Photo Album
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. If I did, Sasuke wouldn't have left. It belongs to Masashi Kishimoto.
Her tears fell, like tiny pearls, dotting the cover of the aged book she held. Sakura sniffled as she gazed at the volume. Its cover was no single cover, but a pattern of navy blue, pink, and orange. It had been made specially, as a tribute to those it was about. Despite the book being nearly twelve years old and taken out regularly, it was in almost perfect condition. Sakura had made sure of that. It was her photo album of her and her deceased teammates; the least she owed them was to keep her mementos of them in good repair. They had been dead for exactly one year today.
She let out a strangled sob at the thought. Naruto and Sasuke were dead! Never again would she see that idiot at the ramen stand, eating his way through more bowls than was healthy; never again would she see Sasuke's signature smirk and customary 'hn' when she asked him what was so funny. Never again… Even after an entire year had passed, she still found it hard to believe that. To believe that they were gone, and had left her behind. She'd always been left behind in the early days of team seven, back when she was just Sasuke's fangirl, with no talents to add to the team's success. After she trained with Tsunade-sama for two and a half years, she had vowed that never again would Naruto and Sasuke leave her behind. She had been wrong. They had gone on, to a place where she could not yet follow.
Why, why, WHY!? Why had fate taken from her the two people that had mattered the most? It was all their fault; they should have known better, should never have gone on that mission…
Even in her anger and grief, Sakura recognized that she was being unfair. There was no possible way for Naruto and Sasuke to have known that a simple B-ranked mission to spy on Otogakure could have gone so wrong. They couldn't have known that Kabuto had planned an ambush, and what had seemed an easy route into the Sound Village had turned into a death trap. They couldn't have known… It seemed silly, but some days, she wished that she hadn't had hospital duty on the day of the mission. Some days, she wished that she could have gone with them, so that she could have died beside them.
She turned down to the book in her arms, and felt fresh tears well in her eyes. Naruto had insisted one the spiral formed by the three colors, despite the fact the navy blue and bright orange clash horribly, and light pink isn't much better. He'd said that it was symbolic of how they'd all come together into one team, despite how different they had seemed in the beginning. Sakura had to admit that the idea seemed good then, while Sasuke was still in shock that Naruto could correctly apply the word 'symbolic.'
The first page showed their old team photo. Smiling as she cried, Sakura traced the outlines of the glaring Naruto and Sasuke of a dozen years ago, both boys unaware how much the other would come to mean to them. Unaware, that eleven years later, they would die together, leaving a heartbroken teammate and a mother-to-be behind them. Sakura sighed sadly. When the boys had been killed, Hinata had already been pregnant with Naruto's child, who she and Sakura now raised together in their memory. She and Sasuke had never had a child. His dream of restoring the Uchiha clan had been died with him, all because he had succeeded in the first goal of killing Itachi. Stupid Sasuke, she thought, almost smiling, your first goal is the reason that there is no hope for your second.
She turned the page, noting the subtle differences between the two photos, for though only a few months had passed, the faces showed ages of change. Naruto and Sasuke still did not look friendly toward each other, by any definition of the word, yet the slight difference in their expressions from the previous photo indicated a great deal of change. This picture had been taken right before their first Chuunin Exam, after the nearly disastrous Land of Waves mission. Sasuke had almost died protecting Naruto, and they looked slightly warmer toward each other because of it. She herself also looked slightly changed. There was a bit of worry in her eyes as her photographic self gazed at Sasuke, placed there by almost losing him less than a month previously. She looked slightly less fangirlish, though in no way was she a normal member of society yet. It was a start, though, to a relationship that could have gone on forever, had Sasuke lived.
The next page was almost ruined by age old ramen that Naruto had spilled on it one time when the three of them had been looking back together. It was a photo of the ten (well, nine had appeared in the picture) victors of the preliminary matches of the Chuunin Exams. Sasuke had been hospitalized after Kakashi-sensei sealed away the curse that Orochimaru placed on him, but Naruto was there, and looking like as big of an idiot as ever. He had actually farted on Kiba to win his fight. Really, farting? That was Uzumaki Naruto for you, the number one hyperactive knucklehead ninja, and from that point on everyone's candidate for Rokudaime Hokage. Sakura sobbed faintly, wondering what it would have been like if Naruto had been Hokage. Like so many things now, it was a question that she would never know the answer to.
Another page. Another picture. Another memory. Team Seven after Naruto defeated Gaara. In Sasuke's eyes she could see something that none of them had noticed at the time. His glare held more than just the casual abuse he and Naruto had thrown at each other so frequently. It held jealousy, rage, and a hint of fear. The beginnings of his fateful decision to leave. She and Naruto were happily oblivious to the death-look that Sasuke was giving their blond teammate, looking properly proud of Naruto and a little sad that none of them had been made Chuunin. They hadn't known. They hadn't known what was happening then, how close they were to losing what they held so dear, and how many long years it would take to recover it. They hadn't known. Just like they hadn't known a year ago, that Naruto and Sasuke would never be coming back from that mission. They never knew. Not until it was already too late.
More memories, more tears, more grief. Kakashi-sensei, Naruto, and herself, all that remained of Team Seven. The picture had been taken right after Naruto was discharged from the hospital after his failed attempt to return Sasuke to Konoha. The faces of the two Genin held none of the happiness of the previous pictures. There was only grief, and loss. That same grief was mirrored in the face of the Sakura of here and now, as she looked back at her younger self, mourning the loss of one teammate, not to know that in only ten short years, she was to lose both of them forever. Ten years seemed like such a small time when you were counting down the time that a loved one had left.
She turned through the pages, mentally doing just that, counting down the time Naruto and Sasuke had left. Naruto returning to Konoha after his training with Jiraiya. Eight years. All of them after the three students passed the Jounin Exam. Kakashi said that he had never been so proud. Six years. The three of them after their entry into the ANBU black ops. Five years. Naruto and Hinata's wedding. Four years. They became ANBU captains. Three years. Sasuke taking up the old Uchiha clan post of head of the Konoha Military Police Force. Two years. Naruto beginning training to become Hokage sometime in a future that would never happen. One year. Hinata telling Naruto that he was to be a father. Six months. And the three of them in the hospital, laughing, completely carefree, blissfully unaware of when it was. One day before two of them would die.
Sakura screamed her sorrow. It was so unfair, why them, why, why, why, why?! For several long minutes, she could barely even breathe through her sobs. Naruto, Sasuke-kun… She wasn't sure if she was calling them to hug or strangle them. All she knew was that there was barely a reason left for living in a world that didn't have them in it. If it wasn't for Hinata and her infant son, Sakura would have taken her own life. Her hands trembled as she turned to the last page. The picture that she had insisted must always be last, because it was the best of all, and the best should always be saved for last. The picture of the day that Sasuke came back to Konoha.
At first she couldn't even see the picture through her tears. Angrily she wiped at her eyes and the picture cleared up. The three of them stood on the bridge where they had waited for their ever-tardy sensei before so many missions. Naruto's gaze held all the triumph of a man who has just fulfilled his purpose in life, she looked like an angel had been returned to her, and Sasuke looked like he was truly happy for the first time in nine long years. He had finally stopped living in the past, and was prepared to turn to face the future. It was the next day that he had asked to formally adopt Naruto as his brother. Though there was no picture of that day, Sakura could clearly remember their faces. Neither one had ever looked happier. It seemed that there was no ill in the world on that day, no Akatsuki, no Kabuto, no anything, because they were both happy, and so everything was alright.
Sakura traced the outlines of the figures in that last picture, hiccupping and smiling through her tears. Her fingers traced the outline of Sasuke's hair as she remembered something.
"Sasuke-kun, on that day, I was so overjoyed that you returned, I forgot to tell you that I love you." It was true, she never had. Since Sasuke came back, never once had she told him that she loved him. Maybe that was why he had never mentioned anything to her. It had been obvious that he loved her, but his Uchiha pride wouldn't let him confess to a girl who may not love him back. Her actions should have conveyed the message, but Sasuke had always been exceptionally bad at dealing with emotions. It shouldn't really be such a surprise that he hadn't noticed. She smiled sadly, the first small laugh of the day escaping her lips.
"Sasuke-kun, I love you. I always have," she said to the empty room. It seemed silly, but she thought that if she said it aloud, maybe Sasuke would hear her from wherever he was now. It seemed sillier still, but the wind that blew in the open window, carrying the scent of cherry blossoms, seemed to carry Sasuke's voice. 'I love you too.' She could have sworn that in the glow of the afternoon sun coming through the window, she could see the faint outline of the former avenger and his faithful blond companion, watching over her in death, as they so often had in life. I miss you two, she told them silently. It had to only be her imagination, but she could have sworn that they smiled. She closed the book, kissing its oddly patterned cover as she set it back on the shelf.
Sakura gazed back out the window, silently promising. Someday I will join you two up there, in Heaven. It won't be for a long time, but someday I'll join you. And then the three of us will be as one again. And it had to be just her imagination that the breeze carried the sound of Naruto and Sasuke's voices. We'll be waiting for you, Sakura.
-Owari-