SasuSaku - Past Selves

Chapter 12 - Intrusive Thoughts

Team Taka returned from their missions a week after Sakura's departure. No one asked questions. Seeing Sasuke's mood and demeanour gave everybody enough context clues - no one dared approach him for a bit. They just nodded to his orders, and mostly left him alone.

Karin was visibly happier, while Suigetsu stopped joking around, even at Karin. Sasuke was definitely moodier. He slept on the couch the first week Sakura was gone. He told himself the bed was a bit uncomfortable at night, but everyone knew the real reason deep down.

He spent most days perfecting his new Sharingan and Susanoo. He was happy with his progress. Based on Karin's intel, it seems like all his major jutsu could outperform Itachi's - except for genjutsu. Still, he was getting more and more confident.

He thought about Sakura at nights. He cursed himself for ever bringing her here. His life was fine before, he accepted his life as a bachelor, had fun sleeping around every now and then, and didn't think about relationships, love or the future. He lived in the moment all the time.

At nights, he lay on the couch staring at the ceiling, thinking about things he never bothered with before all this. How could he ever kiss another person? How could he fuck anyone else without seeing Sakura's face staring back at him?

*I did it before, I'll do it again. It will take some time but no big deal* he thought to himself, but he knew all too well that the issue was not whether he could fuck another girl again, but whether he'd ever want to again.

He thought about his future a lot. Not much excited him about it. *Let's say I kill Itachi. Then what? C'mon Sasuke, what kind of life do I want after that? Granted, I could easily die fighting Itachi - as long as I take him with me, maybe it wouldn't be the worst thing.*

When he tried envisioning his future, the same scene kept popping up in his imagination: sitting at a table, playing card games with Sakura and watching her lose her shit after each misplay. It always made him chuckle, right before going back to frowning and scolding him for even thinking of that scenario.

During the days, he focused on his fighting. Karin and Juugo were able to locate Akatsuki's hideout, as well as the whereabouts of most of the members, including Itachi. The plan to organize an attack on him was set in motion.

Sakura's life was picking up pace again. Her work was busy as always, with lots of patients daily. Kakashi wasn't making much progress on the curse mark - even Anko, Orochimaru's former disciple, was no help.

"This isn't like anything Orochimaru used", she explained. "Well, it definitely belongs to the family of curse marks, but it seems like that Uchiha kid developed his own. You're basically like "patient zero", so I really don't know how to remove it."

Sakura wasn't happy about that answer, but the tiniest part of her consciousness celebrated knowing that Sasuke had her location at all times. She brushed off that thought instantaneously.

Her social life was fine. She hung out with Ino for dinner quite often, and continued going on missions with Naruto, Kakashi and Sai every now and then.

Whenever she got home from work, she'd spend some time keeping tabs on the best medics she knew. She felt super creepy doing it, but she wanted to see if one of them would disappear. More like, she hoped at least one of the top medic ninjas would disappear. To her great detriment, they all seemed safe and sound.

"What is he thinking? What is he waiting for?" she would mumble to herself. Knowing that he didn't find her replacement worried her. What if he got injured badly? Or even dead?

*So what?* She'd roll her eyes at her own misery. *I won't lose sleep over that asshole.*

Well, she did lose sleep. Every night.