Black Roses
1. What Could've Been
Side Pairings: MinaKushi, SasuSaku
Genre: Romance, Tragedy, maybe a bit of Angst
Summary: Minato and Sakura have these strange dreams about each other. Too bad they're just dreams.
Everything started after Sasuke's return. She couldn't sleep and even if she somehow managed to, she had terrible nightmares.
As a result, Sakura was afraid to close her eyes. Because the nightmares weren't just something her mind made up. No, they were worse. They were memories.
Eventually her tiredness won and the rosette slowly drifted off to sleep.
She was standing at a small apartment. It looked... fabulous. The color scheme was wonderful, the furniture looked comfortable and there were pictures all over the walls. Through the window you could see Konoha's peaceful streets.
It was the home she always wanted.
But then the pinkette realized something. It was different. It was all different.
Konoha looked different and the pictures...
All of them were of her and a blonde man. Laughing, hugging, grimacing. She had assumed it was Naruto, but now she saw the difference. The man from the picture was taller, his hair was longer and his eyes were so... intense. Naruto never ever looked at her like that. Not even when he proclaimed his love for her.
Before she could marvel more on it, the door opened.
Sakura saw herself walking in. Surprisingly, she wasn't feeling weird or confused. It felt like watching TV. Like that was someone else. Not her.
The woman looked so similar to our heroine, yet so different. Her eyes were much... brighter. The pinkette thought she lost that when Sasuke left.
That's when a man came in.
The young medic immediately recognized him. He was the man from the pictures.
He gave her other self a kiss instead of a greeting and if Sakura had any doubts that they were together, they were all gone by now.
"How was your day?" she heard herself asking
"Absolutely exhausting." the man complained somehow childishly
"Suuure." drawled the other rosette with a teasing smile
"Hey, being a Hokage is very, very tiring!"
Hold on! Hokage?! She was dating the Hokage?! What kind of dream was that?!
"Minato, all you do is sit behind a desk all day! How the heck is that 'very, very tiring'?"
The couple continued their playful banter, but Sakura tuned them off.
That version of her... She looked... happy.
"I love you, you know that, right?" she heard the man mutter as colors slowly started to fade
"I love you too. You and only you." was the last thing she heard
Waking up with a gasp, the rosette looked at her surroundings. She was in her old bedroom in her old apartment.
Shaking her head, Sakura decided she needed chocolate. Who said it was only for break-ups?
Minato was a busy man. Training his genin (soon-to-be chunin) team, preparing for being a Hokage and lots of other things. So, naturally, he needed his sleep.
Another thing about the blonde was that he never dreamt. Never.
Thus he was quite surprised when one night he did have a dream.
He was sitting in the Hokage office on the Hokage seat. It was pretty normal, considering the strange dreams Kushina always complained about ("-and then a giant bowl of ramen said 'I am your father!' or "-but then the horse smiled and said with really girly voice 'You have pretty hair.'")
A woman walked in and oh my, what a woman! She had short pink hair and the biggest green eyes Minato have ever seen.
"Mi-Na-To!" she started, her voice irritated "How many times do I have to remind you to sign that!"
She handed him (rather harshly, if he might add) some paper which he recognized as the official document that the Hokage must sign to get the next one's preparation begin.
"Seriously, Naruto is bugging me 24/7 and if you don't sign the damn thing, I swear-"
The rosette was cut off by him flashing to her and planting his lips on hers.
Minato was horrified. He had no control over his actions. It's like his mind was on auto-pilot; he knew exactly what was he doing, yet he couldn't do anything to stop it. Not that he minded kissing pretty woman, but still...
"I hate it when you do that." she murmured
'So I do that a lot?' he wanted to ask
"I know." he heard himself saying instead
A sweet giggle came from her rosy lips,
"I'm trying to be serious here, Minato. Just sign it."
He took the nearest pen and scrawled his name on the bottom of the document.
"There. Now no more complaining, we're going home to have some fun!" he announced with a smirk
The pinkette shook her head teasingly "I believe our ideas of fun are a little bit different."
Grinning, the blonde kissed her forehead,
"If that's the case I'll have a lot of fun tonight."
He took her in his arms and flashed them to their house.
The woman tried to put on a disapproving face, but didn't succeed, considering the fact that she was laughing.
"You're unbelievable!" she muttered
"That's why you love me." he responded with a cheeky grin
When Minato woke up, the only thought he could formulate was 'That was way stranger than Kushina's dreams...'
The dreams continued.
Sakura's new routing consisted of waking up, going to the hospital, having lunch, training with her team, having diner, going to bed, having one of those dreams, waking up and repeating the cycle again and again.
Her life would be pretty monotonous if it weren't for the dreams. They were different every night. However, they did have something in common.
In all of them she was in a relationship with the blonde man (whose name was Minato, Sakura had learnt).
There was one where they had been on a date in some park. Another where they had been sparing.
Her favorite one so far was the one where he had proposed.
It had been so sweet, romantic and fairytale-like!
It was all good, until she found out who was the man she had been dreaming about.
Naruto had said he wanted her to meet his parents and had taken her to the Fourth Hokage's grave.
Namikaze Minato.
Suddenly it all made sense.
Why he looked so much like Naruto. Why was he so familiar.
Every piece of the puzzle went on its place.
And Sakura saw the whole picture.
The man she had been dreaming about was the Fourth Hokage.
The man she had been dreaming about was married.
The man she had been dreaming about was her best friend's father.
The man she had been dreaming about was long gone.
She never dreamt of him again.
It was unexpected.
The dreams stopped all of sudden.
And Minato'd lie if he said he didn't miss them.
Years passed.
Sakura married Sasuke.
Minato married Kushina.
Sakura was happy.
Minato was happy.
And yet...
A day didn't pass without them wondering what could've happened if they had met.
But no one cried.
There was no use of crying over a future they never had.
Over what could've been, but never happened.
Because at the end of the day...
...Life's still going on.
AN: Not my best work, but I needed to get MinaSaku out of my system in order to finish 'Monster''s next chapter.
So every time I want to write a MinaSaku one-shot, I'll post it here.
By the way I NEED A BETA! Like desperately!
Love,
Berry
