Forgotten

My best friend cried the day her sweetheart-since-forever first kissed her.

Well, it wasn't really a kiss…more like a peck on the cheek. But he was smiling, holding her in a tight hug like he never wanted to let her go.

And then she cried. And only I understood why.

None of us knew how it happened. There were no signs of head injury at all when we found him, covered in blood that didn't belong to him. A dead body lying next to him, filled with so many weapons it looked like some demonic porcupine.

We were just glad she saved him. She worked herself to the brink of death itself to keep him alive. She cried, but then it was happy crying. He was home at last.

Then they told us something was wrong with him.

I remember how her eyes went wide with worry, wondering if she'd missed some tiny detail in the massive healing she had given him.

No, they said. Keeping him alive by herself was a Hokage-level undertaking, something she should be proud of. And then they said But.

Something had happened, if it was before or after we found him they didn't know. Something in his brain, something fragile, something…that's all they said. Something this, something that. They had no idea what it was.

She cried then, as well. With every bombshell they dropped on us, she cried harder. His mind as we knew it was virtually gone. The Sasuke we knew and loved was nowhere to be found, only his body with something else living inside it. The doctors listed off all the problems like some kind of twisted grocery list. Profound mental retardation, inability to speak or feed himself, amnesia…they summed it up as his having the mind of a one-year-old trapped in an eighteen-year-old body.

Telling us at least he could breathe on his own and had no problems moving around didn't help at all. I held Sakura as she cried, not bothering to try to keep from crying myself. We had reason to hug each other with everything we had, sobbing like little kids. Our best friend was practically dead.

We were allowed to see him first, as the two closest people to him in possibly the whole world. I couldn't believe what those doctors had said was true when we walked in his hospital door. He had been staring out the window, but at the sound of the door clicking open, he turned toward us.

I remember how he looked at us the first time. At first he seemed surprised, then his face broke into a wide smile I'd never seen before. How could he possibly have had those problems when his eyes were gazing brightly at us, happy to see us? I had expected him to look dull and comatose, not practically glowing with life.

Of course, the pain was reinstated as the nurse assigned to watch him explained this was how he reacted around new people. We were "new." We were strangers to him.

Sakura said his name a few times, her eyes already watery as she walked towards him. She had to clear away a sea of paper animals from the floor as the nurse explained how origami fascinated him now, how he loved creating new things with bits of brightly-colored paper. She talked about him like he was a monkey in a zoo.

Sakura knelt at his side, sliding her hand over his and asking softly if he remembered her.

I felt her jolt of heartbreak when he merely blinked at her, wondering why her eyes were so wet. She flinched when his finger brushed away a fallen tear, his brow furrowed in concern.

She told me later why she had broken down right next to him. In "life," as she called it, he had never given her a second glance. And now, he was "dead," and suddenly he cared.

Well, there she was, crying like her best friend had died, despite her efforts to keep him alive. And then he hugged her.

She stopped crying as his fingers stroked her hair, only whimpered softly in his silent embrace. Maybe he remembered something after all. Maybe, even though everything else had been erased, there was some tiny flicker that remembered she loved him. Maybe this is how he could've been.

"Sasuke," I said as I stood next to him. He didn't respond, but I knew he wasn't ignoring me. He had even forgotten his own name.

Sakura looked up at him as he held her, into those eyes she knew so well. She couldn't believe there was nothing behind those sparkling orbs, they were just too alive to be housing a dead spirit.

And then he kissed her. It was quick, but at the time it seemed slow. His eyes closed as he leaned in towards her. Her eyes opened wide only when his lips met with her cheek, kissing her gently before drawing back.

She cried quietly then. There was almost no sound at all, but her tears were falling like a waterfall. Him, he couldn't understand why she was still so sad, all he could do was hold her and make shushing noises into her ear.

I guess it's better she didn't push him away as she cried into his hospital shirt. It would've just confused him, first this strange girl had hugged him, then she had cried and run away. Too much for him to handle.

They looked like what they should have been. He should've come back, told us he didn't want to be an avenger anymore. She could've been there welcoming him home. Here he was, home for good. And there she was, torn between sadness and relief to have him back. If only it had been him that came back to us.

The only thing that interrupted us was the nurse informing us visiting hours were over. Sakura stood up, her eyes still puffy as she hiccupped. She refused to look at Sasuke as we left, but I glanced over my shoulder at him, managing a last-minute smile before the door was closed behind us.

He'd be seeing us again soon.

She never failed to visit him. Every single day, she showed up at his room with something new, hoping to somehow jog his memory. She brought him pictures, of us as the old team seven, of all the places we'd been, even an old framed photo of his family as it once was.

He stared with interest at every one, but without understanding.

It seemed I was the one always out on missions, whether Tsunade was doing it on purpose or not I had no idea. Sakura, she made it her own personal mission to spend time with him if I couldn't be there.

She told me how much she loved it when he smiled for her. She would say maybe it was better this way, he was happy. Maybe he thought of us as his family now, like we were his big brother and sister. The ones he looked up to…

For someone with his kinds of problems, he did learn amazingly fast. Sakura taught him gestures for when he was hungry or tired. He could never speak again, but that didn't mean we didn't talk to him.

She even taught him a few jutsu signs, but he found none of them familiar. She once poked him in the forehead; he just smiled and poked her in return.

She said it was the hardest when it seemed like Sasuke was back again. This sometimes happened when she would sit with him, watching him fold paper flowers or braid her hair. He would look at her, she said, as if he had just woken up to see her face. Then his mouth would open, as if he was about to speak to her. But then she would blink, and he'd be back to happily playing with whatever held his interest. I knew how much that must've hurt her.

It was a cool autumn night when she woke me up, banging frantically on my door and screaming that Sasuke was gone. For a second I thought she meant "gone" as in "dead," but when she begged me to help look for him, I was beyond relieved.

"It's ok," I had said to her, squeezing her hand for reassurance. "He's just a little lost, we'll find him. He can't have gone far. He'll be fine."

I don't know if I was talking to comfort her, or myself.

We must've turned the village upside-down looking for him. Sakura explained by then he had learned to recognize his own name, so we sped through the streets, calling out his name without leaving a single stone unturned.

Only when we got a message from Tsunade did we stop looking, and race back to the hospital as fast as we could.

They showed us a silent tape that the security camera in his room had taken, saved just minutes before all the others were wiped blank.

We saw an overhead shot of Sasuke, lying in his bed with his eyes half-open. It was dark, nighttime, but he was still awake.

Then we saw his head jerk up, turning towards where we assumed the door was.

Another figure appeared, someone with dark hair from what we could tell by our birds-eye view.

I glanced at Sasuke as the person spoke to him. Usually, he smiled brightly whenever someone new came to visit. But now, his eyes were wide as he stared, not understanding a word. He looked…scared.

When a black-gloved hand reached out for him, he shrank away from the person's touch. We saw his head shake slowly, as Sakura had taught him to do when he didn't want something.

It was no wonder nobody had come for him. Even when his mouth opened in a frightened squeak as the figure grabbed his arm, we knew no sound would've come from him.

He didn't resist too much when he was dragged to his feet and led back towards the door. He hadn't known who this stranger was, or whether or not they would hurt him. He simply followed like a meek puppy.

"He's been kidnapped. That's why I need you two to find him."

Three days we spent following what was left of our only lead. The others in our team wanted to give up many times, but Sakura and I, we refused. We wouldn't even think of going home until we had our friend back with us.

She would sit by herself while we were resting, hugging her knees with her eyes closed. I knew how she felt. I wanted him safely home too.

The night of the third day, we found the camp of the ones who had taken Sasuke. Thunder crashed above us, a light downpour just beginning. From what little information we had, it seemed these were notorious scientists, who wanted to, cue shudder, experiment on the last Uchiha to see if they could artificially replicate the Sharingan. We knew their results would be empty, he couldn't remember how to call it up at all.

Sakura and I were the ones sent into the camp to find him while the others battled the camp guards. The sounds of clanging metal and steam where rain met blazing fire were everywhere as we sped through the camp, opening every cage and jar without finding even a trace of him.

I shouted to Sakura when I found something. I pointed out to her a concrete weight with a chain coming out of it. The shackles at the end of the links had been broken, with churned mud around them showing a struggle to escape.

We raced after the muddy trail, praying to find something before the intensifying rain washed it away. Streaks of lightening lit up the trees around us before thunder crashed through the air.

"Sasuke!" we shouted over the rumbling booms, not caring if he would come to us or not. "Sasuke, where are you?!"

Sakura's head whipped around desperately, as by now the muddy ground was submerged in several inches of rain. We agreed to split up, it'd make us more vulnerable to any attacks, but we didn't care. Our best friend was not going to be left like this.

The rain didn't let up as I stumbled around in that darkened forest, feeling like what energy I had left was being sucked away. Some voice in my head kept telling me to give up, but I refused.

"Sasuke!"

Only the rain and thunder answered.

"Sasuke, where are you, you stupid…fool…answer me…"

"Idiot," his voice seemed to say in my head. "You can't even be here when I need you…"

Ignoring the fact that I hadn't heard his voice in almost a year, I continued on, blindly searching for that arrogant mumble's source.

"Sasuke!"

"Naruto!"

My head snapped up. It wasn't Sasuke, but Sakura's voice.

"Naruto! Come quick!"

With renewed energy, I hurried as fast as my fatigued feet would allow towards her voice, the falling, blinding rain causing me to almost run into several trees.

"Sakura!" I shouted hoarsely in return, throwing back a low-growing branch. "What-?"

Her head jerked up at my voice, her wet hair flopping around her pale face. The rain dripping around her eyes made it look like she was crying.

She had found Sasuke. His eyes were closed as he lay in her arms, her hand sending what little energy she had left into a bloody gash across his forehead.

For a split second, I was sure he was dead. Then, she smiled at me, choking out a relieved whisper.

"He's ok."

I fell to my knees in relief, exhaling that held breath. Sure, we were mud-splattered and soaking wet and freezing cold. But Sasuke was ok.

A whole week we spent in the hospital recovering from cold-induced fevers. Tsunade, being the generous old bat she is, got a couple of wheeled cots put in Sasuke's room so we could stay with him. He slept most of the time, but occasionally his eyes would open, blink for a few seconds, then close again. We weren't worried, it was just exhaustion.

Sakura, being a medic and all, got better first. Pretty soon she was up and walking while the rest of us were still stuck in bed. We still talked to Sasuke, even though we had no idea if he could hear anything.

After a while, he managed to stay awake longer then a few minutes. He would sit up, look around, and breathe deeply with closed eyes. Sakura would pet his hand and tell him everything was ok, those mean people wouldn't be taking him away ever again. He always smiled when she spoke to him in that gentle tone.

She got discharged one day before me, so I was stuck in bed doing nothing while Sasuke was asleep. That last day for me in there, I was practically counting down the seconds until I could leave. Then I could go home, get some ramen, and come back here with Sakura to see if Sasuke was awake yet, and if so we'd sneak him some ramen from Ichiraku's. After all, that hospital food tastes like cardboard.

I heard the door click open. Thinking it was some nurse, I hid under my sheets, not wanting to be interrogated about my best friend. "How long was he asleep? Did he move? Did he eat his food? Has anyone else visited him?" Yeah, you get the idea.

After a few seconds of footsteps, I cracked open one eye. Oh, it was just Sakura, that's ok. But, it looked like she wanted some time alone with Sasuke. So I just kept pretending to be asleep while she talked to him.

"Good afternoon, Sasuke," she whispered. "How are you feeling today?"

He didn't answer, I assumed he was asleep.

"I found that old picture of us…back when we were kids. Remember, Sasuke? You and Naruto…"

She glanced at me, I shut my eyes quickly.

"You two always fought," she continued. "Always…you acted like you hated each other, but you were best friends…and I was jealous, I'll admit…"

She was what?

"You two were so close, almost like brothers…I wanted to be that close to you, too…so I guess I was jealous of your bond. All I had was the label of "Annoying girl," but…I still wanted your friendship, if not your love…"

I blinked in surprise when she leaned down and kissed his forehead.

"I'll always love you," she murmured. "Sasuke…Just remember that, even if you can't remember me…I love you."

I caught a glimpse of tears in her eyes as she stood up, before her hand wiped them away. She mumbled a quick "Sweet dreams," to both of us, before grasping the room's handle. Hesitating, she glanced back one last time before pulling the door open.

The sound of a soft, raspy whisper stopped both my and her hearts.

"I love you too…Sakura."

HA! I stuck in a happy ending! what now?! haha!