Sakura stood looking at the remains of the village from the topmost step of the temple.
She could hear footsteps approaching.
"Sakura." she heard Sasuke call.
He came and stood in line with her, staring also out into the horizon.
"Have you found the answer ?"he asked her
She furrowed her brow.
"What answer?" she asked
"To the question you've taken so long to ask."
She gasped.
"These eyes can see alot more than you think they can." he said matter-of-factly.
"I don't know what you're talking about." Sakura countered.
"Hm." he smirked. "Are you going to spend the rest of your life acting like a child?"
She spun to look at him, offended by his words.
"Sasuke?!"
He looked at her, his visible eye piercing.
"Will you spend the rest of your life chasing shadows?"
His words were pointed and tears pricked her eyes.
"What do you want me to do?" she asked him trying to keep her voice even.
He kept looking at her.
"If you're not able to free yourself from the past. You'll always be stuck." he turned on his heels.
A tear escaped and fell on the gray slab of the temple.
"Will you come back to the village?" she asked from where she stood.
He stopped a few paces away from her.
"There are still answers to some questions that I must find." he answered
"Oh."
"Sakura." he said finally. "I'm sorry.The road I took led us down different paths.You came chasing after me after everything I did."
He looked over his shoulder at her.
"But there was somebody that you never had to chase. Someone who protected you many times when I couldn't. He even protected you from me."
Her tears started flowing more.
"Don't look at the shadows so much that you miss the light."
"How can I? " she asked "After everything I've done."
Sasuke smirked at her.
"Remember he's the same guy that lost an arm for a friend" he said finally before walking back inside.
Her shoulders shook at the weight of his words.
He was right.
The least she could do at this point is be honest with him. She owed him so much.
She dried her tears and her heart became resolute.
This time. When she tells him that she loves him, it would be the truth. Not something she thought she'd made up back then when she'd gone to him in the Land of Iron.
Thanks to Sai that was the first time she'd realized how much pain she'd truly caused him.It was like a veil had been lifted and she could finally see how wretched she'd been. Always crying and relying on him.Asking him to bring Sasuke back for her own selfish reasons.
Even then she'd been an idiot. If he'd not come to her rescue she would have been dead, at Sasuke's hands, the one she'd spent so many years blindly chasing.
Naruto had never wavered. Never once in protecting her. Never once in his resolve to bring Sasuke back.
She'd been so consumed by the shame she felt.
That shame told her she didn't deserve him because of everything she'd put him through.
Maybe that was the truth.
Maybe she didn't deserve him but he deserved something and that was the truth.
No matter what happened.
She loved him.
He had become the most important person so her.