𝗛𝗢𝗠𝗘 || sasusaku

Chapter Twenty-Five: Training Part 2

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The ramen at Ichiraku tasted the same as always. It was delicious. But for Naruto, it was heavenly. And Sasuke have had enough of eating ramen that when Kakashi brought them at Ichiraku he almost drag Sakura out of the place to eat lunch somewhere else. But then again, the pinkette said something that stopped Sasuke from doing such thing.

"This place sure brings back a lot of memories," she said as they sat on the stool. The place was getting bigger than before. When they were kids, the place could only entertain about six people at most. But then as time blurred by, Ichiraku Ramen had become a world class ramen shop all because of the famous Naruto Uzumaki bringing along the ramen shop into popularity with him.

"Welcome!" The owner of the shop greeted them as he took each of their orders.

Naruto pulled out a small paper from his pocket as he was about to show it to the owner when remembered something. "Ah, since it's gonna be Kakashi-sensei's treat, I'm not gonna use this."

"You seriously thought of using that?" Sasuke asked, looking at the all too familiar piece of paper. The owner excused himself to the kitchen.

"Force of habit," Naruto said, laughing as he scratch his head.

"What's that?" Sakura asked, a bit curious as she leaned in to see the paper closely.

"It's a gift from Ichiraku Ramen, an unli ramen gift card for a lifetime!" Naruto bragged, he even stood up as he held up the paper to which Sasuke just sighed, drinking a glass of water. He's seen that gift card far too many times whenever Naruto would drag him to Ichiraku. Sasuke could've swear the taste of the ramen is already embedded in his taste buds he could even taste them in dreams. He wonder if Naruto feels the same.

Their ramens arrived in no time. Just like when they were kids, the three looked at each other before nodding their head once and turning their heads to Kakashi to catch him eating. But just like when they were kids, their Sensei had finish eating and had already arranged his mask. The three sighed in defeat and proceeded to eat.

The rest of the afternoon, they strolled around the Village like the old Team 7 used to do. Until Kakashi had to come back to the Hokage's office to finish some work. Then Naruto had to go back to his house because Hinata was not feeling well. And then just like that, as the sun slowly make its way under the horizon, the two were left again together.

Sasuke and Sakura were walking on the sidewalk, near the river. They were walking slowly and Sasuke was more than fine with it. Until he stopped on his tracks, head turned towards the park.

Sakura stopped walking when she saw Sasuke's shadow on the sidewalk was gone. She turned around to see the Uchiha looking at the park where children were playing. Sakura felt a small smile tugged up her lips as she walk towards Sasuke and took his hand.

She pulled Sasuke towards the park as they sat on a bench near a tree. The bench was a good spot, overlooking the river in front as it glistened with thousand starlings from the sun rays.

The atmosphere was peaceful and Sakura realized her head was slowly falling on Sasuke's shoulder. They remained like that for a few seconds, just silence with their heartbeats drumming the same rhythm. And it was perfect.

"Sasuke-kun," Sakura said, tilting her head up to look at Sasuke who hummed in response.

"Are you happy?"

The question struck him. What does happiness even mean? Or if there is any definite meaning to it? Or if being happy is variant to each individual? He doesn't really know. He never had a concrete meaning to it. And so for five seconds, Sasuke Uchiha contemplated the question, is he happy?