10
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A Man in the House – The Wife
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Finally Home.
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The announcement he made about three months after the incident with the descendants of the Okutsuki. It was neither loud nor obvious, it was just as him, as quiet as possible, and just as straight forward, indirectly told by the words in his mouth, and send through his heart and a gaze of his eyes.
And showed by that mocking smirk and smile he would only reserve for those who were his dearest, his closest, his loved.
He told her on the road back home. The act was of a casual nature, withholding nothing so much and many as a few words, a look at her, and an answer that held a breathtaking smile and jade eyes and a little blush adorning feminine cheeks. It was an answer of pure happiness and relief.
"I talked to Naruto. My mission is over. I´m going to stay in Konoha."
"That´s great news, Sasuke-kun."
But when the privacy of their home was finally reached, and shoes and cloaks were taken off, and she stepped through the entrance, to go prepare a dinner for celebration in the kitchen, he finally truly announced what his words from quite just before really meant.
"Sakura."
That particular call for her name, in just as that particular stimulation of his voice – so soft, caring and demanding – made her legs and feet stop in their motion but her body and head and eyes turn to meet his own.
"Yes, Sasuke-kun?"
Obviously, the invisible seal on his mocking lips he put on them himself refused to let go until she fully turned to face him. The message was clear to her, since she knew what it meant well enough, and so she turned.
"Yes, Sasuke-kun?", she repeated, to release his lips from them seals.
There was a moment of shared silence, to gather air in his lungs, to let his lips quirk just the slightest bit upwards, to allow his eyes to shine and crinkle in pure happiness he so badly wanted to share with her – his wife, his lover, his dearest person who waited patiently for him, and for so long as more than ten torturing years of absence.
"Sakura."
He called her name again, for he longed to feel the taste of it on his tongue once more, when she truly stood in front of him, so that his eyes that had seen so much ugly would finally be able to see the most beautiful.
And then there were those words, so needed to say in their real meaning, because the last time was about so many years before. When they were so young, so at the very beginning of their journey together, before their real bonding happened, when their connection just started to build up rapidly.
"I´m home."
Time she needed to understand the meaning behind this state of his, and time she did not need to immediately smile back, to make her eyes shine back at him, to accept his announcement and to know the further words he did not speak out, for he believed deeply that she would understand.
Finally.
The smile maintained on her face, and it allowed without any force to let out her answer to his announcement.
"Welcome home."
Finally.
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1.
Sleep.
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One morning after his announcement she decided he had stayed long enough for her to start mocking him a little.
It was when they woke up from their sleep to the soft morning lights of dawn, when she slowly opened those pale eyelids of hers which hid her very, very green irises behind them. Limbs stretched, and her head turned to its side to see her husband had draped bedsheets over his head as he attempted to shield himself from any possible light.
Sakura knew, he hated mornings, though he was awake already.
"You still snore, darling."
She stated it so casually that he wasn´t sure if it was a joke or the truth, if she was amused or annoyed by it. Not that he believed her, or tried to tell her otherwise.
"I do not snore, Sakura. I never did", he said, while letting his right eye peek out of the bedsheets at her. His black orb was always cloudy and dull just after he woke up, she knew that.
Sasuke´s wife turned to her side to face said man better, popping her head up on her right palm. "You do."
The twitch of his visible eyebrow was a very decent proof of his irritation.
"I don´t."
"Do you want me to record your noises while you sleep to proof it?"
It was a challenge he was eager to win, or his natural ego and pride were eager to win. This woman of his thought she was in the position to judge his sleeping habits? Well, he was aware of hers as well.
"Tch." Sasuke´s eyes narrowed at her, just like before he would take his first strike in a fight. "You talk in your sleep."
There the accusation was, and there she flinched and blushed and gasped.
"I-I don´t do that!"
There was a casual blink of male eyes.
"You do."
"Hmph", the woman said and turned to sit on her stomach, while crossing her arms on the bed. Her cheeks were puffed out. "You only made that up because I told you that you snore. That´s a weak counter, Sasuke-kun."
Weak was really a word the Uchiha didn´t like to be described with, so he pulled the bedsheet off his head and revealed his own lying position on his stomach, just like his wife, but without popping up on his arms. His head felt comfortable on that soft pillow after all.
"You talk, Sakura. Or mumble actually. Even Sarada can confirm that."
She let out a splutter and pout and her head fell down on her arms again. Husband and wife laid parallel to each other, so that their eyes met without any border between them.
"I don´t know what´s more embarrassing. That you talk with Sarada about me behind my back, or that I don´t know what I´m saying while I talk in my sleep."
He grunted.
"Hn. She just mentioned it once. And you argue with Yamanaka most times."
Instead of embarrassedly averting her eyes from his, Sakura rose her eyebrows in earnest curiosity of herself.
"With Ino?"
Her husband grunted again, to answer her "yes".
They looked at each other for a little while in astonished silence, after which Sasuke´s mouth quirked into an amused smile and Sakura giggled to herself.
"This is so embarrassing", she said and buried her face deep into the cushions. "What else am I saying?"
There was a little moment of thinking time before her husband answered. His eyes narrowed again, in deep concentration. Yes, he always had a sharp memory, but not in the early minutes of lazy mornings.
"Sometimes you talk with Sarada, Naruto, or Kakashi … or me."
"Mmmmmh…", Sakura whined. She suspected such a habit of hers, because Sarada once told her as well, but she never wanted to believe. Nevertheless, this was her husband, who shared her life with her, so she couldn´t do less than believe him. Also, he never has been a liar, that she knew very well.
"Sometimes you say my name …"
But he had been a tease to her for a very long time now.
"Sasuke-kun!"
That´s when she decided to drag that pillow beneath her head upwards with her and to push it against her teasing husband´s face.
He spluttered beneath her, and grunted, and tried to escape her monster strength.
"Oi!", came the muffled sound of his throat.
The wife was too occupied with giggling to herself to realize that her husband had turned them around on the bed. She was lying beneath him, and he was hovering over her. Sakura Uchiha was the only one who would ever witness Sasuke Uchiha´s red face that came with a pillow being pressed against it.
She giggled, and he glared at her from above.
"You´re annoying."
"And you´re snoriiiiiing!"
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2.
Neat and Clean.
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Days and weeks passed, so did the time the family spent with each other. The father´s presence had become common knowledge, in both brain and heart. There was no longing sadness and wish for him to finally coming home, but only welcoming satisfaction with his stay. However, the two females weren´t only aware of his presence through their thoughts and feelings. It was the man that made sure his stay was visible and touchable, even if he never truly intended to make it happen.
"Sasuke-kun!" Oh, no! Not again!
It was those times when the only man in the house was on his well deserved holidays, thus achieving free time he never had asked for. And when Sasuke Uchiha had occupied himself for hours in the training grounds with his fighting, even he as one of the strongest shinobi on earth was getting bored at some point. He would stroll on Konoha´s streets after that, then go to the cemetery and in the end, would end up in his apartment again.
But what was to do there for a husband who was alone at home?
"What are you doing in my kitchen?!"
The pink haired wife stood in – as she said – her kitchen´s doorway, with bags in hands and a disbelieving – and for once annoyed – expression plastered on her face.
Her husband turned his head in her direction and blinked indifferently, while standing there with a wooden spoon in hand. There was no reason he could think of as to why she looked at him like that.
"I´m making dinner."
Under any other circumstances, Sakura would find her husband adorable in this state – with that spoon in hand and his right sleeve rolled up – , but not when her kitchen didn´t look like her kitchen.
The woman was bewildered. "I can see that! But what did you do to my kitchen?!"
Dark eyebrows knitted together, and eyes averted themselves to the soup in the pot. "What do you mean?", Sasuke asked while mixing the soup with his spoon in hand.
"Look around! You rearranged everything!"
To be honest, no one would have noticed those tiny little changes in the Uchiha kitchen – with the only exception of the mother and wife of the household of course. She was the one who spent more time than the other two family members with cleaning and cooking, after all.
The first thing Sakura pointed at, was her precious vase with her beloved flowers in it.
"Why did you put them in front of the window?"
"Plants need light to grow. You put them into the shadows before, it was stupid."
"They are solanaceous plants, they don´t need much light!"
"…Hn."
The pinkette ignored the tiny dumbfounded flinch of her husband and grabbed the vase to put it back to its old place. While she was at it, she also draped the tablecloth – which she knew her husband was annoyed of, because it would always cling to his clothes when he stood up or raised his arm – on the dining table and rearranged the memos on the fridge.
However, Sasuke was sure to comment on that last part.
"You mess them up again."
Sakura stopped in her movements and turned her pouting head to look at her husband, who started adding noodles into the soup.
"I have my own ways to organize things, thank you. I don´t need to put everything in a perfect ninety-degree angle like someone else."
Sasuke only spared Sakura a side glance with his left eye, but left it at that.
As the wife was finished with the notes, she approached her little spice-shelve that stood on the counter next to the stovetop. "I can´t believe you even changed those –", Sakura said and stopped, eyed the little bottles with the different flavours intensely, and –
"Sasuke-kun, you arranged those spices alphabetically?!"
The husband nodded, as if it being the most common thing in the world, and maybe being a little proud about it. "It´s easier to find the right ones like that."
Shaking her head dumbfoundedly, Sakura spoke, "Darling, you can see by their consistency and colour which spices they are – heck, even by their smell if you have to make sure!"
"I´m using katon almost every day. My olfactory senses aren´t working as good as they used to be."
"Yeah, because the only thing you can smell and taste is smoke", Sakura remarked sarcastically. As Sasuke gave her an indifferent look, though, her face turned into a concerned one.
"Really?"
"Ah. But only if I use it too often, it becomes harder to taste and smell. It normalizes after a few hours, give or take. The more I use it, though, the more increase the consequences."
Sakura blinked, and put her hand between her husband´s shoulder blades. "I should also check on your lungs every few weeks …"
"The smoke and fire gathers in front of my mouth", Sasuke said, to lessen the pinkette´s worry. "It only happens a few times that a little bit lands in it. But nothing ever enters my insides beyond my throat."
Sakura nodded, and sighed relieved. The hand that lay on her husband´s back just before was held in a fist in front of her chest. "That´s good to hear. I was just thinking about Sarada …"
"Don´t worry. I wouldn´t have taught her that jutsu if I knew it would harm her", Sasuke reassured her, while adding tomatoes into the pot.
"I know."
There she was, smiling lovingly up to him. Whenever their child was the topic of their conversation, both of the parents lost themselves in a content state in their life which made them forget everything that surrounded them. They were lost in each other´s eyes, and their own kind of communication started – a way of understanding only the both of them shared.
They stood like that …
…
until a burning spraying sound reached their ears.
"Oh, the tomatoes!"
"Damnit …"
"…"
"…"
"You know, Sasuke-kun, now I can smell some burning smoke as well. But I´d rather not taste it."
"Tch."
"Awww, don´t pout li – wait, don´t use the white washcloths! Take the black – stop, you know what? Let me do the cooking. Why don´t you go outside to take a walk, hm?"
"…"
(… Neat freak, shannaro!)
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3.
Cloak and Sword.
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Whenever he was home, they were lying somewhere else, but definitely not in their provided place.
The first time it happened, Sakura just came home from a morning shift in the hospital – about two hours too late. The woman sighed out loud to the welcoming calm and warmth of her entry hall. After she had took off her shoes and had put her bag on the shelve in the hall, she made her way to the bathroom to wash her hands. As she noticed a pair of way bigger shoes than hers or her daughter´s laying in the entry, she smiled contently to herself.
The bathroom was occupied by someone else – him, because Sarada wasn´t home yet. There was a sound of showering water and short contemplation of intruding, and a reminder of times when she did intrude and received a not so nice glare – so she turned around and walked to the kitchen to wash her hands there. Sakura knew her husband was sensitive about such little details after a session of training, just as she was well aware of the fact that he said he would train this morning.
So, Sakura entered the kitchen, poured herself a cup of water and sat on one of the chairs by the dining table, sighing and huffing with closed eyes. She was exhausted, and she needed a break. The cold and clear liquid finally entered her dry throat, and she let out a relieved sigh. When she opened her eyes, she spotted some familiar items.
The cloak of her husband lay careless on the chair next to her, and his katana leaned on the wall.
Sakura blinked, twice, and lovingly smiled to herself.
There was a tender stroke on a black cloak, hands that picked that cloak up and held it to the owner´s chest adoringly, fingers that gripped tightly on a sword and, lastly, a loving wife who brought the belongings of her husband to the place that were reserved only for them.
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The other time it happened, it was her daughter who drew attention to the abandoned belongings.
"Ma-ma", Sarada called her mother. The adult had to refrain from her laughing, since she knew Sarada had become a very touchy and moody teenage girl in her last months of very young age. This knowledge made it even harder for her to hold back her giggle. Teenage girls were always an amusing and refreshing sight to see for Sakura, especially concerning her own daughter.
"What is it, Sarada?"
The – currently – only heir to the Uchiha stomped towards her mother, with a cloak and sword in separate hands. There was an annoyed cringe in between her eyebrows – a heredity of one of her parents.
"He´s letting his things lie around all over the flat again!"
" ´He´ is sitting within your clear view."
This time, Sakura cough-hid her giggle. Sitting next to her was her husband, eyebrows raised in a not quite appreciative manner. This wasn´t the first time Sarada referred to her father in third person although he was around to witness it. It only happened when she was really upset about something. She never addressed him directly, but rather talked with her mother about what upset her.
"Now, now, Sarada. That is not the way you should talk to your father."
"If I told him he wouldn´t understand anyways!"
"If you never tell him, he won´t understand."
Mother and daughter held an intense staring contest until one of them had to surrender.
"Papa", the girl said. The sound of her voice challenged the strict one of her mother when she was in the mood. "I know that you are very tired after training, but I think you are still in the condition not to leave your things all around the place afterwards, am I right?"
Sasuke blinked, pinched his nose in a little bit of abashed concentration – as if remembering something – and took his things from his daughter´s hands. Just as Sarada grinned victoriously and Sasuke was about to stand up, Sakura grabbed her husband´s belongings to herself, with a smile plastered on her face.
"You two are just too adorable!" With those words said, Sakura stood up, and walked towards the door.
Father and daughter looked dumbfounded after the Uchiha mother, only one of them able to speak up.
"But mama, weren´t you just defending me?"
Sakura turned around, and grinned amusedly.
"There´s no way your papa is going to change that habit, Sarada. Before and after you were born, it was always the same, and it will be the same." She grinned sheepishly. "We had our little quarrels about that before, but even the Uchiha Sasuke is a simple man sometimes."
"Hn."
The parents shared a knowing look to remind themselves of those first years they shared together as lovers.
To remind themselves of all the things they learned about each other and haven´t forget until this day.
To remind themselves of the very truth that they – indeed – held knowledge about each other no one else is ever able to earn.
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Fin.
Author´s note: So the big difference between Sarada´s and this version is that Sakura actually remembers things about Sasuke she had experienced and known about him way before whereas Sarada had to accommodate to Sasuke´s overall new presence in their home. I earnestly hope I could portray that for even just a little. Also, I really enjoyed those typical and kind of traditional husband-wife-relationship and issues between those two. I miss them in the overall Naruto-world. Let this be a sneak-peek into their domestic and simple life.
If you´ve found any errors, grammar mistakes and such, please feel free to contact me.