Title: Happily Ever After

Author: Akamaru-chan

Rating: T (for safety)

Pairing: SasukexSakura (not meant to be one-sided, but can be depending on how you look at it.)

Additional Information: As a chance to further my writing skills, I asked for my friends to give me any Naruto Pairing to write a Fan fiction of. This friend chose SasukexSakura and although I don't normally support it, a promise is a promise. You better love me for this Jess.

Summery: Hate was a stronger drug then Soldier pills. It drove him on, on into the late night hours of training. But there was something else that kept him going, doesn't everyone say Love is stronger then Hate?

.o0o.

He lived in a horrible bad dream. A true hell hole. Training was brutal, hard core, and cruel. He lived in a world of darkness, and there was no way out. No light at the end of the dark tunnel, no silver lining on the cloud…nothing, nothing to look forward to other then the death of his brother. His life was a nightmare.

Sasuke Uchiha hit the floor…again, for what was the eleventh time that day and who knows what time in the three years he had been training with Orochimaru. The fifteen year old shinobi coughed, spitting blood onto the stone floor of the current hideout of the Snake Sannin. He wiped the rose red blood on the back of a pale hand, containing the whiteness one could only gain from not seeing sunlight for months. These were the times where the Uchiha wondered why he even bothered. Rising, but only falling again. At this rate he would never be able to defeat his brother…his fist clenched at the thought of Itachi, sheer anger compelling him to stand. That…that was always what made him get up again. Just imagining the face of the one whom he hated the most was enough to drive him on. Hate was just as powerful as any energy tablet of soldier pill that Kabuto fed him to keep him from passing out during he long, all night training sessions. It was like a drug to him, and nearly twice as effective.

But at the very lowest points in the time of his training, where he cursed Orochimaru, Kabuto, Itachi, and even himself a million times to hell, the angriest depths of hate wasn't enough to get him to get up and try again. He found something else drove him, something that developed out of a small, miniscule respect into something much larger. Something able to drive him farther then Hate ever had, more powerful then ten of Kabuto's strongest soldier's pills. Her face, the one of the girl he had once despised so much. Just thinking about that face, the green eyes that shone with innocence, the waterfall of cascading pink hair was enough to make him run a thousand miles alone. That probably was considered love wasn't it?

He, himself had no clue how such an infatuation came to be. He had betrayed her, as well as his best friend, father figure, and his entire village just to become the way he was now. And there was no turning back, so why did he keep on stealing glances at his past, reliving old memories of her in his head once he finally had time to rest and fall asleep. Why did he keep on recalling every word the rose haired kunochi had said to him, analyzing every detail for hidden meanings, or just trying to remember the cheery sound of her voice? It had started out small, repeated memories of her and the old team seven triggered by small words, things, and images and occurring more and more often. Next, with those memories came the slight leaps of his heart, which he had thought had long since turned into a black hole. Finally he had realized, that just thinking about her egging him on was enough to urge him up in the lowest points in his life. To push him forward like nobody, and nothing ever could.

At night he dreamed about her, about being with her. Cherishing every thought, sound, and memory, hiding it away deep in his head to call on later, when he needed her the most. Normally, at night, an even lower point of despair followed the happy thoughts that he had started with, he had betrayed her, turned his back on her, treated her as something less then human. She had always been so kind, cheery, and giving and he had just been a snob. Of course, she hated him by now, and by the small chance that he could escape this hell hole she would never take him back, not ever.

Besides, he had his brother to consider. Even if she did take him back himself, and in turn her, would never be able to rest peacefully if Itachi was alive. So maybe that's why he trained this hard, hoping that one day…

The youngest Uchiha's body crashed into the stone wall of the cave, then fell hard ten feet to the ground. Pain wracked through every bone, muscle, and fiber of his being. But still he pushed himself up, thinking of her.

Thinking that once he trained hard enough he would defeat his brother,

Hoping that she would fogive him for what he had done wrong,

Dreaming of the day that he finally claimed Sakura Haruno's first kiss,

And maybe,

Just maybe,

His nightmare would turn into a happily ever after.