#because itachi always came across to me as incredibly sure of himself. always knew who he was and what he needed to do

[everykabuto]

[7team7]

Choosing Fate: Chapter 9

A delicate balance. // Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5, Chapter 6, Chapter 7, Chapter 8 

A/N: hi sorry I keep forgetting to update here lol, I should also add my snippets that I put on twitter ahh

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“Don’t do anything Itachi wouldn’t,” Fugaku warned Sasuke before heading out. The small party walked slowly off into the distance and Sasuke squinted when he realized they were taking a route that would surely delay their journey. Perhaps that particular path was longer and more roundabout, but flatter and easier on Izumi’s swollen feet. He shut the door when he couldn’t make out any of their features beyond the signature dark hair.

“They have a son, that means we’re off the hook for a while, right?” Sakura joked weakly from behind him. The clan had already become obsessed with young Ishida, clamoring all over each other to hold him.

He purposely ignored thinking about producing another heir. He turned away from the door and lightly placed a hand on her shoulder, “You did well,” he praised. “You should rest now.” As much as everyone cooed over the baby, they weren’t willing to actually do the heavy lifting like Sakura. Izumi’s body was, naturally, still recovering and she needed all the substantial help she could get.

Sakura chuckled lightly to hide her shyness, “I’m not the one who had the baby, but thanks. And how are you feeling about it?” This new development seemed to push Itachi onto an even higher pedestal in Fugaku’s eyes even if the sex of the baby was completely random.

Sasuke shrugged, “I’m an uncle now.” He didn’t want to think about it much beyond that.

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They settled into separate routines: Sakura resumed her regular training with Tsunade and Sasuke picked up his father’s work wherever he could. Because of the extra work, he couldn’t walk her to her destination anymore. It was strange how little they saw of each other. It felt like every time Sasuke put one thing down, Sakura picked another one up and he was getting restless. He expected to appreciate the peace and quiet, but he was feeling a little ignored. He was lonely. He looked for hints of pink and green everywhere, and grew frustrated when they were nowhere to be found.

“Going out?” he’d ask her after she prepared breakfast and packed a lunch for him. He didn’t even ask her to, but she always did it and always included his favorites. Having the house to themselves meant they didn’t have to compete with everyone else’s food preferences, and even then, she added extra spice to his food and never offered him sweets because she knew he’d always turn them down. These small acts of intimacy were strange to him.

“Yes, don’t worry about it,” she’d answer pleasantly in that sweet voice of hers. But something in the tone of her voice was reassuring, as if she assumed he wanted to make sure she’d be out of his hair when in fact, it was the opposite. Would it kill her to stay home and rest one day? No, it wouldn’t, just like he knew no patients would die without her flitting over to her mentor’s home for the day. But he wasn’t sure how to say all that, so he stewed in his own bitterness. He watched her back as she walked out the front door, taking note of how long her hair had become.

All the extra time alone made him question his own daily activities. Why did he follow in his father’s footsteps again? As he braved the more-chaotic-than-ever marketplace on his own again, he couldn’t come up with an answer. The face reflected back at him from his family’s shiny knives seemed to laugh at him. He looked like an Uchiha, but lately, he wasn’t feeling like one.

Sakura didn’t seem to have this problem.

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Their routines were suddenly disrupted and they both were forced to stay indoors when a storm threatened to dump water and lightning all over the village. Sakura peered out the window at the heavy gray clouds rolling in, “It’s not even worth trying today if I get caught in the rain.” She didn’t know it, but Tsunade was curled up on the couch with a cup of sake, already expecting Sakura to stay home.

He had plans to sell some things at the market, but surely this weather would drive all the customers away. It seemed that he had to stay put too. Sakura proudly declared she was going to catch up on some reading, so he took the time to look over their financial documents to make sure all was in order. Maybe Father was just getting old, but he thought he noticed some discrepancies last time he glanced at them.

Sasuke didn’t realize how long he’d been sitting in one position until a clap of thunder and lightning stirred him. He was sitting on one side of the table and looked up at Sakura, expecting her to still be turning pages in her book.

Instead, she was draped across the book, totally asleep. In the fading light, her hair became a dusky rose and it spilled across the table like a pile of petals. He tsked to himself, what a silly woman. How could that be comfortable?

He stood up, readying himself to wash up before bed. But he hardly took one step out of the kitchen area before looking back at his wife.

Her neck would become sore. And she would become cold. What was he going to do, leave her there all night?

He sighed. His decision was made. Gently, as not to wake her up, he slid his hands under her body and scooped her up to carry her to the actual bed. She was light, but he stiffened briefly when he felt her nestle into his chest. He held her a little tighter, a little closer. She was warm, too. He wouldn’t say he breathed in her scent, but he couldn’t help but notice the way she smelled of fragrant jasmine tea when he was this close.

She didn’t stir again until he had finally, delicately, placed her on their bed.

“Wha’s going on?” she mumbled, still half asleep.

“I’m taking you to bed,” he said quietly.

She turned over onto her side and Sasuke draped the covers over her body, bringing them all the way up to her chin. She settled deeper into the mattress and before knocking out again, sighed, “Ah, that’s nice, darling.”

Sasuke was wide awake all night, acutely aware of the warm body slumbering next to him.  

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Something snapped two days later.

He was watching from their bed as she tidied up some of her hair ornaments on the dresser. Her hands were dainty, but he knew they had become a bit rough lately. Her head was bowed and she couldn’t see him, but he was staring very intently.

Why was the curve of his wife’s neck so alluring? When did he start noticing these things? It was just skin, just a body part. But no matter how hard he tried convincing himself that her anatomy didn’t affect him, his mouth still became dry and his heart still beat a little faster.

When she started changing her clothes in front of him, he had to speak up.

“What are you doing?” he asked, more surprised than anything, but his words came out with a harsh edge.

“Uh, changing? I’d like to get into my sleep clothes so I can go to bed soon.” It was incredibly sweet of Sasuke to bring her to bed the other night (something she couldn’t help but blush over), but she woke up feeling a bit yucky that she was wearing her normal clothes in bed.

“Next time give me a warning,” he grumbled, turning away to stare at a random spot on the wall.

Sakura walked over and put a hand on his broad shoulder, but he jerked at her sudden touch. She frowned down at him, “Why are you so jumpy?” She really only meant to talk to him.

“It’s too quiet in here,” he grumbled.

She pulled back as if she’d been burned, “Sorry, maybe we can get a chaperone again.”

“There’s no need to be dramatic.”

“Oh please,” she snorted, “try taking your own advice.” For at least a week he had been leaving the house with a dramatic flourish of his cloak.

“Don’t be difficult.”

She laughed without humor, “Really, Sasuke? I think you’re the difficult one.”

His eyes narrowed, “What makes you say that?” For someone who often babbled when nervous, she sounded quite sure of herself.

She smiled to herself and it filled his chest with an unnamed emotion. “I think you miss me,” she said haughtily.

“And just why the hell would you think that?” he growled, standing up and walking closer to her, invading her space as if he scared her anymore.

She continued even as she got backed up against a wall, “You like spending time with me. You like it when we’re together. So you get grumpy when we’re apart and it’s easier to blame me for being somewhere else than to accept that you miss your wife.”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Oh really? Well, then how could I? You barely ever talk to me!”

“There’s no need.” He thought their communication had been fairly decent, to be honest. What was there to talk about?

“You’re sullen and closed off.”

“And you’re annoying,” he seethed before swiftly leaning down to pin her against the wall and kiss her harshly. She made a small noise of surprise, but didn’t struggle. His eyes were screwed shut, and hers first widened in surprise, then fluttered closed. She would have evaporated if he looked at her with that intense stare she had come to know so well.  

She wasn’t very annoying to him when he was kissing her, she thought hazily. Rather, when they were kissing, he was very attentive. Despite his earlier stormy aura, he pulled back so his kiss wasn’t so bruising and his hand carded tenderly through her hair.

“Sasuke-kun,” she whispered against his lips.

A shiver wracked his body. She had never called him that before. He licked his lips and pulled away to look into her seaglass eyes. “What is it, my wife?”

She looped her arms around his neck and scratched lightly at his scalp, “I just want you to talk to me.” She felt his shoulders relax even more. Hm, who would’ve thought to use her womanly charms to get her husband to open up?

“About?”

“Anything, everything. You and me, maybe.”

He contemplated this and sighed. “It wasn’t supposed to be like this.”

“Like what?”

His brow creased deeply before he rendered her breathless with another kiss. “Like this. You’re the one who moved here. My life was supposed to stay the same. But no, you’ve come in and changed it all.”

“That’s not necessarily a bad thing.” She never wanted to intrude, but if he stayed in the same place for his entire life, Sakura had a feeling Sasuke would be deeply unhappy.

“No,” he breathed deeply, “it’s not. It’s just hard to get used to.” He used to think he always knew what to do, there was always someone to show him his path, but now he wasn’t so sure.

“I just want us to be comfortable with each other.”

He pressed himself impossibly closer to her and smirked, “You’re feeling pretty comfortable right now.”  

She gasped hotly, “Excuse me, I didn’t realize I married a pervert.”

“I’m just telling you what’s on my mind, I thought that’s what you wanted,” he said before capturing her lips again in a searing kiss.  

She pushed him away for a moment and became serious, “Ask me. Just ask me what I want.”

He studied her face carefully before nodding. “Okay, okay. I will.”

And then before wrapping her arms around him again to resume the kiss, she whispered, “Thank you.”

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A/N: Aliss chose the baby name so thank her :* also when writing the Argument scene I kept laughing thinking about those memes that are like ooh I know you wanna kiss me so bad!! 

[7team7]

SasuSaku Month Day 6: Sharp Edges

Title: a paper crane for a paper heart // rating: T (warning: major illness, angst) // Sakura is very sick. Sasuke wishes she would just get better, so he folds one thousand paper cranes. // ao3 link 

A/N: Inspired by the book “Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes”, it was one of the first books to ever make me cry as a kid. My mom was a teacher and she used to read it to her class and she gave me to book later.  Based on a Japanese legend, making a thousand origami cranes is said to make a wish come true.

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“And then you fold this part over like that, and you have a crane! Well, yours is looking like it could use some work, Sasuke-kun. Make sure to fold it so you have clean, sharp edges. Like mine.”

Sasuke hated this. He didn’t see the point in this. He didn’t know all of the details, but Sakura was very, very sick. Even dying. The fact that they were folding cranes while she sat in her hospital bed said it all. He grew more frustrated by the day; she should be back at school, at his house for dinner, at the gym, at the sweets shop—anywhere but here. He yearned for their younger days when they daydreamed about the future and folded paper airplanes full of hope instead of cranes weighed down by tragedy. The hospital made Sasuke exceedingly uncomfortable, but he’d be damned if he missed even a moment of what could very well be Sakura’s final days. 

And Sakura, ever the curious one, ever the optimist, took the experience as a time to learn. She was a great patient, allowing a million tests to be done on her for research purposes, asking all sorts of questions because she was genuinely interested in medical practice. When Sasuke asked her why she kept prodding the nurses for more information instead of relaxing in her bed, she just smiled at him and replied, “I’ll need to be prepared for my future career, right?”

If it were anyone else, Sasuke wouldn’t humor them, but this was Sakura, and he’d do anything for her. Really, even fold as many paper cranes as he could manage. Even when she was napping, which was becoming more frequent as her strength left her little by little, he folded. This side over that, taking care to make sharp edges. Nothing but neat, clean cranes would do.

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Once, he was so distracted while fiddling with a half-finished crane, he gave himself a nasty paper cut. He had been staring at the tiny form on the hospital bed, consumed by his thoughts of a future without her when he sliced a thin line clean across his palm. Stupid cranes. Stupid sharp edges. 

He hated how that phrase said by her soft voice kept ringing in his head. That’s what Sakura was: pink, soft, warm. If someone was all cold and sharp edges, it was Sasuke. 

When he wasn’t with Sakura, it was more apparent than ever. He snapped more easily, got less sleep, zoned out when others spoke to him. His mind was always on Sakura, Sakura, Sakura. It felt pretty twisted: he had always felt happiest with her, but her condition made his mood incredibly sour. The only person he had ever felt comfortable enough with to talk about his feelings was Sakura. But he couldn’t burden her with his fears and grievances, not when she was the one teetering between life and death each day. Sasuke’s heart hurt so much, he sometimes felt like he was dying too.   

So he kept folding, if not to just have an excuse to stay by her side without speaking. He wasn’t sure what he could even say to her at this point. His mother had already tried talking to him about the stages of grief he already seemed to be experiencing, like anger and denial, but he just walked away from the conversation to go visit room 707. 

It had been a month since that talk and she hadn’t attempted to reason with him since. After he came home from the hospital that day was the first time he had allowed himself to cry in a long time.

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Sakura’s illness scared him even more because it seemed devastatingly similar to Itachi’s. His beloved older brother was sick for a long time before he couldn’t hold on any longer. If the same thing happened to Sakura, Sasuke wasn’t sure what he could do to keep himself together. She was such an integral part of his life; losing her would be like getting half his heart scattered to the wind. 

He loved Itachi deeply, but differently; their relationship was something he was born with and could always count on to be there, no matter what he did. Itachi would love him always. But he made the choice to love Sakura everyday, instead of pushing her away like he did in the past. She was the first to offer comfort when Itachi died, even when he lashed out at her. She had helped him to restore a sense of normalcy, but he couldn’t return the favor.

But where had he gone wrong? He couldn’t take any of it back now, even if he was hurting. Maybe if he had made different choices in the past, he could’ve protected her from something, anything. Maybe they wouldn’t be in the situation they were in now. He felt so helpless. What was the point in having her by his side, knowing her, loving her, all in the past when she was about to be ripped away from his future? 

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Even as his thoughts walked themselves in circles, he couldn’t imagine a life without Sakura, no matter the situation. 

So he kept folding. Sharp edges on all the cranes: big, small, patterned paper, plain paper. Lots of pinks and greens. A part of him thought that maybe, just maybe, if he had wished hard enough and folded enough cranes back then, his brother would still be with them. So he would keep trying for Sakura. 

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When she first showed him the stacks and stacks of papers for the cranes, he asked her what she was going to wish for. She laughed at him, “I can’t tell you! If you tell someone your wish, it won’t come true.” 

Even though she was smiling, Sakura didn’t bother asking Sasuke what his wish would be. They both knew what Sasuke was going to wish for and it was breaking their hearts. 

He kept folding. 

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He was quite proud of himself and ready to show Sakura when he finally reached the last crane to fold. He swung by room 707, just to find the bed empty. His stomach dropped and he immediately thought the worst. 

“Where is she? Where is Sakura?” he started shouting to no one in particular. He started to panic when no one answered and he slid his back halfway down the wall with his head in his hands. Was she...? Why didn’t anyone tell him? They knew him since he was here almost everyday, they had his phone number after he insisted on being added to her emergency contacts list. 

A kind nurse hurried over from the counter, “She’s not here anymore. I guess it all happened too quickly for anyone to let you know.” 

Sasuke thought he was going to vomit.

“They moved her to a different unit this morning.”

“A different unit? So she’s not...dead?” his voice cracked and saying the word out loud nearly made him choke. “She’s okay for now?” 

The nurse smiled gently at him, “I think she’s going to make a full recovery. The esteemed doctor Tsunade came to town yesterday and it turns out she’s been doing years worth of medical research related to Sakura’s illness. She’s going to be able to help Sakura.”

Sasuke didn’t realize how much he had been shaking until his knees gave out and he fully collapsed to the ground. “Can you tell me where she is? I have something to give to her.”

The nurse took pity on the kid and told him, even if protocol might say otherwise. Young love was really something.

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Sasuke rushed up the stairs to the fifth floor, going through what felt like an endless maze of stark white, fluorescent lit hallways. His heart was pounding, nearly drowning out the sound of the hospital’s endless conversations and crying and beeping equipment.

He finally rounded the corner to face a huge pane of glass. Sakura. It had to be her, there was no one else with that hair. But he couldn’t get a clear view, a blonde woman he had never seen before was talking to the many other doctors, who he recognized as Sakura’s doctors, in the room. It almost looked like she was teaching them something. Even reprimanding them. Was this the doctor the nurse downstairs had told him about? Sasuke didn’t care who was in there, as long as they could make Sakura healthy again. He took a seat across from the window so he could still glance inside while folding. 

Just one more. One more crane with meticulous sharp edges, and he could make his wish. The paper he chose for the final crane was a beautiful floral pattern, all pinks and greens and the feeling of spring and hope. A new beginning, a new life. 

“Hey kid,” a voice called. Sasuke looked up from the crane to see the blonde woman poking her head out of the door to Sakura’s room. “She keeps asking for you so hurry up, get in here.” 

Sasuke scrambled to get out of his seat, nearly dropping the crane in his haste. As soon as he reached her bedside, Sakura sat up. It had been a while since she could do that on her own. She smiled with more brightness than he had seen in a long time and said softly, “Dr. Tsunade is so smart, I’ve learned so much.” 

“And I’m going to be fine.”

Sasuke didn’t trust his voice at the moment, so he wordlessly presented the thousandth crane. Sakura carefully took it from his hand to place it on the bedside table, next to the very first one he made with her. “Thank you, Sasuke-kun.” 

His heart felt like it was made of paper: it had nearly been torn in half, but it was going to be all smoothed out soon enough. What mattered was that his was still beating along with hers.

One thousand paper cranes, one wish. 

One boy and one girl who would do anything for one more day together. 

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A/N: Who would I be if not a writer who includes happy endings every time (even if it is kind of deus ex machina ish lol)!! Hope you still liked it

After I wrote this I realized I could’ve gone with something inspired by AKB48’s 365 Nichi no Kamihikouki/365 Days of Paper Airplanes, so I added the paper airplane part in the beginning. I really love that song :)

something fun is coming tomorrow so please look forward to that!