We Might As Well Be Strangers
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.
A/N: The title is from a song by Keane - it might help if you listened to the song while reading.
Sakura Haruno walked through the rapidly darkening Konoha streets. She kept her eyes to the floor, hoping that it would be enough to deter people from talking to her - she needn't have worried though, as the melancholy air about her did the trick.
She became aware then that she was more than a little hungry and considered stopping to get something to eat but changed her mind when she remembered that the only place on the way to her apartment was Ichiraku Ramen. She never went there anymore, in fact, she didn't even like to pass by it since the place brought back too many unwelcome memories.
She continued through the streets silently, looking up only once to watch the already black sky, 'It'll be dark by the time I get home. Great.' She sighed and returned her eyes to the ground as the air around her, already melancholy became even more dismal. She wished that she was still at the hospital but Tsunade had forced her to leave, claiming that she was working too hard and needed a break. 'The last thing I need,' Sakura thought dejectedly, 'is a break.' as she reached her apartment building and entered it.
She made her way up the stairs slowly, pulling out her keys in preparation of reaching her apartment. She exited on the third floor and moved to the door of number twenty-three which she swiftly opened and entered, closing the door behind her.
She hesitated for a moment by the door, reluctant to turn around and be faced with the sight of her dark, empty apartment. Every time she came home, she remembered how empty her home (and her life) were. She turned slightly, glimpsed the darkness and then moved over to the light switch, reaching her hand up to flick it on, then stopped and returned her hand to her side, thinking that the darkness suited her mood better at the moment.
As she entered the kitchen, a flash of silver caught her eye but she deliberately kept going - she knew what would happen if she stopped to look at it. She went to the fridge and took out a few items - she decided to just eat some cereal since she wasn't very hungry. She prepared her meal by the light of the street lamp across the way and when she was done, she picked up the bowl and began to make her way into her bedroom.
Her room was, of course, just as dark as the rest of the apartment, illuminated by a single shaft of moonlight. It wasn't until Sakura entered the room that she realized just what the moonlight illuminated - it fell directly on her picture of Team 7. She usually tried to avoid looking at it, unable to put it away for good thanks to her (overly) sentiment side.
Against her better judgment, she went to the dresser and picked up the picture, placing the bowl where the picture had been. She sat back onto the bed, her eyes fixed to the picture in her hand. Her eyes roamed over the young faces of her former comrades, faces she hadn't seen in so long as her fingers traced the jagged scar on the glass, coincidentally right above Naruto's face.
The scar caused her to think back to that day, almost five years ago when he left her - when he abandoned her just as Sasuke had.
She had gone with him to the village gates, thinking that she'd be able to stop him, to talk him out of leaving. No one else knew about it - he was afraid that they would all try to stop him if he told them but he couldn't leave without telling her good-bye..
However she didn't intend to just let him go either. "Naruto, you don't have to do this. Things will work out. We'll find a way."
He turned to her and it pained her to see the hollowness in his eyes and to hear the defeat in his voice, "He's not coming back, Sakura-chan and I can't stay here. I failed - you and myself."
"But what about your dream? Don't you still want to be Hokage?!"
He shook his head sadly, "I don't deserve it. We both know that."
Desperately she threw herself at him, "Naruto, please! I can't lose you both. Don't leave me!"
He watched her sadly but instead of wrapping his arms around her and comforting her like she'd expected, he pried her gently off of him and turned away, "I'm sorry." Then he reached up to his hitai-ite, moving to untie it.
Seeing this, tears welled up in Sakura's eyes and her lip began to tremble, "Naruto, don't..."
Grimly, he untied his forehead protector and held it out to her without even looking at it, "I want you to have this, Sakura-chan. Keep it safe for me, all right? In case I decide to come back." She shook her head vehemently - she couldn't take that. If he was giving it to her, then surely he wasn't going to return.
She let him take her hand and place the hitai-ite into it and she couldn't help the tears that fell as her fingers wrapped around the cold metal. Naruto reached up and wiped away her tears, then looked into her eyes, "Good-bye Sakura."
Unable to respond, she nodded, wiping the tears furiously from her eyes so she could see him clearly. She watched as he turned and walked away from her and she kept watching until his orange and black body was totally out of sight. Then when she knew he was gone, the words escaped her mouth, "Good-bye Naruto."
That night, she'd walked home blindly, weighed down by the knowledge of what had just transpired. Then, just like tonight, she saw the picture and fed up, she picked it up and threw it as hard as she could at the wall. As soon as she heard the glass crack, she sank to her knees and wept inconsolably as she realized that, for the second time, she was unable to stop another person that she loved from walking out of her life.
Sighing, Sakura wiped the tears from the glass of the picture frame and went to the dresser, picked up the bowl and replaced the picture. Then she went to the kitchen and placed the bowl of now-soggy cereal into the sink, her appetite gone. She stood at the sink for a moment, mulling over what to do next, then upon making her decision, she went through the apartment, turning on all of the lights so that she wouldn't have to come home to a dark house again.
She left the apartment, descended the stairs and when she reached the street, she began to run - back to the hospital. She didn't care what she had to do to convince Tsunade to let her work tonight, she would do it because honestly, the last thing she needed was a break
A/N:...yeah, that sounded so much better when I thought of it last night. Sorry that you just wasted three, five, ten whole minutes of your life. I suppose I shouldn't say that. Please leave a comment or two - I'd really like to know what you got from this.