Act 5: Welcome home
The two shinobi left Tsunande's office and walked for a bit through Konoha.
"What the hell is that woman thinking!" Sasuke thought. "But still, it's nice having her around… I actually wouldn't mind living with her." He glanced over at Sakura who was fumbling with her fingers again.
"I'm going to be living with Sasuke…" Her heart skipped a beat just thinking about it. Was she thrilled? Excited? Scared? Nervous? Pretty much all of that and a whole lot more.
They reached the front entrance to the Uchiha manor. Sakura looked around at Sasuke's family home. When they were still kids, Sasuke had lived in an apartment not to far away from this place. Sakura didn't know why, but she guessed it was because he couldn't stand living in such a big place all alone. She stopped in front of it.
"What happened to your apartment?" She asked looking up at the gigantic manor.
"I sold it…" Sasuke said starting up the steps.
"Why?"
"You ask too many questions." He said slightly cold. She fell silent. "He hasn't changed much…" Sakura thought silently remembering how he treated her when they were still kids; he still treated her like that most of the time even when they were ANBU.
"I'm sorry…" Sasuke said quietly realizing his rather cold and blunt answer. He turned and faced her looking into her eyes. He smiled and stretched out his hand as if he was reaching for hers. "Are you coming?" He asked.
Sakura looked at him; she studied his face, and then nodded.
"Yeah." She didn't take his hand, but walked up the steps towards him, she looked down as she passed him.
"Great now she's mad at me…" Sasuke thought watching her walk up the steps towards the front wooden gate. He followed her and opened the gate for her.
The first thing Sakura saw was a beautiful vast garden the stretched from one end of the fence to the other she looked around, it was so huge! She was stunned.
"Do you have a gardener?"
"No."
"You do this yourself?"
"Yeah."
She continued to walk down the stone path to the house which although big, looked tiny compared to the massive garden. Everything in this garden screamed Sasuke. Cool flowing stream, a small bridge that lead to a small orchard of sakura trees on one side and on the other there was a training ground. The fact that there was an area like that didn't surprise Sakura at all. She admired the garden a bit more and even stopped to smell a daffodil that was growing in a patch near the pathway.
"Do you like it?" Sasuke asked coming up behind her.
She turned and faced him smiling.
"It's so beautiful." She turned around again and took another whiff of the flower. "These are my favorite."
"Oh? Why?"
"Because they say that when you give someone a daffodil you give them a wish… my mother taught that to me when I was a child." She smiled and closed her eyes thinking about those simple childhood days that she wished she could go back to.
Sasuke plucked the daffodil that she smelled earlier from the ground and gave it to her.
"I hope you get whatever you wish for." She looked at him surprised by this gesture. She watched him slightly confused as he continued up to the house.
"What the?" She pondered. "Is he teasing me? Or is there something more?" more questions filled her head as she followed him.
Upon entering the gigantic house, which was bigger inside then what she had pictured from seeing it's exterior, Sasuke gave her the grand tour, the dinning hall, the dojo, the inner courtyard, the kitchen, washrooms, library, lounge, family room, guest rooms, bathrooms, washrooms… etc. His house seemed to have everything in it.
"This will be your room" He said sliding open a traditional Japanese paper door. His house was traditional, wood and paper, but surprisingly warm. She walked in, it was traditional and sweet and very clean.
"Wow, thanks" She said, this was nothing like the tiny box-like room she was used to while growing up, nor was it anything like the hard ground she was used to sleeping on or the lumpy futon she slept on back at the base.
"If you need anything, just ask." He said while turning leave. "Hokage-sama said that she had some clothes in your size put in earlier, the closet is next to the bathroom." He pointed at the other end of the room. "Other than my room, this is the only other room that has its own bathroom."
"Wow Sasuke… thank you so much." She said turning to face him, she frowned a little disappointed to see nothing but his back.
"Don't mention it… goodnight then Sakura." He started to walk.
"Wait!"
Sasuke stopped then after a moment he looked over his shoulder at her. "hum?"
"Where's your room?"
"Two doors down, it's the one with the big Uchiha symbol on its door… the master bedroom."
"Oh… ok."
"Anything else you wanted to know?
"No, I'm ok.
"Are you hungry?"
"No."
"Ok then, goodnight."
He closed the sliding door. Sakura could hear him move to his room, slide the door open and closed again.
"Goodnight…" She whispered.
- the next day -
"Sakura?" Sasuke was knocking gently on Sakura's bedroom door. He didn't hear anything. "Is she still sleeping?"
He knocked again. "Sakura?" He said quitter just incase she was still sleeping. Hearing nothing he slid the door open just as she came out of her bathroom wrapped in nothing but a towel, her head was buried underneath another towel that she was viciously drying her long pink hair with.
She hadn't noticed him. But Sasuke had caught a glimpse of her long bare moist legs and his eyes followed up her body to the small towel that encircled it, he turned bright red spotting a little bit of her cleavage and bolted out the door before she looked up.
Outside her room, back against the door, he panted hard attempting to slow down his racing heart.
"Hoooooly crap!" He thought rather embarrassed.
After regaining himself, Sasuke walked off into the front garden, he walked into the orchard of sakura trees and sat underneath one. He closed his eyes, he'll be off for a bit after that last mission, besides spring was coming to an end that meant that the end spring festival was coming up fast, most likely within the next week or so. Sasuke had stopped going to the spring festival, actually during the time of the war the festival never took place defying Konoha traditions. When the war was over the festival tradition started up again, but after she left he had stopped attending. Now she was back.
"I wonder if she plans to go. She probably will. She loves this time of year. Maybe not. Not like she used to…"
- FLASHBACK-
(back when they were chuunins, the day after the exams)
"Sasuke-kun!" She ran up to him proudly wearing her chuunin vest. Sasuke turned around hands in his pocket. Over the past year he learned not to brush her off…all the time. The pink haired girl caught up to him panting as she was out of breath. The raven haired boy looked at his teammate, he too had his vest, but he was carrying it as not to cover the Uchiha symbol on his back.
"yeah?"
"Are you going to the festival tonight?"
"No."
She looked rather disappointed, and her smile slowly turned into a frown. "Oh… ok." She was about to turn away when 3 other chuunins approached them.
"Sakura-san!" A strange bobbed-hair boy in green ran up to her rather excited. "Good luck tonight!" He said giving her the best cool guy pose he could.
"Uhh... thanks Lee-san." She said forcing up a smile even though now she didn't feel like going.
"Sakura-chan!" Naruto had caught up with them followed by a lazy Shikamaru. He pulled out a small box out of his pocket and gave it to her. "This is for you Sakura-chan"
"Eh?" Sasuke looked at the box. "That's… what the?"
"Eh? Naruto, this is…"
"Yup!" Naruto said smiling and rubbing the back of his head ignoring a sobbing Lee behind him.
"Wow Naruto... thank you. But why are you giving me your Spring-ling gift?" She said gazing down at the beautifully wrapped ivory colored box with a pink bow, stroking the bow with her fingertip. She smiled gently and looked up at him.
(Note: Spring-ling gift. Every year at the festival, the male would give something of good luck to a woman they cared for deeply in their life. For example: good luck charms. The women would usually have a charm bracelet or pendant that she would give to a man with some significance in her life.)
"Well, you're a great person." He gave her his version of the cool guy pose. "And I don't talk to many girls other than you, and you always make me feel like I matter. So… I just wanted to thank you." He gave her a thumbs up
She smiled at him and gave him a big hug causing him to blush slightly.
(note: he's not with Hinata yet)
Causing everyone around them to be in a temporary state of shock. Shikamaru was shocked that anyone would hug Naruto, Lee was, and well…that speaks for itself. But Sasuke did his best to hide little hints of jealousy.
She let go of him and smiled greatly. Sasuke looked at her, he's never seen Sakura smile like that. Naruto rubbed the neck of his head rather embarrassed and pretty shocked himself. The boys watched as she gently untied the ribbon and lifted the lid of the tiny box. Her smile widened as she took out the small good luck charm inside. She gave him another big hug and fastened it to her charm bracelet.
"It's beautiful Naruto, thank you." She said backing away. He smiled again, he felt like he was floating. "I guess this is appropriate then." She reached into her pocket and pulled out a protection charm and placed it neatly in Naruto's hand. "I want to thank you for being such a good friend Naruto. When I see you, you're always giving it your all; it makes me want to try hard too." She gave him yet another big hug and a huge smile. Sasuke looked on, the year before she had tried to give him her charm, but of course, he didn't show up to the festival.
"Anyhow, I best be getting ready for the festival, bye guys!" Sakura waved to them as she ran off home to get dressed in her Kimono. They waved goodbye to her, except for Sasuke who was eyeing Naruto's protection charm.
As soon as she was out of sight, and Lee stopped pouting the boys conversed about that night's festivities.
"Neh Sasuke-bastard, are you going tonight?"
"No"
"Why not?" Lee asked. He too, like Sakura, loved this time of year.
Sasuke was silent, he didn't really have an answer.
"Bah, that's ok." Naruto said relaxing and folding his arms behind his head lazily. "But you're gonna miss out on soooooooo much fun stuff!"
"Sasuke doesn't know how to have fun" Shikamaru joked, they all laughed except Sasuke, who surprisingly smirked because it was true.
"Neh, Naruto."
"Yes Lee?"
"Is it true Sakura's nominated for Festival Queen?"
Sasuke's ears perked up a bit upon hearing her name.
"Yep! Apparently she's going to sing. I've never heard her sing before so I'm extremely excited. I feel bad though, she wanted so much for all of us to be there, especially Sasuke-bastard, but I guess that's not going to happen now it is?" Naruto said rather bluntly forgetting that Sasuke was only 2 feet away.
"Shut-up." Sasuke snapped.
"Why aren't you going anyway?" Lee asked again.
"I don't want to. Is that so hard to believe? I don't care about it!" He snapped. "I mean, who decided to resume this stupid celebration anyway?" Sasuke glared at the boys who were standing silently in front of him.
"What! Why are you staring at me?" He growled. The boys continued to stair, it took a while for Sasuke to realize that they were looking at something behind him. He turned to see Sakura dressed in a beautiful white and pink kimono, her hair was even done up nicely except for a few locks that graced her neck in curls. She looked at if she was going to cry. Her eyes narrowed and tears fell as she turned and ran in the opposite direction.
He stood there dumfounded, "What did I say?" He thought.
"Sakura was the one who convinced Hokage-sama to resume the festival." Naruto said quietly.
-END FLASHBACK-
It was then that Sasuke realized how much he really hurt her. He's hurt her a lot. He gripped his hands tightly, and then slammed the ground with his fist.
"DAMN IT!" He sighed heavily.
"Sasuke-san?" Sasuke looked up and saw Sakura standing there. "Are you ok?"
"I'm not going to hurt you anymore." Sasuke got up and out of nowhere wrapped his arms around her pulling her close to him. Her eyes widened in shock and her cheeks turned bright red. She could feel his heart beating in-between her own beats. He was breathing rather hard and he buried his face in the midst of her neck. The scent of her hair made him regret everything he's ever done to push her away.
"I've made you cry a lot haven't I?"
She was surprised to hear this, but her arms crept up to his back and she held him.
"Believe me Sakura… I'm not going to hurt you anymore…"
He pulled her closer to him in a tight emotional embrace.
"I promise!"
