Work Text:
"Sasuke-kun."
Pink hair. Pale skin. Bright green eyes. Blinding smile. Soft voice whispering words of love in his ears. Mission gone wrong. The sound of a shotgun going off. A bullet in her heart. Her body falling down the river. The look in her eyes.
Uchiha Sasuke woke up with a jolt, the sound of his alarm reverberating throughout the room. He turned it off and looked at the time, it was 6:00 A.M.
He stared at the empty side of the bed before he got off, put on his jogging pants and a hoodie to start his daily routine jog at the park.
She appeared in his sleep. Again. He didn’t know what to make of it, if it was a nightmare or a dream, and it has been tormenting him in his sleep since that day five years ago.
Sasuke is well acquainted with torture. He has seen both sides of it. He has experienced it. He’s been one on the receiving end and he’s been one to instigate it.
But those experiences are nothing compared to the nightmare that’s been haunting him ever since. Being beaten into a bloody pulp or electrocuted is nothing compared to seeing your future being taken away right before your eyes, knowing you’re too powerless to do anything but mourn.
No, torture is being stuck. Stuck in that goddamn place at 4:00 PM and seeing the love of his life die. Stuck in a loophole of happy memories and the faint hope of a future that will never come.
No amount of physical pain can compare to the ache he feels every time he catches a sight of something pink, every time he passes by a cherry blossom tree, every passing day he wakes up without her by his side.
What hurts more is that he’s starting to forget the tiny details. Her smell, how to cook her favorite dish, her laugh, her touch, the way she feels beneath him; and he’s afraid that he will one day wake up and forget everything about her.
Sometimes he even forgets the name that he hasn’t mentioned, heard, or read in five years because so much as a whisper of it will cause him to break down and have the walls he so carefully rebuilt over and over in his pathetic, miserable life crumble all over again.
It’s been five years and he can’t get out. He doesn’t want to get out.
He slowed down from running when he felt his phone vibrate in his pocket. The idiot is calling.
He connected the call to his earpiece and immediately snapped at Naruto, “What is it?”
“Someone’s cranky today. No, actually it’s not a joke anymore because you’re always cranky at any time of the day everyday.”
“Just get on with it.”
“Fine, you menopausal bastard. We’re leaving for a mission today. See you at the compound in an hour.”
“Anything suspicious come up yet?” Sasuke whispered while looking at the crowd from the backstage.
“Nothing yet,” Shikamaru’s voice rang through his earpiece. Being their tech guy, he was stationed at the upper box of the theatre and working with his computers to scan the faces of the audience to see if someone suspicious managed to sneak in.
Sasuke saw the curtains being drawn as the play starts.
“Relax dude. This is just another babysitting duty for sure. Wanna go grab some drinks later?” Naruto’s loud voice bellowed through his earpiece.
Sasuke glared at the control room situated at the very back of the theater where he’s sure the blond idiot is stationed right now.
“I’m busy,” Sasuke answered.
Busy brooding and being alone and miserable, sure.
Naruto always knew that Sasuke never got over Saku-her. Ever since That Day five years ago, he feels as if he lost not just one, but two of his best friends. He knew that Sasuke blames himself for what happened, and thus devoted to making the rest of his life miserable and closed himself up from everyone.
Naruto understands, she was his best friend too and her loss also affected him greatly. The only thing he can do is to pester Sasuke every damn time in every possible way, in order to distract them both from grief. It's what she would have wanted.
“Stay alert, Naruto,” Kakashi’s voice reprimanded through his earpiece. Their team leader is stationed behind the chancellor they’re tasked to guard.
Sasuke scanned his surroundings again and did a double take when he thought he saw a shadow cast on the stairs next to him.
“Nara, did you see that?” he asked Shikamaru and slowly drew out his gun as he looked up the stairs. It leads up to the makeshift tower prop to be used in the later scenes of the play.
“See what?” Shikamaru answered.
“There might've been someone who entered the backstage.”
“I didn’t see anyone. Hold on, I got something. Naruto, do you copy? There’s seven masked men entering the theatre. They’re armed,” Shikamaru said with urgency.
“On my way,” Naruto answered.
Sasuke stopped in his tracks and gestured at Chouji on the other end of the backstage to stay as he was about to set out and help Naruto.
He was only a few yards away from the backstage when he heard the sound of a gun going off. He immediately looked at the booth of the chancellor they were supposed to guard and saw Kakashi and the other guards leading him and his wife away from the booth.
“He was only grazed at the shoulder, I managed to get him out of the way in time. The bullet looked like it came from backstage. Go catch whoever it is. I’ll go and back up Naruto,” Kakashi ordered to Sasuke.
Sasuke immediately ran back to the backstage where he found Chouji and the other six men knocked down on the ground, wounded, a gun thrown out to the side and the tail end of a red dress disappearing behind the back door.
It’s a woman. Sasuke ran to the direction where the woman disappeared and found himself in the middle of a dark hallway.
He looked ahead and squinted his eyes, he heard the clicking of heels against the marbled floors and followed the sound.
There seemed to be chaos ensuing in the play now as he heard his team shouting orders here and there. He took out his earpiece and threw it to the side.
They ran and ran at the hallway with the woman occasionally catching Sasuke off guard by throwing knives at him that grazed his arms.
Sasuke shoots blindly ahead but the woman seemed to miss the bullet and turned to the corner.
He gritted his teeth as he continued to run after her. He then turned to the corner where the hallway seemed to be lighter now and saw her stop with her back towards him.
Gotcha, Sasuke whispered to himself as he found her standing in a balcony.
“There’s no way to escape now,” he said as held his gun out and walked towards her. His heart started to pound hard when he thought he saw something pink.
Pink hair.
His heartbeat seemed to pick up pace with every step he took towards the woman when he realized that indeed, her hair is pink.
This must be some kind of a sick joke played on him.
“Who are you?” his voice shook.
Pale skin.
Her back is still turned to him and honestly, he doesn’t want her to turn around. He’s afraid, deathly afraid, to see a face that was either foreign to him, or worse, a face he would instantly recognize.
Lifeless green eyes. A taunting smile.
She slowly turned around and his heart kept hammering in his ribcage he felt like it was trying to get out.
The latter of his fears were confirmed when she finally faced him. Everything seemed to stop as he found himself lost in green eyes that once used to hold fondness now houses only mystery. The corner of her lips lifted at the sight of him looking so shocked.
There she stood before him, the woman of his dreams, scantily clad in a silky red dress and its trail end dancing with the wind behind her, her pastel pink hair all tied up in a bun, the light of the moon glistening down her form, looking so beautiful and so much like a goddess in her own right.
Looking so perfect and unaffected as if she hadn’t been haunting him in his sleep for years, as if she hadn’t left a huge hole in his life.
There seemed to be no sign of recognition in her eyes as they stared at each other, only indifference.
Soft voice whispering goodbye. Mission gone wrong. The sound of a shotgun going off.
The next events happened so fast he felt like it was only a dream.
“Goodbye,” was the only word she uttered as suddenly drew a gun from her thigh and fired it at him.
A bullet in his thigh. Her body disappearing from the balcony. The look in her eyes.
Sasuke was left stupefied and grasping at his wounded thigh as he stared at the woman before him climbing into the railings of the balcony.
With one last look at him, she disappeared. And suddenly all the walls came crashing down and a name that he hasn’t dared utter in years comes out of his throat.
“Sakura.”