Finding Home

Reunions

One eyebrow cocked up while the other scrunches down, together forming am unmistakably Uchiha 'you're-a-dumbass' sort of look, Sasuke's lips are poised with a smirk to couple his eyes.

"Hn. Cute. Now shut up."

He ensures the enforcement of his order with the proceeding kiss as he presses her up against the tree.

It's difficult to talk with a tongue in your mouth. It's difficult to form a sentence when Uchiha Sasuke has better plans for your lips.

-------

When Sasuke had abruptly turned up back in Konoha about a month ago, it had been surreal. After all, it had been three years since he'd abandoned the village for Orochimaru and his quest for revenge. With all the seriousness, and resolve Sasuke seemed to possess in that act, one would have never expected for him to just come home. Sort of anti- climatic really. Naruto didn't even get to give an inspiring, and heartfelt speech about loyalty or friendship, there was no battle to the death. Needless to say Naruto was a little disappointed; that is, after he was done crying his eyes out upon his long, lost-to-the-dark-side friend's return.

And Sasuke was equally moved. There were tears, though he'd never admit it if your tried to ask him now.

As he trudged exhaustedly toward the village, the sun closing it's proximity to the horizon, Naruto inexplicably stood from his stool at Ichiraku.

Shocked into silence brought on by a sudden feeling.

As if the winds had shifted everything else from his brain, Naruto was urgently compelled to Konoha's entrance. Upon his swift arrival, he caught a familiar figure obscuring the blinding horizon; the shock of it struck him still for a moment while his brain fought to keep up with the rate of his pounding heart. Naruto took off again with fearful hope in his eyes, he had to be sure.

And it was him.

Sasuke gave a gruff, pained, "I'm back." It sounded more like, "I'm sorry."

"Sasuke!" He crushed his friend in a tight embrace, half in pure joy and half to confirm that the man before him wasn't a depressing figment of his imagination. Sasuke full heartedly returned these affections as he firmly locked his arms around his stupid, passionate, obnoxious, audacious, incredible friend.

It was good to be home.

…

"Is it safe for me here?" was the first thing to come to the Uchiha's mind after a few minutes of silent reconnection.

"Of course! This is your home! Granny- Tsunade and Sakura and Kakashi- sensei- Everybody just wants you back!"

Sasuke wondered at the accuracy of that declaration but with all the enthusiasm and assuredness in it, Sasuke couldn't help but hope.

"hn. You dobe," he said with a nostalgic fondness. Naruto just responded with a relieved, snot congested laugh.

Naruto had been right, though the decision to accept Sasuke back might have had something to do with a certain jinchuriki's personal relations with a specific Kage.

Sasuke was accepted with open arms once the circumstances of his return got out. Orochimaru hadn't expected his newest consume to become the consumer. Sasuke's turning the tables on Orochimaru and the information he gave on both his former teacher and that of Akatsuki (after finally getting the revenge he'd craved and feeling all wrong for it), and of course coupled with Naruto's ebullient ardor, had brought Konoha around, apart from suspicions here and there.

The reunion with the rest of team 7 was also a sight to behold.

"Yo." Kakashi said with a depth that felt like it could be touched if one just slipped his mask off his chin. Just out of reach, but the sentiment was definitely right there, it was like smoke, you just couldn't pin down and capture Kakashi's emotions at that moment. But if one were to go by the crinkling of his exposed eye, it was easy to tell that he was giving a gentle smile.

"Kakashi- sensei," replied meaningfully before turning to his last teammate who'd just stumbled into the room in anticipation of the news that she desperately needed to confirm.

"Sakura" his voiced cracked as he looked upon her for the first time in so, so long. She'd grown and matured in their time apart, he could feel it. Sasuke also couldn't help the guilt in knowing that some of that growth came from the loss of a person she'd relied on, someone she'd trusted and cared for. But he was determined to make up for the hell he'd put her through, the hell he'd put everyone through. But there was something in the way she'd looked at him, like a piece broken had been fixed, a wound healed.

She stared back wide eyed and almost disbelieving before rushing into him with abrupt tears making their way down her face. He met her halfway and pulled her into a bone crushing hug and collapsed to the ground with her as she forgot the meaning of standing or the need for legs after having reached him.

Sasuke held fast to her as they sank and welcomed her tears as they came falling down to collide with his shirt.

Sakura was at a loss for words or really any intelligent functioning at that point; both were resigned to crumpling to the ground till the end of eternity as far as either was concerned.

Sasuke then shifted his attention from simply crushing the girl to refamiliarizing himself with her body. Times had changed, though Sakura was still lithe and youthful in physique, legs had lengthened, hips had curved, and breasts had developed. She was so different but her heart was very much the same. As they reacquainted themselves Sasuke took a brief moment from their long embrace to lay his calloused hands to the sides of her tear stained face and press his lips firmly to her fore head, between his repeated, awe- sounding "Sakura, Sakura" 's.

And after much delay she responded to the passionate hello and all the silent apologies with a hoarse, aching, "I missed you."

----

In the weeks that followed, Sasuke resettled into his village. He rediscovered Konoha's contents and inhabitants. He'd been so angry and bitter in so much of his childhood that Sasuke had failed to truly see so much of his home and so many of it's people. Ino had cried upon sight of the returned Uchiha, so had Chouji strangely enough. And while many who hadn't known him as well didn't burst into tears, they treated him with a sense of gratefulness for freeing Naruto of his grief. Sasuke was unexpectedly moved by this, he was prepared to face distrust and discrimination, given that he was allowed back into the village at all, and felt it was a fair price to pay. This defensiveness proved unnecessary however, if his welcoming was any indication. Sasuke was surprised at how much gratitude he felt then, to be accepted.

----

One Month Later:

With every passing day since the glow had faded from Sasuke's return, Sakura had become aware of a depressing new fact.

Uchiha Sasuke was undoubtedly avoiding her.

She had no clue why. Seeing as they'd spent years apart, she was eager to reconnect, as people, as lost teammates. Not to settle her juvenile crush, or her undying love for him, or anything like that. Or even to pride herself in her skill in recognizing just how gorgeous he was right from the get go, (but god had he aged well). Or to ask the meaning behind that kiss and his passionate reunion with her in contrast to his noticeable absence now. Yeah, Sakura wasn't really concerned about anything like that at all…

Except for the part where she totally was. Completely. Desperately.

I mean seriously, when she was twelve, the ambiguity had been so attractive and cool and mysterious but now it was just infuriating! (though still sort of mysterious… But mostly frustrating!)

As Sakura made her way aimlessly down the street leading into the park, she was becoming more and more irate and even more at a loss for how to fix the problem.

Then she saw him resting beneath the giant oak tree. Suddenly fuming at his obvious ease despite the trouble he'd caused, Sakura marched heatedly to the relaxed man beneath the tree to confront him.

"Sasuke!" His eye's flipped open to attention.

"Yes?" he said neutrally, detecting her obvious flare in temper.

"Why are you avoiding me?"

"What do you mean?"

"You know exactly what I mean! Don't try to play dumb with me!"

"I'm avoiding you because I don't like how you randomly march up to me demanding an explanation for something that I'm not even doing. Oh and the yelling, you never used to yell at me. "

Sasuke could have sworn that she was visibly fuming at this point, but she was also at a loss for words. Which was good because the yelling truly did give him a headache. Though that wasn't why he was avoiding her, because he was if he was being honest with himself, he definitely was. A doubt in his head that he refused to call insecurity kept nagging at him ever since it became clear that Sasuke hadn't just missed his old teammate. In fact Sasuke himself had been surprised at his reaction when he'd first returned. He wasn't sure how he'd react to coming back, but he definitely hadn't expected to be as eager as she had been to close the distance between them, or to fall to his knees with her, or to feel so compelled to keep calling out her name in repeated celebration that she was actually there in his arms, confirming her reentrance in his life. The revelation of this fact, that she was there again, felt the same as saying that he was home again.

But how the hell was he supposed to go about saying that? Because he couldn't just assume that she was still infatuated with him. She had, in all likelihood, moved on. All she probably wanted now was the friendship that she'd been deprived of for those three dark years. And he was glad to give them to her, but he also wanted more. So until he'd developed a strategy for engaging her and breaching the subject of being more to her, how could he confront her?

Well he'd better figure it out soon because the girl that he'd inadvertently fallen in love with over the past month was here, now, and unmistakably pissed.

"Yeah well some things change, but I can see that your attitude towards me hasn't" she huffed bitterly. And from that resentful declaration Sasuke saw the opportunity and queue he'd needed. From that statement he'd inferred that she was concerned about how Sasuke perceived her and if he noticed her growth from that girl she'd used to be; it also exposed how hurt she'd felt by his avoiding her. She still cared. About him, about what they could be. That was all the permission he needed to come out to her.

Sasuke stood from his reclined position next to the tree to stand before the angry kunoichi.

"Sakura?"

"What?" she asked sharply.

"I'm in love with you."

"Huh?"

Sasuke scowled defensively then prepared to repeat himself.

"I'm in lov-"

Sakura blushed furiously.

"No I got that! Just- I don't know- …Why?!" Now she was distressed and confused.

"I'm not too sure myself."

"Jeez! Uchiha Sasuke! You are ridiculous! I've loved you this whole time! Why the hell didn't you like me sooner?"

What did she really expect as a response to that? Nonetheless Sasuke was sort of enjoying her flustered like this. He cocked an eyebrow in response to her question. She reddened further and it did something really flattering in contrast to her hair and eyes, ah, no he understood, she was being endearing.

"Hn. Cute. Now shut up."

At that he leaned down a bit to press her into the tree and took his lips to hers. Sasuke had to give Sakura credit, despite being beyond shocked, she did do her best to reciprocate. At least he thought she was doing good, not that he had much to compare to. He, in fact, was hoping really hard in this moment that he was doing this right. Because he wanted this to be right and he wanted her.

He wanted her innocence, her confidence, her pride as a person and a kunoichi, her laughter when Naruto was being stupid, her anger when he was being stupid, her passion that she put in every emotion, her devotion to every cause; he also wanted her on her back begging for more as well as many facets of her body, but most of all he wanted her strength. Not just the tsunami forming, earth shattering strength either, but her inner strength, the strength to endure, to move forward, to make a change.

Because recently, Sasuke felt like he'd run out of that. He'd gotten his revenge on Itachi after betraying his friends and his village. After losing everything that mattered, Sasuke had the power to defeat his brother. But Sasuke then discovered that in killing him, he'd taken away the last thing dear to him. Madara revealed that Itachi had been nothing that he'd appeared to be. Itachi had been a martyr to the end. Sasuke would never forget his brother's sacrifice. So Sasuke decided to respect it, he returned home.

And he'd found Sakura and he'd found this. Her lips beneath an old, shady oak tree. Her shy affections exposed in this moment which were quickly gaining confidence.

He slipped the tip of his tongue across her lips in question. She opened her mouth in response, and their tongues found each other as the kiss deepened. This was about the time that Sasuke failed to stifle an incredibly embarrassing groan from escaping his mouth. As he tried to shy away however, Sakura grabbed the collar of his shirt instead and lightly bit his lower lip. Sasuke smiled around her lips in response and pressed their bodies closer together as he wrapped his arms about her and felt comfort in her warmth.

Because even after returning to Konoha, Sasuke had still felt lost. His drive and direction for so long was lost in his battle with Itachi. The day Sasuke had finished unpacking alone (which really didn't take long considering how light he travelled) he found himself sitting on his bed wondering 'what now?'

And at this moment Sasuke knew he'd found the answer to that question. Sakura was now. She was here in the present, ready to give it her all in exchange for him. Sasuke was only too eager to oblige.

It was good to be home.

-

-

-

Yeah, so my previous story felt so flat and two dimensional in everything. So in this I wanted to try to expand further and deeper. I may have stretched Sasuke a bit too much. But I don't even remember the last time he was actually nice so I took writer's interpretation liberties and improvised. I don't really read naruto fanfic on Sasuke, I don't really know why but I just don't, so I didn't have many examples to pull from.

So be sure to review with your critic guns loaded. Pull no punches!

Oh yeah. I don't own Naruto. Yep.