Note: So I haven't up-dated in a while and I'm sorry for that. I've just been majorly busy with all kinds of things and personal issues that its just crazy.
R.I.P. Uncle WillieR.I.P. Aunt Peggy
R.I.P. Aunt Lyndia
Dreams
Dreams are only dreams when you're away
Gray clouds only fill the day
Dreams are only nightmares when you're away
The happiness cannot and will not stay
Dreams are only pain when you're away
Memories long forgotten only lay
Dreams are only dreams when you're away
And there is nothing to keep these tears at bay
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto nor do I own the Naruto story line.
Chapter Twenty-Four:
Once Was, A Sinful Sting
Days like today are the days when I wander back on the past. I'll sot here alone, or in my office and ask myself questions about those days. As you can tell by now, those days are what haunt me at night when all are asleep but myself. They were the happiest and yet saddest times of my life. And when I'm alone, and sometimes when I'm not, I wander what would have had happen if I had made a stronger effort.
Could I have saved them?
Would that effort had any effect on the outcome?
I hate myself for being so weak then, for not being able to stop him from doing what he had done. If I had been the person I am today, maybe I could have saved them, maybe I could have saved him. Maybe he would be here with us now and maybe she wouldn't be so alone.
I mean what kind of person am I to lose them?
When it comes down to it, down to the very core, its all my fault.
I could have stopped them, I should have!
He deserved someone better, someone other than me. He deserved someone so much stronger, so much prettier, someone who would have stayed by his side to the very end. He deserved someone who wasn't so afraid to let the past go for the sake of the future. Someone who was afraid to embrace the future with open arms, and allow its warmth to wrap around her body through faith.
When we were standing outside the cave, I should have ended it there. I should have ended it there and then.
But I couldn't move.
My doubts and fears froze my limbs as I stared at those raven eyes all the while he had moved in front of me to protect me. The way he was using his own body to protect my own…
God!
Its all my fault that they are all gone!
And the thing that kills me the most is that no one even blames me, but me!
It would be so much easier if she hit me, cussed me, or drew blood. If she would have don't that, inflicted the pain I deserved instead of…
Of just sitting there, silently staring at the stone marker cover in the ever green moss and small pink roses…
She should have blamed me! Its all my fault I couldn't save them. But she just sits there by herself, lost in her own thoughts, wishing that he were beside her no doubt.
It breaks my heart.
I remember that day perfectly, more clearly than I really wish I did.
"What do you want?" Sasuke had snarled at Gaara.
I could feel the hatred seeping off of my dessert dweller as he glared at the other in front of us. I had felt as if any hope pf stopping them was a futile mission that only a fool would venture to do.
But still I should have at least tried.
"To kill you," Gaara growled, the cork of his sand melting as the tiny grains snaked their way out of the gourd's mouth.
"Is that so?" Sasuke smirked darkly, "You and your tramp? Don't make me laugh!"
"Don't call her that!" he warned, his voice made me tremble though he was defending my pride and honor that Sasuke had managed to trample on.
"Don't threaten me," Sasuke hissed, his eyes blank.
"Sakura," Gaara's tone changed slightly at the mention of my name, "Get out of here. Look for Naruto."
"What?" his words stunned me, I didn't think leaving him to deal with Sasuke was the best idea, after all he had vowed to kill him.
"You heard me," his tone had become more urgent and I dare say, more fearful.
The tone he had used confused my, twisting my thoughts together and tying them in knots. He wanted me to leave, and I knew that the reasons were accurate and justified, but my legs didn't seem to want to move.
"GO!" he yelled at me using a hateful tone he had never used toward me since the day Sasuke had killed his sister.
"Gaara…" my voice trailed off as I glanced in the direction of the forest with hesitation as heavy iron grips began to pull my heart toward the ground.
"If you try to leave," we both heard our enemy growl, "Then I will kill you Sakura."
I gulped glancing at the one I had fallen in love with and the one I had fallen out of love with, lost in the very emotions that governed me.
"Go," Gaara repeated more quietly, "I'll be close behind you and as soon as we find Naruto we will go after Itachi."
The tears began to swell in my eyes as a heavy weight bore down on my mind, "I don't want to leave you behind."
He reached his hand out to my cheek, cupping it gently, and lifting it up so that I had no choice but to look at him, "I wont be long so go ahead and go, and after all I want to get home as soon as possible."
Searching in his eyes trying to understand his meaning I asked quietly, "Home?"
He nodded his head, his red hair falling into his eyes as he did so, "As soon as we are done here I want to go with you back to the Leaf Village, that is if you want me to."
I nodded my head in reply I couldn't speak.
"How touching," Sasuke mocked his hand reaching for the hilt of his sword.
Kissing my forehead, Gaara said for the final time, "Go."
I nodded my head and took off toward the trees as tears streamed down my face. I didn't want to leave, but he wouldn't have let me stay. There was nothing for me to do but to find our other companion. I could hear the sounds of battle behind me, but I knew that I couldn't look back.
I crashed through the brush and kicked off the thick green branches as I made my way through the woods.
Help.
That had been the goal.
And that goal would have never been reached.
In the corner of my eye I could see a shadow coming up on me very quickly, and at first I thought that it was Gaara, but I was wrong. The shadow vanished from behind me and then reappeared in the form of Uchiha Sasuke.
I slide to a halt, my breath quick and heavy.
"What's wrong expecting someone else?" he asked me darkly.
"Where's Gaara?" I yelled at him.
"Dead," he replied to me.
"I don't believe you!" I hissed my senses telling me that three figures were in the near by trees in hiding.
"Its true," he said as a reply.
"You don't have the skills to kill him," I rebutted angrily.
"And yet I'm here and he's not."
"You are not, never have been, and never will be strong enough to kill someone like him," I knew that my statement had been a low blow, but I couldn't help myself.
It was then, in that moment, I realized how much I truly despised the boy that stood in front of me. I hated him with everything in my being, because he was the source that had caused all our problems.
He had been the one to betray us.
He had been the one that abandon us.
He was the one that had killed our allies.
It was that moment that I knew I was over him and his actions toward us. It was that moment I realized how much I loved the other and how much I wanted to be with my crimson haired companion. It was that moment that I knew that beyond a doubt, the world have been better off without the likes of him in it.
The emotions that he had held at bay for so long had been released and his eyes flashed before he slammed me into a tree by my neck.
The pain that shot through my body had been nothing compared to the knowledge that I had struck a cord in him.
A smile cracked my lips as tears of pain and hatred slipped down my cheeks and chin falling onto the hand that he gripped me with.
I had broken his shield.
I had evoked anger into Uchiha Sasuke and I was proud.
Glancing up at the sky I saw a large falcon soar gracefully above our heads and I knew that the hyperactive blonde was extremely close.
The war between old friends, new enemies, siblings, old enemies, and new friends had been started and the ending of our missions and vows was soon under way…