Yin and Yang

Chapter 1

Sasuke

Sasuke's redemption journey, by the standards of most people, would seem absurd. Although he didn't expect many to understand his way of life, or the purpose of his mission, or why he'd decided to live a rough life despite being officially forgiven, he didn't bother to clarify his stance to anybody.

Anyone who should know, will know. He thought. Eventually.

He travelled through forests, mostly avoiding roads. (When you're Sasuke Uchiha, you have no reason to be scared of bandits or rogues.)

He'd receive messages from Konoha, but strangely felt disconnected to a village he'd spent the happiest days of his life in. He had spent most of his conscious life outside the village, and even when he had lived there, the tragedy of his life had clung to him, rendering him almost breathless with vengeance. So he let the Konohans be. Occasionally, he'd feel a surge of warmth, watching the eagle float into his line of sight, knowing that everything was okay back there. But that was it.

Before long, he realised that off of his classmates' lives had changed drastically, while his remained the same. In hues of monotone- the greens of trees and the blues of waters. Blood orange sunsets and inky black skies in the coldest of nights. Good weather pleased him, and bad weather made him feel like he was finally atoning for his sins by inflicting pain and discomfort upon himself.

On days like those, he'd reflect on the words Kakashi had said all those years ago, when he was bound to the tree he was sitting on, forced into listening to his 'lecture'. He had said that chasing revenge would only lead to hatred in his life while he was pursuing it, and emptiness after he had achieved it. The young boy sitting there had not understood the significance of his words, but the man in him now, did.

Living his whole life with a quest of vengeance had only made him bitter towards someone at all points in time. First, Itachi. Then, all of his friends and teachers. And ultimately, Konoha itself. It was only years of chasing the hatred that he realised that all he actually craved was love.

But in the forked-road that lay ahead of him after the war, he found that his hatred had now seeped into the eyes of the people around him. They looked at him with distrust and hatred, if not fear. Well, most of them.

On the days that the stares chipped away his rough and stoic exterior, he sought refuge in the warmth of those who had never given up on him. He'd think about Naruto when he was eating ramen. Or Kakashi, whenever he saw men goofily smirking in the adult-book section of bookstores. He thought of Gaara when he walked through deserts, and he thought of Lee when he young shinobi practice relentlessly.

But most of all, he saw her. In cherry-blossom trees that she was named after, or in the sea-green pools near waterfalls or the ocean, that matched the color of her eyes. He thought of her when he saw injured people, and bemused himself at how quickly she would have healed them, if she were there.

One day, he surprised himself by telling an injured farmer complaining about lack of med-nins around- "Someone close to me spends her life making lives of patients easier. Maybe if you had lived in my village...." he'd stopped, astonished by the simplicity of his revelation to an injured farmer, a stranger, attacked by a rogue. He pondered over just how much Sakura had dominated his subconscious over the years, without his realising it. From chubby kids, making faces at each other from a distance, to being teammates, to nearly killing each other (his heart shuddered at the memory) to going back to whatever they were about to become, before he had left Konoha.

He recalled his days before he left. The "what ifs" had always been on his mind. What if he hadn't chased Naruto and Jiraiya, and run into Itachi. Would he have chosen to stay back in Konoha, and lead the life he had slowly begun to find comfort in? Become a Chuunin, then a Jonin? Maybe join the Police Force like he had always wanted? Maybe have a family of his own...