Naruto fic: Silence Before Dawn (NaruSakuSasu R)
Title: Silence Before Dawn
Pairing(s): NaruSakuSasu
Warning(s): none, if you are up to date with the manga. :D
Genre(s): Angst - and a bit of Romance?
Rating: hard R
Word Length: 5.300 aprox
Description: On the eve of Konoha’s battle with Sound, Naruto and Sakura find themselves running off to meet an old friend - and enemy - in secret.
Written for scoured during the naruto_wishlist exchange. ;)
Silence Before Dawn
”Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into friend.”
--- Marting Luther King Jr.
It was a silence unlike any other. Darkness brewed in the clouds above, rolling into waves that promised a storm to remember. The wind blew cold and harsh, yet silent. There were no more leaves to knock off the trees, naked branches waited for the snow with open arms.
“Naruto! Up ahead!” Sakura’s sure-footed leaps were only a hand’s breath behind him. Naruto signalled that he’d heard and dropped off the tree with a low thud. Sakura landed behind him, shifting her weight when a shrub rustled to the side.
“It’s only a rabbit,” Naruto whispered, inhaling the tangy scent of fur and fear.
Sakura nodded and pocketed the kunai she’d been holding. “The Inn should be up ahead, where the forest breaks into a clearing. The city is only half a mile beyond that.”
“They will be caught in the fray…” Naruto murmured, worriedly.
Sakura shrugged, finding her sudden detachment alarmingly easy. “They were warned as much as we could warn them. They’re not called secret wars for nothing, Naruto, and---”
But Naruto’s mind was focused elsewhere. Slitted pupils narrowed as he studied the darkness in front of them. At least his eyes were still blue, Sakura mused. It had been quite a few months since his pupils were stuck as they were now, vulpine and strange. “You’re right, I can smell the Inn’s fires.”
Sakura nodded, no longer disturbed by that kind of comment. “Okay then. Are we still going forwards with this?”
Naruto hesitated. He stopped breathing for a moment and closed his eyes. He struggled to calm himself and think about what they were doing, but there was no time for that now. The results might be disastrous, but there was only one way for them to go.
Sakura waited, itching to hurry towards the Inn, just in case. “Naruto, he might be gone if we’re late.”
Naruto’s eyes opened and he stood up, nodding. “I get it. It’s just---“
“I know,” Sakura echoed softly. It hurt to think too much about it, to contemplate what might be waiting for them ahead.
Knowing it might be a trap, they still had been unable to refuse.
Naruto’s fingers slipped around hers, warm and reassuring. “Let’s go, then.”
* * *
“I didn’t think you’d come,” Sasuke murmured, breaking the silence at last. Naruto frowned, but said nothing.
They sat around a small round table, sipping tea, playing at being civilians who hid from the gathering storm at a run-down Inn. Sharing the round table and staring into each other’s faces, Sakura felt as if the world had come to a stop.
The Innkeeper brought them a dishful of bean pastries and clucked her tongue at the darkening skies. “Storm’s ahead.”
Sasuke gave the woman a bland stare and then looked out the window. His eyes slowly scanned the skies, and then settled back on Naruto and Sakura. “Yes.” He replied, at last.
Sakura dropped her gaze to her cup. It was cheap porcelain, the kind found in a cheap Inn, in a poor country --- where a war might tear the lands to shreds. She sighed inwardly, trying to keep her nerves steeled. If anyone found out who they were meeting with, both she and Naruto might be court-martialed.
Sasuke seemed to read her thoughts, as always. “I figured it would be too risky for both of you to come.”
Naruto’s eyes flashed dangerously. “You’re an idiot for thinking that we wouldn’t come.”
Sakura watched them stare at each other, feeling her chest was about to burst. It felt like ages since the last time they had been together like this - it had been ages - and seeing them now made her throat tighten. Naruto still looked like the sun, bright and strong, inexorable like gravity. Sasuke’s changes had only made him more like the moon, cool and pale, silent and powerful, like a tide.
And she? Sakura supposed she was like the Earth, caught between one and the other, pulled out of her own orbit by the strength of their destinies. It was no longer a place she resented. She wished, however, to have been strong enough to draw them towards her, rather than have them crack her apart.
“You knew there was no way we would refuse, Sasuke,” Sakura spoke up suddenly, catching his dark gaze with her own. “You knew we would risk it.”
Sasuke smirked darkly. “Indeed. You’re both fools.”
“And you? Are you a fool, Sasuke? Because either you are… or this is a trap. And I’d much rather have it spring on us now, than later.”
“Yeah, bastard. The anticipation is killing us, literally.” The longer they were away, the higher the chances one of the ANBU might notice they did not go on their designated path. And then---
Sasuke clasped his hands on the table, tilting his head sideways. The gesture was so reminiscent of Orochimaru it chilled Sakura to the bone. “You two haven’t changed at all.” Sasuke seemed disturbed by this fact; what he’d said was not a statement of fact, it was a complaint.
“You have,” Naruto snapped back morosely.
Sasuke smiled at the instant response, and for a moment a film of nostalgia covered their movements, making their thoughts sluggish.
“So?” Sakura pressed, and the mirage of companionship cracked like thin glass.
Sasuke sighed and sat back slightly. He seemed ill at ease. “There is no trap,” he admitted at last, with a grimace.
Naruto made a rude sound; Sakura smacked him over the back of the head, earning them a nasty glare from the innkeeper.
“No, really, fucker. Where’s the catch?” Naruto demanded, and Sakura felt her skin prickle under the static of Naruto’s repressed chakra.
“There isn’t any.” Sasuke spread his hands, palms up, an unexpected capitulation. “I only wished for us to meet.”
Naruto’s face had gone deathly pale. Sakura knew how he felt: too terrified to hope.
“Why?” She managed to squeeze past her lips, a thin whisper. Naruto couldn’t speak, she could see it in the bone-white tightness of his jaw.
Sasuke frowned, visibly upset with himself. “I just-“ He sighed and looked out the window before going on, avoiding their eyes. “The conflict will begin in earnest tomorrow.”
Sakura turned her cup in circles, considering Sasuke’s evasive answer and what he might not be saying. She watched the tea slosh a bit. “Yes.” It was no secret that Konoha would attack the next day. Kumo planned on doing the same thing, and having Oto as their allies made things all the more complicated for Konoha.
Suna had promised to stand beside Konoha and they would have, if not for the pressure laid upon them by feudal lords who feared the spreading wars. To this moment, there was no certainty on whether they would receive reinforcements or not. Though Sakura had a feeling that, if worse came to pass, Sabaku no Gaara would come on his own, if not for Konoha, then for Naruto and for Lee. She held onto that hope.
Be as it may, Konoha would engage in it’s 4th secret war when the sun set on the following day; and that might well have been the end of everything between them, had Sasuke not contacted them, asking both Naruto and Sakura to meet him at this Inn.
“Sasuke--- you still haven’t told us why you called us here.”
Naruto was staring holes into Sasuke’s head. Sakura could see the hairs on the back of Sasuke’s neck were standing on end, electrified by Naruto’s aggressive intent.
Sasuke took a deep, deep breath and he visibly forced his shoulders to loosen. “Because,” was all he said.
Naruto let out a low growl. “Just how selfish can you be!? Because you wanted to? You made Sakura risk her neck just because!?”
“Naruto, enough,” Sakura murmured, keeping her eyes trained on Sasuke’s face. “Let him tell us why he called us here. Let him say it clearly,” she went on, voice caustic. Sasuke had better speak up now, or they were both leaving.
Naruto’s anger went beyond her capacity to appease. “No, Sakura-chan! That’s not an answer that’s---“
Sakura narrowed her eyes, having kept her gaze trained onto Sasuke from the moment he’d spoken. Sasuke’s eyes flickered between her and Naruto, torn between her cooling manner and Naruto’s increasing rage.
“--- there might not be another chance, after this,” Sasuke let out in a tight hiss, and glared at them as if they’d forcibly torn the words from his throat. His subsequent anger didn’t quite mask what they’d both heard. Sakura shivered, her nerves were burned raw by the faltering emotion in Sasuke’s voice, she could tell that Naruto had noticed it too.
Naruto’s hands were shaking. His frown deepened, but some of his rage seemed to fade. “… and?”
Sasuke’s back tensed, markedly defensive. “And what? What more do you want me to say?”
“That you’re sorry,” was Naruto’s unblinking reply.
Sasuke’s face paled with anger. “I’m not.”
“Fuck you, then,” Naruto snarled, and moved to stand up. Sakura hastily grabbed his sleeve and pulled him back down. Naruto’s legs twisted oddly as he was forced to sit and the table was jostled. The clutter made the innkeeper give them an even dirtier look.
“You’re still as graceful as a mule, apparently,” Sasuke remarked around a dark little smirk.
“Why you---“
“Enough! Both of you!” Her angry whisper stopped them both from picking up the argument again. Naruto appeared honestly chagrined, Sasuke’s eyes widened a fraction. “Sasuke,” she snapped, focusing on him. “You swear this is not a trap, then? No plot of Orochimaru’s? Or yours?”
“There is no trap, Sakura. Just me.”
Naruto face seemed to want to crumple. He looked away quickly and Sakura let him be for a bit, keeping Sasuke’s attention on her. They didn’t need this. Naruto didn’t need this, not now of all times. “So… why now?”
Why now, when war was imminent and there was no turning back? Why now, when she and Naruto had finally sorted themselves out… for the most part. Sasuke excelled at being inopportune, now more than ever.
Naruto sucked in a shaky breath as Sasuke’s silence lengthened. Sasuke glanced at Naruto and Sakura saw the look on his face when he caught Naruto’s fragmenting expression. It made her breath catch with the sheer weight of the possibilities she saw there.
Then Sasuke was looking back at her with those same eyes.
“Let’s go somewhere more private,” Sasuke said at last, cocking his head towards the innkeeper. “I booked a room for us.”
* * *
Sakura sat with Sasuke for a while, listening to the sound of water running in the bathroom. Naruto had argued that he ‘felt like a piss’, but Sakura suspected he’d gone in to wash his eyes out and get his nerves back under control. She was surprised by how calm she felt at the moment, considering the situation. She didn’t feel like herself at all.
Sasuke sat on the floor, one forearm resting over a nearby window. A flash of light momentarily blinded them, when she could see again, Sasuke was staring straight at her. A flush crept up her neck under the intense scrutiny. This wasn’t an ordinary stare, that was a underlying pull that wanted to take her down. Sasuke had never looked at her like that before. Then again, they had been children, and the person who was looking at her now was - undoubtedly - a man.
Sakura returned his gaze with equal ferocity and found an answering smile touching Sasuke’s lips. It left her completely unprepared for his next words. “I heard that you and Naruto are together now. Is that true?”
Sakura thought she’d react more visibly to a question like that. Thankfully, she did not. Her heart shook and her belly tumbled right down to her knees, but she managed to keep a straight face. “Yes. Jealous?”
He didn’t answer her question; instead, he asked another of his own. “For how long?”
“Almost a year.” And again: “Jealous?”
Sasuke looked up at the roof, counting in his head. “So, the last time we fought, you had already hooked up?” It seemed so vulgar in Sasuke’s mouth, the term ‘hooked up’. What she and Naruto had was so far beyond that she couldn’t quite put it in words.
What she felt for Sasuke was just as complex.
“We hooked up after that encounter with you.” She let him digest that in silence for a few minutes.
Sasuke turned his face towards the window again. “How did it happen?” He sounded honestly curious, but beyond that, Sakura could not divine his true feelings on the matter. She refused to believe he had called them there to ask about their current love-affairs.
“It just happened, Sasuke. He… I…well, we just… It happened,” she flushed, suddenly discomfited by the situation. How could she possibly explain what they had both felt that night? It had been about the two of them and it had been about Sasuke. But what came out of it, that, was wholly their own.
“Hm… I thought---“ Sasuke shook his head, suddenly. “I didn’t know you liked him like that.”
Sakura resisted the urge to roll her eyes. So very like Sasuke, to not even consider she might not always be the same unreliable little girl who loved him terribly.
She still loved him terribly, of course. But now there was also Naruto, and in many ways, she was glad that things had turned out the way they had. She loved Naruto now, and that would have been a terrible thing to miss out on. “Jealous?” She asked, pricked by his constant avoidance of that question.
Sasuke gave her an impatient stare. “What would you do if I said I was?”
Sakura sat back slowly, feeling as if she’d been slapped but unwilling to let it show. “I---“ She hadn’t really thought of what he would answer.
“What would you do, Sakura?” Sasuke demanded, and his voice had gone dangerously low. “Gloat? Feel sad? Regret your choice?”
“Sasuke, I…”
Sasuke’s eyes had darkened, making it impossible for her to see where the iris ended and the pupil started. Another flash of lightning blinded her. “What if I said it wasn’t you I was jealous about,” Sasuke’s voice pierced through the thunder like a blade.
Sakura’s mouth snapped shut, her hands tightened into fists. Sasuke might have been trying to throw her off, but she had gotten really good at bouncing back. Oh ho. Two can play that came, she thought. “I wouldn’t be that surprised, actually.”
Sasuke’s eyebrows shot up. “Oh?” He sounded amused now. He sounded like Orochimaru. “I thought you’d be devastated.” She wanted to wipe that snake’s smirk from his face.
“That you’re gay? Honestly, it’s not like the signs weren’t there. And Naruto is…” She saw the tightening of Sasuke’s face and felt strangely elated. Ah. Not so happy and gloating after all, are we? “Well, Naruto is all man.”
“And fox.”
“Endless stamina,” she countered, knowing she was gaining ground. And then it struck her, all of a sudden, that she was upholding Naruto’s sexual prowess to Sasuke, of all people. A giddy laugh tried to inch up her throat but she swallowed it down. “And he sticks to manly clothes. No gay-fisherman shirts, no ribbons on his ass. Honestly Sasuke, such flaming clothes you wear.”
Sasuke’s eyebrows were one straight line, casting a dark shadow over his face. “My clothes aren’t fl---“ He pursed his lips and visibly calmed himself. Score for me, she guessed. “You are taking it very well.”
“I might take it worse if it were true,” Sakura replied flippantly. “But I happen to have seen you ogle my breasts twice as I moved. So you can’t be all gay either. Maybe just your clothes.” Sasuke’s face was twisted up in the oddest expression she had even seen on him. “Or maybe… you could be gay about Naruto, at most.”
“I take back my earlier assessment. You have changed,” Sasuke murmured, with a hint of amused awe in his voice.
Sakura felt herself flush, and hated herself for that girly little reaction “I haven’t changed Sasuke, I merely grew. You would have noticed the difference if you’d stuck around for it.”
Sasuke’s eyes went blank and he looked away. “It’s useless to dwell on what-ifs.” Sakura cursed herself as she felt Sasuke retreat from her, and from the entire conversation. She hadn’t meant to push him inwards again, not after he was finally opening up to her.
“Then what’s this? Why did you call us here, if not for that?” She demanded, anger burning in the pit of her stomach.
Sasuke opened his mouth to answer, but he said nothing. He pressed his lips together and settled for a sad smile instead. “How strange… you seem to have developed a knack for making me say more than I want to.”
Light swallowed them up again and her little gasp was drowned by the crack of thunder.
They both looked up as it started to rain, the steady drumming on the roof swallowed their anger under a blanket of sound. She wished Naruto were sitting beside her and holding her hand. On nights like this they would always stay awake in bed and talk.
But Naruto was still in the bathroom, the erratic pulse of his chakra was the only proof she had of his presence… and of his despairing, terrible love for Sasuke, so very much like her own.
Sakura lowered her gaze before meeting Sasuke’s eyes again. He seemed tired, but calm. He seemed happy to see them, and that just about broke her heart.
She got up and walked up to him, not sure of what she was doing any longer. When she reached out to touch his cheek, he didn’t move away. “Sasuke…” she breathed, suddenly terrified of how close he was letting her come.
His skin was warm, not cold, like a snake’s. Sakura felt something uncurl within herself. She pressed closer, placing her palm over his cheek. “Oh… Sasuke, for so long, we’ve s----“ She never finished that sentence.
Sasuke’s lips covered her mouth and silence fell like a blanket over her mind. He’d moved faster than she thought possible, she hadn’t even had time to pull out a senbon; and if it had been anybody else she would have been dead by then, but it was----
Sasuke tipped his head sideways, deepening the kiss, and her thoughts flew out the window and into the storm. Sakura’s hand twitched before settling on his head, curling into his dark hair. How strangely personal that was, to feel him shiver when she touched his ears and feathered her hands over his scalp. Sakura moaned quietly, her nerves were a tightening flame and she couldn’t breathe right. Sasuke sighed and pulled her close, arms tightening around her waist like bands of steel.
This was… it was… they were----
She hadn’t even imagined it could be---
“Sakura… chan…” That devastated little whisper came from behind her. It made her blood run cold.
For a moment, time seemed slow down to a crawl. Something had stretched between the three of them, pulled taut over the years, and it snapped in that instant of nothing.
She stumbled to her feet in a rush, feeling her head spin. “Naruto, I---“ What could she possibly say? How had she ended up like that? “I didn’t---“
Sasuke had moved to stand too.
Sakura reached out for Naruto’s arm but he stepped back wildly, and his eyes, Naruto’s eyes… she had never seen that look from him. But Sasuke had, that much was clear from his sharp intake of breath. Somehow, somewhere, Sasuke had seen Naruto break like this and it made her realise the enormity of what she’d done. “Naruto, it wasn’t---“ Wasn’t? What had it been then?
She sought her mind for the right words, but Naruto’s anguished face had scared her wits away. Sasuke had stayed behind her, watching them crack under the aftermath of his actions. She thought he’d laugh at them now, that this was what he’d planned for them, his final revenge.
Sasuke - true to himself - did none of what she expected. He watched them for a moment longer and then moved forwards. Naruto glanced up and his face became a mask of animalistic fury.
“You!” Naruto roared, as the marks on his cheeks deepened. “How dare y---ooof!” Naruto’s breath left him in a rush when Sasuke pushed Sakura into Naruto’s chest and rammed them both against the wall. Sakura gasped for air and wondered where her strength had gone, she felt like jelly. That feeling deepened when Sasuke pressed them against the wall, with Sakura trapped between their chests and Naruto’s back against the creaking wood.
Sasuke didn’t even give them time to react - or maybe they didn’t have it in them to react to this madness. He leaned over Sakura’s shoulder, squeezing her further, and he caught Naruto’s lips with his own. Naruto made the most incredible little sound… Sakura struggled to look up and she saw Naruto’s eyes - wide, terrified, vulnerable, hopeful, desperate - Naruto always wore his heart on his sleeve.
Sasuke snaked an arm around her belly, knuckles brushing Naruto’s pelvis. Naruto shuddered and - unexpectedly - groaned. Sasuke leaned in further, and the moist sound of their kiss made Sakura’s legs jerk. When she looked up again, Naruto had closed his eyes, but he kept his hands firmly planted against the wall.
Sakura could feel both their erections pressing against her. She wondered, briefly, if Sasuke had spiked their tea. But that thought disappeared as soon as Sasuke’s hand moved lower, fingers curling down and in between her legs. Naruto gasped when he heard her pant, and his hands flew to her hips. Sasuke rocked against her slowly, sensuously, the movement pushing her onto Naruto.
Naruto lifted one of his hands off her hips to touch Sasuke’s back, and Sakura knew - she knew, right there and then--- that they were lost. There was no way for them to turn away from Sasuke now.
Sasuke arched behind them with a stifled sound that made them both tremble with pure, undiluted want, and they tumbled and fell, down, down, down… into the shadows of the storm.
* * *
Sakura woke up to the sound of Naruto’s breathless gasps. She knew that sound. She recognised the faint pitch in Naruto’s breathing that always let her know he was about to come. She opened her eyes and saw Naruto’s face right beside her. His eyes were closed tight with pleasure as he pressed his cheek into the rumpled pillow. She looked further down, already knowing what she would find. Sasuke leaned between Naruto’s legs, fingers digging into Naruto’s knees as he moved.
Naruto’s legs kicked out and he let out one hoarse gasp, shaking on the bed. Sakura grasped his hand as he arched again, and saw him smile through gritted teeth. Her bones complained against the fierce grip on her fingers, but Naruto’s crumpled face as he came more than made up for it. He went boneless after a few seconds, his chest rising and falling rapidly.
Sasuke moved to sit, an unexpected softness crawling into his gaze. It made Sakura’s breath hitch.
There was light outside already.
Sakura couldn’t help but wonder how long Naruto and Sasuke had been at if, after she fell asleep. She watched them in silence now, revelling in the way Naruto’s face relaxed, brow smoothing into a look of utter contentment. Sasuke watched him too, profoundly silent, as Naruto’s breathing evened out into sleep. For the emotions that boiled in Sasuke’s dark eyes, Sakura had no name.
She carefully uncurled her fingers and pulled them out of Naruto’s grasp. Sasuke watched her for a moment, then his gaze slid back onto Naruto’s sleeping face. He seemed caught there, like a moth.
It was a long time before they spoke.
“Did you sleep at all?” She asked, more curious than jealous.
“Not really,” Sasuke murmured quietly. He looked exhausted, but at peace. His skin was a bit sallow in the half-light, but there was a warm flush on his cheeks and his hair was bed-mussed. She had never seen look so openly approachable before. Sasuke had never looked like he belonged anywhere, but now, in this bed ----
She hadn’t expected to have him clutch at them so intensely while he whispered their names. She hadn’t thought the three of them could be like that, and that it would work so well.
Neither she nor Naruto had ever expected to have this night. It almost made up for all the pain.
Almost.
A bird chirruped outside, a few others joined in. The clouds were parting and she could see a film of brilliance over the hills, where the sun had not yet risen.
Sasuke watched her quietly, carefully, and a wordless awareness stole over her. “If you leave now, he won’t wake up,” Sakura murmured, feeling her eyes prickle.
Sasuke gave her a long, searching look. “So… you knew I wouldn’t stay.” He didn’t sound surprised and Sakura felt pathetically flattered by that little acknowledgement.
“I h-had suspected it,” she whispered, a catch in her voice. “But I didn’t want to think about it.”
Sasuke lowered his eyes. He seemed to fight with himself, searching for the right thing to say. There was, however, nothing he could say that would make this right. “I’m not sorry about this either, you know,” his defensive little quip felt unexpectedly dear to her.
“Yeah, I know.” She wiped her eyes furiously. Naruto mumbled something unintelligible and slept on. Sasuke had outdone himself in tiring him and Sakura wondered if Naruto would appreciate that when he woke up. Sasuke hadn’t just been trying to put him to sleep, Sasuke had wanted to tell him something. And now--- “So… we’re enemies now? Will we meet on the battlefield?”
“No, Sakura, we won’t,” Sasuke’s voice was firm and quiet.
Sakura stopped breathing. “What do you mean?”
“Orochimaru will… it will happen today.” Fearless black eyes watched her digest this information, waiting for her to react.
The depth of his words punched her in the gut. Sakura covered her mouth with her hands to keep her sobs in. Why was she crumbling now, when she’d been so strong the night before? She hated it. “W-we can s-still s-stop it. Sasuke, we c-can…”
Sasuke shook his head. “No, Sakura. It has to be like this. The Akatsuki will be here today, at nightfall. Itachi will be there.”
Itachi…
Sakura glanced down at the man who slept beside her, fear clutching her heart in its grip. “Naruto,” She whispered tensely, and as soon as she had said it, she realised who she had thought of first. She looked up at Sasuke, but he was smiling, a sad yet perfect little smile. “They will come for him.”
Sasuke nodded. “The last Jinchuuriki,” his voice was soft, almost affectionate. His eyes, when he looked at her, were calm. “So, you see… I have to do this.”
“Sasuke, we can fight them together!”
Sasuke chuckled lowly. “You are Konoha-nin, in the middle of a secret war. What could you possibly do without betraying your village, Sakura? I am a missing-nin, and I have waited a long time to kill Itachi.”
“But Sasuke---“
“Sakura, regardless of what happened here tonight, this is my revenge, not yours. I don’t want you two to interfere,” he smirked, darkly. “It’s my problem alone and I have no intention of letting you take it away from me.”
“Sasuke, you--!!”
“Hush, you’ll wake him.” Sakura bit her lip. “Sakura, I have waited all my life for this, and I need Orochimaru to do it, it’s that simple.”
“Simple? Simple? What’s this then? What the hell was this? A pity fuck? Did you just come here to give us what you thought we wanted, so you would feel less guilty? Did you think you owed us this much? What was this!?”
“A farewell.”
Sakura could only stare at his face as he went on.
“It was a farewell, Sakura, and only that. I didn’t do it for pity. Alleviating your sorrows was never part of my intent. I’m not like that, and you should know it by now. I called you here because I wanted to say goodbye, not because I owed it to you.”
“Sasuke you can’t…” He lifted up a hand to bid her silent.
“Itachi will be there, Sakura, and he’s after Naruto. They all are. Now tell me this… what would you prefer… that I should stay here and be sent to my death at the hands of your teacher - the Hokage - or my promise that I will fulfil my vengeance? My promise, that Naruto will be safe?”
Sakura held her breath for what seemed like an eternity. As much as she tried, she found she couldn’t speak. Naruto mumbled in his dreams: her name, Sasuke’s name, and then he curled his fingers over the sheets. Naruto’s love for both of them made her chest tight.
She couldn’t hold back her tears as Sasuke got to his feet.
“Sakura…” He paused and his shoulders slumped. “Tell him this: I’m not sorry about anything I have done, but I was glad that you both came..”
She nodded, staying on the bed while he moved about the room. Sasuke’s voice was low and gentle as he spoke to her, a true farewell.
“Tell him that I hope he becomes Hokage soon, so he can drive the whole village insane.”
Sasuke found his pants and pulled them on quietly.
“Tell him… that I never thought I’d miss you two, but I did.”
He opened the window and looked outside. The sun was coming up, a silent flow of light that crept over both of them, keeping the darkness at bay.
“And Sakura? Don’t tell him, but…” Sasuke paused, with his hand on the window, and turned his back on her, as if it were suddenly too personal for him. “But I think I should tell you that…”
Sakura said nothing, she only lifted her head higher, waiting for him so speak.
“…That this was never about him, or about you. None of it, not even my coming here.” His words were carefully picked, all of them true, she knew. It was the honesty they had been waiting for all along, and with that honesty, there was one final revelation for her to hear.
“But I love you. Both of you.”
* * *
Sakura would remember that night for the rest of her life. She would never tell Naruto about those last words, respecting Sasuke’s request for what it was: a dying man’s wish. But as the years went by, and she and Naruto shared their own silences together, Sakura was gradually hit by one last realisation: Sasuke had understood them both better than she could have ever imagined.
He understood them, it was undeniable. At the very end of it all, when the world had threatened to break their wills -- Sasuke had seen that she would need to hear from his lips, something that Naruto had always known.
“In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”
--- Martin Luther King Jr.
The End
Comments, as always, are greatly appreciated. ;) And will be replied to not always instantly XD
Pairing(s): NaruSakuSasu
Warning(s): none, if you are up to date with the manga. :D
Genre(s): Angst - and a bit of Romance?
Rating: hard R
Word Length: 5.300 aprox
Description: On the eve of Konoha’s battle with Sound, Naruto and Sakura find themselves running off to meet an old friend - and enemy - in secret.
Written for scoured during the naruto_wishlist exchange. ;)
Silence Before Dawn
”Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into friend.”
--- Marting Luther King Jr.
It was a silence unlike any other. Darkness brewed in the clouds above, rolling into waves that promised a storm to remember. The wind blew cold and harsh, yet silent. There were no more leaves to knock off the trees, naked branches waited for the snow with open arms.
“Naruto! Up ahead!” Sakura’s sure-footed leaps were only a hand’s breath behind him. Naruto signalled that he’d heard and dropped off the tree with a low thud. Sakura landed behind him, shifting her weight when a shrub rustled to the side.
“It’s only a rabbit,” Naruto whispered, inhaling the tangy scent of fur and fear.
Sakura nodded and pocketed the kunai she’d been holding. “The Inn should be up ahead, where the forest breaks into a clearing. The city is only half a mile beyond that.”
“They will be caught in the fray…” Naruto murmured, worriedly.
Sakura shrugged, finding her sudden detachment alarmingly easy. “They were warned as much as we could warn them. They’re not called secret wars for nothing, Naruto, and---”
But Naruto’s mind was focused elsewhere. Slitted pupils narrowed as he studied the darkness in front of them. At least his eyes were still blue, Sakura mused. It had been quite a few months since his pupils were stuck as they were now, vulpine and strange. “You’re right, I can smell the Inn’s fires.”
Sakura nodded, no longer disturbed by that kind of comment. “Okay then. Are we still going forwards with this?”
Naruto hesitated. He stopped breathing for a moment and closed his eyes. He struggled to calm himself and think about what they were doing, but there was no time for that now. The results might be disastrous, but there was only one way for them to go.
Sakura waited, itching to hurry towards the Inn, just in case. “Naruto, he might be gone if we’re late.”
Naruto’s eyes opened and he stood up, nodding. “I get it. It’s just---“
“I know,” Sakura echoed softly. It hurt to think too much about it, to contemplate what might be waiting for them ahead.
Knowing it might be a trap, they still had been unable to refuse.
Naruto’s fingers slipped around hers, warm and reassuring. “Let’s go, then.”
* * *
“I didn’t think you’d come,” Sasuke murmured, breaking the silence at last. Naruto frowned, but said nothing.
They sat around a small round table, sipping tea, playing at being civilians who hid from the gathering storm at a run-down Inn. Sharing the round table and staring into each other’s faces, Sakura felt as if the world had come to a stop.
The Innkeeper brought them a dishful of bean pastries and clucked her tongue at the darkening skies. “Storm’s ahead.”
Sasuke gave the woman a bland stare and then looked out the window. His eyes slowly scanned the skies, and then settled back on Naruto and Sakura. “Yes.” He replied, at last.
Sakura dropped her gaze to her cup. It was cheap porcelain, the kind found in a cheap Inn, in a poor country --- where a war might tear the lands to shreds. She sighed inwardly, trying to keep her nerves steeled. If anyone found out who they were meeting with, both she and Naruto might be court-martialed.
Sasuke seemed to read her thoughts, as always. “I figured it would be too risky for both of you to come.”
Naruto’s eyes flashed dangerously. “You’re an idiot for thinking that we wouldn’t come.”
Sakura watched them stare at each other, feeling her chest was about to burst. It felt like ages since the last time they had been together like this - it had been ages - and seeing them now made her throat tighten. Naruto still looked like the sun, bright and strong, inexorable like gravity. Sasuke’s changes had only made him more like the moon, cool and pale, silent and powerful, like a tide.
And she? Sakura supposed she was like the Earth, caught between one and the other, pulled out of her own orbit by the strength of their destinies. It was no longer a place she resented. She wished, however, to have been strong enough to draw them towards her, rather than have them crack her apart.
“You knew there was no way we would refuse, Sasuke,” Sakura spoke up suddenly, catching his dark gaze with her own. “You knew we would risk it.”
Sasuke smirked darkly. “Indeed. You’re both fools.”
“And you? Are you a fool, Sasuke? Because either you are… or this is a trap. And I’d much rather have it spring on us now, than later.”
“Yeah, bastard. The anticipation is killing us, literally.” The longer they were away, the higher the chances one of the ANBU might notice they did not go on their designated path. And then---
Sasuke clasped his hands on the table, tilting his head sideways. The gesture was so reminiscent of Orochimaru it chilled Sakura to the bone. “You two haven’t changed at all.” Sasuke seemed disturbed by this fact; what he’d said was not a statement of fact, it was a complaint.
“You have,” Naruto snapped back morosely.
Sasuke smiled at the instant response, and for a moment a film of nostalgia covered their movements, making their thoughts sluggish.
“So?” Sakura pressed, and the mirage of companionship cracked like thin glass.
Sasuke sighed and sat back slightly. He seemed ill at ease. “There is no trap,” he admitted at last, with a grimace.
Naruto made a rude sound; Sakura smacked him over the back of the head, earning them a nasty glare from the innkeeper.
“No, really, fucker. Where’s the catch?” Naruto demanded, and Sakura felt her skin prickle under the static of Naruto’s repressed chakra.
“There isn’t any.” Sasuke spread his hands, palms up, an unexpected capitulation. “I only wished for us to meet.”
Naruto’s face had gone deathly pale. Sakura knew how he felt: too terrified to hope.
“Why?” She managed to squeeze past her lips, a thin whisper. Naruto couldn’t speak, she could see it in the bone-white tightness of his jaw.
Sasuke frowned, visibly upset with himself. “I just-“ He sighed and looked out the window before going on, avoiding their eyes. “The conflict will begin in earnest tomorrow.”
Sakura turned her cup in circles, considering Sasuke’s evasive answer and what he might not be saying. She watched the tea slosh a bit. “Yes.” It was no secret that Konoha would attack the next day. Kumo planned on doing the same thing, and having Oto as their allies made things all the more complicated for Konoha.
Suna had promised to stand beside Konoha and they would have, if not for the pressure laid upon them by feudal lords who feared the spreading wars. To this moment, there was no certainty on whether they would receive reinforcements or not. Though Sakura had a feeling that, if worse came to pass, Sabaku no Gaara would come on his own, if not for Konoha, then for Naruto and for Lee. She held onto that hope.
Be as it may, Konoha would engage in it’s 4th secret war when the sun set on the following day; and that might well have been the end of everything between them, had Sasuke not contacted them, asking both Naruto and Sakura to meet him at this Inn.
“Sasuke--- you still haven’t told us why you called us here.”
Naruto was staring holes into Sasuke’s head. Sakura could see the hairs on the back of Sasuke’s neck were standing on end, electrified by Naruto’s aggressive intent.
Sasuke took a deep, deep breath and he visibly forced his shoulders to loosen. “Because,” was all he said.
Naruto let out a low growl. “Just how selfish can you be!? Because you wanted to? You made Sakura risk her neck just because!?”
“Naruto, enough,” Sakura murmured, keeping her eyes trained on Sasuke’s face. “Let him tell us why he called us here. Let him say it clearly,” she went on, voice caustic. Sasuke had better speak up now, or they were both leaving.
Naruto’s anger went beyond her capacity to appease. “No, Sakura-chan! That’s not an answer that’s---“
Sakura narrowed her eyes, having kept her gaze trained onto Sasuke from the moment he’d spoken. Sasuke’s eyes flickered between her and Naruto, torn between her cooling manner and Naruto’s increasing rage.
“--- there might not be another chance, after this,” Sasuke let out in a tight hiss, and glared at them as if they’d forcibly torn the words from his throat. His subsequent anger didn’t quite mask what they’d both heard. Sakura shivered, her nerves were burned raw by the faltering emotion in Sasuke’s voice, she could tell that Naruto had noticed it too.
Naruto’s hands were shaking. His frown deepened, but some of his rage seemed to fade. “… and?”
Sasuke’s back tensed, markedly defensive. “And what? What more do you want me to say?”
“That you’re sorry,” was Naruto’s unblinking reply.
Sasuke’s face paled with anger. “I’m not.”
“Fuck you, then,” Naruto snarled, and moved to stand up. Sakura hastily grabbed his sleeve and pulled him back down. Naruto’s legs twisted oddly as he was forced to sit and the table was jostled. The clutter made the innkeeper give them an even dirtier look.
“You’re still as graceful as a mule, apparently,” Sasuke remarked around a dark little smirk.
“Why you---“
“Enough! Both of you!” Her angry whisper stopped them both from picking up the argument again. Naruto appeared honestly chagrined, Sasuke’s eyes widened a fraction. “Sasuke,” she snapped, focusing on him. “You swear this is not a trap, then? No plot of Orochimaru’s? Or yours?”
“There is no trap, Sakura. Just me.”
Naruto face seemed to want to crumple. He looked away quickly and Sakura let him be for a bit, keeping Sasuke’s attention on her. They didn’t need this. Naruto didn’t need this, not now of all times. “So… why now?”
Why now, when war was imminent and there was no turning back? Why now, when she and Naruto had finally sorted themselves out… for the most part. Sasuke excelled at being inopportune, now more than ever.
Naruto sucked in a shaky breath as Sasuke’s silence lengthened. Sasuke glanced at Naruto and Sakura saw the look on his face when he caught Naruto’s fragmenting expression. It made her breath catch with the sheer weight of the possibilities she saw there.
Then Sasuke was looking back at her with those same eyes.
“Let’s go somewhere more private,” Sasuke said at last, cocking his head towards the innkeeper. “I booked a room for us.”
* * *
Sakura sat with Sasuke for a while, listening to the sound of water running in the bathroom. Naruto had argued that he ‘felt like a piss’, but Sakura suspected he’d gone in to wash his eyes out and get his nerves back under control. She was surprised by how calm she felt at the moment, considering the situation. She didn’t feel like herself at all.
Sasuke sat on the floor, one forearm resting over a nearby window. A flash of light momentarily blinded them, when she could see again, Sasuke was staring straight at her. A flush crept up her neck under the intense scrutiny. This wasn’t an ordinary stare, that was a underlying pull that wanted to take her down. Sasuke had never looked at her like that before. Then again, they had been children, and the person who was looking at her now was - undoubtedly - a man.
Sakura returned his gaze with equal ferocity and found an answering smile touching Sasuke’s lips. It left her completely unprepared for his next words. “I heard that you and Naruto are together now. Is that true?”
Sakura thought she’d react more visibly to a question like that. Thankfully, she did not. Her heart shook and her belly tumbled right down to her knees, but she managed to keep a straight face. “Yes. Jealous?”
He didn’t answer her question; instead, he asked another of his own. “For how long?”
“Almost a year.” And again: “Jealous?”
Sasuke looked up at the roof, counting in his head. “So, the last time we fought, you had already hooked up?” It seemed so vulgar in Sasuke’s mouth, the term ‘hooked up’. What she and Naruto had was so far beyond that she couldn’t quite put it in words.
What she felt for Sasuke was just as complex.
“We hooked up after that encounter with you.” She let him digest that in silence for a few minutes.
Sasuke turned his face towards the window again. “How did it happen?” He sounded honestly curious, but beyond that, Sakura could not divine his true feelings on the matter. She refused to believe he had called them there to ask about their current love-affairs.
“It just happened, Sasuke. He… I…well, we just… It happened,” she flushed, suddenly discomfited by the situation. How could she possibly explain what they had both felt that night? It had been about the two of them and it had been about Sasuke. But what came out of it, that, was wholly their own.
“Hm… I thought---“ Sasuke shook his head, suddenly. “I didn’t know you liked him like that.”
Sakura resisted the urge to roll her eyes. So very like Sasuke, to not even consider she might not always be the same unreliable little girl who loved him terribly.
She still loved him terribly, of course. But now there was also Naruto, and in many ways, she was glad that things had turned out the way they had. She loved Naruto now, and that would have been a terrible thing to miss out on. “Jealous?” She asked, pricked by his constant avoidance of that question.
Sasuke gave her an impatient stare. “What would you do if I said I was?”
Sakura sat back slowly, feeling as if she’d been slapped but unwilling to let it show. “I---“ She hadn’t really thought of what he would answer.
“What would you do, Sakura?” Sasuke demanded, and his voice had gone dangerously low. “Gloat? Feel sad? Regret your choice?”
“Sasuke, I…”
Sasuke’s eyes had darkened, making it impossible for her to see where the iris ended and the pupil started. Another flash of lightning blinded her. “What if I said it wasn’t you I was jealous about,” Sasuke’s voice pierced through the thunder like a blade.
Sakura’s mouth snapped shut, her hands tightened into fists. Sasuke might have been trying to throw her off, but she had gotten really good at bouncing back. Oh ho. Two can play that came, she thought. “I wouldn’t be that surprised, actually.”
Sasuke’s eyebrows shot up. “Oh?” He sounded amused now. He sounded like Orochimaru. “I thought you’d be devastated.” She wanted to wipe that snake’s smirk from his face.
“That you’re gay? Honestly, it’s not like the signs weren’t there. And Naruto is…” She saw the tightening of Sasuke’s face and felt strangely elated. Ah. Not so happy and gloating after all, are we? “Well, Naruto is all man.”
“And fox.”
“Endless stamina,” she countered, knowing she was gaining ground. And then it struck her, all of a sudden, that she was upholding Naruto’s sexual prowess to Sasuke, of all people. A giddy laugh tried to inch up her throat but she swallowed it down. “And he sticks to manly clothes. No gay-fisherman shirts, no ribbons on his ass. Honestly Sasuke, such flaming clothes you wear.”
Sasuke’s eyebrows were one straight line, casting a dark shadow over his face. “My clothes aren’t fl---“ He pursed his lips and visibly calmed himself. Score for me, she guessed. “You are taking it very well.”
“I might take it worse if it were true,” Sakura replied flippantly. “But I happen to have seen you ogle my breasts twice as I moved. So you can’t be all gay either. Maybe just your clothes.” Sasuke’s face was twisted up in the oddest expression she had even seen on him. “Or maybe… you could be gay about Naruto, at most.”
“I take back my earlier assessment. You have changed,” Sasuke murmured, with a hint of amused awe in his voice.
Sakura felt herself flush, and hated herself for that girly little reaction “I haven’t changed Sasuke, I merely grew. You would have noticed the difference if you’d stuck around for it.”
Sasuke’s eyes went blank and he looked away. “It’s useless to dwell on what-ifs.” Sakura cursed herself as she felt Sasuke retreat from her, and from the entire conversation. She hadn’t meant to push him inwards again, not after he was finally opening up to her.
“Then what’s this? Why did you call us here, if not for that?” She demanded, anger burning in the pit of her stomach.
Sasuke opened his mouth to answer, but he said nothing. He pressed his lips together and settled for a sad smile instead. “How strange… you seem to have developed a knack for making me say more than I want to.”
Light swallowed them up again and her little gasp was drowned by the crack of thunder.
They both looked up as it started to rain, the steady drumming on the roof swallowed their anger under a blanket of sound. She wished Naruto were sitting beside her and holding her hand. On nights like this they would always stay awake in bed and talk.
But Naruto was still in the bathroom, the erratic pulse of his chakra was the only proof she had of his presence… and of his despairing, terrible love for Sasuke, so very much like her own.
Sakura lowered her gaze before meeting Sasuke’s eyes again. He seemed tired, but calm. He seemed happy to see them, and that just about broke her heart.
She got up and walked up to him, not sure of what she was doing any longer. When she reached out to touch his cheek, he didn’t move away. “Sasuke…” she breathed, suddenly terrified of how close he was letting her come.
His skin was warm, not cold, like a snake’s. Sakura felt something uncurl within herself. She pressed closer, placing her palm over his cheek. “Oh… Sasuke, for so long, we’ve s----“ She never finished that sentence.
Sasuke’s lips covered her mouth and silence fell like a blanket over her mind. He’d moved faster than she thought possible, she hadn’t even had time to pull out a senbon; and if it had been anybody else she would have been dead by then, but it was----
Sasuke tipped his head sideways, deepening the kiss, and her thoughts flew out the window and into the storm. Sakura’s hand twitched before settling on his head, curling into his dark hair. How strangely personal that was, to feel him shiver when she touched his ears and feathered her hands over his scalp. Sakura moaned quietly, her nerves were a tightening flame and she couldn’t breathe right. Sasuke sighed and pulled her close, arms tightening around her waist like bands of steel.
This was… it was… they were----
She hadn’t even imagined it could be---
“Sakura… chan…” That devastated little whisper came from behind her. It made her blood run cold.
For a moment, time seemed slow down to a crawl. Something had stretched between the three of them, pulled taut over the years, and it snapped in that instant of nothing.
She stumbled to her feet in a rush, feeling her head spin. “Naruto, I---“ What could she possibly say? How had she ended up like that? “I didn’t---“
Sasuke had moved to stand too.
Sakura reached out for Naruto’s arm but he stepped back wildly, and his eyes, Naruto’s eyes… she had never seen that look from him. But Sasuke had, that much was clear from his sharp intake of breath. Somehow, somewhere, Sasuke had seen Naruto break like this and it made her realise the enormity of what she’d done. “Naruto, it wasn’t---“ Wasn’t? What had it been then?
She sought her mind for the right words, but Naruto’s anguished face had scared her wits away. Sasuke had stayed behind her, watching them crack under the aftermath of his actions. She thought he’d laugh at them now, that this was what he’d planned for them, his final revenge.
Sasuke - true to himself - did none of what she expected. He watched them for a moment longer and then moved forwards. Naruto glanced up and his face became a mask of animalistic fury.
“You!” Naruto roared, as the marks on his cheeks deepened. “How dare y---ooof!” Naruto’s breath left him in a rush when Sasuke pushed Sakura into Naruto’s chest and rammed them both against the wall. Sakura gasped for air and wondered where her strength had gone, she felt like jelly. That feeling deepened when Sasuke pressed them against the wall, with Sakura trapped between their chests and Naruto’s back against the creaking wood.
Sasuke didn’t even give them time to react - or maybe they didn’t have it in them to react to this madness. He leaned over Sakura’s shoulder, squeezing her further, and he caught Naruto’s lips with his own. Naruto made the most incredible little sound… Sakura struggled to look up and she saw Naruto’s eyes - wide, terrified, vulnerable, hopeful, desperate - Naruto always wore his heart on his sleeve.
Sasuke snaked an arm around her belly, knuckles brushing Naruto’s pelvis. Naruto shuddered and - unexpectedly - groaned. Sasuke leaned in further, and the moist sound of their kiss made Sakura’s legs jerk. When she looked up again, Naruto had closed his eyes, but he kept his hands firmly planted against the wall.
Sakura could feel both their erections pressing against her. She wondered, briefly, if Sasuke had spiked their tea. But that thought disappeared as soon as Sasuke’s hand moved lower, fingers curling down and in between her legs. Naruto gasped when he heard her pant, and his hands flew to her hips. Sasuke rocked against her slowly, sensuously, the movement pushing her onto Naruto.
Naruto lifted one of his hands off her hips to touch Sasuke’s back, and Sakura knew - she knew, right there and then--- that they were lost. There was no way for them to turn away from Sasuke now.
Sasuke arched behind them with a stifled sound that made them both tremble with pure, undiluted want, and they tumbled and fell, down, down, down… into the shadows of the storm.
* * *
Sakura woke up to the sound of Naruto’s breathless gasps. She knew that sound. She recognised the faint pitch in Naruto’s breathing that always let her know he was about to come. She opened her eyes and saw Naruto’s face right beside her. His eyes were closed tight with pleasure as he pressed his cheek into the rumpled pillow. She looked further down, already knowing what she would find. Sasuke leaned between Naruto’s legs, fingers digging into Naruto’s knees as he moved.
Naruto’s legs kicked out and he let out one hoarse gasp, shaking on the bed. Sakura grasped his hand as he arched again, and saw him smile through gritted teeth. Her bones complained against the fierce grip on her fingers, but Naruto’s crumpled face as he came more than made up for it. He went boneless after a few seconds, his chest rising and falling rapidly.
Sasuke moved to sit, an unexpected softness crawling into his gaze. It made Sakura’s breath hitch.
There was light outside already.
Sakura couldn’t help but wonder how long Naruto and Sasuke had been at if, after she fell asleep. She watched them in silence now, revelling in the way Naruto’s face relaxed, brow smoothing into a look of utter contentment. Sasuke watched him too, profoundly silent, as Naruto’s breathing evened out into sleep. For the emotions that boiled in Sasuke’s dark eyes, Sakura had no name.
She carefully uncurled her fingers and pulled them out of Naruto’s grasp. Sasuke watched her for a moment, then his gaze slid back onto Naruto’s sleeping face. He seemed caught there, like a moth.
It was a long time before they spoke.
“Did you sleep at all?” She asked, more curious than jealous.
“Not really,” Sasuke murmured quietly. He looked exhausted, but at peace. His skin was a bit sallow in the half-light, but there was a warm flush on his cheeks and his hair was bed-mussed. She had never seen look so openly approachable before. Sasuke had never looked like he belonged anywhere, but now, in this bed ----
She hadn’t expected to have him clutch at them so intensely while he whispered their names. She hadn’t thought the three of them could be like that, and that it would work so well.
Neither she nor Naruto had ever expected to have this night. It almost made up for all the pain.
Almost.
A bird chirruped outside, a few others joined in. The clouds were parting and she could see a film of brilliance over the hills, where the sun had not yet risen.
Sasuke watched her quietly, carefully, and a wordless awareness stole over her. “If you leave now, he won’t wake up,” Sakura murmured, feeling her eyes prickle.
Sasuke gave her a long, searching look. “So… you knew I wouldn’t stay.” He didn’t sound surprised and Sakura felt pathetically flattered by that little acknowledgement.
“I h-had suspected it,” she whispered, a catch in her voice. “But I didn’t want to think about it.”
Sasuke lowered his eyes. He seemed to fight with himself, searching for the right thing to say. There was, however, nothing he could say that would make this right. “I’m not sorry about this either, you know,” his defensive little quip felt unexpectedly dear to her.
“Yeah, I know.” She wiped her eyes furiously. Naruto mumbled something unintelligible and slept on. Sasuke had outdone himself in tiring him and Sakura wondered if Naruto would appreciate that when he woke up. Sasuke hadn’t just been trying to put him to sleep, Sasuke had wanted to tell him something. And now--- “So… we’re enemies now? Will we meet on the battlefield?”
“No, Sakura, we won’t,” Sasuke’s voice was firm and quiet.
Sakura stopped breathing. “What do you mean?”
“Orochimaru will… it will happen today.” Fearless black eyes watched her digest this information, waiting for her to react.
The depth of his words punched her in the gut. Sakura covered her mouth with her hands to keep her sobs in. Why was she crumbling now, when she’d been so strong the night before? She hated it. “W-we can s-still s-stop it. Sasuke, we c-can…”
Sasuke shook his head. “No, Sakura. It has to be like this. The Akatsuki will be here today, at nightfall. Itachi will be there.”
Itachi…
Sakura glanced down at the man who slept beside her, fear clutching her heart in its grip. “Naruto,” She whispered tensely, and as soon as she had said it, she realised who she had thought of first. She looked up at Sasuke, but he was smiling, a sad yet perfect little smile. “They will come for him.”
Sasuke nodded. “The last Jinchuuriki,” his voice was soft, almost affectionate. His eyes, when he looked at her, were calm. “So, you see… I have to do this.”
“Sasuke, we can fight them together!”
Sasuke chuckled lowly. “You are Konoha-nin, in the middle of a secret war. What could you possibly do without betraying your village, Sakura? I am a missing-nin, and I have waited a long time to kill Itachi.”
“But Sasuke---“
“Sakura, regardless of what happened here tonight, this is my revenge, not yours. I don’t want you two to interfere,” he smirked, darkly. “It’s my problem alone and I have no intention of letting you take it away from me.”
“Sasuke, you--!!”
“Hush, you’ll wake him.” Sakura bit her lip. “Sakura, I have waited all my life for this, and I need Orochimaru to do it, it’s that simple.”
“Simple? Simple? What’s this then? What the hell was this? A pity fuck? Did you just come here to give us what you thought we wanted, so you would feel less guilty? Did you think you owed us this much? What was this!?”
“A farewell.”
Sakura could only stare at his face as he went on.
“It was a farewell, Sakura, and only that. I didn’t do it for pity. Alleviating your sorrows was never part of my intent. I’m not like that, and you should know it by now. I called you here because I wanted to say goodbye, not because I owed it to you.”
“Sasuke you can’t…” He lifted up a hand to bid her silent.
“Itachi will be there, Sakura, and he’s after Naruto. They all are. Now tell me this… what would you prefer… that I should stay here and be sent to my death at the hands of your teacher - the Hokage - or my promise that I will fulfil my vengeance? My promise, that Naruto will be safe?”
Sakura held her breath for what seemed like an eternity. As much as she tried, she found she couldn’t speak. Naruto mumbled in his dreams: her name, Sasuke’s name, and then he curled his fingers over the sheets. Naruto’s love for both of them made her chest tight.
She couldn’t hold back her tears as Sasuke got to his feet.
“Sakura…” He paused and his shoulders slumped. “Tell him this: I’m not sorry about anything I have done, but I was glad that you both came..”
She nodded, staying on the bed while he moved about the room. Sasuke’s voice was low and gentle as he spoke to her, a true farewell.
“Tell him that I hope he becomes Hokage soon, so he can drive the whole village insane.”
Sasuke found his pants and pulled them on quietly.
“Tell him… that I never thought I’d miss you two, but I did.”
He opened the window and looked outside. The sun was coming up, a silent flow of light that crept over both of them, keeping the darkness at bay.
“And Sakura? Don’t tell him, but…” Sasuke paused, with his hand on the window, and turned his back on her, as if it were suddenly too personal for him. “But I think I should tell you that…”
Sakura said nothing, she only lifted her head higher, waiting for him so speak.
“…That this was never about him, or about you. None of it, not even my coming here.” His words were carefully picked, all of them true, she knew. It was the honesty they had been waiting for all along, and with that honesty, there was one final revelation for her to hear.
“But I love you. Both of you.”
* * *
Sakura would remember that night for the rest of her life. She would never tell Naruto about those last words, respecting Sasuke’s request for what it was: a dying man’s wish. But as the years went by, and she and Naruto shared their own silences together, Sakura was gradually hit by one last realisation: Sasuke had understood them both better than she could have ever imagined.
He understood them, it was undeniable. At the very end of it all, when the world had threatened to break their wills -- Sasuke had seen that she would need to hear from his lips, something that Naruto had always known.
“In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”
--- Martin Luther King Jr.
The End
Comments, as always, are greatly appreciated. ;) And will be replied to not always instantly XD