Under the Same Sky
Sakura sighs as the sunshine warms her exposed skin. It is her day off so she lies on the grass of training ground three, soaking up the cheerful rays. Ino, Tenten, and Hinata had all agreed that it was too hot to spend the day working out, so they had opted for watching the boys sweat in the blistering heat while lounging near a large tree. Ino and Hinata had started weaving bright yellow daisies into Sakura's shoulder length hair.
"Okay, all done!" Ino announces proudly. Sakura opens her eyes to see the blue sky expanding in front of her vision, no signs of any clouds.
Sasuke wipes his brow. The heat was blistering, if he wasn't so driven by revenge, he would have stopped traveling hours ago. He had removed his shirt as a meager way to beat the heat, leaving him tracking through the desert-like environment in his navy pants and black sandals.
"Will this heat never end?!" His loud-mouthed, sword-wielding teammate exclaims before taking a swig from his ever present water bottle.
"Suigestu, stop complaining." Sasuke scolds half-heartedly, but he can't blame the ex-Mist nin, after all, he had just been thinking the same thing. He casts a quick glance at the sky, hoping for oncoming clouds to provide a source of shade. His disappointed however when he's only met with a stretch of blue, no clouds in sight.
Sakura turns her head sharply, causing her rain-soaked locks to spray water on Naruto.
"Hey, we just got out of the rain!" Her blonde-haired teammate exclaims while wiping the fresh droplets from his face. The two had been on a mission gathering intel on the Akatsuki. The rouge-nin group had been quiet lately causing concern for the Hokage.
Sakura lays her pack on the ground before moving towards the window. She peers out at the thunderstorm raging outside. An uncomfortable feeling gnaws at her insides, the type of feeling she gets when something is off. Lightening strikes violently in the distance pounding the unsettling sensation into the pit of her stomach. She gazes out at the dark atmosphere at outside for a little longer, blaming the black clouds for her sense of unease.
Sasuke stares at the limp body as it hits the ground. He had finally done it. Finally avenged his clan, finally completed his goal, no, finally completed his destiny. But why did he still feel so empty? Wasn't the dark feeling inside of him supposed to diminish?
Cold raindrops hit Sasuke's skin, breaking him from his frozen stance. Slowly, he drops to his knees next to his brother's corpse. Memories of his childhood rush through his mind: Itachi carrying him on his back after Sasuke had foolishly twisted his ankle, Itachi flicking him in the forehead as his own little show of endearment, Itachi reminding their father of the academy's opening ceremony.
Itachi had murdered the clan, but his death didn't sit right with Sasuke. He had just murdered the very last of his family. He lets out a cry of frustration as lightening dramatically strikes in the background. Wind whips around him and thunder resounds. Sasuke leans over the body of the man that had been the source of torment throughout his entire life. Tears run down the younger Uchiha's face as a feeling of complete loneliness washes over him.
Sakura sits on the dock overlooking the large lake, which glows pink in the reflected sunset. She leans slightly into the body next to her. "It's so peaceful out here." She whispers into the quiet.
"It certainly is." The boy sitting next to her responds. "The color is the same shade as your hair." Kiba gestures a hand at the rosy sky. "It's so beautiful… You're so beautiful, Sakura."
Sakura turns her face towards him, wide eyed. Sure, she knew that Kiba had a thing for her; why else would he have asked her on this date? But she wasn't expecting him to be as sweet as he was. She couldn't help but feel guilty that the entire time her mind kept flicking back to a certain raven-haired boy.
It had been a week since she heard the news of Itachi's death, but her former teammate had yet to return. Would he ever come back?
She's brought back to the present by a light squeeze of her shoulder. Kiba looks down at her expectantly and starts hesitantly leaning his head down for a kiss. In a moment of panic, Sakura brings a hand to his chest, as if urging him to stop. The brown-haired boy seems to get the hint and stares at her with hurt filled eyes eyes.
"Kiba, I'm sorry, but I'm not ready for this." With that she stands up and walks away from the dock, the coral sunset not quite as beautiful as before.
Sasuke runs through the forest while attempting to wrap a bandage around his bleeding arm. He had been rudely kicked from his campsite when several bounty hunters ambushed him. The past week had been hard, he was travelling on his own and no longer had Karin's chakra sensing on his side, even just having an extra pair of eyes watching out would have eased the anxiety he'd been feeling.
The forest, cast in the glow of the last day's light, gives distorted colors to his surrounding. At one point, the branch Sasuke steps on snaps sending him plummeting towards the ground. Low on chakra and sleep deprived, his usual attuned reflexes fail him, leaving him laying flat on his back on the forest floor.
Staring up at the petal-colored sky, he can't help but feel a sense of familiarity. It matches her hair color perfectly.
He's snapped from his reverie as a kunai embeds itself in the grass next to his head. Sasuke quickly recovers and as he continues running, he can't shake the oncoming feeling of nostalgia.
She lays on her sleeping mat, pink hair fanned out around her head, green eyes peering up at the night sky. Her teammates had fallen asleep hours ago, but she couldn't bring herself to shut her eyes. This night was a picture of perfection; a cool breeze drifts through, but the crackling fire next to her prevents the temperature from being uncomfortable. Bright stars littered the sky, almost as if they were pinholes that had been poked into midnight colored fabric.
Sakura listens to the noise of the surrounding forest. She finds the chirping of crickets and faint rustle of leaves surprisingly comforting. Right before closing her eyes for some sleep, a thought wanders into her brain about how the color of the dark sky looks exactly like the eyes of somebody very dear to her heart.
Sasuke breathes in the night air, it's slightly moist, but carries the familiar smell of a campfire. It reminds him of his genin days, before he was in everybody's bingo book, when he could afford the luxury of lighting a fire on cool nights such as this. But those days are long gone, so he wraps his cloak tighter around his body and looks up at the star filled sky. The twinkling cosmic lights remind him of the gleam that was always in his Konoha teammates eyes, Naruto always optimistic and hyperactive and Sakura always hopeful that Sasuke would finally acknowledge her. He closes his eyes, dreaming of the days when everything was easier.
Sakura jumps from tree branch to tree branch, pumping chakra into her legs. She clutches the newly retrieved scroll to her chest like it's a lifeline, and in a way it is. It contains the last known whereabouts of one, Uchiha Sasuke. She doesn't let the ache forming in her legs hinder her movements; she must get back to Konoha and share the new found information with Naruto and Tsunade.
Blurs of brown and green pass by her as she races through the forest. Eventually she reaches a clearing and decides to rest for a bit. She glances up at the big puffy clouds filling the sky while catching her breath. As they float by she starts to see shapes in the fluffy whiteness, a bunny here, a turtle there, but one stands out above the rest. It's shaped exactly like a shuriken, there's no mistaking the resemblance. Right before resuming her running, Sakura quirks her lips in a small smile, thinking about how a giant mass of condensed water could form a shape that seems so familiar.
Sasuke sits on the same tree branch he had occupied every time he came here. It's situated in a way that a portion of the looming gates of Konoha were visible, but far enough away that nobody could sense his chakra. He had been coming here often, only straying away when a group of shinobi came too close for comfort. It had been over three months since he killed his brother, but he still hadn't been able to walk through those gates. It wasn't the punishment for his actions that scared him; it was facing what he had left behind.
Naruto.
Kakashi.
Sakura…
He wondered how they would look at him now, he highly doubted that they would welcome him with open arms, well maybe Naruto would, but as for the other two… They should kick his sorry ass. He would let them too. After all, he had taken their trust and love and dragged them through the dirt. He had left his female teammate on a bench for crying out loud.
Clouds drift by and Sasuke watches them with fascination, picking out shapes here and there. One of them startlingly resembles a shuriken. He quirks a smile as he remembers a day when he had assisted Sakura with her throwing technique. At the time he had been annoyed and disgruntled, claiming that if she didn't know how to throw it right, she would just get in the way, but now thinking back to that day a certain fondness grips him.
Sakura.
He had thought of her often since sating his thirst for revenge. He doubted she still cared for him like she used to. She would much older now; he won't be surprised if she were in a serious relationship with somebody. As much as that thought caused his heart to twist, he knew it was most likely a reality. He had just been a simple crush of hers, and she most likely would have moved on. He wasn't able to bear facing those bright green eyes again, or the cool blue pair, he even dreaded confronting the lone dark eye of his former sensei.
So there he sat, hiding in the trees like a coward. Too scared to turn around, but utterly terrified to move forward, so there he would wait.
The first glimmer of sun reaches through her blinds, gently stirring the young kunoichi awake. Raising her arms in the air and stretching until a series of pops resounds through her spine, Sakura welcomes the new day. With a smile she slowly stands from her bed and begins getting dressed.
She had only gotten the chance to slip on a pair of pants when a pounding of fists on her door alert her to the presence of a visitor. She walks to her front door, still in her sleeping shirt, when she identifies the chakra signature as Naruto. Upon opening her door she eyes her blonde friend, an expression of mock anger on her face. Before she can give him a hard time for coming to her apartment so early, he starts shouting in excitement.
"He's back, Sakura-chan! He's back!" It takes the still sleepy medic a moment to realize what his words mean. When she concurs that he's talking about their teammate from so many years ago, her mind is instantly set into turmoil.
She still cared for Sasuke, that much was certain. One doesn't spend his or her childhood building a bond with somebody for it to be easily broken. But she did feel slightly bitter towards him; he had inflicted so much pain on Team Seven throughout the past years. His betrayal had been a heavy blow for everyone.
Still not sure how she's going to react to seeing her long lost childhood crush, Sakura steps out her door and into the first day's light.
Sasuke made up his mind, that day he would finally walk through those gates. He wasn't expecting to be accepted right away, but he knew he had to stop being a coward. Life couldn't continue with him sitting in a tree, internally berating himself for not having the guts to face the consequences he had brought upon himself. Taking a deep breath, he jumps down from the tree and onto the path.
Which each step towards the gates of the place he once called home, his mind instantly starts urging him to turn around and run the opposite direction, but he has to do this. He had been avoiding it too long. Once reaching the gate, ANBU officers surround him.
Sasuke holds up his hands in surrender as the elite ninja come closer. When the gates behind them starts to open he quickly looks away, not wanting to see what awaits him behind it.
His attention is captured however, when he feels a strong hand slap him on the back.
"It's about time, Teme." He suppresses the smile tugging at his lips, but teasingly responds.
"Dobe."
Looking at the entrance to Konoha he refuses to fight the grin any longer. There stands the pink-haired girl that had been plaguing his thoughts. A smile of her own is displayed on her face, revealing perfect pearly teeth. She runs to him and tosses her small arms around his neck in a suffocating hug.
"Welcome home, Sasuke-kun."
With the threesome complete again, Sasuke looks up at the sky, embracing the dawn of the new day.
A/N: I absolutely loved writing this. At first I planned it to be more dramatic, but I'm glad I made it cutesy instead. Though I'm not sure if the style seems too confusing. Let me know what you think in a review!