Hello readers on this fine Saturday night! Thank your kind words, follows, favs, and visitors for giving this story a read! Much love to you all! 3
THIS STORY CONTAINS MATERIAL REGARDING SEXUAL ASSAULT, PTSD, SURVIVOR'S GUILT, AND MANY SENSITIVE TOPICS
I will make clear which chapters contain more explicit material, but a focus of this story will be there areas. I will include this disclaimer at the top of every chapter, and will note which ones are particularly sensitive. If you have any questions feel free to PM me.
And with that… let's begin!
Storming out of the Hokage tower, her head reeling, Sakura started to head towards Ichiraku, knowing it was about a ten minute walk away. She had ten minutes to clear her head, and ten minutes to figure out how she was going to explain all of this to Naruto.
'He is not going to be happy,' Sakura thought to herself, pressing her lips together in deep thought. And as much as she hated to admit it, Kakashi was right about one thing; what the hell were her and Sasuke? She looked down at her left hand, still not used to the feeling of the heavy ring on her finger. The deep red stone seemed to be staring back at her. If this was a wedding band, was she already his wife? Or was it more symbolic, like a promise ring? Or was that Sasuke's way of proposing? Would they have a wedding? Would they wait until the wedding to have sex? When were they supposed to start, as Sasuke so romantically put it, 're-establishing his clan'?
Sakura shook her head at the hundreds of questions running through her head, and refocused on what she was going to tell Naruto so he didn't run off and try and kill Sasuke. Or take his other arms. Or make sure he would never be able to re-establish the Uchiha clan.
Sakura didn't realize she was power walking to Ichiraku, cutting the time nearly in half and suddenly she was at the entrance to the ramen stand. She saw Naruto, Hinata, and Shikamaru sitting, waiting for their food.
"Oh man this was all I wanted while we were away!" Naruto said happily. Sakura took a deep breath and walked up to her friends, grabbing a seat next to Naruto. "Sakura-chan! Perfect timing! We just ordered, yours will be coming out at the same time. I was worried that if you were going to be in Kakashi-sensei's office for a while it would get cold." Sakura smiled.
"Luckily it was a quick meeting," Sakura said, not looking Naruto in the eyes. Ever since Naruto came back from his two and a half years of training with Jirayia he had become more protective of Sakura, and since The Great Shinobi War and the possibility of losing everyone that protectiveness increased. While she was grateful for this, it made her nervous as to how he was going to react to her news.
Their food came out and was placed in front of them, Naruto making lots of gleeful noises at his favorite meal being brought out to him. Sakura put the first few spoonfuls of the warm food into her mouth.
"Sakura, why do you have an Uchiha wedding band on?" Shikamaru asked, causing Sakura to start choking on her food. She began coughing violently, Naruto slapping her hard on the back, Hinata asking the waitress for a glass of water for Sakura, and Shikamaru staring at her, the corners of his mouth turned up at the chaos he just caused.
Hinata placed the glass of water in front of Sakura, which she quickly started drinking, her coughs becoming less violent as she regained her breath. Wiping her mouth with the back of her hand, Sakura glared at Shikamaru. He cocked his head and raised his eyebrow at her. Naruto grabbed Sakura's left hand, examining the ring on it.
"What?! Wedding band? Uchiha clan? What's going on?" Naruto yelled. Sakura snatched her hand back, not breaking her glare at Shikamaru.
"Shikamaru, what do you know about this ring?" Sakura asked, her voice low, almost threatening. Shikamaru shrugged.
"That's the ring that all of the married women of the Uchiha clan wore. It was a symbol of loyalty to the clan, but some also saw it as a sign of possession. It is strange to see the ring on I woman I assume is unmarried," Sakura's jaw opened.
"Shikamaru-kun, how do you know so much about rings?" Hinata asked. Shikamaru's face turned a slight pink as he looked away.
"Just… doing some research," Shikamaru replied. Naruto continued to look baffled.
"I don't care why Shikamaru knows about rings! I care about why the hell Sakura is wearing it!" Naruto continued to yell. Sakura took a deep breath, her hands shaking slightly. Hinata gave Naruto a stern stare.
"Naruto-kun, lower your voice," Hinata said, looking empathetically at Sakura.
"Naruto… Sasuke asked me to help him repopulate his clan. They were going to take over the Uchiha land if he didn't make an effort to re-establish the clan. He asked if I would be his wife and help him do that, and I said yes." Naruto's eyes widened, his jaw dropping as he struggled to look for the right words. After a few silent seconds he stood up, towering over Sakura.
"I'm going to cut that bastard's dick off!" Naruto roared, getting attention from those passing by. "Does he really have that little respect for you, for anyone? Sakura, this is crazy! You can't do this!" Hinata put her hand on his shoulder, urging him to lower his voice and sit back down.
"You do not have the right to tell me what I can and cannot do, Naruto," Sakura snapped. "This is my decision."
"Does he even love you, Sakura? Like, really love you? Like the way you have always loved him, even when we were kids? Like the way Shikamaru loves Temari, or the way I love Hinata? Does he even love you like I love you, so much so that I would do anything to protect you?" Naruto fought back. Sakura, stunned by his words, had no response. "I didn't think so," Naruto said, his voice softening. Even though Sakura knew his words to be true, so true that she had even brought them up in her conversation with Sasuke, hearing them from someone else made them infinitely worse.
Sakura turned her face away, not wanting her friends to see her eyes water. She quickly wiped her eyes with the back of her hand and turned back to face Naruto. She took a shaky breath, regaining her composure.
"I know he doesn't love me like that, and that's okay. I want to see him happy, like how I want to see you happy. And if seeing him happy means having a clan again, a family again, I want to help give him that." It was Naruto's turn to be without words. A wave of exhaustion came over Sakura, realizing she was nearing thirty hours without sleep. Hinata picked up on this immediately.
"Sakura-chan, you look exhausted. Why don't you take the rest of your meal home and get some rest?" The perceptive Hyuuga said softly. Recognizing the rapid changes in emotions she was having was no doubt due to lack of sleep, Sakura nodded, turning to the waitress to ask for her ramen to be put in a to-go container. Hinata looked up at Naruto. "Naruto-kun, why don't you walk Sakura home?" Naruto nodded.
"I'll make sure she gets home alright," Naruto gave a quick kiss on Hinata's forehead, seemingly grateful for her ability to calm a situation down. "I will come find you afterwards." Hinata blushed slightly. Even after being together go over a year his little displays of affection still made her glow. Sakura felt a slight pang of jealousy and sadness.
The waitress brought Sakura back her meal and she and Naruto stood up. The two of them left the stand, walking towards Sakura's apartment in silence. The entire fifteen minute walk to Sakura's apartment was silent, Naruto staring at the ground flipping between anger and worry and Sakura too exhausted to even form coherent thoughts.
They arrived at her apartment and Naruto walked her to the door.
"Hey, Sakura-chan?" Naruto asked, breaking the silence. Sakura lifted her eyes to meet his deep blue ones. "I am not, and will never, tell you what to do. If I did, you'd probably shatter every bone in my body and refuse to heal them, at least for a little bit." Sakura gave him a weak smile. "But can you promise me one thing?" Sakura gave him an inquisitive look. "Please think about what you are doing. Make the best decision for you."
Naruto's face was full of worry and concern for his friend, and Sakura knew everything he had said was out of concern for her. She wrapped her arms around him and squeezed him tight.
"Okay, I promise," she replied. She heard a sharp intake of breath.
"Sakura-chan…. You're squishing me." Sakura quickly released him, not realizing how tight she was hugging him. Lack of chakra control usually meant she was significantly sleep deprived. "Get some sleep." Sakura nodded and unlocked the door as Naruto turned away.
"And Sakura-chan," Naruto said over his shoulder, causing Sakura to pause at her door. "You deserve someone who loves you as much as you love Sasuke." Sakura gave a slow nod and walked into her apartment, locking the door behind her.
Sakura put her meal in her refrigerator and made a beeline for her bedroom. Stripping out of her casual clothes, she slipped on a pink tank top and red shorts and crawled straight into her bed. She surrounded herself with her pillows and three blankets, building a cocoon of warmth and softness around her. Wrapped up in the safety of her bed, Sakura glanced down at her left hand, looking at the ring more closely.
The metal itself was dark, but still shiny, like obsidian. The metal was smooth and dense. Sakura looked closer at the red stone in the center of the ring. The red was the same red she had seen Sasuke's eyes turn many times when activating his Sharingan. Upon closer inspection she saw three black dots embedded in the stone, which resembled the tomoe of that Sharingan. She moved her hand slightly, taking it out from beneath the blankets and held it up to the beam of light streaking through her window. As she shifted the angle of the stone, Sakura could see a faint image appear in the stone. She squinted her eyes and stared at it more closely.
The pattern was the same as Sasuke's Eternal Mangekyo.
Suddenly uneasy, Sakura retreated her hand back under the blankets and let her eyes close, letting her mind fall quiet and fall asleep.
Sasuke was leaving the store with groceries and cleaning supplies when a familiar blonde haired shinobi stepped in front of him.
"Listen, bastard, we need to talk," Naruto growled.
"I'm busy," Sasuke replied, turning to walk away. Naruto grabbed his arm, preventing him from leaving.
"I don't care how busy you are, we need to talk. Now." Having a feeling he knew what this was about, Sasuke closed his eyes in annoyance.
"Fine, idiot. You have two minutes." Sasuke responded. Naruto took a deep breath.
"What the hell are you doing telling Sakura you need her to help 're-establish you clan'?" Naruto asked, talking with air quotes. Sasuke opened his eyes, narrowing them to look at Naruto.
"That is between me and Sakura," Sasuke replied in a low voice. "And I didn't tell her to do anything."
"You asked her to be your wife! To have your children!" Naruto yelled. Sasuke glared.
"Lower your voice, idiot. And you are right, I asked her, I didn't tell her to do a damn thing," Sasuke snapped back.
"You asked her because you knew she would say yes. Because she would do anything for you. You know how much she cares about you, how much she loves you. And you are taking advantage of that!" Naruto continued to raise his voice. "You don't care about her, you are just using her as someone to fuck and have your babies!" Sasuke dropped the bag he was holding and grabbed Naruto by the collar, bringing his face close to his own.
"Do not dare try to assume what my motivations are." Sasuke threatened, glaring at Naruto. People walking by stopped, staring at the scene unfolding.
"She has spent way too long hurting over you," Naruto growled through his teeth. Sasuke released Naruto's collar with a push and turned his back to the blonde shinobi. "She deserves better than a selfish bastard who doesn't love her!"
Sasuke picked up his bag and started walking away, and then stopped and looked over his shoulder.
"I know she deserves better, idiot."
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