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Coming back to Konoha is easier than he thought it would be.
He’s aware that; Naruto, the hero of Konoha, won’t allow anyone to give him a hard time or insult him in any way; He knows that Kakashi, the new Hokage, will move mountains with the council to give him a pardon and a new place in the village; He doesn’t doubt that Sakura, the village’s darling sweetheart, will vouch for his honestly and his innocence even when everyone knows he doesn’t possess neither of those qualities.
Even if he knows all of this, he’s still awfully surprised when he’s given pardon, when they grant him a home near the no-longer-existing Uchiha district. When Sakura accepts his invites to eat out alone with him and gladly kisses him and holds his hands as if he was deserving of such a loving treatment.
When they give him back his place in team seven.
Team Yamato nowadays or sometimes even team Sakura, now that she’s been granted a Jonin tittle. Every now and then, when they’re very lucky and the days are extremely peaceful or when the Hokage has to go out on a diplomatic mission, the whole team gets to reunite.
A six-men team, who would have thought.
He appreciates his new team.
Naruto is more reliable than ever, he’s grown to be a strong shinobi, a great friend and he’s matured beyond his years.
Sakura has been the one who’s changed the most on the team, she’s gone from being a very intelligent yet untrained Kunoichi to become the strongest woman of her village, a medical ninja whose abilities has surpassed the previous Hokage and a teammate that her comrades could count on.
Yamato is a breath of fresh air after years of a loving but layback Kakashi. Yamato is a man of structure. A bit of a pushover and sometimes really weird and scary, yes. But one of the strongest and wisest captains Sasuke has ever worked under.
Kakashi, to both, Sasuke’s disappointment and utter relief, hasn’t changed one bit. He’s still always late, still a buffoon and a pervert, but more than anything; still the greatest positive influence any adult has ever made on him.
And then, there’s Sai. His replacement.
Sasuke can acknowledge the improvements Sai brings to the team. With two powerhouses as Naruto and himself, one medical ninja who also can work as an offensive shinobi. A strategical long distance fighter completes their team as a lost piece completes a puzzle.
But the boy is still his replacement and Sasuke still gets jealous from time to time. Specially because of his close relationship with Sakura.
Sakura smiles kindly to Sai, allows him to call him horrible insults and they even go on friend’s dates as if such a thing existed when he and Sakura where only friends.
The day he finds Sakura sitting under the tree outside of Sai’s apartment as the Anbu calmly paints the scene with one of those creepy smiles of his adorning his otherwise blank expression, he feels that he needs to do something.
“What are you doing!?” He asks alarmed, his girlfriend looks beautiful under the rays of sunshine leaking through the tree’s branches and he feels a little sick knowing that Sai is painting every colour, every light,every single line a curve.
“I’m painting ugly, traitor,” smiles Sai. Not taking his eyes away from the canvas. “Could you shut up please?”
Sakura doesn’t move, she knows that Sai’s artistic self is easily vexed and she doesn’t want to ruin or interrupt his work “I’ll see you later. Alright Sasuke-kun?” She mumbles under her breath. “Just a few hours.”
Sasuke feels immature when he huffs irritated and leaves in a hurry and feels even more like a child when he turns over his own apartment in search of ink and paper.
His Sharingan grants him photographic memory, he has Sakura engraved in his brain since the very moment he woke up in the Naruto bridge after his nearly-death experience to the sight of her curtain-long pink hair surrounding his face as a broken child, when he woke up to her green eyes shining under her tears.
He tries to draw her pretty face, her short hair parted by her red headband, her petite figure, her long legs covered by long shinobi boots, her slim arms that can cause so much damage.
It doesn’t turn out quite as pretty as he imagines.
The draw is amateur to be kind, Sakura looks like a stick figure with clothes and hair. He even used some green crayons he found around from who-knows-where to colour the green circles he draws as her eyes.
He gets frustrated after a while and tears out the page to start a new one, this time Sakura with her long hair, before the chunin exams. The result is the same, her dress doesn’t have a form, her slim arms look a bit deformed and her hair looks witchy.
He doesn’t stop.
Pages upon pages of childish pictures of his girlfriend cover the floor by the time Sakura herself enters his apartment with the keys she got for herself even before he mustered the courage to ask her out.
“Sasuke-kun!” She calls cheerful, taking off her boots with incredible fluidity “Sasuke-kun! Are you there?” Sasuke doesn’t respond but Sakura can easily feel his chakra inside his home, so she enters the first room looking for him.
The first thing she sees is a piece of paper thrown in the floor, then another, and then some others. Sakura crouches to reach out one of the pages and stifles a laugh with a hand over her mouth when she notices that is a drawing of herself, maybe, is she squints her eyes a little.
Following the trail of cute drawings, she finds her lover in his room, sitting by his bed on the floor and furiously drawing away in an old looking notebook.
“Sasuke-kun?” Asks Sakura, gentle and amused.
“Sakura!” Screams Sasuke in an uncharacteristic display of emotions, looking at her with big, bright eyes and his face red with embarrassment.
Sakura smirks, her eyes drop to the paper on Sasuke’s hands and her expression goes from kind to devious “What are you doing, Sasuke-kun?”
“Nothing!” He exclaims, hiding the paper behind his back.
“Huh…” She smirks, lowering her knees to the floor and kneeling by his side. Sakura reaches behind Sasuke’s back for the drawing he’s surely hiding. Sasuke tries to move away but his girlfriend is smarter and sits forcefully on his torso rendering him hopeless to her feminine wiles.
She snatches the paper and studies the drawing. “It’s cute,” she smiles, reviewing the little stick figure of her breaking the ground with one shakily-drawn heeled boot. “Can I keep it?”
Sasuke should say no, he feels somewhat humiliated by Sakura experiencing any less than a perfect performance from him.
But Sakura’s flirtatious tone of voice, the weight of her warm body on his torso and the sight of her perky little breasts directly in front his face, every single detail makes him weak and forces him to dumbly nod his head in agreement.
“Thank you!” She chirps like a spoiled child and kisses him full on the mouth.
Sasuke doesn’t feel so bad anymore.