Take My Hand
Chapter 1. Congratulations!
"Sakura-chan!" A window slammed open and Naruto's head peered inside Sakura's apartment. "Sasuke's finally released from the interrogation! You should go heal him. He should be in the hospital now."
It had been a few weeks since Uchiha Sasuke returned to Konoha. Everyone was giving him hell for all the trouble he's caused, but among them were also the rare few who sincerely welcomed him back. Naruto was definitely one of them. Sakura was, too, but she would never admit it out loud.
"Naruto! I told you to stop barging into my room, pervert!" Sakura looked for the closest sharp object she could find – a fork from last night's dinner – and targeted the rude intruder.
"But the window was open!" His arms shot to cover his head in fear of the flying fork. When he realized that the fork had not yet left Sakura's hand, however, he thought he could take a chance. "Maybe you left it open on purpose?" With a snicker, he added, "Look who's the real pervert, Sakura-chan."
This time, the fork did fly in the air and struck him directly in the head. Dismissing the blood flowing down his face, however, Naruto reminded, "Go check Sasuke in the hospital!" and ran away before Sakura could throw another.
With a sigh, Sakura walked up to the window to close it. Naruto was right. She had left the window open for the sole purpose that Naruto would bring her the news. The past few weeks were driving her crazy. The Konoha authorities called it "interrogation" but she knew it was just really torture. So now that the worst part was over and Sasuke was replaced in the hospital for recovery, she could let all her worries go. But she will not, as Naruto suggested, go and heal Sasuke herself because of two reasons. One, Tsunade would be in charge of healing Sasuke anyway so she wasn't really needed. And two, she didn't want to face Sasuke.
But if she didn't face him now, how could she face him later? With that thought in mind, Sakura grabbed her coat and made way for the hospital.
At the hospital, nurses and other medics greeted her. They also all pointed towards the room that Sasuke was staying in. Perhaps they were mistaken that Sakura was still in love with Sasuke, because she was absolutely not. She was way over him! It was just facing him that was… scary. She had no idea what to expect.
The metallic doorknob on her hand was a cold touch, as though it was warning the agitated medic not to enter. With a gulp, Sakura turned on the knob and…
There were already about twenty visitors crowded in the small hospital room. That was probably why all the nurses had directed Sakura to Sasuke's room. They must have been tired from already being questioned by these other unexpected twenty or so visitors.
Sakura looked around the room, half-bewildered and half-relieved that there were this many people caring to visit Sasuke. But the one man she came for, she couldn't find, until…
"Sakura."
She almost didn't recognize him. In several wrapped bandages all across his chest and arms and even near his eyes – did he damage his Sharingan? – the patient was dressed in a simple pink hospital gown. Pink, because Sakura had asked for them the previous year. But what felt most different about him was his distance. Though they were physically only several feet apart, there lay a million worth of miles between them. And then when he had spoken her name, that million miles had suddenly reduced to an inch for a split second.
She hated how easily he could manipulate that.
"Sakura-chan!" From among the crowd, Naruto jumped out to greet her. "I knew you'd come!"
"Yeah, well. Here I am." Shrugging and staring away from Sasuke, Sakura swerved around to leave. "He looks fine. Bye now."
"Wait! Try giving her the stone!" Someone in the crowd yelled out, and another looped her arm to stop her from leaving. Before she could question "What stone?" a sudden cool object was placed in her left hand. That was obviously "the stone."
"Okay, Sakura-chan." Naruto snickered as his right hand reached for her left. "If this works out, we'll be stuck together forever! You've got to marry me then!"
"What the hell are you talking about, Naruto?!" She peered at her hand, now entwined with Naruto's, before she quickly added, "There's no way I'm marrying you, idiot." She then tried to pull away her hand, attempting to put an end to this nonsense. To her horror, her hand stayed stuck.
"Wha—"
The crowd – except for Sasuke who was silently staring like usual – gave a long whistle and burst out giggling. "Congratulations to Uzumaki Naruto and Haruno Sakura! You guys are officially in love with each –" Before they could finish their speech, however, another tug pulled their hands apart.
"Awwwwww" The crowd broke out in unison, but quickly recovered, each stepping forward to hold Sakura's hand.
"Okay, can someone please tell me what this is about?" Sakura reluctantly allowed to have what seemed like a friendly handshake with the group. "Don't tell me it's something stupid like hands being stuck if they're in love."
"That's right! You've always been so smart, Sakura-chan!" beamed Naruto.
Next was Lee. "I, Rock Lee, is highly honoured to take your hand, Sakura-chan. The world is now witnessing the proof of our love!" Contrasting his confident speech however, his hand was trembling with nervousness as he grabbed Sakura's hand. When their hands quickly disentangled from each other's, the poor guy went back in line to wait for another turn. "However many handshakes it takes us, we will prove our love!"
Oh dear.
It took more than an hour until the whole room finally calmed down. Sakura had held hands with the usual guys like Kiba, Shikamaru, Shino, Sai, and probably about forty-two times with Lee before she finally smacked him in the face so he could be out conscious in a corner of the room. When she thought the ridiculous thing – though she was secretly curious – was done, the door burst open for another long line of male medics from the hospital.
Sakura definitely felt popular that day, until she realized all those male medics had already tried holding the stone with the rest of the female medics.
"Okay, I'm going now." The pink-haired medic was sure she couldn't even feel her hand anymore. From all the shaking and holding, it just felt like extra weight.
"Wait! We forgot one more!" Of course it was Naruto, again, whose brain only ever worked for these kind of stupid things.
'Sasuke, Sasuke, Sasuke, Sasuke, Sasuke! But he'll never hold hands with me!" Her hand reached for the door knob to leave, while muttering "I'm sure we can skip the last one, Naruto." She hoped her message got through the blonde idiot.
"Come on, Sakura-chan! You didn't try it with Sasuke-teme here, and he's probably the most likely candidate out of all of us!" Naruto blurted out, and Sakura could barely contain her hand from forming into a fist to drive Naruto to the ground.
"Yeah, why not?"
For a second, her heart stilled. Who said that? She turned around with wide eyes, catching Sasuke looking directly at her with a smirk. He extended his right hand towards her, the stone carelessly placed in his hand.
"You're kidding" was all she could manage to say.
"Why not? Unless you're really still in love with me?" Despite his smirk, Sasuke's tone of voice and his hard gaze on her looked almost threatening. It was as though he had challenged her to a fight.
"Hah! You must be out of your mind to say that! I fucking hate you, Sasuke! There's no way I still love you!" She retorted back, almost tempted to flee but keeping her ground instead.
"Then prove it." His hand was held out to her.
It was then the crowd broke out into an enthusiastic chant of "Prove it! Prove it! Prove it! Prove it!"
"Maybe you're the one in love with me." Sakura pointed out, though totally disbelieving her own words as she said so. Nevertheless, she reached for his hand, just to give a really, really light –
His right hand wrapped around her left hand, pulling her a step closer. For a second, Sakura truly wished their hands wouldn't fall apart like it had with the previous attempts. But when she tried tugging away and their hands wouldn't budge away from each other, a heavy lump of panic dropped on her. This wasn't supposed to happen! She was truly over the damn Uchiha, or so she had thought the past year. He couldn't know her feelings. He shouldn't, and what if their hands really stayed stuck forever?
"Damn you, Sasuke! What kind of sick jutsu did you use?" The panicked medic swung her arm this way and that, trying to get rid of the firm hand gripping on her. When her eyes met Sasuke's, however, Sakura realized he was as much in shock as she was.
"You're the one holding onto me. Get off, Sakura!" He equally tried to pull away his hand, but his efforts were in vain. "Stop being so annoying, and get off!"
"No, you're the one still holding! You get off!" This time, her free hand grabbed Sasuke's right arm and tried to pull it away from her. She even started using chakra, wondering if that could do any help, until Sasuke's free hand grabbed hers.
"That hurts, idiot! Why do you still love me?!"
"What?! I do not!"
"You do or this wouldn't have happened!"
"Do not!"
"Uh… Guys?" It was Shikamaru, and not the usual Naruto, who intervened. "I think it's safe to assume that you are both in love with each other. That's the only explanation, anyhow."
"WE DO NOT!" Both Sakura and Sasuke denied fiercely, which merely incited a laughter from the crowd, who, finally having absorbed the situation, broke out into a speech.
"Congratulations, Uchiha Sasuke and Haruno Sakura! You guys are now officially a couple!"
Notes. I really enjoyed writing Sasuke panicking like an idiot here. Hopefully that didn't come out as being too OOC