Mutual Agreement

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

A/N: For SasuSaku Month at LiveJournal. The prompt is Post Canon: Close. Like A Missing Piece, Mutual Agreement barely, barely fits. Also, this is probably going to end up as clichéd, but . . .

Drabble, ultimately. Featuring the classic OOCs of post-canon ishallforgetabouthim!Sakura and happy!Sasuke. No visible plot in sight. Whatever comes, I write. (But it'll probably be planned some way or another. Plotless fics give me headaches.)

Chapter One

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It was supposed to be unbearable, impossible, for them. Sasuke—coming back to Konoha. It was supposed to be painful, it was supposed to hurt.

But it didn't. Sakura felt nothing, not when she saw Sasuke passing the streets, crowded by thankful villagers, not when she witnessed Kakashi walking over to greet him, not even when Naruto boastfully pronounced to the world of his "great deed for bringing Sasuke back." Sakura did nothing but stared blankly at the celebration before her, with streetlights and festival lamps, with children laughing and families cheering. It was joyous, and Sakura felt nothing.

The next day Sakura walked over to the Team 7 meeting place, reminded the day before by a messenger from Naruto, who was too busy to go see her himself. Sakura's feet walked over hard dirt with a tap tap tap, her head held high, face blank, posture perfect. She walked around a few trees, and saw Sasuke.

He was standing there, staring up through the leaves with the biggest smile she had ever seen.

He didn't hear her. He didn't see her either, as his eyes were closed. The calm expression across his face, along with his smile—he looked more at peace than she had ever seen him.

The moment, it seemed too private to intrude. But Sakura was mesmerized by him, not his handsomeness, but his face that looked so much like before. Before Orochimaru came upon them on that accursed day. Before he was filled with so much hatred.

And so she paused in her steps, her eyes drinking in the scene. She was trapped in a spell.

He . . . He was so close.

A squirrel chittered and scampered around her legs, unfazed by the presence of a killer. Sakura didn't noticed the critter, and gave an intake of breath in surprise when its busy tail brushed along her leg.

Yes, mighty Sakura Haruno, the best healer in the world besides the Godaime Tsunade, the angel of the battlefield, the pink-haired girl with an iron fist, was ticklish.

However, that broke the moment. Hearing her gasp, Sasuke opened his eyes.

Their eyes met for a moment, before Sakura turned her head, unable to meet his stare.

Seeing that Sasuke wasn't about to talk anytime soon, Sakura cleared her throat and spoke, "Kakashi-sensei and Naruto are late, I see."

There was an amused tilt of his lips. "The dobe isn't coming today; he was very drunk last night."

Sakura inwardly sighed. She knew she should've been there to stop his drinking. Oh well. Hopefully Hinata would drag his butt back home. She was his girlfriend, after all.

Then Sakura realized that she was having a conversation with Sasuke. Sasuke Uchiha. She waited for her heart to beat like it had done so many times before, or for some kind of anger to rise, whether at his betrayal of Konoha, or his two murder attempts.

Neither came.

She held his gaze once more, and was able to muster a smile. A real one.

War was over, Madara forever destroyed, and Sasuke was back to Konoha.

What was there not to be happy about?

She understood his unspoken offer. She would not mention his deeds during the wild exile, and he would not mention her love confession. She would forget the madness in his eyes, and he would forget how she once (naively) offered to follow him, to do everything she could for him.

The past would be erased. He would never again be anything more than a teammate, like how she would never be more than a friend.

It was a mutual agreement.