Chapter Text
The hoodie of her cream cloak was draped over her head, covering most of her face, but he could still make out the spring-colored strands of hair framing her cheeks and those scintillating green eyes looking down at her hands.
After two years of deserting, he finally saw her again with the new Team Seven not so long ago. Like him, she had changed a lot during those long years apart. Her baby fat melted away into a more defined cheekbone and heart-shaped face. Her favorite red dress had been replaced with a red shirt and black shorts, covered by a pale pink skirt that was split into four flaps. He also recalled her wearing a pair of dark boots and black gloves before, but she was wearing neither of those things at the moment. In fact, those accessories were replaced by thin wrist protectors and typical shinobi sandals. Her shirt, although still red, was much shorter and split halfway at the front, showing off her navel, which was barely covered by a net undershirt. She was also wearing a red, side-split skirt low on her hips on top of her black shorts.
Could someone change so drastically in such a short amount of time?
It would make more sense for her to be someone he didn’t know. After all, Konoha is at least three days of nonstop travel from here. There was just no reason for his ex-teammate to be on the outskirts of a small, nameless village.
She could be on a mission, of course, but never had he seen a shinobi so relaxed and oblivious to her surroundings while still on duty as she was right now. She looked so carefree and content with herself, similar to how she used to in his happier memories, and so different from the Sakura he had seen at Orochimaru's lair with the new Team Seven.
She was here alone, as far as Sasuke could tell, busying herself with a wounded squirrel sitting in her cupped hands. The green glow around her digits told Sasuke that she was healing the creature, which came as no surprise to him. Even without Orochimaru’s informants, the news of his ex-teammate becoming the apprentice of one of the best medic-nin alive could hardly be kept a secret by the public.
He knew he should walk away. He had no business with her. Alarming his ex-teammate, who is dead set on bringing him back to Konoha, would only further complicate his plan. So why is it that when he intended to turn away, his feet remained planted on the ground?
Team Seven now occupied only the tiniest, deepest part of his brain, but he still carried it with him nonetheless. They are the strongest bond that he had to break in order to become stronger, to defeat Itachi. He knew what he inevitably had to do, so why does he keep making excuses? Even when they had met back in Orochimaru’s now-destroyed lair, his lightning had avoided striking her. Whether that was by chance, subconsciously, or on purpose, he didn’t dare to delve into it.
He knew who she was the moment he saw her running out from one of the dark tunnels of the lair, and he immediately recognized her again when he set his sight on her a few seconds ago. Yet here he was, trying to convince himself that the girl sitting there is merely a look-alike of his ex-teammate; that even if it was undeniably her, it was too early for an encounter.
At the end of the day, none of this changes the fact that he is an avenger and she is an obstacle. The further he dragged this out, the longer and harder it would take him to achieve his goal. So instead of running away like a coward, Sasuke took a deep breath, dropped all his stealth, and approached the sitting shinobi. The now-healed squirrel scurried away up the tree with the first step he took toward her, alerting Sakura of his presence.
"You’re back, ana-!" Sakura’s greeting was cut short when she realized the chakra she sensed approaching didn’t quite belong to who she thought it did. Her eyes were predictably as wide as saucers when she saw him, her small smile faltering. But rather than jumping into a stance as she should, Sakura got up from the ground in a rather unhurried way, as if she wasn’t face-to-face with a dangerous criminal.
"Sasuke-kun," she breathed; the words cemented her familiarity with the Uchiha, yet something was still off.
She was just as toned and shaped as he remembered seeing her at the lair, but this Sakura was clearly taller; her hair was longer, just a bit past her shoulders. Behind the curtain of bangs on her forehead sat a purple diamond that demanded his visual attention.
This is unmistakably Sakura, but she is not the Sakura that he knew.
"Who are you?" He finally asked. All these useless speculations had only served to give him a headache.
Sakura had hoped Sasuke didn’t hear her blurt out his name by habit, but she knew that was unlikely to be true given how observant her teammate could be.
"I think you already know who I am," she answered, trying not to address him like she always does.
"You’re not from here."
It was more of a statement than a question, short and curt, but Sakura could tell what he was referring to. She did not belong in this time period.
Sakura shook her head, affirming Sasuke’s suspicion.
"Why are you here?" He asked next, brows furrowing on his forehead.
"We got lost. That's the simplest answer I can give you." Sakura gave a small shrug. "We don’t even know how it happened."
"We," Sasuke repeated.
"What?"
"Who is ’we‘?" He clarified.
Sasuke broke eye contact with Sakura only long enough to survey their surroundings. All the hints he had gathered suggested that she was here by herself, yet she just revealed that there are others.
"My…husband," she disclosed, her head lowering shyly. Her face reddened at the title that she had only recently gotten to use. "We’ve been traveling for a while now."
"Your…husband," Sasuke articulated the unfamiliar word slowly.
"I can call him my ’husband’ now!" She giggled to herself as she celebrated the realization inwardly, hugging her heated cheeks with her hands like she used to do in simpler days.
It was not as if he had never heard of the word before; he just never expected to hear it coming out of his ex-teammate’s mouth, even though it really shouldn’t be a surprise. He knew that even back then, Sakura had always wanted to be more than his teammate. But that had been such a long time ago, before so many life-changing events, that Sasuke wondered why he still expected Sakura to be the lovestruck girl who liked to follow him around. They had been on different paths for a while now, and it seemed Sakura had achieved what she set out to do.
"Who is he?" Sasuke blurted it out before he could stop himself. The selfish part of him was aching to know who she ended up with after falling out of love with him. Who, beside him, could elicit such an expression from her?
Unaware of Sasuke’s inner turmoil, however, Sakura answered him with a knowing smile and a voice full of mirth. "He's someone you know really well."
"Where is he?" Sasuke immediately asked.
He was convincing himself that knowing the location of this mysterious man would be beneficial, that if Sakura's husband were to come to her aid, at least Sasuke would know the general direction the man would come from. But deep down, he already knows the true reason for his inquiry. What he didn't know is whether he had been too obvious with his intentions.
Logically, Sakura should be suspicious with all these questions he was bombarding her with, but his ex-teammate continued to demonstrate her naiveté, or perhaps it was bravery.
"He’s getting supplies in the nearby village," she answered, then mumbled "luckily" to herself. It was barely audible but was still loud enough to not escape Sasuke’s ear. "I don’t think he would be very happy to see me talking to you."
Sasuke studied his ex-teammate as she let out an embarassed laugh. Despite her answering every question he had thrown at her, Sasuke realized he had learned next to nothing about Sakura or her husband. In fact, she was talking more than was required of her, like how she tended to ramble on as a kid, but he had not gotten any closer to finding out the information he sought. The detail that her husband was getting supplies might be a hint that he is a shinobi. But without knowing what 'supplies' refer to, Sasuke couldn't be sure. Even common folks needed to stock up on supplies when traveling.
"And why is that?" Sasuke decided to push, testing to see if his hypothesis was correct. If she was in fact deliberately lying by omission, then Sasuke had to admit he had severely underestimated this Sakura based on her unworried demeanor.
"Because he is a very cautious man, and I’m taking a risk talking to you," she answered after musing over his questions for a few seconds.
Again with her vague answers. Sakura must be filtering her words really carefully, because all Sasuke had learned from this exchange was that her husband will be upset that she is talking to a dangerous outlaw, as if this couldn’t be inferred with common sense alone.
"Is that what you really want to say? Or are you so scared of your husband that you won’t speak your mind?" Sasuke tried baiting her, hoping that she would take up the challenge to prove him wrong.
"Never!" Sakura emphasized incredulously, taken aback by the accusation. "He's made bad decisions in the past, but he’s not a bad person!" Sakura's penetrating gaze held Sasuke’s. "My husband is a kind man at heart."
Sasuke didn’t know why he couldn’t look her straight in the eyes for too long. The resurfacing of the guilty feeling he had buried deep within his heart was perplexing him. Why is he feeling this way when she is defending a man he probably hasn’t even met? Is he regretting baiting her? Regretting the bond he is trying to sever?
He didn't want this. He had no idea why he tried to figure out who her husband was in the first place, despite already telling himself it didn’t matter. This Sakura from the future is in possession of information he has always wanted to know, but he was getting sidetracked because of her childhood crush that should have had nothing to do with him anyway. He can’t just let her feelings continue to affect him like this, like they used to; he needs to focus.
"You know what happened to me," he said, his voice in an even tone as if he didn't register her earlier outburst at all. His ex-teammate blanked out for a moment, stunned by Sasuke's sudden change of topic. Her silence urged Sasuke to continue. "My aspirations—did I achieve them?"
At his question, the image of Team Seven gathered on the rooftop on that breezy day filled Sakura's mind as a sense of bittersweet washed over her.
Her eyes looked away at first, as if hiding from his gaze, then they lowered to the ground in sorrow, filling Sasuke with confusion. After a beat, she shook her head. A heavy breath left her before she took a step back.
"I’m in no place to tell you what will happen, Sasuke-kun; you must keep living as is."
Why? Did he fail? Did he die trying?
This was the question he wanted the answer to the most, and it was also the first she had refused to answer. Sakura was the one who always expressed her feelings for him. So why is it now, when she could help him tremendously with valuable information, that she has refused to do so? She must really not care for him anymore. Perhaps his death is the reason she moved on from him in the first place. Perhaps his death is the reason that place in her heart has been replaced by his own rival.
One moment, Sakura was standing facing Sasuke; the next, her arm was pinned above her back against the tree she was sitting under not so long ago. She grunted at the impact, and when she looked up at Sasuke, glaring red eyes were staring back down at her. To Sasuke's surprise, Sakura didn't flinch or even avert her eyes when she was so close to his sharingan. Instead, she simply returned his heated gaze, as if asking to be swallowed whole.
What does this say about her now? Is she stupid or overly confident?
"Sasuke-kun, please let go," she demanded, her voice stern.
"You expect me to continue to live in oblivion so you can laugh at me behind my back?" He gritted out, watching as Sakura's eyes widen in surprise.
He had had enough of her toying with him with her vague answers. If she wasn’t going to give him the information he wanted, he would beat it out of her husband himself, and she would be the perfect hostage.
"I don’t know what will happen if I tell you what you want to know, Sasuke-kun," Sakura reasoned, her green orbs never leaving the spinning commas in his eyes. "I don’t want to lose you again."
Sasuke's words were choked in his throat at her confession. As much as he wanted to believe she was deliberately manipulating him, Sasuke couldn’t see a hint of trickery in those glassy green eyes. She was shedding tears for him again; that much is enough evidence that Sakura still cared about him even now.
With his determination wavering at the sight, his grip on her wrists subconsciously loosened, and Sasuke had to wonder if this Sakura had gained the ability to control his limbs as well. No, that couldn't be true, because she had always had an effect on him, hadn't she? He hated the fact that she had always been able to pull him back from the void he needed to enter in order to gain power, and he hated even more that he was hurting her again. At the end of the day, she remained the last person he wanted to hurt.
No.
Had he learned nothing from these two long years? He is still weak, still dependent on these bonds he should have severed long ago. This was his chance to do so, to continue to nurture this hatred that will grant him power. He knew this; it had been ingrained in him by his brother and now by Orochimaru. Even his dumb rival understood that hatred breeds hatred, but how could Sasuke make Sakura hate him when he can’t even bring himself to hate her himself? When she is all he could think about when he thinks about his future after his brother is gone? He was holding onto that foolish hope again, even when Sakura was making it easier for him to let go.
I don’t want to lose you again.
That future with her was always supposed to remain a wistful dream, to remain innocently out of reach, because how could it come true when he wouldn't be there with her?
"I don’t even exist in your time period anymore, do I?"
It took Sakura a while, but when Sakura eventually caught on to what Sasuke was suggesting. her eyes were wide with horror, then water started to fill up. How could he even doubt that?
She tried to speak but was having a hard time finding the right word. She liked to think that she had come a long way, that she was one of the people who understood Sasuke better than anyone, but it was clear she still had a way to go. It was only now that she realized what Sasuke's thinking process used to be when they were apart all those years. It was only now that she realized that death was all he had to look forward to back then. She was aware of the dark path he had to go through, but it still broke her heart to witness its effect on him.
"Do you not see your future with us, Sasuke-kun?" She asked, and Sasuke let the deafening silence between them answer it for him because, truthfully, he didn’t know either.
It had been so long since Sasuke had seen Sakura smile, and watching her cry right now made him miss it even more. He was destined to bring her sorrow. In no universe could he see her ever forgiving him for not coming back to her and betraying the village she loved with all her heart. So why is he still holding on to that flimsy hope that she would?
"I’m sorry."
Sasuke was caught off guard for a moment. He thought it was him who had unknowingly uttered those words, but it was actually Sakura who had.
What was this crying woman apologizing to him for when guilt was eating him alive at the moment?
"I wish I could have been here for you. Do more for you."
Sasuke was bewildered, nonplussed even, as Sakura slowly broke away from his hold. He was usually quick to react, even in close proximity, but when Sakura spread her arms and wrapped them around his neck, he froze.
This Sakura was supposed to be from the far future, yet she was still shorter than him by quite a bit, tiptoeing to hug him. She had matured into a woman, yet it seemed she'd never outgrown being a crybaby. Even with all these years between them, Sasuke still thinks that Sakura, the older Sakura, is too thin, too small, and too fragile. Her soothing floral scent was one of the things that didn't change, however, nor did its effect on him.
"It’s going to be a very long road ahead for you, for all of us, really," she said, her voice muffled by his hair and punctuated by her sobbing. "But please know that I and Naruto will always be on your side."
When Sakura broke up the hug and stepped back, she gave him one last, sad smile before her body began to disintegrate into cherry blossom flowers that fluttered lazily onto the ground before his eyes. Eventually, even the puddle of petals faded away as Sasuke released his genjutsu. Her presence was completely gone in a second, leaving behind a void as if she hadn't been there in the first place. Her touches was also gone, but he could still feel their heat lingering on him.
Letting his arms fall back to his sides, Sasuke let out a sigh. His head hung as he stared at the spot on the ground where his ex-teammate had stood.
He had cast his genjutsu on her the moment her eyes met his sharingan. Despite knowing that she was naturally a genjutsu-type, he had certainly underestimated her this time. Not only did she immediately realize it, but she had played along, layering her weaker yet still effective genjutsu on top of his, then escaping when his guard was down. As upset as he was with her for deceiving him and with himself for falling for her trap, he couldn’t help but feel impressed with her skill, a bit proud even.
Sakura.
She had refused to let him know his fate, but he cannot fault her. Her path had shaped her into the powerful kunoichi she is today, achieving happiness and fulfilling her genin days' dream. She had told him that she and his rival would forever support him. She had told him to keep on living, and he intended to do just that.
The path he knows he has to walk will be a lonely one. It will no doubt continue to twist lower and lower, where the warmth of her touch cannot reach him. But he hopes that at the end of it, where she is the light that will guide him, Sakura will have it in her heart to let him be a part of her life again. And he, with the limited time he has left in this world, will have the opportunity to make it up to her before his time runs out.