Sakura saw his falter, the tense of his shoulders, the slight catch in his breath. She saw his right foot plant and his left one shift, ready to turn. But what gave him away was that slight twitch of his lip and the formation of that infuriating smirk.
When he uttered, "you're annoying" and charged, she was already in position.
She expected the hit to be harder and channeled more chakra into her arm than was necessary. The sickening crunch of Sasuke's knuckles as they ricocheted off of her arm sent shudders up her spine, but she did not hesitate to smash her fist right into the prick's gut. He skidded across the ground past Naruto, kicking up dust and debris.
After she made sure Kakashi was alright on his own, Sakura stalked her way toward the boy she once fancied herself in love with. Ha! She never knew the meaning of love back then. Otherwise she wouldn't have allowed him to walk all over her and treat her like the scum on the bottom of his shoes. She wouldn't have cried helplessly while he walked out of Konoha and embarked on that dark road that had only messed him up more over the years. No. If she had known the true meaning of love back then she would have beat him into the dirt like she just did moments ago and slapped him across the face until he saw some sense, like she was about to.
They stared at eachother for a moment, Sasuke unable to move due to Sakura disabling one of his major chakra points with her well placed punch. If his heated glare meant anything though, she would totally be dead right then if it weren't for her little trick. Sasuke may have thought he was immune to other's emotions, but whenever she professed her love to him he would go on an ego trip and never come back. This time she used that little observation to her advantage.
"Since you are probably not even able to talk, I guess you'll just have to listen." She commented while squatting down next to him and checking to make sure he wouldn't die from internal bleeding. "I wasn't lying when I said I loved you" she admitted as she began to heal his injuries, bar the one that was keeping him immobile. "But I have come to realize those words mean next to nothing to you after all of the pain that has come with them." She let her palm pass over his eyes and manually deactivated the Rinnegan and Sharingan, feeling much more at ease when his irises returned to their natural color. "So I have decided I need to express my emotions through actions instead of words. It was about time someone knocked you off your high pedestal. I bet you never thought Sakura Haruno would be the one to defeat you." She smiled cheekily at him when he rolled his eyes. "I call it tough love. You seem to reject all other forms of the feeling. Violence has always been your prefered means to an end, after all. So here I am, ending your warped vision of justice." She patted him on the cheek and didn't miss the dangerous noise he made in the back of his throat. She giggled at that. How cute. He thought he was still intimidating with almost all of his motor functions paralyzed.
After staring in shock for a few minutes, Naruto finally made his way over to the pair. "Sakura-chan! What are you doing?"
"I'm putting an end to your fight before it even starts." She replied, glancing between the two. "You both want to be Hokage, and no matter who gets it, the other will be bitter thus the cycle of hatred will continue." Naruto's eyes turned skyward in thought while Sasuke's eyes narrowed in annoyance. Sakura took that to mean that he saw where she was going with her little speech. "So I am deciding right here that neither of you will be Hokage."
She expected a protest from Naruto and some sort of facial expression from Sasuke, but neither did as expected, carefully eyeing one another and her, wanting someone else to be the first to react. Sakura snorted in bemusement before deciding to drop the bomb. "I have decided that I will be Hokage. As a third party completely separate from the cycle of hatred that has continued for generations, I believe that that is the only way this ridiculousness will stop. If that means I'll have to spend the rest of my life filling out paperwork and listening to you two as my co-advisors whining in my ear, then so be it."
The stunned silence lasted for longer than was remotely comfortable, but Naruto's nervous smile and exhalation finally broke it. "To tell you the truth, I don't really want to be Hokage anymore, anyways. Too much paperwork and not enough missions. Plus, I don't really understand politics." He laughed nervously when he was done talking, expecting a snarky comment about giving up on his dreams. When one didn't come he remembered that Sasuke was paralyzed and unable to make one, and when he looked to Sakura he found her beaming at him.
"I know you always said your dream was to be Hokage, but that was just so you could be recognized as a hero and take pride in that. You are already Konoha's hero, Naruto, and they will never forget that." She hugged her friend and bit her lip when he started crying to keep from joining him when he finally allowed his tough guy act to melt away. The tears are those of relief and happiness upon finally receiving such recognition from one of his most important people. Hearing her reiterate what the villagers were saying was like a balm to all of his past hurts.
When Sakura was sure her eyes were no longer watery, she turned back to Sasuke and eyed him warily. After much deliberation, she healed his broken ribs and the chakra blockage, finally allowing him to move and get enough air in his lungs to speak. He gasped for oxygen before regaining his typical composure and sitting up. Sakura was relieved when he didn't immediately run her through with his katana.
"Why should I trust you to reform the system?" Sasuke asked eventually, holding eye contact with Sakura.
Finally feeling as though she had garnered some respect in the Uchiha's eyes, Sakura answered him with a swell of confidence. "Because I have witnessed how the current system has hurt my friends, and with my time spent as Lady Tsunade's apprentice, I think I know what legal steps need to be taken to change things without more violence."
"Explain."
"I would reform the council to be inclusive of both civilian representation as well as several different shinobi representatives. All members would be selected by an election held annually, and would only be overruled by a combination of me, you, and Naruto. It would need a few other tweaks to the system, but for the time being I think that would be a good place to start." Sakura smiled to herself as Sasuke's gaze focused on nothing in particular as he thought about what she has said.
Sakura could not help herself from taking a cheap shot at the Uchiha. "I'll even keep quiet about your threat to kill the 5 kages." She smirked at him when he scowled, relishing in the feeling of knocking him down yet another peg.
"Is that a yes?" She pressed, looking between Naruto and Sasuke. When both nodded she grinned. "Alright, then let's figure out how to end this damned infinite tsukuyomi."