A/N: An old submission for Sasusaku Month 2014 Day 13. Prompt: Drowning.
Also, just to be clear, Itallic is Itachi's words during his farewell with Sasuke after the edo tensei was released.
"Foolish little brother." His voice sounded loud and clear in his ears. Sasuke tried turning around, but there was no one.
"Run away, run away and cling to your pitiful life." Sasuke just kept running away from the source of the sound. But no matter how fare he ran, the voice kept following him. His footsteps grew weaker as he felt the ground move around him, trying to swallow him.
One by one, dead bodies of his relatives came towards him, blood all over their body, before they tumbled right in front of him.
He tried to get away, but he couldn't move his own body. His limbs felt heavy, as if someone else was controlling his mind and movements.
As the piles of dead bodies grew, came his mother and father.
"Mother! Father!" Tears were already flowing freely from his eyes as he extended his hands to grasp them. They soon fell, lying lifelessly on the ground before him.
"No! Brother! Stop!" He screamed, voice becoming hoarse. He was desperately holding his head, shaking it, trying to make the horror go away.
When Sasuke's parents tumbled down, his own brother was standing before him wearing his ninja gear, the one he remembered the night of the assassination. His face was cold and stoic.
"Brother!" Sasuke called out to him. Itachi's figure started to glitch, showing another one of Itachi's appearance; he was wearing a red robe, just like he had remembered during the ninja war, when he just undid the Edo Tensei.
His mind was overwhelmed with voices, evil and wicked voices of the assassin who wiped out his entire clan, but also kind and loving voice of the brother who loved him more than anything. His head felt like it was splitting in half.
"Foolish little brother."
"Forgive me Sasuke."
"Run away and cling to your pitiful life."
"It ends with this."
"Someday, when you have the same eyes as I do,"
"Whatever you choose to do from now on,"
"Come before me."
"I will always love you."
Sasuke woke up for the fifth time this week, sweaty and breathing heavily. He wiped his cheek, and felt hot tears spilling from the corner of his eyes. Are these tears?
He calmed himself down and steadied his breathing before plopping back to his bed.
He could hear raindrops tapping on his window as his mind tried to register the dream he just had.
It was driving him crazy. He was drowning in his past memories. Other times his nightmares were of Itachi's death, but recently, he'd started dreaming of his family. His mother, his father, his clan.
The feeling was overwhelming, and he just wished he could get a night's rest without being haunted like this.
Help me.
His mind was screaming for someone to help him. Just then it dawned to him. Something pink, and green like the grass in spring.
As he was still lying on his bed, he was reminded of the time when team 7 was out on missions recently, when they had to sleep under the same roof. He remembered it like it was yesterday. Sakura had woken up to Sasuke's tosses and turns. She knew he was having a nightmare so she woke him up and held him close, rubbing his hair and back to soothe him. The thing is, it worked. He felt calm and fell asleep right away.
For at least a couple of nights after that, he had managed to not have any nightmares. He didn't know what changed but he soon had them again.
Just as he was thinking about this, still staring at his bedroom's ceiling, it hit him, and his body soon acted on its own accord.
He quickly got out of bed, slipped on his nin-sandals and stormed out of his apartment, into the cold pouring night.
Water was starting to pool in the streets, as the rain kept coming down, harder by the minute. The rain had soaked him straight to his bones as he quickened his pace, navigating the streets he knew all too well.
Turning around the corner, he climbed some stairs before stopping at a door, more precisely, Sakura's apartment door.
He knocked a few times but there was no response.
She must be asleep.
Should he leave? But he had nowhere to go. He wasn't going to go back to his apartment when it's been haunting him. It was probably selfish of him to disturb her rest just for his sake. But he didn't know what else to do. Sakura on the other hand, had always been able to chase away the nightmares. To prevent him from drowning. She was his life jacket.
He made his way to the other side of her apartment where he found the window to her bedroom. It was too dark to see anything. He tried gently tapping on it.
Her back was facing the window as her eyes popped open from the sudden noise. She listened for a while, making sure she wasn't hearing the rain instead. But then there was another knock. There was definitely someone there.
Grabbing a kunai from under her pillow, she turned around and saw a figure. As she slowly approached the glass, she was met by Sasuke's soaked figure instead.
She cracked the window open.
"Sasuke-kun what are you doing here?" She gestured him to come inside before shifting to turn on the lights. All the sleepiness on her face was gone.
"I'll get you a towel and some dry clothes." He just stood in her bedroom. Sakura disappeared to the bathroom for a few moments before returning with a towel and a fresh pair of clothing that he had left in her apartment. Noted, it was from negligence at first, which then turned out to become a habit that she didn't mind.
He excused himself to the bathroom to change into the dry set of clothing.
When he stepped out, they both sat on the edge of the bed.
"Sasuke-kun, what's wrong?" He didn't respond. He was looking at the floor, his hands just slightly trembling, unsure if it was from the cold or from his mind. She noticed and wrapped her hands around his. He didn't flinch or draw them back. She didn't push him to answer her as they both sat there in silence.
"It happened again." The nightmares.
She had her suspicions. She realized the nightmares never stopped for him. She opened her mouth to respond but failed to find the correct words. Instead, she pulled him to an embrace.
"It's okay Sasuke-kun. Everything's gonna be okay. You can stay here for the night." It was the first time he cried in front of her. It was his breaking point. He felt so broken. His mind drifted back to images of his brother.
He wrapped his arms around her, burying his face in the crook of her neck. Sakura's heart ached every time she saw him like this.
They both lied down on the bed with Sakura's arms never letting go of him as she constantly stroked his hair and soothed his back. His cries eventually died down and he fell asleep in her arms.
The next morning, Sasuke woke up still within Sakura's embrace. They hadn't moved an inch. Even though he could still remember his nightmares, his mind felt more at peace. Somehow, being with Sakura, he didn't feel so alone anymore. He wasn't lost. Someone finally answered to his cries for help. Someone was finally lifting him out of the water, and he was no longer drowning.