Red Flags
When he's not on the training grounds then he's in his apartment; it's only ever one of those two places. He doesn't go anywhere else. He can't go anywhere else.
When he walks outside, people stare, people whisper, and people cower in fear, trying to run as far away from the monster as they can. And every time he leaves his apartment it's always the same. Eventually he stops leaving altogether, not even bothering to even get himself outside and train, or even to get himself food. That was the first warning for Sakura.
As she brings him groceries, she tells him that he's not a monster.
He tells her that she's wrong.
Then the conversation ends.
When he sleeps he doesn't rest. No matter how hard he may try, no matter how many hours he may lie in bed, the nightmares won't let him. They're there when he sleeps. They're even there when he doesn't.
When he wakes up from a nap on the couch, screaming obscenities at someone who isn't even there, Sakura, in the kitchen, cooking for a man who will hardly eat, drops a plate, shattering it across the floor. It takes her almost five entire minutes to convince him that it was just a dream, and that both Madara and Obito are gone, never to return.
She tells him that they're only dreams.
He admits to her that he always hears them; awake or asleep.
Then the conversation ends.
When he disappears for three days, nowhere to be found, a search team comprised of four ANBU is sent to find him and bring him back. Upon his return he is given a final warning by Tsunade. He's violated his probation—one more time and she'll have no choice but to have him executed.
When he returns back to his apartment that night, Sakura is already there waiting for him.
Crying, she yells at him, asking him if he's trying to get himself killed.
He shrugs and says "maybe" before locking himself in his room.
Then the conversation ends.
When it's only a few days before his probation period is finally up, she finds him lying in bed, bleeding and unresponsive. It takes her almost hours to heal his wound. He's practically severed almost every artery and vein in his neck; the kunai is still wet with blood lying beside him on the sheets.
When she finishes healing him, she collapses on the bed beside him on the verge of total exhaustion and crying her eyes out. He was on the brink of death, she screams at him as he slowly starts to regain consciousness. She yells that if anyone else had found him, he'd be dead. He was supposed to be dead, he counters, his face pale and voice scratchy.
The moment she hears the words fall out of his mouth, she only cries harder.
She begs him to stay. She apologizes for things that aren't even her fault.
He jokes that she'll end up staining his sheets with her tears, knowing full well that he lies in a pool of his own blood.
She tells him she loves him. She just about shouts it at him.
He tells her she's stupid and that it's pointless.
She vows to him that she won't give up on him, that she won't let him get away that easily.
He smiles, the dried blood on his face cracking, before calling her annoying.
When she repeats her words, telling him that she loves him, she emphasizes her point by wrapping her arms around him, holding him tightly.
Apprehensively, she waits for his response.
When he lets his head rest on her shoulder weakly, he sighs into her hair. And when he gives her a soft 'thank you', she hopes that maybe—just maybe—she'll be able to help him.
She hopes that she can save him.
And when they fall asleep, side by side in a bed that almost turned into a coffin, she holds him tight, he finally lets her, and the conversation ends.
A/N: This was a bit dark, but I'm happy with it. Let me know what you think.
