Sanguine
Disclaimer: I still own nothing.
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"What's sanguine mean again?"
"Hopeful. And as a point of interest, it also means bloody."
"Well that pretty much covers all the options doesn't it?"-Mal and Zoe(Firefly)
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The coppery scent of blood reeked, the battlefield stained with the thick red liquid. It stuck in hair, taking extra scrubbing to wash out and it made minds hazy because along with the coppery smell came the smell of death. It was something that couldn't be put into words, like the feel of the currently nonexistent rain or the smell of the wind in the trees, but it hung heavily in every warrior's mind.
The strangely colored eyes, blue with red seeping in at odd moments, spotted the familiar ebony hair. No one else had that color and the crimson eyes met his for the slightest of moments before continuing to make their way.
Naruto didn't chase after him, for in that small moment, a silent promise had been made.
He would return.
The person was a ghost in the blood-stained white with his ivory skin. Jade eyes caught a flash of him before he was lost in the ocean of bodies, living and dead. She mentally scolded herself for being distracted and she returned her attention to her patient. She knew that her companion never broke his promises.
He would be brought back.
Strawberry hair stained with the too dark red caught his eye for a fleeting moment. She was kneeling over a patient. He ignored her(how easy it was, just as always) and continued on.
She would wait.
The river carried traces of red, but none of them paid it any mind. For now, it was a place of respite. None acknowledged each others presence other than the woman checking over their injuries quickly, not saying a word. The men needed no words, no contact. They trusted each other completely.
The silence wasn't stifling, but neither was it comfortable. It simply was. They lay and let their wounds (visible or no) heal. As the sun rose over the gory scene of the battle, Sasuke looked over at his comrades (they were never ex-comrades) and said, "It seems so quiet here," In the same soft voice as always.
Sakura glanced over at him, and then stared at the ruby lines in the water. She nodded, then asked, "What will we do now?"
Naruto shrugged a previously hurt shoulder. "Dunno. We can't exactly do much now anyways. We should probably give them proper graves or something," At Sakura's confused look, he added, "They're all just bodies now. Does it matter what they were like in life?"
Sakura wondered when exactly he'd gotten so mature. Sasuke nodded at his best friend(brother) and they picked their battered selves up and began walking back out to the not-quiet place called reality.