Mr. Brightside
Sasuke ran full speed toward the ninja in front of him. At the last moment, he flipped out his kunai; its edge gleaming in the sunlight. He felt powerful. He felt invincible. That was why he enjoyed fighting so much, because when he was pitted against these untalented idiots, he was in control. He was unstoppable. All powerful. Not some confused little brat who was currently married to a woman he could not understand.
It had been a week since Naruto had found out about the marriage. In all reality, things had gone smoother in that week than they should have. Something about that bothered Sasuke, and some form of anxiety constantly tickled the back of his mind. But since Sakura had apparently decided to get over herself, and that accursed headache had finally gone away, he was currently ignoring it.
Sasuke yanked his mind back to the present as the ninja flash stepped away. It was a move he had expected. His clone dissolved into smoke the moment the enemy's shurkian touched it, just like he'd planed. The chidori crackled to life in his palm. Sasuke smirked as his opponent looked over his shoulder just in time to see the technique that would kill him. The man's eyes widened.
"Teme!" Sasuke hesitated. "You've gotten even better! When Team Seven gets missions again, we'll be unstoppable! BELIEVE IT!" Naruto bellowed, running over with Sakura from where they had been watching with Kakashi. Sasuke turned to give the Dobe a sarcastic look, and was surprised to catch a wisp of a smile on Sakura's face. He blinked, and it was gone. He had not imagined it, he was sure of that. But…perhaps, things were changing. Maybe they wouldn't have to be entirely miserable the rest of their lives.
"Good fight, Uchiha," Dog-boy mumbled.
"Yeah, if this'd been for real, Teme'd slaughtered ya!" Naruto added. Sakura elbowed him in the gut, hard enough for Sasuke to hear it ten feet away. Naruto dropped like a rock. "Thanks, Sakura," he groaned out.
"You're welcome, Naruto," she sniffed.
"I was being sarcastic, woman!" he yelled after her as Sakura walked over to heal Sasuke's wounds; just his, because he didn't relish the idea of her getting too close to dog-boy.
After she had healed his scratches, Sasuke caught her wrist. He wasn't sure why. In this last week, he'd become used to her presence, to expecting her to be near him. Still, it made absolutely no sense for him to care about her helping Inuzinka. Sakura wouldn't go for a guy like him. She wouldn't. And even if she did, what did it matter to him?
Nothing.
But now that he'd stopped her, he should state his reason. "We should go." They'd been out here for over three hours; it was possible someone had caught his chakra signature, and if they hadn't, they would soon. He needed to get out of here before they realized an Uchiha was at the training grounds. Sasuke had been expecting an attack of some sort for a week, and now he was nervous.
Sakura looked at him and blinked. "Okay," she said slowly, "just let me take care of Kiba."
Sasuke shook his head. "We've been here too long already."
"So it's not like ten seconds is going to make much of a difference."
Never mind, the rest of their lives would definitely be spent in utter misery.
As he watched Sakura promenade over to the idiot, Sasuke's blood began to boil. She had just brushed him off, completely ignoring what he had just taken the time to tell her. So it was dog-boy she was in love with now. Well, he'd take care of that. He'd cut that irritating brat into so many pieces that not even Tsunade would be able to sew him back together again. He-
"Hey, Teme, your veins are popping. Is something wrong?" Naruto asked, just like he would ask if Sasuke preferred summer to winter. But before the Uchiha could bite his head off for such a dumb question, the Dobe followed his gaze and said, "Oh," in that "yeah... you finally saw that?" way.
Sasuke laid him out right there.
"Naruto!" Sakura cried from where she was bandaging up dog-boy's arm because apparently "he'll bleed to death before he gets to the hospital, Sasuke". "Sasuke! What were you thinking! Honestly, you boys act like ten year olds."
"Shut up, Sakura," he snapped and walked off.
Behind him, the Dobe started laughing. Sakura was probably babying him now instead of Inuzinka, because he cried out breathlessly, "I'm alright, Sakura-chan. But you'd better go check on the Teme." Naruto broke off into giggles again.
Sasuke didn't wait to hear what embarrassing thing the idiot was going to say next. He should have just left this cursed village again. Or, better yet, he should have just stayed away to begin with. It's not like he'd come back because he actually cared about them. He didn't. In fact, by morning he could be back in Madara's service, planning the villain's downfall by himself. The only reason he had come back at all was because he had gotten tired of being followed everywhere he went by a bunch of idiots from Konoha crying for him to come back. Nobody took you seriously when the very village that should hate you the most was begging for your presence because they couldn't bare living without you. It was absurd.
He knew the instant he had reached the end of the thirty feet Tsunade had cursed the 'couple' with sharing. The sensation was something like the stretching of a rubber band. Sasuke teetered on a branch for a moment, uncertainty and hesitation taking over. He blamed it on the caution he had been forced to learn when he was just a kid, as they had never tested the Hokage's jutsu or its effects before. His head throbbed. It would hardly be flattering to be found unconscious thirty feet away from Sakura with no explanation that would justify such a thing. Perhaps it would be best to stay here, Sakura would come by soon and then they could simply return home, no mess. Sasuke decided that would be the best course of action, and settled down to wait for his 'wife'. Suddenly, in that second, the band holding them together snapped.
Sasuke hugged the tree and commanded himself not to lose consciousness. He didn't, but he realized Sakura must have activated the jutsu, and therefore, she could be in trouble. Not that the Hokage would be enough of a fool to place a jutsu on her prized student that could possibly hurt her, but Sakura had been rather run down lately, and she would never tell people she couldn't help them or train. Like she had some fear of being considered weak, and yet she was making herself so.
And all because of that stupid bog-boy.
Sasuke turned around to go find out what had happened to her, thinking of all the ways to torture that creep.
The Hokage frowned at Sakura. "You of all people should know better," was all she said. But she continued to treat Sakura for an hour. "I warned you about the jutsu. I though you two would have enough common sense to heed my warning, or at least halfway listen if you could do nothing else, but apparently not," she mumbled as she finally ended the jutsu and rubbed her temples.
"I would have thought you two would find it useful to remember the jutsu I placed on the two of you. This particular jutsu encourages two or more people to stay within the same general area due to the extreme amount of stress it places upon the body and mind if they do not; as I'm sure you both discovered this morning. This stress causes an overload on the person that triggered the jutsu, thereby knocking them out for thirty minutes. It is designed to overload the chakra system in particular. I'm sure you can see the benefit of this when placed upon a criminal, as it discourages them from fighting back. So, Sakura, you really need to conserve your chakra. I know you're concerned about Sasuke's little problem, but he can go a few days without treatment, and if I catch even the slightest rumor of you trying to help anyone else, I shall lock you both up together in the Hokage monument. Is that clear?"
Sasuke narrowed his eyes a fraction. This was the second time Tsunade had mentioned something about his health. He knew he couldn't make Sakura tell him now, unless she wanted too. He would have to wait until later, so he simply scoffed. "I'm fine. She's the one with the problem."
He expected some "so that's why you were in bed last week because you depleted your chakra", but there was none such lecture. There was only an awkward silence during which Tsunade gave Sakura a pointed glace and Sakura studied the white sheet.
Tsunade (probably deciding to "tactfully" bring up the big secret) stated, "You haven't told him."
"Tsunade-sama-" Sakura started.
The Witch shook her head. "No. I'm done. You two work this out. Either you want to make it work or you don't. It's up too you." They both silently watched her get up and start to leave. Truthfully, Sasuke wasn't sad to see her go. The meddling woman had messed up his life enough already. "But, I'll tell you this! The two of you need to bend a little. Sasuke, stop being so jealous, and possessive, and just scared of losing everyone close to you and getting hurt again, it's pathetic really. And Sakura- be more thoughtful. Your life has changed. Get used to it. Think about how it makes Sasuke feel as a man when you don't even tell him "good fight" or anything, something that even Naruto had the courtesy to tell him in his own way, and then you go off and start helping some other man. Yes, I am aware that Sasuke doesn't love you, but the two of you are still married and the two of you have to learn to live with it! Bend a little!" The Witch yelled as she slammed the door to their bedroom- and the front door as well.
A very long, painful moment passed in silence.
Naruto wasn't even there to rant about just how awkward it was.
Which somehow made the situation all the more awkward.
"…You were- jealous?" Sakura choked out, obviously shocked.
"Of course not," Sasuke sniffed. "Your so-called "wise" Hokage has been drinking too much again. However, your behavior was improper."
"What do you mean improper? I was merely doing my duty as a medic! You need to get over yourself, Uchiha," she retorted.
"In case you missed every word your teacher said, you're not a medic anymore," he spat at her.
"You can't just take my career- my life- away from me!" she yelled.
"Get used to it. That's what the council's the best at." He left with that. Things just kept going downhill.
The truth was that Sakura was not in as an imperative condition as Tsunade had played it up to be. Sasuke had convinced her to be more severe with Sakura because one of these days she was going to get them killed if she didn't accept reality now. He told himself they were even, as Sakura had obviously kept something about his health hidden from him as well. The difference was Sakura would know better once the "hangover" from her little experiment wore off.
When Sasuke had gone back for Sakura, he had found those imbeciles clustered around her staring at the medic who had managed to pass out. He had shoved the Dobe and dog boy away from her, and was quickly checking her condition, when Kakashi had made an absurd statement.
"Calm down, Obito, she'll be fine. She always is," Kakashi had declared.
Sasuke hadn't had time to think it over in the stress of containing a pink-haired pain in the neck, and it was probably just some stupid comparison that was supposed to be "deep". For some reason, it bothered him. Especially since at the time it had seemed like Kakashi was sincere in his statement, and he also hadn't said much today; not that Sasuke cared. He just hoped that everything with the council was going according to plan.
If there was a plan.
Sasuke didn't exactly have one. He hated hypocrites, but he knew it was hypocritical to expect Sakura to suddenly become the woman his mother had been while he himself remained unchanged. Truthfully, he had no clue how he was supposed to change. It should have been obvious. If the Dobe had been in a situation like this, he would have been able to tell him what he needed to do. But it wasn't Naruto married to Sakura; he was. He would deal with this, with her, he told himself. He just had to figure out what he was supposed to be dealing with.
"Bend a little," The Witch had commanded. He had meant to have Sakura redecorate. But perhaps they needed to start with something smaller. Sasuke's stomach rumbled. Was throwing a cup of instant ramen at her considered bending? He shrugged and put two cups of the horrible stuff in the microwave anyway.
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