SASUSAKU: TROUBLED TIMES

Old Ayame

It had been a while since the last time Sakura visited Old Ayame, since her parents gave her the news of the marriage, she thought. It was possible that she wanted to fully enjoy her last days in the house where she grew up. Probably, from now on she would only go there to visit her parents and little else.

Sakura used to go to Old Ayame's cabin several days a week. There the teacher taught her how to contain and manage her chakra well. Chakra was the energy that came from nature, everyone possessed it, but not everyone had such high chakra levels, and Sakura was one of those people. That is why her parents always wanted Old Ayame to teach her, and for her to use it for good purposes, such as healing. Her parents did not want her to use it for violence, as some clans used it, like the Uchiha or Uzumaki, for example.

That afternoon Sakura visited her teacher. She was a little different. She seemed distracted meanwhile Old Ayame was explaining some of the new treatments that she had been studying recently. She realized that Sakura was looking at her, but she wasn't paying attention.

"Sakura, are you listening to me?" her teacher asked with a frown. Sakura suddenly looked at her, mouth open, as if she had been caught red-handed doing something wrong.

"Yes, yes, teacher, I'm sorry. I'm trying to listen to you, I really wanted to learn your new treatments." She told her with a guilty face, she had a lot of respect for her teacher, she didn't want her to think that she was boring her. "Tell me, you were explaining to me how you managed to eliminate all the poison from that rabbit, right?"

"No, Sakura, that's what I told you 15 minutes ago. Now I was explaining to you how I got the rabbit's heart pumping again after extracting all the poison..." She looked at her with concern. It was evident that there was something that was occupying her thoughts. "Sakura, is there anything that worries you or that you want to tell me about? I notice you are distracted." She continued, this time she sat down and encouraged her with her arms to sit down so they could talk.

"It's nothing, really teacher, you can continue, I'm really going to pay attention to it," she responded without wanting to sit down, she avoided at all costs wanting to touch the subject.

"Sakura... you know you can tell me anything..." she told her, raising an eyebrow with a half smile.

Ayame thought she already knew what might be occupying her thoughts. The previous Saturday they went to the Uchiha compound to meet her fiancé. Ayame knew all the clans very well, she taught everything she knew to Sakura about their past history; conflicts, and the strengths and weaknesses of each clan. One of the strong points of the Uchiha clan was the great attractiveness that both men and women had, it was a clan of very handsome male members, and beautiful women. So Ayame suspected that she might have fallen in love with the young Uchiha. She wouldn't be the first or the last woman to fall in love with an Uchiha, she thought.

"Sakura... maybe you want to tell me how the visit was at the Uchiha compound. What did you think of the young boy of the clan? Did they treat you well?" Now Ayame's gaze conveyed concern, she had a great protective instinct towards the pink-haired young woman, she loved her as if she were her own daughter.

"Eh.. no, I don't know, maybe?" she answered her with a trembling voice. Sakura had never talked to her about boys, she never hinted that she had fallen in love with some young man. Which surprised to Ayame, because it was a normal thing at those ages, right? She had to experience all kinds of emotions, especially at such early age where any emotion is experienced so intensely that it seems as if the world revolves around you. Maybe, finally, Sakura is experiencing it, she thought.

Ayame looked at her encouraging her to continue talking, she didn't respond, her gaze simply told her, I'm here, you can talk about anything in this space, no one is going to judge you. Sakura knew this, because she had sometimes come to the cabin complaining about her parents when they had argued, and Ayame was always there to listen and advise her.