Sakura Blooms (Yamato x Male Reader)

Chapter 1 - Betrayal

Yamato's age: 23

Y/N's age: 25

Y/N sat by himself, bathed in the moonlight. He put his head in his hands and sighed. Kaido must be really disappointed in Y/N right now. He.. well, failed is putting it mildly. He'd have to work a lot harder from now on to get Kaido's opinion of him back up.

Y/N brushed his hand along the withered grass. A once beautiful courtyard, now neglected and pretty much dead. Servants stopped tending to the plants once Kaido declared this area forbidden for anyone to access. Yeah, as if an empty threat like that would stop Y/N from coming here. If anyone did discover Y/N here, they'd be dead before they could utter a word.

Just as those thoughts were running through his mind, the sound of a soft footstep caused him to leap up. The sound was well concealed, normally someone wouldn't be able to detect such a sound. Well Y/N was Y/N, and anyone with such well concealed footfalls would just take a little more effort to kill.

He leapt through the night air and landed swiftly near the sound of the footstep.

"Give me one reason not to kill you." he growled softly.

The person, a woman, turned around. Y/N's breath caught in his throat.

-

Yamato scanned Y/N up and down. Almost ten years had passed since they last saw each other. Y/N still looked the same. The same, but really different too. Y/N and Yamato eyed each other for a while.

"Give you a reason?" Yamato laughed, breaking the silence. "More like you give me a reason." Without warning, Yamato leapt at Y/N. He didn't lift a finger against her. Damned fool.

"You–" she punched him with a fist coated in Haki. He just raised an arm and took the blow. "You–LEFT–Me!" Each word punctuated with a punch that Y/N dodged easily but he made no move to attack. Coward. "Kaido gave you a high ranking position. AND YOU LEFT ME! FOR THAT??"

-

The words sunk in. Kaido. What a piece of shit. Finally Y/N advanced. He leapt forward, twisting to avoid another punch from Yamato. He grabbed her shoulder and they both slammed onto the ground. Y/N dug his knees into Yamato's thighs and braced his hands against her shoulders.

"Kaido didn't tell you the truth, did he?" Y/N said through gritted teeth.

"The truth? He told me enough." Yamato laughed bitterly. "I heard from someone that you'd beaten Jack and got promoted to an All-Star. I came here the next day, as we promised. I wanted to congratulate you. But you didn't come. You didn't come the next day either. On the fourth day, Kaido was there, waiting for me. He just told me to never come here again. And that you'd stopped seeing me because you were too dedicated to your job."

"And you believed him?" Y/N hissed.

"What else was there to believe?" she retorted.

Y/N leaned closer to Yamato so their breaths mingled. Yamato's eyes widened.

"You damned idiot." He jumped back and released her. "You actual damned idiot. Why would I ever leave you for my shitty job? I'd never leave you for Kaido, damn it."

So Y/N told Yamato about how Kaido had forbidden him to see Yamato.

Yamato stared at him in disbelief. "You couldn't have sneaked here? Like how you're here today?"

Y/N sighed, he always forgot about that. "The thing is, Kaido put these shackles on me. Apparently they'd explode if I went into this courtyard. I could go anywhere but here. I don't even know how Kaido knew we were meeting here." He put his hands behind his head and sighed again.

"You don't have those shackles on anymore, do you?" Yamato observed.

"Yeah. This one day I was standing by that alcove leading to the courtyard, regretting my life choices. I tried to get the shackles off again. I had tried for so long, Haki didn't work on it. But that day, I was thinking about you. And something inside me.. snapped. I tried breaking the shackles again. It worked. No, seriously." He added, seeing the look on Yamato's face. "Something about my Haki felt different, somehow. I kept visiting the courtyard when I had time, after that day. I never bumped into you. I silenced a few soldiers, but that's it. I never met anyone else..."

-

Yamato listened to Y/N's story, ashamed. This whole time she'd thought he didn't want to see her anymore. And she hadn't visited that courtyard for a few years because the thought of Y/N filled her with anger.

"Oh yeah, Yamato." Y/N turned to look at her. "Those shackles on your wrists. What are they for? I'd noticed you had them on before when we used to train, as well."

"They're for keeping me here. Kaido doesn't want me spreading my nonsense about Oden." she said bitterly.

-

"I could.. try breaking them for you?" Y/N said, unsure. He didn't know what it was that went through his Haki that day when he broke his own shackles.

Yamato, probably sensing his doubt, shook her head. "There's kinda no point. It's alright. If I left Wano, Kaido would hunt me down. And probably kill me."

The two of them stayed silent for a while.

"So." Yamato began, after the silence became awkward. "Tell me what you've been up to these past few years. And I'll tell you what I've been doing." she grinned wickedly.

-

"So we'll be meeting here tomorrow night?" Yamato asked expectantly. Y/N nodded.

"I'll see ya then, Y/N." Yamato turned and left the courtyard, leaving Y/N sitting alone.

The way she'd said his name made him hard. He frowned. What the fuck.