Saturday 10th of June.
Sasuke lifted his head up with the little energy he had left. They had been training for almost a full afternoon now and they were both too tired to train with Sakura. All of that was Naruto's fault. He was the one who got so bored at lunch time that he dragged Sasuke to the training field earlier than expected.
They both obviously didn't fully show the extend of their power fearing that they will destroy the landscape and possibly the village but they still fought very hard. The rule was to stick to Taijustsu instead of ninjutsu to avoid any complications with Kakashi who would've definitely been mad at them for scaring the villagers with their blows. Sasuke had to admit to himself again that Naruto was definitely his equal. He didn't know when they started to have the same strength or how it happened but he couldn't stop himself from feeling a bit of admiration. To this day he remembered the Naruto who couldn't even make a shadow clone but today he was known as the Hero of the Leaf Village. He was impressed.
He looked at the one who he could call his friend and realised that his teammate was already staring back at him smiling. Sasuke smirked a little remembering the two previous fights they had. It was the third time they fought each other but for the first time they didn't have the intention of physically hurting the other.
Sasuke spent the last two years wondering how they got where they were today. He came to the conclusion that after his brother's death he had already been moved by a lot of emotions that he never had to face and seeing Naruto going to this extend to get him back shook him to the core. No one, other than him and Sakura, had shown that much affection for him in his life.
Even after these two years he still couldn't understand why they cared so much about him. He had left them, turned his back on them, tried to kill them and the list goes on. A part of him felt like he didn't deserve being in that field facing Naruto. He realised that not only did he not deserve Naruto's affection but he also didn't deserve Sakura's. Affection that she wasn't giving him anymore.
He was well aware that he had pushed things really far with her and now he wanted to make it up to her but he had no idea how. After last night he had a feeling that things were different with her. He wasn't good at understanding people's behaviours but he could tell that something was off. She had declared her love to him times and times again, she had showed admiration for him. Back in the days she used to look at him all the time, listen when he spoke or put him on a pedestal but last night things were different she was more... distant?
As the two now men stared at each other too tired to move Sasuke caught a bit of movement from his right side. Him and Naruto turned their heads simultaneously and barely had time to avoid the massive rock being thrown at them. They looked back to where it came from and saw a smiling Sakura, gloves on.
"Sakura-chan! You could've hurt us!" screamed Naruto.
"Well I could've healed you as well if I wanted to. I see you started without me but I am here now. Come on let's train!"
"Haaaaaaan I'm too tired."
"Naruto I will beat you up until you start fighting back if I have to. Get up and let's train. I had a long day I need to punch a few things... or someone." Sasuke saw a smirk on her face and chills went down his spine. She didn't mean him... or did she?
"Go train with Sasuke, I'll watch you."
"I want to train with you." she replied with a dry tone.
The man looked at his two teammates bickering. There it was again, the feeling that something was wrong. She usually would have jumped on the occasion of training with him or jumped on the occasion to get his attention but not today.
His eyes twitched what does she think? That I am not good enough to train with her? I could beat her in seconds if I wanted to. His ego being hurt he found the energy to lift his body off the ground and face her. He dried his sweat off his face with his dirty sleeve.
His hand then gravitated towards his pouch and before the pinkette realised he threw a kunai at her. She barely avoided it and turned an angry look at Sasuke. For the first time since he had came back she looked at him and finally realised what had changed in her. It was the look on her face... a dark and cold look. It was a look he knew very well because he used to have it himself. He brushed it off and simply said:
"You heard Naruto, it's just you and me now."
"Very well, I won't hold back."
"If you want to hit me at least once, you shouldn't."
Her eyes became thinner as she looked at him in disbelief and anger. He grinned: at least she was paying attention now.
Naruto mumbled something as he sat down. Sasuke knew that his friend was well able to fight Sakura even tired like they were. He had fought during the Great War for days and still managed to fight him with all the strength he had so it wasn't a small training session without using Ninjutsu that would drain him. He had no idea why Naruto decided not to participate. He was probably sick of being punched by her which was understandable. Sasuke didn't really get the opportunity to see her fight but he imagined that she couldn't be this big of a threat.
He ran his finger through his hair as Sakura walked towards him her fist ready to punch. He knew she couldn't beat him but he wasn't an idiot either and preferred to be safe than sorry.
He jumped in the air moving above her and got out his kunai with a metal string. As soon as he was about to attack, it hit him: he had tried to kill her before, he couldn't do that again. He didn't want to do that again. For some unknown reason he didn't want to physically hurt her anymore. Fighting Naruto was one thing, fighting her was another.
He put his weapon back in the pouch and landed gracefully behind her as her eyes opened widely. She turned around quickly.
"What are you doing? You could've hit me!"
"This is ridiculous, I am not going to fight you."
He could see that the sudden change confused her for a second. She jumped towards him.
"That didn't seem to be a problem when you tried to kill me!" she spat.
He jumped away avoiding her punch. Her weight made her loose her balance but she stabilised herself quickly and started at him. He understood exactly what she wanted, she wanted him to fight her, no, she needed him to fight her.
To his surprise he barely managed to escape that new punch aimed at his face. Her fist landed on the floor and the earth crumbled under it. He used the opportunity to hide behind a huge piece of dirt that fell a bit away. "What the hell was this?" he whispered to himself. "I saw her fight during the war but she never showed this much strength... a punch from her could leave me with broken bones. I need to be more careful especially since I don't want to fight her back."
"Hiding won't make you avoid that fight. You don't have a choice, fight me."
He could hear the anger in her voice. A loud noise rang in his right ear and before he had time to turn his head he saw a tree flying passed him. It landed loudly making dust flying everywhere. Suddenly the earth started trembling again and he jumped out of where he was hidden. He saw her smiling.
"Found you."
He landed on his feet in the forest. She ran towards him and punched but before it touched him he had already jumped on top of the tree. His back collided with the bark of it as this one fell onto the floor. He bounced onto the next one. "She is going to destroy the place." he mumbled to himself. Sakura was staring with a smile. She wasn't joking anymore, well she never was but it seemed like she really wanted to hurt him. He was getting really angry now but pushed the feeling aside.
"I'm not going to fight you Sakura."
"Why? Because I am not good enough?!"
Then he got it. She wanted to prove something to herself. He sighed and stood in front of her blatantly.
"No, I just don't want to hurt you."
As soon as he said it he realised that these were the wrong words. He sighed again.
"You don't want to... aaaaaargh!"
She teared the tree off the ground and threw it at him. Very well then, he was going to giver her what she wanted. His eyes turned red and he walked towards her decisively.
"You want to fight? Go try now. No matter how many times you try to hit me, the same thing will happen over and over again." he tried to provoke her. "You will fail and I won't fight you back.
He lunged towards her and she jumped in the air. His sharingan being activated made it easier for him to just grab her wrist and he yanked her towards him. She fell into his arm, her head close to his chest.
"Stop it, Sakura. I don't know what you are trying to do here but it won't help you." he whispered between his teeth next to her ear.
She was clearly pissed off now based on her breath going in and out of her lungs really fast. His sharingan detected her knee going towards his stomach. He didn't flinch. The commotion was so strong that the air left his lungs and he let go of her. He coughed as she reached forward and sent her fist to his face. His body was carried away by the strength of the punch. He landed on his back and looked at her.
"Have you had enough of this?" he declared tired of this mess.
"No, I'm only getting started." she hissed at him.
There was something he could understand about the situation, her anger. That was a feeling that he knew very well. What she needed was to let it out. If she desired to punch him he would let her, after all he deserved it.
She sat on him, grabbed his collar and started punching him over and over again. Not once in his life time Sasuke had let someone do that to him but a part of him felt like it was needed.
She continued on for what felt like forever. His face was getting numb but he could feel her strength slowly decreasing. He let her go on for a bit longer before he grabbed her wrist with his hand and lifted his torso towards her.
"Fight back!" she roared as she tried to make him let go of her. She didn't have the mental strength to go on anymore. He felt it as he looked into her eyes. She seemed exhausted.
"I can't." his lips were painful to move.
His head was close to hers and he could feel her breath on his skin. Her cheeks were red from anger and covered in dirt and her fringe fell on her forehead covering her mark. She reminded him of the moment she saved him from that dimension during the war. They way she looked physically when they were looking at each other was similar to now.
"Why?! I want you to fight me. Hurt me like you did before."
Without him expecting it she broke down. Her arms couldn't hold themselves up anymore but he kept one up just under their chins. He let her get it out, she obviously needed it. A feeling of guilt appeared in his throat but he disregarded it. Right now, it was about her, not him and he had to let her express what she had no say. Naruto had done it already and the two had made up after but Sakura obviously needed to say something.
"You don't have the right." she sobbed quietly probably trying to keep it all in.
"The right to what?"
She wasn't listening and the tears were running down her face. He grunted and tried to catch a glimpse of her eyes but she avoided him.
"Why are you suddenly so nice! You can't. You don't have the right! Fight me or try to kill me! Show me that I was right!"
His eyebrows raised.
"Sakura..."
She abruptly stared at him with all the pain in the world mixed with anger, sadness and guilt. Each second passing by a new emotion made its way to her eyes. He was lost for words.
"Shut up! You don't get to speak to me, you don't get to do that. You left us once and I stood by my words, I never turned against you but then you backstabbed us. You attacked us, the only two people who would've defended you no matter what. You tried to kill me like I was nothing other than an obstacle, something that should disappear. You came back but to what extend! Naruto nearly had to kill you for you to realise your mistakes. You nearly killed one of my best friends out of pure selfishness. You gave us hope and you left us again. I hate you for that!"
She tried to catch her breath but the tears were too intense and it only made her sob more. As he was staring at her he felt ashamed. Ashamed of his past, ashamed of his actions, ashamed of that fact that he never took into consideration the fact that after losing him Sakura only had Naruto left. He nearly took that away from her. In all these years he never saw their perspective of the story, he always thought that they were doing fine. During his chat with Naruto, the only thing the blonde said to him was that he made them go through a lot. Now he understood... He made them go through hell out of pure selfishness.
His firm got tighter on Sakura's wrist without him realising it. She was still sitting on him and he could feel her body shake. He had ruined her.
"Tell me I didn't do this for nothing..."
He looked at her and she was closer to him than before. This time their noses touched but he didn't back up. Her sob calmed down and her voice was really quiet like she was talking to him and only him. She closed her eyes and he did the same feeling her forehead brushing his.
"I loved you so much that I had to hate you to get over you. After trying everything else all I had left was hate. I convinced myself that you will never change and that I was better off moving on but here you are. Here you are looking at me with a look that I never saw before. Hating someone isn't in my nature but I did it for you, I destroyed myself to achieve that in order to get over you. You don't have the right to come back and care. You don't have the right to treat me the way you are. Show me that I did the right thing... just show me..." her voice broke down as she couldn't push herself to finish the sentence. Sasuke felt her tears falling on his chest.
His heart sank in his chest. Hatred. He knew that feeling and he knew what it did to you. It ate away your soul. If she was in that deep end right now she needed to be helped and no one other than him and Naruto could do that. They were the only ones understanding the meaning of this word. But what could he do? He wasn't good with emotions or human interactions in general. Naruto had to do it, he had to help her like he helped him. He had to make her find her way out of there.
"I'm sorry Sakura."
He stood up forcing her to get up, still grabbing her wrist. They were both facing each other at a convenient distance. She didn't push him away and he didn't let go of her. He knew he had to move away but something in him stopped him from doing so. They both stared into each other's eyes in silence. They were in a world that no one had access to.
His head was telling him to let go but his body wasn't reacting to the thought so he just stared. Her eyes were shining after all the tears and she looked so helpless and so fragile right now. Of course he knew that she wasn't, his face was proof of that, but he wanted to help her. Hatred, she was feeling hatred towards him. Their bubble was bursted when Naruto arrived. That was the trigger for Sasuke to let go of her arm.
"Hey you ok? It was pretty loud and then it got quiet all of a sudden. Did someone die?"
" I have to go."
He turned his back on both of them and jumped his way out of the forest. "Hatred."
"Hey Sakura, you kicked the hell out of him."
The young man was laughing his hands behind his head. As he looked at her and then he saw that she had cried.
"Hey you alright? What happened?"
"Nothing, nothing happened and that's the problem."
And she left alone a dumbfounded Naruto. Something was going on.