Author's Note: Oh hey guys.

breathe breathe

Sakura was laughing when Sasuke kicked the door down.

She sat there in the middle of her living room floor, laughing the high bright laughter of a child and staring at her hands as if she'd never seen them before. "Hi," she said, slowing looking up at him. "Do you want to see something cool?" She reached toward him.

Green flames roared into being right where he was standing, only he wasn't there anymore. Oh well. She stood up gingerly, still physically weak from the Change. She hadn't meant to create fire in particular, only destruction. Only chaos. But she liked the look of it, the color, the way it was spreading, consuming the room—

There was a blur of movement to her left, and she turned just in time for Sasuke's blade to slice through her shoulder instead of across her throat. It didn't go deep—he hadn't meant it to be a killing blow, for her heart had to be cut out while she was still alive—but it hurt.

She wanted to scream. Instead she smiled.

Sasuke stood facing her, a strange gleaming knife in his hand. He was just watching her, flipping the blade casually, turning it over his fingers.

She spread her arms wide. "Well, Uchiha Sasuke? Was that it?" Drops of her blood fell to the floor, created constellations. "Won't you attack me again?" Her voice rose. "You're a witch hunter, aren't you? Hunt me."

He only watched her.

"Fine," she snapped, but it was hard to stay angry, for the power was rising up in her again, dark and deep, sweet as honey. She smiled again, let her arms fall to her sides. "I know something you don't know," she sang, and at that moment the green flames raced toward him, faster than before, too fast for him to dodge.

So he darted through them, knocked her to the floor.

The fire raged around them as she kicked and screamed, but it did not touch them. Sasuke was on top of her, his weight keeping her down as he crushed her throat with his forearm. His knife was in his other hand.

Sakura couldn't control the flames, couldn't direct her power. The windows broke and the sink flooded and the refrigerator melted, but she could not do anything to help herself, could only use the last of her breath to bite out, "Let. Go. Of. Me."

"Sakura," he said simply, his eyes dark dark dark as his knife pierced the skin above her heart, "you had to have seen this coming."

And then he'd been thrown off her. Gasping and sputtering, Sakura scrambled to her feet and backed away from him, pressed herself up against the wall, staring. Sasuke had been wrapped in a red fog, and was yelling as if it burned, scratching at his eyes as if it was blinding him.

"Mama," she whispered.

There, standing in the doorway, her legs blackened and blistered by the green flames, was her mother, her hands pressed to her temples and her face white as a ghost as she used all her magic to keep Sasuke incapacitated.

From ages sixteen to twenty-three, a witch's power was strongest. Once those seven years had passed, his or her power decreased dramatically, and continued to do so for the rest of the witch's lifespan. Sakura's mother had precious little magic; a feat such as this literally had to be killing her.

"Mama!" Sakura screamed. "Mama, stop it, stop, you can't—"

Her mother mouthed a single word. Run.

But it was too late for that. If they took Sasuke down now, together, that would be the end of it. Maybe her mother would even live. Sakura took a deep breath, and called all the flames to herself, gathering them in her arms tenderly, the way a mother would a child, before hurling them at Sasuke.

He screamed the jagged broken scream of an animal, and for a moment their eyes met, each of them furious, each of them determined to kill the other.

And then—

And then he was free.

He was free and completely unharmed, just standing there in the middle of her living room. The red fog was gone, as were the green flames. In one hand he had his knife; in the other, a roundish crystallized thing, gleaming darkly, glowing a deep blue.

Sakura vomited. That was a heart. That was somebody's heart, and he'd stolen its power, was harnessing it for his own purposes. The horror of it, the wrongness, oh God oh God that could be her heart, made her vomit again, splattering the floor, her feet.

He took advantage of her weakness.

Within a fraction of a moment he had her on the floor again, his forearm driving into her throat, affording her no breath to speak. She could barely maintain consciousness, so little oxygen was she getting. Hazily, she realized that her mother had collapsed, unconscious herself. Or perhaps her heart had given out on her. Perhaps she was dead.

"Who else is there to save you, Sakura?" Sasuke wanted to know. She'd goaded him into this foul temper, and now his blade dug into the same place he'd stabbed her before. She hadn't even the strength to wriggle like a beetle pinned to a card.

"Are you laughing now?" he whispered. "Are you brave now?"

Beneath even his anger, he sounded genuinely curious.

But she could not respond, could not move or draw on her magic or beg him to let her go please let her go oh God she'd do anything she just had to live she was scared to die oh please oh please oh God.

As the knife drove deeper, her last thought was this:

I need to get away.

THE END. Except not really. Really only the beginning.

Sorry this chapter was lateish. Kind of having a lot of things going on. A word to the wise: don't go into the service industry if you don't enjoy getting hit on by creepy old men. Unless you need money. Unfortunately, I need money.

6/30/12 Edit: So this guy I kind of had this thing with kind of cheated on me. Except he didn't because we didn't really have a thing except we did and I HATE HIM except I don't because I don't give a damn about him AT ALL but I still don't know when I'll have the heart to update. So yeah. Just a heads up.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.