Sasuke is eighteen years old when he leaves Konoha behind for a second time. Sakura looks pained but resigned as they see him off. Kakashi only threatens him a little.

Even Naruto tracks him down, though part of Sasuke had hoped he'd be able to make it out of there without having to openly confront the fact that he was choosing to leave the idiot behind once again. Against all expectations, Naruto doesn't try to talk him out of it, even though he probably could if he wanted to. Sasuke is well aware of his own weaknesses, at this point. Instead, he shoves Sasuke's old, cracked hitai-ate into his hand. His smile only a tinge confused and bitter as he accepts Sasuke's promise of a future score to settle between them.

All in all, it could have gone worse.

And so Sasuke leaves.

As much as it feels like he's ripping himself apart to do it, he can't argue its easier to breathe, out here in the world. Away from the pressure of a future Sasuke had never felt fully prepared to face. The thick, oppressive atmosphere of expectations Sasuke was never going to meet.

Out here, he's free. He can practically feel the cool, fresh breeze on his skin, despite the mild summer stillness that surrounds him.

Freedom smells like the ocean, as it turns out.

Sasuke continues moving forward.


When Sasuke is twenty years old, he receives a letter from Konoha.

That in itself isn't so unusual— he's been gone for over two years now. A number of his former friends and mentors still reach out the only way they know how. Chief among them are his former teammates, to Sasuke's absolute lack of surprise.

Sasuke feels the breath of a nonexistent wind on his face, as he unravels a scroll for the ink summons to crash land onto, the words are the last ones Sasuke had ever expected to read.

For the first time, its Hyuuga Hinata writing to him— and a wedding invitation of all things.

So, Naruto's getting married. To someone who isn't his soulmate. Sasuke has no idea what to make of that. The whole reason he'd left— aside from obviously seeking the feeling of atonement and redemption for past misdeeds or whatever— was to give himself the space he needed for Naruto to find his soulmate and happiness without tearing Sasuke's heart out in the process. This wasn't how things were supposed to go at all. What did this even mean, for Naruto and his soulmate?

As Sasuke stares down at the Hyuuga heiress' flowing script, he has to wonder what this means for him as well. For all the choices and sacrifices he's made to get here.

… What the absolute fuck was Naruto thinking?

He doesn't respond to the requested RSVP, choosing to nurse the unexpected feelings of betrayal in silence.

He simply sends a messenger hawk with his felicitations instead and keeps moving forward.


Sakura joins Sasuke on his travels when they are twenty-one years old.

He isn't happy about it, at first.

"C'mon, Sasuke-kun," she wheedles, following him along the back country trail she'd somehow managed to track him to, "I've never gotten to have some big, grand adventure the way you and Naruto have. You said 'maybe, next time'— well, I've decided next time is now!"

"Oh, you've decided?"

"Yes," she says with finality, stomping up to his side, "Everything's different at home now, with Naruto getting married and Ino getting pregnant and Tsunade-sama leaving us again. Life is moving too fast to have regrets. So I'm coming with you whether you like it or not."

"… If Tsunade left, who's watching over the hospital?"

"There are a hundred other medic-nins on Konoha's roster— it doesn't have to be me all the time," Sakura huffs, "You and Naruto could do with taking a page out of my book for once and start letting other people pick up the slack once in awhile."

"… I don't think I'll be any good company," Sasuke says, already feeling himself relent, "I've been on my own for awhile now."

"Bold of you to assume you were ever good company before," Sakura snorts— and that's that, apparently.

Having Sakura on the road with him… isn't so bad, really.

She's a decent traveling companion— pulling her weight at camp and offering her support on Sasuke's missions, as few and far between as they are. And other times, its just good to have some one else to talk to.

"It's Naruto's birthday today," Sakura reminds him unnecessarily one morning, rolling out of their shared tent as Sasuke tends the fire to brew a pot of tea, "Have you sent him anything?"

"… I sent him a letter last week," Sasuke says.

"… And that's it?" she huffs, "I don't understand the two of you at all sometimes."

"It's also the war memorial today," Sasuke points out, "As if he'll have time to sort through all his mail before that whole charade is over with."

She waves him off, "He has Hinata to sort though his mail for him now, remember. He'll manage."

Sasuke doesn't respond right away, still unaccustomed to the fact that Naruto is married. To Hinata. Who isn't his soulmate.

The reminder still sets his teeth on edge.

"Ugh, don't tell him this," Sakura says, dropping to the ground next to Sasuke, "But I really hate them sometimes, you know?"

"… Why?" Sasuke asks, surprised to hear such a sentiment from her— the romantic that she is.

"Because they're so happy all the time, obviously!" Sakura practically shouts, causing Sasuke to wince— it was too early in the morning for that sort of volume, "It's like they stopped having real people problems or something. It's obnoxious."

"I thought you'd be happy for them."

"I am," Sakura insists— loudly— "I really, really am. But it just— it seems too good to be true, doesn't it? Naruto has a soulmate out there somewhere, and Hinata could still meet hers right? How are they confident enough to just throw away all that possibility? I don't understand it."

Sasuke tears his gaze away from the flames, toward the sky where a few stars are still winking in the early dawn light, "Not everyone puts so much stock in the universe's grand scheming, you know."

"But why not? Surely the universe knows something we don't."

"… I don't necessarily believe that."

"Really?" she asks, squinting at him as she helps herself to the freshly brewed tea, "I always thought you'd end up changing your mind. Go off and hunt that mysterious soulmate of yours down someday. Don't you ever feel… unfinished?"

"I'm already a work in progress," Sasuke says, "That's… never going to change, I don't think. The identity of my soulmate doesn't concern me, considering I have everything I already need in every other respect."

"But you could have more."

"I don't want more."

"I wish I could be as certain as all of you," Sakura sighs, "You know, I was heartbroken the first time we touched, and I didn't receive your mark. It took me forever to get over it."

Sasuke blanches, "But you… did get over it, right?"

"Not right away," she admits, "I still cared about you so much— much more than I should have, considering. But it wasn't until your mark did show up that I finally accepted the universe had other plans for you, and I should focus on myself for once— what the universe had planned for me."

"I prefer to make my own plans," Sasuke says, "Put stock in my own choices, rather than some grand design."

"That sounds nice," Sakura says, a wistful tone to her voice, "Can you imagine a world in which we could just… choose?"

"I can. I have."

"No, I mean— chose who we want to make us happy."

"That is exactly what I mean," Sasuke corrects her gently, "If I've learned nothing else in my life it's that our choices have power. Maybe it's all predestined after all, but making that conscious decision matters— especially when you're trying to come to terms with the effects your choices have on others. I think that matters more than following some road map none of us had any say in."

"I can see why you would think that way," Sakura says quietly, after a moment.

Sasuke is very conscious of the fact that this is the most they've spoken about anything of consequence… probably ever.

"… I'm not saying you have to think of it the way I do," he adds belatedly, "Just that it makes me feel better."

"No, no— I like it," Sakura hurries to assure him, "It's… nice. To think we can just say 'fuck it' and do what we want. The universe can suck it, right?"

"The universe can suck it," Sasuke agrees, meeting her wry smile with one of his own.


Sarada is born when Sasuke is twenty-two years old— three weeks after the birth of Naruto's son, Boruto. Sasuke returns to Konoha for an entire month before setting off again.

Always moving forward.


Naruto is inaugurated as Konoha's seventh Hokage when he is twenty-four years old.

Sasuke is newly twenty-five when he gets his invitation to the event. It will obviously be a big to-to— hordes of hopeful attendees migrating from all corners of the great nations to witness the spectacle. With all that factored in, Sasuke seriously considers skipping the event— but only for a moment. Missing Naruto's wedding was one thing. Something about missing the culmination of all Naruto's hopes and dreams feels like a transgression on an entirely different level, considering Sasuke's own investment on that front.

It will just be for one day. In and out, and Sasuke will be back on the road, finding himself or whatever he feels like calling it that week. His perspective tends to shift these days.

The last thing Sasuke expects is for the festivities to be capped off by Sakura meeting her soulmate of all things.

"She's a kunoichi from Iwagakure," Sakura tells him tearfully later that evening, after Sarada's been put to bed, "I— I'm sorry, Sasuke-kun."

"What are you apologizing for?" Sasuke asks, "This is what you've always wanted, isn't it?"

"Yes, but—" her lip wobbles dangerously, "After… after Sarada, I suppose a part of me thought… things could be different. That we could choose something different."

"… We always knew there were other possibilities," Sasuke reminds her, "Make whatever choice you want— if your soulmate is what you chose then I'm happy for you."

"Not that you've ever cared about that sort of thing," Sakura sniffs, "You've never even given your match a second thought despite having that mark for years. I don't know how you can be so— so aloof about it. I feel like my entire world is shaking apart underneath my feet."

"… What will you do then?" he asks.

"I don't know," she practically wails, "She's married, and its not as if I'm prepared to uproot Sarada and I's entire life to move to Earth Country. Can you imagine?"

"… Do you like her at least?"

"She seems lovely," Sakura says, "We'll have to spend more time together, to get to know our bond. But I… I always imagined it would feel like love at first sight, you know? It's nothing like that at all."

"What was it like then?"

"Like… like meeting someone I felt like I've known my entire life, I suppose."

"That doesn't sound so bad," Sasuke notes.

"It isn't! But I still feel so… disappointed. It's just nothing like I thought I'd feel," she groaned, dropping her head against the dining room table, "Why couldn't it have been unexpected but simple? Like Ino and Sai?"

"… Life doesn't always work like that."

"You think I'm not well aware?" Sakura hiccups, "As if anything about our lives has been simple. First you and Naruto, and now this."

"… What about me and Naruto?"

"Listen," Sakura growls, lifting her head off the table and pointing at Sasuke with distinct menace in her gaze, "I've let you pine away for years without ever calling you on it, but I'm not stupid. I know you chose him— over me, over your soulmate even. You wanted it to be him and it wasn't— because the universe is… well, it's a fucking shitty ass joke is what it is."

"… Are you drunk?"

"No, I'm not drunk," she replies indignantly, even as she pours herself another saucer of sake, "I know you pretty damn well at this point, Sasuke-kun. But I've known that for a good long while. You weren't particularly subtle about it— you didn't even come to his wedding, you jerk."

"… Why didn't you say anything then?" Sasuke asks, struggling to keep up with the turn the conversation had taken.

"Would you have even listened to me? You'd obviously made up your mind when you left and I know better than to try and reason with someone as stubborn as you are."

"I can be reasoned with," Sasuke argues defensively.

"I know one person who can reason with you," she corrects, "And it certainly isn't me."

"Do you have a point in all this? I thought we were talking about you?"

"We were— we are!" Sakura insists, throwing her hands in the air, "My point is you're infuriating and I hate that this is what our lives have become! Me, with a star-crossed soulmate I can't be with and you who just— just— gave up!"

"… I gave up? On what?"

"No, no," Sakura says, tossing back her rasher and pouring herself another, "We're talking about my problems now, not your stupid self-effacing bullshit."

"… Whatever you want, Sakura," Sasuke respond tiredly, pouring himself a glass after refilling her own.


Sasuke his twenty-eight years old and he's been on his own for ten years now.

Wandering the length and breadth of the ninja continent, searching for the peace and atonement he'd never found in life. In some ways, he's succeeded. He knows himself. He knows his own mind in a way that was never clear to him before. Lost in the tides of hatred and disappointment for so long he'd never allowed himself to grow. To see the ways he could contribute to the world that didn't involve pain and suffering— both his own and others. He has a daughter now. He has friends of his own— close enough that he's willing to admit they're nothing short of the only family he has left in the world.

And his world has grown larger. He has so much to be grateful for. And if finding that sense of peace and understanding meant leaving behind the only happiness he'd ever allowed into his life, well— he's starting to think it was worth it.

But still. As his footsteps draw him forward once again, a feeling of dread curls in his gut. He's avoided this for far too long, honestly.

A long, long time, he thinks as Konoha's gates rise before him on the horizon.

Sarada turns seven years old today.

Sakura had asked so little of him, over the years. When she'd asked him for the favor of just being there to celebrate their daughter together, he couldn't bring himself to refuse. To the point where he'd even agreed to stay for a week— longer than he'd been in the village in years— to give Sakura the rare opportunity to travel to Land of Earth to spend some sorely needed time with her soulmate.

Sasuke stops, staring up at Konoha's massive open gates. The feeling of a sea breeze caresses the skin of his face despite the calm air.

Sasuke sighs, and continues moving forward. As he always does, these days.

True to her word, Sakura keeps the celebrations low key, for Sasuke's sake. Just a gathering of their closest friends and comrades, congregating at the little home Sakura'd built for them in one of the village's newer residential suburbs. Sasuke will admit he hasn't been a great— or even an adequate— father. But Sarada is still somehow thrilled to see him. Though she is far and away the warmest reception he receives, it will never cease to shock Sasuke when his former classmates continue to receive him with practically open arms, after all this time. Even if he knows it's mostly for the little girl's benefit, he appreciates the gesture all the same.

Two hours into the mild festivities, as children continue to swarm and screech in Sakura's living room, Sasuke can't help but notice one conspicuously missing guest. From where he's posted himself in the corner near the stairs, Sasuke continues to comb his eyes over the small crowd, despite the fact that he knows he wouldn't have missed it if Naruto had already arrived.

"Thank you again for taking the time to be here," Sakura appears at Sasuke's side, handing him a cup of tea.

"… You asked," Sasuke reminds her uselessly, not sure what else to say when she's thanking him for literally doing the bare minimum as a father.

She grins over the rim of her own glass, "Well, yes. But you could have said no."

"And be the reason you cancel your visit to Iwa?" Sasuke scoffs, "I have enough guilt in my life, thanks."

"Ah right. I forgot how beneficial your self flagellation can be for me."

He shoots her a brief glare before returning his eyes to the crowd, "Shut up."

She only giggles.

"But seriously, thank you," she continues after a brief silence, "I'm really feeling the pull, these days. It will be good to see her again."

"The… pull?" Sasuke asks.

"There isn't any scientific basis for it," Sakura smiles with a touch of self deprecation, "But sometimes I can just feel it— the bond calling me from far away. It's like a physical sensation sometimes— all that goopy soulmate stuff they talk about. Even if it's nothing romantic for us, I still feel it, you know?"

"I've never heard of any of that," Sasuke admits.

"It's all a bit of a wive's tale, really," she says, but her eyes are soft in way that tells Sasuke she believes every word, "But they say you can sense it— when they're thinking of you. To me, it's the sound of flowing water— like a river, or a creek. From what I can tell, its based on our match's chakra affinity. But I only have anecdotal evidence to go off of."

"That's… interesting," Sasuke tears his gaze away, having just realized how intently he'd been watching her as she spoke.

She hums in acknowledgment before following his eye line where it continues to track the comings and going of the crowd.

Eventually, she shifts next to him, taking the emptied cup from his hand, "You know he's probably not coming right?"

Turning back to her, Sasuke raises an eyebrow.

She shrugs, "It's not that he doesn't want to be here. He just… tends to overbook himself these days, you know? And I told him if he dared send a clone, I'd kill him."

"So this kind of thing happens often?" Sasuke asks.

"I wouldn't be surprised if he downplays it, but yeah," Sakura laughs, "The village has grown a lot since you left again— it only makes sense the Hokage job has along with it. If I can wrangle one lunch a month out of him, it's a practically a miracle."

"… I see."

"That and with everything's that happening with Hinata I'm not surprised he's a bit more scatterbrained than usual. It's fine, I'm sure Sarada will forgive him— she practically worships the ground he walks on already, if you can believe it—"

"Wait," Sasuke cuts her off, "What's happening with Hinata?"

She blinks at him, "You don't— Naruto didn't tell you? Don't you guys write, like, all the time?"

"Tell me what?" Sasuke asks pointedly.

"I'm…" Sakura looks lost, "I don't know if it's my place to say. That idiot— why wouldn't he say anything?"

"Sakura— just spit it out."

"Sasuke," Sakura grimaces, casting a glance over the room. When Sasuke follows her gaze, he finds Hinata herself, wiping a mess of frosting off young Himawari's face, "It's… it's all very complicated. And new. Maybe he didn't know how to tell you— he's never been good at dealing with stuff like this."

"Stuff like what?" Sasuke growls— but then he sees it.

Hinata turns, her other hand coming into view as the toddler runs off again. Revealing the sweeping streak of bold yellow running up the length of her forearm.

"Hinata met her soulmate," Sakura says, admitting to what Sasuke had already surmised.

Well, fuck.

Sakura doesn't protest— much— when Sasuke ducks out of the party early.

"Just… make sure he's okay, alright?" she says tiredly, shoving a mess of tupperware into Sasuke's arm as she sees him off at the door, "You know he's always been shit at looking after himself— and his feelings."

Sasuke makes his way quickly across the village, hardly pausing a moment to take in the drastically altered buildings and walkways.

And continues to make his way. For awhile. From one side of the village to another, sighing in frustration as he eventually gives in and accepts that he's lost. He scales the nearest towering building, scraping the blooming sunset staining the evening sky— cursing to himself as he nearly drops Sakura's leftovers in the process.

Less than a minute later he's climbing through a wormhole portal straight into Naruto's office.

"I shoulda guessed you'd show up here eventually, y'know," Naruto says, not even looking up from the scroll in front of him as he taps a pen against his lip, "What about Sarada's party?"

Sasuke sets the tupperware down on the desk, shoving aside the clutter of empty ramen containers and to-go coffee cups— a few of which tumble to the floor.

"I could ask you the same," Sasuke notes dryly.

"I'm gonna go," Naruto mutters, casting Sasuke a mildly reproachful look, "I just have some stuff I need to wrap up here first."

"Oh yeah, like what?" Sasuke asks, walking around the desk to glance over Naruto's shoulder, squinting between the scroll and Naruto's computer screen, where the blinding white of a spreadsheet glares back at him.

"This and that," Naruto says, "You know— stuff."

"… And none of that has anything to do with avoiding your wife, I'm sure."

"Fuck you," Naruto hisses, finally shifting out of his slouch to slump in his chair, "Who told you, huh?"

"I think the more pertinent question is why I had to hear it from someone else at all," Sasuke shoots back, unrepentant.

"What was I supposed to say?" Naruto grumbles, "Hey, Sasuke— my wife met her soulmate and now she needs some time to think so I guess that's another person who's decided the grass is greener somewhere fuckin' else, y'know. Yeah, right."

"You could have said any of that," Sasuke says, "It would have been a sight better than nothing, idiot."

"What's the point?" Naruto huffs, tossing his pen onto the desk top with a heavy sigh, "Wouldn't change anything."

"The point is we're supposed to tell each other things."

Naruto combs his hands through his hair, "We haven't told each other everything for a long time and you know it."

"… I tell you everything you need to know."

"Likewise, asshole."

It's Sasuke's turn to sigh before reaching over and yanking Naruto out of his chair by his collar, "C'mon, dobe."

Naruto yelps at the manhandling, "Fuckin' ow— what?"

"We're getting out of here."

"I can't leave," Naruto spits indignantly, "I have shit to do here— I wasn't kidding."

"I think you need a break— I'll explain it to Shikamaru tomorrow."

"As if he's the only person I answer to, y'know," Naruto says bitterly even as he allows Sasuke to shove him out the door and into the hall.

As they depart the tower, Sasuke sends a clone back for Sakura's tupperware.

"Explain," Sasuke demands as they make their way deeper into the village.

"It's stupid," Naruto says, "They brushed up against each other on the fuckin' train. Ugh, I knew I should have denied Kaminarimon's infrastructure development bid— I mean, fuck. That's just my fuckin' luck, right?"

"What are you going to do?" Sasuke asks.

"Well, what can I do? She's gonna stay or she's gonna leave— it's not really up to me, y'know."

"You could always try and find your own soulmate," Sasuke reminds him.

"Why the fuck would I do that?" Naruto scowls, "I don't need a soulmate— I already have everything I need. My family, my job, the village. My soulmate doesn't even know me— we've talked about this already."

"It's been ten years," Sasuke says, slightly alarmed to voice the time span out loud— had it really been so long ago? Where had the time gone? "Obviously things change."

"This coming from you? What— have you gone off and decided to track your own match down all of a sudden?"

"… Shut up."

"Exactly," Naruto laughs bitterly, "I mean— why should we even bother, huh? Whoever our soulmates are, they aren't exactly looking for us, are they? Well, you maybe. I'm not exactly a hard person to find."

"… So you have thought about it."

"… Maybe a little, lately," Naruto sighed, "Can you blame me? I'm starting to feel like no one wants to be with me— not even my soulmate, y'know."

Sasuke's heart clenched, "That isn't true and you know it."

"Ugh, did it just get super hot out here all of a sudden, or is it just me?" Naruto gripes, ripping his cloak off his shoulders without even bothering to undo the clasp, "Whatever— you don't know what it's like. Hinata was always, like, so sure. About me. About us— even when we were kids. Not being soulmates didn't matter— she told me that all the time. Now, well— she's being nice about it, but I know she can't help but wonder, you know? Why did the universe pick this person for her, and not me? Of course she's confused. I don't blame her."

"… You really think she'll leave you for…"

"Some guy— I didn't ask his name. I don't want to know. Where are we going anyway? This isn't the way to Sakura's," Naruto asks suddenly, glancing around them as if he's never seen this part of the village before.

"Where do you think?" Sasuke asks, steering them down another side street— he'd admittedly gotten a little turned around at a certain point, but managed to get them back on track during the course of Naruto's venting.

Naruto blinks in surprise as a familiar food stand rolls into view, "You're… taking me to Ichiraku's? I thought we'd be going to Sarada's party."

"… She's seven. There will be other birthdays. Your wife only meets her soulmate once, usuratonachi."

"But you hate ramen," Naruto says as they slide onto a pair of stools.

"I don't hate it," Sasuke denies, "I just prefer to have a well balanced diet, unlike some people."

"So… you just brought me here because I'm all depressed and shit? Is that it?"

"I mean, you're the expert, but isn't that what friends do for each other?"

The way Naruto looks at him you'd think Sasuke had just single handedly inaugurated him as Hokage all over again. Eyes glowing even if his smile was subdued. It was doing weird things to Sasuke's stomach.

The sea breeze is back, its phantom fingers ghosting over the skin of Sasuke's face without disturbing the fall of his hair over his eye, just as it always did.

"Yeah. Yeah, I think it is," Naruto says, wiping suspiciously shiny eyes, "Fuck, you're not really helping here, y'know."

"… I'm not?" Sasuke asks, slightly alarmed— he thought he'd been doing pretty well, considering his lack of any aptitude for offering comfort.

Naruto sighed as a bowl of ramen was set in front of him— pretty miraculous considering they hadn't even placed an order yet— "It's not your fault. I'm just… fuck— I guess all this is bringing up a lot of other stuff for me. I'll… I'll get over it."

"… Hmm," Sasuke murmured, not entirely sure whether to believe him.

He knew well enough by now that Naruto had a bad habit of setting aside his own struggles if that was what others needed from him.

"How'd you deal with it, huh?" Naruto asks, snapping his chopsticks apart with a muttered thanks to the chef, "When Sakura met Akiko?"

"… It was never like that, for Sakura and me," Sasuke admits, "Our relationship isn't like yours and Hinata's."

"So you weren't sad when she found her match then?"

"Not at all," Sasuke says, finally turning away from Naruto's imploring stare to focus on his own meal— finding the fact that Teuchi had remembered his order with out having to ask unexpectedly touching, "Finding her soulmate was always her dream. Neither of us was under any illusions about what we were to each other."

"So you were what— a placeholder? That sounds awful."

"No worse than what she was to me, honestly."

Naruto looks horrified, "And what was that?"

Unable to bear the judgment in Naruto's gaze, Sasuke stares down into his ramen broth.

Sasuke'd asked Naruto for honesty though, so he would give him the same, "A consolation."