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

XX

Sakura emerged from the bathroom looking marginally better – her face was clear, with no gray under the eyes, wet hair neatly brushed back and fresh clothes on – but cleanliness could only get her so far. Sasuke with just one look detected that she still felt terrible, but he couldn't find it in himself to pity her. She brought this all on herself.

Though she would be alright soon, considering the way she was eyeing the toasts he'd made. Sasuke left her to enjoy the light breakfast, while he took his shower. This gave him more time to think about their situation.

Without the buzz of alcohol (which he hadn't drunk as much as Sakura, but it still had frizzled his brain if he had thought that sleeping right next to her would be a good idea under any circumstances) his head felt strangely quiet and heavy. Working through this unpleasant sensation, Sasuke strained to piece together everything that had led to his current predicament.

He remembered crystal clear how Sakura had snubbed him when he questioned her about the sake bottle. This had been the first sign that her issues were much worse than he suspected. Sasuke shook his head. He wouldn't have believed that the same old goody two shoes Sakura would be a drinker. Was that the influence of her master showing through? Sasuke was suddenly rather thankful he didn't let any of Orochimaru's bad habits transfer onto him.

After Sakura had gone out, Naruto had appeared and, as according to his promise, dragged Sasuke to the popular local hangout for a few drinks, which Sasuke turned into a subtle information gathering session.

"Sakura-chan's family? Man, her family is great!" Naruto shouted enthusiastically.

"Don't be so loud, idiot."

"What the hell, you bastard, I'm talking normally," Naruto yelled.

Sasuke grunted in annoyance. "So, what's so great about Sakura's family?" he asked, showing only casual interest, nothing more.

Nnaruto launched into a long-winded explanation, punctuated by his usual exclamations and slurping of his drink. Sasuke, who was much more dignified in his manners, kept pace with Naruto's alcohol consumption, while listening keenly to his blabbering. The Uchiha was hoping he could get the answers he was looking for without outright asking for them. Naruto didn't need to know that Sasuke took an actual interest in anything pertaining to Sakura's life.

For all of ten minutes of getting his ear talked off, Sasuke gathered that Sakura's mum was a great cook and Sakura's dad was really good at making up really bad jokes.

"... and then Mebuki-obasan started asking me if I was seeing Sakura-chan, so I said 'Of course, we're seeing each other every day!' and Sakura-chan punched me, and then I realized that Mebuki-obasan wanted to know if I was Sakura-chan's boyfriend! My dad asked me the same thing, you know, during the war?" Naruto explained, but didn't wait for Sasuke's reply. "You think we look like a couple? Oh shit, that's bad, I don't want Hinata to get the wrong impression. Sasuke, what do I do?" The blond started fretting.

Sasuke stoically shrugged. He was objectively the worst person to give romantic advice to anyone and he didn't even know that Hyuuga girl that well.

"Naruto and Sasuke-kun, I see you're also socializing here." Their other team member, Sai, seated himself beside Naruto.

"Sai? You came for a drink, too?" Naruto seemed surprised to see the artist in the club.

"No, I'm meeting up with Ino-san in a few minutes. I'm currently waiting for her to finish her conversation with Sakura."

"Aaah, so, you're on a date... with Ino?" Naruto quirked his eyebrow. "Do you need some help? She can be a real bi-"

"Sakura's here?" Sasuke asked abruptly, interrupting the idiot.

"Yes," Sai pointed the booth occupied by the talking kunoichis. "I overheard your conversation. You wanted to know something about Sakura's parents?"

Sasuke glared. "No."

"I'm sorry I thought you were interested in someone else than yourself, Sasuke-kun," Sai apologized in the most grating way possible. Sasuke was sure he heard no comma after the 'I'm sorry' part, which only meant that Sai was purposefully insulting him. "By the way, Sakura was just telling Ino about throwing you out. I think you'll be the first homeless person I've ever met. I think congratulations are in order?"

Sasuke gritted his teeth at the remembrance of that emotionless asshole. Though, according to Naruto, Sai was getting a lot better with emotions, which was in a way worse than before, because earlier he'd been insulting without trying while now it was entirely on purpose.

Sasuke was done wasting his thoughts on someone as irrelevant as Sai. At least his original goal of learning more about Sakura's parents was accomplished. With what little information Naruto provided him, Sasuke could now form a theory about them. It seemed to him that Sakura didn't want to see her parents because they were pushing her to start a relationship and settle down. Everything fit with this explanation, but Sasuke still felt that that he was missing something.

The bloodied bandages came to mind.

XXI

"Sasuke... what did I do yesterday?" Sakura asked and brought her tea mug to her lips, blowing at the steamy drink before taking a sip, all to appear nonchalant and uninterested. But it was of no use. Sasuke knew she was acting, the furtive glances she had been sending him this whole time weren't as secret to him as she believed.

He lightly smirked. "Wouldn't you like to know." He definitely enjoyed having something over her.

Sakura frowned and put her tea down. "Did I do something weird?" she asked, keeping the fear out of her voice. It wouldn't do to let him know of this.

Sasuke seemed to see through her ploys anyway. He shrugged. "Maybe."

"Sasuke..." she hissed his name. "Just tell me already."

"Only if you answer my questions," he said.

"What about?" she asked warily.

"The things you're hiding from me," Sasuke said, looking her right in the eye.

"I'm not hiding anything that concerns you," she denied.

"A lie." Sasuke immediately called her out. "Why did you agree to us living together? What was your motive? I heard that if you wanted to, you could've refused this mission."

Sakura clenched her jaw. "It's a favour to Kakashi-sensei. And you're my old teammate, so I did it for the sake of the old times. That's all."

Sasuke frowned. Excuses, she had only excuses. How many times did she plan to tell those to herself, just so she could believe in them?

"Even after what I did in the war? You avoided any contact with me for two months and then suddenly you are okay with me living here?" he asked tersely.

She stiffened, disbelieving that he actually brought up the elephant in the room, the events of the past that were looming over them but never mentioned, never discussed. However, she quickly recovered from the shock with a sharp retort.

"Look, if you really want me to, I can change my mind right away!" Sakura raised her voice, then winced and rubbed her head. It was still hurting a bit. "I didn't think you'd be such a pain to live with, Sasuke," she said bitingly, lowering her tone. "The last few days we had peace, so why are you ruining it? We just need to last until the mission ends, then you can go away and we won't see each other ever again, if that's what you wish for."

Sasuke stared at her hard, as if trying to see through her, straight into her mind and decipher her every thought and action into something that would make sense to him. Sakura returned his stare fearlessly, wanting him to just agree with what she'd said and stop being so goddamn nosy.

"Do you have a drinking problem?" he asked out of the blue.

"Huh?" Sakura didn't know where this question came from.

"Are you an alcoholic?" Sasuke rephrased. "Leaving empty sake bottles around and getting drunk in clubs... this is a sign of addiction. You can't be my doctor if you're an alcoholic, your reports will lose all credibility."

A tick appeared on her forehead. "Are you seriously asking me that?" She shook with the effort of restraining her anger, as she took a moment to recompose herself. "No, I am not an alcoholic. I rarely drink. Yesterday... it was an exception, not a norm for me."

"But you don't deny that you drank that bottle I found." Sasuke was undeterred.

Sakura raised her eyes to the ceiling in a brief prayer. God, give me strength.

"I don't know if you are aware, but alcohol has many different uses, Sasuke," she stated condescendingly, which of course ruffled his feathers. He hated people talking down to him.

"Then what did you use it for, if you didn't drink it?" he challenged.

"... Cleaning."

Sasuke scoffed, clearly not believing her. "You use sake for cleaning?"

Sakura shrugged, keeping a straight face. "I had nothing else on hand."

"How about you stop lying and tell me the truth?" Sasuke spat out, his voice hitting dangerous notes. Sakura frowned in response but stood her ground.

"I told you the truth, if you don't believe me, that's not my problem," she told him rigidly. "I answered your question, so you should keep your side of the deal and answer mine. What did I do when I was drunk?" she repeated her earlier inquiry which started this whole aggravating conversation.

"You caused a scene," Sasuke finally relented and told her. "You didn't want to go home and I had to put you under a genjutsu so you would calm down."

"That scene... Was it very bad?" she asked with a wince. She knew how she acted when angry and sober and it wasn't very pretty, so being drunk had to make it even worse...

Sasuke grunted. "You were shouting on top of your lungs, half of the people there saw everything," he confirmed her guesses, then shot her an annoyed look. "If only you were more responsible..."

"No. This isn't my fault," she cut him off with a chilling certainty. Everything seemed so clear to her now. "It's yours, Sasuke."

He glared at her. "Shifting the blame on me now, Sakura? That's low. You were the one who got drunk, not me."

"Yes," she easily admitted, "but you were the reason why I got drunk in the first place. You were also the reason why I started shouting. I wouldn't react that way if it was someone else, like Naruto or Ino. The whole week I had to deal with you on a daily basis and then you went and got in the way of my fun." She stared at him with accusation colouring her eyes venomously green.

Sasuke snorted. "What fun? Falling all over yourself? Bouncing off the walls? Or maybe getting groped by strangers?"

Sakura got red in the face and shot him a nasty glare, then continued. "That doesn't matter. What matters is that because of you I probably lost my reputation and all of Konoha is gossiping about this right now as we speak. I've got enough."

She stood up, her chair scraping the floor, then she grabbed her headband and pouch from the counter and strapped them on.

Sasuke also got to his feet. Crossing his arms over his chest, he snapped. "Where do you think you're going?"

"Away from you," she said and walked out proudly.

Her tea was already cold, anyway.

XXII

Sasuke stared at the velvety blackness of the night, unable to fall asleep as the disjointed thoughts crowded above his head. It was already eight days, over a week, and Sakura wasn't back yet. When he had stormed to Hokage's office after the first night of her absence, he'd learned she was on a mission out of the village. Sasuke was doubtful how sending Sakura away didn't collide with her other assignment, yes, that one his future hinged on, but he had no choice apart from trusting in Kakashi's word.

Sakura was supposed to come back two days ago and now Sasuke was seriously reconsidering his reasons for believing the Hokage's word. He would love a chance to straighten his legs and leave the village, just so he could drag Sakura back to finish his psychological evaluation.

Sasuke was working out the best route out of the village without running into any patrols, when the rattle of the key in the lock alerted him to the kunoichi's return. 'Finally', he wanted to say, but kept silent as she slowly entered and locked the door behind her. He heard her sigh with tiredness as she took off her boots and staggered blindly for the bathroom.

Except she didn't reach it, because halfway there she tripped on something and with a small yelp landed right on top of him, eliciting a grunt of pain out of the unprepared Uchiha.

"Sorry," she muttered and tried to lift herself up on her elbows, uncomfortable with so little space between them, but Sasuke's arms circled around her back, forcing her to stay put as he examined her with his Sharingan and Rinnegan glowing eerily in the darkness.

"Your chakra is depleted," he announced. He was itching to interrogate her about what kind of mission required her to push herself so far, but he held his tongue. He understood the rules of secrecy and that she wouldn't be able to answer that even if she wanted to.

Sakura huffed. "Of course it is, I ran the whole day." She wriggled against him. "Let me go, Sasuke," she requested.

His grip slackened and she pulled away with some difficulty in her movements. As Sakura disappeared in the bathroom, Sasuke pondered on her scent. Like many skilled shinobi, he trained all his senses equally (even if he was naturally talented with his ocular powers) and so he could discern something was wrong with her by smell. It wasn't just the usual greasiness from a long travel, a strong tang of metallic scent was too prominent for it to be a coincidence...

Then Sasuke realized that there was a sticky wetness rapidly drying on his fingertips. He raised them to his eyes and saw the ruby drops of blood.

The shower started, but Sasuke was too agitated to care about his timing. He banged on the bathroom door.

"Sakura, if you're wounded, you need to go to the hospital!" he hollered. What was she doing, coming home with fresh injuries? She couldn't even heal herself, she was so drained of chakra it was a wonder she was still standing.

"Sakura! Answer me!" Sasuke tried again.

A loud crash and thump came from the inside and running on instinct, Sasuke broke down the door.

"Sakura!"

He found her unconscious and bleeding all over the white tiles as the water sprayed on her body and, coloured with pink, went down the drain.

To be continued...

AN: Thanks for reading! I had a lot of trouble with writing this chapter, but I hope it's at least acceptable. I had to leave out some things for later.

Until next time!