Just another drabble from me. This is what happens when I listen to depressing music late at night. Enjoy!
Despite what most people thought, Sakura realized early on that Sasuke was gone. She knew the minute that Kakashi told her the true purpose of the curse seal. She knew that Orochimaru wanted complete control of her beloved teammate's body.
She knew, but nothing could have prepared her for the moment when she looked at those beautiful black eyes that used to make her swoon and realized that it wasn't Sasuke staring out of them. To see him give her a smug smirk that was much more serpentine—sinister, even—than his could ever be.
The young kunoichi knew that he was her enemy. She knew that once he walked out of his family's compound for the last time that he had abandoned—no, betrayed—not only her but the entire village. Sakura knew that he'd willing become part of the Sound .
She knew. She knew all of it. But her hand still goes numb and her kunai still falls to the ground with a dull thud. She still can't bring herself to use it against him.
Because she has one final epiphany as his hands that aren't really his hands wrap around her throat. As he whispers some final parting words that it's not really him saying, it hits her that after all of her years of knowing she never actually knew.
This revelation comes to her as she feels that grip that is his but isn't tighten and feels the blade pressing against her skin. That he was never Orochimaru's vessel to her. That he had never stopped being her Sasuke-kun.
And a moment before her heart stops and her body goes cold she thinks she sees a flash of pain in his expression. A quick flicker of Sasuke on the sannin's new face. And once the customary sneer returns, during that final second before she goes, she imagines there is still a bit of her teammate left.