title: Chalk-line Valentine
summary: The best part about being immortal, Sakura thought, was being able to annoy pretty little assassins without worrying about whether or not they were going to shoot you in the head. /SasuSaku/100sentences/NYC-AU/
disclaimer: I do not own Naruto

notes1: I banged this out in like 2 hours. 2 chapters to go.

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News – o41

"It's gonna suck not having you around all the time," she says honestly when his first assignment is assigned, and Sasuke chooses to ignore her and continues packing his bag in silence; the tremble in her voice when she mumbles a soft, 'be careful,' is something Sasuke easily picks up on, but wishes he hadn't.

Death – o42

She asks him why he does what he does – why he kills people for a living – and he tells her that it's practice for the man who really deserves it.

Animal – o43

It's easy to concentrate on other things when Sasuke is gone, Sakura learns when he's away on his first assignment under his new employer – Konoha – and she finally finishes redecorating her new room (and the kitchen and paints the bathroom the prettiest shade of blue); but she also finds that – standing barefoot on rooftops and wandering abandoned subway tunnels – his absence brings the haunting thoughts that are so easy to push away when she can feel him near her, but so deafening when he's not.

Adjustment – o44

She holes herself in her room until dark whenever he comes home because she doesn't want him to see what a wreck she is when she's left by herself – she doesn't need him to know that she turns back into the girl she used to be.

Steam – o45

If she's up before him – and she usually isn't – she jumps in the shower and uses all of the hot water just to spite him, he's sure; but when he finally gets a turn in the bathroom and the air is already warm and heavy and condensation is dripping from the mirrors, he's sometimes overwhelmed with thoughts of her, bare and wet just minutes before him, and he finds that a cold shower is needed, anyway.

Power – o46

She used to doubt his abilities as an assassin before – when she was just a homeless stalker – but now, as she watches him slice through simulation dummy after dummy, she knows Uchiha Sasuke is unstoppable.

Meeting – o47

"I'm sorry, but I still don't understand," Kiba rests his head on the table next to his plate of food, and Sakura, seated between Sasuke and Tenten, stares; "Where are you from?" She can only shrug; "I don't remember. I just remember waking up in an alley in Brooklyn like, 5 years ago."

Rest – o48

Sasuke takes any assignment he can get – some that last for days, even weeks at a time – and while sometimes he feels something close to guilt inside of him for leaving Sakura alone so often, each time he wakes up in the middle of the night after he returns home - he finds her curled at the end of his bed and he knows he's forgiven.

Size – o49

"Just tell me when," She holds up two fingers in front of the dark-eyed male, hiding her smile behind them as she slowly widens the distance between them; she lets out an exasperated, disappointed whine when Sasuke keeps his mouth glued shut, and promptly leaves the table.

Unit – o5o

Sometimes Naruto will visit when Sasuke's away (if they're not on an assignment together); the blonde will entertain her with instant ramen and pastries from the bakery down the street and scary movies late into the night, and for as comfortable as Sakura feels around him, she still can't find the nerve to ask if he does it on his own, or if Sasuke asked him to (she doesn't know which answer she'd prefer, anyway).

Sound – o51

The gunshots being fired are what wakes Sasuke up, and only after he's hyperaware that yes, he's in his bedroom and there's no danger here, is he able to relax fractionally; Sakura barging into his room, loudly and animatedly gushing about how great first-person shooters are, is what keeps him awake for the rest of the night.

Addition – o52

When Sasuke comes home from a particularly grueling assignment and takes one step inside his apartment, he is greeted with a feline howl and powerful claws to his left leg, and spends the rest of the night ignored by a certain pinkette in favor of a white ball of fur, glaring at him over its flattened tail, that now has it out for him.

Scratch – o53

"It's nothing," He jerks his arm away from her and the bottle of rubbing alcohol she's wielding; the nasty gash he's acquired breaks open and she tries not to be too smug when he curses and reluctantly holds his arm out to her again.

Discovery – o54

"This guy looks like you," Sakura says one afternoon while she's sitting on his desk, looking through some of the papers he has spread out on top of it; he's got the same dark, sad eyes as Sasuke – the same perfect jaw and the same inky black hair; it's only when Sasuke tears the paper from her hands and demands she 'get out and stop being a menace,' that Sakura thinks to use the internet, and one trip to the public library has her head full of nothing but orphaned and Massacre and Itachi for the rest of the week.

Burn – o55

"Happy Thanksgiving!" Sakura chirps, and Sasuke takes one look at the blackened, charred bird sitting innocently on the counter and the white feline – Cat, Sasuke's dubbed him – chewing on it languidly, wondering how to say 'there's no way I'm eating that' delicately, before the pinkette is clearing her throat and saying, "Don't worry, Naruto's on his way with Chinese." (Great, Sasuke thinks, like that was any better)

Connection – o56

"You love him," Naruto tells her one afternoon. "…and I think he loves you too."

Son – o57

"He's our child, Sasuke," Sakura scolds, and the dark haired male visibly recoils – how could that despicable, condescending scrap of fur and bones be their offspring – "I don't care if he eats your tomatoes, we're not getting rid of him!"

Glass – o58

She's drinking champagne and dancing with Tenten and Kiba at a Konoha holiday party (a party made sense, she supposed, since none of them really had families to spend time with anyway) when she twirls around, courtesy of her brunette dance partners, and sees Sasuke at the bar, a tall red-head beside him, pressing against his arm – red eyes staring up at him in awe from under her glasses; she declines another glass from Naruto: the champagne was starting to make her chest ache.

Games – o59

"You've got to kiss him, Sakura-chan," Naruto demands. Tenten nods beside him; "Those are the human rules of mistletoe." Sakura looks up at him – all impassive expression and cold, cold eyes – and it only takes tilting her head up and standing on her toes for their mouths to press together inexpertly; she pulls away after a second, looks into those white eyes, and wonders if kissing Sasuke would have felt the same.

Kiss – o6o

She finds out when she stumbles into their apartment - giggling drunkenly while he holds her steady with a scowl but as soon as the door shuts he's pressing her against the and his mouth is on hers – that kissing Sasuke is so much better.

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notes2: this story has gotten on my nerves, so I'm almost looking forward to the end, but it's still bittersweet.

review!