Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
Summary: If you don't try, you will hit it. They all believe they will hit it, but it doesn't mean they don't try. ( Sakura, Sasuke, Naruto )
Sasuke stares into the dark.
He sits there every morning. He hardly ever sleeps. Don't ask him why. He won't answer.
All he sees is black. He can't remember the light as well anymore. Where had it all gone? In the dark, he loses all sense of time. All he knows is that the shadows on the wall shift slightly when it was day, and then revert back to the usual when it was night. He closes his eyes, expecting to see the same color as before, but this time he sees them. Team 7.
Kakashi. There was something about that unpunctual sensei of his. Something inside of him envied the copy ninja a bit. He was able to suppress his vengeful motives to actually live his life normally. He was an odd man too. And, when he was young, he was curious about the man.
And sometimes when he's walking or training, he sees Kakashi near the stone monument. And he knows that he was never really lost on the road of life.
Sakura. She would never stop chasing after him, would she? When he had left that night, she had come to stop him. He silently wonders what would have happened if she really had. But she didn't. Her attempt was desperate and Sasuke wonders if she really thought that she would've been able to stop him like that. Then he realizes that maybe her voice was the strongest thing she had. He's thinking now if she's still waiting for him.
Waiting for him to come home.
Naruto. Sasuke used to think that the boy would always be dead–last. But when they were fighting he realized that maybe they weren't so different at all. He was lonely just like he was. But that's not what he really remembers. He remembers that he was seen as a brother in his eyes. He remembers the voice that said that. Not so much as the face, but that voice.
Maybe the boy will grow up – grow up faster than Sasuke can from his revenge.
He wants to say sorry to them. He thinks back and wonders if it would have changed anything if he had. He snorts and shakes his head, saying no. The prodigy thinks about that night of the massacre. And he thinks of Itachi.
He thinks it's his brother's fault for the death of the clan. But then again, sometimes he blames himself. He thinks that if he hadn't stayed back so long during shuriken practice, he might have been able to save them. If he was strong enough, he might've been able to save them.
He misses his family. Who wouldn't when you know there's nothing out there than can bring them back? But he finds himself thinking more of Team 7 than of his deceased clan in the past days.
Sometimes he thinks that it's making him weak and he watches the hours and waits for that snake to get in here to start training.
But most of the time he thinks that he sees something. It's bright, but even he doesn't know what it is. When he closes his eyes in the darkness, he expects to see dark. But he doesn't. He sees Team 7 and something bright. Like a light.
If he had accepted their friendship, would he have left this part of his story behind?
Most of the time he thinks that here is no such thing has a homecoming. That there sometimes is no such thing as a coming back.
But when he sees Team 7 and that light…
He believes that there is such a thing after all.
And he believes that even he can do that one day.
It is something that grows over time... a true friendship.
A feeling in the heart that becomes even stronger over time...
The passion of friendship will soon blossom into a righteous power and through it;
you will know which way to go...
- Bolero of Fire, Zelda: Ocarina of Time -