Spring Break is here so I'm going to try to get a lot of writing done at once. I'm not really happy with this particular one shot but I've decided to just post it and move on instead of agonizing any longer.
Enjoy!
Reflections
Suggested by Pandastacia
It was a whisper that drew them together.
Perhaps it was a voice, a name, a sound that echoed until there was nothing left to hear. Still, bare feet parted the soft, damp grass, searching not with ears but with skin that sighed against the wet earth.
It was one step, an abrupt drop. Stomachs lurched in sync as the ground gave way under small feet. Blistering silence rushed past ears, as sharp as a scream. Mouths gasping, hands clawing, they plummeted. With each labored breath, each feared that she would take in water, but with each beautiful suck of pure, clean air, hearts pounded and twisted into shapes that couldn't be described. Bright eyes met in the abyss, fingertips twisting together. One of them spoke, but the sound shattered against the cold silence.
Identical faces, paired with hands that did not match, stared until a sharp gust of wind tugged them apart. The darkness swallowed them both, each floating onwards on the waves of a torpid, fleeting dream.
It was fear that woke her, wrenching through her tangled web of dreams.
A voice that she almost recognized whispered something. Straining to hear, she tilted her head closer. At the same time, the nagging terror clawed at her again, screaming and whispering, warning her of something that she couldn't quite understand. Though her body was unimaginably comfortable, she struggled against her heavy eyelids.
It was strange. Years of training and battles had taught her to trust her instincts more than anything. More than once she had bolted awake at the sound of her neighbors upstairs walking across the floorboards. The tiniest creaks and shifts in the wind all wretched her cruelly from sleep. But more often than not, it was the smallest noises that ended up saving her. Yet this time, even though her instincts wailed and wailed, her body was sluggish to respond. As she managed to clear away some of the fog of sleep, she felt a heavy arm pinning her down. The unmistakable scent of a shinobi was heavy in the air, always a mixture of the oil used to polish weapons and pine from the forests that cradled the village. Her shoulders tensed as she realized that she could feel the heat from his arm against her bare back.
She lifted herself up on her elbows, feeling cool air brush across her bare chest. The arm slipped off, fingers caressing her spine in a familiar, easy motion.
"What's wrong?"
The voice stuck to a single memory, one so old that she had nearly forgotten it. A man in black, hair darker and eyes burning stood in front of her. A name more sour and repulsive than spoiled milk surfaced, one splattered with the blood of his family.
She scrambled into a sitting position, hands slipping under her pillow to reach for the kunai always wedged between the mattress and the headboard. But there was no headboard; there was no reassuring coolness of metal. She patted herself in the darkness, trying to assess the situation. Her palms met bare flesh, her body embarrassingly bare. And for the first time in a while, she felt the urge to burst into tears.
Her silence stretched out too long and a light flicked on, a soft orange glow.
"Sakura? Did you have another nightmare?"
Uchiha Itachi sat beside her, his dark hair falling around his face and spilling onto his shoulders. She took one look at his naked body, lean and muscled from years of vigorous training, and she crossed her arms over her bare breasts. They stared at each other, the corner of her lip twitching as she quelled the insane urge to punch him right in the mouth. As she cracked her knuckles, she felt something on her finger and looked down to find a glittering diamond ring.
"Oh hell no."
It was a nudge that woke her.
A finger jabbed into her shoulder and she squirmed away, burrowing her head further into the crook of her elbow. When the insistent finger poked again, she sighed, slowly rubbing her eyes. Cracking one eye open, she peered up into the scattered sunlight. The sigh of tree branches swaying in the wind greeted her. A yawn escaped her mouth as she sat up. When she was able to focus properly, she saw that Uchiha Itachi was sitting on a large rock protruding from the ground. He stared blankly at her.
"Why the silly cloak?" she yawned, rubbing at her shoulder from where she had slept funny. He blinked at her. But she wasn't bothered by his silence.
"Ah, top secret mission, right? That's alright then," she said mostly to herself. Looking around, she noticed that she had been lying on a surprisingly comfortable plot of moss and leaves. The chatter of birds filled the damp air. Although the dark greenery looked like she was still in Konoha, she couldn't quite tell. Still, she wasn't at all worried. The warm wind carried the fragrance of pine needles and blooming flowers. As she lifted her arm to stretch, she felt the tickle of wind on her bare arm.
How strange. She remembered going to bed in her favorite pajamas. But now she was wearing an embarrassingly revealing red bandeau underneath a black mesh shirt. On top was one of the green flak vests that she had seen shinobi wearing around the village. She touched the fabric of her black pants and it was just like the ones she had often washed blood out of.
"Hmm I guess I'm still dreaming," she murmured. She looked back at Itachi who was still eyeing her with the same look of bland disinterest. Smiling, she threw her arms around his neck, nuzzling her nose against the side of his neck.
"What a nice dream if my husband's here with me…. Even if he's wearing a silly-looking cloak," Sakura giggled softly as her eyes slid shut.
"So… explain something to me," Sakura said, crossing her arms tightly across her chest. She had managed to dig something out of the closet that wasn't silk or pink. Garbed in a long red tunic and black leggings, she sat at the kitchen table. Itachi poured two glasses of water and set one in front of her before he sat in the chair across from hers. Sakura yanked the ring off her fourth finger and pinched it between two fingers, holding it between them.
"We're married?" she asked. Her narrowed eyes darted sharply to him and then back to the sparkling ring. The diamond was so large and perfectly clear that she almost believed it was too beautiful to be real.
"Yes. We've been married for two years now, Sakura," Itachi patiently explained, even as a wrinkle appeared in his forehead. When he reached across the table, her eyes widened. Her free hand automatically reached for her weapons pouch. But her fingers grasped at air, clawing and clawing until she remembered that she was pitifully unarmed. Glaring at nothing in particular, she drummed her idle hand against the tabletop, turning over options in her head.
In this situation, it was probable that she was trapped in some sort of genjutsu. She had spent enough time studying the brain to know that in situations like this, there would always be someone in these illusions to speak the truth. It would very likely be a person cruel enough to cut her with reality, someone unafraid to voice his blunt opinions.
"I need to speak to your brother," Sakura said, looking up.
Though he looked confused, Itachi obliged. Even though he offered her breakfast, she refused, glaring suspiciously at him out of the corners of her eyes. Her steely gaze was fixed firmly on him as he ate his simple breakfast of rice and miso soup along with leftovers from the refrigerator that looked suspiciously similar to the ones her mother had cooked for her as a child. After he did the dishes, Itachi led her out of the house, his hand almost reaching out to rest on her lower back, like it was a reflex. But her glare was enough to keep him an arms-length away.
It was strangely quiet in Konoha, even though it was way past the time that the market officially opened. There was some chatter, but it was muted, as if it were far away. It took a while to figure out where she was exactly. Without the years of grime and overgrown weeds, the Uchiha district was nearly unrecognizable. Life was bursting from every house. The laughter of children filled the air, mingling with adult voices exchanging pleasantries.
She gritted her teeth. It was intolerably cruel, filling up a graveyard with ghosts and trying to convince her that it was real. Stewing deep in her thoughts, she almost failed to notice when Itachi stopped at a random house on the street.
"Wait here," he ordered before he slipped inside. Sakura kept her eyes fixated on her sandals as she waited. She rocked back and forth on her heels, firmly ignoring the strange looks she felt from people who passed on the street. After a minute, the door slid open and Itachi emerged with Sasuke at his heels.
"Don't tell me you need me to mediate one of your stupid couple fights again," Sasuke chuckled as he walked up to her. Eyes widening, Sakura jerked her head up to look at him. This was indeed Sasuke with his spiky hair and dark eyes. He was even wearing the same dark pants and navy shirt he always chose to wear on his days off. She chanced a quick look in Itachi's direction before she grabbed Sasuke's arm. Her body flicker technique was fast and almost effortless after years of practice. They reappeared in Team Seven's old training grounds less than a second later, smoke scattering in their wake.
"Wow. When did you get so good at that? And what happened to all your hair?" Sasuke demanded. Goosebumps rose on her arms. Sasuke without some sort of surly note in his voice was barely Sasuke at all. She desperately wanted to escape this strange upside-down world of the genjutsu. Releasing his arm, she began pacing a wide circle around him. Absently, she reached up to touch her hair but found it as short as always.
"Okay. I remember coming back from a short mission in Suna," she began. Sasuke stood watching her with a vaguely confused expression.
"What are you talking about?" he inquired, sounding less annoyed than concerned.
"Backtracking. If I can remember what I was doing before I got caught in this stupid genjutsu, maybe I can figure out how to break free from it," she hastily explained, still walking in her dizzying circle. Sakura suddenly stopped in front of Sasuke, poking her finger into his arm.
"I was dealing with a sudden outbreak of poisonings. Gaara wanted me to send a team with me on the way home for my protection but I refused," she mused, looking at Sasuke but not really seeing him.
"So I travelled a day and stopped in a village to rest. What was it called?" Sakura groaned as she tried to sort through the hazy memories. She strained to remember the faded characters on a rough wooden sign staked into the ground. But the letters blurred together so strongly that it was impossible to make out anything.
"Whatever!" she huffed, throwing her hands in the air. She resumed circling with Sasuke standing in the middle like a confused totem pole.
"I remember taking a dip in the hot springs. And then I went back to my room at the inn and went to sleep," Sakura concluded. When she finally looked up at Sasuke, one of his eyebrows was raised high.
"What are you talking about?" he demanded.
"You're supposed to be the marker, the sign that this isn't real. Logically, since you were always the blunt one, my unconscious would project you into a genjutsu with the same function. So, tell me where the hell I am and how the hell I wake up!" Sakura half-shouted with frustration. When Sasuke simply gaped at her, she let out a loud groan and stomped hard enough that the ground cracked beneath her heel.
"Whoa. Calm down," Sasuke said, raising his hands in a passive gesture. When her head whipped around to look at him, she was suddenly struck with a memory. Huddled together in the dark forest, pinned by utter terror, she had clung to his arm. As the menacing snake-like man had approached, Sasuke had plunged his kunai into his thigh to break the trance. More than once, she had turned to the same method to break out of particularly powerful genjutsus. As time had gone on and she had grown more and more proficient in channeling her chakra, self-harm as a last resort had become something she had nearly forgotten.
"Hold on," she muttered mostly to herself. Thinking quickly, she reached under his raised arm to pluck a kunai from his holster. Before he could stop her, she raised the kunai and plunged it into her thigh. As expected, pain seared through her leg, radiating out in waves that made her see spots of block for a minute. But the harder and harder she tried to break through whatever fog was clouding her mind, the more and more she was aware that Sasuke was still standing in front of her, his mouth hanging open in horror. Gritting her teeth, she wrenched the weapon out of her flesh and black blood sputtered out in a quick pulse.
"What the hell are you doing?" Sasuke shouted as he grabbed the kunai from her. At that precise moment, a plume of smoke rose to Sasuke's left. Itachi materialized from the smoke, his chakra already jittery with agitation. His eyes flew to Sakura. Both her palms were pressed firmly to her thigh even as sticky rivulets of blood trickled through her fingers.
"Did you stab her?" Itachi demanded as he looked at Sasuke who was holding a bloody weapon. Frantically shaking his head, Sasuke pointed at Sakura.
"You stabbed my wife," Itachi said, looking back at Sakura.
"I didn't!" Sasuke insisted.
"This must be one hell of a genjutsu," Sakura sighed, ignoring the two men eyeing each other with varying degrees of panic. Gathering chakra to her fingers, she swept her digits along the edges of the sharp puncture, letting the soothing touch work its way around before delving deeper into the flesh. She bit her lower lip as she untangled nerves and smoothed them back together before she coaxed skin cells to the surface. Pressing her hands to her leg, she finished with an extra burst of chakra to knit the top layers of skin together.
"So, Sasuke who fails at being my Superego, what now?" she asked as she wiped her bloodied hands on her leggings. When she looked up, the brothers were staring at her. When neither of them seemed capable of responding, she let out a loud, exasperated sigh.
"Why do you suck so much?"
"Wake up."
It wasn't the hand shaking her arm that roused her this time. Rather, it was the coldness of the voice, the lack of compassion she had never heard before. Eyebrows knitting together, she lifted her head to peer up into the blank face she knew so well. But after a moment, she noticed the dark shadows in the hollows of his cheeks and the shocking crimson of his eyes. She sucked in a startled breath, frightened as always of the sharingan.
"You're… not my husband. Where am I?" she demanded as she sat up. Her head swiveled around as she surveyed her surroundings. This time, she caught sight of the tall tree stumps with targets tacked to them. She clenched her fingers into the bristly grass, breathing in the muggy air.
"Is this… our training ground?" Sakura wondered as she noticed the old straw dummy propped up against one of the stumps. There was a crude eye patch along with a black mask fixed on its face. She looked up at Itachi but his scarlet gaze was fixed firmly on something in the distance. After a moment, his eyes flickered down to her. As he turned to leave, she grabbed onto the edge of his cloak. He probably could have pushed her off, easily escaped. But she almost recognized a glimmer of impatience in his icy stare as he looked back at her.
"I'm scared," she whispered. She thought she saw his lips part in a silent word before he pulled up the collar of his cloak and fastened it, hiding most of his face from her. Before she could say anything else, the black fabric she was holding so tightly dissolved between her fingers. He dissolved into curls of dark smoke just as she heard a vaguely familiar shout.
"Sakura-chan? What are you doing home already?"
Sakura heard the muted rhythm of feet treading through the rough grass. But her stare was fixed on the spot where a man was missing. She wondered if this was all some sick joke, if maybe this was a bad dream. As hard as she pinched her arm, nothing changed. When Naruto came to squat next to her, she was startled by the sharp angles of his face, chiseled jaw and straight nose. There was a certain hollowness there that she couldn't quite place. His eyes were still the same though, bright blue like the clear skies on a summer morning; that offered some comfort.
"You okay? Whoa what's up with the hair?" Still dazed, she lifted her head to touch her long hair. It was her pride and joy, treated with the best shampoos and conditioners before she brushed it 100 times each morning. It hung in a shiny sheet past her shoulder blades, always soft.
"Where…?" To her right, Kakashi knelt to be at eyelevel with her. He placed a gloved hand on her shoulder.
"Did you sustain any head trauma during your mission? Do-"
"Where's my husband?" Sakura demanded as she focused her accusatory stare on the silver-haired man. At this, Naruto's laughter exploded into the air. He clutched at his belly as he lost balance. Rolling around in the grass, Naruto laughed and laughed until no sound came out of his mouth at all.
"Husband?" Kakashi repeated in the same slow, concerned tone. Sakura nodded, frowning at Naruto's attitude.
"And where's Sasuke-kun? Why isn't he here with you? I need to speak with my brother-in-law." At this, Naruto and Kakashi were completely silent. She caught the two men exchange worried looks.
"What?" they asked at the same time. When Sakura eyed them with confusion, Naruto sat up to clasp her hands in his. She automatically tried to pull away from him. She really didn't see much of her former teammate so the touch was unexpected and almost alien.
"What's your full name, Sakura-chan?" he inquired.
"Uchiha Sakura," Sakura replied without hesitation. She heard Kakashi suck in a slow, drawn-out breath.
"Shit."
Kakashi and Naruto spoke together in hushed, urgent tones, their heads bent closer together. Every once in a while, one of them would look up at her and then continue to argue in an even angrier, rushed tone. Finally, Naruto looked up and let out a deep sigh.
"Come on, Sakura-chan. We're taking you to the Hokage," Naruto declared as he held out his hand for her.
"Oh good. Maybe Sarutobi-sama can explain some things," she sighed as she let him pull her to her feet. She completely missed Naruto shooting Kakashi another wide-eyed look. However when they reached the tower, they were greeted on the third floor by a woman a few years older than her. This woman with short black hair smiled at Sakura as she casually asked how her mission had gone. Puzzled, Sakura automatically replied that things had gone well, despite the fact that she had no idea what this strange woman was talking about. Kakashi and Naruto seemed to know her well though because they stopped to chat with her for a while.
"Sakura, what happened to your hair?" the woman suddenly asked. At this, Sakura turned up her nose, crossing her arms over her chest.
"I've been instructed not to speak to commoners. Please address me properly," Sakura snapped. The woman blinked at her a few times before she laughed, clapping her hard on the shoulder.
"Very funny. Come on. Tsunade-sama's free at the moment."
Sakura glared at the woman, rubbing at her sore arm. For such a thin woman, it was surprising how hard she hit. Throwing the strange woman one last glare, Sakura brushed past her and into the office. At the Hokage's desk sat a young woman with gold hair falling into her face.
"Tsunade-sama, Sakura's returned from her mission." At this, the woman's honey-colored eyes flickered up.
"That was quick. No problems on the way home, I assume? And what did you do with your hair?" the woman demanded. Sakura stared blankly at the woman at the desk and then at the dark-haired woman still standing in the doorway. As she tried to process all these strange people, a pig snuffled its way up to her and rubbed against her leg. Sakura let out a shriek, stumbling away from the animal and straight into a stranger's arms.
"Watch where you step, Ugly." Sakura looked up to see a man smiling down at her. He had the palest skin she had ever seen.
"Who are you?" she asked.
"And who are you? And why are you sitting in Sarutobi-sama's place?" Sakura continued, pointing at the busty woman.
"Watch out, Sai. She's a little out of whack today," Naruto said to the dark-haired man.
"And please don't touch me! My husband-"
"Sakura, you're not married. Why would you be married already?" Kakashi cut in with a huff of exasperation. Fuming, Sakura stuck out her left hand at him.
"See? My wedding ring! It's a precious family… heirloom…." Sakura trailed off as he looked down and found her ring finger bare. With a squeak of panic, she patted her skimpy clothes and then looked around the floor, wondering if it had slipped off at some point. But there was no sparkle of diamond and gold.
"Sakura-chan, what's going on?"
A day passed in the strangely backwards world, and then two.
Though it was spring, the air was stagnant. Each breath she took felt sickly sweet and impossibly heavy.
Hanging her feet off the back porch, Sakura dipped just her toes onto the koi pond, watching the flashy orange and white fish circle curiously around before rushing away. She wiggled her big toe and one of the bigger fish swam up to nibble at it. With an agitated sigh, she drew her feet out of the water and folded her legs neatly beneath her.
"What's wrong?" Sasuke asked as he settled next to her. Sakura turned her head away, not speaking. Apparently in this weird place, she had been very close to her "husband's" brother. But she couldn't speak to him normally, not after all that he had done- she had done. She knew that the Sasuke here wasn't like that, but she simply couldn't wipe away the image of Sasuke's sharingan flaring violently as his sword whistled through the air.
"Nii-san's talking to Sarutobi-sama right now. Maybe the old man knows something about your situation." As Sasuke spoke, she heard a strange hitch in his words that her trained ears caught on to. It was a familiar noise, one she heard often. Finally looking over at him, she saw that his right arm hung limply at his side as his left hand clamped firmly over his bicep.
"Let me see," she sighed, her years of training kicking in. Sasuke tried to wave her off.
"I know you studied healing a little but I don't want to bother you. You're always so tired afterwards," Sasuke said. Frustrated, she grabbed his shoulder and jerked him towards her, using a little chakra to keep him in place.
"Now hold still," Sakura snapped. Sasuke's eyes went wide but he didn't say anything. Peeling his fingers away, she found a long, thin gash slicing across his skin. She eyed the wound with clinical objectivity, prodding along the inflamed skin and ignoring his hisses of pain. After she pulled up the sleeve of her tunic, she placed her right hand directly over the injury, letting her palm touch the hot blood. As she flooded chakra to her palm, she saw Sasuke twitch. She knew that the sudden barrage of cool chakra would sometimes feel unpleasant.
"Sorry. Just a little longer," she assured him as she delved deeper into the tissue to extract the minute traces of poison that had caused all the swelling. With a little twitch of her fingers, she coaxed the dark purple poison out in a long thread that coiled around her forearm like a twitching snake. Her chakra then split, spreading into a hundred smaller tendrils that pulled the layers of skin together, each separate piece soothing and generating new cells. It was a technique she had perfected just after becoming a Jounin, speeding up the healing process by nearly 50%. When she pulled her hand back, the threads of chakra clung to Sasuke's arm like spider silk. With a quick shake of her arm, the poison thread looped around her arm dissolved in a hiss.
"Does it hurt anywhere?" Sakura asked as she carefully pressed her fingers along the faint pink line. But Sasuke didn't seem to be paying attention to his arm. Instead, he grabbed hold of her hand and flipped it palm up.
"What?" she demanded as she tried to yank her hand free. Sasuke stared raptly down at her palm before he cautiously touched it with his fingertips.
"Your hands are all rough," he quietly observed. Using a little burst of chakra, she wretched her arm out of his grip and self-consciously rubbed her palms together.
"They're not that rough…. I use lotion," she muttered mostly to herself.
"Jackass," she added under her breath even though she knew he would hear her. At this, Sasuke tilted his head to the side, observing her with wary eyes.
"You're… you're really not her. My sister-in-law would never say that," Sasuke said. Looking back down at her feet, Sakura nodded.
"What's different about your world?" Sasuke inquired and Sakura squeezed her eyes shut. That was the question she had been dreading from the moment he had appeared. She wondered how she could possibly explain everything, the twisted vines of the village's bloody secrets. How could she ever say something like that to the Sasuke who stood before her, the one who still had an entire clan? How could she ever stain the image he had of his beloved brother? So she shook her head, mashing her lips together.
"Is it that bad?" he pressed.
"I see people here who have already died in my world. It's a little sad to be here," Sakura simply admitted, refusing to reveal anything else. Though he seemed far from satisfied, Sasuke made a noise of assent and didn't ask her to speak again. Instead, they sat in silence. She heard the soft splash as Sasuke dipped his toes into the pond to cool them off. He let out a long sigh before there was a muted thud. Opening her eyes, Sakura found Sasuke lying on his back, arms crossed underneath his head. When their gazes met, Sasuke gave her a smile that she had never seen on him before.
"I guess you could have been this happy," she softly remarked, turning away from him again.
"Sakura, the Hokage wishes to speak with you," Itachi said as he hopped onto the roof and then landed gracefully on the porch beside her. He seemed to reach for her automatically, probably seeing his wife in her place. But he caught himself at the last moment, maintaining a respectful distance. As she got to her feet, Sasuke sat up.
"Want us to go with you?" the younger Uchiha offered. The open concern in his eyes stabbed her deep in the chest.
"No," Sakura sighed as she slipped on her sandals and crossed the small garden to exit through the back gate. Apparently, in this world, she wasn't a respected kunoichi and healer. It wasn't normal for her to jump across rooftops and go drinking with her comrades like she had always done. Rather, she was the wife of a respected shinobi. She wore kimonos and arranged flowers and smiled at everyone. And though she had apparently studied medical ninjutsu a little, she wasn't very skilled. So, grinding her teeth together, Sakura slowly walked across the village, not making eye contact with the familiar strangers surrounding her. When she arrived at the Hokage Tower, she was met with a few unfamiliar faces among the guards. Still, they seemed to recognize her well enough and immediately let her through. Upon reaching the familiar wooden door, she knocked three times with firm raps.
"Come in."
The wrinkled face of the old man sitting at the desk brought back a surge of memories, most of them painful: Orochimaru's wide maw, Sasuke's back as he left, Naruto sitting alone on the swings as parents all walked past to pick up their children.
"Please have a seat, Uchiha-san."
The name was so alien. But she complied, settling in one of the chairs facing his desk. She crossed her arms over her chest as she waited for him to speak. But Sarutobi's eyes lingered on her arms for a long moment before his mouth opened.
"It has come to my attention that… you are suffering from some sort of fugue," the old man said. At this, Sakura snorted.
"No. I'm suffering from some sort of warped genjutsu in which you're alive, Hokage-sama, Uchiha Itachi is a loyal shinobi of Konoha and Sasuke isn't rotting somewhere in the ground!" she retorted, jabbing her finger into his desk. There was a pregnant pause and then the Hokage's eyes narrowed. Folding his fingers together on top of the desk, his eyes invited her to continue speaking.
"You, along with your advisors, ordered Uchiha Itachi to destroy the Uchiha clan. You suspected an Uchiha of unleashing the Kyuubi on the village so you treated them all as suspects, prisoners. You fostered unrest and then declared that the Uchiha clan needed to be eliminated. And so Itachi did it. He murdered his entire family except for Sasuke who later went mad with hatred. Sasuke ended up killing Itachi and when he learned about who was actually to blame for the massacre, he came after Konoha." As she spoke, she heard the door open and close, she heard the footsteps. And just from the chakra signatures, she knew who the two people standing behind her were. But she didn't care. The years of bitterness and anger that couldn't be directed were pouring out.
"So, Sasuke teamed up with Uchiha Madara to destroy the village of Konoha. Later…I was sent as part of a team to assassinate Uchiha Sasuke," she said, her voice dying down to a whisper. Her hands fisted together in the fabric of her shirt. And suddenly she couldn't control herself. Twisting around in her seat, she stared directly into Sasuke's face. His eyes widened and she could almost touch his confusion.
"So I'm not insane. I don't know what's going on or why I'm here, but I need to leave," she finished, finally looking up to meet the Hokage's eyes.
There was a heavy silence in the office until the Hokage slowly took off his hat and placed his hands over his face.
"Uchiha-no. Haruno Sakura-san, may I have a word with you in private?" the Hokage requested in a low voice that left no room for argument. There was a lengthy pause before she heard Itachi clear his throat quietly. She glanced over her shoulder just in time to see him leave the room, Sasuke just a few steps behind him.
"You want to know the rest," she whispered, turning back to the Hokage. He nodded as if his head weighed a million pounds.
She left the room an hour later, throat sore from speaking for so long. Sasuke- not Itachi was waiting for her outside the tower. His eyes were closed, hands jammed deep into his pockets. There was a furrow in his brow that she realized she had never seen in this place before. When she stepped onto the dirt road, tiredly rubbing at the back of her neck, his eyes snapped open.
"Sasuke-kun," she sighed as he pushed off the wall. For a moment, there was deep-set anger in his gaze that made her want to take a step away from him. Then his expression softened, smoothing out in some places.
"I guess… in your world… I wasn't your brother-in-law, huh?" he joked weakly, taking his hands out of his pockets. Sakura shook her head. As a gust of cool wind hit them, she rubbed at her exposed arms. She had managed to dig out some old clothes from storage; her sleeveless red shirt with the high collar had still been wearable. The Uchiha crest stitched into the back sent a twinge through her each time she remembered it was there.
"C'mon. I'll take you home," Sasuke quietly said as he put his left arm around her. She flinched a little and she knew that he had noticed. Thinking quickly, she looked around.
"Wait. I'm supposed to be married to your brother. Won't people talk?" she quickly inquired. A chuckle she didn't recognize rumbled out of him.
"Not here, Sakura. Here, you're known as the Uchiha clan's little princess," Sasuke told her as he began walking. And while she matched his footsteps, she closed her eyes. Laying her head against his chest, she listened to the steady pump of his heart. It thudded reassuringly, almost seeming to say one thing:
Alive
The walk back to the Uchiha district was strange to say the least. Then again, 20 years of silence weren't present there. The Uchiha clan was alive and well all around her. As she looked at the old men sitting on porches and smoking their pipes, the fragrant smoke stung her eyes. When people noticed them, which was inevitable with Sakura's hair, there were smiles, some titters.
"My, my, Sasuke-kun. Were you off escorting our little princess today?"
Their high-pitched laughs made her upper lip curl. As if sensing her irritation, Sasuke's fingers tightened around her upper arm. Still, Sasuke laughed too.
"Well, Auntie, Sakura's a little tired so if you'll excuse us," Sasuke smoothly said as he bowed and hurried past the older women. Once inside the small house, Sasuke pushed her inside and hurriedly slid the door shut behind them. But as soon as she set foot inside, a chakra that she had long learned to fear appeared. Sakura whirled around, drawing chakra to her palms and shoving Sasuke behind her. Itachi stood in the foyer, her hands hanging passively at his sides. She hesitated for another moment before she relaxed, unbending her knees and letting the chakra fade with a hiss.
"I'll be upstairs," Itachi quietly said. Sakura almost stopped him. For an instant, she saw a glint of longing in his eyes. He was definitely seeing his wife, who, according to what she had seen, was so devoted to her husband, suddenly seemed ready to bare her teeth at the mere sight of him. But she watched wordlessly as Itachi climbed the stairs and the sound of a screen door sliding shut traveled down to them.
"I'll talk to him later," Sasuke assured her, attracting her attention again. And this time, she was also able to properly look around the small house.
Sakura knew it was her home. The framed picture of a patch of wildflowers hanging in the hallway was from her mother's house. She recognized the potted orchid on the windowsill; the one Ino had given to her as a birthday present many years ago. In this house, a strange house, she stood in the foyer, staring. Sasuke, however, seemed to be perfectly comfortable slipping out of his shoes and stepping up onto the raised platform that led to the rest of the house. Sakura stared after him, eyes glued to the red and white fan on his back. After a few seconds, he seemed to notice her hesitation.
"Come on," Sasuke said, turning to look at her. So, toeing off her black sandals, she stepped up and looked around, fingers clenching and unclenching nervously. With a loud sigh of exasperation, Sasuke took her by the arm and pulled her into the kitchen. He poured her a glass of water and made her drink the entire thing before he pulled her to the back porch.
They were quiet for a long time. Sitting side by side and each silent, they watched the sun drop below the horizon. When frogs began crooning and bugs began chirping in earnest, when the stifling silence had lost its hold on the day, Sakura opened her mouth.
"Itachi was ordered to wipe out your entire family. But he couldn't kill you. Naruto told me that Itachi loved you too much to murder you," Sakura began. She paused, following the path of a dragonfly buzzing sluggishly across the top of the pond.
"He told you to hate him, to grow stronger. When we were both 16, you killed him. When we were 18, Naruto, Yamato, Shikamaru and I were sent to eliminate you. The 5 kages decided that you were too great of a threat to be left alive any longer," continued Sakura, eyes fixated on the pond. She stirred the surface of the water with her foot and bright white and orange koi rose to the surface, roused from their lethargy. As she remembered Naruto's face when the order went out, Sakura clenched her hand into a fist.
"I ripped out your heart," she admitted in a tight voice. She squeezed her eyes shut and tried to take big breaths.
"I tore out your heart and I held it in my hand. And as you lay dying in my lap, you smeared your blood all over my face and said two words: 'Damn it,'" Sakura whispered, her voice shaking from the effort not to smash everything to bits.
"….Why?"
"I'm sorry, Sasuke-kun, but it was for the safety of all the great shinobi nations," she replied, bowing her head.
"No. I mean, why did you have to do it? Why not Naruto?" Sasuke clarified. At this, Sakura's eyes slowly opened. She tilted her head towards him. A small laugh devoid of all humor suddenly left her. Pulling up her shirt, she revealed the pale skin of her stomach. Her small scar from her battle with Sasori was nearly invisible in comparison to the white star-shaped mark above her bellybutton. Thin tendrils spread out from the center, singes from uncontrolled electricity that had burnt through the flesh.
"Because Naruto knew he could forgive me," she replied in almost a whisper. Sasuke's dark eyes were wide with confusion. Overwhelmed with affection for this child-like Sasuke who had still outlived the Sasuke she knew by a few years, she reached out and patted his cheek. His gaze, unclouded by hatred, was so precious, so rare.
"No matter what happened, Naruto knew I would forgive him. And no matter what I did, Naruto knew he could forgive me. But he also knew that he would never be able to forgive himself if he killed you. So… I had to do it," Sakura explained, her eyes filling with tears as she dropped her hand.
"That's why it hurts to see you here, Sasuke-kun. So I'm begging you. Please, don't be so kind to me," she sighed as she got to her feet. When she looked up, she saw Itachi's hands hanging out the window. As she watched, soft white flower petals trickled past his fingers and landed on top of the dark pond.
She had burrowed deep under the covers, curling up on her side. The mattress warped to accommodate her weight, rising up to hug her shape. If she lay still enough and pretended very hard, she could almost feel the weight of her husband's arm draped across her waist. Tears occasionally escaped her, wetting her hands that were pillowed under her cheek. There was a sharp knock. Her eyes snapped open. She was momentarily blinded by the white of the covers against the white sheets and her own pale skin. The knock cut the silence again and she almost wanted to cry. When she didn't respond, it was the window and not the door that opened.
"When's the last time you've eaten, Sakura-chan?" Naruto asked as a warm wind spilled inside. Her shoulders tensed as she tried to fend off the invasive air.
"Do you even know what day it is?" he demanded when she didn't say anything. His sigh was sharp enough to make her want to crawl under the bed and clamp her hands firmly over her ears. His heavy footsteps traveled across the floor, pacing angrily back and forth.
"Fine," Naruto grumbled out. The door creaked open and then rattled as he roughly closed it behind him. Sakura shifted, tucking her head under her arm.
"Are you waiting to die?"
It was a voice tinged with sadness. Her breath caught in her throat as she carefully inched the covers down. She peered over the top of the sheets, past her arm, until she could see the tight line of his mouth.
"They told me that you're a criminal," she whispered. At this, the corner of his mouth curved, a dried out husk of a smile.
"What else did they tell you?" he asked. At this, Sakura sat up straight, hugging the covers tightly to her chest. Her eyes wide with fear, she dug her fingers deep into the fabric, twisting hard.
"That you wiped out the entire Uchiha family. That I'm not married to you. That I'm… I'm supposedly a kunoichi who… um… 'breaks rocks and trees and shit with her fists'?" Sakura said, repeating the words Naruto had excitedly thrown at her just a few days before.
Uchiha Itachi stared down at her with bright red eyes, sharingan flaring. But the sight was almost comforting now. She sat frozen in place. Although she couldn't feel his extremely well-concealed chakra, the weight of his full gaze on her stole her breath away. He took a step towards her and she automatically tensed, less out of fear and more out of anticipation. Each of his movements was so sure, so graceful, almost as if he didn't waste any unnecessary energy.
"Why are you here?" she asked in a whisper, suddenly remembering that Naruto had just left the room. For the past few days Ino and Naruto had been taking turns hovering out there, probably waiting to pounce as soon as she set foot outside. But Itachi didn't seem at all worried about being discovered. She hadn't been in this place long but something told her that a mass-murderer and criminal dropping by someone's home wouldn't be received too happily by the village.
"I cast a genjutsu over this building. Don't worry," Itachi said.
"Why are you here?" she inquired again, this time in a louder voice. To her surprise, he took another step closer and then, with the faintest of touches, brushed his hand against her cheek.
"Who knows?" he replied before a swarm of black feathers enveloped him and then he was gone.
It was after that visit that she moved to the window, eyes always searching rooftops. A heavy cloud of rain settled over Konoha, soaking everything through until the roads below were constantly shifting from being unmanageable slurry to slightly sticky mud. The sky was always slightly grey, even on sunny days. She sat in bed all day, covers pulled tightly around her shoulders as she stared out the window. She was constantly stroking her bare ring finger, searching for the ring that had mysteriously disappeared.
And every night, a strange quiet settled over the room, blocking out Naruto or Ino's snores depending on which day it was. It fluttered down softly like a blanket over a lamp, muting everything into a soft stillness. There was no creak of a door, no squeak of a window. One instant she was alone and the next, he was there. Even if he didn't speak, his presence was so large, so very present that it was impossible not to notice. He didn't always speak and neither did she.
Sometimes, it was simply the silence that bridged them.
"Isn't it dangerous for you to be here?" she asked one day. She was lying on her back, staring up at the ceiling. He stood at the window, hands clasped in front of him.
"Not particularly."
"That's nice then."
"Yes. It's nice."
Sometimes they sat not acknowledging each other's presences for hours and hours, just staring up at the sky or down at the floor. Every once in a while, she got the feeling that he wanted to say something, but he always restrained himself at the last moment.
"You said that you were married to me in another world?" he queried one day. This time, she was curled up on the rug, arms hugging securely around her middle. When he spoke, she found herself rubbing her bare ring finger up and down her arm, trying to rid the strange feeling of emptiness lingering there.
"He said that it was his grandmother's. A diamond retrieved from the lands to the far west," she softly replied.
'You're a little young to be married."
"Maybe to be with someone else. I was always ready to marry him."
At times, during the day when she was alone, she wondered what always drew him back. No matter how skilled of a genjutsu user he was, it was undoubtedly risky always venturing to see her. There were nights that she wanted to ask why, nights where she also wanted to know when he had scratched a line through the swirling leaf adorning his forehead protector.
How could she ask him?
He sometimes looked ready to break apart in a million irretrievable pieces if she looked at him too hard.
"You always look like you're waiting to die, you know," he suddenly told her one day. The abruptness of his voice was almost sharp against her skin. She was perching carefully on the windowsill, one foot hanging out, one foot dangling above the floor inside. The sounds of Naruto rolling over in his sleep penetrated the thin walls. He wouldn't hear them but Sakura still flinched. A foreign noise in this world of whispers was never welcome. Itachi, who had been sitting on the edge of her bed suddenly seemed to lose all energy and flopped onto his back.
"Isn't everyone? Especially a shinobi like you…." She replied but stopped herself midway. Eyes wide with chagrin, she slowly looked over at him. He didn't look angry though.
"Why are you still alive then?" Sakura boldly posed a question of her own. At this, he actually looked at her, dark eyes searching for something.
"I died once," he began as his gaze drifted to stare past her, out the window.
"I thought I had been freed from my past. It was selfish but I thought that by me being freed, it would free Sasuke too. But I was brought back and Sasuke was only twisted by my lack of insight."
"Twisted?" Sakura repeated. The only image of Sasuke she could conjure up was his smile, his wry sense of humor. Her brother, her friend. She couldn't imagine him any other way, especially warped by a burning desire for vengeance.
"I know that in this place, you're the one that stopped his heart. But by all accounts, I was the one that killed him," Itachi said. The soft lilt of his words were a million knifepoints all whistling through the air, twisting and gouging in between her ribs and into her heart.
"I…. I killed him?" she softly said.
"It's what got your name in the bingo book."
"And you? Why don't you hate me for that?" she inquired, imagining her husband's face whenever he heard that his little brother was in the hospital. She knew that to some extent, her husband loved his brother more than he would ever love her. It didn't hurt though. He loved her more than he would love any other woman so that was good enough for her. But the way he threw himself into anything for Sasuke sometimes made her feel unnecessary, unloved even.
"I thank you for freeing him," he corrected her.
That almost comforted her, almost made her feel better. Two weeks after waking up in a strange world that definitely wasn't her own, Sakura finally left her apartment. It was close to noon, people bustling around in the market and chattering happily with friends. She skirted along, practically hugging the walls as she walked. She supposed that it was the same as the place she had grown up in, following her mother to the market when she went grocery shopping. She wanted to see her mother, to ask her what was different, what was the same. But Ino had told her that she had passed away a couple years ago during some massive attack on the village.
Cruel.
She finally made her way to the Uchiha district. Only there was no district. Apparently during the reconstruction of the village, they had decided that rebuilding a place where no one lived was unnecessary. The memories of the Uchiha clan no longer existed. She stood where her home should have been, the small wooden building that had been given to her as a wedding present. Sakura stared at the patch of dead grass and weeds. An old glass bottle protruded from between leaves, growing there like an alien plant.
She stumbled home, dazed, and promised herself not to leave the apartment again. That night, when Itachi came to visit, they didn't speak to each other. She only curled up in the corner of the room and sobbed and sobbed until her voice disappeared.
That night, laying on the cool futon, Haruno Sakura listened very carefully. Naruto had told her that when he had gone off training with the toads, he had learned to feel chakra, to sense the ebb and flow of nature. In that quiet time, staring up at the wooden ceiling, she wondered if this was what Naruto also sensed. The floorboards creaked a little each time she moved. Itachi had pulled their futons apart, pushing hers an arm's length away. The gesture was touching, but she got the feeling that all he could manage, to be just a little apart from his wife.
Sakura knew he couldn't possibly be sleeping. The deep, even patterns of his breaths would have fooled anyone else. The faint scent of smoke clung to him, the smell of the dying sputters of a fire blown out in a gentle puff of wind.
She had watched him shave once in the morning, her eyes glued to the sharp blade held so deftly in his hand. The sweet, almost tangy scent of his soap had filled the bathroom. She had hovered in the doorway, arms crossed firmly over her chest and him stubbornly keeping his stance relaxed. Somehow, as the sharpened razor glided over the hard line of his jaw, as her gaze followed every smooth motion of his hand, she had let her arms fall away.
"You love her," she softly said. His eyes looked at her in the mirror.
"I do," he replied as he rinsed the razor off in the sink. He flicked it once to get rid of stray water before he set it on the countertop.
"Why?" Sakura asked. Itachi rinsed his face, running his hands over his smooth chin and above his lip. When he straightened, he snatched a towel off the rack to dry his face. A smile curved at his mouth, one filled with such warmth and longing that for an instant she felt a pang of intense jealousy.
"She's the one person in this whole world who will love me whether I succeed or not," he replied.
As Sakura took a deep breath, the futon on the other side of the room stirred. He sat up, running a hand over his face and through his hair. She didn't pretend to be asleep. Her eyes drifted towards him. The darkness of his irises was piercing the instant before he stood and walked out of the room.
The window was always unlocked for him.
She waited for him, each hour ticking by unbearably slowly until he arrived. She liked it best when he asked her questions about her married life, about her family and especially about Sasuke. Sometimes she wondered if he wanted to hear just for the sake of punishing himself. Sakura couldn't imagine what had been so different about the boy who was dead in this world. Sasuke had always been so smart, so charming. He was intensely loyal, intensely loving. Even though he pretended to be rivals with Naruto, she knew that Sasuke would give up everything in an instant for his best friend. And most importantly, Sasuke was her brother. To see the name traitor attached to him was something she simply couldn't process.
"He was consumed by vengeance," Itachi told her one night. She didn't quite understand.
"Sasuke-kun would never be like that. He's such a sweet person," she insisted, rapidly shaking her head.
"I suppose that's my fault then," Itachi conceded and she immediately regretted her words.
Maybe that hadn't changed. Because this Uchiha Itachi's suffering was deep and his love for his brother fathomless. She wasn't in love with him. That was an emotion reserved just for her husband. But this battered shell of a human being was pitiable, something she instinctively wanted to swaddle up and care for. That wasn't her job though. She could feel that much.
She waited for him.
Yet that night, although midnight passed, stretching until a, there was no visitor. Sitting in bed, knees drawn up to her chest, her eyes flickered from the window to the clock above the dresser.
There was a faint mewl. A cat padding across the roofs passed the window, black tail swishing and gold eyes glaring. A soft knock on the door made her flinch.
"Hey Sakura-chan, I'm heading home. Ino'll be by in the morning," Naruto's muffled voice told her. He had stopped opening the door to look at her altogether. She was glad. That wasn't the face she wanted to see at the moment. He waited for a minute before his heavy footfalls tramped off.
This time, it wasn't an indistinct sound that pulled them. It was a gentle whisper, one that caressed the inside of the ear. It spoke one word, as if it was the only word that existed.
"Come," it coaxed in a gentle hum.
So they rose, eyes staring blankly at the sky. Hands gripped the edge of the windowsill and then they were flying through the cool air. Feet lightly touched on rooftops before they pushed off again. The voice pulled harder and harder, drawing each to a darkened corner of Konoha where the trees fanned over the dark grass in a gentle bow. There was a puddle, so black that there appeared to be no bottom. The wavering reflection that stared back up smiled, like a person hiding a secret. The air suddenly felt so unbearably cold and the water so invitingly warm. There was a moment of hesitation where toes skimmed across the rippling surface. But the voice whispered again, an indistinct sound that might have been made of words. They were just fragmented noises now that pulled at them. This time, the drop was expected, the whistling abyss of the endless drop was no longer terrifying. Just as tops of head disappeared into the black surface, frantic hands plunged into the water, grabbing.
There was nothing but falling. Or it could have been they weren't falling at all. In a place without walls or floors, it was impossible to tell except for the sound of wind scraping past ears. Out of the darkness, a pinpoint of color grew brighter and brighter. At first, it looked white until it drew closer and closer, revealing a soft shade of pink that seemed to pierce everything else.
Two women with matching green eyes and pink hair drew together, pulled by some invisible string. Each lifted a hand to press up against the other's. One had rough palms, short nails that betrayed years of hard work. The other had long, oval nails glossed over with polish, smooth skin. Both stared, wondering and waiting.
"You're married," one finally laughed. Her voice echoed strangely in the mysterious space. She held out a glittering diamond ring. The distinctive uchiwa was engraved into the diamond band on either side of the gem.
"I am. And you're not…" the other replied, taking the piece of jewelry and slipping it onto the finger that had felt so empty, almost raw and vulnerable without that reassuring weight. A fleeting smile passed between them. Then, as if someone had told them to do so, they looked up. It was like they were underwater. Just above their heads were twin holes with different faces peering down at them, their expressions distorted by water. The one with shorter hair lifted her hand up to the surface. Though it looked like she should be able to reach, her fingers never broke through to the top. With a sigh, she lowered her hand.
"You killed Sasuke-kun," one of them suddenly said.
"I did."
"Are you going to miss seeing him?"
"No. Because he's not mine."
They regarded each other, faces that were both exactly the same and so different all at once. Finally, they grasped the other's hand in a firm shake that conveyed so much more than words could begin to.
"Goodbye," they said at once to each other.
The Sakura with short hair looked up one last time. She made out the wavering faces of the Uchiha brothers peering down into the abyss. All she could think to give was a smile and then a sigh. The face she had always loved so dearly was searching so frantically for his sister-in-law. She wanted to take his face in her hands and kiss him just once, just so she would remember this boy with a big heart and a laugh that didn't sound like cracking glass. But she needed to remind herself that this wasn't her boy. This wasn't the boy and then the broken man she had grown to love.
The Sakura with long hair also looked up at the pale face hovering over the edge. She still had so much to ask. There were so many stories about his brother that she still wanted to share. Sometimes he had revealed such a brokenness about him that she felt the need to tell him that his brother was happy in her world at least. She had forgotten to tell him that Sasuke had once saved a woman from drowning. That had to mean something, right? Or maybe she would remind him that at the very least, she loved the man she had married and that meant he couldn't be such an awful human being. The sound of her other self's sigh reminded her that this wasn't her place. This wasn't her family.
With slow, deliberate steps, each took a step past the other. Giving one another a final, tremulous smile, they raised their hands to the top. Different hands reached down to lift them up to the surface. And they both closed their eyes as their heads breached the top of the water.
"What are you thinking about?" Sakura asked as she leaned against the door frame. The dark silhouette of her husband standing at the window had long become familiar to her. He looked over his shoulder at her before he held his hand out in an invitation. Though the autumn air was growing chilly, she crossed the room to join him. He draped his arms over her shoulders, cloaking her with his body heat.
"She told me something about you," he murmured against her temple. She tilted her head to look up at him.
"What did she say?" Sakura inquired. She couldn't help but smile as she remembered the woman who apparently leveled whole patches of forest and then turned around to save the injured. What a paradox.
"She told me that you have the potential to become the most skilled medic in the village. And she asked me to push you to learn," Itachi replied. He remembered the easy way her chakra split into a hundred green threads that swooped inwards to heal. The pure satisfaction in her eyes afterwards was something he had never seen in his wife's face. Looking down at her sweet, innocent expression, he hugged her just a little tighter.
"That sounds like some great advice," Sakura replied, stretching upwards to press a kiss to his jaw. Linking her hands around the back of his neck, she let him lift her into his arms. Staring up at the endless sky, she took a deep breath and pressed her cheek against Itachi's chest.
"Aren't you supposed to be dead?" Sakura asked as she leaned against the doorframe. The dark silhouette of a strangely familiar figure was sitting on her windowsill. The edge of his cloak was tattered, like he had travelled a long ways. He lifted his head a little to look at her with piercing red eyes. She wasn't afraid though. Though the autumn air was growing chilly, she crossed the room with sure steps. He stood and she was surprised. She had expected him to be so much taller. Then again, his presence was more than enough to make anyone feel like a child in comparison.
"You followed her that night," she said. It wasn't a question. The person who had pulled her out of the pond was undoubtedly Uchiha Itachi. Although he had disappeared before she could get a proper look at him, somehow she had known.
"You're not much like her," Itachi suddenly remarked in a quiet voice. Sakura let out an unlady-like snort as she remembered the rows of silk kimonos and expensive combs the woman had kept in her closet. She rubbed her roughened palms together, relishing the feel of her callouses scraping against each other.
"I guess not," she agreed with a little laugh.
"So where do we go from here?" Sakura suddenly inquired as she took another step towards him. Something like a smile tugged at his mouth as he reached out and gently brushed a lock of hair out of her eyes.
"I don't know," he simply replied.
And somehow, that answer was what worked for them.
Thanks (as always) to all my readers and reviewers. Be sure to post more prompts in the reviews if you can think of anything! I'd like to request that the prompts be kept to a word (or a short statement).