Title: Neck
Characters: SasuSaku
Summary: It was always the damn neck with him.

The neck is one of the most vulnerable parts of the human body. It can be slashed, twisted, snapped, or held in a vise until the owner either passes out or asphyxiates.

Sakura learned a lot about anatomy while studying with Tsunade. She learned the location of jugular artery, the different nerves; would kill a victim and what would only paralyze. She learned how to heal whiplash, how to staunch bloodflow, and where to hit so that the victim would only be knocked unconscious.

On those days, she was more self-conscious than usual. One hand was always rubbing at her neck, every so often dipping to gently press a point which, even years after the fact, still stung from impact.

When she met up with Sasuke that second time, Sakura had little idea what to think and even less how to feel. Despite meticulously planning her thoughts, her reactions—everything—Sasuke's appearance had, as usual, destroyed all of her plans before they ever came to fruition.

It hadn't been a pleasant meeting by any stretch of the imagination. From his demand for her to finish off the woman lying bleeding on the ground by his own hand, to her failure to, yet again, make good on a vow (this time to kill), Sakura could and did declare it a disaster.

But that wasn't why it burned so fresh and clear in her mind.

It was the hand that gripped her throat and pressed, squeezed, trying to deprive her body of oxygen and life itself, which haunted her.

Still, Strangulation, while not a clean death, was hardly the worst that could come to a shinobi. Even Sasuke's hands, strong as they were, hadn't left much in the way of marks. What little bruising there was, she healed, and didn't speak of it to those who asked about the Second Team Seven Reunion.

Her nightmares, however, changed.

Once of watching Sasuke become a monster, now they were of facing the monster, seeing his twisted expression as he wrapped his fingers around her throat again and again.

The third time she met up with Sasuke, things had shifted.

For one thing, he had seen her fight. They had dueled; no holds barred, steel and fists and (at one memorable point) teeth, and had come up even.

For another, the monstrous, half-crazed look in his eyes had vanished. He was still tensed, still on edge, but with a more familiar caution as he accepted her help and her healing.

They were holed up in some comfortable little inn near the forest they had decimated, sharing a room (with two beds) while Sakura's chakra climbed, very slowly, back up to levels which could be used to heal both herself as well as Sasuke. They both had sustained an impressive array of injuries, not all of which could be let be until her levels had been fully replenished.

Therefore, they were going to be stuck in the room for a good few days.

So, to pass the time between healings, they talked.

Sasuke told her about the Uchiha massacre, and the truths he had discovered, while Sakura in turn spoke to him regarding what Danzo had done, and what Konoha would have to face in the coming months.

It was almost comfortable.

But even with her new knowledge, and Sasuke's milder demeanor, Sakura couldn't bring herself to stay very close to him. Only when she healed him did she permit herself to come into close proximity with him, and the second she was finished she moved back across the room. Sasuke noticed—she could see the confusion on his face—but said nothing.

It was on the third day that Sasuke did anything about it. Her healing had progressed to the point that between the two of them, she only had to heal the major bruising.

"Hold still," she ordered, sitting in front of Sasuke, who was sitting up with his back resting against the headboard, pillows knocked aside.

Gently, she touched his temple, sending chakra to sooth the dark bruises her fists had left there. They lightened, turned yellow, and vanished, leaving his face flawless save for a small cut or two.

"It feels strange."

Sakura paused to glance sidelong at Sasuke, whose eyes were closed. It was rare he spoke simply to make an observation, and even moreso for something so trivial.

Still, she wasn't about to discourage him.

"Well…it doesn't hurt, does it?" she asked rhetorically, smiling a little. It was easier these days, to do that around him. "So long as it doesn't, that's all that matters."

Sasuke didn't respond.

What he did do was open his eyes and reach out to Sakura, frozen in the act of pulling away. Delicately, he pressed his fingers around the crook of her neck, his thumb resting on the dip in her collarbone.

Sakura felt both her pulse and her breath quicken. Sasuke didn't seem to react, though his gaze slid up to meet her own.

Even more gently, he shifted and his thumb was tilting back her chin, so that she was exposing her throat to him. Sakura let him, fighting down every instinct to grab his hand and break it. It would, she told herself, been a great waste of the healing chakra she had expended to heal the hand in the first place.

His hand had moved again, and now it was his palm pressing against her throat, fingers splayed wide.

"It would have been about right here," he said aloud, startling Sakura. "Wouldn't it?"

He was talking about their last meeting.

Sakura swallowed, and inclined her head so as to better see him. He let her, eyes still opaque, but not so much that she couldn't see the question in them.

She nodded. The fingers seemed to tighten, but barely a moment later his hold was lax again. Sakura wondered how well Sasuke could feel her pulse, thrumming as it was under his touch. His thumb was tracing circles on her skin, and it tickled.

Then his hand was sliding off her neck, his fingers brushing the ends of her hair. He wasn't meeting her eyes anymore, and Sakura couldn't understand what the expression he wore meant.

They sat in silence, closer than they had been in a very long time.

"I shouldn't have done that." he said abruptly, his hand dropping to rest again by his side.

It was a statement that had more than one application.

"Yes," Sakura agreed, softly, recognizing the look on his face, the vulnerability his shame gave him. "You probably shouldn't have."

But she didn't move away.

The neck, as stated before, is a highly valuable, highly vulnerable area of the body.

Oddly enough, the neck—more specifically, the nape—has erotic connotations as well. As one of the few areas left uncovered by a kimono, a woman's nape is considered very attractive to men.

Sakura doesn't think about such trivia often. But even as she's older and wiser, she still has her moments of whimsy, and sometimes she will remind Sasuke of this fact when she feels his lips press against her neck gently.

He just snorts and tells her how silly she's being. They both know why he does it, as both a display of affection, as well as being an oblique apology in his less secure moments.

The sting is long gone.

Seriously, I'm kind of afraid Sasuke's going to bite Sakura a la vampire next time they meet up.