On his way home he walked past Ichiraku's, finding Naruto and Kakashi there.
"Hey Sasuke! Who won?" Naruto grinned.
"I guess Sakura." He just stated and continued his way.
"What had happened?"
"Nothing."
"Naruto, let go. I don't think that's our business." Kakashi stated and looked how Sasuke walked down the street. He looked beaten up, but more psychically then physically.
"Man, Sakura really got to him." Naruto mumbled, as if he had read his former sensei's thoughts.
"So it seems."

At home Sasuke dropped down on the couch. Now she had told him how hard she had suffered, even if she only talked about the others and the village. He would bet everything he has including his life that she would've shouted at him that he had left her, that he had hurt herand that the village was more than just second to that. Who would blame her? No one. He knew that she was right, and he knew that he would've deserved more than just a slap for his actions in the past. He knew that he was lucky that Naruto was that nice to him and had spared him all that stuff she had mentioned. He knew that he wouldn't have given a damn on that talk if it wouldn't have been Sakura but someone else. He wanted her to shout at him, he wanted her to be mad at him, at least that was a reaction towards him. But more than all, he wanted her to forgive him. He shouldn't have been that rude to her, he should've told her what he had said in another way.

Sakura still stood where he had left her, feeling weird. Somehow she felt relieved that she had shouted at him, that she had kicked him, that she had told him what was pissing her off, but somehow she was frustrated as well. He stood there, cold as stone, listening to everything she said but showed not one single emotion. He hadn't even flinched as she had slapped him, he simply had taken it. And then his statement…
Could it really be that he felt something? Something for her? She sighed. She knew that she had to talk to him, she even felt the strange urge to apologise for shouting at him. The only feelings she always had were loneliness and emptiness. She was hurt because he had left, but not because he had left the village, he had left her. That was what had hurt. Why hadn't she just said it that way? She had told him that she loved him, so that shouldn't have been a big deal at all.

She walked around in the village, just to do something. Her feet carried her to his district, like always and after a while she was standing right in front of his door and before thinking she had knocked. She stood there, quite a while, but since nothing happened she turned around again.
"What do you want? More shouting or slapping me again?" he asked silently behind her. It nearly made her jump.
"No." she mumbled. "I don't… I mean…" she started, feeling so stupid.
"What is it then?" he asked her, leaning against the doorframe, his arms crossed in front of his chest.
"I… I wanted to apologise." She said.
"Why?"
"I shouldn't have shouted."
"I guess I deserved it." He said, surprising her completely now.
"What?"
"I said I guess I deserved it."



"Wha…?" she looked confused. "What happened to you? I can't recognise…"
"I'm older and a little wiser, that happened. I've recognised what I denied to see all these years ago. I belong here, this is my home, the place I should be, the place I never should've left."
"Why now? All those years we tried…"
"I had to learn it myself. And I have learned it. And I'm sorry."
She raised a brow and looked at him, unbelievingly.
"Sorry? For what?"
"For leaving you."
"Huh?" she was too stunned to say something.
"You told me that you'd follow me if I'd asked you to. I know that I have hurt you with what I've done."

She struggled and nearly fell, but didn't take his hand as he offered her. He sighed and continued.
"I have never forgotten you all, no matter how hard I tried. Every now and then the picture of you all appeared in my mind, mostly at times when I couldn't need it. I had your words always in my ears; I tried to fight them, to get rid of them, but I couldn't. And with the time I understood what I had done, why that all was confusing me. I came back to Konoha randomly, but I never had been able to enter. I feared what you would say, what you would do. Naruto told me how you were acting when we met on missions, and I was worried. Every time you left the village I had to follow you, to see you, to see that you're ok. At the beginning I didn't know why, but I was sort of worried. Than as you and Kakashi got trapped on that last mission you've been on I had to do something."
"That shadow… that had been you?" she asked, her voice just a mere whisper.
"Yes, that had been me. I tried to figure out why I was doing this, but I couldn't."

"As we met in the street, the way you looked at me and the way I felt afterwards nearly freaked me out. You of all people have been the one who always cared most, and then that icy look. I was thinking about that all, I even was thinking about leaving again, but I couldn't. It would be weak, it would be running away again, and I had to stay. I came back because of you, I wanted to figure out why your voice, your words haunted me the most. And I figured it out and it hit me hard. I'm sorry that I've hurt you that much, I could kick myself for being such an idiot."
"You… I can't believe… that's… that's… too much." She whispered and started to turn round to leave. He grabbed her by the hand and pulled her back and then he kissed her.

"I know I was an idiot, I know that I deserve more than just a slap and being shouted at. I know that I'm not in the position to ask something from you, but nonetheless I have to. Please Sakura, please forgive me for being such an selfish idiotic bastard."
"I… I'm… I'm afraid… I… I… I can't." she sobbed.
"Please. I know what I'm asking from you. But I promise you, I swear if you want me to, I'll never, never ever hurt you again."
"Let go." She whispered, freeing herself from his hold. "I need time."
"Sakura…"
"Sasuke… please…" and he let her go. He wanted to give her all the time she needed, everything she needed, if it would help. Without any more words she left him, standing in front of his door and feeling more alone than all the years before.

She went home, not even knowing how she got there, her feet led the way like before. That was much, too much. She had been angry at him, nearly mad and pissed, but now? He had poured out his heart, at least it seemed like that, but could she believe him? The voice in her head was calling her all names she could think about, but her heart was shouting against. She was confused, more than ever, but she knew that she had to figure this out alone. No one could help her with the decisions she has to made.
All those years she had hoped for him to come back, she had whished that he felt something for her, and now he had told her that he had just returned because of her.

As she entered her apartment she walked into the kitchen and sat down at the windowsill, looking out of the window and over the village. What could she believe? Could she risk it to trust him again or would he hurt her again? Her heart was bouncing, chanting happily. He had kissed her, she always dreamed about that and now he had done it. Gentle and true, her heart was telling her to trust, to give him another chance, but her head shouted against it. She nearly died once, she feared going through such a hell again. She had mastered it, she thought.
But who was she fooling? She knew that they all were right. She knew that she buried herself in work so she would be too busy to think about him, she knew that she avoided parties and stuff so she won't be reminded how much she was missing him.

She even was missing him now. She wanted him next to her, feeling his warm body, feeling his heartbeat and hearing his breath, just to make sure that he was real. That he was there and not just imagined, but she feared it. She shook her head, tried to get a clear thought, but it was impossible. It felt like two spirits were fighting inside her, one pro-Sasuke and one contra-Sasuke. What should she do? She skipped dinner and went to have a shower. Half an hour she stood under the hot water, normally it helped her clearing her mind, but today it seemed to fail. She went to bed, knowing that this night she won't be able to find any sleep, that she wouldn't be able to block the thoughts about him out, to push his voice and his words in the dark part of her head, her own land of forgetting.

Sasuke lay on his couch again, he wasn't sure if it had been right or good to tell her that all. But somehow he had to try to make her understand him, to open herself a little up again so she could see how he now was. He could understand her and her worries, that she feared that he could just kid and toy with her. He knew that he won't leave again, but he knew that he had kicked her wherever he could in the past, so her worries had their right to exist. He swore himself that he won't push her, that he would wait what she would do. If she would decide to come to him, he would welcome her, but if she decided against… Quickly he pushed this thought out of his head, the last thing he wanted to think about was that. He sighed, another night without sleep and rest.

It seems that no one really likes this story, and it makes me a little sad. I knew I've written better ones... but I haven't expected it to be that bad. And no one said anything... :'(
But stubborn as I am I'll finish it.