Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or anything associated with it. All rights to Naruto belong to Masashi Kishimoto and the other proper entities.
Summary: Sakura had been by his side since he lost his family, following him around since they were seven years old, trying to ease his loneliness in whatever way she could. He didn't even know why he allowed it. He just silently allowed her to claim the seat next to him at the beginning of every term.
Rating: M
Genre: Friendship/Romance
Pairings: SasuSaku / eventual light NaruHina
Rays of Spring Sunshine
Chapter Seven
Sasuke stared up at Sakura from her perch on the tree branch, silently gawking. How the heck had she done it?
Kakashi praised Sakura's natural talent. Even Naruto seemed impressed. Sasuke just glared at his tree and tried again. And again. And again. He was comforted by the fact that she only seemed to be able to do it with a running start; Kakashi had moved her along to walking up the tree rather than running, and she was now falling just as often as they were.
"Hey, Sakura-chan?"
Sasuke froze when he heard Naruto address the girl.
"What is it?" She asked, brushing herself off as she pulled herself to a sitting position.
He heard Naruto whispering to her; chancing a glance out of the corner of his eye, he saw her watching him over Naruto's shoulder before she turned her attention back to the blonde.
"The trick," she said, loud enough for her voice to carry, despite Naruto's attempts to shush her, "is to keep yourself calm and focus. Relax and concentrate on pooling the correct amount of chakra in the soles of your feet. If you get distracted, you'll fall."
That seemed simple enough. He'd admit that Naruto's obnoxious complaining was starting to get on his nerves and was distracting him. He nodded in thanks to her when she glanced at him again, and she smiled before climbing to her feet. "We should head back."
"Huh?" Naruto looked up at her.
"It's getting dark." She shrugged. "Tsunami-san will have dinner ready soon. You can't train on and empty stomach! We should all rest up and try again tomorrow."
"No thanks." Sasuke refused to look at them.
He heard Sakura huff and plant her hands on her hips. "You'll get distracted when you're hungry and tired, Sasuke-kun." She admonished. "You'll do better tomorrow after some rest."
He glared at her. She was right, he knew. It wasn't often she took that tone with him, but she was usually right when she did. "Fine."
"You too, Naruto." She dragged the idiot up to his feet and began tugging him back toward the house. "We'll all get a good night's sleep and you'll both make it to the top tomorrow!"
Sakura turned out to be half right.
Sasuke stood on the lowest branch of his tree, looking down at his teammates, panting heavily after his descent from the top. Naruto was making headway, but Sasuke had beaten him, much to the blonde's chagrin. Sakura's advice had proven to be good.
"Very good, Sasuke." Kakashi drawled from his spot nearby, nose in his book. "You can try walking like Sakura now. Naruto, keep trying."
Naruto let out a cry of frustration. Sasuke tuned him out.
Their fifth day in Wave, and Sakura had managed to master tree-walking. Sasuke wasn't too far behind her—he could make it most of the way now. Naruto had yet to manage running, but he was getting closer.
The boys allowed Sakura to drag them back to the house for dinner; they were all dirty and sweaty, and all in need of a bath before turning in. Sakura, as she had every day since they arrived, took the first shower. Sasuke and Naruto had fought for the second for the first few days before Kakashi had pulled rank and told them that they would alternate. Today was Naruto's turn.
Sakura found Sasuke in the same spot that Naruto had the other day while he was waiting for his turn. Quietly, she took the spot next to him, leaving a respectful foot of distance between them. She smiled at him and he glanced at her, and they both turned their attention out to the water.
"Kakashi-sensei told me that I'm going to go to the bridge with Tazuna-san tomorrow." Sakura said quietly, twisting a lock of pale pink hair between her fingers.
Sasuke grunted in acknowledgment. "Zabuza hasn't shown up yet."
"Well, we don't know how badly injured he actually was." Sakura chewed on her lip. "It could be that he'll be out of action for weeks."
"Or he could be watching us right now." Sasuke pointed out darkly, making her jump. "We're not ready." The words were bitter on his tongue.
"I know." Sakura's voice was quiet. Then, "I'm scared."
Sasuke looked at her. Her eyes were misting over alarmingly quickly as she looked at him. He stiffened; he never knew what to do when she cried. "You're a kunoichi." He reminded her.
"I know." She took a shaky breath. "But I just… you saw how much trouble Kakashi-sensei had against him. There's no way we can take him."
"We have to." Sasuke grit his teeth. "I don't plan on dying here."
Sakura's smile was wobbly before she turned her eyes back to the sunset. They were quiet for a moment before she asked, "Have you managed to figure out the sharingan yet?"
"No." He growled. The subject was touchy. Then, remembering how she had advocated for him in front of Kakashi the other day, he sighed. "I have no idea what I'm doing." He muttered darkly.
"We should do some research when we get back to Konoha." Sakura suggested. His head snapped up to look at her. She beamed at him. "I'm sure there's someone in the village who used to have an Uchiha friend or teammate with the sharingan who could tell you something." Her voice was so bright and hopeful.
Sasuke scowled. "Not likely. It's a closely guarded secret of the clan. You don't even have access to the secrets until you awaken it, and revealing anything to anyone who doesn't have it is strictly forbidden." His mouth twisted. "My entire… both of my…" he hesitated, before forcing himself to go on, crushing the pain and wondering why he was even bothering to tell her this, "…my parents had it, and I still don't know much about it. I don't know how Kakashi managed to keep it. An outsider has no business knowing anything about it, let alone having one."
"Oh." She sounded crestfallen. "I'm sorry. I… it was just an idea."
"It's fine." He dismissed her. At least it was Sakura, and not Naruto, that had brought it up this time. He'd never spoken much about his family to her before. He shoved the memories away again. "I'll figure it out."
"I know you will." She nodded firmly. He snuck a glance at her out of the corner of his eye. She was smiling at him. "There's never been anything you haven't managed to master." She reminded him. "You've almost got tree-climbing, like, twice as fast as Naruto!"
He felt his mouth tug into a smirk as warmth flooded his chest, and he huffed in amusement. "Beating that idiot isn't something to brag about." He didn't really mind that Sakura had beaten him at the tree walking exercise; she had a mind like a sponge and probably remembered some obscure little detail from a lecture at the academy that gave her an edge, and it wasn't really like it made her any stronger than him. Yeah, it bothered him, but not as much as it would have if it'd been Naruto.
She giggled. "That's mean, Sasuke-kun. He tries hard."
"Too bad he's a moron. He might actually get somewhere if he wasn't."
She laughed outright, the sound echoing along the water. When she turned back to him, she was grinning. "I'm gonna go inside and see if Tsunami-san needs any help." He nodded as she climbed to her feet. "I'll tell Naruto to hurry up. He's been in there for ages."
On the seventh day, Sasuke mastered tree-walking.
Naruto managed to run to the top.
On the eighth day, Zabuza attacked.
Sasuke finally figured out his sharingan.
"I'm fine."
Sakura scowled at him as she knelt by his futon, holding a roll of bandages in one hand and a bottle of antiseptic in another. "You look like a pincushion with the pins taken out." She countered.
Naruto laughed at them from his own futon on Sasuke's other side. He glowered at the blonde. "You two… have the same exact expression." The blonde wheezed.
"Shut up, Naruto." Sakura sniffed. "You're next."
"Hey, I'm not gonna complain, Sakura-chan!" He said brightly. "You make a really great nurse!"
She flashed the blonde a smile before turning her frown back to the dark-haired boy. "My mother would kill us both if you got sick from an infection." She scolded. "Now take off your shirt and let me redo your bandages!"
"You're not fussing this much over Kakashi." Sasuke groused, but did as he was told. Memories of Haruno Mebuki scolding him for not properly caring for even the most minor training wound flashed through his mind; Sakura's mother had the irritating habit of making him feel like a child, sometimes.
"He's an adult." She sniffed, moving to undo the bandages wrapped around his torso. His body was littered with small, round puncture wounds and scratches. "And he's not on bedrest."
"We don't need to be, either." Sasuke grumbled, slapping her hand away and undoing the bandages himself.
"Sensei's orders." She said primly, reaching forward and ripping off the adhesive bandage on his cheek. He gave her the filthiest look he could muster; she smiled innocently before moving to sit behind him. He ignored the sting of the antiseptic as she dabbed it onto his wounds, scowling at Naruto, who was wiggling his eyebrows at him.
"Don't even think about it." Sakura's firm grip on his shoulder prevented him from lunging at him. "You heard what Sensei said. You're not allowed to leave this bed except for bathroom breaks for two days." He huffed and refused to speak.
"It's not so bad," Naruto said slyly. "We get to lay around and let a pretty girl fuss all over us. I'd call that a win."
"I'm going to set you on fire." Sasuke warned as Sakura giggled, embarrassed. When she moved to the front of him to start disinfecting the cuts on his front, her face was pink.
"Be nice, Sasuke-kun." Sakura said softly, eyes flickering up to meet his before returning to her work. "Naruto helped out a lot yesterday."
"Yeah! I totally saved your ass, Sasuke!" Naruto crowed.
"I wouldn't go that far. I'm sure Sasuke-kun would have gotten out of those mirrors eventually," Sakura rolled her eyes as Sasuke seethed, "but you definitely helped a lot."
Sasuke actually didn't know much of what happened on the bridge after he'd passed out. One moment, he was looking up at Naruto from within the mirror jutsu—the next, Sakura was crying all over him and everything was over. He was actually kind of annoyed that he'd fainted. Kakashi had said that his body had likely reached its pain tolerance and, compounding that with the amount of chakra he'd exhausted, couldn't continue to function even with all the adrenaline in his system; nothing to be ashamed of, the older shinobi had said. It happened to veterans all the time.
Looking down at the multitude of stinging wounds on his torso that Sakura was wrapping up, he frowned. He wasn't even that badly hurt. If he'd gotten a major would, okay, sure, he could accept passing out. But it all looked so… pathetic.
"You can do your legs, right Sasuke-kun?" Sakura's chirp brought him back to the present as she gently smoothed an adhesive bandage over his cheek. He nodded and she gave him the antiseptic and bandages before shuffling over to Naruto, digging another set out of her pouch. "Your turn! Shirt off!"
"You don't have to ask me twice, Sakura-chan!" Naruto gave an exaggerated wink and Sakura flushed red before punching him in the shoulder. "Ow!"
"Don't be a pervert!" Sakura scolded. "You're lucky you're injured or I'd have beaten you to a pulp!"
"Tch." Sasuke rolled his shorts up to the top of his thigh and got to work treating his wounds. His legs hadn't fared so badly; there was a small cluster of puncture wounds on his left thigh, but otherwise most of the wounds were small scratches.
He glanced at Naruto. Somehow the idiot was less wounded than he was. He supposed that made sense; he had dived in front of an attack meant for the other boy. He still didn't know why he'd done it. It was like the moment he'd realised Haku's intent, his body had just moved, placing himself between their attacker and his teammate. It made no sense. He'd spent the entire time on Team Seven wanting to be rid of the obnoxious moron. But, he supposed, he didn't want the guy dead.
"All done!" Sakura announced a few minutes later, standing at the foot of their futons and glaring at them with hands on her hips. "Now, you two behave! If I have to come up here to break up a fight you won't get any dinner!"
It was kind of funny, how she thought she sounded authoritative. He just rolled his eyes and laid down, drawing the blanket up to his chin and turning away from Naruto. "Whatever."
"We'll be good, Sakura-chan! Promise!"
They were, in fact, not good. Both went to sleep hungry that night.
Sakura is the boss of them and no one can tell me otherwise.
Also we skipped over a lot this chapter; mostly because things played out exactly as they had in canon.