AN: I will be turning this into an anthology series, each chapter being its own little thing, completely out of order so, if anyone has any suggestions as to which part of their travels they want to see me write about, feel free to suggest and I will try to toy around with the idea. This following chapters is a lil' bit of fluff, a lil' bit of smut. Enjoy.

It was, in many ways, completely spontaneous. Unlike with most people, there was little to no ceremony about it, and it felt more like confirming an already stated fact. Time had passed so fast since Uchiha Sasuke and Haruno Sakura had originally started travelling together, that they could not justify to themselves how well over a year since their reunion was now behind them. It merely felt like a heartbeat.

And so, one day, which was like many others, a simple, comforting routine, Sasuke spat out the lump from his throat along with the words:

"Why don't we just do it?"

Being so incredibly vague, Sakura's thoughts immediately traversed to an entirely different matter, and though they had been together for so long now, the bluntness she thought he was showing made her face a more intense colour than her hair.

"S-Sasuke-kun, we're in the middle of a market," was all she could say, shyly.

Sasuke himself could not help but laugh at his inability to express this one thought clearly, realizing what Sakura was thinking. He had become accustomed to how perceptive she was of his moods, sometimes almost reading his thoughts. Of course, he thought to himself, she couldn't magically know what he was talking about.

Pulling her aside, away from the crowd, he took a few deep breaths to calm down his erratic heart. Unsure of himself, now that he was considering the proposal more carefully, he reluctantly started explaining himself.

"I meant- " he stopped himself, unsure as to how to word it "-we've been mistaken to be husband and wife so many times. Most of the time, actually, so… Why not do it officially? It seems natural, in some way."

It was perhaps the least romantic proposal Haruno Sakura had ever heard, and the methodical way it was spoken in almost made her laugh. Problem was, there was no room for laughing. There was no room for anything other than the size of her heart, which seemed to have grown around a thousand times in size and was threatening to violently jump out of her chest. In Uchiha Sasuke's own words, it seemed only natural that she become his wife. The implications were too much even for her sharp mind to process immediately.

Sasuke, on the other end of the situation, could only see her wide eyes and mouth, forming a perfect O. He couldn't help but doubt, for one second, and think back on his clan's reputation. Perhaps this wasn't the best of ideas after all.

"We obviously don't have to do it right away, or at all, really, it just occurred to me not long ago and I was just…" he trailed off, feeling stupid for bringing it up.

Silence stretched over what seemed to be entire years. Sakura had remained so silent that Sasuke, at this point, was worried he had truly offended her somehow. Though finally, she looked up at him with an expression he had never seen before on her face. Entirely composed and in a calm voice, all that Sakura could say was:

"Uchiha Sakura."

Her acceptance was, just like his proposal, entirely unique and unconventional. The way she'd attached his family name to her own. The tone of her voice, the smile spreading across her face, so large her cheeks surely hurt. All of it screamed "yes" in a way the word itself had no chance of properly conveying.

It took the shortest trip into the nearest village to officiate the affair. Somehow they had both been overtaken by a sense of urgency. So much so that without stopping at an inn, without bothering to even wear something other than their dust covered clothes, they rushed over to the nearest building where they could sign the papers which would bond them – as if this weren't already the case – for the rest of their lives. And while writing down her signature, Sakura immediately knew what Sasuke meant by natural progression. As spontaneous as it all was, the moment they were done, they both felt as if they had only deepened what was already there.

Stepping outside of the building, the air of pride and content radiating off of both of them was nearly palpable.

"Husband," Sakura said teasingly, "I think I want us to camp out tonight. Near that river we saw coming into the village."

They day had been terribly hot, and the running around as if their lives depended on it did not help the situation at all. So, naturally, both of them had already started walking in the direction of the water, holding hands along the way, for the first time, as husband and wife.

The bank of the river looked divine, with the fading sunlight illuminating the blades of intensely green grass, the tall and dense trees and the surface of the clean, running water. Even the air smelled sweeter. One look at the area and the Uchihas both set their backpacks near the thick trunk of a tree, and begun staring longingly towards the water.

"The water must still be warm from the day's heat," said Sasuke in a quiet voice.

Sakura nodded slowly, unzipping her top and laying it neatly on the grass near their packs. Soon enough they were both undressed, the last rays of sunlight washing their skin in a gentle kind of warmth. Stepping into the river, Sakura felt immense relief at the feeling of lukewarm water cleansing her skin. She felt her now long hair ticking her chest as it was flowing with the stream of the water. Looking back to see if Sasuke had gotten in, she couldn't help but giggle at her tall companion, the water barely reaching his chest.

He was stepping towards her with clear purpose. And she could certainly not pretend like she didn't have the same kind of thoughts in mind when picking this location for their camp. The pretence of a bath was lost as soon as Sasuke bent down to capture Sakura's lips, wrapping his arm around her back and pressing her as close to his own body as humanly possible.

The Fifth Shinobi war could have broken out next to them right there in the middle of the river, and neither Sasuke nor Sakura would have noticed in that moment. Intimacy had been shared before, in varying doses, all over the world that they now walked together, but today it would be different. Today it would mean something different to both of them, even though nothing much has changed except a name on a piece of paper. A name they now shared.

Sakura raised herself on the tips of her toes, wrapping both arms around Sasuke's neck and responding to the kiss happily, smiling into every movement his lips made.

"Someone seems happy today," he said, with a smile of his own, looking down at her.

"I happen to have gotten married today, if you must know," she responded teasingly.

"Is that so?" Sasuke asked, raising an eyebrow, "I might have done the exact same thing."

She laughed into their next kiss, pushing herself up a little and wrapping her legs around his waist, clinging to his body as Sasuke walked backwards towards a more shallow patch of water. He sat down a little roughly, too focused on Sakura to pay attention to anything else. Sasuke now moved his arm to cup her face, stopping for a moment to look at her up and down, and marvel at everything from her messy hair to the scar near her belly button. Eyes returning up to her face, he stroked her cheek lightly and spoke softly.

"Uchiha Sakura."

Her smile returned to the ridiculous size from when she originally spoke the name herself.

"Uchiha Sasuke."

Two names. Two names that in hundreds of years might not mean anything, even to the history they helped shape. Two names that bonded them in a way that distance, nor suffering, nor death could ever erase. It was a bond that signified a certain closeness that could not be replicated by anything else. Though at that very moment, both of the Uchihas felt an urgency to also create a physical bond to match it.

Never once taking their eyes off each other, Sakura unwrapped her legs from around Sasuke's waist and shifted her position slowly. Now straddling him, she took him in her hand, smiling at how hard he was, feeling the possessiveness and pride associated with knowing that he reacted this way to her alone, and guided him into her. They resumed kissing, as well as moving against each other. And at first, the movements were awkward, both of them being overwhelmed with the intensity of what was taking place. It felt, for the long moments that passed, that they could simply not get close enough to each other no matter the fact that each particle of skin from one was touching the other.

After a time of silence and what almost seemed like a battle to morph into one being, their names were the only sounds loud enough to linger in the air. Coming from each other's mouths, the wind carried the promises spoken in the form of their names. The pleasure associated with their intimacy. The love associated with why they were sharing such a moment. The future they now swore to share.

"Sasuke, I-" Sakura moaned, her head now in the crook of his neck, both arms wrapped tightly around his back.

"I know," he breathed back, "me too."

And in the same breath he could feel her stop her movements, shaking with the pleasure that overcame her. His own orgasm was not far behind, making him dig his fingers into her back as hard as he'd felt her own nails dig into his shoulders. Neither of them wanted to, nor were they sure that they could move.

Sasuke began playing with Sakura's long strands of hair, ignoring the chill from the cold air brought on by night time. Feeling her breasts against his own chest, moving slowly as she took deep breaths that he could feel warming the skin of his neck, Uchiha Sasuke was quite sure that, the rest of the world be damned, he'd never do anything else with his life other than embrace her. Embrace his wife.

"Sasuke-kun?"

"Mhm," he responded lazily.

"I do think we still need to wash up and actually set camp up," she said, clearly dreading the idea.

Pulling back from him, she stole one more kiss before allowing herself to drift back into the deeper water, smiling at him. Joining her, it took more control than he'd ever thought he could have to not pull her towards him again, though he knew they had all the time in the world to be together. To sleep together, and laugh together. To be a family.

The thought shook him. And it did not escape Sakura's notice how his shoulders tensed up for a moment. The weight of what happened today was more than either of them could process. Especially for the Uchiha who, for years now, did not have what would be considered a family. Of course, his team was no less than that because of the lack of blood ties. But now, with Sakura wearing his name, they formed something they had both been longing for. For different reasons, but with the same love and intensity.

"Uchiha Sakura," he spoke again, only after having finished setting up camp, and laying down next to his wife, now fully clothed and warmed up.

"Yes… dear?" she asked reluctantly, playing with the word, tasting the feel of it on her tongue.

Sasuke wrapped his arms around her, ready to fall asleep and wake up to the feeling they both hoped would never go away. He didn't say it out loud, but he only spoke her name because he liked hearing it too much. She didn't need to be told. She'd turned it into a song in her own head way before they'd even signed the papers.