Déjà Vu

Chapter Two: Déjà Senti

Sasuke's strong, well-bred features curved into a smirk when he felt the air quiver as he drew his kusanagi. He was going to win this fight. Sakura was going to get this stupid idea out of her head, here and now.

Sakura's fine, delicate features smoothed placidly as she hefted her battleaxe. The earth around her quaked as she let the butt of the heavy blade dig into the dirt at her feet. Sasuke wasn't going to stop her, she was leaving.

Nimble fingers freed the guard from the sharp edge, allowing the pink-stained leather to fall to the ground. As she lifted the massive axe again, Sakura slammed her foot calmly into the earth, resulting in an eruption of hard packed soil and rock to spring up. Hopping up to stand atop her man-made hill, the pinkette called, "Come and get me."

The dark haired man didn't hesitate. In an instant, he was charging up the small mountain, only to be driven back by a single wide sweep of Sakura's blade. Her bell-like laughter rang down to his ears and with another swipe at the seal at her feet, she released a rain of tiny nails. The metal spikes landed on the slope of the earthen-works she'd created, making them treacherous. She smiled airily and jibed, "Makibishi, they're the saving grace of med-nin. Just a few of these and I've got myself a fortress."

Sasuke growled under his breath. He'd never thought much of the small weapons before, but they were greatly limiting his options now. His eyes narrowed. Sakura had always been very intelligent and now she had learned to integrate it into her fighting style. She'd gotten much stronger than he'd given her credit for.

Watching as her former teammate sized up his challenge, Sakura frantically planned ahead. She'd done as Tsunade had thought her: she'd used her strengths to her advantage and gained the highground. Rather or not she could hold it remained to be seen.

A few rapid handsigns and a smear of blood on the seal tattoo on his wrist and Sasuke was grasping a fumma shuriken. If he couldn't engage her in hand to hand combat, he'd drive her off her position with a ranged attack. Rotating his wrist vigorously, he got the circular weapon up to speed and released it with a chakra charge.

Sakura just sighed and swung her axe in a lazy arc, crippling the windmill shurikan in a screech of twisting metal. Propping her battleaxe onto a chunk of rock and leaning casually onto it, she rolled her eyes skyward and sang, "That's not gonna work, Sasuke. Ready to just let me leave, yet?"

A darkly amused voice chuckled into her ear, "No."

She hardly had time to body flicker away from his slashing kusanagi and mutter a curse as the blade bit into her trailing sleeve. Sakura mentally berrated herself as she reviewed the seals he'd used to call his fuuma shurikan. How had she not noticed the extra hand signs? A simple substitution jutsu and he'd allowed the double to launch the weapon while he picked his way up her hill from behind. It was so simple that she'd never expected it.

Following closely behind her, Sasuke continued his barrage of slashes, jabs and sweeps. The flustered pinkette parried and danced back, blocking what she could with her axe and forearm guards. Channeling a burst of chakra into her legs, Sakura jumped clear of his reach and perched on a cherry blossom bough. As she tossed the monstrous battleaxe onto her back by its sling, she grabbed a smaller seal from a holster beneath her pseudo-kimono. Quickly activating the seal, she drew twin kodachi and sprang from the branch just in time to avoid a fireball that incinerated the entire tree only seconds later.

Alighting onto the grass a little ways behind the Uchiha, Sakura spun the lightly curved blades in her hands simultaneously and got herself accustomed to their weight. The weapons had been a gift from Tenten in celebration of Sakura being accepted into ANBU as a special tactics med-nin. She couldn't restrain the grin spreading across her face at the sight of the pretty pink ribbon wrapped around the hilt and the elaborate blooms etched into the blade. The weapons mistress had great taste.

Sasuke had turned and was charging her, kusanagi in hand. Narrowing her bottle green gaze, Sakura noted that Sasuke had a very limited supply of weaponry. He had come from his home, unprepared, while she had been armed to the teeth in anticipation of leaving. Another advantage to use. She could afford to keep throwing steel his way until he was forced to yield. A grim look fell across her face as she wondered just how long that would take.

Once he was in range, Sasuke began to swing and Sakura had to focus on the fight at hand. In a flurry of metal and silk, the pinkette wheeled her arms madly in defense and held her position. Crimson-streaked onyx eyes barreled back at her as he leaped back, only to send a tight formation of three shuriken her way. Sakura recognized the style and spun one blade to deflect the small windmills while flashing the other behind her back to guard against the katana true Sasuke was striking at her with. Pirouetting, she held the kodachi twin horizontally and slashed out from her center of gravity, forming a cyclone of wind-based jutsu and flashing steel. The multiple kage buushin Sasuke had created were ripped apart.

Stunned, Sasuke was blown back, dropping his kusanagi to brace himself against the sharp gusts. Singed sakura blossoms whipped past him on the violent breeze, he watched with watering eyes as Sakura emerged from the maelstrom like an angry goddess. Her long pink locks were escaping her golden pins and the flowing sleeves and half train of her pseudo-kimono flowed around her like a silken cloud. She was amazing. He had no idea that she'd mastered wind elemental jutsu.

Flipping her hands quickly through a series of signs, Sasuke barely had time to take up his katana as Sakura descended on him. As she flipped down from above, diving straight for him, she freed the axe again from her back and cleaved it down onto her opponent. When he dodged, she allowed the massive weapon to sink almost half way into the earth, jackknifing her body from her headlong position to land agilely on the hilt of the axe. Drawing the kodachi from her elaborate obi, she gripped one, charging it with chakra and chucked it with monstrous strength at Sasuke's foot.

Black eyes widened as the thin blade rocketed toward him too fast for him to avoid, driving through his nin-sandal at the toe and pinning his left foot to the ground. As the pearly pink ribbon swirled at the hilt with the shock of the kodachi's impact, Sakura flung herself from her perch and onto her opponent once more. This time when she reached the maximum height of her leap, she drew back her left sleeve to reveal a senbon launcher. Grasping the trigger-string, she pulled it back and released. Five poisoned needles shot forth, only three finding their marks in Sasuke's left arm. The senbon sank in at the wrist, inner elbow and collarbone.

The Uchiha muttered a low curse as he felt his left arm, from his fingertips to his pectoral, go instantly numb. Utilizing his remaining mobility, he overextended his body backward, just barely grasping the hilt of his wind-thrown kusanagi. As he jerked the long blade free, he brought if forth just in time to see his former lover press two fingers to her lips in a serpent seal as her weight impacted his body. For a moment, everything was still.

As time sped back up, Sasuke looked down to the kunoichi collapsed against him. A spine-tingling gurgle rose from the pinkette's lips and Sasuke's adrenaline pumped body took a moment to realize just what was happening. Blood was pouring from the corner of Sakura's lips as she stared wide-eyed at him.

Something cold and hard dropped into Sasuke's gut as he looked down at the blade in his hand. The cold steel was channeling warm life-blood from where it impaled Sakura's shoulder. He'd hit a major artery. No no no no no NO! Her green eyes were glassing over now as she choked, coughing as more red fluid flowed from her mouth, staining her teeth a ghastly pink. Tears were pooling in her eyes now, as she stared unblinkingly at him.

Pulling the blade free, he flung it aside carelessly as he pressed both hands against the wound. His usually stoic tone was desperate as he half-yelled, "Heal yourself."

When she didn't respond, he pushed his hands more firmly against her shoulder and neck. "Sakura. Heal yourself NOW! This isn't fucking funny."

Sakura just smiled strangely and tried to pull herself away from him. He didn't get the chance to say anything further as a precise strike at the pressure point in his neck knocked him out instantly.

Sakura watched with grim satisfaction as Sasuke fell to her Genjutsu. The simple Hell Viewing Technique had worked perfectly. She had utilized her precision chakra control to drag the process out, using a henge to disguise the tell-tale swirling leaves as cherry blossoms. At the last moment, she'd formed the final seal: the serpent. The Uchiha never knew that the illusion hit him. As far as he was concerned, whatever he was seeing was reality.

She frowned as she recalled the terrified look in her former lover's eyes as she rendered him unconscious. Just what had he seen?

Shrugging, she decided she'd never know unless he someday decided to tell her. Sakura refocused on the task at hand. She needed to gather her arsenal and get out of Konoha. The sedatives that she'd dosed him with via the senbon would last about three days. Sakura wanted to be well into another Country by then. As she slipped the edge guard back onto her battleaxe and resealed it, she reflected on her stipulation. Perhaps now Sasuke would understand what it felt like to be promised one thing only to be denied it in the same breath.

Crushing the sympathy and regret welling in her heart viciously, Sakura tugged her kodachi from the dirt and sealed them once more as well. Once her weapons were secured and stored again, she cast one last glance to the still body on The Bench. History was repeating, and now it was her turn.

Sakura Haruno walked through the gates of Konoha without looking back.

Tsunade was half buzzed and bored when Sasuke woke screaming three days later. The busty blonde watched with a lackadaisical expression as the last Uchiha fought the restraints on his arms and legs with near abandon. His calls were beginning to give her a headache.

Rolling her eyes, she stood and surged a bit of her chakra into the struggling man's chest, forcibly calming him. "She's alive, you idiot."

Black eyes flickered back and forth rapidly, absorbing his surroundings. In a raspy voice, he demanded, "Where is she? Who healed her? Who knocked me out?"

A belly-laugh tumbled from the tipsy Sannin. "THE Sasuke Uchiha: tricked by a D-level Genjutsu! I never thought I'd see the day!...The henge on the leaves was a stroke of genius though, I'll give her that. She was an excellent student. Always so eager to learn and grow..."

An angry snarl ripped from the bound man. "Who saw the fight and let her leave?"

Snorting, Tsunade replied, "Naruto of course. You didn't think he'd let you really stop her, did you? The fool just hoped maybe you'd be able to 'talk it out' or some nonsense."

Sasuke's efforts to free himself doubled. "Let me up. Now."

The elderly woman just laughed outright again and said, "Not before you and I have a little talk."

"Absolutely not. I'm going to find Sakura--"

"What? So you can drag her back here by the hair and make her your wifey?," Tsunade took a deep chug of the sake bottle in her hand, "I don't think so, Caveman. You had your shot. You fucked that up for yourself."

His eyes bled red as he pooled his chakra for a last ditch attempt to break the bonds. As his fists began to glow blue, he rasped, "You have no fucking idea what you're talking about."

With another slug of alcohol, the Sannin giggled and pointed at the furious man. "Oh! But I do! I was there the night everything happened, Sasuke. I was the one who held her while she sobbed her gods-damned eyes out."

"SHUT UP!" As Sasuke reared up and at the drunken blonde, a loud electrical zap was heard and he fell back stiff and frozen.

Tapping the restraints with the bottom of her bottle, Tsunade muttered, "Those cuffs are brilliant. Designed to hold non-compliant elite-nin. Sakura was the one who thought them up."

She sighed as she gazed out the window at the opposite side of the room. "You really don't deserve her, you know."

Only the sound of his heavy, furious breathing answered her. So she continued, "But she loves you. So much..."

Breathing deeply through her nose, Tsunade paced closer to hover directly over Sasuke as she said, "She figured out how to fix her problem. It took her almost seven months of constant study, experimentation and procedures...but, she did it."

Red-streaked eyes widened and the muscles of his face strained as the tried to speak, but the cuffs' effects were still hindering him.

"If you loved her, you never would have let her leave you that night. She's already so self-sacrificing, but...walking away from you was the hardest decision she ever made. I was afraid she'd just slip away. After all that time she chased after you, you were finally together and..." A hateful expression stole over the old woman's face. "She just wanted to curl up and die. She felt like such a failure. And you did nothing to stop her, never said a word--"

As Tsunade's voice spiralled in his mind, Sasuke was overwhelmed with memories of the night that had turned his world upside down.

It was three days before Christmas. Sasuke remembered because Sakura had insisted that they put up a little evergreen tree in what she called the 'family room' of the Compound. (His parents had always just called it the parlor, but he liked her term so much better.) Multicolored lights were strung from every branch of the little pine until it fairly drooped from the weight of all its adornments lain on it at the pinkette's enthusiastic hands. Any other time he would have called it gaudy, but the way it lit up the dark house when she went home at night made him sit and stare rather than scorn it.

She was assigned an urgent mission in Cloud that day. It should have been Tenten's assignment, but the weapons mistress had been injured in a failed assassination mission and was bed-ridden. Sakura went in her stead.

Neji was off that night, not used to the med-nin's defensive style of combat. He was so attuned to Tenten's offensive preferences that he had let a enemy-nin slip past him, sure that Tenten would take care of it. Only it was not Tenten paired off with him that night, it was Sakura.

The error had near fatal consequences.

Sakura had been in the middle of healing Hinata when the man bore down on them. She took the blow for the two months pregnant kunoichi, catching the kunai low in her belly.

Any other time, any other day and the med-nin could have healed it in an instant. But she had exhausted her chakra on the Hyuuga heiress, and in assuring her that her fetus was fine after a viscous kick.

Sakura had fallen moments later and was carried back to Konoha by a shame-faced Neji and a sobbing Hinata. By the time Tsunade had reached her protege the damage was done. Sakura was barren.

Sasuke could still remember the sound of her heart-wrenching sobs after her sensei delivered the news. He had arrived in time to hear from a visibly shaking Naruto who had been the cause of the mistake. He had disappeared in a blur of pain and anger.

Neji was admitted thirty minutes later and treated for excessive concussive injury. The Hyuuga didn't wake for two weeks...and when he did, he refused to name the culprit.

Sakura knew what Sasuke had to say, to do when he returned...but couldn't bring himself to voice or act out. So she cleared the room and asked for Sasuke alone. When he entered the room she explained slowly, haltingly what both of them already knew.

If she was barren, she couldn't carry on the Uchiha Clan with him. They couldn't marry. Tears had streamed in a neverending torrent down her bloodless cheeks as she told him that she no longer wanted to be with him, that she understood. The sound of her hiccups and sobs interspersed in the speech made him leave before he could break down on the spot. Before he could rip apart the first thing he got his hands on. Because he just didn't want to revive the Uchiha clan anymore if it meant betraying her.

So instead he flash stepped out of the ward, the hospital, back to the Uchiha District where he proceeded to decimate the nursery he had been preparing as a surprise for Sakura. He had planned to reveal it to her as her Christmas gift...to propose the same time. (He remembered his beaming mother telling him as a child that it was how his father had proposed.) The once cheery walls were stripped to the studs and the bassinet lay shattered on the deck outside, snow slowly accumulating on it. Toys and tiny articles of clothing sprawled hap-hazard throughout the devestation. Naruto and Kakashi had contributed plushies and blankets until the room was perfect, until she would have loved it...Sasuke couldn't stand to look at it any longer.

He lay, half-drunk with his hands bleeding on the floor in the parlor, staring at the sad little tree that she had put together for their home. The home that could no longer exist.

When he refocused on the present, the cuffs on his arms and legs had been removed and Tsunade was no where to be seen. Sasuke didn't bother to use the door as he escaped through the window, rushing to the Uchiha Complex, gathering clothing, scrolls and armaments. As he turned to leave, he paused, stalking to his bedroom and withdrawing a small box from the top drawer of his dresser. Turning the container over in his palm, he hefted it once and tucked it into his pack. Without another moment's hesitation, he sped to the Hokage's office. He was going after Sakura. They had tortured themselves long enough.

End Chapter Two: Déjà Senti

Chapter Three: Déjà visité coming soon

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