(Naruto) Picture Perfect
Title: Picture perfect
Day/Theme: Aug. 14 // two ways of getting home
Character/Pairing: Sakura, Naruto, Sasuke
A/N: I wish that Sakura would finally do something, or to be exact, that Kishi would let a girl do something because he isn't worried that she'll steal the boys' thunder.
Summary: There is one truth she can't avoid, one truth that she can't run from for much longer.
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The photo lays on her desk, a little dusty and worn from use. She hardly dares to look at it now, barely touches it, and it's just luck that it slides to her feet.
Picking it up, she smoothes the crease and looks at it. Really looks at it, at the wrinkles that separate the four, at Sasuke's and Naruto's glares, at her oblivious smile. They were all so innocent back then.
She was so stupid back then too. By the time she realized it, it was too late.
Carefully, Sakura places it back on her desk, not quite sure what happened to the frame it used to be in. She moves piles of books from side to side, searches through charts and diagrams, and there is no sign of it.
She'll just have to get a new one.
"Sakura-chan!" Naruto yells, standing below her window. Poking her head out, she spots him and waves.
"Yes?"
"We're going to be late!"
"Oh, right!" She laughs, motioning that she'll be down in a moment, and quickly brushes her hair.
And pauses.
How long might it be till she sees his smile again? His laughter and his warm words, they are here only for this present, this now.
And then comes the fight with Sasuke--
(and what does she think of him? She thinks of him as a bastard and as a lost boy and as her teammate and--she just knows she can't kill him. She just can't, despite what he's done, what he will do.)
--and then she might lose two boys instead of just one.
Naruto promised as much, that if Sasuke goes down, he'll probably go down with him.
So where does that leave her? As the rag-tag once more, left to pick up the pieces if they die and patch them together should they live.
All because, in the end, as she expected, it came down to those two.
(And when she thinks about it, there really was no point in her attempts to keep up, to help out, because her help was never wanted, never needed.)
She'll have to live with that fact.
"Sakura-chan!"
"Coming!"
She opens her door, throwing one last glance behind her as she leaves. There, sitting on her table, in a small corner, lies the frame. It's cracked and broken.
(Their team will never be the same, even if it comes together once more. Those days are long lost.)
She closes the door behind her, running down the stairs, running away from that truth for just one more day.
Because Uchiha Sasuke can only return to Konoha in two ways, either walking with Naruto, or in a coffin.
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