Sakura sighed as she looked over her shoulder, in at her party. Sweet Sixteen? Yeah. Right. It wasn't as great as she'd thought it would be, even with Naruto and Hinata so happy together. No. Because Kakashi still mentioned Sasuke when they talked about old times, and it brought her down from her happy high she'd had this morning when she'd realised it was her sixteenth birthday.
After hours of avoiding Kakashi and Naruto, she had excused herself from the party a while ago, needing to be alone. So she was alone now, on a walk around the village. Her lip trembled as she came to the place 3 years ago where Sasuke had left. But she refused to cry. She wasn't that weak, fragile little flower anymore.
She sat down on the bench where she had sat that night, smoothing out the silk skirts of the white and pink cherry blossom formal kimono she wore. She sighed, hearing 'Far Away' start in the distance, that loud was the music playing. At her party, where she couldn't stand to be.
Sasuke looked back behind him and sighed, then carried on up towards the village. He had unfinished plans, unfinished business. It wouldn't have been sane to leave things and pack off, not like this. He stopped in his tracks.
'I must be mad..'. He shuddered, looking ahead at the bright lights in the distance. Some sort of special ceremony, maybe. Then he remembered. It was Sakura's birthday tonight. He would be disturbing everyone, making a dramatic entrance...
He continued towards the village where he had once called home, and looked up at the Hokage's faces on the wall. Flashbacks of memories came flooding back into his head as he paced up the hill. A shadow sat on the bench ahead where Sasuke had left was the only person out right now.
Everyone else was enjoying Sakura's party. She was probably inside herself, drinking thingytails and such, mingling with everyone else, with Naruto, maybe she'd even came to like him...His eyes narrowed, trying to make out the person in the distance. He couldn't see her. But he knew it was a girl. Probably someone who felt like she needed to get away from Sakura's party. But who...
Sakura sighed, twirling a cherry blossom she'd scooped off the ground round and round between her fingers. Maybe she should go back to the party...Naruto was probably freaking out. She knew it was just because he cared about her...she knew that now. But it was still sure as annoying as hell. She chuckled to herself. She'd just done it again. Called him annoying. Just what Sasuke had said about her...twice...the second being right on this spot. The night he left.
She sighed, getting to her feet. But a sudden noise of feet disturbing the surface of the dirt path leading towards her. The cherry blossom slipped from her fingers, falling to the floor and shattering, a fragile thing as it was, into bits and pieces. It was undoubtedly a guy coming towards her. From a distance it looked like Sai. But he was at the party, with Ino on his arm. No. It couldn't be. Was it? Was it...Sasuke?