For all the people I had promised fics, but still haven't delivered them. Please forgive me; I hope this will do instead.
.-.-.
And Now...
.-.-.
"Oh shit, oh shit, I think she got hit a hair's breadth away from her heart!"
"Damn. She's not gonna make it..."
"Let me take a look," a calm voice broke through the chaos.
The two male genin turned to find that it was a kunoichi not much older than they were who was tying her hair back with her gloved hands. They stepped aside, because they saw the hardened, determined glint of a medic in her eyes and stared as she began to emit a green-hued chakra on their irreparably injured friend's chest.
They saw, to their utter amazement and even greater disbelief that the cut arteries and veins of their teammate's heart rejoined; saw her previously slowing heart pumping faster and faster. Saw her skin beginning to heal at an accelerated rate, covering the big, gaping hole that previously exposed her frighteningly bloody heart.
Then their teammate started to cough, and opened the eyes they never thought they'd see her open again. And as they hugged her with utmost relief, they never noticed the somewhat melancholic expression their saviour had on her face at the sight of them like that.
She was about to walk away when a weak, but clearly alive voice called out to her. "Sa-sakura-senpai."
She half-turned, and saw the young kunoichi sitting up with the help of her teammates. "A-arigato."
She smiled. "No problem. Just take it easy for a while, ok?" When she nodded, she smiled once again before walking away.
But not before she heard one of the male genin exclaim in disbelief, "What?! That was the Godaime's apprentice?! But...but she's only a little older than us!"
And right now... she thought as she looked at the sky with a smile. Life was good.
.-.-.
"You've...changed."
"I would hope I have."
And when they came face-to-face the second time after two and a half years, Sasuke finally saw how she looked like fully bloomed, saw the steel in her eyes that he had never seen directed at him.
Watched in surprise, as she held her stance, even as she stood against him and his new team all by herself; four against one.
"You sure you wanna take on all four of us just by yourself, cute stuff?"
She only smiled after Suigetsu asked her that. It was the first he ever saw that kind of smile on her face. "Who said I'd be fighting alone?"
When the seemingly boundless amount of figures appeared, he first wondered if they somehow found a way to make Karin unable to detect their chakra. Then they came closer and he and his whole team couldn't help but stare.
It wasn't an army of Konoha shinobi as they first thought. They were...puppets. About a hundred or so, wooden...puppets.
Before anyone could question her sanity, she smiled that eerie smile again. "Now then," she seemed to purr and suddenly the puppets began to move seemingly on their own. "Who wants to play dolls with me?"
And that was when Team Eagle found themselves tangling with a single opponent and having a most difficult time of it.
.-.-.
Even with the newest form of the Sharingan under his belt, it was awfully difficult to slow Sakura down, even a bit. She'd apparently somehow found a way to increase her chakra or something, because somehow she still had plenty of chakra left, even with controlling all those puppets. And it was difficult to get to her what with that wooden army that they had to go through first in the way.
She still stood strong even as reinforcements finally came, in the form of Naruto, Kakashi and that new addition to the team he saw back when they first met after his betrayal.
She smiled once again, and dropped her chakra connections to all the puppets. "Well then," she said, cracking her fingers. "Now, we can finally get this show started."
The she suddenly punched the rocky ground beneath their feet and it seemed as if an earthquake had torn the ground apart. And he had the time to realize that Sakura hadn't really been showing any of her other abilities earlier, apart from her perfect chakra control, as he quickly jumped away and saw the extent of the damage to the ground she had caused, which stretched as far as his eyes could see.
Suddenly, he wondered if the team he had chosen to specifically find Itachi could defeat this new, improved Team Kakashi.
.-.-.
...And apparently they couldn't.
After all, Kyuubi wasn't exactly the last Jinchuuriki with the most tails for nothing. Kakashi with that new Sharingan of his, and Sai with his ink-beasts were also nothing to scoff at. And let's not even start with Sakura.
She was the one who made sure everyone would got seriously injured amidst the battle was immediately healed, even as she clashed with Juugo head-on.
And when the more-Kyuubi-than-Naruto being left his chest completely open, she was the one who healed him after Karin failed to.
So when he opened his eyes to see the familiar white ceiling of a wad room in the Konoha Medical Hospital and saw her tending to his bandaged chest, he wasn't really that surprised.
.-.-.
What he didn't expect was for her to treat him so vastly differently than she used to. She talked to him, touched him, but...she now seemed to treat him as she did Naruto. As a...as a...
Friend.
She even glared at him, for Kami's sake. And you have nothing on glares until you feel Sakura's tear-you-from-cell-to-cell boring through you – all the while knowing that she most certainly could do it - and live to tell about it.
And he thought his glaring could kill people. Hers tortured them then killed them.
She doesn't react when Karin clings to him as usual. Either she was getting better at hiding her emotions, and he rather suspected she did, what with that smile especially, that she always seemed to give just before she does something that was the complete opposite from what a smile usually meant. Or...she really didn't think of him that way anymore.
He never thought he'd lived to see the day.
She always seemed to be so busy, they usually only ever saw her on weekends. And when they saw her, she usually looked quite a sight, sometimes her eyes had bags almost dark as Gaara's because she had stayed all day and night healing the dying people that had come back from missions. Other times she carried the scent of so many people's blood on her, which wouldn't go away even after she washed herself thoroughly.
But always, always, she came to their weekly Ichiraku Ramen dinners with the happiest grin on her face, contentment that came from saving perhaps a dozen or so lives every day.
And suddenly, sometimes, he would feel a little...inferior in her presence. That had never happened before. With Naruto, yes; but with Sakura? Never...but then again, as the saying goes, there's a first time for everything.
He could only destroy. If he did save anyone, it was only by destroying or injuring the enemy. She did that too, but she could still heal whoever it was she almost killed instead of having their deaths on her conscious.
Just like how it had been with him.
When other shinobis he'd never seen before in his life and those he vaguely knew passed by, most of them nodded respectfully to her, no matter what age, gender or rank they were; all the while glaring or ignoring him if he was beside her. Apparently, being the Hokage's apprentice was no funny business, but as far as he's seen, she handled the pressures that probably came with that title with ease.
She was sought after even during their dinners, during which she would smile apologetically at them, promising to make up for this next time before she poofed off to the hospital to heal the patient probably only she or her shishou could heal.
And he noticed immediately, that for some reason, she had gained more admirers from the last time he was here. Lee used to be the only one who declared his love for her before, but now...he'd lost count – not that he'd been counting, of course - of the amount of men who'd asked her out. Some of them were slightly younger, most of them around their age, and some were even nearing Kakashi's age!
Which was wrong. Plain wrong.
Some were shy, some were flirty while others were simply asking for a tumble in bed.
But what connected them all was the fact that Sakura rejected them.
Every. Single. One. Of. Them.
He refused to explain why that seemed to give him some satisfaction.
.-.-.
One day, he was feeling unconsciously nostalgic (not that he'd ever admit it even if he did realize it) and without realizing it, his feet had taken him to a very familiar bridge.
...which happened to be occupied by a certain, pink-haired kunoichi, which was a surprise in itself.
He wondered when he had changed so much that instead of avoiding her, he'd be the one to go to her. He wondered this as he walked to her and stared down at her as she sat on the bridge, wearing what he absent-mindedly noted were civilian clothes, not the usual ninja outfit she wore.
She looked liked how she did back then during their genin days in that position, especially since she swung her legs that were dangling from the bridge to and fro slightly, like a child. Not that he'd ever seen her do that before, but then again the Sakura he knew had sought to impress him. These days she cared moot about what anyone thought about her actions, never mind about what he thought of them.
She didn't look at him, so he didn't say anything. For the two of them, it seemed best for there to be silence between them instead of words. So he leaned forwards on the bridge, looking in the direction of the river she was apparently staring at.
After what seemed to be a long, long time, she spoke. In a tone he hadn't heard her use ever since he came back.
"I...lost a patient today."
She sounded so devoid of life, and suddenly he could see the toll a med-nin had to endure on her young face, the burden of responsibility for ensuring the life of her patients.
And the guilt that came with it when she failed.
"He was only a little boy...just came out of the academy," she continued. Her eyes, he noted, had no tears. Just a hollow look that seemed so opaque it looked nothing like her usually bright jade eyes.
"Haven't you ever...lost a patient before?" he finally asked. They still weren't looking at each other. Someone in the distance would probably, at first glance, think they weren't even talking.
"...He's the fifth."
"In this year?"
"From since I became a medic."
He went silent, silently calculating. About three years, then. That was quite a feat. Even Kabuto, as far as he knew, had lost at least a dozen for all the years he'd been a medic.
"That's..."
"Comparatively a little, I know," she interrupted him, another trait that she'd never had before this. "But...it's not the amount that counts. It's the fact that they're people. People, Sasuke. Who lived and breathed like we did before that was taken away from them."
Once again, silence settled between them. "You're...not crying."
"I...," she took a deep breath. "After you left...I just...couldn't, anymore."
"Shishou -," she continued after she felt his eyes settle back on her, but didn't see the slight, very slight widening of his eyes. "- knows about it. So when something like this happens, she gives me the day off. A few days even, if I need it or if she thinks I do."
"Is there -," his throat suddenly went dry and he thought, once again, how ironic life could turn out to be. "Is there – any-anything...you...want to do?"
This time, she was the one who stared at him, and he was the one who looked out at the river. He refused to repeat what he'd just said.
After a moment, Sakura finally looked away from him. Then she stood up and brushed the debris away from her clothes. "There's something...I'd like to show you."
And as she lead the way, with him trailing slightly behind her, instead of the other way around, he wondered, once again, how much things could change in just three years.
.-.-.
Where she brought him, however, was the last place he'd ever think she would take them to.
Neat tombstones littered the pristine graveyard, and he resisted the urge to bolt. This place also had...
Sakura suddenly stopped at one such tombstone, a particularly well kept one. And on it, he was shocked to see, had the name 'Haruno' imprinted on it.
"This is...my father's grave," she said, quietly. Then she seemed to speak to the tombstone as she knelt down. "Hello, tou-chan. Do you remember my ex-teammate that I told you about? This is him."
"I...didn't know your dad was dead," he managed to say. Then again, he'd never bothered about her family's background before.
"Well...not many people know, actually," she admitted. "Because he died when we just moved here...before I was old enough to remember him."
Another brief, this time, awkward silence settled between them. "I'm...not trying to make you remember bad things," she explained. "I just...wanted to show you that, even though I don't know how it feels like to have your family murdered or how it is like to have no family at all...I just wanted you to know that I have lost someone as well. But I was lucky to have at least one parent alive to take care and love me."
Before this silence could continue between them, she stood up and her eyes regained a bit of that brightness they usually had. "Thanks for accompanying me here, Sasuke."
He only nodded, and for some reason, his throat felt constricted again.
"Well...," she said awkwardly. "I guess I'll...see you around."
She was about to walk away when he stopped her. "Sakura...wait."
She turned around, looking at him questioningly.
"Can you...accompany me?" he asked timidly. "To my...my family's...gravesite?"
Her eyes widened by a slight fraction, but she only nodded wordlessly as he led the way through the enormous graveyard.
.-.-.
The last time he'd been here, it was when they had that mass funeral.
It was a day, he'd rather forget, really.
So he wasn't surprise to find the place overgrown with weeds and all. But he did finally realize the full extent of how much time had passed by when he found that they could only barely see the very tip of the tombstones.
Breathing in slightly, he performed a quick jutsu, which was, coincidentally a clan one. Flames spouted from his mouth and burned the weeds that had been sheltering his deceased clan's tombstones for so long, avoiding, of course, all the tombstones that had been laid down for them.
And when the flames burned away, Sakura saw that the site took up about a third of the graveyard by itself. After all, they had been a rather large clan, not to mention one of the oldest in Konoha.
He walked through the graves, both hands trailing on either side of him on top of the tombstones. Until they came to one at the very centre, where two graves were buried particularly close.
"These are...," he said quietly, so quietly, she almost didn't hear him. "My parents'...grave."
There seemed to be a lot more silence between them than was usual, and she broke it eventually, asking gently, "Would you – would like me to leave?"
"No, it's...fine," he said, not looking at her again. "This...is the second time I've visited them. I don't want – I'd prefer...to have some company."
"O-okay," she said, surprised. But it was pleasant kind of surprised.
And so that was how they spent the rest of their afternoon. At one point, he began to speak.
But not to her.
"Kaa-san," he suddenly said. "Tou-san...I...just like I vowed, I've killed...Itachi."
"But...it seems...that nii- that nii-san...wasn't the person I thought him to be. Again."
He took out a scratched forehead protector and a rather familiar-looking necklace. "I...couldn't bring his body here, but..." He began to dig with his bare hands, slowly, bit by bit, until he'd dug deep enough to put in the two items. "But...this is all...I...that he...left behind."
And that was when, after almost three years, Sakura felt moisture leaking from her eyes.
.-.-.
These days, something, though it was only a little something, had changed between Sakura and Sasuke. He really listened when she talks now, and he talked a bit more, but only with her.
And of course, people took notice. Naruto had only grinned, glad that they had cleared things up, while Kakashi hid his expression behind that immortally porn book of his and Sai looked clueless as to what was happening.
Ino was glad for her once-again best friend, though she was ready to throttle Sasuke if he ever – ever – hurt her again while Shikamaru only thought it was troublesome as usual and Chouji only looked on while munching on his potato chips.
Kiba thought it was a waste for such a hot girl like Sakura to waste time with such a jerk, but what the heck. Shino personally thought that this was what was going to happen anyway, while Hinata felt genuinely happy that Sakura had at last, regained some of her happiness.
Lee was heartbroken, but then again he'd always known that his blossom had always had her heart only for one person, and he knew that wasn't him. Tenten thought it was sweet, as long as the Uchiha didn't become stupid again and leave her behind, while Neji made no comment.
Karin had refused to believe it at first, but when the pink-haired kunoichi did not react no matter how much she insulted her, but instead smiled at her as if she knew how it was to be in a one-sided love, she slowly withdrew from her attempted seductions and strangely, they became friends. No one but Sakura knew better how it was like to be in Karin's position, after all.
Suigetsu had grinned toothily and had always known from the moment he felt Sasuke's body jerk that time they first met when he set his eyes on her, that this was not just another girl for him. And Juugo was glad that the one Sasuke seemed to care for was also the one who could help him control the Curse Seal.
Tsunade, being more of a mother to Sakura than her real mother had ever been, thought it was fine, as long as the Uchiha did not toy with her apprentice. Or else, last of an ancient clan or not, a certain Uchiha was going to get the death penalty, or she wasn't the Hokage. Which she was.
Kurenai, meanwhile, only smiled when she saw them both together, and hoped, as she felt Asuma's baby kicking in her womb, that they would use the time they have together now to make up for whatever time they'd lost.
And people assumed, that they were, actually, quietly dating. But that wasn't the case. Not at all.
.-.-.
Sasuke needed a family. He missed the feel of one, the warmth one felt when going back home where you knew someone was there waiting for you.
Sakura wanted to have someone to spend the rest of her life with, someone who loved her, and, if possible, someone she loved back. She wanted to fill the emptiness in her heart that she felt every time she saw a loving couple pass by.
And that was how, one day, Sakura decided to move out of her mother's house and took up residence in Sasuke's vast apartment.
Now, he had someone to come back to, and some of the ache she felt melted away as the days passed by with him by her side.
And right now, at this time, for them both, that was enough. Who knows, perhaps one day...
One day, perhaps they might even become a real family.
.-.-.
The end
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Hoh. It seems like I am on a roll, seriously. Probably because I have a test tomorrow and am evading from studying for it, as usual --' Anyways. And Now... was actually a part of my other new one-shot Full Circle, but then I wanted that one to be only full of quotes and stuff, not a story I'd made up, so thus And now... was born.
Since Sakura has perfect chakra control, I would think that, logically, she'd be good at using puppets, especially if she was fighting more than one person all by herself.
Besides, let's not waste things, yeah? So out came the idea for her to recycle Chiyo and Sasori's puppets.
The graveyard bit is actually from this other fic that I had – once upon a time ago – wanted to make, but never got around to. So I decided to stick it in here, so it wouldn't go to waste. Anyways, again, this is one I take pride in, so I hope you guys like it!
Thanks for taking your time to read And Now...