CHAPTER 1: THE DREAM WORLD
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When Sasuke opened his eyes again, he found himself in a place that was both familiar and strange at the same time.
The buildings were the same as the ones he grew up watching, the same trees danced across the streets and familiar faces - although none of them were people he had ever spoken too - were visible in the distance. Yet, it felt to him as if his vision was somehow blurred: everything seemed like it was moving slowly and constantly, and the whole environment around him was looking somehow a mix of blue and purple. It felt like he had been thrown into the middle of the ocean, where everything was blurred and blue-ish, but still, he felt solid ground under his feet and he moved freely around. Everything seemed oddly silent too, and he noticed that the people in the distance weren't moving: they were standing still, as if paralyzed.
''What on Earth is all of this?'' he asked himself aloud, walking around with short steps. He kept looking at the surroundings and observing what really was like that nowadays and what seemed like a projection of something that once was. The Hokage rock, for example, showed only four faces.
He stopped when he realized there was someone standing in front of him.
''Now look what we have here'' he said to himself with a smile on the corner of his mouth, lowering his body to look at the young girl in front of him in the eyes ''I don't remember Sakura looking like this when she was younger'' he commented.
''Did you ever really bother to look at me back then, Sasuke-kun?'' she replied with a displeased face.
Sasuke took a step back and looked at the young girl in shock. Glancing around, he noticed that all the other people were still frozen, none had moved a single inch. Yet the girl in front of him was not only moving, but was also talking to him and making a very upset face.
''How can you move when all the others can't?'' he inquired, raising an eyebrow.
''That's simple, I'm not like the others'' she gave him a smug smile.
Sasuke rolled his eyes.
She shrugged.
''Well, I gave you your answer'' she turned her back to him and started to walk away.
For a moment, Sasuke considered just continuing his task on his own. It's not like a child would be able to help him anyway. Especially a younger version of Sakura, who he recalled having been a very annoying kid. But what was he going to do there? Walk around? Try to figure things out by himself? Well, he is Sasuke Uchiha, of course he would manage to figure it all out by himself eventually. But maybe he could take the shorter route and ask this little Sakura for help and get this done quickly. Not that he needed any help, of course, he was an Uchiha after all! It was all a matter of making things faster and smoother.
Having convinced his Uchiha Pride that it would do him no harm to ask her for advice, he cleared his throat and said:
''What is this place? And why are you different from the others?''
She turned to him with a mocking smile, bending on a street light.
''Oh, Mr. Uchiha is actually talking to me, is it?''
He rolled his eyes and turned to the side.
''Well, I think your first question is very stupid given you are the one who came here by choice, but I'll answer you anyway'' she opened her arms widely and threw her head back, exclaiming proudly: ''this is Sakura's Dream World!''
Sasuke looked around again. It was as he had expected, though he wasn't sure at first if this was really her dream or if his attempt had failed and he had fallen asleep and was dreaming all of that. All those thoughts about dreams were making him confused.
''Isn't there normally more, how can I say it, action in dreams?'' he raised an eyebrow ''everyone is still, everything is quiet and blue''
Green eyes met his dark ones.
''This is because the dreams haven't started yet'' she explained simply. Noticing the confused look on his face, she added ''there are many stages of sleep, and it takes a while until you get to the part where you actually dream about something, and we didn't get there yet''.
''So we must wait until Sakura's in deep sleep and starts dreaming?''
She nodded.
''It shouldn't take long now'' she looked around and twisted her nose ''but we've lived this one dream a few times already, it's never a very pleasant one'' she sighed and sat on the floor.
Sasuke moved closer to her and sat by her side.
''You didn't tell me who you are''.
''I'm Sakura of course'' she seemed annoyed by his question.
''No.'' he replied, lowering himself to stare at her big green eyes ''Sakura is asleep, next to me, in her apartment. Who are you?'''
She rolled her eyes.
''I'm Sakura, I told you! Stop being so annoying!''
This time he decided against pressing the matter. It was pointless arguing with a young girl anyway.
''You know why I'm here, are you going to help me?'' he asked.
She closed her eyes and pretended to think hard, lines forming on her forehead.
''I think chances are that you end up making things even worse, so I think maybe you should just leave and let us be!'' she retorted, turning to the side in a childish way.
''I'm here to help, not to make things worse'' he rolled his eyes ''how worse can things get, anyway? Sakura's been waking up from nightmares quite often already''.
She frowned and looked at him incredulously.
''How simple do you think my mind is? You think you can just show up in here and start meddling with things and nothing bad can happen?''
Sasuke stood silent, absorbing her words. In all honesty, yes, that's what he had thought.
''Well, Mr. Oblivious, things don't work quite that way'' she sighed and turned to face him ''look, I know you want to help, but can't you try to behave like a normal person and help by simply talking to me? Entering my mind will not solve the problem and it might even make things worse!''
''How can things get worse?'' Sasuke raised an eyebrow ''you aren't even conscious right now, you won't remember any of this in the morning'' he shrugged and looked away from her ''and you're not even the real Sakura, you can't speak for her''.
The young Sakura huffed in frustration and stood, hitting her feet hard on the floor in annoyance.
''If you end up messing up with my memories and changing who I am, I won't ever forgive you!'' she screamed and crossed her arms, fury all over her small face.
This time Sasuke gave her his full attention.
''What do you mean?''
''Exactly what I said!''
He grabbed both her arms and forced her to face him, his expression hardened now.
''Answer me.''
For a second, the young Sakura felt frightened by the look on his face. He was truly concerned, and very upset, she could tell. Maybe he really did want to help, after all. Besides, she thought, they were running out of time.
''Fine… But you must cooperate and don't ruin everything!'' she sighed, and he loosened his grip on her arms, but didn't release her ''You asked me why I am the only one who can move and speak, while all the rest can't'' he nodded ''that's because I'm Sakura's personification in the Dream World, I'm her image in here.''
Sasuke raised an eyebrow. If possible, he was even more confused than before.
''In dreams, don't we either see ourselves in first person or in third person?'' he agreed, and she continued ''well, I'm her in her dreams. Whenever she dreams about something in first person, she is seeing through my eyes, and when she's dreaming in third person, she sees me moving around. Like everyone else, Sakura has no control over her dreams, so her subconscious creates a world and I'm to live in it until she wakes up, I'm her subconscious' creation. I'm only not present when she is dreaming about things that don't involve herself or when she's just reliving memories''.
''So, in reality, the things she dreams about depend on what you do'' he concluded.
The young Sakura thought for a second and then agreed.
''Yeah, they do I guess. I am Sakura, in a way, so I try to do things like she would. Although her subconscious normally takes control over me and makes me do things I wouldn't if I were to choose, so it's not all on me, otherwise I would definitely make every dream be the coolest thing ever!'' she proclaimed.
''Why are you a child though? Sakura's already 21'' he questioned.
She retreated a bit and Sasuke realized that he had struck a nerve. Quickly, he changed the subject:
''What are the bad consequences of me being here that you mentioned?''
She let her head fall to one side, biting her lower lip.
''Well, in dreams it's when the memories we've formed throughout the day are strengthened. Let's think of it like boxes: all of them are opened during our sleep and new memories are organized in the right places, while old memories are reorganized, so they are put where they fit best. Memories are fragile things, and they are completely exposed during sleep, anything that goes wrong can damage them'' she looked deep into his eyes with a serious expression ''and as you can probably imagine, once damaged the memories cannot easily be fixed''
Sasuke raised an eyebrow.
''I say something so precious shouldn't be exposed like this''
''I say no one from outside should be in here to offer them any threat in the first place!'' she gave him a fierce look.
''Touché'' he agreed. A smile was formed on the corner of his mouth for a second, but it soon disappeared ''so how can I avoid causing any damage?''
Annoyed green eyes met red iris.
''Do I look like I know? You're the very first person to come in here!''
He snorted and looked away.
Suddenly, lights of different colors started to appear in the blurred sky, painting it like Northern Lights with colors Sasuke didn't even know existed. If he squinted and concentrated, he could see that figures were moving in each of the lights, as if each of them was playing a movie of its own. Two of them seemed much brighter than the rest and appeared to be lower in the sky, as if, had they a ladder close-by, they would be able to reach them.
''What are those?'' he inquired, not taking his eyes away from the brightest ones, finding some of the images there quite familiar.
''Those are the memories, changing place in the brain'' the girl looked up ''and the brightest ones are the ones that are active right now'' Sasuke glanced at her ''they will define the first dream''.
He didn't have time to make any comments before suddenly the wind blew on his face so wildly that, were him a different person, he would've lost his balance.
''It's started'' the pink-haired young girl announced, just before her eyes glowed bright green. In an instant, everything went from blue to colorful, and if the surroundings weren't still blurred, Sasuke might have thought he had woken up and all of that had been a dream of his own.
People around them started to move and chat, appearing in the distance, while on the front ground he could see a familiar street that led to the Academy, and an even younger Sakura crying, sitting on the grass. The Sakura that was with him before had disappeared. Coming from all around them, voices that sounded both masculine and feminine started to whisper harsh words to the little girl and, to Sasuke's surprise, when the figures that were uttering those words finally appeared they showed themselves to be not adults, but children. Their faces were unrecognizable, their whole body a dark shadow, lurking closer to the young girl sitting on the floor crying. He noticed then that their words started to sound more clear to him, and they were mostly about how ridiculous her forehead looked and how no one would ever notice her because of her weird looks, especially the one boy she loved.
Without wasting any more time, Sasuke unsheathed his sword and ran towards the young Sakura, slaying every shadow he spotted, noticing how they dismantled as soon as Kusanagi touched them. The young Sakura didn't look up, she kept on crying on the floor as Sasuke slashed them all, but the more of them he hit, the more showed up. After a little while, Sasuke finally accepted that slaying the shadows was definitely not taking them anywhere, and Sakura's sobs behind him pierced his heart so much that all he wanted to do was to take her in his arms and run far away from that place, so she would be free of all of that.
Realising that his wishes meant absolutely nothing there, he decided to stop and think about what would be the best thing to do. He couldn't stop the shadows from saying all those words that hurt Sakura so much, so what was there for him to do?
On the corner of his eye, he saw on the background a blonde young girl with blue eyes walking towards a flower shop.
And suddenly he knew what to do.
Wasting no more time, he took the young Sakura on his arms, her body so small compared to his strong arms that he was afraid he would break her, and unleashed Susanoo's wings to go away from that place to another one he knew very well: a field of flowers not far from Konoha's gates, Sakura's favourite place, where - in the real world - she would spend hours laying among the flowers in Sasuke's arms, telling stories.
When the young Sakura noticed that the voices had stopped, she raised her head slowly, still not seeing well because of the tears on her eyes, and she saw in front of her a blurred yellow figure. Rubbing her eyes to see more clearly, she saw that Ino - a girl from her school - was sitting in front of her, looking at her with determined eyes.
''I- Ino?'' she asked, unsure of why the other girl was there too - Sakura had never been a popular girl and it was all very strange to see the most beautiful and charismatic girl in school sitting in front of her on her favorite place.
''Why are you crying, Sakura?'' the blonde girl demanded. Sakura lowered her head, she wished to cry again.
''I'm ugly, nobody likes me! And it's all because of this strange hair and big forehead, I hate them both!'' she shouted ''Everyone is laughing at me and no one wants to be my friend'' her expression faltered and she lowered her head again to hide it between her legs, but Ino was faster, holding her head with both hands and raising it again so she would face her.
''I don't see anything wrong with your forehead'' she declared with a straight face ''in fact, it's the cutest thing I've ever seen'' she smiled, looking at Sakura's wide eyes and shocked expression and finding it funny ''I don't think you should hide it, hiding it just makes things worse, makes you look like a sheepdog! Instead, show it to the entire world, proudly, because it is yours, and it is part of you and always will be, so there's no reason to be ashamed of it!'' she brought a hand to her pocket and took from it a red ribbon and handed it to Sakura.
The pink haired girl looked shocked at her for a minute, then hesitantly took the ribbon from her hand and wore it, feeling completely exposed now that her forehead was visible for everyone to see.
''There'' Ino smiled proudly at her, and the way she smiled somehow made Sakura think of the young Uchiha boy who had stolen her heart. For the first time, thinking of him didn't make her feel sad, thinking he would never notice her, instead she felt full of hope and more determined than ever to win his heart ''don't listen to what these people say to you, the only opinions that should matter to you are your own and the ones of the people who are most important to you''.
For the first time, the young Sakura smiled widely at the friend in front of her.
Inwardly, Sasuke sighed in relief, but that feeling didn't last long: in the next moment, the shadows started to appear again, coming from the corners of that world in their direction. But when Sasuke looked back at Sakura with worried eyes, he saw that her own face showed no glimpse of worry. The shadows approached until they were a few feet away from them, but then they stopped, as if unable to move forward, and even though they tried to find another way closer to them, there was none: they were somehow being pushed away, prevented from coming anywhere near the two of them.
''You know'' Sakura started, a little bit unsure, and Ino turned her full attention back at her ''there is this guy I like from the Academy'' her face blushed as she spoke, and Ino had to do her best to control herself so she wouldn't smile ''I don't think he likes me, but I like so much that my heart aches when I'm around him, and I would do anything to make him happy'' she lowered her head ''do you think… do you think I stand a chance…?'' she asked, looking at Ino expectantly.
Ino pretended to be thinking hard ''if it's the person I'm thinking, I must tell you that he's very stubborn and hard to deal with'' he swallowed his pride hard and added ''and very proud and selfish sometimes too'' Sakura looked confused at her ''but don't give him up, he needs you more than you can imagine, and much more than he realises now, but someday he will, I promise you'' she reassured her, and Sakura gave her another one of her warm wide smiles and nodded, glowing with so much happiness than in a second all shadows were pushed away violently, and the world around them became brighter.
Soon after that, Sakura said goodbye to her new friend and ran to her house, skipping with joy, and the surroundings around him started to look blue and purple again.
Ino sighed, her hair getting darker and her body growing taller and stronger until Sasuke was back to his body.
''Good job'' he heard someone say next to him after a while, and he looked down to see the Sakura from before standing next to him. Her hair looked a bit longer and her expression lighter, but he thought maybe it was his imagination.
''Shouldn't you be, you know, with Sakura?'' he asked.
''Sakura's mind is not creating any dreams right now, she's just remembering things from the past at the moment, and as I said, I have no role in those'' she shrugged ''you did very well, I'm rather impressed'' she congratulated, looking at him with proud eyes.
Sasuke smiled proudly at himself.
''When you spend so much time with Sakura you end up learning a thing or two about empathy and about comforting others'' he wasn't about to tell her that some of those words were hers, that she had told him one day in the past. His face straightened ''it hurt me to see her in that state''.
He wanted to say more, like how he never imagined Sakura's childhood to have been dark too. He was always thinking about his own past and sometimes about Naruto's too, but Sakura too had endured some hardships when she was a child, and even though she always tried to support them both with their fears and insecurities, he realised neither him nor Naruto ever considered that she too had her own demons from the past and her own insecurities. That she too was human. But she never complained about any of that, she listened to their stories and helped them fight their problems and never mentioned any of hers, so he never thought she actually had or had had any problem. It was so normal to see Sakura as the problem-solver of the group, the one who always had an answer to everything and was always making everyone happy, that it never occurred to him that she had such problems and fears inside of her.
Sakura noticed he was lost in thoughts and decided not to push the subject further. Instead, she patted him on the shoulder.
''You did well, keep it up'' then she looked at the direction she had run to before, during the dream ''I'll just go check if everything is alright, I'll be right back!''
Sasuke sat on the ground while he waited, looking up at the sky above him. It was funny, he thought, to look up at the sky and see memories flowing around instead of the clouds he grew used to watching with Sakura back in their world. He could see some images in the lights glowing in the sky, small parts of different memories being revealed to him. Sasuke felt like it was wrong of him to pry on them, after all, they were Sakura's memories, some were none of his concern. Yet he couldn't help averting his eyes even for a second, his attention caught to one memory of her at Ichiraku's with a troubled face. He had a bad feeling about that memory, and the fact that it was glowing brightly among the others made him suspect that it was the next memory to become a dream - and most likely a nightmare, he suspected. Maybe if he got a closer look he would be able to understand it better and find out how to end the nightmare once it started? As far as he knew from the time he was spending there, slaying things didn't actually solve anything, so he would have to think of something else.
Sasuke gave a quick glance at the direction to which the young Sakura had run to, to make sure she wasn't coming back, before spreading Susanoo's wings and rising high in the sky until he got closer to the flows of light, reaching the memory he was aiming. When he saw Sakura looking worried to the moon in it, and then walking in the direction of Konoha's Gates, realization struck him and he knew which memory that was.
''Damn'' he cursed, clenching his teeth. That memory was so strong that Sasuke could feel some of the feelings Sakura had felt when she lived it. Fear, angst, and emptiness started to fill him and once more he hated himself for having ever made her feel that way. The memory started to become so powerful that he had to bring both arms to cover his head in order to protect himself from the intensity of the energy it emanated.
When he did so, however, he accidentally touched a small part of the image on the light flow.
He lost his balance in the air as he felt his body being violently pushed forward and everything started to twist and turn around him. Then he felt himself falling and falling while thousands of images where popping quickly around him, so quickly that he couldn't understand any of them.
Then suddenly he was laying on a street, a starry sky above him, and looking to his right he could see the Village's Gates.
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HEY EVERYONEEEEEEE ~!
This chapter is a little longer than the prologue heheheh I hope you all like it! I really can't wait to hear what you guys have to say about this, I wholeheartedly hope it pleases you all!
What do you guys think will happen next? ANYONE FORESEEING ANYTHING? LET ME KNOW! Hahahahha I'm having so much fun writing this, I really hope I managed to make you guys have a good time too while reading this, my aim posting my stories is to really share the worlds I like to create for myself and hopefully make other people have a good time too S2!
Please let me know what you thought of this chapter? Please please pleaseeeee?
And now replying to my amazing guestssss:
- Bleach power: AAA I had so much fun writing this, I hope you like the Dream World and everything Sasuke saw in it! Any predictions as to what will happen next? :D
- monsuno power: What do you think? :D Was it as you were expecting? I hope you like this chapter, thanks for reading!
- jstasasusakufan: Now this was a quick update wasn't it? Hahaha I hope you had a good time reading this chapter and that you continue to read this story, I look forward to seeing you around again! ^-^
- SorV: AWW THANK YOUUUU! It makes me super super happy to hear that you like it! I promise to continue to do my best not to disappoint you! Thanks for your review!
- Mix: Graciasss! Que pensas sobre este capítulo? Espero que hayas gustado!
Guys, thank you all so much for reviewing! I really hope you guys continue to read this and that you have a good time!
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Blackfan Diamond