She heard what she wanted to hear. When someone (a certain young prodigy with eyes as black as the shadows in hell) told her of her flaws, it seemed as though the words were never spoken, because they never left any imprint in her mind. Sakura, no matter how scathing the words, how threatening the tone, how utterly low the insult was, always ignored them and managed to read the writing between the imaginary lines.

Out of "you're annoying," she believed he meant "Your presence it getting to me."

When told that she was "weak" and "pathetic" Sakura interpreted it as "You need to get stronger so I don't have to worry over you."

And as Sasuke scolded her about her being a "no-talent shinobi," she knew that what he really wanted to say was "You don't have the hardness of heart needed for this bloody and brutal line of work. Preserve what naivete and innocence you have and get away from ninjas altogether."

But want and reality are two completely polar opposites, like night and day, evil and good, Sasuke and Naruto. And what Sakura wanted to hear from her beloved Uchiha sometimes clouded what he was really saying. So eventually she learned to stop kidding herself, stop toying with the idea that what he said might mean something else entirely. She learned to just take his words at face value.

But when the day came, four years after he had left his last shred of humanity lying on a park bench in the middle of the night, that Sasuke, approaching his abandoned (but hopefully forgiving) village, found her standing atop Konoha gates during her night-shift patrol, and he said to her:

"I'm finished. Here I am."

She knew that this time, there were no words between the lines to read. Instead she heard the words that were supposed to come after, but had died in his throat.

"I'm finished (with my revenge, with Orochimaru, with being alone, with taking the solitary path). Here I am. (You needed me, so now I'm home.)"

Surprisingly, I sort of like this one. I hope with all my heart that you did too. But even if you didn't, please tell me how I can improve. Reviews are amazingly appreciated.