SasuSaku FanFiction (One Shots) 🌸

Sasuke's Send-off Reimagined (Part 2)

Once Sasuke was able to retrieve his weapons and pack everything he would need for the mission, he didn't waste any minute and went on his way to the direction that Sakura's squad headed.

A developing agitation started to creep into him as he ventured the outside world that he didn't see for a number of months. As much as he was frustrated with the limited information that they received about this complicated situation, he was determined to make this mission a success even if he had to start from scratch. He still couldn't describe the inner push that he was feeling, but one thing's for sure, whoever did this to Sakura would pay – if they haven't even met their end yet under her enormous prowess.

But why Sakura?! What are their ulterior motives and what in the world do they need from her?

It would take him a little more than two days before reaching the borders of the Land of Earth, and for a second, he thought about the probability of getting there too late. He mentally grimaced. With every hour passing by came a deepening effect of the burden he's currently carrying.

When he told Kakashi he could be rest assured that he will bring her back, it was more of a covenant to himself than a mere compliance to the man who sent him on this rescue mission, and he wasn't going to compromise so he could fulfill that commitment.

The day was coming to a close and his limbs that had no sufficient exercise for months were starting to feel tensed, but he rather convinced himself that resting could wait. His physical discomfort was nothing compared to the agitation sitting and growing in his mind as he pondered on the peculiarity of how this mission seemed to feel heavier than all the other assignments he'd been given and battles he'd been involved in.

But then, flashes of images of a certain kunoichi dawdled in his mind with seemingly no plan of giving him a break. Sakura, you better hang in there. Please...don't leave me.

A small gasp suddenly escaped from his lips, causing him to halt from jumping from tree to tree and review the very words that he himself has uttered in his head. He's not one who ever begs, let alone seek anything from others. And he's been alone for a big chunk of his life that's why he knew full well that being left by anyone is something not far from normal – automatic, even – to him anymore. But those words that seemed to be hidden in his subconscious allowed him to contemplate on some things concerning the woman he was about to rescue.

Shutting his eyes as he rested his back on a tree trunk, he struggled to admit that he was not only saving her for her own benefit, but for his as well. A part of him couldn't believe what he was now realizing. If his genin self was in front of him, he would've guffawed jarringly and in an out of character way while pointing at his older self in utter disbelief.

However, for a moment, a myriad of his memories with Sakura flickered in his brain as if to prove a point.

She was the one who genuinely cried for him – something uncommon for an orphan like him – while hugging his momentary lifeless body even though dozens of senbons were sticking out from it.

She was the one who never left his side when he was fighting the pain inflicted to him by the curse seal in the Forest of Death, letting him clutch her hand tightly and lean on her with a tad bit of comfort he never knew he needed.

She was the one who stopped him from his unprecedented rampage with an abrupt embrace from behind, knowing that he was not the Sasuke she knew that time, and astonishingly leading the curse seal's effect to recede due to the calming effect he didn't realize she has on him.