Although Sora told me to confess to Sasuke, I procrastinated.
We just started talking to each other recently, and we were only just starting to become closer (at least, in my opinion). I didn't want to risk anything, especially when it came to someone as passive as Sasuke.
I tried to convince myself that I was happy being where I was with Sasuke.
"It's so boring!" I complained to the twins one day.
It was a few days after Sora's confrontation with me, and Team Eleven was given patrol duty for the day.
Sora rolled her eyes, adjusting her vest. "This is easy money, stupid girl."
I gasp in mock horror as we patrolled near the front gates. "Easy money? The ANBU changed you, Kitsune princess!"
She was about to retort when a nin suddenly appeared, jumping past the Konoha gates. The nin took out a kunai and the civilians around us started screaming.
"Stop!" I shouted, running towards the nin, my hand glowing golden.
Before I could drain him, he turned, his eyes shining with glee. In a blink of an eye, he was before me, and jabbed at my arms. He took a step back.
I formed my hand seals, waiting for my water prison to appear. A moment passed and when no chakra surged to my hands, I stared at the nin in shock.
The twins, with clones of the nin near them, also lifted their hands, staring at them in a similar state of shock.
"What did you do to our chakra?!" I demanded.
The nin and his clones chuckled. "I know you three! Without chakra, most of your powerful attacks are useless!"
Sekken and Sora scoffed, whipping out their respective weapons before facing his clones. I glared at the nin in front of me, but before I could take out my kunai, he wretched my arms behind my back.
"I can summon more clones," he sneered. "And then they'll attack the civilians."
"You wouldn't!" I yelled.
"Yes, I wouldn't do that... if you come with me, niece of the Sixth Hokage."
My mouth fell open. "You want to use me to threaten my Uncle?!"
I shifted my legs, trying to twist and use my feet to attack the nin. The nin, reacting quickly, twisted to the side and avoided my attack. Then he kicked at the back of my knees, causing me to cry out before I was forced to kneel on the ground before him.
"Mika!" the twins cried.
The nin pressed a kunai to my throat. "One step closer and I'll slit her thro-"
There was a flurry of motions, and a shinobi dressed in grey and blue suddenly appeared, tackling the nin.
My eyes widened as I saw the signature raven hair. "Sasuke!" I cried.
"Aren't you supposed to be off-duty today?!" Sora yelled while clashing blades with the nin's clone.
The nin pinned Sasuke to the ground, grinning maniacally. "The last Uchiha... this must be my lucky day! I came here for the Hokage's niece... but the Uchiha would be a better price!"
Sasuke's voice was low when he spoke. "Here for the Hokage's niece... you say."
Sekken's dagger morphed into a sword. He was about to go to Sasuke's aid when Sasuke clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth. His eyes flashed into their Sharingan-Rinnegan combination, and the nin flew off him.
The nin flew against a nearby tree, falling to the ground with a thud. The nin's eyes hardened in anger as he looked at me. In a last-ditch attempt, the nin threw his kunai at me.
With amazing speed, the kunai came hurtling at my direction. The twins yelled at me to dodge, and before I could do so, there was a flash before me.
Sasuke, who teleported in front of me, hissed in pain as the kunai meant for me grazed his arm. I stared at the wound at his arm.
"If you didn't raise your arm..." I whispered. "It would have gone straight through your heart."
I gingerly touched his arm, and when I realised that my chakra pathways were unblocked again, I began healing him with my kekkei genkai. Meanwhile, the twins knocked out the nin and dragged him towards the Hokage Tower, leaving Sasuke and I alone.
"This is nothing," he said, trying to shrug me off.
Anger surged in me. "Nothing? He could have killed you! I was going to dodge! But you... you went in front of me! Without even caring about your own life!"
He scoffed, teleporting away from me, making me even angrier.
'He must be heading home,' I thought to myself before chakra-running to his house.
True to my predictions, I found him at the Uchiha compound, walking towards the door. I marched up to him, my hands balling into fists.
"Uchiha Sasuke!"
He stopped in front of his front door, and I spun him around by the shoulder, glaring daggers at him. In return, his eyes flashed red and purple; instead of recoiling in fear, I merely lifted my chin, staring back at his Sharingan and Rinnegan defiantly.
"What do you want?" he hissed.
"Me? What do you want! Are you crazy? Why would you risk your life for me?"
He rolled his eyes, lifting his arm with the wound already healed. "Stop being dramatic, it's just an arm wound."
"It would have gone straight to your heart if you didn't lift your arm!" I repeated, rage consuming me.
He scoffed. "And it matters to you because?"
I exploded. "Of course it matters to me! Is the concept of me caring about you and needing to know that you'll value your life more so hard to wrap your head around?"
"Oh yeah? And why the-" he cursed. "- do you need me for? The last time I checked, you have always busied yourself by fraternising with the Kitsune twins and ignored me since after the war-"
I didn't stop to think, only acted. Before I knew it, I slapped him across the face, hard.
"I need you because I love you, idiot!"
The moment the words were out of my mouth, I regretted them. Sasuke, for once, was frozen, and his eyes turned back to black. I bit my lip, feeling my eyes sting. Immediately, I spun my heel and walked away from him speedily.
I heard footsteps after me, prompting me to walk even faster.
"Hosu."
I continued walking.
"Hosu!"
I had to ignore him.
"Hosu no Mika!"
I needed to get away from him -
"Mika!"
I hesitated for a split second and that was enough for time for him to grab me by the wrist and spin me around to face him.
I felt beyond humiliated – I just confessed my feelings to Sasuke again; only now we are no longer stupid kids, and now he can use that to mock me because I'm obviously nobody to him and yet I invested my heart into his.
There was a rumble in the sky.
Water began to spill over my eyes and run down my face. My face was wet, but not from the rain.
(This was giving me a sense of déjà vu from three years ago).
"Are you happy now? Go ahead and laugh at me. When we were children, I liked you. When we grew older, even when you were a goddamn missing nin, I loved you. Now, despite everything, and despite me not meaning a thing to you, I'm in love with you. Let go of me- mmf!"
He yanked me to him, kissing me like he was a man drowning and I was his air. When we broke apart, he held my face in his hands, looking at me in the eyes straight.
"Listen to me, you stupid, noisy, annoying girl. I liked you. I loved you. I'm in love with you. It's so blatantly obvious to everyone else, I don't know how absolutely stupid you can get."
I looked at him through misty eyes. I swallowed. Uchiha Sasuke... in love with me? This was like something out of my imagination, and I was taking a long time to process it.
He scoffed at me, again, but his tone was gentle. "Why, is the concept of me being in love with you so hard to wrap your head around?"
Before I could say anything, he leaned in, gently kissing me while cradling my face in one hand, another hand pulling me closer to him.
Both of us were getting soaked in the rain but neither of us cared.
* * *
With that, we began a new relationship together.
Not much has changed – we still spent time together like normal, training, having meals together, taking walks... Just that we do it together, as a couple.
I've also started cooking for Sasuke regularly.
It was in a morning after I stayed overnight at Sasuke's. I woke up and went to the kitchen, making eggs and bacon. I didn't want Sasuke to think that I was intruding in his life by making breakfast for him, so I just made breakfast for myself.
Just as I got toast and was ready to dig in, Sasuke woke up, walking into the kitchen.
"Morning," I said, a bit shyly.
He nodded at me blearily, stifling a yawn. Then he opened the fridge and took out a tomato.
He was about to bite into it when I exclaimed, "What are you doing?"
He blinked at me, rubbing his eyes. "... trying to eat breakfast?"
"That is not breakfast!" I snatched the tomato from his hand and made my way to the stove, busying myself with taking out a pan and eggs. "Sit down. I'll make you a real breakfast!"
He watched me, a flicker of amusement in his eyes.
Since then, I cooked for the both of us regularly, having dinner at his house together almost every night. As I also stayed over at his place a lot, we often had breakfast together before heading off to our respective workplaces.
It wasn't until a few weeks later did I move in with Sasuke.
It was after work, and after waiting at the ANBU Headquarters for Sasuke, we made a detour to my apartment for me to grab some stuff when I saw my landlady outside of my door.
Her forehead was pinched together and arms tightly crossed. Her brows furrowed even more upon noticing me.
Forcing myself to be polite, I went up to her and greeted her.
She raised a hand. "Let's cut to the chase. I'm tripling your rent from today onwards."
I stared at her, flabbergasted. "Triple?! Why?"
She snorted. "Electricity and water bills are climbing. You use too much electricity and water anyway."
"I don't even spend a lot of time at home anymore!" I protested, thinking of late nights at work, finding more time together with the twins, and my frequent night stays at Sasuke's.
"That's not my problem," she said icily.
I took a deep breath. "I don't get paid nearly enough to afford a tripled rent..."
"Why don't you ask your Uncle for money then?" she sniffed. "I'm sure the Hokage has plenty of funds."
Sasuke, who had been quiet up until then, stepped forward, glaring at the landlady. She took a step back.
"She doesn't need to be staying in your pathetic little apartment anymore," he said.
The landlady seemed taken back. She recomposed herself before saying, "Well, make sure to move out by the end of today!"
I stared after her as she stalked off. Sasuke gently took me by the shoulders and steered me into my ex-apartment, taking out boxes and telling me to start packing.
"Where will I stay?" I asked, looking at my stuff in dismay. "I still don't want to go back to the Hokage Tower."
"With me," Sasuke simply said before packing my shoes in a box.
I blinked at him in surprise. "You mean... live with you?"
He shrugged. "You're already pretty much living with me already. It's just a matter of moving all your stuff over."
I went up behind him and wrapped my arms around him. He touched my arms, and we stayed that way for a moment before we got back to packing.
Despite moving in together, our lives still didn't change much. We continued doing what we already been doing – walking to our workplaces together, waiting for each other after work if we didn't have prior engagements, having meals together often...
It felt natural.
One time, when Sasuke dropped me off at the Hokage Tower, and as I was cheerfully waving goodbye to him, I nearly bumped into Sakura who was heading for the medic division.
She looked at my flushed cheeks, grin, and shining eyes, before looking towards the front gates where Sasuke was walking off.
She waggled her eyebrows at her and smirked. "Sasuke-kun's been dropping you off a lot recently."
My face felt hotter. "We... just happen to go to work at the same time and run into each other along the way!"
Her smirk stayed. "Are you guys officially together?"
I paused. We confessed to each other, lived together, spent a lot of time together... but when it came to 'official' matters, neither of us talked about it.
I kept this concern at the back of my head, and almost forgot about it until Sasuke took me out on an off-day for both of us.
"Where are we going?" I asked as I threw on civilian clothes and stuffed a few kunais into my civilian shoes for good measures.
He gave me a half-smile, simply telling me that I'll see before we made our way out. We walked past the heart of Konoha, stopping by Ino's flower shop to get flowers (to my confusion), and went past the forests until we reached a clearing.
I looked around at the white headstones around me and it clicked. "We're at... the graveyard?"
Sasuke walked forward, with a single destination in mind. I quickly walked after him, tightening my grip over the flowers in my arms.
He stopped in front of three headstones with the Uchiha symbol. He closed his eyes and bowed his head.
I followed suit, closing my eyes and silently offering my respect to his late parents and brother. When I opened my eyes again, Sasuke was kneeling, placing his flowers before the headstones. I knelt down beside him, arranging my bouquet beside his before we stood up, bowing once more respectfully.
"Why did you bring me here today?" I asked once we straightened up.
His eyes not leaving the headstones of his family, he answered, "I wanted to bring my girlfriend to meet my family."
My eyes widened in shock as my brain processed his words. At once, I turned to him, kissing him on the cheek.
"Can't keep your hands off me even at a graveyard, Hosu?" was what he said, but his arm wrapped around my shoulders, drawing me closer to him.
I placed my arm around him, smiling into the crook of his neck. "I'm Uchiha Sasuke's girlfriend."
He chuckled around his breath. "... yeah, you are."
And that was the start of our 'official' relationship.
* * *
A/N: After 29 chapters... these two are finally together. I'm super excited for the upcoming chapters, and for the final wrapping up of this (ridiculously) long fic. Stay tuned! ^^