A headache was how it started and she was going to learn to love them.
A day as a ninja can really take its toll on people, no matter who they are. Even the most patient ninja the Village Hidden in the Leaves has seen can become irritated by daily tasks, trips, and jobs. Even a pink-haired kunoichi, who has dealt with troubles worst than a busy day.
And so she was, after a day of running around a hospital and healing people, running around town to visit friends who had just returned, and training. When the sun was setting and quitting time came, she said good-bye to the last of the doctors she was assisting and headed back to her home. And, along with the bag of items she had brought to the hospital with her, she was carrying home another thing- a headache. A big one at that.
The walk home only doubled her headache, and after declining multiple invitations from pestering friends to Ichiraku's, she finally stumbled through the door, massaging her temples. Dropping her belonging carelessly by the door and slipping out of the sandals she had worn in from walking, she walking slowly towards the only place in the large house she heard noise coming from. Unfortunately for our favorite pink-haired kunoichi, that was upstairs on the far end of the hall.
Dragging her feet, Sakura trudged to the room, a faint light emitting from the television screen which softly played news of other countries. She expected to see a figure glowing by the light of the television, but her emerald eyes widened slightly when the familiar figure was missing.
But the headache had once again taken her attention, and her body was slowly realizing the soreness from the training, only doubling the headache. She moaned, slipping over to the couch and falling onto the cushions with a groan, hand still massaging her temples.
A small shriek of surprise escaped her lips when she felt her hands replaced by calloused fingers, which expertly massaged her headache to a dull roar. She let out a breath she had been holding in relief, leaning back into the couch cushion as the hands lipped form her temples to her neck.
The figure disappeared behind her, and a frown crossed her lips as she sat straight and whipped behind her, only to be pulled into the lap of someone next to her on the couch.
"Rough day?" a familiar voice whispered into her ear, slowly easing her stiff shoulders into curling into the chest that sat behind her.
"Mhmm…beyond rough. Nothing really out of the ordinary, just everything compacted into one day. But enough about my day…" Turning around in the crossed legs she now sat between, emerald met charcoal, a happy spark behind all the exhaustion in both. "How was your Sasuke-kun?"
A smirk placed itself upon Sasuke's lips out of sheer habit, and Sakura stuck out her lower lip, pouting like in their younger days. "What are you smirking at?"
Sasuke slowly bent forward, giving the pouting lips a quick kiss before pulling back, the pout replaced by a girly smirk of her own. "Always thinking of someone else, aren't you Sakura?" the deep voice rang out, and Sakura in turn shrugged.
A few moments of silence passed, both comfortable curling into each other, Sasuke securing Sakura from any movement with his hands possessively around her waist while Sakura just sighed and leaned into him, snuggling into his chest and resting her head on his shoulders.
"You know, this reminds me of the first time we kissed…remember that?" Sakura voiced, remembering the day not-so-long-ago, sitting up from her comfortable position to prevent herself from falling asleep.
"Hn." Sasuke muttered, burying his face in the head of pink hair that was in front of him, taking in her scent.
It hadn't been years ago, maybe only two or three. The good ol' days.
It wasn't long after Sasuke was dragged back by Naruto and the other members of the team that had been sent out to retrieve him that he was placed on probation, and not long after that ended he had been allowed to go on tiny missions.
Of course, through the whole time his old team stood beside him, one female kunoichi in particular, who helped the old friend and crush get back on his feet when she wasn't training with Tsunade-sama. When he started missions once more, one of the team tried to make it to the squad, and normally were put on the team to make sure Sasuke would return without any unwanted ninjas, or return at all.
That particular mission had been with Naruto, and apparently was longer and harder than it had been scheduled. She had been helping out with a group of chuunin who had arrived the day earlier from a high-ranked mission, healing the ninjas and testing the skills Tsunade had taught her in an attempt to cover the worry that creased her feature obviously. She never was good at hiding her feelings; she wore them on her sleeves, or more, in her eyes.
The night had settled when the caravan of ninjas had passed through the gates, none with serious injury. They were inspected at the gates since most of the doctors had gone home and had been told to go home and get some rest as well. Who knows what tomorrow would bring, and it was the way of a ninja to always be prepared.
Sakura had been late getting home, having dealt with a rather annoying injury that didn't want to heal, and after hours of attempting, she had finally gotten the series of hand signs right, and the injury had healed itself. She passed Ichiraku's, which was closing, sparking her reminder of her friends that had yet to return. 'I wonder when they are getting back' she thought idly, fixing the strap on her backpack as it slid of her shoulder. As if her thoughts were answered, a pair of hands covered her eyes, and she fought back the first instincts to grab the arms and slam the person to the ground.
"Guess who!" a happy voice said, making Sakura roll her eyes under the hands.
"Hm…Orochimaru?" Sakura voiced, giggling when the body behind her released a frustrated sigh. "Goodness Naruto, it's just a joke!" she said, lifting his hands off her eyes with a tight squeeze. "Must you do this every time you return and catch me on the street? I hardly held myself from tossing you to the ground like last time."
The blonde grimaced, subconsciously rubbing the spot on his head where there had been a bump for who knows how long. He remembered that, hadn't learned from his lesson though. After all, Hinata had stayed by his side the whole time he was regaining consciousness, and took him out for ramen afterwards…snapping from his reverie, he just shrugged. "Can't I say hello to an old teammate? Why are you out so late Sakura-chan?"
Sakura took her turn, shrugging. "Busy day with some chuunins who sustained rather serious injuries. Idiots, couldn't figure out was wrong with them. It didn't help that most of them were still unconscious and couldn't tell us who or what caused their injuries. It was a system of guess and check…where's Sasuke?" Emerald orbs peered behind the blond to the empty space normally occupied by an emotionless Sasuke.
"Still being checked by medic-nins. He was one of the few who got injuries. When I left, he was trying to convince them he could get them healed, and I assume he meant he was going to see you, but they didn't let him leave. Poor man, those medic-nins just didn't want him out of their sight…wait, how come you ask about Sasuke, but not about poor me? I did a lot of work as well, or is all you care about that man?"
Sakura nodded for the most part, letting out a giggle when he questioned her interest in her friend. "I don't ask because I don't want the play-by-play. I just want to go home and go to bed. And I'm sure you have someone better to see right now…Hinata asked me only this morning if I had heard anything about you guys from Tsunade. She seemed worried."
The blonde opened his blue eyes in realization, bidding his friend a quick good-bye before jumping off to find his girlfriend who he had missed so much. The pink-haired medic-nin rolled her emerald orbs, turning around and heading off in the direction she heading before Naruto had stopped her.
Her apartment wasn't far, closer than her old home with her parents she had left only a year ago. Actually, she noted, it would be a year tomorrow. The door was unlocked, as she expected. Naruto had mentioned he wanted to get healed by someone he knew and it was nothing new to her to have the dark-haired man come to her rather than the strangers and other female medic-nins who still worshipped the ground he walked on.
"Hello there Sasuke-kun." She muttered, the old name of adoration now more or a habit than a sign of fancy(AN- British term! I love that word!). She slipped off her shoes, putting them next to the door where another pair sat. Hanging her backpack on the hook next to her coats, she turned to find a slightly bandaged man lying on her couch. "I take it the mission was harder than expected."
The man grunted his response, sitting up to look at the old friend that allowed him to intrude upon her home. She put on a mock empathetic face, hopping over the back of the couch to sit next to him. "Where does it hurt?" she asked like talking to the little children at the ninja pre-school. Sasuke smirked his response, just leaning back into the couch.
"The bandages show where, don't they?" he responded, used to her taunting.
"There's more pain than just physical Sasuke-kun, you of all people should know that!" She said slowly, still picking on the poor man. Gathering the charka in her hands she slowly started healing the largest wound on his arm, the bandage slowly becoming useless.
The Uchiha watched the girl work her skills, feeling the pain slowly seep from his body. Planning carefully, he nodded slowly, deciding to play along with her childish act. "It does hurt up here." He said in the best childish voice he could manage, which surprised Sakura at how young he sounded. In her shock, he grabbed her hand, which had finished removing the useless bandage and put it carefully on his forehead.
The kunoichi's shock slowly dissolved, replacing itself with a playful smirk. "Oh, poor Sasuke-kun, he has a headache! Did big bad Naruto give little wittle Sasuke-kun a headache? Sakura can fix that, yes she can! Just lay down…"
Sasuke followed the suit her hands were dragging him in, laying his head on to a pillow she placed on her knees as she sat on her feet, hands slowly working circles around his temples. The pain throbbing in his head slowly eased away, and after an elongated silence, he slowly opened his eyes, peering at the girl who was rubbing away the remainder of his pain. The emerald eyes were fixed anywhere but on his face, currently glues to the dirty dishes she had been letting pile up in the sink.
In a swift motion, he sat up and turned to face her, ignoring the pain in his head from the quick movement. The emerald eyes widened in shock, locked with the charcoal eyes of the man she was supposed to be healing. "Distracted Sakura?" he asked softly, and she could feel his breath spread on her face, blushing, suddenly complete self-conscious because their close proximity. "And still blushing obviously. You really haven't changed."
She opened her mouth to protest, but was stopped from saying anything by a mouth covering hers. It took her a moment to unfreeze and realize Sasuke was kissing her…he was kissing her? Whoa, what was wrong with that, and what in the world had possessed him to do that? Inner-Sakura took over at that time and she slowly responded to the kiss. When they broke for a breath, Sakura was leaning against the arm and Sasuke had one arm around her waist while the other was holding her head from falling back, fingers threaded carefully through the soft pink locks that had grown out since the chuunin exams, only a pillow to separate their bodies. That pillow was gone pretty quickly.
Hardly a week later they were spotted kissing in public by the one and only Ino, who spread it quickly through the small village, and they were soon the official couple.
The years had passed since then, with only one breakup that went noticed by their friends, which both agreed was pointless. Now curled up in the arms of her first love, Sakura realized how important that one headache was. "You know, I really don't mind headaches that much anymore." Sasuke didn't bother answering; his lips did the answering for him.
A headache was how it started, and she did learn to love them.
Authors Note:
My first SasuSaku fic! I was so proud when I wrote it, I came up with it…yep, last night, about to sleep. I have another one coming out soon, written with a poem my friend wrote for his girlfriend, once said girlfriend gives it to me! Tell me if any facts are wrong, I base a lot of my information on other fanfictions…right now in the Naruto series, I'm only at the start of the Chuunin Exams. XD
And I don't own Naruto…I wish I did though! Then Sasuke would love Sakura!
x Disco x