51. Difficulties

When was it that life had started getting difficult and where had all the easy times gone? Like seriously – how come everything seemed to be nothing but a variation of different kinds of difficult? And how come that the really grave and serious things seemed far less important than those which were minor in comparison – literal trifles?

You should think that after what had only just happened, the village would be Sayuri's greatest concern, but then why was she just lying around here instead of being out there and helping out?

After that last attack, Konoha was in an abysmal condition. The entire western part was destroyed, while the rest of the village had at least indirectly suffered from the attacks as well and there were more casualties than the hospital could possibly accommodate or the limited number of doctors and nurses could take care of.

There were so many different ways in which you could make yourself useful and yet Sayuri just lay in her bed and stared into the drab grey sky, while her thoughts circled around one single topic: about how she hadn't seen Sasuke since the day of the attack, which was now three days ago…

She was still overcome by an uneasy feeling whenever she thought about what had happened, right after Tsunade had officially allowed them to stay… She had left the decision to them – forcing them to stay would have been pointless and in no one's interest…

They had gathered in a small group, so they could talk in privacy, but Sayuri had been close enough to them to hear every word of what they had said and had even seen their mimic and gesture (except for Juugo's though because he's had his back turned on her)… and she had gone through the entire conversation numerous times in her head - she had listened to them so intently that she actually memorized it word for word:

"Well… now what?" Suigetsu had asked while he had scratched his head sheepishly, as if he didn't know what to make of this entire situation, before he had focused his violet eyes on Sasuke, whose gaze had rested on Juugo though at that moment, but then he had let his eyes roam from one of them to the next and had eventually raised his voice: "I'll leave it to you… Karin, I don't know about your aims and I can't think of anything Konoha could offer you other than a fixed abode and the possibility to improve your medical skills, so what will you do?"

He had gazed at the red-haired woman, who had been the first in the line and had frowned lightly about the so obvious faraway expression on her face. Karin seemed to have been entirely absorbed in her thoughts, though and after a couple of seconds, a vivid flush had appeared on her cheeks, as if she had already pictured living with Sasuke, or something of that sort…

"I guess that means she wants to stay…" Suigetsu had rolled his eyes, once he had noticed the rather conspicuous colour on his team-mate's cheeks. However his statement must have ripped her out of her reverie and she had shaken her head vehemently, before she had adjusted her dark-rimmed glasses.

"Who said that?! I don't know yet – give me some time to think – and stop staring at me fish-head!" She had groused and turned her head demonstratively away from the Houzuki, most likely to hide the blush on her face, which had made it only better visible for Sayuri, though.

"Hn." Sasuke had nodded and then turned his coal black eyes to the next person in the line. "Juugo."

"…If there is even the slightest chance that they can help me, then I'll try it. I want to stay here…" He had stated in a calm voice and again Sasuke had only commented with a nod to his statement and had then turned to the next.

"Suigetsu, your aim is to fight Kisame, but as it is you won't be able to beat him. If you'd stay here, you could use the time training – so can you spare the time, or is it your wish to go for the Akatsuki right away?"

"Tze… as if it mattered – I'm clearly outvoted…" He had raised an eyebrow and side-glanced at Karin who had looked ready to protest and remind him again that she hadn't made up her mind, yet, but before she had even been able to say anything, he had raised his voice again: "Ah… I know that you want to stay here, too, so fine – I just have one condition-"

He had narrowed his eyes cunningly with a sly grin on his face, which had caused a rather sceptical look to appear on Sasuke's face. "As you said, at the moment I'm not strong enough to beat Kisame – therefore you'll personally take care that that changes."

There had been a sharp edge to his voice and his eyes had held this for him so typical devious look in them, but Sasuke's face had remained entirely blank while he had apparently pondered about his words, until he had nodded subtly and turned back to Karin.

"That makes it final – can you live with staying here Karin?"

"Err… damn… your house better be big!" She had snorted and crossed her arms in front of her chest, but in spite of the sour look on her face it had seemed as if she had been struggling to keep a telltale grin from taking form on her lips.

"Then it's settled…" Sasuke had muttered before he had turned around and had first looked into her and then into Naruto's face, as they must have both looked very tense, before he had turned his attention to the Hokage. "We will accept your offer and stay here."

"Haha!" Naruto, who apparently hadn't been able to eavesdrop on them, had started laughing in relief and had grinned like a Cheshire cat.

"Then welcome back!" He had roared really loudly, while he had given Sasuke a nudge against his upper arm, before he had wrapped an arm around his shoulder, entirely missing the disgruntled look the Uchiha had shot him. "Damn – I always knew it would end up like this!"

"Hn." Sasuke had closed his eyes briefly, while he had taken Naruto's arm away and had stepped a good foot away from the blonde. Naruto hadn't seemed to mind though; he had just crossed his arms behind his head and had kept smiling to himself, while Sasuke's eyes had then travelled to hers, and as soon as she had noticed that a relieved smile had formed on her lips.

"Naruto, Sayuri – you better go to the hospital… Sasuke, Juugo, Karin and Suigetsu, you come with me first, there are still quite some things to talk about…" Tsunade had stated and after receiving some assenting nods, she had turned around and led the four ex-nuke-nins past the masses of curious bystanders towards the Hokage-tower, while she and Naruto had marched with bright faces and without protesting into the direction of the hospital, but only because they had been sure then that they'd join them there later anyway and then they would have enough time to talk about all this and celebrate their reunion.

That was basically it. Right after they had agreed to stay, Tsunade had sent her and Naruto to the hospital, where they had first gotten treated themselves, before they had helped out wherever they could, all the time waiting for the group of ex-nuke-nins to finally show up.

They had been disappointed though, after two or three hours Tsunade had come along and when they had asked her where they were, she had told them, that she had already treated them and sent them to the Uchiha-district, out of fear that their presence in the hospital, where people hadn't yet been told that they were allowed to stay here now, might cause some trouble and fear among the patients…

They had seen her point… in most people's eyes they were still highly dangerous nuke-nins and Sayuri was afraid that that wouldn't change too soon… There hadn't been any time to complain for them anyway, there was just so much to do – while Sayuri had taken care of healing the patients Naruto had made sure that she wouldn't have a second of breathing time, by providing her with ever more injured people, but it wasn't as if the other medic-nin wouldn't have had their hands full, too…

When she had finally been done, it had already been close to midnight and her way home had been marked by an uneasy feeling, as she hadn't known what she would find there… Luckily her house was at the very other end of Konoha, so it had at least been out of the range of the direct attacks, but that didn't have to mean anything… With crossed fingers she had turned the last corner and in the darkness her house hadn't looked that much different, from how she remembered it to do, just the scattered shingles on the path she had nearly tripped over had struck her as odd somehow…

Once she had opened the door, it had gotten all the more clear that it hadn't stayed unaffected by what had happened. With a queasy feeling she had stepped over one of her wall-cupboards, which had lain right in the open doorway and had roamed her eyes through the darkness in search for any movement, while her hand had been groping for the light switch, but the light just wouldn't go on… She had called for her dog, but had only heard her own heartbeat and the clinking of the various shards she had stepped over and which seemed to cover the entire floor, but no sign of him, until she had, after quite some time, heard some faint, wheezing breathing sounds.

She had followed them to the overturned couch, which hadn't stood where it usually did, which revealed quite a lot because it was really heavy… Carefully she had peered past it and had seen her shivering dog, which had been cowering underneath it and had apparently been too afraid still to come out even after she had called him. With quite some effort, she had turned the couch around again and had spent the entire night with sitting with her dog in her arms in probably the only shard-free corner of her house, so exhausted that it hadn't even taken her an hour to fall asleep.

The day after that she had been in the hospital again and this time she had taken her dog with her, because she hadn't had the heart to leave him alone again… Having him with her was probably one of the reasons, apart from the huge amount of patients, why she hadn't even bothered to go back into that chaos that was her home, but had worked through the entire night and most of the next day as well, until Tsunade had sent her home. She had been tired alright but she hadn't felt like sleeping then, so she had occupied herself with at least putting up her furniture again and sweeping the shards into one corner, because she had been too lazy to do a thorough cleaning…

Then, this afternoon, she had woken up again, even though she couldn't remember having gone to bed… But now that she was lying here she just couldn't bring herself to getting up again, so she just lay in her bed and stared through the holes in her roof into the grey, but still cloud-free sky and felt really miserable for doing so.

There was just so awfully much she could – no – should do now; she must have slept for more than 15 hours, so she should be rested enough to take up her work again and yet she just kept on lazing about and couldn't think of anything but the fact that she hadn't seen Sasuke in three entire days, even though he was back now…

After she had wished so dearly that he'd return and after she had missed him so badly after just one day of separation… Now he really was back, against all beliefs and yet she just couldn't get herself to go see him… And it's not like she wouldn't want to… she simply couldn't. She had spent most of this day, which wasn't too much yet, as she had only just woken up, with trying to picture herself walking up to his house, but it just wouldn't work… Then she had tried it the other way around and had tried to imagine how he would come up to her, but that was even less realistic… it wouldn't happen. He wouldn't come to her and if she couldn't get past her inhibitions, she probably wouldn't see him any time soon…

With a sigh she closed her eyes and folded her hands over her forehead, when suddenly a darker shadow fell over her closed lids and she cast them open again, startled and hopeful at the same time. However once her eyes were open she was disappointed… just a stupid cloud and a really big one… this was a really bad timing for rain, with all these holes in her roof a simple shower of rain could turn her house into an aquarium and she wasn't exactly the best swimmer…

This was something she could do… she could fix the roof, or start cleaning of all this chaos rather than just shoving it into some corners – anything would be better than just lying around and thinking about different versions of the things she wouldn't do anyway… At least not if she couldn't convince her body to get up any time soon…

She rolled to the side and curled up in foetal position, while her grey-blue eyes wandered over the mess that was supposed to be her home. Maybe it was true that a house represented the inner state of its owner, but if that was the case, than this cast a rather bad light on her momentary state of mind… It was not only this chaos, the destruction and all the broken pieces in here, but also the fact that thanks to her leaky roof, her house had turned into a fridge; she could even see some faint puffs of smoke whenever she exhaled…

It would be easy to fix all this though – fix both. She could just clean up her house and restore order. It shouldn't be much of a problem; she'd just have to put up the remaining turned over things and throw away or repair the broken ones… When it came to herself it was even easier and less exertive – she'd just have to drag herself out of bed and go visit him – but what then?

What if she visited him and the others who were now living with him were there, too and he'd again act as if he wouldn't even know her, which would lead to an awkward silence and just more disappointment. Or worse still, what if his team wasn't even there and he'd still act as if he wouldn't know her… She didn't really know why he should do so, but then why shouldn't he? Or what if she went there and the house was just entirely empty and he had left after all… She hadn't seen him since after his fight, so who told her that he was still there?

She was simply way too much of a coward to just walk up there and face reality, but was lying around here and imagining one worst-case scenario after the next not so much worse than at least having some reassurance? Like seriously, reality couldn't be any worse than her own imagination and after all this time of brooding about these things, she should be prepared for even the worst of all possible situations… But being prepared didn't mean that she was ready to actually be confronted with it…

Either way – one day she'd have to find out and get past her fear – it really didn't matter when, however the earlier it was, the more time it would safe her of drowning in her own thoughts – or the rainwater if it came to that…

Rather unenthusiastically, she crawled out of her bed and lifted a hand to her neck, while a desperate sigh escaped her lips. There was just so much chaos she couldn't even think of where to start cleaning, which means she'd safe that up for later and take care of her frame of mind first.

"You wanna take a walk?" She asked her dog that was sitting on the couch - one of the few things that was relatively okay still – and that one let out a joyful bark and jumped into her direction at once, apparently all too keen on getting out of this hovel, which was rather understandable…

The way to the Uchiha mansion took them closer to the centre of the village, and the farther west they walked the more the level of destruction increased… Most of the rubbish had already been pulled out of the way, so the streets were relatively clear and a lot of scaffolds had been put up in that short amount of time, which was really impressive…

People were buzzing from one building site to the next like busy ants, with these huge wooden beams and other things they were carrying and which seemed to be at least three times their weight… Everyone was helping – there was hardly anyone who just sat around and took a break, or who spent his time lying in bed, as she had done and which made her feel quite bad admittedly. Maybe she should postpone taking care of her own needs and should go back to the hospital and do something for the common good – or she could just stop searching for excuses not to go there and just get it over with and do something beneficial right after that… Once her head was clear again, she would do much better anyway – or not, depending on what would happen…

Mindful not to get into anyone's way, Sayuri made her way farther to the south, where the Uchiha-district was situated and she wondered how much it had been affected by the attacks. She knew that the main-house of the Hyuga-clan had been almost completely destroyed by some of Deidara's bombs and the Hyuga-district wasn't too far away from that of the Uchiha's so maybe it was only a ruin now… Well she'd see soon enough, maybe five more minutes and she'd be there and she could literally feel surges of adrenalin sweep through her entire body and she became just all the more aware of her surroundings and yet she didn't seem to take them in… As if they'd just rush past her, while her steps slowed down the closer she got to her destination.

She turned a corner and already found herself in front of the rather high stone wall with the low bluish-green roof, which surrounded the Uchiha-district and it took her a bit of a time until she reached the entrance region, where you could see a blue cloth with the Uchiha crest on it, spanning over the upper part of it.

She came to a halt in front of it and rested her eyes on the familiar fan for quite some time, before she looked down at her dog that was already wagging his tail, as he recognized the place he had lived in for nearly a month and which must have looked far more welcoming to him than his temporary accommodation…

"We're really doing this right?" She just needed to say something, as if the flow of air would take something of the pressure out of her and as there was no one around, which she actually welcomed, she asked her dog, but only because otherwise that would mean she'd talk to herself…

Fairly reluctant, she took the first slow steps forward and let her eyes wander over the numerous buildings in front of her. The grey sky cast a rather sombre light on everything, but apart from some rather minor damage, the houses seemed to be okay – at least everything was still standing and looked inhabitable, so she should definitely encounter him here… hopefully…

Yet again this thought sent a weird feeling through her and she really had to pull herself together, as she would rather turn around again… Unwilling to let her worries get the best of her, the violet-haired girl marched along the main-street until she caught sight of the biggest building in the entire district. It hadn't lost any of its intimidating character since the last time she had seen it and then it had been empty…

She stopped again, but only for a brief moment, before she covered the last few metres over the empty courtyard, where there was only a kind of lonely seeming overturned flower tub in the middle of it, until she finally found the courage to step to the wooden slide-door and knock at its frame.

She held her breath while waiting for someone to open, but then gasped, as the thought of Karin opening the door for her intruded her mind… She hoped that wouldn't be the case – Karin was about the last person she wanted to see right now…

An uneasy expression flitted over her face and she looked down at her dog, whose dark brown eyes were fixed on the still-closed door as well and he let out an impatient bark as nothing happened.

Why was it taking so long? It was a huge mansion admittedly, but still… maybe he hadn't heard her, even though she doubted that, but if he was in the training hall on the other side, maybe together with the others…

Another sigh parted her lips, as she stood there and waited - and waited and stood there… She could just push the door aside and go in and see for herself, but she felt rather reluctant to just walk into someone else's home, so she knocked for another time and closed her eyes, while she listened for any sound within the huge mansion.

Nothing… no sounds, no one who opened…

She bit into her lower lip and felt more and more anxiety built up in her, so she finally opened the door and took a step into the entrance hall. There were no shoes standing around, so she doubted that there was someone around and yet she walked in and started calling out into the dark, dusty and at times devastated rooms. It didn't look as if anyone was living here, there were just no signs of that – there were shards and dirt just about everywhere and not even the broken picture frames had been picked up from the floor, but that didn't necessarily have to mean anything – however the fact that no one replied to her calls was far more critical…

She could actually feel how the blood retreated from her face, as it became more and more evident that the house was absolutely empty.

The next second she found herself outside again, even though she wasn't aware that she had walked out…But even while she was trying to remember, her steps already carried her away from this place. She just wanted to be as far away from here as possible.

So her greatest worry had come true. He was gone again and hadn't even bothered to say goodbye… As if he'd been in too much of a hurry to see her off… Or maybe he had wanted to, but hadn't found her; after all she had been in the hospital the entire time… whatever it was, she wouldn't find out, because he was gone again…

Actually she had already put it behind herself… She had been prepared that he'd leave and she had (more or less) accepted it, but only because she had been sure that he'd be killed if he would stay here… But now he had actually been allowed to stay – with his team – which had met the one condition he had set and yet he was gone again – but why would he have said that they were staying then? Maybe that had just been an act…

Even though Tsunade had given them a choice, it had been clear somehow that they wouldn't have let them leave… Danzô sure wouldn't have allowed that… So maybe it had just been an act… They had agreed on staying here, just so that they could make their escape without any hindrance… Most likely it would have even been dangerous for them to stay here, considering the so very obvious aversion Danzô held towards them – and then Danzô was exactly the kind of person you could imagine to break into your bedroom at night and kill you in your sleep…

Maybe this has been the only way for them to get away unharmed… Still she wished she had known so earlier. She had really believed he'd come back now, if she had known this before, rather than merely assuming it (because she had been kind of sceptical the entire time, but she had blamed that on her natural pessimism) then she wouldn't have raised her hopes again and wouldn't feel this disappointed now…

So what should she do now? She'd have to get away from here as quick as possible and hope that no one would see her, so she wouldn't have to tell anyone… This way they'd have more time to make their escape until someone else noticed their absence, which hopefully wouldn't happen too soon…

It was really hard to think rationally through this situation, all she wanted was to retreat into her shell or just somewhere nice and start crying, because she could already feel a suffocating lump built up in her throat. She couldn't go to the hospital right now – churned up and above all distracted as she was she'd probably end up with killing someone, so –

"Sayuri?"

She was ripped out of her thoughts as she heard her name and came to a stop, not even two steps away from the person who must have called her. His chest was right in front of her face, so she had to look up to see who it was.

"Sasuke!" Her eyes widened, as she recognized him and she stared with a startled expression into his face. She had been so lost in thoughts that she hadn't even realized he was there and would have probably run right into him if he hadn't called her attention to him…

"You're there…" A disbelieving smile took form on her lips and relief was clearly written all over her features…

He confirmed her rather obvious observation with a light nod and scrutinized her closely before he asked: "What are you doing here?"

Now the startled look made its comeback – what did he think she could possible be doing in the Uchiha-district? – but then she realized that she had apparently walked farther than she had thought and was long out of it already…

"Oh…" She studied her surroundings and it took her some time to realize where exactly she was, until she remembered his question and now did think that it deserved an answer after all…

"I-I meant to visit you…but you weren't there…" She really didn't know why she felt so stupid while saying this, but she couldn't help but to clasp her hands in front of herself and look over his shoulder rather than into his face…

He still observed her with this inscrutable face and there was a light frown on his forehead, as if he didn't know what to make of her behaviour.

"Then come along." The Uchiha murmured in his husky voice and now drew Sayuri's gaze back to his. Another beaming and yet somewhat confused smile appeared on her lips and her grey-blue eyes seemed to be shining, as she nodded her head and then followed right after him, as he took the first step into the direction she had just come from.

They walked in complete silence, which gave Sayuri some time to think and calm down again. Apart from that, she was rather busy with biting back a stupid grin, which tried its best to manifest on her lips – hard to believe just how good it felt to know she had been wrong…

Once they reached his home, he opened the door and waited for her to go in, before he did so himself and closed the door behind him again. Sayuri turned her head into his direction, not really knowing what to do now, when she saw him walk past her and head towards the kitchen. She followed right after him, but stopped as her dog squeezed past her and ran to the end of the corridor, which led to the garden. She didn't really know if she should call him back, but then decided against it and stepped into the dreary and dark kitchen. The table was turned over and there were water stains on the carpet, right in front of the fridge and same as in her house there were glass and porcelain shards scattered all across the floor, even thought the bigger ones were piled up in a corner – weird that she hadn't noticed that as she had first peered into this room…

Slightly indecisive, she stood in the doorway, and narrowed her eyes reflexively, as Sasuke turned the light on, before he walked to the fridge and pulled out a bottle of water. He drank right out of it, probably because his glasses were, same as hers, all but shattered, before he stepped back and leaned against the kitchen counter, from where he shot a questioning glance at the violet-haired girl, who still looked kind of misplaced – neither in nor out of the room…

Taking this as an invitation, Sayuri finally entered and walked to the place where she had used to sit, when she had still lived here and groped for the thin cushion on the actually green but at the moment dust grey parquet. She then shook the seat cushion to get rid of the shards and splinters, before she laid it back to where it had lain and sat down there.

"Where have you been?" She asked eventually as she couldn't stand the silence, even though she didn't mean to be nosy…

"Tsunade wanted to talk to me…" He looked slightly irritated as he said that, there must be a lot of these meetings ahead of him - not to forget all the paper work…

"What about the others? I came here earlier but there was no one around…"

He cast a musing glance at her, while he placed the bottle he'd still been holding, on the counter next to him, before he murmured: "Don't know… probably in their houses…"

"Houses…?" Sayuri's eyes popped open in surprise and she couldn't help to feel kind of glad about this information. "So they are not living in here?"

"Why should they? There are enough houses here…"

She nodded slightly and looked at the floor in front of her crossed legs… She had nearly forgotten that this entire district, including all the buildings here, belonged officially to him now – back then they hadn't lived in this house because there hadn't been any other place around, but because it had been their mission…

"And they really agreed to stay here… I mean they have nothing to do with Konoha, right?" She asked in a hesitant tone and cast a fleeting glance at him, before she noticed a big shard of glass right next to her, which reflected the light from the lamp above it – otherwise she probably wouldn't have seen it, so she picked it up and put it to the side to where the others were lying.

"If they hadn't we wouldn't be here now…" He stated calmly, apparently unaware of what his words did to her… it's not like she didn't know that this was his only reason for being here now, but she really didn't need a reminder…

Her eyes fell again on the shard she had just put aside and then on all the other mostly smaller ones around her, which looked so much more valuable than they actually were, as they glistened there on the floor, like tiny crystals… crystalline scrap… Her small hands wandered over the floor and she picked up more and more of the sharp glass fragments, which she then piled up on top of the bigger one.

Here it was again: Silence. She couldn't think of anything to say now, not after these last words and he didn't seem to be in a talkative mood either… She couldn't stand this… it wasn't the nice, pleasant kind of silence, you sometimes had when all words were redundant… This was merely a tense, oppressive silence, just because they had nothing to say to each other…

Even though she had tried her best to deny it, it became almost impossible now… They just didn't fit together: they were both far too reticent, which was just so obvious right now and besides he was too unapproachable and blunt and she was too insecure and sensitive… a really bad combination – he'd hurt her, without even planning to, or knowing about it and she would keep it to herself, simply because she couldn't voice her opinion and she'd end up with interpreting more into his words and actions than there actually was and over the time it would pile up and none of them could become happy this way and actually for nothing… considering all this, she couldn't believe how they had actually gotten so far… they really seemed the unlikeliest people to ever get close to each other…

She shut her eyes briefly and took a deep breath, while her hands were still busy with roaming about the floor and collecting all the broken pieces. She looked up again, as she perceived some movement to her side and realized that Sasuke was walking into her direction. He knelt down on the floor next to her, so Sayuri tilted her head into his direction a bit. Her vacant eyes wandered down as she felt his hand on hers, but her faraway expression remained unaltered. He raised her hand up and turned it around, before he swept the tiny glass particles from her palm and let his fingers wander over the tiny cuts and scratches.

"You should be more careful…" His pitch black eyes rested on her open palm, before he directed them upwards again and looked into her slightly startled and yet noticeably downcast face. He moved his hand upwards and brushed a strand of her long hair, which had escaped her ponytail, behind her shoulder, before he placed his hand on her cheek and gently stroked his thumb over it.

Sayuri's eyes widened slightly and she could feel her heartbeat increase rapidly in merely a second, as he drew her closer to him and pressed his lips on hers. After a moment of confusion, she returned the kiss and turned her upper body around, while he slung his arms around her waist and kept her in a tight embrace. Sayuri cupped both her hands around his face and let them run over his smooth skin, before their lips parted and they stared deep into each others eyes.

Every bit of sadness had vanished from Sayuri's face and the corners of her lips were twisted upwards in a faint smile. She placed another soft kiss on his lips, much shorter now, before she withdrew her hands from his face and wrapped them around his neck, enjoying every second of being close to him. He gently ran a hand over her hair, while she buried her face in his shoulder, before he stroked over her back with his fingertips and smirked lightly about the contented sigh she heaved.

In return for his caresses she placed a light kiss in the crook of his neck and moved her fingers in little circles over the nape of his neck, until she felt how he closed his hands around her upper arms and pressed her back slightly. Before she could even complain or at least frown about being pushed away, his lips found hers again and he engaged her in a deep, longing kiss, which they only broke as the need for air became impossible to ignore any longer.

Heavily breathing and feeling slightly dizzy, Sayuri leaned herself against his chest, while he again wrapped his arms around her and held her in a possessive embrace. He placed a soft kiss on her hair and caused the girl in his arms to turn her beaming face up to him, before he, regardless of all the shards and the dirt, slumped backwards and pulled her with him. She gasped in surprise, but the grin on her face only widened, before she propped herself up on his chest to look into his eyes. She scrutinized him for quite some time, before she cast her lids down briefly and shook her head, with a light smile on her lips.

"I still can't believe you're really back…" She whispered and added in her mind: 'I can't believe this is actually happening…'

"Hn." He merely shrugged his typical, anti-climatic reply and directed his deep black eyes to the ceiling.

With a pensive expression, Sayuri gazed into his blank face and wrinkled her forehead before she asked: "What will you do now?"

His eyes left the spot of ceiling they had been focussed on and locked with hers, before he raised an eyebrow and murmured: "We'll see…"

Again with a light smirk on his face and an ambiguous look in his eyes, he raised his upper body, while his hands wandered over her back again and drew her closer to him. Sayuri wrapped her arms around his neck at once and grinned into the kiss, while a feeling of relief and contentedness wandered through her body and drove out all the negative feelings.

Maybe it was true and they weren't a perfect match, no actually she knew they weren't, but that didn't matter… It was this feeling… the simple fact that he could stir her blood with a single look… that he could make her forget about everything else with a simple touch and that he could dispel all the doubts and fears from her mind with a single kiss… That's what it was all about and as long as that feeling didn't change, it would be okay and the rest… well they could work on that, after all, the one thing they had plenty of was time…

The end.

* * *

It took quite some time but this is the end. I really hope you enjoyed reading this story just about as much as I enjoyed writing it. Thanks to everyone who read or even favourited my story and of course to everyone who took the time to leave a review – I really enjoyed reading them so again thank you!

I had such a good time with this story that I'm planning on writing a sequel, which will then focus more on Sasuke's and Sayuri's relationship, but only if I'm able to come up with enough ideas that are worth writing down – and beforehand at best and not in the course of writing, as it was the case with this one, which might explain the really chaotic structure, I guess I have to apologize for…

Anyway once I know I'll write so here and it'd be really great if you could also find the time to read the sequel. Thanks in advance – hope to see you soon^^