Note: Because every new release of Road to Ninja spoilers brings out ALL. MY. FEELZ. Also, I know I've been a writing a lot of anti-SasuSaku stuff lately - or well, not giving them "happy endings." Bear with me! I promise I'll go back to the usual ohwhatsherface romcoms soon! :)
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. And the summary is a line from Nine.

When Sasuke finally leaves her balcony with a kiss on the cheek and a quiet farewell, Sakura feels the heat on her cheeks and the pounding in her chest and immediately hates herself for having reacted to his little gestures.

She remembers the night before and her hands clench without her noticing. She and Naruto had been wandering this weird world that they'd been sent to and had come across Sasuke not only in Konoha, but smiling and laughing and talking. She recalls him leering down at the nameless girl on his arm as she giggled and fluttered her eyelashes and daintily sniffed the rose he had given her. Sakura lets out an irritated huff. There had been more than one girl around him, actually – all of whom were gifted with one of his red roses. Sakura only realizes how tight her grip has gotten on her own oh so precious rose when her palm feels slick.

She unclenches her fingers and stares at the crushed neck of the flower, spotted with blood from the cuts made by the thorns. She marvels at how easily the fragile little flower broke in her hand. Then, against her better judgement, she thinks of Sasuke – but not this annoying flirt with Sasuke's eyes and Sasuke's voice. No. She thinks of the boy back home with unreadable features and a presence that commands submission.

Part of her loves him, but a bigger part, a part that Sakura keeps to herself and only to herself, absolutely dreads him.

But Sakura still cares about him. Sakura huffs pitifully when she realizes that she'll probably always care about him, but sometimes, when she closes her eyes and she thinks of him staring back at her, the soft cobalt blurs into the bloody red of the Sharingan, and then all she can see is his utterly apathetic face as he lunged at her, ready to blast her head off without a second thought as he choked the life out of her. She jolts and in a fury, Sakura swipes at the flower, sending it to the floor. She glares at the scattered petals and takes pleasure in seeing Sasuke's little gift – the thing he made the effort to buy and bring her with a few crooned lines of endearment to what, make her his next piece of arm candy? – as a broken mess from just one swipe of the hand. She stares at it calculatingly, remembering how easily Sasuke had nearly crushed her with just one hand just months before, and how he didn't even need to touch her to do the same just the previous night.

Sakura's mind lingers on Sasuke and Sasuke and she lets out a groan of frustration for caring so much about a boy who has no issues with playing with people to get what he wants.

It doesn't matter what world she's in. She will never matter to Sasuke and part of her is glad for the genjutsu she and Naruto can't find their way out of because now she's seeing everything from a whole other angle. She gets it. No matter how she looks at the possibility of a happy future with Sasuke, she can see now that it's hopeless.

fin