a/n: oh geeeeeeeez, I haven't written in like forever and my writing is total shit! Anyway, idea stuck in my head about Sakura's love for Sasuke and hell, the new Naruto movie coming up is perfect shaping material or whatever it's called. Unrelated note, I'm so jealous that my friends are going to watch it in theaters when it comes out (despite them not knowing a lick of Japanese; I'd so take their place or at least join them if I could and somehow translate everything to them! Ugh, if only I could!)
Anyway, I didn't have this beta'd nor did i read over it a second time which is a bad move on my part but maybe i'll rewrite it and make it longer some day. & I don't normally put the honorifics and whatnot but I am on a mind blank.
The Sasuke-kun That...
It was weird, Sakura thought, that everything was different. For one, her shishou's face was missing from the Hokage monument. So was the Fourth's. Secondly, everybody somehow had a different personality... everybody except Naruto. Ino was being conservative and Hinata seemed like a bitch who wasn't a pushover. Third, Tsunade was nowhere to be found, and neither was Shizune or Tonton. The only people that could possibly come up with a logical explanation for what was going on were missing and all their contacts were clueless. Fourth, the world was a disturbingly peaceful place for a place who had just been put under the oppression of war.
Her mind was not at ease. She had no idea what the hell was going on, and she had every intention to somehow find out. But that could wait, she decided. A quick bath couldn't hurt.
Sakura took her usual route to her home, smiling in relief over seeing the familiar faces of Teuchi and Ayame as she walked past Ichiraku. She waved at the regular customers of the Yamanaka flower shop, noticing that they recognize her too. That was good, she thought. Some familiarity! More familiarity as she walked along was almost enough to reassure Sakura that she was just being a bit crazy.
It wasn't until she walked past a place that usually made her heart stop and tears flow that she absolutely knew something had to be wrong.
"Good morning, Sakura-chan!" waved others from the inner works of the property.
"Looking radiant as ever," remarked an elderly woman watching over a group of children.
"Hi onee-chan! Wanna play with us?" asks one of the children happily.
Sakura steps back in confusion. Her breathing hitched and her eyes opened wide. "N-No, sorry, I can't right now!" she replied shakily. She attempts a smile and walks off in a hurry, nearly tripping a few times before she completely passes by the property.
She breaks down when she reaches the final corner of the compound. "How is this possible?" she exclaimed. Her knees fall to the ground. Tears race down her shock-stricken face as she tries to make sense of it all.
It couldn't be possible, she knew. Or that's what the last ten years of her life said. It just isn't possible...
Sakura stared back at the compound for what seems like an eternity. The symbol facing front to the village seems to stare back at her, mocking her intelligence and everything she'd come to know. There was really only one thing that the symbol represented, and for the past decade it had been nothing but a reminder of a friend lost to the darkness. But she shakes her head at the thought, and walks away in hopes of not following her urge and entering the property in search for something that probably isn't there.
Instead, she continues to make her way home. If there was one place where confusion didn't always run rampant, it was home. Everything was as she knew it at home.
So she ran a bath and undressed, lying in the warm water for half an hour before deciding her skin was becoming far too shriveled up. As she stood up, her bathrobe embraced her and she walked back into her room without even completely drying off beforehand. Sakura slipped on underwear and sat on her bed, staring blankly out at her balcony.
For half an hour, she could pretend that the world was just the same. That she lost the things most important to her, that she almost completely lost her best friend over the stupidest things, that she was back in Team Kakashi with Yamato-taichou and Sai and Naruto. But that couldn't last forever, and all she could do now was sigh at the loss of normalcy in her life.
"Maybe I should go to Naruto..." she says to no one in particular. "Maybe he knows what's going on.
A familiar voice came from her balcony. "Hm? What's this about 'going to Naruto', huh?"
Her eyes widened in shock. Jerkily, she jumped up and walked toward the sliding glass door that separated her room from the outside world. Her jaw dropped as she examined the man in front of her. "Sasuke-kun..."
"Obaa-chan said you were back," he replied with the same smirk that was known to make fangirls fall over in their tracks.
Their eyes locked and Sasuke's lips curved upward into a smile. "Sasuke-kun, what are you doing in Konoha?"
He laughed that sarcastic laugh she had only ever heard once or twice. "What, is there something wrong with me being in my own village?
It made her uneasy, how casual he was being with her. Where was that Sasuke that called her annoying on their first day as a team? Where was that Sasuke that refused to acknowledge her existence throughout most of their time together? Where was the Sasuke that would have killed her if Yamato hadn't stepped in to save her? More importantly, where was the Sasuke that was the complete opposite of whoever the hell it was standing right in front of her now?
"What are you doing here?" she asked, demanding an answer.
"Just visiting you, my lovely Sakura."
That was the last response she would have ever expected from him. The words processed in her mind fifty times over before she could even begin to believe that her childhood fantasy was coming true. "You know, Sasuke-kun, I would'a loved hearing that about five years ago." She turned around and walked back into her room, throwing on clothes and barely caring that Sasuke was there to see her standing in nothing but a bra and panties for a few split seconds.
"What do you mean, Sakura? Aren't you happy to see me right now?"
Those words stabbed at her like a sword through her heart. How could she possibly be happy, or feign happiness at the least, when nothing was right? "I have to talk to Naruto-"
"About what?" he interrupted. "I'm right here, can't you talk to me about it?"
She shook her head violently and pushed past Sasuke to jump onto the street below. "Not when you're like this," she says as she pushes herself up and off the balcony.
With a look back up at her visitor, her fierce eyes lock contact with the unusually calm eyes of the Uchiha. "I want the real Konoha back! And I want the real Sasuke-kun back! Give me back the real Sasuke-kun and I won't walk away right now."
He looked at her worriedly, a face she never got used to because she had seldom ever seen it. "I am the real Sasuke. What are you talking about?"
"No, you're not!" she yelled back, fighting tears. "I want the Sasuke-kun who told me not to bother making him Valentine's chocolates because he didn't really like sweets. I want the Sasuke-kun who called me an annoying brat. I want the Sasuke-kun-"
She choked on tears as Sasuke came down to face her. "I-I want the Sasuke-kun who fought with us on the bridge and nearly died! I want the Sasuke-kun that I protected for so long during the chuunin exams, and the Sasuke-kun that hurt the people that hurt me! I want the Sasuke-kun who left Konoha and the Sasuke-kun that tried to kill me and Naruto and Yamato-taichou and Sai three years later! And surprisingly enough, I want the Sasuke-kun that wanted to destroy us all!"
Sasuke moved forward and cupped her crying face in his hands. She pushed him back and stepped away. Walking toward the only person who could possibly help her at least understand in the slightest why everything was just so wrong, she left Sasuke alone and confused in the street.
"I want the Sasuke-kun I knew and loved with every being of my heart... and that isn't you."