Happy SasuSaku Month everyone!
My first entry for SasuSaku Month 2021
Prompts: Glances and Years Past
Cherryberry12 owes a big thanks!
Evolution
Summary: In the journey of life, they lost and found something along the path.
Fixing her red ribbon, Sakura glances at the dark-haired boy. Sakura looks around before looking at him again. The classroom is lively as ever — Naruto and Kiba are fighting, Ino is bickering with Choji while Shikamaru yawns and mutters something, Hinata fidgets uncomfortably in her seat while Shino observes everyone. Sasuke's elbows are resting on the desk, his chin supported by his interlaced fingers. Sakura's green eyes wander on his face, and a shade of red stains her cheeks. Lucky for her, his eyes are closed. She wonders what he's thinking.
The classroom is too noisy for his liking. Sasuke wants for Iruka-sensei to start class as soon as possible, because his 5 year old brain thinks the sooner the class starts, the sooner it will end. Today, he wants time to fly fast because his nii-san has promised to pick him up after school.
...
Everytime Sakura glances towards Sasuke while Iruka-sensei lectures about five basic nature of chakra, she finds him gazing out of the window. Strange, she thinks, because Sasuke-kun is always attentive to lessons. She hears Naruto get scolded for not paying attention, and he grumbles that he doesn't understand a single word. However, this is not the case with Sasuke. She is confident of that. She nods and tells herself Sasuke-kun is a genius. He already knows what sensei is teaching.
Sasuke doesn't want the class to end today, because he has been tired of being greeted by an empty house and crying himself to sleep. It's only been a week, and he misses resting in his mother's lap, his father's voice, and his older brother's presence. But he shouldn't miss his older brother, should he? It's too hard of a question for an 8 year old to figure that out. He bites hard on his lower lip; he doesn't want to cry in front of his classmates.
...
Sakura glances lazily at the campfire in front of her. Still in slumber, she hears Kakashi-sensei waking Sasuke-kun up for the watch. She recalls they were returning from an escort mission, and they were all tired, especially Naruto, to return back to the village immediately. So they settled to sleep under the open sky accompanied by a summer breeze. Sakura smiles in her sleep, thanking her sensei and teammate for giving her some more time to spend with Sasuke-kun.
Sasuke looks toward the sky. The darkness of the night is fading slowly, and in the distance, he could hear the birds chirping, ready to start their day. Kakashi said he needed an hour of rest before they start again for the village. Sasuke doesn't like that. He frowns, mulling over the fact that he isn't making any progress in his plan of revenge with a lazy sensei and two unskilled teammates. However, the 12 year old genin hums in gratitude because these people protect him from lonely nights.
...
It's been a year since Tsunade-sama took Sakura under her tutelage. Sakura tries to slip into a dream where Sasuke hasn't left the village and Team 7 isn't disbanded. But the pain that washes over her body doesn't let her. Grunting, Sakura glances over the picture of Team 7 kept on her bedside table before she shuts her eyelids again. Her 14 year self doesn't know which was more painful — broken bones or a bruised heart.
...
Sakura glances at her reflection before she punches the mirror. Her knuckles bleed, but her punching doesn't stop. Her short breaths change into sobs while her body shakes violently. While tears overflow from her green eyes, she thinks it's better now because broken shreds can't reflect the dark marks of Sasuke's fingers on her pale neck. She cries harder, realizing that the mark would disappear after some days, but the pain that her love for Sasuke brings won't. Her 16 year self was now wise enough to know that bruised hearts hurt more than broken bones.
...
Sakura wonders whether the examination rooms of the hospital are too small? She presses her fingers gently on Sasuke's left stump, examining it. She applies more pressure and glances at Sasuke's face to determine whether his arm still hurts. Sasuke doesn't flinch, though his expressions are unreadable as ever. The 17 year old Sakura isn't naive to deduce a silly conclusion. Although she can't read his thoughts, she feels a pain stirring behind his mismatched orbs.
Sasuke suppresses a gasp when Sakura touches his arm. It hurts a little when she prods him with her fingers, but he doesn't complain. However, it hurts more to accept that Sakura has forgiven him. He wants to jerk away from her touch and tell her not to treat him so gently. He doesn't do that and diverts his mind to search for answers that trouble him — the definition of home, his loyalty to Konoha, and his bonds with Team 7. His wandering mind is dragged to the present moment when Sakura applies more pressure. It hurts more than before, but he doesn't flinch. Instead, he notes that he should thank Sakura before he leaves for his redemption journey tomorrow.
...
After taking a shower, Sakura settles with a cup of tea beside the window. She sips the jasmine tea and hears the sound of falling rain along with metallic sound coming from the room. Sasuke, on the other side of the room, is busy taking care of his chokuto. It has been months they've been married, but Sakura still blushes on the thought that they share a room together. Perhaps she won't ever stop feeling giddy around him, but the 19 years old Sakura knows Sasuke better than before. She knows some of his past, can tell when he is bothered although she doesn't always know the reason, and has seen the little upward tilt of his lips when he is happy. She steals a glance at Sasuke before closing her eyes, and a satisfied smile creeps on her face.
The summer rain had drenched them badly, and out of habit Sasuke settled on the floor after a shower to wipe off the water from his and Sakura's weapons. He almost smiles when Sakura fumbles with the tea pot and watches her as she settles beside the window. He sighs and wipes his chokuto. He is still amazed by how comfortable he is around Sakura. It's the same feeling he had when he was around oka-san, otou-san, and Itachi; he realizes. His fingers abruptly stop on the blade when he remembers something oka-san had said years before. He looks towards Sakura — eyes closed, smiling — and realises a rented room to take shelter from rain can turn into home because Sakura is there with him.
...
Sakura is tired. The exhaustion from the hours of labor has seeped deep in her bones. She glances at the dark ceiling of the hideout and clutches the sheet closer to her body. She cranes her neck to see the little human she had given birth to, and she smiles softly. Sasuke is curled on the other side of bed, watching their newborn daughter with awe. She catches something in his eyes that she has never seen before, and she feels tears pooling in her eyes. Sakura has once accepted that she couldn't give Sasuke what he had once lost, but little Sarada has proved her wrong.
Sasuke watches as Sarada scrunches her eyes and wiggles. Sasuke places his index finger on her little palm and starts counting her fingers. Although he stops when she hears Sakura giggling softly. "She is so small," he tells her, and Sakura says, "She is only a day old." He hums and though he doesn't say it out loud, he thanks her as he stares into her green eyes. Sarada's little adorable fingers wrap around his index finger, and he realises that at 20 he has found what he lost at a tender age of 8.
...
Sasuke glances at the clock before he slips under the sheet beside Sakura. It's late, and he almost groans on the thought that he has to leave early in the morning for a mission without seeing his daughter. At the age of 33, he wonders sometimes if he has taken the right decision to spend his life out of the village, working from the shadows, protecting the village. He turns around to face Sakura's back and snuggle closer to her body. Sakura stirs in her sleep and sleepily murmurs, "Okaeri."
"Aah, Tadaima." He realises this way he can always come back to Sakura — and come back to his home.
...
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