Guys, I'm so sorry. Weeks of nothing then I pile this load of angsty crap on you. #sorrynotsorry
Enjoy~!
Visitors, Part Three
Naruto is standing in the doorway of her clinic, arms folded and an uncharacteristic frown pressed on the features of his face. She's doing her best to ignore his overwhelming presence, as she busies herself filing away patient files. She is beginning to wonder which one of them will crack first when-
"Sakura."
She pauses for a moment; leaning over the filing cabinet, taking in the low tone in his voice. She is about to get a lecture, she can tell. It's almost enough to make her smile; those are rare from him. She usually only gets them from Sasuke.
"Naruto." She responds, dead-panned and cold, she returns to her end-of-week paperwork. He sighs deeply, moving from the doorway and dumping himself on the sofa across from the front desk. She raises an eyebrow, wondering if he's already lost his will to fight with her. It seems as though he has; he's sat forward, with one hand running through his hair and the other rubbing his forehead. The motion is so unlike him that she is unsure of what to do.
"Naruto." She repeats his name, softer and warmer this time. She goes to say something before-
"-No! Don't do this again, Sakura!" He's out of his chair now, hands in the air and the expression on his face is... pissed.
This gets her out of her own chair- "Do what, Naruto?"
"Lie to me! I'm so sick of it! Sasuke's sick of it - Hell, you should hear what Ino feels about it!"
"Lie to you?!" Her voice is raised now, reaching to match his. "What on Earth are you talking about?"
"Oh come on, Sakura. I'm not a little kid anymore, you think I can't see that you're so-" He bites his lip, as if he's suddenly lost his words.
"So what?" She pushes him for the rest of his answer.
"So unhappy, Sakura. You talk about nothing but bullshit in your letters. You talk about work and Suna and whatever else but never about you! Never anything about your life here, never about Gaara-"
"-what would I have to say about him?!"
"Oh for fuck's sake, Sakura!" He falls back on the sofa, leans back and puts his hands over his face. "Look, you upped and left-"
"I'm sorry?" She hisses. "I upped and left?" She is all out screaming at him now, more furious than she has found herself in years.
"Well... yeah!" Naruto, on the other hand, had began to lose his own fury. "Sasuke and I were gone and by the time we came back, you were gone. Permanently!"
Sakura is still raging. "Exactly! You left me! You both left me... again!" She slams her fists on the desk. "I couldn't believe it! Yet again, you both left me behind to go off and do whatever the fuck you wanted!"
"Sak-"
"No! Do not interrupt me! You have both gotten to see the world! You've gotten to experience things and do things that I -especially now- will never get to do! And I let you! Not once. Not twice. But. Three. Times. You abandoned me!"
"But-"
"Stop it! It's not fair! I stayed home and picked up your pieces. I became our generation's greatest medic. I redefined Konoha's political system. And for what? To be shipped off to a foreign country to spend the rest of my life being miserable." She pauses, leaning over the desk to catch her breath.
I will not cry. I will not cry. I will not cry. She repeats the mantra in her head.
It fails. And she properly cries for the first time since before the war. "You left me." Her voice is barely above a whisper.
"I'm sor-"
She stops him again. "Don't apologise."
"Why?" His voice is shaking and Naruto is crying too now. "You're right. We left you."
"And I let you!" She chokes on her own tears. "I let you. Every time. Even when I should have stopped you." She sits back down, and continues to cry.
Naruto finds himself lost for words for one of the few times in his life. They both sit there in silence for half an evening. Night has long since fallen before one of them speaks again.
"Naruto." Sakura manages to croak out. "Marry her."
"What?"
"Ino. Go home. Back to Konoha, tell her how much you love her. Then marry her."