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Done chasing, what a waste of my time
There's no replacin', what am I gonna find?
What's with me? Am I in my right mind?
Why risk it? 'Cause I know that
In the three years he has been wandering the world, he has seen many things and visited many places. Sunrises in the Land of Snow, sunsets in Suna, festivals in Kiri, and spring blooming in the Land of Grass. Many would say he has witnessed more wonders in that short period of time than most do in their entire lives. But when Sasuke reflects on the word wonder, he thinks of a girl with pink hair, green eyes, and an unending love for him, whether he deserves it or not is a different topic.
Maybe it is time to see all those wonders reflected in her eyes.
・❥・
Why do we always gotta run away?
And we wind up in the same place
It's like we're looking for the same thing
Same thing, yeah
At first they were enemies, two different people with the same objective, stealing the same art pieces. They turned it into a competition: who could steal them faster, in a more dramatic way, or leave fewer traces behind. But at some point, the rush of taking something that didn’t belong to her was replaced by the electric thrill of seeing Sasuke Uchiha again, his regal face trying to appear unaffected when she claimed victory, or the small, smug smile he wore when he was the one getting the prize. It felt natural, like something they had left pending in another life, when their mouths finally find each other in a dark alley on the night a robbery goes wrong.
・❥・
Boys don't cry, so I'm not crying
Learned to hide the tears inside me
Come and break my heart
Disinherited. The word was meant to bring him shame, but honestly Sasuke couldn’t care less at this point. He has made peace with the fact that he will never be like Itachi, never loved or praised the way his brother is, especially by their father. With time, he has found his own chosen family, the ones who truly celebrate his achievements and show up on the bad days. And according to his blood family, he was supposed to give them up simply because their surnames aren’t as old as the Uchiha’s or their bank accounts as large. Sasuke walks out of the room with his head high, untouched by their attempt to humiliate him. He feels more like himself in Sakura’s tiny apartment than he ever did in the family mansion.
・❥・
Honey (ah)
I'd walk through fire for you
Just let me adore you
He watches from his spot, back resting against the rough bark of a tree, as Sakura teaches the young child how to swim in the river. Her hair has grown long enough again for her to tie it into a bun at the top of her head so it won’t bother her. They arrived in the small village a week ago, helping the locals in exchange for a place to sleep and food to eat.
Sasuke can hear the gentleness in her voice as she keeps praising the boy’s progress. At one point, the child jumps into her arms, laughing when she catches him, then presses a kiss to her cheek. Sakura hugs him tight against her chest, her eyes sparkling as she spins around, searching for Sasuke.
A faint smile tugs at the corners of his lips, a smile only for her. Now more than ever, he wants to marry her.
・❥・
Paralyzed, paradise on my tongue (oh)
So alive, I could die, gimme some (oh)
Sweet-ee-eet, ee-ee-ee-eet (sweet venom)
Sakura clings tighter to his shoulders, even after the kiss ends and she finds herself short of breath, cheeks flushed as he rests his forehead against hers. Her heart drums wildly in her chest, and beneath her palms she can feel Sasuke’s pulse racing too. Seconds slip by between quick breaths and the distant sound of lapping waves. Then he closes his eyes again and captures her lips in another searing kiss, only this time, his fingers are already undoing the knot that holds her bikini top in place, and Sakura makes no effort to stop him.
・❥・
We keep saying nothing's changed
Knowing nothing stays the same
Are we living in the past
Just so we can make it last
Sakura sighs tiredly as she leaves her keys by the door. Darkness and silence greet her, the first chased away when she turns on the light and the second broken as she begins to remove her boots and coat.
Again, Sasuke isn’t here, a business dinner, a late meeting with a client, paperwork that apparently can’t wait until the next day. She’s lost count of his excuses for not coming home early anymore.
As she pads into the kitchen, ready to make herself a light dinner, she can’t help but wonder how long they’re going to keep pretending among the ruins of what once was their happiness.
・❥・
How about you?
Is it hard for you to sleep because of me too?
If you keep making my heart flutter
What do I do?
Sasuke shifts on his bed, the weight and warmth of his blankets an annoyance, his gaze fixed on the darkened ceiling of his room. He would never admit it out loud to another soul, but Sakura agreeing to a date has left him completely jittery. His mind drifts to her, is she lying awake too, feeling just as nervous? Is her heart racing in her chest as she thinks about holding his hand as well? He turns onto his side.
The light on his alarm clock reads 2 a.m. He rubs his eyes, waiting for sleep to come, and when it finally does, he dreams of the laugh of a girl with pastel‑pink hair and green eyes.
・❥・
I know that dress is karma, perfume regret
You got me thinking 'bout when you were mine, oh
Sasuke watches her waltz into the room, the black dress hugging her curves in all the right places. He’d given it to her years ago, a dress Sakura never had a reason to wear, because he never took her to family dinners or anywhere they could be seen together. And now she’s wearing it while laughing with some of his biggest rivals, acting as if she doesn’t feel his stare burning from across the room. Meanwhile his fiancée keeps rambling about something to his father, and Sasuke can’t be bothered to listen.
・❥・
Take me to the magic of the moment
On a glory night
Where the children of tomorrow dream away (dream away)
In the wind of change
The moment Shisui looks the other way, Sasuke grabs Sakura’s hand and bolts. They end up crouched behind a cluster of hydrangea bushes, tall enough to reach almost to his ni‑chan’s shoulder. Sakura is panting from the run, cheeks flushed pink.
Shisui had been told to watch them for the evening. Like most days lately, Sakura had brought her tiny doll to “play house.” Sasuke had been ready to refuse, but Shisui, wearing one of his stupid smiles, volunteered to be the father. And that was it. Little Sasuke saw red. No one was going to be the father of any of Sakura’s children, real or pretend, except him.
・❥・
Ticket one way ticket one way
One way, one way, one way ticket
Ticket one way ticket one way
My heart's gone to you again tonight
A sudden weight on her shoulder makes Sakura take her eyes off the city bathed in golden light and look to her right. Sasuke’s head rests against her shoulder, deep asleep, his chest rising and falling in a steady rhythm. His black backpack sits at his feet, and one of his headphones hangs between them, rock music playing quietly in the silent train car. Sakura presses a soft kiss to his temple, squeezes the hand of her boyfriend, the one that hasn’t left hers since they stepped onto the train, and returns her gaze to the cityscape briefly turned to gold.
・❥・
Be my bad boy, be my man
Be my weekend lover, but don't be my friend
You can be my bad boy, but understand
That I don't need you in my life again
Sasuke Uchiha is everything she was warned against , the ruthless leader of a yakuza gang, his arms and back covered in tattoos drawn in sharp lines and black ink. Half of his businesses are a legal cover for the other half. His silences are heavy with unspoken power; his stares can break even the most confident men. In short, he is the polar opposite of her miss goody two-shoes personality. But Sakura forgets all those reasons, and a hundred more, when his lips find hers in the dark.
・❥・
I'll play the villain if you need me to
I know how this goes, yeah
I'll be the one you pay to see, play the scene
Roll the cameras please
Everyone who knows Sasuke Uchiha knows how much of a farce this wedding is. He is standing at the altar, wearing a formal kimono, his face unreadable, present in the room, but with his mind somewhere else. His bride‑to‑be walks toward him, a sweet blush on her pale face, a few wild strands of black hair framing her delicate features as her father brings her to the altar. And in the second row on the groom’s side, next to his childhood friend, sits Sakura Haruno in a red dress. For many, it’s simply her distinctive color, but for those who know the story behind it, she is a beacon screaming that she slept with the groom… and that she intends to keep doing it.
・❥・
Does it cross your mind
The way it crosses mine?
Is your hair still long
Like it was that time?
“And the girl with the pink hair. Sakura was her name, I believe. She’s now training under Tsunade.” Sasuke readjusts his position on the examination table when the name of his ex‑teammate is brought up. He can feel Orochimaru’s eyes shifting to examine his face as Kabuto continues with his report. Sasuke maintains an impassive expression; not only did Orochimaru see him collapse on top of Sakura in the Forest of Death, but by this point Sasuke is sure he knows that the cursed seal stopped when Sakura hugged him, and that she almost succeeded in getting him to stay in Konoha.
He can risk his own life to get his revenge, but he isn’t willing to risk Sakura’s in any capacity.
・❥・
Please don't say goodbye
Don't wanna say goodbye
Please don't say goodbye
His heart beats furiously against his chest; desperation spurs him to ignore every small rock that embeds itself under his nails. He has to dig faster, toward the flickering chakra point under the rubble where she is. Why did he have to reject the prosthetic arm? He would be doing this faster. He would be reaching her faster. Sakura is a fighter; Sasuke knows she might be clinging to her life with everything she has. But the mere idea of facing a world without her… he needs to dig faster.
・❥・
Oh, I still can't believe you did what you did
But at least I remember why I loved you
Sakura’s hands are shaking; she can see the tip of the kunai oscillate as she tries her best to keep her voice stable and prevent her tears from spilling. His back is turned, she can see the family crest sewn there, a reminder of the boy he used to be, before he decided to embrace his revenge instead of his friends. Damn him and his pride, and damn her and the love she can’t let go of.
・❥・
Two shadows swallowing each other
This night entrusted with everything
I don't want to escape
His photo hung in every sheriff’s office, a reward for his head that kept increasing over time. Cold, heartless, and efficient; don’t approach without reinforcements. He might be alone, but he was a very dangerous individual. Then people discovered that he wasn’t alone, or at least not anymore: a woman behind him on his saddle, holding tight to his waist. Someone to patch his wounds on the rare occasions when he was injured. The only one allowed to see a different side of him.