Coming Back to Life
Chapter 1
"Oi, Sakura-chan! There's good news, Dattebayo!"
Sakura could hear Naruto bellowing from blocks away. Leaving her scrolls on the table in a mess, she hurried outside. She needed to shut the idiot up and remind him that there were people on the streets who he was annoying for no reason.
Or was he? Sakura thought. Now that Naruto had gained recognition as one of the greatest shinobi of all time, absolutely nobody got annoyed with him for any of his actions. Sakura often felt relieved as no matter how idiotic the blonde could get, people would still love him and owe him their lives.
Everything was going very fine in the village, in the whole shinobi world and in Sakura's life, except for the fact that Sasuke had gone on his journey for almost two and a half years now. She had heard a lot of people talking about the last survivor of the Uchiha clan. They would say it was the Kyuubi Jinchuriki who stopped him from being a waste; a lot of people did not even want to acknowledge his role in saving the world from Kaguya's grasp. There were rumours about Itachi as well. Sakura wished she could shut their mouth. Naruto wouldn't want to hear them saying these either. She was only quiet because she had gotten to know from Kakashi Sensei about Sasuke helping the shinobi out there with all his might.
Sakura was convinced that he was doing fine. Although she was used to not having him there all the time, she couldn't help missing him.
She had been longing to see him since the day he had left to atone for his sins, since the moment he had tenderly tapped on her forehead.
She often wondered what the tap meant. Why did it come out of him so affectionately? What brought it to his fingertips? Where did he even learn to do that? She wanted the answers really bad.
"You're late, Sakura-chan!" Naruto screamed even louder than before. Sakura was clenching her fists to give him the taste of her Almighty Punch (a title Kiba had jokingly come up for her move in reference to Nagato's Almighty Push). "Late for what? Naruto, I swear I'm going to smash your face if you shout like that again!" said Sakura, with her fists ready for the attack.
"Whoah whoah Sakura-chan you have gotten scarier than ever!" He lowered his voice. "Your Sasuke-kun is back. He walked with me all this way and then he just vanished while I was waiting for you to come out of your house."
Sasuke is back. The words took her back to the day when the two rivals aka brothers stopped the Infinite Tsukuyomi hand in hand, the day when Sasuke was entirely back to their lives; to both Sakura's and Naruto's lives.
"Hey, don't turn your face into a red hot tomato or your Sasuke-kun will end up eating it raw! He hasn't gotten to eat many of them on his way back home, after all." Naruto exclaimed, louder than ever.
This time, Sakura actually smashed Naruto's face into a disaster and ran off with a heart full of red hot contentment.