Kabuto and Sakura slowly fell back on their usual schedule: wake up at 7, study from 8 until 10, heal Kimimaro until 1, then lunch. After lunch, they studied until 4, then strength training for Sakura until 6, and, after dinner, they healed Kimimaro again.
The white haired Kaguya was recovering slowly. Even with Sakura's help in going in, Kabuto felt like every day they were taking three steps ahead, then two steps back.
New year came and went, without too much celebration, since the last one still felt too recent.
Sakura seemed to be doing better, better even than Kabuto had expected. She was studying hard, and they were burning through the scrolls so fast, Kabuto hoped he would have enough to last until his upcoming mission in March. She had also stopped mentioning the Uchiha or her village, although the grey haired teen still suspected that she wasn't done with them.
Her hair also grew longer. It was reaching her shoulders now, and the hair ties Kabuto used normally always slipped out of her too-soft locks. He'd need to figure out something to do with that.
A few days prior, he had been sulking.
He laid in his bed, and dreaded to get up, dreaded to even breathe.
It was his 16th birthday, and he was miserable.
He always liked being busy on these days, so he could forget about it, but yesterday Orochimaru had asked for Kimimaro. Although the medic in Kabuto wanted to scream at the sanin that he was unreasonable, that Kimimaro was barely able to walk, let alone train, but he had to oblige.
So he had to spend all day with Sakura, and although it was nothing out of the ordinary, the fact that his last real birthday celebration has been with Nono always put a bad taste in his mouth.
He hoped, that hopefully one day he could celebrate this day again with someone special to him, and with every passing birthday spent as a spy, that goal seemed to drift away from him more and more.
When the day was finally over and he could be in bed, waiting out the midnight, and just after the clock said it was a new day, he could fall asleep.
A part of him wanted, no matter how unreasonable it may have been, for Sakura to know about it, and maybe even do something more exciting, but of course there was no way for her to know.
Still...it would be nice.
Kabuto whether they could just go the market, like last time, and eat something and just...maybe enjoy it?
But that didn't happen, and he was perfectly fine when they returned to their usual days.
That's why he felt slightly shocked when Sakura asked to go to the market just three days after his birthday.
And on top of it all, she chose to wear the light blue shirt he had given her.
She never wore that.
Even though she sometimes complained about always wearing a variation of purple or black and grey, she never wore that shirt.
And although it looked good on her, with her black shorts, Kabuto got suspicious really fast.
She seemed to be planning something, and it could not be good.
On their way outside, Kabuto was more observant than usual, watching every move she made, every raise of her arms, every wind movement of her hair.
She seemed unaware of his looming glare, and just walked out, still looking surprised by the booming village.
The sun was going down, behind the hills, painting the sky orange and pink, and making Kabuto even more suspicious.
"Can we go to that store?" She pointed to the same clothing store they had visited before, and he lightly nodded, but kept himself at arm's length from her. Just what was her goal with this?
They entered the store with the sound of the bell.
It looked deserted, though the owner didn't look one bit friendlier than before.
He fixed his glasses with the palm of his hand, almost expecting the Akatsuki to show up somehow.
Sakura walked around, picking up random things only for a second before going to the next. With every item Kabuto grew more frustrated, until his clenching fist at his folded arms couldn't take it anymore
"Just what the hell are you doing?!" he snapped at her.
The shop owner somehow evaporated from the scene, and they were alone.
Sakura was starring at him wide eyed, her right hand still in the air above some stupid item.
She slowly let down her hand, not breaking the eye contact, while all Kabuto felt was immense annoyance.
"I was looking for a..." She stared at the ground, her cheeks red from embarrassment "a ribbon..."
As soon as the words hit his ears, all of his tense muscles relaxed.
With a softer tone he asked,
"Is it because your hair is getting longer?"
Sakura gingerly nodded.
Kabuto just shook his head and grabbed something from the shelf, leaving the money for it on the counter before they left the store.
Just one hour later, they were back at the lab, their boxes of dinner on their table. Sakura sat patiently while Kabuto slowly cut her hair with the scissors from the store.
Her hair was really soft; it almost slipped out between his fingers while he tried to cut it evenly. He did everything in his power to ignore the intense smell of cherries as he lifted up her locks.
He only cut it from behind. His initial plan was to cut her bangs as well, but standing that close to her face looked to be too much for him now.
Her shorter hair revealed the nape of her neck, and she seemed to be sensitive to it, all her body trembling by the small hairs that fell there.
When he was done, she went to shower, and he started to clean up, but there was one longer pink lock that looked...
Kabuto wasn't thinking straight when he picked it up, and tucked it into his pocket.