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After the war, Konoha’s medical branch advanced much further, much faster than the other four hidden villages. They each asked Konoha to lend a hand in advancing their systems. So, Kakashi had assigned a dozen medical shinobi to the mission. Three for each village.
Sakura volunteered to give her expertise and check each village’s progress after a few months under the stipulation that she was free to stop for philanthropic work to smaller towns on her way between villages. Kakashi had agreed, so long as she made it to each hidden village eventually.
She had been in Konoha her whole life, while her teammates had each gone on years-long training adventures. She felt it was time to take her own open-ended adventure.
And if she hoped to run into one wayward teammate on the road, then that was no one’s business but her own.
She left three months after the original team with no set agenda or schedule. The first small town Sakura visited, she stayed behind an extra week to help.
“We really do appreciate you coming through to help,” the leader of the village said the first day Sakura was there. “We actually have another shinobi from Konoha who stopped to help us repair some of the older houses.”
“Oh, really?” Sakura asked, her hope blooming faster than she could push it down. Could it be Sasuke? Could their paths already be crossing so soon? Was it fate? Was it destiny?
“Yeah, she’s very adept with earth style,” the man continued. Sakura tried to resist visibly sagging in disappointment, but she felt her hope burst like someone bringing a needle to a balloon. “She said helping rebuild Konoha after Pein’s attack ignited a passion she didn’t know she had. So, now she’s helping us.”
“That’s really great,” Sakura said with a smile.
She wished she could say that was the only time her hopes had gotten up. But, it happened again in the next town she stopped in.
The town was right on the border of Water and Fire. They had been facing raids from a group of thugs and hadn’t been able to get any assistance from the Land of Fire or the Land of Water because neither Daimyo could agree whose jurisdiction they fell under.
“Oh, we have another shinobi in town,” the matriarch of the little town said after Sakura introduced herself. “A kind boy, although he’s a little quiet. He stayed to train anyone who wants to learn how to fight, so we can defend ourselves against raids we get every now and again.”
“What’s his name?” Sakura tried to sound less eager than she felt, but training civilians was much more Sasuke’s speed than fixing roofs.
“Sasuke.”
Sakura’s breath stuck in her throat.
“Sasuke… oh, what was his last name…?
Please be Uchiha…
“Adachihara. Do you know him?
“No, I’m afraid I don’t.” Sakura said with a fake smile. “But I’m willing to help with the training while I’m here if he’s interested.”
“I doubt it. He’s a proud sort. That’s how all of Iwa’s ninja are.”
It didn’t stop there. Sakura went through twelve villages of varying sizes and found herself getting excited at the prospect of seeing Sasuke in every single one. It probably wasn’t healthy, but she would evaluate that at a later time. Any casual mention of a male shinobi or a shinobi from Konoha passing through would automatically make her ears perk up
She also found herself getting into the habit of glancing into windows. Homes, inns, hostels, and sometimes even brothels. She would never stop and press her nose against anyone’s window or go out of her way to check. But, if the curtains were drawn and a light was on, her eyes would stray every time, hoping to find black hair and mismatched eyes.
She would see families sitting down to eat a meal together. A couple dancing in the kitchen. A man reading a book on a couch. Parents helping their child with homework. A couple having an argument. But she never saw the man she hoped to see.
She felt a bit like a peeping tom, but she could never stop herself. What if the one time she didn’t glance was the one time he was there? While the disappointment she felt every time he wasn’t there was getting hard to bear, it was nothing compared to the constant ache she carried in her chest in his absence.
She wondered if missing him would ever become just a distant memory, or if she was doomed to feel this way for a lifetime.
Four months into her journey, and she’d lost track of what land she was in long ago. Maybe earth, maybe lightning. Wherever she was, she had just finished a full day in a clinic helping rehab shinobi who had lost limbs in the war. The reminder of him had been everywhere. Not only that, but she had endured another casual mention of a shinobi who sounded an awful lot like him, but ended up being someone else.
A young woman named Futaba had helped her all day at the clinic. At just past six in the evening, she informed Sakura that the town didn’t have an official inn.
“We don’t get enough visitors through here to need one. We have a boarding house instead. They typically have room to take in the occasional traveler, but they’re pretty full right now. My husband and I have a spare room for you if they don’t.”
“That’s very kind,” Sakura said, washing her hands at a sink.
“Though I’m sure you’d prefer the boarding house. Old lady Juri has been saying she has a lot of attractive single men staying there right now.”
Sakura felt herself blush. “Oh, I’m not really looking…”
Well, she was looking. Just not in that particular way.
“You don’t have to be looking to appreciate a handsome face,” the woman said with a wink. “Especially when you’ve been on the road as long as you have been.”
“I guess that’s true,” Sakura said, reaching to dry her hands off with a towel.
“It looks like you’ll miss dinner, but Juri usually serves tea and dessert afterwards. Maybe you can make it in time for some cake.”
Sakura nodded. Cake sounded... really good.
Futaba handed her directions to both the boarding house and her own house if the boarding house was full.
When she made it to the brick building, a sign was posted on the door that said “Full up.” Sakura sat on a bench across the street with a sigh. It appeared she wouldn’t be having cake tonight after all. She rested her head in her hands, starting to feel the fatigue of four months worth of travel.
She was getting homesick. Not necessarily for Konoha, but for people she knew and that knew her. She was feeling so fulfilled helping people and meeting so many new faces, but staying for a week here and there didn’t really allow her to forge deep connections.
Perhaps she wasn’t cut out for solo travel after all. Naruto had had Jiraiya while he was gone, and she had… No one. She didn’t really see how Sasuke had gone so long on his own. Perhaps that was the difference between an introvert and an extrovert.
Across the street, someone lit a lamp in the window, illuminating the silhouettes of five or six people through the curtains.
Four months and she had only been to Kiri. Suddenly her solo adventure didn’t seem as exciting as it once had. Career-wise, she felt so fulfilled. She didn’t even know how many people she had helped at this point. Socially… not so much. Maybe she should have seen if Naruto or Ino could have come with her.
She just needed a minute, and then she would go to Futaba’s house.
A loud laugh from the boarding house had Sakura looking up automatically to locate the noise.
Someone had opened the curtains and the window.
A large man with long brown hair pulled into a topknot and a beard was laughing heartily and slapping another man on the back. The second man was the one who had opened the window. He had a cigarette in his hand as he blew a plume of smoke out the window. The man had brown shaggy hair that loosely curled.
Sakura had to admit it: those two men, at least, were very attractive. They were blocking the rest of the room, so Sakura couldn’t really comment on the rest of them.
The man with the cigarette caught her eye and winked. Feeling slightly flustered at being caught staring, Sakura averted her gaze and began digging in her bag, pretending to look for something.
“What did I say about smoking in my house?” A woman cried from inside, drawing Sakura’s attention back to the window. The woman grabbed the cigarette out of the curly haired man’s mouth and dunked it in the cup of tea the man was holding in his other hand.
“Sorry, sorry,” he said, fanning the air around him.
“Next time I’ll just throw you out the window!” The lady (Sakura assumed this was Juri) exclaimed. She moved to the left and disappeared only to reappear a moment later opening the curtains to another window. Muttering something Sakura couldn’t hear through the glass, the woman threw open a second window. “I swear, if my parlor starts smelling like smoke, I’ll have Sasuke here turn you into smoke.”
Sakura’s breath hitched, hope blooming once more.
The woman moved away from the window to slap the curly haired man on the back of the head again. Sakura didn’t dare breathe as more of the room became visible to her.
There, slouching in a chair, turning a cup of tea in circles on a side table, a man was trying to fight a smirk in response to the old woman’s comment.
She would know that smirk, that slouch, that hand anywhere.
Sakura jumped to her feet, only to stare at him more, feeling frozen in place. It was really him.
He was still a shinobi, and shinobi had to be aware of their surroundings at all times. Her sudden movement drew his attention. His mismatched eyes snapped to her and widened in shock.
Sasuke…
She felt a smile spread over her face as she stepped forward.