Author's Note: I actually didn't mean to post another chapter so soon, but I decided to go ahead and add this one as well. Huge hugs and SasuSaku love to my reviewers: Laura-chan, Tishni, avenged, cluelessninja65 and charryblossom67. And Laura-chan, I'm a HUGE fan of your works, so having you comment something of mine made me feel WONDERFUL. XD Anyway, enough babbling... on to the story!

Title: His Wish

Rating: PG

Warnings: None, really.

Summary: It's Sasuke's birthday and he's loathing it.

Birthdays.

Sasuke Uchiha hated them with a passion; every year since he was three, a party had been thrown…first, by his family, while they still drew breath. And then later, by his fan girls, who hoped to win his affection through the price or size of the gift they bought him. This seemed a selfish thing to him, especially when one of them ended up buying him a pink frizzy coat for his eleventh birthday.

Then, while he was gone from the Hidden Leaf Village, training with Orochimaru, the presents went away. He found himself missing them…not the big bean-bag chairs, or the "Will you marry me?" cards, or the scarves. No, he found himself missing the modest little gifts his greatest fan-girl gave him.

She was a tough one, Sakura Haruno. Though she always pledged her undying love to him through words, in materials, it was quite the opposite. A new clock one year, since he had mentioned his old one had broken down. A book on better Chakra control, to aide him in his growth towards power, the next. And a bottle of cologne the year after that. He had to admit, hers were among the few items he received that did not go straight to the dumpster. Not to mention, something inside of him lit up whenever she realized he had arrived on time by using the new alarm device, that he had read the twenty-fifth page in that book and learned a new technique, or that he smelled just like that fragrance she had purchased with her own hard-earned money.

And so it was that, after he became Orochimaru's pupil, a little part of him died without the constant input of inanimate support she gave him through those gifts. What wrecked him the most, though, was that he hardly noticed what was missing until well past his sixteenth birthday, after he had been dragged home by his teammates. Without Itachi to pursue or Orochimaru to snap at…both men were dead…he had taken to wandering aimlessly about the village, day in and day out. He had only been home for five months when his seventeenth birthday dawned, and Sakura insisted they go out together for a day. And so, humoring her because he had nothing else to do, they went.

Sasuke was surprised to find he enjoyed himself, despite all that had happened and the distance, unspoken, that lay between them. Not one shop in Konoha remained unvisited by the time the exhausted couple collapsed by the fountain that had been erected in the center of the village. As they lazed about and snacked…him on Onigiri and tomatoes and she on shaved ice with fruit…lights form underneath the water lit the enormous upheavals of water into a rainbow of shades.

Sakura smiled, and reached into her pocket, withdrawing a single yen, which she handed to her companion, with the simple words, " Throw it in and make a wish, Sasuke-kun!" he grouched and he grumbled, twitched and moaned, called it childish and dumb…but he did it.

As soon as he did, the girl withdrew another something from her clothing and handed it to him; a massive, three-pronged kunai, with smaller knives protruding from each tine. Sasuke thanked her with few words that barely expressed his immense gratitude…weapons were what he needed most, now, and her knowledge of that seemed to complete whatever holes his lacking sentences had dug.

They rose, and on wordless agreement began to circle the fountain, which had returned to its normal drab but somehow peaceful appearance, no longer lit from below, with only a single surging of water instead of many waving banners of it.

As they walked, Sakura casually inquired as to her friend's wish. With his trademark smug smirk, he responded to her question with. " if I tell you, it won't come true." This made her giggle, and the subject was dropped.

They had made several laps around the fountain, when suddenly, Sasuke stopped, and turned to his companion rather suddenly.

" You know," he began quietly. " Out of all the hundreds…perhaps thousands…of presents I receive each your for my birthday, yours always means the most."

" Really?" Sakura strove to confirm, her voice quavering with shock. " Why?"

" When you purchase things for me, you do it out of a desire to see my heart blessed and my needs fulfilled…not so that I will fulfill your need for a boyfriend." he clasped her upper arms in his strong hands and drew her close. " Do you really want to know what I wished for, Sakura?"

" If you tell me, it won't come true." She responded meekly. He laughed, at that, and leaned closer. At the moment his lips brushed hers, the fountain erupted once more, swaying arches of beam-colored water cascading high, raining faint droplets down on the couple as they kissed beneath he stars.

When Sasuke drew back, the waters receded. Nothing had changed by appearance…it was all as it had been before the passionate contact. But something had altered between the two, something that bridged the gap worn in by time and betrayal, separation and reunion. Once again, they were friends, if not more.

" It's already come true." He informed her softly, regarding his earlier aspiration. " I wished for you."