Without you

Chapter 17 - Orochimaru

It's currently 5am, but I am done. All I need is to correct the next chapter and then it's the end! I'm so happy yet exhausted at the same time!
-Cha-chan

I woke up a few hours after we fell asleep. I thought about begging Sasuke to leave the village with me, but I knew he wouldn't go for it. This was his home, everything he cared about was here. Plus, he wasn't the type to run away as people fought his battles for him.

So, I got up and walked into the kitchen to try and make us something to eat. I automatically started doing ramen, my head elsewhere. I was almost done when I heard shuffling in the hallway.

Sasuke appeared in the kitchen, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. I stopped what I was doing to go hug him. He hugged me back. We stayed like this for a while. He went to pull back, but I didn't let go. I couldn't. I didn't want to lose him. I ended up needing to let go. I held back my tears. Right now wasn't a good time to cry. I didn't know why I was mourning him as if he was already gone, but I was.

Sasuke sat down for dinner and actually didn't complain about eating ramen. I put tomatoes in his to please him, knowing it was his favourite food.

We ate silently and slowly, taking in the moment. When we couldn't hold back the time any more, we left the house and took the direction of the Hokage's office again.

On our way there, we saw every ninja available to us running around, gathering weapons or plans to prepare for the battle ahead of us. The gates of the village were almost completely closed off, trying to keep everything inside in and everything outside out.

We didn't even need to reach Tsunade's office, she was walking in the middle of the market place. She was busy, but she still managed to yell us instructions. She needed us to help gather as many weapons as we could, and to bring them all to Kakashi, she pointed at him in the distance. I looked over at where Kakashi was. He seemed to be making an inventory of all the weapons we had. Sasuke and I both nodded and got to work.

By the time it was nightfall, Tsunade had informed us that Orochimaru would be there the next day around noon, and we had done all the preparations we possibly could at that moment.

Tsunade had sent ninja to bring back the ninja in missions. Some of them couldn't make it back in time, but some of them did. I looked around at the chaos that surely wasn't as bad as what was coming tomorrow.

Sasuke had dragged me back to our house and back to bed, though none of us could sleep. We talked through the night about mundane things , trying to keep our minds away from the upcoming battle.

Sasuke didn't make a move like the one he had done previously in the day. The stress was eating me alive, knotting my intestine and I felt like throwing up.

I hugged Sasuke close as if he was my blanket protecting me from the world. I let myself be vulnerable one last time, just enough for me to close my eyes. I breathed in and out deeply, feeling myself fall into an awake state of sleep, not ready at all for what would happen in a couple of hours.