The song Angels is © Within Temptation. Listen to it while you're reading this (or after) ((or before)). And afterwards, go listen to Aquarius by the same band. Amazing song, and any KisaSaku lovers out there, I can't remember the name of the authoress right now, but there's a great one by the same name that you simply must read. Search for it, and in the meantime I'll see if I can remember who the authoress was and put her name up here.

Naruto, Naruto: Shippuden, and all characters found within that series belong to Masashi Kishimoto, not me.

I don't feel like warning you about anything, because I'd like to know what your full reaction was if you're going to review with it. :) I'm a meanie, I know, but I hope you enjoy this nonetheless.

Onwards, my lovely readers!

.::.

She had known that it was too good to be true since the beginning.

And now, as she stood with her kunai in one hand and broken heart in the other, it was time for retribution.

.::.

Sparkling angel

I believe

You are my savior

In my time of need

.::.

He had found her after a botched mission, where she ended up falling unconscious beside the stream she had been using to clean her wounds. He sat with her and cleaned her until she woke up later that night. She had been shocked to discover that the long-lost Uchiha Sasuke had taken care of her.

His face in the light of the full moon, those piercing and guarded eyes, his deceptively neutral expression. All his features were pronounced in the moonlight, and she was sure she was seeing an angel.

She didn't speak at first, shocked as she had been. And then she softly, wonderingly, warily uttered his name. He promptly called her an idiot, but it was the gentlest tone he had ever used with her.

She didn't dare ask him to stay, because acting weak in front of this particular young man would just make him leave you in the dust, regardless of whether or not you were fighting for your life.

He did stay, however. He only left after he escorted her all the way to Konoha's Godaime Hokage herself, who proceeded to interrogate him as to how her beloved pupil ended up so badly injured and whether he was the one to do it. Most of all, however, after Sakura had been given the all-clear and brought to a coveted private room in the hospital, Tsunade had asked him why. Why did he care? Why did he bring her back? Why didn't he just kill her? Why did he return to Konoha? Why, why, why?

Well, why?

That was a question Sakura herself had wondered for weeks afterwards while his return was the number one topic of discussion between every Konoha citizen, shinobi or otherwise. While his case was being discussed between the Elders and the Hokage, he surprised her by bringing her flowers to her hospital room as she was recovering.

They weren't anything fancy, just a few daisies he had found growing along the road during his walk between his holding cell and the hospital. Sakura found it cute how he thought he needed to explain himself.

So, instead of embarrassing him, or somehow discouraging him from ever being thoughtful again, she asked him why he was allowed out of his cell before the trial date.

He smirked, back in character, and said that he's been behaving himself, so they were starting to trust him.

His words caused a small alarm bell to sound off in the back of her mind, but she ignored it.

He was back, after all.

.::.

Ino had seen them walking together after Sakura's shift at the hospital was over. Shikamaru was with her, and suggested that they meet up with Sakura later.

Sure enough, Sakura opened her apartment door to reveal the number one slacker and the Pig.

Shikamaru asked to come in, and Ino barged in without waiting for an answer. Raising an eyebrow at her best friend's impolite entry, Sakura ushered Shikamaru in and closed the door.

Shikamaru started to go about the tradition of exchanging pleasantries to open up the conversation, but Ino got right to the point.

Both agreed that something wasn't right with Sasuke. Both agreed that she needed to keep herself from getting reattached. Both agreed that they had a bad feeling about the returned Uchiha.

Sakura, brows furrowed, told them that he seemed fine. He was a little nicer, she said, but he was nearly the Sasuke she remembered from their youth.

When Ino started to argue that she knew something was off, Sakura calmly told her that he was her teammate, so she would be the judge of whether he wasn't quite right.

Ino got up in a huff, and, after icily saying that she knew a lost cause when she saw one, grabbed Shikamaru's arm, dragging him to the door before he could utter an apology.

More warning bells, but Sakura ignored them.

.::.

Sparkling angel

Come and see

Your dark intentions

Your feelings for me

.::.

It was a week later that Sasuke knocked on her office door with a single red rose in hand, and asked her to go out to dinner with him.

She knew better than to hope that it was an actual date, so she assumed he was just being nice and trying to get her away from her time-consuming work for a few hours. Regardless of his supposed thoughtfulness, she started to say that she had paperwork she needed to finish, but, looking up to his eyes, she saw a flash of uncharacteristic nervousness.

She set her pen down and asked if she could go home to clean up first. He nodded, the smallest of smiles on his perfect lips, and handed her the rose. He disappeared when she brought it to her face and smiled.

.::.

Weeks later, he was waiting in her living room as she prepared for their third date, another rose resting in his calloused hands.

She loved the expression that crossed his normally unemotional face when he saw her white summer dress. The silent appreciation she had come to recognize since the last two dates they'd been on was more sensed than seen.

After sitting uncomfortably together at their booth in the abnormally crowded restaurant, Sasuke asked if she wanted to go somewhere less noisy. She nodded gratefully, and they walked out before they had even put in an order.

Later on, after eating a thrown together meal at her apartment, they sat comfortably on her sofa in the living room, watching a rerun on the television. She didn't realize what exactly he was doing when he moved closer to her until she felt herself being pulled to his side with his arm draped across her shoulders.

He smells really good, she thought absently to herself.

Or at least, she had thought she was only thinking to herself, until she felt him chuckle softly. She flushed instantly, and went to say she didn't mean to say it out loud when she found his face unexpectedly close to hers.

He stole her first kiss, and she found that she had been wanting him to do that since she was a silly, little girl.

When he pulled away and she put a hand to her mouth, eyes wide, he said that she smelled good, too.

.::.

After their fifth date, she went home with him. She absently thought that it wasn't very nice of the elders to force him to live in his old home, with the ghosts of his past clinging to every surface.

She felt drunk, but knew she wasn't; it was just because his hands were everywhere and he was kissing her breath away.

Somehow they ended up in his bedroom, the backs of her knees hitting the bed before she knew what was happening. And then he was above her, and their clothes were gone, and his lips were hot against her skin.

She fully realized what they were about to do, and her stomach did little flip-flops in both fear and anticipation. How many times, after all, had she hoped that he would be her first? And maybe even her last?

He noticed her sudden hesitation when her lips stilled against his, and he asked if she still loved him. If she could forgive him for hurting her.

Shocked, wide-eyed, and definitely at a loss for words for once in her life, Sakura stared at his moonlit face. He looked angelic once again, and she irrationally wondered how he could think she couldn't forgive him.

Of course, she said. Of course she forgave him, and of course she loved him. She had never stopped.

I love you, she repeated.

He lowered his face to hers and kissed her gently, as if she would break with too much pressure. Placing his lips to her ear, he whispered so quietly she had to strain to hear over her own heartbeat.

I love you, too.

She oddly felt the desire to cry, but held her tears in by closing her eyes. He kissed her eyelids and whispered it again.

.::.

She woke later that night and saw his sleeping face on the pillow beside her, illuminated by the moonlight streaming through the window, and was shocked by the single tear that rolled out from under his dark eyelashes.

Without thinking, she reached out and brushed it away, feeling her own tears sliding down her face at the sight of his.

He opened his eyes immediately, and she held her breath, waiting for his beautiful eyes to put up the walls again.

When they didn't, she dared to ask him what was wrong.

An expected 'nothing' came from his lips, even though those eyes said he wasn't alright, and he told her to go back to sleep. He reached out and wiped the tear tracks from her cheeks and closed his eyes again.

Don't cry, he said.

More warning bells, but she ignored them again.

.::.

While Naruto was talking to Sasuke, Sakura turned her attention to Ino. The blonde informed her that Sasuke had been seen sneaking into the library in the Hokage's tower.

What, Sakura had asked, would he possibly want from some old mission files? It didn't make sense, so she shrugged off Ino's persistent warnings that something was wrong and he was planning something.

Sasuke looked over his shoulder at the two girls and smiled softly at Sakura.

Sakura convinced herself with that smile that he couldn't possibly have any ill intentions.

.::.

I see the angels

I'll lead them to your door

There's no escape

No mercy no more

No remorse 'cause I still remember

The smile when you tore me apart

.::.

The elders were found dead in their homes a month later. There were numerous shallow, yet definitely painful, wounds scattered strategically about their bodies. None of the wounds were fatal.

They weren't just murdered, ANBU had reported. They had been tortured.

It was obvious, Shikamaru said, that whoever killed them wanted them to feel the most possible pain before their bodies gave out. Whoever killed them held a grudge against them.

When Sakura returned from the meeting at the Hokage's office to Sasuke's home, she found it empty.

She stood still in the doorway, shoes still on, heart refusing to believe what her head knew for certain.

Dropping her bag to the floor, she stepped out into the foyer, and walked to their bedroom.

His bag was gone.

There were no weapons in his drawers.

She opened the closet doors, and found only her clothes.

Blinking, she stubbornly refused to accept the facts.

She nearly had a heart attack when she heard the bathroom door open and soft footfalls reached her ears. Spinning around, she ran to meet him in the hallway.

She called his name and he turned to look at her. Her heart skidded to a stop when she saw his face, completely devoid of any emotions. He was back to being the cold creature he had been three years ago, when he had nearly killed her before Naruto had saved her.

She asked, calmly, emotionlessly, if he was leaving again.

He nodded.

She asked if he was the one who had killed the elders.

He nodded.

Tears finally started pooling onto her eyelashes. She asked if he had planned this from the start.

He smirked maliciously, the grim expression lasting only a second, and said he had.

She asked why he had led her to believe that he actually had feelings for her if he was gong to leave anyways.

Because it was something to pass the time, he replied, smiling once again.

She looked away, and instantly regretted it when she felt him behind her. Thanks, he said. It was fun, and perhaps we should do it again sometime.

Something snapped inside her, and she started to whirl around in order to punch his angelic face in, but stopped cold when his fingers touched the pressure point on her neck.

Her vision faded, and she felt him lift her into his arms.

It was all just a lie.

.::.

You took my heart

Deceived me right from the start

You showed me dreams

I wish they turned into real

You broke a promise

And made me realize

It was all just a lie

.::.

Now she stood in front of him, eyes blazing and heart broken. She had spent weeks searching for him, following false trails and somehow managing to find the correct one.

The others she was supposed to be traveling with had split up in different directions, following other false leads. She had thought about having people around to witness her revenge, because she was after him for tearing her apart. The others just wanted to bring him back for the dead Elders' sakes, and hope the justice system saw it fit to kill him in return.

It wasn't enough for her.

"I guess you're here for revenge, Sakura," he said calmly, almost sounding resigned.

"So I guess that means you really are a genius, Uchiha," she replied sarcastically, voice filled with venom.

He looked her up and down, and she could tell that he was trying to make her feel incompetent with his laid-back posture and composed attitude. "You think you can beat me."

It wasn't a question, but she took it as one anyways. "I don't, but I know I can bring you down with me if it comes to that."

He smirked, but no mirth was put into the expression.

"Go home, Sakura. I'm not in the mood to play with you."

At his dismissal, he turned around and began walking away. She bristled with unbridled fury.

"Don't take me so lightly, Sasuke," she uttered, and pounded a chakra-laden fist into ground. Huge slabs of rock and debris jutted up from a fissure the was moving in jagged streaks towards Sasuke. He turned and jumped away just in time to miss a well-aimed wedge of earth, only to come face to fist with Sakura.

Her knuckles barely grazed his skin, but he was forced back by the massive amount of chakra she was pulsing through her arm. His Sharingan turned on automatically, and he regained his footing just in time to parry another fist to his face.

She noticed that he was making a costly mistake by focusing so heavily on her hands. She brought her foot up and kicked him in the stomach, sending him flying across the clearing.

She was about to make a comment on how that sort of mistake was one only genin made, when she felt his chakra signature appear behind her. Spinning around, she attempted to roundhouse kick him when his hand closed around her ankle and he used his new leverage to toss her to the ground.

Standing up, she leveled a glare at him. "Why'd you do it?" she asked, wiping a scratch on her cheek with a chakra-coated finger, healing it instantly.

Sasuke returned the look, surprisingly. "They were responsible for what happened with my brother. The massacre was his mission, and they made him do it."

She paused, shocked at this new information. She had never liked the old bats in the first place, and this justified her distaste for them.

"That wasn't the question I was asking," she said.

Raising a perfect eyebrow, Sasuke asked, "Oh? Then what was it you were trying to ask?"

They seemed like they were having a perfectly normal, civil conversation. That is, if one ignored the blood seeping from various wounds and the bruises that were already beginning to show.

"I've figured out why you came back, and why you needed to worm your way back into the village's trust. What I don't know is why you had to involve me."

She thought she saw him lower his eyes for a split second.

"Like I said before, it was something to-" he began, only to be cut off.

"To pass the time? Stealing not only my first kiss, but also my virginity? My heart? That's fun for you?" she asked, voice surprisingly calm. "Bull."

This time he definitely looked away from her, turning his head to the side so she saw his profile, but not his expression. "Is it so hard for you to believe that, Sakura?"

Was it? She wasn't so sure at this point. Instead of answering, she remained silent.

She heard him utter a faint 'annoying' before he turned to face her again. "You can never see beyond what I want you to see," he said cryptically, voice hard and frustrated.

Brows furrowed, she watched as he took out his katana. "I don't want to kill you, Sakura. But I will if you don't leave right now."

"I'm not leaving until you tell me the truth," she replied, bracing herself.

"Tch."

.::.

"We weren't supposed to end up like this," she whispered, her face resting on his shoulder, as tears slowly mixed with the blood on her cheeks and landed on his stained shirt.

He shushed her and replied, "I know."

"I'm sorry," she whispered, and clenched her fist around his shirt. She barely felt his arm tighten around her waist in response.

"Me too."

A few more pain-filled moments passed. "Did you lie about loving me?" she asked suddenly.

He was silent, and she began to think the worst, that he had lied.

"No."

She sighed in relief. "I still love you, Sasuke-kun."

"I love you, too," he whispered, silent as the first time he had told her those very words. It seemed like years ago now, even though it was only just over a month.

"I feel like we didn't have enough time together," she said in a soft sigh. She coughed, and new flecks of blood landed on his once pristine white shirt.

She felt something wet land on her forehead. Looking up, she saw a tear slowly trailing down his cheek. More of her own fell in response.

He didn't have to say anything, and she sensed exactly what he wanted her to know.

He pressed one last, lingering kiss to her lips, and they both closed their eyes.

.::.

The bodies were found barely half and hour later. Sakura was laying half on top of Sasuke, and he was still holding her tightly. Her fists were clenched, desperately holding his shirt, even in death.

.::.

How's that for a darker fic, eh? Not sure I'm happy with the ending, I feel like it's missing something...

I wanted to end it on a happier, fluffier note, but I started dark, and it had to end dark. :( Believe me, I wanted more smiles and rainbows and butterflies, but Loki wouldn't let me.

I absolutely adore Within Temptation, and the song this fic is based off of is called Angels. Listen to it, if you haven't already, and I hope the fic goes along well enough. I tried to keep it in the order the song presented. Also, I'm not entirely sure I got all the lyrics, right, but I hope I did. lol

LAL fans, I'll try to update soon. I'm not getting much inspiration, but I'll try really hard this week after my economics project is over and done with. :)

Anyways, there's this monster fly buzzing around in my room as I'm writing this, and I am NOT going to sleep with that thing still living, so I'm off to find a fly-swatter without waking the parentals.

Read and review, loves!

Much love,

child_of_the_moon

XO