Please Don't Forget to Remember
One Day Before
Sakura runs up to me as I arrive at our designated meeting area, and Naruto's nowhere in sight. No missions today, she tells me quickly.
She then asks, would you do me a favour, please? and presses a piece of paper into my hands. I look at it, and the first thing written in thick, black pen is 1: Act. It is quite a long list, but nothing difficult. I look up and she's looking at me and asking me again, please, and I think for a while. Situations like these are hard without my books.
It occurs to me that this is what friends do, and I am Sakura's friend, so I nod.
Okay.
Sakura's whole face lights up, and she takes my hand and we run towards…somewhere. I want to ask where Naruto is, but I don't think she can hear me over the wind. We stop at the other end of the village; a frayed banner with a crest I recognize hangs over the entrance of a quiet compound.
Inside, the walkway is neglected – cracked tiles, dried leaves – but mostly clean. We walk until we come across the largest house in the compound, one that was once beautiful, and we step inside. Sakura is solemn, and I am curious.
There are many rooms inside, and it's cool and dark even though it is a cloudless day. She navigates her way through slowly, reverently, and when we walk up the stairs, she turns right and I follow.
Naruto stands inside the room, his back to the door.
He is holding something in his hands, and as we step inside, I notice it is a damp cloth. He is wiping the glass panes of the sliding door, and he looks at me wordlessly before handing Sakura a similar cloth.
She takes it with a nod of thanks, and she walks to the far side of the room to clean the surface of the long desk. I see a picture, faced-down, and she wipes around it.
They work quietly around me, so I take the opportunity to look around. Everything is ordered chaos, cupboards wide open, drawers haphazard and books scattered. In the cupboards I see rows of dark blue shirts with that same crest printed on the back. Inside the drawers, I see…nothing.
They are empty, void of dust, even.
The bed is messy and unmade, so I step over and reach for the blanket because everyone else is busy cleaning up.
A sharp voice says "Stop," from behind, and I turn to see Naruto glaring at me. "What are you doing?"
"I am going to fold the blanket."
"You cannot touch anything in this room."
I am confused, so I turn to Sakura.
"No one touches anything in here," she says quietly, and I nod.
I think I understand: it is like a museum.
Okay.
I stand around for a few more minutes before walking outside. Naruto doesn't snap at me, so walking around is all right. As long as I don't touch anything.
I turn into the first room down the hall, and it's clean but a little dustier. There is a bed, a desk, a chair and a cupboard. It is tidier than the other room. There are no photographs or decorations on the walls of this room, and I like it; I'm used to things being this way. Clean, like a blank canvas.
In the desk there is one drawer, and it is partially open. I look inside, and there is something at the back. I am curious, but I cannot touch, so I bend down and tilt my head for a better look.
It is a photograph of two people: boys. One is taller, with two deep lines on his face. The other is smaller, and has a bright smile on his face. The older one has a smile on his face too, but it is smaller, more guarded. They both look like genuine smiles.
I stare at it until my legs go numb, and when I stand up to stretch, Naruto and Sakura are standing by the door.
"Let's go," she says, and we leave just as silently as we had arrived.
When we arrive at our usual meeting spot, Naruto turns around and walks away without a word. I turn go to go too, but Sakura touches my shoulder. Tomorrow, she says, and I nod.
Yes, I remember.
I go home, I take a shower, and I sit in the living room with my drawing book open on my lap. I stare at the drawing of Shin and I, and I think of the two boys in the photograph back at the house.
I wonder if one of them is dead, too.
I place the book aside and I walk to the bedroom and try to fall asleep, but I cannot. I draw instead, of two boys and genuine smiles.
As I draw, I wonder if Naruto and Sakura are sleeping.
I doubt it.
--
The Day
I am the earliest one to reach our usual meeting spot today. It is almost eleven.
Sakura arrives first, with a nice red box in her hand. Hello, she says without looking me in the eye, and I say hello. A few minutes of silence, and I answer her unasked question.
Yes, I remember.
She smiles, but it is a different smile. It's not to say 'okay' or 'yes, I know'. It's bright and full of hope and when I look into her eyes, it is as though I can her every emotion laid out like layers before her eyes. Her smile is vulnerable.
I've never seen this kind of smile before.
Naruto arrives, and he is visibly uneasy. We are standing in a wide circle, and Sakura opens the plastic box. Click.
Inside are three onigiris.
She extends the box towards me, and I take one wordlessly.
I take a bite, and it is moist and soft and a little sour due to tiny cubes of tomato among the rice. It is nice, if you enjoy onigiris. And tomatoes. I finish one, nod smoothly and turn away without a word.
For several seconds, we just stand there, Sakura with her hands still outstretched, me with my back against them, and Naruto looking back and forth between us.
"Are the rest for me, Sakura-chan?"
She scoffs at him as I turn around. "No. But we can go to Ichiraku Ramen, if you want." She then turns to me, smiling that same breathless smile.
I stare back at her wordlessly.
"Alright, let's go!" Naruto says, and he leads the way.
As we sit at the bar, Ayame takes our orders. Sakura orders the diet ramen, and Naruto orders the Miso Special. I open my mouth to order, but Naruto has it covered. He'll have the one with tuna flakes, Naruto tells Ayame.
That is not what I usually order, but Sakura catches my eye but she doesn't need to remind me because I can remember.
The steaming bowls arrive fast, and we eat up carefully.
"You eat so slowly," Naruto says with his mouth full, and I shake my head.
"I do not. I'm almost done."
It's true, but then again, our soup levels are equal so he's almost done, too.
Naruto starts eating faster, and so I do. Soon we're eating so fast I cannot taste anything and all I'm doing is swallowing and trying not to burn my throat.
We finish at exactly the same time, and when I lift my head up to meet his eyes, it surprises me. That smile…it's the most genuine smile I've seen on Naruto's face. It's bright and happy – almost like Sakura's, yet different.
I pay because I was told to on the paper, and Naruto scoffs at me but I can tell from the way he walks that he is pleased. Sakura walks closer to me today, so close I can smell the shampoo in her hair.
The three of us walk towards the Hokage's office, and around me, the villages are milling about, doing their every day activities. When we pass ninjas, especially Jonins, they all look at us with the strangest expression in their eyes.
It is sadness.
Even Tsunade looks at us with a hint of that sadness when Naruto demands a worthy mission. She apologizes and gives us a single D-class one, because they are short of Genin.
We head towards a town by the river, located just by the outskirts of Konoha's walls quietly, with Naruto muttering angrily at occasions. We help this family weed their garden and water their crops and chase several stubborn chicken back to the coop.
We do not speak.
By the time we head back to Konoha, it is sundown. Naruto is trying to walk ahead of me without making it too obvious, but I know because I am trying to do the same. We end up running towards the large wooden gates, and I scrape pass just ahead of him.
Sakura catches up to us and smiles that bright, hopeful smile of hers and I turn away, partly because it said so on the paper, and partly because it frightens me. That look in her eyes is intense and wondrous and infinite.
By the time we reach our meeting spot, the hill that I can see from my bedroom window, it is dark. There is no moon tonight, and the stars are brilliant above our heads.
Suddenly, Sakura leans in and wraps her arms around me. I am taken aback for a moment, but I remember and I push her away firmly.
She stumbles, and she looks at me with such hurt in her eyes I cannot meet her gaze. There is a sound beside me and suddenly Naruto punches me in the jaw, hard and fast.
I can feel the bruise already and before I know it, I have Naruto pinned to the tree with a kunai across his neck. It's automatic, like breathing and running and blinking. Somewhere besides us, Sakura gasps and Naruto growls at me.
"You bastard."
I don't think, I just bring my knife closer until it's touching the smooth expanse of his throat. I hear another sound behind me, a shadow clone. I turn around and it's directing a kick towards my stomach, and I have to let the real Naruto go to protect myself but as I do this, the real Naruto punches me in the back of my head.
It's not as hard this time, and when I turn around to him with my kunai raised, I see Sakura on her knees, weeping.
This part, the crying part, was not in the paper.
She is a friend, so I walk towards her and I bend down. I think back quickly, and I remember reading that if someone is upset or crying, you should offer them comfort like placing a palm on their shoulder. I do this, but she recoils so quickly I almost step backwards. She is muttering something underneath all those sobs, and I catch a name.
Sasuke-kun.
And then I realise.
Without warning, the hitting sounds start. Naruto is on my other side, and he is punching the tree rhythmically. Thump, thump, thump. He is staring into the distance, and when I call his name, he looks at me but doesn't see me.
He continues to punch at the tree, and I can see the blood running down his knuckles.
Sakura is still crying, Naruto is still punching, and there's nothing I can really do but tilt my head up and watch the stars. I never know the true intentions behind the missions that I do, but I do know this one, and it is not pleasant.
Uchiha Sasuke left Konoha four years ago, tonight.
I look at the vast sky and I think of the photograph of the boys, the older and the younger, and I know they are brothers. I keep my gaze tilted up until the sobs stop and the sound of cracking wood ceases.
The footsteps start, and Sakura's voice is small as she calls out from the bottom of the small hill: "Are you coming, Sai?"
Yes, I think, and I make my descent. They are waiting for me at the bottom of the hill.
We walk back silently, not as Team Seven, but as Team Kakashi.
I should have killed Uchiha Sasuke.
END
A/N: It wasn't supposed to end like this, but Sai is badass so it does. I mean, there's so much we don't know about the guy. Sure he's polite and sweet on the outside, but he is in Root, where they are trained to become heartless assasins. Oh, Sasuke, you provide teh angst so well. And Ann - thanks! :)