In Imitation of a Flower
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto and its characters in any way.
It was always the same dream.
Cold flakes of the whitest snow falling from the darkest night sky. The clinks of metals grew far away while the sound of a crying child grew closer with every step. The child was crying, hurting in such pain and sadness that, as hard as she tried, she couldn't understand.
Something precious had been broken and taken away.
And for reasons unknown, she found herself crying like that child. She felt so sad. So very sad and so very lonely...
Why...?
"Sakura-chan! Sakura-chan, wake up!"
Her eyes snapped open and, jerking sharply away from the presences, she stared unseeingly at them.
"Sakura?"
"Sakura, are you all right?"
Her numb hands reached up and her cold fingers touched one throbbing temple. What was it? It was there but why couldn't she remember...?
Hands grabbed at her shoulders and she reflexively shuddered in a violent start. She tried to pull away from the hold but the hands had firm grips on her shoulders. She tried to fight...
"Sakura, wake up!"
Her body gave another jerk, this time from surprise. Her blind gaze lifted up to meet two pairs of eyes on her left and right, then one in the middle. They were of different colors and shapes and were on different features of persons who looked terribly familiar to her. They were looking at her, staring at her in deep concern mixed with varying degrees of fear and confusion.
She blinked at them.
"Are you all right? Can you hear us?"
Sasuke.
"Sakura-chan! Sakura-chan, what happened? What's wrong? Are you sick? Sakura-chan, are you hurt?"
Naruto.
"Sakura...?"
Kakashi-sensei.
What happened just now?
She blinked at them all, with clearer and more focused eyes this time. She looked confused and surprised, as though she hadn't been staring at them for this past five minutes. The look on her face suggested absolute cluelessness and, since she seemed to have yet found her tongue, she silently asked them with her eyes.
What happened?