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chapter twenty-three

"Having perfected our disguise, we spend our lived searching for someone we don't fool."

- Robert Brault

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Sakura couldn't say she hadn't expected escaping from the bed while Sasuke was close by was hard, but she didn't think it was damn near impossible.

The first thing she did when she got out of the shower was put an extra pair of clothes by her bed. An attendant had showed up with an extra futon, and Sakura had volunteered to sleep on the floor. Both boys protested, but Sakura wasn't hearing it.

She was on her period this lucky damn week, so she had at least some kind of excuse, since she was fairly certain that Kakashi tracked her period for her. She'd told him the day it started one week a couple months ago, and he'd been tracking it ever since. Which, honestly, Sakura appreciated. Whenever she forgot when her period started, she'd just look quizzically at Kakashi, who would proceed to tell her the date. He was practically always right. Kakashi was always extra nice to her on that week, and Naruto was pretty much out of her hair the whole time. Sasuke kept him busy for en entire week, bless his soul. Sakura would go home and find random chocolate bars just laying around the room, and Kakashi somehow always knew when the cramps were too bad, and just handed Sakura his bottle of Ibuprofen and said, "here." Sasuke could also tell when Sakura was in a ridiculous amount of pain and did weird little things that cheered her up or made her feel better. Naruto was somehow still semi-oblivious of when it was happening, which was odd, considering his mom was female, but then again, Kushina was a loose canon all month long. Maybe it just wasn't obvious.

The point is, Sakura had a reason for getting up late at night, and she knew Sasuke knew that. So that would be the perfect time to escape.

She tested out this plan when he returned to find her already cuddled in the blankets and almost asleep. Sasuke toweled his hair down, while watching Sakura's chest rise and fall under the blankets. Her breaths were even, a rhythm no one would be able to match. Something so uniquely Sakura. Kakashi was reading on the couch, and Naruto was flipping through the channels on TV with the volume on low.

When Sasuke sat on the bed in the side that we opposite Sakura, he felt two pairs of eyes staring him down. He blinked, looking up at Kakashi and Naruto, who weren't saying anything out loud so as to not wake her, but the meaning was obvious. Don't you dare step on her. Sasuke rolled his eyes and lay back, turning his face in Naruto's TV's direction.

When Naruto finally gave up and went to bed, Sasuke did as well.

He sat up in bed as Naruto layed down in it, sitting criss crossed on the mussed up sheets and blankets, setting his hands on his knees and taking deep breaths, he closed his eyes. He still occasionally had vicious nightmares, and hoped to God none of them would attack him tonight. Sometimes, when the nightmares got bad, he wouldn't sleep. Meditation helped his occasional insomnia. He sat like that, regulating his breathing and heartrate for fifteen minutes, before he finally opened his eyes and lay down.

"Nightmares still bad?" Naruto asked from his bed, where he'd been watching Sasuke.

Sasuke turned to face him, and gave the blonde a curt nod. "Usually gets worse around Itachi's birthday. Or mine. Or the day of the massacre." Sasuke shrugged. "I think they'll become more spread apart with time."

Kakashi sat up and leaned back on the arm of the couch. "Sleeping around people that make you feel safe helps."

"Yeah," Naruto agreed. "It's why Sakura-chan always sleeps so well around us."