* This isn't a new chapter. Mysteriously, my story was removed. Are the Powers That Be telling me something? Anyway, I'm just double checking the eleventh chapter at the moment. Be on the look for it some time this week. Peace and love.

Read, enjoy and review.

Chapter 10: The Choice I Have Made

Sasuke threw the piece of wood he'd just chopped onto the growing pile and lifted his head with a frown. There it was again, the sound of one of his traps exploding. It was the second time in the last hour. When the first one set off, he'd assumed it was caused by some unfortunate critter. Now, though, he wasn't so sure.

The sound came from quite a distance away, but he'd rigged it so that he could hear even from the safety of his house. He wondered if he should go and check it out, though he didn't see cause for concern. If it were anyone or anything that posed a threat, they would have been skilled enough to not set off the traps.

BOOM!

There it was again! Sasuke let out a growl of frustration this time. It was as if his traps were being disturbed on purpose. Seriously. He was getting annoyed enough to kill.

He paused when he felt the hairs on the back of his neck rise. The third trap not only brought a closer-sounding noise of explosion, it was also accompanied by a pulse of chakra.

A large one, at that.

It took him a second, then his eyes widened. He knew that chakra, had become intimately familiar with it. It was—

The chakra spiked again.

He dropped his axe and took off running.

Sakura felt him before she saw him. Her feet landed lightly on the ground and she nearly shouted in glee.

It had been nearly half a year since she last saw him. It had taken longer than she'd expected to wrap everything up in Konoha, but she was finally, in the best sense of the word, free. She was still a shinobi of the Leaf—that was a title she wouldn't ever shed—but she was now free to be with Sasuke.

She'd spend many nights—the only time when she wasn't occupied with one activity or another—thinking of Sasuke. She knew he would still be at his house. He'd planted roots there and he wasn't the type to move around much unless necessary. She'd wondered how and what he was doing, if he had found another woman to replace her in his bed. She had bravely decided that she wouldn't have minded if he had slept with someone else after she'd left. They hadn't made any promises and while he wasn't an ordinary man, he was a man, nonetheless. Plus, if he had slept with someone else, he wouldn't have been serious with the other woman. She wouldn't mind.

She would probably kick his ass, but she would look past it.

Sakura lifted her head and breathed in the scent of the autumn forest. Her lips formed a large smile. From the feel of it, Sasuke was moving towards her at a neck-breaking speed.

There was a whooshing sound and then he was in front of her.

Joy flashed through her so swiftly that she trembled at its impact.

He was as gorgeous as ever, possibly even more so. His black eyes were open wide with shock as he stared back at her, his too-long hair windswept and so deliciously ruffled. He was breathing hard, though she knew it wasn't from his run.

She'd imagined this meeting for so long, but now that they were here, she found herself speechless. She wanted to laugh, she wanted to cry—and she really, really wanted to kiss him.

They looked at each other for a long while, both of them taking in the sight of the other. Finally, she couldn't stand it any longer. With a whoop she couldn't hold back, she jumped at him.

He met her halfway and it felt like the most natural thing in the world for him to wrap his arms around her, taking on her weight as she circled his slim hips with her legs. He grasped the back of her head while his other hand cupped her round bottom, lifting her higher. He steadied his legs, tightened his grip and tugged on her hair to receive his kiss.

At the first touch of his lips on hers, she whimpered. He dimly wondered if he was hurting her, but he didn't stop kissing her. He couldn't. He deepened the kiss and used his tongue to part her lips before sliding it deep to taste the familiar sweetness. As his mouth hungrily took hers, he finally allowed himself to admit that he'd missed her, so much so that it had been painful.

They continued to devour each other, gasps escaping between kisses. Sakura tilted her head further and received his passionate oral assault, her nails digging into the cloth covering his back. He was a bit sweaty and he smelled of wood and leaves and suddenly she didn't care that once again, they were exposed in the middle of the forest. She wanted him—and she wanted him now.

Apparently, he shared the same sentiment, because his hands grew more aggressive, his mouth more hungry. With her still clinging to him like a monkey, he blindly took several steps forward, their lips still attached to one another. She yelped underneath his mouth as her back hit the bark of a tree hard, but the pain was quickly forgotten as his hand moved from her butt to between their legs.

Like their joining that wonderful afternoon after their shopping trip, there was no lingering foreplay. She loosened her legs just enough for him to pull down her shorts along with her panties—when she heard the rip, she lamented the loss of another pair of pretty underwear—and he drew back a bit to practically tear open the buttons of his trousers. His fingers brushed against her swollen clit several times to make sure she was ready before he encircled himself to notch the head of his steel-hard shaft to the damp opening of her vagina.

They both let out exuberant cries as he slid deep into her, his hips thrusting upwards to fully embed himself inside. Tears prickled her eyes because damn it, he felt so right! She had missed him terribly, and until him, she had never been truly aware of how important it was, this perfect intimacy with the one you love.

He paused for a moment, pleasure flowing through him. "Fuck, you're tight," he rasped and she wanted to laugh because these were the first words he'd spoken to ever since he crashed through the trees.

From then on, there wasn't much need for words. He pressed her closer against the tree, withdrew his cock halfway before plunging back in so strongly, they both yelled. She clung on to him as he repeated the motion again and again, groans, pants and muttered curses temporarily making up for any conservation that should have taken place.

"Faster, harder, Sasuke, faster!" she egged him on. She could feel the bark of the tree digging into the flesh of her bottom, possibly breaking skin, but she didn't care. Her mouth was moving all over his face, down his sharp cheekbones and across the strong line of his jaw. Her hips rose to meet each of his thrust and urgent-filled moans were torn from her throat. She felt as if he should be closer, deeper. Fear abruptly overwhelmed her and for a split second, she was afraid that she was dreaming, and that any moment, she would wake up and find herself still in her bedroom in Konoha.

He must have sensed her fright, because he increased the speed and intensity of his thrusts, burying himself so deep he could practically feel her womb. He wrapped his fingers around her knee, lifting it higher against his side. He, too, was feeling a sense of urgency, and he gritted his teeth to hold back the urge to come right then and there. He wouldn't achieve climax before she did; she would come first or they would come together.

"More, more, more, more!" She was mindless with need, the promise of an orgasm so very close.

Out of nowhere, she suddenly closed her teeth sharply around his earlobe and the slight twinge caused him to let out a roar. His eyes bled red and whatever control he'd sought for was forgotten as he began to pound into her with shinobi speed.

"Yes, yes, oh yes!" Sakura screamed as she blessedly achieved release. Pleasure swarmed over her and her eyes rolled to the back of her head as she lost herself to the moment.

Sasuke gritted his teeth as the walls of her pussy constricted around him. Fighting the tightness, he pulled all the way out and then shoved himself all the way in one more time. His bellow of her name ripped through the forest as he spurted hard within her.

Sakura slumped backwards, boneless. She pried open her eyes to peek at him, amazed that he still managed to hold both of them up. Spots were still dancing through her head, and she basked in one of the loveliest feelings of her life.

"Thank God," she murmured.

He grunted in reply.

She started to laugh, pulling his head to hers for a soft kiss, which soon grew more intense. Never mind that she was still throbbing from a mind-blowing orgasm. She had gone without him for months and he had pay for her misery.

She told him that, in a sassy way, and he allowed himself a small smile.

He was only too willing to comply.

Neither found the energy to immediately return to his house. Against the tree that she made a note to one day decorate, they slumped tiredly, lolling in the afterglow of yet another orgasm. They had haphazardly pulled on their clothes and were now lying at the foot of the tree, their arms wrapped around each other.

She ran a hand over his chest and looked up at him with a loving smile. Her voice soft so to not spoil the quietness of the moment, she said, "I killed Danzo—and the Elders too." She nearly laughed because she was partly amused; this was their form of pillow talk.

His arm tightened around her and he stared back at her for a long moment. Finally, he spoke, his voice deep and somber. "I heard about the Elders." He paused, searching her face intently. "How did you know?" He was deeply curious. The shock of her words still hadn't fully hit him.

"It's common for people to share their secrets during fevers," was her way of her answering. "And sometimes—sometimes, you talk in your sleep, Sasuke."

"You never indicated anything." He was highly disgruntled.

She giggled. "You wouldn't have liked hearing it," she pointed out as-a-matter-of-factly.

He grunted, not disagreeing with her.

His eyes took a faraway lips and she traced his lips to pull him back to her. Lifting herself higher against him, she pressed a soft kiss to his cheek. "Will you tell me?" she asked gently. "About Madara . . . and about Itachi?"

He was silent for a long time, until at last, he let out a sigh and told her everything she wanted to know.

His tone was impassive, as if he were reciting from a book instead of the actual, horrific events of his life. He told her of his fight with Itachi, of how he believed he had achieved his ultimate goal when he defeated his older brother. He told of her of the shock and fury he'd felt when, after Itachi's death, he learned about the truth of the Uchiha Massacre and Itachi's part in it. He'd gone a bit insane after that, he grudgingly admitted. The lies that had shaped his life were too much to handle and he'd been an easy prey to his kinsman's trap then. Uchiha Madara had taken advantage of his wrath and immense sense of betrayal, and egged him on into seeking another type of revenge—that against the village responsible for his torment: Konoha.

At this, Sakura flinched because Sasuke didn't hold back as he described to her all his plans of literally burning Konoha to the ground. He had been that furious.

"What changed your mind?" she questioned. This was an answer she hadn't been able to find in her investigation.

He didn't lose his honesty. "I knew when Pein decided to invade Konoha. That was the plan Madara concocted. We—my team and I, and Madara—were lying in wake, waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike."

She felt a twinge at the mention of his other team, but decided to let it go for the sake of a bigger issue.

"Madara was watching Pein's attack from another location. I was ordered to wait in one of the Uchiha hideouts not far from the village and he would send a message once he deemed it time. It was there that for some unknown reason, Itachi's Akatsuki partner, Kisame—"

"The fish man?"

He cracked a slight smile. "Yes, that one. Among the Akatsuki members that I knew, he was always a bit different. Perhaps he'd grown weary of wars or could no longer agree with the ideology Madara and Akatsuki carried. Fuck, maybe he'd grown a heart. I don't know, but for whatever reason, he approached me. He reminded me that everything Itachi had ever done was to protect me and that as a shinobi and someone who had experienced it firsthand, to be aware that nothing was ever what it seems to be. Then he gave me something."

"What did he give you?"

"Whenever an Uchiha child of the main family is born, they are given a stone that is shaped and polished by the fire breathed by their fathers. This takes a lot of energy and would usually leave the father weakened for several days. It's a tradition to show how much a father is willing to sacrifice for his child," Sasuke added with a bitter laugh, most likely thinking of his father. "After the Massacre, I thought Itachi had thrown his away, but he didn't. It was this birthstone that Kisame gave to me."

"How did a stone change your mind?" Sakura was a bit incredulous because neither her pleas nor Naruto's form of tough love had accomplished such a thing.

"It didn't," Sasuke said wryly. "It was what was in the stone that bothered me. Itachi had managed to plant a bit of his thoughts inside the stone. This is supposed to be impossible, so my brother didn't achieve full success. Only a sliver of memory managed to filter through and when I looked at it with my Mangekyou, I saw two images."

Sasuke paused in his speech and Sakura waited patiently for him to continue. She saw the way his eyes flickered a bit.

"It was the morning of the massacre," he announced quietly. "I saw my eight-year-old-self—but more importantly, I saw Madara.

"I didn't change my mind immediately. I still wanted to destroy Konoha, but I did start to question things. I didn't want to wait for Madara then. I teleported to where he was. He was angry when he saw me and grew even more angry when I started to demand answers. It made sense to me—Itachi was strong, the strongest in our family history, but even he couldn't have killed so many Uchihas in the time he'd taken. He had to have had an accomplice."

"Madara."

He nodded. He went on to tell her about the heated conversation between him and his ancestor. Sasuke had pushed and pushed until he managed to make Madara admit to his own personal plan concerning Konoha. He had boasted about how smart he was, about how patient he had been. It was this obvious manipulation that had infuriated Sasuke, who was already on the verge of homicide. Finally, it had been Madara's last words that lit the proverbial flame.

"I knew Itachi would go and spoil everything," the older Uchiha had said derisively. "He was always the weakest link. Ever the pacifist, so intent on peace. I should have killed him along with your wretched mother."

Whatever sanity Sasuke had possessed then had disappeared and with another target so close in front of him, he had attacked Madara. It was a great fight, one that did not promise a survival outcome for either of them. In the end, though, Sasuke had triumphed—just barely.

"I killed him with a Chidori to the head," Sasuke declared without any hint of pride. "Until today, I still don't quite know how I did it. I was strong, but Madara . . . he had lived for a very long time and had acquired a lot of power. It was probably his arrogance—he'd been sure that he'd beat me—that led to his downfall. The members of my group had followed me and interfered sometime during the fight. Two of them were killed, but Suigetsu survived—simply because he was the only one who didn't interfere."

"And what about you?" Sakura asked, fingering the jagged scar beneath his shirt that she now knew was a memento from the battle.

"I was dying," he said simply. "And I was willing to die, but Suigetsu carried me away from the area. He found a civilian doctor not far away and for two weeks, I was in and out of consciousness. When I finally came to, Pein was already defeated and Konoha was recovering from his attack. Nothing seemed to matter anymore after that."

They both stopped talking after that, drifting off with their own thoughts. Sakura placed her head on his chest, her gaze distant. There were still many questions she wanted to ask him, still so many gaps that she knew needed to be filled. However, they could wait another day. Sasuke had already given her the more important details anyway.

For now, she just wanted to enjoy the fact that he was here with her, alive and well. He had come so close to death, and the scariest thing was that she had never known this. He could have died and she would have never known. She would have gone off with her life, believing that he was somewhere in the world, angry and tormented by his demons, but still alive.

She pressed a kiss to his throat, breathing in his scent. "You could have come to us," she stated almost accusingly. "Pein attacking or not, you know Naruto, Kakashi and I would have come to you immediately."

"It was something I needed to do. It was my burden to bear." He glanced down at her, his eyes narrowed. "Danzo and the Elders shouldn't have been yours."

She shrugged. "It was something I needed to do," she shot back smartly.

He allowed himself a small smile.

She wasn't willing to talk about Danzo and the Elders and her subsequent actions yet. Death wasn't foreign to her, but executing members of her own village was. Though she didn't regret it, her action lied heavily in her heart, but as shinobi, the things you did would never be what you really want—sometimes, they were simply something you had to do.

She burrowed closer to him, delighting in his warmth.

"What happens now?" he asked after a while. He didn't deal well with uncertainties.

She lifted her head and gave him one of the biggest grins he'd ever seen. "Now—now, I'm on an indefinite leave of absence from the village and all of my duties. And before you ask—no, it's not because of what I did. I asked for the leave and was granted it. There are several stipulations, but none that will prevent me from doing what I want."

"And what is that you want?" Sasuke demanded, unable to believe the fear that crept within him.

She didn't lose her smile. She gently cupped his face, tracing the shape of his cheekbone. "I lied when I said I loved you."

He stiffened.

"No, no, no, no." She shook her head quickly. "I meant every word that day at the market place. I meant, I lied when I said I loved you that night you left Konoha—which, by the way I'll be sure to kick your ass for leaving me on a freaking bench. I could have been robbed, or worse, I could have been raped! You're gonna have to pay for that, Sasuke."

"Sakura."

"Oh, right." She laughed, her green eyes shining brightly. "I was a twelve-year-old girl, Sasuke. I see now that I didn't come close to understanding what it means to really, truly be in love. At that time, love for me was filled with rainbows and sunshine. I supposed I did love you, in a way a young girl could love a young boy, but now . . . what I feel for you is nothing in comparison.

"Uchiha Sasuke," Sakura continued, determination in her voice. "From this day forward, I'll be spending my life with you at that beautiful house you've built. We'll probably fight a lot and I may have to often resist the urge to kill you, but no matter what, I will love you—and you damn well will feel the same for me. And if you dare tell me to leave, I'll build my own house at the edge of your stupid property and pester you until you go crazy. If you thought my twelve-year-old self was annoying . . . honey, you haven't seen anything yet!"

He could only stare at her, agape.

When he was silent for too long, she frowned and said, "Er . . . this may a bit late, considering . . . but you haven't—you aren't sleeping with anyone else, are you?"

He looked at her as if she were stupid—and he really did thought her so for asking such a question. He hadn't even considered sleeping with another woman since she left his bed. If she had come here three years or so later, maybe his answer would have been different, but for now . . .

"Sasuke!" Sakura shrieked as he suddenly pushed her off of him and onto the ground. She landed flat on her back with a painful yelp because there was a damn twig poking her hip and glared at him.

"You—"

"Shut up, you stupid woman."

"You bas—"

"And stop insulting my legitimacy." He moved until he was completely on top of her, using his arms to hold up most of his weight. "Listen to me," he commanded hoarsely, intensity brimming from every inch of him. "You came here to me, so now you're completely mine. I'll never let you go again. If you ever try to leave me, if you ever fucking drug me again, I'll come after you. I'll hunt you down and I will seriously hurt you before I drag you back here. I'll hurt you so bad you won't ever think of leaving me again."

Moisture had covered Sakura's cheeks during Sasuke's impassioned speech, but she was laughing through her tears. His words were fierce, his eyes telling her that he wasn't at all lying. Any other woman might be frightened because he was actually threatening physical harm, but Sakura wasn't any other woman and she wasn't at all afraid. She knew better.

This was how an Uchiha—or at least this particular Uchiha—said "I love you."

"There might be hope for you yet, Sasuke," she giggled. "We'll work on your emotions-deficiency," she promised before she raised her arms and pulled him to down for a kiss.

There will be difficult days ahead—neither of them was delusional enough to believe otherwise—but they will face those days together.

Always.

"Pass me the carrots, sweet-cheeks."

Sasuke practically threw the bowl of diced vegetable at her, a fierce scowl on his face. "How long are you going to keep this up?" he demanded.

She winked at him as she tossed in the carrots into the boiling pot of stew. "Until I find the right nickname . . . honey-bun."

He frowned harder. "If you don't stop this, I'll start calling you bit—"

He broke off suddenly to stare out of the kitchen window. She glanced at him, curious, until she too followed the direction of his gaze.

She grinned widely. The burst of chakra was unmistakable.

"Four days. He lasted longer than I thought he would," she told Sasuke in a rather impressed tone.

He glared at her. "I'm going to kill you for telling him where I live."

"Where we live now, peaches," she corrected, her green eyes dancing. "And please," she snorted. "Like you would ever kill the love of your life."

He flipped her off as he turned to head outside. She laughed as she turned down the stove and followed him.

They didn't have to wait long. Seconds after they both walked into the backyard, they heard the sounds of a twig breaking and bushes rustling. These were promptly accompanied by a screeching rodent—probably a squirrel—and a loud, obnoxious curse.

And then the blond appeared, drops of blood dripping from a cut that was already healing.

"Naruto!" Sakura shrieked excitedly, running towards her brother in all but blood. She threw her arms around his sturdy shoulders and gave him a big hug, to which he returned just as warmly. "You came!"

"I would have come sooner, but Tsunade said I needed to give you some privacy," he grumbled, indicating that he'd been physically held back.

She giggled, hugging him tighter. "I'm so glad you're here. He's happy, too," she added in a whisper just before she released him.

Then she stepped back and stood a bit away, but still between the two men she loved most in the world. She had wondered how it would be, this moment. They were both proud men and had viciously drawn blood from one another in a fight that had been filled with hate, anger and betrayal. Their relationship had been deeper than the one Sakura had with either of them, so she knew she couldn't understand what they were both feeling right now.

They stood staring at each for a long while, both of them sizing the other like a pair of opponents in battle.

"Sasuke," Naruto said seriously.

"Idiot."

That was apparently the sign the blond needed. He cracked a grin. "You're still a pretty girl, Sasuke-chan."

"That's what I said!" Sakura crowed. "Well, except the girl part."

"Sakura."

She rolled her eyes and took another step back as Sasuke came a bit closer.

"Not the Hokage yet, dead last?" Sasuke's lips curled into his trademark smirk. "I hear Gaara of Suna is the Kazekage."

Naruto retorted with words so foul, they could singe the skin off a sailor. Sakura wanted to admonish him, but quickly changed her mind.

She had to look away, her throat constricting, as Sasuke slowly lifted an open hand.

Naruto shook it without hesitation, blue eyes bright and filled with unsuppressed happiness. He then tugged on his best friend's hand to pull him into a brotherly hug. To both Sakura's and Naruto's shock and delight, Sasuke returned it.

What followed next was a series of back thumping, chest slapping, rude grunts and offensive language as the two men greeted each other in the way that alpha males did when they saw each other after a long time and did not want to appear too emotional. Sakura didn't bother to hide her tears as she watched the two of them. She had made peace with it, this relationship Sasuke and Naruto had. They would always share a bond that she would never be a part of and that was okay, because she knew they loved her dearly, as well, in their own different ways. She was the same—she loved Sasuke in a way that Naruto could never compare to, and she loved Naruto for all those years when he was her closest friend and confidante.

"Stop crying," Sasuke ordered gruffly, clearly uncomfortable with her tears.

"Stop being mean to Sakura-chan," Naruto scolded him. He looked past his two friends to the spacious house behind them. "So this is where you've been hiding all this while? Fucking hell, he was so close, eh, Sakura-chan? And all this time, we were looking in fucking depressing places like dunes and loony bins! I'm gonna rub this in baa-chan's face!"

"Loony bins?" Sasuke raised an eyebrow.

"Well yeah," Naruto said sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head. Sakura nodded along. "Some of us were convinced you had to be crazy."

Sasuke snorted and then cocked his head, regarding the blond. "You want to go at it now?" he asked and Sakura rolled her eyes again, understanding what he meant.

Naruto thought about it for a moment before shaking his head in regret. "Not yet. Kakashi isn't here and I don't want Sakura to play referee. She loves me too much and she'll cry if I wreck that pretty face of yours. That's the only reason she's with you, you know. That, and the money."

Sasuke returned the insult with a crude flash of his fingers that every shinobi understood.

"Where is Kakashi-sensei, anyway?" Sakura wanted to know.

"He'll be here in a couple of hours. He's an old man—he can't move as fast as I can," Naruto said smugly, his meaning perfectly clear. He had rushed over here in his usual manner, ignoring Kakashi's orders to go according to the prepared schedule.

"Mmm-hmm. There's something to be said about slow and steady, you know," Sakura declared, shooting Sasuke a sly glance that made Naruto guffaw.

Sasuke didn't respond with words, but he gave her a look that promised she would pay for her teasing remark later.

She could hardly wait.

She dragged Naruto inside, excited to give him a tour of the house. She had added a bit of her own touch to the place in the four days since she'd been there and knew that in time, there would be more. Like she told Sasuke—this was their home now.

Naruto, in his customary fashion, complimented everything he knew she was responsible and jeered at the things that were obviously Sasuke's. The two men bickered back and forth as they moved about the house, and Sakura couldn't be happier. It was just like old times.

Only now, they were stronger—and more at peace.

To be continued.