9. They become all you think about

"Seriously?" Ino looked just as annoyed as Sakura. "So you're practically married."

"I don't even know," she sighed, sinking lower into the hot water. Upon finding out that they would all be free this afternoon, Ino, Tenten, Hinata, and Sakura decided they needed another girl's day together. It was relaxing; they were talking about a new film coming out, until Ino just had to bring up Sasuke again.

"No, that's so stupid!" Ino flailed in the water. Sakura, who was in the splash zone, flinched. Hinata cringed and Tenten looked on quietly. "You need to give him an ultimatum. If he doesn't seal the deal you can't be waiting at his feet for the rest of your life."

"She's right," the brunette spoke up.

"I don't want to pressure him…" Sakura hesitated.

"Why the fuck not!" Ino seemed to be harboring enough rage for all of them combined. "Get angry!"

"Ino…"

"Sakura," she huffed. "If he gets comfortable with your current state right now, he's never going to make an effort to give you what you want. By nature, men are afraid of commitment. And now that you're practically married without being married, he's getting everything he wants, without the commitment!"

Sakura almost believed her best friend for a moment. But then she frowned, "Sasuke isn't like that…"

"Hmph," Ino huffed. "Suit yourself then. But if that was me, I would have been gone long ago."

"Well," Hinata spoke up for the first time. "Maybe that's why Sasuke-san loves Sakura so much."

Ino fell quiet. She was right. Sasuke loved her because when he pushed everyone away, they let him. When he repeatedly attempted to sever his ties with everyone, they all let him, except for Sakura and Naruto. Sakura knew Sasuke worked at his own pace when it came to relationships, and Sasuke appreciated her understanding nature. Like Ino, anyone else would have left by now.

"Yeah yeah," Ino waved her hand dismissively. "I'm sure he means well, but if you just keep waiting, you won't get anywhere."

"You've already waited for so long…" Tenten added.

Sakura turned to Hinata, who seemed to be the only one on her side. She was the little angel on the right shoulder.

"I waited a very long time to be with Naruto-kun too," she put a hand on her shoulder gently. "And it was especially hard watching him be in love with someone else for a while." Sakura felt a pang of guilt. "But in the end, it really is worth it."

"I guess I'm just frustrated since he's all I've been thinking about lately," Sakura stuffed her mouth with food. "I feel like twelve year old me again. I feel like I regressed."

"But you didn't," Hinata confirmed. "You've grown so much, and you're so much stronger now. Anyway, you're almost there. You can't give up now."

Ino rolled her eyes; she knew Hinata was right. And right now she had the most credibility out of all of them to give out relationship advice seeing as she was happily married. "You're too nice, Hinata."

"I've been told." She smiled. Then she added, "besides, how do you know you're not all he thinks about too?" She knew that if she hadn't gotten to Sakura before, she did now.

"Pfft," Sakura brushed it off with ease. "I'd like to believe that."

"Well," Hinata continued. "It's not my place to say anything, but you know his best friend is my husband, right?"

Sakura was speechless. The girls laughed.

"I understand where he's coming from," Tenten added, "If Sasuke is anything like Neji was emotionally, he'll definitely have a hard time dealing with his feelings."

"Pfft, prodigies or whatever, they sure are dumb." Ino put her hands together dreamily, "At least Sai is really sweet and in touch with his feelings. Naruto too!"

Sakura laughed. At least two of her boys were doing alright.

Then Tenten suddenly looked glum. "Oh, it's nothing." She dismissed it. "I just…I still can't believe he left me with Lee and Gai, you know?" That was such a lie, and they all knew it.

"Were you two a thing?" Sakura asked suddenly, and immediately regretted it.

Tenten looked up, a little surprised. She sighed, "Yeah," then she looked down again. "We were promised to each other before the war started. Nobody knew, and we were so young, so we said we would wait until after everything calmed down to get married."

Then she sighed, "I really miss him. I guess that's why I'm with Ino on this one." She tried to smile. "If you only wait, you might miss your chance."

Ino spoke up again, "maybe they're both right. I can't tell you what to do anymore-"

"You've never been able to tell me what to do." Sakura interrupted dryly.

Ino continued as if Sakura didn't just interrupt her, "-because you're a grown woman now. But you should really take both sides into consideration."

"Yeah, yeah…"

That night, Sasuke came home to Sakura sound asleep. He quickly changed and hopped into bed beside her. He was exhausted from all the D-ranked missions he had to carry out today. Kakashi promised him higher ranked missions if he could complete the rest of his petty tasks, and a chance to take the Chuunin exams coming up if he did well. Naturally, Sasuke was offended at how easy this task was so he set his goal on finishing it all at once.

He watched her sleeping form for a moment; she looked so at peace. Even though he had a lot of busy work today, they were very easy tasks. His mind would often wander, and when it did, it wandered towards Sakura. He took a deep breath and draped an arm around her, pulling her close.

"Mmm, Sasuke-kun…" she moaned quietly into his chest, finding her sleep again. He kissed the top of her head gently.

"Good night, Sakura."

A civil war in Otogakure huh? Sasuke was reading a newspaper, sitting in the comfort of his own couch. The house was plain and simple, but it was clean and beautiful. He shook his head in disproval; the village was doing so well. He wondered what Orochimaru was up to these days.

Suddenly, he heard an angelic voice, "Good morning, darling," followed by pink. Sakura sat beside him, cuddling up to his side. She was still in her pajamas.

"Good morning," he turned and kissed her forehead gently.

She threw her leg over his and started drawing circles on his chest, distracting him from the reading he was doing. "You know, we have a few minutes." She leaned in to kiss his neck gently. "Do you wanna…"

"Good morning mama! Good morning papa!"

Suddenly, a small girl came out of one of the bedrooms, full of energy. She had short black hair like his and matching dark eyes, but they were full of Sakura's spirit.

"Nevermind," Sakura sighed playfully, making herself comfortable once again. The little girl settled on the other side of Sasuke. "You're up early, sweetheart."

"Well I'm excited, shannaro!" she exclaimed. "It's graduation day today!"

"That's right!" Sakura said proudly. "Aren't you proud of her, Sasuke-kun?" Sasuke smiled, setting his newspaper down. He felt so comforted by the two girls beside him.

"Sasuke-kun?" he looked back at Sakura, who was now looking at him funny. "Sasuke-kun…?"

"Sasuke-kun."

"Huh," his eyes shot open to see Sakura wearing nothing but a towel. Her hair was still a little damp. She seemed to be getting ready to go to work.

"Good morning, sleeping beauty," she laughed. "You overslept."

At this point, Sasuke was a little annoyed. Not only does he hate being woken up, but now he was apparently late for something and Sakura was just walking around in a god damn towel as if it was no big deal.

"What's going on?" he sat up slowly, keeping the sheets over his lower half. It had been about two months since he started living with her.

"Well I'm going to work, and you said you had some errands to run today," she grimaced as she pulled a comb through her tangled hair. "It's already noon. I'm only working half day today."

Sasuke couldn't think straight. He was still caught in that phase right after waking up when you're in between wondering if that dream was real or not. The line between reality and his imagination was very blurry right now, seeing as she was half naked in front of him as if they were already married. He wouldn't be surprised if a small girl came into the room like in the dream.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah, yeah." He ran a hand through his messy hair. "I just had a weird dream."

"Oh yeah?" she asked from the bathroom. "What about?"

"Uh," he looked to her bedside table to find an empty bottle of soda. "An ocean…full of soda."

"Did you swim in it?" One of Sasuke's favorite things about Sakura was the fact that she never let a conversation die on her watch. She made it seem like she legitimately cared about what he was saying, no matter how trivial it was.

"I didn't need to, there was a boat."

She looked over at him and smiled, "Ahh. Sounds…interesting."

She started talking again, this time about something else. She was looking for some clothes to wear and Sasuke's mind began to wander once again.

He wondered if this is what it would feel like to be together. He would wake up to her getting ready for work, because contrary to popular belief, Sasuke did wake up later than Sakura. She learned to be a very early bird from her job at the hospital. Sasuke on the other hand, learned to love sleeping in after years of being paranoid and being forced to wake up early.

It was such a pleasant thought. It was definitely something he could see in his future. He was watching her. She seemed to be full of energy, but he knew how she was feeling these days.

"-I want to have a baby!"

"What?" Sasuke's thoughts were abruptly interrupted.

"Huh?" She looked back at him, as if it was weird for him to be surprised by such a thing.

"You…what?"

Her eyebrows met, "were you not listening?"

He considered lying for a moment, but that would only make things worse. "No, sorry."

She sat down next to him on the bed and began to tie her headband on. "I said," she sounded a little annoyed. He couldn't blame her. "Naruto and Hinata were talking yesterday and I overheard a few things."

"You were eavesdropping." He accused her disapprovingly.

"I was not!" Sakura shook her head adamantly. "Well I wasn't at first. Anyway, he said he had news about becoming Hokage in a week or so!"

"That's not surprising."

"Well no," she rolled her eyes. "But it's still wonderful news! I'm so proud of him, Sasuke-kun."

He saw the admiration and love in her eyes for Naruto. This was something he understood and even related to, but not quite something he was used to. He was used to Sakura always brushing him off and not caring about his accomplishments because Sasuke's were always cooler.

"So then he goes on about how their life is gonna get so much better from there, and then out of nowhere she tells him, 'I want to have a baby!' and I don't think Naruto has ever looked so surprised before in his life!" she threw her head back in laughter.

Sasuke raised an eyebrow. So that's what this whole thing was about. He wasn't sure if he felt relieved or disappointed.

"I'm sure he'll have plenty to tell you next time you see him," she giggled, standing up again from her seat. "Now get up, you've already lost half the day. I'm heading out now, I'll see you later!"

He nodded as she made her way out and waited until she was gone to lift the sheets and get up.

These last few months have been wonderful. He had forgotten what it felt like to feel so at home. After he received news of his apartment being habitable again, he instead took his limited belongings and told his stingy landlord he was out.

He didn't even need to discuss it with Sakura; she just knew he would end up staying with her. When he came home with all his stuff one day, she just smiled and told him what was for dinner.

They also stopped crashing on the couch because she claimed it gave her weird back problems. But instead of retreating to her bedroom alone, she insisted that he also prevent back pains and just share her large bed. Sasuke was very flustered and unsure at first, but he quickly grew accustomed to it. So on the days where she worked graveyard shift at the hospital, his nights felt a little empty.

They always ate dinner together when she wasn't working. Sasuke may not have been the best cook, but Sakura always made sure he felt appreciated for his efforts, since she knew he did this because of her busy schedule. They would occasionally go out, but not often, for it usually led to people talking.

They had gotten so comfortable around each other, it was almost stressful. For example, most days they would walk around the house half naked after a nice shower. Although Sasuke found very much amusement out of seeing her get incredibly flustered when he would walk by, smelling wonderful, top half exposed, he did not at all enjoy being tortured back when she would do the same. Like this morning.

Sometimes, he swore, she did it with the intention to leave him hot and bothered because she knew he couldn't have her.

As he turned on the water in the shower and waited for it to heat up, he looked at the necklace hanging out of his pocket. Sasuke felt a smile tug at the corners of his mouth. She had been all he thought about recently, and although sometimes it was a little stressful, it was more comforting.

Out of all the places he had seen and been to, Sakura was his home. No matter how far he wandered, he always came back to her. He thought about what Naruto had told him some time ago: that whenever he saw Sakura, his knees would get weak and his stomach would do flips. His palms would become clammy and his heart would start beating faster.

Maybe, though he would never admit to anyone, Sasuke might have felt some of this when they were younger. He just pushed it away. But now, he didn't get all jittery and anxious when he saw Sakura. He felt peace, relief, and at home. He felt his mind relax, his heart soften, and his soul at ease at the thought of her.

He thought about their lives right now. Just like she had always done, Sakura gave him everything he ever really needed: love and a home. Despite everything they have been through, especially in his darkest times, she loved him unconditionally. She forgave him too and never kept score of all this wrongs against her.

Sasuke thought about their future. He thought about how he wanted to keep making her happy for the rest of their lives. But in order to do that, he had to understand that he had to forgive himself leave the past in the past so that they could move forward. Sasuke felt a large burden lift off of his heart.

The water was hot. He took one last glance at the necklace and decided: he was going to marry Sakura.

Sakura tried not to let it get to her, but when she woke up that morning in Sasuke's arms, her first thought was that they were finally together. But upon regaining consciousness, she remembered that wasn't the case. Everything Ino and Tenten told her the previous day suddenly outweighed Hinata's positive encouragement. Now she was frustrated.

On her lunch break, instead of grabbing some food, Sakura barged into the Hokage's office to find Kakashi and Naruto talking.

"I need to talk to you two."

They took her to Amaguriama, the sweet shop in the Hot Springs District. Upon seeing her looking very irritated, Naruto suggested they get something sweet and talk. When she told them everything, Kakashi tried not to laugh. "Well, this is Sasuke we're talking about."

"Ugh!" she stuffed more food into her mouth.

"Why are you even upset? What's the rush?" Naruto asked.

"There is none. That's the thing. Everything is so calm, so peaceful, so perfect nowadays in Konoha. Everyone's back, everyone's happy, everyone's okay. It's the perfect time to settle down, have kids, enjoy life. You're doing it!"

"Right, but for Sasuke's it's the perfect time to figure out what he wants." Kakashi reminded her.

She glared at her teacher. "I hate that you're right all the time."

"It's a gift."

She sighed, and then looked at Naruto and asked him with a half-joking tone, "What if it was you instead?"

"What?"

"What if it was you and me instead? What if I had given you a chance in the beginning instead of rejecting you from the start?"

Naruto laughed once he understood what she was asking. She must have been really frustrated to bring that up. "You know, Sakura-chan, I'm always going to wonder that too. There are so many what-ifs regarding you and me."

"So?"

"So, obviously it wasn't meant to happen." He explained easily. Sakura was quiet. "I love you, but you're practically my sister." He reached up to ruffle her hair. "Hinata is my destiny, just like Sasuke is yours."

"You're so corny." She pouted and pushed his hand away. "Hinata is so lucky."

Naruto laughed, "Well I'm just as lucky!"

Kakashi smiled behind his mask, and then turned back to Sakura. "So if you're so frustrated, why don't you talk to him?"

"I have! He says he's not ready."

"That was two and a half months ago. Maybe he's changed his mind since, and he's just afraid to be the one to bring it up." Kakashi explained. Sakura looked down, contemplating. "Talk to him again tonight. I have a good feeling about it this time."

She looked at them both seemingly in agreement with each other. She wasn't sure if they were just trying to cheer her up, but they seemed to have faith in Sasuke today. She relaxed and nodded.

"Alright, I'll talk to him today."