She opened her eyes and stared up at the stark white ceiling. So I'm alive, Sakura mused.
"You're awake."
Turning her head to spot Naruto on the bed beside hers, Sakura weakly smiled. "So are you," she said softly, feeling a little drugged. "Do you know what happened to us?"
"No." Naruto frowned. "The nurses say it's a miracle we're both alive."
Based on the way she felt, Sakura didn't doubt it. She took note that her throat was clear, and her lungs felt almost healed. In a few days she would have the strength to heal herself completely. She noticed Naruto, meanwhile, looked perfectly healthy. "How are you?" she asked.
"Fine," Naruto responded.
"Fox boy," Sakura joked, causing him to pout.
"I'm a little of cold," he admitted.
Sakura rolled her eyes as she slowly climbed up to a sitting position.
Naruto's eyes widened at this. "What are you doing? You can't get up!" he claimed in that somewhat husky, somewhat girlish voice of his.
Sakura loved it. "Who says?" she countered, carefully moving her legs over the edge of her bed to place her bare feet onto the cold tiled floor. She clutched her hospital gown around her and nearly fell forward as she stepped off the bed. Naruto stiffened and began to get up, but Sakura put her hand out, stopping him. "No – don't. I need to build my strength." She tested her balance, and staggered forward, her muscles weak from days of being in bed.
When Sakura finally made it over to him, she fell into his arms. He grinned, and pulled her up onto his bed with him, moving over to make room.
"You said you were cold," Sakura laughed, wrapping her arms around his torso.
Naruto smiled to himself as he held her back, enjoying the way her hair tickled his nose.
"I'm glad you're all right," Sakura whispered.
Naruto wondered why she sounded so sad all the sudden.
"You're my best friend," she told him, closing her eyes.
"You're mine," Naruto countered, but then glanced away.
Best friend.
He absently mused about Hinata as he held Sakura in his arms.
Flying backwards in the air, Hinata managed to place her legs beneath her before she could fall. Channeling her chakra into her feet, she landed on the surface of the water, skidding backwards several yards but keeping her balance.
Her back connected with something hard.
Still catching her breath, Hinata glanced over her shoulder to see that it was Sasuke's chest that she had collided with. He was fast.
Before she could react, Sasuke joined his fists and brought them down on her. Her effort to dodge caused the blow to strike her between the shoulder blades. She was sent into the water beneath them, her body plunging towards the bottom of the lake.
Sasuke peered down into the water, crimson eyes darting about, and keeping track of her location. He smirked slightly at recalling that he had promised not to get her wet. Almost absently, he formed a few hand seals.
At the bottom of the lake, Hinata twisted in disorientation. Surrounded by a vortex of bubbles, she had quickly lost her sense of direction, and couldn't tell whether she was facing up or down. Her attempts to swim resulted in sharp pains that radiated down her spine. She unintentionally took in a gulp of water, then choked, and took in several more.
Almost as soon as she began to fear she would drown, a current of water circled her, causing her hair to float up above her. Hinata felt herself being pulled upward by the current, and allowed her body to relax. Water jutsu? she thought, amazed, because she knew Sasuke was not a water element. Was there anything the Uchiha couldn't do? She wrinkled her nose in jealousy as she reached the water's surface, but nearly collapsed beneath it again, when two strong arms grabbed hold of her.
He lifted her up and knelt down with her. "What is it?" he said, curious of her shortcomings when she should have had the advantage at the lake.
Hinata spent the next several moments coughing as Sasuke scrutinized her with the sharingan. When she had enough energy to speak, she managed, "My back."
Sasuke thought for a moment. He must have struck her spine with his last attack, which explained why she was having so much difficulty moving her limbs.
"I can take you to Tsunade-"
"It's fine."
"How could you know?"
"I can see."
It was only then at he noticed she had activated the byakugan. She coughed again. "Just – some swelling." She rested her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes, as though content in that position, soaking wet and gathered in his arms.
Sasuke straightened from kneeling. "Can you move?"
"…don't want to."
He didn't know whether she said this in pain, or if she was just enjoying herself. He stared down at her, not understanding the unease that stirred in his chest. Maybe this was just her method of revenge for all the uncomfortable positions he had placed her in.
Sasuke glanced up at the sky. The sun was beginning to set, and they weren't likely to reach the village before evening. He began to carry Hinata out of the lake, her soaked clothing getting him wet. He enjoyed the way her clothes plastered her skin, thus emphasizing her shapely physique. "Why aren't you embarrassed?" he questioned. His lip twitched as she sniffed.
"Don't take me home," Hinata murmured, her face buried under his chin.
He began to walk through the forest with her. "I can take you through your window-"
Hinata gripped his shirt. "No," she protested.
"Let your elders take care of you. Or your cousin-"
"I want to stay with you."
It was mumbled so quietly, he nearly had not heard it. And yet he had. Wished he hadn't. She was going to get both of them in trouble.
"Stay with me?" he blankly repeated, and the two of them spoke no further as he carried her back to Kakashi's apartment.
Uchiha Sasuke knew very little about love, and Sakura had taught him the little he did know. What else could it be that made her search the world for him, just to bring him back? What else could make her cry for him, live for him, and hope to die for him?
Maybe it was real – and the concept irritated him to no end!
But when black eyes met white, his anger vanished.
Hinata had lifted her face from his chest. He was seated on his bed, with his back to a wall, and Hinata still gathered in his arms. She had failed to detach from him in the several minutes since they had arrived to Kakashi's apartment, and was only just beginning to come to.
She shivered, pressing closer, and it was as aggravating as it was arousing. Maybe she was trying to torture him. "Better?" said Sasuke through grit teeth.
Maybe she hadn't been as awake as he had thought, because she suddenly stiffened, and began to pull away. He held onto her shoulders, just in case. "Better?" he patiently reiterated.
Hinata blushed and nodded, and Sasuke finally released her. He glanced away and tried to rationalize the blatant concern he had shown for her. No matter how he tried to twist it, he could not devise any selfish ulterior motives.
His eyes widened when Hinata suddenly dropped sideways to his bed, unmoving.
"Hinata?"
"Un?"
His cheek twitched. "Take off your clothes."
He expected a bout of anxiety, but she just responded, sleepily, "Ano…I will…" She hugged his pillow, burying her face in it.
She was going to get sick. Sasuke eyed her for a moment, before sighing, and dropping beside her, in that too-small bed that could barely accommodate the two of them together. He felt weary and confused by all his new feelings. Where he lay on his back, staring at the ceiling, Hinata was curled on her side facing away from him, her back against his shoulder.
Her moist hair tickled his throat. "Sasuke?" she said.
"Aa?"
"There's something I wanted to tell you." Her voice was muffled in his pillow.
Her absence of a stutter made him suspect everything she had said that afternoon was sleep-talk. As his eyelids lowered, he felt himself being submerged in it as well.
"Tell me," he dared her.
She reddened. "I love you."
She waited, but all Sasuke answered with was silence. She lifted her face from the pillow, but was unwilling to look back at him. "I – I love you," she repeated, her composure devastated. She bit her mouth, and buried her face back in the pillow, where she spent the next several minutes trying to suffocate herself. She felt her eyes sting with tears, and worried that she had just made the biggest mistake.
She blinked when she felt Sasuke turn on the bed, so his body was facing hers. He wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her against him, wet and cold as she was.
Face buried against the back of her shoulder, he muttered something before drifting off to sleep.
But what he said-
-almost absently.
"I think I'll marry you."
