Sasuke X Sakura (One Shots)

First and Last

These events take place during Sasuke's first appearance in Shippuden when team Kakashi failed to bring him back to Konoha. 

It had first begun as many childhood loves do. The laid-back boy, cool, handsome, having the qualities that we all liked. It was almost a given that I should like him. Everyone else did.

There was no way I could've known.

Known that after our missions together, after he left, after I realized what I was feeling, that I would be in so much pain. What started as a young crush grew into a genuine and impenetrable love. And I was standing alone at the wrong end of it, because it was unrequited.

But today was different.

We had found him, after three years of searching, he was there. I remember thinking to myself while we ran through the never-ending tunnels in the lair, how wrong am I? How wrong is it to want someone like him? A rogue?

I thought back to the day he left the village, when I told him everything. He gave me just one thing before he went.

Thank you, he had said. Then I woke up the next morning on the bench that sat just a few feet away. Trivial as it was, I had always wondered about that. He must have carried me there, right? That had to mean something, that he bothered to lay me there. Right?

Now, so long after, we saw him. He struck to kill, fought and overpowered all of us, but he stopped himself before he did something irreversible.

Naruto had collapsed from exhaustion and was unconscious, while Sai and Captain Yamato were for sure incapable of persuading Sasuke.

                 "Just Sakura, then," he had said to us, "Five minutes. I'll listen to you, then you leave."

None of us were in any position to bargain. It was more than we could have asked for at that point, so we agreed.

He led me back into the maze of a lair, until he thought we were deep enough not to be heard. And I'll never forget what he said that day.

                  "Sakura," he had said, letting a look of near shamefulness onto his face, "I'm sorry."

I didn't know what to think at that point. He had tried to kill me, he was a rogue ninja, yet I felt myself forgiving him. I let myself be pleased that he was willing to talk to me, and even apologizing.

                "Sasuke-kun, just come back. You know you can."

               "I can't," he said, looking me in the eye, "and I won't. Not even for you."

I wasn't going to cry. Not in such a delicate moment.

               "But why-"

               "But maybe someday... I'll come back for you."

He looked away from me then, not letting me see what was in his head.

              "Sasuke-kun."

             "You're important. I won't leave you alone, not forever."

If my heart had ever skipped a beat for him, it was nothing compared to what it did when he said this. I felt like I was dreaming.

            "Me neither," I said, "I can't."

            "You'll have to. But Sakura, just wait. Wait for me."

            "Please," was all I could manage.

He moved towards me, closer than he'd ever been. I could feel the warmth from his skin, and smell the dark smoke of his hair. My hand was taken by his in a swift motion, and he held it up for us to see. It hung limply in his, as though it wasn't mine at all. He bowed his head and brough the hands to his hair, resting them.

            "It's not forever," he whispered, "you know that."

I started to cry then, as little as I could. We stood there for what could have been hours before parting. I could have stayed for longer.

Without looking at me, he let go of my hand and turned away.

         "Well," he said as he left, "until then."

         "Until then," I said to myself."

He was gone after that, but I never felt like I hadn't done enough. There wasn't anything I could have said to get him back home. From then on, words wouldn't be enough.