What is with me and angst-ridden Sakura/Sasuke one-shots lately? I'm not usually this gloomy…

Disclaimer: Naruto is not mine. I do not, nor do I plan to make any profit from this fanficiton.

**Quick edit, 6/8/2012

Broken Mirrors

"You know… I heard, years ago, someone say that we were like a mirror copy of the Sanin." The woman's voice is musing and level as she gently rotated the alcohol in her flask with chakra. It's a habit of hers to monitor her sobriety this way. When her innate, flawless control falters, she has to admit she's overdone it. However, one could still tell she's had a bit; she'd never be talking about this otherwise.

"At the time, I thought it made sense. It wasn't a perfect copy, but there were parallels; we were their apprentices, one of us had gone insane over power and left the village, one of us wanted to be Hokage, one of us was a medic, etcetera, etcetera. But really, we don't deserve it." And she takes another swallow, letting it burn down her throat.

"They were a team at some point. They deserve to be grouped together like that, even if it broke apart later. They had an old joke that they'd be together forever, because when shingimami came for them, they'd stand back-to-back and beat him off. It stopped being funny when Orochimaru went crazy." After a long silence she speaks again, her tone still perfectly even, her presence composed.

"They let us hope for too long; even when the moral event horizon was crossed with fireworks and parade proclaiming it, they didn't force us to stop and realize it. Maybe because they could remember how it hurt and they didn't want history to repeat itself. Didn't want to believe it just as much as us."

"You know, if you think about it, we're really not like the Sanin at all. They respected each other, you know; valued each other's skills. And, you know, none of them ever killed any of the others. That's now doubly untrue for us, isn't it Sasuke-kun?" And she raises the flask in a toasting motion to the pale, broken body not ten feet away. He's breathing, but unconscious. It's her professional opinion that he won't be breathing much longer.

"I really did love you, you know. Still do, for some Kami-forsaken reason. I think that, unfair as it is, that's the one thing I'll never forgive you for…" And she closes her apple-green eyes to hide the treacherous tears.

"That night…when you left. Your last words to me were 'thank you'…" and she takes another swig of liquor through her bloodied lips. Mass organ failure was incredibly painful, after all, and she doesn't even have enough chakra to do a painkilling jutsu. Just one tiny spark, pushing the numbing drink round and round.

"You're welcome."