A/N: This fic is set after the Fourth Shinobi World War. While details of events may differ a bit from what was presented in the series, I've kept major plot points consistent. I've set the rating at T for now, though it may go up to M in the future. I hope people enjoy this!

Homecoming

– Chapter 1 –

Consideration

I got to do things my own way darling
Will you ever let me
Will you ever respect me? No
Do things my own way darling
You should just let me
Why you ain't ever let me grow?

Sakura leaned back into her chair and took a long look around the administration offices. Most days before Pain's assault, she spotted at least a handful of people goofing off, hanging around the water cooler chatting with their co-workers as they prepared yet another cup of tea. But not today. It was quiet in the office save the sound of scribbles, the rhythmic tap tap tap of people typing, and the occasional cough. With everything that had happened, there was a lot of paperwork to catch up on; a lot of authorizations to be dispensed regarding logistics of supplies, a lot of patient files to be updated, a lot of incidents to document. Everyone was hard at work. Not only was it Friday afternoon so everyone was trying to finish their work as quickly as possible to get home earlier, but it was a refreshing return to normal after a year of sheer absurdity. They had somehow managed to survive.

She stretched her arms above her before stretching her neck right, left, and all around. She carefully rolled her shoulders, feeling the clicks of the joints. She had only recently recovered from her injuries. While Naruto bounced back in a few days, one of the pluses of being a jinchūriki and having that special Uzumaki chakra, minus an arm, her healing took about a month. Even with that time, many parts of her body still didn't feel quite right and wouldn't go back to normal for months or the better part of a year.

Sakura swivelled her chair around so she could see the clock on the wall. 1:30 pm. It was time for Sasuke's daily check-up, followed by some time down at the hospital to plan for the children's mental health clinic, then training, before she could go home. With a yawn and a last stretch, she stood up and began packing her bag. While most of the files on her desk were in her outbox, there were still a few in her inbox. She wasn't done with all of her work, so she'd have to take some home and finish them in the evening. She picked those manila folders up and flipped through them. An approval for purchasing antibiotics to be distributed at a clinic serving mostly refugees from the Land of Lightning, another approval for purchasing various sedatives for use at the main hospital, and a status update on Uchiha Sasuke's physical condition. At least two of them were easy, and the third was one that she was about to do anyhow.

Zipping up her bag, she smiled and nodded at Koetsu and Megumi, whose desks were next to hers. They smiled back and waved goodbye, softly whispering "see you after the weekend!" She walked through the office as quietly and quickly as she could. A few more of her co-workers murmured their goodbyes, but most were too absorbed in their work to notice her exit.

It was a beautiful day outside; one of the downsides of working indoors so much was that she and her co-workers often missed these sorts of days. The winter sun was out, shining as brightly as it could. The air had a slight bite to it, causing Sakura to wrap her jacket a little tighter, but she wasn't uncomfortable. Hopefully by the time she got around to training, it wouldn't be too cold. Life in Konoha was beginning to bustle again as it had before Pain's attack. The dango shop was popular, though the little bright little blue flags at the entrance had recently been changed because the older ones had become too faded. Ichiraku started selling instant ramen, and Sakura hadn't made up her mind whether or not that was a good thing. Naruto's midnight visits to rummage through her fridge had sharply dropped off, but she wasn't sure that his ramen replacement was good for his health. She also missed his drop-ins and the heart-to-heart conversations they would have until the early hours of the morning. Then again, Ichiraku's instant ramen wasn't the main reason why his late-night visits had sharply curtailed. He spent much of his free time with Sasuke now.

As she walked to the makeshift Intelligence Division building, she thought about why she was going there. Uchiha Sasuke. He had been imprisoned there for the last month, and he'd probably remain imprisoned there for many months to come. Naruto told her that he had been a model prisoner, cooperating with Morino Ibiki's team and sharing valuable information he had learned in his years of travel, never causing a fuss.

While the trust between Sasuke and Naruto had never faded, not one iota, Sakura wasn't sure where she sat with Sasuke and what place Sasuke had in her heart. When he first reappeared and stated his intention of helping to protect Konoha, she had been suspicious. She was still suspicious. His response to her begging was to knock her out and to dismiss her loyalty and love as figments of a failed past. He later apologized for causing her so much pain, and though she accepted his apology while her emotions ran high on the battlefield, she wasn't sure if she really had. Could someone like him ever be forgiven? Trusted again? Naruto seemed to think so, but again, his trust in Sasuke had never wavered. Kakashi increasingly seemed to think so too.

Sakura knew better. Men promising to change was very different from men actually changing. From what she had seen, Sasuke had changed very little. He was no longer baying for blood and the collapse of Konoha, but he still had that same arrogance and disdain for the feelings of others that led him down his path of vengeance in the first place. It was his arrogance that allowed him to so foolishly announce his intention of becoming a kage and make a unilateral decision regarding the tailed beasts; thank the gods Naruto was compassionate enough to recognize that that was not a decision for any one man and strong enough to stop Sasuke. It was Sasuke's disdain for others that led him to expect others to forgive him after everything he had done to them—which was often times him attempting to kill or leave those who cared for him for dead. Sakura had been at the receiving end of that one time too many. He spoke of changing the world, but he had yet to change himself.

As she reached the front gate, she checked her watch. 1:57 pm. The ANBU guards gave her the once-over before allowing her through. She saw Ibiki's large, imposing frame lingering behind the glass doors. He was watching her walk towards the building. She wondered what he thought of Sasuke's lenient imprisonment arrangements, with her coming around every day to heal Sasuke and Naruto coming to visit every evening. Some thought of Sasuke as a war hero, while others remembered his betrayal. Ibiki never gave an indication which he agreed with, only that he would faithfully follow the Hokage's orders.

Sakura sighed before she reached the front doors. She only hoped that Kakashi and Naruto would make the right call about Sasuke. Ibiki let her into the building, a faint smile on his lips, and she gathered her nerves before she was to see a man who reminded her of a boy for whom she once would have sacrificed everything.

Sasuke looked away from the spider on the ceiling when he heard the heavy metal doors of the elevator scrape open and bang shut. The spider was positioned in quadrant one, three tiles to the right and two tiles up. He immediately looked towards the clock that flashed the time in big, red numbers. 2:00 pm. She was here every day at the same time. She who reminded him of a girl he once protected with everything he had, except that she had changed and wasn't that girl anymore.

He swung his legs off of his bed so that he was sitting. His cell was tidy and surprisingly well-furnished: a bed, a desk, a chair, a shelf with a few books that he had yet to touch, and a lamp were all provided. If he so desired, he could request for pen and paper from the ANBU guards who silently kept watch over him. He supposed that this was all Naruto's doing, having successfully convinced their ex-teacher that he was no threat. He watched her walk down the dark hallway towards him. Overhead, Morino Ibiki entered the observation box.

She had changed, and the feelings she evoked in him changed too. He smelled that she had changed her shampoo so that she no longer used the same kind as Kakashi's one dog. He saw that her physicality had changed with her increased training: whereas she used to walk in a shy, hesitant way common to many young girls who had been told by the world that they were not enough, she now carried herself with confidence and strength. He felt the change in her power when she healed him on the battlefield. Her chakra control was now perfect, and in minutes she completed complex procedures that took other medics hours. Where he once felt protectiveness, he now felt guilt. She didn't need anyone protecting her anymore; she only needed others to not hurt her, which was something he hadn't been so good at doing. And where others created hurt, she healed.

She stopped when she reached the edge of his room. One of the ANBU guards, the one with the cat mask, lowered the barrier encasing his room, allowing her through. "How are you feeling today, Sasuke-kun?" she asked with a smile. Behind her, another ANBU guard with a bird mask raised the barrier back up. Though she still addressed him in the same way, her voice had lost its sweetness. He wasn't sure how he felt about that, though he understood why that happened. They had grown up and left their childhood romanticizations behind. He hadn't been lying when he told Kakashi that there was no reason for them to love each other and that her love for him was a remnant of a failed past. Her love would not be his redemption.

Not that she was offering it anymore. Naruto welcomed him back with open arms and Kakashi greeted him with judgment that petered into a quiet understanding. In Sakura, he sensed wariness. While Naruto and Kakashi visited him at regular intervals, she only ever came for his daily check-ups. She never stayed beyond the ten or fifteen minutes needed to run the necessary checks, and she never said anything beyond polite small talk. What he learned of her life came from his own observations or Naruto's stream of consciousness.

He gave her a small smile. "Still healing."

She smiled at him again, though this smile was more forced. "Can I take a look at your left arm?" He angled his body towards her as she pulled the chair next to the bed. She pulled apart the folds of his clothing to reveal the stump that was now there. The skin was tight and pink with all sorts of ridges and crevices present. She bent down to analyze the skin closer. "You don't seem to be developing any hypertrophic scars, so that's good," she murmured. From the corner of his eye, Sasuke saw Ibiki watching them.

She was close to him, close enough that he smelled the rose and vanilla in her hair. Despite being an elite kunoichi, she maintained her feminine flourishes. She reached a glowing hand up to what remained of his left arm, her chakra warm and vibrating with vitality. "Do you mind?"

Even though she had been doing this every day for almost a month, she still asked every time. He supposed that this was the bedside manners trained medics learned to calm jumpy patients. "Go ahead," he told her. He felt her probe the end of his arm with her chakra. He felt her investigating the nerve endings, the state of his muscles, and the damage to the bone. And, oddly enough, this wasn't at all painful. It wasn't like when Karin's chakra filled his system, burning his whole body. If anything, it was soothing. "Your chakra…is very calming. It feels nice."

She smiled at him again, this time a genuine one. "Well that's good. If it wasn't, I imagine I'd stress my patients out more, which is no good." She withdrew her hand. "Your arm is healing well and there hasn't been much atrophy of the remaining tissue. We're in the process of developing a new prosthetic arm with full maneuverability. If we finish sometime soon, and if you so wish, we could install one for you."

"Hn." He was more concerned with his restricted use of chakra and his lack of training. At this rate, he was going to be very rusty and of no use to Konoha. He began to lie back down into his bed in anticipation of the next part of his check-up routine.

"Do you need help lifting your shirt up?"

"No, I'm fine," he responded, still as fiercely independent as ever. He struggled with his shirt longer than necessary, but he eventually got it all the way up. As he lay down, Sakura sighed in her head. He had always been very attractive, but now as a young man he was devastatingly handsome. His faint six-pack, which was an eight-pack earlier in the month, was a testament to his rigorous training. His broad shoulders tapered down into a narrow waist. Every inch of him was strong, supple muscle. Too bad he was such a cold fish; the gods had a funny sense of humor. She gently placed a hand on his abdomen and began probing.

Major organs, check. Muscular-skeletal system, check. Chakra pathways, check. Chakra blocks that she had applied to limit his access to his chakra reserves, check. He had healed up well in the last month, which surprised her. Wanderers like him typically wilted in confined spaces like this, but he had managed to survive. Maybe he truly wanted to be back here? Maybe she needed to have a bit more compassion for him. For most of his life, he existed neither here nor there with only a single goal focusing him. But that did not excuse him from the crimes he committed, and now that he had met that goal and more, what did he want?

She drew her hand back, the green glow of her chakra fading away. "You're all healed up," she told him. "Not quite as quickly as Naruto, but just as well."

He smirked ever so slightly and she swore she almost heard him chuckle. "I'm sure Naruto will be glad to hear that there's at least one way he beats me, hands—or rather, hand—down."

She gave him another smile. Did she normally smile this much at her patients? Bedside manners, she told herself. "If you can give me a minute? I have to take a few notes." She pulled a manila file and pen out of her bag and began jotting down some observations. The patient's chakra reserves were large and had replenished with surprising speed, and it seemed that they helped with his healing. He neither expressed interest nor rejected the idea of a prosthetic arm. At a later point in the future, his Rinnegan and the differences in chakra pathways and use from the Sharingan should be studied and mapped. She doubted Kakashi would read her notes, but perhaps when Naruto became Hokage she could nag him into tying Sasuke to a chair so she could study his bloodline limit.

A click of her pen signalled that she was done. Sasuke sat up in his bed again, pulling his shirt down. "Will you still be coming to check on me?"

Sakura shrugged. "I'm not sure. In terms of this official capacity, no, but Tsunade shishou and Kakashi-sensei may want me to continue running tests on you, whether to study your bloodline limit or to see if there's a way for us to let you train while keeping you on limited chakra access."

"Ah." An awkward silence stretched between them. Ibiki was still watching them like a hawk. After too many seconds, Sakura cleared her throat.

"I'll see you later, Sasuke-kun." She slid the file, his medical file, and pen back into her tote, one of those neat little packs that school children used because it was good for their backs. Why she used such a juvenile bag, he had no idea. Perhaps it was a current fashion that he had missed out on; perhaps it was a sign of how much her injuries were bothering her. Without saying anything else, she turned and left. The ANBU guard with the bird mask let her through. Sasuke watched her as she walked down the hallway and waited at the elevator. After a few seconds, the elevator pinged and she disappeared into them. Ibiki watched him for another minute before turning and leaving the observation box.

Sasuke took a deep breath and returned his attention to the spider on the ceiling that had crawled over to the right by a few centimeters. Four tiles to the right, two tiles up. The time was 2:12 pm according to the clock on the wall. His room fell back into silence. He was home, but not home. People didn't know whether or not they could trust him. She clearly thought he was back not because he loved her or Konoha. He was home because…well, why did he want to be back here?

Next chapter: James Joint