Chapter 8
A midnight stroll
It has been an entire week since Sasuke returned to Konoha. He has spent his afternoon sitting around the Hokage's office. Sasuke got the sinking suspicion that Shikamaru makes sure he waits for as long as possible. It was fine, Sasuke can put up with the Nara man's childish hazing. Sasuke wants to see if Kakashi had any updates on Rock Lee's team, or if any plan had been set yet. He is dissatisfied that there were in fact no updates. He drops off the takeout he brought for his Sensei, and decides to eat his own portion elsewhere.
Sasuke finds his way to the cement bench, and pulls out his food. He wants the quiet. He isn't used to doing nothing, and it's what he feels like he has been doing the last couple of days.
There is a flutter nearby, and a then streak of brown flashes passed his face.
Karin has sent a messenger hawk. It only serves to make Sasuke feel more restless. He has been doing light training while he waits for Naruto to recover. Sleep was a rare luxury currently. If he is lucky he gets 2-3 hours a night.
'When are you coming back? Things need dealt with.' Karin's message reads.
'Then deal with them.' Is the reply he gives her. Karin is a bothersome woman, but he trusts her to make the decisions in his stead. Karin can handle things until Sasuke has handled things here in Konoha, until sasori has been handled.
As Sasuke spears another piece of broccoli with a plastic fork, he looks up to find Naruto watching him. He must have seen the hawk fly off.
"What was that about?" His blonde teammate asks, sitting on the bench with him, casually.
Sasuke wonders if Naruto knows the significance of the bench under them.
For the first time, Sasuke is mildly regretting the killing of Orochimaru. If he hadn't killed him, then Karin and the sound village wouldn't be his problem. He, in the very least wishes he had waited to kill Orochimaru until he had learned all of his jutsu. One of the Sannin's techniques in particular would be of great use to Sasuke now.
"It was Karin. She's getting antsy about me being away for so long." Sasuke and Naruto have slipped easily back into the friendship they once had. They were picking up right where they left off.
"You're not going back there are you? I thought team 7 was going to kick some Akatsuki ass." Naruto sounds betrayed.
"Of course we are. I'm not going anywhere until after Sasori is in the ground."
"So you will go back to the sound, eventually." Naruto's voice is small.
"What else would i do?" Sasuke hadn't given the thought of what he would do after they got their revenge much thought. He thought it was a given that he would return to run Orochimaru's organization.
Konoha only allowed Sasuke in the gates because of the clemency Kakashi is granting him for the time being. On paper Sasuke is still a rogue ninja, and a wanted criminal. Sasuke can't continue to stay in Konoha, it would tarnish Kakashi's reputation, and make it a target for anyone seeking Sasuke out.
"You could stay here. Permanently." Naruto is brushing dirt off his shirt that doesn't exist. They really both are terrible with their words.
Naruto doesn't understand the political matters that come with being Hokage. Not yet. So to appease him Sasuke replies with a well meaning white lie. "I'll think about it."
"Sakura-Chan used to come here alot, and sit at this same bench. She ate her takeout here sometimes, to. I found her asleep on the stone once or twice." Naruto's hand runs across the cold stone, reverently. "I asked her why she spent so much time in this spot, you know what she said?"
Sasuke wants to know, but he isn't able to respond. The thought of her returning to this spot, their spot, over and over is dizzying. Luckily Naruto forges on.
"She was waiting for you to come home." He sighs. "She thought about you alot, Sasuke."
Then it is quiet. Naruto knew the significance then. At some point Sakura had shared her memory of the night he left, with Naruto. It doesn't surprise him, they were tremendously close, after all. Why didn't Naruto hate him? After all he had done to them both.
When Sasuke is done with his take out, they head back to the home they share that isn't really theirs.
In the evening they go through more of Sakura's belongings, and Sasuke hopes it will take just a while longer before her apartment is sold. He isn't ready to leave it yet. They have gone through most of the things in her home. Trash thrown out, and they only packed away the items that seemed worthwhile. Like her books, weapons, and various mementos.
Ino stops by to collect the box of Sakura's clothes. Sasuke wonders if she would even wear any of it, their styles seemed entirely different. Ino's wardrobe was intimidating she wore kitten heels, and had piercings everywhere you could have piercings. Sakura's clothes were conservative, but tasteful. The kind of clothes Sasuke likes on a woman. Perhaps Ino just wants them to remember her friend by. She doesn't loiter, and gives Sasuke a genuine smile as she leaves. Ino Yamanaka is nice Sasuke, thinks. How had he never noticed before?
Sasuke has collected things around the apartment for himself. A kunai, a coffee mug, a photo of team 7, and a pen he found with her name etched on it. In the peak of his insanity Sasuke would have found these items frivolous, but the Sasuke he is now treasures the items.
Sasuke decides they should take a break from their work. He wants to draw the process out for as long as he could. They aren't ready to take up a strict training regimen of any kind. Naruto is still healing, and both of their emotional states are questionable. Whatever the Akatsuki had done to tamper with the demon fox, it left Naruto healing nearly as slowly as a normal person would. At Sasuke's suggestion they decide to take it easy. It's better to ease Naruto back into training with his healing abilities compromised. It's push ups, sit ups, and they even make time for a brisk jog.
Naruto is struggling to keep up. Sasuke can hear his labored breaths from somewhere behind him. The pace isn't even that strenuous, and Sasuke knows Naruto will have quite a bit of training to do before they can take on Sasori. It's for the best that Kakashi hasn't got anything solid yet.
Sasuke hadn't thought about where he was headed on this jog until he's there. He hadn't visited Sakura's grave yet, and as far as he knew neither had Naruto. Maybe they could stop for a few minutes, Sasuke decides.
Then Naruto having been paying little to no attention, bumps into him from behind. It doesn't irk Sasuke like it usually does when Naruto does something careless. He is to distracted by the lights at the cemetery gates.
Sasuke's body pulls him forward watching the lights dance. Naruto follows without muttering so much as an apology. Graveyards don't creep Sasuke out the way he knows they do some people. He would be lying though to say the flashing lights didn't unnerve him.
Sasuke follows the lights, and then there are people all around. Flashlights, and lamps have been set up to light up the entrance, and a good bit of the walkway he can see. It's so bright Sasuke can make out the cobwebs on the gate. Shinobi are dispersed through out the area. One of them is using a roll of red caution tape to mark off the entrance, to the graveyard. Another is writing down something on a clip board. They look tense.
Naruto has taken notice of the scene before them. "What do you thinks going on in there?"
Sasuke shoves his hands deep in his pockets, as he is thinking the very same question for himself.
Then Sasuke sees a white and red robe.
"Kakashi's over there." Sasuke points out, how odd he thinks.
Something has happened, Sasuke was fairly certain. Naruto follows, now excited to see their sensei.
"Hey! Kakashi- sensei!" Naruto yells out lacking any of the decorum expected of a shinobi.
"Out for a midnight stroll boys?" Kakashi teases when he sees them.
"Trying to get this loser, back in shape." Sasuke jerks his thumb towards the blonde haired dummy in question.
Naruto is standing on his tip toes trying to see over Kakashi's shoulder.
"Well maybe if someone stayed in the hospital, where i put him, that wouldn't be your problem to fix, Sasuke." Kakashi's visible eye narrows in at Naruto accusingly.
"What's going on in there?" Naruto pries, ignoring Kakashi's comment. Naruto huffs a bit still trying to catch his breath.
"Nothing. Just a little construction. We're putting up some barriers, and deterrents to keep people out of there until it's safe." Kakashi's voice doesn't waver.
"Why wouldn't it be safe?" Sasuke asks his suspicion peaking.
"Some of the graves are being moved around, and that kind of thing. Wouldn't want anyone to fall in a hole would we?"
That was a fair point, Sasuke agrees. The sheer amount of shinobi around though, that is what nags him at the back of his head.
Sasuke continues to question the situation. Kakashi insists there is nothing to worry about and that they can visit Sakura's grave soon. Hers isn't near the construction he promises them. He can tell Kakashi doesn't want to talk about the cemetery anymore.
"You know Naruto, the hospital isn't half as bad as you make it out to be." Kakashi starts, but Sasuke knows it's a losing battle.
"You'd have to put me in a cage to get me back to that place." Naruto says flatly, no longer caring what is going on with the cemetery.
Sasuke doesn't like the twinkle in his Sensei's eye as Naruto says that last part about the cage, and so they part ways with Kakashi and head back to their temporary home.
Sasuke tells Naruto as they walk, "I think Kakashi was lying. But i can't figure out what it is he was lying about."
Naruto can always be counted on to distract Sasuke's train of thought. "I kissed Hinata Hyuga."
What the hell did that have to do with anything?!
"Why are you telling, me?"
Sasuke and Naruto had fallen back into their friendship but they had never talked about girls before. Apart from Sasuke's confession of love he harbors for their teammate in death. Dating people, and talking about it would be a new territory for them.
"She's coming over Saturday. To Sakura's. I haven't been to my place for awhile, and i really don't want to bother cleaning it up just to not go back to it for however long. I just didn't want you to be surprised when she showed up. If you want you can go to my apartment while i'm with Hinata, though. I know it might make you uncomfortable to be there with us." Naruto holds a brass key out for Sasuke.
How like Naruto to offer Sasuke the dirty apartment. Sasuke also doesn't like that Naruto has insinuated that he should be the one to leave Sakura's apartment for the evening. So the childish part of him tells Naruto to shove his apartment key where the sun doesn't shine.
All Sasuke's suspicions against his sensei are forgotten. His mind quickly begins to concern itself with his knuckle-headed teammate, and what he plans to do with Hinata Hyuga in Sakura's apartment. Sasuke prays to whatever god there might be, that his concern is misplaced. Naruto wouldn't do anything disgusting, with Sasuke in the apartment, right?
Author's note/ Hello all! Thank you for the recommendations on the SasuSaku fics. I am obsessed, my tbr is so long it's unreal. I plan to pull the 'proverbial' rug out from under your feet in the next chapter or so. Right now i still have many more chapters i'm sitting on top of. I don't want to dump them all at once. I'd rather drag it out. At some point we have 1 single chapter that will be in another characters POV but that will be the only time we get the story through someone else's POV. It is my favorite chapter, and it is my least favorite chapter. Also for my Sasuke lovers, i am so sorry this story is just a mountain of Sasuke not getting what he wants. That's why i have sprinkled in some more heartwarming moments coming up, we all need a little laugh. While writing this chapter i stumbled upon Lana Del Rey's- say yes to heaven. I could not help but think of Sasuke being suspicious towards Kakashi, when she says 'I've got my eye on you.'