Disclosure: I don't own Naruto. If I did I would take the profits and build a cloning machine to create myself a legion of Sasukes! HEHE
Sakura began to stir and groggily she reached her arm around to rub her sore neck, the bruise under the necessary pressure painfully resting on the sofa's arm rest. Sakura lifted herself up to sit when she noticed a blanket draped over her, the one that usually lay on the base of her bed. She looked around her to gauge where she was and then to scan the apartment for any intruders, known or unknown as the case may be. She knew He wasn't in the apartment in an instant. She bawled her fists in anger and she felt her nails dig in to her own skin uncomfortably. He'd done it again! Used the same tired trick of knocking her out and throwing her away like a rag doll. All the twelve year old emotions of hurt, betrayal and rejection came flooding back, rushing back after years of being locked away. And to top it all off he had left. AGAIN! She's been through this only, well she didn't know how many hours earlier. Damn him for knocking her out and giving her no sense of time! She looked down at the blanket disgustedly and discarded it on the floor, the idea that he had touched it made it repulsive to her now. She stood up quickly and walked through to her bedroom and over to the windowsill. She lay her hand on the very spot the bird had been pearched and then tried to dislodged the window with no avail, it had been resealed by jutsu obviously. She huffed with irritation and turned around sharply, but she instantaneously banged into something very solid and surprisingly warm. In her shock she began to stumble back but he caught her by her wrists and held her fast. Sakura looked up at whoever was holding her and saw the same haunting onyx eyes starring back down at her. Sakura scowled at him, wrenched her hands out of his grip and roughly barged past him into the living room. She stormed across the open room and down the corridor into the bathroom. Sasuke watched her silent tyraid and rolled his eyes, he knew exactly what was coming.
Sakura rounded into the bathroom and squared herself in front of the large mirror. She made a show of pulling her hair away from her neck to reveal something large and purple, a well formed bruise about the size of a thumb. Sakura growled audibly and cast an angry glance to the man slouched against the bathroom doorframe surveying her. She enveloped her hands in the familiar green hue and began removing the mark irritably. She toyed with keeping it on her skin as a reminder of why she should be pissed with him. She could be pissed for an actual tangible reason instead of the general feeling she had right now. Rage and annoyance seemed to be the only emotions she was comfortable with feeling around him at the moment. She felt considerably shaken from her outburst earlier so she decided to cover it, all be it in a juvenile manner, with anger. However Sakura thought she was bigger than that and in a matter of seconds the mar has been erased. Sakura tied her hair up sloppily in her irritation and ran some cold water into the sink intending to wash her face. However the supervision she was really starting to grate on her.
"What?" she growled rounding on him and placing her hands on her hips begrudgingly. Sasuke shrugged and turned away, but did not leave. Sakura rolled her eyes and started to freshen up. Once she had washed her face and subtly applied some antiperspirant she turned and flounced out of the bathroom.
"Feel free to drown in the tub," she chided as she walked past him. She skulked down the corridor and slammed the door to her bedroom and she entered. Sasuke sighed and ran his ragged hand through his hair. This was going to be more difficult than he had thought. He walked into the bathroom and shut the door quietly before turning on the shower and letting the warm water wash away his tension, for the most part.
Sakura was pacing in her bedroom, back and forth at a pace that would ware down the hard wood floors. She was still fuming about the dirty trick he had played her but now her mind was occupied with the matter at hand. Someone had infiltrated her personal home and Sakura had a horrible feeling like she had been invaded. If her attention had not been taken with a fleeting blast from the past she would have been able to sense the intruder and deal with it accordingly. But now she had no leads or evidence and she felt vulnerable, something she had not felt in years. It was decidedly uncomfortable. Then she heard the door handle turn and she span to see who was coming in (even though there was only one eventuality as to who it was.) Sasuke walked into her bedroom wrapped in nothing but a towel, catching Sakura completely off guard. He looked at her as he entered, measuring her up no doubt. She could feel the blush spread across her cheek embarrassingly but she starred him down all the same. She swallowed hard and shook her head in order to regain a bit of herself.
"I put those clothes on the bed for a reason," she said glancing at the men's clothes she had left for him which he had stubbornly refused to wear.
"They're not yours," he said simply. Sakura raised an eyebrow at him and shook her head as she floated over and scooped them off the bed. She looked down at the clothes that were obviously too large for her; of course they weren't hers! Then his cryptic meaning clicked, he knew they were men's clothes but was assuming their origin. Peering into her social life, he assumed they were the remnants of a male caller's visit perhaps. Sakura was tempted to laugh at him but decided to make a point out of his ignorance.
"You didn't expect me to stay alone did you?" she said rhetorically. Sasuke didn't respond with a quip or a derogatory remark like she expected, instead he seemed to flinch slightly, but only slightly. Within a nanosecond any emotion that had betrayed him was in check again, like it never happened. Sakura rolled her eyes and threw them at him, they hit the back of his head with a satisfying whip.
"You can't wear your rags forever. These are brand new. Naruto bought them over last week," she stated simply and turned in order for him to change. She walked over to her wardrobe and pulled open the door so that she could also change behind it, after thirty hours in the same clothes it was becoming necessary. She had to forego a change of underwear sadly but having a new shirt on felt fantastic. She stepped out and Sasuke was sitting on her bed, his back to her and his head cast down to the floor, looking pensive. Sakura arched an eyebrow at his uncharacteristic display of vulnerability. She shut the door of her wardrobe loudly, hoping it would pull him from his reverie but to no avail. He didn't move an inch.
"You've changed," he said simply, his voice slicing through the space between them.
"You've said that already," she said, trying to sound annoyed but it didn't quite come across. She was too busy trying not to sound stunned by his sudden affirmation of her. He had hardly ever commented on her directly and she found it unnerving.
"I expected..." he said, trailing off in thought rather than saying it out loud. Sakura however knew exactly what he had expected and voiced it perfectly.
"You expected me to be here with open arms, ready to welcome home a beloved team mate. You expected a love sick teenager full of undue admiration, still too weak to measure up. Right?" Sakura said with antagonism in her voice. Sasuke turned his head round to look at her, his eyes torn and a picture of remorse. Sakura took a step back in suprise, the look in his eyes knocked the breath right out of her. She felt her anger dissipate irrationally, she should be angry, that's what Uchiha Sasuke deserved. But somehow this Sasuke didn't seem like that man, he seemed like someone else. Even with his stoic exterior, he let some eerily human emotions slip into his eyes. Against her better judgement Sakura let her feet carry her around the bed and sit next to him, still with some distance between them. They sat for a moment in silence, getting accustom to the proximity, Sakura felt out of control of her breathing and she was starring down at the floor while twiddling her fingers in a very Hinata-like fashion.
"I meant what I said in the kitchen, I want to, deep down, believe you're not here to hurt me," Sakura said, as if talking to herself. The vision of the crow sitting on the windowsill came to mind. She turned to face him as if her make her point more strongly. "But, you have to tell me the truth. What's going on and why are you here?" Sasuke watched her speak as if waiting for her judgement. She sighed and readied herself for what she was about to say, conscious that once she said it there was no going back.
"I'll stop acting juvenile. You deserve all the hostility you get but I'm above that to be quite honest," she said quite plainly. Sasuke broke away from her eyes, as if ashamed. Sakura felt a sudden pang of regret for saying that, the Sasuke that deserved this wasn't the type of person to be ashamed. He really had changed, she just wasn't sure what into. Her hand reached out involuntarily to his as if trying to sooth him, but she regulated it.
"You said you needed my help before. I'm willing to give it, but you have to promise to tell me everything," she said. Sasuke nodded lifting his head again, a small amount of his hard exterior coming back into place. "And never, I repeat never, are you allowed to do that to me ever again!" Sakura said poignantly, indicating to her neck where the bruise was no longer. Sasuke chuckled slightly and nodded again, looking up again to meet her gaze. Sakura tried to smile and found it easier than last time.
"Does Naruto come over often?" Sasuke asked. Sakura raised an eyebrow; it seemed to be her favourite reaction to his comments.
"That's not the truth Sasuke," she said, her smile disappearing instantly. Was she going to have to drag it out of him?
Sasuke simply smiled slightly, and shook his head. "It's a long story and I can only tell it to you. Naruto's interruptions aren't ideal," Sasuke said simply. Sakura glanced over to the clock on her night stand which read nine o'clock. If Naruto were coming round he would have pounded on her door almost three hours ago.
"I'm pretty confident he's not coming. He's on a mission anyway I think," she said with a nostalgic smile. It was not lost on Sasuke whose frown deepened. Sakura turned so she was facing him slightly, trying to appear open so he would feel comfortable disclosing his story. It was funny how her medical training that taught her how to be personable to patients would apply in this situation but it just did. Sasuke turned slightly also and took a deep breath as if to brace himself.
"I'm not sure how much you know Sakura, I don't want to patronise you by repeating things you know already," he said in a cautious voice. "You probably don't know Orochimaru is dead," Sasuke said trailing off again. Sakura however did know and most likely betrayed it on her face as Sasuke questioned her less than passive expression. "Did you know?" he pressed. Sakura nodded solemnly, she rolled up the sleeve on the left and turned round to show him the twisting tattoo that graced her bicep.
"My squad rounded up the last vestiges of Orochimaru's supporters. You're relatively legendary amongst the die harders, not in a positive way though mind," Sakura warned. Sasuke nodded and hnned in his usual manner.
"Was that why you were afraid of me to start? You know how he died? And what I'm capable of?" he asked without looking at her. Sakura grimaced slightly, it had to be said, though she hadn't admitted it to herself yet, that she had been afraid of him. On the surface she would have claimed that he was a traitor and needed to be treated with caution. That was only half of the truth; Sasuke had managed to eliminate a Sannin for crying out loud! So the other half of that said truth was blatantly obvious. She was absolutely no match for him, even in his weakened state. He'd always have his sharingan aswell as his incredible skill. It would have been plain stupid of her not to be on her guard around him, but she was finding it easier.
"You're stronger than I could have imagined..." Sakura said pensively. Her fingers still twiddled out of her control again until she saw and felt a cold hand placed on top of them.
"So are you," his voice drifted, pulling her from herself. Sakura looked up quickly to see Sasuke's face turned to hers, his eyes tearing across her face and burning into her own eyes. Her breath felt caught in her chest, unable to escape until the eye contact broke. She slipped her hand out of his and shifted uncomfortably, looking away in order to break the tension.
"You never did have very high expectations of me though," she said mater-of-factly. Sasuke carried on looking at her, surveying the new Sakura next to him.
"I'm sorry for that as well," he said sincerely. Sakura looked up the same time he did and for a moment she felt the same sense of camaraderie as the old days. Sasuke had played along with Naruto and her in order to humour then, those moments were fond to her in her pubescence and struck a chord now as well. Sakura smiled sincerely which spread to him infectiously. She had always had that kind of smile, impossible to deny.
Suddenly there was a loud rap on the door and both their heads snapped to the direction of the living room. Sasuke turned back to Sakura quickly, looking for an explanation.
"I'm not expecting anyone, I swear," she said earnestly. Sasuke stood and walked quickly into the living room, Sakura at his heels. They both stood stock still next to each other directly opposite the front door, both endeavouring to identify the chakra signature the opposite side of the door.
"I don't know it," Sasuke said in hushed tones. Sakura shook her head at her inability to trace it either; she got callers on her door all the time but suddenly Sasuke's edge made her jumpy too. She began to walk towards the door but Sasuke shot out his arm to block her. In a flash he had disappeared from her side and then a second later he was walking out of the kitchen, the katana bared and ready. Sakura felt a tingle down her spine and the adrenaline pumping through her, she looked at him exasperated and eyed the katana.
"What are you doing!" she whispered manically.
He ignored her question however and had his eyes locked on the door. He looked over at Sakura and his head cocked to the side, she took that as her indicator to open up the door. Hesitantly Sakura began to walk to the door; the person behind it would be getting impatient and might knock again. She only feared what Sasuke would do then, he was crazily alert. And what was with the weapon? Something did not smell right to Sakura so she tentatively headed to the door. As she passed Sasuke he placed his finger to his lips, indicating the need for silence. Sakura nodded curtly and walked with chakra infused silent feet to the front door. As she reached the door she felt Sasuke directly behind her and the slightest flash of light off the katana catch her eye. He reached around her and unlocked the door he had previously sealed for her own good. Sakura slowly opened the door open by an inch and peered through the gap to see who it was. Suddenly a high-heeled purple shoe wedged into the open space and pushed the door open quickly. Sakura reacted like lightning, recognising the shoe instantly and threw her arm around like lightning, pushing Sasuke up against the wall so he could hide behind the door. He made the slightest of noises at his overly forceful contact with the wall which made it shake a little. Sakura grinned the fakest smile she could in front of her friend.
"Uhhh...hi Ino," Sakura said shakily.
So here's a chapter with a little more substance. Hope it didn't dissapoint. Please reviews :D and tell me what you think? Happy reading Love Kenners X
