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Outsane
Author of 24 Stories |
I plan on making this a series of drabbles, mostly SasuSaku oriented. Here's the first. Enjoy and review, please!
Title: Innocence
Rating: PG
Pairings/Characters: SasukexSakura
Word Count: 848
Summary: He protects her because she is the most innocent thing he has ever known.
She was the most innocent thing he’d ever seen.
She was supposed to be a ninja, wasn’t she? Ninjas were not supposed to be that perfect and guileless and carefree. Wasn’t a shinobi supposed to be emotionless? She should know that better than anyone, being the smartest in their year. And wasn’t a shinobi supposed to be strong? She was weak, so weak. Since the first day he met her—
“Ah! Sasuke-kun! I’m sorry!” Cried the little girl with bright pink hair from her seat on the ground, tears welling up in her tiny green eyes. She looked vaguely familiar, probably a classmate from school. “I w-wasn’t looking where I was going, and—”
“Hn,” he mumbled, cutting her off. Before he even knew what he was doing, he had his hand extended to her. She blinked momentarily, then grabbed his hand and gave him the most stunning smile that 7-year old Sasuke had ever seen.
And then she was gone.
“Who was that?” Itachi asked him as he lifted the speechless boy onto his shoulders minutes later and began the trek back to the Uchiha compound.
Sasuke wrapped his arms around his brother’s neck. “I don’t know, nii-san.”
But he’d find out. After all, how hard would it be to find a girl with pink hair?
—since that first day, he’d been intrigued by her. The little girl with the hair as brightly colored as her namesake, and a smile that compelled him to notice her. But most of all, he was overcome by the urge to be with her, just be around her and her amazing smile.
He didn’t get the chance. Just over a month later, Itachi killed the clan. Sasuke, drowned in guilt and pain and sorrow and so many other emotions that no boy should ever have to know, became a recluse. He cut himself off from everyone and everything else, and worked harder than ever to become just like his brother for the sake of pure vengeance. A genius from birth, he exceeded everyone in his year already—but it wasn’t good enough. There was no longer time for fun, for friends, for any emotion other than hate, and especially not for pink-haired little girls with amazing smiles and bright eyes.
A lot of things had changed since then. He was stronger and smarter than before. He was braver. He was Uchiha Sasuke, village heartthrob and genius of his year.
But some things had not changed. He was still not ready to face Itachi, and he still hadn’t mastered the Sharingan. He was still alone, and still the cold, unfeeling last survivor of the Uchiha clan. He still couldn’t cook, but he supposed some things would never change.
That desire to protect Sakura hadn’t changed either.
She wasn’t a shy little girl anymore. She had grown into a headstrong, pretty young woman with a temper the likes of which the world had never known. She was also hopelessly infatuated with him, and though he’d never admit it to anyone, even himself, he was secretly proud that she’d chosen him. But he didn’t have time for girlfriends or even just friends, period.
He had to train.
He had to kill Itachi.
He was an Avenger. That was his duty in life.
But that didn’t change the fact that he cared about her.
So now, as Team 7 slept under the cover of the trees on their latest mission, he watched her sleep, because it was one of the few times when he could. He wanted so badly to reach out and touch her hair, twirl it around his fingers. He wanted to run his fingers down her cheek and across her pink lips. He wanted to wrap his arms around her and absolutely smother her in the peculiar love he felt only for his team, for her.
He’d lost his family. He’d been along for so long, alone with his nightmares of blood and death and violence; his memories of bodies strewn across the ground and that awful glare of his big brother. He’d been alone in all that darkness. Now he had important people again, and he would not, would not, lose them again. He wouldn’t lose her. And that was why he couldn’t show her, show any of them, what he felt. He had to protect them, because they were what had brought him out of the darkness.
Sakura slept on, oblivious to his inner turmoil. Tentatively, he reached out to brush a few strands of hair off her face. She stirred slightly at the contact, then was still again. He smirked to himself, and laid down in his sleeping bag, turning his head to watch her sleep.
Her innocence fascinated him. He longed for that innocence.
He would protect that innocence, protect his cherry blossom.
No matter what.
Love, Ashuton-chan
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