Title: Marks of Courage

Summary: Sasuke realizes she's not the porcelain doll he thought she was.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. If I did, Sasuke wouldn't be such a bag of dicks right now.

Prompt: Bravery from day two of the SasuSakuMonth Prompts.

Rating: T

Words: 2,235

Warning(s): Nudity


Sakura fidgeted uncomfortably in the warm water. All she had wanted was to relax after their hellishly hard A-rank mission, but one person was making it impossible.

One Kami-cursed, tragically-handsome, brooding, staring damn person.

She had tried relaxing with her eyes closed, but the weight of his watching obsidian eyes could be felt even from behind shut eyelids. Meeting his gaze didn't cause any reaction. Although Sasuke was definitely staring at her, it was almost like her was trying to stare into her. It wasn't like he was staring at anything inappropriate, either!

The pair of Konoha nin had just finished their A-rank mission together: retrieving a new poison. Tsunade had received reports of a gang on the outskirts of Konoha that were developing a lethal new poison. Sakura had been sent to get a sample, or even steal all of the poison safely so that Konoha could prepare an antidote, and Sasuke had been sent as the muscle to back her up. Although Sakura had pointed out she had plenty of muscle all on her own, she was the first to admit that having a teammate to rely on was always a bonus.

Too bad the mission had turned out to be a total bust.

Locating the gang's hideout had been easy-as if the ten guards lining the house didn't scream "illegal activities here!"-as had been confiscating the poison. However Sakura had barely scooped up the noxious purple liquid when she recognized some of her own signatures. The poison turned out to be a replica of one of her original poisons with only a few changes. Simple to deal with and not worth the hype at all.

Getting out had turned out to be a problem, and in the resulting battle Sasuke and Sakura had leveled the whole mansion. Admittedly, the leveling was mostly Sakura's fault, but in all reality it had been the best way to eliminate the massive amounts of guards that had swarmed once the alarm was triggered. The resulting debris had been more than a little detrimental to their escape, as Sasuke had had his leg broken by a flying chunk of wall. As Sakura tended to his snapped tibia, the ceiling had fallen through missing the pair by a hair's breath.

Or a shirt's breadth, more accurately. Years of experience dodging had allowed Sakura to push Sasuke and herself out of the way of major harm, but the whole back of Sakura's shirt had been removed-leaving Sakura making a very unique fashion statement.

So basically, Sasuke and Sakura were grimy, sweaty, and annoyed when they miraculously stumbled across a Hot Spring. The fact that it was a co-ed bath caused Sakura to hesitate for a moment, but the feeling of her sticky clothes has soon persuaded her otherwise.

While Sakura had accepted an invitation to a co-ed bath, she hadn't accepted being completely bare in the same water as the Uchiha-not that she didn't trust him. Sadly, even if she sat on him naked Sakura doubted she'd get a reaction out of the stoic nin. It was just that Sakura was scared of not getting a reaction; it would be almost too much to handle if her body was met just as indifferently as her existence had been by the man she loved. Instead, she had opted to cover her body with a towel in the water.

So what was he looking at?!

Finally, Sakura's tense muscles couldn't take it anymore.

"What?" she snapped, drawing her arms tighter into her chest and her legs closer to her torso, "What are you looking at? I doubt I have food in my face."

Sasuke blinked, slowly focusing on her face rather than...wherever the hell he . He could have almost been looking straight through her if it wasn't for his intense stare. When his eyes flickered from one side of her face to the other Sakura knew Sasuke had finally returned to reality.

"You have blood in your hair, actually."

Sakura rolled her eyes so hard her head rolled, "I'm calling bullshit, Sasuke. I'm covered in blood all day every day, and that doesn't warrant 30 minutes of undivided attention.

The corners of his lips tugged upwards in a small smirk, and his eyes sparkled with mirth-Sasuke's equivalent of a laugh.

"What, can't take the heat Sa-ku-ra?" he drawled teasingly.

Sakura ignored the shiver that ran through her body at his husky tone, and opted for an indignant hair flip instead, "Psh! As if, Uchiha. I've long since grown immune to your charms."

Bull. They both knew it, but she thanked Sasuke for not calling her on it.

"Hn."

It was only one syllable, but Sasuke drew it out so that she could practically hear the meaning behind it: Oh, I'm sure.

With Sasuke's gaze now focused elsewhere, and their banter easing the tension, the atmosphere relaxed. Slowly, her tense shoulder relaxed, and Sakura unfurled her body from its fetal position to spread languidly in the water. Her head rested on the edge of the pool, and the trickle of a far off waterfall and night time crickets were the only sounds.

The pads of her fingers began to wrinkle, and Sakura took this as her cue to start actively stretching the ache out of her muscles. She rolled her head in slow circles and lazily brought her hands to her shoulders, water dripping from her fingertips. The light pressure worked wonders on the relieving the tension that had accumulated from smashing through an entire fortress-all to confiscate a poison that had ended up being based on one of her own.

"Where did you get it?"

Sakura jumped, having forgotten Sasuke was there, and nearly losing her towel in the process. Only a very quick snag on her part saved her remaining dignity. Hand pressed tightly to her chest, fist clenching her towel, Sakura shot an annoyed look at her teammate.

"Get what?" she asked, flinging her hand upward in frustration, "Sasuke-kun, how the fuck am I supposed to know what you're talking about right now. I literally have nothing on me but this towel right now. Where did I get the towel?"

"Annoying," Sasuke sighed, crossing his arms and sinking lower into the water, "Where did you get that scar?"

"Oh," Sakura looked at all her exposed skin, gaze lingering on the small marks lining her chest and arms. Locating the largest one across her pectoral and right beneath her collarbone, she pointed to it before looking back at Sasuke, "this one?"

"No, the sizeable one on your back."

"Oh."

Sakura knew there were only two he could be talking about, both from times she had been impaled. She had never told anyone how she had been skewered by Sasori's blade; Chiyo and Sasori, the only witnesses, both died afterwards, and there didn't seem to ever be a need to share; what was a sword wound when Gaara had almost lost his life and Chiyo had?

Sakura lowered her gaze and feigned interest in rubbing the dirt off her arms, "It was from when someone tried to turn me into a kabob."

Her lighthearted tone did not soften the blow as much as she had hoped, and she heard Sasuke suck in a sharp breath.

"Madara."

"Could be," she responded casually, propping her calf up on her knee and massaging it, "Depends on which one you're talking about."

The sputtering cough that answered her caught her off-guard enough to look up, despite how much she wanted not to look at him at the moment. Because she did she could see the way his eyes widened in surprise before narrowing in anger.

"How many times have you been impaled?" he asked through clenched teeth.

She flinched but refused to drop her gaze. Sighing in defeat Sakura retracted from her hunched position over her leg and leaned back against the wall of the bath, arms resting out of the water on the ledge.

"Only twice," she replied evenly. As much as she did not want to talk about it-how much it had hurt, how scared she had been, how weak she had felt afterwards-it looked like there was no avoiding it. Sasuke rarely initiated conversations, and when he did he could be fairly persistent.

"Who..," he snarled, eyes flashing red momentarily, "Where the hell was Naruto?"

Where the hell was Naruto? Sakura had just told him, the only person ever, that she had been impaled twice and he wanted to know where Naruto was? She knew Sasuke was bad with emotions, and emotional conversations, truly, she had picked that up.

But here she was, opening up, and Sasuke didn't bother to ask how she got it, or how it felt, or even if she had killed the person who did it. He just went and asked where Naruto was, further insinuating that he thought she was useless.

"Well, he was a little busy with Deidara," she spat, drawing in her arms towards her chest again, "I'm a ninja too, you know. Full fledged kunoichi right here-not some porcelain burden."

"Deidara? Whe-" Sasuke sucked in a breath though his breath, and pinched the bridge of his nose, "Sasori. You got that fighting Sasori."

"Yes," she hissed, wanting to make him feel guilty, "So sorry I was weak enough to be wounded by an Akatsuki member. Who I took down."

"Well you shouldn't have taken him on in the first place!" Sasuke attacked back, "Damn it, Sakura, you were no where near Sasori's level, which is damn apparent from the way you got stabbed. What, all that medic training not good enough to dodge Sasori?"

"I took that blade on purpose you prick!" Sakura's fists clenched, itching to clobber him, "And so sorry I got injured in my first major fight-against an Akatsuki member!"

"You took it on-what the hell were you thinking!"

"I was thinking the only way we were going to win, and find out more information on you, was if I took the hit to give Chiyo some more time!"

Both she and Sasuke were leaning aggressively towards the other. Sasuke's lips were drawn in a frozen sneer and Sakura could feel her cheeks flushed with anger. The stare off continued with narrowed eyes, pursed lips, and tight fists before Sasuke sank back with an exasperated sigh.

"I can't decide if you're incredibly stupid, or incredibly brave," he declared, rubbing his temples.

Taken aback, Sakura allowed herself to recline back as well, still frowning. It felt like the argument was over, but she was still hurt and felt a little defensive. Unsure about this twist in the conversation, Sakura decided not to say anything.

"You take on tailed beasts with nothing but a kunai, fight ninjas above your pay-grade," he began to tick them off his fingers at Sakura's sound of protest, "those sound-nin at the chunin exam, Sasori, Madara, freaking Kaguya. Damn it. You're constantly using your body as a shield."

Some of Sakura's anger started to dissipate. Despite his aggressive choice of words, Sasuke's tone was more worried than truly annoyed or disappointed.

"I hate it," he admitted, bushing and averting his gaze, "I hate it when you get hurt-when there's nothing I can do."

Sakura said nothing, emerald eyes wide as she listened silently.

"But I'm a little impressed, too. No matter how hopelessly outmatched you are, if you think you can protect your friends, you don't hesitate. Your body…"

"Just reacts," they finished in unison.

Sakura smiled sadly, all traces of her previous rage gone.

"I think we both know how that is, don't we?" she asked, referring to the numerous times he'd pulled her out of the fire, so to speak. On their first mission, in the chunin exams, against the giant close, against Madara, against Kaguya that final time…

"...yeah."

With the argument over, Sakura felt she had spent quite enough time in the water. She stood up awkwardly keeping the towel against her body. When she turned to step out, however, the towel slipped from her grip and displayed her back and a good portion (okay, all of it) of her ass.

Before she could die of embarrassment, she felt another towel draped across her shoulders and she quickly wrapped it around her body, the other towel dropping to her feet. Kicking it towards a pile of abandoned towels, she turned to find Sasuke staring at the part of the towel that covered her scars.

Instead of continuing to stare, like he did previously, Sasuke quickly met her eyes and nodded, walking forward. He was completely naked, much like he had been in the pool the whole time, but now Sakura was very aware that he had given her the towel he'd planned to dry off with.

Muscles in his toned legs visibly flexed as he walked in front of her, drawing her traitorous eyes to his tight ass. Looking upward wasn't much better for the fire burning in her stomach, although Sasuke's rippling, dripping trapezium were a much more neutral zone than his gluts.

Sasuke snatched a dry towel from a shelf near the wall and turned around just in time to see Sakura's eyes stubbornly glued to his shoulder blades. He smirked, all too knowingly, and Sakura nearly missed his parting words.

"You're pretty brave, Sakura. For a fangirl."


I really do like how this one turned out, and I love the idea of a scarred Sakura-makes her seem more badass. Review, pretty pretty please?