Remembrance

A/N: The lemon sequel to A Moment in Time. I have played with some events, past and future, so just try to mesh it with the show. Enjoy!

Sasuke watched as she performed each kata flawlessly, the sun glinting off the blade of her ANBU katana. When he had returned four years ago he couldn't have imagined what he would find. Naruto was married and populating the earth with annoying baby ninjas, but Sakura had become strong. Too strong. She was perfectly capable of defending herself and it left him wondering how he was supposed to be the hero, the avenger, and rescue her when she could punch his ass across the field.

He hadn't once seen Sakura with a man. Of course he wasn't stupid; he had heard about the nights she and Kakashi ended up at some bar to find partners to sate their lusts that night. But he had never seen her bring a man around her friends. He was sure she still loved him, and she should know after years of delicately making his intentions known that he was interested.

But she brushed him off.

She had finally come around and began to speak to him; Sai said Naruto had taken the initiative and actually beaten some sense into her. Since 'the incident' she had been friendly to him, almost as she used to be. But every once in a while she would realize she was behaving too friendly, too nice, and a little too much like a female interested in dating him. Then a shadow would pass over her face and she would return to cold civility.

What was he supposed to do? Beg? She should know better. He had overheard Ino sniping at her about some misguided sense of honor, but he didn't understand. What part of Sakura's honor would prevent her from being with him? He had come back for the annoying woman, the only person who had ever really loved him. Couldn't she see what that took from him?

Apparently not.

Either way, he was tired of taking care of certain problems himself. His hand was only useful to a certain point. Once he had finished he would always still be haunted by visions of her, his fierce teammate, luscious and curvy in her ANBU uniform. He didn't know what to do other than throw her down and show her physically what she meant to him.

He sighed. Hands in his pockets he sauntered down towards Ichiraku. Naruto and his family would be there about now eating their bi-weekly ramen feast. He didn't have any patience to sit here and spy on her anymore.

Anyway, it was ridiculous for an Uchiha to be acting like some idiotic lovesick Naruto.

Hn.

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Sakura watched as Sasuke finally walked on down the road, most likely going to bug Naruto. She knew he was lonely. She was too. And it was getting so hard to adhere to her master's teachings and stay away from him.

If there was a ninja God, she hoped he could help her keep her resolve.

Sasuke had been moping about a little more than usual lately; she almost had the feeling that allowing herself to become friends with him again had led them a step too close to the inevitable sexual boiling point. She knew he had caught some of her stares towards him, and she was sure that he felt the same way about her.

She just couldn't do it. Giving in would make her just as bad as he was. If she allowed her love, her want, for him to overpower her sense of honor then she would be as bad as he was. Her master had taught her to be the most honorable person she could be and to accept the sacrifices that would bring. But she hurt so badly. It was killing her to see him day after day and want to hold him, kiss him, love him. She kept her feelings locked up as well as she could, but she was so afraid of the feelings bursting inside her. One day she was either gonna give in and fuck him senseless, or explode.

Ino told her to quit being stupid, that a ninjas life was too short to worry about a swordsman's honor. She should take Sasuke and enjoy the time they had been given together because no one knew when they were gonna go. Ino knew such things personally; Chouji had almost died a year ago from a chakra bomb. Since then they had been inseparable and spent every moment they could loving one another.

Kakashi said he understood her reason, but that he thought the same thing Ino did. He had lived too long and lost too many to put much faith in anything other than the people close to him. He told her to go ahead and enjoy her life with Sasuke; no honor was worth the pain of dying without enjoying love if it was there. "What is honor, Sakura, except to help your friends and love someone?" he had said, then promptly pulled out his Icha Icha, showing his own one true love how much he felt for it.

Naruto had beaten the living shit out of her. They had been practicing and at some point he had mentioned inviting Sasuke to dinner. She had immediately said that her plans that night had changed; she could no longer come to dinner at the Hyuuga estate. His expression of shock lasted for about 5 seconds, and then turned to his angry glare.

His eyes turned red as he charged her, shouting about team togetherness and forgiving past sins. She had dealt with him like this before, but he was fierce enough, and mad enough, that after a few minuntes of heavy combat she was swatted into a tree. She heard the sickening crack of her shoulder blade breaking in two as slid down the tree, and she felt the blood from various abrasions sliding over her skin before looking at him. He had this look of horror on his face, as if he couldn't believe what he had done.

She had woken up in the emergency room with tsunade standing over her and laughing about karma. Sakura didn't think it was that funny.

Still, she persisted. She had forgiven him to the only point she considered herself allowed to. Her resolve had been steel until a few months ago, when Tsunade had said something to her that had made her rethink the entire situation.

Tsunade, Shizune, and herself had been at the tower late one Saturday working to complete the enormous backlog of paperwork. Working had turned into drinking and sharing tales of battle, love, and comedy as the night grew longer and the sake flowed. The women enjoyed their anecdotes on Jiraiya, Naruto, and even Shino caught in a promiscuous situation or two. Shizune had just told a story involing Ibiki, a chicken, and some crazy slingshot made of chakra when Tsunade turned and looked at the monument. She had grown silent.

Sakura thought she was remembering her grandfather, but Tsunade was actually considering all the men in her life who had been connected to the title of Hokage. Soon, she broke into the story of one rainy night when her fiance Dan had died because she had gotten to him too late to save him. Halfway through the story Tsunade had glanced at a sniffling Shizune, and turned to look at Sakura.

"I have only one regret. I don't regret not being able to save him; I can only do so much with my ninjutsu. I don't regret the pain, although I can remember feeling my heart sink into my stomach and this immense pressure on my chest when I realized that he was really gone and that I would never see him smile, hear his voice, get to laugh with him, again. I only regret that I had been so angry with him before he died. We had a fight a few days before the mission, and I had been my typical stubborn self. I wouldn't allow him to come near me."

She looked into her sake cup, swishing the clear liquid around before directing her gaze onto a picture above the couch.

"I just remember thinking that we had wasted our time. I regret it still. And when he was finally dead, I didn't know what to do. I just kept thinking that I was nothing without him. How could I be Tsunade without Dan?" All three females lowered their heads, offering silent prayers to a man that had been so special to so many.

Sakura turned back to the papers in her hand to get her mind off the haunting story. But it didn't help her at all when she saw the mission report on the top of the stack. It was signed by Sasuke.