Title: every breath, every hour has come to this
Summary: Because Naruto knew this was a long time coming. Everything he witnessed with them, brought up for this precise moment.
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
Prompt: Holding Hands.
Rating: K
Warning(s): None.
Comments: Took me a while to come up with some kind of scenario that hadn't been done for this prompt. Obviously, I think most of you can know where this was inspired from. (If you really don't know, it's from 637 with its KakaRin moments, making the pairing possibly mutual.)

"We'll see you tomorrow morning, Kaka-sensei, Naruto!"

"I'm not your sensei anymore, Sakura…" his former teacher said, sighing.

"Yeah, and show some respect!" He grinned, laughing lightly when Sakura waved him off playfully and Sasuke muttered a quiet 'dobe'. "See ya, Sakura-chan, Sasuke-teme!"

"Ja ne," Kakashi called out, eyes crinkling at the pair walking away. He turned to the man at his side. "Sakura still hasn't gotten into the habit of adding the honorific to your name, I notice."

The Rokudaime grinned. "Sakura's had a hard time seeing me as anything but her equal ever since the war," he explained. "But I don't blame her. I don't consider myself above her."

"I'm surprised you're so humble about it."

"Bah, who do you think I am, some attention-whore desperately seeking the acknowledgment of the others?"

Kakashi smiled under his mask, but there was an underlying knowingness—a sense of nostalgia. "Of course not, Hokage-sama." He looked ahead again, a certain amusement playing in his eyes. "I would have expected you to rub it in Sasuke's face, though."

Naruto's face fell. "Keh! That bastard never had manners to begin with," he grumped. "

Kakashi laughed. "You actually want him to add the honorific," he pointed out, amused.

"Sasuke only respected a handful of people in his life. I am not one of them," he huffed, shifting uncomfortably as he sensed his own lie.

"You are," Kakashi said softly.

Naruto smirked, then. "Yeah, he'll just die before he ever admits it." His eyes drew themselves to the pink haired girl who was blushing prettily as she looked at the man who held her affections. He noticed the light tinge of pink dusting the latter's cheeks. "Sakura, on the other hand…"

A soft smile reached his lips as he noticed the physical closeness between the two, and the way their hands brushed ever so lightly on occasion. There was a slight look of surprise on Sakura's face, followed by realisation, and then…

There.

There it was. That moment he'd been waiting for. That moment he'd anticipated would happen all those years ago, ever since he witnessed their emotional reunion after Sasuke had awoken from his coma.

Sakura's feelings hadn't been new; they were made painfully clear every day he saw her looking at Sasuke. Even after he deserted the village, Naruto was reminded of her unchanging feelings every time his rival's name was brought up, every time he saw her working herself to the bone—he knew Sasuke was the major reason she wanted to become stronger, he always knew.

But Sasuke's side of things, that—that was new.

The original haze of his awakening wearing off, and becoming acutely aware of the arms wrapped at the back of his neck and the face tucked in the crook of it, Sasuke's features underwent a change. There was surprise. There was confusion. And then… something completely new—something Naruto had never really seen in Sasuke yet. His face tilted to look at her, eyes trained on the crown of her pink hair and—an ambiguous tenderness.

He saw it, then. How their relationship had changed. He saw the way he looked at her, saw the potential that was there.

He saw their future together. Solely from the way Sasuke was looking at her. It was there.

He knew this was the start of their ending up together.

Six years later, and here he was—the embodiment of a wiser, more mature man who riffled through three years of agonizing search for his deserted best friend, a few traumatizing days in the Fourth Shinobi World War, a year and a half of the painful rebuilding of the Konoha Leaf Village, and these past few months in the Hokage seat, spreading peace and love and hope—watching as his two teammates—his former crush and best friend—twined their pinkies together, one looking lightly embarrassed while the other swelled with happiness and love. He had grown so much, and so had his comrades.

He'd watched them tip-toe around their relationship, going on almost-dates and sharing a few all-too-long-hugs to be considered platonic. He'd watched them fall apart, watched them come together again. He'd watched them slowly progress into their inevitable end. He was there when they finally happened—when they finally accepted the nature of their relationship.

"You think they'll be okay?" Kakashi asked, looking thoughtful as the pair finally linked their hands, Sasuke's coarse one enveloping her smaller one. He was frowning a bit, despite the glowing smile on Sakura's face and the ever so present blush on Sasuke's cheeks.

Naruto snorted. "This is Sakura and Sasuke we're talking about—they're never gonna be okay." They were gonna fight a lot, he knew. They were gonna fight and break and cuss and sweat. Because this thing between them, it had been broken by everything that happened in these four years of devastation. It was gonna be hard, it was gonna be explosive. But he watched as the couple's hands shifted so that their fingers were tightly interlocked, and he smiled softly. "They're never gonna truly be okay, but they'll be happy, Kaka-sensei. They'll be very, very happy."

He knew he was right when he saw Sasuke turn his head to the side, giving her hand a visible squeeze, before looking at her tenderly, like she was the most precious thing in this world.

A/N: This is probably the roughest prompt I've ever done, I'm so sorry. I don't blame you if you thought it was odd. I originally started at "there" but then couldn't seem to add the much needed info at the end so it had to be at the beginning and AGH IT FUCKED IT ALL UP. Nonetheless, I hope it was slightly enjoyable. Lol. HAPPY SASUSAKU MONTH! MORE PROMPTS TO COME! I will try to do them all but I might skip some.

DeepPoeticGirl