Hm. This was meant to be a Valentine's gift.

…

I just can't seem to write happy stories, can I? Anyway, this fic was inspired by Vanessa Carlton's Rinse.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

She stumbles blindly into the dimly lit bathroom. Within moments her clothes are cast aside into a crumpled heap in the dust collecting next to her radiator. She wrenches the floral shower curtain open, nearly ripping the cloth from the loops sustaining it. Her hand reaches out and violently turns the knob to the most scalding setting it can reach.

She curls into a fetal position under the water that is pounding on her back, crumpled just as the clothes just outside of the curtain are. No movement is made. She is not going to cry now. That's what the water is there for, right?

…

Has it been minutes or hours that she has lain here? She isn't sure. But suddenly she shoots into a sitting position, back erect, and reaches for the washcloth she normally uses to wash herself. Forming it into a ball, she frantically begins to scrub at herself.

(Damn him.)

When He had first returned, she was ecstatic. They could finally be happy. They could become a team again. They could look past their former conflicts, because their bond would always remain deep. Hell, maybe she could become His wife. He did say He wanted to revive his clan, did He not? But it didn't matter what happened, because they were together. This was her true family.

(She still scrubs. That bastard.)

Of course, He had other plans. She knew He would be changed. He had run away with Orochimaru, for Pete's sake. He was bound to be traumatized. Who knew what the pedophile did to Him during that time? But all of us grow up sometime, so they had all changed. She wanted Him to realize that just as much as she understood that for His sake. She had changed, too.

But she hadn't realized just how different He was.

(She keeps scrubbing, even if her skin is red now. How dare He?)

She was even happier when He started to take her places. Alone. As in, just the two of them. Like… dates. She guessed you could call them that. They went to restaurants and other romantic hotspots. He was finally taking an interest in poor pathetic little Sakura. And she was loving it more that anything.

(Her skin is numb. She doesn't care. How could she be so blind?)

She can't even think His name now. It would hurt her too much. The relationship between her and Him was becoming serious, at least to the public eye. Friends began to jokingly ask when their wedding was to take place. She loved the attention. She loved Him. They were perfect, meant for each other since Day 1. Take that, Ino-pig.

(She scrubs harder, even though her skin looks on the verge of deteriorating. Oh, how she wanted to go back to those naive times.)

This was what she would call true love. One day, He pulled her into an alleyway and kissed her passionately. She thought nothing of it. He probably simply couldn't contain how much He loved her. Until He began to go further.

She was a virgin, but she trusted the fact that He loved her too much to compromise that fact until they had become married. Then He could take her. He was from an honorable clan. He would know that keeping her pure was the right thing to do. How stupid she was.

She pulled away from Him, only to be slammed into the nearest gate. He violently grabbed her hands and continued doing what He was doing previously. Becoming frantic, she told Him to stop. Yelled the word, even. But He did not relent. He was squeezing and touching and pushing and breathing and she wanted no needed to get out of there but He wouldn't let her and she was going to run out of air and life soon and-

Red eyes.

(Damn you.)

Her skin is bleeding. It is bleeding, but she still continues to scrub at herself. Because she needs to get rid of Him. She needs everything that ever made her think of Him to disappear. It is too painful.

Bleeding, and now sobbing, she gives up and resumes her former position. The water is cold now, but she can't bring herself to care, much less turn it off. It's no use. Black hair seems to still be resting on the crook of her neck. Chapped lips are still moving on top of her motionless ones. Red eyes are still staring at her unrelentingly as she tries to cry out. She can't rinse him away.

Uchiha Sasuke is still there.