title: love month
prompt: SASUSAKU MONTH ON LJ!
rating: T-M
summary: oo3; Sasuke liked girls with long hair. Sakura thought it was time for a change as she reflects back on her past.
.oo3.
Change
Sasuke liked girls with long hair. That was the rumor.
When I was younger, my looks were so important than me that I didn't think of anything else but me, me, me, and how to impress Sasuke-kun.
I was such a fool back then, wanting only to improve my physical beauty rather than my inner. Hell, I even joined the ninja academy just to be near Sasuke-kun! I didn't know what my life was going to do when I signed up for this.
But I don't regret it. Truthfully, I even don't regret Sasuke-kun leaving me for revenge. Trying to kill me. Because honestly, I know that he cares for me in some way. Even if it won't be the kind of care that I give to him, I'm a special person in his heart, and I know that.
Just thinking about it makes me happy.
Ino and I always used to talk about Sasuke-kun. That is, when we were still friends. She was the girl to teach me how to become stronger, and not the weak little Sakura-chan who always used to cry when somebody teased her about her forehead.
I missed Ino back then. And I thank her for making me who I am. Or else I'd be the weak, annoying little Sakura who could only cry and have her teammates protect her.
I changed. She changed. Hell, Sasuke changed. Revenge came over him and he didn't know left from right anymore. I tried to change that.
I wish I could have killed him at that moment. Instead, the tables were turned, and I was the one about to be killed, if Naruto hadn't saved me.
Naruto changed, too. He became an annoying little brat to a sweet, respected hero. Everyone admired him. Especially me.
But the biggest and main change happened in the Forest of Death. That's where it all started.
.
.
.
"Sasuke-kun!" I squealed as I clung onto his arm. He looked at me with annoyance, and attempted to shrug me off.
"Hn."
I snuggled into him, and (cringing at the past), squealed even more. "Sasuke-kun, Sasuke-kun!" Even though he cared about me, I was still a hindrance to his ambitions.
But I felt like I matured when he was bitten by Orochimaru. I cried, holding his hand and comforting him with words and trying to hold back my tears, even though that was all I could do. And it was enough. I remember him gripping my hand as if there were no end, and his back heaving up and down. It was terrible…
It kept on going because I took care of my two teammates, and I felt more like a woman, wanting someday to be Sasuke-kun's wife and take care of him through his ups and his downs, like holding his hand through his sadness.
However, the biggest change was definitely when Kin held my hair. It was 3 against 1, and I felt like my scalp was going to get ripped off by her grip. I tried to hold back my moans, and instead bit my lip and forced a smirk.
Then, I grabbed my kunai and changed into a whole different person. I was no longer Haruno Sakura, crybaby. I was Haruno Sakura, whose back both Naruto and Sasuke would look at forever.
I found strength in that motion, and my body felt so much lighter without the weight. I liked the feeling of the wind on my neck, and it felt like wings.
And then when Sasuke woke up, the first thing he asked was; "Sakura, who did this to you?"
It meant that he cared.
And the fact that only my hug could stop him proved it.
.
.
.
Although I proved to be less annoying, Sasuke still didn't treat me as well as he did to Naruto and Kakashi. Even so, I knew that his feelings of care for me were greater than before, and he looked at me as a normal girl who simply liked him, not a fan girl like Ino or Ami.
He still protected me. I protected him. He viewed me as a person. Sometimes, he even smirked at me. In that sense, I knew that he felt close to me, because he only saved smirks for the people he cared for the most.
"Sakura."
"Hm?" I turned to look at him with a questioning look on my face.
He smirked. "I like your new haircut. It fits you better." He even hesitated as he raised his arm to touch the ends of my pink strands.
I blushed and looked away. "Thanks, Sasuke-kun."
I changed every day. So did he. He became more and more obsessed with revenge, on killing Itachi, and for finding power that wasn't available to him with us in Konoha. He was becoming a whole different person. Totally indescribable.
.
.
.
"Thank you."
His whispered words meant the world to me. Even though I couldn't bring him back, even though I couldn't stop him, and even though I couldn't persuade him to bring me with him, he said what he needed to say anyway.
I didn't know what the words meant at the time. Thank you? For what? Thanks for protecting me? Caring for me?
Thanks for loving me?
I'd given him the love that he'd never gotten as a child, in replacement of his lost family. Team 7 all did. We were his surrogate family, and he treated us like one, too.
But me, hearing those words with only my own ears, and nobody else's…it meant that he cared. He saved those special words only for me.
The last thing I knew, his hands were on my back and under the crook of my knees, and he gently lied me down on the cold, stone bench. By the time I hit the rock, I was out cold.
His bangs tickled my cheeks.
.
.
.
Some change for the better—others for the worse. Me? I ended up becoming a chunin, and a doctor/nurse in the hospital, healing patients while still praying that Naruto would bring back Sasuke.
Sasuke…the last time I saw him, he nearly slit my throat. But even so, I still can't help but love him. He shaped me. I know that he wasn't himself, so it's not entirely his fault, but…if only I'd had the courage to just poke through his skin…
Feeling the ends of my short hair, I couldn't help but smile. Sasuke paid more attention to me than he did to any other female, especially after my haircut.
Change favors chance. You really never know what happens next. Life throws itself atcha and you just have to make the best of it.
Sometimes, it's good to mix things up a little bit.
And I think that Sasuke never really liked girls with long hair, anyway.
Slight changes, 7.8.14