Pairing: SasuSaku.
Rating: K+
Because: I'm so tired of reading fanfictions where Sasuke receives all this love (when he comes back) since he deserves it (says Sakura) because she loves him. Here's a reason to why Sasuke deserves it and it is much cooler than all others and I've never seen it before.
Note: I was going to write this for 'And So There Was Love', but I found it so cool that I thought I'd make it a story.
For: Ali (Troublesome girl) because she read it before I published it.
Warning: Long run-on sentences and scattered dialogue that could be wrongly punctuated.

Deserving

Kindness is loving people more than they deserve.

He watched as she stepped over a few rocks near the shoreline. She giggled innocently as water gently splashed against her tan legs. Her hair flew along with the wind as she twirled in circles.

It was surreal.

No, not the way the current was so high at such a time of day, not the way that Sasuke actually walked along to the beach, not the way that Sakura looked. It was something much different. It was something much more important.

It was the way she smiled.

It's quite an odd thing to find supernatural for she does it almost every day. But this smile, this smile was different from all her grins. This was pure happiness. This was peace. This was love.

And Sasuke never understood why. He never understood how she could smile at a most dreadful time such as the one taking place at this moment. This moment was a time to be full of sadness and anxiety – not smiles and excited eyes. This was when she should be crying those tears that Sasuke hated to see. This was when she should be hating his guts.

But she never really could do such a thing. For her love for him was stronger than any kind of love there is. It had never faltered, even after he left Konoha for all these years.

And Sasuke, being the selfish avenger he is, just takes the love she offers. He doesn't return it and he definitely gives no recognition to it, but still, he still takes it. He treasures it for it is what he has left. He takes it even though he doesn't understand.

How could someone ever love him? He was a monster. He was a beast. He was an undeserving bastard that deserved to die at that fight with his evil brother. He didn't deserve happiness. He didn't deserve a life. He didn't deserve love.

He didn't deserve her.

And with all these facts in mind, Sakura still loved him unconditionally. And even though he'd never return such feelings, it was still love. And Sakura would wait. She would wait forever.

But just because she is willing to wait forever doesn't mean that he should make her wait.

But Sakura is willing to wait for Sasuke. She's always willing to wait. She knows that he can be a tad slow at times. Sure, he's the most elite shinobi in all of Konoha and most definitely the smartest, but he lacked in social contact and interest. He never got to realize that he had always had a family, even after his brother killed them.

He had Sakura and Naruto and Kakashi, heck, he even had Sai. And Team 7 would always be there for him and for each other; through good times and bad.

Sakura (as well as the rest of the gang) was willing to help him find out what really matters in life, even if they get hurt. Even when they got hurt.

But this kind of love that is given to Sasuke by Team 7 (but mostly Sakura) was some kind of unreserved love that Sasuke fed off of. Without it, he probably wouldn't be able to survive. This fact made it harder to watch as Sakura splashed with the waves, for he knew that he was causing her heartache. But she was able to suppress it. She was able to happy.

Why can't he do that?

All Sakura's life, she felt that she needed to save people. That's why she wanted to be a medic. But the one person she was never able to save was Sasuke. Well, not yet anyway. She still had time to save the one person that she'd always cared about. Always loved.

Sasuke eyes glanced over Sakura's dancing figure. "Sakura,"

The girl instantly turned at her name and stopped her frolicking to give her full and undivided attention to the one man she though deserved it (even though the tables should totally be turned). "Yes?"

"Why?"

"Why what Sasuke-kun?" She questioned with the honorific never failing to send guilt all over his already filled conscious.

"Why did you wait?"

Sakura gave a look of confusion, then her face turned blank, trying hard to find the right answer to Sasuke's very straight-forward, yet complicated question. "Because I love you Sasuke-kun. I always will."

This didn't seem to sit well with Sasuke. "I already know that. But why?"

Sakura was deeply troubled on how to answer this question. What was she supposed to say? She didn't want to say the wrong thing and break the bond that they had just started to recreate. She didn't want to sound cruel either. But she didn't know what he wanted.

"Because I care about you?" She tried in a weak voice. Sasuke shook his head disapprovingly. That wasn't the right answer either. And as what Sakura really did believe was the right thing popped in her head, she gave a soft smile and kindness found it's way into her eyes.

"Because you deserve it."

And Sasuke could have sworn that his heart just broke, for it should be the other way around. Sasuke didn't deserve anything. He deserved nothing but hatred. He deserved nothing at all. He didn't deserve her love; her kindness; her smiles. But he knew that without those smiles, life wouldn't be the same.

And even though Sasuke didn't believe he deserved happiness, Sakura knew better. She knew that he didn't mean to do wrong. He was the one who had his family killed before his young eyes. He was the one who was (as Kakashi put it) lost on the road of life. He was the one that deserved all the joy he could receive.

Sure, he was a traitor (but not in her eyes) and apparently a bad teammate and friend, but she saw past the townspeople's views and saw what really mattered.

Sasuke was human, just like all other people in the world. And humans deserved the best, bad past or not. Humans deserved second chances. Humans deserved to be treated with respect. Humans deserved to have their soul replenished. Humans deserved other people to give them what they deserved. Humans deserved love.

And human Sasuke was.

Because Sasuke is human and deserves some lovin', even if he's sorta hiney-hole-ish.