title: verity
prompt: #6 - skin deep
summary: sakura's love has never been skin deep.
Sakura runs home from the Academy positively glowing one day, and the sight warms Mebuki to her toes as she reaches out to give her young daughter a hug. Her presence is so, so alive in her arms, and as Mebuki breathes into Sakura's hair, a weight is lifted off her shoulders. She blinks away recollections of her daughter returning home in the afternoons, almost close to tears, wispy bangs plastered against her forehead from her little fingers having pressed them down far too often, in attempt to hide her forehead.
"I had a good day at school today, okaasan." Sakura smiles up at her, and Mebuki's heart swells.
"I'm glad," she tells her, taking her small hand in hers and leading her into the kitchen.
Mebuki listens contentedly as Sakura tells her of her day between bites of fruit-cubes speared on a small metal fork. This time, there is no mention of bullies, teasing, or insecurities. Sakura adjusts the red ribbon in her hair that her favorite Ino-chan gave her and tells her mother of her new friends, mentions a Sasuke-kun, her excellence at the week's written tests, again of her new friends, and again of Sasuke-kun.
Mebuki knows of the Uchiha boy, but this is the first time she clasps her hands together and thanks him for breathing life into her little girl. No harm in a little schoolgirl crush to brighten Sakura's day, Mebuki muses, thinking back to her own Academy days.
She helps herself to a piece of watermelon and is more than happy listening to her daughter ramble on.
—
Much later, when her daughter is a full-fledged genin, Mebuki notices, with pride, that Sakura's become even brighter these days. Her growth is evident to anyone that has known her in her earlier youth. She is always smiling, now, no longer as burdened by the thoughts of others, and that smile has never ceased to warm her mother's heart.
Sakura is stronger, now, too—she often comes home from training or a mission sweaty and tired, and Mebuki admires how hard her daughter works. She bares her teeth through injuries, always coming back better than before, and though she has her bouts of self-doubt from comparing herself to her teammates, she never fails to do her best.
Mebuki has never been prouder. Her daughter is so hard-working and so beautiful, everything she ever wished for.
She approaches her one morning as she is brushing her hair in the face of the mirror in their sitting room. Mebuki plucks the hairbrush from Sakura's fingers, gathers her hair in her hands, and begins to run the brush down her back. She glances up to the glass every so often to smile at their reflections.
"Your hair's gotten so long," she hums absentmindedly. "You used to keep it short as a kid, remember? Are you sure you don't want it cut like that again?"
Sakura shakes her head, lifting a hand behind her neck, and Mebuki is surprised to see her features flush the softest shade of red. "I, um, heard Sasuke-kun likes girls…with long hair, so I thought maybe…" she trails off, a small, nervous laugh escaping her lips.
"Ah, I see," Mebuki says.
There's more of a spark in her eye when Sakura talks about Sasuke-kun these days, Mebuki thinks. Still the same slight blush of her cheeks, curve of her lips, the same admiration coloring her tone, but less of simple, silly compliments with something more concrete to replace it. There are more, "I want to be brave like Sasuke-kun"s and "I need to work as hard as Sasuke-kun"s.
I want to be strong like Sasuke-kun, Mebuki mouths soundlessly, remembering her words.
It's the first time she realizes Sakura's little crush isn't just skin deep.
—
When Sasuke leaves the village in pursuit of greater power, Sakura's world comes crumbling down. Mebuki catches her crying often at home, her sobs hard and raw and so helpless, her hands pressed into her eyes, trembling because no matter what, she can't keep the tears from leaking out from the gaps of her fingers.
Sakura still pulls herself together for breakfast with her family, and although she doesn't say a thing, Mebuki sees the shadows beneath her eyes that have never had a place there before. She sees the redness of her beautiful, beautiful eyes, the ghosts of handprints against her skin from caging her own face in her hands.
Mebuki takes those hands in her own, runs her thumbs over all ten of her daughter's fingers. She focuses on Sakura's hands, knowing it would be best for her not to meet her watering eyes, and she now understands she is not holding the hands of a girl who has lost a petty crush who held her infatuation, but the hands of a girl who has lost a good friend, a comrade, a first love who would someday prove to become even more.