Forever

SasuSaku

After Sasuke came back from Orochimaru, he found a note in his apartment. From her. It was always her. But, it wasn't what he expected. After 3 years, it still wasn't what he expected her to be. Black with red clouds.

Thank you SOOOO much for all the reviews! I DO read them, yes, and I WILL start replying soon when I'm not so damn busy X.X

Chapter Four

For What It's Worth

"For what it's worth, Uchiha, I never trusted you. I doubt you'll be trusted by anyone other than Naruto for a very long time. Is that clear?" Sasuke grimly nodded. The Anbu had cleared out an hour ago, leaving Sasuke with the Hokage.

"I understand that you've killed both Itachi and Orochimaru, and that you would like to regain shinobi status in Konoha. Correct?" He nodded again, eyes narrowing a bit when his elder brother was mentioned. Tsunade didn't even spare him a glance, as her eyes were glazed over with worry and age.

"Here are the conditions. You will be put into jail for two weeks, starting tomorrow. Until then, you will stay with Naruto. After that, you will be put under strict Anbu guards for a year. The Anbu will then simply surveillance you until you have proven your worth. You will not be allowed to go on missions for another year after your surveillance has ended. You will stay a genin until surveillance has ended and then you are eligible to take the exams again. Do you agree to these terms?"

"Hn,"

"Good, now get out." Sasuke calmly left her office, only to see a loud blonde at his left.

"Hey, how'd it go teme?" Naruto asked, his arms crossed behind his head. His fox mask was on the side of his face and blue eyes stared at him.

"Ask her yourself, dobe," Naruto's face dropped a little.

"I can't – Granny is too much of a wreck right now." He said sadly, eyes downcast. Sasuke raised an eyebrow.

"Just because Sakura left the village?" Honestly, Sasuke didn't see what was wrong with that. He had left the village before, didn't he? And he was sure that Tsunade hadn't cared about him – he knew she felt the opposite of what she seemed to be feeling for their current predicament.

Sasuke's dark eyes widened slightly when Naruto angrily turned to him. "Sakura-chan was one of the best shinobi in this entire damn village, teme. She sacrificed everything for Konoha and- no, never mind. It's her business." Naruto sighed, running a hand through his golden locks.

"Hn,"

~kxa~

Deidara let a victorious smirk take over. "Good, yeah," Sakura stood frozen as Deidara stuck his hand in his weapons pouch. When his hand retreated, his hand was fisted and it took a moment before he opened his hand. Sakura squinted to see the object, especially since she didn't know what it was.

"It's a clay ring, yeah," Deidara tossed it to her, "it's only until you are issued your own. It's simply to ensure that the Akatsuki will not think you're an intruder." Sakura caught it in midair and examined it. While it was made of clay, it seemed to be an exact replica of a real Akatsuki ring, minus the coloring. She slid it on her ring finer, deducting that it would fit properly under her gloves.

"We leave an hour before dawn," was all Deidara uttered before slipping off his cloak and sliding into the provided bed. Sakura closed the door behind her as fast as she could, her mind buzzing. 'So, we're Akatsuki now?' Her inner mind prodded. And Sakura promptly ignored herself, as she didn't want to dwell on it much. It was still news to her, even though she already had a makeshift ring.

Finding her room at the end of the corridor, she washed all of the grime and blood off of her person. As she was cleaning off some kunai, she noticed all the letters that were addressed to Tsunade-shishou. But they would never meet her eyes, Sakura knew. She looked into the mirror and she shuddered at the image. A nice bath and sleep would make it a more decent refection, she decided. 'Wait, is Deidara just going to leave Sasori's body at the foot of his bed as he sleeps?' The pinkette froze at the thought before shaking her head and disregarding the comment.

'Hm, maybe he's a necrophiliac…'

~kxa~

Sasuke ran his fingers along the doorknob of his old apartment. Dust collecting at his fingertips, causing Naruto to cringe behind him.

"Teme, are you sure it's going to be safe enough to breathe in there? I can barely breathe out here." Sasuke gave his trademark 'hn' before slipping inside. Naruto huffed, crossing his arms over his chest. Cerulean eyes drifted to the mailbox, which didn't have much dust on it – only newer dust, if that made any sense. With a gleam in his eyes, Naruto opened up the mailbox only to find a single letter inside. He pouted, knowing that he wouldn't be able to make fun of the amount of fan girls the teme still had.

"Oi, teme, you have mail," He picked it up by the mint green string that surrounded the parchment. He scrutinized it, wondering who wanted to give his anti-social, angsty friend mail. Not waiting for Sasuke to acknowledge what he had yelled, he untied the string and his eyes widened at the script.

"TEME!" He cried, his hand shaking. Sasuke appeared in his doorway, leaning against the frame with a blank expression. Before he could attack Naruto with words, the shinobi let the piece of parchment fall from his fingers. Sasuke let his onyx eyes follow the paper on its way down, only moving for it when it was on the porch.

He scanned the letter with a lack of interest and then let it fall to the floor again. He turned on his heel and when Naruto made no move to follow the angsty boy, he looked at his 'friend' over his shoulder. "It's just a letter from Sakura."

Tbc

I utterly and honestly apologize for this not being out sooner. Especially after I promised to get my ass in gear for this story again DX

But I can say that I'm liking this version a lot more than the first one.

Also! I'm wondering, what fics of yours do you think is your best? Why? Because I'd like to showcase them =] You can simply tell me in a review! =D

(And this is when my Inner Self rolled her eyes, sarcastically saying that this is a non-obvious way to ask for reviews. But hey, at least I'm not holding chapters hostage, right? *innocent face*

Akura OUT!