Hello everyone...

I have found myself running out of good stories to read, and decided to switch my focus into drafting one of my own. I was inspired to write this story after a dream I had, and the idea had been sitting in the back of my mind for quite a while, so I took it as a sign to begin this project. This will also be an exercise in discipline and commitment for me, and the goal is to start something and also finish it. I know the feeling all too well of investing in a project that doesn't get finished, and I don't want this story to fall under that umbrella. This story will eventually become explicit, and the full version will be housed on AO3 to remain in compliance with the rules on FF. It can be found under the same name.

This story will follow a developing romance between Sasuke and Sakura with dark themes, and will explore the idea of personal agency, obsession, and control. My goal is to share a story that makes you think and come back wanting to understand even more. I hope I don't disappoint.


The woods felt heavier than they should. The air, dense with the scent of pine and wet earth, clung to Sakura's skin as she moved through the trees. The daylight had faded hours ago, leaving the forest in shades of black and silver, and her footsteps were the only sounds breaking through the silence. The oppressive quiet unnerved her, as there wasn't even a whisper of wind, though the branches above swayed gently as though alive with murmurs she couldn't hear. It was as if the forest itself was holding its breath, waiting.

She had felt drawn here, into the depths of the woods, though she couldn't say why. She couldn't say what had compelled her to leave the village, either — her shift at the hospital had ended quietly with nothing unordinary, just the usual broken bones and sprains from overzealous sparring sessions. Yet something had tugged at her, a whisper of urgency she couldn't fully place. Now, here she was, moving through the dark, silent woods, with no clear destination in mind.

Sakura's instincts, usually sharp and unerring, failed to give her answers this time. It wasn't the kind of mission that usually took her out this far, that much was certain, but as she pressed deeper into the forest, her focus was unwavering. Something waited for her. She couldn't name it, couldn't explain the hollow feeling in her chest that grew with every step, but it gnawed at her, an ever-present whisper that told her she needed to keep going.

There had been no orders, or any urgent need for help in the direction she moved, and yet here she was, walking through the darkness as though she had no choice. It was strange, unnerving even, that she hadn't questioned her movements sooner. Her body moved as if on autopilot, each step more certain than the last, her intuition telling her to continue her aimless pursuit. Every logical thought told her to turn back. She wasn't on a mission, after all, and she wasn't in any real danger—yet the urge to continue persisted. She grounded her chakra, pulling herself to a slow stop as she began to scan the area around her, wisps of her pink hair blocking the sides of her vision.

The sky above was a black, velvet expanse unbroken by stars, not a light to be seen as she breathed in and out with a quiet resignation. Her eyes darted between the shadows of the towering trees, scanning for movement, but all was still. Too still. Even the nocturnal creatures of the forest seemed absent tonight, leaving only the sound of her breath and the faint sounds of leaves swaying with the nighttime breeze.

Sakura paused beneath an ancient oak, its bark weathered and twisted like the veins of an old man's hand. Her breathing was steady, her eyes scanning the shadows ahead for any sign of movement, attempting to blend into the pure nothingness that surrounded her. Nothing stirred in the underbrush. No light broke through the thick canopy. The world here felt empty, devoid of the usual life and sounds she was accustomed to on missions. She felt utterly alone, convinced she was losing it after weeks of nonstop missions. What had brought her here so urgently?

"Why am I out here?" she found herself muttering under her breath, though no answer came. The words echoed hollowly in the darkness. She shook her head, frustrated with herself for even speaking aloud into the oppressive silence. This wasn't a mission. There had been no summons, no orders from Tsunade, no report of anything amiss. Her fists clenched at her sides, nails biting into her palms as a sense of irritation bubbled beneath the surface. Why hadn't she questioned herself sooner?

Her thoughts twisted and doubled back, circling the same question. What was she doing here? A solo mission in the middle of the night without informing anyone—something about it felt off, wrong in a way she couldn't quite articulate. And yet, despite the nagging voice in the back of her mind, her feet carried her forward.

Had she told Naruto? Kakashi? She knew she should have, but the memory was hazy, as if something in her mind refused to settle on any solid answers. She had been so busy the past few months traveling between villages, she couldn't keep her head on straight. She must have mentioned something to them before leaving — at least, she thought she had. Yet the more she tried to pull the threads of her memory together, the more they slipped through her fingers, like water seeping from a cupped hand.

She shook her head as if to clear her thoughts. The last conversation she could clearly recall was in the hospital earlier that day. She had been treating a handful of minor injuries from sparring matches, patching up Naruto's scraped elbows and bandaging the inevitable bruises that came from his training. Nothing urgent or unusual, so why did it feel like something had shifted since then?

Her breath shuddered slightly as she took another step forward. This isn't right. The thought came unbidden, followed by the slow creep of doubt that had been lurking just beneath the surface all evening. She had been walking for hours, but where had she been going? What had driven her to leave the safety of the village and trek into the woods without so much as a thought to inform anyone? She felt a chill run down her spine, though there was no change in the air around her.

The trees grew older as she moved deeper, their gnarled branches reaching toward the sky like skeletal fingers. The sight reminded her of the sensation of walking through a graveyard. The underbrush thinned, leaving the ground soft and uneven beneath her boots. She could feel more than see the bumps in the earth as she continued her slow pursuit of nothing, the only sound the soft footsteps she left, leaving indentations into the earth that were the only clue someone was here. Her senses prickled with unease, but the answer still eluded her, slipping through her fingers like smoke. Sakura was no stranger to trusting her instincts; years of training had taught her to follow the subtle tug of intuition. But this… this was different.

Had she always known where she was headed?

Her steps slowed, and for a moment she considered turning back. The familiar pull of her chakra hummed beneath her skin, steady but restrained, a reminder that she had the power to leave, to change course at any moment. And yet… she didn't. Her muscles remained tense, poised for action, her body betraying her thoughts. There was no going back now. The further she walked, the more the invisible thread seemed to tighten around her, urging her forward.

A flicker of movement caught her attention, pulling her from her spiraling thoughts. It was faint — so faint that she almost missed it. But there it was again, like a thread of chakra stretched too thin, barely holding together. It felt distant, weak, yet somehow familiar.

Her heart lurched in her chest. It felt familiar to her because it was familiar. Unmistakable even.

Sasuke.

The name whispered through her mind like an echo, unbidden and sharp, cutting through the haze of confusion that had settled over her thoughts. But how — why — was he here? And how had she known?

Her pulse quickened, a strange mix of anticipation and dread settling over her like a veil. She hadn't seen him in so long — not since the war had ended and he had disappeared into the shadows, a self-imposed exile that none of them could break. He had been gone, and she had told herself to let him go, to move forward without looking back. It hadn't been the first time he had uprooted himself from their life, and though it stung she had resigned to accept his decision, knowing nobody could bring him back from the darkness he shielded himself in other than himself.

And yet, here he was. Or at least, some part of him.

It didn't make sense. The last time she had heard anything about him had been weeks ago, a vague rumor from a passing traveler who had claimed to see a lone shinobi with the Uchiha crest somewhere near the border of the Land of Wind. She had dismissed it as just another false sighting — there had been too many over the years. But this… this wasn't a rumor. This was real, and his faint signature was present right in front of her.

Her body moved before her mind could catch up, feet carrying her through the thinning trees faster now, more certain. Her heartbeat drummed in her ears, her breath quickening as she pushed forward, her mind spinning with too many questions, none of them connecting. Why now? Why here? How had she known?

The pulse of his chakra grew stronger as she neared the edge of the clearing, her senses sharpening as her destination came into view. Her body tensed instinctively, prepared for anything — an ambush, a fight, anything but what she found.

He was there.

Sasuke sat at the base of a massive tree, half-shrouded in shadow. His cloak was torn, blood seeping through the dark fabric in jagged lines, the smell of it obvious even in the darkness that surrounded them. He looked like a fallen prince, somehow graceful despite the circumstances. His head was bowed in a humble manner, his dark hair hanging loose around his face, obscuring his features. But she didn't need to see his face to know it was him. She would recognize him anywhere, in any state, at any time.

She froze at the edge of the clearing, breath catching in her throat. Her mind felt as empty as the night sky as she continued to examine him in disbelief.

How long had it been since she had last seen him? Months? Years? Time had blurred in his absence, but now, seeing him here battered and bleeding, the weight of it all hit her all at once.

The Sasuke she remembered was different — colder, sharper, always on the move, never stopping long enough for her to truly reach him. But the man before her was still. His chest rose and fell in shallow, labored breaths, and his posture, though slumped with exhaustion, was more familiar than she wanted to admit.

He looked older now. Not in the way time aged a person, but in the way life had worn him down. The lines of his face, once sharp and defined, seemed deeper, etched into his skin by the weight of everything he had endured. His shoulders, once rigid with pride, and the burden of his clan, now sagged with a different kind of heaviness, as if the fight had been drained from him.

She didn't know how seeing him should make him feel, but her heart ached at the sight of him regardless. She was within and without, and was left with the feeling that this was happening to someone other than herself. But it was happening to her, and she didn't know how to respond.

Sakura's fingers twitched at her side, instinct urging her to help him, heal him, to fix whatever wounds had torn him apart. But something held her back. It wasn't the blood or the injuries that gave her pause—it was the way he sat, the way he didn't move, didn't look at her, didn't react at all. As if he wasn't surprised to see her here after years, in the middle of nowhere, not a soul around for miles to witness them rediscovering one another.

The thought struck her like a blow, knocking the breath from her lungs. Sasuke had always been quick to react, always alert, always aware of his surroundings. A vision of his sharp eyes analyzing her floated through her mind. And yet, he didn't so much as flinch at her approach. His head lifted only slightly as her chakra brushed against his senses, and when his eyes finally met hers, there was no shock in them. It was as if his obsidian eyes saw straight through and beyond her, no recognition of her sudden presence. Just… distance. But as she observed him in turn, there was no doubt in her mind that it was him. Nobody had the eyes that he did, regardless of the sharingan. There was a depth to his stare that nobody could imitate.

Sakura took a hesitant step forward, her heart hammering in her chest. Her pulse thrummed in her ears, loud and insistent, drowning out the rational part of her mind that told her to stop, to question this. But she couldn't. Not now. Not when he was right there, so close after all this time.

"Sasuke," she breathed quietly, her voice barely audible in the thick silence of the clearing.

His eyes flicked to hers, dark and unreadable, but there was no warmth in them. No anger. No surprise. He simply looked at her, as if he had expected her to be there all along.

"Sakura," he murmured, his voice low and rough, the sound of her name slipping from his lips like a forgotten memory. Another piece of him that could never be replicated. The way he spoke her name left no room for other thoughts, it was both familiar and unknown.

She swallowed hard, her throat tight. She wanted to say something — anything — but the words wouldn't come. Instead, she stood there, rooted to the spot, her mind racing with questions she couldn't ask.

He looked different. He was different.

But somehow, deep down, she knew that she was too.

Sakura stood frozen in place, her mind churning with a mix of emotions that she couldn't fully grasp. The Sasuke before her was not the man she had known, and yet, he wasn't entirely a stranger either. He was something in between — something she didn't know how to define. She had always imagined what it would be like to see him again, but none of those imaginings had prepared her for this moment. For the hollowness in his eyes. For the silence that felt as thick as the shadows around them.

The clearing seemed to shrink around them, the space between them feeling like a chasm. She had spent so long trying to reach him, and now that he was right in front of her, the distance felt greater than ever. It wasn't just the physical space — it was something deeper, something intangible that neither of them could moment felt like a crossroads of sorts. For all intents and purposes, the person before her was a criminal, a defector, and though he had assisted when he was needed most in the war, that contribution had not altered the person he had become prior to it.

Her throat tightened as she stepped closer, each movement tentative, unsure. Her hand slowly trailed away from her side, the soft glow of healing chakra beginning to form in her palm. She knew she shouldn't, but she couldn't ignore the feeling in her mind that she wanted to anyways. But the moment her chakra touched the air between them, Sasuke's eyes sharpened, his body stiffening in response.

"No," he rasped, his voice low but firm. "Don't."

Sakura's hand faltered in midair, the glow fading as quickly as it had come. Her breath hitched in her throat, the weight of his rejection settling heavy in her chest. It wasn't the first time he had pushed her away, but something about this moment felt different. The coldness in his voice wasn't just exhaustion — it was something deeper, something darker.

"You're hurt," she said softly, the words barely above a whisper. "Let me help you."

His eyes, half-lidded with exhaustion, flicked to her once more. They began to take on something sharper and more present, reflecting something unreadable in his gaze, a fleeting emotion that disappeared as quickly as it came. But he didn't respond. He simply turned his head away, as if the very act of looking at her was too much.

Sakura swallowed hard, forcing down the wave of emotion that threatened to break the surface. She had spent so many years chasing after him, trying to understand him, trying to be there for him. But now, standing in front of him, she realized that there was still so much about Sasuke that she didn't know, never would know — so much he kept hidden, even from her.

Her gaze traced the sharpened lines of his face, the way they had deepened with time, with battle, with the weight of the world he had chosen to carry alone. The boy she had once known was gone, replaced by this man who wore his burdens like armor. She had seen him at his most vulnerable, after the war, when he had finally returned to Konoha, if only briefly. But even then, he had kept most of himself hidden, an enigma that she could never quite reach.

"Why are you here?" she asked, forcing her voice to remain steady. "How did you—"

Sasuke cut her off with a look, his dark eyes narrowing as if to warn her not to ask questions. She fell silent, the weight of his unspoken command settling over her like a heavy blanket. The tension between them was palpable, thick with years of unresolved emotions and unsaid words. And yet, even now, she couldn't bring herself to push him for answers. The darkness surrounding them made her feel like a bird in a cage, unable to move away despite the open space surrounding her. It was a trap in a way, she knew there was a distance she could not cross while he sat here before her.

She took another tentative step forward, her heart pounding in her chest. The Sasuke she had known would never have let her this close — would never have allowed her to see him in this state. But now, as she stood just a few feet away from him, she could see the exhaustion in his eyes, the weariness that had settled into his bones. His pride remained despite it all, she could see the tension in his shoulders despite the clear exhaustion in his face. He didn't want her help, but he wasn't forcing her away.

For a moment, she allowed herself to imagine what it would be like to heal him, to close the wounds that marred his skin, to take away the pain that lingered in his eyes. But she knew, deep down, that it wasn't that simple. Sasuke's wounds ran far deeper than anything her chakra could heal.

"You shouldn't have come," he muttered, his voice barely audible. "It's not safe."

Sakura blinked, confusion washing over her. "What do you mean? Sasuke, you—"

He shook his head, cutting her off again harshly. "You shouldn't be here."

The words hung in the air between them, heavy with meaning she couldn't understand. But there was something about the way he said it, something in his tone that made her chest tighten with unease. She took a step back, her pulse quickening as her mind raced to piece together the fragments of this encounter. Before coming across him, her intuition had told her something was amiss. Was there something she was not seeing? She could feel nobody around save for Sasuke's signature for miles.

"Then why are you here?" she asked, her voice steadier this time, though the uncertainty lingered.

Sasuke didn't answer right away. His gaze drifted to the forest beyond them, as if searching for something in the darkness, something that wasn't there. When he finally spoke, his voice was more resigned. "I had no choice."

No choice. The words echoed in her mind, repeating over and over again. What did that mean? No choice for what? To be here? To stay away from Konoha? To leave her behind all those years ago? A hundred questions raced through her mind, but she couldn't ask any of them. Not now. Not when the distance between them felt so fragile.

Sakura's eyes dropped to his hands, clenched tightly in his lap. His knuckles were white, the skin stretched taut over the bones. She had seen those hands before — seen them tear through enemies with precision, seen them perform jutsu that defied reason. But now, they trembled ever so slightly, a barely perceptible movement that made her heart ache.

"Sasuke," she whispered, her voice softer now, more vulnerable. "You don't have to do this alone."

His head jerked up at that, his eyes locking onto hers with an intensity that sent a shiver down her spine. For a moment, she thought he might say something—might open up, might let her in. But then, just as quickly as the moment came, it passed. His gaze hardened, and the wall between them slammed back into place with hardened resolve.

"I'm not alone," he said coldly, his voice like steel. "I never was."

The words stung more than she expected them to. She had spent so many years hoping — hoping that one day, he would see her as more than just a teammate, more than just someone he could push away. Someone that he shared a bond with. But now, standing here in the darkness, with his blood staining the ground between them, she realized that Sasuke would never let her in. Not fully. And she was foolish to assume otherwise about him. He had always been who he was.

She took a steadying breath, forcing herself to stay calm, to keep her emotions in check. This wasn't about her. It never had been. Sasuke had his own path to walk, his own demons to face. And no matter how much she wanted to help him, no matter how much she may try to take away his pain, she knew that he would never let her.

"I'm going to heal you," she said firmly, her voice stronger now, more determined. "Whether you like it or not."

Sasuke didn't respond. He simply closed his eyes, his head leaning back against the tree behind him. The silence stretched between them, heavy and thick as Sakura knelt beside him, more sure of herself. His words said one thing, but his actions said another. He had not hidden from her, and perhaps he couldn't. She didn't care. She had seen him, there was no way she could leave this place knowing she had done nothing.

She pressed her hands to his chest, the familiar glow of healing chakra spreading from her palms and sinking into his skin. She could feel the extent of his injuries — the torn muscles, the fractured bones, the deep gashes that marred his body. But she could also feel the exhaustion that went far beyond the physical — the weariness that had settled into his very soul.

She worked in silence, her hands moving steadily over his wounds, closing them one by one. But even as she healed him, she couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong — something deeper than the injuries she was treating. There was a heaviness to the air around them, a sense of foreboding that made the hair on the back of her neck stand on end. And as she glanced up at Sasuke's face, she saw it — the faint flicker of something in his eyes, something dark, something she couldn't quite name.

"How long have you been here?" she asked softly, her voice barely above a whisper.

Sasuke's eyes remained closed, his expression unreadable. For a long moment, she thought he wouldn't answer. But then, just as she was about to give up, he spoke briefly.

"A while."

What had brought him here? How had she known to come? The questions swirled in her mind, but she couldn't bring herself to ask them. Not now. Not when the weight of his words was still sinking in. She decided to maintain the silence, knowing there was no answer that would satisfy her now.

She finished healing him in silence, her hands steady despite the turmoil that churned inside her. When she finally stood, wiping her brow, Sasuke remained still, his breathing deep and even, though the tension beneath it was unmistakable. She hesitated, a chill creeping up her spine as the question formed on her lips. "Were you waiting for me?" The silence that followed felt unnatural and heavy, and as it continued she began to feel that she wasn't far off base, though it was an impossibility. How could he have known she would be in this area, or that she would sense him?

The distance between them felt vast, like a chasm she couldn't cross. But as she turned to leave, the cold weight of uncertainty settled in her chest. She didn't understand why she had come or what had just transpired, but something about this encounter clung to her, refusing to let go. Despite the years and the walls he built, she couldn't shake the feeling that this wouldn't be the last time.

Sakura hesitated, her feet rooted to the ground for a moment as she felt his gaze heavy on her back. He hadn't moved, but the tension between them hung in the air, thick and oppressive, as though something remained unresolved. She turned, her eyes scanning the darkened forest, but it didn't feel like the same place she had entered. The silence pressed in around her, an unseen presence lingering, filling the air with a quiet, creeping unease. As she finally walked away, the unsettling feeling gnawed at her, whispering that she hadn't truly left him behind.