It was the first time the three of them had been assigned a mission together in about 6 years.

The characters they once knew of each other were now a distant memory of the past, fleeing from their minds as they grew into strong, mature young adults who were more than capable of completing a mission such as this one with ease singlehandedly.

But their former Sensei, who was now the current Hokage, had other plans.

"Here's a C rank escort mission. Reminds me of our little uh, adventure to the Land of Waves," the silver haired man announced, an evident smile hiding beneath his mask, as he handed out the mission files to the trio.

"Are you taking the piss?" Sasuke grumbled.

"Quite the contrary," Kakashi smiled, "You see, after all of your efforts in the war, I thought it'd be nice to give you an easy little mission where you can relax and get to know each other again, maybe work out any mutual rough spots between the three of you-"

He is interrupted by a rather large sigh.

"Kakashi-Sensei, are you forgetting the fact that these two like trying to kill each other at every chance they have?" Sakura questions.

The blonde and the raven begin to protest before they're cut off by Kakashi.

"Of course not my dear. Have you not read the files yet? I know that there will be constant bickering between a certain two of you, and that is why I decided that you will be escorting me."

Sasuke snorts.

Sakura opens her eyes in shock.

Naruto gasps.

This mission was going to be interesting.

...

It had been going fairly smoothly. They were about a day away from Sunagakure and Sasuke had only threatened to kill Naruto a grand total of four times.

They were taking a fairly average trek through a forest. Kakashi was infamously reading his copy of Icha Icha, Naruto was annoying Sakura, Sakura was trying to talk to Sasuke, and Sasuke was sulking as always and lightly stomping as he made his way down the forest path.

If it wasn't for the fact they had all significantly grown inches taller (apart from Kakashi of course), one would think that they were twelve again.

"Oh I really wish I had some ramen! I haven't been to Ichiraku's since it closed down for refurbishment and- wait, can you guys feel that?"

"Twelve," Sakura announced, "There's twelve of them."

"No," Sasuke grumbled as he pulled Sakura out of the way of a rogue nin jumping down from a tree, "There's thirteen."

"Good eye," Kakashi remarks, although no one can tell if that was intended to be sarcastic or not.

The four of them began launching attacks on the rogue ninja (Kakashi had decided that it would be safer if he took matters into his own hands and defended himself) and within minutes, they had all been successfully defeated.

Except, there was a stifled sob.

About 50 metres away from where both Kakashi and Naruto were standing, a limp body lay on the ground, red blood staining the grass around it, giving it a disgusting brown tint.

Sasuke kneeled down next to the body, flinching every time he saw the gash that had torn open Sakura's side.

"P-put pr-pressure on it" Sakura gasped, trying to guide Sasuke's hands over to her right side in an attempt to stop the bleeding.

He physically retched as he put his hands on her side, clutching her body tight as blood spilled out of the wound.

Tears escaped from his eyes as Kakashi gave him a spare shirt to help compress the wound, forcing him to look at the mess on his hands.

Thick crimson blood was dripping from his palms. He looked back over to the source of substance.

He let out a shaky cry, before compressing it with Kakashi's shirt.

"Sasuke," Sakura panted, "What's wrong?"

He didn't answer her question. The mental image of her ribs poking through her skin was not something he wanted to remember, even though it had already engrained itself into his mind. Telling her would probably send her into shock, he thought.

"Sasuke?" She cried.

"Don't die on me, okay?" He nervously laughed, tears cascading down his cheeks and sobs emerging themselves from his throat, "I need you, we all need you, please, please, please, don't die. Kakashi and Naruto are getting help. Just, stay, please, stay."

"Why are you getting yourself so flustered?" She smiled, through her pain.

"Because I-"

He couldn't commit to saying it.

"Because I care about you. A lot."

"You're so silly," she laughed, reaching her hand up to brush his hair behind his ear, before cupping his cheek, wiping the tears from his eyes.

...

The familiar smell of disinfectant and chloroform flooded his nose as he made his way through the hospital.

The walls are so white they're almost blinding, enough to give Sasuke a slight headache.

After walking down countless corridors, he reached room 312, opening the door quietly and entering the room.

He replaced the wilting peonies on the bedside table with a fresh bouquet of daffodils, arranging them neatly in the pretty vase.

The bright yellow flowers brightened the room immensely, just as he had predicted.

He opened the curtains, then sat down in a plastic chair. It wasn't comfortable, quite uncomfortable actually, but he didn't care. He wanted to be sat there.

The eyes of the pinkette on the bed fluttered open, before fixing their gaze on the visitor.

"Sasuke?"

"Good morning, beautiful," he said, running his hands through her soft pink hair.

She had recently awoken from the medically induced coma she was put into when help arrived on their mission.

Shockingly, the most damage done to her body was the remaining scar on her right, a permanent reminder of her stab wound. Whatever weapon used to stab her miraculously avoided her internal organs.

Sasuke helped Sakura sit up in her bed, mindful of her still-sore wound as he did so, before planting a kiss on her lips.

Well, maybe not just one.

He planted several kisses onto her lips, and she was delighted to return the favour.

"Sasuke?"

"Mhm?"

"I have a question," the pinkette smiled.

"Ask away."

"Were you going to tell me you loved me, in the forest?"

Twin spots of rouge appeared on Sasuke's cheeks.

He hesitates before replying, "Yes."

"Then why didn't you?"

His smile faltered a little, and his cheeks returned to their usual colour.

"Because, because..." he stuttered.

"Go on."

"Because everything I've ever said I loved died. And that wasn't a risk I was willing to take," Sasuke stated, looking down at his shoes, uncomfortably shifting them.

Tears begin to form in his eyes.

"I've loved you for as long as I can remember, Sakura. I've just been too shy to say."

"What made you...change your mind?"

"I really thought I was going to lose you. I haven't been that scared since the massacre of my clan, and I really did think I was going to have to say goodbye to you. I realised life was too short to carry on being shy because from that day on I knew that I needed you in my life. And I knew that I needed to do this as soon as I got the chance."

Tears began to form in Sakura's eyes as well, when she realised what he was doing.

"You aren't, you're just joking right?" She laughed, crying happy tears, as she watched the man she loved get off his chair, and bend down to the floor on one knee.

He held out a box to Sakura, showcasing a simple, yet beautiful ring.

"Will you marry me?"

"Yes!"

She cried as he slipped the ring onto her finger.

She cried when all of her friends and family burst into the room with balloons and banners expressing their congratulations.

She cried when Sasuke (very gently) picked her up out of the bed, held her close, and passionately kissed her.

"You did all of this, for me?" She smiled, tears still dripping down her cheeks.

"You're silly," he said, brushing her hair behind her ear, cupping her cheek with his palm and wiping her tears away with his thumb, "I'd do anything, for you."

•••
By Roaringtides ♡