Tsuki: Kon-nichiwa, Tsuki here! It's so exciting to be writing my first Fanfiction, and a SasuSaku one no less! *tail wags happily* Anyway, wow this is just so cool! So here's my first chapter, and Sakura, want to do the disclaimer?

Sakura: Sure Tsuki-san, no problem! Okay, Tsukiko Naitosora does not own any of the Naruto characters, Kishimoto-sensei does. Sorry Tsuki-san, uh… Tsuki-san?

Tsuki: *sniffles* I just get really sad when I hear that. If I did there would be major changes! *fire in eyes* Anyway, here goes nothing…

^..^

Days are black now in Konoha. A boy snarls, a girl holds back tears that so desperately try to spill, and a traitor has returned. The Hokage, Tsunade, ran her hands through her hair and sighed, staring at the boy before her, so young and so deadly. The pen she holds taps impatiently on the surface of her desk, and she dares not turn her head.

The pink haired girl holding her tears back in the corner, also held the hand of her beloved friend, Naruto, Tsunade's soon-to-be-successor. Sakura gently strokes his knuckles, while his own claws curl and uncurl into fists, blue eyes bleeding to red. This was a day she knew would come, but how much she wished it hadn't so quickly.

"Uchiha Sasuke, your punishment will be simple at best, especially for your actions. Sakura, Naruto, leave the room please." Sakura began to protest, but her shishou glared, and the two exited, Sakura being forced to repeatedly tug Naruto's sleeve to get him to follow. When the door clicked close, Tsunade continued. "Well then, Sasuke, the S-ranked criminal standing before me, flesh and blood." Said boy did nothing. "Your punishment was decided by me, and I have a soft heart today, be thankful for that. Perhaps I'm just getting to nice in my old age, seen too many deaths, and too many hearts broken. It would be cruel of me to crush your teammate's efforts so viciously. You will be put on probation for a year and under house arrest for six months. Doesn't seem like much does it? Well I'm giving you a break for killing off Orochimaru, Kabuto, and Itachi, not to mention the rest of team Hebi. Of course you came willingly too, that's a plus." A smug smirk passed the Hokage's face, but was gone before it began.

When the Uchiha said nothing, she continued. "Uchiha, you will be watched by the ANBU with intensive supervision, you'd do wise not to make any small mistakes. Your teammates will be allowed to visit you, but I wouldn't count on it too much. Now then, leave my sight before you sour my mood and I do decide to give you the death penalty." A group of ANBU grabbed him by the shoulders, and pulled him out of the room. No one stood in the halls, no one stood outside as the rain poured down, and the clouds above swirled, a storm fast approaching. The day was overcome by shadows and ghosts, not only outside, but deep in Sasuke's mind, haunting him, their cold hands brushing against his flesh. He both savored the feeling and was pained by it. His heart ached with loneliness, and his coal eyes were empty, no reflection shown.

And the ANBU walked him straight to the house he longed to forget, but once cherished so. They opened the gates, took him to the main house, covered in dust, and left him. Going off somewhere where they could still watch him. The chakra restraints around his wrist rubbed the skin raw, and he knew before he came back that he would never be accepted into the village again. That people would always be weary, and he may always be lonely. Yet with nowhere else left to go, and death tagging along with him (you see he couldn't bear the thought of joining the ghosts that haunted him), he had returned to where it would hurt most to go. And why, he'd never know.

Everything was relatively quiet, an odd change that Kakashi wasn't used to, but at this point could fully understand. Not that he talked much anyway, but he enjoyed listening to his young once-students talk, and laugh. None of the sort was happening today though. Yes today everything was quiet as the rain washed down from the sky, soaking the group of ninja to the bone. With his hair flattened against his face, Kakashi sighed, and stared at one person in particular, whose eyes were welded close, and mouth barred shut. She whimpered and squeezed her eyes together tighter as a tear slipped out, falling away quickly on her wet skin.

"Sakura…" Kakashi put his hand on the young kunoichi's shoulder, but she shrugged him away.

"Sensei, is Tsunade really going to let…him, live." She refused to say his name, and refused to let go of calling him her sensei. How desperately she clung to the old life, and how easily she let go.

"Yes. She said we may visit him as well." He sought shelter from behind his little orange book, but knew he left it at home just for that purpose, so he could not hide, and was forced to be there for his team. "Naruto, please calm down." The demon-boy was currently punching a wall to bits, his anger not subsiding much, but his physical appearance back to normal. "Isn't his returning what you wanted?" The two said nothing, nothing more needed to be said at this time, and Kakashi left in a whirl of smoke.

"Naruto, I don't want to visit Sasuke. Not yet please." Sakura pleaded, still not letting tears spill.

"We won't. Sakura please let yourself cry, it's not good to bottle up emotions." The fox boy turned away.

"No!" Her voice rang, and a few more tears slipped. She quickly wiped them away to hide the evidence before Naruto would notice. "I will not cry for that…that traitor!"

"Sakura!" Naruto turned around swiftly and slapped Sakura over the head, his eyes flashing. Sakura stared at him, eyes wide, crystalline tears finally falling frantically. His eyes widened and he looked down at his hands. "Forgive me." He enveloped her in a tight hug and did not let go. Tears now streamed down his own face. "I just didn't… I mean we can't… Sakura we can't give up on him now that he's finally returned."

She backed away from him, tears streaking her face, yet little difference was shown of rain and tears. "I shouldn't have said that, you're right… I just don't want to cry for him anymore… Please, you must understand, I just," Naruto put his hand on her shoulder as she cried.
"It's okay Sakura, shush, it'll be okay." He brushed the hair from her face, and smiled. "You're my best friend, you know, of course I understand. Do what you need to do Sakura. You don't have to visit him yet." She nodded, and began to unsteadily walk away.

"I'm going to go home. I'll… I'll see you tomorrow…" Naruto said nothing to this, just waved slightly, though she did not look back. He watched as she stumbled along, sorrow clouding her mind more violently than rage. As she staggered out of distance, Naruto felt anger rise inside him, fury all aimed at one person, yet that anger would never surface he knew. Yet that didn't mean he couldn't go to see the cause of such rage.

Sasuke sat still, the ANBU around him actually cleaning his home. Apparently they didn't want any disease here, left by any animals that may have broke in, to be transferred to them. He grunted and looked away when he noticed one of them with a swirl-painted mask stop, and wonder what had him looking so smug. Sasuke merely shrugged it off and turned away. A female ANBU entered the room now, with long white hair, and a wolf mask, he couldn't see her face.

"You have a visitor." Was all she said, and then she left to god-knows-where. The raven-haired boy waited for said visitor to enter, and finally, the shoji screen pulled back, and in stepped one of the people Sasuke wanted to see the most.

"Sasuke," was all Naruto said. His blue eyes burrowing into empty ones, after a moment of silence, he continued. "What made you decide to come back so easily? Was it really just that you finished your first goal?" Sasuke shrugged. "What are you going to do now?" He shrugged once more.

"Does it matter?" He said slowly, quietly, almost cautiously.

Naruto growled. "Of course it matters! You think it doesn't matter to your friends what you're going to do!?" Sasuke scoffed.

"You may leave now. And don't come back until you're with someone who can control you." The blonde boy gaped.

"You think you can just get rid of me like that?"

"Yes." Naruto just clenched his fists, stood for a moment, and the adhered to Sasuke's command in a hesitant way.

He took steps toward the door, and then turned his head back. "Sasuke, if you weren't my friend, if we were anywhere but in Konoha…" He turned back, leaving, and Sasuke just barely caught the last part. "I would kill you for what you've done to Sakura."

The door slid closed, and the Uchiha's breathe caught, eyes widening slightly at what the boy just said. It wasn't so much the fact that Naruto wanted to kill him, but more that he had altered Sakura in such a way that Naruto, the densest of them all, had not only noticed, but had made him fill with enough rage to want to kill his 'best friend', if they had been under different circumstances.

Now, it was a lie as to say Sasuke had not thought of the pink haired girl when he made his way toward the village, but his mind did not stray during that. He simply wondered what she'd do when she saw him, or how she'd react. He knew it wouldn't be something fanatic, like the old Sakura would do, the one he left on that bench so long ago, and of course she wouldn't. Sasuke knew what it was like to lose something important to you, it changed you, even if Sakura wasn't in love with him at the time, he had no doubt he still held importance to her. No, he knew she'd be angry, and sad, and want to kill him and hug him all at once. She barely met his eyes, which was expected, she never said a word, and she almost seemed to hide behind Naruto. There was a strange look in her eyes though, fear? No, it wouldn't be fear. Sasuke knew she was strong enough now not to be too frightened by him. Perhaps it was another kind of fear though…

Thoughts ran on until such fatigue no longer let him think, only fight to keep his eyes open. Sasuke did not want to sleep here, not yet, he wasn't ready in some odd way. It just felt wrong to him. Slowly but surely he was losing the fight to stay awake, and headed to his old bedroom. The bed that was there was much too small for him now, but weariness overcame discomfort, and he drifted into a shadow-filled sleep.