Date: November 1st, 2014
Pairing: SasuSaku (don't panic, it's towards the end)
Prompt: All Saints' Day / Day of the Dead
Title: Sound in the Silence
Summary: He hears her hearbeat in the absence of his.
Disclaimer: Naruto, not mine since 1999.
Warning: MANY FEELS OF THE SAD VARIETY.
Author's Note: Since November 1st is a day that revolves around honoring the dead, naturally I wanted to focus this prompt on Sasuke and Itachi. This one is more serious and lacking in comedy than the other ones I've written, but I hope that doesn't deter you from enjoying it.
Recommended Listening: The Future is Now by Starset
It's a Tuesday morning two months after the war when the ANBU messenger finds a stitched-back-together Team Seven.
They are stretched out on the utterly destroyed grounds of Training Ground Three, the place that has always been theirs. The Uzumaki kid is shouting something at the dark-haired Uchiha, while the bell-like laughter of Tsunade's apprentice rings out beside them.
The masked shinobi clears his throat and instantly three pairs of eyes are locked on him in suspicion.
"Hokage-sama requests the presence of Uchiha Sasuke in her office."
As the three of them rise, the ANBU holds up a hand. "She wishes to see him alone."
The three members of Team Seven glance amongst themselves. Sakura bites her lip in anxiety and Naruto looks agitated. Sasuke merely shrugs apathetically. It's probably something about his probation, he tells him.
The ANBU takes his leave as he hears them start to argue.
"Uchiha Sasuke. Come in, boy."
Sasuke grunts in response as he stands in front of the Hokage's desk. Tsunade stares at him for a long moment, and he notes that for once she doesn't look irritated at him. Instead, she looks older and more tired. But he can only take so much silent scrutiny before he becomes impatient.
"Is this about my-"
"The body of Uchiha Itachi has been found."
If the silence had been tense before, it is deafening now.
"They're bringing him home to be laid to rest."
Sasuke feels his body go cold, all of the feeling draining out of him. His insides are numb; he doesn't know what to think, what to feel. He can hear Itachi's final words echoing inside his head, his final smile embedded in his memory.
True, he's already turned these things over and over in his mind since the days when his brother had died. And no matter how sure he is that he's found an answer for how he should feel or what his next action should be, the reminder always leaves a jagged, empty hole inside of him that nothing can fill.
Tsunade regards him with compassion, but he doesn't see it. He doesn't see anything. The world is as foreign to him as a genjutsu while he is lost in his grief that he has never given himself time to embrace. Before, there was always a new plan to be made, a new course of action to be taken to write all the wrongs that his brother's death couldn't fix.
Now, there is nothing but the loss.
Later that day, Tsunade informs Naruto and Sakura in a separate meeting.
At Naruto's insistence, Sakura learns the truth of the Uchiha clan massacre. She doesn't speak for a long time. Her hands, clenched into fists, are shaking. The tears flow freely from her eyes, for both Itachi and Sasuke and what they had to lose. Her teeth are clenched trying to contain her anger and her grief, because hers is small compared to Sasuke's.
When she finally lifts her head, Tsunade marvels at the fire burning in her apprentice's eyes. And while she knows that Sakura will not do anything rash or stupid, she also believes that the council should be afraid. While the council will not be taken down by physical means, Team Seven has not yet met an enemy they could not defeat, and not for a second does Tsunade think that they will let these sleeping dogs lie.
As they make ready to leave her office, Tsunade calls Sakura back.
"You may want to consider helping with the funeral arrangements. I doubt that Sasuke's going to have any kind of interest in those details."
Sakura nods, and the door clicks behind her.
It's been three days, and Sasuke has not emerged from the Uchiha manor, nor spoken to anyone. Alone, he sits in Itachi's room, unthinking and trying desperately to be unfeeling. He struggles for the control that he's had over his emotions for the last ten years, and finds he can barely manage.
If he doesn't think about Itachi, doesn't think about his smile or his last words, or the way he taught Sasuke how to throw shuriken and how to read, doesn't remember the way Itachi was there for him the way his father never was, then maybejustmaybe he can function.
So he sits in the dark not thinking and trying not to feel.
He knows his teammates have been trying to reach him, but Itachi has always taken precedence over everything else in his life, and so he shuts them out again. That's the only thing he's ever known how to do.
"SASUKE-TEME, OPEN UP! I KNOW YOU'RE IN THERE!"
"Naruto, stop. He's not going to come out with you yelling at him like that."
"That's what you said last time, but I got him to come home, didn't I?"
Undeterred, Naruto keeps pounding away on Sasuke's front door. Sakura sighs in exasperation and bodily drags him away, though the blonde keeps yelling.
She's already arranged everything for Itachi's funeral, though she doesn't believe it's nearly close enough to what he deserves. She knows Sasuke-kun will want something small and private, with only their team in attendance. Itachi deserves a hero's return to Konoha, with his body in state, but with the council still in power and the truth still hidden, that cannot be an option.
So Sakura has ordered a plot dug in the Uchiha family cemetary, next to Fugaku and Mikoto. Flowers have been ordered from the Yamanakas, and Ino has been sworn to absolute secrecy. A headstone has been ordered from the monument-maker, and Sakura can only hope that it is befitting the man who had given his whole life to his village and to his brother.
The day Itachi's body arrives in Konoha is overcast and cold. It's a windy November day, and rain is threatening to fall. The body is brought straight to the hospital morgue, where Tsunade insists on doing the identification and burial preparation herself. He is remarkably well-preserved, given that he has been dead for some time. Some kind of jutsu has been used to prevent decomposition, though nobody knows who did such a thing.
Later that afternoon, four ANBU carry the casket into the small graveyard at the northeast corner of the Uchiha compound. Kakashi, Naruto, and Sakura stand scattered around the grave, each dressed in black.
Sasuke stands alone off to the side, reading the names on his parents' headstones as he has done a thousand times before. He can't bring himself to look at Itachi's; it will make it all real. But he forces himself to watch as they lower Itachi into the cold, wet earth as it starts to rain.
He can't bear to think of Itachi and the rest of his family cold in the ground, with no warmth or love, no one to talk to and no sight of the sky overhead. How can he leave them out here alone to fade into nothingness? He doesn't have answers, and the guilt of being alive chokes him.
Normally during funerary proceedings, someone would speak in praise of the dead or deliver a eulogy. Given the enormity of Itachi's sacrifice, Sasuke's suffering, and what is still left to be done, they allow the words to hang in the air without saying them.
Sasuke is grateful. He would have killed anyone who tried to pretend to understand his brother.
After the funeral, Kakashi disappears, stating he is late for a meeting. Naruto is summoned for an urgent mission, and Sasuke retreats into the Uchiha manor, slamming the door behind him. He has not said a word to any of them.
Sakura is left standing alone next to Itachi's grave. The rain is coming down in a steady drizzle as she kneels next to the headstone, running her fingers over the freshly engraved kanji. Silently, she thanks him for loving Sasuke and sparing his life, for his sacrifice for the village, and for the burden that he had to bear for so long.
After saying her piece, Sakura makes her way to the rear of Sasuke's house. She knows he wants to be alone right now and that he must be in pain. And even though she didn't know Itachi, she's willing to bet that he wouldn't want his brother to be left alone.
So she lets herself in and removes her shoes, and silently navigates her way through the dark house. Sensing Sasuke's dulled chakra coming from a room at the end of the hallway, Sakura moves as quietly as possible, not wanting to disturb him until she can get a sense of his emotional state.
The door of Itachi's room has been left open, Sasuke's seated and hunched over form barely visible in the dark. Sakura's heart clenches at the sight. Tentatively, she steps forward into the room.
"Sasuke-kun?" she whispers.
The only answer is the sound of the rain as it hits the roof. She takes another step closer.
"Go away," he growls, though it lacks his usual rancor.
Sakura shakes her head, even though he can't see it. "I can't do that, Sasuke-kun. I'm not leaving you alone." She moves so that she is kneeling in front of him, and takes his face in her hands.
For once, he doesn't object.
Sasuke raises his head and looks at her, his onyx eyes empty and unfocused. He allows Sakura to embrace him, his head resting against her shoulder. They stay like that for a long time, her kneeling between his bent knees and just holding him.
Eventually, his arms come up to encircle her, loose and unsure at first. When she doesn't pull away, his arms tighten around her and his breathing becomes ragged. Sakura starts to cry again as she realizes that he's sobbing without tears. His broad shoulders shake as the barrier holding back his grief cracks and crumbles.
They grieve together.
What feels like hours later, the house is completely dark and no light shines in from the windows.
Sakura's joints ache from kneeling for so long, but she doesn't complain. Sasuke has finally cried himself out, and now his tear-stained face rests in the crook of her neck. She bits her lip at the sadness and sweetness of it.
Very slowly, as her legs have fallen asleep, Sakura rises, supporting Sasuke's unconscious weight with her strength. She carries him over her shoulder down the hall until she finds what she thinks is his bedroom. Inside, she lays him down on the bed and brushes his bangs from his face. Her expression is tender and somber as she gazes down at him.
Eventually, she turns to go, but as she does a hand reaches out and grasps her wrist. Sakura turns back in surprise. Sasuke isn't looking at her, but his request is clear enough.
"Dun' go," he mumbles.
So she stays.
The next morning, Sakura aches all over. There's a deep, sweet ache in her bones, and a painful ache between her thighs. The air is cold, but the bed is warm. Sakura frowns as she realizes that the bed she's in isn't her own. As she opens her eyes, she remembers what happened.
Grief was the catalyst, and she knows that he just wanted to feel something that isn't the cold touch of death in his life, but that doesn't stop her heart from swelling.
Sakura gazes at Sasuke's sleeping form next to her, facing away from her. Both of them are naked, she realizes a bit belatedly, and she blushes. The sheet has been tugged down so that it rests at his hips, leaving his back, chest, and arms bare. He's shivering, and though her first instinct is to feel nervous, Sakura pulls the sheet back over both of them and moves her body flush against his to give him her warmth. She wraps her arms around him and tries not to think about their bare skin touching.
She feels him wake a minute later, his body stiff as well. He turns his neck to face her, but otherwise makes no move to untangle himself from her. Sakura holds her breath as his gaze holds hers, his eyes decidedly less empty than they had been the night before.
"Good morning," she breathes.
Sasuke glances down at her kiss-swollen lips. "Hn."
He then rolls the rest of his body over so he is completely facing her, with her arms still wrapped around his torso. His face once again finds the hollow between her neck and shoulder, and within minutes he is asleep once again.
Sakura can hardly believe that this is Sasuke, acting like waking up in her arms is completely normal. But she supposes that grief does things to people, and maybe when he wakes up later he will push her away. Even if he does, she will never stop trying.
But for now, there is this moment, and as Sakura falls back into sleep, she wonders if this is another gift from Itachi.
Author's Note: Right, so, I would really not like to receive flames about how sex trivializes grief, because it doesn't. It can be a part of the healing process, or used to feel something other than sadness. So if you try to write angry words at me about how I don't make any sense, I will shank you with a microwave.
For you normal non-flamemongers, I hope you enjoyed this more serious piece. It was easier to write than expected. And after this, we will return to the regular prompt schedule. Love you all!