Now

Sakura always fantasizes about having a real reunion with her two former teammates and teacher. She imagines that they'd spend the day sparring, far away from Konoha, because the four of them are capable of obliterating their surroundings with basic attacks. They would warm up together, doing light training before moving on to more challenging techniques. She and Kakashi would be opponents, while Naruto and Sasuke would go off on their own to do Kami-knows-what because they are the only ones capable of matching each other.

Then, they would partner up. She and Sasuke would be in one team, while Naruto and Kakashi in another. Their day of sparring would end with one of the two teams victorious, and Sakura would keep track of all the times she has won and lost against her teammates on her personal journal. This way, when she is too old to move she would look back on her writing to remember the times she spent with her beloved team.

They would always end their day at Ichiraku's, Naruto's request, of course. She and Kakashi would try to convince him to find another place to eat, whereas Sasuke would silently sit between his teammates to enjoy the steaming pork broth. Naruto would then point out his favourite part of the day, which is, almost always, when he would catch Sasuke unaware and then proceed to kick his ass. Sasuke would snort, reminding his best friend of the large bruise he so eloquently left on Naruto's body and that Sakura had to heal.

Sakura would listen to them bicker, imagining that their voices are the sounds that make her the happiest. When it gets a little too out of control, she'd punch Naruto on his head and tell him to apologize to Sasuke-kun. Kakashi would look at the three of them, proud of how much his students have accomplished since he met them when they were genin.

And then, once they are ready to part ways and return to their own homes, Sasuke would walk her back to her apartment. He wouldn't say much, just enough yes and nos to keep their conversation light and comfortable. When they reach Sakura's doorstep, she would stand in front of him for five seconds, five breaths, and wait to see if Sasuke leans to kiss her. That would be their first kiss, private from their teammates and the moon as their only witness. If he doesn't kiss her, then she would say goodbye with a sweet smile and a promise of seeing him the next day.

Sakura always thinks that that is how her post-war life would go. Easy, light, and predictable. She and Sasuke would get married, and have a lovely house with a lovely family, and spend the remainder of their days looking after a small garden in their backyard. But things never go so smoothly for shinobi, even during times of peace.

And now, instead of living her fantasy of a peaceful reunion with her teammates, she finds herself facing them with uncertainty.

Kakashi meets them outside of the Naka shrine. The moonlight reflecting on his gray hair while it also illuminates Naruto's blond head. Sasuke has not turned back to look at her at all. He says he's fine, but his body language speaks otherwise and Sakura feels that their battle still isn't over. She bites her bottom lip, tasting the tint that was used to paint them for the ceremony that took place in Indra's dimension. It reminds her that she is still wearing the bridal attire, that her face is covered in white powder, and her hair is longer than it has ever been.

Maybe that is why Sasuke does not want to face her. She isn't looking like herself yet, and it may trigger memories to when he almost lost her.

"Welcome back, Sakura," Kakashi speaks, though his eyes are focused on Sasuke. "I'm really happy to see that you're safe."

She can only offer him a weak smile. She repeats Sasuke's words in her mind, bringing her back to a couple weeks ago when he thought that asking for her help was unnecessary. She may have spent an undefined amount of time in Indra's dimension, but the way her radar picks up signs from Sasuke is still functioning perfectly and it is tugging at her heart.

There are still more demons to fight. And this time there isn't an ancient chaka taking her away or an illness killing him slowly. This time, for once, it is only the two of them against whatever is currently affecting Sasuke.

Sakura takes a step forward, feeling the weight of her bridal robes and her hair. She twists her head in annoyance, having lost the habit of walking with tresses that reach below her back. Her head continues twisting, and now it is spinning.

"Sakura-chan! Teme!"

The last thing she hears is Naruto's voice. The last thing she sees before she hits the ground is Sasuke's knees giving him and dropping him.

And then, everything goes black.

Later

Beep.

"D'you think she'll wake up if she hears my voice?"

Beep. Beep.

"I think she may punch you across the wall if she hears you with that tone. And if it wasn't that punching you is Sakura's expertise and because Hinata wouldn't be happy receiving a beat up husband, I would've done it a while ago."

Beep.

"Ow, Ino! You're talking to the future Hokage 'ttebayo!"

"Shush it!"

Beep.

Amid the heart rate monitor, and two voices, Sakura's ears start to pick up more sound as she regains her consciousness. Her eyelids flutter, letting her sight adjust to the fluorescent light that she has known since she started studying medicine. That feels like a long time ago, much longer than just seven or eight years.

She slowly begis to recognize the machinery beside her rather uncomfortable hospital bed. Her eyes travel from the machines to the sterile white walls, to the equally white curtains, to the IV in her arm, to the two blonds standing at the end of her bed.

Her head is still spinning when her two visitors notice that she has opened her eyes. "Sakura-chan!"

Naruto rushes over to her left side and cradles her head in his hands. The concern in his voice and his movements were so sudden that Sakura grunts in discomfort.

"Don't touch her head like that! It's probably spinning."

Sakura feels someone take her right side and finds herself staring into the beautiful (though she will never admit that outloud) face of Yamanaka Ino. Her best friend's expression relaxes when they connect eyes. Green on blue-green. The same ones Sakura has known since she was a child.

"Ino..."

Back in Indra's utopia, Sakura thought she would never get to see those eyes again. Feeling an overwhelmign wave, she coves her forehead with her hand and waits until her head stops spinning. Once she feels stable, Sakura pushes her upper body up from the mattress and sits on her bed while her two blond friends take a seat at each of her sides.

"Hey, Forehead. I'm happy to know that the first thing that comes outta your mouth is my name. Stop making me feel special."

Sakura has to fight back her tears. Ino. Her Ino, whom she thought was dead and gone, is shining beside her as she takes her right hand.

"I never... -I'd, it's just- it's complicated. Sorry," Sakura apologizes while she wipes her tears with her free hand.

"It's okay, Naruto told me most of it."

"Or at least what I got out of Asura. I don't get why people from the past like to talk with complicated language," Naruto scratches the back of his head and Sakura is brought back to being twelve, innocent, befriending a knuckleheaded ninja who constantly yelled he'd one day become the Hokage.

And her smile feels very sincere. "I'll tell you in a sec," she tells Ino before turning back to her old teammate. "Naruto, is he... is Sasuke-kun okay?"

The room falls into a silence that is only interrupted by the beeping noise of her heart rate monitor.

Beep. Beep. Beep.

"Naruto?" she asks again, finding it hard to swallow as the worst scenarios come to her mind.

"He's fine!" Naruto lightly punches her shoulder, his signature smile back, "Don't worry too much about him and start worrying about yourself."

But Sakura knows that smile too well to know that Naruto is failing at deceiving her. It's the same one he had when he promised to bring Sasuke back all those years ago. It is an expression meant to reassure her that everything's fine, but that Naruto is in fact carrying a weight heavier than his shoulders can bear.

Ino's silence doesn't help either.

Chakra imbalance.

That is what the Fifth Hokage said that it was.

Sakura fainted because she was suddenly hit with the chakra that had been taken away from her when Indrani showed up.

Whereas for Sasuke himself, Tsunade believes that he fainted as a result of the same chakra imbalance and because of exhaustion. He's only human, afterall. Even the most powerful warriors fall on their knees every once in a while.

He's fully awake by now. Conscious of his hospital room and of the way the moon shines against the white walls. Conscious of his eyes staring at the ceiling, unwilling to get up unless it is necessary. He wonders if Sakura has woken up yet; she has been knocked out cold for one more day than he has.

Sasuke closes his eyes, feeling the boulder that has settled in his chest pressure him once again. He wonders, if he tries travelling dimensions, maybe he will find the reality he needs to revisit.

His old home. Their kitchen. Mother, father, brother sitting while they wait for him.

Sasuke can still feel his mother's arms tightly wrapping around him, how she felt so small compared to him in size. His father's proud, yet sad, expression. Itachi's final forehead poke.

And he misses them. After all this time, all this grieving and acceptance that they are gone, he once again misses them how he used to when he was younger.

Sasuke has to swallow to prevent the tears from spilling. He cannot even count how many times he has done that since he woke up. He told Naruto to leave him alone, and was slightly relieved when his best friend obeyed his request and went to keep Sakura's sleeping form company.

He wishes. Oh, how he wishes to go back to that limbo, that entrance to an afterline in eternal company of his family.

He covers his uneven eyes with his right hand, once again conscious of his decision to discard the artificial left arm because it is a reminder of how he almost lost Sakura and almost got his family back.

Sasuke cannot remember the last time he cried so much. Maybe it was when he found out about Itachi from Obito, or when he finally gave in to Naruto and admitted his defeat. To juggle between two worlds. To wish to live for the future of his clan, or die to be with them. It pressures his chest. It reminds him of how much was sacrificed to make sure he remained alive.

He lied to Sakura when he said he was fine. That weighs on his chest too, to lie to the woman he is meant to spend his life with because he doesn't know how to express his emotions. Sasuke would not forgive himself if those were the final words she heard from him.

He closes his eyes, letting the tear trails dry out before he falls asleep.

Beep. Beep. Beep.

Sasuke wakes up to the faint clicking sound of the door lock. He does not open his eyes right away, but can still tell that sunrise has not arrived yet. He knows who it is without having to acknowledge her.

He feels the weight of her body lay beside his on his bed. Still with his eyes closed, he shifts to give Sakura more space and leans his face towards her.

Sasuke knows that seeing Sakura's face will take away some of the pain he feels inside. He finds himself with a pair of green eyes staring back at him. Sakura is dressed with the same hospital gown he wears, he notices.

She reaches out a hand to caress his cheek. "I knew you were awake."

Sasuke merely nods. "When did you?"

"Just today," Sakura answers. "I woke up to Naruto saying that his voice would help me regain consciousness. He wasn't wrong," she chuckles. Sasuke notices how she shivers. Sakura shuffles until she is underneath the covers and feels his warmth. He has to bite back his reaction to how her cold feet touch his and send a similar shiver up his spine. "Sorry. Just really cold. These robes aren't really weather proof."

The spring nights in Konoha are still cold during this time of the season.

Sasuke stares at the woman lying beside him. He extends his only hand to touch the tips of her hair. "Where did it go?"

Even in the moonlight, he can see the faint blush in her cheeks. "I'm not used to havng hair that long. Ino was there today too, and after explaining to her what happened I asked her to cut my hair. It feels lighter like this. It feels more like me." She looks away in embarrassment.

Sasuke vaguely remembers the rumour that he liked girls with long hair. It was a silly rumour, a stupid excuse for girls to try and her his attention. Looking back to those days, he can somehow understand why Sakura feels embarrassed by her decision to cut her hair.

And she shouldn't. He loves her like this. Like herself, no single reminder of her time in Indra's dimension.

"Where did your arm go?" Sakura asks, finally noticing the missing half of his limb.

"It feels more like me," Sasuke repeats.

Maybe they both want to get rid of reminders of what could have driven them apart.

They fall into deep silence, half sleeping half staring at one another, until the birds starts singing and the sun begins to rise. Sakura knows that, one day, she will look back to this moment and categorize it as one of her favourite in all of her life. When she is old and wrinkly, and when she and Sasuke can no longer move with the agility of two young shinobi, she will remember this time of pure serenity.

But there is still one more thing she needs to tackle before this moment becomes perfect, or at least as perfect as it can get.

"Sasuke-kun," she begins, "what exactly happened?"

Sakura half hopes that her former teammate knows exactly what she is asking about. She does not know if she can find the right words to explain herself.

Sasuke pauses, trying to find the right words as well, before he says, "I saw them. I saw my family." The expression that Sakura gives him reminds him of his mother's. "We were in our old house, and they were all waiting for me. We talked for a bit."

"But not for enough," she adds, thinking of what Sasuke must be feeling.

Sakura wraps her arms around Sasuke and cradles him, letting his head rest on her shoulder. She can barely hear the sobs, but her strong arms hold on to his body while it trembles. And she understands. She understands the heavy weight his heart is carrying. To be so close to the ones he's missed his whole life and to be taken away from them once again.

It hurts Sakura too, because she was the prime witness of how Indra attempted to get his family back by building a utopia. She almost lost everyone and everything she loved for the selfish need of her past life's husband.

But she also learned.

Sakura learned that her and Sasuke's fates have been tied together for thousands of years, that they were destined to meet just as Naruto and Sasuke were destined to cross paths in life. It gives her ease to know that enduring all those years of pain for Sasuke were for a reason, and that the path is clear now.

It also gives her a huge sense of responsibility for his clan. The Uchiha are half her past life. Now she is here to help Sasuke build a stronger, more resilient clan. She will be responsible for a lot more than just her contributions to the medical field. Though this is what she has always wanted, to walk along Sasuke for the rest of her life, she cannot help but feel the fear of that prospect.

Sasuke is still vulnerable. Although he opened up about this demon to her he will always have setbacks that make him cross the line between strong and helpless. And she has to be present to catch him when he is about to fall, to ensure that he does not try to make the same mistakes as his past lives.

Sakura is more than willing to do that. It is in her fate, in this love that grown so deeply inside of her.

She waits until Sasuke relaxes in her arms.

Konoha is already waking up, as she can hear the sounds of the hospital staff arriving for the day shift. This moment will remain concealed within these four walls, she concludes. But she knows that more episodes like this one will continue to happen as she and Sasuke begin their life together.

"So what now?" she asks.

Sasuke shrugs his shoulders.

They both know the answer to that question.

"Are you sure about this?" he asks for the tenth time as they walk.

Sakura takes a deep breath before turning to him. "Sasuke-kun, you and I have lived very tragic past lives and have always reincarnated to find ourselves in the same depressing situation. As we promised them," he knows who she is talking about, "we will prosper with this one. The short answer is yes, I am sure about this. If you want the long answer, then you'd have to wait until later because I really don't feel like explaining myself right now."

Sasuke feels a smirk form on his lips.

They prepared themselves before exiting the green gates of Konoha. Explained things to Kakashi, Naruto, her parents, and pretty much everyone concerned in her social circle.

They do not know how long this would take, or where it would lead them.

All Sasuke and Sakura know is that they have each other. And, compared to what they had before being reincarnated into this life, it is all they need.

Forever

Thank you everyone who has followed this story since it has started until now! There are way too many people to acknowledge in here, y'all know who you are.

Also, there are a lot of gorgeous fanarts out there and I hope to one day find links to all of them. Once that happens, I will leave the links on my profile for you all to see and support the artists!

Until who knows when?

MSM