Disclaimer: I wish I did. I really do.
She is twenty-three when she meets him for one last time.
It remotely fascinates her why they aren't covered in the blackness of night or even why they are not hidden in the thick of the forest. She thinks it is some strange providence that had brought them together in such an unexpected way but doesn't deign to tell him. She believes he either already knows or doesn't care.
"Sasuke-kun," she says hesitantly. It has taken years of constant struggle to keep the longing in her voice in check but it cracks just a fraction when he regards her silently in reply. His black hair wisps around and he swats them back carelessly as if swatting a persistent fly.
She chokes when she thinks that that may well be what he thinks of her at the moment.
It takes a few minutes to register that he is no apparition created by a far too forlorn heart. In the middle of a village, in the Fire country no less, he is a sore thumb greatly sticking out. Granted it was not Konoha, but a mere few kilometers north and he would be right back to the place he had run away from. Back to where he had turned his back on her and crippled her heart forever.
She takes a deep breath, brings the paper bag closer to her heart, and shakes off the unease that had become her trademark as of late. "So, you're fine then," she begins, allowing her relief to come through her voice. She watches him nod and his right hand twitch but she keeps up appearances because she doesn't want this meeting to end too soon.
She gives him a shaky smile and stubbornly disregards the nagging feeling in her stomach. It is easy enough for her to see the slight tensing in his leg muscles and the closeness of his hand to his weapon pouch but she feigns innocence and instead diverts her attentions to his face. She hadn't seen him for almost ten years.
"What brings you here to Kanna Village? I don't suppose you've come here for the strawberries like I have." She shifts the paper bag in her arms to indicate her recent purchase but he stares at her blankly as if she didn't exist.
Above her, the sun has just begun to set and it reminds her of how awkward the two of them really look. She had left her full uniform back at the inn, opting for civilian clothes and a single kunai hidden under her skirt more out of habit than of foresight. While she seems inconspicuous enough, he had felt no need to hide the fact that he was fully armed and dangerous and seems in fact to be reveling in his untouchable persona. It isn't everyday that a rogue shinobi faces off with an unarmed civilian in the middle of a busy street while there is still light out but most know enough to leave than to be caught in a bloodbath. No one asks and no one tells.
When he doesn't move or make a sound, she tries to keep up a lighthearted conversation.
"I haven't congratulated you, have I?"
He raises his brow and she feels something in her flutter at how familiar the gesture is. She gives him an embarrassed laugh and runs a hand through her newly dyed hair. "I mean, for finally fulfilling one of your goals in life."
"My brother is alive," he tells her curtly and she is startled by how deep his voice sounds.
"Ah, no. I mean to say, you've finally resurrected the Uchiha clan, have you not?"
"It seems."
She gives off another shaky laugh and tries desperately to curb the alarms ringing in her head. She decides to think back on her two precious charges whom she had left in Ino's care for the duration of her mission, hoping their wide smiles were enough to keep her legs from buckling.
"They're good kids," she says, remembering how they had both stared up at her with two sets of identical black orbs. She didn't need to see the Uchiha fan sown lovingly into their shirts to know that the two were Sasuke's legacy. The eyes alone had erased any suspicion on her part.
She looks up and finds him staring back at her with those same dark eyes that she had seen on the twins. She wonders slightly who their mother had been and if he had loved her at all. It takes all her willpower to keep from asking and instead focuses on what she thinks is a safe topic.
"We've named them Yukio and Saeki since they said their mother had only called them collectively as 'children' when they were with her." She gave a fond smile and said, "Naruto and Ino fought over what to call them. Tsunade-sama got fed up and told Jiraiya-sama to do it so he named them after characters in one of his novels. Of course, when Tsunade-sama found out, she blew a fuse, strangled Jiraiya-sama close to death, and banned him from ever telling the kids about their fictitious namesakes. But the names stuck so….yeah…they're good kids…."
She feels herself slowly being constricted into a small space, as if his mere gaze is bringing her back to the days when she was nothing more than extra baggage. She feels horrible that she allows herself to be brought down so easily but she knows there isn't much use putting up a fight.
She swallows thickly when his gaze refuses to waver.
It takes a few seconds, or perhaps hours, before any of them make a sound. She is surprised that he decided to break the silence.
"Are you alone?" he asks gruffly, his hand still a little too close to that pouch for comfort.
In her mind, she thinks it best to lie and say no, just so he won't think it so easy to dispatch her without raising immediate alarm. The hopeful side of her argues that surely, he would never harm her but she smothers it down the same way she smothered down all hope of him ever loving her back all those years ago. She reminds herself that he is still an enemy and decides to answer as protocol calls for.
It is with reason then that she surprises herself when she hears her crisp 'yes'.
Her eyes grow wide but she stops herself from stuttering like a fool. All hope for a solid bluff had already gone down the bin and she doesn't feel like trying his patience too much. She knows her life is plainly in his hands and so she clutches her strawberries for what little comfort they could bring.
A stray breeze fills the pause and he takes it as an invisible sign to move. She watches him with silent awe as he takes each calculated step towards her. She doesn't think to reach down into her skirt and pull out the kunai she had hidden. Instead, she stares at him, waiting until he finally comes and does what he had come to do.
He is in front of her in a few seconds and takes hold of her wrist in even less. She is too dumbstruck by how he is careful enough not to hurt her to notice that they have turned a corner and are no longer in the safety of the open streets. He pushes her unto a wall and takes a step back.
"This is it then…." she says, her eyes wandering over everything else but his own. She looks up at the sky and finds reprieve in the orange and gold of the late afternoon. It is as if Naruto were there, looking down on them in a way that made her feel he was giving them his blessing. But for what, she didn't know.
"Yes."
His tone is low, almost sad and regretful that it immediately brings her attention to his face. She gasps when she sees that he has taken out a kunai but more so because his eyes are murky and edged in tears.
"I can't let you go back. I have to finish this first," he says in an almost pleading way that makes her feel as though he wants her to understand that he has no other choice. But choices are one of the few things he does not lack and it pains her that he has still to notice that one fact.
So she nods instead and steels her eyes for the inevitable. He is kind enough to make it swift, pinning her against the brick wall with a precise stab to the heart. She slides down to her knees, her bag of strawberries slipping from her grasp.
"This is…goodbye again, isn't it?"
She struggles to keep her eyes open as she reaches out to touch his face. He is openly crying now and it strikes her odd how foreign and yet befitting those tears are on his face. She gives him a brave smile to reassure him that it was fine—that he had not done anything wrong in putting a knife into her heart. After all, the first one had not yet been removed. She is certain that the pain she is feeling now is nothing compared to what she had felt that night, ten years ago, when she had seen his back for the last time.
He surprises her yet again when he cups her face and leans in for a kiss. It is nothing like what she had dreamed of when she was young and naïve. There is no passion or smoldering love. Instead, it is long and slow, bittersweet to the very last drawn out moment. He caresses her lips with his own, languid and meticulous as if too soothe her pain. When his tongue finds its way into her mouth, she feels him breathing apologies into her. She tastes his tears and her own blood mixed together in her mouth and she swallows them wholeheartedly like they are her salvation. She is strong enough to wipe her blood away from his lips when he finally leans back into reality.
She smiles awkwardly when her hand drops without her consent. She knows she has lost too much blood to be saved.
"Stay?" she whispers.
This time, he gives her a small smile—one that she had not seen in ten years—and moves beside her so that she is leaning heavily on his chest. He sits beside her and waits until she is gone.
"Goodbye, Sasuke-kun."
"Aa."
She sighs half-heartedly. "I'll wait."
He nods and watches her eyes grow dim until there is nothing left but the reflection of the late afternoon's fading light. He holds her close for one last time and brings down the lids over her eyes.
"Soon," he promises. He stands up and looks back one final time. It doesn't surprise him that she is smiling back at him.
Around her, bright strawberries are scattered on the ground.
Author's notes: I seem to be making a lot of end scenarios with no happy endings. In my opinion, one of them's gotta die. I don't think it's reasonable to have them all happy and safe together. Something's gotta come out of Sasuke's betrayal. But on the plus side,there was someSaku-Sasu goodness (albeit a little angsty) and Sasuke did get to resurrect his clan. Hoorah for that!
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