Title: I Don't Know You
Summary: Sasuke realizes the Sakura of his past and the Sakura of the present are two completely different people-and he's not so sure how he feels about the results.
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, but HEY, I might as well because look who's NOT being an asshat.
Prompt: There Was No Warning from day four of the SasuSakuMonth Prompts.
Rating: T
Words: 1,172
Warning(s): Murder
Author's Note: Still working on these prompts. Also, Badass!Sakura is my favorite Sakura. I do recognize she does more for Sasuke when she's kind and gentle, but I really love it when Sakura has those moments that show she's a kunoichi, too. Also ALSO, I had no idea what to do with this prompt. Enjoy the severely unedited piece.
Sasuke closed his eyes for a fraction of a second longer than what was considered to be the standard blink. His mind struggled to correlate the words he had just heard with the pearly pink lips that had formed them. Were he any less dignified, his mouth would have been hanging open, but he was a Uchiha. Uchihas did not gape.
"What did you just say?"
Sakura paused, still facing away from him, her hands laced through her soft tresses as she tied them out of the way, "I said I'll take care of the guards, you go gather the hostages. They should be somewhere underground from what Hinata says."
"Take care of them," Sasuke repeated tonelessly, hand tightening on his blade, "Meaning what? Knock them out?"
The band Sakura had used on her hair snapped as she released it, the only sound in the silence that followed his question. Slowly, in a way that could easily be mistaken for delicate, Sakura turned to face him over her shoulder.
"It means I'm going to kill them, Uchiha," she explained, the condescending lilt to her tone betraying her annoyance.
The sudden anger Sasuke felt was unwarranted, he knew, but for some reason the idea of Sakura killing someone made his teeth grit. She was a healer, for Kami's sake; she wasn't supposed to kill anyone. Looking at Sakura's bland expression only increased his aggravation. The Sakura he knew was expressive, overly-emotional, naïve. The pink-haired girl from his memories certainly would not announce cold-blooded murder without flinching.
"As if you could kill fifteen guards," Sasuke snapped, his lips drawing upward on one side in a mocking sneer. Accepting more blood onto his hands was more than worth it if it meant Sakura's hands remained clean, "I'll take the guards, you save the prisoners."
Being responsible for more deaths didn't particularly appeal to him. Since his return to Konoha Sasuke had recovered bits and pieces of his old optimism and ideals. For once, he didn't have to wade through the crimson liquid to achieve his dreams. As a shinobi, there would always be some gore, and he could probably handle it better than most. Now, though, he didn't have to enjoy it. It was okay, healthy even, if he wasn't fond of spilling excess blood.
For this, though-to keep Sakura's ivory hands unstained-he would.
Glancing once at the guards to ensure their position was the same, Sakura turned her whole body to face the last Uchiha. Her shoulders were tense, and her hand rested aggressively on one cocked hip, but her voice was even when she spoke.
"Sasuke, the hostages can't know the Leaf saved them, you have to use genjutsu, remember? That's the whole point of having you on this mission. I, on the other hand, can make it look like these guards were poisoned with something rudimentary," Sakura grabbed her gloves from the pouch at her hip, breaking eye contact as she pulled the gloves on tight with her teeth, "So, I will kill the guards, and you will save the hostages, and we can go back to ignoring each other, kay?"
Sakura's falsely positive tone sunk its talons somewhere deep in the recesses of his mind. There was a time, he remembered, when that's all Sakura was: a happy, love-struck, teenage girl. There was a time, when Sakura referred to him with affection instead of coldly.
If there had been a warning for this change, he had missed it.
Green eyes pierced into his, searching for any response. When he moved to open his mouth again, Sakura exhaled sharply and spun away from him—not crunching a single leaf in the movement.
"I don't have time to argue with you, Uchiha," she stated tonelessly, "Do your job and I'll do mine."
She had vanished into the night before her sentence was even finished, without so much as a backwards glance. Choking on the words that chased after her, Sasuke swallowed thickly. Every part of him wanted to call her back, tell her to stop, ask her to stop—but he didn't.
Shinobi wasn't an occupation; it was a way of life. Once Sakura had set forward, she had set the mission timer off ticking deep within him. Wasting time now wouldn't just be foolish, it would risk lives. It could jeopardize the mission.
Usually, all it took was a minor threat to the mission to focus Sasuke. This time, Sasuke still tasted bile as he sped towards Hinata and the mission objective.
_x_
"Objective completed. Status requested," Hinata whispered into her microphone.
Static echoed from Sakura's end, and Sasuke felt his muscles tense. Seemingly following his wavelength, Hinata frowned and glanced at him. This was bad. Sakura should have called in the moment the coast was clear, but she hadn't.
And now she wasn't answering.
"Search and rescue?" Hinata's quiet voice interrupted his thoughts.
"Not necessary," a familiar voice answered, causing Sasuke and Hinata to spin around to face the medic-nin.
Sakura leaned heavily against the doorway, strands of pink hair falling out of the tie she had meticulously secured it in not even an hour before. Sasuke's sharingan took in the faded look to her eyes, and the miniscule tremors that ran through her body with every breath.
She was exhausted and out of chakra.
"One of the guards smashed my earpiece, and another one made it close this way," Sakura offered in explanation to their probing gazes with a shrug, "So I figured, hey, why not join the party?"
"You're out of chakra," Hinata voiced the same conclusion Sasuke had come to, her byakugan no doubt picking up the depth of her depletion, "That's why Sasuke and I didn't feel you coming."
"That or you're losing your edge," Sakura teased, the jibe obviously intended mostly for Sasuke with the way her eyes flitted to him long enough for her words to sink in before returning her gaze to Hinata, "Anyway, there were double the amount of guards that we expected, so I had to move twice as fast."
"Twice as many," Sasuke's screeched through the math and all the implications that came with it, "That means there were nearly thirty guards!"
"Don't worry, I got them all, Sasu-cakes," Sakura waved him off flippantly with her hand, "the methods of death were all rudimentary enough that it could be a large number or rogues that performed the attacks, I made sure the footprints were too muddied to determine otherwise."
Jaw tightening at the mocking nickname-that was going to have to stop immediately-Sasuke glared at Sakura. To her credit, Sakura didn't so much as flinch, and instead rolled her eyes before blowing him a kiss: Kiss my ass.
Again, Sasuke was stuck staring at this new, blood-stained Sakura with a little bit of wonder. What exactly had changed in the time he'd been gone? She wasn't useless, she wasn't timid, she wasn't gentle, she wasn't afraid of killing, and she didn't love him.
His eyes followed the back of the callous woman he kind of/maybe/definitely loved as she trudged back up the dingy stairway, truly taking the time to observe who she was now. Collected, effective, deadly, graceful, and emotionless, she was the shining example a Konoha kunoichi.
Sakura had grown to be exactly what Sasuke had told her to be, but the results weren't what he had expected.
Not gonna lie, I mostly posted this so I could get the other pieces I have after it up.
Nonetheless, I would enjoy your feedback on it :)
