It would be easy to be clever
And tell the stones: Men hate to die
And have stopped dying now forever.
I think they would believe the lie.
--from Robert Frost's In a Disused Graveyard
The cold dawn light crawled up the stony outcrop where the modified Team 7 had camped. Sakura, always an early riser, sat facing the rising sun with her legs dangling off the crag. They were heading back to Konoha today; her favourite part of a mission, but not for reasons that others could guess at.
**
Team 7 usually started out walking side-by-side when returning home from a mission. Then Naruto, of course, would inexplicably walk too quickly and soon would be far in the distance. Kakashi, continually absorbed in Make-Out Paradise, kept his own pace and with his longer stride inevitably got ahead of them too. By circumstance then, Sakura was left to walk beside Sasuke. So they walked; together in silence. In the stillness between them she thought she could sense his being. Sometimes, Sakura could feel him looking at her even if, from the corner of her eye, it appeared that he wasn't. Almost like he was keeping an eye on her; keeping her within arm's reach. As if he was ready to reach out to her. She wanted to be there when he did.
Many times she wondered if she was making something out of nothing and Sasuke was just minding his own business on the way back to Konoha. But that's not what she felt. Especially because it was the same feeling washed over her in the morning during missions when she first awoke and extended a silent greeting toward the horizon of the morning sun. The notion that perhaps he was watching her was a pleasure that warmed and brought colour to the day which followed.
Back in Konoha, after Naruto's necessary ramen, Kakashi would mysteriously disappear when it came time to pay (that it still came as a surprise to his subordinates was a credit to Kakashi's ninja skills). The rest of Team 7 left together. As Naruto's apartment was the closest to Ichiraku, he would depart first, full of ideas for training. From there, Sakura's house and Sasuke's apartment lay in the same direction so they were again walking alongside each other. Her house appeared all too soon and she would come to a reluctant halt outside it to look at him. Sasuke never said goodbye first. Sakura was loath to say it and sever their rapport; but she could feel the moment dying and would say it to say something, anything to him lest he walk away without saying anything at all. Early on, Sakura tried to convince Sasuke to hang out with her or even train with her but he always refused; and she cursed the flight of her clever mind as it failed to produce the right combination of words to convince him. Later, she came to savour the dying moment; its sweet ephemerality something they could share. She would look him straight in the eye to say goodbye; loading the one word with the ghosts of all the others she dare not utter.
Returning from her first mission after Sasuke left Konoha, Sakura made her way home, her melancholy blotting out the bustling village. Her house appeared all too soon. A quiet desperation grasped her core. Sasuke. The moment of goodbye had stopped dying forever – it was dead. She shook her head and walked on….Until she was at the fringe of Konoha where the Uchiha clan had lived…and died. A veritable ghost village, she knew of no one who had gone there since the mass funeral (the village elders had thought it best to bury the Uchihas on their own land). . .she too had not gone since then, not even to see the graves. Sakura decided to pay her respects.
To her dismay and confusion, the site she came upon had fallen into disuse. Only after checking a few of the tombstones could she convince herself that this was the right location. The graves by the Will of Fire statue were always immaculate, tended daily; that was not the case here as leaves blew onto the stones and the fading grass was pockmarked with weeds. Yet, it wasn't as if the graves had been forgotten for years, just weeks. . . which made her think of how just weeks before Team 7 had been complete. She paused. If it had been several weeks since he left, Sasuke must have been tending them by himself. At once, Sakura knew why he had always refused her entreaties. She fell to the task; a task she now always did upon arriving back in the Village because she could not say goodbye.
**
Sakura heard Kakashi rustling behind her as his fit the last few things into his pack; it was time to go.
**
Ennui permeated Team Taka's mood as they passed through an overgrown graveyard, early morning twilight suppressing colours into greyscale. The names on the skewed and tumbled stones had been worn away by the elements. The neglect irkedSasuke; as if those who had said their goodbyes to the dead had forgotten. Did men need to stop dying to be remembered? He paused to lay his hand against the cold of one of the stones and Sasuke's mind turned to other graves . . .
A frog, fresh after a winter's sleep, suddenly leapt up and down beside Sasuke's hand on the gravestone. Startled from his reverie, Sasuke looked around him and saw that the sun was rising. A ghost of a smile appeared on his face and he reached out his hand at one of the overhanging trees, bending with spring blossoms. Sasuke had company that day as his team walked back to their base. It wasn't a moment that could die; no goodbyes had to be said.
Thanks for reading! If you liked it, I encourage you to read my in-progress story "If You Should Go". Let me know what you think! And if you feel so inclined, you can vote for my entry on the SasuSaku FC on Naruto Forums (before Mar 31st).