Sakura cannot believe she just asked him so…brazenly! She must seem pathetic and as if that was all she was thinking about. In reality she tried to push the memory of them from the hospital roof to the back of her mind, worried it was a one off. She forced herself into autopilot during the weeks Sasuke was in prison. Throwing herself into work and her research for the children's clinic.
Visiting him at the prison had been trying for her. He was not able to see her and she was thankful. She must have looked a mess every time she tended to him. He looked like a shell of himself. Those visits feel like a fever dream and something she needs to bring up to Kakashi. She hates that he went along with that and with those restraints without informing her. She went through all that work to heal him for weeks after the war only for most of the progress to regress.
–
After Sasuke passed out the day prior Naruto aided her in bringing him back to her place. They set him up on her couch, while he had been out cold. She's surprised how well he slept through their readjusting of him. He always was the lightest sleeper. At least from what she remembers.
Sakura healed some of the damage behind his eyes and noticed the headache he must have been silently dealing with most of the day. She made sure she pumped extra healing chakra into his ocular networks. Then she moved to his stump arm where the muscles and tendons were all out of whack. So she set to work on setting some of those straight again for more fluid motion.
A hawk tapped on the window above her kitchen sink, wiping the sweat from her brow. She watched as Naruto opened the window and removed the message which they thought was for Naruto.
"It's for you." Naruto brings the scroll over to her hunched positioning on the couch.
She reads the scroll, an emergency occurred with one of her long term patients and she was being summoned to perform a surgery. It annoyed her because she had specificallytaken the day off and made sure to have alerted the hospital staff, multiple times,of her day off. Sakura huffed and advised Naruto that she had to leave for a while and would be back later. Naruto nodded her off and reassured her he wasn't going anywhere and he brought over plenty of hokage-in-training study material.
She of course completes the surgery with ease and once again gets roped into a million other tasks until late in the evening. Her chakra has been spent, and her last meal was breakfast, nearly twelve hours ago. She was not able to eat very much, her nerves getting the better of her stomach as she and Naruto waited for Kakashi and Sasuke to arrive back in the hokage's office after his trial.
Finally managing to escape pestering nurses and interns, Sakura finds a moment to herself in her office. The moment apparently ends up turning into a couple hours in which she fell asleep, chakra drained and completely famished.
—
She's staring at Sasuke in the tiled entryway, afraid she's scared him or worse made herself look like a fool.
But of course, no one has timing quite like Naruto.
Their third teammate turns the knob to her front door and lets himself in. He observes the two of them briefly as they hastily move apart from each other. Naruto eyes them with a strange look as he walks in further after removing his own sandals and places her to-go bag from Ichiraku on her kitchen countertop. Sasuke's taken a seat on her couch and Sakura considers sleeping over eating. The embarrassment a meal in itself. After all, doctors never follow their own advice.
She rubs at one of her dry bloodshot eyes and walks further into her apartment.
"Uh, the room to your right is yours for the time being Sasuke-kun. A box of your belongings is in the closet. I'm…going to rest. Thanks for the food, I'll eat it tomorrow." She manages to get out to the boys lounging in her living room. Now that she is at home she feels the weight of exhaustion upon her shoulders. Something about being in her own space always did that to her. Or perhaps for the first time in years, she can rest easy knowing Sasuke is back, safe.
"Sleep well, Sakura-chan!" Naruto chirps. Knowing Naruto he would be sleeping over as well. He had told her as much earlier in the day.
"Night." Sasuke says but she's already walking down the hall towards her bedroom.
She opens and closes her bedroom door and falls onto the wooden floor where some of her clothes are strewn across. Grabbing onto a fuzzy shirt she wore a couple days ago to do paperwork in, she fluffs it into a ball to place under her head. Sakura falls asleep on the wood floor, muffling sleepy sighs into a dirty shirt. Her last thought before darkness falls behind her eyelids is how Sasuke's cheeks had tinged red right before Naruto erupted into her home.
—
Sakura wakes to yelling coming from the kitchen. She's not on alert though, this yelling is all too familiar. Her body aches as she moves to sit up off the hard floor of her bedroom. Sitting up high enough off the floor, she glances at the clock on her nightstand. It's nearly eight in the morning. Sakura stretches her arms above her head and gets off the floor trudging over to her bedroom door to see what the commotion is.
"You're burning it!"
"No you are."
Sakura pads quietly to the kitchen where she watches around a corner as Sasuke and Naruto bicker like they always have about what looks like eggs in a pan.
"I think you both are."
The two stop their yelling and look over at her. She steps over to them and observes the pan. The eggs are totally fucked. Sakura takes the pan off the heat and places it in the sink.
"Let it cool down and try again in a sec. You two are going to get me on my neighbor's bad side with all your shouting so early in the morning."
"Sorry Sakura-chan."
"Sorry."
"Naruto, don't you have an appointment with Kakashi-sensei soon?" He looks behind her at the stove clock and his eyes bug out a little.
"Shit! I gotta go. I'll be back in a couple hours! You have the day off today right, Sakura-chan?"
"As long as no hawks peck at my window, that's the plan." Sakura answers while Sasuke sorts through her fridge, probably looking for more eggs.
"Alright see you two later then! No team seven bonding without me!" Naruto grabs his wallet and keys leaving his scrolls and hokage training materials sprawled on the floor. He slams the front door shut and they hear a muffled sorry a distance away.
She pads over to the kitchen sink and cleans the burnt egg from the pan so they can start over.
"Are there more eggs in the fridge?"
"Ah. There's enough." Sasuke pulls out the carton and places it on the countertop near the stove.
"Can you pull out the butter, soy sauce and chili paste too?"
He does as she asks, it takes him longer to find the items because he's never dug around in her fridge before. Sakura washes the pan, dries it, and brings it back over to the stove.
"How are you feeling today? Did you sleep anymore?" Sakura asks, facing the stove as she turns on the gas starter to get the flame going again.
"Sakura." Sasuke says. She turns around confused and finds his hand quickly wrapped around her wrist, tugging her to him. His lips tentatively breathe over hers where she eagerly melts into him. He lets go of his grip on her wrist and wraps his arm around her waist. Sakura leans up and cups one of his cheeks softly as they kiss in her kitchen. He steps back to breathe and so does she, suddenly aware she has not taken a breath in the time his lips had been on hers.
"...does that answer your question?" He asks as he steps around her towards the counter behind her where he starts cracking eggs into a bowl.
"Mhm." She responds shyly, feeling heat radiating from her face as she tosses some butter into the skillet. It's not the question she asked just a moment ago, but the question that was left unanswered last night which she stewed upon until her eyes had painstakingly shut.
"As for your other questions, better and enough. Judging from the marks on the side of your face I'd say you slept just fine." Sasuke answers her other questions from today. Sakura rushes down the hall to her open bedroom door where she looks into the mirror above her dresser and sees obvious marks from where her makeshift sleep shirt pillow had left. Walking back out of her room slumped, she sees Sasuke already flipping the pan and stirring around the eggs.
Sakura gets out a couple plates where Sasuke dishes each of them a portion. He adds chili oil and soy sauce to both, more spice to his own plate than hers. She smiles thinking about how he remembers she likes a little spice, but nothing overwhelming.
Spice content levels had been a great source of contention during missions back when they were genin. Naruto had been disgusted by the amount of spice Sasuke always slathered on his meals which led to Kakashi making everyone clearly state their food preferences.
As fast as the kiss started it was over. Neither of them choosing to talk about it, or the obvious tension growing between two instead eat together quietly, sitting across from each other at the low level table in her living room.
"Oh! Remind me to give you a key. Today is my last day off before I go back to work. I'll probably be in and out at all hours."
"Naruto gave me one last night."
"Oh, that works out. Did you want to do anything today?" He adopts a contemplative look on his face while he eats his last bite of egg.
"Go to the market. You have no food."
Shefeels embarrassed. She's never home and doesn't like wasting money on food if it's just going to rot in her fridge.
"Ok, but you have to eat it. I'm never here and I don't like looking at moldy food."
"Tch. You should take more time off." Sasuke chastises as he takes his plate over to the sink to wash it.
"I can't right now. If I want this children's mental health clinic to work out I need to be seen working. The council has an eye on me, especially right now." She whispers the last part because she doesn't want Sasuke to worry. Naruto and her had pleaded on their positions within the village to help release Sasuke from his wrongful prison sentence.
"Mental health clinic?" He asks, his back facing her as the sink water runs on his plate.
"Yeah! I had the idea a few years ago after Pain attacked the village. Now especially after the war there are more orphans in all the hidden villages and I want to provide a place where they can live safely and feel a sense of comfort. It would start with just Konoha but hopefully if there are enough positive results and cases, the idea will spread."
"Tell me more?" Sasuke asks, his tone genuine. He walks back over and collects her plate, washing it as well. In reality she wants to make sure there is never another scenario like what she's observed with Naruto and Sasuke over the years. She wants to protect all the orphaned children she is able to so they never have to live through the same loss and devastation her two teammates endured.
Sakura sits at the table and goes into greater detail about her goals for the children's clinic and how she plans to achieve said goals. Once she's finished going into the smaller pieces of her plan Naruto knocks loudly on the door. Sakura pads over to the door and lets him in.
Sasuke says he wants to change into different clothes. Sakura collected some clothes and bought a few pieces she thought he would like over the course of his imprisonment. Never having a doubt he would be released, if he wasn't she's sure her and Naruto would have found a way to break him out.
"There are some clothes in the closet. I did my best. If you want we can get some other things when we go to the market?"
He nods and retreats into his assigned room.
"We're goin' to the market?" Naruto asks with a small curious smile and Sakura nods reassuringly. They had done it. No one was whole yet, and maybe they never would be but they brought him back.
The three spend the late morning and early afternoon out in the market. Sakura watches Sasuke's discomfort grow along with the crowd size. The three opt to head back to her place sooner than she and Naruto intended.
Her suspicion of his discomfort seems to be correct. Sasuke retreats to his bedroom the moment they enter the threshold, slamming the door behind himself. Naruto glances at Sakura in her doorway.
"Maybe this was too soon?" Naruto questions quietly.
"Most definitely." Sakura answers. It was for sure too soon. Sasuke probably wanted to give his thanks to the two of them in his own way but there is only so much of a facade one can put up after a war, being imprisoned while blindfolded and straightjacketed, and reintegrating into your home village after years away.
Sakura is a little shocked by his mood shift from the morning. Sasuke had been inquisitive and dare she say playful. She really only saw rare glimpses of his playful side from years prior. She tells Naruto that they will try again for team seven to hang out another time. Naruto leaves her apartment bummed but understanding.
Sakura has to go back to work tomorrow and she knows his parole starts tomorrow as well. Her fingers ghost over his doorknob after Naruto is gone. She doesn't bother opening it, as much as she wants to, deciding to give him privacy to sort through himself in a space that he feels comfortable to without distractions.
–
The following morning his door is still shut tight. Sakura is scheduled to leave a couple hours ahead of when Sai or Shikamaru will be meeting up with him. She hopes today goes well for Sasuke and wishes she could be more supportive but she has put off work for two (one) days. A pile of paperwork on her desk and a barrage of questions from staff await her. She's exhausted already.
Opening the fridge she attempts to grab some random piece of fruit that will probably rot on her desk, only to be met with a bento box she is sure she stuffed away somewhere in her cabinets, now front and center. There is a small piece of paper folded on top.
Eat. Or else. -S
Sakura's eyes crinkle and she bites inside one of her cheeks to keep from smiling too wide. Rolling her eyes she takes the bento and heads off to work.
She gets a five minute break, after eight hours on her feet. Hidden away in her office she scarfs the bento down. It was simple: chicken, an egg, some rice and sliced cucumber. But the food makes her stomach shut up after gurgling most of the day. Sakura makes a mental note to thank him somehow, before she is called into an emergency surgery involving a wayward genin mission.
The curiosity gnaws in the back of her mind of what the or else entailed.
–
The surgery on the injured genin was successful although it had taken longer than intended due to a blood transfusion. The poor genin had lost a lot of blood during the travel time from their mission to the Konoha hospital. Sakura adds to her ever growing list of things to do, to promote blood donations.
Sakura finally leaves the hospital at 9:30 in the evening, and she's craving something sweet. And with the corner store open for another thirty minutes she stops in for a sweet treat. Picking up a pack of premade dango and a strawberry milk she is about to check out when she walks past the fruit and vegetable selection. There are beautiful red tomatoes out on display, and the memory of Sasuke's breath rasping against her neck post war emerges to the front of her mind. She grabs two bright red tomatoes, pays for her 'treats' and walks the rest of the way home.
The apartment is dark when she walks in, she turns on the kitchen light, after passing by his door that is also dark judging by the crack underneath his door. She's curious how his first day of probation went. Sakura cleans her bento after putting her groceries away and leaves the box out on the counter to dry overnight. Making an effort to leave Sasuke a small note near the tomatoes she got as a thank you for him.
Her exhaustion, or having her walls down now that she was in her home, have her failing to sense Sasuke's presence behind her. She nearly drops the dango package she was about to wolf down.
"Eep!" She fumbles to right herself.
"Did you eat?" Sasuke asks, the bags under his eyes are deep set.
"You'll be pleased to know that yes, I did." She pauses but decides to continue. "Though…I am curious what the 'or else' entailed."
"Consider yourself lucky then." Sasuke tosses and leans against the countertop. He's lingering in the kitchen, had he been waiting for her? That's not possible.
"How was your first day?" She asks then takes a munch of her dango.
"It was fine. Painted a house." He shrugs.
"Well, one day down. Only a couple months more to go. Do you know what you're doing tomorrow?" She watches him sigh and slouch.
"Cleaning window sills caked in bird shit."
"You're kidding." Sakura replies, scrunching her nose up. "Is Kakashi the one assigning these odd jobs?"
"Apparently not, according to Shikamaru. The council created a whole itinerary for me." She doesn't fail to notice the way his jaw clenches at the mention of the council.
"What?" That didn't sound right. How come Kakashi let them take the reins on that? She decides to leave early tomorrow morning to go question her old Sensei herself.
He yawns behind his fisted hand.
"You should go to sleep."
"I tried." He answers honestly.
"I was going to do some research if you wanted to sit out here with me." Sakura gestures over to the low table a few feet away with scrolls ready to be opened and studied over.
"I don't want to bother you."
"Oh, you won't be. You can even help me if you want."
She explains how she's looking for specific articles on the part of the brain related to trauma. She could use the extra set of eyes to find the information faster especially with the deadlines for the children's clinic growing nearer.
The two look over scrolls for a couple hours. Sakura looks up from her reading every so often to watch Sasuke doing the same. He's so handsome especially when his eyebrows scrunch while he's focused reading a passage or the way his forearm extends when he's reaching for a new scroll.
Sitting starts to hurt her knees so she lays on the wooden floor and holds the scroll above her to read in the new more comfortable position. She does this for a while and finds herself falling asleep only to be rudely awoken by one of the heavy scrolls dropping on her face. Pushing the scroll away and rubbing her eyes she sits back up to see Sasuke's head and torso leaned over the table, passed out.
She debates for a while, with the knowledge of his awful sleep, to just leave him or wake him and urge him to his bed. Deciding she would want someone to wake her up if she was going to wake up in pain from poor positioning she crawls over to where he is hunched over on the low table and tries to nudge him awake.
He's completely out of it. More so than she's ever seen, he looks so human. It's refreshing. His eyes are bloodshot and his face has lines from where he's been laying, imprinted into his skin.
Speaking quietly to not wake him anymore than he already is she tells him to go to his bed and sleep.
Wordlessly he stands up, wobbly, so much so that she has to grab onto him and support him to his room. She drops him onto his bed where he promptly rolls to his stomach and passes back out. Sakura tiptoes out of his room and shuts the door as quietly as she can behind herself.
Retreating to her own room she falls onto her own mattress with a thud and a floorboard creak. She knocks off fairly easily as well. She imagines what it would be like to have Sasuke's warmth resting beside her, but for now cuddles up into the blankets on her bed, wrapping them tightly around herself.
—
It seems bentos are becoming a routine. Sasuke at some point in the late evening, early morning had made another bento for her. What she finds the most interesting is that the tomatoes she purchased for him are now gone. Another note protrudes from the bento.
Tomatoes were good. Thanks. 'Or else' is still in effect if you don't eat. -S
For the second morning she's smiling down at her little bento lunch prepared by Sasuke. Rushing out the door she makes a stop before heading to the hospital. Sakura knocks on the window to the Hokage's office. An anbu approaches the window, only to be waved off by Kakashi once he sees who it is.
"What brings my favorite student for a visit this early in the morning?" Kakashi opens the window and she hops in.
"It's in regards to your true favorite student." Sakura speaks neutrally. Kakashi eyes her for clarification.
"His probation tasks are being decided by the council? How did that happen?" Sakura asks, her anger beginning to tip over. Kakashi must detect this, because he sighs and sits down behind his desk.
"The council, Ibiki Morino, and myself collaborated to come up with two options for a probation period. I proposed for him to complete six months of work around the village and I would have been the one in charge of delegating the tasks. While the council had the second option of a two month probationary period, with their option they have the right to the tasks delegated and I would not be able to budge in. With their two month probation deal came the 'add ons' of swearing allegiance to Konoha and taking missions they send him on, if he decides to take the time off away from the village, that he has expressed interest in taking."
Time away from the village.
"He wants to leave?"
"He mentioned it during his trial. Claims he wants to find his own reasons for what it means to be a shinobi. His reasoning somehow convinced the council, oddly enough."
"Why are you telling me all this?" Sakura asks, trying to not let the devastation seep into her tone.
"You're his primary caretaker and probation officer. You need to be aware of his conditions."
She wants neither of those titles right now.
"Wh-what tasks is the council making him do?" Now that she's here she figures she may as well ask. Sasuke doesn't give her specifics of where he is, just the basic details of the jobs he does during the day.
"They've assigned him to clean up the old Uchiha district. Granted half of it is destroyed from the Pain attack. What is still there they have tasked him to clean up and make the buildings like new so they can make the area civilian housing."
Sakura feels sick.
"You let this happen?" Sakura asks no longer hiding the clear disgust lacing her question.
"Sasuke agreed to it." Kakashi says with finality. He shifts before her, leaning back in his chair.
"For your knowledge his finances and inheritance are also on hold until he completes his probation. Once it's complete he will get small stipends until he returns to Konoha after his supposed journey."
"Why is he going along with all of this?"
A hurried and abrupt knock on the door interrupts their conversation.
"Come in." Kakashi responds lazily. His expression shifts minutely.
"Hokage-sa–" The anbu stutters when they notice Sakura.
Sakura gets the message and leaves out the door the anbu has just entered.
"Sakura," Kakashi shouts to her as she's already halfway down the hall. "...your ears only."
She shifts from an even stride to a full sprint to get out of Hokage tower. Her pace is punishing as she races to the hospital. Pushing herself over her limits to get away from the feeling gnawing at her gut.
Fuck the council. Fuck Konoha. Fuck Kakashi. Fuck everyone.
As she enters the double doors to the hospital for the morning a nurse bombards her with information and she takes it all in mindlessly, the knowledge Sasuke has to clean up his old district alone, the only company being his pain and memories of loved ones from long ago.
She is quite literally about to be sick. The nurse stops speaking as she watches Sakura pale and grasp at her stomach. Sakura runs for the nearest bathroom, running into a stall and emptying the already vacant contents of her stomach. In her haste she fails to lock the stall door. The toilet automatically flushes and she shakily collects herself. Washing her hands and wiping off the excess moisture at the corners of her eyes, she finally steps back into the hospital.
"Are you alright Doctor Haruno?"
"Fine. What needs my attention right now?"
Sakura dives herself deep into her work. She has not bothered to look at a clock for the duration of her shift today. Hopping from patients, minor surgeries, and assessing patient charts, when Tsunade places a hand on her shoulder while she's hovering over a nurses station Sakura can't help but jolt.
"Go home." Her former master states.
"No."
"Sakura, that is a command." Tsunade responds with no room for argument.
"Is it?" Sakura challenges.
"Sakura! What's gotten into you?" Tsunade asks with her eyebrows furrowed.
Just as quickly as riled up, she calms and acquiesce. She doesn't have the current mental capacity to fight or counter.
"Nothing. I'll leave now." Sakura mutters an instruction to the nurse she was working with hearing her shisou's heeled footsteps following closely behind her as she ventures to collect her bag from her office.
"What is going on?" Tsunade asks, entering her office with her.
Sakura grasps her bag tightly, fixing it to her shoulder. She can choose to drop it but Tsunade has always made Sakura feel valued and safe, so she confides. "How did you put up with the council?" Sakura asks fidgeting with a strap on her tote.
"Ah." Tsunade sighs, resigned. "Well, workarounds and strategically picking my battles."
"I want to eradicate them." Sakura admits angrily.
"Is this about the Uchiha brat?"
Sakura shoots her mentor a scary glare as an answer to her question. Tsunade nods, and smiles slightly.
"I see. Be patient. You can control the tides as long as you remain level headed."
Sakura feels anything but.
"Go home. Look at your problem from a different angle then decide how you want to proceed."
—
Sakura can't bring herself to interact directly with Sasuke, the pit in her stomach still planted deep. Their schedules differ greatly the following weeks after Sasuke starts his probation. She hears from Ino, during one of her part time shifts at the hospital that Naruto was sent to Suna for a month to shadow Gaara. That answers one of her questions on why Naruto hasn't been around pestering his former teammates.
Some days Sakura comes home trudging through the door at daybreak and others she walks in late at night. Each day though, no matter what, there is always a little bento in the fridge for her. She does what she can to repay his kindness, buying a tomato here or even brewing tea and leaving a warm kettle on the stove for him.
She feels as though she and Sasuke have been making weird stints of progress, repairing their own personal bond but then they will have moments where the brakes hit and all the progress is put on hold. She's not quite sure if this is a friendship, or something more. Friends don't kiss, twice, (well technically three times apparently), right?
It's one month into his probation and he also seems to be away at all hours only coming back for brief periods of time. The two barely run into each other. The hospital had been unbearably busy today. Sakura feels like her feet might fall off with how badly they are aching.
When she finally is able to go home she rummages around her work tote and finds she hasn't eaten the bento Sasuke prepared for her that day. Of course, with her unfortunate luck he's home, and currently cooking something in the kitchen.
"You're avoiding me." Sasuke says blandly as he stirs something around in a pan.
Sakura hangs up her bag and removes her sandals. She's honestly shocked he's come to this conclusion with how little both of them are home.
"I've been busy." Sakura places the still full bento by the kitchen sink and hopes he won't notice it as she walks down the hall towards her room to change into comfy clothes. She feels a slight gust of air when her hand rests atop the doorknob to her room, she then feels the warmth of his body behind her.
"You didn't eat."
"I-I didn't have time."
"Bullshit. How do you not have time to eat one meal in the thirteen-plus hours you're there?"
She snaps, letting go of the knob she turns and looks into his dark eye. She's just realizing his hair has grown out to cover his left eye now.
"How come you are letting the council walk all over you?"
His eyes widen and his expression morphs. From what appears as anger and shifting to resignation.
"We're doing this right now?" Sasuke says blankly more than asking, he swipes his hand down his face.
"Doing what?" Sakura asks, still upset and now a bit confused.
"Sit." Sasuke turns the stove off and walks over to the table. Sakura could go hide in her room and lock the door behind her, but she opts to get whatever this is over with. Frankly, she's tired of sitting in these negative emotions with no healthy outlet. So she sits, across from him and waits for his cue.
"I assume you know I've been cleaning up my clan's district."
Sakura nods.
"Half of it is gone anyway. I agreed to the conditions of the council because I want to pay homage to a clan I have misunderstood for years." He pauses. "I-I'm coming to terms with things." Sasuke looks visibly uncomfortable.
"I agreed to it as homage to my clan." He repeats, clearly nervous. She watches as he searches for the words for what he's trying to say.
"Doesn't it hurt?" She implores.
"Half the district is in shambles…my childhood home is a pile of rubble."
"What about your assets? Your inheritance? The council should not be allowed to tighten the purse strings on your money."
He sits and stares at her for a moment.
"Why are you so mad about this?"
Sakura clenches her teeth, failing to keep a month's worth of tears at bay.
"They are taking advantage of you. And I hate it." As discreetly as she can she wipes at the corner of one of her eyes.
"I don't care about the money. I don't want it. I'd rather you use it for your children's clinic."
"I don't want that money. I want you whole and happy." Sakura pleads, her voice cracking.
"I don't intend to be whole." He waves his stump arm to prove his point.
"You're planning on leaving." Sakura whispers looking for clarification. Seems everything is coming out without clarifying the rest.
"I am." He replies firmly.
"Forever?"
"No. I need to find myself, when I achieve that… then I'll come back." He shifts around and reaches into one of his pants pockets. "Hold your wrist out."
Sakura does as he asks, unsure what he's planning. Sasuke was being oddly forthcoming and she's a little freaked out. There is still a lot unsaid and a lot of questions she has but she's not quite sure if now is the right time.
One subset of problems at a time.
He pulls a white bracelet from his pocket.
"I found this…buried under a pile of rubble from where an old jewelry store used to be." Sasuke uses his hand to slide it onto her wrist. His movements lack the nervous candor that can be heard in his voice. He reverently pushes the weighted bracelet further down her hand where it rests on her lower forearm. Sakura admires the white onyx stone turning her wrist around to examine the jewelry. "My mother wore one on each of her wrists." Her eyes widen as she tries to figure out what this means, especially coming from him.
"Why are you giving me one?" Sakura asks curiously.
"Uh–" She doesn't miss the blush burning his cheeks.
A loud pounding at the door, interrupting their moment. If it was even intended to be a moment. Sakura glances at Sasuke then to the door and curses inwardly at whoever is knocking right now. She stands and strides over.
"Sakura-chan!" Sakura is very abruptly lifted and twirled around in a hug by a certain blonde teammate of hers who's been in Suna, and has apparently arrived home early.
"You're back! I thought you were in Suna for a while?"
"I'm back for a couple days and then I'm heading back to finish out some things. Had to check how you and the bastard are doing. Are you guys busy right now?" For someone who's been traveling the past few days his mouth moves a mile a minute.
"I'm pretty beat." Sakura admits. She is and she has a lot of things to process and even more questions formulating in the back of her mind.
"Can I steal him then? I need a fair spar after days of fuckin' travelling!"
"Is that allowed?" Sasuke asks from behind her, where he's still seated at the table.
"Pssh! You're with me, the hokage in training. It'll be fine."
Sakura makes an expression that agrees with Naruto.
"Make sure he's back before dawn."
"No promises." Naruto responds with a wink, Sasuke's already slipping his sandals on.
"Next time we need a full reunion! No excuses!" Naruto says as he heads out her door with Sasuke following behind him.
"Eat the food in the pan. I'll know if you don't." Sasuke pokes his head back into the doorway, before walking out of the threshold. Sakura rolls her eyes and waves her hand at him as she closes and locks the door behind them. The new weight of the bracelet is apparent with the motion of the simple gestures.