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When she sees him on the battlefield for the first time—merely catches a glimpse, a flicker, before he flashes away—what strikes her the most is his smile. It gleams like the edge of a razor, ready to draw blood.
He's Konoha's hope for stability and prosperity, their hero, their avenger. He's sun-yellow hair and sea blue eyes and the grin of an angel.
No one told Sakura about the way he bled and fought and sheared through enemies like a hot knife through butter. No one told Sakura about the way those calm blue eyes thundered with the rage of a storm ready to overturn the world, wind howling behind his back.
Minato stands tall over a battlefield of slaughtered enemies, blood splatter on his face and clothes. He wipes it away and doesn't quite smile, but there's something viciously satisfied in his bearing. It's beautiful and terrifying and sets her hair standing on end. Minato stands tall over a battlefield of slaughtered enemies—and then he's gone in a flicker of cold wind.
xXx
When he sees her for the first time, her presence is bigger than the world. It clogs his lungs, fills the battlefield with her monstrous chakra.
She rages, and the earth cracks and mountains tumble and seas rise. She's a terrifying vision cloaked in cotton candy hair and iridescent green eyes, the devil in disguise, the reaper's damning call.
No one told Minato about healer hands that could shatter the earth; no one told him about the cunning behind sweet smiles and pink lips. No one told Minato death could come with a smile.
She stands on the wrecked battlefield, eyes a little wild, edges a little frayed, and grins, cracked and bloody.
No one told Minato he'd find ruin beautiful.
xXx
"Spar with me," he asks her once.
"I don't spar, I fight," she tells him.
They fight. They fight, and he enjoys every mark he leaves on her skin.
They fight, and he gets to remember her with every step he takes, for she fractured every single one of his ribs.
xXx
At night, under the cover of darkness, under the weight of his body, she is not a sensual goddess; she is fire and steel and passion like she is on the battlefield. She's calloused hands and scarred skin and lips that kiss like her hands bruise.
She takes him apart bit by bit like she does the immovable earth, sinks her touch into his skin the way he sinks into her, and makes him forget all that exists outside of them.
She takes what she wants, and she leaves.
Minato lets her go, knowing she'll come back.
Until she doesn't.
Darkness is an old friend, rage an intimate lover.
He razes Iwa to the ground and dances in their ashes.
xXx
She's missing two fingers and an eye.
He watches as she stitches together her torn remains.
Watches the way her chakra attaches lost digits and the bloody smile that paints her lips. "Did you avenge me?"
"Have I ever not?"
Love has no place in a bloody war like theirs. It shouldn't have a place in bodies forged from iron and rust.
But he loves her until he aches with it.
She smiles and tells him, lips fluttering against his, "Didn't anyone ever tell you, love hurts?"