The tapping of her subtle fingers on the wooden fence blended with the rustling leaves lifted by the sweet spring breezs.
She sensed Sasuke's sharp gaze divert from the void to her and she couldn't help but gulping and letting the warmth pervading her blushing cheeks numb her senses.
They stood there, almost motionless, in the silent wait for their comrades to reach them soon. Sakura couldn't handle that agony. Her courage shattered against the anguihing slowness of the time that seemed to have stopped running, a reflection of the raven's ice-like coldness.
«Sasuke-kun.»
A whisper dissipated in the air, torn by her lips' trembling. When Sasuke turned towards her, his criptical expression deprived her of her strenght for a few seconds.
«What is it?»
His monotone, distanced voice sliced the silence of the moment.
«We're alone.» She blurted out. «Maybe we could... Talk.» That last word slipped from her mouth like a weight on her conscience.
«What would you want to talk about?»
Her heart skipped a beat as she realized she had his complete attention, but she didn't surrender.
«I don't really know.» She shifted her embarassed gaze towards the immense ranches extending over the enclosure, uncapable of holding Sasuke's glass eyes.
He said nothing, just turning away with an absent murmur.
«They're not coming.» After a few instants, an impatient hiss reanimated that fleeting dialogue.«How long are they going to make us wait?»
Sakura limited to a soft assenting chuckle, followed by a look of persuading condescendence. «Maybe they had some mishap along the way.»
«You could be right.» Sasuke leaned on the fence and, after a sigh, kept talking. «In any case, this wait's annoying.»
Every moment's passing by seemed impossible to clearly scan, as endless as the seconds seemed. The air tensed up, making itself toxic. Unbreathable. Her dulled clarity struggled to find a reason behind the anguish pervading everyone of her benighted thoughts, her aleatory movements, her shy words, her feebile breaths.
«If you're really that eager, we can talk.» Her breath interrupted as he spoke. Her emerald eyes widened, deprived of their twinkle by the shroud of unconsciuos nostalgia wrapping her. She noticed the space around her appeared to be blurring out, as the green lawns interrupted in a hazy blaze of white.
«For example,» and she saw his subtle brows arch. She seemed to perceive a veil of her own insicurity transpire inside him. «I don't know, what's your favorite color?»
Sakura stood motionless and silent, almost in a state of catharsis. She tried to hold on to the chance to talk to him, but she slipped away from her fragile fingers.
«It's red, right?»
She touched the fabric of the red dress she wore so often, the one she loved that much, despite not knowing why. The color of the vestment led her to nod, absent and mechanical, as if she were hypnotized. She felt her cognitive functions fade along with her self-control. As the seconds passed, she was getting more numb, less awake, less concious, less human.
«What about yours?» Her voice reflected her actual star: inhuman, unnatural, unaware.
After a few instants, Sasuke answered. «Black, I guess.»
Despite her conditions, Sakura was fast to notice the aura surrounding the black haired boy.
His eyes weren't glassy anymore, nor were they human; no light appeared in them anymore. All that was left of them was two empty shady irises, somber and emotionless. Just like him. His words were nothing but voiceless and apathetic murmurs. Apathetic just like him.
It was no case black was his favorite color, Sakura managed to articulate, given the way it seemed to mirror him.
She lifted her eyelids at an exasperatingly slow pace, filling her sight with the dim lights illuminating some corners of the cramped room.
Short feverish gasps left her disclosed lips, in sync with the rythm of her heartbeat.
She clutched the newly washed sheets, a tear marking her diaphanous face.
It took het some instants to realize her mind had gone back to it's bright, reflexive self. She pondered about what had just happened, aware of the fact that what she saw was nothing other than a memory distorted by her frail subconscious.
Sakura remembered it well, the glee gently blowing in that spring morning. She had perfectly imprinted in her head the way her fears dissipated in March's breeze as soon as Sasuke spoke to her.
She glanced at the red shirt she didn't care to take off before laying on her unmade bed.
A bitter smile formed on her face, as she remembered how, from that moment on, red became her favorite color. And it still was, she noticed. Everyday, she'd put on bright red-colored outfits and she wore them with pride, even though Sasuke, by then, wasn't there to see them anymore.
She sobbed in the silence of the room, overwhelmed by all the happy moments that got tainted with melancholy the second Sasuke decided to walk away from her.
She thought of that instant one last time. There were no doubts anymore abot Sasuke's favorite color being black.
Black like his eyes and hair. Black like the curse mark lying across his pale body. Black like the night sky when he decided to leave Konoha. Black like the darkness he sank in, with no more chance to be set free.