Author's Note: Ugh! I haven't finished the next chapter yet because I've gotten some bad writer's block. Although, I came up with an idea yesterday, so I might be back on track. Anyway, thanks for the reviews, follows, and favorites! Enjoy!
It was almost two in the morning. The only light in the dark room came from the crystals scattered in all areas. This room in the hideout was Kurushimi's main control room where he usually thought about his plans. It was quite large and he also used it as a living space.
"So it looks like my prediction was true..."
The spy had just left the room after he had told Kurushimi and Kenshi the news.
Kenshi sighed and crossed his arms. "Okay, so it's for sure that they'll be seperating later today. One thing that we still don't know for sure though, are they splitting into groups?"
The dark haired male propped his head up on his hands in a thinking position. "I still believe that my theory about them going in small pairs is most likely correct." He stood up and chuckled. "I think we both know who Sasuke will be going with."
Kenshi's expression was still indifferent and his arms remained crossed. With his tired, half closed eyes, the man breathed a sigh for the second time. "This is gonna be too much work for me. Why don't you get your lazy butt up and do some of the fighting for once? You haven't done anything since our last fight with Sasuke. I'm not counting the festival."
A huff. "Because it is not time for me to do my part in the plan. Why don't you shut up and do your part? I already said that you could have first shot at the Haruno."
The swordsman chuckled. "You're right. I should have some fun soon."
"Do you remember what I said about some, other things, that I might decide to do?"
The messy haired man raised his eyebrows and his jaw dropped slightly. "What the heck is wrong with you?! Kurushimi, you just said that I'd have first shot!"
"Technically, you will. It's just in a different way. Look at the bright side of things. If I do this, then that means you'll get more than one fight."
What Kenshi said next made Kurushimi shocked and furious. His friend had a sad frown on his face, staring at the ground.
"I always like a good fight, but... killing them?"
The other male stomped to the front of the man and slapped him with full force. "Why do you keeping going on about how they're 'innocent'?! You know for a fact that they're not!"
The blonde male used every ounce of resistance left in him to not pull out his katana and slice his friend to pieces. As he rubbed the side of his face, he spoke. "You say that we'll only kill the ones that aren't innocent. What about the ones that are coming with Sasuke? They haven't done anything. Now that I think about it, neither has Sasuke."
After an intense stare down, Kurushimi slowly and calmly walked back into the big part of the room. Unexpectedly, he swiped everything off of the large table and flipped it over. Panting angrily, he turned his gaze towards Kenshi once again, pointing accusingly. His multicolored eyes began to glow and the one being accused took a step backwards.
"Do I need to show you your own past again Kenshi!? Do I need to make you relive their screams and crys?! Her screams and crys?!"
The stunned swords master clenched his fists and gritted his teeth in fury. Once again, he restrained himself from murdering the man in front of him. "Shut up! I never need to see all that again to remember it!"
"Then if you can 'remember' everything, then why don't you ever use your head?! It was the fault of the Uchiha and you know it!" Kurushimi lowered his voice as he continued. "How can you say that Sasuke Uchiha is not evil? All the Uchiha are and we have to eliminate the last of them. Besides, wouldn't they want revenge?"
"Never speak for them ever again," Kenshi snarled as he stormed off to his own room.
Kurushimi was still in utter disbelief at the man's words. It wasn't like Kenshi to be "afraid" of killing someone.
Slamming the door and running his hands through his hair, Kenshi sat down on the edge of his bed. Was his friend right? Did they want revenge? He could hear the screams enter his ears once again. He saw those wicked red eyes, heard the man's evil laugh. Biting his lip and covering his ears along with squeezing his eyes shut tightly didn't help.
Finally, Kenshi had enough. Kurushimi was right, the Uchiha only brought pain and suffering to the world and they needed to make them extinct. Screaming and grabbing a kunai, he chucked it into the wall, burying it up to the handle.
He angrily whispered through gritted teeth. "I'll kill you and your friends Sasuke Uchiha! But first, I'll make all of you suffer! Even if it's the last thing I do! You and your friends will pay for the sins of the past. They'll pay for YOUR sins!"
Everyone yawned as they headed outside the hotel. It was six in the morning and no one had gotten good rest, much to the Hokage's dismay. Speaking of Kakashi, he looked to be the most tired and upset of all, knowing that his plan to get sleep had failed.
"Okay everyone," the masked man began, "go ahead and pair up."
Looking like zombies, they stumbled toward another person. Sasuke and Sakura were the first to pair up and surprisingly, she looked even more tired than him. He noticed her eyes beginning to close and she also began to sway. Catching her with one arm before she fell, he smirked as her eyes shot back open. "You sure you're up for this?"
She shrugged him off. "More than you."
Making sure no one else was looking, Sasuke threw his arm around her shoulder and pulled her close, making her blush and attempt to get out of his hold.
"What's wrong?" he whispered mockingly. "I thought you would like me holding you like this."
As Sakura began to quietly curse at him, everyone had found a partner. The pairings were as follows: Sasuke and Sakura, Naruto and Hinata, Shikamaru and Temari, Sai and Ino, Lee and Tenten, Shino and Kiba, and Gaara, Kankuro, and Kakashi.
The Hokage broke the silence. "I'll go with Gaara and Kankuro to check out the most likely area." He took a map out of his pocket. "I will show you where your areas are."
After that had been done, he further instructed. "We each will have four days to search our areas and four days to get back," he pointed to a certain place on the map, "to this spot. Oh, and one more thing. No searching from the sky."
Everyone nodded and wished the others good luck. Kakashi gave the signal, and they were off.
Sasuke and Sakura hopped in the trees, deciding to take their time searching at areas further away. The dark blue headband revealed Sasuke's Rinnegan and Sharingan, which he had chosen to leave activated from this point on. They searched their area for hours. Nothing out of the ordinary happened.
After noon, they decided that now was the point where they should take their time, so they started traveling on the ground at a slow pace.
"Do you think that we'll find anything?" Sakura asked.
"I think that Gaara, Kankuro, and Kakashi have the highest chance of finding the hideout."
"I hope that everyone else is okay. If anyone gets attacked, that could be a good sign though. It may mean that they're the ones closest to finding the hideout."
"Hn, true."
For the next few minutes, they walked in silence. Sakura was listening for any noise that was out of the ordinary while Sasuke was looking around for any chakra signatures. This was the one time that the both of them could stand the annoying silence between them.
Throughout the first day of searching, none of the groups had found anything strange or suspicious. All of them had camped out in places that were well hidden from view. Each person had eventually taken a turn to watch while the others slept, making sure that the enemy would not try a surprise attack.
It was the second day of the search.
Kakashi, Gaara, and Kankuro were running at full speed towards their destination. They had concluded that they should go straight for the area Gaara thought was out of the ordinary, not bothering to spend much time on the environment around them. That could wait until later after they checked their biggest lead.
"At this rate," Kankuro began, "we should be there by the end of the day."
Gaara and Kakashi nodded in agreement.
After they went on for a few more hours, Kakashi started to feel like something around them wasn't normal. It was almost as if someone was watching them.
"Keep your guard up," he warned the others.
Now, the sun was setting and the distance between them and their destination grew shorter with every minute.
"We should take a short break," Gaara announced breathlessly.
The others willingly agreed. After all, they'd been going at this pace for many hours without one stop.
As Kakashi surveyed his surroundings, he thought that he'd seen something out of the corner of his eye. He cautiously stared at the spot for a few seconds, eyes narrowed. When the group had gotten ready to begin again, all widened their eyes.
Kakashi turned and threw three kunai just in time to block the three paper bombs attached to the enemy kunai thrown at them. Gaara shielded himself and Kankuro from a hail storm of shuriken. They heard a hysterical laugh and turned to see someone they knew only from stories.
"Well if it isn't the lazy Hokage who lost his Sharingan, the try hard Kazekage, and his older brother who loves to play with puppets."
The three narrowed their eyes, cautiously keeping aware of the other attackers that had surrounded them.
"I assume that you've heard of me from your friend."
They moved closer as the mass of rogues slowly made their way to them. The man that was not in sight continued.
"Hahaha. Oh this is gonna be fun. Prepare to suffer and die!"
"Sakura, who did this to you?" Sasuke asked. "Who was it?!"
She could only stare up at the boy in horror. The boy had just seemingly risen from the dead. The purple surrounding him had subsided momentarily, revealing half of the Uchiha's face and body covered in black marks.
"Sasuke, are you okay? What's happening?" she nervously asked.
He looked down at himself, power flowing through him.
A few flashes of his words from the memory came back to him.
"Curse mark is a gift... I'm an avenger... Never felt this powerful before!"
It shifted for a short instant to show Sasuke being bitten by Orochimaru and receiving the curse mark.
"Who did this to you?!" he repeated.
Sakura did not reply. A small chuckle came from one of the three Sound ninja.
"That would be me," Zaku said with an evil grin.
Sasuke's eyes widened and he slowly turned to face the boy from the Sound, his Sharingan blazing. He was a ticking time bomb ready to go off at any moment.
Shikamaru commanded his teammates to get out of the way. Choji ran over to him while Ino released her Mind Transfer. The girl from the Sound, Kin, fell to the ground, unconscious. Now, only Dosu and Zaku remained against the Uchiha. The black marks covering Sasuke glowed a fierce red and more appeared, now covering his entire body.
Zaku and Dosu argued for a few seconds while Sasuke stood in between them and Sakura and Naruto. The Uzumaki was still out cold from his last fight.
Zaku used a sound technique that came from the tubes in his hands. He smiled in pleasure as he finished and saw that Team 7 was gone.
"What do ya know? Blew em all away," Zaku said. His expression turned to one of terror as he heard a voice behind him.
"Not quite," Sasuke stated as he effortlessly elbowed Zaku in the back of the head. The Sound ninja went flying, landing at Dosu's feet. Sasuke had been so fast that he'd gotten Naruto and Sakura out of range from Zaku's attack.
A few more attacks later and Sasuke had Zaku down on his knees, holding both arms straight out behind his back and pressing his foot into the horrified boy's spine.
Sasuke smirked in delight and widened his eyes as if he had gone completely crazy. He dug his foot into the boy's spine, adding more and more pressure every second.
"You seem to be very proud of these arms of yours," Sasuke began, "you must be very attached to them."
"No! What are you doing?!" Zaku shouted desperately.
Sasuke smiled sadistically as gruesome cracks came from the boy's arms. He screamed out in agony and the Uchiha finally let him go. Zaku writhed on the ground in pain, both his arms were most likely broken.
Dosu breathed heavily in terror as Sasuke turned around with that sadistic smile still set firmly on his face. "It looks like you're the only one left. I hope you make things more interesting than your friend." With this, the cursed boy made his way to Dosu, who was too scared to move.
Sakura couldn't watch anymore. This wasn't the Sasuke that she knew. "No! Stop!"
Sasuke gasped and halted his movement as Sakura wrapped her arms around him. He turned to look at her with the Sharingan still active. The tears streaming down her face made him freeze in place.
"Please. Don't do it," she pleaded with him.
After many moments of silence, the black marks faded and Sasuke stopped his rampage.
A shift.
"I will take everyone that you still care about away from you!" Kurushimi shouted.
Sasuke's eyes flew open and he sat up in an instant. Quickly turning to where Sakura slept at the other end of the small cave, he breathed a sigh of relief when he confirmed that she was still there, alive and unharmed. Wiping the sweat from his face, he remembered what had happened in the events prior to him falling asleep.
The second day of their search had gone just as the first had, nothing unusual to find. After arguing for ten minutes straight, Sakura had finally surrendered when she agreed to sleep in the cave. He smirked when he reminisced over her threats to kick him out of her apartment when they got back home. Knowing that she wouldn't go through with it, he had rolled his eyes and said an indifferent "okay" before settling down inside.
Frowning and glancing at the cave's tiny entrance, he glanced outside to see that it was probably around midnight.
He stared at Sakura's sleeping form as he reached up to let his hand rest on his neck, right where the curse mark had been. Closing his eyes, Sasuke remembered how much trouble the mark had been. Everyone who knew about it tried to help him, but it always ended up backfiring on them. Even when Kakashi sealed it, it proved later on to have no effect.
Sighing, he stood up and made his way to the cave entrance, careful not to wake Sakura. He sat with his side leaning against the wall on his left, enjoying the cool breeze that came through. They'd also decided that no one should have to be on watch for that night because of the safety of the cave. However, Sasuke wasn't going back to sleep anytime soon, so he made himself guard their location.
For hours, the last Sharingan user stared at the moon through the clear night sky, wondering if all of this was worth it. Kakashi was probably right in saying that Kurushimi would capitalize on this opportunity to strike when they had split up. That is, if he knew. Although, how could he possibly know that they had separated into groups? In the end, Sasuke knew that what they were doing now was definitely worth it. If he could save everyone else's lives, then everything that happens on this mission would pay off. A new thought came to him. He glanced back at Sakura.
"I promise that I won't let you die. Even at the cost of my own life..."
After another hour, he began to nod off. Words could not express how exhausted he was because of his lack of sleep. As he tried to hold his eyes open and his head up, he became unaware of Sakura moving to sit beside him. She watched with a tiny smirk as his head tipped over and over along with eyes closing and opening repeatedly.
"If you're so tired then why aren't you sleeping?" she asked.
The startled Uchiha jumped at the surprising interruption, now feeling angry instead of tired. "I can't sleep."
"Oh please! You were about to pass out right there a few seconds ago."
"So?"
"So, I want to know why you're lying to me."
He swallowed and crossed his arms. Sasuke didn't want to tell her about his nightmares. It was too embarrassing to even think about.
After a long silence, he noticed her sorrowful expression and narrowed his eyes out of curiosity. Before long, she answered his look.
"Do you ever dream about them? I mean, your parents and Itachi?"
His expression changed back to the classic stoic one as his eyes settled back on the moon. "Hn... All the time."
There was silence once more. This was something that he'd wanted to know ever since their trip to the cemetery. "Why didn't you tell me?"
"I don't know... It's just hard to talk about I guess... But, enough about my sad stories..."
After that, she began to stare at him. Sasuke repeatedly glanced at her to notice that she had her eyes locked on him.
"What?" he asked, clearly annoyed.
She grinned. "I just remembered how much I miss your duck butt hair and," she reached up to pinch his cheek, "all that baby fat you used to have."
He slapped her hand away and frowned. "My hair didn't look like a duck butt."
Her grin became wider as she stroked his hair with one hand, which he didn't protest to. "I like the bangs though, Duckbutt."
"What are you so happy about Forehead?" he asked. He'd only heard Ino call Sakura that and just said it because it was the first thing that came to mind. However, he knew that he'd screwed up when she gasped out of shock and withdrew her hand, turning away from him.
"Don't call me that," she whispered.
He quickly apologized, hating to see her so upset. "Sorry. I didn't mean it like that."
She turned her head to face the front, tilted so that she was looking up at the moon. "I know, but... I hated it when people used to call me that. I hate my forehead so much."
Sasuke vaguely remembered people teasing Sakura when they were small children. They usually called her "Billboard Brow", but Ino called her "Forehead". The Uchiha mentally facepalmed as he thought.
"I don't see why."
"My forehead does look like a billboard. That's why I grew some bangs, to hide it."
Sasuke didn't know how to put this in words without sounding weird. Scratching his head, he stuttered as he replied. "Y-You look uh, n-nice, to me either way."
She blushed as she turned to face him again. "R-Really?"
He nodded without looking her in the eye. "And that purple mark, it looks uh, cool."
Sakura didn't know what to say. Sasuke Uchiha had just, or attempted, to compliment her. So there they sat, the awkward silence returning. Sasuke had noticed that she became more tense like she had been when she talked about her parents.
"What's wrong? Don't tell me that it's nothing."
She sighed. "It's stupid."
She began to crawl her way back into the cave, but Sasuke quickly blocked her and nudged her back out.
"I'm not letting you go back in until you tell me."
He let go when she stopped moving. She sighed once again. "It's just, I feel like it's my fault. I'm the reason that they're dead."
His eyes softened, finally realizing what had been bothering her. "It isn't."
"You weren't there."
"I didn't need to be. From what Naruto told me, I don't think that it's your fault."
"You're just saying that."
"Because I know that I'm right."
After she had finished explaining what was bothering her, she started to head back into the cave again. Sasuke stopped her immediately, making her irritated.
"What now?!"
"There's more that you're not telling me. It's worse than the thing about your parents, isn't it?"
She began to stare at the ground. "How are you able to figure me out so easily?"
He smirked and mocked her words from a few days ago. "You can be easy to predict sometimes."
She gave a small smile before turning it back into a frown. "Why were we assigned as partners?"
He was confused. Nonetheless, he still didn't plan on telling her that he'd lied when he said that Kakashi had assigned them as partners.
"Sasuke, you and Naruto could destroy the enemy in an instant if you came across them. So why was I paired with you?"
Out of shock, his mouth widened slightly. He still didn't get it.
"I'm nothing compared to both of you. Both of you are so powerful and here I am. Tch, if anything, I'm just here to sit on the sidelines."
A mental slap to himself. "Why are you saying that?"
She threw her hands up. "Because I'm supposed to be part of the 'New' Legendary Sannin. That's a really good joke if you ask me. I'm nothing compared to you and Naruto," she repeated.
"That isn't true."
"You know that it is. I'm weak."
"Shut up!"
She jumped at his sudden outburst. He grabbed her shoulders tightly and looked her in the eye while continuing with a commanding voice.
"You may not have powers like us, but you're strong in your own way. No, it may not be near as powerful as a Susanoo or a Tailed Beast's chakra, but you can do things that me and him will never learn. I never want to hear you say that you're weak again!"
Sasuke forced himself to calm down and let go of her. She stayed in the same spot, watching him cautiously. Suddenly, he grabbed her once again, remembering something that he'd heard Tsunade mention.
"Promise me that you won't use that," he pointed to the purple mark, "unless absolutely necessary."
When he was outside of the hospital one day, Sasuke had heard the fifth Hokage having a conversation with Sakura. He'd become infuriated when he learned that the jutsu shortened the user's life span. However, he'd forgotten to ask her about it in the days after.
"But-"
"Promise me!"
"Why-"
"Because I can't lose you!"
Her bewilderment was nothing compared to his. The words had left his mouth without him getting a chance to stop them. But, it was the truth.
"Sasuke?"
"I can't lose you again..."
Finally, she nodded to comply with his request. He slowly let go of her and switched his sitting position so that his back was to her. They didn't move and the only sounds came from the small wind gusts.
Finally, after what seemed like forever, he turned back again. They both faced the moon and she gave him a short glance which turned into a full on stare. He looked...
"Sakura, I'm afraid."
A short gasp escaped her lips before she could stop it. Sasuke Uchiha, was AFRAID?!
"I'm afraid because..." There were a few things that he was afraid of, but this was his biggest fear. "I'm afraid of losing you."
Sakura could not believe what she had just heard. First he said that he COULDN'T lose her. Now he was saying that he was AFRAID to lose her.
Sasuke wondered why he had just told her that. Something about her always made his resistance crumble and his thoughts scrambled. That was one power that she could hold over him anytime she wanted without knowing it.
"Why me?"
He didn't reply, still in disbelief at what had come out of his own mouth. It was the absolute truth though. If he ever lost her, then he didn't even know what he'd do. All that he did know was that he'd show no mercy on the ones that took her away from him.
Sasuke shook his head. "You're the one that I trust the most."
Sakura had seemingly gotten over her shock, but in truth, she was still perplexed. "I trust you the most Sasuke..."
Both of them were astonished at how fast their conversations could turn from friendly, to fueled with anger, to joking, to sorrow, and so on.
Sasuke clenched his fists as he stood up and towered over her. "Why?! I tried to kill you and you still trust me?! No, all of you do! Why?!"
"No matter what I say, you're not going to accept it. What do you want me to say?"
"That you hate me. That you never want to see me again. That I should crawl into a corner and die."
She stood up and held both of his arms. "What's wrong with you? Why do you keep doing this to yourself?"
"Because that's what I deserve." He shook her hands off of his arms. "I never should have come back to the village."
Sakura was extremely frustrated at this point. "Then why did you come back?!"
He rubbed his eyes and scratched his head. "I don't know... I just... Don't want to be alone any more..."
Her voice was hardly a whisper now. "You say that but you still try and push all of us away."
When he didn't reply, she continued.
"After losing my parents, I know what it must have felt like for you and Naruto all those years. That and... When you and Naruto fought each other last time. He told me about that prophecy thing later on. That when you fought then you'd both die. It was after the war and at first, I was mad. Then, I realized that it was because I didn't want to lose both of you. I didn't want to be alone. I never wanted to know that feeling, but then you left again and my parents died. Naruto got married and I don't get to be around him or Hinata very often anymore. Everybody else is always on missions or dates and that kind of thing. I've been so busy with work and locked in my office or apartment all the time. I guess I just got used to being alone after all of that, but... Then you came back and it was like... I don't know how to say it."
He stared at the moon with sorrow in his eyes. "You still feel the same, don't you?"
Very slowly, she nodded and looked away.
Sasuke was on the verge of having another outburst, but he kept his cool this time. "Why? You could've had Naruto. Heck, you could have pretty much any of the single guys in the village now. Why do you love someone like me? I-I almost killed you. All I did was bring you pain and that's still all that I can do now."
"That's not true. And, I don't want anyone else. I don't feel the same way about them like I do you. Sasuke, I don't care if you ever feel the same way I do, but that's never going to stop me from loving you."
He wasn't shocked, more depressed. She had basically just confessed to him again, but he didn't know how to respond to it. "You deserve better."
"I don't care what you think I deserve. It won't change anything."
Both of them wanted to get off of this subject immediately. It felt really awkward to be talking about how they felt towards one another. Sasuke was just glad that they had avoided getting to how he felt. He still didn't really know about his feelings towards Sakura, but he didn't think that he felt "that way". Glancing at her once, he noticed something not very surprising.
"You haven't taken it off?" he asked, referring to the necklace he'd given her.
She shook her head and the silence returned. She chuckled. "What's wrong with us? One minute we're fighting and the next were casually chatting."
"Hn..." He walked so that he stood directly in front of her. "Can you promise me something else?"
She narrowed her eyes in curiosity.
"Promise me that you won't do something stupid on this mission."
She smiled. "I think you're the one who needs to make that promise to me."
He rolled his eyes. "Fine, but words don't mean anything."
Sakura raised an eyebrow. "What, are we gonna pinky promise?"
He shrugged. "That's all I can think of."
"I don't get it."
It was his turn to raise an eyebrow.
"Tch. I can't get it through my head that you actually TRY to be funny. I would really love to know what happened to make you like this."
"It's only when I'm around you."
She blushed a furious red. "Really?"
He smirked and nodded. "Hn. Did you poison me or put me under some kind of jutsu? I don't even know why I'm acting like this."
Sakura rolled her eyes. "You know that I wouldn't do that. I kind of like the new Sasuke anyway."
"You didn't like the old me?" he asked sarcastically.
"Stop teasing me. I hate how you do this on purpose."
"Fine. I guess that I can stop for a minute. By the way, don't tell anyone else that I act like this around you, especially Naruto. They'll take me for a weak fool."
"So showing some human emotion is weak to you?"
"Very." He held out his right pinky. They entwined them in another few seconds. Sasuke sighed. "I promise that I won't do anything stupid."
"I promise that I won't do anything stupid," Sakura repeated.
They were about to break away, but stopped when their eyes met. Sasuke couldn't breathe and wanted to stay like this. Sakura didn't know what to think of it. She was waiting for him to let go, but was caught by surprise when he fully entwined their hands instead. Sasuke was inwardly thinking to himself.
"That kiss at the arena didn't mean anything. But, I felt different when we agreed not to count it. Was I right about it just being because I wanted to spare them the discomfort? I do feel so much more different than my usual self around Sakura. Does that mean...? Am I... In love?"
The weirdest part about his inward thoughts was that he wasn't bothering to deny that he was in love. He had no clue what it felt like, but he knew that he loved Sakura. But, did he love her in this way?
"Maybe, if I do this, then I can find out."
Before he had even finished the thought, he had started to slowly lean in. Sakura soon followed. She had been thinking almost exactly the same thing. Their eyes had completely closed as they continued to move forward. All thoughts of the mission had left their minds. They only focused on the other person leaning in. There was just a small gap between them when-
A flash in Sasuke's closed eyes.
He was on the bridge where he had killed Danzo. The lightning in his hand sparkled as he moved it towards Sakura.
Another flash.
He had her by the throat and he grabbed the kunai from her hand, slicing at her neck.
He gasped and his eyes shot open as he grabbed Sakura's shoulder to stop her from coming any closer. She immediately opened her eyes and stopped moving.
"Sasuke, are you okay?"
He let his hand fall to his side as he took a step back. "I'm fine. You should get some rest."
After a few seconds of silence, she nodded and headed back inside. As she got back into her sleeping bag, she thought to herself.
"Was he really just about to kiss me? Then, why did he stop? I really need to quit thinking like this. I can't keep living in my own fantasies. He wasn't going to kiss me for real and he never will..."
Sasuke stared at his hands. He hadn't moved from his spot that he had been standing in when she went back inside the cave. Those horrible memories always came to him, whether it was in a dream or when he was awake. Why now? Slowly, he sat down and stared at the moon with half closed eyes. What he had just attempted to do seemed like a mistake at this point.
"What was I thinking?! Even if I do feel like that, I don't deserve her anyway. I'm just a disappointment and all I can do is bring her pain. Why did I do that?"
As he continued to stare at the moon, he wondered why he felt like it was something he had to do.
"What am I saying?! I'm not in love with her or anyone else and I'm never going to be. But... Why did I do that?"
The more he thought, the more he realized his true intentions in that moment.
"I had to know how I felt. There was no point to it anyway. I already know how I feel and I don't like her that way."
He couldn't help but turn around to face the cave entrance where she had disappeared from his sight.
"Then, what's this feeling that I get when I'm around her? She still feels the same but... Maybe I should ask her what it feels like, to be in love."
Sasuke barely resisted the urge to punch himself senseless.
"STOP IT! WHY AM I THINKING LIKE THIS?! I DON'T HAVE TIME FOR THAT LOVE CRAP! My only focus needs to be on this mission!"
No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't get her out of his head. Extremely frustrated, he gripped his ears and shook his head.
"GET OUT OF MY HEAD! WHY DO YOU ALWAYS DO THIS TO ME SAKURA?!"
He stopped shaking his head and his eyes widened.
"Wait a minute... Isn't this one of the signs that you're in love?"
This time he couldn't stop himself from slapping his face as hard as he could. He lied to himself the best he could possibly do.
"I think that I'm getting sick. I'll ask Sakura what it is later. She'll know what's wrong and why I feel so different. I have to be prepared for anything on this mission so I can't be getting sick."
Once again, he turned back to face the cave entrance. This time, he had a small look of pleasure on his face.
"She did look really, attractive, with the moonlight shining on her. Maybe I am..."
Barely suppressing a scream of frustration, Sasuke slapped himself for the second time. It left a gigantic handprint on the side of his face.
"I'm definitely getting ill or something. I have to stop this soon. Thinking like this is a weakness. I am not 'in love' and I am never going to be."
Author's Note: Sasuke is definitely "sick" if you know what I mean. Sorry I left a cliffhanger for Kakashi, Gaara, and Kankuro. That will come up again. How long will they keep denying their feelings for each other?! The suspense is killing me and it makes me mad to write it. I know that I can't just make them both in love with each other right off though. Oh well, I'm making us all wait longer for it. We just have to be patient.
By the way, am I the only one who actually liked Zaku, Dosu, and Kin? I was a little disappointed when they were killed off so suddenly. To me, they were pretty cool. Ah, memories...