Crimson Ribbon
Author's Note(s): Thanks for the reviews. This is an exceptionally short chapter. The next scene will take a longer time to be posted. Please take the warnings seriously. This is an AU story i.e. anything can happen. Sakura is not from Konoha. Special thanks to kaoru-sama for proofreading.
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.
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Two hundred kilometers to the west…
Nimble fingers started to tug hard on the sleeves of her kimono which she had been playing with for the past hour. Pink eyebrows nearly met as she searched the surrounding futilely for the familiar figure of her beloved, worry etched on her face.
He had never been this late.
One grim thought came to her mind but she quickly pushed it away. He won't be caught. He was the strongest man and shinobi she had ever met. He had proven it to her more than once. But, still…
Stop it! she reprimanded herself. She must have faith in him like how he had entrusted his life to her.
The sky was a blanket of purple black, signaling the beginning of a new day.
Inwardly, Sakura knew she had less than an hour to get back to the village before the maid noticed she was missing and alerted the guards. Despite it all, she would take the risk. She would wait for him. Her hand caressed the spot below her obi as she smiled. There was something important she had to tell him.
Careful to avoid disheveling her kimono, she settled herself at the bottom of the oak tree and leaned back slightly against the trunk. The solitary tree was perched at the edge of a cliff with a view of the vast of greenery below - the free man's land.
Although it was a mass of black now, Sakura found her thoughts wandering away.
Sasuke had once told her - at the edge of the green, beyond the obstructing Seiryuu Mountain were the deep blue sea. She had never seen one before. The stories Sasuke told only served to entice her to see it with her own eyes.
Sakura's heart yearned for the day she could step out of this prison, hand in hand with the man she loved. Closing her eyes, she imagined the water to be of the color of the dark blue of Sasuke's yukata. She conjured a mental image of the both of them running along a sandy beach as gentle waves rushed to lap at their feet. Then, another pair of tiny feet would join them.
Soon, Sakura… soon.
The three years was almost over.
She lifted her hand and touched the oak tree behind her. Feeling the roughness of the bark against her fingers, a half smile crept onto her face as memories were revisited.
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