A/N
This is my first fic, so reviews are greatly appreciated! The story will be mostly canon-compliant with some OCs and potentially some timeline discrepancies. It's also primarily SasuSaku-centric but will feature other canon pairings. Rated M for language and depictions of violence. Chapters will be published once or twice a week.
Disclaimer: I do not own nor did I create Naruto. This was created solely for entertainment purposes.
Thank you in advance for reading!
~ArtfullyPoetic
No matter how many times she had seen him engage in battle, Sakura never failed to be awestruck by the grace with which his body moved. Her eyes could barely track Sasuke as he evaded the assailant's blade in quick, flashing maneuvers. She was so enamored by his movements, she almost forgot that she was currently standing completely defenseless in the middle of the attack.
Her eyes quickly darted to the left to follow the object in her periphery and with a crouch, she dodged a kunai flying straight towards her temple. Forcing chakra into the soles of her feet, she launched her body upwards and onto a large branch of a nearby tree. She knew that from here, she had to make carefully calculated movements. She had overexerted herself helping out at the nearby village's hospital and one misstep could mean wasting the last of her chakra.
Scanning the ground below her, her eyes locked on the unknown attacker who stood in the direction from which the kunai came. She jumped out of the tree, her legs running towards the man as soon as she made contact with the ground. Concentrating her chakra on her fist this time, she punched the man square in the chest, sending him flying across the forest and slamming hard into a tree trunk.
Satisfied that he was unconscious, she scanned the area again for additional threats. Finding none, her eyes settled on Sasuke across the clearing and she watched as he silently slid his katana back into its sheath. Several feet in front of him, laid the unmoving body of his prior opponent. It had been almost two years since she last saw him, and she noted that his previously short, spiky hair was now long and unruly, with its tips almost touching his shoulders and strands falling in front of his face, covering the eye she knew was his rinnegan.
His eyes traveled to where she stood and she couldn't help but hold her breath as his gaze met hers. Other than the length of his hair, he looked exactly as he did the day he left. Dark hair and even darker, deeper eyes. Beautiful, she couldn't help but think. He looked exactly like the image she had committed to memory of that day in front of Konoha's gate, where he stood with his fingertips to her forehead and a small smile on his lips. But the smile was not present today. As he walked towards her, his facial features became more and more apparent: he was furious.
"Sakura, what are you doing here?" Sasuke hissed when he finally came to a stop in front of her. His voice was harsh and cold, his lone visible eye bore into her green ones. With him this close to her after so long, Sakura found that her mouth was completely dry and she couldn't, for the life of her, force her lips to form words. She never expected to see him here. She especially didn't expect him to be angry with her.
At her silence, he let out an exasperated sigh as if to bring down his temper and added, "you need to go home."
"I wasn't trying to follow you!" she finally stammered out. She wasn't sure why those were her choice of words and she immediately regretted them as soon as they left her tongue.
"I didn't say you were," he returned. His eyes continued to study her, the fury she initially saw was gone. In its place was his usual blank expression, his lips pressed in a thin line.
"Wh-What I meant to say was I was helping at the hospital in the village nearby when I heard all the fighting," Sakura took a deep breath to steady her voice. "Some civilians told me that there were thugs terrorizing them lately so I followed the noise to check it out. I never expected to see you here, Sasuke"
Sasuke simply huffed quietly in reply.
Suddenly, it dawned on her, "wait, what are you doing here, Sasuke? Why were they all attacking you?"
"Someone's placed a large bounty on me," he shrugged.
"What?" Her eyes widened in shock.
"At least that's what I figured when–" Sasuke tilted his head slightly in the direction of the man he fought earlier, "–that one mentioned something about being rich once they got me."
"That's awful! How are you being so calm about this?" Sakura asked, incredulously.
He shrugged again, "Wouldn't be the first time."
She continued to stare at him in disbelief. How could he be so nonchalant about the fact that someone wanted him harmed enough to put a bounty on him? She knew that he was stronger than any assailant that could try to hunt him down, but it still seemed unreal to her that he was so careless with his own safety.
"Go home, Sakura," he reiterated as he turned and began to walk away from her, his hand waving dismissively in the air.
"Wait! You can't just go off alone when there are so many people trying to hurt you!" Her eyes traveled across the clearing where she counted at least six unconscious bodies lying in the grass, not including the man that she fought earlier.
"That's none of your concern." His back was still turned to her.
Sakura flinched at his all-too-familiar words before replying, "Yes, it is. I–"
"No, it's not. Now go home." He cut her off sternly, his head was slightly turned now so that he could look at her in his periphery, his shoulders tense.
As she opened her mouth to argue, she was interrupted by an explosion going off right beside her. Suddenly, everything was black with smoke and she felt a searing pain on her arm that was closest to the blast. The force knocked her onto her back and her ears rang. She tried to push herself up but found that all her strength was gone. With her head still foggy, she tried her best to use her medical knowledge to assess the extent of her injuries. She noted that she had at least a third degree burn on her arm. When the smoke slightly cleared, she could also see that she was bleeding profusely; but from where, she had no idea.
Distantly, she could hear the sound of fighting, blades clanging against each other with a metallic ring. She knew that if she didn't act now to heal herself, she would bleed out. But no matter how hard she tried to sit, she couldn't find the strength to get up. Her chakra, she realized, was gone. All she could do now was lie limply in the grass.
She hoped that Sasuke was okay. She tried to look for him, but her vision was blurred from both the smoke and the blood loss. The ringing in her ears seemed to only get louder. She swore she heard someone calling her name but she couldn't make out the words they said next. Not able to fight it any longer, she let her eyelids flutter shut and welcomed the darkness that consumed her.
A/N
Thank you so much for reading! I know this chapter was pretty short but my chapters will likely get a lot longer as the story progresses. Please review!
