Rated M for some smut scenes, nothing too explicit though.
This was originally intended to be a shorter fic, but I had so much fun writing this that it just got longer and longer. This is my take on what happens immediately after Sasuke and his family are back in Konoha after defeating Shin and his clones. Hope you guys like it!
During the day, Sakura dotes on him in every way possible.
When the three of them enter their new apartment, she takes his hand and flits eagerly from room to room, pointing out this specific detail and that particular feature with great ceremony. He smiles a little as she pulls him along, her light green eyes constantly darting back to his face and her chatter filling up every moment of the tour. There is a nervous energy about her as she guides him around the house and welcomes him into their new home. Sensing that something was amiss, Sasuke keeps quiet about it until the very end.
After they stop to sit down in their living room, he asks her point blank what exactly had happened to their previous house. His wife looks down at the floor sheepishly and fidgets at the edge of her shirt. As Sarada cheerfully informs him that their old home had collapsed due to "an unforeseen loss of temper," Sakura cringes and looks at anywhere but him.
Sasuke sighs and rubs the bridge of his nose. This had been their third house destroyed by this so-called "temper" in twelve years. There were going to be even fewer moneylenders now- if there were any left in the first place- willing to offer their services for a fourth after this debacle.
The mere thought of the state of their finances fills him with dread, but Sasuke pushes it aside as he looks up at the room in front of him. He had more important matters to focus on.
In the privacy of their room, he looks out the window as Sakura examines his body for any injuries. Other than the lacerations he'd received from shielding Sarada, there isn't much else that warrants a second glance. Sakura's hands are warm and gentle on his skin. He closes his eyes and feels the thrum of her chakra flowing into him, weaving and stitching together all that has been torn apart.
She takes off the bandages on his left arm and clucks her tongue at the smell emanating from them. Scolding him for not changing them as often as he should, she applies a sweet smelling ointment and wraps a fresh roll of gauze around his arm. Sakura takes what remains of his left arm into her hands, rubbing out all the air bubbles and massaging the muscles there all at once. Once she is done, he opens his eyes again.
"How's your arm?" he asks.
Sakura twists her own left arm to glance at the spot where two razors had previously embedded themselves into her skin. All that remained were two light red marks. The cuts hadn't been deep in the first place, but he wanted to make sure.
"Oh that? I've healed it."
He nods, yawning. Sasuke stretches like a cat, feeling the tautness of the new bandages against his arm and the warmth of the sun on his skin.
He eats a tomato as he watches Sakura fuss around with his cloak, looking for any signs of wear and tear. Upon finding plenty, she takes out the round tin box of thread that she keeps on top of their dresser and begins to meticulously pick at the black cloth with her needle. Meanwhile, Sarada is bouncing around the room, recounting all that had occurred in her adventures with the Seventh Hokage and Chouji's daughter.
When Sarada reaches the part about abandoning the dobe on the flimsy excuse of having to use the bathroom, he chuckles softly. His daughter's face lights up and she pauses to look at him.
"What were you and the Seventh like when you were younger?" Sarada asks shyly.
"He was… a loud-mouthed idiot who kept getting himself into trouble. He was always looking for attention. The worst at almost everything in our class at the Academy," Sasuke replies. "But he was my best friend and rival, and he still is today."
"He was also your papa's first kiss," Sakura adds in, nonchalantly.
The stunned expression on Sarada's face is one that he does not particularly care for. He flashes a peeved look in Sakura's direction. His wife is doubled over, spools of thread slipping off of her lap as she cackles with mischievous glee.
"Well, he was yours too, in case you've forgotten," he shot back.
Sakura's eyes widened. "T-That so did not count," she managed to sputter out. "He would've died if I didn't."
"I don't want to hear this anymore," their daughter exclaims, hurriedly leaving the room with her hands covering her ears.
Surprised at her exit, the two of them trade glances for a brief second before bursting into laughter at the same time.
They take a walk later that afternoon. The air is even more hot and humid than it was earlier- such is the nature of a Konoha spring- but he likes being out in the open again, accompanied by his family. The sky is an unending, vibrant blue, the grass the color of his wife's eyes. Sakura talks to him about her day as they walk along the beaten dirt path. He holds her small hand in his own and the two of them watch Sarada skip ahead of them.
The last time he had seen her, his daughter had still needed help standing on her own two legs. Sarada had grown so much (too much, he thinks sadly) without him being present. As they pass by the lake, Sasuke stops to take in the scenery. He stares at the dock, weathered and sturdy, unchanged through all these years. It was a place that unearthed many memories from a time long ago, when he still believed that the world around him was incapable of sheer cruelty.
He remembers being a little boy here, wanting to prove to his father that he was worthy of his surname. The Uchihas had been a clan that prized their fierce love, ancient traditions, and battle prowess above all else. To their sorrow, all that had brought about was the almost complete annihilation of their clan. Sasuke himself had dedicated most of his life to both his new and old family, but he wonders if such dedication is too obsolete, too foolhardy for it to exist in this world. It is the light and darkness in his life, the thing that brings him the most joy and the most pain.
When he feels a hand on his shoulder, he flinches, startled. He turns to find his wife and daughter looking at him quizzically. Sakura is the first to act, smiling and giving his shoulder a quick squeeze. She takes him by the hand again and they walk together in silence for the rest of the stroll.
At dinnertime, Sakura sets a platter of fish in front of him.
"Eat," she commands, in a tone that brooked no argument. "You look like you've lost weight, dear."
She goes back into the kitchen to bring out more dishes. Sarada sits to his left, animatedly describing her classes at the Academy. He listens, nodding occasionally and giving an affirmative "Hn" here and there. Naruto was not wrong in describing Sarada as more similar to her mother than she was to him.
Sakura sets more dishes in front of them and he notices that she has prepared all his favorites- tomato salad, soba with fiery red peppers, edamame soaked in sesame oil, and sweet yatsuhashi. She sits down and before he can protest, she starts piling food into his ricebowl. He watches, amusedly, as the small mountain of food before him gradually becomes taller and taller.
"Good," Sakura declares, tapping the edge of his bowl with her chopsticks. "Now eat."
He obliges, of course. There was no other foreseeable way around this. When he finishes his meal, Sarada pokes him in the side with her elbow and whispers into his ear:
"Mama does that with me too."
Later, when Sarada has gone to bed, he sits back with Sakura in the living room, a bottle of sweet sake in his hand. He does not like to drink too often, but he thinks that today's reunion is enough cause for celebration. She sits on his lap as they sip at their cups, asking him about his mission.
"Did you learn anything new about… her from Shin?"
"No, turns out he was just another Orochimaru test subject. Where he keeps finding them, willing or unwilling, is beyond me, but the old snake has his ways."
"Shin told me as much when I was in his lab. Another dead end." Sakura sighs.
"I do have another lead I want to investigate though. A scroll." He doesn't say much else, lest Sakura should worry.
"How much longer will you be gone?" she asks, as she always does.
"I don't know," he replies, as he always does.
She curls herself into a ball and leans into his chest. Sasuke puts away his cup and hugs her tighter to him. It is a while before she speaks again.
"I miss you so much," she says in a tiny voice that breaks his heart.
During the deep of night, he dotes on Sakura in one of the few ways he knows how.
Sakura is beautiful like this, wound up, needy, and naked as the day she was born.
Earlier that night, he'd made her come twice and she had all but begged for more. He could tell there was a deep-seated hunger in every touch and caress that she made, every cry of pleasure she let out. Not that it came as a surprise. Sakura had been waiting for him to come home for most of her life. As for him, Sasuke was reluctant to admit that he was as red-blooded as any man, but the truth of the matter was that when he was on the road, he had often thought about Sakura in this specific way as well.
He takes her from behind as she moans his name. Warm, wet, and tight, she felt so good, so very right. It had been too long since he'd been with her like this. His body was beginning to feel the weariness from the day's activity, but Sasuke is still determined to make the most out of their time together.
Twelve years, he muses, twelve whole years and I'm still an idiot who can never bring himself to say the right words.
Thrust after thrust, he fucks her with with a passion that he rarely expresses elsewhere, if at all. Every kiss was a token of his affection, every thrust was a manifestation of his need to be near her, every moan was proof of his loss of inhibition. What he loves about Sakura is that she has always understood, without the need for words, what he was truly saying.
"I love you Sasuke-kun, I love you I love you I…" Sakura sobs quietly as he pounds into her. Whether her cries are from pleasure or sorrow, he is not sure. The sound of her voice soon fades away, but her words are burned into his memory.
Gritting his teeth, he spends himself in her, hips bucking forcefully against her body. When he finishes, Sasuke collapses onto his side, bringing her with him and burying his face in her hair. He holds her close, in this most intimate of embraces, until they are both asleep.
In the morning twilight, he wakes to the sound of the shower running. The world around him is still a deep navy blue, untouched by the sun and the spectrum of colors that it brings along. Sakura has always been an early riser, and even though he was more of a night owl himself, Sasuke can see why his bed was usually half-empty in the mornings he'd spent with her. There was a newness to everything around him, an air of infinite possibilities.
He opens the door to the bathroom and walks into the cloud of shampoo fragrance and steam. Leaving the door open, he asks, "May I join you?"
"If you're going to be that polite, I don't see why not."
Sasuke shuts the door and steps towards the shower stall. The moment he enters, Sakura pushes him against the wall and touches him possessively, running her hands up and down his body. When she starts to sink to her knees, he grabs her arm before she can go any further.
"No," he says.
"But I thought-"
"You didn't think wrong." He brings her up to his face and meets her lips with his.
She tastes sweet, as sweet as the fragrance that permeates her light pink hair, as sweet as the way her fingers feel on his skin. He presses her closer to the wall with his bodyweight, lifting her left leg up with his hand. A moan escapes her lips as Sasuke draws his mouth down her neck, down her collarbone, down the valley of her breasts, down, down, down. When his mouth finds his intended destination, her body trembles and she arches her back in pleasure.
The sound, heat, and sensation of water envelops them as if it were a barrier, shutting out all the troubles of the world. As his wife writhes before him, Sasuke feels a warm contentment settle in his stomach, and he closes his eyes.
During the next day, Sasuke tries to be a parent.
He takes his tea at the dining table, reading the morning paper. Sakura shuffles around behind him in the kitchen, preparing breakfast. Sarada sits to his left again, munching at her cereal.
It was all so mundane. Weeks had passed since he'd eaten this well and he couldn't remember the last time he'd slept in a proper bed. He had already made his peace with being away so long but in times like these he realized just how much it had affected him. It almost felt as if he were living some other person's life.
"Do you have class today?" he asks Sarada.
Before his daughter could reply, Sakura answers for her. "I excused her from it. I thought we should spend more time together."
"I want to show you so many things, Papa," Sarada chimes in.
Papa. The word rings in his ears.
"Oh?" he says.
"You are staying, aren't you, dear?" Sakura emerges from the kitchen, ladle in her hand. She frowns. "I know I forgot to ask you earlier, but won't you stay for one full day at least? It's been so long."
He actually hadn't thought about it himself. Sasuke knows he shouldn't stay too long because the longer he stays, the harder it will be to leave.
Mulling it over in his head, he replies," I'll stay for today. I'll leave tomorrow."
The smiles on their faces stay in his mind for the rest of the day.
It is a beautiful spring day, the same as yesterday, though this time there is a slight breeze coming in from the south. They walk around Konoha in the morning sunlight. The streets are mostly empty at this time of day and the three of them are able to walk around mostly uninterrupted.
Sarada walks by his side and points out objects and places that are part of her everyday life. Her favorite dango shop, a cat that she always sees on the way to the Academy, the bench where she and Chou-Chou liked to talk at, an alleyway where she supposedly saw a rat as large as a dog. Sasuke quietly listens to it all, absorbing the information. Sakura walks behind them, watching.
When they turn the corner, Sarada stops abruptly. In the middle of the street, a blond figure clad in black turns toward them in surprise.
"Boruto! You're skipping class again? Exams are coming up!" Sarada shouts.
"Hmph. What's it to you?" Boruto turns to jump away, but before he can, Sasuke is in front of him, blocking his way. Startled, Boruto takes a step back.
"How'd you-"
"I think you should get back to class now. Your father may be too busy to deal with you but I'm not." Sasuke says quietly. He gives the blond boy the full brunt of his most intimidating glare. It was quite the easy thing to do, really. The brat had such an uncanny resemblance to the dobe.
"Who do y- is this guy your dad, Sarada?" Boruto turns back towards his daughter, trying to avoid looking directly at him.
"Yeah, he came back yesterday." Sarada runs up to them, Sakura following at her heels. "Come on, I'll walk with you back to the Academy. If you don't go, I'll have a higher chance of passing than you will." Sarada puts her hands on her hips and smiles at Naruto's brat.
"Feh, I don't see you in class too, Uchiha. Good luck with that." Boruto looks slightly disgruntled, but he follows his daughter all the same when Sarada walks further down the street. He turns back to look at Sasuke one last time and sticks out his tongue.
Sasuke watches them both walk away. He is not sure what to make of this exchange.
"Isn't it adorable?" Sakura steps to his side and rings her arm through his. "Though I was a lot more boy crazy when I was her age. Still, I didn't do too bad." She nudges him playfully.
"You're not helping," he grumbles.
"One… Two… Three… Oh, this is a good one!"
The camera flashes again and again. Sasuke tries not to blink. The smell of harsh chemicals lingers over the studio as he stands in front of the green backdrop with his family.
"And… we're done!" The photographer emerges from behind the camera. "Would you like to see the pictures?"
Their photos had been taken by one of the new and expensive digital cameras that had been invented just a year ago. The technological advancements that Konoha had made in a decade still amazed Sasuke, even if he did not like utilizing them as much as some other people did. The three of them walk towards the photographer and peer at the pictures projected onto the camera's little screen.
The smaller-sized versions of themselves stare back at them.
A complete family, he thinks. The Uchihas.
Sasuke looks at Sarada and sees that she is at the happiest he's ever seen her. He can't help but smile.
"When will the prints be done?" Sakura asks the photographer.
"Eh, in a few hours. I'd say come by at six."
"Wonderful… umm, how much was it again?"
As Sakura and the photographer walk over to the register, Sasuke takes his daughter to the reception area and sits down with her.
"You really like the photo, huh?" he asks.
"Yeah, it looks really good doesn't it?" Sarada chirps. "I- I don't really have that many photos of you. Mama has only one and we aren't in it so I thought it would be nice to have one with all of us."
Sasuke doesn't know what to say to this even when so many thoughts are rushing through his head. He clears his throat and says, "Well, we'll take more in the future. Just the two of us."
She smiles a little at that. "That sounds good."
An awkward silence follows as they both run out of things to say. It is interrupted by the presence of Sakura, who drags them both out the door.
"Come on you two, I need to put in an order for the cake."
"Cake?" both of them ask simultaneously.
"The cake for tonight of course," Sakura says excitedly. " I've invited Naruto and his family over for dinner today. After all, we've got to properly send you off, Sasuke-kun."
Sasuke slowly climbs up the wooden steps, taking his time. He had always dreaded the sight that awaited him at the very top. It had always served as a reminder of what had happened that fateful night, the night where all that was good had turned to ashes.
He had made the trip by himself. There wasn't much time left in the day and he knew he should be spending it with his family right now, but some private matters were better done alone.
Eventually, he reaches the top. The wooden gate is old and covered with moss and he pushes it aside with little resistance. Sasuke takes a deep breath, and looks at the sight in front of him.
Rows and rows of grave markers greet him, each one an individual tally of the losses he had suffered. He tries to keep his eyes to the ground. Ten to the right, twelve down, he repeats to himself, ten to the right, twelve down…
He arrives at his destination and stops. Three markers were driven to the ground before him. Two of them were made of the standard cedarwood, but the one in between was cruder, shorter, and made out of a darker wood. He had staked that one by himself after the war and it stands there to this day, slightly lopsided.
"I'm a father," Sasuke says to particularly no one. "And she's everything that I've hoped for, and more."
A leaf moves across the ground, buffeted by the wind. It makes a skittering sound as it tumbles across the dirt.
"The cycle has ended with me."
The wind stills, the leaf flutters to a stop. There is nothing but silence now.
"I just wanted you to know that what you did wasn't in vain. I've made so many mistakes but she- she-"
His voice breaks and the rest of his sentence is scattered to the wind.
Sasuke stands there until he cannot bear the silence any longer. He turns on his heel and rejoins the world of the living.
"TE-ME!" Naruto roars.
The Hokage claps him on the back, knocking the breath out of him. Sasuke gasps for air, resisting the urge to do the same but only in a far more impolite fashion.
The Uzumakis shuffle through the door and into their apartment. Hinata carries a large pot of stew in her hands as Naruto's daughter Himawari rushes past her, holding snacks and gifts in her small arms. Two clones walk in and out, bearing and unloading even more food dishes. Boruto comes in last, hands in his pockets with a surly expression on his face.
"Hello to you too, dobe," Sasuke replies. "I see you've brought enough to feed twice the amount of people here."
"You're back in the village again, Sasuke. We're going to celebrate." Naruto turns to Sakura and gives her a quick hug, making her lapse into giggles. He jumps over to Sarada and extends a fist out for a fist-bump, which Sarada gladly obliges. Sasuke feels a not-quite-so-small twinge of jealousy worm its way into him. Of course they would react this way. Naruto was more of a presence in both their lives than he was.
He notices that someone else is staring glumly at the Hokage's antics. Boruto stands against the wall, arms crossed, lips pursed. He kicks at one of the food containers lying on the ground and almost trips one of the clones walking by. Sasuke wonders what sort of relationship he has with his father.
After a few minutes, the clones have finished unpacking everything in the kitchen and they both disappear in a puff of smoke. Naruto claps his hands in the air, and they all head into the dining room.
It is a small affair, but a boisterous one. The dobe is at the center of it all, as he usually is. He listens to the stories that Naruto tells with a knowing smirk on his face. Most of it was pure bullshit, but Sasuke finds it pointless to correct any of it.
The food was overflowing in quantity, however, Sasuke does not eat much. The fare is too rich for it to sit well in his stomach after all the modest meals he's had within the last few months. Instead, he watches the people sitting around him at the table.
Naruto is entertaining Himawari and Sarada with tales of how he became the Seventh Hokage, each story becoming progressively more and more ludicrous. Sakura and Hinata converse in hushed tones over their bowls of stew, occasionally stopping to laugh at Naruto's retellings. Boruto is playing with his food and flicking parts of it off his plate, looking more bored by the minute.
His friend's son looks up at him suddenly, but Sasuke does not look away. He coolly meets the boy's defiant gaze.
"What's your problem, you creep?" Boruto finally asks.
"Boruto!" Hinata breaks away from her conversation with Sakura to scold him. She turns to him apologetically. "I'm sorry Sasuke, he's been so difficult recently-"
"It's alright," he interjects. Sasuke gets up from his chair slowly. A silence hangs over the room now. Everyone is watching the two of them. Naruto looks on, a frown on his face.
"My problem is your attitude," he tells Boruto. "You've been nothing but rude to me, disrespectful to your father as the Hokage, and generally unhelpful the moment you've stepped into this house."
He notices a flitting motion out of the corner of his eye. Sakura is agitatedly making a slicing motion across her throat with her hand. Sasuke ignores her.
"So if there's anyone with a problem in this room, it's probably you. You might be the Hokage's son, but you're just some punk kid who thinks he's above everything." With nothing else left to say, Sasuke sits back down in his chair.
Boruto is staring at him with an odd expression on his face. It isn't anger or embarrassment, he realizes, but surprise and a little of something else that he can't describe. In the split second that he sees this, Sasuke allows himself to believe that maybe he isn't as hopeless with kids as he thinks he is.
He feels a tap on his right shoulder. Naruto looks back at him, blue eyes unfathomable.
"Hey, let's talk, teme."
They go out to the balcony and look down at the view. Sprawling from east to west, Konoha is vast, labyrinthine, and dirty, but tonight it is illuminated with the golden light from the setting sun. There is a certain beauty to its griminess, a vibrant sense of life hidden in this concrete wild. It is a sight Sasuke doubts he will forget anytime soon.
"So," Naruto begins. "You're still a dick, Sasuke. A dick with no social skills."
"I don't deny that," he says.
The dobe sighs. "I would have socked you in the jaw for that if you hadn't been dead-on about Boruto. He's been mad at me since we've came back and he's taking it out on other people."
"Your son's too much like you when you were his age. Except he seems to dislike you."
"Yeah… it's… I don't know. I've tried, you know? But every time I do he doesn't respond. He just ignores me even more. I wish I could spend more time with him but this job is relentless. Even with the clones helping, I still have a hard time getting everything done."
Sasuke is silent, lost in thought. Naruto continues on.
"You sure were hard on him though. I don't think anyone's ever said that to his face."
"Better me than you."
Naruto squints his eyes at him, suddenly quiet. Sasuke knows that this is the visual approximation of Naruto having an original idea, and so he waits.
His friend finally speaks. "Hey, whenever you're back from the mission, would you be willing to mentor Boruto? Back there… I have a feeling he might listen to you more than if it was anyone else. He knows who you are and your reputation as a shinobi."
Sasuke had heard from Sakura that Naruto's son was a natural prodigy, one of the few differences he had with his father at that age. This could potentially be interesting. "I'll think about it."
"That's not a definite no, right? I'll take it." The dobe lightly punches him on the forearm. "When are you leaving?
"Tomorrow."
"So soon? Stay until the end of this week, you deserve it."
"I have a lead and I don't want to lose it. This whole Shin business has already taken too much of my time."
"Alright, alright. Send a hawk if you find anything, yea? Let's hope it goes somewhere this time." Naruto shakes his head. "I don't know how you do it, being away by yourself this long."
"That's not important. Just… look after them both when I'm gone. Especially Sarada. Don't let her wander out of the village again." Sasuke looks back at the scene inside his apartment. He could not bring himself to enjoy everyday situations like these just yet.
Naruto grins at him. "Of course I will, teme. I won't let anything happen to them. And if they do, well, runaway Uchihas are my specialty, dattebayo."
Sakura cuts the cake, a two-layer confection covered with fruit and slathered in cream. She puts the first slice in his plate and then raises her cup.
"To Sasuke-kun!"
"Kanpai!"
They all down their drinks, all with the notable exception of Boruto. Sakura begins to dole out slices for the rest of them, and they all line up one by one to receive their plate.
He takes a bite out of his cake, chewing it thoroughly. It is soft and spongy, but not too sweet, just the way he likes it. Having finished attending to their guests, Sakura sits down next to him and watches him eat.
"You're lucky that Naruto and Hinata haven't left yet, Sasuke-kun. They're far too kind to you," she says.
"I guess that's why we're still friends."
"You should apologize to Boruto."
"I don't see any reason to. All I did was state the truth."
"Sasuke-kun, please. Just do it. If not for Boruto, do it for me then." Sakura musses his hair and gets up from her chair.
He looks over at Boruto, sitting in the corner of the room. The brat is talking to Sarada with his plate in his hands, pushing a strawberry around with his fork. His daughter is listening to him with a sympathetic expression on her face. She pats his shoulder gently.
Sasuke gets up and walks towards them.
"Hey," he says.
Boruto looks up at him briefly and looks back down again. He doesn't say a word.
"Hey Papa," Sarada says softly.
"Hey," he says to her. Turning his attention back to Boruto, he sits down beside him. "Your father and I talked and he wants me to mentor you when I get back. I honestly don't want to, for obvious reasons."
"Papa!" Sarada says to him sharply. Boruto still refuses to meet his eye.
Sasuke continues on. "But if you were my student, I could teach you techniques and jutsus that exist nowhere else. Things that aren't taught at the Academy. Things that even the Hokage doesn't know, and will never know. So lose the attitude. You won't learn anything if you think you're the best at everything."
Without another word, he gets up from his seat.
As he walks back to the table, Sasuke notices out of the corner of his eye that Boruto is looking over his shoulder, watching him.
During the night of the second day, he prepares for his departure.
When their guests have left and everything in the dining room has been cleaned up, he retires to the room he shares with Sakura and begins to pack. His bag is fairly small and he does not bring many possessions along with him in the first place, so he is done within minutes.
"Papa?" Sarada sticks her head through the door.
"Yeah?" He gets up from the floor.
She walks over to him and he sees that she is holding an envelope in her hands.
"Mama picked up the pictures from the photographer's place. I thought you might want to take one with you when you're away." She pulls out a photo and gives it to him.
He looks at the photo in his hand. The three of them look back at him, happy, content, united.
For a moment, his resolve falters. He sits back down on the bed and stares and stares at the picture in his hand.
Sasuke had burned all the pictures of his old family- it had been too painful to see the tranquility in them and reconcile that with what had happened later. The memory of what their faces had looked like in death had been enough to keep him going during the years he had left the village. The only other photo he had kept with him was that of Kakashi and Team 7, his other family.
But this photo was the first he'd held in years that depicted him being in the company of the people he cherished. For once, it did not conjure up memories of the past, but dreams of a not too distant future. Everything he'd done for these last few years, and every step and action he would now take, could be traced to this one picture.
"Papa? Are you alright?" It had been a few minutes and Sarada is shifting uncomfortably in place.
"Yes… I'm fine, Sarada." Sasuke shakes his head, trying to clear his thoughts. "Thank you for giving me this, it means a lot. I'll take good care of it."
He smiles at her.
Sarada doesn't say anything, but she smiles back at him. Timidly taking a step back, she runs out the door.
In the hour of the ox, he lets Sakura have her way with him. It was only fair after all, considering that last night she had done the same with herself. This would also be their last opportunity to make love in weeks, months, or maybe even years. Sasuke wants her to remember this night for the days to come.
She had other goals in mind though. Unfortunately for him, one of them was being an enormous tease.
"Sasuke-kun," she coos, as she runs her fingers down his chest. "Don't you want me?" Sakura is perched on top of him, grinding her hips against his. She makes a series of exaggerated moans that she knows will only arouse him further.
"Get on with it, Sakura," he pants. "Why are you doing this?" Sasuke is flushed with need and every touch she makes causes him to squirm harder. He tries to get a good thrust into her, but she is moving around too much for him to find purchase. She giggles and climbs off of him.
Sasuke groans impatiently as he is denied yet again. This was the third time and the ache in his groin is becoming nigh unbearable.
"You're so cute when you're like this," purrs his minx of a wife, pinching his right cheek.
Right now, he wants nothing more than to grab her then and there and fuck her silly against their headboard, but Sasuke clenches his teeth and bears it all. Sakura can have her fun. There were plenty of other ways to get back at her that weren't limited to the bedroom.
"Please," he says gruffly. "Please, Sakura."
"Mmm, say that again, Sasuke-kun." She nips at the side of his neck and twirls a lock of his hair with her finger. "I like hearing you say that. You sound so... unsatisfied."
He sighs. This was going to be a long night.
Later, Sasuke watches the rise and fall of her chest.
He brings his right hand up to her forehead and taps the seal there with two fingers. Sakura mutters something in her sleep and shifts her body towards him.
The warmth of her body is comforting and he knows he will miss it terribly.
During the morning of the final day, he says his goodbyes.
Sasuke doesn't get much sleep, so he decides to watch the sun rise.
He jumps up to the rooftop of a nearby hotel and sits down with a leftover onigiri in his right hand. Leaning back on a chimney, he chews his food slowly as he observes his surroundings.
The sun is to his left, sending out amber rays of light into the deep blue sky. Hokage Rock is directly ahead of him with its seven giant faces adorning its sheer rock cliff. Above the monument, skyscrapers rise into the air. The huge buildings are a testament to both Konoha's endurance and technological progress- the New Konoha. The Rock divides these old and new parts of the village, but also serves as the connection between the two.
Sasuke is still not used to seeing the heads of his former sensei and teammate decorate the famous landmark. The new skyscrapers that stand so proudly on the horizon are foreign to him as some of the streets here in Old Konoha have become. The village continues to change and grow with or without him around, never stagnant, never looking back.
He thinks back to the time when he was consumed with rage and hatred, wanting nothing more than to tear everything down in this place he'd called home. How foolish it all seemed now. Konoha would always find a way to endure and now, Sasuke was part of the reason why.
The future is far more transcendent than the past, he thinks as the sun finally appears over the horizon, setting the sky ablaze with colors. A beautiful thing indeed.
Sasuke pokes her on the forehead and she blinks, surprised.
She brings her own hand up to her forehead and touches it with a look of wonderment on her face. Her dark eyes, so very much like his own, begins to water behind her red glasses.
Sarada turns back towards her mother, beaming. Sakura smiles back at her. In that brief moment, he could sense that they have some sort of understanding with each other. Perhaps they had shared a moment like this in the past as well.
Sakura walks up to them and hands him a little cloth bag with the Uchiha crest emblazoned on it.
"Here's your lunch," she says sprightly.
"Ah, right…" he takes the bundle with his right hand.
His wife leans forward, blushing, head beckoning at him for a kiss. She looks at him with an shy yet beseeching expression on her face, giving him the most charming look he's ever seen from her. He is reminded of a similar time years back at this very place, when she had asked to come with him on his journey for redemption. It had been hard to say no then, and it was just as hard now.
Sasuke stares at her, thinking it over in his head. Yesterday night was also something he wasn't going to forget easily. This would be as good as any time to remind her of that.
Meanwhile, their daughter stands beside them with wide eyes, curiously watching the whole exchange.
Sasuke turns on his heel and begins walking the opposite direction.
"See you, I'll be back." He smirks when he hears her cry of frustration.
"You're just- you're just gonna keep me waiting like this?!" Sakura shouts behind him.
"Bye Papa! Have a safe journey!" Sarada calls out. "Come back soon!"
Lunch in hand, he walks on, listening to the sound of their goodbyes. Sasuke knows that the road ahead is long and unpredictable, but he is confident in his knowledge of where it will always end.
Home.