Periods of the Heart.
Or How Sasuke Got Her (finally).
Italics for emphasis or thoughts.
Fanfiction means fiction by fans so it goes without saying we don't own it, right? Thus the lack of the need for the disclaimer. :P
i.
They were eighteen.
It was a week after he had returned, after they had welcomed him back (and by they he meant Team 7, who cares about the others?), albeit with a few bruises (heck, Sakura had hit him with her full strength it was a miracle he was still alive, what with that and his bruises from his previous fight).
It was a day after he had fully recovered, and the day he was allowed to see people again, after being given the year long probation by Tsunade. He waited at what was once the Team 7 training grounds, (hoping—well, no really, since he is Sasuke—to catch a glimpse of his teammates…?) which was miraculously still there, a sign that perhaps, perhaps, all those long years can be shed and they can still be together.
Sakura was the first one he saw, and she was surprised to see him. She smiled at him, and he acknowledged her with a nod.
Then she ran to him and clung to his right arm, as she had once.
He stared at her face, gleeful, her eyes, mischievous.
"Ne, ne, Sasuke-kun," she exclaimed, prolonging the honorific that he hadn't heard from her lips (which were quite distracting, they were plump and pink and shiny—and since when had he thought of lips, much less Sakura's, in that way?) in such a long time, "want to go on a date?"
Clearly he was surprised, as shown by the two raised eyebrows.
She laughed.
"I was just kidding Sasuke!" The honorific no longer.
She let go of his arm (and he had to admit he felt a little…empty).
"Oi! Sasuke-teme! Sakura-chan!"
His eyes shifted to Naruto. At least someone remained the same…
"Ah, Sakura-chan, someone's waiting for you over there," Naruto pointed to a figure leaning on a tree.
"Oh, that must be him! Bye, Naruto, Sasuke!" Her face had lightened up as she ran away.
Sasuke watched closely as the figure walked up to meet her.
It was Neji.
He could feel his eyes narrow as she talked to him in a laughing manner, with Neji answering by shrugging his shoulders or inclining his head. Neji walked away, Sakura stayed. She called out something to him, and he stopped then went back to her and put his right hand on her shoulder. They walked away together.
He could feel his hands fisting.
"Sasuke-teme, what are you staring at?" Naruto asked.
Before he could drop his eyes and regain his composure Naruto had traced what he was looking at.
And the (usually moronic, normally idiotic, paragon of stupidity) Naruto said, "Oh, that." (How did he notice what he was looking at?)
"That's been going on for two weeks now."
Naruto had refused to explain what that was. Or maybe he didn't know.
All Sasuke knew was that whatever that was, it was making his chest clench and his Sharingan threaten to appear.
ii.
His Sharingan was threatening to appear again, now.
Apparently the Hyuuga made her cry.
He found her on the training grounds, sitting on a branch, trying not to cry, but still sniffling nonetheless. He sat down beside her, wordlessly, and after a whole five minutes of listening to her sniffling, he muttered, "Annoying."
Yet he tapped her back lightly, twice.
Sakura had lifted her eyes to his (shining—fuck the bastard who did this) and let out all of her troubles to him.
"I know—I knew—that it was just a temporary thing, no it wasn't even a thing! Tenten had asked me to look after him because he was injured, while she was out on that month-long mission. And it was my entire fault. I mean, I know Neji-kun"—his left eye twitched at the suffix, so there was somebody else that she called that?—"and I know that he and Tenten are practically spoken for by each other, but I couldn't help it. He was just kind"—he couldn't help but snort—"no, really, Sasuke he was kind"—there was the lack of –kun in his name again, bastard—"the kind of kind that you wouldn't know if you didn't look enough and I just couldn't help myself."
She finished her rambling and looked at him, smiling sadly. She took a deep breath.
"I seem to be falling for that type of guy a lot."
Sasuke felt a jolt. He knew what she wasn't saying.
He contemplated on it for a split second before—"That type of guy can fall in love with you, too, you know. And they do."
He was looking at her intensely.
And she was looking at him, completely dazed.
She blinked at him.
His eyes were entirely focused on hers.
Her gaze faltered and she stood up, letting out a little emotionless chuckle.
"Don't you go around getting people's hopes up. I'm not up for another…heartache. So I'm just going to pretend you didn't say anything."
She jumped from the tree and waved, not even looking at him.
Sasuke couldn't help but look at her walking away, and was painfully reminded that Sakura was not the Sakura of six or so years ago. Of course she wouldn't be. He was left with the question of how do I get her to fall in love with me again? He couldn't believe that he was admitting this to himself. Yet he was strangely at ease with the fact that maybe, just maybe, he had fallen unexpectedly in love with her.
He took one last, long look at the figure of the pink-haired girl with her back straight and hair swishing. Sakura had matured.
iii.
She had matured. She was no longer weak—even the men begin to tense up once they see her pull on her black gloves. And even if she didn't, they fully knew what she and her crazy strength can do.
So why, why, did she feel like she was twelve again and assuming a lot? Sasuke was going to get it, for even telling her something that got her assuming again.
But then again, when Tenten was gone and when Neji-kun was around, she also assumed a lot.
Sakura clenched her fists and thought, I am eighteen years old, and light years away from childish infatuation. I will not let a mere thoughtless comment get to me.
iv.
He would never show it, he would never admit it, but most of Naruto's thoughtless comments get to him.
Like these ones for example.
"Sakura-chan seems to be over Neji now. Or was it because Tenten is back? She doesn't seem to see him anymore, he doesn't pick her up anywhere anymore."
That Hyuuga is going down.
"Sakura-chan seems…angry. See the way she's clenching and unclenching her fists?...I'm getting scared, Sasuke-teme…"
Was that because of what he said before?
"It's going to be Sakura-chan's birthday in a month!"
"Hn."
He will do something.
(Never mind that all of those thoughtless comments you noticed were all about Sakura.)
And so he began to appear in all places where she was.
v.
He began to appear in all places where she was.
Sakura was confused. He was everywhere!
Outside the hospital, waiting to walk her home after her night shift.
(She had to admit she was flattered that he walked her home, but what's the point? It's Konoha anyway, and she's a kunoichi.)
Outside the Yamanaka flower shop, after her weekly chats with Ino.
(Her co-ex-fangirl's eyebrows were waggling horribly at her and at him whenever she saw them together. Shouldn't Ino be jealous? Oh, there was the case of Shikamaru but still…shouldn't she be jealous?)
Her weekend shopping trysts with the girls, being their willing elephant.
(There really was something wrong with this guy—willing to carry the multitude of shopping bags and groceries for four girls? Well there was also the matter of Neji, Shikamaru and Naruto but well…still!)
And he began to train and spar with her, too.
(Despite saying that she was weak every time they did. Sasuke-kun was still Sasuke-kun, sigh.)
What was going on?
(And did she just add the suffix in her head?)
Nothing, nothing was like she ever experienced.
Was there another invasion?
vi.
"There's no invasion, Sakura, you can come out of hiding now. And as if you're not a kunoichi, you can hold up your own in a fight you know." Sasuke said in a clipped tone, to the doorway of Sakura's apartment.
Slowly the door slid open, and Sakura's face, apprehensive, showed.
"Er…yeah, I wasn't thinking that."
(Even if I did hide away in my apartment for three days, scared to go out in the fear of bumping into him every second of the day, and scared of these familiar feelings that are bubbling up inside me again, Sakura thought.)
"What's going on? Why are you here?" Sakura asked.
"Your birthday's what's going on." Sasuke held out a box—was it a cake?—and he was also carrying a paper bag of something else.
Sakura peered at him.
"Who are you and what have you done to my former teammate who used to grunt for responses?"
Sasuke stared at her.
"Fine, fine, come in. I have to warn you though, I'm in bedclothes."
Sasuke shrugged.
But the door didn't budge. Sakura peered at him again, and then seemed to change her mind.
"Can you wait for five minutes?"
"Hn." Sasuke propped himself against the wall outside.
The door closed and dutifully opened again after five minutes. Sakura was dressed in her usual kunoichi getup, though her (now long) hair was haphazardly brought together in a ponytail.
(And Sasuke never thought her more beautiful.)
She nodded at him and he followed her inside.
"Only you?"
"Hn."
Sakura didn't seem to believe it.
"What's in the paper bag?"
"Stuff."
"For?"
"To make food."
"Oh."
He thrust the package towards her and she accepted it, and proceeded to the kitchen. He followed her, and she quirked a questioning eyebrow at him.
"You're helping?" Sakura asked.
"Hn."
And he swore that he could see her hide a smile.
vii.
How many times has she hidden a smile today?
Sakura counts, oh, too many to count, she thought, and hides another smile from him.
She had to admit that what he did was…sweet.
(Sasuke and sweet?!)
He was with her all day, preparing the food—who was going to eat it anyways?—and setting it up in the kitchen. The cake was out of the box, the candles stuck on it and lit.
"Well?" Sakura looked at him expectantly.
Needless to say, she was shocked when he began to (tunelessly) sing Happy Birthday Sakura.
"…"
Speechless Sakura.
And an out-of-character Sasuke.
She stared at him.
He shrugged and sliced a piece of cake.
"Why?" It came out in a strangled voice.
She was still staring up at him.
He grunted.
"Tch. Look. Can't you just see this as me wooing you? I can't believe you haven't noticed; this has been going on for what, a month? Are you that dense? I thought Naruto was the only stupid one."
She was still staring at him.
He grunted again.
"Isn't this the time when you're supposed to go fan girl mode and admit your undying love for me?"
A chuckle erupted from Sakura's throat, "Are you embarrassed, Sasuke-kun? You're awfully red. And is this exactly what I think it is?"
"Hn." Agreement.
She giggled. "Can't you just tell me you like me, Sasuke-kun?"
"Hn." Agreement?
No—"I don't like you,"—he rolled his eyes at the way her face fell—"I think I'm in love with you."
Silence.
She smiled at him—that slow, dazzling, enchanting smile that she every so often bestowed on a lucky person.
(Was he thinking like a lovesick idiot?! He decided that he didn't care.)
He shifted closer to her, his face nearing hers, painfully…
Her eyes had already fluttered closed.
Then he stopped.
(Of course he knew she still had feelings for him. Duh. Hah to that Hyuuga brat.)
"Uh, Sakura."
Her eyes snapped open.
He looked at her, a trace of guilt in his eyes, "I'm not entirely sure how to go about this."
viii.
"I'm not entirely sure how to go about this."
There was that statement again.
He had said the same thing three or so years ago, when they had started dating.
That time it was about kissing.
This time it was…well…about reviving the Uchiha clan and repopulating Konoha with Sharingan-eyed babies.
And like what Sakura did three or so years ago, she pressed her lips together (effectively stopping the giggles that threatened to escape—oh how that would have wounded her new husband's ego) and smiled gently at him.
"Well, this is how you do it…"
AN: I seem…to go around a lot of fandoms. I haven't really read the manga, but I think (?) I know enough to write this fic (thank you WIKI! Hah.). I was actually inspired to write a Naruto sasusaku fic because of the multitude of really good fics out there about them. I just hope I did justice to this pair and methinksSasukewasabitOOC. OhWELL. (He needs to be taken down a notch, that, that guy.) So…please do review! *huggles*