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constellations

(letters)

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Sasuke is not there when she ascends to a new height, gains the next step in becoming another sort of legendary. He does not witness the way her chin tilts in pride, does not know how she incited a standing ovation among the private audience in the arena tucked in the mountains.

He does not see her hugged by two teachers in succession, the only shinobi since the Third to have had two different Hokages as mentors.

He does not watch her ascend into legend, watch her turn shards of ice lethal, watch her crack the ground open in a genjutsu, watch her heal her opponent back into perfect health. She is benevolent and fierce, but he is not there to see it.

Instead, he leans against window of her room, his back against the frosty glass, and combs through his new discovery.

More letters.

He does not know why she keeps these in her medical pack, tucked between the cotton gauze and medical tape he'd needed for his frost-bitten palms, but they are all about love.

—

Tou-san,

I'm sorry for yelling at you in front of my friends. I love you, and your puns will always make me smile, but I was embarrassed, and I should have never been. Ino-pig is going to call me a green bean for the next week because of this, but that's okay.

You're tied for my favorite person in the whole wide world, and I should never be anything but happy to be around you, even if you do make lame jokes.

It's part of what makes you you, though, and I never want to change that.

Your daughter,

Sakura

—

Sasuke-kun,

It's been a year since you left, and I've been training really hard with Tsunade-sama! She teaches me something new every day, and each moment with her feels like a step closer to you.

I started to work on real patients, finally, and being part of something that involves actually saving lives is the most fulfilling thing I've ever experienced. I delivered a baby yesterday, and seeing a mother so, so happy is…it was beautiful.

You are so far gone that sometimes I try to remember what you look like and I cannot place it unless I look at photos.

I miss you.

Sakura

—

Sakura,

I owe you an apology. I am here for you first and foremost. I'm just…afraid. I want you in my arms for as long as possible, but the hardest challenge of motherhood is letting go.

You are an adult, now, and I couldn't be more proud of the person you've turned into.

I know this is your life, and I know these are your loved ones, and I am not in a place where I could ever ask you to pull away from that. But you cannot blame me for being who I have always been: a mom.

War is a terrifying thing, and although I've gotten used to the fact that every time you go on a mission you may not return, a battlefield is quite another. Where I see you—the capable, brilliantly smart, strong woman you are—I still see my baby, red bow and all.

I will never not want to keep that safe.

I love you.

Kaa-san

—

Izumi,

If you get this letter from Sakura-sama, it means I'm gone. I know in our last days we avoided talking about the risks, about the never-ending battle with time, but I want you to know this: even from the other side, I don't regret anything.

I spent my last moments thinking only of you. I spent all my moments getting lost in you.

Nothing will compare to that.

I know I never told you, but this is better late than never: I love you.

I want nothing more than for you to be happy.

Naoya

—

Sakura-san,

Your beauty is not nearly as remarked upon as much as your strength, but the first time I woke to see you hovering above me, brow furrowed in concern as you patted down my torn up face with stinging medicine, it was all I could think about.

It's all I can still think about. The gentleness of your smile, the kindness in your touch.

I know romance in the midst of war is not really something you probably wish to partake in, but there is only so much time in this world, and I wish to spend at least a little more of it with you.

Hideki

—

Sasuke-kun,

Why did you have to leave again? Why do you have to feel like you must do everything on your own? I have known for months now that you've been thinking about it, but watching you walk away again and letting it happen is one of the hardest—

—

Sasuke-kun,

I—

I don't understand. Well, that's—

No. I understand. I know you have done many things that burden you, but by now you should know you don't have to carry that on your own.

—

Sasuke-kun,

Please come home. Please come home to me.

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notes: girls don't want boys girls want a bag of gardetto's and 1AM writing