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Three shadows loom across the vast keep, as they jump over rotting corn stalks and heaps of mud. The corn stalks shield their hushed whispers and outburst of laughter, while the dimming sky listens to them play. It's a cold chilly evening in their small run-down town, and the farmers are inside planning for their harvest season. Likewise, the town teenagers find their way to wreak havoc and find places to store their alcohol and cigarettes.
Specifically Sasuke, Sakura and Naruto, who keep their cigarette stash on the top left corner of the Tengoku's abandoned barnyard.
As the three shadows run, Sakura always trails behind, while Naruto and Sasuke aim to lead. It's late September, and their misting breaths bloom like fire from their mouths.
'Guy's come on, this is enough, and we shouldn't even be in here the first place.' Sakura says, huffing behind the two. She dodges a stalk and leaps over another.
'Ha! You hear that Sasuke-teme? Let's turn back. Unless you're too chicken too!'
'Shut it dobe.' He said nonchalantly.
Naruto laughs and smashes face first into a corn stalk for the hundredth time. His blonde yellow hair glistens in the late evening sun, and Sakura gets a glance at his incredibly blue eyes.
'Come on Sakura-chan! Summer's almost over! Relax, have some fun, will you? It's our last senior year, we gotta do something to remember it by.'
Sakura utters complaints the whole time and demands they turn back and go home. She would rather be drinking alcohol like a normal teenager than run through corn stalks like middle school children.
'Wait! Shhh!' Naruto says, holding Sasuke back. He growls at him in response, but then the slightest glint of sunlight from an infamous shotgun hits his eye and the three of them freeze instinctively.
The sparrows fly over them wearily, and the three of them hold their breaths.
It's corn season soon, and the annual fair is supposed to be held in two months. Kakashi's spends endless hours tending to his corn— perfecting it just right so that he can get first place every year. And here they were—three reckless teenagers running around in corn stalks.
But for some reason, Sakura doesn't fear too much. They are too far to be seen. Even with her obnoxious hair colour and green beautiful eyes. She lifts her chin towards the setting sun and smells the pre-winter air. The crispness fills her lungs and Sakura smiles.
Naruto and Sasuke hold their breaths until Kakashi makes his round on the other side of his small bungalow home. He's on high alert after tried to vandalize his harvest from last years completion. Sasuke sighed. What a trivial thing to be all worked up about.
The two boys start moving again, and Sakura shakes off her rosy day dreams and continues to run with them. Not a moment later though, she frowns.
'Why are we doing this.' She says, and it's not a question. Her tone is silent. 'Sasuke…'
'Please Sakura… stop.' He hears.
'But Sasuke—when are you moving?'
She notices Kakashi returns to his logged house and the glint of the shotgun disappears. Likewise, Naruto's goofy grin fades like the setting sun. Suddenly everything is moving— and in a much different way than it first was.
'Tomorrow. We're leaving tomorrow.' He replies, facing the sun. He lets the warmth of the light cast a glow in his pale face. Sakura never thought she'd ever see the day.
'And that's it? You're just going to pack your bags and move with Itatchi?'
'He's my brother. We stick together.'
'I though we stick together! I thought we're your family too!' Sakura says, growing angry by the sudden shift in chilly weather. A cold breeze flutters by and the three of them shiver instinctively. Their loose shirt ride up, and skin exposes the same way Sakura exposes her grief.
They stop moving.
Sakura tucks a stray hair away from her face. She shifts her gaze to Naruto. 'And you? When are you going back for treatment?'
Said blonde runs fingers through his blonde hair. Chunks have fallen out at a time since the first few treatments in the hospital.
She notices the sun setting below the horizon.
'Tomorrow.' He replies sadly.
Sakura takes a glance at Sasuke— pale skin, eye bags so dark and pronounced. He was death worn on canvas, and she was just sadistically attracted to broken things.
She shifts her gaze to Naruto, and he gives her a weak little smile. She doesn't even smile back at his pity. She doesn't want his pity. Not now or ever.
And now it was her turn to look at herself and see what her problem was. But that was it— she didn't have a problem. She made problems.
White-Pickett fence, with a family of two parents and a bread winning father. That was exactly the problem. She was nothing more than a five for twenty dollar chicken meal. Nothing special. Nothing really.
With hushed tones and ragged breaths, the three reckless teenagers continue their journey to the barnyard, where Sasuke stashes his drugs.
Sasuke can't even voice his annoyance to Sakura. He reaches the barn house first and ducks under a fallen beam. Who knew that the son of a multibillion dollar company sold drugs to the honour kids?
They creep into the structure, scaling the broken wooden ladder, scratching their skin and embedding splinters in their palms.
Naruto trails close behind Sasuke, who leads the way up. He should have stayed at home, but what would he have there? Naruto is scared. The noise inside his head is loud, his room is a mess, and he just can't stop crying. The worst part is that his sickness is romanticized. But sadness is not art, and crying isn't poetry. And how was he supposed to know that you can't water flowers with vodka?
"You think we'll get caught?" Sakura whispers and Sasuke simply rolls his eyes. Naruto puts his comforting hand on her shoulder and shakes his head.
"Try to be quiet." He replies.
The three shadows soon arrive at the second floor, and they stand next to a large window that overlooks the keep. There is a full moon out tonight, and the galaxies make the barren land look crippling. She wishes that she would just be part of the star dust she once was.
"Do you have a lighter?" Sasuke asks, and Sakura nods. She hands him her lighter and he places it by the window side.
And when Sakura turns around to face her two lights, the sun and the moon, Naruto is already exhaling a swirl of smoke, and Sasuke is taking his turn. And suddenly everything is going faster and faster and she can't keep up with time no matter how hard she tries.
It's like he is sucking a soul from a bottle.
So Sakura takes one hit.
And in a few minutes, Naruto is laughing— a lot. Something he can't really do on his own.
And Sasuke is getting afraid of the moon, because it's so big and so scary, but that's ok. As long as he forgets what he's done.
As long as he forgets that he killed his mother in a car accident; sneaking out to do a drug deal.
And when Sakura spells her name she spells it like this:
"I- N- O." She whispers into the moon. Suddenly she had sparking blue eyes, a full chest and long hair that whisks in the breeze.
The son of a prodigy.
The crazy boy.
The girl who lived in a house with a white Pickett fence.
And the kids at school said that they had everything. And then
they met each other
and they
were everything.