See You In Other Worlds #20 (Sasuke x Sakura)
Initial disclaimer:
It’s important for me to mention that this story is divided into two parts and a small epilogue. The beginning of the second part touches on the topic of suicidal ideation. Although the story has a happy ending, please take care of yourselves. If this topic is sensitive for you, or if you’re in a state of emotional distress, I encourage you to pause your reading and meet me again in a different story. If you simply want to know the ending, you can skip ahead to paragraph eleven.
And remember: if you’re experiencing similar thoughts, there are people and resources meant to support you. You matter, and the world is not the same without you.
Sasuke was going to die, he was sure of that. He had been sent on a mission with a different team, in what on paper looked like a simple scroll retrieval mission. They had gotten cocky and careless, trying to finish it as fast as they could to make an early return to Konoha.
It had been a great mistake. They failed to notice they were walking into a trap until it was too late. They were ambushed and outnumbered. His teammates fell in the fight. He had been mostly unscathed thanks to the Sharingan, until one last blow from the dying ninja in front of him hit him.
He didn’t notice the blade was poisoned at first. The cut was barely a small gash on his right arm. He hated that what had looked like an easy mission had ended with him having to bear such grim news to the village. He used the Katon to burn the bodies, to keep them from falling into the wrong hands.
He had been running back home for around twenty minutes when the first symptoms started to appear: a dry mouth and flushed skin. Sasuke attributed it to the weather and the fight. He located a nearby river where he could drink a little, clean the small wounds he had, and cool off a bit by the water.
Except that the dry mouth never went away. He was still feeling warm, and when he rose from his sitting position, he felt confused, suddenly disoriented in a forest that had seemed familiar before.
He had paid enough attention in the academy to know these were the telltale signs of poisoning. It didn’t take much to conclude it had been the blade. He had to reach home. He had to arrive while there was still hope for him.
With every step he took, he doubted whether he was on the right path. Sweat began to drench his body. Soon, the sound of his own footsteps echoed as if someone were tailing him. The distant calls of foxes morphed into the terrifying cries of suffering babies.
Sasuke tripped over a tree root. When he raised his gaze, the red maples on the horizon warped into flames in his mind, a fire threatening to suffocate him. Confused, he tried to run in the opposite direction, falling and rising. Cuts and scrapes covered the skin of his arms, hands, and lower legs.
Exhausted and confused, Sasuke found himself unable to rise one more time. He was going to die, in the middle of a forest fire, far from home and without knowing if his body would ever be found. How long would it take his parents to notice his disappearance?
Tears pooled in his eyes. He was only fourteen. He was supposed to make his father proud. He was supposed to join the police force. Hell, he was supposed to marry one pretty girl someday and give his mom the grandchildren she so desperately craved.
Sasuke woke up. At first, he thought he was in the afterlife, since everything was pitch black. A small ray of light, though he couldn’t tell where it came from, and the smell of moss and young tree sap told him it couldn’t be. On top of that, he seemed to be lying on a rudimentary mat, with a pile of leaves under his head.
The light came from his right and flickered at set intervals. It took a while for his eyes to adjust to it, and even longer for his mind to register that they were fireflies flying inside an old lamp, with holes in it in case the bugs wanted to leave.
The sound of leaves crunching alerted him to someone else’s presence. Another lamp full of fireflies lit the space. Squinting, he could recognize the silhouette of a small girl hanging off the side of that second lamp.
His heart pounded in his chest, the recent fog of unconsciousness gone in seconds, painfully aware of his weakened state, yet all his senses were on alert. The girl finally turned to observe him.
– Oh human, you are finally awake. –
The voice sounded a bit childlike, high-pitched, maybe a tad squeaky too. She had to be younger than him. And did she call him human? Either she didn’t care about his lack of response or didn’t expect an answer in the first place, before kneeling next to him.
– I found you next to the old cedars. You almost didn’t survive, the poison was too deep in your blood. And you're the first human I've ever healed. Thyme said I should try to help anyway. Spearmint disagreed. It believes you humans are cruel. The elms refused to talk. All I can say is that you were really difficult to help, you know? You're way bigger than the deer or foxes I usually help –
Her strange ramblings were starting to give him a headache.
– Anyway, the old Tilia told me that humans feed in a different manner. And you probably were going to wake up hungry. So I brought you this. –
She moved to retrieve something from a small basket next to her: a wooden plate filled with apple slices sprinkled with cinnamon. The girl also took out a mug filled with green tea and honey. Right on cue, his stomach let out a rumbling sound, which the girl seemed to find funny, as a giggle escaped her.
The girl wasn’t deterred in the slightest by his rude comment and still helped him into a seated position, so he could eat comfortably.
– I’m not a girl, you silly human. My name is Sakura. According to the old Tilia, I’m the last dryad of the great Cherry trees. – She moved her hair to allow him a glimpse of her pointy ears. – My duty is to protect this forest from harm. There used to be more of us, but they all disappeared after the last war of the humans. –
Sasuke froze mid-bite, remembering how, when he was young, Itachi used to tell him stories about dryads and other nymphs. He always thought Itachi was making them up just to entertain him before bed.
He could only stare at Sakura, suddenly uneasy, recalling that when Shisui heard about those stories, he began telling him other tales in which nymphs were far less kind to humans who dared to defy their orders.
– You aren’t going to harm me, are you? –
– No, silly human – another fit of giggles left her mouth – why would I harm you, after saving you from the poison in the first place? –
– Someone told me about how your kin … nevermind, stupid Shisui. –
His ears turned red after realizing that it was probably Shisui just messing with him. She angled her head, looking confused. Sasuke cleared his throat before taking a sip of the tea.
– It tastes good. – He saw in the dimly lit room how her smile grew bigger on her face.
– After you’re done, you should try to get some more sleep. You were close to dying, human. You need to regain your health. –
– Huh? – Once more her head slightly tilted to the side.
– My name is Sasuke. Not human. –
– Well, it would be better for you to sleep again, Sasuke. –
He had heard his name thousands of times before. In the affectionate tone of his mother, in the stern one of his father, in the worried one of Itachi, in the teasing one of Shishui, countless times in different voices from the clan members, even in the loud bark of Naruto’s voice or the tired tone of Kakashi.
Yet, nothing had ever felt the same as when she said it. As if his name carried some ancient knowledge that no one had ever noticed before. It made his ears and the back of his neck feel very warm. Annoying girl.
After he was done eating, Sasuke rose from his place, only for his knees to wobble and buckle under his own weight, sending him falling onto his ass. An I-told-you-so expression briefly appeared on her face before she gently pushed him back into a sleeping position.
– Health, love and laughter can’t be rushed out, Sasuke. Just sleep as your body demands you to do so. –
Despite his stubbornness to leave her place, Sakura made him stay three more days before she deemed he was well enough to travel again. Once back in Konoha, he had to deliver one of the most difficult reports he'd ever given, detailing their failure as a team due to overconfidence. He chose to leave Sakura out of the story.
He was rushed to the hospital to be examined. They deemed it a miracle that only specks of poison could be found in his blood, processed and dealt with by his own body. Once he was cleared, his mother coddled him and made his favourite food. Fugaku’s ever-present scowl was accompanied by a hint of worry in his eyes. Itachi spent the rest of the evening just being with him, concern barely concealed by his actions.
Despite everything, it ended up being a good night. Little did he know, it was just a moment of respite before being thrown into a storm.
Sasuke was advancing through the thick, lush forest, one hand clutching his chest while bolts of pain split open his skull. He needed to find Sakura. He needed her to put an end to his misery.
After he returned home, everything had been fine for a short while. But his reprieve was short-lived. Once he went back to his missions, every small thing that went wrong felt like a heavier burden than it should have been. Trifle after trifle, his heart began to sink, as if only his body had healed while his mind was never allowed to turn away from those moments.
Sasuke lacked the words to explain his suffering, how to express that his life had felt hopeless ever since the day he returned home, and how that hopelessness smothered him a little more each day. And who in his family could he talk to without fear of judgment? Itachi seemed like the obvious answer, but Sasuke saw how his brother constantly struggled to juggle his duties as heir, his work, and his own life. Sasuke didn’t want to become another burden dumped onto him.
Mission after mission, the color of his eyes grew duller, his silences stretched longer, and he began to reject company as if other people were a flame too bright for someone who had spent too long alone in the dark. None of the plans his future once seemed to hold for him came to pass, and he became a recluse inside his own pain.
It reached a point where everything felt too heavy for him, he was exhausted, his heart weathered, and he no longer had the strength to keep carrying it alone. So Sasuke decided to return to the forest where his life should have ended all those years ago, and ask the dryad who had sentenced him to this life of pain to deliver the final blow.
He left a letter for his family, telling them that the pain in his heart had become unbearable and that he was ready to end it. He asked them, if they still held any love for him, not to look for him and to let him go.
But the dryad had proven difficult to find. He spent a whole week searching through the forest, the weight in his chest making it hard to breathe, heavy, labored breaths that finally brought him to his knees in the middle of the desolate woods. Sasuke’s stomach churned, and he ended up vomiting the small breakfast he had managed that morning, his skin covered in goosebumps and cold sweat.
The soft sound of steps over the grass caught his attention. He opened his eyes just in time to see a startled bunny dart away. Sasuke tried to stand, only to collapse again after a few seconds. He resigned himself and closed his eyes once more. How much time passed, Sasuke didn’t know; the branches thick with leaves and greenery didn’t allow him a clear glimpse of the sky to track the sun.
He was starting to feel sleepy when a soft breeze, carrying the scent of cherry blossoms, reached his nostrils. Suddenly alert, his eyes shot open, only to find a pair of green ones looking back at him. Sakura, the dryad.
– Sakura, please. – The words left his mouth in a broken rasp, his throat raw and aching, tears filling his eyes. He couldn’t finish what he meant to say “Please end the pain that suffocates me. End my misery. End me.” That was what his whole being begged for, a desperate plea to finally stop the pain. Sasuke never heard her answer. The world went black around him.
An echo of a day ten years before came to his mind as he woke. The same scent of moss and tree sap, the same rudimentary mat, and the same pile of leaves under his head—larger this time. To his right, the flickering lamp filled with fireflies, still with the tiny holes in case the creatures wished to leave. He was back in Sakura’s home.
Sakura walked into the room shortly after. His eyes, more adjusted to the penumbra this time, examined her in the dim light as she closed the small distance between them. She had grown since their last encounter. She was still a dainty creature, but all the childlike features of her body were gone.
– I wasn’t expecting to see you again, Sasuke. Much less on the verge of dying again. –
Her voice had changed too; no more squeakiness in it. Yet with every word that left her rosy lips, a gentle warmth spread through him, chasing away the numbness in his limbs. Like that first time, she brought tea and food with her, and with the same quiet gentleness that characterized her, Sakura helped him take a sip.
– How long? – Sasuke rasped, before coughing and needing another drink of tea.
– Around three days. It took me a while to figure out what was happening to you. Everything seemed fine with your body, yet you were dying. – Sakura paused, her eyes, he realized, still not meeting his. – It was the elms that finally decided to speak, the ones that gave me a clue, because they never give straight answers. You humans can die of a broken heart.–
Sakura sighed, took a deep breath as if gathering her courage, and finally looked him in the eyes. They were filled with emotion, guilt the strongest, but with a hint of sadness beneath it.
– Of course your heart wasn’t broken literally. The nettles laughed at me for checking it. You were so despaired, hopelessness clouding your mind, to the point your body was ready to give up. And I learned it was my fault. I did that to you. –
Her hand brushed away a strand of hair sticking to his forehead. The contact was brief, but it made his skin tingle and colored the tips of his ears red. Why, if she was admitting she had driven him to that state, was his whole being craving her touch with a fierceness only comparable to the way plants need the sun.
– It wasn’t on purpose, but that doesn’t change the outcome of what you have lived. Old Thyme explained it to me. Back all those years when I saved your life, I didn’t do it right. Yes, I got the poison out of your body, but because of my inexperience with humans, I bound parts of you to myself. Your happiness, your hope, your ability to dream. –
Her lips were trembling as she tried, and failed, to keep her tears at bay. They slid down her cheeks, and the sight tightened his heart.
–I swear it was never my intention to harm you, or to keep you from having a normal, happy life. I didn’t do it as payment for my help. I was young, and it was so challenging for me that I took them without realizing it. And the worst part is that I never noticed until I found you again. Oh, you must be furious with me because of it. –
The words were bubbling out of her, a frantic eruption of guilt, regret, and sadness, while her bitter tears kept falling onto his shoulder. Sakura felt true pain at his situation, and it brought him no comfort, quite the opposite. He needed to stop her.
– Stop being annoying, Sakura. –
His words were crude, but they lacked real cruelty. Still, they were sharp enough to halt her in her tracks.
– I’m not furious with you. I never was in the first place. I didn’t come back to make you suffer or punish you. I figured out that whatever was happening to me had something to do with you, yes. But all I wanted was for you to stop it, to kill me if necessary. –
Her face paled as the revelation of the state he had been in sank into her. A new wave of tears surged, and she shook her head instantly, rejecting the thought outright, the idea that he wanted her to be the one ending his life. His honesty only brought her more distress. With some effort, he reached for one of her hands, still clenched on her lap, his thumb brushing gently over her wrist.
– And you did it. It has stopped. –
Her cries didn’t end as abruptly as they had begun, but slowly softened into whimpers and hiccups. Sasuke never let go of her hand. Despite the anguish twisting in his chest at seeing her like this, he felt better than he had in years.
When Sakura finally calmed herself, she remembered the food she had brought for him, a bowl filled with strawberries, cherries, and blueberries. She offered it to him, and Sasuke realized he hated how small her voice sounded.
It took him several days before he could rise from the bed again, his body still weak after his latest brush with death. Sakura tended to him with care and patience, but the conversation they had shared that first day was never mentioned again.
They spent their days testing how much distance he could tolerate before the hopelessness surged and swallowed him whole. The limit was roughly a kilometer. If he wanted to live a long, ordinary life, he would never see his family, his friends, or Konoha again.
This weighed heavily on Sakura. Once, in a moment of frustration, she accused him of being unaffected by such terrible circumstances. She was wrong, it did hurt. But Sasuke had left his home prepared to die, and he had already made his peace with the idea that he would never see his family again.
Sasuke knew his headspace and circumstances had been different before, but there was also the undeniable truth that in trying to shield his loved ones from his pain, he had stayed physically present in their lives while drifting far from them emotionally. It wouldn’t be easier for his family and friends to live without him, but it was still better than forcing them to live around the hollow shell he had become over the years. At least now, the pain he caused them would have a shape and a name.
In an ideal world, he could have everything. But this wasn’t that world, and fighting against it would only bring more harm than good to everyone.
With so little room to maneuver, they had to face another challenge: what would happen now that Sasuke was living in the forest. Sakura, its last protector, sought the advice and wisdom of the plants whose voices only she could hear.
After a while, she returned with a set of rules he would have to treat as sacred vows; breaking them would mean he could no longer remain in the forest. He was forbidden from cutting cherry trees, for they were her kin. He could not carry anything forged from iron within the forest, since it scarred the forest’s breath. And he was not allowed to speak the name of death or look at newborn deer, for both acts bind endings.
Sasuke never fully understood those rules, but he understood the pain of living far away, so he abided by them, never once tempted to break them. Days became weeks, weeks turned into months, and months unfolded into years. Like a fruit sprouting from the soil, the bond between Sasuke and Sakura bloomed, slowly at first, fragile and in need of protection, and then steadily becoming something that required nurturing but no longer constant vigilance. Their small wonder, sheltered beneath the leaves.
– And what happened to them? –
Sasuke’s deep voice broke the quiet that had settled between them. A drizzle of cherry blossom petals gathered at their feet as they waited under the shade of the cherry tree for the rest of their friends to arrive. Sakura smiled before continuing her tale.
– He lived a long, happy life at her side, following the forest’s rules. They married beneath the shadow of the old Tile, with makeshift wedding rings woven from daisies. Time sprinkled snow over his hair until every strand turned white. He died peacefully in his sleep, a small smile on his face as he held his wife one last time. He was buried near the spearmint, whose love he had managed to earn as well. The dryad knelt in the soil beside his grave and cried until her body held no more tears. Then her feet rooted themselves in the forest floor, her body grew into wood and bark, and her hair blossomed into the flowers of another cherry tree. –
Sunlight filtered through the tree branches and fell over Sakura’s form. It wasn’t difficult for him to picture her as the dryad from the story, nor to imagine a life with her despite their youth, a thought that sent color rushing to the tips of his ears and the back of his neck.
– And what does the spearmint look like? –
Sasuke asked, trying to distract the girl beside him so she wouldn’t notice his ears. He heard her giggle, brief and clear like wind chimes in summer.
– Actually, it’s the plant on your left, next to the tree. That’s why I remembered the legend in the first place. –
Sakura leaned her head against his shoulder, and Sasuke turned to press a kiss to the crown of her head. Neither of them noticed how, from the right angle, the petals scattered around them resembled a version of the red thread tangling them together once more.
As always, comments are welcomed.
