#kakashi can't even say go home i order you as your hokage because 'you are not hokage at home'

[hozukitofu]

idk what's weirder for iruka: konohamaru becoming a jounin sensei or shino becoming an academy teacher and both of them are his colleagues now instead of former students. one is a reformed prankster carbon copy of naruto and one spoke maybe four words to him during the entire time he knew the kid. imagine running into them in the staff room. i would need to leave immediately.

they also refuse to call him without honorifics or if this is a modern AU - mr umino/sir/sensei. iruka tries so hard to make them comfortable and feeling like they're his colleagues, to no avail. they got as far as 'iruka-sensei' and then promptly faltered.

all the little students look up to iruka as a superhero. their teacher's teacher. none of that silliness where they don't respect him - his disappointed face is lethal

[pinkhairedlily]

"sakura, good morning!" shizune waves her over and gives her coffee.

"busy day huh." most days, she's thankful the hospital staff already knows her preferred brew—dark, hot, bitter.

"you wouldn't believe what just happened though." shizune sips her iced latte. "sasuke asked for your schedule."

sakura takes a beat to reply, savoring instead the aromatic notes that slowly wake her 18-hour-shift-riddled senses. "oh yeah. we agreed to discuss new chore arrangements."

"you're living together."

"he's sleeping over."

"living. together."

"should i blush?" sakura winces. "besides, it has only been a few months. well, a year."

shizune slaps her back and leaves in a giddy. "you're already blushing, lover girl."

===

"hey thanks for dropping these off." naruto grins at her through towering stacks of folders.

"we really should organize a courier system or tap into those digital things gaara has been using in suna."

"totally agree with you." he hands her a chocolate bar. for a few minutes, they pass the sugar supply back and forth, grateful for the silence and the little indulgent treat from olden days.

"by the way, sasuke has been asking some weird things."

"such as?"

"like your favorite color, favorite food, favorite music." naruto gets the last chocolate cube. he cracks it into uneven halves and gives the smaller one to her, as usual. "so i told him mine are red and shoyu ramen."

sakura laughs and pops the piece into her mouth. "back to work, future hokage-san."

===

"where's ino?"

sai hands her an apron and an order slip. sakura releases a petulant sigh, rolls her eyes, and begins to pick the flowers listed. she waits until sai settles on the presentation and prods again.

"supplier issue." he shows her a peony and a carnation.

"the peony definitely."

sai shrugs and finishes off the bouquet. "we had a curious customer earlier."

"hmm?"

"sasuke came in. he said he didn't want reds. it would be too obvious, he said. so i suggested whites."

"mums?"

"uh-uh and roses and lilies."

sakura turns pensive at this. "he must have bought them for his family." she smiles at sai and pats him on the shoulder. "you're sometimes kind-hearted, aren't you?"

sai's fixed smile fades. "sakura, he didn't—"

a customer dings the bell and sakura, already sensing sai's intention, slips out of the boutique like a true swift kunoichi.

===

"haruno-san."

"yes, i know it's midnight and i need to go home."

the guard loiters by her door. "actually, you have a visitor. he's at the wisteria arch."

"oh? but it's so late. can't this wait until morning?"

"it's the uchiha ma'am," the guard purses his lips, "he's been camping since eight in the evening."

sakura runs. she hates running in corridors, particularly when half of the people are asleep, but she manages to reach the grounds without an ambush diagnostic or a surprise checkup.

sasuke is waiting. there is a picnic blanket in a hideous shade of bright red under him, a basket, a bouquet, a bottle of wine that must be lukewarm by now.

"shizune said you were free tonight," he said.

"what's all this for?" sakura has to catch her breath. she sits across him and takes him in. gorgeous, even under the pale moonlight.

"i never got the right answers." sasuke pulls every item out of the basket. thermos for hot water, instant ramen packs, dango, a lunchbox that smells like curry, spring rolls. "i don't know exactly what you like. i don't know if you still like the food that you liked when we were kids."

"i still have a sweet tooth," sakura chuckles as she reaches for the dango.

"but i noticed you always ask me to cook curry and you never fail to look for spring rolls." 

"because you cook curry the best, sasuke-kun, that's why i love it the most."

he avoids her chiding glance and hands her instead the bunch of daffodils. "i also don't know if you still like these flowers. you would pick them up in the forest, remember? trying to make me and naruto and kakashi wear these crowns of yellow blooms."

sakura laughs at the surfacing memories. "they're very beautiful, sasuke-kun." she basks for a while in the afterglow of his awkward yet patient persistence as he scoots closer to her side and slowly brushes her fingers against his in reacquaintance.

"what's with all these though? what did i miss?" sakura entangles their hands together, his thumb caressing her knuckles.

"happy anniversary."

"..."

"..."

"fuck."

"not here sakura."

"i forgot about it! fuck!"

"it's okay, let me." sasuke plants her down with a hand on her cheek. "you're busy, and there are few things in life i look forward in celebrating."

"i'm so sorry."

"i think it's me who has to apologize. i haven't nailed down everything."

"well, we've got the rest of our lives to figure that out."

sasuke hides a smile. "that's a plan."

[luffythinker]

also since your posting about Naruto can i give you my Hyuga Sasuke AU? where Sasuke is taken in by the Hyuga's after the whole Itachi thing.

After Itachi massacred the Uchiha clan Sasuke was adopted by the Hyuga's (working with the Sharingan evolved from the Byakugan theory here) but the Hyuga's call it "a diseased version" and they are like sibling clans, Sasuke's closest family even if they aren't so hospitable.

Hinata's dad isn't forced into custody of Sasuke but the Hokage says they already have the Naruto situation going on with him as a orphan they don't need more orphans they have too many orphans and makes a deal with Hiashi for him to keep Sasuke.

Sasuke's is with the Hyuga's is rough, he's distant, he attends dinner, does training instructions as they order him to but he also trains all on his own. Hiashi doesn't like Sasuke but Sasuke is obedient and doesn't cause any trouble for him so there are no problems with keeping him.

(he wants to praise him for being better then Hinata and he probably has said this while training her, how he can't believe Hinata is second rate to a Uchiha and this disrespects the clan that she can't even do better despite actually being a Hyuga but his pride wont let him say it to Sasuke himself)

(Sasuke does not consider these people famliy at all)

Not very sure how he gets along with Neji but i want to say to humble Sasuke Neji usually wins all their sparing matches, belittles him cause he has the attitude before Naruto showed him paths are not predestine, so he believes Sasuke is not better then him especially because he is a "diseased version" Sasuke makes a note to put Neji in his place later it gives him something he can do he can get better then Neji cause if he can't beat Neji how is he ever supposed to beat Itachi? Sasuke holds this with him.

His childhood is mostly the same cause if he doesn't have to he's not going to spin time at home with the Hyuga's he'll usually be found training. Hinata tries to be kind to him but he usually ignores her.

Everything is mostly the same until he's picked to be on team Kakashi, Sasuke is still incompetent but he actually does manage to get the bell from Kakashi without team work.

(This is because he's been training with the Hyuga's and though he can't use Byakugan at this point he's been taught to combat his lack of their kekkei genkai using his sharingan)

They still need to learn the value of teamwork so even though he got the bell Kakashi is going to fail him because he didn't allow his team to work with him so the end of this is sort of the same because they need to learn the value of teamwork.

Naruto does manage to get the other bell and goes to try and give it to Sakura cause he rather her have lunch even if he's hungry too. Sakura protest that even though she doesn't like Naruto that's dishonest and she (deep down) doesn't want him to go back to the academy but she doesn't wanna go back either. (she rather it him then her though)

Kakashi sees potential in Naruto for this. he ends this test by berating all of them for their lack of teamwork, he explains the purpose was to work together and not act independently as they all did. He says he'll give them a second chance after lunch but tells them Sasuke cannot eat at all because he was the most selfish one due to Naruto attempting to share with Sakura knowing he'd go back to the academy while Sasuke cared nothing for the team. Therefore they all fail automatically if they gave Sasuke any food.

They sit there and think about and it they think to get the bells they need all of them in top shape and decide to give Sasuke food anyway.

Kakashi informs them they pass after they understand if they can't do it as a team they can't do it at all. "those who break the rules are scum but those who abandon their friends are worse than scum"

BUT A TWIST - Sasuke doesn't truly understand it, he’s just doing what Kakashi told him - they didn’t work together so if he works with them now he can just pretend and forget about them later on.

Those are the only changes to this part not much difference but some changes because of Sasuke's training with the Hyuga's he's more agile from sparring with Byakugon users and their teachings.

In the land of waves Arc, Sasuke doesn't bother asking Naruto about what Sakura said when they are learning to walk up trees because he was already taught to do this but is not better then Sakura because when he was learning this he did not learn to do it immediately like Sakura was able to.

The scene in my head goes like this.

Kakashi takes them to the woods to learn to climb trees without using their hands, Naruto says this is impossible and and Kakashi explains about focusing chakra to your feet to walk up the trees. ect ect, Sasuke belittles Naruto and tells him he was already taught this and walks up the tree with ease.

Naruto attempts to show Sasuke up but fails to climb it like originally.

Sakura gets it perfect on her first try and she wants Sasuke to notice her but he's sort of shocked that she can do it without problem and Kakashi says she has perfect chakra control. Sakura thinks Sasuke should be proud of her but he actually is pissed that someone like her could do it on her first try when it took Sasuke many tries to get it right. He dislikes her more now. Naruto and Sakura are getting a grasp on team work because Naruto asks her for some pointers and she's a little more nice about giving it because he offered her the bell which made their friendship grow a little more back then.

Naruto trains to climb the trees by himself because Sasuke doesn't need to train to do this but Sakura does check in on Naruto a couple of times. Naruto manages to climb to the top and Sakura congratulates him and helps him get back to the bridge builders house, inari Tazuna's grandson reacts the same that Naruto is wasting his time. and the scene plays out the same when Inari talks with kakashi and he tells him a little about Naruto's past.

Everything plays out the same.

Sasuke can't keep up with Haku's moves and eventually Naruto comes to help him and they fight Haku together, his sharingan is not enough to combat Haku. His body still moves on his own to save Naruto and he fails into Naruto's arms the same it happened and he admits he has to kill Itachi and Naruto thinks he's dead same same same everything plays out the same with Sakura breaking the ninja rule of crying and Sasuke saying he doesnt think Haku wanted to kill him or Naruto.

What do you think of this so far? i worked on it for a little while i think there is huge potential for Neji Sasuke and Hinata relationships here, but i can't think of any good enough cause i dont remember a lot from their genin days

This is interesting because I think if we change Sasuke's childhood after the massacre a lot could change in the future, even if the hyugas weren't lovable to him, there would still be some form of attachment, it makes me wonder if he would leave with Orochimaru? would he have revenge as such a strong motivation still? would things like proving the hyugas wrong speak louder? priorities change? maybe killing Itachi would not be number 1. I know in canon Sasuke and Hinata barely ever interacted, but I think there's potential for friendship with them, especially since Hinata has always been kind but shy, i can see her finding out Sasuke's spot where he trains alone until one day Sasuke notices and asks her what she's doing there, and they start talking from there.

With Neji it's complex, cause that would make him Sasuke's first rival, and I can't lie my poor Sasunaru heart is jealous of that lmaaoo, but it would be interesting to explore this for sure! I like how you presented some of the same events of the story with slight changes because it reflects the changes that Sasuke went through, maybe some of the results stay the same but the motivations are different than they would be if he was growing up completely alone with only the prospect of revenge fulfilling him.

And i would even dare say that with Sasuke in the mix hinata and Neji's relationship would not go so poorly as it was during their genin days, because Hinata would have someone to talk to and that would try to explain a few Neji's frustrations to her, and neji would have someone that sees him as motivation and a reference, not someone to be pitied. there's a lot of potential with these 3

[sagemoderocklee]

six more likes currently, so six more facts and im picking fics at random (under a cut cause it's getting long):

Absolution (even tho @pannaflara didn't like this): Lee was genuinely worried about Gaara the night he had his nightmare in the greenhouse. he went to check on Gaara entirely independent of any concern for Ruri, but he wasn't willing to admit that so he lied.

The Art of Love: the captain of the Phoenix Death, Shih, is based on the real life pirate, Zheng Yi Sao also known as Ching Shih.

Kadō: the flowers Lee special orders as his way of confessing to Gaara have the following meanings: Mimosa--secret love Camellia, Red: You’re a flame in my heart Carnation, Red: My heart aches for you, deep love, admiration Camellia, Pink: longing Peach blossom: I am your captive Gerbera, Orange: You are my sunshine Shepherd’s purse: I offer you my all Lee was really determined to get Gaara's attention since his first attempt at covertly expressing his feelings went over Gaara's head.

Pearl-Filled Lungs: Aiyu's name comes from Bruce Lee's mother's Chinese name (何愛瑜) the second character in her name being 'ai' and the third being 'yu'. The name also conveniently works since it uses 愛, the same kanji Gaara has on his forehead in canon (though in P-FL it's a vaguely heart-shaped scar from being attacked by humans)

Absolution: Another Absolution fact cause I am struggling to think of facts lol so have a fact about the last scene of chapter 5 when Gaara comes home to find Lee cooking his birthday dinner! Lee once again lied about something (shocker!) Temari did NOT in fact ask Lee to make Gaara's birthday dinner. He overheard her complaining to Shikamaru about not hiring a caterer since they would be out all day and offered to cook the dinner. Temari was confused, of course, because she was under the impression he couldn't cook but he promised her he could so long as he had instructions. Ultimately, he offered to do this in order to show Temari that he not only can get along with Gaara, but also to thank Gaara for giving him an out for the bday festivities without having to say the words directly.

Return to Sender: let's talk about Gai (and Kakashi), since that was the HUGE motivating factor for Gai's reaction to Lee. in my mind, Gai and Kakashi had been dancing around romance for like yearsssssss at this point. They'd slept together once prior to Kakashi becoming Hokage, but once he became Hokage it was like 'no this can't keep happening because we live in a homophobic world etc'. Gai obviously gets that--even expected it--but is still devastated. he doesn't want that for Lee. he doesn't know Gaara and while he trusts Gaara as the Kazekage, he doesn't necessarily trust Gaara to never hurt Lee again. he has extremely complicated feelings about Gaara on top of his own baggage regarding Kakashi, which makes for a very emotionally volatile situation with him and Lee. In my mind, Gai was def out here crushin on other boys (and girls) as a kid, and Dai was aware of this. he imparted this homophobic mindset in Gai like "you keep that shit a secret. you marry a woman, you be 'normal', don't let others know" not necessarily to say Dai was trying to be cruel or even that he specifically agreed with that societal homophobia, just very much again a situation of 'we live in a society and these are the rules of it'. he wanted to keep Gai safe, but in doing so also left a lasting scar. As an adult, following the war, having been in love with Kakashi for years, having had ONE night together, Gai has a lot of hurt to cope with. But in the background of RTS, Kakashi is working towards stepping down (as we see) not just because Naruto's ready to take over but because he wants to be with Gai. ultimately, when we see Gai happily packing to go on vacation with Kakashi, it's because he knows what that means for them. he didn't think it would ever happen that they'd ever be together for real, but now he has it and he's able to sort of be a lot gentler with Lee because of it--at that point he still doesn't trust Gaara, but he loves Lee and he does regret not being kinder (he'd wanted his dad to be kinder to him and yet he'd still failed because of his fear for Lee and his own pain). Eventually, he and Kakashi move in together in a quieter, more rural section of the village and they get to be happy together but it still took decades for Gai to be in a place where he could be with another man and feel comfortable/safe. Kakashi being a former Hokage does protect them to a degree, the fact Gai is just weird helps, and the fact that they're both war heroes too. but it's def a complicated and layered issue, and Kakashi and Gai are more or less seen as 'good friends living together'/'gai needs more help and can't live alone' (much like Lee moving in with Gaara was framed as).

stealing from twitter because why not

[welkinsky]

Welcoming Them Back Home (Kakashi, Adult Bakugou & Gojo)

A/N: This request was made by one of the only friend of mine on tumblr @seikohatake ! Thank you so much! You always come up with such cute ideas :3 You guys are welcome to suggest any other character if you want too <3 I'd be more than happy to write about others too.

Kakashi

It was around when Kakashi was hokage and would rarely come back home on time but regardless you'd wait for him, you loved having dinner with him no matter how late he is.

Since you get off early from work as compared to him you always had the dinner duty and he makes breakfasts even if you suggest otherwise because he needs his rest too. But it is his way of showing his love and affection for you.

So it gives you so much pleasure just preparing dinner for him knowing that he will be all tired and would come home to someone waiting for him and hot food. Given his past, this was your main priority ever since you both came together.

Doesn't matter how late he is you'd always wait for him to have dinner. It actually aches your heart thinking that he'll be having dinner alone when you're away on a mission.

As he enters you rush to greet him with a hug and a kiss and as he sees the dinner you are rewarded another kiss with a, "Oh honey you're spoiling me." and a masked smile. Which he takes off to kiss you again of course.

And as you both have dinner you can see in his eyes how grateful he is to have this and to have YOU. A person who cares so much about him and someone to come home to.

Katsuki (Grown Up Katsuki)

This is very often for you to get a text that he is stuck with some hero work or has to take someone else's patrol that day so he won't make it to dinner.

In the starting days when you two started living together, he'd force you to have your dinner on time and not wait for him. He loves the sentiment, don't get him wrong but he doesn't want you to have a bad schedule and develop bad eating habits.

It's his job so he cannot really do much about it but you can so, he calls you, again and again, to make sure that you've had your dinner and not waiting for him.

But you still want to talk to him at the end of the day so you wait for him to come back and help him serve his dinner and you two talk as he has his dinner. But not before he makes sure that you've had yours.

He used to shout at anyone who'd talk while having their food but ever since he started hero work and opened his agency this is the only time in the day you get to have a proper talk together and he gets to rant about how annoying and stupid everyone is. Although unlike before he'd stop himself and say, "Well, they're not stupid just annoyingly a bit too emotional. I can deal with that."

When he'd forget to call or text letting you know that he'll be late and comes back home to find you passed out in bed while waiting for him. He won't wake you up if you've had your dinner but if you haven't then it is dinner in bed as you two talk and he does the dishes regardless of how much you insist on doing that.

He'd ask you to go to bed as he quickly does the dishes and if you try to come out of the bedroom he won't let you but that doesn't stop you two from talking because even still you two talk through the walls if your kitchen and bedroom is close enough.

Gojo

We all know Gojo is way too spontaneous so whenever you're coming back home you never know if you'll enter in an empty home or you'll be served a freshly made matcha as you do.

He can't cook for his life but he still wants to give you the feeling that he made dinner for you so he orders the food and arranges it in the dishes like he made it himself. Well, it is the sentiment that counts right?

And if you're the one making dinner then he'll try to come back home as soon as he can. A. Because he wants to help you out in making the dinner B. Because he doesn't want you to feel like you're doing too much or he's not grateful for it all.

He's still getting used to this so he takes his time to realize that this is not a huge deal and you make him dinner because you want to.

And he sometimes (most of the time) makes a huge mess too while helping you. So you ask him to leave the kitchen but Gojo being Gojo stands at the door and talks from there if you have a kitchen table then slowly ends up sitting there and talking as you make the dinner.

For both of you, the quality time that you two spend together is very important and valuable. You guys could be doing anything from cleaning the house to grocery shopping, but as long as you two are together and able to talk, both of you don't mind.

If he ever comes late and you're fast asleep then the first thing he makes sure of is whether you have had your dinner or not and if not then he'll order something and wake you up and have the dinner in bed as he feeds you most of the time with dim lights so that you don't wake up completely and will be able to sleep again.

_____________________________

Let me know if you have any other character suggestion for this!

Thanks For Reading and for the ask!

If you liked it you can check out the masterlist too!

A-Z Headcanon

[fiercyy]

Chapters: 10/? Fandom: Naruto Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence Relationships: Haruno Sakura/Uchiha Sasuke, Haruno Sakura & Uzumaki Naruto, Haruno Sakura & Hatake Kakashi, Team 7 - Relationship, Uchiha Sasuke & Uzumaki Naruto, Haruno Sakura & Hatake Kakashi & Uchiha Sasuke & Uzumaki Naruto Characters: Haruno Sakura, Uchiha Sasuke, Uzumaki Naruto, Hatake Kakashi, Tsunade (Naruto), Orochimaru (Naruto) Additional Tags: AU, Post-Chuunin Exams, post chuunin exams attack, Minor Character Death, Trauma, Team 7 Family bonding, Genin Era, Everybody moves in with Sasuke, he's got room, semi-au, Plot Twists, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Roommates, Friends to Enemies, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, BAMF Haruno Sakura, Dai-nana-han | Team 7 (Naruto) Feels, BAMF Dai-nana-han | Team 7 (Naruto), Team as Family, Slow Burn Series: Part 1 of Post-Chuunin Exam AU Summary:

Sakura always wished she could relate to her teammates better. She wishes she could take it back.

In which Sasuke acquires some unwanted roommates and a team becomes a family.

.

.

Sasuke hasn't needed an alarm clock to wake him up in weeks. Every night he falls asleep to Naruto's soft snores and the anxieties of his day as told by the voice in his head. When sleep finally drags him under, ankles first, he has the same dream.

He's in the Forest of Death, but instead of the canopy of trees, the trunks just stretch up and up into darkness. He is completely alone. He walks at a leisurely pace for a while; the scenery doesn't change. Eventually, he looks down, only to realize that ahead of him are a set of footprints. He glances behind him and finds that he has left his own track of prints, they curve behind him and into the trees. He realizes that the set in front of him are his own. He's been going in circles.

Beneath him, the earth splits. He hovers above the chasm. The chasm blinks. A golden snake eye glares up at him. A hissing noise rises like the roar of a river.

"Sasuke," Sakura whispers in his ear, but when he turns, she's 50 feet away and her fist touches the ground. She is the source of the chasm.

"Try to keep up, bastard," says Naruto, only he is right by his side. "Or we'll leave you behind."

Suddenly, Sasuke is falling into the eye. Naruto grabs his hand and stops him from falling. "Naruto," Sasuke orders, "pull me up, quick!"

"You can do it yourself, can't you?" He wrenches his hand away and Sasuke is falling falling falling again into the eye. Consumed.

Relying on them is foolish. They will leave you. A voice hisses from all around him. He's still falling. You can't trust anyone but yourself. They're not worth your time anyway. You've tried to pull them up to your level. But at what cost? They've dragged you down to theirs. You're better than this Sasuke Uchiha. I can offer you-

And it is often here, that he startles himself awake. But today. Today the nightmare continues.

He stops falling. Heart in his throat, he floats in the inky blackness of the snake eye pupil. I can offer you power. You languish in this village, thwarting your true potential. Look at what Uzumaki Naruto has achieved with the help of a sannin. he is weak but he almost beat you. Why? And Sakura Haruno. Pathetic, sobbing Sakura Haruno. She will learn to bring men back from the dead. What can you do? You need me. Come to me. I will give you power the likes of which you've never-

"Sasuke!"

He gasps and emerges from the nightmare. His heart races under the fist he's clutched to his chest. His neck burns. Sakura stands over him, hands on his shoulders. He slaps them away.

"What!?" he demands.

Sakura deftly takes a step back, like dodging a fist. "Fine. I'll train on my own today…" her tone is sullen until she takes a good look at him. "Are you sick?" Approaching with the slow unstartling gait of a snake charmer she lays a hand on his sweaty forehead. "Oh no, I'm sorry. I should have let you sleep."

"…It's fine."

"I'll pick up some soup on my way back from my lesson with Tsunade," she promises. He's glad she hasn't offered to make any herself. Salty, spicy and oily broth might make him feel worse than he already does. Then again, the longer he's in her presence the worse he feels—the more he thinks about the voice from his dreams.

He nods, tense and shivering and goose-pimpled like he's just come out of a freezing lake.

Sakura shoots him one last look from the doorway, hesitant to leave.

"Would you go already?!"

Her mouth presses into a firm line and the door snaps closed.

Once she's gone and he's left to fixate, Sasuke spirals lower. He can't be around anyone, but he doesn't want to be alone. He's furious. He's scared. He desperately wants to go back to sleep but knows what's waiting for him if he does.

So Sasuke makes a liar of himself and prepares for some solo training.

.

.

Sasuke is being so weird and Sakura is torn between genuine worry and anger. He could be such a hypocrite sometimes. She slept in once an he left without her. She was kind enough to wake him and he was nothing but cranky! He looked terrible though; red rimmed eyes, gaunt and seeming a little lost.

What a stupid, self-centered jerk! …Who patiently waited for her most mornings and helped her catch up to him and Naruto with extra training…

Sakura quickly grows bored of training by herself, having been ditched by her old friend. Her new friend. Her former crush and former enemy. Sometimes it's hard to keep Sasuke straight. Living with him and dealing with his henpecking ways makes it hard for her heart to pound every time he talks to her. It would become a medical condition. But does that mean she doesn't love him anymore?

She does… she thinks. She's just figuring out how.

With Naruto, it's so easy. He wheedled himself into her heart slowly; with jokes, support and attention. It feels as if they've always been together. He has never once confused her.

After they came to live with Sasuke she didn't have the emotional bandwidth to worry or question the way the boys treated her. There was no room for surprise at the delicacy with which they both handled her. In retrospect It's not shocking at all that Naruto filled her cracks and held her together, but it is surprising that Sasuke did too. He found it somewhere within himself to give her a home, acceptance and empathy. Even though there was no conceivable means for him to have acquired it. Sakura doesn't have her parents anymore, but she does have a family. They must love her very much.

She turns on her heal and stomps away from the training ground toward the market.

.

.

She's early for training with Tsunade, but the Hokage is already there. The training ground is a rocky clearing that peaks just below the treeline. Konoha is in the middle of a draught and the air is dusty. A small stream runs through the middle when it rains; sometimes Tsunade plucks a small fish from it with her bare hands and makes Sakura keep it alive for as long as she can.

"Good morning Shisou."

"Morning Cutie." That tells Sakura that she's in for a rough morning.

It doesn't matter that they're both half an hour early, they get started right away.

"What am I-" Sakura chokes on the sentence because a rock the size of her head is flying right at her. She dodges. "What the hell?!"

"Strength training, block, don't dodge."

"NO!" Sakura shrieks as a rock twice the size of her head flies overhead.

Tsunade picks up a boulder. "They're just going to keep getting bigger!"

.

.

When Sasuke wakes up again, he's cranky. It's why he doesn't often sleep in or nap. He always wakes up worse off than he started. The bitter taste of his tongue travels to his heart and his belly with each aching breath of wakefulness.

He glances at Naruto's bed. Gone, training with Jiraiya. They're set to go on an expedition soon. He says the Sannin's going to teach him a new technique.

Sasuke scowls. They haven't fought in months, not since the Chunin exams, but Naruto bested him when they fought Gaara and that counts. Meanwhile, Sasuke has stagnated. Kakashi's one-on-one training is centered on control and expanding his chakra reserves. It's a long, painstaking process and he isn't getting stronger fast enough. Itachi is so far ahead. By his age, Itachi was already in ANBU. Meanwhile Sasuke couldn't even make Chunin on his first try.

He's never failed at anything before and it hits harder than he cares to admit. The prospect of retaking a test is maddening—the kind of thing reserved for dead last losers in the academy, like Naruto.

"At least we'll get to do it again as a team!" Naruto had proclaimed, sunnily. To him, the greater tragedy would have been one of them passing without the others.

Sasuke would have been perfectly fine leaving them behind. He sees them every day at home anyway.

A creature of habit, Sasuke drifts to the kitchen for breakfast.

On the fridge the magnetic dry erase notepad reads 'check the microwave' in Sakura's handwriting.

In the microwave is a takeout container of chicken broth.

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That night, Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura fall asleep under the chunky red blanket on the couch in front of the TV.

In the morning, Sasuke wakes up first and waits a few minutes before jiggling his shoulder free of Naruto's head and shaking Sakura awake. Together they go to morning training as usual.

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Naruto can't help but think that Kakashi's getting a little lax in the sensei department. Team training's been pretty lackadaisical lately (a word he heard Sakura call their training sessions, that he liked the sound of). It's usually just exercises. Or style specific sparring; Taijutsu only, no chakra, kunai only, substitution only etc. He hasn't given them a team building exercise in forever. And while that was Team 7's least favourite kind of exercise, they were really really good at it. Especially lately. With Sasuke being more of a grouch than usual, it'd be nice to be on the same side for once.

"Today we're doing round robin spars," Kakashi tells them, "All out, no holds barred."

"YES!" Naruto screams. Screw being on the same side, he wants to beat Sasuke into the ground at full power.

"Great, you can go first."

"I wanna fight Sasuke!"

"Of course you do," Sakura rolls her eyes and drags her feet on her way you a tree. She settles in the roots and her peevish expression makes him feel a little bad. It's just that… He loves fighting Sasuke, with Sakura he doesn't feel like he can go all out.

"Hm," Sasuke rolls his shoulders. "Let's go then."

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The spar lasts a while. Sasuke is down to his last Chidori. Naruto's crowd of clones has thinned, there's only two left.

He knows that Naruto needs at least one to shape his Rasengan, so all he needs to do it get rid of them both, or keep his eye on the pair that are together. One Naruto holds out his hand to the other, getting ready for the assist. Sasuke won't give them the chance. He makes the safe bet that the one assisting is the clone and charges his last Chidori. He needs much less runway for his attack. He lunges for the pair of Narutos, ready to aim his leg for the clone, and Chidori set on Naruto's gut.

Suddenly, he's flying through the air, hits a tree and crumples to the ground.

What just happened? Naruto… he used the Rasengan without the help of a clone. How did he do that? When did he learn to do that?

Sasuke doesn't get up—not because he's hurt. The attack was only at 20% of its power, otherwise he'd have been killed. He just… can't understand what just happened.

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Naruto hasn't seen Sasuke since the end of their spar yesterday. He stormed off right after and was asleep before Naruto and Sakura came home. In the morning he was gone, but when they arrive at the training grounds for day two of the round robin spars, he's already there.

"You look like you're chomping at a bit," Kakashi remarks when he finally gets there an hour after their meeting time. "Sakura, you wanna take him on when he's like this?"

Sakura quirks an eyebrow and switches her considering gaze between Sasuke and Kakashi. Naruto just knows she's weighing whether or not she's going to be insulted. "Yeah," is all she says.

From her pouch she puts on these sick black leather gloves and cracks her knuckles.

Sasuke's expression doesn't change, but at least he takes a stance. He's taking her seriously.

Naruto isn't really sure what goes on at their extra training sessions. He's had absolutely no desire to join them because honestly? He needs every extra bit of sleep he can get and they take everything so seriously. The one time Sakura made him tag along, they did three hours of Katas. Snooze.

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Sasuke streaks across the field going right for Sakura. There are two approaches to beating Sakura: speed or stamina. He's faster but he can also outlast her. They've been working on building up her stamina and chakra reserves.

With Sakura, he doesn't have to worry that she's going to have any big finishing moves. He's got to watch his back for a sneaky kunai and use his head to figure out what elaborate strategy she'll use on him.

He engages her in a taijutsu bout to test her reflexes and warm up. Maybe he won't finish her off right away. It would be mean and embarrassing for her. They'll play a bit. Just long enough to see what she comes up with. Sakura's a fun sparring partner because it's also a little like playing Go.

Close combat's the way to go, if he loses track of her, she'll take advantage and substitute herself until he makes a mistake. He dodges a punch and blocks a kick with his right arm only to hear a crack.

What?

She sweeps her legs again, determination blazing in her eyes and Sasuke jumps over them, nervous for her to connect again. Pushed by yesterday's wounded pride, he changes his mind. He wants to end this swiftly. He charges his left hand with a Chidori. It's just at 1/5 power, so it won't hurt her too bad.

His range is good, she won't have enough time to get far enough for a dodge. He thrusts his arm out.

Sakura ducks—no, she strikes the ground with her gloved fist. With a spine tingling crunch the ground opens up beneath their feet.

(It's just like his dream.)

He's weightless, falling, his arm still reaching out to strike Sakura. Their eyes hold, all widening in alarm. He sees it all in slow motion, Sakura reaches for him even as he drops into a chasm of her own making-

(How did she do it?)

-She takes his hand, grounding the circuit. Sakura spasms, but holds on. Tears gather in the corners of her eyes and she cries out. Holding on is making it worse, but if she lets go, he'll fall.

"Sakura," he says, gentle and shell-shocked, processing what's happening in sluggish disbelief.

"AAAAAAAAHHHHH!" She shrieks, not in pain but determination. She hauls him up and over the lip of the crevice. He tumbles on top of her. With his head against her stomach he can feel the rhythm of her ragged breaths. Sasuke rolls off of her and pants. He's barely exerted himself but his heart is racing.

Sakura has gotten so strong. He sits up and turns to the side so he can look at her. Her eyes are closed, her hands curled loosely at her sides.

"Uuuh, Kakashi-sensei," Naruto considers from a short distance away, "Who do you think won?"

Sasuke is the only one left standing, but he doesn't feel like it was him.

[fiercyy]

if you can't hold on, hold on [3/?]

Sakura always wished she could relate to her teammates better. She wishes she could take it back.

In which Sasuke acquires some unwanted roommates and a team becomes a family.

Chapter 1

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With Naruto gone, the apartment has become quiet.

Sasuke feels awkward and unsettled; he doesn't know how he's supposed to act. The three of them have an established dynamic and routine. With Naruto gone, that balance has been upset. Naruto fills most of the silence, especially these days.

When he said something stupid, Sakura could always be relied upon to share a longsuffering look. Hers being generally more fond than his.

She's quieter these days, but not this quiet. With Naruto gone, there's one less major distraction. He thinks she must be dwelling. He keeps catching her looking out the window, or past the television set.

The best solution he has is to keep her on a schedule. It's what he did, after it happened. So Sasuke conscripts Sakura into his Don't Think About Your Feelings, Only Vengeance regimen.

He wakes up at 5am and kicks her door.

She stumbles into the kitchen, bleary eyed. The first day she'd whispered, "what's going on?" Now she knows to come to the table, dressed.

He hands her a protein bar, takes one for himself and they head out.

They train. They take a water break. Train some more. They spar. They go home.

It's a quiet existence. And it's unnerving because of how unnatural it feels.

Sakura likes to talk. She has so much to say. She should feel comfortable enough to talk. Sasuke isn't equipped for this. He doesn't have the language to console her or explain his issues even to himself.

He hasn't processed his own trauma, he doesn't know how he's supposed to help her with hers.

Even so, he feels closer to her than he ever has. And isn't that sick?

In the past, he's told her and Naruto that they could never understand him or his pain. They hadn't gone through what he had. Now Sakura was the closest anyone could come. And they cannot commiserate. He cannot manage to pass on anything to her. Because nothing makes it easier.

On the third day, as she pants in the dirt after their spar, he asks if she wants to go for ramen.

"Yes," she says, too quick.

Teuchi asks them where Naruto is, Sakura smiles brightly and genuinely at him, "He's off to find our next Hokage! It's a really important mission, but hopefully he'll be back soon." Teuchi responds with pride of course, he likes Naruto a lot. He takes their orders and retreats into the back.

Sasuke is jealous of Naruto. His and Sakura's situations are the same, but it's Naruto who is able to reach out to her and make her feel better. He's always able to tell what she needs; be it a distraction or a shoulder or a blanket fort.

He feels inept. He's never wanted to talk about feelings, but his teammate is hurting. And he has no way of fixing that.

It occurs to him that night, as intrusive thoughts sometimes do, that this whole thing is a distraction from his revenge. He's worrying about Sakura, and his team is living with him. He's concentrating on her pain instead of his. He needs to be single minded if he wants to accomplish his goals.

He physically bats those thoughts away and presses a hand to his forehead. He turns to look at the empty bed by the window and growls. He knows what the right thing to do is.

Tomorrow he'll try harder.

The next day he wakes her up and they train as always. They go home and prepare dinner together. Sasuke asks her some leading questions while frying up the vegetables.

For his efforts, he receives a sweet and wobbly smile.

After dinner they sit on the couch and watch tv, Sakura's woolen blanket spread out over their laps. They fall asleep like that, on opposite sides, feet tangled together in the middle.

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Things never remain simple for long.

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Sakura comes to life in her panic, grabbing Sasuke's hand and dragging him out the door in a way that he would never allow under normal circumstances.

They'd just got word that Kakashi was in the hospital.

In some ways, they always believed their teacher to be invincible. It was so easy to forget that he was anything but.

She needs to keep moving, or else she's going to sink into the earth. Sakura is barely keeping her head above water these days and if something happens to Kakashi… She doesn't know what she'll do.

The hand in hers is dry and warm. She glances back at Sasuke, who doesn't let the worry show quite like she does, but it's there. She squeezes his hand in assurance. He doesn't squeeze back but he nods at her and doesn't shake her off. That's enough.

At the hospital front desk, a paternal nurse with bushy eyebrows and grey streaks at his temples guides them to Kakashi's room in intensive care. It's already crowded. Asuma, Kurenai stand propped up against the wall by the window. Gai occupies a chair by his eternal rival's side.

Sakura gasps and her hands fly to her mouth, "What's wrong with him?"

He doesn't seem that injured, but he's unconscious.

Gai glances back at the other jounins before answering, "He keeps fading in and out. He was under the influence of a very powerful genjutsu. The aftereffects are…concerning."

Kurenai, being the genjutsu expert, averts her eyes as if fearing she'll be caught in one. "It's trying on the mind. None of the medics in the village are equipped to handle a case like this."

"Will he get better?"

Kurenai's heart goes out to the girl. Kakashi told her about Sakura's parents. He asked her for advice that she didn't have. The best she could do was treat a traumatized girl the way he would one of the boys. Having met Sasuke though, she wasn't sure he had the best grasp of that either.

"We're not sure."

"That means no Sakura," Sasuke's cutting interruption startled everyone.

"You don't know-"

"Yes I do," red eyes shifted between all the adults in the room. "Who did this?" If Sasuke knew one thing, it was vengeance.

Kurenai and Gai exchange a look, but Asuma stares at the boy impassively.

"TELL US!"

Sakura winces at the volume and anger in his voice. Gai's immediate instinct is to mitigate that. "Everything's going to be-"

"Don't lie to us!" Sakura surprises them all by siding with

At that very moment a nurse walks in, staring at his clipboard, concentrating deeply, "I'm sorry to say that we're not quite sure how to mitigate the effects of the Magekyou. We haven't had the opportunity to study it before-"

Like an anchor tied to his chest, dropped into the ocean. Sasuke can't breathe. He's being sucked downwards, spiralling into feelings he can't parse. Anger, shock, confusion.

"Why. WHY WAS HE HERE?!"

"Who?" Sakura whispered, worried.

"-I'm so sorry!" the nurse cries.

Asuma pushes off from the wall. At this point, he already knows too much. They'll have to find out this part eventually.

"Your brother is part of an organization called Akatsuki. They were after Naruto."

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"Wait, STOP!" Sakura shouts, running after Sasuke. "You have to think about this!" She catches his arm and holds fast.

"There's no time to waste," he wrenches his arm from her grip. "I have to find my brother."

"But why? What's going on? And if he took out Kakashi-sensei, how are you going to beat him?"

"Shut up!" He doesn't want to hear logic. This is the first word he's heard of his brother in years.

"I will not! You're going to get yourself killed."

Bravery keeps her knees from quaking, determination stops the hyperventilating. She can't lose him. She can't lose him. She grabs his arm again, but this time he shoves her. By now they're a block away from the gate. He pushes her up against a telephone poll. She's taller than him still, so she manages to stay on her toes. Sakura winces, the rusted staples from old flyers dig into her back. There's a dangerous and unhinged look in his Sharingan eyes. "Stay out of my way."

Then he's gone. Too fast for her to ever hope she could catch up.

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Sakura isn't done yet. She is a hurricane, blowing into Kakashi's hospital room. A storm of anger and accusations.

"Who have you sent?!" she demanded, "Who did you send to warn Naruto, to protect him?!"

As the adults around her exchange looks, abdicating responsibility, she wants to scream. They've failed him. More and more, Sakura is noticing the way adults seem to fail them all. She spoke to her social worker about it. Who looked after Naruto his whole life? He never had parents, did he always live alone? Who fed Sasuke after his family died?

Her social worker responded that they only had two allotted sessions left, is she sure she wants to spend them talking about her teammates?

This is fucked up. This is so fucked up.

"Who would we send?" Asuma asks.

"Anyone!"

"We don't know where they are," Kurenai adds, "Besides, Lord Jiraiya is with him and he's a legendary Sannin. There's literally no one better to protect him."

"If it's so hard, why has Sasuke gone off to find them just now?"

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A knock at the door of his hotel room elicits a grown from Naruto.

"Got shut down already Pervy Sage? When are you gonna-" he swings the door open and comes face to face with a man in a black cloak, with red clouds. This would have left the bigger impression, were it not for unnervingly familiar, glaring, red eyes, pining him in place.

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Next

(x)

a/n: Been slow on updating because I've been working on another fic at the same time. The other one had a clearer direction in my mind (and has a really fun dynamic to write) so I got a little sidetracked. I've found the thread of this one though! Reviews are always loved and cherished.

PS: You can find me on tumblr as fiercyy! I love getting asks and prompts for oneshots or just to say hey.

- Fi