First let me start out by saying that I am an utter douche for not updating this in so long. The other story, Scorpio, had been updated three times in a flash for reasons of: My muse. I am so sorry, guys. I was rendered completely useless by the plot/happenings of that other story. But hey, I finished this too right after I finished that. :D

This is so far my most complex story so yeah, it still has plot elements, but of course there has to be SasuSaku lurve somewhere in there. I hope I make it up to you with this chapter. :D Oh, and any of you who are looking for the OroTsu pairing, you guys have to wait a whole lot, then you're gonna get an eyeful of it. Mehehehe

One thing, about the "She doesn't know yet," Oro said last chap. No, Sakura won't have abnormally overwhelming secret godly abilities like Sasuke or Naruto. And now that's squared away...

Thanks to you guys, shkh4ever, too addicted to fiction, mistressinwaiting, hersheys, 2oatmealcookies, sundance1989, nicolerogersXX, NightRaver, dolce-bebe, l, Kendrachu, delicate . desires, and all the silent followers. It's been awesome reading your responses. :3

Disclaimer: I do not own nor profit from Kishimoto's characters.

Gods of Vindication
Part VI: Dawn to Dusk

"I really don't mind what happens now and then, as long as you'll be my friend at the end…"

Because damn, those neighbors' dogs were noisy in the morning.

Blearily staring at a pale sky through the open curtains, the Uchiha cussed beneath his breath at his forgetfulness to block out the windows the night before. The drive to get up was not there, but the longer he remained inert where he lay the more he felt annoyed at the brightness spilling into the room and siphoning out the sleep from his leaden body. This was particularly why he disliked waking up.

Peeling himself off the bed and teetering on his feet, he winced at the outside scape of a muddy street and people ambling on below from where he perched on the balcony. The icy bite of the air drew gooseflesh across his exposed skin, his calm countenance watching a world peacefully ignorant of their existence. It burned how Konoha was enjoying this sort of peace while not even bothering to chase after the killer of one of their so called prestigious clans. Sure, they treasured his bloodline, the abilities it carried, yet for how many years it dragged on, they never bothered chasing after the one who blinded those eyes forever. They let him escape, they never followed him. It seemed to be left as a burden upon his shoulders to carry on this mission by himself, to completely end this cursed family.

Closing eyes the hue of midnight blacks and dawn grays to the blandest wash of morning, Sasuke breathed in the crisp, cold air. He really hated this.

Turning to stride back to the accepting warmth of the room, he stepped over the mess of clothes littered across the floor, picking up a discarded shirt and pulling it over his head before walking out the door.

ooo000ooo

Sitting on a cushion by the low table in the kitchen and pressing fingertips into the empty porcelain teacup in her hands, Sakura frowned at her warped reflection on the black, shiny surface. Kabuto was dallying about, heating last night's leftovers for breakfast, and she watched him with cursory interest. Working under Tsunade had effectively destroyed her bio clock and she found it hard to sleep after last night's events despite being exhausted and bone weary. She had not expected anyone to be up as well, but was surprised to find herself thankful the other medic was an early riser as she drifted through the house in the dark of dawn.

"You don't have to do this," she said to the gray haired boy (was he even still a boy?) scooping rice into bowls of the same black glazed ceramic as the cup she was holding. He seemed particularly attentive to her, probably by orders from his master, but it made her uncomfortable she was being treated as if she would easily break.

"You're injured," he responded lightly, as if a joke, and set a steaming bowl in front of her along with another filled with miso. "You're recovering."

"And I'm fine," Sakura matched, to which he gave her a grin before seating beside her. The lightness did not reach his eyes. Her mind was still whirling around what happened the night with Sasuke, unable to forget with random memory flashes of the cataclysmic hatred she witnessed in him. It had been horrible, and that wasn't even an accurate description of what she felt about the situation. For so long she and Naruto, to some extent Kakashi, had tried to pry into what their teammate had been like.

For an instant the sought after window into his soul was blasted open in a crucially sensitive moment and she feared she did not like what she saw.

She'd been in the kitchen with Karin, accompanying her in the comfortingly mundane task of preparing dinner, when she felt something was wrong. There was nothing particularly off to go on except a strong gut feeling urging her to go back to the living room. Tsunade had worked on perception for her, razing it to a fine bladed point as a reminder of wariness and for her to be open to any possibility of the most unexpected things to happen. It was a useful trait in their field, and led her to always explore what bothered her. True to her instinct, when she stepped out back to where the Uchiha lay sleeping, a fear gripped her internally like a cold breeze raising the fine hair at her nape.

He lay no longer curled against the room. He was on his back, face drawn towards the fire and still in deep slumber. His visage, however, held an extreme tenseness, hands gripped into fists on his stomach and clenching his shirt, dark eyebrows drawn sharply together, sweat glittering on the white skin of his forehead, fine lips in a succinct frown. Right off the top of her head she pegged it as a nightmare. A step toward him elicited a sharp command behind her.

"Don't."

She had been unaware the redhead had followed her out of the kitchen. There was enough conviction in that order, and yet she remained unconvinced, watching his form stiffly lying on the couch. Her former teammate had been in some sort of pain, and knowing the Uchiha genocide, the only thought remaining wavering in her mind was of putting an end to his protracted suffering by waking him up as she had approached his prostrate form and lightly touched his shoulder.

"Eat up," interrupted the other medic's voice into her remembering, the warm steam from the bowl of rice wafting into her face. "You still need to regain lost blood."

"Thank you."

The words came easy, rhetorical to her ears. If Kabuto had noticed, he did not press her, instead turning to his own meal by her side. Her fingers felt clumsy as she took the chopsticks into her hands, heart thudding as she remembered the exact moment she'd woken Sasuke. Obsidian eyes blazing a black tempest, a fury of a universe contained into the snarl of gritted teeth, lightning fast, a hand previously curled into a fist shooting out and grabbing her by the throat.

Green eyes closed, the image burning behind the darkness of her lids in the cold morning air.

Pain had never bothered her. Physical pain, that is. It was nothing. However, emotion scars ripped into her heart as the incredible force of her dark avenger rammed into her and sent them both sprawled across the living room floor, a rabid intent magnified a million times onto her as the only tangible form he could find in his murky dream. It did not feel right, his violence, the hatred consuming him. There was a pure, real intent to kill in his actions, in his damned eyes, but somehow as they crashed into the glossy floorboards, she knew it was not her. Sasuke was looking at her, but he wasn't seeing her, that much she knew, that much she saw through the physical pain as he tried to kill her.

There had been a sudden shock in his expression at Karin's sharp voice last night after his name was called another time, a dawning realization on his aristocratic face lit by the glow of the fireplace at the very last moment before he was brutally pulled off her to put an end to his momentary insanity. It had been crystal clear he had been as horrified as her at what had transpired.

Whatever was bothering the Konoha traitor, she needed to find out. Subconsciously she reached up to touch her neck where his fingers had last been, wondering why he was so engulfed in negative hate. His very existence was soaked in it.

Before the killing incident (because it was so appropriate to call it such...), she remembered telling his redheaded teammate she would die before causing harm to Sasuke. She felt revulsion flow in her veins. It was such a ludicrous statement, coming from even her. She'd spoken it out of necessity to get Karin off her back and not be suspicious about her, yet in light of what had happened it felt entirely wrong, a tainting highlight of ignorance shining like a spotlight on her. Like she'd been incredibly stupid and played. But then again, if Sasuke did really want to kill her, she wouldn't be able to do a thing.

Once more, the gray haired boy's voice broke clear through her thoughts.

"You know, you're gonna be on a sort of vacation here," was made through slow chewing.

"What?" she responded, opening her eyes and turning them to him beside her. Orochimaru's right hand man swallowed his mouthful before turning to face her and giving her a reassuring smile. She caught what he said, her first instinct wanting to use the chopsticks in her hand to stab them at the other medic. Of all the words to describe her presence in the middle of their band of nutcases, he chose to call it a vacation.

"I've gone over your question last night with Orochimaru-sama. You're not going to be doing anything for the rest of time you're here."

Well, this was appalling. Sakura felt annoyance trigger a tsk from her. "Then what in the world does he want me to do here?"

There was a sly, low chuckle and glasses flashing her blindingly with lemon sunlight streaming through the doors behind them. She was convinced of the notion that had she not known what he'd done to them before, she'd be wrapped around Kabuto's charisma that felt so safe she had to remind herself every so often he was not playing on her side. He was the snake sannin's pet, working for his interests alone. After a few words with him people were bound to fall to his wiliness if they weren't careful.

"He's trying to confirm something. In the meantime, you're here solely for his entertainment only, before he calls in need of your actual use."

The word entertainment made the Konoha kunoichi's cheeks burn bright against silvery hair as her imagination ran away. The perceptiveness of her companion allowed him to pick up on her train of thought, immediately causing him to laugh out loud, a cheerfully bright sound in the fresh morning chill that did not match the nature of his disposition.

"No, not like that," he explained, waving a hand apologetically with a smile. "Join him for dinner. Conversations. Nothing fancy. Talk to him when he asks for you, it's very easy. I assure you there will be nothing of the sort of what you're thinking." At this point the older medic's face became more serious, fixing her a sardonic look. "Your main objective will be delivered directly to you from himself."

"But, how long would it take?" Sakura blurted out before she knew what was passing her lips. The noose was tightening with every passing minute she remained here. "I can't be fooling around or they'll notice I'm gone. I can't."

Kabuto was quiet, returning her gaze. Finally after what seemed like a long time he shrugged, taking a sip from his tea and setting it down quietly as he ran the details through in his head. How long, indeed. They needed only one more test to go through before Orochimaru would decide to allow their guest to know. He could devote his time to that single test alone.

"One week."

The heavy weight on her conscience lightened considerably at his answer, him turning to smile casually at her. There was no more reason for her to be alarmed. She could do this. She could use this time to do whatever they wanted her to do, play the little ignorant girl, and at the same time try and find a way to convince Sasuke to come back home. She was Haruno Sakura. She can do this.

"One week," she repeated slowly to confirm it, as if to set it in stone.

The gray haired medic pushed up his glasses, nodding, "One week."

ooo000ooo

"Good morning, Sasuke-kun."

He had woken up and trudged down the stairs, arms crossed, to be greeted by an empty house. Or so he thought. In walking along the hallway leading to the backyard he happened to pass by the kitchen, where Kabuto took the liberty of greeting him, knowing full well he would be incensing the Uchiha by doing so.

Despite the freezing day nipping at him, Sasuke felt the blood boil in his veins, ears almost ringing at the voice calling out the greeting. Turning to glare at where the sound came from, his view was right through the kitchen doorway and to the goddamn gray-haired medic at the table. The blistering anger in him was immediately doused by what he saw.

He expected the medic to be alone. He wasn't.

There beside him was the pink-haired girl he nabbed back in Konoha, now blonde, sitting eating breakfast beside Orochimaru's medic as if it were the most normal thing in the world. Kabuto grinned, those dead eyes knowing full well how much damage he'd done. He froze.

"Why are you with him?" Sasuke demanded in a low tone directed to Sakura, trying to control himself from raising his voice. Emerald eyes flickered to him and he could see how her expression, previously laughing at something the other medic said, faltered.

When he woke up that morning he had been pondering how to explain to her what exactly happened that night, to slap together a half assed apology to show her he didn't didn't intend for anything to happen but at the same time convey he didn't care she was hurt. He wouldn't tell her much, not to the extents so damaging she would have something to hold against him, but just enough to tell her she was collateral damage. But this...

Seeing her with Kabuto of all people, summoned a white hot anger within.

"We were just talking," dismissively simple, quite obvious the way she was trying to put up a strong front against him with slightly narrowed eyes and the false uncaringness in how she twiddled the chopsticks in her soup.

Without a word he walked over in steps of controlled fury, grabbing her by the arm and yanking her to her feet as he tried to ignore the growing smirk on the gray-haired spy's face. It took all self control not to rip out a chidori in the middle of the kitchen. Ignoring the squirm of protest from the girl, he managed to pull her away from the table.

"Sasuke." A warning in the tone.

He paused, sighing deeply to control himself before turning around to face Kabuto without releasing his former teammate who was now halfway out the door. He was well aware the blonde had a hand on his that was wrapped around just above her elbow and was trying to pry herself free. Tightening his grip proved to be an easy solution to keep her in line at the cost of a hiss of pain, because right at the moment he did not give a flying fuck whether he was hurting her.

"You still remember last night, right?" came the continuation, black leering eyes behind glasses. "We need to talk."

"No. We don't need to talk," Sasuke snapped, shooting a menacing glare at his direction. He was going to end this right here. He turned to Sakura, her viridian eyes sparking indignation at what he was doing. "You and me, we need to talk."

ooo000ooo

Storming into the back porch Sasuke released her against the wall. Judging by his expression alone it seemed he had been tempted to have flung her against it instead.

"What were you talking about?" he besieged, pressing her slender shoulder against the shingles. He did not care to mask his anger for what it was, pinning her there with a viperous gleam in his eyes.

Right before he ambled past the doorway of the kitchen, she and Kabuto were discussing whether chakra scalpels were better than actual ones. Her companion had made a joke about needing concentration, so she had laughed. It was where they both noticed the Uchiha, and the older medic called out to him. In startling contrast to last night, Sasuke's reaction had been incredibly unreasonable as to what had actually happened, her intuition pointing to behavioral problems because shit, she was going to be Hokage first if someone who witnessed the murder of his clan and ran away from any remaining sane contact did not have issues.

Her mind going back over to his appearance that morning, Sakura realized there was no exchange at all. Immediately there had been a dangerous undercurrent in the way he turned his head to the greeting, the way he glanced with loathing to their direction before falling to her. As was what happened the night before, he did not seem intend it for her. But he happened to see her and all the turmoil of emotion on his face changed, morphing into accusation and distrust at her sitting there beside Kabuto. On her part, she argued with herself, he must have had some longstanding altercation with the spy.

However right now, staring into the darkest depths of Uchiha eyes full of furor, the strength of his openly blatant temper choked her words.

"Nothing," she managed to hiss back at him. Her answer did not seem to satisfy his impatience, and before something else issued from his lips, she hurriedly added, "I woke up and he was there."

"What?" Sasuke's voice dramatically calmed down but his eyes told a different story, her heart leaping into her throat. "He was in your room?"

"No!" Kami-sama, this was not the way she wanted this to go. "I meant, he was the only one awake."

Gray eyes darkened to coal black but he seemed capitulated by the response. Unconsciously, her hands had come to rest on his chest and through his shirt she could feel the tattoo of his heart on her palms, its increased pace rhythm driven by his emotional state. She wondered how close to the edge he was and remembered how he struck out a raging lightning trail towards her when she wouldn't listen.

He was dangerous, she knew, and he scared the hell out of her when he was like this. She never knew how to deal with him because he never was the same one moment from the next. She could tell, much to her dismay, he was emotionally scarred far more than what she'd imagined.

The tremor in his hand fisted painfully on her shoulder told her just how angry he was. He seemed to grasp what she was trying to make him understand, however it only appeared to stoke his agitation as his eyes closed tightly, raggedly running his other hand through the raven mess of hair. His frustration was feeding her anxiety, feeling her heart beating so fast she feared it would burst. He was too volatile. Sakura knew just about enough to know he can kill, accidentally or otherwise, and instinctively she pressed back into the wall in a bid to distance herself from him just as the glare fixed back onto her.

"What were you talking about?" he asked, irritated voice a balancing act between keeping calm and losing it.

Medical conversations flew through her head, as well as last night's trauma of flickering fire and blood. She forced herself to turn away from him, knowing well she could trigger something if she mentioned something he didn't like. There was no reasoning with him when he was like this but she had to do it, she had to do something.

"Sakura." Icy tone. "I'm asking you."

"It was nothing."

Midnight eyes bore into hers, seething between his lips, "I am asking you properly. What did you talk about?"

There was something about pissing him off which frightened her to no end. There was also something terribly satisfying about it, because by far these few days with him he'd shown so much reaction than the whole time she knew him. Whether it could actually be determined as any sort of progress where Sasuke now definitely saw her as something, not merely glossing over her before bickering with Naruto, it was still progress no matter how negative or hostile he was to her. Kami-sama, three days in and he's already fucked me up into thinking his outbursts are good.

"Sasuke-kun," she started, trying to laugh but coming off sounding forced, "You're overreacting."

Murder filled dark gray irises as he narrowed his gaze, his hold tightening again and she knew his breaking point was veering closer the more she antagonized him. Why he was so mad with her eating breakfast was something she had to find out to avoid any future repeats of this incident. She tried pacing her breathing, then added with as much sting, "What's your problem?"

It was clear to her he was making every effort not to outright crush her.

"You were talking to Kabuto," he forced through clenched teeth. It was like a bolt out of the blue to Sakura. "Now what was it about?"

Huh. Kabuto. It was like a bucket of cold water as she stood there before him, stunned and pinned to the wall. How infuriatingly petty. Kabuto. It was Sasuke's business that she was here, sure, but to micromanage her every movement, every conversation with anyone else, it felt as if she wanted to laugh at the ridiculousness of his indisposition. This was just plain disappointing, lighting her own fuse. Sasuke had the balls to throw tantrums over her talking to someone else when he of all people was kissed by Karin the other night.

To be fair she only managed to catch Karin leaning in and having the redhead blocking her view of anything else, but the fact that afterwards they were both discussing in hushed voices too soft to pick up on, there was something that went on. And this very same Sasuke was throwing a hissy fit over her discourse with their medic. The absurdity made her want to scream.

"No," she shot back firmly, ignoring his glowering. This was worth a try because he couldn't go on trampling on everything. The line had to be drawn somewhere. "Sasuke-kun, you can't always get what you want."

"Everything was part of our agreement."

"You can't just—"

"Don't keep pushing me to—"

"Sasuke-kun, you have to stop—"

"Tell me."

"I've already told you, you can't—"

"Tell. Me."

"Please Sasuke-kun, don't be s—"

"This is the last fucking chance—"

"No!" escaped shrilly from her lips, her crumpled in his shirt unthinkingly—and thankfully unsupported by chakra—shoved him away with all physical strength she had.

Conviction was her strongest point.

Tsunade told her this during her training when she wouldn't give up on each new tutoring lesson sent her way until she finally discovered what made it tick, finding out reasons why and how and if it was going to work. She'd been applauded for it. Conviction also played a big role in her everyday life, as she used self control to set her budget, keep up with scheduled appointments and strove to be very much unlike Kakashi-sensei, keeping a stupid resolution not to punch Naruto senseless now that he's been always the one accompanying her home when she drank too much.

Rationality dictated she stick to what she already planned to do, no matter how hard it became to abide by it. Especially when things turned for the worst. There was nothing else harder than having to face what was brewing under Sasuke's surface. As soon as she'd pushed him she'd lost conviction, and everything exploded.

ooo000ooo

His fist slammed into the space between her head and the window, in a deafening crack sending a great deal of broken wooden tiles flying. Her reflexes were fast but he was faster, snatching her hands the moment he sensed what she was about to do and almost had instinctively thrown a punch towards her head, redirecting the staggering force a few inches almost too late. All the emotions made his head swirl, her high pitched scream as she turned away to avoid the force, arms raised as a shield against flying fragments and inadvertently curling in towards him, caught in his other arm.

He slammed her back into the wall, caging her in with both hands planted on either side of her. This was dangerous territory after what happened the night before, and Sasuke overestimated her enough to think she would have actually understood to keep away from doing anything stupid. Apparently she needed to be spoonfed this information. So fucking Academy-like. And she seemed hell bent on working him up into a rage. Also so fucking Academy-like. He thought she'd be better than this.

It took the entirety of self-restraint not to repeat last night's catastrophe, but this time he would blissfully do it keeping Sakura's mistakes in mind. His breathing was ragged, scowling at the girl unable to escape the space between his body and the wall, shivering in the morning air and huddling herself protectively against him beside the gaping hole in the wall. What blew his mind was how she was so goddamn fragile yet insisted on exasperating him time and again. This had to end. She needed to realize just how deep the shit she got herself into, because if it all came down to it, she'd be a liability to him instead of helping him.

When she finally had the backbone to peek at him through the mess of silvery strands, those green eyes looked all at once alarmed, pleading, and furious he wasn't believing her when she'd told him there was nothing of importance between her and the other medic. He really did not want to listen. But he grudgingly had to admit he needed to allow some breathing room for the meantime, because any conversation he tried to initiate with her while being high on rabid acrimony spelled unreasonable spats. This was exactly what he'd been trying to avoid.

He heard the other gray-haired fucking medic get up in the kitchen, and footsteps in the hallway approaching the back porch where they were. Fixing his blonde companion with a look loaded of meaning, he watched her swallow hard when he leaned in.

"Stay away from him," he warned darkly, staring into those green depths of her eyes. "You cannot trust him."

ooo000ooo

A rustle of the leaf of a book. A snap and the vacuum of fire. Squeaking of leather.

Slowly Sasuke fumbled where he lay, then opened his eyes to be greeted by the dark mahogany of the ceiling, decorative whorls etched into it and stained by age, the wood fractured in a few places. For a moment only the sound of the crackling hearth and the faint tinge of smoke filled his senses as he lay on one of the couches in the living room, its light dancing on the rippling patterns and throwing strange shadows everywhere. It appeared night had fallen, everything taken to the moving shadows and tranquility of the hour. He took a deep breath, still half drunk with sleep, and another sharp sound of paper sliding on paper cut through the air.

Turning to the side, he saw Sakura sitting primly on the other couch, a thickset book on her lap. The hand on the broad page appeared so small as it rested upon the expansive girth of the tome. The other hand held upright a peach with a bite mark of her teeth, elbow on the armrest. His senses were still drugged by sleep, and he was slow to acknowledge her presence that in the stead of his otherwise critical demeanor, observed her without the filter of hatred he normally subjectively resorted to whenever she was around.

She had yet to catch on his awareness, and appeared engrossed in what lay before her as those luminescent eyes half-liddedly followed the trail of words on the page, oblivious to the fruit she clutched. A transparent drop of juice slid down from the fuzzy peel to wrap a thin shining band of liquid gently contouring around her inner arm's soft skin just as she turned her head ever so slightly to follow her reading to the other page, and at last caught him staring at her. It was a brief glance where she immediately returned to be absorbed into her book.

At first nothing registered. Then those concentrated eyes slowly gained understanding, once more looking up to meet his obsidian surveillance, and she broke into a small smile. Despite what he unwittingly did to her the night before, the screaming match he allowed to happen in the morning, threatening her to follow him or shut up, she had the audacity to still want to act on good terms with him. She seemed to not be controlled by normal threats. Her intelligence and unfathomably endless understanding required a much deeper and subtle machination. He wanted her perfect, to be loyal enough not to stray from his ideals but not so insanely disruptive she'd be constantly be in his way.

He meant to kill her should she become dead weight. Or if she rebelled, whichever came first.

But under the haze of waking up and the ache in his muscles from the day's training, the presence of a heavy blanket draped over him became known, something he tested by pulling up an arm and staring at the rich brown hue of the material in his hand. Giving an accusatory glance at Sakura, who was still attentively waiting by him, realization dawned she had approached him yet another time in his sleep. When will you fucking learn?

"Do you want one? They're nice," her voice softly merged into his consciousness as the stained arm reached out the fruit in his direction, the bite on its flesh slightly widened by a fresh row of teeth marks. "Karin came by earlier with a basket of these. I can get one for you from the kitchen."

For a moment Sasuke lingered on her hand, how her fingers curled around the yellow and auburn skin of the produce, its crisp, light scent trailing out to where he lay.

Acting of its own accord, he rose reluctantly, sitting with his head in his hands in response to the blood rushing in redistribution across his body. Gradually getting his bearings, he watched her through the mess of his hair, how it appeared she'd frozen upon his movement like she was hanging onto his reaction, the only motion he detected being her thoughtfully slow chewing. She appeared calm but her back was stiffly set, toes pressing into the floor, how her offering arm was unsure in its gesture. He was catching her in trying to play nice, and in an instant he knew he wanted to flip it back, turn it around.

Steadily rising to his feet Sasuke padded over to her, congratulating himself for barely swaying despite the sleepy miasma clinging to his senses. He continued, step after step, until he was before her, those green eyes at an angle upwards to him vacillating between curiosity and apprehension. Lowering himself until he was at level with her increasingly agitated expression, it did not escape him how her breaths were coming shallower, quicker, her pulse lit by the fireplace palpitating against the soft skin of her neck, hidden just beneath the silvery wisps of hair. He surveyed all of her with a calm demeanor, then encircled her wrist holding the peach in his hand, looking down on where her teeth scraped its marks off the pulp.

An audible swallow from her and dark gray irises flicked over to her lips, noticing in their closeness how there was a sheen of the fruit on her shell-pink mouth. For a long time he stared at the way the low flames glistened in oranges and reds on Sakura's mouth in reflection of the dying fire, as well as felt her fighting her own battle to keep as still as possible. The fruit essence under his grip on her arm was growing sticky but he didn't pay heed, the sweet scent filling every inhale he took.

It suddenly became unclear as to why he approached her, since he had been making up his actions as he went. For equally unknown reasons he languidly propelled himself forward, feeling the exertion his former teammate made to try and lean away from him, eyes widening in confusion, only to be hindered by the back of the couch. He felt how her arm he held was trying to pull away as well, and in a moment of awful clarity, he followed and pushed her arm back, further than she was pulling it, further back until he was pressing it into the back of the sofa beside the spray of blonde hair.

Watching Sakura squirm under his prolonged actions, smell fear in the beads of sweat and perfume of spring, a disparaging remark was readied and he parted his lips to verbally crush her, emotionally tear her to pieces. Her free hand, the one splayed open on the rough page of the textbook, rose to try and push him away and he easily caught it without taking his eyes off her, pressing it back down on the thick volume between them. She was near enough he could see the way her pupils constricted from high emotion, to notice how her lashes were still the dark pink of their original color and contrasting against the gold strands falling across her eyes.

It was when his gaze fell back to the fruit stained gloss on her mouth that he felt compelled to move forward instead of speak, sensing her reaction until he closed around her lower lip, the tart sweetness of peach exploding on his mouth, through hooded midnight eyes seeing those coral pink lashes flutter close and fan down her cheeks, silvery yellow brows drawing together. Tugging lightly, following the taste of the fruit and dragging the tip of his tongue across the softness of her lip, Sasuke was fighting the turbulence rampantly scourging every lucid thought he tried to hold onto.

With great difficulty he pulled back, releasing his former teammate with the softest of noises and the raging heat in his ears. It struck him then, the cloud of hypnotic drowsiness gone. I kissed Sakura.

Her lips were still parted as he dumbfoundedly stared at her, those closed eyes suddenly opening and a sea of confused green swept up to drown him. The pink, parted lips traitorously reminded him what happened was real, his beating heart suddenly all what he could hear as she searched his face for an answer, looking as agonized as he felt. He had none to give her, unfortunately. Even more damaging, he had none to give himself. Shit. He swallowed, wretchedly tasting her, well aware he was still holding her hands in his, the fruit that had caused this now so unimportant and forgotten.

Sasuke released her as if burned, pushing himself immediately to his feet and glaring at the book.

"I have to go," was all he could manage, stiffly exiting up the stairs and sequestering as much distance between them as he could, face in a grim expression of his folly.

Yield