title: latch
summary: in which uchiha sasuke attempts to propose.
genre: romance/humor like always
notes: this was based on an amazing reddit post which i'll post a link to down below
chapter five: latch
I'm latching on, babe
Now I know what I have found
I feel we're close enough
Could I lock in your love?
Sasuke had it all planned out. He would ask Kakashi to give Sakura a break from missions and Tsunade to give her the day off from the hospital. Then he would proceed to her apartment under the guise that he was just there to spend the day with his lovely girlfriend.
He'd bring flowers and a picnic basket filled with her favourite food and take her to the highest rooftop in Konoha where no one knew they liked to hide. They'd talk - actually, she'd talk, while he would just stare at her - and they'd have a good time, just the two of them. He would have made reservations at the restaurant where they had their first official date, and before you think about it, no it's not Ichiraku's. They didn't even have ramen for god's sake. And Sasuke wasn't the dobe. He had more class than that.
Where was he?
Oh right, dinner. After a full course they'd take a walk outside, since the streets are a lot quieter at night. He'd take her hand and hold it the whole time because even if he wouldn't admit it to anyone, he's a sucker for holding hands. She'd be too distracted to figure out where he was leading her and she'd only realize it when he'd be down on one knee with the ring at his fingertips extended out to her. She'd gasp and maybe tear up, and he'd say the words he always wanted to say to her.
That this was the place where he left the village - and more importantly her - for the first time and that he would never leave her like that again, without the knowledge that he'd always come back for her. He'd swear that he would always come back for her and that he wanted to always stay by her side, if she would let him. She would be smiling and she'd say yes and kiss him while he's still on the ground, and they'd spend the rest of the night together, relishing in their own little bubble until the news inevitably spreads.
Ah, yes, it was the perfect plan. Even Uchiha Sasuke had a romantic bone in his body.
So… when exactly did everything go wrong?
He blames it on his unquenchable need to have everything go perfectly. And what was the most important thing in a proposal (aside from declaring one's love and commitment)? The engagement ring, of course.
The first time he went to the jeweller's he spent hours trying to find the perfect ring and luckily, he did find it, no thanks to Naruto's incessant chattering about what girls really like. It was a simple ring, nothing too fancy that would get in the way of Sakura's busy lifestyle, and it immediately made him think of her. The rose gold band was elegant and it cradled the white crystal which was just the right size. Not too big to be called gaudy and not too small that she would think he wasn't willing to spend on her.
"Have you found the one, sir?" The jeweller asked, having made his way to Sasuke. The Uchiha regarded the ring once more, happy to have found it, and nodded.
"Yes, I think so."
"Wonderful choice. And what size would you need?" Sasuke froze, while the man looked at him questioningly. Rings have sizes? No one warned him about that! The jeweller probably sensed his confusion, dammit Uchiha, now how do you expect everything to go smoothly, and smiled gently.
"If you don't know it yet, I could hold onto this for you until you figure it out. Try asking one of her friends if you have any trouble." Sasuke thanked the jeweller profusely before dragging Naruto out of the store and trying to think of how to get Sakura's size without her suspecting anything.
Naruto called an emergency meeting because apparently the more heads thinking on the problem, the better. And by emergency meeting he meant the people who were already at the ramen stall.
"Yo! Who wants to help Sasuke with his proposal-ttebayo?" Sasuke smacked him upside the head and glared at the blond.
"Not so loud, dobe. Do you want the entire village to hear?" Sasuke growled, pissed that he had to resort to asking for help.
"Right, right. Guys it's a secret!" Naruto just grins, unfazed by Sasuke's dour expression.
Sasuke took his place at the end of the stall, barely listening to these fools offer suggestions after Naruto explained the situation. Kiba suggested he just steal one of Sakura's rings and have the jeweller measure it but Sakura didn't own any. Shikamaru muttered something about just asking her (why are couples so troublesome). The others either couldn't think of anything or were too busy eating (Chouji) or were too quiet that nobody could have possibly heard (Shino) or were too depressed about Sakura getting engaged to some other guy (Lee).
Just when Sasuke was about to give up all hope, who else walked in but his girlfriend's best friend.
"What are you guys yammering on about this time?" She asked, taking the empty seat next to the Uchiha.
"Yamanaka," the jeweller did suggest asking her friends, "Do you know what ring size fits Sakura?" Ino's eyes widened almost comically at his question.
"It's about damn time, Uchiha! Do you know how many times she's asked me why it was taking so long? 'Do you think he doesn't want to marry me, Ino? Is he just stringing me along, Ino? I just love Sasuke-kun so much, Ino!' God, I love the girl, but you have to shut her up!" Sasuke was sure that Ino was just exaggerating but had no idea that Sakura was already thinking about marriage. Though he had to admit the idea had been in his mind for a while now too. He was just glad that she wanted this as much as he did.
"Okay, rant over, back to the issue at hand. No, I don't know Sakura's ring size, she never even wears them." Sasuke sighed, just another dead end. "But," he whipped his head back to face her and everyone leaned in to hear, "I do have a plan."
Uchiha Sasuke did not trust the Yamanaka's smirk.
Sasuke should have refused the second he realized that Ino's plan involved getting Sakura drunk. But he was desperate and growing even more antsy every second he spent not engaged to the woman he loved. Cheesy, yes, but true nonetheless.
Ino instructed him and the other boys to wait for her and Sakura at the bar while she tried to convince her friend to come along. It was Friday, after all, what better way to celebrate the coming weekend? No doubt Sakura would have just arrived home from her shift at the hospital, tired and just wanting to go to sleep. Which was even better, said the blonde kunoichi, because a drunk and tired Sakura would definitely be out cold by the end of the night.
Waiting at the bar with the rest of the boys was doing nothing for Sasuke's frayed nerves. What if she figured it out and ended up hating him for purposely trying to get her drunk? What if she doesn't get knocked out? What if she woke up while they were in the middle of testing rings on her finger? His leg wouldn't stop shaking so Naruto punched it to get him to stop.
"Would ya quit worrying? This plan is foolproof!" Naruto yelled, already on his third bottle. Sasuke just grunted, swirling the drink in his glass, too queasy to down anything.
He momentarily forgot the situation he was in when Sakura walked into the bar, her eyes scanning the crowd before finding his almost immediately. When she smiled and waved so innocently at him, the guilt from what he was about to do was almost too much. Naruto nudged his side a little too harshly with his elbow, which made Sasuke straighten up to go greet his girlfriend.
"Ino told me you'd be here," she said as soon as he got to her, smiling up at him and kissing him on the cheek.
"Hn, the dobe dragged me into this," he replied, leaning into her kiss.
"Funny, so did my blonde."
They walked towards the table their friends occupied, most of them already a few drinks ahead. Sakura greeted all of them and sat in the empty seat between Ino and Sasuke.
"Sakuraaa!" Naruto exclaimed, turning towards his teammate. "You're way too sober. You gotta catch up!" And with that he thrust a newly opened bottle of beer towards Sakura.
"Oh, what the hell," she muttered, as she took a huge gulp in one go. Sakura wasn't as fond of alcohol as her shishou, but she was known for letting it loose after a hard day's work. Ino let is slip to Sasuke that today had been a particularly gruelling day, so they wouldn't need to coax her to drink that much. Sure enough, just an hour later, Sakura was barely capable of forming a whole sentence. Or at least one that made sense.
She was pretty much passed out, her whole body leaning against Sasuke, murmuring under her breath about antidotes to different snake bites. It was almost like she was lulling herself to sleep because just a few more minutes later, her breathing had calmed down and she was softly snoring next to her boyfriend's ear.
"Sasuke!" Ino hissed. "Now!" She took several rings from out of her purse, both hers and borrowed. Sasuke carefully took Sakura's left hand and one by one tried on the rings. Everyone was watching silently, holding their breath, for fear of Sakura waking up. It wasn't that they were scared of what the kunoichi would do, but rather what her moody soon-to-be-fiancée would if they ruined his plan.
After trying a few that were too loose, he finally found several that fit nicely. "Somewhere between 3.5 and 4," he muttered, making a mental note to himself. The rest of the group seemed ready to cheer but he silenced them with a glare. He quietly gathered the rings and gave them back to Ino, who shoved them into her purse before Sakura could notice anything going on around her.
"Success!" Naruto whisper shouted, and everyone lapsed back into normal conversation while Sasuke gently prodded Sakura awake and excused them so that he could take her home. He would have carried her all the way back to her apartment, but she refused, prideful as she was, so he settled her arm around his shoulders and placed his grip on her waist so that she wouldn't fall over.
She was strong, no doubt about it, she could definitely punch him straight into the ground, but she was light enough that he had no trouble helping her walk. But he couldn't help but be relieved when he finally got her stumbling into her bed. He could already hear her snoring softly once again, which made the corners of his mouth lift up into a smile. He couldn't wait to finally get that ring, so after he made sure that Sakura was comfortable and had a glass of water by her bedside, he locked her front door behind him and made his way back to his own house, eager to get an early start come morning.
Sasuke walked out of his house as soon as the sun was out. He headed straight to the jeweller's who greeted him with a smile and a glint in his eye that said he remembered the young Uchiha well.
"Back so soon? I hope you didn't have much trouble investigating."
"No trouble at all. Either 3.5 or 4 will do, I believe." The man nodded at him and went to the back of his store to fetch the ring Sasuke needed.
Sasuke couldn't wait to get his plan into action, so as soon as he inspected the ring for any sign of imperfection and finding none, he gladly handed the jeweller the money and exited the shop, wondering where Sakura was at that moment.
He stopped in his tracks as a thought occurred to him. Since he already had the perfect plan, shouldn't he be absolutely sure that the ring was perfect too? He really didn't want to, but he decided to wait for a few more days, until he could get Sakura that heavily asleep again to test out the ring.
The opportunity presented itself to him in the form of a certain Yamanaka's birthday party. Sakura, being the best friend, was pretty much obligated to drink with the birthday girl. Which she was fine with when Sasuke promised to look after her and make sure she did nothing too stupid. Of course, he had to let her drink a little more than what she would have, just so he could have her deeply sleeping again. And it worked with no problem at all, to his rare delight.
He brought her back to her apartment much like the way he did the first time he planned to get her pretty much knocked out. This time when he brought her to her bed, he sat at the edge, with the ring already clenched in one of his hands.
He gently ran his fingers along her hand, and when she didn't stir, he applied a little more pressure. Once he was sure she was dead asleep, he slipped the ring onto her finger and it fit with only a bit of resistance. Satisfied with his discovery, he began taking the ring off again so he could keep it back in its box until the next day when he would set his plan into motion.
He shouldn't have expected everything to go so smoothly.
He tried slipping the ring off of Sakura's finger but it just wouldn't move past her knuckle. It was stuck. Damn it all to hell. Panic was starting to build inside Sasuke. He tugged and twisted the ring every which way but it was hopeless, even as he grabbed her wrist and pulled with all his might, without tearing her hand off completely.
Suddenly the hand was snatched away from his grasp. He looked up in shock to see the matching expression on Sakura's face, if not even more surprised. He heard her take in a gasp, afraid of what her reaction would be. He had nothing to lose though, so with an embarrassed look on his face, he asked her the question she most definitely wanted to hear.
"Sakura… will you marry me?"
She stared at him for a second trying to comprehend the situation. Then she laughed, tears threatening to spill from her eyes, as his cheeks flooded with warmth.
"Yes, Sasuke-kun, you big idiot. Of course I'll marry you!" Sasuke let a rare full smile grace his features as she flung her arms around his neck, kissing him wholeheartedly, her own smile taking over her complete shock. He wrapped his own arms around her, pulling her tight against him. They spent the rest of the night lying in her bed while she held up an outstretched arm, marvelling at the engagement ring. She couldn't wait to tell Ino everything that happened.
Based on this reddit post: t . co / 5HiRjWISEB