Chapter 64

It was late evening when the two of them arrived home, having spent the duration of the afternoon reviewing Sasuke's basic jutsus, leaving the lake considerably emptier than before. They made a stop at the Hokage mansion on the way home so that Sakura could request a genin group to come clean out the yard. Sakura was impressed that Sasuke managed all the stairs just fine, only stumbling once when she had failed to tell him when the stairs ended at the top. Inner Sakura was still hurting herself for letting it slip.

By the time they reached the Uchiha manor, the both of them were feeling exhausted from the over-use of chakra, and Sakura didn't want to deal with jumping the fence again, so she merely used her last remaining strength to tear the lock off of the gate.

Sasuke had snickered slightly at her impatience and she decided to just ignore it, not knowing what to say in response anyway. She had then made a light supper, in which they had lightly discussed the upcoming night's sleep; Sakura had then quickly washed the dishes and helped Sasuke to his feet, holding on to his arm as they both headed to the bathroom.

"Here, let me help you with that," she said kindly, taking the toothbrush from him, which he was determinedly trying to put the toothpaste on the toothbrush, without missing it. He handed her the toothbrush roughly, shoving his hands in his pockets afterwards, glowering in a frustrated manner. She merely smiled as she dabbed a pea-sized gob of toothpaste on the end of the brush before rinsing it with a little bit of water.

"Here—it's mint, I hope you don't mind," she said as he pulled his hands out of his pockets, extending one towards her. She took his hand and brushed her thumb over the back, handing him the brush with her other hand. She watched with slight interest as he seemed to use both his hands to determine the length of the brush before attempting to stick it in his mouth.

Sakura applied some toothpaste to her own brush as she watched Sasuke in the mirror. It was easy for him to brush his teeth, as it was a task mainly done by feel. A spark of curiosity came to her as she noted that Sasuke was brushing his teeth in a somewhat hurried manner, brushing quickly over one spot a number of times for a short duration before switching to another spot. She herself was brushing her own teeth at an unhurried pace, and as she was only switching to the second portion of her mouth, Sasuke put his free hand on the counter, feeling along the edge until his fingers brushed the rim of the sink. He elbowed her gently and she shifted away so that he could spit the toothpaste into the basin. She blinked at him.

"Do you always brush your teeth that quickly?" she asked him, her own toothbrush still in her mouth.

He nodded in response as he began to feel around for a glass.

"Upper right," she told him, leaning against the counter while his hand clasped the cup.

When he was finished filling the glass with water, Sakura took the moment to spit her toothpaste into the sink and reach for her own glass. They had really pushed their limits that day; she had sat him through a two hour healing session that morning, which had drained almost all her chakra, and the last of it had been used to extinguish the flames that had sprung up after Sasuke had used the first jutsu. Meanwhile, he himself had used his chakra on the jutsus, and while he had been holding back so that he wouldn't incinerate the park, the performance was still spectacular—and draining.

"I'm going to go to bed," he said putting his glass down on the counter, his hand bracing against the wall of the small room. Even though it was a basic statement, she knew that he was asking her to take him to his room.

"Okay."

Walking over to him, she grasped his arm securely and led him out of the room and the short distance from the bathroom to his bedroom. She sat him down on the edge of the bed and then preceded to one of her bags by her futon, digging around for the pair of pajamas she had brought. Behind her, she heard Sasuke moving around, and glancing over her shoulder, she saw that he had taken off his shirt and let it drop to the floor. Either ignoring her, or simply not noticing that she was watching him, he crawled into his bed. After he untied his forehead protector and tucked it under his pillow, he lay down, pulling the covers up to his chin, facing the wall.

She turned back to her bag; after grabbing the folded pajamas she had set on top, she straightened up and headed to the doorway. "I'm going to go change," she told him, lingering in the doorframe of the room.

"Aa."

She quickly changed in the bathroom, pulling on the pale pink flannel pajama pants and a white spaghetti-strap tank top, her mind rather fogged, and she was almost running on autopilot. Wandering back to Sasuke's room, clutching her dirty clothes in her arms, she looked over at his form in the bed before putting her laundry aside. She went over and picked up his discarded shirt and frowned faintly at him. Tossing the shirt at his resting form, she mused at his small jump when it landed on him.

"Don't leave your dirty clothes on the floor," she reprimanded, throwing back the covers of her own futon, "This is my room too now, and I don't want it messy."

She heard a quiet 'tch'.

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