AUTHOR'S NOTE

Anyone else having a rough week/month/year? Sigh. Sending virtual hugs to everyone who needs one. 3 These are some weird times.

Writing this chapter was such a mood boost for me, and hope you enjoy it too. I did something different with this one and I think it's my favourite yet. Would love to hear what you think.

Chapter 8

Sasuke Uchiha had a habit for trusting his gut even though there was plenty of evidence to prove it was, more often than not, entirely wrong.

He hadn't planned to invite Sakura to join his redemption journey. But when she'd expressed she wanted to do ninja stuff and didn't want to say goodbye yet, the logic felt clear: Sasuke was doing ninja stuff and he didn't want to say goodbye yet either. The practical and emotional implications of inviting Sakura to live with him twenty-four-seven for an indefinite period of time had not even crossed his mind.

So, when she'd turned him down – twice (once after their lunch, and then again, in the cave) – he'd swallowed down his disappointment and reasoned it was for the best. He'd clearly misread what she wanted. And perhaps missed his chance to bring her along, not that he'd ever deserved one.

But now Sakura was here and he was reaping the consequences of trusting his gut in the first place.

Because now, the ruse was over.

Writing letters or chatting over lunch about his life had allowed him to filter his stories and present some illusion of normalcy.

But finding her injured in the storm had broken the spell of it.

And they'd only hit the tip of the iceberg, with respect to how life out here could be. Sakura was in for a shock if she expected a rejuvenating getaway from her cushy life back home.

Well, he wasn't about to send her packing after everything she'd endured to get here, and her insistence to see their investigation through. Until then, Sasuke would try to make the experience a smooth one for her, even if doing so contradicted everything he'd set up his redemption journey to be.

To contend with this, Sasuke was viewing his time spent with Sakura to track down her enemies as a detour from his journey. He would course-correct for the wasted time when it was over, when she got what she needed, when she went back home.

After all, she'd made it abundantly clear during their conversation in the cave that she was only sticking around to solve the mystery of her ambushers, and not for his sake.

Then there was a part of him just waiting for her to find out how fucked up his life was and call it quits early. He almost wanted her to, before she learned too much or got herself hurt again or became too entwined in his problems.

It was getting irritating how Sakura seemed under the impression that she owed him somehow, when all he had to offer was danger, discomfort, and taking her away from her friends, her career, and her life. At least she was excited to immerse in the ninja arts again, which was just about the only thing he was confident he could help with.

Otherwise, so far, Sakura wasn't so bad to be around.

She was a relatively efficient traveller and easily occupied herself with grant writing or puttering around camp. While she was occasionally chatty and got distracted by frivolous things like flowers and sunsets, perhaps Sasuke was starved enough for human connection after being on his own for so long that he didn't mind it.

Though deep down, he knew it was about more than that when it came to her.

He would never admit it, but Sasuke had missed having a friend like Sakura around.

Naruto was a different kind of friend, one who fought with him, and for him, and had Sasuke's back with no talking needed. Sakura, on the other hand, offered something that was more thoughtful, more tender, more mentally stimulating. And that wasn't just because her letters were more coherent than Naruto's.

On his lonelier days, Sasuke had wondered about her – where she was, what she was up to, what it would be like when they saw each other again, and if she'd be as interested in being part of his life as she was back then.

And yet, now that they'd spent a couple of days on the road together, it was abundantly clear that Sasuke's imagination had not fully prepared him for this.

"Hey, want to do some training?" Sakura asked amidst her sorting of their food rations. They were less than a day from the town indicated in the clue Sakura found. Their current location was the last foresty patch before the terrain became rockier and mountainous, so they'd decided to set up camp and complete the trek in the morning.

Despite it being early evening, the sun was sweltering and the air was humid, even in the shade. Sasuke, who'd been cleaning and sharpening his sword, had opted for a black t-shirt and cropped pants that tapered in at his calf, instead of his usual heavier attire. He was bent over a collection of carefully-positioned rocks securing the sword in place while he ran a sharpening stone along the blade with his sole hand.

"What did you have in mind?" he asked, while glancing at her over his shoulder.

Sasuke froze and dropped the stone.

Because all Sakura was wearing were her fitted black shorts and a matching sports bra.

It had to be among the few times Sasuke had dropped anything in his life.

He whirled back around, his heart thudding. "Are you getting changed?" he asked, and hoping she hadn't noticed him turning or the stone.

"Hm? Oh, no. I'm already in my gym clothes," she said, her tone indicating she was entirely unphased.

Sasuke released a slow breath.

Obviously, Sasuke had known Sakura wasn't going to be the same gangly, weird Academy kid he'd grown up with. Back then, she was nothing more than the annoying girl in his class who everyone thought was pretty and who beat him on tests.

Then, on Team Seven, Sakura was the person he confided in and protected. She was still pretty – or so people had said. And still annoying.

After the war, while Sakura didn't seem to need his protection as much anymore, she was still nice to talk to. Still pretty. Still annoying – but perhaps in less of a thorn-in-his-side kind of way, and more in a distracting way.

And now, over a year into peacetime, something about her had changed again.

While there were occasional glimmers of that familiar, warm splash of colour he'd come to associate her with, there was more self-assuredness in the way she spoke and carried herself now. There was an edge to her, forged from pain and life experience and ambition.

It was clear, after all, that Sakura was becoming an important part of the world. He'd gathered as much from her letters and the whispers he'd picked up about her during his travels.

Though her letters had not prepared him for the fact that she also looked… different.

Her face wasn't as round as he remembered. It had sharper lines, her nose small and pointed, and her eyes sharp like jagged cuts of emerald.

Despite being rather short, with the top of her head barely reaching his chin, there was something commanding about her. Masked beneath her deceivingly slender, feminine figure, the subtle curves of carefully-sculpted muscles and radiant chakra coiled and churned, lying in wait.

The delicate shade of her hair was more of a juxtaposition to her grit and strength than ever before.

Sasuke's brain didn't quite know what to make of these changes. The only thing he was really certain of was that the gangly, weird Academy kid was long gone.

Especially when she paraded around in those gym clothes, or lack thereof.

A hand waved in front of Sasuke's face.

"So… training?" Sakura asked, her eager green eyes popping into view.

He snorted and closed his. "All right."

Sakura jumped and clapped her hands together, radiating such raw enthusiasm that she nearly resembled Naruto at the mention of ramen. Sasuke would have commented on how ridiculous she was being if he didn't know how starved for the ninja arts she was lately.

When she asked him to pick the nature of their training, he selected weapons throwing, his go-to pastime on the road, an easy activity to do solo. Maybe he should have taken advantage of having a training partner he could practice taijutsu with, but the prospect of close quarters combat with Sakura felt like a bad idea right now, for some reason.

As their target practice stretched on, Sasuke sprinkled in a few creative maneuvers he'd taught himself during the quieter days out here, such as landing five weapons on entirely separate targets with a single toss, or piercing the hollow centres of moving shuriken to their marks with the tips of other precisely aimed weapons.

Sakura watched keenly and tried to replicate his tricks. He offered occasional pointers over the hour and she improved considerably, her movements becoming surer and her aim near-perfect.

Which was why it startled him when Sakura slammed her fist into a tree trunk and groaned with frustration. The trunk cracked down the middle.

"Rrgh, why are you so good at this?" she snapped, while tying up her hair.

Beads of sweat trailed down her neck and the curve of her back, catching in the light of the setting sun.

Sasuke raised an eyebrow. "You're not bad," he tried, but that didn't seem to appease her. She looked crestfallen as she eyed his targets, decorated with pristinely-placed shuriken.

Suddenly, there was a spark in her eye. "Let's try something more my speed."

"Or we call it," Sasuke offered, because nightfall was approaching and he was a little weary of Sakura's train of thought.

She pounded her fist against her open palm, ignoring him. "Got it!" she declared. "Arm wrestling."

Sasuke stared in disbelief. "How is that training?"

"With the right opponent, one might call it strength training," she countered.

Right. Strength training. Not only was that a stretch, but working on strength training against Tsunade Senju's successor didn't have a whole lot of appeal.

"I'd rather not break my only arm," he said, while collecting and storing away their weapons.

Sakura followed suit. "I'll just heal it if that happens," she said, her tone chillingly nonchalant.

Sasuke gaped at her. She's fucking insane.

Probably sensing his resistance, she suggested, "Okay, how about arm wrestling with no chakra?"

Sasuke paused and glanced her way, considering her slender arms while she dislodged shuriken from a tree trunk. "No chakra," he repeated. "Fine then." Her arm was like half the size of his. How strong could it be without her chakra-enhancing abilities?

As it turned out, very.

"You're not… using chakra… right?" Sasuke panted through gritted teeth.

Their arms were propped up on a raised platform Sakura had conjured with Earth style, their elbows anchored down and hands locked together.

They'd been stuck in a deadlock for over five entire minutes.

Sasuke's muscles quivered and strained against the sleeve of his t-shirt. Meanwhile, Sakura's slender arm hadn't budged. Where was her power coming from? Was she somehow more efficient with her muscles, like how she was with chakra?

She smirked. "Don't worry. You're not bad," she teased, firing his own words back at him.

If he wasn't so focused on not getting his arm snapped off, Sasuke might have laughed.

By now, he was aching and desperately wanted to stretch out his wrist and shoulder. "Let's take a quick break," he said.

Sakura raised her eyebrows. "Oh? So you yield?"

He glared at her. "That's not what I said."

"That's sure what it sounded like."

Sasuke took the bait and tightened his grip.

They kept at it for another fifteen minutes.

Then, finally, just as the final winks of sunlight shimmered through the treetops, Sakura sighed and lamented, "A draw, then?"

"Yeah."

They withdraw their hands and Sasuke tried to conceal his sigh of relief as he rolled his wrist and stretched out his fingers. At least, he was pleased to see Sakura looked tired too, her chest rising and falling with each heaving breath and her cheeks flushed.

Has she always had freckles?

"Can I see your hand?"

Without much thought, Sasuke rested his forearm on the platform where she could reach it, too tired to deal with her reaction if he refused.

She placed her fingers over his and instantly, the cool, refreshing sensation of Sakura's healing chakra coiled around his wrist and climbed his aching arm and shoulder like vines.

He couldn't hide the sigh of relief this time. Thankfully, Sakura didn't acknowledge it. Instead, she said, "You're better than most."

"You do this a lot?" he asked. While he wouldn't be any less astounded by her strength, he'd feel at least a bit better about himself if she was an arm wrestling pro or something, if such a thing existed.

She bit her lip and gazed towards the ground. "Well… Sort of. Mostly just to scare guys off."

He lifted an eyebrow, not following.

"Like when guys offer to buy me a drink at the bar," she explained. "I tell them I'd prefer to earn it. So, I agree on the condition that I beat them in a challenge like arm wrestling."

"How would that get them to leave you alone?" Sasuke asked, feeling confused and agitated as he imagined the scene.

Her lips curled, like she was recalling a fond memory. "They always accept, maybe to show off their strength, and maybe intending to let me win after awhile. But then I beat them in under two seconds." She chuckled. "The honourable ones hold their ends of the bargain and get me the drink. The angry ones just storm off. Either way, I've yet to come across anyone with an ego that isn't shattered after it. None of them hang around."

Sasuke couldn't decide if her approach was ridiculous or genius.

He glanced at her and asked, "So what happens when it's a draw?"

"Oh. Well, this is my first draw, so I don't know." Her green eyes twinkled. "But if that's your way of offering to get me a drink in the next town, I won't say no."

She laughed, patted his hand, which he had forgotten was still under hers, said something about returning to their camp, then left Sasuke alone by the platform, blinking towards the spot she had just vacated.

Yeah. His imagination really had not prepared him for this.

The address on Sakura's enemy's note led them to a windy, mountainous stretch straddling the boarders of Taki and Kusa nations. The town itself, with its small web of dirt roads and rustic shops and cabins, was nestled at the foot of a steep, snow-capped mountain marked by an immense, roaring waterfall. The waterfall sparkled in the high noon sun, blanketing the area in serene rainbows and twinkling water droplets, carried by the sea spray.

It was a sight to behold, as evidenced by Sakura's enthusiastic gasp upon their arrival.

They agreed to split up to cover more ground in their pursuit of the address. Sasuke kept to himself during the search. If there were enemies around, discretion was key. Also, he never knew when he'd come upon a person who recognized him, and such encounters oftentimes led to trouble.

Twenty minutes of prowling the streets later to no avail, Sasuke spotted Sakura further down the road. The first thing he noticed was that she was wearing a light grey cloak he hadn't seen before – perhaps newly purchased. The second thing he noticed was that she was engrossed in conversation with someone.

Sasuke decided to hang back and not interrupt in case she was gathering intel.

But Sakura sensed him there and began moving in his direction at a rather quick pace. The man she'd been talking to followed.

"Over here, Sasuke-kun!" Sakura called, smiling sweetly.

Sasuke frowned. Something wasn't right.

He was at her side in an instant and sized up the stranger, a rather tall guy with slicked-back dark hair. The man wasn't a chakra user, Sasuke detected, so didn't seem to pose any immediate threats.

But apparently he had some guts because he looked Sasuke straight in the eye (clearly oblivious to the nature of Sasuke's powers) and staggered closer, with an unsteady, intoxicated gait.

"Oh, sorry," the man slurred. "Is this one yours? What a shame."

A demand for an explanation was on the tip of Sasuke's tongue. But then, to his horror, the man reached towards Sakura and twirled a strand of her hair around his finger.

He was talking about Sakura.

Sasuke's stomach turned, his own fingers itching towards his sword. He wondered if a blade or a Chidori would be a more painful way to remove a human hand.

But he didn't have the chance to act on his impulses. Sakura, who'd plastered on an uncomfortable smile, side-stepped out of the man's reach. "I don't like being talked about like I'm property, thank you," she said, her tone steady.

"Oh c'mon, sweetie. I didn't mean it like that."

Punch him, Sakura…

She ignored the man and turned on her heel.

"Have it your way then," the man spat under his breath, his tune changing in the face of an obvious rejection. "Crazy woman."

Sasuke's fingers curled around his sword's handle.

But he'd only freed the blade by an inch when Sakura tugged on his sleeve. "Let's go," she said firmly, and striding away. Reluctantly, after one final glare over his shoulder, Sasuke followed suit.

While his inclination was that Sakura had been too soft on the guy, it was probably for the best they hadn't made a scene, since they were supposed to be keeping a low profile.

Much to Sasuke's discontentment.

Once they'd rounded the corner and confirmed the man had not followed, Sakura began chatting away like nothing had happened, telling him about the locations she'd explored and confirming she'd had no luck finding the address they were searching for either. "But apparently there's more to this town on the other side of the mountain. So maybe we head there next?"

"Sure."

They changed course, weaving through the dirt roads leading to the mountain's base.

Sasuke glanced at his travelling companion, who had fallen unusually quiet during their walk. She stared straight ahead, her mouth set in a grim line, her usual cheeriness seeped away. It unsettled him. "Did something happen?" he asked.

Sakura jumped, her face instantly brightening. However, Sasuke was very familiar with her real smiles and could tell right away this wasn't one of them. "Oh, no. I'm okay," she lied.

Sasuke stayed silent, deciding not to pry if she wouldn't tell him what was wrong, as much as it irked him.

And then, a few moments later, she added, "It's just… my hair is a sore spot."

But this elaboration didn't make her situation any clearer. "What's wrong with it?" he asked (and regretting his phrasing before the words were out of his mouth).

Sakura didn't seem bothered though. "I know it's stupid," she mumbled, "but it reminds me of when we faced the Sound ninjas in the Chūnin Exams."

Sasuke scrunched his eyebrows in concentration. While his memories of that particular encounter were foggy at best, flashes of Sakura's battered and trembling body, pink hair scattered across a battlefield, and the sensations of blinding rage and bloodthirst appeared in his mind.

She swallowed and said, hurriedly, softly, like she was embarrassed to admit it, "I'd vowed to never let anyone touch my hair without my permission…. or get the upper hand on me ever again." She glanced towards him, nervously. "But it's silly. I… I know it's just hair."

Her shame was apparent in her slumped shoulders and the way her eyes flitted away from him.

Sasuke's throat tightened. There were a lot of things he didn't understand about Sakura, but this… this he did get.

"There's this one path I sometimes took home from the Academy," he said, the words tumbling out before he could think better of it. "It's the one I took the night of the massacre."

He felt Sakura's wide eyes on him.

"After that, I never set foot on it again."

But… I know it's just a path."

They kept walking in silence for a long moment while Sakura processed his story and Sasuke waited patiently for her response.

As the quiet stretched on, seeds of doubt settled in and he wondered if he had upset her and should have kept his mouth shut. He braved a quick peak at her face.

His heart jumped at the sight of her lips lifted into one of her real smiles.

"How about we stick together for the rest of the search?" she suggested with a little more spring in her step.

Sasuke nodded, his own lips lifting of their own accord. "That might help you remember we're not here to go shopping."

Sakura's eyebrows shot up. "Hey, I was getting cold, you know!" she huffed, while pulling her new cloak tighter around herself.

However, her eyes were bright, she was giggling softly, and… there it was. That splash of colour. A glimmer of familiarity that told him the annoying, pretty girl who beat him on tests, whose presence he'd missed more than he'd ever admit, perhaps wasn't so long gone after all.