I had achieved my lifelong goal: I killed my brother.

And yet, I was unsatisfied.

I learned of Itachi's true motives from an Akatsuki member, though I'm not entirely sure why I trusted the orange-masked nin. And I had reason not to: he was the famed Uchiha Madara, in the flesh.

I had built, with the help of Itachi's charade, of course, an image of my brother. It was one of a grotesque, sadistic, emotionless murderer, with blood-red eyes full of superiority. "Hate me," he had said. And I did.

Perhaps it was because the masked man had known so much about what had happened, down to the smallest detail, that convinced me

Either way, my brother was dead.

I couldn't bring him back, even if I wanted to. Let me rephrase that: even though I still want to.

Before Itachi had died, he had done the same obnoxious thing that he had done to me back when we were younger and not so hate-filled; he had grinned and poked me in the forehead. I was terrified as I watched his bloody fingers coming agonizingly slowly towards his goal: my eyes. Now that I had a chance to look back on it, he was apologizing. Now that I could see the reasons, Itachi didn't look like that horrible monster anymore. Now that I knew why he had done all the things that he did, I could see that he was just trying to protect me by making me stronger.

He had really wanted to be my big brother. It was just that the situations leading up to the massacre had prevented that.

Konoha had prevented that.

And yet, here I was, standing on the walls of that very Hidden Village, staring into the darkness and searching.

For what?

I had become lonely and lost without the drive to kill my brother. Looking back now, I could see that it was so juvenile of me to only think of only the one morbid desire. I should've planned ahead. Yet, I had never allowed myself to hope that I could do it, that I could beat him.

But I did, and here I stood, enveloped in the hushed darkness that covered Konoha in a shroud of security.

I still had Karin and the others, though I wouldn't go so far as to say that I cared for them all too much. It was those three who looked up to me, who cared about me, who seemed to need me.

But I left them for now, in search of something more… familiar, reassuring, I don't know.

Truth be told, Karin annoyed me. She reminded me so much of the girls that I grew up with, fawning over me and gazing dreamily at me when she thought I wouldn't notice. She was too much like them, too much like her, and I wanted the real thing.

The second part of my goal was to restore my clan, but I knew that that in and of itself was such a farfetched idea that I should just leave it be. They wouldn't be pure Uchiha children. Some may not even inherit the Sharingan. Then I caught myself thinking that maybe I was still to young to be thinking about fathering a whole clan. And I was, still am. I'm only eighteen. I know nothing of parenthood.

I sighed.

Chakra masked, I leapt from the wall to the nearest roof, landing silently and sprinting over to the next one. I had to see how they were doing, how my teammates were. True, I had technically abandoned them, but in my mind, we were still Team 7. I had emotionally and physically wounded the both of them, but it had been necessary.

I came across Kakashi's apartment first. I glanced in through the window to find that he wasn't home. He was probably on a mission, or out somewhere. No one really knows with that one. He's more secretive than I am, and that's saying something.

I leapt off the windowsill and ran from rooftop to rooftop, searching for either Naruto or Sakura. I found the blonde's place shortly, and silently entered through the small bedroom window. He was snoring loudly, blankets strewn all over the place, and his shirt riding up, exposing his stomach to the night air. Drool was slowly dribbling down his cheek from his open mouth onto his pillowcase.

What an idiot.

I'm surprised the Akatsuki wouldn't just come to his house at night and steal him then. They could certainly manage it.

I looked around the messy bedroom, and I felt a small grin tug at the corner of my lips. "Dobe," I whispered.

I left through the window, making sure to close it behind me. I stopped on Naruto's roof. Now, if I remembered correctly, Sakura had lived not too far from Naruto, and also not too far from the Uchiha compound. I had lived rather close to the compound myself after the massacre, and remembered distinctly how she would bring me food every once in a while. I always accepted them, but never showed any gratitude, hoping that it was just a phase that the rosette was going through.

Judging by the way she had looked at me when we first saw each other a couple years back at Orochimaru's hideout, it hadn't been.

I was here for a reason.

So, I set of in the direction that I was sure she lived in. I found her parents' house, but she wasn't there. Considering how her room had next to nothing in it, she had moved out.

Or she had died.

No. I couldn't believe that. Sakura couldn't die.

Now what?

I looked back through the window to her room, hoping that the answer would make itself known somehow. I listened for the sound of her mother's and father's steady breathing, finding them asleep a few rooms down.

Maybe they would have something telling me where Sakura was.

I noiselessly made my way through the house to their room first, checking through drawers and stacks of papers. Finding nothing, I moved to the kitchen, hoping to come across an address book or something of the sort. I finally found a leather-bound booklet that held numerous phone numbers, names, and addresses.

I rifled through the book and found Sakura's name written neatly in what I assumed to be her mother's handwriting. Her phone number and street address, as well as her apartment number, were printed primly on a white piece of notepaper. Memorizing the address, I put everything back where I had found it and took off.

She wasn't living too far from her parents' house. She was closer to the hospital and the Hokage tower. When I looked in through her window, I saw that she wasn't home.

At least she wasn't dead.

Should I stay and wait for her to come home? Should I leave a note? Should I just leave?

I wasn't sure what to do.

Frowning, I glared at the smooth glass of the window, seeing the red of my Sharingan reflected back at me.

I opened the window, slid in, closed it, and went to wait in a dark corner for her to return. I didn't care how long I had to wait. I would see her.

It turns out I didn't have to wait long. In fact, it was only a matter of minutes before I sensed her familiar chakra signature ascending the stairs to her apartment. She seemed weary, as her chakra pulsed slowly and irregularly. She must be working at the hospital.

I heard her carefully unlock her door and step in, closing the door behind her and setting down what sounded like a bag of some sort. I heard her barefooted footfalls as she paced tiredly across the carpet in the living area to her room. My heart-rate sped up without reason.

I schooled my features into a calm, emotionless mask. I had practiced this very expression, or lack thereof, when I had been much younger. It would be familiar for her. Maybe it wouldn't scare her.

She stopped in front of her closed door, twisting the knob slowly. My dark corner was across from the doorway and near the window, so if she didn't want to see me, I could easily slip out. I saw her shadow cast in the light from the hallway appear on the hardwood floor as she made to step in. Her hand reached around on the wall for the light switch as she stepped fully through the doorway.

She was beautiful. I had always secretly admired the way her strange pink hair contrasted so nicely with her intelligent green eyes. She had always been so self-conscious of her forehead, but she had grown into it nicely. She was much taller than I remembered, though I hadn't really had a chance to see how tall she had gotten the last time we met, however briefly it was.

Her groping hand soon found the light switch, and I was not longer protected by the shroud of darkness.

She was quick to find me, her head snapping to my corner where I was leaning patiently against the wall. I watched her jade eyes widen in first recognition, then fear. Her breath hitched, and all weariness seemed to disappear.

I wanted to tell her that she didn't need to fear me, that she was safe. But that would be a lie. She should be afraid. I could kill her before she could say 'Sasuke'. But I wouldn't. Not tonight. Probably not ever.

"S-Sasuke-kun," she whispered, almost as if I were some sort of apparition that would disappear at the slightest sound.

"Sakura," I answered quietly. I noticed how husky my voice had gotten without me willing it. I briefly wondered if she noticed it.

"W-what are you d-doing here?" she stuttered timidly. I hadn't ever heard her stutter that much.

I came to take you with me. "I came to see you," I replied, stepping forward slowly, uncrossing my arms to hang them limply at my sides. I didn't want to make her feel threatened.

That didn't work.

I saw her hands ball into fists as green chakra enveloped them. Ah, Sakura.

I held my hands up in a placating gesture. "I'm not here to hurt you, Sakura, I promise," I said, stepping forward slowly. "I just wanted to see how you were doing."

A confused expression creased her brows, and stared at me like I was a difficult puzzle. I looked pointedly at her fists, and she withdrew her chakra.

I stepped closer. We were separated by a few feet now, and her head tilted up to look me in the eye, and then off to somewhere behind my head.

My eyes. I forgot. I sighed, grinning, and turned off the Sharingan. "Better?" I asked.

She flicked her eyes back to my now black ones. "Yes."

We stared at each other for a few moments. I stepped closer, and she warily craned her neck to look at me. It was sort of funny how much I had grown. I was now taller than Itachi had been.

Itachi.

I frowned.

"What's wrong?" she asked, curious green eyes still retaining some wariness.

I debated. What exactly was it that had me so unhappy? Was it the lack of a brother? Guilt? Or was it just loneliness?

"I'm… alone."

It was out. What will you do next, Sakura?

I watched as indecision flitted through her expression, then wariness, then… what was that one? A strange mixture of sorrow and fear?

With a tinge of resolution just barely making its way through her expressive viridian eyes, she closed the distance between us and wrapped her arms tentatively around my waist.

My heart skipped a beat.

She just hugged me. Did this mean…?

Slowly, cautiously so as not to startle her, I returned the gesture and embraced her, placing one hand on the back of her head and the other on her back, bringing her head to my chest and her body closer to mine. She closed her eyes, and I guessed she was listening to the now steady rhythm of my heartbeat.

"Thank you, Sakura," I said, resting my head on top of hers.

She twitched, remembering the time that I had said 'thank you', apparently. What? Did she think I would do that again?

I rubbed my hand up and down her back, trying to soothe her. "I swear, I will never hurt you again," I promised. "Never."

She looked up at me, barely suppressed hope rising to the surface of her expressive eyes.

"Sasuke-kun?"

That look. That one look was all it took. "I love you with all of my heart, Sakura." I bent down and kissed her for the very first time.

Distantly, I thought amusedly about how very jealous Karin would be when she saw Sakura. Of course, maybe she never will. Maybe… I'll stay…

~END~

~***~***~***~

So, what'd you think? A little mushy, I'll admit, but this SasuxSaku idea has been gnawing at my brain for a few days and I've been waiting for a chance to write it. I just wrote this all in one sitting, I'll have you know. It's slightly AU, but whatever.

Hope you enjoyed!

(reviews? *insert incredibly adorable puppy face here* pwease??)

Haha

Anyhoo, much love,

17child-of-the-moon17 (aka child_of_the_moon on mediaminer)

XO