Finding a person was more difficult than she would have imagined. Especially if that person was Uchiha Sasuke. It’s been two months now and she was still nowhere close to figuring out where on earth Sasuke could be by now in his travels. Sakura was beginning to think that she may have been too hasty when she made the decision to leave Konoha on her own in search of him.
Sakura walks slowly through the new town she just arrived at. She was short on supplies and money at this point. She takes out a small pouch from her bag as she checks the inside contents. With a frown, she sighs. She needed to start making money fast. Throughout her travels, she had stopped to help those in need of medical treatment. Often, she refused their money and instead only accepted food or lodging.
‘Then how can you be low on money?’ the little voice in the back of her mind asks. Sakura sighs again as she lowers her head. The hood of her cloak falls over her eyes as she walks glumly towards a food stall. “Because I accidentally destroyed the town hall,” she mumbles. She hadn’t mean to but at the last town she was at, she had saw a group of thugs bothering a young woman and without thinking, she charged in and gave them all a good beating and effectively destroying part of the town hall in the process. Luckily, no one else was injured. Although the mayor told her not to worry about it, she ended up feeling guilty and helped foot the bill for repairs.
“Look, is that the person?”
“Mm, from… Konoha? Was it?”
Sakura’s ears perk up as she hears a group of women whispering and gossiping to each other near the food stalls. Were they talking about her? Did news of her destroying the town hall travel to this town so fast? Was she going to be kicked out of here before she even find a place to stay?
She pulls the hood of her cloak even lower as she tries to hide all traces of her pink hair to keep it from showing. Then she begins to scold herself. She wasn’t a fugitive. Why should she be scared? Yet, she did feel slightly ashamed for her reckless temperament that brought her to this mess in the first place. If the town was this gossipy about her, it would make it harder for her to dig up information on Sasuke.
She approached the food stall as her eyes glanced at the food for sale. Her mouth was salivating by now and quickly, she sticks out a hand to point out the item she wanted. “One yakisoba bun, please,” she orders. As the stall owner wraps up her bun, Sakura opens up her small money pouch again as she gingerly takes out the coins inside.
Before she could pay, someone from behind her drops some coins in the hand of the stall owner and takes the wrapped bun.
“Hey, that’s supposed to be mine!” Sakura shouts as she whirls around to see who dared try to steal her bun away.
She only gapes when she sees who it was. She blinks once and then brings two hands to rub her eyes to double check that her vision hadn’t gone bad.
“Here.”
The yakisoba bun was now in front of her face. She takes it in stunned silence. “Thank you,” she says in disbelief.
A murmur of whispers get louder as the group of gossiping women continue to chatter on the side. “It’s him, right?”
“Yes, Uchiha Sasuke, isn’t it?”
Sakura turns to look the women for a moment but they seem to pay no attention to her. So they weren’t talking about her after all. She turns back to look at the man who was now walking away from her. It is him. It really is.
She runs towards him, her feet practically leaping off the ground, her two hands still clutched on the yakisoba bun he gave her. The hood of her cloak flies back behind her to reveal her pink hair as her tresses dance in the wind.
The man stops in his footsteps as he turns back and looks at her. She stops when he stops and for a moment, they stare at each other. Then he directs a small smile at her and she smiles back.
She had been looking at all the wrong places. She didn’t need to find him. He had found her.
He holds up one of her knee-highs. Sakura grabs the article of clothing quickly from his grasp. She mumbles a quick, “thank you,” and proceeds to pull the silk over her legs.
Sasuke watches her, “so…” he begins, “we should…talk about this”.
She responds with a non-committal, “uh-huh,” whilst continuing with her task to clothe herself as quickly as possible. It is the perfect contrast to Sasuke; he continues to sit on the hotel bed, nude under the sheets without any intention of changing that state any time soon.
“Sakura,” he grumbles.
She stops, and stands upright. She turns to him, “this didn’t happen”.
He doesn’t even bother hiding his smirk, “Sakura, we should talk about this–”
“I’m sorry,” she blurts out, turning to face him completely. Her words are genuine, “I’m sorry, we shouldn’t have done this”.
“I know,” he replies softly, “but there’s no point in thinking along those lines now – it happened, so we–”
“I’m going to leave,” Sakura interjects, glancing quickly at the door, “my team is most likely wondering where I am and you…” she pauses, noting his lack of clothes – still, “you, um, you’ll probably head off. Konoha may not actively look for you, but if they do find you then they’ll–”
“They’ll what,” Sasuke cuts in, “will they treat me as, accommodatingly, as you did last night?”
She gapes at his cavalier attitude towards the situation at hand. “What is with you?” she hisses.
Sasuke exhales, “Sakura–”
She holds up her hand.
“No,” she steps towards him, “no, you’re right. I was wrong. I am in the wrong”.
As he’d not predicted Sakura to admit this (nor had he wanted her to), he decides that the appropriate response to such an admission is; silence.
She bites her lip, “I don’t know why…why did…”
His demeanour softens. Sasuke gets out from under the covers, and out of the bed. He takes a step towards her, “I don’t regret it,” he tells her softly.
Sakura looks up to him, smiles, and blushes. He knows that she doesn’t either – despite their circumstances.
She opens her mouth to speak, then pauses before saying, “um…could you maybe put on some pants, Sasuke-kun”.
He holds his position, then looks down to his state of undress.
He scoffs – it isn’t like she’d not seen him like this before.
“That was stupid,” Sasuke seethes through gritted teeth, “why would you do something that stupid, Sakura?”
The kunochi by his side waves him off, “hush, I’m concentrating”.
“Why would you jump in front of me? You don’t need to protect me, Sakura”.
She looks down to her wound in concentration; most of the bleeding has subsided, now just the poison remains. However the strand that runs through her bloodstream is one that can be easily dealt with, as long as one knows the right application of chakra upon said toxin.
Sakura channels the flow of energy through her system.
Sasuke continues his one-sided argument in the background.
“Sasuke-kun,” sweetly, she begins, “I really need to concentrate and–”
“You shouldn’t even be in this position, Sakura,” he continues, frustration evident upon his features.
She sighs, and within that moment, Naruto enters their tent.
“Hey Sakura-chan,” he exclaims, “done yet..oh, no you’re not”. He glances with slight wonderment towards her wound. Sakura tries not to smirk and Sasuke…Sasuke continues to rant.
Naruto turns to the Uchiha with a suspicious gaze, then back to Sakura. “Hey, Sakura-chan….is the bastard bothering you?”
Sasuke stops speaking, and turns to glare at the blond, “excuse me?”
Naruto shrugs, “what? Are you still going on about the whole ‘Sakura-chan saving you’ thing – get over it man. If she hadn’t done that, you’d be the one with the massive whole in your leg”.
Sasuke blinks, his expression grows more severe, “that isn’t the point”.
“Yes is it,” Naruto continues, ignoring the atmosphere of the situation, “you want to be the one to protect Sakura-chan, we get it, we’ve all heard this tale before – the big macho man you are”.
Both Sasuke and Sakura turn to glance at one another for a brief moment.
Sakura slowly begins with a, “uh Naruto…what are you–”
“And we all know what intentions you have, bastard,” continues the blond, folding his arms over his chest and nodding at his own sentiments.
Sasuke pinches the bridge of his nose, “Naruto–”
“And we know how this scene would have played out,” Naruto continues, taking a step closer to the pair, “we know Sasuke would have attempted to hide his pain as Sakura healed your wounds with trembling hands, and a breathy voice”.
Sakura scoffs, “excuse me?”
“And we know,” Naruto cuts in, louder, with his head held higher, “that they’ll be a moment between you two where Sakura-chan finishes healing you, and she pauses, and so do you bastard. Your eyes will meet. Sakura-chan will lean in closer”.
Sasuke’s eyes widen, “Naruto, what the f–”
“She’ll whisper to you,” Naruto uncrosses his arms, and clasps them together, “‘I love you, Sasuke-kun’. But! Being the person that you are, you tell her, ‘I’m sorry, Sakura-chan – this cannot happen. Goodbye‘”.
Sakura throws a roll of gauze towards Naruto, It bounces off his head.
“Naruto!” Sakura exclaims, “get out!”
But the blond continues to stand there; still oblivious to the gauze roll attack but scratching his head nonetheless. “Hang on,” Naruto drags out, “with this plan, you don’t end up with Sakura-chan…hey bastard. What the hell? Why would you go with this plan?”
Sasuke stares blankly at the blond, “what…”
“What
exactly is your end game here, bastard?”
Sasuke takes a look once more towards Sakura, she shrugs, also at a loss for how to react to whatever it was that they’d just heard. Sasuke turns back to Naruto, “idiot, get out of this tent”.
SasuSaku Month 