The battlefield was chaos—screams, chakra, dust in the air so thick it coated her tongue. Sakura's fists were bloodied, her chakra almost depleted, but her mind burned with something else.
He was back.
Sasuke.
She'd seen him arrive just minutes ago, standing beside Naruto and the resurrected Hokages like he had always been meant to be there, like he hadn't once torn the team, her heart, and everything in between apart.
His eyes, sharp as always, flickered past her like she was just another ninja in the crowd.
No smile.
No recognition.
No words.
She hadn't expected warmth, not from Sasuke. But she'd hoped… Maybe deep down, he'd say something. Anything. Maybe"Sakura."Just her name, said with even a shred of familiarity.
Instead, he spoke only to Naruto.
To Kakashi.
And to the battlefield.
When the dust settled for a moment and they regrouped, she forced herself close to him under the guise of strategy. Her heart pounded painfully as she stood near him for the first time in years.
"Sasuke," she said quietly, not wanting to alert the others to the trembling in her voice. "Why did you come back?"
He looked at her then. Really looked at her.
And something in his gaze was terrifyingly empty.
"I didn't come back," he said, voice devoid of malice but colder than she'd ever heard. "I'm here to finish what I started. This war, the system—it all needs to end. I'm not here for you."
Her breath caught. She waited, like there had to be a follow-up. A softening. A joke, even a cruel one. But that was it.
Not here foryou.
"I thought…" she tried, swallowing thickly. "I thought maybe after all this time—"
"Don't," he interrupted, eyes narrowing just slightly. "Don't confuse loyalty with love. You were a comrade. Nothing more."
The words hit harder than any wound she'd taken during the war. Her hands curled into fists at her sides, nails biting into her palms. She wanted to scream at him, to ask why he let her believe for so long, why he didn't stop her when she begged him to stay, why he let her love him when there was never even a chance.
But she didn't.
She just nodded once, turned back toward the battlefield, and walked away.
Sasuke didn't call after her.
He never had.