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58. Bonding
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I made some changes in the last two chapters, it's worth to reread.
SquaMata
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Naruto and Sakura arrive at the waiting area in front of the hokage's office. The office hours haven't started yet and they are still surprised by the ANBU escort, they haven't been informed of the reason of the sudden order. Soon after their arrival the hokage comes out of his office and indicate his two former students to follow him inside.
Their mouths fall open as they find a familiar figure sitting there on the windowsill. He looks agitated as ever and ignores the approach of the two.
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"The reason why I've summoned you is not Sasuke, it's you, Sakura." Kakashi explains and offes them a seat while he sits down on his own chair. Their former teacher tries to alleviate the tense situation as professional as he can while he gets interrupted by a furious Uchiha several times.
As the rage of their long absent teammate seems to explode, Naruto's face turns pale, but he has also a proud smile plastered onto it. He doesn't get most of what's going on but he's overly happy that the team is finally reunited whether the circumstances are.
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After a few moments of ice-cold silence Sasuke speaks up: "Sakura, are you serious? You slept with all your teammates and two kages?" Apparently he has regained at least some of his composure.
The pinkette responses without showing a single emotion: "To put it straight, yes, but to be clear this involves the original members of team 7 only."
Naruto's shocked eyes shoot at Kakashi: "What?"
The copy-nin answers the irritated blonde with a simple shrug and an abashed eye-crinkle.
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The Uchiha ignors their brief interaction, he is still talking to Sakura like no one else is in the room. "I thought you're my woman, Sakura. I thought you would want to be the first one to help me in rebuilding my clan. How could you…"
Angrily the kunoichi stands up and spits back: "Shut it, Sasuke! You left me here all alone years ago. You didn't care a damn about me! You have no right to judge me!" Then she averts her fuming eyes and walks to the door. "I need a moment to breathe."
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Naruto turns to Sasuke: "Well done, you arrogant ass! Now she's crying again."
Kakashi sends Naruto a concerned look: "Could you please go and talk to her?"
The blonde hesitates and looks back and forth between the two men. "I will, but promise me you won't kill each other in the meantime." He is serious and only willing to leave after his former teammates agree.
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As the jinchuuriki closes the door behind him Kakashi resumes in a calm, but surprisingly dominant voice as if he is claiming his authority and territory. Sasuke has never heard his former sensei speak in such a menacing tone before.
"To make one thing clear: The moment you took her innocence and left, the Sakura we all had known died. She was heartbroken, she changed into nothing more than a functioning machine. When she was not at work, she crawled into her shell and hid from life. Nobody could save her. You nearly killed her, many times. You left her heartbroken before and she forgave you only to be left again in the most cruel way a man can leave a woman. It cut her deep. Her friends tried to safe her, sadly they all failed, she shut herself away completely. After Naruto failed too, she cut all social contacts aside from work. She had lost everyone and she lost herself. Tsunade sent her to Suna." The hokage takes a few moments to pause. "Then after a long mission together and sometime apart one led to another. I can't tell you how it happened, I have no exact explanation, but it doesn't really matter how. It was inevitable."
Sasuke answers annoyed: "But you of all people!"
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Kakashi just shrugs. "Strange things do happen sometimes, you know."
"Hn." Memories of fighting his own feelings flashed through the last Uchiha's mind.
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In the meantime outside the office:
Naruto comforts the upset woman with a friendly hug.
After she stopped sobbing he says: "I'm sorry, I haven't known."
"Nobody has, Naruto." She smiles at him as he helps her to wipe away the remaining tears.
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"Do you feel better now?" His honest blue eyes give her hope that at least he will accept them.
She nods smilingly.
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"Should I go and get Tatsuo?"
Sakura shakes her head and can't hold back a chuckle. Oh, Naruto…
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"What's so funny? I mean it! I can go and bring him here, you know? Maybe he's already somewhere in the area on duty."
She bursts out into laughter and the hopeless knucklehead doesn't know why, but he joins her and they laugh all the tension away.
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"Do you want to go back inside?"
The pinkette removes the tears, which are ones of joy this time, and then they walk back into the hokage's office.
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Kakashi appreciates their reappearance. "So if we all have calmed down enough, why don't we get something to eat?" It isn't lunchtime yet, but it will be soon.
Sai brings them a variety of ramen from Ichiraku's, but he declines their invitation to join them. He thinks the former original team 7 needs some time alone to bond, but he can't withstand Sakuras puppy eyes.
"Ok just for lunch."
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During their meal Kakashi reveals face as if it is natural for him to do so and the boys have never expected that. Naruto is sure, whatever is going on, their former sensei is serious and he trusts them all enough to finally show them his face.
After a few minutes of silence and some accidentally spilled soup the hokage has enough of their seemingly never ending staring. "Treat it as a state secret with the common penalty."
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Naruto is the first to restart focussing on his ramen. "Omg, you know you look like one hell of a guy I know from ANBU. Aren't you dating him, Sakura?" He slurps his favourite noodle soup.
Sasuke cocks his head to the side and frowns. "Naruto, come on. You can do this. Think again."
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The blonde fox-boy doesn't get it. "What do you mean?"
Chuckling Kakashi gives him a little push: "Always look underneath the underneath."
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Naruto scratches the back of his head. "I don't get it! What do you guys… Ooooooooh…."
There is a smirk forming on the Uchiha's face. "Here we go."
Sai points his chopsticks at the grinning wannabe hokage: "Now you got it."
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Naruto starts to babble: "This is so strange! Tatsuo was you all the time! OMG and Tatsuo and Sakura, I mean you and her. That's so weird, you had been kind of together all the time. Now it all makes sense! The rumours!"
"Rumours?" Sasuke asks.
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Without overthinking his response the blonde answers: "Yeah. People were talking that there must be a reason why our dear hokage has become so nice all of a sudden." Then he turns to Kakashi: "They said you probably found a woman to get laid."
The silverhead frowns a bit offended: "Who said that?"
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Naruto noticed he had gone too far: "Nevermind."
"We'll talk about that later." Kakashi raises a warning brow before he delves back into his take-out meal.
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Sakura points a finger at the boys: "Just keep that strictly to yourself until we make it official. Especially you Naruto! Don't even think about telling Hinata. It's far from easy to date the hokage in public, that's why we agreed to use Tatsuo."
The guys nod in understanding.
"Thank you."
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Sasuke looks at Sai and smirks. "How come you've already known their little secret?" Of course the great Uchiha can put the pieces together, but he is willing to at least try to make a conversation with his former replacement.
"I'm one of the hokage's personal guards." Sai returns the smirk which is a creepy sight to behold.
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Meanwhile Naruto watches Kakashi smiling at Sakura and handing her a food box. As the eyes of the new couple meet he can feel their true emotions and that's all it takes for him to be happy for them.
"In all these years I haven't noticed! You were my captain and… and… omg! You were the one who told me to join the ladies table back then in the bar. Can you remember? I mean that night Sakura and I kind of started.. ah… something."
With clenched teeth the last Uchiha says: "By the way, that's not what I meant as I said take good care of her, Naruto."
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"Sorry… I guess in that case I've been a lousy friend." The blonde man scratches the back of his head sheepishly.
Dense silence fills the room again.
Then all of a sudden Sasuke's look softened into a weird smirk. "So you and the Hyuuga? Seems like I've missed quite a lot."
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Naruto smiles and tells their story that he's finally having the family he has ever been craving for.
"Actually I do know one of your last relatives. Can you remember the girl named Karin? She is one of Orochimaru's experiments with the Uzumaki bloodline, so technically you two are related."
The blonde's eyes light up, he is happy to hear there is some kind of relative out there.
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Sakura leans at Kakashi's shoulder and he drapes an arm loosely around her waist as they listen to Sasuke's story.
Karin was the first woman he had some kind of relationship with, but he dumped her before he returned to Konoha after the war. She wasn't what he had been looking for. Then he had that experience with Sakura and knew it was wrong. He went on secret missions with team taka as Tsunade allowed under special conditions of immunity. Karin suspected something had happened in his hometown with another girl. For a long time they had some on-off relationship depending on the occasion, but she couldn't stand the idea of him having more than one wife to recreate his clan. All in all he is pretty sure it's not what he wants anymore and he's travelling alone now anyway on new kinds of missions strictly under the new hokage's order.
Sakura smiles at Sasuke. "You should bring Karin sometime. I bet Naruto is dying to get to know his relative better, right?"
Naruto agrees. "Oh and by the way, Sasuke: Trust me, you don't want to have more than one wife! One is hard enough. And the classic two children! It's a shitload of work you know."
"You know you're getting three kids, Naruto, right?" Kakashi remarks.
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"Yeah, yeah. I love kids, but that's not the point. I want to know my relative! Promise to fix this and bring her with you to the Memorial Day party!"
The Uchiha groans a bit annoyed. "We'll see."
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"Promise me!" Of course the hyperactive blonde won't give up until he gets what he wants.
"You'll get to know her sometime." Sasuke will keep his word.
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They have a funny meal together with sharing old stories of missions and new ones like how Sai has learned to calm down his girlfriend in case of a "red dragon emergency" with a special kind of sweets Sakura brought from Suna. Except the latest addition to their team they all take a day off and go for a sparring like they used to do in their good old times.
The team strolls to training ground three and soon after Naruto and Kakashi start sparring together, the jinchuuriki shouts something about an epic fight between two hokages.
"But you are no hokage!"
"Not yet!"
Laughing Sakura sits down under a nearby tree to watch their fight. To her surprise Sasuke sits down next to her and they start talking.
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"I've never meant to hurt you." The Uchiha has never shown her that much concern.
So, even the great Uchiha has a conscience.
"Be glad, I won't have been useful anyways." It was a habit of her to hide her true feelings behind sarcasm. "I'll never have children, Sasuke."
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"Me neither." He answers with a sigh.
The pinkette looks at him, he seems to be serious. "But your clan?"
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"Sakura, there's a reason why I'm not together with Karin. Or with you. It's more complicated than you might think."
The kunoichi takes a moment to scrutinize him. Inwardly she recalls everything he said and she tries to put the signs in line. Suddenly she feels reminded of the talk she once had with Gaara a few years ago. Discreetly she whispers "Nooo… You don't say?"
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He doesn't say a word and rather plays with a twig in his hands.
"Some things are just not meant to be." She gives him a reassuring warm smile.
Sasuke meets her gaze briefly, before he averts his eyes again. "You have him now, he's a good man, Sakura. He has a true heart and so do you. I'm glad you two found happiness together."
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"Are you happy, Sasuke?"
He rips a few grass blades out and twists them in between his fingers. It takes him a long while before his eyes dare to meet hers again. Sakura notice that he looks sad and lonely, very lonely. There is also self-hatred, self-loathing and the need of understanding seeping through his hard shell. She knows that look in his eyes all too well.
The kind pinkette grants him some minutes of comforting silence before she makes a suggestion only for him to hear. "I think you should talk to Gaara someday."
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"About?"
"Think twice." She smiled and winked at him.
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Sasuke's eyes turn wide at her knowing and assuring look. He knows by experience she has always been a very perceptive and intelligent person, but he is stunned that she actually understands him. She doesn't judge him, she encourages him instead!
Then he does the most unexpected thing she has ever seen him do since they were young: He smiles. Sasuke Uchiha smiles at her and it is a real smile! He looks relieved like an immense pressure has suddenly fallen from his chest.
"I promise I won't tell anyone." Sakura whispers and returns his honest smile.
The black-haired man nods and confirms he will neither speak about the conversation they just shared, but he is glad they did.
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In the late afternoon after they enjoyed some tea at the hokage's living room they tell their goodbyes.
Sasuke embraces Sakura and tells her barely audible: "Thank you. For everything, Sakura."
Good things tend to happen after something bad, it seems.
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As the boys leave, Sakura stands on the balcony and watch them exit the tower.
Kakashi steps next to her and lays an arm around her, his hand rested loosely on her elbow. He kisses her cheek softly and whispers into her ear:
"Let's go home."
She looks up at the wonderful, content man beside her and smiles happily.
One person can change your whole world and be your everything. You don't need to have children to have your own family. A family is what you ought to feel when you're bonded with special persons and being in the presence of that one significant other feels like home no matter what time and space. It's unconditional.