She waits. She watches Ino and Sai coming back from a mission together hand in hand, and she watches. And she waits. She watches Naruto drunkenly sing a love song for a beyond embarrassed Hinata during her birthday and she waits some more. Her brain keeps telling her how futile this waiting is, but her heart still waits some more.
It wouldn't be so painful if it weren't for the pity, she thinks. Everytime she shows up to a get-together where all her friends look at her with pain behind her eyes, it makes Sakura feel inferior somehow. Like she is letting them all down by continuing to torture herself by still loving him.
Trying not to be a third wheel to anyone else, she distances herself from her friends, allowing them more time to spend with their "special ones". She hopes that one day her day dreams would come true but with Sasuke out of the village on the soul seeking journey of his, she knows that her hopes may be empty like all her friends already suspect.
When she really allows herself to be particularly masochistic she tries to think about what he must be doing right now. Come to think of it, he never really specified to her what exactly he meant by finding himself and understanding the world around him. Perhaps that endeavour comes with finding a significant other in his travels? She puts that thought deep into her mind and tries to continue with her day.
Sakura tries to burden herself with work again but finds her schedule has been cleared and her work pawned off to other doctors and nurses in the hospital, which she suspects was done by none other than her blonde best friend who would no doubt pester her to go out with her again.
When she enters her office and finds Ino sitting on her seat, she finds her assumption correct.
"How many times I gotta tell you not to sit on my chair, Ino."
"How many times I gotta tell you to put some make up on your big forehead before coming to work. Seriously, all the male doctors in here probably think you're a patient who got in a really gruesome accident that screwed up your face."
Sakura sighed, she almost wishes that were true, because all the male doctors were lining up behind her trying to take her out to dinner or buy her flowers or some other headache. She really got quite a reputation after becoming a war hero.
"So you're in my office to make fun of my face? Is that what you're here for, pig?"
"I am here for the same reason I am ever here in this depressing building, forehead. To take you out and get you some sunshine."
"What is it this time Ino? I have wo-" Sakura caught herself before saying that sentence, Ino had already cleared her schedule so that excuse wouldn't work.
"You have work? Is that what you were gonna say? I think your calendar and your supervisor, Lady Tsunade have something different to say."
"How did you even manage to convince lady Tsunade to get me off work?"
"Convince? She ordered me to take you out. Said you'd been overworking again."
Sakura shook her head. That lady had become her second mother ever since the war.
"Where."
"YES! You're gonna love this one forehead. You, Me and Sai and one of his ANBU friends are going clubbing. We're gonna get smashed before you know it."
Sakura knew exactly what she was doing, and she just wasn't in the mood for this today.
"No, Ino. I told you I'm not doing this."
"What do you mean? We're just going clubbing-"
"You know exactly what I mean. First my mother, then you, I've told you guys I don't need you setting me up with men. I'm fine."
"Come on Sakura, it'll be fun, I had to go through a lotta trouble to even get Sai and his friend off duty together"
"No Ino! I told you already, just back off!" Sakura started getting angry with this constant pestering. But what she didn't expect was her friend to lose her cool too.
"You know what? I've had enough Sakura! You sit in here all day long, you never see us anymore, and you keep waiting for that idiot to come back and swoop you in your arms! Well guess what Sakura, I can't see you destroying yourself in isolation like this over him. Sakura, HE MIGHT NOT EVEN COME BACK!"
Ino finally realised what she had just said. The room's atmosphere just became a lot of degrees cooler and you could hear a pin drop in the silence.
"Get out."
"Sakura, I'm sorry I was just trying to-"
"GET OUT. NOW!"
Ino hesitantly backed off, leaving the office, tears pooling around her eyes. Sakura just sat in the seat and put her head on her table, letting the tears fall slowly. No matter how much she wanted to deny it, her mind knew Ino was right.
It had been a few days since Sasuke had arrived back in Konoha. He had mostly kept to himself, but he had met with the whole gang a few times since coming back (mostly due to Naruto's pestering). Sakura noticed that he was a lot more relaxed now. He was still plagued by a lot of demons but she could tell that the decision to leave the village had definitely been the correct one for him.
But despite that, they still hadn't talked one to one, even after his return. She wanted him to come to her rather than their usual and somewhat pathetic charade of her pestering him. So she waited once more, this time watching the man her heart most desires right in front of her, making the wait oh so difficult.
That all changed however when one day while returning from work, she took a detour from the posh part of the newly rebuilt Konoha, where she saw Sasuke go into a fancy restaurant.
In all her life, Sakura had known Sasuke to lead a spartan lifestyle, a place like this was hardly his style. So when her curiosity outshined her manners, she decided to follow Sasuke and see what he was doing in such a place.
Sakura managed to sneak into the restaurant undetected and sat in a far corner of the restaurant observing Sasuke sitting at a table meant for two, in a fairly dim lit area of the restaurant. He seemed like he was nervous, his face was almost pensive. The bells in Sakura's head were already ringing but she denied them, surely he couldn't be here for a date?
Her thoughts were interrupted when a blond woman wearing civilian clothing sat in the chair in front of Sasuke. Sasuke immediately shaked her hand when she sat down, and despite the ever-stony look on Sasuke's face, Sakura could tell this meeting for personal for him.
After talking for a little bit of time, the woman handed Sasuke a box, which Sasuke accepted, Sakura looked at Sasuke open the box, and as soon as he peered into it's contents he had the most genuine smile on his face that Sakura had ever seen. The one that she thought was only reserved for team 7. For her. Sakura placed 3 large bills on her table despite not ordering anything worth that amount and left the restaurant, tears rolling down her face, and her posture like she had fought in another great war.
A part of her was happy for him. She truly loved him, and wanted nothing more than to see him happy. As happy as he was with that woman. But another part of her had always hoped that her wait would bear fruit. That she would be the woman beside him, after everything.
After a long walk through the Hokage mountain heads, she finally had controlled her thoughts enough to be presentable to the public and decided to go home.
When she opened the door to her apartment, she found the one person inside who seemed to be the sole cause of all her joy and pain.
"Sakura. Your door was locked so I came in through the window, I thought you would be home at this hour."
Sakura tried her best to not let the tears flow again, so she adopted a stony look on her face, mimicking the Uchiha, desperate to not let her emotions seep through her stoic facade.
"And why do you care where I am at any hour?" She said bluntly.
"I-" Sasuke was a bit surprised at the attitude of the usually cheery Sakura. She had always referred to him with love and affection, what had changed?
"I wished to speak to you. About a few affairs."
Sakura bit her tongue to keep from screaming. He decides to date other women and then comes here to announce it to her? Does he think he owes her this for keeping her waiting for so long? Was he here to let her down easy?
"And what would that be? Be quick, I don't have too much time to waste on you."
"Why are you speaking to me like that?" Sasuke finally asked. He could not bear Sakura becoming hostile towards him.
"What would you wish for me to speak to you like? Like that infatuated 12 year old girl you always called "annoying"? Isn't this much better for you?"
"Sakura, what is going on with you?"
"Whats going on with me?! Whats going on with YOU, Sasuke? You keep me waiting for so many years, you come back unannounced and you meet everyone else like 3 times since then, you never even speak to ME directly, and you still have time to go on dates with random women?! Did you even tell any one of us about it even once?! Do we even mean anything to you? "
The streams of tears were falling down Sakura's tears as she finally let her heart out in front of Sasuke once again for the third time in her life.
"What are you talking about, what date?" Sasuke asked perplexed.
"The fancy restaurant you were in, that blonde woman. I saw you two having a date."
"Sakura, that was no date. That woman is a civilian business woman. After my clan was killed, the Clan's riches were divided according to a ratio decided by the third Hokage and a part of the riches went to the Konoha government, and the rest was given to me as inheritance. However a very important item to me was seized by the Konoha government and auctioned off to a bidder. This"
Sasuke picked up the box that the Sakura had seen the woman give Sasuke. Sasuke raised the box forward, motioning for Sakura to take the box.
"These were auctioned off to the mother of that Lady that you saw me with. I tracked her down and offered to buy these from her."
She gently took the box from Sasuke and opened them to reveal two ordinary looking but pristine condition metal bangles. She raised them from the box and further looked at them.
"Try them on." Sasuke said, the smile that Sakura had seen Sasuke display at the restaurant now firmly back on his face.
Sakura slipped on the bangles on her hands and felt a strange cooling sensation from the metal on her skin. It felt nice.
"They were my mothers. My father gave them to her one day when he came back from work very late. I remember my mother scolding him for being so late but she immediately changed her tone when he gave her these. She told me the bangles were special because they were a reassurance of my father's love, who was usually a stony and stoic man."
Sakura finally understood the meaning of Sasuke's soft smile as he reminisced about his childhood times. That smile made her almost fall in love with this man again.
"What does this mean, Sasuke? Why did you tell me to try these on?" Sakura said as she started to remove the bangles from her hand, about to give them back to Sasuke.
Sasuke took a few short steps forward, closing the distance between them, and stopped her from removing the bangles by holding her hands.
"I don't want them back, Sakura. I want you to have them. Because when I finally tracked them down, I realised something important about why I was so adamant about finding these bangles. These bangles, they don't remind me of just my mother, they remind me of you."
Sakura gasped trying to step backwards but Sasuke kept a hold on her hands.
"I know I haven't been fair with you. I have made you wait for so long for this long due conversation. But I needed this time to truly realise my feelings for both myself and for you. I knew that it had to be you, Sakura. No one else could have waited for me for so long. No one would have inflicted that much pain onto themselves for me. I realised why the bangles reminded me of you. So I want you to keep them. For the same sake that my Mother used to keep them."
Sasuke left one of her trembling hands, and placed them under her chin wiping the steady flow of tears that fell from her eye, slowly bringing her face forward till her lips met with his.
When they parted, Sasuke still held Sakura's gaze, trying to explain the range of emotions he was feeling through his eyes.
"Sasuke, have you finally realised your true feelings for yourself? Are you ready to come back yet?" Sakura said hopefully, she knew that his confession was only half of her heart ache lifted.
Sasuke's face turned pensive yet again, he finally broke his stare with her and looked down to the ground.
"No. Not yet. There are still many more worlds I need to see, many more things I have to experience."
Sakura's face fell again. She would have to wait again. But this time with his love as her assurance she could wait forever.
"-But this time. This time, I wish to experience it with you, Sakura."
Sakura's looked up in shock "Wh-What are you trying to say?"
"Will you join me in my journey, Sakura?"
Note : wow this sucks. Its too long and too cliche but i spent too much time writing this so im gonna post it. Thank you for reading regardless, love you all :3