Author's Notes: Ahh… My second Naruto fanfic. Don't confuse yourself with the pronouns, okay? The cycle is Sasuke-Sakura-Naruto-Hinata. I know that my writing is very simplistic here, but please do review.
Summary: That night.He yearns and she hides. And while he watches them, she cries with him. SasuSakuNaruHina. Oneshot.
Disclaimer: Naruto belongs to Kishimoto, not to me.
Fainéant
-shackled wisteria-
He yearns.
He somersaults in midair with grace and sophistication, before throwing the kunai directly to the dummy's head. He feels the sudden need to be touched and to be cared for, he believes he shouldn't, but he yearns.
She hides.
She stands behind a huge sakura tree which is a few good meters away from him. He doesn't notice her, she believes he wouldn't, but she hides.
A year has passed since Uchiha Sasuke was forcefully brought back to Konoha by the so-called dropout after defeating Uchiha Itachi. A year has passed since Uzumaki Naruto insistently demanded the Godaime for the reformation of Team 7. A year has passed since Haruno Sakura opposed to put back the pieces together and pretend nothing happened. A year has passed since Hyuuga Hinata came to know that the blonde Jinchuuriki is still in love with his pink-haired teammate. A year has passed since the cycle begins.
He yearns for her.
She hides from him.
He watches them.
She cries with him.
The wind blows and hums a nostalgic tone as it gently adds to the evening's grace. A bunch of clouds slowly creeps in the sky as the four lost souls continue to wander in silence. He yearns and she hides. He watches and she cries. With the moonlight's soothing intensity now gone, all that is left to them are their feelings, suppressed and unrequited.
He watches them.
He sits on the rooftop of the Uchiha estate from where he usually sees his best friend silently yearning for the pink-haired woman in fatal denial. He slowly shifts his attention to the small figure painfully hiding behind the sakura tree. He goes unnoticed, he always has, so he watches them.
She cries with him.
She stands on the rooftop of the nearest building, which is about 500 meters away from the said vicinity. With her byakugan activated, she sees the haunting pain in those blue eyes. She knows what kind of pain it is, for if he looks at those snow-coloured eyes of hers just for once, he would know that she understands. She feels his pain, she always has, so she cries with him.
Uchiha Sasuke can barely stand up after a day of training. He had used his chidori twice for a training which should be nothing serious but his hunger for lov-, power urged him to use it nonetheless. He thought that it was the only way to delude himself of something he had suddenly became aware of. He is and will always be an avenger, no matter what the circumstances are, so he shook the thoughts away.
'You're not an avenger anymore. Uchiha Itachi is dead.' His consciousness argued.
"Shut up," he said to no one in particular. He sauntered towards a tree which has amusingly caught his attention under the dark velvety blanket and leaned against it for support. He felt alive. He could feel that the tree breathes and he could hear that its heart beats.
Odd. A tree is a tree. It may grow and it may die but that doesn't mean that its actions are that of a human being. Sasuke glanced above him and saw a rain of pink petals falling into his dark hair. A small smile crept its way to his pale face.
A sakura tree.
He then yearns for her.
Haruno Sakura stands rooted to her spot after noticing that the Uchiha had come to her hiding place. She can no longer feel the blood flow through her feet so she holds her breath for a while, hoping that Sasuke would stand up in any second and proceed with his training. She hopes. She knows he wouldn't, for she could feel that his body is suffering from chakra depletion. It isn't fatal, she could tell, being the expert medical nin that she is, she knows that his strength will be back the next day.
Sakura gulps when she hears the grass below her creates a hushing sound in the silent air. She releases a sigh of relief. He doesn't notice her. She stays.
Sakura runs a hand through her pink tresses, she pauses, and forces them out of her skull to ease her frustration. Fortunately, she doesn't have the strength to do it, so she sits down on the grass and leans against the same tree, where Uchiha Sasuke is.
That small gap between them makes her realize that he is so close to her, she can feel him breathe, she can feel his life. Yet, that barrier also makes him so far, so difficult to reach, so hard to feel.
What keeps them apart, she asks many times. Is it the line that separates friendship and love? Sakura doubts that. Or is it something more tangible, like fear or perhaps something more of detailed complexity, like fate? She knows that fate has constantly pulled them apart, it reiterates the harsh truth, it follows her and kills her with an increasing amount of pain. It is fated to turn this way. Uchiha Sasuke and Haruno Sakura are never meant for each other. She knows it but she keeps on denying it.
She unconsciously stifles a sob. She isn't sure if he heard it, but she thinks it is better to retreat for the night. She kneels down and slowly moves away from the tree. She doesn't stay because she needs to cry no matter how weak it sounds.
"You are annoying," a voice rings through her ears, cold and familiar. "Stop hiding, I know you're there."
She follows him and leans against the tree again. "I am not hiding," she lies.
"You are annoying," he insists.
She wipes the tears away from her face and scowls a little. "I know, so you don't have to rub it on my face."
Sasuke rests his head firmly on the tree's trunk. He takes a handful of soil from beneath his right hand. A sakura petal falls delicately and lands to his closed fists. He relaxes a bit.
"Why are you hiding from me?" He asks a simple question which establishes tension in the atmosphere around them.
She chokes her own voice and her hands instinctively reach to her chest, from where her heart flutters and breaks at the same time and at the same rate. Her emerald eyes reveal her pain, as droplets of her suppressed emotions fall. Her frail body shivers under the cold air.
She knows how intent he is watching her from the other side of the tree. She knows how rightful he is for calling her pathetic. She knows he couldn't comfort her. She knows that he would never bother to understand her. She knows he could not give her anything, even the simplest necessity of life: love.
Yet she knows that he can hear her break. She stays.
"From you. Always has, always will," she smiled sadly to herself.
"Why do you hide?" he asks, once again. He calmly sits on the other side of the tree. He knows what she wants. He knows he cannot afford to give it. He knows how much she wants him.
But he doesn't know how long she can stand his cold shoulders. He's afraid that she would leave him. He yearns.
"For how long are you going to hide from me?" he asks as a matter-of-factly. He catches her off guard, he knows.
"For how long are you going to yearn for me?" she retorts in a challenging way. She catches him off guard too, she knows.
"Until my wounds are fully healed," he answers. "You?"
"Until you stop yearning for me," she answers.
He smiles a little. He yearns for her.
She wipes her tears away. She hides from him.
He watches them.
Uzumaki Naruto stands up from his sitting position and jumps from the rooftop to the main road. He dwells in self-pity like he always does when he watches his two oblivious friends drown themselves in self-denial.
"Sakura-chan likes Sasuke very much," he says to himself in the most agonizing way possible. He had said it four years ago directly to her, before their first attempt to retrieve the Uchiha survivor. Tears fall but he does not need to wipe them away just to erase his pain.
Why does he love her, he asks himself many times. Is it because of those emerald eyes? Is it because she is Haruno Sakura? Or simply because she is the embodiment of everything that he wants to have? No it isn't like that. He loves her because-he doesn't know.
He turns to look at the figure following him. He notices that she's crying with him.
Hyuuga Hinata stares back at those blue eyes that hold the same expression as her white ones. They were both crying. His tears are for them and her tears are for him. It's the main difference. Uzumaki Naruto will never cry for her.
"For how long are you going to watch them?" she asks without stammering and without fainting. She shocks him, she knows.
Naruto bowed his head a little, his eyelids covering half of his eyes.
"Until she stops hiding from him," he whispers but she hears it anyway.
She nods a little and turns around to walk in the opposite direction.
"For how long are you going to cry with me?" he asks finally heeding her plea.
Hinata stops but keeps her back to him.
"Until you stop watching them," she whispers through her tears.
He nods in gratitude and starts to walk away from her.
-----
Someday, when his wounds are all healed, he would stop yearning for her, because he knows that she's always there.
Someday, when he stops yearning for her, she would stop hiding from him, because she knows that he loves her.
Someday, when she stops hiding from him, he would stop watching them, because he knows someone is watching him too.
Someday, when he stops watching them, she would stop crying with him, because she knows he will not allow her tears.