Chapter 49

Treatment had been going well and Sasuke's eyes were almost completely healed from the damage that had been inflicted upon them. Sakura had happily announced to Tsunade that after tomorrow's healing session, Sasuke should be able to be released from hospital. Sakura was planning on telling her mother the news that evening, and start packing her things so that she could move in with Sasuke. And on top of that, her brother was supposed to be coming home from a mission anytime now and could help her move her things.

"The air smells damp," Sasuke stated, "Does it look like it will rain?"

"Yeah," she replied frowning, "If we're lucky, we won't get rained on before our walk is over. Do you want to head in now?"

"No," Sasuke replied, walking beside her at an even pace, "Unless you'd much rather go inside than risk getting wet."

"It's only water," Sakura said shrugging, "But my bet is that it'll come down in torrents once it gets going. The sky is dark with huge clouds—despite the air being comfortably cool, it looks like it'll get really cold if it rains. The wind's caught the clouds up there and they're moving pretty quickly over us, bringing some even more sinister-looking clouds our direction. I think in the distance there's lightning, but it might be a while before it reaches us."

"A mediocre description, but that doesn't tell me whether you want to go in or not," he replied, the corner of his mouth twitching slightly in amusement.

"Alright then," Sakura replied, "No, I do not want to go in quite yet."

"Fair enough," Sasuke responded evenly, "Tell me about the garden."

"Um, well, the path we're taking right now is the right fork that you stumbled on a couple days back—"

"Don't talk about that," Sasuke growled, and Sakura peered up at him inquisitively, then smiled softly. The back of Sasuke's neck was slightly red—something she had discovered always happened when he was embarrassed.

"Sorry," she smirked, trying to keep the amusement out of her voice, "Anyways, we're on the right fork, which is even paved. On either side of us are neatly trimmed bushes—I don't know what they're called but they have some pretty pink flowers blooming on them right now. On the other side of the bushes there are stepped flowerbeds, hosting some native plants, and foreign ones. We just passed a whole bed of crocuses, which cover the bed like a carpet—they're blossoming deep purples, the purest whites and the brightest of yellows.

"On the other side is a Japanese maple, the leaves are that lovely shade of red right now, the colour of—" Sakura paused, peering at the tree, not wanting to use the word 'blood', "—red wine. Planted around it are mismatched shrubbery, and some creeping plants to cover the remaining earth.

"Ahead of us the path stretches out into a sort of grove, where a number of different trees are. They were blooming last week—you just missed them. It's kind of too bad, it was really pretty, and I wish I could describe it for you."

"Go ahead," Sasuke prompted, "You remember what it looks like."

"Well, they're crab-apple trees, and in the springtime they bloom a lovely white. The leaves are a kind of reddish colour so it looks really nice with the blossoms. The flowers are so thick on the trees that it looks like they don't have any leaves, just the flowers—and the smell is nice too, but I can't think of any anyway to describe that," Sakura recounted, walking down the garden path, her eyes focused on the clouds above, which looked like they were threatening to start spitting down any moment, "We should come back here next year so that you can smell them, it's really something."

"Sakura," Sasuke said, stopping turning his head slightly towards her, "It's starting to rain."

Sakura looked over at Sasuke and then turned her attention back to the sky, "Really? How can you—"

Sakura was cut short as a particularly large raindrop landed on her nose.

"I could hear it," Sasuke answered, not noticing Sakura's abrupt halt in speech as she rubbed the wetness from her face, "It's falling in places around us."

"I hadn't even noticed," she mumbled absently in reply then looked around at their surroundings.

Ahead of them the path stretched down the hill, and at the bottom she could see a bench. The bench in question had a little roof built over it to keep it shaded for patients who were resting there on sunny days, but the roof would also suffice for keeping them dry. The raindrops were falling more frequently already, and Sakura knew they would be soaked if they tried to turn back to the hospital, but they would remain relatively dry if they were to hurry to the bench that she saw.

"There's a sheltered bench up ahead, we can sit the rain spell out there," Sakura suggested, tugging a little on Sasuke's stationary form, "We'll end up dryer than if we run back to the hospital."

Sasuke said nothing but began to walk again, and Sakura impatiently led him forwards, knowing that asking him to run or even jog would most likely cause him to trip. The heavy drops rained down on her, falling more often, splashing her with the cold water, causing goosebumps to rise on her skin.

"Sakura, could we hurry?" Sasuke asked impatiently, "We're getting quite wet."

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