chapter 1: forget-me-not
it's been a year since he has remembered her.
sasuke's memory started fading five years ago, and despite his old age, no one thought it would progress so quickly. he retired from active duty nearly ten years ago, and many blame being away from the field for the decline of his mind. he remains physically fit though, and despite sakura's retirement there is still no better doctor in the village, so he stays at home under her care. it's considered a great tragedy— the man who spent his life trying to restore his clan's honor doesn't know that the hokage wears an uchiwa on her back, and the girl who waited is made to wait again, forgotten in the eyes of the man she was married to for nearly fifty years.
what no one knows is that sakura found a cure many months ago. she has been sasuke's doctor long enough to be able to redraw each synapse from memory, and she has always been intelligent beyond compare. it didn't take long to find the imbalance between the mangekyo and the rinnegan that was interfering with his memory. it took significantly longer to figure out how to restore it, but she got there. every finding and observation is meticulously recorded and cataloged in her collection of journals that she has sealed away in a scroll by her bedside, addressed 'to sarada', to arm her daughter for the future of the uchiha after she passes.
she worked endlessly without tiring to find a "fix", only stopping in the aftermath to ask herself whom the cure was really for. memory has never been kind to sasuke, and despite all the progress he made, sakura never before saw the lightheartedness in his eyes that she saw in the early few months when he would momentarily forget about his past. her heart would break and sing in equal measure each time he forgot their daughter and how he would beam when she reminded him by pointing to her face carved in the hokage mountainside, unburdened by the accompanying history of all the other faces beside hers.
lying side by side in the early dawn, a year into the onset of his memory loss, sakura asked him:
"do you really want to remember?"
she didn't say more, but he knew the meaning behind the question. it was finally an escape from the demons that had chased at his heels his entire life.
for a long while he was quiet. then he rolled onto his side and looked at her, as if desperately trying to memorize.
"i don't want to forget you. or sarada." he said softly.
the rest was left unsaid.
so sakura does not disappoint him. each morning she reminds him who she is, shows him pictures of sarada through the years, and then tells him how his daughter leads the village. you would think it makes her sad, but he looks so damn happy and proud of his family, greedily accepting what she tells him, that she can only cry with joy. naruto stops by too every now and then, and though he never introduces himself and sasuke never remembers, they sit on the engawa for tea and look out at the orchids. it takes a conscious effort to betray the oath she took to do everything possible for her patients, but it's okay because he is certainly more than a patient, and 'sasuke-kun has always been an exception, hasn't he?' maybe in the afterlife he will scold her for playing the martyr or treating him like a child, but she will have enough time then to earn his forgiveness.
in the early days she had feared that if he forgot her it would undo all their years together, but it hasn't. though he doesn't remember her, there is still a deep understanding between them. each morning when he wakes up next to her, he does not panic, and when she reminds him, he accepts it without hesitation. when they play shogi in the afternoons, he anticipates all her favoured moves with an old familiarity. and on days that are particularly rough, when she aches all alone from carrying the weight of both their lifetimes, he will quietly bring her a cup of her favorite jasmine tea with a dash of lemon, though she has never reminded him of her preference. every day he accepts without question that they love each other, and sakura thinks she could never ask for anything more.
Thanks for reading, as always!