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Sweat breaks across hot skin and the nightmares run rampage even as dawn awakens the skies. It is foul, to be sure, for the maddening whispers of his past to reach him even now, when he has ventured for miles to correct the cracks he had seared open with his crimson eyes and his left arm which has been blown to smithereens. For miles and years has he journeyed, but he still sees blood spattered across shadowed floors; his brother's torments curling into grief; and finally, his own hand taking the life of a woman with widened green eyes- No.
A voice tears through his own thoughts, and it is soft as a caress, a loving whisper.
"No," he hears again.
Through bleary eyes he swears he glimpses pink strands falling over him.
"Your dreams are just that, Sasuke-kun," the voice elaborates. "The reality is far greater, far grander. I live, and I wait for you, still. My words are as true as your beating heart."
He finds a renewed sense of hope and his sole hand reaches foward, attempting to grasp at the woman that soothes his aching soul- but for nought.
His hand clings to air, and a for a beat grief almost takes over. But the words of healing echo in his mind and he knows that regardless of whether what he heard was a faded memory or a desperate grasp at sanity, the words are true. For their hearts are connected despite their distance, and just that reality will get Sasuke through another night.