Don't You Remember?

By:

Fear Die Rothaarige

Naruto, Sasuke, and Kakashi all knew what it was like to lose your family. Each and everyone of them had lost their mother, their father. They had lost pratically everyone. And me... Well who have I lost? No one. My mother is still alive to wake me up in the mornings. My father is still alive to come in while I'm eatting breakfast and ruffle my hair. Unlike them, I have lost no one. Maybe thats why I don't fit in amoung these boys. Maybe thats why I'm so weak.

Do you have to lose someone to become strong?

After Sasuke left it felt like I had lost everyone. He had left in the dead of night wishing to sneak out of the villege, out of our lives. And he had done so except he didn't realize I would know that he was leaving. But in the end I was still to weak to make him stay. In the end he left me anyway.

Then it was Naruto's turn to leave. He had goals. He wanted to become the Hokage and become the greatest ninja ever. I never could figure out how a boy with such a tragic life could remain of optimistic. He didn't leave like Sasuke did. Unlike Sasuke, I saw Naruto off with a smile and well wishes. I wasn't important enough for him to stay.

Then there was Kakashi. He didn't leave the village except for missions. I would see him in the street walking by or he would come into the hospital in the need for a patch up. We would have lunch sometimes. But it still felt like I had lost him even with him sitting right infront of me.

It was a simple mission. Or atleast it was at first. I was to accompony Naruto and Kakashi to Suna on a mission to join up with some Suna nin who would them go with us to Ame. Three days after leaving Konoha, we arrivied at Suna. Another day later, we left with Temari and Kankuro. Four days after that everything went to hell.

A massive rain storm had blown in and we had been forced to take shelter in a small cave. The cave was rank, smelling of dead animals, but it was mch better than being out in the rain getting soaked to the bone while the rain pelted our skin like tiny bullets. To pass the time everyone started to play a game of poker. I was never a good card player, so I decided to sit the game out and watch the storm from the mouth of the cave. As I sat just inside of the cave far back enough to keep from getting wet I sat and listened to everyone having fun while throwing down bets and winning and losing. To me it seemed so childish to place money on cards, but if they found it fun let them have it. In the life of a ninja, fun was a rare treat.

As they say live and be merry for tomorrow you could lose it all.

It was hard for me to sit there and listen to them and not think about all the times that Naruto, Kakashi, and I had spent together as Team Seven. My favorite memory was when it had snowed for the first time during the night and Kakashi called us all to the traning field for pratice. When we arrived, we all recived a snowball to the face. With equally pissed off looks we chased down Kakashi, ignoring the lose of feeling in our fingers from handleing the snow. And after we failed at getting our revenge on Kakashi, he treated us all to hot chocolate at a small local cafe. We all ended up with smimilar white foam mustaches and we all laughed. It was by far the best fun time with all of Team Seven.

I sighed and looked back up and thought I was still stuck in my memory because standing not five feet infront of me was the one and only Sasuke Uchiha. I was silent taking in how he had changed. He had lost all the baby fat in his cheeks and developed sharp cheek borns. His eyes still hard and cold. His body looked like it could have been chisled out of stone. The last seven years had done wonders to his body because at the age of 21 he had the looks of a man.

Neither of us made a sound. I could still hear everyone farther back in the cave still playing their childish game of cards. His eyes never wavered from mine. We seemed to be caught in a trance. Then he just disappeared into the night. I blinked and he was gone like he was never even there. Maybe he hadn't ever been there. Maybe it was just my mind playing tricks on me after remembering the good times with Team Seven. And after a few minutes of waiting to see if he would come back... I left the mouth of the cave and joined everyone while the played cards because like the said you could lose everything tomorrow.

The storm blew itself out by the time I woke up the next morning. The sun was just starting to rise in the sky and it made the sky a funky colored blue that looked more at home on someones wall than in the endless blue wonder. The birds were just starting to awaken from their slumber and the air was filled with the music of the winged creatures calling to one another at the start of a new day. It was all so brilent and unreal. Maybe it was unreal, maybe not.

Can we ever know?

We all started off after a light breakfast. All the men seemed sleepy, their eye lids still kinda dropy as the moved through the trees. One Temari and I seemed fully awake. I had always been a morning person and chances are I probably always will be. Its just something about me that some people just can not understand because I myself can not understand it at all.

Everything seemed normal after we started off. At noon we stopped at a small town and had a lunch of ramen and set off again. And thar night when we settled down for camp everything stilled seemed normal. We ate and joked around, and they started another game of cards. And this time I joined in. When the eye lids started to drop, they all turned in, leaving me to watch of the camp until it was Naruto's turn to take watch. At first nothing stirred except for an owl in the trees. But around one O'Clock, I heard footsteps. They seemed close by, maybe only a 100 feet away from the edge of camp. After a quick look around to see if anyone was around I headed towards the footsteps, my Katana at the ready.

As I got closer and closer to where the footsteps were heard, I could detect the faint gurggle of a small stream. Pushing past a bush I came into a small clearing with a stream maybe as wide and my arm and as deep as my ankles. The moonlight reflected off of the slow moving water making it look like the moon was on earth with us washing away down the stream. And standing almost directly across from me was Sasuke. The wind blew his bangs across his face, hiding his eyes for a moment here and there. He looked just like he had did last night, not a single thing had changed.

"Sasuke?" I asked, taking a small step forward. He grinned and then reached out a hand to me. Without thinking I reached out to him. When our hands were about to touch a loud yell sounded through the area. I jerked back at the sound of Naruto calling my voice. I looked back towards camp for a split second and when I looked back he was gone again. Like a ghost in the night.

When I got back to camp, everyone asked where I had disappeared to and I told them all that I had heard something in the night, but it was just a deer. I never breathed a word to them about Sasuke.

For the next few days everything was normal. There was not even a hint of Sasuke anywhere. I was begining to wonder if I was going crazy.

Could I really be going crazy?

And the night before we were schedualed to reach Ame he came back. It was a chilly and rainy night. We couldn't find any dry firewood or a cave to take shelter in so we set up our tents in a partically protected clearing and settled down for the night. As usual I had first watch. About one again I heard something. This time not footsteps, but breathing. This breathing seemed so close to me, like it was in my ear. And when I looked to my right I saw raven hair hanging just above my shoulders. I bit my lips to keep from making any noise.

Sasuke moved from beside me to sitting acorss from me on another log. He looked just like he had before. He smiled at me. He seemed happy to see me. He reached out to me again. And like before my hand reached out to his and this time the contected. I smiled at him and I felt his hard cold grip on my hand. He drew me towards him and as he did so his smile seemed to widen. When I was almost against him, Kakashi came out of his tent. He paused and looked at me, his eyebrow raised in a questioning way.

"Sakura... Why do you look like your about to hump the log?" I looked up at him.

"Can't you see him Kakashi. He's sitting right there." I pointed with my free hand at Sasuke, still smiling on the log.

"See who Sakura?" He edged his way close to me, concern in his eyes.

Why couldn't he see Sasuke?

"Sasuke. He's sitting right here on this log." I pointed to the onyx haired boy infront of me. He wrapped his arm around my waist.

"Sakura... Don't you remember?" Kakashi was standing next to me. He put a hand on my shoulder.

"Remember what?"

Had Kakashi finally lost it?

"Sasuke... He died a year ago Sakura. He lost to much blood while fighting Madara. No one could save him."

"What are you talking about Sasuke's right here infront of me." And he was still infront of me. Still smiling with his hand around my waist.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. If I did, believe me you would know.

Its pratically midnight and I'm sitting here editing this fic. No idea where it came from. It turned out far different than I thought it would. Oh well... Sorry for any and all mistakes.

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Later!