On The Same Path [SasuxSaku]

Chapter 6: Amegakure

~ Sasuke's POV

Konoha... 

He felt truly at home after a very long time. Even though he was about to leave for a mission, he knew this was a temporary mission and he would come back in a few days.

He was leaning on a tree with his right foot up outside the gates of Konoha when he heard their approaching voices.

"... I went through the reports as well. Of course, you are the expert on poisons in Konoha.. no wait, probably in the entire shinobi world...", Sasuke heard a guy's voice. 

"Arigato Yuu-san. But you'd be surprised how many people spend their lifetime just studying poisons. I have barely scratched the surface..." Sasuke immediately recognized his teammate's voice.

"True. But not everyone intends to study with the intention to heal and that makes all the difference. Plus your knowledge of phlebology should be super helpful as well, I am actually learning about that myself."

Sasuke finally saw Sakura emerging from the gates. She was wearing a white cape over her red ninja gear. Her companion, Yuu-san, was also wearing the same white cape. Sasuke assumed this was their standard Konoha medical ninja cape. Sasuke knew that Sakura was a medical ninja but he never saw her in a pure medic's role before.

Now that he thinks about it, she's always been a healer. Even in their genin days, Sakura was always ready to heal and take care of everyone in her capacity before she even became a medical ninja.

"Sasuke-kun!!!!"  Sakura's eyes almost shot wide open with astonishment. "What are you doing here?!"

"I am assigned on the mission to Suna," Sasuke said nonchalantly.

"Oh yeah, I forgot to mention you this morning, the ninja who would be traveling with us would be Uchiha Sasuke. The Hokage asked me to fill him in with the details of our mission so I dropped off the details yesterday evening at his apartment," Yuu explained.

"Oh... that's the mission you were talking about yesterday..." Sakura mumbled to herself.

Sasuke looked at her. Sasuke could sense that Sakura was feeling guilty that Sasuke was assigned to a mission right after coming to Konoha.

"We should get going," Sasuke didn't want her to think too much about it, so he took off in the direction of Suna, signaling them to follow him. They had an overnight stay at Amegakure and then a nonstop journey from there. If it was just Sasuke, it would have probably taken him a day to reach Suna, but he believed with Sakura and Yuu, this would be a typical three-day journey.

Agreeing to this mission had come naturally to Sasuke when Kakashi hinted it towards him. Sakura has been on his mind when he came to Konoha, so the fact that she was leaving for a mission made him want to join her automatically. But he had zero ideas on what to say to her or even talk to her normally. It had been so natural to do missions with her when they were genins, however, Sakura was a very different person back then. And Naruto didn't leave any room for awkward conversations.

But after what happened at the Hokage office, Sasuke realized that this is not the same twelve-year-old Sakura he knew so well. He knew she was getting powerful, but what he missed was that she has grown much more quieter and reserved growing up. Or was this reservedness only towards him? Listening to the distinct conversation between Sakura and the medical nurse behind him, Sasuke noticed that Sakura had no problem conversing with him.

What was happening to him? Why was he overanalyzing everything today?

The truth was, Sasuke was so focused on his redemption journey during the last few years that he never got a chance to interact with someone from his past. Meeting new people was easy because he didn't owe them any explanation. He didn't need to tell them why he was on his redemption journey, what is it that he is trying to achieve by this path of atonement, and how much far along he has come. Was he ever going to get back to Konoha and settle down like Naruto?