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"Is that you, Sakura?"
At the mention of her name, the pink-haired kunoichi turned to inspect the guy before her. His dark spiky hair and even darker eyes were familiar. Uchiha Sasuke.
He was an infamous international criminal whose bounty was as great, if not greater, than Orochimaru's. She also remembered him briefly from when they were still in the Academy. Naruto would always try to compete with him in everything that they did. Those days were far past them, however, yet he greeted her as if they were old friends. How odd.
"You sure took your time getting here, Sasuke," said Naruto.
"S-Sasuke-kun!" Ino called as she started running towards him. Shikamaru and Choji grabbed her arms before she could go further.
"He's an enemy!" Shikamaru reminded his team mate.
"Yeah, you better keep your distance," Choji added.
"You're all still as noisy as ever," Sasuke noted passively.
Sakura started to feel uneasy. Sasuke had been gone for so long yet Naruto was smirking like he had been expecting him and Ino was acting like she was still head over heels for him. Even Shikamaru and Choji who treated him like the criminal that he was, still fully acknowledged him. Was she supposed to respond to him too? She barely remembered him.
"Why the hell are you here, bastard?" Kiba's lips curled into a snarl, revealing his sharp canines.
"A lot of things have happened. I've decided to protect the Leaf village," Sasuke answered calmly. "And then, I'll become Hokage."
"You can't just come back all of a sudden and crack a lame joke like that!" Kiba replied in astonishment. "Do you even know what it means to be Hokage?"
"I don't know what happened to you," Shikamaru interjected. "But that's not possible. Do you even realize what you're saying?"
"Do you think we can just forget all the things you've done?" Shino spoke up for the first time.
"Yeah, I realize you probably can't. But it doesn't matter what you guys think of me. All the previous Kage created these circumstances. So I will become Hokage and change the village."
Sakura stared at Sasuke, dumbfounded. Just who did this guy think he was?! He had caused so much trouble to Konoha and other shinobi villages - how, how could he even think that everyone was just going to allow him to come back, let alone become Hokage? What a stupid fuck!
Sakura failed to realize that she had spoken her thoughts out loud until Sasuke whipped his head towards her direction and asked, "What did you say?"
Sakura froze, her eyes wide in shock. She couldn't breathe. She couldn't hear the redhead's words but one look at Karin's alarmed expression confirmed her thoughts. He's going to kill me...Sasuke...
Sakura stared at the wall, unmoving. She had spent the past few hours crying. She had been painfully holding herself together after her encounter with Sasuke because she refused to show weakness in front of others, especially him. Now that she was finally back in her apartment, she allowed herself to fall apart. But this is the last time, no more.
The Fourth Shinobi World War concluded with a victorious Allied Shinobi Forces. The amount of lives that had been lost embittered every ninja who had been affected but there were still plenty to be done and they had little time to mourn and regret. Kakashi had taken over Tsunade's role as Hokage and with the help of Naruto, Konoha was slowly rebuilding itself.
"Eh, Sasuke, I don't know if you should approach-
Sasuke walked past Naruto and headed towards Sakura. She was currently talking to a group of medics, probably instructing them of their duties.
He had accomplished his goal of getting rid of Itachi. It didn't exactly end the way that he had predicted, not after finding out that Itachi wasn't evil after all, but he would not have stumbled upon the truth otherwise. Now he could accomplish his next goal. He would rebuild his clan, not only for his fallen clan members, but also for his brother. Of course, he needed Sakura to be able to do that.
Sakura had always been the only girl for Sasuke. He didn't have much interest in the opposite sex to begin with but she was the most important to him out of all of them. Naruto and her had always bore the brunt of his past actions but she was never a cause for any of them. He had hurt her, abandoned her, and tried to kill her, but she had done nothing to deserve his hateful acts. He himself did not know the exact reason why he had treated her so badly. He could only guess that it was because he did care about her that he wanted to distance himself away from her.
It was the perfect time to make amends now that the shinobi world was at peace. He didn't exactly know what he was going to say to her but their reunion was long overdue.
"Sakura," he called out to her.
As expected, Sakura's attention shifted from the medics to him. "Uh, Sasuke?"
"Let's get lunch."
"Uh," Sakura replied with a puzzled look. "I'm flattered, Sasuke-san, but may I ask why you want to get lunch together?"
"You're always asking me if you can help me," Sasuke replied, unfazed. "I need your help now. Besides, I haven't had the chance to properly thank you for always being there for me."
"Um, well I haven't really done anything." Sakura didn't know what he was talking about when he said that she was always asking to help him. He had to have been talking about their Academy days but she couldn't quite remember. That was so long ago, how am I supposed to recall? He's pretty considerate though if he felt gratitude for something that happened so long ago.
Sasuke flashed Sakura an irritated look. She could just say yes just as he knew that she would. Playing dumb didn't suit her well.
He re-approached the situation. "I need help rebuilding my clan, Sakura. I didn't want to come out with it like this but I suppose it's better to be clear."
Naruto, who had been watching from a good distance, decided that this was the best time to interrupt.
"Sasuke," the blonde ninja started, "Eh, you should probably come with me."
"Not now, idiot, I'm talking to Sakura."
Naruto yanked Sasuke's arm and dragged him away forcefully.
"Hey, dobe, let me go!" Sasuke protested.
When they were finally outside the hospital, Naruto sighed as he fidgeted with his hands. "Damn it. I guess I have to be the one to tell you this.
"After you left - Sakura-chan, well, she was devastated. It was bad, yeah, but when you tried to kill her it got way worse."
Naruto heaved another sigh. It hadn't been easy for him either. Sure he didn't have to compete for Sakura's affection now but he couldn't completely be himself around her anymore either. No one could. Sasuke had been an important part of their lives.
"Spit it out."
"I won't do it!" the blonde Sannin slammed her right fist on her wooden desk, cracking it. "What are you thinking, Sakura? I didn't train you to be physically strong so you can fall apart mentally!"
Sakura merely gave her a sad smile. "Gomenasai, Tsunade-sama. I can focus on my training better if I didn't have Sasuke-kun in my mind constantly."
Tsunade sat down with a heavy sigh. She couldn't begrudge her this. Sure, she had experienced her own share of losses but Sakura's situation was different. In a way, it was worse. Sasuke was well, alive, and purposefully tormenting her student. Even during the short time that they had been training, Sakura had quickly become a shell of her old determined self. Having seen Sakura's fake smiles and having heard her pitiful lies, she knew that the girl deserved some peace.
"Fine. I'll erase your memories of Sasuke, but I want you to be aware of the consequences, Sakura. You may still remember some memories through dreams. Other than that, Sasuke will just be someone who you vaguely knew from the Academy."
"That's what I want Tsunade-sama."
Sasuke had never before felt such a loss for words.
