Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It had been a bad day for Uchiha Sakura.
As she banged pots and pans, throwing together some food for dinner, she muttered and snarled to no one in particular. She had started off the day on the wrong side of the bed, it seemed.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
When Sakura woke up in the morning, she went through her daily routine: brushed her teeth, washed her face, dressed, and etc. half asleep, as usual. She abruptly roused herself as she looked into the mirror at her reflection.
She stared.
She screamed.
She almost punched the mirror, wanting to get rid of the horrible view that she had seen, and that would have been bad, for she would have had to get another new one, and also because breaking a mirror would give seven years of bad luck, as everyone knows.
Her hair was a total mess, with tangles here and there and – was that dandruff? How nasty…
Her eyes had huge black circles underneath from lack of sleep, and she still had a colorful bruise on her face from training yesterday. She touched it.
"Ow." It still hurt.
And finally, last but not least, there was a big green stain on her teeth. Gross. Perhaps it was from her spinach and cabbage dinner last night.
After some intense cleaning-up, which included using some teeth-whitener, healing the bruise, washing and brushing her hair, and putting on more-than-sufficient makeup to cover the dark circles, Sakura finally felt ready to face the world, or more literally, walking out the front door.
As she strolled down the road on her way to the market for some groceries, she saw Uzumaki Hinata (A/N: yay, everyone's married!) up ahead.
"Hey, Hinata, you going to the market too?"
"Sa—Sakura-chan! Ohaayo, hai, I am. Naruto mentioned something about fish last night at dinner, so I decided to buy some today." Hinata had somewhat lost her stutter and was more confident after marrying her long-time crush. Naruto's loudness and self-confidence had somewhat rubbed off her for the better.
"Cool, I'm just going there to get some groceries because my foods stores are getting low. Sasuke's still on a mission but I think he'll be back soon." Sakura replied, feeling that her day was getting better.
xx
"Two pounds of fresh cod please," Hinata said to the fish man.
"Three pounds, miss? I'll wrap it up for you right away," smirked the fish man. Heh, easy customer I bet, I'll sell her the older cod overpriced, and she won't know the difference.
"Excuse me, I said two pounds of fresh cod, please." Hinata stated firmly, glaring at the fish man. Spooked at the fierce display from the mild-looking lady, the fish man hurriedly wrapped up the fish and handed it over to her. So maybe that shy countenance was just a façade.
"Gomen." Hinata turned around to see a grinning Sakura.
"You go Hinata! Tell that fish man what he deserves!" Sakura gave her a thumbs up.
Hinata blushed, and mumbled, "After seeing me buy groceries, Naruto decided to teach me how to handle the vendors…"
xx
As Sakura examined some fruit and vegetables, the loudspeakers suddenly blared, "Will all the shoppers please leave now, we have an emergency clearing. There is a missing nin that has just entered Konoha, everyone evacuate and follow procedures please." Out of seemingly nowhere came scores of Anbu that started ushering everyone out the door. Sakura felt someone grab her arm and reflexively turned to punch him. Luckily for the Anbu, he dodged and was able to grab both of her wrists. "Excuse me, I'm not a civilian, so let me go." snapped Sakura to her restrainer.
"Sorry, orders are orders, and everyone means everyone," the Anbu deadpanned.
Grr, I wasn't even able to get ANY groceries! What the hell! Fuming, she barely allowed herself to be led out into the evacuation area. Just as she got there, the loudspeakers blared again, "Gomen, false alarm everyone, the area has been checked and there is no apparent danger." NANI? False alarm! Oh my k— "But just to be safe, the market will not be opening, I repeat, will not be opening today. Have a good day everyone, arigatou."
Sakura gasped and choked in shock. Not only was the warning a false alarm, but she wasn't even able to go back to the market to buy food!
"Sakura? Are you okay?" It was Tenten, coming up from behind.
"What? Oh, me? Um…" Sakura was still stunned at the news she had heard.
"Anyway, sorry to bother you, but I have some bad news and I'm in a hurry, Neji's about to go off on a mission and I promised I'd say goodbye. The weapons you ordered got delayed because of some technical difficulties at our shop. It looks like we won't be able to finish the order until a few weeks later. Gomen once again, gotta go!" Tenten ran off towards the gates of the village.
Great. I wanted to give Sasuke some new kunai and shuriken, looks like THAT won't be happening anytime soon either.
Sakura was seriously annoyed. She fumed and fumed, and, not aware of where she was going, unconsciously walked into the Yamanaka flower shop.
"Sakura-chan! Irasshaimase! Are you looking to buy anything today? We have some new flowers that have been specially cultivated for months for sale right now! We also have some late blooms of some of the flowers that are already out of season, so if you'd like to look at those, feel free—"
"Ino. Shut up now." Technically Ino was no longer a Yamanaka, but that hadn't changed her personality at all, really. In fact, her spouse's apathy seemed to have made her want to talk and gossip all the more. There was nothing like a day full of Ino chatting into your ear to aggravate you. Sure, she was a good friend, but on a day like this, with all the usual talk, Sakura was going to blow up. Literally.
"Well, geez, no need to be cranky, 'kay? There's nothing like a nice daffodil to give to Sasuke-kun right? Symbolism of the sun shining when you're with him is nice to think about—"
"He's not home. Therefore the sun isn't shining and I'm leaving. Now." With that, Sakura stomped out of the shop. Why did I go in there anyway? Gosh, how she wished everyone could just.
Leave.
Her.
Alone.
She looked up at the sky. True to her words, the sun wasn't shining. In fact, clouds were definitely beginning to gather—no, more like precipitate. Rain. Just what she needed in the middle of the day. There was no way she was going back into the shop in her bad mood with Ino right now. If anything, that would just make her irritated tenfold.
She looked around. Just as luck would have it, none of the shops or houses around seemed familiar or had an overhang that she could stay under. Just how often did Konoha get such heavy rain anyway?
When she finally reached home, Sakura was about to change out of her wet clothes when she remembered… the wash, hanging. Outside, in the rain. She gritted her teeth and stormed (no pun intended) out, brusquely grabbing the clothes off of the clothesline and throwing them inside a basket.
Once inside, she dumped them onto the couch, not caring what the water would do to the covering. Finally, after changing, she got out what was left of her food stores for the last meal of the day.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Knock-knock.
What NOW, she thought. Who wants to come and bother me NOW? If it's some tramp looking for shelter, then I'll tell them to get the hell out NOW!
Throwing open the door, she yelled, "WHAT DO YOU WANT? GET OUT NOW!" She slammed the door closed.
Sasuke crossed his arms. So this was how his wife treated him after a mission, huh?
As an afterthought, he took out his key and quietly opened the front door. There was a nasty odor permeating the house that he knew hadn't been there when he left. Uh oh. Sakura's cooking cabbage again? Ugh…
He snuck into the kitchen, where Sakura was eating something that resembled green slop and glaring at the rain out the window. She had dark rings under her eyes. She looks really out of it today.
"I'm home."
"Don't talk to me! Food's in the pot, we're OUT of tomatoes, and everything for that matter, so leave me ALONE!" The callous words came out of her mouth instantaneously.
"…" Sasuke ladled a minimal amount of cabbage mush onto his plate, wolfed it down as fast as he could, and disappeared to his room. If Sakura didn't company, then so be it.
Shit. Why did I yell at him? He just came home after a month on an important mission, and I greet him like that…She swallowed the rest of her dinner, washed the two plates and the pot, and decided to apologize, even though her day had been awful. I'll explain, maybe then he'll…That's too much to hope for, I'll just wish for the best and maybe he'll talk to me after a few days…Wincing, Sakura made her way upstairs toward the room.
She quietly opened the door and stepped in. Sasuke was standing at the window, gazing impassively at the rain. He made no motion to indicate that he had heard her enter the room.
"Um…I just wanted to say… gomen nasai, I know you just came back from a long mission, and I really missed you, but see, I had a really bad day: I woke up looking terrible, then when I went to the market, there was a false alarm but I wasn't able to go back and buy groceries, then I accidentally met Ino and she talked and talked and I snapped at her, and then—" Sakura stopped, for Sasuke had disappeared from his position at the window.
Sasuke had moved behind her and covered her mouth with his hand. He turned her around and, after a pause, lifted her chin kissed her forehead.
"Omaesan."
Then, as he gave her a deep kiss on the lips, Sakura gave a muffled gasp, then slowly relaxed, giving in. Forgiven. (and since i'm not the type to write these sort of things, imagine how he kissed her yourself)
xx
Late at night, as Sakura lay in their king-sized bed, she glanced over at a seemingly asleep Sasuke.
"Aishiteru," Sakura whispered to Sasuke's motionless form.
He turned around. Not asleep after all, then.
"I know."
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Omaesan means you; my dear, hey according to my online dictionary.