Title: Rebuild
Full Summary: Somewhat AU. Following Pein's Invasion and Uchiha Sasuke's return, Haruno Sakura struggles to cope as Konoha struggles to rebuild itself. The terrifying, familiar poison of yesterday's past is back. Learning how to trust again is not an easy task - especially when her life is a spin-cycle of betrayal. Bang and beat, rinse and repeat.
Pairing: SasuSaku
Eiko: "long-lived child"
Hiroki: "abundant joy; strength"
Akasuna no Sasori: Sasori of the Red Sands
Inspiration: Saying Sorry (Album Version) & We Are So Last Year (Album Version) - Hawthorne Heights, Speed of Sound - Coldplay, A Beautiful Lie - 30 Seconds to Mars, Fight For You (Sultan & Ned Shepard Remix) - Morgan Page, Ghosts 'n' Stuff (Nero Remix) - Deadmau5, Gold Dust (Flux Pavilion Remix) - DJ Fresh, Still Alive - Mt Eden, Act Like You Know (Dubstep Remix) - Nero
I'd fight for you. I didn't wanna have to raise my voice. I'm right for you; you really leave me with no choice. So, what do you want, and what are you thinking? Isn't it about time you stuck up for me? But what you can't see is we're under siege, and I only fight because I believe.
Sakura set her hands on her hips and let out a big, tired but delighted sigh, gazing around her new apartment. It was small and rather unwelcoming, but once she'd cleaned the windows and opened them up a bit and let the sun trickle through, she could tell it would transform soon enough. She let her gaze rest on the boxes she just lugged up the stairs, standing precariously in towering stacks. White puffs escaped her lips as she breathed out, shivering slightly in the cold air. The heater hadn't been used in years, the landlady had warned her. She flipped the thermostat and crossed her fingers, and was rewarded by the thrum of the heater clanking back to life. There was something eerily familiar about the apartment - she couldn't put a finger on it, but she surmised it had something to do with the fact that she'd rented it out abnormally cheap. Nobody had rented it out for years, the landlady had told her. Nobody wanted it. Well, that was perfectly alright with Sakura. She wasn't superstitious, and she wouldn't be home a lot anyway - so why not take a risk? She went around the house and flicked all the switches, testing to see if the lights worked. She gave an irritated huff as more than three light bulbs turned out to be duds, unscrewing them for her trip to the hardware store. She put them on the kitchen counter and hooked the door open, jogging down the stairs to fetch the rest of her belongings. Chakra-enhanced strength had her with piles of boxes stacked in either hand, walking up the railing for added challenge. A little boy and his mother gaped at her from next door, the kid's face shining as he stared at her in open-mouthed awe. She threw them a kind smile and set the boxes down, clipping her keys to her belt as she closed the door and turned to greet them, the lightbulbs in a plastic bag hanging from her wrist.
"My name's Haruno Sakura," she greeted warmly, "it's very nice to meet you."
"Likewise, Sakura-san. My name is Arakida Eiko, and this is Hiroki. He just started at the academy this year."
Sakura beamed at him and dropped into a crouch.
"Good afternoon, Hiroki! You better work hard if you want to be a shinobi," she grinned, standing up to ruffle his hair. "Let me know if you need help with anything, Eiko-san." The mother nodded and gave her a grateful smile.
"You bet, Miss Sakura!" the little boy crowed, staring at her kunai pouch with admiration. "Are you a kunoichi?"
"You bet I am! You know, I was once an academy student, just like you. Work hard and keep up with your studies, Hiroki-kun, and I'll see you around! If you ever need someone to babysit, Eiko-san, I'm here to help."
"Thank you," Eiko smiled, ushering her son back inside as Sakura turned to go.
"Sayonara!" Sakura called, leaping to the rooftops and smiling fondly at the excited, delighted look in the boy's eyes. The bulbs clinked together in her bag as she ran, smiling happily for the first time in a week. She wouldn't have to deal with her mother - and she wouldn't have to keep her life a secret from the boys any longer. It was a relief, and Sakura relished it. She tilted her head up towards the sky and drew in a long breath, a light smile on her lips.
Uchiha Sasuke rubbed tiredly at his eyes, careful to keep his touches light. Even after the transplant, they hurt frequently after each use and the strain put on his body after the operation was even greater than before. He cursed, slamming his fist into the wall, fury bubbling in his gut. He hated feeling like this - weak. His lip curled in a wrathful snarl, eyes cold and jaw rigid. He leaned against the wall in frustrated pain, resting his cool fingertips against his eyelids. He gritted his teeth against the blinding pain, resisting the urge to cry out. Now that he no longer had the quasi-medic Karin with him, it was impossible to get any sort of medical attention - and he did not trust any random healer with his eyes. He could subdue Karin easily and trick her with the sharingan, but an unfamiliar healer was another matter. Sasuke would not trust them in the least. So he simply grit his teeth and bore the pain, trying to dispel the quiet nagging in the back of his mind that something had gone wrong.
His vision was flawless, even if he had to contend with the fact that these were his brother's eyes. Not his failing eyes, his brother's eyes. The eyes of a family member he'd murdered in cold blood. Tremors wracked through him and he let out a choked sob, sliding against the wall in misery. The roar of the waterfall echoed around him, pounding his stinging loneliness in with the sound of the rush of water around him. He thought of the remaining members of Team Taka - Suigetsu and Juugo. Suigetsu avoided him like the plague, approaching Sasuke somewhat resentfully every time they grouped together. He was mistrustful, but he had a right to be. Sasuke had nearly murdered Karin - and didn't regret a minute of it. She would still be dead on that battlefield if Sakura hadn't intervened and patched her up in a few short seconds. His brow furrowed as he considered the pink slip of a kunoichi - she had definitely changed from that weakling, simpering fangirl - although her feelings for him hadn't changed one bit. Sasuke was arrogant, but he was not a fool, and knew her powers were a force to be reckoned with. Her healing abilities were phenomenal; Kabuto was a brilliant medic, yet he struggled for more than ten minutes on something that Sakura could heal with the sweep of a hand. He saw that stitching Karin's heart fibers and veins back together had been no problem for Sakura, simultaneously closing up the wound in her chest as Karin bled out. Her healing capabilities were certainly impressive, but she had little else. He had not seen her fight in battle, and when she tried to kill him she just couldn't follow through - couldn't even harm one hair on her precious Sasuke-kun's head. He sneered in contempt at the memory, replaying her shaking kunai and the horrified, tormented look in her eyes when he came at her with his chidori. He chalked off the unsettling feeling in his stomach as a side-effect of the transplant, not even once pondering if the thing he was feeling was remorse instead of an unbalance in his system.
He shucked off his shirt and pants, slipping his boxers off as he went to stand under the roaring waterfall, tilting his head forward as the relentless water beat down on his head and shoulders, running in swift rivulets down his impressive figure. He winced as he stretched and moved his shoulders - his back was tight, but there was nothing he could do about that. The muscle stretched tightly and not in a comfortable way; he suspected one of his scars had healed wrong. His body was littered with them - from little nicks and cuts from long slashes crossed and slanted over his shoulder blades and chest, peppering his arms and several on his hip bone and stomach. As he stood under the pounding roar of the waterfall, he contemplated on Sakura's scars. He surmised he was going delirious from the transplant - his skin did feel rather feverish, but he paid that no attention. Had he been in a saner mindset he would've cursed himself and sneered at the fact he was thinking about his old teammates. He thought of Naruto's scars, too. There had been a new one in the hollow of his neck, recently healed, long gashes streaking down his arms and x's on his thumbs. Sakura, once all delicate hands and so worrisome about scars - she had her fair share of them, too, though noticeably less than himself and Naruto. He half-heartedly sneered at that, not knowing that a medic's most important priority was defense on a team. Although, when she'd arced into the air to avoid a slash from the kusanagi, he'd seen her red shirt ride up and expose her lightly tanned belly, displaying a fierce scar slanted across her stomach. It looked like an old but fairly grievous wound, and as her kunai flashed and trembled in her hands he'd seen the inside of a forearm and the back of her hand slashed and slightly puckered - from a close range fight with foreign shinobi, but he didn't know that. He wondered at the long scar on her stomach, not even once stopping to contemplate if it ran all the way through. She wouldn't have survived a impalement like that, he thought. He knew enough of anatomy to know there was a vital organ there, and that a stab wound would have been fatal, even if she was an accomplished medic. He didn't know where all her new scars were; a tiny line bisecting her eyebrow like Kakashi's, the hair that was previously there missing. It didn't extend to her eyelid, however. There was a tiny nick on the side of her neck, and another on her shoulder right next to the base of her neck. As the water slowly lulled him back to his senses, he jerked away from his thoughts as if he'd been burned, and immediately sneered at himself with derision. He didn't miss any of them, and had been serious when he'd tried to kill all three. However... those tattered bonds were something he just couldn't shake off. They'd been cut and slammed and torn, but they seemed indestructible. No matter how much he tried to sever them completely, they were resolute and refused to unravel all the way. He refused to dwell on the matter any longer, stepping away from the waterfall. He stood to air-dry, closing his eyes and focusing on nothing. For the first time in a long while, Sasuke drifted into peace.
Sakura collapsed on her couch, arms covered with dust, blowing a strand of coral away from her face. The lock of hair fluttered and then settled back on her face, and with a huff of irritation she brought grime-streaked fingers to tuck the errant piece behind her ear. The apartment was filthy. She gazed around the room, knowing she had a lot of work to do. The boxes were piled high against the other wall of her new living room, the rest of the apartment sparse and empty. She allowed herself a moment's respite before flicking on all the lights in the bathroom, lugging a bucket full of soapy water and several sponges to the tiled floor. She tugged on elbow-length bright yellow gloves, settling right to work. Her head whipped around as the front door opened and familiar steps traversed through her new home. She turned her head back to her work as the person came to a stop in the doorway of her bathroom.
"Hello, Sai," she called to him, scrubbing particularly hard at the tiles right next to the bathtub.
"Ugly," he greeted. "Your front door is unlocked, you know." His voice turned surly and disapproving, and she smiled, cheeks flush with happiness. She turned her head to roll her eyes at him.
"Relax, Sai," she laughed, "I sensed you coming up the apartment stairwell way before you came to my front door... and besides, I'm not totally unguarded." His dark eyes traveled past her tank-top clad torso to the spandex shorts, and past them to her kunai pouch wrapped around her thigh.
"You never know what pervert could walk through that door," he continued very seriously, and she snorted derisively.
"I'm touched you care about me, Sai, but I'm not that helpless, you know."
"I didn't say you were helpless, far from it, but - "
"I get it, Sai," Sakura laughed, eyes twinkling with delight. "And thank you. But I can take care of myself. I bought this apartment, didn't I? I defeated Akasuna no Sasori, didn't I? I'm more than sure I could take care of a petty villager or two." Sai sighed and dropped the topic, opening the top of his shoulder-bag. He withdrew a large frame; the sketch of her from a month's past, sitting at his kitchen table. He'd colored it in and framed the piece, deciding to give it to her as a house-warming gift. He'd read those were a polite thing to give to those who were moving. "Oh, Sai - it's beautiful!" Sakura took the frame and cradled it in her hands, holding it out at arm's length to admire. She grinned at him and kissed him softly on the cheek, dashing into her living room to hang it up above her couch. She smiled fondly at the drawing, stepping back to admire it once more. "Thank you, Sai," she smiled. "I love it."
"You're welcome, hag," he responded, but his tone was warm. "After Naruto is done finishing up his report with Tsunade-sama, he should be coming up shortly - " but he never got to finish as said blond swung in through the window, yelling Sakura's name with delight. He swept her up into his sunny embrace, whirling her around with a big whoop. Sakura laughed from the circle of his arms, breaking away to swat him and tease him gently.
"What if Hinata saw that? She'd think you were in love with me instead of her!" At this, Naruto turned a violent shade of white, stammering.
"You - you really think so? And don't say that out loud! She might hear you!" Sakura laughed out loud at the fear on his face, throwing a pack of gloves at the pair of them. She rolled her eyes. Naruto was so naive. Hinata had been head-over-heels for him since their academy days, and to hear Naruto say he loved her would be a dream come true.
"No, stupid. Now both of you, help me clean. I am not sleeping in a dusty apartment tonight." She watched Naruto form a bunch of clones, all rushing around the house with various cleaning supplies. "And do a good job!" she hollered after the dozen clones. "Don't you dare half-ass it! I'll clean the kitchen. Naruto, you're in charge of the bathroom. Sai, can you please start in my bedroom?"
A good four hours later, all three of them collapsed on the couch, spent. Naruto's stomach rumbled, leaning his head against the back of the couch, thoroughly exhausted. The toll of twelve clones plus himself was taxing even with his strength, and he felt as if his bones were made of jelly.
"Say, Sakura," Naruto mumbled. "You never did say where you got this couch... it's really comfortable."
"It's Kakashi-sensei's, silly. He gave it to me and said he needed a new one anyway."
At this Naruto grumped, mouth forming a frown. "It's only because you're his favorite," he pouted. "No one in their right mind would give up such a comfortable couch like this... He's never given me anything." Sai chose this moment to pipe in, a fake smile on his lips.
"It is because you are not female, Naruto," the stoic boy informed him pleasantly, gasping a second later and rubbing his head in surprise and pain as his face met the floor. Naruto immediately turned to Sakura as the culprit, but found her with her hand raised, ready to give the poor boy a good sound whack. But she wasn't looking at Sai - he followed her eyes to see Kakashi himself with his Icha Icha Tactics held out, lone eye narrowed in irritation. Sakura rolled her eyes.
"Thank you, Kakashi-sensei," his only female student beamed, and their sensei took Sai's place on the couch.
"...is it true?" Naruto whispered, but as the words left his mouth he realized his grave mistake. He braced for the oncoming pain, blinking up from the floor at Sakura's fist and nursing a new bruise on the back of his head. "Ow, Sakura-chan... so ungrateful... especially after we cleaned this whole apartment for you." At this Sakura softened, standing and moving to her new kitchen.
"I guess that's true. Come on, I'll make us all ramen." Sakura was halfway across the room before Naruto was settled down at her kitchen counter, plopped right in the middle. Sakura laughed and laughed, grinning at her three boys as the other two soon joined their teammates beside the blond. She stared at them with something like adoration, thanking Kakashi as he got up to help her. When she sat down with them, Naruto slurping loudly and spilling broth all over the sides of his bowl, she couldn't help but feel almost complete. She gave one glance to the final, unoccupied stool - and wished not for the first time that Sasuke was there beside them, commenting snidely on Naruto's disgusting eating habits and calling him a dobe. But Sakura was strong, and she told herself that it wouldn't be long before he was right there beside them - beside her, perhaps. She caught Kakashi's searching look and smiled genuinely in response, closing her eyes at the wonderful taste in her mouth and the companionship of her closest friends.
In the morning, Sakura ruffled the blond boy's hair, pocketing her pager and throwing her lunch in her purse as she prepared to walk out. She'd lifted Naruto from the floor to the couch as soon as she had woken, smiling as he snored loudly. Sai and Kakashi had both gone home, but Naruto had stared at her with pleading eyes and she understood. They were lonely and broken, and she knew all too well. So she let him stay, comforted by his presence as he was with hers, both of them trying to forget their sadness and missing parts of their hearts. But Sasuke wasn't going to be gone indefinitely, they both had reassured each other. They would bring him back, together. And with a small smile Sakura let herself out, pocketing her keys and flying across the rooftops to the hospital.
Naruto woke a few short hours later, rubbing his hands across his face as he yawned. He found himself on the couch, smiling affectionately at the thought of Sakura picking him up and placing him on the couch. He swung his legs over the side of the couch to use her shower, making a face at the small line of girly products on the handrail. He rifled through some of her boxes and found some old clothes of his, and put them on before he left to drop by Ino's flower shop. He smiled at the blonde and picked up a flower, staring at Ino in surprise when she told him to just take it, a large grin on her lips.
"You guys are so cute," she gushed, and he crowed his signature phrase in response before exiting the store.
"Believe it, dattebayo!"
Naruto found Hinata exiting the training grounds and tucked the flower behind her ear in greeting, and smiled as her cheeks flushed. She really was quite pretty when she smiled, he thought, and asked if he could take her out to lunch. He delighted in her soft-spoken yes, and whisked her down the street, hand clasped around hers. Sasuke was soon forgotten as Naruto took Hinata on a date, and as Sakura patched up broken bones and performed physicals, the dark, brooding boy folding back into the recesses of their hearts. But as they both went alone to bed - she on her couch - their dreams were full of heartbreak, lightning, and eyes darker than the night.