Title: The Longest Fall
By: Magical Poof
Disclaimer: Naruto does not belong to me; it belongs to its respective copyright owners and creators. The song lyrics in italics belong to the song "Someone You Should Know" by Lisa Loeb.
You try to hide between the lines
Of a story never told
But I've seen you run away
You're afraid of the fall
The weight of it all is too much
Once upon a time, there was a princess. She was locked up a very tall tower; it was taller than the sky, with only one window to look out at the world at, and no stairs to climb down from. She lived in splendor; everything in her prison was beautiful and delicate. Everything was lovely, but useless. Just like she was. And no, she was not locked up there by an evil witch, stepmother, or dragon. She'd locked herself in her room in the tallest tower on top of the world. Why? Sometimes she doesn't even remember.
But she's locked in her tower, with everything around her filled with limitless beauty. But there is no mirror for her to see herself in. She cannot see what she has become, and she cannot see how the beauty around her is all just an illusion. She'd locked herself up and thrown away the key. She'd forgotten reality in her fantasies, and now she was lost.
She'd sit in her tower, waiting for her true love or prince charming to come. But he never did. And without her mirror, she couldn't see time taking its toll, and she couldn't see that he was never coming. She waited in her tower until, one day, her beauty was gone, along with everything else.
Sakura had this dream a lot. Sometimes she'd wake up with her eyelashes sticking together and dried tear tracks on her face. Sometimes she'd wake up sweating and shaking, a tremble running through her whole body as she jolted awake. Sometimes she would wake up slowly, as if struggling to find her way back. Sometimes it felt like she was running uphill was gravity held her down, and no matter how hard she tried, she never got anywhere. Sometimes it felt like she was drowning in her sheets.
Sakura never said anything about her dreams. They were always the same, but they bothered her the most. No, the ones about death and murder didn't cause her to wake up like this. The ones where she saw her friends dying, the ones where she could smell the blood in the air and feel the blood running through her fingers like water didn't make her wake up shaking or crying. No, just the one about the beautiful princess. Though Sakura knew the princess was beautiful, she never saw her face. It was always hidden behind her long hair, or she was facing the other way, and sometimes it was just was shadows that hid her lovely face.
Sakura looked at herself in the mirror, washing away the tear tracks on her cheeks and trying to wipe the dream from her mind. She stared herself in the eye and firmly told herself that it was just a silly dream. She always cried over nothing.
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When the princess looked out her window, for the first time in a long time, she realized that no one was coming. She was alone, trapped in her own prison for all eternity. It was her own foolishness that had gotten her there, her own stupidity. She leaned out the window, looking down at the lovely world below.
Her prison was lovely, too. But it was all a lie. An illusion to fool herself. She was dreaming a dream that would never come true. She looked at all her pretty things and decided that she was a fool. She was a fool to think that destiny would come crawling to her door. She had to go out and find it.
So the princess jumped. She slid her feet over the edge of her window and leapt. The wind was rushing fast, pulling at her as she dropped to the ground from the highest room in the tallest tower, from the top of the world. She laughed, even as she fell.
When she hit the ground it hurt. It was the harsh reality of the world catching up with her. It smacked her hard and told her to wake up. Dreams were dreams. This was reality, and this was where things did not always work out. This was where your prince charming did not ride up on a white stallion, and this was where everything was not always beautiful and perfect.
But she picked herself up off the ground and went to find her destiny. After all, she couldn't wait for it forever, right? Her slender, pale hands were bleeding, her lovely face was bruised, and her long, elegant legs were twisted, and she felt horribly, horribly ugly. But she smiled.
Because, in the end, it doesn't really matter anymore. She may not have found her prince charming, her knight in shining armor, or her true love, she may not be beautiful anymore, and she may not live in splendor, but she could always live happily ever after without any of that.
When Sakura woke and stared at herself in the mirror, she saw the princess staring back at her.
The pretty princess who had still not jumped from her tower. The one who was still a fool. The one who was living in a dream that would never come true. The one who hadn't yet realized reality. The one who had forgotten herself in her fantasies. The one who sat waiting for destiny to come knocking. The one who was waiting, still waiting, for her prince charming to come.
It was then, Sakura realized, that she was going to have to jump from her tower, before someone pushed her.
And where do you want to be?
On top of the world
But you're just a girl
Who forgot what it's like to dream
AN: All right. I've written about twenty little ficlets or one-shots about Naruto. My first one was pretty good, though it was rather long and I have yet to proof read it. So, this is short and sweet, I wrote it on a whim, and I rather like it. I'm sorry if it's too metaphorical for everyone who doesn't know what the hell I'm thinking (which would be everyone). It's set at any time, really. This is my first Naruto fic that I'm posting. I've written a ton (as stated earlier), but none of them came out satisfactory. I'll poke through them again and see if I want to post one.