It Was Always You

by nakenochny

She finally understood. He hadn’t said it, but she understood. He had said everything he could possibly have ever said and more, just not in the most conventional of ways.

So I've been going back and forth with this for probably the better part of the last month. I've written and rewritten this TEN times before I finally just decided that there was no way that I could make this into a chapter story. It seems a tad rushed to me, but maybe that's because I was planning to chapter it from the beginning? Anyway, it's total fluff when you get right down to it. Please let me know what you think, good or bad. I could really use the constructive criticism.

Also, for the sake of the fluff, the whole business with Madara never happened. Sasuke avenged his clan and who knows what happened to Taka. Whether or not Sasuke knows the truth about everything ... well, that's up to you.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or the characters in this story. I only own the writing and I'm not planning to make any money from this.

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There were many things that Haruno Sakura had felt in her seventeen year lifetime, many of those emotions on a regular basis. She had felt happy, sad, despondent, frustrated, and excited – among many other things. One thing that she hadn't felt so regularly was confusion. She had felt it, alright – who hadn't been confused at least a couple of times in their life? But the one thing she wondered as she made her way from her shift at the hospital to her lonely little apartment was if anyone had felt as truly stymied as she was feeling at the current moment.

Things were going great; it wasn't as if her life was in shambles. Sasuke had returned to the village nearly half a year prior after avenging his clan and was adjusting well – he was even talking to her in more than monosyllabic grunts; she was deputy head medic at the hospital and had been for nearly eight months, and all of her precious people were safe, happy, and health. What wasn't to be happy about?

For the past two months, Haruno Sakura had been getting love letters from a secret admirer – no, not love letters, love notes. It started out small, complementing things about her that said secret admirer liked. She thought it was nice; it was a good thing, too, for Sakura had started to wonder at her assets.

She hadn't gone on a date in months, which was strange seeing as how she had no shortage of offers for them prior to the first note she had received. It was bizarre, one minute she was practically beating them off with a stick, and the next? Nothing. Even Inuzuka Kiba – who had done nothing but ask for her company for the better part of the past year – was keeping his distance.

She couldn't make heads or tails of the situation. It was no matter though, for after the dating pool dried up she decided to throw herself into her work. She was intent on getting as much out of her apprenticeship with the Godaime Hokage – the slug sannin, Tsunade – and she had only a limited amount of time to do so. So the offers for dates dwindling down to nothing didn't bother her so much.

What she found strange, though, was that when she mentioned it, everyone went mum. What made it even stranger was that should there be multiple persons that she was talking to, they would all share this glance that said that they knew something. She couldn't even beat whatever it was out of Naruto, who was nearly as good at keeping secrets as Ino was on a bad day.

The notes slowly increased in their frequency, going from once a week to almost daily. She still found them as sweet as the day that she had originally received one, but she couldn't help but begin to think that something was going on. Surely, someone was up to something.

But who? She didn't think it could be any of her original suitors, because nothing of this sort had happened before and none of them had asked her for a date in nearly two months. So who could it be? The pool was narrowed down significantly by taking out her former suitors, leaving mostly older jonin and wallflowers. And the women.

Somehow, she knew that her secret admirer was not a woman, so that category was ruled out quickly. The person knew her well enough, so it wasn't anyone she didn't know.

Really the only people that left were Kakashi, Gai, Genma, and Sasuke.

Genma and Gai were off the list immediately – Genma simply because he wouldn't be bothered to try to woo a woman and Gai because he was, well, Gai. He loved his spandex so much she wasn't sure he had even looked at a woman. Kakashi would never try to cross that line and he got all of the romance he would ever need from his beloved Icha Icha. Sasuke was … Sasuke. There was just no way.

So who the hell was it?

She huffed a long-suffering sigh as she reached her apartment complex and made her way up the stairs. She knew that she was sure to have mail, but she honestly couldn't be bothered with it at the moment. It could wait until morning.

She slid the key to her apartment in the lock and made quick work of the lock before walking into the apartment and tossing her keys onto a table nearby the door before walking over and flopping onto the couch.

As her eyes settled onto a small box on her coffee table – the box that held all of the notes from the mystery man who would not seem to get out of her head – she decided that whoever the man was, if he didn't stop beating around the bush soon, she wouldn't even bother to give him a chance. Of course, that was banking on the fact that it was a man and not a boy – it wouldn't have been the first time, after all. She hoped it was a man; she did not make herself happy by breaking hearts, even if they were recovered the next day.

Yes, if this mystery man didn't show himself soon, she would make sure that he – whoever he was – would know that she wasn't interested. As it stood, she grabbed the box and made a show of looking through the notes, starting with the first and making her way to the most recent.

She couldn't help the small smile that made its way to her face as she read through them. She wondered for a moment whether or not she and the man would be compatible, for the ability to write notes that made her feel better about herself and her everyday life did not necessarily mean that they would be compatible. Was he attractive? He surely had to be a ninja, seeing as the only civilians she knew were her own relatives. She assumed that he was nice – at least in regards to her.

She broke herself from her reverie and looked at the note that she had stopped on.

'You look the most beautiful after you've just woken up.'

She wondered for a moment if the man needed glasses, because she was not a sight for sore eyes when she awoke. It didn't even occur to her that whoever it was had seen her upon waking and that it could be misconstrued as odd, creepy even.

She flipped through a couple and stopped once again, reading the characters that were on the paper.

'You make me want to strive to always be the best person I can possibly be, for you.'

It made her wonder if he had done things that most wouldn't approve of. The statement itself didn't necessarily imply that he had done things of which he would be ashamed of, but somehow, there was almost a melancholic feeling to that one. She didn't think she'd be able to explain it even if she tried.

'I would never go a day without telling you just how strongly I feel for you.'

She sighed, feeling unsettled. Who was he?

She gathered the small squares of paper in her hand, all in order, and placed them back in the box, putting the lid on top before setting the box back on the coffee table. If she didn't stop thinking about all of this soon, she was sure to lose it. Why couldn't he just show himself already?

She shoved off of the couch, intent to take a long bath before heading to bed for the night. Maybe that and a cup of chamomile tea would ensure that she was able to sleep for the night. If not, she was sure to have a sleepless night.

The bath and tea did the trick, and Sakura woke with plenty of time to spare before she had to be at the hospital for her shift at the hospital. She went about taking a shower – the night before she hadn't bothered to bathe, just relax – and because she had the time, she made her own breakfast for once.

She was on her way out of her apartment and as she went to grab her keys, she noticed a note sitting on the table that her keys occupied. She stopped dead in her tracks and stared at the note for a moment before grabbing it and reading it. There was only one word.

'Soon.'

She frowned slightly and sat it down before she was off to her shift at the hospital, all thoughts of secret admirers, love notes, and mystery men pushed to the back of her mind. It wouldn't do to be distracted and screw up a procedure.

As she had planned the week before, she met Naruto and Sasuke at Ichiraku for lunch. Naruto was just getting back from a mission and she assumed that Sasuke was just glad to see a friendly face. His reintegration into the village had been a tedious process. Most of the Rookie Nine had accepted him with open arms, the exception being the ones who had been sent on the original retrieval mission, Naruto excluded.

But since then, the whole of their graduating class, and Team Gai, had forgiven his transgressions and he was on good terms with them. The rest of the village was another story. The shinobi in the village were antagonistic toward her teammate, but generally only when he was alone. He had never complained about it, but she had seen some of them goading him when they thought that no one was around to see. The civilians tended to follow suit, but more cautiously. It came in the form of exorbitant pricing – also when he was alone – and refusals of service.

It was getting better, but there was still a long road ahead for the last Uchiha. He seemed to be a pretty good sport about it. She had never heard him say a bad thing about anyone and he never complained about the treatment he received. She supposed that he had accepted it as his punishment. She knew that he would eventually make them see him as a different person than the one he had left as.

She arrived at the ramen bar to see that her teammates were already there. The establishment had a fair bit of traffic and the only seat left was at the end, next to Sasuke.

She took her seat with her teammates and smiled at them. "Hey, guys."

"Hey, Sakura-chan." Naruto grinned at her, and Sasuke nodded as a way of greeting. She felt bad; Naruto had been gone for most of the week and she had been busy at the hospital. He had probably been sitting around the Uchiha compound with no one for company for the whole week. She hoped not.

Ayame, the daughter of the owner of Ichiraku, appeared in front of her and Sakura looked at her, conveying her order before turning back to the two. "How's the last week been?"

"The mission was boring. B-rank escort mission for the daimyo. I don't know why he bothered hiring anyone, no one would want to kill him." Naruto explained around a mouthful of ramen. It amazed Sakura how he managed to talk so well with his mouth full. Or maybe she had just heard him talk so much with his mouth full that she could translate. It was a train of thought best left untouched.

"I sparred with Neji a couple of times." Sasuke offered. Sakura smiled. She was glad that the two had managed to find a friend in the other. They were both so … composed. Sasuke had lightened up considerably since his return, but he was fundamentally the same person, just less of an asshole and a little more talkative.

"What about you, Sakura-chan?" Naruto asked, looking over at the roseate as Ayame sat Sakura's bowl of miso ramen in front of her. She picked up a pair of disposable chopsticks and snapped the in two before digging into the dish.

"Not much. It's been insane at the hospital with it being summer and all. It's like a revolving door, teams coming in and out. It's mostly genin though. I don't remember being quite as klutzy as the rookies these days are, do you?"

The two men shared a look before returning their eyes to her. "Maybe not you, Sakura-chan, but me and the teme here spent a lot of time in the hospital when we were genin. The teme more than me, though." Naruto grinned, sticking his face into the new bowl that Ayame had sat in front of him moments before.

"Dobe."

"So, Sakura-chan. Got a boyfriend yet?" If it were possible, the grin on Naruto's face stretched wider. How he was able to see through the tiny slits of his eyes was a mystery to the medic.

Sakura rolled her eyes, looking pointedly at the blonde. "Did you not just hear what I said about the hospital, Naruto? And besides, it seems like someone's run off everyone that wanted to date me."

Sakura could not see, but at that comment, Sasuke smirked.

Letting loose a noise that sounded suspiciously like that of a zombie, Sakura pushed her weight into the door of her apartment. She was so exhausted. A team of ANBU had come in half dead and she had been the only senior medic in the building. Shizune was out on a mission for the Hokage and Tsunade was too busy with her duties as Hokage to come in and help. Even after being completely drained of chakra, she had had to stay behind to direct all of the junior medics through the procedures. She knew it had been an invaluable learning experience for the younger medics, but it didn't make her feel any less fatigued.

She tossed her keys onto the table. She did not bother to notice that there was yet another square of paper next to the first before collapsing onto her couch and passing out, completely forgetting to take off her shoes.

Some time later she was dragged forcefully from the land of sleep by pounding on her door. She grumbled to herself as she stood up and walked to the door, yanking it open after reaching it. It was Ino.

"What do you want, Pig? I'm trying to sleep." Sakura said, her voice heavy with sleep.

"Just coming to see how my favorite person is doing." Ino replied, a ting of sarcasm to her tone, before pushing forcefully past the roseate and into the darkened apartment.

Sakura sighed and turned around, flipping on the overhead light. The apartment seemed like a cave with no light and the sun was well below the horizon. She closed the door and looked at the blonde. She knew she wouldn't be fortunate enough to get rid of her any time soon.

Ino turned and looked at the medic. In truth, she looked like hell. Ino had heard about the team of ANBU that had come in, but luckily she worked mostly with herbs and hadn't seen the inside of the emergency room in years.

Sakura looked pointedly at her blonde rival, willing her silently to get on with whatever the hell she was there for. Ino ignored her valiantly, floating around the room. She was on a mission – of course, she wouldn't tell the roseate that, though. She found what she was looking for and turned and set her gaze on the medic.

"What's this?" Ino reached onto the table that held Sakura's keys and picked up two squares of paper. Sakura had told her all about her secret admirer and even gone into great detail at how frustrated she was at not being able to figure out just exactly who it was. It was hilarious to Ino as it was quite obvious just who it was, if one looked deep enough.

Wasn't Sakura supposed to have been the pupil of the great Copy Nin?

Sakura's brow furrowed and she looked at the blonde. "I got another one this morning. It just said 'soon.' Whatever the hell that means."

"Yeah, Sakura, there's another."

"What?" The roseate hurried over to her friend and looked at the papers held in her fingers. After seeing that there were two, she reached up and snatched them from the blonde's fingers.

Her stomach leapt into her throat.

'Training ground three. 8:30.'

She looked at the clock. It was 8:15.

"Ino, you've got to go." Sakura looked at her friend to see the blonde already on her way out.

"Have fun, Forehead." Ino grinned mischievously as she turned and left the apartment. Somehow, Sakura almost got the feeling that this was planned.

Sakura approached the training ground slowly, her thoughts swirling dangerously through her mind. What if this had all been an elaborate joke? What if it was Gai or Genma? She clenched her fists as she walked onto the training ground, surveying the stretch of open field as she did so. So far, it seemed as though she was the only one there.

She walked deeper into the training ground, heading toward the wooden posts that were stationed off to the side. As she approached them, a kunai sticking out of the top of the middle post caught her attention, as did the piece of paper that was held fast to the post because of it.

She pulled the kunai from the post, pocketing it and grabbing up the note. If worse came to worst, she always had a weapon.

She turned her attention to the note as she sighed and sat herself atop the post that the note and kunai has previously occupied.

'Wait here. If I'm not here in ten minutes, I'll understand if you've left.'

As she waited, she thought over who it could be. As with every time before, she came up empty. She just couldn't fathom who it could be if not one of her original admirers. It would be smart if it was and the person had just backed off to court her in this way. But why bother?

She had nearly nodded off when she felt a presence behind her. She was about to turn her head to see who it was, but the person was standing before her before she could.

"S-Sasuke?"

"Come with me." He turned, holding his hand out to her. She stared at his hand for a moment before looking up at his half-turned face. It couldn't seriously be him, could it?

Nonetheless, she hopped off of the post and tentatively put her hand in his, her heart beginning to beat loudly in her chest as he led her forward. He had never once offered any sort of physical contact with the roseate and she was a little bewildered at the sudden sentiment.

They walked for what seemed like hours but was really only a matter of minutes. He led her through the woods and to where she quickly identified as Shikamaru's cloud-watching hill. He let go of her hand and sat atop the crest of the hill, looking at her expectantly. After a moment, she settled down beside him, leaving space between the two, still unsure of the situation.

He sighed, leaning back on his palms that were stretched out behind him and looked up at the stars. She wanted so bad to ask him so many questions, but she said nothing, opting to let him speak. She still wasn't entirely sure she knew what was going on.

He looked over at her minutes later. "I've done a lot of stupid things in my life, Sakura."

She nodded her head minutely. She couldn't disagree with him at all; in fact, she agreed wholeheartedly.

He opened his mouth to speak again, but closed it quickly, as if thinking hard over his next words. When he spoke, his voice was quieter. "One of the things I regret the most was how I left things with you."

She looked over at him, surprised. Up until now, she hadn't even been sure if he had bothered to remember what had happened between them before he left the village. It seemed he had.

"I don't regret leaving you," he paused and she started to open her mouth to retort but he held up a hand to stop her. "I don't regret leaving you because if you had seen some of the things that he did, I …" he trailed off, his face contorting slightly painfully. "I just wish that I could have left on better terms. With you, I mean."

Her brows furrowed, unsure of what he meant by the statement. He turned his gaze to the sky once again, a contemplative look on his face. They sat in silence for a long stretch of time before the silence was broken again.

"It was always you."

She looked at him, thoroughly confused by what he had just said. It was always her? What? He seemed to recognize her confusion and smirked gently, looking more contented than she'd ever seen him before.

He leaned forward off of his hands and reached out gently, pulling her to his side and laying back against the cool earth. Her eyes widened and turned to the last Uchiha questioningly. He smiled – smiled – and just pulled her closer.

She sighed contentedly and cuddled up to his side, understanding finally. He hadn't said it, but she understood. He had said everything he could possibly have ever said and more, just not in the most conventional of ways. Who knew that Uchiha Sasuke was a closet hopeless romantic?

He kissed her forehead and looked up at the sky. To any random person who would have happened across them, they would think that he was without emotion, but to one who knew him, the look in his eyes spoke volumes to how he felt.

They were quiet for an endless amount of time before he spoke up again, quietly. Her eyes fluttered as she listened to him talk, feeling the rumble of his chest against her face.

"I hope they're at peace, because I think it's my turn for a chance to find the same."

Though she was nearly half asleep – between the exhausting day she'd had and the comfort she felt in his arms, who could blame her? – she smiled softly up at him. He looked down at her, noticing her tired expression that had made its home on her face.

"Sleep, Sakura. I'll make sure you find your way home."

It was almost so ironic that she laughed in her nearly incoherent state, because as far as she was concerned, home was in his arms.

Instead, she opted to close her eyes, giving in to sleep. He would be there for her tomorrow, and the next day, and so forth and so on.