Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto nor profit from this material.

A/N: Please read out loud if you can. Poetry is meant to be seen and heard.

Sometimes the Bitter Soft Sweet Moments

by moderndayportia

Sometimes the bitter soft sweet moments,

When the angled edges of a heart's longing

Are thrust into the acuity of awareness,

Are the most cataclysmic.

Like a sudden silence after the panorama of a flock's flight,

The shocking lull of realization,

And then the crashing wall of reality,

Are all gathered up and contained in a singular moment,

Time and the surroundings frozen and falling fast

As if the isolated inside of a snow globe.

Somehow the world falls away into the abyss

And all that's left are the two, dilated irises and pulsing blood,

And the utter singularity of their existence.

"What did you say?"

He notes that words have never before sounded so soft,

And because nothing exists, aside from them, it is the starkest bit of truth.

Eyes have never bore such green, skin has never looked so deliciously creamy,

Hands have never fluttered so beautifully nervous like birds' wings.

And no one has ever felt the way he feels for her,

That the whole spectrum of existence, from the cosmos to the wing of the bee

Formed and watch in reverence of this simple and big moment.

"Aishiteru"

It comes so easy from his lips,

and the strangeness of that is the most natural yet insignificant mystery.

And he wants to shout why to the sky, but he knows the answer is standing in front of him,

The most organic manifestation of what is meant by love.

Denying the truth of her would be sacrilege,

Silencing the creed of her, the most unnatural of crimes.

The supremacy of the moment makes him desire to fall to his knees

And lay prostrate among the grass for the aching glory of it.

"Aishiteru, Sakura. I'll love you forever."

And the truth was devastatingly real,

Because he and she and they made it so,

And the arcing spindle of time had submitted to his will

And made a singular moment the fruition and the completion

Of the entire before.

Because now he knew that it had always been and would always be,

This destination in time and space, and eyes, and hands, and neck, and lips,

And now it was all so clear in its splendor.

"Marry me."

And damn if the world didn't fall apart with the widening of those eyes,

And damn if it wasn't put back together again with the sudden upward curving of those lips;

An entire cataclysm and genesis in the time it takes for a grain of sand to fall.

"Kakashi-"

His name had never sounded so enigmatic.

And her voice sonorous with wonder,

The lyrical three syllables falling from her tongue,

Carried him away like a deluge and he was almost breathless with the force of it.

No stars in the firmamaent could match the brilliance of her in that moment, or ever,

For to try would be a betrayal of the glory that the god's had leant to mortals when she was made.

She was a gift and grace a sinner like him could never deserve.

And yet-

"Yes."

This woman-

"Yes, Kakashi-"

This quintessence of everything vivid that is-

"Aishiteru, Kakashi."

Would have him.

A/N: I suppose these poetic oneshots are becoming my personal style. I've never seen fanfictions written like this, but I wish more people would try something different. The main themes in this were time and contrast. Ever since my Japanese sensei explained the meaning of aishiteru I've been dying to write something with it. According to him, though we may see it used very prominently in anime and manga, in real life, very few people would say aishiteru. Japanese people tend to use daiski when saying 'I love you.' My sensei described aishiteru as something earth shattering to hear. So romantic.

This isn't easy stuff to write. Inspiration only gets you half way there, the rest is carefully thought out. Please, if you understood what I did here, leave a review, good or bad, and let me know what you think. I know that material like this is much to cerebtral for the majority of fanfiction readers, but I know that some of you get it and maybe even like it.