Act iii

scene I: songs of sunshine

A year later.

It's time for the Konoha festival. This is celebrated every year by the people of Konoha as a tribute to their liberation from the rogues of the land fifty years ago. Spring blooms in Konoha this season. It has been ten years since the civil war that broke out in the nation that was dissolved as soon as it began, and this year everybody celebrates independence and the joy of preventing another war, both children and adults. The village buzzes with whispers and criticisms of the foreigners who rest on this land to join in the festival. Elites of Uzushio, Suna, and Iwa arrive and so do the commoners and traders.

He wonders through the festival stalls in search of a dango shop and pieces of nonnative jewelry. The Queen, Mikoto has always loved jewels and hair clips brought by the Iwa merchants. He roams as he looks, no idea on where to start and what to get when his eye catches the dango shop his brother, the crowned prince, Itachi had asked him about.

Amidst the reds and yellows and the common browns and blacks, she is unmistakable with her pastel hair. He knows that's her because she has that sacred aura, that glow that he hasn't seen in any other person. She sits by the stall accompanied by her friends, he assumes. He closes the distance, and her soft laughter rings in the air. His eyes follow as the sweetened syrup that coats her lips which are being licked away when she flicks out her tongue. His face burns and he turns towards the vendor as if he hadn't soaked in her presence some time ago.

He isn't even halfway through paying for the dangos when she approaches him. A smile on her features and a bounce on her footsteps. She is a head shorter than him, yet she tried to lean over his shoulder to add to her fill of dangos.

"Fancy seeing you here!" her voice is as sweet as the syrup that coats the dangos inside the plastic bag and he has to try his hardest to not blush because his heart pumps its cage so bad. He turns, in a momentary loss if he should tell her that he remembers their first encounter, if it could be even called that or if he could pretend and give her a cold look.

He does what his heart tells him to do.

"Hmm." His lips are set in a straight line.

"Not much of a conversationalist, are we?" She laughs at his expense as she orders for her next plate of dangos.

Her laughter is warm, he notes. It's warm and lingering and it rings in his ears even after she is done. He observes her. Surely she didn't know magic, did she?

"So, what do you go by, you beautiful knight?" She inquires, a cheekiness lacing her tone, and her eye crinkles as she gives him another dazzling smile.

She was so radiant.

"I am Uchiha Sasuke." He offers, amazing himself. He has never in his life offered someone his name without getting to know theirs first. The fact that this witch made him do it, made it all the more believable that she, in fact, knew magic.

She hums as she falls step beside him as he walks away from that dango shop without any invitation. He feels indebted, so he asks "What do you go by?"

"Sakura. Haruno Sakura." She replies, biting into her dango, as syrup drops from her fingers. Again, she licks off the syrup from her fingers as she answers to him, not caring about anything else other than the desert in her hand.

Sasuke is a little exasperated. Ladies did not eat in front of knights like this! Not without a single ounce of courtesy or false advertisements. His face heats up soon as his mind registers her fingers and her lips. He turns away after openly and tactlessly gawking at her for a few moments only for her to finish her business a few moments after and with big doe-like eyes question him "What?"

"Nothing." He replies. His heart beats erratically.

It's a comfortable silence in the next moments that follow. She strolls beside him, pointing out shops and foreign delicacies being sold in the festival, talking about the fireworks that would follow after dusk. He can't bring himself to ask her, why, why did she follow him. She talks animatedly about anything and everything but her. He feels compelled to ask. Since he knows she already has a rather rough idea about a knight's life. He feels like he doesn't know too much about her and she knows a bit too much about him. He scans his parameters to look for a shop that sells accessories and walks a few steps ahead of her because the situation has just turned awkward. He doesn't understand if she's clueless or not because after a scoff, she follows and soon matches his footsteps.

"Where to next?" she asks, as her fingers brush off imaginary dust from her dress.

"I want to buy some hair clips for my mother." He answers, his nose still stuck up in the air, but his voice mellow and shy. In his defense, Sasuke decides it is only because he wanted this to be over and done with and he could use her help. Sakura smiles, "You should have said so, silly."

scene II: life changing echoes

She tugs his hand and weaves their fingers together as she guides him northwards where the number of twinkling fairy lights expands on his peripheral vision and the air smells much sweeter. The women shopping sector, he realizes. They pass a few shops in which he sees hairclips being sold, but Sakura doesn't stop. She pulls along and when she feels his eyes linger on the other shops she turns around and assures him, "Don't worry. I know the best shop for jewels at this fair. I'll take you there, wait." A pleasant smile succeeds and so does an arrow to his already captivated heart.

The stop in front of a shop which surprisingly doesn't have many lights and sparkles surrounding it. It's a shop towards the back end of the festival grounds, and is only filled with a handful of customers. Sakura lets go of his hand, takes away the warmth, and asks him to follow.

"Hello, Anko!" Sakura's voice drips with cheeriness and familiarity as she greets the woman inside the stall. The woman looks up, as she clears the counter and puts the money in a small pouch on the back table and a smile crosses her middle-aged face. "Hello Sakura, it has certainly been a while." her voice is sharp and deep but there's an underlying warmth in her voice, Sasuke notices. Sakura smiles, that infectious smile and Anko laughs at her as if an unseen antic is shared between them. Sasuke tries to think this, of him, being nonexistent, especially to the girl who pulled him here, does not bother him one bit. Definitely.

It's a weird feeling really. To see an unknown woman chatter with her supposed friend while he stands there, behind her, and his eyes linger on the small circle pattern on the back of their dress. Was she from a clan? His mind can't put a finger on which clan it might be, but he soon brushes it off thinking she might very well be from a lesser known clan from the other neighboring countries.

"Sasuke?!" Sakura suddenly turns, and if Sasuke had not leaned his head back a little she might have poked his chin with her hairpin.

He startled for a bit, as she again flashes him a smile. "Which design do you want?" she wiggles her eyes at him, and Sasuke has to keep his calm because his heart is in his throat beating erratically. What was she doing?

"Choose what you like." He grumbles as he turns his head away, as his ears warm.

tbc

a/n: Thankyou for all the love! I f you have any questions you can drop by on twitter or shoot me stuff at my if you want :)

my uni has been dumping me piles of shit, so updates maybe a little irregular. Online classes aren't even fun, when is the zombie apocalypse happening hmm?

ps. that one anon who was a bitch, get some friends.