Forever Mine

Epilogue

"Ino hasn't contacted us yet."

"I'm sure everything's fine."

"But she usually contacts us by now and it's already late in the afternoon."

Sasuke sighed. "She'll contact us before bed tonight."

"What if something's—"

"If something were wrong, she would've contacted us already," Sasuke stopped in his tracks and turned to look at his worried wife. "The fact that she hasn't means everything's fine," he assured.

Sakura inhaled a deep breath and nodded.

It was the first time they'd ever left Sarada for more than a day in the care of someone else. She was now one year—and five days—old. Since they left the village on Friday and it was now Sunday afternoon, it was basically three days without her and also the longest they'd gone without being with her since she was born...and Sakura was freaking out.

Sasuke hadn't been too comfortable with being away from her for the weekend. He wasn't even comfortable letting her spend the night at Naruto's house for a sleepover with Boruto because that meant she'd be out of his reach until the next morning, and whenever he randomly woke up in the middle of the night, he liked to watch her sleep. So when he suggested spending their weekend on a relaxing trip in honor of her birthday that'd past a few days ago, it'd shocked her.

Of course, while she was relaxing, she didn't mind it. It was something she hadn't known she needed; spending quality time with her husband. They woke up whenever they wanted, not when Sarada decided to. They enjoyed the day at their own pace, not whatever pace Sarada wanted. They relaxed instead of going back at forth wondering what Sarada wanted to eat, why she was crying this time, what they were going to do about the spills she seemed to always make on furniture they recently bought. She was a handful, and they'd never want their life any different than what it was with Sarada in it, but it was nice to take a much-needed break. She knew it was the reason why Sasuke insisted on it even though a big part of him was reluctant to leave Sarada.

But now that the break was over, she wanted to be home now. Which meant that Sasuke's need to travel somewhere that she knew wasn't Konoha's direction was upsetting her. He wouldn't even tell her where they were going.

"Where are we going?"

"You'll see when we get there," Sasuke said for what seemed to be the hundredth time.

"Why can't you just tell me?"

"Because it's a surprise."

"A good surprise?"

"Ehh," Sasuke shrugged as if the surprise were actually something irritating, which made her feel like there was no purpose in seeing it anyway.

"Sasuke—"

"Relax," he said, sounding both soothing and partly annoyed by her.

They lasted a good five minutes before, "We've been walking forever!"

"And we would've been there by now if you'd stop dragging your feet and complaining every two seconds," Sasuke matched her glare and then playfully shoved her face back when she stepped up to him.

"You know what?" Sakura dropped her bag, causing the raven to take a step back to show he wasn't going to fight her. "Come on," she prodded.

Sasuke snorted. "No."

"Scared?"

"Terrified," he picked up her bag and continued walking.

Sakura followed him, knowing he was smiling and thinking about the small scuffle they had over who was getting the last piece of meat last night. Said scuffle turned into them making intense love and forgetting all about the piece of meat that eventually became cold.