Notes: Brushing off the rust, I have reentered the world of fanfiction through the prompting of SSMonth 2017! My writing is a little.. haphazard because it's been a while and I didn't really have a clear idea of what I wanted this one shot to be. I just wanted to write something remotely related to the day one prompt ( first love ) before day one was over and day two commences. As a result, this one shot has no clear beginning and no clear ending. Also, other than the obvious disclaimer that I don't own Naruto, I'd like to point out that there are three lines of dialogue that was referenced from other media. A drama, a song, & a quote ( that was slightly altered due to bad memory lol ).
The metallic tang of life drowned his palette, numbing his tongue. Whether it was his blood or hers, it all tasted bitterly the same. He tried to swallow the taste away but it was a dry swallow that left his throat raw.
Unflinchingly, Sasuke gazed at her with indifference.
Colder than frostbite, Sasuke Uchiha was not one to willingly yield. Forsaking the last remnants of kindness and friendship, he had accepted the bitter chill of winter as a turbulent blizzard of hatred and revenge latched onto his core. He was no longer the bright summer child with easy breezes anymore. Sasuke was now the unforgiving, hard winter kin and he certainly didn't deserve a tranquil, benign spring child like her.
Steeling his resolve, he shifts half an inch closer to her unwittingly. For all the wrongs he's done in this life and all the wrongs he will continue to make, let this be the one thing he does right. If the world had even a shred of pity left in it for him, let Sasuke sever these bonds and allow Sakura to be as free as her namesake.
"Surrender," he says more to the whistling wind and stirring dust clouds than to her. Sasuke's rigid resolve manifested itself through coloring his eyes as red as the spilled blood drying on the ground. The air shifted and so did Sakura.
A step forward, her eyes betrayed the time that has passed. Sakura was no longer the soft spring child more suited for twirling among blossoms. She was a warrior now. She's killed and seen blood spilled, knowing that she was the cause of it. Frail could no longer describe her.
Clenching her fists, she adopted Sasuke's terse manner of speech by responding with a simple, resolute, "No."
"Tch," Sasuke frustratingly exhaled.
As his mind wondered on how he could convince her that while he needed to burn with the world, she did not. How could he get her annoyingly firm idealistic goals to unravel? How could he make her understand that she doesn't need to burn with him, that she's the only thing he's not willing to set on fire? Unknowingly, every question that ran through his mind had brought him one step closer to her. And now, he's so close to her that if he merely extended his chokuto, Sasuke could kill her.
She chisels away at the tense air in the small space between him and her, "Come back with me."
This was the closest they've stood without punches flying and kunais piercing since he's left. The air was thick and sizzled with electricity but Sakura couldn't tell if it was the remnants of Sasuke's attacks or merely the conflicting resolutions battling one another. It made her hair stand on end regardless.
"Aren't you tired?" he remarked before he thought it all through. Wasn't she tired of chasing after his summer shadows? Wasn't she tired of watching the sands of their past slip through her fingers? Wasn't she tired of getting burned whenever she pleaded with him and he walked away anyways?
Sakura's eyes softened in shock at his question. She hadn't expected such a.. caring, almost sentimental, question to part from his lips. For a second she considered that maybe he'd already trapped her inside of a genjutsu and that she had just been horribly slow at recognizing his abilities.
But no, he had asked.
"I'm always tired," Sakura replied achingly honest. She was exhausted. Tired of chasing him when she knows they could be happy. Exhausted with training and honing her skills to provide him with something more. Fatigued with the brutality of the shinobi world they live in.
Before Sasuke could fill the lingering silence, Sakura whispered, "But never of you."
Her bright green eyes hardened once more, her resolve burning in her veins.
"Come back with me," She commanded.
Stunned by her sudden confession, he quickly recovered with a cruel smirk, "Tch, go back by yourself."
One foot in front of the other, Sakura closed the small distance between them until she was a mere half-step from touching him.
"Come with me."
Inhaling deeply, he willed himself to not falter. Sasuke refused to take a step back but even more so with a step forward. He would not yield and he would not give in. This was for her sake. He won't let her burn with his sins.
Her viridian eyes narrowed ever so slightly, ever so delicately, "What are you so afraid of, Sasuke-kun? Why are you doing all this?" Her hand gestured out towards the ruined battlegrounds but her eyes never left his.
"I'm not afraid of anything," Sasuke bluntly declared though he could feel his heart falter just half a beat. He looked down at Sakura, determined to be cold and imposing, hard and untouchable.
Sakura countered, "Then take me with you. I only fear losing you."
A pregnant pause grew as the two entered an unspoken battle full of hard-set mouths and stubborn eyes. The longer he looked, the more he hesitated. Sasuke was meant to see red, not green. His gaze was destined for spilled blood and raging flames. Not this cool viridian that taunted him with promises of lush grass and teased him with promises of blue skies.
"I can't," Sasuke breathes as his heart skips another beat.
In that one moment, he sounded as frail as a lost child and he hoped that he sounded firmer than that in her ears. But it was in vain because she had heard it and her eyes had softened once more.
Relentlessly, she demanded, "Why?"
Thousands of answers flash by. All of which are as cold and cruel as the next. His hand tightens instinctively around the hilt of his chokuto. She was so close. It would be embarrassingly easy for him to knock her out and leave her once more.
And yet, "I won't let you burn," was what slipped from his parted lips, nearly silent in its breathlessness.
Green eyes widen at him and Sasuke can't help but notice the traces of blue that lines the edges of her irises. How beautiful, he fleetingly thought. His hand twitched, causing the chokuto to catch some of the sunlight. It burned bright white, looking deceivingly pure when it has tasted blood more times than he can remember. The glint of steel distracts him for a second, if even that. But it was long enough for her hand to reach up and brush his cheeks.
His eyes flash back to hers, his hand twitched again in its pounding ache to touch her back. She's seen the raging desire in his eyes and now she knows, she can still bring him back.
"Sasuke-kun, don't you understand?" Sakura gently mumbles as her hesitant hands brush against the locks of hair caressing his cheek.
"First love burns the brightest," She smiles, "I haven't stopped burning since."
Her cheeks flush as though emphasizing how her love had yet to cease, as though the flames themselves were licking at her cheeks. His empty hand moves on its own as it cups her cheek and slowly, softly, his thumb brushes against her blush.
She shivers under his touch and he notices.
His resolve dissolves.
The chokuto clangs once, twice, as it falls onto the dirt. Sasuke blinks first and Sakura follows suit but before she can open her eyes, she feels his lips on hers and his hands cradling her face.