In SS fandom we usually affiliate ‘thank you’ with that iconic chapter 699 forehead poke moment. And as much as I love 699, I also feel like this little moment between them is quite underrated. Sakura doubted herself, Sasuke noticed it, he tried to boast her self-confidence because even he knows she is a smart girl, she thanked him quietly and he smiled to himself. They have a unspoken connection and I think it’s beautiful.
SasuSaku Month 2017
Day 5: Blood, Sweat, and Tears
Sakura doesn’t sleep and when she does she wakes up drenched
in sweat, screaming, and crying. Sasuke holds her when she wakes, comforts her
as well as he can and pretend he doesn’t know any better when she tries to ease
his own worries with a forced smile. “It’s just a bad dream, everything’s okay.”
But he knows.
He knows blood plagues her dreams, that she’s tormented by
the lives she couldn’t save during the war. He carries a similar burden.
He also knows that when she isn’t at home she in the
hospital, slaving herself and doing everything in her power to save everyone
who passes through her care while hoping to make amends with those she couldn’t
save.
Slowly she’s killing herself and Sasuke’s stood by and let
it happen.
It’s yet another night as she wakes up gasping for air,
tears fall from her cheeks. Sasuke is quick to move, to take her into his arms
and hold her close whispering empty promises into her ear. “Everything will be
alright, it’ll get better.”
Her sobs quiet for a moment and she draws back to look into
his eyes. “When?” She asks, her voice a little desperate. “How?” She asks
again.
“I’ll get you away from here. We can go village from village
and help those who need it, we can go all over the country and round again
until there are no more nightmares.” He knows they only need to ask Naruto and
he’ll grant them a leave.
Sakura nods and for the first time in a long time he sees
hope in her eyes. But there’s also fear that it won’t work. “It’ll work.” He
promises, certainty in his voice. “And when we’re back we can start a new life.”
He was dying right in front of her. She could see the blood trickling from the edge of his mouth. His eyes were closed shut and his body was still. She reached out for his hand but it was ice cold. She felt frozen in her body, helpless and unable to make a sound. She didn’t know what to do. Her other hand reaches out as she tries to wipe the blood away from his mouth.
“Is he dead?” was the only thing she could think of. She hated that she even asked because somewhere in the back of her mind, a little voice answered, “yes.”
Sasuke had woken up not too shortly ago and was sitting outside of his tent by the burnt out campfire. Naruto’s loud snoring had awaken him from his sleep and feeling restless, he had decided to stroll out for some fresh air. He begins to get up to head back inside his tent, shared with Naruto and Kakashi, when he hears a faint noise coming from the tent pitched next to theirs. Immediately, his senses go into high alert as he concentrates on the sound. It was Sakura’s voice.
On a reflex, he quickly unzips the door of her tent as he peers inside to make sure she was okay. She was. Tucked safely into her sleeping bag, she was in no harm. But her face looked far from peaceful. She was tossing now and one arm was outside of her sleeping bag as she cries for help in her faint little voice.
Sasuke steps inside as he kneels beside her. “Sakura…” he calls out to her in a lowered voice as he places a hand on top of her forehead. She was dripping in cold sweat. “Sakura, wake up. You’re having a night—”
Suddenly, Sakura’s outreached arm grabs onto his and he freezes for a second. Sakura’s eyes flies wide open as she gasps heavily. Her bangs were sticking to the side of her face as tears began to fall freely from her eyes. “Sasuke-kun! You’re alive!” she cries as she throws her arms around him. She’s sobbing now as her whole body shakes. “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry. I couldn’t protect you. I let him kill you,” she repeats over and over, the sound of her voice muffled by the fabric of his shirt.
“Sakura… I’m okay. Everything is okay.”
She doesn’t respond but she stops crying after some time. The crying must have tired her out as Sasuke pulls back from her embrace to see that she has cried herself back to sleep. He cradles her head in one hand as he lowers her back into her sleeping bag.
In a crouched position, he looks at her again as the guilt hits him for the first time in a long time. He was the reason for her nightmare. He was weak and that was why he lost today against his fight with Haku. He had to get stronger. His hands began to form a fist as the image of his brother flashes through his mind, the reminder he needed to keep him going. “Next time…” he says as he grits his teeth. “Next time, I’ll be stronger so you won’t have to cry over me again.”
The absurdity of the situation did not escape him.
He was a goner – for that he could be sure. Separating from his group; not intentionally but even so, the horde that attacked meant that he could no longer see either Kakashi or Naruto within his sight after the worst of it had passed.
Three days ago had he lost his team.
He’d travelled during that time to find them.
That is, until he had been cornered, without any weapons. He’d fallen through what turned out to be an unstable portion of the building he was scouring.
The noise of his fall attracted those monsters.
Had it not been for her – he’d be dead, or worse.
“Sakura,” he whispers, not really believing his sight.
She stands before him; ragged, out of breath, and with adrenaline coursing through her veins – after all, she had just decapitated three of those monsters before his sight.
She turns back; her face is marred with blood, whether or not it is her own blood or not cannot be said. “Can you walk?” she asks.
He looks down to his left leg. The fall did not do him any favours, “I’ll manage,” he says.
–
She
has found shelter within an old hotel. The aesthetics of a haunted
house aside, the place is good enough, and structurally sound enough
to spend the night. “Hold still, please,” Sakura mumbles as she
begins to tend to his wounds.
She patches him up, he is quiet throughout until she remarks, “okay, that’s all I can do for now. Best to rest, I’ll head out on watch”.
He grabs her wrist before she can leave, “I thought…” he needs to think this through, “we all thought you were dead”.
She stops, and bends down once more, “well, I’m not”.
“Naruto told me–”
“Sasuke,” she interjects, gently placing her hand upon his shoulder, “just rest for now, you’ll need it”.
“Mom, Dad…Nii-san… are you watching this? I have such a beautiful family. This is happiness right? What you wanted me to have? Thank you for the love. And you should really be thanking Sakura. She never gave up on me. Look at me, look at my family, now. I’m happy.”
Sakura, thank you. You have my whole being now and forever. Always. I love you.”
________
I have such low everything (light, skills, etc) pics. And I don’t have a scanner (I’m bribing my dad all the time, no progressss huhuhu )
I did a lot of art on Day 5: Blood, Sweat and Tears. Ugh. I love it. I;m still on it. Hoooeee
SasuSaku Month 