*****
Sasuke woke up with a banging headache. He grimaced at the pain on his shoulder. It became unbearable. He needed to get back to Konoha so someone could take care of his wounds and fast. He had no idea how long had passed since he had fallen asleep but the hunger he felt made him think that he hadn't eaten in at least two days.
He struggled to stand up and ran on the top of the cliff by concentrating chakra under his feet. Once up there, he quickly took a chakra pill out and summoned his hawk. He knew that he wouldn't have long before the sensory type ninja would realise that he was still on the island.
His hawk appeared majestically in front of him and he jumped on his back.
"Back to Konoha!"
He looked back at the island one more time, the wind whipping his face and sighed. He knew that one day he will have to come back there eventually but for now, he needed to be healed. Konoha was only three days away.
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"Hokage-sama, please let me..."
"How many times do I need to tell you to call me by my name?"
"Excuse-me, Kakashi-sensei. I'll ask you again, let me travel to Suna with Ino. We need to see how our clinic is doing over there and maybe land a hand especially after the event of last night."
"The hawk has been sent to Lord Kazekage. He will be the one deciding of your venue. For now I cannot authorise the two of you to travel there. There is enough work here in your clinic, Sakura."
Sakura clenched her fists. She wanted to get out of the village for a while. But what she wanted did not matter, if the Hokage wasn't going to let her then she wouldn't be able to. She looked at Ino who shrugged her shoulders at her.
"Well, let's go for some tea and food then." her friend said.
Sakura followed her out. On their way around the village, they bumped into Hinata who was carrying bags on her own.
"Hey Hinata! You shouldn't be carrying these, you're pregnant. Give them to me." shouted Ino.
"Oh... hi Ino, hello Sakura..."
Ino grabbed the bags off her hands and gave one to Sakura.
"You want to come with us for some tea?" the pinkette offered. It had been a while since she spent some time with her and Hinata was such a sweet girl.
"I... I'd love to."
Sakura passed her arm around her shoulders and brought her closer to her.
"Soooo when are you coming to the hospital for a check-up? I'd love to be the one doing it!"
"It's... it's tomorrow."
"Come to my office and we'll go together to the exam room."
Ino pushed open the door of the tea and cake restaurant and the three girls walked in. They sat down at a table the blonde facing Sakura and Hinata.
"Sa-Sakura tell us about your travels."
"Oh you know not much happened! We travelled to a blown up village then we moved to a dimension for twenty days... Basically nothing."
"What do you mean by "basically nothing"? The girl has practically dated Sasuke but sure it's nothing."
Sakura glared at Ino.
"We haven't practically dated. We were two friends travelling together. We will never date."
"Yeah yeah sure that's why he nearly kissed you eight days ago, right."
"He did no... can we stop talking about this?" Sakura felt her cheeks burning and knew that she was probably totally red at this point. What happened was such an intimate moment that she was a bit annoyed that Ino witnessed it.
"If Sakura-chan doesn't want to speak about it maybe we shouldn't?" Sakura mentally thanked Hinata for being so supportive.
"Are you kidding? She's dyin' to brag about it, she's just embarrassed that I saw the whole thing." she smiled at the waiter who brought the three fuming cups of tea and the little cakes. "Anyway what I wanna know Sakura is what you're planning to do now. You told him you're going to move on but then some unexpected events happened," she winked with a huge smile on her face.
"Well... I know he wants me to move on but after what he did, I don't think that it's going to be possible. Sasuke is..."
"The love of your life?" Hinata was so quiet that Sakura barely heard her. She turned her head and saw her blush. Of course if anyone could understand it was Hinata. Her whole life she chased after Naruto knowing very well that it was him or no one. Sakura felt the same way.
"I guess you could say that. I mean he is the only one I want to be with, that's for sure but he is so stubborn... it's frustrating. I'm losing hope, I think I'll never be with him. I thought I had an opportunity but we all know what happened. I told him one day that it felt like walking forwards and backwards right after. Every time I think that he will accept his feelings for me, if he has any, he puts up his walls up and pushes me away."
"He obviously loves you..." Sakura noticed that Hinata was playing with her hair uncomfortably.
"What do you mean by "he loves me"? I know he has feelings for me but I wouldn't call it love."
"I-I-I... don't know. I think that it is love. He risked his life to get you back when you were stuck in that dimension. He refused to let you go by yourself on mission so he could protect you... He would give his life to protect you. Naruto even told him that he cared so much about you that he would rather loose you than hurt you. Sasuke didn't deny it... You shouldn't loose hope. He is scared that's all."
"And he's changing Sakura. Even I can see it. He's transforming. D'you really think he would've said what he said eight days ago after the war? I think he would've simply told you that you're annoying and that you should move on."
Sakura felt a lump in her throat. He was changing.
"And... He keeps coming back to the village. Even if he doesn't admit it to himself you are the reason why he does that."
"Hinata is right. You obviously didn't see his face during the dinner a week ago. Every time you were talking to Nori he was just trying to keep it together. Literally he was sitting on his chair with his eyes closed breathing loudly every time Nori said a joke that only you find funny. I know he has a lot of work left to do but it's happening."
"And what? I know that he is changing." she broke down in tears. "I know that he is but I've been so understanding with him that I just can't take it anymore. How many times do I need to push my feelings aside to give him the time he needs?! I can't go on like this, it's destroying me at this point. I love him so much and it's ruining my life. Look at the two of you! You both have someone and Hinata nearly has a child. And where am I in my life? I'm that single doctor who only works."
"Hey, you're only in your twenties Sakura. Yes I have Sai but we're not married yet or have children. You're not that far behind."
"You don't know what I meant. I won't ever have that because I can't see myself with someone who isn't him. After my date with Kotaka I came home crying. All I could think of on that date was him being home alone. It was so bad that I cut the dinner short and I got home crying. All I wanted to do was to be with Sasuke even if he doesn't give me any physical affection."
"He probably wanted the same thing Sakura... I'm sure that he was looking at the time passing by while you were away."
"No, you're wrong. When I got home he was already asleep."
"Yeah because Sasuke would wait for you to come home with his stern look. Come on Sakura you gotta read between the lines here. He's proud. I'm sure he showed you that he cared about you during this whole thing with Kotaka. Think hard."
"No! The last thing was the day after. Kotaka waited in front of the house to talk to me and when I came back inside crying again, Sasuke just asked me if something had happened."
"Ouuuuuh he was ready to punch him! See stop crying forehead, the man was gonna fight for you."
"No he wasn't. He was just uncomfortable because I was hugging him."
"Yeah, yeah see you tell us that he's stubborn or whatever but you're the same. Exactly the same so stop crying or I'll give you an actual reason to cry for. Next time you see him, you make a move. He won't make one himself so you gotta do it."
"And how do I do that?! He doesn't even accept a hug from me."
"Sakura-chan... He has boundaries and that is something that you need to remember. Step by step. I am sure there is something he got used to you doing. Just do that and speak to him."
"Can we speak about something else?"
"Can I add something? As your best friend it's my duty to be honest with you. You're an idiot. You blindfolded yourself because you're expecting too much from him. You gotta appreciate what he's giving you because that's all he can give you right now. Years ago you fell in love of the idea you had of him and now you actually got the chance to get to know him and you didn't. You tried to turn him into that fantasy of yours. But he tried to get to know you though and developed feelings for who you actually are. Do the same, get to know him and accept that he won't transform into the man of your dreams. Well he's the man of your dreams minus some details that he can't change but thats ok. Just accept that and accept him for who he is. It'll be much easier for him to open up to you if he doesn't feel pressured to fit into the box that you created for him."
Sakura looked at her best friend who just slapped her in the face with words. She was right, she forced Sasuke to fit into criteria that she had for him and this needed to change.
The three friends spent another hour talking and getting to know Hinata. Sakura was glad that it was happening because she got to know an incredible soul whom she was happy to call a friend. Even if she had spent most of the afternoon crying she was grateful to the two kunoichi.
Sakura paid for all of them and they walked Hinata home. They both hugged her promising each other that they should do this more often but with Tenten and Temari when she was going to be in the village.
Sakura walked home feeling exhausted. The sky was getting dark and when she opened the door of her apartment she couldn't see anything. She approached the light switch to turn it on when she saw a shadow in her living room. Ready to attack she approached it.
"Sa-Sakura."
The silhouette fell on the floor. She ran to it recognising the voice.
"Sasuke! What happened?!"
He was in her arms unconscious. She held him closer to her forgetting for a second that she was a medical ninja. Her vision was blurry but she tried to see his face through her tears. Her chest felt so small that she struggled to breathe.
"Sasuke... what happened to you?"
She carried him to the sofa and ran to turn on the light. When she faced him again she held her breath in shock. He was covered in blood, his nose was broken and she could see bandages covering his leg and arm. Other cuts were visible around his body, his shirt was torn revealing the bottom of his abdomen. She could see the lines the muscles were forming and she felt flustered. She shook her head and ran to her kitchen to get her medical supplies.
She took off his shirt by cutting the fabric in half to get a better view on the wounds. Her light green chakra healed every single one of them, even the tiny ones. She had already spent half an hour on them when she felt him move.
"You don't have to heal all of them. I'm fine."
She looked up and saw him look at her with a small smile.
"I know I don't but you are hurt."
"These ones don't hurt but the one in my back does. The shuriken is still stuck inside."
"What?!" she grabbed his shoulders and forced him into a sitting position. She analysed the problem. The weapon was stuck in the shoulder. All around the skin was turning blue/purple.
"How long has this been stuck inside of you?"
"At least three days. I was asleep the rest of the time so I don't know."
"So you left eight days ago. Around five days I'd day."
"I left eight days ago?"
She nodded with her head not caring if he saw her or not. The weapon was so deep inside that taking it out was going to be extremely painful.
"It's going to hurt."
"Hn."
She grabbed it with her left hand while her right hand started healing already. She took it out right away. She felt the pain he was feeling in her own body. He was shaking.
"It's out. I'm healing the infection. What happened?"
"I went to the Land of Birds. Turns out there is a group of ninja living there and they experiment on people and birds. I was out of chakra when I got there and they attacked me. I also got attacked on my way back when I tried to rest in a forest. Bandits."
"You were careless."
"No, simply out of chakra."
"And you still went."
"What was I supposed to do?"
"Take someone with you."
"Sakura."
"I didn't say me, I said someone. I'd be happy if that someone was me but I understand why you don't want to. I respect your choice but I can't stay here worrying about you Sasuke."
She felt the tears coming back.
"You don't have to worry about me."
"I worry about you like you worry about me. We're a team, the two of us, remember?" He turned his head towards her. She drowned in his eyes. She just had gotten through to him so she continued speaking. "We are a team and I'm happy you came here so I could heal you. Now don't move, I'll finish what I started. Show me where you got hurt."
"I'm fine."
"We're not doing this again. Judging by how weak you are right now I can pin you to the sofa if I wanted to."
He reluctantly showed her different parts of his body. She smiled on the inside as she healed him. Give him the space to open up.
She finished her work and all there was left was his nose. She decided to take advantage of the situation to test his limits. With a small malicious smile on her lips she approached his face with hers. Her left hand finger pushed his chin up. She let the rest of them rest there, her hand cupping his chin while her right hand moved up to his nose. She wouldn't be able to completely heal that but she was going to act like it. She will bring him to the hospital tomorrow.
She felt how tensed his body was but he didn't move. Her index finger caressed slowly his skin while she continued sending her chakra to him.
"All done! Now I'm going to give you something to sleep." She wrinkled her nose and smiled widely. Before he had time to move she quickly kissed him on the cheek.
She walked towards the kitchen to get him something to eat and something to sleep.
"Oh and Sasuke you should calm down with the chakra pills. You're destroying your body at this rate."
She quickly came back to the vision of a silent Sasuke. He was looking at his hands, shirtless. From where she stood Sakura could fully see his toned body. Her cheeks heat up and some thoughts started to corrupt her mind.
"Is everything alright?" he nodded still staring at his hands. "Very well. Lie down I'll get you a pillow and a blanket." she handed him the plate and the tea."Eat and drink this."
He took it from her still without looking. She rushed to her bedroom to grab a blanket from the top of her wardrobe and took one of her pillow. She ran back to the living room. She unfolded the blanket and put it on him. He grabbed the pillow and put it behind his head.
He finished the tea quickly and she could see his eyes closing slowly.
"Sleep well Sasuke, you're home now."
He fell asleep and she sat on the ground. Feeling uncomfortable she struggled to grab a pillow from the chair while staying on the ground. Once she had it in her hand, she put it under her. She was going to stay by his side tonight. She took his hand in hers and held it tightly. The warmth of his body made her heart beat faster. He was here, with her. Everything was fine again.
She rested her head on the sofa, her hair touching the side of his chest. His arm was in front of her and she brought his hand to her chest and closed her eyes, her left arm hugging his arm and her right hand holding his. She fell asleep nursed by the movements of his chest behind her head.
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That chapter is for a lovely person who was being very sweet to me today! I hope you enjoyed it xx mioneco