A/N: Here's chapter one of one of two stories I'm working on right now, both dealing with Sasuke's return. I'm giving Sasuke a very OOC personality in this fic, but it's all explained later on. Being around Orochimaru would change anyone, right? Anyway, there aren't that many warnings for this chapter, except the usual OOC (you know I love it), and a bit of mild cursing. No adult themes, guys.

Legal Stuffiness: I don't own Naruto, or any of the characters within.

Time: 4.5 years after Sasuke leaves to go to Orochimaru

Place: Sound Territory

Mission: Find Akatsuki

Chapter 1: Fire Fight

"What do you think you're doing?" Naruto grabbed Sakura's arm, jerking her back to the safety of the boulder he was hiding behind. "If they see you, we're both dead. It doesn't matter if he's down there, that battle is too much for either of us." It was true, and she knew it. Sakura looked down at the sodden grass she stood on. Why did it have to be this way? They were so close! Sasuke was no more than fifty meters away, and she was powerless to reach him. She sighed.

One hour earlier…

Sounds of metal clashing against metal rang out to the east, and shouting accompanied it. "Did you hear that, Naruto?" Sakura stopped, straining her ears. Her companion nodded his head. "Should we go check it out? I mean, it probably has nothing to do with our mission, but if we could help someone that's in trouble, all the better." Naruto bit his lower lip, thinking.

"Sakura-chan, I think that we should be careful. This is the Sound's territory. We might be walking right into a trap." She agreed, and they proceeded more slowly, and making absolutely no sound. After a few moments, they came to a clearing in the forest. When they saw nearly a hundred men fighting it out on the patch of grass, they hid behind two rather large trees. Watching from this position, they saw that there were nearly equal numbers of Sound and Mist nins in the clearing. Suddenly, an enormous ball of flame erupted from the other side of the clearing.

Sakura stared for a moment, then looked over at Naruto, whose face was just as dumbfounded. She used sign language to say, Sasuke? Naruto signed back.

It's possible. This is Sound territory. Then he peered around the side of his tree again. They watched as twenty nins fell to the ground, some of them from the Sound as well as the Mist. If it was Sasuke, he didn't care what happened to his own people. Naruto looked over at Sakura again. Signing, he said, Should we get closer? She nodded, and they ghosted from tree to tree and came to rest uphill from the clearing, where they could watch the battle from above, but still be close enough to see what was going on.

The fireball-user took out another large group of men, but there were suddenly a large number of Mist nins flooding into the clearing from the south. Sakura watched in horror as men and women were cut down, leaving only a small group of Sound nins surrounded. The fireball-user stepped forward, repeating his jutsu over and over again, but the men only rushed at his group all the harder. The Sound nins were overwhelmed, and seemed as if they were going to be defeated. Then, Sakura saw it.

The sun had been behind the clouds for a while, and chose that very moment to show itself. She saw a glint of red, and when she strained her eyes, she saw that the bit of red she had glimpsed was accompanied by a portion of white. She stared openmouthed. Her hand reached out to Naruto. Her trembling fingers grasped his shirt. "It's him…" Sakura's voice was quiet. Naruto had seen it, too, and he nodded. "We have to help him, Naruto!" That was when she had tried to go down to Sasuke.

Now, an hour after they first saw the Sound and Mist fighting, Sakura was trying not to cry. "I just want to help him, Naruto. To give him a chance. Isn't there anything we can do? I'm sure that you could create enough clones to take care of most of those Mist nins if you really wanted to…" Naruto's eyes narrowed.

"Are you trying to say that I don't wanna help Sasuke, Sakura?" His voice was dangerously quiet. "Because if you are, you're wrong. I want to help him. If I could think of anything, I'd do it. I just don't think that I should expend that much chakra just now. Kyuubi isn't feeling very generous at the moment, since it has to do with Sasuke. He doesn't like him." Sakura snorted. "Well, he doesn't. Sasuke nearly killed me, and if I die, so does Kyuubi." She pursed her lips. That was understandable, in a way. But their current situation was not good. They were in an awkward position, even if they were to withdraw. There was too much chance that they would be seen.

In fact, it seemed that they had been seen. By the Sound nins. Sakura cursed. "Damn my hair! It's too bright!" She watched as the Sound nins made a rush at the eastern flank of the Mist, and before the Mist could recover, a few of them had broken through. Naruto sighed. He unsnapped his kunai holster, as she did the same, and they waited. In no more than twenty seconds, there were five Sound nins standing in a semi-circle around them. Their path was blocked, and their only chance was to fight.

A slight rustle was heard overhead, and a blue and black blur fell to the ground in front of Sakura and Naruto. The blur stood, and became Sasuke. He wore a shirt of dark blue, with wide sleeves that covered his hands. On the upper left sleeve, there was the symbol of the Uchiha, red and white, just as Sakura and Naruto had seen before. The high collar of the shirt tried but did not completely succeed in covering the lower half of his face. Black hakama pants allowed him greater movement of his legs, and he wore sandals that resembled those Jiraiya wore. His eyes were the characteristic red of the Sharingan. One of his eyebrows rose. "Sakura. I thought it was you. No one else has hair that color. It's good to see you." He turned to Naruto, a slightly amused look in his eyes. "Dobe."

Naruto relaxed a little, leaning against the boulder. "Sasuke no baka…you ran away from your men. A little overwhelmed, were you?" His smirk took Sasuke by surprise, apparently. The dark haired man's eyebrows looked like they were trying to find their way into his hairline. "Has Orochimaru turned you into a bastard and a coward?"

Regaining his former composure, Sasuke said, "You always did talk big, Naruto." He waved a hand at his men. The five Sound nins ran back down the hill. The entire time her former teammates were talking, Sakura's emotions were wreaking havoc in her mind. It was right about this time that she had enough. With speed that surprised even herself, she moved forward, grasped Sasuke by the throat, and yanked him off of his feet, then slammed him to the ground. Sitting on his hips, she peered angrily into his now-black eyes.

"Sasuke," she growled, "If you ever hit me again, I swear, I'll kill you." He blinked in confusion for a moment, then he seemed to remember their last meeting. He had knocked her out, and left her on a roadside bench. Naruto stood helplessly, his eyes wide and apparently unable to speak. It was probably better that he didn't. Sakura's freakish strength was sometimes rather frightening, and he didn't want to be on the receiving end of it.

The Uchiha's voice came in a strangled whisper, "Gomen, Sakura." His hands moved to her wrists, and grasped them firmly. He tugged, but they would not budge. "Please, Sakura, let me up…" He then began gasping for air, and stopped breathing altogether. Sakura's eyes widened. She sighed, and let go of his neck. Using a simple medical jutsu, she restored his airway, and raised an eyebrow at him as he sputtered, breathing again.

"You're more fragile than you look, Sasuke." She was still sitting on him, looking down at him with a mixture of amusement and disdain. He pushed himself up on to his elbows, looking up at her. "What?" His eyes had found something very interesting about her face, it seemed, because he was staring at her.

"I didn't think you would do that. No. I didn't think you could do that." He smiled slightly. "You must be really pissed at me." She nodded. That's not the half of it, moron. Then, he seemed to remember his position. "Will you let me up now?" She snorted, then swung her right leg over to meet her left, and helped him up off of the ground. "Why are you two here, anyway?"

Neither Sakura nor Naruto said anything.

"Official business, huh? Not just coming to say hello?" Sakura's mouth nearly fell open. Sasuke was being…playful. It just wasn't like him at all. Had he developed a sense of humor while living with Orochimaru? He then looked over at Naruto. "I don't suppose that you two are just going to let me go, are you?"

Naruto started to shake his head, but then stopped. "It isn't part of our mission to bring you back."

Sakura stared at Naruto. Didn't he want to bring Sasuke back as badly as she did? "Naruto, I want to talk to Sasuke for a moment. Can you take a walk?" Her companion's eyes widened, but her tone was not full of her old fangirl excitement, so he didn't think she was going to try to molest Sasuke or anything, which might lead to possible complications. He nodded, and walked over to the treeline. "Not too far, Naruto." He gave her a "thumbs up" sign, and smiled. When they were alone, Sakura turned to Sasuke.

"Is that really you, Sasuke?"

"Why wouldn't it be?" He smiled. Her eyes narrowed. He was smiling too easily.

"It's been more than three years. I thought Orochimaru would have stuffed himself into you by now." She spat out the name, and Sasuke flinched as she did so. What had happened to the calm and collected Uchiha she had known since she was a little girl? He looked like Sasuke, had his voice, but was it really him?

The dark haired man stepped toward her. "Ask me anything. I'll answer any question you want. It's really me, Sakura." She stood rooted to the spot. What could she ask him that only he would know? The two of them were always around Naruto and Kakashi…then it came to her. There was one time when the two of them were alone.

Her eyes rose from the ground to his face. Eyes the color of night met hers, and she took a deep breath. "What did you mean, when you left? Your last words to me…what did you mean?" Now, it was Sasuke's turn to look away. "Do you remember? Or would you?" Her voice came out sounding hurt, and angry.

When he looked back up at her, she saw anger in his eyes as well. "How could I forget that, Sakura? You were the only person who knew I was going to leave. I don't know how you knew, but you did. I said thank you then." He had been steadily moving toward her as he spoke, small steps taking him ever closer. When he stood no more than a foot away, he said quietly, "I meant what I said then. I thanked you for caring about me enough to try and stop me. No one else even suspected that I was going to leave. But somehow, you knew." His hand reached out and took hers. "Thank you, Sakura."

"Sasuke, you're an asshole." Sakura could hardly believe the words that were coming out of her mouth. "I would have gone with you if you would have asked. You didn't care enough about me then to even consider me worth thinking of…" She'd been thinking these things, secretly, in the back of her mind, for some time now, even if she hadn't wanted to face it, and now they were just spilling out of her mouth.

Sakura's eyes had become like green flames. It was obvious that she had kept all of this inside, and he was going to let her take it all out on him before he spoke. She continued. "Was I just not good enough? Did I need to beat it into your thick skull? Why? Why did you leave? Was it for your revenge, or did you just want to get away from me that badly?"

Sasuke let her unload her anger on him. It wasn't as if he didn't deserve it. When she finished, she simply stood there, fuming at him. Taking her other hand as well, he breathed deeply. "It was both, actually. I need to kill my brother, to avenge my clan, Sakura. If I was to become strong enough to do that, I couldn't be around you and Naruto and all of the other people I've come to think of as friends. Having those attachments, I couldn't fight to my fullest. I had no way of extending myself completely. I was always protecting you, wasn't I?"

"Oh, so now you're saying that I was holding you back?"

"Not in so many words. I'm trying to tell you why I did what I did, but you're not really listening." He sighed, frustrated, looking at the ground, the trees…anything but Sakura. Finally, he just gave up on saying anything.

Sakura's eyes widened. He let go of her hands. Sasuke took hold of her head with trembling hands, and she watched his face grow large in her vision. He leaned forward, and pressed his lips firmly against hers. What? I must have been hit on the head. Am I dreaming? His eyes had closed. Now, with him kissing her the way he was, she somehow understood. Her eyes slid closed, and she kissed him back. In the blackness behind her eyelids, she could forget everything but the feeling of him.

After a long moment, he released her, and pulled away. Her eyes opened. "Why did you kiss me, Sasuke?"

"You know why."

It was true. She did know. "I want you to say it."

He sighed, relenting. "I love you, Sakura. I left because I can't have anyone I love anywhere near me. There. Happy now?"

"No. How can I be, you ass?" Honestly, how is anyone supposed to be happy in such a situation? She rolled her eyes. "Are you ever going to be coming back? If you are, you better do it soon. I'm not waiting around for you. Not anymore."

"That's not fair."

"Fair? You want to talk about what isn't fair? Don't get me started, Sasuke-teme. If you think that you leaving and making everyone in the village worry is fair, you've got another thing coming. If you think that knocking me unconscious so that you can get away is fair, I ought to beat you to a bloody pulp right now. If you think that Chouji, Kiba, Neji, and Naruto getting seriously injured when they went after you is fair, I'll kill you right now. Just because you know I love you and I always have, don't think that I'm going to put my entire life on hold just so that I can be there when you get back."

He listened to her speech, wide eyed. She wasn't finished. "You've gotten stronger, right? If you want to kill your brother, your chance might come soon. I wasn't going to tell you about our mission, but now, I'll let you in on a little bit of it. Akatsuki wants to gather all of those huge monsters that are sealed in various people. They have the Shukaku that was sealed in Gaara. They've been trying to get Naruto, but haven't succeeded yet. If you come back, you may be able to help us take them down." His eyes grew wide.

"You're not serious." He steadied himself. "You guys are dangling Naruto as bait for Akatsuki?"

"Shikamaru's idea. Well, Naruto was in on it too." She said offhandedly. "So, you in, or what?"

Just then, Naruto came back. "Ano…Sakura-chan, I think we better go. The ANBU are coming. They weren't supposed to catch up with us for another three hours, so we better scram." He looked from Sasuke to Sakura, an oddly confused expression on his face. "Sasuke? Why are you still here? Get back to the fight, or the ANBU will find you."

"That's exactly what I want, Naruto. I'm coming with you."

Naruto's eyes tried to pop out of his head. Then, they narrowed to thin slits, looking to Sakura. "You told him! You weren't supposed to! Boy are you in deep sh—"

"Shut up, Naruto." Sakura said threateningly. "The important thing is that we now have Sasuke back. And because we have him back, we have a valuable asset when we're fighting Akatsuki!" She smiled brightly and giggled. Sakura was rather proud of herself. She had gotten Sasuke back, and she didn't even have to beat the crap out of him! That she had attempted to do so already was quite beside the point, really.

Just then, six ANBU entered the small area above the now nearly-done battle. One of them stepped forward. "Uchiha Sasuke. The last person I expected to see." The man turned to Naruto. "So, what is he doing here, sir?"

Sasuke's eyes widened for a moment, looking to Sakura. Sakura signed at him, He's an ANBU captain now. Sasuke understood. He couldn't be bait if he had a mask on, could he? Still, it would be surprising to anyone who knew the guy to find him as an ANBU. Sasuke thought he was too loud to do the job. Naruto spoke calmly.

"That's what I was just asking. Apparently, Sasuke no baka has decided that he's learned enough from Orochimaru, and now he's ready to come home." He looked pointedly at the Uchiha. Sasuke simply nodded. Naruto continued, "Restraining him will not be necessary. If he runs, I'll just let Sakura go after him." The ANBU gave a small cough, indicating that he was glad he was not Sasuke.

"Very good, sir. What is the plan?" It was decided that they would return to Konoha for the moment, since there was no sign of Akatsuki. "Ok. Then let's get going." They took off in the direction of Konoha, now with a new addition to their group.

A/N: Well, there you go. No all-out Sasuke/Naruto fight. No Rasengan, no chidori. Plain old human interaction. Anti-climactic, I know, but this is just the beginning. Stay tuned...