When Sakura was a young girl, she'd found out from a reliable source (Ino) that Uchiha men loved girls with long hair. She'd began grown her hair out that year, and when she was placed on a team with Uchiha Sasuke and Uzumaki Naruto, she was relieved to say that it was true.
Although the Uchiha clan was vast and huge, she'd chosen to adore but one of them, and Uchiha Sasuke had been her chosen.
Sasuke was a strange boy, but even as Sakura learned of all his oddities, she still felt entwined with him, as though her soul were wrapped around his. When he ran away from three years to train with the infamous leader of Sound, Orochimaru, and Naruto left with Jiraiya, she trained with her Shishou, all the while becoming closer to being as strong as the other two were.
Her hair, cut after the horrific incident in the forest of death, grew out swiftly as she awaited her boys return.
Sakura knew most of the Uchiha's very well by the time that Sasuke came home, her being one of the few people trusted by their clan to heal their injuries, and keep tabs on their eyes. Sakura became close friends with Shisui, and amicable comrades with Uchiha Itachi. Shisui teased her relentlessly for her long hair, mocking her about her precious 'Sasuke-kun', but Sakura just smiled gently at him, rapping his temple gently with her small knuckles.
When Sasuke came home, Naruto trailing after him, Team 7 was reassembled, with a new boy named Sai and a co-captain named Yamato. It wasn't a secret to them that they were there to monitor the Kyuubi, but no one spoke of it out loud.
The first time Sasuke braided her hair, they were on a duo mission of diplomacy to Sound, to draw up a new treaty to keep Orochimaru from attacking Fire Country. It was a three day trip on foot, and the second night that they stopped, Sasuke asked, hesitantly, if he could braid her hair for her.
His fingers were clumsy, but quickly he adapted to the thicker, coarser hair on her head, so different from his Ka-chan's, but still long and beautiful. He braided it and unbraided over and over again, until the stress that had been bubbling around in his stomach faded, and he could sleep peacefully.
It became a sort of habit for the two of them after that, and it was a time that Sakura valued more than anything. Anytime Sasuke was stressed, he would braid her hair before bed on missions, or on her breaks from the hospital, or before and after sparring. Sakura, obliged, if only to be closer to the boy who held her heart in the palm of his hand.
When she was seventeen, almost a full year after the first time he'd braided her hair, he asked her on their first date in the midst of a hair braiding session, right in front of his older brother, her old sensei and Naruto. Sakura had stuttered for a few seconds in surprise, whirling around with her hair half braided to see the pink scattered across his nose and cheeks, and she'd smiled softly, before telling him a gentle yes, and let him resume braiding her hair.
Their relationship had been short and sweet, but had fizzled quickly, because childhood crushes are not the grounds for true love.
When Uchiha Itachi came back from a black ops mission, severely injured under a jutsu that turned him into a ten year old again, Sakura was his main healer, and she learned that Itachi had taught Sasuke how to braid, for when their mother was sickly. Itachi braided her hair every day that he was in the hospital while they tried to reverse the jutsu that had turned his brain and body back so far. He knew who Sakura was still, but he called her the pretty-pink lady anyways, and insisted on braiding the long tresses. Ten year old Itachi talked much more than twenty three year old Itachi, and eighteen year old Sakura enjoyed it very much, especially as he babbled in her ear while braiding her hair.
When the jutsu is randomly reversed right in the middle of their usual hair braiding session, Sakura isn't paying close attention, but she definitely noticed when his fingers brushed over her collarbone, and his lips touched her ear to whisper in them. He'd asked her, politely, on a date and she'd readily agreed, before stuttering out that he was only ten. When his lips began pressing kisses against her bared neck, he assured her that he was not, in fact ten, but twenty three, thank you very much. He'd spun her around, grasped the base of her braid near the nape of her neck, yanking it back, before mercilessly eating at her mouth like a man starved. She'd laughed out a yes as he peppered her mouth a few more times, before he knocked her flat on her back and kissed her senseless.
The first time Uchiha Mikoto braided her hair, it was for her wedding, and the thick pink braid was adorned with a beautiful veil, and woven with flowers through it. Uchiha Itachi had actually shown real emotion to an entire crowd of people, tears lingering in his eyes as he watched his fiancee approach him, taking in her waist-length braid, her beautifully fitted traditional kimono, her secretly bare feet, as she couldn't bear wearing shoes in the spring time in Konaha. Her stomach was hidden carefully, her slightly swollen belly camouflaged well.
When Uchiha Itachi was on a mission during his wife's labor, he'd flown like a demon through the trees, leaving his team far behind him, except for the eager Anbu captain with blonde hair and bright blue eyes, who was of course, thirty paces ahead, cheating miserably with his hidden chakra. He arrived at the hospital just in time to see his own father carefully braiding Sakura's hair, as his mother clung to her hand. Sasuke had taken the base of the bed, massaging her feet to help alleviate even the smallest amount of discomfort. She gave birth to a tiny baby girl, who had a full head of pink hair and onyx eyes. Itachi had cried and his father shook his hand and told him how proud he was of his son.
When Mikoto died of a fever one summer, Itachi's grief threatened to crush him. Sakura arrived home to find her oldest child caring for the twins she'd given birth to three years prior, but her husband was no where to be found. Her quiet, surprisingly stoic six year old, who was every bit the genius her father was, told her calmly that Mikoto had died while Sakura had been on her mission, and that her daddy had gone to grieve. Sakura had called Ino to watch her brood, before taking off towards the forest of Nara. She'd found him in the spot they'd gotten married, and although Itachi was silent and unmoving, she knew that he was aware of her presence.
She didn't speak, but she did crouch behind him, and begin clumsily braiding his hair, combing her thin fingers through the silken tresses, soothing her husbands soul in ways she didn't even understand.
When Sakura was killed in action, Itachi braided his two daughters hair slowly, and solemnly for their first funeral. His only son watched on as Itachi taught him to braid for the first time, the twin watching with a keen eye. There, in her open casket, Sakura laid, her green eyes closed forever, her hair braided as it was on their wedding day, only ten years prior, done by none other than Sasuke himself. Itachi felt lucky to have had ten years with his beautiful wife, even if he felt that 29, two weeks shy of 30, was much too soon for a woman like Sakura to die.
Thus, Sakura changed the Uchiha family, weaving herself into their lives, just as they had woven her hair for years and years.
Author's note:
I promise not all my fics are as angsty as the first two on this site, but my one shots always end up super sad? no clue why. I'm working on several other fics right now! I also have a one shot on my tumblr, and if I write other short things I might post it there. My tumblr is sakurarude :)
please review, but lets keep the 'kill yourself' comments to yourselves yes? I got one on my first fic that I filtered out, but seriously, guys, it's fanfic. I'm 20 years old. Childish as fanfic can be, I don't have time for that sort of business!
also, I might write a spinoff of this fic? in the future? like w/o the character death lol it's sad as shit when u have to describe grief in detail so probs no death at the end, but it would end before the end of the time line in this.
alanah