It was dark.
Sakura blinked as her eyes slowly adjusted, moonlight creeping along the edges of her vision until everything was enveloped in a pale glow.
She was in her childhood room, sitting up in a bed made up with pale pink sheets. She frowned, confused. She had moved out two years after she made chuunin, why was she back…?
The world tilted for a second, making Sakura's head reel; she felt herself slip out of her bed as gravity dragged her from the comforting covers. She plummeted down, down, down, her chakra just beyond her reach as she grasped the air, screaming silently.
Then, in the space of a gasp, she found herself knee deep in cold snow. Around her, pinnacles of glacial ice rose like monoliths above the bare plain of white- the whiteness of it hurt her eyes.
"Sakura…"
Sakura jumped, whirling around, turquoise eyes wide with fear. She knew that voice, she knew that voice…
Sasuke stood, as he had when he was part of Team 7 so long ago, slouching, hands in his pockets. Smirking. He looked as he had before he'd left for Orochimaru- young, eager, and with hands unstained by the blood of innocents.
"Hello, Sakura." He even sounded the same, his voice young and, though rusty, was filled with amusement. Not empty, not flat, not filled with hatred.
"Sasuke…" Sakura couldn't help it, and her eyes overfilled with tears of joy and despair at what- might-have-been, and what-would-never-happen.
As soon as she spoke his name, something changed. The white world shifted, the skies twisted into darkness and the mountains loomed, ominous.
Sasuke's smirk twisted, and Sakura's stomach plummeted. He seemed to grow before her eyes- his appearance morphing into what the monster he'd become. He grinned, a smile full of madness, and his eyes pinwheeled red.
"You had the strength to cut your bonds, Sakura." Sasuke's voice sounded like wet silk over steel as he prowled close. "You became strong."
He brandished his arms wide, a gesture so un-Sasuke-like she took a step back. Blood, crimson, flowed from his mouth as he spoke, a never-ending fountain down his chin. Sakura, following the trail of blood down to his chest, trembled as the gaping, open wound she put there bared itself- she could see directly into his ribcage, directly at the weakly beating heart that seemed unnaturally loud in the silence.
Sakura could hear bile growing in the back of her throat and her stomach roiled in protest.
"Isn't this what you wanted?" Sasuke asked, his head cocked quizzically, the evil smirk on his face at odds with his grievous wounds. "I thought you loved me Sakura-chan."
Sakura watched in horror as he reached inside his own chest cavity and viciously ripped his own heart out. He held it out to her, smiling a smile reminiscent of Sai.
"Isn't this what you wanted?"
Sakura woke up with a scream, choking on her own tears as they ran, unbidden, down her face. "It was just a dream" she gasped, stumbling out of her bed. "Just a dream." She staggered into her small bathroom and, with shaking hands, struggled to turn on the tap. "Get a hold of yourself." She mumbled, splashing the cool water on her face, washing away the sweat of her night terrors.
She glanced in the mirror and winced; her face was pale and drawn- dark circles etched themselves beneath her eyes. She hadn't slept properly in three days, ever since she'd returned to the village after… after. She sighed, and closed her eyes, squeezing tight to ward against the large migraine pounding itself against her left temple. Grief pounding along with the headache, bruising her chest with the weight of it; guilt merely added to the load. She had taken Naruto's promise away from him- the promise he had sacrificed for and had pushed himself to the brink of death for and… she'd taken that from him. She had given Sasuke peace but… had she given any to Naruto?