Disclaimer: See chapter two.

I Dreamt of a Butterfly

Chapter Four

Sasuke laughed in glee, clapping his hands.

"You can open your eyes now, Sakura-chan!"

Sakura let out a sigh of relief and finally opened her eyes. She lifted a hand to her mouth, concealing a gasp. Sasuke dangled a garland of flowers in front of her face.

"You…"

"Ino-chan taught me how to make this!" Sasuke explained. Sakura smiled. It was always Ino who had been able to do things like this. Sakura herself was never really excellent at doing ladylike things like this. And speaking of Ino – well, Sakura had really been acting like a btch lately. Ino deserved an apology…

Sasuke had wreathed the garland with fingers that had once killed a person. But then again, the past was no longer of any consequence. There was no old Sasuke; neither was there a new Sasuke. This man with the mind of a child was Uchiha Sasuke – he had always been so and he would always be so.

Gently he placed the garland around her neck and beamed. "You look so pretty!" he declared.

Sakura felt giddy. A favourite childhood daydream of hers – the one with Sasuke in it, of course – rose to her mind. On impulse, she moved forward a little and kissed him on the cheek. "Thank… thank you."

Hey, she'd always wanted to do this… and no matter how much he'd changed, he was still as gorgeous as ever.

He looked surprised. Sakura blushed. Without warning, Sasuke shifted slightly and returned her kiss, except it was on her forehead. Her very wide forehead.

Sakura thought she would melt.

My dream came true!...

When she finally recovered from her brief fainting spell, she straightened and saw that Sasuke had his little finger poked out in front of her. She blinked. "What?"

"I wanna stay with Sakura-chan forever," he declared. "Hinata-chan says this is how you make a promise! So let's make one! Sakura-chan must promise to stay with me forever!"

His grin was cheeky and heartmelting at the same time. Sakura resisted the tears rising up in her eyes and hooked her little finger around his.

o

o

o

The sun had set. Sasuke shifted uneasily from his spot on the ground. Already, the parched areas were beginning to lose their stinging heat as the day began to fade away into night. Sasuke didn't like nighttime. He didn't like the darkness. It made him feel tense and wary, as though there might be monsters and demons lurking in those shadows, thirsty for his blood. The night made Sasuke's head hurt sometimes, too. Whenever his head hurt, he started thinking things that he didn't really want to think about in the first place.

He was tired and hungry. He'd been walking around for ages, trying to find his way back to Hinata-chan's place. Brother Neji would really give him a great scolding when he found him. He was supposed to be in the house, really, but he'd snuck out, plus he had failed to return. And Brother Neji was always so scary. Perhaps he shouldn't have turned down Sakura's offer to walk him home. But he jadn't wanted to worry Sakura-chan.

His stomach gave another little growl. He had ventured into the ramen store for food, but the woman saw him and shunned him away immediately. This always made him confused. Why did people hate him so?

So now he had given up, sort of. He sat alone under the full moon, waiting perhaps for someone to walk past, see him and give him directions. Lifting a stick, he tried to carve his name in the sand, but found he couldn't really do it well. Frustrated, he threw aside the stick, turning instead to the pebbles he had stacked up nicely near him. A smile formed on his face as he reached out for one.

"My, what a state you're in now, Sasuke-kun…"

The skin on the back of Sasuke's neck prickled. Slowly, trembling, he dropped the pebble and looked up. He saw someone standing some distance away from him. The person was wrapped in a cloak. Sasuke frowned. He did not know him…

The stranger took a step forward and now Sasuke got a clearer look at his face. The man's face was stretched widely in a huge grin that revealed most of his teeth, gleaming strongly under the bright moonlight.

"To think you would end up here, of all places."

A laugh.

"Look at yourself…"

Sasuke backed away on all fours.

"You embarrass me."

The voice was as cold as ice. Sasuke felt a strong sense of… something overwhelm him. At first he thought it was fear. Maybe this guy was a monster, like what Hinata had said! But no. This feeling he now felt was black and vile and made him feel horrible. He tried without avail to fight it down.

It was hatred.

The stranger laughed again. "That's right, Sasuke-kun. Hating was the only thing you were good for, anyway. And those eyes of yours… extremely useful as well… I knew that day would come, that day when you escaped… But it's not fair, is it? I gave you what you wanted… you should give me yourself in return…"

That vile,nastyfeeling of hatred rose higher, and higher. In a split second, the tall, dark stranger stepped forward, knocking Sasuke smoothly off his feet with one clean blow. At the contact, pain exploded in Sasuke's head. With a loud cry that tore the silence of the night, Sasuke landed nearby, his fingers gripping his hair, digging into his scalp.

"That's right. Remember. Remember me. Remember how you killed someone of your own flesh and blood. Remember and hate yourself…"

And with another chilling laugh, the tall stranger turned, disappearing into the night.

He did not go far.

o

o

o

Sakura heard the scream that rose up, tall and loud, into the night. She heard it, and knew it was him. She was on her feet in an instant, flying towards where she thought he might be. It was not difficult to locate him.

"Sasuke?"

She found him kneeling in a corner of the alley. He had gone rigid and was shaking violently, like a possessed animal. His fingers were still digging into his hair and sweat matted his hair to his neck. His teeth were clenched, his eyes squeezed shut with pain. She ran to him, putting her hands on his shoulders, trying her bestto steady him. "Sasuke!" she cried. "What happened? It's okay. I'm here."

Sasuke turned to her, his eyes looking crazed.

"S-Sakura?"

In an instant she realized what had happened to him. Cold gripped her heart as she shook him slightly, trying to get him to relax and calm down, trying to make his pain subside, but not knowing exactly how to. "Sasuke!" You can't remember. If you do, it'll be all gone! You'll go back to being depressed and unsmiling. You won't be able to smile anymore. You'll only hate yourself and others. You won't be happy anymore.

"Please… leave…"

"I won't! Sasuke, please… please stop!" Tears welled up in her eyes. What exactly was she trying to stop? He couldn't stop, not once the gate had been opened to allow all his memories to pour in again. "It's… it's okay, Sasuke." She rambled on, unsure of what to say, just reciting whatever came into her mind in that instant. "Tomorrow we'll be going to the flower place again, and you would teach me to wreath flower garlands. You said so, right? Sasuke? Please… stop.

"...Stop..." The tears fell.

He found her hand and gripped it - hard. His fingernails were digging into her flesh. She ignored the pain and held his trembling body to hers. She released her chakra into him, praying that she could somehow soothe his racked body, but it didn't work – he was still in agony with the brutal onslaught of his own memories, raw and new.

"Sa... Sakura..." he hissed, his voice low and grating. She touched his face, eyes with hope.

But without warning, he lifted an arm, rouhgly shoving her aside.

"You must leave!"

Shegasped and bit on her lip, swallowing her yelp. Her elbow scraped painfully against the coarse ground. She picked herself up to see that he was righting himself; was about to stand. She ran to him again - but a kick from him made her sprawled once again on the ground. Not willing to give up yet, Sakura grabbed hold of his ankle and wrapped herself around him. But Sasuke gripped her arm firmly and pried her off him. Now Sakura could do nothing - she had been powerless. His strength was like nothing that she had ever been used to from anyone...

No... don't leave...

She thought it was a miracle that he was still standing there. There was silence. Then...

"You have to leave, Sakura... Don't you understand?"

She stared up at him. He swung around to stare at her with a face that was filled with despair beyond despair. "I am a monster, Sakura! I'm dangerous. I killed my own brother. I killed him, I killed him! I'm a monster!"

Eyes wide with horror and comprehension, she shook her head.

"You didn't..."

"Yes, I did!" he cried savagely, his voice rising with every syllable he spoke. Sakura was horrified to see that tears were pouring freely from his eyes, too. "I killed him with my bare hands... I... I killed my own flesh and blood! I watched him die...Ilaughed! I laughed at him! And I saw him smile! And... and... Sakura,I killed Itachi. I deserved to die... thought I should die... Why didn't I die, Sakura? I killed him...I'm the monster... I'm the monster..."

He wept.

"You're not... You're not!" Sakura stood up, trembling as she neared him. She wrapped her arms around him from behind.

His voice shook. "Let me go!"

"I won't! You're not a monster, Sasuke! You're just a child – a lost, confused, misunderstood child."

"...No..."

"You're not a monster. You just had the wrong ideas about happiness, that's all. You were never happy until the day you lost part of your mind. Sasuke…you have to be free. You have to learn to let go of the past! What's done is done. You're not evil, Sasuke… you're just… lonely..."

There was silence again. Sasuke continued to weep.

"I killed him... killed my brother..."

The convulsions that rocked his body had become less frequent. Sakura continued to hold him as he drew a deep, shuddering breath and relaxed slightly. When he spoke again, there was no moretremor in his tone.

"For my sake, for your sake, for everyone… I must go. I must settle things with Orochimaru, once and for all."

There was a flash in his eyes. Sakura saw scarlet. She saw the Sharingan.

"Don't go…" I don't want you to die.

He stood, his jaw set. "I will do what I must."

Slowly, slowly, Sakura let go of him and stepped backward. There was no stopping him, then. It did not matter whether he lost his memories or regained them or not – this was his fate, his destiny – something he had to face no matter what. Only…

She gave a small smile...

"Remember that promise we made?" She was trembling. "We hooked fingers. You made me promise that we would stay together forever, Sasuke. I'll… I'll hold you to that."

Uchiha Sasuke, sole survivor of the Uchiha clan of Konoha, looked back at her, his eyes unreadable. He nodded once, took a step forward, and was gone, vanishing into the darkness. She watched him leave, and smiled, even as the tears continued to pour down her cheeks. A lone flower loosed itself from her hair; it floated away into the strong, cold wind of the night and spiraled away into the distance.

To be continued...

Author's notes: Thank you, everyone, for your reviews once again! I'm really glad you all enjoyed this story, and I hope this chapter met all your expectations as well. Please continue to review :D

I hope this chapter wasn't too fluffy / dramatic / cliche in some way... because I had the feeling it did. -shrugs- I really suck sometimes... This chapter was a nightmare to write, too. Anyway, by putting in that little fluffy scene at the beginning, I was hoping to create a happy, dreamlike atmosphere as a prequel to the climax. Sort of like the calm/silence before the storm.

The next chapter is actually an epilogue in some ways... Yesh, it will be the last. I know more should have happened, maybe I could have let Sakura and Sasuke spend more happy times together before Orochimaru returns... but I'm not a patient person and I was running out of inspiration. So I was wondering if anyone would like to borrow my idea and turn it into a full length, many-chaptered story. I think this one is a little too short to be satisfying... is that so?

Btw... a desperate piece of advertisement here - if you'd like to roleplay a Naruto character (or any other anime/manga character, basically) in a multi-fandom AU universe...

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