Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Forced Fate ❯ More Than I Can Take ( Chapter 6 )

"Sakura…" He whispered against her ear. His hot breath lightly ghosting against the sensitive skin of her neck giving her goose bumps of pleasure.

'God.' She shivered; her name dripped from his mouth like liquid sex. She twined her fingers in his luxurious ebony hair. She'd always wanted to touch his hair.

He grazed the shell of her ear with his nose, traced the line of her pulse with his breath. "Sakura…" He breathed heavily against the soft skin of her collarbone. "I want you."

She whimpered in want. He was teasing her with the barest of touches. She fisted handfuls of his hair in vain effort to pull his mouth to hers. She wanted him, needed him, needed to touch him, to feel him, needed him to touch her. "Please." She cried.

He resisted and smirked at her struggle, bringing his mouth within a centimeter of hers.

She gasped at his smirk; he looked so damned sexy. "Sasuke please." She begged, touching her lips to his in a fevered kiss.

He pressed her against him possessively, needing his fingers into her back, answering her kiss, open-mouthed, hungrily…

"Mmm." She moaned. His warm breath teased the inside of her mouth.

He sucked her bottom lip as he pulled away. "I thought you were mine Sakura… I thought you'd always be mine." He traced her lips seductively with his tongue.

'What? What a silly question.' She thought, inwardly shocked at the thought that she belonged to anyone but him. "I'm yours Sasuke… always." He looked deeply into her eyes. Those onyx orbs seemed to cut right through her. They were intense, and she thought them the most erotic part of him.

He kissed her fiercely and passionately, his tongue delving deep into her mouth. "Nghh. God Sakura. You taste so good." He groaned into her mouth.

Sakura clawed down his chest, fisting the hem of his shirt in her hands. He pushed her against the wall pressing the full length of his body against her. She lifted her legs, and he gripped her thighs as she wrapped them around him possessively. He ground his hips forward. "Oh God Sasuke." He felt so fucking good. Their kiss became frenzied and feverish, tongues delving deep…

She wanted him so badly. She'd always wanted him. She loved him. "I want you Sasuke… now." She hissed, yanking on his shirt, trying to rip it off him. She didn't care; she wanted to see the body she'd dreamt about for so many nights.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

Sakura jumped at the loud booming. 'What the hell was that?' She sat up on her bed, dazed, confused… "Sasuke?" She looked around, and suddenly tears came to her eyes. It had been a dream.

Sasuke wasn't there. He never was. She wrapped her arms around herself, feeling the tears come faster, and collapsed back on the bed, sobbing.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

"Unnn." Sakura groaned, wiping her eyes. Someone, at least the tenth person that day, pounded on the door to her apartment. 'So that's what woke me.'

She didn't move to answer the door, but sat debating whether or not she'd reply to the knock. People had been knocking on her door near constant since her dramatic return to the village, and she'd avoided them all, even Ino.

It was all over Konoha that the Uchiha Sasuke had saved her, the Hokage's student, and actually dropped her off on the doorstep of the very village he'd abandoned. It was juicy news to her peers and townspeople. Sakura had become the village celebrity because of it. The fact that one of the most powerful and most wanted criminals was killed only fanned everyone's flames of curiosity.

She couldn't walk anywhere without at least five people accosting her with questions. 'Was he as handsome as ever? Did he really rescue you? Was it really Sasuke? Are you secret lovers? Did he really kill Kisame? Were you really carried to the village gates by him?' Ridiculous and incredibly personal questions were thrown at her every time she stepped outside her door.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

Pissed off at the presumptuousness of people, she opted to ignore the knock. She had to deal with all their bantering when she left the house she certainly wasn't going to let them start bothering her at home. She'd ignored every knock before this, and she'd continue ignoring them. In her mind it was small revenge for their gossip mongering.

When she'd seen Naruto earlier, and told him of Sasuke's rescue of her, he became real quiet. He didn't really seem to want to talk about it, and if she didn't know any better she'd have thought he wasn't happy to hear news of Sasuke. His attitude seemed so… weird. She couldn't quite describe it.

Any happiness Naruto had shown over hearing Sasuke was alive and well seemed… feigned. He didn't seem like the same Naruto she knew, and she couldn't help but wonder if Itachi's torture of him had something to do with it. Perhaps he just hadn't felt well, or maybe she was just imagining things. What did it matter anyway? Sasuke was gone… again.

She didn't know why people couldn't just leave her alone. Oh she understood why the whole of Konoha was in an uproar over the Kisame/Itachi incident, but she was tired of dealing with it. Well, she hadn't really dealt with it, because she really hadn't spoken to anyone about it. She didn't want to talk to anyone about it either. The only one she wanted to talk to was Naruto, and apparently he was the only one that didn't want to hear it.

Normally she'd be screaming in her happiest voice that Sasuke had rescued her, carried her, risked his life for her… well, she didn't know for sure if he'd risked his life, but being as he fought Kisame she assumed it had been life threatening, but she didn't want to give birth to false hopes. Besides, it wouldn't have been fair to Naruto.

She and Naruto had been dating for the past year. How would he feel about her gushing over Sasuke's rescue of her? Of course before Sasuke's departure two years ago she'd have gushed in front of Naruto to her heart's content, regardless of Naruto's crush on her, but back then it was different. Back then she wasn't Naruto's girlfriend, nor would she have been.

Sakura loved Naruto. He'd always been there for her, would do anything for her regardless of the cost to himself. He was a good friend, and he'd grown easier on the eyes this past couple of years. She'd been tired of wanting Sasuke, not because she didn't want him anymore, but because she wanted him too much.

Uchiha Sasuke had consumed her thoughts and dreams, and the wanting had grown unbearable. Naruto seemed like he could make the wanting go away, so she began dating him. After all, he was loaded with good qualities, what girl wouldn't want him right? Ignoring the pang in her chest as she thought this, Sakura smiled, thinking of a future with Naruto.

Her logical mind rejoiced at her love proclamation of Naruto, but her heart cried. Her heart longed for Sasuke. It always had, and probably always would, it didn't understand things like logic or common sense; those things weren't romantic. What it did understand were intense black eyes, ruffled raven hair, the Uchiha's deep sultry voice…

"Sasuke." She whispered breathily, wishing he were here with her. She hugged her pillow tight to her chest, imagining it was him she was embracing.

Four weeks ago she'd seen her childhood infatuation for the first time in two years, and since then her mind had been obsessing over him. Thoughts of Uchiha Sasuke, the boy become man, plagued her nearly every waking and sleeping moment.

Her mind kept recalling his matured face when she first woke from the Kisame ordeal, his lithe muscular form as he walked away after leaving her at the Konoha gates, his dark eyes as they met hers for the first time in two years. She felt her pulse begin to race. If the years had been kind to Naruto in looks, they'd absolutely blessed Sasuke.

His hair was a bit longer but not much unchanged, it was less spiky in the back, but it was still a dark unruly masterpiece that fell enticingly into his eyes.

As her mind pondered the older Sasuke, she couldn't help but wonder what life under Orochimaru had been like for him. What things had he done under Orochimaru's command, how was he treated, was he happy…

She remembered watching him stalk away from the Konoha gates. He was a sinewy figure clad in all black, a dato with a red and black hilt strapped to his back. His movements were smooth and graceful. Were he not a man Sakura would have thought him a panther. His steps were effortlessly light and utterly silent, graceful yet menacing. At the time he gave her the impression of death in motion, a perfect killing creature… dangerous.

At that moment, she knew Kisame's fate. She knew Sasuke had done more than defeat him; he'd killed him. She didn't look, didn't ask, she just knew. She shivered with not a little amount of fear. 'This is a different Sasuke than the one I knew.'

In the old days when team seven was whole, she couldn't imagine any of them killing an opponent, disabling, knocking out, tying up, crippling maybe, but never killing. Suddenly she got a clear idea of what life under Orochimaru must be like.

Sasuke had probably killed many men and women in the last two years, and his field experience must far outweigh hers and Naruto's. He had killed Kisame, and she couldn't even lay a finger on the ugly shark.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

"Leave me alone!" She screamed.

'Dammit!' Inner Sakura yelled, angry and annoyed.

Whoever it was sure was persistent. Well she could be more stubborn too. Let them see just how immovable Haruno Sakura could be.

She briefly entertained the idea of pounding the one knocking on her door. She certainly was thinking she could bring herself to commit murder if she heard one more knock.

She remembered wanting to pound Kisame too. Wondering now if she could have actually killed him had she been able to defeat him. Sakura couldn't believe her nerve even pondering such a thing. She didn't even scratch the shark Akatsuki and she was pondering murdering him. 'That turned out well.'

As far as real battle experience, Sakura had next to none. She'd spent the last two years training with Tsunade. She'd worked harder in those two years then in her whole academy term.

She was very powerful, and her physical strength matched that of her mentor, but it did her no good against the seasoned Akatsuki. She was a novice fighter with potent skills… Kisame had defeated her ruthlessly fast.

Practice was so different from the real thing. The shark man had somehow depleted her chakra time and time again; she wasn't able to use any of her jutsus. He dodged every attempt she made to pound him with her superior strength, and always managed to counter with that damned club thingy.

Naruto hadn't faired much better against Itachi. The damage he'd done to the older Uchiha could all be attributed to the Kyuubi. If it hadn't been for the fox demon, Naruto would be in Akatsuki's hands right now.

They'd both been defeated easily. Granted, they were up against extremely powerful opponents, and normally she'd feel they were just lucky to be alive, but… Sasuke had beaten one of them.

She'd worked so hard to become stronger, to gain enormous strength to get Sasuke back. She and Naruto had both worked so hard, and they had both gained so much in the way of chakra control, new jutsus, and strength, but the fight with the two Akatsuki grossly highlighted their shortcoming… battle experience.

Them… save Sasuke? What a joke! As far as she could tell now, he was more capable of breaking himself free, than she or Naruto were to save him.

'What a wake-up call. I feel so foolish now, thinking that training under Tsunade-sama would make me such a dangerous opponent.' Sure, it helped in its own small way, but she'd bet a much weaker ninja with a lot more battle experience could take her and her fancy techniques down.

She still hadn't even killed anyone, and as far as she knew neither had Naruto. Not that that was a bad thing, or something to look forward to, but she wondered if either one of them would be able to bring themselves to actually commit the deed should the need arise. Nearly eighteen years old, and she was still green as far as ninjas went.

THUMP. THUMP. THUMP.

'Bastards. I won't answer.' She opened her bedroom window, sneaking out into the street. She needed to get away, needed to see Naruto, needed him to erase the painful need she was feeling for Sasuke. She needed him to make her forget.