Title: Painting a Fresh Start
Summary: Maybe the paint job isn't the only thing that's fresh.
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. If I did, Sasuke wouldn't be such a bag of dicks right now.
Prompt: The Smell of Fresh Paint from day one of the SasuSakuMonth Prompts.
Rating: K
Words: 3,410
Warning(s): Language
Author's Note: Ah! Sorry this is so rushed! I just had to get this up by today, but I hope you enjoy it! My first completed SasuSaku oneshot!
Light brown paint spattered on Sakura's petite nose with the final flick of her brush. After checking to make sure that none of the splatter had reached the hardwood floor, and finding it blissfully bare of the permanent liquid, Sakura slipped her brush back in its bucket and stepped back.
Not half bad, Sakura thought as she surveyed their work, hands on her hips. After a solid two days of work, Uchiha manor was beginning to look like a home.
Five years of disuse in a war torn country had not been kind to Sasuke's childhood home. When Sasuke finally got the ok to live on his own, away from his ANBU probation officers, the proud structure had been hanging on its last hinges-quite literally. While the support beams and structuring stood tall ("Superior Uchiha architecture," someone had sniffed), the walls, doors, and most of the embellishments had been in shambles. There was the mold and pest problem, Thank Kami for Shino, but there had also been sections blown away by Pein's, and other, attacks.
Of course, it hadn't even been a question if Team 7 would help Sasuke get the place in shape. The last Uchiha didn't even blink when Sakura, Naruto, Kakashi, and even Sai met him at the front gates where his probation officers dropped him off for the last time. Instead, with a deadpan expression, he had asked, "Inviting yourself over already?""
This resulted in the usual barrage of insults and promises from Naruto, inappropriate questions from Sai, exasperated sighs and comments from Kakashi, and threats ("If you don't all shut up, I'm going to beat you unconscious! Shannaro!) from Sakura.
In observing the discord that were his teammates, Sakura caught the barest hint of a smirk on his lips before Sasuke strode stoically past them. The comment he tossed at them over his shoulder, however, caused Sakura to erupt in a full grin, "Better make yourselves useful, then."
Now, several hundred Kage Bushins ("We'll get these walls fixed, believe it!"), two sketchy electricians ("We can figure this out, lightning is our element, after all"), one determined landscaper ("You really need to fix this yard, Traitor-kun. You're not, what is it? 'Keeping up with the Jones' '"), and one painter later, Uchiha manor was standing tall once again.
Although she refrained from skipping, Sakura couldn't contain the little hop in her step as she made her way to the kitchen. Waking up this morning, Sakura could tell the day was going to be hot even for July, and had the foresight to seal away a pitcher, lemonade powder, and glasses in her scroll.
After retrieving the items from the tiny scroll she wore as a charm bracelet, Sakura turned towards the sink with the pitcher. Theoretically, she thought, eyeing the old faucet, the water should work again.
When another minute of staring the sink down yielded no more answers, Sakura shrugged, deciding to try it out, and turned the time-worn handle. At first, nothing happened. Then, a couple large thumps echoed from deep in the pipes followed by a gurgling noise. Since these noises were less than reassuring, Sakura's hand was already on the handle when dark water began to bubble from the faucet. Soon enough, the water ran clean and clear.
Satisfied with both the water's safety and the working faucet, Sakura set to stirring up a batch of lemonade with a small smile settled on her lips.
Sakura felt her boys approaching before she heard them, which was saying something. Her precise control of chakra made her a decent enough sensor, but tracking Naruto and Sasuke's chakra was like aiming for Hokage mountain with a rock-impossible to miss.
The Yondaime's son and Last Uchiha had always had large amounts of chakra, but after the war the strength had grown to extreme levels. Sai, while talented, was no where near their level and took a little bit more effort to pick out. However, while Naruto and Sasuke's chakra billowed out from them in thick waves, Sai's was tight and controlled-much like Sakura's own. Kakashi's signature was absent, but Sakura figured he had ditched to go see Anko in the hospital. He had been doing that a lot recently.
Overwhelming chakra and strength did not mean they were above bickering with each other, however. When Sakura began to hear individual words among the shouting, she determined they were probably just finishing up an argument.
"...your ass any day, teme!"
"Hn, you can try dobe."
"I don't think Ugly would take kindly to having to heal you two because you were being idiots," Sai interrupted, "Where is she anyway?"
"Kitchen," Sasuke responded immediately.
Sakura was shocked he knew where she was before she realized that she probably gave off a decent chakra signature as well. Nothing compared to them, of course, but enough to track her down by. Plus, she would bet all four members of Team 7 could track each other down by chakra signature alone.
"Really? Maybe she'll cook for us. Sakura-chan!" Sakura heard Naruto call from just outside the kitchen, "Where are you? I'm thirsty! You should make us a drink-and food-but mostly drinks!"
Sakura's eye twitched and she found herself stalking angrily to meet him with one hand forming a fist and one supporting the tray of drinks. Naruto's blue eyes lit up in excitement when he saw the drink tray, but quickly turned to horror when Sakura's angry expression and raised hand registered. He immediately covered his head to protect against any attack she launched, but was unprepared for the grip that secured the front of his collar. Although he stood two inches taller than her 5 foot 3 inches, she hoisted him easily into the air.
"Don't expect me to make drinks for you because I'm the girl!" she shouted while shaking him firmly. Naruto nodded frantically and gave nonsensical apologies.
"...I mean you're the best! And only the best can make the lemonade…."
Convinced her lesson had been taught, Sakura lowered her blonde teammate to the ground with a good-natured eye-roll. Naruto was a lovable idiot who never meant any harm-but sometimes needed "gentle" correcting. She was only mildly successful in hiding the evil smirk that resulted from the thought.
"Anyway," Sakura cut off Naruto's still-going-ramble by handing him a glass ("Yees. So thirsty!"). Once Naruto was happily gulping away, she handed drinks to the two remaining boys who pointedly looked at Naruto as they elected to receive their beverages with what they obviously thought was far more grace and class than Naruto had shown.
"As a matter of fact, I did make lemonade because I thought it would be such a good reward for all of us on a hot day like this," Sakura set down the tray on the nearby counter and grabbed the last drink for herself. The small sip of cold liquid soothed every part of her mouth that it touched, and had an overall refreshing taste that Sakura savoured with closed eyes. She opened them to find Sasuke watching her, an unreadable expression on his face.
"Oh! By the way, your water works," she chirped before enjoying another drink.
Sasuke nodded his thanks before returning his attention elsewhere.
"AH!" Naruto exclaimed, thunking his empty glass back onto the tray. He rubbed his stomach happily with closed eyes for a couple of seconds before the bright orbs snapped open once again.
"Hey, Teme, Sakura-chan, remember when Kakashi-sensei got us lemonade while we were painting that old hag's house?"
"And the stuff was so sour our faces were stuck like that for, like, half an hour?" Sakura remembered, swirling her drink absent-mindedly.
"Lemonade can make your face freeze?" Sai asked, somewhat alarmed.
Naruto responded before Sakura could. While sometimes inappropriate, Sai really was trying his best to learn and adapt to social cues, and Sakura tried her best to accommodate him by answering his questions and explaining.
"NO! Sai, you robot," Naruto guffawed, doubling over in laughter. His laughter paused, and Naruto reemerged with a mischievous smirk, "This one time, though, teme's whole body got frozen because be was too slow to avoid a jutsu."
Sasuke stiffened, and Sakura found herself stiffening as well, awaiting Sasuke's reaction at a direct dig to his pride. He had done extremely well up until now, but Sakura wasn't stupid enough to believe that everything would just snap back to how it used to be. They had all grown up, and the path there had been rougher than expected. There were bound to be some skeletons in everyone's closet, and not all would be cleared out so easily-especially Sasuke's.
"I was not too slow," Sasuke seethed, "I trusted you to perform a jutsu and you screwed it up."
"Whatever, you were still too slow to dodge it."
"Hn."
"So if Traitor-kun trusted an idiot, does that make him an idiot as well?"
A deep rush of air swooped down Sakura's lungs and settled there, refusing to be let out. She hadn't been expecting this from Sai, although really, she should have known better, and this was a whole can of worms she had hoped to open another day. It was common knowledge that Sasuke left because he believed bonds were a weakness. Even if he was home now, it was a little too much to hope that he had changed his mind.
Wanting to change the topic before she had to hear Sasuke's potentially emotionally-shattering answer, Sakura had just opened her mouth when he responded.
"...No."
There was a beat of silence-even Sai seemed to sense the gravity of the answer-and then Naruto and Sakura broke out in grins. Their eyes met for a split gleeful second, both ecstatic with the answer, before schooling their faces to mildly pleased and taking the focus off Sasuke.
"Well of course not!" Naruto responded, slapping Sasuke on the back to which he received a scathing glare from the teammate in question, "it would be dumb NOT to trust the future hokage! Believe it!"
"Unless you trusted him with being on time, picking out lunch, acting dignified, dressing professionally…" Sakura ticked Naruto's faults on her free hand.
"Aw, Sakura-chan, don't be mean!"
"You always pick ramen!" Sakura argued back, fake anger lacing her voice. It would take the decimation of Konoha to ruin her mood at the moment, but bickering with Naruto was so natural, "and you almost cost us a mission once with your ridiculously loud mouth!"
"I remember that mission, Ugly, and I think the fact that you smashed Dickless into the ground for being inappropriate drew more attention than his inappropriate comment."
"Hey! So not true!" Sakura countered. She then caught sight of Sasuke's raised eyebrow, and a light blush rose to her cheeks as she amended her statement, "Well, maybe."
They stood like that reminiscing, telling (slightly exaggerated) stories of their genin missions to Sai, and teasing each other for another hour. Lemonade glasses had been filled and emptied until both the glasses and the pitchers stood empty-and still the conversation flowed. While Sakura took part in most of the conversations, she relished the time she wasn't speaking.
It was then that she was able to discreetly watch her recently returned teammate.
Of course, the raven-haired nin only spoke when he was either correcting Naruto or insulting him, but it was still something. He even explained the importance of the bell test to Sai, but Sakura suspected that was only because it offered a perfect opportunity to take a dig at his best friend. Regardless, Sasuke had never seemed too disinterested-or even plain walked away as she feared he would-and a small smirk seemed to be a permanent feature on his face.
This was what she wanted more than anything: Sasuke to be happy. Whether he had agreed or not, Sakura had always known he belonged at home, with them. Now, seeing him struggle to hide a grin when Naruto spluttered at an insult from Sai, or blush at the frankness of one of his questions, Sakura felt complete. Like a piece of the puzzle that had been just out of reach was finally in place.
"Hey, Sakura-chan, are you even listening? What'cha grinning like that for? It's scary."
"I believe she is either on the verge of becoming a homicidal maniac, or she is fawning over Traitor-kun. Which do you think it is, Dickless?"
To his credit, Naruto did not immediately agree with Sai. Instead, he choked, his gaze pinging from Sai, to Sakura, to Sasuke, and back to Sai again all the while sputtering incoherently. Sakura felt the heat rush to her face, and could not decide how to react. Her hand was itching to smack Sai and deny the claim, but a large part of her was so embarrassed by the truth she wanted to just run away and not even try to deny it.
"Wouldn't be the first time." Sasuke inserted, breaking the silence.
Astounded, both Naruto and Sai turned to stare at Sasuke. In typical Sasuke fashion, he seemed completely unperturbed by the whole situation, leaning casually against the kitchen's entry. He didn't seem uncomfortable with the idea that Sakura was still in love with him, but neither did he seem repulsed. As much as Sakura was pleased Sasuke wasn't making a big deal out of the situation, she wanted him to do something-anything-to give a hint of how he felt.
Goddammit, what does a woman have to do to get a little insight? she cursed, draining the last of her cup in a sullen gulp. Sake would be better.
"Ah," Sai said, nodding with sage-like understanding, "You are referring to when Ugly followed you everywhere as a genin. This is fitting, because we were just talking about when you were young, and this is also a joke to relieve the obvious sexual tension that has formed between you three."
A light bulb went off in the recesses of her mind at Sai's words. Maybe she could...up the sexual tension? Sasuke had never reacted to any of the sexually forward women that Sakura had seen, so if she could get something out of him...then maybe…?
Drawing up her courage, Sakura ignored Naruto's outbursts ("There is no sexual tension!" "I only have eyes for Hinata-chan!") and squared off against Sasuke. The raven-haired nin raised one elegant eyebrow at her posture, but his expression wasn't foreboding. It was more of a challenge, a dare to continue on.
It gave her the final boost of confidence she needed to pull off this trick.
"Well, who could blame me?" Sakura asked, sassily cocking her hip and flicking her eyes over his mostly exposed torso, "Sasuke-kun has grown up and filled out since I last saw him. He was pretty much a runt when he left."
Blindsided was a pretty accurate description of the three boys' faces. Naruto's jaw hung open, and Sai was blinking rapidly. The barest hints of a blush were beginning to rise to Sasuke's cheeks, when, using her last vestige of courage, Sakura patted his cheek condescendingly and disappeared into the kitchen with the empty glasses.
Her back was safely turned, hiding her face, when Naruto broke into giant whoops of laughter.
"Oh, Teme, you just got owned!"
Sakura didn't hear Sasuke respond, but she could imagine him rolling his eyes and turning away from Naruto, his jaw taut-most likely with frustration. Sakura's heart continued to beat out a euphoric pace and she rinsed all the glasses and resealed them.
She got him to blush!
"Okay guys, time to leave," Sakura said turning to face her team once again. They were very obviously enjoying torturing the Uchiha for his red cheeks, and Sakura put on her best "mother" face: pursed lips and disapproving furrowed brows, "I think we've infringed on Sasuke's hospitality long enough. Let's go."
"Aw, but Sakura-chan, we haven't seen Sasuke in forever!" Naruto whined plaintively, rocking back on his heels and extending his arms to demonstrate how long forever was, "He deserves to be bothered for at least another hour."
"If you are looking to extract payment for the time that Sasuke abandoned you I would suggest at least three more years of forced company," Sai interjected, dead-pan always. Then he turned to face Naruto with something close to a quizzical expression on his face, "Does that mean you'll be bringing Sasuke on your date with the Hyuga tonight?"
Naruto looked at the pasty boy in front of him. His brow was furrowed in thought, mouth open as if he had forgotten what he was about to say, and his finger froze, pointed in the air at Sai. He remained like this for a couple of beats before throwing his hands up in the air, flailing them about, grabbing his head, and finally running straight out the door all the while screaming, "I FORGOT ABOUT MY DATE WITH HINATA-CHAN!"
The remaining trio stared after their rambunctious teammate, observing the way he left Sasuke's new front door flapping in the wind. It was nearly night now, and the dark clouds in the distance showed a storm was about to blow in. It was always like this in the summer months of Konoha: the day would be unbearably hot and the night would bring thunderous clouds.
"Hn," Sai remarked, sounding so like a certain Uchiha both Sakura and Sasuke jumped, "Now that Dickless is gone, I should go too. I don't want my scrolls to get wet, so I need to get home before the rain begins."
Without another word, the ex-root member walked out, leaving Sakura and Sasuke behind. The atmosphere was suddenly a lot tenser than it was not even ten minutes ago and obviously neither knew what to say. Sure, they had just talked for an hour, but then Naruto had been their mediator-Sakura didn't think they had initiated conversation or directed a comment at the other once.
Of course, Sakura was the first one to break.
"I think I should be heading home, too. I've got morning shift at the hospital, and I still have all those scrolls Tsunade assigned me to read…," she trailed off, backing towards the door while the rubbing her head anxiously, "Besides, can't have you getting annoyed by my presence already!"
Sasuke nodded and leaned more fully on the wall. His mind was obviously elsewhere, as his gaze was far-off. Hopefully, he was only settling in to having his on house and not dwelling on any past demons.
Sakura was about to step over the threshold when she heard him speak.
"Did you say something, Sasuke-kun?" she asked, head cocked inquisitively. After seeing him shake his head "no" she shrugged, "Guess I'm hearing things. G'nite Sasuke-kun."
"I said, 'You're not that annoying'," Sasuke repeated, barely loud enough for Sakura to hear him from the patio.
Sakura held onto the doorframe with one hand and leaned backwards to look into the house. She had been ready to set off at a run to her house—the small drops of rain that had begun to fall signaled the rest was soon to follow—and only a quick snag of the door had kept her in place when she heard Sasuke speak again.
Now, Sasuke was determinedly looking elsewhere, and if he wasn't concealed by a shadow Sakura would have sworn she saw a blush on his cheeks. Unsure of what to say Sakura let go of the doorframe and centered herself outside of it instead. Since Sasuke still wasn't looking at her, she crossed her arms and looked around the newly finished house instead. Obviously, this was a delicate moment, and though her inner-self wanted to run around screaming in success, Sakura knew she had to choose her words carefully.
"You know, Sasuke-kun" Sakura began, drawing in a deep breath and relishing the scents that accompanied it: newly cut wood, upturned gravel, fresh paint, "Maybe Uchiha manor isn't the only thing getting a fresh start."
Maybe we can have a fresh start, too.
There was no immediate response from Sasuke. From her place near the doorway, Sakura could see the way he was taking controlled breaths as he continued to look off into the distance-where, if she was not mistaken, their old team picture was placed. Finally, he turned his gaze to her, obsidian eyes boring intently into her emerald ones.
"Maybe not."
This is a piece originally posted on my Tumblr for SasuSakuMonth. I've decided to upload all of my oneshots for this year here. There are a couple prompts I haven't written yet, so I'll only upload prompts up to my first incomplete prompt, even if I have ones written after it. Hope you enjoy, and please leave comments! Participating in this month was really mean to get me out of my writer's block and (hopefully) keep everyone in character better.