Memory Escape
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Summary: [Sasusaku] Black, then white, then black again. It was an endless cycle with no colour, all because he had left her. Left her at the bench and had now left her in a puddle of her own crimson blood. She wasn't dying was she? It was the end but unlike others, she couldn't accept her fate. {TIME TRAVEL AU}
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Disclaimer: Standard disclaimers apply. The poem that Sakura hears in the afterlife is not entirely written by me. I simply took two lines from the poem 'Soon Enough' by Kahil Gibran and added a couple more lines to fit the storyline. I am not a poet so any poetry-related dialogue can be expected to belong to someone else.
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Categories: Drama, Adventure, Friendship, Action, Romance
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A/N: Hi guys! Like my new style? I thought that my old layout was pretty messy so I'm going to be using this for all my stories. I'll admit, I've been writing the first chapter… Maybe fifty words a month? I've tried but I just couldn't find any motivation to write and everything came out horribly. Yeah I said I would update five or six months ago LOL. Sorry but here is the long awaited re-rewritten first chapter of Memory Escape ^_^
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LucidClockwork
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Chapter 1
Splitting Fate
It was inevitable. Of course she knew that, this day was coming and she wouldn't be able to do anything to stop it.
Yet now... Now that it was actually happening…
She didn't believe it was.
"Kakashi-sensei," Her lips were pressed in a thin line, her expression grim with dread, "Your lying, aren't you?"
Her old sensei, now her fellow jounin, crinkled his eyes but did not reply. After knowing the grey-haired man for so long, she could read his body language like a book. The simple crinkling of his eyes informed her of the worst.
"No," She breathed, her lips were dry from the dust of the dead land, the battlefield of the fourth shinobi war, "This can't be-,"
Grabbing onto his vest, she hauled him off the ground and held his body inches off the ground, "TELL ME YOU'RE LYING!" She screamed, her tone filled with her hysterical emotions.
Kakashi lowered his head, "I'm not,"
Then his feet were back firmly on the cold, dead dirt, his pink-haired student crouched in front of him. Once vibrant eyes of bright emerald, now hardened with months of war and missions of the common shinobi expressed the numb emptiness she felt.
"I'm sorry Sakura," Kakashi simply placed a single hand up top her head, a gesture he was sure the kunoichi recognised, "I'm truly sorry," His voice choked, betraying the stoic he had lived by his entire life.
"It isn't your fault Kakashi-sensei, no one blames you for what happened with Obito," He blinked as she gently took his hand and held it between her own, her eyes surprisingly glowing in determination, "It isn't your fault that Naruto and Sasuke went down the same path,"
Onyx orbs widening, the older man carefully studied her. No tears, only a game-face. Only then did Kakashi realised how different the female quarter of Team 7 was from her innocent days of little violence, a privileged life and her obsessive crush on his Uchiha student.
"Take me to them,"
"Sakura, you…"
"I won't ask again, Kakashi-sensei," Her tone was full of authority, "I… I've never been able to do anything and this… This is the last time I'll be able to thank them both,"
This was how life had been for the longest time, dark and uncertain. Kakashi swallowed his words, only staring at Sakura with scarce emotion. With one small smile, her last smile, the warmth of her hands embracing his vanished. Only then did the man drop to his knees and let out a loud wail of despair for his students, his repeated mistakes, his father and the tragic fate that had befallen once again.
OoOoOoOoOoO
It was a flurry of unceasing attacks. A rassengan woven from chakra would deflect a mass ball of lightning and thunder. There was barely enough time to wipe the sweat off one's brow as another wave of attacks invaded.
Appearing in a quick flash of white light, Sakura collapsed, watching through blades of dead grass on a mild hill just adjacent to the horrifying show of power and strength. The power and strength of her boys.
"No…" It was the only thing she was able to conjure in her usual fast churning mind.
Unable to watch her boys spar with the intent of death yet unable to lift her eyes, helplessness washed over her nerves, a cold shiver running down her spine, through her fingers and down her legs to her toes. Naruto swung his arm with precision, knocking Sasuke's enclosed fist to the side all while swinging his left leg in a roundhouse kick movement, in which the latter was able to avoid with a smooth jump.
It was a match of taijutsu, focused punches and strategic planning. Naruto let out a roar of pain and steam arose from Sasuke's fingertips, cracking with electricity. The man smiled sadistically, licking his lips as the charge grew ever more visible from the distance Sakura was viewing the dispute.
The distance grew widely, both men flaring their chakra at their feet and defensively dashing away. The battlefield was silent for a single moment before the air grew stale and oxygen was seemingly sucked from her lungs, Sakura's hair stood on end as the sound of crackling electricity grew ever louder.
Naruto was engulfed with red chakra, eyes wide and slitted with malice and rage. Sakura had seen Naruto in this state before, however, the tails that the aura around created was not growing larger in numbers. No, there was already a complete set of nine, the red aura growing darker and more evident.
Sasuke was not doing much better either. The curse mark flared with chakra and his body twisted into one of a demon, only growing more and more menacing. His skin, his clear, pale skin darkened to an ash grey and grew rough like the hide of an animal. His hair grew drastically, no longer the soothing, soft jet black hair she had once fallen for. His hair was jagged and rough, Sasuke had become a beast.
Then, there was a shrill whip of the wind and the two men lunged at each other. Everything slowed down as bright blue ball of chakra formed in Naruto's hands, a sparking ball of electricity in Sasuke's.
They both cried each other's names, in this final battle, there no longer be the complete team of three both Naruto and Sakura desperately craved again.
There would no longer be a team of three.
There would no longer be a useless kunoichi.
The blood that exploded and splattered against skin, dirt, grass and hair wasn't that of a killer nor a hero. The blood was that of one useless kunoichi.
A rassengan through her stomach and a chidori through her heart, Sakura almost laughed ironically. What heart? Sakura inquired, hers had already been taken long before.
"You know," Sakura gasped, blood dripping from the corner of her lips onto the hand of the one man she was facing, Sasuke, "You guys are so immature, you don't hate each other that much,"
Naruto was the first to come back from his stunned surprise, pulling his hand out of Sakura's stomach and looking to himself in horror. Sakura groaned with pain, supporting herself on her former teammate's arm.
"S-SAKURA!" Naruto cried with panic, his voice shrill with fear.
Sasuke pulled his hand out too, coated in a sticky red liquid.
That's my blood, Sakura thought numbly.
The Uchiha laid her gently on the ground and towered over her, bangs shadowing his eyes. Naruto grabbed onto the girl's vest pulling and shaking her, "WHY SAKURA?!" The blonde boy shouted, sadness and anger laced in his voice, "WE WERE SUPPOSED TO BRING THAT BASTARD BACK TOGETHER! HOW ARE WE MEANT TO DO THAT NOW?"
Sakura laughed, face contorted with pain, "Never mind that Naruto," She breathed, her eyes becoming heavier with every shaky breath she took, "You don't need me anyway,"
Sasuke lifted his face and Sakura could only barely gasp in surprise, "Y-You're c-crying,"
The warm arms that fit around her waist seemed foreign, unwanted. Sakura shook her head and pushed him away, "I wanted you to c-come back to the village so much," Her voice fell below a whisper.
"M-Maybe… We were all cursed from the beginning. Sasuke...-," She broke into hacking coughs, blood spluttering from her lips, "I was fool for believing, you used us…"
"Sakura…" The Uchiha started, his expression twisted in sadness and guilt.
"No Sasuke, she's right," Naruto cut in, "We chased after you for so long, and now-" He choked back tears.
A sad smile played on her lips as she gazed dreamingly at her two boys, "We were all fools, we were doomed from the beginning," Her eyes lidded as her vision blurred two figures towering over her, her hands laced with the fingers on both Naruto and Sasuke.
"I wish that we had another chance,"
As the darkness washed over her, the pain numbed into a new sensation. She felt empty, yet free. Floating above an empty chasm of blackness.
"Who among you does not feel that his power to love is endless?"
A voice rung with harmony, pleasure and peace. The question was puzzling, Sakura supposed Sasuke had an inability to love.
"And is not time even as love is, undivided and paceless?"
The voice continued.
"Forget the lies and the tears,
Relive the fun and laughter,"
A tickling sensation washed over her body, light speckling in small balls and vanishing.
"One who wishes to turn back time, life surreal flowing as a dream"
The pleasant feeling died away as the darkness faded into colour and light.
"Turn back! O Hands of cruel years,"
Sakura whimpered as her mind was quickly overpowered with images, sounds and different sensations prickling her fingers and skin.
The first time she'd made a friend in Ino Yamanaka. Sakura grasped at the memory, watching as the memory slipped between her fingertips and the two young girls withered away in a speculate of white light.
When she'd fallen in love with Sasuke Uchiha and his charming innocent smiles, she cried indignantly and tearfully as the memory faded too.
Uzumaki Naruto, her one true friend whom been subjected to years of her baseless prejudices for abuse and yet, had still stuck by her side until the very end. The warm smiling face of her beloved friend twisted into a sadistic grin, waving and wisping away into nothing as she fell deeper into the endless darkness.
Darkness, more darkness. Could anything get darker?
The thick blackness lifted, her feelings of freedom, emptiness pulling her deeper until there was light.
Light from her bedroom window, her curtains wavering from the summer breeze. Rousing, Sakura lifted herself off the comfortable bed, her skin forming goose bumps from the chilling wind flowing into her room. She raised her hand to shut the window, gasping as a small, frail hand graced her vision. Her village, Konoha…
It was as if it had never been destroyed.
Sakura felt her vision blur and her body collapse. Her mind fizzled into unconsciousness.
A/N: How long has it been? It's September, I last updated any of my stories in February. Wow… That's seven months… I'm terribly sorry for any inconvenience and I have nothing to blame but my own laziness to write. Last year, it was easy to update because my mind was fresh with new ideas. It's getting a little harder to think now that there's so much going on in my life compared to last year.
I'm rewriting most of the chapters that I find most... unsatisfactory. I most likely won't post a new chapter until I've finished my revision but you can definitely expect updates from now on.
This chapter's about 2090 words long, I guess it's a prologue so you can definitely expect longer chapters in the future.
Anyway, until next time!
-LucidClockwork