The surreal quality of the situation was finally having an affect on her. It took the idea of Sasuke actually listening to something she said, and thinking about it, to finally make her realize how bizarre and wrong her current circumstances were.

"I have to go." \Subtle.\ "I mean, I have a mission. I do have to finish it." He was taken aback, she could tell. Now that he'd gone through the whole story, it seemed he was so mentally exhausted he couldn't hide his emotions as well as he usually could.

She'd also learned to read him better in the past few hours they'd spent together.

No, no, she couldn't think like that. She had to go.

"I do. I have to go."

"Sakura… I-"

"No! I have to go, I have to go now, I just need to-" She might be hyperventilating.

"Sakura, you need to breathe." Damn him. She knew she was being crazy, but this was all so beyond anything her mind could fathom.

"I am!… I just- how is it that you don't listen to me for five years, and then all of a sudden…" She shook her head, and pushed up from the couch. "I definitely can't be here, doing this. I need to go get those herbs, and get back home, and then we can go back to being whatever it is we were before this day happened."

She started to walk away. Each step pulling her further and further from what she should have had. It was so unfair. Why did her ending always have to be so bloody tragic?

The only difference was this time, she was walking away and he was staring at her back. Oh, and he wasn't giving her undying proclamations of love and all that nonsense.

"Sakura." She stopped and whipped around. Her eyes flashing, and her mouth in a snarl.

"Sasuke! I can't! Don't you get it? I'm a Jounin- Anbu, for the Hidden Village of the Leaf. My life is Konoha. You're a missing nin, an S-Class criminal, and a student of the man who wants to overthrow my home and kill my mentor and my friends. This can't be happening."

"Stay."

"I should be trying to arrest you." He was standing up now. "Or kill you." He was walking towards her. "At least trying to get you to leave Orochimaru." Then he lifted her up and over his shoulder. "What the hell do you think you're doing?!"

"…"

"Don't you pause at me. I will kill you." She was glaring at his perfectly shaped butt. He sighed. "And don't sigh at me either." Plopping her back down on the couch, he took a seat next to her again. "Ugh. What do you want from me?"

"A response… one that's not crazy." She shifted uncomfortably.

"I can't believe you peaking in my window led you to what is probably the greatest revelation in your life." She threw her face into her hands. "This is so typical… there's finally an opportunity to see me shirtless, and you look at my anbu tattoo. What the hell."

At this point, embarrassment wasn't even an issue.

"So you wanted me to ogle you?"

"Yes, damn it." This time he shifted uncomfortably.

"I might not have just stared at the anbu tattoo…" She glanced up at his face… he was practically pink! The Uchiha was blushing. She took a moment to revel in the idea of ruffling the usually stoic man's countenance, positive that she was the only woman ever to do so- and then she punched him on the side of the head.

"I knew you were a pervert."

He groaned.

"I almost miss the days of you doting on me."

"I don't have time to be a fool anymore, Sasuke-kun." She grinned pleasantly at him, before drawing her brows together in concentration. "I do have a mission, you know."

"I know."

"But… I also have a few days to do it."

"A few days to gather herbs?" He sounded entirely too incredulous for her liking. As if it would actually take her that long. He went between being impressed with her and questioning her constantly.

"Not because it will take me that long, but because Tsunade said I needed a break. Jeez Sasuke-kun, I am an Anbu after all." She smirked. She was so awesome.

"I know, I know." He turned to look at her before asking his next question, as if deciding exactly how good of a nin she was. "Who were you talking to… that night…?" Damn. Damn damn damn. She felt like hitting him again just so she wouldn't have to deal with the question.

But that would be wrong.

So instead, she subtly changed the subject.

"So, Kakashi-Senpai's actually really handsome." He did a double take.

"Stop changing the subject, Sakura." She needed something better.

"So you are going to restore your clan, then?" She put a look of seriousness on her face, and looked at him expectantly. Her hands, however, were knotting themselves together in hopes he wouldn't want to know more about Inner Sakura. That was a bit too personal for anyone, namely him, to know about.

"Yes." Then something occurred to her. She stopped twisting her hands, and instead laid them peacefully on her lap. If he had decided that, then-

"You're not going to give your body to Orochimaru."

"No." He bit out the word, as if it tasted bad in his mouth. Or maybe it was just the idea of having the Sannin take his body.

"Does he know?"

"No." This was with a hint of resignation. He didn't like his circumstances.

"Will you kill him?"

"I don't know." … He could. He could kill him in time. Perhaps it could save him in the end.

"I think I'll stay a little longer." He eyed her wearily. Yes Uchiha, be wary, be very, very wary. She smirked at her inner rhyming.

"You were right." He broke her out of her own thoughts. "If I continue the way I am, the way I have been, I will be alone. My clan will die with me." What could she say? It was true, she'd said it with her own mouth. There would be no false words of hope or sympathy from her side. "Everything my parents believed would be gone, and it would partially be my fault because I let him manipulate me." He was getting angry, this would not be good. Launching himself out of the couch, he started pacing, and ranting. "And it's worse now that I realize that, because I still can't stop. If I stopped now, I would be empty. I've spent too much of my life needing this, I can't let it go. If I continue I will be nothing. So," he looked at her, more helpless than she had ever seen, "what do I do now?"

"You come home."

"I can't."

"We'll all kill Itachi." And instead of giving him time to make some scathing remark about how no one else could possibly do it, she stood up, walked up to him, and she did it.

She wrapped her arms around his neck, and pulled his head down to hers.

Before he could even blink, she kissed Uchiha Sasuke on the mouth.

And it was good.

Despite lacking experience, the man knew just how to move his lips against hers to make for the perfect, if slightly awkward, kiss. She was kind of surprised. She felt his hands in her hair, and suddenly she was back on the couch.

Weird, because she didn't remember moving.

A/N: FINALLY! Another chapter. I'm late, I know. Sorreeeeeee. I've been crazy busy. By which I mean I've been putting in hours on the Wii and regretfully neglecting dear Sasu-chan. I'm a horrible person.

So any how, I kind of hate this chapter. I just had so much trouble trying to integrate the funny with the response with the angst with the romance. Blah. No good. But, on an up note, they finally kissed! Right, right? I was totally gonna do the whole Sakura leaving and Sasuke grabbing her hand and being all "no, you can't leave" and then kiss the shit out of her. But then I realized that that was lame and wouldn't work. So, because Sakura's been the more aggressive of the two throughout my writing, I figured she should be the one to initiate. I hope the scene's okay, I uh, getting really blushy about writing scenes with displays of affection in them, so I tend to just bypass it with a line or two, but this one I hope I've concentrated on enough.

Also, in regards to Sakura leaving Sasuke, which I know now is hard to think of possible- well, she's an Anbu, and so I'm fairly certain they have to have some type of emotional capacity to that, which means, being able to see past their own feelings. So, yeah, she's slightly emotionally stronger than previously.

So thanks for all the reviews and favorites and alerts and the people loving my story. Hehe, I never thought the day would come :D You people get me.

Unfortunately, Mr. Review suffers from gluttony and so he just wants more, more, more all the time. Give the poor soul what he needs, push the button to feed him some delicious thanksgiving reviews.

P.S. Is anyone else not getting email alerts from ff . net?