Notes: HERE WE GO, GUYS. My favorite chapter. I've envisioned this since the moment I started writing this fic. I hold it near and dear to my heart, and truthfully, I may have written this entire story just so I could write this chapter.

Chapter 11: The Call Home

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There's something about the freshness of the sky's shade of blue that always reminds Sakura of Naruto. The color is so youthful and energetic, much like Naruto himself—and he, like the sky, has always been there for her and has always watched out for her, no matter what she was going through.

She thinks of him today as she walks down the gravel path, two weaved baskets heavy in either hand. It's been nearly two years since she's last seen him. He must be Hokage by now.

What's left of the leaves on the trees are rich shades of orange and red, providing a beautiful contrast to the bright blue above. The world is bright and vibrant today, and yet still peaceful; all she can hear is the crunch of rock beneath her feet and her own breathing, and she is content to listen to those sounds.

The ground begins to slope upwards and she climbs up the hill. She's walked this path several times before and knows exactly what she'll see once she reaches its peak: what used to be an empty plot of land, in the spring and summer months slowly gave way to a sparse wooden frame of a house, which was eventually filled in with more wood and structural integrity—and now it's a proper home, a two-story house lined with stone and mortar on the outside.

Building the house had been gruelling work different from that of fighting a war, but she never minded because she was with Levi.

Sakura's pace quickens to a jog once she makes it over the hump of the hill, allowing gravity to speed her up now that home is in sight. She can guess where Levi is; once they had finished the house and furnished it with the bare essentials, he immediately began on the garden in the back, constructing garden beds and planning the crops.

"Winter is coming," he had said. "If we want to sustain ourselves, we'll need to start planting now." She wanted to point out that winter isn't actually that cold around these parts, but he had said with a slightly exasperated tone that plants don't grow in the snow. At that, she had been too excited about the fact that there's going to be snow to talk much more about the garden.

She finds him harvesting the pumpkins and covered in soil, and all she can think at the sight of him is how stupidly in love with him she is.

"I'm back," she says, and he looks up, halfway through cutting a pumpkin from its vine.

"That was faster than I thought," he replies, standing up and brushing what dirt he can from his pants. "What did we get?"

"Um." Sakura peers down at the baskets in her hands, trying to recall what the butcher at the market had said. "Beef ribs and flank, some pork shoulder, and he threw in a few hocks for free. Is that good?"

He pulls up the cloth covering the meat in one of the baskets and peers inside. "It's a lot of meat," he says, pondering. "I'll have to salt the pork shoulder. And I don't know how to prepare hock."

"Yeah, they, um…really don't look like much other than feet. Are they edible?"

"Yeah. There's probably a recipe in that cookbook somewhere."

"Okay." Sakura smiles and pecks him on the cheek. "Can we have rabbit stew tonight though? I've been craving it for a few days."

Levi raises an eyebrow. "We don't have any rabbit."

Sakura holds out her other basket, still covered in a cloth. "Well, it's a good thing I ran into a little friend on my way back." He lifts up the cloth and finds the rabbit that Sakura had slain just an hour ago. "I tracked it for a while—I promise I didn't leave a nest of baby rabbits to fend for themselves this time."

"You're the one who cares about that, not me," Levi says, picking up the rabbit by the ears and inspecting it. "In that case, we should dig up a few potatoes."

She beams. "Okay."

After bringing the meat inside and out of the sun, she returns to the garden, pushes up her sleeves, and helps him with his pumpkins.

—

A few hours later, bellies full of rabbit stew, they sit on the floor of their living room together.

"We need a cellar."

"What's a cellar?" Neither of them miss a beat as they chat, continuing to sand down their homemade coffee table.

"An underground structure. It'll be cooler down there, better for storing food."

"I do miss fridges. I miss electricity in general."

"And central heating."

"I like our fireplace though! Don't you like cuddling under the blankets with me for warmth?"

"I don't like it when you stick your cold feet behind my knees."

"Okay, fair point, but I'm pretty sure you knew I had cold feet before you married me."

If Sakura had to spend her evenings making her own furniture back in Konoha, she probably would've had a fit. But here in Paradis, where she doesn't have a job and where the fighting is finally over, a quiet life with Levi is the only thing she could ever want. They make what they need and trade for what they can't make, and every day is a peaceful and glorious dream.

This is what they fought for. This is what they survived for. They've done horrifying, unspeakable things just so they could be here today. Sometimes they wonder if they deserve it.

It's been about a year of peace. During that time, Hange has visited them twice. Things look promising for Paradis, she had said—their technology is growing, and the economy is flourishing. It's enough to make Sakura feel at ease living a civilian lifestyle, and as the months passed, she could see that Levi eventually felt the same way too.

She looks at Levi now, engrossed in his work. His hair has fallen to obscure his vision but his eyes are sharp with focus. He takes everything seriously, even sanding a table.

Sakura reaches up and feels her ring through the fabric of her shirt. Her life is slow enough now that she could wear it on her finger like Levi does with his, but she's grown to like the feeling of having it tucked away, close to her heart. It feels like a secret. A beautiful, precious secret.

"Do you think we can get an armchair for the library?" she asks.

Finally, he stops sanding the wood to look at her. "I was thinking of a rug for the living room next."

"Oh." She glances around their sparse living room. Other than the fireplace, the couch that they had scraped enough money together to purchase a few months ago, and their current coffee table project, it's pretty empty. "I guess that makes sense. It's not like there's much reading material upstairs anyway."

"But we can get an armchair after that. I think the pumpkins will sell for quite a bit."

Sakura smiles. "Okay. Can we cuddle on the rug in front of the fireplace?" He shoots her a look. "What? We'll wash it often! We can bring down the pillows and blankets…it'll be cozy when it gets colder."

"…Fine."

He still looks a little miffed by her suggestion when she leans over to kiss him on the cheek, but she also thinks she catches a hint of a smile on his lips, too.

—

Although he tries not to indulge in that part of himself and successfully ignores it most of the time, Levi has always been a dreamer.

He used to dream of seeing open sky above him. He used to dream of the stars, the endless blue, the birds flying forever free. And then he dreamed of what was beyond the walls, following Erwin into every battle, slashing and clawing for his right to live. Although he never knew, back then, if he'd ever achieve those dreams, it never stopped him from getting out of bed every day and survive long enough to find out.

Then he met Sakura, and he dreamed of peace. He dreamed of a world where the nations beyond would just leave their little island alone. He dreamed of a world without Titans.

Levi's desires have changed several times in what feels like his very long life, but right here, right now, he has no dreams of tomorrow. There is nothing more that he wants.

"Your staring was heartwarming for the first few minutes," Sakura says, "but now you're just freaking me out."

He blinks away the thoughts and returns to the present. She's peeling the carrots all wrong, taking off strips that are too thick and wasting valuable food, but he doesn't feel irritated because he knows he has time to teach her. They have time now—if Hange shows up, it won't be to give them orders and send them off. He has time to show Sakura how to properly prepare food, the same way she has time to help him develop his shinobi skills. That is what they've been doing—living blissfully and domestically, peppered with instances of accidental flooding and small forest fires.

"Less pressure," he tells her. "The skin is thinner than you think."

"Oh." She lets up considerably, and suddenly she's perfect at it. He doesn't expect any less from her.

He continues to watch her work, only a portion of the meat in front of him cubed the way all of it should be. The evening sun spilling in through the kitchen window makes her glow. Her hair is considerably longer now than it was when they fell into the ocean all that time ago; it spills halfway down her back, and he is tempted to touch it. He remembers a story she told him of her childhood, when she had cut her long locks with a kunai in the middle of a battle. Nowadays, she leaves it down, only securing her headband atop her head, but sometimes she'll tie it up in a ponytail or even braid it if they're having a slow morning and she's feeling fidgety.

Beautiful wouldn't be the first word that comes to mind for Levi when he thinks of Sakura—strong perhaps, or empathetic or maybe even stubborn—but as she stands over the sink, bathed in the evening glow, he thinks she is beautiful.

"I," he says, and then stops.

"Hm?" Sakura doesn't look up. She's very focused on her carrots.

Levi chokes on his words. For the number of times she's told him she loves him, he isn't sure if he's ever directly said those words to her. Realizing this fact suddenly makes it difficult for him to start now, and he picks up his knife again and returns to cubing the meat.

It's another quiet evening, and this doesn't bother them. A lifetime of fighting brings many things into perspective, especially uneventful days. Their coffee table lays on its side in their living room, closer to being finished but still not quite there yet. On the north side of their house is the beginnings of a cellar—there's still a ways to go before that's completed, but Levi is confident that they'll finish it in time for all the crops to be stored before the winter frost hits.

Over dinner, Sakura tells him about all the girls having to learn flower arranging in the academy for the sake of infiltration and never having needed those skills even once. In return, he shares the first time he went to a stuffy military event and accidentally got too drunk on the wine and lost his temper at some Garrison soldier.

She laughs at this. "What a faux pas. Everyone knows not to get sloppy at a business event."

"I didn't exactly grow up in splendor," he says. "I didn't realize wine was that strong."

"It's not, really," she says with her mouth full. After she swallows, she looks at Levi with a twinkle of mischief in her eyes. "Wait, are you a lightweight? Is that why you don't drink?"

He scowls but doesn't answer, and this seems to positively delight Sakura.

"Let's open up that housewarming wine Hange got for us," she implores.

His frown deepens. "No."

"You can be drunk around me, it's okay. It's not like I won't have some too."

"Why can't we just spend a perfectly sober evening together?"

"Because," she sets down her fork and levels a stare at him, "if you remember Naruto's birthday party two years ago, I can be very fun after a few drinks."

Levi thinks back to that occasion and immediately feels something stir deep in his stomach. "Fun" is an understatement for what she was like when they got home that night.

He returns to eating his food, and that seems to be enough of an acquiescence for Sakura to jump to her feet and find that bottle of wine. It's fine, he thinks. This is what normal people do. Normal men drink with their wives. Normal men let loose once in a while. And Levi, above all else these days, is just a normal man.

His wife returns less than a minute later with the wine in her hand, and although he hasn't yet found the courage to tell her, he thinks that she is strong, she is stubborn, she is beautiful, and that he loves her.

—

Sakura thinks that it's the absolute best thing that she and Levi have known each other for years and there are still new things to discover about each other.

He's two glasses in, only partway through his third glass of wine (she says glasses but they're actually using mugs because that's all they have) and his neck is flushed and his eyelids are beginning to droop a little. He's still Levi, all frowns and sharp words, but with a lazy edge now that Sakura thinks is adorable.

She feels the wine too, though not as strongly as him. She's pleasantly buzzed, everything just slightly funnier than they usually are—including the way Levi is cursing his own feet.

"What the hell," he says. "They won't go where I tell them to."

Straight lines, as it turns out, are difficult to walk in when one is drunk.

Sakura continues to giggle as she walks backwards up the stairs, a hand on the railing to keep from tripping, watching Levi as he follows her. He is concentrating hard, eyes fixated on his feet to make sure that they are indeed landing where they need to land.

"Come here," she says, grabbing his arm and gently tugging at him once he reaches the top of the stairs. He stumbles easily, bumping into her, but she catches him and places her hand underneath his chin to tilt his head up in a kiss. "I love you," she whispers against his lips, and he abruptly pulls away and pushes his palm against her mouth.

"No," he says, suddenly angry.

Sakura blinks. "What?"

"No." He says it as though repeating it will make her understand. Levi grabs her wrist and pulls her into their bedroom. It's still only sparsely furnished with a wardrobe and a large bed, but that has been enough for them for now. Once he loudly shuts the door behind him, his hands come up to firmly hold Sakura's neck as he kisses her roughly, like she belongs to him and him alone.

"I'm supposed to say it tonight," he says, hands traveling up until his fingers are running through her hair and along her scalp. His voice is low. He tugs a few times at the ends of her headband until it comes undone, falling to the floor with a dull thump, and he grips the roots of her hair tight enough to keep her in place, not that she'd move away if he didn't. "I love you, Sakura. I love you."

She laughs then, giddy, even though a lump has formed in her throat and tears are prickling at her eyes. "Oh, Levi. I know that. You don't ever have to say it. I know."

How could she not know, when they first fell together in this world? When he started a life with her in hers? When he bought her that ring?

When he chose to live?

"Well, I'm saying it." He sounds defensive, slightly hysterical.

"Okay."

"I love you."

"Okay."

Levi's eyes are hard, searching, although for what she doesn't know. After a few breaths, his expression softens, and his thumb caresses her cheek.

"I love you," he says again as they stumble their way to their bed, half falling onto the mattress. It's as if a dam has opened and he can't stop, repeatedly mumbling the words as he mouths at her skin, pushes away the chain of her necklace and sucks at her neck. He is everywhere, his voice in her ears and his words in her heart and his body above her and he is all that she breathes and smells and Sakura is convinced that it could only have ever been Levi, there has never been anyone else and there will never be anyone else for her as long as she lives.

"Yes," she whispers into his hair. "Yes, yes, yes."

—

Two days later, the bruise is still on her neck, purple and angry.

"You couldn't have chosen a more subtle place?" she mutters, fingering the dark spot as she stares at it in their bathroom mirror. "It's so obvious, Levi."

"You weren't complaining when I was giving it to you," he replies, nonchalant. He is shaving beside her, carefully moving the blade against his skin in short strokes. Sakura has half a mind to accidentally knock into his arm and make him nick himself.

"But I'm going into town today," she whines. "People there know me. They're going to ask questions."

His eyes flicker over to her reflection. "Can't you just heal it?"

"That's not the point."

"Isn't it?" When she doesn't answer, understanding clicks into place in his eyes. He leans over the sink and rinses the remainder of the shaving cream from his face and pats himself dry with a towel. Then he turns to her, a glint in his eye and his lips lilted upwards, and says, "You don't have to keep that one. I can give you plenty of marks elsewhere later."

Sakura's face heats up and she opens her mouth to retort, but nothing comes out. He looks pleased by her speechlessness. For a man who never told her he loved her until two days ago, he sure can be bold.

"You better," she finally musters, before swiping her fingers across her neck with a touch of chakra at her fingertips, wiping the bruise away.

After breakfast, they spend their morning digging out the rest of their cellar. The work would have taken other people much longer, but chakra does wonders for manual labor. They even out the dirt on the bottom, make sure the walls are straight, and admire their work. It probably isn't the biggest cellar in existence, but it is sizeable, and will surely hold all the food they would need for months at a time. Tomorrow, they will go into town and look at what kind of stone to line the inside with.

As the days have gotten colder, Levi has been making more soups. Today's lunch is a take on chicken soup, with hearty bites of carrot, celery, and dumplings. Sakura truly has no idea how she would survive without Levi—she'd probably just eat raw vegetables and call it a day.

After lunch, she makes her biweekly trip into town for meat. She enjoys these trips, and she's sure Levi does too; as much as they love each other, spending all of their time together can be overwhelming. These times are quiet moments for the both of them to spend in their own thoughts, Sakura in her slow walk to Trost and Levi cleaning the house to his standards and tending to the garden.

She takes her time today. She climbs over the hill, empty basket in her hand, wondering what cuts of meat the butcher will have today. She never really knows what she ends up with, just trusts that he knows best and purchases his recommendations for the day. They've developed a friendly relationship, and on the occasion that his wife is around, she will talk Sakura's ear off about one thing or another. Normally Sakura would find such conversations inane, but in a life where time is slow and the fighting is over, she doesn't mind.

It's another beautiful day today, the distant trees rich with reds and oranges and fluffy clouds floating across the sky. Sakura once again thinks about Naruto, and then she thinks about Sasuke too, wherever he may be. She thinks about how she misses them, but also how she wouldn't mind never seeing them again if it means they're alive and happy and safe. That is all she has ever wanted for her best friends.

Her mind wanders as she continues to walk. She thinks about how Konoha is still green this time of year, how it won't even begin getting cold for several weeks yet—

And then the sky snaps with a deafening sound.

It happens so slow, and yet so quick. It feels like an icy hand has her heart in a tight grip. Get out of the way, she tells herself. Run. Jump. For fuck's sake, just move.

But she can't. Her body is frozen, paralyzed with terror as the ground opens up beneath her to reveal the endless black. In her shock, she lets go of the basket in her hand and that falls into the abyss too.

She doesn't even finish her gasp before the earth swallows her up.

—

Sakura's spat out in the training grounds, in the exact spot that she was taken away from.

When she lands on the ground, wobbly and winded and stricken with panic, she doesn't hear the scream. She hardly registers Ino tackling her in a hug, or Shikamaru and Chouji asking her if she's alright. She is consumed by one thought and one thought only:

She is here, and Levi is not.

"Sakura…" Ino's voice is laden with concern. Sakura grips her friend's arms, fingers pressing hard enough to bruise, and she sobs into her chest, her wails so loud all the stars in the universe must hear them.

—

For a long time, silence made Levi anxious. It would leave him fidgety and on edge, waiting for the next disaster to strike. But lately, it's been calming. It makes the world timeless; he finds himself moving slower, unhurried and unworried, rising and sleeping with the sun the way Sakura does.

It is quiet in the house as he waits for her to come home.

Dinner has been ready for the past half hour, sitting on top of the stove and keeping warm. The sun is low in the sky, casting rich yellows and oranges into the kitchen.

Levi taps a finger on the kitchen table. It usually doesn't take her this long.

He waits for another fifteen minutes before deciding to trace her path. He'll meet her on the road back—she probably got caught up in a conversation with the butcher's wife again and will have lots of city gossip to share with him. He grabs his sweater off the arm of the couch and pulls it on before tying up his boots and heading out into the brisk autumn evening.

The sun continues to set as he walks. He traverses the swell of the hill and continues on to Trost, listening to the birdsong all around. The time it takes to reach the city varies depending on the speed; Sakura has made a round trip in under an hour a few times, although when they leisurely walk together, it can take twice as long. Today Levi walks as fast as he can without chakra; he's getting hungry, and would like to eat as soon as possible.

When the city finally comes into view, he frowns at the empty road in front of him. Sakura is not even on her way back yet. His pace quickens yet again and he begins to jog, a touch of chakra in his feet to push him faster and further.

"Sakura?" the butcher asks when Levi reaches his shop. It's empty, save for an elderly woman inspecting what little inventory is left. "She hasn't been by today." When Levi doesn't respond, he frowns in concern. "Did something happen?"

Levi shakes his head. "No. Thank you, Anton." He spins on his heel and quickly leaves.

Although he has an inkling that she's not in the market, he searches anyway. He checks the medicinal shop. The vegetable stand. The lady who sells dyed cloths. All of his attempts turn up empty, so he checks all of the other locations Sakura knows of in the city. The military barracks. The dress shops. The tavern.

She's nowhere to be found.

Levi's steps are frantic now as he leaves the city. Dusk has fallen over the horizon, the remaining sunlight only a faint glow in the distance as he races to the nearby forest where they hunt. He stretches his senses to search for her chakra signature and comes up blank, but he continues looking anyway, leaping through the trees and calling her name. In response, owls hoot and creatures scuttle in the underbrush, but none of that is what he's hoping to hear.

After an hour, he knows he should stop. He should stop, but he can't. He scours the forest, and then the surrounding areas, widening his search radius with each sweep. And finally, when it feels like his legs are going to fall off, he stills, and breathes.

The night is chilly. His fingers and toes are numb. If he could see his own reflection in this very moment, he's sure his cheeks would be flushed from both the cold and the exertion.

She's at home. They must have missed each other somehow. Surely, she's waiting for him back at home.

But even as he makes the journey back, his steps are slow, as if his own body doesn't believe that she'll be there when he returns, as if it doesn't want to arrive and realize her absence. His feet drag and his shoulders sag, and with every step he takes, his heart feels heavier and heavier.

When he opens the door to the house they built together, it is quiet, and nothing about the silence is comforting.

Dinner is still on the stove, untouched and now cold. The building is dark. Levi stands there for one eternity, then two, unmoving, numb, frozen. Eventually he brings himself to sit on the couch, and he stares at the lifeless fireplace. Every time he closes his eyelids, heavy with an exhaustion that sits in his bones, he sees her face.

When the sun begins to peek over the horizon, he pushes himself to his feet and walks over to the unfinished coffee table. Grabbing a fresh piece of sandpaper, he kneels down, presses the rough side against the wood, and scrubs.

—

5 months later

Sakura knocks on the door to Naruto's office, but doesn't wait for a response before pushing it open. "I have your food," she announces, holding up the bag in her hand. In it is some takoyaki, as well as some instant ramen because she was feeling kind.

"Thanks, Sakura-chan! Look who's in town today!"

She'll eventually get used to the sight of Naruto wearing the Hokage's robes, but that day is not today, even though it's been several months since she's returned to Konoha. It takes Sakura a moment to notice Sasuke leaning against the wall with his arms crossed, brooding in the shadows as is his style.

She smiles. "Hi, Sasuke. What brings you to Konoha today?" She places the bag of food on Naruto's desk and digs around in it to find the packaged takoyaki.

Sasuke glances at Naruto. "Someone insisted that I be in town for Hasegawa's inaugural ceremony."

Naruto is already halfway through inhaling his own package of takoyaki. "Hey, I invite you to a bunch of stuffy events that you never come to. You didn't even come to my wedding! I bet you just wanted to see Sakura-chan." He easily avoids the shuriken that Sasuke aims squarely between his eyes; the weapon buries itself into the wall. "You keep damaging the property and you're going to pay for the repairs, asshole."

"I wouldn't have to if you didn't spew bullshit every other minute."

Sakura laughs at their interaction. It's easy to pretend that the three of them have been friends for their entire lives, as if nothing heartbreaking and horrible has ever happened between them.

The three of them chat for a while, like the Team 7 she had always wished for when she was younger. Naruto and Sasuke bicker like an old married couple and she brings them back with her voice of reason, only sometimes being pulled into their antics. Enough time has passed that they read each other better, that they know when enough is enough—so even though they fight like they're children, no one will be accidentally trying to kill each other on hospital roofs anymore.

Eventually, the door opens and Kakashi pokes his head in, and it feels like they're complete. The moment is lost quickly though because the sight of the former Hokage seems to remind Naruto of something. "Oh, shit! I'm late, aren't I?"

"The daimyo's been here for half an hour," Kakashi says. "Even I wouldn't keep him waiting that long."

Naruto scrambles to his feet and grabs his hat off his desk. "Crap, crap, crap. Okay I'm going. Sorry guys, I'll see you later. Ichiraku tonight, yeah? Yeah!" Like the whirlwind that he is, he sprints out the door, and Sakura and Sasuke are left alone in his office.

Eventually, Sasuke asks, "How has he not been fired yet?"

Sakura laughs. "He's not always like this. He's actually very charismatic and responsible when he needs to be. But Kakashi being around helps a lot too."

He shakes his head, looking as exasperated as he possibly can. After a moment, he glances at the door—his way of suggesting that they should probably leave. At his gesture, Sakura finishes the last of her takoyaki and tosses the packaging in the trash.

"How long are you in town for?" she asks him as they walk through the streets at a leisurely pace. Although it's still spring, the air is warming up quickly, as it often does in the Fire Country. The sun shines high in the cloudless sky, warm on her face.

"Just for a few days," Sasuke replies. "Konoha isn't my favorite place to be."

"Too many memories?"

"And could-have-beens." He says this like a secret, like maybe she wasn't supposed to hear, but she does anyway.

"There are still a lot of things that could be if you came back," she tells him.

"Maybe." Sasuke's eyes look distant, staring at something that only he can see. "But I'm not done yet. There's still so much out there."

"There's definitely a lot out there. So much we can't see." She blinks, and in that moment behind her eyelids, she sees rundown walls, sprawling plains, and a single house with a single man, all alone in the countryside and tending to his garden. And for that one moment, he feels so close she could touch him.

They continue through town in silence until they find their way to the main gates. "I'm going to take a walk by myself, if that's okay," Sakura says.

Sasuke glances beyond, down the wide gravel road. "How often do you go there?"

She shrugs. "I don't know. Too much. Not enough. It changes from day to day."

He nods, like he understands. He probably does. "Dinner tonight?"

"Yeah, I think so."

That is where they part ways, Sasuke back into town and Sakura down the long path out of it. She walks slowly, savoring each moment, trying to remember that exact day: how it went, how it felt, all the little inconsequential things they said to each other. She's so lost in her memories that she nearly misses where to branch off into the trees. She walks underneath the canopy, and less than a minute later, she reaches the clearing with the creek.

She sees the past playing out in front of her. Laying down the blanket and taking off their shoes. Unpacking their food. Gently knocking their cups together. A citrusy yet floral drink. And spending the most beautiful day together, unworried about the passing time. Sakura takes a deep breath in, making sure to hold the air in her lungs long enough to feel it before exhaling. She makes her way to the tree they ate under and sits down against the prickly bark.

Waiting has always been a talent of Sakura's. She's good at being alone, at enduring the long nights, at waking up feeling hopeless and continuing on anyway. She spent years of her life waiting for Sasuke, even when he wouldn't think twice about killing her if she got in his way. Of the many things people call Sakura, patient is one of them. Resilient is another.

In the beginning, during her first visits here, she could only cry. But now she feels calm and lets the breeze brush past her as she closes her eyes, feeling the grass beneath her and the sun on her skin. She reaches up and touches her ring, tucked safely underneath her shirt. Remembers the promise of forever that they made to each other.

And so, under the tree, Sakura sits. And she waits.

Notes: So, what are we thinking? How do we feel? It's okay, you can yell at me - I would yell at me too.