Thursday, 17th of August.
Sasuke woke up slowly. The light was so blinding that when he tried to open his eyes he felt a strong pain. He attempted to bring his hand to his face but he felt something holding it.
With his eyebrows frowned he reluctantly opened his eyes. The first thing he saw was the pink hair and the more he looked the more he realised that it was simply Sakura who was sleeping against him. She was sitting on the floor, half laying down next to him. He felt her hand holding his tightly. A strange feeling took possession of his abdomen. It felt like... butterflies? It wasn't agreeable.
He tried to move his body hoping that they will go away but Sakura strengthened her hold on him and it only intensified the feeling.
After a minute, his eyes closed again and he fell asleep.
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When he woke up for the second time, Sakura wasn't there anymore but a little note was laying on his chest. He took it and read it.
"Good morning Sasuke,
I had to go to the hospital to do a little check up on Hinata and her baby. My lunch break is at 12:30 so if you can come to my office at 1pm it would be perfect. I promise I won't ask Tsunade to come.
See you later.
Ps: I left some food for you on the kitchen counter, just heat it up. I also left some towels in case you'd want to take a shower, which you should, to clean the blood so I can see the wounds better.
Sakura"
He looked at the time while putting the note on the table. It was already 11:30. He felt great and well rested.
He folded the blanket perfectly and grabbed the towels left by his friend. He walked to the shower and let the water wash his skin. He stood there for a while. Sasuke couldn't recall what had happened last night after he drank that tea. He did remember how she had kissed him on the cheek before disappearing in her kitchen.
He bit his bottom lip. He was trying to be more like his brother despite what Sakura had said to him but even then, he kept coming back to that village. And for what? To see her? To make sure that she was safe...? Deep down he knew that none of theses were the reasons why he kept coming back... the real reason was to be with her and to make sure that she didn't have someone else. He started to be well aware of all of this and it was scaring him.
How did Itachi managed to kill his lover if Sasuke couldn't even stay away from her? Why did she keep helping him no matter what awful things he was saying to her? Why did she stay? He wanted her to leave him, to prove him that he was right to push her away all the time. The only reason why he didn't let down his walls down was because he was convinced that she would have left one day like everyone else but she didn't. She was still there. Did it mean that she will always be there? He shook his head. "No one stays forever, not even a family." He said to himself.
He turned off the water and got out of the shower. He looked at the old wounds that were fully visible yesterday. Thanks to Sakura's help, what was left of them was a tiny line barely noticeable.
He put some clothes on quickly and left the apartment without eating. Even with all the sleep he had gotten, walking was still very difficult. The pain in his shoulder was still present but he assumed that this was the reason why Sakura had asked him to come. This and his nose.
Konoha was pretty busy for a day of the week. Families were out and kids were running around the place. On his way there he saw Ino on her break.
"Hey Sasuke! How are you doing?"
He supressed the will of rolling his eyes at her. Be nice.
"Hi. Good thanks."
"I didn't know you were back! When did you arrive?"
"Last night."
"I hope you.... oh my god!" her head looked at where he came from. "Your apartment is all the way across town and Naruto's is closer to the Hokage's tower. You spent the night at Sakura's, didn't you?"
"Hn."
"That's why she was glowing this morning!"
Sasuke had no idea what she meant by that and he probably made it extremely obvious to her.
"Don't worry, I don't believe that you two were very...... intimate. Knowing you...."
He blushed instantly. Yes they had been intimate. Ino's eye widened.
"No you two didn't kiss! Oh I have to have a word with Sakura! How could she not tell me about this?!"
"We didn't." he knew he had to cut it short before she started to ask questions he did not want to respond to. "I needed to be healed and she healed me."
"So you went straight to her place. Ah Sasuke what are waiting on?" he frowned his eyebrows confused. What was she on about? "Do I really have to spill it out for you? Go and ask her on a date."
He took a deep breath. Not her too, Naruto was already saying that.
"I have to go." He left a smiling Ino behind and as he hoped that he could avoid any more words from her but she shouted from across the street.
"I know you heard me. She is waiting for you to do it Sasuke so just do it. It doesn't make you married to her."
He rolled his eyes but deep inside he felt this strange feeling again. Maybe it was a good idea to invite her for dinner without mentioning the word date. At least to thank her for everything that she had done for him.
The hospital was quiet in contrast of the streets and Sasuke had no difficulty to find her office. When he was about to knock on the door, he heard a male's voice coming from the inside. He frowned his eyebrows and got closer to the door to listen.
"Like I said she isn't an orphan. She just needs to be hospitalised for a while."
"And just like I said to you, I didn't open the clinic only for orphans. It is a Mental Health clinic. Of course we welcome children without parents so they have a room and food and people to take care of them but everyone is welcomed there."
"No offence Sakura but this girl is mentally fine."
"People struggle with trauma or different conditions, it doesn't make them mentally not fine. It makes them human."
"Whatever, she is fine. She can stay in the hospital."
"I'm sure she'd rather be surrounded by children during her stay in the hospital."
"I don't want her to be surrounded by orphans...."
"Why not?"
"They are reckless and have no manners."
Sasuke clenched his teeth. He was ready to come in and punch the man in the face.
"Well Nori, you sure did hide this ugly part of your personality when we had that double stupid date. These children face a pain that you will never understand. They do their best with what life gave them. Besides, you insulting orphans is the same as you insulting the future Hokage, you know the one known as The Hero of the Village. You're also insulting the other ninja who saved us during the war: Sasuke Uchiha, the descendant of one of the most prestigious clan of this village. Show some respect."
"You defend a criminal. Why don't you go out with him like you did that night?"
"He is not a criminal anymore. Is that what this is all about? I hurt your pride because I went after him?"
"They warned me you know? Some people in that hospital told me about the rumour that you're still in love with him. Just get it into your head: he doesn't care about you. You went out with a guy who could've treated you good, who would've treated you with respect. You're just so selfish that you used me to get over him. You don't deserve the praise or the respect people give you."
"Sasuke never talked to me the way you just did. It shows who respects me the most."
"He is a criminal! Someone who should've died during this war."
"Get out. Get out or I will hurt you until you apologise to me for what you said about him."
Sakura's voice sounded so dark and aggressive that Sasuke shivered a little. She was defending him, no matter what he had done to her, she was still defending him like that.
He heard footsteps coming closer to the door and moved aside. When Nori was out and closed the door behind him, Sasuke grabbed his collar and talked really quietly to make sure that Sakura wasn't going to hear him.
"Say what you want about me, I don't care but if I hear one more thing about her, I will be the one hurting you."
"Oh so now you care about her?"
"It does not concern you. I will keep an eye on you." just to make his point, he activated his sharingan. "Sakura is the head of this clinic, show some respect."
Nori eyes were wide open. "So-sorry. I will leave her alone."
Sasuke let go of him and started shaking from how much anger he was feeling. He just wanted to punch him over and over again. Sakura deserved the respect she was getting from the villagers.
After taking a deep breath he opened the door. Sakura wasn't facing him but he saw her hand wiping her face. She is crying because of him? He wanted to turn around and go after him but Sakura needed someone right now so he stayed.
"I thought you left."
"It's me."
She turned around and looked at him. Her eyes were shiny from the tears and all he wanted was to make her forget this pain. He knew what he had to do for that. All he had to do was to ask her out for dinner but the words didn't come out. Instead he just approached her. He could see into her eyes that she was thinking about what the other idiot had said to her. He could see that she wanted to cry again.
He didn't know what to do or say so he froze feeling overwhelmed by her emotions. She looked down and he felt like she was completely avoiding his eyes. Automatically he grabbed a strand of her hair in his hand and rolled it between his finger. This action was screaming "I'm here for you" and he hoped that she was understanding it because he had no other way of saying it.
She looked up and as soon as he saw her expression, he knew that he had gotten through to her. She gave him a small smile and brushed her nose against his hand. He froze again. She had never done that to him and he had no idea how to react to it, exactly like last night when she kissed him on the cheek.
The feeling in his belly reappeared but this time it was so strong that he felt sick from it. Thankfully Sakura probably understood how unsettled he was so she laughed it off and turned around.
"I'm glad you're here. I need you to take off your top and sit on that chair."
He wondered if him being half naked was absolutely necessary but he did it anyway. She oddly stared at him while he walked to the chair. When he was already sitting down, she kept looking and he wondered if everything was alright with her. She raised her eyebrows and walked up to him.
"So I just wanted to check your shoulder again and remove the small scars you have."
"I don't mind the scars." he really didn't. His body was covered by them anyway.
He felt a cold sensation in his shoulder and felt his muscles relaxing. She was already healing him.
He sat there and waited for her to finish. He was so uncomfortable at how close to him she was that he kept looking away from her. He knew that it was her work and this wasn't anything exceptional to her but he wasn't used to it. Especially because of how naked he felt.
It seemed like it took forever until she told him that she was finished. He rushed to his top to put it back on.
"I didn't know you had a birthmark on your hip. It looks like an apple." he looked at her very confused. An apple? "Also I got you some new clothes this morning before work. They're in the bag over there. The owner of the place remembered your size pretty well." she laughed when she saw his face." Don't worry I didn't get you anything weird, I bought the same things as last time."
His hands took the clothes out of the bag and he looked at her. No one had ever done this to him and it meant a lot. He started at the fabric not knowing what to say. This was such a huge gesture that he couldn't find the words.
"Hey Sasuke, I asked you a question." his eyebrows raised in unison snapping back to reality. "How is your ability to manipulate chakra? Did it change, get better or,..."
"Let's eat it out."
He could see on her face how surprised she was.
"Why...?" he knew exactly what she wanted him to say but instead he wanted to tease her a little.
"To thank you for this." she pouted and he smiled. She was so easy to read sometimes.
"I...I finish at 7pm. Where do you want to meet?"
"I'll pick you up." as he was walking out he turned around with a smirk. "To answer your question that you forgot about, I can manage my chakra a little bit better."
He closed the door behind him laughing internally and still holding the clothes in his hand. He will get changed at Naruto's.
The afternoon went by fast especially since Naruto kept him busy. He made him stroll around the village for different reasons. And he was talking, talking and talking. The advantage was that Sasuke didn't have to get out of his way around him. He could just be himself and Naruto understood. Sakura seemed like that today as well. He usually felt like she was expecting something from him but he never knew what it was but today felt different.
"Soooo Sasuke where are you up to now?"
"Dinner with Sakura." he answered so nonchalantly that it surprised him. Naruto stopped in his tracks.
"On a date?"
"No. It's just a dinner."
"She will take that as a date probably."
"She can if she wants."
He saw his friend smiling widely at him. Sasuke wondered why but he brushed it off.
"I need to go."
Naruto waved at him with the same big smile stuck on his face. Sasuke had no idea what was going on.
He made his way back to the hospital and waited leaning against a tree. He saw her saying goodbye to everyone and that was when he decided to walk closer to the door. When she turned around she smiled and strolled down to him.
"Hiiiii Sasuke!"
Her good mood made him smile.
"Hi."
He started to walk and she followed him. He had no idea where she would want to eat so he brought her to the first place he found. They both walked in and sat down facing each other. At least it wasn't Ichiraku where everyone seemed to be all the time.
"So, how was your afternoon? What did you do?"
"I was with Naruto," he paused knowing that he should add something."and you?"
Her smile grew bigger. Something looked different about her. Her lips were shinier than usual and her eyes darker and bigger. He didn't how it happened but he liked it. Her hair was down and he smiled to himself. He did tell her that she was prettier with her like this and he was right.
"Not much, I had to check up on few of my patients and then I spent the rest of the day in the clinic. We got a new patient, it's a little girl. Her dad died during the war and her mom just passed away few days ago. She is pretty shaken up but she will be fine. She is surrounded so she will be fine."
He secretly admired what she was doing. That clinic will make a difference in the life of these children who didn't have their parents anymore.
"Oh I just got the news from Kakashi! I need to go to Suna to see how the future clinic I wanted to open there looks like. They finished building it. Lord Gaara wants me there for the day they open it!"
Sasuke let her speak for the rest of the dinner. She was telling him about how she started this idea of Mental Health Clinic with Ino and how she wanted every single village in the world to have one as well. She eventually started speaking about her training with Tsunade.
Sasuke was discovering what he had missed all these years. From her training, how she learned medical jutsu, how hard Tsunade was on her and everything else. He was listening to every single word, secretly captivated while eating his food. Once she seemed to be finished, he decided to speak.
"Sakura, I need to talk to you about what I found on this island. I told you that I saw experiments there but I managed to steal every document I could find. I thought that you might understand them."
"Of course. Do you have them with you?"
He took them out of his pocket. He ordered some tea while she was reading them. He patiently waited for her to tell him what they meant.
"Well, we don't have any samples to make some tests but from what I can see they do pretty much what we saw Orochimaru doing." he grimaced remembering all the things he had seen while he was with him. "They started experimenting with birds. They injected different things into them but what bothers me is that they injected something called "Star stone". It seemed to strongly react with the birds. The first time they tried it, the animal exploded. They kept reducing the doses and the effects varied. They tried to inject it into a human but the same result happened. From what I can see, the last thing they tried was to inject the blood of the bird already containing particles of that stone star into a human. The "patient" reacted well to it. There is no physical tests made so I can't tell you what it does to the body exactly. I will need to go there myself."
"No, Kakashi needs to send an army there. I don't know how many people are on this island and me bringing you there alone is too dangerous. There is another place I want to visit first and it is the abandoned city."
"Don't worry I won't ask you to bring me there anytime soon. The city in the Land of the Wind?"
"Yes. The Uchiha clan stored munitions there and left someone in charge of them. Last time I traveled there, things were fine but recently I heard rumours of black marketers using it as a business place. I have a feeling that it relates to whatever is happening on this island."
"Maybe... you need to be careful though. You're an Uchiha, places like the black market are dangerous for you."
"Don't worry about me."
"The last time I didn't worry about you, you showed up in my apartment dying so yes, I am going to worry about you."
"I will be cautious."
"You better or I won't let you travel on your own anymore."
"Hn." he didn't want to travel alone anymore anyway.