the pools of swirling black irises enveloping the piney green of her eyes in his gaze.
"Well what?"
"Don't you have any explanation to why all of this happened?" Sasuke just shook his head.
"The healer said that there and in the surrounding villages healing is a really big , really old tradition for them, but they have no idea who that rogue ninja was." The medic shrugged.
"It doesn't really matter anymore, he's dead now." Sasuke nodded, still staring into the flames of the thriving fire.
"That one guy healed you, that's all there is to it. Now, stop talking about it.
He then looked back up at her, taking in her slightly slouched form as she, too, stared into the hypnotic motion of the fire, eyes glazed over with the glowing light. Confused she let out a deflated sigh, returning to the task at hand.
The medic began to roll up her shirt and Sasuke looked at her in alarm, confused of why she was doing this. To his relief and heavy disappointment she stopped rolling it up just before her bust (which was in wrappings anyway mind you) and she peered down at her stomach.
"Well, he didn't do a very good job." Sasuke's eyebrow rose.
"No?" Sakura pointed.
"See this? That wouldn't have happened if I healed it." She was referring to the long pink scar that traveled up her stomach, disappearing under the hem of her shirt. "The pink color will probably go away in time, but the scar'll always be there. And I can't fix it either because I can't heal perfectly healthy skin, and scars count as perfectly healthy skin. Besides," she sighed, gesturing to the jagged, puffy line of scar tissue that marred the lower part of her hip, caused by getting sliced open a few years ago, "I have enough already." Sasuke shrugged and scooted a little closer, running his finger down the new salmon-colored scar and making her shiver.
"I think it looks fine." He teased, smirking at her reaction. The medic shoved her shirt back down once more and grabbed his wrists.
"Kami your cold. What, have you been soaking your hands in ice?" without letting him answer she took his hands and held them to either side of her neck, heating them with its warm temperature. Her sea-green eyes looked straight into his inky ebony ones, smiling slightly. "Feel better?" He swallowed the giddy feeling that was riding up in his throat, and he could feel his heart doing jumping jacks inside his chest. She was just so damn amazing, with those shockingly solidly colored eyes, such a dark, unbelievable shade of green, and her hair like the faint pink of water lilies, hanging in wispy, soft, thread-like strands about her face, short and as fluttery as a moth's wings when it's learning to fly. Muscles were hidden under her scarred pale skin, tricking you into thinking they weren't there. Whoa Sasuke, he thought, steadying himself, don't go overboard. It's just Sakura. Just Sakura.
"Were you worried?" Sasuke looked at her, snapping out of his daze.
"Worried about what?" Sakura looked away, a hardly noticeable tint of pink appeared as she turned her head away, successfully hiding the small smile that was begging to unfold.
"Nothing." Sasuke stared hard at her, studying her facial expression with a sweep of his eyes.
"About you?" she shook her head, feathery strands of pink pastel hair shivering in the breeze.
"No." she denied, staring hard at something Sasuke couldn't see. They sat like that in quiet for a while, him staring at her while she looked uncomfortably away, settling her gaze upon anything but him. After a long stretch of silence he spoke again.
"I was." Again Sakura hardened her gaze on the object she was staring at.
"I didn't ask you that." His hands were in his lap now, no longer wrapped around the warm of her neck, and her hands clutched her upper arms, scrunched as if she were suffering from chill.
"You were thinking it." Sasuke said reassuringly, smirking as the light tint on her cheeks came to look even more like a blush.
"As if you know what I think."
"I do." His tone was suddenly serious, and she pulled her gaze back to him, studying how truthful his expression had become. "It shows on your face, and in your voice." The medic crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow.
"What am I thinking now, oh Sasuke the psychic?"
Now is the time! It was his inner self speaking, telling him to make a move.
Time for what?
To do…this!
"Hickory smoked cat hooves." Sakura's jaw dropped.
"What?" Sasuke was leaning towards her, his hands steadying him on the ground so he wouldn't fall on top of her. Sakura, still shocked, didn't notice.
"A distraction." was all that Sasuke found himself saying as he leaned in closer yet, his face inches away from hers.
"A distra-" her confused words were cut off when suddenly his lips were pressed to hers and his hand was at the small of her back, keeping her from falling over because he had leaned in so close.
He watched as her eyes closed and then he quickly copied her, letting his eyelashes fall down to his cheeks. Her scent intoxicated him and suddenly he was breathing her, feeling her, tasting and seeing her even as his eyes were lidded. Was it healthy for his heart to beat this fast, surely not this hard? But he was to drunk in all that was Sakura to give a damn, to care if he died on the spot right here, right now.
After a year of anticipating, looking from afar, and biting down so hard upon his tongue it bled he was finally able to give in, to indulge on the need he had been living with for so long, enduring for so long. And God was it worth it.
Sakura, on the other hand, couldn't seem to think at all. She was, 'caught in the moment' as you might say. She was hallucinating. She was sick, she was seeing things, feeling things, comforting the fact that she would never be able to do this in real life. The medic needed a sign, a sign to show that this was all real, that it was all actually happening. The aspect was ridiculous she could hardly process it. Perhaps Kami had owed her a favor. If she hadn't survived that sure-to-die situation this would never be happening, she wouldn't even be dreaming of this happening if it wasn't for some random healer.
Sakura was like a drug, a drug everyone should be frightened of getting addicted to. Sasuke smiled, she was his drug now, his very own drug that he could get psyched on again and again. He wrapped his arms possessively around her, growing protective of the body of the person he loved so much. His fingers were hopelessly tangled in her pink tresses, and one of her small hands pressed against the side of his neck, the other clutching the front of his shoulder. No, she was more like a sickness, a fever that no matter what you did you could never cool down.
Gently, reluctantly the Uchiha pulled away, making both simultaneously realize neither had been breathing through the entire lapse of their sudden kiss. They were silent, staring at the other one, not knowing what to say, what to do. Sakura sobered a bit, the cloudiness of surprise and lovely intoxication fading slightly from her eyes.
"I love you." Her face was serious and yet so casual, it was if she were saying hello. Sasuke opened his mouth but Sakura interrupted, cutting him off before he even started. "It's not cliché, Sasuke, it's something people say when they love you. They say it, admit it to the other person." It was as if she were suddenly schooling him in the ways of love, and Sasuke grinned. In a swift motion he had pulled her into a hug, holding her closer than he knew was possible.
"You won't believe how glad I was when I found out you were alive. I got the weirdest looks when I started dancing on the rooftops." His words were whispered into her hair, and she held him tighter, laughing slightly. The black-haired boy moved to kiss her once again, but her fingertips pressed firmly to his lips stopped him.
"Nu uh," she said, shaking her head as she pressed her fingers to his mouth, "you ain't getting anything unless you say it."
"Say what?" his tone was innocent. Sakura narrowed her eyes, he was teasing her.
"Fine, sleep well, ok Sasuke?" she kept the disappointment out of her light tone as she pulled away from his embrace and casually began strolling to her tent. Sasuke hopped up from his current position and grabbed her wrist before she slipped inside the tent, yanking her so her back collided with his chest. His pulled her close, bending down to whisper in her ear.
"You don't have to force me into it you know." Sakura's tone remained unfazed.
"If that's not a problem then you should have no trouble saying it." He made his voice low, pressing his lips to her ear and uttered the words, meaning them more than she could possibly imagine. The medic spun around in joy only to be hoisted up at the hips by Sasuke, forcing her to lean her hands onto the tops of his shoulders for stability. With laughter in her eyes she leaned down and kissed him, heart as light as a sparrow's wing.
The rest is history, as you may very well know. But I must say that Naruto was quite pleased with the sudden development of speech between the two when they came back, only he just couldn't understand why when he went to Sasuke or Sakura's apartment at night he'd find himself hopelessly locked out at night. What puzzled him the most was the way Sasuke and Sakura looked at each other after those puzzling nights, and how a twinkle of something he almost recognized flickered in their eyes when he assigned them a mission. He did not understand the twinkle, that is, until he passed Hinata on the street and felt the same color flash in his eye as he observed the same thing in hers. Yes, perhaps he could figure it out now.
~*~
The end! Please review, I was really self conscious of this whole thing and how frickn' lucky I made sakura. I mean, what are the chances of this old guy coming along and saving you from sudden death? Review!
-Valkyrie
