Welcome back, all. This is my first story posted here in a while, and it's a break from my usual fandoms, but I hope you can enjoy itjust as much as you have any of my others. This is in the spirit of the livejournal 1sentence set: a single sentence, for fifty themes. However, this is not one of the usual theme sets, but a mix of them all, chosen by my darling sister. Enjoy!
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01 Devotion
Sasuke is bleeding, weak, the Sharingan defeated--he commands Sakura to go, to leave him, to save herself, but she thinks of all the times he’s saved her, knows that she will either carry him to safety or die there with him, and cries "I will not leave you here!"
02 Hell (companion to 03 Heaven)
Sasuke rarely dreams, but when he does, he awakes screaming--falling into darkness and Naruto takes Sakura’s hand, (Sakura, his Sakura...) walking away into the light and leaving him to die there--and if there is a hell, he thinks, this is it...
03 Heaven (companion to 02 Hell)
Whenever Sakura dreams, Sasuke is with her, -walking beside her through a forest, holding her hand on a sunset-lit beach; lying beside her in the dark- and though she knows they will never become reality, those dreams are a heaven and a sanctuary from the cruelty of life, and she wakes in the morning with a warmth in her heart.
04 Happiness (companion to 05 Pain)
Is this not a perfect moment...? he thinks; waking up beside Sakura, with no war to fight or Ninja to kill--just the feel of her warmth against him, and the untroubled breath of his two children in the next room.
05 Pain (companion to 04 Happiness)
The house is burning now, his two children bleeding and unconscious, and somewhere not too far off he hears her screams as the Sound Ninja come to take their revenge on him; "Sakura!" he screams; "SAKURA!"
06 Defeat
Smiling, triumphant, Sakura pins Sasuke to the ground, kunai leveled at his neck, and seeing the blush in his cheeks, says, "Who’s weak now, Sasuke-kun?"
07 Sarcasm (companion to 08 Stupidity)
"So, what, Sakura-chan; you like me now--does that mean you’re going to be all lovey-dovey on missions from now on?"
08 Stupidity (companion to 07 Sarcasm)
"Sasuke-kun, you may be the best Ninja in our class, but you know nothing about girls."
09 Smirk
What Sakura didn’t know, as Sasuke practiced his Taijutsu in front of her, was that even Uchiha men liked showing off in front of girls, and that the little smirk on his face was because it seemed to be working.
10 Share
She had told him when they married that they would share the pain from now on, but as Sasuke lay dying on the forest floor, (Sakura had been the target; he had to do something!) he knew that sometimes he still had to go it alone....
11 Formal
The suit and tie are restricting, and though Sasuke had said he would do anything for Sakura, getting married in a veritable straightjacket was not what he imagined; "Stop fidgeting!" Sakura says as she smacks his hand away from his collar for the tenth time during the ceremony.
12 Hope
Though Sasuke would never admit it, Sakura gave him more hope than anything else in his life; she was his light in the darkness, his shelter in the storm--and even if he never said it, he would always love her for that.
13 Overwhelmed
Sometimes, the weight of his path is too heavy and Sasuke has to retreat into a quiet place, far from the training grounds he frequents; imagine, then, when one day he finds that he is not alone, and that the pink-haired girl beside him feels weak sometimes too.
14 Promise
I don’t want much, love...just, promise me this: that you will hold me, and never let me go...
15 Hurricane
The wind is rising, and her screams cannot be heard over it; ("You’re my friend, Sakura-chan, remember that...") somewhere within the turmoil in her heart, the words she longs to say are swallowed… ("You’re my friend, too, Sasuke-kun.") and he cannot hear them.
16 Welcome
"Stop...!" Sakura says to Naruto, the words he says too painful; "Why?" he asks, and she answers, "Because I didn’t want to hear that from you..."
17 Pretty
Sakura never thought herself pretty, and Sasuke was never the type to tell her to the contrary, so it was with tears in her eyes as she embraced him after the wedding; "You look beautiful..." he whispered, and she knew now why he had never called her ‘pretty.’
18 Snakes
No matter how much she tries to deceive herself otherwise, Sasuke is being drawn farther and farther from her each day; he is an avenger and power will always be more seductive to him than any girl.
19 Hollow
Despairing, beaten inside, Sasuke wandered through the streets of a unknown village far from Konoha in pouring rain, and when he finally falls, broken, to the ground, it is an image of Sakura as she was long ago that comes to him, (but when he reached to touch her, she is made of reflections of water; a pretty raingirl to ease his pain, but he can’t taste her kisses, and her arms cannot hold him...) and he knows at last his time has come.
20 Stable
Sakura looks on as Sasuke teaches their youngest child, Yuki, the art of Ninjutsu; "You have to be strong;" he tells her, "strong enough to face the storm outside; strong enough to defeat the storm inside," and Sakura smiles, knowing he has done -and that Yuki will do- just that.
21 Thousand
Though there were fifty reasons; a hundred Ninja; a thousand miles between them--Sakura was coming for Sasuke, and nothing could stop her
22 Shadow
Outside he is calm and distant, but inside he is a turmoil of emotion--the darkness rising over and consuming, (help me...help me...help me!) but no one can hear him, and he reaches out to the shadows for solace because, in the end, there is no one who can…
23 Wrong
Sakura knows it’s wrong to be thinking like this; Sasuke is her enemy and he has his blade against her throat, but she can’t help the blush as it spreads to her cheeks, (because he is right next to her, his chest against her back; his thigh pressing into hers; his lips inches from her own) and she is nearly breathless from want of him.
24 Sudden
The kiss was sudden, and though she had longed for it for many years, when it finally came, Sakura found herself wanting more...
25 Motion
Sakura always loved to watch Sasuke train; fluid and quick and strong--a poetry in his Jutsu, and a metaphor in the death he practiced daily.
26 Cool
At first, Sasuke was just a pretty face (the cool idol at school every girl was after) but before she knew it, she had fought with him and seen his pain--and now she knew just what that ‘cool’ exterior hid...and she wanted to be the one to heal the wounds beneath it.
27 Young
They were deprived of childhood, lost their idealism at twelve, and though they were still young in the eyes of society, they were no longer innocent; all they had now were each other.
28 Safe
"Through darkness and fire, in the midst of the most hopeless battles, in the lands of shadow and death, my arms will keep you safe, Sakura..." (and they did).
29 Child
Both hurting; both alone...it was a wonder that they had not found each other sooner.
30 Picture
On lonely nights in the Sound Village, Sasuke would try to picture Sakura to ease his pain; it never helped though, because his last memory of her was walking away as she cried, and oh, God, how he wanted to take back that moment…
31 Death
They had fought together, lived together, loved together; was it not fitting then, that they should die together...? (his sword through her chest and hers though his back--not a sound they made, but this was the first time she had seen him cry and how she wished things could’ve ended differently...)
32 Forever
Forever...? She asks, and he nods and embraces her, but his eyes are distant and inside he is thinking Forever is such a long time...
33 Home
He never had a home--but look, see, now he has a home with me; he never had a family--but look, see, we’ve made a family now--he never had the heart to tell you he didn’t love you to begin with...and Itachi’s words stab through her like kunai because somewhere deep inside she has thought the same.
34 Bonds
Sasuke could run any time, but Itachi’s words fix him to the spot; "She didn’t believe you loved her..." (I do!) "She couldn’t stand your weakness" (I’m not!) "And now she can’t be told otherwise..." (Sakura!) "I killed her myself."
35 Wind
The wind through her hair, Sakura runs forward, and there he is, waiting; never in her dreams had she dared to hope for this, and yet here she is in his embrace; a single moment of perfect, heartbreaking happiness.
36 Wonder
Imagine: a happy home to return to, with a smiling, pink haired girl who loves him very much waiting at the door, and two children racing up the lawn to meet him; "Daddy’s home; Daddy’s home!"
37 Quirks
Sakura accepted that her daughter, Yuki, was a lot like Sasuke; she admired the relationship the two of them had together, (more like sensei and student than father and daughter...) but she couldn’t deny the pang in her heart whenever Yuki acted cool and formal around her; one more thing in Sasuke’s world she would never be a part of...
38 Nowhere
"Let’s go somewhere" she pleads, "far away; anywhere, it doesn’t matter!" (But there isn’t any place to hide from what lurks within him...)
39 Nuance
She had always liked him, and as time passed, that love only grew (but she couldn’t miss the darkness lurking just beneath the surface, and sometimes it scared her more than the Ninja they faced...).
40 Balcony
They’re young ("See that girl sitting over there?") and naïve, ("The pink haired one?") but the words made her heart warm ("Yeah...") to hear them. ("She’s the one I’m going to marry...")
41 Lock
It’s midnight, and Sakura thought she had long ago gotten over Sasuke, but, God, it felt good right now, his body pressed against hers, their lips locked in urgent kisses, and all the years between them fading.
42 Eclipse
His lineage, his power, his purpose, they all exceed her own; why then, does he love her? ("I’ll tell you..." he says in the dark and whispers all the words she ever wanted to hear from him into her ear)
43 Candle
The candle had burned low -the night almost spent- when she came to him, and for one hour they was no memory of his betrayal or her weakness; the world slipped away as they twined together, seeming almost human again.
44 Box
All throughout the mission, Sasuke’s attention was half on the battle, and half on the little black jewelry box in his pocket; and if he gets through this alive, he promises himself, he’ll find a safer place to store his valuables.
45 Silk
That night, Sasuke’s long hair ran over her body like rain, and Sakura wished that he would never cut it, though she knew she would probably never feel it again…
46 Roses
Sasuke was never the type to give flowers to Sakura, but there he is in the freezing rain, a bouquet of pink roses in his hand; "To make up for it..." he says, and places the flowers in front of her grave.
47 New
The wounds were new, and still bleeding profusely; "Damnit," Sasuke snarls, -he never learned first aid properly- "live, Sakura; live!"
48 Old
Sakura longed to spend her whole life with Sasuke, to grow old together, see their children become adults--but this was just a dream; they were Ninja, and some day not too far off, death would come for them on the battlefield, and that hope would be taken away.
49 Grave
The dawn breaks upon the battlefield and when she sees the vast army of Ninja assembled against them, she turns to him and asks, "If I die here, will you visit my grave after, Sasuke-kun?" but he doesn’t respond, just turns his head toward the horizon and takes her hand.
50 Duty
They were Ninja, weapons for the Land of Fire, but he felt something for Sakura he had never felt before--and torn between duty to his country and duty to his love, he knew exactly what to choose...
