Title: And Then They Turn A Corner
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.
Dedication: to deadlines and some of the most fantastic friends a person could ever have. It's never okay with you but at the very least good.
Note: This was done for SasuSakuHeadCanons over on Tumblr - you should go check them out, along with the posts for SasuSaku Month!
Summary: Prompt o6; - Sasuke, Sakura, and the mementos they had secretly kept/stolen of each other. "You're everything I wanted and more."
The war is in motion and Sakura is tired of waiting for death.
Slowly, she slips her hand out of a shinobi from Suna's, allows both of his arms – not cold but barely warm – to rest at his sides, and pushes her way out of the tent. So long has she gone from injured to dying, dying to injured, healing those she can and waiting with those she can't. The different headbands and faces filter through her mind, too fast to catch yet too slow to forget. She'd never imagined that she would just as soon save the life of a Suna nin – one who might've attacked during her first chuunin exam – as Kiba, Hinata, Tenten, Neji…
Well, she saves who she can.
Sakura stops before going in to see her next patient – takes a deep breath – lets it go.
She has to let it go. There's no time to be personal, although she tries to be as pleasant for those who are still conscious. She can't afford to let the distress that comes from failing an impossible task sink too deep into her bones and grip her soul in its bony clutches nor can she be disgusted by what people – hers and not-hers – are doing to each other.
It's always on to the next.
.
.
.
The war draws nearer to its close and Sakura finds Sasuke on better terms.
Team Seven stands in front of Obito Uchiha and his Ten Tails, years older than they had been the last time they'd fought side by side. Unlike their first combined effort against someone with experience beyond what they could've imagined all the way back in time on that misty bridge, they are unflinching in this tell-tale hour; they are together unlike they had ever been before.
She still carries something sharp in her heart – some kind of resentment for all he has put them through – but the standard kunai she grasps in her hand now has someone else's name on it.
Sakura, for all her healing prowess, knows death intimately. She has become the last thing standing between those who breathe and the shadow that seeks to take it away, and it's something she's proud of. It isn't some purpose her boys can take from her because they can do it, too – they can't. They can't protect her from this. It's her thing, and the purpose straightens her spine.
When the dead walk, she knows her place just as Sasuke and Naruto have theirs. It makes Team Seven a bright and promising star rising from the horizon. Together, they will put those who dared threaten their precious ones back in the ground.
Back braced against Sasuke and Naruto's, Sakura thinks there is nothing she has ever looked forward to more.
.
.
.
The war is over and Sakura and Sasuke are the last on the battlefield.
They're still catching their breath as Naruto grasps them both close before running off to find Tsunade. Everyone rushes to find someone, no matter how tired they are, but all Sakura can do is watch them. She uses the little chakra she has left to heal the most dangerous wounds; there's a few broken ribs and a laceration on her leg that she didn't notice before, and some deep bruising in her arms from repeatedly punching the ground.
Sasuke lets her heal the chakra burn on his hands and his fractured femur, but when she tries to check his ribs, he pulls his shirt in and crosses his arms. She sighs when he winces.
Sakura doesn't think about how this is the first time she and Sasuke have been this close to being alone since she tried to kill him.
Instead, she thinks about how nice it is to not have to be wary, how peaceful all of the chatter is as it rises in volume under the power of many voices, how pleasant it is to have the moon overhead and know it's simply… the moon.
After all of these years, all of Madara and Obito's planning have served their purpose, even though it might not have been the way they had expected. People are hugging each other – Suna, Kiri, Konoha, Iwa – Sakura thinks the plan worked better than anyone could've anticipated. She catches Temari's eyes from across the field where she's hugging her brothers and they smile at each other.
"What's next?" she asks. Her question isn't for anyone in particular, although Sasuke is the only one close enough to hear her.
Sasuke shrugs.
She watches him pull off his forehead protector and raise it closer to his face, examining it closely and tilting it side to side even as a sly breeze sought to draw the cloth ends away. He tosses it over his shoulder as he begins to walk away only to draw out another one from within the confines of his pants pocket and tie it to his head.
Jogging over to the fallen metal plate, Sakura puts it in her kunai pouch and runs to his side.
She can see him looking at her sidelong. "Are you going to try to kill me again?"
Her right eye twitches. A nice greeting that is, but it isn't like she'd expected anything else. If she were to be truthful with herself, she would say she hadn't expected anything. Regardless, she isn't going to ask for forgiveness for doing what had seemed right at the time.
She raises an eyebrow. "Only if you don't go all maniacal on me. Else, I'll put you down like a rabid dog."
Sasuke snorts. "I'd like to see you try."
Maybe you will, she thinks. She looks forward to that fight – after a long hard rest, of course. They had just been in a war for a time, and Sakura can't tell when it even began. The pieces had been woven together decades before she'd been born, but her own part had only arisen when Team Seven had been founded.
It definitely called for a vacation.
"Naruto's glad to have you back," she says.
"Hm."
She looks over at him, glimpses at his headband and the deep line etched through it. Feeling for the one in her pouch, she traces the streak through the center of the metal plate. As they walk silently side by side, she wonders whose he's wearing with such pride and if he'll ever tell her.
When he stumbles once, she throws an arm over his shoulder to lend him some support, and he suffers it as they walk towards their friends.
A/N: :)