Chapter Text
The cabin clearly hasn’t been occupied for years if the dust is anything to go by, thick and heavy on the bannister, hall table, anything it can reach. It makes sense. The Uchihas hadn’t been happy for years by the time Fugaku and Mikoto passed. Sasuke’s as emotionally stunted as they come; she gets why he wouldn’t want to come here. He’d probably die from shock if he cried.
It’s not hers, and she knows that. She’s only staying until her mother stops mourning the loss of a daughter who never existed, a son in law she expected and grandchildren she’d never have. But the doors all creak when they open and the porch looks like the wood is caving in in some places, and Sakura’s never been one to shy away from getting her hands dirty.
She gets to work.
--
The first thing Sakura registers when she wakes up is someone knocking on the door.
The second thing is the ache in her arms, hands, back. She fell asleep scrubbing the floor. It’ll never gleam like the hardwood floors at her parent’s house do, not after so many years of neglect, but she has to at least try.
“Hello?” the voice at the door calls, and Sakura figures she has to answer the door now. She wasn’t planning on talking to the neighbors, especially after she saw the state the house was in, but it looks like she has no choice.
The girl’s holding a bouquet of flowers and a pie, and if Sakura was expecting anything, it wasn’t that. Sasuke told her no one had been here in years, and it was so secluded she didn’t think anyone would even know she was here.
“Hi,” the girl says warmly, with an enthusiasm Sakura’s only seen from Naruto. “I’m Ino Yamanaka, my family runs the flower shop in town. My dad was going on a walk and saw your car parked out front, so I thought I’d bring a housewarming gift by.”
“Oh,” Sakura says, and then, “Thanks.” She accepts the gifts into stiff arms. The words feel weird in her throat, almost aching, and she realizes she hadn’t spoken to anyone since she came in three days ago. The realization isn’t as shocking as it should have been.
“Mind telling me your name, stranger?” Ino says with a kind smile, almost like she’s dealing with a toddler.
If Sakura weren’t so exhausted she’d probably be offended, but she doesn’t quite have it in her. “Sakura Haruno. My friend gave me the keys to his family’s old summer house, I’m just in town for a couple of weeks to fix it up.”
I need something to do with my hands, she doesn’t say. I need to keep myself busy until I stop aching. My home doesn’t feel like home anymore. Ino’s a stranger. She doesn’t need to know the specifics. It’s implied, anyway.
“It’s nice to meet you, Sakura,” Ino says, but her smile’s settled into something different. Sakura can’t read it. “Stop by the flower shop if you come into town. God knows we don’t get enough new people around town these days,” and she laughs, and something in Sakura’s gut settles, the way she convinced herself it did when she and Sasuke were kids.
Oh, she thinks, as Ino waves on her way down the path.
--
It starts like this: they were kids, and they were scared, and no one had told them it was okay to feel the way they did, so they lied. Sakura kissed him first, and Sasuke didn’t push her away, and they’d been together since they were fourteen years old.
It goes like this: Sasuke confesses when they’re sixteen, scared whispers and trembling hands, I don’t think I like girls, and Sakura was so relieved she laughed until she cried and finally whispered, I do.
It ends like this: Sasuke realizes he’s in love with Naruto when they’re twenty and it’s no longer realistic to stay in a fake relationship because times are changing, and maybe it’s not so bad. Maybe things will be okay.
It falls apart like this: Sakura’s mom cries when she tells her, so Sakura leaves.
--
She’s in the middle of pulling weeds from the overgrown yard when she years her phone ringing, the ringtone foreign and shrill in the afternoon air.
Five days since she arrived. Five days since anyone’s messaged her. Her mom still hasn’t come around, and Sasuke knew she needed space.
He probably tried to hold Naruto off, but she knows him. He’s clingy, and five days seems about his limit.
“Sakura!” he cries from the other end of the line, and Sakura smiles in spite of herself. “I’ve missed you. Sasuke never wants to go out.”
Sakura laughs, and she’s surprised by how genuine it is. “I’ve missed you too,” she says as she cradles her phone between her ear and her shoulder, making her way into the kitchen to get a glass of water. It’s not quite hot outside with the leaves getting redder every day, but the sun bears down on her neck and its hard work, gardening. She owes her nan more credit than she thought.
“How are you? What’s it like? Are you doing like, soul searching or whatever? Did you meet a hot, eligible surfer to teach you about going with the flow and passion?”
She laughs again, quieter this time. “Sasuke’s house is a fucking dump,” she says. “I’ve been trying to fix it up.”
“Oooh, a fixer upper,” Naruto says, and Sakura doesn’t know how he’s still laughing. “Everyone knows how much you love those. How’s Bethany, by the way?”
“Fuck you, my car’s a delight. She just has character.”
“So, old as balls and dying. Got it.”
Sakura snorts in response, then takes a sip of her water. She’s fucking parched. “How’s Sasuke?” she asks, more to break the silence than anything. If something were up she knows he’d call her.
“Oh! He’s right here, do you want to talk?” Naruto says, and she can tell he’s already handing the phone over.
“Hey,” Sasuke says, voice cool and unaffected in that way that she knows he’s kind of worried about her.
“Hi,” is all she says, equally cool and unaffected. Nothing gets between her and making fun of her best friends, even if she’s feeling awful and hasn’t spoken to a living soul for two days.
(Sometimes when she pauses she remembers Ino’s smile, how it made butterflies flutter in Sakura’s stomach in a way she’d buried for years. She tries to keep busy.)
They’re quiet for a minute, before Sakura says, “You’re welcome, by the way. For fixing up your piece of shit beach house. There was like, a full inch of dust on the floor. I thought I was going to die from sneezing and coughing.”
“Hn,” is all Sasuke says, ridiculous as ever, and then, “How long do you think you’re gonna stay?”
Sakura needs to pause for a minute at that, because, well – when she left, she wasn’t thinking about how long she’d be away. She hadn’t even spared a thought for that. All she’d thought about was the key Sasuke pressed into her hand, the address scrawled on a scrap of paper, and the thought of getting away, of going somewhere where she could breathe. She still hadn’t thought of it.
“I don’t know,” she says eventually, and tries not to let it feel like a failure. “Part of me doesn’t want to.”
The line’s quiet except for the buzz of the connection, before Sasuke says, “You can keep it, if you want. The house,” and Sakura should be surprised, but she isn’t.
“You sure?” she says, more out of courtesy than anything. It makes sense, that Sasuke wouldn’t want to keep it. She understands.
“Yeah,” he says. “I don’t, uh. I don’t feel like I can go back there,” and that’s as much of an admission of a human emotion as Sasuke’s ever given her.
“I’ll think about it,” is all she says.
--
On the seventh day, Sakura starts to run out of cup noodles, and she’s getting old enough that she starts feeling awful without enough vegetables. She needs proper food, and wood to fix the stairs, and maybe an axe, too. There are so many dead trees in the backyard, and she’s been eyeing the fireplace since she first arrived. Her laptop’s been sitting neglected in her bag, but she’s sure she could find a video on how to chop wood.
Despite how few people actually live there, the town is decent. There’s a good-sized hardware store, and Sakura lets out a sigh of relief upon seeing it. She didn’t want to, but she was fully prepared to go the next town over to find one. That front porch really needed some fixing.
She’s just quietly browsing the shelves, gathering the supplies she needs, when someone says, “Don’t think I’ve seen you around here before,” and Sakura jumps. Two days since she talked to Naruto on the phone, four since she spoke to someone in person. She got used to the silence faster than she thought she would.
Sakura turns around, heart beating fast, and it’s a girl. Another stupidly pretty girl, but not the way Ino was. Different, and she doesn’t make Sakura’s stomach twist the way Ino did. A part of her is ashamed that she’s so relieved.
“Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you,” the girl says, and she’s smiling but she doesn’t laugh at Sakura. “I’m Tenten. Let me know if you need help with anything, alright?”
“Thanks,” Sakura says, turning back to the shelf. Sasuke always said she was too stubborn, and as much as she hates proving him right she’d rather find what she needs herself.
Except Tenten shows no intention of leaving her alone, waiting around right behind her. “Never gave me your name,” she says cheerfully as she browses through the shelves of wood glue, as if she doesn’t work here and know the entire stores inventory.
“Sakura Haruno,” she says, hoping it’ll be left at that because she wants to get this done quickly, but Tenten doesn’t seem to get that as she follows Sakura around.
“Oh! You must be the new girl Ino was talking about,” Tenten says, easy as everything. “What brings you to town?”
She takes a breath, calming herself down. She’s become hotheaded, over the years, and she knows Naruto and Sasuke at least miss the days when she held her anger close to her chest and shouted her frustrations in her mind. Tenten’s just trying to be hospitable is all, and Sakura’s not going to flip her lid over someone trying to be friendly.
“My friend has a cabin here,” she says calmly, patiently. “He hasn’t been up in years and I needed a new project, so I’m fixing it up for him.”
“Cool,” Tenten says. “I never really got into that type of stuff. I’m more into building things, y’know?”
Sakura hums, and half a second later the bell chimes at the front of the store, calling Tenten off to deal with another customer. Sakura can’t help the soft sigh of relief at the quiet it brings as Tenten settles herself back at the front of the store and Sakura finishes her shopping. Wood, obviously, and an axe for the trees. She grabs some oil for her car, too – it’s been a while since she’s changed it, and God knows if the Uchihas had left any it’d be useless now.
Tenten’s blessedly quiet as she rings Sakura up, seeming to have caught on to the quiet air around her. It isn’t until she’s halfway out the door that Tenten calls out after her, “You should come into town more often. We’d all love to see more of you,” and Sakura pauses at that, because she hadn’t expected that level of hospitality in a town she was only in to get her own shit together.
“I’ll try,” is all she says in response, and then the door rattles shut behind her as she makes her way to her car.
--
It isn’t until Sakura’s in her car on the way back to the cabin that she remembers that Ino told her to stop by, that Ino mentioned her presence to at least one other person. It’s getting late, though, and as much as she wants to stop by, to say hello and see if Ino’s just as pretty the second time around, she has work to do.
A match lights in her chest, keeping her warm all the same. She’ll visit next time she’s in town.