Birds are chirping.
Two of them.
One is in the tree right outside the window. The other is…six feet away on the neighboring roof.
Sasuke blinks awake slowly, enjoying the feeling of being at home in his own bed with his wife curled around him. He sighs. It feels almost like relief. The pressure, the sharp worry is gone now that Otsutsuki Urashiki has been defeated. He can come home more often now. He can stay home longer. Every known threat to his precious people has been neutralized. They're safe. They're both safe.
His arm tightens around Sakura, his fingers absently playing with her hair. The sheets smell like vanilla, and the scent is so closely tied to memories of peace and love and home he can't get enough of it. So he lets himself just breathe it in, getting lost in it and his memories as he stares out the window. His eyes have found the bird hidden in the leaves outside when Sakura shifts to bury her face in his chest. She doesn't like the sun in her eyes, first thing in the morning.
"Stop smiling, Uchiha," she mumbles. "It's too early."
Is he? He is. The smile turns into a grin. "Got a problem with my smile, Sa-kur-a?"
She shivers and raises her head. "Sasuke?"
He turns onto his side, blocking the sun for her. "Hm?" She was asking about his playful mood, he knows. Asking if she can ask about it. But the details of the Urashiki incident are classified.
She just shakes her head, smiling up at him. Saying that she understands, and she won't pry. That she's just happy he's happy.
And it's enough to almost break his heart. This woman - this passionate, strong, loving, patient woman who has put her life on the line for his multiple times, even when he was a time-traveling stranger - is just happy to be beside of him. And for the millionth time, he's aware of how undeserving of her he is.
He strokes her cheek. "It's over."
Sakura's eyes widen, sparkling with joy and hope. "Really?" She whispers.
"Aa."
Her arms fly around his neck, and she tackles him back into the pillows with a soft squeal of glee. He holds her tight, hiding his grin in her wild pink hair. She breathes into his ear, "Are you sure?"
"Aa. I'll still have to travel, to monitor things. But I'll be coming home more often." He's stroking her hair like she's a child, but this has been extremely hard on her too he knows. "And I'll be able to stay longer."
"Sarada will be so happy," she breathes.
"Just Sarada?" he teases.
"She's the only one you say goodbye to at the gates, so she must be the only one you think misses you."
He laughs. He deserved that. They stay like that for a while, until he remembers the absolute trust on her face after he thanked her last night, and the guilt threatens to choke him unless he tells her what he was thanking her for.
"We had to chase Urashiki back into the past," he confesses. He shouldn't, but Sakura fought as a member of Team Seven in the war too. She was there, she understands. And, she can keep a secret.
She sits up. "How?"
Her forehead is scrunched up in honest curiosity, and he wants to tell her. He raises a brow instead. They both know he can't. She sighs but lays back down, so he continues. "You were there. You had no clue who I was, but you healed me even though it put you in danger."
Sakura hums. "That's my job."
"I don't like troubling you like that. I've troubled you enough."
She sits up again, but slowly this time. With purpose. "Don't feel guilty about this, Sasuke. I'm glad I was able to help you." She holds his eyes. "I don't regret anything I've done for you. You were my motivation to get stronger when I was younger, and that prepared me to step in during the war. I know we both made mistakes, but we learned from them. And it was worth it, all of it, to get here. To see Sarada step up to protect the village. To see the two of you together." Her eyes sparkle. "To be here with you now."
He opens his mouth, but realizes he doesn't know what to say. He's about to go with "Sakura, thank you" again, when she beats him to the punch: "Sasuke, thank you. For everything." His breath whooshes out from between his lips. He stares up at her thunderstruck.
She grins down at him, and Sasuke's fairly certain his heart has just melted - as if she'd hit it with a great fireball jutsu.
So he pokes her forehead, because really, what else can he do?
Later, as he's walking to meet Boruto at training ground three, he wonders briefly if he had met his younger self… He shakes his head. That Sasuke was too hurt and full of hate to understand. And if anyone (including a thirty some year-old version of himself from the future) had told him Haruno Sakura would someday become one of his biggest weaknesses…he would have laughed himself to death.
Sasuke smiles to himself at the thought. Naruto may be the same loser he always was, but some things…well, he's glad they've changed.
A/N: Judge me for the fluff all you want, but don't sit there and tell me they aren't secretly affectionate behind closed doors. I refuse to believe those lies.