rating: T

disclaimer: i don't own naruto.

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43. perfect

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Sasuke's facial expressions nowadays reveal more than usual, Sakura notices.

"She'll be back," she tells him as they stand together, watching a wide-eyed Sarada being pulled away by Boruto and Mitsuki with the former yapping on about a team meeting near the training grounds. "You know how resilient she is." Sakura smiles upon seeing her daughter protest about being dragged against her will.

Her husband offers something of a half-smile; she thinks it is more genuine than usual when it's just the two of them together. "Assuming Boruto isn't being silly again." Sasuke doesn't look at her, but Sakura knows he still sees her. He's always like that—always noticing, but never really had to look.

She lightly taps his arm. "Don't be mean to him!" She defends Boruto's honor, if not out of obligation that he's a friend of her daughter's, a teammate and loudmouth but teammate foremost. Still, Sakura can see that he is a good boy. Just a bit rowdy, but aren't all boys like that? "He's been doing better with his temper lately."

He scoffs, making a noise. Sakura almost snickers. Turning around, Sasuke begins walking with the intention of wandering the village, but he knows—Sakura knows—that he is on the way home instead. Neither say anything about it. Sakura merely shifts to follow him, smile in tact. "He tried to ambush me multiple times during training all because I said he still needed to work on chakra control."

Laughing, Sakura's eyes crinkle in amusement. "Like father, like son!" They cross the bridge where Team 7 used to meet, and she resumes in wonderment, tongue dripping a light tease, "I'm surprised you're still managing fine." It had mildly shocked her at first; she never had anticipated Boruto seeking an apprenticeship under Sasuke. Then again, knowing Naruto's occupation…

"I'm surprised too," he dryly intones, and Sakura spies a bit of humor in his closed eye and that little—very subtle—tilt of his lips.

She teases, "You used to fight fire with fire."

He has changed too much. He has grown too much. Thinking about it makes Sakura nostalgic, old memories emerging and whatnot. All the hurtful things, all the sad things, all the tragic things—those had been associated with Sasuke the most back then, back when he was still ensnared in his shell of a past, burdened by images of dead corpses and so on. But there are also happy memories with him. He'd been her first love. He is her first love, and he is her husband. All those old Team 7 days, they are her happiest times. She can tell he shared some of the same sentiments as her, which is why she thinks that's the reason why he is smiling when she brings up things that used to be taboo.

"It'd be meaningless," Sasuke says, managing to concoct a tone that sounds solemn yet light. "He's like Naruto, but he's also different." Sakura indulges him and listens. "Naruto had always been impatient and acted through impulse, whereas Boruto is the opposite. That being said, Boruto has potential."

They pass by some stores. Sakura takes the moment to reply, "He does, hm? I've only talked with him for a handful of times, but it's so hard to unsee Naruto from him!" She gives him a grin, a pretty and girly one. "But I see what you mean. I saw him during the Chunin Exams and he showed a lot of promise." Then he cheated. She didn't know how to break that part to him, but perhaps Sasuke already knows.

"Naruto told me the rest of it." Sakura almost rolls her eyes inwardly. News never fails to reach him, even when he is away. "I was a little disappointed." So had she.

"So that's why you're harsher with him," she finally says, seeing that their apartment is in sight.

"Better me than Naruto." His voice is monotone, but Sakura catches him frowning.

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"It hurts…" Sakura whines childishly for once in her life. It's not like it'll kill her. Who else is there to see this display anyway? "I knew it was a bad idea to do that move."

Sasuke serenely places another patch on her back, putting the empty wrappings next to him. It almost resembles a small hill with how many patches he had to place on her. Sakura can only grimace. "But you did so anyway."

"The kids wanted to see!" she foremost says, voice loudly protesting and indignant and unlike her age. "And well… I guess I showed off too much…"

She injured her back and the damage is not as severe to her as the damage to her ego. A renowned doctor injuring her own back after unleashing Cherry Blossom Impact at the training grounds to demonstrate her prowess in front of her daughter and friends, then having to be carried back by her own husband, unable to move lest she'd strain her injury? Yeah, totally and utterly embarrassing. She isn't sure if she should show her face anymore. She'd have to move away, change her name, slap on some makeup so thick that no one can recognize her, maybe—

"You're overreacting," he sighs behind her, and she feels chills from his fingers lightly trailing at her spine. "I can feel your chakra spike."

And of course, her inability to be subtle in front of him is another damage to the ego right there. But at least it's her husband so the destruction done to her is not as bad. Still, it stings. "But what'll the kids think of me now?! I must be getting really old if I hurt my back doing what I usually do!" It's not fair. Ino must be laughing if anyone told her.

Sakura feels his fingers continue to trace up and down her spine, and not even the soothing patches he stuck on her back could nullify the touches. "You're not old," he speaks with finality. Her heart is warm, but her spirit is still sullied.

"Yes, I am," Sakura finds strength to say back, clutching her blanket in front of her nude chest. Her shirt had been ditched for the patches to be applied on and she began to feel regret. Maybe it will not be long for wrinkles to start coming. No! She cannot think about wrinkles yet! What about gray hairs—

His fingertips stop at the middle of her back, right on her spine. "No." She cannot see his face, and she doesn't want to turn around.

Sakura numbly sits there on the floor and feels dumb with her bare chest and is still clad in her pants, face dimly counting the specks of dirt on the floor of their bedroom, clutching a blanket as if it is a sort of lifeline to her. "Yes." Her back is cold, his fingers are gone.

"No."

Sasuke's breath dusts upon her ear. Sakura feels weight on her bare shoulder. She dares not turn. "Yes…" she starts to mumble back, and nearly curses herself out. She is old and she can't do anything about it. She is not like Tsunade, who can store up her chakra to the point where her youth is never tarnished, because some part of Sakura wishes to grow old with her husband and die with him because till death do they part, and only during death. She wants to grow old and see Sarada become a woman, she wants to grow old with Ino and Naruto and Hinata and—

Maybe she is just scared.

Sakura feels him press his lips to her shoulder blade, then on her shoulders where his face is closer to her. "No." He peppers kisses on her shoulder; they are slow and lingering.

Sakura's heart swells and she brings the blanket closer to herself. "But…"

"Sakura." Sasuke leans his forehead against her back. If he had noticed her stiffen, he does not say. Sakura is glad for that. "Why?"

He utters only one word, and one word is all she needs to know what he means. "What if people don't take me seriously anymore? What if…" Sakura lets her inner concerns leak; they are childish and probably nonsensical to think about because she is still Konoha's best doctor, but everyone has fears, right? "What if I… You…" She is spluttering, feeling silly and stupid and dumb but also self-conscious all the same. "I…"

Sasuke gives her shoulder a final kiss, his hand gingerly at her arm perhaps to steady him or maybe to keep her close. She would like that, the feeling to be held. "That doesn't matter to me." He takes a moment to sit in silence and she the same. "You're my wife. That's all that counts." Sakura can feel him shift, adjusting himself so his lone hand could settle atop her fists latched onto the blanket. His touch is tender and secure.

When she finally turns her head, her cheeks are warm and her heart is about to burst and her eyes brim with emotions. Sasuke rests his lips on her forehead and then her hair. "Sasuke-kun…"

For some reason, she is suddenly on her back, locks of her pink hair flailed across the floor, and he is down with her. She forgets that she had back pain to begin with. They lay together and he strokes her hair. Sakura smiles to herself; perhaps all this drama about old age was a bit too dramatic, even for her. She looks at him and she sees herself in his eye—she sees her pinkened face and he smiles at her.

Sakura always notices that he smiles at her, always smiles when it's just them. In a dopey manner, she grins and it feels like she is a little girl again. Maybe she wouldn't mind old age at all if she could have more moments like this.