Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Past Midnight ❯ Sleep ( Chapter 3 )

A/N: I love you all and thank you so much for leaving me reviews! It means a lot to me. I am so happy that all of you are enjoying reading this story as much as I am enjoying writing it.

 

I am so happy that I have all of this, meaning the plot of course, written down. It's so much easier for me to keep updating frequently. If I keep this up I might be updating every week, much sooner with the help of a beta reader, but I don't like to bother people with my written stuff. Oh well…

 

Hope you enjoy the third chapter!

 

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Sure, they were hoping to be welcomed with open arms by their most prized member of their team. Smiling one of her most beautiful smiles, eyes happily dancing at the sight of them as they tiredly made their way through the rusty gates of the village. She certainly would have fussed over them like a mother, checking their faces for any new scars, examining them inch-by-inch until she would cheerfully declare they were ok as long as they would add some pounds to their thin frames. And she would have easily hidden away her awkwardness around Sasuke, mindful not alert her other companions of her dark past with Sasuke.

 

It wasn't meant to be.

 

Of course reality was always a slap in the face when you least expect it. Such a silly illusion to believe that she would patiently wait for them to come home from war, especially him. She had done enough waiting as it was and for a restless girl like herself to do more than her share of waiting it was almost pointless and a waste of her precious time. Sasuke would had felt better if she was merely going on about her life as normal, or at least as normal as she could make it. Heck, he would have felt much better if she was plainly ignoring him and her former teammates, locking herself away in the security of her home with maybe a suitor or a little family of her own.

 

She deserved so much more and he knew he could not offer her everything she deserved and everything he promised her. They were only sixteen, young and naïve children living in an adult world. Both were parentless, living in a dark house filled with painful old memories, and both needed comfort from other human beings. Although the little time they shared together shattered whatever they had that held them together. They slowly drifted apart, more so when Sasuke began to feel that familiar burning sting coming from his neck.

 

Gone. She had been gone for some time. Declared dead by her own teacher and caretaker. Laid forgotten amongst all of the other shinobi whose names were carefully carved into the memorial stone. He could easily picture it, as much as it disturbed and disgusted him, her name delicately carved on the memorial stone, beautiful spring flowers surrounding her grave all year round even in winter. And he could easily picture her bright emerald eyes closing for the last time, shuddery breath coming from the bottom of her lungs, as it would all escape into the high heavens.

 

Was he guilty? Yes, there no was no doubt about it. He could have been a more supportive friend for her. He could have gone out of his way to make her feel better, to make her smile just as brilliantly as she used to before her parents were murdered in their little home. He could have been much more if he had not let his pride get the best of him. Would it have killed him to apologize for being such an insensitive jerk, to let her cry on his shoulder to allow her to grieve her parents' death? No, but his pride and his habits had led him to believe she would be fine. Fine, before everything happened. Before he managed to screw everything up even more.

 

Night had quickly swallowed the morning sky, darkening its beautiful wonders and replacing clouds with dim stars creating a sad, eerie glow.

 

“Sasuke?”

 

Looking over his shoulder he noticed Naruto breathing as heavily as he was, hands supporting his weight on his knees as he eyed his brooding comrade for a break. Sasuke could feel his legs burning from nonstop running, lungs equally as painfully burning from the lack of air. His legs buckled beneath him, body aching for rest as he sat down on the soft earth while Naruto followed just as quickly.

 

“What does the scroll say?”

 

Tiredly pulling out the weathered scroll from his front pocket, Naruto held it up for Sasuke to grab. He opened it carefully; somehow feeling the scroll would fall apart in his hands with a mere tug and scanned the contents until he remembered every single word.

 

Spotted several times in Rain Village?

 

“Well?”

 

“Sakura disappeared right after Orochimaru's death, her body was never found. It says here,” Sasuke pointed to the scroll, “that after six months of no successful trace she was declared dead…”

 

“Why would she disappear right after Orochimaru's death?”

 

“I'm not sure, but eight months after she was declared dead some of our shinobi spotted a young woman in her early twenties with pink hair in the Village of Rain.”

 

“Do you think it could be Sakura?”

 

“I don't know, it cou—”

 

“Maybe she had a head injury and she can't remember us. Or maybe she's being held hostage or maybe…”

 

Naruto stopped his hopeful rambling with Sasuke's piercing gaze, one that he had not seen from him in ages. Raw pain flashed through his charcoal eyes quickly shattering his optimistic thoughts about finding Sakura. Alive.

 

“Lets just get some rest,” Sasuke laid down turning his back away from Naruto's hurt look, “we still have tomorrow to search.”

 

“Yeah, I guess you're right…”

 

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She shivered as she felt the night breeze cooling her room. The window wasn't very far away, but she refused to get out of bed and close it. It only depressed her even more. The window was her only means of escape away from her imprisonment and she hated feeling like a caged bird, oddly enough an image of Neji popped into her mind. As much as she tried to keep warm, wrapping herself with all the blankets in the room, she couldn't. She needed someone next to her; she needed body heat to warm her, she needed Itachi as much as she hated admitting it.

 

A loud knock startled her from her sleep. She frowned, certainly if it was Itachi at the door he wouldn't have knocked, he would have just walked in and laid under the covers with her.

 

“Yes?”

 

The door creaked open, a man about her age, face marred with scars, walked in and bowed slightly, “Uchiha-sama will not make it tonight nor tomorrow.”

 

“When?”

 

“He didn't confirm, but he said a couple of days.”

 

She peeked from under the covers, waved her hand to dismiss him, and flipped onto her side as the door closed with a soft click. Sleep was going to be hard to obtain tonight without her partner, but at least he was gone for the night. It left her to think peacefully without him constantly prying her for physical contact. The night was too calm, even if it was quite chilly; to have him torture her like he did every other night. She was free until he came back. No doubt he would be eager, in his own subtle and sick ways, to see her when he would return from whatever godforsaken thing he was doing, probably from brutally killing innocent children.

 

He won't be back until…

 

Something inside her mind clicked and she quickly threw the covers off her body, suppressing a shiver as her bare feet made contact with the cold wooden floor. She moved swiftly around the room, careful not to make too much noise to alert the guards outside her door.

 

He won't be back. He won't be back.

 

Sakura chanted almost giddily at the thought of Itachi being gone for several days as she gathered her belongings and stuffed them in a small bag. She hastily put on her kimono, wrapped the obi around her and tightly tied it creating a simple bow behind her back.

 

He won't be back!

 

She was almost in tears as she made her way to the window; carefully swinging her legs over the ledge, hands tightly gripping the sides of the window she looked beyond and happily noticed none of the guards were out side. She steadied herself as she prepared to jump.

 

Yes, he won't be back until a couple of days from now. He won't…he won't! He won't stop me this time…

 

She jumped and ran through the forest away from the crumpling building.

 

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

 

Her hands were reaching up towards the dark sky, lost in her little world as she continued to point to each star. From the corner of his eyes he could see her trying to catch something that was very far away and unattainable, a shooting star.

 

She smiled.

 

Oh, how much he loved to see that little smile adorn her pretty face. It was not her usual big cheeky grin, nor was it one of her most brilliant smiles, it was small and beautiful and somehow he felt better knowing she could still smile even after all the grief.

 

“Ne, Sasuke-kun?”

 

“What?”

 

She flipped onto her side, pink disheveled hair obscuring her bright emerald eyes. She reached up to smooth her hair out, but found a larger hand doing it for her. Her cheeks flamed; she could feel it and she willed her body not to show anymore of her silly emotions in front of Sasuke as he delicately placed pink strands of hair behind her ear. He gave her a questioning stare when she took a deep breath.

 

“If you could wish for anything in the world what would you wish for?”

 

He stared at her, confused by such a question, one that he had not heard since he was a child. The look he was giving her immediately made her feel like she had grown two heads, she certainly regretted asking him now.

 

“Sas…”

 

“What kind of question is that?” he scoffed at her.

 

“…suke…”

 

“Never mind…”

 

He didn't miss the hurt look in her eyes as she went back to gazing the stars.

 

“…Sasuke, wake up...”

 

A hard shove roused him from his dreams, robbing him away from one of his most precious memories he had of her, even if it was quite sad.

 

“Come on, we still have a couple of hours before reaching the next village.”

 

“Aa.”

 

Sasuke stretched his tired muscles, cracking a few bones in the process.

 

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A/N: Kinda short, but still good. Next chapter will definitely be long. Sasuke, Naruto and Sakura will finally meet. Yay!

 

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.