She sits there staring at the sky, watching the snowflakes fall to the ground. Her expression doesn't change, her mind is elsewhere. Her pink hair moves gently to and fro as the wind moves around the open room. One would think she is cold, but what burns inside her is stronger. She is about to make the toughest decision of her life. One that has plagued her for so long.
She is at the proverbial crossroads, unsure of what path to take. She watched as they both grew. She always felt she was in the background, observing their improvements, struggling to keep up. Clumsy Naruto from back then had turned into this great Ninja right before her very eyes. He embodied everything she wanted in a man. Loyal to a fault, passionate about his goals and willing to risk his life for his loved ones. Yet she could not fully give herself to him, despite knowing how much he cared for her. If only she could tell herself to feel the same way but alas her heart belonged to someone else and had been so for a while. From the very first moment she laid eyes on Sasuke, she knew he was the one. The opposite of Naruto, he was cold, calculating and detached. Selfish to the extremes. Willing to sacrifice all around him just to satisfy his goals. She had continually questioned how she could fall for such a person could never find an answer good enough. He was a beautiful human being she thought to herself. Moody and dark, there was this certain mysterious quality about him that she found so appealing. She'd beaten herself up so many times over it. Why chase after someone who you have no future with? Why shun the one person who truly cares for you?
Yes she knew Sasuke had no love for her. If he did he wouldn't have committed the crimes he did. Neither would he have declared war on the village. He was a lost cause and now she realized it. If only she could forget about him, things would be so much easier.
It pained her every-time she thought of him. Why did things have to turn out this way? The latest news was he had allied himself with the Akatsuki. This was the same group trying to destroy the country. A group intent on capturing Naruto for their dastardly purposes. How could Sasuke join with such? It made no sense to her. Did his friends mean so little to him? Why would he throw away the bonds they had built so easily?
She felt bad for Naruto. She knew how much this was killing him on the inside. Sasuke was the one that got away. The one he couldn't save from the darkness.
A single tear ran down her face. She sat there unmoving, paralyzed by her helplessness. She felt weak. She could not stop loving Sasuke; neither could she give Naruto the love and support he wanted. In the back of her mind, she held on to this sliver of hope that maybe Sasuke would come to his sense, maybe he would return home. Alas that was the story of her life, she thought to herself, "Chasing the one she couldn't get, putting distance between the one that was in love with her.
She slowly got to her feet, the snow was coming down faster, and so were her tears. She wiped them off with her hands and looked out into the distance. There was something about her eyes that looked different; something about her demeanor had changed. She looked at her hands, trembling. Her mind was made up; she had found the answer she was looking for.
"Sasuke, if it means taking your life with my own hands, so be it. I will save you from you," she said out loud, and with that she left the room.