Disclaimer: I do not own. But I smile, and that's enough.
Summary: They were a family, a team, so much more than anything anyone could think of. They were Team Seven, and these are their stories.
Summary of Chapter: Naruto talks, Sasuke listens, Kakashi laughs but Sakura…Sakura cries.
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Naruto does not cry; Naruto talks.
(he doesn't whisper either, he talks, full and loud and puffed up with dreams and sunshine no one cares to see. he boasts to the wind, he tells the trees about his day, he makes damn sure the earth can hear him if no one else will bother. he takes his time – explaining in great detail about everything that passes through his mind, he speaks of pranks and love. after all, the earth has never had a voice, and Naruto is glad to be it.)
Sasuke does not talk; he listens.
(he has never input anything into a conversation, but they are okay with that, because it's just how Sasuke is. his dark eyes watch and wonder but he never utters a syllable because if he does he knows his heart will put words in his mouth and let them tumble unabashedly from those two fine lines Sakura is dying to feel. but that's what makes him a good friend, they suppose, because he doesn't offer words of comfort but he doesn't make anything worse. he lets you grow to be what you are, he lets you be the author of this book. after all, he's never been allowed to write his own.)
Kakashi does not listen; he laughs.
(he doesn't like his normal laugh, the one he has only reserved for night when laughing covers his sobs, the one he reserved for Rin. he hears what problems his team is facing and he giggles; because what problems they have are so childish that it hurts, and the issues they cry about are so disgusting from human nature that he has to laugh. he has no option but to laugh, but after all, when has the 'song of the White Fang' ever had a choice?)
But Sakura – little frail Sakura – she does not laugh, or talk, or listen; she cries.
(she cries because her team – her family – can't. she grieves for Sasuke's lost family because he refuses to. she sobs, loud and hard, for Naruto's disgusting childhood because she knows so well that his bright blue orbs will never drip with tears, because he's too strong for that. she cannot restrain her own twin trails of water for Kakashi, because Naruto has never had a family, Sasuke has lost his, but Kakashi has gone through both and to her that's more heartbreaking than anything. but mostly she cries because Naruto never did when Sasuke left, she cries because Sasuke killed his own brother, and she cries because Kakashi has watched it all happen, helplessly. And, after all, Sakura knows so well how that feels.)
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It's so sad, but I love this entire idea. But I give most credit to Azamiko, for her story 'Speaking to Silence' is what inspired me and gave me this entire idea. Yes, in his/her story Naruto talks and Sasuke listens, but I took it a bit farther…so I am giving her/him credit. I am not copy-catting…much :P
~AU