It hurt.
It hurt.
Sakura knew she was dying. This pain was unlike any other she had ever known. Pulsing and burning, it swelled up inside of her, coiling and deadly as a venom-dripping cobra. It was tangible and audible; she could taste its coppery flavor on her lips.
Wait… that was blood.
She wanted to die. She needed the pain to end, the visions to cease, the dust filling her mouth and obscuring her eyes to settle. She needed peace.
In a way, Sakura had felt like this almost her entire life. This suffocating, obliterating, horrible, torturous need for peace. Her love for Sasuke was the cause.
It felt like a coiled spring inside of her, that love. It smothered her, a dull weight deep in the pit of her stomach that added up every time she saw him, lessened when he looked at her. Which, needless to say, wasn't very often.
Sakura had often wondered whether only unrequited love felt like this, that maybe real, true, returned love really was the wonderful paradise expressed in storybooks.
Somehow she doubted it.
So she had turned herself into someone He might notice. Her shyness evaporated, her care for physical attractiveness increased, she found herself staring at his photograph late each night, the idea of sleep suddenly repulsive. Now, as she lay on cold, hard, slimy floor stones, waiting for the end, she realized that her entire life had been focused around him. That girl she had been, Sakura realized, who spent hours in front of the mirror trying to get her appearance exactly right, might not have existed at all if not for Sasuke.
But as they grew, so did her crush, and she had stopped thinking about anything else. Her training only mattered because it brought her to the same place he went every day. Looking good only mattered because it increased her chance of being noticed by him. Eating and sleeping only mattered because they kept her alive so she could be with him.
This, Sakura thought sadly, is my life story.
And none of it made the slightest bit of difference. He never noticed you, did he?
Ironic, thought Sakura, I'm dying and Inner Sakura is still as lively as ever.
I'm sorry if this royally sucked, but I needed to get it out of my system. I have just been rejected in love myself, and felt that I could do this realisticly. I really need feedback on this one!
-K-Chan