Sasuke and Sakura's Thunder Storm

His name was Sasuke Uchiha. He was an avenger and a loner.

And he has no idea when that changed.

Maybe it was when he started facing the door when he slept instead of the wall.

Or maybe it was when he started getting up extra early to train.

It was both of those things, yet it was neither.

Because it was actually when he decided to return to Konoha.

The reason: Sakura Haruno.

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“Hey, Teme! Wake up!”Naruto yelled towards a distracted Sasuke.

Sasuke has been acting weird lately. Naruto thought with a confused look, observing his best friend.

“Hn, like you could land a hit on me anyway, Dobe.”Sasuke replied with a reappearing smirk.

Trying to avoid talking about his unusual behavior, Sasuke threw a few shuriken towards Naruto’s now grinning face and shot a few fireballs for good luck.

No such luck.

Substitution! Sasuke thought, frantically looking around for the knucklehead ninja.

“Over here, Sasuke!”Naruto shouted from atop a nearby tree.

Sasuke quickly turned around and was about to attack when he saw Sakura down at the training field.

Sakura…

Completely forgetting that he and Naruto were fighting, Sasuke casually walked over to Sakura.

“Hey Sasuke!”Sakura welcomed cheerily, her smile becoming larger at Sasuke’s arrival.

“Hey Sakura.”Sasuke mumbled back, trying to stay in character.

But for Sakura, Sasuke saying anything, much less her name, was totally out of character.

Sakura looked surprised for a second, before recovering and smiling widely at the dark-haired boy.

“I see you and Naruto are fighting again.”Sakura casually remarked, trying to start up a conversation with her longtime crush.

Sasuke narrowed his eyes, scanning Sakura’s delicate and beautiful physique, before pulling back to her eyes and replying.

“Yeah, I was just showing the Dobe all the new things I’ve learned since I left.”

Sasuke said, telling only a part of the truth.

The only new thing he was demonstrating for Naruto was his inability to pay attention when Sakura Haruno crossed his mind.

But that was neither here nor there.

A sad look crossed Sakura’s face when Sasuke mentioned his departure, and Sasuke had a strong urge to replace it with the smile she had before.

“Hey Sakura, do you…um…maybe want to go shopping with me?”Sasuke stuttered out awkwardly, rubbing the back of his head and looking away in embarrassment.

Sakura just stared at him in obvious astonishment, failing to remember the last time she heard Sasuke say so many words. Especially  to her.

This was definitely new.

“I mean, I’m almost out of tomatoes and I thought we might as well get the shopping done together.”

Wow, real charming, Sasuke. He thought sarcastically.