(no subject)
Title: Cyclical
Characters: Naruto and Sakura
Rating: PG
Challenge: History Repeats Itself
Words: 175
Note: This is a conversation in some vague place while they're on the way back to Konoha, but I haven't read past 279 yet, so I blame any horrible canon-clashing mistakes on that.
"Sakura-chan? Are you okay?"
"Yeah," she answered, looking away from the approaching village walls to him, and then she hesitated. Sakura checked that they were slightly apart from the others before adding, "It's just . . . coming back again, without. . . ."
". . . Yeah," Naruto agreed.
There had been no time to think of him in the chase or the battles, of where he should have been in the formation, but in the quiet moments afterward his absence stretched between them like a cord.
"We'll come back again," Naruto told her determinedly. "The right way."
Sakura didn't reply immediately; but when she did turn to look at him, she was smiling.
"You're right. You know that phrase, 'history repeats itself'?" she asked, and there was something of Jiraiya in his eyes when he nodded.
There was nothing of Tsunade in hers when she said, "The rest of it is: 'to those who don't learn from it.'"
Naruto understood; and when he answered her grin, it was him and only him there.
The parents have eaten sour grapes and the children's teeth are set on edge.
Characters: Naruto and Sakura
Rating: PG
Challenge: History Repeats Itself
Words: 175
Note: This is a conversation in some vague place while they're on the way back to Konoha, but I haven't read past 279 yet, so I blame any horrible canon-clashing mistakes on that.
"Sakura-chan? Are you okay?"
"Yeah," she answered, looking away from the approaching village walls to him, and then she hesitated. Sakura checked that they were slightly apart from the others before adding, "It's just . . . coming back again, without. . . ."
". . . Yeah," Naruto agreed.
There had been no time to think of him in the chase or the battles, of where he should have been in the formation, but in the quiet moments afterward his absence stretched between them like a cord.
"We'll come back again," Naruto told her determinedly. "The right way."
Sakura didn't reply immediately; but when she did turn to look at him, she was smiling.
"You're right. You know that phrase, 'history repeats itself'?" she asked, and there was something of Jiraiya in his eyes when he nodded.
There was nothing of Tsunade in hers when she said, "The rest of it is: 'to those who don't learn from it.'"
Naruto understood; and when he answered her grin, it was him and only him there.
The parents have eaten sour grapes and the children's teeth are set on edge.