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1. does she not love me anymore?
status: enemies (?)
“you! what are you really after? how many times will you betray us until you’re satisfied?!” sakura could only see rage, she was grabbing sai’s collar ready to strike until she heard his voice.
“sakura, huh?”
it was as if time stopped. sakura slowly let go of sai’s collar to look up to where that voice came from.
a voice she knows too well.
“sasuke-kun…”
their meeting after two years after leaving konoha was blood boiling for sasuke. he left and then they decided to replace him with another man with black hair who suspiciously resembles him.
and not to mention, how easy it is for sakura to touch him. even if she was obviously in rage, the fact still stands that she touched another man near the neck area.
it makes his blood boil.
it makes his blood boil.
it makes his blood boil.
sakura wasn’t supposed to meet other men and get close to them, did she not know that?
does she not love me anymore?
impossible. i can never be replaced. i’ll always have a place in her heart.
i can never be replaced.
i can never be replaced!
i can never be replaced… right?
sasuke didn’t even realize how many dummy dolls he had blitzed his chidori until orochimaru called his attention, “maah sasuke, what has gotten you so worked up? is it seeing your girlfriend for the first time… with her knowledge?”
“tsk. so you do follow me whenever i go out.” sasuke says as he sharpens his sword. he knew it, orochimaru followed him whenever he went out near the konoha borders.
“is it bad for me to be interested in my student’s girlfriend? she doesn’t seem to know you regularly go and check her workplace.” orochimaru teases, knowing full well he was going to get a reaction from him.
sasuke slams his sword on the table he was sharpening it on, “don’t.”
orochimaru immediately understood what sasuke meant with that single word, don’t even think about touching her. whenever sasuke went out of their cave, it was always to watch that pink haired girl who happened to be tsunade’s student from afar.
sasuke has been repressing his feelings for that girl for years, and orochimaru enjoys mildly tormenting him by calling her his girlfriend, but he has never once denied or corrected him. ah, young love. it was obvious that sasuke’s heart belongs to that girl and no one else.
2. can’t you see i’m the strongest?
status: enemies…?
no way… my chakra wasn’t enough?
that was the last thing sakura thought of before she almost fell, but to her absolute surprise, a familiar warmth was able to catch her before she could.
sasuke.
and he didn’t just catch her, he put his arm around her shoulder to further stabilize her. he kept her in that position even while he was talking to obito, explaining the power of his rinnegan.
but sakura came to obito’s aid when he fell to his knees due to exhaustion, “this man lent me his power, that’s why i was able to come here.”
“he did?” sasuke could only reply, but he certainly wasn’t prepared to see sakura fuss over obito when his body failed him further as he was already exhausted from everything.
“oh no! hang on..” sakura says, placing her palm on obito’s torso to heal him.
sasuke’s eye twitched at the sight. really? was she really ignoring him?
“thank goodness, you came back..”
“hang on to me, we are going back.” obito says to the both of them, he must have had some epiphany when he was unconscious for a few seconds while sakura was healing him.
with a scowl on his face, sasuke grabbed on obito. whatever, they had a goddess to seal and a world to save, there was no time for him to also show sakura that he was stronger than obito.
but that didn’t mean he won’t use his rinnegan to switch places with obito so sakura wasn’t touching his shoulder anymore. for some reason, he absolutely hated it when other men showed off their strength in front of sakura.
but he was confident that he was the strongest of them all, he would be the one that sakura admires for his strength. he’s sure of it.
3. am i not your lover?
status: in a relationship
after the war, many things have changed for sasuke. but the most significant change involved sakura. he wasn’t repressing his feelings for sakura any longer, and so he came back to konoha to fulfill his promise to her that he’ll come back.
after much persuasion from sakura, he also decided to take the prosthetic arm made for him. most of the time, he doesn’t even believe that he deserves to even be with sakura for what he has done. he’s grateful for even having the chance to stand by her side.
he finally allowed himself to receive love from sakura and to reciprocate the love he was trying his best to repress back then.
sasuke was over the moon when he learned kakashi will send them to a mission with only the both of them. the three man team system was still intact, but kakashi knew they were strong enough to not require more, plus naruto was busy with his hokage training.
but he wasn’t very overjoyed when he arrived at suna and people were treating sakura like she was the kazehime. he just learned that sakura was a candidate for being gaara’s wife after her contributions with the mission dealing with sasori.
it makes his blood boil.
couldn’t these people see that he and sakura were dating?
couldn’t these people see that he and sakura belonged together?
couldn’t these people see that he’s a better match for sakura instead of gaara?
it makes his blood boil.
“sasuke-kun… why the frown? what’s wrong?” sakura pulls him aside after they completed their work for the day. he didn’t even realize he was frowning.
“sakura. i’m your lover right?”
blood immediately rushed to sakura’s face, she’s still not used to having sasuke openly show his love for her, “yes, you are. why the sudden question?”
“then why are they treating you like your gaara’s lover? they even told you that you and him would make a great pair, right in front of me. couldn’t these people see that we belong to each other?”
“sasuke-kun…. are you jealous?”
“no, i’m not. i just don’t understand why these people don’t immediately assume we belong to each other.”
sakura could only chuckle at how utterly cute sasuke was. she decided to drown him with her kisses that night to pacify his jealousy, and it worked.
4. was i in the way of your happiness?
status: in a relationship
sasuke didn’t mean to eavesdrop, he couldn’t care less what conversations naruto and shikamaru were having. that was their privacy.
but when he heard sakura’s name mentioned, he couldn’t help but stop and listen to their conversation.
that was how sasuke found himself standing very still behind the door of naruto’s very own room in the hokage building. he was going to naruto to discuss something kakashi tasked him to do. only kakashi could get away with ordering him things to do and making him do errands, as this was his atonement for how he treated kakashi before.
“so naruto, still no plans on getting married? little by little, our generation is getting married. temari and i.. soon ino and sai.” sasuke hears shikamaru ask. he was right, most of the people he spent time in academy with are slowly all getting married, some even are creating their families already.
“i’ll take me more time to move on from sakura-chan. i’m happy for her and sasuke, but still.. i really love her, you know?”
sasuke’s heart feels like it dropped. he always assumed naruto’s feelings for sakura were more like a childhood crush, a fleeting feeling of admiration. he didn’t expect that it evolved to something more, something deeper.
was he in the way of their happiness?
if he didn’t return, would naruto and sakura have gotten married?
that image alone makes his stomach churn.
any man other than him being sakura’s husband makes him indescribably upset.
if anything, he wouldn’t blame sakura if she did develop some feelings for naruto. after all, they were the ones who grew up together. he heard that before jiraya formally took naruto under his wing, he gave sakura a special goodbye. she was his most beloved.
all this time, sasuke assumed naruto’s love for sakura was because she was his teammate and dear friend.
was i in the way of their happiness?
sakura, would you be happier with naruto?
“you’ll move on, man.” sasuke’s thoughts were interrupted with shikamaru’s reply to naruto.
“but i won’t do anything. sakura had always loved sasuke. he’s a lucky man for being the only man sakura gave her heart to. i’m happy as long as she’s happy.”
ironic enough, it was naruto’s words that pacified sasuke’s self deprecating thoughts. he was right. sakura never gave him a reason to assume that she would’ve been happier with naruto. she had always loved him, and he had always loved her.
5. can i punch someone in the face?
status: in a relationship
“happy birthday, lee-san!”
sasuke doesn’t know why he’s also invited to rock lee’s birthday bash, but he went because sakura told him she would love it if he went with her.
he was always weak when it came to her requests.
“thank you for attending my birthday party, sakura-san! my offer still stands! i’ll protect you always! even if it costs my life!”
sakura laughs slightly at lee, realizing he was already drunk, “thank you. but i can handle myself.”
“yes you can! you’re very strong, sakura-san!”
sasuke had to clench his fists to stop himself from punching lee in the face.
seriously, this guy is still crushing on sakura even after all these years? he had feelings for her since their chuunin exams. many, many, events have already happened, why was this guy still fixated on sakura? shouldn’t he already find someone else?
especially since he and sakura were already in a relationship!
“sasuke, if only looks could kill, bushy brows would already be dead by now.” naruto whispers teasingly.
“shut up.” it was taking everything in sasuke’s willpower not to punch him in the face.
sakura didn’t need any defending. she was already a force to be reckoned with on her own. if she needed assistance in fights, she already had sasuke. their souls were tied together.
“sasuke-kun, you should try the food. it’s good!”
sasuke’s frown immediately softened the moment sakura talked to him. sometimes he just wants to keep sakura in their bedroom and hold her all day so nobody would get any ideas to steal her away from him.
+1 did you really use your strongest jutsu?
status: married
“let me get this straight. three shinobis disappeared without a trace.. the same shinobis who reports have stated was being too close to sakura…” kakashi says, reading the reports while sasuke was standing at his office with his usual poker face.
“why are you telling me this?” sasuke says, annoyance evident in his tone.
“well.. nothing, i guess… i would just cover up for my dear student’s jealousy this time.” kakashi poked fun at him. but in all honesty, he won’t even reprimand sasuke. there were indeed some shinobi who tended to disregard personal space when it came to kunoichis.
“i wasn’t jealous.”
“what were you feeling then?”
“anger. sakura had to tell them to give her space. my wife was only doing her task and they disrespected her boundaries.”
kakashi laughs out loud. no matter how nonchalant sasuke might seem to others, kakashi could read him like a book. he absolutely loses his cool whenever it comes to sakura.
“how did you do it? chidori? genjutsu?”
“amaterasu.”
now kakashi was laughing like there was no tomorrow, “wow! you used your strongest jutsu on the random shinobis who made your dear sakura uncomfortable?”
“it’s my jutsu that doesn’t leave any traces. it’s suitable for what i need to do.”
“more like you wanted them to experience inhumane suffering. you’re scary when you’re jealous, sasuke. does sakura know?”
“i don’t keep secrets from my wife.”
“well, i won’t reprimand you for what you did. i understand the situation fully. i’ll just tell their kage what happened. thank you for your report. you and sakura have a week off. enjoy.”
“thank you.”
after sasuke left, kakashi stared at the report from the mission. their village was still looking for the bodies, but unfortunately they’ll never find him as sasuke most likely turned them to ashes.
kakashi couldn’t help but feel happiness for his students. he knew what they went through just to reach this level of peace, and he was happy that they were living their married life happily.