The cabin was eerily quiet at night, the kind of silence that amplified every creak of the wooden floorboards and whispered winds outside. Sakura tiptoed into the kitchen, rubbing her temples. Her head was pounding—a dull, relentless ache that no amount of tossing and turning upstairs had soothed.
She reached for a glass on the counter, filling it with cool water from the pitcher. The cold liquid felt like a balm, sliding down her parched throat. But as she turned to set the glass down, her fingers slipped, and the glass tumbled from her hand, shattering against the floor with a sharp, echoing crash.
"Damn it," she hissed, crouching to gather the shards quickly before they woke anyone.
The moment she reached for a particularly jagged piece, a sting shot through her hand. She yelped softly, pulling back to see blood welling from a fresh cut on her palm.
"Are you always this clumsy?"
The low, familiar voice startled her, making her nearly drop another shard. She looked up to see Sasuke standing in the doorway, his dark hair disheveled from sleep, shadows clinging to his sharp features in the dim moonlight.
"Why are you even awake?" she shot back, holding her bleeding hand close.
"You broke a glass," he said simply, stepping into the kitchen. "Hard not to hear that."
"Well, go back to sleep. I've got this," she muttered, reaching for a dish towel to wrap her hand.
Ignoring her protest, Sasuke crouched beside her. "You're bleeding."
"I noticed," she deadpanned, holding up her hand wrapped hastily in the towel.
Without a word, Sasuke grabbed her wrist, gently pulling her hand closer to inspect the cut. His touch was firm but careful, and she suddenly found it very hard to breathe.
"It's not deep," he said after a moment. "But it needs cleaning."
Before she could argue, he was on his feet, rummaging through the first-aid kit they kept in the kitchen. He returned with antiseptic wipes and a bandage.
"I can handle it," Sakura said, reaching for the supplies.
"Stop being stubborn," he said, kneeling again. "You'll make it worse."
She huffed but let him clean the cut, wincing slightly as the antiseptic stung. His hands were steady, his movements precise, and for a moment, she couldn't help but watch him.
"You're surprisingly good at this," she said, breaking the silence.
"Years of dealing with Naruto's recklessness," he replied, not looking up. "You're not the first idiot I've patched up."
"Gee, thanks," she said dryly, but her lips quirked into a small smile.
As he finished wrapping the bandage around her hand, Sasuke's eyes flickered downward, catching a faint glimpse of something dark beneath her sleeve as she moved. A shape, jagged and black, peeked out for a fraction of a second. His brow furrowed.
"What's that?" he asked, his hand reaching out instinctively toward her arm.
Sakura froze, her heart racing as his fingers brushed the fabric near her elbow. "Don't—" she started, but he was already trying to push the sleeve up.
She flinched hard, jerking her arm back and pulling away before he could uncover the mark.
"It's not your problem, Uchiha," she said sharply, her voice cold, though her chest felt like it might explode.
He straightened slowly, his dark eyes narrowing as he studied her. There was something unsaid in his gaze, a quiet demand for answers, but she refused to meet it.
"Go back to sleep," she muttered, not bothering to look at him as she bent to pick up the remaining shards of glass.
—-
A sigh escapes between her slightly embalmed and rose-colored lips, and her gaze falls on the steam that had just escaped from her lips. It was a bit cold, which is fair for an October evening, but considering the area she was in, it was somewhat to be expected that it would be cooler than in the city.
Her eyes slowly analyzes the trees in front of the cabin, her body leaning against the wall of the wooden cabin.
I wonder how many hardships a tree goes through as it grows and develops? It's been a lot of years, we're talking about human lives gathered together - some trees may catch animals never seen before by man, others may have shooting stars in the sky, while others may go through droughts and rains, winds that are more than ready to knock them down and yet.. They are still here, full of secrets. How fantastic!
So are people, who are more than willing to share their stories, their own feelings and experiences. The mistake they make is comparing themselves to others - obviously their hardships are much deeper than others'! If only people knew that there is no degree of comparison for what they feel and for what happens to them throughout their lives, if only people knew that there is nothing in this world meant to destroy a person, but to make them stronger, if only people knew that their whole life is a story, which already has an ending written and all the problems that currently exist have already been solved and they only need a little patience...
Patience.
The emerald eyes sparkle once this word is said in their mind, as if it were an orgasm for the brain. What is patience after all? We all have a definition, but it is certainly different.
- What are you thinking about? a deep voice from her right makes her start slightly.
Her gaze falls on the man next to her, and she could swear that he is the only person she least expected to disturb her in her moment of contemplation. Sasuke looks at her, as always without any emotion, without any subtitles, which makes Sakura approach him and stop a few centimeters away from his body, from his face.
Her eyes analyzed him deeply, analyzing every feature she couldn't see until now, and she didn't understand why she hadn't done this until now. Her hands are propped in the pockets of her brown jacket and she remains silent, analyzing his gaze which in turn analyzed hers.
"Are you okay?" His voice is heard again, but this time it doesn't make her startle, in fact it is heard closer to her face, to her, to everything.
"I was just thinking", Sakura manages to say, looking up at his eyes, "how annoying you are."
One corner of his mouth twitched upward in a faint smirk.
"Annoying, huh?" His tone was light, carrying a flicker of amusement that didn't quite match his neutral expression.
Always seem to surprise me, Haruno.
Sakura crossed her arms, tilting her head slightly as she narrowed her eyes at him. "Yes. You always show up when you're not wanted."
"Then why haven't you told me to leave like last night?"
Her breath caught for a split second, but she quickly recovered, her lips curving into a sly smile. "Because I haven't decided if I hate you being here yet."
Sasuke leaned back slightly, his gaze steady and unreadable. "Then I guess I'll stay until you do."
Her lips twitched as she fought the urge to laugh. "Suit yourself."
The silence fell between them, but it wasn't just the quiet of the night that weighed on Sakura's mind. It was the swirling chaos inside her, the confusion she could never seem to shake off when Sasuke was around.
Sakura tried to calm her racing thoughts, staring out at the trees in front of the cabin, the night air cool on her skin.Why does it feel like this place is holding me captive?She'd been in control of her emotions for years—never letting anyone see the cracks she'd carefully concealed—but something about this situation, about Sasuke's presence, made her feel like she was unraveling.
You've been over him for years,she reminded herself. It was true. She was no longer that wide-eyed girl who had silently admired Sasuke from afar in high school, convinced that one day, he might see her as something more than just another background figure. The memory of how he treated her back then still stung—how he'd ignored her, belittled her, and made her feel invisible, just another face in the crowd. But it wasn't just the cruelty that had stung. It was the way he'd seemed so unreachable, so distant, as if she could never matter to him.
But she was over it now.You moved on, Sakura. You've moved on. The words didn't sound as convincing as they should. She'd buried those feelings years ago, told herself she had, but standing in front of him now, the way his gaze met hers—or didn't, more often than not—made it hard to shake the old memories.
She was no longer that girl who wanted his attention. She had built herself up over the years, achieved things he would never even understand. So why was it that the slightest glance from him still made her stomach flutter with an emotion she couldn't define?
Focus. She had to. She couldn't afford to lose herself in thoughts of him again. She turned her gaze toward the trees, willing herself to breathe.
On the other side of the silence, Sasuke stood rigid, his mind still wrestling with the words Ino had thrown at him."Whatever you say, Uchiha. But one day, you're going to have to admit the truth—maybe to her, maybe to yourself."
His thoughts felt like a tangled knot, tightening every time his mind returned to Sakura. He'd been around long enough to know when something was off, and lately, it seemed like Sakura had been avoiding him more than usual. The distance between them wasn't just physical; it was like there was an invisible wall that neither of them was willing to break.
He had no idea why Ino's words still echoed in his head, but they did.When that day comes, I'm going to say, 'I told you so.'Was he really as clueless as Ino claimed? He thought he had everything figured out—his feelings, his priorities—but something about Sakura's presence made everything feel more complicated than it had any right to be. She was no longer the girl he used to know—that girl had been replaced by someone stronger, someone he didn't fully understand.
It irritated him how often his thoughts drifted back to her, how much his mind tried to analyze her every movement, her every word. But there was something about the way she carried herself now, how she had grown into someone who was entirely different from the girl he remembered. And yet... sometimes, when he caught the briefest glance of her expression, or heard the tone of her voice when they spoke, he couldn't ignore the faint traces of the girl he once knew—the one who had been hurt by his indifference, the one who had tried so hard to fit into a world where he made her feel insignificant.
Sakura, why do you keep getting under my skin?Sasuke's thoughts churned.