Prompt: Sakura heals Sasuke after the war; he gets some things off his chest.
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.
Sakura sprinted from tent to tent, checking on her budding medics. All the remaining casualties of the passing war had minimal injuries, which was a relief but not a surprise; her now legendary teammates successfully held the enemies off. Sasuke had defeated Madara, as Naruto did the juubi. Sakura had taken out Kabuto, much to the surprise of everyone. But that was roughly a week in the past, and Konoha's most promising medic had other concerns by this point.
"Sakura!" a familiar voice called as Sakura stabilized her patient. Sakura turned her head for a split second, Shizune stood at the entrance, looking more than flustered. Sakura had seen this look on her senpai's face before, and anticipated what she had to say.
"Naruto and Sasuke, again?" Sakura guessed, taping off the bandages to her patient's arm. She disposed of her dirty gloves and followed Shizune back to a familiar looking tent.
"They're refusing care from anyone else," Shizune groaned with a sigh, "the brats."
Sakura laughed at Shizune's boldness and pat her sibling student supportively on the shoulder. "I'll take it from here, senpai," and with that she entered the tent.
Naruto exchanged heated words with his Uzumaki counterpart, Karin, who glared at the blonde with annoyance. That Uzumaki blood ran hot, Sakura had figured, thinking back to her Shishou. "I'm trying to heal him!" Karin shot her explanation at Sakura. Sighing in aggravation, Sakura stepped over to her stubborn kyuubi container, knocking him maternally over the head.
"BAKA! Stop being so difficult!" she scolded him, nodding for Karin to proceed.
"Sakura-chaaaan!" Naruto whined, flailing around like a child as the medic made her way to the farther end farther the tent.
Lying on the bed, Sasuke's gaze drifted to the approaching medic. He shooed his remaining Taka comrades away, onyx orbs remained steady on Sakura. Suigetsu slyly eyed the rosette, who simply avoided his violet gaze like a plague. The two Taka teammates joined Karin and Naruto on the other side of the curtain, which separated the two sides. This was the first time Sasuke had actually been alone with Sakura, since that time. You know, the one where they tried to kill each other. But this was different. As Sasuke surveyed her deep viridian windows, he saw no malice; no, this time she was feeling insecure, apologetic, if not- caring.
"Lie down," she ordered professionally, but with a polite tone. Her eyes did not match the confidence in her voice, Sasuke noted this.
Sakura removed the bindings from his sore abdomen, he winced a bit; still, his features maintained a stoic expression. Sasuke didn't restrain from staring at the nervous girl as she healed a gash to his midsection. Occasionally, her doe eyes would meet his and flicker away anxiously. It was amusing, but if Sasuke were looking for anything from this meeting, it wasn't intimidation. It was silent, with the exception of arguing Uzumakis in the other section of the tent. He heard her take a breath.
"Are you coming back?" she mewled, uncharacteristically gentle. Sasuke was perplexed.
"I am," he affirmed, his eyes square on her lovely features.
He watched as she carefully tended to a few of his other battle wounds; every now and then, her eyes doing a glance over of his expression. He couldn't understand. Why was she being so cautious around him all of the sudden? It had been years since he knew her like the back of his hand, but he knew enough about people to understand that no one changes this much. Sakura was not this prudent girl before him.
"Sakura," he said to her, taking hold of her hand to stop the healing. Her eyes cautiously drifted up to meet his. "You have nothing to be afraid of."
Swallowing his words, she retracted her gaze behind shut lids, "I find that hard to believe." She had every right to think this, Sasuke ascertained.
"I know," he said. Releasing her hand, Sasuke watched as Sakura turned her back to leave. This hadn't gone the way he'd anticipated. He laid down, and shut his eyes.
"Sasuke." Lifting himself up after a moment, the raven haired boy looked once again at his former teammate. The look in her eyes was one he recognized, pleading.
"Why did you come back?" she asked, eyes full of meaning.
Sasuke considered this for a moment, before replying, "I have nothing more to gain from being alone."
She mouthed a single 'oh' before she began to retreat, disappointment washed over the hope in her emerald eyes.
"But Sakura," Sasuke said to her, sorely getting up from the cot, "if it's between you and me…" he took her hand, "I have other things to come back to. And I see that now."
It hadn't occurred to Sasuke at that very moment the depth of sincerity that dwelled in his words, but much of it could be seen in Sakura's eyes in that moment. Seconds of silence passed between them, hand in hand, onyx in viridian. She swept a strand of hair from his face before letting a smile slip onto her lips. And with that she exited. Nevertheless, this was only the beginning of something wonderful for the both of them.