AUTHOR'S NOTE

Wow thanks for the encouraging feedback on Chapter 5, friends! I really appreciate all of it! So, now that Sasuke and Sakura are finally together again, let's get this show on the road… :) Hope you like this one.

Chapter 6

Through the cocoon of purple chakra, Sasuke narrowed his eyes towards the clearing littered with Sakura's fallen opponents. Despite her efforts to save them from any perilous injuries post-battle, she suspected the hail had done a number on them anyways.

"What happened?" Sasuke asked sharply. His demeanor was starkly more intense than during their last encounter in town.

Sakura shivered and hugged herself, her wounded arms trembling from the motion. "I was attacked. Not sure why."

He frowned. "They're alive?"

"Should be. I sedated them just before the hail started. They'll be out for the night, at least." She swallowed then winced as a jolt of pain shot down her throat. Despite Sakura outmaneuvering them in the end, her opponents had apparently done at least a bit of damage in their attempt to strangle her.

Sakura tugged at the collar of her dress to conceal any visible cues to her neck wound, deciding to inspect it later if she could catch a private moment.

"I searched them and collected anything that might be a clue to their identities, but haven't gone through it all yet," she said and gesturing to her pack, where the clues were stowed.

Sasuke nodded as his eyes drifted upwards, where giant hail shards continued to shatter against his Susanoo's hand. "Let's move out then," he decided. "I found a spot about two miles away. Can you manage–"

"I'm fine," Sakura cut in while moving to a standing position, keen to show she wasn't a liability.

Sasuke followed suit, his Susanoo rising along with him, like an oversized, grotesque umbrella. Then, in one fluid motion with his sole arm, he unclasped his black cloak and slung it around Sakura's shoulders.

Sakura raised her arms in protest but he'd already turned away. "I don't need–," she started, but Sasuke interrupted.

"I wasn't asking," he snapped, his tone biting, then starting at a brisk walk, his Sharingan still activated and the sword fasted to his white belt glinting in the Susanoo's glow.

Sakura could only stumble on after him, gripping onto his cloak, which was heavy and soaked but offered some protection to her bare, injured arms.

Her heart sank as the Susanoo hand adjusted to shield her completely, leaving Sasuke partly uncovered to the harsh winds and ice pellets as they began weaving through the trees towards his shelter.

Sakura wanted to resist the gesture, but like with his cloak, recognized that would likely only draw another abrasive comment from him.

We've been together for five minutes and I'm already a burden.

After a gruelling trek, which alternated between a fast walk and a light jog, they arrived at a small alcove at the base of a rocky hill in the middle of the woods.

It was the dead of night by the time they found it, with most of their surroundings pitch black, save the dull glow provided by the Susanoo arm. While Sasuke apparently wasn't keen to overdo it with his ocular powers, like his chakra-depleting teleportation abilities, he'd kept his Sharingan on the whole way, likely to aid with navigation and ensure their coast was clear.

The hail had shifted back to heavy rain at some point during the journey, but the roaring winds and thunder hadn't let up the least bit. By the time Sakura clambered into the shelter, she was mostly clean of mud thanks to the rain, but completely drenched.

After dropping their bags and Sasuke's sword, wordlessly, like most of their trek had been, they got to work storm-proofing the shelter.

With maintaining a fire being entirely out of the question with how wet everything was, Sakura pulled out a small portable lantern. As she was fishing around for a match, Sasuke, who had been sealing a heavy tarp around the alcove's opening with chakra, reached for the lantern and with a controlled exhale, ignited it.

Sakura smirked, having missed the luxury of camping with a Fire release user, something she hadn't experienced since they were kids, before helping him finish with the tarp.

When they were sealed in, Sakura sighed with relief and turned to properly take in their shelter, illuminated by the yellowish hue of the lantern.

It was rather snug, about eight feet deep and a little less wide than that, with sloped, rocky walls that were just tall enough to walk under in a low crouch.

"Good find," Sakura remarked as she took the moment to catch her breath.

Sasuke sat with his back propped against the cave wall while wiping rainwater off his face with the back of his hand, his eye back to its usual shade of black. "There's not a lot of room. But I didn't think you'd be here," he said.

Sakura chuckled awkwardly. "Neither did I."

That was when she remembered she was still wearing his cloak and fumbled for the clasp with shaky, aching hands. Now that she was easing out of survival mode and properly processing the situation, the full weight of what Sasuke had just done for her sunk in.

He must have been preparing to pass the storm in this very spot, but picked up traces of her chakra from two miles away and raced out into the thick of it to find her.

Another wave of guilt turned her stomach.

"I'm sorry for disrupting your night," she mumbled, while slipping the sopping cloak off her shoulders and handing it to him.

Sasuke balled up the drenched fabric. "It's fine," he said dismissively, without making eye contact.

Sakura tried to think up some way to vocalize her gratitude, but was distracted by the chill that chased down her spine and raised goosebumps on her bare arms. Despite being substantially dryer than outside, the alcove was quite wet and cold, having been ravished by the storm before they'd set up the tarp.

Her survival instincts kicked back in.

"I'm going to change into something dry before I get hypothermia," she announced and crawling towards her pack.

Sasuke shifted onto his feet. "I'll wait outside," he said.

"Don't be ridiculous," Sakura chided. She'd rather freeze to death than be responsible for sending him back out there. "Just turn around."

Without sparing him a glance, she unsealed a change of clothes and moved to the back of the alcove, putting as much space between them as possible.

Sakura certainly wasn't one to shy away from a bit of discomfort when it came to medical priorities. She trusted Sasuke anyways, having always been the one to keep Naruto in check whenever she got changed or took a bath during their days on Team Seven.

"You should also…," she started, the words dying on her throat because, okay, medical duties aside, the implications of this situation were not lost on her.

Thankfully, Sasuke complied before she had to finish the sentence. "Yeah. I'll do the same," he said, then she heard him fumbling through his bag at the front of the alcove.

They began changing in silence, save the howling winds, rustling tarp, and occasional splat of wet clothes being discarded onto the ground.

The quiet didn't do Sakura's mind any favours though. Because, the inherent awkwardness of them stripping back-to-back aside, it afforded Sakura a moment to digest just how awkward their broader predicament was too.

Sasuke was clearly as shocked to find her in that storm as she was to find him. It was entirely unclear whether tonight was just a short reprieve from the storm before he sent her on her way, or if his offer for her to join his journey was still on the table.

And if it wasn't, how would she bring herself to admit what she'd been doing in the storm to begin with – searching for him, putting them both in harm's way, and for nothing but a missed opportunity?

Maybe after the storm, it'd be best if she went home after all.

Sakura tried to shelve away her embarrassed line of thinking while she finished toweling herself off and slipped into a forest green sweater, grey sweatpants, and socks – an outfit which felt like a warm hug compared to her drenched, filthy combat clothes.

Unsurprisingly, she finished changing before Sasuke did. While he had presumably gotten the hang of it during their year apart, Sakura recalled several instances of frustration during Sasuke's initial adjustment to life with one arm. At the hospital post-war, he'd even accepted her help on occasion with carrying things or buttoning up a shirt, which spoke volumes given his stubbornly independent nature.

Sakura busied herself by wiping her face, removing her head protector, and combing her damp hair. She also got a head-start on healing her arms, beginning with the slash along her bicep, punctuated by gruesome welts from the hail.

When it sounded like Sasuke had finished, Sakura finally broke the silence. "I have a plastic bag. Want to pack our wet clothes together to save space?" she offered, hoping she didn't come off as too imposing on Sasuke's camping routines.

But it seemed he saw the logic in it and said, "Okay."

"Also, I'm done."

"Same."

They turned towards each other again, determinedly avoiding eye contact while Sasuke, now wearing dry black clothes, finished towel-drying his face and hair, which was resuming its natural tousled spikiness. He added his things to her bag, for proper washing and drying some time after the storm.

Then they further water-proofed the shelter by laying another tarp across the ground, this one belonging to Sakura, and unrolling their sleeping mats atop it, for somewhere to sit that wasn't jagged or soaked. It took a bit of maneuvering, but they managed to fit both mats in the shelter, with about a foot of space between them.

They worked in silence while maintaining as much distance from each other as physically possible.

When they were done, Sakura let out a slow breath and plopped onto her mat, leaning on the alcove wall with her lower back propped against her pillow. After the evening she'd had, she might as well be soaking in a hot spring, with how cozy this felt by comparison.

That was when she noticed, out of the corner of her eye, Sasuke freeze.

Before she could inquire about his shift in mood, in a flash, he was crouched directly beside her.

Sakura jumped at Sasuke's sudden proximity. He'd apparently recovered from the unspoken post-changing awkwardness.

"What's that?" he demanded while gesturing towards his chin and glaring at hers.

What? What is he… Sakura wondered, her pulse racing.

Oh. Not my chin.

My throat.

Sheepishly, Sakura brought her hand to her neck, cursing herself for forgetting that her sweater had a lower neckline than her dress had. She traced the indented pattern left by the strangulation wound, where it was likely starting to bruise.

"I shouldn't have let them get that close," she mumbled and channeling medical chakra to her fingertips to begin the healing process. While she had intended to heal her injuries privately as not to draw attention to them, it was too late to hide them now.

Sasuke watched in disbelief, which made everything feel infinitely worse.

She directed her gaze to her lap. "This won't take long. I broke their hands before they could do any real damage."

Sasuke's jaw unclenched a little. "Where's the stuff you took from them?"

"In my pack. They're right on top, unsealed."

When Sasuke returned with the small stack of papers and scrolls, Sakura was back to working on her arm injuries. He sat crossed-legged on his mat, facing her, moved the lantern closer for better visibility, and began sorting the items. He exhaled soft, measured breaths onto the damp scraps of paper to dry them – his breath made warm but not flammable from a precise exertion of Fire release chakra.

Not wanting to miss out on the fun, Sakura joined him around the clues while finishing with one of the nastier hail wounds on her head, deciding to save healing the rest of them for later.

The start of their scan didn't amount to much, with most items being inconspicuous ninja tools and sealing scrolls. Smartly, Sakura's enemies hadn't carried anything too identifying on their persons. They were good enough at their jobs in that respect, to her misfortune.

A few minutes into the inspection, Sakura's stomach growled. Loudly.

Sasuke acted like he hadn't noticed, though appeared to be repressing a smirk. Sakura cringed and crawled over to her pack for some food rations. With fewer life-threatening distractions in the immediate vicinity, it was harder to forget about things like hunger.

She returned with bread, cured meat, and water. "Here. You should eat too," she offered, and handing a piece of bread to Sasuke. "I've got lots."

He hesitated for a long moment, his eyes peering at her hand then her face through strands of mostly-dried dark hair. Sakura swallowed down the fluttery feeling that swirled in her chest.

Then, he caved. "Thanks," he muttered while taking the bread. As he did so, his sleeve rode up around his wrist, revealing a red, swollen mark. A souvenir from the hailstorm.

Sakura grabbed it before he had the chance to react. The soft green glow of medical chakra bloomed in her palm.

He opened his mouth in protest, but Sakura cut in. "I know you don't like being fussed over, but this is the least I can do after tonight," she pleaded, while scanning him for other visible injuries and locking in on a bruise peeking over the neckline of his shirt.

Sasuke's eyes widened a fraction when she reached for that one next. He held perfectly still, perhaps too surprised to pull away. "Are you trying to lure me into a medical exam with bread?" he asked, lifting an eyebrow.

Sakura laughed. "It worked, didn't it?" she joked, while carefully tracing Sasuke's collar bone with two chakra-coated fingers, instantly diminishing the swelling and discolouration.

Sasuke exhaled through his nose and redirected his gaze to where Sakura's knee bumped into his.

She cleared her throat, dropped her hand, and shifted back onto her mat. "Um, any more?"

"No," he said, too quickly – a reflection of his discomfort and an obvious lie.

Sakura nodded and refocused on the clues, respecting his space but storing away the knowledge that he was still injured, for another time.

They resumed their investigation in silence, aside from distant rumbles of thunder, while sharing Sakura's snacks and water. From a combination of their body heat and Sasuke's fire release exhales, the shelter warmed to a comfortable temperature as the minutes stretched on.

Just as Sakura's energy waned and her sleeping mat became rather enticing, she did a double-take of the scrap of paper in her hand.

Sasuke, whose elbow was propped on a knee with his chin resting on his fist, glanced up. "What?"

"This one's got an address," she breathed. She turned the paper over to make sure she wasn't missing anything. "The note refers to some kind of payment transaction. And I think… this might be the location it happened at."

Sasuke looked the note over, eyebrows furrowed. "Just a few days' travel from here," he said. "It's a good lead."

Sakura brimmed with excitement. This was feeling like a ninja mission.

"If those guys were mercenaries, I wonder if this'll lead us to whoever hired them," she speculated, while her mind reeled through different scenarios that the note could be referring to. Was the transaction about hiring the ninjas themselves, or perhaps some kind of purchase they were protecting? Had the transaction happened yet?

It would be wise to return to the site of Sakura's battle when the storm ended, but this was a promising next stop.

"Sakura."

Her whirl of thoughts came to a screeching halt. Sasuke was frowning at the note and there was something stern about his expression that made Sakura's nerves bristle. "What is it?"

"What are you doing here?" he asked, the edge returning to his tone.

Sakura's heart sank.

So, Sasuke was done with dancing around.

As she'd suspected, he clearly hadn't a clue why she'd been out in that storm. And now, she was rudely interrupting his redemption journey, which she wasn't even sure he wanted her to join anymore, and suggesting the two of them go after this lead, completely hijacking his existing plans.

She swallowed as heat prickled down her neck.

What am I doing here?

Sakura shifted a few inches back onto her mat, hugged her legs, and stared determinedly at her feet. "I was looking for you," she admitted, trying to mask the shame in her voice. "I considered your offer some more and… thought I could join you after all."

She could feel Sasuke's eyes on her but didn't dare meet them.

"But… I guess that was a mistake," she concluded, her lips quirking into a forced smile.

"A mistake?"

Sakura nodded sadly and placed a hand over her freshly-healed throat. "I mean, just look at how today turned out," she mumbled, and thinking about the trouble she'd caused the both of them, after only a few short hours. She wouldn't be surprised if Sasuke was regretting asking her along in the first place.

After a long pause, he mirrored her motion of shifting further back on his mat. "Leave anytime, then," he said bluntly.

Tears shimmered in her eyes when she nodded again.

That was when the exhaustion from the physically and emotionally turbulent day settled in. Suddenly, all she wanted to do was curl up in a ball.

"If it's all right, I'll sleep here to pass the storm."

And then I'll be out of your hair.

"Okay."

In a silent agreement to call it a night, they packed away the clues and the remaining food, then Sakura proceeded to her quick bedtime routine, cleaning her teeth with waterless toothpaste and removing lingering traces of dried mud with a face wipe.

The soft light of the lantern had dimmed slightly, but the wind and rain raged on outside, rustling the tarp. Sakura shimmied under the blanket of her sleeping mat, which was positioned deeper in the alcove than Sasuke's. He followed suit and got into his too, rolling onto his side to face away from her, towards the mouth of the cave.

"Should we take turns keeping watch?" Sakura asked. While her former opponents were unlikely to track them down through the storm, if they'd even gained consciousness, it didn't mean there weren't others out there.

"No need," Sasuke said. "I sleep light."

Sakura pursed her lips, recalling that he hadn't been a light sleeper growing up, rather, tended to be quite grumpy when woken abruptly.

Then again, he'd probably had to adapt to sleeping this way, in the years he'd spent fending for himself.

Sakura shifted onto her back and frowned at the rocky ceiling while her mind resumed its spinning, resisting the grips of her exhaustion.

As much as it pained her, it would be better if she briefed Kakashi about the ambush and he decided how to proceed, right? It wasn't her place to insert herself – not into Sasuke's life, and not into Konoha's ninja business – without consultation first.

Even so, every fibre of Sakura's being wanted to sink her teeth into this mystery and finish what she'd started. In fact, it pissed her off to imagine someone else taking over.

And taking this from her.

Sakura ran her hands down her face and released a slow breath.

A quick glance at Sasuke's back, from just a few feet away, had her mind stuttering even more.

As disastrous as the day had been, it had sparked a thrill in her she hadn't felt in ages.

It wasn't just about the feelings of excitement and relief that came with being around Sasuke again. This wasn't just about him.

Would Sakura fall back to her old ways of giving up when things got tough?

Maybe Sasuke didn't understand what Sakura was doing here, but deep down, Sakura did.

"I don't want to go home," Sakura said, surprising herself as the words slipped out.

She swallowed and glared at the rocky ceiling.

"I… I want to follow that lead. Give it one more chance." She turned towards Sasuke again, who hadn't budged from his position facing the mouth of the alcove. "I've already caused you enough trouble, so you don't have to come. I just… I think I need this."

A long, silent moment passed.

Just as Sakura began to wonder if he had, in fact, fallen asleep, Sasuke said, "I was going to check it out anyways. Even if you left."

Of course he was, Sakura thought, her stubbornness bristling. She'd already derailed his journey enough. There was no way she'd leave him alone with this mess too.

Sakura folded her arms across her stomach, gripping her blanket in her fists. "Well… If that's the case, we might as well stick together after all."

To her surprise, Sasuke let out an amused huff. "I'm not holding my breath," he said.

Sakura raised her eyebrows. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Sasuke rolled onto his back. "You keep changing your mind about this," he mumbled, his gaze directed towards the ceiling.

"Oh," Sakura got out, offput by his agitated tone.

And then, more softly, he added, "But… I haven't changed mine."

Sakura's mouth hung open while she stared at Sasuke's profile, turning his words over in her head.

He hasn't changed his mind… about me joining him?

Sasuke tilted his head to look at her. There was something reserved about his expression, with how his lips were pressed together and eyebrows drawn in.

His offer's still on the table.

And he was waiting for her final response.

Sakura's pulse thudded and face warmed while she properly took him in from just a couple of feet away, the familiar lines of his face and the uncertainty in his eyes cast in the lantern's waning glow.

Her brain stopped working.

Then, without interference from her worries or logic, Sakura's heart made her say, quietly, "I want to stay with you."

Perhaps it was shock, perhaps it was exhaustion, perhaps Sakura was just dizzy with attraction, but their trance didn't break for another long moment, while Sasuke's eyes traced her face, like he was searching for cracks in her resolve.

Finally, he took a shallow breath and said, "All right."

Sasuke turned towards the front of the alcove again, leaving Sakura blinking at his back, her doubts fizzling ever so marginally, but her thoughts no less scrambled.

Looks like this was happening after all.

…Whatever exactly this was that her heart had signed her up for.