Elle's post

𝑺𝒂𝒌𝒖𝒓𝒂 1 hour ago
Admittedly, Sakura was not very keen on PDA herself, but after having been friends with Ino all of these years, she's certainly gotten more than an eyeful of what it looks like for two people to be one of two L-words. The former is the most common, one she sees among shinobi of her rank and beyond. After all, their missions are often the most intense and they are perpetually putting their livelihoods on the line. Most jonin have seen and done things that follow them into their dreams and riddle them with a certain amount of anxiety and paranoia that is only amplified when one is entirely alone. Thus, the jonin of their village tend to use sex as a coping method to contend with the trauma of their regular exposure to the horrors of battle. Physical intimacy abates psychological ghosts, and in many of her patients she has noted this propensity. Fornication often begins young with shinobi, forced to grow up far too quickly -- the veterans of the Third and Fourth world wars are too fami

liar with this truth. Even her own sensei, Kakashi, underwent long bouts of therapy to deal with whatever demons lingered inside of him. She was not privy to these sections, as her emphasis was more on pediatric care, but she knew that many of Ino's colleagues dealt with their contemporaries and predecessors, vying to give them the kind of healthcare that should have been handed to them during the reign of the Third Hokage. The brilliant man lacked a lot of foresight and many of his decisions had left numerous scars on her own companions. Once again, her thoughts returned her to Naruto and Sasuke; sadness was like a steely anchor attached to her heart, attempting to sink it into the pit of her stomach. Sakura was desperate to not allow herself the "luxury" of wallowing. Rather, let her continue mapping the two types of L-words she was familiar with. She already pegged one- lust. And while certainly Master Jiraiya was no stranger to exhibiting it (after all, she had accompanied h

imself and Naruto on more than her fair share of assignments and every time, the elder man would disappear for hours at a time, stranding the two in strange villages throughout the Fire Country), she did not necessarily dismiss the sweetness governing Tsunade and Jiraiya as something so basal. She had never known the Lady Hokage to stoop to sex to placate the monsters running rampant in her heart. Gambling? Yes. Sake? She wouldn't be surprised if Tsunade has a flask on her right now. But sheer physical exchange? No. Not in all of the years Sakura had trained on her. Which meant that what she was witnessing in that instant as the two seemed lost in the depths of one another's eyes was something more- something that made Sakura uncomfortable. Love. L-word number two. Why did love make her uncomfortable? Because she had wasted her youth mistaking fixation for love; she had pined desperately for a boy who could never love her the way she would ultimately need. She had dismiss

ed countless other offers in the wake of this girlish obsession. Did she regret it? Sometimes. But, her eyes were open now. She was seeing first-hand what love ought to be. The careful caresses, the batting of lashes and affectionate stroking of exposed skin. Love, between two people that had known one another for double the length of Sakura's lifespan. While it was tinged by a certain rosy tint of a newly-blossomed relationship, there was also something unnaturally comfortable about the way those two orbited around one another. Maybe she was embarrassed because she had the audacity to think she and Sasuke could ever look like this; two clearly happy people. Was it going too far, for Sakura to assume the duo were in love? No. Sakura had a wealth of empiracal evidence dating back to before Jiraiya needed a resurrection. Back to when he was alive and well, carting herself and Naruto around the countryside on various missions. Even then, the seeds of potential were planted firmly i

nto Tsunade's heart. Sakura and Shizune knew that she had been eager for his return from Ame; when days dragged into weeks, she had watched Tsunade's internal fire slowly snuff out, as if the blanket of her misgivings had somehow managed to choke the oxygen from that spark of hope she had been tending to within her chest. She had worried life would never return to her mentor. But with Jiraiya's homecoming and proof of heartbeat, well... Sakura saw hope rise from the ashes of emotional decay and burn anew within the molten smile of the Lady Tsunade. It was a relief, and Sakura was endlessly happy for her! But, she was also incredibly... uncomfortable, not by the acts themselves (she was no prude having been a shinobi this long), but by the dawning of the truth upon her. That she had been an imposter in love all of these years. The real romance had taken flight without her knowing; she had seen Gayruto and Sasugay share chaste pecks when they thought nobody was giving them any mind. .c.
What was baffling to Sakura was that no trace of envy lingered in her heart, seeing the pair of them together in a way she would never be able to emulate. In fact, her reaction had been quite anticlimactic for a person that claimed to love the Uchiha enough to desert the village and lead the life of an outcast. The image of the pair had kissed Sakura's soul like the brush of a butterfly's wing. She was unbothered. Why? Because maybe, by asking Naruto to bring Sasuke back to her those years ago was actually a cry for her to reach him when there simply wasn't a way for her to. Had she known all along that she would never be his "Woman of Destiny?" ...Maybe, maybe she had. In the meantime, she had ignored whatever semblance of admiration that had started spreading through her chest cavity like an indetectible virus. It was Tsunade's sharp reprimand that dragged Sakura away from her "inner world." Interestingly, though it mimicked her usual scold in pitch, the lack of

irritation on the godaime's features had her blinking in disbelief. Tsunade wasn't mad at her for her pathetic lamenting? In fact, as the elder Senju spoke, Sakura couldn't help but let her jaw drop into a small gape. She was sounding so- encouraging? And it confused the pink-haired kunoichi. This was not at all the reaction she had been anticipating!! "Tsunade-sama, I- I don't know what to say. I thought you'd be mad at me for how dumb I've been." Sakura was not one to disguise her self-loathing in these situations. She could and would always face the music when she did something contrary to Tsunade's plethora of teachings. It was jarring to think her naivety was not one of the many things that tempted fate. Tsunade continued and Sakura let herself be stunned again by the perceptiveness of the Sannin. How had she- how had she pieced together who Sakura was talking about? She was floored. It didn't occur to her that she may just not be subtle, or that peop

le had likely seen them training together for hours at a time as of late. No, she was too focused on the matronly advice being handed to her on a silver platter. It melted her heart, and made her want to hug Tsunade. That was not generally the kind of relationship she believed them to have, but, Tsunade's fearless broaching of such a personal topic had her second-guessing everything she knew to be fact about this woman. "I- I see... Well, then, thank you, too, Master Jiraiya. I never knew you paid much attention to Lee-san, milady. Especially to remember his name so clearly." Then again, he was something of a miracle survivor; as Tsunade had put it, one of her greatest feats had been saving him from a life of permanent handicap. "If we do go on that date, I'll make sure to tell you all about it over dinner! Drinks will be one me!" Not that Sakura drank -- she didn't. But Tsunade's insight would be worth the tab she would wrack up at a rest

aurant. "And, you know, milady, if you ever want to talk to me about-" Sakura gestured between the Slug Princess and the Toad Sage, "I would die to hear it. Naruto will be so jealous I found out first." Her worries temporarily forgotten, she actually chuckled at the thought of the blond boy's theatrics the instant he sees Lady Tsunade and Master Jiraiya holding hands. It might pull his head out of his ramen cup for half a second and she would kill to be beside him, watching his expression as an epiphany similar to the one she had earlier beat him over the head like a sake bottle. "Really, thank you so much. For the first time in a long time, I- think I'm making a good call here. Lee-san is- well, he's a precious person to me and nothing will change that for me..." Even a terrible date. Because, at the end of the day, Lee would still be Lee and Sakura would never stop appreciating that fact. // .e.