It was a warm day in Konoha as team 7 made their way to the training grounds. Kakashi had told them to meet at 8:45, but of course it was now nearing 10:30 and he had still not shown up yet.
"You know, I'm getting really tired of a sensei who doesn't know how to tell time" Sakura grumbled as she drew on the ground with a stick.
"Hey Sakura, don't look so down! Maybe we could ditch Kakashi sensei and Sasuke and go get some ramen. You know, like a date?" Naruto asked excitedly with a wiggle of his eyebrows. Sakura just shot him a glare and sighed loudly. "Not even in your dreams, you pinhead." She looked out of the corner of her eyes at Sasuke to see if he had any reaction to Naruto asking her out. She could almost cry seeing him still just standing against a training post, arms crossed with his eyes closed.
"Well then what should we do? There's no telling when Kakashi sensei will even be here, and we don't know if we'll have a mission so we can't afford to get worn out training." Naruto's stomach growled, presenting an even bigger problem. "And I'm starving!" He whailed and fell backwards on the ground.
"Hey moron, instead of sitting here complaining why don't you go looking for Kakashi? Maybe he'll be near Ichiraku or something."
Naruto shot up. "Hey Sasuke what do you know, you actually had a good idea! I'll be back Sakura!" With that he ran off, missing the way his remark made a vein bulge in Sasuke's forehead. Once he was well out of earshot Sasuke sighed. "Man he's annoying today."
Sakura giggled. "Yeah, you're right Sasuke. Maybe it's where we've been out here for so long. I'm starting to get hungry myself." She laid her head back against the training post and looked up at the clouds. "I wish Kakashi sensei would hurry up, I feel like Naruto is just going to go straight to Ichiraku since you mentioned it."
"Yeah, I kind of expected he would do that," Sasuke muttered as he eased himself on the ground beside Sakura. Setting an arm on his knee he looked at the sky as well, seeing the clouds lazily drifting across it.
"They're beautiful, aren't they Sasuke? Look, that one over there looks like a flower!" She squealed excitedly and extended her arm in front of his face, pointing to the far left. He tilted his head slightly trying to find the cloud she was talking about.
"Eh, I guess so. It just looks like a round blob to me. None of them really look like anything."
She giggled at him. "Those powerful eyes of yours come in handy in a fight, but in the real world they can't see the beauty in things? It's a shame, they can see through illusions but can't see something real for anything else." Realizing what she said and seeing the look of disbelief on his face she frantically put her arms up and began apologizing. "Oh gosh Sasuke I am so sorry I didn't mean to imply that you weren't capable of something or inadequate I was just-"
"You're right."
Sakura sat there and blinked a few times. "Uh, what was that Sasuke?"
He smirked at her. "I said you're right, to an extent anyway. I can't really see things in an abstract manner. I can tell when something is beautiful though. Like flowers, sunsets, paintings...you," he finished matter-of-factly.
Sakura sat there in shock, heat rising to her face. She struggled for a minute to form a coherent thought. 'Sasuke said the words beautiful and you in the same sentence. Oh mylanta. "Umm....Sasuke...do you realize you just-"
"Said you were beautiful? Duh, I said it didn't I? You didn't think you were ugly did you? Honestly, as much as Lee and Naruto worship the ground that you walk on you had to have known."
Sakura fiddled with the side of her sandal, her heart falling slightly. "Well no, I never thought I was unattractive. I just....associate someone calling me beautiful with them being interested in me, so I got a little...nevermind. I'm sorry that I misred what you said." She smiled sweetly at him, though he could tell it was forced. "Thank you for the compliment, Sasuke." She got up and started running away fast.
Shit. Sasuke bit the inside of his cheek and jumped up after her. 'This is bad this is bad this is bad.' "Hey Sakura! Wait come back!" He ran and finally found her crouched behind a tree, head in her hands and sniffling softly. He instantly stopped and crouched in front of her, placing a hand on her shoulder. She jumped slightly at his touch and quickly began wiping the tears off of her cheeks.
"Oh, hey Sasuke. I just, um, needed a few minutes to myself I felt like I was going to get sick from the heat so I figured it would be good for me to sit down in the shade somewhere and let my stomach calm itself. You didn't have to come find me I would've been fine in a few minutes. Really." She smiled meekly at his stoic face, knowing full well he didn't believe a single lie coming from her mouth.
He gently moved his hand from her shoulder to wipe the excess tears from her face. She sat there frozen, eyes wide at the rare-basically nonexistent- caring physical contact. He saved her all the time sure, but the Sasuke Uchiha wiping tears off of her face? Her heart could burst. "Sakura, we both know that isn't true," he murmured, his hand still on her cheek. He sighed heavily, having some internal monologue, before taking a deep breath and looking straight into her green eyes.
"I know that you said that when someone calls you beautiful you're used to them being interested in you. I know why you would come to the conclusion that I find you.."
"Annoying?" She supplied with a bitter tone. She did not like where this was going, but cherished the slight wince at her word.
"Yeah, annoying. But you're not just annoying to me. Or a burden. You're smart, caring, you're getting stronger, you have a kind heart and you put others before yourself all the time. You're beautiful, inside and out. And I'm saying this knowing full well what you'll interpret as, because that's exactly how I mean it." Her eyes widened and he smiled at her slightly, bringing his hand away from her cheek to poke her forehead. Her eyes welled up with tears again as she threw her arms around his neck and began to cry. He smiled to himself and rubbed her back gently.
"You'll never say this again, will you," she finally murmured, voice still shaky from her tears. The hand on her back stilled and he pulled back to look at her.
"Honestly, I probably won't." He admitted and instantly hated the way her face fell. He put a finger under her chin so her eyes would meet his again. "But even if I never say it again, or if anyone else says it to you more times than I ever could, just know it's how I feel. How I'll always feel." He leaned forward and kissed her ever so gently, lingering long enough for her to kiss him back once the initial shock wore off. Then he pulled away and stood up, holding his hand out to her. "Are you ready to go back and wait for that idiot and Kakashi?"
Sakura smiled and nodded. "Yeah, let's go."
They didn't hold hands as they walked, and they didn't have the same type of physical contact for a long time afterwards. But it was the looks Sasuke would give her when he thought that she wasn't looking, the same looks he gave her right before he had kissed her, that made her always blush at the memory and feel a flicker of hope that maybe, just maybe, he still thought of her as beautiful.
