Inutenshi: Hey peoples! Sorry I took so long.
Saku: We've been celebrating!
Sassy: Too...much...happiness...
Saku: Maybe it was a bad idea to take you off the anit-depressants.
Inutenshi: Lol. Yes. I've been holiday crazy all throught break PLUS to make it even better, my big bro just got home from a year of fighting in Iraq! Whoo! (thinking: He's already pissing me off!)
Sassy: Big brothers suck...
Saku: That's it! Where'd that bottle go? (finds the anti-depressants and shovels them down Sassy's throat)
Sassy: (is all sun shine and happiness once again)
Inutenshi: Um...I dunno about the sunshine, but I'm feeling pretty happy about now. Thanks for waiting on my slowness. I HEART you all!
It was quiet…Not a comfortable kind of quiet, but the suspenseful, deep in thought kind that made you jump from even the slightest touch or sudden sound. It hung around Sakura and Sasuke as they walked again through the cold, somehow ending up at their old training grounds. The kunoichi could feel the irritation radiating off the Uchiha prodigy. It unsettled her so much that she was almost afraid to breathe. When ever she tried to get out a word, she would look up at his aggravated expression, close her mouth, and look forward as his grip around her shoulders all but forced her to move.
Sasuke was in a completely different world in his head. Although Taro did prove a very important point, the boy's words still bothered him. Even if he did love Sakura and worked up the courage to tell her the truth about this whole fiasco, would she forgive him like Suki did for Taro? He and Sakura may have been classmates, teammates, and even good friends, but this kunoichi could hold onto a grudge like he could cling to his ambitions. As soon as she'd heard that Naruto had saved him and brought him home, she marched into the Hokage's office, where he'd just so happened to be, and beat him senseless, shouting and punching much like she would do to Naruto.
When she was done she had clung to his beaten and dazed form and sobbed against his chest, whispering pleas for him to never abandon them again.
He had the strongest urge to smile at the memory, but kept a straight face. Sakura's open displays affection for him had decreased immensely. She stopped adding kun on the end of his name and didn't blush and squeal girlishly at any of his kind gestures. Now she only smiled, thanked him, and if the event was life threatening, she'd return the favor.
To be honest, he sort of missed the childish pink kunoichi who would cling to him and offer him food, a date, help, her company…her love…
The first thing her thought when he saw her face for the first time in years, was the last expression he saw on it. His mind's eye could still make out the trails of tears leading from her wide, glossy, pleading orbs.
And every other night for the next few months after his return, he'd had morbid, haunting nightmares of taking that soft pink hair between his hard fingers and yanking her head back so that he could carve out those beautiful eyes. She'd scream, he'd laugh. She'd bleed, he'd lick it up.
It scared him to think that, even in his dreams, he'd do such a thing to someone so dear. It angered and annoyed him to no end.
"Sasuke!" She called out to him, bringing him from his intense thoughts.
"What?" He asked, stopping and looking at the kunoichi by his side. She was shifting around uncomfortably.
"You're…" She whimpered, pushing at the hand clutching her shoulder. "You're hurting me."
Fear made him shudder and he let go and moved away from her immediately. It showed him that he was very capable of doing horrible things to her, even unintentionally.
"I-I'm sorry." He panicked. "I didn't…I mean I…" Her finger pressed against his lips.
"I'm fine." She said. "I'm more worried about you."
His eyebrow quirked. Him? There's wasn't anything wrong with him. He was just freaking out over thought of hurting or possibly killing the girl he cared for accidentally or on purpose.
"You've been acting really awkward. First you come to visit me, with flowers no less, then you ask me on a date, something you've denied me throughout our time as a genin team. You try to seduce me in my kitchen, you share your gloves and scarf with me, hold me while we walk, laugh with me through dinner, actually eat something sweet, you go back into dark, mysterious, brooding ninja mode, then freak out and start apologizing for holding me too tight. I thought I was the ninja with the most mood swings in Konohagure, but you really take the cake mister!"
Sasuke didn't know how to reply to that. He just stood looking down at the girl just a head shorter than him, his mouth slightly open in awe.
"Did Taro say something to upset you?" She asked.
"Should I tell her?" He thought desperately. "Should I get this over with and go on with life whether she accepts my reasons or not?"
A deep breath and a shaky side later, Sasuke repeated the advice given to him.
"Let it flow, but don't take too long. You never know what'll happen if you turn away even for a second."
Sakura looked at him like he'd just recited one of Naruto's gibberish poems.
"Excuse me? What the heck is that supposed to mean?" She asked, her irritation was rising to the highest she'd had with the Uchiha boy, but it froze over when he looked up at her with serious almost regretful black eyes.
"Sakura, I thought that I was only asking you out as a competition with Naruto and Lee. Then I thought I was doing this to see how difficult it would be to get you to give in to me." His knuckles were turning white and his mouth was drying up. He swallowed hard.
"But that's not the reason why. Our meeting Taro and Suki made me open my eyes what could happen if I kept using you like a tool to get at my rivals."
Sakura's mouth fell open slightly, her chest tightened painfully as she fought the urge to let tears show when realization hit her like thousands of hooked shuriken being ripped from her body.
"You…you were using me?"
Sasuke flinched, but moved to take hold of her. She stepped back from him.
"I said it's not like that Sakura." He whispered, almost desperately.
"You were using me!" She cried, clutching the front of her jacket. "I thought that I actually meant something to you Sasuke!"
"You do!" He shouted.
He was starting to panic. Sakura and tears were a very bad mix for him.
"Apparently not as much as you goddamned pride!" She countered, falling to her knees in the snow and glaring at the pure substance. "I thought things were going to be different! I didn't think I was going to have to perform for everyone just to get some peace anymore! I didn't want to think about you anymore! I just wanted you to leave me alone so it wouldn't hurt!"
Agonizing emerald eyes tilted up and fixed onto the onyx orbs of the target of her sorrow.
"I didn't want it to happen again! I wanted to forget what I felt for you!" She cried out angrily as she fisted the snow under her bare palm. "I didn't want to care about you anymore!"
She took a deep breath and hurled the snow at him.
"SASUKE NO BAKA!"
The snowball hit his chest forcefully and he almost stumbled back.
"I'd hoped that it wouldn't turn out like this. That she would listen." He thought, kneeling in front of the sobbing kunoichi. "I hoped that she wouldn't have hurt this bad."
Sasuke's strong hands grabbed Sakura by the arms and she fought to get loose, but couldn't. She fell back into the snow, taking him with her. Her mistake left her caged underneath his black cloaked form and intimidating gaze.
"That's what I missed about you Sakura. You're strong and stubborn, but a little too much for your own damn good." He smiled slightly. "When I left, I tried to forget about this place, my fellow ninja...I tried to forget you, but you stuck to me like a leech even though we were hundreds of miles apart…draining me of my will to let go of what I'd left behind."
She turned her face from him, but he held both arms above her head with one hand and used the other to make her look at him.
"If you weren't so bullheaded, you would've paid attention and let me finish." He chuckled. "I may have asked you out to get at Fuzzy Brow and the moron, but I wouldn't have done it if I didn't have some kind feelings for you. There wouldn't have be any point for me to. Did that thought ever cross your mind?"
He brought his face closer to hers, pressing their foreheads together.
"Or has your skull gotten thicker than your still somewhat wide…yet cute forehead?"
Sakura pouted with a pretty blush and forced her chin out of his hand, glaring off to the side again.
"He's got a point. You shouldn't be so stubborn! Try listening!" Her Inner-self chided.
Her glistening green eyes harden and she turned her head as far as she could to keep him out of her sight. The freezing snow bit at her cheek, but it was nothing compared to her pounding head and aching chest.
"No more…" She whimpered. "I don't want this anymore."
Sasuke started down at her, watching the liquid pain pour out of her.
"I don't want to hurt anymore Sasuke…"
"I'm not trying to hurt you Sakura." He whispered, stroking her cheek with his uncovered hand.
"Why can't you just let me be?" Her head snapped back to face him. "Why can't you just go away? Just get out of my head, stop torturing me, and let me get on with my life! I've already dedicated everything to being a ninja. I gave up being a normal person so I'd have the strength to forget everything that you've done! I've pretty mush isolated myself from everyone so I can train, I take any and every mission I can, I don't eat or sleep for days straight just so I can practice and get stronger and stronger!"
She tilted her head back into the snow and sobbed.
"But it's never enough! I'm always miles behind you and Naruto. After all I've done, just when I think I'm right beside you two, I find out that I'm still staring at your backs and everything that slowly killed who I used to be comes back and I turn into the 12 year old crybaby who has to be protected all the time again!"
Gently, Sasuke released her arms and cupped her face with both hands and pulled her up into a sit. She buried herself into his chest, shaking but not from the cold.
"When you and Naruto fought, I was prepared to throw myself into the crossfire and die so neither of you would kill yourselves! I cried for you when you were hurting! I stayed by your side when you were in the hospital! I offered to help you with anything you needed! I begged you to take me with you if you chose not to stay!"
She was baring her soul for him again and it was killing him. The jounin hugged her tightly, preparing himself for the words that were about to destroy him completely.
"I was ready to throw away my life for your dreams…your ambitions!" She pulled away and looked Sasuke dead in the eyes. "I gave you my heart and you crushed it without a second thought! And now you expect me to believe that after all the heart brake and rejection, you actually feel something for me! I'm not a stupid little fangirl anymore Uchiha Sasuke and you can't treat me that way!"
Now Sasuke was the one shaking with emotion and with a violent shove, he threw her back into the snow, covered her body with his, and crushed his lips to hers. Sakura was frozen, her still crying eyes clenched shut, too afraid to open them to a painful illusion.
But it was real and no form of reasoning could prove it otherwise as the gloved hand underneath her head quivered while it held them locked together. So overwhelmed with a new heart bursting sensation, Sakura locked her arms around Sasuke's neck and cried softly into the kiss as he pulled them both back up from the ground.
Sasuke had never felt such a strong urge to die a thousand painful deaths, but even that would only amount to a tiny portion of his little kunoichi's pain. He pulled back from her with a heavy puff of heated air in the cool temperature, crushing her close to him with his head on top on hers.
"Do you want to know why you can't forget Sakura?" He asked, gently stroking her flushed cheek. "I can tell you…If you'll listen."
Her heart felt like it was hammering in her throat, preventing her from speaking. She nodded shakily and gasped softly when his uncovered hand touched the side of her neck and slid down just above her heart.
"This is why Sakura…This…won't let you forget, because…well…you know damn well why."
There was am agonizing pause. Both were breathing heavily, waiting for him to finish his sentence. Sakura held onto him, desperately fisting her hands in the arms of his trench coat.
"Tell me why Sasuke…" She whispered against his chest. "If you're so sure you know why…then let me hear you say it."
Sasuke pulled her off him gently, but she clung to him, too scared to look him in the eye again.
"Sakura." He pleaded. "Please look at me."
She looked at him with slightly puffy glowing orbs that made him want to kiss her until all the pain in them was gone.
"It won't let you forget, because you know that you're still in love with me."
She let out a shuddering breath and tried not to sob again.
"How do you know?" She asked, searching her dark eyes. "How can you be so sure about that?"
Sasuke smiled, brushing his bare fingertips across her slightly parted lips.
"The amount of words in a kiss are limitless Sakura…Now I'll let you in on a little secret."
"Yes Sasuke?"
He took her lips again, this time something hot and slimy slithered into her mouth. It scared her to death. Her heart skipped a few beats before realized that it was only his tongue rubbing against hers. The old, love struck teen Sakura once was revived itself with a mighty squeal and shouts of accomplishment from the deepest reaches of her mind. Nearly her whole face turned to color of her coat and her giggled almost girlishly into her love's mouth.
Sasuke pulled away with a laugh.
"It's really hard to get a word in when you keep laughing."
"Sorry I keep interrupting." Sakura apologized cutely. "I've never known you to be the talkative type."
"Then take a deep breath my little kunoichi, because I'm far from finished with you." Sasuke state with a playful smirk and captured her lips once more.
Inutenshi: Awww! Fluffiness everywhere!
Sassy: Yay! Fluff! (jumps into a moutain of big fluffy pillows, dragsSaku with him)
Saku: CANONBALL!
Inutenshi: (is showered with pillows) O.o...Sometimes I worry about you two...
Sassy: (runs out laughing with Saku's bra in his hand)
Saku: Hey! (chase)
Inutenshi: I'm not going to ask how that happened...(watching) DEAD UCHIHA RUNNIN'!
Sassy: (is tackled, scratched, beaten, thrown, groped, punched, kicked, and stabbed) T.T Owy...
Saku: That'll learn ya! (leans down and kisses him) Don't do it again. (skips away happily, followed by a whimpering Sasuke)
Inutenshi: Well...Ahem. I need help deciding what to do next. Should they: A) Go to Ino's party?...B) Go home right away and snuggle up for the night?...or C) Do it like it done on the Animal Chanel right there in the snow? XD Sorry I've been listening to the Bloodhound Gang a lot lately. So give me yur thoughts. A or B?
Sassy: (pops back in) PICK C! (gets bopped by Saku and isdragged away)