It starts with a note, a sentence scribbled on a hospital kitchen napkin.
For when you wake up. -Sakura
The two members of team seven who have been deemed by the ninja gods to be reincarnations of their former selves lay side by side in their beds within a shared hospital room. Sasuke and Naruto are separated by a thin hospital curtain. In an ideal world the two would have separate rooms but due to a great ninja war just ending the hospital is over capacity as it is.
Kakashi had carried Naruto from the battlefield back to Konoha, while Sakura had been assigned Sasuke to carry. The two boys, exhausted of chakra and energy after their personal battle and breaking the infinite tsukoyomi, had promptly passed out.
The journey back to the Konoha hospital had gone on for what felt like a small infinity. Sakura had to readjust her ex-teammate multiple times. First she had carried him bridal style, then she had thrown him over her shoulder supporting him at his lower back, and the last leg she had adjusted him to carry in a piggy-back hold.
Shortly before the village gates had come into view he started murmuring things into her hair where his head leaned against. His eyes were still shut, his body limp, but his mouth seemed to have been working just fine.
'My arm hurts.'
'I'm tired.'
'I want a tomato with the flaky salt…and pepper.'
The final phrase he muttered had her laughing to herself. It was such a specific request and she is shocked his exhausted mind could conjure such a focused thought.
Sakura had set him onto the wheeled hospital bed once they had made it through the double doors of the emergency department. It seems Tsunade and Shizune were already moving the hospital along. Taking patients, and assigning them to categories- intensive care, mild injuries and anything in between. It reminds her of what she had done to organize citizens just a couple years ago after the Pain attack.
Sakura's last task she will be allowed to do before her shishou finds her in her teammates room and promptly sends her to get some rest; is to get Sasuke his nocturnally requested snack.
"Shizune and I have been in a genjutsu for hours. You've been moving and helping save the world for days. Go rest Sakura!"
"Shishou, you forget my strength." Sakura answers pridefully, hands on her hips, fighting a yawn. It's here she realizes she's still wearing her war attire, the fabric of one of her sleeves still torn.
"I could never forget your strength." Tsunade pauses and taps her pointer finger to Sakura's new diamond seal. "…You seem to forget that we are still human and have limits. Now go rest and I promise you can take the shift after mine." Tsunade reassures, exasperated.
"I need to do one thing and then I'll relax."
"Alright, I'll find you when I need you to take over."
Tsunade waves her off and walks down the hospital hallway. Sakura scurries off in the opposite direction and down a few flights of stairs to the all too familiar hospital cafeteria. She looks through the bins of their fruits and vegetables. Finding a perfectly crisp apple for Naruto and a firm red tomato for Sasuke. She cuts them both up, and recalls the seasonings he had mentioned. Looking through the seasoning cabinet and thankfully finding a flaky salt tucked into a back corner.
She finishes cutting the apple and the tomato, assuring it is seasoned properly and walks the two dishes up to their shared room. Before heading back she wraps a plastic wrap over the fruits, unsure when the boys would wake. Sakura leaves each plate on their bedside tables. Naruto is still a sprawler, his body does its best to starfish in the all too narrow hospital bed. While Sasuke snores softly, she remembers this from back when they were genin. He had always denied it profusely but Kakashi, Naruto, and her all had heard him enough times on overnight missions.
Sakura sways and has to grasp onto Naruto's table to steady herself. Fatigue caught up with her. She glances, her vision overrun by black spots, to the opposite wall of her teammates room where a perfect couch resides. Quietly walking over she curls herself onto her side, facing the back of the couch, looking away from the boys and curling into herself for warmth. Sleep comes easily that night. The easiest it has washed over her since the three were all genin.
—
A sink running a short distance away wakes her. The sliding door to the in room bathroom opens and shuts. Her eyes open and she finds the tan cushions of the hospital room couch looking back at her. Sakura rolls over to her other side and startles when she finds Sasuke standing over her with a hospital grade top sheet. It seems like he had been just about to wrap it over her. Sasuke's face changes and it looks like he had been caught doing something naughty, instead he balls up the sheet from what she guesses was from his bed.
"What time is it?"
When she had initially fallen asleep it had been early dusk. Judging from the window on the other side of the room it was pitch black so only a few hours must have passed. Sasuke fixes his facial expression and turns towards the wall by Naruto's half of the room where a clock hangs.
"Nearly four in the morning."
"Shit! Er-I mean, shoot." She's not sure she's ready for him to realize that she's picked up using foul language so casually. At least more so than when they were genin. "I have to go check on Shishou." Sakura shifts to sit up and her head rushes from the change in blood flow.
"Sakura." Sasuke says his good hand places atop her shoulder to have her remain seated, and gather her bearings.
"Tsunade came in an hour ago and said to let you rest a while longer." Even in the dark she can tell he means it, his expression seems sympathetic. Sakura settles back and sits more comfortably back onto the couch. She hadn't really heard him at first but now she hears the sound of Naruto snoring from his side of the room.
"Did he wake you?" She asks, and pats the empty spot on the couch beside her, wordlessly inviting him to sit. To her surprise the couch dips when he sits down. He's left a bit of space between them.
"I can't believe you didn't wake up."
Sakura shrugs, "I'm used to it."
Sasuke stiffens beside her and she suddenly feels bad for saying anything. Trying to fix her error she adds on. Everything with Sasuke and team seven is fragile right now. She's afraid one misplaced phrase or action could send everything crumbling once more.
"I'm surprised you aren't still used to it."
She can hear the smirk on his lips when he responds. "It's been a while."
They sit in a charged quiet. It feels like they both have so much to say and yet, the room remains silent aside from their third teammate. Sakura opts for doctor mode rather than 'repairing old bonds' mode.
"You know, you should be resting too. I can guarantee you are not healed enough to be up and moving the way you are."
"Night times are historically tough. Snoring Naruto or not."
It's a bittersweet admission on his part.
"...You talking shit bastard?" A shuffling of blankets is heard and Naruto pushes aside the white hospital curtain to his part of the room. He steps out of his bed and walks over towards to the two of them on the couch after swiping the tray of apples off his bedside tray.
Naruto stands near the couch, which has just enough room for two people. Three would be too tight.
He places his plate of apples on the table beside the couch. "Thanks Sakura-chan." Naruto says as he gestures an apple slice up to her before promptly chomping into it.
"No problem!" She chirps and curiously glances towards Sasuke's bedside tray to find his plate empty and the napkin gone. Sakura stands and brushes her doctor's coat off. She had set it on the edge of the couch before falling asleep earlier, getting rid of some imaginary dust.
"I really should go. I'm sure Shishou needs a break."
"...more like a drink." Naruto mutters.
Sakura rolls her eyes and walks towards their door.
"Just call if either of you need anything."
Naruto has already taken her seat on the small sofa and Sasuke nods at her before she leaves their room and shuts the door. Before even fully closing the door she can hear Naruto's loud voice carrying, perhaps a challenge between them was already afoot. Down the hall she looks for a pen in one of her coat pockets as she walks by patient charts outside rooms. Instead she finds an unfamiliar piece of paper she can't quite recall placing there.
Sakura pulls it out and unfolds it. It's small and the paper has clearly been torn off the corner of a notepad. The lettering is kind of jumbled but she knows whose handwriting it is instantly. While his dominant writing hand is now gone, he still adopts the same elegant curves and lines– just a little less practiced.
Thanks. -S
It's simple, and very much in line with something he would do. Sakura tucks the note back into her pocket, the first of many treasured notes they exchange over the next few years.
–
Two weeks into the boys' hospital stay and Sasuke has, he thinks, figured out Sakura's erratic schedule. It's different every day but her habits are typically the same.
Shizune has been giving Sasuke and Naruto tasks every few days to practice. Their first lesson had been pouring water from a small cup to another small cup working their way up until they were pouring a full gallon jug into an empty gallon jug. It was an annoying exercise but a helpful one to get used to their new equilibrium. Plus the competition between himself and Naruto had been welcome to keep from going stir crazy in their hospital room.
Today's lesson was folding fabric of varying sizes. Shizune started the two of them off with a square washcloth, followed by larger fabric pieces ranging from a shirt, to pants, to a body sized towel and the largest one: a hospital bed sheet. Sasuke had struggled with the shirt and Naruto had the hardest time with the sheet. Shizune left the assorted fabric samples in their room to practice until assigning their next task in a few days.
Sasuke hasn't known Shizune for as long as Sakura and Naruto, but he finds she's kind, yet stern when needed and slightly more gentle than Tsunade. "Who knows next time I might come in with a laundry bin full of hospital towels for you two to fold! Good night boys, I'll be back in a couple days!" It seems she had been helping them work up to doing hospital chores.
"This is bullshit! I feel like a child having to relearn how to fold a-a fucking towel!" Naruto throws the small hand towel onto his mattress with mock aggression.
"Did you ever fold your laundry in the first place?" Sasuke inquires as he continues practicing with the sample long sleeve shirt.
"What does that have to do with anything? It stays in the basket, bathroom, or on my body. Why bother folding it?"
Sasuke is about to refute Naruto when Sakura knocks on their door. She has been doing this nightly since they have been here.
"Night guys! See you tomorrow." She's tired. The bags under her eyes look darker today than they did yesterday. Her shoulders sag, with what seems like the weight of the Konoha hospital and its expectations resting on her shoulders. Yet, the pep in her greeting completely counters her appearance.
"Are you going home Sakura-chan?"
"I'm going to try to tonight." One of her hands comes up to her mouth to cover a yawn.
"I'm holding you to that. See ya in the morning!" Naruto waves Sakura off. Sasuke had been watching her too intently before realizing she had already walked off.
"Dude you didn't even say bye, you just stood there like a doofus." Naruto chuckles, unfolding and attempting to refold his towel again.
"Whatever. I'm going to lie down." Sasuke is tired too. Folding fabric with one hand for hours on end had drained more energy than he had anticipated. He also doesn't have the mental stamina right now to deal with Naruto's teasing or to critique his strange laundry habits.
"That's a good idea! Kakashi brought me a new book to read!" Naruto exclaims flinging his towel across the room.
"Do not read anything Kakashi brought to you while I'm in the room."
"What are you the overseer of reading material? Fuck off." Naruto spits back in a way that he thinks resembles a brotherly conflict. "Besides, it's not that. It's reading material about being an ambassador for Konoha. Kakashi says it would be a good first step towards Hokage responsibilities."
Sasuke grunts a response to Naruto's book explanation and focuses on the setting sun out a nearby window just an arms length from his bed.
Their room is dark when Sasuke wakes up from what he confirms was merely a two hour nap. He cracks his neck, stands from his bed, and steps quietly past Naruto breathing loudly on his bed. He has an inkling Sakura is still here, even though she claimed she was going home. Sasuke knows where her office is, he's been taking late night hospital walks recently to clear his mind when familiar nightmares become particularly unnerving.
Sasuke reflects a moment on how all three of them had fallen into a comfortable rapport. With Naruto it has always been easy. Sakura had been a different story, they had always had their own relationship, different from the rest of Team 7's bonds. Deep down he had been nervous Sakura would feel uncomfortable or wary around him after everything. The very opposite had occurred. She was in their room often between shifts or surgeries, talking with them, reminiscing, laughing. He's glad the three can get along as well as they do. She was a comfort for him, in a way similar to Naruto yet still very different. Sakura was like a breath of fresh air, he felt safe with her around.
Climbing the set of stairs separating her office and their hospital room he strides down the short hallway to her corner office where he spots her lamp is still on inside. He turns the knob of her office door as quietly as possible in case she was asleep, sometimes she was when he checked on her. It was rare and she probably never knew he visited, but he would still turn her lamp off and place her doctor's coat over her that typically was always hung around the back of her desk chair. Sasuke is starting to worry if she ever really goes home, but then he will see her the following day with a clean set of clothes and wonder when she finally left.
Sakura fails to notice him initially as she pushes papers around her desk.
"How difficult is what you are doing?" Sasuke asks, watching her startle from the sound of his voice.
"How long have you been there?"
He walks in farther and sits in a plush chair on the other side of her desk. "Not long."
Sakura pauses, looking at him, then back down at a paper.
"Not too difficult, I suppose. I forgot I had to file new medic forms for the newest group of medic nin graduates. And of course they can't start working until I get these properly sorted and filed away." She says with a tone akin to defeat.
"Don't they have other people to do this kind of thing?" He asks, the more he observes her the more he can't believe all the work and tasks they put on Sakura here. Was she not doing enough?
"We are spread thin and need all hands on deck. I can do this now. It's easy, just tedious."
"Let me do it then. You can go down to our room and sleep."
Sakura glances up at him from a paper she had been examining with curiosity.
"I don't know. What if someone catches us? You're not exactly Dr. Haruno, like the door says." Sakura crosses her arms over her chest, challenging him.
Alright, he can play.
"I'm already scheduled to get arrested. Not much else they can do." He shrugs replying with a straight face, meeting her gaze.
Her expression morphs from bewildered to a sudden stuttered laugh. Sasuke releases a chuckle he had been holding back, everything about this situation was so outrageous sometimes, that getting in trouble for filing paperwork was the least of his worries.
"Fine. Come around, I'll show you what you have to do." Sakura nods at him to look over her shoulder on the other side of her desk where she sits. She shows him what to do, match names on papers then place all the corresponding papers into their respective manila folder. He picks it up easily, and nudges her out of her chair so he has more space and access to the papers. Sakura is of course still watching and making sure everything is done correctly.
"I'll leave it in a pile for you to look over when I'm done." He offers to settle her nerves.
"Ok…thanks. Are you sure about this? I should really-" Sasuke looks up at her, her clothes are wrinkled, there are mysterious stains on her doctor's coat, and the circles under her usually bright eyes have darkened even more.
"I got it. Now get out, I have filing to do." He reassures her.
Sakura puts her hands up before backing towards her office door. "Of course Doctor Uchiha."
"Tch. Go rest." Sasuke tosses back, trying not to think about how her light teasing made his heart race just that little bit faster.
When he thinks she's gone and the door is about to shut, she pops her head in one last time, mouthing thank you before finally leaving.
–
Their 'first' kiss is on the hospital roof. Naruto was released just earlier that week, after spending three and a half weeks healing from the war and his battle with Sasuke. His natural accelerated healing and large chakra stores had allowed him some leeway. Sasuke on the other hand still needed more time, especially with his optical nerves and his own missing limb.
Naruto of course still visits Sasuke and Sakura both in the hospital during visiting hours. It's on one of the nights Sakura sees their favorite blond teammate leaving Sasuke's now downgraded room that she does Sasuke's final check up. It's past visiting hours and he is her last patient for the day before she is able to go home. Though she won't, instead opting to hole up in her cluttered hospital office and plug away at her work for the children's mental health clinic. Sakura knows the bags under her eyes are dark and noticeable but she doesn't care, good work that will help countless means more to her than a few hours of missed sleep.
While never a victim herself of parental loss she has countless people in her life, two in particular, who she has seen the effects of PTSD and loss up close.
Sakura knocks and enters Sasuke's room, and as per usual recently he is reading a scroll.
"What's your scroll of choice today?" She asks sweetly.
Sasuke has taken to reading whatever scrolls Sakura grabs from the library. She has been making many trips recently now that she has more time to devote to planning and research of the children's clinic. She had noticed during her nightly goodbye's that without Naruto in the room he was looking a little more bored, despite what he would say. She left him with a scroll on the history of shinobi weapons on his third night without Naruto. The following day he thanked her and asked for more scrolls to read.
"...old war tactics."
"Are you itching to fight so soon? I can bring Naruto back?"
Without looking up from his scroll he answers.
"Maybe if my doctor would clear me for spars I wouldn't have to just read about battles." His tone is all too demanding. Sakura has been getting snippets of his sass. She vaguely remembers moments of his moodiness similar to now, from back when they were genin.
Old habits die hard.
"Well you are in luck! I am here for your final check up. You know the drill, scroll down shirt off."
He does as she says having done this song and dance time and time again during his time in the hospital. It still sends the same flutter to her heart no matter how many times she has seen him shirtless. Even when his torso was bruised, scratched and bloodied the first couple days. She appreciates the corded muscles that seem so effortlessly etched onto his body. But she knows much like herself, he had to train countless hours to get his hard earned definition.
She mindlessly folds his shirt up once he gets it off himself, having him do the simple task with one less limb is one of their top priorities especially with Kakashi breathing down her neck to help him enough so the council will stop breathing down his neck to send the Uchiha on S rank missions using his shiny rinnegan.
Sakura is disgusted that the council has already moved onto claiming Sasuke as a part of Konoha again, especially since they intend to throw him in prison and put him on trail. Except Sakura knows it's all for show. For the sake of the villagers and the higher ups in the village it sends the message that Sasuke Uchiha is in the palm of their hand and they can do with him as they please.
Sasuke is well aware prison awaits him once Sakura gives him the clearance to leave.
She's unsure why he is so eager to get out of here. Maybe he sees it as his chance to be free. They had briefly talked about it last week but it had been a pretty cut and dry discussion. Sakura was in the room when Kakashi had visited to inform Sasuke of what would be happening. Sasuke nodded during the meeting and Sakura listened from the back wall of his room. It had been a rather somber affair. What Sakura did notice was how Sasuke had marginally perked up once Kakashi had shared after completing his sentence and some probation work around the village he would be a free man (with allegiances to Konoha.)
Sakura starts the check up and goes through her routine checklist items. Her last two tasks, as always, are to check his ocular nerves and arm strength. She starts with his arms.
"Left arm up. Then right, then both at the same time." She observes carefully the way his muscles bend and shift to lift both arms up, looking for any abnormalities in movement.
"Still having trouble with phantom pain? More so or less since you were brought to the hospital?"
"Yes. And about the same." He replies.
"Have you been practicing your exercises to keep the muscles engaged and to heal the nerve endings?"
"Yes."
"Let me take a look." Sakura steps closer to him, between his legs dangling off the edge of his bed, and examines his stump. The skin where his arm was severed is still healing but it is much less raw than it had been when she first found the two post fight.
Her green chakra illuminates around his skin and she can sense the tension and pain he is masking. It's been only a few days since her last personal check on his arm, a nurse having done the daily checks.
"Why didn't you say anything?" Sakura asks, looking up to his face from where she had been focusing on healing some of his irritated nerve endings.
"It's bearable."
"It doesn't have to be bearable, it should be sensitive but not this painful." Sakura pauses before continuing, choosing her words carefully. "You know you don't have to suffer in silence. You can lean on us…on me. We want to help you. You don't have to do life alone anymore."
"That's presumptuous. I have never not been around people." Sasuke retorts glumly.
"You know what I mean." The green of her chakra fizzles out once she has tended to the irritated muscles and nerves. She doesn't know why she said all that, it was more of a reminder for her than it was for him.
"Sakura. Do you…know?" Sasuke asks, his voice near a whisper. She hasn't stepped back out of his space.
"Do I know what?" She's not sure what he's asking. It feels like she should know by the way he's imploring her. His dark eyes look up to hers from where he's seated on the edge of his bed, searching for something she doesn't have.
"Another time." Sasuke shakes his head and shuts his eyes. From his reaction she has no idea what she is supposed to know, but she still aches to help him. She's convinced she will never stop wanting to comfort and help him in any way that she is able.
The two remain quiet for a moment basking in a foreign emotion they have both been tiptoeing around for weeks, perhaps even years. Sakura remembers they weren't just talking and that she was in the middle of his medical exam.
"Eyes. Is it alright?" Sakura asks, gesturing to her palm glowing with subdued chakra. Sasuke nods at her to proceed. She hovers over his left eye, the almighty rinnegan. His lids shut and his expression relaxes. His ocular nerves had been operated on a year or so ago from what Sakura can tell, after she had first examined his eyes right after the war. She has questions but is waiting for the right time to ask them. She slowly patches up some recent nerve damage and a minor blood circulation issue but ultimately it will be a slow process to heal the long term damage completely.
Sakura switches to his right eye and follows the same routine. Except there is very apparent and recent, as in the last few days recent, damage to his right eye.
"Were you using your sharingan?" She asks harshly.
Sasuke opens and shuts his eyes lazily and his adam's apple bobs as he swallows dryly.
"Not willingly." He answers tiredly.
"What is that supposed to mean?" Sakura asks curiously, her anger wearing off.
"It means sometimes I wake up from nightmares with it activated."
Sakura ponders this for a moment. With all her medical knowledge she is stumped by this phenomenon. She wishes she had more information on the Uchiha bloodline. She's too afraid to ask Sasuke for such sensitive information about his clan after he just returned. It's here, in his hospital room, nearly a month after the war, that it's hitting her that Sasuke was now officially the last member of his clan.
She can't sort through these emotions right now, not when the looming event of his arrest is right around the corner. So, like most events in her life, she pushes the feelings into a compartment of sorts deep within her psyche–with the promise for later.
"Well, besides taking care of your phantom limb pain and coming in every couple months for eye exams it looks like I can clear y–, oh…oh wait. What's this?"
Sasuke's face shifts to concern and she tries so hard not to give herself away. She flips back and forth from a page on her clipboard with a concentrated expression before telling him.
"It's just, it says here…I am unable to grant permission to a certain Uchiha who exudes an attitude to their primary doctor."
"Hm. Mind if I take a look at that paper Doctor Haruno?" This is the first time she has ever heard him address her as Doctor Haruno. The thumping in her chest would give her away if heartbeats were audible to the naked ear. Perhaps they were with how hard her organ seems to be thumping within her chest.
Sakura plays along and hands him the clipboard. He studies it and his eyebrows scrunch together.
"I see nothing about attitude, or failing to grant permission. What I do see is something about your scheduled meeting with a patient of yours, who is about to spend an undetermined amount of time in prison." Sakura's eyes widen and she mindlessly takes her clipboard back. "Roof after your shift?" Sasuke officially asks.
Sakura is a little shaken from his confident and, dare she think, playful words. Nodding and uttering out a quick see you then she high tails it out of his room. Signing her name at the bottom of his release form, she makes the mental note to send it to Kakashi as soon as possible..
—
Sasuke has no idea what had come over him after his physical. He had chosen to speak the unfiltered thought. He had gone up to the rooftop from his hospital room window an hour before her shift was supposed to end. There has been a shift between the two of them. He's felt it since after the war. The weight of his decisions and circumstances always weigh on him but when he is with Sakura he feels lighter. He thinks he has for a long time, but he was always clouded in hate and regret to fully understand these feelings.
Sasuke's initial thought was to spend time with her before he has to be blindfolded and straightjacketed for an unforeseen amount of time. She had left the room before Kakashi had shared that private bit of information about his arrest. They both knew she would protest at any cost to not have either of those restraints happen.
A strong part of him thinks he deserves it. He had done a lot of things to hurt a lot of people dear to him. Even if he has a hard time verbally admitting that.
Instead of going into a spiral of self penance he decides to atone instead. He takes out a ripped piece of scroll from his hospital pants pocket and a pen and writes a short note to Sakura to leave for her when T&I take him away tomorrow. Focusing on his writing and characters takes longer than he was used to but it gets easier the more he writes. While ambidextrous with writing and shuriken throwing, he still predominantly had used his left hand, which is now empty space. Practicing the different skills Sakura and the nurses have advised him on during his stay has slowly been helping his right arm perform and navigate everyday tasks with more ease.
By the time he senses her chakra he has just tucked the finished note into his pocket.
Sasuke looks back to the door from the hospital to the rooftop and watches as Sakura removes her doctor's coat and walks over to him, she places her coat on the ground and sits beside him. The stars are visible tonight in the evening sky above them. He's not surprised she's worked well past midnight, yet again.
After a long yawn Sakura speaks tiredly. "The paperwork has been sent to Kakashi for your discharge."
"Thanks." He responds dumbly.
"Don't thank me. You know this is a prison sentence."
"I know."
"Why are you ok with this?" She asks heatedly, and he can feel the beginning of her anger starting to bubble over.
"Can we talk about anything else?" Sasuke looks down at her and his heart skips a beat. Her gaze is so determined and the green of her eyes reflect the light of the moon. Her pink hair is tied impossibly high into a ponytail and he doesn't think he's ever seen it styled like this on her. He likes it.
His hand reaches out to touch her hair.
"Hey!"
"Your hair has gotten long." Sasuke says tentatively touching the ends of her ponytail.
"So has yours." She replies, reaching out to graze the longer strands he is trying to shape towards his left eye so it covers his rinnegan. She pushes the longer pieces away and tucks them behind his ear.
"What did you want to talk about then?"
He has to do this now, he's not sure when he will be given the chance again.
"That night. I did something and I was curious if you would allow me to do it again."
It's amazing how she understands exactly what he is talking about so quickly.
"Do what again? Leave?" Her eyebrows furrow and she looks genuinely worried.
"No." It hurts to hear that, but he hopes she knows he's here now, and he wants to prove to her he will atone and become a man she can rely on.
"Then what?"
The night he had left her on the bench, he had said goodbye in his own way. One only he would know about and carry the knowledge of until he found the courage to tell Sakura about one day. It had been his own silent way of thanking her for everything. After laying her down on the bench, staring at her face for a moment too long he had pressed a quick closed lip kiss on her lips. She had tasted of tears. That had been the last memory he carried of Sakura for years, before their official reuniting at Orochimaru's hideout years later.
It feels foreign when he reaches his hand to cup her cheek. He's unsure of himself and afraid she won't accept his feelings but it's his last night of 'freedom' and he needs to give her a token of his gratitude, and selfishly take a piece of her for his own reasons. His eyes are open when he presses his lips to hers, watching as her own widen and her face reddens. Sasuke takes her alarmed expression as a bad thing and separates.
"I'm sorry."
"Sorry?"
They are still close, her eyes search his and then she's leaning up to press her lips to his once more. It's his turn to be taken aback, but slowly the two of them gradually lean into each other. It's awkward and their lips are all too stiff against the other but they eventually get the hang of it. They share a few more kisses like traded secrets in the night until he deems he can't take anymore or he may devour her.
"...stop."
"Why?" She asks breathlessly against his lips.
"I want to be a better man…before I do anything else."
Sakura's expression morphs from dreamy to concerned.
"Oh…I understand." He watches her expression crumble and right when she may cave in on herself, he reaches over and taps two fingers to her forehead, right on her hard earned seal.
"Next time." It's a promise and he hopes she understands this.
She must understand because the cave in never occurs, and her eyes sparkle once more. The two sit and stare above into the starry heavens for a while. The sun is rising by the time they realize that their time together is nearing an end.
Sasuke stands and offers his hand out to her and she willingly accepts.
"I'll see what I can do. I have pull now, I can speak with the council and the elders and Kakashi–" Sakura starts her frantic train of thought.
"Sakura. It's fine. I'll see you when I'm out." She's near ethereal in the morning light, he notices light freckles on the apples of her cheeks and along the bridge of her nose. How her loose fly aways seem to blend into the colors of the sunrise. His sharingan activates without his express permission.
"Um–?" Sakura begins to question.
He closes his lids and shifts back to his dark iris.
"Sorry."
"There is nothing to be forgiven, so stop apologizing!" He doesn't agree but nods anyway.
As they are about to descend back to the white walls of Konoha hospital Kakashi hops from a nearby rooftop and joins the two of them.
"I'm giving you a half hour warning. Do what you need to prepare." He flickers away as fast as he had arrived.
Before descending the stairs to their respective floors she crashes into him harshly, squeezing her arms around his torso.
"I'll find a way to visit you." She murmurs into his hospital shirt. When she steps away from him he pokes her forehead one last time and they go their separate ways: him to his assigned room and her to her office.
—
Sakura senses Kakashi's chakra, followed by a few members of T&I. They are on the floor below her office, she can practically feel the negative energy swirling through their chakra.
The memory of Sasuke kissing her is quickly overshadowed by the Konoha elders taking him into custody with the promise to punish him cruelly. Sakura tries to focus on anything else. Tries to write notes on a patient's chart, tries to file papers, tries to look out her window–but nothing works to stop the inevitable flow of tears from falling. Lowering the blinds of her office windows, she spares a brief glance out and watches Sasuke blindfolded and shackled, being pushed down Konoha streets to the prison.
Sakura feels around the pockets of her coat for a tissue or a napkin but instead, once more finds a scrap of paper with a newly familiar handwriting. The characters are slightly more scribbled but she knows he was using his new dominant hand to write, she smiles tears streaking her face, thinking of his effort.
I'll see you when I'm out…Doctor Haruno.
-S