Cuz what the hell not and cuz I love you guys. If you love me (or this oneshot) too, you would leave a review.
Sakura steps out of the shower, steam billowing out, hair dripping with excess water as she wraps the bright red towel around her, not feeling so bright anymore. She had turned the temperature of the water to a heat that reddened her skin raw. The door to the bedroom is open, and even though she doesn't mind, her heart makes a little erratic beat as he walked past the room slowly and for a second green meets blue. He stops and she wraps her arms around her, trying not to shiver as the cold air wafts in through the open gap of the door; a gap to their sudden wall.
"Naru - " she starts, trying to close the distance. But she notices him standing erectly and straightening his shoulders as if he has just realised he had been staring back as well.
"Sakura," he says hoarsely. There are black circles around his eyes and Sakura consciously lifts a hand to stroke her own, noting that black circles are the least of their concerns.
There comes silence, as if the tranquility is enough to speak the roomfuls of words unspoken between them. He shifts uneasily, and rubs his neck, in pain rather than his nervous habit she used to know before. Long before this happened. Her heart trembles.
"Two more days, Naruto," she says, hoping her voice would not crack under the pressure, the hope it held. "Two more days."
He keeps quiet, his eyes speaking a language that she couldn't seem to understand nowadays. She shakes her head.
"We - We can do this together, Naruto. He needs us. Both of us. If – If we can't decide who gets to be there, then we're just wasting time. Please, Naruto, if we – "
"Sakura, please," he says darkly, his head tilted to look downwards. "We spoke about this before."
Anger surges through her, and she is already halfway to the door before she remembers that she was only wearing a towel and stops. She bites her bottom lip. "Yes, but have we come to a decision about this? Naruto, you must understand, it wouldn't work without both of us being there."
"We have, Sakura," says he. "It is I. It is my duty."
Screw decency. We're married anyway, for fuck's sake. She opens the door wide and steps forward to stare at him, anger and fury and fear clear in her emerald eyes. She points an accusing finger at him. "Your duty? Aren't you forgetting something? What are mothers supposed to do then? Sit by quietly, waiting for their damned husbands to come back with their missing son? Is that what you want? I'm a ninja, dammit, and you very well know that more than anyone, Naruto!" She screeches, tears threatening to spill out.
Her company's eyes widens at the tone of her voice, but more alarmed at her eyes starting to glisten. He looks forlornly down back at the carpet, tightening his fists.
She notices this and steps back. "I know what you're thinking. You're planning to go out without me, nevertheless. Well guess what, Foxy, I can do it too! I – I can save him! For Kami-sama's sake, I saved your sorry ass countless times, and I can do it again."
He says nothing. Her tears begins to fall and she doesn't notice the cold running down her shoulders and calves.
"You – you think this is a game?" she sobs, her shoulders shaking with the effort to do so. "You think this is a race to who wins the prize? Naruto, the prize is him. Our own. You're willing to bet the stakes on him – on us – on account of who gets to go first? Is that it?" She couldn't dare to say the word. It was too painful; too much of a taboo to be spoken verbally between the two of them.
Though he still speaks of no words, he lets his head shake an answer.
Fatigue shudders throughout her body, and suddenly the effort to cry diminishes and she kneels to the ground, her hands drooping and her eyes still wide and fearful. Sakura was tired – tired of fighting, tired of hoping, tired of crying, tired of worrying – and oh, love can be so tiring when it's painful.
Wordlessly, as silent tears still sliding down her cheeks, he kneels and collects her in his arms. She lets him, giving up to his ever-present warmth that seems to seep up her tears. He places her on the bed, and rummaging for a few clothes in her wardrobe, she sits up and speaks croakedly, "I can do it."
He steps aside patiently as she picks out a simple nightgown. She hesitates as she starts to dress, but he turns his back to let her and she opens her towel.
"I – I'm done," she says, and he nods. He starts to go out when she suddenly speaks. "Would – would you like to sleep here? I – I mean, it's cold out there right? You'll freeze – it's already mid-October."
He turns around and grins impishly, and even though his jaws strain with the effort of not doing so for a long time, she swears she saw a glimpse of the old him, if only for a little. Her heartbeat quickens.
"Nothing a man can't handle, Sakura-chan, and I'm a ninja after all."
Just like that, her heart falls into the traps of his webs.
She stares defiantly at his blue orbs and he stares back. Something snaps between the two and he walks in the distance and closes it with his lips. It was a short, a burst, but it was something.
"S-So?" she says finally, realising for the first time that she was aware of their distance – their distance. Her lips tingled from the brief touch.
"I – I don't know," he replies, breathing in her scent as he steps back, his eyes averting her own.
Silence fills the room a few uncertain seconds later, and she ducks and walks to one of two mirrors she and Naruto had gotten as a wedding gift from a particular deadpanned dark-haired man. Picking up a brush, she lets it run through her wet matted hair slowly, looking at his back with careful eyes and remembering what her friend told her that day.
"Hey, you came!"
"Yes. I did. Beautiful will not allow me to not attend it, lest she should take my pants away. It would be cold, yes, but I don't see what her problem would be, see?"
"Uhh, uhm, haha, err – Where is Pig-face anyway?"
"She's over there. Oh, these are for you."
"Oh, uhh, thank you, Sai. What – What are these, exactly?"
"I will be wasting my breath on something that you will know later, then. And, anyway, aren't gifts supposed to be a surprise?"
"Well, it certainly is a one-of-a-kind of surprise, staring at a foot-long piece of – of rectangle."
"It was my idea originally, and you may thank me for that."
"Uhm."
"It represents both you and Dickless."
"How is this su-supposed to re – Nevermind."
"..."
"..."
"Tell me, okay?"
"Huh? About what?"
"Dickless. Whether he's really what he really is."
"Wha – I – You – He – That is none of your business, Sai! Now... Sit tight and quiet before I will let you earn that nickname yourself!"
Letting herself giggle softly to herself, she notices his shoulders shift and she knew he was observing her even though he wasn't facing her. Then she takes in the sight that had missed her scrutiny of himself.
He stood in front of the other mirror right from across the bedroom – across from her – his bright blue orbs moving like spotlights from a lighthouse on a dark, stormy night out at sea, searching for a certain pair of emerald headlights.
And suddenly they were staring at each other, through the reflection of the mirrors, and Sakura had never thought that such a medium would bring so deep an understanding, an insight so heavy with unsaid expression. His body acts as a shield in front of her, but she too acts as one. In that single fleet of a gesticulation, both hearts tremble under the sheer weight of the comprehension.
Her heart flutters as she opens his mouth, his eyes drinking in the reflection of her downy nightgown.
"Naru – " "Saku – "
"You first," he says, the rings around his eyes glaringly evident below the bright lights of the room, reminding her of the reality. She shakes her head.
"No," she murmurs. "It's nothing. What did you want to say?"
"I – " He closes his mouth firmly before opening it again. "You look – you look beautiful."
She ducks, her heart hammering in her throat. "Thank you."
It's funny how she graciously accepts a compliment that should have been their everyday verbal communication.
Used to be.
"I'll see you tomorrow morning, then," he says and turns to leave, leaving a hole in the gap of the reflection.
"Wait, Naruto."
"Yes, Sakura-chan?"
The suffix adds another thrum to her trouncing heart, and she grasps a handful of her nightgown. It unnerves her to feel like this; the almighty hot-headed Uzumaki Sakura feeling nervous in front of her own husband. How ridiculous.
"You're...not going anywhere tonight, right?"
He searches (for what?) in her emerald eyes, before breaking out into one of his grins. "I might just come out and wrestle you on the bed while you're sleeping, Sakura-chan. So don't wait up, okay?"
Pink blossomed on her cheeks as she fights for control over herself. "Wha-What are you – Ugh, get out!"
"Aww, don't be mad, Sakura-chan! I'm not going anywhere if you don't want me to. Honest."
Flushing ferociously under his curious amused gaze, she steps forward and hit him gently on the head to remind him who was still in control of situations such as these. She humphed and pointed a finger out the door.
"Get out!"
He feigned a pout. "I thought you said it was cold out there."
"You can freeze for all I care!"
"Aww, you're mean, Sakura-chan!"
"Naruto, you are way too old to be calling me that."
"But I'll never be too old to love you. Goodnight, Sakura-chan," he murmurs back and leaves the room swiftly.
Sakura stares at the spot he had just inhabited.
The words whirred and clicked in her head. And then she knew. She knew his answer. She turns back to the mirrors and looks at the reflections of herself. Touching her lips, she makes up her mind that very night.
Naruto flings two pillows and a white blanket carelessly on top of the couch in the living room, settling down as he stares blankly at the air; his read refusing to wrap anything that had just happened. Sighing a frustrated sigh, he swivels his gaze at a picture frame set upon the coffee table, and routinely picked it up.
He fingers the photo, looking intently at the little boy squashed between two happy looking Sakura and himself, looking annoyed and about to cry. He chuckled again, as if seeing the photo had never seemed so amusing.
Feeling more empty than ever, he sets down the frame and prepares to go to bed. Taking off his shirt, he settles down into his nest, giving in to slumber's embrace.
She takes a deep breath.
I can do this. I can do this. He's important to me. I won't lose him. I will never lose him and I will make sure of that. I will save him and I will save both of them. If he won't listen to me, then I'll have to make him.
She pulls on her worn-out black gloves and grasps her headband in one hand. As part of being a head medic for years, she skillfully tunes out the chakra in her body as not to alert him awake. She knows being a Hokage has its advantages, and though people understood him as a very clumsy person, she knows better than anyone else that he is extremely protective of the things precious to him, and thus that makes him a very perceptive one, albeit not very flamboyant about it.
She focuses a thin trickle of chakra into her right hand and sets it dormant until it is activated.
Silently, she tiptoes her way out of the bedroom, her breathing calm but her heartbeat erratic.
I can do this. I'm Uzumaki Sakura, and I can do this.
Repeating the sentence over and over like a mantra, her chakra still nigh invisible to even the most skilled sensor-ninja, she practicedly has her right hand out, her hand moving in a seal.
And there he is.
Lying among stray pillows, his blanket already reduced to a heap on the floor and several discarded items she reckons were cups of ramen, she looks at his face.
He looks...more peaceful than he looked weeks before. A gentle snore escapes from his half-opened mouth. Sakura shakes her head. I thought I told him that eating ice-cream before bed would lead to snores – it's unhealthy. A memory leaks out from her mind, a memory of a pouting Naruto as an annoyed self of her holding a giant tub of ice-cream, dangling it away from the grasps of his hands.
"Aww, please, Sakura-chan! I've been good all day!"
"What part of 'no' do you not understand, Naruto? Do you know how hard it is to just close your eyes when someone next to you is snoring as loud as an elephant?"
"But what have ice-creams have to do anything about it! Aisukurimu-chan is innocent!"
"Aisu – chan?! Wha – Agh, Naruto, dairy products tend to make people snore more! Especially if you eat it before bed!"
"I don't believe it! Gimme my Aisu-chan!"
"No!"
"Aww, Sakura-chaaaan! What must I do to win back Aisu-chan!"
"... Agh Naruto, you're impossible! Let's see if you like it when I snore!"
"... That would be cute actually."
"Wha – I – I don't believe it! Naruto, you –"
"Sakura-chan, are you sure you're not jealous?"
"Jealous of what? Your snores? Pfft yeah if I was an elephant."
"Jealous of Aisu-chan! You're jealous because I like her better!"
"Jeal – Wh – Why would I be jealous of an ice-cream?!"
"Admit it! You think she is much more yummier than you!"
"Naruto, I will not tolerate it if you compare me. To. An. ICE-CREAM."
"Don't worry, Sakura-chan. You have way more curves than Aisu-chan has, even with your small bo –"
"U-ZU-MA-KI NA-RU-TO!"
"AHH! But I haven't told you the full story yet!"
"THE ONLY STORY YOU'LL EVER LIVE TO TELL IS HOW I BEAT THE CRAP OUT OF YOU!"
"No, Sakura-chan, li – Ow! No, listen, see, I'll whisper it in your ear."
"..."
"..."
"..."
She shakes herself out of the memory. No time to get distracted now. Come on, Sakura, you can do better than this. A half-curtained window let in a generous amount of moonlight, but no matter how anyone says, moonlight is rather dark – but Sakura can still see the familiar features. A couple of strokes of a line on a cheek, a tiny poke of a golden hair, a lining of a mouth, a –
Sakura stops herself. No, this won't do. Before she continues to ponder on what she is going to do, she notices the overturned picture frame on the coffee table. Averting her eyes from her loved, she picks up the frame and looks at the picture for a second to linger before placing it back down again. But it was too late. The tears brim in her emerald orbs, and she holds her breath, trying to force the lump in her throat down.
Behind her, a loud single snore escapes from his mouth, wrenching her away from the moment and she turns swiftly. Closing her eyes to the tears, to the pain, to the happy memories, she activates her chakra stun in her right hand and without losing a second, does a deed she believes he will mirror back...when he wakes up, and by then she will be long gone.
...
Something halts her.
Wait. No. This is – This is impossible. I tuned off my chakra, dammit!
Her hand goes limp and the chakra fades as she opens her eyes.
Two hands pressed gently against her back.
No no no no. This wasn't supposed to happen. He – He was –
"Like my clone, Sakura-chan?" He emits a deep chuckle, ringing through her ear, filling her with a warmth she didn't want to feel. Not right now. She tries to push him away, but the hands gripping her won't allow it, and she goes limp like a doll.
She could feel him smiling. Tears threaten to brim around her eyes.
"I told you, Sakura-chan. I can do it. It's – "
"No!" She cries in his ear, but he remains unpertrubed. "Don't tell me it's okay. I'm so sick and tired of being told that! It has never been okay, and now won't make any difference! Because it's - !"
"Sakura-chan. Of course it's not okay. Who said it was okay? I'll be damned if all this is okay. Going to a mission that will mostly likely be suicidal equals okay?" He snorts softly, and grips her in an even tighter embrace. "I'll be damned, Sakura-chan, I'll be damned."
The tears fall fast, unruly and wild. She sobs again and again and again and he just holds her like that and millions of unspoken words pour out into the chilly night of the month and he just stays quiet and she thinks they couldn't possibly be any closer than this but he proves her wrong and releases the embrace and he kisses her forehead and it was so wrong but so right to be feeling this way – to be feeling so calm and loved while a piece of her lie undiscovered out there and –
"Sakura-chan. I'm not going to say that everything will be okay, and I cannot swear this will turn out okay. But I believe...that it's okay to love someone...and protect them. It's okay, Sakura-chan...because I love you."
"Naruto," she sobs, trying to look at him, but tears blur her vision. "I want to help you. Please, let me do this."
"Sakura-chan," he continues. "It's okay because I love our son too. And I will save him no matter what."
"Why?" she wails. "Why won't you let me help you! You've always been like this! Independent, pretending to be strong, trying to do everything by yourself and – "
"Like you." He stares at her half-blinded eyes. "Don't you think I am like you, in so many ways?"
She stares back at him. Suddenly fueled with furiousity, she stands on her tiptoes and kisses him hard on the lips, letting it speak for her.
He kisses back, but she fails to notice his hands applying pressure on the small of her back. She fails to notice the build of chakra on his right hand and him performing the feat she herself tried to do. As she falls away from his cerulean sea, he leans forward to continue the kiss for as long as she can bend, and as she finally goes limp, she fails to notice the look in his eyes as he sets her down in the couch.
And yet again, she fails to see the mirror that had been guiding her, cracks as he steps out the window.
Soo did you like it? The things I do for you readers... Leave a review if you liked it, or fave it, I would really appreciate it. If you guys want a fully-fledged story...you can tell it in your review and if the demand is high, I will do it. the things I do for Narusaku. Btw an accompanying fanart is coming soon for this fic. Just pm me and I will give you the link of the art once it's finished. Please leave a review! :D