Last night, there was a fight broke out at Kabukicho district. The involvement of the notorious Akatsuki Gang in the fight was confirmed by the police. Allegedly it happened after one of the member of the Gang harassed one of the workers from the crowdest Hostess Club in Kabukicho.
Said the news morning anchor conveying the story from last night incident. Then an amateur video from the scene was shown, followed by an interview of the witnesses.
An initial report from a spokesperson said that the heir of the Uchiha hotel was also involved in the fight againts the Akatsuki Gang. However, the Tokyo police officers said it was remained unverivied until now.
She frowned upon the showned fact. The news did not show the reason why Uchiha Sasuke was involved—as she had been struggled to find out—but they already mentioning his profile.
She was too absorbed to the absurdity of the news when someone came to standing next to her.
"Uchiha Sasuke, wasn't it?"
Sakura stole a quick glance to the voice owner, she almost flinched. It was Akane Houra stood by folding his arms.
"He sure quite different from Itachi. You know him too, Sakura?" Akane sent her a cold stare. As though he knew something and it made him annoyed.
Sakura felt it was unnecessary to not telling the truth, "We were classmate back in Hokkaido."
Akane merely nodding his head. He then flashed a memory back when he met the rude young Uchiha.
"Sasuke is such a snob. Although they're different, I don't know that he could go worse, poor Itachi."
Sakura sucked her cheeks. Says someone who loves to get famous, he let the girl he had crush upon got insulted by his own parents right under his nose.
"Watching tv, huh? we've been looking for you, I thought you had emergency call, Sakura-san."
Sakura turned to see one of her team members abruptly came at the perfect time. "C'mon, the chief and the managers already on their way," he said.
Sakura was indeed on her way to the meeting room when she side-glance the news at the television inside the nurse station. She and her team had an important presentation and simulation all at once for her New Priority Emergency Response project, that they had worked on for almost a year.
Sakura had been dreaming to get invited to the annual meeting of the American Hearts Association, and by working day to night with her team for this project she had once again checked another point of her life's goals. Not to mention, their project was mentioned to be one of the candidate for the newest breakthrough of recucitation guidelines.
"Yeah, coming, I'm sorry for waiting," Sakura walked past Akane without a second glance.
/
hERe aFtEr
12.
/
Washington DC, 2021
Spring. A week after Orochimaru's Hostess Club Incident
A soft light touched Sasuke face from behind the grey curtain. It woken him up. The heavy eyelids flickered to open.
As Sasuke heaved a deep breath, he pushed his body up. Behind his too-long and messy hair, he glanced to the side table. It was 10.05 AM.
Sasuke was almost never oversleep, it did not matter how late he sleep, or how drunk he was, he would awake before the sun got high above the head. Eventhough, right now his head was heavy and he needed to blinked few more times before he regained any clear sight.
Slightly hunched back, Sasuke walked toward his bedroom door. He was greeted by the dazzling sunlight came from the wide opened windows on the kitchen when he walked outside.
"Good morning~" he heard the ever cheerful and lovely tone of his beloved mother.
Sasuke saw Mikoto was unpacking her duffel bag on the kitchen counter, "Morning, mom. How's therapy going?"
"It was fine, my dear," Mikoto helped Sasuke grab a piece of tuna sandwich beside her.
"Also, here," Mikoto placed a glass full of murky-green liquid beside the sandwich.
Sasuke's nose immediately flared up, a whiff of something like an aromatic oil came to his sense. After all this time, he finally got another dose of Mikoto's healthy potion. It was probably Itachi's fault.
"Itachi?" Sasuke asked huffing a sigh.
"He's on the phone, backyard."
Sasuke noticed Mikoto's workout clothes came out of the duffel bag. "Does the back pain get better, mom?"
"It does, I feel much better now."
Mikoto had been doing physical therapy for her low back pain and scoliosis for a year, because of that reason she could not stay too long in Japan. But, since the bad situation surrounded their hotel business, moreover Itachi needed the best support and care he could get; Mikoto had been skipping therapy for months and relied only on her painkiller.
Evethough she had a hard time, the pain meant nothing compared to her sons wellbeing.
Looking at Sasuke's hunched back, there was bags under his eyes, Mikoto felt her heart ached. The news about his youngest son got involved in a brawl at the Kabukicho was overheard by her when Itachi was talking on the phone with Haru.
She could not bear it if something ever happen to Sasuke as well.
"Sasuke-kun, how's Sakura-chan doing? Do you still keep in touch with each other?"
Sasuke's eyes went wide while he kept munching for a few second. The last time they had talking was in the least pleasant situation. "Last time we met, she looked fine. But, we're really not that close to keep in touch regularly, mom."
"Ya, I get it, you both busy," Mikoto reached out her mobile phone to looked up for something, "By the way, she was in Hawaii, I saw her post," she showed Sasuke her phone screen.
Oahu. The first thing he noticed was the location marked on the upper head of the photos.
The photo itself displayed a group of five to six people including Sakura wearing the same clothes in seemingly a conventional hall. Mikoto was eagerly sliding the screen, where Sakura was smiling from ear to ear holding two pieces of award certificate with a colorful Lei hanging on her neck.
AHA annual meeting checked. She wrote on the caption. Then there was another long note below it.
Sasuke looked at Mikoto, "Exactly, she's doing just fine."
Mikoto mentioned her observation, "Apparently you both haven't follow each other."
"What is it, mom?" Itachi was abruptly coming from the back door.
"Itachi-kun had followed her too, I don't see why you aren't." Surprisingly, Mikoto had wrapped her head around the instagram topic and now looking curious toward her youngest son.
Sasuke let out a sigh. He took the last piece of his sandwhich inside his mouth.
"Sakura-chan, Itachi-kun," said Mikoto to the confused Itachi.
"Aaah."
Not to give Itachi a chance to butt in, Sasuke quickly responded. "Befriended on social media doesn't equally mean a real friend, mom, let alone something special."
His respond made one of Itachi's eyebrows lifted.
"Since when this has become such a big deal?" Sasuke asked.
"I'm just trying to get close to Sakura-chan as we used to. If you don't want the same, I'm not gonna make a fuss about it, dear. But, it just… are you both really not that close?"
His mother's words hitted the nail on Sasuke's head.
To this morning, he had not made the effort to talk to Sakura again or even just a message. Let alone, asking for a follow on Instagram. Sasuke almost snorted.
"We sure have met and talked a lot with each other, I think that's already enough," Why she had to followed me that night, tsk, "We don't have the necessity to do more."
He was all of a sudden being unnecessarily cold. Sasuke watched as Mikoto put a strange facial expression.
Thanks to Itachi for finally chimed in. "That's fair. But, I think mom must have the explanation to her reasons." Itachi remembered Mikoto's little reunion with Sakura, and she promised him the explanation about something he had forgotten.
Itachi and Sasuke were staring at each other.
"Why do you care so much for Sakura-chan," Asked Itachi, "Mom?"
Unexpectedly, after few seconds passed not a single words could come out of Mikoto, instead she slowly lowering her gaze. She was spacing out as if her eyes were looking at something under the dining table.
The silence broke out the staring contest between the two brother.
Sasuke took the time to bottom up his drink. His forehead begun to furrowed deeply as the gooey liquid filled up his mouth then slowly sliding down his throat.
"Well, I think we don't have enough time for that, so I promise I'll tell you later if you have time," Sasuke heard Mikoto as she handed him a glass of water. "You need to be there an hour earlier, aren't you?"
The sudden swift of mood made Sasuke worried even more. "What's wrong, mom?"
"Later, sweetheart," Mikoto stroking gently at Sasuke's back, "I just don't want you to get late." she then walked away carrying her clothes to the laundry room.
Itachi scratched the back of his head. He merely shrugging his shoulders when Sasuke narrowed his eyes toward him.
"I suppose you had considering the last contract I've sent, right? That is for Jammie, if it's only he was the one you need."
Typical Itachi. "Hn."
Sasuke turned around to go back into his room.
"Twenty minutes, Sasuke."
Sasuke almost rolled his eyes. He closed the door behind him.
/
"How's Jammie?"
Mikoto went to see Sasuke in his room late at night while he was finishing his new employement report.
"Just… what I had expected," Sasuke'e eyes stuck to the desktop, he had to finished his report before midnight then send it away to his secretary.
Mikoto smiled, tilting her head, "Elaborate, my dear?"
"I mean, he's good and he's a smooth talker," Sasuke typing was slowing down until it gradually stopped.
Then he glanced up to Mikoto, "Just what I wanted for this general manager position, because he needs to meet a lot of investors to conviced them to sign with us. From his previous work, he seems adaptable to the financial team as well, so it'll do us a great help. Dean was always handling extra work alone."
"Dean, the accounting manager?"
"Hn."
"Well, that's a very good news, thanks Kami-sama. It's worthy for you to come all the way here. I hope everything will go as you wanted."
"I hope so." His eyes quickly shifted back to his report.
The sound of fingers were hitting the keyboard filled up the room for quite some times, while Mikoto organized all of the scattered documents on Sasuke's bed neatly inside a file. Sasuke made sure to reviewed his report thoroughly one last time.
Sasuke watched as the computer screen was loading; he peeked out to see Mikoto who was now sitting on his bed staring at her phone. When the success notification popped up, he clicked the sleep button.
"So, what's wrong, mom?"
Mikoto lifted her head and put away her phone. "I want to tell you about something if you willing to hear it."
Sasuke gently pushed his feet to the mat; sliding the chair closer to Mikoto. "Sure, why not."
"I've been wanting to tell you for a long time," she was trying to eased her own mind with a smile.
"This is about Sakura, right?" The fatigue made Sasuke had to synced back his mind to this morning conversation.
Mikoto was nodding her head.
She took a slow breath, "Remember when we decided to come here? your dad and I, we made the decision to sell out our family resort to dad's friend which now had developed into one huge worldwide scale resort. It's impossible to be forgotten, right?" Another vague smile, "Back then we knew exactly what will happen to the nearest neighborhood if we're really gonna sell the resort, they would surely got demolished."
Mikoto made a break to observed her youngest son's eyes which now got narrowed. "You know, one of the house was Sakura-chan's for sure," she continued.
Sasuke tired face went blank for a moment. His mouth slightly gaping, wanted to say something, but got cut by his own rapid thought. He remembered Sakura's wish from the night when they had drinks with Haru,
"Wouldn't it be nice if we could go back to Hokkaido."
Mikoto brought him back with her telling. "On new year's eve your dad and I came to her house, we had to tell her personally about that time circumtances. And we were pleading for her forgiveness as well. Because, once we took the deal, she would really had no other option. What we could do for her was to helped her find the best house in Tokyo as she wished for the compensation."
"But that's her only—" Sasuke remarked with such blurry memories, "—new year?"
Isn't that means she knew it all along that I'm gonna leave Hokkaido, but she didn't tell me anything, she hid it from me. Why would she do that!?
It did not quite sit well on his stomach.
Trying to really recalling back his memories of what had happened years ago—the blurry image of her face from the night before they parted—Sasuke felt there was a lump forcefully shoved down into his throat. And it burned him.
It was all happened because of me leaving—disappeared—without letting her know in the first place. Sasuke grew sullen.
"That is why," Mikoto reached both of Sasuke's cold hands into a tight hold, "Sakura-chan has always been special to us. Your dad and I, we've been looking for her and wanted to meet her since we heard that she had moved from Hokkaido."
Sasuke finally felt the mutual concern which was shown to him behind those beautiful eyes of his mother. He returned the tight holding, "That was not your fault."
"To be honest, my feeling for her has grow bigger than that, my dear. I really cared for her, kept longing to meet her as if she was my own child. It amazes me everytime I felt it myself."
As Sasuke listened to Mikoto's real feeling for Sakura, he didn't know he was holding his breath. And I'm a jerk for pushing her off like that, mom.
"Please, don't blame yourself for any of this. You didn't know about it because I'm afraid if we tell you, you'll leave us again."
Sasuke doubted he would do as his mother's plea.
Mikoto's grip got tighter; she scooted closer to Sasuke, "I'm really sorry, Sasuke-kun. Sorry if this isn't the right time, sorry it takes forever for me to tell you."
Sasuke composed his rapid thought for Mikoto's sake, "No, mom, it's alright," he appeased to her, "I don't know how to respon to that, but thank you for letting me know."
As they were looking into each other, they let the silence filled up the room.
"Thank you for understanding, my dear," Mikoto stroke Sasuke's hand gently before letting it go, she stood up to gave a peck on top of his head, "Oyasumi, Sasuke-kun."
Sasuke was left alone staring at his phone on the table beside his bed, dwelling on whether he would send a message to Sakura or not.
/
ePiLoGuE
"Do you know what scares me the most?"
This kind of question was never meant to be answered. But, Hyuuga Hinata was somehow could saw right through Sakura.
Just how Neji always did.
"That everything happens because of your fault."
The moment Hinata spoke the right answer, Sakura knew that Hinata felt the same way too.
Eventhough their sight was upon the ceiling of Neji's bedroom, they could see each other's tears were running down their cheeks.
True to Hinata's words. Sakura used to be sure that everything happened because of her fault. It had always been like that.
Sakura spent her teenage years longing and griveing for her beloved Baa-chan. She always felt sorry for her. She thought that Kaede Baa-chan had spent her old days taking care of her, where it supposed to be the other way around.
When Sasuke left Hokkaido and not a single email, message or call were send to her or Naruto, she thought it must've been her fault because she had run away from him just the day before he left.
And she was sure, when her relationship with Naruto was getting awkward and incomplete it happened because of her.
All of those were nothing compared to when she lost Hyuuga Neji. He had given so much to fill up the empty corners of her life, he had been the bestest friend and the greatest lover she could ever asked.
It was like a dream she never wanted. No one ever. It struck her to the core when Neji died, like someone left a bomb ticking inside her head, everything seemed blurred to her. It made her existence was truely unavailing—or that what she believed that time—so she was sure to took her own life.
All in all, she was just felt tired.
The suicide attempt was indeed the worst. Not because she failed to do so, but because she was now haunted by trauma and guilt for her own self, probably for the rest of her life.
That was the reason why she dedicated her life to the only thing she could valued, which was her work. That was the very least she could do to redeemed all of the guilt and grueling occurences she had faced. By taking care of her patients, she felt even.
But then, she met Uchiha Sasuke again. She remembered how distant and cold he was that day. Somehow, it triggered and unlocked the early memories of her childhood, where she also found him distant and cold the very first time they met.
Sasuke made her wanted to know about him more. It was like meeting a whole new person.
But, the truth was—deep inside her fragile and wounded soul—she just craving to be seen and recognized, and nothing could beat the feeling when someone as mighty as Uchiha Sasuke could do just that.
Not to mention—she finally realised it was not her fault that he did not reached her or Naruto—he kind of owed her an explanation of something that happened a long time ago.
