Cherry blossoms
The day after the Festival was over the training for the Chunin Exams resumed with full force. With such a short time to get ready for the exams, Sakura was barely able to manage to see her two best friends and had Hinata not suggested to go to the bathhouse near her estate as a way to wind down after training, Sakura would have probably not seen them until after the exams were done.
The three of them had already scrubbed and rinsed themselves before entering the hot bathtub, the warm water immediately easing her sore muscles and helping her relax. “This was such a good idea, Hinata-chan.” she exhaled, letting her body sink into the warm water. Ino hummed in agreement next to her, her blonde hair was tied up in a ponytail and she had put a warm towel on top of her eyes “Agreed, this was so super needed. This exam better be worth all this stupid training.”
Hinata chuckled in response, using her hand to cover her mouth as she did so, “I am glad both of you are enjoying the water.”
“Totally” the blonde agreed with a defeated tone , “This week sucked for me! Like, not only are we getting our asses kicked by Asuma-sensei during practice, my dad is being super obnoxious about learning the combo jutsus all out of nowhere!” she takes the towel off her face and throws it to the side with a sour look on her face. “To top it all off, Sasuke-kun didn’t even acknowledge my confession! Like he could have just rejected me, but he just walked away while I was talking! Like, hello?!” Ino complains with indignation and turns to look at Sakura with a frown on her face, “Has he said anything about that night? Like, anything?” she asks her desperately.
Sakura sinks down so only her head is above the water, she pouts and shrugs her shoulders at Ino’s question “Not really. To be fair, he’s not saying anything at all. He just shows up, does whatever training we have and leaves without saying a single thing to anyone.” Hinata leans forward with an inquisitive look, “Well, isn’t Uchiha-san usually not talkative?” The pinkette leans back onto the tile of the bathtub, resting her head on the edge and looking at the ceiling with a deep sigh “Well yes? but like, he doesn’t even acknowledge Naruto and Naruto is impossible to ignore.”
Ino deflates on the spot, dramatically groaning and lowering herself down the water so that her mouth is below the surface, blowing bubbles with an even deeper frown. Both of the other two girls laugh at her exasperation, Hinata places a hand on her shoulder with a soothing smile “It’s quite okay Ino-san, I’m sure whatever it is that happened will be resolved. Give it some time.” Ino splashes her with the water playfully, “Easy for you to say, Miss Backtalk! Your date with Naruto went great from what I remember.” she taunted back without missing a beat.
Sakura claps her hands together with the realization, “That’s so totally true! I completely forgot you got into it with your dad the night of the festival, what even happened?” Ino nods with a wide smile, her previous worries all but forgotten “Yeah OMG! If your cousin hadn’t said anything during the fireworks we wouldn’t even know that it happened. You have to tell us what went down!” she added, her eyes filled with mischief and her smile just as wide as a cheshire cat.
Hinata’s face flushed a bright red with the rest of her body, she moved back while avoiding eye contact with her two overly curious friends. “W-well, umm… N-nothing crazy happened?” she notes timidly, touching the tips of her index fingers together. Ino grips her shoulders and shakes her excitedly, “Come on! What did you tell your dad? No wait- What did he tell you? No wait-!” Sakura jumps in and separates the two, “Give the girl some space Ino!” Hinata sighs with relief, “Thank you.” The pinkette pats her back gently, “You’re welcome.” then a mischievous smile mirroring Ino’s appears in her lips. “Now, if you will: What happened with your dad?”
“Sakura-san!” Hinata groaned with a pout, earning more laughs at her expense from her friends. A small smile escaped her lips and with a final huff she sat straight and began recalling the events of said night to the two overly curious girls. “I was almost done getting myself ready when one of the attendants told me my Father wanted to talk to me,” she noted while looking at the still water in the tub while the two girls around her eagerly listened to every word that fell from her mouth.
“As of late, he has been very… Insistent… on the importance of the image of the clan and my duties as an heiress, which he never fails to remind me constantly that I keep falling short of.” Hinata brings her knees closer to her chest and places her chin on top of them with a more serious look “And he does it so openly too in front of the elders of the clan, who pressure me and belittle me since I wasn’t born male. And Neji-san was there as well with a mocking sneer and I just- I lost it.” her usually tranquil face soured as she remembered the oppressive atmosphere, “I truly did not mean to do so, but he just kept going about how weak and pathetic I am and how worthless my connections to my friends were.” Hinata turns her head to the side and avoids the gaze of her two best friends, “I guess I just finally had enough of his bitterness, and…” her hands waved around, “Well, I just yelled back at him. He did not punish me solely for the fact that I promised him I would prove him wrong.”
Hinata sighed deeply, leaning into herself again with a thin line on her lips, “I just hope I can keep my promise to my Father and show him I can be a great leader in my own way.”
“And you totally will!” Ino exclaimed without missing a beat, her voice full of supportiveness and a smile on her lips to match it, which made Hinata snap out of her trance “If you can admit out loud that you think Naruto is cute then nothing is impossible for you!” the blonde teased with a smirk, which earned her a splatter of water from a flustered and red faced Hinata. “Hush you! What if someone hears you and tells him!?” Sakura shrugged, “I say even better, he’s an idiot but he’s not stupid enough to pass up dating the cutest girl in our generation.” she notes while wiggling her eyebrows suggestively.
The blonde leaned back with a pensive look and her arms crossed, “I dunno…” she mused, “I think he just might be. I’ve seen him, like, misspell ‘strawberry‘. Like, outloud.”
“It can be a challenging word to spell!”
Sakura patted Hinata’s back gently with a look of pity, “Sure it can.”
“Why must you both tease me like this?”
Ino giggled, “Because we love you, and because it’s a little funny.” Sakura nodded in agreement, “Very true.”
“Unbelievable.”
“...Naruto would believe it...”
“Sakura!”
Another round of laughter sounded through the room once again.
The morning of the Chuunin Exams came quicker than Sakura anticipated. Although rationally, she knows that she is prepared enough to pass through the first test, it still made her nervous to not know what to expect from the experience. At Kakashi-sensei’s suggestion, she had braided her long hair into a dutch braid with only her bangs framing her face and her headband on top of her head. For her outfit, she had opted for a longer version of her usual shorts, which ended above her knee, and her usually mid-calf length quipao was switched for one that ended mid thigh for more mobility. She checked her weapons pouch thrice and her hair twice before finally leaving her house and running towards the academy center where the first part of the Exam would begin.
As she approached the opening gate she could see shinobis from nearby villages, some from Otogakure, others from Takigakure and even people from Kusagakure. The most surprising of all was seeing the few but present shinobis from Sunagakure, since they usually held their own Chuunin Exams in their own land. Sakura stood awkwardly near the entrance of the hall and fiddled with the ends of her braided hair while waiting for the rest of her teammates to appear while other teams continued to walk inside the hall together.
Watching the many groups of three pass by her made her once again think about Sasuke, not that she was daydreaming about him or anything, but she wondered why his mood was so consistently bad for days now. She huffed and leaned against the trunk of a nearby tree, still playing with the ends of her hair while she mused to herself.
He had yet to say anything to anyone, let alone her. If she asked him for help with a task during their errand missions, he would help her but he wouldn’t even look her way. Kakashi-sensei would try to tease him to get a reaction from him, which now only ended in Sasuke throwing a kunai at his head, which the Jonin catches with ease but doesn’t get a reply to it. Naruto had the short end of the stick of the situation, while not purposely trying to irritate him, Sasuke would either give him a deadly stare or kick him behind his knees and knock him down at any quip he made. It’s like he was ignoring them out of spite, but for what?
Sakura huffed and flipped her braid to the back with an annoyed frown on her face. “Boys are so stupid.”
“Boys usually are, it’s written in our DNA” came a smooth voice from in front of her, she looked up and saw it belonged to an older guy with gray hair and round glasses. His eyes were dark and he wore a Konoha headband. Sakura’s face flushed pink in embarrassment, her arms crossing across her chest. “Sorry, I was just rambling to myself.” The older guy chuckled and gave her a warm smile, “Don’t worry, I wasn’t judging you. My name is Kabuto, by the way.” he greeted her, offering his hand as well. She took his hand hesitantly and shook it, “Haruno Sakura.”
He gave her another warm smile and then nodded, “Ah, you’re one of the rookie nine who are taking this exam fresh out of the academy aren't you?” She blinked at the nickname, “What?” Kabuto chuckled awkwardly, “My apologies, it’s just that your entire group has caused quite the buzz at the exams this year.”he explained, pushing his glasses upwards while he explained “Usually genin wait around three or four years before applying to the test, so you can guess why many people are interested in knowing who these daring rookie nine are.”
Sakura nodded once again in understanding, “Oh, I guess I never thought about that.” The older ninja chuckled once more, “Well, good luck in the exam Sakura-san.” he said with another smile and then walked over to where his own team was located inside the building. The interaction had been polite enough, and he hadn’t done anything too suspicious but her subconscious kept telling her to stay away from the older guy. Something about him just didn’t sit right with her and she couldn't exactly pinpoint why aside from just a gut feeling.
Looking back towards the path where all the shinobis were coming from, she finally spots her two teammates, Naruto rushes to her once his eyes find hers and he wraps an arm around her shoulders, “Yo, Sakura-chan! You got here way early!” He greets her with a toothy smile, Sakura blows a strand of hair from her face and returns the smile “You’re actually late.” she notes, half exasperated and half amused. She looks behind Naruto’s blonde mane and easily spots Sasuke trailing behind him, “Both of you.”
Once again, Sasuke only gives them both a quick glance and proceeds to ignore their antics, walking past them and inside the building for their test. Sakura frowned, visibly annoyed at his antics. It couldn’t get worse than this.
Turns out it could get worse.
The first round of the exam had been quite easy for her, although the goal was to cheat without being caught, Sakura had actually known all of the answers to the test from her many hours pouring over books and theory. How to gather proper intel and pass it along to your teammates, it was overall easy, even with the stupid trick tenth question. The hard part had come afterwards, when they all got moved into the forest of death for their second round of the test. They were given a “Heaven” scroll and sent on their way to fight for five days inside the closed off forest to get to the tower in the middle with a “Heaven” and “Earth” scroll. Not even ten minutes in, their team was attacked twice by two different entities, the second one being the worst one so far.
A woman with a headband from Kusagakure had separated all three of them, Naruto was unaccounted for but Sakura had managed to reunite with Sasuke after giving him the password. Sakura was not sure if it was a genjutsu, or just the immense killing intent radiating from the woman, but she had managed to completely paralyzed both of them on the spot with fear. It was almost unnatural, and her taunting edged on sadistic, Sasuke had to stab himself on his leg to will his body to move both himself and Sakura from the incoming kunai the woman had thrown.
Then, she appeared again from within the shadows, ready to strike once more and just as she almost reached them, Naruto joined the fray and fought her back and away from the trio. The woman slithered around like a freaking snake, throwing one powerful attack after another, playing with them like a cat would with a mouse before it kills it. She could feel herself starting to tire out, but she willed her body to move step by step. Naruto had tapped in on that same animalistic aura he did back on the Naruto Bridge, dealing an incredibly good blow to the woman but she just as easily shrugged it off and knocked the blonde out. Sasuke was still engaged in the fight, so it was her who jumped forward and caught Naruto mid air before he plummeted to his death. From her position, she could see Sasuke countering the woman more easily once his Sharingan activated, it wasn’t quick nor was it easy, but he had managed to pin her down with wire on a tree and then burned her back into the nine hells.
Sakura took the chance to run to him once the coast was clear, the woman couldn't have survived such a direct attack, and her heart pounded quickly as she hurried to Sasuke’s side. “Sasuke-kun! Are you okay?!” she yelled in a panic, for the first time in weeks, he finally looked at her with exhausted eyes. “I’m okay,” he said between pants, “Where’s the idiot?” Sakura smiled timidly, worry present on her features, “He’s okay. Are you?”
Before he could answer, the snapping of metal threads rang around them. Then the woman chuckled, from her position. “Such incredible eyes, you’re truly one of the greatest offspring in the Uchiha.” her voice slowly changed between words, sounding less feminine and more masculine as she spoke. Her face seemed to melt off, revealing grey skin underneath and a yellow snake-like eye with purple eyelids staring at them. “Maybe even greater than Itachi was at your age, so much promise behind them.” She continued, her melted features forming a disappointing look, “Such a shame that only two of you remain, yet again that man has always had a distorted look on what true peace looked like.”
Something in Sasuke snapped, “WHO THE HELL ARE YOU?!” his voice echoed loudly, filled with malice. The woman ripped off the hanging flesh, her voice fully turning to a lower male tone, her physical features also changed to a more male figure. A cold and clinical smile appeared on the now snake-man’s grey face, with a quick hand sign, he once again paralyzed the both of them to their places with that aura, but this time the effects were stronger. The man only chuckled at them, “Apologies for the late introduction. My name is Orochimaru, and I come to offer you a deal, Uchiha Sasuke.”
Sakura fell to her knees from the pressure, helplessly watching without being able to mutter a sound, “You will accept it, because you will have no choice. And you will come to me, because only I can offer you what you’re looking for.” Sasuke gave the man a menacing look, “FUCK YOU.” His response only seemed to amuse the gray faced man, “Then,” the man said, making an unknown hand seal, “A parting gift, so you may see my sincerity.” His neck stretched out towards Sasuke in an impossible way, his teeth sharpened and then sunk on his neck in less than a second.
Sasuke let out a scream that shook Sakura to her core, she could feel tears forming from desperation at her inability to help. Once the man let Sasuke’s neck go, his head retracted back to his body and then he melted into the wood, disappearing like a ghost. Sasuke fell to his knees, grunting and wriggling in pain from the bite, the force keeping Sakura in place had disappeared together with the snake-man, and she wasted no time on getting to Sasuke and holding him. Her tears were falling as she tried to support him, his hand found hers and he gripped it viciously but Sakura couldn’t bring herself to protest while he was in pain. “It’s okay, it’ll pass.” she said between sniffles “I got you.”
His body collapsed on hers and his other hand clinged to the back of her qipao as he tried his best to endure the pain. Minutes passed until he finally passed out, Sakura brushed his bangs away from his face and she looked around to where Naruto was laying, she was the only one left. For the first time since she was little, Sakura was at a loss on what to do next “What…” she sobbed. “What do I do…?”
She only allowed herself ten minutes of self-pity before she wiped her face and got herself together. She put Sasuke on her back and carried him down to where Naruto was, then maneuvered one on her shoulder and the other under her arm. They were heavy, but her endurance training with Gai-sensei was giving her enough power to move the two unconscious boys to a safer location. Night was falling on them and she needed to find a good cover for them in case someone else tried to attack them while the team was two people down. Sakura set as many traps as she was able to and threw in a couple genjutsus just in case, she laid both of them on the cold ground assessing their injuries and treating them as best she could with the little knowledge she had learned from the few medical books she read.
Scrapes and bruises was all she saw, nothing more. She bandaged Sasuke’s leg and applied a healing cream Hinata had gifted her on both of their wounds. Then all that was left to do was stay as a look out until they both woke up. The exhaustion of the day and the adrenaline that had kept her going was finally catching up to her in the stillness of the night, she would bite her tongue or even pinch herself awake though the night while still monitoring both boys, but the amount of time they took was worrying her the longer the night extended.
All the petty fighting and the small arguments or tantrums she had before today seemed meaningless. What good did it serve her to be annoyed at Sasuke for ignoring them when they were all one mistake away from dying? What purpose did all that training and studying serve for when she once again did nothing but stay on the sidelines while both of her teammates took over the situation?
The morning rays filtered through the canopy of the trees, the night had been still but that didn’t mean trouble wouldn’t come for them in the morning. She willed herself to stand up and check on both of her teammates once more, Naruto seemed like he was peacefully slumbering although he was sweating quite a bit. Sakura opened his jacket to help him cool down and placed a wet rag on his forehead as an extra precaution, then she turned to Sasuke. He was still squirming, his breaths were erratic and he kept sweating through the night, like he was locked inside the worst nightmare. She changed his bandages again and then decided on trying to at least eat something to keep her energy up, but it was like the gods were enjoying seeing her struggle.
Before she could even process it, her genjutsus had been broken and at the other side of the base of the tree was a three man squad from Otogakure. The guy in the left had spiky dark hair and a face protector with a scarf around his neck, the girl to the right had her long hair tied back at the bottom and a green vest top and a snarky smile, the last was another guy in the middle with fur on his back and a bandaged up face that only allowed one of his eyes to be visible. The one with the fur spoke first, “Found you.”
Sakura assumed a defensive stance and took out a kunai from her weapons pouch, yielding it on her right hand. The group laughed at her actions mockingly, the kunoichi narrowed her eyes in response, “If you’re looking for the scroll, you’re gonna have to try another team first.”
The same guy answered her, “Scroll? I suppose we will need to find the pair to our “Earth” scroll, but that’s only secondary.” Sakura took a tentative step forward, “What I want is the Uchiha’s head.”
“Over my dead body.”
The spiky haired guy laughed, “That can be arranged, sweetheart.” he mocked and the three of them charged forward all at once, but Sakura had placed some traps beforehand. The first was a waterfall of shurikens and kunais that they managed to dodge albeit with a few scraps, as they stepped back the second trap triggered and wooden spikes shot from the bushed behind them, and again they escaped the ordeal with a few cuts. Her third trap was her last one, a huge trunk of dead wood swung to them and just like the first two, they had managed to weave their way out of them.
So be it then, She thought to herself, I’ll die protecting them if I have to! And with the last of her strength and whatever amount of training that actually stuck, Sakura charged forward into danger. She danced around them, moving them away from where Sasuke and Naruto were laying down and focusing the attention on herself. Her punches did not land even once, but her aim with the shuriken was better. They took turns fighting her to lower her stamina and it was working, but she wouldn’t go down that easily if she could help it. She summoned two clones and separated their attention from her, she took the opportunity and ran headfirst into the girl. She punched her right side twice and felt bone break under her fist, fracturing a rib or two. The girl elbowed Sakura in the face as retaliation, kicking her stomach and pushing her off and towards the other two Otogakure shinobi. Sakura stumbled and forced herself into a backspring, aiming five kunais at the other two ninjas and maneuvered herself to land behind them.
The guy with the bandaged face raised his hand and blew away at the weapons with his metal arm, visibly annoyed. “Enough fooling around!” he yelled with exasperation. Sakura felt a presence behind her, but before she could turn to her attacker they had punched her with a well placed right hook. Sakura stumbled to her left, and then she was kicked on her back and forced to her knees. She opened her eyes and saw the girl’s left foot approach her face as she kicked hard and without mercy. “That’s for my ribs, stupid bitch!”
The guy in bandages punched her stomach again with his metal arm, knocking the air from her lungs. “What a joke” he mocked, while Sakura stumbled yet again into another fist. “Just die already!” yelled the spiky haired guy with a sadistic cheer.
Maybe if she was different she could have put up a better fight, or if she had any aptitude for anything besides books, she could have won against them. But now wasn’t the time to lament her shortcomings, Sakura had to stop them from killing her teammates, even if she died trying. She took her last kunai out of her weapons pouch, ignoring the blood from her nose and the throbbing from her bruised chest.
A smirk appeared on her lips, repeating the mantra Kakashi-sensei had ingrained in their brains “Those that break the rules are scum.” Without hesitation, she plunged the kunai on the girl’s stomach with as much force as possible. “Kin!” yelled one of her comrades.
“But those that abandon their friends are worse than scum.”Sakura ripped the weapon from the girl, wasting no time and using her momentum to jump and catch the guy with spiky hair, who was taken back by the injuries on the girl, Kin, by surprise. At the last second, the guy had blocked her kunai from penetrating his face but was in place embedded into his forearm. Sakura landed on top of him, pinning him to the ground with her weight and biting his remaining free arm with full force until she tasted blood in her mouth. “GET OFF ME YOU RABID BITCH!” he yelled with pure ire, punching her face repeatedly with the arm where her kunai had lodged itself.
She told herself the punches didn’t hurt, and that she had enough strength to keep him down, because she still needed to subdue the third Oto-nin and take both of her boys away from this place so they would be safe while they got better.
So the punches did not hurt, and her nose wasn’t that broken, and her vision wasn’t blurry from exhaustion. She had to hold on and keep going, there was no other choice. “GET HER OFF ME DOSU!” yelled the guy under her, his punches becoming heavier and heavier as he got more and more frustrated. The Oto-nin with the bandaged face appeared next to them, “Stop whining, Zaku.” he replied coolly, then kicked Sakura’s already bruising side with full force again and off his comrade. Sakura’s body bounced on the ground as it rolled away, she pushed herself off the ground with all her remaining strength, but her sore body failed her and made her fall face first into the ground. She tried once more with shaky arms, feeling her useless tears well up from behind her eyes.
The bandaged guy, Dosu, walked behind her once more, gripping her hair forcefully and yanking her up with malice, Sakura let out a painful scream from the pain, no longer able to hide it “Maybe I did underestimate you, but you’re gonna wish you had just let me kill you before you pulled those little stunts of yours.” he whispered in her ear venomously.
By then Zaku had finally gotten up, his face completely scrunched up with ire and Kin had managed to get herself up as well while holding her bleeding torso with labored breath from the pain. Zaku pulled Sakura’s kunai from his forearm and held it with his bitten hand, “Damned Konoha bitch.” he cursed at her, and Sakura spit blood towards them with a smirk while admiring her handiwork. With no further delays, Zaku had lunged forward and Sakura closed her eyes to wait for the inevitable.
Except it never arrived.
A dark and ominous chakra started emitting from behind all of them, it was dominating and filled with pure hatred. Within seconds it had lunged forward and kicked Zaku towards a tree, Sakura heard a groan of pain from her captor and then felt herself fall on a warm embrace with a wince. She looked up slowly and looked into Sasuke’s red ones, his Sharingan on full display. She gave him a tired smile, “Sasuke-kun, you’re awake.”
He took her in fully with a soft expression, the blood on her face, the bruises forming across her body, the cuts and slashes littering her arms and legs. “Sakura,-”he spoke softly, pushing her hair away from her face gently “-who hurt you?”
A cackle erupted from Dosu, “Finally awake, Uchiha?” the guy nodded, clearly pleased. “Good, then I’ll enjoy repaying what that stupid little brat did to my team to you.” Sasuke Ignored him, letting Sakura down gently and standing in front of her protectively. It was then Sakura realized where that malicious chakra signature came from, Sasuke’s body was littered with black marks on his entire left arm and the marks seemed to travel across his body quickly.
He moved just as quickly as Naruto did when he became feral, with just as much power in his punches. He made quick work of incapacitating the Dosu guy and the girl Kin in minutes, he turned to the loud mouthed Oto-nin. “You dared lay your filthy hands on Sakura?”
The other guy spitted blood, mocking him, “Sometimes a good beating is the only way to domesticate stupid bitches.” he sneered. The dark aura on Sasuke intensified and the black pattern on his body seemed to multiply with his temper. In one swift movement, Sasuke had moved behind the Oto-nin, kicking him off balance and grabbing both of his arms, pinning him down with a foot on his back and a strong twist on his arms. His smile twisted in a sadistic smile, “Let’s see you domesticated then,” he spat “without your filthy paws in place.”
Sakura watched from her spot with fear, this wasn’t right. This wasn’t the Sasuke she knew, he would never be so bloodthirsty. The Oto-kunoichi watched with terror, “Stop! Stop, we were just following orders! Let him go!” she protested while her teammate yelled with pure agony at the torture, but it fell on deaf ears as Sasuke kept pushing harder and harder. With the last of her strength, Sakura ran towards him, hugging him from behind as tightly as she could muster. “Let him go.” she begged him softly, refusing to let him stoop down to their level, or even let himself be consumed by the malevolent chakra that surrounded him.
His cold red eyes looked back at her warm green ones, “Let him go, please.” she begged him once more, and he released his prey from his grip. Zaku didn’t waste any time picking himself up and running away from them, back to where his other retreating teammates were. Dosu stepped forward once more, holding forward their “Earth” scroll, “We… will not fight you again.” he said tentatively, placing the scroll on the floor, “We only follow orders, but I know a losing fight when I see it.” He once again stepped back, “Take it, we already came for what we needed anyways.” he noted and then they were gone.
Sasuke’s black marks retreated instantly, back into a seal on his neck. His knees buckled and with Sakura’s strength already gone she fell down with him, still hugging him from behind. He panted from the exertion, looking at his shaky hand in horror to what he could do with this new power. They stayed like that for a moment, both still processing the events and the many riddles thrown at them so quickly. He was the first to move, tentatively placing one hand on top of hers “Sakura. You can let go.”
She moved away from him without protest, and he fully turned to look at her properly and assess her injuries. Slowly, he helped her get up and sat her next to where Naruto was still slumbering, he ran to grab the scroll the Oto-nin gifted them and then silently started treating Sakura’s injuries. The pinkette was at a complete loss for words, they should talk about it but how do they even talk about… That? Whatever it was?
He had ignored her for the better part of two weeks, for whatever damned petty reason, and now he was carefully treating her injuries after turning into a killing machine. What can she say to all of that? Once he finished to his own satisfaction, Sasuke stood up and started to prepare to make a fire for their camp. “Thank you, Sasuke-kun.”
He looked at her with that same undecipherable look she’s seen in his eyes, “Rest. Naruto and I will get the food going.” Sakura gave him a questioning look, “But, Naruto is-?”
Without warning, Sasuke kicked Naruto on his side, making him wake up startled “What?! Where?!” he yelled frantically. “Get up, we’re going to get food for our lunch.” Sasuke barked at him. Naruto’s eyes wandered around until they finally landed on Sakura’s sorry state, she smiled sheepishly “Good morning, Naruto.”
The loud mouth leaned forward “Sakura-chan?! What happened to you?! Are you okay?!” Sasuke gripped the back of his neck, pulling him away and towards a stream nearby. “Stop hounding her, she needs to rest.”
“BUT WHAT HAPPENED?!”
A loud smack echoed in the open space
“OUCH! WHAT WAS THAT FOR?!”
“Shut up Naruto!”
Sakura took in the familiar scene, leaning back into the trunk of the tree with a genuine smile. Things would be okay, they have gone through similar moments and if they had not broken then, they would not break now. She closed her eyes and she finally let the exhaustion and stress of the day lull her to sleep for the day.