Akatsuki no Sakura
Rating: PG-13 for language (may change due to scenes in later chapters)
Category: Romance/Angst/Action
Pairings: SasuSaku, ItaSaku, a little NaruHina
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto ( Naruto is owned by Masashi Kishimoto- sama. I only own two things: the computer I type on, and my love for the Uchiha brothers. -squeezes Itachi and Sasuke plushies- They're hiding now, but I will find them... heheheheh
Chapter One: ANBU Thoughts and Cherry Blossoms
: Sasuke's POV :
She has always annoyed me.
Always, she vied for my affections, ever since we were young. She and that damn Yamanaka woman never left me alone, to give me some space, even after we were placed on the same team with Naruto and Pervert-Kakashi. But she didn't understand that I wanted to be alone; nobody did. Nobody had felt the pain such as I had felt only a few years earlier. Nobody wanted to try to fathom the silent, cold-hearted boy that seemed so distant to the world.
But then, after we fought Zabuza and Haku, she seemed to understand that I wasn't going to pay any attention to her... or any other girl, for that matter. Naruto and I were constantly saving her, and I always thought of her as nothing more than excess baggage, the weakest ninja of our village. I had always wondered whether or not I should save her, or let her annoying ass die.
When we began the Chuunin exams, I had no doubt in my mind that she would help get us through the first section of the exam. Sakura may have been weak, but she was smart. During the Forest of Death section of the exam, however, Sakura was not going to make it through and I knew it. Still, she managed to hold her ground somehow during the attack from Orochimaru, and she held her own against the Sound ninja as well (or so I'm told). When she stopped me from killing them, I knew something wasn't right. That look she gave me was one of pure fear, but for what I had no clue. I still don't know what that look meant. However, we were all able to make it out of Area Nine alive, thanks to Kabuto.
During the preliminary matches, she had tried to stop me from competing, and I responded... quite harshly. However, I felt that she deserved it for nosing in other people's business when she wasn't even wanted around. I didn't realize then that she was already thinking of me as more than a crush. When I had battled against Akado Yoroi and then against Gaara of the Desert, she had watched intently, concentrating fully on the match and hardly blinking.
I know that she had grown during the Chuunin Exams, but it was not enough. I still thought of her as annoying, and I left Konoha behind, and a very upset Sakura tried to stop me. I left anyway. At the time, I didn't know whether or not I cared if I left her standing there, softly crying and broken. When she and Naruto brought me back from the Village of the Sound, and I woke up, I learned she had hardly moved from my hospital bed. I began to have a sort of respect for her and her perseverance.
Together, we have been through very tough times; sometimes she is the only thing that has helped me to maintain my sanity. She helped me to get revenge on Itachi, even though our attempt was unsuccessful and we were both knocked into comas by Itachi's Mengekyou Sharingan. She never fully approved of my lust for power, yet she helped me grow in strength. Though I will never understand how, she managed to make me stronger than I had imagined, on the condition that I would train her to become stronger as well. I had no idea how Sakura- weak, annoying Sakura- would make me, the heir to the legendary Uchiha clan, stronger. With her help, I have managed to become the top ANBU captain in Konohagakure. For some reason, she also joined ANBU, and became top strategist for the ANBU squads. After a year in ANBU, she decided to quit and became a legendary Hunter-nin, proud and powerful. She has been away from the village for three years, three long and eventful years that she has missed so much of. Three years, in which Naruto has fulfilled his dream of becoming the Hokage, Hinata has married Naruto, Ino and Shikamaru have become engaged, and Jiraiya (so he has told me and Naruto) is ready to propose to Tsunade-sama.
Today marks the annual festival celebrating the first day of the cherry blossoms' blooming. To many, it is the sign that spring has arrived. But to Naruto, Kakashi, Hinata and me, it is symbolic, and we look for Sakura in the crowd every time. We do this because, before she left, she said she would return "on the first day that the cherry blossoms begin to fall". She and I had gotten into a fight earlier that day, so I didn't even get so much as a goodbye from her. She told Naruto about when she would return, and he told me. She only expected to be gone for a month or two, not for three years. These past years in the springtime, we have not seen hair nor hide of her. But we keep on searching, even though we dread that one day we will hear that Sakura has finally been defeated- not just knocked out in a battle, but killed in a real, all-out ninja duel that takes place between the missing-nin and the hunter-nin in which only one may survive. Naruto has had no news of Sakura's condition or location since the end of the last summer, and we fear the worst. Many ninja have been sent to search for her, and none have succeeded in finding her. I'm not really surprised though, Sakura has perfect chakra control and can hide it if she doesn't want to be found; however, I see no reason why she would want to hide- unless she has become one of the missing-nin that she had hunted so vigorously in the past. But I doubt that she would have done that.
As I look through the crowd, I see Naruto and Hinata, closely followed by Kakashi and Jiraiya, as well as Tsunade. I guess Naruto had let the news of Sakura's disappearance "slip" to Tsunade and Jiraiya. But I could care less. Now.. I just want to have my flower back. As long as I get to see Sakura first, to catch that sneaky fox of a woman and... never mind. What am I thinking? I've never had any true interest in Sakura before, why should I now?