Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
Summary: After war. Sasuke is still suspected and Sakura is his ticket to regaining Konoha's trust.
Rating: T
The Difference Between Moving In and Moving On
VIII
The middle of the day found Sasuke working alongside Naruto at the construction site. Konoha was still healing and rebuilding after the Pain's attack, but with the peaceful times ahead of them, thanks to the all nation treaties, there was no hurry. People didn't have to sacrifice the new houses' appearance for functionality's sake and so they took care to choose the more modern and pleasing house designs.
When Sasuke looked around, he was reminded of the ruins in the Uchiha district. Maybe he would be able to rebuild it soon. Though for now, it was low on his list of priorities.
During the lunch break Naruto approached him, a mischievous grin warning Sasuke that the idiot was about to make himself a nuisance.
"So, how's living with Sakura-chan?" Naruto drawled. "Pretty cozy, huh?"
Sasuke rolled his eyes. "I don't know what you're talking about."
"I'm saying that you must have gotten pretty cozy with her in that single futon she has," Naruto insinuated.
"I slept on the floor."
"Ooh, chivalry! That's a way to a maiden's heart!" The blond snickered at his joke. Sasuke promptly ignored him. Naruto scratched the back of his head and got serious. "So, how is she? Everything went well?"
"She didn't scream if that's what you're asking about. And she attacked me because someone didn't tell her about the mission first." The reply was caustic.
"She attacked you?" Naruto laughed awkwardly. "Did she at least, you know... kick your ass?"
"I almost ran her through with Chidori," Sasuke deadpanned.
"Damn," Naruto whispered with a very pale face. Sasuke felt a streak of self-serving vindication. Let the idiot realize the consequences of his irresponsible behaviour.
However, Naruto bounced back to normal pretty soon. "Did anything else happen?" he asked, inquisitive blue eyes boring into Sasuke. "Did you at least talk with her? Properly?"
The Uchiha pretended to not understand what his friend was going at. "Yes, I explained to her about the mission."
"That's not what I meant and you know it!" Naruto ground out. "Bastard, you didn't talk to her at all, am I right?"
The summons from hospital couldn't come at a better time for Sasuke, who took the opportunity to leave fast and without a goodbye, Naruto's angry gaze following him until he turned the corner.
IX
"Why did you call me here?" Sasuke asked without a preamble when Sakura let him into her office. Like any other stubborn ninja, he didn't enjoy visiting the hospital without necessity.
Sakura went to her large desk and sat down in a swivel chair. She grabbed the files with his name on them and buried her nose in the papers. Sasuke, who remained standing near the door, shoved his hands in pockets, annoyed that she didn't answer him.
"Sit, please," she said and after a second he ambled up to the chair across from her and took a seat. She didn't raise her eyes from the pages she was studying as if it was a holy grail of medicine. When she went through the whole file, she closed it and set it down, then reached for a pen and a notepad.
"We need to talk," she started. Sasuke regarded her in mocked surprise. "About your mental assessment," she clarified.
"We couldn't do it later in the apartment?"
Sakura shook her head. "No, living together is just a precaution. Besides, I don't spend there much time and I prefer it to be my no work zone." Sasuke felt tempted to point out that keeping an eye on him was still work, but he refrained. "Good news are, I discussed everything with Kakashi-sensei and he agreed that this mission will take no longer than a month."
Sasuke nodded. This was really good. One month, he could take it. One month was more than enough.
"We should find a bigger apartment," he suggested.
"Why?"
Sasuke gave her a look. Did he really need to spell this out to her? "No privacy," he said.
"I just moved in. No way I'm moving again, especially only for a month," she flat out refused.
"It's too small for two people," Sasuke argued.
Sakura shrugged. "You can deal with it. You've probably had worse, right? And you won't be seeing much of me there, anyway, so it's not really a problem," she reasoned.
"You're going to keep waking me up in the middle of the night for a whole month?" he asked incredulously.
"It can't be helped, I have long hours. Some people are busy." The implied unlike you went unsaid, but Sasuke could hear it nonetheless. Sakura clapped her hands once. "Alright, let's get back to business. To make your mental assessment, I need you to answer some questions. Is that okay?"
Sasuke nodded. He figured this would have to take place sooner or later. He didn't have to like it, but it was necessary to progress towards his goals.
Sakura seemed satisfied with his non-verbal agreement. She prepared her notepad and thought for a moment about her first question, sub-consciously chewing on her lower lip. "Alright." She breathed out and in. "What is your first thought when you think about Konoha? It can be anything, just tell me what first comes to mind."
Konoha...
The name invoked an avalanche of assorted thoughts, scraps of memories and flashes of emotion. Sasuke looked at his hands, gripping each other tightly as he pondered on the answer. Konoha... For him, it was...
"A construction site."
He smirked a little. It was a good comparison. Konoha was literally and metaphorically being rebuilt. The old, stagnant corruption was uprooted for new foundations to be laid. And he had his hand in the process of this renewal.
The same village that had been once built by the Uchiha clan, was now remodeled by the last of them. It seemed fitting.
"That's where you work with Naruto, right?" Sakura asked. She was rather well-informed for someone who had barely seen him since the end of the war. Sasuke remembered she had talked with Kakashi earlier, so he must have told her about this.
"Aa."
The rest of the questions weren't intrusive, mostly about general things. Sasuke had no problems with answering them, though he was getting irritated with how long it was taking. Sakura noticed his worsening disposition and changed her approach again.
"Tell me about your day. How was it?" she requested.
"Fine," Sasuke bit out.
"Okay, but can you describe everything that happened today? Anything in particular that stands out?" she pressed patiently.
Sasuke thought back on his day. There was something he had to tell her...
VII
Someone knocked, the sharp rapping against the wood pulling Sasuke out of his introspection. Before he had the chance to get the door, the person entered without permission.
"Sakura-chan, I know you're here... Oh!" The blond older woman, dressed in a long white dress with a circle symbol, exclaimed in surprise when she caught the sight of Sasuke sitting at the small table. "Who are you? What are you doing here so early in the morning?"
Sasuke frowned, unhappy with the interrogation from some stranger. He should be the one asking what she was doing there, just barging in uninvited like she owned the place. "I'm living here," he gave a clipped response.
"With Sakura?" The woman's eyebrow rose comically. Sasuke nodded mutely. She put her hands on her hips. "May I have your name, young man?"
He saw no reason not to answer. "Uchiha Sasuke."
"Uchiha?" She blinked, recognizing the name instantly, which was to be expected with all the fame the end of the war brought to the name again. Sasuke still tensed, used to unfavourable comments from people who knew nothing about him and his clan, but the woman just gave him a curious look over, the dubiousness leaving to be replaced by something akin to understanding.
"If you were looking for Sakura, she went out to work," Sasuke said. He didn't like how she looked at him, those eyes were hauntingly familiar...
"Did she? That girl..." the woman sighed. "Always working, she's never got any time to step out of the hospital for a moment and see us like before the war. She's going to work herself to death and she's only seventeen!" the blond shook her head in exasperation. "Ah, but I'm ranting. Could you tell Sakura to come over for dinner when you next see her?"
Sasuke eyed her questioningly and the woman realized she still hadn't introduced herself. "Whoops, I forgot we haven't met each other yet! It's just, Sakura talked about you so much back in the day, I feel like I already know you. Anyway, I'm Haruno Mebuki, Sakura's mum. Nice to meet you, Sasuke-san!"
Sasuke stood up and returned the polite bow. "Likewise, Haruno-san." Internally, he was hitting himself on the head for not noticing the similarities sooner. The clothes alone were a dead give away of the woman's identity. Was he that preoccupied with what had happened with Sakura in the morning?
And now he knew where she got the eyes from. Interesting that her mother's hair wasn't pink too...
"You should come to dinner with Sakura, Kizashi – that is my husband – would be happy to meet you. And I know Sakura's cooking is terrible, so all the more reason for you to come and eat a proper homemade food." The woman winked, even as she openly criticized her daughter's culinary prowess. Sasuke didn't have any complaints about it, though he did have to admit that the breakfast Sakura had made for them had been very plain and required nothing more than the most rudimentary skills in the kitchen.
"Aa," Sasuke replied without really agreeing to anything, but Sakura's mother took it as his acceptance of the invitation. He did nothing to dispel her misconception and she finally left with an extra spring in her step.
He didn't understand what it all meant until much later.
X
"Oh my god..." Sakura cradled her head in her hands, taking a minute to recollect her thoughts. When she got a grip on herself, she straightened up and looked back at him. "Sorry for that. You can continue now. What happened after my mother went away?"
Sasuke should have known not to pry, but the words already spilled from his lips. "Are you going to that dinner?"
She was taken aback – didn't expect he would ask. Still, she answered. "No... I'm not going."
"They're your parents. You should go and see them."
What prompted him to pursue this topic, which she clearly desired to avoid? Family was always a delicate subject for Sasuke, who lost all of his clan at such a young age. Was it because of Sakura's seeming lack of care for the feelings of her still alive, warm and loving parents when all he could visit now was a couple of graves?
"Are you going to lecture me, Sasuke?" Sakura asked darkly. "Because whether I go or not, that is not any of your business. So stay out of it."
"I was invited too. I'm already involved in this."
"Because mum thinks you're my boyfriend," Sakura hissed out. "You didn't tell her about the mission, so she obviously came to her own, wrong conclusions."
Sasuke frowned. He didn't consider how the situation between him and Sakura would look like to an outsider. He could see what Sakura's mother must have thought when she had found out he was living with her daughter in that cramped apartment with only one futon.
"Just tell her we're not together." There. Problem solved.
Sakura groaned. "She wouldn't believe it. And if she did, it would be even worse. She'd think I'm some sort of a rotten woman."
"Then tell her about the mission." He grew annoyed. Why was this such a big issue? In his opinion, she was making it overly complicated.
"Look, Sasuke, this isn't so easy," Sakura finally snapped. "First of all, I'm not going to my parents' dinner. They can live with it. Second of all, I'm not telling them anything. Let them think whatever. You're going to leave after a month anyway, so when they ask about this, I'll just tell them it didn't work out between us and that will be the end of this," she decided on a course of action.
Sasuke's blood boiled. He was fed up with her ungrateful attitude. That's what he hated the most in Konoha – people who didn't know how good they had it and still acting as if they knew suffering. Living their small, insignificant lives in ignorance of what the real pain actually was, taking everything the world gave them for granted, even worse – complaining about their gifts. This is why he had once wanted to annihilate this village and Sakura brought all of these feelings back.
"Still a spoiled bratty princess, I see? You didn't change at all, Sakura," he spat out the insult in utter loathing.
She recoiled as if he'd just slapped her, then her green eyes narrowed at him dangerously.
"I told you something about lecturing me but you just couldn't resist, could you?" she hissed out, bitter and unforgiving. "I swear it's always the same thing – the great last Uchiha always knows best, right? It's not even about you, you have no – no damn idea about me and my – what the hell do you even know?" She was getting worked up, but she stopped herself before she said too much. Taking in a deep breath, she mashed the notepad in her fingers like a stress ball. "Just... just get out. This session is over."
Sasuke slid out of his chair and left, shutting the door quietly behind himself.
To be continued...
AN: Thanks for reading! And special thanks to my reviewers: Matthew Uchiha, Tiger Priestess and pink-strawberries! Without your encouragement I wouldn't have completed the chapter so quickly.
Reviews are very appreciated :)