Prompt: Elastic heart, by Sia.
k.
"I wish to escort my wife back from her mission," a slow grumble, almost like annoyance, "Hokage - Sama."
Kakashi leans on his palm, an amused smile peaking from beneath his mask, charcoal eyes gleaming; it makes Sasuke ' eyes twitch.
"Is that so?" Finger threading through his hair, his sensie eases back into his chair and stares at him from the corner of his eye. Outside, the rain finally comes to a stop, slowly working its way to a final crescendo.
"And if I refuse?"
Sasuke knows neither of them want the answer to that. A bated moment passes, another pounding breath escaping from his chest. He shifts his gaze to the desk.
"Fine." Kakashi sighs, waving him out of his office. "She's in Suna."
If he were a lesser man, Sasuke thinks he might have whooped in joy, or something close to it. Instead, he keeps his lips from twitching into a grin and bows. "Thank you."
Kakashi 's eyes soften. Then, as if remembering something trivial, he folds his arms behind his head and says, almost carelessly, "You should move out then. She's scheduled to leave at dawn. If you hurry now, you might mak-"
He's already out of the tower before Kakashi can finish his sentence.
Transporting himself in front of their house, he stares at the surrounding walls, almost apprehensive of going in. The kitchen door opens to the same wooden floors he's went over a thousand times, but the air seems eerie, as if the house doesn't want to be associated with him anymore.
But he dispels it and moves to their room. The sheets, stiff from being unused for so long, are littered with dust, the curtains gray and dull and the carpet lacks warmth he remembers being accustomed to. The cabinets are empty, the shelves bare, the fruit basket on the counter drenched in black and white.
He feels like as if he's entered a monochrome world and wonders if that's what his life would be without her splash of colour in it.
Pulling his cloak over his shoulders, he seals his weapons and pulls a travel bag over his shoulders. The house is quiet as it bids him farewell, and maybe if he strains hard enough, he wonders if he will be able to hears its silent encouragement.
As he straps his sandals over his feet, the cold rivets of water cascade down his hair and past his spine from a hasty shower in the cold water, and he looks at himself in the mirror one last time and sees his family in the reflection: his brothers eyes stare back at him, a black so deep it seems to swallow his pupils whole, and he sees his mother in the curve of his upper lip but most prominent, he sees his father in his face, weary and tired but charged with purpose and meaning, a will to protect his family from the darkness that has always skirted the lives of the Uchiha.
Outside, the clouds part to give way to the moon that glows in the sky, its light overshadowing the stars so the horizon appears as a vast ocean of uninterrupted darkness. Konoha proceeds to seep into sleep, each glimmer of florescent light a sun to the insects that crawl out of the ground and flutter their paper wings, burning to ash and dust when they got too close. Sasuke looks at the sky when he closes the door of his home behind him, at the clear black crystalline space around the moon and the stream of gray that erupts everywhere, breathes in the smell of dew grass and jasmine and holds it in his lungs and imagines it blooming there like a bud, spreading it roots through his bronchi like a birch tree taking ground; he can almost taste the chlorophyll on his tongue, feel the green pigment burning in his nostrils and evading his cranium like moth smoke. They linger in him for some time, the sanctity of existence and the fundamental proof of life.
Sasuke takes it all in. Then he disappears.
Personally, I enjoyed writing the ending- inspired by the opening song of Tokyo ghoul root. Amazing series really.
Review and let me know what you think.
A shout out to those reviewers who I haven't PM-ed: Thank you for your words. They help a lot.
The guest who reviewed saying they're confused: what were you confused about, exactly? Let me know and I'll try to clear it out for you.