ANTHOLOGY
By Laura-chan
Pairing: Sasuke/Sakura
Rating: M
Disclaimer: Of course everything related to Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto-sensei, praise his genius! OOC characters and plot do belong to me.
Warnings: rated M for mature contents.
I am Italian, English is not my first language, please forgive my mistakes.
II.
HEALING
"Mou, Sasuke-kun, you should be more careful."
Sasuke Uchiha rolled his eyes as he watched his former female teammate healing his injured arm with her green chakra.
'Odd how the colour of her chakra matches that of her eyes…'
Eyes which were looking carefully for any other wound, narrowing when they found one, relaxing when they found none.
"You should stay here tonight, just to be sure you have nothing serious."
"Sakura," he said, trying to be patient. "These wounds were nothing serious: if it wasn't for the dobe…"
"If it wasn't for Naruto…" the pink-haired medic-nin cut him off, "…you would have gone home, or maybe to train, and your wounds would have gotten infected. And you're supposed to be a genius." She mocked him.
Sasuke let her: Sakura was one of the few people who could get away with mocking him.
"You need to understand that it's okay to accept help from others, Sasuke." She continued softly, wrapping a bandage around his forearm. "You're not alone anymore: we are your friends, we care about you."
Silently the Uchiha looked at her, her pink head bowed over her work.
What could she understand about loneliness, pain? Had she ever lost someone she cared about? Had she ever lost EVERYONE she cared about?
No, Sakura couldn't understand what true loneliness was: arriving home and finding it dark and uninviting, eating alone, sleeping alone in a cold bed.
Maybe that's why, in the end, he was comfortable in Oto, even with Orochimaru breathing on his neck and panting after his body: there, he was alone, he couldn't rely on anyone but himself, mostly like he did since his clan was slaughtered.
Blood.
Blood on the walls.
Blood on the floor.
Blood everywhere.
Loneliness.
Solitude.
Memories.
Betrayal.
That was what HOME represented for him.
Pain.
And for Sakura?
For Sakura, home was warmth, sunshine, friends, happiness, parents (alive!).
She couldn't understand what it felt like to be ALONE, completely, utterly alone.
Naruto knew. Maybe also Kakashi.
But not Sakura.
And maybe…maybe…
Maybe it was that, that drew him to her.
Her smile was sunshine, her eyes showed how she enjoyed living.
She loved life.
Sasuke hated life: life meant revenge. Revenge meant killing the only living link to his clan. His brother.
Damn Itachi.
He hated Itachi.
He hated Sakura, because sometimes she made him feel like he could – could he hope? – LIVE again; and not this pathetic existence his brother had organized for him, but a true life: a life where he could be happy, where he could have friends, where he could have… a family. A life in which he could love.
Sometimes he talked to Naruto: he was the only one who could understand what he had gone through, even if Naruto had been alone from the beginning, he didn't have everything ripped away from him.
But Naruto knew. And understood.
The fox-boy and self-proclaimed Hokage was drawn to Sakura, too.
Her light, her smile was what kept Team 7 together, nowadays.
"Sakura-chan…she's different from us, from me, from you, from Kakashi-sensei, from Sai-teme." Naruto had said once. "She suffered too, in the past. Some girls used to beat her, you know? And after you left…she realized how truly weak she was. But she grew up, she's strong now! She was always the happiest in our group." Naruto had smiled softly. "She was determined, and her love for life sometimes kept me from dispairing. I beated Gaara because I had to defend her, to protect her smile." He had looked at Sasuke in the eyes. "That's why we're all drawn to her: because she's our light."
'Is it true? Is she my light too?'
"There, all done! Thank Naruto next time you see him for bringing you to the hospital." She was smiling. Was her smile always this sweet?
She smelled like warmth and spring and her perfume wrapped around his tired body.
"Thank you Sakura." he murmured.
The medic-nin looked at him, startled. Then, she – ONCE AGAIN, DAMN IT! – smiled at him and replied.
"You're welcome, Sasuke."
He felt warm in the chest. Was it from her smile? Or maybe some unknown poison had spread in his heart?
"Did you mean it?" he couldn't help but ask.
"What?" she asked, looking up from the medical chart.
"That…" Sasuke found it difficult to say. "…that I'm not alone anymore. Did you mean it?"
He couldn't meet her gaze. Instead, he continued looking at his hands in his lap, feeling a slight redness covering his cheeks. Blushing? The great Uchiha Sasuke did not blush!
The dark-haired shinobi stiffened when he felt two arms wrap around his hunched form.
"Oh, Sasuke…" he heard her sigh into his hair.
He growled. "I don't want your pity."
"Sasuke…" her embrace tightened and he felt the heat in his chest spreading everywhere in his body. "I do not pity you, I never pitied you."
He felt the pressure of her lips on his head.
"All I ever did was admiring you."
Admiration.
Sasuke had always been admired since the massacre of his clan.
Uchiha Sasuke.
The survivor.
The last Uchiha.
The Uchiha genius.
He was the first in his class, the best in taijutsu, the number 1 rookie of his year.
But it was all because he was an Uchiha.
Not because he was Sasuke.
Simply Sasuke.
Sasuke hadn't been enough for his father.
Sasuke couldn't compare to Itachi, the oldest son, the better one.
"So, that's it." He hissed, pain threatening to devour him whole. "Admiration, hn? It's because I am an Uchiha, isn't it?" Sasuke freed himself from her grip, standing up, his fists clenching.
The pain, the weight of the Uchiha name on his shoulders.
When he was younger that name had been everything; but now… he felt tired and older than his age. That was the curse of the Uchiha name.
He couldn't stand the thought of Sakura seeing him only as an Uchiha.
He had to leave.
But suddenly he found he couldn't.
"Sakura…"
Sakura was pressed against him, from behind, her womanly curves awakening a primal need inside him; her hands were fisting in the black material of his shirt, her arms tightening at his sides.
"You've got it wrong…I didn't mean it that way." It was nothing more than a whisper, but it was enough. For him at least.
"I've been admiring you…not your clan."
Not your clan.
Not your clan.
I've been admiring you…
The words echoed in his head.
Someone who appreciated him for himself.
"Me?" his voice was hoarse, Sasuke almost didn't recognize it.
"Always you." Soft lips pressed a chaste kiss on his cheek.
"I admired your will, your strenght, your abilities…I've felt always protected when we went on missions together." Sakura sighed and Sasuke felt her warm breath on his skin. "Yes, what I admired the most was your will to go on, to keep living…even after what happened."
"I kept living only because of my revenge." He said flatly, turning and tentatively returning the hug: it was an unexpected move from the usually reserved shinobi.
She nodded, hesitantly buring her head in his warmth.
"I know. You did it for the wrong reason…"
The wrong reason? He almost cried out indignantely.
"…but what is important is that you lived. You don't know how grateful I am that…he did not kill you that night."
Sakura lifted her face, staring deeply into his surprised eyes.
"I wouldn't have met you, I wouldn't have known you, I wouldn't have become your friend…" 'And I wouldn't have loved you' she continued in her heart.
"Sakura…" for once, Sasuke Uchiha didn't know what to think or say.
"And to aswer your question…" she smiled, amused. "Of course I meant it when I said that you're not alone anymore. You really are stupid…" she ended in a murmur. "I'm starting to wonder what Naruto and I are going to do with you." She joked.
He wasn't alone.
He had friends.
He had someone who cared for him.
"Sakura…" he repeated weakly.
Her smile faded as she took his face between her hands.
"Sasuke…" she whispered, her face dangerously close to his.
"Start to trust us. Naruto, Kakashi-sensei and I… we care about you, and I'm sure that you could make some new friends if you started opening up. I know it's difficult…" she added when she saw the disbelief in his eyes. "…but you can always try, don't you think?"
And here it was, again. Her smile.
Her beautiful smile.
Her lips were soft, inviting, slightly parted.
And Sasuke needed to taste them.
Without warning, or further hesitation, he kissed her, his lips pressing against hers in a desperate motion, trying to absorb her vital energy, her warmth. Sakura at first did nothing, then started to shyly respond, her mouth opening slightly against his. He took what she offered, his hands cupping her cheeks and keeping her in place, as his tongue explored the inside of her mouth.
He was in agony, searching for something that made him feel, to make him understand he was still living and that he wasn't a cold puppet.
Sakura was willingly melting into him, and he was hot all over, needing to have more, to taste more than her lips.
Sasuke didn't now how they arrived there, but soon she was lying on his bed, his cold bed in his cold room, with him standing on his knees over her. Sakura smiled up at him and suddenly the room was filled with the yellow light of the sun, even if outside the moon shone on the two lovers.
It was all fast and fevered: he was a bit uncouth and rough and knew he hurt her when, in his euphoria, he penetrated her quickly. Sakura chocked on her tears and just kissed him, biting his lip.
Sasuke panted in her ear, their naked bodies pressed together in an intimate embrace that made him crave for more: she was beautiful, she cared for him, she saw him (ONLY HIM!) and she was now his.
She finally relaxed and he moved, running towards bliss.
It was over too soon, and he knew that she wasn't completely satisfied, but the pink-haired kunoichi just caressed his hair in a soothing manner and he couldn't help but fall asleep.
§
When he woke up she was gone.
Panic seized his heart: had he dreamt everything?
Sasuke looked down: he was naked.
He usually didn't go to bed naked…so something must have happened.
Without Sakura, his room was now cold as it had always been after the massacre.
Sasuke put on a pair of boxers and his black trousers: he exited his room and his heart started beating quickly when he heard noises coming from the kitchen at the ground floor.
There Sakura was obviously preparing breakfast.
She was wearing a different dress than the day before and the dark-haired shinobi noticed a lot of vegetables and food he didn't have in his fridge.
"Ohayo, Sasuke-kun." She smiled sweetly, as she boiled the rice.
His own smile was little and tentative, and his 'ohayo' was much weaker than hers, but she seemed satisfied.
"You had nothing to eat, so I went out to buy some groceries." She explained simply, as she put down in front of him a bowl of steaming rice and one of miso soup.
"The fish will be ready in a few minutes." Sakura said, as she sat down in front of him and started eating her own rice.
It was strange for Sasuke: he hadn't had a real breakfast since the massacre. Usually he ate some vegetables and went out to train.
Seeing Sakura cooking a real japanese breakfast brought back memories of his mother; he suddenly remembered he had loved her rolled omelet and she usually made him more than one.
Sasuke liked seeing Sakura moving so familiarly in his kitchen, in his home; he liked the idea of her cooking breakfast for him every day of his life; he liked the joy she brought with her in his semi-abandoned house; he liked the idea of someone taking care of him.
"Sakura." She looked up at him with a questioning look.
"Will you stay with me?"
The pink-haired kunoichi looked startled and he felt the need to explain.
"I would like you to cook for me everyday."
She understood.
And simply smiled.
"As long as you'll want me."
Sasuke smirked satisfied: he had a feeling he wouldn't mind having this annoying woman in his house.
The future suddenly looked brighter.
Anthology II – End
Author's Note: I hope you liked also this one… It took me one hour and half to write, and I have to admit that in the beginning the plot was completely different… Oh, well! If you enjoyed it, please, just leave a review: it will make my day.
A heartfelt thank you to:
HPBabe91, Kairi Aerith, Lusiana Malfoy, XxblackxwingedxangelxX, TenTenXIrista.
You were all very sweet, thank you!