It was a maddening cycle.

Violence to death to violence to death and on and on into oblivion.

And Sasuke was just another go around it.

Sakura could see that. She wasn't blind or stupid, regardless of what some people may say.

Plus, she knew plenty about painful cycles from her own life.

Hers wasn't as painful or even half as deadly as Sasuke's was, or nearly as deadly, but it certainly was painful enough.

She would grow close to Sasuke, think that maybe, just maybe, he liked her (or at least that he enjoyed her company), only to have him ignore her the next day.

Typical teen drama, some may say, but typical teen drama shouldn't include the possibility of death at every corner, right?

At each painful turn of the cycle, she can feel another tear in her heart, another wave of disappointment washing over her. But the cycle would turn, and things would get better. For a while, at least.

She was a slave to the cycle, willing to go through times of great pain for times of happiness.

But all cycles have to end.

Whether good, or bad, or somewhere in between.


Then he left the village, and the cycle seemed to end. Not with a 'and they all lived happily ever after' but with a twisted version that left the villain laughing at the futility of the hero.

She tries to move on, but half of her is stuck, still searching for that 'happily ever after' that she so deserves.

The other half of her is waiting obediently for a new cycle, a new purpose.

And, all of her is stuck on the old cycle.

It may be gone, but the chains are still there, binding her to it.


Haruno Sakura.

She is a friend.

A teammate .

A medic.

A ninja.

A kunoichi.

But, most importantly, she is a slave to the cycle.


Uchiha Sasuke.

He is a friend.

A teammate.

A rival.

A ninja.

An avenger.

But, most importantly, he, too, is a slave to the cycle.


Neither one has the key to their own chains, but both have the key to the other's.

It's too bad they haven't realized that yet.

Maybe, someday, they will.

Or, maybe, they won't.

Maybe the keys will sit there, unused for all of eternity.

Only time can tell.


So, this is how they are, and that is how they will remain.

Slaves to the cycle, forevermore.

fin