inanotherworld5599:

Prompt: Sasusaku Month Day 1, Heroes

Summary: Her parents were heroes. She
selfishly wishes that they didn’t have to be.

Note: So I’m not sure who exactly the
enemy will be Boruto so that’s a little vague but none the less. Also umm… Sorry?

When Sasuke first
tells Sarada the story about her uncle Itachi she is fifteen years old. She
cries through most of it not for herself but for her father, her uncle and her
entire clan. Then she gets angry. Angry at Konoha, angry at her parents for not
telling her and angry at herself for being ignorant for so long.

But in the end she’s
just filled with an overwhelming sense of pride as she says,”Uncle Itachi was a
true hero.”

“Your uncle was a
hero Sarada.” He agrees with her but his eyes are sad,”But I wish he didn’t
have to be.”

___________________

The attack happens
so suddenly that nobody has time to blink.

One second
everything was fine and the next Sarada’s world had turned on it’s axis
violently, her village, her home thrown into chaos.

While the Chunnins
had all been on guard with most of the village elders gone she hadn’t expected
things to go so wrong so fast and after an hour of continuous fighting Sarada
finally thinks this is the end when her enemies blade looms over her and she’s
too chakra depleted and injured to defend herself.

But then her hero arrives.

Armed with nothing
but pink hair, large jade eyes and a punch, her mother sends the enemy flying
back. But this is a small victory for the larger more eminent threat still
looms over them threatening to destroy everything they know.  

Sarada’s knees
wobbled making her stumble but someone catches her, supporting her weight.

“Sarada!” A voice
calls out frantically as her vision blurs and she can vaguely make out that
along with her mother Boruto had arrived too.

“Boruto?” She asked
faintly,”Mama?”

“I can’t spare
anymore chakra but I’ve stop the bleeding and closed most of the  wounds.”
She tells Sarada and then looks at Boruto once she’s done healing her
daughter,”You have to get her out of here safely.”

“But Aunt Saku-“
Boruto started but her mother put her hand up as if to stop him.

“This is not your
fight Boruto, not while I’m here.” She says,”Right now it’s your job to save
Sarada and the civillians who don’t have the means to defend themselves.You
have to get them clear of the village.”

Her mother turns
towards her and there is something so utterly sad in those green eyes but
before Sarada can understand she’s pulled into a tight hug that smells like…home.

“Sarada, I’m so so proud of you.” Her mother
mutters,”You know that right?”

“Of course.” Sarada
groans,”But mama you’re squishing me.”

Her mother pulls
back sheepishly and apologises,”Sorry.”

Sakura then nods at
Boruto who picks Sarada up,”Keep her safe.”

Her mother turns
around and it’s then that the devastating realisation of what her mother is
trying to do sets in.

“Wait what- mama no!” Sarada manages to say and her
mother freezes.

“No. No. NO!”
Sarada screams trying to claw out of Boruto’s strong arms around her,”Mama
PLEASE! LET ME -”

“Boruto.” Sakura
said clenching her fists keeping a straight face,”Take care of my daughter.”
His grip on Sarada tightens who was sobbing uncontrollably and heartbreakingly.

“I love you.” Her
mother smiles, but Sarada can see the tears in her eyes and hear the finality
in her tone,“Thank you for being my daughter Sarada.”

And everything goes
black.

__________________________________

By the time Sasuke
arrives he knows it’s already too late. He’d hurried as soon as he’d sensed
something was wrong but he’d been too far away to make it in time. Sarada was
already in the relief camp that was set

Sakura, Sakura,
Sakura, her name rings in his mind and her chakra is easy enough to find in a
Konoha that is painfully quiet. The scars of the devastating battle that has
reduced the once peaceful village are everywhere and at the heart of it all the
perpetrator lies dead.

But she was still
alive, waiting, waiting like she
always had for him, propped up against a crumbling wall covered in blood, her
purple diamond no longer present but a weak smile gracing her beautiful
features that even death couldn’t take away from her.

“Can you heal
yourself?” He asks desperately but he knows her answer before she gives him a
sad smile as she says,”I’m sorry.”

Sasuke immediately
bends down wrapping her arm around his shoulders his mind analysing the best
possible plan to get her to safety, to a medic, but the irony is not lost on
him when he realises that in this situation the only medic who would be able to
heal Sakura was Sakura herself.

But that didn’t
matter. He would not give up.

“Anata.” It’s all
she can manage and he turns to her, her steady green eyes holding his
mismatched ones steadily.

Understanding
courses through him and his resolve crumbles pathetically. His heart beats
erratically and he feels like it’s been torn out of his chest.

“I’m
sorry.” She repeats.

Mismatched eyes meet
green and suddenly his black eye shift to a blood red and the world around them
fades.

Instead they are
thirteen and Sasuke is leaving the village. Once again Sakura runs after him,
she screams that she loves him so much that she can’t stand it and she vows to give
him happiness and promises him that he would not regret it.

Only this time he
hugs her and promises her that he’ll stay. That he won’t leave her.

It plays out like a
movie after that. Sakura still trains under Tsunade in Konoha, there is no war,
Naruto is still irritating, Kakashi is still a pervert but this time around
Sasuke loves Sakura as he should have from th

He smiles at her
like she’s his world, he goes on countless dates, holds her hand and never lets go. Itachi comes back to the
village and they get married and Sarada is born surrounded by all their closest
friends and family.

Sasuke stays to
become the chief of police in Konoha and watches his daughter grow up. They
have a happy, mundane life together where Sasuke always greets Sakura after a
long tiring day in the hospital.

“Welcome home.” He
says tucking her hair behind her ears.

She wraps her arms around
him and kisses him,”I’m home.”

Sarada becomes
Hokage like no other and she carries on the Uchiha legacy with her fathers
pride and her mothers compassion.

And Sasuke grows
old with Sakura after he gives her the life that she truly deserved.

He gives her the life
he wanted with her.

And then once again
they’re thirteen standing in front of that bench.

Except it’s Sakura
who is leaving this time.

And once she goes,
Sasuke knows she’ll never come back.

“You
stayed.” Sakura says smiling softly,“You stayed in the village for
me.”

She stands ahead of
him a few metres apart her pink hair flying in the gentle breeze that blows
through the moonless night.

“It’s what I
should have done.” Sasuke responds firmly.

She smiles at him
faintly and closes the distance separating them. She puts her palms on either
side of his face and says ,“I’d love you in any version of reality
Sasuke-kun. May it be the one where you stayed or the one you left. You’re you,
no matter what you do, no matter what you become.”

“Don’t leave
me.” A strangled gasp escapes his lips and his panic shakes up the very
foundation of the genjutsu they’re in.

“I’m so in love
with you, I can’t stand it.” She whispers the same words she’d said all those
years back and even now they hold just as true if not more.

“Me too.” He says
quietly.

“Did you regret
it?” Sakura asks taking a step back her hands behind her back, a bright smile
on her face,”Being with me?”

He shakes his
head,”Never. Not one second.”

She takes another
step back.

“I’d promised to
give you happiness.” She says and takes another step back, “Was I able to?”

“You are my happiness.”
He responds,”You and Sarada are everything to me.”

“You know I’ll do
anything for you Sasuke.”

But she already
has.

“You’re annoying.”
He grumbles and she laughs out loudly her voice ringing out clearly in the
night. He smiles.

“Yes.” She says, “I
suppose I was a lot of things.”

“But not weak.” He
says,”Never weak.”

Her eyes widen and
tears spring to her eyes.

“Sakura.” He says and
there are a million things he wants to say, stay, don’t leave me, I love you,love
you but instead he simply says,“Thank you.”

And for the last
time ever Sakura Uchiha smiles. But this smile is different. This is a smile
that she can only give him, a smile that’s because of him, for him. It’s a
smile that will never fade, it’s a smile that encompasses her compassion, her
strength and her love.

“For what?” She
asks faintly.

For Sarada.

For loving me.

For waiting for me.

For never giving
up.

For being you.

Thank you for…

“Everything.”

The genjutsu breaks
and Sasuke catches his wife and places her gently on the bench.

And then he kisses
her goodbye.

Just like he’d done
all those years ago.

___________________________________

Sakura may have
been the one who died that day but Sarada had lost both her parents that day.

Outwardly Sasuke
remains unaffected to most people, he’s now undoubtedly in charge with the
seventh hokage missing, the sixth hokage injured and with the greatest medic in
all five nations dead all the responsibilities fall squarely on his shoulders.

He doesn’t bend or
break and sometimes people wonder if he’d ever even loved his wife. But that’s
because they had never seen the extent of his love for her, the softness of his
eyes and the kindness in his voice whenever she was there.

But Sarada, Sarada
knew.

After all it had
been her who had found him, clutching her Mama’s body crying so devastatingly
that Sarada had to stop wonder if this was the man she’d known to be her father.
But as her eyes sharpened, her Sharingan evolving itself to the pattern of a
Mangekyo she saw all those things she’d missed before.

And she saw the
large crack in the soul of a man who was broken beyond repair.

That day when she
cried beside her Mama, she cries for the loss of her best friend, her hero and
the man her father was.

And then comes the
day that Sasuke finally falls in battle.

Boruto weeps and
weeps over losing his sensei but Sarada just sits there holding her fathers
hand in his last moments and giving him a soft bright smile that reminds him so
much of his wife.

“Say hi to Mama for
me.” Sarada says softly,”As much as I want to I’ll only be able to join you
after living a long life where I’ve set everything straight.”

It’s a promise to
him.

It’s a promise to
her mother.

Their sacrifice
wouldn’t be in vain.

“I’m proud of you
Sarada.” He says faintly,”You’ve got your mothers strength and your uncles
kindness.”

“And I’ve got your
heart.” She says softly. The heart that had loved her and her mother quietly
and endlessly.

Her father raises
his hand and weakly and taps her on her forehead,“I’m sorry there won’t be a
next time.”

That day Boruto
inherits her father’s katana and his cloak while Sarada carries her mothers
strength and her fathers eyes.Through his eyes she sees the world as he saw it,
filled with cherry blossom pink hair, green eyes and ever present smiles.
Through her strength she protects the things she cares about bravely and
unflinchingly.

And with their love
she lives a life they would be proud of.

“Your grandparents were heroes.” She
tells her children years later with a far off look in her eyes,”But I wish that
they didn’t have to be.”

___________

I think I died a little while writing
this. Excuse me while I go and cry myself back to life. But this is the fic
that I’m undoubtedly the proudest of. I know it’s a bit early but none the less, Reviews are always appreciated and
HAPPY SASUSAKU MONTH.