The eyes closed, the static breath and a calm silhouette of a young woman. The moon was in its highest position and its soft light illuminated her face as she stood in the middle of a clearing in the forest. A light breeze was playing with her pink strands of hair. She seemed so quiet.
But that was only an outside. On the inside, Sakura was screaming. Screaming with despair and endless pain. That's so stupid. Why love must hurt so much? Why she has to be this weak. No matter what she would do, she was always behind because of it. Blind.
She lost so much time in her life thinking about Sasuke. And for what? It never brought her any joy. Her delusional love story only made people who care about her worry. If Sakura would ever be happy that Sasuke is back, then she should forget all about a person he was. All the bad things that he did. The bad and the good memories must go away. Naruto wishes for Team 7 to be reunited again. This is the only way.
"Are you ready?" Kakashi dragged her out of her thoughts. She hadn't noticed that he came back from talking to this man who will free her. "He agreed to help you."
"Ok, lets not prolong this." She said while walking to the small wooden house at the edge of the woods.
They both entered the house. It had only one room with kitchen and door to bathroom. The whole space was furnished with only basic and most needed for life stuff. The owner of this place welcomed them with a wide smile. The man himself was rather short and a bit hunched. He could have more than 70 years, but Sakura wasn't sure and for now she didn't really care.
"Welcome Sakura" He smiled at her gently. "I'm Omaride Genjo. Tell me what troubles you, my child."
"I need to get rid of something in my head. Kakashi-sensei probably told you everything" Sakura said, looking at her feet.
"Yes, he told me some of this. But before I'll do something to you, you need to know some things." He sighed. "For the first, you need to be completely sure, that what you want is what you need." He looked at her while she nodded with determination. "Well... you're not the first person that comes to me with such request, but somehow I managed to convince them not to do it."
"I don't think you can convince me." Sakura looked at him with sorrow. "The people who came here and asked you to erase someone that they love from their memories probably lost them permanently. Isn't it Omaride-san?"
"That is true. And I'll say to you what I said to them. Those memories made you who you are right now. People are memories. We need even these painful ones so that we can cherish new ones more in the future."
"Like I said you can't convince me." She staited firmly. "The person I love is alive and I can't fix anything if I'm too damaged..." Her voice broke. "Please just take it away."
"You'll not forget anything!"
Everyone looked at the entrance where this familiar voice came from. The tall blond boy stood with his hand resting on the opened door. He was panting with fatigue as if death itself was chasing him.
"Naruto...?" Sakura whispered his name. She stared at him shocked, but when she looked at Kakashi's face, the obvious thing occurred to her and she got angry. "Why would you call him?!" She yelled at her teacher.
"No Sakura-chan!" Naruto shouted. "Only you here needs to explain yourself." He looked really pissed off. "Why in the world would you think of doing such thing and place me in a position that I have nothing to say!" He seemed very disappointed. "I thought that we're closer than that..."
"I just wanted to spare you all this." She said quietly.
"Do you really think that I would feel better without any chance convincing you?" He was staring at her hopelessly. "This isn't the way. Just give us more time to figure this all out. I understand how you feel, but..."
"You have no idea how I feel!" She cried out. "You all think that its just temporary love depression!" Sakura couldn't hold her tears inside anymore. That only made her more hating herself." See? I'm always like that. The only thing I can do is to cry." She almost choked herself trying to calm down. "I have enough of this bullshit!"
"Sakura..." Naruto took a few steps to her, but she stepped back. "You're not weak because you're crying. I've always thought that it's the strong side of you, because you care so much."
"Possibly it was like that, but I don't see it that way. It doesn't matter. What matters is that I can't handle it anymore." She calmed herself enough to look at the boy in front of her. "I should be working in hospital right now and not crawling in my bed. But no... for three weeks I locked myself in my room trying to convince myself that everything is going to be fine. Sasuke is with us and this should matter." She wrapped her arms around herself, digging her nails into the skin. "But I can't... I'm too scared."
"I can assure you, Sakura-chan, he's back for real." Naruto placed his hand on her arm carefully, he didn't want her to step back again. "And he's definitely not going to hurt you anymore."
Sakura looked into his blue eyes with sadness. "But I don't want to take that risk. Even one glance with hate can pull the trigger. I won't stand it Naruto and I don't want to hurt you by doing more stupid thing than this right now I should be out there helping people and not focusing on Sasuke. It's a waste of my talent and time."
"He doesn't hate you." He said seriously.
"I don't trust this statement anymore... and I don't trust him."
Sakura felt Naruto's hand placed on hers as he grabbed it. He was looking at her thinking of what he can say to change her mind. He even convinced Sasuke to come back, then why he can't do that with her?
"Naruto, she might be right by doing this. Even if she's not, it's her decision." It's the first time Kakashi spoke since Naruto came.
"Why you're helping her. Shouldn't you support me right now?" Naruto said reproachfully to him."How could you bring her here?"
"Because I can't stand her in pain like that." The man answered.
"Naruto, please." It was Sakura, who interrupted with their argument before it even begun. "You have to see it too. With current me, we are all falling apart. If I do this we can start over." She placed her hand on his cheek. "Isn't that all we want?"
"But not like this!" He cried out.
"I'm sorry Naruto." She said gently stroking his hair. "Apparently I'm not that strong as you think of me."
"We can talk to him..." Said boy desperately.
"And say what?" She smiled tired. "If the answer would be as I think, I told you... I can't bare it."
"Sakura-chan..." He embraced her. "Please, don't do this."
She hugged him back and whispered "I have to."
...
"Sit down here." The old hermit pointed to a place on the floor and he sat in front of Sakura. "Before we start you need to know something as it might cause shock for you. This method is really complex and I'll have access to all of your thoughts and memories. Do you still want to do this?" He asked with a face that was telling that he wished that answer would be different than the one that came.
"Yes." She didn't like the thought that this stranger will mess with her head, but if this mean she won't love Sasuke anymore, She can manage. "Naruto, Kakashi-sensei, could you please leave us alone? You probably don't want to watch it. I don't want you to watch this."
"If you want..." Kakashi said and left with Naruto who couldn't bring himself to say anything. He sent her last pleading look.
"Carry on." Sakura turned back to Omaride.
He sighed and placed himself closer to her. The man took her hands and force her to maintain eye contact. "Do you want him off completely or just fall out of love for him?"
"The second." She said silently. "It'll be less weird later."
"Ok, then I need you think of an exact moment when you fell for him. You need to remember it and you need to be sure that this is it." He said.
"You said you will have access to everything." She said confused.
"Because I'll have, but if I'll try to dig it out just by myself, then I might cause you pain." The man explained patiently. "You need to carefully choose memories because I'll have to erase it first and then place the fake one so that you won't have holes."
"I understand. Give me a second." Many times she thought of the exact moment when she fell for Sasuke. This started when she met him at the academy, but this was when she started to fancy him. That's not the same as love. She just liked his handsome face and the aura of mystery.
"I know. I got it." She said.
"Then concentrate on it while you're telling me about it." He said as his eyes started to glow a bit. "Look deep into my eyes and tell me about this memory."
The girl was mesmerized by his gaze. She couldn't break the eye contact even if she would want to. "It was our first big mission as a team. We fought Zabuza and Haku. When I saw Sasuke lying lifeless I couldn't be a true Shinobi in that moment. Because we can't show our emotions." She remembered that this rule was especially breaking by her and her friends.
"How did you feel at that moment?" Asked the old man.
"Like I lost a chance to really get to know Sasuke and fall in love with him truly." She made painful expression remembering that feeling.
"He never was in this critical state, he never was dying." He said firmly. "He was just lying angry that he lost this battle." Sakura blinked a few times. "Who is Sasuke Uchiha?" He asked.
"The man I love." She answered and right after she cursed that nothing changed. "Whatever you did, it didn't help."
"Maybe the memory wasn't right." He said mostly to himself. "Again, find the moment you fell in love with Sasuke Uchiha."
Sakura stared at him curiously. 'Did he already changed something?' She couldn't remember what they were talking few moments before so he probably did something. "Ok, I'll try." She thought about it for a minute. "The Forest of the Death." She said finally. "I was alone with Sasuke when Orochimaru attacked us with genjutsu. Sasuke managed to break through it by hurting himself so he can save both of us. Save me."
"You were never alone in this forest with him. You were attacked alone and passed out." Said Omaride. "You were alone and scared, but that is all what happened. Who is Sasuke Uchiha?" He asked again.
"He's the man I love... Damn it!" She shouted with anger. "This doesn't work! And my head hurts."
"I said it won't be that easy." He calmed her.
"I know I'm sorry." She apologized ashamed by her screaming like that. "It's just that I don't really know when I fell in love with him. It just happened."
"You need to think harder."
"I'm trying." She said while rubbing her temples.
"Let's make short break, shall we?" He said with this calm smile on his face.
"Fine." Said the girl. "While we are making it, can you tell me why you are not a ninja?" She asked, sitting more comfortably. "I mean, with your skills you were probably noticed."
"That is true." Said the old man standing up and went to set the kettle to make some tea. "But I wouldn't be a good ninja." He chuckled. "You see... This is the only thing I can do. I'm so bad with any other jutsus."
"Then why Kakashi-sensei knows you?" She was curious about it.
"Well, we met when he was still in Anbu." He flooded the tea when the water boiled. "I was kept there at the time being forced to do things I don't want. But this Hatake boy... he helped me. He convinced hokage to leave me alone." He smiled at this memory. "He was such a gentle soul, He still is."
"Wow." Sakura was impressed by this story. "I've never heard of that."
"Of course you didn't. He can keep his promises." The man laughed as he gave the hot cup to her.
"I think we've had enough of this break." Sakura said when she drank the half of her tea.
"If you think so." He put down his already empty cup.
For the next two hours, they tried to find the right memory. But all the effort seemed meaningless. They were so tired already because almost the whole night passed by without any achievement. It's like no matter if Sasuke did something, or didn't she loved him for just being present in her life. Which meant only one thing.
"You need to take him away completely." She said, panting and with tears in her eyes. "You need to make it like we never met each other."
"It's difficult..."
"Please..." She interrupted him.
"Ok, but it will hurt as I will have to go through your memories a bit by myself." He said with worry.
"Fine" Sakura had been already too deep to back down. "Do what you have to."
The young woman felt incredible pain when Omaride started to penetrate her head. She saw all her memories like on some weird screen. After some time it all stopped. She saw herself sitting on a bench in front of the Academy and eating her lunch alone.
Then she saw a young boy with black hair and absent gaze. Sakura saw that on her younger version of herself appeared a dark blush as she stared at the boy dreaming of him as a prince. He didn't notice her but she was full of thoughts about him and his pretty face.
When Sakura blinked, memory changed. She never saw a young prince. She ate her lunch alone and then went for her class.
This was happening for the next four hours. Every memory that included Sasuke was replaced by something else. When question: 'Who is Sasuke Uchiha?' was asked again Sakura felt like if the pile of stones crushed her.
She looked at the old and also tired man sitting opposite to her. "He's the closest friend of Naruto, but I've never met him."