X

She moved to rest her head on his chest, playing with the fabric of his long sleeve grey shirt. She had tried to take his shirt off earlier, but he was able to get out of her clutches before she could. He wasn't sure why but having her see the state of his body while they got intimate like this made him uncomfortable. Even if she already knew what he looked like and worked so hard to save his arm… it just felt like a level of vulnerability he wasn't ready for.

He felt her weight disappear, he looked over to see her slipping her pants on, and he rolled over to his side to follow her with his eyes. The sound of his ensuite bathroom door closing behind her signaled it was time to get up and be productive. It was still early in the afternoon and if they got on the road, they could get a few hours of training in. Though, the idea of training in the snow was the least appealing thing he could think of, but he wanted to make sure they were ready to travel in the spring. He crawled out of bed and changed his pants since he was still wearing the same clothes as yesterday.

"Ready to go?" he asked when Sakura emerged from the bathroom.

"I guess," she huffed unenthusiastically as she fell back on the small bed, "but if I had a choice, I would stay here with you all day."

"Don't tempt me like that," he walked over to stand at the edge of the bed when she offered her hand to pull him in, but he grabbed her wrist and dragged her to her eat, "we need to go, we never know when one of us will be sent on a mission."

Sakura pouted the entire walk to the training ground; he would be annoyed if she didn't look so darn cute. She was bundled up in her puffy fur-lined winter coat, her cheeks were red from the cold, and with the pouty expression on her face, her couldn't help but smile to himself.

"Sasuke it's too cold for this today," she whined and kicked at the dusting of snow that blanketed the village.

"Suck it up," he laughed at her, "you know you'll have to sleep in worse conditions than this if you travel with me, right?" He glanced over at her to see her sulking.

"I always hated going on missions in the winter," she announced.

While he was only with team 7 for just shy of a year, he did spend one winter with them and remembered the few missions they went on during that time to say she was moped around the whole time was an understatement, "the Land of Iron is also on our travel list…," he reminded her. He was enjoying this more than he probably should've been. She stopped walking and bent over to pick up something from the ground, he paid little attention and kept walking getting a few steps ahead of her until he felt something hit his back. He turned around to say something when a ball of snow hit him square in the face, "you're ridiculous," he snarled as he brushed snow from his hair.

"You're so serious all the time," she laughed and threw another snowball at him. He easily dodged it and just shook his head, "Lighten up a little and have some fun."

He took off running at top speed and disappeared from her line of sight. If she thought she going to get away with this, she had another thing coming. He waited out the sight for her to catch up and as soon as she was in position, he jumped on the snow-covered branch above her head effectively burying her.

"You're right, that was fun," he snickered and hopped out of the tree, landing beside her.

"Ugh!" she snapped and stormed off towards the training ground and she brushed the snow out of her hair.

"You started it," he called out after her.

Sasuke caught up to her and went over this plan for the afternoon. He wanted her to get used to being moved around the arena with his Rinnegan, from standing still to being in motion, changing directions. It could be disorienting when one wasn't used to it, and the last thing he needed was to be in a fight with someone and her freaking out because he used it on her. She reminded him that she saw it in action during the war but seeing it and experiencing were two different things. He wanted this to become like second nature for both of them.

They practiced switching her with objects, himself with her, and even sparing and switching places mid-swing. He went over the distance he could move objects and limitations, most of which involved the amount of chakra his eye used. While he was recharging his eye, he decided this would be a good time to go over their jutsu arsenals. He was incredibly intrigued by the sensory ability she had developed, by sending her chakra through objects she could find secret rooms and spaces. With all that out the way they spent the rest of the afternoon sparing, it was a lot less intimidating to throw fists with her when she wasn't infusing chakra, but this wasn't a match to prove anything or show off but rather strengthen their teamwork.

They were in mid-fight; she was blocking his roundhouse kick when the familiar beeping of her work page brought them both to a standstill. She grabbed the device from inside her coat. The look on her face, when she read the message, told him immediately that this was serious.

"I… I… have to go," she announced quickly. He wanted to ask her what was up because she appeared to be holding back tears and he was concerned. She had been paged many times while they were together, and she never looked like this.

"I'll come with you," he offered without hesitation. She didn't acknowledge him and took off at top speed towards the main hospital, she was moving so fast that even he was struggling to keep up and he was usually faster than her.

They made it to the hospital in record time, he was actually out of breath when they arrived at the entrance. She didn't even stop for a minute and ran through the doors.

"Lady Sakura… it's Hiroko, his vitals are crashing, and we've tried everything-," the nurse that greeted them explained, the rest of the conversation was medical lingo that he didn't understand but he recognized the name of the person they were speaking about. It was the boy she visited every day before they met up for him to walk her home. He had been comatose and on life support for over a year now with no signs of improvement, but Sakura was never one to give up on someone she thought she could help.

She would often talk about the child on the way their walks, telling him about various treatments she would try and the like. He only knew the basics of Medical Ninjutsu now, enough to do emergency first aid so most of what she chattered on about was like a foreign language, but he never stopped her from telling him about it.

He just stood there watching that switch in her flip and she wasn't the beaming and smiling woman throwing snowballs like a dork, she was now the serious Doctor of Konoha and prepping for emergency surgery, it was the side of her he only really witnessed during the landslide in the Hot Spring's town. He wasn't even sure why he was even here; this was a situation he couldn't help her with, the best he could offer was moral support while standing on the other side of the glass watching her work.

Minutes turned to hours and hope was fading as the clock ticked on. Nurses were running around her while she tried to stabilize his vitals but at this point, there was nothing she could do. He overheard them talking about how there was no brain activity anymore and his heart was failing. It was to the point he couldn't watch it more and he stepped out of the observation room. He plopped himself down on the bench just outside the OR and waited.

He glanced at the clock on the wall. 1 AM. She had been in there since 5 PM. Given how she was when it came to children, she was going to be devastated whenever she decided to finally call it. Another half hour had passed when she finally emerged from the Operating Room, and she didn't even need to say anything. He could see it on her face, he knew the pain of loss but never had to comfort someone before.

Sakura looked so defeated. "You did everything you could," he tried to reassure her as she came to sit beside him. She nodded but didn't reply. He was surprised that she wasn't crying but once the shock wore off it would be a different story. He hadn't comforted another person and was unsure what he was supposed to do. He tried to think back to what would have reassured him but was still drawing a blank, "We… ugh… let's go, you need to get some rest."

She remained silent and let him usher her out of the hospital. He tried to think what could have eased his pain but couldn't come up with anything that would've helped her, but he knew he wanted to stay with her. It was after 2 AM and there was no way she would inconvenience her parents this early in the morning. It was best if she stayed with him tonight and be with her family in the morning.

The streets were usually quiet this time of night, but tonight was eerily silent, the only sound was the crunching of the snow under their feet. She followed his lead sullenly, the light in her eyes has disappeared and he hated seeing her like this. She was like his sun and when she wasn't shining everything just felt gloomy.

Sakura hadn't uttered a word the entire time and even now as she sat on his couch she just stared at the wall. Sasuke wasn't in the mood to cook and with everything closed he settled on the instant ramen he picked up months ago, while not his ideal choice of a meal it worked well in a situation like this, "you need to eat something." He placed the steaming cup in front of her.

"I'm not hungry," was all she said before vanishing into his room. Sasuke set his cup down and followed her. She was lying on the bed with her back to him, and he was almost about to return to his cheap meal when she noticed her shoulders shaking softly. He laid down beside her, wrapping his arm around her, pulling her into his chest, and just letting her cry until she had cried herself to sleep.

Sasuke was the first the wake, he slipped out the bed while she slept and went to the coffee shop to pick up something for breakfast. He knew she hadn't eaten anything since the buffet she made yesterday morning. She was still sleeping when he returned. He set a place for her at the table and left to take their travel plans to Kakashi.

X

"What are you doing here, Sasuke?" Kakashi asked suspiciously. The old man had barely sat down to start the morning when he arrived.

"I came to drop off the itinerary you asked for," Sasuke answered as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"You know that's not what I meant!" the Hokage exclaimed as he shook his head, "I heard about what happened last night."

The raven-haired shinobi blinked in confusion, "huh?"

"You can't be that oblivious," the elder sighed, "you should go be with her."

Sasuke was thrown off by the comment, "Sakura? She'll be fine, she's a doctor and deals with stuff like that all the time." Playing dumb seemed to be out of the question.

"I get you haven't spent a lot of time around people," Kakashi sighed again and rested his head in his hand, "but when you share deep bonds with people, you're supposed to be there for them when they experience things like loss and grief."

The former rogue shinobi looked away, staring at the stacks of paper littering the room not wanting to admit he did stay by her side the entire night, nor that she still sleeping at his place, and he only came here because he was too restless and would disturb her, "she'll be fine," he repeated.

"Sasuke-,"

"And she was worried her trip would be denied because I'm the one accompanying her," Sasuke interrupted, trying to steer the conversation back to what he came here for.

"I'm all for it, but you know your reputation among the nations, some see you as a hero, and others… well… not so much," Kakashi explained, "as I said before, it takes time to earn back the trust you lost."

"You're not the first person to tell me that," the raven-haired man admitted, "I plan to keep searching for anything related to the divine tree and Kaguya, she has her mission and I have mine."

Kakashi opened the folded-up paper Sasuke had presented and read over the planned route, "most of these shouldn't be an issue but this is official leaf business, and you won't be able to travel anonymously like before, the villages will know of your arrival beforehand, I don't think I need to explain how that could be an issue."

Sasuke already knew exactly what he was getting into when he asked her to come with him, this wasn't his usual travels, but this was also the only way she could leave the village for an extended period, "I'm well aware… but what she's trying to do is important and I don't want to be a hindrance."

"Well, isn't that sweet of you," the elder teased.

"It's not like that…," Sasuke denied still avoiding eye contact.

"If you say so," Kakashi rolled his eyes, "well I think you should go home before she wakes up and I'll do my best to make sure your trip goes smoothly."

Sasuke's face went red, and he almost fell over. How did he know she was at his apartment and that she was still sleeping? "What? How?" he managed to spit out as his initial shock wore off.

The Hokage grinned, "I know everything that happens in the walls of this village, Sasuke."

There was no denying anything now, "so, you're still keeping tabs on me?"

"It's nothing like that," Kakashi raised his hands defensively, "I'm just not an idiot."

Sasuke stormed out of the office, knowing Kakashi wasn't being forthcoming about watching him. It was after 2 AM when they got back to his place last night, and how would anyone know she was still there in the morning? However, it wasn't like they were trying to hide their relationship, and were regularly seen in public together, they just weren't obvious about it, or so he thought. He enjoyed being seen in public with her, the disappointed looks from the men that pined after her brought him more enjoyment than he would ever admit out loud.

When he arrived home, she was still lying in the same position. He entered the kitchen to see both the coffee and breakfast gone, at least she ate something. He stood in the doorway looking at her, normally she'd already be at work but the fact she was still here meant she wasn't going in. He crawled in beside her, fighting with himself on whether to share the news he got from Kakashi. Would she even care right now? Would he have cared about any news, good or bad in the days after his loss? Probably not. He opted to stay silent.

X

It took a few weeks before her smile started to return. They returned to their routine of him walking her home from work but now their walks were silent, he didn't realize how much he enjoyed her endless chatter until it had ceased. Being alone on his journey for so long he had grown used to the silence, rarely anyone joined him and if they did it was never for a long period until he started spending time with her, now, the silence, her silence bothered him.

He still hadn't told her about his conversation with Kakashi, he wasn't sure if it would make her happy or make things worse. He tried to start up many conversations with her but was stonewalled by her sullen one-word answers. It felt like he was talking to himself.

Which is what brought him -here-. He didn't want to be here, but he was out of ideas on how to cheer her up and decided to enlist the help of someone who might know what to do. Exhaling sharply, he entered the flower shop.

"Oh… Sasuke," Ino sounded surprised by his presence.

"Uh, hey…," he greeted awkwardly.

"What brings you by the shop today? Getting some flowers for Sakura?" she teased with a slight smirk.

Sasuke blushed at the comment and suddenly regretted coming here, "Uh… I don't think so…," Would flowers make her less sulky?

Ino laughed, "Well then how can I help you?"

He stood uncomfortably amongst the flowers trying to figure out what to say. Why was this so difficult? He closed his eyes and took a deep breath in, "how do you cheer someone up?" he blurted out, his face now the same color as his favorite food.

"So, you noticed too?" the blonde's shoulders dropped, and she let out a small sigh, "last time I saw her she was acting mopey."

"Yeah…," he mumbled, "you're her friend so I thought you might be able to help." He wasn't actively trying to admire the flowers, but he was trying to avoid eye contact so everything in this shop seemed so interesting. This was embarrassing.

"Why don't you try these?" she suggested as she walked around the shop and stopped that the white daffodils and picked up a bouquet, "she used to bring these to your hospital room all the time, I'm sure seeing them would do the trick."

Sasuke stared at the flower, he remembered waking up in the hospital many times a genin and seeing the familiar daffodils always by his bedside and she would always bring fresh ones in. This wasn't his thing and walking through the village with them was the last thing he wanted to do.

"Uh… you think this is the only way…," he backed away sheepishly.

"Duh, flowers always cheer girls up, trust me!" she finished wrapping the bouquet up and shoved it into his hand, "don't worry these are on the house."

Sasuke left the shop feeling defeated and embarrassed. Hiding the flowers in his cloak he realized he got no real advice and now he was tromping through the village with daffodils. Could this day get any worse? What was he supposed to do now? She wasn't off work for another 2 hours and there was no way he was going to carry these things with him that long. He decided to just give them to her now and headed to the hospital.

Did he mention how embarrassing this was? He wasn't the flowers kind of guy. He walked through the doors of the hospital, and he was glad his little gift was hidden away because everyone was waving and greeting him as he made his way up to her office. He walked by pretending he didn't see any of them. He was used to the attention now; it was like this everywhere he went when she wasn't with him, and he was never in the mood for their flirting. He took a deep breath and knocked on her office door the fancy wrapper crinkled with the movement.

"Come in," he pushed the door open slightly and tucked his hand back into his cloak before opening the door the rest of the way with his foot, "oh Sasuke, what are you doing here?"

He awkwardly shifted his weight between his feet, "Uh…," how did he get himself into this mess… all he wanted was some advice. He walked over to stand in front of her desk and dropped the flowers on top of the paper she was reading.

"Sasuke…," she gasped, almost falling out of her seat, "you got me flowers?"

"Ino said these would make you feel better," he stated indifferently, trying to hide his embarrassment, his eyes focusing on anything but her.

"Oh… Ino sent them…," She sounded even more depressed than before, "I should have known better than to get my hopes up," she muttered under her breath, but he heard it loud and clear, she might as well have screamed it from the rooftop.

Sasuke's shoulders fell, leaving it to him to screw up something as simple as flowers, "they're not from Ino... I just didn't know what ones you liked."

"Sas…uke…," Sakura's hand was trembling as she picked them up, "you got me these?"

"I just wanted to cheer you up," he murmured shyly as he gave her a sideways glance. He watched her face light up and for the first time in weeks, he saw a smile on her face that wasn't forced. Perhaps Ino was on to something after all.

"Oh! They are so beautiful, thank you!" she squealed and put the flowers in a vase on her desk, humming to herself as she doted over the gift, "I didn't take you as the flowers kind of guy, Sasuke."

"Hn," unsure what else to say he started poking around the rows of books around him. She would probably hear from Ino about his awkward trip to her shop seeking advice, so he didn't feel the need to tell her. He had been in her office a few times but never for any real length of time and decided to take advantage to look through some of the books that had caught his eye previously. Though, trying to read with one arm was difficult. He wondered if he should sit with her for a bit or if he was intruding on her workday.

Sakura went back to work reviewing some medical report, stopping every few moments to admire the flowers and shoot him her beaming smile. He couldn't undo the pain of her loss, just like no one could take away his, but he could do his best to help her look forward to the future, just like she does for him. He took the seat across from her and spent the rest of the afternoon thumbing through the pages of her immense personal library.

On the walk back to her apartment he finally told her that Kakashi knew of their relationship and the conversation they had, while it didn't go exactly as he planned, they at least had the Hokage in their corner. He had come to bat for Sasuke in the past so he trusted the old man would do the same this time.

X

As January was coming to an end Kakashi had sent Sasuke on an infiltration mission, looking into rumors of the Hashirama cell. So much for his time off… but after seeing what Marada was able to do with those cells it was worth investigating. However, it cut into his training time with Sakura, he was hoping to work with her more to improve their combined combat skills, not that she couldn't hold her own, but they rarely went on missions together. Being on the road alone meant they had to be each other's back up and because no one would be coming to bail them out, their teamwork needed to be flawless.

Knowing she was waiting for his return caused his normally risky behavior to become cautious, he couldn't deny seeing her face light up when he came back to the village always delighted him. It was something he looked forward to when he would complete a mission. He would stand outside the hospital waiting to see that bright smile and cute blush. He could send a hawk and let her know he was returning but that would take all the fun out of seeing her reactions.

Which is where he was right now, waiting outside her work. This time he had been away for 15 days. He took a page out of Sai's book and used his summoning hawk to cut his travel time in half. She thought he was going to be gone for over a month so he was getting excited just thinking about how shocked she would be. He paused, when was the last time he felt giddy like this? He couldn't even remember. Was this what love felt like?

He could sense her chakra coming, he adjusted his cloak and had to bite his lip to reign in the grin on his face, trying to look as stoic as possible. He led against the pillar and waited, hopefully, she didn't take too long, it was getting colder as it got later in the evening.

Sasuke watched as she waved farewell to her staff on her way out the door. She still hadn't noticed him yet, not like she could from his perch. He steeled himself with a deep breath.

She looked to adorable with her pink fluffy earmuffs on, the second she stepped outside she gasped, "Sa… sa… Sasuke?" Sakura stammered, her cheeks flushing when they made eye contact, "welcome home!" He would never tire of her reactions… so much for no PDA because she outright tackled him.

It was hard not to smile, "how was work?" he asked as nonchalantly as he could manage while trying to pry her off. He listened to her rattle on about her week and stories of her training a temporary replacement for herself. Her beaming smile was so bright she could easily light the darkness with it. He decided right then he would do everything in his power to make her smile never fade. Never again.

"Hey, why don't we go for ramen?" she suggested as they passed the intersection that would take them to Ichiraku.

"Sure," he nodded and followed her to a small shop.

The couple had barely sat down when Ayame came dancing over to serve them, "Sakura! Sasuke! It's so good to see you! What can I get for you guys tonight?"

"You're in a good mood tonight," Sakura pointed out with a giggle, "just the usual for me."

Sasuke blinked a few times as everyone turned their attention to him, "I'll have the usual too."

"All right, one Seafood Shoyu and one Pork Tonkotsu coming up," Ayame called back to her father, "soooooo… Sakura… do you have any plans yet?"

Sakura offered a confused expression, "Plans for what?

"You know, Valentine's Day! The day of L~O~V~E," she sang as she did a little twirl with a wok in her hands.

"Ah… oh… probably just working," Sakura replied nervously, waving her hands in her the air as her face flushed.

Ayama laughed, "Oh, come on you two! You guys should do something fun! What about a romantic getaway?"

Both of them blushed at her comment. Sasuke looked at the bar in front of them, the jar of chopsticks was incredibly interesting right now.

"Oh no, I'm so busy with work," Sakura laughed anxiously, "I never get time off to do anything like that."

"Even more of a reason to go!" the brunette was not letting it go, "What about you Sasuke? What are your plans?"

"I don't have time to waste on silly things like that," he answered with his usual tone of indifference, but he immediately picked up on the look of hurt that flashed across Sakura's face. Uh oh, did he just say the wrong thing? Did she expect a different response? Did she want to do the silly getaway thing Ayama suggested.

It appeared Sasuke's answer took the wind out of both women's sails because silence fell over the shop, and she almost threw his ramen at him. He let out a soft sigh and dug into his Pork Tonkotsu.

Sakura looked despondent as she ate and the lively conversation they were having before was gone. As soon as they finished their meal Sasuke dropped the money on the table and left to stand outside to wait for her. He took a few deep breaths and prepared himself. He couldn't believe he was about to do this, it was so out of character for him, but wasn't everything becoming out of character for him?

When Sakura came out, she didn't even look at him and started walking back to her apartment.

"Sakura, if you want to do something just say so," he had to walk a little faster to catch up to her.

"Just forget it," she shot back kicking the snow as she walked.

"Not this again," he grumbled, "I'm not playing this game with you, just spit it out."

She sighed, "I just thought you might want to do something with me."

Sasuke snapped, "Who said I didn't?"

She snapped back, kicking snow in his direction, "You did!"

"You know I don't do the holiday thing, but that doesn't mean I wouldn't do something if you wanted to," he replied softly, lowering his tone, and glancing to his side at her shocked face.

"Really? Sasuke!" her bright smile came back, "I don't know about a "getaway", but I definitely wouldn't mind doing something relaxing," she thought for a moment, "maybe like a trip to a resort or something?"

Sasuke blushed, "Uh… if… that's what you want to do?" Wasn't a resort-like… the definition of a getaway?

The rest of the walk to both her house and then back to his was super uncomfortable. He wasn't sure why, it's not like they hadn't spent time away from the village alone before, and they had been intimate a handful of times though it had been a while. The last time they were together like that was the beginning of January, after the Rinne Festival and now it was almost February… and it wasn't like they didn't want to, but they were both so busy, between missions and her work schedule, it was hard to make the time for anything. Maybe this little trip wouldn't be such a bad thing. It would be nice to spend some time alone together.

As he was getting ready to take a much-needed cold shower a sharp stabbing pain started radiating from behind his eyes. Weird. He didn't even use his visual prowess during his last mission. He thought about going back to Sakura's to have her examine him, but she just worked a 12-hour shift, like she did every day, and deserved to rest before returning to work again tomorrow. He could tough it out for the night.

He stood up from the bed to make his way to the shower when the pain hit him so intensely, he dropped to his knees and clutched his head. He crawled back to his bed and forced himself to lie down. He tossed and turned, unable to get comfortable, and the temptation to go to her got stronger with every moment. When he finally fell into a restless sleep, the intrusive thoughts he held back for so long haunted his dreams.

X

A/N: So I'm not getting a lot of reviews or readership on this website so this will be the last chapter posted here. If you want to keep reading:

/works/46047463/chapters/120942979

This is the link.

Thanks for reading.