Yeah, my second Naruto drabble! This one's a bit of a stretch, I don't know... It's a SasuHina, with a little SasuSaku, and a little NaruHina... with a NaruSaku friendship. I went a little crazy :chuckles:. So, tell me what you think!
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
P.S. The quotes in this ficlet are Sakura talking to Naruto.
Daylight to Midnight
"When something is broken it loses the ability to serve the purpose it was made for. Like a vase that can't hold water, or armor that can't protect... or a heart that cannot beat. But, a broken heart still carries the ability to kill you if you let it. The only way to survive is to lie, that is, pretend until you can let go."
He follows the long past advice of a friend -more like a sister- that is five years dead.
He pretends that he doesn't have to fight the stinging tears that threaten to fall from his azure eyes as she walks past him, clad in a white dress that screams lies to him. She is so close, but she is equally distant. There is no painful knot in his throat as she quietly and eloquently repeats her vows to someone that isn't him, her pearl colored eyes filled with adoration, an unconditional love he desperately wishes was for him.
"There's a lot to be said about love that isn't returned. There's even more to be said about love that is returned, but later rebuked. It's... a hard thing."
He pretends he didn't lose his heart to her gentle voice and chaste kisses, the feel of her skin against his calloused fingertips, her breathy sighs under the midnight stars.
A phantom pain snakes -it really has everything to do with snakes- it's way through his chest when she kisses her husband, and he finds it difficult to see straight.
"No salvation is permitted to those who are foolish enough to give their hearts away."
God help him. Through the pain, and the unfallen tears he still loves her with everything he is, was, and ever will be.
When he returns home he vomits on the floor, he pretends it's not because he has lost her completely, it isn't because after tonight, there will be no more chances for them as she willingly gives herself to her husband. Sweat clings to his skin, his now bare back meeting the wooden floor, and he rests.
"Love is... a complicated, painful, and troublesome thing when it doesn't work right. You just have to learn how to deal."
A quiet sigh escapes his lips as he remembers his friend's particular words on the day before she left on the mission that would prove to be her last. That day, her rosette locks swaying in the spring breeze, she'd been absolutely right.
"Naruto, I think it could be so lovely. Find out for me, would you?"
It was beautiful, but love had gone and broken him. Now, it was time to let go.
And so, when she meets him again, he manages a weak smile worthy of Sakura herself, returns her hug, and with his broken voice he murmurs his goodbye.
He sees her crystalline tears slipping down her angelic face, and there's no pretending that his tears aren't falling with hers when he passes her and steps outside the village gates.
"But, if you get hurt, make sure to get closure, okay? You'll never believe what I told Sasuke yesterday... I told him, -smiles- 'I'm okay now, I know you'll never ever love me, so I'll love you, and alternately tell you to get stuffed.' ...Though, I could have sworn as I walked off, I heard him say my name."
And with Sakura's words in his mind, Naruto finds himself listening for a whisper on the wind, a soft echo of a little love being returned. His soft smile widens as he hears it.
Right on, Sakura-chan.
I think I love it!