Sakura walks into her apartment and finds the couch occupied.
Sasuke’s curled up on top of the worn red cushions, knees up to his chest and hair covering the furrowed brow and tell-tale tear tracks trailing down his face.
Sakura sighs and drops her gear on the ground by her desk, changes quickly into a tank top and shorts, then pulls back the comforter on her bed and plumps up the pillow.
Today’s newspaper is sitting on the coffee table in front of Sasuke, and Sakura pauses for a moment to look at it when she goes to pick him up.
Naruto and Hinata, his arm around her as he presses a kiss to her cheek and she blushes prettily at the camera. The Hokage candidate and the Hyūga heiress, power couple and the envy of many.
Of course their engagement would make front page news, Sakura reasons with no small amount of distaste as she sets Sasuke down on the bed, straightening out the blanket and soothing his forehead with a green-limned hand when he begins to stir. She picks up the newspaper on her way to the light switch and slips it in her bag to use as target practice later on.
She glances over her bulletin board of push-pinned newspaper clippings and photos as she turns off the lights. There’s a few large group photos of the Rookie 12, from Ino’s birthday party and the celebratory KBBQ dinner when Team 10 were promoted to jounin. Newspaper clippings from Sakura’s inauguration as Hospital Director, and the most recent picture of Team 7, from the day Naruto was formally nominated as Hokage candidate.
There are no good pictures of Sasuke and Naruto, she realizes as she slips under the covers and curls herself around Sasuke’s exhaustion.
Sasuke’s usually on the edges of the photos, half-hidden in the second row unless dragged to the forefront with Naruto’s arm slung around his shoulders.
In those pictures, Naruto grins at the camera
and, scowl aside, Sasuke looks at Naruto like he’s finally found everything he’s ever searched for.