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Sakura froze when she suddenly felt Sasuke's body very close to hers. He wasn't exactly touching her, but she could feel his body heat surrounding her back.
Which made her confused. Sure, she'd always try to be close to him if given an opportunity, but it doesn't happen the other way around. Sasuke just doesn't like being close to anyone, period.
And he wouldn't do it even with her and Naruto unless if it's so he can save them (her mostly) or hit them (okay, this is only for Naruto). And right then, they weren't in danger, they weren't even in a mission. They had just gotten back from their usual cat retrieval mission and was on the way to the Hokage tower.
So why was Sasuke doing this?? Because she has been thinking and panicking all this time, and he still hasn't moved. In fact, Kakashi-sensei and Naruto were already far ahead from them because Sakura had stopped walking, and Sasuke had stayed close to her.
--
Sasuke didn't even realize he had moved, to be honest.
When they had finally retrieved the cat (The same one. Everytime.), they had started walking towards the Hokage tower—none of them wanting to ninja hop because the cat usually escape whenever they do that (learned from experience), and they simply just didn't have the enthusiasm and motivation to spend more energy on this damned D-rank mission.
Even Kakashi looked bored.
And as they were walking, with Kakashi and Naruto leading (Naruto holding the cat), Sakura following a little behind, and then him following them a few feet away, he had noticed it.
At first he was just wondering what it was. He just noticed there was some sort of spot on Sakura's outer clothes. It was barely noticeable—only a darker shade of red from her dress, and it was located behind her, a little above her thighs.
He had stared at it for a bit, not really absorbing it much, and then like his brain suddenly decided to remind him, there came flashes of his older female cousins, among them was Izumi.
He had suddenly remembered them talking about it—stains and blood and how inconvenient it was as kunoichis, and then cramps and pads and whatever else they had talked about, not caring that he was there and he was slowly getting more and more disgusted and horrified.
He had complained about it to Itachi when he had next seen him, and he remembered his brother laughing and then explaining all the science aspect of it: Menstruation.
That had successfully further horrified him & that was probably why he didn't realize it soon. His young mind likely tried to just forget about it.
And it just decided to remind him right now.
Because Sakura seems to be having it now; maybe her first.
He was glad Sakura's back was turned to him because he could feel the warmth of his face as he covered her back.
"Sakura..."
Sakura 𝘦𝘦𝘬𝘦𝘥.
"...Sasuke-kun?" She said after clearing her throat.
"...You have a stain."
Sakura blinked, not understanding. For some reason though, she was afraid to turn to face him, so she stayed as she is.
"A... stain?"
"Yes." He said, his voice soft. "Blood stain.
"On your back. Er, below your lower back."
It took a few seconds for her to realize, and then she started being flustered, feeling very embarrassed that out of all people, Sasuke had to see.
And unfortunately for her, that was the exact time Naruto had noticed that they had
stopped walking.
"Oi!! Why'd you two stopped?" Naruto asked, still holding the cursed cat.
Sakura didn't know what to do. But she didn't have to worry, because Sasuke answered for them.
"Kakashi, we're done with the mission, right?" He called to their sensei.
Kakashi finally looked their way, one hand holding his orange book. But before he could even respond, Sasuke had continued to speak.
"We have to go somewhere!" He announced then—Sakura was very surprised, he had bent down and picked her up, carrying her in his arms and started ninja hopping to other direction. Both of them heard Naruto shout,
"TEME! WHERE ARE YOU GOING?? WHERE ARE YOU TAKING SAKURA-CHAN??"
---
Sasuke had brought them to the closest public toilet. And after she had entered, Sakura had assumed he would be going, but instead he had asked her,
"What do you need?"
Sakura, though feeling very embarrassed knew that it would be even more embarrassing, not to mention hassle if she refused his help (and it might even insult Sasuke), so she steeled herself and just said,
"A sanitary pad, please, Sasuke-kun. Thank you."
Sasuke didn't reply to her, but she heard him go.
Now she had to check on the situation down there.
--
Sasuke really didn't know why he was doing this. He knew he didn't have to do this. He's a boy. He barely know anything about this. He probably should have just told Kakashi and let him deal with it. He was their teacher, after all.
But then again, this is Sakura. She's the only girl he can tolerate (he'd never admit it, but he meant she's the only girl he cares about), and she needed help. He couldn't exactly just leave her alone, could he?
But now he was in a grocery store, in front of toiletries, not knowing what to get. Sakura didn't tell him there were different kinds of sanitary pads. Which one was he supposed to fucking get??
He wasn't quite sure if it was a blessing or a curse that he had bumped into Asuma and Kurenai.
He froze at where he was standing, looking like a deer caught by the headlights.
Asuma looked confused at finding him there, but Kurenai had looked at him, looked at where he had been looking, and then looked back at him.
Sasuke didn't speak, but Kurenai had smiled.
"Is it Sakura?" She asked him gently.
Sasuke still didn't respond.
Kurenai was unbothered though, and she just moved forward, took one of the packages of pads, and then handed it to him.
"It's probably her first time." She said. "This will do. Also if she has stains, get her some peroxide, too. It'll remove them easily."
Sasuke stared at her for another moment, nodded and then murmured, "Thanks."
Then he was gone.
Asuma blinked.
"That was Uchiha, right? What just happened?"
"Teamwork." Kurenai simply said, laughing a little.
--
Sasuke came back with pads and peroxide and Sakura was very relieved. She has thought she'd need to hide her back with something before going out.
"Do you need anything more?" Sasuke asked from outside. "Are you in pain?"
And Sakura realized that he knew more about periods than most boys their age. She bet all her money Naruto know nothing about menses.
"Ah, no. I'm okay! Thank you, Sasuke-kun!" She said and quickly tried to arranged herself.
She had already wore her pad, and was now just trying to coax the stain from her outer clothes.
The stain went through her panty, her shorts then her dress, but she was only bothering with the dress. The rest would be covered anyway, and at least they were on their way home.
After a few more minutes she had deemed herself presentable and had gotten out of the toilet.
She was surprised to see Sasuke still there, waiting.
She could feel her face warming up. Embarrassment aside, she felt really touched because Sasuke really took care of her today.
"Thank you." She just said, shyly, not really knowing what else to say.
He just gave her a nod.
"Let's get you home." He said.
Sasuke really didn't have, too. Both of them surely knew that, but Sakura wasn't one to refuse something like that, and Sasuke for his part has an excuse (though he'd never admit it), so they had made their way to the direction of Sakura's home.
They initially walked in silence, until Sakura couldn't help her curiousity.
"Sasuke-kun, how do you know so much about..?"
Sasuke shrugged. "I had older female cousins."
Sakura was afraid she had opened a sensitivie topic, but Sasuke looked quite relaxed so she didn't try to apologize and really open a sensitive topic. Instead, she just nodded.
"I know about it... I just never realized it'll come this early..." She just said, mostly to herself.
She didn't have older sisters or cousins, and although her mom probably still have them, Sakura never really noticed. So though she knew it theoretically, she never really felt it was real until now.
Sasuke didn't reply and they continued walking in silence until they got to Sakura's home.
Sakura had said thanks to him again, and then bid him goodbye.
Sasuke then had continued to his own home.
It was as he was ninja hopping through the roofs that his brain decided to give him another little flashback.
"𝘉𝘶𝘵 𝘸𝘩𝘺 𝘥𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘣𝘭𝘦𝘦𝘥? 𝘈𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘰𝘬𝘢𝘺?"
"𝘐𝘵'𝘴 𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘢𝘭 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘨𝘪𝘳𝘭𝘴." 𝘐𝘵𝘢𝘤𝘩𝘪 𝘩𝘢𝘥 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘥 𝘱𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘭𝘺. "𝘐𝘵 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘮𝘦𝘢𝘯𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺'𝘳𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘺 𝘵𝘰 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘢 𝘣𝘢𝘣𝘺."
Sasuke almost missed his footing, that would have resulted to him falling down from the roof.
He could feel his face heating up again.
He would never ever admit, even under torture, that after his brain had pulled up that little memory, it had also annoyingly given him another image:
An older Sakura with a baby. A baby with black hair and black eyes, who looks a lot like his mom.