Chapter Fourth: Empty Apartment

A/N: The song is "Empty Apartment" by Yellowcard, and it's one of my favourite songs. I'm not sure if it fits this chapter all too well, but the overall emotion of the song does, me thinks. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own the song featured here, nor the manga/anime Naruto

Sasuke knows it's her.

Right off the bat, he knows it— even as he first hears the heels of her boots getting louder, even before he is aware that it's that sickly sweet favourite perfume of hers that he's inhaling— he knows.

He has no reason to believe it's her, hell it's near impossible and he really has to be crazy to even think of it, but his guts are bullying his logical brain to submission. And hoping against hope, there she is.

She probably doesn't know it's him with his head bowed down on the table, he thinks. And it's just a little bit unfair how he is so aware of her now and she just… isn't.

It's just like the universe to knock him down and completely screw him over. Just when he thought that it's been too long and surely the storm that started raging around him when she left has finally calmed.

Suddenly Haruno Sakura comes back, that annoying pink pixie, bringing hell and high waters with her.

If the supposed prowess of Sasuke's death glare (or "evil eye" according to Naruto) is to be believed, Sabaku no Gaara would already be gone, resting six feet under, pushing the daisies. Though why he's glaring the red head down to the ground, he doesn't know. Some alpha male tendency, maybe.

But then again, the red head seems like he can fight back, mustering up a glare of his own. Not as scary as his, Sasuke thinks smugly, but definitely creepy as fuck (the guy barely changes expressions!).

And so he relishes in the angry glare, one that's tinted with jealousy, that Gaara gives him when Sakura says he's going to take her to Hinata's house. He rolls his eyes when, as the two lovers embrace outside of the hotel, Gaara sends him a look. A warning and a challenge for all intents and purposes.

Whatever.

He doesn't care.

He never did.

"I'll see you later when we've both settled in Gaara-kun. Take me out for dinner?" Sakura smiles up at him as she straightens out his shirt.

The red head kisses her lightly on the forehead. "How can I say no to such a request?"

Sasuke's hand tightens around the steering wheel and, completely by impulse, he slams a hand on the horn. "Hurry it up pinky."

Six-years-ago-Sakura would have thrown a hissy fit over that. But this pink haired woman didn't even so much as narrow her eyes, only sighs and frowns as she slides into the passenger seat of his truck.

Her eyes… They don't seem as bright as they did before.

She notices him staring from the rear-view mirror. "What Sasuke?"

He seriously ponders that. What indeed? There are a million unasked questions between them…

So you've been holing up in Suna all this time?

How could you act like we didn't exist for six years?

He starts up the engine again.

"Your eye liner is smudged. You look like a pink panda."

"What kind of person has pink hair? Freak." were the first words Sasuke ever said to Sakura.

He could see the new neighbors clearly from his favourite tree, on the branch that protruded to their backyard. They had just finished moving in and the pink haired girl, tall and lanky, decided to visit the garden to rest.

They were ten.

Really, he thought that she would cry. Her eyes were watering around the edges and her cheeks, all puffed up and red, reminded him of tomatoes. What he didn't expect was for her to swallow it all down and then, with a fire in her eyes, stomp towards him until she was below his tree.

"Freak? Well what kind of person has a duck's butt for a head?"

When he promptly fell off the branch and into a bush of thorny roses and she spent the better half of the afternoon patching up his face, he first had the inkling of a suspicion that she would always, always, be there from then on.

Another (annoying) constant in his life.

They don't talk for the rest of the ride.

Sasuke, whose voice probably costs more than gold, should be happy. But isn't. Instead he's annoyed, and he's only been with her for four hours after six years, and already she's …

"Stop sighing will you Sasuke? You're an ass."

The bewildered look he throws her is definitely not in the repertoire of emotions an Uchiha is allowed to show. And when she laughs at him (damn it, nothing about this is funny!) like she always did, it nearly makes him stop the truck abruptly, jump out, and scream.

Instead, his scowl just runs a little bit deeper. He is an Uchiha after all.

Sasuke hates her for that, always making him want to do things that he shouldn't be doing.

"Yeah, I know. You're not happy having me here. Believe me, if there was another way…" Sasuke glances at her while he waits for her to continue; there's an unnaturally serene expression on her face, "I'd have taken it. But as it is, we're still in the middle of nowhere, so I'm going to have to intrude on your space for a little while more, okay?"

He knows that the smile isn't real.

Even after all this time, he's still well versed in all her roller-coaster emotions. This smile came from a tired sort of peace, the kind a person waving a white flag gives.

And he would have resigned himself to the same. Except for one thing.

How dare she come back with someone?

It's irrational and he knows he has no right.

Haruno Sakura should be able to do, say, and think whatever she wants. She should be able to date anyone she wanted! The day she left them, and refused any kind of contact, she somehow took any right they had to meddle in her life. Like it was something she could put in her pocket and hide.

The fact is he knows he can't expect her to come back and say she's waited and been hoping all these years. Because kami knows he hasn't. The feeling of betrayal doesn't lessen though.

So why did he invite her over? He swears, if this is his sub-conscious plotting some revenge… Kami, stupid is what stupid does.

And right now, miracle of miracles, he realizes that he's completely stupid for Haruno Sakura.

Sasuke wouldn't call Konoha a ghost town. But it definitely wasn't the bustling city that was Suna. At best, it was a sleepy little town, you can find anything there but there's really not much to do. A little piece of civilization hidden in the leaves, hidden in the mountains.

But it was home.

It's all he's ever known— and yes, an Uchiha is never afraid of change. But something always held him back. He suspects it's the two tombstones lying side by side in the cemetery that kept grounding him like gravity.

And eons ago, he thought that Sakura felt the same, only it was him she kept gravitating to. He wasn't blind, or numb. He understood why she looked at him so and why she would touch him the way she did.

That didn't exactly play out well. For the both of them.

But still. They were friends, right? It used to be Sasuke and Sakura and Naruto against the world. And as much as he wanted them to disappear most of the time, he's not stupid. Especially since they kept him sane most of the time.

"You're spacing out again man."

Startled, Sasuke looks at Naruto like he's just realizing he was there. The blonde looks peeved, he was probably right in the middle of regaling him with whatever story of the day he had saved up for their nightly, Ichiraku meetings.

And he hasn't told Naruto about Sakura being back yet. Because she asked, and damn, he really shouldn't be doing her any favours.

"Do you know what's up with Hinata yet?"

Sasuke smirks. "Yes."

"Well are you going to tell me then?"

"No."

A flying fish cake hits him in the cheeks and it sticks there. "Come on asshole. I'm not paying you for nothing!"

"You're not paying me anything dobe. And you'll find out soon enough anyway, I doubt anything stays a secret for too long in Konoha."

Like a how a certain Hyuuga Heiress is now pregnant.

Or that the prodigal, pink-haired sweetheart is walking hand in hand with her new flame, right into Ichiraku.

Sasuke almost laughs at the way her green, green eyes widen, and how she just leaves her mouth hanging open when she sees them. Really now, she had it coming. It's not like she could ever forget that Naruto's favourite ramen stand was Ichiraku.

And when Naruto turns to her, to them, and stands up because somehow he's aware of Sakura's presence as well, Sasuke feels some kind of righteous retribution taking place.

"Sa-sakura-chan?"

"…Naruto."

It feels like he, and everyone else around, is intruding in a private moment. Sakura looks like she did back when they were ten, puffed up cheeks and everything. Hell, Naruto, strongest man he's ever known (though he'd rather drown in a sea of fangirls before admitting that) looks about worse. The blonde's already crying.

He stands up and puts an arm around his poor best friend, "Don't bother with her Naruto. Can't you see she's busy with someone right now—?"

Sasuke doesn't know what he expects from the blonde. Though a sympathetic 'Who is this asshole that's following her around?' would have been nice. So when he sees more than that… more hatred than he's ever seen the blonde give to anyone, much less Sakura— he stops.

"So you're back…" Naruto says through gritted teeth as he tries to hide the tears by covering his face with his arm. But they slip through anyway. Much like the animosity he can't hide.

"I… Yeah, Naruto."

The blonde shrugs off the arm Sasuke put around his shoulders, and nearly cracks a rib when he pushes him away. Sasuke lets him because of course, he's never allowed to forget that it was him who "ruined everything they stood for."

Naruto glances back at Sakura on his way out. It looks like there's still more he wants to say, more things he wants to ask, more harsh words he wants to let loose. But for once the dobe let's the battle go, just squares his shoulders and shouts as he leaves. "Good! You better stay long then!"

Sasuke looks back to Sakura and the 'boyfriend' (yes, quotation marks because he's still not comfortable with the fact) holding her firmly as she shakes. He notices that, though her tears have finally spilled, there's a ghost of a real smile on her pink, pink lips.

And he starts thinking, that just maybe, she will listen to Naruto this time.

Sasuke's known her all his life.

She used to be such a constant.

He remembers how she always greets him with a smile and a "Hey there Sasuke-kun!" like he was the only one in the world that mattered at the moment.

She amazed him with the way she moved, like she was always dancing and walking on the tip of her toes. It always felt like she was so fragile and that was the only way she could move around, soft and fleeting so the world couldn't, wouldn't, break her.

And the way she laughed, god how he misses it! Shyly while covering her mouth with a hand or a handkerchief, the sound of little bells emanating from deep within her, surrounding him.

Even tonight he dreams of her.

Asami…

A/N:

If you read this, then review.

Cause it's lame when you don't … Insert pouty, crying face.

So… What is Sasuke's problem? I wanna ask so I can figure out if I'm translating it here right. Am I? Am I moving too slow or too fast?

And I'm revealing bit by bit who Asami is. But we're not quite there yet! Any other guesses? So excited in developing this story more!

Anyway, I'm spending more time on this than Nyx Eros. So sorry guys. Just let me get this out of my mind before it escapes and I haven't put it fully on paper. Plus, I really want to work on Nyx Eros when I'm not harried, hopefully it turns out better and not tired sounding. For those who read Nyx Eros, yes, I will continue it. Don't worry! That's a promise I made to myself when I re-wrote it anyway.

Thanks for reading and reviewing!