Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. I do not own any of the characters associated with the franchise. I do not own the series, even though the thought is indeed nice. I do however, own this plot, and the original concept behind this plot.

I am SO SO SO sorry about the delayed update on this. School and life ended up getting in the way but this has been quite a few months in progress chapter. Of course, as a reminder, this is a different take (meaning Naruto universe) on the novel I'm currently working on, so all positive feedback and constructive criticism is welcome. Also a reminder that this is AU and the characters are a bit OC just because they're being based off of my own.

Also as an apology there is some smut in this chapter.

I don't know how we managed to get from his car to the kitchen in our state of bliss, but we somehow managed to pull it off while managing to never lose any type of bodily contact. When we got inside, it was pitch black since we hadn't thought to leave a light on before we originally went out to our spot in the nature preserve just to get some time alone. But there was enough light shining in through the kitchen windows that I could see that he was leaning against the kitchen sink with half a smirk on his face. His long, pale, lean legs were extended out from his body in front of him and his hands were both resting on either side of him on the counter. He looked up at me, noticing that I was taking in the mere sight of him, growing hungrier for his touch by the second. I drifted over to him, grabbing his hand and pulling him down onto the floor with me, interlocking my fingers with his much longer ones on the descent down.

"Where were we?" I asked softly, placing a soft kiss on the back of his much larger hand.

Without even looking at him, I could feel the grin radiating off of him. "I was going to tell you something serious at some point, but you ended up distracting my thoughts with those gorgeous eyes of yours, and then I noticed your lips and then all I could think about was how mine felt against them." He used his free hand to open up one of the cabinets underneath the counter to pull out a bottle of alcohol. I glanced at the label, noticing that he pulled out my favorite flavor of vodka (whipped to be exact). He popped the bottle open and proceeded to take a swig straight from the bottle.

"Not going to even bother mixing it?" I questioned, raising an eyebrow at him.

"I don't see a reason to. I don't even care at this point." He said as he took another long gulp.

"What changed from your cheerful persona before? Hey! Are you trying to get yourself drunk?"

"No," He responded. "You know me; I don't like to drink alone. I was hoping that maybe you would consider possibly joining me on this magical adventure. I think it would make the night a lot more fun for the both of us."

"I thought we were going to have fun together when we went to the preserve. But, we ended up cutting that short so we could go meet up with everyone at the club to have a night of fun with everyone and not just with ourselves. What was the point of even bothering going out then if we were just going to end up alone back here? So, are you telling me that you seriously had us leave the club that we were at with all of our friends just to come back here and get drunk when we could have been drunk idiots in public for once?" I questioned. He had a tendency of being anti-social, but not to this extreme.

"Yes. Your assumption is correct. I also wanted you to distract me."

"Distract you from what, our idiotic friends drunkenly grinding on each other? Our idiotic friends making a mess of themselves in public instead of behind closed doors? You love watching them make fools out of themselves. You've said it yourself that it's why you even agree to go out with everyone these days."

"No. I wanted you to distract me from the jumbled thoughts within my own head. My parents called earlier, and they have informed me that Grammy is really sick. They've taken her to the hospital. I'm scared, Sakura. I can't lose her. She's the only sane person left in my family. She keeps me grounded. She keeps everyone grounded when it turns to chaos. I can't live in a world full of constant chaos."

My expression became solemn as I looked over at the boy who was sinking into himself and now suddenly reminding me of the outcast I remember finding his fifteen year old self to be in before I reached out to him. "Oh my…Sasuke…I'm so sorry. Why didn't you tell me sooner? I wouldn't have suggested that we join everyone tonight. We could have just stayed in or just stayed by ourselves at the preserve."

He shrugged. "I didn't want to ruin your rare fun night out with your friends. You put too much stress on yourself with school and it makes me happy seeing you enjoying yourself for once instead of having your nose buried in a book." He shook his head as he looked down at the ground. "But, do you want to know what's worse? My parents are refusing to tell me much of anything. They are telling me that they don't want me to come home tonight, or even go to her. They want me to focus on school and work. How can I do anything when the woman who has been my sanctuary for so many years is failing, and there is nothing that I can do? Why the fuck won't they let me do anything! Fuck!"

"Fuck," I said, gripping onto his hand harder. "I'm so sorry babe. I'm so sorry."

I felt the bottle of vodka get pressed into my hands. "Come on Sakura, let's get absolutely shitfaced tonight." He wrapped his arm around me pulled me into his chest, kissing me. I could taste the alcohol on his lips as my tongue quickly grazed them.

"I don't think that this is a good idea. You shouldn't drink your feelings. You shouldn't do something you are going to end up regretting later. Don't numb your feelings." I told him, but I already knew I was going to do it with him.

"It's an awful idea." He agreed. "But, I honestly don't give a single fuck about anything right now except for you and this bottle in my hand."

I raised the bottle to my lips and took a long gulp from it. "Ugh, this tastes awful straight." I remembered why I didn't drink any alcohol straight and always mixed it with something. I hated the way it felt going down my throat without something more thick and sweet to go with it.

"You are so lucky that you have a place that you can call your own." He said in a barely audible whisper.

"You tend to forget that Ino lives here as well," I reminded him. "It's not just my place, even though a good portion of the time, I wish it was. It would be nice to come home one day and not have to listen to her complain about you, or school, or some random thing that has no relevance to my life. She always seems miserable about something. But, such is life."

"I wish it was our place instead of yours and Ino's," he said softly. "I hate it when she's here. She's such a cock block. Sometimes I think that she enjoys making me miserable."

I bit my lower lip, thinking of a way to quickly cheer him up and get himself out of his head even for just a moment. "Hey babe, would you like the tour of our new apartment now that we've finally moved in?" I asked him with a hint of lust in my voice.

He grunted, knowing exactly where I was heading with this. "Yes." He said as he stood and held his hand out to pull me up off the ground as well.

"This is the kitchen." I said as I motioned around the room we were currently in. "Here's where you make the coffee every morning and don't get mad at me when I take the first cup."

"Don't worry baby, I won't come in between you and your coffee addiction," he laughed.

"This is the living room." I said as we made our way out of the kitchen. "Here's where we watch movies and verse each other in video games when we're finished with our homework or want to take a break from life." I said, motioning towards the magnitude of gaming consoles that Ino and I had.

"I don't know how you managed to convince her to allow you to keep all of these here."

"Mario Kart, that's why. Also, I have a Legend of Zelda addiction. Nothing is coming in between me and some Wind Waker."

We both started laughing because we both knew how true that statement was.

"Come on." I said as we started walking down the hallway. "Bathroom. Happily, we got lucky and got one of the units here with both a tub and a shower." I said as I pointed at a cracked door. "Guest room." I said as we walked past Ino's room, not wanting to even bother keeping up some sort of charade because we both knew Ino would kill him if she knew that he had even looked at the inside of her bedroom.

"For when our parents decide to come and visit us, right?"

"Of course," I went along. "I don't think my mom would appreciate having to sleep on the pull out couch, even though it is super comfortable."

"Or maybe if a little one happens to come along."

"Don't get your hopes up, Sasuke. I still have way more school that I need to get through in order to have a successful carrier. Maybe once I become a doctor, and you become a head network administrator, and we both have extremely stable incomes, we can talk about that. But for now, let's just see what the future holds for us."

Sasuke rolled his eyes with a smirk on his face. "You couldn't go with it, could you?"

"Of course not!" I laughed. "I'm just as bad as you are when it comes to thinking way too analytically and logically. Now, do you want to see our bedroom, or are you just going to continue to stand there?"

I grabbed his hand and dragged him towards my bedroom. I have the larger bedroom between Ino and myself, and that was because I was the one who got the place to begin with after looking for months for something good, and I wasn't going to let her take control over who got the bigger room. We walked into my bedroom to see my usual cluttered desk and a combination of mine and Sasuke's clothes thrown about the place. Even though it wasn't our room, it sure felt like it was our room.

"We sure do have a nice place," he whispered in my ear.

"That we do," I replied and I saw him take a deep breath and another swig from the bottle. I grabbed the bottle from him and took another long gulp from it myself before I set it on the back of my dresser in hopes that it would end up being forgotten about.

"I wish it was actually ours though."

Sasuke guided me over towards my bed as we both sat down on the edge of it. I took in the horrible mess that was my room as I noticed him staring at me.

"Sakura, are you drunk?" He asked, finally noticing that I no longer held the bottle in my hands.

"No," I replied. Even though I don't drink as frequently as he does, I've learned from past drinking experiences with him that it for some reason takes a lot more to get me drunk than it does him. "But I'm starting to slowly feel the alcohol creep up on me."

"Good. I want you to feel good like I do right now. I don't want you to feel left out of this feeling that I'm experiencing." Sasuke said as he pulled me and him up more onto the bed, climbing on top of me as he did so. I gasped as he leaned down and pressed his lips softly against my neck. His hot breath sent a chill down my spine, and I felt myself get goose bumps from the wave of pleasure that shot through me. "Sakura," he whispered huskily into my ear. "You need to know that if I stay here with you tonight and listen to my parents and not go home, not only am I going to rip off all of your clothes, I am going to slowly kiss every inch of your body until you are begging for me to be inside of you. Once I've finished, I am going to bury myself so deep inside of you, and I am going to fuck you raw. You will not be able to sit in class, or anywhere for that matter, without thinking of my cock being buried deep inside of you, giving you the pleasure that most people could only dream of."

"Sasuke…What…what are you saying you want to do…?"

"I want to fuck you so hard," Sasuke growled as the words slipped from his lips and my eyes widened. "I want to fuck you so hard baby. I want to show you how much I…ugh. I want to make you feel like a fucking queen baby; the queen that you deserve to be treated as."

As much as it was one of those rare nights that I actually wanted to say no to him, I knew that I couldn't refuse him. I knew that he needed my help dealing with his mixed up emotions and the pain that he was currently feeling. He couldn't possibly be able to handle or even accept the rejection in his state of mind right now. He would lose it. I was scared what he would end up doing to himself if he felt that I was rejecting him as well. I know that he needs my help burying, at least for the night, the thoughts of his crazy family and just let him work it all out in his head.

"Sasuke …" I ran my fingers up from his back to his head and interlaced them into his hair, pulling him close so he could look me in the eyes. "Hun, what are you trying to tell me?"

Sasuke looked down at my flushed and awkward self just lying there beneath him. My pink hair splattered messily beneath me and a blush that at this point I couldn't even bother attempting to hide from him, because I knew he'd just pry my hands away from my face regardless. I stared up at him, with my emerald green eyes meeting his onyx ones . For once, I couldn't read him. Everything seemed too confusing that my brain just couldn't put the pieces together. I couldn't for the life of me figure out what he was getting at, and with that I began to get that slight worry in the pit of my stomach which always tended to come on a little too quickly.

"Sakura, I know that I don't tell you this enough, but I love you. I love you so much," he said as he stroked my hair. "And I'm sorry that you don't hear those words enough. You deserve to hear them more. I'm such an asshole, and I'm sorry. Fuck, I'm so sorry. You are the ray of light that is keeping me from completely succumbing to the darkness that is my mind. You are the main reason that I do what I do. I live for your smile, and knowing that I'm the only one who can make you genuinely laugh always makes my day so much brighter. Fuck baby, I love you. I really fucking love you, and I'm really fucking sorry that you don't hear that enough. Fuck!"

My mouth opened slightly as I was rendered speechless. Is this what had been bothering him this whole time, besides his current issue? The complicated thing about our current situation was that I couldn't tell him that I only thought he was saying this to me because he was in an emotional form of distress from what was currently going on in his life as of right now. But regardless, I lifted my head up off of the bed and kissed him softly as a silent thank you.

He had told me some of his innermost thoughts and conflictions and I wasn't running or openly rejecting him. I wasn't leaving him like I'm pretty sure he assumed I was. I didn't tell him to get out and then proceed to slam the door behind him and put as much distance between us as humanly possible because of my fear of him taking out his family issues on me like he had done a couple times in the past.

I felt him put more of his weight on top of me as he opened his mouth to mold it with mine. I could taste the vodka that he had been downing before, along with faint taste of the wine coolers that he had at the club earlier that evening. I could tell he had a little too much alcohol in him, but at this point, I just wanted to love him the way he needed to be loved right now.

"Sasuke…" I whispered, enjoying this new feeling of him on top of me. It wasn't like all the other times when we had sex. This felt totally different. There was a feeling of longing that I hadn't truly experienced with him before. It wasn't lust. It wasn't a depriving type of thing.

It felt like we just found each other again after not seeing each other for the longest of times.

His body grounded me, pulling my head down off of the clouds it was slowly rising up into. My heart was racing, threatening to explode out of my chest at any given moment.

He loved me.

He really, truly loved me.

And for some reason, it meant more to me now, than it did all those years ago when the words first escaped his lips after a party we both had attended with our friends.

Sasuke Uchiha had just admitted out loud to me that he loved me and fuck, if I didn't like hearing him actually say those words and truly mean them the way he was at this current moment, I would be lying to myself. Right now though ,our situation was … complicated, but there was no way that I was going to ruin the moment right now with logic to pull him back to reality. Not tonight, at least. I couldn't make myself push him away, leave my bed and just go crawl into Ino's and hope she didn't kill me when she got home in the morning. We have too much history together. We have been through so much, and I couldn't let logic and reality ruin this moment between us. I needed to share this with him, this intimacy that I never thought we would experience until we were older, as we currently lay fully clothed still on my bed, with our lips barely touching.

Sasuke ran his large hands up my sides, feeling me press my chest against him as he moved along my body, somehow hitting what felt to be all of the right spots up and down my sides that just sent me into more of a state of bliss than I thought I could be in. I could tell from the way he was breathing that he couldn't believe we were actually doing this right now. I knew that he couldn't believe we were still here and that I still hadn't run away from him.

My hands rested themselves on the bottom of his shirt. I knew that I was feeling ridiculous for being so nervous right now, but I knew that this…this was going to be different than all of the other times we had sex. Sasuke had not only seen, but he had touched and tasted every inch of my body that he was able to place his lips on. Tonight was definitely different, and the both of us knew it, even though we didn't bother to say it out loud.

Sasuke lifted his body from mine as I pulled his shirt over his head in one swift motion. I met his eyes as I threw the damn thing across the room, but what I was met with was a type of desire I hadn't seen before. He looped his thumbs under each side of my shirt as I let out a surprised gasp. He slowly exposed my stomach inch by inch, and I shivered from the contact of the air. He ignored my slight unintentional whine as he finally after what felt like forever, lifted my shift over my head, exposing my lacy black bra that I had just bought a few days ago.

"I always forget you have this pierced." He joked, playing with my belly button ring. "It's like a surprise every single I see you though, and I love that. I love that you have that ability to constantly surprise me."

Sasuke leaned down again, and I felt his soft skin barely touch my own. My body shivered against his touch as his hand began to roam upwards. His lips lightly grazed my neck and I gasped as he licked and bit at the spot that he knew always made me go absolutely crazy.

I moved my hands down Sasuke's bare chest as he lightly sucked at the pulse point on my neck. I found myself starting to undo his jeans, but Sasuke pulled back to do it himself. I laughed at his impatience, but then I realized that he was almost completely naked and on top of me and I was desperate to be the same. I felt one of his large hands make its way down my stomach and rest itself on the waistband of my jeans, while the other reached itself behind my back and unclasped my black bra, throwing it to the side of my bed. He slowly pulled my jeans down off of my body, like he was being revealed a secret for the first time and he was wanting to take it all in at that exact moment. After revealing my black, lacy thong that had been a gift from that person who we didn't mention, he ripped that off that of me and also threw it across the room.

"Sasuke!" I hissed. "That was one of my favorite pairs!"

"I don't like her," he whispered into my ear. "I don't like that she bought those for you in hopes that she would be the one taking them off. You are mine, and mine only, and I will replace them with something that I will be removing from your body. Understood?"

I gasped in delight.

I could tell that Sasuke had wanted to take his time. He wanted to be slow…to be seductive. But, I could tell that he was losing control and that he was quickly losing his patience.

He was hard. He was beyond hard, and here I was rubbing my legs against his in order to push him to that breaking limit. I know he wanted this to be something special, something different. I knew that tonight wasn't going to be like every other night, but something in the air had changed. Something within us had changed right at that moment. Something seemed to become more animalistic between the two of us.

He removed his blue and green plaid boxers quickly, tossing them on top of my discarded clothes. His long fingers slid easily inside of me, and I eagerly welcomed him as I sighed at the tiny amount of relief they provided.

"Don't you fucking tease me, Uchiha," I uncharacteristically growled, causing him to laugh.

"I just want to make sure you're ready."

"That's nice, but if you don't hurry up and get inside of me, I'm going to have to take control, and then I am going to have to just go and do it myself."

That was all he needed to hear. He thrust himself, filling me, hissing at the tightness that he was met with. He buried his face within my hair, and I moaned."Yes," I told him. "Oh dear god, Sasuke. Yes!"

I bucked my hips up and into his and he pulled back until just his tip was inside of me. I hissed as my body shifted to accept him. It was a small amount of pain mixing with a large amount of pleasure. I dug my nails into his back. He moaned as I scratched at his skin, knowing that there was going to be visible marks by the time we were finished. He grabbed at my hips, locking eyes with me as he continued to bury himself within me.

"Harder."

Sasuke didn't need to be told twice. He grabbed one of my legs and placed it over his shoulder, and rocked himself against me hard and fast.

I could tell that in this moment, Sasuke no longer cared what was going to happen tomorrow, or next month, or even within the next year.

All I knew was that he needed me right now, and right now I needed him too.

I was breathing hard, panting as he rocked into my and I bucked my hips up to meet his thrusts. The logical part of my mind was far gone; as the only thing that mattered to me right now was that he kept thrusting into me. I moaned as he shifted himself; my senses heightened.

"Sasuke." I moaned as he kissed me.

I tightened around him, feeling the waves of my orgasm pulling him deeper into me. He lasted another couple of thrusts before he was spilling inside of me, his body also violently shaking. He collapsed, and I kissed him softly.

Sasuke rolled off of me and laid on my soft grey sheets. I rested my head on his chest as he wrapped his arm protectively around me.

"Fuck," He was all he said.

I could hear my heart pounding against my chest, and I convinced myself that he could hear it too.

"Does Ino know that I'm here?"

"I don't know. I'm assuming she's just going to assume that you're going to be here." I kissed his chest as his fingers tapped against my back.

"Is she home?"

"If she was, you don't think she would have been screaming at you by now to stop fucking me and let her sleep?"

Sasuke laughed. "This is true."

I yawned and closed my eyes. "Maybe tomorrow morning, I can give you the rest of the tour of our apartment, particularly a better showing of the bathroom, only because I feel sweaty and gross right now."

"Then why don't you show me now?" he asked, with a hint of lust in his voice.

"Because," I started. "Someone overly exhausted me, and I don't think I can feel my legs right now to even walk."

I heard him laugh in his chest. "I'll give it to you. Get some sleep babe."

xxx

"Sakura, it's almost noon. Wake up."

I yawned as I cracked open an eye to check up cell phone. "Holy fuck! Why didn't you wake me up?"

"Someone sounds eager for a second round." Sasuke teased.

I stretched myself and yawned. "Not funny. I can only imagine what this place looks like and if Ino came back and…oh my god…"

"Sakura, relax," Sasuke said as he kissed the side of my mouth. "You don't think she would have barged in here to scream at me if it was bad?"

I sighed. "True."

"Good, now relax. How often is it that you get to sleep in? Enjoy the change of pace, and enjoy yourself for once instead of worrying about everyone and everything else." He said as he started trailing kisses down my neck.

"What do you think you're doing?"

"Reminding you what it feels like to relax," he said as he dipped himself underneath the blankets.

"Fuck! Sasuke..." I let out an involuntary moan. "What if…"

"Sasuke! You better not be doing what I think you're doing to my best friend at this god awful hour!"

Sasuke paused, "Oh, fuck me."

And my bedroom door flew open.

I let out a loud shriek and dug myself down under my blankets, hastily pushing Sasuke off of me partly out of embarrassment, and partly out of slight shame.

"Hey, Ino," Sasuke said. "Could you … uh …"

"I will be waiting for in the kitchen once you've decently composed yourself, you little duck haired shit." Ino curtly said and slammed my bedroom door shut.

"Shit!" Sasuke said as he threw the blanket off of him to grab his sweatpants. "Sakura, I'm so sorry."

I stared at him with wide eyes. "She… heard me." I said, horrified. "I was …" I closed my eyes and pulled the blanket up to cover my face that was growing hotter by the second. "Oh my fucking god."

"I'm so sorry, Sakura." Sasuke said as he came over and hugged me tightly, pulling me into his chest. "I'm so sorry."

"It's not your fault." I murmured.

"I should go and face her sooner rather than later, don't you think?"

"What you don't want to see dear old Ino? Your most favorite person on the entire planet, after me of course." I awkwardly laughed as he glared at me. "I'm sorry hun, but this is just so incredibly awkward right now, I don't know how to react."

Sasuke walked over to my bedroom door, and I noted to myself that he was still in just his sweatpants. "Where are you going?" I asked him.

"To wash my face." He stuck his tongue out at me and opened my door. "Don't worry, I can take her."

xxx

I knew after that, Ino was going to be standing in the kitchen when Sasuke walked out, and I knew that whatever it was she was going to say to him next was not going to be good. I pressed my ear against my bedroom door to listen. "Did she go back to sleep after you woke her up like that?" Ino asked stoically.

"Yes." Sasuke answered, sounding embarrassed.

"What the fuck do you think you are doing here? Why the fuck aren't you home with your family when they need you?" Ino screamed.

"Because I need her right now!"

"You are so selfish, you do realize that, don't you? All you do is think about yourself, Sasuke. Not everything is about you! I understand that you are in pain, but you need to think about how your family is feeling right now too. You need to be there for them, or else they won't be there for you when you need them."

"What the…"

"No! I know what is going on. We all do. So don't stand there and tell me that I don't know anything. Accept the fact that she is dying Sasuke. Accept it! Accept it and be there with her! Be there with your parents! Your brother! They all need you right now, and here you are at your girlfriends apartment fucking your feelings away."

So much for subtly. "Well … are the graphic details really neccess…" I heard him begin

"Sasuke Uchiha! You know exactly what I am talking about right now."

"I … lov…"

"Stop!" Ino shrieked. "Fucking ball sacks, Sasuke." She sighed. A few minutes passed and I could tell they were awkwardly standing there in complete silence. "You love her?" she asked sounding more annoyed than before, as if she had been hoping that wasn't what he was going to say.

"Yes."

"Is that all you have to say for yourself?"

"Well …"

"WHAT?"

"I don't know what you are expecting for me to say to you right now, Ino."

"Sasuke!" she screamed again. "I am expecting you to grow a pair of balls and stop using my best friend to deal with your feelings right now! I am expecting you to do the right thing by your family!"

"Sakura's not just any girl, Ino! You know that. I … it's complicated in my head right now and you just don't seem to understand that."

"Damn right it's complicated. Do you know what your family is going to say about this when I say something to them? How do you think your grandmother feels by you not being there?"

"You are not saying anything to them," Sasuke said sternly.

"Says who?"

"Says me, and if you have any respect for Sakura you will leave her out of my family business when it involves what we do."

"I am doing this to protect Sakura from your idiot self! I will not let you hurt her!"

"No! I needed someone to make me forget that my family is fucking crazy. She knew that I needed her. She knew that I was not okay last night, and she made that decision not to leave me. Sakura is her own person, which we both know. Sakura could have made the choice to tell me to fuck off last night, Ino, and she didn't. Sakura makes me ... Sakura's … Ino … Sakura's … my everything. She makes me feel okay in my mind, even if it's just for a second."

I pulled away from the door, leaning up against my bedroom wall. Every time these two fight it takes its toll on me in one way or another. I look over at my phone that I had absentmindedly discard on the floor earlier to it lighting up. I reach down and answer it, confused as to why my brother would be calling me so early.

"Gaara, is everything alright? What's going on?"

"Sakura…Sakura…they found her body. Nyoko's dead."

Le gasp! Cliffhanger!

I have a rough copy of the next chapter already put together, so it shouldn't take me too long to edit it and put it on.

Nyoko is an original character that will eventually have plot relevance. Give it some time.

Reviews are always welcome!

Bunny.