Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
3: You
'Sakura-chan?' Naruto looked doubtfully at his best friend, who was sitting on the bench – the very bench she had been abandoned on three years ago, by her first and only love. Sakura didn't meet his eyes. Instead, she gazed at the road that went towards… yes, towards where?
'I'm okay, Naruto,' she emotionlessly replied. 'Don't you want to go back to Hinata? She's waiting for you to return, you know.'
'Yeah…' Naruto hesitated. 'But she's concerned about you too.'
'I'm fine.' She tried to smile, but having known her for so long, Naruto knew it was fake. He didn't say it out loud, though… it was bad enough as it was. 'Really.'
'Sakura-chan…' Naruto heaved a sigh. 'You know, you're allowed to cry. You won't be weak if you do.'
Even the false smile was wiped away from her lips. '… I am weak. That's what he always said.'
'… But he's not around anymore, Sakura-chan.'
'I know.'
A tense silence fell between the two ex-teammates and best friends. Naruto could feel something in his heart fall apart as he watched his ex-crush sitting there, looking uncharacteristically… blank. It was a look he recognized in him…
… a look they'd never see again.
'You know, I've cried enough,' she stated, in a foolish attempt to make him go away. 'I did cry a lot when shishou-sama said he was…' The word still made her heart ache. '… dead.'
He didn't respond. Instead, he only stared intently at the pink-haired kunoichi. Sakura went on, encouraged to continue with her speech: 'Maybe it's time to move on.'
'…' Naruto still failed to reply. At least, he heaved a sigh. 'Well, if you really say so…'
Sakura felt some relief awaken in her heart, but she could still sense the worry he felt. After all, for a long time, she had been the most important to him, all that he had left. Now, she was replaced by Hinata, his one true love.
But not all love stories end happily, Sakura bitterly reminded herself. She wasn't jealous. Not at all. She was happy for her two friends…
… but she could still not avoid to feel resentful about how love's true appearance could be.
'Love is beautiful, Sakura,' she remembered her mother saying when her parents had divorced. 'Love is the most wondrous thing that can ever exist, the thing that can bring you more joy than anything else could. But you should not forget that love can be bitter. It can be the thing that brings you the outmost pain. But then again… I guess that when you do fall in love, you forget all about the bad things.'
Yes, indeed. She had forgotten about her mother's warning when she had fallen in love with Sasuke. And now she faced the consequences.
Bitter, painful love. Beautiful nonetheless.
She sighed and finally gathered the courage to face her friend. 'Naruto, you should better head back to Hinata.'
'I guess…,' he murmured. 'Well, cheer up soon, Sakura-chan. I'll see you around.' And with those words, he walked away.
Just then, something cold touched her cheek. Surprised, she looked up at the sky.
Snow…
A shimmering tear-droplet, similar to a crystal, found its way slowly down her cheek.
'Sasuke-kun…,' she murmured, feeling an immense pain paralyze her body.
It was not physical pain. It was not the kind of pain that made you wish that you'd just die instead of being tortured. No, it was the mental kind, the kind that was much worse, the kind that makes you wish it really hurt instead.
Because when you're physically tortured, you can't think. All your thoughts are absorbed by the pain, but when you're mentally tortured…
… all you can do is think. The thoughts swirled in her mind, over and over again. The memories, the failure, his death, the news, the pain, the secret mourning, the pretended happiness, the frustration over her pathetic weakness…
Everything came back to torment her, as she relived the happiness… and the sadness.
There're always two sides of everything, she remembered reading somewhere. You can't find a coin without a front and a back. Love is the same. You can't have the beautiful love…
… without the bitterness. Love is miraculous. But disastrous.
It can make you feel that you've nothing to lose, that you can just do about anything possible…
… but it can also turn you into a living dead.
'Sasuke-kun…' She repeated his name, over and over again. It was like each time she repeated it, she felt the pain strike her again. Yet, she kept doing so. Because it was better to feel the pain, than walk around in a daze, aware that you are being tortured, but pretending you aren't.
'Stupid Sasuke-kun…,' she whispered. 'Stupid, stupid Sasuke-kun…'
'Who did you call stupid?'
For a moment, she was stunned. Absolutely stunned. The pain left her body for once, and albeit fearing of what she might see, she turned her head up to face the source of the voice.
There he was. Black hair, obsidian eyes, pale skin, wearing his trademark smirk. There was no way she could've mistaken him for another person.
But… he was…
'… dead?' He chuckled, as though reading her thoughts.
'… You're… real…?' She could hardly believe it. But then, who would? She reached out a hand to touch his arm… only to find that it wasn't just a vision.
'Yeah, I'm real.'
'But… Tsunade-sama said –'
'The corpse they found,' he explained, 'was fake. That was merely to keep you away from me, because I needed to fight alone. I needed to defeat Itachi on my own.'
For a moment, rage awakened in her. So all this time, she had been in pain… for nothing? 'Why?' she questioned, her voice quivering with anger, 'Didn't you just tell us to stay away? Why did you make us mourn for you? Why…' She was always on the verge of tears. '… did you turn me into such a… a… wreck?'
At first, he didn't respond. Then, the statement that came from his lips astounded her… but yet, it did not, as it was all too familiar. 'You really are annoying.'
'What do you mean?' she yelled at him. 'What do you mean, "annoying"? Do you even know what I've been through? Do you even know how… worried I was?'
'It was better that way.' His eyes showed no remorse, no mercy. 'You'd have died.'
'I thought you were dead!'
'Sakura…'
'And you call me "annoying"? Did you even know –'
'Sakura, it's snowing.'
She glared at him, still angered. 'What about it?'
'Do you still remember how we first met?'
'… Yes.'
'And you said you loved me?'
'…'
'I never gave a response, did I?'
'You did. You rejected me,' she claimed, 'Don't you remember?'
'I never rejected your feelings,' he denied. 'I rejected, however, your tries to make me go out with you.'
'The last night,' she pressed on, 'I confronted you.'
'I never replied.'
'You called me annoying.'
'You are.'
'…'
'But maybe that's why I love you.'
Sakura's eyes widened. What? 'Sasuke-kun, you –'
She was interrupted by the kiss. As his lips met hers, she forgot about everything else.
Yes, she thought. Love can be disastrous. But it can be miraculous as well.
And they continued kissing, as the snowflakes drifted to the ground around them.
Author's NoteI was, for once, kind of delighted with how this fic turned out. Maybe because of the end... because that's what I wish would happen in real life. Actually, the sentence 'Stupid, stupid Sasuke-kun' (if you just remove 'Sasuke-kun' and insert my best friend's name) was used by me somewhat frequently after I found out the news.
Somehow, I hope that by reading this, some people will understand somewhat. For example people I've come across that have told me it is extremely mean of me to wish the motorbike rider would die when it was an accident. Yes, I'd perhaps have forgiven him about fifteen years in the future if he had mourned.
But I don't think continue to ride his motorbike even after the accident is a sign of mourning, and it isn't like he's forced to do it. According to the police and judging by his motorbike's price, he seems to come from a wealthy family. And I mean, if he was really as shocked as some people state that one can become after having accidentally killed somebody, wouldn't he have just taken the bus to his job instead? Or even friggin' stopped working, trying to recover from the shock?
Anyway, in Sakura's case, she at least had told him she loved him before he 'died'. I never did. I was afraid he'd reject me, despite all the clear signs that he wouldn't. But I guess when you first fall in love, you'd rather be 'safe than sorry'... I never realized that my carefulness would be the thing that'd hurt me the most in the end.
Okay, enough with the sob story of mine before I start to whine too much. Please review and tell me what you think about this fanfiction!
Now, if it only would start to snow for real here in Sweden as it did last year when I fell in love with him...