Work Text:
Shisui Uchiha was not, by nature, a fretful person. He preferred an easygoing approach to life—he liked to keep a level-head, collect all the facts and not panic unless he had a very good reason to.
But like any other person, he had his trigger points, and although he held them close to his heart and did his damn best to shield them from the world, he could never quite conceal the biggest one of them all.
It started as an ordinary evening: he’d finished training his students, caught up with his cousin over tea and visited his aunt to earn himself points in her good books. Then he’d grabbed dinner, intent on sharing it with a certain rosette medic.
Knowing she was most likely in the hospital, that was the first place he’d stopped. It was then that he received the first hint that something was off.
Sakura had gone early. Hanako-san noted that she seemed upset, though she couldn’t tell what was the cause of that. She suggested that perhaps she was ill. Shisui thanked her, and promptly hurried to the next likely place for Sakura to hole up in.
But her apartment turned out empty and quiet.
Ichiraku was packed with ravenous patrons but no head of pink stood out to him.
Now Shisui was worried. It was unlike Sakura to disappear without prior notice. No one knew where she’d gone; Shizune shrugged, Hinata seemed clueless and Ino claimed she hadn’t seen her at all that day.
Their dinner had grown cold. He sighed, coming to a stop. It took him a moment to find his center, reaching deep for his chakra. He was a good sensor, but Sakura’s legendary skills in chakra control allowed her to conceal her presence until even the best sensor couldn’t detect her.
As he feared, nothing registered on his radar.
“Dammit,” he muttered, the worry now like a dagger in his gut. She’d always been his weakness as much as she was his strength.
Dusk was falling, the skies deepening to indigo and he still hadn’t the faintest idea where she could be.
Shisui backtracked to the hospital, intent on interrogating all her co-workers, when he miraculously caught a flash of pink. He quickly redirected his footsteps to the wall, chakra walking onto the roof where indeed Sakura sat gazing up at the sky.
At the sight of him ruffled, his brows knit, Sakura sat a little straighter. “Shisui?”
“You scared the shit out of me,” he said after a moment, finally admitting the anxiety that had been clawing at his heart since she’d gone missing. “What’s going on? Are you okay?”
Sakura tensed when he approached her, crouching so that he was at her eye level. “Why are you hiding?”
“I-I just needed to be alone for a bit,” her eyes lowered and casted away.
Shisui was buying none of it. His fingers curled under her chin, forcing her eyes back on him. “I can tell when you lie to me, Sakura,” he reminded her softly. “Did someone hurt you?”
She shivered against his touch and leaned away. “No. I told you, I just needed to be alone for a bit.”
His lips pursed. While she claimed a need for space, her body language said otherwise.
Shisui sat down next to her, intent on getting to the bottom of it. “No. Something happened. I can tell you’ve been crying—you can either tell me what it is or we can sit here in silence until you’re ready to talk.”
Sakura sucked a sharp breath and looked away, hastily wiping at her eyes. “It’s really silly.”
His heart clenched at the sight of her so clearly upset. “I’m sure it’s not.”
“It is. I’m being so silly and sensitive and stupid.” Her shoulders trembled on a breath and when she looked at him, her eyes were full of misdirected anger at herself.
Shisui couldn’t help himself, he reached to tuck her hair behind her ear, his palm pressing over a rosy cheek. “Sakura...”
She bit her lip, but she didn’t pull away from him. “Every time I think I’m finally their equal, finally, finally acknowledged ... every time I think I can stand toe to toe with them ...”
“Tell me,” he urged when she stopped talking.
“You wouldn’t understand.” She shook her head slowly, “You don’t know what it’s like to be on a team of legends, to walk your village hearing the whispers of other ninja as they wonder how they’d ever let a civilian born on Team 7. As they talk about how lucky I should feel to even be around them when I’m the one who puts them back together when they’re broken, when I’ve spent years worth of blood, sweat and tears trying to amount to something, trying to protect them better. It all seems so pointless now.”
Oh. Oh. How could it be that the ninja of their village could be so stupid? So blind?
“How would you understand what it’s like to be constantly compared to everybody when you’re the best at everything you do?” She finally said, hollow and wilted.
“Sakura...” he said again as he stroked her hair. “I don’t know what that’s like, but you got that last bit wrong. I’m constantly measured up against my clan, and I can’t put a single toe out of line—we all have our challenges.”
Her head ducked to shield her expression, her arms hugging her knees closer to her chest. Shisui ached for her.
Tentatively, he scooted closer, placing his arms around her. “You know what I thought the first time I met you? I thought man this girl is amazing; a whole team of men regularly flaunting their biceps and then it’s you that shatters the ground. I’m sorry people are so blind they can’t see you as the force of nature you really are, Sakura. Nothing about you is remotely lesser than Team 7. You have so much that they can only ever wish for but never achieve and that’s something.”
When she looked at him, the anger was gone. It left behind a quiet sorrow, a softness. Her hand reached for his face and her thumb brushed his chin. “How do you always know what to say?”
“I don’t,” he chuckled weakly. “Especially around you. Sakura I just ... I wish you could see yourself the way I see you.”
“Hmm, and what do you see?” She whispered, her thumb ever so softly grazing his lip.
Shisui leaned into the undeniable magnetic force of this extraordinary woman.
“I see a beautiful ... strong ... dedicated woman who has worked very hard for what she wants, who has every right to be on a team of legends because she’s a legend of her own.” His lips touched hers, bestowing the gentlest of kisses.
Her tremulous breath tickled his skin as her jaw tilted back and her lips parted gently for him.
“You’re so perfect,” he murmured, his tongue swiping over her lip, the backs of his fingers caressing her cheek. “It takes my breath away.”
Sakura quaked mutely in his arms as his kiss thawed the hurt in her heart. Her arms unwound from her knees, reaching to cradle him instead, to draw him closer to her.
He kissed her unhurriedly, bleeding conviction into her through the sure contact of lips. When he leaned back her mouth was rosy and dewy, and her cheeks glowed.
He brushed loose strands of her hair back behind her ears, and pecked her one last time. “Come on, let’s get you home.”
Sakura rose when he tugged her up with him and bent to pick up their dinner. “I got us food but it’s cold now. I’m sure it’ll still be good though with a reheat.”
His fingers slipped seamlessly through hers, his big palm nearly engulfing her smaller hand.
“I’m sorry,” she said sincerely.
“No, there’s nothing to apologise for,” he insisted, bringing the back of her hand to his lips.
Her cheeks warmed further at the action, which prompted Shisui to tug her closer for another kiss, this one on the apple of her cheek. “Less apologising, more appreciation.”
She cracked a shy, uncertain smile. “Sometimes I wonder what I did to deserve you.”
“Easy,” he shot her a playful look as he began to lead them away. “You’re as beautiful inside as you are on the outside.”
“Shisui,” she struck his shoulder bashfully. “You’re so cheesy.”
“I could be,” he agreed. In a leap they landed in the alley below, darkness flooding them.
Shisui took a moment to press her hips to the wall, leaning into her. He admired the subtle glow of her eyes in the limited light, the shadows that shielded her expression. “But when we get home ... I’m going to crawl down ... all the way down to that lovely space between your thighs ... and you’re going to recite every single reason you’re amazing while I eat you out.”
Her breath hitched, and her hands gripped on his shoulders to steady herself. “What if I can’t?”
He smiled, tilting her chin up for a kiss that promised more. “Then you’ll try again. Until you learn.”