Anything for Her
He knows many things about her. Just as she does him.
Things that even his parents and older brother don’t know, and can only dream of ever knowing.
He doesn’t remember how or when it started, only that she seems to always notice things about him before he becomes aware of them. Sometimes, it scares him how she reads him like an open book. Sometimes it annoys him. Then there are times when he feels both, and he grapples with how he should handle those emotions. It’s not because he does not know how to process them. Well, not exactly.
He processes things and emotions differently. Unlike her who wears her heart on her sleeve or Naruto who becomes really quiet when he’s feeling down or overwhelmed, Sasuke is... Sasuke. He still broods and glares at anyone whom he deems unworthy of his time, runs away and hides from his fan girls, ignores Naruto when he challenges him to a fight, and calls people annoying when they occupy his personal space or glance at his general direction. He thinks that there really is nothing different with the way he acts when he is mad or sad or just feeling emotions like the human being he is supposed to be. Not the cold, indifferent man that he grew up as.
He is known for many things. He’s been called many names before: prodigy, genius, second Uchiha heir—emphasis on the second because the child part of him will always cling on to the image of his older brother being the best—Itachi’s brother, and many more.
Being emotionally expressive is not one of them.
One might wonder how someone with a mother like Uchiha Mikoto can be as cold as ice. They don’t know that he is just as much his father’s son as he is his mother’s—and Uchiha Fugaku isn’t exactly an emotionally expressive man. Not that their clan is known for “having” emotions, in the first place, except for his cousin Shisui, apparently.
He isn’t really sure how because he is as clumsy with emotions as he is dexterous with squashing them, but he tries. Tries his damn hard to express and understand and be more sensitive about them. For her.
They are 6 and they first meet at the park near his house.
It is a chilly Spring morning. He and Naruto agreed to meet in the park because, as loud as the blond may be, he actually makes a decent playmate and friend for him, although he will not readily admit the second part. He’s known him since they were babies, with his mother being best friends with Naruto’s mother, Kushina Uzumaki. Sasuke just accepted the fact that the blond is a permanent presence in his life, even if said permanence includes them getting into petty arguments—brawls, really—and silly rivalry with each other. He isn’t sure how but, save for the name-callings, those arguments and competitions have become their way of expressing their friendship if they can even call it that.
Yes, he decides he’ll keep Naruto in his life. (“He isn’t a dog, otouto,” he remembers Itachi chuckling in amusement when Mikoto asked him one time about how his play date with the blond went.)
He is bundled up in warm clothes and a fuzzy scarf, which his mother insisted he wears—“You’ll catch a cold, Sasuke-kun!”—and impatiently stands by the front door as she lectures him about “not taking it too far” with Naruto-kun today and that he should come back home later “without bruises and dirty clothes”. Still, he listens to her because his parents raised him with manners and because his aniki will be disappointed in him if he just runs off and ignores their mother.
He refuses when she asks if she should come with him to the park and insists that he can take care of himself. “It’s only a block away,” he tells her, and: “Konoha is safe.”
Of course, the village is. The Konoha Police Force is headed by his father, after all.
So, he tells his mother not to worry before he runs outside the compound towards the park, shouting a quick goodbye over his shoulder and waving at the guards stationed by their gate as he does.
Sasuke slows down to a walk as he leaves the premises of their compound, quietly admiring the cherry blossoms that came to life with the spring and how Konoha looks lush and vivid again compared to the blanket of endless white that cocooned the village during the winter season.
It makes him smile because he knows the flowers his mother planted in their garden will bloom again.
He soon reaches the park and frowns because Naruto isn’t there. He wonders if he slept in again or if he’s in his father’s, the mayor’s, office. Sasuke himself has been there before and Minato-sama once told him he’s free to visit anytime, but childhood friends with his son or not, he won’t just barge in looking for his friend.
He pouts and stuffs his hands on the front pockets of his coat, scanning the area once more. Naruto isn’t on the swings, nor in the sandbox where they compete by building sandcastle. He isn’t hanging upside down on the monkey bars, too, and the slides are empty.
He feels annoyance and disappointment bubble inside him, and he is about to stalk off when he notices something pink tucked behind a tree by the benches. The pink object seems to be moving.
Curious, he approaches the pink object and is drawn even more by the sniffling sounds coming from it. As he neared, he realizes that it isn’t an object at all but a young girl who looks to be about his age. She almost appears likes a wounded animal—a small kitten, or a bunny, he thinks—that will startle the moment he gets too close, so he keeps a distance between them even though he is concerned. She sits with her back against the trunk of the tree, knees pulled to her chest, and her head bowed with her hands covering her face. She is wearing a dark blue jumper and cream shorts. The pink he saw earlier is her hair and he marvels how the colour matches the cherry blossom trees. Is she a–
“Fairy?”
He covers his mouth with his hands when he realizes he said that out loud. But she hears him and she looks up—cheeks and eyes red and lips quivering—at the new and unfamiliar voice, and he freezes on his spot. Despite her tears and her long bangs brushing her lashes, Sasuke is still arrested by her green, green eyes that is so full of emotions and life and—
Oh.
“Are you hurt?” he asks, trying to sound as gentle as he can. He recalls his brother telling him that small baby cats and bunnies tend to run away when they’re scared and the girl looks like she’s hurt somewhere and he doesn’t want hurting her any further.
His question only earns him fresh, big, fat tears from the girl and he panics because he doesn’t know what to do. He hasn’t learned how to apply first aid yet if she really is hurt somewhere and the hospital is a little far from the park. Although his home is nearer, he doesn’t want to worry his mother by suddenly running home and asking for the first aid kit and risk leaving the girl here, because—what if something happens and he’ll be blamed for it?
Then a thought crosses his mind: ‘What if I bring her home instead? Kaa-san can treat her injuries and then we can go to Tou-san if she’s a missing child and– wait, it will not be considered kidnapping right?!’
As he is having a mental dilemma, he fails to notice Naruto entering the park while singing off-key to a made-up song about ramen in dancing bowls and capybara onsen. He also fails to notice the blond noticing him moving agitatedly, an arm’s length from the still sobbing girl who has now tucked herself into a smaller ball, and consequently fails the mischievous smile that stretches on the other boy’s face.
The said boy chuckles to himself as he stalks as silently as he can towards his seemingly distracted raven-haired friend. ‘Maybe if I could sneak behind him and make him scream in fright, then I can force him to admit that I’m better than him’, he thinks. ‘Hehe, yes, I’ll do that. Just wait and see, teme.’ However, as soon as he reaches Sasuke, the plan of jumping on him from his back flies off his mind as he stares horrified at the sight that greets him.
Then he screams.
“Aahhh! Sasuke-teme made a girl cry!”
Naruto is pitifully nursing a lump on his forehead as he sits on a chair in the Uchiha Main House kitchen, glaring at his best friend who is seated across from him.
Said best friend ignores him in favour of watching his mother tend to the girl—Sakura, she tells them in-between sniffles. It fits her perfectly.
Somehow, between him and Naruto exchanging punches and insults and Naruto shouting he’ll get him for making a little girl cry, they managed to convince—or in the blond’s case, pull—her to come with them to Sasuke’s house. Sasuke still cannot decide if his mother is surprised to see him back home so soon with Naruto and an unknown and silently crying girl in tow or bemused with the way he and the blond were locked in an intense glaring match.
He thinks it’s both.
The two boys pin the blame on each other when Mikoto asks about the situation while she disinfects and dresses the deep gashes on Sakura’s knees and palms. Sasuke feels bad for not noticing them sooner, but the shorts she wears covered them and she was hysterical earlier so he didn’t know that she’s actually injured.
Then Sakura explains that she’d been crying because she fell off a bicycle after trying to ride one without any protective gear. “Otou-san won’t teach me,” she pouts. “He says it’s ’cause I’m a girl.”
He thinks what she did is rather silly but before he can voice it out, Naruto jumps from his seat with a wide grin and an offer to help her. “I can teach you, Sakura-chan! I’ll make sure Sasuke helps, too!”
“Hey! Teach her yourself,” he grumbles and avoids looking at Sakuraʼs direction, the tip of his ears pink.
But when she pouts at him and blinks slowly with her green, green eyes and asks him with a pretty “Please?“, he blushes furiously and hides behind his mother.
So, he agrees with Naruto to teach her and when they walked Sakura back home to her worried parents, the two boys promise that they’ll wait for her at the park tomorrow and that she didn’t need to worry about anything because: “You can borrow my bicycle, Sakura-chan! I’ll ask Tou-san to put the training wheels on so you won’t fall again. It’ll be fun, Sakura-chan! Dattebayo!”
Sasuke, not wanting to be left out, speaks, “Also, wear a helmet and elbow and knee pads.” He then childishly blows a raspberry toward the blond. “I don’t know about you, but the Dobe can be pretty clumsy.”
“What?! Teme, that’s not true!”
Sakura smiles at them brightly, scraped knees and palms forgotten, and Sasuke decides with a blush on his face that he’ll do his best teaching her if it meant keeping that pretty smile on her face.
“Sasuke-kun.”
They are 12 and in middle school, and he supposes it’s the work of puberty because she is suddenly taller than him. Not by much but still taller. He refuses to acknowledge that the same way he denies the fact that she’s growing and changing and is different from the six-year-old girl he met six years ago.
He tells himself it’s because she is one of his best friends and she will always remain the same in his eyes. Not because he notices more than he is supposed to and he doesn’t like the way Naruto and the other males in their class take note of those changes as well.
Still, despite her spending more time with Yamanaka Ino now, he is still certain that he knows Sakura the best and it’s not just because he walks her home after school or that his mother basically treats her like a daughter (the woman is simply enamoured with her) or how his father holds a soft spot for the girl.
No—he knows her the best because it’s him with whom she confides about the things that matter and do not. He knows her favourite things, her dislikes, fears, mannerisms, the house she grew up in, and how, after all these years, she still hates her father’s tendency of being overprotective of her. (“Seriously, I can take care of myself. I love him but I don’t need him following me everywhere! I’m already twelve, nearly thirteen, Sasuke-kun!”)
“Sakura.” He turns to her and returns her cheery smile with a small, barely there upturning of the corners of his lips. She knows that it’s the best smile she can get from him.
She stands near the door of their homeroom, bag in hand and books tucked neatly in the compartment of her desk. “Ready to go home?”
“Aa.” He grabs his messenger bag and throws the strap over his left shoulder just as Naruto barges in and asks loudly what’s taking them so long. “Teme, you move so slow!”
He does not reply but just glares at their blond best friend while Sakura chuckles. The three of them walk out of their homeroom, with Naruto’s boisterous voice filling the nearly empty hallways. “If we get caught in the rain, I’m blaming it on you, Sasuke,” he calls over his shoulder.
“It’s just a drizzle, Naruto-kun.”
“But Sakura-chan! It might start raining cats and dogs!” The blond stops walking and turns around to look at them, gesturing wildly with his arms. “The weather forecast said we’ll be expecting heavy rainfall this afternoon.”
“I’m sure we’ll be fine Naruto-kun. Our houses are just a few blocks away so we’ll get home before it starts pouring,” she reassures him. Naruto just frowns and looks out the window with worry.
“I’m surprised you know what raining cats and dogs mean, Dobe,” Sasuke smirks.
“Hey! I’m not stupid!” he exclaims as he points an accusing finger to the raven-haired pre-teen. “I’m not you, Teme.” With that, he spins around and races down the hallway, intent of leaving the school as soon as possible before the rain gets heavier.
Sakura just sighs and shakes her head softly, a gentle smile pulling on her lips. Her boys will never change.
Sasuke watches her turn her attention outside. Dark and heavy clouds loom above as the once partly sunny afternoon sinks deeper into shades of grey. The leaves of the trees dance with the wind, while distant flashes of light signal the incoming storm.
“Sakura.”
The green-eyed girl glances at him and Sasuke does not miss the apprehension swimming in her curious orbs. “There’ll be a thunderstorm tonight.”
“Y-yes,” she whispers.
“Your parents are on a business trip, aren’t they?” She nods slowly, suddenly finding the floor interesting.
“You’re afraid of thunderstorms. Why don’t you stay at my house tonight? I’m sure my parents and brother won’t mind. That way, you’ll at least have someone–”
He doesn’t get to finish what he wants to say because he suddenly finds his torso encased by her arms and his nose tickled by her long pink locks, the mild scent of strawberries filling his personal space. “Thank you, Sasuke-kun.”
“Hn.”
No, he doesn’t mind the interruption at all.
They are 15 when she comes running to him crying because a boy broke her heart.
Sasuke does not understand what possessed her to seek him out for this specific predicament. Surely she knows that they’ve already established that he isn’t exactly the best person when it comes to… topics like this. He thinks that her female friends are the better choice when she’s dealing with the matters of the heart, but at the same time he cannot just turn her away.
He can never turn her away. It’s a kind of power that she holds over him, and she doesn’t even know it.
You see, Sasuke has come to a startling realization when he turned 14. A startling realization that made it harder for him to process whatever little emotion he has and there isn’t even that much to begin with.
He will not admit it but it scared him at first and it’s not because he does not know what to call it, but because it never crossed his mind that he is capable of feeling such emotion until he is already feeling it.
At first, he thought it’s just a simple crush or a passing fancy that came with puberty and will soon go away. It didn’t. Instead, that feeling developed into something more; something that’s harder to ignore and he can no longer just shove out or bury in the back of his mind like it’s just a mere thought.
So, what does he do? He makes the mistake of talking to his mother about it.
To say that Mikoto is elated will be an understatement. She is simply euphoric. The Uchiha matriarch has basically considered the girl as her daughter even before her friendship with her youngest son flourished (“She’s just so cute, Fugaku! I wish we can keep her!“), and having said son develop strong feelings for the girl is a step closer to officially get her to be part of the Uchiha Clan.
Now, he’s grappling with this emotion and the pressure his mother’s insistence to him asking her permission of courting her brought to his life.
His father and brother expressed that they may be a bit too young for that, but the woman just won’t listen to them. (“We’re fourteen when you started to court me, anata," she tells her husband. It shut the Uchiha Clan head up.)
Still, Sasuke does not tell her he likes her more than a best friend should, mostly because he does not want to lose her and partly because he does not know if she feels the same way for him. So, he’s been harbouring those feelings for her in the quietness of his heart and the loudness of his mind, which makes him both glad and frustrated at the same time.
He wonders just how much constant of a familiar presence he is to her that makes her blind to all of it.
Now, he’s thrown into another roller-coaster of unspoken feelings as he comforts her while she rambles on about how this guy she liked led her on then purposely humiliated her.
“It’s just awful, Sasuke-kun! How can he do that after saying he likes me? I thought he’s being sincere and believed him, now look where that got me?” she sniffles, violently tearing at the tissue paper in her hands before pulling several sheets from the box and blowing her nose. “I’m a mess, right?”
“No,” he answers too quickly in a tone of voice that makes her giggle. “He’s a bastard.”
“Thank you, Sasuke-kun.”
He internally fumes and begins plotting against the bastard as he listens to her patiently while she sobs, then watches her shift through different moods and then later curse the boy.
“I shouldn’t be crying over him.”
“Hn.”
“We weren’t even dating.”
“Aa.”
“You’re right. He’s a bastard.”
He breaks the boy’s nose and few of his bones the next day and adds a black eye and few bruises on his annoying face for good measure. It earns him a detention but also a kiss on the cheek from Sakura and he suddenly does not mind staying for a few hours cleaning the gym.
Yes, she’s worth it.
They are 16 when his mother asks him when is he going to ask her out.
He nearly chokes on his breakfast and his mother just smiles at him innocently as she passes him a glass of water, which he gulps in one go. He ignores the way his father is suddenly looking at him with interest and a knowing glint in his eyes and instead opts to glare—glare!—at Itachi when he smirks at him.
“I thought we agreed we’re too young for that?”
“But Sasuke-kun! Your father and I aren’t getting any younger! I want grandchildren!”
His older brother chooses that moment to wisely hightail it out of their house while it’s his father’s turn to choke on his tea.
Sasuke cannot look at Sakura for the rest of the day without uncharacteristically blushing.
“What’s gotten into Sasuke-teme?” Naruto wonders.
“Your guess is as good as mine, Naruto,” Sakura answers, her brows knitted in confusion. She just wants to know if they’re still going to the movies tomorrow, but the raven-haired teen just mumbled something about scary mothers and going out before running away, his face as bright as his favourite tomatoes.
“Bah! Leave him. Wanna get ramen with me for lunch, Sakura-chan?”
“Sure, Naruto-kun.”
The following day, Sakura comes to their home and Mikoto is suspiciously way too happy to see her that the Uchiha men wondered—with a bit of horror on Sasuke’s part—how she’s able to converse with her without letting herself slip, except maybe for a genuine question that almost had the poor girl falling out of her seat.
“When do you plan on getting married, Sakura-chan?”
“Mikoto-san! That’s-”
“I told you to call me Mikoto, Sakura-chan.”
“Mikoto, I don’t think-”
“Kaa-san is fine, too!”
If her youngest won’t learn how to express his emotions, Mikoto will just have to do it for him.
They are 18 when he finally asks her permission to court her.
By that time, their friends and even Naruto has finally caught up on his clumsy and pathetic display of what he calls affection.
His father and Itachi wonder how it took him so long to do that. Mikoto and Kushina cannot stop gushing about it, Minato just wants to finish the mountain of paperwork waiting for him back in his office, and Naruto threatens him.
“If you make Sakura-chan cry, I’m going to make the rest of your short-lived life hell, Sasuke-teme!”
So, with their encouragements—and threats from his other best friend and Sakura’s father—he invites her to lunch on her birthday and proceeds to express his intentions in a manner that earned him a slap from his infuriated date.
“I hate you, Sasuke-kun! Baka!"
When his brother found him later that day, staring blankly at the cherry blossom tree in the park where they first met, he asks about how it went and it’s the first time he sees him crack. “She hates me.”
“Hn. What did you do?”
“I asked her if she’d carry my children.”
Itachi lets out a heavy sigh, shakes his head, and pinches the bridge of his nose. The expression he gives him is enough for Sasuke to know that he just made a huge mistake.
He cannot even blame it on his inability to properly express his emotions.
Sasuke does not see her the following day. Or the next day after that or the next…
He’s searched for her everywhere, dropped by her parents’ house, went to Ino’s, and even checked her apartment numerous times but to no avail. He is certain she’s avoiding him and thinks that he deserves it like the punch Naruto gave him the moment he learned what transpired on Sakura’s birthday.
“I warned you, Teme!” the blond shouts at him as he grabs him by his collar and throws him to a wall. “What made you think it’s how you properly ask to court her?”
He does not even speak or attempt to defend himself. “I know you’re not the best when it comes to emotions but I didn’t think you’re actually this stupid.”
“Hn.” His usual remark is devoid of its aloofness that causes Naruto to cease his physical assault.
“You got to fix it if you don’t want to lose her, man,” he sighs. “She was at Hinata’s place for the past few days, but she’s supposed to return home tonight.”
Sasuke’s shoulder sags in relief and he glances at Naruto with a small and grateful smile.
“Don’t mess it up,” the blond warns as he steps back and begins to walk away.
“I won’t,” he promises.
“And don’t report me. You know you deserve it.” Sasuke actually chuckles at that.
It’s rainy that night, but he doesn’t care. He’s on a very important mission, one that he cannot leave for tomorrow.
Sasuke stands outside Sakura’s apartment, drenched and shaking and possibly burning up. He’s been knocking on her door nonstop and he knows she can hear him because she turns off the porch lights the moment he calls out her name.
“Sakura, we need to talk.” He’s beginning to think this is some sort of a cliché from a movie scene, one where he may be losing the girl instead of getting her.
He doesn’t like the sound of that.
“Please,” his voice cracks. “Will you please hear me out?”
All those years of hiding behind an impenetrable wall that he had built around his emotions finally weighs down on him. The feelings he’s harboured for her for years comes crashing at him in tidal waves and for the first time, Uchiha Sasuke feels genuinely scared: scared of truly losing her. The fear slips through his voice and wells up in his eyes and he suddenly finds himself unable to speak as those eyes that see through his mask peer at him through long, pink bangs.
“What do you want, Sasuke?” she hisses. Even with those emotions overwhelming him, he is relieved to hear no bite in her words.
“Sakura, I…”
“If you ask me once again to carry your children, I swear to Kami, Sasuke, I’ll feed you to your fangi–”
“I love you.”
She stares up at him, eyes wide, lips parted, and cheeks flushed. He knows he’s caught her off guard; he’s not even expecting to blurt out those words himself, and it’s not because he didn’t mean it, but because he didn’t realize how easy it is for him to say those words to her until now.
“I love you, Sakura. I have since we were fourteen after I realized it’s not just a simple crush and you do not think of kissing your best friend who’s pining after another guy who eventually breaks her heart.”
“I didn’t know how to tell you because I was afraid I’d lose you, so I thought I’d just love you in silence. I know I’m really bad at expressing my feelings but there were times I almost slipped and lost control that I wondered if you’d notice. You just seemed to know what I’m feeling before I become aware of those emotions and over time I just turned to calling you annoying when in reality those were the moments I wanted to let you know how I feel. But I just fumble and run away before I make a mistake and push you away. Then I finally earn the courage to ask your parents’ permission to court you and I mess it up.”
“What I want to say is sorry. Please forgive me,” the word rolls out of his tongue like it is poison, but he looks and sounds so sincere that Sakura actually does not know what to say after his confession. She does not think she’ll live to the day the cold and aloof Uchiha Sasuke will ask for forgiveness. Who would think he’ll be asking that from her? “You don’t have to accept it, I just think you deserve to know.”
“Is confessing to me now a mistake?” she asks in a quiet voice.
“No,” he answers firmly. “Doing it in the shittiest way possible is.”
Sakura does not reply immediately, she just watches him intently like it’s the first time she’s looking at him. Her face is unreadable as she searches his eyes and while he dares not to break that contact with her, the silence stretches between them for what felt like eternity to him.
Then she smiles and says, “Ask me again.”
Sasuke’s breath catches in his throat and it’s his turn to stare at her. She patiently waits for him to gather his bearings, the smile never leaving her face. He does not immediately find his voice, but when he does, he sees amusement and affection shining in her eyes and he makes sure he gets it right this time.
“Haruno Sakura, will you give me the honour of courting you with the possibility of asking for your hand in marriage?” he asks, breathless, hopeful.
“My, Sasuke-kun. We haven’t even gone in three dates,” she giggles.
“Then we’ll do that. Do you also want me to say, ‘Suki desu. Tsukiatte kudasai’?” he asks in such a straightforward tone that makes her blush and smile.
"Iie," she steps toward him. “I accept, Sasuke-kun.”
“You… do?” he whispers. Sakura nods.
“Yes, Sasuke-kun. Or do you have a change of heart?” she teases.
“Hn.”
“Ah-ah, Sasuke-kun. No Hns or Aas. I won’t tolerate it. Use actual words,” she huffs and pins him with a half-hearted glare.
He looks ready to refuse but one look at her eyes and he knows he’s fighting a losing battle.
“I’ll pick you up tomorrow, Sakura.”
When he moves to leave, Sakura tugs on the hem of his wet shirt and he turns to find her looking at the ground. “Sasuke-kun… can you stay?”
“There’s a thunderstorm tonight and you’ll catch a cold or fever if you don’t dry yourself off.” She looks up at him shyly and Sasuke recalls the first time she gazes at him with the same pleading eyes when they were six and he’s powerless to say no. And even though they aren’t six anymore and a lot has changed in and between them since then, he knows one thing remains the same.
“Of course,” he smiles softly.
He’ll do anything for her.
~owari
