Konoha's Cherry Blossom {REWRITTEN}

Chapter 16

She feels like a cat curled up in a sunny spot, like a slumbering kitten happily content to continue its journey through dreaming, curled into a little ball, luxuriating in the heat.

And yet it isn't the warmth (and it is warm, likely thanks to the fact she is pressed against someone, her head is certainly not on a pillow), that has her almost purring herself, but it is where she is, who she is with, that has her so incredibly blissed out.

Her head is on someone's chest, and her body knows it is safe, her soul quieted to be in such close proximity to who it thinks she should be in proximity to (really thinks she should always be in proximity to), and as her eyes flutter open, so calm she couldn't possibly jerk up, she catches who she lies on. She takes it all in with her eyes.

After all, this isn't normal, normally Sakura would have jumped up, screamed, to have fallen asleep next to, never mind on Naruto, her head on his chest, tucked in, his head then resting atop hers, his arm slung over her waist, fingers curled into her hip, her leg kicked between his, toes on his calf, her hand resting on his chest, next to her head, her hair likely tickling his nose, not that he seems to mind.

As there is no pain, no slow seeping agony into her limbs, no itch at the back of her neck of discontent, no pulse of a headache starting at her brow. Instead, she feels light, her limbs free of any ache, she feels fully rested, as though she'd slept for fifteen odd hours instead of seven or eight.

It felt just as strong, but better, more relaxed, like every care in the world was gone, like she had absolutely nothing to worry about, nothing at all.

Of course, that wasn't true, there was much to worry about, both immediately and long-term, and yet lying in Naruto arms, her head on his chest, his arms wrapped around her in protection, all of those worries seemed so far away, so small and irrelevant, how could they matter? Why would she worry? When she felt this good.

They both stayed in bliss, even as Sakura was slightly awake, and Naruto too, it wasn't until he mumbled something into her hair, 'Sakura', that her eyes fluttered open, almost against her will.

Sakura was forced to confront the reality of the situation.

"Naruto?"

Her eyes opened, with a flutter, not a start, and yet as she fully took in where she was, who she was with, she let out a little gasp.

Yet, she didn't jolt back, only sat up a touch, but even then just barely, too comfortable, too free of exhaustion to want to move away.

It was like a war between what she should be doing and what she wanted to be doing. Usually, she was sensible Haruno Sakura, strong and stubborn, and the former was how she did things, and yet this time the latter near won out.

"Naruto, wake up" She implored, and as he cracked open an eye, her teeth found her bottom lip; fuck. This was bad, very bad, not just because of how good she felt, but how even as she sat up, she didn't really move away from him as she should.

"I'm awake," she heard him grumble as he put his left arm around her waist. She looked up, drowsy from sleep and found herself looking into a face half-covered with shadows. Her breath hitched in her throat as his hand found her waist and squeezed it.

"If I don't get my beauty sleep, I'll be really grumpy later," he said as he pulled her closer.

He smelled good. It was the same scent as the sheets, only a lot stronger. She whispered, "Shouldn't we talk?"

Naruto hummed, "Later. Think about doing everything later. Let's stay like this right now. Just close your eyes. And relax into me. I've got you. You and I will make everything okay later." His warm hands drifting lower. Sakura was on the verge of sleep, drifting away, drifting back to dreams, slowly, slowly.

She was slipping back to sleep and dreams where there was no room for feeling sorry or unhappy because there was no need. She was protected. But he was touching her, touching and feeling and caressing, knowing her most intimate places by heart.

She mumbled an answer, but her brain and her body were working in a different timeshift. She didn't sleep well in the past few weeks. First, it was the worry about Itachi and the way his health was going or rather struggling, then she was suddenly alone and staring at the ceiling at night, wondering about her ex-teammates and what went wrong. Then she got all her answers. It made everything even worse.

She handled these problems as she usually did: she put a little extra effort into her work. When she finally got a break, she was tired enough to practically drop dead.

The trick was that she had to manage to get by with less than four hours of sleep per day.

Now it was payback time. She was safe and happy and sleepy at the same time… and her body was responding to his caresses on its own. Maybe that was why she slowly put her arms around his neck and pulled him into a kiss, drinking his surprised gasp as the kiss quickly got deeper and messier and more and more arousing. He smelled so good.

She was swimming in a river that was the most beautiful blue, so blue that it looked as if it was made of sparkling, deep blue lights and there were big water lilies around. She wasn't alone, there was someone holding her hand, swimming with her, but she couldn't get a good look at his face, she only heard his voice, his deep, melodious laugh.

"You're really sleeping on me when you've managed to wake me up, Sakura-chan…"

There were kisses and nibbling and sucking all over her throat, and she was moaning. She sounded wanton and careless. She wanted to question it, but her throat was not obeying her, and it was too difficult to find the strength when each second there was a new suck, a new kiss, a new bite.

Suddenly, that haze vanished as a deep, smooth voice cut through it, "Really, Naruto? She's supposed to be sleeping."

Her green eyes snapped open, looking over Naruto's broad shoulder, at her white-haired sensei. Kakashi was leaning against the doorframe, staring at her and Naruto with dark eyes. And he looked mad.