Biggest Fan

disclaimer: everything belongs to Kishi.

It felt strange going back to the village.

War was over for good, and it seemed like life could go back to what it was before everything went down.

The first time he crossed the gates again, he was flanked by Naruto and Sakura, each holding one of his arms – Sakura holding what was left of his left arm anyway – as if they both were scared he was going to run away once again.

But he did not. And he was not planning on it, to be honest. Not on running away, but he did know he was not staying for long.

Only this time, it would be just a journey and it came with a "to be back" date.

Sasuke was aware most of his old classmates were not happy about him being pardoned. The Nara kid was the most outspoken about it – he wasted no chance to remind him he was an ungrateful bastard. Not that he minded, but it made things awkward when everyone was present.

The dog-lover and Aburame were also annoying, but did not voice their disapproval as clearly and constantly as Shikamaru did. Chouji wouldn't say anything about him, neither to defend nor attack him, same stance Hinata and Tenten took. Weird-replacement-kid would smile at him from time to time, and then call him dickless jerk on some occasions.

And still, he wasn't baffled by their reactions. He knew they had their reasons to be mad.

Rock Lee welcomed him back with open arms, happy to see him back to the youthful ways. Sakura and Naruto championed his cause and were very vocal about it. And that much, he had expected.

But, if he had to be honest with himself and everyone – he had also expected a certain blonde to take his side.

Maybe it was because it had been years and years of constant stalking, her voice always the loudest between those of the academy girls, the way she would always find a way to sneak next to him or throw her arms around his neck even when he made it clear he was not one little bit interested.

And he was not interested back then. He didn't care one bit at that time, in fact, it had annoyed him to death – and he had wished her gone of his sight uncountable times. But now, when he found himself being awfully aware of his surroundings and being grateful for his Team 7 – his family – never giving up on him, it just seems weird how silent it feels when she's ignoring him.

Everything was back to the way it was before, except Ino Yamanaka not being his number one fan.

The first time he was alone with Sakura he couldn't help but remember those words after his Revolution proclamation. He knew them to be true, and on the back of his mind, he had never forgotten the way she had tried to stop him going after Orochimaru.

Naruto brought him back, but when she kissed his cheek goodnight, he knew Sakura might just be the reason he was willing to stay.

He made sure to spend as much time as possible with Sakura and Naruto. Most of his mornings were devoted to Sakura, watching her work at the hospital and marveling at her progress as a medical ninja. She was keen on checking his injury, and he obliged himself to follow each and every one of her indications, including daily check-ups.

After Sakura's day work was done, they would head to the old training camps to meet Naruto. But one random day, just as they approached, Sakura suddenly stopped them both on their tracks to hide behind a bush.

Naruto was not alone. Hinata was there, in a black attire, but Sakura did point out it was the first time she saw the other girl smile again.

As they waited for Naruto, Sakura went on a full rampage about romantic love, the future, and couples.

"I always knew she had a thing for him. He's a lost cause, though! Doesn't notice anything. I just wish he would realize it, I mean, look at them, Sasuke-kun. She would make him so, so happy."

Sasuke only listened to her ramble about and did not say a thing, but he could see what she was saying. Anyone with half a brain could see the way Hinata looked at Naruto, as if the sun was just a tiny little star next to the way he shined.

And even though he had stopped listening to Sakura, he smiled. Because just like Naruto had said – if you hurt, I hurt - if he's happy, Sasuke is happy too.

Ichiraku was full and busy. Old Teams Kakashi, Asuma, Kurenai and Gai were having one of those nights.

It was Sasuke's first get-together with his old mates in more than four years. And he wasn't thrilled about it but then again, he could not say "No" to Naruto and Sakura, so he just went along. He did miss that ramen after all.

Kiba and Lee were being loud, Naruto and Chouji were bringing the place down and the girls were happily giggling when he walked in. Everyone stopped what they were doing for a second to look at him – some of them to glare at him – and he realized for the first time in his life what being an outcast really meant.

Naruto stood up immediately and walked over to his side, glaring back – specially at Shikamaru – and pushed him into a stool, just between Sakura. And Ino.

He did not notice the blonde right away, mainly because Sakura caught up his attention immediately.

"How's your arm today?" she asked with a sweet smile and soft tone, and the rest slowly started going back to their business. Naruto sat back down and allowed Hinata to continue helping him out with the ramen, the girl as red as a tomato – but smiling brightly.

"Still just a stump." He replied quietly, keeping it under his coat, feeling uncomfortable now.

He should have thought this one through. He only had one functioning arm, how in Itachi's name was he supposed to eat ramen?

"Oh," Sakura seemed to notice his doubts and smiled shyly, "here, let me help you with - "

Sasuke pulled back so fast after noticing her intentions that he hit the person sitting next to him with his shoulder. He cursed under his breath and turned his head to face his victim.

"Sorry," he mumbled but she just shrugged it off while cleaning his face with a napkin.

"Watch it." Shikamaru said, at Ino's other side, with a hard cold tone. Ino just shook his head muttering an "it's ok, Shikamaru" and went back to her dinner without even glancing at Sasuke again.

"It was my fault, Ino," Sakura interrupted looking over at her friend but frowning at Shikamaru and his ever disposition to show disdain towards Sasuke, "I am sorry."

The night went on uneventful after that. Sasuke did manage to feed himself some ramen, after carefully getting the handle of the chopsticks again. Sakura tried twice more to help him out and he kept on refusing. Naruto even butted in saying – with a cheerful emphasis – that food tastes better when someone is feeding it to you.

Everyone finished their meals and a new chaos broke out when trying to pay the bill. Sasuke remained out of the dispute and waited for Sakura and Naruto to be done with it, when he noticed Ino was still by his side watching indifferently the brawl.

"I am sorry," Sasuke said suddenly looking at her.

In the past few days, he had apologized more times than in his entire life put together. He apologized to his old team basically on an every day basis, he apologized – albeit not really meaning it but for the sake of Naruto, Sakura and Kakashi – to the village's council and the elders. He had also asked Tsunade for forgiveness – even though she did not know, he had still planned to murder her.

So when he found himself saying those words to Ino, it was not hard or unpleasant. And it felt like he had owed her an apology too. It had not escaped his attention that when he reunited with Naruto during the war, she had been the only one apart from Sakura and Naruto to be relieved he was finally there.

Ino barely lifted up her eyes to him.

"It really was nothing," she said in a small voice that did not seem like her own.

"Not only for bumping you a while ago." Sasuke clarified. "I am sorry," he repeated and proceeded to awkwardly pat her in the back, "for everything."

And when she finally faced him, when she looked at him straight in the eyes for the first time since he had been back – Sasuke felt like another piece of the puzzle was falling back into place. He had never valued her when they were younger, and even now he could still not express it out loud, but he truly appreciated her being his loudest fan.

The next day, he learned from Sakura about Ino and Shikamaru having an epic fallout after they left Ichiraku.

Sakura was not sure what had happened exactly, because when Ino showed up at her door past midnight, she had been crying so loud and shaking so badly she could barely stutter any word. Sakura called Shikamaru every insult she knew, and even though she claimed not to know the reason they argued, Sasuke had a feeling she knew enough.

The day of his departure was drawing near and he started preparing himself. He was strong enough now, his injury was doing just fine, practically closed off and he had not caught an infection on it like Naruto did, so he was all physically set to go.

Sakura wanted him to wait for Tsunade and the arm the sannin was making out of the First Hokage's cells, but he felt it unnecessary. At least that was what he would say, but deep down, he just felt unworthy of it, and he accepted his stump. It reminded him of why he was back with his friends – because Naruto had never given up on him.

The day before he was set to go, Team 7 got together at the Hokage's place.

Kakashi was very busy trying to figure everything out, but still made time for them. Sai was there too, and even though Sasuke knew the pale boy did not like him very much – he had, after all, blown up a whole room in front of him just because he woke him up – he did also knew Sai was trying hard to warm up to him, and he should be doing the same. Naruto and Sakura considered them both as friends and teammates, and he owed them that much.

Small chit-chat here and there, and the topic of missions came up. A lot of missions were being carried out these days; mainly to help rebuild what was destroyed during the war, or to dissipate small revolts from people who could not accept the new peace between the five villages.

It turned out Sai had just gotten back from a mission with Team Asuma, so he needed to give the report to Kakashi. The pale boy said the mission was a success and they had stopped the uprisings in Ame, but when Kakashi asked about how it was done, it was clear the boy became uncomfortable.

"I…. am not sure", he said truthfully and felt everyone looking at him, "Shikamaru planned a great strategy to contain the shinobi willing to fight, but then Ino used her Mind-Body transfer justu on the rebellion's leader and made him surrender and convince his followers to do so," explained and raised a finger to the corner of his mouth, unsure, "it worked, and even when the leader went back to being himself, he was so confused by what was happening that just accepted it. It was weird, but there was no fight, which was something you had asked us for. To try and avoid the fighting."

"Oh," Kakashi seemed rather surprised but satisfied none the less, "that was very a bit risky but very clever of Ino. I'll tell Shikamaru to thank her for me,"

Sai seemed to doubt but ended up interrupting the Hokage.

"Well… I am not sure why, but he was not happy. I've never seen Shikamaru that mad before. That is why he asked me to report this to you. He said he did not want to talk about the mission right now."

"Such a jerk!" Sakura chipped in unexpectedly, threating to hit and destroy the tea table, "Who does he think he is? Seriously, Kakashi-sensei, just send him to Suna. He obviously needs to relax and lay off Ino. It's not up to him to protect her now that Inoichi-san is dead! He thinks it's his damn duty to be her father and look after her now but he's just a brat himself. Trying to control who she talks to…" Sakura side-glanced for a second at Sasuke but then went on with her speech, "and now even doing this on missions?! I am gonna hit him so hard when I see him."

"Please don't kill him, Sakura-chan!" Naruto intervened suddenly, "he promised to be my right-hand man when I become Hokage!" and trying to make a point, Naruto raised his right stump while smiling optimistically.

The blow that was intended for Shikamaru ended up on Naruto's shoulder.

Sakura had a night shift at the hospital, and she had thought of skipping it but Tsunade-sama would just finish her if she dared to do so. So instead, she had fervently promised to see him off tomorrow at the gates. Sasuke felt a bit disappointed but told her it was fine. To be honest, he wanted to delay saying good-bye to her as long as he could.

Naruto acted like nothing was happening and refused to accept he was leaving again. You're an asshole, he kept saying before announcing he was going to see Hinata. I'll see you tomorrow, as usual. Sasuke did not want to break his denial, so he just nodded.

It was weird but he ended up walking back home with Sai. They did not meant to, but they lived close by one another, and that was the easiest way to get home. None of them said anything, but Sasuke noticed a grimace of pain on the other's face.

"If you're hurt from the mission," he said but kept looking upfront, "you should have told Sakura. She would have fixed you up right away."

Sai seemed taken a back by the sudden interaction, and shook his head.

"It's nothing. I fell off a tree on the way back," he answered looking kind of guilty.

Sasuke raised an eyebrow. Normally, he would just nod and keep walking because who cares?, but he did want to get to know this guy better.

"How?" and he was also curious. How does a jounin falls off a tree and manages to hurt himself?

The pale boy seemed even more umcomfortable than before and did not answer for a long moment. Sasuke thought that was the end of their chat and well, he had at least tried.

"I read once in a book," came the unexpected answer, "that when someone is feeling sad, you can make funny faces or act silly to cheer them up. So I tried to do both of them to cheer Ino-san, and mimicked a gorilla because I really, really like them. Mmm," he stopped there and Sasuke could notice he was looking at him to see if he had done the right thing. Sakura had warned him about Sai's social incompetence but who was Sasuke to say something about it? He was not that much better in such aspect.

So he just nodded and did not say a thing. Sai seemed to take the gesture as a reassurance that he had acted accordingly and looked ahead again.

"It worked. Kind of. She did smile a tiny bit when Shikamaru wasn't looking, but then I just got carried away with it and missed a branch, fell and dislocated my shoulder. She fixed it, of course. Then she and Shikamaru got into another big argument, I do not know why, so I tried to distract Shikamaru this time. He punched me, and Ino-san got even madder even though Shikamaru apologized, and screamed at him to go…" Sai seemed uncertain to keep going but since Sasuke was looking at him now, he proceded, "go to fucking Suna and get fucking laid so he could stop being such an arrogant, self-centered, angry and unsatisfied asshole."

Sasuke almost chuckled. And it did made him smile a little too – it could be said that he was an ungrateful bastard, but Shikamaru was an utterly asshole too. Ino might not have Sakura's physical strength to defend herself, but her tongue was sharp and she had the confidence to pull that up. He felt a little proud about her putting that little shit back to his place.

"Sai," Sasuke did not talk again until they were in front of his house and Sai stopped, surprised to hear him call out his name, "watch out for Sakura and Naruto and Kakashi, alright? I know you've been doing it for a long time now, and that I don't need to remind you about it, but… thank you nonetheless. You're also part of our team," he paused and unlocked the door but did not enter yet, "so I guess this is me welcoming you."

Sai's facial expression was unreadable but Sasuke took that as a good sign. He turned to him one last time,

"and keep cheering people up too, you're doing just fine."

Leaving was a bittersweet. He had to look at this new world and make sure it became what his brother had long desired for, so he could not regret his choice even though leaving Sakura behind was not easy, but he could not be selfish and bring her along. Konoha needed her more, and she did not had to pay for his sins by missing her friends and family.

Over the course of the first months, he ran into some familiar faces. The first one was the Kazekage, Gaara, and his sibling Kankuro. Apparently they were making their way home from Iwa after visiting old Onoki. They exchanged a few words, mainly about Naruto, and each followed their path.

Shortly after the one-year-mark, to his bad luck, he ran into Shikamaru. He wanted to ignore him and pretend they haven't seen each other, but one member of Shikamaru's team was heavily injured and another one had a broken leg. Some rebels had ambushed them, and Sasuke had to help out after dealing with the scum.

They were one day and a half away from Kumo, so Sasuke agreed to help carry one of his fellow comrades to the Raikage's gates, but nothing else. He was not getting involved with A again if he could help it.

"You don't have to do this," Shikamaru said while they were taking a break.

Sasuke chose not to answer. Quarrelling with Shikamaru wasn't in his interests.

In the end, his help wasn't required. Chouji and Sai's squad caught up to them and took upon themselves to help the injuried.

"Hey," Sai greeted Sasuke after summoning to life a big winged-bull to lift those who could not walk.

Sasuke lifted his one hand as a greeting and was about to set off again when he noticed something in Sai's backpack as the other boy was stroking his huge brush over the paper. It came as a surprise and brought some memories of his childhood, specially his second day on the Academy, when a loud, very self-confident blonde girl had handed him the same purple cosmos flowers with a decided look in her eyes.

He had thrown the flowers to the floor after rejecting them three times. But now, he was glad those beautiful flowers were being taken care of.

Shikamaru was approaching him, probably to tell him to get lost now that he was not needed, so he finally decided to speak to Sai.

"Tell Naruto that I hope he has been training, because I can beat him with just one hand now. And please, tell Sakura I am doing fine and that I hope she is doing well too. And…" Shikamaru was just behind him now with a frowned look upon his face so Sasuke made sure to speak a little more loud and clearly, "tell Ino I am glad those flowers found a better vase."

Sai was taken aback, Shikamaru was speechless and looking for an explanation from Sai now, and Sasuke was gone.

When he came back, two years after he left, he did so in the middle of the night. No one noticed him walking through the gates or the streets, or maybe they did but didn't care. He made his way to Sakura's apartment but she was nowhere to be found. He looked for her at the hospital, where she was tending to a little kid's stomachache.

When she was done, he stepped out of the shadows and tapped her sweaty forehead with two of his fingers.

"I'm home."

After sleeping for a few hours with Sakura in his arms, she began to fill him up on everything that happened while he was away. Naruto had a though time missing him, and an even thougher time getting used to his new arm, but Hinata never left his side. Sasuke was relieved to hear so – and thankful and in debt to the Hyuga heiress.

Sakura had kept herself busy with work and spending time with Tsunade-sama, Shizune and Ino. They were perfecting some medical jutsus and teaching new apprentices. She had also been promoted to main physician in the hospital, and had a new robe to prove so.

He kissed her cheek and made sure to tell her just how proud he was. And how lucky he felt.

Sakura also said Sai had delivered her messages and told her about his words before he left. And, as she squeezed his hand, she couldn't help herself from saying,

"You helped them so much, you know? Sai took your words to heart and continued cheering her up. And he's very happy too, which I though was not possible. She helped me to blossom, and now you've made sure she grows her roots on the right place."

Sasuke finally let a little laugh escape his lips and kissed her head, while rubbing her shoulders.

"You've always been there for me," he explained in a soft, loving tone, "and you've always loved me, even when I've never deserved it. And I love you. I want to grow my roots on you, if you'd take me."

She smiled beautifully before kissing his lips. He kissed her back, feeling peace inside himself for the first time since he was a child.

"But," he added playfully after a moment, "I am glad I pushed her away from me, and sure as hell away from Shikamaru's grip. I owed that much to my biggest fan."

Sakura's laugh filled the place, and then her arms filled the space between them, and her kiss filled the hole on his heart, and if someone had asked him what his new dream was, his answer would be to make this very moment last forever.