AN: Well. It's been a very long while. Here's my latest plot bunny. It's somewhat a sequel to The Confession, but I wrote that so long ago that my writing style has completely changed. Also, whereas The Confession was primarily a romantic comedy, The Confession 2 (TC2) is romance drama with enough humor to keep things interesting. That being said, to take all that into account, I have time-skipped 5 years after The Confession.

Let me know your thoughts!

Haruno Sakura was struggling.

She was struggling to smile, struggling to think, struggling to breathe.

How was it that after all this time she was still this affected by Uchiha Sasuke? She should have gotten over him by now. He'd been married for five years now, was a father of two, and it was obvious he was still completely besotted with his wife. Still, as Sasuke whirled her across the dancefloor, Sakura was painfully aware that she hadn't gotten over him.

He was still the best she'd ever had.

Sure, she'd lived while pretending that their thing had been over ages ago, and that she was over it, and that Sasuke hadn't been right for her anyway, and she'd thought that she'd been making strides in believing her own lies but tonight proved otherwise.

The familiar manly scent of him, his perfect height, his elegantly cut hair, his impossibly good skin, and those lips… All she wanted to do was stretch up and press her mouth against his.

The way she used to.

Sakura looked away sharply, resenting the smoothness of his expensive suit jacket and the crisp whiteness of his shirt.

"Have you been avoiding me?" he murmured in her ear as they moved across the dancefloor. Sakura hated the way her gut trembled when his breath whispered across her skin.

"What a ridiculous question," Sakura returned with just enough sarcasm to make him smile. He liked when she was sarcastic. His dark gaze used to simmer with heat whenever she'd snarked off at him. After a while she'd done it just to turn him on. How he managed to be in love with someone who didn't have a sarcastic bone in her body still confused Sakura.

"Am I to take that as a yes or a no?" Sasuke asked. His hand was warm in the small of her back and he leaned back slightly so he could meet her gaze. Sakura could have sworn she saw attraction in his obsidian eyes, but she was too affected by him to take it seriously. Knowing her luck it was a projection of her feelings for him.

"Take it however you want," she returned saucily, hating the way her heart thundered in her chest. She shouldn't be like this. He was a married man. His wife was a wonderful woman. He had the cutest kids humanly possible. She shouldn't be like this.

"I will take it as a yes then, not because I want to, but because that's the most logical answer," Sasuke returned. "If you weren't avoiding me you would just have said no." Sakura didn't respond, because what was there to say? She'd been found out and denying it now would only make the truth more obvious.

Honestly she'd been too embarrassed to face him.

He was doing so well after their breakup seven years ago and she had yet to land even one decent boyfriend.

How was it possible for her to have such bad luck romantically? No one worked. Nothing worked. She'd fallen in and out of love so many times these past few years, or at least, so she had thought until she'd stumbled into Sasuke and Hinata at the mall and realized within a minute that she'd never fallen in love at all.

Not since Sasuke.

Not since they'd both figured out that Sasuke didn't want her.

"Why have you been avoiding me, Sakura?" Sasuke drawled in her ear. It was unfair. It was unfair that he'd gotten even more charming after marrying Hinata. He hadn't gotten boring or fat or made any of those considerate developments that married exes were supposed to. No, he'd gotten sexier, more confident, more charming, more everything after being with Hinata and Sakura was conscious that she would never have effected such a change in him.

It had made her feel so small every time she'd seen him.

So she'd been avoiding him.

"That's for me to know and you never to find out," Sakura returned with a secretive smile. Sasuke smirked back at her and leaned closer.

"If I didn't know better I would think you still liked me," he said.

"And you know better because…?" Sakura responded with beautifully convincing faux bristle. Truthfully, her insides were the exact opposite to the soothing classical music swirling around them. She felt almost nauseous from want and self-pity and frustration.

"You know I dislike your boyfriend and you simply assumed I would give you grief about it. But Sakura, it's okay. I could tell you from now that he'll disappoint you, but at the end of the day it's your life. You're a grown woman. You can handle it without my interference," Sasuke said softly. His jaw brushed against her cheek. It was so smooth Sakura knew that his shave must have cost hundreds of dollars.

It was not okay. Sasuke was right, as he usually was, but Sakura was not going to let him know just yet. Kisuke had already disappointed her, not the way she thought he would, but it had been a disappointment nonetheless. Finding out that your boyfriend of five months was gay wasn't exactly fun. He'd been perfect. She'd thought he was perfect. Too good to be true.

He had been too good to be true. She'd felt like she'd been scammed.

"You always did differ from Naruto in that way," Sakura said with a smile, refusing to acknowledge his words about Kisuke. "He just goes right ahead and interferes." Sasuke chuckled softly, the short, raspy sound making her insides burn with longing as memories of that husky sound caressing her ears during late night phone calls, the smirk he used to give her before he kissed her, and the touch of his hands against her skin coursed through her.

She was struggling.

The song came to an end, not a moment too soon, and Sakura stepped away shakily. Before she could recover completely, Sasuke looked over her head, his expression brightening even as his eyes darkened with warmth. Sakura didn't even have to turn to know why his expression had changed.

Hinata was approaching.

"Anata," he said softly, brushing past Sakura to pull his wife against his chest. Sakura hastily gathered her composure and turned with a smile. The expression trembled on unresponsive lips.

As usual, Hinata was radiant. Her simple, modest cream dress made Sakura's sexy black one feel tacky in comparison. Somehow the Hyuuga heiress seemed to glide everywhere she went. She smiled softly up at Sasuke before turning to Sakura.

"Sakura," she breathed. "I f-feel like I haven't seen you in ages." A reluctant smile pushed to Sakura's lips. One couldn't help but like Hinata. Her stutter had almost completely disappeared after she'd started dating Sasuke, a testament to her burgeoning self-confidence. Sakura both loved and hated how good they were for each other.

"She's been avoiding us," Sasuke said, his voice instinctively dropping to the same quiet level his wife used. They even breathed in sync. Hinata looked a bit stricken at Sasuke's words, and turned to Sakura with wide, worried eyes.

"Did I… Did we…?" she started, blinking as she visibly thought back over past actions as she attempted to determine if it had somehow been her fault. Sakura raised her hands, feeling like an ass for inadvertently causing Hinata to think she could ever be at fault.

Even though she was at fault.

But then it wasn't her fault that she was perfect for Sasuke.

"No, no," Sakura said, struggling to find an excuse to offer. "I was a bit caught up with my boyfriend," she said after a moment. Hinata blinked and shared a telling glance with Sasuke. If Hinata was Naruto, she would have said something that would have put Sakura in a completely awkward position and force her to tell the truth on the spot, but Hinata was perfect.

And so she just gave Sakura a soft smile and nodded understandingly.

Sakura hated how lovable Hinata was. She hated how Sasuke opened his mouth to say something but Hinata squeezed his hand to shut him up. She hated that she noticed that.

She was saved from having to stand there in front of their perfection by the opening notes of the next song.

"Enjoy your dance," Sakura said, kissing Hinata lightly on the cheek and making her escape. She made it all the way to the bar, breathing deeply in an attempt to hold back her frustrated tears.

The bartender looked over at her, his gaze hitching at her chest before he wordlessly asked for her order.

"Vodka," she said simply. She was probably going to regret this later, but it beat having to watch Sasuke and Hinata in their little romantic bubble. They were more in love than the newlywed couple whose wedding they were dancing at. Sakura grabbed the shot of vodka split seconds after it was placed before her and downed it in one shot.

It wouldn't take a rocket scientist to tell that Haruno Sakura was drunk.

She was sitting alone at the bar, stroking the rim of a shot glass with her index finger. Itachi sat, leaving one stool between them, and motioned at the bartender. He ordered a glass of red wine, his gaze sliding back over the drunk pinkette before returning to the bartender.

"Do you believe in love?" she asked suddenly, tilting precariously on her stool as she looked at him through slightly unfocused eyes. He didn't have to answer her honestly; she was too drunk to embark on a conversation of any depth, but then again, that was probably the reason he did. She probably wouldn't remember anything later.

"It depends. I believe it happens for some and not for others," he said after a moment. She looked at him blankly for a few seconds before taking another drink of the clear liquid in her glass.

Vodka.

Vodka and sadness was rarely a good mixture, and she was reeking of both.

"Do you think love is a mirrrcle?" she asked, her words slurred almost beyond comprehension. Before Itachi could respond, she continued speaking. "I think it is a curse. I've fallen in love with the one person I can never have, and nothing I do makes it go away."

Itachi didn't respond, but he didn't have to. Sakura kept speaking.

"I'd much rather marry for convenience than for love. Someone financially stable and decent would be perfect for me. I just need to be able to help people. I'd be content with someone who will support me and leave me to my charities. I've had it with love. I don't need it. I'll marry, because I want that, but I'll never do it for love. I just need to be useful. I just need to be of help to someone. Love doesn't work for me. It never has," she said, a bit miserably.

Her words resonated within Itachi.

Itachi thought he hated women who married for money. That wasn't it. He hated women who married for money while pretending to marry for love. Therein lay the deceit. It was the deceit that he hated. Someone like Sakura, however, who would openly marry for financial stability, hold the love… That was much less angering.

It was downright convenient for someone such as him.

Itachi took a sip of his wine as he looked her over.

He knew her, by reputation rather than personally. She was a public figure by default, since her adoptive parents owned one of the largest law firms in the world, but she spent the majority of her time running a collection of charitable organizations for a plethora of causes. She was very well loved.

She might just be exactly what he needed.

Itachi didn't have any love to give, but he had more than stable financials. When she muttered something under her breath and flopped over the bar counter, Itachi blinked.

Or maybe not.

He shook his head at the uncharacteristic, not exactly logical turn of his thoughts and banished the idea. She probably wouldn't do at all.

And this is the end of Part One of the prologue!

Please review ~