____________//FANFICTION ♥

 
The Uchiha Restoraionn: chapter 3 - Pillow Talk
By Kristen

Sasuke felt himself grow irritated at Sakura’s shocked expression. The sooner they were done with surprises, the better. Then again, he reminded himself, she shouldn’t have been so surprised at all. What did she think she had agreed to just a few hours ago? Not that Sasuke was thick enough not to realize he tricked her into it. He had planned his words very carefully the night before to back her into a corner. If he’d given her the chance to say no, she might have. Sasuke treated his proposal as he treated battle. Size up your opponent and devise a strategy. Adapt the plan as the adversary makes it necessary. If your lucky, you can turn your opponent into an ally. Sasuke had Sakura measured well enough to know she’d probably figured out his angle by now. Apparently, she hadn’t figured it out enough to know he intended to get the particulars of this battle over as quickly as possible. The longer they were engaged, the more time they both had to second guess themselves.

He was fairly confidant Sakura wouldn’t back out. If she did, then everything she’d ever said to him might as well be a lie. She’d been offering to help him with all sorts of things for years. She was always by his side. She wouldn’t desert him now that he’d admitted he needed her.

Sasuke wasn’t so confidant that he wouldn’t back out. Meditation and self-reflection had led him to this conclusion just the night before. He treated it like a battle and dove in immediately, not thinking out this would affect any other aspect of his life. His two-fold ambition tore him apart once already in his quest for the power to defeat Itachi. More than just having the good fortune to cling to life after the Hidden Sound Village, he’d learned something from the experience. The mindlessness of his determination was going to destroy him sooner or later, he knew that. There was no power in the universe that was going to let him come out of this in one piece.

He had no desire to pull anyone else down with him. If he gave himself the chance, he’d put an end to this plan. He needed something permanent to hold this all together before he left on his mission. The time and distance was all he needed to change his mind. A few consorts would work just as well at producing children to carry on the Uchiha bloodline. He would probably have been able to find some women that would agree to leave the children to him once they were birthed. But what he really wanted for his clan was legitimacy and for that, he needed marriage. And for that, he chose Sakura.

“Now?!” Sakura asked incredulously. “But I haven’t told my parents, we don’t have any plans and I don’t have a dress!”

“Yes,” Sasuke said, “now.”

“Dammit, don’t I get a say in any of this?” Sakura was near-frantic. Her life was very quickly spinning out of control so soon after she had found her place in the village, staring at young faces eager to learn rather than the backs of her comrades. She liked making a difference, not depending on other people, having her own say in what went on around her.

“It has to be now,” Sasuke said in a very calm, very controlled voice. She was getting to him.

“WHY?!”

“Because if it’s not now,” Sasuke began tersely, grabbing her by the wrist and pulling her along with him, “it won’t be ever.”

“If that’s the way you really feel about all of this,” Sakura pulled her hand way as hard as she could, “then we’d both be better off if it’s not ever.”

The hand that had been griping her wrist twitched. “You gave me your word.”

“That I would help you! I’ve been telling you that for as long as I’ve known you. But you don’t really believe it’s the right thing to do, then I can’t help you.” Sakura found nothing in Sasuke’s expression that gave her an inkling of insight into what he believed. “What do you want, Sasuke-kun?”

“I want to restore my clan.” The response was completely automatic.

“That’s not good enough, Sasuke-kun. If you think you’re going to regret doing this, then it shouldn’t be done.”

There was a tense moment of silence before “We can have your parents as witnesses.”

“Are you kidding? They’d try to stop us for sure.”

“Aa,” Sasuke took her wrist again and began guiding Sakura down the street. His misdirection had worked. By playing on her first protest, and probably most important, they were back on track. “For the best, then. We’re going to be late as it is.”

“Wait—when did you make an appointment?”

“This afternoon,” Sasuke responded.

“What would you have done if I didn’t come over?”

“You’re hardly unpredictable, Sakura.”

They walked as they conversed and soon enough they arrived at the head office of Konoha Village. It was customary in the hidden village to be married by the Hokage and it was customary of the current Hokage to be late no matter what the occasion was. Hokage Hatake Kakashi himself probably didn’t even know the last time he arrived somewhere before the people he planned to join there. Whether he did this on purpose or just didn’t have a working watch was anyone’s guess, but as two out of three of his former students arrived five minutes after he did, which was fifteen minutes after he was supposed to, hr figured this was done on purpose.

“While I don’t suppose you want to know why I was late,” Kakashi said as Sasuke and Sakura approached, “which is a shame,” he added as an aside, “because I had a really good excuse ready for you, I do want to know why you were late.”

Sasuke narrowed his eyes. “We got lost,” he said, not remotely resembling the casual way he used to tell them such.

“On the road of life,” Sakura added impishly.

“You both lie,” Kakashi said dryly. “Now, cheer up, kids,” Kakashi’s manner was instantly upbeat. “I never thought I’d see the day you two got married.”

“How does this even work?” Sakura asked. “We don’t have any witnesses.”

“I’m disappointed in you, Sakura,” Kakashi chided, “I’ve always expected you to know whatever information applies. Witnesses don’t really mean a thing; the ceremony itself is just to make people feel married. What makes it legal is signing this,” he produced the item in question with a puff of smoke, “form.” Similarly, he produced a pair of pens. “Read it, sign it and if you want, I can ask you if you take each other.”

Sakura briefly met Sasuke’s eyes before reaching out for the form. He noted her hand was shaking as she held it to read it. She set it down on the table Kakashi was at, sitting on it, rather than behind as he generally did when assigning missions. She held it still with her left hand, fingers splayed, and signed with her right, in the best handwriting she could muster. Ha-Ru-No. Sa-Ku-Ra. She set the pen down, stepped back, and turned back to Sasuke, staring at him.

Kakashi reached out with his right hand and plopped it down on the top of Sasuke’s head, steering him to the form. “Okay, kiddo, your turn.”

Sasuke skimmed the form, and signed his name, without any of Sakura’s theatrics. U-Chi-Ha. Sa-Su-Ke.

Kakashi smiled, his single visible eye crinkled in what Sakura was now very sure was “the look” Naruto had been talking about earlier. Even his uncovered eye was hard to see underneath the wide-brimmed Hokage hat. “And here I half-expected Sasuke-kun to bolt. Looks like I was wrong on both counts, huh, kids? Now, just for kicks,” the form and pens disappeared again, “Sakura, do you take Sasuke as your lawfully wedded husband?”

“Yes.” Sasuke could barely hear her.

“Sasuke, do you take Sakura as your lawfully wedded wife?”

“Aa.” Sakura looked at him with deadpan eyes, as ‘Aa’ was his all purpose response which meant ‘Yes,’ ‘No,’ and ‘Shut up.’

“Great!” Kakashi crinkled his eye at them again. “Now let’s see a kiss.” There was a muttering of “Pervert.” Kakashi wasn’t sure which one said it. It could have been them both…

Two things that could not be said about Uchiha Sasuke was that he lacked the ability to see things through or that he did not recognize the authority of his superiors. Oftentimes he did not respect his superiors nor acknowledge said authority, but as he both respect the Hokage and recognize his authority, Sasuke very quickly pecked Sakura on the lips.

“Well, I guess that’s everything,” Kakashi said, a mite disappointed over the sorry excuse for a kiss. Not because he was a pervert, which he was, but because though Sasuke had explained the situation fully to him that afternoon, he was still hoping to see a glimmer of real feelings between his two former students. He’d known Sasuke in the past to do things for the wrong reasons and clearly that was something he had yet to grow out of.

Sasuke and Sakura bowed their thanks and good-byes to the Hokage before he disappeared in a cloud of the same smoke.

Neither husband nor wife spoke after they departed the head office. The walk in silence was a tad less awkward then they both expected it to be, but still uncomfortable. Sakura broke the hush that had come over them with muttering about having to teach her class for half the day the next morning, but since she didn’t seem to require a reply, Sasuke didn’t give one.

He was watching her carefully to see where she intended to go. About three blocks into the trip from the main building to their respective homes, the paths deviated. He wondered if she was thinking about that at all and modified the options he now had based on her actions. Best case scenario, as he saw it, would be for her to accompany him back to his home without prompting to consummate the marriage, and should luck and her fertility be with him, result in pregnancy before he departed for his mission. A less desirable, but still acceptable option would be for her to be undecided about what she would do when they reached the fork. Should that happen, he would guide her home and give her what ever space she needed, provided that it wasn’t much. The third choice, and a completely intolerable one, would be for her to head to her old apartment as though nothing had happened. Should she do that, he’d leave her alone for now and explain what misgivings he had tomorrow. Hopefully, if that was the case, when he returned from his mission, she would be willing to forgive him his emotional state of the week before and be more accepting of the situation as it was.

When they reached the point where their perspective paths converged, Sakura stopped. Mentally, Sasuke discarded his first and third plans and focused on the second. He could see her swallow hard, and she spoke first, “I’ll go with you now if you promise me something first.”

It seemed like a fair request, so he said, “Aa.”

“That’s not good enough, Sasuke-kun. I want to hear ‘I promise.’” He could tell it was important to her because her eyes were shiny.

“I promise.”

“When we’re actually doing it, act like you mean it.”

For the rest of the trip, no one said anything. When they arrived at the house that would be home to them both, he led her to his bedroom, laid her down on the futon, threaded his hands in her hair and kissed her with his mouth open.

He tasted like tomatoes.

~*~*~

Sasuke was sitting on the floor by the futon cross-legged wearing just a pair of shorts and sipping his normal glass of water when he sensed a pair of eyes on him. Sure enough, Sakura was awake as well, watching him.

“Hey,” she yawned.

“Go back to sleep,” he replied, trying to figure out a way to add enough heat to sweat out his fever without the girl in his bed noticing. The last thing he wanted was her asking about how often this happened, but at least her presence had him taking care of it.

“Could I ask you a few things first?”

“Can I stop you?”

“Why me?”

“Who else?”

“I mean it, Sasuke-kun. Say you meet someone someday that you really do like. Aren’t you going to regret already being tied down to me? Wouldn’t you want that to be the person you have a family with?” She shifted underneath the quilt and sat up, holding it over her chest. A part of him thought her silly for her modesty, but as he had put on a pair of shorts when he got out of bed, he took another gulp of his water and said nothing of it.

“I’m not looking at other women,” he replied once he felt he’d pondered her words enough. “I’ll be faithful, if that’s what you’re asking.” Her expression made it clear that she wasn’t. “You are a comrade that I trust to do right by her honor. You gave me your word before you knew what I was asking and you kept it once you did. There aren’t many people who would do that.” Such as himself. He wouldn’t have thought twice about breaking a promise that didn’t suit his needs. He didn’t say so, of course. She must have realized that years ago. “Anything else?”

“Yeah… This is going to sound strange, but do you like girls with long hair?.”

“…I guess,” he replied, thinking that yes, it did sound rather strange. He’d never thought about it before and hardly saw what that had to do with anything. Sakura, who, he noted, had shoulder length hair, lay back down and seemed very amused. Sasuke finished the last of his water and stood up, meaning to return his glass to the kitchen. He came back, having decided on a temporary solution to his heat problem, and opened a bureau drawer and pulled out a heavy sweater. Like nearly all of his shirts, it was dark blue with a wide collar and the red and white symbol of his clan on the back. The way he put it on, arms in first and then pulling it over his head, displayed the back from the front for just a moment before he yanked the hem down to his waist.

He crawled back underneath the quilt of the futon and fell asleep.

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