Title: I carry it in my heart
Prompt: Out of the woods (Day 18)
Theme: Interlude (adolescence / young adulthood)
Notes: e e cummings + sasusaku is my aesthetic
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“Did you ever feel lonely, Sasuke-kun?”
Her voice snaps him out of a deep trance. He was looking at the moon and remembering when it was once red. He shifts his mismatched gaze to the young woman at his right and asks, “What?”
“Did you ever feel lonely?” she repeats. “When you were traveling by yourself, I mean. Before you went back to the village. Before we started this journey together.”
He searches in her gaze for any clue of why she is asking such thing. When he finds none, he looks back at the moon. Tonight, it is full and silver, and it seems huge from the top of the mountain they spent all afternoon climbing. At first, it made him think of that red moon of his ancestor, but now, it reminded him of the night he first left his village, his home. He realizes that this same person that is with him now was with him that night, crying, screaming, and weakening him enough to wait and listen to her, to hesitate.
“Not really,” he answers at last, his voice so quiet that it could have been mistaken for the wind. “I was never alone.”
“How come?” she questions. “Did you travel with other people sometimes?”
“No.”
“Then...?”
He suddenly recalls those two years of his redemption journey. He had seen so many landscapes, been in so many places, met so many people... It had been an interesting journey, even if it had been by himself. He never quite minded that. He has always been used to being by himself – ever since the massacre. But back then, unless he was with Naruto, Sakura, and Kakashi, he had felt alone. During his redemption journey, he only occasionally felt lonely, when he remembered the people he'd left back home, waiting for him. Alone and lonely, he believes, are not the same; alone is much worse.
But it is all over now; that's what matters. He does not feel alone nor lonely. Even if he isn't yet out of the woods, things are different now, because Sakura is with him – literally, not just metaphorically. He always felt her with him, after all: in his mind, in his heart.
He sees, from the corner of his eye, the puzzled look she is giving him, and he smirks. “You were always with me, Sakura,” he explains at last. Then, he takes her hand and puts it on his chest. “Right here.”
He carried her heart with him; he carried it in his heart. Anywhere he went, she would go – and it would be like that forever.
It felt like such a huge weight was lifted off her shoulders when she realized that they were no longer on opposing sides of the battlefield, no longer enemies and once again comrades. It was like a storm finally cleared.
They spend more time together than apart nowadays. Days spent training, in the hospital, or just being just flew by. That weekend he was staying at her apartment, Naruto and Kakashi were in Suna for Hokage duties and although Sasuke insisted it wasn’t necessary they all knew he didn’t want to be alone at night.
It was a Saturday morning when she woke up to the smell on breakfast. For a moment she had forgotten Sasuke was even there and after a small trip to the bathroom she headed for the kitchen she was pleasantly surprised to find him there.
“It smells delicious.” She says as she takes a sit in a small stool knowing full well he wouldn’t like her meddling in the kitchen.
He scoffs in response and she holds the urge to roll her eyes at him. “It’s simple breakfast.” He replies and a light blush takes over her cheeks. Eggs and toast, but they really did smell wonderfully.
“It’s been a long time since anyone’s made me breakfast.” She smiles over at him and the soft expression on his face makes her heart speed up on her chest.
He returns to his work in silence and somehow he makes cooking breakfast seem interesting. He works somewhat awkwardly with his single arm but it’s like he’s following a mental recipe by the way he does things. She can’t help but wonder whether it’s his mother or his brother the one he’s remembering.
He serves their plates and even orange juice before settling across from her in the counter, eating on his feet.
It’s not only after a few minutes have passed when he decides to speak. “I’ve never made anyone breakfast.” She can only turn to him muted by his words by the realization that he was too young back then. “But I guess there’s always a first time with you.” He adds, a smirk making its way to his lips.
Title: Oh, shit!
Author: Ella / ff.net’s xElla8D / youtube’s xHawtAMV
Summary: Day 18: Out of the woods - in which a hysterical Sakura gives birth with the help of an inexperienced Karin.
Disclaimer: I don’t own Naruto.
Prompt: Out of the woods
Rating: T
Warning(s): Out of the woods as in out of the woods, literally.
Comments: Because I think Queen Sakura would be quite hysterical when in labor. Yeah.
Link: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11349882/18/Daily-spices
AN: this is a how to train your dragon 2 AU…in which sakura may or may not be valka…and sasuke may or may not be stoick
Papa finds her in the middle of Mama’s fortress. She’s sitting on the soft grass, watching the dragons fly back and forth, petting Hana, when a hand closes around her mouth.
She turns, hand poised on her katana.
“Papa—” he places a finger to her lips, and all she can think is Mama Mama Mama.
Mama, who was absent for sixteen years caring for and protecting the beautiful beasts behind them—Mama, who spoke of Konoha with a deep longing in her eyes—
Mama, who is in the same place as her husband right now.
She swats his hand away. “Papa, you have to—”
“We’re leaving,” he says. Uncle Naruto pops up then, and waves at Sarada.
“But—”
“Enough,” her father says, beginning his long strides. Sarada runs after him, and Hana follows, nipping at her heels. “You deliberately disobeyed my orders. We’re going home.”
“You don’t understand,” Sarada says, tugging at his sleeve. “This is of the earth-shattering variety and—”
“Enough.”
Sarada nearly begins fuming, and takes seven breaths to calm down, thinking each breath Mama is here Mama is here Mama is here. Papa continues his powerful, purposeful stride, until Uncle Naruto, leading the way to the exit, stops in his tracks.
“What,” Papa murmurs.
Uncle Naruto merely looks to the right, into a cavern they can’t see, jaw hanging open.
Mama’s in there.
“What,” Papa hisses, raising a hand to smack his best friend. “Idiot, speak.”
“You'll…you’ll want to take this one,” Uncle Naruto whispers, and motions into the cave.
Sarada watches as Papa draws his sword, steps into the cave, and…
the sword drops, the metal clattering to the ground.
Her mother stands, watching her father with wide green eyes.
Neither move for the longest time, and Sarada wonders what it’s like—to lose your entire family to dragons, to lose your wife to dragons, and to find her after all this time. Or to be taken away from your family, to begin raising the creatures that slaughtered so many of the villagers, and to find the love of your life after all this time.
Sixteen years lie between them, but Sarada has caught her father holding her mother’s picture before, fingers heavy, and she has seen her mother’s smile when murmuring “Just like your father.”
She has sensed something deep, felt the edges of love, between them.
Her father is very still, before he takes his first step.
“Sasuke-kun,” her mother whispers. Sarada sees her shoulders shaking. “Sasuke-kun.”
Mama’s voice breaks a kind of spell, and they run to each other, into the fiercest embrace she’s ever seen her father give.
Sarada releases a breath.
“Sakura,” she hears him whisper, and Sarada hears the tremor in Papa’s voice. “Sakura Sakura Sakura.”
They fell apart, Sarada knows, not of their own accord. Circumstances tore them apart.
But fate has a funny way of working, and Sarada knows that, as she watches her mother and father sink to the floor, holding each other:
some things that fall apart, are also meant to fall back together.
He had a vague understanding that he was probably going to die if he kept bleeding as he was. That didn’t much matter to him at the moment though, because he was entirely certain that there was a much greater wound waiting to be inflicted on him. A wound he deserved. He had left her behind, left her within a genjutsu. He had left her behind in a genjustu so he could attempt to murder their friend.
He had done everything in his power to deny her love for him. For years he had done nothing but hurt her. He didn’t deserve her forgiveness, but she deserved to hear his apologies – she deserved his apologies a thousand times. He could hear them coming now; the sight of her in the light of dawn had what blood yet to seep into the ground racing in his veins. He had to apologize, but even as she healed him and the other one, he could have quite happily died when she chose to forgive him.
Her acceptance of him after all he had done allowed him to find a small measure of peace. Everything was fine – so long as she was still within his reach. She would continue to heal him, both physically and spiritually until he could once more live happily – with her at his side.
i said this before but i didn’t realize the lyrics were “are we out of the woods yet” bc i always thought it was “i’ll be out of the woods yeah’ fml
.o18.
Out of the Woods
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Papa’s coming home, Sarada.
.
She really likes the stuffed animals you gave her, Sakura wrote. But did they have to be so big? They’re practically twice her size!
Sasuke smirked. His eyes continued to scan the letter as he formulated a proper response to write back.
You spoil her so much, Sasuke— he saw that she scribbled out the Sasuke-kun and wrote in big characters ANATA instead. It’s taken him a while to become used to this newfound name, after fifteen or so years of enough Sasuke-kuns to fill a lifetime, but he loves it nonetheless.
Then, at the bottom, she wrote, Why can’t you spoil me? :( When’s my next time?
Sasuke couldn’t help but chuckle at his wife’s insistence. Sakura wrote an additional post scripted message on the bottom of the letter, with an arrow pointing to the back.
Someone else has something they want to say to you.
With a roll of his eyes, Sasuke prepared for the chicken scratch that was Naruto. He was sure, of course, that there would be profanity and misspelled words, along with a large “SAAAASSSSUUUKKEEE!” scrawled in big characters.
But instead of Naruto’s childish script, he found one softer, more feminine. He hadn’t seen this handwriting before.
Dear Papa,
Thank u for my giffs. I luv them vary much, not just becus they are kute, but becus they are frum Papa.
Mama and I miss u. Pleaz come home two us soon.
I luv u,
Sarada
Sasuke refused to let the tears fall onto his daughter’s note. He imagined little Sarada, only three or four by this time, sitting at the kitchen table while Sakura dictated the message for her. Her little hand must have gripped the pencil with such force, explaining the jagged marks and indents in the paper.
There was work to be done, surely. The world wasn’t safe for his family and he would do his best to eliminate all threats and dangers posed against his two precious girls.
But, he figured again, if the Hokage can take a vacation once in a while, he could too.
Sasuke tucked the message into his bag and headed off to the nearest village to buy yet another animal friend—and something special for the wife, too.
“Looking at it now, it all seems so simple
We were lying on your couch, I remember
You took a Polaroid of us
Then discovered
The rest of the world was black and white
But we were in screaming color”
