It's A Humble Path

by A m r a k l o ve

She thinks of him when there's nothing else to focus on but the memory of the contours of his face and the bitterness of his smile. Perhaps, all she craved was his touch at this point, but she just kept walking at a fair distance, and he didn't question anything, as usual. / Post-Canon; 699-700 setting. Complete.

14. The Usual

A/N: Waaah, one chapter two days ago and one today? Yep. Enjoy and comment, pretty pls.

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Chapter 14

- The Usual -

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The rays of light filter through his worn out, navy blue curtains, cutting through the dark colour and spreading throughout his room like an unexpected guest. It hits his eyelids and moves through these too, reaching his tired eyes as a silent demand. Wake up.

Sasuke has been awake for quite some time now, though, way before the sun came up behind the village's many trees and over his apartment building. He stifles a groan, moving his face around until he's face-down on his pillow, well aware that it's a little past ten. He has been awake, yes, but with no desire to stand up and get on with the day. Just yesterday he had slept on the unforgiving ground of the forest for a bland three hours before it was his time to set up watch, giving Sakura another three hours to sleep before they left again. It was this what was almost giving him a headache right now—the fact that before arriving at Amegakure, he hadn't slept in twenty-four hours, and after leaving said city a day later, he had slept three hours before reaching Konohagakure in two days. So all in all he had slept three hours in four days.

If he really lets his mind wander, he doesn't want to get up at all. He'd rather stay in bed all day, at least for today.

A loud knock at his door makes a dull throb make its way inside his temple.

"Sasuke, open up! We're going training!"

With a small sigh and a head-count from ten to zero, he sits up and rubs whatever sleep there's still left on his face away. The loud voice makes him groan with the telltale signs of murder in his eyes.

Standing up, he quickly changes out of his casual, sleeping trousers to his usual, dark and loose bottoms and a dark shirt with long sleeves.

He hears another set of knocks against the entrance's door, rattling and shaking the walls with its rumble.

"I know you're in there, bastard! I can feel your chakra so open the door right now!"

His friend makes him flinch before he grabs his Katana and opens the door in a brusque manner, startling the blond in front of him and moving the old hinges on the side of the old door.

He doesn't say anything with his mouth, but he's sure to deliver his annoyed scowl to the blond in the form of a facial expression all the same. He opens his mouth, slowly, finding the wave of heat from Konoha's summertime rush past him and into the otherwise cold apartment with air conditioning. It makes his skin clammy.

"What."

"Well, don't you look like shit." Sasuke looks at Naruto's smile and beaming persona change into a surprised look, brought back at the dark-haired man's probably dishevelled appearance. "You came back yesterday, am I right? You can tell me all the juicy details from the mission later, but let's go train now!" He says as he grabs Sasuke's forearm with little to no problem. Sasuke whisks it away just as easily.

"Tch, I wanna hear you talk when I beat you to a pulp," he mutters under his breath, seething while he locks his apartment and jumps down to the ground.

"Hey! Who said you're gonna win?"

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Sakura walks out of the clinic with a smile plastered along the soft curve of her pink lips, a satisfied gleam in her eyes making itself present to any and every onlooker passing down the brightly lit hallway where she stands. Sakura wasn't the head of the hospital, but she was Tsunade's next in line for the title. Even so, she did own one of the wards: Konoha's Mental Health Clinic for children that she had fought to open the moment the Fourth Shinobi War had ended.

As soon as she had proposed the idea, years ago, everyone whose ears listened to the news was all for it. These kids that were terribly affected by a war that hurt so many, now healing and slowly letting go of the horrors of war. All of the other Shinobi wars had left people devastated and bereft of any tranquillity, but she knows it's the kids who are always affected the most. Because when they grow up, they are haunted by the lives lost. Sakura wanted to put an end to this scarring, and so she proposed the idea, gone through the process of acceptance, built it with the help of others, and opened it.

Of course, she is no doctor of the mind, so other people way more qualified for the job help the kids and work with them. Sakura checks on them and makes sure everything is going up to par from time to time in between the lines of her already hectic schedule.

Squaring her shoulders and stuffing her hands in the insides of her white coat's pockets, she walks down the corridor and through another set of double doors. It's almost two more double doors later that she stops in her tracks, a sudden gasp leaving her parted lips.

A man is being rushed along the hall at an alarming rate on a hospital bed while there are two nurses at his side.

This doesn't shock the pink-haired medic that much. After all, she was a doctor and had been for almost a decade. The number of casualties she had seen paled with the injuries seen on this whining man. It was not out of the blue to see someone rushing down the hallways on their way to the ER. Sakura knows this, she has seen it, she is used to being on the rush, to think quickly and steady her hands with every patient.

But this man approaching her—this man who is staining the sheets under him like spilt drink on coffee tables—makes her flinch considerably.

He's missing his left arm.

What's left of it is hanging down the side of the bed, blood red and flowing recklessly. Sakura's eyes widen when a thought strikes her hard, knocking against her brain when it's no longer forgotten and lost, but found in the confines of her memories.

It's as if there's nothing else, but that thought, leaving her breathless.

She lifts her head and turns her body to the right, intent on taking steps and walk toward a certain woman's office. But before she can even take one step forward, she's shoved a folder to her chest by a hurried nurse.

"Sakura-san! Hurry, please! He's losing too much blood," the brown-haired nurse says, her words leaving behind nothing as she rushes past Sakura, and so does the man at her side. Sakura looks at him and looks back at the path to Tsunade's office, knowing full well that there are more medics ready to attend this poor man on the ER floor.

Nevertheless, she hurries down the halls, following the squeaky sound of the bed's wheels until she arrives at one of the pristine rooms of the ER. The thoughts are lost to her as she opens the door, her hands glowing as soon as she steps inside.

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His breaths come out in chunks, rapid and in sync to the frantic beating of his heart, reverberating against his eardrums and making him glare at the person on the other side of the clearing.

Three trees are separating them, the roots sticking up and making him drop his shoulders at the sudden illusion of protection. In the few seconds he has before the next attack, Sasuke tries to regain his breath and control his breathing. His face is dripping with beads of sweat, making him squint under the unforgiving sun above them and raise his hand to wipe at his brow.

He bends down slightly to grab his sword, stained with dirt and blood and sweat. Standing at his full height, he inspects the blur of orange on the other side of the clearing, way beyond the trees and in the same state he's in. The Sharingan shines around him and he grabs the object in his hand a little tighter when Naruto appears in front of him.

He ducks at the incoming punch, not at all dazzled that Naruto still attacks full-front since they were placed on Team Seven, the memory making him shake his head in disapproval. He never learns.

He swipes his leg under the blond, punches, moves away, comes right back at him again, splits one of the trees already on the ground in half, and ducks again. He finally lands a punch to Naruto's stomach, and this one makes him spit bloody saliva out. He watches as his body plummets and crashes against the rough bark of one of the fallen trees, and he would feel a rush of adrenaline inside him if it weren't for the detail that it's just a clone.

Naruto disappears in a puff of smoke, leaving nothing behind and making Sasuke look around him with his expert eyes.

Twenty Naruto clones run at him in different directions. Up, down, left, right. It makes it no fun when he can discern the real Naruto in the crowd with the help of his Sharingan, but he still plays along. Swiping at the clones with the razor sharp Katana, he watches as clouds of smoke collect around him.

The fluid movements are stopped when he drops the object and starts making very familiar signs.

"Katon: Gōkakyū no jutsu!"

A large ball of fire comes out of his mouth, directed to the leftover clones, but specifically to the real Naruto hidden in the masses.

There are several sounds around him, and after a few endless seconds, his technique finally dies out.

The trees that were once around them are burnt to a crisp, the clones are nowhere to be found, and Naruto comes at him from the sky so fast that he has no time to notice the burn on the side of his lips.

Sasuke has him pinned to the ground with a hand around his throat before he can realise what's happened. Naruto looks up at him, flabbergasted, a frown coming up to replace the surprised look.

"What's wrong? Having trouble speaking?" He smirks, noting how, despite his victory, the damage on his body is the same as on Naruto's.

Naruto's eyes widen. I wanna hear you talk when I beat you to a pulp.

"Shut it, bastard. You obviously cheated!" Pointing an accusing finger up at Sasuke's face, he grabs his hand and moves it away from his throat. They stand up.

"How did I cheat, idiot?"

"You just- You just did!"

"I think you don't want to accept I won."

With a shriek from Naruto's part and a smirk from Sasuke's, the world keeps spinning on its axis as usual.

"You certainly did not."

"Hn."

They start walking, and not two steps after, Naruto clutches at his stomach and moans in pain.

"Hey, I was gonna propose going to Ichiraku's, but we should heal our injuries first."

Sasuke looks back at him and their eyes meet. They both nod at each other and jump out of view in unison.

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"Come in."

Sakura opens the door and is greeted with the sight of her once teacher. She smiles.

"Tsunade-sama, good afternoon," with a bow, she sits across from the desk where the blonde sits. Tsunade warmly smiles back at her.

"Sakura, it's been a while, with that mission and all," she says, stacking some papers and putting them in a drawer, waving a hand in front of her face to accentuate the long time.

"Yes, I missed being here," she runs a hand down her hair and ties the upper portion of it in a ponytail, keeping her bangs away from her face but still letting her hair flow down until it reaches her shoulder blades.

"I'm sure of it," Tsunade leans back on her chair and inspects her only student. "The Hokage told me you ran into trouble back in Ame, is that true?"

Sakura sighs.

"The first day at the village, there was an attack. And the day I was supposed to come back there was another attack. We healed as many as possible but there were also many casualties. I killed the first assailant when my life was compromised, but I'm lucky Sasuke-kun arrived before I could receive a fatal blow with the second assailant."

With a finish, Sakura's head bows and she looks down deep in thought, recalling the events that had transpired in the last month. When she looks back up, Tsunade is looking at her with a pensive look, a look that makes Sakura's cheeks take on a light pink.

"I see, I should thank the Uchiha next time I see him, yes?"

Sakura's cheeks flush redder and she only has the decency to nod.

"Well, I'd love to dig deeper into this knight in shining armour rescuing you, but I have to head down to the OR soon."

Sakura's eyes widen and she looks up to stare at her ex-mentor, the words haunting her for a long time coming out of her lips before the blonde has time to stand from her seat.

"Actually, Tsunade-sama, I came here to let you know about something."

Tsunade's eyebrow raises questioningly.

"What is it?"

Sakura releases a breath.

"Remember a few months ago, back in winter, when you... Told me Sasuke-kun's prosthetic arm was finished?"

Tsunade sighs, pushes the chair back and stands up, looking at Sakura with a knowing look before she leans her hip against the edge of the desk, crossing her arms over her chest.

"I know you never told him, if that's what's bothering you. I thought you had just forgotten."

At Sakura's startled look, she continues.

"I called him to my office a few days after I told you, seeing as I wasn't getting any answers from you, and we discussed the issue," she says, opening a drawer on the wall to Sakura's right.

"What?"

Tsunade looks back at her for a moment before getting out a few folders and putting them close to her chest. Sakura's eyes leave hers and find the floor before she looks up again. "Well, when's the transplant?"

A sombre look crosses the blonde's face, making Sakura's chest tighten and her pulse throb against her palms, which she squeezes through the fists on her lap.

"He refused the arm, Sakura. There was no talking him out of it. Sorry," she mutters, opening the door of her office and stepping out and into the hall.

Sakura stays seated until she feels time pass slowly, so agonisingly slowly that she has to force all the jumbled thoughts out of her spiralling brain. Why would he say no? How would he pass such opportunity? He could have an arm as close to his other arm as it could get, and for free. He could replace the hollow emptiness every time he puts a long-sleeve shirt on. He could spar better, he could fight with both hands, he could dress up with two hands, he could cook with two hands again. Why wouldn't he want to have it the easier way on all those things? Why wouldn't he want to live like he has always lived?

Her heart skips a beat.

She snaps out of it, stands, and walks out too as soon as she feels two spikes of chakra walk into the building. Very familiar, disturbing her thoughts and making her walk down the hallways with confusion inside her being and anger on her soft features. She walks to the lift, waits until the doors close and presses the number two.

It's no surprise when Naruto and Sasuke, extremely beat up and bleeding all over the white floor, limp and walk through the doors leading to a hallway—with her office in one of the doors at the sides. It's no surprise when they don't even knock on her door and come in as if they own the place, staining the doorknob with grease and dirt and blood. She's waiting for them inside her office because she knew they would head there with no second thoughts. It's no surprise because it's happened more than enough times for her to know the drill.

She has her hands characteristically on her hips, a scowl marring her face, watching as Sasuke closes the door and Naruto stands there like he's missed a very important key to the plot of a movie.

"So, uh... We kind of went over the line, Sakura-chan," Naruto mutters under his breath.

"And what have I told you, under no circumstances, not to do?" She asks, slightly leaning forward and pressing her bottom against the desk's edge.

"To go over the line?"

"Exactly, and what have you two done?"

"Sakura-chan, I can explain!"

With a shake of her head, she pinches the bridge of her nose and tries to calm down before she can snap at them, but it seems futile when she grabs them both by their ears and brings them closer to her, in between them. "You idiots! How many times have I told you both that you have to stop marching in the hospital like this! I have more patients waiting that need real healing, you know?" She yells, letting go of their ears and dragging them out of the door by their forearms, down the hall, and into the room where she usually conducts general physicals.

"What? Our injuries are very real!"

Sakura raises a fist in front of Naruto's face, ready to pummel him into the ground and re-open wounds that have already healed from the chakra inside his stomach. Naruto's insulted expression twists into one of horror and he quickly stammers away.

"Y-You know what? Now that I think about it, Hinata-chan is waiting for me back home with Boruto," he says, opening the door, "and she can heal me too, bye!"

The moment Naruto closes the door, all the fight leaves her body and mind. She is suddenly hyper aware of everything around her, especially the awkward silence that settles over the spacious room.

With one look to her right, she sees Sasuke staring at the door, straight ahead. She looks away before she can let her heart fall out of her chest, running a hand along her forehead to appear normal.

"I assume you're not going to run to Hinata as well, are you?"

The joke is met with no answer and she quickly gives him her back, walking to the sink on the side. She lets out a "sit on the bed" while she washes her hands, making sure to take out every trace of blood under her nails from the operation she had done before, on the man with no left arm. She had run out so quickly toward Tsunade's office that she'd forgotten to wash the grime away.

When she dries her hands and turns around, she's glad the man is sitting on the medical table, following her command.

"Naruto landed big ones this time, hm?" She says, not expecting an answer at all but receiving one nonetheless.

"I won," is all he says, looking up at her from under his long bangs. Sakura scoffs and approaches him with a stethoscope in hand.

"Take off your shirt, please," she mutters, trying to convince herself it's just another patient when he complies immediately. But the way his muscles flex when she positions the cold object on his warm skin makes her cheeks heat up, defying her commands.

She listens to his heartbeat and moves down to his lungs, noticing that everything is fine, as expected.

"Why not just check with chakra?"

Sakura's head snaps up and she almost chokes when Sasuke's breath fans her skin, a few inches away from her own face. Nevertheless, she thinks she does a good job at keeping her expressions at bay.

"I need to heal so many people at the hospital with chakra that I just try to save some whenever I can, you know." With a shrug, she takes off the stethoscope from around her neck and puts it to the side.

"Aa."

His legs are spread apart while he's sitting on the table and she's in between them, but he doesn't seem to notice and, instead, stares at her with disinterest.

"I'm going to check for internal damage now," she whispers, so close to him that she can make out his every eyelash.

Placing a hand on each of his shoulders, she spreads her chakra over his system, making sure to not leave a space unchecked and making sure that everything is fine inside. Satisfied with the results, she moves her burning hands away, unsure as to whether she had seen the slight shiver to his body or not by doing so.

"Everything seems fine to me. Looks like Naruto didn't hurt you as much as he thought he did," she says with a smile, quick to look away from his deep eyes and roam over his body for the superficial injuries.

With a start, her green chakra is emitted from her hands and put over his ribs, hovering and healing the deep gashes. When there's only a thin, pink line left, she focuses on his thigh and the blood staining the gash made from under his trousers, most likely due to a kunai slashing across the fabric and reaching his skin. She continues healing and mending the open skin until there are no signs of a fight taken place moments before, were it not for the dirty appearance.

"Done."

Sakura steps away with a satisfied smile and walks around the room, leaving this instrument here and this other one there. When she looks at Sasuke, he's already put his shirt on and stepped off the bed. This makes Sakura focus her line of thought toward a conversation she has already put off for months. It makes her look at the empty space inside Sasuke's left sleeve, the material clinging together at the lack of muscle. She finds her words easily, but inside she's not sure about how to word what she wants to say.

"Sasuke-kun, wait." He pauses his haste to get to the door and looks at her with a curious look on his face. She steps closer.

"I..." She starts, but the quiver in her voice makes her stop talking altogether and she finds it hard to concentrate when he's looking at her with such intensity in his eyes. So she just gets to the point.

"Why did you refuse your prosthetic arm?"

She can see that as soon as her words are out, she's taken him off-guard. This was most likely not something he had expected from her. After all, he probably didn't even know she knew about the arm being finished.

Straightening his back, he looks away for a moment, thinking on how to voice his thoughts. Thinking about the so many reasons why he had refused such a thing.

But no words come out, and he's left staring at the clean floor until his eyes glaze over with sleep. His eyebrows draw together in a frown and his lips purse at the inability to transmit his thoughts to the one person who deserves to know the truth. The one person who was left in the dark during the best friends' last fight at the Valley. The one person he had kept unconscious until the end of the fight just for his selfish and protective purposes. The one person who had had to find him and Naruto without an arm. The one person who had to heal them in the middle of the battlefield despite everything, because she was the only person who could.

He doesn't realise his hand is clenched in a fist until a warm touch envelops it, caging it in and making his hand open up willingly, unconsciously at the hand on his own. It wraps around his palm and squeezes lightly, reassuringly.

His eyes lift up to her own, but she's not looking at him. Her evergreen, golden, minty eyes are staring at a point beneath his eyes. Specifically, on his lips.

Sasuke's breath leaves his lungs in a moment when her thumb presses at the corner of his lips, drawing a soothing sensation to the spot.

And then, just like that, her hand drifts away and down, finally looking up at him in the eyes.

"See you around, Sasuke-kun," she says. And with a smile, she's gone.

It's only a minute later that he realises she'd healed the burn on the side of his lips, produced by his clan's signature jutsu and its intensity.

When the lift's doors close, Sakura lets out the breath she'd been holding and lets her head thump on the wall at her back, closing her eyes with a little smile on her face.