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By all accounts, the mission to Iwa had been a success. Shisui had been a little hesitant to intrude on the dynamics of his baby cousin’s team, since they were so tightly bonded, but it hadn’t gone as disastrously as he’d thought. Actually, it turned out they worked pretty well together. When a few A-rank missing nin accosted them in Grass, they handled it swiftly (he was more than a little impressed when he saw Sakura punch a hole clean through a man—Sasu-chan had been a fool for not snapping her up when she was still in love with him years ago).Unfortunately, just like any tight-knit team, they bickered like a bunch of children at the slightest inconvenience. Currently, as they whipped past the border of Fire and sped towards Konoha, it seemed Sasuke was in the mood to pick a fight over Sakura’s method of dispatching enemies.“Tch, maybe if you didn’t just use brute force on everything—”“Oh, says the man who whips out Susano’o for every little fight? Gods, Sasuke, I know you’re compensating, but try to tone the theatrics down a little, would you?”The sound of Shisui cackling filtered through the trees, immediately followed by a loud thunk and the abrupt halting of his laughter.“Captain!” Sakura’s voice changed in an instant, from snippy to concerned, as Shisui peeled himself back from the bark of the tree he’d run headlong into. “Are you alright?”“I’m fine, Sakura-chan!” He tried to wave off her concern. Unfortunately for him, with a nose that was freely bleeding and definitely broke, it didn’t do much to convince her. Rolling her eyes, she approached him, hands already glowing green. He waited patiently, in total silence, as she mended his nose, enjoying the feel of her soothing chakra pulsing through his system.“Does that feel alright?” She probably already knew it was, but that she bothered to ask was endearing. He nodded, then, conspiratorially, he leaned over to whisper in her ear.“You should put Sasu-chan in his place more often when I’m around.” She let a giggle slip, quickly trying to muffle it with her hand, and Shisui…Shisui fell in love.Unfortunately for him, wooing Haruno Sakura was an uphill battle. She was probably the busiest woman in Konoha, between her schedule at the hospital, regular missions, and the one-off missions with ANBU quads she was assigned to. He knew she joined them as a medic, but never on his squad. So, he’d taken to pestering Sasuke.“I’m not telling you Sakura’s schedule,” Sasuke groused as they played a game of shogi after dinner. It had been a month since the mission, and Shisui had only gotten to talk to her three measly times. “Why? You’re not interested, Sasu-chan—”“It’s still gross. We’re twenty and you’re close to thirty. Go find someone your own age, you creep.”“Sasuke,” Aunt Mikoto’s voice floated out to the engawa where they sat, an unusually stern note to her voice, “I want Sakura-chan in the family, and since you refuse to see reason—”Sasuke glared daggers at Shisui, as if to say look what you’ve done now. Shisui smirked.“That’s right, Sasuke-chan, since you won’t make her an Uchiha, I will.”“Good,” Aunt Mikoto stepped into the doorway, staring down at both men. “It's high time you got married, Shisui-kun. Twenty-eight and still a bachelor? What your grandfather would say, I can only imagine.”Uchiha Kagami, Shisui's grandfather, the man who'd raised him until his passing when Shisui was five, had married quite young. Barely nineteen, and he'd put in the work to help repopulate the clan after the First War decimated their numbers. His own father and Aunt Mikoto had been the youngest, surprise babies later in life (and twins to boot).In other words, his love life was the total opposite of Shisui's. Shisui might have felt ashamed over that, had the smirk Sasuke been sporting not made his temper flare. Luckily, Aunt Mikoto’s next words wiped the smirk right off his face.“Sasuke, invite Sakura-chan over for dinner tomorrow night.”“Mom—!”“Listen to your mother, Sasuke,” Uncle Fugaku’s stern voice filtered out the open window of his office, conveniently located right next to where Sasuke was sitting on the engawa. “Gods only know how much of a boon it would be to have her join this family.”Having soundly lost the fight, Sasuke silently pouted through the rest of the game.In a total reversal of his previous bad luck, Shisui not only saw Sakura the next morning, but he was assigned a mission with her. Only her.They would be alone together for a whole week as they went to Tea Country for a routine assassination mission—Sakura’s skills as a medic made for very natural looking deaths, so when Suna alerted them to a high-ranking noble from Wind visiting the southern nation to expand his illegal drug ring, she was the natural choice. Shisui was just serving as the muscle, which she didn’t really need, considering how strong she was.He wasn’t about to bring that up to Minato-sama, though. And, judging from the wink the Yondaime sent his way as he turned to leave the office? He had a feeling the match-up was intentional.Well, Aunt Mikoto was best friends with Minato-sama’s wife, after all. Of course she would have heard all about his crush by then, and passed it on to her husband.“Meet at the gates in thirty minutes?”“No need,” Sakura replied, smiling up at him in a way that made his heart flutter like he was some kind of school boy. “I brought my pack with me.” She patted the front pocket of her jounin vest—he’d forgotten she had extensive storage seals in her clothing, a bonus of being teammates with the child of two sealmasters (and running into Jiraiya of the sannin more than once during her travels with Tsunade as a teen). “So I’m ready if you are.”“In that case, let’s get going.”They fell into lighthearted chat after that, talking about everything from the recent cold snap to the latest prank Naruto had managed to drag Sasuke into (still a frequent occurrence despite their transition into adulthood). Shisui marveled at just how easy it was to talk to her—they agreed on a good many things, too, like a preference for sweet food over sour and being early birds instead of night owls.When bandits attacked them just outside of Tea’s border, they fought together like a well-oiled machine, as though they’d been teammates for years. He hurried through killing his half just in order to see her fight hers—watching her fight was like seeing art come to life. She was so powerful and so graceful. Even covered in blood, she looked ethereal.Shisui wanted her to claim him as hers, and then he wanted to cherish her for the rest of his natural born life and the life beyond.The assassination itself was quick, when they made it to the village the noble was staying in. A quick in and out in the dead of night, and no one would ever be the wiser about the man’s heart attack being medically induced. In fact, they were so far ahead of schedule they would return to Konoha a full two days earlier than expected.Shisui hoped it meant they’d be sent on more missions together. If they could be so efficient, it would be foolish not to, right? They also continued their frivolous talk as they passed back into Fire and set up their camping spot for the night.“I got my invitation for Itachi’s wedding the other day,” Sakura commented as they laid out their bedrolls.“He grew up so fast,” Shisui joked, wiping an imaginary tear from his eye. She giggled at that, and he felt a swell of pride at being able to make her laugh. But suddenly, she grew serious again, looking nervous, and he felt himself grow tense as he waited for her next words.“Do you…” She broke eye contact, focusing all her energy on smoothing the nonexistent wrinkles from her bedroll. “Do you have a date yet?”All the tension left his body in one fell swoop, and his heart sang.“Are you offering?” He tried to keep his tone light, but had to ball his fists up behind his back when he noticed the faint trembles in them, only calming down enough to relax his hands and bring them back out into the open when he saw her blush. Her mild embarrassment didn’t stop her from looking him dead in the eye, though, her emerald gaze burning with determination.“I am.”Leaning forward, he pecked her cheek, pulling back from her reach in a flash.“How about being my date for tomorrow night, too?”“For what?” Sakura’s blush had intensified, but the determination was slowly being replaced with confusion.“Well, you see, there’s this beautiful, strong kunoichi I’ve been meaning to ask out for a while, and a new tea shop near where she works at the hospital—”“Yes!” Sakura shouted. Then, realizing how loud she’d been in her enthusiasm, dropped her volume as she continued. “I mean, that sounds nice, Shisui-san.”“It would be even nicer if you just called me Shisui,” he paused for a moment (undoubtedly for dramatic effect), then added, “Sakura .”