Preserving a Memory.
Summary: After years of separation Team 7 is finally reunited only to find out that preserving a memory is not as easy as it seems. Naru/Saku/Sasu.
Disclaimer: I don't own any Naruto characters, obviously.
Chapter One:
She didn't always love Naruto 'in that way'. The way that came with kisses and hugs. And if you asked her, Sakura would openly admit it. He was her best friend. Someone who had seen her at her worst times and even her best ones. Someone who she thought would be the worst to make a lover. But as she laid there in his bed, their bed, she would also admit that the heart is a funny thing. It could change even without someone knowing.
This did not make her a bad person though.
'You can't pick who you love' Naruto would whisper that to her all the time whenever she would ask him why he picked her. Sure Hinata had come around as a prospect for his love but Sakura would always be there as Nartuo's shadow.
At first she felt selfish for wrecking what could have been a very happy and normal relationship between Hinata and Naruto. After all they did try to date many years ago but every time that she saw them together she would find some way to break them apart. It made her feel sick inside and even caused her to become nauseas. Many nights were spent with her head supported on the toilet seat in her small apartment while he held her hair. She would claim that it was a stress sickness she contracted from working too hard at the hospital. But she knew it was her own consciousness eating her emotions making her feel like a worthless person, to take away his deserved happiness. He would always wipe her mouth and hold her when it was done.
'You just need to stop working so hard Sakura-chan. Your not a bionic women.' And then he would smile in his goofy way which made the lies unbearable and the bile in her stomach take another turn around her stomach before it was back up her esophagus. But it didn't last forever. She could not spend the rest of her life perched in front of a toilet flushing her guilt away and when she first confronted Naruto about it, about what she had been doing his reaction was immediate separation from her life
He did not speak with her from months after the confession and Sakura thought she had lost him forever. He dedicated all his time on S-rank missions that would take him on journeys around to different villages, deep into enemy territories and god knows where else. It was when he was gone for so long that Sakura realized her true feelings for the blonde haired anbu. That's right, he was an anbu during this time of isolation from him. One of the top ranking ones. He had grown into a very respectable young man and his dream of Hokage was not one that seemed too far off anymore.
She tired to replace him with others but her thoughts and feelings would always return to him. When he would return from his long missions Sakura always made sure that she was the one who would fix him up even if he would not look at her or make a sound until she left the hospital room. It stayed this way for 10 months, almost a full year before he finally opened his mouth to her. It was really unexpected and Sakura nearly dropped the bandages in her hands when he said her name after such a long time.
It was right after a 3 month mission to Sand to help Gaara and the others over turn some rebellions in that village. It did not really require Naruto's help but the Kazekage had requested his presence and Naruto who was still avoiding things in Konaha jumped at the chance when it was presented to him by Tsunade.
Sakura did not know all the details about the mission as it was classified information but it had left Naruto with some loss of sight, at least when he tired to look far away. Up close he could make up shapes and even small typed words on a page from a volume of Icha Icha Paradise which Tsunade had caught him looking at after finishing a treatment on him. It had not taken him all but 5 seconds of her turning her back on him before she found him with his nose pressed up against the pages squinting to read the erotic text before him.
'To much time in the sun and sand.' Tsunade had informed Sakura when she was briefing her on his condition. 'Need to keep his eyes bandage so he does not go about straining them too hard. He actually does not need them bandage but knowing Naruto he would probably strain them while trying to read the next copy of Icha Icha Paradise in the dark after the lights in his hospital room were out which I already caught him doing.'
It was these pointless bandages that actually gave Sakura a second chance with Naruto. She had convinced Kaori who was a nurse at the hospital to let her sneak in with her while she was suppose to be re-bandaging him up for the night. She had been longing to see him again and even hear from him again even if the conversation was not meant for her. So she waited for Kaori to step into the room and came in right after her.
'Hello Naruto, I came to give you a fresh set of bandages.' Sakura remember the nurse saying. Naruto had not said anything in response instead his head was already facing Sakura's direction. Sakura remembered her heart stopping then at that moment all those years ago.
'You know Sakura…' His voice was emotionless at first she remembered. 'It's really rude not to announce when you have entered a room.' And then it turned into a light laugh.
Five years from that day and here she was now. She felt his lips on the back of her neck and she knew he had woken up when his hands started to make their way through her now long again hair. It got stuck on his wedding ring and pulled a bit causing Sakura to mumble.
"Idiot…." Her word was nonchalant and she turned over and looked up to Naruto as the light from the blinds in their bedroom filtered in the morning sun. His head was resting on hand which was proped up by his elbow. His hair which was kept a bit longer was flatted from a night of sleep.
"Not the most romantic thing to hear when you wake up Sakura-chan." Naruto teased her with a smug look on his face his teeth in a big cat like grin.
"Well maybe if you did not wake me up by pulling my hair out I would not have to greet you with such an endearment." She poked his nose with her index fingerexaggerating certain wordsas she started to lecture him about the fine art of waking a women. More like the fine art of waking Sakura.
It was moments like this thateven though Sakura had not always loved Naruto 'in that way', she did now. But it was also moments like this that were soon to disapear. For it had been manyyears since acertainsharingan using man would have admitted to not loving Sakura 'inthat way'.
Author's Note:
This fiction will be a Naru/Saku/Sasu fic. The timeline might be a bit jumpy but I want to deliver as much past and present as I can to round out this story. Thank you for reading my first fic. Constructive comments welcomed.