crawls out of the darkness with a new chapter in hand: I'm still alive...

It was in the middle of the night as a shadow rushed over the roofs of the sleeping village. The shadow had a goal and one goal only. Moonlight made his silver hair glow in an eerily way. Then he landed in front of a nondescript door. He took a deep breath and tried to control his rage. Then he raised his gloved hand and knocked short but firm on the wood. And then he waited. He listened as faint steps were nearing the door. As the door slowly creaked open he closed his eyes and forced his body to stay calm.

"Kakashi..." his voice slightly slurred from sleep.

His eyes snapped open and before Sasuke could react, his fist was flying towards his face and connected with a satisfying crunch. Sasuke tumbled to the floor and pressed his hand to his bleeding nose. Angry sharingan eyes glared up at him but he didn't give two shits.

"Ah...it seems my hand slipped" he said and his eyes crinkled in his famous smile. Then he got serious.

"You should stop hurting her. You did that already enough. She didn't judge you when you went with Orochimaru. So don't judge her when you don't know her story."

With that he left in a cloud of smoke. He hadn't planned on hitting Sasuke, really. He had actually tried to refrain from hitting him in his stupid face. But when he had opened his eyes and looked at his arrogant face he saw Sakura again and all the pain in her beautiful jade eyes and his body had just reacted. Well, now that he did hit him he could at least admit to himself that it had felt damn good.

Of course he knew that he helped Sasuke with what he had said. But he did it for Sakura, to make her happy. Besides, he knew that Sakura felt attracted to him. Her behavior when she came back and met him at the cenotaph was more than enough. And he was pleased that she finally noticed him as a man. So now he had a chance to win her heart. After all, he was the legendary copy cat ninja who mastered over a thousand jutsus. Even if he had lost his sharingan, he still had his body and those justus stored up in his brain.

When she opened her eyes she was met with the warm light of the morning sun. A small smile graced her lips and she stretched her body thoroughly. Mid-stretch she froze. She didn't remember going to bed! Shit! She had fallen asleep while crying in Kakashis arms! She blushed heavily and felt utterly embarrassed. She hadn't planned on crying in front of Kakashi, it just so happened that she felt safe around him. And after everything that happened she trusted him indefinitely. She buried her face in her pillow and groaned. Well done Sakura, way to go and show how mature you've become.

With a last sigh she slipped out of bed and went into her bathroom to take a long and hot shower. After finishing her shower she wrapped her body in a towel and strolled back into her room only to groan again. She had to go shopping with Ino, she had no clothes that she could wear. Determined she slipped on her ANBU clothes without the telling armor and tied her hair in a high ponytail and wrapped her bangs with the green cord each, then she grasped her hitai-ate and tied it like she used to on top of her hair. Satisfied she strolled out of her apartment and entered the busy streets of Konoha.

People seemed to be shocked when they saw her until they recognized her pink hair and then greeted her with happy smiles. She was glad that some things hadn't changed. After the war she was seen with more awe in the eyes of the Konoha people, even in the eyes of most of the shinobi. She was proud to finally be recognized as someone strong that could walk next to her teammates.

Her musings came to a stop when she reached the yamanaka flowershop. A small smile brightened her features and with anticipation running through her veins she walked through the glass doors and was met with a loud squeal and then she was crushed in a bone breaking hug.

"Forehead! You're back! And damn you look good, but don't you think that your clothing is a little too obvious a give away?"

She rolled her eyes and returned the hug. "Nice to see you too, Pig. And actually that's why I came here. I thought maybe you wanted to go shopping." As soon as those words left her mouth Ino bounced back and looked at her with sparkling eyes. Then she got rid of her apron and threw it over her shoulder while she dragged Sakura with her out of the shop.

"Mom! I'm going out with Sakura! I will take the afternoon shift!" And with that the two young women entered the busy strong of people in search of a store with nice shinobi gear.

"Ahh! Look there are nice things and they are even in red!" Ino gushed. Sakura went stiff.

"Nothing red." She snapped. Inos aqua eyes locked with hers and she saw the confusion in them.

"I don't want to wear anything red anymore. It reminds me too much of blood and..." she didn't have to say more, Ino understood.

In the end they settled on long tight black spandex with black sandals. With it they agreed a mesh shirt would be nice and on top a beautiful black haori with an emerald colored tie. Sakura bought several versions of this set and both of them left the shop happily.

"So… tell me, how have you been those four years."

"I am not going to lie, it was hard. Especially in the beginning. The other nations were beautiful and the peace is really nice and all. But… there were dark times and I questioned myself. A lot." Her eyes grew somber and Ino watched her friend worriedly. She had noticed the changes in her best friend. She seemed calmer and more confident, but at the same time she seemed more distant and a little difficult to reach.

"You know…it's strange. All the time I've been away I did miss you but I never felt that free before. And I thought I had done the right thing, at least until Sasuke..."

Ino perked up and glanced curiously at Sakura. "Why, what did he do?"

"He was angry and couldn't understand why I had to do this and said some mean things, but I am sure he didn't really meant what he said."

To Sakuras surprise Ino seemed to get really angry at the mention of the Uchiha.

"Of course he turned angry! Because for once you did something for yourself and not for this self righteous prick!"

Sakura stared at Ino in disbelief. "Wow, what happened to you? I thought you were head and tails for him" she teased gently.

Ino just huffed and crossed her arms in front of her breasts.

"That was ages ago. And no, I can't understand how I ever imagined that he would be great to be with. We all thought that he would change now that he is back. But he is as arrogant as ever. Only Naruto seems to get along with him. Not even Kakashi likes him anymore and he was his favorite after all, so yeah."

Sakura could do nothing but stare at the blonde. She hadn't thought that Sasuke would stay an ass. To be honest she had hoped that he would turn back into the nice boy he once had been.

"Sakura."

"Talk of the devil" Ino scuffed, "all right Sakura, I have to go. Let's meet up for lunch some time soon!" With that the blonde disappeared in the crowd around them. Slowly, she turned around, her expression guarded until she caught sight of Sasukes face.

"What happened to you!?" She gasped and hurried to his side. His nose was swollen and on his left cheek was a dark blue bruise and even his lip was split open.

"That's none of your business. Can you heal it" he demanded more than asked. She frowned in disapproval and stared him down. But he did not butch.

"Fine, I will heal you, but only if you carry my bags back to my apartment." She smirked at him because she knew he had no other choice. As if he would trust another medic with his face now that she was back. And he seemed to know that as well. His lips turned down in disapproval but he remained quiet and instead grabbed her bags from her hands and headed towards her apartment.

"Why didn't you come to me right after it happened?" she chastised and shot an annoyed look his way.

"Because I didn't want to disturb you."

"Why would you have disturbed me?" She fished for more information and they both knew it. He said nothing and Sakura knew that she wouldn't get more out of him. She sighed and skipped up the stairs to her door and after turning the key pushed it open so Sasuke could enter. He let the bags drop right next to his shoes.

"You couldn't have carried them to my couch, really!" she grumbled and snatched them up again. She shot him a scalding glance as she went to her bedroom while he settled comfortably into her couch cushions.

When she came back she just stood there and examined him for a while. He was tense, more so than normal. His nose was crooked and she knew she had to set it right and that it would hurt. She could actually lessen the pain but that would depend on how he was going to behave.

"Are you going to heal me now or what" he snapped impatiently. Her eyes narrowed as she just crossed her arms in front of her chest.

"You really think that I will just forget what a fucking prick you were to me since I cam back and heal your stupid nose? Hell no!" She hissed and watched as he recoiled and stared at her in shock. Enjoying his stupidity she stalked towards him like a predator would towards its prey.

"Make no mistake, Sasuke. I may love you, but I am not that lovesick girl I once was. You think you are the only one who went through pain? Well, newsflash, the war broke us all in some way, we feel pain. So if you want your nose healed fast and good you have a lot of apologizing to do, so I suggest you get on with that."

When she was done, she stood right in front of him, staring him down.

He was shocked, to say the least. This was the Sakura every one spoke of and he had never been privy to see. She was strong and amazing. He knew he had to apologize, even before she had started scolding him. But now it felt as if he had no other choice. He knew he couldn't go to the hospital, they would ask questions he wasn't ready to answer. After all, he had deserved what Kakashi had delivered him.

Sighing he let his head fall and gathered all the courage he got and reached for one of her hands.

"Sakura..." he started and coughed, "I know that how I have been treating you was wrong and I am truly sorry. It's just..."

"Just what?" Her voice was soft.

"I don't understand you. Why you would have wanted to do something like that."

He lifted his head and met her sad emerald eyes. She let go of his hand and cupped his cheek gently.

"You stupid Uchiha. And you couldn't have asked me that instead of treating my like shit?" She whispered.

He closed his eyes remorsefully. Then he felt her cooling chakra invade his system and the pulsing in his nose slowly subsided until the pain was gone at last. When he opened his eyes again he could still see the sadness in their green depth.

Gently he tugged her forwards and just like her, cupped her cheek. He observed as the sadness was overshadowed with apprehension.

"I am truly sorry" he breathed before he pressed his lips softly against hers.

She was happy that he finally recognized her and even kissed her. Finally everything seemed to fall into place. But somehow the place didn't feel right anymore.

Yes I have not abandoned this story. I never would. And I am soooo sorry for not updating anything for this long. My depression had been acting up again and there were days where I couldn't even leave my bed and yeah, it's been hard for a lot of months and then somehow I came up with the ultimate 'stress-plan'. Yep, it is exactly what it sounds like. As university started again I made a plan aka my courses are layed in a way that I barely have time and the free time I have is used learning and then I started working parttime which means even lesser time and well, what should I say. My stress-plan is working pretty good, maybe too good.

But today I had time and I was writing on another story that I will start posting here once I finished this one. At this note, I changed a few things and plan to keep them this way. I will go back and change the other chapters so it will fit. Nothing major really just small deatils. Also, this won't go on for much longer, maybe to 20 chapters, I haven't decided yet. It's just that I don't really feel this story anymore. But I will finish it.

So, if you are still with me, some reviews would be really nice to keep me going, but no pressure. Also, I have actually started three other stories parallel which will come here shortly, everything darker than the stuff before.

So, I hope you all are doing fine. The next chapter will come within the year, that much I can promise. *ducks all the stuff thrown my way*

Raven