I think I’m going crazy with these songfics… I just can’t seem to stop! xD So now, it’s Sakura’s turn.

3 Libras has always been my favorite song from A Perfect Circle’s album ‘Mer de Noms’. It’s always had a personal ring to it and let’s just say that its lyrics reflect a phase of my life which I won’t quickly forget.

If you’ve ever fallen desperately in love with the “wrong” guy/girl, I’m sure you’ll know exactly what I mean.

Therefore, I feel they reflect Sakura’s circumstances with a certain Uchiha Sasuke as well, so it wasn’t hard for me to adapt 3 Libras to her situation and to exorcise some of my own demons.

There’s light at the end of the tunnel for our pink haired kunoichi yet! xD And it comes from the most unexpected of sources...

Hope you like it.

~~~xxx~~~

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters of Naruto nor A Perfect Circle’s lyrics.

~~~xxx~~~

Clutching the picture in her hand as she sat in front of the window, Haruno Sakura sighed sadly but no tears fell from her emerald eyes. In her short life, she had done more than enough of her share of crying and it was time she put a stop to it, once and for all.

There was no point in crying over the events of the past… events you could never change.

A relentless rain had been hanging over Konoha for most of the day and the pink haired kunoichi stared at the falling drops, lost in thought and recollection.

After deciding that her small apartment needed some very necessary spring cleaning, she had spent the whole morning cleaning up her closet and her drawers. It was amazing how much junk could accumulate over the years and she found herself throwing out many useless things.

She found some boxes filled with some old stuff at the bottom of one of her cabinets. Bringing them into her living room where there was more space, she sat down on the floor while she went through their contents, deciding what to keep and what to get rid of.

This was how she had come across the picture which had forced her to cease her activity and to plunge into the stream of her memories.

In was an innocent enough photograph, taken on the day Team 7 had been formed. It showed a very young Naruto glaring at an equally young Sasuke, while Sakura stood to the side, scowling at the blond for his antics. Their sensei stood in the background, holding one of his favorite Icha Icha books in his hand while appearing to ignore the whole scenario with an air of resignation.

They had been mere children back then, with no true worries in their lives. The typical hope and expectancy of youth had marked all three of them and secretly, all of them thought they would one day achieve their dreams, no matter how different these aspirations were.

Of course, back then none of them truly had any idea of how dissimilar their goals in life actually were nor would have they ever thought that the pursuit of these desires would one day take them down diverging paths from which they would never be able to return.

Leaning her forehead on the cold glass of her living room window, Sakura closed her eyes, allowing herself to remember.

Threw you the obvious
And you flew with it on your back

It was simply impossible for him not to have known about her infatuation… there was absolutely no way around it. Before her confession on the fateful day he decided to leave all of them behind, it was simply unfeasible for him not to be aware of the depth of her feelings.

Uchiha Sasuke knew very well that Haruno Sakura was in love with him, deeply in love with him, and he chose to do nothing about it. Whatever the reasons he had to make this decision, it was clear that he had lived with the knowledge for a long time, choosing to ignore the pink haired girl through it all.

He lived his life in Konoha knowing that his team mate would have happily given everything up for the slight chance that he might return her feelings… knowing that if he were to say the slightest word of acquiesce, she would be his for as long as he wanted.

Even if it was for only a few minutes, it would have been enough.

A name in your recollection
Down among a million

But despite the fact that he was aware of all of this, Uchiha Sasuke did not care about Sakura’s feelings in the least, or so he made it seem. Knowing very clearly how much it tortured her, he behaved like if she were any other person, any other acquaintance, and she would some times feel that, in his eyes, she didn’t even exist.

She was just another person who stood in his way… a person he could discard at a moments notice without experiencing any sort of regret.

Difficult enough to feel a little bit
Disappointed, passed over.

It had hurt… it had hurt like hell.

Naruto had once told her that the worst experience any person could suffer was to live their life without being acknowledged by anyone… to live without anyone really looking at you like if you were a real person.

She had tried to comfort him as best as she could and secretly, she knew exactly what he was talking about. She had experienced it every single day when Team 7 would go out on a mission.

To be ignored by the person you loved the most in the world was the worst anguish of all.

Sasuke’s lack of acknowledgement combined with his bitter aloofness had been torment for Sakura and she had been forced to live through her life knowing that the one she loved would never truly look at her.

When I've looked right through,
To see you naked but oblivious
and you don't see me

But she had looked and she had seen… she had seen the true Sasuke underneath the mask of arrogance and detachment he used to interact with the world.

Haruno Sakura had seen past all the barriers, past all the walls he had built around himself and she had seen him… she had seen the boy who smiled often, who held so much admiration for his older brother, who laughed with ease. She clearly saw the prodigy who had lost his family and denied his vulnerability because he was afraid to lose those who were inadvertently becoming important to him.

It had been a moment of true insight which had lasted for a few seconds. But she had seen it. She had seen that small part of him he never showed to anyone; the part which screamed for help, who wanted to be rescued from the darkness and Sakura had vowed that she would be the one to come to his aid.

To be his savior… to be his light among the shadows… that was what she had dreamed to be.

She had been so incredibly and utterly stupid.

Well I threw you the obvious,
Just to see if there's more behind the
Eyes of a fallen angel,
Eyes of a tragedy.

The truth was that he didn’t want to be saved… he didn’t want to emerge from the void he had fallen into. He wallowed morbidly in the tragedy his life had become, not wanting anyone to disturb him in his misery. But she refused to believe what was plainly displayed before her eyes; she refused to let him go and to allow him to lose himself in the torment of his hate.

As naïve as she was, she always thought there was a chance for him to emerge from the confines of his anger and to come to them with open arms. It didn’t matter if it was the slightest chance there was, a possibility was always a possibility, no matter how improbable it seemed.

Haruno Sakura, always the optimistic.

Here I am expecting just a little bit
Too much from the wounded
But I see, see through it all,
See through, and see you.

She had set her sights too high and it was inevitable that she eventually fall. Her expectations of him had been way off the mark and she had trusted that the good in him would vanquish his hate. All he needed was a little help, a little push to set him on the right track and who better to do it than her.

What she didn’t count on was the fact that if she got in the way of his personal vendetta even with the smallest of gestures, he would turn on her and bite her head off like an angered beast, pulling her body into his darkness without a second thought.

It was only when he had left for Sound that his true nature was finally perceived by her eyes but it had taken many years for her to come to terms with it. Her heart still wanted to believe in him, to believe that he would one day come back to them and forget about his quest for revenge.

Only after many months had passed, she started to realize that he wouldn’t be coming back… that he had done what he had done because he wanted to… because that was the way he truly was.

The small part of him which might have resiliently fought through the pain and the anguish had been completely extinguished and it would never return.

Sasuke was never the person she thought he was and in truth, she had been in love with a personification of her own making, a personification which existed only inside her mind.

So I threw you the obvious
Do you see what occurs behind the
Eyes of a fallen angel
Eyes of a tragedy

Well, oh well..

Apparently nothing.
Apparently nothing at all.

The day she realized that he had chosen his hatred over the friendship she and Naruto willingly offered him was the day she finally managed to let him go.

It had been extremely difficult but it had been necessary, since the realization that she could never be truly with a person who did such a thing asserted itself in her mind and in her heart.

There was no room in her life for the darkness he brought and she made the conscious decision to walk her path in the light, no matter where it might take her.

You don't
You don't
You don't see me

Sasuke had never actually seen her… had never realized her potential. Sakura had offered him the world and he had turned her down scornfully, not realizing that he was turning down the opportunity of a lifetime.

Back then, she might have begged for his affection, but it was a mistake she wasn’t going to make twice. No man deserved for a woman to grovel at his feet… it didn’t matter who he was or what history you had with him.

The pink haired kunoichi had learned to love herself more than that.

You don't
You don't
You don't see me

A man who didn’t appreciate a woman who could bring down walls with her bare fists was ten kinds of fool.

You don't
You don't
You don't see me

Sasuke had consciously chosen the shadows and from within them, he had never been able to see the inner radiance with which Sakura illuminated the world.

But thankfully, after some time, she found that this didn’t mean that others who similarly found themselves immersed in the gloom would follow along his footsteps. At first, she had been afraid of this, but after certain trials and errors, she realized that the world wasn’t plagued by self-centered and arrogant men with an insatiable thirst for vengeance. 

Not every man with a difficult past would turn down the offer of friendship and love that was offered to him.

Not every man with a difficult past was afraid to diverge from his supposed destiny.

Not all of these tortured men were as stupid as Sasuke had been.

And specifically, one of them had been inevitably drawn to her light and had come to appreciate her in ways the Uchiha would never have been able to even conceive.

You don't
You don't
You don't see me at all

As the rain withdrew, a slight breeze took the looming clouds away, allowing the late afternoon sun to shine through, illuminating the heavens with brilliant hues of orange and red.

Emerald eyes turned from the sky when a soft knock was heard on her door.

“Come in,” she said, “it’s not locked.”

The hinges of her door squeaked slightly as the person on the other side came in and Sakura smiled widely at the sight of him.

A loud thud was heard as his gourd hit the ground and was left leaning against the wall as he made his way towards her.

“Quite a mess you’ve made,” he commented, looking at the contents of the opened boxes spread all over the floor as he stood there, arms crossed in front of him.

“Yes, well,” Sakura replied, looking down at the mess, “let’s just say I was taking some skeletons out of my closet.”

Gaara’s forehead creased slightly in puzzlement and he looked slightly worried. “Skeletons?”

Trust him to always take things literally, Sakura thought with a smile.

“Nevermind,” she said as she stood up, letting the photograph she had been holding to fall into the box she had taken it out of. With a few quick steps, she crossed the distance between them, embracing the red head where he stood.

As she buried her face in his chest, he lifted his arms and held her to him, resting his cheek against her cherry hair. Sakura only tightened her hold on him and hugged him for some time, glad of his strong presence.

“What is it?” he asked when she finally came up for air, not releasing her yet.

“I’m just really happy to see you,” she said in all honesty, standing on tiptoe and kissing him softly on the lips.

Gaara looked at her for a moment before nodding, apparently satisfied with her answer.

“Let’s watch the sunset together,” she told him happily as she stepped from his arms and pulled him towards the window.

Grunting his assent, the red head could do nothing but obey her whims.

As she sat there facing the receading light of the sun while her lover embraced her lovingly from behind, Sakura sighed in contentment, the ghosts of her past dissipating completely under the surety that in her life, she really had managed to chase away the shadows of the man she truly loved.

~~~xxx~~~

Your comments are always greatly appreciated!

Now I'm off to bed cause it's really late and I can't keep my eyes from closing.