It was a rare occurrence for the god of lightning to walk the earth. Normally he kept to his skies and didn't subject himself to spending time around foolish mortals. He'd never found them particularly enjoyable or even amusing to be around.

He appreciated that he had worshippers. Mortals that recognized him as important and benevolent. That however did not mean he felt any obligation to know them as that idiot god of the sun did.

It was one of these rare moments that he'd found himself watching a human go about their life. He'd been momentarily stunned at finding a human woman with natural pink hair. For some reason he couldn't identify, he had stayed to watch her live.

Sometimes he thought what started it may have been the furious passion and pure life in her spirit. Other times he stubbornly insisted that it had just been curiosity because she was one of his worshippers.

He continued watching her for several weeks until he decided to grace the area with a good storm. There it had all changed.

From the very first bright flash that was his purpose, he could see everything he was reflected in the joyous beauty of her eyes. He could see in those eyes that she lived for the storm. She sat contentedly on the small porch of her very modest little house, and watched the storm from beginning to end.

He was captivated by the peace his storm had brought her. Did she always look as calmed, no, as gratified by every storm as she had by that one? He was determined to find the answer.

After the storm's end she seemed to immerse herself in the rain quietly pelting the roof above her. She smiled and sighed, without knowing of the power she'd gained over him.

He watched her with an intensity he wasn't aware existed in him. She had awoken something in him that he was not sure he liked. Was sure he did not understand.

Yet he knew he would not wish it to be dormant again could he choose.

As Haruno Sakura slept, Uchiha Sasuke awoke.

-

It was relatively common for the gods to occasionally find themselves interested in a human. To watch over them for their mortal lifetime, before returning to their eternal traveling. It was less common but still frequent enough that they would involve themselves in that human's lifetime.

However she had been the first to intrigue him enough to do so.

Sasuke had never thought much of mortals, and had certainly never believed that he would ever become a part of one. He had been absolutely adamant that no mortal could ever become a part of him.

She had done much more than that. Instead of becoming a part of his life to take with him for an eternity after her time, she had become his life.

He was suddenly as connected to her as he was to his lightning. Upon discovering her existence, he found himself needing to insert himself into her life and capture her just as she'd captured him. He felt as if someone had brought her to life simply to create this need in him.

He had discovered that she was in fact as gratified from every storm as she had been the first time. The storms brought her to life. Beyond the offerings she would regularly leave at his shrine in the nearby village, he could see her faith and loyalty, and gods even love in her with every storm he brought.

It had only taken six days after the first storm, in which he'd given her four more, that his resolve shattered.

He'd become so used to her abundant amount of words. She was so often speaking he had almost wondered if she could even tolerate quiet. And then he would remember the way she was on her little porch during his gifts. Not a word even hushed in the storms that lasted hours. A reverence for his purpose that she'd never once broken the absence of voice save for a soft and pleasured sigh.

However she had completely broken his strength of will when she next visited his shrine. Her first visit after the week of storms, he hadn't quite known what to expect. He'd half expected her to just remain in the same routine of a short and respectful prayer, and her usual offering of various medicinal herbs she had collected.

It was then that she had stunned him once again.

"I don't know if there's any meaning or purpose in these storms you've seen fit to give us lately, but I can only hope that you feel my gratitude for them." Indeed he could. He immersed himself in her spirit, finding a strange apprehension grip him at the defeated contentedness she exuded. She closed her eyes and he suddenly found he mourned the loss of them.

There was a sickness festered deep inside of her that she was losing the battle to. As he had watched her he had seen the suffering her days brought. Every time she fell to slumber, he stood over her with an intense fear that she would not wake again.

"I think I could be happy greeting my death if your storms were to carry me there." Sasuke fell completely to her mercy at these words. He dropped to his knees on the damp grass in front of her, and his entire being seemed to clench in agony at the thought of never seeing this mortal again. Of hearing her speak about every little thing she found worth in. Of feeling the completion he did watching her through the storms.

He did nothing to stop the slide of his existence from his realm to hers. He let himself materialize in front of her in the human form he thought to never use again.

He contemplated how best to acclimate her to himself, if to do so at all. To simply introduce himself to her as the god of the lightning she so coveted. To act as a human and simply have a mortal lifetime with her.

Sasuke found that one short mortal life would not be enough. He wanted her for eternity, forever his and by his side. And he found that he also wanted to be claimed as hers.

He cringed, already able to hear the other gods' scorn, imagining the ridicule that would be directed at him for wanting to share his being with this mortal woman. Yet he knew that the decision had been out of his hands since the first storm. She had captured him completely. Try as he might, he couldn't find an excuse to lie.

He waited only another short minute before she gave that little sigh he'd grown so fond of. Her head raised and brilliant eyes opened, and for a few blissful seconds he was only aware of her finally looking at him.

She squealed in surprise, but to his immense relief not fright, and fell over backwards quite ungracefully. Sasuke felt a smile curl his lips as she stammered and tried to make sense of what had just happened.

"Wh-what-who-I...um...?" It had been so very, very long since he'd felt laughter in the very core of his being. She wasn't acting a timid, mortal worshipper of a god like he'd feared she would be upon meeting him. She was confused but inquisitive. Respectful but equalizing. She was just so...Sakura.

"Forgive me. I shouldn't have presented myself in that manner." Sasuke reached out to grasp her hands in his own. Holding just a part of Sakura in his hands made him feel more in mere seconds than he could remember ever feeling. He felt warm, and the contact of their skin sent a shiver down his spine. He was unfamiliar with touch. It had been eons ago that he'd last felt physical contact.

It had never made him feel this intensely.

"The name I was given at creation is Uchiha Sasuke. However you would know me better as the god of this shrine, Haruno Sakura." She looked slightly apprehensive after hearing her name from his lips, he noticed.

Her shoulders tensed and she became very closed off to him spiritually.

"What do you...you're...really?" He nodded slowly and gently lifted her hands to his face. He pressed his forehead to her knuckles and breathed out a sigh of, dare he say it, pleasure at the flustered feeling that covered his senses like a warm blanket.

She was so very embarrassed by his action that she started stammering again. He lifted his head to gaze at her bright flush in a child-like feeling of wonder. He was very pleased with the reactions he elicited in her.

"Um...okay if you're really...a god, you know, the god of lightning, oh go-umm, I...why..." She averted her eyes and hunched her shoulders, almost as if she were trying to shrink. He didn't like the way she looked so uncomfortable.

"Why are you...doing this?" She was being so proper that he was starting to feel irritated. He wanted the Sakura he'd been watching. It seemed as if that spark that drove that run-on mouth of hers was being snuffed out. He wouldn't allow that.

He was about to correct the situation when she stunned him yet again and revealed the rest of the woman he'd quickly fallen for.

"...'Cause really, you're a freaking god, what the hell? What am I to you!? I mean- uh...don't answer that. But...seriously-ohmygod why are you laughing!?" He just couldn't stop. The deep chuckles that he was unfamiliar with seemed to take hold of him and escalate into full blown human laughter.

This was better than anything he'd anticipated. He gathered himself, slightly ashamed it took so long and was so hard to do, and looked up to her flushed face once more.

He released her hands to cup her face instead. Sasuke smirked at the squeak of embarrassment that left her and decided to give her the same courtesy. He couldn't even remember how long it had been since he'd last felt like himself. Like Sasuke instead of just a nameless god of lightning.

"You captured me Sakura." He brushed his thumbs gently across her warm cheeks and was delighted upon feeling her happiness in this way. It was so much more powerful when he could feel it in his very being, than to just witness it in her expression.

"You annoying human woman. You've made me need you." He felt an obscene amount of pleasure strike through his system as if he'd been struck by his own lightning. The bright smile that had lit up on her face would forever remain a crystal clear image in his head.

He could feel her surprised delight, her awe at being able to make a god feel this way about her. A small breathless laugh escaped her and she raised her hands to tightly grip his forearms.

"I don't understand, what did I do?" He tried to think of a way to explain it to her. No words could properly explain what he'd felt so deeply for her during the storms. He couldn't do it justice with his body, and so he would need to use his spirit.

He had never tried to convey his feelings to a human before. He only hoped that it wouldn't be too much for her.

"Language wouldn't do it justice. Let me show you." His hands cradled the back of her head and neck. He pulled her closer until they were both kneeling and their faces were mere inches apart.

Her eyes expressed everything so clearly that he was captivated and unable to function until she softly spoke. "Okay."

Sasuke pressed his forehead to hers and focused on opening his being to include her spirit. He sighed and his eyes rolled back in bliss at the feeling of their souls touching.

Sakura's entire body shook and she jerked with a sharp gasp. He held her gently in place and recalled the first storm he'd brought her in his mind.

He focused on all of the intense feelings he'd been introduced to, watching her that night. He felt her sudden, sharp arousal in her spirit before a loud and wanton moan escaped her in a high pitch. It appeared her instincts were more primal than his, most likely since she was human. He smiled softly as she experienced what might as well have been a spiritual orgasm.

He could see she had trouble finding her breath, so he took her to the rain after the storm. Her breathing slowed to a normal pace within seconds, but he could feel her acute dizziness from the sudden changes.

It seemed it was a bit much for her to start with, but she'd found the answer to her question among what he'd shared with her.

He rubbed his nose gently against hers as he pulled away. Her eyes were clouded and her skin had started to sweat. He hadn't anticipated a reaction that intense. Her sickness was in final stages he could see, as she swayed and fought to gain control over her body.

"Are you alright? Sakura?" His worry eased slightly when she nodded slowly, but it struck him how close she was to the end of her life. She seemed to wobble when he let her go, but balanced herself quickly. She clutched the grass in her hands and took several deep breaths before looking back up at him.

"I...the thunder used to terrify me as a child. But I'd always loved the lightning." The pleasure he felt at this admission was strange to him. It felt such like a confession of love for him rather than his gift.

"I grew to appreciate the thunder as much as the rain, but the lightning was always what drew me to the storms. Sasuke-kun, I-" Sasuke didn't know what had come over him. Hearing her say his name had done something to him that he couldn't fit words to.

She'd taken everything inside of him and set it on fire. He burned with need for her at the simple sound of his name. A name only ever uttered by other gods.

He grasped her face in his hands and obeyed the sudden flow of human instincts that rushed through him. He crashed his lips to hers and pulled her body to his. She melted into him mere seconds after he'd started moving his mouth against hers in a frenzied passion he didn't know he could feel.

Sakura's moan reverberated in his being, and he immediately answered with a deep groan. He wrapped her in his arms and kissed her again, again, again.

He felt he'd been driven into madness. He pulled his mouth from hers, but he couldn't let her go. He clutched her tightly against himself and tried to calm the fire she'd ignited so violently within him.

"This." Sasuke gasped in such a human fashion that he was unsure who was more surprised. "What you do to me. It demands things of me that I...don't know I can give. You're mortal, and you will die because of it."

The sharp pain in her expression broke him, hurt him in ways he was sure couldn't be fixed.

"To give myself to a mortal...I couldn't..." It would break him the instant that mortality caused her death. He would face an eternity living with that agony as ever present company. To give himself that completely to a mortal so close to her death was beyond unwise. Not that there was anything he hadn't already given, by choice or not. He was already completely hers.

"You...wouldn't, couldn't survive losing me?" She asked against his mouth in a soft tone. The answers she found when he had shared his soul with her, he could only hope they were enough for her to truly understand the depth of that.

He nodded and held her so tightly, as if letting her go in that moment would be what killed her.

"You can't imagine the agony I face at the possibility you will refuse. I...need you to share eternity with me Sakura." She gasped and her fingers tightened their grip on his back. Her breathing sped up and she buried her face in his neck.

"You...mean that's possible?" He sighed audibly, feeling her relief crash against him as if they were waves of an ocean. He pressed his mouth to the side of her forehead and focused. He opened himself to her spirit and realized that she had no intention of refusing him at all.

He laughed. Perhaps he really had slipped into madness. He had fallen so completely for her because he had spent time watching her. He hadn't thought she would be so receptive after such a short time of knowing him. He had thought the humans took so much more time to fall into love the way he had for her in a matter of weeks.

It seems understanding was not the only thing that developed from what he'd shown her.

"Will you share my soul? Live more than your too short human lifetime, in eternity with me? You must understand that eternity is real in my realm, that can be as much of a curse as it is a gift." He refused to let himself succumb to the happiness and relief clawing at him from inside until she had outright agreed.

"With you...I think that would be the only gift you could give me that I-..." He grasped her face with his hands again to look into her eyes as she spoke.

Tears had stained her cheeks, yet he could feel none of the agony he thought was associated with that phenomenon from her. He reached out to her soul, and in the same second she smiled he felt a profound happiness that rivaled his own. "-that I would value even more than the lightning, Sasuke-kun."

The sound that escaped him the second before he'd kissed her again had resembled more an animal than human. The force he kissed her with took her breath away. She whimpered and clutched him tightly.

This human was everything he hadn't known he needed. And as he felt their souls intertwine again, he knew he would never feel empty again. He would carry her with him in the lightning and they would exist together for the rest of their shared eternity.