A/N: I'm not really a SasuSaku fan, I'm pretty 'neutral' to it (pairings with Sasuke don't seem to work in my head) but I tried. Set sometime during Naruto Shippuuden.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy the story, and please leave a review/constructive criticism.
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.
Eclipse
He stands above an abyss, a precipice of darkness and lost dreams and shadowy figures. His life tells a tale of loneliness; of misleading truths and twisting paths that take him further from humanity and closer to ambition (I have an ambition that I have no intention of leaving just a dream). And somewhere along the line he's forgotten how to live and how to breathe without inhaling the remnants of his past that linger in the air around him.
Now there's only smothering darkness and a pressure that builds in his chest when he wonders how he got here. Sometimes on restless nights he's plagued by dreams of dark hair and red eyes that spin themselves to infinity (when you have the same eyes as I do, come before me). And when he wakes, in the indistinct moments before he remembers despair and revenge, he sees the falling petals of cherry blossoms and eyes of jade that pierce his soul.
He remembers the feel of her cheek between his shoulder-blades. A firm, warm pressure filled with both pleading and resolve. He remembers slender arms holding him tight, hands pressed against his chest, and how for a moment the forest held its breath and it was just the two of them and he felt something he couldn't recognise unfurling in his stomach, burning his insides. And when he turned to look at her, there was so much honesty and innocence written on her features he felt like a blemish tainting her existence, an ink stain on fresh parchment. When he thinks about it, he realises he doesn't know how long it's been since someone last touched him with anything more than cold apathy.
Sometimes he admits to himself that he misses it. Misses her unwavering faith and blind admiration and childish love weaving a protective cloak for him, so that he can meet the world and know that at least one person will notice when he's gone.
He wants to bring her to a field of green and gold, and lie in the grass in autumn and feel her breath against his cheek and know that she's listening to the steady rhythm of his heart. But there are some things he'll never feel. He wants to lean against the trunk of an old, resolute oak and tangle his legs with hers and feel soft tendrils of her hair on his neck. But there are some things he'll never do. He wants to take her hand and meet her gaze, those ocean eyes, and apologise for stealing her strength, but he knows the words will feel like poison in his mouth, and they will get caught like a blade of lightning in his throat. Because there are some things that he'll never say.
The feeling never lasts long, and by the time he's run a weary hand over his eyes, his day has already started and he forgets any longing for easy security because there is only time for training and hate and power and an avenger whose skin is marked by a pattern of curses, an avenger who tries not to remember a life of friends and fullness. And days will pass when he doesn't think of the past and the girl. But even when he's hidden in the gloomy depths of Orochimaru's lair, even when dawn is beyond his reach and light seems to slip through his fingertips, there will be moments when he recalls days of sunshine and children's voices filled with so much hope it hurts.
And hidden amongst hazy memories of family and Konoha and Genin teams, he remembers that girl (falling cherry blossoms and eyes of jade) and he hopes that if this journey ever finishes, she'll be at the end of the road waiting for him.
Lucem in tenebras ferimus .
A/N : Hope you enjoyed it - reviews are much appreciated!