Chapter 09

"Sakura,"

There was no emotion on his voice, not even a hint of surprise as he saw her. Instead, there was a tone of amusement on it and arrogance, as if he was expecting to see her that moment. He had still that blank expression on him. He knows too well that she was there, behind that tree.

"Leaving so soon?" she asked as she finally showed herself and moved from the tree she was leaning on, the light of the full moon revealing her completely. Her eyes, like those pair from a cat in the dark, shone an eerie luminous of green. She was looking intently to Sasuke's dark ones.

He didn't answer. As if answering her is a bothersome thing. He smirked, in that annoying kind of way. He tilted his head a bit, and put his left hand on his waist, shifting his weight on his right, as if directly telling her he was bored and if she could do about him being caught and leaving.

And she knows him too well, God, why did she have to deal with him after all these years. The fate must have enjoyed torturing her! He didn't change at all. His attitude worsens, from being a cocky bastard when they were 12 to overly arrogant, conceited, haughty, egotistical and overconfident jerk he is now! As if he was the most amazing and hottest guy in the whole world, and that humans were nothing like worms on his eyes!

She composed herself. She can't afford to sway against her feelings right now. No matter how she hated him, she needs to clear her mind. After all, this is her chance to drag his sorry ass back to Konoha. She sighs and with the determined face and concrete disposition, she stood and approached him.

"You know I can't let you do that," she said calmly. He still stood there; not moving an inch, as his hair was softly sways with the cold night wind. His eyes bores in her with still that intensity people find so intimidating. But she won't back down, so she throws back the same intense glare at him.

He raised a brow on her declaration, and snorted. He really finds it amusing.

"And what can you do? Stop me?" he snorted.

"Yes," she said as she pulled her gloves on her back and started putting them.

Sasuke's weight shifted on both of his feet and he was looking straight to her now.

"Don't make me laugh, what can you do to me, huh, Sakura?" he asked as his hands slowly reaches for his Kusanagi on his back. His brows scrunch up together, his face in utter annoyance, the smirking long gone.

"Still assuming I'm weak, don't you?" she chuckled as she pulled her specialize gloves to fit better in her hands, "well, you're wrong. I'm not the same Sakura you left in that cold bench 6 years ago, and not even the Sakura you tried to kill 3 years ago. People do change and I fall under that category,"

"Really?," And within a blink of an eye, he was gone in front of her. And just as fast as he vanished, he appeared inches behind her, the kusanagi sword already aiming at her throat, "I'm not so sure about that," he whispered behind her, pulling the kusanagi across her throat. Blood spurt on Sakura's throat, as he smirked

"Don't get cocky, Uchiha," she said behind him.

"Hn,' he snorted. The girl Sasuke thought he had cut the throat turned to mud. It's a kawarimi made of earth.

Sakura was holding a kunai and slashed Sasuke a few times, but found out it was a log. He too had used a replacement jutsu.

She saw him just a few meters in front of her, staring at her. He had to admit to himself that he was impressed, but there's no way he's gonna say that out loud. But it was not enough. He smirked. This could be interesting.

"Give up, before I change my mind," he said.

"Why? Scared that a girl can kick your ass, Uchiha?" he said, emphasizing his last name.

There it is again, her calling him his last name. It annoys and it started to tick him off, he don't know why. Was it because he was used to her calling him and squealing 'Sasuke-kun' before? Or was it that it clearly indicated that Sakura finally gets over him and her fangirl adoration on him. Good, because she annoys the hell out of him anyway.

Sakura saw him do a series of seals. She knows it because it was his signature jutsu, the Katon Goukakyou no Jutsu. She avoided it, then she pumped chakra on her right hand as she plunge towards him in an amazing speed. He avoided it causing her hand to land on the ground, splitting and cracking it, making the ground gave way to a large crater. She saw Sasuke jump on her left, so she twisted her body bringing up her right chakra-infused leg and kicked him hard. He raised his two arms to guard her kick, but he didn't expect it was to be followed with her another leg, hitting his left face. All of that in a split second movement. He flew to a good 10 meters ahead, scratching the ground, digging the earth with him. He spurt blood from his mouth with the intense impact, his face throbbing. As soon as he tried to get into his feet, Sakura came charging again at him, hands curling up into a ball with blue hue due an infused chakra on it. Both engaged in a fast phase exchange of taijutsu blows on each other, until Sasuke hit her on the stomach. It hurts which made her gasp. She lost her balance and concentration with a millisecond and now he was holding up her throat in a tight grip. He shoved her to a large tree. She gritted her teeth as his grip tightened, refusing her lung to take air.

Sasuke's lips rose to draw a smirk, looking her in the eye. He was mocking her with that look and she understood the message. Sakura hissed fiercely and grip his hand, trying to get off him, so she kicked him hard, forcing Sasuke to release his grip from her throat. He flew a good 5 meters from her which she took as a chance to breathe hard.

"Bastard," she muttered as she wiped her face with the back of her arm, glaring daggers on him. He just looked stoically at her. Then, dark coal eyes bleed to red. He was activating his kekkei genkai, the sharingan. She immediately looks on his feet. Damn sharingan!

She knows too well, she's gonna be in disadvantage when he starts to use his sharingan. Cursed that kekkei genkai of his! Not only that it develop so well, it now carries the world's most powerful jutsu the man had ever known in the history of ninja.

"Oh?" she heard him muttered, "You amused me Sakura. When did you learn that?"

"You're not the only sharingan user in this world you jerk," she spat at him.

"Right, so Kakashi taught you. But you know that it's no use,"

He's right. He had witnessed it herself when they've met Itachi before. She had a hard time focusing herself from not watching his eye then. And even if they had not looked in his eye, Naruto had fall on his genjutsu. She vividly remembers Chiyo-baa-chan's words when someone meets a sharingan user; when one on one, run. When two on one; do the double team. She did train under Kakashi-sensei, devising ways on how to defeat the doujutsu. It was hard, because the kekkei genkai is hard to defeat. It can copy jutsus faster than the one who executes them. Not to mention, Sasuke completed the final form of his sharingan, the eternal mangekyou sharingan and its power. And she knows that only Naruto can defeat him now.

As the last Uchiha before him, gained more powerful doujutsu with his eyes and it's a mission impossible for her to defeat him. And even though she's far excelled at genjutsu, far more advance than Kurenai, sharingan inflicted genjutsus were hard to break. Just thinking all of this brings so much butterflies in her stomach. It made her winced.

But would she raise her white flag with that? Hell NO! She will fight him with all the training she got after all of those years. This is her moment. This is her chance to prove herself, and him, that she's not the weakest link of team 7 anymore, or the weakest in Konoha 12. That she can be at par with them now. She trained hard, bruised herself and wasted her body and soul to train every fucking day just to achieve what she is now. That uncertainties and doubts about herself made her concrete, that pain healed her and the broken heart keep her hope alive.

She won't give up.

"You're getting talkative, aren't you?" she said. She assisted her chakra, and it's not good. She could only pump another one or two punches more. She needs to land at least one on him to knock him out. But with him activating his sharingan, she needs to find a way.

She was looking on his feet for any movement; she was sensing his chakra too for any changes. With all those years of training her perfect chakra control, she can sense slight chakra changes from others. And he was not making any move. Much to her surprise, he was behind her. So close that she froze. He was emitting his body heat behind her, that close! When did he sneak behind her? And who was in front her now? Damn! She cursed under breath. It's a clone who's in front of me! When did he do the jutsu?

"The moment you took your eyes and went to my feet," he said as if to answer what's on her mind.

She tried to get away from him, pumping chakra on her feet. She has to or it'll be the end of her. With him this close, it's dangerous. But he was already gripping her arm so hard she winced. She's just lifting a finger on her left hand, but he quickly grabbed it too, pushing it on her back so hard, she was forced to kneel.

She gasped. Sasuke was gripping both of her arm tightly it hurts that she had to bite her lower lip to suppress a whimper.

"Weak," he mumbled behind her.

And with that word, she struggled. She tried to release from her grip. But the more she struggle, the more Sasuke grips on her arms.

"Let me go you bastard! Let me go! " she shouted.

Before she knew it, her back was slammed into a tree. She gasped with the impact. Her arms finally released, but Sasuke was gripping her face. She was forced to look at him now, jade orbs full of despise and hate towards the obsidian orbs with blank intense.

"Struggle all you want Sakura, but that won't change the fact that you are weak," he said, gritting his teeth, as if controlling his anger deep inside, his face so close to her, "And because of that weakness, you missed the only chance you had to drag me back to Konoha. So I suggest, you go back like the good girl you are and train more, and maybe get over that fangirling of yours cause no matter what you do, I'll never liked you. Never. I will come back to Konoha… to destroy it!" then she released his gripped on her

Ok, the liked thing was a half lie. But he himself didn't know that because he was burying all his emotions with hate. It was there, swimming deep inside him, together with all of his hidden emotions, but they were swirling back to an abyss and he only accepted hate to bore into him. He buried emotions and thoughts that he deemed a weakness. And Sakura was a weakness.

Sasuke's left face went numb. It surprised him what had hit him until he realized that Sakura had slapped him. Man, it stings! He smirked. She's feisty he thought. Like a cat who's finally cornered revealing its claws and fangs to attempt to show it will fight to the end. Well, maybe he went overboard and had step on the borderline, but he won't back down. He will get his revenge on that filthy village.

He releases her after one mocking look at her and turns his back.

Sakura bit her lower lip. There's a big lump on her throat and swallowing proves to be a hard task. She was devastated. She was broken into a thousand pieces. She tried her best not to cry. But she was shaking. Sasuke had just killed her the fourth time now. The only guy he ever devoted herself, the guy he dreamt, her former team mate and friend, the only guy he ever love is walking out from her. Her chest was hurting, her heart crushed.

Yes, she won't cry in front of him. She won't look so pity in front of him. She had done it years ago right? And she was over him already. She knew she had gone strong, much stronger than the only female of the legendary Sannin. She thought that she had killed his feelings for him.

But she's in love…

…so hopelessly fucking in love with Sasuke…

…that it hurts.

And it proves to be her fatal weakness.

"I…I wish to Kami, that I have never met you…" she said, her strong and determined façade gave away with her shaking voice, Sasuke stopped walking "…then, I won't be able to have this fucking feelings towards you,"

Sasuke turned toward her and gave her a blank look, void of any emotion. It was really hard to know what the guy is thinking.

"I'm so stupid, aren't I? So stupid to cling on that tiny hope you'll come back one day… so stupid to let myself believe that one day, everything will be okay," a tear escaped and roll on her face which she hurriedly wiped-off away, "I should have known already. I should have given up then. Kami-sama, I had wasted half of my life because of you!" This time, tears keep rolling on her face, which she tried to wipe away, "Ah, that reminds me, " she was shaking, her voice quivering as she tried to suppress all her emotions from bursting inside her, "I should already start accepting invitations when I get back. Yeah, I should accept Shion's proposal when I get back and finally settled down…" She was talking more to herself than to him. She breathes and exhaled as if releasing all her pent-up tensions and frustrations. "…Why did I wait for you?" she paused, trying to breath, "Why did I try so hard for you? Why did I keep myself believing on you? Why did I waste my time on a guy who won't even glance at me at least once?" She closed her eyes, thinking of all the years back then.

Sasuke gave her a scrutinizing look. Her tears are rolling down on her face, and she was shaking, hands curled up in a ball on her sides. She had enough, all of it. She may look so weak and pitiful in front of him now, but the hell she cares anymore. She's tired. So fucking tired already chasing him after all this years. She's tired of waiting and suppressing her feelings for him. She don't want to know what he thought about her right now, the important thing is, she'll let it all out!

"I didn't ask you for it," Sasuke blandly said.

She looked at him, straight into the eye as she wiped a few tears in her cheeks. There, in front of her, is the guy she gave her heart out, the one she devoted, prayed, hoped and love…looking at her with his glance so cold and arrogant.

And this is it…she had to severe it before she withered away. Before he could took what's left of her.

And she gave him a smile…a smile so warm and beautiful, reaching him for her final significance.

"I never thought that loving you with all my heart and all my life will hurt me like this. I hate you, Uchiha Sasuke,"

It was a soft murmur as the last stream of tears leaves her eyes. Her voice clearly tells him that she had given up on him, that he's okay to go to wherever he wants to go. That she was taking back her heart from him. And she's ending and cutting all ties between them…ending it all.

He didn't know but there was something inside of him that snaps.

092112.0556

TBC