A short collection of drabbles based on randomly selected song titles. The theme is Team 7 with glimpses of Sai and Kakashi. Not really very original, just one of those writers' urges that come and go. I don't really recommend listening to the songs while reading, because most of the song contents have little to do with the written material. Enjoy, and please review!
Disclaimer: Naruto and its affiliates belong to Masashi Kishimoto, not me. I have no claim to the songs used below or their respective artists.
What Comes to Pass
by LutraShinobi
No It Isn't
Naruto never told anybody about his dreams, those images that played like music in his slumber, the nightmares that he couldn't fight off, that frightened him more than a kunai in the hands of the enemy. And he, who always had such trouble keeping his mouth shut, found no difficulty in hiding the new night terrors that began when Sasuke left (not when Sasuke left, actually, but when Naruto failed to bring him back, because that was a promise, and maybe a bond, broken, and he forgave others much more easily than he forgave himself).
In these new disturbing dreams, Sasuke was advancing on him agonizingly slowly, a bright, electric Chidori crackling around his hand, and Naruto was simply standing in his path, staring blankly at his friend and already visualizing the blood that would pour, relentless, from the gaping, fist-sized wound soon to be in his chest. Sasuke, red eyes flashing in terrible pain, was telling him, "This is the only way, Naruto." And Naruto was shouting, yelling, "No, it isn't. No, it isn't, Sasuke!" But Sasuke paid no attention, and in those last moments of his life, Naruto's anguish was not caused by his impending death, but by the fact that Sasuke wasn't listening. Because he never had, and Naruto desperately didn't want to leave this earth without knowing that his cherished friend had realized one thing.
Naruto wasn't going to give up, so maybe it was a moot point. But if ever there came a time when Sasuke's will proved stronger than his own, he wanted to die by his brother's hand, and no one else's.
--
Everything You Ever Wanted
Sasuke had no illusions about Orochimaru. He only had to remember the unquestionable power of that killer intent in the forest, the rattling of the bones in his knees as he tried to move away from death, the searing poison of the curse seal as hate-contaminated blood flushed through his veins, to know the truth: Orochimaru was an evil, life-sucking, twisted shinobi genius. If Naruto or Sakura had ever asked, he could not have denied the repulsion, the inner, ethical horror in his soul that the name incurred in him. He wouldn't have been surprised to hear that Naruto had confidently assured Sakura that he would never go to Orochimaru, because Naruto knew him well enough to know his feelings towards the Snake Sannin.
But what Naruto didn't know about him, what most people couldn't guess about the Uchiha prodigy, was that some things went deeper inside him than he could possibly know himself, than anybody else could ever know in him. And one of those immutable constants was desire; a special, vengeful kind of desire that even Naruto, his soulmate in loss and loneliness, could never comprehend. Orochimaru could help him fulfil that stirring, burning desire. Sasuke knew that Orochimaru could never give him everything he'd ever wanted; he could still recall the Sasuke of his younger, happier days, who had had such grand plans for the future and a smile in the mirror that seemed, then, to seal his fate.
But Orochimaru could give him what he most wanted presently, and no matter that it was an exchange of achievement for regretlessness, Sasuke had to be strong enough to accept the offer.
--
Ever the Same
Sakura had always yearned for change, from the very beginning of her conscious life. She had wished to grow older, more mature, to lose that oversized forehead and this femininity-lacking body, to become a better ninja. When she'd climbed that tree, first out of the three, using a precision of Chakra that she couldn't remember learning but could recall working towards, she'd seen some change. When she'd cut her hair in the forest, finally getting her priorities somewhat straight, she'd noticed the difference, and been proud of it.
She first truly feared change that windy autumn evening when a precious person walked away. The world transformed that night, and she woke up to find herself on a hard bench, staring at the sky and so terrified of the dawn.
When Naruto left for his training interlude with Jiraiya-sama, the fear grew stronger. She spent those solitary years in secret agony, not knowing what kind of shinobi would return from that journey. She had begun to take the over-the-top, ever-grinning Naruto for granted, and the concept of losing that anchor, however quirky and eccentric, filled her with a now-familiar heart-wrenching feeling. She loved her boys, and they would never know how deeply, how inseparably their choices and fates were intertwined with hers.
But when Naruto, older and taller (and handsomer, she thought with a tiny smile), stepped up to her in the dusty streets of the hometown they shared, the first tactless words tumbling out of his mouth, her fear was put to rest. Because while life's pleasures and sorrows came and went like the unpredictable rain that farmers prayed for year after year, some things, and some people, remained ever the same.
--
Let It Be
Sai, as Naruto and Sakura found out at their own expense, had very little experience in the emotional domain. He even admitted it, and eventually asked for their help. He was a quick learner, but Naruto had a feeling he would never break him of his habit of cracking questionable jokes about certain parts of the male anatomy, and Sakura secretly hoped he would never lose that awkward, slightly guileful smile, because she had grown to like it, and she knew it wasn't fake. Besides, it was one of the few things about him that didn't remind her of Sasuke, and she treasured those moments of originality when she could forget.
Sai never realized how much of his conditioned insensitivity he'd lost until one sunny summer afternoon when they had the day off from training, and he was strolling leisurely around Konoha, not exploring, simply wandering. He was alone, because as far as he knew Naruto never took a day off, and Sakura had gotten pissed off when he'd called her a - well, he didn't bother remembering, but her fists had made the message very clear; go away.
He had walked far and long enough to figure that he was somewhere near the outskirts of town when he heard a strange, soft sound, like a succession of hitched, wet breaths. He ducked around the next corner, and was surprised to see a young, pink-haired girl hunched over on a wooden bench, face in her hands, sobbing quietly but with the heaviness of real distress. He was even more surprised to note that it happened to be Sakura.
The old Sai would have turned away, immediately and dispassionately. But he stood there, in the bright sunlight but very firmly out of her range of sight, and watched the release of a kunoichi's pain. Her shoulder blades stuck out in the back of her red dress, and the bench looked uncomfortable. She was sitting in a perfect spot to receive the full benefit of the sun's abundant, ungrudging rays, but she didn't seem to be enjoying it. And he didn't enjoy it either, seeing the glimmers of tears streaming from the cracks between her fingers. Still, he was stunted, unable to respond. Let her be, he thought. She had plenty of strength to resist his taunts; she could survive this without his input.
The new Sai turned away, slowly and pensively.
--
Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now
Kakashi knew all about the obstacles that a ninja faced when they walked that crooked path on a straight line, all conflicts, however different, stemming from the same basic lifestyle of kill or be killed. And he almost thought that Team 7 was lucky, being so focused on just one single hurdle, able to come together to ford the river rather than be divided amongst themselves. Then again, that division of comrades was exactly what they waged war against now, and there was still a long marathon to run ahead.
He thought maybe that the reason he'd never been able to provide them with the instruction they needed (because he was a great shinobi, but just so much less than they deserved), was that he thought too much about their individuality. From the very first day he'd met them, he'd already begun to separate them in his mind, force them to define themselves by something besides each other. And they all stood strong on their own, and he'd been satisfied; but that wasn't how a team worked.
Naruto was determined, Sakura was smart, Sasuke was a bit too much of both, but none of them had ever been truly capable of looking at the big picture, of Team 7 as what it sounded like, what it was, a team. Sakura underestimated Naruto too much, Sasuke wouldn't allow himself to lean on them, and Naruto had come to the closest to that point of objectivity, simply by being by far the least objective of any of them. And yet somehow, by the end, they were walking in the same stride.
Naruto had too much faith to say the end, and Sakura too much hope. Kakashi wouldn't say it, but he was pessimistic and realistic enough to think it.
For once, however, he was thinking of them in the context of an ensemble, a group, a team. Sakura and Naruto, and their strange but willing addition Sai, and Sasuke, never forsaken - they were getting closer to each other, approaching the goal. Even if they had to stand on opposite lines, compare muscle and skill and willpower in the most brutal way, they would clash eventually, and Kakashi hoped perhaps the blend would be too smooth for battle. Nothing was going to prevent it now; nothing could stop them.
So when the word "Sasuke" resounded through the trees, Naruto's eyes narrowed even as he smiled, Sakura's hands strayed toward her kunai holster even as healing Chakra glowed at her fingertips, and Kakashi readjusted his mask and prepared to follow their lead.
Song title credits: No It Isn't by Plus 44, Everything You Ever Wanted by Hawk Nelson, Ever the Same by Rob Thomas, Let it Be by The Beatles, Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now by Starship.
Thanks for reading!