SPOILERS ALERT!

For people who are following the anime and are stuck on those 100-plus fillers, you WILL be confused (or shocked into a state of near-catatonia, like me). For people who are following the manga and have reached chapters 220-plus, you're good to go.

Standard Disclaimers Apply.

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Title: Missing

Genre: Drama

Starring: Sakura and her missing-nin. No, literally.

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Sakura was startled into wakefulness by the sound of scratching wood. A scratching that gradually grew until she was quite certain that it wasn't just a branch against her window.

Her eyes fluttered open to hazy darkness. It was her own bedroom, all right. She could see her wardrobe across the room, the dresser, the desk next to her, the little turtle lamp on her desk … Everything was where it should be. So why did she feel so insecure? Sakura blinked bolted upright.

Someone was trying to wrench open her window from the outside.

Instantly she felt for the kunai under her pillow and weighed her chances of a surprise attack. Unlike most of the kids in Konoha, her parents weren't ninjas. In a situation like this, she was the best one in the house for the job.

Her confidence rose several notches when she realized that the burglar seemed to be having some trouble getting her window to open. That meant that he probably wasn't too competent. All the better for her.

Finally, with a crack, the wood gave way and the window swung open. A gust of cold night air swept in but by then Sakura was already out of bed.

With the speed only a ninja could muster, she flew to her window and struck. A startled gasped escaped her when something caught her wrist. The next thing Sakura knew, a hand had appeared on her windowsill, followed by a face. A face framed by matted black hair and eyes that glowed red in the moonlight.

"Sa-Sa…Sas…" Sakura continued gaping like a fish long after the words died in her throat. The kunai slipped from her fingers and clattered to the ground several stories below her.

Still gripping her wrist in one hand, the imposing figure of Uchiha Sasuke dragged himself through her window and dropped onto her carpet, shoes, blood stains and all.

Sakura's scream was stuck in her throat. Terrified and helpless in shock, her chest rose and fell as she tried to tried to remember to breathe.

Instead of attacking, however, Sasuke straightened and supported himself against the wall. To her stunned surprise, his eyes faded presently to black. After a hesitation, he dropped her hand as well.

Sakura swallowed and began to back away. "What… How… ?"

"Itachi's dead."

Sakura nodded mechanically to this bizarre statement. "Oh."

She knew, of course, what had happened to the Uchihas. One of them, the elder son and heir to the clan had apparently gone rogue massacred the whole family. Past that, Sakura wasn't really keen on delving into. The motives and betrayal and family dynamics were all too twisted for her to understand anyway.

"I need someplace to stay for tonight."

Sakura stared at him. Suddenly, she felt the wall bump against her back. She had unconsciously backed into the door right across the room. Nervously, she laughed. "Stay? Here?"

"I don't have anywhere else to go."

"W-What about the Uchiha House?"

"They've renovated it – it's been completely emptied."

Sakura wanted to kick herself. Of course she knew that they had made the Uchiha Estate property of Leaf Village. With the last of its inhabitants gone and the bloodline for all intents and purposes wiped out, there was no reason to keep it around.

Sakura searched the boy furtively for signs of anger, but there was only emotionless calm about him. Oddly enough, this comforted her. This was the Sasuke she remembered, the Sasuke she had grown up with.

A quick shake of her head brought her back to reality. He's not what he looks like, she reminded herself firmly. After all, there must've been a good reason why he was the youngest missing-nin to down on record in a hundred years.

He had thought nothing of betraying his village and friends all for the sake of a revenge that would get him killed anyway. He had abandoned her, thought of her as nothing but a nuisance since the day they met, and left her to cry in the rain. And, he almost killed Naruto.

Sakura had no illusions about the boy standing in front of her. And yet…

"There's…there's an extra futon. In the cupboard," she said softly, and went to fetch it.

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Sleep was an impossibility. Sakura turned to the clock on her dresser and watched as 2:30 blinked steadily back at her. How did anyone expected to sleep when he was lying right there at her feet?

Careful not to rustle her blankets, she sat up and leaned forward. Sakura had a good, solid mattress that didn't squeak, so she made no noise as she peered gingerly over the edge of her wood-framed bed.

Spread out at the foot of her bed was her spare futon, containing one sleeping shinobi in complete disarray.

Somehow, in the surreal aftermath of his sudden arrival, they had managed to work out a silent form of communication. Without exchanging a single word between them, the two went their separate ways: Sasuke to clean himself up in the bathroom and she to fetch a spare set of pajamas from her parent's room and set up the futon.

As she watched him, Sakura was struck by the way he slept: curled into a ball, clutching his blankets, eyebrows knitted together as if he were expecting an attack even in sleep. He looked exactly the same as he had two years ago during the Chuunin Exams. For some reason, she had expected to see a difference – after all, the revenge that he had give up everything for was finally complete.

So why did he still seem as haunted as ever?

Sakura slid back into bed and stared at the ceiling. She was itching to do something besides count dots on the white plaster, but at the same time terrified of getting up and walking around. If she so much as put a toe on the floor, he was going to wake up and kill her, she was certain of it.

Instead, she lay awake until pure exhaustion claimed her – and it must've been at least four in the morning by then. All she remembered was her eyelids drooping and drooping until they simply stayed closed. The next thing she knew, she was wide awake and staring at a clock that read 5:45.

Sakura shot up and scrambled to the foot of her bed. She didn't know what she was expecting, but there was no Sasuke to be seen. All that was left was a folded futon with her father's old pajamas sitting on top.

"Eerp!" Sakura bolted out of bed. Quelling the urge to phone Ino (she wouldn't be up anyway), she edged over to her window and poked it gingerly.

It was still dark out, but she could easily see that half of the windowsill had been ripped away. Splinters of wood stuck up in every direction. Sakura stuck her head out as far as she could and scanned the line of houses in the distance. A thin stream of worry had begun to beat in her chest, worries that she knew were mostly groundless but nagged at her nonetheless.

What if he showed up in town? What if the Anbu saw him? What if Naruto saw him?

As she was bending over to clean up the muddy footprints on her carpet, something caught her eye. It was a note written in red ink – short, curt, and unmistakably Sasuke. The words themselves weren't too alarming, but no matter how Sakura looked at it, it still sounded like some sort of coded death threat.

Quickly she crumpled the note and tossed it into the trash bin, but by then the law of Inverse Memory Capacities had already taken its toll. What she most wanted to forget, of course, was now cemented into her head:

Sakura,

Thank you. I won't forget.

--Uchiha Sasuke

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AN: I have this thing for forgotten couples, and if Sasuke Sakura aren't the forgotten couple, then I don't know who is. In all honesty, it's probably the most canon of all canon pairings, and yet everyone seems convinced that they're not meant to be. (Check out of the number of Sasu Naru/Itachi/Shinobi X fics on the net and you'll see what I mean. ::sigh::)

If you asked me, Sasuke is a traitorous little snake that deserves the beating that I just know is coming to him. This whole story revolves around the premise that nobody succeeds in saving Sasuke, and thus he is left to rot in Orochimaru's hands for awhile until he finally kills his brother and comes to his senses. Or, at least, a portion of his senses. -- He, apparently, still has enough of it to go to the one person who wouldn't try to kill him on sight (or at least scream bloody murder) to find lodging.

Originally, I was going to turn this into a short series about how Sasuke finally realizes that Sakura is the only one for him. But then I guess I found the idea of writing out their entire courtship too daunting, and shorted it to just their first meeting after a two-year absence. I think what I have, by itself, already says enough, ne?

Oh, and in case anybody was wondering, this is NOT my prediction for the future of the manga. People seem to like jumping on the "Bye-bye-Chouji" bandwagon way too much, but I really, reeeeaaally don't want him to die. Heck, who really wants a main character to die?

To Reviewers: Thanks for the support and encouragement

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Next up: A disgruntled tutor, a curious student, a goban, and some complicated family politics -- (you know which one).