Epistles to the Departed

Prologue: Chapter 1 - Becoming Someone

Edit: Re-drawing and re-writing!

Prologue: Chapter 1

"Becoming Someone [You'll Never Forget]"

Three syllables, a word, a name. It may as well been the first time that his voice had pronounced them without a speck of hate- or maybe an ounce of expression.

"Sakura.."

A word meaning of the flowers which had lived too shortly, fallen too early- a fragile and fleeting blossom bruised by the simplest touch. Yet none of these words described her, no, at least not now- but instead the man who had spoken it.

A name which probably held no meaning to the man who had spoken it.

A person who probably held no meaning to the man who had called her name-

When her eyes began to part from their dried, rheumy mucus, Haruno Sakura could only wish to scream- but to her dismay, found herself unable to do so. Her throat was dry and her tongue cracked, she craned her neck and stared up into the dust of the sky and remembered.

Everything. But everything didn't matter when this was happening.

Sasuke's sunken-in eyes were halfway lidded, his mouth dryly moving to match barely unspoken words. Each movement of his lips seemed to sting- the corners ripped and shriveled, skin flaking off, begging to be peeled. Every tug seemed to tear a bit more skin. "I'm sorry.. for everything." he croaked, as if the things he said were blades digging into his neck. His words were scratchy and unharmonized, like if multiple people had been speaking at the same time- a badly coordinated chorus.

Though almost in-cognizable in tone, there was a valid feeling stuffed into those words- a voice of truth within the lies of his past- that expressed an emotion Sakura would have never expected from him. Regret.

During her youth, perhaps it was this that she had pleaded each day and night for- the holiday gift too expensive for such a poor heart- but today, as the changed woman, no longer the girl he left behind, the expected fluttering of butterflies and redness growing in the tips of her cheeks were mere mounds of salty water flash-flooding her eyes until the point that her vision had receded to blurriness.

Despite the utter silence spare for the way every breath of his sounded like breaking glass- she couldn't help but feel as if a swarm of birds were cawing incessantly around her- a tornadic discordance to fill every inch of her mind. The sunrise fading blue to a vivid orange only seemed to shade the darkest night sky. Lukewarm blood still poured out of where his arm used to be... the very same one that had taken the life of so many...

Her gaze flashed to Naruto, his unmoving, unresponsive figure. She wanted to reach for him- hold him, say it was alright... but her legs were kept glued on the ground, kneeling before the dyin- critically injured Uchiha. Even the arms with the strength to shatter mountains to dust lay limp against her bare and blistered feet, incapable of doing anything at all.

Was this justice? Is this the divine punishment he gets because he did all this? 

Change this, Sasuke- please, just change this.

"Sakura.." Sasuke repeated, this time even more inaudibly then the last. She then noticed the dried streaks of blood on his mouth again; this time, however, joined by newer bouts of the metallic liquid. "Take... m.."