本当に有難う

*(Hontou ni Arigatou)*

A Naruto Fan Fiction

By

~CallMeButLove~

Naruto © 岸本斉史 *(Kishimoto Masashi)*

ほんとうにありがとう

(Hontou ni Arigatou)

She had never really reached his frozen heart. This was something of which Sakura was fully – painfully – aware.

Yes, Naruto had indeed managed to bring him home. In fact, Sasuke had been the one to bring them back – physically anyway. Naruto couldn't walk or stand from his injuries, so Sasuke had been obliged to carry him. In all the profound, important ways though, Naruto had brought Sasuke back from the brink, from the abyss. Tsunade, Shizune, Sakura, and Ino had worked for hours to heal them both. Strangely, when he'd opened his eyes and looked into hers for the first time in years, Sakura found herself stunningly unable to speak. It was Ino who blubbered, and wailed – as Sasuke pinned Sakura to the wall with the intensity of his gaze. He had never glanced at, or spoken to Ino. He never spoke at all, to either female. When the door had opened with Tusnade-sama coming through, Sakura was shocked yet again. It was not her voice, nor Ino's, but Sasuke's first to be heard, interrogating the last Sannin, with pained, choking, suffocating desperation about the blond Jinchuriki's prognosis. Sakura stood numb clear through to her fingernails, as Sasuke slumped back to his pillow, chest heaving in dissipating fear at the encouraging response, eyes closed so tightly that it looked painful. Sakura didn't feel herself move, but looked down – astounded, as her hands brushed soothing circles along the Uchiha's temples. Blood flowed back into his face as the muscles relaxed. He slept for three days. She counted the minutes.

Yes, she had finally been acknowledged by him for her strength; her power was something he now respected, admired. He had said as much to her, and thanked her again at his discharge from the hospital. This time he had elaborated. This time his thank you had been for not giving up on him, not completely. For waiting even when everything inside her was screaming that he needed to be put down, like the rabid animal he had allowed himself to become. He had walked her home, despite her protests about his recovery. He thanked her and silently she felt her soul shatter all over again. Then, he moved toward her, and without another word his lips met hers. No fireworks. No music. No bubbly hearts. No flowers. No birds singing sweetly. No bells ringing at a distance. Just Sasuke. Just a kiss, no – really just a caress of his lips, feather light and fleeting as April snow. Just his gratitude. Then he was gone. Sakura sent chakra to her legs to keep them firm, made it into her home, closed the door, and her knees hit the floor. The tears she had bottled up for years flowed from her in torrents that night. Her eyes burning and her throat made raw with her anguish, she fell asleep. Without him.

Yes, he had asked her to 'see' him, if that was the word for it. She never expected romance. Not anymore. Not from Sasuke. She couldn't bring herself to expect anything at all. He expected exclusivity. She could never deny him, so she belonged to him alone – still. Sometimes the dates he took her on were almost what could be called normal: dinner, concerts, picnics. He was almost alive. She was almost happy. Almost. Other dates were less commonplace, yet much more meaningful. He took her to the site where his childhood home had been. He told her stories, happy and not so, about his family. He brought her to the place where Itachi fell. He walked with her, his hand clasped to hers like a lifeline, to the site of his final battle with Naruto. Nothing could have prepared her for those dates. He spoke with honesty, with guilt, with torment. He spoke; she listened. He unburdened his unspeakably heavy soul; she fell more in love with him. She allowed herself the tiniest hope. The flame deep within her heart had never really been snuffed out entirely.

Yes, he had proposed to her and made her the matriarch of his newly re-established clan. She was his one, true and loyal wife – nothing could come between them now. Even with the destruction of the Leaf in Pein's attack and the war, the remaining Uchiha family fortune permitted Sasuke to rebuild rather quickly. Naruto's new position as Hokage, and his influence in Sasuke's favor made the original Uchiha district in the central part of the village Sakura's newlywed home. The compound's beauty was unrivaled; with the exception of, perhaps, the restored Hyuuga residence. No longer would the Uchiha be isolated from the rest of the village. They would take back their rightful place as a family integral to the Hidden Leaf. Respected. Honored. Proud. Sakura was the Uchiha-san. Sasuke had finally begun to restore his clan – fulfill his last ambition. He looked at her with subdued pride, trust, and satisfaction. She looked at him with adoration, abundant joy, and abiding love. Sadness lingered in the recesses of her mind, and in her eyes as well, but she repressed it while in his presence. Sakura had learned to accept that she had him – never permitting herself to expect to receive his heart. That was something for a much younger version of herself to indulge in longing for.

On the day she had been rushed to Konoha Hospital, to be delivered of the first Uchiha heir to be born since the massacre of the clan all those years ago, Sasuke was due to finish his first mission outside the village since he had returned. When he arrived at the Hokage's office to find Naruto absent and Umino Iruka sitting in the Hokage office, his query was cut short by the older man's hurried order to get to the hospital – ten minutes ago. Forgetting all about the report, the Uchiha flew to the location of his expanding family. Sakura had only just gotten to the hospital in time, with Hinata's (and then Naruto's) help, so that when Sasuke entered the building, most of his childhood acquaintances were already there, awaiting news. As Shikamaru led the father to be to the right room a cry rent the air, and Naruto ceased to pace in front of the door. Kakashi looked up from his book, as he leaned languidly against the wall; his joy only visible in his discernible eye. Hinata smiled and opened the door for Sasuke, while holding a hand lightly on her husband's arm to stay him. This moment was for Sasuke and his family alone. Naruto looked into the chamber, briefly smiling at his two closest friends, then he turned placing a kiss on his wife's brow as she closed the door, and looping an arm around her, headed down the hall to give his friends the joyful news. The next generation had begun, the new leaves had sprouted at long last. He hoped silently that his and Hinata's wish would be next to come true. He wanted children to love and raise with her, more than anything else now that his other dreams had been realized.

Sakura expected Sasuke to be somewhat pleased at the birth of their first child, a son. He had been close to animated when she had told him to expect it. He had been less than glacial when he had listened to her plea to name their first child either Mikoto, or Itachi. She thought that perhaps there had been a ghost of a smile on his lips, as he agreed to the plan. She had not seen a genuine full smile even once since he had come home. She still said it, and thought of it, that way even though he always said 'returned to the village.' He had come home. One day he would feel that way too – feel again. She had to hope to stay sane. She had expected him to seem at least marginally happy at the sight of his brother's namesake, the next Uchiha Itachi. What she saw, and heard, was something beyond any expectation. Little Itachi cooed and sniffled, as he recovered from the shock of his entrance into this bright, LOUD, new world, and Sakura handed him to his father with tears in her eyes and on her cheeks. Sasuke looked at his newborn son with eyes that Sakura had never seen. There was no wall, no barrier, no veil to hide the emotion locked behind those coal black irises. She could suddenly see it all. Pride, Joy, Peace, Gratitude, Fear, and something she longed to see when he looked at her, yet that she despaired of ever seeing. Love. Love poured from him toward this tiny bundle, this miniature copy of his genes, his hope for the future, his legacy, his one true accomplishment in life. He looked from the infant sleeping in his grasp to the women who had given it to him. Sakura's breath bated of its own accord.

With all the subtlety of a thunderstorm, reality came crashing down on Sasuke's ebony head. He couldn't breathe. He felt dizzy and ill. He couldn't think clearly. He swayed slightly on his feet, and Sakura, concerned, reached out to him. He held together long enough to place his son gently in the bassinet beside the bed. That done, he sank to his knees clutching the sheets as if he were a drowning man and the fabric would keep him afloat. His shoulders, and the rest of him, shook violently. His silent screams tore his lungs, his throat, and his heart to shreds. Sakura could only watch him; words would not be of use right now. Sasuke would have to get through this on his own; she could only help him as she had always done – by waiting on the other side of it all. The broken, overwrought, overjoyed man cried. Uchiha Sasuke – human ice cube, cried, wept, sobbed into his wife's mattress. The power of this feeling was too much even for him. Everything painful that had happened to him in his short life played out again in one final reprise; he grieved, he suffered, he agonized. But most of all he realized – it was all over. The past was gone; the future was here, and it was Sakura who had loved him always, who bestowed that future, any future at all when he had none, upon him. Sakura whom he had loved for ages, but to whom he could never bring himself to show affection out of fear of loss. Sakura whom he had abandoned, whom he had tried to kill, whom he generally ignored other than to satisfy his own whims, to meet his goals, had shown him what life flowing through him felt like again. It burned him from the inside out. Purging away all that remained of his reserve, his walls. Without warning, Sasuke felt alive. He felt pain, he felt love. He felt. Sasuke lifted his head, at length, and for the first time in more years than imaginable, he looked into the eyes of his beloved wife with no shield between them. His defenses were utterly destroyed the moment he held his son. The son she had given him. Sakura's tears flowed freshly down her face as her husband looked up at her with the same eyes that had beheld newborn Itachi moments ago. His own eyes, his true eyes. The eyes of a man restored to life, to completion once more. The man she loved – and who loved her in return.

As the new parents cried together, in their joy, Sasuke climbed into the small bed – hospital policy be damned. He enveloped his wife in his arms, tenderly kissing her and murmuring precious endearments and words of thanks between the chaste kisses. Sakura had never been more blissful in her life. Her husband had always been kind, gentle, attentive to her needs when he held her. However, he had never been openly loving or affectionate. She had never really been sure he truly did love her at all. Now as their son slept beside them, she knew. Now her own fractured heart had been repaired along with his, and they could face the world together – whole. Sasuke vowed to himself that he would repay Sakura for as long as he lived for the pain he had caused her, the pain that was all he'd ever given her when she had given him so much. He opened his mouth to speak and found his voice raspy, thick, and difficult to understand. The words that emerged, not the ones that had been his intention to speak.

"What is this? How could I not have noticed this before? Where did all this feeling come from?"

"It was right here all along, Sasuke. It came from right here," came her hushed reply, as she placed one gentle, strong, soothing hand over each of their hearts, and looked at him.

"Sakura – Thank you."

おわり

(Owari)

Author's notes:

Thank you to everyone, for reading! I hope you enjoyed reading this one, even though it is very short. Please review and tell me your thoughts!

I wanted to let everyone who reads this piece know, that without the kind encouragement of my friend Whisperwill, this story would not have been posted. So if you did enjoy it, please remember to visit Whisperwill's profile and read her work too. It's amazing!

Thank you for taking the time to read this far, I appreciate it very much, indeed.