She remembered finding out when she was very young. Sheâd overheard Ino whispering about it to Shikamaru and ChoijiâDid you know those weird dreams we keep having are what our soulmates see?
Thank you @sarcastic-mommy for commissioning me! I hope you like it âĄ
Word Count: 2,547 words
Tropes: soul-mate au, time-travel au
Pairing: MadaSaku
Snippet:
Sakura wanted to cry. âDo you even know what it feels like?â
Madaraâs hand drew hers to the centre of his chest, pressing her palm flat against his skin. His heart beat a broken rhythm. âI imagine ⊠a little like this.â
Hi long time no see everyone! sorry for the lack of posts lately. As you can see Iâve been busy getting the hang of using digital drawings now! Hopefully I can continue my MadaSaku Doujinshi like this! As itâs MadaSaku week of course I had to do a drawing of them! Hope you like it!
(Reposting this âcoz I canât find my original post uwu)
Notes: the Journey to Uchiha is part of a oneshot collection of different Sakura pairings. Iâd just like to join in and be part of the MadaSaku week. Hope this is okay!
Prompt: In-laws
--
Fact One: It is not easy being an Uchiha.
Sakura tears her gaze from the pond and looks at Madara at the corner of her eye. He's tense as if waiting for her to flee or lash out. The latest council meeting was not kind to either of them. What used to be thinly veiled insults towards her heritage and his choice of bride turned into not-so-veiled insults as they push for an heir. It's the second year of their marriage and the public knows it has been consummated but without fruit.
They were suggesting that their clan head take the right to seek warmth elsewhere since it seems that her warmth is not enough to house a child. After all, she, born of earth and water is not of Uchiha fire. Only Uchiha women can bear Uchiha men. No offense, my lady. This is a man's right.
(and we have indulged you long enough, goes unsaid)
@madasakuweek Rated E for everyone 10 and up...for now
The desert was a part of her and coming back to it was like being born again, suddenly her bones could sign with the frequencies of an earth soaked in mystery. Sakura pushed back the brim of her cap and grinned at the deep blue sky. Summer was nearly over and the monsoon season was out in full force. Every other night was a lightning storm full of dry thunder and bolts of crackling electricity.
She missed her desert.
Nothing seemed to have changed since coming back from university. The people were all where she left them and the buildings only grew dust with the passing seasons. The few exceptions to this norm bit at her heart painfully when she realized one of her closest friends was gone. Naruto had gone off the same summer as her, but he was still tied up with classes, not having rushed through courses like she had. Sakura was too eager to return to the land of her ancestors. Bloodstone was her home.
The room in her grandmotherâs house was exactly as she left it. The posters of UFO sightings and newspaper clippings still stuck to her walls, and even the Christmas lights turned on when she plugged them in.
For a second she saw the ghosts of her childhood crowded on her bed as Sasuke brought his transmitter up for them to hear. Thicker than thieves they trio had been inseparable in their youth, chasing down ghost lights in the desert, mysterious radio station signals, tracking the clues left by old Dutch miners, and recording low res video of what they could just off the highway.
Old warnings like, ânever drive down the interstate with an empty passenger seatâ were ignored and dared as the group stole an Uchiha chevy and drained it going up and down the old interstate after midnight. Nothing ever came from it, but the memories were a nectar to suck on when life drained her.
And she was drained.
Sakura dropped her bags at the foot of the bed and slowly lowered herself onto the twin sized mattress. The blanket from her great grandmother was just as soft as she remembered them being, and suddenly there were tears in her eyes.
She set the radio to her favorite static station and set to work cleaning up her old room and putting away what she had packed with her. It was a fuzzy mess and she loved it like that, but her heart still ached for the voice that would punch through in her youth and whisper things like a secret that didnât make sense.
Every time the man from the dust came on it was a big enough deal to make her drop everything and anything to commit his words to memory. He had still speaking when she entered high school and she doubted he had spoke anytime since, otherwise Sasuke would have texted her from the military compound where he could still get a signal.
The man from the dust would talk about places lost to the ages, the ancient fossils of water monsters frozen in red stone, the government bunkers buried in the desert, the abandoned railroad that drove like a ghost through the desert on hot midnights in summer, and Oasis.
âOasis is the key to it all, or maybe just the reason. Oasis is what made the world look at bloodstone and itâs also what made her hidden.â
None of them knew what Oasis was but they had theories as kids growing up. It had been their treasure to hunt and dream over. Naruto thought it was a gold village from the ancients like El Dorado, Sasuke thought it was a secret UFO crash site, and Sakura believed it all. She needed to. Bloodstone was a part of her and Oasis was somewhere in the valley, waiting for her.
âItâs finally starting to cool down. Cool enough for-kch,â a voice cut through the white noise, making Sakura go still and white. She turned stiffly to stare at her little red radio. âIm going to the petroglyphs for answers. The trail is paved with good intentions, just like hell. Maybe Oasis is hell. Itâs been hell finding it so long. But Iâm at the end.â
The white noise returned and there was nothing else but static.
His voice. Low and tickling in her ears and belly, like it was a thing that filled the listener up. There was no way she would mistake that voice. It had been younger once before, when she was just a child, but it had always been the same man, aging with his pursuit of the truth.
The day she came back to bloodstone he came back to the radio. It was a sign.
It was late but she had texted him to warn him ahead of time. He should know better than to think she wasnât planning on coming over as soon as she got back, anyway. He was the only one she had left.
Sakura didnât care that she almost got shot jumping the fence to the Uchiha compound. It was a big fancy house with barracks in the back, but it was a prison to Sasuke when they were kids. He hated it. It was so odd that he had turned around after high school and started living with the rest of his family so peacefully.
They had a whole plan about how they were going to run away once they all turned 18 and no one wanted to run more than Sasuke. Sakura just wanted to be with them, but in the end it was only Naruto that made it out.
âSasuke!â she screamed his name and banged on the front door, not caring if his family turned around and hated her even more. It wasnât late, they probably werenât even at dinner.
No one answered for a while and Sakuraâs breathing, once labored from the run and excitement, mellowed out and she felt her energy drain. The compound was like a vampire. Finally the door opened and Sasuke stuck his head out. She saw his eyes widen.
âSakura? You werenât supposed to be over until later. What are you doing here?â
His face softened as he opened the door even more and stepped out to see her. He was taller than her, finally, and nicely dressed for a house full of AC. He was even wearing wireless glasses like an adult. He looked so grown up! She looked less put together with her ripped denim shorts and cartoon tee, knotted at the base. Â
âI just got back!â she laughed, pulling him into a hug he melted into easily. He wasnât Naruto, built like a tank and hard to hold in just two arms. Â âI missed your hugs.â
âI missed you,â he admitted, pulling away and looking down at her. âYouâve been working out?â
âYeah, my trainer told me I could probably benchpress a bear with the way I am now. I walked in like a string bean, remember?â her voice was light and jovial. âBut youâve changed too. Finally grew a few inches, eh?â
âThatâs not a joke. I told you I would have a spurt later in life.â
âYou did, you did! But I bet youâre still shorter than Naruto.â
Sasuke swallowed and ducked his head. âI have that going for me.â
He shuffled on the threshold before tugging her inside and closing the door to keep the AC from escaping. Right away Sakura felt a sharp drop in temperature and shivered. It wasnât that hot outside, but compared to indoors, it was drastically different.
âHow have you been? When did you just get in?â he asked, tugging her inside by the hand.
âI got in just a little while ago. I aired out my old room and was putting stuff away when I heard the radio. Sasuke, did you hear it? He was back on the station!â her voice hitched in excitement and she squeezed his hand.
Sasuke paused, looking over her with a confused expression before it clicked. âOh.â
Sakura stopped walking, tugging on his hand. âOh? What do you mean just, oh?â
âYouâre still listening to that ghost station.â He shook his head and the long bangs knocked against the side of his wireless glasses. Suddenly he seemed even more older than she first assumed. âSakuraâŠâ
âYouâre not listening to it anymore,â she guessed. âWhy?â
âWhy would I do such a thing? Itâs a waste of time and I have better things I could be putting my energies to. Iâm trying to make a career here and thatâs not as easy as I first assumed it was. I have to work for this and I canât drag our childhood along with me forever.â
Sakura felt stunned. Sasuke wasnât Sasuke.
âWhat happened to you?â
He jerked, seemingly offended by the question. âMe? I grew up, Sakura. Itâs what we do. Iâm not in fourth grade anymore and neither are you. I have a job and a degree and a life. Iâm trying hard to make it a better one. The desert isnât going to give that to me with a side of mystery.â Â
Sakura had to look again. Sasuke was his father for a moment and then he was Sasuke again. He sounded too much like one of his cousins or brother, not like her Sasuke from years ago. She had just been gone for three years. That was it. That wasnât enough time for him to change this much.
Sasuke had sworn never to be what he was now. He had promised them under a fort of bed sheets to always believe and always search until the end of times for their truth out there in the desert. He was the nut job that put both her and Naruto to shame, crazy smart about UFO cover ups and sightings across the haunted south west.
âDonât look at me like that, Sakura. You had to have known it would have turned out like this. You didnât think we really going to be goonies until the end? I canât, Sakura. I have a life.â
âSasuke?â All she could manage was his name.
This wasnât happening. Naruto had left, but Sasuke was standing in front of her, but he felt further away than Naruto ever had. This felt like a stab in her heart. It hurt.
âCome on.â He reached for her hand again and she let him take it, limply. âI donât want to talk about this right now. You said you were coming over and I made dinner. Sit with me and tell me about ASU.â
She let him lead her in and after a few minutes she remembered how to talk to other people. It didnât feel like talking to Sasuke, it felt like she was talking to a classmate that didnât know her or a blind date she planned on leaving after coffee. He was supposed to be her closest friend, but he felt so far away now that they were inches apart. He didnât let go of her hand unless he had to, but she didnât hold it back, and he seemed to be waiting for that.
It was almost sunset. The sun was swollen and low. Soon it would be dust and the sky would by a mysterious shade of purple perfect for the way her heart felt as she left the compound. Her bike was parked outside the gates and she fingered the water jug Sasuke had given her before glancing out at the desert.
She was hydrated, and she would have enough for a quick stroll. She knew where the petroglyphs were. They werenât far, and she knew the ways in and out of the canyons better than anyone. It was the same with the veins in her wrist. The desert was in her and she was in the desert. She could be out there and back before she ran out of water.
âI guess I havenât grown up just yet,â she breathed, seating herself and turning the engine over. Her bike roared to life and she turned it around away from the town into the belly of the valley.
She was an arrow in the desert, trailing dust like the feathers notched at the end, headlight piecing the dim as the the sun sunk beneath high red rock. She passed the rock structure and suddenly the world around her was burning and she was flying through golden fire until the next structure blocked out the dying sun. She had lived through a thousand sunsets and would live through a thousand more, but they never failed to make her heart hurt with their beauty. Something about the desert made sunsets scream, demanding their beauty be recognized.
Sakura dripped the nose of her bike down a shadowy path and trailed it down between high walls of red rock that bled in wavy layers, some purple, some gold, some scarlet like blood.
She knew no one would be there when she arrived at the petroglyphs, but the temptation was too strong to pass up. She wanted a clue, some measure of proof. Something.
She blinked and the tears fell from her lashes and off her face, slipping under the goggles edges. She let go and her bike drifted on that last push of acceleration before she stopped herself in front of the rock wall where dozens of drawings told an unusual story.
No one cared about the history of Bloodstone enough to pry into it. Even the people who have been in the valley since the beginning, âwhenever that wasâ treated the origin myths like dirty laundry best not aired where the world could see it. There were drawings of people in horns and deer hooves dancing. There were whale drawings too, and even squid painted on the wall. There were animals from the ocean that had no right being mentioned in the desert. There were streaks that looked like melted paint, but were what Sakura believed to be falling stars.
Cave paintings were all over the old red rocks, but when people talked about petroglyphs, they usually meant the Great Wall, the place with the most and the best preserved. Sakura dismounted, drinking from her bottle of water as she inspected the area. There were footprints, and her heart picked up at that, but there was no way to know who they belonged to.
She crouched low and went around the area with eyes strained for a sign of something. She wanted a clue before she went home and felt silly about how young she was. But there was nothing.
Dust kicked up and anything left behind was long lost. The sky was dim and the sun was wholly swallowed. Stars were coming out, twinkling into view from millions of miles away just to watch her.
Sakura finished her water and packed up, out of time. It was only when she was back on her bike peeling out did she turn on the radio in her helmet and listened to his static all the way home, into her room, throughout her night time rituals, and even through the sleeping hours.
It was three am when a voice punctured the lonely sound of static.
âItâs just me, now. No one else is searching anymore.â A long moment of silence stretched on while the static abated until his voice came back, more tired and worn than she remembered. âBack to the beginning, where they started it.â
Outside, old thunder boomed as dry lightning tormented the desert, but no rain fell.
The beginning was Hera.
Back in the forties and fifties when the country thought making bigger and badder bombs was a priority, the desert was a testing spot for precursors to the A bomb, according to the redacted history. Hera was the first town built for the weapon developers and their families. After Hera was planted came Apollo. Both went under and became ghost towns before the decade was over and their bones stuck out of the desert like an ugly reminder.
Hera was the beginning, and one of the first places they had investigated when they were kids, looking for the source of that radio signal. Finding the source was impossible unless it was being used, and the voice came on so rarely it made tracking impossible.
Sakura rolled into the town, cutting her engine before she inside to push her bike in and park along the side of a diner left derelict. It was odd coming back after so many years away. Hera seemed trapped in time. Â
She tugged her cap down and turned down main street, sipping water from her bladder pack, careful to stay hydrated. The more she saw the more she recognized, and the more she recognized the more she could see the signs of life in Hera.
Someone had been here.
Her thoughts were cut off when something caved in nearby and there was a cloud of dust. She heard the yelps of several desert coyotes running scared, disturbed from the morning sleep. She saw their face out of the dust as several darted off for new hiding spaces. In the shadows their eyes glowed and Sakura counted four dogs, twelve eyes.
âThe third eye is an illusion your brain creates when they run too fast,â someone had once told her.
Oh, these were those sort of coyotes. Sakura pulled out her revolver and took another long suck from her water pack and skipped over to where the destruction seemed to be coming from. The building was an office, but the wood was rotten and underneath the ground floor was a maw of darkness, what once had been a cellar. Something had fallen straight through the roof three stories into that darkness. Sakura leveled her gun and her light.
âHey, someone down there?â
She adjusted the side of her flashlight and the beam bled wide, showing off the stairs hidden behind a wall. Sakura kicked through the old plaster and took the stairs down into the lab like cellar. Dust was still falling down as he beam swept over the expanse. Something had impacted the crates in the center of the room and lay sunk in the canvass, unmoving. Her light caught a leg, limp in the rubble.
Sakura cursed, stowing her gun behind her and rushed to administer first aid. She cursed again when she saw who was in the rubble.
âDamn, heâs gorgeous,â she whispered, recognizing Uchiha features.
It was a miracle he was as fine as he was. She checked for broken bones and was concerned with his ribs, but nothing was obviously broken enough for her to tell just by feeling. He was beautifully bruised and bleeding from a few places and out cold, but alive.
There was an old hospital in Hera. It didnât have everything, but it would have enough for her to treat the surface injuries. She gingerly tried to wake him, but he didnât stir, so she ended up carrying him princess style up and out of the house, across town, and into the Hera hospital. Another inspection showed no broken bones, which was what she was afraid of.
Sakura tried her phone but wasnât surprised to get no signal. Hera was too far out. There was no way she could safely transport him on her bike. She had to treat him on site and pray it was enough. She didnât trust herself to leave and come back and find him in one piece, untouched by the scavenging dogs she had already sighted in the city. Those things would eat anything once dusk came on.
He moved in his sleep a bit and she watched, carefully observing for any sign of greater distress. He didnât seem to be in much pain and she wondered if it was an Uchiha thing. Sasuke was hearty too.
She didnât want to leave him, but water was scarce and she had to wash the blood off her hands. There was a well not far from the hospital. She went there to wash up and paused over the hook, seeing eyes in the shadows, stalking. Slowly, Sakura slide her pistol free. It didnât move, but she took aim for the third eye, dead smack in the center of his head. It was just an illusion, her brain making up something that wasnât really there. But there were stories about these coyotes, how they spilled out of a star travelerâs side and ran like a mess across the desert with her third eye marking them as kin.
Sakura pulled on the trigger and the coyote crumpled. When it rose again, it blinked, two eyes reflecting the light before it caught sight of her and turned tail to run.
Sakura climbed back into the hospital and entered the room, not surprised the see the man still dead asleep. She tried her phone again but couldnât get a signal. She took a picture of his face, then several more, posing for selfies that might embarrass him later. Â
She was editing a video when he blinked and moved, pushing up on the table.
âYo!â
He looked over at her, startled and then angry. âWho are you?â he hissed, pending his knees to brace on the table. Good, no broken bones there either. He was talking too, head trauma was minimal.
âIâm your guardian angel, apparently. Youâre an Uchiha, right? You know Sasuke?â
He glared at her. âHeâs a brat.â
âWorse than that, heâs a stuck up ass these days, but youâre related, arenât you?â
His glare seemed to lessen. âHe is my nephew. Your name?â
âSakura.â
He nodded, likely taking no meaning in her name. âMadara.â He pulled up an arm and saw the bandages. âYou did this?â
âIâm pretty sure the fall did that, but I did the bandages. Sorry about not taking you to a real hospital. Thereâs no signal and I didnât think I could take you on my bike.â
He huffed a breath and pushed himself up before turning around on the cot table to face her. âWhat are you doing here?â
âWhat are you doing here?â she countered.
âI asked you first.â
âI saved your life.â
âI didnât ask you to.â
âYou couldnât because you fell three stories into a crate pile and nearly died, but if you could, Iâm sure you would have?â
His eyes flashed the way Uchiha eyes always flash. Sometimes there is a teasing of scarlet in their black, black orbs, but itâs always a trick of the light. âYou assume too much, girl. I have my reasons and I am not compelled to share them with you.â
âSounds super important,â Sakura teased, feeling something nag at the back of her mind when he spoke. âYou shouldnât be out here alone, you know.â
âAnd youâre here with someone?â he asked, looking around the room. âI donât see anyone.â
âYeah, well my buddy decided to grow up and Iâm the only one stuck her in Never Never Land, so now that weâve established that, you wanna tell me what you were doing swan diving into ghost buildings?â
âI do not owe you anything, including an explanation. What you did was your own decision, I did not ask for any of it.â
Sakura felt her gut drop and turn to stone as sick realization flooded through her. Her eyes widened and get skin lost its color for a moment. It was a change that made Madaraâs glare lessen and almost switch into concern.
âYour voice,â she breathed, placing her hands on her knees as she sank down into the chair opposite him. âYouâre the voice on the radio, looking for Oasis.â
No wonder his voice was so pretty, he was a classic Uchiha with face perfectly sculpted and a physique made for Olympic gods to envy. Of course she had been hung up on an Uchiha for years. Of course.
Sakura melted in her chair, grabbing at her face and muffling a scream with her lips pulled inwards. She didnât see how he reacted or hear if he tried to deny it, she had to focus on this revelation first.
âWhy did he have to be so pretty?â She pulled her hands down the front of her face and nearly died when she saw him flush and avert his eyes. She had said that last bit out loud. Great.
âI-Iâm not sure what youâre talking about,â he coughed, still looking away from her.
Standing up, Sakura reached for her phone and scrolled through her library before clicking on an audio recording and turning the volume up as loud as it would go. It was his voice, perfectly identical now that she paid it enough attention. His blush only spread as the audio clip turned into static and ended.
âThat was years ago. You went silent and I thought it was done, but then you spoke last night through the airwaves and I donât know how, but it was what I needed to hear. Back to the beginning, you said, so here I am.â
He still wouldnât look at her, but the blush had faded. âNo one was supposed to be able to hear those.â
âI did.â
He looked up at her finally, meeting her eyes. She watched him swallow before he reached up to rub at his jaw. âYou said your name was Sakura. You know Iâm an Uchiha right, and that this whole thing is madness?â
Rating: M (just in case)
Theme: Hot! For Sensei
Wrote this prompt for MadaSaku week(end) because well -- IÂ couldn't get this idea of a cat and mouse game between the two and Sakura finally impressing him with her cleverness.Â
Enjoy!
@madasakuweek
âSakura.â
Viridian eyes remained focused on the cherry blossom tree outside of the window, by now spring had flowered and the delicate blossoms contrasted with the dreary walls inside of the classroom.
âSakura,â a thick voice repeated.
Her eyes snapped forward, suddenly aware that her teacher had been calling her name. âI understand that what Iâm teaching you may not seem important to you, but in my classroom you need to pay attention.â
The students snickered and laughed beneath their breath, she ducked her head down into her book when a furious blush covered her cheeks â suddenly aware of the dozens of eyes staring at her.
âSorry, sensei,â she murmured softly.
With a small sigh, he began to write down a detention slip â âthis is the third time this week, Iâll be seeing you after class.â
Her face fell, with no room to argue without the whole class reciprocating in laughter at her, she decided to stay quiet. Biting her lip, she watched his large frame walk over and hand her the pink detention notice â curiously she peered up at his daunting form.
He smelled of cedar and oak.
His dark, onyx eyes complimented his pale skin â only accentuated by his white shirt that was rolled up to his elbows, prompting her to notice the muscular frame beneath.
This wasnât fair.
She gripped the slip â briefly, their fingers touched.
Like a magnet, she felt herself drawn to him.Â
âDonât be late,â he finished before continuing the lesson on clan history and founding within their providence.
For the rest of the time, her eyes would dance over him â the way his mouth expertly rolled over the words as he spoke to the class, the movements he would make, how he would write on the chalkboard and the muscles flexed beneath his shirt, or the way his eyes would pierce through the studentâs â absorbing the atmosphere until they would gently wash over her body.Â
Sakura could never focus in this class, it would go by in a daze until the bell would ring and he would pack up his briefcase and leave. Everyday she looked forward to seeing her sensei â he had come to her school as a transfer to replace the old history teacher who had retired that summer.
Madara-sensei.
She wrote his name in her notebook, lost in her daze â subsequently happy that she would get to see him again later after class. His name decorated the page, after a few minutes she glanced up to finally take notes when she felt his eyes on her.
Smoldering.
She squirmed in her seat, clenching her legs to stop the heat and her over-active imagination.
The young girl didnât know when her infatuated started, but it had consumed the hearty part of her attention. Envisioning a whimsical future where they would walk down the streets holding hands and she could wake up to him watching over her smaller body.
The bell rang, effectively breaking the small trance she had found herself in.
The pink slip pressed itself heavily in her bag.
                              xox
Nervously, she fixed her hair before entering the detention room after school.
Would he talk to her today?
The past two days that she stayed after school had been odd.
Secretly, she would watch him to steal glimpses while she did her homework â he would be reading his book, glasses settled on the lower bridge of his nose, and he would look up at her silently and return her stare.
The first day, with the sun hanging low casting a soft glow in the room â Madara would walk past her, close enough to gently brush against her shoulder and elicit goosebumps to rise on her skin.
Yesterday, he had walked over and brushed a few strands of her opalescent locks from her face. Silently, Sakura entered the room â as per usual he was sitting at his desk reading his book waiting for her.
âMadara-sensei,â she said softly, slowly she handed him the detention slip so he could sign it. She looked around the room curiously, noticing that there were no other students here today.
âIs this not where detention is being held today?â she questioned finally, a small note of sadness tinged her voice â hoping that she would get to stay here.
Madara set his book down and grabbed the slip from her, âit is. Looks like you were the only naughty girl today," he said  â scribbling his name on the slip.
Red burned her cheeks.
âGo sit, do your reading that you missed from earlier.â
âHai,â she consented and took a seat in the second row â close enough so she could be close enough to him and steal glances at her handsome teacher but not close enough to make it obvious she wanted to be near him. She opened her book to their lesson from earlier.
Long, drawn out minutes passed by before she would allow herself to look at him.
The sound of a soft click! caught her attention.
âS-sensei?â she stumbled over her words, suddenly aware that he stood right in front of her.
She could see now that he locked the door â
âSakura,â he said darkly, his voice sounded like velvet kissing her skin.
Quickly, she covered the page where she had written his name with her sleeve.
He sat himself on the desk top to her right. âI have to ask why you keep losing focus during my lessons,â he pointed to her notebook, ââyouâre a bright girl, and you have the highest marks in the class â it would be a waste to see someone with so much potential waste it.â
He thinks I have potential?
A raw happiness tingled her body.
âOhâŠWell Iââ I canât tell him!
She wanted to die, right here â it was too embarrassing for her to admit to herself.
âIâve just...been thinking about someâŠstuff at home,â she finished â upset with herself that she couldnât think of a better excuse.
He raised an indignant brow, obviously aware that she was lying, âis that so?â
Madara leaned forward, causing Sakura to hold her breathe â his proximity was electric. âI think thatâŠItâs something else," he whispered close to her ear.
Sakura could feel the embarrassment leak into her body â ââŠlike what?â
Madara held her gaze -- aware of how easily it was to get her flustered, âI see the way you look at me, Sakura.â
He knew all along?
Habitually, she bit her lip to stop herself from saying anything else that might indict her guilty conscience.
âI am a man, after all,â he finished.
This time, she peered at him and reached forward to lightly run her fingers on his forearm, a new flame lit itself in her eyes, her faux bravery felt minuscule compared to this man, ââŠand I see the way you look at me, Sensei.â
A small, broken moment of clarity opened itself for the two.
He smirked and leaned forward to kiss her forehead, eliciting a small gasp from his student.
Sakura kept her fingers splayed gently across his chest.
They would continue to play this game.Â
âI knew there was a reason why you caught my attention.âÂ
