Sakura is not present for Sasuke's homecoming. She stays late at the hospital until Naruto comes for her, and his eyes are heavy with the disparate consolation of relinquished prayers. When she finishes they walk home together, his thumb tracing absent circles on the back of her hand as they shepherd the uneasy silence down darkened streets laced with weak moonlight.
At home, Sakura makes tea while Naruto takes a shower. She notices, when she hands him his cup, that he forgot to scrub the blood from under his fingernails, but she doesn't say anything. Instead they sit at the square kitchen table, scalding their throats with too-hot tea and swallowed question marks, until he whispers in a cracked falsetto,
"I kept my promise."
Sakura wishes he hadn't.