This is the ninth in a series of stories that were created from my previous fic, "Twenty Men." The theme number can be explained once you read it. I am proud to dedicate "Project: Twenty Men" to Aloha Laney. She's a dear friend.

Also, this fic is different than ones that I normally write. Sakura's darker in character and I want to know if you think I should write her in more or not. Please let me know what you think of it?

Title: Blush
Author: Ita-ta
Pairings: SakuSasu
Theme: 8
Rating: T for teens.
Disclaimer: All Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto.
Note: Please review; they fuel my drive for writing. Also; this is SakuSasu, and therefore she wins.
Summary: It was then that Sasuke discovered that he had the ability to blush. SakuSasu. Darkfic.

Blush

She was traveling quickly, brushing through the trees with practiced ease. Her target was getting close, thank kami, she'd been tracking him for two months. Damn, she had to give him credit for his ability to avoid her. He'd dragged her all across Lightning Country and she still didn't have anything to show for it. What an ass, he probably knew that he was making a huge amount of paperwork for her.

Finally zoning in on her target, she dropped fluidly from the trees, appearing to land lightly on her feet, save for the hairline cracks that travelled quickly toward their target, opening wide suddenly like a great beast's jaws to swallow the brown-haired man that she was after. Unfortunately for her, her target was a slippery little bugger. Why oh why did Sakura have to be assigned a tracker to track and kill? She watched as he nimbly scaled the threatening earth, popping up and over the edge and once again, the chase was on. Of course, Sakura had anticipated such a move and the hairline fractures closed once more, spider-cracking along after the unknowing nin. She felt a little bad for the guy actually. After all, he didn't know that it was her they sent after him.

Smirking behind her mask, she arrived just in time to see the earth lunge out and drag him under, trapping him in its rocky unyielding grip. Finally coming to a stop in front of him, she saw the flash of fear in his eyes before he was able to school his face into an emotionless mask.

"Kumokasumi Koui-san, yes?" Her toneless intonation had the man narrowing his eyes at her in wary confusion.

"I am." He admitted, eying her curiously, hiding his surprise that such strength came from a girl. "What are you?" He asked in return.

She cocked her head to the side and supposed that there was no harm in entertaining him for a little while before she killed him. "What do you mean?"

"You just manipulated the ground without forming so much as a hand sign."

"Ah. Yes, well, I am of many talents." She was amused when the fear flashed in his eyes again. It wasn't like she hadn't done this before. Working in Special Ops had worn down on her innocence like a cheese grater.

"What do you want with me?" There was a tinge of fear in his voice, but it was very well camouflaged by irritation.

"Well now, Disappearing Act-san. You know what you've done. The Fire Daimyo rather looks down upon your recent… endeavours." She looked down at him and with a flick of her wrist; he was raised to her eye level. "Clearly you hold information I seek." It wasn't part of the mission, but unofficially she decided to do some digging. Now the fear was clearly displayed on his face as she pulled her ANBU katana out of its sheath.

"I-I don't know anything!" If he could move his arms, she knew he'd gesture wildly to emphasize his lie.

"Really. What about your real name, Suzuki Teichi?" She stepped toward him, inexplicably placing the tip of the sword on his cheekbone, just under his right eye. "Suzuki-san, I believe you recognize my mask." She said this in a sickly sweet tone as his eyes widened in horror as he looked closely at her ANBU mask.

"…Seirei." He breathed and his face turned a deathly white pallor.

"Ah, ah." She tutted, letting the fingers slide the blade gently along his skin, right down to his jaw. "That's Seirei-sama to you." She lifted her blade off and gently placed it on the opposite side, surely intending to make an identical line of blood down his face. "Suzuki-san, you must have heard the stories on me. Did they tell you what I do?"

He was very still, blood running in rivulets down the straight path on his right side. He spoke carefully, not to jar the sword. "You carve your victims' faces to look like they will eternally be crying. You're rumoured to be a medical ninja and therefore have knowledge on the more painful side of such techniques." He gulped nervously, his Adam's apple bobbing up and down noticeably.

"You forgot something." She smiled behind her mask, a small scary little smile.

"What?"

"To address me as I wish." With that, she viciously slashed downward an identical line. He cried out in agony, jerking his head away from her sword.

"You bitch!" He snarled, seething. His eyes blazed with hatred.

"Now now, Suzuki-san. That's no way to address your superiors." She appeared to consider his words for a moment and then lifted one shoulder to shrug. "I suppose you didn't like that too much."

"You mean being slashed on the face by a crazy---" His words were broken off by a long, drawn-out scream of agony.

The earth had parted to reveal bare skin of his stomach, the hem of his shirt ripped savagely. She had put the edge of the sword against the flat of his stomach and sent a jolt of burning chakra into his body and fried chakra pathways like a power surge. He jerked and twitched, goose bumps rising on the skin around the blade.

"That's enough." It was a new voice to the conversation, a deep baritone that was monotone but was inlaid with steel that clearly deigned that he was powerful.

Sakura let the shockwave jerk the tracker's body once more for emphasis before withdrawing her blade and wiping it down before sheathing it. Then she calmly turned, seeing the boy whom she thought was lost.

He was a man now, she mused, as she took in the defined cheekbones, the aristocratic features more prominent against his pale skin. His broad shoulders were defined by the white shirt he wore; open in a V all the way to his navel. He wore black pants and ninja sandals, a nondescript belt holding things in place at his waist.

Then, dismissing him with a wave of her hand, she took another step toward her captive. "It seems we have a guest Suzuki-san. I apologize, but he seems to wish me imminent harm if I just ignore him. We will continue our visit as soon I've sated my curiosity about him." She vanished in time to avoid the fist headed her way.

He'd spun around, anticipating she'd attempt to attack him from behind but was surprised when she appeared beside him and stood expectantly. He immediately lunged out before she disappeared to the side again, apparently side-stepping his every move.

"Tsk, so predictable, nin-san." She dead-panned, avoiding another strike by back flipping and spinning around on her hand to jump atop his outstretched arm that he'd reached out to catch her mid-flip. Resting for a second on his arm she nudged his face with her mud-slicked boot and substituted herself as he smashed brutally through the log that had taken her place. She was right by Suzuki once more.

"That wasn't very nice, you know. It could have hurt me." She lilted her voice before returning to her toneless voice. "What business might you have here, nin-san?" She cocked her head to the side observantly, seeing the way his eyes flashed at her dismissive address of him. As if she didn't know who he was.

"To kill this Disappearing Act." His answer was succinct and to the point. "My name is Uchiha Sasuke, not nin-san." He watched as the unknown ANBU seemed to have no reaction to his name.

"Oh really? Well, Suzuki-san and I are not finished our conversation. I suppose I should cut it short so you can kill him?" Her voice was sugary sweet. Sakura watched as his eyes narrowed at her and her mask but scoffed, waiting expectantly. "Now, Suzuki-san where were we? Ah, right." She stepped toward him.

"No, no, no Seirei-sama! Please spare my life!" His face lit up in fear as she approached him. He was growing paler by the second.

Sasuke was surprised at the formalities used. He'd heard the name Seirei before… but where?

"Suzuki-san, calm down. I'm not going to kill you. Nin-san is." She pulled her glove off, revealing feminine fingers with green painted nails. She placed her hand on the side of his face, neatly avoiding the line of red that had started to congeal. The moment her skin contacted his, his eyes drooped and his whole body became slack.

Sasuke stepped forward, angrily preparing to intervene but was thrown back by a tendril of earth. He recovered quickly and saw that this Seirei was pulling her hand away and placing the glove back upon her hand. Curiously he noticed that Suzuki wasn't waking but chose not to intervene at the moment.

Sakura sighed behind her mask and turned to the Uchiha, seeing him look at her oddly. "Oh, he's dead. Sorry, I lied." She was utterly unrepentant and considered leaving and heading for the nearest inn with a hot shower. She didn't need to sneak around anymore, her mission was complete. Tsunade would be very pleased with her. With a flick of her wrist, the earth sunk down, dropping the body face up and pulling it into the ground with it. Unfortunately for her, the Uchiha seemed to have other plans, as he'd appeared in front of her with inhuman speed, his sword pointed directly at her chest.

"Then you owe me his death." His aura was broiling with suffocating power and a dark threat. She found him not unlike a disgruntled kitten.

Calmly, slowly she lifted her hand. "If I may?" She watched as confusion flashed in his eyes. Eyes which followed her hand as she grasped onto his sword. Amusingly his eyes widened as she held onto his blade which currently had his chidori-based electric technique running through it as if it were nothing.

"What are you doing?" he was trying to sound nonchalant, but she knew he was curious.

"Well, see, this is called cancelling out your technique." His eyes narrowed at her in suspicion. "This here, is called it turning into a nice lady and biting you in the ass." With that she coursed her chakra through it and reversed the flow so it would stop at the hilt and watched as said hilt blackened and became charred. She did not stop there and allowed her chakra to seep past the hilt into his arm which he immediately jerked away with.

The damage was done though, as his arm convulsed involuntarily in little twitching jerks and his fingertips became black.

"You bitch!" He snarled his full anger coming out as his chakra was released.

She anticipated that was only half his power and since she was at quarter power and only slightly ruffled by it, she decided she stood a good chance in a fight with him. Idly, she realized that she'd been getting called that a lot lately. She was really a nice lady.

Sasuke lunged at her; his sword picked up by his other arm, and struck at her. She caught the blade between her hands and yanked forward, the blade whistling past her ear but getting her what she wanted. He lost his footing and she caught him by the shoulders, able to whisper in his ear because of the whiplash.

"Now Sasuke-kun, you don't remember me then, do you?" She took advantage of him stiffening in utter shock and punched him in the gut, sending him smashing through a tree and landing against the next one with a hard thwack! He spit up blood as his body convulsed in response to the beating.

He was shaking, but trying valiantly to cover it up. He was imagining her whispered words wasn't he? It was just the leftover shockwave from earlier. However, the chakra only got as far as his shoulder and stopped there. So she couldn't have messed with his hearing.

"I suppose you're thinking, 'holy crap what did she do to me?' and in reality it's nothing but you wouldn't believe so?" She didn't crouch to his eye level, just stood over him as he slowly got up. "I guess I put more into that than I planned to." She sounded bored.

"Who are you?" His sharingan eyes flashed up at her mask in anger.

"Seirei is who and what I am at the moment." She answered unfeelingly.

"Spirit? What does that even mean?" He scoffed.

"Now, see, that's another mistake to make. I mean really, Uchiha-san, how many have you made so far? Is it every other decision or do you just mark it on your calendar that you're going to make a mistake on that day?" She was mocking him and he couldn't believe it.

"Stop dodging the question." She was amused at his terse answer.

"You got me distracted." He scoffed in disdain.

Sakura sat, an earthen chair rising up to meet her. "Now, where were we? Oh yes, I said I was Seirei now. Clearly you've no idea as to who I actually am." She paused and watched his eyes widen. "Am I really that forgettable, Sasuke-kuuun?" The ANBU crooned as the Uchiha watched her warily.

"You can't be her."

"Can't be who?"

"You're lying."

"I haven't said anything."

"Prove it."

Sighing, she mused that his stubborn streak hadn't diminished in the least since she last saw him. Which was about six years ago the memory of him leaving didn't affect her much anymore. Not many things did. So she did what he asked. She might as well amuse herself if he didn't want her to leave.

He couldn't believe his eyes when he saw her gloved fingers slip under the chin of the mask and fluidly pull it off with practiced ease. What disturbed him was that it seemed like she'd done that hundreds of times. Next came the cap and out came the ponytail, her coral pink hair reaching all the way down to her waist. But her eyes were what captured his attention. They weren't the young and innocent emerald eyes of the fourteen year old Sakura. They were the darker, tainted jade eyes of the twenty-one year old Sakura. Those eyes had seen many things that others could not bear to watch. She'd seen things she'd done through those eyes, atrocities committed as part of her job as a Special Op.

"Sakura." Her name came out in a whispered breath of astonishment from him. She schooled her face into what she liked to call the "doll-face" expression, rather than her usual blank look. Her lips were relaxed; her eyes empty and soulless, her features softening into that much like a porcelain dolls.

He watched as she changed expressions and he immediately wanted to reach out to her, cradle her cheek to his hand and draw her into a protective embrace, gentle not to break her like a doll she so resembled. He refrained; shaking himself out of it with a spasm of his arm muscles that still smarted from the shockwave.

"You do remember me then, Sasuke-kun!" Her eyes lit up like fireworks careening in the sky and the brightest of smiles spread across her face. Her voice was of childish innocence, a smooth happy tone.

He smirked, looking at her now; she really hadn't changed at all. Sasuke supposed she was a brilliant actress though because she had even him going there. Dismissing her as a possible threat now, his mind took him to his most pressing question. "Has the dobe gotten stronger since the last I saw him?" He asked, regarding her with a haughty gaze, regaining his air of superiority.

"I haven't seen him in awhile. Y'know, you suck at not making mistakes." With that, her eyes sharpened and darkened to jade, pinning him with a glare. She rose out of her chair with feline grace and splayed her hand on his chest. Their surroundings moved underneath them and they were standing on top of the Great Naruto Bridge.

"You're really not bright, are you?" Despite being insulting, her words didn't anger him for some reason. He remained placid as the ground shifted under them and they were standing on top of running water in the Valley of the End. "After all these years, what have you done?" She kept her hand on his chest and with her other she held his chin to look at him evenly. They shifted again; to the old Team Seven training grounds by the Memorial. "Train to get stronger?" She was standing with him in the Uchiha room where he started his battle with Itachi. "Did you even defeat your older brother yet?" He realized with a start that she had plucked out his memory and put it into the genjutsu. He watched as she pulled another memory out, and they were in the middle of a packed club, watching as his mirror self inched by scantily clad women, eyes shadowed in disgust. Then they were back, and she was smiling at him. "Sasuke, have you ever done anything?"

He knew what she was implying and he disliked the fact that it was true. He'd devoted his life to his training. His revenge for his clan, to be an avenger was his life. He didn't have any time for silly girls.

Somehow he was still remaining calm and unmoving and realized that it was her hand, splayed over his heart that was keeping him from lashing out at her. He watched her warily as she drew herself in, her mouth hovering by his ear, warm breath sending a shiver coursing down his body.

"Haven't you done anything daring?" She nuzzled her nose in the crook of his shoulder, her scent of peaches and rain intoxicating his sharp olfactory senses and he found himself slowly being pulled under her spell, and yet he couldn't bring himself to do anything about it.

She trailed her free hand along the bare skin on his collar bone and neck, raising hair and goose bumps as she went. Her breath ghosted across his collar bone and up his neck, along his jaw line. Finally, she arrived at his lips, and here she very gently brushed her lips across the corner of his. Almost immediately he responded, catching her lips with his as his arms came up and wrapped around her shoulders.

He was being careful and gentle with her again and it seemed a little chaste for her liking. She nipped his lower lip, catching it between her teeth and he gasped a sharp intake of breath. It was all she needed for acceptance. Her tongue darted out and swept along the inside of his mouth, and his body shuddered involuntarily. Finally discovering where his tongue was hiding, she coaxed him into a playful little dance and soon his grip was tightening, one hand travelling up to the base of her neck to play with her hair.

Breaking contact for air, they both found themselves gasping and leaning on each other for support. Then, Sakura lifted her hand from his chest and everything around him felt hypersensitive. He knew he was free when she lifted her hand away but by that time, he already didn't want to leave. His lips sought hers out and meekly, he traced the seam of her lips and she granted him entrance.

His hand was still playing with her hair, while his other cautiously slid lower before settling on the small of her back and pulling their bodies closer still. Her hands retreated from his neck and her finger tips started trailing over his chest, leaving little tendrils of heat as they went. They outlined each of his ribs and circled his navel, before travelling up to wrap back around his neck.

She broke the contact of their lips and he looked at her in a confused hazy way but before he could say or do anything, she was trailing open-mouthed kisses along his jaw line and down his neck to his collar bone, back up and lingering near his pulse point. She could feel his heart beating rapidly and she smiled against his skin. Experimentally, she let her teeth gently scrape along his pulse point and his breathing sped up and he tilted his head back and to the side to give her better access.

She licked that part of the skin and was faintly amused when another shudder coursed through his body. Trailing wet kisses up to his ear, she pulled on the lobe with her teeth and was rewarded by his tightening grip. It was almost by accident that she found his hypersensitive spot. It was just behind his ear, in the little dip where his jaw met his ear and neck. She had been kissing around his ear and darted her tongue out into the dip to see what would happen. His grip tightened even more, pressing their bodies together as tight as possible. A shiver convulsed his body and a deep sound escaped his throat, a second time when she did it again.

Suddenly Sasuke realized what it was. He was breaking through the haze to realize that he was moaning. This immediately made him stiffen and become clear-headed once more. But not before Sakura had secured her hand once more over his heart. His skin reacted readily to her touch and blood rushed even faster to his cheeks, staining them a bright red. It was an amusing contrast to find against the pale complexion so known among Uchiha.

It was then, he supposed, that he realized that he had the ability to blush.

"Well, damn."

If there were ever another phrase to put it that way, he would never find it.

"Little Sasuke is blushing. So cute…" Sakura crooned, her jade eyes reflecting dark amusement. "So listen, I have to go, my package should have arrived. Maybe I'll see you around." With that, she darted in for a soft kiss on his hypersensitive spot which hitched his breath and disappeared from the clearing, mask and all.

Slowly, his calloused hands came up to each side of his head to rub his temples. He could feel the mother of all migraines coming on. It also didn't escape him that she called him Little Sasuke. With a pained grunt, he shut his eyes and leaned against the tree. Just his luck.

Meanwhile, Sakura had arrived at Konoha's gates, Kotetsu and Izumo waving her in without a second glance. She made it to the Hokage tower in minutes and debriefed Tsunade on her mission in the same toneless voice.

"Mission complete. Target is dead and should be in the basement morgue." She announced, bowing at the waist and straightening once more.

"Did anything else interesting happen on the mission?" Tsunade asked.

"No, Hokage-sama." Some things were better left unsaid.

"Very well then Seirei. You have mandatory five days off and your mission report is due in four. Dismissed." Sakura bowed once more and turned, heading out of the office.

The corner of her lips curled upwards in a small, genuine smile for the first time in a long time. Little Sasuke can blush.