Just a short drabble I wrote because I felt guilty about not updating endless tears.
Memories. They haunted her. They smiled malevolently at her, knowing the pain they caused her. They caused her nightmares. They showed glimpses of him. His sunshine hair, always ruffled by the wind, standing clear of his face. His oh-so-mysterious whisker marks. But the most she saw of him were those innocent eyes. Those flecks of cobalt nestled in those spherical azure gems.
She remembered of when he saved her from Gaara, unleashing the kyuubi knowing that it would probably destroy the village when it got loose. And he did it for her.
She remembered when he tried to protect her so many times from getting her heart broken by Sasuke.
She remembered when she hated him, and all he did was love her even more.
She remembered when he went out to try and get "her" Sasuke back but ended up coming home with his chest impaled.
Well, she got her wish. He went out a second time to try and bring him back. He had slunk away in the middle of the annual celebration of the Kyuubi's defeat, his birthday. Nobody noticed him during the festivities. Nobody knew when his b-day was. And those few who did didn't really care.
So he came home, if you could call his personal hellhole home, with the traitor wrapped around his back and blood soaking through his clothes.
She was the first one to notice him as he stumbled through the gates. The guards had beaten him senseless for the fun of it before letting him go. Snide comments about the traitor and the demon-brat soon followed, adding insult to grievous injury.
She saw him trudge towards her house. And when he spoke, he sounded as if all the life had gone out of him, replaced with the constant drip of blood from his mouth, painting his ivory teeth crimson.
"Sakura-Chan here he is, your precious little Sasuke." The last word hung in the air, as if to spread is bitterness around. " Now, please, tell nobody I'm back, so I can go to my apartment and die a peaceful death eating some ramen."
Sakura leapt out of her house and ran after Naruto, who after five steps collapsed. He was now crawling away using his chin.
"Naruto, please, be reasonable. You don't want to…" As she neared him, she noticed his body shaking with silent sobs.
"Why did you have to love him Sakura? All I ever needed was you, and you went ahead and decided to hate me as well. Just like the rest of the village. Sakura-Chan, you just don't understand how much I love you…" He started puking up blood. His skin started turning paler. He turned around to look at her one final time before his eyes closed for the last time.
His lungs stopped cycling oxygen, his heart stopped beating, and within less than ten seconds, he was dead. He left a broken Sakura crying out in anguish above his cold corpse.
All her memories of him still haunted her. But his last words kept ringing in her head. "You'll never understand how much I love you."