A Little Author's Note: I do not own the characters of Naruto, or the villages of Naruto. I simply own the plotline. I make no money off of this. Please enjoy reading, and review if you will, please. ^_^

He's not going to show up, Sakura. Why are you even waiting here for him? It's the middle of the night, and Kakashi-sensei called a meeting really early tomorrow—

"I see you decided to come after all."

Sakura gasped in surprise when she heard the cool voice behind her, grabbing for a kunai out of her holster out of instinct as she turned around to face the man whose voice she'd heard. Sure enough, he was standing there, a smirk on his face, his glasses reflecting the moon's light, making his expression unreadable.

"It's late, Kabuto." She told him, her voice frosty and cautious.

He chuckled under his breath. "Heh. It's always late when we meet up, Sakura-chan."

"I was thinking about that earlier today, and I've come to a conclusion."

"Oh?" Kabuto asked her, his voice uninterested as he crossed the expanse of grass between them, closing the gap that separated them from one another. Sakura's breath hitched in her throat as he stepped up to her, his chest only inches away from her own as she looked up at him. "And that would be?"

"I don't think this is a good idea." She told him, stepping back hesitantly. Her thoughts were never quite as clear as she'd like them to be whenever he was in close proximity to herself.

Kabuto chose not to respond, bringing his gloved hand up to touch her cheek lightly, the tips of his fingers sending shocks down her spine. Sakura shivered in response, hating how her body turned against her whenever Kabuto touched her. Kabuto smirked down at her, again closing the space between them and tilting her head up to meet his gaze.

"You're right. It's not." He confirmed her conclusion. "In fact, I'd venture that it's a horrible idea."

Sakura forced her expression to harden, and stepped back from him. No words were needed to explain what she was feeling, and Kabuto was amused by it. She was angry, but her rage wasn't directed at him. No, it was directed at herself. She was angry that she'd let herself give into the feelings she felt for him. Kabuto grabbed her wrist with his free hand, and she immediately tried to pull it free.

"Let me go, Kabuto." She insisted.

"Do you really hate me as much as you claim, Sakura?" He asked her.

"What do you mean?" She asked him, her eyes widening. "Of course I hate you! I'd kill you, if it weren't—"

"Weren't for what?" He pressed on, his grip on her wrist tightening. "A good shinobi never hesitates, Sakura. You've had many opportunities to kill me. If you hate me as much as you say you do, what's standing in your way?"

Sakura made a low growl with her mouth and tried to pull her wrist away one more time, to no avail. She knew that physically, Kabuto was much stronger than herself; without the use of ninjutsu, she wouldn't be able to free herself from his hold. She knew that she had no choice now but to tell him the truth she'd been hiding from him all along; a truth she'd been trying to hide from herself.

She should have known way back when the Chūnin exams had first begun, when he'd saved herself and Naruto from opening the scroll, that she needed to stay as far away from him as humanly possible. She'd seen something dangerous in the seemingly aloof, secretly genius man. But she'd also felt a sort of thrill being around him; watching him move and use his skills had amazed her, and she'd grown fond of him in the span of only a few short hours of being with him in the Forest of Death. Later on, when they'd been ambushed right outside the tower, she had felt an immense fear when she'd seen him get injured no less than three times saving them; something that she couldn't be sure she would do for a group of people she knew nothing about.

After the exams, she'd learned that he was in fact a spy for Orochimaru. She'd felt hurt; betrayed, even. The man she'd built up in her mind's eye as someone who was so much different than Sasuke; She had thought that perhaps she and Kabuto could become friends.

And then one night, he'd come to her bedroom. She'd been shocked, finding herself unable to move or speak. She'd thought he'd come to kill her, and he had told her that she was correct. He had told her he was going to kill her, and she'd believed him. There had been no hesitation in his smooth voice; no emotion in his coal black eyes. He'd held his kunai at her throat, prepared to slice it, when he'd suddenly stopped.

He had told her since then that he'd refrained from killing her because she'd begun to cry, though Sakura wasn't convinced. He had made a deal with her; he would not kill her or her friends if she would meet up with him in the forest outside of Konoha at midnight a week later. The night she'd met up with him, Kabuto had surprised her by kissing her. He hadn't gone into emotions that night; he had simply told her that he thought they could work something out. At first, Sakura had been disgusted. She'd told him that she'd rot in hell before she would sleep with the enemy. But it had been futile; Kabuto knew her weakness, and he'd used it against her.

"If you don't show up when I ask, I'll kill Sasuke and Naruto. You don't want their blood on your hands now, do you?" He had told her. She had faltered, and given into Kabuto's request.

They'd now been meeting up in the forest once a week for the last eight months. Somewhere along the way, she'd managed to get Kabuto to confess that he wouldn't have killed Naruto or Sasuke, and she'd been tempted to stop their meetings then. But she found it too difficult to stop seeing Kabuto. She had broken the one rule she'd told herself she'd never allow herself to break when it came to relationships.

She had become attached.

It had started out small. She would find herself having random dreams of their encounters, wishing secretly for more time with him. Eventually, that had evolved into thinking about him during the day. Hell, even if her gaze lingered on Kakashi's hair for too long, she began thinking of Kabuto's and comparing the two of them. Kabuto came out on top every time. Now, eight months after their meetings had begun, Kabuto was all Sakura could think about.

"If it weren't for what, Sakura?" Kabuto pressed, bringing Sakura out of her thoughts. She lifted her jade green eyes, meeting his charcoal ones in an intense gaze before speaking, her voice cracking with emotion.

"If it weren't for how I feel for you, I would kill you." She whispered, hating the words even as she spoke them. She saw the smirk form itself on Kabuto's face, and frowned angrily. He wasn't supposed to be smiling; it wasn't a humorous thing.

"That's a good way to get yourself killed, Sakura." Kabuto chided her. "Emotions are a dangerous thing. Especially when it's the enemy that they're directed at."

Sakura's breath hitched in her throat, and tears began to well in her eyes. She didn't reply to his words; she knew what he was saying.

Once again, he was going to betray her. He was going to kill her this time. There was no mistaking the tone in his voice.

He deftly grabbed her other wrist and lifted them both above her head, pinning them both against the tree behind her with his hand, using his other hand to draw a kunai out of the holster on his leg. He brought it up to Sakura's face, dragging the tip slowly along her jaw line, careful not to draw any blood, moving the blade slowly.

"I could kill you right now and you wouldn't even have time to know it," He murmured, his voice low as the blade moved slower, moving down her neck now, tracing her sensitive tendons.

"Then do it," She replied harshly, keeping all traces of fear out of her voice. Kabuto could kill her, but Sakura would be damned if she'd let him take her pride too.

Kabuto chuckled, pulling the kunai away from her knife and putting it back in the holster on his leg. He lowered his face to hers, kissing the corner of her mouth and then moving his lips along the same path the kunai had taken, kissing gently enough to not leave any marks on her skin. Sakura's eyes widened; she hadn't been expecting this.

Finally, Kabuto let her hands go, letting them fall down to her sides. He stepped back from her and smirked.

"It's getting late," He told her, mocking her earlier statement as he turned away from her. "Same time in a month."

Sakura didn't have time to respond as she watched Kabuto take off at a run, jumping up into the tree branches and moving much too quickly for her to stop him. Confused about what had just happened, Sakura began walking back into the village, thinking about why Kabuto had chosen not to kill her and what it meant. She sighed, telling herself that she'd ask him about it next time, knowing that she would never get an answer from him.