Everything Is Alright

Epilogue(-ish thing)

"Sasuke-kun Sasuke-kun Sasuke-kun!"

Sasuke turned to find his green-eyed girl racing towards him, up the stairs and onto the porch of the Uchiha manor. He caught her as she launched herself at him, lifting her up briefly.

"What, what, what?" he asked, amused.

Her eyes wide and bright and wild, she grabbed his hand, tugging. "Come on come on come on!"

He allowed her to lead him by the hand away from the manor, into the inner Village. The villagers were gathering, chattering excitedly, even though it was the peak of summer and an ungodly hot temperature.

Sakura, lovely in a pale yellow tank-top and a white skirt, charged through them, shouting "Excuse me excuse me excuse me!" Sasuke wondered whether this was another one of her games, to repeat everything she said three times.

He rather liked it better than her game last week, when she addressed him only as "Sasu-baby."

The crowd around the Hokage Tower was very dense, but they didn't have to work to get to the front. Instead, when people saw them, they would just part so that they could get through, smiling.

It really kind of made him wonder what was happening.

Once they were at the front of the crowd, Sasuke looked at Sakura. "What's going on?"

She beamed at him and pointed to the top of the tower. There stood Tsunade and Naruto—except Naruto was wearing the Hokage robes.

"Oh, God," Sasuke said.

Sakura bounced up and down. "I KNOW, RIGHT?!"

Once she was sure she had everyone's attention, Tsunade spoke. "As you all know, I'm…" she frowned. "Getting old."

Sasuke concluded that it was indeed a very weird day, if Tsunade would ever admit such a thing. Perhaps he was dreaming.

"So," she continued. "I hereby resign my position as Hokage…and leave my post to your new Rokudaime, Uzumaki Naruto." She removed her Hokage's hat and placed it jauntily on Naruto's head. The blonde boy peace-signed, grinning broadly.

The crowds cheered uproariously, shouting and celebrating. The boy they'd used to scorn had come to be a great Village favorite.

Tsunade shook her head wryly. "Gods save you all." She walked away, leaving Naruto alone on top of the Tower.

"Well, it's official. We're all screwed," Sasuke murmured, but he was smiling.

Sakura took his hands and danced around. "He did it he did it he did it!"

Sasuke watched her as she laughed and cried and screamed all at once, hair wild and eyes green and God, she was so beautiful.

Naruto spoke. "As my first act as Hokage…I order the immediate construction of a community pool!"

Better than Sasuke had feared. He'd thought for certain that Naruto's first order of business would be to build himself a personal ramen shack, right there in the Tower.

That would probably be his second act.

--

One Month Later

"Sasuke-kun, can you go get me a drink, please?"

Sasuke glanced over to where Sakura reclined in a poolside chair, her red tankini exposing a strip of her abdomen, her sunglasses hiding her eyes. "What do you want?"

Before she could answer, Naruto strolled over, looking thoroughly ridiculous in his bright orange swim-trunks. "Heyyy, bastard. Hiya, Sakura-chan."

Sakura raised her sunglasses. "Shouldn't you be working on official Hokage business, instead of chilling at the pool?"

He grinned. "I'll have you know that ensuring the happiness of my people is official Hokage business." He punched Sasuke playfully on the shoulder. "Some of us have real jobs, instead of just taking the occasional S-ranked mission when we feel like it."

Sasuke shoved him back, and the situation devolved into a full-fledged scuffle before Sakura stood, taking off her sunglasses.

"Boys, boys. No rough-housing by the pool." She shook her head mournfully. "Kids these days…"

Naruto and Sasuke shared a glance, which caused Sakura to back up, hands raised. "Um, guys—"

They joined together to fling her into the pool. She surfaced, sputtering. "You…!"

Naruto laughed and cannon-balled in to join her. Sasuke sat on the edge of the pool, smirking, and outstretched his arms towards her. "Come here, I've got you." She swam over to him, and he took her in his arms, lifting her out of the pool.

She wrung out her hair. "You guys are jerks."

Naruto's blonde head bobbed. "But we're your jerks!"

She hid a smile and went back to her chair. This time Sasuke waited for her to draw her knees up, then sat down on the end of her chair, using her legs as a back-rest. She pressed them closer together so he would have more support.

He leaned back, and Sakura bent forward, massaging his head in small circles. He breathed out, and she peered down at him. "You look happy," she remarked.

He felt the sun on his face, heard Naruto splashing around. He collected one of her hands, rubbing his thumb over her palm. "I am," he admitted.

She smiled and bent down, kissing him on the mouth. He smiled into the kiss, tilting his head for a better angle, but broke off when Naruto splashed water at them.

"Get a room, you two! No one wants to see that!"

This time it was Sasuke and Sakura who looked at each other, and rose to jump in the pool and give Naruto a good, solid thrashing.

In the water, Sasuke took a moment to look at Naruto, yellow locks disheveled, and Sakura, treading water beside him, ankles brushing his. She noticed him watching and swam closer, winding her arms around his neck. "I love you," she whispered into his ear, her wet cheek pressed up against his.

Sasuke was happy.

OHMYGOD. I forgot all about this story until like, two hours ago, when I was like, hey, I should write an epilogue. So I did. Crazy, right? Right.

So. I kind of want to write a sequel for this, from Sakura's POV mostly. Maybe have them go on some super-duper mission or something. But I don't know. I have a lot of other stuff I'm working on...and I'm afraid I'll write the first few chapters and then run out of ideas/lose interest/get bored. As dictated by my history. But, maybe.

So, yeah. Thank you everyone for the reviews and kind words and...kindly-worded reviews! You've no idea how much they mean to me. ALL OF YOU ARE NINJA GANGSTERS. Doesn't get any better than that, yo.

Unrelated:
1) Danzo. Is. Such. A. Bitch. -seethes-
2) Team Hebi (or whatever they're calling themselves these days) had a cute moment! I'm so upset. You know, in like, the second-to-latest chapter, when Karin was bein' all annoying and Sasuke was basically just like "Shut up, ho," and Suigetsu was like "Haha, Karin got in trouble!" and Zetsu or whoever was like "Sasuke, you've sure got a lot to deal with." Or something.
...Yeah, well. It was still cute, and I'm still upset.

:)