Author's Note.
Please, do not sue me. It's 11:45 pm of July 5th, so, technically, I'm doing this on Monday, like I said I would!
It wasn't my intention to do it until now, but I was not really sure... god, I'm such a fluff writer. I know right? I have to get a grip.
Please enjoy this chapter, and stick around for the epilogue! Yes, epilouge! I always wanted to do one! I'll upload it on uh... Friday? Is that okay? Do tell me if it is, I've never written fanfiction before! This is my, like, third or fourth month! I need to know how things work in here, heh *smiles like Yondaime*
To Die Honorably
Chapter 4: "Sakura"
She brushed some pink bangs out of her face before she took a deep breath. She pulled the door to her teammate's room open, immediately aknowledging the morning light shining mightily through the window and the light, peaceful breeze it carried along. Her eyes made their way on their own to the bed that was placed in the center of the room, where Naruto and Sasuke were timidly tangled together.
She blinked and entered the room, looking at them both with a rather amazed expression, since the blond was almost cuddling Sasuke in his sleep, arms wrapped around his waist and head buried in his chest, while the Uchiha, who was awake, seemed perfectly comfortable with the public affection display. He was actually holding Naruto protectively, and had never looked more composed. She noticed he was looking at her, not precisely staring nor glaring. He just kept his gaze on her strangely, almost insistently.
He was changed.
"Hello," she greeted, but waited in vain for a response. "Do you... feel better?"
Sasuke glared at her. Naruto woke from his sleep.
"Sakura-chan," Naruto interrupted, chuckling sleepily, "justify our marriage to him?"
Sasuke did not understand what could possibly be so funny as to make the blond smile in such an easy way, the situation being what it was.
His heart broke. Of course he would be happy, he was married! He had always wanted her, now he had her to himself. He really didn't want to feel this way, he wanted to be happy, to feel happy about them, but the sadness was so strong...
Sakura ignored the death glare as she gave him a little smile, like the one a nursing mother would give her sick child, while approaching the bed. Then she gently placed the covers over them both, as if trying to call for a truce.
Sasuke did not care: he reinforced his glare as she kissed Naruto's forehead, then barely resisted the urge to kick her away with a Chidori when she had the nerve to kiss the Uchiha's forehead too.
"When Lee and I got engaged, Naruto and I thought of this... plan. We hoped you would come to Konoha in the day of our marriage, so we agreed to fake it and turned it into a mission, and then convinced Hokage-sama to help us, which she agreed to do because we promised we could bring you back."
"Actually she agreed because we wouldn't leave her the hell alone," Naruto added, bringing him close.
Sasuke blinked. He would have felt stupid and awkward once again, if he wasn't so glad that they were not married. They weren't even dating. His glare on Sakura softened considerably, only being kept there because he didn't know what to do. Besides, he wasn't fond of being mislead.
The girl kept on speaking, but gradually lost composure and started crying furiously. She tried to ignore it, but it was too much of an emotion for her. "Wasn't easy... best to bring you back... almost dead... know what we would have done... so sorry, Sasuke." Nobody really knew what she was saying, but everyone understood.
Sakura turned away from them in an attempt to muffle her sobs. Sasuke felt Naruto tighten his hold around him once more, as if preventing him from leaving again. His whiskered face was discreetly buried deeper in Sasuke's shoulder.
Sasuke's Uchiha Glare on the girl was far gone by now. This girl, unlike Naruto, whose essence had always been there, was different from the one he had left, yet he somehow still loved her. Though she had called him by his name, without a suffix, he did not mind. She was not married to Naruto and was actually engaged to someone else. Most of all, she, her old teammate, who would have sacrificed herself for either him or Naruto, still cared for him, after all he had done.
It was not a secret, Sasuke had done bad things, and he couldn't help but to feel now the impact of his actions...
"Sakura, he's here now," Naruto added, looking at him for confirmation and then turning to look at the kunoichi. "It's over."
Sakura turned around, gathering her things and placing a third flower in the vase on the nightstand, next to the other ones. "I have to go, I have some business to take care of," she said, trying to fake composure, and left the room, still crying.
They stayed in silence until they could not hear her footsteps going down the corridor.
"Naruto, I—"
"No, that's fine."
"No, I shouldn't have—"
"It's fine," he repeated. He decidedly, softly, pressed their lips together, making him squirm uncomfortably as time stopped. "If you'll stay, then it's just fine," Naruto explained, and he kissed him again.
Naruto was... begging for entrance; he was aware of his feelings, then. Sasuke parted his lips for him. He loved, and was loved, and it tickled pleasantly.
He moved so he was sligtly curled around the blond, in order to show him he was not going anywhere away from him, ever again. Naruto sighed as if he was the most relieved man in the world and rested more comfortably against him as they broke the kiss.
They stayed like that for a while, sharing silent thoughts, until Sasuke realized the blond was asleep.
He ran a hand through his soft hair, cherishing its warmth. "Thank you," he whispered, before closing his eyes too, and falling asleep as well.
AUTHOR'S RANT. YES, RANT.
IT'S NOT AGAINST YOU.
I was reading a story - yes, I'm more a reader than a writer - about uh... it was about like, gangs. The point is that the author, this is very infuriating, but... I'm really very angry and hurt. They said something like, "sorry for the mistakes, I was in a hurry. Hey, but at least I updated. No reviews no chapters. That simple."
I kept on reading just because I wanted to know if the story was actually that good, you know, for the author to act all like, 'oh readers will take whatever rude stuff I throw at them, just because they like the story.' Every single chapter had a rude review request of that kind. It was insane.
The story was bad written: a lot of mistakes, action was just weird, too OOC for OOCness (and no warnings), no character or relationship development except from SasuNaru and a very little KyuuIta, god. It had a lot, A LOT of mistakes, everything was wrong! There were mistakes regarding basic grammar structures, verb tenses, punctuation, Akatsuki character names... gosh! I'm NOT a native speaker, and it was bad enough for ME to figure out. Also, the story included author's notes EVERYWHERE in the text, AND at the beginning, AND at the end of every chapter, and it had this sort of resources, 'oh but miraculously he had equipped himself with [insert random helpful object here] since before.'
I don't really know why I didn't review the story, since I usually review everything I read. Maybe it was the lame last chapter, maybe it was the lame PLOT (well I personally disliked it), or maybe it was that those review requests, constant as they were, didn't even include a 'please.' That's right, the author didn't say 'please' at all.
Everything was wrong, yet the author continued to write those 'audacious' remarks at the end of each chapter. It makes me sick. If someone reads this, like please don't do that, and please don't encourage that behavior. It is incredibly impolite and speaks really bad about the writer's family, education, past experiences, and manners.
Nobody can make you sink the way you yourself can do it.
I hate people like that.
OFFICIAL END OF AUTHOR'S RANT. Thank you for reading, and I sincerely apologize for making it so long.
REMINDER: Next chapter will be uploaded: Friday, July 09th, 2010. Thank you for reading my story! =^._.^=
