#so what if you place her in a district that could act as Konoha's version of new york?

[crimsonfeatheredraven]

Has anyone else looked at a character, especially from anime, and gone, "oh, you're definitely a Spider-person in another reality"?

The concept of a Spidey! Sakura has been living in my head rent free for about a month now and I'm about to bite something.

[quietlysatan]

An Invincible Summer - ShanaStoryteller, AO3

Link: Here!!

Rating: T for read the warnings, but don’t worry too much because of them

Favorite Quote(s): I legit wanna tattoo this next quote on me somewhere

"Oh, the things that can be accomplished through ignorance of their impossibility," 

And this Straight Up Fact

“There’s no such thing as cheating as long as you win,” Natsu says, and the brat’s not wrong.

This one’s just funny

“Chouza,” Inoichi forces himself to say evenly, “Your teachings produced Ebisu and goddamned Gai.”

“Genma’s pretty normal though,” Chouza sighs, “I never could get through to that boy.”

Gently Gai casually caring about Kakashi’s well-being is my entire reason for living, speaking of which if someone wants to come be my Gai that’d be really fucking nice because us Kakashi’s don’t do too well on our own

He hesitates, but says, "Not that I do not find your newfound mentorship to be a most youthful endeavor, but -"

"I don't know," Kakashi interrupts his friend, "I met her while she was taking her genin exam and she, I don't know, adopted me or something. She just keeps showing up."

Gai nods thoughtfully, "Stubbornness is a useful skill to have when trying to cultivate a friendship with you." Kakashi elbows the other man, but doesn't protest besides that. "She's a good cook."

And this one because I love it when people Get It, ya’know?

That's really why he won't say anything, why he won't reveal that the Kyuubi's container and the fourth Hokage's child is still alive: they already killed him once. Naruto and Shikamaru are the same age, they would have been in the same class, and the idea that anyone could want to harm his innocent, precious son makes his blood boil 

And this one, for accuracy

"This sounds like a most youthful endeavor. I will bring Anko! She will fan the flames of youth in our young Konoha blossom!"

Both Itachi and Kakashi look at Gai, horrified. "Please don't," Itachi says weakly, like he knows it'll fall on deaf ears but he has to try anyway.

"Don't worry," Gai attempts to assure them, going into his Good Guy pose, "They will produce youthful flames of feminine excellence!"

"They're going to burn down Konoha," Kakashi says flatly.

Gai's hair and teeth sparkle in the sunlight, and he doesn't attempt to deny it.

Another important one

"The world is a terrible place," she says, and she has to swallow before she speaks again, "and it's full of terrible people. But I don't have to be one of them." 

I love that Natsu-chan has great balance, this is my number one favorite character trope, and I wish more people would write it

She bends down to look at him upside down, and Itachi can feel that she's not using chakra to stick onto him, and sometimes her balance just isn't logical. 

I just love the idea of tiny genius Naruto, and I love that Natsu-chan is a seal master at like, fucking seven and a half lol

Itachi knows it's actually far more complicated than that, but just as he does not tell her minutia of the past shinobi wars in their history lessons, she does not overcomplicate her explanations of sealing. Usually he's grateful for that, but when she appears to break every known law to sealing and chakra, he's not.

"That's," he blinks and he's not going to tell her it's impossible because it clearly isn't, "new," he settles on.

A mood honestly

Inoichi now feels the urge to bang his head against the table top, because 'a huge pain' to Natsu is 'literally impossible' to everyone else.

Another mood honestly

Inoichi watches his former genin dig in with resignation. “When are you guys going to start picking up the tab? Feeding you all isn’t cheap you know.”

Hana swallows her mouthful, “Sensei, I am but a lone healer’s apprentice –“

“I have been a chunin less than a month,” Kabuto pouts, wounded, “and already you seek to profit-“

“Do you have any idea how much sealing paper and ink costs?” Natsu demands.

“Okay, okay,” Inoichi grumbles, but it’s not very effective considering he’s smiling, “I take it back, jeez.”

Okay so, since this is a 100k+ word fic, I’ve been doing this thing lately literally just now on this fic review where I only feature quotes from the first chapter (Depending on length.) but, I’m making an exception because I’ve never seen these three characters and my thoughts on them summed up so well by someone I don’t know which is to say anyone, no one I know cares about my interests really lol

"Maybe a little," he admits grudgingly, "Sakura's really smart, but she acts dumb for some reason. And her endurance is really bad. She probably would have been failed on that alone if she didn't have such good aim with shuriken. And Sasuke's good at like, everything, I still don't get why he didn't graduate earlier. He's just so-" Kiba rubs his hand over his face.

"So what?" Hana prompts, even though she's heard this particular complaint before.

"Sad," the genin sighs, "He's miserable all the time, and he works hard and if you yell at him for long enough he'll work with you, but - crap, I don't know. He's got this really great poker face so you think he's just a big jerk, but I can smell his emotions, the big idiot, and he's just this sad lonely kid who won't listen to anyone."

Hana hums, because if she opens her mouth she'll probably start cursing the Hokage and his dumb rules and his dumb ideas, and that is not the type of thing that leads to a long life.

Just one last quote because dudes, guys, pals, friends of mine it’s important and you should all stop and read it.

 “Thanks for being cool with – everything. I’m really happy you’re not mad at me for not being honest with you.”

“You are my friend,” Gaara says warmly, “and you have always been honest about that.”

Words & Chapter(s): 136,306 words of greatness, and 6 full chapters of nicely done completion

Summary: When Naruto is five, he's gutted by a drunken civilian and presumed dead.

Six months later a girl with ash pale hair and dark blue eyes enters the Academy. 

(Guys I swear on my cool as fuck username, and all around internet personality as practically satan and probably Lucifer and whatnot that nobody we like stays dead or severely injured)

Score: 13, this is one of my favorites for a reason, this is actually my second technically third time rereading this in as many weeks

Pairing(s): Uchiha Sasuke/Uzumaki Naruto Hatake Kakashi/Umino Iruka, background Haku/Zabuza, but don’t worry anything you’re thinking of is addressed quite nicely in the fic ultra background but still there’s a lot of relationships and I’m not going to tag them all

Warning(s): Naruto technically dies more than once because this is Naruto we’re talking about but they also technically don’t??? You gotta read it, but basically temporary character death, only the bad guys stay dead in this one.

Nobody knows that Naru-chan lived so there’s that angst for you, however, to be fair it’s not like this whole story is just characters mourning and crying and whatnot, at this point it’s mostly just passing thoughts and memories which, again, to be fair, does almost feel worse at times... Huh, regardless it’s not overly angsty

Kakashi is adopted whether he likes it or not by Natsu-chan, we love both of our emotionally fucked over fair-haired ninja in this house so you won’t have to worry about that sorta fic coming outta nowhere from me BTW... but anyways, Kakashi freaks out a bit, much like the abused dog he always reminds me of, but Natsu is the sweetest and most gentle, yet forceful person he could’ve possibly caught the attention of. (This is canon)

The Akatsuki are still bad, BUT ITACHI ISN’T technically SO WHO FUCKING CARES!!!! (The Massacre still happens tho...)

Mentions of The Flower District and what that implies, and also things a Kunoichi might definitely do

Oh my fucking god the Hyuga... Who would willingly do something so horrible as that? Of all the things... Warning for... The Hyuga branch family situation, it’s dealt with nearly as soon as we are informed but, gods, my blood ran cold, and my face whited out, my sister thought someone had died when she saw my face haha,,, who the fuck does this? And do they die? In canon I mean? I think I only watched up to the chunin exams or Pein’s attack, I can’t remember which tho...

Natsu cries because people are nice to her sometimes. And honestly that’s fair, I burst into to tears once because I imagined someone kissing my forehead softly so, Natsu is completely valid... Sidenote, I’m touch-starved and have no cure for this beyond younger siblings and my cat because I don’t have the ability to ask my mom for a hug without literally gross sobbing and I have A Thing about embarrassment sooooo... yeah if anyone has some therapy justu for me that’d be nice

Mentions of Gross Men that apparently want to have Natsu’s increasingly growing collection of the absolute most dangerous people she can befriend pay them a visit. And by that, I mean an old fuckwit has the gall to leer at a TEN-YEAR-OLD and a FUCKING THIRTEEN-YEAR-OLD!!!!!! Ugh, I hate those kinds of pathetic worms.

On that note, there is technically underaged things going on, but they are also Ninja soooo???? They’ve killed people and are technically in their version of an army, and by the laws of their lands they’re all adults, actually I’m pretty sure by shinobi life expectancy Kakashi is middle-aged, Inoichi is a senior citizen, and Hiruzen is a walking corpse tbh

Alcoholism??? I don’t really think it is but I’m not sure, but some characters do drink often, and usually when stressed courtesy of Natsu and co. but still... I don’t actually know if it is because it doesn’t actually happen much, more like every few weeks/months

Mentions of past sexual assault, and attempted past sexual assault, neither happen in fic or to any of our main characters, the experiences are not graphic though they do talk about it in chapter five, it’s not to graphically described.

Also, a bunch of off-screen lemon

A Thing (That I copy-pasted from the author so that all of you will see it and not say a single word against it.): If you thought Natsu was too mature for her age - she has seen and been through some really horrible shit. But also: my cousin has, since he was like 4, hung out with kids that were about 4 years older than him because those were the kids that were in his neighborhood or whatever. Point being, even after he started school, his main group of friends was consistently older than him. He very quickly adapted to that, and to this day (he's 12) hangs out with that same group, and considers children his own age 'kids' because he adapted to the behavior of the group he was surrounded with. I hardly believe Natsu would be any different.

And also

4. Quick little note because some people mentioned liking my portrayal of the Sandaime. I base his decisions/motivations (and Itachi and Danzo's to a certain extent) around this quote by Clementine von Radics: "It is so hard to live half monster, to hurt everything you love by trying to protect it wrong."

Pros: Watching Natsu just casually disregard the idea of gender with little to no thought is the greatest thing anyone will ever experience beyond, I dunno, the party we’re all gonna collectively throw when soggy Cheeto dies (I still haven’t decided which song we should make chart number one when that happens)

Given that I’ve technically read this three times you should already know the writing is fucking amazing, like, whoa, mind blown type of amazing, like, wow, so good, I usually hate rereading something I’ve read before, and especially so soon after the fact but geez Louis is this fic amazing

Natsu is just as easy to fall in love with as Naruto, and they are still the same people with slightly different personalities as is to be realistically expected with a situation like Naru’s was.

Also, GENDERFLUID REPRESENTATION DONE FUCKING AMAZINGLY IS ALWAYS A PLUS!!!!!!! 

The author manages to convey a very realistic genderfluid character in an incredibly believable manner, while also still keeping Natsu/Naruto themself. They’re still the Naruto that we knew and loved, but they’re different too, as is to be expected. when Natsu is a girl no-one stumbles, she is a girl without a doubt, even the author doesn’t trip up on societal expectations, and when Naruto is a boy there is next to immediate acceptance of this fact with absolutely zero (0) Zero bullshit from transphobes, which, as a genderfluid person myself, is always fucking nice to see. You’ll have to read it to know more though.

Natsu running around creating seals is honestly the greatest thing ever, and the end scene with the village made me cry a lil bit, and dammit this fic is so fucking good!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So, there’s a scene, where Natsu heals Kakashi, and the way the author handled explaining the intimate not sexual relationship between two of my favorite characters ever is just, so subtly beautiful, the sibling-bond these two have is beautiful, and a part of me wants to cry sometimes when I read it, and usually do cry a little when I get to this scene, and only partially because of what happened directly before it.

I love the way everybody just gets up and moves past their trauma and just decides to politely ignore it, oh they still have it, they still deal with it, but they care, and they are careful about it, and even though it hurts them like a knife-wound to the kidney in slow-motion they still get back up and keep fucking going. That’s hella admirable and I can respect that, I can respect even more that they slowly but surely let themselves heal as time moves on. This fic is beautiful on so many different levels but it is this one perhaps, that is the most magnificent. Perhaps.

Sasuke is adorable and depressing and adorable and I love it. And Ino is still a bad bitch but she’s a kid so we only see it like a handful of times in the first two chapters. The Akimichi/Yamanaka/Nara are all great, and I occasionally pity Inionchicause like, he’s putting up with a well-informed seal genius that’s still hyper, a slightly frightening medic-kunoichi with giant dogs, another slightly more frightening medic-nin who isn’t the greatest fighter but damn can he be intimidating and also really good at pointing out “Certain Things” while judging you about them which, honestly, is my greatest pastime. Itachi is so sweet and then so tragic oh my gods, and Natsu never even considers giving up on him. Kakashi is so sweet, and he slowly becomes less of a beaten dog as time goes on and I just love all of these characters.

Except for Hiruzen. Well, no, I still love this particular incarnation of Hiruzen, for all that he’s got one hell of a pathetically small backbone, I get why he does shit. But that doesn’t make me happy. Still, he’s better than dumbledouchebag. Granted that’s not difficult, and you might have to actively put an effort in to be as bad as that guy, but still. Plus, his hearts in the right place, and he’s less about the greater good then... certain disgraces to teaching and being in charge of a large group of people... Hiruzen is actually kinda sweet and admits he has issues and actually has an excuse that’s understandable for the shit that he pulls which is great, if sadly uncommon.

Anyways, Sakura is terrifying, and I remembered why I had a crush on her. She’s so badass, also, she ends up Princess Mononoke basically which, honestly, is fucking great, and the best thing we could’ve asked for, I love all of these characters so much!!!

Aesthetic: It reminds me off beefy stew (We don’t eat beef, so we used vegan soy beef stuff instead, and it was just as good.) it reminds me of the warmth, and friendship, and home that I felt after my mom and I make dinner together with nothing but a little music on and jokes passing back and forth between us. It reminds me of scraping my knee and having my friends help me to their mom, it reminds me of loyalty and compassion. It reminds me of dancing outside at night, alone in the forest with nothing but the moon for company and wind for music. It reminds me of the first time I realized that I could love someone despite their gender and that I should despite mine. It reminds me of finely spun handmade lace, and all it’s delicate while also reminding me of the sturdiest of steels, it reminds me of so much. It reminds me of acceptance, and understanding, and so much more. If I were to say what food and drink it reminds me of, I’d say chicken noodle soup, and sweet lavender-lemon tea.

Music Aesthetic: So, I made a playlist while I was reading this the first time around, and instead of a gif or twenty like I would usually prefer to do I’m going to add that playlist. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbhXmTSBbAyjk0m1b4BZUp3t0RHL83LDK

But if I were to add a gif or two it’d be these

Because something about this fic reminds me of rainy days with tea and baggy clothes.

Every time Natsu/Naruto decided to fight ever, to be honest.

[kuriquinn]

Two Weeks

Summary:  Two weeks from now, Sasuke Uchiha will fall in love for the first time in his eighteen years. [SasuSakuMonth2017 - Day 1 - Prompt: “First Love”]

Blanket Disclaimer

Warning: Spoilers for pretty much everything up to Chapter 699.

Canon-Compliance: As close to canon as fanfiction can possibly be. With a few personal additions :P Takes place during the Blank Period.

Beta Read: Not yet

Two weeks from now, Sasuke Uchiha will fall in love for the first time in his eighteen years.

Granted, it will be less of a fall and more the culmination of a lifetime of subtle, gradual inching. But when his understanding of what’s happened sets it, it will do so with a suddenness that will make his stomach lurch. He will feel as if he’s been dropped from a great height (hence the association with falling) and wonder why the object of his realisation seems unaware that the entire planet has just shifted on its axis.

And then he will remember that Sakura Haruno has been in love with him since they were children, and perhaps her world has always been a little off its axis.

今

At the moment, he is much more concerned with his immediate prospects than entertaining inexplicable notions concerning affairs of the heart.

After months of confinement in a dank prison cell, bound and warded, Sasuke squints up at the moon and tastes freedom. It’s no accident that his release was granted by night, providing the opportunity to avoid the curious and no-doubt scornful looks of the other villagers.

It is not a total freedom, of course.

He senses the eyes of ANBU scrutinising him from several vantage points, and after so long in cramped quarters, his entire body is stiff and aching. His cell was barely large enough for him to stand up in, and there are few exercises one can undertake when strapped into a straitjacket and blinded. Not that he bothered much—with his thoughts so consumed with his own deeds, it seemed like penance to simply sit and waste away. The only reasons his limbs didn’t completely atrophy is due to Sakura and her weekly visits. He chooses to think of those simply as her fulfilling her duties as a healer and refuses to consider any other reason for them.

(He also pretends not to be curious as to why she isn’t part of his escort tonight.)

His knees buckle beneath him, and if it weren’t for Naruto stubbornly looping his arm around his waist, Sasuke suspects he might crumple to the ground.

His friend brings him to a small apartment that he distantly remembers belongs the Kakashi. The current Hokage is waiting for them there, and when he offers Sasuke the use of the place, Sasuke surprises them all (himself included) by accepting.

He shrugs it off as a lingering psychological effect of his incarceration. The only human interaction he’s had in months, besides Sakura’s requisite medical attention, have been Ibiki Morino’s interrogations. Though Sasuke cooperated, his brain still aches like it’s been through a meat grinder, and for once he is grateful for the kindness of others.

Certain others, anyhow.

将来

Two weeks from now, Sasuke will tune out Kakashi’s last-minute warnings in favour of observing Sakura.

(He will have already heard several permutations of this speech, from several sources. Everyone from Ibiki Morino to Iruka Umino have been keen to remind him just how lucky he is. It’s a waste of breath—he needs no reminder of a fact carved into his very soul.)

He will memorise her features and every subtle shift of her body, adding these to the mental catalogue he didn’t even realise he was keeping and suspect that, in the coming months, the memory of her will be one of his few comforts.

今

Officially Kakashi’s offer is meant to put him under surveillance, considering the potential threat he might pose to village security. Sasuke suspects an ulterior motive, however.

There’s a certain dimension to Sasuke that neither Sakura nor Naruto will ever understand, but which Kakashi always has. He committed horrible acts, after all, even if they were largely not his fault; Kakashi knows how guilt and regret can poison every waking moment. No doubt he understands Sasuke’s trepidation at the idea of returning to the place he grew up, and all the ghosts that still reside there.

It’s just as well.

The Uchiha district still lies in ruins from Pain’s attack, and Sakura has made it clear she has no intention of letting him stay there.

“You’re in no condition to sleep out in the elements,” she lectures him the next morning when she arrives to check on him.

Sasuke frowns at her, but it’s half-hearted.

Once, his first inclination would be to scoff at the presumption that she lets him do anything; having seen her break mountains he thinks better of it. He takes issue with the idea of anyone checking up on him, as if he’s an ailing child, but there’s not much he can do but concede. Besides his weakened muscles and malnourished frame, the damp conditions of the prison have led him to develop a wet cough. Whenever Sasuke inhales, he is reminded of Itachi’s laboured breathing during his last moments of life, and so he gives in to Sakura’s care with less fuss than he normally might.

His time at Kakashi’s apartment is meant for recovery, an opportunity to adjust to the outside world before he decides his next step.

Whatever that is.

He spends an entire day sleeping, availing himself of the comforts of an actual bed and the wonders of a shower. Konoha’s prison cells are positively luxurious compared to Orochimaru’s, but they’re still a long way from comfortable.

He doesn’t venture outside for several days, and even then, he only goes out once the sun has set, when there are fewer people to notice him. Confinement has not changed his preference for solitude though he has a new appreciation for fresh air, even with a hidden ANBU escort.

Throughout his recovery, he receives visitors.

Kakashi, of course, if very rarely. His new job seems to require him spending most nights at the office; it's only every other morning that he ventures into the apartment looking for a change of clothes. Sometimes Sasuke will off him a cup of tea, and they’ll both drink it silently in the kitchen.

Naruto is always by, joking and teasing and plying Sasuke with ramen or just getting on his nerves, but there’s no enmity anymore. He spends the time where he isn’t studying by helping to teach lessons at the Academy. Just like when they were kids, though, he spends a lot of time skipping out on anything he finds boring. It’s pure mischief, considering he could just as easily leave a shadow clone behind to study, but when Sasuke points this out, Naruto laughs it off and says, “Where would the fun be in that?”

It’s like their early genin years when their rivalry-friendship was still innocent, although there’s a certain dimension of change in it now. Naruto doesn’t just have commitments to his former teammates any longer. His actions in the war and for the village mean that everyone holds a part of him and he will never just belong to himself anymore.

Sometimes Sasuke wonders if his friend hasn’t chosen a more difficult path than he has.

And, of course, there is Sakura.

Even after the need for her medical care fades, she continues to show up every morning. By the fourth day, Sasuke accepts that she’s not going to stop.

将来

Two weeks from now, Sasuke will wonder if this is the point from which the rest of it all became inevitable.

今

Sakura visits whenever she has a spare moment, usually in the morning. She brings him books to read (Kakashi’s collection and tastes leave much to be desired), and breakfast. Most mornings she has fresh produce, meant to help strengthen his system, and he finds himself inordinately pleased at the sheer abundance of tomatoes.

(Fresh fruit was a luxury in his years with Orochimaru—he basically lived on soldier pills and health elixirs. While travelling with Taka, their small budget meant the cheapest, most portable food.)

At first, he expects Sakura’s presence to become tiresome, the way it always was before. However, he quickly finds the opposite is true.

Over the course of his recovery, Sasuke is treated to a version of Sakura that he rarely had a chance—or an interest—in knowing when they were younger.

This Sakura is confidant and forthright, at ease in her skin in a way he never saw before. She’s the master of her trade and knows it. She’s still an optimist, still someone who hopes for the best outcome. When they were small, she would sit back, wringing her wrists and hoping for fate to intervene, but she now she is the agent of action that creates that outcome.

This Sakura has a very sly, somewhat dirty sense of humour, which he would never have imagined. He doesn’t know if she always had this and he ignored it, or if she just never showed him that side of her when they were kids. Possibly Naruto had some influence here, but Sasuke doubts it; their teammate was away from Konoha almost as long as Sasuke was.

She still lapses into flustered silence around him, probably more out of long-buried habit than anything else, but it isn’t often. And, he also learns, that fluster vanishes very quickly when faced with his stubbornness in the face of his health.

While still fighting off his pulmonary infection, Sasuke tries to get out of bed and begin his physical therapy. When he ignores Sakura’s first warning, she summarily picks him up without even breaking a sweat and deposits him back in bed.

“If you move again, I will sit on you,” she tells him, and despite twin spots of red in her cheeks, he knows she’s serious.

It appears the days of ignoring Sakura are long over.

In time, he sees that many of Sakura’s other qualities remain unchanged from their youth.

She is still smart and kind and excitable.

One day after beating him at shogi (he is peevishly irritated to find she used to let him win when they were children), she drags him over to the apartment window to exclaim over a double-rainbow formed in the wake of a rainstorm. He shakes his head and marvels at her genuine excitement over such a small thing, but where once that sentiment might have been fueled by contempt now there is something like amazement.

Sakura fills their time together with cheer and chatter, catching him up on events he’s missed and never alluding to why he missed them. Just like when they were younger, she seems to have an aversion to silence. Before, he tuned out the sound of her rambling, usually because it was over something inconsequential. Now, he finds himself interested.

She relates the puzzling medical cases she deals with at the hospital, and how she’s overseeing the training of the next generation of healers. It appears that it is now compulsory for every squad above the chūnin level to have a trained and certified medical-nin.

“It’s about time,” he says, earning an approving smile.

When she tells him of being offered more responsibility in the hospital, Sasuke silently echoes her pride. He has always known she was capable of great things if she put her mind to it, and to see her finally embracing her strengths is cathartic somehow.

One morning, she shares an idea she’s been considering, of opening a medical clinic for the children who were affected by the war.

“No one should ever have to go through what you and Naruto did,” she whispers. Even if Sasuke wanted to answer here, he’s not sure he would be able to.

Several days pass like this and soon, Sakura’s visits become the best part of his day. For the first time in his life, he actually prefers to spend time with another person instead of alone.

He wakes in the morning, reminding himself to eat and care for the stump of his arm, lest he face Sakura’s wrath when she arrives with breakfast to find he hasn’t. He tells her that her cooking has improved (which is a blatant lie), or asks her questions that require lengthy explanations. At first this is a tactic to dissuade her from asking him questions, but eventually he finds topics that he genuinely wants to know more about. Like her years training with Tsunade and the theory behind her monstrous strength—that day he watches her expression brighten at his interest and lets her enthusiasm wash over him as she relates her tale.

He goes to sleep at night, analysing their (mostly one-sided) conversations and wondering if he should have said more, or said something different. Some nights he stews over the fact he always seems to become mute when the opportunity for a clever comment presents itself and wonders why he’s angry about it.

The day he suggests they should spar once he’s back to his full strength, he finds himself so dazed by the sheer wattage of the smile she graces him with that he can’t form a proper sentence for the next hour.

将来

Two weeks from now, Sasuke will marvel that it only took two weeks for him to fall for Sakura. He will wonder how far gone he might have been if he never left Konoha in the first place.

今

If Sasuke notices more about Sakura every day, he tells himself it’s because she’s his most frequent and dedicated visitor. If it were Naruto or Kakashi, he would no doubt observe them as well.

Although, he doubts their quirks would be anything quite as worth noting as the way Sakura’s voice becomes comically low and rough when she’s annoyed. Or the way her nose scrunches up when she laughs. Or how amusing it is to watch her strain on tip-toes for items that are beyond her reach, before shooting him a half-pleading, half-reproachful look of expectation until he helps her.

He finds himself inexplicably annoyed by the way she and Naruto carry on when the three of them are together. She hugs and touches him constantly, and Naruto still tries unsuccessfully to flirt with her. Sasuke knows that’s just how they are together—it’s all friendly, with no actual meaning behind it—but it still bothers him.

Possibly because it’s a relationship where he will always be an outsider. While he was gone, they bonded over their shared goal to bring him back. He wonders if they would have the same ties if he had never left.

将来

Two weeks from now, Sasuke will think of how easy it would be to just…stay.

今

He wrestles with the decision to leave Konoha longer than he expected to.

Unsurprisingly, one of the major factors in his delay to action is Sakura.

When they were thirteen, he walked away from her without looking back, even knowing how she felt about him—in many ways because of how she felt about him. His time with Team 7 allowed him to grow closer to Sakura than he ever intended, and he was beginning to picture a future that had her in it. There were bonds there, no question, and he was so tempted that night to give in to her plea to stay. Or even to let her come along with him.

She would have, too.

She would have followed him into the depths of Orochimaru’s world, and who knows what she might have been twisted into?

The idea of Sakura learning under the tutelage of someone like Kabuto, her mercy and goodness hacked out of her, makes his stomach clench. For that possibility alone, he experiences no retroactive guilt at knocking her out and leaving her asleep on a bench, for taking away her choice to follow him, and for—

He shies away from that thought.

The decision to leave Konoha now—to leave her—it reminds him of that night.

This time he is leaving for redemption instead of revenge, but once again he must decide despite knowing it will inevitably hurt someone he has grown to care about.  

He wants to become a better person. For his own reasons, of course—there’s a lot that he has to answer for: a family lineage worth of sins, and his own personal crimes—but also to live up to the unwavering faith of his friends. He needs to prove to himself that he deserves the forgiveness that Sakura and Naruto and a growing number of others have granted him.

There is also an infinitesimal need to protect Sakura from herself.

Because as strong and independent as she has become, he still sees the ghost of that young girl who cried and begged and would have thrown away her entire future to follow him into darkness if he didn’t stop her.

There’s no argument that hers and Naruto’s preoccupation with saving him from himself led her to become stronger in her own right. But the downside to that is that she has never experienced a life where she isn’t preoccupied with trying to save him. Even now, her visits are coloured by some expectation that he might lose himself again, and her stalwart determination not to let that happen.

Without having to worry about him, Sakura will do great things—he can already imagine her ten years from now, shouting orders in a hospital and healing entire villages—and he owes her the opportunity to find that out for herself.

Much as he values her intentions, it’s high time that he took responsibility for his own salvation.

将来

Two weeks from now, Sakura will ask him to let her come along, and instead of knocking her unconscious this time he will simply tell her no.

Even before her shoulders slump forward, he will catch the crushed expression on her face and his chest will tighten painfully at the notion that he has once again hurt her.

His hand will move on his own, his body far ahead of his mind as he reaches out to her, and he will tap her forehead, just above the symbol of her strength. It’s the only gesture of fondness that has ever meant anything to him, the only remaining shred of the last person he dedicated his life to.

The only promise that ever held weight.

It will also be the first time he is the one to reach out to her, with actual forethought and genuine affection. Her eyes will widen and her cheeks colour, and for a second the world around them will disappear.

“I’ll see you when I’m back,” he will promise her, amused by the astonished look on her face and filled with hope that she understands what he means.

今

The night before Sasuke leaves Konoha, his brother’s last words ring in his ears.

‘No matter what you decide to do from now on, I will love you forever.’

It seems oddly apt for the situation.

Though Sasuke’s relationship with Itachi differed from what it is with Sakura, he thinks his brother and Sakura always had something important in common: an all-encompassing, often puzzling, unconditional love.

Even after everything Sasuke has done—and not done—Sakura has made it clear that she still loves him. It’s a love she has held on to ever since they were children, despite everything.

Maybe because of everything.

He wonders if he will one day be the type of person who can return that love without reservation.

将来

Two weeks from now, Sasuke will tell Sakura, “Thank you,��� and walk out of her life, hoping that when he returns, he is worthy enough to walk back into it.

終わり

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