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The sun was about to rise when Sasuke Uchiha finally put away the scroll he had just found the day before. The scroll itself is an ancient text about the Otsutsuki clan. He’s hoping he’ll get new information about those people, but so far, the information that he read is the one he already knows.
A cherry blossom petal landed on his hand, getting carried away by the cold dawn wind. He sees some cherry blossom trees around, and from the look of them, the flowers just start sprouting. Right, spring is back again.
At this time of year, usually it’ll remind him of his wife; her soft pink hair matches perfectly with the cherry blossom pink petal, the same way her name matches the tree name. He rummaged through his belongings, pulling out a picture of a short, pink-haired woman, his wife, Sakura Uchiha, with her beautiful smile, carrying their three-month-old daughter.
His daughter, Sarada Uchiha, is now also added to the list on his mind whenever spring comes. Next week would be his daughter’s birthday, probably another reason why he feels more lonely than usual.
Leaving their house seven months ago was the hardest thing he ever did until now in his life. I think he might prefer going blind if it meant he got to stay with his family, but then again, he knows that what he did right now was also for his wife and daughter. He wants them to live in a safe world. So he just needs to keep at it. After all this is over, he’ll get back home to them, his home, his family, and his loved ones.
He really misses them.
He exhaled slowly, looking at the pictures again, and his brooding just got worse. He’ll miss his daughter’s first birthday; he probably already missed a lot of her first, and it likely will stay that way for the foreseeing future. What he’ll do to just get back home right now.
And that’s when he winced, feeling a bit of pain in his left eye. His Rinnegan was flaring, and not even a minute passed, a portal opened up in front of him. He frowns, standing up and still clutching his eye. He scans the portal with his other eye, which has already turned red from the Sharingan. So far, it looks like the usual dimension portal that he has been opening—nothing suspicious that he can detect; even then, he still cautiously walks through it. The dimensions he encounters have been environmentally hazardous.
So with that in mind, he clutches his weapon, and then the darkness welcomes him.
Sunrise just barely passed at Hidden Leaf Village, and yet Sakura just managed to make Sarada fall asleep. She did start sleeping last night following her sleep schedule, but it didn’t last more than two hours, and then another four hours, another hour, and another…
Unfortunately for Sakura, and Sarada as well, it has just been one of those nights where Sarada gets fussy. It’s been a few months since she started teething, but it still bothers her most of the time.
Creeping out of their room, Sakura slowly closes the door and walks to their kitchen. Her eyes barely open, but her thirst for water is much stronger.
Just as she’s about to take a sip of her water, she feels something stirring, like the chakra around her is suddenly getting sucked at one point inside her house. She takes a small sip, putting down her glass on the counter, and quickly reaches out to a kunai on top of her cabinet. Then she stalks slowly towards the hallway, carefully watching the empty air in front of her.
Then it happens: the space riffs open, and a gate-like shadow emerges. Sakura can’t decide if it’s a good idea to turn on the light or not right now; the sun is already rising and some of the light is going through the window of her home, so technically it’s not completely dark, but she can’t see all the details either.
Before she can decide anything, with a flash, a figure zooms in from inside the gate, and just as fast, Sakura moves forward.
A metallic sound echos through her house. Her kunai makes contact with another weapon. She frowns, but her expression changes quickly. With her eyes wide open, she jumps backwards.
“Sasuke!”
“Sakura?”
Both of them say it at the same time. Their fighting stance didn’t lower while they looked at one another more carefully. Sasuke glances around the room; this looks like his home, and the Sakura in front of him also has her signature chakra. All the evidence told him that this is his home and that is his wife, yet it should not be possible.
“How did you decide to name our daughter?” Sakura’s sudden question made Sasuke look back at her again.
“…for one because of our name and another because she’s our start to remake the Uchiha flame, and it’ll be brighter than ever.” He paused for a second, looking at his wife’s single-raised eyebrows. “…is what you said after I named her because of your pregnancy cravings.”
He can hear Sakura chuckle before she hurls herself at him.
“Welcome home, honey.”
And with that, he returned her hug, burying his face in the crock of her neck and inhaling his favorite smell that he had missed so much. “I’m home.”
“But… still, you should probably ask me more questions, wife.”
Sakura pinches his waist lightly. “Well, husband, I’m already sure-“ she said, pulling away a little to look at his face. “But anyway, how did this happen? I thought you said this was not possible? Ah, wait, let me check on you.” Then she began examining her husband left and right, bottom to top.
“It is not supposed to be possible.”
“I need more than that, hon.”
“I have my guesses, but…” He closes his eyes while Sakura chakra pours into them. “But?”
“How’s my eye?” Sakura frowns, crossing her arm. She answers, “Both are healthy; I don’t see anything wrong with either; your chakras are lower than usual, but that’s a given with this type of jutsu. Do your eyes bother you?”
“Hn.” He shake his head.
Holding her frustrated sigh to herself, Sakura led Sasuke into their room and said, “While I want to probe more, I really need to sleep right now, and you look like you didn’t sleep for days, so let’s sleep first while our angel daughter is still sleeping as well.”
Opening the door slowly, Sakura creeps inside the room, and Sasuke follows her after quietly saying sorry, which in turn earns him a kiss and a smile from Sakura. “The word you’re looking for is ‘Thank you’” She kissed him again and then winked before walking to their bed and settling herself to sleep.
Sasuke can’t help the smile that is slowly showing on his face, looking at his wife sleeping in their bed and his daughter sleeping in her cot beside Sakura. He walks toward Sarada, deciding that it’s enough for now to just look at her. In case she wakes up, if he kisses her forehead, he’ll do that when she’s awake, he thought while he walked towards their bathroom, freshening himself up, changing his clothes, and then settled beside Sakura on their bed as well, hugging his wife, and finally succumbing to his sleep.
In their home with her family, nowhere else would he rather be.