title: storm clouds
summary: in the midst of a storm, she finds him.
prompt: day #12 - silver lining
rating: k+
It was pouring, it was cold, and Sasuke couldn't see a thing—or a feel a thing, for that matter, because the rain had long drenched him, leaving him shivering and numb.
He spun around, sweeping the area for his teammates, but close to nothing could be made out in the haze of the storm, even with his visual prowess. Breathing in slowly, he willed his panic to subside, but the white clouds his breath made in the cold only stirred him more.
Before the rain had washed over Team 7, they had been soaring through a thick forest with practiced ease when an outbreak of smoke bombs covered the area in a gray screen, and despite years of training and their newly reestablished bond, they had managed to lose Sakura in the thick fog.
A quick lapse of alarm had nearly blinded him, but Sasuke continued forward with Naruto close at his heels. They shouted for Sakura until their throats went raw, but much to their dismay, she was nowhere to be found. When they paused to sweep their surroundings, another round of smoke bombs ravaged the area, and Naruto was stolen by the clouds.
The rain started then, and Sasuke found himself at the edge of the forest and the entrance to the winding climb up a mountain, which Tsunade had instructed the trio to enter and follow through. The importance of the scrolls she had sent them to collect seemed to dull in comparison to finding his teammates, but as Sasuke set a foot back into the forest, there was an outcry of something that sounded vaguely like his name in the distance, and his feet were running in its direction before he could blink.
He chased the echo until he swore he had just imagined it, his footsteps slowing as he approached a series of large indentations in the mountains side large enough to serve as caves. With a certain heaviness, he slipped into one of them and stilled against the cold wall.
For a while, he stood there, listening to the beat of the rain and thinking. The logical path to take, he knew, was to continue the mission on his own, complete orders and return to Konoha, but what was right? The question plagued him, and he realized he had no idea what to do.
But he thought on it more and revaluated, and the answer came to him.
Leaning off the wall, he shifted into an upright position and stepped to the mouth of the cave, taking a breath before running out the entrance, ready to retrace his steps. Before he could take even five paces forward, though, he was knocked to the ground by an unseen force, and the impact of his head against the stone floor sparked stars in his eyes.
He sat up, rubbing the back of his skull, and squinted into the rainstorm. He glimpsed pink, and suddenly the load on his shoulders no longer suffocated him.
Sasuke's lips lifted into a grimace-smile. "I was looking for you," he said, raising his voice so it would carry over the roar of the storm.
As he grasped her outstretched hand, Sakura pulled him forward, and despite everything, the sky seemed a little less dark.
