#◆ ┈ ┊ v: and from her scars she grew wings || ( pw )

[wokasho]

"Talk to me Sakura-chan." (from naruto!) — @fighterbound

ROSY LIPS WERE PRESSED IN a thin line as green eyes looked down at familiar gloved hands. It wasn't that she didn't want to talk about it with Naruto, in fact, he was probably the person who would best understand her, but she simply did not wish to put such a burden upon his already tired shoulders. It seemed Naruto was constantly carrying the weigh of everyone's pain, but who did that for him? If she could not take that burden from him, she would at least not unload more pain upon his heavy heart.

❝IT'S... NOT A BIG DEAL, NARUTO, I just haven't been sleeping well, that's all.❞ A faux smile curled her lips as she directed green eyes towards him, ❝but let's talk about you! How have you been?❞

[wokasho]

CONCERN BLED INTO green eyes as she watched him more carefully, scanning him for signs of injury or discomfort. ❝You should come to the hospital to let me have a look at you, I can run some exams to check you up, especially your brain and eyes.❞ Biting a lip in worry, Sakura crossed her arms and leaned forward, as if she could figure out the cause of his headache by looking at him from a closer distance.

❝ARE YOU FEELING ANY pain now? I can help you with that if you do. Just a quick pulse of chakra would be able to relieve the pain in your nervous system.❞

Kyosuke gives her a teasing glare. “How you hurt me.” He laughed softly soon after, giving himself away easily. Picking up a dumpling and happily biting into it. Obsidian eyes gleaming mischievously as Sakura talked about Naruto. Those two. He always knew they were meant for each other.

But then she’s asking if he’s hurt anywhere, and he quickly swallows so he can answer. “No, not really. I do admit I’ve felt a bit sore though.” He confesses. “I think I strained my sharingan too much. I’ve been getting headaches here and there.” He knew he should have takin something for it, but he was so exhausted when he returned he’d just collapsed into bed.

[wokasho]

@antithcsis​ cont from x

       SAKURA WATCHED WITH BATED breath Naruto approach her, his piercing blue eyes scalding her soul as she attempted to maintain some semblance of control and cool. When did she start feeling so... strange around him? It felt strange to have her heart racing whenever he touched her.

        ❝I... I AM REALLY HAPPY TO HAVE you back, Naruto. Konoha isn’t the same without you, it’s like... it’s not home when you’re not here.❞ Her admission made her cheeks burn a bright red, but Sakura could not afford to lie or stay silent when he was so painfully honest and clear with his feelings.  ❝I wondered where you had been, wondered if you were alright and how long you would stay away...❞ Teeth worried her bottom lip for a moment while her eyes examined the floor, seemingly interested in his rug before she finally released her lip and, sighing softly, looked back up into his eyes. Her next request would probably sound more like an admission of how much she depended on him than anything, but it simply had to be said,  ❝I know you need this time away from the village but... do you think you could tell me next time? Just so... you know, I can prepare myself for your absence.❞

[wokasho]

█ ▌♛  &. 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐭 𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐬𝐭 𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬.    

                                   ❛ it was a nightmare, that’s all. ❜

                                                                                      — @murasakiirohana​

       SHARP GASPS PASSED through her lips as Sakura stared at her hands with wide unseeing eyes. She could still feel his hand tearing through her chest, muscle and bones breaking, blood seeping down her chest and filling her lungs as she felt its bitter taste in her mouth. And his eyes. Gods, she could still see his eyes. Staring at her coldly, the purple color seemed to pop out and take over her vision as she struggled to breathe.

       BUT IT WAS JUST A DREAM, no more than a memory being replayed by her mind in order to torture her even in her sleep.

       ❝YEAH, YEAH YOU’RE right. Just a dream.❞ Sakura seemed breathless, her words sounded distant to her own ears, a mechanical response to Ino’s comforting words as the kunoichi brought a hand to her chest, as if to assure herself it had indeed been a dream. ❝I must have woken you up, I’m sorry, Ino.❞ Emerald eyes searched for Ino’s blue ones apologetically. She knew her friend must have been awoken by her screaming and thrashing. ❝I’ll go outside to get some fresh air. Please, go back to sleep.❞

[wokasho]

— @uchjha​       ♥   for a starter

       ❝SO, YOU’RE OUT.❞ Her voice cracked like a whip over the faint sounds of other people working in the distance, emerald eyes fixed on the man she had fought so hard to bring back. The one who destroyed her.

[wokasho]

— @believesit​  ♥ for a starter

        ❝YOU DO REALIZE YOU should have come see me the moment you got hurt, right?❞

[wokasho]

@ramenthings​        ❤        for a starter

                       IT WOULD HAVE BEEN nearly impossible to miss the blond head towering over the other people coming and going from the hospital, he stood out like the sun breaking through the clouds of a rainy day. His sight brought both happiness and anxiety into her heart. What was he doing here? Had he known today was her appointment regarding her hallucinations? Had she told him and forgotten?

                           WHILE QUESTIONS SWAM WITHIN the storm raging in her head his bright azure eyes found her emerald ones, and whatever plan she might have been forging to escape was suddenly blown away. Forcing a smile onto her lips, Sakura approached him with careful steps, her posture relaxing the closer she got to his warm presence.

                           ❝NARUTO, WHY ARE YOU here? Do you have an appointment? Is everything okay?❞

[wokasho]

HER IRE WAS A VICIOUS, bloody thing —a beast curled within her heart, dormant until the moment to strike arose— and like a lighting bolt burning a tree in the strike of a moment, Naruto's words awakened her own inner demon. Green eyes shot up, violence burning up emeralds until they became amber. Her fists curled up into balls that would have crushed anything they had held. Her chest ached, a wound that was much too fresh had been stung by Naruto's considerate words, and now it bled profusely, flooding her heart and rib cage with venom. However unreasonable on her part, his kindness towards Sasuke was not something she was willing to accept in that moment.

❝I DON'T CARE THAT HE was going through a lot, he had no right to hurt us the way he did!❞ Her words had been spit through gritted teeth, seething with suppressed anger, ready to burst at the seams. ❝I've had a lot of time to think in these nights I lay awake, and I realized neither of us deserved what we got from him. You went through hell, but you never tried to hurt anyone! He tried to kill us both! And he would have succeeded in killing me if you hadn't saved me back then. He damn near broke me with that genjutsu!❞ Her voice cracked at the end, throat closing with the suppressed wrath burning her from within. She felt like a volcano, struggling to keep herself together, to suppress the burning ire that filled her lungs and chest like molten lava. Sakura knew she was on the verge of exploding, and that she should regain control over herself lest she did something she would regret later.

ATTEMPTING TO CALM HER racing heart, Sakura forced herself to close her eyes and open her fists, taking in deep breaths and doing a conscious effort to loosen up her tightened muscles. She had to get herself out of this fighting mode —she was safe, after all — the man to whom such anger was directed was far away, blissfully unaware of the hell he put her through. To let such vile emotions prevail would mean to let him wound her once again.

AFTER MINUTES THAT FELT like hours to her, Sakura finally managed to stop the trembling of her hands as her racing heart slowly came to a healthier pace. A drop of sweat slowly made its way down her porcelain visage as she focused on lengthening her inhalations, trying to keep the air inside her lungs for a moment before releasing it slowly. The breathing technique was working just as she had learned, but she felt so tired! Such explosions of anger, panic or pain always tired her more than she was willing to admit.

❝THERE IS NOTHING YOU CAN do.❞ Her voice was quiet now, devoid of its previous anger. Devoid of emotions altogether. ❝Many people said they could help me, but the truth is nobody can. This is something I gotta figure out on my own.❞

❝SOMETIMES I DO.❞

There's an old saying he heard once from the Pervy Sage, never ask a question you ain't ready to hear the answer to. He's seeing the wisdom in that old adage. Sakura's words are ringing in his mind, replaying over and over in his head. They're summoning all kinds of emotions. He's not sure what to label them because they're all so mixed and layered. It's like being given a random drink and asked to label all the flavors. Some he can pin point, but others are so intermixed with other emotions he's not sure where one ends and the other begins.

Pressing his hands flat against the table to anchor himself, he drops his gaze from Sakura's face. His mouth is strangely silent, his words tangled within the mess of his thoughts. It's only after several minutes of silence does Naruto begin to find some steady footing in this whirlwind of a moment.

"That's a lot to hold in Sakura-chan," he swallows down his lump of emotions, " and I get he did some shitty things. But but...Sasuke...yanno he was going through his own stuff." His flat hands on the table curl into fists, a show of his own internal struggle. How the hell does he handle this? When one of your close friends is hurting because of your best friend? Who does he side with? Is there a side?

"....how can I help ya get through this?" What else can he do for her and Sasuke? Last thing he wants is for his close people to fight between each other. For once he's glad Sasuke is off traveling and not here. If he can wedge himself between the two and somehow fix this, then thing will be okay! Right? Right.

[wokasho]

@shinobilegend​​        ❤        for a starter                                                                                                                                                                                              — Sasuke

                       HIS PRESENCE WAS FIRST felt rather than seen. Like shadows caressing the corners of her mind, a cloud covering the sun, his chakra and essence crept closer and closer, until her eyes finally saw what she knew was coming. 

                       Sasuke Uchiha

                       AS IT WAS EXPECTED, her muscles tensed and she greeted her teeth, involuntarily flexing her gloved fingers as they approached each other on the street. When he was finally close enough, Sakura forced her muscles to relax and kept a calm expression as she spoke despite the tension in her jaw.

                       ❝SASUKE-KUN, YOU’VE COME back to the village... are you here to see Naruto?❞

[wokasho]

@fightingdreamcrs​       ❤        for a starter      

                                                                                                     — Kakashi

                         SAKURA PURSED HER LIPS in a pout as she brought a gloved hand to rest on her hips; a delicate pink eyebrow rose as she looked at her sensei with sharp green eyes, carefully evaluating how he would respond to the words she was about to throw at him as one does with shuriken.

                          ❝YOU KNOW, I WAS TALKING to Naruto the other day and realized one thing: you taught Naruto the rasen-shuriken and Sasuke the chidori, how come you never taught me anything like that?❞

[wokasho]

THERE WAS A PREGNANT pause in which the question resonated within her very soul, "do you hate him now?". Never had such a question crossed her mind. She resented him, of course, that much was impossible to deny, but hate? Sakura did not take that word lightly, and therefore would not easily declare to hate someone —oh no, if she did that, it would be after much thought and consideration.

HOWEVER, THE DEPTH of her anger and resentment was the same as the affections she had once harbored for him. That tender kindness her heart had once held for him had rotten the moment she felt his hand piercing her heart. And what a terrible, painful process it had been! That affection decomposed and died under the poison of Sasuke's genjutsu, the pain he inflicted upon her mind rotted his image of a dear friend and slowly transformed it into that of her torturer —the one to bring her down, to make her nightmares come true.

THERE WERE TIMES IN WHICH she would be able to easily answer Naruto's question, without having to think too much — but her kind heart could not in good conscious so easily give such final sentence without grieving. And when fully awake and in possession of her faculties, Sakura could not afford to ignore the pain said heart felt. But she could not lie to Naruto either.

❝SOMETIMES I DO.❞ HER confession was given in a soft whisper, and had it been anyone but Naruto, she would not have admitted such a thing aloud. ❝Sometimes I hate him so much I wish I could punch him. Every time I wake up at night after a nightmare I wish I could do just that. But at the same time, I can't truly hate him... I guess...❞ she struggled for a moment, her mind racing in search of words that would be able to describe the torment raging within her mind. ❝I guess what I hate is what he did to me. I hate that he managed to break me like he did, and I hate that he forced me to feel this anger towards him. He was supposed to be my friend, my comrade! But I see now, I finally see what I didn't want to see before: I was his friend, but he was not one to me.❞

Naruto swallows his words, forcing himself to be patient as Sakura works out her thoughts. He bounces his knee to give his swirling energy an outlet.

He doesn't know what to say initially, because nightmares and memories are burned in your mind. They don't leave, they find a space and make it their home. You just try to work around them, move past them. A part of him hates Sasuke's left that impact on Sakura. The other parts of him bubble with conflict because it's Sasuke. His hand wraps around hers, squeezing it to offer her strength, comfort, whatever she needs to get out her words.

"Well maybe ya can start there, don't try to rush it? Don't ya tell your patients to take it easy when recovering from an injury or when ya do surgery? What makes you so different?" He prompts, looking at her with focused eyes.

His chest constricts as ice fills veins. Regret? Hurt? "...I don't regret that promise, because it wasn't just about you wanting him back. I wanted him too." He reminds, giving her hand a gentle nudge. His eyes lower as looks down at the table, fighting his own rising emotions. The teme always had that effect, on everyone. Or maybe just them. He sighs and rubs his eyes with his free hand. Looking at Sakura again, he gives her weary smile.

"That bastard is a lot of trouble, but..." he trails off not knowing how to continue that thought. Then he shakes his head. "Do you hate him now?"

[wokasho]

HER HEAD SNAPPED BACK up when his hand gently brushed against hers, the touch grounding and immediately pulling her back from the spiral of thoughts that threatened to submerge her. Naruto's voice and blue eyes soothed her aching heart, giving her a sense of comfort and peace that reminded her she was safe.

❝I KNOW HE'S NOT A REGULAR shinobi, neither of you are.❞ there was the hint of a smile ghosting over her lips, a fragile attempt at lighting the mood before it was gone —her visage once again serious and tired, emerald eyes looking down at their hands —was it her impression or did her hand look paler than it used to? ❝Did you know I felt him killing me more than just once?❞ Her prompt question was fired almost as an afterthought, an attempt to keep the silence away lest it consumed her. Pink eyebrows knitted together as Sakura turned her palm upwards to touch his hand, not really seeing what she was doing, but seeking the comfort of his warmth nonetheless. ❝I can still feel it. Sometimes I wake up at night and I expect to see blood on my chest.❞

STRANGE HOW DESPITE THE difficulty of uttering those words, once they were out, she felt relieved. Sakura imagined this kind of feeling was what some people felt when they confessed their crimes. And while the comparison was surely a ridiculous one —she had not done anything wrong, for starters— that was how she felt: like she had failed. She should have been stronger!

❝THE TRUTH IS I DON'T KNOW what to do to heal faster. This whole "take-some-time-to-rest" isn't working for me. I feel awful knowing I could be at the hospital helping people but I'm not! And the worst is that Sasuke...❞ Her voice broke, a mixture of shame and anger —both at him and herself— grabbed her by the throat and seemed to prevent the words from spilling, suffocating her from within. ❝I had wanted to bring him home, I even made you promise me you'd bring him home! I was such a fool!❞ Her hands balled up in fists, jaw clenching as she fought back tears, ❝I don't want to, but... but sometimes I regret ever wishing to bring him back. I wish... I wish I could hurt him the way he hurt me!❞

The atmosphere changed the second Sakura sighed. Naruto felt his spine pulled straight, forcing him to sit up as he focused. He remained surprisingly silent while Sakura explained her current situation. Every time the urge to interrupt surged, he pinched himself. Not the time to fuck around, especially when one of his best friends looked so worn down.

After a moment of silence he breaks it, reaching out a hand across the table to direct her attention toward him.

"You're not doing nothing." Are his first set of words, firm and pointed. His hope being that she'd let that sink in." Sakura-chan, Granny is makin' sure you're doing okay. Which...sounds like you're not. Don't ya gotta take care of yourself before helpin' others?" He didn't want it come out so bluntly, but his mouth worked faster than his mind.

"As for what Sasuke did, sounds like you're downplaying it." He leaned forward, blue eyes intense. "Sakura-chan, that bastard isn't..." His gaze dropped. It took several seconds for Naruto pick up his train of thought again. "What I'm tryin' to say is Sasuke isn't just any regular shinobi. He's a strong bastard. Those illusions are meant to feel real, even though they aren't. I mean his eyes are like a specialty for genjutsu right? Don't...stop down playing it."

[wokasho]

A TIRED SIGH PASSED HER lips in a short exhale of air, as if she could push out all the tension in her body by that simple action. Sakura had been holding onto her pain and demons for far too long, it would seem. Perhaps she should finally let go of them. ❝No, it's ok. We can stay here; no one's around and I hardly think we'll find a quieter place at this time.❞ She had purposely chosen the library because of its soothing atmosphere, no one but the two of them was there, except for the librarian, who had left the place for coffee five minutes ago and would most likely take at least an hour before she came back — as she did every other day, Sakura noticed.

❝I HAVE THESE... NIGHTMARES that don't let me sleep.❞ She began quietly, her posture hunching over the table, arms crossed close to her chest as if to protect herself from the pain that admission brought. ❝I keep seeing the rinnegan right before Sasuke-kun's hand tore through my chest. It was —it was so real! I keep seeing it over and over again, no matter how much I try to tell myself it wasn't real, it felt real to me.❞ Sakura had to fight to keep her voice down, words struggling to leave her lips as quickly as possible, as if the speed would lessen the pain they evoked.

❝TSUNADE-SAMA ALREADY ASKED me to cut down my hours at the hospital. She says it's ok – that it's for my own good, but I feel so useless doing it! I could be there helping people and doing my job, but instead, I'm here doing nothing!❞

Leaning back in his seat, he crosses his arms over his chest. He tilts his head back and sighs. The library isn’t the greatest place of study for him. It’s so quiet and….uneventful. It’s hard for him to concentrate when nothing is going on.

“Okay? Bored. I’m alright,” he answers with a shrug,” but usually when people say it’s not a big deal. It kind of is.” Yep he’s going back to the topic of her not sleeping.

“Spill it Sakura-chan. We both know if you aren’t getting your sleep, that’s not good. Especially considerin’ where ya work.” She’s someone that’s always gotta be on top of her game. Beyond that, Naruto simply wants to make sure she’s okay.

Clearly there’s something going on. How can he be a good friend if he doesn’t know how to help or what’s going on?

“We can go somewhere else if ya don’t wanna speak about it here?” He offers, trying to give her all the comforts she may need.