The World Around Her
Sasuke/Sakura/Naruto
"You, you what?" Sakura asked, completely in shock at the situation going on. She couldn't believe what was happening, and her voice gave evidence towards her feeling. Her breath became heavier, on the verge of gasping for air. Sasuke only looked at her as he had before, un-phased by her reaction.
"I don't want to do this anymore." Was all that he said, disliking having to repeat himself. With a sigh, he took a glance at the girl haired girl in front of him. She felt like everything was shattering around her. Everything that she could depend upon, was broken. Her whole life plan, ruined by those simple little words.
"Why, Sasuke? Please just tell me why? What did I do?" Sakura pleaded to him, hoping he would explain. If everything was falling apart, she had to know why. She was trying, trying really hard to hold herself together in order to get a response from him.
"I don't love you. I never did. I don't want to live a lie." He told her bluntly. Sakura visibly winced upon hearing his explanation. All these weeks together, and he never loved her? At all? His words hit her like ice, cold harsh ice. Her life felt, wasted now. No purpose at all.
However, she still loved Sasuke, so she was determined to keep a straight face. She forced herself to smile gently toward him, well, as much as she could. However, she could already fear the tears start to pile up in her green eyes.
"I, I understand. You're right. I wouldn't want to live a lie either…" She attempting to be understanding. She attempted to keep her act together, just while he was around. Once he was gone, she knew for sure that the tears were bound to come. And Lord knows they wouldn't be stopping for a long time.
"Sakura. Thank you." She heard his voice, and then he was gone. The wind picked up as he walked away. The dead tree leaves that lay scattered around the ground were pushed along by the wind and they seemed to dance around Sasuke. Sakura would have been happy to see such a scene with Sasuke just five minutes before. Strange how quickly things can change. How your life can seem so simple one and then bam, everything changes.
Sakura knew it was cold. It was winter time, and she was prepared as always to have a heavy jacket around her. But for some reason, she couldn't shake the cold pain away. She shivered, and she couldn't tell from what. The cold, or her unbearable pain?
Evening was already settling in around her, but it seemed pitch black to her? Just like the last flicker of a candle before the flames dies away, just as he walked away, the candle blew out. There was no light now.
And she never saw him again.
Everything seemed dark for a while. Questions like, "What's the point?" or "Why should I bother?" came across her mind a lot. She realized just how much stock Sasuke had in her life. Stock that he never bothered to place, stock that she had put in place for him. Now, he's withdrawn the stock and Sakura felt that nothing was left.
The days after, emotions came in waves. First was sadness, then anger, then grief. Then nothing.
She came to see that despite the magnitude the event had on her world, it didn't have much affect on the world around her. People still kept breathing. People still kept living. They loved, they hurt, just as they would any other day.
She watched as the world passed her by. She, standing still, was not moving with the world. She also realized that she didn't have much of an affect on the world around her either. When she stopped going out, she felt a change within her. As she stared out the window, she saw that the world didn't look any different.
Had she expected something? Did she expect the world to feel sorry for her? She laughed at her own insolence.
This was sad. He, the pain causer, had thanked her. Yet she, the pain receiver, had no thanks at all. It was as if, she had brightened his life for the cost of darkening hers.
She realized this was no way to live at all. Yet, that's how she was living.
"Sakura, open up." The voice from one side of a door could be heard, though it was spoken very quietly, for Sakura was leaning on the other side. She didn't want to see anybody. She hadn't cleaned her apartment in ages, a feat that she could never done otherwise for she was a very attentive person to her belongings. She didn't think that she was a nice sight to see either.
Yet, she should have expected this visitor to appear at her door like this. She cursed herself for being unprepared.
"I don't want to." It was the first time she had heard her voice in a while too. She sounded pathetic. She knew this. The world was changing around her, and she wanted nothing to do with it. How pathetic could she be?
She never knew she could sink this far down.
"Sakura." The voice, the voice of one of her closest friends. A friend of Sasuke's too. Seeing him would be like seeing Sasuke, in a way. Even though they weren't the same at all. The connection is enough to make Sakura want to keep this friend at bay away from her. The other part of her, the part of her that was originally her own not tainted by what she cared about what other people thought of her, know that she couldn't keep this friend out.
Against the other part of her own will, she unlocked the door. She didn't open it, only unlocked. Her friend could choose to accept that as enough or require more from her. It was out of her hands now though. That felt like enough. Naturally though, the friend took it as being the same as being allowed in. Sakura took a breath, a sigh really, as she saw the doorknob being twisted.
"…" Despite his noisy attempts to be allowed into the apartment, Naruto found himself unable to say anything once inside. His eyes quickly scanned the room, and Sakura and saw that many things were out of place. Both of them thought at the same time, "This is not right." Unable to cope with the awkward silence that Naruto was unknowingly giving, Sakura moved away from the door and into her living room. Taking a seat in one of her comfortable chairs placed in front of a TV that was not on. Just as before, he could leave or follow. She just really wanted it out of her own hands.
Just as before, the only outcome expected, is the one she didn't really want. Naruto regained composure sure enough, and followed her into the living room. He stopped looking around him, and focused solely on his pink haired companion as he took a seat next to her.
"Sakura, I heard what happened." He decided to start off easy, just stating the facts. Sakura was looking away from him, staring out of the window of her second floor apartment. The view wasn't much, but definitely preferable to the situation on hand. She didn't flinch like Naruto expected, instead, she retained a blank look on her face. Taking that as sign that he could press farther, he decided to ask a more personal question. "Are you all right?"
He praised himself for getting a response out of Sakura, but he quickly regretted that for all Sakura did was turn her head to look at him, and give him this look that said, "What the hell do you think, asshole." For a few minutes, Naruto felt genuinely frightened by her, by luckily for him, she went back to staring out of the window. She still had an unpleasant look on her face but at least it wasn't directed at him.
Naruto wasn't sure to do then. Of course he had come over to check up on her, but more than that, he had something really important to tell her. Something she needed to know. He mulled over in his head the best way to tell her the news, but sadly Naruto was never one to do things properly when it came to tense situations.
"Sasuke's already moved." He blurted out.
The silence thereafter about killed Naruto. Sakura turned her head more sharply towards the window so that Naruto couldn't see her face. He could her breathe, and finally she took a breath that meant that she was about to say something.
"What do you mean, already?" He hadn't expected this question.
"He was planning to move, but he never said when. I had expected him to leave eventually, but not this quickly..." This was one of the reasons she didn't want to let Naruto in, because of his connection with Sasuke. She didn't want to hear about him. She didn't want to know.
That was a lie, of course. She had always been desperately curious about Sasuke. This had to change though, she told herself.
"He never, told me." She found herself saying, as if the fact that he hadn't of confided in her was more important than the fact that he was gone. What did she expect though? He had told her himself that he had never loved her. Naruto scratched his head.
"Maybe he just didn't want you to know?" He was guessing, he didn't know the true intention of his friend. Not now, not ever really, though he liked to think that he was close enough to him. He never understood his relationship with Sakura either. It wasn't a subject the two talked about, except once.
This reasoning didn't really make sense to Sakura, but then again, Sasuke had always been the loner type. She had hoped that would have changed when she was dating him. Yet, throughout their relationship she still thought he seemed alone. That fact always killed her.
He didn't want her to know that he was leaving. Or maybe he didn't want to bother. Now that made sense. Sakura felt her cynical side coming out, bringing other feelings forth as well. Anger, bitterness. She was looking out of the window again, feeling, feeling again after she had worked so hard to shut out her emotions. Bitterness was overwhelming.
Naruto saw the outcome before she did. Sakura wasn't facing him, but he saw the teardrops drop onto her jeans leaving the tell tale wet spots. Sakura hadn't realized the next emotion coming on before it was too late and she had already starting crying. Sadness. She figured it was coming out just because Naruto was here to stir her emotions. She wanted him to leave right at that moment, but no words left her mouth.
Suddenly, she felt arms circle around her. Warmth. It was warm.
"I miss him too."
From that moment, Sakura felt something within her slip into place. Like, when doctor popped an appendage back into place. Except, this felt more like her heart. It was back in place where it should have been.
Another change was occurring.
"So he really is gone, huh?" Sakura said absentmindedly. She was out of the apartment finally, an apartment that was finally cleaned. She didn't look so horrible now either. She stood outside an empty house complex with her friend. Directly diagonally from them stood a 'FOR SALE' sign that silenced any possible questions concerning the house.
"Yeah. He didn't bother to tell anyone where he was going. He hid his tracks well too." Naruto commented. Sakura gave him a questionable look. "I've asked around. No one, absolutely no one knows where he's gone." The breeze picked up again.
For a long time, it felt like Sasuke didn't exist. Sakura chastised herself for thinking this, but it was sort of nice that he wasn't around to prove that wrong. Sure, she missed him. She really missed him. But it was for the best. Sasuke always did what was for the best. For everybody.
Well, everybody but Naruto anyway. Naruto was bright though. He'd miss his friend and live on. If he didn't want to be followed, then his wishes had to be followed.
"Come on, let's go." Naruto called for Sakura, who followed. These were the people left behind. However, they were finally moving along with the world instead of watching it turn without them. Though separately, the three moved on to greater and wonderful things.
There was so much the world had in store, for those who are willing to see it. Sakura embraced this.
Fin
