"What are you doing here, Sasuke-kun?"
She didn't bother covering the animosity present in her voice as her glaring eyes looked upon his moonlight soaked form, his shirt becoming a lighter lilac out of the white light. His arms were crossed as per usual, after all, where else would they be?
Certainly not around her.
He glared into her eyes before slowly shifting his gaze out into the night. He kept his gaze averted from her then, which was odd, since Sakura could only assume that he had wanted to check up on her, though it wasn't at all necessary. After all, he'd kept his eyes away from her all that morning, he'd made his message perfectly clear.
But then, there he was, standing before her at ungodly hours of her sleepless night. So there had to be a reason…right?
Sakura crossed her arms over her chest, mirroring the Uchiha. "You've obviously made your way across the village for some reason, so what is it?"
Sakura wasn't ignorant. She knew that the Uchiha compound was on the opposite side of the village from her own home, and while she shook her head at her twelve-year old mind, she had figured out the distance between her home and his back when they'd first been made into a team. Call it obsessive or stalker-ish, but nothing could stop her as she watched him walk home all those days, back when everything was seemingly easy. Of course, she already knew where Naruto lived, the frustrated screams and complaints of his name could be heard from her bedroom window if she opened it wide enough.
She watched as his brow deepened, his eyes becoming darker as he stared out into nothing, blending into the darkness of the night. And for a moment, she feared that he'd blend seamlessly into it and vanish for good, leaving her alone all over again.
"I don't need a reason to be out." Sasuke replied evenly, which sent annoyed shots of electricity down Sakura's spine.
"So, you just happened to stop your little night walk on top of my roof?" Sakura asked him incredulously, her eyebrows raised.
She didn't expect an answer, so she could only raise her eyebrows higher when he spoke. "Yeah."
He still had yet to face Sakura once more, and granted that she had been used to averted eyes, it wasn't a huge feat to keep her face straight and calm, hints of annoyance spreading onto her features. Since when did Uchiha Sasuke just casually end up on her roof? Never, that's when. She could only imagine her twelve year old self swooning with the thought. How appropriate.
"Go back to sleep." he said suddenly, glaring into an adjacent brick wall of the building neighboring Sakura's home.
Another voice boomed inside of Sakura's head, a younger and more familiar voice that haunted her dreams ever since that day.
"Get out of here, and go back to sleep." he'd told her all those years ago.
"It's hard to go back to something that you were never in." Sakura said plainly, being graced by a brief flash of his eyes, meeting hers only briefly from the corners of his. As quickly as they'd arrived, they went back into their place. She caught the hidden message in his eyes all too quickly.
He hadn't been able to sleep either.
But even so, it still made absolute zero sense to Sakura, who began to frown. The situation…it was all so…very un-Sasuke. He was the type of person to throw shuriken at an innocent tree when he couldn't sleep, or sit up on his own roof and stare out into nothing. That was something Sasuke would do, but this?
Is he upset about something? Sakura thought to herself as she examined his body language, which was nothing out of the ordinary, which didn't surprise her at all. However, there was something off about him, something that she couldn't put her finger on. And if he had been upset, then why come here?
This was the first time in history that Uchiha Sasuke came to Haruno Sakura in the night, the only question to be asked was why.
"Is everything okay?" she asked him, softening her voice.
Silence.
"Look," she began, inching closer to her visitor. "I don't know what's going on, but it's late, and I'm sure that it can wait until morning. Or, if it's as you say and there's nothing wrong, then go stand on someone else's roof. Or better yet, go home." she tried, hoping to trigger something from his impassive glare. When she hadn't even received a glance, she bit into her lower lip angrily.
"I want you to leave." she said, suddenly shocked at the severity of her words, not meaning them entirely and yet, wanting to.
A sudden breeze blew across her roof, sending chills all around her exposed skin, which made Sakura realize just how exposed she was. She was wearing a pair of tight fitting, black shorts with an oversized red shirt, thin as paper. The fabric let the night air into her skin, and it chilled her greatly, not that she would say anything.
It was at that precise moment that their eyes met once again, green boring into onyx with a severity that nobody would've matched.
His eyes were cold and brooding, sending signals to her brain that he was out for the kill, she didn't know what for exactly, but it was there, plain as the stars in the night sky. She'd only ever seen that look on him when he was either majorly pissed off, or when he was threatened. She decided she'd go with the first option, seeing that any Uchiha finding a pink-haired female threatening would be ridiculous to say the least.
She stared back at him with equal force, narrowing her eyes in distaste. "You know, it's rude to stare at a lady like that. It's off-putting."
She hid the jolt of surprise in her features when he smirked at her suddenly, his eyes still murderous and his expression still for the kill. "And it's rude to tell someone that you want them to leave. It's off-putting."
What an absolute jerk Sakura thought to herself, narrowing her eyes to a greater volume.
"Leave." she said once again, pointing out towards the horizon of houses, out towards the direction of his home.
She only then truly realized just how damn sexy his smirks were, as if there would be anything other than his looks to define him as such. Kami knows that she'd seen enough of his snarky looks in front of Naruto, and she'd cherished each of them secretly.
"And what if I don't?" he asked her, shooting her a look that made her weak in the knees, or was it the cold air? She couldn't tell.
"I'll make you leave." Sakura said, surprised at how confident she sounded. Though, when Sasuke raised his eyebrows at her, she felt a rush of caffeinated confidence. "What, you think I couldn't?" she tried, mirroring his expression fully.
The moonlight glowed onto his pale face as his expression calmed slightly, a strange sheen spreading onto his eyes that fascinated Sakura, making want to look closer and deeper than she'd ever dared to before, wanting to gaze into his naked soul and immerse herself in his thoughts.
If only she'd been able to do so that night…
"I'll…make you…" she finished lamely, looking down to her feet.
They spread in her mind like wildfire, popping up randomly and burning through her memories, demanding their attention and importance. Why now, why out of all times had she suddenly been hit with the painful nostalgia? All at once, her confidence dimmed as the memories she'd tried so hard to push aside came up abruptly and vividly into her consciousness; visions of his cold eyes and taunting smile that set her heart on edge into the oblivion he'd disappeared into; an oblivion that she'd tried so hard to follow him into. Depression was a sickness, and she had been sick enough to fall into its dark depths.
The last time that he'd told her to go to bed, she'd allowed the tears to fall freely from her eyes as he forced her to sleep with a prick to the neck.
Almost as if on cue, her lips spread into a sad smile, letting them speak on their own accord once more.
"It's funny…that my words aren't reaching you…even now."
She kept her head down, silence permeating the air, suffocating like toxic fumes.
"Back then, I couldn't stop you from leaving. And even now, I can't stop you from staying. I really am pathetic, huh? What's the point of having words if they don't reach people? What's the point..if they can't persuade even the most broken people. Do I…even reach you?"
She looked up at him then, and felt the tell-tale burn blossom inside of her nose, the sure sign that there would be tears moment later. And just like that night, they would surely fall..
"Sasuke-kun…I-"
Darkness invaded her senses in a blink of an eye, clouding her vision with the darkest hues of the night, warm yet comforting. The scents of musk and something purely un-nameable invaded her senses, intoxicating her with the pure high of living night.
Sakura had believed that she had fainted, or that something had overcame her suddenly. But, as she felt the hardened muscles of his chest push lightly into her cheeks, her heart began to pound frantically, realizing that she was awake.
The soft fabric of his shirt was comforting to her, so much so, that she found herself pushing her face tighter into the crook of his neck, allowing her eyes to be exposed to the night air once more. When she opened them, they were blurred with the tears that had once threatened to fall on such negative terms. Now, they'd fall from a whole other emotion itself.
His palm was gentle on the crown of her head, lightly entangling his fingers into her pink locks as his left arm brought her closer to his body, his warmth spreading into her skin, shivers melting into sighs of relief. He kept his hold of her tightly, keeping her shaking body calm. He was holding her in a way she'd always wanted to be held, and suddenly, her twelve year old antics didn't matter so much.
"You think that I could ignore that loud voice of yours?" he'd said to her, increasing his grip on her, bringing her lips closer to the crook of his neck. "It'd be hard not to."
The water poured out of Sakura's widened green eyes as his words hit her to her very core, realizing that this was what she had been waiting for, this was the moment when the demons in her mind were suddenly suffocated and demolished.
"Shut up.." Sakura said shakily, forcing her stilled arms to move so that her fingers could dig into his shirt, so that she could hold onto him tightly.
She'd reached him, and maybe she hadn't been able to reach deep into the depths of his heart, or maybe she had…whatever the case, it was enough for her.
"I can't accept it." Sasuke's voice said suddenly, his voice husky and cold.
"Hmm?" Sakura hummed, blinking the tears out of her eyes, zoning into his velvet voice.
If it were possible, he clutched onto her tighter, and she'd allowed him to do so.
"I can't accept that that bastard is dead."
Sakura's body immediately stiffened in Sasuke's hold, feeling the muscles in his right arm tighten as his hand curled into a fist. She felt his jaw muscles tense up, a small noise of disapproval escaping his lips.
All the anger returned to Sakura for a grand total of five seconds, the fury rushing through her veins like a fast acting poison with no remedy. His smiling face blinded her vision, making her see blood, wanting nothing more than to end him-
Her thoughts were immediately flushed away by the slightest shift of comforting warmth, a tightening of grip, a shallowed beat of a heart. All this, and suddenly, she had her vision once again. It was simple, really.
Her remedy was him.
"It's okay now." Sakura said softly. "He's gone. He's not coming back."
"You don't know that. Who in the hell knows what he's capable of? He practically disappeared in front of us. How can I accept that?" he asked aloud, venom in his voice.
So she wasn't alone, he had doubts too, though they were of a different degree. They both harbored hate in their hearts for the man of many appearances. If she tried hard enough, Sakura could feel the anger permeating off of her teammate, she could feel the angered tremors of his body against hers.
"You were practically dead…"
Sakura stilled, her mind connecting the invisible dots. Suddenly, she knew the source of Sasuke's behavior, she knew why he was there…
She let one of her hands drop from its unbreakable grasp on Sasuke's shirt, and she immediately found his clenched hand, which immediately began to stop its shaking when she enclosed it into her palm, squeezing it softly.
"I'm here, I'm with you." she said calmly, speaking with her heart, the events of the afternoon melting away with her words as she realized the truth that dwelled within them.
She was with him, and he was with her.
"When we found out he'd killed himself, I was furious. I wanted to bring him back just so that he could have his rightful end, so that Fuu could live on with her life and prosper. I felt like my body was on fire, I hated him so much, it came to the point that I would've done anything to end his life all over again.
"I killed Koichi, not just a part of Joryoku, but a part of Fuu's old teammate. Koichi's soul is free, all the souls he's taken…they're all free from him. They can finally rest in peace. You saw the light from that explosion. It wasn't just a jutsu used for suicide, I can't believe it was just that. He looked too…holy."
She closed her eyes. "It sickens me…it sickens me beyond belief."
Another gust of wind blew against their bodies as they remained silent, unmoving and noiseless.
"Was that intended to comfort me in any way?" he asked her, a slight hint of an octave raise in his voice.
Sakura smiled into his shoulder. "I guess not, I was aiming for factual reasoning with just a hint of reassurance."
She felt his hand release its hold on her head, and she somehow brought herself up and away from his chest so that she could look him in the eyes, so she could truly look at him.
"Phenomenal job, as always." he said wryly.
Sakura looked at him sarcastically. "Thanks, I try."
It wasn't until then that their amused faces dropped entirely, Sakura's words sinking into the air and permeating throughout it with great density. She watched with saddened eyes as Sasuke turned his head to the left, a grim frown present on his face as the moonlight continued to wash away the pigment in his skin. She imagined that the moonlight had a similar effect on her as well, and that the moonlight was no remedy to their rampaging minds. She needed something to distract them, something to keep them occupied.
With a surprised yet silent gasp, she felt his hand move under hers, uncurling from its fist and slowly blossoming open, welcoming her hand into his. Their fingers intertwined, and his grip was strong.
Slowly, she closed the space between them, standing up on the balls of her feet so that their foreheads touched lightly. He gently ran his thumb from his free hand over her cheek, shooing away a piece of stray hair.
"I'm not leaving you. Never." he told her, the moonlight reflecting into his eyes.
Something to distract them…something to keep them occupied…
The answer came to her as she stared into his glittering onyx eyes.
A/N: Only two more chapters remain...
I tried to give Sasuke a little more emotion in the chapter, because of how I've seen him be portrayed in gaiden and in the Boruto movie, and I have to say, I like it.
Any guesses to what Sakura's distraction is? I'll give you a hint, it's mentioned in one of the earlier chapters of this story! Cookies for those who can guess it..
For those of you who read my other sasusaku fic Memory, I haven't been updating it in a while mainly due to the fact that I want to finish this story, and I've been working on a story for the Fairy Tail fandom called Charmed! If you're a nalu fan like me, check it out!
I'll see you guys next time for the second to last chapter!
Love you to Konoha and back xx