Disclaimer: Same old same.
Up at the sky, it is utterly blue and endless.
There is nothing but a clear sea of calmness that one could never hope to comprehend, let alone reach.
He stares up and his own blue orbs reflect the perfection of absolute peace and, for once, certainty that nothing could ever be wrong with the world.
Beside him, just short of his peripheral vision, she sits contently, green eyes dancing upon the matching lushness of fields far too alive to be real. He knows this and yet finds nothing strange about it for the meantime. He is silently happy that she is simply there, beside him. She's alive!—something close to primal fear in him screams—but it soon fades away into a forgettable hum that only slightly dampens the intensity of her exotic features.
Beside her, lying low on his own shaded patch, he stares absently at the too-perfect sky, at her too-perfect smile, at his too-perfect look of complete contentment, and he lets loose a too-perfect grin of his own.
He is strangely out of place in their little picture but is exactly where he belongs for once in his life. He does not speak out the happiness blooming determinedly in his heart but he knows words are no longer—were never—needed.
Above them, silver glints haphazardly in so many shades and directions that they are not exactly too sure where it comes from. But they don't need exacts in this place, they think. They know that he is somewhere above them lazily smiling, perhaps with or without his second skin, they don't care to learn. What they feel is his sigh, carried easily by the warm breeze, conveying how perfectly beautiful he finds his position to be.
They laugh as one and think that he has brought a certain novel into their world.
He is still riding away the curling waves of his laughter when he finds himself staring at her, then at him, and only slightly, he could feel the silver glint meaningfully at his direction.
He does not find anything extremely worrying in their faces but their smiles speak far too much than he can care to fathom when warm breezes are slowly lulling him to sleep. He grins at them reassuringly, as if to say that "I'll think about it when I wake up, right, Sakura-chan, Sasuke-teme, Kaka-sensei?"
They smile again, and he knows they are saying "Baka!"; "Dobe!" ; "Aa" without having to hear the actual words. Because he knows, just like the boy lying contently in his shady spot does, that words are of no use and so he doesn't bother anymore.
He drifts off to sleep, all the while hearing their laughter ringing out undertones of goodbyes, apologies, and acclamations. Her clear voice is singing "Sayonara, Naruto-kun! (When had she first called him that? Ah! Just a few hours ago before the sun set, when she was still so close…..) and just a few notches lower, he hears his raspy baritone murmuring "Sorry, dobe," with the faintest of sarcasm and a surprising amount of sincerity he never thought possible. In between their strange duet, he hears a deep voice that is so light he thinks it will float away into the blue sky, but not before he catches the wispy "I'm proud of you, Naruto" and the silent assurances that there is more to be expected from him.
Strangely, it leaves him aching and hollow inside; though it is nothing near the pain of the Chidori he remembers he had recently received. He isn't too sure of the when's and how's but there is something profoundly wise in him that understands exactly what everything means.
He lets everything sink; the mind-boggling symphony, their almost-wistful smiles, and most importantly, that beautiful perfection they had reached in that place between the crystal clear sky and the sea of lush green. He commits into memory the contentment in her private smile, the peace in his ready grin, and the happy satisfaction glinting silver in his hands and eyes.
He remembers that they were happy for a moment.
When he next opens his eyes, the sky is a cacophony of clashing oranges, violets, and reds. He almost forgets to breathe.
He turns and smiles readily at her, and it takes a few seconds to register why she isn't sitting beside him and looking up at the same sky as he is. He finds it hard to reconcile her silent smile just a few moments back and her blank lifeless stare as he desperately shakes her awake.
Beside her, in a shady spot created by a pool of thick blood, he sees him lying silently. His eyes are once again the blackest of pools but they are unnervingly hollow and noncommittal. He slightly recalls seeing them swirling in red and the loud chirping of something he understands as dangerous perilously close to his ear, but it vanishes in a second and he is left again with two lifeless stares that hold little meaning.
Something inside breaks and that profound intelligence in him tells him that these two will never wake up. It frightens him that this knowledge does not shatter his life after all but rather, leaves him with a slight ache and a hopelessness that he knows can never be healed.
Somewhere beyond the circle of upturned land and charred trees, in the midst of foreign limbs and unknown faces, silver glints in the last rays of the sun. He has lost his mask in the fray of tangled bodies but no one is left to see the relieved smile on his thin lips.
And Naruto walks home, carrying shadows and summer fields in his arms and a promise of finding silver in the midst of muddied earth. Someday, he tells himself, they will find that place between the crystal clear sky and the sea of lush green once more, and this time, he will not fall prey to warm breezes lulling him to sleep.
Author's notes: Funny thing is, I almost cried when I re-read this one. It's kinda sad and I hope it chokes you guys up too. And please don't forget to review.