(no subject)
title: Day & Age -- II. ceremony.
characters: Sakura, Ino.
summary: “Give him back,” she was screaming, “Give him back! This was all for nothing, and you got us all killed! You killed us! We’re dead, we’re all dead!”
rating: M
notes: Here is after the battle of The Valley of The End, and Sakura is dealing with the Ceremony in which she is awarded the Fourth's Cross, the highest award you can receive in BR-verse. Prequel to Bitter Refuge which I suggest reading first.
standard disclaimer applies.
FFN Link
--
The silver cross was cold in her hands.
Where are the others? Her mind muttered at her. Naruto said he’d win this. Where’s Naruto? This isn’t my moment. This isn’t mine. Naruto...
She closed her fingers around it, and then brought her hand up to her chest. Bowing deeply to the flag of the Empire, she sucked in a breath as cold air passed over her neck.
The brand. It was burning - burning like when they first put it on. She wanted to scratch it, pull it off. Take it and all its memories away. This was a drug; this situation was the hospital ward after an overdose. Her friends? The once-upon-a-time fairytale enablers of her now glorified addiction? All dead. Dead, like dealers always are. She’d been stupid in following their pipe. Stupid and in love.
You are here to be psychopaths, and the only ones who understand are your fellow psychopaths. So stick with them and the Empire, and you’ll always have victims. Always.
I get it now Kakashi, she thinks. I understand. She can’t go back, and she wants to scratch like users do.
“You may now pin your cross.”
She knew of a few others in this line: Ino, eyes flatter then Sakura’s own, blinking at the flag like she’s really seeing it. Like she’s going to cry. Shikamaru should be here - she’d heard he’d survived - but his space was vacant. So many empty spaces.
She looked at the flag.
She looked at cross in her hand. The fine marks up her arms, training and battles, fighting for her life and fighting for fun. She closed her eyes and saw their dying faces and wanted, wanted to be with them because she wouldn’t have to feel this.
Beside her, Ino started screaming. Screaming words so loud - words that sounded like lies, like she had nothing left or something. Sakura blinked and started at what had been her closest friend all these years. She was losing her mind, because she could swear Ino was crying and screaming and getting dragged away. Nothing left? They had everything left... they were the beloved of the Empire... surely that was what it was all about?
“Give him back,” she was screaming, “Give him back! This was all for nothing, and you got us all killed! You killed us! We’re dead, we’re all dead!”
Ino’s cross flung out of her hand, skittering across the room as her screams subsided down and out of the building. The cross lay on the ground, untouched. It would be swept up in the trash, or maybe one of the cleaners would give it to their child, or sell it. Something. It was worthless in the end. The ceremony continued.
Sakura pinned the cross on, as if nothing had happened - her hands steady, her eyes forward. That’s what Sasuke had told her: plan ahead and have a way forward. It was what Naruto reinforced with his endless training, with the experiments. Just not to end up...
She looked at Ino’s cross on the ground.
... discarded.
The ceremony finished. Sakura waited for the room to clear before picking up the pendant where it had fallen.
--
At the foyer of the building as Sakura was leaving, Ino sat waiting for her - pale and calmer but still shaking. She grabbed Sakura’s leg as she walked past, clawing at her to stay, to leave, to take her somewhere. Sakura kneeled, taking Ino’s hand and pressed the Fourth’s Cross back into her hands, closing her fingers over it. Ino began to cry again, but this time, quietly and with no more passion.
“It’s all we’ve got Ino, all we’ve got.”
With that, she stood and took her leave.
--
characters: Sakura, Ino.
summary: “Give him back,” she was screaming, “Give him back! This was all for nothing, and you got us all killed! You killed us! We’re dead, we’re all dead!”
rating: M
notes: Here is after the battle of The Valley of The End, and Sakura is dealing with the Ceremony in which she is awarded the Fourth's Cross, the highest award you can receive in BR-verse. Prequel to Bitter Refuge which I suggest reading first.
standard disclaimer applies.
FFN Link
--
The silver cross was cold in her hands.
Where are the others? Her mind muttered at her. Naruto said he’d win this. Where’s Naruto? This isn’t my moment. This isn’t mine. Naruto...
She closed her fingers around it, and then brought her hand up to her chest. Bowing deeply to the flag of the Empire, she sucked in a breath as cold air passed over her neck.
The brand. It was burning - burning like when they first put it on. She wanted to scratch it, pull it off. Take it and all its memories away. This was a drug; this situation was the hospital ward after an overdose. Her friends? The once-upon-a-time fairytale enablers of her now glorified addiction? All dead. Dead, like dealers always are. She’d been stupid in following their pipe. Stupid and in love.
You are here to be psychopaths, and the only ones who understand are your fellow psychopaths. So stick with them and the Empire, and you’ll always have victims. Always.
I get it now Kakashi, she thinks. I understand. She can’t go back, and she wants to scratch like users do.
“You may now pin your cross.”
She knew of a few others in this line: Ino, eyes flatter then Sakura’s own, blinking at the flag like she’s really seeing it. Like she’s going to cry. Shikamaru should be here - she’d heard he’d survived - but his space was vacant. So many empty spaces.
She looked at the flag.
She looked at cross in her hand. The fine marks up her arms, training and battles, fighting for her life and fighting for fun. She closed her eyes and saw their dying faces and wanted, wanted to be with them because she wouldn’t have to feel this.
Beside her, Ino started screaming. Screaming words so loud - words that sounded like lies, like she had nothing left or something. Sakura blinked and started at what had been her closest friend all these years. She was losing her mind, because she could swear Ino was crying and screaming and getting dragged away. Nothing left? They had everything left... they were the beloved of the Empire... surely that was what it was all about?
“Give him back,” she was screaming, “Give him back! This was all for nothing, and you got us all killed! You killed us! We’re dead, we’re all dead!”
Ino’s cross flung out of her hand, skittering across the room as her screams subsided down and out of the building. The cross lay on the ground, untouched. It would be swept up in the trash, or maybe one of the cleaners would give it to their child, or sell it. Something. It was worthless in the end. The ceremony continued.
Sakura pinned the cross on, as if nothing had happened - her hands steady, her eyes forward. That’s what Sasuke had told her: plan ahead and have a way forward. It was what Naruto reinforced with his endless training, with the experiments. Just not to end up...
She looked at Ino’s cross on the ground.
... discarded.
The ceremony finished. Sakura waited for the room to clear before picking up the pendant where it had fallen.
--
At the foyer of the building as Sakura was leaving, Ino sat waiting for her - pale and calmer but still shaking. She grabbed Sakura’s leg as she walked past, clawing at her to stay, to leave, to take her somewhere. Sakura kneeled, taking Ino’s hand and pressed the Fourth’s Cross back into her hands, closing her fingers over it. Ino began to cry again, but this time, quietly and with no more passion.
“It’s all we’ve got Ino, all we’ve got.”
With that, she stood and took her leave.
--