Budding Sakura Ch 2
Blood.
It dripped from the walls, spattered all over the floor. Red as the sharing an turned black under the cool moon. Again and again he feels it land, hot against his horrified visage.
"Brother.." he whispers. Butcher, his mind calls. He sees them all, over and over, the screaming, begging, ignoble deaths of his clan, his family. It was not the most demonstrative one, but it was his and it was gone. He was going to show Father his chakra control. He was going to see his Mother and kiss her swelling belly, full with his sister. As he falls into the blood tainted eyes of his once-kin, he hardens and freezes so that not even the Gokakyuu could melt him. He must be strong. Avenge them. Then he could have purpose and meaning. Itachi would die.
Then maybe he would be good enough.
—
Sakura ran into the hospital, her eyes clouded with tears and her body shaking with worry.
"Sasuke-kun! Sensei, where is he, I must see him" she boldly declared to the medic at the front desk.
He replied with a wary inquiry as to her person, and upon hearing her name let her through,
"On orders from the Hokage" he muttered under his breath.
The first thing Sakura noticed on entering the room was the darkness. The blinds were shut, and the only light came from the beeping machines and some slivers of daylight peeking through from the blacked out windows. Then she saw him, sitting on the bed, looking at her with blank empty eyes, his playful spirit extinguished. He looked like she once did, in a different world. Like all reason for being had left him, and now he fought on and survived on rage that burned like ice.
Sakura went to open the blinds, the dark was good for nobody, when he finally spoke in an emotionless tone.
"Sakura. Leave."
Two words from the eloquent boy she once knew, and she shattered.
"Sasuke. Listen here. You lost your whole family, and that hurts. It hurts like being stabbed with a kunai, but the wound never heals and you ache for what is gone, for what was, for what could have been. Fury overtakes you then and you get so, so angry that you could cry, so you do. But then you realise that you aren't crying from rage, but loss. And you grow hard. I can see that in you, see that growing shard of insanity and hurt in you and I understand. But it cannot be allowed to continue. It will never fully leave, but nor can you let it grow. Because out there, in the world, in Konoha even, there is light" She throws open the blind "light that helps. It comes from the friends that you make family, from the cause you commit to, from yourself in the end. You see, Sasuke, they say that the best vengeance is living well. So you can say that you will catch up and kill the man who murdered your family. You can try and try and maybe you do it and maybe you don't. But what happens after that? You have no foundation, nothing to fall back on and you will be even more lonely and even less happy because now you no longer even have that anger to fall back on. Only emptiness. So what will it be Sasuke? Are you going to let yourself heal? Or will you die, alone and helpless, and so full of regrets you know not what you did, only what you could have done."
As he stared at her, he thought. He saw her burning green eyes, darkened to emerald with passion from their usual mint colour. Sasuke allowed himself to hope and even as he lambasted himself for his weakness, for his failings as a loyal son and clan member, he murmured under his breath.
"Sasuke please talk to me. I couldn't hear that" Sakura took his hands in hers and knelt infront of him. "I am here."
"Itachi." He sobbed out. "It was Itachi." He gave in to a moment for weakness and permitted himself to crumple forward slightly. As Sakura caught him, she breathed a sigh of relief. Those two sentences meant that he would try. But when she realised their content, she stiffened in shock and growing anger. His brother? The one he adored? She had only seen him from afar before, but he had seemed affectionate and loving. She drew herself up.
"Were gonna get him Sasuke. We are going to find the bastard and kill him. I know the others with help, they are from clans themselves, and I will to. We will stop him Sasuke. As a team."
And as Sasuke looked into her eyes, he nodded and allowed himself to believe.
His frozen heart cracked a little.
—
After just sitting together all day, Sakura had to go home in the evening, loathe as she was to leave Sasuke. She walked home in the pink tainted dusk and let herself in to a "Okaeri" from her mother
"Tadaima" she listlessly returned and headed to her room. She sat down and breathed and the began to think. About Sasuke, yes, but also herself. She had realised after her speech that she still held a lot of the past with her even though she had begun to assimilate into her body and culture. She had even recognised herself as a she! But as she sat on that bed, she decided that although she loved her friends, had loved Ginny, she had to let that go. Keep it with her, yes, but no longer let it haunt her.
Which brought her to her new friends. Ino, Choji and Shikamaru being the first, and maybe a tentative Hinata. They had to stick together to help Sasuke and stop him from falling into that black abyss of hatred. The problem was how to go about doing that. They could surround him at school, eat with him at lunch and even invite him back to their homes, but how to help him emotionally was an entirely new proposition. She would have to think on it for a while.
With this in mind, she slipped of her sandals, slid into bed fully dressed and promptly fell asleep, ruminating on the problem.
—
AN: HI everyone! I am so sorry that I haven't updated for a year and a half! I have just been so busy, work experience in the summer, working for school in the winter and applying aor University now! I hope you will forgive me for the lateness.
On that note, this is quite short I know. I am not a very prolific writer I am afraid. I will try to have something out soon, but I make no promises.
I worte a drabbley thing, called Doleurs de deux, which is horrible French for the Sorrows of two.
And as always, review with ideas.
P.S. Sasusaku is a long way off. Seriously. They are eight. Sakura has not yet even thought about sex, especially as someone who lost his(her?) girlfriend. I always saw Canon!Harry as Bi, but am interested in your opinions on that one too.
Much love,
NL
