Story: The Little Things

Author: MizukiYukiko

Rated: T

Pairing: SasukeXSakura

Disclaimer: Standard disclaimers apply. I don't own Naruto.

Summary: She planted a cabbage patch in his garden because it reminded him of Itachi in the best way. He sat through dinners with all of her friends because it made her happy. They did the little things, so they could fix the big things.

Notes: 50_shinobi themed challenge #23: cabbage patch. What can I say? The fluff bug hit me. Please review!

The Little Things

He returns to Konoha exactly three days after his seventeenth birthday and is promptly thrown in jail. During his four year stint in prison, she does not go to see him once. Naruto does, though, and brings news of her often.

She's going to Suna, he informs Sasuke two years into his confinement; he is barely nineteen now. She's going to build the emergency response department for the hospital there. In exchange, Suna is sending herbal and poison experts. It's a sign of goodwill. She will be gone for five years, at least.

Three years after she leaves, he has been out of jail for one, and Tsunade agrees to send him on a mission. Naruto, in preparation for Hokage-ship, is an ambassador now. He's already been to Water Country and Snow Country and has done just fine.

Now his notoriety is growing, the Godaime explains, and Naruto needs an official body guard (Sasuke snorts internally at this – the last thing Naruto needs is a bodyguard, but he accepts anyway).

Introducing Uchiha Sasuke, official bodyguard to the Nanadaime Hokage-elect, Uzumaki Naruto; please, kill him now.

He thinks that Tsunade wants him out of the village as much as possible. Not everyone wants him there; Naruto is one of the few, in fact, and without him, Sasuke would be very, very alone. And he hates being alone (not that he'd ever admit that out loud).

They travel to Suna. While they're passing through River Country, they come across a canyon that had crumbled at one point in the past. Grass and some small foliage had grown over the fallen, crushed rocks that fall into a rushing river below, and it was clear that some force of nature had wreaked havoc at this location at some point in the past.

Naruto points to it and says: Sakura-chan did that. She killed Sasori. Sasuke nods and they continue on their way.

She is at the front gates when they arrive, along with the Kazekage, his siblings, and his guard. She is completely swathed in desert clothing: a loose fitting white skirt that falls just above the knee (it protruded a bit from where her kunai holster was attached), a tan top that hugs her body but flows enough for ventilation and strappy brown sandals that wrap up to her knee. Her skin has a soft, glowing tan. She is just as dark, if not darker, as Naruto now, and it makes her bright pink hair even brighter and her eyes shine more.

Her hitai-ate was wrapped into her hair, just like it used to be, but there was something different. Tied snugly around her upper right are is a Sunagakure headband that she surely earned during the four years she had been there.

When they finally reached the Kazekage, Naruto and Sasuke bow respectfully. It wasn't until the Godaime Kazekage stepped forward and pulled Naruto into a friendly hug that the tension eased and the formality dropped. When Gaara pulled back from his longtime friend, Sakura rushed forward and wrapped Naruto in a suffocating hug.

"Hiya, Sakura-chan," he says, but the emotional tenor in his voice told Sasuke that his blond idiot friend had really missed the pinkette. Sakura finally pulled back from Naruto and looked at him for the first time in almost half a decade.

"Sakura," Sasuke greeted quietly.

"Sasuke," Sakura responded. Then, she reared her hand back and punched him square in the jaw. Even without chakra, it was enough to knock him unconscious.

"Is she happy now?" Sasuke asks Naruto one day. The blond is sitting outside of his cell and has snuck in some rice balls for him and had mentioned that Sakura had made the treat for the two of them.

The blond contemplates this for a few moments. "She isn't as sad anymore," he finally answers. "But I don't think she's completely happy."

Sasuke understands.

When he woke up, she was in the ambassador's suite with them, chatting amiably with Naruto. He was sitting at on the kitchen counter, swinging his legs, while Sakura stood next to him while coring an apple.

He was lying on the couch, and when he went to sit up, he felt dizzy. Rubbing his bruised jaw, he looked at the two. Sakura was staring straight at him, but before he could speak, she held the plate out in his direction. Cocking an eyebrow and with sarcasm lilting her voice, she asked, "Apple, Sasuke-kun?"

She was mocking him a bit, and he knew it. He stood up and walked over to the counter, grabbing a slice of apple and throwing it into his mouth. Her eyebrows rose a bit in surprise, but then she smiled.

"Welcome to Suna, Sasuke-kun," she greeted with a nod. It was a peace offering, a small one, but it was there.

"Hn," he responded, but she smiled anyway.

The desert was cold at night, and she was shivering. He throws a blanket over her shoulders. They're sitting on the roof of the building where they're residing; a small complex of apartments for ambassadors and dignitaries.

"Thanks," she says quietly and smiles at him. He sits next to her and watches as she swings her legs back and forth off the edge. Her voice cuts through the silence. "Why'd you let me hit you?"

He looks at her and her bright, bright, bright green eyes pierce through him. Finally, he answers, "I deserved it."

She smiles again.

They leave one month later. She stays. There's more work to do here, she tells them with a smile. She even wraps her arms around his shoulders in a light hug that he is barely able to reciprocate since she pulls away so fast.

She was kinder to him since he let her punch him, but she's still afraid of him; he can tell. Any physical contact was met with a flinch from her if it was accidental – hesitation if she was the one to initiate it.

They were staying in the same suite, as per Naruto's request when they had arrived, so he tried to make it better. He put her favorite tea on for her when she would come home from the hospital, exhausted beyond belief. The coffee was brewed extra strong in the morning, just like she liked it.

Around noon each day, Sasuke would appear at the hospital with some food. Her office was small and on the top floor of the looming building, but the trek didn't bother him much. He would say that Naruto was off doing this or that, and that she needed him more. She would work right through her lunch break, most days, and Sasuke knew it. She would smile and accept the food. He'd linger in her office silently while she gulped down whatever food he'd bring her that day. There was nothing to say. She didn't expect conversation and he didn't know how to start one.

He would try, though…sometimes. Ask about her day and such. Sometimes she would shrug it off and say everything was boring. Other times, she would prattle on about medical shit he really didn't understand, but he listened anyway.

But she wasn't comfortable; she was still afraid of him. If not physically (he had tried to kill her once or twice), then emotionally. She was guarded with him in a way she wasn't with Naruto. Not that he expected them to become involved in a deep, meaningful friendship or anything.

But sometimes his temper would be bad (it was hot in the day, freezing at night, he still didn't like Gaara much, and Naruto was annoying as all hell), and he would lash out – not like before, never that bad, but she would look at him as if he had stabbed her right in the heart with a kunai.

It fucking killed him.

Sometimes, though, it felt like she was the one apologizing for her feelings. When she would back away from him, retreat from his presence in their lives and put her shield back up, he would look so guilty that she felt horrible.

There was a silent apology in everything he did, so she started trying too. Fresh tomatoes would always be in the fruit bowl, extra water in the refrigerator for hydration (it took a full year before she could stop carrying water around with her everywhere), and on Saturday mornings, instead of waking them up so they could start their day, she would only wake Naruto and let Sasuke sleep a little longer since she knew he didn't sleep well at night.

They were the little things, but they mattered.

"Will you miss me when you go back to Konoha, Sasuke-kun?" she asks one day. He's sitting at the chair across from her, reading one of her medical tomes and not understanding a word of it. He looks at her.

"I will have a hard time not killing Naruto without you to act as a buffer," he replies. Sakura's face lights up with a smile because in Sasuke language, that's a big, loud yes.

She returns home the following spring, just in time for her twenty-third birthday. She was supposed to be gone longer, but the Suna hospital staff was top notch and had caught onto everything quickly. Plus, she missed home.

He was waiting for her when she arrived with a small bento with him.

"Naruto's in Tea Country meeting with a Daimyo," is the first thing Sasuke says to her. "Kakashi and Sai are acting as his bodyguards."

"You threaten to kill him, or something?" Sakura jabs, poking him in the ribs. He winces and retracts. Sakura cocks her head to the side and grabs his shirt, lifting it up. There was a gash that was healing about four inches long. Deep purple surrounded the healing wound, and it was clear that the bruising was painful judging by the puffy nature of his abdomen. "Oh my god, what happened?!"

"We were attacked by rogues on the last trip. A sword impaled my lung and came out the back," Sasuke explains nonchalantly. He grabs his shirt from her and slides it back down and hands her the bento. She tries to see the other end of the wound on his back, but he moves away too quickly. "Let's go eat."

"How did it happen?" Sakura asks. She is dirty and dusty from her travels, and her clothes are now much too light and airy to wear in Konoha, despite the warming spring air, but she doesn't care. She's practically jogging to keep up with Sasuke's fast strides. They arrive at the training grounds and Sasuke collapses on the grass, throwing his hands behind his head and looking at the clouds, ignoring her question. She probes more, though. "Sasuke-kun?"

"It was heading straight for his heart," Sasuke finally admitted gruffly. Sakura's eyes went wide.

"You took the hit for him?" she whispers quietly. It is almost comical, though, because half of a fried pickle is hanging from her mouth and there's a full load of rice clutched in her chopsticks, hovering just outside of her gaping mouth.

"Hn," Sasuke replies sullenly and rolls over so he is facing away from her. Then, despite the fact that it jostles his injury (which really hurt, by the way), she lunges for him and tackles him in an awkward hug – that makes his heart beat too fast and the tips of his ears turn red.

"You idiot," she mumbles once she maneuvers next to him. She's clutching his hands in hers and is pressing them to her face. There's rice in her hair from where she had flung the chopsticks. He pulls his hands back and brushes it out. "You could have died. Who healed you?"

"We weren't far from a town," Sasuke answers. "The nurses there gave me stitches and repaired my lung well enough for travel."

He's silent for a few moments. "And it's better that I die than him. That's why I'm his bodyguard."

Her hand comes up to hit him over the head, but he stretches his arm out and deflects it.

"You idiot," she mutters under her breath. "Don't ever think that his life is more important than yours. You're equally as important."

He doesn't agree and snorts at her before rolling back around to look at the clouds. She finishes the lunch he had packed, having been ravenous after days of running from Suna. Her breaks were few and far between; she had really wanted to get home.

But now that she thought about it, she had nowhere to go. Her parents had moved into a civilian city about a day's journey south, and she had allowed the lease on her apartment to expire before she had left for Suna. Normally, she would stay with Naruto or one of her teammates, but they were all gone. There was still Ino-pig, but she was living with Chouji now. She really should have thought this all out a little better before returning home.

A small noise of frustration erupted from the back of her throat as she contemplated. Sasuke turned back over and looked at her.

"What?" he asked, his voice a little husky from disuse during the silence.

Sakura looked down at him and announced with a perplexed edge to her voice, "I just realized I have nowhere to live."

Sasuke 'tch'd' before rolling back over and pulling himself into a sitting position; his knee was bent and he rested one palms on the ground and reclined back again, seemingly contemplating everything.

"You can just live with me until you find your own place," he suggested. There was a quiet edge to his voice, and Sakura could tell that maybe he was just a little afraid or uncomfortable with how she would react. Her face brightened and she grinned.

"Really, Sasuke-kun? That's okay?" she asked. He just nodded.

"I have the room. Just don't be annoying," he replied. They stood and walked to a nearby storage encampment. All shinobi could leave their things in a storage shed for free during long term missions. They found Sakura's easily enough, and she retrieved the clothes and necessities she hadn't brought to Suna with her.

The entirety of the Uchiha compound had been destroyed, along with the rest of the village, during Pein's attack on Konoha. Despite this, Sasuke had come into a good sum of money when he returned to Konoha. He kept most of it in savings but had spent enough to buy him a good piece of property. It was far enough away from the main village to be private, but close enough to be within walking distance of everything. It was hidden by a grove of trees, but the yard was large enough for training and it was easy enough to upkeep.

Sakura watched in awe as they walked up to the Uchiha's house. Like most of the buildings recently built in Konoha, Sasuke's house was a fine mix between traditional living and modern comforts. The outside was hard wood, and the inside was one large room that connected a modern living room, kitchen, and dining area. However, shoji screens were pushed back that could be pulled to separate the rooms. Sasuke led her up the stairs.

"Bathroom," he pointed to the left. Then his finger went to the door next to it, "My room," he continued. Pointing to the other side of the hall, he opened the last door. "Your room."

It was a small guest bedroom with a low futon, desk, and wardrobe, but it would suit Sakura's purposes perfectly. She turned to Sasuke with a beaming smile. "Thank you, Sasuke-kun. I get paid for my mission tomorrow, and I'll look for an apartment as soon as possible so I can get out of your hair."

Sasuke pursed his lips. "Don't worry about it," he insisted. "You don't have to leave soon…" he struggled with the words for a moment. "Just find the right place for you. I won't kick you out unless you get annoying or something."

Sakura smiled even bigger.

What neither of them knew, though, was that she would never leave.

"Do you have everything you need?"

He was standing awkwardly in the door to her new room. His hair was wet from the shower, and he was wearing loose black sweat pants and a crew neck black shirt. Sakura had just finished unpacking her clothes in the wardrobe. The smile she sent his way was big and sincere.

"I have more than I could ever ask for, Sasuke-kun," she replied with a light blush. When he nodded and turned around to go to his own bedroom, she noticed the red flush crawling up the top of his neck.

Despite what the entirety of Konoha seemed to believe, Sakura and Sasuke did not initially begin a romantic relationship when she moved in with him. It was quite the opposite, honestly. Living together had been incredibly awkward at first, in fact. Sakura would tiptoe around the house, trying not to disturb his usual routine. He would practically flinch when she would enter a room, as if caught doing something wrong. It took about a month before they found a comfortable routine.

On her birthday, about two weeks after moving in, Ino arrived with a cake and some food without having been invited. Sakura was horribly embarrassed by the intrusion, but Sasuke just shrugged his shoulders. Naruto had dragged him to enough outings with their old group of friends since he had returned, and they had been relatively quick to accept him (even with all the bad he had done).

Naruto had come back from Tea Country a few days prior, so the members of the Konoha 11 who were still alive (the Hyuuga's presence was severely missed by everyone), Sasuke, Kakashi, and Sai, all gathered at Sasuke's house to celebrate Sakura's birthday – all without Sasuke's invitation or Sakura's consent. They all brought some sort of food or drink (mostly the drink).

She spent the entire evening alternating between really enjoying herself, her eyes glittering with mirth and happiness, and shooting Sasuke apologetic looks. He couldn't stop looking at her, especially when she was happy. It made the intrusion on his home bearable.

He shrugged. There wasn't much he could do about it now, anyway.

Everyone left just after midnight. Ino had made sure that everyone cleaned up after themselves, so Sasuke's house was near spotless when the group left. As Sakura ushered a very drunk Naruto out the door with Kakashi on his heels, promising to get the future Hokage home, Sakura turned around with an apology already on her lips.

"It's fine," Sasuke stated blandly. She looked ready to object, but he deadpanned and her mouth snapped shut. "Really, Sakura. All of this… it's the least I could do."

Without another word, he padded up to his room and shut the door.

"Why'd you forgive me so fast." The way he said things made it never sound like a real question. She was sitting on the bench that he kept on the front porch of his house. It was dark and warm, but she accepted the moon tea he handed her nonetheless. She took a sip and smiled at him when he plopped down on the bench next to her.

"Because, Sasuke-kun," Sakura said lightly. "You deserved it."

He thought that maybe she was lying a little bit, but that was okay.

They alternated cooking. She cooked twice a week. He cooked three times a week because he was home more (and he was better at it). Once a week she would bring home takeout from work, and other day they would fill up on the leftovers from their various meals. Naruto would be over more often than not and was the catalyst that allowed the two to grow more familiar.

June 9th was Sakura's day to cook. She had the day off, but Sasuke had been gone for a good portion of it. His whereabouts were a mystery, but she didn't press him for details when he stumbled through the door, bruised and dirty and bloody with a wild look about his black eyes.

She had been sitting at the low table preparing notes for a surgery she would be conducting the next day. Looking at him, he met her eye. "Could we have friend cabbage with dinner."

Without asking why, she nodded and stood up to prepare the meal. He came back downstairs thirty minutes later, showered and looking a little more composed. She had just finished blanching the cabbage and was throwing it into the frying pan with a few other vegetables and some spices when he took a seat at the table.

She served him tea while the veggies sizzled in the frying pan. Throwing some chicken into the pan with it, she stir fried the simple meal and served it in large bowl with rice on the side. Sasuke took a generous helping of cabbage and ate it first.

"Sasuke-kun?" she prompted after a few minutes of silence. It would be the only time she pressed him. If he refused to answer, she would leave him be.

"Today would have been his twenty-eighth birthday," Sasuke answered shortly. Sakura understood immediately. "Cabbage was his favorite."

Sakura smiled sadly and impulsively reached her hand out. Brushing his knuckles lightly, Sasuke jolted and stared at her. However, she didn't back down and took initiative, grasping his hand in hers.

"We can have it whenever you'd like." He allowed her to keep his left hand enclosed by her right one for the rest of the meal.

"Are you even looking for your own place, Sakura-chan?" Naruto asked. Noodles fell from his mouth, and Sakura chastised him by knocking him over the head.

"Of course I am," she countered. She slid a sideways glance to a smirking Sasuke. They didn't need to tell Naruto that her attempts were half-hearted at best.

"What are you doing."

It was the following spring, and Sakura had been staying with him for just over a year. The warm May day was perfect for outdoor work, but Sasuke had spent the day in Naruto's office with him going over mission reports that the new Hokage was still too lazy to do. Why this was his responsibility, he would never know, but Sakura had designated him as Naruto's personal babysitter ("Bodyguard, Sasuke-kun, bodyguard").

Once again, in spite of the rumors, their relationship up to this point had stayed platonic besides the occasional brushes of hands and hugs that were probably too intimate. They also never bothered to correct the raging rumors that they were together. It took too much energy, and honestly, their coupling seemed inevitable to both of them and to everyone around them. Naruto told Sasuke it was all a matter of when, not if.

Sakura hadn't moved out yet, and Sasuke was beginning to think she never would. Not that he minded. He never made a comment that would make her feel like a burden, and she never addressed getting her own place after the first summer spent there. More of her things moved into the little room on the second floor of his home and very slowly, it had become their place.

However, he had returned home on this hot day to find her with a shovel, digging into a small space on the edge of his property. She was dirty and muddy as she took the shovel and patted the little mound of dirt.

"Making a garden," she finally replied, trying to brush the dirt off of her pants futilely. Her pink hair was tied back in a ponytail and it swished behind her as she stepped out of the little plot of dirt she had spent the morning turning over and fertilizing. She went over to the shopping bag that she had gotten this morning and pulled out seed packets and handed them to Sasuke. He rifled through them while Sakura explained her plans, pointing to little areas of the plot she had designated. "I'll put the strawberries over there, and the pumpkin there, and the tomatoes towards the middle (Sasuke's face perked up and she had to stifle a giggle), the peas and green beans can go there, and the corn in the back. And that corner will be the cabbage patch."

Sasuke followed her finger to the little section that would be for the cabbage. He grabbed her hand and pulled it down. Pulling her towards him, he clasped his arms around her waist and hugged her. She squeezed back.

Pulling back, he looked at her for several moments. Her back arched against him, and her face was slowly growing red.

"Never leave," he finally insisted seriously.

She smiled and nodded, pressing a quick kiss to the corner of his mouth. He responded by pulling her back and kissing her properly this time.

Author's Note:

I try to stay away from the strictly romance stuff, but this was way too much fun to write. Tee hee. I just felt like writing fluff (in honor of the good weather and the not snow that's been happening in Illinois). Happy (slightly early) birthday, Itachi!

Please review and tell me what you think!