#sasusakufanfiction

[anerdinallherglory]

Approaching Sun (40)

Author’s Note: It may not seem like it, but I promise this story is “approaching” its end. I’m excited to write the last several chapters, so you won’t have to wait as long for the next one hopefully. Sorry for the wait!

Songs: 1) Butterflies by Tom Odell ft. AURORA, 2) Ghosts by James Vincent McMorrow, 3) Meet Me at Our Spot by THE ANXIETY, WILLOW, Tyler Cole. 

Pairing: SasuSaku

Previous Chapters: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39

Chapter 40: Selfishness

It was hours before dawn, the darkness still a shield that protected them from tomorrow, when Sasuke felt Sakura shift under his encircling arm. He inwardly groaned as she made to move away from him, because it meant that she was cutting this short, choosing to break into the soft sleepy realm of togetherness that the dark sky promised them. It had been a night unlike any other, a night of peace and safety as they slept in their bed, in their home, in their village. Sakura’s decision to try to sneak away was as abrasive as the sunrise would have been in that moment. Sasuke tightened his hold, pulling her back into his chest where he curled his body around her as if he could protect the peace of now just by holding her to him. He gave a grunt of protest as she froze.

Sasuke was usually the one who was up all hours of the night, hardly sleeping at times while he traveled across foreign territories. Typically haunted by nightmares and the past when his eyes closed, Sasuke was usually the one beyond eager to greet the next day, the sunrise the only interruption able to halt the endless torment of his mind. It wasn’t until this very moment as Sakura woke first beside him, that Sasuke realized he hadn’t been plagued by dreams of any kind for the last month at least, and he didn’t need to wonder as to why. The why slept beside him, trying to pull away from him and begin the day at an ungodly hour. 

“Are you always going to have this annoying habit?” he whispered into her shoulder, not even allowing the strength of a solid voice to interrupt this stillness. 

“What habit,” she answered back, just as quietly, but the mirthful faux exasperation still made its way through with her sharp exhalation of breath. 

“The one where you sneak away when you think I’m asleep,” Sasuke chided. “This makes at least four times now, I believe.” 

“I have to go and see—” she began, but Sasuke just pulled her in tighter, shaking his head against her shoulder. No. He simply wouldn’t let her go just yet.

“Whatever it is, it can wait until morning. Just stay with me.”

And his own words fully woke him like an ironic nightmare. ‘So please. Just stay with me, Sasuke. And if you can’t, then take me with you.”’ He dug his nose deeper into her shoulder blades, shaking free from those lingering words that had never stopped ricocheting through the echoing chambers of his heart. But he was here now. They were together. And she had agreed to come with him. Sasuke Uchiha was determined to rewrite the story of them from the moment he had made his vows in an underground cave.

“I can’t stay in this bed for much longer if you want to depart the village by sunrise,” she informed him, and Sasuke wanted to say it didn’t matter, but that would be a lie, and she knew the Uchiha well enough to infer that he wanted to leave in the quiet as he always chose to do. “I have to talk to Kakashi…” she sighed, and then added more softly, as if the truth of it was fragile: “… before I leave with you.”

Sasuke stared into her back as she said it, and his heart climbed while his stomach sank with his guilt. Despite his initial resolve to make Sakura stay behind for the sake of her goals, her safety, and the village, Sasuke had asked her to come with him. 

“Come with me, Sakura,” he had requested—a moment of weakness truly, the voice of the starved, desert man—and she had stared at him for a long minute after, as if waiting for him to take the words away again. Sasuke hated that it was in his nature to overthink everything, fail expectations, and create this pattern in Sakura of expecting the floor to be ripped out from beneath her. He hated it, but it didn’t change the fact that she was right to believe it of him.

“What?” she had voiced, expressing that uncertainty. “You’re asking me to come on your mission with you?”

“Yes,” he had doubled down, convincing both of them of what his heart had decided. “Come with me, Sakura.”

“Why the change in heart?” she had asked. “You said—”

“I know. I just—I’m selfish, too, Sakura. I shouldn’t be asking you this. It’s dangerous. But I—just don’t want it to be over yet. I need to find Kaguya, and I want you safe, and I shouldn’t—”

God, he had been a bumbling idiot. Had he ever rambled incoherently in front of anyone before? All of that usually took place in his mind, but this time, he struggled audibly, trying to make her understand with words that never came naturally to the Uchiha. He was only ever eloquent when he was being snarky or vindictive. 

“Stop talking yourself out of it,” she smiled, shuffling closer toward him on the bed and pulling that green cotton comforter that smelled like her up and over their bare skin. “I’ll come with you.”

“I wish you would say no. I’m having a hard time doing what’s best for the both of us right now.”

 “I’ve only ever dreamed of hearing you ask me that,” she had said in response. “Of course I am not saying no.”

But afterward, his thoughts had predictably raced throughout the night as Sasuke over-analyzed his request, the decision to bring his new wife with him, and what that would mean for her and the village. What it would mean for his mission. Was he really allowed such selfishness? What would Itachi think if he knew that Sasuke had committed himself to a similar life of sacrifice, but that his younger brother had faltered. Sasuke had put it on pause, hadn’t he? The moment he had chosen to meet her lips with his own back in Suna.  

“Am I allowed this,” Sasuke voiced the words he had harbored to himself in the quiet after of sex and Sakura’s sleep-induced cadence of breathing, “Maybe I cannot be like Itachi, after all. Maybe I’m still too weak to live a life of sacrifice.”

The back of her head rested back against his shoulder, until their faces became parallel silhouettes. “You’re choices now are not going to interrupt your mission Sasuke,” she whispered, hitting straight to the concerns in his heart. “I’m going to help you, not become a hinderance to you like Shikamaru believes. The four of us—Team 7—we are going to protect this peace together. We all have roles to play.”

And that’s why it was selfish of him, Sasuke wanted to say, but, again, couldn’t find the words to explain it. Because he had juxtaposed her mission with being with him, while Sasuke planned to do both: execute his mission while she followed him. Sakura was so much more than his wife, especially to the Leaf, but Sasuke just wanted his wife to be with him a little longer. The problem was that it would be to her own sacrifice. Sasuke would be forgoing nothing, which felt counterintuitive to his entire goal. He knew no matter what he said, Sakura wouldn’t see it as Sasuke did. 

“And I am taking you away from your role,” he tried to explain, but she shook her head.

“I choose my own role.” 

 Sensing the unspoken monologue of his mind, she turned under his clinging arm to face him. “You’re allowed to be selfish for once—” she began, but Sasuke’s sigh of despondency cut her short. 

“I’ve allowed myself a lifetime of selfishness in a short few years, remember? I only thought of myself and my own goals and caused a lot of pain in the process. Being selfless is a part of my journey of atonement. You were never supposed to be a part of that—”

And Sakura interrupted him this time, stopping his self-critical speech before he could spiral further. Her left palm reached up to the plane of his cheek, staring at him through the dark. “Your future is going to be nothing but sacrifice, remember? Mine too, now. I’m going to be selfish this time, too, because we have nothing but a future of sacrifice ahead of us. The universe will be paid its due of sacrifice in full, I promise you.”

He tried to say more, something about how his past was not hers to atone for, how he wished he could spare her from this life altogether, but she kissed him before he could give voice to any more of his concerns. Concerns even about her safety despite everything she had proven to him recently. Like a persistent gnat, that dread that he would be the reason Sakura was pulled back into danger again now that she was safely in Konoha—it would always be there. But Sasuke was going to eradicate the threat that remained and ease his anxieties a bit by doing so. 

“You can’t take it back,” she whispered. “I’ll continue my work wherever it takes me and I’ll help you with your goals. Just as before. We deserve this.”

She slipped from under his braced arm then, her inhuman strength always catching Sasuke by surprise no matter how many times she had reminded him of her abilities. He tried to blame it on her taking advantage of his lack of an appendage.

Sasuke heard the shower as she retreated into the bathroom down the hall, and he face-planted back onto the pillow in exhaustion. That is until he heard her tentatively call out, “want to join me?”

Sasuke shot straight up, all fatigue suddenly gone and that gentle undisturbed night gave way to the immediate, panicky present. He blushed furiously at that question, staring wide-eyed down the hall. Did she just invite him into the shower with her? Sasuke chided himself for his reaction immediately. He had just done unspeakable things with that woman not five hours ago, but here he was acting like a shy first-year genin at the suggestion that he shower with her.

He didn’t answer, reminding himself that she likely wore a blushing face to match his, even if she was the one brave enough to ask him. Sasuke Uchiha would be damned if he skipped the opportunity. He was still a man, even if his desires for her were kept strictly in the privacy between them. But beyond that, he was more tempted to accept her offer because there was something remarkably intimate about being with someone in such an exposed way that it went beyond comfortability. Sasuke didn’t want to miss out on the normalcy that developed between two people living their mundane lives beside one another, where acts such as showering together were almost as normal as showering alone. He wanted to participate in the mutual lifestyle, even if it wasn’t the sort of routine Sasuke would get to hold on to in the future. The fact that he was even getting the chance to be with someone in such a way, reminded Sasuke of how far he had come and the small miracles he was going to be getting despite that vow of complete selflessness he had made to himself. 

Climbing into the shower, Sasuke had guessed right. Sakura’s face was the same rosy shade as her hair, which was just as lovely all lathered and molded into a crown atop her head. He even noticed how the blush spread down to the back of her neck and kissed the tops of her shoulders. They both locked eyes and immediately dropped their gazes to their feet, pointedly ignoring eachothers’ nakedness as if it they hadn’t just been intimate hours earlier. Their eyes locked again as they looked back up, and Sakura smiled at him reassuringly before she traded positions with him under the showerhead. She was pretending to be unaffected, continuing to massage her scalp and newly-short hair, the soap bubbles running in rivulets along the paths of the loose hair along her nape drawing Sasuke’s attention, and he desperately wanted to run his fingers through it. And to Sasuke’s surprise, Sakura must have been thinking similarly, because she reached up to his own wet black locks immediately and did just that. He closed his eyes as she stood on her tiptoes and began massaging soap into his scalp with two hands. Gods, that felt fucking amazing. 

“Showers were such a great invention,” he announced, to which Sakura agreed, going into detail about how the homes were built with modern plumbing after Pain’s demolition of the Leaf, among other modifications and technological advancements.

The hot water was blissful, a luxury Sasuke did not often receive on the road, unless he was lucky enough to stumble upon a hot spring. Even a daily bath was often a rarity, and so Sasuke was determined to enjoy every second of it. He would enjoy it a lot more though, if she would let him bathe her in return. Boldly, but growing in the increasing confidence and comfortability he was finding with her these days, Sasuke turned Sakura so that she faced the stream of the shower head. 

He moved his hand to her hair, mimicking her washing efforts single-handedly, fingering those pink, bubble woven strands.

“Do you like girls with short hair or long hair?” she suddenly inquired, and Sasuke halted for a moment at the question. Why did she suddenly want to know that? It immediately felt like the sort of question with no right answer, and his internal alarms were going off.

“Irrelevant, considering you’re the only girl I have, or will ever like.” Surely that was the right answer. It was the truth of it, anyway. Sasuke hoped it would be enough of a response to satisfy her, but Sakura pushed on as his single-handed massaging continued.

“This is going to sound silly, but all of us girls at the academy grew our hair out on purpose because we had all heard the rumor that you liked girls with long hair.”

Sasuke raised a curious brow, trying desperately, but failing to recall any sort of youthful declaration of preference. If Sasuke were to guess, he had probably said all kinds of things to ward off silly girl advances. If someone with a schoolgirl crush on him wore glasses, he would have told her he hated girls with glasses. If another girl was short, he would have said he liked taller girls. And so on and so forth. Anything to spurn them and send them on their way. Sasuke had never had a preference for such things. A preference would be admitting he liked anyone for anything at all. And to be honest, Sasuke hadn’t even paid attention to a girl’s hair until one specific day in the Forest of Death. 

“I like your hair,” he admitted candidly. “Especially when you go and cut it off like it’s some declaration of war.”

He could tell she was smiling simply from the way she ducked her head slightly. “I guess in a way, it is,” she admitted. 

Sasuke pulled his fingers away from her hair, curling them in hesitation, before deciding to trace a path in the soap at her shoulder blades, once again creating that symbol on her back. It had begun as a sort of declarative mark, a way to tell the world who she was to him; then that mark had become his hope for the future of his—their—clan; but more recently, tracing that symbol into her back was like a therapeutic reminder to them both. Of the choice he had made.  When he did so now, Sakura laughed, but Sasuke was telling himself in his head: it’s real. This is real. This is happening. I can have this. I want this. She wants this. WE will make it work one way or another and no one is going to take it from me. Fuck complete selflessness. Just like this shared experience of showering with another person, the Uchiha symbol on Sakura’s back was proof of how far he had come from the man of three years ago, the one who would have killed her and Naruto for simply existing and being liabilities to him. 

“So it was just a rumor then,” Sakura stated, refusing to drop her chosen subject even though Sasuke was now miles away from it in his head. It felt like whiplash, coming back to it. “All that time believing such a silly thing would make you like me, when it was power you only ever truly respected.”

Something in Sasuke’s stomach soured at those words and he called upon his years of practiced indifference to refrain himself from flinching. There was truth to her statement, they both knew, and Sasuke hated that he had been that type of person. Looking back on how Sasuke had treated those with power versus how he had acted towards others he believed to be weaker than himself. Had he not sought out Team Taka based on their abilities alone? Suddenly, the Uchiha sort of wished he had been the type of person to have a preference for one’s hair instead of one’s power and ninja ability.

Sasuke wanted to remedy his actions to her, explain it away, but like always, was going to fail miserably, he knew. He settled with trying to emphasize who he was now. “I don’t see people that way anymore. I think you’re the most powerful kunoichi in the world, but I loved you before any of that.” Sasuke wasn’t going to voice that it definitely eased his concerns knowing she was a sanin-level kunoichi who had proved to him countlessly now that she didn’t need others to protect herself. It wouldn’t be beneficial to bring that up again right now. 

She turned back to face him then, once again moving to switch spots with him under the running water. Even though their conversation had taken a downward turn, Sasuke couldn’t help himself from trailing her body with his eyes as they pivoted, and her lower back brushed against his legs. It surprised himself how much of an affected man he actually was, even though he would convince the world he was impervious to such things. Just as Sasuke had admitted to the both of them last night, he would be alone in the near future and was eager to store as many visuals of her naked as he could before they parted. He wouldn’t ask her for anything more substantial now, though. Sakura was coming with him, and he could go back to allowing things to naturally transpire between them, instead of rushing into them like that starved desert man in his mind that Sasuke was having a hard time fighting against and reasoning with. He turned his own back to her when the evidence of his affectedness traveled south, and he disguised the concealing of it with the act of letting the water stream down into his face and over his chest. It was his ninja instinct that told him her eyes appraised him similarly while his back was turned. 

It was obvious she didn’t notice his own elation, because she immediately asked with a bashful smile and redirected gaze, “So you’ve admitted twice now that you cared for me when we were genin. When exactly did that start?”

Oh, shit. Sasuke supposed he had alluded to that twice now—more like confessed it outright. He had angrily disclosed to Sakura in the heat of last night that his growing feelings for her was the reason for his inexcusable behavior towards her. Sasuke had told Sakura that he knew who she would become to him, which is why he had done everything to make her hate him and permanently cut his bond with her in every way possible. He chastised himself silently for admitting that. The truth to her question was that Sasuke couldn’t pinpoint when he had begun to care for her in more ways than a friend. Not exactly, anyway. At first, Sakura annoyed him. Like all the others. Naruto, of course, at the top of his list—but she wasn’t far behind, claiming she was in love with him when she didn’t even know him. He would say he had begun to care about her around the same time he had begun to care for the rest of Team 7. But when did he know that he would come to care for Sakura in a way that was more? The Chuunin exams? When he had woken from the effects of the Curse Mark to find her beaten and at the mercy of three sound ninja, and realized he would mangle and  kill them for it? Or was it before then? Maybe as far back as The Land of Waves, when she thought he was dying and clung desperately to him as if doing so would keep him tethered to this world. Sasuke didn’t know exactly when it had begun for him, and so he avoided her eyes, scrambling to escape answering that question, afraid to not have the answer she hoped for. He reached back to turn off the tap before reaching for the towels beyond the curtain. 

His wife’s persistent silence told Sasuke she’d wait the answer out. 

“Hmm,” he stalled, then decided on an answer that sounded more like his usual self: “does it really matter?”

She immediately frowned, and Sasuke smirked as he began to towel his hair. It was getting too long and was longer than Sakura’s now when wet. Damn he wished he had two hands so he could dry off faster and leave the washroom that much quicker. 

But Sakura was as relentless as usual, deciding to take a guess at it herself. 

“In the Forest of Death? During the Chunnin Exams?” She gasped, as if suddenly realizing something and covered her face with her hands. “When I tried to kiss you on the bench? No, that can’t be right. You were so angry that day, calling me annoying for the first time.” 

Sasuke halted his efforts of toweling his head. “What are you talking about?”

“You’re still going to pretend that you don’t remember that day?! You tried this the night you left, too!” Sakura reproached his forgetfulness. “I’ll never forget when you called me annoying because I was being harsh about Naruto’s upbringing…I thought you were angry because I had tried to kiss you, but I also sort of said some stupid things—” she confessed in a stutter, avoiding his confused stare 

“No,” he clarified. “I remember that part. And calling you annoying. I lied that night and said I didn’t remember that day, but I do. But that’s not the part I’m talking about.” 

She narrowed her eyes at his blatant provocation. 

“I don’t ever remember you trying to kiss me,” he deadpanned.

“Seriously? You asked me what I thought about Naruto, and I gave an obnoxiously embarrassing speech about how I only wanted your acceptance.” She ducked her head in defeat, grabbing her own towels and wrapping them delicately around herself. “I learned my lesson after that day, and I never said anything like that again. Or tried to kiss you.”

Sasuke listened with roaming, blinking eyes as he tried to make sense of what she was saying. “I don’t remember any of that. I do remember being very angry that day because Naruto had—” Sasuke stopped talking abruptly as the pieces suddenly put themselves together. That day had been like any other normal day, until Naruto ambushed him in his room with his shadow clones. They tied him up and Sasuke was forced to watch as Naruto transformed into him, a perfect Sasuke Uchiha double. That damn idiot. 

“What?” she asked, already in the process of adorning her morning work clothes despite the pre-dawn hour. 

“That wasn’t me,” Sasuke smirked to himself. “That was Naruto.”

Sakura straightened in disbelief. “Wait, what?”

“That idiot had transformed into me. Caught me by surprise and tied me up that day. I watched him transform into me and run off. And after all this time, now I know what he did as he pretended to be me.” Sasuke wanted to laugh as if he were a genin genuinely amused by the shenanigans of Team 7 once more. Naruto had pretended to be Sasuke that day because he had wanted to get closer to Sakura, who had almost kissed him because she had been so infatuated with her schoolgirl crush. The idea of it had the Uchiha suddenly grinning wildly. Like a treasure in a time capsule, the revelation came to him like a precious piece of the past. Like the cicada song of Konoha, it made Sasuke feel warm instead of exasperated at Naruto’s trickeries that day.

In contrast, Sakura shrieked as the realization of what Naruto had done dawned upon her, too. “HE DID WHAAAAAT?! That IDIOT!” 

Sasuke grinned mischievously, not passing up the perfect opportunity of teasing her. “You almost kissed Naruto.”

Her mouth fell open. She stuttered before emphatically tossing down her towel on the floor and promising, “I’m seriously going to kill him for that.”

When Sasuke laughed again, Sakura pointed at him with her own devious smirk. “Well, one of us really did kiss Naruto, and it wasn’t me, unless mouth-to-mouth counts.”

Sasuke threw his own towel at her face, his laughter dying immediately as hers picked back up again. “Don’t ever bring that up again. And mouth-to-mouth counts.”

She laughed, peeking under the towel over her head. “Then I guess both of our first kisses were with Naruto. Can you believe that? And I’ve technically kissed several people before you then, as well.”

Sasuke frowned at the thought of Sakura performing that medically necessary practice and changed his answer. “Ok. It doesn’t count.”

“Then I win.” 

“What was there to win?” he asked incredulously.

“Nothing. But there was something to lose. Your dignity. You lose because you kissed Naruto.”

“His wife, the Hyuga girl, begs to differ.”

“You’re right. Kissing the world’s savior is not a bad way to live your life. I guess that makes you a lucky man, then.”

Sasuke scowled pointedly and Sakura giggled, moving toward him in the dim steamy bathroom, fully clothed now while he was still dripping naked. She splayed her fingertips across his abdomen, and he immediately wiped his face clean of emotion. She took the towel in her other hand and wrapped it around his waist to bring him closer to her. “Not as lucky I feel getting to kiss you, the savior in the shadows.”

“I guess that’s true,” he murmured with a smug tilt of his chin. She went in for the kiss and Sasuke reached up to secure her neck, guiding her the rest of the way. Their lips touched briefly, a promise for that natural substantiality, after all. That starvation for connection flared to life inside him like that black, pulsating eternal sun of Amaterasu he had become for her.   

And then a knock sounded through Sakura’s home. They both immediately stilled as Sasuke’s vision morphed into red and purple. Another knock. His gaze flashed in the direction of the doorway down the hall from them, and he quickly identified the two people, their two outlines of chakra concentrations flickering like flames just outside Sakura’s front door. At first, Sasuke was assuming it might be someone from the hospital again, coming to request her presence. One mass was impressive and flickering erratically, a figure dangling on the other as if supported. Sasuke sighed and deactivated his visual prowess, an unnecessary drain on his chakra now that he had a guess at who was at the door. 

Before Sasuke could relay this conjecture to Sakura, the two individuals knocked again and announced their identities themselves. “Sakura?! You in there? Sorry to bother you at this hour, but Lee got a bit carried away drinking again! I heard you were back in the village, are you in there?”

“How often does this sort of thing happen?” Sasuke asked, instantly annoyed for several different reasons: 1) Sakura’s offered kiss had just been interrupted and he had been quite looking forward to that, 2) who in their right mind, because of drunkenness, would casually interrupt her sleep at this hour anyway, and 3) for some reason he would never confess aloud, Sasuke didn’t quite care that Rock Lee was one of the people on the other side of the door. 

“Not often,” Sakura relayed, making to step around him. Sasuke scowled. “But when Lee gets like this, I told him to come to me without guilt or reservation.”

Sasuke couldn’t help but scoff distinctly at that. 

“I owe him this much, remember?” she declared, making for the couch to grab her father’s old set of clothes from the spot on the arm where Sasuke had left them the last time he had stayed over. She tossed it to him as he continued to pointedly display his annoyed expression. “He fought for me in the Forest of Death and has helped me more since. Even without that between us, he is still a Konoha citizen and my patient.”

Sasuke almost asked ‘how exactly has he helped since’ simply because he wanted to know the specifics, but clamped his mouth shut. Do not be an irrational dick, he told himself. He technically owed Lee too, in a sense, for helping her. Sasuke shut the bathroom door as he heard Sakura receive them, Lee greeting her enthusiastically despite his supposed drunkenness, while Sasuke stood close enough to the bathroom door to eavesdrop while he dressed. 

“Sakuraaa?” Lee stuttered, and Sasuke could hear him stumble his way into the small space, knocking his knee ungracefully into the doorframe. 

“Leeee,” sighed an exasperated feminine voice that Sasuke recognized, placing it as the female member of Team Guy whom Sasuke couldn’t even recall having ever had a conversation with before. “Get off her! Sorry Sakura, he always gets like this when he’s had too much to drink, but you know that.”

“It’s fine!” Sakura assured them. “Here Lee, let’s get you to the couch.”

It most certainly was not fine, and Sasuke finished dressing, quite done eavesdropping. He had thought he might sit it out in the bathroom, but not after that exchange.

Opening the door, Sasuke casually strode into the kitchen as if he couldn’t be bothered by any of them. He heard the room fall silent as he pointedly ignored them, heading straight to the kitchen in search of that cabinet where he had once retrieved some medication for Sakura’s hangover not several months ago. 

Sakura didn’t miss a beat, pretending to be unphased by Sasuke’s sudden unexpected passing, as if this was just as normal as Lee showing up to her house, apparently. “What happened exactly?” she inquired.

“It was an accident,” Tenten explained from the other room, stuttering as she recovered from the shock of randomly seeing Sasuke here after so many years of absence. “We were eating with Choji and Shikamaru, and Lee somehow got his drink mixed up with Shikamaru’s. Next thing we knew, he was hanging from the rafters.”

Sasuke clutched the container with the yellow label marked “Cys/Potas,” the same one that Sakura had indicated had been especially made for Lee’s drunken fist. Next, Sasuke grabbed a glass from a nearby shelf and rotated it in his hand as he thought about that particular information Tenten just divulged. Mixed up drinks? With Shikamaru, of all people? Sasuke pursed his lips as he considered that in the context of recent events. Maybe the shinobi world and his latest interactions concerning the spikey-haired ninja had made him paranoid, but Sasuke scowled down at the reflective glass, overthinking the likelihood of that happening with the Hokage’s right-hand assistant. Shikamaru was a genius, and to put it bluntly, didn’t like the Uchiha (Sasuke didn’t really care, because he didn’t like him all that much either), but would he really go as far as to purposefully get Lee drunk, knowing it was a habit for Lee and his companions to seek Sakura’s assistance? What would be the point of such a calculated move? To spy? To interrupt them? To wake Sakura so she would report to Kakashi? To remind her of her critical function in the Leaf and her other male options? Hn. Sasuke wasn’t going to assume any of that, but he wasn’t going to entirely discredit it as paranoia either. 

Sakura didn’t hesitate a second at Tenten’s statement, saying, “Yes, this isn’t the first time this sort of thing has happened. Has he eaten anything?” 

“Yes,” Tenten replied immediately. “He ate two plates before—” she halted when Sasuke came back into the room. 

“This is what you need, correct?” Sasuke ignored them altogether, placing the glass of water and medication he held with one hand onto the table in front of the sofa. 

“Yes,” Sakura answered him, not entirely sure whom Sasuke was addressing, but assuming it must have been her, since Sasuke paced to take up his usual shut-eyed spot against one of the walls, making no effort to talk to either of her guests. Sasuke wanted to tell them that they had gotten what they needed so they could leave now, but Sasuke was reminding himself to hold his tongue because he was trying to not come off as the asshole Shikamaru and the rest of Konoha 13 thought him to be. He may not be doing a very good job at it by blatantly ignoring them, but it was better than the annoyed words on his tongue. 

Tenten didn’t seem to be too bothered by his predictable stony silence, because she said boldly, “So the rumors are true then. You’re back, Sasuke.”

Sasuke opened an eye to acknowledge her, giving her a polite but not out of character, “Not for long.” He could have remained silent completely, but Sasuke supposed he didn’t want to give the rest of Konoha any more reasons to hate him than they already had, especially those connected to Sakura. 

The medicine seemed to be working as Lee began to come out of his drunken haze slowly but surely. “Sakuraaaaa,” he whined again, slumping forward on the couch her general direction. “I know--*hic* that you love Sasuke and all, but *hic*--” he didn’t get further before Tenten slapped a hand over his mouth. 

“Don’t say anything more,” she chastised him, then turned to Sakura. “Sorry, he gets emotional and confrontational when he’s like this. He doesn’t mean half of what he says. Thank you for the medication, Sakura. I’ll take him home now.”

Sasuke raised an eyebrow at the words that had come from Lee’s mouth, and the challenging glare framed by those bushy brows of his. Confrontational when drunk, indeed; Lee had acted completely different towards him several months back when he had met up with the caravan Lee had been escorting into the village. He had been full of the ‘spirit of youth’ back then, and very enthusiastic to see Sasuke well. And for the first time since all those years ago, Sasuke remembered Lee’s crush on Sakura. And with that memory, Sasuke suddenly had his answer to Sakura’s question from earlier, too. The first time Sasuke had felt something other than comradery toward Sakura had to have been when Lee boldly—still was bold, apparently—confessed his love for her on that first day of the Chuunin exams. 

And now that Sasuke held Lee’s gaze, the Uchiha remembered that he had felt a deep annoyance for the ninja’s admiration for Sakura, but it had all been eclipsed once Lee brought up the Uchiha clan and proceeded to challenge Sasuke to a fight. Sasuke had also overlooked his annoyance when Lee had stood up for Sakura in the Forest of Death at a time when Sasuke and Naruto had been incapacitated. It was for those same reasons, that Sasuke chose to not say anything more now. He had always respected Lee, even if the bushy browed ninja did still harbor affection for his wife. A couple months ago, Sasuke would have conceded to Lee for Sakura’s attention, even going as far to push her in the other man’s direction, knowing in his heart that Lee deserved her, would be good to her, and might even make her happy someday through his consistent presence—be Sakura’s doting husband and the father of her children.

Not now though. Whatever Lee had wanted to say to her tonight, it would have been three months too late anyway. Even Lee knew it, because the drunken man sighed as he made to stand, picking up the medication to take with him. Lee was removing the excuse to visit her himself and they all recognized that intentional act. “I’m sorry Sakura. For bothering you again, especially at this hour. I’ll try to be more careful in the future.”

“You’re no trouble, Lee. You can always come to me for help. You know that. Tell Shikamaru to be more careful with his drink placement, next time.”

Sasuke glanced at Sakura at that statement. He supposed that he wasn’t the only one who squinted their eyes a bit at the circumstances of tonight. 

And even though Sakura had offered Lee her continued assistance, Lee had still taken the medication with him. And Sakura didn’t insist he leave it behind. 

.

.

.

They didn’t talk about Lee, or much of anything after the two ninja left, really. Sakura had felt uncomfortable, but firm in her practices whenever the two members of Team Guy had arrived at her door. She had to admit she was a little surprised that Sasuke had retrieved Lee’s medication from her cabinet like he was as familiar with Lee’s drunken care as she was, placing it down on the table for him in her stead. But then again, the Uchiha had done stranger, bolder things in the last couple months that had surprised her more. Sakura knew Sasuke well enough to know why he had done it, doing his best to casually, but firmly reveal their relationship to Tenten and Lee (he didn’t have to come out of that bathroom, and Sakura hadn’t expected him to.)

She raced against the growing hour, throwing things randomly into a travel sack, already determined to leave with him. Sasuke watched her stonily with pursed, tense lips. She ignored him, knowing the Uchiha was still having second thoughts about asking her to continue their traveling together even in this moment. She wasn’t going to give him another out. 

“I want to check in with Kakashi once more before we leave,” she announced for a second time, moving through the motions of packing, just as she had done several months prior, and not really paying that much attention to what she was throwing in the bag. 

“Sakura..” Sasuke tried, but Sakura anticipated his words and cut him off instantly. 

“I don’t want to hear it.”

“The Otsusuki—” he began again, refusing not to try one last time to emphasize the primary threat they’d be facing together from this point on. 

 “Can go to hell,” she finished, handing him her rucksack before boldly fisting her hands behind his neck, her palms sliding to the forefront of his cheekbones. In the dim pre-dawn, lantern-lit hour, Sakura searched both of his eyes. “We get to be selfish.” The window that they had left open all night long, gifted them one last Konoha breeze, the cicadas of the previous evening now silent. Not even they wanted to disturb this quiet solitude, but Sakura had to be the one to set things into motion. For the second time this year, she would tell Kakashi that she was leaving. 

Sasuke closed the space between them, taking that kiss that had been interrupted earlier, and Sakura knew this was his way of saying, ‘Okay. Let’s do this, then.’ His mouth was warm and Sakura wanted desperately to climb back into that bed, kiss him into the dawn, and listen to the night give way to birdsong. But Sakura wanted to follow him the rest of the way toward accomplishing his mission more. 

To her surprise, Sasuke broke the kiss, he too preparing for the imminent future. She knew he was eager to be gone from Konoha and to resume the hunt for the Otsutsuki.   

“Meet me at the gates?” she asked, already gasping, but holding her breath like she could cling to the quiet present shared between them if she did so.

“I’ll meet you there.”

And Sakura assumed he had simply agreed. Donning her white doctor’s coat, she sprinted off into the night, heading toward the spot Sakura knew Kakashi would be. 

The pink-haired Kunoichi once again, left her home with a silent farewell, the residence a loyal and waiting fortitude that would forever preserve the short Konoha chapters of their lifelong story together. 

.

.

.

Kakashi was a worldclass ninja, and being a ninja, was not in the habit of being snuck up upon, especially here. It was common for the Hokage to upgrade into more secure housing once they became officially titled as the head of the village, but Kakashi had reallocated the Hokage’s quarters for other purposes recently, taking up residence in his old apartment instead. He had meant what he had said this morning about running out of space to house all the individuals flooding into the Leaf Village. He had given up the Hokage quarters to shocked refugees a month ago, preferring to keep his old discreet lodgings for himself. To everyone else’s knowledge but a select few, he had simply upgraded to something more private.

He sat up at the knock, wondering which of those select few had decided to interrupt his sleep, and then shot out of bed as he registered the night out his window. Because if the Hokage was being sought out at this hour, it must be an emergency. 

But when he opened the door, Kakashi’s anxiety skyrocketed for an entirely different reason. It was Sakura on the other side of it. He looked down at her, her determined expression as she stared into his chest was all he needed to see to know exactly why she was here. He sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. 

“I’m leaving,” his pink-haired student blurted out, like it had taken her significant courage to do so. And in a smaller guilty sort-of voice, added, “again.”

“I guessed as much,” Kakashi admitted, opening the door for her to come inside. The action gave her pause and Kakashi knew she was thinking he was inviting her inside because his goal would be to talk her out of it. She met his eyes to try to read his face and her emerald irises widened. 

Kakashi sleepily raised a curious brow when her hand went to cover her mouth. “Your mask—it’s OFF?!”

Remembering suddenly that he had chosen to forego the mask while he slept, Kakashi clutched Sakura’s wrist and pulled her the rest of the way inside. When the door was shut behind her, he released her and rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. “I typically sleep with it off, in the privacy of my own home.”

“Um,” Sakura stumbled over her words, her eyes the size of full moons and mouth hung open like the door he had just slammed to avoid prying eyes. “Why do you even wear that mask when you have a face like that, Sensei?” 

He turned his back on her in search of said mask, cringing internally that she had seen him without it. “It doesn’t fit me, this face,” he admitted finding the cowl and pulling it down over his chin and nose. “It’s my father’s face. The face of the White Fang.”

“You don’t want to see it?” she asked, moving more fully into the room. It was a labyrinth of books, paperwork, and gifts from the citizens of Konoha. He hadn’t known what to do with such items, but didn’t want to throw them out either, feeling it to be highly disrespectful to do so. So, it had become his surrounding, the insulation of his small apartment.

“No,” he confessed, as unaffected by emotion as possible. 

“Then avoid reflective surfaces, but don’t do the rest of the world the disservice.”

He laughed then, enjoying his young student’s playful humor. He would never live this down; she’d never see him the same. Which is precisely why he would wear it to the grave. Kakashi had initially worn it for the reasons he had confessed to Sakura, but it had also just become a part of his persona. Like a pair of glasses or an Anbu mask, Kakashi had grown accustomed to the pressure on his face and now preferred the comfort of something so consistent. It didn’t hurt his shinobi reputation, either, to wear an elusive, intimidating mask. It separated him from his father, distinctly characterizing him as his own person to others. It was quite literally stitched into his identity. 

“But seriously,” Sakura continued, “find someone to show yourself to, Sensei. Just because you’re the Hokage doesn’t mean you need to be alone.”

Kakashi sighed again, rubbing the back of his neck. Is this what it felt like when he interfered in his student’s love lives? “Not really interested in anything of the sort,” he confessed. “Living vicariously through my students is quite enough—”

Sakura wasn’t backing down it seemed, pointing a finger in his direction, “Don’t act like you’re not just as bad as Jiraiya, Kakashi Sensei. You read nothing but Makeout Tactics for years.”

He coughed loudly, suddenly confronted with a behavior that had never been a secret. Everyone knew how much he enjoyed that book series. “A healthy outlet,” he excused, “for a loveless life.”

Before she could say anything more, Kakashi turned the tables on her. “It seems you and Sasuke, however, have chosen to continue traveling together. When do you leave?”

She went from teasing back to serious as she came forward and stood a little straighter. “Sunrise.”

In just a couple hours, then. That soon? Kakashi supposed that this was going to be his last chance alone with Sakura to express his concerns before she inevitably followed the Uchiha back into the wilderness. 

“Sakura,” he began, and he saw her physically brace herself as she searched his eyes for the words he had yet to speak. “I have wished for nothing more than you and Sasuke to be happy. Seeing you both choose each other was the highlight of my year, I promise you. But,”

She ducked her head. “I was afraid there might be a but this time.”

“Recently, there has been some tension where Sasuke is concerned—” Kakashi stated, but Sakura interrupted him. 

“I already know,” she confessed. “Shikamaru told me.”

Kakashi squinted his eyes as he considered that, knowing that his assistant would have not been soft in his delivery of their mutual concerns. He sighed, wishing Shikamaru would have let Kakashi be the one to do so first as the leader of Team 7. He supposed Shikamaru had little faith Kakashi would address it at all for that very reason. 

“But it’s not like that Kakashi. Naruto and I—” she began, but Kakashi waved her panicking declarations away. 

“I know what you’re going to say,” he came forward and placed a hand on her shoulder groundingly. “And I still extend my congratulations to you both. I am happy for you, Sakura. But this time, I’m going to also extend a word of caution.”

She waited for it, and Kakashi could hear her breath catching, her chest tightening as if waiting for impact. 

“I came to the conclusion that Sasuke’s threat wasn’t ingenuine like Naruto claims it to be,” he said and Sakura’s wide eyes jumped to his. “I think Sasuke will always struggle with his nature, and there is always the possibility of his relapse.”

She shook her head, attempting to resume Sasuke’s defense, but Kakashi finished his speech with, “However, I am choosing to have faith—just as Sasuke is, himself—that you and Naruto are enough security in the instance that one of Team 7 may eventually—heaven forbid—be lost.”

“I think that, too, Kakashi. But it will never come to that. Sasuke vowed to me last night that he would never become that way again, even if Team 7–.”

“But it’s not only Team 7 that I am concerned about, Sakura,” Kakashi confessed, stealing himself to admit to her what he had silently worried about ever since the Uchiha’s declarations in Sunagakure. As much as he didn’t want to, Kakashi was going to bring it up. He wanted her prepared. He wanted Sasuke prepared. 

“I don’t understand—”

“A child, Sakura.”

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.

.

In the eclipsing mist-lurking darkness, Sasuke traced his fingers along the Uchiha memorial, finding Itachi’s name carved into the plaque at the bottom. Sasuke hadn’t understood until now that whoever had created the memorial had listed each member of the Uchiha clan massacre and saw it fit to add UCHIHA ITACHI despite his role in their deaths. Sasuke was surprised to find it there, knowing that those who had died by his hand deserved their own plaque apart from their murderer. But whoever had designed it had added Itachi, and Sasuke couldn’t think of any other reason other than that, at the end of the day, it had been determined Itachi was a victim of the Uchiha massacre, too. There weren’t many people who knew about Itachi’s secret, which led Sasuke to conclude once again that Kakashi was responsible for this memorial. Sasuke had missed it the first time he had visited several months ago, but seeing it now made a flicker of guilt spark inside him about his behavior towards Kakashi the past few days. He was still angry with him about his recent actions regarding Sakura, but he appreciated him all the same for his efforts to maintain and honor their rocky back and forth relationship. 

Sasuke sighed as he traced his older brother’s name, feeling like he was visiting his grave for the first time despite the fact that Itachi’s body didn’t lay beneath his feet. How incredible it was that a simple name engraved on stone suddenly became like an open conduit to one’s lost soul where there hadn’t been one before. Like an unexpected winter wind that whipped around you, the ghosts of the past arrived to surround Sasuke, the one from their clan who had survived, the one who had tried to avenge them. They stared back at him now, shadows of their former selves with hollow eyes pacing around Sasuke to survey just what kind of the man the last living Uchiha became. He fixated on the silhouettes of his imagination that felt like home as his fingers found his mother’s and father’s name placed beside one another on the monument just as they had left this world side-by-side. 

“Mother,” he whispered, “Father,” uttering those words for the first time since the night they had left his throat in screams. “I don’t feel so alone anymore. I’m going to be my own man from now on. I’m going to make my own choices for myself, now. Wherever you are right now, I hope you’re together.”

Sasuke suddenly looked up into the eyes of a grim funeral bird, a crow landing to perch on the top of the memorial, a figment in the darkness that cocked its head in evaluative listening. Sasuke stilled, imagining his brother in its place, perched on top of that gravestone and looking down at him with a bone chilling, “Sasuke.” 

“And you, Itachi,” Sasuke whispered among those pacing shadows, acknowledging the ghost above him. “I hope wherever you are, you’re finally free, and that your sacrifice paid for an afterlife of happiness. In the end, I don’t think I want to be like you, Itachi. You gave up all the things you wanted and dreamed about and for what? You were manipulated Itachi. Your sacrifice was for the benefit of a crazed man. I killed him for what he did to you.”

The crow tilted its head as it listened. It cawed loudly whenever Sasuke fell silent.  

Sasuke continued, saying, “Instead of living a life of complete sacrifice, I think I want to simply live my life by doing what’s right. I want some of that happiness now, in the present.”

The cawing turned to words of warning that Sasuke heard in the chambers of his heart. “The Uchiha cannot determine what is right. Their emotions cloud their judgement. The Uchiha have always brought about destruction by conceding to their selfish desires. Selfishness will be your downfall.”

Sasuke scowled at the talking bird, shaking his head in denial at the very words that haunted his heart like his brother’s ghost did now. “I have Naruto and Sakura to live by. I’ll stand by their sides to protect the village. I’ll choose what theychoose. I won’t become what I was. Never again. I’ll spend the rest of my life proving you wrong. Proving everyone else wrong.”

The bird did not speak, but its black beady eye surveyed him carefully as mist curled around them, as if the creature before him possessed a sight beyond the abilities of the Rinnegan. Sasuke suddenly felt exposed as it sized him with otherworldly measure, as if it could discern the very colors of the sins that stained his soul. As if it could scry into the various futures that could manifest according to Sasuke’s life-altering decisions.

Sasuke doubled down, convincing his brother and vowing to himself. “I’ll hunt the Otsusuki because I want to protect my loved ones and the Leaf, not because I want to live up to your legacy of martyrdom. I don’t want to live in the name of vengeance, in the name of sacrifice, or in the name of losses anymore. I think I want to live for me. I want to live for the ones who remain. Is that so terrible?”

And the crow tilted its head in contemplation, before croaking, “Maybe you’re different. Maybe your ties will save you, Sasuke. Maybe you can be selfish if your selfishness means living for others. Maybe it is love that will keep you from falling after all. It was my love for you that sustained me.” And then Sasuke imagined that the crow bowed its royal head, a show of the black plumage crown of the grim, before it cawed in finality, flapping its magnificent wings and bursting from its haunting roost in a loud cacophony that startled the souls of the grave back into the mist of the morning. Sasuke wasn’t sure what sort of answer he was given, or if he had imagined the entire conversation altogether, but he felt lighter. He felt righted in his downward spiral. 

That feeling of lightness continued as the stripe of sun began its rise on the horizon, the warmth of the sun casting out the chill of shadows in his mind as Sasuke headed to that spot. It was its own kind of haunting, that expanse of cobblestone parallel the stone bench on the only road out of the village. The very place where he and Sakura’s first real confrontation took place and the spot where they had met multiple times since. Just a few months ago, it was the exact same location that Sakura had pretty much told Sasuke he wasn’t leaving her behind again. She had chosen to follow without his initial permission. But this time was different. This time, Sasuke wanted to face the ghost of it as he had his brother’s, the painful memory he had created there. This time he would rewrite his wrongs and their history. 

Except that lightness won from earlier was replaced with unease when Sasuke got there as the sunrise fully cast its violet banner in the sky, and Sakura wasn’t there waiting for him. Activating his visual prowess, he looked down the path back toward the heart of the village, but did not even see the essence of her. 

Was this how Sakura had felt that night? Waiting for Sasuke to arrive and fearing that something was wrong? Just as she had done for him all those years ago, Sasuke would wait for her because he knew she would come. And he realized suddenly how easy it had been to tell Naruto yesterday that Sakura would be staying behind in the Leaf where she belonged, but how impossible it now seemed to face such a reality. The Uchiha wasn’t leaving without her. 

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.

.

Sakura had carried Kakashi’s words like weight in her chest as she had clamored into the medical labs at five in the morning with a newfound vigor. 

“It’s not my place to pry like this,” he had begun when Sakura’s shock had left her speechless. “But as your sensei who knows all three of you best, would you or Naruto be enough insurance for Sasuke, or even you for that matter, if for some reason, a child—your child—was lost to the both of you?”

“You’re right, Kakashi Sensei. That really isn’t anyone’s business,” she had responded steadily and formally. “No one else is being asked what you’re about to ask me to do—or rather, do without.”

Kakashi had begun a long stream of consciousness in an attempt to clarify. “I don’t want to make you promise such a thing, Sakura. There’s nothing I want more for you than that. But I just want you to consider the answer to that question first. You’re not responsible for the path Sasuke takes from now on, so don’t mistake my words for that or let Shikamaru convince you that you are. I wholeheartedly support your choice to pursue this ‘newfound happiness’—as Naruto put it. We can leave the future in the future. I don’t intend to burden you with my worries, but I want you to be informed of the steaks at hand, to protect yourself. Sasuke’s reaction was intense, to say the least. And I know you Sakura. You’d throw away your life to protect him, side with him, or even stop him. Despite what you are to him now, know your worth to the rest of your loved ones. The entire shinobi world of medicine has advanced from your contributions alone. You are so much more than Sasuke Uchiha’s lover or his children’s mother.”

Sakura’s eyes had watered at that, her steely resolve softening at her sensei’s uplifting articulation. “I know Kakashi. I know what you’re trying to say, but you don’t have to worry. I’m being careful. I’m not taking any chances right now either. But I can’t help myself, Kakashi. I can’t walk away from him indefinitely.”

Her sensei had nodded, accepting her answer before his expression had turned a different sort of heavy. The speech concerning Sasuke had been fatherly. This sort of look on his face morphed into a sadness of regret. He had proceeded to apologize to her, for allowing her to go after the Zenshin organization alone back in Suna, saying, “I shouldn’t have allowed you to put yourself in any situation where you might have compromised yourself or felt pressured to—you know—for the sake of the village.”

Sakura had blushed embarrassingly at his apology. “Oh Kakashi, I didn’t.”

“That’s not what Uchiha Sasuke said to me.”

Sakura had waved his concerns away. “You know how dramatic he is. I had it under control. I didn’t do anything extreme.”

“Sasuke wouldn’t be angry without cause. He has a right to be angry with me about it. I should have never agreed to let anyone use such a disguise, especially one of my own.”

She had left shortly after, but not before the Zenshin organization, and those that continued to hunt her at a distance, were discussed in full. She had tried to listen to the Hokage’s concerns, plans, and questions carefully, but Sakura’s brain was planning for the now. Her time had been ticking and honestly, she was sick of caring about the organization known as Zenshin. They had come at her carelessly, unprepared, and with an underestimation of Sakura. She would deal with them when they came to find her again despite how proactive the Hokage was being on her behalf. To Kakashi’s chagrin, Sakura had expressed as much before parting with a tight hug around her sensei’s waist, a special request to keep an affectionate eye on Isao in her absence, and running toward the hospital. 

Sakura didn’t know where they were headed next or for how long, but she wanted to have everything in order. She made more chakra pills even though she had made a batch before leaving Suna, medical supplies for injuries, capsulized more of the antidepressant, H. Perforatum, for further study, and yes, even more contraceptives for both Sasuke and herself. The Kunoichi hadn’t lied to Kakashi when she said she was being careful. Sakura had started her doses before leaving Suna and had consistently taken them, and now Sasuke was, too. She hadn’t chosen to do so for the sake of fearing Sasuke’s future, or because she was under the sick impression that they should sacrifice their happiness in order to protect any part of the shinobi world from Sasuke. She just wanted them both to be ready, and she knew that Sasuke clearly wasn’t any sort of ready from their conversations in the cave alone. She’d cross any other bridges when she came to them. 

Taking a note from Sasuke’s handbook, Sakura began sealing all of her items within a concealment scroll for easier transport. She had just finished finalizing another canvas bundle of medicines and placing it in the scrolls, when she heard the birdsong. Glancing over at the window, Sakura was greeted with the flush of dawn. Stripping her Leaf medical attire and abandoning it in her office, Sakura clutched the scroll and ran. 

It was such an odd sensation, racing the fuschia sunrise, pounding your feet down a stone path you had walked countless times, but now it miraculously felt different. It felt like the path to him. Before, it had been the path Sasuke had chosen to use to walk away from her that night and had done so several times since. She hadn’t been able to walk it a single time in his absence without remembering the pain of that night. But suddenly, it was like it had thawed from time, as if it were beginning at the sunrise after that night, picking up where it had left off and resuming what it always should have been. It should have always been a path they took together. 

Sakura didn’t realize just how nervous she was that he might not have waited for her, until she saw him. Cloaked in black, traveling poncho once again adorned, and Sakura’s pack on his shoulder, a relieved sort of expression passing his features as he saw her. To be honest, Sakura hadn’t expected to see him there, standing exactly where she had all those years ago and where they had rendezvoused once more a few months ago. It clicked for her then, what Sasuke had meant by “I’ll meet you there.” Not at the gates as she had requested. But here. This spot. Before she could stop herself, tears pricked her eyes at the significance. 

She wiped them away as she came to a stop before him, panting from the run. He sighed with a raised eyebrow and Sakura laughed slightly, assuming that he was annoyed at her tardiness. She didn’t care. She was high on the exhilaration of now and immediately chirped an old nostalgic excuse that also happened to be the truth. “Sorry I’m late. Got lost on the path of life.”

There was a mischievous poke to her forehead and Sakura rubbed it with a smile. “Never took you for picking up on Kakashi’s bad habits. I thought something must have happened. You did say sunrise, didn’t you?”

“Yeah, I know. I was prepping some

medical supplies,” she smiled. She felt stupid for how much she was smiling. “We can go, now. I’m ready!” She made to walk past him, giddy with the love she felt for this man and the excitement of their continued journey, however long or short it would be. How different this scenario was playing out from the past. But Sasuke grabbed her fingers lightly with his own. 

“Wait,” he breathed, a whisper on the birdsong dawn that no one would be able to hear but herself. “I wanted to tell you something.”

She turned, that elation coming down like the fall of adrenaline. 

“I wanted to tell you that if I could make the choice over that night—”

Sakura shook her head immediately, wind-blown hair brushing her cheeks as she did so. “I would have you make the same choices,” she confessed. “Because it led us to here and now. I do not wish you would have chosen differently Sasuke, even though it was painful.” 

He smiled sadly, before adding. “I’ve decided something, today. My reason for living is not revenge this time. After all these years, I think I am finally like you and Naruto. Our paths will still be different, but maybe we can walk together sometimes, share them along the way. Like our orbits.” 

And Sakura knew he was referring to the words of that painful night. The words were written into the memory of her soul. 

“My words from that night have not changed,” she smiled. “I still think that I can make you happy. I know that you won’t be able to stay in Konoha with me like I had begged you to. And I can’t promise you that every day will be fun and happy, but our sometimes is better than nothing.”

“I’m attempting to rewrite one of my most shameful moments,” he continued, confidence increasing with her adoring words. “This time, I’m asking you to come with me.” 

“What if you regret it?” She teased, squeezing his fingers with her own. “I’ve been told quite often that I can be annoying.”

“I don’t see that ever changing,” he deadpanned, grunting as he received an elbow to the ribs. 

“I’m not sticking my nose into your business?” 

“You most definitely are,” he dodged her next jab, grabbing her wrist and bringing her closer to him. “But I want you to.”

After a moment of staring into one another’s mirthful eyes, flushed with daybreak. Sasuke released her and Sakura nodded down the path to the gates. “Then let’s go.”

“Hn,” he agreed, shouldering her pack just as he did months ago.

.

.

.

Kakashi wasn’t a snoop, but he wanted—had to— see it for himself. He hadn’t been exaggerating when he had told Sakura he was vicariously living through his students. That moment where Sasuke had reached for her fingers with his own had been a breakthrough in Kakashi’s mind about Sasuke’s character. His words had been too hushed, and Kakashi was now without the sharingan to make out what they were saying, but he knew his students well enough to see it for himself: the tenderness, the regret, and the love they had for one another. Not to mention the degree of playfulness between them that Kakashi hadn’t even witnessed between their genin-selves. 

And, Kakashi couldn’t believe his eyes as they made to walk away. Was that the Uchiha crest on Sakura’s back? He blinked, even going as far as to rub his old, now sharingan-less, eyes. It sure as hell was. Those two sneaks, Kakashi laughed to himself. Well, he now sort of felt like his speech earlier had been a bit pointless. It wasn’t a matter of if they had a family together, but a matter of when. If Sasuke’s feelings had grown enough where the Uchiha had actually gone as far as to marry her despite his resolution of independent atonement, then he would probably do pretty much anything for that woman. And Kakashi knew Sakura and the dreams she had for herself. Kakashi both sighed and smiled as he shook his head in disbelief and awe. 

It wasn’t only Kakashi who had been a silent spectator. Eight anbu landed beside him, the very anbu Kakashi had detailed to follow Sakura while she was in the village. His concern for her safety rivaled the boys’ at this point. The Zenshin who wanted her life was still out there. The Anbu were silent witnesses to the pair’s exchange as well, as they stood beside Kakashi, waiting for their new orders now that Sakura was leaving the village with Sasuke. 

Once his students were out of sight behind the Leaf Village gates, Kakashi performed the summoning seal. There was the telltale poof of materialization, a cloud of white revealing Kakashi’s eight ninja hounds. Pakkun, perched upon Bull’s massive head, looked up at Kakashi past his graying muzzle and misty eyes. 

“Aren’t we a little too old to be summoned for work?” Pakkun complained. “When’s your retirement again?” 

“Not getting here fast enough,” Kakashi answered before saying, “I hate to ask for your help. But this has gotten personal.”

Kakashi divided the hounds amongst the anbu present, giving precise orders for each four-cell team. Two dogs per two anbu was the goal, creating four teams total with the ability to move discreetly but have enough support within the squad, operating just as a leaf village shinobi team.  

One orange-haired Anbu remained after the others received their orders and dispersed, Pakkun quickly attaching himself to the ninja’s shoulder.

“I want to hunt the Zenshin who remain,” Kakashi informed him. “Even if it takes us outside of the village. We will have to be discreet as a whole. Can I count on you to lead this mission and report on these four teams?”

“It would be my honor, Lord Hokage. I would do almost anything for Sakura-san.”

Kakashi raised an eyebrow at that, marking the distinct fox shape anbu mask and orange hair. There were several ninja sporting that color of hair, but Kakashi had a hunch as to who it might be. A ninja with the surname Mizuno. Kakashi knew him to be one of Chino’s exploding human bomb burn victims, and assumed his filial sentiments toward Sakura were due to her recent treatment of his burns. 

“Give any remaining members you discover the same options she gave the others,” the Hokage ordered. “They can spend imprisonment here or be transported to Sunagakure to the Kazekage. There is no third option.”

“Yes, Lord Hokage.”

.

.

.

“Where to now?” Sakura asked Sasuke once they were at the crossroads out of the village and Sasuke came to an abrupt stop. She took the opportunity to tuck the scroll she had been carrying into the side pocket of her bag that Sasuke had refused to relinquish over to her twice now. He had ‘plans to store it in his own scrolls soon’ and it ‘wasn’t a burden,’ he had claimed when she tried to take it. 

Sasuke didn’t miss a beat, saying his next words as if it were the most normal conclusion. “Orochimaru’s hideout.”

Sakura, however, tripped over her own feet and came to a stumbling halt. Did she just hear him correctly? “Wait, what? WHY?” 

The Uchiha kept walking down the forest path, seemingly unbothered by her obvious worry, but Sakura quickly caught up to him and grabbed his right arm, gently guiding his body back around to face her. She searched his eyes before identifying the resolution in them. Her shoulders sank at finding it there. This meant that Sasuke knew she would object, but he had a plan in place and was set on it. 

“Is this for your mission?” she inquired, mentally preparing to see that slimy snake of a devil who had taken Sasuke from her all those years ago if it meant furthering Sasuke’s goal to find the Otsusuki. What could Orochimaru possibly have to add to the search? 

Sasuke removed the emotion from his mask, slipping into the Uchiha persona she knew as the shinobi elite that could and would help save the world. “No. I meant what I said about finding the remaining members of Zenshin who are after you. There’s someone there that can help me do that.”

“Wait,” Sakura raised a hand to stop his explanation, a specific red-haired ninja who could identify someone by their chakra coming to the forefront of her mind. He couldn’t mean that woman, could he? “Just wait a second.”

“You can’t talk me out of it, Sakura.”

“Listen,” she began, sighing as this topic was brought up yet again.  “Kakashi’s on it. He plans to hunt them down himself.”

Sasuke turned to continue walking, unphased by this knowledge. “He won’t get far, because I’ll beat him to it.”

She stumbled in front of him, blocking his path with an awkward rub to her neck. “Can we not do this,” she implored. “Please?”

He sighed in exasperation. “You want me to just forget about those still after you? Not do anything about it at all?”

“Yes?”

“What kind of man—and partner for that matter—do you take me for?”

“The kind of man who has already put off his own goals for my sake for a month and a half now. Come on. Let’s leave it to Kakashi, and if Zenshin shows up, we can deal with them at that point.”

He glared at her as her hands found his waist, reaching up under his poncho and tangling her fingers at his back, bringing their bodies close together. It was a method of entreating him that she had used a couple times now. 

“That’s not going to work,” he hissed, an embarrassed blush staining his cheeks despite his harsh words. 

“I’m not worried about them, and you shouldn’t take on that burden either. You have a different burden, and as long as I am with you, I’ll be out of harm’s way. Let’s just leave it all behind, remove ourselves from the equation while Kakashi and his team handle the rest.” It was her turn to blush when the fabric of Sasuke’s poncho came down over her head, entrapping her like a child under a blanket. His smirking face was peaking down into the neck of the fabric as she looked up at him with a crumbling glower of her own. Her smile spread free at her success. This was definitely working.  

“Kakashi’s got hounds tracking them,” she said again. “They’re better at that sort of thing than anyone you have in mind anyway. So, let’s just forget them, yeah?” Sakura did not want Sasuke going anywhere near Orochimaru or Karin. She knew that both of the rogue ninja had helped at the end of the war, but Orochimaru was still suspicious enough of a character that the Leaf kept twenty-four-hour surveillance on him and his activity. Not to mention, how absolutely traumatized she was of him. And Karin, well—Sakura knew how the woman had felt about Sasuke at one point in time and didn’t really feel like facing that awkwardness anytime soon. 

“So where to next?” she practically pleaded as Sasuke searched her eyes and raised a suspicious brow. Did he know where her thoughts had gone to?

After a moment, the Uchiha sighed, and Sakura immediately felt ten times lighter. “The plan after that was to head north, to the Land of Snow.” 

Sakura tiptoed, popping her head through the neck of his poncho like a curious mole sticking its nose above ground. “The Land of Snow?”

“The environmental conditions of the Sunagakure desert helped connect me to Kaguya’s desert realm,” Sasuke explained, staring down into her face as he did so. “It made bypassing the central dimension altogether possible with the help of your chakra pills. In theory, bypassing the center dimension for Kaguya’s Ice realm would be achievable if I could find a similar environment; the Land of Snow is the coldest place in the shinobi world.”

“Excellent,” she piped, already dreaming of snowy landscapes and sub-degree temperatures. She recalled their time in the Land of Snow as Genin fondly, remembering that the land had a seasonal spring now that rivaled the beauty of its frosty contrast. She teased Sasuke by pretending to go in for a kiss, before retreating from his poncho and tossing it over his head just as he had done to her. “To the Land of Snow it is, then.” 

Clutching the fabric with one hand, he dragged the material back down his face, mussing his wrapped head of hair as he did so, and revealing another smirking scowl. She heard him mumble something about her being the death of him as she turned and marched north before he could begin walking toward Orochimaru’s hideout.

[saeuniverse]

This is for Covenant Fan fiction! For @starry0-o ❤️❤️❤️

[allmyfuckingobsessions]

BROKEN HEARTS | Chapter 1

Two people, who time has turned into strangers, will meet again amid their miseries, embarking on a journey in search of what they both desire most.

Alternate Universe - Modern Settingbased on a kdramaExes to LoversMentions of CancerSuicidal ThoughtsImplied/Referenced SuicideAngst and Hurt/ComfortAngst and FeelsSmutin my opinion very angstyInfertilityPOV First PersonDevoted Sasuke/SakuraLight Bondagehappy ending or you will be happy because it ended? well.. you have to read to know

[sassysaku]

Happy New Year, everyone! 🎉

Guess who’s back after what feels like forever? Life’s been crazy busy, but last night, this new idea just clicked! 💡

It’s a two-shot story, and I’m so excited to share it with you all. I’ve already written both parts (productive me, for once!). The first part was posted a couple of minutes ago, and the second part will be live tomorrow!

I’ve missed you all so much, and I can’t wait to hear what you think. Happy reading, my loves! 💕

Do let me know in the comments if you liked the chapter. 💗

The Dream Within by sassysaku

Summary : Sakura discovers the ability to enter the dreams of others, but one night, she stumbles into a world where Sasuke doesn’t exist—not in the way she knows him. As she journeys through the dreamscape, she encounters countless versions of Sasuke—some heroic, others villainous, and a few who are strangers entirely.

[starry0-o]

Covenant Part 3: Prologue

The fic will resume sometime in November (date still TBD 😅)...hope to see you all there in the comments 😁💕

[keithisbae1]

The Mershark & Mermaid - Part 10

“Oh well you see, she can’t. Sarada has to go and meet up with her parents.” Boruto explained calmly. Orochimaru was bound to figure out who she was, and they couldn’t have that. Perhaps if he and Mitsuki distracted him long enough then Sarada could swim away and escape.

“At this time? Now, now Boruto. You know as well as anyone that being out this late is dangerous for sharklings. Why don’t I take you home, you’ll be much safer then.” A scary smile appeared on the ‘snake’s’ face. If only they had stayed with his mama, sure she would have questions but at least she wouldn’t have harmed Sarada. Why out of all mersharks did it have to be him?

“Actually-” Mitsuki interrupted, as much as he loved his parent, he knew he couldn’t be trusted to be around Sarada. He was about to say something before Sarada spoke out, coming out of her hiding spot from Boruto.

“Uh, sure?” She shrugged.

“I don’t mind staying a little longer, I’m sure Papa won’t either.” What is she thinking? They both thought giving a confusing look to the young mershark.

“Excellent, right this way then. I told you; you should bring your friends around more often Mitsuki.” Orochimaru turned around swiftly leading the way.

“Sarada, what are you doing? If you stay here, you’ll be in danger.” Boruto whispered close by.

“Well, he doesn’t know yet. Besides, I’m sure Papa will come and save me.” He had to, Sarada believed in him and for now it was best to be discreet. Even if they did find out she was Sasuke’s daughter, if they don’t know who her mother was, she would be safe. Right?

However, what the three sharklings weren’t aware was that Orochimaru wasn’t leading them to his home. But instead taking them to where the Uchiha sharks lied. If she was truly the daughter of Sasuke and the mermaid, then they would indeed be quite interested with her.

Whether she made it out alive or not wasn’t any of his concern.

~~~

“It’s getting late, you should go back.”

“I’m not going anywhere without my daughter. I told you.”

“More sharks will be out by now, it’s not even safe for sharklings.”

“All the more reason for me to stay don’t you think? If it’s between me and Sarada, who do you think they’ll go after. A small child or an adult mermaid with more meat, I’d rather be the one distracting them then have them lay a hand on my daughter.”  Something about those words stirred Sasuke in the wrong way, almost as if saying how easy her and Sarada’s life was to get taken away.

And he hated it.

“Don’t fucking talk like that!” Sasuke snapped swimming in front right of her. His claws held onto her arms harshly glaring at Sakura. Almost as if telling her to take it back.

But she won’t.

“Why not? It’s the truth, right? Mermaids, sharklings. We’re nothing but food to you. Why should I gloss over-”

“I will kill anyone before they go near you or Sarada!” His voice held a deadly tone and his eyes, those damned eyes. They held conviction, the image of losing Sarada and Sakura. Sakura flinched feeling his sharp nails dig into her arms to which his face immediately softens apologising letting go.

She knew he wasn’t lying.

“Why?” Why would he go so far for her?

“Sarada I can understand, but me? We haven’t talked in years. Why would you go so far for me?” Why? Was she really that dense? Surely, she couldn’t believe that all those moments together were nothing. Then again, given how they ‘broke up’ could he blame her for doubting him?

“Do I need to spell it out for you?” Sakura looked at him expectedly waiting for an answer, some closure maybe.

Mama should know the truth.

“Because I… I love you.”

~~~

When Sakura was young, she was a curious little mermaid, always wanting to learn more about the sea. Including above with humans too. Sakura went about her day collecting unusual items she found when they dropped them into the sea. She had a various collection from jewellery, to mobile and electronics and even clothes like shoes. Not that the little mermaid knew exactly what they were but that was the fun of it. As soon as she discovered a new item Sakura went out her way to find out exactly what it was.

Her parents warned her to be careful, but it wasn’t like Sakura went up to the surface to meet them. She waited until the coast was clear before swimming over to the object, the humans would even jump in to retrieve their items if it was something important, so Sakura knew to wait patiently before putting herself in danger.

“Where are you going forehead?” A young Ino asked as Sakura tried to sneak away.

“I heard there were more humans about.” Which meant more treasure.

“Don’t you think you need to stop with your little ‘collection?’” The fishling asked, concerned about her friend’s safety. Ino knew Sakura inside and out and was worried that this hobby would put her in danger one day. What if the humans saw and captured her?

“I’ll be careful, please don’t tell Mama or Papa.” Ino gave a pinkie promise but only if Sakura was back at a certain time. If not Ino would assume the worst and tell her parents, she had gone out again. Realistically Ino knew she should say something right away, but with her friend’s pleading face how can she deny her?

“Deal!” Sakura grinned happily; she was glad to have a friend like Ino.

~~~

Sakura knew she saw the item drop over here. Granted she had never been this far down the waters before but the fishling was determined to find the shiny object. It was dark and scary, Sakura looked from left to right. It felt like she was being watched but that couldn’t be right? And if something were to happen, she was quite fast so could easily out swim them. The mermaid continued her quest until up ahead she saw a little merboy on a flat rock lying about inspecting the item she was looking for.

“Hey, that’s mine!” Sakura swam over to him, her little hands on the rock as she looked up curiously from below. Now that she got a good look at him, he seemed slightly different than a merboy. With the tail being a giveaway. The strange boy put the item on his face where his eyes were. Oh, was that where it’s supposed to go? They were called glasses; however, she didn’t know what its purpose was.

“Yours? It’s the humans.” He turned to face her with a smirk. “I bet you don’t even know what it’s used for.”

“Yes, I do! It’s… it’s um…” Sakura tried to come up with an excuse that seemed more believable than what he was currently using them for, nothing came to mind. Humans were strange when it came to clothes.

“Um, okay I don’t know. I collect them, I’ve been waiting for ages to get it. Please can I have it?” Perhaps if she looked cute enough the merboy would willingly hand them over? He only snorted amused with her antics.

“What use would it be to you if you don’t-” It was only until he took the glasses off did he realise who he was talking to or rather what he was talking to.

‘Wait a minute.’

“You’re a-”

“Sasuke, are you down here?” That was his brother Itachi. Sasuke looked at the mermaid and to where he heard his brother’s voice. He had to think of something before Itachi came over, what was she thinking swimming all the way down here? Didn’t she know how dangerous it was?

“Quick, you need to leave. Here! Take it!” Sasuke gave the glasses to her ushering her away.

“Ah, thank yooou?” Sakura squeaked when the strange merboy pushed her away before swimming up to his older brother. “I’m here Itachi.”

“What did I tell you about wandering on your own?”

“Sorry, a human dropped something, so I went to see what it was. I couldn’t find it.”

“You know better than to go after something a human left, it could be a trap.” Considering the number of times humans have come close to capturing them. Fortunately, there was always another mershark about to help. Some of the humans have even come face to face with a shark, but who would believe them?

“I know.” Sasuke looked down pouting, he wouldn’t have said anything had the mermaid not distract him. Knowing better than to touch anything human related but like Sakura Sasuke was a curious little mershark and he went to inspect for himself.

Sakura watched the two brothers from a distance. It wasn’t until she saw the older one did it register what they were and how close she was to dying.

The mergirl certainly had a lucky escape, but why did he willingly help her?

~~~

“Hey Ino, do you know about the waters below?” Sakura asked one evening, of course every merfolk knew of the mersharks living below. Yet Sakura couldn’t stop herself from thinking about the one who saved her. He could have easily led her to his brother and be a snack to them, instead he distracted the older shark and pushed her out to safety.

“The deep sea? That area is invested with mersharks, it’s dangerous for mermaids. You should know that forehead with your big brain.” Ah, Sakura did know, but wanted to make sure.

‘He protected me though.’

Now instead of having any interests of the objects the humans would drop her curiosity led her to the mersharks.

~~~

Fortunately, when Sakura went off alone again Ino had assumed it was because she wanted to find more human objects. Never would she tell her about exploring the deep sea, Sakura was only going because she wanted to go and thank the mershark boy. That’s what she tells herself at least. Certainly not because her curiosity got the better and was curious about other mersharks being the same as him or if he was the only one.

The little mermaid was careful on where she was swimming knowing if she encountered an adult mershark she would be as good as dead. That was the cruelty in their ocean world, everyone is out for themselves. She was willingly putting her life in danger but at least her parents and friend were safe. Sakura swam from rock to rock hiding behind it peeking out to see if there were any predators about. None that she could see so far, so Sakura continued swimming out in the open.

No luck either on finding the small shark boy. Sakura felt her ears drop. What was the point if she couldn’t find him.

Without warning the mermaid felt a huge tug on her tail and being lifted upside down.

“Well, well. Look at what we have here?” The shark grinned showing his pointy teeth. Sakura froze having no idea what to do. She didn’t sense or see him beforehand, how was he able to surprise and come up behind her?

“This is no place for mermaid, but I can’t complain. I’m starving.” A second shark appeared to which she later realised there was a group of five of them. There was no way she could escape.

“Oi, save me a piece as well.”

“Get your own. This is baby, it’s hardly going to satisfy one shark let alone two.”

“That’s not fair.”

“I saw her first!” The mersharks began fighting as the other one held her higher out of place trying to control his ‘friends.’ At first Sakura was worried if she would be torn to pieces with how violently they were attacking. She heard plenty of gruesome stories that had happened to merfolk, these stories were shared at a young age to put the young ones off on going to shark territory.

However, now that they were distracted a little sharkling came and bit onto the mersharks claw hard enough that he dropped the mermaid. Still in a daze and terrified of the adults Sakura had barely noticed and was frozen. Even when the young mershark boy took her hand and pulled her with him so they were swimming away. He was saying something, but Sakura could barely hear him, her heart hammering so much she felt like it was going to burst.

“Oi! Get back here Uchiha, I don’t care if your father is Fugaku. I’ll eat you in front of him myself.” The two were being chased but Sasuke was faster. As he rounded a bigger rock there was a small cave big enough for the two of them where he was hiding before.

Sasuke pushed the young mermaid in before peeking outside to see if they had been followed. It seemed that the coast was clear, and they couldn’t keep up with him, still it was best for two to lay low for now. Sasuke turned to the mergirl with a glare.

“Are you stupid? What were you thinking coming down here? You know sharks eat mermaids, right?”

“Uh… I um…” Coming down here seemed perfectly reasonable before but now she was a fumbling mess. Shaken from what happened earlier, I mean Sakura practically faced death in the face and had he not appear she probably would have been torn to shreds and shared ‘equally’ that way. “You’re lucky I saw you; you would have been fish food.”

Quite literally.

“I… why are you hiding?” Was the first thing that came to mind.

“Sharks eat sharklings too, I’m as much as food to them as you are.” Except as he was slightly bigger, he would probably be more fulfilling than a small mermaid.  “You are?” This was the first she’s heard of it. She knew they feasted on merfolk sure but their own. What about the parents? Wouldn’t they be upset? Want revenge? He merely shrugged as if it was nothing.

“That’s how our species work, if you die a sharkling then clearly your too weak to live as one.” Such a cruel and horrific thing to say to someone so young, Sakura could only imagine what that would be like in her fins. Imagine not only having to worry about sharks but adult merfolk at such a young age. The thought gave her the shivers, but it wasn’t exactly as though they had the right body parts to begin with.

“That’s not fair, what if you get stronger when you get older.”

“Life’s not fair, that’s how the world works. We should be safe in here though, their too big to get in here and it’s where I hid from them before.”

“They were chasing you?”

“Yeah, but then they got a glimpse of you and thought you were an easier target.” In a way Sasuke had felt guilty because had he not been taunting them from before with Naruto they wouldn’t be in this situation. Sometimes his head got a little bit too big with being an Uchiha, although she shouldn’t be here at all. He found it strange when he first met her but as she was after the human’s item Sasuke took it as an accident and that she hadn’t realised how far she was.

She was too innocent, so he helped her out. It would be such a waste to die so young, why was she back though?

“What’s your name?” Here he was her hero, twice and she still didn’t know his name.

“Sasuke.”

“Sasuke? My name is Sakura!” Sakura grinned holding her hand out for him to take.

“Wait a minute, what are you doing?”

“Huh?”

“Asking me my name, giving me yours? It’s weird.”

“Why is weird? I just wanted to thank you for saving my life… twice now I guess hehe.” She stuck out her tongue bashfully. “Because a mermaid and mershark can’t be friends, you know when I get bigger, I can eat you right?”

“Pfft, if you wanted to eat me, you wouldn’t have saved me to begin with.” Sakura said filled with confidence. She was a strange mermaid but maybe he was no better like she said for rescuing her and here starts their unusual friendship.

“Ino! Ino! Guess what I met someone!” Of course, Sakura didn’t mention him being a mershark, but she was too excited and wanted to gush about her new friend.

~~~

“So the human’s toxic did this to you?” Sakura asked looking at the now different mershark. What once was his pale scales were now grey. Even his hair and tail had changed colour, but Sakura couldn’t help but be fascinated by him.

“I told you, leave me alone! I don’t want to see anybody!!” Not looking like this.

“But your upset and I can’t leave a friend alone being upset.” Especially after his traumatising experience. Even if his form had changed Sakura was sure he was still shaken up from almost being eaten. It took her a while to get over it when they met the second time.

“Stop calling me your friend!”

“Nope!” Sakura plopped herself down next to him as if to make a point. Their tails were swished side by side. She tried to look at him, but he refused, hating how he looked. Sakura pouted at this.

“Come on Sasuke, let me see.”

“No!”

“Please?” At this he snapped, he hated how carefree she was. Couldn’t she see that this wrong?

“I’m not supposed to look like this! I mean look at me, I’m gross, I look like a monster I mean I know I’m meant to look scary but not like this. What if I get older and can’t find a mate? What if father’s wrong and the human’s toxic kills me later? What if?” He was having a panic attack, Sakura could tell. She swam over to him, her little hands held onto his claws as she tried to snap him out of it.

“Sasuke, Sasuke! Breathe.” The little mermaid inhaled and exhaled trying to get him to do the same. He did. She gave him a small smile in response and that was all he needed to feel safe.

Safe, secured and relaxed.

“I know it’s scary, and we have no idea on what’s happened, but I don’t think you will die. You’re a sharkling, if something were to happen it would have er did.” She looked up and down his new look. “And you’re still the Sasuke I know, it doesn’t matter what’s on the outside. It’s the inside that counts, that’s what my parents always told me.”

“Yeah, but your parents are merfolk.” Sasuke muttered but Sakura ignored him letting go of his claws. “Point being your still Sasuke and still cute. Your hair is soft too.” Sakura went to touch his hair again liking the texture all the while the words ‘cute’ kept ringing his ears as he found himself blushing.

Sakura went to face him again upside down.

“Are you blushing?”

“Tsk, no?” And how could she tell?

“Aww, Sasuke is even cuter now.” Sakura squealed hugging him giggling away.

“And besides I’m sure you’ll get lots of mersharks fawning after you. You’ll be a… a… mermaid man? No wait, mershark man!” Sasuke looked at her dumbly.

“What’s that?”

“Someone who’s popular with mermaid, my parents won’t go into details though. In your case though it would be sharks. What’s a female shark called?” Sakura asked curiously. It amazed him how she could be focused on one thing and then another.

“Stop getting so close.”

“But your so cute and I really like your eyes.”

“Mersharks are not meant to be cute.” But he did find her words reassuring, if a mermaid like her could be at ease with him maybe other mersharks can too. She always knew how to make him feel better, unlike his father.

“Except Sasuke.”

~~~

“Sas-”

“Don’t act surprised, we have a daughter between us. I don’t see the point in lying or denying my feelings for you.” What? Where did that come from?

“But… I saw you. With her.” When Sakura went back to tell Sasuke the news of Sarada she saw him with another mershark clinging to his arms. It had only been a few weeks since Sasuke ‘broke up’ their little arrangement so of course it could only be because he met someone else.

A mershark like him, someone who could give him everything and not having to hide their relationship to the world, his family and friends. Perhaps he didn’t think she could get pregnant and have a future together. Even though rationally Sakura tried to make sense of it, the two of them finding someone their own kind but for her it was too late.

She couldn’t get rid of the baby and even if she could Sakura would refuse. Because this little one was the proof of their love and afterwards the closest thing Sakura had to Sasuke.

The mermaid was terrified, she wasn’t sure whether Sarada would fit in with the rest. How she would eat but fortunately Sarada wasn’t a fussy eater. She didn’t need fish or any type of meat to which could be because of her own DNA as Tsunade said.

‘Don’t forget she is part mermaid too, although she looks more like a mershark, she is neither a full mershark nor mermaid.’ Hearing those words made Sakura’s heart swell. Because again Sarada was proof of their love and yet it was so painful too.

Because she could never meet her father.

“You cheated on me, you broke my heart. What do you mean you-”

“I never cheated on you. Yes, I wanted to hurt you, I want you to think that way and see me with someone else.”

“Why?” How could he be so cruel?

“Because then it would be easier for you to hate me. To stay away and never come back. I couldn’t have you come back. They knew! My parents, Orochimaru, everyone.” There was no coming back from it.

“I didn’t have a choice, if I left you alone, they wouldn’t harm you. They’ll let you be, they even promised on leaving your family and friends alone. I couldn’t turn down their offer, I wanted to protect you!” Even if she still hated him, Sasuke wouldn’t blame her, but he would not regret protecting her from his family. Everyone now, including the sharklings knew of the mershark that mated with the mermaid. Sasuke would not deny it, but he could at least act aloof and uncaring towards her now, or so he thought.

With Sarada in the picture… what use is there on pretending. If he knew beforehand, could they have swum off together and start a new life? It wouldn’t be fair to Sarada as she would be lonely with no friends but at least he can keep them away and safe from his family.

From any sharks that would dare to harm them.

“You… no you don’t get to do this. You don’t get to swim back in my life and act like nothing’s happened. I refuse.” Her head was spinning, and heart ached, this is exactly what she wanted but everything was happening too fast. Sarada didn’t know who her father was one minute and now he was here. Sakura hadn’t seen Sasuke in years and for the longest time thought he was with someone else, that he wanted to have Sarada here, to be raised with another mershark who was his mate and now he’s saying all these sweet nothings to her.

That he had always loved her?

Sakura swam around him determined on looking for their daughter, yet the two didn’t seem to notice other sharks nearby and as she was swimming fast to get away from him, she almost swam into them.

It wasn’t until Sakura felt a tug on her arm from Sasuke pulling her closer to his body. Damn him and his speed but before she could react in any sort of way his fangs went to her neck and bit her hard. Sakura let out a yelp at the pain, but it was enough to stop the other sharks from going near them. Assuming she was already caught and his meal instead, Sasuke looked at them sharply with a glare. It was enough to scare them away fleeing and making sure the area was clear he tore his fangs away from her but he still held her close. They hadn’t had this type of physical contact for years.

Sakura groaned at the stinging sensation rubbing her neck.

“That fucking hurt you asshole!” Plus was going to leave a mark too.

“Your used to it.” He shrugged letting her go swimming ahead. Her face flushed instantly knowing exactly what he was referring to. Sakura had a good mind to smack him.

“I’m not lying either, you can believe me or not. Hate me even but I will kill anyone before they go near you or Sarada.” Because in Sasuke’s eyes out of the three of them, the one who should get punished is him. Not his daughter who is innocent in any of this or Sakura who was his light.

They were both young and didn’t know any better but getting older Sasuke should have. He was above her. If anyone was going to pay it would be him.

She didn’t doubt him for a second, his words had her frozen in place. She wanted to say something, have a snarky comeback but a scream that sent a dreaded chill down her spine interrupted her thoughts.

“Sarada!” Sakura quickly swam ahead recognising her voice.

She needed to save her baby.

~~~

“What attracts you to another mershark?”

“What attracts you to a merman?”

[silentvoicescryingout]

Steel - Chapter 2 (draft)

Previous chapter: 1

🔞🔞 Adult Content 🔞🔞

Made me, unmake me

Green eyes leveled at him, glinting like a freshly sharpened and polished blade. Pastel lashes lowered to shade jade eyes, casting a shadow that colored them darker, like rain soaked leaves after a summer storm. 

“Brute strength might have made you,” he muttered, taking slow, lazy steps around the circumference of the invisible boundary of Sakura’s turf.

He came to a stop, five paces behind her left shoulder. Her right ankle twitched, the heel shifted back by a tenth of a tenth of an inch.

“If left unrestrained,” he continued, marking the ripple of tension that rolled from the top of her head to the soles of her feet, “I can unmake you with nothing of the sort.”

“Save your riddles, Kakashi-sensei,” she snapped. “You agreed to train me.”

“So I did,” he sighed. Her next breath whooshed out audibly from between her teeth. “What if I told you it was to humor you in your moment of elevated emotion?”

Using the right foot, she pivoted, appearing before him in the blink of an eye, her fist curled tight in the front of his shirt. The flexible fabric popped under the strain of her grip.

“I’d say that you owe me,” she murmured. Despite the cool quality to her tone, her fingers yet trembled, ever-so slightly. “For all the time wasted, and the days you ignored me before. It’s the least you can do.”

“I acknowledge my failures,” he replied. He swallowed thick, eyed the deepening furrow between his former student’s fair brows, the dancing of freckles along the wrinkled bridge of her nose. 

“I’ve moved past wanting your acknowledgement.” Sakura released him with a shove that smarted, no doubt leaving a bruise. “I want you to create in me what you made of Naruto and Sasuke.”

He dodged her next blow, his blood pressure spiking in response to the reverberation of her fist smashing into the spot where his face could have been. The world whipped around in a whirlwind of color as she launched herself at him again and again, taking direct blows to her abdomen, her legs and face without as much as a flinch. 

With a frustrated growl, Sakura heaved herself up from the ground, swaying into an offensive stance. He stood rooted in the spot he was in before, unruffled and unmarred save for the throbbing bruise at his sternum.

“If you have to break me apart to make me strong,” she panted, sweeping dirt from her cheek with the back of a torn glove. “So be it.”

“That’s not a healthy mentality,” he mumbled, scratching at his chest. He glanced down lazily at his feet, toeing a bit of rock with his sandal. “I suspect this is perhaps a twisted sort of coping mechanism, and I must say I do not recommend it.”

Kakashi attempted to keep his tone light, aiming for brevity and familiarity. Inside him something curled in his gut, sickening him with the image of a pale, youthful face splattered with strangers’ blood and tiny gobbets of flesh.

“You’re the last person to talk to me about coping mechanisms,” Sakura spit, commingled saliva and blood falling, splat, to the side. “You’ve killed or found dead most of your loved ones and spend your free time reading porn or talking to headstones. I couldn’t care less to know what you consider ‘healthy’.”

“Now, that isn’t very nice.” His jaw clenched before he inhaled deeply through his nose, becoming the picture of relaxation once again. “My sweet Sakura-chan would never have talked to sensei like that.”

She scoffed, rushing toward him with yet another full frontal assault. Even as he maintained his composure and twisted away and around her attacks, his muscles strained and heart raced with adrenaline. 

Despite the assumed simplicity of her battle style, her technique was near-flawless. Sakura was fast, precise. Lethal. Each movement had a purpose and nothing was wasted from the flexing of her forearms to the touch of her toes to the ground. Kakashi knew that if she were to get her hands on him, he could very well be a dead man.

She fought with a ferocity born of trauma and marrow-deep determination. Her only  failure was being fresh, lacking the experience that had festered inside of him for decades; her terrors had accumulated over only a handful of years.

His knowledge of her talent was now supplemented with the new awareness of her capacity for cruelty. It frightened him, even as the part of him buried deep inside who once sought out shinobi for qualities just like that was…intrigued.

Her voice tore from her throat, ripped through his musings and brought him back to the present just in time to duck below a kick that likely would have freed his head from his shoulders:

“You never had any qualms about ruining your students before. Why do I have to be different?”

Because you are different, he thought. He wanted to say, this isn’t you.

Kakashi had to stop completely in his tracks, locking his hands around her wrists in a hold that he knew she could break. He stared down, into her green eyes that were so bright they seemed to glow, at the thick locks of pink brushing past her shoulders. 

He had seen that face so many times, watched it age and change slowly through the years. But everything, at this moment, looked so very unfamiliar. As if he hardly knew the girl–no, woman now– at all.

He wondered if he ever knew who Sakura was, if there was a Sakura to know— or if the young woman standing before him was an amalgamation of the people who had been there to form her. The compassion of her mother, wit of her master, quick temper from Naruto, hatred from Sasuke. That just barely cruel edge masked with pretty snark, everything Yamanaka Ino pruned her to be.

Kakashi wondered what, if anything, she might have inherited from him.

“If you want me to treat you like everyone else,” he said, shifting his feet ever-so-slightly, rolling his shoulders back, “so be it, then.” 

Her next swipe of a chakra-laden hand cut through a billow of leaves. In the next moment, her legs were kicked out from under her, Kakshi’s knee pressed to her nape, a kunai glinting next to her cheek.

She growled in frustration, the tips of her ears stained red as she bucked and thrashed, dislodging him from his position on her back.

“There is no honor in the field,” he said, watching her face as her eye flitted between his feet and hands. “There are no standards of ethics, no codes of conduct.”

“I have been in the field before,” Sakura hissed, her limbs almost trembling with pent up energy. “I haven’t just been sitting around playing pretty nurse.”

“Assume what you know of shinobi to be a lie,” he continued, marking how she bristled at his lack of response to her quip. “We are not heroes. Not ninja like us. We don’t fight to protect the weak and the poor, nor do we fight enemies because it is the right thing to do.”

“Let Naruto and Sasuke be the heroes,” she spat. Mint-green chakra condensed around her fists, morphing into blade-like protrusions between her knuckles. “I just want to get the job done.”

“If I asked you to assassinate a man who is not even a shinobi,” he asked, lowering his voice so he knew she would have to strain to hear it, “would you do it?”

A beat passed, a minute shift in her features come and gone within the span of a blink.

“Yes.”

“Hesitation,” he sighed. “You don't have the heart for it, Sakura-chan.”

“You don’t know me,” she barked, her hand snatching him by the collar for one brief second before his form slipped away with a poof, leaving a log in its place. 

“I do.”

“Everyone thinks they know who I am, what I’m capable of,” Sakura panted, swiping moisture from her brow and whirling to face him with a kunai glinting in her hand. “They make assumptions based on my background, on how I look, on who trained me–”

Their blades clanged, the force reverberating through the bones of his arm.

“–on who didn’t,” she whispered, baring her teeth and narrowing her eyes.

Kakashi allowed a tendril of electricity to zip between his fingers and crackle down the edge of his blade, watched as his former student flinched violently for a fraction of a second before she schooled her expression and steeled her grip.

“I don’t need to assume,” he said cooly, tightening his grip on his blade and his own emotions. He allowed his voice to deepen, his gaze to harden as he stared down into her pale, pinched face. “I know exactly who and what you are.”

“Yeah?” she grunted, bared her teeth. The tendons and his wrists began to ache, muscles bunching with strain as she slowly increased the force of her hand. “What am I, then?”

She had been angry since she arrived on the training grounds. But even as she cursed and spit nastiness at him, he knew that she was still restrained. By respect and her own inherent composure. 

He also knew just how to strip that all away.

“Just a civilian girl,” Kakashi whispered, “playing shinobi games.”

When he had pushed Sasuke to his limits, the immediate response was pure, unadulterated rage. Anger that had festered into a pestilence, that carried with it the stench of rotting trees and old blood. He could see in his mind’s eye that way the young boy’s features had twisted like gnarled roots, how his eyes had bled the deepest red. 

 As always, Sakura was different. In the split second after his words filled the air around them, an agonized expression stole across her face, slackened her jaw and pulled her eyes wide until the green pupils seemed like pinpricks in the whites of them. Her breath stalled in her throat, lips trembling and jaw clenching tight.

Within the blink of his eyes he was slammed backward, pain radiating like a vibration to his spine as a crater formed to his shape around him. He twisted his fingers through hand signs furiously, throwing a barrage at ninjutsu in her direction. It bought him a few seconds, just barely long enough to pull himself to his feet unsteadily, lock his knees as she threw herself at him again in a flurry of feet and fists.

“Tsunade’s tricks, as usual,” he grunted, ducking low to avoid a blow he was sure was intended to actually free his head from his shoulders this time. “I suppose you’re a creature of habit.”

The sound that spilled from Sakura’s mouth could only be described as a garbled roar of fury. She kicked up a chunk of earth and launched it in his direction, following up with a veritable storm of kunai that it took more effort to avoid than he cared to admit.

Kakashi was equal parts proud and terrified at her performance.

“What about you,” Sakura shouted, her voice raw and broken. He fought to hear her still, over his thundering pulse.

“Me?” he questioned mildly. He sent a crackle of lightning toward her that ate away at the waist of her clothes, leaving bubbling, burned skin behind.

It was healed, fresh skin covering the area within moments.

She drew closer than anyone who truly knew him dared, and he managed to snag both of her wrists and lock her against him with a kunai pressed to her sternum.

“Friend-killer Kakashi,” she breathed, her breath hot on his face. Sweat tricked in rivulets from her temples, blood crusted at the corner of her mouth. 

Deep inside of him, something ached. But he simply arched his brow, poising himself for the moment Sakura would break his hold, hoping he could avoid losing a limb or more when it happened.

Instead, she only stared. Until both of their breaths began to slow and silence settled like a weight on his back.

“You see her in me, don’t you?” Sakura asked, her voice quiet but piercing in the unnatural quiet around them. 

“Are you ready to end our training session already?” he quipped. “I have quite a large pile of paperwork waiting on my desk.”

“The little civilian girl,” she continued, voice taking on that soft, child-like quality it had that blood soaked night that changed their lives. “One you could not save from a shinobi’s fate. I’m sure it keeps you awake at night.”

“Be careful, Sakura-chan,” he replied in a low voice. “Remember that you asked me for help.”

“Of course I did,” she grinned, and it looked sickly, false. There was no light to be found in her wide, wide eyes. “Because how could you deny me? Poor little Sakura-chan. So much like the friend you lost.”

“Training is over,” he stated. He loosened his grip on her wrists and inhaled deeply before stepping back. “Next time we work on your focus and control of your emotions.”

“Was Rin a deadweight, too?” Just as he turned his back and took the first step away, that name slipping past her lips made him falter. 

“Sakura,” he whispered. “Enough.”

“I’ve thought about it many times,” she sighed, and he heard the shift of her feet over pebbles and upset soil. “Eventually I came to the conclusion that you neglected my development to somehow make up for the ways you failed to protect your teammate. If I never got into a fight, I couldn’t die in one, ne?”

Kakashi began taking tremulous steps forward, determined to leave the training grounds and this twisted turn of conversation behind. He would deal with his so-obviously cracking former student later. He had his own splintering glass to patch over, for now.

“I’m sure you thought you were protecting me,” Sakura raised her voice, her words falling upon his unwilling ears even as he sauntered away. “But did you ever think that instead of keeping me safe, you could have got me killed?”

Guilt burrowed so deep in his bones he struggled to breathe around it. He closed his eyes, unwilling to look into the memories and truth.

“You almost killed me, Kakashi-sensei,” she cried, something like mirth but far darker clouding her voice. 

“I didn’t mean to,” he breathed.

“Kakashi,” a whisper, carried through the wind. His blood froze in his veins. “You killed me.”

Every single one of his muscles locked into place, his heart stalling for a long handful of seconds before resuming at a thunderous, violent pace. His hands shook, knees becoming weak as he toiled to pry his stiffened lips open–

“Kai.”

“You killed me, Kakashi,” the voice whispered again, tremulous. “Why?”

Kakashi’s body jerked, and he clenched his fists, allowing his blunt nails to bite sharply into his palm and uttered the phrase again.

Yet the air did not change, nor his visage of the ruined training ground. His breaths became shallow and a lump lodged in his throat as quiet, tiny footsteps sounded behind him, drawing closer.

“Why did you kill me, Kashi?” she asked. “Aren’t we friends?”

“Stop.”

He flared his chakra, snatched it inward. Fire danced over his knuckles, scalding him and yet–

Wake UP!

“Kashi,” she whispered, voice thick with pain and sadness. “How could you do this?”

As in all of his nightmares, he was helpless and unable to prevent his stiff neck from turning, to avoid the sight of a small girl soaked to the bone in blood, a gaping darkness where her chest should be.

“I’m sorry, Kashi,” Rin whispered. Black marks like diseased veins snaked from the edges of the maw of her wound, up her throat, webbing across her cheeks.

“No,” he rasped.

The scent of blood, pungence of burnt flesh filled his nose and mouth with every gasping breath. He stumbled backwards, clutching at the area above his own wildly beating heart.

The fabric of his shirt stuck to his fingers, and he snatched the hand away, staring blankly at the streaks of red spread thickly from fingertip to forearm, bits of sharded bone and fibrous clumps of flesh clinging to the fine hairs.

He gagged, nearly losing his footing again.

“Why would you do that, Kakashi-sensei?” The sound of Sakura’s voice caused his head to whip upward, but he was once again met with Rin’s small, ruined face.

“Stop this,” he begged. 

“Kaka-sensei,” Sakura whispered.

Suddenly it was her, wide green eyes glossed with tears, pink hair stained with blood and small, pale hands prodding tenderly around the bleeding hole in her chest.

“Why, Kakashi?” she sniffled.

“Why?” Rin echoed, her face flickering over Sakura’s. “Why?”

“Why,” they both whispered, such different voices somehow entangling and becoming one, “did you kill me?”

Kakashi crumbled to his knees, clutching at his ears and shaking his head, unable to free himself from the lilting cacophony of the two voices, questioning and taunting him. They refused to be quieted or drowned out, even when he began to scream. It was as if they had multiplied into a chorus, hundreds of his failures joining to ask him why, why, why-

WHY?

WHY?

“Kakashi-sensei.”

He came to awareness with a violent gasp, back arching upward and sending a bruising ache rattling down his spine.

Sakura gazed down at him, the sunlight forming a halo around her head, lightening her pink strands until her hair resembled more a rose-gold. Sharp rock pressed into the backs of his legs and neck, and an incessant pressure against his chest urged him to look downward.

“Get off,” he croaked.

She moved her foot away from his chest without a word, taking a step away from the crater within which his body was stuffed. He pulled himself up to stand on shaking legs and swallowed his panting breaths.

“A new trick,” she eventually murmured, after minutes of standing by as he struggled to grasp reality. “You told me once that I had an affinity for genjutsu. So.”

Kakashi barked a laugh that burned in his throat. 

“Yeah,” he said hoarsely. “That you do.”

Finally, he met her eyes. Her expression was blank, her eyes downcast. Not even a tell-tale twitch of her brow or crinkle of her nose cued him into what she could possibly be thinking. 

“Well,” he exhaled, straightening and shoving a hand into the pocket of his pants. His fingers stroked against the edge of his kunai. “You’ve proven your point. See you tomorrow, same time. Have a good day, Sakura-chan.”

As he walked away, in the direction of the Hokage tower, he could feel her stare on his back. The feeling persisted for hours after.

  Give up the ghosts

Sakura peered down at the sleeping Mitokado Homura, still and silent as the dead. It was easy to do so, considering she felt as if her own heartbeat was but a mere illusion. Her focus remained on the rise and fall of a frail chest, the webs of blue-green veins barely visible under paper-thin skin illuminated by moonlight.

A shinobi who had served under the second Hokage, one who had lived at least three shinobi lifetimes, laid so peacefully— face marred with wrinkles of age rather than the horrors of death and murder and generational strife. Sakura did not think it possible for any shinobi to indulge in such a peaceful slumber.

A pale hand, littered with tiny scars and roughened with callouses reached out, fingers fluttering over the pulse thrumming gently in his neck. To his credit, his cloudy eyes snapped open immediately upon the faint contact, but it was already too late.

Fingers crushed around his windpipe, effectively bludgeoning his vocal chords and choking off the exclamation she knew would fall from his lips.

“Shhh, Mitokado-san,” she whispered, hands glowing faintly as she smoothed over the damage she had done to his trachea and esophagus. 

A terrible, wheezing croak slipped from his lips as Sakura moved her hand back, leaving behind a dark, gritty stain.

Then a kunai swung toward her face, but—the poor wretch—it was far too slow. She snapped the wrist holding the blade like a rice cracker and went about hauling the man from his bed and tossing him none-too-gently into the plush armchair at the center of his room.

Planting her hands on thin thighs, she knelt in front of him, fingers dipping deep into the muscles, the tips of them coating with warm, sticky blood.

Homura’s breaths were coming out in frantic pants, his eyes shooting around the room as he squealed and whined helplessly, words shaping intelligibly on his thin, wrinkled lips. For a long moment, Sakura only stared, feeling oddly light and ungrounded as she watched the practically ancient man struggle desperately, numb to the weak blows rained upon her shoulders and head.

“You don’t look like a man who could eliminate an entire community of people,” she whispered eventually. The man froze at the sound of her voice, gaze widening in horror as she withdrew her nails from the flesh of his legs and reached for his face with blood-caked hands.

“I didn’t get a chance to talk to your friend, Utatane-san,” Sakura continued, smearing blood in lazy patterns over his quivering face. “I made it quick, too quick for her. Because I was mad. Shishou would be ashamed that I let my anger control my actions that way.”

“Y-you,” the murderer rasped, voice sounding ripped and warbling. He began choking, unable to say more as red bubbled from his lips.

“I want to talk to you,” Sakura nodded slowly, voice soft. “I want to talk about why you soaked your hands in the blood of innocents, why you ruined Sasuke-kun’s life.”

“Uchiha...not...innocent,” he wheezed and Sakura tilted her head.

“Are you? Innocent?” she inquired. There was no answer as the pressure of her hands increased and with a sickening crack, Mitokado Homura’s jaw crumbled against her palms. 

The sound of his attempted cry of pain was barely audible above the roaring in her ears. One hand fell from his face and the familiar glow of her chakra illuminated his slackened, terrified face for a moment before it condensed into a scalpel that she cut into his side.

“I did this before,” she murmured, pushing her hand into the neat incision, reaching between ribs to wrap her fingers gently around the hot, pulsing organ in his chest, “in the war, to save Naruto’s life. I’m sure you hate the fact that I did that. Like how you hate that we brought Sasuke back, that you weren’t able to execute him. Pity.”

Her grip tightened around the frantically thumping heart in her hand; instead of steady compressions to a still, quiet organ, she mapped the arteries and cavities with her fingers and chakra and after a breath sent a thrum into a particular spot. The chunk of flesh in her grip seized, hardening, misshaping itself before twitching erratically. As the organ struggled to find its rhythm, Sakura noted the convulsing of its cage, glancing up to see the way the old man’s eyes rolled white into the back of his head.

She withdrew her chakra for a split second before it flowed out again from her fingertips, gently guiding the flow of blood to the lungs and brain, calming the erratic twitching of the fickle organ once more.

“Sasuke-kun told me he’s haunted by the ghosts,” she informed, watching as tears flowed thick down her enemy’s face, pooling in the divots and valleys of his worn flesh. “Are you? Do they visit you in your dreams, too?”

She disturbed the flow of her chakra again, clutching the malfunctioning organ as Homura once again thrashed, legs kicking uselessly at her belly, spittle foaming white at the corners of his mouth.

“Do you want to see them, Homura?” Sakura pushed her face close to his as she once again stabilized his heart. “Don’t you want to talk to them about your innocence?”

An otherworldly feeling rose up like a wave in her chest as the frantic, glazed eyes above her suddenly sharpened and began darting about the darkened corners of the room. Faces that were mostly unfamiliar to her, but so very recognizable to him bled out from the shadows, drawing closer, closer still. 

The furnishings of the lavish room fell away, filled to the brim with pale faces framed with pitch-dark hair, glinting crimson eyes floating toward them.

“P-plea-,” Homura choked, a weak hand rising to clutch at his face, bony finger tips catching in the fragile lids framing his wide eyes. “St-st…”

His gaze grew more horrified by the moment as the room filled with the faces of young men, old women, small children, infants cradled in the arms of black-haired ladies with bleeding irises. 

“Look at them,” she breathed, fingers undulating about the slick surface of the heart thundering in her grasp. “Look.”

What would have been a high pitched scream ripped from his throat in the form of a wheezing squeak as the blood-red eyes of his demons fell from their heads, leaving behind gaping darkness in their skulls as they continued to move forward, ever advancing.

“Shh, Homura,” Sakura cooed, reaching up to force his gaze back down to hers. “They can’t hurt you. They’re just ghosts. I am your reckoning.”

Cracked lips gaped in a silent shriek as her once green irises bled red. 

“M-m-monster,” he gurgled.

“I know you are,” Sakura replied, sinking back onto the heels of her feet and holding his gaze, “but what am I?” 

Then she was ripping her hand from the cavity of his chest, blood, bone shard and viscera splashing hot over her cheeks as cloudy brown eyes widened before the light in them faded and his entire body went slack, sinking lifeless into the back of the armchair. 

The taste of iron bit at the tip of her tongue as her lips spread into a crooked smile.

  Forgive me not

Sasuke pretended that his gaze was focused on the tepid cup of tea cradled in his palm when the door creaked open and closed. As if moments before he had not been watching, waiting for it to swing open, for the sound of shuffling footsteps and rustling fabric to reach his ears in the ambience of the night-time hours.

“Okaeri,” he greeted quietly, voice raspier still than he would have liked. More internal wounds to heal from, he supposed.

“Tadaima.”

It was more of a sigh than a response. And so he allowed himself to look toward the doorway, to watch as Sakura trudged further into her tiny living room. She flicked on a lamp, casting the space in a weak, yellow glow. 

“We don’t all have night vision like a cat, Sasuke-kun,” she muttered. Nearly each word was chased by an exhalation, a release of breath that made him wonder if words weighed like burdens on her tongue, too. 

“You look tired,” he stated. His eyes tingled and the room became clearer, if less colorful as he engaged his dojutsu. “Chakra reserves are low.”

“Yeah, well,” she replied stiffly, footsteps pausing for a beat before she shuffled forward slowly. “I have a job. No special house-arrest vacation for me.” 

“Hn.”

Sasuke let the snide comment wash over him, inhaling deeply through his nose and out of his mouth. Had Naruto said it, they might have come to blows. But this was Sakura–she had more than earned the right to tug on his nerves now and again.

“There’s dinner in the refrigerator,” he said softly as she finally swept past him, the scent of antiseptic thick, hints of jasmine seeping through.

“I’m not hungry,” she replied without turning. 

“You must be.”

Her shoulders lifted in a shrug and she did not respond, swaying her way around various obstacles on the path to her bedroom. A low table, a small stack of heavy tomes. The tall, flowering plant that Sasuke watered and clipped every other day to give himself something to do other than sitting and stewing in his own thoughts. It had a strong fragrance, almost cloying, and it made his nose burn and head ache if he spent too much time in proximity to it. But Sakura would smile a little when the flowers looked vibrant. 

When he stepped behind her, she froze, formerly slumped posture overcorrecting as her spine became rigid and her neck stiff.

“I’m not hungry,” she sighed. Sasuke only stared as she rotated slowly, bracing one of her hands on the doorframe leading into her room.

“You’ll sleep better on a full stomach,” he stated. 

“I’m too tired to eat,” she countered. Indeed, her lips parted and jaw elongated on a wide yawn.

“It’s not poisoned.”

Sakura rolled her bloodshot eyes, “I know you wouldn’t poison me, Sasuke-kun.”

“I waited to eat with you.” 

When her eyes finally met his head on, he knew he had won.

“Come on,” she grumbled. 

Her shoulder brushed his chest, just barely, as she stepped around him. Sasuke traced the slope of her shoulders with his gaze, tracking the rhythm of her slow gait as she shuffled to the kitchen. 

Sakura wrenched the fridge open and collected the collection of tupperware, scraping their contents into plates and bowls and shoving them into the microwave in silence. Sasuke stood quietly on the other side of the counter and watched.

“Are you,” she bit her lip, sliding his food toward him, “waiting for me to attack you, or something?”

“What?” he blinked, absently reaching for the chopsticks she had slid across the counter as well.

“You’ve been staring at me with the sharingan since I walked in,” she waved one hand in his general direction. Her chin stayed low, eyes fixed on the food in front of her.

“It scares you?” he asked, blinking again and letting his dojutsu disengage. “Sorry.”

“That’s not what I said,” she mumbled around a mouthful of food, chewing somewhat aggressively. “Just…I don’t understand why you’d use it when you’re at– here, with me.”

Sasuke took his own bite, studying her face as he considered.

“Sometimes I want to see more than I can with regular eyes,” he finally said.

“Hm. Okay,” she muttered. She continued to shovel food into her mouth.

“Are you sure it doesn’t scare you?” Sasuke asked, suddenly unable to take another bite. He set his chopsticks down and opted to swirl his spoon around the steaming bowl to his right.

“Should it?” she asked quietly. Her eyes flitted up to his briefly before focusing lower, perhaps on his chin.

“No.” 

She stared downward, motionless. His fingers tightened around the spoon.

“Then, no. It doesn’t.”

Sasuke stirred his broth some more. Sakura resumed eating and silence blanketed the kitchen again.

“You don’t look me in the eyes when it’s engaged.”

“That’s shinobi 101,” she said briskly, sipping a spoonful of her own broth. “Never look directly in the eyes of someone who has the sharingan. I would do the same with anyone.”

“I’m the only one left,” he whispered.

She stilled, before lowering her spoon with a quiet clack to the counter. Her mouth opened as if she were going to speak, then closed again. 

“You never looked away from it before,” he stated. His fingers tightened around the spoon once more, the metal warming in his grip. 

Sakura glanced up to his eyes again, her full lips turning down a fraction. Then she shook her head, and let loose a quiet laugh.

“The last time I looked into your sharingan,” she said, lips twisted in a rueful smile, “you wrapped me up in a pretty nasty genjutsu, Sasuke-kun.”

An ache settled in his chest and shame washed over his head like an angry tide. He dropped the spoon and dropped her gaze.

“I’m sorry,” he rasped.

“It’s okay,” she said softly. “I forgave you long ago, Sasuke-kun.”

“Yeah,” he whispered. “But your instinct tells you that I’m a threat. I have made you uncomfortable in your own home.”

“Sasuke-kun. That’s not true.”

“You hardly eat,” he replied, voice low. “I hear you awake in your room at night. You spend more hours at the hospital than you are scheduled for to stay away as long as possible.”

“Sasuke-kun…”

He lifted his head, watched as she flinched at the sight of his red iris. A sick feeling swirled in his gut as he let the crimson bleed away.

“It was better for you when I was tied up and blindfolded in the prison. You probably felt safer.”

“Sasuke-kun, please,” she choked. Her palm smacked into the surface of the counter. “Don’t say things like that. Don’t be cruel.”

“I mean it,” he said quietly. “It makes sense that things would be easier when you actually felt safe with me.”

“I’m going to bed,” she said thickly, whirling away from the counter and taking heavy steps toward the exit of the kitchen.

“You never ran from me before, either,” he murmured. Sakura froze midstep.

“I can’t do this tonight, Sasuke-kun,” she breathed, voice barely audible with how she faced away from him. The desperation rang clear yet. 

“I won’t stay here if you’re afraid of me,” Sasuke replied tightly. “I want you to feel safe.”

Sakura remained silent. He stood, the sound of his chair scraping the ground causing her to flinch. 

He decided against approaching.

“Sakura,” he whispered. 

“I can forgive you for anything, Sasuke-kun,” she said quietly, her voice tremulous and so very tired. “Anything. But I can’t forget so easily. I can’t help that my mind clings to certain images and that my body reacts. Call it fear if you want.”

Her head turned slightly, pink tresses shielding the majority of her face.

“Maybe it scares me to sleep under the same roof as the boy who put his hand through my chest in a dream,” she rasped. “But it scares me more to sleep under this roof alone, without knowing you’re somewhere close by. So let me have my fear–let me have you in the only way I can, until I get over one or the other.”

Shame, his oldest friend, clung heavy on his shoulders. It pressed upon his back and caused an ache in his chest, dragging especially on his left-hand side.

“If there was something I could do to take it back,” he rasped, “I would. Doing that to you is the worst crime I have committed.”

“Maybe not the worst,” she muttered. A heavy sigh brought her shoulders up, then down into a slump. “What’s happened, happened. I forgive you, Sasuke. You have to let it go as much as I do.”

Sasuke took a step forward despite himself, despite the way she stiffened. 

“Sakura,” he whispered, drawing closer and daring to touch her arm with the tips of his fingers.

“Sasuke-kun, you can’t take it back,” she whirled and looked at him, chin tilted to stare straight into his eyes. “We both have to live with it. We can't unsee it or undo it; we just have to live with it.”

His lips turned down into a frown, an ache settling between his ribs. 

“I’ll stay with Naruto,” he murmured. “I will leave– tonight.”

Yet his feet remained rooted to the spot, his body looming mere inches from hers. Staring, breathing.

“You won’t,” she whispered. “Not unless I tell you to go.”

“Tell me then,” he replied thickly. “Tell me to go.”

“No,” she breathed. She began shaking her head slowly, blinking as if meeting his eyes was the same as staring straight into the midday sun.

“Don’t let me hurt you more than I already have,” he begged. His hand lifted, drew close, cupped her face just as it turned away.

She slipped free from his gaze and grasp.

“Good night, Sasuke-kun.”

[starry0-o]

Crazy we're now 350k+ words in 😭 I remember seeing this rec and having the biggest grin on my face, thanks whoever this anon was 🥹❤️

Hello! May i recommend Covenant by Starry0_o on ao3? Its an au war fic and its just chefs kiss (reminds me of dramione war fics heh)

Hello nonny,

Thank you for stopping by! 💕

Recs are always welcomed here, I appreciate the help. 😊 I haven't seen a recent SasuSaku war fic in so long, and Dramione war fics are chef's kiss, so this is promising already. 😆

Here's the fic info:

Covenant By: Starry0_o Four years into the Fourth Shinobi War, Orochimaru offers to turn. He all but requests Sakura by name to be the contact. It is, quite clearly, a trap—least of all because he's supposed to be dead. But what is a losing side to do except take the hand that's offered? SasuSaku/AU Warfic. Basic cannon-compliance up until the War. Slow burn & plot building heavy. [Rated M, on going]

It looks like this will be a long one, it's already at 77k+. 😮 Thanks again for sharing! Also, nice to see a fellow Dramione reader around. 😁

Hope you have a great week! 🤍

Stay Safe,

xoxo

P.S. for all: If you're into Dramione or curious about them and those war fics, I recommend The Disappearances of Draco Malfoy and From Wiltshire, With Love 💚

[uchiha-saradas]

hi friends!

chapter 4 of my sasusaku blank period fic, resilience, is finally uploaded and available to read on wattpad and aO3 (links posted below)!

feel free to like, comment or share as any feedback would be much appreciated and please be sure to read the warnings beforehand!

with love,

riley

aO3:

wattpad:

[anerdinallherglory]

It's coming guys. Before Halloween, if not sooner. I promise! And it's a LONG one. There will be two versions, so if you aren't also reading on AO3, follow me @anerdinallherglory

[saeuniverse]

Dusted

I dusted off the graphics tablet. my drawing for Starry's wonderful fan fiction "Covenant".

"They?"

"Aa… The Allies."

"Sasuke—" Lurching up, she pinned him down to the mat by his shoulders, legs still tangled in his, regarding him with desperation. "What? What did you say? Say it again!" She shook her head in disbelief. "No. You're lying. You can't—how? No. How do you know?"

"Breathe, Sakura. I'm not—"

@starry0-o

[artfullypoetic]

The Burn of Cold Niceties (8/?)

Title: The Burn of Cold Niceties

Summary: Three years after the the Fourth Shinobi War, newfound peace in Konoha is rocked when one of their own is suspected of treason. Determined to uncover the truth, Sakura takes it upon herself to dive deep into Konoha’s best-kept secrets. As she faces danger and betrayal, can she protect the village and those she loves? Blank period, mostly canon-compliant, SasuSaku-centric but will include all canon pairings. New chapters every week!

Disclaimer: I do not own nor did I create Naruto. This was created solely for entertainment purposes.

Rating: M (for future content)

FF.net Link | AO3 Link. Please comment/review!

Chapter 8

The mission was simple: get information, don’t die. Sounds easy, right? Sakura laughed bitterly to herself at the thought as she expertly packed her weapons into a small, tan pouch. It had been two days since she reported her discoveries in Kusakagure to Kakashi—two days since she was assigned to infiltrate what remained of Root.

The mission was simple: get information, don't die. Sounds easy, right? Sakura laughed bitterly to herself at the thought as she expertly packed her weapons into a small, tan pouch. It had been two days since she reported her discoveries in Kusakagure to Kakashi—two days since she was assigned to infiltrate what remained of Root.

As if the mission wasn't intimidating enough, Kakashi gave her strict instructions to not share the details with anyone. But keeping secrets left a sour taste on her tongue, especially when those secrets also involved her investigating her own friends.

She was warned that this would happen—that this high level of treason met no one was safe from being a suspect, even the friends whom she trusted with her life. Kakashi echoed her thoughts but as Hokage, he couldn't play favorites like that. He was even a little taken aback when she reported that she had already told Naruto, but eventually agreed that it was for the best as he was already in training to be Hokage.

Scanning her room, she silently hoped that this mission would be over soon and that she could return home and finally live as a Konoha medic. No more traveling, no more fighting. Sakura yearned for that type of simple life. But she couldn't help but wonder if she would actually be happy if things were suddenly that simple. Or is there some masochistic part of her that enjoyed the chaos of life-threatening missions?

With one last look at her apartment, she locked the door and set out. Before heading to the Hokage's office to receive last minute instructions from Kakashi, she had one quick stop to make.

Her stroll to the hospital was refreshing, the familiar route giving her a sort of comfort. When she arrived at the front steps of the building, the feeling only strengthened. It was here that she discovered her true talents after years of mindlessly following her teammates around. It was here that she found real purpose.

Sakura found Tsunade sitting in her office, sitting with one elbow propped on the desk supporting her cheek. Her other hand was scribbling vigorous letters in her open notebook.

"Finally decide to pay this old lady a visit?" The head of the hospital asked without looking up from what she was writing.

"I'm sorry, Tsunade-shishou," Sakura bowed her head. "Things were just a little hectic."

"So I've heard." The blond Sannin closed her notebook with a soft thud before resting both elbows on the table and leaning her chin onto her fists. Her brown eyes that met Sakura's softened and a small smile played on her lips. When she gestured for the pinkette to sit at the chair across from her desk, she obeyed.

"Kakashi's already filled me in with most of the details. Are you heading over there now?" Tsunade asked once Sakura was settled in the chair.

"Yes, shishou. I plan to start the mission as soon as I go over the last details of the plan with Kakashi-sensei."

"Good." The blonde woman studied Sakura for several long seconds before adding "how are your chakra reserves?"

"There's plenty. I've been able to store a bit more than usual since I haven't had to do much healing in the other villages' hospitals." As she replied, Sakura absentmindedly grazed the violet diamond seal on her forehead with her fingertips.

In a rare display of affection, Tsunade reached across the desk and lifted Sakura's chin gently until their eyes met. Sakura had been avoiding her gaze, afraid that her master would see past her facade that hid the anxiety she felt about her upcoming mission. But the older woman was too smart to fool.

"You're nervous." Tsunade stated, allowing her hand to drop from where it held Sakura's chin.

"Yes." The pink-haired kunoichi swallowed uncomfortably.

"Good."

Sakura tilted her head slightly, puzzled. "It's good to be nervous?"

"Of course it is. I would be concerned if you weren't nervous about having to investigate your own comrades."

"Ah, that's right." Sakura nodded solemnly.

"Now tell me, why did you actually stop by here? I know it wasn't just to see me."

Sakura smiled sheepishly before pulling her pouch to her lap and digging into it. From it, she produced the small vial of poison that she had collected from the man she fought several days earlier.

Handing it to her master who eyed it curiously, Sakura explained, "I fought with some rogue ninja on the way here. One managed to escape but I was able to subdue one. The only thing is before I could even get any information, he swallowed a pill with this in it and within seconds he was dead. I've never seen anything like it."

"And you want me to analyze it, correct?"

"Yes, I think that if we can trace the origins of the poison, we might be able to learn more about who we're dealing with."

With a nod, Tsunade pocketed the vial before standing from her desk. Sakura followed suit.

"It will probably take some time to analyze it but I'll assemble a team right away."

"Thank you, Tsunade-shishou."

The older woman smiled and rounded her desk until she was standing right in front of her past student. With two fingers, Tsunade once again lifted Sakura's chin until their brown and green eyes met.

"Oh how you've grown," The blonde spoke softly as she clicked her tongue. Sakura smiled warmly in return. "Come back safe, okay?"

"Of course," Sakura reassured before adding, "Do you want to bet on it?"

Tsnuade let out a noise that sounded both like a scoff and a laugh.

"Don't start with me, Sakura," The former Hokage playfully scolded as she waved her hand lazily in the air. "Now go on, you have a job to do."

"I'll see you soon, Tsunade-shishou." With a bow, Sakura exited her office but before she was past the door frame, the voice of her master stopped her in her tracks.

"And Sakura?" Tsunade called after her.

"Yes?" The pink-haired woman poked her head back in to study the older woman's face whose features were now softened yet serious.

"I'm very proud of you."

For several beats, Sakura stood deathly still before finally remembering to breathe. She had only heard her master praise her this way twice. Once immediately after the war and another time when Sakura challenged a stranger to a bet and won.

"Thank you, shishou." After a brief moment of hesitation, Sakura ran back into the office and threw her arms around Tsunade.

"Thank you," Sakura repeated in a whisper as the master-student duo embraced.

Once the shock of her student's arms gripping her form with much more strength than necessary was over, Tsunade tightly returned the younger woman's hug. Her chest filled with a maternal affection she always forgot she was capable of.

"If you're really thankful, you'll come back unharmed. I don't want to waste chakra healing you, got it?"

Giggling lightly, Sakura replied, "got it."

With a final wave of her hand, Sakura strolled away from her master's office, out of the hospital, and towards the Hokage's office.

When she reached Kakashi's office, she was greeted with the sight of him and Tenten speaking in urgent, hushed tones as they huddled over the large desk. Peering closer, she saw that their focus was on an assortment of weapons, lined neatly in a row.

"Is everything okay?" She questioned after several seconds passed with neither noticing her presence.

Tenten jumped at the sound of Sakura's voice whereas Kakashi simply waved for her to come closer, eyes still trained on the objects before him. As she approached the pair, she gave Tenten a quick side hug, which the weapons unit coordinator returned eagerly. However, their expressions grimmed immediately as their attention refocused on the weapons.

"These are the konoha advanced weapons," Sakura observed as her eyes trailed across the objects.

"Yes, we've been comparing them to the paper bomb sample you provided," Kakashi's eyes raised to meet hers, a solemn look darkening his expression. "You won't like what we found."

Her blood ran cold at the tone in Kakashi's voice but she nodded to signal him to continue.

But it was Tenten who began to speak next. "The paper bomb you brought isn't actually from Konoha."

"Isn't that good news?" Sakura's shoulders sagged in noticeable disappointment when she saw Tenten shake her head.

"You see, it may not have been from Konoha but it was a near-perfect replica of our line of advanced weaponry. So whoever you're dealing with not only was able to access our weapons but they're also knowledgeable enough to recreate them."

Tenten's words hung in the silent air for what felt like several long minutes, before the quiet was interrupted by the Hokage's exasperated sigh.

"Sakura," Kakashi's voice came out measured and cautious as the pinkette's eyes fell on him. "There's more."

Tenten took that as her signal to speak. "When we tested the substances used on their paper bomb, we found traces of another element. This is something we've been working on for a long time, long enough that even Neji knew about it and helped with its development."

At the mention of their fallen comrade's name, Sakura and Tenten exchanged sympathetic glances. Prior to the war, neither of them had been particularly close. However, the grief brought them closer over the years as they mourned the tremendous loss suffered by the village.

At Sakura's encouraging nod, the weapons expert continued, "For years, Neji thought it would be a good idea to create a special type of weapon that's strong enough to counter visual dojutsu. He was afraid that enemies using stolen eyes would be able to overpower us. We weren't able to make any progress when he was still here but over the last year, we were able to develop this."

From the row of weapons on Kakashi's desk, Tenten carefully picked up a small, round ball and held it up for Sakura to see.

"You're saying that could counter dojutsu?" she asked as she eyed the object in disbelief. It looked so tiny and unthreatening.

Tenten nodded solemnly. "It's a mineral bomb that releases a thick smoke when activated—smoke thick enough to essentially blind almost all eye techniques and render them useless."

Sakura's gaze on the bomb widened. "What about the Sharingan?"

"Yes, including the Sharingan." Kakashi spoke up now and both kunoichi turned to watch him.

"But these people are after Sasuke! What if they use it on him? What if we're too late and they've already used it on him?" Sakura was rambling now as unthinkable scenarios shuffled through her mind. The image of Sasuke's battered body after his battle with Naruto stuck to the forefront of her brain.

"Calm down, Sakura." The Hokage held up his hands to signal her to halt her rapid speech. "Sasuke's one of the strongest shinobi, he won't go down that easily."

"But you know that he relies on his visual prowess too much sometimes."

The sensei-student duo met their gaze, likely flashing back to the same day. It was several months before Sasuke left and like most days, Team 7 was sparring on the familiar training grounds with Kakashi nonchalantly reading his book under the shade of a nearby tree. As the trio battled, the Hokage finally piped up and suggested that Sasuke try taijutsu without the use of his Sharingan.

"You never know when you might have to fight without it," Kakashi had said.

At this, Sasuke seethed with anger. "I know that. I'm prepared for it," he had replied through gritted teeth.

"How can you be sure when you've used the Sharingan during every training session so far?" The ex-sensei didn't bother to look up or even flinch when Sasuke's kunai went flying towards his head. With a simple movement in his neck, he dodged the weapon and allowed it to lodge into the bark of the tree behind him.

The training session ended an hour later after Sasuke, Sakura, and Naruto continued their taijutsu spar, none of them mentioning what Kakashi had said earlier. But Sakura continued to notice the red flashes of Sasuke's Sharingan.

In the present, Kakashi and Sakura continued to exchange their worried glances before Kakashi's eyes upturned in a smile.

"Sasuke has always been prepared for anything in a battle. It takes a lot to take his focus off a fight, remember that." he reassured.

Sakura swallowed and nodded to acknowledge his statement. Kakashi was right, she needed to have more faith in Sasuke.

At the silence that followed, Tenten began to gather the weapons before sealing them into a scroll that she produced from where it lay beside her feet.

"I know I can't know the details of whatever mission you both are discussing so I'll head out now." As the black-haired ninja passed Sakura, she gave the woman's shoulder a soft squeeze. "Good luck and stay safe. I'll see you back home soon, yeah?"

"Yes, thank you." With a final smile and hug between the two women, Tenten was gone, leaving the office and closing the door with a soft thud.

"What do I need to do for this mission then?" the pinkette finally asked as she turned to look at her former teacher once again.

"We need to start with getting more information," Kakashi said as he rested his elbows on the desk and clasped his hands in front of his mask-covered mouth. "We don't know anything about who we're dealing with so we'll need to get you on the inside somehow. I'm sure you've already devised a plan these past couple days?"

Sakura nodded at this. "Yes, I was planning on setting a trap and then using this," she raised her hand to point to the violet byakugou seal on her forehead. When Kakashi cocked his head to the side curiously, she explained further, "First, I'm going to use myself as bait and lure some of the ninja to attack me. I'll capture one of them, get information, then use my chakra reserves to change my appearance. From there, I'll infiltrate them disguised as one of their own."

"Okay," Kakashi said with a slight shrug.

"Okay?"

"Yes, it sounds like you have this all thought out and I don't see an issue with it. You have the training and experience to successfully subdue the attackers and I know that Lady Tsunade has taught you well. I think we can go ahead with the plan."

Sakura drew in a sharp breath, shocked that Kakashi so readily agreed with her. Sure, she has grown a lot and was easily regarded as one of the strongest kunoichi in the village, but standing in front of her former teacher made her feel almost as if she was twelve again, immediately freezing at the sight of danger and crying to be saved.

As if sensing her thoughts, Kakashi's eyes softened and his lips drew into a smile that wrinkled the fabric of his mask. "Believe in yourself, kiddo. You're stronger and smarter than you give yourself credit for."

Her face brightened at the compliment as she soaked in the warmth that spread across her cheeks.

"Thank you, sensei."

As the Hokage's smile widened, she couldn't help but notice the slight creases that formed at the corners of his eyes. It seemed as if running a village was starting to age him. The thought left a bittersweet taste on her tongue.

"Alright," he sighed as he stood from his seat and rounded the desk. "I'm going to have Pakkun come with you until you're able to capture one of the ninja. He'll be able to bring them back to me while you continue with the mission."

With a quick prick of his finger that drew tiny drops of blood, Kakashi began to expertly weave hand signs before crouching to place his palm against the ground. Immediately, black markings sprouted from his hand and etched into the floor below. The summoning jutsu produced a puff of smoke that cleared swiftly to reveal Kakashi's ninken, a small dog wearing a Konoha headband.

"Sakura," Pakkun greeted, shaking his wrinkled snout as he sniffed his surroundings. "Smells like we still use the same shampoo."

"I told you not to mention that anymore!" Sakura shouted back, pointing a threatening finger at the ninja hound before her. Her other hand curled into a fist at her chest.

"Now, now. Settle down, you two," Kakashi stepped between them with raised palms. "We have a mission to attend to, remember?"

Sakura glared at Pakkun but kept quiet. After flashing her a smile so small that the only indication it happened was the slight upturn of his eyes, Kakashi turned to Pakkun to explain the details of the mission.

The ninken was to follow Sakura at a distance until she is able to restrain one of the enemy ninja. He'll wait until she gathers enough information to assume their identity. Once her transformation is complete, Pakkun was to bring the captive nin back to the village and report immediately to the Hokage's office. From there, Sakura would be on her own.

"It's too risky to have you communicate with me while you're on the inside but hopefully it won't be too long before you can get the information we need and get out," Kakashi explained to her after he finished briefing the ninja hound. "Remember, our main goal is just to gather intel. I don't want you trying to fight them without backup."

"Got it," Sakura assured with a nod, her expression sober.

"Any further questions?" The Hokage's gaze flickered between the kunoichi and the ninken. When neither of them replied, he clapped his hands together and announced, "Alright, let the mission officially begin."

[xkaileo]

Working on a new small project that I’m going to release as pseudo one-shots related to my post-war fic. Decided I’m going to write some letters they are words and such exchanged between Sasuke and Sakura after the war. I’ll probably write most of them before I start publishing them, but if you have any letter suggestions send me an ask or a message!

Reblogs also appreciated to help spread the word for suggestions! (Edit below is mine, no reposting without permission, thanks!)

[starry0-o]

Covenant Preview

Chapter 3, Part 3

"But I can’t help it, Sasuke. I can't lose anyone else." Her voice broke. "I can't lose you most of all. I lo—"

"Sakura.” His tone was low; soft and silencing the confession. “...Don’t.”

He didn't want to hear it. 

He never had. Not when their agreement began. Not when she was the contact. Not even in Madara's bases, when she couldn't help it from spilling out into the crook of his neck as he clutched her against him.

Fine. If he didn't want her to say it, then she wouldn't let him have it. But—

"Whether I say it or not, you know. You know there's no peace for me if you do this," she gave him instead. Her chin quivered.

"I'm not the one doing this," he challenged.

"But you're letting it happen! You aren't even fighting!"

"I'm tired of fighting."

"So am I! And I'm tired of doing this with you over and over and over again, Sasuke!” she shouted. “Why must I always beg you when you know how I feel?! After everything! Why do you force us back to this place where you treat me like I’m some stranger to you?!"

Sighing, he closed his eyes, brow knitted. "What would you have me do? They want me to answer for what I've done. I agree that I deserve it…but you don’t."

[keithisbae1]

The Mershark & Mermaid - Part 9

Sasuke was different from most sharks, despite being an Uchiha his appearance was… unique and not like his family. At a young age sharklings were to go further into the deep given to other sharks to be fed and tested, if they were weak then they would die or more specific eaten by the mersharks. If they were strong then they would escape and live. As the years progressed more and more sharks were hesitant on keeping such a trial, especially when there were more and more humans about.

They couldn’t go extinct from one another and who’s to say the sharklings wouldn’t grow strong in their own time. Uchihas were few of the sharks who continued this method, plucking out the weak as they were the strongest of mersharks. And Sasuke was no exception, despite the protests from his mother Sasuke had agreed to go through this trial. He wanted to get stronger and knew this would be the only option. And if he were to die, then he was simply not made for this life and maybe he could finally escape Itachi’s shadow.

What they didn’t know that day was that there were humans right above them. Dumping a load of toxic waste. At the time Sasuke was struggling to keep himself awake, the sharks were taunting him, attacking him with their tails and tossing him around like he was some toy. Their claws would scratch him leaving him all bruised and battered.

He thought he was finished until something had distracted them, it had entered the deep sea and that was when he knew this was his chance and attacked them. Sasuke didn’t feel or notice anything that day, too preoccupied in fighting for his life. To stay alive.

He had bitten two of them, scratched the eye out of another and headbutted another in his way. He was able to escape and swim back home safely. He had completed the trial, to make it out alive in an area infested with mersharks.

The sharkling couldn’t wait to see the look on his dad’s face, he could finally acknowledge him. Sure, he was beaten up badly but that was to be expected, this was proof that he could get strong. Until he fainted when he saw his parents.

When he woke up Fugaku had told him how proud he was however Mikoto was different, it was heard sometime later that within a few days the mersharks that were trying kill Sasuke were dead. The humans had gotten to them first with poisoning their land, and now it would only be a matter of time before Sasuke was taken away from them too, or so they thought.

Sasuke had come down with a fever with his wounds being fully exposed to the toxin, his life was in danger. He would scream and cry from the pain, but death never came, instead his appearance had changed. His pale scales turned grey and black hair changed into darker blue and grown slightly longer. Even his tail which had used to be purple turned into a blueish grey and he grew slightly bigger too.

It had seemed mother nature was tired of those two-legged creatures’ always taking and taking and finally allowed them to adapt. And Sasuke was one of the few lucky ones to be chosen. As his fever broke Sasuke had never felt so alive but was also terrified with how different he looked now compared to his parents. Was this really a good thing?

“Of course, it is son, you’re the first of us who have been chosen to adapt. Overtime this will be the norm.” If that was what his father had thought then it must be true, right?

“Oh wow, you look so different.” A younger Sakura swam around the sharkling inspecting him. She swam closer to touch his longer blue hair, it had only been two weeks since they last met. Did mersharks really grow so quickly.

“So soft.” Sasuke tsked swatting her hand away from his which only made her giggle in response, and she swam playfully around him until she was upside-down right in front of his face. Has no one ever told this mergirl about personal boundaries?

“How could you tell it was me?”

“Silly, I can always recognise you. You can’t escape me that easily.”

Maybe it wasn’t just the adrenaline keeping him going that day… maybe… just maybe… deep down he wanted to live again so he could see her, Sakura. Sure, she was a mermaid and not someone a predator like him should be friends with, but she kept him going. Made his day brighter and always smiled at him despite knowing what he was. Who he was. She had no ounce of fear and he admired her for that.

Whatever this is they had, it was worth fighting for. Was this why he was chosen?

“Sasuke? Oi, Sasuke?” Sakura had snapped him out of his thoughts watching him closely.

“You spaced out all of a sudden, are you okay?”

Why were these memories resurfacing? Ah well, it didn’t matter now. None of it did.

~~~

Boruto’s Mama was a very sweet mershark, happily welcoming Sarada to their cave. She almost reminded Sarada of her own mother with how gentle and kind she was. “Make yourself at home dear, Boruto is always bringing his friends’ home.”

“I was going to bring you a fish to make up for it.” Except Sarada had to wonder… would she have shown this same kindness if she knew who she was? Boruto had mentioned that his Papa and hers were close friends, so were they safe? Could she tell them?

Mitsuki seemed to know about her because of his parent, for some reason and she couldn’t put her tail on it, that didn’t sit right with her. Like it was someone who shouldn’t know and be wary of.

“I also must apologise for my son again for telling such lies, I mean really Boruto what were you thinking. You shouldn’t go making up such rumours, how would your uncle feel?”

“But it’s the truth I swear!”

So graceful and again there was her size, like Karin’s. Mama was tiny in comparison to them, especially to Papa. How can the two of them look so different and be so… so… in love? She didn’t know what love looked like but could see there was something there with the way they looked at each other. The same look Aunty Ino and Sai had or Shikamaru and Temari but at the same time it wasn’t there.

Well, Papa did hurt Mama. Sarada reasoned, maybe that was why.

“You must be hungry with all the playing, Boruto can be over the top. I’ll see if we have any leftovers.” She ignored her son’s protests.

“Th-thank you so much ma’am but… I can’t stay. I need to go…” She wouldn’t be able to stomach eating fish and that would be a big giveaway to them.

“Don’t be shy dear and call me Hinata, I promise it’s no trouble at all.”

“No-no, I’m sorry I really can’t stay. My Papa is looking for me, I need to go.” She couldn’t stay with them much longer, they seemed so nice and kind, but Sarada was having so much anxiety. If they knew the truth, would they eat her?

“We can take you home Sarada, right mom. It’ll be safer for us then.” No mershark would dare go near sharklings with the parents about or in some cases knowing who the parents were. If it would get back to them they would only be digging their own grave.

“I can’t, I’m sorry.” And Sarada quickly fled before they insisted some more, although both Boruto and Mitsuki followed knowing it wasn’t safe for her to go alone.

“Boruto! Mitsuki!” Hinata tried to call going after the three, but they were out of sight.

What a strange sharkling, maybe she is…

She could only hope the two of them made it sure she got home safe.

~~~

Sarada kept swimming and swimming, she had to get away from them and find her parents. She felt bad for leaving and being so rude but the more sharks she came across the more likely she would be discovered. “Hey, hey. Wait up!” Yet it didn’t seem like Boruto would give up, he was even catching up to her. How did he swim so fast? The sharkling swam in front of her blocking her from going anywhere.

What the-

“How did you…”

“They don’t call my grandpa the Yellow Flash for nothing.” Boruto grinned smugly. Although that didn’t really answer Sarada’s question seeing as she had no idea who the ‘yellow flash’ was. Maybe they were a powerful mershark.

“Why are you leaving? My mama could have taken you home. It’ll be safer to go with her, plus it’ll be getting dark soon.” It would be too risky for her to go out by herself, if she couldn’t find her parents in time then who knows what other kind of sharks or sea creatures would be lurking. Boruto once being a young naïve sharkling almost ended up in danger and if it wasn’t for his father being there, he wouldn’t be here now.

“I can take care of myself.”

“It’s because she can’t find out she’s Sasuke's daughter.” Mitsuki explained, which only made Sarada glare at him. Wasn’t he the one going on about how Boruto couldn’t be trusted with secrets?

“Eh? But you told me she wasn’t Uncle Sasuke’s daughter.”

“Have you not heard of the story?” Mitsuki asked ignoring both glares now being sent his way, considering Hinata was giving Boruto a stern lecture. Despite how she looked, she could be scary.

“What story?”

“About a mershark and mermaid that mated, then they had a sharkling and decided to keep it a secret.” Eh? Sarada was confused, that wasn’t what happened. Well, not entirely. Her own Papa didn’t know she existed until a couple of days ago.

“That’s a lie!”

“Oh…” So Sarada was that sharkling?

“Um, is that a bad thing?” Mitsuki could only facepalm, didn’t they have this conversation the other day when he thought Neji was with a mermaid.

“Yes, mersharks are meant to eat mermaids, not mate with them. They’re our prey.”

“So… you are going to eat me?” Sarada looked at the two in horror, and here she thought she could trust them. That they were different and wouldn’t hurt her.

“No way, we won’t eat you.” 

“But he just said-”

“It is true, mermaids are eaten by mersharks but like I told you, I want to see what kind of shark you are. I won’t say anything, and we won’t eat you.”

“Yeah, we’re friends now and friends don’t eat each other.” Friends? Were they? They had only just met and yet he was talking like they knew each other for years. Boruto was strange but she felt at ease with him. “And this is Uncle Sasuke, he knows what he’s doing.” Boruto nodded his head with his claws crossed completely confident in what he was saying. Except he had no idea on what he was doing, neither Sasuke or Sakura knew what would behold Sarada’s future. Was she better off with him? Sakura? Or away altogether from both sharks and merfolk. It wasn’t like they had planned to have a baby and keeping Sarada a secret would be impossible.

“So what’s it like?”

“What’s what like?”

“Being a mermaid and mershark, do you have any special powers?”

“It doesn’t work like that Boruto…” Mitsuki sweat dropped.

“Aww there’s got to be something.”

“Well, we know she doesn’t eat fish and can’t hunt.”

“Hey!” There was no need for teasing her, the other two laughed as they swam about. Sarada starting to feel more at ease with them, maybe it wasn’t so bad being here. That is until a bigger mershark started heading their way, the three were too engrossed in their conversation that no one noticed until they spoke.

“Mitsuki, I expected you to be home by now.” Said little one froze and bowed his head to apologise.

“Sorry, I lost track of time.”

“Sarada, get behind me.” Boruto instructed/ whispered, and she did, hiding behind him the best she could. She had recognised him as that scary shark that her Papa was talking to before. So, this was Mitsuki’s parent? Yet he seemed much more friendly.

Unfortunately, her presence didn’t go unnoticed by the shark.

“And who is she?”

“She’s… our new friend?” Boruto tried to sound as casual as possible whilst being in defence. “She’s also really shy, she literally swam away from me and Mitsuki when we first met.”

“I see,” Orochimaru stared at her to which she flinched but tried to remain calm, if they didn’t say anything then there was no need to worry.

“Hi,” Sarada squeaked but didn’t give much eye contact.

She seemed so familiar, aha so that was why... and that was when an idea came to him.

This would be fun.

“Is that so? Maybe you should invite your new friend to ours, it would be rude not to.” At hearing that both young sharklings froze, Orochimaru had to know something.

They had to think of a plan and quick.

I want Mama and Papa.

[silentvoicescryingout]

dreamscape

For batsycats, by silentvoicescryingout

  “You’re so beautiful,” his voice coos huskily, mere breaths from her ear. “ My Sakura .”

She moans, stretching her limbs like a cat, legs splaying wide as his fingers brush, featherlight, over her folds.

“Touch me, Sasuke-kun,” she begs in a whisper, rolling her hips against the air, leveling him with a needy stare. She spreads her legs wider, presenting all of herself to entice him into action, into granting her relief from the throbbing ache inside.

“Here?” he murmurs, that small grin she loves so much curving his mouth as he presses his palm fully over her dripping core.

She gasps, eyes rolling back as he rubs at her with his full hand, spreading her wetness all over. The tips of his fingers slip teasingly between her sensitive folds, one dipping slightly into her entrance now and then.

Her release is so close, maddeningly close but just out of her reach. She whines through Sasuke’s ministrations, canting her hips and begging him to give her what she needs, to push deep inside of her to touch that part of her that needs it most.

“Shhh,” he whispers, leaning forward until she feels surrounded by him, his heat, the scent of sage and ash and smoke. “I’ll take care of you, my love.”

And finally, finally, he sinks two fingers deep inside, curling, reaching and thrusting as he chants–

“Sakura.”

Her eyes fly open to find obsidian and hints of lavender staring down at her. The thin padding of her mission pack digs into the flesh of her cheeks, her blanket tucked high around her chin but tangled and askew around her legs.

His gaze is dark, apologetic when he murmurs, “I’m sorry to wake you, but we have to move on. I can smell a storm coming in soon. We should leave before it hits.”

Sakura nods shakily, sitting up abruptly and offering her sweetest smile. Once he turns to stalk out of the rickety abandoned shelter, she presses both hands to her blazing cheeks and muffles a groan in her knees.

Fuck.

~

The air is so cold it feels like tiny kunai scraping against his cheeks as it whips by. Water is falling in sheets toward the ground and in various directions. Freezing droplets splash against his scalp and the exposed skin of his throat, dribbling down to soak under his clothes. 

He glances to his side, single hand tightening over Sakura’s trembling fingers as she blinks up at him through spiky, wet lashes.

“It’s really coming down, isn’t it?” she murmurs. Sasuke is sure she is likely speaking at a normal volume; it is only that her voice is drowned out by the sound of the pouring rain, and the whistle of wind slashing through the trees and brush around them.

“Come on,” he says at an elevated volume, drawing her close to his side. “There should be a cave nearby to shelter in until the storm passes.”

A fizzling crack of lightning followed by a thunderous boom makes her flinch. Sakura shoots him a sheepish smile before shuffling closer to his side and ducking her head against the onslaught. Sasuke frees her wrist, fanning out his cloak to fall around her shoulders in a last-ditch attempt to shield her from the downpour. It is useless, he knows, as they have both been practically soaked to the bone already.

With her pressed this close to his side, Sasuke can feel the way her entire body is shivering. His hand unconsciously firms in its grip, fingers tightening at the curve of her waist. The bit of skin exposed by the cropped nature of her top is riddled with gooseflesh. He is attuned enough to her after weeks of close-contact that he can tell she is circulating her chakra in an attempt to keep warm.

He inhales deeply, the scent of rain, soil and Sakura filling his nose. As he exhales, he begins to follow suit, kneading his chakra beneath the surface of his skin and concentrating it in the palm of his hand at her side, where his hip is flush against hers as they tread heavily through the thick mud and water.

She shivers again, tightening a fist in his cloak and bringing it close to her chest. Her other hand snakes behind his back, fingers splaying at the center of his spine. He flits his gaze down to hers again and sees her pale cheeks tinted with the slightest bit of pink.

“Thank you,” she mouths, offering him a smile. Her soft bangs stick against the frame of her face, colored a dusky rose from the moisture. Her eyes somehow look brighter against the dark and the gray around them, shining like two jewels in her face.

“Aa,” he breathes. Another streak of lightning and clap of thunder sounds and then the rain begins to fall impossibly heavier.

Facing forward, he quickens his pace to a jog, clutching her absentmindedly to his side all the while.

~

By the time they reach the mouth of the cave, Sasuke and Sakura are dripping wet, pale and shivering. The storm rages outside, rivulets of water flooding the ground. Luckily this place is carved out of a ledge a few feet above ground level, high enough to avoid flooding and deep enough to protect against the violent winds and icy rain.

Sasuke drops his pack near the edge, venturing deeper while clutching a damp scroll. He unfurls it, using his sharingan to make things clearer in the darkness; with a click of his teeth, blood beads on the tip of his thumb and drips slowly onto the scroll. He murmurs a summoning jutsu and a pile of dry kindling appears.

He uses his katon , exhales a stream of flame to bring the fire roaring to life. He finds stray stones on the ground nearby and uses them to border the fire. A small sigh falls from his throat at the rush of warmth.

“That’s smart,” Sakura stutters from behind him. He turns to see her lingering near the mouth of the cave, dripping and shivering violently. “Storing firewood in a summoning scroll…genius.”

“Come closer to the fire,” he says, brow furrowing at the way her lips seem tinted purple even in the low, flickering light. “You’re freezing.”

She shakes her head, “I’m too wet. I need to change these clothes, and you do too…”

Her voice trails off as she drops shakily to a kneeling position, opening her pack and fumbling around. After a few moments she curses weakly and Sasuke rises to approach, peering down at her as she pulls out handfuls of wrinkled, wet fabric.

“Everything is soaked,” she sighs, cursing quietly again. “I wore the last of the clothes I had stored in my own scrolls. I should have known better. Fuck.” His lips almost quirk into a small smile; the very first week of their travels had brought the shocking realization that Sakura, sweet-voiced and angelic-faced as she was, cursed like a sailor.

His concern over her trembling form and blue-tipped fingers quickly kills any mirth he might have indulged.

“You’re going to get sick if you don’t get out of those wet clothes,” he says quietly. “I’ll check if there’s something in my bag that managed to stay dry.”

“Oh, Sasuke-kun…” she begins to protest, but Sasuke is already kneeling beside his own pack, rifling through his belongings.

Blood rises to his face slowly as he finds everything inside his bag is wet as well. He glances up at her apologetically.

“I have nothing dry enough,” he sighs, rising to a standing position. “I keep some bedding stored in my scrolls. We’ll have to make do with blankets alone.”

Sakura nods slowly, lashes fluttering as her gaze falls to the ground, focusing on the shadows cast by the dancing flame feet away. She fidgets for a second before reaching down to peel off her knee-high sandals, then, her tiny, pale toes flexing over the rocky ground.

Sasuke swiftly summons another scroll, pulling from it a small pile of thick blankets, and two thin sheets. He saunters toward the fire, laying the blankets as close as possible in the hopes that they would take on some extra warmth. He sheds his dripping cloak, tossing a kunai so that it wedges into the cave wall and hanging the garment from it. Even standing nearby the fire, a chill snakes down his spine as he levels a line of other kunai the same way, creating a space for them to hang up their clothes to dry.

He turns back to see Sakura clutching her arms around herself, shaking like the leaves being torn about by the racing winds outside.

“Here,” he says sharply, snatching up one of the thin sheets and walking briskly to stand in front of her, “take this and dry yourself. Then come wrap yourself in a blanket and sit by the fire. I’m going to quickly set up a few traps outside.”

Her teeth chatter as she said, “Sasuke-kun, I can help. Just let me-”

“Please,” he intercepts, stepping slightly closer. He can smell jasmine and rain and something sweet like berries standing this close. A hard swallow works down his throat before he urges her again, “Get warm. You’re shivering hard enough to break your bones. It will only take a moment, and it’ll give you privacy to…undress.”

Understanding lights her eyes and the tiniest pink flush dots her pallid cheeks. She nods again, creeping deeper into the cave and closer to the fire with her shoulders hunched forward. 

Sasuke exhales a slow, heavy breath before pivoting on his heel and trudging out of the cave into the chaos outside. Rain pours over him, icy and feeling almost solid with the force of the downpour. He moves as quickly as he can about the perimeter, anchoring traps where he can only hope they won’t be swept away by the tiny current building on the ground as it floods with water. He casts an area genjutsu, wide enough that he thinks the traps will be a last resort anyway.

It takes him all of a handful of minutes to secure their area, but he dawdles anyway– he tells himself it is to ensure Sakura has time to dry and remove her clothes in peace. But the staccato of his heart behind his ribs and the sharp breaths puffing steam in the cold air cue him into his own desire to avoid being in close quarters for as long as possible.

The first few weeks of their travels had been maddening; they both were awkward and stilted, him being moreso, of course. His attraction to her only intensified in proximity, causing him to struggle every moment to not stare at the way different levels of light cast over her face, to lean in to capture the tinkling of her quiet laughs. Sasuke had nearly embarrassed himself on multiple occasions with the urge to sniff at her sweet-scented hair and overall pleasant aroma, because it called to him so.

Now, these reactions were more tame. Exposure had served them well, lulling them into an ambience of comfort–an anticipatory stasis at best. Sparing a glance did not seem such a monumental feat, and he did not feel the need to study her for hours, as if he would not see her again at any given moment. 

Yet, all of the struggles of their early days alone rushed back and did so tenfold at night. Whether they sheltered in a cave like the one he loitered outside of now, or in adjacent rooms at a small-village inn, the late hours brought with them traces of insanity, a yearning so intense it would cause him embarrassment that would linger until the morning. 

He hesitates now, shivering and drenched because he is achingly aware that when he returns, Sakura will be bare save for one thin swathing of fabric. She will be close enough to breathe in her scent, to feel the essence of her chakra against his senses. 

He realizes that she is likely huddling close to the fire now, cold and trying to sap in warmth with only a blanket and a meager flame.

Inhaling deeply once more, Sasuke turns and makes his way back to the mouth of the cave, slowing his steps once he is deep enough to not feel the rebounding splashes of water as it ricochets off the ground. He pauses, glancing upward at Sakura who sits mere inches away from the makeshift fire pit, curled in a ball so tight her form seems tiny, insignificant among the looming shadows dancing over the walls.

“Sasuke-kun,” she says, each consonant trembling as her teeth chatter lightly. “You’re back.”

“You’re still cold,” he replies, browns pinching as he notes the shudders wracking her form. 

“Yeah,” she stutters, bobbing her head in a slightly disjointed manner. She attempts to give him a smile, nonetheless and his heart skips a beat. “It’s freezing. I’ll warm up soon, though. Hurry and get changed!”

He nods slowly, taking a few more steps before pausing again. His gaze falls to her small fingers clenched in the fabric at her chest, the still-damp locks of her hair falling waywardly around her face. 

“I’ll, uh, I’ll close my eyes,” she snaps her lids shut, whipping her chin to the side so her face is turned away from him. “I won’t peek, promise.”

Sasuke chooses to believe the shiver that works his way down his spine is the result of the damp and the cold, and definitely not his body and mind traitorously reacting to the thought of Sakura choosing to watch him change, openly, instead.

She begins rocking back and forth as he makes quick work of slinging off his clothes. Her shoulder twitches under the blanket when his shirt falls with a wet smack onto the hard ground. He can see her visibly sucking in a deep breath when his pants follow suit. If he were not shivering from the low temperature, he is sure his face would be burning as he brusquely scrubs at his skin with a thin sheet, tossing that to the side before hunching, positioning his arm in front of his pelvis as he creeps forward carefully, inching around Sakura’s possible line of sight as he reaches to grab one of the blankets folded near the fire.

He tucks the fabric around him, relishing for a moment in the initial warmth before kneeling on his haunches as close as he can to the fire. As he positions himself, his shoulder brushes against Sakura’s and she perks up slightly, still turned away.

“You can open your eyes,” he murmurs. 

She swivels her head to face him, eyes blinking open slowly and fixing on his face. The green of her eyes is slightly marred by the orange glow of the fire, her lashes looking more red in the dim light. The flames glow is the only thing bringing color to her cheeks, her lips tinted with lavender in their pallor.

Sasuke stiffens, mind swirling with solutions to bring her temperature up high enough for the danger of hypothermia to fade. He considers giving up his blanket for a moment before realizing that Sakura would only expend her energy fretting and he would likely become sick with cold and burden her even if he managed to convince her to take it. 

“Tea,” he sputters, gnawing at his lip and blinking his eyes closed for a moment in humiliation when Sakura only tilts her head in confusion. “I’ll brew tea. Hopefully it’ll help us get warm more quickly.” 

“Oh,” she bobs her head vigorously. “Yes, tea. That’s a good idea, Sasuke-kun.”

Sasuke springs to his feet before she is completely done speaking, glad to be doing something useful, yes, but also to create some distance even if shuffling over to his packs near the cave wall takes him away from the warmth of the fire. He sucks in a few quick breaths, trying to calm his thudding heart as his fingers fumble for the small muslin pack holding his herbs. They are soaked and wilted, but hopefully useful enough to brew a decent, if not so flavorful tea. He holds the sack gently between his teeth, reaching once more for the light, steel teapot. He hooks the handle over his pinky finger and wrestles out his water tin before straightening with a small huff.

When he turns, Sakura is watching him over her shoulder. She offers him a small smile when their eyes meet and he nearly stumbles despite standing motionless. Heat makes a valiant effort to pool in his cheeks and he dips his gaze, watching his frigid toes as they tap across the rough, hard floor back toward the fire and his companion.

She murmurs a quiet Thank you, Sasuke-kun as he goes about preparing the brew. By the time the teapot is stabilized over the burning logs, Sasuke is left with nothing to do but to clutch his blanket around his shoulders and stare at the water, willing it to boil faster. Despite his own trepidation, he had sat down so close beside Sakura that he could feel her shoulder brush against his arm with every breath either of them took. 

His gaze wanders to the side for the umpteenth time in a handful of minutes, flitting over her pouty, chill-paled lips, the gentle arc of her brow and sweeping curve of her jaw. The freckles that are so faint in the natural light of the daytime seem stark, sprinkles of brown across the bridge of her nose and high points of the cheek due to how pale she has become. A shiver wracks through her and Sasuke tenses against the urge to reach out to her.

“Still cold?” he murmurs, pinning his gaze on her more fully. The fire was blazing strongly and most of the chill had faded from his own bones.

Sakura shivered again and scooted around slightly to face him. 

“Yeah,” she whispers, lips tilting in a sheepish smile. “It’s much better than before, though. I’m just a wimp when it comes to cold weather.”

As she says those words, a clap of thunder sounds, loud enough to echo into the cave. A whoosh of cold air sweeps in, causing the fire to bend and flicker before it rights itself again. Sakura’s teeth chatter.

“I’m sorry,” Sasuke-kun says, a frown creeping over his features. “I shouldn’t have taken us the long way around. I wasn’t expecting a storm like this so soon in the season.”

Sakura shakes her head quickly, “No, no! I’m glad you did, the scenery– it was a really beautiful route. I enjoyed it a lot. I’m sure that’s not why you took us that way, of course, but…”

“It was,” he interjects, clearing his throat when her wide, green eyes shoot up to peer into his face. He can see the flames dancing about her pupils, casting an orange tint in her iris. “It was why I…took the scenic route. To show you. I thought you would like it.”

“Oh,” she says quietly, the word more of a sigh. Her lips curve upwards again, into a shy, sweet smile. “I liked it. Loved it, really. The river and the flower fields were so beautiful.”

“Aa,” he mutters gruffly. “Good.”

He turns quickly, rising to his haunches to stir at the bubbling liquid in the pot, hoping the flames would cast glow enough to camouflage the red tint of his cheeks. 

Behind him, Sakura whispers, “Thank you for showing me, Sasuke-kun.” 

The spoon he is holding catches against the rim of the teapot with a loud clang as he grunts some unintelligible response. He can feel a blush burning from neckline to temple, but he sets about pouring tea into two travel mugs with the straightest face he can manage. Sakura’s thanks and her bright expression seem to replay on a loop in his mind; he is left wondering, briefly, if he had managed to capture the moment with his sharingan, not even knowing it had been engaged.

A quiet sniffle causes him to snap out of his thoughts, resting the teapot back over the fire and reaching to offer one of the steaming cups to his trembling companion. She grabs it with both hands, soft, cool fingers brushing over his before drawing back slowly. 

Sakura clutches the tea to her chest, shoulders hunched and head tipped downward to let the warm steam wash over her face. She sighs softly disturbing the whitish translucent stream rising about her cheeks for a second before inhaling deeply. 

“You make the best tea, Sasuke-kun,” she mumbles, leaning in closer and closing her eyes as she breathes deeply once more. “This smells nice. It feels good, too.”

Sasuke nearly chokes but forces out a quiet scoff, “You’re just happy because it’s warm.”

She lifts her head long enough to throw him a grin and a quick wink. Sasuke nearly tips over, fingers clutching tight around the mug that nearly slipped from his grasp. 

Pale, slightly chapped lips part, making a small o as Sakura begins blowing on her drink rhythmically. He finds himself mesmerized with the way her mouth puckers, the skin wrinkling slightly, soft folds looking like delicate petals. Her cheeks puff slightly, some of the color gradually returning to her flesh. It looks supple, so smooth and soft despite having spent time in the chafing cold. The fine hairs at her temples have begun to dry, curling slightly away from her forehead from the heat and steam. Sasuke has to bite the inside of his cheek to restrain the absurd urge to reach out and tap the rhombus on her forehead, the only thing that mars the perfection of the smooth expanse of skin.

Shutting his eyes, he lifts his cup to his lips, not even bothering to blow before chugging half of its contents. It’s hot, and burns going down his throat. But he mentally shrugs, because he breathes fire routinely and a little hot tea is not so bad in comparison.

The liquid is warm sliding down his throat, and he can feel it pool in his belly, chasing away most of the last dredges of cold from his muscles. Without his express permission, his eyes reopen and immediately come to rest on Sakura’s huddled form once more. He watches with apt attention as she blows gently once more, before bringing the cup closer to her mouth.

The metal rim rests on her plush lower lip, steam gathering at the top before she tilts the cup and slurps carefully, pulling the brew into her mouth. After the first tentative sip she sighs, humming quietly as she treats herself to a longer drink, tipping her chin back so that Sasuke catches a glimpse of the delicate column of her throat. It undulates softly with each of her swallows and his mouth runs dry, skin suddenly feeling rather hot beneath his blanket.

Bare skin. Just like hers is, hidden behind the thick layer of cloth. 

He swallows thickly, quickly throwing back the rest of his tea, hardly even tasting the earthy, if slightly bitter, flavor.

“Mmm,” Sakura hums, the sound between a relaxed exhalation and husky moan. Sasuke’s fingers tighten around his empty container. “That feels so good .”

She could have very well pulled those very words from his dreams, an echo of one of the many, many imaginings that had circulated through his psyche when he let himself indulge in the deepest, most unguarded kinds of rest. It was these same imaginings that would cause him to awaken suddenly, sweating and panting, aching so much that he would be forced to flee from whatever sheltering space he shared with Sakura to wait out the effects of his own torturous fantasies.

“Aa,” he croaks. 

Mechnically, he reaches to drain the last of the teapot’s contents into her cup, unable to prevent himself from openly staring as she repeats her process again. Curling into her own body, pursing her lips, blow, blow, blow , blow , inhale, exhale,  slurp, slurp, swallow. He watches as a deep shudder works its way down her body, her muscles visibly relax, shoulders falling away from her ears. A healthier flush takes residence high on her cheekbones, creeping slowly across the bridge of her nose. Her lips look moist now, more red than pink, soft and full with the blood finally rising to the surface.

She drains this portion quicker than the first, setting down her cup with a satisfied sigh. Delicate fingers come up and sweep through the nearly-dry strands of her hair, raking them back away from her forehead. A few chunks of her grown-out bangs slip down slowly to frame her forehead, and Sasuke’s fingers twitch with the urge to touch them, to brush them back and secure them behind the pretty pink shell of her ear.

“Thank you, Sasuke-kun,” she says, voice stronger and more chipper. “Your tea pulled me away from death’s door!”

“Don’t joke like that,” Sasuke snaps, mouth flattening. Sakura only laughs, rocking back slightly and adjusting her grip on the blankets wrapped around her shoulders.

“Sorry,” she snorts quietly. “But really, I was starting to not be able to feel my toes. My body temperature has always run a bit on the low side… I thought maybe I was anemic or something. Tsunade says it’s just how I’m made. But it really sucks in situations like this.”

Sasuke only nods. He runs his eyes over her with a more critical eye, focusing on the digits peeking out from underneath the blanket at her chest and below, at the ends of her small feet. They have lost that palish blue hue, to his satisfaction. 

Sakura continues, as always, so gracefully undeterred by his lack of responsiveness. “You always run hot, isn’t that right?”

“Aa,” he nods in the affirmative. “Uchiha thing. Didn’t think you’d noticed.”

Red fills her cheeks and she chuckles, rubbing at the side of her neck, “Ah, well, I’ve had to look at you medically quite a few times. And running your vitals, too! Your natural state is like a low-grade fever. You’ll be happy to know I finally put a permanent note on your file, so no one else will force you to go through illness screenings because of your temperature.”

Sasuke rolls his eyes, “It’s not like anyone else will ever be treating me.”

Sakura huffs, casting a disapproving glare at him that was more cute than ferocious.

“Sasuke-kun! None of our medics would ever turn away someone in need of medical care. It is against our code of honor.”

“Aa, I suppose they wouldn’t,” he says absentmindedly. Her flush has deepened and she chews on her lips in the most hypnotizing fashion. “But I’ll only ever want you.”

The words slip out of his mouth too easily, naturally. It is possibly the boldest thing he has ever said to anyone–to her – before but it feels so commonplace, so true , in all contexts, that he takes a moment to realize just how intense it is.

And by that time, Sakura has become so red that Sasuke fears for her health. He is caught between intense embarrassment and concern as she gapes at him for a split second, before clutching her blankets tighter to her chest and looking away from his face.

“O-oh,” she stutters, hands shifting under the fabric. “I’m flattered, then. And…I’ll always do my best to take care of you, Sasuke-kun. Whenever you need me to.”

Sasuke’s heart flutters then pounds in his chest. Always , he thinks. He knows he will always need her, but he has exhausted his bravery for the night and cannot bring himself to say it. So, he only nods, leveling her with a meaningful look, hoping that she will catch on to the things left unsaid between them. 

There are many of those things–but slowly, they rise to the surface and reveal themselves to the light. With each day, each evening spent side-by-side, he grows to know her and open up to her better. And she is patient with him, granting him the chance to meet her where she has already been at his own pace.

He is pulled away from the soft train of thoughts by a quiet cough, followed by a sniffle. Sakura throws him a small, light smile even as her hand rises to cover her mouth and she coughs again.

“You’ll catch a cold,” he frowns. “Here, take my blanket. My cloak should be dry enough.”

“No!” she seems to startle herself with the volume of her own voice. Her lips are beginning to tremble again, but she says, sternly, “Your cloak is definitely not dry, and I’m not going to let you catch pneumonia and die because you want to sleep with wet clothes on you. Keep your blanket, Sasuke-kun.”

Sasuke feels adequately chastised for a short moment, very close to being surprised at the tone she takes with him. He has heard it before, of course, usually when in the dobe’s company. Never had it been directed at him.

He is both amused and slightly pained by the experience.

Sakura shivers again and he forgets all about his wounded ego. He shoots a glance into the teapot, agitation gnawing at his insides.

“You’re cold again,” he states, wincing when the teapot is as empty as he knew it was. “At least I can brew more tea, though it’ll be weak…”

“No,” she interjects with a harsh exhale. “I can tolerate it, Sasuke-kun. I’ll just have to sleep it off–I’m tired anyway.”

The less than reasonable part of Sasuke’s mind immediately flashes to the worst-case scenario, Sakura freezing into a block of ice while they slumber. He submits himself to the idea of staying up throughout the entire night, keeping a vigil to maintain the fire as well as push his blanket off on her once he is sure she won’t awaken to scold him.

“You get rest, too,” she says. Sasuke nods stiffly, knowing he won’t. “ Seriously . If we spread out by the fire, it’ll be fine. Even better, if we…” 

Sakura trails off, pulling away Sasuke’s struggle against his newly developing morality which weighs the eternal cost of slipping Sakura into a slight genjutsu so she’ll sleep more heavily and not notice if he stays awake and gives her his blanket in the night. He tries to catch her gaze, only to find her studying the woven fabric in her lap.

“If we?” he prods. Her shoulders twitch and she hunches forward.

“Nevermind,” she mumbles.

“Sakura,” he says firmly. She flinches slightly but rolls her eyes. He has been firm with her in the past (many of those times to his deep regret).

“It’s silly,” she starts, sighing heavily. “But I was going to say, ‘even better if we lay close to each other’. Sharing close quarters means sharing body heat means sharing warmth. But, it’s not necessary and you burn hot enough already. So forget it! Good night.”

Sakura nods once, before unceremoniously flopping onto her back, then turning to her side and curling up in a tight ball facing the fire. Her form quivers slightly, drawn taut as if she is trying to staunch her reaction to the slowly increasing chill. 

Sasuke can only watch as she fidgets for a couple of minutes, bunching a portion of the blanket so it forms into a sort of makeshift pillow. Her body looks so small, curled up as it is, drowned in the thick fabric she has cocooned herself in. And yet he can still make out the small quivers.

With a deep breath, he turns his back to her, clicking his teeth at his thumb to draw forth a bead of blood. He summons three empty scrolls, unfurling them and tearing them into medium-large pieces with his hand and teeth. He can feel Sakura’s eyes on him from behind, but focuses on his task of tearing the thick, pristine paper until he has a hefty pile of scraps at his feet. Squatting close to the fire, he crinkles and stuffs wads of papers between the gaps of the burning logs. With a deep inhale, he breathes out a small stream of flame, urging the fire to lick higher, blaze hotter. 

Rising as smoothly as possible, and ignoring the eyes peeking at him from over the bunched blanket, Sasuke walks until he is but a single step away from where Sakura lays. He kneels behind her, watching carefully as her shoulders stiffen, her form ceasing any movement as if she is not breathing. 

He holds his breath, too, as he pulls the blanket from his shoulders, swiftly fanning it out so half of the large cloth falls over Sakura. Consequently, it covers her head and he uses that bare moment to dart under the other edge, securing it over his nude form just quickly enough before a pink head emerges and whips around in his direction.

“If lying close together keeps you warm, then that’s what we’ll do,” he says quietly before her parted lips can spew whatever words were brewing. “Sleep, Sakura.”

She looks as if she will protest, but he gives her his best blank stare. With a heavy sigh, her body relaxes incrementally and she casts only one more cursory gaze over her shoulder as she turns to face the fire once more. Sasuke clenches his jaw as she wriggles about under her blanket, and now part of his. A few times, he thinks her hip or elbow will brush against him, but she eventually settles, bundled tightly in both blankets.

A small yawn spills from her mouth before she utters softly, “Thank you, Sasuke-kun. Good night.”

Quicker than he thinks should be possible for any ninja, Sakura’s breaths even out and her body slumps, fully relaxed as she slips into slumber. He indulges in a tiny smile, shifting carefully until he is on his side, her back a mere six inches or so from his chest.

Sleep evades him; he is too aware of her proximity, her scent, the warmth of another body in his space. She is closer than anyone has been in a long time–perhaps ever in his life. He can smell the rain in her hair, residua of the herbal tea they drank. The scent of burning wood and ash tickles his nose, but still the sweetness that he can only name as Sakura reaches him. For a long while, he simply watches the rise and fall of her slender shoulders under the blanket, the shadows of the fire dancing against the small visible part of her cheek. Quiet snores begin to whistle through her nose and a sensation so endearing, compelling in its combined simplicity and intensity rises up from his belly, spreading through his chest. 

Sooner than he anticipates, his heartbeat slows from its frantic staccato, his breaths growing deeper and longer. His eyelids grow heavy, blinks coming more frequently by the second before the sounds, sights, smells and feeling of Sakura lull him, too, into sleep.

~

A violent shaking causes him to jerk awake. First, he notices the dark, only the barest of dim orange flicking in a sea of blackness. Then, he notes a weight against his chest, the cause of the quaking that drew him into consciousness in the first place.

It is not even an hour since he finally succumbed to sleep, he guesses. Yet the air inside the cave is frigid cold, heavy with moisture as thunder booms and wind sends rain thrashing audibly outside. 

Sasuke's eyes manage to focus on a head of light-colored hair, and he leans forward to peer into the face pressed into his shoulder. Pale brows are drawn tight, pearly teeth peeking between pale lips, chattering. A tiny whimper falls from that mouth and his chest grows tight.

He shushes her quietly, emitting an unfamiliar, husky coo as he reaches to loosen her iron-clad grip on the blankets slipping haphazardly on down his torso. The fact that he actually manages to free the fabric and himself from her grip (with quite a bit of effort, despite his desire to be careful) cues him into the fact that she is still asleep, albeit freezing.

Moving as swiftly as possible, he rises to his feet, situating both blankets around her as they have slipped down her back in favor of being clutched to her front. Next he stalks close to the dying fire, grabbing handfuls of his pre-cut, makeshift kindling and stuffing it over the struggle coals. He blows gently until it catches a tiny flame, inhaling deeper and pouring from his mouth in a spherical katon . The fire blazing strongly once more, Sauske returns to kneel by Sakura’s shivering form, hand shielding his pelvic area.

“C-cold,” comes a hoarse murmur. He jerks in surprise, activating his sharingan to peer down at her face. Her eyes remain closed, lashes fluttering but never sliding open. “So cold…”

His heart squeezes before beating wildly against its cage. Biting his lip, he fights against his own shiver as the cold creeps over his skin. Making sure to keep his gaze fixed on her tightly-drawn face, Sasuke reaches his hand out to Sakura, gripping her shoulder lightly before rubbing his hand up and down the side of her body. He hopes, desperately, that the brisk motions would bring her some additional warmth.

Shudders wrack her frame and he can feel the muscles bunching under his hand, fighting to curl even more inwards onto herself. She thrashes suddenly, rolling dangerously close to the fire, with her back turned to him. The blankets nearly unravel completely, tangled about her legs and covering her only to the hip. She cries out painfully as the cold of the cave bites at the exposed skin of her back, sprouting gooseflesh and bringing forth another violent shiver. 

“Sakura,” Sasuke breathes, snatching the blankets up over her once more. She struggles still, seeking warmth but preventing him from situating the blankets effectively in the process.

“I’m freezing, Sasuke-kun,” she moans, voice too sluggish and slurred to be fully lucid. “Freezing, freezing…”

Sasuke grinds his teeth nearly to dust. Before his logical mind can fully catch up to the action, he is ripping the blankets away from her form completely. Her startled cry does not even manage to echo into the cave before he is pressed up behind her, throwing first one blanket and then the other over both of them. He curls his right leg over both of hers, using it to drag her closer, nestling the stub of his left arm under her head and slipping the right between the two blankets to curl over her waist.

“Shhhh,” he hisses into her hair, exhaling heavily onto her neck in the hopes that his breath would aid in his efforts to warm her. “Rest. It’ll be warm soon.”

She sniffles, shaking and shivering as she burrows further into the blankets, further into his embrace. 

He endures a few long minutes of her wriggling, his mind torn between extreme concern, embarrassment and distant elation before she stills slightly and releases a relieved exhale. As if in a faint, her muscles loosen all at once, her body relaxing into his. He breathes in short inhales and long exhales, fingers clenching and unclenching at her waist, torso stiffening with each minute shift she makes as she slowly falls back into a deeper sleep. Her skin feels cool against his, and soft, so soft . Were he not in such a daze and so on edge from her frightening condition a few minutes before, he might have fixated on the suppleness of her waist or the press of her thighs in front of his. 

Instead, he focuses on the sound of her breathing, relaxing bit by bit as it filters through her nose easier and more slowly by the second. Eventually her skin seems to feel warmer, his own body growing quite hot with the weight of two blankets over him and another human body lying just so. He nestles impossibly closer, anyway, hoping to emanate as much warmth as he can.

Exhaustion grips him and he finds himself falling more deeply into sleep, irresistible with the weight of Sakura’s body against his own, and the feeling of her safe and secure within his grasp.

~

Sasuke feels hot. His skin is prickling with the sensation of licking flames, his blood simmering in his veins. The heat is centralized in his core, pooling low in his belly and radiating throughout his form.

He exhales, fingers clenching over something soft, smooth. The smell of jasmine, cherry blossom, her , fills his nose with each inhale.

Ah, this dream again.

Sakura is fitted snugly in his grasp, her back to his front. He can feel her hair brushing over his collarbones, the plush flesh of her buttocks cradled in his hips. Her thighs rest flush against his, a slim, smooth calf hooked around his knee. 

A slight shift causes white-hot pleasure to shoot down his spine, and Sasuke shudders. He feels as if every one of his nerve endings is at attention, soaking in the sensation of her skin against his, the breath expanding her chest and a slow, rhythmic motion rocking him back and forth.

The feeling of something warm, slick, soft slides over his shaft and he sighs deeply. His hand slips down, squeezes a plush handful of flesh before slipping back up to dance over her ribs. Her skin is like silk, his rough fingers sliding so easily. She shifts again, forward , back , pressing into him with a curve to her spine, straining against his grip at her front. It all feels so real that Sasuke nearly succumbs to the pull of a deeper slumber, tempted to stay asleep and continue to see where this fantasy leads. 

It is different this time. His surroundings are not so clear as usual– his imaginings usually for vivid, visually stimulating than this new, physical stimulus. A faint orange glow flickers at the edge of his awareness, a rustling sound like shifting fabric and cracking embers filtering in slowly.

He shakes himself mentally, painstakingly forcing himself into awareness. The dream grips him, forcing him to remain locked in his psyche where Sakura is clutched against his chest, where she is soft and warm and wet and…

Sasuke’s eyes fly open and he chokes on a gasp. The first thing he sees is pink obscuring his vision. Blinking away the wayward strands, he sees next a roaring fire, the rough cave wall washed with shadows.

And then he feels , a slow drag over his achingly hard member, slippery and hot, cushioned between two walls of warm, firm flesh.

Then he hears a sigh, sweet and underscored with a high-pitched wine.

“Sasuke-kun…”

A startled groan falls from his mouth as the dragging sensation comes again, and he drops his gaze down to the form in front of him, only partially shielded by a blanket that is bunched haphazardly about his waist. 

“Sakura,” he chokes. 

I must be dreaming, still. Sasuke nearly gives in to the urge to stay asleep when another quiet, gasping moan spills from her lips as her hips rock back into him before curling forward, his throbbing shaft trapped between her thighs. His hips flex in response to the motion, white flashing over his vision again before he shakes his head violently, willing himself to wake up .

“Fuck,” he rasps, yanking his hand away from its spot on her ribs, disturbing the blanket further with the motion. 

Red bleeds over his iris, his eyes widening as he takes in Sakura’s bare form. Her skin is flushed, glistening with a fine layer of sweat. Muscles bunch and ripple under the skin of her back, the knobs of her spine peeking through with each rolling grind of her waist. She writhes against him, her head falling back into his chest and revealing a face with features twisted in a distant expression.

Her eyes are closed. His, on the other hand, are definitely open which means that he is not dreaming. 

But Sakura…is.

“Sakura,” he calls hoarsely. His hand shakes, floating uselessly in the air as he attempts to control his ragged breathing, flinching as she makes that rocking motion once more and sends pleasure rattling down his spine. 

“Mm,” she murmurs, “Sasuke-kun…”

She’s dreaming of me , he realizes in a daze. His trembling fingers fall to her shoulders, squeezing more tightly than he intends as he attempts to rouse her with a gentle shake.

“No, no,” she murmurs, and his hand snatches away from her. Her thighs clench tighter around him and he sees stars. “Stay…stay…”

Arousal and heartache combine in a terrible mixture, swirling in his gut. Sasuke bites his lip hard enough to draw blood, letting his hand fall on her shoulder once more.

“Sakura,” he says firmly, making his voice as clear as possible even as the pace of his undulations increases, the wetness becoming more apparent against his turgid member. His pulse thunders, nearly drowning out her gasping whimpers and breathy moans. “ Wake up. ”

Sakura jerks, her hands fisting in the blanket that managed to get stuffed against her front. Her head whips in his direction, wide eyes falling on him from over her shoulder. 

The world seems to freeze around them as they both stare into each other with bated breath. The sound of the fire crackling and the winds outside seem loud in the silence, suddenly absent both their panting breaths and her unconscious ramblings. 

Her gaze darts away from his face for a flash of a second, flitting to their surroundings before swerving back to his. Her eyes grow impossibly wider and her mouth–Sasuke notes that it is moist, red and indented as if her teeth had sunk into the lower lip–gapes.

“Sasuke-...kun?” Sakura croaks, voice unsteady and breathless. 

He can only stare down at her, unable to form a full thought as he watches her glossy eyes blink up at him convulsively, her cherry-red lips plump and shining in the dim glow. 

“You were dreaming,” he manages to whisper, biting back a groan as a shudder works its way down her form. Even the slightest motion brings attention to their intimate contact, bodies still flush against each other.

“I- Sasuke,” she gasps, shaking in earnest now. Her chest heaves and one of the blankets slips to expose part of a full, pert breast. A dusky nipple peeks just over the edge, plump and distended and oh so… tempting.

“You were dreaming,” Sasuke raps, shifting his body and eliciting his own shiver as the movement causes friction between them once more, “of me.”

“I’m sorry,” she chokes. The flush on her cheeks darkens, her hands scrabbling over the blankets in an attempt to cover herself. “I’m so sorry, I didn’t-”

Her words cut off with a gasp, lashes fluttering as she twists her waists to escape from his grasp, the motion causing the head of his rigid arousal to slip through her folds. A low, rumbling groan finally rips free from his chest and she freezes, panting hard as she tilts her head to meet his gaze once more.

Sakura’s lips are sweet, soft between his own when he jerks forward to suck them into his mouth. They part on a startled exhale, a soft tongue slipping out to join his as she hums a quiet, helpless moan. 

Their teeth clash and sink into giving flesh, tongues slipping, sliding and thrusting in a frenzied dance. He delves into her mouth as deeply as he can, tasting her essence and the remnants of the tea they shared, feeling each texture, ridge, bump of the insides of her mouth. 

When his lungs burn for air, he retreats slightly, tugging her lower lip with his teeth to its limits, opening his eyes to stare down at her in a daze. Her hands have lost their grip on her coverings, one reaching up to tangle in the hair behind his neck and the other shaping the underside of her breast. 

As if of its own accord, his lone hand plants itself at the beginning of the luscious curve of her hip, tracing a line up the side of her waist. His fingers creep upward until they meet the hand at her chest, sliding over the obstacle to splay over the globe of her breast, relishing the weight of it and the tickling brush of her pert nipple against his palm.

Sakura moans softly, drawing him back to her mouth as her hips sway into his again, backward then forward. This time, Sasuke is lost to the sensation, to his instinct and curls his own hips against her, rocking into her once, twice, then many more times at a building pace. 

Soon she is panting into his mouth, their lips grazing against each other sloppily, hardly kissing at all. His hips snap against the round flesh of her behind, his member throbbing and dripping with her arousal and his as it slides back and forth over her softest lips. 

Sakura , his mind chants. And perhaps between the tiny spaces and breaths between their dancing mouths, he calls her name aloud too. 

“Ah, gods,” she cries softly, gripping her free hand over the one resting at her breast. She squeezes their fingers over herself and bears down on his shaft, slipping back and forth until he is nestled deep into her slit.

His grip tightens and he pulls his hips back as far as they will go without completely losing their contact– when he careens forward again, the very tip of his dips into what he can only describe as a well of pure, liquid heat before slipping forward and through her folds again.

Sakura’s hips jerk and she loosens his grip on his hair, her face turning away as she lets out a sharp cry. 

He freezes, even as she continues to undulate against him, trying to blink past the haze that had taken his mind the last handful of minutes.

“Sakura,” he says breathily, swallowing thickly as the hand that was in his hair tugs at the blankets until they lay carelessly at the edge of the fire. “Should we…?”

“Don’t stop,”  she hisses, reaching back once more to cup her fingers around his nape, pressing her hips back into his pelvis. Her breast presses more deeply into his hand with the arch of her back and he grits his teeth.

“If we don’t,” he pants, dipping his face into the curve of her neck and inhaling deeply, “There’s no telling how far I’ll go.”

His teeth graze the soft skin over her racing pulse and he bites down, sucking and nibbling at the spot recklessly. Distantly, somewhere his logical self is screaming, banging against the wall of arousal and pent up frustration to call for control.

Sasuke’s inner consciousness is silenced for good when Sakura gasps out, “Go as far as you can, Sasuke-kun. Take me with you.”

With a sound resembling a growl crawling from somewhere deep in his chest, Sasuke loosens his grip at her breast, sliding his hand over a muscular thigh and heaving it up, and back to hook behind his hip. Then he braces his hand at the crease between her thigh and pelvis, swinging his hips back until his dripping tip notches at the source of the wetness that has made them both slick and glistening. 

The barest flex of his hip has the head of him teasing past the syrupy rim of her entrance and stars seem to take over his vision. He blinks to clear his head, sucking in deep breaths and restraining the urge to careen forward and sheathe himself inside of her as quickly as possible.

“Are you sure, Sakura?” he manages to grit out, gentling his grip at her hip and nuzzling his cheek against the edge of her jaw. “Is this what you really want?”

“Yes,” she breathes. Her hips tilt back, she opens herself to him more fully. “I want you so bad, Sasuke-kun. I need it.”

His breath falls out of him on a shudder and he grips her tightly again, brushing his lips over her shoulder, neck and jaw in what he hopes is a soothing manner. 

“I’ve dreamed of this, too,” he murmurs, slipping his eyes shut as he slowly curls his hips, pressing against her soft flesh slowly until it gradually gives and parts around him. She lets out a low moan. “Ever since you joined me, every night you lie by my side…I dreamed of this.”

Sasuke’s entire body is trembling with strain, his member throbbing with each centimeter it sinks into her depths. Her walls flutter around him, her core squeezes and releases in maddening increments. The urge to slam the remainder of his length into her until he is buried to the hilt is strong, but he curbs that instinct, unwilling to cause her pain. He feeds himself to her inch by achingly slow inch.

“If this is still a dream,” he gasps, stilling for a moment as her inner muscles spasm around him, her body bunching tight when nearly half of him is inside, “I hope I never wake up.”

“Sasuke-kun,” she begs, hips tilting back and spine arching severely. “Please. Please .”

With a deep, shaky breath Sasuke slips his hand up her body, bracing her throat with his palm and cradling her jaw with his fingers. He opens his eyes, shifts to catch her glistening gaze and slides deep, until he can move no further. 

Sakura’s head knocks back against his chin on a loud, guttural moan, and his tight grip on his restraint snaps. 

Flesh meets flesh with loud, wet smacks as he rocks into her, gripping tightly at her jaw and pressing his forehead to her crown. Choked groans and uttered curses spill from his mouth as his perception of reality slips away, his mind only able to hone in on the sound of her rhythmic cries, the snap of his hips against her ass and the tight, slick grip of her sliding over him, again and again and again .

Sakura thrashes in his grip, hips knocking backward to meet his thrusts as her upper body arches away from him. His hold on her face, at her neck keeps her in place to receive each unforgiving thrust, his pace as wild and untamed as the fire blazing through his veins. When he opens his bleary eyes, his irises swirl, taking in and cataloging the sheen of sweat on her skin, the ripple of her toned muscles beneath. Her cheek is warm and wet with a combination of sweat and the tears trickling slowly from the corner of her squinted eyes.  

Sasuke moans deeply, curling his body over hers to drag his tongue over her face, lapping at the salty perspiration before kissing his way desperately toward the corner of her mouth. He wrenches her head toward him so he can plunder her lips with his own, thrusting his tongue against hers in a pace matching the way his shaft burrows into her core.

“Sas-,” she slurs around his lips, sharp nails fixing themselves in the flesh of his forearm. His hips piston faster, more forcefully in response.

She is everything he has imagined, more . A culmination of every one of his fantasies, dreams and wishes made flesh. A keening whine builds in her chest and she gasps out his name, a shiver wracking her entire form as her nails dig more deeply into his flesh and prickles of pain sprout where her hand tugs at the strands of his hair.

“Let go,” he grunts, half desperate as he laves the skin of her neck with his tongue, sucking the lobe of her ear between his teeth. He smells jasmine, sweet fruits, rain, Sakura and now him all over her skin. “ My Sakura.”

“ Sasuke-kun! ” her voice is a shattering cry and her inner walls grip him so tight white flashes over his vision. Her hips stiffen before roiling in dizzying circles and waves, nearly dislodging him from her fountain. 

A rush of liquid coats his shaft and both of their thighs between them and suddenly the heat bubbling deep in his core bubbles over, a tingle forming at the base of his spine as his hips snap forward once, twice before tunneling him deep inside the third time and pressing tight against her. His shaft throbs, jerking into her depths as he spills everything he has inside of her until he is sure some of his own essence leaks out to join hers between their legs.

They jerk and pant together for long seconds that could be millennia before finally the aftershocks fade, the muscles of his abdomen relaxing as she falls, weightless into his chest. 

Sasuke cradles her close, squeezing his eyes shut as their breaths slow and the final twitches of his muscles cease. He can tell the air around them is beginning to cool but he still feels flushed, their skin sticking with their combined sweat and fluids.

He searches for trepidation, for guilt, but can find none. Only a deep-rooted satisfaction warms his chest, creeping into his extremities until he cannot resist a tiny smile from curving his lips before he presses them to the flushed skin of her shoulder.

“Some dream, eh?” Sakura breaks the silence quietly, emitting a small, slightly shaky laugh.

Sasuke hums in response, sliding his hand down, between her breasts to rest over her lower abdomen. 

“Aa,”  he says, huskily. 

“Should we…talk about it?” she asks, her voice still breathless with exertion but carrying a tinge of hesitance that sets a fire burning in his depths.

“If this is a dream,” Sasuke muses, slowly untangling himself and relishing in the shudder that works its way down his lover's spine when he slips free from her core, “there are still many things to be done. We can talk in the morning.”

Sakura squeaks when he grabs her thigh and tosses her gently to lie on her back. Green eyes widen up at him, a deep flush spreading from her temples to the tops of her full, delicious looking breasts as he snatches a blanket, fanning it around his shoulders and then plants himself on his knees between her spread out legs. His gaze slips down to her soft, dampened pink curls.

“This part, I fantasize about often,” he murmurs dazedly, peering down at the milky fluid dripping slowly from her folds. 

Sakura gasps before crying out when the blanket billows over both of them and he slides down to plant his face between her thighs.

End.

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