Gold in the mud

Kushina: does sasuke know?

Naruko: (shaking her head) no, mom. I don't want him to know. Beside, he might just convince me again not to go.

Kushina: but you should at least tell him. After all, he is your fiancé.

Naruko: (thinking) maybe it's better if you're the one who'll tell him after I leave. My flight is this afternoon and I don't want an obstruction.

Kushina: (thinking about sasuke) poor sasuke. Naruko, I am afraid of what will cost you.

Naruko: (holding her mother's shoulder with her both hands) don't worry mom, its for the better. If I don't do this, we will live in mediocrity forever.

Knock! Knock! Knock! (knock on the door)! They heard a voice of a man from outside. Naruko was sure who it was sasuke. When he entered, he greeted naruko with his sweetest address.

Sasuke: ohayo, my love

Naruko: (half-heartedly) ohayo, what brought you here?

Sasuke: oh, nothing. (smirk) i…ah (quite shaking) I have something to tell you.

Naruko: me too.

Sasuke: really? Oh great.

Kushina made a slight coughing and found a better way excuse herself.

Kushina: ah, you two sit in the rattan and I'll go to the kitchen to get you something to drink.

Sasuke: arigatou kushina

Kushina: your welcome, sasuke (giving him a wry smile)

Naruko: so, what is it sasuke?

Holding firmly the little velvet case inside his pocket, sasuke began to sweat. He's about to say the word when he caught the pieces of baggage lying on the floor.

Sasuke: you're leaving my love?

Naruko: yes.

Sasuke: when are you coming back? Are you going to have your yearly visit to aunty Iruka in manila?

Naruko: no sasuke, I'm not going to aunty Iruka. This time, I will be gone for longer period.

Sasuke: (his face turned white) don't tell me…

Naruko: yes sasuke, im leaving for the state.

Sasuke: I thought we've talked about this before?

Naruko: yes we did. But I never said I will not leave.

Sasuke could not hide the anger rising from his chest. He held tighter on the small piece of velvet case inside his pocket.

Sasuke: why didn't you tell me?

Naruko: I know you would protest.

Sasuke: of course I would protest! Naru I am your god damn boyfriend for 3 years.

Naruko: but you have no job.

Sasuke: what are you talking about? I work in my father's farm everyday. Every month, I earn money from the harvest. I have saruka, my carabao, and her children who help me in earning my living as well as my family's. I can buy things for myself as well as for you.

Naruko: and you call it a job? A farmer? All work, no pay farming? Sasuke, I don't want that kind of life!

Sasuke: I have given you everything. I don't know why you keep on degrading our simple life.

Naruko: I don't want this! I'm so sick and tired of all these mud in the look, all I can see is mediocrity.

Sasuke: (trying to calm himself) but, how will you get ther? I know that getting there is too expensive.

Naruko: I have gaara who will help me.

Sasuke: and who is that gaara?

Naruko was quiet for a while before she was able to speak again.

Naruko: he is Canadian who helped me. And we'll get married as soon I get there, so that I could have my green card.

Sasuke totally shocked. It took a while before he could absorb what Naruko hat told him.

Sasuke: are you crazy?

Naruko: sas, if you really love me, you will understand. You know how I badly want this dream. I just want to be rich. I don't want to be poor anymore. I just want to fell the luxury of splendid living, beside gaara and I are getting married just on paper. I will live there and work, and when I earn enough money, I will come back and we'll get married, I just need his surname to get my green card.

Sasuke: curse them! Those bourgeois, look what they have done to you?

Naruko: no, sas. Its good that they are rich. I really don't know why poor people get mad at them. Cursing them yet they wanted to be like them. I think they are envious. They are envious because they are hopeless and they know they wont able to taste the food rich people eat, nor wear the clothes they wear, nor hop on the car they ride on. Not even in their dreams! But not me, sasuke, I have dreams, I want to be one of those rich people. I want to have money and fame. I want to have everything. And I won't have them if I don't leave this poor place.

Sasuke couldn't believe what is happening. Her sweet lovely Naruko, her one and only dobe and love, is now leaving her to marry a bastard rich foreigner! The thought of Naruko in somebody else's arms makes his head feel like blowing.

Naruko: you must go now, sasuke. My flight is this afternoon. I must pack some things… please understand my love. I just don't want to make things harder for us.

Sasuke was about to face the door when Naruko spoke to him for the last time.

Naruko: wait, you were trying to tell me something earlier, what is it sasuke?

Sasuke: naru, when you get there, and you get all the riches you ever wanted, which im sure you will because you're a great woman, full of courage and ability, and yet you weren't happy, you can always come back to where you came from or at least remember one man who dwells in the land full of carabao's waste, one man who may not ba able to eat rich people's food's wear rich people's clothes or ride rich people cars, but still a man who can give you something that cannot compared to all the riches in the world, something that is as genuine as diamonds on your rich husband's fingers.

With those last words, sasuke turned away and kept himself not to look back. While walking on the muddy road, he took out the small velvet case inside his pocket and opened it. The golden ring blustered on the strike of midday sunlight. He doesn't know if her beloved would still come back. He looked at the ring while deciding what to do with it. He can never use this while working in the farm, it will only get dirty and loose its luster. Maybe Naruko is right, a thing as beautiful as the golden ring he is holding doesn't belong with the mud.

owari