Redemption |complete| (SasuSaku)

Say it

Wednesday, 30th of August.

The memories from last night filled his brain. He felt ashamed for falling asleep this quickly in front of her, with her touching his face. The events from last night were what officially scared him. Not once in his life he showed himself to be so vulnerable.

After the war, during his redemption journey, he had decided that he was going to dedicate his life to the village. He wanted to continue his brother's work and he had planned the rest of his life on this idea. A solitary life filled with travels, enemies, fights and nothing else. As soon as he had came back to the village, he had quickly realised that it was impossible to have a solitary life, not when people cared about him. Naruto made it very obvious that he would be expecting Sasuke to come back to the village and Sakura... well if he had to be honest with himself, he selfishly thought that she was always going to be on his side. He had convinced himself over the years that she would always be around but she wasn't. On the first week of his come back, he had seen a complete different side of her and he had felt unsettled by it.

Growing up she was always giving him all the attention in the world, she had been his teammate and a small part of him had taken her for granted. He never had any other girl in his life, except for Karin but that was different. With Sakura he had been on missions, he had grown up feeling supported and loved and it had meant something to him. She had always been this source of affection and support that filled his heart.

For all of these reasons, when he had came back to Konoha and she didn't giving him the time of the day, his pride got hurt. He wanted to have her like he always did and today he knew how unfair this was on her.

Three months ago, he had tried to get her back so things could be like they were when they were children but he simply fooled himself. She made him understand that if he wanted it again he would need to work for it. At first he didn't care much but something had made him ask Kakashi to bring her with him. By travelling with her, he got to know a completely different woman, he started to respect her as an equal and not as someone who had feelings for him. She had shown him how life could be, she gave him the feeling of having a family, she offered him the care a woman can give and she proved him that happiness was possible, even for someone like him.

Slowly after that, without him realising it, his feelings evolved into a strong friendship. He had cared about her like he had cared about Naruto but before he could stop it there, it had changed again when he had seen her with Kotaka. That was the night when he had understood that what he felt for her was more than friendship. The only way he had found to stop that was to bring her to Konoha and keep her there. He had genuinely thought that this was going to be the end of it but after only one week away he had felt something missing. It felt heavy on his chest and one night he got to the conclusion that he was missing her and that was the reason why he went back to Konoha.

He got home and saw her with another man. A man who was working with her, who was going to be there for her, someone she could laugh with and someone she had common interests with. Even if he felt hurt and angry he had decided that this was what she deserved.

She didn't deserve to have someone like him. Someone who had tried to kill her, someone who had left her crying... someone who was just not made for her. Someone like Nori was the right choice and that was the reason why he tried to leave the village telling her that he would never be back. He had been serious about this decision. He had planned on forcing himself to stay away until whatever he felt for her will stop but when he had gotten physically hurt he remembered how she took care of him and he needed that. He needed her to tell him that it was fine, that his wounds will get better. He wanted her to make him feel better.