A/N; A little reflective drabble in lieu of the Epilogue of Naruto. R & R :)
Sometimes Naruto will go to Final Valley. Only Sometimes.
He'll sit there and think. About the then, the before and the to be. It's all so strange; everything that's happened, that's led up to this point. How a monster like him became the Hero of the village. All the hate that they had accumulated for him then and how easy it was for them to just let it go.
Maybe it's not so strange.
Maybe it's funny.
Humorously funny, he thinks. The type where you actually go ahead and laugh and say isn't it funny how this all turned out.
But for some reason, Naruto doesn't laugh. He doesn't say that.
He doesn't think it's funny.
But then again, people have always said Naruto was different.
He had an "infectious smile", "a stupidly optimistic aura."
He was a Hero after killing Pein. No one else was a Hero. No one else killed Pein.
He was Hokage. Their Leader, their protector. No one else was.
He was their monster; their scapegoat built to shoulder all their hate and anger. The one they abused, the one they hurt.
Maybe it is funny, Naruto thinks.
Disturbingly Funny.
But that didn't matter; that was the past.
(Because, at the end of the day, despite all their reassurances, Human Beings forgot History. The cycle remained; Hate, blood, war, peace. But it was okay. Because the past was the past and they'd forget. )
The next day, people asked Naruto were he had been.
He smiled.
(and they'd never learn.)
Sometimes, Sasuke will visit his old Mansion. But of course, he doubted many people would care either way.
His fate was sealed. As soon as he returned, he was labeled as the traitor. Of course, it wasn't odd. He should have expected it, Sasuke thought reasonably.
The suspicious glances hidden with praises to their "Hero." Their mistrust written across their face, discreet whispers of "He is not one of us." Sharingan was not needed to see what they felt.
Not that Sasuke cared, either way. When you'd experienced a life with as much torment as he had, it took a lot to faze you.
It was definitely a big change from being the Uchiha Prince.
But that wasn't to say Sasuke appreciated the attention. No, that was Naruto who craved it with every fiber of his being. Sasuke had had enough attention to last a life time.
The rooms were cold. Everything was the same except for the tell tale signs of time and the cold.
You couldn't even tell that once, once upon a time, in a different time and a different person, a lively, happy family had lived there.
They had been happy. Sasuke knew, and he felt the ghost of those memories creep and crawl in every nook and cranny.
And he welcomed it.
It was easier this way, he could become lost.
Not because he wanted to pretend the outside world didn't exist.
But because he liked to pretend he didn't.
Sometimes, Sasuke wondered if it was all worth it.
Sometimes, he curled up into himself in that room, shaking with self-loathing, regret and-
He was so very cold.
Sometimes, Sakura doesn't recognize the person she once was.
She has everything she ever wanted, married to an influential, powerful shinobi, married to Sasuke Uchiha. She doesn't need to work. She's beautiful, or so she's told; doesn't have a wrinkle on her for her age because of Tsunade-sama's trick. She could name quite a few women who were downright jealous of her and there were more too, that weren't so blatant.
Yet somehow…..
She's dissatisfied.
(More than that, though she'll never admit it. There are certain lines Sakura dare not cross, delusions she dare not dispel, partly because she's too proud and partly because she's clung to them for so, so long.)
It's unfair in retrospect, she has everything she wants yet she's not satisfied. Ino has everything she never wanted yet she's happy as can be.
Maybe it's childish.
Maybe she's jealous.
She was when she was younger; all those inferiority complexes, all those hopes and dreams, her fears, faults, vices that weren't really vices.
They're mundane in the end.
It's mundane.
Is she mundane?
Compared to Naruto, Sasuke, Kakashi she knows she is. She can't catch up and part of her has resigned herself to the fact.
She isn't bitter, she's standing there with a sad smile, cheering them on.
Maybe Sasuke will eat her cooking this time. She made his favorite, tomato soup.
Maybe, if she's really, really lucky, he'll nod to her as he retires to his separate bedroom.
Maybe she doesn't care as she once did. Maybe she cared too much. She still cares too much.
She doesn't know why all this is important but it is. It embodies everything that is her life.
Maybe she doesn't want it to anymore.
She's tired and defeated and upset because this is her life.
But there's a consolation, there always is, a silver lining; her Sarada.
She'll devote her life to her baby girl and Sarada will love her in place of her father who never had.
She can do this much. She hopes, so desperately, that she can.
She'll do everything in her power, at least.
Sometimes, Sakura will slowly rock Sarada with so much motherly fondness that its heartbreaking and hope, wistfully, for better days.