Remember The Last
Autumn was long the year that Sasuke returned.
The trees were naked and the ground was colorful, but his shadow on the pavement was darker than it had ever been, and his steps were heavier. He strolled through the gates and the road was lit with blue and white as Naruto charged.
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After the fight, she went to him.
On top of the metal-sided bed, Sasuke's body was so still that she would have sworn he was waiting for the devil himself to pluck him from his sleep. She watched him for an hour, listening to the blackened leaves outside the window as they rattled the hospital's walls. She watched, and she appreciated: the silent beauty of dark eyelashes sweeping onto his cheeks.
Two nights later, those same eyelashes fluttered and his eyes opened. His skin glowed in the moonlight and he stared through her like she was a sheet of glass.
One blow to the neck—bittersweet like the last time—rendered her unconscious. He slipped away and into the quiet world where she might never find him.
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Their next meeting was an accident.
It was autumn again and he was swayed by fate and the cool October wind. The pathway near the river was littered with strands of pink hair, and he followed the trail straight to her, his legs moving mechanically.
When he approached, she told him that he belonged in Konoha and he said he knew.
He also said he wanted to fight Naruto again.
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The reunion was awkward without Kakashi, whose body had failed him just months before his dream was to be realized. The faithful members of Team Seven had stood and watched as their teacher crumbled into gray ash, wondering at all that could have happened. —Would his heart have ever mended properly? It had been shattered by Grief so many times.
Kakashi was cremated and Naruto and Sakura asked eachother who the blame fell to, but with Sasuke back in the equation it was easier to forget painful questions.
Slowly but surely, the pieces of their team blurred together again until, just as it had been during their childhood, it was hard to find where one person began and where the other ended.
They were as one.
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When they encountered Uchiha Itachi on a mission, they fought—like Sakura and Naruto had promised—with a force created by three that benefited only Sasuke.
They were beaten senselessly, but he stood toe-to-toe with his brother at the end of the battle, embracing Revenge like a forgotten lover. Staring, once more, at his back, Sakura couldn't help put grin at how straight and proud it was.
He turned around, and that was the first time she saw him smile.
The next time was three years later, as his dead eyes stared at her through the pages of a velvet-covered scrapbook.
Fin.