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With determined footsteps, Sasuke Uchiha approached the Hidden Leaf Village. In the darkness of the night, the only noise that could be heard was his steps on the gravel road.
He could have spent the night in an inn, rested there, and arrived at Konoha later that morning. But his heart craved to see his family after so many months apart, and both Sakura and Sarada would be busy by then. So he pushed through his tiredness and kept walking.
In the shelter of the night, he entered Konoha. The walls that once enclosed the village’s perimeter were now relics of past times, as the village had grown into a city. With each return, a new change was there to welcome him, shops that once stood there were transformed into apartment buildings, new restaurants, parks, or office buildings.
Change after change, Konoha lost its resemblance to the place once responsible for so much of his pain. It made the task of protecting it from the shadows easier, even if he was no longer that teenager filled with hate and anger. The newer residential parts were silent and undisturbed in the peace of the night. Finally, Sasuke arrived at the building where his family was.
In a rare show of how tired he was, mirroring his lack of patience and eagerness, Sasuke decided to take the elevator instead. The mechanical hum was his only companion on the ride.
In front of the door, he sensed two sources of chakra inside, calm and quiet, likely, both of them deep asleep in their beds. Inside the hall, he left his shoes next to Sakura’s and hung his cloak on the wall. By the door was a small backpack; Sarada had probably packed it for a mission in the morning.
He padded through the apartment. Sasuke briefly opened Sarada’s door, just a small glimpse of her peacefully sleeping form, her eyeglasses on the nightstand to her left, her breath steady. It was enough to reassure him of his decisions. Sarada was safe and healthy, and far less traumatized than he had been at her age. With a click, her door was closed again.
Sasuke turned to the door on his right. There, he was welcomed by a sleeping Sakura, her form bathed in moonlight, a hand tucked under the pillow and her hair sprawled across it. With skilled steps, he moved through the room, looking for clean clothes to sleep in.
Sasuke slipped out of the room again to have a quick shower to remove the dust from the road. Not long ago, the noise of the water would have been enough to wake Sakura, but ever since Sarada started going through puberty, that had changed too.
Once he finished, Sasuke returned to the room and lifted the covers of the bed. Sakura was sleeping on her left side, which sadly meant that he couldn’t hold her close. It was one of the small handful of reasons he missed having a second arm.
Sakura turned in her sleep, at least now she was facing him. His wife was truly beautiful. From a physical point of view, he had always known she was pretty, but it had taken him longer to appreciate how truly beautiful her personality made her.
He felt a bitter regret when he thought of every tear she had shed when they were younger. Yet, he still believed that leaving her in Konoha had been one of the few right decisions he made during that time. Sakura had her own brilliant mind, but under Orochimaru, she would have bloomed in the wrong ways, twisted like poisonous brambles instead of flowers.
Sasuke rested his forehead on hers, finally closing his eyes, finally at home.