illusive
by foreversnow

He had it all; power, strength…immortality. Everything he wanted. His world seemed perfect; he was flawless. Nothing could ruin his world.

"But…isn't it lonely?"

Until the imperfect girl took it all away.

.

.

To the world, she seemed shy, unimportant. A quiet little girl with no friends. Nobody cared.

Nobody noticed the bruises.

The woman who had brought her into this world beat her, and every time her body received another punishment, her eyes lost some of their shine, and he'd think silently, She'll break.

But she always got back up.

.

.

He watched her grow.

Eight…

…nine…

…ten.

Ten years passed by.

The imperfect girl was still weak. So fragile he thought she'd break if anyone tried to touch her.

Her mother was no longer alive.

"I can't today. I'm sorry."

The human boy never gave up. He wanted to be 'friends'.

She would always just smile at him.

When had this imperfect girl become so…fake?

Humans are stupid creatures…

They drove themselves into their own demise.

Just like the imperfect girl.

.

.

The second time he ever turned himself human was when she almost died.

She would die in an explosion, a train wreck that would destroy hundreds of lives.

He really didn't know why he did it.

"You…saved me. Why?"

Her whispered words voiced his very thoughts. He was opposing Death himself by saving her. This imperfect girl (with nothing to live for). What the hell was he doing?

It frustrated him to know a god could not see into his own future.

His lips parted, and the hoarse, deep voice said, "I wish I knew."

Her eyes seemed suddenly too bright, full of something too human for him to understand. "I think…I would have probably decided to die, if I had the choice. But…" She smiled at him, and for the first time in this life, he wished he could feel human emotions to understand what it was that made her eyes shine. "But I think I want to live, now. I was saved by a god, after all…that's got to mean something, right?"

Time seemed to stop. "A god? Me?" He was still in his human form, and he had never once done anything to give away what he really was. How could she know?

She stretched her arms up into the air, as if reaching for the sky, completely oblivious to the sirens and screams behind her (she didn't look down at herself, at the blood on her shoes—it wasn't hers—or at the chaos around her). He could feel the fear radiating off of her sweaty skin, and the steady mantra she kept repeating in her mind. It's not happening, it's not happening, it's not…. "You saved me once, before, when I was a little girl." Her hands wouldn't stop shaking, so she clamped them tightly behind her back. "You were such a lonely god, dressed all in black. For a second I had thought you were Death, coming to take me away."

He would never admit it out loud (the fear and sadness around him only made him stronger), and a voice in his head whispered words at the imperfect girl "Your world is full of chaos…why not just give up?"

He ignored it. "You remember."

There had always been a strange glow around her. He always wondered why.

"I do." She stepped closer to him. "I used to sometimes pray that you would come save me again. From my mother." She paused. Whispering, her voice came out pained, "From this fucked up world we call home."

"…it's against the rules to interfere in a human's life."

"Then why did you save me? I'm human."

He remained silent.

Her smile reminded him of something he thought he had lost, long ago. "Come," she said, this imperfect girl, and he didn't refuse when she grabbed his hand and started to run away from the disaster behind them.

.

.

Humans were rarely ever saved by gods. It just seemed like a waste of eternity; mortal lives were just a speck in time, insignificant.

The rules forbid gods from interfering in a human's life. Those that did, however, were unable to see into that human's future. It was punishment; a sick joke on those who wished to protect human lovers.

She was different.

He'd saved her once, when she was a child, yet he was still able to see her future.

He wasn't so lucky the second time.

Death was punishing him, he knew. The time and date of her death were unreadable, a jumble of numbers and symbols he couldn't decipher.

If she was destined to die soon, he wouldn't be able to do anything about it.

"Do you want some tea?"

"I shouldn't be here." His voice was back to its cold tone, and he realized that the warmth in his chest was anger (he wasn't supposed to be feeling human emotions; he was a god). "I shouldn't be here," he repeated.

All he had to do was open a window, and he would be free. His body would go back to its original form. There would no longer be any human emotions.

"Don't go." Her voice was pleading, desperate (it scared him how much she was affecting his mind). "Please."

"…okay."

Maybe he could pretend that he was human; that gods didn't exist, that this girl wasn't so imperfect, so broken, so used. He could even pretend that she would live forever, that he wouldn't have to feel an emptiness in his chest when she was gone. There were many things he could pretend were true; humans were quick to believe anything, after all. What made his human body any different?

Her hand reached up to touch his cheek, gently, leaving a tingling feeling as she traced the side of his jaw. His eyes closed. Leaning closer to her, he felt his heart beat faster.

"Sasuke…"

Yes, he could pretend.

For her, his imperfect girl.

A/N: This has been sitting around on my laptop for the longest time…Completely random, I know, but it was interesting to write. Thank you for reading!