Because it all started with that damned bench.
One day of every month she would sit on the bench.
The bench.
That bench.
Where I told him I loved him.
Where he said thank you.
Where he left me.
Sakura closed her eyes, tucking her feet under her, sitting on the side of the bench.
Today it was sunny, and warm.
She would sit there for an hour, before getting up and walking away.
But not before putting a cherry blossom there.
It was like clockwork.
One day of the week she would sit on the bench.
No matter the weather.
Today it was raining.
Sakura held one palm out, facing up, catching rain in her hand. She smiled. She let the sound of the drops of rain smacking on the bench drown her hearing and thoughts.
She looks at her watch a few minutes later.
Getting up, she plucked a cherry blossom of a nearby tree, placing it where she sat on the bench. There was about thirty-four lying in the corner of the bench. She sighed and walked off.
The next time she came she brought a scarf too.
It was snowing. She wrapped it around her head, so she wouldn't get her hair wet. She sat down, tucking her feet under her, closing her eyes.
She pictured herself standing with her hands against her chest, crying. He stood in behind her.
"Sakura," he said in his husky voice.
"Thank you." She saw herself fall to the ground, only to be caught, before impact.
She came out of her flashback and tears slipped down her cheeks.
She sobbed silently.
The next time she visited the bench she wasn't alone.
Gaara sits next to her, his hand on her arm.
"I go back home tomorrow, will you visit me soon?" She looks up at him. He smiles gently.
She tries to forget the man who broke her heart.
Three years ago.
She is sixteen now. She looks at her boyfriend. She smiles weakly.
"Of course, Gaara-kun. I will." She wraps her arms around his neck, hugging him.
He hugs her waist, pulling away gently, his hand tilting her chin up.
He goes to give her a good-bye kiss. Suddenly memories flood back to her as she leans in.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
The two words repeat over in her mind. She pulls away, tears streaming down her face.
"I- I'm sorry," She pulls away, "I can't kiss you here." She turns around and runs through the January fog.
Gaara sighs, and puts his hands on his face. He knows. He feels something fall in his hair. He picks it, seeing it is a cherry blossom. He gently shakes the melting snow off of it, and places it in the pile.
Thirty-six.
The next time she visits, it isn't until summer of that year, when she finishes her missions.
She realizes someone has been keeping track of the blossoms for her while she was away. She smiles. She sits, tucking her feet behind her, closing her eyes.
She hears his voice in her mind.
"Sakura, Thank you."
She realizes she has fallen alseep, laying on the bench.
She dreams sweet dreams of him returning.
She wakes up, her eyes fluttering. She sits up and stretches. She places another cherry blossom on the bench, turning to walk off.
Two years later, on her eighteenth birthday, she walks slowly to the bench.
Through the fog, she sees a figure sitting on the bench. She glances at her watch realizing it is very early for someone to be out.
She approaches the man, and a hand goes to her mouth. She gasps.
Sasuke sits on the bench, her fifty-nine cherry blossoms in his hands. He looks up. She sees he has grown, and become even more handsome.
There are scratches over his face, and she sees a kunai stuck out of his bicep. There is a huge gash down his thigh. Sakura stares at him.
"Sakura." She gasps again, tears falling.
"Thank you.. for waiting for me." She sobs, falling to her knees. She feels liquid transfer to her shirt, as she is picked up and placed on the bench next to him. She lays her head in his neck.
A few minutes later. she pulls her head back and wipes away her tears.
She places her hand to his shoulder, below the kunai. She pushes chakra into her hand and gently removes the kunai. He winces. She places the kunai on the bench beside her, with her blossoms. She heals his the cut on his thigh and arm, blushing. He looks at her, with his usual stoic expression.
She places her hand on his face, healing the many scratches. He looks into her eyes, a ghost of a smile on his lips.
"Happy birthday." He whispers. She smiles, tears falling again.
He kisses her, his hands running through her hair, and down her back. She smiles, as his finger wipes away her tears.
He pulls back, and wraps an arm around her waist.
He picks a cherry blossom from the tree, putting it on the bench.
Sixty.
Six months later, she walks to the bench, on her wedding day. She wears her white kimono, bunching up the side in her hands to prevent it from getting dirty, and walks to the bench eyeing the blossoms. She smiles, gently picking them up in her hands, Surprisingly they have barely whithered over the years. She wraps them gently in a cloth and picks up the side of her kimono again.
"Sixty-five blossoms." She counts, frowning.
"Almost six years." A voice behind her says. She turns around to see Sasuke in his blue kimono. He holds out his hand.
She takes the last cherry blossom from him, putting it with the rest.
"Sixty-six." He says, pulling Sakura towards him. She turns in his arms and looks at him.
"Six years it took me to realize that I love you, Sakura ... Uchiha." He leans to kiss her. She wraps her arms around his neck, one still clutching the blossoms. Their lips meet and she smiles into it, a tear slipping down her cheek. Sasuke brushes it away and intertwines their hands. He leads her away from the bench.
"I'm going to throw these into the air, with my boquet, Sasuke-kun." Sakura leans against his shoulder. He smiles and nods.
"Hn."
Sakura stands by the bench, her hands folded at her chest. A tear slips down her cheek.
"I'll miss you Sasuke-kun. Come back soon... to me." She touches her husbands cheek.
Sasuke fixes his Jounin jacket, looking at his wife.
"The missions only a week maximum. I'll be back before you know it." He pulls Sakura to his chest, planting a kiss on her forehead. He leans down to kiss her lips passionately.
She wraps her arms around his neck, not wanting to let go.
"I love you, Sakura." He mumbles into the skin of her collarbone, sucking on it lightly.
"I love you too, Sasuke-kun. I'm-" She stops shaking her head, moaning as his lips grace her neck.
"Hn?" He looks at her, resting his forehead against hers. She smiles, shaking her head again.
"Nothing. Be back soon." She kisses him again.
He pulls away fom her , and smiles, turning to walk off. He is almost out of her sight, before Sakura swallows. She runs after him.
"Sasuke-kun! I'm Pregnant!" She yells, and she sees his figure stop and turn around. She runs to him and he smiles, picking her up off the ground spinning her around.
He places her, standing on the bench, kissing her over and over.
"Sakura ..." He kisses her nose to her neck. She smiles.
"I didn't know whether to tell you now or when you got back." She feels him smirk against her skin.
"Well, good thing you did now, because I'm going to have to drag my ass back early for this." He kisses her one more time before letting her go and towards the gates.
"I love you!" She yells. She hears his faint reply and smiles to herself.
She touches her slightly swelled stomach.
"You have a happy daddy, little one." She hums to herself.
The next time she visits the bench, she is swollen, and very pregnant. She winces, as she slowly lowers herself onto the bench. She gently carresses her big belly.
"This bench has many memories, little one." She sighs, and giggles as she feels a kick.
She starts to hum, closing her eyes.
She feels a rough hand cover hers, on her belly and she looks to see Sasuke crouched next to the bench. He kisses her forehead.
"A few more weeks now." He rubs his thumb over her hand. Sakura smiles.
"Can you believe it? Its been almost eight years since you left, and we're almost twenty." She closes her eyes.
"Hn." She laughs at his never changing catchphrase.
She leans her head into his shoulder.
"Eight years.." She mumbles.
Sakura sits on the bench with her seven year old son Kenji, her 5 year old daughter, Miyako, and their three year old son Sora. Sasuke picks Miyako up, swinging her around. She laughs happily. Sakura cuddles Sora in her arms, while Kenji plays with Miyako and his father. Sakura looks at the three, smiling. Sora gets up, joining in.
"You know, you three, this is where your father and I first officially argued." She grinned at his frown.
"And where I knew I really loved him." He leans down to kiss her. Kenji makes a barfing noise and Miyako gags.
Sasuke and Sakura laugh. Sakura pats her stomach and looks at Sasuke.
"Kenji, Sora, Miyako, come here." She beckons for them to come to her by the bench. Sasuke sits next to her. He looks at her confused.
"I have a secret, that no one else knows. But you can't tell anyone." She puts a finger to her lips, smiling at Sasuke.
The three children's eyes widen.
"Promise? Cross your fingers for me and say 'Hai'." She smiles, showing them her crossed fingers. The children cross them, all saying "Hai" in unison, nodding vigoriously.
Sakura looks at her husband.
"Sasuke-kun?" He smiles and nods.
He crosses his fingers and whispers "Hai."
"Well..." She patts her stomach.
"We're adding an extra little member to our family..." Her children squeal, jumping up and down. She looks at Sasuke. He is smiles widely.
He intertwines their hands and places them on her stomach. He rests his forehead against hers.
"I want a mini Sakura. Pink hair and green eyes." He kisses her deeply, as their children continue to play around the bench, happy to have a new member of the family along the way.
"We'll name her Ayame." Sakura smiles, as Sasuke kisses her neck.
"I love this bench now." Sasuke mutters into her neck, earning a laugh from Sakura.
And life goes on...
The last time Sasuke visits the bench, he struggles to sit. An arm aids him.
"Careful, father." His oldest son, Kenji, helps him sit back, and his grandaugher, Yuki hands him his cane.
Sasuke leans back, smelling the cherry blossoms.
"She's been gone for two years. I miss her." He smiles, the wrinkles on his cheeks showing even more.
"Grandpa, your ninety! Father's already seventy-two, and I am fifty, with grandkids of my own already! Everyones growing up." Yuki shakes her pink hair. Sasuke smirks.
Somehow, she has gotten her grandmothers pink hair through her father.
Sasuke sighs.
"It's near my time to join her in heaven. This damn arthritus is a pain in the ass." He mutters.
He touches the silver plate on the bench. He remembers when he asked the seventh Hokage, Naruto's grandson, to put it there, before he handed his title to his own son, Naruto's great-grandson, when Sakura died.
In loving memory of Sakura Uchiha Haruno.
May she lay with her beloved soon among the cherry blossoms.
He winces at his arthritis, getting up from the bench.
"Even if she was eighty-eight, your grandmother was beautiful. You should have seen her when she was twenty." He laughed lightly, and started to cough. He pushed his son's hand away, saying he was okay, and walked slowly into the March morning mist.
"Happy Valentines Day, Sakura." He whispers, placing a boquet of sixty-five cherry blossoms on the plate, by the bench.
He smiles.
"I'll be with you soon. Say hi to Naruto and Mother and Father for me, please."
xxx
This one just came to me. That damned bench, you know?
UPDATE: I made a mistake with the engraving and forgot to put Uchiha! DX FAIL. Thank you for pointing it out! ^^ I owe everyone for that mistake.