Author's Notes:
Mm... rowar! First of all, Sasuke's favorite food is Tomato.
Something to do with the story. I really do love Sasuke so much, and I'm really sweating it out trying to bring out his rare side. Well, hopefully i don't go screwin it all up so that he's completely unrecognizable. Hopefully, my version still sounds and feels like Sasuke. I've reached a point where there's less and less room for changing my character's personalities.
Thanx for reading. :) ENJOY!
CHAPTER 22: PRESENCE OF WATER
Sasuke turned his pale face up to the gray skies.
In two hours the weather had changed drastically, and the clouds now looked heavily impregnated with rain.
Beside him, Sakura and Naruto were still bickering about the second mission to Snow Country.
"It's all your fault, baka! Now all of us are stuck with Kakai-sensei's B-rank mission!"
"Ngh, But Sakura-chean!? Don't you want to help find those missing kids?"
"Of course I do!" the aggravated kunoichi snapped, and her hands pressed to her slim hips, "But if we never heard about the mission, then it would have been better for all of us, right?"
"Ah-ah…" Naruto struggled to reason as the pink-haired ninja stubbornly turned her face away from his pleading eyes and gave a resigned sigh.
The blonde's hands dropped limply to his sides, and his shoulders slumped as he frowned.
"Not like we have a choice now." Sasuke said in a low voice, and a sudden gust of wind rippled through his sharp locks as he slowly turned away and made to walk across the bridge.
The whiskered-ninja looked for a moment at the prodigy's back and then both he and Sakura turned to follow.
It was funny, the blonde thought, how Sasuke's behavior seemed not to have changed at all.
He had spent some time mentally preparing himself for the arrival of the pain and the traumatizing visuals as soon as his blue eyes caught sight of them walking towards him and Kiba, together.
But so far, he hasn't shown the smallest sign of affection for her!
Perhaps Sasuke was only kidding about the whole thing?
The blonde immediately dismissed the fact with a hollow snort.
Sasuke didn't know how to joke, unless his statement was something sarcastic about Naruto's flaws.
… Then maybe the conversation at Ichiraku was a dream?
This, Naruto entertained for a few moments before almost bitterly laughing aloud, remembering the somber eyes the ramen girl gave him this morning when he arrived for his breakfast bowl.
And then another seemingly impossible thought struck him… and for a moment the fox-ninja almost stumbled as it hit.
Sasuke, that cold-hearted, selfish tensai-dolt… His rival, his friend… might actually be sparing him from the pain.
Some part of him rose defensively, not wanting the pity and the unnatural treatment.
He could handle it, damn it!
If this is right, if he was right… then the bastard actually had the sensitivity, the decency — something Naruto never thought could be associated with the class rookie — to keep things subtle in front of him.
Sasuke, his dark blue gaze flickered with a strange combination of gratitude and annoyance.
You righteous bastard.
With a bitter smile, the blonde stopped walking and turned his face away so there wasn't a chance at all they could catch a glimpse of his misery.
And after a while, he mutely eyed the Uchiha, who at that precise moment chose to look up at the clouds and frown.
Keep your shirt on man, and don't take your cranky side out on her…
Both his teammates turned around slightly when Naruto stretched his arms over his head and gave a distracting yawn.
"Aaaahh, I'm bored… So I think I'll head out to explore some of the new street stalls…" And then he gave them an unusually sunny grin for someone so supposedly unentertained.
"Jia!" he shouted in parting and without glancing back to see the reactions on their faces the genin tore away down the side-alley.
Its better this way. The orange-clad ninja kept telling himself with every pound of his blue sandals over the pavement.
Better. Better. Better — not to see her so happy… with him.
For a moment, Sakura and Sasuke stood, both mutely blinking at the blonde's odd behavior.
"Hmm…" the female ninja pondered, breaking the sudden gap of silence. Her mind worked competently, deciphering Naruto's sudden departure, and then she turned to glance at the boy beside her, who seemed, to her relief, just as confused.
It was only then that the thought they were alone, just the both of them, occurred to her, and she bit her lip apprehensively.
At just about the same time, the mystified expression on the Uchiha's face lifted, and he lowered his head in understanding.
But before he could say anything his eye caught hers, and instantaneously he knew what thoughts were running through her mind.
It seemed her eyes were exceedingly critical of the little bit of space there was between them.
It was the Uchiha's initially hollow stare that first caught Sakura's attention, and then it was the way light from god-knows-where surrounded his starkly black irises.
She saw the pulse and glint of attention in his eyes and she was still observing him when he had suddenly grabbed her shoulders and swiftly pinned her against the nearest brick wall.
Her eyes flew open with shock and the boy's lips parted sensuously.
"I'm starting to like taking you by surprise."
It was his voice. It was always his voice - that suave, solid tenor that reminded Sakura of powerful sharks gliding sleekly in crystal water.
That tone was what did this to her.
This.
The exhilaration went from non-existent to everywhere, setting her skin, the nerves underneath, her muscles on fire.
And she could already feel the heat from her face as she pressed even tighter against the wall.
"That moron…" Sasuke whispered, "-thinks he's a regular cupid."
"W-what?" the girl struggled to squeeze the question out, much too distracted by his quiet beauty.
"He knows, Sakura. A few days ago, I already told him." The boy looked away from her for a moment, and the gray depths of his eyes shifted with thought.
"He intentionally left - as a favor." Sasuke suddenly confirmed, and then his voice lowered.
"That Naruto…"
Sakura could barely hold in a gasp when the genin's face came closer.
The smell of him - of fresh grass and leaves, heat and clean laundry, it filled her.
And a warm tongue traced across her lips, cutting off her breath.
And then as if he hated the gracelessness of it, Sasuke clenched his jaw and cursed.
"Damn it."
"What is it?" Sakura weakly asked.
"The lip gloss."
"…You don't like it?"
"More like… I'm starting to crave it." the boy slowly punctuated, substantiating the statement by brushing his lips across hers, this time as a wholesome kiss.
But the look he next gave her seemed filled with agony.
She disliked that look - the distress. And her chin nudged up at him, wanting more.
To which he obliged quietly, lips whispering breaths of heat into her skin, standing there in the empty darkness of the street, surrounded in her warmth and smell, tasting the sweetness.
The wind twisted at their hair, toyed and mingled with the strands of baby pink and blue-black, nipped at the heat of their bodies, danced around the light material of their clothes binding them together.
And the vast skies wept, taken by the beauty.
Sasuke stood there looking at her, at the places his mouth kissed. The smooth paleness of skin, the softness of her cheeks, the fine curve of her nose…
One droplet of rain, a shattered wet streak across the delicate bridge of it, but the girl seemed not to notice.
It was only the dim circles of light in Sasuke's eyes. Something she no longer saw, but instead, felt.
Then more rain came, a drizzle of beads hitting gently at their faces, soaking into their hair and dampening the hues of their clothes.
"Sasuke-kun…" she said, losing the honorific to the drift of the rain.
He said nothing but kissed her. Just so she knew he had heard beyond the downpour.
Nothing now but thoughts dug themselves deeper and deeper into his mind, repeating many times over.
That he never wanted to be alone again.
That he lost everything once and he never wanted to lose again.
That with his past holding him back, he was only hiding.
…But that she would find him.
…I want you to find me.
The downpour escaladed and Sasuke blinked back the rain, his bangs now clinging wet to his forehead protector, startling black locks pressed curling to the sides of his face.
He didn't particularly care how heavy his clothes had gotten, didn't think much of the water weaving across the lines of his mouth and slipping down the angles of his jaw.
Amidst the sheet of gray, he could only watch the droplets of rain clinging to her wet eyelashes, knowing she was looking at him as intently as he was looking at her.
And what about the man you want to kill…
Your dead family…
The whole point of surviving this far….
The point of your life…?
You're alive because he's giving you a chance to kill him.
Are you just going to throw that chance away?
He was tired of the same questions, tired of answering each one again and again.
"Sakura…" he looked into her eyes, droplets trailing down his chin as he spoke.
"If someone took everything that ever mattered, away from you… what would you do?"
She blinked back, forgetting the rain, beyond surprised that the boy had suddenly asked her the question.
After a moment, she tilted her head.
"I would cry for a very long time…" the girl finally said in admission… "But I'd also spend my life getting those things back."
"You can't bring the dead back." The boy whispered, and the girl kunoichi sighed, her eyes filling with sadness for him, knowing well it was difficult to talk about something as painful as his past.
"…That's true." She slowly agreed, "But what about feeling good and laughing, having friends, meeting commitments…" the young kunoichi's fingers squeezed at his shoulders and she looked up at him, "experiencing love, and feeling alive….those had been stolen from you, too."
"…Your brother might have taken everything from your past life away, but it also depends on how you look at it now."
Sasuke couldn't hear the rain anymore, even as it pounded over their heads. All he knew now was the sound of her voice, the weight of her words.
"You might see it as a chance to avenge your family..." Then she gave him a meaningful look, "But Sasuke-kun… you're still here because he gave you the chance to live…"
The chance to live. He had never wanted to see it that way before. Was too consumed with hatred to view things from another angle, and was too proud to ask anyone else what they thought.
It was always a chance to kill, a chance to avenge, a chance to take the murderer down regardless of what happened to his own life.
But a chance to live…?
Live again.
"You say your future lies in your past… but you have people who love you now… more than you know. New people you have to protect and who, also, will protect you. Sasuke-kun…" she suddenly pushed her face towards him, eyes bright as summer, startling him because everything around was bleakly gray.
"-stop dwelling on the past… because the future - your future — is different."
He didn't know how long he watched her, or heard the words in his mind.
But his hand reached for hers, their fingers joining without a twinge of awkwardness, and in the comfortable silence that followed, yet another of the many firsts that day, he pulled her into more rain and they walked.
Stumbling drenched into the apartment room, Sakura's lips were already on his, the droplets of rain bleeding into the wood and the walls as they gathered into each others warmth, kissing and tangling along the unfamiliar furniture.
Barely pausing for air as the door closed behind them, the two genin backed into the room, tongues licking at sweet rainfall on skin, fingers clutching to wet locks of hair, their bodies blindly moving until they slammed into the dresser at the corner.
"Ah-" Sasuke bit out, trying to suppress the slight throb on his right shoulder for bearing the brunt of the impact.
He promptly gave her a mild glare. But she responded by quickly leaning in to give him a soft, slow kiss in favor for the harsh attack she jumpstarted on him earlier.
And instead of pushing her away, his hands stiffened and then clutched at the folds of her dress, before he tore away and groaned in frustration.
"The plan was to bring you home."
"My parents are out to dinner." Sakura reasoned with a flighty grin on her face.
"That has nothing to do with it." He answered, dark eyebrows framing his severely-ravaged look.
"I want to be with you." She ardently whispered. "I've wanted to for so long and now I'm gonna make the most of it."
"That… makes more sense." Sasuke said, smirking dearly as droplets trailed down his jaw.
And then the rookie wordlessly broke away from her and elbowed the bathroom door open.
He walked to the sink and leaned over, hands grabbing the front of his shirt, tightly wringing the wet fabric, watching the excess water flow into the drain.
Sakura watched as well… only her green flecks were much too focused on the lean ridges of his stomach.
Years of hard training will do that. That's what happens. And looks really will kill if Sasuke-kun fought out in the open like that.
Sakura suppressed the playful, girlish twist of her lips. And when it was partially under control, she looked up to see the raven-haired boy holding a large, white towel out to her.
"I don't want you getting sick." He muttered, angling his head sideways.
"Thanks." The girl cheerfully said, taking the towel, and giving him a small peck.
Her kiss landed at the corner of his mouth and before she could move away, he quickly snatched at her hand and pulled her back, forcing her closer until she was inches from him and a little way away from the kitchen counter.
"That didn't quite make it." he whispered, and the gap between them closed as he pushed his mouth to her, meeting her lips perfectly to the slight bumps of their noses.
He took the time to listen to the soft murmurs coming from her, and placed it as a challenge to himself to be able to memorize the motions of her lips.
His mind worked with various combinations, just as in the other kind of physical battle, and before long she was deduced to weakly sinking against a wall, sedated by the delicious motions of his tongue, enticed forward by the gentleness and careful ministrations and then struck breathless with the unexpected boldness that followed.
Sasuke was an impossibly capable kisser, who despite his impatience and straight-forwardness with everything else, knew the importance of being able to linger, tease and pamper every inch.
With subtle dexterity, Sasuke had slipped a finger down her zipper and the girl pulled away, breathless and flushed only to discover the smirk on his face and the sensation of a draft coming down the middle of her chest.
"Oops." He murmured, not looking at all as if he'd made a mistake, his eyes moving temptuously up to her face.
Sakura shivered, not entirely from the cold fabric still clinging to her skin, but also from the lack of it when she shrugged the garment from her shoulders, and slipped her arms free of it.
She mutely looked up at him as she stepped out of the dress and her lips formed a timid smile.
"Oops." She repeated, softly.
His fingers lifted, slipping up her stomach, and he smiled at the warmth shifting underneath his palm, before he took a step back and removed the soaking fabric of his own blue shirt.
Sakura's heart was pounding, from anticipation to his next move, from tension and excitement.
And the boy stood there, mutely staring at her before his hand reached out.
Sakura couldn't say she knew what he was trying to do, until his fingers came past her face and plucked the forgotten towel out of her weakened grasp.
Wordlessly, the boy draped it around her shoulders.
"We only have three days to finish the first mission, and the second one will need lots of attention…" he said.
And then his eyes lowered with resignation.
"Getting sick is not an option."
"Sasuke-kun…" she murmured, could do nothing to stop the warmth in her chest spreading out to the glows of her jade eyes as she gazed at him.
But he had already turned away from her and walked across the room.
"Sit at the table. I'll get a shirt."
"Kiwi, pineapple, grapes, banana, apple… and tomato."
Tomato?
The girl watched the body wrapped in a blue towel bending low into the open refrigerator.
Her fingers twisted at the napkin on the table and she frowned, the stark white towel wrapped around her own body, rustling as she leaned in.
"What about meat, or fish and more vegetables?"
The boy twisted away from the glow of orange light and
gave her an indifferent look.
"I haven't stocked up."
Then the Uchiha dried at his hair and closed the fridge as he walked over with a bundle of fruits in his arms.
The chair gave a sound of wood dragging against wood as he pulled one out at the table and slipped her a banana and a kiwi.
"Here…"
Sakura eyed the fruits on the table and then watched Sasuke as he relaxed into the seat next to her, carelessly inspecting an apple and biting into it.
"I want apple." She said teasingly.
The boy paused in his chewing and cast her a meaningful sideways glance.
She watched him push his arms across the table, unable now to ignore how close his face was to hers, how his obsidian eyes seemed to be gauging her every move.
"Take it." he suddenly said, and she saw a glimpse of the piece in his mouth as he spoke.
So she did.
The boy was challenging her and Sakura slid her chair close till it pressed up to his leg.
He realized too late when she pushed her parted lips and probing tongue into his gaping mouth.
"A-" he barely started before she had pulled away, a feisty smile lingering on her moist lips.
"It's too deep inside your mouth now." The girl playfully sighed, propping an elbow up against her chin.
He took a moment to swallow the breath that caught in his throat and then his shoulders lowered as he looked at her, "Sakura, I meant the apple in my hand."
She blinked, and as the embarrassment hit her, she groaned and meekly turned away, pushing the towel up to cover her face.
"Uah, of course, of course…"
And she did look so honestly mortified.
Sasuke didn't know what it was about her that was making his stomach clench now, why his chest was tightening and the breaths weren't coming, why something so usually annoying, so embarassingly idiotic… now seemed to him exceedingly — god bless it - …sexy.
It's because you know she's only wearing your shirt and her shorts under that damn towel.
And the uncontrollable reaction of his body because of the sudden thought made him upset all of a sudden, he bit into the Fuji apple before setting it down with emphasis on the table and then sharply looking at her.
"Here." He said.
Her mint green irises peeked out from between the fluffy gaps of towel, and she was only so close to taking the fruit when his hand suddenly wrapped around her outstretched wrist, "No." he slipped her hand over his nape and leaned forward. "Here."
And then the kunoichi did have a taste of apple when he kissed her.
The dawny softness of the two towels brushing together, white tangling with blue and the clash of their heated mouths tasting at the sweetness of the fruit on their tongues.
The movements of their bodies were more insistent now, increasingly compliant because of the building need that had been ignored since the walk in the rain.
With a sigh and a push of valiance the pink-haired shinobi shrugged out of the white cloth, kicked out of her chair and fell across him on his.
The boy took a breath at the sudden press of her hips against him as Sakura straddled his body.
And as she leaned forward to kiss him, he caught the light smell of sweet flowers in her hair mixed with the damp dew of the rain and the smell of his own clothes.
Her hands pressed warmly at his bare chest and his skin tingled, longing for more.
Suddenly he didn't care of they were still in the chair or on the floor, which was suddenly the case as he tried to rise out of his seat, tangled her legs with his towel and ended up stumbling backwards into the ground with Sakura's body braced on top of him.
"Gods Sakura you're clumsy." he muttered, hastily drawing breath and yanking the towel away from between them.
It hit the T.V. square on the screen and draped itself over the corners.
"And you're overly-excited." She shot back with a giggle, her pink locks spilling over the curves of the black shirt she was wearing, tickling his chin as he mutely looked up at her.
Slowly he lowered his head to the ground. His feathery raven locks spreading out beneath him, willing his body to stay motionless even if he could feel the contours of her legs pressing to his hips.
"Hn." Sasuke suddenly said, giving the kunoichi holding him down a curling smile.
"Guess that idiot, Naruto's starting to rub off on us."
"Not idiot. Cupid." Sakura murmured softly, lowering her lips to his.
"My shorts…" he said, just before her mouth could reach his. "-are wet."
"…So are mine." The girl whispered.
In the shadows of the room, they looked at each other - Sasuke's cloudy onyx eyes glinting like steel matching up to her warm, beautiful mint-greens.
At the other side of town, Yume was walking home, her thoughts still on her brother and his beautiful wife.
She passed the closing stalls and gazed up at the dimly-lit paper lanterns swaying in the wind.
To be surrounded by the smiling faces of his two children, made her want to hurry up and start a family of her own.
The wind was biting cold in Konoha at this time of year, and she held the basket of dinner ingredients closer to the crook of her arm as she pulled her kimono more tightly around her body.
And then she moved forward — at least for a moment — before she spotted the navy blue pants with ninja bandages in front her and abruptly jerked her head up, meeting the crinkly smile of her very familiar man.
"What is it this time? Scared or surprised?" Kakashi asked, his voice as mild as if he were striking friendly conversation in the middle of a crowded street on a bright, early day.
"Neither." She answered with a soft smile.
"Ah, well," the jounin shrugged, "there will always be new people to victimize."
Yume gave him a startling grin, "I'm your victim. Tomorrow, I'll be scared, and then the day after that, I'll be surprised."
"Sounds like a plan." The jounin deadpanned, to which the girl gave a tinkling laugh.
"Well, Ms. Yume, it's not wise for a young woman like you to be walking around this late into the night…"
"Oh," her eyes opened slightly, "is this street a red-light district? Are you on patrol out searching for a dangerous killer ninja?"
The jounin blinked at her, and then her face changed and
she gave another laugh, her snowy, gray eyes glimmering as she continued to walk.
"I grow more convinced everytime I meet you, that you are indeed psychically-attuned…" Kakashi started.
Then as if something had caught the jounin's attention, his eye flashed and he turned sideways.
"Mm, what is it?" Yume asked, the laughter leaving her face almost immediately.
Kakashi's fingers gathered at his holster and he snatched a look at her, "Are you scared?" he asked, eyebrow lifting.
"Yes." The girl admitted - the look in her eyes slightly confused.
And then she jerked because the jounin started laughing, quite suddenly so.
And he turned to her with a small smile.
"Then the next victim can wait."
"Hatake-san." She said dejectedly.
The jounin gave her a wink and started humming, one hand in his pocket as they continued to stroll down the dim, shadowed alley.
"Well, thank you." Yume's eyes lifted to meet his, and she gave him a slight bow, taking care to tuck the basket to her side as she did.
The jounin nodded once before he tilted his eye up and looked at her house.
A single dimly-lit window.
"Yume-san,..."
Do you have a boyfriend? Kakashi's mind wryly opted to ask.
But out loud, the question became a different one.
"Do you live with family?"
"Well, yes…" she turned her gaze to where he was looking, before nudging her basket at the door and smiling delicately. "I take care of my grandmother. Since brother got married, you see..." her voice faltered and she looked into the house before finally continuing
"...He's been too busy with his own family."
"Mm..." the gray-haired jounin murmured, sensing a topic not easily discussed.
Probing had never been his nature, and so the wizened-looking shinobi took a respectful step back as she fumbled for her needed set of keys and pushed one into the lock.
He didn't bother to ask anything else.
Almost never did want to get too involved in anyone else's life.
As long as something didn't concern him, then it was not anything imperative to think or know about.
Yes, but does she have a boyfriend? the incessant voice in his mind, pressed.
I have more pressing issues at hand. the young jounin thought, before his eyes narrowed listlessly.
He heard the doorway click open, and the yellow light from inside the house, spilled out into the night.
Turning to look down at her, Kakashi gave her his last smile for the night.
"I shall look forward to the next time we meet… that is, tomorrow — and scared- ?"
Yume gave him one of her special laughs, the kind Kakashi was starting to realize, made him want to pitch witty remarks just so he could hear the sound again.
"Goodnight, Hatake-san." the young village girl teased.
He bowed, the lips underneath his mask twitching to form a small smile.
"Goodnight." the jounin murmured.
But as the door clicked shut, he was already gone, a flash jumping up to the opposite rooftop.
When it came to carrying out his duties, patrolling, investigating, Kakashi never faltered.
In fact, he HAD been assigned on patrol to survey the streets, and he was indeed searching for a killer ninja.
The jounin stood there, pushing a hand to one hip.
He listened for a moment at the nip of the wind in his peppered hair before he sighed and slung a bandaged foot up against an incline.
"It's not a good habit, following someone like me around." the jounin said lightly, but his visible eye held a terrifying weight as it focused stonily on the portion of a chimney a little way to his right.
A slight chuckle, as unnoticeable as the sound of the wind whispering in his ears sent a cold chill down his back…
Kakashi's keen eye narrowed and he waited, knowing full-well that the presence had been tailing him and Yume since she had teasingly labelled this part of town the red-light district.
But well now,... What was this?
Even as he was asking the question, the feeling - whatever presence was there - was already starting to leave, like traces of dust swept away in the wind, with no particular direction, everywhere and then nowhere so swiftly the jounin couldn't have confirmed it.
Dread spiralled through him, and he didn't need to see it...
But whatever had been lurking behind the chimney was now completely gone.
If someone can come and go so simply… nothing is safe anymore.
The 27 year old sighed and crouched low, trying to suppress the chills still racing along his neck.
And then he raised a thumb to the edge of his mask, pulling it down enough to reveal the corner of his mouth.
He raised the thumb to his lip and bit down hard on the skin, not thinking about the sharp twinge of pain, but tasting the bit of blood against his tongue.
This situation is bad. Kakashi thought, and his hands tore fluidly through a series of familiar hand seals before he finally pressed his palms down over the ground and murmured, "Kuchiyose no jutsu."
There was a sound of an exploding cork flying from a champagne bottle, and then the small circle of smoke floating around the rooftop, amidst which, a little brown pug now blinked up at him.
Kakashi sucked sharply at his thumb, leaving his mask clinging precariously over the curve of his jaw, before extracting his latest book, the Icha-Icha Heaven book IV from his jounin vest-pocket and flipping it to page six where he recalled stopping.
The animal watched his long pepper-shags slip into his eye as the jounin shifted against a curve in the shingles. After he was comfortably draped over the rooftiles, the man finally spoke.
"Smell anything that's not supposed to be there, Pakkun?"
The dog yawned and scratched behind his ear, as equally indifferent as its user. And he sniffed at the air in a series of upward head jerks before turning to Kakashi with a look of boredom on his doggish features.
"Just a fish. A very big one that sadly, won't make good sashimi."
"Hah..." Kakashi drawled, closing his book resolutely before casting the keen-sniffer a look.
"Any idea where it's gone?"
The dog shook his head, "The smell stops here, behind that chimney. Beyond this roof, my sharp nose detects nothing."
"It must have been a high level bunshin." The jounin suggested, giving his small friend a considering look.
"Not many can create it…" the dog agreed, and then his eyes gave the shinobi a slightly depressed stare, "I guess you're about to drag me out on one of your little adventures again, hm?"
"Hmm." Kakashi pressed back, his watchful eyes now turned ahead.
Pakkun followed his summoners gaze and wondered if the jounin's answer had been a yes or a no.
"Here?"
"Nn…I-"
"…Here?"
"I don't-"
"For god's s-…Sakura, open wider."
The girl kunoichi's breath snatched and she pressed tighter to the head of the bed.
"Sasuke-kun, it's embarrassing!"
His eyes shifted from her slightly parted legs to her face, "You said you wanted me to."
Sakura tore her gaze away from him and bit her lip, which made the boy suddenly want to push her against the pillows and kiss her again.
"I…do." she whispered weakly. And her eyes tightly closed when Sasuke's slender fingers pressed against her inner thighs.
"Then, dobe, let me." He said, his voice slightly edged, but still fairly patient.
"I-" she started, her eyes looking to his face, "…we're moving too fast."
"That's not what you said when you held this." He snapped, pushing his lower middle against her palm.
Her green eyes uneasily looked into his hard obsidian ones and for the first time she felt an increasing difficulty in talking to him.
"Nobody's ever… touched me there." Sakura whispered, all but stopping her hands from taking a pillow and pushing it to the maddening blush on her cheeks.
The Uchiha gave a low chuckle and his hand slipped higher, closer to the sensitivity, causing her to almost jerk her legs together.
"Sakura, I already did touch you… there."
The tone of his voice caused her to shiver against him, and she could only watch, his lean frame coming closer.
"And you liked it." Sasuke whispered.
Her heart was pounding in her ears, and Sakura found she couldn't say that she didn't like it.
But her mortification was almost too much to handle.
"I liked it too." He provided, smugly.
"Sasuke-kun-" the girl said, her voice breathless.
"Just like that." The boy cut her off, and one pale leg slipped between her thighs smoothly, keeping her from moving.
"I want to hear it like that."
The kunoichi swallowed her mortification.
…Just like that.
And Sasuke's gaze lowered, his hand slipping up the curve of her thigh towards her center.
"Here?" he asked again, his voice subdued to a point of breaking.
"Higher." Sakura bit out - more from the effort of holding herself open for him.
"Then… here." The boy whispered, his eyes already observing the evident reactions of her body as he stroked.
Under his ministrations, her hips jerked and she bit her lip to keep from making any sound at all.
Perhaps it was because of the terror, and perhaps because she didn't want him to stop, distracted by her noise.
He was right where he should be.
And then his face came forward, and he kissed her on the mouth, down her chin, to the startling pulse he felt thrumming, fluttering, against her neck.
For some reason, he recalled the first time his class went through speed training, chasing a rabbit down the mini-forest near the academy.
He'd been the first one to catch it — a tri-colored ball of fur that mutely looked up at him, its little chest rising and falling rapidly.
Sasuke had curiously held it between his fingers, feeling the wild thrash of its pulse, even if it made no sound or motion in his hands.
Fear — he knew was what made the animal that way.
"You're scared…?" Sasuke asked, pulling away.
"Scared… I'm- I- I don't know…" the girl tried to answer, only feeling the odd pleasure, aware of it building, but unable to properly express it in any way.
She didn't know how.
Sasuke would have told her about the rabbit, but one of her hands reached forward, slowly wrapping around his rigid member, which Sasuke had failed to note was painfully abandoned...
Instead a low release of breath escaped his lips.
He couldn't stop himself, his hips instinctively pushed forward and his jaws clenched as he tried to even out the motions of his hand on her.
And she was a fast learner, just as he was.
Already Sakura read his body perfectly and a mutual telepathy was established.
She slowed the strokes on his heated member, and his fingers did the same to her.
So she sped up, and even if it was difficult, he bit back a groan and gave her what she needed.
And then her body was pushing against him, shuddering in a way Sasuke recognized.
"Are you…?" he started, and she chewed at her lip, not hard enough to draw blood, but enough so he wanted to kiss the red, moistness of her pout.
She gave a slow nod and pushed her hand at a faster, tighter pace on him. "Ah Sakura- that's- keep it there." He murmured encouragingly, pressing his palm more insistently into her warmth.
Stroking just the way he knew she was silently urging him to do.
And before long she was starting to make those sounds, tight cries pressed to the back of her throat that Sasuke wished she would let out.
Her hands were also starting to falter on him, and his clouded eyes looked steadily into hers, "You know better, Sakura. Nothings gonna happen at a pace like that."
"It's hard…when you're - doing…" the girl's words trailed off and she gasped against him.
Despite his own displeasure, he raised his head and observed her.
A part of him wanted to hold on to her, wanted to feel her give in to the heat, like he had.
He just knew. She was so close.
"You're right, it's still hard. So move your hand." Sasuke bit out, and then her lips pushed up to his mouth, and she did as he ordered.
And the pleasure came, spiking and streaking across his spine, into his stomach, building tighter until he leaned hard into her and reciprocated the build-up on her own swollen bud.
The relentless motion caused her to buckle against him, a soft cry tearing from her lips…
But he was just as far gone in desperation and he turned to her with a forceful look.
"If you stop," Sasuke breathed harshly, "then I'll make sure we both get hell and I'll stop too."
"…Not gonna happen." The girl under him quietly tore out, and then he felt her hips buck against him, and the sharp tugs of her grasp on his member as the stirrings of her release came.
Sasuke couldn't take it.
The heat spilled.
With a groan, burying into the crook of her neck, he said her name.
And the whispered sound of his own name leaving her lips sealed their heated exchange.
His own wetness pressed into her hand, into the spaces and the skin between them, and then he felt her pleasure against his palm, quite different, but still somewhat the same… Jerking and pulsing until he heard a whimpered sigh escape her lips and he could do nothing but kiss her.
The intensity of the climax was fading, replaced with a satisfying kind of warmth that settled into a room that was gradually starting to come back.
Sakura slumped first, her breaths coming up short as her body stilled into the sheets, fingers pressed into his chest, her legs sliding with gentleness along his hips.
And then Sasuke gave in to his exhaustion, one arm carefully slipping under the curve of her back, and the other spreading out over her lower stomach, close to where he had pleasured her.
Their heated breath solidified in the air around them and seconds passed, noted literally by the loud tick of the clock beside the doorway.
They didn't bother to move, for a long moment…
"The sheets are dirty." the Uchiha mumbled after a while.
"I don't care." Sakura blissfully sighed, and then she pressed her soft mouth to his shoulder and smiled.
She...
Doesn't care.
After another brief, motionless silence, Sakura saw that he was looking at her…
And the girl had to pull her face a few inches away, too surprised at the never-before seen, boyish grin that was slowly spreading across his face.
"…How cute." The kunoichi blurted out after a stunned silence, unable to stop herself.
"Yeah. That's what they used to say." Sasuke said, now burying his face into the pillow beside him and promptly closing his eyes to end the conversation.