Chapter 4: You don't have to be strong

With a horrified scream, Sasuke sat up in his bed, scaring the living daylights out of Sakura. That cry had torn her from sleep and her Shinobi instincts had caused her to immediately reach to her side where there would normally be a kunai holster.

Sasuke was now upright in his bed and had his right hand pressed against the mark on his shoulder. "Sasuke-kun?" Sakura whispered anxiously. He didn't seem to notice her. He doubled over and she could hear him say something, ever-so-softly. "What did you say?" she asked nervously and bent forward in order to hear him.

"Blood..." he whispered, terrified.

"What?!" she cried, thinking that he had hurt himself somehow. She placed her hand on his arm and realized immediately that this was a mistake. Instantly, he backed away and glowered angrily at her. His frightening stare scared her.

Then he exhaled firmly and relaxed. "Why are you here?" he asked quietly.

She tried to laugh, but failed miserably. "We got married yesterday… did you forget that?" 

"Ah... I remember now..." he whispered.

"What did you dream about?" she inquired carefully.

He stared into the emptiness of his room. "Itachi," he replied, "and my bloodstained hands."

She put her arms around him in a loose embrace of comfort. He remained rigid, though, and it seemed as if he hardly noticed the embrace, let alone drew any comfort from it. Moments later, he shoved her away and disappeared to the bathroom.

Sakura remained in bed, worried. She hadn't been aware that he still had these dreams about Itachi, and he had always refused to tell anyone about the things that happened during that fight. The only thing she knew was that he had totally changed after killing Itachi, becoming so cold and emotionless. She was worried about him; his hands had trembled so strongly.

***

"It's cold in here," was the first thing Sakura's mother said when she entered the apartment, and it was not clear whether she referred to the temperature or the decor. Her parents had returned one week earlier than expected and had invited themselves over after hearing of their daughter's abrupt wedding.

"I know", Sakura said quickly and offered them a seat. She brought them tea and sat down next to them.

Her mother looked around herself curiously. "Where is Sasuke? I wanted to congratulate your husband!"

"He is out on a mission with Naruto, but he might be back soon." To be honest, Sakura was rather glad that Sasuke wasn't there to meet her parents. She had seen the hateful look in his eyes when he had visited her at home. If possible she wanted to avoid him meeting her parents.

"Well anyway," Her mother said; she was not the type to ponder things. "Was it a beautiful wedding? It's too bad that you guys didn't wait, we would have loved to be there."

"Sasuke was in a hurry, it seems," she said, not even lying. She was endlessly relieved that her parents hadn't seen their lousy excuse for a wedding. "We didn't know that you would return sooner than you planned. You're rarely in Konoha, let alone both of you, so we just got married and decided to surprise you. And yes, the wedding was beautiful." She was a good liar. Not even her mother noticed the sadness in her eyes.

They made the usual small talk for a while longer and Sakura was actually glad to have some company. After one week of marriage, Sasuke was still as cold as ever, and during the daytime she was mostly alone. At the moment there were few missions for her, so most of the time she did not know what to do. Ino was still mad at her since she had won their eternal battle and married Sasuke.

Eventually, the door opened and Sasuke was home. Sakura was surprised, if not scared, since she had not expected him this early. He stared at her parents and she could have sworn that his eyes were filled with pure hatred for a moment. Nevertheless he welcomed her parents briefly, and before any of them could ask questions he grabbed Sakura's wrist and simply said, "I have to talk to you." He pulled her to the kitchen roughly and shut the door.

"Sasuke, you're hurting me!" Sakura hissed, freeing herself from his grip.

"Why are they here?" he spat. Before she could answer, he growled, "Listen, I do not want any strangers in my apartment!"

"They are my parents!" she protested.

He scoffed. "You can see them as much as you want, but I will not be disturbed here in my apartment!"

"What's wrong with you? I just wanted to…"

"Your fake family happiness is making me sick!" he growled. "Play the happy family elsewhere, because if I have to watch you any longer, I'm going to be sick!" Without giving her a chance to reply, he stormed out of the room, passed her parents without a word and hid himself in the bedroom.

Rather disconcerted, Sakura returned to her parents. "Maybe you should go for now. Sasuke is not in a good mood." Her parents were surprised and her mother seemed especially distrustful. Nevertheless, Sakura saw them out of the apartment and, once they were gone, leaned against the wall exhaustedly.

Why did she take part in all this? She hadn't understood Sasuke's actions from the beginning. Why did she let him do this to her? She didn't really know the answer herself. She stood before the bedroom and was about to knock when her courage left her and she gave up.

***

After she had waited for about half an hour, and Sasuke had yet to show himself, she risked it. She knocked on the door and entered the bedroom without an invitation. He was lying on the bed with his eyes closed. He did not sleep, though; she knew by the grim expression on his face.

As her gaze wandered over his body, she realized why. He had tied a rather unprofessional bandage around his right upper arm, and she could see blood stains already forming on the white cloth. So that was why he had been in such a bad mood, she thought. He was hurt, and she had not noticed it at all when he had arrived. She felt guilty.

She sat down on the bed next to him. "Sasuke, I didn't know you were injured. What happened?"

He opened his eyes, irritated. "It's not a big deal."

His behaviour, however, suggested something else. She forced him to sit up and untied the makeshift bandage. When she saw the wound, she let out a groan. It was a deep, gaping cut and by just unknotting the bandage she had made it start to bleed once again. She ran to the bathroom to get a towel and pressed it firmly against the gash. "This has to be stitched. You need to see a doctor," she said seriously.

"I have had much worse injuries," he argued. "I will NOT see a doctor because of such a stupid thing."

"There will be an ugly scar if you don't get it stitched, and besides…"

"Who cares?!" he hissed.

"Let me finish! In addition, you might have problems with it for much longer. Perhaps you will have to call off the next mission. Is that what you want?" Her words did not miss the desired effect.

His body stiffened when he thought about what she had said. "Alright," he muttered. "Let's go."

She grinned triumphantly. "No, I'll call a doctor. If you move, your wound will bleed too heavily." She instructed him to continue pressing the towel against the wound and disappeared to the adjoining room in order to call a doctor.

When she returned, sitting back on the bed beside him, he asked her, shocked, "Why are you doing this? I practically threw your parents out of the apartment, and yet you…"

"I don't want you to hurt, Sasuke," she replied. "The doctor said he'd be here any minute."

***

Sasuke twitched when the doctor sprayed something which burned like fire on the wound. Why did he let Sakura persuade him after all? He sat on his bed rather indignant, shirtless, while the doctor prepared everything for the stitching. Just great. Sakura sat beside him and said nothing at all. During the wait she had briefly inquired about how he had gotten that injury.

He had explained the day's events to her briefly. He had fought a training fight against Naruto to test his abilities, and Naruto had misjudged a stab and cut his arm unintentionally. At least that was the version he had told Sakura. To tell the truth, he was not sure whether Naruto had missed his target intentionally or by mistake. Since his engagement with Sakura, the blonde ninja wasn't exactly friendly with him.

The doctor returned with a needle in his hand and said simply, "This might hurt a little."

Sasuke clenched his teeth, when the needle punctured its skin and the wound began to hurt once again. The first stitch was not so bad, and neither was the second one. With time, though, it became rather awful and he clenched his hands into fists in order to hide his pain. He did not want anyone to think of him as weak, especially not his own wife.

In his pain it did not register right away when Sakura took his left hand into hers. He felt the warmth of her hand and squeezed it when another stitch was placed into his bruised skin. In order to suppress a cry, he squeezed her hand strongly, but she said nothing and just smiled at him as if wanting to encourage him. He swore to himself that he would kick Narutos ass for this later.

Eventually, the ordeal was over and the doctor tied a professional bandage around his arm, giving a few good pieces of advice which Sasuke wouldn't adhere to at all anyway. Sakura thanked the doctor dramatically and as he gathered his things into his bag, he just said that he would find his way out on his own.

Sasuke and his wife were still seated on the bed. He noticed that he was still holding her hand and let go, turning away from her a little. Sakura moved closer to him so that her legs were resting on either of his sides, and embraced him from behind, always careful not to touch the injury. "Sasuke…" she whispered into his ear and placed her head on his shoulder. "You know, it's okay to show feelings or pain from time to time. You don't have to be strong for me."

He turned around to face her, wanting to say something, but the words wouldn't come out. Aggrieved, he pressed his forehead against her shoulder, enjoying her caresses as she snuggled her cheek into his black hair and stroked the nape of his neck. I want to, Sakura, but I simply cannot. 

She leaned back and let his head rest on her stomach. Her hand remained on his head and he relaxed as she softly stroked him. He could faintly hear her heartbeat and he could feel her breathing in and out. It had a strangely calming effect on him, and for a few moments he allowed himself to relax and feel safe in her arms.

…tbc…

***

Sorry for making you wait, everyone.

REPLIES TO REVIEWS:

@Zsych: Well, there is a reason why Sasuke is so cold-hearted in this fic! It will be explained later. And sleeping with more women will maybe get him some kids, for a) where would he find women who allow him to get them pregnant when he has other women at the same time and b) they wouldn't be proper Uchiha heirs if they werent born into a marriage, right?

And its MY story and if I want to make Sasuke stronger, then I do. Why don't you try write a better one? It's a FANFIC okay? Do you want a writer to retell the storyline from the manga or is it just that you have no life and try to be a bother to other people?

@uzumaki rin-kin: oh how HELPFUL! "this is a very strange fic". What a HELPFUL comment! Really, now that you mention it, I know what do to better next time… woohoo! Please, keep that useless stuff for yourself. No one forced you to read this fic so WHY are you still reading?

@Rei: Well, Sakura puts up with all this for 2 reasons. 1st she is still in love with him and some part of her still hopes that Sasuke will change. 2nd she feels guilty because Sasuke has protected and fought for her while she was always only watching his back. She feels this is her chance to make HIS dreams come true.

@everyone I do not claim to be perfect and there may be some logical mistakes in this story. But what kind of use has it if people tell me that Sasuke might as well sleep with a lot of women to restore his clan? I mean, I don't see Sasuke going through Konoha and fucking every willing woman senseless, but beside that, I'm trying to write a romance fanfic, okay? So please keep such useless comments for yourself, alright? What I could use are ideas as to where I'll let this story go, and not people telling me in a certain sentence, Sasuke might be OOC…. WHO CARES? It's my fic, and if you think its weird, or bad, just don't read it, okay?

From now on, useless Flamers will be ignored!

And thanks everyone else who really took the time to read my story and think about it, giving me new ideas. Thanks to all reviewers! And of course a big thanks to my Beta-Reader Tronny. Thank you so much!