Grace

By: LilyDraken


Sakura stood quietly in the hallway, awaiting her fate. Down the corridor, she saw Sai heading her way. Inwardly she groaned.

"Sakura."

"Sai."

"How are you?"

"I'm just fine, Sai, thanks."

He studied her for a fraction of a second. "You're lying." Sakura gave him a scathing look, as if to say, 'Of course I'm lying, you idiot.' He continued, "You don't need to. I'm here for both of you."

Sakura's eyes went upward, her head tilted back and forth; she sighed, "I know. And, I appreciate it."

"I'm not going to push. I know how futile pushing is when it's you being pushed. But I just wanted you to know that, well, you've been missed."

Sakura reached out and squeezed his hand. "I missed you too, Sai."

The door to the hokage's office opened. Izumo stepped out. "Haruno, he'll see you now."

Sakura gave Sai a weak smile. "See you later." Sai nodded.

She walked in, softly closing the door behind her.


"This is it," Kakashi stated in a bored tone.

Sasuke looked around the studio apartment. It was small and bare save for a bed, table, two chairs, and a stove. The walls were bright yellow. "Am I allowed to repaint?"

His question was answered with a shrug. "As stated, you'll be under surveillance, so curb the urge to call out and throw down. You're to meet Shiranui Genma in three hours time. It is your responsibility to locate him, though he'll likely be at headquarters. If you're late, your housing privilege will be revoked."

"I thought Naruto-" a pause, "-sama said six hours."

"Today it's three."

'So this is the way it's going to be,' he sighed. He walked to the closet and slid the door open. Inside were plain black shirts of varying sleeve lengths and black pants. Two pairs of new ninja shoes sat at the bottom. He was relieved to find not a single Uchiha crest in sight.

"Thank you, for the attire, and the apartment."

"See you later." Kakashi vanished with a poof.

Sasuke sighed, sitting down on the edge of the bed, staring at the obscenely bright walls. Perhaps a light blue and taupe, that would be nice.

And then there it was. Lying flat on a tiny stand on the far side of the bed. Sasuke slowly rolled across and grabbed it, realizing it was a picture frame.

His stomach clenched, knowing what he was going to find when he turned the frame over. He wasn't ready to face their smiling, scowling faces, back when they were a team, when they were happy, before he'd done all he did.

'But I am here, so I guess I'm going to have to deal with it,' he told himself. He took a deep breath and turned the frame over.

His brows knitted together. A scrap of paper? It was. A piece of paper covered all of their faces, stuck between the photo and the glass. He pried the back of the frame out, removing the slip of paper. He glanced quickly at the photo then opened the folded piece of parchment:

--Hey, once you're up for it, we really need to see about updating this. You look like an ass… ~N--

Sasuke smirked, shaking his head in spite of himself.

He had to admit, as things didn't go down the way he'd hoped, this was well more than he deserved. Leave it to Naruto to bend over backwards to welcome him back to the fold. The hard part was dealing with every other person who wasn't Naruto. Kakashi had given him only cold indifference, and Sakura had already issued a death threat.

He deserved it, he knew. He'd nearly killed every single one of them at some point, and in cold blood besides. He deserved Kakashi's indifference and Sakura's rage, and more.

Which he knew he would get, venturing out into the village to find Genma for his first check-in. Scorn, derision, hateful words… the list could and likely would go on.

Sasuke fell back into the mattress, realizing it wasn't all that comfortable.

He would face everything they dished out to him. He would face them all to reclaim his honor, restore his integrity-

"Ouch."

Sasuke rolled over, punching the mattress. Then again. Within moments the mattress was on the floor; he was in an all out battle, throwing kicks and punches at lightning speed.

"Stupid-" punch, "stupid," punch, "fucking-" kick, "bastard-" punch, kick, kick-

Sasuke collapsed into a heap on the battered mattress. He exhaled slowly, allowing the pain to consume him.


"You disobeyed a direct order."

Sakura nodded. She had never seen Naruto so furious. Well, she'd also never given him a reason to be so furious, at least not with her. He was pissed enough that he couldn't even look at her, choosing instead to stare out the window at his image in the mountain.

Then he spun around. "Do you have any idea, Sakura-chan, any idea how stupid that was!?"

She said nothing; there was nothing she could say. She knew exactly how stupid it was; it was only after the fact that it had occurred to her.

He turned to the window again, saying nothing for a long time. When he turned around again, he was calm, his expression one of deep hurt. "Do you not respect me?"

Sakura was completely caught off guard by the question. "What?"

Naruto sighed, "Do you not respect me?"

"What kind of a question is that? Of course I respect you Naruto!"

"You don't act like you do," he said simply. "It never occurred to you that I had a reason for not wanting you to see Sasuke until he'd been questioned. It never occurred to you that I had a valid point, or that I was trying to protect you. You don't respect me as Hokage, and you don't respect me."

Sakura's jaw dropped. "Naruto, nothing could be farther from the truth! I can't believe you would-"

"Prove me wrong, Sakura-chan." The pain in his voice was killing her.

She took a deep breath. "What I did was wrong. It was irresponsible, foolish, in violation of a direct order from my hokage… it was wrong. I know that. I just… when it comes to you, I can't think straight."

Naruto looked perplexed at this. "Me?"

"Yes, you, you idiot!" she cried. "You don't honestly think I went to go chat about how he's doing, do you? Do you even know what I did? Or how fantastically stupid it was?"

Sakura could tell from his confused, shocked expression that he didn't. "I went and threatened, yes, threatened him to not hurt you again."

Naruto's eyes widened as his jaw dropped. "Sakura-chan…"

Seeing that look on his face brought her to tears. "You just get so stupid where he's concerned! And I get stupid when my emotions are involved." She rolled her eyes upward, desperately trying to keep her burning tears from falling. "Look, I know what I did was wrong." A tear slipped down her cheek. "I can't say 'my temper got the better of me' and just leave it at that; I know it's not that simple. …Except that it is. What happened, I mean, with my temper and all." She rolled her eyes at herself as the tears spilled over completely.

Naruto stood dumbfounded.

She took a deep breath. "Naruto-sama," she said, collecting herself, "please punish me."

"Sakura-chan-"

"If you believe that this is about respect, I'm showing you I respect you. As Hokage, you are obligated to punish me for disobeying an order."

Naruto shook his head.

"Naruto-sama, you have to!"

He smiled, his head still shaking, "No, I can't Sakura-chan, not when you violated a command in order to protect someone you love."

He opened his arms; Sakura threw herself into them, "You idiot!" she cried.

"I think you've clearly demonstrated you're a bigger idiot than I am. And don't think I'm not still pissed at you; I am." Naruto squeezed her tightly. "If he was a threat, he could have-"

"I know," she cut him off. Her eyes met his. "I know."

"Don't ever be stupider than me again, Sakura-chan. Ever."


Shiranui Genma lounged against the wall of shinobi headquarters, senbon between his lips, scanning the front doors of the hospital across the way.

"So where are you taking her tonight?" asked Aoba, beside him.

Genma flashed him a grin. "That's for me to know tonight, and you to find out about tomorrow."

"You're sick, bro."

Perched in a nearby tree, Sasuke rolled his eyes at the exchange. He had wanted to catch Genma alone for his check-in, but as usual, fortune chose not to favor him.

"You gonna bother to show yourself, Uchiha, or continue hiding like a little girl?" asked Genma.

Sasuke sighed, sliding off the branch to land gracefully at Genma's feet. "I'm here for my check-in."

"I surmised as much."

Sasuke bit back the irritated retort. He took a deep breath, "Kakashi said you would have further instructions for me."

"Yeah," he flicked the senbon up with his tongue, "Raidou, six hours."

Sasuke's eyes narrowed, "I was informed that today would be every three hours."

Aoba chuckled. "Three hours for check-in with Genma. He's not gonna want you interrupting another three from now."

He swallowed the 'tch' in his throat. 'I cannot allow myself to show irritation. They're goading me. I can not, will not.' He calmly repeated, "Raidou, six hours."

Genma gave a curt nod, appraising Sasuke. "Should give you plenty of time to find him. Heard he wants to make you work for it."

"Good to know."

Genma stood up, his eyes having found his target. He brushed by Sasuke, whispering, "And you will work for it," as he sauntered away. The innuendo was not lost on Sasuke.

Aoba sized him up, his eyes hidden behind dark glasses. "Hmph." And then he was gone.

Sasuke frowned. He turned to see Genma wrap his arm around Shizune. She waved to someone; as they walked away he saw the kunoichi Shizune had waved to. 'Sakura.'

Sakura waved back, shouting, "Have a good time!"

"Oh don't worry, Haruno," Genma hollered back, "we will!"

"Goodnight, Sakura! Have fun!"

Sasuke studied her. She looked so different now in a simple green sundress rather than the ANBU uniform. Her hair was now down, cut differently than he'd last remembered it. 'But so many things are different now.'

Sakura's cheeks were rosy, she was smiling, her eyes made greener by her dress. She looked radiant. He watched as Hinata and Kiba came up, giving her huge hugs in turn. She talked animatedly with them, her hands going in every which direction making some point or another. She laughed at something Kiba said; Hinata turned pink. Then Tenten and Lee joined, each embracing her. And then Neji slipped beside her, whispering into her ear.

Sakura looked up with a start, her eyes meeting Sasuke's. All traces of her bright smile vanished. Sasuke blinked, performed a lightning quick seal and went up in a smoke cloud.

Back in his sad little apartment, he sat on the mattress on the floor. Outside the sky was brilliant with oranges, reds and pinks as the sun set. The colors did wonders for the yellow walls; it now felt like the room was consumed in flames. 'I should go up in flames.'

Pain seared through his arms. He flexed his hands, rolling his wrists around to facilitate movement in the joints. He winced. 'Shouldn't have done that. Damn it.'

Sasuke could admit he didn't like the way Sakura's smile vanished at the sight of him. Ironically, there was once a time just the sight of him made Sakura light up like a lantern. 'How much times have changed.'

The constantly changing constant observers set Sasuke's senses off. He had to keep reminding himself he was being watched, to quiet his ninja instincts, to keep from, as Kakashi so aptly put, 'calling out and throwing down.'

Sasuke settled into bed, or rather the mattress on the floor as the pain was too great to relocate it tonight.

A knock at the door puzzled him. He wasn't due to meet Raidou for another five hours. He rolled off the mattress and answered the door.

"Sakura!"


A/N: Hope you like this one! As always, please leave reviews.

~Lily