(notes: sasuke retsuden refs here.)

rating: K

disclaimer: i don't own naruto.

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45. tender

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Sasuke rarely kisses her.

Sakura knows this and becomes somber for a moment before she brightens up again and hums and continues her merry way, because Sasuke-kun is always a shy one. She would know, yes. She's like a Sasuke encyclopedia, Naruto always told her. She always beams because yes, that's also true.

She, like every other woman and girl within this village, has loved him for years and years—but ah, who was it that he ended up marrying? Yes, her. That's who. Ha.

"You know… You never told me how your first kiss with him turned out," says Ino casually, digging her spoon into the yogurt she ordered because it's her break and dammit, she wants something sweet in her system before she combusts from the heat.

Sakura smiles and serenely responds, "That dies with me in the afterlife, Pig." And Naruto, who had been a witness. But she knows Naruto would never tell. That Naruto, she fondly thinks.

"Why, Mama?" Sarada asks quietly next to her, feasting on a small cup of ice cream.

Ah yes, Sakura almost forgets that they came as a trio today. The combination of Ino and Sarada against her is not a good combo, and suddenly Sakura wonders if she can pull a Naruto or Sasuke or Kakashi-sensei and teleport away, if only to get away from the inquisitive eyes.

"I don't think Papa would appreciate me spilling it to others," she answers, considerate of her husband's feelings. The memories are special to her, sacred in her heart—and it will stay that way. It makes her a little giddy, to know that their first kiss is something only privy to them. In their own world. And Naruto. But it's not like Naruto would tell anyone, she stresses to herself again. It was embarrassing for him to see, after all, how Sakura had grabbed Sasuke by the collar right over Naruto's head and just kissed him. But as a sort of consolation, Sakura indulgently tells them, "But it was unlike something you'd see in those corny love movies." Because Sasuke doesn't do corny love movies. Pff, she laughs inwardly at the image.

Ino whines, "You're not giving us much to work with here, Forehead! I'm going to starve and be deprived of juicy information here!" Tch, such a drama queen, Sakura fondly thinks.

"So there wasn't anything like… fireworks exploding in your chest or butterflies in your stomach?" inquires Sarada with wide attentive eyes.

"Only the butterflies," muses Sakura, fingering the straw she is drinking her juice from. Dreamily, like the memory is once again so very real and alive, Sakura sighs, "It was something I can never forget. He was very sweet to me." Even got her a ring at some point.

Sasuke has always tried to be kinder to her after he had come back, back home, back to her, and she maybe thinks he really meant it. It means something to her.

"Geez… Mama, you're getting lost in your thoughts again," mumbles Sarada, feeling icky from this lovey-dovey aura Sakura radiates. Well how rude, she thinks briefly.

"Don't you like it when Mama's happy, Sarada?" coos Sakura, still lost in her daydreams of kisses and Sasuke-kun. She takes a happy sip of her drink.

Scoffing lightly, Sarada turns away and looks at Ino and whispers almost conspiratorially, "I like it when she's not being a dork in love."

Chipper, Ino evilly whispers back with an exaggerated disgusted look, "I know. It gets unbearable sometimes."

Sakura ought to talk with Sarada about siding with her, her own Mama, than her devilish best friend. So much for loyalty. "Stop it," Sakura says, rolling her eyes.

And just then, a new shadow begins to loom over the three of them. Sakura squints while Sarada and Ino both blink, then Ino smirks and elbows Sarada.

The shadow, now confirmed to be Sasuke, asks Sakura rather flatly, "Did you wait long?" It's like Ino and Sarada aren't even there to him. "Naruto wouldn't cease his babbling, so it took me awhile to escape."

Knowing she had called him earlier to walk her back, Sakura sweetly ceases the sipping of her drink and smiles with love. "Not at all. You're just in time, actually." Just in time for her to plot her great escape from the scheming girls sitting to her left. Standing up, Sakura takes her drink and loops elbows with him and drags him with her to a direction that they both know is not their apartment. "In fact, let's go now! It's a beautiful day."

She doesn't look back at Ino and Sarada, but perhaps that's the better option anyway because Ino said something about losing more important information before her voice drowns out with the idle chattering of the crowds.

"Was that necessary?" inquires Sasuke quietly, after they made it out of the busy shopping district and into a secluded path where the bridge of Team 7 always was.

Simpering, she laughs, "No, but I didn't want to get interrogated any longer."

"About what?"

Humming slightly, Sakura is quiet for a moment before she slides her arm down his arm and takes his hand. He says nothing and lets her intertwine their fingers. "About us." She is not usually this brave, but she thinks it means something—that she is able to tell him these things. "About our first kiss."

Awkwardly, he says, "Ah."

She smiles broadly to herself, because she thinks awkward Sasuke-kun is cute. "I didn't tell them, though. Didn't want to." Her heart is fluttering as she swings their hands and she discards her empty cup with a straw at a trashcan when they pass it.

As if a distant memory now, they pass that bench and both Sasuke and Sakura do not react.

Sasuke clears his throat with calm valor. "Didn't want to?"

"Because that's my precious memory!" Sakura tells him with so much love in her voice. She likes this; to be able to hold his hand and walk around and not care about anything else. These moments rarely come anymore, so she takes it with great care this time.

He nods and she looks up at him and she feels herself giddy that there is some pink on his face. "Annoying," grumbles Sasuke, not really meaning it.

Simply, she kisses his cheek on her tiptoes and says, "I know."

There is no one around, which is refreshing to her. The hospital is always cramped up with nurses and doctors and patients, and everywhere else she goes to is also full of people. Sometimes, it's tiring to be there. Sakura is about to open her mouth and comment about it, but then he leans down and presses his lips into her hair and she just stops and numbly processes what he just did to her.

"Really annoying," he says again, in a softer mumble that he only uses for her.

Sakura smiles wider, face glowing. "I know."