"She Could Even Hear The Sun Shining"
by operadeglace
It was getting harder to look pretty as the years wore on.
Granted, when shinobi grew older, they still looked pretty good.
Rather, that's what Sakura was wishing for people to think about her as she stared into her bathroom mirror. Her fingers were pulling and smoothing the fine lines and wrinkles that had somehow appeared overnight…
Well, over the past thirty years.
Time seemed to pass in the blink of an eye.
Everything was speeding around her in a blur.
She was afraid that she would be lost in all the chaos and booming technology, and nobody would remember that she existed.
It was her greatest fear.
To be forgotten and alone.
The whir and buzz of the city was a sound that was grinding against her nerves, penetrating and aggravating her thoughts as she entered the graveyard.
As she placed flowers and incense at Sasuke's grave, her fears got the best of her once more.
"Salada is probably working again. You know how busy she gets with those diplomatic missions…" The pale, pink-haired woman sighs, speaking to the monument.
In truth, Sakura hadn't seen her daughter face-to-face in several years, or her grandchildren. It was a shame they lived so far away from Konoha. Salada turned out to be wanderer like her father and had met her husband on one of her travels. At least she received a letter from her every now and again.
She missed her family.
She missed Sasuke.
She felt utterly and completely alone.
At that moment Sakura heard the roar of mechanical vehicles zipping on the streets around her pulse in a deepening grind. The sound grew in her mind to a loud roar that had trapped her in her depressing thoughts and feelings of emptiness. She clapped her hands to the sides of her head knelt on the ground, unable to stop the tears from flowing as her heart ached and bled.
Someone… someone please… I'm here.
I'm here.
The noise reminded her that she didn't belong in that world.
The noise reminded her that she was alone.
The noise. The noise.
Warm, weathered fingers grasped at her wrists and pulled her body up into an equally as warm hug.
The sounds in her head stopped.
She heard the birds chirping in the trees, and the leaves rustling in those very trees. Sakura swore she could even hear the sun shining and the clouds rolling by in the beautiful sky.
"Long time no see, Sakura-chan! I was bringing by some flowers for Hinata's grave, and it looks like we had the same idea, huh?"
Sakura pulls back from the hug to look up into the face of her dearest friend and smiles.
He still called her 'Sakura-chan' after all these years.
"I brought some flowers for Sasuke as well."
Naruto gestures to the flowers that he placed next to hers, to which Sakura nods gratefully.
"That's kind of you, Naruto."
Naruto grins and begins to open his mouth slowly, as if struggling to find words to say to her in response. The pink haired woman stares at him with an eyebrow raised in confusion.
"You need something, Naruto?"
She says confidently, even with the reddened tear trails on her cheek.
"I… well… I, um…"
He looked afraid of something. Sakura folded her arms and furrowed her brow.
"What, Naruto?" She says impatiently.
"Okay, I'll tell you! But, don't hit me! I'm getting so old, one punch from you and you'll shatter all my frail bones!" He says honestly, although she seriously doubted she was strong enough to do that anymore. Her ego did get a massive boost fromm his comment, though…
"Spit it out." Her eyebrow twitches as she has a feeling that he had done something mischievous.
"Let's get married."
He blurts out.
That was the last thing she would have guessed that he'd say in that moment.
He immediately waves his hands defensively in front of him.
"Now, now, hear me out! I don't mean like, right now, right here in a graveyard, although I am Hokage and legally I can do that…"
The blonde man starts to ramble quickly, his voice rising slightly higher in pitch the more he spoke with his excitement building.
"You know, I don't even think we have to date… I know you already. I think I know you better than my own kids. Maybe we could try moving in with each other first? Your place is nicer than mine…"
He was speaking as if this was already a plan both of them agreed upon.
"Maybe we can be married in a few months? Is that too long? I'm open for next week…"
Sakura starts to wave her hands in a similar motion to Naruto's.
"Wait, WAIT! Why are you suddenly wanting to marry me, Naruto?" She interjects his ranting, causing him to pause in a strange, awkward, open-mouthed position.
"Are you just trying to make me feel better because you saw me crying? This is not a funny joke. I am not amused." She warns him icily as tears start to trickle down her face uncontrollably.
"Why would you want to marry me?"
The mechanical roars started to sound in her mind once more.
Naruto's expression softens as he smiles tenderly at her.
"I've loved you every day since we met as kids. I'm going to marry you because I can. Finally."
How could he make her hear the sunlight? The very warmth of its rays producing celestial notes of healing to her mind, body, and soul.
"It wasn't just a silly crush?" She cries like she was a genin again.
"Nothing I do is silly…" Naruto jokes, grinning that familiar grin of his, earning a snort from Sakura.
"What if I say 'no'." She says as she wipes her tears with a cloth from her pocket.
"That's impossible. It's an order from your Hokage, so you marry me, or I throw you in prison."
Naruto smiles as his beloved Sakura-chan laughs so hard that she gets a cramp in her sides.
"Hahaha… Naruto, you've haven't changed in all these years."
She reaches forward and slides her fingers between his to hold his hand lovingly.
"Thank you."
The birds sing as she leans in to kiss his cheek. Naruto rubs the back of his head bashfully.
"So… is that a 'yes'?"
He says shyly. Sakura smirks as she playfully punches him in the shoulder before she takes his elbow and walks with him out of the peaceful graveyard.
"Dating first."
"Ouch! My fragile bones!"
A few weeks later, they were married.
Sakura never again felt a prisoner to her fears.
There was only the singing of the sunlight.
- Story by odg