By Lt. Colonel Samantha O'Neill
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, you would have known if I had…
Summery: Sasuke-kun is back from his personal mission to kill Itachi, but the fight didn't leave him unscathed. Now, home and living with Sakura he tries to live anew. Sakura's POV
A/N: I wrote this for my English class…and I love/hate it. I love that I finished it, but I hate what I had to do to Sasuke-kun. GOMEN NE!
Sasuke-kun left over five years ago, now home and safe, I care for him. He showed up one day, just out of the blue, collapsing into my arms, that day still fresh in my mind and his touch still warm on my hands. Sasuke-kun was called the "human icicle" and for good reason, he never let anyone in his life and liked his solitude…he hated his past. His mouth never twitches upward, his eyes never crease in joy…his hands, which he constantly washes, never holds another. He says that they are stained with blood, the blood of his brother, Itachi.
"Sasuke-kun, let's go for a walk," I suggested one afternoon knowing that Sasuke-kun love walks.
"Aa," was his simple and quiet reply, his eyes were downcast, dark and cold, which usually his eyes were.
His days were now simpler, no one to fight, but the scars lingered. There were nights where I was afraid to talk to him. I had heard him come home from his training session and go into his room. I said nothing, but listened to him walk about. After fifteen minutes I went back to straightening out my room, only to be shaken up by the sound of wood breaking. Sasuke-kun's voice was growing loud and angry and I stayed quiet listening to him throw things about, cursing and yelling at someone who wasn't there.
"Itachi you bastard come out of hiding!" he yelled.
My breath caught in my throat, he still thought that Itachi was still alive. I knew that Sasuke-kun had killed Itachi a month ago, bringing back his head as a trophy stating that the Missing-Nin was now dead. Sasuke-kun has risked it all just to avenge the death of the Uchiha clan.
I remember nights crying just after he came home. Hokage-sama (Tsunade-sama), had entrusted him to my care as a Medic-Nin. She herself had trained me as an apprentice, now it was Hokge-sama telling me that she had recognized me as a full-fledged Medic-Nin. Still, I cried as I took care of Sasuke-kun, at the time I had no idea what the fight and the five years as a Missing-Nin had done to him and how it would affect me as the woman who loved him.
Uzumaki Naruto had come to visit as soon as he heard of Sasuke-kun's return. I smiled slightly and moved about the Uchiha estate, I was now living there with Sasuke-kun, fulfilling the duties of the house and of my own job in the town infirmary. Only Naruto understood my devotion to the Uchiha prodigy. Now, I found that I could confide in Naruto more now than ever.
I told Naruto about the time when Sasuke-kun and I were eating dinner. The solitude was over powering and a single whisper could be heard within it. My eyes were downcast, looking at the bowl of rice in my hand. Sasuke-kun looked the same as he used to, the stoic expression, the one that drove all the girls crazy. Sasuke-kun still looked the same, except older.
"Sasuke-kun?" I asked softly.
"Aa?" was his very small reply.
"Ano…" I just shook my head nothing came to mind. I couldn't talk to him the same anymore…it felt strange and unfamiliar.
My eyes dropped back to my food, slowly eating it, lifting the chopsticks every so slightly to my lips. I chewed slowly before eating some more of the bland meal. I couldn't cook, I knew that, I was hardly a good homemaker; no less, I would be an awful wife. Slowly I lifted my eyes to observe Sasuke-kun, his eyes penetrating mine, and I shook slightly, dropping my bowl and chopsticks, spilling the rice on the table.
"What do you think you're doing?" Sasuke-kun growled standing up from his seat. "Do you want to get killed?"
"E-Eh? What are you talking about Sasuke-kun?" I asked.
"Quiet!" he roared gripping my arms roughly, I winced in the pain.
"You're hurting me…" I squirmed in his grasp. "Sasuke-kun! Let go of me!"
I thought my world was going to shatter, I was afraid of him…I never had been so afraid of him in my life…this wasn't Sasuke-kun to me, this was a monster, a product of his personal war with both Orochimaru and Itachi. Sasuke-kun was now a monster, colder than usual and darker than before. I cried for him and my new life, the broken woman I was becoming due to my new path. Kakashi-sensei had warned me that after Sasuke-kun awoke, he'd never be the same. But I had bluntly ignored his warning and continued to hold on to my love.
I shut my eyes to shelter myself from the pain, crying my heart out in that instance, in front of him. Slowly I felt the pain lessen on my arms, and a hand brush the tears away from my eyes, opening them slowly I was Sasuke-kun. There was something strange about his expression, worry in his eyes.
"Sakura…I'm…I'm sorry," he said quietly.
I nodded and did the only thing I could do, smile and pull him into a hug, "Sasuke-kun…it will be alright."
I knew I was lying, the people of Konohagakure village hate Sasuke-kun for leaving, he abandoned them for his goal, but I had forgiven him. People sneer when they see us; mutter nasty things about him and about me, saying that I was a foolish girl following a crush. I knew what I was getting myself into, so I took the good with the bad and the bad with the worse and decided to live my life with him.
Now, walking with him, I am able to smile a bit, I know that I could never change him. The fighting has changed him dramatically, but still I adore him. He is no longer Uchiha Sasuke-kun, the boy who survived the massacre of his clan, every member dead except him…he is no longer the avenger and fighter, but this is a hole in his heart. We walk hand-in-hand down the tree-lined streets; I smile as he looks around, readjusting to his home. This is where Sasuke-kun's heart lies, in the streets of Konohagakure.
………………
Naruto: See that wasn't so bad
Sakura: Shut up!
Naruto: Come on…
Sakura: Yes that was, so shut up!
Sam: …
Naruto: Ano sa, Ano sa, Sam-chan, that wasn't so bad, ne?
Sam: Shut up! Hurting Sasuke-kun like was was evil of me
Naruto: …what about me? It's always "Sasuke-kun this" and "Sasuke-kun that" WHY!
Sasuke: Grow up, dope.
Naruto: GRRRR!
A/N: Yeah, it really was that hard to write.