Spoilers: Everything in the manga.
A/N: Dedicated to Phase-chan, the first person in this world capable of making me love SasuSaku. This will never be as good as our rps, honey, but I'll sure as hell try. -x- Inspired by Livejournal community "30 breathtakes". -x- Additional comments: if you're looking for love in the first chapters, look somewhere else. If you're looking for a Sakura that will whimper and promise to never ever leave his side, look somewhere else. If you're looking for angst, drama and the slow process of two people realising things about each other, and the other, this is where to look.
Theme used: 1. wind in your hair;

She was the first person he saw after Itachi's last breath escaped his body.

Funny, Sasuke had though, he'd imagined Naruto would be the first to come to him, shout at him and beg him to return. So he told her exactly that.

"Naruto's injured back at base-camp. I'm here to take you back," she answered, pulling the glove on her right hand tighter around it.

Sasuke was unfazed. "Sakura. I've just killed my brother. What makes you think you can defeat me?" Arrogance leaked into his tone, yes, because he had the right to be arrogant. He'd avenged his family. He'd became more powerful than Itachi, he'd killed his mother's murderer, he'd achieved all he'd been aiming for in life. And strangely enough, he felt empty. More empty than before, because before, he'd had a purpose, some reason, tangible and solid, to hold onto and guide himself by. Of course, there was the matter of his clan being rebuilt. But where would he rebuild a clan if no village nor country wanted him? He was alone now. The lone avenger. Himself, as usual. Unusual, though, was the fact that he didn't care. Apathy had become so much a part of him that even loneliness of the worst kind didn't suppose a threat anymore.

Lost in his thoughts, though, he failed to see Sakura moving until it was too late. Because, after all, what could Sakura do to him? She was weak, a nuisance, a damsel always needing rescuing. She probably could not hurt a fly. And she was a medic-nin, he'd heard. Even more useless. The blood on her clothes, he reasoned, was probably blood from healing everyone, not fighting. Standing in the sidelines until everyone else died. So when Sakura disappeared with a flash of pink hair, fluttering in the wind, and reappeared in front of him, he only had time to narrow his eyes slightly, before her fist collided with his nose.

In retrospect, the crack! that sounded? Probably wasn't only the tree Sasuke was thrown into with the strength of the punch, but also his nose.

It was highly unpleasing, he reasoned. Getting injured was one thing, but being punched by the girl that was supposedly madly in love with him? And what had happened to Sakura, anyway? Where was the small, meek, obsessively annoying Sakura he knew? So three-four years of absence were many, but he'd hardly expected her to grow stronger than…well, he had hardly expected her to change in any way, proven mostly by his complete ignoring of her. More importantly, though, his nose hurt like hell. She'd probably broken it in three different places, and the pain was so sharp—topped with the one of being slammed against a tree--that he concentrated only on that.

Sakura was in front of him, muttering things like: "Spoiled, annoying brat, doesn't think I'm strong enough. Didn't come all the way here and killed two, two! Akatsuki members, just to hear him say that I'm too weak to be compared with him—HAH! I tell you, HAH! Well look who's weak now, mister Uchiha survivor." When her angry rant was over, and Sasuke's head cleared a bit, he realised another thing.

During her rant, and his pain, Sakura had wrapped three thick ropes tightly around his body, pining his hands against his sides. In that moment, his eyes narrowed, snapping into Sharingan, and tried to catch her gaze. She wasn't relenting, though, tying the knots, and grabbing his sword from his side, strapping that to her back. Fine, so she wouldn't look at him. He'd break the ropes with lightning technique, no proble—only there was a problem, really. Because Sakura had always been smart, and her ropes were chakra laden.

"If you even try to escape, I'll break your jaw, leave you unconscious and drag you all the way to base camp, so help me God," she growled, wrapping her hands around the end of the ropes around him. "Stand up, and let's go."

So. Was this what he'd fought for all his life? Was this what he'd trained and killed Itachi for? To be dragged back home, tied up, practically on a leash by a girl that held half--half!--his power? Preposterous. Unthinkable. Shameful.

And yet, what other choice he had aside from going with her? Being alone forever and trying to find his place in the world? The only, only reason he allowed Sakura to drag his tied self to camp was that there, at least, he'd have some sort of place where to…belong. Or not feel aimless. Right. It was exactly that, and nothing more.

Naruto would never let him live this down.