AN: Small drabble-like thing. Thought I may as well post it. R&R always welcome.
Misunderstanding
The reason why Sasuke never notices Sakura is that he doesn't understand her idea of love. He's seen love. He's seen what it can do, has experienced it intimately. The damp feel of blood under splayed fingers as he stumbles backwards in shock, just the sharp glint of a drawn knife under a full moon in his brother's hands.
Hands that touched him, daily, in the middle of his forehead. Even now, so many years later, he can still feel the pressure. The playful, deadly serious pressure.
So he doesn't understand Sakura's overtures, because they aren't what he has experienced. He doesn't see her. He sees a kind of love that is dark, twisted, obsessive, painful, proud, stubborn, a love that is ultimately all-consuming and eternally cold. He needs a focus, a someone who mimics those. A love that is deep, never-ending, someone who will feel the full conflict of contradictory emotions, the entire spectrum of constant uncertainty mixed with a latent knowing. A knowing that he was loved, in the same way that he loved them, deeply, fiercely, with a measure of hate for the very emotion.
The kind of love that made him act without thinking, because there was a barely recognized bond.
He doesn't see Sakura.
But he sees Naruto.
FIN