Uzumaki

Embers

Satsuki awoke to silence.

She could feel her body twisted in the sheets, the tough mattress, a segment of sunlight warming her foot. It was a moment of peace, until she remembered.

The events of yesterday hit her. Her fingers knotted the blankets in a curling dread.

She smelled bleach and sterility, and heard, beyond her own breath, the breathing of someone else. There was movement. It startled her, and she opened her eyes.

The light focused, and she saw a ceiling, clean and familiar, but a scene not so. There were only two beds in the room, and between them, an end table with a vase of fresh lilac bellflowers. The hospital again, with its abundance of white, reciprocated in her and Naruto's clothing.

He sat a couple paces from her, on the edge of his bed; red bandages peered from beneath his shirt. The sun behind him burnt his silhouette into her eyes, and blinded her into a squint.

He was staring at her with expectation, as though he'd spoken. His expression changed in some way before he turned back to the window.

Satsuki sat up, rubbing at her eyes with her wrist. The glare of daylight poured over Naruto, over her, and spilled across the floor.

"Do you remember?"

The sunlight seemed impossible to look past, but she tried to see Naruto in its glare, her eyes watering. The IV at the bedside refracted the daylight onto her lap.

"Or have you forgotten already?"

It didn't take her long to look away, blinking away strange sunburnt tears. Satsuki shook her head slowly; the room, a mix of off-whites and waning evening sunlight, scattered light like shooting stars across her vision. "No, I remember."

"Then, what?" Satsuki didn't need to see his face to know he was sneering. "You got nothing to say?"

She clasped the sheets.

"Naruto, what I did," Satsuki faltered, and tucked her hair behind her ear. "What I had to do-"

"You had to do that? You just had to do what you did?" Naruto stood up, and turned to her. She flinched. "Even though it has nothing to do with you, and you're just doing it so you can feel good-"

"That's not it," Satsuki snapped. She caught herself, and pulled back the covers, bringing her legs to the side of the bed. "If... And if you think your life is the only one at stake here, then-"

"Stop it."

Naruto's right fist shook at his side. He gritted his teeth. "Stop talking like you're me. Stop thinking you have- that, you have any kind of last say on my life." He stepped towards the window, putting both hands on the windowsill. "I can't... I can't believe you did that, Satsuki."

Satsuki opened her mouth, and then closed it. Her words came out gentler than she expected, more uncertain. "If you kill Gaara, you won't ever be happy." Her lip trembled, and she breathed in deeply through her nose. "I did it because... that's... "

Naruto snorted, tilting back his head and turning from the window to look at her intently. His focus was piercing. "But you're still going after your revenge? That's okay?"

"Because how can I turn back now?" Satsuki said, holding onto the edge of the bed and trying to come closer. She spoke louder. "But you don't have to do this."