#ssm21d23

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They just got back from a B-class mission, and the team unanimously wanted to go straight to their homes to rest, but Sakura insisted on having dinner at Ichiraku.

“My treat so please order all you want!” she happily said.

Naruto’s eyes almost took on heart shapes when he looked at her. “I can order 20?”

He expected her to give him the stink eye or jokingly punch his arm, but she smiled at Naruto and answered him with no hint of annoyance in her voice. “Of course!”

“Are you sure Sakura?” Kakashi shamelessly counted the coins in his wallet. “I kinda feel embarrassed having a kid treat me dinner.”

She laughed, and to his ears it sounded like the rustling of spring. “This is once in a lifetime. I don’t take no’s. Understand, Sasuke-kun?”

“I’m gonna order more ramen than you!” Naruto seemed to get riled up with the unnecessary attention Sakura gave him.

“Bring it on, dobe!”

Twenty-two bowls of ramen later, Sasuke trudged away from the ramen stall, Naruto having fallen asleep at the counter, and Kakashi waiting for Iruka to pick the kid up. Sakura followed behind at what he supposed was a safe distance from his personal space. She was like that, constantly aware of his nuances. She only ate two bowls of ramen despite her promised treat as if the splurging wasn’t really intended for her.

“Sasuke-kun,” she softly called out as she bridged the distance between them. “Here.”

She gave him a box wrapped with a floral paper and surrounded with decorative washi tapes. Very Sakura of her. This time, she didn’t wait for him to open it.

“Happy birthday, Sasuke-kun.”

He opened the box later that evening in his apartment, finding a set of kunai and shuriken. There was one kunai that was the largest in size; when he looked closer, he found his family crest engraved on it.

He sighed, sliding lower in his chair.

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He was doing reconnaissance in Konoha that night, intending to spy on the Hokage’s office, on Danzo, and the village council. He knew the anbu would be immediately on his tail so he took a detour first, passing through his old apartment, then on to Naruto’s. He was still eating ramen for his meals, but he noted the many sandals outside his door. Hearing laughter, he peered closer and saw that Shikamaru, Neji, Kiba, Shino, Lee, and Choji were inside. How would you defeat me if you’re dilly-dallying with useless things?

Many years had passed since he left this town for revenge. Obviously, many changes have set on as well. Incidentally, he happened to pass by Sakura’s apartment, and her room was exactly in his line of sight. He hesitated for a few seconds, halting his movement in one of the branches, and he took her in.

Same hair, same jade eyes, alone. A cupcake with a candle in front of her and a vase of daffodils on her desk. He didn’t have to guess that the frame beside it was their team picture. She looked at it with tired, sad eyes, and it was weird associating those emotions with her, her who was supposed to be perpetually bright and warm and happy, a sunburst stuck in a time loop, a blooming tree in winter. But he also didn’t have to guess it was him who caused all this.

She blew the candle on the cupcake and said something to the picture frame. Happy birthday.

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He woke up to the sight of fresh daffodils on his bedside. Beside him, on another bed was a sleeping Naruto, attended to by the quiet Hyuuga girl who seemed to be the giver of the sunflowers on his bedside table. She caught him looking their way, and she blushed at having been found out. Still embarrassed, she put a finger to her lips and bowed slightly, as if to say this should be kept between them.

As if the whole Konoha didn’t already know of her affections for Naruto. He wondered if the same goes for him as well.

When she sauntered into the room and made a silent wave to Hinata, he was unsure whether she still felt the same, whether Konoha knew of how much she suffered and waited and pined for him all these years without certainty, whether her feelings were reflected plain as day in her face for everyone to see.

Sakura sat down beside him, her smile getting wider when she realized he was awake. She disappeared to get something from her office and comes back not a minute later with a small tomato-shaped gelatin.

“Sasuke-kun, happy birthday,” she whispered as she handed him the treat.

Do you see me regretting what I did? was what he wanted to ask, but he took the small bowl from her hands, his phantom limb aching to reach out beyond the bowl and graze her fingers, and despite all these wishes, all he could say right now was what he could convey the most sincerely, “Thank you.”

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The warm body left him in the morning – embodiment of supple, tight, smooth, and rough- she was gone.

He found himself alone in the inn they rented for a week. He sat up, almost startled, but he couldn’t allow himself to panic. They always went to the market together, even doing reconnaissance work, or mundane errands like strolling by the river, they were essentially tied by the hip when they both set out together from Konoha. This response was unfamiliar to him; he couldn’t care less before, but a few seconds away from her sent him reeling.

“Sasuke-kun?” He didn’t hear the door creak open.

She was back again in his vicinity. She probably saw the alarmed look in his eyes, no matter how subtle he thought his expression was, and she went to his side quickly, forgetting to remove the gray cloak she had on which was damp with the drizzle outside. “What’s wrong?”

He could still smell his scent on her, and the memories of the past nights in that inn came flashing back to him in supercuts. Heat rose to his cheeks, and maybe in his past life, he would want to move away and put distance between them as much as possible, but he wanted no more than inch away from her jade eyes and soft pink lips. Lips that never forgot to remember his name, lips that muttered unsaid words during their past encounters, lips that screamed devotion, lips that whispered please and panted moans, lips that loved him, lips that he loved.

“Wait,” Sakura said, almost breathlessly. He never knew she could be so intoxicating like this. As he smelled the side of her neck, she took out a small bouquet of daffodils from inside her cloak with some still having their roots. “Saw them on the street while I was buying.” Then she took out a paper bag with a cupcake inside. “The bakery swore this was sugar-free. I’m sorry I only got you this. Happy birthday, Sasuke-kun.”

“Hmm, I suppose we can use the cupcake.”

“What – it’s gonna be messy!”

“Shut your compulsion Sakura and kiss me.”

He reduced her into giggles, then finally in pants, their skin and limbs in tangles on the bed of strewn daffodils.

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That was weird. Their house was still dark and it was already nearing ten in the evening. Was Sakura still at the hospital? Maybe he should have dropped by first and checked. Sarada must be having a sleepover with Chocho as usual. Or a date? Nah, Boruto didn’t ask permission from him, but if they did, his disciple would be seeing some chidori in their next training. He patted the pocket of his cloak, feeling the flowers he bought from a random flower stall because Yamanaka was not open.

The door opened right in front of his face when he was about to turn the knob. “Sorry Sakura-chan! I need to piss but Kiba is hogging your bathroom with that stomachache of his! Imma just piss outside!”

“Naruto!” Sakura yelled.

“Really?” Sasuke asked the seventh hokage in front of him.

“Happy birthday Sasuke!” the rest of the people said in the dark of their house.

The lights were opened and Sarada held a cake in her hands. “Papa, happy birthday! We made sure to get you a sugar-free one!”

Sakura trailed behind their daughter, her doctor robes still on. She must have raced him to their house to surprise him in time. He gave her his bouquet of daffodils along with a soft smile. “I’m home.”

“Oh my god, he smiled,” Temari said, a little too loud, much to the amusement of the group.

Hours into the merriment, with a birthday hat on his head as insisted by Sarada, Sasuke found himself drinking with Tsunade. Man, the fifth hokage could drink. He was a lightweight, that much he knew.

“Oy Sasuke.”

“Yes, maam?” He poured her another glass of sake.

“Did you know how many Sakura rejected when you went rogue?” she asked him, clearly taking advantage of his muddled thoughts and the loosened emotional barriers around him.

“Was this before or after I lost my arm?”

“Both.” Tsunade snickered, swiping the bottle from Sasuke’s hands and drinking the remaining liquor. “She had guys coming up to her after surgery and operations and asking for her name and details. You lucky bastard.”

“Where- where are they?” His hands were already making seals for a fireball when Tsunade slapped his shoulder.

“You lucky bastard. This is why you should take care of her.”

“Of course I will.”

“And my three wonderful godchildren.”

He knew Tsunade slipped an important information. Somewhere in his drunken state, he could hear Sakura screaming “Shishou!” and Ino yelling in glee at having to divulge the secret finally.

Sarada was shaking his shoulders, almost teary-eyed, and Boruto and Mitsuki behind her. Cute kids. “Papa! Papa!”

Sakura sat beside him and kissed his cheek. “We’re having twins, Sasuke-kun.”

“Sarada, the camera quick!” Kakashi called, still laughing. “Capture your Papa’s crying face.”

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It was a good spring day, the one that people look forward to so they could spend the rest of the day having picnics, walking with the blooms, chattering with friends.

His feet led him somewhere else, away from the parks, from the river, and from the crowds. The road was uphill, a rather mountainous climb, an easy trek when he was younger, but his legs were not as strong anymore. It has been a long while since he went out like this, not for missions, not for reports, not for their children – Sarada, Takumi, or Saito.

He was here for her, and maybe for himself too. He was alone again, like the first time she gave her gift, and it was a gaping loneliness he was unfamiliar with. Not the kind that harbored hatred in his being, but the kind that made love over the years swelled into a never ending crest.

“Ah, you really know how to greet me, tsuma.”

Daffodils grew from her grave.

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“Ah, isn’t it a beautiful day?” Sarada stretched out her arms and laid on the grass, not caring whether the blades will leave stains on her hokage robes.

“Hey, I get all the tomatoes,” Saito protested.

“You’re hogging the bento box, Saito!” Takumi yelled back.

“Oneechan!!!!” they both screamed.

“I can’t believe I’m the only one who inherited Mama’s sweet tooth,” Sarada said, unwilling to take part in the shenanigans of her pink-haired, green-eyed siblings. “Also, you’re already adults so act like it will you? You, Takumi – a whole jounin and chief of police force, and you, Saito – the head psychologist.”

“Okay so anyway, bitch-faced Takumi dumped many girls again for a Valentines date, and I think he ruined his chances when he called his crush annoying,” Saito told their parents, munching on a cherry tomato as he did.

“Saito is being overdramatic,” Takumi spat. “He almost let hell loose in your hospital, Mama. He made a children-friendly skit of the Fourth Shinobi World War, and it traumatized some of the pedia patients.”

“No way, war???? In pedia????” Sarada asked, exasperated now. “Really, Saito?”

Saito pretended he didn’t hear his hokage sister and lit up the candles on the cake. “We should stop bickering and start singing happy birthday.”

“We’re not finished Saito!”

“Takumi, I’m gonna get your head for this.”

“Like you could. Finally finished the tomatoes.”

The field of daffodils covering two graves silently swayed to the passing wind, some of the petals drifting upwards, riding on the invisible soft gale, some landing on their hair, disappearing within pink and raven strands, and some grazing the diamond seals on their foreheads.