This is going to be a series of one-shots for plots that I don't have inspiration to develop. I originally wanted them all to be in dialogue only, but the multiple years of horrendous english classes makes that physically impossible.
Enjoy.
Her breath left her in steaming pants that roared in her ears as each inhale assaulted her senses with the dry, dying leaves littered about, among other smells of wilderness. Eyes squeezed shut at the noise in a flinch, but no effort was made to quiet the pants; it would be pointless anyways. Looking down, she became aware of her numbed fingers shaking. She flexed them, burning her muscles at the movement, but the chill remained.
Closing her mouth, she allowed her head to fall back against the bark. Her green eyes squinted slightly at the brightness elicited from the clear blue above, broken by the many bare branches, and few fighting leaves. Making a perfect "O" with her chapped lips, she let the breath leave in a stream. As her chest heaved with the burning frigidness of the cold, Sakura quietly wondered if this would be her last breath, or this one, or this one.
She silently cursed herself for not having mythical powers to foresee into the future. She knew that these were her last moments, her carelessly loud trek through the brush and crumbling leaves made sure of that, and she had no illusions that he did not sense her.
She knew, he knew she was there, and she cherished these last moments he was giving her, even if she was hidden behind an oak tree. He probably didn't consider her an immediate threat although she was no more than seventy-five feet way, she thought with an eye-roll as the scraping of metal against rock continued, the bubbling of the stream weaving constantly between the rings.
Sakura was scared, and she bit her lip at the feeling. Emotions: stupid. Swiveling her head down again, she gazed at her hand resting on the frozen ground beside her. If only she could see Naruto again, she thought as she curled the pale fingers around the orange foliage, then she could hug him tightly and tell him she loved him and would never leave him alone, no matter what happened. Looking at the hand on the other side, she took a deep breathe and wondered how Kakashi would take the news of her death, probably blame himself with a bowed head and hands in pockets. The right corner of her lip twitched down at the thought, and she became aware that her ears were burning with chill.
What was taking him so long? He might be waiting to see what she was going to do, like a boy watching an ant scurry under a magnifying glass, or maybe he had made a clone of himself that was creeping closer even as he continued to sharpen his dumb sword.
Sakura spent the next thirty seconds with her mind racing with good-byes and apologies to anyone she had encountered during her lifetime, all seventeen years of it. She even sent a silent prayer that the cute bakery-boy would forgive her for stealing a donut while he was ringing up Ino's purchase four months ago.
And then she got down to the last one, and the racing stopped. So did the breathing. The cold made her eyes heavy and her blink lasted a second longer as the corners of her lips started to twitch uncontrollably against her wishes. Somehow she managed not to flinch as the freezing metal pressed against the hollow of her throat.
She wouldn't die right away; she would choke on her own blood for a few seconds first before loosing consciousness.
"Not even going to fight?" She kept her eyes closed and smirked slowly.
"I suppose there is no point at this moment." A mocking tisk was the reply, and she found herself holding her breath as the pressure against her throat rose a fraction. Her lips pursed when she felt hot breath on her face.
"Oh, now what would Naruto think to that?" Slowly, her eyes opened in a dark glare. A bird's cry was heard in the distance, and she wondered if that would be last time she heard an animal as well.
"Either way, I'm going to disappoint him. Like someone else I know." A small satisfaction rose inside her when he rose back to full height, barely concealed anger on his features, right next to the crazy inside him: just about to break the surface. "You don't know me, you never did."
Her smirk rose darkly, if only that didn't hurt. She was amazed she wasn't going into cardiac arrest with him being here, in front of her, finally. Even under these circumstances. Taking a deep breath, she forced out her words, "I really miss you ya' know." His smirk jerked something inside of her.
"The feeling isn't mutual." She bit the inside her cheek, wondering at why he was talking to her instead of just killing her. Regardless of the reasons, she was going to make the most of this phenomenon. "Never was, was it?"
Another bird cried, and Sakura wished she could jump on it and fly far away from the situation, from life. She wouldn't have to wait long.
"I'm going to kill you." She raised her eyebrow at this. "I know, and I know you won't care that you do it either." The smirk slid off his face, and it tilted to the side.
"All grown up now huh, Sakura?" She shut her eyes as the rumble of her name left his lips and slid down her arms. Despite the reaction, his mocking tone was not lost on her.
"No, still a pathetic girl, just a few more muscles." She opened her eyes to see his beautiful face again; might as well die with a happy image. His dark eyes flickered down her crouched form, pausing a moment at her chest. Inner Sakura didn't find it in herself to snap at the rude gesture. His dark eyes slid up to her own again, and she wondered if he had cast a genjutsu on her or not.
"What will you do after everyone you know dies?" She mentally screamed at herself why she was making small talk with her soon-to-be killer. Anything to be with him, right?
"My clan will be cleansed." He said it with such reassurance.
"Do you really believe that? And that doesn't answer my question." Her heart was starting to hurt with how much pressure was being put on it with the situation at hand. His mouth opened minutely before closing, his smooth lips opened once more a moment later, "It doesn't matter." The anticlimactic answer sent disappointment flooding through her, mixing with the cold in her system.
"Well don't just die when it's done, it will be in insult to everyone, to me." What was she saying! Her mouth was running without her thinking, maybe her brain had frozen in the chill?
One perfectly arched eyebrow rose. "You won't be alive." Her cracked lips twitched into a smirk.
"Doesn't mean I won't be watching you." This statement seemed to bother him, because his grip on the hilt of his weapon tightened until the knuckles turned white. She hummed in bitter amusement at his reaction. "What? Still don't want me along for the ride, Sasuke?"
His mouth twisted at her bitter sentence. "Fuck you. I'm going to kill you and that will be the end of you, and then I will kill your precious nine-tails." Her face turned serious at the mention of her best friend, her brother.
"Why does it mean so much to you that we die?" She squeezed her lips shut so the broken tone would be locked inside. For a moment, the pressure of the blade lessened and Sakura was able to breathe freely for a few seconds.
"Because you are the ones I'm tied to."
The honest, albeit stotic answer broke her façade of cold sarcasm completely into a crumpled face assaulted with frozen tears. His image began to blur in front of her. "Damn it Sasuke, how can you do this? How can you hurt us, me so much?" Her hands brushed against the leaves on the forest floor with restlessness. She wanted to hit something to rid herself of the anger of showing weakness: the anger for his stubborn and broken mind.
He didn't answer, only watched her cry. Her boots slid against the fallen leaves as her legs lowered against them. "Every time I heard about you, thought about you, hell even now, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts, and I wish you weren't even born! I wish you weren't fucking born."
Quiet,
and then:
"Why?" She sniffed loudly, the snot in her nose freezing.
"Because if you weren't born; I would never have loved you." The pressure in her chest made her feel like she was going to burst from drowning in the waves of emotion, and she was powerless against it all, like usual. After a few minutes, she finally recovered herself enough to breathe somewhat normally.
"I never loved you." She smiled up at him through her frozen eyelashes and blotched cheeks.
"But you can't deny you were attached to me, still are attached." His response was immediate.
"Not for much longer." She sighed at the predictability, then nonchalantly,
"Maybe in another life, one without clans or bloodlines, or walking on water." Suddenly she became aware that the sun was setting, turning her face a little to the right, Sakura saw the stars were starting to peek out in the sky, what a pretty night to die on.
"Or snakes." Her attention snapped to his face. He looked ethereal in the fading light, but maybe that was because of the pedestal she set him on all the time.
With a small smile she agreed, "Or snakes."
With a blank face, he raised his sword beside his head.
She would die immediately, no pain.
"Goodbye, Sakura." She closed her eyes as her breathing picked up and the sense of death and danger rang in her ears, but she made no attempt to move.
The suspense was killing her just as much as the blow was going to. Her tears flowed freely from her lashes and down the sides of her nose. "I love you."
The words came out in a rush, afraid that she wouldn't be able to finish them before she died, but she didn't open her eyes to see his reaction, or attempt to make him stop, or anything.
She didn't see him close his own eyes before the air was split, and she didn't hear the dull thud that followed a moment later, but she was pretty sure she felt like she was flying the next.