The sun was high and a cold breeze swept in through the slightly open window of the Haruno residence. Both Sasuke and Sakura were still sound asleep, bare under the covers.

"Nn..."

Sasuke opened his eyes weakly and felt relief as he saw the woman next to him. She was usually the one who woke up first but this time, he was glad that he was the first one to get up. He stared at her as she slept. She was completely at peace and at a glance, it would have looked like she fell asleep smiling. He smiled at himself and pushed her hair out of her face, looking at every feature. He then traced his fingers down to her neck and her collarbone and moved her stray hairs towards the back. He kissed her forehead and rubbed her cheek with his thumb. Who would've known something like this would come to happen after everything that went wrong in the years before. He then thought of Naruto and of the times he reassured him during his moments of doubts. He was grateful for the both of them.

"Sasuke..."

Sasuke's eyes widened as she grumbled in her sleep. He chuckled and put an arm over her side and pulled himself closer, hugging her. Slowly, Sakura started waking up. She moved her arms and stretched her legs and opened her eyes to find Sasuke smiling down on her with his arm around her. She smiled back at him and kissed his chin.

"Good morning, ugly."

"Morning."

"Did you sleep well?"

"Mm. Of course I did," he smirked. Sakura rolled her eyes and pushed her hand onto his face.

"Shut up."

Sasuke laughed and grabbed her hand and held it as he sat up and looked outside of the window.

"I have to see Naruto later."

"Wha...why? Isn't it your day off?" Sakura sat up and covered her torso with the blanket.

"We were assigned a mission. I'll make lunch, it's already late. You can sleep some more if you want since you have work later," he said, stretching and kissing her forehead as he got up from bed.

Sakura nodded and laid back down. "Wake me up when you're done."

"Of course."

She watched him leave and hid under the covers, staring at her hands. She's never felt this happy in a long while. She placed a hand on the pillow next to her and took in a deep breath and drifted off to sleep.

"Sasuke...where are you going?"

"Somewhere far. I can't go back after all..."

Sakura watched him leave once more. She didn't want to have to deal with this again. Not again.

"Sasuke!"

She started to run after him and boy, did she run with all her might. But the closer she got to him, the farther away he was. And again, she was enshrouded in darkness. Nowhere to turn, nowhere to go. She had completely lost sight of him. Exactly like before, but it felt like forever this time around.

"Sakura?"

Sakura slowly woke up from her sleep, sweating profusely, confused at what she had just dreamt about. She looked at Sasuke who was next to her, lunch ready in hand.

"You good?" he asked her, placing a hand on her forehead. "No fever...bad dream?"

"I'm okay."

"Good."

Sakura placed a hand on her forehead and didn't notice any abnormalities as Sasuke got up to get ready. He placed her food on the bedside table and started to dress up in his shinobi uniform.

"...Sasuke...what's this mission for?"

"...I can't tell you. It's confidential."

Sakura felt her heart drop and she placed a hand on his. "Is it dangerous?"

"I don't think it'll be."

"Don't overestimate yourself!"

Sasuke's eyes widened. "Sakura..."

"Sorry. Just be careful...please."

Sasuke nodded and walked up to her, placing two fingers on her forehead just like the time before he left the village. "I'll be back."

She nodded and watched him leave. In her head, she couldn't help but think "don't go."

She stared at the food he made for her and started to eat. "Itadakimasu." It was surprisingly good, but she couldn't enjoy it at all for some reason.

At work later on that day, Sakura couldn't think straight at all. Sasuke was always in the back of her mind and she couldn't help but wonder about what he was up to. Was he safe? What was his mission about? Who's he teaming up with besides Naruto? She couldn't help but think of all these things.

"Sakura! Patient in the birthing center!" yelled Ino, who was working part time that day. "Sakura!"

Sakura flinched and looked at Ino, who was looking at her worriedly.

Sakura nodded. "I'm on it."

"You seem out of it."

"I know...Sasuke's out on a mission with Naruto...so I'm kind of anxious."

"Eh? Yours too?"

"What do you mean?"

"Sai also went on a mission today..."

Sakura paused in her tracks and looked at Ino suspiciously. "Naruto, Sasuke, Sai...isn't that a little crazy?"

Ino shrugged. "Who knows what that Kakashi is thinking sometimes. Maybe it's a really important mission."

"Ah man! I won't be able to think clearly today!"

"Heh. Stop being a wife."

"Don't be stupid. Any girl would be worried if her boyfriend suddenly went out on a mission with two of the strongest ninjas of Konoha. That's way too suspicious!"

"Let's worry about that later. We have to work on this case."

Ino nodded and they both returned to their duties. When they got to the birthing center, they found the pregnant woman all good to go thanks to the doctors who prepped her.

The procedure took a while since the mother took forever to push.

"Ma'am! Please keep pushing! She's almost out!" Sakura screamed.

"I'M TRYING DAMMIT THIS HURTS! ARRRRGGGHH!"

With one big push, the woman managed to push the head of the baby out.

"The head's out! Keep going! You're almost there!"

After what seemed to be forever, the woman managed to push the entire baby out. Tired and worn out, the woman took in heaps of breath. Sakura held the baby in her hands and washed her, proceeding to finish the entire case. The husband, who was in the room, wept tears of joy and Sakura placed the baby in his arms.

"Congratulations, sir."

"Thank you. Thank you."

Sakura bowed and looked at Ino. Both of them left the ward and left the rest of the cleaning up to the scrub nurses.

"Whoo! That was crazy," Ino said, wiping the sweat off of her head.

"I know. I always love helping delivering babies. It's amazing to be able to witness such an event."

Ino smiled at her. "You're right."

Right at that very instance, Sakura's and Ino's kunoichi instincts kicked in as they felt another shinobi's presence.

"I don't know if that was just me...but did you feel that?" Ino asked Sakura.

"Yeah absolutely," Sakura said, clenching her fists.

Much to their surprise, an ANBU shinobi showed up in front of them to greet them.

"Sakura-san. Ino-san."

Sakura's eyes widened. "Anbu?"

"Your presence is needed at the Hokage mansion. Please arrive there immediately. There has been an emergency."

Ino and Sakura looked at each other, horror struck across their faces and they left at once.

"What do you think it is?" Ino asked.

"It must have to do with their mission. Damn it."

When they arrived to the Hokage's mansion, the place was dark.

"Something's not right..." Sakura mumbled. She turned to speak to Ino but she was long gone. "What...what's going on..."

She went directly to the Hokage's mansion and opened the door.

"Hokage-sa..ma..."

In front of her eyes, she saw none other than Sasuke, sitting right on the Hokage's desk as if he was waiting for her.

"You..."

"Took you a while."

"I thought you were on a mission..."

"I am."

The blue haired man got off the desk and walked over to her with his hands behind his back. She stepped backwards cautiously and heard the door close shut. She turned around quickly and saw Naruto, Sai, and Ino with hands behind their backs. She looked at Sasuke and glared at him, stepping away from all of them.

"What is the meaning of this?"

"I'm just completing my mission."

"What kind of mission?" Sakura stepped back against the glass windows of the office. She felt confused and completely out of focus.

"Sakura. Over the past 10 years, knowing you has been a blessing. I know, I'm not the most straightforward guy you've met...but...these past five years taught me something. About me and about how I feel about you."

Sakura felt her knees wobble as soon as she realized what this was going to be about.

"Sasuke...you don't have to force yourself to-"

"No. I'm doing this because you deserve it. We deserve this...um...ah...damn. This is weird. I can't do it."

Sakura tilted her head in confusion and Sasuke fell to the ground, completely defeated and embarrassed.

"IDIOT! THAT'S NOT WHAT WE TALKED ABOUT!" yelled a frustrated Naruto.

"And after all the effort of making these..." Sai muttered, taking out his poster from behind him.

Ino groaned. "Really Sasuke, you're hopeless."

Sakura looked at Ino. "You know about this?"

Ino stuck her tongue out of her. "Sorry babe."

Sakura looked at the posters that they pulled out from behind them. "Will...you."

Sasuke covered her eyes with one of his free hands. "Don't look. This wasn't my stupid idea, it was Naruto's."

Ino looked at the Sai and Naruto and shrugged. "That loser...jeez well, this didn't go as planned, but let's leave those two alone."

The three of them left with their posters in hand, and it was just Sasuke and Sakura in the room. Sasuke then slowly took his hands off from her eyes and kept his eyes to the ground.

"Sorry. I'm not really good at this sort of public announcement thing."

Sakura hugged him tightly. "What sort of mission is this..."

Sasuke smiled in relief and hugged her back. Then he pulled away and showed her the flowers from Ino's wedding day that was in his other hand. "Looks like the legend is coming true...Um...er, how do you this?"

"You just ask me."

All the wrong things that Sasuke did to her flashed in the back of his mind all of sudden as if a reality check about what he was getting into. But he shook his head "I'm okay right? I can spend the rest of my life with you right?"

Sakura hugged him and nodded into his shoulder and sobbed. "You're not forcing yourself? We don't have to get married if you don't want to. I'm fine with the way things are right now."

Sasuke shook his head and hugged her even tighter. "I'm not forcing myself. This is something I chose to do on my own."

He pulled back and tapped his forehead against hers. "We need to rebuild the Uchiha clan anyways, don't we?"

Sakura sniffed and nodded. "Nn."

Sasuke sighed in relief and hugged her again. "Man, Naruto lied. This wasn't easy to do. But I'm glad I was able to do it. Thank you for everything you've done for me, Sakura. And for forgiving me for what I've done. I still have nightmares sometimes..."

"I'll be here. Those were a thing of the past. If you still feel like you need to go on some sort of road to redemption again, just know that I'll be walking on that road with you."

Sasuke nodded and looked into the bouquet of flowers and pulled out a little pouch. "The ring is in there. It didn't go as planned, but yeah."

Sakura laughed and she took the ring out and gave it to him. "You're supposed to put it on."

"Oh."

He put the ring on her finger slowly and stared at it. "Damn. This is real."

"...Um...if you're done, can we have the office back?"

Sasuke and Sakura flinched in surprise and turned to see Kakashi and Yamato at the door.

"How long have you been there?!" Sakura screamed.

"Long enough," Yamato snickered.

Kakashi raised a hand. "Don't forget to invite us to the wedding. Congratulations."

"Shit.." Sasuke muttered.

Sakura laughed and Sasuke looked at her, surprised.

"Why are you laughing?"

"Remember that weird dream I had today?"

"Yeah...what was that about?"

Sakura smiled to herself and shook her head. "Nothing. Nevermind." But oh she knew. The importance of that dream. In that dream, it wasn't Sasuke that was leaving, it was his old self that was. The Sasuke that was in front of her now was the present Sasuke, the new Sasuke. Secure and sure of himself. Even if he felt redeemed or not, she was finally able to walk alongside him.

A/N: There's one more chapter left! Wahh. For my first short-ish story fanfic, I've never expected any followers/people to favorite it. So much love. Thank you so much :]