Hunting the Shadows 1: SasuSaku Fanfic

Chapter 18

I stared at the spot where Suigetsu had just been for a few more seconds before I started swiping my hands at the empty air.

"Are you freaking kidding me, Sasuke?" I yelled. "You think it's okay to tell your friend to dump me off in the middle of the night? Not even having the guts to do it yourself?!"

Oh was I pissed.

That's his solution? To just push me away the second I got too close to him?

I snatched up the fallen bag and marched the rest of the way home, the fabric bunched under the pressure of my tight fist. My eyes kept ahead of me the whole time, gaze hooked squarely on the large gate getting nearer with each step.

I felt it the moment I stepped beyond the village's barrier, felt the slight give as it let me pass. Even though I'd been gone for so long, it would always recognize me and let me in. Let me come home.

The walk was quiet, no one stirred along the streets as I walked them, my body taking the familiar path to my house.

It wasn't long before the front yard came into view, and my numb walk turned into an all out sprint. However, I stopped when my hand wrapped around the handle. The coolness of it halting my movements so strangely that I could do nothing but stare down at it.

I was really home. This wasn't some sort of trick, I was really, really home.

He'd let me go.

After all that time of begging him, why did he choose now to finally listen?

I took my hand off the knob, my fingers splaying open as if still caging the cool metal in a cage.

I took a step back.

I took a breath.

What was the reason? Why now?

Pounding footsteps made me turn around, focusing on the blonde racing down the street and straight at me, arms encircling me into a tight hug.

"You're alive," Tsunade said over and over again, her voice bubbling out and breaking the silence dawn brought upon the village.

It took me a second, but then I hugged her back, eyes pricking at the corners. "Yeah, I'm okay."

She pushed me away from her, eyeing me up and down, inspecting me for injuries or anything else that may be out of place. "What happened to you, Sakura? How did you escape?"

"I-"

"I got your letter, and Gaara tried to do a locator spell on it even though you said it wouldn't work. We tried everything we could to find you, but nothing was working."

I nodded. "Yeah, I-"

"It was so frustrating, doing nothing. I couldn't take anymore of it, I had to do something-"

"Hey," I snapped, interrupting her tirade; she watched me in stunned silence. "Are you going to let me explain or what?"

She bit the inside of her cheek, but nodded. It was weird to see her to animated, so talkative. We had such a low experience rate of conversing, so my disappearance must've really shook her.

I turned and walked over to the hanging bench on the far end of the porch. Tsunade followed close behind.

It was there that I told her everything. Well, almost everything.

Some parts I kept to myself, like the way Sasuke looked at me sometimes, or the way he was a soothing presence.

Or how he came to me while I pretended to sleep and touched my cheek.