What We Never Said

Chapter 9: Reading Between the Lines

Sasuke hadn't spoken as we crossed the outskirts of the village. As we walked walked, his hand was firmly grasping the strap of his bag. His head was down, watching each step he took as Naruto and I walked in front of him.

Naruto attempted small talk with both of us, wanting to break the silence as we started this mission.

'This is too soon.' I thought to myself as I turned to look at Sasuke from time to time. I knew that Tsunade was wanting to warm Sasuke up to get back into a new norm. But this... I wasn't sure if this was going to end well.

She knew that Naruto and I would defend him with our lives. But Sasuke... was a risk. Not an intentional one, of course. But who knew how he would react if something was going to go wrong? We were supposed to be able to depend on each other and have absolute faith in our comrades.

Sasuke was a wild card.

"Sakura..." Naruto spoke softly as we took a break, there was a small creek on the path we were taking to the small outpost just south of our village. We had lost contact with the ninja posted there- and Tsunade was wanting us to scope it out and return with possible answers to what happened. There was always a risk with these kinds of missions. "Can we... can we talk?"

My eyes narrowed, Sasuke was sitting at the edge of the water, not appearing to be paying any attention to us. The nerves were radiating off of him. I wanted nothing more than to talk to him, but our last interaction still left a sour taste in my mouth when opportunities aroused.

"What is there to talk about?" I asked finally, breaking my watchful eyes from Sasuke and turning to Naruto.

I knew irritation was radiating from me as I made eye contact with Naruto. I could tell there was uneasiness in his blue eyes, that he was nervous about talking about the time he had spent with Sasuke without telling me.

Before Naruto could open his mouth, another person was near. My sudden irritation with Naruto seemed to intensify when I realized who the person was, crossing the outside of the first outpost of the village.

Hiromi Kobayashi.

She was still wearing that giant coat from earlier, it didn't appear the cold was something she was a fan of. She silently passed the both of us and walked down to the water where Sasuke was.

I-I didn't realize we were expecting a fourth person. My eyes widened as she passed us, nervously glancing in Naruto's direction. He was the one who had suggested the break, we hadn't even gotten far. Was this planned?

"I thought..." Naruto started stumbling over his words, then took a deep breath. "I thought Sasuke needed some encouragement. She's been there for him- and Tsunade informed me that she would make the call if she felt that this was too much too soon."

"So you called Hiromi to make that call? The first moment we leave the village, and decide that we need a break and you call her?!"

"It wasn't my idea," Naruto whispered, trying to get me to lower my voice. He glanced over at the two, and Hiromi was giving us the side eye. "I messaged Tsunade, asking her how he felt regarding Sasuke's status. She made the call, I followed direct orders."

I took a deep breath, understanding now the real reason why Naruto wanted to talk had nothing, or at least minimal, to do with my realization of how much time Naruto had been spending with Sasuke behind my back. He was trying to prepare me for Hiromi's big role.

I took a few steps away from Naruto, hinting that I wanted my space, and turned to glance over at the two at the water.

Sasuke was not even acknowledging her presence, for now. He was staring into the water, looking down. She placed herself at a small distance from him, but I could tell the tension that he was holding in his shoulders had relaxed. I could tell that they were softly speaking to each other, and I couldn't hear what they were saying. I knew the expression on my face was holding utter disgust, but I couldn't help it.