MERRY CHRISTMAS! It's already Christmas here in Down Under so, here's my gift to you all. It's not as great as the previous chapter though—enjoy!
ix.
The moon was full that night, a bright light illuminating all that were drowned in the darkness of the evening.
The village was already fast asleep, a complete silence about but the chirping of the crickets and the rustles of the leaves.
There was a trashcan sitting next to a bench, shadowed by the trees—where he was standing next to, hidden.
Soon, the sound of the soft yet slow approaching footsteps began to invade the stillness and peace of the night.
He fought the smirk that itched his lips. While he was smug because he'd been able to predict her again, the fact that she was here, not in her bedroom where she should've been sleeping felt like a stab to his heart.
He predicted this, yet now that it was really happening... he didn't want to believe it. He didn't want to accept it.
He was aware that he knew nothing of her pain, of her loss but wasn't—
"It's the middle of the night," her voice disrupted his thoughts, "aren't you supposed to be in bed?"
"I could say the same thing about you," he responded evenly, as he watched her figure walk past him. The red swirl of her clan stitched on her backpack against her back stood prominently, confirming his suspicions.
He felt his heart sank when he saw that her steps didn't falter; her gait purposeful.
"Touché," the word was uttered so softly it could've been a whisper of the wind.
There was nothing he could do but watch as she continued to step further away from him.
"What are you doing here anyway?" she asked, as her steps slowed to a halt though her back remained facing him.
"This is the only road..." he hesitated, not wanting to say the words because it meant he'd be acknowledging it out loud, "leading out of the village."
"You should go to bed," as she said this, her head tilted to her side, "it's way past Sasuke-chan's—"
"Why Ayaka?" he all but shouted to the darkness of the night. She had already walked so faraway not even the moonlight could show her figure. "Why won't you tell me anything?"
["Why Sasuke...why won't you ever tell me anything? Why is it always silence with you?"]
They might've been close friends, childhood friends, who spent every single day together, but she's always sheltered herself from everyone, even from him.
She didn't say anything, but didn't move. And for that, he was already thankful. In his arms, his almost three-month-old baby brother shifted. He didn't really want to bring Sasuke out this late night, considering the growing coldness in the season, but his parents weren't home.
"Where will you go if you leave? There's nowhere else for you to go, anyway."
"There's nothing else to stay for either."
Nothing else to stay for? Not even me? He wanted to ask, but he was afraid of the answer that will leave her lips.
Then she continued, her tone so weary for a five-year-old girl. "I'm not even allowed to look after Naruto."
["Don't do this, Sasuke! You don't have to be alone!"]
He agreed that it was unfair and irrational that the only living relative, albeit not biologically, the orphaned boy had left was not allowed to look after him. It was too cruel. He believed that the Hokage was being ridiculously paranoid, and his reason that if Ayaka was to be associated with the boy then his relationship with the late Fourth Hokage would be revealed—a secret they were adamant to keep.
"What about me?" he finally asked, "If there's nothing else to stay for, can't you at least stay... for me?"
["Sasuke, I'm so in love with you I can't even stand it! If you would only be with me, I promise I'd never let you regret it. Everyday will be a joy. I can give you happiness! I'll do anything for you, Sasuke! So please I'm begging you, don't walk away!"]
She'd been his constant. Someone who'd been there with him his whole childhood. The only one outside his clan who'd been close to him. Someone who treat him as just Itachi, not the next heir of the clan. She didn't expect anything great from him but just his company. That's why he couldn't afford to lose her.
She turned around, her long red hair softly swaying with her movement. Her green eyes stared at him, devoid of emotion.
Slowly, she walked towards him. When she stopped right in front of him, she raised her arm, two fingers reaching towards his forehead.
He'd be damned first before he allows her to touch his forehead and utter those words, though this time he knew there'd be no more next times.
He removed one arm from Sasuke's small delicate body to grasp her wrist, stopping her movement.
He looked into her green eyes.
"Your adoptions papers have been finalised this morning. Let's go home."
...
He sat up the bed so quickly the air was knocked out of him. Panting and sweating furiously, onyx eyes were wide open as the details of the dream that awoke him flooded his head.
The dream brought a memory of his own, one that he secretly cherished and held onto during the darkest moments of his life, when all hoped seemed to have faded, and he was left with despair.
A version of that dream—memories, he reminded himself—happened to him too, though he was considerably several years older and he was the one leaving. Not the other way around.
The only difference was that the girl stayed.
Now that he'd confirmed that his dreams were not really dreams but memories of his older brother's past involving another woman—sometimes a girl, when they were younger—Sasuke couldn't help but compare how alike he and Itachi really were, regardless how their circumstances seemed reversed.
On the memory, it was his brother who stopped a friend from leaving, and while Itachi didn't say those three small (yet so damnably threatening) words that were uttered to him when he left the village when he was thirteen, Sasuke knew his older brother held feelings for the red-haired girl.
Sasuke could hear his brother's thoughts during the flashes of the memories, even experience his feelings.
He turned his head towards the nightstand, where a clock sat.
3:28 a.m. Damn, even the time didn't fail to remind him of Sakura.
A sigh escaped his lips. This was the first time a flashback disturbed his sleep, though the pounding in his head decreased.
Those dreams, visions, memories... whatever. He didn't know why he was having them, but it gave him another perspective. He had only been aware of his own point of view, but he never really thought of the other party's feelings. He never considered it as it was never his nature.
Once he became fixated on something, he would selfishly do all he could to achieve it without a care for the world about him.
Now that it was presented to him, through his deceased older brother's memories no less, it gave him an outlook of how Sakura felt. Because the similarity between the roles Itachi and Sakura played could not be denied, just like how his was with that Ayaka.
Ayaka stayed though; he didn't.
If Itachi felt so scared, so desperate, so hurt when Ayaka was leaving... how did Sakura feel when he left?
He honestly didn't want to but he couldn't stop to think about it. It didn't help that Sakura's voice overlapped with the dream—he decided to still refer to them as dreams because they still appeared in his sleep.
.
.
.
Sakura looked at him funny when he opened the door that morning, four hours later.
"Didn't get a good night's sleep?"
"Hn."
Sasuke couldn't look at her, he felt ashamed knowing how she felt when she knew he was leaving but could only imagine how worse she felt when he really left.
Nonetheless he immediately noticed the lack of another presence she almost never failed bring.
"Where's Chichi?" He realized he couldn't call his nephew by his brother's name either.
"With Naruto," she chirped, "He wants to have an uncle-nephew bonding."
"At Ichiraku's?"
A pink eyebrow rose as an amused glint danced in her eyes.
"Chichi loves the fishcake."
He snorted. Right, another excuse for the dobe to drown in ramen.
"So what's the agenda for today?" she asked as they entered the kitchen, where Sakura immediately headed to the cupboards to prepare tea.
She was honestly asking him? Wasn't she the one who was in-charge?
"You tell me," he deadpanned, as he crossed his arms across his chest.
"Well... uhm, I was actually hoping if we could skip it today?"
His dark onyx eyes narrowed suspiciously; Sakura do not skip her duties, no matter how small and trivial it was. Something's up, something he knew he wouldn't possibly like.
"Why?"
"I have some business to attend to tonight."
Now that was vague. And it only arose Sasuke's curiosity.
"That's still several hours away."
"But it needs preparing for."
"What? A mission?"
"No, nothing big like that," then she paused, obviously hesitating before continuing, "Just a date."
The way she said the last part so nonchalantly only ignited something within him. Something he hadn't felt for a long time.
.
.
.
"Oi, teme. What are we doing here again?" they were standing at a tree branch overlooking the fancy restaurant, where Sakura and her date sat across from each other in a candle-lit dinner.
When the other man didn't answer, Naruto continued quite nervously which should've stricken the Uchiha odd but he didn't because his dark eyes were focused on the two inside the restaurant.
"You know, Sakura-chan doesn't appreciate anyone snooping on her dates. I did it once, you know... during her first date... at least her first date since I came back but I heard she's been dating before I even came back but only because she's too polite to decline... anyway, I did and... we'll, let's just say that the healing abilities of the Kyuubi wasn't enough to heal the injuries I suffered from her fists that I had to be confined in the hospital for three agonizing days."
Sasuke stopped listening the moment he heard "first date".
She dated before? This wasn't the fucking first? He honestly didn't know how to feel about that new piece of information. Holding his nephew left in his care to babysit because his supposed caretaker was in a fucking date tighter, he leapt down from the tree branch and started heading home. He did not even hear the "oi, Sasuke!" Naruto called after him.
He's had enough, and this was just too much—he's not a freaking masochist.
tbc.
thank you for ALL the amazing reviews! but we try to reach up to 70+? as Christmas gift?
note(s): i had to watch naruto episode 132 (more than twice) just to get this chapter done and over with—do you guys have no idea how painful it was for me to watch the scene when sasuke left the village? btw, the amount of research i do to make my chapters possible is extremely bothersome. i had to reread chapters and rewatch episodes. but next chapter was probably the most excruciating chapter i've ever written (yet). and i'm already got ideas for the ending...
kk, got a question. so i'm turning eighteen in what? 9 months? you guys think i should save up for it?
AND! I'd like to recommend to you all an incredibly unique beautiful SasuSaku fanfic by Ichigo Kuroyuki, The Truth. Trust me it's so good! SO unique.
last note! anyone read Kishimoto's latest interview yet? (at likenaruto[dot]com) MORE SASUKE NEXT YEAR! (that's what the interview says!) Yeah!
[reviews are highly appreciated.]