Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. Plain and simple.
I'm actually berating myself for starting to write one-shots and not even finishing them. Luckily, I was able to finish this. And the story's setting is after the massacre, months before Team Seven was formed.
I dedicate this to Hazelle Hoshi and to our unending love for Sasuke-kun! Special thanks to Yamada Umeko for beta-reading this.
The Empty Canvas
by Sapphire Snowflake
I want to draw sunshine and rainbows and colorful butterflies. I want to put the green fields and blue skies in a portrait. I want to fill everything with color, with hope, with love. I want to dip my brush in the never-ending sea. I want to indulge my eyes with beauty. I want to make a work of art. I want to live. I want to laugh.
I want to paint you beside me.
I want you beside me.
I want you.
Only you.
Why can't I have you?
- - - -
Haruno Sakura smiled.
She was looking at the boy from afar with burning cheeks. The boy was sitting on the swing, his raven hair ruffled by the soft wind. He was alone and she so wanted to approach him but she can't. She had seen others being brushed off by him, being glared at.
He never smiled at them. He never smiled at all. He was cool and composed like that, never showing any emotion. She wanted to be like him. She wanted to be strong, or at least, appear strong before people. She wanted to have his knees that never buckled nor shook under pressure.
However indifferent and apathetic he may seem, she still loved him. And she knew that deep down within the boy's heart, there was a soft spot; a hidden place where he also dreamed, just like her.
Sakura did not stop from looking at him, from admiring him, and from trying to make him acknowledge that she existed.
She tried greeting him once. "S-Sa… Sasu-" But before she could even finish his name, Sasuke had passed by her, ignoring her presence. She wondered, why, oh why, why did she fall in love with him when it hurt? And her heart was broken into such fine pieces that she couldn't even piece them together.
But however upset she felt, she never stopped wondering and dreaming about how it felt like being beside him, running her fingers through his raven locks, hearing him say those soft, soft words of assurance and love.
She never stopped painting wonderful dreams of him and her.
Him and her.
That would be wonderful, indeed.
- - - -
I am powerful. I own the world. I have legs that can run miles. I can invent the cure for insanity. I am flocked by many admirers. I can make men pee in their pants. I am invincible. I am smart. I am everything others want to be. They are everything I want to be.
I want to live.
I want to laugh.
I want to be human.
I want to attain happiness.
Why can't I have it?
- - - -
Uchiha Sasuke scoffed.
He couldn't believe that an idiot like Naruto would be so brave to announce to everyone that he will be the Hokage and everyone will look up to him someday. He even had the courage to go straight to Sasuke and tell him that he wasn't as great as he seemed to be.
Maybe Naruto was right. Maybe he wasn't as high and mighty as he appeared (and wanted) to be. Sometimes, he even wanted to be like Naruto. He wanted to laugh and smile like Naruto did whenever he met someone. He wanted to be human and experience that alien feeling of being happy and contented.
However indifferent and apathetic that he may seem, he was still a young boy who wanted to be truly loved. He didn't want that superficial and obsessed love that those girls give her. And he knew that deep down within his heart was a soft spot, a hidden place where he also dreamed.
Sasuke did not stop from dreaming, from looking for the love that was lost at that fateful night that the massacre happened, from yearning for revenge.
He tried forgetting his dark past but he failed. He was filled with emptiness that nothing could ever fill except his brother's death. He wondered, why, oh why, why did everything have to end this way? His heart was broken into such fine pieces that he couldn't even put them together.
But however upset he felt, his dreams - his family beside him again, his brother sparring and training with him, his father saying those soft, soft words of assurance and love - never stopped. But everything was different now. All he could do now is get stronger and give justice for the death of his clan.
He wanted power. He looked for power so that he could kill his brother.
His brother's head on a platter.
He thought that would be wonderful.
- - - -
A story of a girl dreaming and a story of a boy searching.
A story to be woven together.
Sew it.
Let their paths cross.
Let me meet him.
Make me notice her.
Talk to me.
Give me a chance.
Approach me.
Let me.
Love me.
- - - -
AN: Ambiguous. Feel free to interpret it. D I'll be glad to hear about it. Meh. I feel weird and melancholic. And notice how I'm fond of parallelism, of being repetitive… or something.