Because I Love You (SasuNaru AU) ✔

Chapter 24: Accept and Forgive

"How...? How do you know Naruko...?" Sakura asked with eyes that spoke fear.

I didn't have time to keep beating around the bush. I had questions and I needed answers. "Where is she?" I repeated.

She began to move away from me in panic as I mentioned her best friend. "Y-You're acting really s-strange, Sasuke-kun...Y-You don't even know her, so why would you-?"

"Naori used to talk about her all the time, " I fabricated swiftly.

"Naori...? I thought you guys never spoke-"

"The few times we spoke it was about her," I lied sincerely.

She looked at me, still unconvinced. "I don't believe you-"

"Please!" I yelled desperately, "Please...tell me where Naruko is...Please..."

I was on the verge of tears, but I couldn't allow myself to show the sorrow that I held. I missed Naruko, and Naori was missing because of me. I had no one to turn to for help but her. I was desperate.

"Sasuke-kun..." Her eyes turned away from my direction as she held her arms nervously at the subject. "I don't know what's going on... You're acting strange."

She sighed, keeping a safe distance between her and me. "For starters, you're actually talking to me; you're concerned about Naori, and now you're asking me about Naruko. You haven't even met her before yet you're acting as if you've lost her...Sasuke-kun, what's really going on...?"

It was time to come clean. All the sin, the guilt, the bagged, everything I carried I shared with her. From the information of my past timeline to my future, and back to my present.

I couldn't tell if she believed a word I said, but I continued to talk. I needed someone to help carry the weight of the world.

"I'm sorry," she whispered, "I'm sorry that all happened...but you had no right to have Naruko involved in all this bullshit."

She turned to me angrily, tears streaming down her face as she yelled at me. "I realized there was something wrong with my best friend back then, and it was all because of you!"

My expression quickly turned into confusion at her reaction. There was something wrong with Naruko...?

"It all makes sense now," she chuckled sarcastically, "When you showed up she began to ask me strange questions about time travel. I didn't think much of it because I thought it was her just being random as usual. But then we went on that stupid field trip and everything changed!

We had spent the whole day having fun together. Then later that night, she came back to the hotel with the saddest expression I had ever seen her do in my entire life. Throughout the night I would hear her crying to herself, and that was the first moment I had ever heard her cry... I didn't know what was wrong. She wouldn't tell me, and now I know why..."

She glared at me, burning daggers into my soul with her hatred. Her outburst surprised me as she defended Naruko. I had always thought she wasn't a true friend to my wife, but I had been wrong.

She wiped her tears from her eyes, never softening her glare. "Because of you, her personality changed as the years went on. She never smiled; she never wanted to be around me or any one of her friends; Her eyes were always so gloom, and the color began to drain from her skin...By the end of our senior year, it was as if she was a completely different person! You changed her! You destroyed her!"

My heart sank as I realized I had caused the same pain to this times Naruko. No matter what I did, I managed to find a way to hurt her.

I replied with a heart full of guilt, "I didn't mean for this to happen...I just wanted her to be happy..."