Real: Chapter Three

a/n: continuation of my sasusaku fic.

Disclaimer: see previous chapters. (so what if I'm lazy? =P)

Summary: Sakura and Sasuke wonder about what really happened.

Sasuke and Sakura had long since burned out their youthful exchange of delight and unrestrained libido. They sat together on the edge of a small meandering creek, contemplating the faint emptiness of life under the falling night.

Sakura moved her hair back from her face once more. Her hands didn't hold the same tremulous excitement of midday; now all of her motions were measured and merely practical.

All the fun was gone.

They sat in a sort of limbo between two worlds, wondering dazedly what had just happened and questioning what would happen. Where would they go from here? Sakura would have longed for a relationship at any point in the past; she had always loved Sasuke. Sasuke himself wasn't sure what he wanted… he never was.

Was this hormone-driven little escapade an act of lustful impulses? Sakura didn't care anymore. It was late and she didn't feel like contemplating such things. She was sure, however, that she had enjoyed leading Uchiha Sasuke into that world of hungry contact. She loved feeling his famished hands trace her body, and she loved making his pale beautiful face burn with sensual energy.

Sasuke also liked this sort of activity. He almost needed this contact, not to stimulate his anti-social vein of behavior, but for simply inexplicable reasons. His subconscious was naturally a mess, and spending time with Sakura like this cleared his mind of bloody revenge fantasies and stiffly chronological training.

He had enjoyed himself.

Sasuke couldn't help but grin slightly. He wasn't feeling like himself at all anymore, but he didn't quite mind the change.

"Sakura," he said in his smooth voice. Sakura looked over at him in the dim light.

"What are you thinking about?" he asked, his voice heavy with exhaustion. Sakura turned towards Sasuke, smiling inwardly at the image of a fatigued Sasuke. Something was different now that she had gotten to know him more. Sasuke was no longer the untouchable prince to her anymore, but for some reason, Sakura liked him more than she had before.

There was something more personal in the way he glanced at her, the way he'd wash over her with his dark bottomless eyes. He was acknowledging her now in a way that she had never imagined: not as his weak female teammate that needed protection, but with a sort of --- awe.

Sakura was a smart girl. She knew when Sasuke was watching the slight, swaying movements of her body or when he was visualizing them coming closer than ever before—connected together in a vaguely erotic dream. Sakura smiled openly at him, hanging in the silence of the night with the boy that she'd always dreamed of.

"I'm not thinking of anything," Sakura answered. Sasuke's eyes shifted away from her for a moment as he stretched lazily and put his arm around her bare shoulder. Sakura grinned pertly despite her fatigue, swelling with a calm happiness that comes when you feel something that can't be expressed in words.

And none of this did need any explanation. It was simple: two genin, a boy and a girl, sitting on a bridge at dusk. They were in love, they were in lust, and they hadn't planned any of it. The best relationships were often unplanned, after all. Both of them simply needed the change, they simply needed to stop running from themselves and each other and the world. The pent-up hormones had driven them here, and they were both thankful for having indulged their fantasies.

This sort of game was healthy for both of them; it was comforting and happy and enjoyable. It was what they had wanted all along, after all.

Had they mused over this logic any earlier, Sakura would have blushed in mortification and Sasuke would have snorted in apathy. Neither one of them would have believed the very true fact that they were indeed normal teens with normal desires. They would have never understood that by simply obeying the wild and deep-seated desires of their bodies they would free their minds.

But, the world was a confusing place sometimes, and this happened just like it did for a reason. Sakura and Sasuke still can't name the reason, but they didn't seem to mind anyway.

Sasuke's hand curled around Sakura's as he drew her even closer to him on that worn-out little bridge. They absent-mindedly counted the stars coming out, not caring about love or hormones or whatever the hell it was called.

Some things couldn't be explained by mere words, after all.

End notes: well, that's it for now—possibly more sasusaku to come--- I really like this couple now =)

Tell me what you think, readers!