FicWad

They met on a field hidden in the forest one morning just before dawn. The dew was still glittering on the grass, and the early light lay violet around them.

Sakura knelt next to him with the blindfold in her hands. Sasuke did not ask her why he had to wear it; he already knew well enough. He had to learn how to fight blind, in order to avoid relying too much on his Sharingan--especially now that they were Mangekyou and would ruin him if he let them. The only thing he wondered was why he had reached that level killing Itachi and not Naruto--but as the days went by after his return, he wondered less and less.

When he sparred with his teammates, he understood things intuitively; the world fell into place. But he had begun to lose interest in fighting Naruto lately. He knew Naruto's moves all over by now. Sakura, though--Sakura, who had been so weak and easily neglected when he left Konoha, was an unknown element.

Sasuke did not know why she fascinated him so. But then, he didn't really know anything anymore.

She knotted the blindfold around his head, and vision faded. He had a sudden impulse to ask what the fabric was, because it was surprisingly soft. Instead, he started to stand--and found that she was putting something in his hand.

"What...?"

"It's a sword," she said matter-of-factly. "A pretty good one. I borrowed it from Tenten. Come at me with it."

He jerked his head up, but he still couldn't see anything. "Why?"

"What would be the point of training like this if you didn't have a weapon, Sasuke-kun?"

"Don't be an idiot," he said sharply. "That's what my training sessions with Naruto are for."

"Not really," she said, and then he heard the soft sound of a kunai being released through the air.

He reached up and grabbed it before it could hit him. He felt something uncoiling inside him--the urge to fight, to shed blood, even if he never again wanted to see Sakura's blood spread on the ground around her. But then, this time, he wouldn't have to see.

He lunged at her, trying to judge by the movement of the air, by the almost inaudible sound of her heartbeat, where to thrust. She was moving too fast. He could hear the shiver of her clothes as she dodged, but he couldn't quite make out her exact position.

His patience grew thin. Finally, he lunged a little too far, and he found himself skidding on the ground. The damp soaked into him. He moved to get up, but before he could do anything, she was crouching over him, pinning him.

It was a new sensation. He had the strangest feeling that he should be the one on top.

"That was too easy, Sasuke-kun," she said, and she sounded oddly disappointed.

His pride surged up in him, and he twisted beneath her, cutting up with the sword, letting instinct guide his motions. She drew in her breath in a sharp gasp. He heard something fluttering to the ground around him--cloth of some sort? Then it hit him: he'd attacked her.

Suddenly, he felt more blind than ever. "Sakura--" Something warm and wet trickled onto his chest. She was bleeding.

"You did it." He could hear the smile in her voice. "You can fight without the Sharingan, or without any vision at all."

But I don't want to fight anymore, he thought--but that wasn't true. He did want to fight. He could never leave that part of him behind. But he had a strange feeling that there was something else he wanted to do.

He reached up and wrenched her down on top of him, blood and all. Only then did he realize--she was pressed against him half-naked. He'd cut her clothes off.

"Sasuke-kun," she whispered, but he silenced her with a kiss. She did not object when he bit into her lip hard enough to draw blood. He wondered, briefly, if it would always be about blood with him, but then she pulled his clothes off--there was the brief feel of cool metal against his skin as she cut through them with a kunai--and he could not think at all anymore. He could only feel.