Sakura awoke this morning, feeling very refreshed. She sat up happily, and was unwavered by the fact that it was 5:30 in the morning and she wasn't tired. Half expecting Sasuke to already be awake and gone, she turned and unexpectedly found him still in bed, asleep. She let her eyes travel over the naked span of his back, and the rumpled comforter at his waist. She blushed, hearing his light breathing, and slipped stealthily out of the bed, and towards the bathroom, not caring this time that she was also naked. She closed the door behind her and ran a quick shower, and brushed her teeth.
She blushed as she rubbed lotion onto her legs, her hands covering the dull ache that came from her inner thighs and other regions. Even her back hurt.
Last night had been a bit different from what they had done in the past, or at least Sakura thought so.
After they had gone in for the night, and Sakura had cleaned up her desk, she had headed up stairs, and already heard Sasuke in the shower. She snuck into the bedroom and quickly changed into her nightgown. She had heard the bathroom door open, but she could hear him brushing his teeth. She slid in beside him and used the adjacent sink to brush her own teeth. After she was done, she cleaned up the bathroom, and was about to head into the bedroom when she was shoved against the counter, and his heated lips (and minty breath) mixed with hers.
His palms were on either side of her against the counter, trapping her in his embrace, and he was flush against her, still clad in only a towel. He had never once initiated their ritual in anywhere but the bedroom. Sakura had felt the familiar heat between her legs, but also something else pressing against her lower stomach. She blushed red, her hands by her side, aching to rid her husband of the hindrance of the towel.
He had forcefully, but not violently, pushed the thin straps of her night gown down her arms and was already yanking up the hem of it. He pulled his lips from hers, and crouched to grab the back of her thighs, hoisting her up and around his hips. The towel had slipped from the movements, and the feel of him against her center drove her instantly insane. Perhaps this, she thought, was the closest to intimacy that she would receive.
When they finally made it to the bed, she had all fours clasped around him, and this time, both of his hands were on the backs of her knees, hoisting her legs up higher around his waist. His grunts were louder, his thrusting faster, more animalistic, but Sakura was already engrossed in the movements. This time when she finished, it was with a long moan, and when Sasuke peaked, it was a low growl that formed in his throat instead of the usual grunt.
And Sakura could have sworn her name had left his lips at the end with said growl.
Sakura blushed again, pulling herself out of the satisfactory memory. She wrapped a towel around herself, brushed her teeth and applied a bit of makeup satisfactory for going to work as a doctor. She pulled her hair into a ponytail and snuck back into the bedroom and opened the conjoined closet. She took a quick glance at Sasuke's organized, hanging clothes, before reaching towards her own neat clothes, to pull out a blouse and skirt. She closed the closet and tiptoed over to the dresser to get her undergarments. Figuring that Sasuke still turned away from her and asleep, she took a deep breath and dropped her towel, stepping into her clothes.
Either way, she had to get into the habit of this kind of thing, Sasuke was her husband, she had seen him naked plenty of times, and he her. Still, she blushed a little and zipped up her skirt, and adjusted her clothes. When she turned around to step into her flats, she saw that Sasuke was awake, and sitting on the edge of the bed. He stretched briefly and stood up, and faced her. The blush on her cheeks increased slightly at his nakedness, and she averted her eyes, smiling.
"Good morning."
"Hn."
She headed past him to open the curtains, as he pulled on a pair of pants and dissapeared into the bathroom, shutting the door behind him. Sakura exhaled, hoping he hadn't really seen her change. It was a childish thing to think but oh well. She made the bed and headed downstairs, deciding on toast and orange juice for her breakfast.
She knew that Sasuke liked grilled tomato on toast for breakfast, so she put a few slices of the still ripe fruits under the griller, and turned on the coffee maker. Usually she would have swarmed around the little heavenly gadget, gulping down five cups before she finally woke up, but today, she actually decided on a healthier choice of drink. She poured herself some juice, and hopped up onto the counter, while she waited for the toast.
She heard him quietly come into the kitchen and sit at the table, just as she was preparing his toast. She placed the tomatoes on the bread and placed the plate down before him at the table with a knife and fork. He nodded in thanks, and she smiled, turning away from him to munch on her own toast, not feeling like sitting down this morning. Toast with jam in hand, she walked over to the little calendar and studied it, her head nodding as she counted the days. Sasuke watched her out of the corner of his eye, trying to figure out if she was revealing what the little x's were.
She finished her breakfast and downed the last of her orange juice. She placed the plates and glass away, and poured Sasuke a cup of coffee. Sakura returned to looking out the window, happy with herself. She figured that by the way this was going, there was a possibility that she could become pregnant. She hummed to herself, before turning back to Sasuke.
"I should be back about 6, I have a double shift today. If you want to wait up for me, I'll be happy to make you a light dinner, if not, takeout sounds good." She smiled, tilting her head towards Sasuke, who sipped his coffee, his eyes closed.
"Hn."
She kissed his cheek lightly, and headed out into the hall, donning her coat and jacket. She put on a little lipstick and adjusted her hair in the mirror. She bid goodbye to Sasuke, and left the compound, a smile on her face the entire way to the hospital. It seemed nothing could end the happy mood of hers.
She had been at the hospital a few hours, when there was a knock on the door to her office. She called out for the person to enter, and she instantly recognized the head of blonde, spiky hair. Sakura screeched and flew up out of her chair to embrace the young man.
"Naruto!" Said man grinned, and returned her bear hug happily, swinging her up off of her feet.
Since the two had not seen each other in so long, Sakura had grown accustomed to treating Naruto like a loving brother, and she his sister. They shared the same enthusiasms, and as Naruto grew up into a dashing, young man and out of his immaturities, Sakura had grown to love him even more.
"Sakura-chan!" He placed her back on her feet and smacked a kiss to her cheek. She grinned, loving the sound of his never given up suffix for her. She punched his arm, ignoring his pained yelp and pulled him over to sit on the couch. She plopped down next to him, her hands on his arms, still smiling.
"I haven't seen you in forever! How is is going? Tell me all about Hokage training! And Hinata? I already spoke to her, but I want to know more!" Naruto grinned at his teammates enthusiasm and rubbed the back of his neck.
"Jesu, Sak, so much has happened. I'm sure Hinata has told you that she and I do everything together. And I .. I'm really serious about her. When I'm free of all this training crap, I'm gonna propose to her. I love her so much Sakura, but keep it a secret, okay? I don't need her breathing down my neck about marriage proposals!"
Sakura laughed out loud and smacked Naruto on the arm. "Of course I won't silly! What's this Hokage-to-be training like, eh?" Naruto feigned a large yawn and fell back on the cushions of the couch, earning a small giggle from Sakura.
"It's horrific! I spend three hours a day with Granny Tsunade and all she does is yell at me and lecture me! And then I get an hour off for training, and then lunch, and then I go to Kakashi-sensei and all the other older Jounin for paperwork. And then, when I'm finally done with that like 2 hours later, they send me back to the council advisers for lessons on the law for another 4 hours, I swear! It's exhausting! But I will be Hokage, dattebayo!"
Sakura smiled at Naruto, her heart warming at his silly tale. She pulled him back up into a sitting position and hugged him again. Naruto laughed and hugged her back, pulling away to squint at her face.
"So how's Mr. Uchiha? I've done all I can with the teme, I even taught him my romantic ways, dammit, but he's such a bastard. All he does still is 'hn'! Even when I'm kickin' his ass during training, he 'hn's! What a teme!" Sakura smiled warmly at Naruto, letting out a small laugh.
"I knew it was you who talked to him! He's fine, we're getting along fine. You're right about that though, all he does is 'hn', all the damn time. But he's slowly starting to open up. I just wish he would tell me more." She shrugged, and Naruto raised his fist, a large grin on his face.
"Don't worry Uchiha Sakura-chan, I'll get teme to be your romance god by the end of the month! BELIEVE IT!" Sakura let out another howl of laughter, clutching her stomach.
How she had missed her dear friends.
Sakura yawned, and lounged back in her office chair. She had had a long day, but it wasn't stressful. Mostly, the only patients she had encountered were injured Jounin shinobi and a few children with cuts and scrapes. The rest of her time she spent researching fertility for a master thesis she had promised Tsunade she was going to work on. Just as she was packing up her bag, and standing up, ready to leave, there was a knock on her door, and Shizune peeked in, her face the picture of servitude.
"Sakara-san?" Sakura stood up straight and rubbed her back, which had began a slow, dull ache at the lack of movement she had gotten in the last two hours.
"Yes, Shizune? What is it?"
"Ah, I realize your shift is over, but Tsunade-sama wanted me to come and get you. She would like to talk to you for a moment, if that's okay with you?"
Sakura smiled. "Of course! I'll follow you, I'm just going to grab some books and my notes. I'll be down in a second." Shizune nodded, and closed the door, her heels clicking as she dissapeared down into the lobby to wait for Sakura.
Sakura smiled to herself. Before her marriage to Sasuke, Sakura had been very intimate with Tsunade, and considered the woman like a second mother to her. They had talk about everything, and Sakura had never held back her feelings or opinions from her mentor. But after Sakura's marriage, Tsunade became caught up in her work, and training Naruto, and Sakura was busy going about moving into her new married life as wife to Uchiha Sasuke.
She gathered up her belongings, locked her door, and headed out to follow Shizune to see her mentor, whom she had missed so.
When she entered the older woman's office in the Hokage tower, Sakura immediately dropped her belongings and ran over to embrace Tsunade, who had stood up to greet her, her eyes filled with tears.
"Sakura.." Tsunade held her, stroking the younger girls hair motherly. Shizune smiled and closed the door, leaving the two to have privacy.
"Shishou.. I am so sorry I couldn't make time to come and see you, I've been moving my stuff in to live at the Uchiha mansion, and my parents made a big deal and-" Tsunade smiled and cut her ex-student off by placing her hands on Sakura's cheeks, brushing away any stray tears.
"It's alright. As long as you're okay. I'm sorry too. I've been busy with the council and training Uzimaki, the closest I've come to a break was a two hour nap yesterday!" Sakura smiled back at her mentor and hugged her one more time, giving her a squeeze, before pulling away and sitting down in front of her desk. Tsunade resumed her seat behind her desk in front of her.
"I forgive you, shishou. Always." Sakura smiled, wiping her eyes one more time and let out a laugh, her mind forgetting all about Sasuke, and how she told him she would be home by now. Tsunade took in a breath and looked at Sakura.
"Is.. Is Sasuke treating you okay? Are you two doing okay? I mean.. is-"
"We're fine, shishou, we're happy." Sakura cut off her mentor, her eyes closed in a smile. Perhaps the first part of her sentence was true, she didn't know about the second. And why did everyone automatically ask if they were okay? She supposed it was because he was Uchiha Sasuke, the man who showed no emotion, and Sakura, full of emotion, was a woman to be worried about. As a married couple, Sakura assumed everyone wanted to see if Sasuke could handle the intimacy that came from being a husband. Sakura took in a breath, and bottled up the rest of her opinions, waiting for her mentor to speak once more.
"I won't keep you much longer, I know you must have duties now as the Lady Uchiha, but I just wanted to give you a small gift. I know that at your wedding, you had everything for the traditions, something new, borrowed, and blue, but I know you didn't have something old." Tsunade pulled out a small box from her desk and handed it to Sakura, whose eyes widened, she held up a hand to deny the gift.
"Oh, shishou, I- I can't-" Tsunade waved her hand away, shoving the box at her.
"Nonsense! It's yours now. I know how you've been growing your hair out, so I figured you might want something nice to hold it up, so you're not always using a bun.." Sakura slowly opened up the box, her mouth gaping open. In a cloud of silk lay a large hair clip, with emerald stones set in it in the shape of a butterfly. It had a diamond overlay, and was cut in solid silver. Sakura gently lifted the clip out of the box, marveling at it.
"It's- it's so beautiful, Tsunade, I-" Tsunade stood up and walked around her desk. She pulled Sakura's hair out of its bun, ruffled the pink mass a bit and pulled it back up into a spiral before taking the clip from Sakura and securing the mass in place. Satisfied, she placed her hands on her hips and gestured to the hall mirror in her office. Sakura stood up and walked over to look at her appearance, and was almost taken aback.
The woman she saw in the mirror was not the usual woman that she always saw every morning. This woman was the statue of grace, a goddess behold. The clip sparkled, and left hairs to fall around Sakura's cheeks, making her look older, more refined. Her mouth opened and closed, and a single tear fell down her cheek. Tsunade placed her hands on Sakura's shoulders and peered into the mirror behind her.
"You look absolutely beautiful, Sakura-" She was cut off as Sakura turned and flung her arms around Tsunade's neck, sobbing softly into the woman's neck. At first, Tsunade was alarmed, thinking she had done something wrong, but then Sakura pulled away to kiss her cheeks, and smiled gaily.
"I absolutely love it, Tsunade, it's magnificent. Are you sure you-"
"Yes. Now go home to your husband and be happy. We'll talk soon." Tsunade kissed her cheeks back, and helped her with her belongings as she left Tsunade's office. Sakura was almost in shock. How was she so blessed to have such friends when her husband was a block of ice? As she was walking home, she wiped away her tears and straightened her clothes, to make herself look as normal as possible.
Then she realized she still had the comb in her hair. She bit her lip, and decided that Sasuke seeing her wearing it wasn't best, he wouldn't even react anyways, but still. She gently pulled out the clip and replaced it in its box and put it in her bag. She ruffled her hair as she stepped into the entryway of the Uchiha compound. She looked at the clock and cursed to herself. It was almost eight. She looked around, and realized that the house was dark. Sasuke must have gone out to eat, she thought to herself sadly.
She took off her shoes and made her way into the bedroom to put her stuff down. She placed the clip in its box in her jewelry drawer on her vanity, and placed her notes and books in her office. She looked around the empty house, deciding what to do next. She shrugged and made her way back into the kitchen, deciding to just throw a simple sandwich together. She did so and ate it heartily, before moving into the living room, turning on the light. She looked around at the bookshelf, small stereo, and scroll shelf, before crossing over to the stereo. She hadn't used this since she spent the first week of her marriage moving in. From where she was, she could see that there was a CD in the player. She frowned and walked closer, opening up the box to see the label on the CD, but it was blank.
She hadn't placed that in there, she was sure. Did Sasuke..? She shrugged and closed the box and hit play. A soft lull of a piano traveled through the air. Sakura smiled. This was beautiful. She closed her eyes, indulging in the slow song, her legs taking her over to Sasuke's small stack of CD's on the bottom of the book shelf. Before Sakura moved in, there had been five CD's on the shelf, and after Sakura moved in, she added her other few to it. She never asked Sasuke what they were, nor had she touched them. She assumed what she was listening to now was one of his CD's.
She sat down on the sofa and continued to listen to the lullaby, her hands pulling a medical book off the shelf. She opened it to her book marked page and began reading. The music on the CD seemed to last forever, and a few minutes later, the front door opened. But there was a large gap between the time it opened and the time it closed. And the door slammed shut. Sakura took no notice of this, but curled her legs under her on the futon, waiting for her husband to enter.
"Sorry, I was late, Sasuke, Tsunade wanted to talk to me. Did you go out to eat with Naruto...?" Her words died in her throat as her husband stormed past her and hit the stop button on the CD player, and the sound of the piano died from the air. Sakura looked up from her book, her eyes wide.
"Sasuke-"
"What are you doing?" He asked angrily, his arms crossed over his broad chest. Sakura gaped at him, unable to answer. His eyes were filled with anger, and she waited for the Sharingan to appear, and more memories of her nightmares formed in her mind.
"I-I-" She stumbled over her words, but he was already moving away from her and out of the living room. She heard him go towards the bedroom and the bathroom door slammed. Sakura let out a breath and bit her lip. Why was he angry? She looked at the CD player, before standing up on her shaking legs. She replaced her medical book on the shelf and made her way slowly towards the bedroom, trying to control her shaking limbs.
To be honest, she was afraid.
Sasuke was not one to hit a woman, domestic violence wasn't his thing, no matter how many times Sakura fathomed him killing her without batting an eye. That was different. But now, he was angry at her, and she didn't know why. She wanted to ask, but part of her didn't. Part of her was afraid of him throwing those stinging words at her ("You're nothing to me!") or even attacking her. She didn't trust him.
Sakura entered the bedroom and quietly shut the door behind her. She could make out Sasuke's form in bed, on his side, facing away from her as usual. She bit her lip and slowly undressed down to her underwear and slipped into the bathroom to brush her teeth. She snuck back into the bedroom and into the bed, and curled herself in the fetal position away from him. She slowly closed her eyes, not knowing if this reality was worse or the nightmare she would find herself in was.
This scene was particularly more bloody than the others she had encountered. She was lying on two other bodies, both had been dismembered around the abdomen. She looked around, her eyes waivering. She was afraid. She tried to sit up, but a sharp pain ripped through her rib cage. She looked down, and immediately wanted to erase the memory from her mind at once.
His katana had gone through the middle of her ribcage, right above her stomach. Sakura took in a breath, wanting to let out a scream, but the sword restricted her from doing so. She coughed, dropping blood all over herself, and suddenly she was being picked up and thrown against the cold wall. One of the walls in the Land of Sand perhaps? She didn't know, nor did she really care, right then.
She adjusted her eyes and tried to perch herself on her elbows, but the blow had driven the katana further through her body, and she was having trouble breathing. She lifted her eyes up to meet, once more, Sharingan eyes. Eyes that were filled with hatred and darkness.
"Sa-" She tried to talk, but all that came out was blood. The man in front of her smirked.
"Still alive?" Sasuke questioned, the Chidori emerging in his palm. His grin widened into a horrific, cheshire smile.
"N-no pl-" Sakura raised up her hand towards him, as if to stop him, her lips trying to form words.
So this was what Naruto had felt.
"Don't worry we'll fix that." Sasuke grinned even wider and ran the Chidori through her heart.