#&&. ❛ THOUGHTS ❪ caught in a reverie . ❫ // sasuke

[seizasa-a]

V. tag dump !!

[seizasa]

V. tag dump 7/18

[pinkhairedlily]

Chapter 9 - Student Council President Sakura

SCPS AO3 | PREVIOUS CHAPTER

Sasuke wondered for the umpteenth time since three in the morning why he agreed to go with the baseball team for their summer camp and wondered more why the student council had to do its orientation and team building event at the same time. He supposed it was to cut down on expenses, but both trips could have gone on without his presence.

Well, it turned out his shoulders were needed as pseudo pillows for the sleepyheads duo. On one side, he can feel the wetness of Naruto’s drool dripping every minute onto his linen shirt, and on the other, Sakura’s vanilla shampoo was arresting his senses. Five hours after a rough roadtrip, the two awake beside a very grumpy Uchiha.

“I demand a barbecue treat from both of you,” he huffed as they disembarked in front of the groups’ joint headquarters.

His mood soured when Kakashi emerged from the next bus, serving as one of the stand-in guardians for the activities, followed by Hyuuga Hinata. She gave Sasuke a stern nod when their eyes met, and he briefly recounted their interaction while waiting for the rest of the participants.

“Good morning, Ms. Hyuuga,” Kakashi greeted. He waved for her to come closer, and he introduced her to the students. “If you’re not aware, the Sports Council has rolled out funding to under-resourced teams across the state to be particularly used for summer trainings. We’re lucky we’re one of those teams. Joining us as an observer is Mr. Hiashi’s daughter herself, Ms. Hinata, who also happens to study in the same district.”

She generously bowed to everyone with a tight-lipped smile. Later, she assumed a position beside Sasuke.

“If it makes you feel better, I did not orchestrate this,” Hinata said. “And if there’s anything you should now, both sides of that relationship have been hurt, with reasons far from what you’re thinking.” She stopped for a whole minute and breathed in, struggling to keep the tears at bay. “So please, leave me alone.”

Yeah, he was a bit of a jerk to her, Sasuke knew that. But he also knew that Hinata had already developed an affection for the blonde idiot, regardless of her denial. As much as he wouldn’t want to complicate things, he thought it best for now to allow the situation to play out. He had to remind himself that he wasn’t here to entangle himself in someone else’s business.

They settled in the mess hall cum dining area for a quick breakfast and breakdown of house rules. He still needed to get used to the fact that this was Sakura’s last time to be a head organizer for a school activity. She will pass on her reins to the incumbent secretary by the start of the next term. Both him and Naruto knew the extent of her sadness in letting this position go, and even more so the need to look out for her the instance she does her confession.

Yet she hasn’t. So they became unwilling witnesses to this awkward tiptoeing with awareness literally skewed to only one side of the party, and Kakashi showering in ignorance bliss.

They went about their room assignments, and Sasuke, with all his luck in the universe, was stuck with Kakashi and Naruto.

“I won’t ask if it’s possible to trade rooms, but would you care to explain why you don’t have a solo room of your own?” he annoyingly asked the silver-haired man who was nose deep at the moment in a coverless book.

“I’m your guardian, Uchiha,” Kakashi replied while yawning. “I’m gonna go sleep so why don’t you frolick in the ocean with your friends while it’s still your free time?”

Unwilling to spend his time with a man who annoyed him so much for no reason at all, Sasuke trudged off his designated room and followed the many footsteps on the sand. The untrimmed hedges eventually give way to the expanse of the gray ocean, its waves roaring from afar, building up like shifting towers, cresting, and breaking into foam by the time they reach the shore.

Naruto was already neck deep in the waters with the rest of his team, the new captain certainly setting a good camaraderie example. Sakura caught his entrance and waved him over despite the new council members intensely blushing at the sight of him.

“Sasuke!” He heard her call.

But every step he took on the soft sand was like a laboring walk on a cesspool of blood, his parents’ blood.

“The turtle is faster than you, you slowpoke!” Sakura continued her incessant teasing.

Trust me, I’m trying to get to you, he thought. Screams broke out just then.

And he felt like he was being whirled away into the barrel of his repressed memories. He started seeing everything in slow motion.

Naruto shouting cramp cramp cramp, an idiot move that got seawater into his nose, and ultimately made him lose his balance. Quick on her feet, Sakura swam into his vicinity with sure, measured strokes of an experienced swimmer. He heard her scream calm down you blonde idiot! and his teammates were able to usher him out of her hold and onto dry land.

But she didn’t manage to follow safely. She was swimming, but her direction kept on going farther away from the shore. She was caught in a riptide. The screams changed from Naruto’s name to her, the intensity and volume of voices getting stronger with every second.

“Sakura!”

“Miss Pres! Someone! Help!”

“Help please!”

Save her, a voice said in his head. “I can’t.”

Her pink hair looked like a blob riding untethered on the arms of the waves. Yet he was rooted to his spot, his memory spilling over like blank ink. Suddenly he can smell the gasoline in the air and the waves lose their sound, replaced by the gasps and shaky breaths of his parents, and the ticking time bomb of an explosion.

He started to hyperventilate as his sight closed in on him. “Sakura, I’m sorry.”

Fast and light footfalls passed by his side, breaking him out of his reverie, and Sasuke’s eyes opened to a coverless book on the sand, its pages fluttering in the wind.

A silver-haired man dove into the surface with no hesitation, briefly disappearing, and emerging again in a few seconds with an unconscious Sakura safe in his arms. Only then did Sasuke run in haste.

“Give us space!” Kakashi yelled with a sliver of anger and panic in his normally laidback voice.

Sasuke would have to content himself seeing the next events play out in between warm bodies, his heart drowning the waves when he realized she wasn’t breathing and Kakashi had to start chest compressions.

Seconds worth of chances and he stood there waiting again.

She still wasn’t responding.

“Come on, Sakura, breathe,” Kakashi pleaded through gritted teeth. When he counted down to thirty, he leaned down and gave her two rescue breaths.

Still no response.

“Dammit Sakura. Don’t die now.”

Another set of thirty compressions. By the fifteenth try, some council members have broken down and started crying.

“Fuck.” Kakashi did another pair of rescue breaths. Then she vomited water.

“Clear the way!”

A group of paramedics came thanks to Hinata’s calm thinking and took the disoriented pinkette from Kakashi’s hold. Sasuke’s eyes trailed after them, her long pink locks swaying in the wind, and landing on Hinata’s fixated gaze on him, like she knew something he didn’t. Or since then has denied.

--------------------------------

Sakura refused Kakashi’s instruction to go home. It was a close call, but she needed to see through a good transition in the student council, and a productive summer training camp for the baseball team.

“I’ll inform your parents then,” Kakashi said with a steely anger in his voice she was unfamiliar with. At whom it was directed she’ll never know.

“Ah, no need, I already called them,” she lied through gritted teeth. He responded with a brow raise but let it go for now.

“Get some rest, Ms. Pres.”

She did just that, holed up in a room for two days with minimal interaction save for her roommate Hinata who basically sidestepped around her in silence.

“How’s everyone?” Sakura asked her on the third day when she was about to scamper off to her observation duty.

“Your boys wanted to see you,” Hinata said. Sakura wondered if there was a tinge of jealousy in that but she saw the Hyuuga daughter as someone who already has all the good things in life. “But I refused entry since Naruto can be quite noisy and Sasuke is easily riled up nowadays.” Including sensitivity for others.

Hinata continued after giving her a plate of peaches and cranberry juice. “Your student council is still devastated, but they changed up their agenda to include a quick first aid training from a virtual trainer. Baseball team is doing quite well, far better than what I first expected….notwithstanding Haru’s absence.”

She noticed the visible change in Hinata’s expression after she uttered his name. “And how are you?”

The beautiful raven-haired looked at her with eyes brimming in tears. Poor girl never had someone to unload her broken heart to.

“I miss him Sakura.”

Sakura bites down on a slice of peach and taps her finger on one of Hinata’s clutched fist. “Do you still talk?”

Hinata shook her head, her fists clutching then unclasping each other in between pauses. “He was the one who ended the whole thing. Called me up for a date and we went to my favorite café, ordered me my favorite drink, and broke the news that he wanted to break up. He wasn’t angry when he said it, he was weary of everything, and I was hurt more by that fact. After I came home, I learned that he blocked me in all his social media accounts.” She took one slice of peach and stuffed it in her mouth, regardless of the tears that streaked her unmarred face. “I wanted to introduce him to Father, you know. Just until after I graduated so I could at least move away first. If he felt so suffocated by my family, how much more it was for me?”

Sakura puckered her lips with a tint of cranberry juice. “I think you’re both cowards.”

Hinata, who probably expected an empathetic response from Sakura, moved her hand away from Sakura and covered her mouth in surprise.

“It’s true,” the pinkette reasoned out. “Haru is a jerk for leaving all the work to you. He knows of your family so he should have stood up for you if he loved you. But you’re at fault too, Hina, because you know you could have introduced him earlier and faced your father’s wrath together. This gives me Romeo and Juliet vibes.”

“They both die in that story, Sakura.”

“Then West Side Story?” Sakura retrieved Hinata’s hand and put her hand over it. “I’m just saying I hope you find someone willing to take on that risk for you but also allowing you to have your agency to choose and act.”

Hinata doesn’t back away from Sakura’s touch. “You’ve always known what to say since we were in junior high.”

“Well of course! It’s because you and Haru are my friends!” She elbowed Hinata jokingly. “So Naruto?”

Blush bloomed on Hinata’s cheeks with a color far too intense to cover up. “Naruto? What about him?”

“It’s because of his strong people charm, isn’t it?” Sakura smiled, no longer looking at Hinata. “And if Haru had that personality, maybe it wouldn’t be difficult for your father to accept him.”

She was greeted with silence which told her that this was the truth, this was the reason why Hinata craved for his sunshine energy, and the reason why she had always wanted to orbit around him.

--------------------------------

Despite the life-threatening incident that marked the beginning of their excursion, the remaining days have fallen into some sort of normalcy and mundanity. Sasuke, more than he would like to admit, found himself spending more time with the mathematics teacher who was on his second coverless book.

“What’s your bet?” Kakashi asked out of the blue. Prior to this, they shared the silence punctuated with cicadas and the occasional crackling of wood in the campfire.

“Erotica,” Sasuke replied nonchalantly, seated across him on a foldable steel chair.

The teacher almost choked on his water. “What if I tell you it’s a classic lit?”

“A classic erotica literature,” Sasuke insisted. “Because if it is as safe as you said it, you’d leave the cover on because bookworms are snobbish like that.”

Kakashi chuckled. “What a brat. It’s a good thing I’m not a snitch for the school board.”

“You’re just implying they don’t pay you enough.”

“You’re really a brat.”

Again, the silence engulfed them, not much different from the night that lulled everyone to sleep. Sasuke kept his hands inside the pockets of his thin jacket, moving away from Kakashi to return to their room. He debated about this with himself for the last two days, wondering if it would be worth it. “You seem like a good guy despite your reading preferences.”

“Excuse me?” Kakashi’s voice was laced with offence.

“Thanks for saving Sakura.” He realized he was too young, too unreliable, like the kid he was once before. It was just he never grew up.

And the week was done, and time was in constant shift. The reshuffling in classes left him alone, but never that much, not when two extroverts came checking on him at every break. The spot behind the library was still their hidden spot, the dragonboat team was still their background music, and the countless scenes on the side of the lake were still their guilty pleasures of what-ifs.

Maybe every last year of every phase in life ended up going so fast. Like how the baseball team sped through the preliminaries to the nationals in one relentless drive. And yet again, he found himself going back to the same café with his favorite cashier who colored her hair pink.

“You like my new hair?” Sakura teased. “Okay hit me, I’m on a 15-minute break.”

“Stop eating my tomato basil salad first.” Sasuke flicked off her encroaching fingers on his bowl. “The team needs funds. In the board’s defense, they prepared for jersey uniforms, travel assistance, and board and lodging.”

“Up until the semis,” Sakura clarified.

“Unfortunately. What’s the council gonna do?”

“I’m not the president anymore, remember?”

Sasuke sipped his cold americano, looking pointedly at Sakura, who deflected his gaze. He tapped the surface of the table, knowing all too well that she will spill something any second now.

“The council is gonna do a fundraising event,” she finally relented.

“Please don’t tell me it’s another pass-the-hat.”

She shook her head, but if she was at all excited, she didn’t show it. “They’re gonna invite student musicians and do a showcase in the mall park.” She shrugged. “Not my idea and not my place to meddle.”

“You know it’ll be a failure, right?” Sasuke asked. “The crowd and the weekend traffic won’t be worth the effort.”

She sighed in agreement. “Well, Kakashi-sensei greenlighted it. They must have a trump card.”

Sasuke was right for the most part. No one paid them attention, not the crying kids, not the parents rushing for the flash market sales, not the aunties catching up with the newest town gossip. The music club was already halfway down to the set, and Sakura was keeping her head low and hidden in her beret in secondhand embarrassment.

“Please tell me it gets better,” Sasuke almost pleaded

She eyed him from head to toe with a smirk. “We could auction you if you want. Girlies at nine o’clock want your number.”

He rolled his onyx orbs but flushed at her insinuation that he was worth looking at today. It wasn’t his expertise to dress up nor did it come to him to actually buy new clothes in the last three years. He just put on an oversized graphic t-shirt over a pair of jeans and called it a day, and Sakura stood there beside him in her 90s fashion silk blouse tucked into black pants with a leather belt, very much unaware of how she stole attention.

“Let’s leave?” he suggested.

Sasuke lost sight of the crowd when she looped her arm in his as they walked away to the first notes of Flightless Bird, American Mouth. It was sudden, probably on impulse, and not much to Sakura’s thoughts, and maybe those were the reasons why he didn’t pull away from the electricity of her touch.

And maybe he should have walked quicker so she wouldn’t have looked back and seen Kakashi on the piano chair, stroking the keys like that of a lover, and his voice crooning everyone to join his atmosphere.

So while she stood there beside him, all dolled up and beautiful from head to toe, with her arm linked with his in the middle of a gathering crowd, she wasn’t entirely his, her heart not swaying in time with his pulse, but beating instead to the pluck of his chords.

Ah so I really was in love with her. A realization too late and another missed chance to offer her his saving grace.

Two songs later and a beaming Kakashi taking pictures with the audience, Sakura finally unlinked her arm from Sasuke’s, and they walked out of the mall under the threat of impending downpour. With hurried steps and foregone conversations, they managed to reach the shelter of a small shed along the bridge connecting the mall to the train station just before the rain ensued.

“Ah I forgot to bring an umbrella. Funny since it was scorching hot earlier.” She put out her fingers outside the cover of the shed, making contact with the drops. “Like it was sudden and inevitable.”

Sasuke kept mum about the umbrella inside his crossbody bag, wanting instead to drown in the rain with her.

“I wish it was that sudden and inevitable too – falling out of love,” she said as she took her wet hand inside for cover. “Because I’m running out of excuses to not fall further more.”

“You haven’t confessed yet,” Sasuke reminded her. “And we all know how that ends in this setup. You can never be together Sakura.”

“I know.” He heard her choke back a sob.

“I wish I could, Sasuke. But my eyes see him and then my mind plays back a dozen frames of him every second. I really wish I could do just that – fall out of love.”

She gave in to her emotions and cried with abandoned resentment and yet he saw her with rose tinted lenses – still beautiful in the woes of a first love heartbreak. His body started to move on its own, his arms hovering around her, an unspoken question of permission to touch her safe space, and she leaned into his embrace, an equally unspoken consent to envelop her in comfort.

They must have been lovers in the eyes of those under the passing umbrellas. His hug tightened at best, absorbing every convulsion in her small frame like it was his sole function.

“Would you like to use me, Sakura?” he whispered like a prayer he uttered under his breath for the rain to continue and give him a little more seconds, a bit more minutes, an illusion of stranded time with her in his arms.

Pools of emerald looked back at him stricken with fear. “It’s not fair. To you. To me.”

His ember irises held steady. “I don’t mind.”

“I do mind.” She cupped his face, soft yet calloused palms that tether him to this reality. “I do mind so I will not let my broken heart steal your chance at first love.”

But the rain has stopped as sudden as it started and she was out of his hold, running for her dear life out of the cover of the shed, through the bridge and into a train line he couldn’t follow.

But you’re my first love.

AO3 LINK | NEXT CHAPTER | CHAPTER 10

[okaywitheverything]

hi! can i request minato fall for naruto kindergarten teacher please? thank you 😁

Ma'am: A Possible New Mom? Minato x KindergartenTeacher!Reader

My actual first request! Hope I did it justice! Thank you honey for the request. I wrote some sort of mixed AU so I hope you don't mind.

 A/N: This took a lot of time because I have a lot of tests every month. Also i threw up a week ago and was somewhat sick. Then I lost the two drafts and was so irritated with ms word but somehow I managed to write again. So a lot of blood, sweat and tears went into this. Please shower it with love if you even read this awful Author’s note.

Positive A/N: I did like how it turned out tho, the ending is too cute and you won't know what to expect as I didn't either. I genuinely hope you have fun reading this piece.

Word count: 3K

 Your POV

 “It must be fun to play with the kids all day."

People who think that are the biggest fools on the planet in the universe.

You were picking up the various toys scattered throughout the main classroom, sorting them category wise while the kids took a nap. Most of them anyways.

A few babies had insane amount of energies that they refused to sleep whatsoever. But it wasn't as big a problem as people think it is. All kids have different strengths, a variety of ways to function and unique physiology. You knew if a kid was not tired, forcing him or her to doze off isn't healthy.

Just let the kids be.

So that explains why Naruto was alongside you helping you to collect the sponge shurikens scattered around while you put away the stuffed ninkens on the high shelf. Usually Kiba and Rock Lee would be awake as well, and this trio would play in the hall until their limbs gave out but today even they slept after tiring poor Akamaru out for weird challenges.

“Ma’am, I almost forgot! I want to show you something! Come with me!” Naruto suddenly grabbed your hand leaving his task in the midst and urging you to leave yours too. You looked at him puzzled but giggled at his enthusiasm nonetheless, sometimes kids were too darn cute. You loved the ways kids’ eyes lit up, so optimistic and happy and hopeful until the world snatched it all away. You wanted to preserve this for as long as could.

He took you to the room where the kids kept their small backpacks filled with their favourite articles that they thought were absolutely necessary to take everywhere.

No Neji, you don’t need to have three combs for the care of your luscious hair every possible instant.

Naruto generally brought a lot of snacks which you had to retain sometimes so that he would eat healthy but it became even harder to do so when all he wanted was for Sasuke to taste the tomatoey flavour ‘these’ chips had and gift Rock Lee the curry flavour. That boy had a heart of gold.

 He pulled the zipper of his orange backpack open, and took out a stuffed fox.

“Ma’am meet Kurama! I told him all about you and he wanted to meet you!” He held Kurama up while you were gently petting the plushie’s head, he was so excited to see your happiness to meet his esteemed companion.

These kids and their imaginations! You loved every ounce of it!

“Hello Mr. Kurama!” You didn’t feign excitement, you actually were. You loved kids and their creativity and wouldn’t trade it for anything.

“He’s my best friend! Don’t tell anyone else though! Others might get sad.”

You did an action of zipping your lips, “Your secret is safe with me, sweetie.”

“Look! I also drew something!” He hastily handed you Kurama and proceeded to take out his yellow sketchbook. He kept turning pages filled with rainbows of colours morphing into one another that made some sense in his cute, little head and finally reached his desired page. He pulled your dress with his little chubby hands, an action he often did when he wanted you to sit beside him. You kneeled down, his plushie settled in your lap now as you waited for him to go ahead.

He handed you his open sketchbook where there were three figures, two adults and one kid judging by the height, all wearing triangular outfits. One kid and an adult had striking yellow hair and blue eyes while the other adult wore an orange dress with a large circle in their hands. On closer inspection, you saw your own hair colour and eye colour being illustrated to the best of the toddler’s ability, as far as the crayons allowed him to portray it. You had a circle in your hands, almost the size of your drawn head with black spots in between while the child in the photo held an orange squishy ball. To save you from your confusion, Naruto came to the rescue and started explaining.

“That’s me and Dada over here. And I’m playing with Kurama! And that’s you Ma’am! Bringing me and dada cookies for being good boys like you do in class!”

Your heart melted right there and then. For some reason, your face heated up too.

“Oh my God, honey, that’s amazing!” You pecked his cheek as Naruto blushed slightly and rubbed his head, “You liked it?”

“I Loved it! What did Dada say about it?”

“He got so red like Sasuke’s tomatoes haha. But he put it on our fridge like my other drawings and he said it was the best one yet.”

Before you could reply, crying was heard from the nap room and you sighed. Looks like someone woke up.

“Yay, someone is up! We can now play!” Naruto began running but you stopped him.

“Let’s be sure to pack this all up before, Ma’am Anko will see to your friend okay?”

Minato was waiting alongside other parents, it was 10 minutes till the kindergarten was over. His mind wandered afar, thinking about his journey to this town.

Minato was very afraid when he moved to Konoha, about Naruto settling in and making friends. Of course, back in his previous town he had already got Naruto a place in the best Kindergarten there, pulling all the needed strings but his promotion caught him off guard. Being a single parent was hard enough as it is, and with the worry of adjusting to new surroundings for his growing son, he was almost going to decline the offer. Only after much conviction from his friends that he deserved this, he took the offer, albeit hesitantly.

He was happy with his new workspace and colleagues as well, and was over the moon when he one of his erudite associates had a son the same age as his own, and recommended the city’s best kindergarten where his son was set to go. He went blindly on his associate’s word, because he knew him to be a wise dad.

For the first two months, he had to work relentlessly to prove his position as the new leader in the branch, and so he had his assistant pick Naruto up while he prepared lunch at home for his precious boy, barely making it home fifteen minutes before they did. But when the company celebrated their first real accomplishment, only then did Minato feel he could take a step back and indulge with his son more as he used to do.

When he began picking him up himself, he realised what he had been missing on: small quirky tales, new words his toddler learned, new friends’ names, his favourite teacher’s cookies apparently. Minato quickly noticed, being the perceptive man he was, that Naruto could go hours and hours talking about his Ma’am. He would have thought of it as a crush, had Naruto been older.

But when he first saw you, he could relate to his son if Naruto did have a crush. He knew he was being superficial, being attracted to your appearance at first sight but he couldn’t help himself that you were almost ethereal, too gorgeous to be true. It seemed as if you were glowing when you laughed alongside the kids or held one of them on your shoulders while searching for the parents.

However, your personality was even more so captivating when he finally talked to you at the parents-teachers conference. You were such a quality teacher, he deduced when he noticed how apt you were at describing each kid individually and how dedicated to their growth you were. He loved the bond you had with Naruto, the boy couldn’t stop grinning upon meeting you on his day off.

The bell rung, breaking him out of his reverie, and he waited as the kids ran to the parents, waving goodbyes here and there, ready for their weekend. He could hear your faint shouting over the buzz, “Make sure you have taken all your belongings, kiddos! Have a good weekend!”    

He knew if you had a special place in his son’s heart, he could let you stay in his heart as well.

It was 8 PM, one hour past the Uzumaki kid’s bedtime, but the blatantly crying kid was nowhere near sleeping. A distressed Minato held him on his hip, as he searched the entire house for his favourite plushie, Kurama, without whom Naruto had never slept.

“We’ll find him, Naru. Do you remember where you last saw it?” Minato asked, pausing and sitting in the comfy sofa, looking at Naruto, hoping he’d have an answer.

Naruto’s wails quietened down, fortunately there were no tears, as he pondered and spoke, “I last showed it to Ma’am!”

Minato sighed, he grasped that Naruto would have left it at the playschool because no inch of his house was unsearched. He settled Naruto down on the couch as he deliberated calling you over a toy. He had your number for emergencies, but was this one? The real objection, the actual reluctance he had for calling was totally different though. He hated to admit it, but talking to Naruto’s daydream of a teacher always left him stuttering like a teenager. He could barely listen and respond when he met her at the kindergarten, but talking to that Goddess one on one was more terrifying and nerve-wracking than moving to a new town.

But he knew there was no way Naruto would sleep without Kurama and it was only Friday, nights to wait if he doesn’t ask you about the plushie today. He couldn’t imagine how disheveled will Naruto be without Kurama by then. He would surely award himself with wine if he managed to finish the call without fainting.

With clammy hands and a vigorously pounding heart, he dialed the number.

You were finishing up the last batch of forms and cleaning up, when you saw something abruptly put in the otherwise shipshape playroom. Before you could further inspect, your phone rang, Mr. Uzumaki flashing on top of the screen. Your heart hammered as you wondered what he could be calling about.

You were not going to lie, Mr. Uzumaki was easy on the eyes, always in class A condition with his well-tailored suits as he came to pick Naruto up. Even the married housewives ogled him not-so-subtly. He was such an excellent father, really devoted in his son’s life while simultaneously conquering the business world. An eye candy, with all the best qualities that existed, an immensely put together God’s creation. He was dream partner to have, yet somehow he was single.

Your phone’s ring broke you out of your musing, as your sweaty palms grabbed the phone and received the cal.

“Good Evening, Mr. Uzumaki.” You managed out, your neck suddenly heating up.

“Good Evening, Miss. I hope I didn’t disturb you.”

“Not at all, I was about to head home. How may I help you?”

“If you are still there at the playschool, could you please…… If you don’t mind….. I’m sorry again I called-”

“I assure you, it’s fine. You don’t need to worry about it. Although you do need to tell me the problem if you want me to help.” You giggled lightly, amused at that man stuttering.

“Thank you. Umm Naruto left his night time plushie there I suppose and he doesn’t sleep without it. Could you please, please check if it’s there?”

“Of course.” You held the phone and as you hummed and went to the Kid’s playroom you found Naruto’s sketchbook with the drawing laying on it, and the Kurama toy beside it. You swore you promised Naruto pack it earlier in the day.

“Looks like he did leave it here.”

“Can you keep the school open a bit late, I’ll come and collect it right aw-”

“Its pretty windy right now outside, and you’ll have to bring Naruto too at this hour. I’ll drop it at your home on my way back, I was planning in leaving in five anyways.” Your mouth spoke before you could process what you said, offering to go to his house? Nice going there, you desperate weirdo.

His choked out “Okay” almost surprised you as you ended the call.

This will be a nice, little detour.

About twenty minutes later, the doorbell to the Uzumaki household rang and Minato sprinted to the door, opening it immediately.

There you stood, with tousled hair from the wind, in your long red pea coat and black heels. Your cheeks lightly tinted, no doubt because of the unruly weather outside. Somehow you still looked absolutely perfect in Minato’s eyes as he traced your form, unable to initiate the conversation.

You, on the other hand, had halted completely when the door opened revealing a ripped Minato, his muscles bulging underneath his black shirt while grey sweatpants hung loosely on his hips. His biceps were so thick, you wondered how he managed to exercise on top of all the responsibilities he had.

You handed it over to Minato whose eyes widened at the piece of paper and stood there awkwardly, processing what to say.

Somehow stopping yourself from all the gawking, you cleared your throat as you dug in your black purse and took out Naruto’s best friend and his masterpiece.

“Guess he left this as well.” He gave a forced laugh, trying to make things less uncomfortable after he stood silent for two minutes.

You chuckled lightly in agreement when suddenly thunder boomed behind you, causing you to shriek and slip, only to be caught by Minato, his hands holding you around your middle tightly in a protective manner. You coughed as you stepped back again and he cleared his throat this time when suddenly it started pouring like hell’s rage on Earth.

“You should stay for a while, at least until the rain lightens.”

You were going to decline, but when you saw how bad it was raining, you knew you would have to accept. “Looks, like I’ll have to. Sorry to impose.”

“It’s no imposition at all. I’m inviting you, don’t fret.”

You stepped inside, shrugging your pea-coat off, revealing your black dress underneath. Minato reddened visibly, taking your pea-coat from you and hanging it. He cursed himself as he thought of conversation starters, wanting to say something, anything to not stand like a fool.

“Would you like wine? I have this blush flavoured bottle reading to drink.”

“I would love that, Thank you. What are you celebrating though, if I may ask?” You agreed, maybe the alcohol would calm your buzzing nerves. Besides you were a sucker for wine.

“Nothing much, a simple personal achievement of sorts.” He said with a grin as he led you inside, hopeful of where the night might lead. Maybe the liquid courage would help him finally ask you out.

Behind the wall, Naruto grinned with a pacifier in his mouth. Mission successful.

So that was that. Until next time, cookies.

[psalloacappella]

la fuga - pt 2

Pairings: SasuSaku Fandom:  Naruto Rating: M Genre/Tags: AU; partners in crime; timed writing Ao3 | twt

“My name,” she hisses. Pinprick tears burn her eyelids. Shame. Nostalgia. “You can’t mess that up, Sasuke. We’re not them anymore. It’s dangerous.”

❦

It’s a passing thought, one which Sakura muses on and releases easily, as a firefly:  Brunette does nothing for her skin, but improves the art of camouflage.

No one looks twice at a young woman deboarding with forgettable, unfashionable luggage.

She’s adept at this now, heart hardened against guilt and casual friendliness and certainly prying questions.

The pilots and crew incline their heads, all small smiles.

She nods back with one of her own, guileless, an expression thin as paper crêpe.

Heels, wheels, terminal tile: Click clack and roll. The song of her shoes and suitcase, a trumpeting announcement to the rest of the world, Arrest me!

The nightmares less frequent now, once a week or so. She’s graduated from shivering in the bathtub clutching a knife to accepting whispered comforts, cradled in bed.

Sasuke’s made it past the worst as well, at least she thinks. Inculcated to their trauma — to the murder of their now-buried third piece, severed from their troika — the 3-headed dog mangling one of its own.

Given that, his occasional terrors don’t surprise her much.

(Is this what a prophecy really means? The self-fulfilling weaknesses of humans? Lest gods and tongues move their dumb hands bereft of permission — they fall headlong into fate? She can’t think about it too often. The whispers drag as silk on stone, ruinous.)

“Ah, Sakura.”

And there he is.

All leather jacket, dark glasses, languid pose. She’s pissed; at the way he’s always more at ease, the way he fucks up using her name in a public place. Not that anyone likely hears, in the bustle of baggage claim near which they never linger because you never check the bag. Rule one.

“Darling.” It comes as a hiss, skitters through bared teeth at his brazenness. That idiot. Sap! More betrothed to her than the fortune she’s carrying that could land them in the nation’s highest prisons.

Indeed she thinks he forgets, until he pats her stomach bulge gently. Runs fingers through her hair.

“How was the flight?” Takes her suitcase easily, a flick of the wrist. Offers his arm which she readily accepts — she feels weighty, anxious.

“Nothing exciting. Bad coffee.”

Sasuke smirks, hand moving to the small of her back to steer clear of a uniform on their left.

“Poor thing,” he murmurs, nodding at the guard, whose eyes slide over them, a handsome man picking up his pretty expectant wife, on to surveying for more obvious violations.

As though they hadn’t just passed.

To the curb, to the car. Sakura sighs audibly once off her feet.

He’s driving comfortably with one hand, startling when she collapses their silence as an unanticipated thunderclap. Scathing, splits a chasm in the air between them.

“You can’t fuck up like that!”

True to form, she gets nothing back but a slight frown.

“What do you mean?”

“My name,” she hisses. Pinprick tears burn her eyelids. Shame. Nostalgia. “You can’t mess that up, Sasuke. We’re not them anymore. It’s dangerous.”

For a moment he might speak, raise his voice even, but instead something sweeps through him; momentary shaking, a last leaf on a bare branch. Then he grips the wheel as answer, mouth set in a grim line.

“You’re right.” His voice cuts deep, a slice thin but cleaving into the dark reaches of her chest. Leaves an ache.

Like another, when he repeats, “You’re right.”

Softer now, like he’s emerging from a glossy reverie, perhaps the glimmering edges of their chaotic but blessed past.

Holding hands now, over the center console, silent on an endless highway.

.

Under bright bulbs that blind, reminiscent of interrogation rooms and doctor’s offices, she sheds each layer in front of him and slips a finger under the tape. Winces.

“Let me,” Sasuke offers.

Her reflection in the mirror is inscrutable, incoherent, another fabricated layer, a carbon film of something else of something else, on and on. The tape holding the weight to her body and the smooth-packed bricks of white powder will surely take her skin off.

“Oil,” he mutters. “Or alcohol.”

But without waiting she tears the tape off with a sharp cry, unable to stand it any longer.

“Hey!”

“Get it off.” She tosses a brick at him. “Don’t be so gentle.”

But he doesn’t listen well — never has. Grips her tenderly by her wig hair to pull her close, kiss her temple.

“And I said . . . let me.”

As he soaks the tape edges bit by bit, peels away the trafficked prize, she wishes she could be reborn, returned to normal. Instead its like moulting, plumage coming undone and nothing growing to replace it.

“Next time, I’ll do it.”

Like déjà vu.

“You say it every time,” Sakura sighs. “But I’m just less likely to be caught.”

Frowning at her body, a marked and tender canvas finally freed of its drug burden. Flattened bags of white stacked on the sink counter. Curling tendrils of spent tape flecked with skin.  

“Bath?”

And she always says yes — the one luxury she permits in their tense life, bereft of luscious soaps or perfumes but at least she’s clean.

On the outside, of course.

Sasuke’d be lying if he said he didn’t obsessively scrub himself too, alone, as atonement, as desperate ritual.

Tonight, she spends hours in the scalding water, sweat disguising tears. Burns, seeps into those sensitive scrapes, looking for a way in to cleanse the soul.

Sasuke takes up his usual post, sitting facing the hotel door, gun laid across his knees. Bites his lips at her subdued, sad sounds.

“Hold on for me,” he says to himself. To her. To no one. To gods and godless listening. “A few more jobs to go.” Eyes flickering to the cotton candy sunset.

That’s what they keep hearing, anyway. What they’re told.

He dares any divinity to breach his door.

“Just . . . a few more jobs to go.”

[catflorist]

SasuSaku Month 2020, Day 13: Miso Soup Summary: Sakura didn’t know what gave her the urge to tease him so much. But she didn’t want to stop. And besides, he started it. When Sakura gets locked out of her college dorm, she meets a boy named Sasuke who gives her miso soup. College AU Fluff. Rating: T

A Meal and a Pen

For the fourth time that hour, Ino reminded her that a boy was coming over.

“Again, I promise I won’t be here,” Sakura said.

Someone knocked at the door. Ino leapt up from the kitchen table. “Thanks, Sakura. Now get lost.”

From her seat in the kitchen, Sakura heard Ino greet Shikamaru, a fellow first-year student. Their footsteps faded down the twisted hallway to the suite’s common room. Sakura gathered her things and dropped them by the door. Before she could reach for her shoes, another knock sounded.

Sakura opened the door and stepped into the hallway in time to catch their RA disappearing around the corner. She bent to pick up a crumpled flyer at her doorstep.

The door swung shut behind her and locked with the sweetest click.

Sakura tried the handle. Ino and Sakura never locked their door—a bad habit—but now the handle refused to budge under her urgent hand.

 “Ino?” she called, knocking at the door. But it seemed Ino had already retreated to the bedroom.

Sakura inspected the flyer. It read: AUTOMATIC LOCKS INSTALLED! KEEP KEYS ON HAND AT ALL TIMES.

It’s okay, she reminded herself. I can borrow a spare key. The flyer wisely listed the location of a lock-out and access services desk, only a five-minute walk away.

Sakura took one step and recognized a bigger issue. She stared down at her socked feet, pink to match her hair.

“Fu—” she started.

“Locked out?” a bored voice interrupted.

Twirling around, Sakura met eyes with a familiar dark-haired boy. He held a large container of soup in one hand and a bowl in the other. Despite speaking to her first, his face radiated disinterest—as if she had interrupted his soup-making with her misfortune. The way he held the container was somehow arrogant. Sakura thought about it and decided something about the tension of his wrist achieved this effect. She couldn’t place where she had seen him before, and this bothered her, because he was cute: deep, black eyes under serious brows, full lips arranged in a way she had trouble ignoring.

“I’m not locked out,” Sakura insisted. “Well, I’m a little locked out. My roommate’s home. But she—you know....” She grimaced, scratching the back of her calf with her socked foot, suddenly shy. She met the boy’s pointed gaze and wondered if he was going to make her elaborate. Surely, he knew what she meant.

The boy waited, watching her discomfort with rising amusement.

 “…She is indisposed,” Sakura continued, “and I’m going to have to wait for her to let me in. I’m Sakura, by the way.”

“I know,” the boy said. At Sakura’s wide eyes, he scrambled to add, “I mean, you’re in my biology class. And I live on this floor.”

“Oh,” Sakura said, fighting her grin as she watched the boy’s cool exterior falter.

She definitely recognized him now. They had passed each other in the stairwell countless times. She had spotted his dark hair disappearing into a single down the hall. Once he had held the door for her in the lecture hall and did not respond to her word of thanks.

“I’m going to heat up my soup,” he muttered, with an expression like he had tasted sour milk.

“Right,” Sakura said. “Of course.” But he didn’t walk away yet.

He cast a glum look at Sakura, then down the hallway. “If you’re waiting in the lounge…I have enough for two. Since you can’t go anywhere else.” He gestured to her lack of shoes with his bowl.

Sakura hadn’t yet considered her next steps. Lacking shoes, keys, a phone, and money, her options were limited. She blinked. “Oh! I guess I have to wait somewhere. That would be really nice.” The boy straightened at these words. “Thank you, uh….?” Sakura trailed off. He hadn’t introduced himself.

“Sasuke.”

“Thanks, Sasuke,” she said. Why was his name familiar?

He said, “I’ll get a bowl for you.”

-x-

In the communal lounge, Sasuke set down two bowls and poured Sakura’s soup first, fishing in the container to dredge up the right proportions of tofu and seaweed.

“Thank you,” she said, waiting for him to sit. He gestured for her to go ahead.

Sakura took a tentative sip. She wasn’t sure what she was expecting, but it was not this.

“Did you make this?” she asked gravely.

Sasuke nodded. “I made it last night.” He sat and pulled his own bowl closer.

Sakura took another long sip. “Really?”

“Yes,” he confirmed again, over the sound of a loud slurp.

“It tastes just like my mom’s cooking,” Sakura announced, with a flourish of her spoon. “Now I’m almost glad I got sexiled and locked out.” Sakura blushed then, remembering that she had only just formally met Sasuke, and as they had exchanged very few words, maybe it was not wise to allude to such carnal activities. But he was so quiet, and Sakura felt the need to fill the silence. And his stern eyes were a little disarming.

Sasuke asked, “Does this happen a lot?”

“It’s never happened before,” Sakura said. “Apparently, my door locks automatically now. And it’s safe to say that I’m not handling it very well.”

“I’ll plan to make more soup for next time,” Sasuke said, straight-faced, so Sakura didn’t catch the tease at first.

Sakura raised her eyebrows. “I agree. Just to be safe.”

The corners of Sasuke’s lips twitched into a smile. Sakura tucked her legs under herself on the chair. They finished their miso soup in a satisfied silence.

“I skip biology a lot,” Sasuke admitted in answer to a question she hasn’t asked.

Sakura was wondering about that. “Then I won’t bring up the midterm next week.”

Sasuke grimaced.

“We could study together,” Sakura suggested. “If you like. After all, I have nowhere to be.”

Sasuke considered this offer. He left and came back with his textbook. Sakura led him through the unit covered on the midterm, talking through each concept. Sasuke nodded along but didn’t ask any questions. He just listened to her. Sakura tried not to blush at his focused attention.

Eventually, Sasuke shut the textbook. “What are you doing in this class?”

Sakura blinked. “What do you mean?”

“I mean you’re smart,” he said bluntly. “You’re clearly ahead of the other first-years. You should be in upper-level classes already.”

“Oh. Well, I am,” Sakura explained. “Last semester, I completed upper-level classes. And I’m taking more now. But the department changed its mind about me skipping this particular bio pre-requisite.”

Sasuke nodded smugly, his suspicions of her intelligence confirmed.

Sakura asked, “What are you studying?”

He shrugged, bored by the question. “I’m not a great student.” Then his mouth quirked. “I bet you’ve never even skipped class.” 

Sakura smiled at his mocking tone. “I’m not interested in wasting my tuition money.”

“Teacher’s pet.”

“What a shame,” Sakura sighed. “I made this big biology study guide…” Sasuke perked up. “…which I might have considered sharing, were it not for this blatant disrespect.”

“I don’t want your color-coded study guide,” he assured her.

Sakura turned up her nose. “You can’t just assume things about people, Sasuke.”

He smirked. “How many highlighters do you own? Thirty?”

“I own a diverse set of stationary, for the record. I actually believe in spare highlighter usage…but colorful pens, for that matter—”

Sasuke’s smirk deepened.

Sakura changed course. “You’re just jealous, because you probably take awful notes.” She looked him over. “In fact, I bet your handwriting is terrible.”

Sakura didn’t know what gave her the urge to tease him so much. But she didn’t want to stop. And besides, he started it.

“Tch.” Sasuke rolled his eyes.

“I knew it.”

“Fine, let’s see,” Sasuke challenged, pulling out a pen from his pocket. He turned over Sakura’s forearm and smoothed over the future canvas with his fingertips. “What should I write?”

With his light touch on her pulse, Sakura could not concentrate. “Hmm?”

Chair legs scraped the ground, and Sasuke was sitting next to her. He grasped the inner crook of her elbow with his right hand and with his left scratched out a phrase on her skin. Sakura could not help but notice the pleasant way his long lashes curled above the arch of his cheekbones.

Sasuke stopped writing. His head tilted, and he looked at her. And then—at her lips. Sakura’s breath caught.

A familiar sound from the hallway snapped Sakura out of her reverie.

“That’s Ino,” she gasped, shooting out of her chair. Every other part of her screamed in dismay at the interruption. “I need to catch her.” Sakura ran into the hallway just as closing elevator doors muffled the sound of Ino’s laughter.

“Stairs,” Sasuke called. Sakura pivoted and flew down the stairwell, Sasuke’s footsteps close behind her. In between the third and second floors, the combination of Sakura’s speed and her pink socks on the smooth steps transmuted traction into ice. Sakura slipped backwards with a yelp, smashing her elbow against the railing.

Something interrupted her fall. With stunning reflexes, Sasuke had managed to grab her shoulders before she risked cracking her head on the steps.

“Ow,” Sakura cried, rubbing her elbow. She let out a curse.

“You don’t look like a person who curses,” Sasuke commented, releasing her. Without consulting each other, they both dropped to sit on the steps, the chase forgotten.

“What did I say about assumptions?” Sakura chided, leaning against the railing. “Okay—new plan. Maybe the desk attendant can help us?” She paused, realizing she had presumed Sasuke’s involvement. Though he had run after her on the steps. “Or—I can do that—and you can go back to your soup, or whatever else you do.”

Massaging her elbow, Sakura twisted her arm around, and for the first time, saw what Sasuke had scrawled on her skin. His name: Uchiha Sasuke. And then: his number.

Sakura’s mouth slackened in surprise. Sasuke crossed his arms.

Sakura traced the scrawl on her arm with a flutter in her stomach. “You do have terrible handwriting.”

She smiled at Sasuke.

-x-

The desk attendant did not help.

“I’ll need your ID to loan you a key,” he drawled.

“I don’t have my ID,” Sakura said.

“If you don’t have your ID, you’ll need to take this process to the lock-out and access services desk across campus.”

“I don’t have shoes,” Sakura said kindly.

“I don’t make the rules.”

 “Well, thanks for your help,” Sakura said. She made a move towards the stairs.

“I’ll need to see your ID if you plan on re-entering the building,” the attendant said.

“I haven’t left the building,” Sakura reminded him.

 “Again, not my policy.”

“I’m happy to follow your policy,” Sakura said kindly. “But I’ll need to go upstairs, and borrow my friend’s shoes, so I can re-enter the place I pay to live.”

The attendant leaned back in his swivel chair and closed his eyes, trapping them firmly in bureaucratic purgatory.

Sakura gave Sasuke a look.

Without a sound, Sasuke pulled out the pen from his pocket and put a finger to his lips. Sakura frowned. Then Sasuke lobbed the pen in a graceful arc. It collided hard enough against the glass entrance of the building that the resulting clang disrupted the desk attendant.

Sakura gaped. It was masterful.

“HEY!” the desk attendant called, scurrying to the entrance.

Sakura grabbed Sasuke’s hand. They half-sprinted, half-stumbled up all five flights of stairs, collapsing on the top step. Sakura clutched her stomach, giddy with suppressed laughter, and Sasuke fought back a grin, the corners of his eyes crinkling.

“You were amazing,” she said. “I’ve never seen anything like that.”

Sasuke told her, “I was wrong about you. You’re not just a teacher’s pet.”

“What am I, then?” Sakura asked, still panting.

He considered. “You’re dangerous.”

Sakura did not know who reached out for whom. One moment, they sat breathless next to each other in the empty stairwell. The next, their lips were meeting in a hungry, open-mouthed kiss, Sakura’s fingers already laced through Sasuke’s hair, Sasuke’s arms encircling her waist. Enjoying this unforeseen turn to her day, Sakura’s teeth pulled on his lower lip. A small, strangled noise escaped Sasuke’s throat. He moved as if to tug her into his lap. A thrill shot through Sakura’s whole body. She let his hands guide her—

“Sakura? Sasuke?” a voice sounded.

They shot apart. A column of orange towered over them.

“Huh.” Naruto beamed at them. “I didn’t know you two have met.”

-x-

The three of them convened together in Sasuke’s small single. Sasuke perched in his desk chair while Sakura sat cross-legged on his bed next to Naruto.

It turns out, Naruto and Sasuke were old childhood friends, still bound at the hip and attending the same college. Meanwhile, Sakura and Naruto had grown close throughout the semester. She tutored him in chemistry, and he dragged her out to get ramen and drinks. Seeing them together, Sakura connected the dots and remembered the countless times Naruto had mentioned his childhood friend to her over the past few months:

“I think you’d get along well with this old friend of mine.”

“I tried to convince my friend Sasuke to get ramen with us tonight but he’s too busy brooding.”

“I’m stressed for midterms. I wish I could live like Sasuke who has never studied a day in his life. Bastard.”

Now, Naruto could not stop laughing. He laughed throughout Sakura’s retelling of the past few hours. He laughed when he saw the handwriting on Sakura’s forearm. He laughed harder at Sasuke’s dangerous scowl and bent over at the sight of his pink ears.

Wiping a tear, he said, “I’ve never seen you go after a girl like this.”

Sasuke grumbled something unintelligible under his breath.

“I actually don’t think I’ve ever seen you try so hard for anything in your life.”

“Shut up, dobe.”

Sakura watched the exchange, both horrified and flattered.

Naruto turned to her. “Are you sure you’re feeling all right, kissing my idiot friend?”

Sakura struggled to think of something to say that would both entertain Naruto and ensure that Sasuke would kiss her again.

Eventually she shrugged. “He gave me soup and sacrificed his pen. What else could I do?”

Sasuke stopped drumming his fingers on his knee. He was pleased.

“Hopeless,” Naruto said. But he was smiling.

The three friends talked. The room grew dark, and Sasuke turned on the weak lamp at his bedside. They talked more, until Sakura was blinking hard to stay awake.

Naruto sprang out of Sasuke’s bed, stretching so wide that his body occupied half the square footage of Sasuke’s room. “I need to go home,” he yawned. “Farewell, lovebirds.”

“Bye, Naruto,” Sakura called.

Sasuke made a derisive noise, concluding his goodbye.

As the door swung closed, Sakura said, “I should go, too. Wait.” She laughed. “I’m still locked out.”

“Maybe your roommate’s back now,” Sasuke said. Neither of them moved.

“Help me up,” Sakura said. She reached for Sasuke. He stood and clasped both her hands, pulling her onto her feet. Sakura let the momentum swing her body much closer to him than necessary. He did not move away.

“Thank you for helping me today,” she muttered into the sudden quiet.

Sasuke said, gaze lowered, “I’ve wanted to talk to you for a while.” She remembered the tone of his voice when he first spoke to her that evening—bored, uncaring. This must not be the easiest thing for him to admit.

Sakura shifted her weight onto her toes. This small movement was all she needed to close the gap between them. She pressed a soft, chaste kiss to his mouth.

“I’m glad you did,” she said. Sasuke’s hands on hers tightened.

“Let me walk you home,” he said.

The walk down the hallway was short. Sakura knocked on her own door, and Ino opened it.

“Sakura! I was wondering where you were.”

“Thank goodness you’re here, Ino,” Sakura laughed.

“You left your phone and keys—oh.” Ino noticed the gloomy figure behind Sakura and smiled wide.

“I locked myself out. I’m a mess tonight,” Sakura sighed. “But Sasuke-kun here helped me out.”

“How nice,” Ino said, still smiling.

To Sasuke, Sakura said, “We’ll talk later?” She tapped her arm with a small smile. Ino’s eyes tracked the movement.

Sasuke nodded at her, then nodded at Ino, and left without any particular fanfare.

Inside their own suite, Ino flipped over Sakura’s arm.

“Hah!” she cried.

“It’s been a long night,” Sakura said. She could not stop smiling.

She owed Sasuke a meal and a pen.

.

.

.

. Note: this was a lot of fun to write, and pretty different from what I've explored so far--dialogue heavy and (hopefully) humorous. please let me know what you think of this writing style and tone! is more college au something you're interested in seeing? If you want to read more sasusaku from me, please check out the rest of my SasuSaku Month 2020 series, and also The Garden, a post-canon blank period fic which I'm very proud of (on my AO3). thank you for reading!!!

[ssa25]

Maybe for you - Sasuhina Month 2020 Prompt - Cafune

(This is also the sequel of ‘Not for You’ - a Sasuhina story I had written some time back.)

Rating : T (for language)

There was a rumour going around.

That Uchiha Sasuke liked a Nursing Major student. Some said the student’s name was Hinata. Some speculated that it was the guy with the same name who was, coincidentally, also in the same department. That might better explain why he was always rejecting all kinds of propositions from the female population in the University.

But a few were quite sure that it was the new transferred girl who was trying to be as inconspicuous as possible. These were a minority of the total University population who used the Main library in the same hours as Hinata.

-

There was something so calming about the total silence inside the humongous library that Hinata absolutely loved. It was an old building with wood panels and high ceilings, ornate wooden banisters that ran along the stairs leading to the upper floors. Interspersed between the tall shelves were massive tables that provided just enough privacy to concentrate without getting distracted by others, but not enough to encourage uncouth behaviour.

Looking at some of the tables, Hinata felt a stronger desire to work on her assignment to the best of her capability. Everyone had their heads down, and were focusing on their books. It just fueled her determination, which sometimes fell short when she was in her shared apartment with Tenten. She got easily distracted by the television, by the gossip, by the loud music and sometimes even by the presence of Ino - not so much Sakura, nowadays - who was always coaxing them to accompany her to frat and house parties.

Looking down at her wristwatch, she swore to herself that she would spend another hour there before leaving for home. Full of vigour, her mind was completely zeroed in on the textbook when there were few murmurs that erupted in the hall.

Shoot! Not again!!

She panicked and grabbed the big thick hardback book off from her side and opened it midway to make it balance upright on the table, before she slid down a little in her chair to hide behind the book.

She closed her eyes and prayed that her trick worked to avoid the person she was guessing had entered the holy halls of the library.

Few seconds later, crouched in her chair she got a familiar whiff of soap and she closed her eyes hoping that she wasn’t busted.

Something light bounced off her head and landed in front of her. It was a crumpled ball of paper. Curiously, she straightened the paper out and found a neat scribble-

‘Your book is upside down, Hinata.’

Absolutely flustered, she sat upright to see the inverted text of the thick book. She had been caught. Yet again.

Trying to appear cool, she closed the hardback and looked up at the smirking face of Uchiha Sasuke who was now sitting opposite to her.

“Is that one of your skills? Reading upturned books? I think I can come to appreciate it eventually…”, Sasuke commented casually.

“What are you doing here Sasuke?”, she asked flatly.

He shrugged and opened his bag to take out some of his own books. His damp hair meant that he had just got out of basketball practice. Which was exactly why she had not been expecting him today.

As if he had read her mind, he replied, “Practice wrapped up earlier than usual. So I wanted to come see you.”

He was absolutely unbothered by the attention the two of them were getting from everyone. Since the last party at Shikamaru’s, he had non verbally declared some kind of interest in her. Initially she thought his intentions were probably lewd because of their first meeting. But he had never tried anything inappropriate. Tenten and Ino constantly teased her about him, while Sakura was avoiding her. 

Now rumours were abound at their University. She tried to lay low most of the time, but it was impossible to completely stop the unwanted gossip. Most of the time she was trying to avoid crossing paths with him, which was somewhat possible only because they had different majors. Other times she just accepted his presence. She would never say it out loud to him, but it had even ended her short lived crush on his best friend Naruto.

He snapped his fingers in front of her to get her out of her reverie. “Finish what you are doing quickly. I’m taking you out for cinnamon rolls after this.”

-

It was the middle of October, and incoming low pressure from the west coast was causing some sort of heavy stormy weather. Basketball practice was cancelled, and Sasuke was making his way to the main annexe of the campus hub.

“Yo bastard, we are going over to Kiba’s for some pizza and Fortnite”, the deep scratchy voice of Naruto interrupted his stride. “You in?”

Sasuke turned to him and shook his head. “Count me out. Have fun.”

Without waiting for a response he continued on his way, but he heard the loud barking laugh of his friend as he commented, “You are so whipped, ya pussyass!!”

And Sasuke nonchalantly flipped him off.

-

This was new. Out of all the ways Hinata had tried to dissuade or fend him off, he had never come upon her sleeping with her head resting on her forearms on the table. He could only smirk before he bent down to her ear level.

He felt the stare of nearby occupants, but it did not bother him. He wasn’t breaking any rules.

Sticking close to her ears, he whispered, “ This is not going to work, Sleeping beauty.”

She did not flinch even a little.

He looked closely at her face and found her to be in deep sleep. Her breathing was slow and deep, and there was a tiny bit of drool on the side of her slightly parted lips. He reckoned that the all nighters she was pulling for her assessments had taken a toll on her.

Chucking lightly, he pulled out his camera and took a quick picture of her drooling face. It would work well as a collateral.

He sat down in the chair next to her and admired the carefree beauty of Hyuuga Hinata. Her hair was left open today and it fell back on her shoulders and back like strands of pure silk. 

An unusual thought occurred to him - Their kids would have beautiful dark tresses.

His instinct was to touch it. It wouldn’t be the first time they had made physical contact, so this should not be labelled as creepy. His left hand lifted to gently touch her head and softly ran down the length of her strands. As if in a trance, he repeated the motion a few times, before his fingers parted to dip through and comb down. It was oddly satisfying and sensual, all at the same time. Mental images of his fingers gripping her hair while kissing her passionately flashed through his mind. From there it turned quickly perverse, imagining other needs for gripping on to her thick soft hair. He had to abruptly take his hand away before his semi turned to a full.

Easy there. They had not even kissed each other. Yet.

He decided to wait for her a little longer before he woke her up. The rain was pelting down hard outside, he would not let her go home by herself. When he turned sideways, he found a young man standing in a slightly damp suit looking suspiciously at him. He looked a little familiar, especially his frowning gray eyes. But right as his brain connected the dots, the man asked him with a cold deep baritone.

“Who the f*ck are you?”

[p-crowds]

Day 5 - College AU

SasuHina Month 2020

*Medschool AU

----

“I think a relationship is nice,” Hinata voiced just above a whisper. Her words hung low in the air, waiting for any response or anything at all. He heard her just as clear and she knew it. Knowing he was just too occupied on taking notes and eyes focused on the screen too much that he squinted occasionally, she started again, facing him this time, “What do you think?”

Sasuke was sitting in one of the chairs of four, with laptop only forty centimeters away from his eyes atop the dining table. A notebook right beside the laptop as he occasionally took notes. Her question came too sudden, but he heard her the first time. He was just trying to understand why would a cyst form in the ovary and all the pathomechanisms saved in his head were popped disappearing like a bubble once she broke the silence. He turned his head to look at her—sitting with legs crossed atop the microfiber rug before the black wooden table as her back leaned on the beige colored couch. It was supposed to be their living room but they weren’t ones to watch television so there wasn’t any and only the tv stand adhered to the wall in front of her. As the most spacious room in the apartment, it became the best place for them to study together with as much space needed individually. The living room was continuous with the kitchen with granite counter and the dining table—of where he was sitting at the moment—separated them. Despite annoyed with the sudden invasion, he answered without any interest.

“You aren’t interested in relationship,” he stated and waited for her with hard stare. He hoped she take the cue and just answer immediately to let this odd conversation end. He needed to concentrate for the damn cyst. “Or at least you weren’t.”

“I know and I still am,” she answered immediately, noticing the urge in his eyes. He looked tired, with dark shadow under the eyes and coffee ever present—she could only assume it wasn’t the first three cups. She actually felt bad for bringing up this unnecessary topic in the middle of their studying session—exams are getting near and they needed to study real bad. But she was just as tired as him, it was a half past two in the morning, they have class at eight, shouldn’t they just sleep already?

“But, what if?”

“Then, it is you to decide,” he replied tersely, still, uninterested.

“I need your opinion, dear Sasuke, why would I ask otherwise?” She was desperate for a break and she wanted to take him with her.

“Hinata, stop,” he tried, tiredness lingered in his voice, “I need to focus.”

“Well, me too! But—”

“What is this all about anyway?”

“There.. there is this guy,” she started, averting her eyes to look at Sasuke’s laptop.

At a sudden, Sasuke was intrigued to ask more. They never talked about relationship before, not even once. Well, once in the first year of medical school after watching a friend of her cried because of a break up, Hinata stated she really didn’t know why would anyone started a relationship in the first place and he agreed and that is all. So this was new to him, and he was always up for something new of his “flat mate” he gradually discovered over the years of knowing her. He was tired and she was too, might as well finished his study, converse for five minutes and sleep. Noticeably sighing, he turned off and closed his laptop then looked at Hinata with full attention. “At our school?”

Her face started to color in embarrassment. “I’m not telling—are you done?”

“Tell me then let’s sleep.” She wouldn’t put the talk away if she didn’t end up telling him. Knowing her for such length, he wouldn’t dare to answer otherwise or the conversation would meet to no end.

She sighed. “I was.. I just wanted a break, I needed to finish this one.” Then closed her laptop despite herself. She stood and stretched her legs a bit before pulling a chair opposite of Sasuke and sit there herself. “You know the guy. It would be embarrassing.”

“You know I won’t make any sound of it.”

“I know,” she said with elaborate end. Then, as if fearing anyone would hear—despite only two of them in the space—she murmured, “you know Gaara, right?”

The gloomy red haired guy with pale green eyes, Sasuke thought in an instant. He didn’t seem like the guy to go out. “He asked you out?”

“No!” she was utterly embarrassed, palms directed at Sasuke to shield herself or to give him the proper gesture of denial. “He asked me to have lunch together.”

“We always have lunch together,” he stated like it was the most normal thing. It was normal, at least for them.

“It’s different,” she said it more calmly now, “we just occasionally meet when grouped together, we barely talk! Then suddenly he asked me to have lunch with him.”

Something in Sasuke’s eyes changed. It turned into half bewilderment half uninterested—still. Hinata noticed, so she elaborate. “I mean it would be different than you, because,” she trailed off, because? “you are.. you.”

It was amusing because he never really thought about it. About them. He had known Hinata since first grade in high school when he moved back to Konoha with his family. He was the new guy in their high school and on the first day of him going to school, he only knew two person. Naruto, his preschool to primary school friend—before moving due to his Father’s work and Hinata, his new neighbor and surprisingly classmate.

Having to only acquaintance with only two person—in which he didn’t intend to have any addition—they grew together as three best friends, somehow. Probably because Naruto was someone to rely to—despite their opposite personality and Hinata was someone he could tolerate to and she was his neighbor so it was all convenient. Turned out Hinata’d had a crush for Naruto since middle school and she cherished the moments they could spend together—at least with Naruto. This was how the three of them became best friends.

How the two of them became even closer as best friends, however, started when he finally decided—at second grade—to attend medical school after finishing high school, just like Hinata. As he announced—more like stated to the other two—about his desire to attend medical school, her eyes lighted up. At the start of their third grade, she proposed to have him as her study buddy—more like mentor. It was brave of her, despite her shy nature. It proved him just how much she wanted to be accepted in one and not just any medical school, but the one his cousin had attended to, Konoha Medical School. She was just willing to try anything. She was just that determined. Deeming it would advantage not only her but also himself, he agreed.

They would study after school hours and the weekends, either at Sasuke’s home or Hinata’s, they switched fairly. It was always better in Sasuke’s home, where his mother would prepare snacks for them and observe them with self joy. On the contrary, at Hinata’s, every time felt too quiet. Her father rarely at home—he always spent most of his hours in the hospital and would only be home late in the evening, and Hanabi was just a sister with the same quiet personality as Hinata, albeit more daring. One day, she exchanged his textbook with hers—middle school one—and he could only cursed mentally as guilt-ridden Hinata offered to share her book.

Having caught up in his own reverie made Hinata think he was already somnolent but just too polite—or too proud—to admit. She slumped her shoulders before she stood up, this conversation was useless, she should knew better. Walking pass him toward her room, she gently touched his tensed shoulder. She could feel a slight flinch from him. “Forget it, see you at breakfast.”

Then she proceeded to her room and closed the door behind.

Not bothering to clean his belongings on the dining table, he walked to his room himself.

----

The sound of alarm dragged him out of his pool of serene darkness. Abruptly opened his eyes in subconscious shock, his hand creeping to the nightstand on the right side of the bed. As panic rush disappeared quickly as it had appeared, he turned off the alarm and check his phone for the time. Fifteen minutes past seven. He almost overslept. Yet he felt the need to close his eyes for another five minutes.

If there was any drowsiness left, a knock on his door woke him up completely.

“Sasuke, I don’t want to be late,” said the girl outside.

Grunting a response, he sat upright reluctantly. He then quickly made his bed and rushed to prep himself for school.

----

The ride to their school usually took fifteen minutes with car, today was no different. As Sasuke parked his black 99’ Corolla Altis, Hinata’s phone showed they only had five minutes to run to their lecture hall. Despite stated it clearly she didn’t want to be late, just like any other time, Sasuke ended up finishing breakfast just barely past twenty five minutes to eight, just like any other time. The morning routine was always started with a knock to Sasuke’s door before Hinata prepare breakfast—simple scrambled egg and toast or heating last night leftover and only cereals on the exam days, then Sasuke would join breakfast as Hinata finishing hers, do their dishes individually, and drive to school with Sasuke’s car. Hinata had started a talk one day about his too “punctual” nature, said she needed those minutes before the professor arrive to arrange her mind for the upcoming lecture, which to that Sasuke gave him a look of “just-use-the-damn-public-transportation-then”. Hinata could only answered him with “but-I-always-prepare-breakfast” look. Sasuke could only shrugged and Hinata didn’t dwell on the matter afterwards, she could just make Sasuke explain to her the things she could hardly understand.  

Arriving inside the lecture hall just barely before the professor, Sasuke chose the only vacant row—the front one—and sat at the most peripheral, Hinata followed suit and sat beside him. A couple more students rushed inside the lecture hall and a pink haired girl she barely recognized sat beside her. “This seat isn’t taken, is it?”

Hinata shook her head invitingly and mouthed a no as the professor started his lecture about anatomical pathology of breast adenomas.

“As you never disappoint me,” the silver-haired professor started, “I believe you’ve studied about the histology so we might as well skip that part—”

“What’s wrong with a brief review?” Hinata turned to Sasuke.

Sasuke shrugged and proceeded to extract last night notebook from his denim backpack. “I present to you Professor Hatake,” he mumbled apathetically.

Recognition of the name hit her. Eyes widened, she pursued further, “Professor Hatake? Then he is the professor in charge for your minor thesis, no?”

“—Fibroadenoma mammae is frequently occurred to early reproductive age—”

Still taking notes, he glanced with the corner of his eye to Hinata’s desk, she too taking notes diligently. This was one amusing thing about her. She would pay attention to the lecture with dear life yet occasionally converse to him casually, like both task was possibly done with equal attention. She wasn’t one to chat frequently, neither did he, yet when she did, it was always amusing—because it was always an unprecedented topic and time for her timid self—and he didn’t mind participating. Contemplating a nod wouldn’t be useful, he grunted in response.

Wasn’t impressed with the professor introduction, Hinata questioned more, “how is it going with your minor thesis?” Evidently concern-filled.

Sasuke exhaled visibly. Unfortunately, minor thesis wasn’t one of those unexpected topic. Hinata, as good-natured as she was, concerned about their minor thesis from time to time and occasionally asked about it to him. How he’d prefer to evade the inquiry was absolute. For the past two years as medical student—and currently running the third year—never did he felt unpleasant but the mention of minor thesis. He enjoyed studying medicine so far, enjoy might underrate his truly attitude toward the field, as apparently, he found himself couldn’t possibly imagine himself enjoying another field as he did now. But minor thesis was definitely put him to start questioning himself.

“I haven’t scheduled to meet him again,” he said, eyeing his professor. “Since..” Weird, he couldn’t remember the last time he face the professor.

“—Can anyone tell me the meaning of secretory change in lactating adenoma?”

The lecture hall turned quiet as two or three hands raised. “You at the front.”

It was the girl beside Hinata. The girls stood up confidently. “Thank you, sir. I am Haruno Sakura from Group 7—”

Hinata recognized her name and she suddenly looked familiar too. Then it hit her. “Isn’t she in the same group as you?”

Contemplating whether his notes was adequate, he grunted in response. Not interested to hear her answer as he and Hinata had discussed this the night before.

“I know!” she said triumphantly. “That’s why she was so familiar.” Then she remembered the topic about minor thesis. As much as she knew just how bad he didn’t want to talk about it—in this they have the same attitude toward the task though Hinata had a way of not showing it to him—she knew if she didn’t trigger him or anything, he wouldn’t pursue to do the task further, and the fact that his professor was the one giving the lecture right now, well, her anxiety only grow. She really wanted them to graduate together and Sasuke only need a little push to actually do it—albeit not too eagerly. “Since?”

There she went again. “Since I don’t know.”

“Sasuke,” Hinata started calmly and he knew maybe she’d expected much how he would answer. “It only means one thing.”

“I’ll meet him after class, satisfied?” She wouldn’t stop pestering him now or later might as well he do it now. She was just too stubborn on ensuring them to graduate together. It is unquestionable that he felt the same, he maybe just needed the little push, or he just enjoyed her pestering protests about his lack of zeal. It could be multifactorial, he reasoned.

“Okay, class is dismissed.”

“Sasuke!” Hinata squealed in surprise, “you must be quick!”

“Shit.” Sasuke hastily put everything inside his backpack. While doing so, Hinata eyed him expectantly.

“See you at the library?”

He nodded in a hast as he walked pass Hinata to go after Professor Hatake. He didn’t spare any time to check either Hinata catch his response or not, she wouldn’t be going anywhere but the library anyway.

----

AN : it’s actually a snippet of my ongoing Medschool AU,

all other chapters (currently updated into 7 chapters) are available here --> https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13559986/1/Subclinical-Manifestation

Summary :

In the matter of love, would he keep things subclinical? / Platonically involved for years sharing an apartment as they struggle in medical school, there came the time when he started to question himself.

[the-foxes-fangs]

I Wish I Was the Moon: Interlude in Which Ieyasu Has a Nightmare

Someone on A03 asked for an interlude of poor Ieyasu suffering through adopting MC and related wedding hijinks and I couldn’t resist the idea XD

                                           ─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

“Ieyasu is starting to look like the more reasonable choice at this point,” Mitsuhide said moodily, casting a sidelong glance at Sasuke, who was studying his hanafuda cards impassively in the flickering lamplight of the bare little room that served as Mitsuhide’s temporary quarters at Kasugayama. 

“Leave Ieyasu alone, dammit,” Sasuke muttered, tapping his fingers on his knee absently, as he moved his cards around, listening to the late night wind whisper across the roof. 

Meanwhile, in Azuchi… 

Ieyasu sneezed violently, which caused him to drop the pestle he had been using, nearly on his foot. 

“Oh the hell with it,” he muttered to himself, and decided to call it a night, tidying up his desk and packing away his tools. 

A storm was brewing over the castle town, and his manor seemed to be right in the thick of it. The humidity was likely to ruin the dry ingredients anyway, he told himself as he blew out the lamp and crawled into his futon, lulled to sleep by the patter of rain.

“You’ve always had a soft spot for the lass, and I’m still holding out for her to come to her senses and run off to Aoba with me,” Masamune said with a grin, elbowing him in the side despite his withering glare. 

“The only soft spot is your head,” Ieyasu said with an irritated sigh. 

“The only running you’re going to be doing is from a hail of gunfire, if you can’t restrain yourself, Masamune. Ieyasu, am to I take that as a yes?” Mitsuhide interjected, smile fixed on his face, amusement in his tone. 

“It wasn’t a no.” Masamune cut in, wincing as he dumped pepper on the far too bland food. 

“Why me? Why not Hideyoshi or Nobunaga?” He asked, eyes narrowed at Mitsuhide. 

“Well for one thing, Hideyoshi would never allow any child of his, adopted or not, to marry me, and he’d kick up an endless fuss if Nobunaga did either. Not to mention that Nobunaga has a bit of a habit of, shall we say, over-enthusiastically correcting family members who get in his way. Of course, you and I are equal in rank so it will save everyone a lot of fuss if you agree.” Mitsuhide answered smoothly. 

“Yeah, sounds like a strong argument that it should be Nobunaga.” Ieyasu replied, searching Mitsuhide’s unreadable eyes for the elusive truth. “Spit out the real reason, or I’m leaving.”

“Dear me, I think you’ve gotten even less patient if that’s possible. Do try to keep that in check, it’s bad for your health, or so I’m told.” Mitsuhide answered, his smile widening ever so slightly, an irrepressible flicker deviltry in his eyes. 

“Thanks for the meal,” Ieyasu said with a nod at Masamune as he stood to leave. 

“Oh alright. It’s because she likes you the best out of all of us, other than myself, of course. She still practices archery every single day, you know.” Mitsuhide said with a conciliatory wave. 

Ieyasu knit his brows and folded his arms, remembering her earnest insistence that he teach her both how to defend herself and some basic field medicine, and how nothing he said, no matter how blunt, bothered her. Well, it stood to reason that she’d have to have a thick hide to fall in love with the resident fox. If nothing else, the poor girl deserved some kind of formal status to protect her from the inevitable consequence’s of Mitsuhide’s endless scheming. 

“Oh, fine.” He grumbled. “Someone has to pick up the pieces when the whole thing explodes in her face.”

“Is that a blush I see? Called it, complete soft spot!” Masamune exclaimed, with a burst of laughter. 

“It’s a fever from the irritation of dealing with you two.” Ieyasu shot back with a baleful glare, startled when he glanced back to find Mitsuhide wearing what was, for the first time in all the years they had known each other, an apparently sincere smile. 

“That is incredibly unsettling.” Ieyasu said, and frowned. “You make the arrangements, I’ll show up. You can foot the rest of bill yourselves.” He said and turned on his heel. 

The adoption formalities had been simple enough, and, he admitted, she really did seem genuinely grateful and pleased that it was him, which was, despite her utter goofiness, a little nice.

 He had been goaded by a piqued Nobunaga, (despite knowing better) into preparing what started as a simple set of traditional bridal gifts that quickly became more elaborate, the expense of which left him grumbling that they might as well make Mitsuhide the damn Shogun, for how over the top the entire thing was– the painted screens that had been commissioned ended up delaying the ceremony, not to mention the lacquer wear, writing box, incense and tea ceremony boxes and he preferred to forget what else. 

It was a vanishingly small satisfaction to know that his crest would be floating around Mitsuhide’s castle for the next hundred or so years, but he’d take what he could get. 

He had thought that was the worst part, having had very little reason to attend any weddings in his life, until Mitsuhide reminded him of the worst part on him with a night’s notice and all the joie de vivre of a fox biting the head off a mouse. 

The procession to the shrine had been bad enough, with the entire town watching them and exclaiming on the beauty of the bride and how proud her father must be.

He snapped himself out of his reverie with a quiet snort at the pair of them goggling at each other like particularly brainless fish in the wedding hall, the weirdly sweet expression on Mitsuhide’s face giving the entire business the atmosphere of a ghost story just before the vengeful spirit slaughters everyone. 

They drank their cups, and he saw Hideyoshi sniffling into his sleeve as he, sitting behind Mitsuhide in the symbolic role of his father, picked up and held out the prepared cup to exchange with him, which was frankly weird enough, enough until Mitsuhide looked him dead in the eye and without even the slightest hint of levity in his voice said a bunch of utter nonsense capped off with the words ‘honor’ and ‘father,’ at which juncture he was certain his failure to sink through the floor in sheer mortification was evidence of the total absence of mercy in the world. 

As if that wasn’t bad enough, then she had to join in the chorus, and it was clearly just as awkward for her as it was for him, which because a sort of flaming wagon wheel of embarrassment whose final stop was apparently hell. 

He went through the prescribed motions, trying to ignore Nobunaga and Masamune snickering at his visible wince every time he was cruelly reminded that he had let idiotic sentimentality trap him in a situation where Mitsuhide could, and in fact was obligated, to spend the rest of their natural lives talking to him as if he were responsible for loosing him like a poisoned arrow onto an unprepared world. 

“Try to keep it together, Hideyoshi, the worst is over.” Ieyasu said grimly as Hideyoshi dabbed at his eyes with a handkerchief  beside him in the procession back to the castle. 

“Unlike some people, I have enough heart to cry over tragedies.” Hideyoshi mumbled in response. “I love her like she was my own sister, and yet it’s come to this.”

“Weddings are a perfectly appropriate reason to get a little misty eyed.” Masamune said, with a bittersweet look at the bride. 

“You always set such a dignified example, Lord Ieyasu.” Mitsunari said, smiling at him with such a cotton-headed expression that it was almost awe inspiring in its total obliviousness. 

“Yes, truly a father one can fully respect.” Nobunaga said with a wolfish grin. 

“You can’t honestly tell me you’d be happier if they had to call you father.” Ieyasu snapped back. 

“I can, in fact, imagine few things as pleasant as keeping them both under my thumb after they forced me to share the governance of Echigo and Kai.” Nobunaga replied, closing his fan with an emphatic snap. 

“Well I wish you’d told me that.” Ieyasu muttered. 

“Mitsuhide would never have allowed it, of course. He’d have gone begging to Kenshin or even Shingen before giving me the satisfaction.” Nobunaga said with a smile that was somewhere between admiring and murderous. 

“As long as your thwarted ambitions don’t ruin the banquet I spent two days working on I don’t mind, but you know she,” he motioned with his chin, “can hear you.” 

“Hmmph.” Nobunaga grumbled, but let the topic drop just the same. 

“But just think, when they have children, they’ll be calling you grandpa! Won’t that be sweet?” Mitsunari said considering the future beatifically. 

Ieyasu reeled, and fished his handkerchief out of his sleeve to dab away the cold sweat that had beaded on his brow and the back of his neck. 

“Our strategist makes a salient point. I retract my objections and congratulate you heartily, grandpa.” Nobunaga said, choking back his laughter. 

She hung back at the door to the banquet hall and caught his sleeve, waving a reluctant Mitsuhide onward. 

“Well who am I to intrude in such a touching father daughter scene?” Mitsuhide said and strolled off with a snicker. 

“Oh, don’t mind him. He’s really as thankful as I am and even though that was awkward, but I wanted to thank you for your generosity and kindness,” she said, smiling shyly. 

“It’s really not that big a deal,” Ieyasu answered stiffly. 

“Well I insisted to Mitsuhide that we have to show our gratefulness, and since I’m pregnant, I thought it would be better that you know before anything is announced, so I wanted to tell you that we’re naming the baby after you…”

He sat bolt upright with a gasp of horror as the flash of lightning illuminated his room, mopping the sweat off of his brow with the edge of his sleeve, clutching his chest as he collected himself.

 “Grandpa…” he mumbled to himself in numb horror as the nightmare receded. 

[365daysofsasuhina]

[ 365 Days of SasuHina || Day Two Hundred Fifty-One: Turtle ] [ Uchiha Sasuke, Hyūga Hinata ] [ SasuHina ] [ Verse: Healing Waters and Scorching Flames ] [ AO3 Link ]

She’ll admit...it’s a little strange coming back here now. Hinata’s first visit to the capital of the Fire Nation had been during the Day of Black Sun - the solar eclipse that had been the allies’ hope to finally bring an end to the Hundred Year War. A day when, without the sun, the firebenders were to be completely powerless. But the plan went horribly awry thanks to leaked information...and the Avatar’s group was forced to flee and leave the rest of the invasion behind.

The only successes had been the freedom of Omashu, and the final straw in the change of heart within Sasuke.

Her second (and until now, final) visit to the city had been during the passing of Madara’s Comet. While Naruto faced the Fire Lord, Sasuke went to try and finally bring reason to his older brother. Though there had been the beginnings of a duel, Sasuke’s own revelation had been enough to overcome the last shreds of Itachi’s doubt...and they’d reached a peaceful resolution. With Naruto’s defeat of Fugaku, there had been an end to the war at last.

And from there? Years and years of diplomatic reparations, finding balance, and keeping every member of Team Avatar busy enough that visits between them have been few and far between.

Hinata herself has been using the time since the end of the war attempting to undo the damage done by the Fire Nation against the Southern Water tribes. The scattered remnants had been united, and the stolen waterbenders returned to the south. Reuniting them with family hadn’t been easy...and comforting both sides had taken its toll. Both prisoners and those who remained had to face losses: captives that had died during the war, and vice versa. Many no longer had homes to return to once it was all over.

The port where the prior prisoners were released turned into a makeshift refugee camp in their own territory. Shelters were built, resources stockpiled, and displaced tribesmen kept until new paths could be made. At first unintended, it turned into a hub that eventually grew into a city. Though many tribes, once steady, returned to their various homes...some, especially those without family or homes to return to, remained and helped the new city thrive.

Only now that things have begun to settle has Hinata found any time to leave the south. Given her connections with the Avatar, and the personal growth she obtained during her months fighting, it was she without question who was looked to - and is still looked to - for guidance in the south. But...she’s earned a much-deserved break, and has agreed to meet a few of the others in the Fire Nation to just...see one another.

Kiba decides to remain to handle the mantle in her place. The one nonbender of the group, he now leads the Southern Water tribe army. There’s no one else Hinata would entrust their progress to in her absence. He’ll be missed during their get-together, but he insists she deserves the break more than he. Hinata had been unable to argue otherwise, and so, rides on a ship to the island country alone.

Passing the gates that guard the bay, Hinata can’t help but look to them somberly. Much has changed these past few years...herself among them. And given how little she’s seen of her friends since the war’s end, she can only assume their metamorphoses will be just as apparent.

As the ship docks and she makes her way topside to disembark, Hinata can’t help a pause. Rather than a small escort to take her to the palace, the second prince is here himself to greet her.

Sasuke, flanked only by two guards, looks so...different.

Having been previously weighed by his father’s expectations, his own duality, and the struggles he faced, he now looks so much...lighter. Gone is the constant furrow to his brow, or the shadows in his eyes. True, some linger under them from exhaustion, but none of them are afforded much time to rest, even now. He just seems...more relaxed. Calm.

Happier.

In fact, he affords her a genuine - albeit tired - smile as she makes her way down to the dock. “Hinata,” he greets with a small bow. “It’s good to see you. Were the seas calm for your voyage…?”

Still a bit taken aback, Hinata blinks before smiling in turn. “They were. It was a pleasant trip. But I’m glad to be back on land for the time being.”

“And here I thought a waterbender could never tire of water.”

That earns a light laugh. “Water, no...bobbing and dipping in a ship, maybe. Has anyone else arrived yet…?”

“No, not yet. And Kiba isn’t with you, right?”

“No, he’s keeping an eye on things while I’m gone. Developments in the south are still very...ongoing.”

Sasuke nods, expression tingeing a bit gravely for a moment. “I understand...I’ve heard bits and pieces about what’s been going on down there. You’re doing amazing work.”

Her head ducks, humble at the praise. “It’s what needs to be done. And I’m happy to do it. Seeing my people come back from the hardships they suffered gives me hope. We’ve always been a tough people, but this has been our g-greatest test.”

For a moment, something passes over Sasuke’s face. But before she can question it, he gestures. “Well, for now, I suppose we’ll make our way up to the palace. You haven’t seen it since the repairs, have you?”

“No...this is my first trip back since the end of the war, and Itachi’s coronation.”

Surprise pulls at his features. “...has it really been that long?”

“It has,” she replies with a weary smile. “Time sure has flown, hasn’t it?”

“...yeah. Guess being so caught up will do that to you. One moment you’re just starting a new month...the next, you turn around and three have passed. There’s hardly been a dull moment since the war ended.”

A nod. “All I can hope is that it slows a bit soon. It would be nice to enjoy the labor we’ve been giving for so long. Just for a bit.”

“It would.” With her agreement, Sasuke leads Hinata toward the palace. “I can’t wait to see everyone...Naruto’s efforts in the Earth Kingdom were the last time I saw him, trying to sort out the Fire Nation occupants.”

“Was that ever resolved…?”

“Yes...and we’re working on plans to make it even better. But we can talk about that when he’s here to chime in. I think he’s got a better handle on it than I do, honestly. I’ve been more focused on aiding Itachi here as of late.”

Light small talk fills the air during their trek to the central building, and Hinata can’t help but wonder at the sheer size of it. It and the Earth Palace always make her feel so small. Nothing has ever compared to her little southern village.

“We can wait in the gardens for a while - I’ll have some tea brought out.”

Snapped from her reverie as Sasuke speaks, Hinata reflexively smiles. “That sounds great. I haven’t seen the gardens yet.”

“It’s honestly my favorite part of the entire palace. My mother and I spent a lot of time here before she...left.”

The pause earns a glance, but Hinata doesn’t press the subject.

They pass through only a few hallways before making their way into the gardens...and Hinata can’t help but stare. It’s...beautiful! Green, lush, and filled with ponds and fountains. After a lifetime in the snow and ice, plantlife and even grass still fill her with excitement. “They’re amazing…!”

“Let me show you the best part.” Approaching a pond, Sasuke takes a knee, seeming to...look for something.

Unsure what his intent is, Hinata does the same.

“...there!” Pointing, he gestures to a patch of reeds along the other end. From them...emerge several little creatures Hinata has never seen before.

Her eyes go wide. “They’re so cute…! What are they?”

“Turtleducks.”

“Turtle…?”

“Ducks. See, they have a shell, like the great lion turtles,” Sasuke explains. “Just...a lot smaller, and a lot fluffier.”

“I love them already…” Hinata murmurs, watching as they swim their way a bit closer, quacking softly. A few turtleducklings make their way to the bank, and she gently brushes a finger over one’s head.

Beside her, watching from the corner of his eye, Sasuke can’t help a hint of a smile.

“I wish we had these back home...but I think it’s likely far too cold.”

“Yeah, you’re probably right. But I guess that gives you a reason to visit, huh?”

Looking up, Hinata simply replies, “I already have a reason.”

Sasuke can’t help a blink of surprise, the bridge of his nose alighting a soft pink just as a courier steps into garden with a bow.

“Prince Sasuke, the Avatar and the earthbender will be here soon - word has been sent ahead with a...lemur of sorts.”

Moment broken, the pair glance up. “Thank you,” the Uchiha replies. “We’ll get ready to meet them.”

“Well, there goes the peace and quiet,” Hinata observes with a light laugh behind a hand.

“True...but it’ll be good to see them.”

“Mhm. But...maybe we’ll avoid showing them the turtleducks. I’m not sure the little things will appreciate the noise.”

Sasuke can’t help a humorous scoff. “...you have a point. We’ll visit them again later, when the others are busy.”

Just the two of us.

                                                            .oOo.

     Hi so this is technically yesterday's entry...I'm sorry it's late but I was gone LITERALLY all day and was pooped when I got home real late, so...this is me finally getting it done ;w; Sorry about the wait, loves~      But anyway! Back to the AtLA crossover...which I'm still not 100% satisfied with. Sasuke just makes so much more sense to fit Azula's role, but...I want him to be Zuko. And Itachi just does NOT fit her role AT ALL, so...hence me not being 100% sure what to do with the epic sibling battle. Whoops, lol - but that's not the focus! Turtleducks are by far (imo) the cutest AtLA fusion animal. Just...I love them. And now Hinata does too.      Anywho, I still need to do today's prompt - that'll be later! For now I've gotta run and get other stuff done, but thanks for reading!

[desi-pluto]

知的愛 Chiteki Ai - “Intellectual Love”

Summary: Her intelligence was his aphrodisiac just as his love for literature sparked her desire to read more books - (a tiny hint of NejiTen and SuiKarin as well) College AU

Rating: Teen

For the lovely @uchihaharunoss who loves reading school/college AUs. 

Note: the term "aphrodisiac" doesn't just apply to sex; it’s other definition is: a thing that causes excitement.

Freshmen Year

There she was studying at the grand library of Rikodu Sennin University, wearing a pair of thin framed reading glasses as she was studiously taking notes from her thick molecular biology textbook. Something about seeing a beautiful woman intently studying motivated him to step up his A-game. Especially if that woman has the same hair color of cherry blossoms and eyes like shimmering emeralds. That woman's name was Haruno Sakura. He had heard that she was a one-of-a-kind genius who got a full scholarship in the Rikodu Sennin medical school, and that she was also the apprentice of the infamous Doctor Tsunade Senju ever since she miraculously concocted an antidote to counteract the spider virus.

Here he was sitting on the other side of the library with a friend of his in the middle of a study session. It was getting hard for him to concentrate, because he was constantly tempted to sneak glances

"Hey Sasuke, can I copy your timeline notes of the Tokugawa Shogunate period? If you remember that I didn't make it to class last Thursday." Neji Hyuga, a sophomore from the esteemed Hyuga clan asks him if he could borrow his notes. With a grunt, Sasuke takes out his binder to take out the sheets of papers he took his notes, and then staples them in order before handing them to Neji, "Give them back to me by Friday, Neji."

"But of course." Was Neji's reply before he carefully puts the packet of Sasuke's precious notes in his file.

"Why were you staring at Haruno Sakura?" Neji changes topic.

"Why were you staring at Yu Tenten during basketball practice?" He retaliates with a smirk. Neji's fascination towards Tenten was no secret.

"She was cheering for me Sasuke, like any good friend would." Neji quickly responds with a faint blush growing on his cheek bones.

"Aha, keep telling yourself that Neji." Sasuke continues teasing him mercilessly.

"Don't you have to write a 10 page research paper for Law?" At being reminded of his arduous assignment, Sasuke's face momentarily turns pale at the thought of completing an all-nighter to write his paper.

'Damn it, I guess I'll have to make time to read The Silmarillion tomorrow then.' Sasuke thinks defeated with a sigh. Yes, the pragmatic Sasuke Uchiha has a love for literature. If he had the time, he'd consider joining the literature club, but alas his major forces him to study very hard in order to become a better criminal lawyer than his father; and it would mean reading more books with legal jargon.

"I must leave now Sasuke, I promised Tenten that I wold help her in understanding functional analyses." Neji stands to pack his books, while trying his best not to blush at the prospect of having alone time with Tenten.

"You don't even take calc. 1." Sasuke knew for a fact that Hyuga Neji was probably on the linear algebra level, considering he was known to be a prodigal math genius back in high school.

"I'm the best person to help her Sasuke." Neji haughtily tells him, "you'll understand when someone deems you worthy enough to help them." And with that he left the library leaving Sasuke all by himself on the table.

After Neji leaves, Sasuke with a "hmph" puts on his earphones that were attached to his cellphone so he can listen to his playlist of classical European music from Beethoven to Mozart to Tchaikovsky.

Sophomore Year

"Hey Sakura, my mom's hosting my birthday this weekend, you should come over!" Karin Uzumaki removes her glasses and pouts her lips, as she sweetly invites her for her birthday party.

"Geez Karin you don't need to act all 'cutesy' to make me go somewhere when you know the answer is yes." Sakura irritably answers her. At hearing her confirmation, Karin's expression turns ecstatic and then tells her to wear something nice but not too casual this coming weekend.

"Great, and just so you know Sasuke will be there too." Karin leaves her with a knowing smirk.

::::

Saturday comes and she's the first one to arrive at Karin's birthday party, and is grabbed by the arm to Karin's bedroom. When she goes inside the red head's room, Sakura instantly knew what needed to be done. Which was to help Karin get ready for the party.

"What will make you stand out the most?" Sakura looks through her closet of designer clothes until she hit the jackpot. She took out an unsaturated red tube dress that reached mid-thigh with a black denim jacket to go on top of.

"This will do, it compliments your hair and eye color!" Sakura hands the outfit to Karin and then turns around so she can slip her clothes on.

When she was done changing, she found Karin looking in the mirror with a sad look. "Do you think Sasuke will notice me like this?" She's been having a crush on him since they were in Oto high school but, things recently started to get complicated with their long time mutual friend Suigetsu Hozuki; who's also known to quarrel with Karin a lot. She also wasn't oblivious of Sakura's crush on Sasuke either, even if the pinkette doesn't know it herself.

"It doesn't matter how you look for him Karin, no one knows what his tastes are." She honestly answers, because it was hard for nearly anyone to guess what Sasuke is up to most of the time, aside from his close friends. 'I'd be more worried about Suigetsu not keeping his eyes off of you.' She quietly thinks to her self.

"Don't make this night about impressing him." She gently rests her palm on Karin's right shoulder.

When the house became too crowded for Sakura's liking, she decided to take a seat inside the gazebo of Karin's backyard. Aside from knowing Karin, nearly all the party guests were from said girl's high school called Oto High which was located in downtown Tokyo; plus most of them intimidated the crap out of Sakura. Basking in the fresh night air she closed her eyes and let her body absorb the cool summer wind.

"I thought I'd find you here." Sasuke's voice startles her out of her reverie and causes her to open her eyes only to see that he was taking a seat next to her. She couldn't help but admire his choice of clothing for the evening. Wearing a navy blue collar shirt with the sleeves rolled half way up - exposing his muscular arms.

"Hey." Sakura politely acknowledges him, wondering if he came to return the book he borrowed from her - ironically the book she's had for years in her home, but never finished reading it.

He takes out the hard copy of The Chamber by American author John Grisham from his black satchel and hands it over to Sakura, "It's a pretty decent book, I'm surprised you haven't read it yet." It had everything Sasuke loved to read about; suspense, history, politics, and a thorough examination of America's horrible legal system. Not to say that he loved America's justice system, he is actually appalled by it, from its prevalent racism, gender biases in careers, its lack of healthcare, the amount of countries it destroyed, he hated all of it.

"I'm not quite fond of America's justice system Sasuke, even my dad thought it could've been written better so I chose not to bother after chapter 4." She dryly tells him, which made him smirk a little. "Can't argue with that." He agrees with her while taking a good look at her. The sight of her sitting in the gazebo with that faraway look as she looks upwards toward the star-filled night sky would be the perfect inspiration for a painter or a photographer. Her long pink hair was let loose, her sea green eyes sparkled in the dark, and her choice of clothing was lovely as well, Sasuke observes her admiringly. She chose to wear a white frock that reached mid leg, and a pastel pink chiffon cardigan.

"What is it Sasuke?" She caught him staring at her, feeling genuinely confused, because he never looked at her like that before.

"Nothing Sakura." He gives her a gentle smile, that reminded her of the one her father would give to her mother.

Perhaps she'll finish reading The Chamber.

End of Junior Year

"You want me to do what with you?" He asks her amused, this was just too good to hear from her.

"You heard me loud and clear Sasuke, would you like to go out with me tonight, you know..to hangout?" Sakura asks with her arms crossed, a faint blush decorating her cheekbones.

"Alright," He fake surrenders with his hands up, "I'll see you at 7 at my place, oh and Sakura…" He walks close to her until there's very little space between them and boldly pecks her forehead where her purple diamond tattoo was, and whispers "Thank you." With that said, he goes off to class leaving Sakura with her heart beating fast as she replays the kiss on her forehead.

::::

"Wait, thee Sakura is taking you to the movies?" Sasuke's mom Mikoto Uchiha, eggs her son to tell. "Yes okasan, it's her - hold on," He paused as his cheeks darken a little bit, "how do you know her name?" He never recalled sharing her name to anyone in his family, just vague information that she's a medicine student and came from Okinawa.

"I heard you whisper 'Sakura' in your sleep, when I came to wake you up from your power nap." She wickedly grins at him, causing heat to reach at the back of his neck, now hoping his father won't walk in, in the middle of this conversation.

Just as the clock went 7:00 pm, the doorbell of the house rung. Faster than lightning, Mikoto opens the door with a smile and is delighted to see a pink haired maiden with green eyes in front of her.

"You must be Sakura! Please do come in." The elder woman grabs the younger one by the elbow to pull her inside.

Remembering her manners, Sakura clears her throat and with a traditional bow she says "Konbanwa Uchiha-san, I am a close friend of your son, and I would like to take him out to the movies with me. Rest assured, I will not take any advantage of making him pay for the two of us just for the sake of traditional gender roles, I will -"

"She gets the point Sakura." Sasuke comes right next to her as he helps her straighten her back to stand up.

"Well you sure are a chivalrous woman." The ebony haired woman chuckles at the slightly nervous young lady standing next to her son. "I mean you're both adults, so I don't see the point of you asking for my permission. Just don't get lost in any alleyways." She jokingly says a little bit. 'It's not everyday a girl comes to me to ask Sasuke out on a date.' She thinks to herself amused. 'Just friends. I see, as if I was born yesterday.'

"Have fun kiddos!" She sees them go out the door, and once their gone she feels her body relax and with a loud voice, "You can come out now Fugaku."

"So that was Sakura." Fugaku walks next to his wife with a mini smirk forming on his usually serious face. "I never expected her to be so unique."

"Neither did I dear." She agrees as she rests her head on his shoulder.

::::

Sakura couldn't contain her excitement, ever since her self-discovery of having feelings for Sasuke, she's been wanting to see if he might also like her beyond friendship. She was tempted to grab his hand and hold it firmly in her's, but she didn't want to make him feel uncomfortable as she fails to not reach for his hand before he caught her.

"What are you doing?" He whispers so the other occupants in the cinema wouldn't hear him.

"Just stretching." She answers in a steady tone.

"Is that so?" He comes near her ear as his breath tickles when he adds, "is it not because you want to hold my hand, like lovers do?" He further agitates her until she aggressively grabs his much larger hand and grips it in her smaller one. "Yes. Yes Uchiha Sasuke I like you a lot and I would love for us to be real lovers." She confesses to him. "However, I won't force you to be in a relationship just because I wish it. We can continue on as friends and forget this entire conversation." She stiffly finishes and tries to let go of his hand but Sasuke unexpectedly tightens his hold on her.

"We'll talk it through when the movie is done." He tells her without turning to her. They resume to watch the rest of the Batman movie in silence.

When the movie finished, Sasuke without hesitation offers his hand to Sakura which she takes and leads them outside the cinema.

"We're going back to my place." Sasuke leads them to the train station, "Don't ask any questions."

After 40 minutes, they arrive to his fancy neighborhood while holding hands. Once their in front of his door, he rings the bell and was surprisingly welcomed inside by his father.

"Come in you two." Fugaku gives a small grin at the two of them.

"I have something important to tell you and mom." Sasuke says loud enough so his mom can come out of the kitchen, which worked because she arrives to stand next to her husband.

"As of today Sakura and I will begin to date." He says it so bluntly that Sakura's eyes widen like saucers at him. 'How is he saying this all with a straight face?' Her heart thumps loudly at Sasuke's reciprocation of her feelings.

"We're happy for you son." Fugaku pats Sasuke on his left shoulder with a proud smirk on his face.

"How about you stay the night with us Sakura-chan? It's almost midnight anyway." Mikoto side glances Sasuke with a knowing grin 'you brought her home so she wouldn't leave, you're not that slick Sasuke.'

"Arigato-gozaimasu Uchiha-san, I'll be gone by morning." Sakura promises, even though she could've called a taxi to drop her at her 1 room apartment.

"You can sleep on Sasuke's bed for the night, and he'll sleep on a futon. Sound good to you kids?"

"Yes ma'am." Sakura agrees with the conditions.

When they arrive in Sasuke's bedroom, Sasuke hands her a disposable tooth brush and a pair of black trousers and shirt to wear.

When it was time to sleep, Sasuke gently pulls Sakura down next to her on his futon and they just stare eye to eye for a long time. An old habit of their's. Not before long Sasuke caresses her cheek and leans closer to her until she places her lips on his. The kiss was tender, romantic, and longing with love.

Before things would go out of hand, Sasuke reluctantly pulls back and pecks her forehead before saying "Goodnight." As he urges her to lie down on his bed at the same time he lies on his futon.

This was just the beginning of a new chapter for the both of them.

[xoxoendoh]

Close to Lost

A leaf of cartography, an inkwell upturned… He’d stained the land, he’d blotted out the verdant life around him.

SasuSaku Month 2018, Day 4: Burn

A/N: No content warnings for this fic, and I apologize for being a whopping twenty-four days late! For whatever reason, this one took forever and a half.

Jukebox: "You Are the Moon" by The Hush Sound

FF.net link

Sakura had been wandering through the secluded training grounds, eyes downcast; her troubling ruminations as much to blame as the glare of the sinking sun. There was something about the place that kept her coming back, something reassuring.... Ever since the start of the chunin exams, she had been unable to quiet her mind. Sleepless nights strung together, wakeful worries interwove: she couldn’t shed the net tangled about her.

And through some frayed string of fate, she found the object of her rumination that evening. She caught him in a moment of weakness, shortly after he’d fallen to Sabaku no Gaara and the beast within him, a time near the cruel anniversary of his clan’s demise.

And he was sending up flares.

The gradual transition to twilight was the perfect showcase for his fireballs, their red flames churning upward to lick at the weary sun in spite, in envy.

They were her beacon, drawing her into the trees.

Under the canopy, the woods were dense and shadowy green—and just as they should be. Yet with every stride, the foliage grew more glaucous; the acerbic smell on the air strengthened, it burned…. And she began to hear the silence as she went deeper. There was nothing. No chirping, no scurrying. No cicadas humming their nightly crescendo, their exaltation of the rising moon. Not even cries warning of her intrusion. Just the sound of her footsteps and breath and the heavy quiet… Her instincts, however, beckoned her onward.

And all at once, she found his fury.

It could have been beautiful. Perhaps it was….

She saw downy dandelion parachutes suspended in spring; she saw windswept sakura petals, lilting and languid at the height of hanami….

Yet she knew she stood in summer. Her hands leapt to cover her mouth, her heart.

Fine motes cast a strange veil to compound the dusk. Tufts of ash drifted sedately, buoyant on the dense air; wispy embers, flickering orange and gold, floated along the heated murk. The incinerated terrain below hissed and sputtered in despairing protest.

A leaf of cartography, an inkwell upturned… He’d stained the land, he’d blotted out the verdant life around him.

The unfurling fumes thwarted her attempt at a calming breath, turning it into a muffled wheeze against her palm. Her fingers tightened at her collar, releasing the steam of perspiration; she shook her head, repelling the flecks as they sifted down. One footfall disturbed the chalk of the forest floor; the next created a small cloud. Uneven as they were, her steps took her through the ruin, the temperature climbing as the sun fell, until she stood a few feet away from the boy she loved. The origin of the blaze…

Her tiny frame trembled faintly in the wafting grey, in the orange glow of smoldering coals. She could feel the heat of his destruction radiating into her skin. And she knew she should look him in the eyes, but she couldn’t—not when his gaze had been so blank, so hollow only moments before…. He’d just stood there, among the scattered cinders and flames, the brittle charcoal, the blackened remnants of a vernal woodland. He could have been a child witnessing his first snowfall, dazed, unable to fathom it all. He hadn’t said a word. Perhaps he’d been unable.

"S-Sasuke-kun,” Sakura began hoarsely, sure in the need to break the silence, to tell him…yet so uncertain in the method, in the phrasing. “The day we became genin…” she trailed off, unable to deny her eyes the scene around him.

The burnt foliage above had come apart at the seams, falling so bright in the maturing darkness. Spores seeking to take root, nascent sparks popped and rocketed skyward to compete with those descending from the treetops. Flurrying and whirling, they clashed. Yet it was a futile rivalry, for even fire was failing: the last of the withering flames lusted after the unburnt traces at his feet; blindly, they reached and stretched and groped the scorched earth for virgin kindling to burn, to consume….

But there’s nothing left….

The notion tugged her from her odd reverie, sent a shiver to shake her spine. She’d seen enough. Sakura bit down on her lip. The grainy dust—the arid, acrid taste of smoke and wrath—lingered on her tongue as her lips parted.

The weight of her words and the pain in the memory sucked the remaining oxygen from the haze around her, forcing her to speak too quickly: “That day, you told me solitude is the worst sort of pain! I-I see it so clearly now, Sasuke-kun! I…” She felt weighted, so heavy. Her short hair shielded her face as she hung her head lower, eyes closed to the irritants and toxins around her. “I…” she tried again, in a whisper, “I didn’t back then, I had no idea…” Her voice was stronger: “But I think, maybe now, I understand what the pain of loneliness is. I have family and friends…but…”

She tentatively lifted her head to search for his eyes in the dim. She found them, dark and distant…and waiting. Hers shone and stung with tears to be—from the intensity of his regard; from the airborne debris in the sudden gust. The sparks floating around them flared and billowed on the wind. It whipped their hair; it reanimated the once-settled charred remnants…. Watching the displaced pall subside around her still feet, she waited for the words to come.

When they did, they were frail, fraught: “You feel so far away….”

Come back to me, hung unspoken.

Recovering herself, Sakura quietly cleared her throat and took a soft step forward. She kept her tone gentle, free of judgement: “It-it breaks my heart, Sasuke-kun, seeing you...like this.”

Eyes now keen, now wary on hers, he was still panting from the exertion of forging his own inferno. Singes dotted the skin around his mouth, where he’d exhaled fire. Like hers, his inky hair was dappled. Trickles of sweat streaked through the fine layer of grey on his face, stripping away the corruption, to reveal slivers of the boy she recognized, the boy she loved. 

But as she examined the rest of him, she found myriad of scorch marks. He’d been reckless. His dominant arm hung forgotten at his side, the last vestiges of electricity convulsing through his fingers. So reckless...

She clenched the fabric of her dress; she felt her skin cool and prickle, felt the tiny hairs stand on end—like his current had somehow reached her.

Burning through your chakra like this—you could have killed yourself! You could have…

Despite the chill gripping her body, a drop of her own perspiration slid from her temple to her chin. The feeling, though slight, was enough to break her train of thought. For the briefest moment, she wondered what he saw in the vein of clarity it left on her…. She wondered if he could he see anything at all….

The droplet left her skin to disappear in the dust, and her mind centered. Somehow, she knew it was time for honesty. Somehow, she knew he needed to hear it:

“Because…you mean everything to me. Everything.”

The words had nearly caught in her throat, suspended like the ash in the sweltering air. I will not cry, she told herself. I won’t weep for him. He’s never wanted that, he never will—and he deserves more than my tears.

As tentative as it was instinctual, her hand reached out for his shoulder. Eyes flitting between his and her target, she braced for an adverse reaction upon the moment she made contact, she expected it. Though he stiffened, he didn’t swat her away or shrink back: he just stood there and allowed her featherlike touch; watching the dust settle to further mute her bright hair, questioning her with his dubious silence.

Her eyes rose from his shoulder to scrutinize the three black tomoe etched into his neck, as they so often did, and she silently cursed the Snake. Beyond the singes, the malicious, black mark was the only blemish on his body—the only visible manifestation of his suffering! Unless, of course, he set the coal of his eyes aflame…

And she’d seen the frightening power of both.

Is that what you were thinking, Sasuke-kun? ...Is that why you did this?

The fingers at the red of her collar clamped down, she moved to bite her lip again—but she stopped herself. She couldn’t give in to such a childish habit when she’d come this far, when he was listening. Determined, the verdure of her eyes returned to his.

“You don’t have to be alone, Sasuke-kun,” she spoke soothingly, careful to avoid a patronizing tone. “You’ll always have me.” As a shy smile formed around her last word, she felt blood rush to her flame-flushed cheeks. Sakura ignored the sensation and forced her lips to loosen: this wasn’t the time to give in to girlish whimsy; she’d make her body obey. She bent her elbow to step solicitously closer, close enough to smell the earthy scent she knew to be his through the miasma. One hand on him, the other on her heart, she swore: “Always.”

I love you so much…with all my heart, she thought, but I don’t think I can tell you that, not yet.

She gingerly traced his shoulder, nails collecting the fine, gritty precipitate there. She could feel the dexterity in the muscle, the power in the sinew…. And he didn’t flinch under her light touch, he didn’t avert his eyes. She moved nearer, preparing to see alarm or revulsion appear in his expression, until her forearm was flush against the length of his bicep, only a few inches of smoke separating the rest of them. She couldn't blink, she couldn't breathe for fear of dispelling the moment, her chance to reach him….

A branch snapped behind him; coils of red outlining its remaining leaves, faux fireflies swarming and twinkling in its wake. The fallen limb rippled through the powdery soot at the forest floor, sending it aloft once more.

Yet neither noticed, their senses entirely focused on the other.

Sakura was transfixed. She could see the suffering, the perpetual ache, the torment in the ink of his eyes—and it was dizzying. She’d known it was there, but she’d never seen its full extent…. She’d never seen it so close, so unconcealed. And just beneath, there was the acidic fury she’d tasted in the ashes. Tonight, his anger had burned too hot for his body to contain. The devastation around them, she realized, had been a momentary lapse in control, a flare of his temper. A mere glimmer of the roiling, lambent blaze inside him…

Hatred.

Its conflagration eclipsed the flicker of him that existed beyond loathing and vengeance—the flicker the Snake had tried to snuff out, the flicker she’d managed to sustain when his darkness burned black through his skin. She saw it so clearly then, for in that moment, he was living only for the past, only for the promise of retribution….  

But they both knew the inevitability in fire….

One tear escaped to flow down her face: she could feel desperation coming on the night.

...They’d known it long before witnessing the aftermath of his arson.

Ignoring the shriek of warning she heard in the back of her mind, she stood on pointed toes and flung her arms around him. The impact of her embrace released a plume of ash to envelop them. She pressed her face to his neck, her lithe body to his, the muck on his skin coloring hers.

“I won’t let you be alone anymore,” she promised in a murmur to his ear, eyes shut to the despair around them. “Never again.”

She waited, stunned at her own audacity.

His heart thudded into hers; his chest expanded as he inhaled. The blue-black fringe at his nape stroked her forehead. 

The last traces of tree sap crackled and bubbled in the dimming embers, crystalizing as the surviving coals waned to a low gleam….

Her eyes flew open, dilating in panic, in the umbrage: she felt the muscles in his hanging arms spasm and contract, considering motion. But she didn’t dare let go—not when he felt so close to lost.

So, eyes agape, she froze, not risking a breath….

Over his shoulder, she could see the world turn to shadow as the sun finally vanished. At last unobscured, sweet silver streamed down to mottle the earth, to temper the remaining hues of red and orange and yellow. The shimmering perigee of moonrise... The beginnings of a familiar nocturne hailed its coming: the warble of a songbird announced its proximity; insects revved and stammered, grappling toward their usual thrum; an owl called out, wistful and clear.

And then—haltingly, devoid of his usual grace—he bowed his head until his cheek rested on her hair.

Unsure if she was imagining it, afraid to dissolve the mirage, she held her gasp in her chest.

She felt the low rumble of his voice before she heard it, smoky on the clearing air:

“Sakura… Thank you…”

His breath, his words were soft on her skin…. They were warm.

So, what do you think? I'm still feeling so rusty when it comes to writing, particularly something like this…. Spent so much time second-guessing myself and nitpicking, and I really hope I got it right. Believe it or not, this actually has a Part II. PII was meant for Day 8: Flowers...but it will be a while before I get around to it! 

And a huge shout out to @thepiestperson​! Thank you for all your help with this lil' ficlet—you're a doll! Not sure when I would have finished this one without your input and encouragement. :)

My other SSM18 submissions:

☀ No content warning: Gravitation, Day 2: Side by Side

☾ Barely NSFW, then very NSFW:

Umbra, Day 11: Eclipse | The Cherry Wood Armoire, Day 31: Free

If you’re interested, you can read my other SasuSaku and ItaSaku work on FF.net.

[thepondonthemoon]

Chasing Tails - 2

A/B/O alternate universe Everyone-has-tails AU Alpha! Sasuke, Omega! Naruto Cat! Sasuke, Fox! Naruto

NO MPREG

In a society where male omegas are unable to give birth, Uzumaki Naruto is ostracised for being a ‘defective’ omega. With his parents dead, he suffers from nightmares and despite a loving adoptive father and best friend, he is left to believe that he will never be able to find an alpha who will accept him for the individual that he is.

Uchiha Sasuke never planned on taking a mate, instead finding the very scent of omegas to be revolting. But as he finally surrenders to the pressures of his father to hold a ceremony for the pure purpose of obtaining a mate, he may find this decision to be life altering. 

Click for Chapter 1 

xxx

Hmm.. wow I did not plan for this to be a modern setting but hey it is what it is so here you go.. (also both Naruto and Sasuke chose their occupations; I had no part in deciding, they just looked at me and said ‘this is what I’m going to do in this fanfic’ so.. uh.. yea) 

As always, please validate this time that-I-probably-should’ve-used-for-studying by giving me a note!! Thanks c: hope you enjoy

“Alright, here are your suppressants and scent blockers”, Tsunade said as she handed Naruto a box of pills and a spray bottle. “Start taking them in two days; the pheromones in your blood have started increasing again, though it’s a bit earlier than usual”. She frowned. Although the heat cycles of male omegas were typically irregular, Naruto’s cycles had been almost too accurately regular for the past nine years.

Naruto grinned at her, his faint whisker-like scars stretching across his cheeks, “Thanks again Granny!” He paused, hesitating on his next statement before deciding to ask her anyways. “Uchiha Sasuke’s mate ceremony is in five days, should I be okay to go?”

“Hmm.. you should be fine to go, but make sure you have those suppressants on you just in case. Your heat this time looks a bit strange so just be careful brat,” the doctor finally responded. “Plus,” she smirked, “I thought you hated that kid”.

Naruto scowled. “Huh? Of course I do! It’s just that Sakura’s going to court him and she wants me to be there for support and blah blah blah all that stuff. That’s the only reason I’m going”.

Tsunade rolled her eyes at his outburst. “Yeah, yeah sure fine whatever. Just be careful, there’s going to be quite a few alphas there who might catch the scent of your heat and I really don’t want another rape victim ending up here, alright?” Naruto ignored the slight nervous twitch of his tail as he realised that of course there’d be alphas there! How could he have forgotten that?

Chewing on his bottom lip, he contemplated on whether he should call Sakura and cancel, though as soon as the thought hit, a frustration built up inside of him. “Damn alphas”, he muttered. He wasn’t going to let the fact that he was an omega stop him; Sakura was his best friend after all. In fact, the thought of potential rape didn’t scare him at all. Nuh-uh. Nope. Not one bit. Not. One. Bit.

Tsunade watched as the blonde’s emotions played out across his face, slightly amused by the fact that he had no idea how easy he was to read, especially with his tail jerking around nervously. Well, she knew he was scared nonetheless, any omega would be. The last thing anyone needed was an unwanted pregnancy or an unwanted mating mark, considering it’d be a very permanent and painful process for the omega to have to go through, though not so much the alpha. Yeah, Mother Nature was a bitch that way.

The blonde doctor sighed as she looked through her desk drawers. Thankfully, rape had finally been declared a crime and as a result, the rates had dropped over the last decade. As to why it hadn’t already been a crime was a mystery no one could solve. However, unfortunately there were still ways of getting around the system, and whilst rape is never ideal, it’s best to prepare for such an event anyway. Tsunade melancholily chuckled to herself at the idiocracy of that statement. Hopefully, a day would arrive when the Omega Rights Association ensured that omegas no longer had to live in fear of rape.

But as of right now, Naruto needed to protect his nape from mating marks. “Ah, there it is”, she muttered as she finally found the collar. “Here”, Tsunade said as she threw the black leather collar to the fox kid, startling him out of his reverie. “I doubt you have a collar since you never have the opportunity to encounter alphas, so I’ll give you this one”.

“Oh”, Naruto caught the collar, albeit fumbling to catch it in the process. “Thanks Tsunade”, he said forcing a smile at the protective, yet somehow degrading object. Turning it over in his hands, he admired the strength of the leather, knowing that it would protect him from permanent damage. Naruto brought the collar closer to his face to examine it before suddenly biting it, almost like a dog gnawing on a chew toy. Tsunade facepalmed, forever wondering why Kushina and Minato had left her in charge of this helpless child.

“Naruto… why are you biting it?”, she finally asked.

“I’m just testing to make sure you can’t bite through it”, he grinned at her. A glint of silver on the collar caught his eye. “Oh yeah, is there a key for this?”, he asked despite being unable to find a keyhole on the silver clasp.

“Nah, it actually uses your fingerprint to lock and unlock. Here, we’ll configure it now”. After fumbling with an app on her phone, which Naruto assumed was connected to the collar, she placed his index finger on the metal square of the clasp which prompted a message on her phone, indicating that configuration had been completed.

Tsunade smiled. “There you go. Try putting it on your neck now, we should probably check that it’s comfortable enough.” Naruto placed it around his neck, and with ease he locked the clasp before opening it up to ensure that he could, in fact, open it back up with his fingerprint. He locked it again, finding that the collar was comfortable enough against his neck, snug without restricting his breathing. Yet he frowned, more displeased with the concept of the collar than the physical feel of it. Naruto sighed, his tail drooping slightly. Well, there was nothing to be done about it anyway.

“Yeah, it’s comfortable”, he told the blonde doctor who was still waiting on a reply.

Tsunade smiled slightly, albeit a bit sad. “That’s good. Make sure you’re wearing it when you go to the ceremony, I know it’s a bit demeaning but it’ll protect you in the worst case. Are you going to be taking off work today?”

“Nah”, Naruto responded. “I need to make money somehow, and I won’t be able to be as efficient once my heat hits.”

“Well alright then brat, I’ll see you later”, Tsunade stated as the blonde began to leave her clinic. “Make sure you call if something happens!”

Naruto waved back, his fox tail swishing from side to side almost as if it were waving back too. “Okay Granny!!” He grinned.

With his medication safely in his bag, the fox hummed as he headed off to his part time job.

xxx

Uchiha Sasuke glared at the blank canvas before him, before scowling and deciding that the pure nothingness of it had personally offended him in some way.

“Little brother, are you still sulking?” A deep voice echoed behind Sasuke, his black cat tail jerking up in surprise before curling around his waist. Sighing, he turned around only to be faced with the perfect posture he had long associated with his older brother.

“Sulking about what?” The younger Uchiha replied in a monotonous tone, refusing to give away any information. But as usual, Itachi was able to see right through him. The man had lived with him for over 20 years after all, so it wasn’t unexpected and yet that small detail only served to irritate Sasuke even more.

“Oh, are we pretending that your mating ceremony, which you so adamantly refused for two years, isn’t coming up in five days?” Itachi replied drily. “Sorry, guess I didn’t get the memo we were playing pretend”.

Closing his eyes, Sasuke pinched the bridge of his nose as he exhaled a groan of frustration. “God damn it is it your mission in life to make mine so miserable?”

“Well of course it is”.

“...It was a rhetorical question”, Sasuke stated through gritted teeth before smirking. “Or maybe you just failed Literature that badly”.

“Sure, but you’re going to fail your Visual Arts course soon if you keep this up”, Itachi glanced over to the blank canvas before raising an eyebrow at the lack of progress.

Sasuke abstractedly stroked the end of his black cat tail as he sighed. “Yeah..”

Itachi stared at his usually stoic brother in contemplation, both amused and concerned at the fact that he was displaying such a wide range of emotions before reaching the conclusion that the ceremony had affected him more than he thought. Reaching his hand forward, he poked Sasuke on the forehead eliciting a yelp of alarm.

“What’d you do that for?” the young alpha whined. “Can’t you see I’m suffering enough?”

“You know, even though Father is pressuring you to find a mate, it doesn’t mean you need to actually pick one out”, Itachi paused. “Just focus on your project. It’s the path you chose for yourself after all”.

Sasuke scowled as he watched his older brother walk away without a care in the world before resuming his initial glare at the still-blank canvas. The project was due in a month, and whilst he had started on the day it had been issued, he just could not tap into any inspiration during the last two months.

The brunette glanced over at the other canvasses in his blue-walled study. Over the last two months, Sasuke had completed no less than five artworks. Graphite, pastel, acrylic, oil, charcoal. Nothing had worked. Mountains and oceans and trees and rivers; it all just didn’t feel right to him. As if something was missing - some minor yet crucial detail that he had forgotten somewhere and couldn’t find again.

Standing up from his chair, Sasuke walked over to his bed before falling face first into his black bed sheet covers. Adding on to the stress of the art project was the mate ceremony that he had finally agreed to, for what reason he couldn’t understand why.

xxx

“Sasuke”

Sasuke paused the movement of his chopsticks, bringing them back down to his bowl as he turned to look at his Father, inwardly groaning at the inevitable conversation.

“Yes, Father?”

“Sasuke, your Mother and I think that it’s about time you found a mate. We need an heir to carry on our family name.”

Sasuke’s eyes twitched infinitesimally. “I’m only 20. Itachi’s almost 26 but you haven’t forced him to find a mate.”

“Yes”, Fugaku glanced over at Itachi who seemed to be paying no mind to the conversation, yet all at the dinner table instinctively knew he was. “Itachi has resisted all advances from his lovely omega suitors, for reasons he has not yet revealed. Which is why-”

“Which is why you need me to fuck an omega and produce children”, Sasuke finished monotonously, having heard the same speech a thousand times.

“Sasuke”, Mikoto said, placing her bowl down. “Please, no cursing in this house, much less at dinner. Could you just hold the ceremony and at least meet with all the omegas? Maybe you’ll find one you like, maybe you won’t. We’re not asking for much here; we just want you to be happy.”

Sasuke’s poker face melted at the soft voice of his Mother. He exhaled deeply at the thought of holding the ceremony which he had resisted for the past two years. Well, it was true he didn’t have to find a mate immediately, and maybe his Father would stop pestering him about it.

He turned back to look at Fugaku, his tail curling in on itself behind his back as he prepared to speak the words which he so dreaded.

“Fine. I’ll hold the ceremony like you want, Father. But I don’t plan on fuc-finding a mate immediately.” Sasuke stood up from the dinner table, his appetite lost as he carried his bowl to the sink.

“That’s all I want, Sasuke”, Fugaku’s voice echoed behind Sasuke as he walked towards his bedroom, flinching at the sound of his Father’s voice.

xxx

A buzzing sound broke him out of his reverie. Sasuke groaned as he half-heartedly felt across his bed for his phone before sitting upright on his bed.

“What’s up, Sai?” he answered groggily.

“Bro do you have ten dicks in your mouth or something? What’s wrong with your voice?” The ever so annoying voice of his Visual Arts partner echoed in his ear.

“Fuck off, what do you want?”

“Dude I understand you don’t want to answer whether or not you have dicks in your mouth, but next time make sure you call me since I’m more than happy to go.”

“What. Do. You. Want.”

The annoying jabber of Sai paused for a moment, making Sasuke check whether or not the call was still going before it returned.

“I heard you’re finally holding that mate ceremony.”

“Yeah, what about it?”

“Bro I didn’t know you weren’t asexual! Otherwise I would’ve made my advances a long time ag-”

Sasuke hung up, failing to find the energy to deal with Sai at the current moment. Plopping back on his bed, he stared up at his ceiling; a ceiling as white as his canvas. Yet he kept staring up at it, as if his ceiling was the key to unlocking the inspiration and motivation he needed for his art piece. He sighed, his eyelids slowly drifting shut as his body decided that it needed a break from all the stress he shouldered.

As Sasuke sank into unconsciousness, a small image popped up behind his retinas. A yellow daffodil amongst a sea of exquisite white and red roses, and yet somehow the daffodil was the most beautiful.

[gigiree]

Finders Keepers, Losers...would really like their umbrella back

Day 2 Day 3 and 4 please note that these are all a continuous story!:) for Day 5/6 kleptomaniac and library! Another one that combines two prompts :0

The only one he has to blame is himself. He had a choice. Community service, after that grand rallying of forces from so many different countries and villages, meant he could have performed his civic duty anywhere the alliance had slipped its grabby little hands into.

But Naruto was here and so was Sakura, and his countersuit was still underway. He could have asked Hiromi Hyuuga to handle proceedings without him, but Sasuke has always been a stubborn brute. He likes keeping his business close, likes being able to oversee things with those sharp eyes of his.

He had been the one to choose working at Konoha library as his community service. He had been the one who’d written his prideful, pretty name on that sign up sheet.

And now he could kill his past self from sheer boredom.

He’s spent that last three weeks buried under tomes. Mountains and mountains of books ranging from interesting topics like experimental genjutsu to dumb things like the history of the daikon radish.

It’s all blurred in his mind. Open book, stamp date, check in. Oh, a visitor. welcome them, tell them to shut up but in a polite way, and check out their books while giving them false well wishes.

(He won’t admit it, but the decrepit old woman who oversees him from behind shining spectacles gives him the shivers.)

He tries to renew his mind by learning a bit more, reading a historical novel that paints the relationship between Hashirama and Madara as a bit more than friends turned enemies…cough…lovers…cough.

He hadn’t known it would be like this, but he’s already ten chapters in, and he can’t stop reading. He’s already on the breakaway chapter, the one where Madara abandons the village and betrays the first Hokage.

He’s in the grips of the emotions, the last bits of a bond fraying into an eons long fight. Despite the romantic undertones, the writing is so evocative, that it leaves him intrigued.

He’s interrupted from his reverie by a soft cough.

“Umm…that’s a great book…although I think it’s lacking in accuracy.”

Her voice startles him more than her comment. He’d been picturing her, in the two or three moments he did think about her, sweating away under some house built into a tree, teaching kids with clammy hands and running noses about the chakra system.

He’d pictured her, her hair up in a loose bun, in her jounin vest, hands dancing with her excited explanations.

Look, it’s not like he had spent a lot of time at all thinking about her. It’s just that the sharingan makes sure that all his thoughts are realistic and accurate…it’s not like he’s consciously memorized the slope of her neck and the curve of her smile, or that odd little freckle on her temple.

Regardless, her smile is here and her neck is rising out of a cream colored sweater that looks too big for her. Her hair is in a loose braid, not a bun, and her smile is strained, not soft at all.

He’s not sure if it’s his surprise or his latent embarrassment at being caught reading a historical romance that makes him speak.

“It’s terrible.”

Her smile softens then.

“But the emotions are written well, it’s almost believable, right? I mean, if we hadn’t seen them both ourselves…I could have almost believed it.”

He pauses, and feels a pang of fear when he notices the old librarian staring at him skeptically from her desk across the hall. He closes the book with a businesslike mien, and plasters the most awkward smile Hinata has ever seen.

“Good evening Hyuuga-san, how may I help you?”

She coughs once. Coughs again before bringing up her hands to hide her face. He can hear her quiet snickers, and he feels his wounded pride prick in his chest for revenge.

“If you’re looking for the erotic novels, they’re towards the back, call numbers starting with XXX.” He says plainly and a little too loudly.

The old librarian shoots him a dirty look, but Hinata’s coughing fit makes it all worthwhile. —

Turns out, she hadn’t been looking for the erotic novels. She’d wanted heavily guarded scrolls that detailed the anatomy of the Hyuuga seal.

He pulls out a heavy ring of ancient keys, some of them very ornate and inlaid with gemstones. The rest are rusty and jangle with a hollow ring.

He lays them down on his desk, still replaying the horrified look on her face when he’d accused her of looking up erotica. His satisfaction carries him through the boring transaction. It keeps his questions from resurfacing. He doesn’t care.

He shouldn’t care.

It’s just…

“Do you have your permission form? From the Hokage or the Hyuuga clan head, whoever that is-” He seems to realize that their positions have been flipped. He remembers a few details about her family…she’s the eldest of the former clan head. “Never mind. You can just give yourself permission, right?”

He wants to say more, but the question seems to bring a look of bitter sadness, and her eyes turn flinty. She hastily pulls out a slip emblazoned with the Hyuuga flame and the characters that spell out the name of the clan head.

‘Hanabi Hyuuga’

She looks askance, her fingers fiddling with the hem of sweater.

He doesn’t remark on it, even if his expectations have been dashed. He’s not disappointed in her. He barely knows her enough to make any sorts of judgement, but she’s taking it all so quietly, he feels a sense of irritation for her that takes him by surprise again.

Perhaps it’s because she had been given a chance of birth and she hadn’t taken it? Perhaps it’s because she seems like she’s just bounding through life, uncontrolled and without direction?

Regardless, he feels a sense of vindication in giving her detailed instructions. As if he’s scolding an errant child.

“You can’t take these documents outside of the holding room. Any notes you make are yours to keep, but the originals have to return to storage as soon as you’re done.”

She seems startled by his specific and slightly condescending instructions. She’d expected from him the same sorts of pity and questions she had received from everyone else. It’s a relief and also a puzzling response.

“You’re talking a lot more.” She observes quietly.

He merely shrugs, tilting his head towards the book stacks to show her where to follow and probably to disprove her statement. Somehow, this makes her feel like smiling again. She follows him down five rows of book stacks to the an old wooden door set in the back.

It’s non-descript, save for the keyhole circled by an array of precious stones and a set of kanji. Sasuke efficiently finds the key he’s looking for, rubs his thumb over its handle to input some chakra, and then shoves itinto its slot with practiced ease.

She sees the characters flare blue and then hears the long winded metallic clicking as the door unlocks itself and swings inwards.

The room inside is also very unimpressive, given the elegant security system. At its center is a long, low table ringed by plush red chairs. The walls are hung with glass cases housing precious scrolls of all kinds.

Sasuke doesn’t wait, merely walks over to the nearest case and uses another key to open it up. His hands are are skilled, careful as he picks up a frayed scroll and unfurls it on the table in front of her.

“Hyuuga Seal Scroll. Read it. Return it. That’s it.” He says quietly and then leaves her by herself to go back to his post at the welcome desk.

She stops him with a request.

“Speaking of returning things, my umbrella?”

He pauses for a bit, looks over his shoulder at her and smirks.

“It’s mine now.” —

She doesn’t stay for very long. Half an hour at most, and then she’s pressed the call button under the table to get his attention.

He sees the notification seal flare blue on his desk, and without a word, heads over to help her lock up the scroll again.

She looks a little dissatisfied when she leaves, and he’s not surprised to see her come back a few days later.

“I didn’t get all the information I needed.” She says dispassionately, and hands him her freshly signed permission form.

He nods and repeats the whole process again.

This time she stays for an hour or so, and when she leaves, she looks a little more energized. Her cheeks are flushed and her eyes are shining under the dark lighting of the room.

He wants to ask why exactly she’s so happy, but she merely thanks him and hugs her notes closer to her chest.

She doesn’t come back that week, but when Sasuke takes his cursory inventory of the room, his Sharingan catches an inaccuracy in the Hyuuga scrolls’ case.

The Caged Bird Sealed Scroll is there, furled up and protected. But the edges of it seem too perfect. They are frayed, and had he been anyone else, he may not have noticed.

He pulls out it carefully to examine it, and inside lies a blank scroll save for a silly smiley face with its tongue sticking out and a cheerful message-

“This is mine…just for now. I promise I’ll return it, but I need to study it at home for reasons. Please don’t tell anyone…or else I’ll tell Naruto that you read romance novels about Madara and Hashirama…also, if you want more historically accurate romances, I would look at the story of the second Daimyo and his secret lover. It’s a sweet story and has lots of political intrigue.”

-H.

[recluse-art]

momentum - 5

chapter 5

[ch 1][ch 2][ch 3][ch 4]

Stress permeated the campus air - it was finals week and students were frantically attempting to cram a semester's worth of information in the span of several days and complete presentations and papers and projects. More than a few were running on lethal amounts of caffeine and Adderall.

They were working on practice exams in the group study area of the library when one of the chairs at their table was pulled out and the intruder plopped into the seat as if they belonged there.

"Hey guys!" Naruto greeted and started unpacking his notes and textbooks. "So glad I found you two, I couldn't find a single open desk or table in this place."

"Hi Naruto," Hinata greeted warmly, perking up to the distraction from the monotonous problems.

Sasuke briefly acknowledged the blonde's presence before turning back to his work - they still had another physics practice exam left to complete.

"You'd think the library would be emptier at 2 AM on a Friday."

With an irritable tone, Sasuke stated, "It's finals week, dobe."

"Fuck dude, it sure is," he sighed and picked up a pencil.

The political science major rifled through his notes and textbooks but quickly became bored - there was so much to study and so little time to study with. It was all very daunting so he watched his quiet friends instead.

When Hinata turned to Sasuke to ask about a specific problem she was stuck on, Naruto was surprised to see him helping her without sass or impatience. While he was best friends with the Uchiha and cared for him dearly, he had to admit that Sasuke was not exactly known for being nice or even remotely helpful. In fact, he was kind of a bastard sometimes.

The blonde interjected, "What are you guys studying?"

Tired lavender eyes peeled away from the never ending practice sheet.

"Physics," she explained glumly.

"Well you're in good hands!" He said emphatically, with a wide grin.

She blinked at him in questioning.

"Yeah, this punk" - he pointed to Sasuke - "took AP Physics in high school and got a 5 on the exam! But he's crazy and wanted to retake physics in college," Naruto remarked with a perplexed expression.

Not registering the shadow that set over Sasuke's features, Naruto continued, "He's actually a physics whiz! He was a part of this nerdy science/math competition and he set a record score for the physics section - it made the news and everything."

Some of her fatigue ebbed and she raised a brow at him, amused. Sasuke schooled his expression to remain neutral and he could not meet her gaze. Instead he stared straight ahead at the rambling blonde, willing him to just stop talking please.

"He went to nationals after and took home the trophy, of course," he bragged about his best friend. "That thing is like, this tall!" He emulated the proportions with his hands, definitely exaggerating.

Before Sasuke could stop her, Hinata reached over to her laptop to Google his name. "U-chi-ha Sa-su-ke," she quietly mouthed the syllables as she typed.

He watched in horror as the trusty search engine pulled up results within 0.62 seconds and he was greeted with old photos from high school and headlines proclaiming of a physics prodigy.

'Hello darkness, my old friend…' played in his head as she clicked on the images tab and he was assaulted with even more embarrassing stills. Stones sank to the pit of his stomach, but she looked absolutely delighted to be perusing Sasuke's awful, awful high school pictures, eyes riveted to the screen.

"Your sense of style has improved," she offered, containing her laughter by pressing her lips together.

The arm warmers worn by the teen in the photos haunted him, as did the popped collar and partially unbuttoned shirt - good god who let him attend the competition like that? No, the better question was: who let him leave the house like that?

Naruto hoisted his body across the table to look at her computer and let out a hearty chuckle. "Our boy Sasuke had an edgy emo phase," he then glanced at the sullen man's outfit, a dark hoodie and similarly dark jeans. "Actually, he might still be in it."

Sasuke wanted to be anywhere else but here, in the library with his past exposed to the girl he was absolutely infatuated with.

Noticing his taciturn attitude, Hinata threaded her fingers into his bangs to brush them away from his eyes, "But I think your hair has gotten messier."

The lavender pools conveyed mirth and her lingering touch on his temple made his pulse race, face heating to an uncomfortable temperature. Any existing thoughts went up in smoke with her simple actions; if his brain was a computer, Sasuke.exe would have stopped working.

"Aww, Sasuke's embarrassed," Naruto teased in a belittling voice, snapping him out of his reverie.

As much as he wanted to lean into the warmth of her palm, he did the opposite and returned to his homework. Her hand dropped back to her side and he secretly mourned the loss.

Letting his bangs fall over his eyes and obscure his features, he did what he did best and tuned out his surroundings.

He was in the midst of solving problem 28 when he felt familiar fingers sweep his bangs away from his face once again. Caught off guard, he reflexively turned to the person playing with his hair.

"Ah, wait," Hinata was careful not to tug on his scalp with his sudden movement.

He held still, waiting patiently for her to finish.

Despite his best efforts, a shiver traveled down his spine at her ministrations. He almost sighed in pleasure at how good it felt to have her running her fingers through his tresses.

Thinking she accidentally pulled too hard, she apologized. "Sorry, did that hurt?"

"No." Quite the opposite, actually, but he wouldn't dare say it out loud. He would gladly let her play with his hair as much as her heart desired. Hell, he would let her touch him anytime she wanted - no questions asked.

A light snore drew his attention to a sleeping blonde on the other side of the table. That was quick. Though Naruto never had the focus to study for long periods of time anyways.

As she gathered his hair in a ponytail, she whispered to avoid waking their friend up. "Sorry for making fun of you," he could tell she was smiling, "I actually thought you were cute."

She just finished tying the upper half of it back, since the rest was too short, when he turned around in his seat to look at her. "Were?" he emphasized the past tense with a tilt of his head.

"Don't fret, you still are," she assured him with a grin and a pat on the cheek.

Grabbing her wrist before she could pull away, he pressed his lips to her soft palm. "What a relief," he replied wryly, a smirk gracing his features.

A blush bloomed on her face and her laughter was a little off - he could tell she was flustered.

Good. He wanted to be the one that threw off her composure.

Releasing her hand to let her return to her seat, he replayed the scene in his head and relished in the sensation of her fingers buried in his hair. Idly, he wondered what it would feel like to have her hands elsewhere...

Hinata's nerves were rattled; the ghost of his kiss seemed to be burned into her skin and she had trouble focusing on anything else.

They continued to do their homework, though physics was the last thing on either of their minds.

[mmi98-ff]

Title: Forever and Always Summary: Sasuke was expected home later than usually, Sakura's got a surprise to tell him but, will she have the chance to do so? Is Sasuke going to be okay? What's going on? Will everything be okay? Rating: K+ Genres: Romance, Tragedy Characters: Sakura Haruno, Sasuke Uchiha Disclaimer: I don’t own Naruto Warning: Character Death Link: [ffn]

“Sakura, I’m sorry but I’m going to be a little late coming home. There are still matters to settle in the company. I promise to be back as soon as I can. I have to go now, I love you.”

That was 5 pm, about 3 hours ago. Sakura had just came home from the hospital she worked, as the head of her department. She was hoping Sasuke would be back earlier so that she could tell him the news she just found out.

She checked her phone for any signs of missed calls or unread messages but she found none. She walked to the window, opened the curtain to look at the driveway hoping that maybe Sasuke’s just about to park his car or about to get off his car.

‘He should be back by now.’ She thought as she closed back the curtains. She took her phone and put it to her ear.

“Hey Sak!” Naruto answered enthusiastically after the third ring.

“Hey Naruto, is Sasuke with you, by any chance?” Sakura asked, nervous.

“No, I’m already home, actually. We left at the same time at around 7:30. He should have been back by now.” Naruto replied, sounding serious,

“Oh, really? I see.” Sakura said, solemnly.

“Maybe he’s just caught in some traffic? Your house is further than mine.” Naruto proposed, trying to decrease her worry.

“Yeah, you’re right. I’ll just wait for him then. Sorry to bother you, Naruto. And, send my regards to Hinata, okay?”

“No, no. It wasn’t any bother at all and thank you.”

‘Maybe he’s stuck in traffic.’ She convinced herself.

She decided that watching TV would be a good distraction while waiting for her fiancé of six months to come show up so that they could start dinner together.

After minutes of worrying, she walked to the kitchen and decided to make a cup of hot tea while waiting. She poured water to the kettle and placed it on the stove and waited for the water to boil. As the water heated, she took out a ceramic cup, a tea bag and sugar out of the cupboard.

She remembered when they first started dating. They were 16. Sasuke always waited for her to make her cup of they before starting on their homework. he found it ridiculously weird that people would put sugar in their tea.

“It’s a such a waste of good tea!” Sakura remembered as she giggled.

She then remembered how he proposed to her, 6 months ago.

They were making tea, well actually Sasuke was. And, yes, you guessed it; the tea wasn’t sweet at all. After she took a sip of it, she marched to the cupboard to take the sugar but couldn’t find it in its usual place.

“Looking for this?” Sasuke asked, smirking.

“Yes! You know I don’t like my tea without sugar in it!” Sakura whined childishly. She then walked to where Sasuke stood on the opposite side of where she was holding the container full of sugar goodness that he absolutely detested.

Sakura was about to grab it when Sasuke lifted his arm, which had the hand that was holding on the the container high up. Higher than what Sakura could’ve reached even if she tiptoed.

She started to whine again, until Sasuke relentlessly gave in. She then stood on her toes and gave him a small peck on the lips before going to the drawer to retrieve a teaspoon to scoop up the sugar. As she was about to do so, she realised there was a hard object in the pile of sugar. She hit it with the metal spoon to locate where the unknown object was and picked it up.

She took it out, along with a pile of sugar that was scooped up. She tried holding on to the object with her thumb while tipping the spoon to the left so that the unwanted sugar particles would end up going back to the pile where it was from.

It was a ring with the Uchiha emblem on it.

As she took in what she was holding, she did not realise Sasuke was already behind her until she felt arms encircling her tiny waist as he placed his chin on her shoulder while whispering to her ear.

“I want to be with you, forever and always. I want to grow old with you and be with you through the good and the bad. So, Sakura Haruno, will you marry me?” He asked softly.

She didn’t give a reply. He looked at her and asked.

“Is that a no?” He asked, slightly worried.

“Yes! I mean, yes to the ‘Will you marry me?” not the “Is that a no?” She replied, crying tears of joy.

The sound of the kettle took her out of her reverie. She walked to where the kettle sat and poured the water to the cup. She left it alone for two minuntes before placing the teabag on the saucer she took from the cupboard. She was about to open the container of sugar but decided against it.

After placing back the items in the cupboards, she got back to the couch. As she was about to sip her tea when her phone rang.

“Hello?” Sakura spoked to the unknown caller.

“Good evening, is this where Sasuke Uchiha resides?” the voice asked.

“Yes, it is.”

“May I know who I am speaking to and what relation you have with Mr. Uchiha?” the voice seems familiar.

“Sakura Haruno, his fiancée. May I know what happened?” Sakura asked again, as her heart beat increased drastically when asked.

“He… He was in an accident. He’s here at the hospital right no, the doctors are checking up on him right now.” The voice replied in a soft voice.

That was all it took for Sakura to drop her phone and ran to the door, taking her doctor coat and car keys with her. She dashed to her car and rushed her way off her driveway. Her freshly brewed tea all forgotten now.

Sakura sped down the road, not caring about speed limits or police officers that may have been chasing her. The usual ten minutes drive took less than five minutes.

She shifted the gear to N and tossed the keys to the valet as she put her white coat on.

“Where is Sasuke Uchiha?” She almost barked to the receptionist.

“He’s at OR 10. Tsunade-sama is on her way there right now.” Shizune replied, instead of the scared receptionist. Tsunade was only paged for serious damages.

“Tell me what happened, Shizune!” Sakura yelled as her voice choked, tears threatening to fall from her eyes.

“He was brought here by the ambulance at 8:43 PM. He was found by the old shortcut that is rarely used. Nobody knew his car had crashed there until an old man at the convenient store nearby spotted him. The driver’s area of the car was smashed…” Shizune rambled on as she walked down the halls to lead Sakura to Sasuke.

Sakura has been walking through these hallways every single day for years, yet now it just felt like a never-ending maze.

She finally reached the operating room.  Shizune pulled her to the side before she could push open the operating doors. She almost broke protocol by not wearing scrubs, not sterilising her hands and not putting rubber gloves.

As she entered, she saw a nurse taking out tiny shards of glass from a man who’s head was bleeding. He had a concussion from when his head hit against the steering wheel and worse when a shard of broken glass attacked the right side of his head. Tsunade was working on his internal organs with her group of specialists.

Sakura was about to stop the bleeding when Tsunade stopped her.

“Sakura, you are in no condition to be in this operating room right now. Your hands are shaking.” Tsunade said, softly.

“Shizune, escort her out now.” Tsunade commanded. Shizune’s reply was a curt nod and took Sakura out of the room.

“God! I feel helpless! I’m a surgeon, for crying out loud!”” Sakura said, her voice too weak to yell. Her head was in her hand as she waited.

45 minutes into the surgery, the OR light dimmed, showing the procedure was done.

The door opened. Sasuke was moved to a hospital bed now, still unconscious. He was wheeled out of the room and was going to be transferred to a private room.

“What happened to him? Are his internal organs bleeding? Is he internally bleeding?” If she weren’t so panicked and worried right now, she would realise that she just basically asked the same question twice.

“He was, but I stopped it. He would be unconscious for a little while longer as he loss a lot of blood. Normally, he shouldn’t even be alive right now with that much blood loss. Even I have never seen anything like this before. He must have tried to stay for you Sakura.” Tsunade said, with a comforting pat on the shoulder before going to the other way. Sakura couldn’t reply at all, only able to just nod slowly.

“What room is he in?”

“Room 2328. We have him stabled, but he needs his rest. You can go see him now, I’ll call in the others for you, alright?” Tsunade said.

Sakura immediately took off, speed-walking through the hallways, throng of people, trying not to bump into them. She finally reached the room. A nurse was setting up his IV when she went in. She nodded silently at the nurse before the nurse left. She walked up to where he was and took hold of his hand tightly. Her eyes were red now and started sobbing.

“Sasuke, remember how we talked about kids? How you wanted the firstborn to be a girl while I wanted it to be a boy? Well, guess what? Both of us are having our dreams come true. I’m pregnant with twins! I was gonna tell you today. Remember our dream house we were going to build once we had a bigger family? The one by the hillside? The one that would be our permanent home no matter what? The one we promised to grow old together in? You promised to always remember, no matter what.”

After a few minutes, that felt like hours to her, eyes fluttered and opened to show two obsidian eyes staring back at her.

“Sakura.” He said. That voice made her look up and thank all the Gods up there for making Sasuke gain consciousness faster. At that moment, everyone close to them were there, both family and friends. Sasuke couldn’t believe people went to see him at this hour.

A sudden idea then popped into Sakura’s mind. She pressed the emergency button and requested a chaplain to come in the room. Sakura then asked Fugaku and Mikoto if she could borrow their rings. They obliged almost immediately, understanding what she was trying to do. Tsunade entered. Sakura told her what she wanted to do.

Tsunade adjusted his bed to sit up as Tsunade said a couple verses. Sasuke put the ring on her left ring finger. After he did so, she placed the ring on his left ring finger.

“I want you forever, forever and always. Through all the good and bad times, we’ll grow old together, I just know it. And, I’ll always love you no matter if we are happy or sad or whatever. I’ll always love you forever, Sasuke.” Sakura vowed as she sobbed. She ended the vow with a real genuine smile on her tear-stained face.

As she finished her vows, the stable beeps started getting slower and slower. She looked at the beeping machine, hoping for the best. Sasuke made her look at him by tugging her hand.

“I love you forever, forever and always. Please just remember even if I’m not there anymore, remember that I’ll always love you. Forever and always.” Sasuke said, his voice almost too low to hear.

The beeping slowly diminished and the machine finally made a long, monotonous sound.

Sakura started crying more hysterically now. She tried doing CPR and Ino tried shocking him with the machine. Nothing helped.

“Sasuke! You weren’t suppose to leave! Please wake up! You promised, Sasuke!” Sakura screamed as she tried shaking him awake. Everyone in the room was crying and comforting each other.

“Tsunade. Please tell me this is a joke. Tell me that he’s just playing a prank on me. Tell me this is not real! He was alright a second before!” Sakura turned to her mentor.

“I’m sorry Sakura. I’m truly sorry.” Tsunade said; a tear escaped one of her eyes.

“Sakura, listen to me.” A voice said. She looked up.

“Sakura, my brother may be physically gone, but he will live on with us forever. Just, be strong.” Itachi comforted as he took his new sister-in-law in for a hug as she hiccuped.

“Remember, he’ll always love you. Forever and always.”