The door was shut.
A slim, pale hand touched the dark wood of the ornate, tall door. Emerald eyes studied the home. It was large, elegant, on land of its own. It inspired respect with merely the sight of it. Surely the rooms inside would make any visitor's eyes round with awe, rather like a small child stepping into a fully-stocked candy store. But no one was to know for the time being. The inhabitants were gone, had been gone for a long time. Silence lingered around the home almost oppressively, smothering all sound.
It was always shut.
The girl at the door lifted her left hand, as if to knock. She held her hand in the air, curling her fingers into her palm, and hesitated. A few minutes later, her knuckles fell and rapped against the door once, the quiet sound echoing in the quiet area, and let her hand fall back to her side. She then let out a sigh, the two only sounds that had been heard for the good while she had been standing there, and turned on her heel, walking away. A flock of birds overhead lifted from the trees and flew away as the green-eyed girl walked past, rising into the sky and becoming mere black dots against the blue canopy overhead.
She let out a soft sound, brushing a lock of pale pink hair from her eyes. The door was always closed. Ever since he left. He had been gone for years now. She didn't think he would return soon, not after all this time. Her fists clenched tightly, head bowing slightly before rising again to look at the path before her as she walked.
But she still hoped.
Sasuke had been gone for so long. Months, years, what did it matter? What mattered was that he was no longer in Konoha. Every day that slid by was another day that he hadn't returned, that he hadn't been found.
Sakura was growing stronger, older. Time was still passing despite the lack of one of the last two remaining Uchiha clan members. Sakura had decided to keep her hair short, long after the incident during the fateful Chuunin exams, the original reason for Sasuke's disappearance. Her training with Tsunade had strengthened both her body and her spirit. But her mind, despite all of its intelligence, was still weak emotionally.
She still wished for Sasuke's return.
The chances of him coming back, even after Naruto and the others - Choji, Shikamaru, Neji - had worked so hard to retrieve him, were virtually none.
But that didn't mean her heart listened to her rational mind, did it?
Sakura flexed her left hand, feeling the glove over it. Tsunade had trained her well. Taught her to control her chakra efficiently, direct amounts of it to her fists in order to increase her strength tenfold. Sakura had certainly instilled a bit of fear in Naruto when she had displayed it during Kakashi's bell test after the spiky-haired, hyperactive shinobi had returned to Konoha.
She could even use medical ninjutsu now. She was able to heal those in pain, treat wounds. Sakura had even been able to remove the poison from Kankuro when the other medic-nin of his village had been unable to. Had been able to defeat a member of the Akatsuki, even if it was with Chiyo's help.
But even with this, Sakura still felt weak. If not in body, but in mind.
No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't stop hoping.
Hope was a powerful thing, yes, Sakura mused as she reached her home, unlocking the door and stepping inside. But it was crippling; it weakened her, kept her from moving on. She closed the door and let out a sigh, staring down at her left hand. In it she held a small cluster of forget-me-nots, wrapped in a white paper. She rested it on the table next to her door, the paper crinkling slightly before settling, and sank down onto her couch.
I won't forget you, Sasuke. I promise. Sakura thought, looking at the flower. So much meaning in one flower, one little flower that was now going to simply wilt because it would not reach the person it was meant for in time.
Sakura curled onto her couch, suddenly not feeling inspired enough to move from her perch to get to her bedroom, falling into a light sleep, her left hand still clenched into a fist, as if it held the flowers still, now sitting still on her table.
I'll wait for you.
In case anyone's wondering, this is set after Sasuke leaves to join the Sound, after their rescue of Gaara. I'm not actually caught-up at all with the manga after that point (in fact, I'm only really up to the end of Sakura's fight with the Akatsuki member) so I apologize if I seem to have continuity errors to that point. Also, a forget-me-not is a group of small blue flowers with five petals. A forget-me-not means 'faithful love, undying hope, memory, do not forget,' which I felt was quite appropriate. In any case, please review and I hope you liked this. If there are errors, feel free to point them out so I can get them fixed. And again, thanks!