Inspiration from: kayurka. deviantart gallery / # / d55au8h ; Road to Ninja trailer

Prompt: Genjutsu.

Lost Road

"Haah... haah—"

She could only hear her ragged breathing as she knelt on the cold asphalt, arms tightly hugging herself. Her emerald eyes were dull and blank, her cheeks flushed as sweat trickled down her already clammy skin.

Images of Sasuke giving her a flower, of him crying blood, him smiling- him snarling: they're flashing through the back of her eyes in rapid successions, confusing her for the reality or fallacy. Her breath hitched.

"Always-" He said lightly, a gentle smile on his face. She almost smiled at his beautiful and carefree smile, but then he was behind her, saying 'Thank you.'

And then he was saying her name—annoyed, as if she was an eyesore, then tenderly like he loved her, then quietly like he was going for the kill, and then... and then...

Nothing. Black. Nada.

Tears escaped her eyes and she squeezed them shut. Her heart beat faster, pounding loudly in her ears in anticipation. She then opened her eyes, emerald orbs darting hastily in fear and panic. Is it done? Is it released?

But, no... there was still that. There was still an ominous darkness that clouded her mind—and yet she found herself sighing, perhaps in brief relief. She was just so, so tired. She wants to sleep, so very much—to succumb to the inviting cradle of darkness where there are no recollections that she just could not recognize.

Then there was a white light.

Her scream was cut off her throat as she trembled, and then her mind was assaulted with memories.

"Sa... su-ke-kun..." she whimpered comfortingly to herself, her voice hoarse and broken and so, so tragic. But there was suddenly an alarming confusion and she feels her mind blanking out.

"Always—you..." she heard someone say again like a broken tape, in a fading voice. And then, his voice was near her ears as if he was so damn close to her. "Sakura."

A gentle smile. A sneer. A frown. That glare. That indifferent look—that Sasuke... but which Sasuke?

Sasuke?

She found she does not know. Sa-?

What she knows is there were two guys, one gentle and one vengeful. And she wonders why the name suddenly escaped her when she knows that she had uttered the name quite awhile ago. She remembers, she thinks resolutely, holding to that thin thread of hope that merely remembers.

Confusion.

Curiosity? Speculation... But then her mind blanked, and then the guys she saw behind her eyes no longer own a face.

"Sakura... Sakura, Sakura, Sakura..." a voice chanted. She tried to search her mind. She knows she recognize the voice, but then, maybe it was just an imagination. She does not know. She does not know.

She felt her heart clench, but her mind was curiously blank. It's as if her heart knows something that her mind does not remember. It hurt. Her chest hurts.

"Always—lov-"

Then darkness... that ominous darkness, yet again.

Her eyebrows furrowed, mouth drawn in a tight line.

But then...

She could only hear her ragged breathing as she knelt on the cold asphalt, arms tightly hugging herself. Her emerald eyes were dull and blank, her cheeks flushed as sweat trickled down her clammy skin.