"So this is it, huh?" Her voice mimicked Sasuke's monotone disposition. Sakura was completely numb and impulsively brash as a result. This was it, she concluded. This was her last and final chance. If he left now, Sasuke would never return again. Her heart had already been shattered beyond repair, her chest burned in a fire of black flames, only extinguishing when it would consume her entire soul. She could start to feel her eyelids grow heavy with exhaustion from her constant agony; already feeling the need to close her eyes, Sakura would now begin her final fight against the darkness.
She rolled her gaze up to his sculpted shoulders, and then settled her eyes on the perfectly woven Uchiha fan decorating the center of his shoulder blades. "It consumed me too you know….the darkness…after you left." The absence of the haunting sorrow in her voice shocked Sakura, and instigated the optimism to believe that this could really just be a bad dream. She had forgotten what it had felt like to not feel a pool of acid in the bottom of her hollow stomach, to not feel sharpened claws scratching at the sides of her gasping lungs. It was like she had suddenly become a separate entity detached from her body, staring beside herself but only seeing a stranger. "Sasuke, I don't blame you for the choices that you've made. She hesitated, and then straightened her spine. "I have never experienced your loss, but if the torture of living without your family was similar to the loneliness I had felt without you…then….I understand. I understand why you left."
He then lifted his heel, and the sound of his wooden flip flop echoed through the night with each step that followed. However, she wasn't done yet, not even close. Sakura was going to get her say; she had nothing to lose that wasn't already gone. A strained smirk stretched across her lips.
"You know…I thought you were supposed to be a genius? I guess you never really even had a chance against Naruto." Her voice casually teased without abating the venom of her insult.
Immediately, he halted his stride. Bingo, she thought. His charcoal bangs reflecting the moon's silver glow, swung in a horizontal line as he whipped his head to the left in a sharp warning. Yet, she found his reaction encouraging and began to realize that she could actually have a chance to get through to him. But, she would have to not care about hurting his feelings. She needed to instigate the release all of his frustration and hurt, only then could Sakura have a chance to heal him.
"oh come on….don't you dare tell me that that wasn't part of why you left Konoha in the first place." She began baiting the hook. "You honestly believe it was only about Itachi?" His knuckles turned white as his fist curled into itself. "Kakashi told you what would happen. He warned you about revenge but you ignored him!"
"Sakura," His voice was pure steel as he bestowed his last and final caution.
The corners of her lips slightly turned upward as she continued, "And now you're leaving because you can't stand to be wrong!"
Only the radical drop of surrounding pressure and the swift airstream that followed were detected from his impulsive movement. Her blush bangs blew away from her forehead as a petite tornado of Konoha's rusty dust encompassed their bodies. Sasuke's breathing was jagged and his chest moved erratically like an earthquake. She had to tilt her neck back to meet his statue hardened gaze. It was deadly alright, but Sakura remained emotionless as she reasoned within herself that his good opinion of her had been impossible to earn and therefore she had nothing to lose.
His cold breath trickled down her baby smooth cheeks. The erratic rhythm of his heartbeat obstructed the lazy humming of hers. She was surprising calm under his threatening shadow, but all she could blame it on was her inability to feel like she was of any worth in his eyes. His dark twisting tunnels that burrowed into her soul reflected nothing but a lost pink haired girl. She almost huffed at her pathetic reflection, but instead, focused on the cause of her limbo-like state.
Silence was triumphant in the long seconds of the night as they stood parallel, each staring into the other's eyes. Sakura's mind could not produce the proper words to express her feelings with natural elegance or complete clarity. All of the things she wanted to say could be taken many different ways. All she wanted was to be able to communicate with him where there would be no misunderstandings or hidden meanings. She only wanted to speak the truth.
Taking a deep breath, Sakura whispered "Why can't you love yourself?" The slight crease in her eyebrow was a noticed fracture in her concrete façade. Unable to battle his deepened stare, she lowered her eyes to her crossed arms that where the ribbons holding her crumbling pieces together. "Sasuke…..you deserve to be happy, an—….and Itachi didn't sacrifice himself if he didn't want your happiness as well." His uncovered toes disappeared from sight and then, once again the familiar click of his flip flop reverberated against the bark of the ease dropping trees. Sakura mentally cursed and then shot her head up to watch as he was once more wandering farther and farther away from her.
This wasn't how it was supposed to be, she thought. Everything was supposed to fall back into place once he had returned. Doubt and self-loathing were threatening to pull Sakura into the furthest place that was darker than anything she had ever encountered before. But, standing in front of her imminent fate, a fire exploded within her waning soul.
"Why won't you talk to me! Tell me what you feel Sasuke!" She was screaming at his halted back. "I know you think that you can't have happy life. I know you feel like you don't deserve it, but I know that you do! You are hurting inside, and it's eating you away. It's pushing you from the only people that are left to love you!" The volume of her voice was rising as she emphasized her feelings through clenched teeth. "You are walking away from the life Itachi wanted you to have!"
"Shut up." It was faint because of the direction in which it was spoken, but perfectly articulated with biting poison.
And if her sweltering flames were already scorching, Sakura's rage had just multiplied tenfold.
"No! You just don't want to hear it because it's the truth! You're going to isolate yourself for the rest of your life to do what? Punish yourself? For what? You didn't know Sasuke! Nobody did! But it was the choice that he made, and right now….by running away, It's like you're disgracing his sacrifice!
Slate, onyx, alabaster, were the words that Sakura could have used to describe his eyes from before. However, the orbs that were now mere centimeters away from her own were pure crimson. Her slits narrowed as if to challenge his unspoken threat. She knew he wouldn't dare touch her, not after he had almost succeeded in killing her under the bridge. Yet, she knew that he could always lose himself again in a fit of rage.
"Go ahead, tell me I'm wrong. I dare you." His breath felt warmer as she tilted her chin in a provoking manner, but no sound passed his lips. She couldn't help but become lost in the silence, wandering his masculine facial features with her ocean green eyes. His lips were coated in a thin sheen of saliva that were way too hypnotizing from up close. The sharp line of his jaw emphasized his potent gaze. Dark eyebrows framed flaming tunnels, but Sakura suddenly noticed something different. His expression wasn't his same typical aggressive countenance. She could tell that deep in the infinite galaxy of his obsidian orbs, the consuming black holes were no longer present.
Too entranced in her new discovery, Sakura failed to notice Sasuke's fingers reflexively twitch. Little did she know that from his point of view, the angle in which she tilted her head revealed a scar just below her eyebrow. He didn't know why, but in that moment he had felt the overwhelming need to trace it with his thumb.
"Sasuke….surely you must know." She closed her eyes and when she opened them again, no longer could she suppress her feelings. Eyebrows pulled together, she lamented, "Surely you must know that we need you." Her eyelashes fluttered as she took a shallow breath, "I need you." She watched his face for any sign of a breakthrough. She wanted him to open his heart to her, but she wasn't expecting much.
Trained for most of his life, Sasuke had never found it difficult to deceive those around him. He had internally dealt with all of his issues within his own conscience since a young age. However, faced against Sakura, he found it increasingly difficult to stay silent and leave her with her fictitious opinions of his character. For some itching reason that annoyingly eluded him, Sasuke wanted to tell her the truth. He wanted to scream it at her, and correct her false accusations. Feeling an ach in the bottom of his stomach, Sasuke was perplexed as to why he was reacting in such a way.
Then, as if lightening had struck, Sasuke no longer cared to be alone with the truth. He wanted someone to share it with, and someone to understand his actions. With an escaped breath, Sasuke calmly conveyed, "Sakura…I can't stay here….not when everything reminds me of him." He closed his eyes and shook his head to the ground.
A wide eyed frozen Sakura had stopped breathing. She just stared as the enigma in front of her was revealing himself. He expressed grief and distress, and all she could do was stare. All of a sudden her vision became obscured, and the neckline of her shirt felt moist against her skin. Little droplets mixed with happiness and sorrow cascaded over her flushed cheeks. Nevertheless, instinct propelled Sakura's hand as she reached with a delicate touch to lift his chin. Pulling his gaze back to her glistening eyes, she hastily nodded her head up and down, wanting to placate his agony in any way possible. Seeing her love, who was in her eyes one of the strongest men she had ever known, crumble before her, ripped her bleeding heart straight from her chest. She wanted desperately to give him comfort, to ease his anguish. She closed her eyes to allow her last tears to fall, and then gently rested her hand on his ice-cold cheek. Once more nodding, she softly answered, "Okay…...it's okay."
At the end of her words, Sakura thought she had felt Sasuke lean his face into her touch. With eyes still closed he gently grasped her fingers, and before he could begin to pull her hand away, Sakura swiftly said, "but I'm coming with you."
His hold on her fingers slightly loosened, and then just as she was about to panic as if he was going to disappear in a flash, she again felt his touch. However, suddenly her heart stopped thrashing in her chest and her lungs were sucked dry without air. Following the sensation with her eyes, Sakura stood dazed as Sasuke had pulled her petite hand up to his moist tender lips. Leaving a warm seal that glistened in her palm, Sakura was stunned without the ability to form words. Instead, her stomach bubbled with warmth that was so foreign, she forgot what it had felt like to be genuinely happy. Parting her tingling lips and imagining what would happen if she leaned her face in just a bit, she stuttered, ''Sasuke-kun?"
At the sound of the affectionate name he had missed hearing from her lips, a bottomless breath from his throbbing lungs was set free. He was tired, utterly exhausted. Tormented by old family memories and frequent nightmares, Sasuke was mentally fatigued and quite honest with himself as a result. He couldn't escape her, he concluded. She would just become another regret, another ghost that would haunt him in the lonely night. He would never be able to forget her soothing voice or her polished jade eyes. She was a curse, and he was the cursed.
He pondered what he should do next. Breathing in her natural floral scent, Sasuke mentally clashed with his want and his aching need. He wanted her to continue her current life of working in the village. He wanted her to marry a normal citizen and have children that would nurture a domestic lifestyle, away from the danger and all that he encompassed. However, that thought struck a blazing flame of jealousy and undirected anger. He couldn't stop himself from imagining the life they would have together if she were to leave with him.
He had envisioned waking up in a warm bed, arms wrapped around her soft torso, lost in her majestic beauty. He imagined his palm soothing her growing stomach, thumb lazily drawing slow circles, and the Uchiha kick he would receive in response. Then he thought of the years passing by, age showing on their skin, but her ocean green eyes just as radiant as ever. And right then reflecting on their life together, he considered himself the luckiest man alive, to have grown old with her.
There was no denying it any longer, he loved her.
And so, he didn't know if it was out of selfishness or selflessness, but he would let her decide her own fate. Disrupting Sakura's similar reverie, Sasuke said, "I won't return, but what you decide is up to you."
Knees a little weak, Sakura couldn't believe what had just transpired. But back in the conscious moment, she didn't care to further analyze the situation. She had already known all along that she would follow him anywhere. She would follow him into the ground.
She loved him, there was no denying it.
Unable to control the crescent moon smile illuminating her lips, Sakura exuded her once lost light. "Okay then," was her intrinsic answer.
Feeling her fingers fit perfectly between his own, Sasuke was surprised to feel his lips pull into a mirroring smile. It was natural. It was genuine. It was because of her.
Taking the first step in retracing his crater footprints, Sakura led the way out into the unknown. Watching her pull his arm with no hesitation, he wondered if she was fully aware of what she was about to commit to. Tugging her slightly to a halt, Sakura's head twisted back to meet his questioning gaze.
"This is it you know?" his thick voice sent vibrations through her spine.
Faintly tilting her head to the side as she drew closer and closer to his moistened lips, she paused just close enough to feel his radiating heat. Then, to his utter amazement, she looked up at him with the same mesmerizing love he had envisioned in his dreams and remembered from his past, "Yeah…our beginning."
The sensation of being pulled in and embraced was overshadowed by the possession of his lips onto hers. Giving and taking, sucking and stroking, at last a gasp for air had paused their flaming passion. Resting his forehead onto hers, all of a sudden it was like he couldn't get close enough to her. She was in his arms, but it still wasn't enough. Emotionally, physically, he never wanted to be far from her again. Sasuke once more gathered Sakura's tiny hands in his. Watching her chest heave up and down, flushed as a rose, this time it was he who led the way.
As they vanished into the night hand in hand, a shrub not too far away from where the scene took place revealed a blonde haired ease dropper. Straightening his aching stiff spine, he let out a careless yawn. He then dramatically stretched his arms up in the air and the crossed them behind his head. His lips pulled together in an O as he began to whistle a happy tune to the sleeping birds. Strolling back into the village, a familiar silver haired man was leaning against the opening arch.
"Naruto," It was said as a statement but within it held a hidden question.
In response, Naruto paused before his sensei, and bestowed a closed eye smile that conveyed genuine happiness but also a sense of sorrow. Yet, he continued on his way whistling a catchy tune, knowing that he would again see them someday.
Watching the fading back of his once immature student, his own hidden lips began to form an upward curve. With one last look into the forest where his other two students had disappeared, Kakashi released a puff of air. "Tch, about time," And with a turn of the foot he followed after the Hokage.
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