Previously posted as part of a Multifandom Drabble Collection.

Requester: fivesecondsago
Fandom: Naruto
Pairing: Sakura/Yamato
Word/Situation: gossip
Mood/Theme: UST
Approximate Timeline: future!fic (maybe 3+ years)
Other: ...

Title: Gossip
Author: Winter Ashby (rosweldrmr)
Disclaimer: Naruto © Masashi Kishimoto-sama
Rating: K+
Word Count: 500 - exactly!
Summary: It was a game, at first. (Sakura & Yamato)
Authors Notes: In the words of fivesecondsago, "Sakura/Yamato doesn't have enough love; it's very sad."

It was a game, at first. She'd smile and touch his arm. He'd laugh and roll his head back, over the muscles of his shoulders until he could feel his neck crack.

"Yamato-tashio," she says in a stern voice, "you shouldn't push yourself."

"It's alright, Sakura." He smiles and touches her shoulder. "I'm fine."

It started out with just a little flirting.

What harm could it do? She asks herself, and tries not to think about what it's costing her to play the game.

"You're out late." He catches her outside a bar, after closing. She's sickly sweet from the fruity drink she's been nursing all night.

"Walk me home." She tells him and slips her arm though his.

There is a moment, along the way, when she's sure he can feel the ache that swirls in her stomach. But then, he turns his eyes away, slowly, and with more meaning that she can let herself understand.

"Goodnight." He says and leaves her on her doorstep.

Sakura is unsatisfied.

She knows people are probably talking, whispering behind her back.

Indecent, inappropriate, she comes and goes at all hours of the night.

But she doesn't really mind that they gossip. She never did before, when she was the one who was left behind. They talked about her then too, that she was broken, and weak. But they were wrong then, and they're wrong now.

She lies to everyone… even herself.

"Not today." He tells her, solemn face one summer day. She tilts her head and imagines what he tastes like. "I'm leaving."

She shrugs and draws back, into a crouched offensive pose. "Then we should train."

He is stronger than she remembered, and it takes him only four hours to knock her unconscious. But when she wakes, the look in his eyes tells her all she needs to know.

She's won.

"Yamato…"

He is still so awkward around her, like she's a doll he could break. She doesn't mind it, too much.

It's his eyes, she tells herself, and maybe his hands.

But whatever it is about this man, not quite born, not exactly alive… a walking legacy, reanimated by the experiments of a madman they rally their hate around.

"What do you remember?" she asks him on a mission, alone in the woods while Naruto sleeps and Sai keeps second watch.

"Nothing." His face is warm in the firelight. She touches his cheek. "Don't." He pleads with her. Not like Kakashi would, or Naruto would. It's hollow and Sakura can practically feel his dissent.

She withdraws, skin buzzing and straddles the log he sits on. "Why?" she asks, because she can't help herself.

He shrugs and stands. He moves away from her, back into the cooling air of the camp. "Because…"

People can talk if they want. Tsunade can forbid her, and Kakashi can lecture her, Naruto can hate her. But Sakura knows the look he gives her before he fades into the dark says more than words ever could.