A/N

Disclaimer: I do not own nor did I create Naruto. This was created solely for entertainment purposes.

With the commotion brewing in the Kusakagure hospital over their injured medic, not a soul noticed when the cloaked man, soaked in blood and dirt, slipped out of the entrance. A lump formed in Sasuke's throat, which he swiftly swallowed, as he put more distance between him and the wounded pink-haired woman he had carried. Perhaps it was guilt that produced the unsettling sensation in his chest but he had no time to attend to it. With a silent reassurance to himself that Sakura's wounds were not life-threatening, he quickened his pace as he exited the village gates.

It had been almost two years since he saw her but he remembered their last interaction like it was yesterday. At the Konoha gates, he made an unspoken promise to return to her and for the first time in his life, allowed himself to indulge in the affection he held for his former teammate. Thinking back on the gesture made his fingers buzz in memory of the way her skin felt when he lightly tapped her forehead. It was a fleeting intimacy—a memory that he kept hidden and stored away until the sight of her today unlocked it.

He had always planned to return to the village, but the past years he spent traveling had confirmed his suspicions. No matter what the Sixth Hokage said and no matter the amount of times his full pardon was announced, he would always be treated like a criminal. While he was an expert at indifference, the disgusted yet fearful eyes that glared at him wherever he went always left a nasty edge to his mood.

That was when he decided that the life he thought he could claim after his journey of redemption was nothing but a pipe dream. He was a stain on the record of his previous teammates, like a malignant mass growing on the side of an innocent child. He knew that his presence in Konoha would only strike fear in the civilians and dampen the spirit of the war-torn village as it slowly began to rebuild. Most importantly, he knew that the people with which he had mended his bonds were better off if he instead led a life of solitude.

Finally coming to a stop at the edge of a small stream, Sasuke dipped his lone hand into the water and scrubbed the dried blood from his fingers. Then, he shrugged off his stained cloak and as best as he could with one arm, folding the garment neatly before tucking it into his bag. With a sigh, he surveyed the damage that the earlier battle had left on his body. Fortunately, he was quick enough to dodge the explosion but in his daze, one of the attackers was able to slice his upper left arm with a sword. The injury was currently covered, a band of fabric wrapped tightly against it to stop the bleeding. But he could see now that blood had soaked through the makeshift dressing, leaving red streaks running down the stump of his left arm. Without as much as a wince, he cut the fabric away with a sharp kunai and allowed the cloth to drop to the ground.

Sasuke leaned forward as far as he could and dipped his wound into the cooling stream, letting the dirt and grime wash away with the natural flow of the water. Satisfied that the cut was clean, he sat back and crossed his legs before retrieving a roll of gauze and a small jar of ointment from his supply bag. As he worked to dress his injury, he allowed his mind to wander idly back to a certain pink-haired kunoichi.

Subconsciously, the memory of Sakura healing him began to unfold in his brain. He could recall the way her chakra flowed through what remained of his left arm that day three years ago, leaving a warm and numbing sensation behind. But the show of medical ninjutsu wasn't the thing that captured his attention that day; rather, it was the way her brows slightly furrowed and her gaze steeled as she concentrated on patching the tattered skin of her teammates. Her jade eyes, he remembered, brimmed with the threat of tears.

Before he could think, the words he muttered that day already left his lips. I'm sorry…for everything, he had told her. He remembered the unfamiliar feeling that erupted in his chest when tears began to stream down her cheeks, splashing onto the back of her hands as she worked. And maybe it was the extent of his injuries leaving him delirious or the fact that her hair in the sunlight made him feel as if he was witnessing the blossoms of spring for the first time, but he allowed himself to be consumed by the soft tenderness radiating from his chest as he studied her face. He'd never tell her but that day, he didn't just discover those affections for the first time. They were always there and he had simply, finally given in to them.

But that was before he realized that he had no right to indulge in such feelings and he especially had no right to share those feelings with her. Atonement was simply a naive idea he forced himself to believe was possible. So as he traveled from town to town over the past two years with no intent to return, he detached himself from those emotions, leaving a cold emptiness in its place. His goal wasn't to sever their bond. No, nothing like that. But he had succeeded in feeling nothing more than a platonic indifference. And that was how he planned to keep things.

Once his wound was properly bound, he reeled his thoughts back in and locked them away like he had done so many times before. His job of getting Sakura to the hospital was complete and he had no other reason to think of her or worry about her recovery. He had no reason to stay and see if she was healed. As if he needed to prove it to himself, he gathered his things quickly and headed through the forest. He had no idea where he would go next but he knew he just needed to get as far away as he could from the remnants of a life he could no longer have.

"Fucking Uchiha scum," the woman spat when her eyes fell on Sasuke's face. With as much force as her elderly arms could muster, she wrenched her arm out of his grasp. "Touch me again and you'll be sorry," the old woman warned after Sasuke stepped back from her.

A small crowd had gathered around the duo now with some civilians gawking openly at the dark-haired man whose features gave no hint at his reaction to her words. Several minutes earlier, Sasuke was wandering lazily through the marketplace when thieves ran past him. In a flash, they snatched the elderly woman's bag, dragging her slightly when her arm was caught in the strap and pulling her body to the ground. Instinctively, Sasuke had reached out to steady her and she thanked him until she looked up and recognition fell across her face.

His facial features unchanging still, Sasuke wordlessly pushed through the crowd—or rather they nervously dispersed when he approached—and continued on his way to his intended destination. Things like this didn't bother him anymore. The old him would have lost his temper at the tarnishing of the Uchiha name. But these days, he was completely apathetic, resigning to the fact that he deserved the reputation he created.

But his reason for entering Amegakura, the Hidden Rain Village, was not to engage in pointless niceties with the civilians. He was here for one thing and one thing only: he aimed to infiltrate the old Akatsuki base. He yearned for more information about the short life his brother, Itachi, lived after he fled the village and joined the organization. Sasuke doubted that there would be anything left at the base since the untimely death of their leader, Pain, but he couldn't rest until he knew for sure.

When Sasuke left Konoha and embarked on his atonement journey two years ago, Kakashi told him about the base. There wasn't much information, his ex-teacher had told him apologetically, but there was a chance that some records could have been left behind when the Akatsuki's regime over the village ended abruptly. It might be worth a try if you really want to know, Kakashi shrugged when they conversed that day.

The city, Sasuke noted, was in complete disrepair. Its buildings, now bathed in sunlight, unlike how they were long ago, were stained with the lasting effects of Pain's eternal rain jutsu. The mold and filth lining the abandoned houses made him cringe. But from what he could remember from his days at the Ninja Academy, the village had never truly seen an era of prosperity. Constantly caught in the middle of warring Shinobi nations, Amekagure served as the battlefield and its people paid the price.

Sasuke had been to many nations during his travels but the Hidden Rain was certainly the most desolate. People in tattered clothing slept on the streets and off in the distance, he could see some children—likely orphaned during the war—rummaging through trash. As he approached them, Sasuke silently held out a bag of bread and onigiri that he bought while in Kusakagure. The boy, who couldn't have been more than ten years old, looked from the bag to Sasuke's face and back to the bag again with widened eyes. A younger, smaller girl in clothes just as ragged as the boy's, peeked inquisitively from behind him at the dark-haired man.

After almost a minute of the boy only staring at his outstretched offering, Sasuke finally broke his silence. "Food," he said matter-of-factly.

"Th-thank you, sir," the boy stammered, hesitating slightly before eventually taking the bag from Sasuke's hand, his eyes still wide.

With a nod, Sasuke continued moving towards the tower he deduced was the abandoned base. But he was stopped in his tracks when something tugged on the empty sleeve of the left side of his shirt. Peering down, he found that the girl now clung onto the fabric of his clothes, her curious yet hesitant eyes meeting his.

"Are you Naruto Uzumaki?" The girl asked quietly as she pointed to something at his waist. Following her finger, Sasuke found that she was referring to the headband he kept there, the slashed Konoha symbol shining slightly as the metal reflected the sunlight.

"No," he answered curtly, shrugging his shirt out of the girl's grasp and continuing on his way.

But he was suddenly stopped mid-step when she followed up with, "Then are you Sasuke Uchiha?" He whipped around at the sound of his name, caught off guard that the girl had spoken it so casually.

"You are!" she gasped, taking his gaze on her as confirmation. "Father told me all about you and how you saved the world with Naruto Uzumaki!" The girl was ecstatic now. She ran up to him and once again held the fabric of his clothes, bouncing slightly with excitement.

"Yui, stop that!" The boy grabbed her forearm and pulled her back, forcing her to release her hold on Sasuke's sleeve. With a deep bow towards Sasuke, the boy frantically said, "I'm sorry, sir, please forgive my sister! She's young and she doesn't know any better."

"Where's your father?" Sasuke paid no mind to the boy's apology but he was suddenly curious about the children.

"Oh," the boy straightened up from his bow and his expression darkened. "He died almost three years ago. His injury from the War got infected and we couldn't afford the medicine." Beside the boy, the small girl's earlier excitement was now replaced by a deep frown.

Ignoring how his chest lurched at the boy's words, Sasuke reached into his travel bag and pulled out a wad of cash.

"Go buy some new clothes," Sasuke instructed as he handed the money to the boy whose eyes lit up in wonder as he looked at it.

"Thank you! Thank you so much!"

With a final instruction to the boy about making sure to never show all the money in crowded areas, Sasuke walked away and left the two children whispering enthusiastically amongst themselves about what they should buy at the marketplace.

It was a simple gesture, Sasuke knew—one that could never make up for the atrocities he had committed—but he allowed himself to briefly bask in the warmth spreading across his body as the girl's words replayed in his head. Grasping the headband that hung at his waist gently, he idly traced the shape of the etched symbol with his thumb. He kept it there as a reminder that somewhere, somehow, there were people who believed in him despite his shortcomings. He'd never admit it, but sometimes it really did feel like perhaps he wasn't so irredeemable after all.

A/N

Thanks for reading! This will probably be my last update until Tuesday or so. I'm toying with the idea of switching between Sasuke and Sakura as narrators but I haven't decided if this is something I'll keep up for future chapters. Please review and let me know what you think!