#ssm15d1

/

“papa?”

sasuke sets his cup of tea back down on the table and slowly turns to sarada. she’s looking at him with big wide eyes and he can’t remember what the reason’d been the last time she looked at him like that. she’d been so small, then, just before sakura returned to konoha.

“yes?”

she shifts in her seat, bends her knee and rests her leg atop it. sasuke tilts his head a bit before he reaches over, taps at her knee and nudges her to sit properly.

“papa, when was the last time you had a home cooked meal?” she touches her chopsticks. “or, or... when was the last time mama cooked for you?”

he turns back to the table, watches as sakura comes and sets small bowls of steamed rice to accompany their grilled fish.

she pauses, tilts her head and smiles in sarada’s direction before she disappears to the kitchen again. sasuke observes her, and the way she moves around the place; he doesn’t remember this being the house they’d bought when they’d returned with sarada, those years ago.

“i don’t know,” he answers, his attention on sakura as she serves one more bowl of rice before slowly coming to join them. “a few years, maybe?”

“what do you eat when you’re away?”

“depends on where i’m at,” he says.

“onigiri, i bet,” sakura comments as she sits across from them. she grins at sasuke before turning to sarada. “your papa likes tomato stuffed onigiri more than he’ll ever admit to anyone.”

sarada tries to stifle her laugh behind her hands; sasuke doesn’t think he’s heard anything more beautiful than those choked little snickers.

“anyway,” he stresses, narrowing his eye at his wife. “what is with this place? this isn’t the house we--”

“mama destroyed it!” sarada points a finger at sakura. “she was mad at me and she just punched the ground and then the house just collapsed!”

sasuke stares at his wife, his lips pressed and his shoulders slowly slumping. there’s a blush on sakura’s cheeks, an apologetic smile on her lips as she looks at anything but him.

“it’s not the first time either,” sarada whispers. 

“hey!” sakura calls out to her, lips twitching at the corner. “selling me out like that!”

sarada laughs again, this time without the chance to press her palms against her mouth. she tilts her head back, eyes closed and mouth open to let out that wind chime sound.

he tries to hide his smile, but listening to her laugh and watching sakura’s grin grow wider with affection makes it hard. sasuke dips his head down, grabbing his cup of tea and pressing his smile against the rim.

/

she’s pressed against him as they lie on the couch. she tells him stories of things he’s missed: naruto and his son playing games around the village, sakura’s temper, all that she’s learned in the academy.

here, he asks her to expand. he asks her about her ninjutsu skills, her taijutsu, her aim, her accuracy and precision. 

sarada answers everything at length, she waves and moves and makes gestures with her hands in the air and he spares them a glance as he listens intently to her every word.

while she speaks and he listens, though, he watches as sakura moves around the spacious apartment. she grabs his pack and takes it to the bedroom, comes back and takes his cloak from where she’d hung it, brings it to the piles of clothes he hadn’t notice her make.

as she moves, she glances at him too, sometimes holding his stare, other times smiling shyly as she returns her attention to what she’s doing.

now, as she passes by, she locks her eyes with his, her lips slowly curving upwards. sasuke has a little smirk on his lips as he turns back to his daughter but he pauses when he catches her staring at him.

right then, she looks like her mother. it’s something sasuke takes pride in; she’s got sakura’s eyes. he can see his lips, that cupid’s arrow, the default pout. and her nose is entirely uchiha. but its those dark eyes, those upturned doe eyes that are so much like sakura, it overpowers everything that’s him and it's so satisfying.

sarada stares at him for a second before she gives him a secretive little smile. 

“what?”

“papa, tell me about when you were in the academy.”

“when i was... well, that was a long time ago.” he lifts his hand up and moves some of his hair away from his face. “well i was at the top of the class, as expected. i had... a lot of weight on my shoulders.”

he mentions his brother and his father and even his mother. it’s terse and hushed, lips barely moving and his eyes trained on the ceiling. he doesn’t think he could ever be that way, to have high expectations of his daughter. now or in the future. 

sasuke thinks about her sharingan, about the inhuman strength. she’s doing so well...

he turns to her but pauses when he’s noticed she’s fallen asleep. he watches her then, the way her lips are parted just a bit, her chest rising and falling slow and deep. sasuke reaches over, moves the strands of dark hair from her face.

as he picks her up and makes his way to her bedroom, he misses the way she opens an eye and looks at sakura’s direction, that secretive smile on her lips again.

/

she stands in front of him, her head tilted to the side and her eyes half-lidded. they’re standing in the middle of their bedroom, lights dimmed and everything untouched.

he lifts a hand up and touches her jaw, ghosts his hand up until he’s able to cup her cheek. he’s watching his movements, brow furrowed, but he slowly turns to her as his thumb traces her lower lip.

“sasuke-kun,” she murmurs, closing her eyes and leaning into his touch.

he pulls her close, then, presses her against his chest and wraps his arm around her. sasuke’d been wanting to at least touch her since she arrived in the nick of time to save him. it’d been years since he’d seen her and it was like a calling, like a habit, like it’s what’s supposed to be.

he breathes out her name, just to feel it roll off his tongue. the soft and steady, “sakura.”

she’s gripping his shirt, cheek resting against his chest and a soft hum vibrating from the hollow of her throat. 

they stand like that for a while. remembering what it’s like to challenge reality and become one entity, softly swaying in place.

/

He’s a little shy in the beginning, but he tries to steel himself against any hesitation and offers an old lady help with her groceries, buys a begging child an armful of vegetables to bring home, and even nurses a small bird with bloody gashes back to health. He doesn’t like the idea of its vulnerability, being attacked by something bigger without any way to defend itself. And then he almost laughs at the irony. Maybe he really can be redeemed.

Sasuke does all of these things because he can’t show his face in Konoha yet. He’s not sure what he can do to make everything right again, but he figures he’ll know it when it comes and doesn’t think of going home just yet. He likes his one arm. He likes to help people. He likes wandering. He likes to think about his friends, because he knows he has them now. He has been thinking of Naruto so long that he takes the time to think about Kakashi, who is maybe like his father—no, more like a stupid uncle, and Sakura. What he told Kakashi before his last fight was not a lie; he was not interested in Sakura in that way (he said he had no reason to). But he still cringes at the thought of her because she is not Naruto and they have not yet torn off each other’s arms in mutual understanding. Sasuke struggles with whether Sakura has truly forgiven him but doesn’t worry too much because she is just as big of a fool as Naruto. He feels mushy about it but he is a traditional boy at heart and so he vows to make it up to her. He doesn’t think about big words like love yet.

Days turn into months and he’s not unhappy, maybe he’s even happy. But some things that are important are still missing and he knows he doesn’t deserve them yet. He stays a few weeks in each town he stops, his favorite job is helping with construction—he can work his muscles and he doesn’t have to speak much, but people are just as grateful when he’s done. When people start trusting this wandering helper, he starts receiving little gifts: sometimes fresh produce from a family’s garden, or sometimes little trinkets from the market. He pockets what he can to bring back to his friends or his family shrine as proof of the good he’s done. He even keeps the pretty little things that he thinks Sakura might like; he owes her the most after all. He thinks he’s doing pretty well.

Now, Sasuke is in Suna and on his way to apologize to the Kazekage. Some part of him knows that it is objectively very touching (Sasuke is not personally touched very easily) that the Gaara from back then is now as beloved in his village as Naruto is in Konoha. Gaara’s bond with Naruto also objectively makes him more accepting of Sasuke. Still, Sasuke is dragging his feet in the sand because although apologizing to Gaara might be the easiest, it is still his first confrontation with one of the kages (Kakashi doesn’t count, of course). What words should he use? Does saying “sorry” even mean anything? How can he explain—

The thoughts die in his mind because he is suddenly being yanked aside to one of the stalls along Suna’s central market. He vaguely worries that maybe he should be a little more vigilant after all before turning his attention to the hunchback woman who grabbed his cape (archaic maybe, unfitting for the temperature, maybe, but he likes the cape). “Wha-?”

“HELLO YOUNG MAN! You, sir, look like you need to get laid,” her wrinkly face crinkles even more as her face splits into a wide grin, and Sasuke thinks this is a guffaw if he’s ever heard one. Not sure how to answer, he raises an eyebrow at this old lady.

“People around here call me The Matchmaker. Tell me, what’s your type?  Long hair or short? Tall and curvy, I bet. You are quite the looker yourself, well just because you’d be such a damn catch I’ll waive your fee! You’re very welcome!”

Young girls strolling nearby blush and bat their eyelashes in their direction, because Sasuke is attractive and he knows this. But before The Matchmaker can continue, Sasuke tries to manage a kind smile and grasps his cape from her hands. “I’m sorry, ma’am.” He says without really thinking,

“There’s someone waiting for me at home.”

“Oh my!” The Matchmaker is giggling and fanning herself with her hands in mock heat but he’s already walking away, redness rushing to his cheeks. He is embarrassed and a little heartbroken because those words had sounded so strange coming from his mouth and he is sure he hasn’t said them in nearly a decade. It’s been years since he’s considered Konoha his home and even longer since he’s had someone to go home to. But he had promised her.

--

Ino and Sakura entered the last cart of the train and sat together at the very end. Their cheeks were rosy due to the cold wind and they sighed in relief as they felt the warmth of the subway. Ino unbuttoned her jacket and took off her scarf being careful not to mess up her fishtail braid. Sakura readjusted her beanie and combed out the tangles in her short pink hair. Getting comfortable, she ruffled through her backpack and grabbed the collection of short stories that they had to read for the first day of their winter class. The two girls had decided to take an English course together during the short winter break to fulfill a general requirement for their degrees. 

They had recently bought an apartment together so that their commute to Konoha University would be less than half an hour. They were tired of living on campus and luckily there was a vacant apartment in the same building that Ino’s family friends Chouji and Shikamaru lived, which happened to be above the Akimichi bakery. So not only were they able to move into a place closer to their friends, they also got free baked goods!

Ino opened the plastic bag and pulled a small loaf of the Akimichi’s famous sweet bread and happily munched on her breakfast. Every so often she would rip off a piece and feed Sakura while Sakura began rereading the short story in the anthology. More people filled the cart before the doors closed and the train started to move. 

Ino nudged Sakura. “So we get off at the Hokage monument stop, right?” 

Sakura nodded once, her eyes never leaving the page. 

“And then we walk one block and we’re there!” Ino continued, obviously trying to strike up a conversation.

Sakura nodded again.

Ino sighed in annoyance and softly kicked Sakura’s leg. “Forehead, talk to me! You know I get bored on the subway.”

Sakura returned her kick, eyes still not leaving her book. “Just listen to music like normal people.”

“But I forgot my headphones!”

“Sucks to suck, pig.”  Ino pouted realizing that Sakura would not be contributing to the conversation and started to look around the cart. One of Ino’s favorite pastimes, besides hearing herself speak, was people watching. She let her eyes wander from person to person until they landed on one in particular who looked familiar.

Ino kicked Sakura’s leg harder and earned a glare from her best friend. She pointed to a random guy wearing headphones. “Look! He’s standing over there! It’s that guy I was talking about! The one who I saw at one of Naruto’s parties!  Isn’t he gorgeous?”

Sakura swatted Ino’s hand muttering about how it was rude to point, but glanced in the general direction anyways, not one to miss out on an attractive guy, especially since Ino had pretty high standards on who she found attractive. Her eyes widened and she blushed as she recognized him. She whispered to Ino, “That’s Sasuke!”

The thing was that Ino was right. He was beautiful. The ends of his short black hair stuck out from underneath his blue beanie and she could see his dark eyes behind his glasses. His head was slightly lowered as he read a book in one hand while his other held a train pole to keep his balance.  She watched as his foot tapped to the beat of the music he was listening to through his headphones that covered his ears. Sakura wondered why, out of so many people, she would see him on the train. She wondered if he lived nearby…

She stopped her musings when she realized that it had been a while since she heard Ino’s voice. Sakura looked over at her and but quickly looked away when she saw the excited and mischievous smile on her face. Ino dug her elbow into Sakura’s side. “You done checking him out?” 

Sakura shushed her when some people sitting close by looked over at them. “Hey, lower your voice!” she hissed.

“You know him.”

Sakura started fidgeting with her book. “I know a bit about him.”

Ino grabbed the book out of the girl’s hands and used it to hit her knee repeatedly. “Spill! Now! Forehead! Or I swear I’ll smack the cra—“

“Okay,okay! Just stop—jeez Ino, people are staring!” Sakura glanced over at Sasuke again and saw that he was still looking at his book. She sighed in relief that he didn’t notice the commotion. She opened her mouth, then closed it, knitting her eyebrows as she thought about where she should start. 

Ino patiently waited, already knowing that rushing Sakura for an explanation would get her nowhere. 

“Sasuke is Naruto’s friend—”

“Okay, I gathered that since I saw him at Naruto’s party—“

“Hey don’t interrupt! Anyways, he’s actually his best friend and apparently they grew up together back in Whirlpool. They went to the same elementary and high school and then Sasuke went off to the University of Sound while, as you know, Naruto decided to follow his parents’ footsteps and go to KU. Sasuke’s family really wanted him to go to KU too, but he felt like he would be overshadowed by his brother’s accomplishments at KU, so he decided to choose a different path.”

“And you know this how?”

“Well, remember how I helped Naruto with Calculus last year? We would always study at his dorm and I saw a couple of pictures of him on Naruto’s wall. Naruto saw me looking at them and basically told me a lot about Sasuke. He was really pretty, so I took the liberty of going through Naruto’s Facebook pictures and wall posts. Their relationship is pretty cute. They’re always insulting each other, but you can tell they’re really close. And his taste in music seems pretty good. Of course I’m basing this off of all the music videos he posts on Naruto’s wall—”

“You stalked him on Facebook?”

“No! I mean—I didn’t mean to—Okay fine I did! But can you blame me? Look at him.”

Ino squealed. “Sakura! Why didn’t you tell me! No wonder I failed when I tried setting you up with some of Kiba’s friends. You said that you were ‘focused on your studies’ and ‘didn’t need a boyfriend,’ when all along you already scoped someone out!” Ino poked Sakura on her forehead. “I’ve got it! I’m going to set you up with him!”

“What? You can’t set me up with someone you don’t know! And it’s true! I don’t want a boyfriend. He’s just so nice to look at. Far away from me. In pictures. On Facebook.”

“Okay, sweetie, you’re getting borderline creepy, so let’s bring it down a notch. Just leave it to me! I’ll get the ball rolling. I’m just going to go up to him—“

“No! Now who’s creepy? And what are you even planning to say? ‘Hey Sasuke, you don’t know me, but I know you. Do you have a girlfriend? Well, this is my friend Sakura and she already knows so much about you—‘”

“I’ma stop you there. First of all, of course I wasn’t going to say that. Look, I’m just going to introduce myself. See what book he’s reading and strike up some conversation. Or maybe even ask him about what kind of music he likes—”

Sakura grabbed her arm before Ino could try getting up. “Ino, we’re getting off at the next stop. Don’t cause a scene, please.” Sakura glanced at Sasuke again and looked down at her bag in her lap. 

Sakura was not known to act shy like she was doing now. Ino looked at her best friend. “Wow, you must really like him a lot. And all this from Facebook.”

“…And tumblr.”

“Tumblr too? Good God, Sakura.” Ino sighed and placed the book back in her hands. “Okay, I won’t do anything right now—“

“Ino—“

“—but we are definitely going to discuss more about this Sasuke. And we are definitely going to have a long discussion about keeping secrets—especially such a hot one—from your best friend.”

“Thank you!” Sakura hugged Ino’s arm and leaned her head on her shoulder. 

When Sakura let go, Ino put her scarf back on and buttoned up her jacket. Sakura pulled on her gloves and swung her bag onto her back just as the train pulled up to the Hokage monument station. They stood up and waited for other passengers to file out. Sakura tried to get one last glimpse of Sasuke, but noticed that he wasn’t there anymore. She wasn’t the only one, though.

“He got off at this stop, too!” Ino grabbed Sakura’s arm dragging her through the crowd of people stretching her neck and rising on her tiptoes to see if she could spot him. Sakura found herself copying Ino’s movements as they ran up the stairs and exited the station looking for signs of Sasuke in the streets. Unfortunately he was nowhere to be found. “He’s gone,” Sakura pulled her arm out from Ino’s grip. She felt relieved that Ino wouldn’t be able to embarrass her, but was surprised to find that she was disappointed that they lost him. 

Ino had a knowing look on her face and nudged Sakura with her foot. “C’mon, it’s not like you won’t get a chance to see him again. Now let’s grab some tea. We have about an hour to kill before class starts.”

--

Despite having an hour free, they arrived at the classroom almost twenty minutes early. Ino swung the door open, took one step in, and immediately stopped. Sakura who was following closely behind, bumped into her and almost spilled the hot tea in her hand. 

“Jeez Ino—“ Sakura started, but stopped when she noticed the wide Cheshire-like grin on the blonde’s face. Sakura followed Ino’s gaze noting that instead of individual desks, the classroom had a long conference table. Her gaze followed the table only to land on Sasuke, sitting close to the end. His headphones were still on, but now his jacket was off. Sakura gulped as she noticed how low his V-neck T-shirt dipped. He was still reading a book—which happened to be the same anthology that both Ino and she had for the English course—while leaning back in his chair. 

Ino winked at Sakura before making a beeline for the head of the conference table and pulling out the seat to the left of Sasuke. She gestured to the empty seat on her left and smirked when she saw Sakura make the connection. Ino had just made sure that she had no choice but to take the seat right across from Sasuke. 

Sakura glared at Ino, but walked to the seat anyways. She took off her jacket, placed it on the back of her seat, and sat down, trying not to make a lot of noise that would draw attention to her. Ino however, roughly pulled her own chair out, sat down, and practically flailed her arms while taking off her jacket and scarf. When moving closer to the table, she dragged her seat causing a screech that hurt Sakura’s ears. Sasuke didn’t budge from his position. 

Sakura felt a kick underneath the table and looked at Ino who kept nodding towards Sasuke and mouthing, “Talk to him! Introduce yourself!” 

Sakura shook her head. Thankfully, he hadn’t taken notice of them, although that might change if the pig decided to pull something else. It would probably be best to watch her carefully, Sakura thought. Sakura slouched a bit in her seat and stretched her legs out underneath the table. But she was still confused. She thought he was going to Sound? Did he transfer to KU? Were students allowed to transfer and take classes during the winter session? Sakura looked at Sasuke again. She didn’t know that Sasuke wore glasses. He looked really good in them. They suited his face and rested nicely on his nose. Her eyes traveled down to his mouth. His lips were thin, but they looked so soft—

She blushed and looked down again at her book, embarrassed by her thoughts. She then decided to copy what Sasuke was doing: reading and ignoring everything around her, especially her friend. 

--

Ino grinned as she saw Sakura basically ogle Sasuke. Her grin grew wider as she Sakura’s face flush. She wondered what she could do to get Sasuke to notice Sakura. She felt tapping against her foot thinking it was Sakura. However, Sakura never really tapped her foot unless she was listening to music and liked a song’s beat—

Ino’s eyes widened as she realized she knew exactly who the source was. Pretending to grab something from her bag on the floor, Ino bent over and noticed that her feet were between Sasuke’s tapping foot and Sakura’s extended legs. When Sasuke paused in his tapping, she moved her feet out of the way. She watched as Sasuke then started tapping again, this time against Sakura’s foot. Perfect, Ino thought. 

--

Sakura’s plan to ignore everything worked until she started to feel a constant tap against her foot. She glanced at Ino who looked directly at her, shifted her eyes to Sasuke, and shifted her eyes back to Sakura again. “Talk to him already!” Ino mouthed.

“Not happening,” Sakura mouthed back. She looked back down at her book, but when she felt the tapping against her foot her eyes traveled back up to Ino who mouthed again, “C’mon! He’s right there.”

Sakura rolled her eyes and focused on her book again. She couldn’t concentrate with Ino—and Sasuke—distracting her. Maybe Ino was right? Maybe, if she talked to him she could get to know him a bit better. Maybe she should just be polite and introduce herself just to get Ino off her case. She could start off with telling him that she recognized him from Naruto’s pictures. Yeah, bringing up Naruto was a good conversation starter. 

She felt tapping again on her foot. She then noticed Ino smiling slyly at her. The blonde was getting on her nerves so she decided she needed to make it clear that she was getting annoyed. Sakura smirked at her as she lifted her foot underneath the table and stomped down as hard as she could. 

However, instead of Ino jumping and hissing in pain, Sasuke dropped his book and muttered, “What the hell?” before looking underneath the table.  Sakura glanced at Ino who had the gall to look confused as to what was going on. But Sakura knew better. Ino planned it all! That traitor!

When Sasuke looked back up at her with an irritated expression, Ino took that as her cue to leave stating loudly, “I need to freshen up Sakura, dear, so be nice and apologize to this nice young man here.”

Sakura gaped at Ino’s back as she walked out of the room. Noticing that Sasuke was now glaring at her, she put her hands up in defense. “I thought my friend was—I mean she kept looking over at me—I felt tapping against my—Oh my—Please don’t hate me—I’m sorry!” When she felt a stinging sensation in her eyes, she put her hands down and folded them together trying to cover her face. There was no way she could start crying. Ino was so going to get it—

“Hey.”

Sakura glanced up at him as a tear escaped and rolled down her cheek. She thought briefly that his voice had a nice calming tone. “Y-yeah?”

Sasuke was looking away as he continued, ”You thought your friend was tapping your foot and it annoyed you. So you wanted her to stop, right?” He brought his eyes up to hers. Sasuke no longer looked irritated and instead looked uncomfortable. 

Sakura wondered why and then realized that it was probably because he saw the tears in her eyes. She quickly wiped them away. Realizing she didn’t answer his question, she nodded and smiled.

Sasuke’s lips quirked into a small side smile and Sakura felt her heartbeat quicken. “Well, you said sorry, so I accept your apology…” He looked at her expectantly.

“Sakura,” she introduced. She extended her hand to him. “Thank you…” She waited.

He grasped her hand and she was thankful that she wore a sweater as she felt goosebumps travel up her arms. “Sasuke.”

Sakura’s last thought before they started their conversation was that maybe Ino wasn’t such a bad matchmaker after all.

--

end

--

AN: Sorry for any mistakes. Feedback is greatly appreciated since it’s been such a long time since I’ve written any short stories. I just had the urge to write this because Naruto Gaiden has given me so many feelings. I hope I did the characters justice. Also, sorry that there was mostly interaction between Ino and Sakura rather than Sasuke and Sakura.