Just a little oneshot of a dream I had where Sasuke returns to the village and everyone who cared about him. Mostly a SasuxSaku fic cos it's my favourite ship.
SASUKE POV
I stood on the path staring at the gates of the village. It shouldn't be this hard to look at the place I thought I could call home... the place I want to call home again. But it is. It is the hardest thing I've ever done. Leaving wasn't this hard. Learning the truth wasn't this hard. Making the decision that I was an idiot and I needed to come back was nowhere close to this hard. This... nothing could compare the pain now ripping through my chest. I should never have left. That much was obvious. It had changed me so I knew it must have changed the others. That's what made this so hard. The thought of whether or not they would want me back was what made this hard. How much had this changed them? Anything close to how much it changed me could be bad.
"Don't be a coward Sasuke," I growled at myself. "You can do this."
My heart stepped up its pace as I took one small step closer to the village. Another step. I concentrated on the movements of my feet. I would going to do this. I was going home. Home to my team. Home to my friends. Home to my family.
Home to my Sakura.
I took the last step to the gates and took a deep breath but before I could make a single move they opened of their own accord.
SAKURA POV
Another day has gone by and the dawn has come again. The sun is warm but I can barely feel its rays anymore. I can put on a show as much as I like, smile and pretend that I'm alright but it's not true. It can never be true because he isn't here. He left. He wouldn't come back. He didn't listen. He chose a different path. A different life. He attacked members of our village. He wanted us to be his enemies. To stop trying to bring him home.
It broke my heart every time someone said his name. Everytime I closed my eyes and saw his face. Every breath I take still burns. Every beat of my heart still aches in my chest. A broken soul like mine can never heal. Especially when Sasuke is not coming back. He will never return to us. To me.
I don't know who I was kidding. He could never love me. Our connection must have been my imagination. My love is real, I know that much but any feelings on Sasuke's part were completely my imagination. He is a lost soul who doesn't care about anyone. Especially not me. My love didn't mean a thing to him. So why do I walk these streets every day still loving him? Still hoping he'll come back? Still imagining I see him when he isn't actually there?
Because....
I don't know the answer to that question anymore.
"Keep walking Sakura," I whispered. "Keep hoping a false hope. He's never coming back. That dream is gone, gone, gone baby."
I looked up, surprised to find myself standing by the bench where he'd laid me after he'd knocked me out the night he left. This spot always made me break down. It always send pain shredding up my chest like nothing else. Nobody could stop this. Nobody understood. Everyone told me I was being silly.
'It was just a crush, Sakura, you'll find somebody else,' they said. 'He's not coming back, you need to get over him,' they told me.
They didn't understand. I couldn't love another person. Sasuke... he was one of a kind. He was everything I wanted and everything that is out of my reach.
I felt the familiar sensation of tears running down my face and I stared around, remembering the night he left. It was the most painful thing I had ever experienced.
"I love you, Sasuke," I whispered, sinking down to my knees. My hands held me up and I could feel myself going to pieces. It felt like my heart was being torn into a thousand parts and my whole body was reacting to the pain, tearing in other places. My very soul was being ripped in two because half of me would always belong to Sasuke and be where he was. Now that he wasn't here I was torn into two and nobody could fix me. Nobody...
Why wouldn't this pain go away? Wasn't there a point where I could just give up and die from the pain? I knew that I couldn't stop loving him so the only other choice was death. Suicide was not something I would consider but surely this pain had to cause someone to die eventually. Hadn't somebody once told me that people die of broken hearts? Why don't I have that luxury? Did I do something wrong and deserve this pain?
"Sakura... what's wrong?"
I froze. My whole body seized up. My heart faltered and then started racing in my chest. My blood ran around my body but it felt like ice. I felt cold and hot at the same time. I felt my whole body begin to shake. That voice. The smooth and deep tone. The beauty that I had once spent forever committing to memory.
I had to be imagining it.
Slowly I raised my tear-stained face and looked up and met his black eyes...
--
They stared at each other for a long time.
She on all fours looking up at him, her face smeared with tears, her eyes showing agony that was too great for someone of her young age. Her whole face showed how much pain his leaving had caused her. She looked like someone who had lived centuries and seen things that nobody should ever see. Her face did not belong to an eighteen year old girl. But as she looked at Sasuke so many emotions ran through her and she started to feel whole looking at his now older face. Another emotion was also setting in, enforced by her other ones. But love wove around every feeling inside her... even the bad ones.
He stood, looking down at her. His heart was racing as he looked at her now. She had changed. She had grown into a beautiful young woman. He had only ever merely glanced at her beauty before, never truly acknowledged it but now he saw it in full but guilt and regret filled him as he saw the pain in her eyes. He had caused that and it made his heart break. When had he come to love her so much? So deeply? So painfully? It was a mystery to him but he knew he could not deserve her after what he had done to her.
"Sasuke?" Sakura whispered, breaking the silence that wrapped around them.
He listened to her voice and then looked back into her eyes, seeing the pain there and wondering if he could ever fix it.
"Hi Sakura," Sasuka whispered, allowed affection to seep through his voice.
Slowly Sakura stood and stared at him. Her eyes were wide and a new batch of tears was beginning to fill them. She looked at Sasuke's face for a moment and then suddenly anger flashed across her features.
"You bastard!" she shouted and threw herself at him.
"What?" Sasuke asked as Sakura started banging her fists on his chest. Sasuka stared down at her in shock.
"How could you do that to me?" Sakura shouted. "You have no idea what I went though! I cried myself to sleep every single night! I waited for you every day! I went looking for you! How could you do that to us? To me? How could just leave like that? Why wouldn't you come back? I know that you finished what you wanted to do so why didn't you come back?" Her shouts were echoed by sobs and her fists stopped banging so hard on Sasuka's chest and she dropped her head against him, crying.
"Why, Sasuke? Why?" she whispered in a broken voice.
Sasuke put his arms around her gently, unable to stand the pain she was in.
"I'm sorry," he whispered. "I really am. I am a bastard. I'm an idiot. I was so stupid. I should never have left the village. I should never had left my family. I should never have left you. Nothing I can do will ever make up for what I did but I am more sorry than you can imagine. Everything that happened to me only makes me realise even more clearly that this is my home and everyone here is my family. I shouldn't have left. Vengeance is not a life for anyone and for the first time in my life while I was gone... I truly was alone."
Sakura raised her head and looked at Sasuke. He pulled her a little closer to him so that their bodies were pressed together and he placed a hand on her hair, his own tears filling his eyes. Sakura's eyes were wide as Sasuke held her. When he spoke next his voice shook and shock filled Sakura.
"But I'm back," he murmured tearfully. "I'm back and I'll take whatever punishment they throw at me. I'll do whatever they want me to do. But this time I'm staying and I won't do anything like that again."
Sakura pulled away from Sasuke and looked at his face. The tears streaming from his eyes shocked her and she reached forward and placed a hand on his cheek. Sasuke closed his eyes and turned his face into her hand and then he looked at her, his black eyes showing his agony and regret.
"Will you forgive me Sakura? I understand that I will have to earn it but I don't care, I'll do whatever it takes," Sasuke promised. "I love you Sakura, I was such a fool for not realising it and I will do anything to prove that to you and earn the love that you once gave me freely but that I never accepted."
Sakura stared at Sasuke and then a warm feeling enetered her heart and she started crying again. Her heart was knitting back together and she felt her soul being renewed as she looked now upon the boy that she had fallen in love with so long ago. Soon he would be a man and she knew that she would love him still. And now he was saying that he loved her. She felt complete. The sincereity in Sasuke's eyes made her feel whole.
Sasuke waited patiently as she studied him, searching for his lie. But she would find none because he knew himself now. He knew what he wanted and he knew that he loved Sakura with every fibre of his being. Every beat of his heart had screamed that knowledge at him when he had left her so long ago. Tears ran from her eyes and Sasuke knew that he was still crying, his tears running over Sakura's hand where she held his face but still he waited. He waited for her to tell him that she could never love him as he knew he deserved. He didn't care what she said. Somehow he would prove to her that his love was real. He would never leave again and he knew it.
"Sasuke, I love you," Sakura whispered. "Of course I'll forgive you. Nothing could ever chane how I feel about you. I loved you more and more every day you were gone. I now understand solitude. There is nothing that could change how I feel for you now that I know what it is like to lose you. I'm never letting you go again."
Sasuke stared at Sakura unable to believe her acceptance. He knew that she wouldn't trust him completely for a long time- something that she knew too- but he was willing to work on it. He would do anything for her. He would die for her without a second thought so he knew he could be patient enough to wait for her trust in him to be rekindled. Her hurts had to be fixed and he was willing to do it. Staring right now.
Sasuke pulled Sakura into his arms and pressed his lips to hers gently. She froze for a moment but when he didn't let her go she relaxed and wrapped her arms around Sasuke's neck. He held her as tightly as he could without hurting her and tilted his head, kissing her with all the love and reverence that had felt for her when he was gone. He poured into the kiss how much he had missed her and the promise that he would never hurt her again. He felt right now, with her lips soft and moving with his as he finally kissed her. He had been waiting so long to do this and didn't he would get the chance for a long time.
They stood there, wrapped in their world of love for what felt like a year. When they finally broke apart neither of them was crying, they were both smiling gently, staring into each other's eyes at what neither of them could stand to let go or leave in their whole lives: the other.
They didn't say a word, they just stood there, holding each other until the sound of footsteps reached their ears and they turned around.
Everyone was there. They all stared in disblief at Sasuke.
Naturo, of course, was the first one to say anything.
"Sasuke, you idiot!" he bellowed. Sakura moved away from Sasuke reluctantly as Naruto came pelting down the path towards his old best friend and rival. Sasuka looked at Naruto apologetically as he stopped in front of him, glaring up at his friend. "How dare you show your face around here!"
"I'm sorry," Sasuke murmured. "I wanted to come home. I will accept whatever punishment I must but I just want to rejoin the village."
Naruto froze. "You... you do?" he asked.
"I do, old friend."
They stared at each other and then both of them started laughing and Naruto hugged Sasuke who hugged him back tightly and then the others surround their old friend and he received hugs from everyone. He took the angry comments in his stride and told everyone that he would never leave again.
"There will be a trial, of course," Kiba reminded him.
"I will be in huge trouble," Sasuke agreed. "But I'll take it. I just want to stay here." He looked around anxiously and Sakura stepped to his side and looked at him. Sasuke took her in his arms. Right now he couldn't bare to have her out of his sight.
"Come on, let's go," Naruto said. "It's better to get this over with."
"I agree," Sasuke said. The others led the group and Sasuke walked behind, holding Sakura in his arms. They stared into each others eyes and Sasuke's life felt complete, his world seemed to have purpose again. This girl here, in his arms was his purpose. She would keep him strong through anything. When he looked into her eyes he found his true home and his very best friend. He'd found his life.