Reunion, Uchiha Sasuke
He reunited with his long-lost wife and Sakura learned the hard way to never assume an elf's heart isn't already spoken for.
prompt: inspired by a Fantasy AU fanart of Team Seven, with Sasuke as a dark elf, Naruto as a hero, and Sakura as a mage.
featuring characters: Uchiha Sasuke, Higurashi Kagome (pregnant), Uzumaki Naruto, and Haruno Sakura. AU.
tags: Angst, Fluff, One-sided romance, and Heartbreak.
"Sakura…?" Naruto murmured quietly, not blind to the red flush in the mage's cheeks. Even her emerald green eyes were a little too shiny, teeming with unshed tears, and her teeth were biting into her lips so deeply that a bit of blood seeped. The way she had been clenching her magic staff was telling of her heart breaking into a thousand pieces like fragile glass.
The pain ran so deep, slicing through her smiling demeanor like the demon's claws, and left behind a searing pain no healing spell could mend. The realization that her love for the dark elf had ever been nothing more than a distinct misty dream had left Sakura choking, that her love had always been unrequited. As she raked her nails into the polished wood of her staff, all she could do was to watch on in pained silence as Sasuke of the Uchiha Woods embraced his long-lost bride.
He was now forever out of her reach.
Naruto bit down on his tongue, his blue gaze fixed on the same scene, as a surge of emotions rose from within. He hated how his heart had been torn apart in two. One part of him couldn't help but to cheer at the rare happiness radiating from Sasuke finding solace in his beloved's arms after so many years apart. Yet, from deep within, he grieved for his companion's broken heart.
"...They did say to expect elves to be already spoken for, you know," Naruto murmured, knowing it was not the best thing to say to his pink-haired friend and that he would probably be inviting himself to some pain at her hands. Even their childhood teacher cautioned Sakura against falling in love with Sasuke, when he caught winds of her growing obsession with the handsome elf through the grapevine.
Sakura had been setting herself up for heartbreak for years now.
Sakura bit back the urge to set the hero on fire and hissed, "Shut up, Naruto."
Naruto held back a sigh, resting his eyes on the couple's weeping exchange. Despite the mage's broken heart, he was unable to help a small smile growing on his lips upon the flustered face Sasuke wore over his wife, Kagome. Shakily, the elf rested his hands on her rounded belly and nearly sagged to his feet upon feeling her warm skin on his.
As if he never imagined he'd feel her breathing again, to have her back in his embrace, and to hear her soft voice in his long ears.
Upon the sight, the hero murmured, "To think that someone like Sasuke-teme would be so happy about finding the cure for the Basilisk's curse…I never imagined a cold-hearted bastard like him would ever smile like that."
"...I always thought he was talking about his family—like his parents and brother…" Sakura trailed off in a disquieting mumble, before she forced herself to spit the rest out, almost like vomit, "I…I didn't think he was talking about his pregnant wife."
Immediately, Naruto stood on guard from the way the poison lined the mage's words. He said firmly, his single word a warning, "Sakura."
Sakura hung back with a slow sigh and hid her wretched face by dragging down her large hat and clutching her bulbous staff, "…I really set myself up for this, huh."
"...I'm sorry," Naruto sympathized, relaxing his stance.
Sasuke had been utterly disinterested in anyone vying for his affection, including even a powerful white mage like the beautiful Sakura. The final showdown with the demonic villain made his motivation clear. Exposing the truth behind the elf's intention, that his heart had long been captured by another, and was driven to seek an impossible cure to save the woman he was so desperate for. To free his wife from the curse that spread among his people.
The moment the cure fell into Sasuke's grasp, he had all but dashed to his mystical home.
Surrounded by gigantic trees and kneeling bodies turned to stone, a profound sense of fear and sorrow became entrenched in the air. Vines and leaves were overgrown, entwining over the statues and shrouding any traces of the creatures that lived there before. Each petrified form shared a haunting tale of their harrowing final moments, of their final hour as a breathing, living person running for their lives. The elegant forest now stood as their graveyard, with each statue somberly watching as countless seasons passed them by.
For somewhere so beautiful, it was also a terrifying place to be—and Naruto finally understood why Sasuke had been such a hard-nosed bastard hellbent on getting his way. He was an elf who had nothing else to lose but his sanity and time.
Meanwhile, Sakura wished that such dedication as Sasuke showed would have been for her instead. She envied Kagome, a woman who seemed so tiny in the towering elf's arms that she looked so out of place by his side. Bitterly, she refused to look at Sasuke's wife he chased a cure for so, so long.
"How long had it been?" Kagome's fearful voice rang out, drawing the hero and mage's attention.
Sasuke quietened, pausing his caressing hands on her belly. He averted from his wife's soulful eyes and sighed, with pain piercing each one of his breaths, "Kagome…"
"Tell me," Kagome insisted, cupping the elf's face and feeling his warmth on her soft hands.
He grimaced, relishing in his wife's need for his affection, and clenched his eyes shut. Sasuke shuddered, his answer slow and reluctant, "It'd been over a hundred years."
Kagome looked at Sasuke's confession in quiet horror, "Oh, Sasuke…!"
When she attempted to scan their haunting surroundings, trying to assess how many others the monster had cursed, Sasuke quickly grasped her face and gently stopped her, saying, "Don't. Think about our baby for now. I'll take care of everything else. I promise," he wrapped his heavy cloak around her head and leaned into Kagome's comforting touch, assuring her, "I'll undo the curse—and we'll all be happy again, okay?"
"I…" Kagome tried, but her lips were stolen in a tender kiss by Sasuke.
When Sasuke pulled away, he gently caressed Kagome's belly and asked, "How's the baby?"
Knowing there were boundaries not to push, Kagome pulled herself deeper into her husband's cloak and inhaled his comforting scent. It felt like an eternity and a half since she last savored his subtle aroma in their bed that very morning—and Kagome supposed that it had been, for both of them. She shuddered, realizing just how much time had been lost for them.
Oh her poor Sasuke…
Seeing Sasuke's worried expression, Kagome hurriedly reassured with a weak laugh, "She's kicking my spleen right now, probably angry that her lovely long nap had been interrupted. Can't you feel her?"
As if upon hearing the mother's words, Sasuke felt a small foot hitting the sole of his palm. He relaxed his tensions, smiling slightly at their child's willfulness, "Oh, so she is."
Even their unborn child had been saved from the Basilisk's curse…! There is no small amount of gods Sasuke would have to thank for this small miracle. But, for now, as he discreetly looked through the darkening forest, he needed to get Kagome to safety.
"Naruto, Sakura," Sasuke pulled away from his wife, turning his feet to face his two companions. He gestured his head downward, apologizing, "I haven't introduced you two to my wife properly. This is Kagome of the Uchiha Woods. My Kagome," Sasuke raised an arm towards his two allies, "those are two of the few who helped me along the way over the years. Naruto is the whiskered hero and," there was a brief reluctant pause upon seeing the twisted expression the mage wore, but Sasuke ignored it and continued, "Sakura, the white mage."
Sasuke had never been oblivious to her longing, but his heart was never his to share. Whatever misery Sakura was feeling, it was her pain to deal with. He could only hope she would find solace soon, and
without him.
That was all the kindness he was willing to spend, simply because Sakura had been a good, talented comrade. To call her a friend though, wasn't a question he was comfortable dwelling on. Sasuke found her to be the type of person to take an inch to turn it into a mile—and that was not an inch he was going to give with that woman.
"Oh!" Kagome blinked, as if finally registering that there had been other living souls around, and her pretty face lit up with a beaming smile, "Thanks so much for being good friends to my Sasuke! I'm sure he had been quite difficult to get along with, at times—"
"Blah, ya think!?" Naruto chortled, resting his head on his raised arms, and beamed back to Kagome's soft laughter, "He is a downright bastard even at the worst of times!"
"Na-ru-to!" Sakura flustered and snapped at the hero, determined to defend Sasuke, but Kagome quickly interrupted with a giggle.
Pressing the knuckles to her lips, Kagome leaned into her scowling Sasuke and beamed, "He can be pretty hardheaded at times, but he does mean well."
"You're the hardheaded one, woman," Sasuke grumbled halfheartedly, flushing his wife to his side, and briefly pressed his nose on the crown of her head. A common elven tradition, to show where his heart lay.
It had been too long since his senses savored her comforting, soft scent, of a subtle fragrant soap his mother handmade, and the silky texture of his wife's long hair. It was beyond nostalgic. The small display of affection made Kagome fluster, being unused to her husband's openness when he had always been quiet with his love for her.
As her cheeks colored brightly from Sasuke's sudden possessiveness, the elf above her was happy to be seeing her smiling face again.
His gaze moved past Kagome, his warmth fading to professional coldness, as he fixed a stern look at his two companions. Sasuke clicked his teeth upon Naruto's sudden reply.
"You're definitely almost too good for him!" Naruto laughed, enjoying a rare gentleness on his favorite arrogant elf, and braced his hands on his hips. Minding his swords, the hero snickered with an infectious smile, "Oh, he got it bad for ya. All he ever cared about was finding that dang cure—"
Sasuke cleared his throat with a slight snarl, "Dobe."
Naruto caught the hint and snickered again, "Shutting up now."
The last thing the very pregnant woman needed to hear was the lonely, hellish years her husband endured to free her from the curse—and the hero was empathetic enough to spare her what little heartaches they could avoid. Undoubtedly, Kagome would have wept more for the time her husband lost, living only out of the desperation to have the person he loved the most back in his arms.
That elf left no stones unturned, sparing no expense to save his beloved wife. Every second had been spent to have her freed of the Basilisk's curse.
And there she was, in the flesh, and deep in the trench of the elf who would never let her and their unborn child leave his side ever again.
As the corners of Kagome's brows knitted in worry upon their jilted exchange, Sasuke rested his hand on the small of his wife's back and demanded firmly, "We're leaving. Stay together—there is no telling if the curse won't return, and I'm not chancing my Kagome's well-being if we stay here any longer. Sakura,"
Completely erasing her jealous scowl from underneath the wide brim of her hat, Sakura perked up upon hearing her name from the elf's baritone voice, "Y, yes!?"
"Can you teleport us to the nearest village? My Kagome," Sasuke never missed how quickly the mage's expression fell, but ignored her hurt feelings and continued, "needs a comfortable bed to rest. Her comfort and safety should be prioritized."
Sakura nearly dropped her staff from her pitifully weak grip, before she could muster a shudder, "Y, yes, I can cast a teleportation spell. P," it was a struggle to mask her heart breaking all over again from the warm way Sasuke said his wife's name, "please give me a moment to set up the spell…"
The mage dug the pointy end of her staff into the coarse dirt, drawing a hurried circle, as she was determined to keep her glare away from Kagome.
Kagome stifled a wince, not oblivious to the sour expression the white mage wore. She remembered that feeling all too well from her youth, but the broken heart was Sakura's own to bear. Kagome pressed herself tighter against her husband's solid chest and suppressed her sigh beneath his chin.
She was not going to surrender her Sasuke to spare some stranger's feelings.
Briefly, Kagome met Naruto's gaze and he reassured her with a thumbs-up behind the murmuring mage's back, his goofy expression masking his wisdom. Following his open gesture, an arm curled protectively around her neck, and her husband's silky voice whispered into her ear, "Don't. She's not worth our concern—not when I should be yours."
Kagome caught a subtle warning that she wouldn't find peace for many nights to come, as Sasuke had endured many miserable years without her in his arms. She hid her creeping smile in the curve of Sasuke's possessive arm and gently traced a thumb along her husband's jawline.
"You…you must've truly missed me."
Sasuke quietened, his eyes following Naruto as he turned his back and distracted Sakura to give him some semblance of privacy, and struggled for a reply. He was never adept with his words, especially when it came to expressing the wants of his heart. He swallowed hard, unable to hide a slight quiver in his voice, and leaned into Kagome's touch. In a shuddered breath, he murmured, "K, Kagome…"
"Just kiss me again, you idiot. I can tell you were dying to."
Sasuke captured her lips, deeper than their last, with a hint of his desperation. A hand clasped the back of her neck, drawing her flatter against his lean body, and his other held the small of her back tenderly. Kagome's heart raced upon feeling the intensity of his kiss, and in that moment, she remembered their wedding day, with every ounce of the same love and passion they had pledged to each other.
Kagome's cheeks burned when they broke apart, and Sasuke rested his forehead upon hers. Their breaths intertwined, and all she could do was to hold his cheeks, murmuring an old elven verse she used to sing to reassure him—a comforting habit Kagome realized her husband had sorely missed.
"It only felt like hours to me, but I missed you too," Kagome whispered upon seeing the slight glistening in Sasuke's obsidian-colored eyes.
He nearly staggered into her arms once again at her sweet gentleness and buried his face in her hair, "I missed you more than you could've known."
His voice was soft, but in the distance, Sakura heard him like he was a booming thunder.
Thick tears split from her jade green eyes and sobs came unbidden from her lips. Sakura didn't reject the comforting hand that laid on her shoulder, as she wept for the love she never had. "Sasuke…"
Her trusty staff jabbed deep into her finished magic circle, channeling her broken heart to the ground. Instead of casting her magic, Sakura fell into Naruto's awaiting arms and clenched onto his battered armor.
Naruto held her close and sighed, sparing few words to comfort his dear pink-haired friend.
At least, the whiskered hero thought, Sasuke found his happy ending.
—end
a/n: So, uhhh, yeah, this was spurred from a random fanart Kiba shared forever ago. I'm not sure who the artist is (and I didn't feel like digging) and it sparked a random idea to write Sasuke as a dark elf and Kagome his (human) wife. Kagome's likely the saintess though but I'm leaving her role open to your imagination. I also have doodles up for viewing over in ao3!
In other news, I'm renewing the Love in Archive collection but I'm separating any new ficlet here for better tagging and compiling them here in a brand new collection, to better reflect my improved (?) writing? IDK if I can say my new writing's an improvement, but I can tell enough difference that I feel weird adding any of my new writing to the old LiA.
Still, I hope this is a good compromise in ensuring no reader would be taken off guard by any unwanted surprise for those who use ao3. Here, well, I'll do my best to apply whatever relevant tag and warning each installment though!
Anyway, go ahead and leave whatever prompt you have in mind for any pairing I've written before! I'll be slowly adding (and editing) any prompt fill I haven't added to the first volume of LiA here from my old tumblr.