A bit late though, but here's my next prompt for KakaSaku Month. It's a quite short piece, with only a short interaction between our favorite couple, but hopefully you'll like it.

The music I had on repeat during writing was Hold the Moon by FT Island.

KakaSaku Month 2018

Week 1, Day 3: Stargazing

Sakura woke up feeling uncomfortably hot, a thin sheen of sweat covering her body. Even though the flap of the tent she shared with the other female members of Konoha 11 was open, it didn't help. Instead of staring at the ceiling she decided to go outside. Her body was aching from all the work she had to do in this past couple of months, in fact, she never really had the chance to fully recover from the war.

After the Infinite Tsukuyomi was dispelled they had to tend to their injured and bury those who have fallen immediately. And then there was all the rebuilding after the war, which also warranted the help of every able bodied person. In addition, the humid summers so typical of Fire and the cots they had to sleep on made everything even worse.

She strolled along the narrow paths between rows upon rows of tents, occasionally faintly hearing the snoring of their occupants. It seemed that except for her everyone else was sleeping peacefully. Sakura felt fairly entertained by this fact, however unlikely it was. While the presence of her friends helped her with coping with all that has transpired during the war, she often felt suffocated by the multitude of people around her. Whatever she did and wherever she went there were people everywhere. Having to live in such close quarters with an entire village meant that privacy of any sort was a scarce commodity.

The wee hours of the morning seemed to be the only time when people seemingly disappeared. The narrow streets framed by tents were empty and only the singing of crickets was carried by the warm breeze of the night.

Her midnight strolls initially began because of her inability to sleep due to the warm weather and they persisted because of the peacefulness around her. Her wandering turned to an end when she reached the shore of the Naka River. Here the air seemed to be much cooler, and the dewy grass felt absolutely wonderful against her bare skin as she laid on the ground.

The patchy clouds in the sky revealed a few stars, challenging Sakura to guess which constellation were they part of. She could hear the sound of feet approaching, but she did not bother to look at the person, for she knew fairly well who it was.

He wordlessly laid down beside her, propping his head up with his arms. They didn't acknowledge the presence of the other one verbally since silence was the whole purpose of this scenario. After a fast paced, loud day the calmness that surrounded them was something they both yearned for.

While Sakura came to this place in order to be finally alone, she never regretted the moment when the silver-haired man started joining her in her escapades. His presence did not disturb the tranquillity of the meadow, in fact, he somehow managed to make her be at ease.

It was strange how out of all the people she knew, he was the one who made her feel like this. Yet at the same time, it was apparent that none of her friends beside him would be capable of just staring at the night sky in utter silence.

Sakura took in an awed breath as the myriad of stars finally revealed themselves to her fully. The clouds moved away like a curtain that obstructed the stage, revealing the protagonists to the eager audience. She searched for all the constellations that she knew of, deducing that not even one star was missing. While she did the same thing each time she was lying down like this, Sakura never got bored of it.

The stars were one of many things that she didn't pay attention to before the war. They were never visible in Konoha before due to the lights, while during those nights when she was on a mission, in the middle of nowhere, she did register their presence, but that was all. She had plenty of near-death experiences during her time as a shinobi, but they all paled in comparison to the utter despair she felt during the war. But at least it all managed to put everything into perspective. It was then that she realized how few things she accomplished in her short life that were non-work related. It also dawned on her that she practically wasted more than ten years of her life pining over someone who considered her insignificant.

Sakura liked to think that she truly changed in this past couple of months for the better. She started appreciating the smaller, simpler things in life, like this very moment.

She felt his gaze on her, so she turned her head to the side, their eyes meeting. The half crescent moon illuminated his face, the scar bisecting his left eye and cheek a pale line against his skin. It was still so strange seeing both of his eyes at the same time. Even now, after so many months she was expecting for him to flash the Sharingan, but it never happened.

Sakura often wondered how he felt about not having the Sharingan. Did he miss it, or was he happy that he was finally free of that weight? He told them his story after the war, and it was quite obvious that the red eye wasn't a burden only because it constantly drained him of chakra, but because of the emotions that weighted down on him because of it. She wanted to ask him this question several times but felt the words stuck in her throat. She also didn't have any other occasion to talk to him about it besides their nightly meetings. And to be honest she was afraid to voice her questions during these times, she didn't want to upset him, he might even stop coming because of her nosiness.

Right now Sakura was content with just maintaining the status quo, something told her that she'll have plenty of opportunities in the future to ask him all these things.