Author's Note: Finally. A fic in Sakura's point of view! And fluffeh too! I've written a few, but somehow, I never finish and have to go back to square one. But here it is people.
Maybe God likes SasuSaku. I kinda got bitten by this plotbunneh while going to church.
Graffiti
By: Yummei-sama no Hayashi
It was one of those little urban legends that had been kept alive in Konoha's streets since Kami-knows-when. There were various versions of it, but it started out the same in all: two children, a boy and a girl, living together in the same neighborhood, their houses separated by only one slab of wall, grew up side by side, and eventually fell in love as they grew older.
However, their parents had a feud among themselves and forbade them to see each other, let alone marry. They built the wall separating the wall even higher, and the girl's parents refused to let her out of their yard. Thus was their fate, or so the legend goes.
"But love finds a way," Yamanaka Ino had told Haruno Sakura as-a-matter-of-factly, the first time they passed the wall together on the way to the pink-haired girl's house, when they were all but nine. "There was a hole where they could whisper sweet nothings, in the dead of the night, and this would set their hearts on fire with passion, a flame that not even a great brick wall could keep in."
The older, no-nonsense Sakura would have rolled her eyes at nine year-old Ino's melodramatic portrayal, but it had been nine year-old Sakura who had been listening, and her green eyes went wide with wonder. "So romantic!" she gushed.
But here, the story would take a tragic turn. The two lovers could keep their secret no longer, and they made plans to elope to the countryside. Unfortunately, it had been a night when missing nin plagued the borders, and in the dark, their haste was mistaken for something other than elopement. They were killed by the precursors of the ANBU, the boy protecting the defenseless girl to his last breath. It was only at sunrise when the village's protectors realized their mistake, and their bodies were brought back to the village. Regretting their actions to forbid the young lovers' marriage, the parents let bygones be bygones, buried their dead, and set up a memorial in honor of the lovers whose passion for each other could not be quelled by a wall.
The legend then becomes farfetched for the cynical and magical for the hopeless romantics as a rumor was built around the wall. It was said that the spirits of the young lovers still lingered on the wall, and if a young couple decided to write each other's names on it, their relationship would be forever blessed by those ill-starred lovers.
And so it was that the wall became a mosaic of names over time. Couples who had gone strong for half a century had their names faded by time; couples newly formed had theirs bright and new; couples who had gone sour had their names either crudely crossed out or carefully whitewashed; the rest simply had theirs overwritten with new ones.
It was now ten years since Sakura first heard the tale, but she still treated the wall with the same reverence she did for the past ten years. The wall was sacred to her and to many others – no one dared to desecrate it except young rebellious vandals, who easily fell for the traps of some lovesick shinobi who made these to protect a precious piece of Konoha legacy.
There also seemed to be unwritten rules on the wall's usage: no one may write anything aside from asserting that "he" and "she" would be together forever. A false assumption or scribbled nonsense had their punishment with public embarrassment. Such was the superstition that held the lovesick population in sway.
But our favorite pink-haired kunoichi insisted to herself that it had nothing to do with her.
The wall was not for a couple never to be. It wasn't for hopes and dreams unlikely to be reached. It wasn't for the names of a broken but fulfilled avenger and a kunoichi desperate to pick up the glass pieces of her heart. Because it wasn't possible.
She had accepted the fact already.
(Despite being slightly pained she might never touch the wall with a paintbrush, of course.)
But whatever. All she wanted to do that fine afternoon was to get on home and watch TV on how not to grow old to become a bitter old woman, muttering on what-could-have-beens and what-ifs.
But the large stretch of wall, standing alone on the empty lot where the two houses used to stand, was on the path Sakura happened to take from the hospital to her apartment. Curiosity tugging at her conscious, she made a quick detour to see who were the new and newly broken couples – the wall was a more accurate reference than gossip. Skirting her way through fellow onlookers, she scanned the wall for familiar names.
The bright and cheerful "Naruto + Hinata Forever" never failed to catch her attention first, every time she examined the wall. The large paintwork never seemed to fade – she had a nagging suspicion Naruto went there every week to repaint it.
Her eyes flitted down to the flowery "Shikamaru x Ino" written in fancy, cursive characters. Sakura noticed that the white paint underneath these characters was almost a millimeter thick – she knew for a fact that this sign had been whitewashed several times in five months. The last time Sakura checked, this particular spot only had white paint on it, and Ino had been standing angrily by it, her angry eyes violently triumphant about her handiwork.
How many times would this be whitewashed till those two get married? Sakura thought amusedly.
Her eyes found a circle of names in a corner above, all written by different hands. There were names like Anko, Shizune, Ayame, and five others she didn't recognize, and they circled one name alone – "Kakashi." Sakura grimaced – either her former sensei had no respect for the wall, or he just happened to be a real ladies' man.
The name "Tenten" caught her eye, and she squeezed through the small crowd that was steadily gathering around the wall. She vaguely assumed they were looking at other names, not noticing the strange looks people were giving her as she giggled at the "NejiTenten" scribbled down bellow, written in what she could guess was Tenten's firm script.
(The scribble hadn't been there before. Sakura would have to call her for the full details by phone.)
A few other names were paired with those she didn't know. "Inuzuka Kiba" (complete with chibi dogs at the side) was in the same heart as "Nekotachi Ashi" (complete with chibi cats at the side). She bypassed Shino's name connected with a certain "Mizu Shizuka" since it had been there for the past two months, and overlooked the "SarutobiAsuma x YuuhiKurenai" that had been there for three and a half years already. "BBQ chips," previously connected to "Akimichi Chouji," now enjoyed a triangle with "Shiroi Ichigo." She rolled her eyes amusedly as she spotted a large heart that enclosed the words "The Youthful Love of Rock Lee and Gessu Koishi."
She sighed to herself, which were unheard by the clump of gossiping girls, not caring that, strangely, the gossiping seemed to be directed at her. Her name, of course, might never be written on the wall for some person to say that yes, Haruno Sakura loved and won. For that to happen, she had to get over him, which felt highly unlikely at the moment.
But I'm going to, she thought determinedly. For the honor of being written down on this wall, I am definitely going to fall in love again! She chuckled to herself, still amazingly oblivious to the strange stares and whispers. I'll get over him, or so help me I'll-
"Psst."
Sakura started. The voice came from the legendary hole in the wall. She peeked through the hole and found a familiar eye curving up at her.
"Heyyyyy Sakura-chyyaaaan!" Naruto sang happily. "What's up?"
Sakura grinned. "The sky," she said wittily. "Back again to retouch the paint on your names, Naruto?"
Naruto grinned back. "Nah, I'm putting up a new piece of art."
"Naruto," Sakura scowled, "you can't just put whatever on the wall – it's sacred!"
"But it's kinda true!" Naruto protested. ""If you'll see it, you'll agree!"
Sakura hurried to the other side of the wall, where a largely female crowd had gathered, and was staring at where Naruto was currently. Sakura turned to him. "What kind of art are you trying to – to – to… wha?"
Naruto was holding a paintbrush, and his face and hands were smeared with dark blue and rose pink paint. "Ta-dah!" he announced, pointing at his handiwork. There, painted with smooth, flowing print (since when did Naruto get so artistic? It was probably during his prankster days, Sakura thought vaguely), were the characters for…
…
UCHIHA SASUKE x HARUNO SAKURA.
It took a few moments for Sakura's normally quick mind to understand what was going on. Slowly, she put two and two together. The crowd whispering and staring. The paint stains on Naruto's face. The embarrassing proclamation that was, by far, the biggest and most beautiful print on that side of the wall. (That honor was taken by Naruto and Hinata on the other side.)
Sakura colored pinker and pinker as she stared at the label. "D'you like it?" Naruto asked hopefully. "I'm almost done with the details, and-"
Sakura violently grabbed the fine paintbrush from his hand, looking as mortified as she felt. "Narutooooo!" she moaned in great humiliation. "What have you done? Sasuke-kun… me… no! We… we're not… far from… he… NO! This… this thing… take it off!"
Naruto didn't seem to process that her mortification was linked to her inability to string together a proper sentence. "But you like him, don't you? And I think he li-"
Sakura shrieked in frustration and mortification (the crowd stepped back cautiously) and vigorously waved her arms around in panic, the paint on the brush splish-splashing about everywhere. "That's not the point! I love him very much, but you can't just put up things like this in public! What will people think? Besides, this wall is sacred and nothing unofficial must be written on it or bad luck is sure to follow me forever and ever and I'll never get over him and I want to get over him because if I do then my name will get written down here with a name that's not his name because that name and I will be in love forever and ever and I won't grow into a bitter old woman muttering about what-ifs and what-coulda-beens and I will forget I ever had my heart broken but that won't ever happen since you – yes you! – just wrote this blasphemous anomaly upon this sacred wall and it has to be whitewashed three times over since my heart can't take the fact that I have to force myself to get over him since it's never going to be official and… and… and…"
Naruto was staring at her, dumbfounded, and the crowd behind her was quiet. She stopped waving her arms. "And… and…" She grimaced. "He's right behind me, isn't he?" she asked rather miserably.
The blond slowly nodded, and Sakura turned slowly, tracing her eyes sluggishly from the broad chest to the bemused face of Uchiha Sasuke. Her grimace became more miserable. You didn't hear anything odd… please… tell me you didn't here all that…
"Sa-sasuke-kun!" she exclaimed nervously, her blushing face as though the pink paint had smeared through it. She hastily dropped the paintbrush as her mortification multiplied a million times over. She wished she could sink into the ground, or shrivel up and die. "This is… this isn't what it looks like… I can explain…"
I'm RUINED! Sakura wailed inside her mind. The friendship I could have been building up with him is ruined! ANY non-romantic relationship I could have had with him is down the drain! He'll never talk to me again!
"Hn," Sasuke said, picking up the paintbrush and picking out the specks of dust that had clung to the rose colored paint, seemingly in deep thought.
This action could only leave Sakura with mouth wide open. "Sa…Sa… Sasuke… kun?"
"Close your mouth," Sasuke said bluntly. Sakura closed it. He smirked. "Good girl."
Then he grabbed her by her shoulders and pressed his lips against hers.
…
…
…
Absolutely nothing ran through Sakura's confused, muddled mind as Uchiha Sasuke made her taste the cinnamon-y flavor of his lips as he tasted her cherry-flavored lip gloss. Her body, however, was a different story, as several different kinds of shock currents rippled through her system – some of shock, some of pleasant surprise, some of confusion, but mostly of happiness.
Sasuke unglued his lips from hers and let go of her, and she could do nothing but stare blankly in space, not seeing the scandalized, shocked and disappointed faces of some of the girls, nor hearing the gushing "Aww" of some of the more sensible girls in the crowd like a single entity.
In her absence of mind, Sasuke stepped to the spot behind her, dipped the paintbrush in pink paint, and, when Sakura finally got the sense to turn around and see what he had done, finished with putting in the final details to the sign on the wall.
He smirked again.
"Does that make it official enough for you?"
She stared at him.
Then she broke into a large smile.
"I think so."
"Then – some shaved ice with fruit?"
He knew her well enough, and she took the hand he offered, and both of them walked away for a long talk, during which – if they ever got around to it – they might discuss how brutally Sasuke had to threaten Naruto to start painting something like that.
"So," Naruto said to the crowd of people in front of him, "anyone else want me to paint theirs?"
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.:You'll find me where it's quiet, listen closely:.
Author's Note:
1) The plot: I got the plot from a mixture of two things – watching an episode about a graffiti'd wall on the show "Unfabulous," and the myth of Pyramus and Thisbe. They both involved walls. The myth of Pyramus and Thisbe and the "urban legend" above is very similar. I just added the "missing nin" part.
2) The new names: I wanted to let everyone except Sakura and Sasuke to have gotten together with someone, so I had to make up names to fit the guys who had to have OCs paired to them. "Nekotachi Ashi" (for Kiba) is pretty obvious – "Neko" means "cat," and "Ashi" means "paw." "Mizu Shizuka" is a little hard – "Mizu" means "water," as opposed to "oil woman" that is in "Aburame," and "Shizuka" means "quiet," which Shino obviously is.
"Shiroi Ichigo" means "White Strawberry," which is one of the image songs in Rurouni Kenshin. Shiroi is pretty random, but Strawberry, well, it's food, and Chouji loves food. "Gessu Koishi" is pretty easy, if you know where "Gessu" comes from. Lee is a brand of pants, and "Gessu," or Guess, is another. "Koishi" means "pebble."
3) The colors: Of COURSE the colors of SasuSaku are pink and dark blue! Any SasuSaku fan can attest to that.
4) Shaved ice with fruit: In the Naruto Databook II, that's what Sakura's favorite food supposedly is.
5) If you notice, the ways the couples write on the wall speak of how their relationship is. Just a tidbit of psychology.
So… review?