Chapter 7- Like Flying
"Welcome home."
Her father nearly jumped clean out of his skin when he noticed his daughter at the kitchen table, wrapped in a thick robe and drinking a mug of something steamy-hot. Her mother came up behind him and gaped. It was two in the morning… why was she still up?! She glanced up and seemed to eye them critically. "Have you treated your injuries? I see blood."
They silently shook their heads, and she heaved a, seemingly exasperated, sigh, setting her drink on the table.
"Wait just a minute, and I'll be back." And they took a seat at the table. Moments later, she walked into the room with a light medical bag, and told her father to remove his shirt, as it seemed he had the worse of the damage, and he did so, however hesitantly. "Don't worry; these minor injuries don't require any serious procedures, so pain in unnecessary."
And in five minutes, the few bruises present were gone, and the gashes were mending beneath ointment and bandages. She eyed him critically. "Any other spots I need to know about?"
He shook his head, and she moved on to her mother. A few light scratches and one rather deep wound left by a passing kunai, but nothing scary. She was done in record time. She packed all her supplies back in their cases before looking up at them.
"Did the others get treatment?" Neji had been in their squad, she believed. He normally preferred that Sakura heal him, but would settle for Shizune at times.
"Yes… they went to the… hospital…"
She gave a curt nod in response. She had heard from one of the nurses that Izumo had arrived earlier that night, perhaps somewhere around ten o' clock, and he had been treated for one minor injury and sent home. She dug a few things out of the cabinets and fixed some instant ramen for them, handing them the cups and bidding them a brisk good-night.
"Sakura!" She turned around to see what it was her mother wanted. The woman's face had a strange look on it, though suffice to say that the majority was curiosity. "Have you… chosen one yet?"
She gave a secretive half-smile, and left her with only that.
"Not even. Get back in bed, Neji-san; you've got at least one more day of bed-rest and hospital care before you can go," she told him brusquely. He gave her a disgruntled glance before sitting back down. She tucked the covers around him tightly, and fluffed the pillows behind his back. "Now, any pains I need to know about?"
"Besides you? Not really."
She granted him a wry grin; it was his typical response that had been developed over a very long period of time. At first, she got the standard silence. She was okay with that. Then she got tired of it, and did more damage than healing while 'gently persuading' him to actually say something. Ever since, something like that was what she would gain for her efforts.
"You're… okay, right?"
She startled and looked up and him from where she was changing the bandages on his arm.
"What do you mean?" He made a face.
"I know about you, Kakashi and Izumo. Your parents told me." Yes, and remind me to scream at them later… she thought immediately with a grimace.
"I'm fine. It's scary, but I'm fine. Don't spread it around, though, okay?" He nodded. She paused in mid-wrap, her eyes suddenly widening. She looked up at him slowly, and he returned her a half-interested look. "Who else knows…?"
"Tenten, Lee and Gai. They were all there."
This whole town is gonna know before the day's out… Gai-senpai and Lee-san are gonna be crying very, very loudly over bowls of ramen at Ichiraku and telling their sad-sap story to everything that comes their way…
He smiled at her sympathetically. "You should've asked me last night so you could keep them drugged until the end of the week. It would've done us both some good."
And of course, cursed be the day that Haruno Sakura was right about something. The nurses stopped her every two minutes with exclamations ranging from hate-filled curses to whining fangirl jealousy, and sympathy from Tenten whom she happened to meet on her way out. On the street, all her friends gave her pitying looks, and even if Ino had already known (which she had), her attempts at comfort became immediately futile once the medic was discovered by the Konoha Green Beasts, whom promptly pounced on her and began their wailing about her flower of youth all the louder.
"Ano… Sakura-chan, when do you have to give your parents an answer?" Hinata asked quietly, having run into her on her way to meet Naruto at his favorite hang-out. Sakura looked over at her calmly, and smiled.
"Three days."
"Do you know who you're going to pick?"
She smiled enigmatically once again, and walked away, her hand caressing the heads of the two spandex-wearing creatures that her chakra-laden fist had graced, and having the tell-tale bumps disappear. When she vanished around the next corner, she was not seen again.
For the past two days, Sakura had been searched for adamantly, but to no avail. But on the dawn of the third day, a knock came at Uchiha Sasuke's door, and before him stood the medic that had been so sought for. He smiled wryly, shaking his head and allowing her inside.
"Your parents are about to go out of their minds, Sakura."
"Ii. They're finally understand a little of what they did to me."
He laughed softly, and they took their seats on his couch, like they had done both times before. She smiled, and turned her head to look out the westward-facing window, the midnight black barely showing hints of the pink and orange tendrils that crept across it's shining surface.
"I suppose you've made your choice then."
"Yes."
"You didn't even confirm when your parents or Hinata asked you."
"They weren't to know then."
He paused, and evaluated her slowly illuminating face as the dawn became a littler grayer, a little lighter. That tiny smile continued softly on her lips, and her eyes sparkled.
"Why?" She turned away from the window, her smile broadening a bit.
"Because I wanted to tell you first." He started, eyes widening, mouth falling open just a bit. Why tell him first? It didn't make sense to him. Ino, or even Tsunade, or the person she'd chosen himself would've made more sense, but him? He failed to see her logic, and she laughed at it, shaking her head playfully. "You were my first love, and even through this ordeal we have grown closer as friends. You deserved to hear it first."
He sighed and looked up at her. A light shone just a bit in his obsidian eyes, and a soft smiled played on his lips, as it had played on hers.
"Let me guess…"
Sakura's mother paced the living room floor in agitation, glancing out the window every minute or so in hopes of catching a glimpse of bubblegum-colored hair. But out of nowhere, the expected kunoichi popped into the room with a swirl of cherry-blossom petals, her smile as wide as any had ever seen it.
"Sorry to keep you waiting!" she laughed, prancing up and hugging her mother before she had a chance to faint, and planting a sweet kiss on her father's cheek. It surprised them even more when Sasuke appeared out of the shadows, a smirk on his face. When she noted their strange looks between the two of them, she blinked innocently. "What? I told him my decision first, and asked him to be here when I made the announcement!"
And of course, at that, her mother very nearly well did faint. Her father looked up at her from where he supported his wife.
"Your decision?" She looked over at the two men that stood before the couch, and with the biggest grin she'd ever sported, she pounced upon the one she'd chosen.
Hatake Kakashi.
He stumbled back and landed on the couch, the cushion on the other end giving a loud whumph at the impact, his startled gaze shooting up to meet hers, the silent question in his single visible eye plain for all to see: Why him? They all- save she and Sasuke, of course- wondered exactly that. She leaned down next to his ear and whispered.
"Like flying… feels like flying… You do… Should've known from the start, shouldn't I have?"
AN: Whee! Next one's the last chapter. I heart this story. (grins) And if I ever get the time to do so, I will attempt to write the sequel. But you must forgive me; it's only recently that I've been doing "very depressing and dramatic" well. PLEASE REVIEW!
