Title: Road to Respect

Summary: Sasuke never would have guessed that Sakura was not so secretly a nerd.

Prompt: Night In

Warnings: K

Comments: Unedited

The attack on Uchiha Sasuke was the talk of the town the next morning. The marketplace became such a breeding ground of conflict between supporters and denouncers of Sasuke that the Hokage herself personally marched down to the center square and promptly ended all further discussion with a powerful fist to the ground.

But perhaps, not all reactions stemming from the incident were negative. Everywhere, Sasuke garnered sympathizers who felt that the attacks had been unjust. As he walked from Sakura's apartment to the training grounds that afternoon, villagers stopped him again and again to give him gifts—food mostly, but some gave money or useful household tools ranging from soup ladles to a used set of pots and pans.

In fact, the number of condolences he received was so much, that he was forced to turn around halfway there to drop all of it off back at Sakura's apartment. She burst out laughing when she saw him stumble through the door awkwardly with his new possessions.

"You could furnish an entirely new apartment with all those goods, Sasuke-kun," she laughed from her seat on the couch.

"Hn."

"Oh, don't pout. It's sweet. The village is warming up to you!"

"Outstanding," he muttered sarcastically.

She laughed again. "Oh, that reminds me. I talked to Tsunade-sama, and we both agreed that it's best you stay with someone from Team 7 while we make sure those idiots were the only ones involved. I figured you would want to stay with Naruto, but he's not back from his mission for a few days. Kakashi's about to start off on a mission soon. And Sai is a little too new of an acquaintance for you to be comfortable with him, so I guess you're stuck here for a while."

"Outstanding," Sasuke said again. He turned to go when something occurred to him. Looking back, he noted how she was dressed in comfortable clothing. A mug of tea sat on the coffee table, and a book rested on her lap. "Don't you have work?"

"What? Of course not! It's Saturday, Sasuke-kun. I don't work weekends unless I'm on call."

"What happened to the hospital needing as many medics as possible?" he demanded.

"We managed to contact local civilian hospitals and gave them the less severe patients," she replied with a smile. "Our numbers are just starting to deflate; this is the first weekend I've had off in forever!"

"Hn. I'm going to train. I'll see you tonight."

"Okay! Bye, Sasuke-kun."

Several hours later, Sasuke made it back to the apartment after successfully evading any further gift givers. To his immense surprise, Sakura hadn't moved, except to turn on the lamp due to the growing dusk.

He must've been staring for awhile, because she looked up abruptly. "What?"

"You were there when I left."

"Yes. And?"

"You're still here."

"Yeah. So?"

"It's your day off."

"What's your point, Sasuke-kun?" she demanded impatiently.

"I would have thought you would spend it out with friends," he finally admitted.

"Oh, yes well, unfortunately, I need to catch up on some new medical findings that were recently published," she said quickly, redirecting her attention to the big tomb on her lap. "It seems the role of a medic never ends." And with that, she re-immersed herself in her reading.

Sasuke continued to stare, suddenly struck dumbfounded by a revelation.

His snort prompted her to look up again, irritated. "Unbelievable," he said.

"What is it this time?" she demanded in exasperation.

Sasuke smirked. "You're a nerd."

Spluttering in protest, Sakura wrestled her way out of the soft couch and followed him as he made his way past the living room. "I am not. Take that back!"

She halted right outside of the bathroom door, arms crossed and expression mulish. Sasuke took a step closer so that they were centimetres apart. "You've been engrossed in a medical book on your day off. You could barely take your attention off of it to talk to me," he breathed. Sakura's breath inadvertently hitched when she felt his breath fan over her face. He leaned closer still. "Trust me. You're a nerd."

And then he closed the door on her face.

Snapping out of her daze, Sakura stomped her foot petulantly. "Uchiha!"

She whirled around, prepared to flounce off and back to her book, when she heard his voice from beyond the door say, "Sakura. It takes one to know one."

For dignity's sake, she still flounced. But she flounced with an unstoppable smile on her lips.