The In between.

Chapter 1.

By: RobinSparkelz

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

...And despite the ring that resides on her slender finger. She has never felt more single than now. Because he may have marked his territory, but he hasn't staked his claim. A Sasuke&Sakura story. Post-Canon.

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Sakura wakes up alone, the right side of the bed is cold and undisturbed except for the few creases her hand has made in the silky silvery sheets, as it extended subconsciously to the empty side, grasping for something, futilely.

Slowly she retracts her extended arm, the emerald on her left hand snagging against the sheets as she it drags across the fabric, it blinks at her as the beam of light slipping through her sloppily closed blinds refracts the emerald into a tiny green prism against the grey, and she thinks that she has never felt more alone.

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She likes to remind herself that he stayed, just for a year but he stayed, helping rebuild a broken village, a broken bond, a broken heart, but Konoha she muses, as she stirs her black, black coffee, because she relishes in the bitterness against her tongue, will never be enough for Sasuke-kun and maybe even after all this time, and despite everything, she will never be either.

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The hospital is confining, healing a broken arm or prescribing flu medicine, is not why she became a medic nin, but she supposes with the shinobi worlds new found peace, she will have to get used to it.

Still though, she misses the adrenaline that courses through her system and the burn of chakra in her veins and because she's damaged to, she misses the blood that stains her fingers and the feeling of cutting through flesh, because Sakura may be a healer, but she is a Ninja first.

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"You don't look well" Ino tells her, when she visits the blonde at the Yamanaka flower shop to purchase flowers for her empty, empty home - red roses or maybe they are actually white roses she thinks, drenched in crimson blood.

"Just tired Pig" she answers, with a smile that doesn't reach her eyes.

Because while Sasuke is out in the world, trying to heal himself, she feels like she's in Konoha and slowly breaking.

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Six months, six months and almost two days later is when she feels his chakra approaching the large emerald green gates of Konoha, and maybe in another time she would have sprinted to the gates and launched herself into his embrace, but she is mad, mad at him, mad at how much she loves him, mad at herself for picking up his damn chakra signature like a well-oiled Sasuke detector, so she ignores his approaching presence, punches a crater through her office wall and still stops at the market to pick up a fresh box of tomatoes on her way home, and she hates herself for loving him.

He is in the shower, when she gets home, she can hear the spray of water despite being in the kitchen, because the apartment isn't big, not small, but spacious - perfect for two people not one.

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Onigiri is his favorite, but she will not make it today, no, today she will be selfish, and she takes out the chicken fillets to thaw and sets up the counter to cook.

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He is standing in the archway that leads from the living area into the kitchen, she has yet to acknowledge his presence and for that, she is secretly proud.

"Sakura" but her name on his lips, in his sinful velvety monotone is enough to unravel her.

"Sasuke-kun" she acknowledges albeit a bit shakily.

Slowly she looks up from the colorful array of peppers before her, to the man she has promised to spend the rest of her life with.

And just like every time, it's like she's seeing him for the first time, and her mouth goes dry.

Because he stares at her from under sooty eye lashes, and his hair which is still damp from the shower is unruly and sinfully ruffled, but what is worse she thinks is his bare chest and broad shoulders and his nin pants which hang deliciously low on his hips, and her eyes trace the half visible tattoo on his hip bone and she feels her pulse speed up, and heat sweep through her before she drags her gaze to meet his, but it is the ghost of a smirk on his lips that causes her to pick up the knife on the counter and continue chopping. Arrogant jerk.

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With heat swirling through her body and her thoughts in disarray she doesn't notice him move, until two strong arms cage her in on either side and she can feel his toned chest against her back and his damp locks against her neck.

"..Sasu- Sasuke-kun no don-"

She feebly protests as he nuzzles her neck, his arms encircling her waist pulling her closer to his heat.

"Sa-ku-ra" he drawls, as one of his arms loosen, only to slip under her shirt and across her toned stomach, and she can't help the sigh that escapes her lips as he kisses her neck. Her resolve crumbling completely.

She closes her eyes relishing in his presence, in his smell, in him, in Sasuke, only to open them when he spins her around, slamming her against the counter his lips inches from hers.

"I missed you" he says.

His eyes boring into hers, soaking her in, and those words she thinks, those simple words mean more from Sasuke that anybody else.

And like he knew she would, she gives in.

She does not know how much he misses the feeling of her skin against his fingertips as he unbuttons her shirt, leaving a trail of fire behind. How much he missed her green, green eyes which darken as he slips her lacy black panties off... slowly, and her breathy moans as he kisses his way up her inner thigh, or the way her head lolls back to expose the slender column of her neck when he strokes her heat and licks her there.

She especially doesn't know how much he misses her soft petal pink lips, his tongue entwined with hers or the way she rakes her fingers across his back and yanks his hair when he fills her and how the cries of his name that fall from her lips undo him.

Sakura does not know how much Sasuke adores her and he doesn't know how to tell her either.

When Sakura wakes up, there is an arm around her bare waist and a pair of legs entangled in hers, and she smiles after a long time at the feeling of Sasuke's face in the crook of her neck.

...And she wonders, if this time she will be enough.

He leaves three days later.

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Note:In CELEBRATION of SASUSAKU being CANON. My OTP!This story was originally a one-shot, but I decided its going to be more of a drabble series chronicling the time between after the war until the conceiving of Sarada Uchiha « SasuSaku kid EEeeeeehhhh. One thing that bothers me is how Sasuke is still not a hundred percent there for Sakura :( This story is Canon but differences like the Yamanaka shop ect. Will be there. So just go with it. If however I made a HUGE mistake and the canon-verse is completely OOC tell me - I will attempt to fix it. Review please? Me loves you all for believing and sticking with Sasuke and Sakura for all these years and never losing faith.

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