Departure

Sasuke is back in the village but he's having a hard time deciding whether or not he really deserves to back after everything he's done.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto

It was just after midnight when Sasuke decided to take a walk around the village. The eerie silence of the morning seemed to consume him so he decided to concentrate on the sounds of his footsteps to keep himself distracted. He passed The Academy, Ichiraku Ramen stand and the Hokage's office; each of which held certain memories for him—memories he didn't want to forget but found himself losing track of them as the days passed. His walk brought him to the Hokage mountain, overlooking the entire Leaf Village—his home. Yes the home that he'd betrayed, the home he'd left behind when he was younger but now it was the thing he wanted to protect the most but he'd decided it was best to do that from a distance. The full moon in the sky seemed to soften his features, pouring its light on to his pale skin. But that was just a trick of the light…soft, calm and serene were the last things he was at that moment his face held a pained expression. His eyebrows were furrowed, no smile graced his face and his eyes had a look in them that was dark and filled with emotion that was on a deeper level.

He closed his eyes for a moment then re-opened them before he spoke…

"You can come out, I know you've been following me" he stated monotonously

And down from the tree she jumped and walked into the moonlight, her jade eyes seemed to sparkle. Eyes he could never look away from.

"Sasuke what are you doing out here? Come back home" Sakura spoke up

"I already told you…it's for the best if I leave. I don't belong here; I don't deserve this as my home"

"Yes you do, I don't understand where this is coming from. Have you still not forgiven yourself for what you did to this village…for what you did to me?" she got emotional as tears ran down her face but he remained quiet

"My mistakes were too great to be forgiven and I've accepted it. I'll never forgive myself"

"Whether you get forgiven or not isn't up to you!"

"Why can't you just understand and let me go!"

"Because I don't want to understand and I don't want to let you go. Don't you understand that I love you and I'll do whatever it takes to make you stay here with me?" she walked closer to him "Everyone makes mistakes and we'd all like to erase them but we can't, we have to accept that what's done is done and focus on moving on from them. You can't change the past Sasuke and running away from it isn't going to solve anything"

Sasuke was losing his patience

"I'm doing what's best for you and the village!" he finally turned around to face her, frustration clearly showing on his face as well as tears welled up in his eyes

"How is losing you going to benefit me in any way!" she yelled back at him, both of them were staring into each other's eyes looking for some kind of answer but they found none

"I'm not having this conversation with you anymore" he turned around to walk away from her but she held on to his wrist and turned him around and kissed him with everything she had. Sasuke immediately put his arms around her waist and kissed her back. The heated kiss finally ended and they held each other comfortingly

"Don't I mean anything to you? Enough to make you stay?" she softly spoke

He slowly broke away from her

"You mean too much to me for me to stay and keep hurting you" he looked down at her and kissed her one last time, the kiss was gentle and genuine. Afterwards he let go of her and disappeared before she could say anything…

"You idiot…don't you see that by leaving, you're hurting me even more…" she said to herself and tears kept sliding down her face