It had hit; the storm of a lifetime, the worst storm that Konoha ever faced had hit. And Sasuke Uchiha was stuck right in the middle of it. Sasuke was on his way home from training, but little did he know, a huge storm was on its way. By the time he got to the training grounds, the sky was a dark gray and the smell before a rain was in the air. At the time, he was fine with the idea of training in the rain. Training in the rain would be able to prepare him for any future battles. However, he stopped his training when the rain poured down so hard that the droplets of water felt like needles hitting him. He decided that it was time to go home, and started to head back.
He cursed himself for having his apartment so far from the training grounds. His place was about a twenty minute walk (or he could run there in eight minutes). But with this weather, it would take him hours to get home. He could barely see his own hand in front of him and the flood waters were rising fast. What was he to do? He tried to send chakra to his feet. Unfortunately, he had yet to get a handle on his chakra control.
Walking past buildings, he knew he had to get out of the rain. But he had his pride and was not ready to ask anybody for shelter. He had appearances to keep, dammit! His mind ran through all the possibilities and frowned at his small list for possible suitors. He was not close with anybody except the members of Team 7. Thinking hard, he tried to remember where everybody lived. He knew that Naruto's place was closest, but he could not bring himself to ask that dope. Naruto would hold this over him forever, and dying in the storm would be much better than that. His mind wondered to his teacher, Kakashi, but shook his head. Kakashi lived too far away. That left only one person.
"Sakura," He spoke to himself. He really did not care for her fangirl-ways, but once she was calm he found that she was not as bad as he thought she was. He started off to her place, and, what would've taken him a minute walk, ended up taking him a solid ten minutes.
Eventually, he made it; he was standing on her front porch. But now what? How would he go about asking her to let him in, and to stay till the stormed passed? He did not think it over too hard, for the rain was starting to turn his skin red, even though his whole body became numb half an hour ago. He knocked on the door and waited a few seconds before he heard some shuffling from behind it.
"Who is it?" Sakura asked through the door.
"Sasuke," He replied flatly. The next thing he heard was a lock clicking and she opened the door.
"Sasuke-kun, what are you doing out in this weather? Get in here before you catch a cold." Sasuke walked in and let out a sigh of relief. He looked down at himself, and was a bit shocked that he was soaked. Even in his pockets and weapon pouch, water was pooling out and around him.
"Sasuke-kun, are you okay? Why were you out in the storm?" Her eyes held concern in them as she pried for his answers. Sasuke took a minute before he answered.
"I went to train, but it started to rain. My house was too far and I was not about to ask Naruto so…" his eyes wondered off of her and then to the floor. Sakura blushed; she felt special that he chose to come to her in his time of need.
"Okay, well, Sasuke-kun, they say this is the worst storm the Leaf has ever gotten and that it'll go on for about three days. And this is just the start of the storm—it's supposed to get worse."
Sasuke looked at his pink haired teammate, unsure of what to say. Could he really stay there that long? Would her family let him? Did he even want to? But before he could say anything, Sakura spoke up.
"Sasuke-kun, I will not let you go back in to that storm! You will stay here."
He looked at her like she was crazy. First of all, it was like she was reading his mind, and secondly, was she telling him what to do? He did not like being told what to do.
"Sasuke-kun, please stay. Don't do it for yourself, but for me, please. Just as a favor to a teammate, and to your friend," Her face was almost as pink as her hair, and she was playing with her hands.
"We will see," He gave a terse answer. He did not what to go into the storm, or upset his teammate. Not that he cared about Sakura or anything, but he knew that if he left now, she would bother him about it later on and become even more annoying.
Sakura smiled and it made Sasuke feel a little better. He began to notice how nervous he was from just standing in this girl's house. Sure, he had been in her house before. Hell, he even had to stay the night once with Naruto. But that time, he didn't want to. He was forced to because their pervy sensei wanted them to spend time together. But just her smile made him calm down a little. It was then that it hit them. Sasuke was still drenched, and there was now a huge water mess on the floor.
"How about you go take a hot shower?" Sakura offered as she looked at the raven-haired, soaked boy. He nodded and headed to the bathroom. Her bathroom. Sasuke entered the little bathroom and was faced with a room only Sakura would put together: the walls were a soft pink color, the shower curtain was transparent, but only enough to see the outline of a person, and it had little pink flowers on it. Go figure. She had a hot pink carpet in front of the bathtub and matching towels hanging up. He felt a blow to his ego when he thought of himself drying off with a hot pink towel with Sakura's name on it. Sasuke walked over to the tub and turned the facet on to let the water get warm. He groaned when he saw that she had the same girly-scented bath products that she had the last time when he used this shower. He took a look at the shampoo and soap. The first read "Rosebud in Bloom" and the other said "Honeydew and Honey". He stripped himself of his shirt, and laid it in the sink so the floor would not get all wet. Then he heard a tapping at the door. He unlocked it and swung the door open, finding himself face-to-face with Sakura. Her eyes grew in size and her cheeks started to become shades of red, but she did not turn away. Sasuke raised an eyebrow as if to say 'what do you need?' After a long silence, Sakura finally spoke up.
"Umm, well, I was thinking that you should give me your wet clothes. So I can throw them into the dryer and they will be warm for you when you're done," She gave him a sheepish smile, and he nodded in agreement. He closed the door once again and took off the rest of his wet cloths. Sakura was right outside the door, trying to restore her breathing back to normal but finding it difficult, as she kept picturing a shirtless Sasuke in her head. As soon as she thought she had her breathing down, she almost yelped when she heard the bathroom door open and saw a hand pop out with the bundle of wet cloths. She took the lump of cloths and the door shut. As she walked away, she remembered the second thing she was going to tell him.
"Sasuke-kun—"
"What?" He barked back through the door.
"If you look in the cabinet in there, you will find something you can use."
With that, she walked away. As Sasuke heard her footsteps get fainter, he turned his head to the cabinet. He walked over and opened it to find a dark blue towel and an orange one. He smirked as he took out the blue towel, along with shampoo and soap labeled "For Men". He let out a little chuckle. She must have gotten these after the time we spent the night, and Naruto was complaining about smelling like a daffodil, Sasuke thought to himself as he put the towel next to the hot pink one on the rack. He stepped into the shower and allowed the warm water take the chill out of his body.
Meanwhile, Sakura was downstairs throwing Sasuke's cloths into the dryer. After she was finished, she set out to work on making some dinner for the two of them. She went through all the options, and chose curry and rice because that was the dish she could cook best, and she wanted to impress the boy she loved. She was having a great time cooking; she, Sakura, was finally able to make Sasuke food—something that she only dreamed about before.
When he was done, Sasuke got out of the shower and grabbed his towel. While drying off, he noticed some writing on his towel. In silver letters, he read what the towel said: "Sasuke Uchiha". He then looked at the letters and felt himself smiling. Not a smirking, but actually smiling. She really cared for him and Naruto; he could only guess on the orange towel was Naruto's name. Once he was done drying off, he did not know what to do. It had been awhile and he was still waiting for his cloths to be done so he could dress. Sakura had all of his clothes (underwear included). Maybe she forgot about him being clothes-less? He pondered this for a moment and decided that if she was not up in the next five minutes he would go get his cloths.
Sakura did indeed forget about Sasuke's clothes. She was so in thought about making Sasuke dinner she forgot that he was upstairs and waiting for the dryer to finish. She was stirring the curry when she caught something out of the corner of her eye. She spun around, her ninja instincts kicking in, and saw Sasuke standing there in only a towel.
"You forgot to bring me my clothes," Sasuke explained. She barely even heard his voice because her inner self was exploding about the scene before her. She tried to speak, but words ran dry and all she could do was run to the dryer and get his cloths. Sakura then threw them to the boy and he went back upstairs. She stood frozen as she listened for him to close the bathroom door before she flipped out. She squealed and gushed over the boy, but, knowing that he hated when people did that, she tried her best to regain her composure before he returned. A few minutes later, she could hear him walking down the stairs.
Sasuke felt the warm clothes cover him and it was rather nice. As he walked down the stairs, he could smell the curry. He hurried over to her side and lowered his head to look at the curry from over her shoulder. He could not remember the last time he had homemade…well anything.
"It will be done in a moment, so you can just sit wherever you want, and I will serve you," She beamed at him and he had a blank stare on his face. Before she could say another word, he walked over to get the plates, bowls, cups and eating utensils. It surprised her when he just glided around the kitchen and found everything with such ease. He set the table, and then walked back over to Sakura, saying nothing. Silence fell upon them and if it was not for the storm outside, they would have just stood there awkwardly with complete silence. After a while, she started to feel nervous again. It didn't help that he was standing there and watching her intensely.
"Where is your mother?" he mumbled. Sasuke knew that Sakura's father walked out on her and her mother when she was younger. He found this out from the little get-to-know-each-other sleep over. So, considering her feelings, he decided to not even ask about where her dad was. He was not stupid and he knew that she could not even answer the question if she wanted too; she had no idea herself where her dad was. In a way, Kakashi was the only father the three members of Team 7 ever knew.
"She went out for work and said she would be back later," She said softly. Sasuke was not impressed with this lie and sighed.
"So when did she leave?"
Though it was a simple question, Sasuke noticed that Sakura stiffened up. "A few days ago, she was going out to see friends in Kirigakure." Sasuke twisted up for some reason. He did not like the idea of a mother leaving her 12-year-old daughter alone for days at a time. Even if Sakura was a ninja, that still did not give her mom the right to just leave whenever she damn well pleased. He looked close to her and saw her eyes getting a little red. He knew the tears would come soon and he really did not want to deal with this. He was tired and just wanted to eat and sleep.
"Well, you had the door locked," He started. She looked at him with glossy eyes, confusion showing on her face. Sasuke continued, "So, at least you know that much to keep yourself safe." The light teasing made her tears fade away and brought back her smile.
"Ne, Sasuke-kun, don't be mean! I'm a ninja; I can handle myself!" He smirked at her little outburst. She always said things like this.
The food finished cooking quickly, so they served themselves and sat at the table, eating in silence. It was a good, relaxing silence and they both seemed to be enjoying it. After dinner, Sakura started to do the dishes and told Sasuke to go and make himself at home. Sasuke found that he did not know what that meant; he did not know what to do with himself. He walked back into the kitchen and saw Sakura finishing her cleaning. Once she was done she went upstairs. He just stood there once again, and he was a bit nervous. A moment later, Sakura came back down stairs.
Sakura knew that he would have a hard time getting relaxed, so she tried her best to ease the boy. She chose to get him to relax by training. She grabbed all her kunais and scrolls and ran back down stairs. She saw Sasuke standing there with a blank face.
"Sasuke-kun, I thought that maybe you could help me train, and I would help you," She gave him a cute little grin. Her suggestion amused him, and he cocked an eyebrow to this statement.
"How could you train me?"
She straightened her back and put on a confident face, "Well, I have the best chakra control in the team! I think I could help you with that." It was true that she was the best in this department, so he happily obliged.
They spent hours training: Sasuke taught her how to use new hand seals and how to properly sharpen her kunais, while Sakura was also able to teach Sasuke how to pull chakra to his hands. This took him longer to get the hang of it than she had anticipated. He had still much to practice, but it was a start. Slowly, she realized that he was talking a lot more. He would go off on how he could see where the team needed improvement, what he thought about the latest missions, and even a few little interesting facts about himself. Such as his favorite thing is tomatoes, and that he hated the color yellow.
Sasuke liked being able to talk like this; at first, he thought that this would just be an awkward thing and he would want to leave as soon as possible. Though, when he talked and saw her paying attention and taking all the tips he gave her and practicing them, he felt different. He felt warm, and he was not sure what to think of it. In a way, he was proud that Sakura was training so hard, as she did not want to be weak, he knew that and when he saw her trying to improve he thought that was very honorable. That was Sakura's way of the ninja.
They could hear the storm getting worse every now and then, and there would be a bang of thunder and the wind picking up objects and flying them in different directions. Sakura looked at the clock and could not believe the time it was already one o'clock in the morning. Sakura stood up, and Sasuke gave her a curious look.
"It's late. We can keep this up tomorrow, but, for now, let's go to bed," Sakura noted. Sasuke gave her a look as he kept mentally repeating that she said for them to go to bed. Together. He stood up and followed her upstairs. She opened a door to reveal a room with light blue walls, a bunk bed against the wall, a dresser, book shelf, and desk. "You can stay in here," She said to him. Sasuke entered the room and took in his new surroundings. "If you need anything, my room is right next door." She watched him inspect the room. He turned toward her and gave an approving nod followed by a 'hn'. She bowed, said her goodnights, and closed the door.
As Sakura got ready for bed, she still could not believe that Sasuke was in her house in the room next door. They were all alone and that gave her butterflies in her stomach. She crawled into bed and listened to the raging storm outside, and she slowly fell asleep
Sasuke was trying to get comfortable, but he could not seem to find a way to calm himself. He wondered if Sakura was still up. He sat up in the bed, and just stared out the window. The storm was not going to let up anytime soon, that's for sure. He groaned and fell back into his pillow. After about an hour, Sasuke was claimed by a deep sleep.
Suddenly, he jumped up, ready for action, when he heard a crash sound. His mind flew to Sakura and ran out of his room and into hers. When he entered, he found that the window was shattered and Sakura was trying to cover it. Sasuke ran to give her aid. In the end, they could only put up a plastic tarp and a blanket over the smashed window. They both said nothing, and then Sakura went back to her bed and settled herself in. Sasuke took this as his time to leave and he walked out and shut the door behind him. He stood outside her door for moment, thinking, and then gathered the nerve to open her door again. When he did he found Sakura in a ball with her hands over her ears, and this pulled at Sasuke in a way he did not like. She was scared, he could tell, and he felt like it was his job to keep her safe. Maybe even be the one to protect her. It was not because he felt romantic feelings for her, he reminded himself, but just because he wanted to help a friend. He walked over to her bed and sat on the edge.
"Sakura," He called to her. She did not responded, but he knew she was not asleep. He shook her arm a little and she shook her head at him, trying to hide her face. It was a struggle to get her to look up at him, but when he finally succeeded, Sasuke saw her puffy eyes and dried trail were the tears use to be. He could not handle her like this. It pained him. He stood up and before either of them knew what he was doing Sakura was in his arms and he started to walk her out of her bedroom and back into the room he was staying in.
He put her down on the bottom bunk where he stayed and sat with her. Sasuke started to get up to get to the top bunk when he felt a hand holding onto his. He looked down at Sakura and saw her shimmering green eyes staring back at him. "Please, Sasuke-kun," She whispered.
He knew what she meant, and he nodded as Sakura slid over to make room for the young Uchiha. This was not a good idea, he sighed to himself, and then he felt a head on his chest and an arm around him. His heart started to beat faster and he was sure that she would be able to hear it. He did not move; he was not good at this kind of thing and did not want to spoil this new feeling. His body reacted on its own as he ran his fingers through her pink feathery hair. Her scent filled his head, and a new calm washed over him. He risked a glance and looked down at the girl that was so close to him. He slowly put an arm around her. He smirked when he felt her stiffen; it reassured him that he was not the only nervous one.
The storm raged on outside, rain crashing onto the window. Sakura had a steady breathing and he figured she had finally fallen asleep right here in his arms. Looking down on her, he noticed her delicate features. Her flushed cheeks looked so smooth, her slightly parted lips were pale and soft looking. Her hair fell on to her forehead, something she had such a big complex about but he found it charming. He lifted a hand and slowly swiped her hair behind her ear. He pondered over how short her hair was. He remembered how she kept it long because she thought that he liked girls with long hair. At the time, he found it annoying, but when he woke up in the forest of death to find her with short hair and beaten, he felt rage. He could not help but want to kill the people who dared lay a hand on his Sakura. Wait, what? His Sakura? Why wound that thought even enter his head?
He tried to push down these new feelings, knowing that he would only end up hurting her. But he is very selfish, and let himself enjoy this moment. He had not felt joy like this in a very long time; he enjoyed it, this joy of being with someone, and to be relieved of his solitude. He then felt anger. Why couldn't he let this feeling last? Why did he not deserve to feel for others? He felt conflict screaming in his brain, he had a goal that he had to do before he could let anybody else into his life. And once he killed his brother, Sasuke would take action to complete his next act. Looking down at her he knew that she would be the one the only person who help him start anew: she was the only girl that he would want to help him; the only girl who he would let help him in the procreation of the Uchiha clan. But until then he would have to shut her out.
But, not tonight. Tonight he would savor the feeling of not being alone. This would be their three days together and he would not waste it. He would let her feel how he needed her and could only hope she would want to wait for him.
Sasuke closed his eyes and relaxed, he felt her shift in his arms. He felt her lift herself up to meet his face. He opened his eyes and saw her so close to his face. She froze being caught staring at him, her cheeks burning. Sasuke needed this just to let her feel what he was feeling. She bent her head down to escape eye contact and he let a smile grace his lips. He leaned forward and kissed her forehead gently. Her eyes shot back up at his and they laid there in silence with no sounds other than the surrounding storm. She laid her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes. Both of them were so close to sleep, their breathing steady.
"I love you Sasuke-kun.," She whispered. She almost hoped he didn't hear it. But he did, and it's what he needed to hear.
"Sakura," he mumbled. She shifted to look up at him. He kept his eyes closed and waited to say whatever it was he was going to say. "If you love me," He said slowly, and Sakura felt her heart race, she never thought he would respond. She hung onto every word that fell out of his drowsy mouth. After a growing pause, he finished, "Will you wait for me?"
Her eyes grew twice their normal size. Was he being serious? He wanted her to wait for him. She blinked hard and steadied her breathing, trying to gather all her emotions before they broke loose.
"Sasuke-kun…you are the only man in my life who I ever could and will ever love this much. I will wait for you, no matter what."
The sincerity of her words hit Sasuke hard. He never realized there was such a heavy weight in himself, until he felt her words free him from it. Sasuke knew that this would be his best moment for a very long time, and it made him a little sad. He didn't say anything else, and tried to block the feelings attempting to pierce his heart. Sasuke's throat felt dry.
Thank you, Sakura, he thought to himself. The words seemed to have disappeared long before he could to say them, and without anything else to say, the two fell asleep in each other's arms.