Soft delicate curls of smoke rose up silently in the empty apartment. She held a shiny silver spoon in loosely in one hand whilst the other toyed with a stray lock of hair. Head stuffed onto a plush pillow her empty glazed eyes stared of into the white nothing which was the ceiling. The faint aroma sweet aroma of her camomile and spiced apple tea danced around the room as if moving to the steady a-thump of her heart.

Calm.

The first time in long time she felt like this and let herself go after a number of weeks. How she had gotten to this Zen point was a wondrous miracle. As she thought of this, images began to take form on how the present came to be. The first was his face; His tragic eyes and sad smile, then the words that had shattered the glass shard that was once her heart.

" I have never loved you."

His voice reverberated in her ears, smashing through all the dreams she had had with him in them.

"Never." He repeated. Silence.

Could her ears be deceiving her? Could her eyes? If it was a gen-justu then let it be so, she wanted to awaken and be rid of the sharp twisting sickness in her core. She fell back into the chair that was behind her as her legs gave way to the intense pressure that was building.

"...what..." her voice scratched out, barely a whisper. She stared down at the table in front of her.

"Sakura?"

It was then she looked up into his eyes, and what she saw in them was enough to make her recoil yet again. The obsidian orbs were a dark void of swirling hate. Devoid of any other emotion.

"Why?" she stuttered, her hand involuntarily wiping her stained cheek. She hadn't realised the tears till then. They poured freely now streaking down her face.

The day wasn't meant to be like this. She had gone through the notions in her mind several times, varying the different scenarios and their endings. But none of them had led to this. Sasuke would have been released from his holding a changed man. He would have smiled upon seeing her face. He would have embraced her tenderly and thanked her for enduring through the years without him, for never quiting on looking for him and for helping him as an advocate through his trials. Then he would passionately drown her in a kiss and everything would disappear. But never like this.

"Sakura..." his voice brought her back, her heart aching soundlessly at her name on his lips. He sat down in the opposite chair across the table, further away from her, adjusted his thick black felt jacket and continued. "I never looked at you that way. I thought I made the lines pretty clear that we were just team mates. It was only by your misconceptions that you thought that way..." the words faded, so did everything around them as her brain began to throb. Was he trying to say that everything that had happened was her fault? She couldn't piece it together. The strings that held everything were breaking away. Her fist clenched tightly across her chest as if trying to steady her raging pulse, as if trying to hold on to her collapsing heart.

"Arigatou Haruno-san and Sayonara." He stood fluidly and disappeared into the pouring rain. She wanted to yell,scream, or punch something. Anything, but all her lame body could do was just sit there. Numb. Unseeing to the outside world, yet feeling turmoil on the inside.

Little did she know that someone had witnessed this ordeal and that they were raging on the inside just as she was. But the person just sat there tucked away in the furthest corner, away from the prying eyes in crowded restaurant . Forced to be forever the observer, watching and waiting as his blossom was crushed under foot and begin to decay. The nin stood silently covered head to toe in a black hooded cloak that blended seamlessly into the shadows.

"Release" the voice whispered. The figure melted away into nothingness taking all it had seen with it.

"Can I get you anything else Miss?" Sakura looked to the direction of the sound. The chirpy voice still ringing in her ears. " Miss? Are you okay?" the doe eyed waitress said blinking down at her. She must have looked really pathetic to deserve that look, but she couldn't care less. She swallowed and felt the hard lump that had formed roll slowly down her throat.

"Fine." She croaked. Looking down slowly to her hands that were clenched tightly on her lap she saw her knuckles white from the force at which she held them. She released them flexing, needing to feel the pain as the blood flooded back to the starved areas. The dull throb in her head became a full on roar as everything that had just happened began to fall into place. The room suddenly became too bright, the air around suffocating and noise far too loud despite the roar in her ears. Standing, she calmly made her way out of the small restaurant into the street despite all the internal commotion. She shadow ran to the secret training area in the forest near her apartment. Now alone in the rain she let herself feel. Feel the icy cold barrage of the droplets plastering her body, feel the rage, the sadness, the fear of being well and truly alone. Her shoulders sagged and she dropped to her knees splashing into the puddle under her feet. Her body doubled over shaking violently as she wailed silently into the night.

Shattered.