The two girls spent a few hours just lying in Sakura's living room and talking. Ino had looked over the whole apartment with wide eyes. "You should see the place I've been staying in," Ino said.

"I'd offer to let you move in, but there's only the one bedroom."

Ino gagged. "Move in with you and Sasuke? No thank you, I'll take a bunk bed over that."

"You're getting paychecks from the tour, thought, right?"

"Yeah. I've actually got a salary since I'm technically on Karui's staff." Ino shook her head. "I'm doing fine. You know me, I just can't help complaining about your floor-to-ceiling windows."

Sakura laughed.

"Anyway, it's not like I'm living here all the time."

"I wish you were. Selfishly. But having you here is so great."

"It's kinda surreal, right? I spent so long dreaming about going to Kumo. And then a while imagining your life here while I was still back in Konoha. To think I miss home now."

"Yeah, I know. I feel the same way." Sakura's phone started buzzing; it was Sasuke. "Hi."

"Shikamaru and I are coming over," Sasuke said. "Figured you'd want to know."

"Shikamaru, too?"

"Told him you were with Ino." She could hear Sasuke's eye-roll.

"Shikamaru?" Ino sat up straighter.

"Okay. See you soon." Sakura hung up. "Sasuke and Shikamaru are coming over," she said to Ino.

"Shit," Ino said, scrambling to get up. "I'm not ready for that!"

"What are you talking about?" Sakura stared at her incredulously.

"I came over here dressed to see my best friend, not dressed to impress!"

Sakura rolled her eyes. "Wow. Come on, you look great. You always look great."

"I'm wearing a baggy t-shirt and my face is bare." Ino threw herself back on the couch. "Ugh, I hate that I even care."

"You're welcome to any of my clothes. Or makeup. Whatever will make you feel better."

"How long did it take you before you didn't care what you looked like in front of Sasuke?"

Sakura frowned. "I don't remember."

Ino groaned in disgust. "The benefits of being gorgeous no matter what. You can afford to prefer wearing no makeup."

"Oh, stop. Also, have you ever looked at yourself?"

Ino rolled her eyes. "How long do we have until they get here?"

"Probably twenty minutes?"

"Okay." Ino ran to the bathroom to inspect Sakura's makeup collection. "Damn, you have a lot of shit."

"I get a lot of products for free," Sakura said. "You can honestly just take whatever you want, I have too much." She had three bags full to bursting on the shelves, and various things scattered on the counter. Sakura realized she hadn't been tidying up, which she would always do before this summer (a side effect of being conscious of Sasuke's presence). Sasuke hadn't said anything, so she assumed he didn't mind.

Ino took out her ponytail and ran her hand through her hair a few times to stir it up. "I just need eyeliner and mascara," she said.

"Blue bag, I think," Sakura said, leaving her to it.

"Ooh. Can I steal this gold eyeshadow for the future, Forehead?" Ino called.

"Yeah, sure!"

Ino came out a few minutes later. "Don't want to bother with skin, there's no time. This'll have to do."

"You look really good and I'm sick of having to tell you that," Sakura said, shaking her head.

As if on cue, the apartment door opened. The two of them went to intercept the boys.

"Hey," Sasuke said, looking at Sakura and then nodding to Ino.

"Hi," Shikamaru said.

"Hi," Sakura said. "How've you been, Shikamaru?"

"Good," he said. "It's good to see you, Sakura." His eyes darted to Ino, who smiled at him. "How was your tour?"

"Really good." Sakura exchanged a look with Sasuke as Ino and Shikamaru watched each other. "So are you staying for dinner?"

"I was actually gonna see if Ino...If you wanted to go out?" Shikamaru finished the question directly to Ino.

"Yeah, definitely," Ino said, smirking.

"Cool." Shikamaru smiled easily, but the tentativeness was there in the air. It made Sakura smile.

"Well, go on, then," Sakura said.

"You don't mind?" Ino asked her.

Sakura rolled her eyes. "Of course not."

The two of them left, and Sasuke turned to her with his eyebrows raised. "Didn't expect this."

"What? Them ditching us for dinner?" She grinned.

"Him being so..."

"Smitten?"

Sasuke snorted. "Yeah. Sure."

"Yeah, she's the same way." Sakura was thrilled about it. Ino rarely fell in love deeply, and Shikamaru was similar. She couldn't help crossing her fingers that this continued to develop into something lasting.

A few days later, Sakura had her first meeting with Tsunade and a few new publicity people. She liked them already, and a new contract with Hidden Sound was close to being finalized.

"So should I start writing and recording as soon as the contract's in place?" Sakura asked Tsunade after the meeting, when they were the only ones left in the room. "Is that what the label wants?"

Tsunade frowned at her. "You should start writing and recording whenever you want to. I won't lie, you should have something new out by next March, maybe, but that could just be a single."

"Really? But I was supposed to start a new album as soon as I got back."

"Yeah, because of Cobra's insane requirements. I mean, by all means, I'll get you studio time, but don't push yourself to write ten songs in the span of four weeks unless that's actually what you want."

"Oh, good." Sakura breathed a sigh of relief. "I don't think I'd be able to write one song right now. Is it weird that it's been over a week since I've been back and I'm still tired?"

Tsunade sighed. "Look, Sakura, you need some time. Take two weeks, three weeks, I don't care. Lock yourself in your apartment, go somewhere fun, whatever. Just stop thinking about work. I'll cancel your obligations. This is ridiculous."

"Seriously?"

"No, I'm just trying to psych you out." Tsunade rolled her eyes. "Of course I'm serious. When was the last time you had a real vacation?"

Sakura was silent for almost a minute as she tried to figure it out. Tsunade let out a hiss of breath. "Jesus Christ. Yeah. I don't want to see you for three weeks."

"That's okay? I don't want you to be swamped with dealing with the contract and my baggage."

"That's my job, Sakura. Trust me, I'll feel much less swamped once you're actually well-rested. The contract's just about finished, there's nothing else you officially need to be around for. Cobra's been well-behaved for once, there haven't been any media leaks. I'll scout out some new people for your team, and you can meet them when you get back and see if you like them."

"Okay. Thanks, Tsunade."

"Yeah, yeah." Tsunade waved a hand. "Remember, you've got agency now. As long as you don't do or say something horribly offensive, I don't care what you eat, wear or do."

Sakura smiled. "Sounds good."

Taking Tsunade's words to heart, the first thing Sakura did after the meeting was have several inches of hair chopped off. Afterward, it brushed her collarbones and was unbelievably light. She felt free.

Sakura thought she would go home to Konoha. It had been just over a year since she had been back, which felt absurd.

She brought it up with Sasuke that night, deciding she would just ask him outright. "I'm going to go home for a few weeks. Want to come?"

Sasuke looked genuinely surprised. "I..."

"You don't have to, it's just—I thought it might be nice, because my parents haven't met you, and..."

"Sure. Yeah, that sounds good."

"Really?" She couldn't help bouncing up and down slightly on her toes.

"Yeah. Never been to Konoha, just the concert arenas." He watched her, the corner of his mouth sliding upward into an amused smile.

It was easy enough for Sasuke to get time off; Kakashi just wanted him back in time for some meetings and publicity engagements at the beginning of September. That gave him two full weeks in Konoha, the same amount of time that Sakura was going to stay.

They planned on staying with Sakura's parents, which Sasuke was slightly wary about. Sakura had scoffed at the notion that they would be anything other than welcoming, but Sasuke had his private misgivings. his past negative history with families wasn't exactly encouraging. Not to mention the fact that he was a total stranger, older than their daughter, and had a vaguely irresponsible reputation. He tried not to think about a possible negative reception, and focused on Sakura instead.

The two of them took a private plane to avoid the sprawling Kumo airport and inevitable stampede that their presence there would create. To try to give them more privacy, Sakura's new manager, Tsunade, had called in a false tip to the paparazzi that Sakura would be in Taki for the next two weeks. Sasuke hadn't met her yet, and kind of wanted to. He had a feeling she and Sakura could've made a lethal team.

Sakura was practically bouncing up and down as they landed in Konoha. "Look, you can see the cliffs from here." She pointed out to the window to a tall, rocky ridge that Sasuke assumed overlooked the city. "I'll take you up there, it's an amazing hike."

"Sounds good," Sasuke said. It was amusing (and satisfying) to see her this excited.

The plane pulled into a private hangar and the two of them got in the car that was waiting. Already Sasuke could feel a pleasant difference in the from the absence of Kumo's hot breeze.

They drove straight to the house from the airport, taking a roundabout that showed off various parks and neighborhoods. Sasuke expected them to pull into any one of the immaculate paved driveways. They kept going, however, leaving behind regulation lawns.

Sakura's parents lived in a modest house on the outskirts of the city, in a residential area with rows of similar small homes painted a haphazard assortment of colors. The driver dropped them off on street with cracks and scattered potholes. It wasn't quite suburbia, and Sasuke realized she hadn't grown up with much, just like him. The difference was that Sakura had a family.

Sakura led the way up to the front door of a yellow house. After hesitating for a moment, she rang the doorbell and then just pushed the door open. "It'd be way too weird to wait for them," she said, embarrassed. "Come on, they're expecting us."

Sasuke followed her into the little foyer. He had made an effort to look nice, and was wearing a button-down shirt, but he wondered if that would make a difference.

"Mom? Dad? We're here!"

A woman appeared in the doorway to the kitchen. "I thought I heard the door." She smiled, and then Sakura ran to hug her. There was a gruff laugh and Sakura's father appeared behind them. Once Sakura separated from her parents, they approached Sasuke.

"You must be Sasuke," Sakura's mother said, looking slightly tentative.

"Aa. It's nice to meet you," Sasuke said.

"We've heard a lot about you," Sakura's father said, coming up to shake his hand. "It's good to meet you at last. I'm Kizashi, and this is Mebuki."

"We're heard about you more from the news than from our daughter," Mebuki said with a smile. "I keep up with the music news, which is always interesting."

Oh, God. Sasuke glanced at Sakura, who bit her lip.

"Personally I find it all too much to follow," Kizashi said. "A lot of trash mixed in with the real information."

"That's the way it always is," Sasuke said.

Mebuki nodded. "I suppose you would know better than anyone else." She smiled at him, and Sasuke was surprised by the warmth of the gesture.

Sasuke had expected both of Sakura's parents to be small, like her, but her father was relatively burly and almost Sasuke's height. Sakura had clearly inherited her stature from her mother's side of the family.

"Well, Mebuki and I are cooking up something special for dinner," Kizashi said. "Why don't you two kill some time and then we can have a real conversation once the food's ready?"

"Sure," Sakura said. "Want me to give you a tour?" she asked Sasuke.

Sasuke nodded. "Sounds good."

She showed him the living room and cramped laundry room downstairs. "It's not a big place or anything," Sakura said as they went up the narrow staircase. She looked self-conscious.

"It's nice," Sasuke said. It was: warm and comfortable in a way that most of the houses he'd lived in hadn't been. He was grateful to see the place; it gave him a fuller picture of Sakura's life.

Sakura smiled. "Yeah. It's good to be back." She motioned to the room on the left at the top of stairs. "This is my bedroom. You can go in, I'm just going to go use the bathroom."

Sakura's bedroom clearly hadn't been altered since she was in high school. A twin bed with a bright blue bedspread was wedged into one corner, and gauzy dark curtains were tied back from the window. Various band posters were tacked up on the walls, some of them peeling at the corners. Her desk held a stack of notebooks and a colorful array of pens.

Sasuke went over to look at her bookcase, which took up most of one wall; the bottom shelf was full of LPs. He smirked. Of course she collected records. Sasuke flipped through a few of them, fingers careful with the fragile covers. She had everything from really old stuff to some relatively new artists. Obviously nothing had been added from the past year and a half. Then he saw a familiar cover: his band's first record.

"Yeah," Sakura said behind him. He hadn't heard her come in. "Don't tell me, I know it's hipster-y or whatever."

"Tch."

"I started collecting them when I was young." She came over and saw the place where he'd stopped. "Oh, God."

Sasuke just looked at her, smirking slightly.

"Hey, you should be glad you're on that shelf. It's all of my favorites," Sakura said.

Sasuke realized what she was saying, and knew he should be glad to be on that shelf. She was one of the best musicians he knew.

"This is really surreal," Sakura said suddenly.

"What?"

"You being in my room. Like, I'm over the whole rock star thing, but if you told me five years ago that Sasuke Uchiha would be in this room one day..."

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "Want me to sign anything?"

"Oh, shut up."

"Nice Konan poster."

"No making fun of my teenage obsessions," Sakura said. "Anyway, she's awesome. You're too pretentious about pop music."

Sasuke rolled his eyes.

"We should go back downstairs or they'll get suspicious," Sakura said.

Sakura's mother was setting the table when they came back to the kitchen. "I hope you like barbecue, Sasuke," she said.

"Aa. Sounds great," Sasuke said. He couldn't help feeling awkward, no matter how normal and welcoming Sakura's parents appeared to be. "Can I help with anything?" He felt like he needed to prove himself; who knew what Mebuki's opinion of him was, considering the media's portrayal of him.

"No no, just grab a seat. We're just about ready."

Sasuke sat down next to Sakura as her parents put down a few steaming plates of food.

"If you were just about any other boy, I'd insist that Kizashi and I treat you both to dinner at a restaurant," Mebuki said as she took a seat. "But considering the circumstances, we thought it would be better to have a nice dinner here."

"This is great," Sakura said. "I'd be happy never going out to eat again for a long time, anyway."

"Not even to Ichiraku's? You'll have to go at some point while you're here, they've remodeled a bit," Mebuki said.

"I'll make an exception for Ichiraku's," Sakura said. "It's the best ramen you'll ever eat," she said to Sasuke. "Don't tell me it's completely different, though, that would be way too weird."

"New stools, brighter paint," Kizashi said. "We haven't been in, just heard about it from Sai." He served Sasuke a generous portion of meat and did the same for Sakura.

"Sai?" Sakura raised her eyebrows. "Did you run into him somewhere?"

"He came over for dinner a few week ago," Kizashi said, glancing at Mebuki.

"I asked him," Mebuki said. "I saw him in town, he was on spring break from school but stayed home. Too much to do, apparently. He looked like he needed a break."

"Art school's very demanding, apparently," Kizashi said, adding broccoli to everyone's plates.

"Thanks, Dad. Yeah, I can imagine." Sakura glanced at Sasuke. "Sai's a friend from high school."

"Sorry we keep having to fill you in, Sasuke," Mebuki said. "Shall we talk about your lives?"

"What about our lives, specifically?" Sakura asked, and Sasuke had to smirk.

"Well, I have a question for you, Sasuke," Kizashi said. "Where did you grow up?"

"Oto," Sasuke said. He wasn't sure how much Sakura had told her parents about his past.

"And when did you start playing guitar?" Mebuki asked.

"When I was twelve," Sasuke said. "I'd played around with them before that, but I didn't have my own."

"Sounds like Sakura. Always messing with her friends' instruments," Kizashi said. Sakura rolled her eyes.

"I play a little piano myself, but Sakura wasn't satisfied with just one instrument," Mebuki said.

"She could've played professionally if she didn't decide that nursing would be a better career," Sakura said.

Sasuke raised his eyebrows. "Wow."

"She's exaggerating," Mebuki said, waving a hand, and her resemblance to Sakura in that moment was uncanny. "I could barely teach you anything."

They were quiet for a moment as everyone started eating.

"So you two met in Ishi, didn't you?" Kizashi asked Sasuke.

"How about we not have an interrogation right off the bat?" Sakura said.

"Sorry, sorry," Kizashi said. "I can't help it. I'm curious."

"It's fine," Sasuke said.

"We met in Ishi, yeah." Sakura rolled her eyes. "I was playing a set before Firestyle. I told you guys this story, didn't I?"

"Well, there's nothing like hearing it in person," Mebuki said with a wry smile.

Sakura recounted the backstage meeting. Thankfully, she gave them an edited account of that night that excluded their club encounter altogether. Neither of her parents pried into any of the particulars of their relationship, which Sasuke had braced himself for. They already knew he and Sakura were living together in Kumo, and didn't seem to mind. They treated him like a normal person, respectful but familiar in the way that was to be expected, considering he'd been dating Sakura for nearly a year. There were no criticisms or questions that were too personal.

Honestly, Sasuke couldn't help warming to her parents immediately. It wasn't just because they didn't give him the cold shoulder or whisper veiled threats in his ear (two things he'd braced himself for); obviously, not doing either of those things would be the bare minimum for a respectful relationship. But they were relaxed and welcoming, kind in a way that Sasuke had only ever experienced from a few people in his life. One of those people was Sakura, and it was obvious now that her personality wasn't necessarily a magical fluke. As he and Sakura helped clear the dishes, Sasuke couldn't help wondering how he would be different if he'd sat at a dinner table like this every night growing up.