A/N (Don't skip): I'll be changing the rating of this series/anthology to an M, because this chapter contains mature content. It's not a full blown lemon or anything, so don't expect any graphic details. I decided to focus on the emotional side of this, because personally I find it quite strange when people write lemons where Sasuke and Sakura do all the raunchy primal stuff. I've always seen Sasuke as someone who would be more focused on his emotional attraction to Sakura rather than his physical attraction. But I'm still changing the rating, just to be safe.

I feel as though I haven't updated this in forever, but I've (finally) finished my exams now, and this chapter is much longer than the others, not to mention I had to keep re-reading and editing my own work, especially after my sister told me that the metaphor "a burrito of lies" is terrible.

If you like, please leave a comment, because they're like little pieces of chocolate to me. Enjoy xx

Sakura's fingers scrunched in the edging of her kimono sleeves, as the click of the door shutting echoed loudly behind her. The silence in the air felt so heavy, that she imagined that she would be able to taste it on her tongue, like humidity.

This was it. Her emotions had been teetering amongst the thin line between excitement and sheer anxiety, since before the wedding. Of course, the idea of it had flittered back and forth across her mind, having known that it was an inevitable aspect of their relationship. However, a childhood filled with teasing and spiteful comments had caused her self-esteem to shrivel back into a meagre sliver.

A shiver running down her spine, like an electrical current, indicated Sasuke's looming presence behind her. He was silent, unmoving for a few seconds, before Sakura nearly jumped out of her skin as his cool fingers ran along the hem of her collar. All of a sudden, his approach altered with a new sense of hesitance, most likely as he noted her erratic nerves. Expecting no less from her, he ultimately decided to continue pulling at the outer layer of her wedding kimono, until it crumpled to the ground with a soft thud.

Her heart hammered violently against her rib cage, as his cold fingers continued to trail a path of shivers and tingles across her collarbone. Unbeknownst to her, his heart was pounding just as much, if not more so than hers, as he released the breath that he didn't know he held, secretly adoring how the pink wisps of hair on the nape of her neck shifted slightly. He loved every inch of her. Every movement, every strand of blossom pink hair, every fleck of viridian in her eyes, every breath that she took; he loved everything.

"Sakura…" he murmured as softly as he could, as he placed his hands on her narrow shoulders, turning her to face him. He could only hope that his hands would remain steady, and not betray him.

Sakura's eyes darted to and fro in nervous, manic movements, as they landed on anywhere but his. Although he was glad that his anxiety was mutual, he still found it rather irritating that she couldn't even bring herself to do so much as glance at him.

"Sakura," he insisted, fingers tightening briefly around her shoulders, "Look at me."

And she did.

Albeit slowly with a trace of reluctance, but even so, she found it within herself to finally meet his gaze. And the determination he found there, the ferocity, was enough to make a shiver run along the column of his spine. He would've stopped, for her sake. He was content to wait. But the vibrant fiery tinge in the corner of her green irises, reassured him that she would be okay.

Lifting two fingers, he carefully held her chin as he awkwardly bent and pressed an inexperienced kiss to her lips. It wasn't as if they hadn't kissed before. But it was the knowledge of what they were about to do, that made him tremble to his very core. He had definitely never done that before.

Suddenly, he pulled away, brow furrowed deeply, as an unwanted thought popped into his mind.

Frowning at her new husband's reluctance to continue the kiss he started, Sakura witnessed as his expression darkened into frustration, eyes shifting in thought, clearly reflecting his inner turmoil.

Has he changed his mind? Sakura didn't want to believe it. She couldn't. But the way his features contorted into a mirror image of the cruel heartless boy she once cried for, she couldn't help but allow the thought to run through her head. The dreaded possibility, that maybe, her new husband's feet had dropped in temperature.

"Sasuke-kun?" She gingerly wove her fingers into his hair in a tender gesture of affection. "Are you okay? Is something wrong?"

Body stiffening under Sakura's touch, his eyes shifted to hers, and she quickly licked her lips in apprehension.

He was silent for a moment, the only noise in his bedroom, being their erratic exhaling of breath, and the slight rustle of Sakura's fingertips in Sasuke's soft hair. He shifted his weight to his other foot, the floorboard beneath him groaning in response. Although his eyes were practically piercing hers, in the direct way in which he looked at her, she could tell that he was nervous. Allowing some of her pale green chakra to seep through her fingertips into his body, she felt his midnight blue chakra spiking dangerously, flinching away from where hers made contact.

"Sakura?"

She squeezed her fingers gently in his hair, "Mm?"

"You…" His voice caught in his throat, as he finally broke their eye contact. When he spoke next, his voice shook with the vulnerability that he had always clouded behind his mask of pride. He despised the thought of allowing her to see that weak, terrified boy inside him, but he couldn't stop the mask from slipping to the side a little, revealing to her the full extent of his insecurity.

"You did wait for me, didn't you?"

Sakura's eyes widened at what he seemed to be insinuating. He was afraid? He was afraid that she would give up something so intimate and precious, to someone other than him? Did he not know her by now? Could he not feel her nervous heart racing beneath her skin?

The edges of her lips curved into a reassuring smile, "As if I'd even consider giving myself away to anyone else."

With warmth, she watched as something – a burden – lifted from behind his expression and his eyes, once dark and brooding, relaxed into sincere relief. Once again, he tilted her chin to capture her lips with a tenderness that she never thought he would ever be capable of. Without breaking their kiss, Sasuke's fingers slowly untied her remaining layers, prying them off, and allowing them to tumble to the floor one by one.

Sakura felt her skin prickle with cold before she became fully aware of her indecency. Blushing scarlet, she pulled away from Sasuke's kiss and draped her arms across herself, in hope of retaining at least a shred of dignity.

Ignoring the sight before him, Sasuke immediately stepped forward. "I'm sorry." The words rushed out of his mouth hastily, "I shouldn't have-"

"It's okay" she interrupted, eyes trained on his feet, "I was just surprised…" Her eyes lowered guiltily, before she added in a quiet voice "and…well, I'm not exactly spectacular to look at."

His lips curved into a smirk, as he stepped forward once more, using two fingers from his prosthetic hand to brush away the pink locks that obstructed his vision of her face.

"As if I care about that."

Sakura's head snapped up, pink little brows furrowed in confusion. She had no idea what he meant by those words. Did that mean that he wasn't attracted to her? He doesn't actually love her? He simply played along until the wedding, In order to restore his clan? Marrying her first and only love was a mistake? But as soon as the thoughts flooded her head, they were easily dismissed into the recesses of her brain, as she became aware of Sasuke's hands slowly, and with little force possible, attempting to pry her hand away from her breasts.

Her instant reaction was to resist his gentle tugs and press her arm further into her skin, much to Sasuke's displeasure.

"Sakura, please…" he mumbled, slight annoyance in his tone "I know you're nervous and all, but how do you expect to do this when I can't even look at you?"

She shook her head adamantly "Ino, Hinata, Tsunade-shishou…I'm tiny in comparison. You'll be disappointed-"

"I don't want to see, or even think about your best friend, the Dobe's wife, or the sixty year old ex-hokage right now, Sakura!" As much as he loved the fact that she wanted to satisfy him, he was getting a little irritated by how much she doubted his acceptance of her. It was insulting, to be frank, that his wife thought that he would much prefer a sixty year old woman over her.

Taking a deep breath, he continued exasperated, "I didn't marry Ino, Hinata or Tsunade, did I? I told you…" He hesitated, "I told you I love you, didn't I?"

Told.

That was the key word that sent a new shiver across her skin. It did nothing to soothe her frazzled nerves and insecurities. Did he not love her? Did you lie to me this entire time, Sasuke-kun? She thought, in a heart-shattering second.

Sakura gulped, his words sinking in, before she allowed her arms to fall away until she was completely exposed. He could see everything; her imperfections, flaws, asymmetries, and the thought made her wince. The possibility that his love could be a mask of lies only worsened the uncomfortable feeling in the pit of her stomach.

However, those feeling melted away, as she was scooped up into a pair of strong arms and thoroughly drenched with a monsoon of kisses.

Sakura's mind drifted on the fringes of consciousness, until a light pressure sliding along the contour of her eyebrow lured her away from the foggy void. Eyes still closed and mumbling almost inaudibly about insects crawling on her face, she shook her head, expecting to have thrown off the annoying little bug.

What she didn't expect was the deep snicker that followed.

Her eyes snapped open, as her blurry morning vision came to focus on the, amused mismatched eyes of her new husband. When she realised that the insect crawling across her eyebrow was in fact Sasuke, who had been staring at her sleeping face, a red stain slowly spread across her cheeks. The night previous, she had hoped to wake earlier than him, in order to calm her mind after their recent actions.

Oh… she gasped mentally, as vibrant memories of the night before hit her like a sack of flour. His lips kissing everywhere they fell. His hands caressing and touching places that her twelve year old self never believed that they would touch. Rough fingers exploring and tracing the contours of her body.

She remembered, with wide green eyes, how he had kissed her breasts with such raw tenderness and love that her worries dissipated into nothingness. The tips of her fingernails as they glided across the curve of his spine, when he hovered over her body, and asked her if she was ready. It didn't hurt, like Ino said it would, but instead she felt filled by him, connected with him in such an intimate way.

And she recalled how he kept his face a mere couple of inches from hers, as he rolled his hips against her calmly, slowly, in an almost lazy fashion. Yet, she had noted that he showed no signs of disinterest, as he used one hand to pull her leg up and around his waist, gesturing to her to repeat the action with the other. He had leant his weight on his left prosthetic arm, as so not to crush her tiny frame beneath him, wrapping his right around the curve of her head, his thumb lightly stroking the pink tufts of her hairline. Their chakra, leafy green and midnight blue fusing and interlacing where they released it from their fingertips.

His black hair had tickled her skin, as his forehead rested against hers. Erratic gasps of his warm breath had brushed her skin, their breaths mingling, as he determinedly locked his eyes onto hers throughout, occasionally closing them in intense pleasure. There had been periods of time, when his black iris had bled into blood red, three tomoes swivelling in a haunting pattern, and she had wondered whether it was a voluntary activation, or whether he had just simply lost control.

Nobody else, nowhere else, nothing else had existed except him, and their private little world in the small slither of a gap between their eyes and lips.

She felt as though he had tried his hardest to convey his emotions, even if it was clear that he was as terrified as she was.

"Sakura, you're like a tomato."

Sasuke's low rumble of a voice, slightly hoarse from sleep, snapped her back to the present.

He stared down at her, seemingly entertained by the look of shock that adorned her features. Out of utter embarrassment, she sunk down under the shelter of the duvet, hiding beneath the sheets. Clearly, he knew what she had been reminiscing that had caused her to blush madly, and she wondered what her expression had looked like to him at the time.

Arm draped languidly across the large lump in the duvet, that was Sakura, he added, smirking, "I like tomatoes."

"I'm not a tomato, Sasuke-kun." The Sakura-lump muttered groggily.

He shrugged, "Aa. I know that." Eyes shifting away from her covered form, he added "You're much better."

Glancing back to the Sakura-lump, he jumped slightly, when his gaze was met with a pair of bright jade eyes peeking out from under the covers, staring adamantly at him. He gulped apprehensively as he watched her finally shift up and out of the depths of the duvet, having not yet gotten used to saying such embarrassing things.

It was clear that something was troubling her, when she seemed almost reluctant to lie closer to him. As someone whom held the upmost dedication to him throughout their childhood, he knew that something must be plaguing her mind, if she was hesitant to even so much as face him.

The silence lingered like a frost, until Sakura's voice sliced it cleanly.

"Sasuke-kun?" she mumbled, awkwardly.

He turned his head to her, "Hn."

She fidgeted with her fingers, in a clear display of anxiety. "Last night, I told you that I wasn't anything special to look at. Do you remember?"

He nodded briefly, with another added "Hn."

"So you remember saying that you don't care about any of that?" Her expression crumpled, and her mouth slid into a frown; an obvious display of distress.

Watching her from the corner of his eye, he replied simply, "I don't."

Somehow, if it were possible, her frown deepened, lips pressed together uncomfortably. Even though the night before, he had acted so romantically, so gently with her, she couldn't dispel the nagging voice that told her that he simply wasn't attracted to her. Naturally, it wasn't much of a surprise. After all, he had never really been interested in girls in general, let alone her. However, no matter how unsurprising the revelation was, she couldn't prevent the pang of pain reverberating in her chest.

A deep, calming breath later, she continued, failing to conceal the distraught in her voice "So you're not attracted to me at all? If you wanted to restore your clan, then all you had to do was just tell me instead of leading me into a loveless marriage."

Sasuke sat up a little, frowning at her words. What the hell is she talking about? He was perfectly aware of how unable he was at conveying his feelings, but had she not noticed his efforts last night? Didn't she see his sharingan? Or, maybe she did, except she misunderstood his intentions. She must've missed the underlying message beneath his words, much to his dismay, as now he had to face the seemingly impossible task of explaining his feelings through words instead of actions. To put it simply, he was not a man of words.

"Sakura." he began, trying not to choke over his words. "When I said that, what I meant was that I didn't want you as my wife because of physical appearance. It's insulting that you think that I'm that shallow."

He swallowed, as Sakura finally turned to him, staring at him as if expecting words that he didn't think he could bring himself to say.

"I came to feel this way, because you're Sakura." Lifting his right arm, he brushed his fingers along the right side of her sternum, exactly where her heart was, and felt the quickening pulse echo through his fingertips. She was so alive. "I'm not saying that I don't find you…physically attractive, because I'd be lying. But it's not the reason why I feel like this."

Sakura's deep blush gradually began to return, and her heart raced beneath his fingers. "So…you love me because I'm me. Because I'm Haruno Sakura."

He nodded once, the apples of his cheeks tinged slightly with pale pink "Aa. Because you're Uchiha Sakura.

Her lips parted once she realised her mistake, only to curve into a shy smile at the unfamiliar sound of her new name. It was a wonderful feeling, knowing that Sasuke fell in love with her because of who she was as a person, rather than what she looked like. She could be any size, shape, or form, and he'd still love her for being Sakura. Except there one more question that lingered in her mind.

"Sasuke-kun, you should know that your sharingan kept activating last night."

His face turned away from her, as he decided that deep, careful breaths would be the best course of action to avoid the heat spreading across his cheeks. It was bad enough that he was forced to actually go so far as to explain his feelings for her, but he wasn't ready to reveal this. However, if she asked, he couldn't exactly lie to her. He had spent years closing himself away from her touch, her affections, ultimately causing her so much pain. It would be best if he just lay out a brief explanation, and allowed her to come to the correct conclusions.

"Aa. I know it did.", he answered, staring straight ahead at the wall.

Her pink brows furrowed in confusion. "So you were in control of your sharingan?"

He gulped, with a single nod.

Perplexed jade eyes ran over his expression searchingly, "So why…?

After hesitating for a second, he began, hoping that she didn't pick up on the sheer embarrassment in his voice. "A sharingan user copies techniques just by simply looking at them. This is because everything that is seen through the sharingan, is immediately and permanently stored in the memory system."

She looked away, slightly befuddled by the vague information.

"Oh…Oh!" she gasped suddenly. Realisation crashed down on her, as his words finally clicked into place. He purposely activated his sharingan. Not to threaten her, or to copy techniques, or examine her chakra flow, but to embed the memories of her in his brain. He wanted to remember their first night forever.

Heart swelling and soaring, she shifted her hand to lace her dainty fingers through his. He seemed so large in comparison to her, and she was surprised that he hadn't crushed her flat when he collapsed onto her in exhaustion the night before.

"Sasuke-kun?" She mused, the fingers of one hand tilting his chin toward her.

"Hn?"

Slowly, she leaned toward him, noting how his breath caught in surprise when she lightly pressed a kiss on the tip of his nose.

"I'm really happy." She whispered, pressing her forehead against his.

Sasuke's lips arched into a small, grateful smile, "Me too."