Fallen Leaves

Fallen Leaves
~A Sasusaku oneshot~

Leaves rustled as a gentle breeze swept by. The leaves floated in the still air and landed silently on the ground. A hand quickly snatched a leaf before it touched the ground. He opened his clutched hand and stared at the crumpled leaf before him. Memories of the past burdened his mind. As he let go of the leaf and watched silently as it danced in the air, he smiled to himself as he thought of a certain girl.

--

“Ah…look, Sasuke-kun!” Sakura pointed to a pile of leaves. He quickly glanced at the direction to where her finger pointed and looked away, uninterested.

‘I don’t see what’s so special about a pile of leaves,’ he thought.

Sakura smiled half-heartedly. She walked over to where the leaves rested and picked one up.

“You know, they’re special because they represent our village,” she said without looking at Sasuke. “And also…” she hesitated and slightly blushed.

Silence filled the air. The strange atmosphere suffocated Sakura. Her heart beat loudly against her chest. Sasuke stared at Sakura from the corner of his eyes and wondered why she suddenly paused. Sakura closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

She quickly turned to look at Sasuke and said with a smile, “Leaves also symbolize the first day I met you!”

‘The first time I met him…he sat on a pile of leaves and stared off into the distance as if he waited for something to come. When I saw him, I suddenly realized he was a lonely kid. Since that day I developed a huge crush on him. I wanted to see that kid who sat all by himself on a pile of leaves smile for once. I wanted to be the person to sit next to him so he wouldn’t be alone anymore. So he wouldn’t be lonely like on that day when I first saw him. I wanted to be that person…to make him smile…’

Sasuke grunted and said coldly, “I still don’t see what’s so special about them.”

A knife stabbed through Sakura’s heart. She held back the pain and smiled sadly. Tears stung her eyes, but she fought them back.

‘I’m going to pretend as if that didn’t hurt me. I don’t want Sasuke-kun to think lowly of me if I start crying here,’ she thought.

Sasuke noticed the pain in her eyes. A feeling of resentment washed over him.

He cupped his hands inside his pockets and said as he started to walk away, “Let’s head back before it gets dark.”

He stopped and quickly looked back. Sakura smiled cheerfully as she nodded and quickly ran up to him by his side.

‘And after all that, you still manage to smile at me…idiot,’ he thought as he smiled to himself.

--

Sasuke smirked and chuckled softly to himself. He bent down and picked up the leaf from the ground and stared at it one more time before he placed it safely on his pocket. The whole time he stared at the leaf, only one person clouded his mind.

FIN…