notes: typos fixed; revised! (7/9/19)

rating: K

disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

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22. connection

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Sakura didn't know how it happened, but it did. Her awkward footfalls could not seem to match the skips ChouChou gave or the quick pace of Sarada. ChouChou entertained herself with a conversation of the latest barbecue chips released on the shelves just three days ago. "Yours truly was the first in line and what did they give me?" ChouChou had been rambling on about, her hands stuffing her usual favorite chips into her mouth, yet her eyes seem to flare in indignation as she recalled her story. "Barbecue chips! BBQ! BBQ, Sarada!" Sakura watches from behind how the girl huffs, ChouChou's shoulders rising up briefly. "It wasn't even all that good! Like, every store here practically has the same thing! Don't they know that a beauty like me needs to experience different flavors?"

Sarada could've awkwardly shifted had she not been walking already. Sakura hardly knew her daughter's friend too much, but she could tell that if ChouChou was anything like her father, it wasn't wise to point out that the girl snacked on the same chips everyday. "I'm sure they were trying their best to come up with flavors..."

Eventually, the one-sided conversation falls deaf on Sakura as she nips at her stick of dango, courtesy of the restaurant staff earlier providing free samples, as she plays chaperone. Having been following the girls over half an hour on their excursion, she felt that it isn't her place to interrupt or intrude—after all, Sarada seldom hung out with friends outside of missions. Despite being left awkward and foreign, her eyes always facing their backs like some sort of bodyguard, Sakura wholeheartedly supports her daughter and her friendships. She remembered she might've bumped into ChouChou once; it'd been when Sakura had accompanied Sarada on her first day at the Academy. Even back then, Chouji's daughter possessed a strong love of food, often snacking on whatever she could find. Karui sometimes bumped into her too when they came to pick up their daughters; it'd be awkward some more and if there were words exchanged, they'd be clipped and short.

Idly glancing around, Sakura nearly bumps into the girls as ChouChou extends a finger out, curiosity in her starry eyes. "Ooh, let's check out that place!" The pink canopy above the cozy little gift store had caught her attention as well; Sakura tilts her head to indulge the girl as Sarada turns to regard the place with a look. "I've always wanted to see if they have anything cute there, but I keep forgetting. Please, Sarada!"

"Fine," Sarada finally says, a weak smile on her face. "I've never been in it too, so I guess we can both benefit from it, right, Mama?" Unforgotten, Sarada beams at her mother and ChouChou then gives Sakura the same puppy dog eyes.

The sight of ChouChou's excited hands clutching at her chips bag left Sakura unable to object. Not that she was ever going to object in the first place—Sakura herself didn't know such a place was around. Maybe it's a new store. "We have the whole day to ourselves, so it won't hurt to go in for a bit." A smile comes up on her lips the moment ChouChou gives a little cheer and practically tugs Sarada by the arm.

The place looks cute, Sakura thinks as she trails behind them, her eyes of lovely green studying the cozy lighting and various shelves and cases full of objects teenagers would like. Her teenage years lost on her, Sakura didn't think she should be the one being fascinated over tiny trinkets like charms that can be tied to a phone for decoration or bunny-decorated bento boxes. With ChouChou raving on about how she would love to get a new set of cute forks and spoons for herself, Sarada occupied herself with checking out the notebooks and pens they had nearby. The clerk, a young woman with a perky smile and a brown ponytail, had told Sakura in passing that this was a place targeted for young girls—apparently the sheer number of weapon shops in the village had been the last straw for the clerk-slash-owner, who said that all young growing girls should deserve some nice things before they grow up to become shinobi and have less time to be themselves.

Sakura half-heartedly agreed; the hospital did chalk up a lot of time to be at, but at least most of her weekends were free and they'd be spent at home. When she was younger, Sakura didn't have 'cute' things—she had Sasuke-kun to daydream about. That itself took up a majority of her life, and Sakura finds it so ironic whenever she'd shake her head at some passing love-struck girl on the streets raving on about boys. And speaking of Sasuke, Sakura absently stares at the phone charms offered on a wire board at the other end of the small shop—there is a tomato charm, simply tiny and hanging from a strap, and there is only one thing, one person, she thinks about when she sees it.

Midst ChouChou's incessant eager comments and Sarada's neutral responses, Sakura gives a hum.

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"What's this?" he asks her one day when he'd actually bothered to come back and the first thing she did was thrust a little gift box at him. His fingers hold it, but he doesn't give it a shake. "You didn't have to." It's not his birthday nor was it any sort of special occasion he knew of; but, it must've been something important if she had the time to welcome him back with a gift.

"I think you'll like it," Sakura tells him simply, a smile caressing her lips and her eyes crinkling. She'd spent probably ten minutes staring at the thing before Sarada had to come and retrieve her—even the owner had noticed the amount of time she'd spent looking and, amused, offered a small discount for it. It was already cheap to begin, but with the discount, it practically costed little to none for her doctor's salary. "Here, let me open it for you."

Sasuke, piqued, allows her to lift up the lid. He wanted to assured her that he could've done it himself, but then he remembers—his arm. "Ah." He ends up looking at a small round thing; there's a string above it. It'd been too small to be anything but a mere accessory, that much he could ascertain on his own. It lacked everything to be anything else, and with this in mind, he has to ponder why she bothered to get this for him when she knows accessories weren't his thing. However, if she did knew that, then he figured she must've had a reason for getting it—getting it for him.

"It's for your phone!" Sakura goes to exclaim, herself perking at his mildly stunned look. The charm in one hand, she gently snatches the gift box from his palm and sets it on the dining table and then she makes a gesture for his phone. In a few seconds, Sasuke didn't know why but now, his phone had a small tomato hanging from it. "See? It's a phone charm. Apparently, they're a new trend."

He didn't seem to have the heart to tell her that it would probably get in the way if he's out on a mission—what if it got snagged on something? What if it fell loose somewhere? This one charm could be the catalyst for several unfortunate upbringings and he didn't want that. But the more he notices how she gave him that smile he usually liked on her, how her hands shyly bundle behind her back, the more he couldn't find it in himself to tell her that it was a waste of time. It wasn't. Rarely does she give him gifts anymore. Back when they were still young, he'd often grumble in displeasure how she always gave him onigiri, chocolates, cards, letters—they were all the wrong kind of things that contented him. Those onigiri were the wrong flavor, the chocolates were sweet and not bitter, the cards had too many hearts and flowers, and he had never bothered to read the letters but he was confident that they were on new levels of sappy mush that garnered it to be trash. So when she gave him a simple little thing that was supposedly his favorite fruit, he had to stop, blink, and think. It's a charm this time. Not wrongly-flavored onigiri and chocolates, not cheesy cards and letters. Just a charm.

"...It gives it some color," he ends up telling her, lifting up his phone experimentally to see the red thing (tomato, he reminds himself) dangle from its point, languid. The red makes the black color of his phone stand out; he didn't know what to make of that, whether it was good or bad. He nods at her in gratitude, which she seemed to return with happy eyes. That was probably the best thing he could ever say to her at the moment and it sounded dumb, but at least she's happy about it.

Sakura beams at him again, and he thought she looked several years younger again. "I got one too!" Hastily, her phone is snatched at from the table (Sasuke had to blink again because he didn't see that when he came in) and she reveals it to him, dangling a little pink flower charm. "Now it'll be like we're connected even more! Sarada didn't want to at first, but she ended up getting one too!"

Matching phone charms—the idea seemed silly to Sasuke, but like the other two instances since he came home tonight, he didn't have it in him to tell her.

Maybe for her, he'll deal with it. It didn't seem that bad.