Rui's One-Shot Collection

Living life is extremely hard to do without a dream.

I was always one of those people.

Since I was small, I felt like my life was useless... like the life I was living had no meaning.

But then someone told me otherwise...

Someone told me that my life had meaning.

Someone gave me the reason to live.

Someone became that reason for my being.

And that someone gave me the will to live life to its fullest...

The boy who was dead inside, but lived....

Sasuke Uchiha.

__________

"Hey, I'm Anza Yokisho. My likes are my friends, Music.... and food, I guess. I dislike most men, especially, Uchiha. Oh and Miley Cyrus....She should rot in the lowest pits of hell. Hobbies... Listening to music and watching Naruto eat... "

The newly formed Team 7 looked at me with interest.

"But what about your dreams? Or ambitions, as Sasuke says.... if you'd like to say it that way..."

I looked at all 4 of them with the same serious eyes. I lowered the scarf that hid half of my face, just so they were able to hear me clearly.

"Dream? Ambition? No. This life is too useless to have any meaning or purpose."

___________

Breathe, I thought, as I tried to calm myself down, after waking up, drenched in cold sweat.

I curled up into a ball, sobbing loudly as I tried to forget the memories from those nights....

The nights that had given me an eternity's worth of nightmares. Those horrible memories that I would never be able to reveal to anyone...

Every night, the memories would make their way into my brain, imprinting themselves in the form of nightmares...

Skin on skin.

Desperate movements.

Blood and sweat.

Excruciating pain.

Tears.

That lusting face of my 18-year-old neighbor as he butchered my innocence.

Screams.

Banging on the doors.

Attempt of escape.

A grab at the leg.

And then the whole cycle starts again.

But in the end, it wasn't him that scared me...

It was the way I killed him.

As the memories replayed for the billionth time in my mind, I let go of my knees and headed towards the only thing that would bring me to forget about the pain. I ran towards my closet, desperate to find something sharp.

Nothing.

My cabinet.

No.

...Where are your weapons when you need them, I thought, frustrated, as the tears kept falling.

Then, I remember. I'd left them in the training grounds from before. Why I did that... I have no idea, but right at that moment I didn't really care. All I knew was the pain wouldn't stop until I found some other way to stop it.

I didn't even wait to dress into my regular clothes or to put on shoes.

I raced to the training grounds as if my life depended on it.

Yes, the voice whispered from inside of me, Relieve the pain.... with blood. Give me your blood....

________________

"Anza? Hello? Is Anza Yokisho there?" I heard Sakura's voice say as she lifted a piece of my long curly black brown hair, away from my ears.

I blinked and looked at her, standing up.

I looked down and saw a blanket over my body. My eyes widened as I jumped, covering my blanket once I remembered what had happened the night before.

I had run to the training grounds without thinking, and I had forgotten that I was in a public place when I had decided on.... relieving my pain.

I looked at my wrists and saw nothing. I was thankful but at the same time, ticked off, at the memory of that thing.

Damn Wolf Demon, I thought as I rubbed my wrists.

"Thanks for the blanket, Sakura," I said, standing up, "I'm going home for a bit, to get changed and pack for the mission."

I quickly gathered all my weapons and headed home.

~*~

Once I was back, I found myself in front of the rest of team 7, minus Kakashi, of course.

"ANZA-CHAAAN!" Naruto yelled, "WE'RE GOING ON A C-RANKED MISSION! BELIEVE IT!"

Before I could reply to Naruto, his annoying, know-it-all voice cut in.

"Why must you idiots be so loud this early in the morning?" Sasuke complained, crossing his arms as he looked at us.

"And why must you keep talking like a damn retard every single day, Uchiha?" I retorted, stomping in his direction

"And what are you going to do about it, Shorty?" he said, towering over me as he got off of the tree.

Sure, he was a bit taller than me [10 cm taller] but that wasn't going to stop me from beating him up. As far as I knew, we were on the same level.

I was about to say something else, but once again, I was interrupted by someone else.

This time it was Kakashi.

"What's up with all of these damn interruptions," I grumbled.

As you can plainly see, I have a small habit of swearing when I'm irritated... Hey, if you've got a problem with it, then leave. I'm not gonna change for someone who doesn't like me the way I am.

"Language," Kakashi said, "Behave yourself. Our client is here right now."

I rolled my eyes and looked at the person behind him.

"You mean that old drunk behind you? Hah. I'm sure he's so drunk right now, that he couldn't even tell whether I was cursing or singing and dancing along to a random Muffin song."

"Muffin Song?" Kakashi raised his eyebrow.

I nodded, and walked up to the man in front of me.

"Hey old man," I said, looking straight at the man, "Do you know the Muffin Man?"

"Now who the hell is that?" he slurred, "Damn Kid."

I looked at Kakashi, pointing at the drunken bridge builder we were trying to protect.

"If this old man gets to curse, then so will I," I said monotonously.

Kakashi sighed in defeat while Naruto busted into laughter.... laughter directed at me.

I went up to Naruto and smacked him on the head.

"Shut up. Never laugh at the Muffin Man." I said, before the Uchiha scoffed and Kakashi ordered us to start walking.

_________

While we walked on, drawing closer to the ocean and the outer boundaries of the Land of Fire, I listened to music on my music player as we walked, hiding the earphones under my scarf so that no one would be able to tell that I wasn't listening to them. As we were walking, my eyes caught sight of a puddle, which was just so tempting to jump on, but I stopped urges and walked on, without even thinking about the fact that it hadn't rained in days....

Suddenly, my attention was ripped away from my music, as chains began to circle themselves around Kakashi. And I meant this literally.... my music being ripped away from me. As the claws came for Kakashi, my scarf, along with my music player, was swept away by the sudden gust of wind. As Kakashi poofed into a bunch of logs, which were still unnoticed by the rest of the team, I grew angry while my scarf flew into oblivion and my beloved music player dropped in a small puzzle. When I heard a little sizzle coming from its body, my eyes widened, and my rage grew.

"Y-you damn idiots!" I yelled, letting my chakra [and the demon's chakra] radiate from my body.

M-m-my Music Player! I thought, with tears as I knelt down to reach for it.

I turned around, giving the two ninjas an evil glare.

Yesss, the voice resonated in my mind. Kill them.....

I was about to charge at them when I was stopped by cold hands, similar to mine.

"Anza, Get a hold of yourself," The Uchiha's voice snapped me out of my demon's deadly spell.

My hands fell limp as my eyes met the Uchiha's, and at once, I felt like we could see through each other's pasts.

The pain.

The betrayal.

I felt that the both of us felt it.

I shook myself out of my state of stupor and pried my wrists from the Uchiha's iron grip.

"Ah, Naruto, look, you're hurt," I heard Sakura say.

My eyes widened, and I looked in the direction of the 2 demon brothers of the mist. I picked up a stick and pushed Kakashi away from the tree that they were being tied to.

"You hurt Naruto! What if he dies?! What if he gets infected! It's all your fault!" I yelled, whacking them with my stick, while Kakashi sighed, turning his attention to the boy that shared my curse.

_______

"Sasuke Uchiha, Don't you dare die on us," I demanded as the boy laid on the ground, Haku's ice senbon lodged in several places of his body.

I held him by the collar and brought his face close to mine.

"Uchiha, If you die, then I'll never forgive you for making Naruto and Sakura sad, "If you die, then I'll bring you back to life and kill you, again."

He let out a small smile.

"I-it's always like you, Anza.... Making someone smile... even in the hour of death... That's why I...."

His voice was drowned out by Sakura's scream, but I could fully read his lips.

As his eyes shut, my eyes widened, and I began to shake the life back into him.

"Live your life for me... Give yourself that meaning." he whispered in my ear. "Goodbye, Anza."

"No!" I said, smacking his face. "You can't leave me this way!? Are you an idiot!? How could you do this!?"

My heart grew heavy as I began to give up.

I barely noticed it when the tears began to fall.

M-my eyes.... I thought, feeling the teardrops on my fingers. What's wrong with me...

I didn't realize was this was the feeling I had lacked.

It was as if my lips moved towards his on its own. His were strangely warm, while mine were cold.

What was this?

Love.

I loved... him.

I loved Sasuke Uchiha.

________

"Hey, Anza," Kiba said as all of us [all of the rookie....erm...10] walked into a BBQ place.

"Yeah?" I asked, as I sat down, in between the Uchiha [who I didn't mind so much anymore...] and Kiba.

"If I said you had a nice body, would you hold it against me?" he said, smoothly, putting an arm around me.

"If I said no, would you stop acting weird?" I asked, removing Kiba's arm from around my neck, scooting a bit closer to the Uchiha.

I listened in as the rest of the group laughed at me.

"Poor Kiba," Ino said, "He should learn how to say things directly though. Not every girl gets stuff like that."

"It's his fault." Sakura whispered. "He should know that Anza doesn't know about things like that."

I rolled my eyes, and turned away from the rest of the girls.

"So, about chunnin exams.."

What I didn't know was that Sasuke Uchiha was listening in on in their conversation as well.

______

"So you're leaving... Just as the Snake said." I said, appearing right before his eyes as he set Sakura on the stone bench, "If you want, I can take her off your hands."

He walked up to me, nodding, as he left Sakura, sleeping, tears running down her face.

"You're not going to stop me?"

I shook my head, looking at him with unreadable eyes.

"I won't stop you." I said.

...Because I want you to be happy... I thought, smiling.

"Be happy with your decision. Be happy when you fulfill your ambition." I said, "Be happy that your life has meaning..."

I watched as my hand unconsciously lifted itself up to touch his face.

"This is our real goodbye, Uchiha. Shall we reenact it like that time before?" I said, still smiling as I patted his cheek softly, not like a smile.

"Hn," he said, looking into my eyes, before he began to walk away.

I stayed smiling as I saw his figure shrink, while the moon shined bright on us. My eyes were watery, but I couldn't let him see that, so I hid it with a happy face... but just before he left my sight completely, I heard him speak... they would be the replacement to the nightmares of the past... because I felt as if his words cut deeper than anything ever could.

"Those words from a long time ago... I meant them." he said, "And I want you to know... I'll never be happy with this decision... leaving you."

They would hurt, because he said he'd never be happy leaving, yet he did...

And with his actions, both of our lives became driven by the darkness known as sadness.

Knowing that if I asked him to stay, the both of us would have ended up happy.

_______________

Naruto and Sakura looked up at the Uchiha with sad and emotional eyes.

"Sasuke, Come home." they pleaded with him.

I stayed hidden for as long as I was able to. I wanted to see what kind of a man he had become. I wanted to see how his life turned out...

"I can't." Was all he said, before he charged at his old friend, the fox. "It hasn't been fulfilled..."

Instinctively, I got in the path of the attack, shielding Naruto from the katana that was aimed at him.

It slashed me a bit, but I successfully made it fly away from us. I held my arm, wincing a bit, but the injury wasn't serious... It would heal quickly enough.

"Uchiha," I acknowledged him, smiling.

He back away a bit, letting us have some space.

"Anza." he mumbled.

I nodded, lowering my new scarf and showing him my face.

"Have you found your happiness, yet?"

He didn't answer; instead he asked me a question in return.

"Have you found your meaning yet?"

My smile grew wider as I nodded.

"What is it?"

"Bringing you home, Sasuke. Making you happy." I said, lifting my hand. "Come home."

I watched as his lips lifted to a smirk.

"It look you long enough," he said, walking up to me, grabbing my hand.

Then, almost harshly, he grabbed my collar, so that we were inches apart.

"What?" I asked.

"There's something I have to return to you, isn't there.... from that time." he said, smiling.

My eyes widened as I realized what he meant.

His lips crashed into mine and I shut my eyes, letting myself savor the moment.

The moment when I finally realized the meaning for my existence.

He was the meaning....

To live with his pain.

To live with his happiness.

To live as he lived...

To live for Sasuke... That was my meaning.