NaruSaku-ish. Hints others, but thats mostly about it.
One Shot
Semi AU...
"Hey", she whispered.
He didn't reply, and stared at the ripples in the water. She took a seat on a large gray rock near him. He continued to look at the river.
She had avoided him for a week, trying to figure out what to say to him in the best way possible.
At once, she was at a loss for words. Those sentences she practiced out in her head and memorized every night had deserted her mind for the moment. She breathed in sharply. Now what could she say to him? She was damn sure that whatever stupid comment that she had left would cause him to distance himself from her even more.
She kept her eyes on him, her fingers tapping a smaller rock due to nervousness. Using her free hand, she tucked her hair in the back of her ear and used her index and thumb to play with it until she gripped it tightly. What the hell was he thinking now? She wondered. Was he still mad, or was he just ignoring her because he wasn't ready to forgive her, or something else?
She searched his face, his eyes. The blue tone was slightly darker, she mused. He looked stiff, and his hair was untidy. He didn't smell like ramen, but there was a hint of strong tea. Maybe medicinal tea, or some relaxation tea, she guessed. He hardly ever drank tea enough to smell like it. This was bothering him more than she let on.
Her mouth coiled into a deep frown. He was sitting there, his hands on this knees, lips pulled into a thin, grim line. She wanted to apologize, she wanted to say she never meant to hurt him, all the cliché things both of them had heard each other say over and over again in the past years. She wanted him to smile after her apology like he always did and say that he was going to be okay again because she was there and that he trusted her to never cause him pain.
This time was going to be different.
She wasn't going to apologize, because he wasn't going to accept it, and it would make his condition worse.
She wasn't going to say that she never wanted to hurt him, because he would laugh and twist her words around.
He wasn't going to smile for her.
He wasn't going to trust her.
But still she hoped that he would, that this incident would just become a joke like many others before and they would laugh about it for years to come.
The only thing was, that this wasn't like anything ever before. It was nothing like anything he or she had done before. It was brand new and deep, so the ugly blemish wouldn't fade away and possibly reopen sometime…
She needed courage right now, to approach him with a least some kind of confidence to show him that she could still do this, no matter how bad it was also eating away at her.
What exactly had Ino said to her yesterday?
Don't worry, it won't last forever. He'll end up talking to you sometime, and both of you will forget it. Be patient, Sakura…
That was a problem, and a huge one. She didn't want him to talk to her sometime later in their lives, they would miss even more than they had now. His time would run out even more soon than Kakashi's, most likely, and it had already been twenty one years. She wanted him to say something, and say something now.
A sarcastic laugh erupted from her.
It was almost always him who took the first step. She did, but he was the one who approached her before she could.
He would not face her, he couldn't. So she would make him.
Closing her eyes and clenching and unclenching her fists, she stood up and faced him.
Hesitantly, she noticed, he was trying to look at her. He looked like he really couldn't do it. But she could.
She took baby steps to where he was, and her heart pounded in her ears as she neared him. As she squatted down in front of him, he looked down, avoiding her.
Her hand reached out to touch the whisker marked cheek, but as soon as she became too close for comfort, he jerked away and jumped up and his eyes widened as he looked down to see her figure and her face looking at him, and at those few seconds he saw every single thing she had felt in the week.
She was scared now. Why was he staring at her with that kind of look? It was some kind of intensity, but it wasn't deep.
He couldn't take it anymore and tore his eyes away from her green ones and then turned away.
She saw his back face her, and then slowly, she got up. As sluggish as she moved, she felt the wind, and she could feel that it was mocking her as it played around with her hair, then to the yellow mess on top of his head.
Something was in her throat, she couldn't breathe, she couldn't say anything, but inside she was screaming out everything she wanted to say, and it was so loud her whole body started to shake.
He didn't move for the longest time, and neither did she.
She strained herself to breathe regularly, until she could hear herself inhale then exhale.
And this time, she would take the first step. She would take it whether he wanted her or not, and she would say anything now, just to save this moment, even if it was choking her.
"Naruto…" She breathed his name and he stood straight now, stiff and uncomfortable after hearing her voice again.
She moved her right foot in front of her, ready to walk to him.
One step was all she got until he turned his head around to meet her eyes for the second time.
His expression was incredulous,
Hers was curious.
"I forgive you, only because your Sakura-chan." He said softly; his voice broke and cracked and she knew that it was killing him, but she couldn't help him, because it was killing her too.
And then the wind, the wind that was laughing at her, gave her no mercy as it picked up again and this time, it didn't play with the pink hair. It blew and blew until her hair flew around her face, blocking her vision. She was too much frozen to move, and when it died the only thing she could see was the outline of his figure walking back into the busy streets of Konoha.
Yeah. Basically popped into my head and had an impulse to write it. I think its boring, but I just had to post it or else I'd blabber endlessly and possibly go nuts.