Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, just borrowing its characters for about... four hundred words.
Forever
She says it's all because she loves him.
It's his passion and fire and energy, the way he makes her feel more alive, how he throws her reality into sharp definition when once it was blurred. It's how he makes her cry when he's one, two, three minutes late, how he makes her feel alone even when they're together, how he ignores her for days at a time. It's how he can make her laugh so hard she cries, or cry so hard she laughs (she forgets, sometimes), the way he listens while she talks (sometimes) and waits patiently, quietly, while she yells, cries, tries so hard to fight with him, but he (doesn't care?) takes it like a man, and fixes what's broken dutifully, doesn't try to compromise. It's the way he wears her ring on his hand, and the way she wears his on hers.
It's the way that, after so many years of wishful thinking, he's finally hers and hers alone.
Sometimes, she wonders (if she'll survive him, if she's made a horrible mistake) if he really loves her, but whenever she asks, she gets his grudging response, of course (but he's never actually said those three words).
She confesses her feelings constantly, and though he looks annoyed when she kisses him goodnight and whispers them in his ear, she knows that his face just looks that way naturally.
She may cry herself to sleep at night, but they're tears of joy.
But she still finds herself watching, wishing,as she sees couples walking down the street hand in hand, giggling like genin, as she sees couples herding their hordes of brats to and from home, as she sees a close friend (who could've been more) waving at her from his open window.
She's made her choice, though, and it was the (wrong) right one. Stubborn as a mule, someone once called her. Maybe that's why it hasn't ended yet, why it doesn't end even when she sees a vixen sneaking out of the bedroom window as she walks home one night, when she walks in and finds him still laying languid in their bed, why she doesn't even confront him about it.
But maybe, it's all because she loves him.
CY: So. I read all 400+ chapters of Naruto in 3 sittings. Yeah. When I was done, I was seeing ninjas on the walls. THE WALLS. Since I'm such a pessimist, I felt a need to write a worst-case scenario type thing for a certain pairing (Sasuke/Sakura). They have potential once (if?) he gets over the whole revenge obsession thing, but as it stands now... :(