title: how the story goes
rating: T
warning: Lots of Sakura being down on herself here, and subtle hints of narusasu, although it's up to you to decide if it's gen or not.
pairing/prompt: Sakura/something Indira (fading ink) would like for her special day :)
She remembered seeing Sasuke for the first time in two and a half years. She remembered watching his lips curl around her name like it was something precious. She remembered thinking, how fake, how pretentious.
But most of all she remembered the way his eyes had widened and his hands had clenched like he'd taken a tiny punch to the gut as Naruto hurtled out into the open, fierce and intense and everything Sakura was not.
She remembered the way Sasuke and Naruto had looked at each other-the Uchiha's arm draped over the blond's shoulder, so close dark hair brushed whiskered cheek. And because Sakura was smart, even smarter than people gave her credit for, she remembered the quiet desperation in the edges of Sasuke's fingertips as they barely grazed Naruto's arm; a casual touch, restrained from something greater, contrasting with the intimacy of his breath at the other man's ear—whispered words that were not for the rest to hear, words that say one thing but might as well mean another.
Sakura imagined them, sometimes, not what he'd said but what she thought Sasuke must've meant:
What took you so long I hope you've gotten stronger You can't catch me otherwise Please catch up Please stop me Please save me I secretly am very glad that you're here, still chasing, still never giving up. Please don't ever give up.
Sakura remembered. She saw, she knew. She continued to say nothing; she continued to play pretend.
To other people they were a tragedy, a game of chase where the toad raced after the slug and the slug chased the snake, and the snake, the snake never once looked back.
But that's not how this story goes.
And so Sakura will play her part: she will hug Naruto and whisper that she loves him, she will pick up the kunai and raise it with trembling hands to Sasuke's back, she will cry and fall and have to be saved.
Because Sakura, Sakura knew how the story really went.
note: I would've added this in ToE (aha the acronym) but I figured the kinda sorta ambigious pairing might be a nasty surprise for a lot of the people reading that anthology.