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No matter what you decide to do from now on, we will love you forever. – Team Seven, SasuSaku.
This will be a little Team Seven ficlet, no more than four chapters long. Please note there will be spoilers for manga chapters 630 and on. If you're not caught up with the manga… what are you doing? Go read!
Standard disclaimer applies.
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chapter 1: nightmare
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"Why… are you so weak?"
The large hand grasped too tightly against his throat. He desperately struggled to free himself, oh, to get out of that shameful position and wrench his own hands around that neck, to dig his nails into the soft flesh there, to kill, kill, kill –
"I want to kill a certain man."
But the figure looming over him morphed suddenly. The pressure on his throat lightened, held only by the constrictions his own lungs decided upon.
Blood. Blood everywhere.
Crinkled eyes.
Weak smile held only by years of resolve.
Two fingers poked his forehead; nostalgia rushed through his body cold, as if his chakra had completely drained.
"Sorry, Sasuke…"
No. No.
"This is the last time."
"No!"
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His body was freezing cold and paralyzed, sharingan eyes snapped opened and blazing in the darkness of the night. Cold and alone and in the same position he had fallen asleep in.
Alone.
He sat up slowly, deactivating his kekkai gekkai, and shook his head sadly.
Not my kekkai gekkai. Not my eyes.
Dark sheets pooled in his lap. Uchiha Sasuke clutched his forehead, which throbbed painfully from the involuntary activation of the sharingan, for who knows how many hours.
The war was over, but the nightmares… they didn't cease.
The throbbing in his head was rivaled only by the dull throbbing in his heart that never seemed to end. Rubbing his hands over his eyes, Sasuke swung his legs over the side of bed in his childhood room and stood up. Screams still seemed to echo off the walls, the wailing of young children and adult alike; the ghosts of his past, of his family would never be set free. As he wandered the hallways of the Uchiha compound's main house, laughter, the pit-pat of running, and the delicious smell of food floated from the kitchen. He arrived in the kitchen, where his brain thought, water, had told his feet where to go.
A short, dark haired woman stood at the kitchen sink, back to him. Her hair was impossibly dark, smooth and long, and Sasuke thought to himself, it looks like mine.
"Kaa-san."
She turned around slowly, and Sasuke woke up once again.
A dream. It was just a dream.
But the slow realization settled upon Sasuke's stomach like a weight. I can't remember your face, Kaa-san.
Slow tears gently ran down his face.
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The sky was bright and the weather was fair; a warm Konoha spring. The mighty village that had fallen was almost completely rebuilt, and the sound of children running off to the Academy and the re-opening of the market brought a warm feeling to Haruno Sakura.
She stood in her ninja attire on a familiar red bridge, waiting to meet the rest of her team for training. She had always been an early bird. Sakura shifted uncomfortably in her flak vest, the article feeling strange and oddly reminiscent of a time when she wore it every single day. For the war.
But that was over now. The war was over and the village was rebuilt and her team was rebuilt and Kakashi was out of intensive care and Sasuke was back and his sentence was minimal and Team Seven was okay, dammit, her team was rebuilt, too.
The warm feeling that previously filled her body escaped her like the wind. Underneath the happy laughter of children she saw the sad silence of others; of parents who no longer had children, who didn't even have bodies to bury.
Ino and Shikamaru came to her mind's eye and there she saw the emptiness in their eyes. She saw children who no longer had parents to come home to. She saw friends whose worlds had crumbled.
The shuffling of clothing approaching her snapped her out of her thoughts, just as she registered the familiar chakra approaching her. She had spent many hours healing and monitoring the chakra of the man coming towards her. She turned to him, just as a flock of birds cried loudly out in the sky – springtime.
Birds. Chirping.
Panic overwhelmed her as the blood drained from body in a split second. She suddenly snapped her head to him, hard enough for whiplash, and raven hair, and lightning flashing, and Oh god – Chidori!
She let out a yelp and raised her arms in a defensive stance, stumbling backwards, losing her footing and she clenched her eyes shut, preparing for the hard wood of the bridge to connect with her tailbone.
But it never came.
A strong arm came behind her back as Sasuke fell into a crouch to catch the startled woman. Sakura slowly opened her eyes at him, face red from embarrassment.
"Sa…" the first syllable of his name fell from her mouth and she couldn't finish the word.
"Sakura?" he questioned, pulling her up to a standing form.
Her face was ablaze. "I – uh, sorry," she muttered unintelligibly. When he chose not to reply, she hesitantly looked up at his face, raven hair framing his lightly tanned faced, and mint hitai-ate shining in the sun dully. If he was unhappy about her reaction, he didn't show it. His eyes were clouded with anxiety, but wait, Sakura thought, as she determined that Sasuke's face wasn't the same, that something was off.
Those aren't his eyes. These aren't the eyes I fell in love with as a child.
The bottomless, soulful onyx eyes were gone. Those aren't Sasuke-kun's.
The two settled for silence as Naruto came bounding to the bridge, followed closely by Kakashi.
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"Aren't you excited to finally go out on missions again!" Naruto's rambunctious voice came as they all sat for ramen after their training.
Sasuke eyed the blonde from the corner of his eyes as a clap came down on his shoulder. "Of course he is," Kakashi answered for him. Sasuke hummed quietly before bringing the chopsticks up to his lips to eat his ramen.
"Dattebayo!" Naruto fist-pumped. "We need to have as many Team Seven missions before I become Hokage!"
"Dobe." Sasuke muttered under his breath. "I will become Hokage."
Naruto guffawed. "We've been over this, Teme." He slurped up his noodles, broth splashing on the table.
"Naruto, that's disgusting." from beside Naruto, Sakura was slowly packing up her bag before she slid from her seat to the ground. "Sorry I can't stay for lunch," she apologized with a small smile. "I have a surgery in an hour."
"Yare, yare, Sakura," Kakashi looked at her pointedly with his visible eye. "Don't work too hard. You already trained with us this morning, too."
"Yeah, Sakura-chan! You just finished up healing Kakashi-jiji!" he teased, earning a punch from the grey-haired man, who had been in the hospital for five months following the war. He rubbed his arm. "Besides, how are there so many surgeries even though the war has been over for over nine months now?"
Sakura shrugged. "People are still sustaining many injuries and problems because of the war." She shouldered her bag. "Well, I'm off. Ja ne."
The three men watched as the pinkette walked off in the direction of the hospital, brisk and business-like.
"I wonder why Sakura-chan is so quiet lately." Naruto said, more to himself than anything.
Sasuke eyed her disappearing back warily before standing up, himself, setting some ryo down on the table to pay for his bowl.
"I'm leaving."
He left Naruto and Kakashi to their thoughts.
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If you're by my side, I promise you won't regret it.
I'll make everyday more enjoyable so you'll be happy.
I would do anything for you!
He could hear the tears; hear them in her voice. Panic, desperation - love. Clear, emerald eyes shone at him through the tears.
Please, Sasuke-kun. I love you.
Birds chirped loudly, lightning flashing all around him.
And then he saw it.
Soft pink hair.
Green eyes that smiled.
And blood running from both sides of her mouth, against alabaster skin.
No…
Then it was Itachi, eyes sad.
Little brother… how could you?
Then it was her, again.
He looked down at the gaping hole in her chest, his own arm protruding from her chest cavity, lightning still crackling.
Sasuke-kun. Her voice was too clear, too strong, too emotional to be dead.
No. No. No. Sakura –
She smiled at him, smiled through tears that ran down her face and blood that flowed from her mouth.
I love you more than anything, Sasuke-kun.
Her eyes fluttered closed, letting out her last breath.
No!
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"NO!" he cried as he jolted up from his pained sleep. Sasuke panted, looking desperately around for the pink-haired medic. Reality clashed with his dream world and his sharingan spun wildly, Pleasedontbedeadpleasedontbedead, and, it's just a dream, don't be ridiculous.
Sasuke brought his hands up to his face and buried it there. He recalled the way she had stumbled away from him today. He knew why. How long could he possibly feel this way, everyday?
Regret. Pain. Loss. Loneliness. Regret, regret, regret.
I'm so sorry.
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Naruto, Sakura and Kakashi shared a look the next day, after the former had waited an additional two hours for their teacher to show up.
Sasuke wasn't at training this morning. Or the next.
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And there's the first chapter! This just came to me one day when I woke up suddenly at 4 in the morning and I started looking at images of Itachi and Sasuke. Obviously there will be more to it, so please review and alert! Reviews are love love love, they encourage me a lot. Let me know what you liked and didn't like, or if you enjoyed it or not, or if you're anticipating the next chapter or not!