Author's Notes: Spoilers for recent manga chapters in the first one. Both are general character drabbles for a change of pace.
That Boy
Sasuke turns his head and suddenly she's there, her fist pulled back, green eyes determined.
She means to hit him, he realizes. And the thought is almost unreal because the Sakura he knew only hit Naruto. The Sakura he knew would never fight Sasuke-kun.
Ah. Sasuke remembers.
He's not that boy any more.
The End.
Some Secret GoldKurenai sees gold everywhere. It's a talent, like being able to find four-leaf clovers in a field of green. It blinds her in the morning, as the sun rises through her window. It soothes her at dusk, as the sky turns red and orange. It's in the coins Asuma rolls over the backs of his knuckles when he's bored.
She's finds it, too, in her students as they grow and struggle, fail and fight.
She's proud of them in a way that is almost girlish, halfway caught between the pride of a mother and the enthusiasm of a teenager. She rises and falls with them and then shows them the glint of hope in the corner, that shine that leads them when they have nothing left.
"Everyone has something they treasure, some secret gold they guard," she tells them as they sit quietly in the shade one evening. "That is what you must fight for, yearn for. It will keep you alive when nothing else will."
Kurenai can see gold everywhere.
Except in herself. The End.