FLY AWAY- Part 6 : Daydream

Chapter 25

How surprised Sasuke was when he came back to the camp with Sakura to find Haruko having a friendly chat with his summoned snake. The pink haired kunoichi on the other hand, seemed quite amused by it.

It was the girls' turn to be taken aback a few days later when they stopped by the Uchiha clan's secret gunsmith's shop to meet Neko-baa and her horde of talking cats. Sasuke had been in need of a new blade, so he chose a one similar to his previous one: a fully black and thin chokuto, only with a small, dark Uchiha crest engraved on each face of the handle. Something outstanding however, was that Haruko managed to get along well with the ninja cats to a point where she didn't risk having her hand torn to bits for petting them.

And so, the journey back to Suiden had rather well begun. Actually, more than well on Sasuke's part; he hadn't seen Sakura so radiant in years. After some two days of traveling and attentiveness on the young man's part, she had begun smiling genuinely again. Sakura gradually turned back into her normal self, only more joyful if possible. Every night she installed her sleeping mat close to her 'boyfriend's', always walked right beside him with an inerasable grin on her face when morning came… To her, it probably felt like a dream come true (because it was, really) and Sasuke couldn't have been more glad to see her this happy. He thought himself way too lucky.

The three travelers were currently fifty miles away at the east of Konoha in the Fire country. It was barely four in the afternoon but none were on the road -in fact, Sakura was the only one missing out of the three. She had gone to the nearest village to send a letter to Konoha as well as buy some more provisions, medical components (just in case) and a new map –Sasuke's old one had left this world for a better place after an escapade near the sea's salty waters. The young Uchiha had refused to come along in hopes of being alone without Haruko's constant babbling to give him a headache, but to his utmost dismay, the girl had insisted on staying at the camp with him for some unknown reasons -in truth, Sasuke strongly suspected that she enjoyed poking fun at him.

So there they were, sitting in front of each other and separated by the camp fire Sasuke was preparing to busy himself. Having set camp in a small basin in between four hills down the road, the two were kept away from sight by the high, thin grass and wild flowers surrounding them. The dark haired young man finished expertly positioning stones in a circle before moving on to the wood he had previously picked up with Haruko's help; all the while she studied him, a slight pout adorning her features.

"How long will it take for us to reach my village?" She suddenly spoke up.

Sasuke remained silent for as long as he was still placing the twigs, but then said without looking up from his work "We should reach it in about five days now."

Haruko sat straighter as a grin sneaked its way to her lips. "I want to be back already! I miss everyone!" She exclaimed. Predictably, the young shinobi in front of her gave no answer, so she assumed –wrongly- that it was alright for her to carry on babbling to her heart's content "I want to see my mother, my little brothers and the rest of my family of course, but there are also the other villagers! I used to get along with all of them! Sometimes I helped out to collect wood in the forest –we sell it to the neighboring towns, that's our main activity you see- or I played with the youngsters while their parents were working…I also used to give my aunt a hand at the inn whenever travelers passed by –didn't I already tell you that? Anyway, it was pretty fun!"

By then, Sasuke had long stopped listening. In the past week he had already heard all about Haruko's jobs, from the time she had spent a day trying to find a missing cat in the forest –oh, the nostalgia- to the one where she had supervised her brother's best friend's cousin's archery training. Not to mention how she always ran from village to village all the time to transmit messages or carry all kinds of items. No wonder people in the region liked her: she helped out whenever she was asked to and no matter what.

"…I never went to Konoha though. I wish I could, it sounds like a very big city from what Sakura told me! That's decided: I'll come for you guys' wedding!" Sudden astonishment didn't allow Sasuke enough time to suppress the strangled sound which left his mouth at this light-hearted promise. All he could do was cover it up with a clearing of his throat the next second, while Haruko, oblivious, was still talking on and on "'Till then, I'll make sure you are well received in Suiden! We could organize a gigantic party with lots of food like a banquet! And there would also be a dance and we'd invite the people from all the neighboring villages. It'd be nice, wouldn't it? I'm sure you'd also like to see our archers at work! They are the best in the whole country and…"

Sasuke quickly recovered "I've already seen them" he interrupted in a low snarl, massaging his temple openly.

"You have?" Haruko didn't seem to get the implication of these words. "Then you've probably met Aoi! She looks like a boy among the archers because she's got short hair and wears the uniform, but she's actually a girl and my best friend! We used to get along so well, like real sisters, you know!? I remember that one time when…"

Sasuke was currently having an inner battle on whether to endure Haruko's babbling like a dutiful bodyguard, yell for her to shut the hell up, or to simply go away. The first option was supposedly the 'good' one, since he couldn't leave the girl he had had so much trouble saving alone in the middle of nowhere with no one to watch over her in case bandits or such appeared. However, the Uchiha's growing headache was starting to play a major role in his final decision after the first fifteen minutes of her monologue were past.

Ten more and Sasuke's resolve broke. Reluctantly detaching his hand from his searing forehead, the shinobi made a few hand signs and placed his palm flat on the ground. As Haruko marveled at the apparition of her snake pal, she barely noticed Sasuke standing up and walking away. When she did he was already waist deep among the high grass "Hey, wait! Where are you going?" She asked with saucer like eyes –he would miss the rest of her story if he left now!

"To get some fresh air" he grumbled with his hand back on his forehead.

Haruko frowned in wonder "Fresh air? But we've been outside this whole time…" When the chestnut haired girl looked up at this realization, she only saw the grass dancing with the breeze; Sasuke was already gone.

It took him about eight minutes to find the ideal spot far enough from Haruko and the road. He observed his surroundings a while longer then sat down on a hillside. All around him was green, green grass and a few odd wild flowers –poppies, dandelions and daisies. The grass was dancing with the wind's strokes, forming ripples like waves that washed over the meadows and up the hills; it was not a harsh wind though, but merely a fresh breeze that provided just enough cool air in this sunny afternoon. Apart from the sound of it dancing through the leaves in the few trees by the road further behind the hillside, Sasuke could hear nothing but the calm and peace he oh so loved.

The young Uchiha let himself relax and lean back down on the grass. Above him, fluffy white clouds drifting by the light azure heavens met his gaze. 'Much better' he thought, placing his arm over his aching forehead to ease the pain as well as shield his eyes from the sun. Sasuke let his eyelids drop close; and he was perfectly at ease for a while, almost to the point where he could have fallen asleep. But thoughts of a certain pink haired girl kept him awake. He wondered if she was doing fine in town or if she had already come back to the camp to join Haruko -whose endless speeches she could actually survive to his greatest admiration. It kind of reminded him of the time when he had been traveling alone after the war, when he often found himself wondering about how she and Naruto were doing in Konoha. Now that the pink haired girl was by his side, he didn't need to worry about her anymore.

It was probably a good thing 'Yeah, probably.' With Sakura around, he was able to protect her at the best of his abilities. No one would touch her or hurt her as long as he was there. But wasn't this…a dangerous promise? Sasuke had been powerless back in Ryokai's fortress; he even doubted he would have been able to win against Yue at the time considering the circumstances. So if Sakura ended up in danger in spite of his best efforts, what would happen?

Thinking of it, if he had killed Ryokai at the time, what would the consequences have been? Being hunted down? Imprisoned? Sentenced to death? Indeed, Sasuke couldn't afford to lose his mind like that another time or all his efforts to redeem himself would be reduced to nothing; though his inner voice immediately found a smart comeback at these thoughts: 'I would do anything for Sakura.' And it was true. So true that he had been on the verge of mindlessly slaughtering the Lightning daimyou's son back then to avenge her. After all, this was who he was: an avenger. Nothing would be able to change that, even now.

But the worst, the thing that scared him the most of all was not to lose himself in the curse of hatred all over again or to be despised by the whole world. It was to lose Sakura.

This was one of the cheesiest and most selfless thought Sasuke had had in his whole life, but he cringed at it. He didn't want to reach such conclusion, he didn't want to admit it, but was it even deniable at this point? Sakura made him…

"I didn't expect to find you napping, Sasuke-kun" a gentle feminine voice came from beside him.

The raven haired ninja recognized it at once and sat up to meet the beautiful emerald eyes of Sakura Haruno. "I'm not" he replied blankly. Sasuke leaned back on his left arm while he held his forehead with the other, slightly rubbing it with his thumb.

"I see Haruko's ultimate jutsu has struck again" the medic giggled as she sat down on the grass as well.

Sasuke only growled in response, which was followed by more giggles on the girl's part. He caught her beaming expression from the corner of his eye, but instantly directed his gaze down at his bent right knee when his earlier thoughts came back to him. Sasuke did his best to keep his face void of emotion and thankfully was successful as Sakura suggested "I could make you some herb tea for headaches if you want?"

"No thanks" he replied right away, remembering the sad excuse of an herb tea she had given him back at Tazuna's. Honestly, it had tasted almost worse than Kabuto's potions -which was quite a performance– but he wasn't about to tell her that.

Sakura pouted "I know it doesn't taste very good, but it is effective."

"Hn" Sasuke shook his head slowly in fear that the pain would worsen. He would not suffer both Haruko's demonic babbling and Sakura's weird potions in one day. "It'll go away soon" he assured her nonetheless.

The kunoichi kept pouting for a minute as the Uchiha's eyes remained fixed on his knee. Then a thought crossed her mind, an old fantasy that Inner Sakura had most likely pushed all the way back to her brain for her outer self to blush dark pink. C'mon! You've always wanted to do that, you know it!' Inner Sakura encouraged. She contemplated the thought for a moment: 'It's a good idea…or a bad idea. No, a very bad idea! What will he say if I do that? It's not…But wait, I actually could. Why not? After all, I can do it now…' to which Inner Sakura enthusiastically replied 'Shannaro! You go girl!'

It scared Sakura how her inner self tended to sound more and more like Ino over the years. Nevertheless, she took a determined breath and set her plan into action. "Sasuke-kun" she called.

The pink haired medic waited until he turned his head, then stood up on her knees and reached out with her arms for the back of his neck. Sasuke seemed surprised by the sudden contact, but all the more when she gently pushed his head towards her chest to cradle it. Sakura had made sure that she was tall enough to nest his head in the crook of her neck, so that his forehead was on the base of her shoulder and his nose near her collar bone. She had left her hands buried in Sasuke's raven locks to hold him while her cheek brushed the top of his head. The kunoichi quivered slightly as she felt his warm breath separated from her skin only by the thin fabric of her dress "It'll heal faster like this" she whispered.

Sasuke stayed perplex for a moment, but then his mind blanked, getting rid of the dark thoughts from earlier so that they could be replaced by his immediate feelings 'She's too good for me…' he closed his eyes slowly '…but she's probably right.' Sasuke stayed silent for a second longer until a loud, rapid thumping sound reached his ears and he let out a quiet chuckle. Sakura stuttered a "what" of wonder at his reaction but he merely nuzzled his cheek against her collar bone before replying "Your heart is beating louder than Haruko could ever talk."

Sakura gasped in both shock and embarrassment at this, her cheeks turning a shade darker than the few poppies in the grass near them. Her instinctive reaction was to push him away, but she noticed that she couldn't at the feeling of a large hand on her back holding her tightly. "T-then why do you stay there? Shannaro…!" She nervously mumbled.

Being this close, Sasuke heard her loud and clear. He decided to have a little more fun. Since when had he been so playful? Maybe ever since Sakura had lowered her defenses around him… It was a mistake she would probably not repeat, so why not take advantage of this rare occasion?

Sasuke retreated from Sakura's embrace and stared up at her blankly. How difficult it was for him to suppress the smirk tugging at his lips at the sight of her blushing cheeks and flustered expression. He held her gaze, so that she didn't notice his other hand snaking its way to her belt. She jumped when he suddenly unbuckled it. Sakura gaped in utter confusion as she watched him discard it to the side. "Sasu-" her voice faded once she felt warm hands running on her back. She made no more movement after one settled around her waist and the other at the back of her neck, tracing light circles on this latter spot with his thumb that sent shivers down her spine. All the while, she observed her teammate's eyes gradually darken with… 'No way, no way, no way, he can't be thinking what I'm thinking that he thinks! There's no way he would…!'

Sasuke suddenly pushed her head against his chest as he leaned backwards dangerously. They fell a second later and Sakura's thoughts evaporated only to burst again like fireworks when she realized that she was squashing him. She supported herself with her elbows and knees and, scarlet red, met dark onyx depths right below her. Her hands had landed on each side of his head and her knees were straddling one of his legs while her form hovered a few inches above his warm, welcoming body. She gasped, but quickly processed what was happening. Sasuke's left hand was still on her waist, encouraging the kunoichi to place her right one on his shoulder and cling onto his shirt to bring her torso even closer to him. Her heart hammered in her ears and spread heat all over her senses while she leaned down towards his lips, prepared for what would follow -or so she thought.

The pink haired medic-nin was stopped about two inches away from her lover's lips by two calloused fingers gently pressing onto her mouth. Her halfway closed lids snapped open in surprise to find Sasuke's glinting obsidian eyes and a devilish smirk on the lips she had been trying to kiss. "Maybe next time, Sakura" he whispered, wry.

The girl blinked, twice, then shrieked and hastily wriggled away from the young man below her. Before turning her back to him, she punched his shoulder in irritation "What the hell! I thought…My belt! You…! Shannarooo!"

Sasuke sat back up to rub his poor shoulder –even without chakra, Sakura's punches had always been deadly. As she sat cross legged and cross armed beside him, he could clearly see the end of her ears turning beet red, most likely the same color as the rest of her face. Even if the result of his improvised prank was quite funny to observe, Sasuke slightly regretted the absence of her warm body against his own now. "Sakura" he called. No response. He repeated her name and this once she turned her head to glare at him over her shoulder "Next time I'll punch you with my full…!" She stopped mid-sentence as the Uchiha reached up to peck the diamond on her forehead. The kunoichi still looked mildly-annoyed when he moved back to stare at her, but it was all replaced by surprise when he leaned back down to lay on the grass, his hand grabbing hers in the process.

Sakura had to turn around to follow Sasuke's movement since he wouldn't let go of her hand, but even then she defiantly stayed on all fours –minus the hand that Sasuke yanked to his chest- motionless next to him. She wasn't moving and that was final. The young man sighed, defeated, and said in his low, deep voice "Come 'ere."

He barely caught her gaze for a second before looking away at the clouds but he could tell she was stunned. It wasn't every day that the proud survivor of the Uchiha clan asked for some affection from his dear teammate. Sakura was always the one to initiate it after all! Not to mention he had never been known as a prankster, so seeing him having fun… But then again, she was mad at Sasuke, so she wouldn't give him what he wanted so easily. The pink haired girl squeezed her eyes shut in a huff and turned to face away from him.

"…Please."

Sakura's eyes widened as she whipped her head back to the young man "Sasuke-kun, are you alright?" she asked in shock.

Growling, he used this opportunity to tug on the pink haired girl's wrist a little more strongly so that she lost her balance. Sakura fell with her upper body on top of his, but as she looked up to her teammate with newborn annoyance, she couldn't miss the pink blush on Sasuke's turned away cheek. She stared at the part of his face that she could see for a long while, wondering if this wasn't too good to be real; but ever since that night in the silver birch forest, she knew none of it was a dream. Sakura stilled then sighed, unable to continue this silly quarrel anymore with the tender feeling welling up in her chest. A small genuine smile graced her lips 'He can be so cute.'

Sakura shifted to lie more comfortably with her head on Sasuke's left shoulder, her body close to his side on the grass and her legs curled up next to his. She kept her right arm against her torso and the other on her lover's chest where he held it to his heart. "Stupid" she muttered near the exposed skin of his neck. A contented "Hn" was Sasuke's sole reply as he snaked his left arm around the kunoichi's waist. He was just about ready to let his eyes drop close when Sakura decided to speak again.

"How do you do it?" She inquired with her soft, quiet tone back, sounding a little sleepy.

Sasuke lifted a curious eyebrow "Do what?"

It took her a few moments to respond "…Your heartbeat is so calm…"

The raven hared shinobi didn't reply immediately. The breeze brushed the grass and the two ninjas' hair into their faces, but he wasn't bothered by it. Sasuke felt good, more at peace than he had been in a long time, maybe than he had ever been. He caught a glimpse of pink hair under his chin, then felt a small hand shift beneath his own. Sakura was about to move it to put her hair behind her ear but before she could, he brought his up and reached for Sakura's face to find silky, windblown tresses on the way to her cheek. He delicately brushed them away, caressing her ear and temple at the same time. "It's because you're here that I can be…so calm" he answered in his warmest, most heartfelt tone.

After a few seconds he felt Sakura's body turn more onto him. She nuzzled her head closer to his neck, her fingers clutching a little more on his shirt. Soon she relaxed, and he relished in the feeling of her breath fanning onto his neck that no gentle spring breeze could equal. Sasuke brought her closer to inhale her sweet, flowery scent. He closed his eyes. This young woman… he needed her to be happy, he needed her in his life, he needed her smile, he needed her safe.

That was why Sakura made him so dangerous.

A.N./: People wanted me to lighten up the atmosphere, I hope this wil do!^^

I would like to thank all my reviewers again and especially ssmiyasan and the guest reviewer who actually defended me against an anon. I was really touched, thank you. :')

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