4written Jan 2018
His Fatality
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She didn't remember.
Every lifetime, it was always the same. Some invariable string bound them together, leading them to live an eternity of lives with one another. He would always remember everything, but she never did.
It was his burden.
It was her blessing.
Laying on the bench now, the moon painting her silhouette a tranquil picture, Sasuke watched her one last time before he left the village.
She was beautiful now, but even more so in her adulthood. Her confidence in her new found strength would give her that.
He wondered what she thought of loving him so easily. To her, she was inexplicably drawn to him with no apparent reason why, one that he knew was fate. It must be frustrating to experience such a strong attraction she had no control over. If only she knew it was their souls who sought each other out, who yearned for each other every single time.
She had approached him on his way out of the village, her heart on her sleeve. He had no idea how she even knew where he was, but somehow she did. Of course she did. Sakura had tried to guilt him into staying by relaying their precious moments together as a team, the bonds they had all formed. He had had to harden himself to her words, knowing he couldn't let her influence him this time.
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"Do you remember...when we made genin and were put into our squads..."
"I don't remember that," he had said. Just as she had said to him countless times before, whenever he had tried to explain their past to her. It was a role reversal, and he wanted so badly to say yes I do remember, of course I remember just as much as he had always wanted to hear those words from her.
He had since then learned that it was no use; no matter how much he urged her to recall, those memories seemed lost to her forever. Only he was left to salvage their past, and he kept them close like dying embers.
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"You taught me that solitude is a rough thing... Now I know how it feels..."
But she didn't, not in the way Sasuke did. She didn't even come close to understanding how it felt to go from life to life, meeting the same person again only for them to not know you at all.
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'I love you so much, Sasuke!'
He felt a lump in his throat. He had had to ignore her, not trusting himself to say anything in those moments.
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'Take me with you!' she had professed, so ignorantly, so tragically.
But he could not. The path he had chosen this time did not involve her, even if she said she'd do anything for him. He did not want to see her hurt, for he knew there was only danger up ahead, not when he had come close to losing her before. His heart lurched every time any harm came to her, and despite his promise to himself that this life was meant for revenge only, he would always save her, even if that meant throwing himself in front of the danger at full speed.
And it seemed that she would always save him, too.
At the Forest of Death, she had been there, coaxing him back from the darkness.
In the hospital after he had fought with Naruto, she was there.
When he had fallen, she was there.
But he could not bring himself to drag her into this mess, especially knowing how much she would sacrifice to keep him away from harms. Bedsides, it had nothing to do with her.
"Sakura... Thank you," he had said. For all the lifetimes.
He had had to disable her. If she came with him, like she had so unwittingly offered, he wouldn't be able to focus on his goal.
Getting away from her was best. His family had been butchered like animals in front of him. He could not stand by and accept their murder.
She is your family.
No. Not yet, and maybe not even in this lifetime. It would be a first – but so was this whole situation.
His parents had been killed by his own brother, and Sasuke didn't know how to handle himself without going after him. Never had he been put in such a predicament, his lifetimes before had never yielded such strong emotions of hatred, always instead filled with love.
But this time, he would die fighting for his family's reputation, knowing in death he would find her again in the next life.
I'll see you soon. If not here, then in another life.
The trek out the village brought a strain on his heart.
What if this was Sasuke's real reasons behind his actions in canon? It could have been why Sasuke was so reckless with his life, and why he acted such a way towards Sakura. Of course, it is just a concept and was mostly just an excuse to rewatch all the sasusaku scenes in the anime... but let me know what you think!
Updated A/N: I found this in my files recently. I think I planned for this to be a oneshot or a complete retelling of the manga with possible divergence later on. I'm not sure that I'll continue it but I thought it might be worth putting it on here.
