Naruto was not entirely an idiot - at least, he'd like to think so. Whether it was due to being in the company of his wife, the orgasmic ramen he'd just placed in his mouth, or the lack of conflict - he'd been too preoccupied to catch on to the familiar chakra of Sasuke Uchiha. Now, he was choking, worrying the hell out of his beautiful wife - who was flabbergasted at his sudden lack of breathing - extremely happy. Some may say only a fool would be in such a state. But, quickly, he got over the issues he was having, swallowed the ramen, placed a hand on his sweet wife's shoulder to reassure her, and then jumped up as if nothing had happened. He was bouncing up to his old team as if he hadn't just been close to death moments before. His voice, which was always loud, was louder than he'd managed to get in a long time - aside from private matters. The smile plastered on his face was so big it was certain to split his face wide open.

"Sasuke!"

The said man was thoroughly annoyed. But, one good thing had arisen from the misstep - Sakura was now full of energy. She quickly punched the excitable blonde on top of the head, bringing him to the ground and stomping off, murmuring about chewing his food before he killed himself. She sat beside a ghostly white Hinata who watched after her assaulted husband with pupilless, worried eyes.

Groaning, Naruto lifted himself from the floor. Sasuke only huffed at the idiot and walked over to Sakura's side. Hinata was nothing if not polite - courtesy of her royal upbringing - she greeted him softly with a bow. He found himself formally acknowledging her by her last name and sat next to Sakura. The woman had already ordered a bowl of ramen and was happily chowing down. She seemed to have forgotten he was even there. Sasuke wasn't too hungry but made an effort to eat the bowl he ordered while having Naruto right up against his ear - his poor wife forgotten as the excitable puppy found a new toy.

Hinata was unbothered. Actually, she was politely smiling and giggling behind her hand at her husband's excitement. She knew how much he missed his best friend. He talked about Sasuke often, as if he were around and not a ghost wandering the lands. She loved seeing Naruto this way, it was almost as if he was that wild child she'd fallen in love with in her youth. He'd been so reserved lately, trying to show the world he was mature. He tried to be seen as a Hokage well before he was officially in office. He didn't want anyone to see him as a rebellious brat who painted the Hokage mountains. Though he'd shed that mask of immaturity, it had come back in full force today. She happily chatted away with Sakura in her adoration, her eyes never leaving her animated husband.

The group cohabitated for longer than Sasuke would have liked, only due to the fact that Naruto wouldn't let them leave. He was nosy, as always. He asked about why Sasuke was back, throwing out theories, wishes, and impromptu innuendo congratulations on their nuptials. Hinata politely snickered behind her hand and only calmed Naruto down when he became erratic. The Dobe was easy to block out; for the most part, it wasn't him who had caught the rogue nin's attention. It was two separate entities that he focused on, one amassing more of his attention than the other. The first, which was enough of a surprising anomaly that Sasuke had to consciously rip his eyes from the scene, was the ungodly amount of ramen Naruto's new bride was consuming. This oddity captured everyone's attention except Naruto, who didn't bat an eye at the stack of bowls piling up around his wife. The second attention-grabber was Sakura, of course. While she also glanced furtively at her friend's gluttonous pile, she herself had stopped eating about halfway through her first bowl. That fact is why Sasuke also stopped eating, though it was unconscious. Instead, he watched her, wondering if she was okay. She was quiet, an adjective he never would have connected to Sakura, and when he did, it always meant one thing: she was upset. He couldn't talk his way out of taking responsibility for her mood this time. With her hands folded in her lap and a fixed, polite expression on her face, she sat like a statue.

Sasuke wondered what to say, and anything he came up with would never be uttered from his lips in front of this idiot; Naruto would never let him live it down. But, what Sasuke considered saying, which came as a surprise to even himself, were two words: I'm sorry. Could he do that? He wasn't sure, and the shame of that surprised him. He had many things to apologize for, especially when it came to Sakura. She deserved much more than flimsy sorries and hollow apologizing with even hollower promises. Could he promise her anything? He wasn't so daft to know what she wanted, or at least what she had wanted once. A year was a long time to reflect, he should know. He had reflected and come to the perturbing conclusion that he wasn't so hell-bent on loneliness as to let Sakura slip through his fingers. She was remarkable, smart, strong (too strong even), brave, and kind. Too many words that didn't do her justice. Most of all, she was willing to stomach him and his issues. Or, at least, she had been before.

He didn't realize he had held onto that erosive thought until it consumed him. He was expectant of it now, which was the problem. Who was he to think she would wait for no promise or reply? How stupid had he been? How wrong of him to make her wait. So, it was no wonder she hated him, was angry, and all too eager to slap him, all of which was well deserved and justified. He sighed inwardly. There may be no way of fixing this, at least in a way that he was willing to humble himself to, and there was the other problem. Could his ego take groveling or something adjacent? Probably not. The Uchiha were a proud people, it was inherited, not learned. He didn't think he could get to a place vulnerable enough to ask if she still cared about him, let alone confess his feelings. But, when he looked at her, he knew she deserved at least an explanation.

"Hey, you bastard, are you even listening to me?!" Naruto shrieked in his ear.

It took every ounce of restraint for Sasuke not to punch him. The moron all but shattered his eardrum. The apathetic Uchiha stood from his chair and turned to Sakura. She didn't even flinch at his presence.

"Let's walk." You could have at least asked, idiot, he thought. "Sakura."

The woman slowly pulled her eyes from her cold bowl of ramen and looked at him. He couldn't quite place her emotion this time, but at least it wasn't pure exhaustion. Maybe he'd done at least one thing right.

"I'm heading home," Sakura said.

Her body was already past the onyx-haired man as she yelled a parting to the newlyweds. Sasuke followed silently after her. Naruto cried after his childhood companions, leaving it to his doting wife to calm him down by handing him her fresh new bowl of ramen. Though it didn't quiet the pouting man, he confided in his wife about being left behind. She quickly validated his feelings and told him he still had her and always would. The man quickly smiled, kissed his wife on the cheek, and happily dug into the bowl.

Sakura was, in fact, exhausted. She was beyond such into the realm of delirium. Being awake for the better part of twenty-four hours had slowly started to creep in behind her eyes. Adding on the surprise of shattering emotions, you got yourself a walking, barely talking zombie. Sakura wasn't quick to express this to her shadow. He would go away again, and she wasn't confident enough to believe this time wouldn't result in a permanent absence. She felt stupid for caring. More so because he couldn't just bail on a mission given to him by the Hokage, yet, she still was worried. That monster of doubt crept in deeper than her exhaustion.

The problem arose when she didn't know what to say to him. Should she speak her mind in her delirium and risk an uncomfortable, much more silent travel on their mission? Should she wait until the mission even to mention she had feelings? It wasn't like Sasuke didn't see her emotions earlier, she'd unleashed them in a simple slap across his face. Was that enough? Did she get out of having to explain? The better question being, did she want to? If anything, Sasuke deserved to be ripped a new one. But, the problem lies in the fact that Sasuke doesn't care anyway. That had been a hard pill to swallow over the year he was gone. He didn't care, so why should she give him the satisfaction of knowing how deeply her bond with him still lies in her heart? It wasn't like he'd reciprocate it anyway.

Oh, I feel like a fifteen-year-old girl again! Stupid and lovesick over a boy who doesn't even like me. Sakura, what are you even doing? She was better than this. She'd worked damn hard to be better than that, what she once was, and what she once despised. She was a strong career woman now. She took on the medical world and its ever-revolving problems by storm and crushed them in the palm of her hand (metaphorically). What was she doing pining after a boy she'd had a crush on as a child? But the fact remained that she hadn't just been in love with him then; she was still in love with him now.

The walk to her apartment wasn't long enough for much of a conversation anyway. In some way, Kami was looking down on her. She could easily maneuver inside without so much a goodnight and think it all over. So, when they arrived, and she came to the stairs of her apartment building, she didn't expect the footsteps to follow after her. I'm imagining things, she thought. But, as she turned to begin up the second flight of stairs, her eye caught the dark figure with two-colored eyes behind her. She stopped abruptly. Sasuke was right at her heels, unbothered. Her hand immediately came between them to garner some semblance of control and distance.

"What are you doing?" She asked.

Sasuke didn't initially see the point in indignifying himself with an answer. He thought it was obvious that he was walking her home. Did she not understand the obviously chivalrous gesture? The question seemed silly to him. He contemplated what to say, allowing the silence to drag on longer than was probably comfortable for her.

"I was walking you home." There, simple.

Sakura shook her head exaggeratedly, her cheeks heating up and her arms coming flush against her chest.

"Why?" She hadn't meant to verbalize this question.

But there it was, hanging in the air around them like a bubble waiting to burst. What would possess an uncaring man such as Sasuke to care if she got home okay? Besides, she was a ninja and didn't need to be walked home as if she was defenseless. But, her mind wandered back to when Naruto, who was a classified idiot, asked the very same thing. She almost mentally slapped herself. It was just the gentlemanly thing to do. Most men would walk a woman home, ninja or not. It was just a kind gesture, one not to be looked into any further. Sakura shook her head and continued up the stairs.

It was awkward once she made it to her door. She didn't know what to say from here, not wanting to puncture her pride with pleasantries and manners. He didn't deserve her thanks, especially when she didn't even ask him to walk her home, much less directly to her door.

Sasuke had been silent the whole time, which on its head wasn't unusual. What was unusual was the fact that his palms were sweating beneath his black cloak, his headband felt too stuffy and tight on his head, and his legs were dangerously close to working on their own. He didn't know what was possessing him to have the urge to walk closer to her. To follow her inside. Most of all, that he wanted to push her up against her door and ravage her lips. Wow. The last thought sucker-punched him back to reality.

Of course, he had sexual proclivities. He was a man, after all. And a few many, if not all, had Sakura as the star. When it had first started happening, he'd chalked the reason up to being because she was the only girl he'd been close to his whole life for any extended period of time. It was normal to latch onto the one feminine companion he knew as a straight man. But, as it kept happening, and he had started to stroke the aggravatingly persistent bulge that started to refuse to go away with a good training session, he knew he had a problem. It was about four months into his journey when that started happening. Fair enough, he'd all but promised Sakura that there was something between them when he tapped her forehead. It was a gesture far beyond a friendly reminder. In his head, it meant a promise. Of course, it was his fault that she hadn't quite gotten that message. Nonetheless, his desire for her had grown over the year. Sometimes, it was impossible to ignore. It was also wholly inconvenient, especially at night. And right now, it was night, and she was right in front of him. She wasn't a conjured dream for his hormones to eliminate some much-needed tension; she was very much real. The heat of her skin was very much within reach, and his body reacted accordingly. But, his mind was quick to quiet the beast.

"Sakura," He began. He stopped short because he questioned his resolve. Should he wait until they were alone on the road? Full and unadulterated privacy to talk? Where neither of them could run away because they'd both end up at the same place anyway?

She was exhausted but was far more interested and alert to what might come from the usually silent Uchiha. He was a man of few words, and often, that was fine. However, she was far too tired to play the waiting game.

"We should get some sleep before the mission. I'll meet you by the gate in the morning." She rushed to open her door, pushing through and peeking through the door once she was safely inside. "Don't be late, Sasuke." Her voice was soft, her eyes softer, and she was gone.

He blew it. Why did it take him so long to let the words come out? They sat there on his tongue, ready for her ears but stalled by his pride. That was frustrating. He could have at least told her goodnight. In the silent wind of the night, he did just that.