I suppose I think about love more than anyone really should. Oh well...
Love! Love? LOVE...
We all dream.
We all love.
And there's a silver line between those.
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Part One: Kakashi: familiar love
Kakashi looked up from his book ( -- "Kiss me," she said. His heart almost stopped. "I want it to be somebody who loves me, the first time." He put his wet lips on her's soft once completely losing himself in the intoxicating smell of her hair. -- ) being a little bewitched since someone interrupted his educational (-- romantic – yes, romantic despite common knowledge he was quite a mushy – adoring and sexy -- ) reading.
Then he smiled and chuckled slightly as he watched his cute, little team argue once again.
Naruto rubbed his sore blond head and glared at Sasuke with his one open cerulean eye while the other one had half-closed automatically because of sharp pain. His index finger pointed accusingly at the Uchiha-survivor shouting something ( -- "Bastard! Stop ignoring me, you prick! I swear I will beat you! -- ) and he obliviously continued the ranting--
--not knowing that Sakura behind him was already clinching her fist. Her long pink hair twirling in the blow of wind (but he suspected it was something more than that, an Inner perhaps?), bottle-green eyes narrowed with a shiny (evil, possessive and mostly irritated) glint in them. Her thin pale arm rose above the blonds' head and her point elbow hit him again.
Once Naruto was knocked-out dead on the ground her facial expression changed completely in a matter of seconds. Instead she looked happily and cheerfully at Sasuke with a beautiful smile on her face, but her upper lip twitched a bit, a left-over of her previous emotions. This way she looked like a cat, or a bunny somewhat.
Cold, dark prodigy glared (hundred times stronger than needed) without any emotion besides annoyance. Sasuke, Kakashi muses, isn't in the bestest of his moods. But is he ever? Always so grumpy and mysterious. And yet, he seems to be a Hero in Sakura's eyes. Hero always saves the Damsel in Distress. And Sakura is defiantly always the one who needs to be saved.
Kakashi's grey eyes caught Sasuke's stare on the particular spot he hid in. Oh he found him alright, and that glimpse in his dark eyes said 'Get-the-fuck-out-of-that-bush' or something among those lines. Poof!ing right above them on a tree brunch above the bridge Kakashi popped his hand up. "Yo!"
Naruto, who already recovered from Sakura's punch, pointed his finger at Kakashi. "YOU'RE LATE!"
"I got lost on the path of lif—"
"LIAR!"
Amusedly Kakashi chuckled slightly; this was only the begging of a very long day.
From that day on he watched his team grow up ( -- in a way of course, it amazed him how can kids with good teamwork on the battlefield can be so contradicted in the real life -- ) they become stronger. Somewhat, understood each other.
Still Naruto ( -- Ihaveadream, Ihaveadream! IAMadream!-- ) was too loud,...--
--Sakura ( -- Sasuke-kun,IloveIloveILOVE! -- ) was too bubbly...--
--and Sasuke ( -- IwillgainPOWER!KillKillKillacertainman -- )was too cold, like chipped ice.
But Naruto saw the light and started talking. He started showing them ( -- all of them -- ) a way. That life is like a fire, like a flame, like something untouchable. That it's irreplaceable and worth every day.
Sakura cried, she cried her pretty ( -- huge, captivating, amazing -- ) eyes out. She cared, her tear fall on the ground and on them, on their wounds. She tried her hardest, she moved.
Sasuke started believing. In Life, in Friends, in Purpose, in something else than Hatred. He warmed up to Naruto and Sakura. He Helped, he Saved, he Created.
They captivated Kakashi's mind. His thoughts were now all about them. His dreams rest there their paths lay.
( -- We'reateam! -- )
Then he saw changes. His kids changed.
Right on Chunin Exams.
Naruto thought he became better.
( -- You are not hurt are you, scaredy cat?-- )
Sakura cared too much and yet wished to be tough.
( -- I have to protect those who are important to me. -- )
Sasuke wanted, needed more. More power...
( -- Loneliness is this world's worst kind of pain. -- )
Orochimaru.
The man who...ruined the fragile happiness they had.
That's then his team, his kids...only bonds he made ( -- cared, loved, adored -- ) ever since Squad Thirteen had...
...fallen apart--
"Another day, another hour before the tombstone." He looked at the names on the smooth surface. "Guilt eats you away doesn't it...?"
-- And Kakashi knew it was entirely his fault.
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Part Two: Naruto: loving-kindness
Sweat beaded Naruto's brow and ran down his face under the hot blistering sun as he concentrated to see the boy he considered to be a brother. A cloud floated under the sun, making Sasuke's expression readable. His eyebrows were furrowed, almost as if he was angry that they were here, but his face remained calm and hard. ( -- Had he forgot? Had he forgot the fights, the missions, the days...Had he forgot them? -- )
Naruto glared at the shadow of the man – no longer could he call him a boy – that stood above them all. ( -- always has, always will -- ) He watched as he, the dark demonic-angel, looks down on them. With no emotions what-so-ever. "Sasuke..." Naruto said in a voice full of feeling.
Sakura and Naruto were looking up at Sasuke with passion and hope, while Sasuke was looking down at them with a sense of serenity. Sasuke's voice was emotionless when he spoke. "Naruto...so you came."
( -- It's in the blood. It's in the blood... -- )
Bonds.
"And that's why I severed them! I have other bonds that I carry..." ( -- Brother..., no matter how deep I have to plunge myself into darkness, I will do it in order to kill you! No matter what happens, I will get that power!! -- )
Sasuke continued. "I have a different bond. Fraternal bond, forged through hate." Sasuke's eyes were filled with hatred for the spoken man. No matter what he could never let go. "All my other bonds caused me to lose focus..." He said with a hint of pain in his voice looking directly at Sakura. "And weakened by strongest wish, my greatest desire."
( -- You never had parents, you never had a brother...so what would you know about me anyway…you were alone from the very start! So why the hell would you know what I've been through!! Huh!! -- )
"Then why...?" Naruto said his mind still lost in memories.
( -- Sasuke looked at Naruto. "Why...why do you go so far just for me..." -- )
"Then why didn't you..." Naruto asked again. His forehead protector shined in the light.
( -- I can't go back. I'll just have to cut that bond apart! -- )
"Why didn't you kill me back then!? Is that your idea of cutting bonds!? Sasuke!!" Naruto yelled at Sasuke. ( -- Kakashi was his never-wanted-perverted-uncle, Sakura was the girl who he admired but was never sure was it love?, and Sasuke was – is – his bestfriend, the first bond he made ever since birth – a brother. -- )
Sasuke suddenly appeared in front of Naruto. ( -- Leave. Leave, before I hurt you...both of you... -- ) "Come to think of it, isn't becoming Hokage is one of your dreams? If you have the time to chase me around, you would've been better off training...Don't you think...Naruto?"
( -- And my dream is to be the greatest Hokage! That way people will stop disrespecting me and start treating me like I'm somebody. Someone great! -- )
"And that's why this time..." Sasuke pulled out his sword. "You're going to end up losing your life, all at a whim of mine."
Naruto had a determined look on his face. "Like there's any chance someone who can't save a friend, could become Hokage. Don't you think...,Sasuke?"
"Chidori Nagashi!" Instantly blue lightning came out of Sasuke's body. There was a sound of chirping birds as Naruto flew mid air and fell on the ground.
( -- Sakura,...thank you.--
--I am an…Avenger!--
--My name is Sasuke Uchiha. I hate a lot of things, and I don't particularly like anything. What I have is not a dream, because I will make it a reality. I'm going to restore my clan, and kill a certain someone. -- )
Naruto watched the man who is ( -- sort-of, maybe, most defiantly, ...is he? -- ) his best friend. His back was turned to him ( -- to his team, to Sakura that could not move no matter how strongly she wished -- ).
And he let him go. "Who am I to stand in his path... ( -- Who am I to take away his dream?... -- )
Naruto was believed to not have a family, but in the end above them all he was the only one who knew how to sacrifice something for others.
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Part Three: Sasuke: eroticism is also love
Sasuke stared at the broken body before him. ( -- I said I'll MAKE my dream a reality! -- )
"Finally." The simple monosyllabic word held the reliving tremble of his mind. His other senses, heightened to inhuman levels by torture of the training he had pushed himself through to ensure survival now betrayed his mind – serving to only increase the effort put in by this mind to push him through the barrier to insanity.
He tasted blood and ashes in his mouth and throat. His skin crawled and tingled alternatively with the waves of torture and of the struggle to survive colliding in the air. "Dead."
Sasuke looked at the grey sky and a saw a ray of light break through--
"There is satisfaction..."
--but there isn't any closure...or happiness...
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Part Four: Sakura: romantic love
Sakura was astonished in more ways than one. Sasuke her "cool", arrogant love-of-her-life Sasuke-kunturned into something horrible. She remembered him from that day, he was so distant, cruel, rough...so cold.
Sasuke that laid on the hospital bed waiting, healing, hoping stared at the peeled apple that she offered him like a memory of something good. He was a mix of both Sasuke's she knew. But he ( -- that tactic/genius/prodigy -- ) looked...nor alive nor dead. Not broken, but...tired.
"Sasuke-kun..." she threw her arms around him and hugged as tightly as she could afraid that he'll disappear. "Don't leave me. I'll die without you."
He wrapped his arms around her waist protectively ( -- possessively -- ) his hand stroke her short pink lock. "Aa. Keep breathing Sakura, tomorrow is another day."
"I love you. I love you. I love you!" She repeated none stop in his neck, her words mixing with her salty tears. "I love you. I love you."
He closed his eyes, allowing himself finally over the years to – relax and smile. "I know."
Journeys end in lovers meeting.
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Because you never "just" love.
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F I N
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Bad ending but, gah, anyway.