A/N: This is probably one of the earlier chapters that have received the most plot change; hopefully it doesn't alter the appreciation of it too much! I found that in revamping this story, with a more mature mind, and with much farther-progressed anime/manga, it was a challenge to avoid changing too much to where the original glamour of the story was not lost.

DISCLAIMER: I don't own any part of the Naruto series…except for Sasuke…and Itachi. I have more ownership over Itachi than anything, actually. But most importantly: I don't share my men.

So … this chapter is kinda sorta overloaded with A LOT of Song Play suggesting. I post the names exactly the way you'll find them on Youtube to make it easier and more accessible; though the most important thing is that these are purely optional – and I understand it's probably not so fun to hafta pause the story then find the song, and then hope it matches where you're reading and with how fast/slow you read, yada yada. I'm just experimenting here :P But yeah, typically I do try my best to have the song match nearly the exact length of my scene descriptions, unless I say it's an [abrupt] end … I'm OCD like that.

Actually, to make it easier since I forgot that you can't copy/paste on the stories, I'll post the links of all songs used on my profile page. That way you can have it open in a separate window or tab, and conveniently click on it. :D

Please Enjoy!

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Antiquated Folly

Chapter 4: A Past to Be Moved

(o) (o) (o) (o)

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It was always time that seemed to grasp us in a never-ending hold. It would slow or quicken our worst and best moments. It would prevent things from happening, or be the reason for it. Though, this certain spring day, something was different. Time … it didn't make an appearance. It didn't seem to matter.

.

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I used to think that friends … stayed friends forever

Flashback
There were three young individuals; each stood amidst a group of others in similar age to litter a long, tall, familiar hallway. They were facing towards their destination; it was illuminated by the glossy wooden floors and signaled by the heavy double doors at its end.

"Sasuke-kun, Naruto, let's all pass together, ok?" Sakura's words ended, and she cheerfully, dedicatedly grabbed both of their hands with each of her own. She gently pulled them towards those large double doors; and they walked towards it, together.
End Flashback

I had thought that no matter what happened, past events could always be amended ...
and that violence, no matter how deep the hurt and scars, could be avoided..

Flashback
She looked up to him, surprised at his words. In that moment she didn't feel her battered face, or her bruised body. She focused on his calm gaze - counterbalance to the erect, pulsing waves of dark colored chakra surrounding him. He was almost unrecognizable to the foreign odious markings that covered his person in continuous spread.

"Sakura, who did that to you?"

She unconsciously reached up to her busted and bleeding lip, eyes widening as far as they could through the swelling, and eyes wavering as much as the pain would let them.

"Sakura. Tell me who hurt you."
End Flashback

I was a child when I thought that.

-
"Sakura … thank you." (Sasu)
-

I was wrong.

...[Song Play: Naruto – Kokuten - Extended] (6:04 min one)

The time that transpired was slow, precise.

She looked to him in that moment, as he maneuvered his arm in a pre-strike outstretch with long blade at hand. Had there been any expression of disbeleif or betrayal, it was removed swiftly; impassion etched Haruno Sakura's face and outlined the contours of her rigidly-closed jaw. She still looked to Uchiha Sasuke's, even as her and Uzumaki Naruto moved to avoid his attack. Her gaze did not wander to his blade, nor the staticky chakra that slowly dissapated to nonexistence with his missing strike. She was instead looking to the face that mirrored the same absense of emotion as she: his face was stoned with biting-cold impertinence.

Through Naruto's ebbing hesitation Sakura countered, fist poised as she bolted towards Sasuke.

He dissapeared when she was upon him, forcing her fist to pound into the ground. The force of her blow was riveting, breaking up the ground harshly, and forming a crater of the surrounding area. She dissapeared just as soon after, jumping into the sky where he reappeared. Some of the broken up earth from her blow had been catapulted into the sky with them, and acted as a background to their subsequent attack and evade manuever. She aimed another fist towards him, and he mid-air flipped to avoid. When they landed, Sakura tried again.

Sasuke stood, watching as she came a second time, Sharingan gaze lazily focused.

Naruto's eyes widened. "Sakura-chan!" His call was a warning.

Sakura's own gaze widened as she noticed the ground between her and Sasuke liven with electricity. This chakra danced about rapidly; its radius shot to her instantly.

'Chidori?'

She was forced to jump upwards, looking to Sasuke to try and find its source. She saw that he had no hand-filled chidori, nor was he weaving any signs.

'He can meld his lighting chakra this freely?'

Sakura's gaze twitched in the instant that Sasuke had dissapeared. Her head shot upright to contort in frustration when she realized she was vulnerable, and unable to dodge his next attack.

The speed in which Naruto had moved was unblinkable; he came between her and Sasuke, planting the palm of his hand into Sasuke's forearm. The force and timing of his blow forced the blade out of the Uchiha's hand and to its descent down below; sight of it was lost as the two continued to exchange countering blows. Sasuke spun for a kick, and Naruto brought up an arm to his side to block it. The two paid no heed to their free fall while they fist fought.

Sakura landed in a crouched position with a hand beneath her in support; the moment she had landed was brief, and she allowed neither her hair nor clothing to finish their fall before she bolted from her position once more.

"Katon: Goukakyuu No Jutsu!"

Sakura jumped and rolled to the side to avoid the firey ball that came towards her; this only momentarily impeded her as she continued making her way to the fighting duo.

Sasuke had landed a punch to Naruto's abdomen before they were upon earthen ground again; the force of Sasuke's blow allowed Naruto to reach the ground faster, and he used it as a pivot point to tap and disappear away to a new location. Sakura was upon Sasuke as he too landed, and she aimed a fist towards him. Sasuke swiftly moved his head to the side, and in the same movement brought his hands to the ground in support for his two legs that came upwards in kick to Sakura; they connected with her chin in uppercut fashion with enough force to lift her off the ground. Naruto was already there in response, not allowing Sasuke to attempt another blow; the Uchiha disappeared entirely in forfeit.

Sakura briefly looked to Naruto as she recovered from the blow – she remained in crouch, and Naruto fully stood next to her. Soon after she found Sasuke; he had reappeared next to his fallen weapon. They watched as he unhurriedly grabbed it from its embedded upright position in the ground. Once it was free of its soil prison, he swiped the sword to his side, and all subsequent dirt bioburden was flung away. It was in the same moment that the dirt and grass bundles hit the ground that Sasuke disappeared. He came to them, appearing before them in an instant like he had before.

Naruto met Sasuke's blade with an equipped kunai. The weapons clashed, and the two stared at eachother in that moment's pause against eachothers opposing power struggle, brief as it was. Such a moment was made succinct by the act of Sasuke reinforcing his Sharingan.

...[Song Switch]

...[Song Play: Naruto : The Lost Tower – Hyakurai (Hundred Thunderclaps) Remix]

One queue his sword livened with dancing electricity – the blue tendrils of lighting gently and inwardly lapped at the metal of the blade in a surge. Where there was once opposing forces of kunai vs. blade, there was none: Naruto's kunai became illusory as Sasuke's sword passed through it effortlessly; it embedded into his leg, and both the initial blow and Sasuke's continued pressure forced the golden-haired shinobi to fall backwards to the ground with thudded impact. Naruto cringed as the blade was pushed to penetrate his leg further, pinning him stationary.

"I forgot to tell you about my sword, Naruto." Lighting chakra continued to surge through the subject weapon in a constant stream. "Kusunagi … it's called. This is a special snake sword …" Naruto cringed as Sasuke intentionally maneuvered the embedded blade in a slight twist to aggravate his wound. "Normal defense against it is useless." The injured shinobi watched as Sasuke reached behind his clothing to pull out a lone kunai; it twirled within his grasp as he fully equipped it, and halted once positioned properly – in aim towards Naruto.

It was sudden, when a Naruto shadow clone burst from the ground beneath the two to grab Sasuke; this relinquished the Uchiha's hold on the sword and stumbled the two slightly back in struggle. Sasuke could only look to Sakura who had dashed before them and prepared her own on-point strike; her fist flowed the the dangerously-channeled chakra. His was a blatant stare that twitched in seriousness, before he suddenly stopped resisting the pulling force of the Naruto clone behind him.

"Chidori Nagashi!"

The Naruto clone instantly reduced to a puff of smoke against the outward-expelled lightning chakra current that came from all around Sasuke's body. The currents reached Sakura also, and the force stunned her at the same time that it propelled her backwards. She was not left to travel far before Sasuke reappeared behind her to halt her flight - doing so by grabbing both of her ankles and suspending her upside down. She looked up to him in a pained glare while she hung briefly; Sasuke's face was cold, and he gave but a passionless glance down to her before he brought a knee up to slam into her gut. Immense speed allowed him to subsequently rotate and deliver a powerful spinning kick that catapulted her away once again.

Sakura's flight-path was head-first towards the surrounding forest, and she was too stunned by the blow to stop the momentum. Her eyes were closed and her face in grimace.

...[Pause song play ≈ 1:39 - 1:41]

To her the time seemed slow. The surrounding forresty that she uncontrollably flew toward seemed ages away. She didn't focus on any of that: the pain, the feel of the biting wind that she cut through. A moment came when all environmental sound seemed to fade out, and her surroundings became a blur to the thought of her internal focus.

How do I know, how hard I need to try?

Flashback
"Gomen(sorry), Naruto…"

She didn't look to him, as she said this. Her very short roseate hair and the back of her teen-size sleeveless red tunic were the forefront view.

"You'll have to wait a while …" Her voice was light and soft in cheery explanation. "Next time, I promise,"

It was then that she looked to Naruto in a slight turn of her head; if she had had any pained expression with her previous words, it was removed and hidden with the light smile she wore. If she had suffered any continuing angst at the sight of her battered comrade – he was covered head to toe in bandages, even the exposed skin of his face bore scratches and scrapes – she did not show it.

"I won't be a burden."

Her eyes gently glimmered in facing to his curious, taken back cerulean stare.
End Flashback

It was sudden once more, when sound started to come back. The whistling air that her body sliced through – the ruffling of her clothes and the sound of her whipping hair. It slightly opened her gaze to remain partially hidden under long eyelashes in cover from the bright sun above.

How do I know ... how hard I've actually tried?

She then fully opened her gaze, unhindered and open to the reflection above.

Or if I've tried enough?

She reveled in it – the blue uninterrupted sky – only briefly before she followed its expansive horizon, doing so to tilt her head in upwards motion to capture the nearing timberland that she traveled towards. She caught specific sight of the wide tree trunk that was forefront to her travel.

...[Continue song play ≈ 1:39 - 1:41]

Another short moment passed before she maneuvered her body in a flip with a discernable, light grunt.

It seemed to go in slow motion, as she landed against the tree; the soles of her sandals highlighted with the blue chakra that suspended her against the tree's trunk in a crouch – perpendicular to the ground. The force of her landing had catapulted a wind to burst the surrounding leaves from their perch; they fluttered around and underneath her in this moment, just as her roseate hair flayed and splayed around her face and her clothing continued to ruffle; neither had settled from the sudden halt of her previously forced-flight, before she lifted her head upwards.

Sasuke, still standing before a downfallen Naruto, had taken a glance to her in the same moment she had looked to him. It was brief, what he saw, brief enough that even the slight pause it gave him was enough to become his disadvantage.

Time transpired normally then, and Sakura used to momentum of her travel and sudden stop to catapult off the tree towards him. Speed newfound and unexpected. He dodged her first punch; he only narrowly avoided the next; he was unable to dodge the rest. Sasuke was assaulted in a barrage that pushed him back, and her forward, in travel.

They maneuvered through and inbetween all the trees and shrubbery of the small patch of forest they entered. Forrest critters scurried and evaded away from the areas they disturbed with their progression, and nesting birds flocked from above the trees that had been flustered.

They arrived out of the patch of forrest and into a substantially larger clearing that nestled against the mountainside; the trees opened up into towering blue skies above and tall, waving grass that whistled with the breeze. There was a glistening current of water that traveled a distance away from its source. They traveled beside it, upwards against its steadily increasing current and towards the tall, wide waterfall that was its source: it was a large, gushing body of water that lengthened the rocky cliffside of the forest mountain. At its top was more terrain and forestry that continued along towards the mountain.

Sasuke had taken one last forced leap backwards in result from a connected strike; he arrived onto the rocky terrain that littered the base of the waterfall. It was a larger body of water at the base of the aforementioned cliff edge, home to the upward-protruding boulders that made their jagged showcase toward the skies. Water lapped upwards at the rocks in splashes as it started to become a current for the river that carried it .

Sakura took that same leap with a swiftness, and her chakra-filled fist connected.

The strength of the blow burrowed the Uchiha into the cliff wall; the force heaved and catapulted boulders to concave and fall around him, completely burying him from sight. Sakura immediately jumped backwards to avoid the crumbling rock and moved to land on another rocky formation that protruded about the thrashing water. Sound was riveting and exploding, yet simultaneously drowned out by the reverberation of the waterfall, as the cliffside started to rumble to a still. It was a drowning sensation to all other sound as well, including her slow and heavy breaths.

...[End Song]

Sakura''s eyes twitched as she seemed to briefly relax from her tension; her shoulders dropped slightly, and she continued to try and recover normal breathing.

"Sakura-chan!"

As if snapping out of a daze, Sakura's head lifted, and her full body turned to find Naruto who had come out of the distant forest behind her in pursuit. He made his way next to her on the wide protruding boulder after taking a few jumping strides over the water. Sakura looked to his leg as he stood up tall, and she noted the blood-stained clothing at the wound-site; her eyes traveled slightly upwards to notice the torn piece of his jumpsuit jacket that had been wrapped around his thigh for use as a tourniquet.

"It's okay, Sakura-chan." He assured her before she spoke, and it allowed them both to look to the cratered cliff edge where Sasuke had crashed.

...[Song Play: Naruto Shippuden OST 2 - Track 27 – Narukami (Screaming God)]

The darkly purple chakra that started to seep out from the rock pile was ominous; it only simmered at first in a small trickle, forebodingly, before coursing out of each available crack in increasing amount. It did so menacingly. This continued in intensifying progression, just before the sudden explosion that propelled the rock pile in various directions. Along with it was the debris and smoke that entreated the area in plume-like haze.

Even with sight limited, Naruto and Sakura held their eyes in one place ahead of them. In the thinning haze they watched the outline of Sasuke's figure as he moved amidst the thrown boulders and craters. His figure became more prominent as he neared and the smoke dissipated, his own dark chakra seemed to be assisting by pushing away the dusty hindrance. His form was completely revealed when the smoke disappeared, and it signaled his halted advancement to the edge of the rocky platform that made up the bottom of the waterfall.

The same chakra that had initiated the event still remained; it almost seemed to ooze out of the Uchiha in tremoring waves. He stood eerily still to mark his mood; his skin was battered and bruised to showcase the damage done; and his words were curt to forebode future action.

"Enough games."

He brought his hand out in front of him. In his grasp was a single broken up rock from his former imprisonment; within his fist he crushed it, and in succession a lightning chakra enveloped that hand. The chakra coursed harshly and loud as it continued to build up with expanding surge. It was sudden, when it contorted out in a single beam-like shot towards Naruto and Sakura.

Naruto's head lifted in surprise when he saw this; and he instantly pushed Sakura out of the way; she was forced fall into the thrashing water where the current carried her a small ways down before she could break her upper body out of it. She used chakra under her elbows to keep her stationary enough as she worriedly looked to her friend and comrade.

Naruto himself started to move to avoid the attack, however the moment he lowered his body with the intention of jumping – applying weight and pressure to his forgotten injured leg – the pain stunned him. A few droplets of blood fell to the rocky boulder he was upon; the jumpsuit legging directly above and below his wound was saturated with blood, and no longer able to sustain volume. In his stun Naruto started to fall backwards; his eyes remained on the piercing chakra that traveled towards him with immense speed, and at the last possible moment, with the gritting of his teeth and clenching of his jaw, he bent his legs and pushed them against the side of the boulder in a stumbled catapult.

The lighting chakra had swung like a sword at the end of its lengths, and the long skin-deep slash that scraped Naruto's chest marked his narrow evasion. The clothing tore and the slash immediately livened with a stream of blood; it only barely started to escape from the lower corner of the gash, the rest of its descending path was hidden under the rest of Naruto's intact shirt.

Naruto was still in backwards stumble from the dissipating chakra sword when he brought his hands up in a seal; he looked from this corner of his eye behind him as he did this, just as Sasuke shoved a pin-pointed lighting fist into his back. It tore through to protrude through his chest.

A signifying puff of smoke marked the demise of the clone that replaced him, and Sasuke jumped upward to avoid the real Naruto as he suddenly fell down from the sky in attack; the protruding boulder was blasted to small rocky counterparts as he missed. In his evasion the Uchiha threw a pair of kunai downward for Naruto to parry with his own swiftly equipped kunai.

...[End Song]

"Katon: Housenka No Jutsu!"

Naruto could only bring his arms up in defense to shield his face from the separate fire embers that flamed towards him. His gaze smoldered with the reflection and glowing hues of red and orange and yellow, and they remained squinted as he took the brunt of the flames – the fires burned through particular portions of his exposed clothing to singe the skin beneath. In spite of this, Naruto ignored the embers to block Sasuke's next attack: still shielding his face from the flames he maneuvered the kunai still in his grasp to block Sasuke's strike. Their kunai clashed with a resounding clank.

As their eyes met during this power struggle, Naruto's widened almost instantly.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Sakura had just pulled herself out on top of the water – matted hair framed her face and stuck to the curves of her body in diversifying wrinkles – and was forced to remain on all fours and she coughed up a bit of the liquid that caught her breath. She dripped as she frenziedly pushed herself up; each water droplet disappeared into the traveling currents below. She immediately refocused on Naruto and Sasuke. Hers was a worried, anxious stare that only amplified in urgency when she watched Naruto fall to his knees.

The impact of her sudden, forceful running start splashed water from behind her. The rest rippled in succeeding pattern.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Sasuke dryly looked down to Naruto. His Sharingan gaze was slightly squinted, and the area around twitching with a sort of strain and fatigue. Naruto let out a scoff, and took another moment to catch his labored breath from his fallen position. His face was pained and scrunched, brow sweaty, and his eyes almost dull with what seemed to be mental fatigue. "I bet … teme … that that genjutsu did you more harm … than it did me."

"No matter." Sasuke responded curtly and almost in interruption; he did not allude as to an affirmation or denial to Naruto's presumption; he watched without opposition as Naruto struggled to try and stand. He himself slowly returned his hand to his backside, behind his tattered clothing, to pull on the hilt of his sword once more.

"A true Uchiha uses his Kekkai Genkai without fear, and looks his enemy in the eye before his final strike." By the end of his words Sasuke had fully unsheathed the Kusunagi, and proceeded to raise it above his head with both hands. At the pinnacle of its height it surged with the familiar lightning-like chakra.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

"Naruto!"

In that instance it felt like she had been running forever.

All of her surroundings were out of focus – blurred out and darkened; she only prioritized the two males to which she ran toward within her sight. Her own breaths echoed with each footfall, and her own heart pounded.

'Move, Sakura!'

She didn't notice the blossom-colored chakra slowly start to coat her like a second layer of skin; or the increase in her speed as she yearned to reach her destination; neither did she pay attention to the translucent, revolving circle of chakra that formed beneath her. It burst at its pinnacle, flaring around her in the form of nearly translucent flower pedals. She was on a collision course, her trajectory placed her incoming from behind Naruto. The waterfall was a background to it all, and it seemed to gush with even more volume to mimic the heightened situation.

Sasuke was mid-strike when she had made it to them.

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.. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ..

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Sakura and Sasuke both crashed into the center depths of the waterfall. The velocity of their impact imploded the water current and obliterated the flow, forcing the remaining water to shroud in all available directions. They further burrowed into the rocky earthen wall – once a corroded home to the water – destroying the foundation, and misshaping the cliffy edge as resultant boulders catapulted away to fall downwards and out of sight from their position. The waterfall that had been thrust into the air had started its descent then, mimicking the heavy pour of rain: the skies seemed to darken with the volume of water that started its pour, and it was argumentable that the sky itself had been opened up to relinquish its own precipitation with the enormity of the water that hammered down endlessly.

Sakura and Sasuke were only momentarily stationary before their surroundings continued to impact, and the platform underneath them collapsed. They fell through again to their final resting place – to a caved area beneath and behind the waterfall that was free from the pounding of the rain.

It was somewhat quieter here – the roaring of the remaining waterfall was a drowned hum against the arranged rock-walls that trapped them. Pebbles of rock broke free from larger craters, adding their own harmony of sound as they intermittently ricochet to their resting places. All that was left was the dripping water that made its way past the numerous cracks and crevices of the stacked boulders; streams spurted strongly while others seeped, and with the shade of the darkened sky and the caved area they occupied, it created a watery environment that illuminated the cliffy bulwark to a luminescent aquamarine color.

The halt of their fall had positioned Sasuke's back to the drenched rocky ground, slightly raised up against the cratered wall they had fallen down to. Sakura was on top of him in a straddle, her body a pinning cage to his.

Sakura shakily raised a hand to plant onto the wall that was both next to Sasuke's head and in front of her; this seemed done in order to preserve her body upright; she kept it there, even after the wall slightly trembled and attempted to concave with the added pressure and weight of her extremity.

Neither position was planned, nor was there any attempting to alter their predicament. They didn't seem to care about their surroundings in that moment; no focus was on their exact position nor the state of their bodies. It was just their faces: they looked to each other in returning, bereftly blank stares. Sasuke's eyes were strained, tired, resigned – their natural obsidian color – as he looked up to Sakura.

After a moment of silence, with the croaking of large boulders and ricocheting pebbles minimizing to to the background, Sakura lowered her chin – doing so to remove her upper face from view under the guise of her free bangs. Sasuke focused to her lips as a long, seeping breath escaped them. Her body eerily relaxed in that moment, all at the same time that it became lucidly still.

-
"Don't go! If you do, I'll scream." (Saku)
-

...[Song Play: Shingeki No Kyojin OST – Eye Water]

"…Why?" A question for everything. A plea for all that was unacceptable.

It seemed to be the queue for the already broken up crater below them to impact and concave more as a response to the damage-sustained instability and their weight. Rocks once more started to crumble all around, creating subsequent effects of larger, croaking movement.

"Why are we here, like this, again?"

Sasuke did not respond; he only looked to her in a blank stare. His gaze did not avert nor waver, even as the earth continued to rumble and the waterfall's currents started to divert and seep through the broken up crater above them with accelerating, riveting force.

"Why can't you ever stay?"

"Sakura," His gaze had slightly shifted to focus on her grimacing lower face. "I don't need you to understand me." Even as he maintained monotone recital of his words, they were spoken almost softly. Earnestly. In that moment, they both seemed to experience the vivid reminder of the anger and agony that coursed through his veins, never to be stripped or nulled. They bore memories and scars that were to be forever etched within his mind and soul, so unrelenting and maddening. Haruno Sakura had no way to understand the eternal retribution he sought through his vengeance: Uchiha Sasuke's Ninja Way.

Sakura dragged in another slow intake of breath before releasing it once more in a shaky exhale.

"After all this time … I still can't bear it." Her eyes continued to remain hidden with downward tilt of her head, still, even in the confession. There was another small pause between her words, as if she battled the will to continue. Absentmindely, she readjusted the hand that was by Sasuke's head into a lightly clenched fist.. "The thought of you never finding happiness … being all alone." She shook her head at the audacity of it. "It tears at my insides, like a sickness, and all this time I didn't realize I still suffered from it."

Her fist clenched tighter against the rocky decor, and her arm locked straighter, as if it was becoming more arduous to support herself.

Sasuke spoke then, after a small silence: it was a statement that etched its mark in her memory.

"When did I ever mention...caring about happiness?"

It was sudden - his rhetorical question. And a silence separated it from the slow, solemn smiled that formed with Sakura's lips.

It was a smile that was precursor to the trickle of blood that suddenly escaped its corner; it traveled quickly, rounding downward to her chin in an instant. It hung on only briefly, before gravity bade its fall from her face. The liquid red's falling path was a slow one: focus on the globby misshaping form as it fell illuminated the background of each of their tattered clothing and the rocky floor they rested upon. It further revealed the slender hand it fell onto in a stain, and the larger hand that resided under it. Their hands were anchor to the handle of a familiar sword– a sword whose originating length was hidden by its full embedment into Sakura's torso.

It had been there the entire time, and had dictated the positions in which they fell when they burrowed into the waterfall; just as it imposed the serious honesty, and brevity, of the conversation they were having. It the first color to mark her hand: the crimson dark hue of her blood. And it continued to leave its mark as it traveled down to join the red of Sasuke's hand; his hand had already been stained by the ichor that spiraled down the coruscating metal of the blade he still grasped onto.

"The happiness you used to so fondly speak of … I've always considered it unattainable."

The rest of Sasuke's blade was revealed as Sakura hunched over more in growing fatigue; the arm that was supporting her against the wall slightly bent in standing opposition; and her hand clenched tighter. The waterfall now roared louder in the background as it started to resume it's normal flow.

"… Has hatred consumed you completely, Sasuke?" It was the first time that true emotion entered her voice; her question was an incredulous accusation, riddled with disbelief and sorrow. Sakura finally raised her head, then, revealing her emerald glance to the obsidian that focused on it. Hers was a stare that was victim to an uncontrollable watery substance – it glossed and wavered in emotional struggle. "… I'm not like Naruto … he knew about your shadow. The shadow that you've carried for all these years. " Sakura battled for her lower hand to move and quiver around Sasuke's blood-covered one; her grip tightened weakly with the emotion of her confession. "I'm so sorry that I noticed it way too late." The tears had started cascading down her face now; it was a constant, unstoppable amount that acted to wash away the dirt and blood on her chin. "Now, you're someone so unrecognizeable to me. I've lost sight of who you are."

It was audible, as Sasuke's grip slowly tightened around the hilt of the sword in his hand.

"… You never knew me to begin with, Sakura."

...[Song Play: Naruto Shippuden OST – Decision]

Sasuke proceeded to pull on the hilt of his blade to remove it. It escaped slowly, and placidly, as if he did so hesitantly. The moment still remained brief, and the bloody sword separated from torn skin. The sword traveled with Sasuke's hand as he outsretched his arm to fall with a soundless thud to his side; the rest of the weapon produced a clattering sound as the blade made contact with the rocky stone floor. His eyes had not left her, nor did they twitch when Sakura's face neared closer to his – a portion of her long hair that had escaped over her shoulder fell in coiled form on the lateral side of his chest. Her other arm had moved in double support against the areas of wall beside Sasuke's head; he was no longer supporting her weight with the sword removed.

The blood started to come out of her wound in a steady amount now; the effect and consequences were unexpressed as Sakura's facial features hid from view once more. As if after recovery, she stirred before she spoke.

"Did you … ever care?" This was almost whispered, her voice so soft it was barely audible. "About Naruto, and I?"

Sasuke's head slightly tilted up in confusion.

"What kind of question ... is that?" He said nothing further to enunciate his bewildered remark. He spoke as though the answer was obvious, and it was unknown as to whether Sakura understood the answer he implied. She released a breath, almost in an amused huff at the same time that she pushed off of the wall she previously used for support. Her uppy body straightened as she sat up tall. He body proceeded to sway with the enormity and strain of the task she performed.

Sasuke looked to the area behind her in this moment, to the small amount of platformed-rock that remained before the straight drop underneath the guise of the interior waterfall. Only a few inches separated it from them. He watched as she swayed backwards towards her fall.

And in that split moment, at the last possible second, he moved; he grasped her hand as she fell back, allowing the weight of her descent to pull him with her.

They fell, for a small while, and Sasuke took the time to pull Sakura towards him in their headfirst decent. She was unresponsive, and deathly pale in his arms. He looked upwards in their travel to view the destination below them – in the form of rapid, thrashing currents of water and the jagged protrusions that made up the high-reaching stones and boulders.

He was calm, focused.

"You lied, Sakura."

The curse seal to the side of his neck pulsed, and the dark symphony of detailed markings fluttered, quickly spreading across the expanse of his exposed skin. His eyes squinted as his back rumbled and trembled with force beneath the skin; it was precursor to the nearly instant eruption of skin-colored wings that sprouted. That was all the became of his transformation, his bruised and scraped skin remained only burdened with the curse seal markings, and his eyes maintained their dull obsidian.

When it seemed they would crash into the body of water, their downward moment halted abruptly and they were catapulted in perpendicular travel above the restless waters.

"You knew about this so-called shadow, you knew for a long time."

Sasuke continued to look ahead of them as they traveled; the wind they slashed through and the current of water below was the only background noise.

"You tried to ignore it, and later to suffocate it."

When they landed, the curse seal immediately receded, taking his changed features along with it. Sasuke abruptly kneeled down, his composure not giving away whether it was due to fatigue or his planning to set the unconscious kunoichi down. He further supported her head as it lulled to the side.

-
"Ero-sennin (Jiraiya-sensei) told me once … that a place where someone still thinks of you ... that's a place you can call home." (Naru)
-

"It doesn't work like that." He removed his hands from her, remaining in crouch for only for a second longer, and rising to stand.

Sasuke slowly brought his hand up in height with his face, and took in view the crimson red that dried and stained it.

"I live with this curse. I accept the agony of the solitude and betrayal that I have chosen. It is my burden to carry." He lightly fisted that hand as he looked ahead; his dark gaze reflected a gleaming resolution that seemed to reassure his former statement.

He didn't look back down to Sakura, as he addressed her one last time.

"If you survive … don't think of me anymore."

.

.

.

Time won't stop us anymore. The flower petals which float in the wind - our tears and hopeful glances - this struggle. The day will probably come when all of these turn into memories, but, they will not be forgotten. I will most likely remember constantly. I would probably remember that the three of us gathered here today … Surely something began to move on that spring day.

Thanks for reading!

Welp! That's all, folks! For now, I'll be vehemently working on the next chapters, which will most likely delve into an entire different sequence of events and plot than the orginal ... maybe. We'll see! Old readers (if any are still alive and don't hate my guts), thanks for giving me another chance; New Readers (if there are any of you out there who decided to put up with an outdated story), hopefully ya liked it!

Btw, I'm pretty sure that my author notes will exhibit a declining pattern in length as the chapters ensue, with the exception of a few outliers; just so you know and if you were wondering ... cause uh, having A/N make up a substantial part of the chapter size is a bit conceited, I know, and I somewhat apologize. I'm here to share a story I guess, not ramble. Balls.

Dumbtrickerita, out.