11:00 hours
Apartment of Yamanaka Ino.
Looking around her, she took in the disaster area that was her apartment, and sighed deeply. “How did I let it get this way?” Ino shook her head as she fished pizza boxes from under a mountain of dirty clothes. “It looks like some really messy genin live here! I swear if anyone sees this place looking like both Naruto and Kiba’s apartments exploded everywhere, I’m going to die.” Stuffing the boxes into a plastic garbage bag, she growled curses at herself. After she was done scanning the room for any more loose garbage, she was satisfied that the rest was just dirty clothes and dishes.
Once she picked up all of the dirty (and some moldy…eeew…) dishes, she brought them all into the kitchen and turned on the tap to soak them. Sink now full of water, she turned to the absolutely huge mound of clothing strewn over the floor. Ino smiled wryly as she rolled up her sleeves. Sorting them into three large piles (dark colors, light ones, and whites), she then started stuffing them into her laundry duffels to bring them down to the coin-operated laundry in the basement. It all fit in. Barely, but it fit. Now, her living room contained: one couch (lumpy), two chairs (wooden Adirondack things that you can’t get up out of unless you’re really flexible), a small all-purpose table, a stand lamp, and three very large bags of laundry.
It was Friday night, and she was doing laundry. This led her to one undeniable conclusion: LIFE SUCKS.
Just then, as if things couldn’t possibly get any worse, there was a knock on her door. Groaning, she answered it. She raised a slim blonde eyebrow at the man who stood at her door. “Well, well. Never thought you would show up at my door, Sasuke.” She crossed her arms under her breasts and leaned on the doorframe. Even if he was a cold and unfeeling bastard, he was a cute bastard. She could look, even if she had no intention whatever of touching. The vision of icy male perfection somehow managed to lounge while standing up, regarding her through that infernally stubborn set of black bangs. That cool gaze no longer gave her pause, not even the old flutter of her heart.
“Ino, you’re summoned.”
“Aw, shit, Sasuke. You could have said anything else, and I would be jumping for joy. A summons? What is it now?” She rolled her eyes, then turned her head back to her bags of laundry. They would have to wait, and she’d have to go smelly. Damn.
“Tsunade-sama has a prisoner that you need to help her with.” Rolling her eyes again, she wondered yet again at how he could be so utterly un-verbose. This seemed to be all she was good for. Interrogation. Yamanaka Inoshi’s daughter pushed herself off of the doorframe.
“Fine. I’ll be out in a minute.” She turned, and he caught her wrist. Slowly, she looked back at him. Tone low and threatening, she said, “Let me go, Uchiha.” There was a light smirk on his lips. Why did he never change? Would he always be the cold, arrogant, unfeeling, annoying bastard that he had been since they were children?
“You’re supposed to come now.” The smirk had set itself deeper into his features, now reaching his eyes. He was toying with her. If there was one thing she hated, it was people screwing with her. So, she broke his grip, then twisted his arm behind his back, and pushed him against the wall of the landing. The two were pressed together, Ino’s blue eyes staring harshly up into eyes that were so dark gray they could easily be mistaken for black. Those dark eyes seemed amused.
“Back off, yaro. I might not be at your level, but I’m still a jounin, like you. You should show the proper respect.” Ino released his arm, and then pushed away from him. He grinned—actullay freaking grinned—at her. That grin said that he was giving her all the respect he felt she needed. Now she just wanted to get away from that smug face. Sighing, Ino reached for the doorknob, and pulled the door closed, picking up her sandals just before the door closed. Tugging them on, she looked up at Sasuke, who was regarding her in an odd way. “You want to take a picture?” He snorted, and she started down the stairs.
--
That was…amusing. Oh, she knew very well she didn’t have the ability to take him, but she’d made the vague, amorphous threat. Sasuke followed the woman down the stairs, silently chuckling to himself. At least she wasn’t falling all over herself and squealing. Not that the rest of the village women weren’t doing that exact thing. He’d even caught some of the men looking at him.
To say that Sasuke didn’t realize that he was the best thing since sliced bread would certainly not be true. He knew very well that one look into his eyes would knock the wind out of half of Konohagakure’s population, whether from fear or admiration. The dark (now retired, since Itachi was dead) avenger was well aware that if he smiled at nearly any woman in the village, she would readily do anything he asked. For a long time, he had thought of this as a simple annoyance. But in the two years since his twentieth birthday, he found that it was almost like having a secret power. [Hn. Let’s face it. It’s not a secret at all.]
That’s why he found Ino so amusing. He liked to watch her face when he played with her. She wasn’t attracted to him anymore, for reasons that he simply did not understand, and didn’t care to know. So, unlike in earlier years, Tsunade felt comfortable sending them on missions together. That was all it took to turn the bubbly blonde into a seething mass of anti-Uchiha angst, and he loved it. It was free entertainment, and who was Sasuke to pass up a good show?
Walking down the street next to her, he snuck a look at the blonde kunoichi. That scene on the landing had been fun. He had completely allowed her to get the upper hand, of course. It was much more fun when she thought she had some power over the situation. Upon entering the Tower, he stepped ahead of her, and when they came to the Hokage’s office, he knocked and left her in the hallway, the door closing not an inch from her nose. He nearly giggled as he felt her chakra flare in anger through the thick wood of the door. Sasuke was going to get a severe tongue-lashing for that, but the only regret he had was that he couldn’t get popcorn beforehand.
“Tsunade-sama,” He bowed formally, as he always did to the blonde Hokage. “Yamanaka Ino is here.” His voice rolled forth, playing through the air like dark waves, and as he stood straight from his bow, he saw the woman eyeing him suspiciously.
“What did you do this time, Sasuke? I can feel her chakra spiking all the way over here.” She got up from her desk and walked past him to the door, smacking the back of his head roughly as she did. Opening the door, she revealed a very ticked off Ino. “Come in, Ino-chan. And try to be calm. I’ve already chastised him.” The younger blonde glanced over at Sasuke, who was scowling (more for effect than any sort of pain) at the Hokage and rubbing at the back of his head.
Ino nodded curtly and said, “What are the specifics, Godaime-sama?” The ample-busted woman handed her a tan file-folder. “Morino Idate? That kid from the Tea Country?”
Sasuke drawled lazily, “And Morino Ibiki’s younger brother.” Eyes widening so quickly that it was nearly comical, Ino looked up from the file.
“So…What’s the problem? Nothing in this file suggests improper behavior after the problem with Aoi was cleared up.” She handed the file back, and crossed her arms, trying for all she was worth to ignore that Sasuke even existed (let alone that he was standing two feet away). Instead of the Hokage answering, Sasuke forced her to acknowledge his presence by speaking first.
“He is still a missing-nin, Ino. No matter how much time has passed, Sandaime-sama had him declared as such, and that is all there is to it. You are to find out the extent of his traitorous behavior, if there is any at all, and report it to me.” He watched as she bristled. Oh, this was going to be fun. Then, he nearly blinked, because her face changed to a sweet smile. Warning bells started going off in his head.
“Of course, Sasuke-kun, anything for you.” Then, before he could dodge, she used one of the many variations on the Shintenshin that she had developed, aiming it directly at him. The sensation of having some kind of viscous liquid pumped into his head by way of his eyeballs came over him, and then he heard (but didn’t really hear, since it was in his head), Ino laughing. He watched his hands flexing, and then heard his voice.
“I’m an asshole. Ooooh, did that sound good.” The nearly girly inflection sounded slightly wrong in his voice, and he saw Tsunade out of the corner of his eye, smiling in a very amused way. She was trying not to laugh! Damn her!
*-*-*
“Oh, but Sasuke, you shouldn’t say such things about the Hokage. Remember, you’re not alone in here anymore.” Ino’s bubbling laughter echoed through his mind.
“Get out of my head, witch.” Sasuke growled as he witnessed himself performing a short ballet recital for the Hokage. All that was missing was the fairy princess and a pink tutu. He really was going to kill Ino when she finally got the hell out of his head.
“Damn, Sasuke. You’ve got issues! Look at this!” Through his mind flashed images of his brother, Naruto, and Orochimaru all blending together. “Naruto no baka isn’t like either of those two, and you should know that already. Is there no hope for…oh, I know you didn’t.” Those warning bells were going off again, and he had nowhere to run, and definitely nowhere to hide. “You good-for-nothing, cold-hearted, hentai BASTARD!” Oh. That. “I can’t believe you’d do that! That’s it, I’m getting out of here, and when I do, you’d better recover faster than I do, so that you can run.”
*-*-*
The pressure in his skull lessened, and he choked, coughed, and sputtered, unable to get used to the feeling of breathing for himself again. Then, no air was coming at all, because Ino’s hand was clamped down around his throat. “You little shit.” His eyes bulged, and he tried to claw her hand from his throat. For some reason, her grip was like steel. He watched as she looked to the Hokage. “Let me kill him, Tsunade-sama. Please! I’ll do D-ranked missions for the rest of my life. Just let me rid the world of him.” That, thank every got that ever existed, was when the elder woman intervened.
“No, Ino. Put him down.” The Hokage’s voice was still rather amused. But, when had his feet left the floor? He felt himself being dropped, and when his knees didn’t hold out, he crumpled to the ground, coughing and gasping for air. He glared up at Ino and the Hokage. After muttering something about blondes, he stood shakily. Tsunade cuffed him on the side of the head, and he scowled, this time genuinely. “Ino, please question Morino Idate. Then, make your report to Sasuke. Sasuke,” The woman’s dark brown eyes bored into his, and she said, “You will apologize. Not right now. You will have until she makes her report to think over whatever it was you did. I suggest you at least make some attempt to have it sound convincing.”
Nodding, he left the room with Ino. As soon as the door was closed behind them, Ino looked back at him, and there were tears in her eyes. [Oh, shit.] She saw the blank expression he had, and then whirled completely around and shoved him against the wall. Her voice was choked with tears. “After everything we’ve been through together…you asshole. How could you?”
“Ino, I…” He didn’t know what it was he wanted to say, but he felt that he should say something. Sasuke had, perhaps, taken his ‘entertainment’ just a little too far, just once.
“Was it a prank? Did you do it for kicks? Or do you really think that little of me?” Her face looked so haggard at the moment, there was no way he could speak. The young Uchiha merely stood there, blinking, his mouth opening and closing like that of a fish. “Don’t just stand there, you moron! Answer me. I want to know why you did it.” Vocal chords wouldn’t move, though his mouth tried to form the words. “What was that? I can’t hear you.” Why were her eyes looking like the fires of hell were about to burn him alive like that? He blinked, yet again. Then, the final blow fell, and he didn’t even see it coming. Her hand flew, leaving a stinging red imprint on the left side of his face. She stalked off down the stairs to the basement, where the prisoner was being held.
--
Sakura was awakened at three in the morning by a very loud knock at her apartment door. Growling curses to herself, she disentangled herself from the sheets and threw on her robe. When she got to the door, blinking in the light of the hallway, she found a chuunin messenger. “You have a mission, Haruno-san.” The man handed her a scroll, and made a polite bowing exit.
Slamming the door in irritation, she flicked the light-switch. Then she broke the seal on the scroll and examined the contents. These days, she was usually shift supervisor at the hospital, as well as being one of the three chief surgeons. Missions weren’t an uncommon occurrence, but she hadn’t had one that took her outside the Fire Country in two years. Her eyebrow rose as she read the Hokage’s flowing script. She had been specifically requested by one of the other jounin on the mission? That could only mean one of two things: one was that there was high possibility of injury, and the other was that there was bad team dynamics, and she was going to be the balance.
Finally, at the very end, she found the list of names in the team. It was short.
Uchiha Sasuke
Yamanaka Ino
Haruno Sakura
She leaned against the back of the door. “What the hell is going on?” What in the world was the Hokage thinking? She was supposed to balance them out? Ino and Sasuke got along just fine. Ino wasn’t gaga over Sasuke anymore, and neither, for that matter, was she. She’d been dating Hyuuga Neji for the past six months, and he suited her just fine.
The Uchiha even had Ino to thank for Itachi’s death. If not for her, Itachi would have killed Sasuke. While the thought of being grateful would absolutely never cross his mind, Sakura was sure that he would at least give her the amount of respect that a jounin deserved. And as far as she knew, he did. But if the mission scroll in her hands was any indication, that was not the case. In any case, she needed sleep. Rolling it up, she put it in a metal bowl on the table. From a cabinet, she produced a magnesium stick and a knife. Having shaved off a few small bits of the magnesium, she blew on the scroll, and it burst instantly into flame. She smiled. Maybe in another life, she’d been a pyromaniac.
They were set to leave at nine in the morning. That still left her at least four hours before she had to get up and shower. The bare minimum for a full morning recovery for her was two hours, especially if she was going to leave word at the Hyuuga compound for Neji as to her whereabouts.
--
09:00 hours
Day 1, Mission to Tea Country
Konohagakure gates.
Ino was talking to a very familiar-looking young man with dark hair and a prominent nose. His face was tense. Sakura elbowed Sasuke in the ribs, and he pushed himself off of the village wall. She noticed that he wasn’t looking at Ino, and that his scowl was deeper than she had seen it for some time. Eyes narrowed, she said, “Sasuke, what is your problem?” When he looked up at her, his eyes had a hunted look to them. Sakura blinked. “She used it on you, didn’t she?” He nodded. “How many times did I tell you when the two of you started working together—“
“Oi. I know. Don’t get her pissed at me. How was I supposed to know what would set her off?” Sakura sighed. He honestly was completely clueless.
Ino and Idate were closer now, so she lowered her voice. “You push enough buttons, Sasuke, and one’s bound to have an adverse effect. Did you apologize?” He nodded. “What did you do? No, wait. Don’t tell me. I’m not getting in the middle of you two. Sort this mess out on your own.” He blinked down at her. He seemed to be doing that a lot this morning. She turned from him and greeted the two newcomers.
“Ohayo gozaimasu, Idate-san! Long time no see.”
“Sakura-san? Is that you?” He rushed forward and shook her hand vigorously. “I hardly recognized you!” He took in her uniform and smiled. “So, you’re a jounin now? That’s wonderful!” He looked over at Sasuke, nodding in acknowledgement. Sasuke did the same.
“Can we get moving?” Ino said tartly as she walked past them, adjusting her pack on her shoulders. Sakura’s temper twitched. Not much, but she was ever so slightly annoyed. Those two were really going to work her nerves.
They walked for some time before breaking for lunch, and Sakura talked animatedly with Idate, about what he had been doing since they last met years ago, and she alternately watched Ino and Sasuke, who weren’t speaking to anyone. Sakura broke off a chunk of her bread and threw it at Sasuke’s head. “Oi, baka! Wake up!” He caught it before it struck, showing that he was not spacing out. Her eyes narrowed. She turned to Idate. “Please excuse me, just for a minute.” He nodded, and she stood, striding over to Ino.
Grabbing the woman by her thick ponytail, she hauled her off of her feet. “Come on, Ino-pig. I need to talk to you.” The captive woman squawked indignantly, and Sakura sniggered. Once they were fifty feet away from Sasuke and Idate, she released Ino and turned to her. “What’s going on with you and Sasuke?”
“Nothing. I hate that bastard.” Ino’s eyes were a very dark shade of blue. This was Ino at her most annoyed.
“That’s not what I meant, Ino, and you know it. I mean why the hell are you so bitchy, and how come he’s got his tail between his legs every time he looks at you?” She flipped her hair out of her eyes. “He’s all…nervous. It’s creeping me out. He’s mission commander, you’re here as backup, and I’m along for the ride. There’s no way that I’m not here for a reason, Ino. You requested me, didn’t you?”
“Yes. I just didn’t want to be alone with him. You’re my best friend, and he’s the biggest asshole on the planet. Two against one is fair when it comes to him.” Sakura didn’t like the sound of that. What had he done? When she asked, Ino turned various shades of red and said nothing more. Sakura’s hands balled into fists, and she felt a headache coming on. Breathing deeply, she sat on the grass, closed her eyes, and practiced the meditation techniques that Neji had shown her. “Sakura?”
“Shut up and go sit back down, Ino. I need to get rid of the headache you and Sasuke are giving me.” She heard her friend turn away. “You know, it wouldn’t kill you to be nice to him for the sake of the mission.” Ino’s footsteps sped up. Well, so much for that idea.
--
20:30 hours
Day 2, Mission to Tea Country
12 Kilometers to Tea Country Border
Sasuke had first watch. He was miserable. Granted, he didn’t usually talk very much, but the fact that he’d only grunted and given monosyllablic answers to direct questions for the past thirty-seven and a half hours was starting to get to him. Even if he was the famous loner Uchiha, he did need some human interaction. As he sat on a very gnarled tree root, wrapped in his blanket, he surveyed the campsite.
A small fire pit, ringed in stones, was at the center, the fire dying down. Sakura slept directly opposite him, with Idate nearest her. Ino was wrapped up in her blanket six feet to Sasuke’s left. She had taken her hair down to sleep, and the seemingly unending mass of golden strands was spread out over the ground. His thoughts turned to his predicament. Why had he done it? He couldn’t answer her the other day, because he honestly didn’t know. How should he know? Half of the things he did were to entertain himself. The others were to perform missions. So, he supposed that the answer was that he did what he had for his own entertainment. That could possibly prove difficult to explain.
For a moment, he imagined several explanation scenarios. They all ended in her slapping him. He supposed that he could admit that it had been overstepping his bounds. But it had been so tempting! It wasn’t like she closed the shades…He remembered to the night in question.
*****
Sasuke sat on the roof of a nearby building. He had been watching Ino for some time. It was amazing how different people behaved when they were in their own little world. In the first ten minutes, he watched as she shed her sandals and vest, and started to cook her dinner. She sat at the little table in the middle of the living area, and ate what looked like miso soup and white rice, with a small pot of steamed vegetables. He had her pegged for eating things that were more…rich.
Now, she was lying on her couch, a book resting on her stomach, and she looked to be falling asleep. Indeed, her head kept dropping forward. Finally, she had put the book away. Rising from the couch, she left the room in favor of her bedroom. Sasuke had shifted his position on the roof, allowing for his better view.
Sasuke had seen women naked before. He was, to say the least, experienced. But for some reason, when he saw Ino unbuttoning her shirt, removing her pants, then finally stripping off her undergarments, he was utterly mesmerized. And, he knew it was something that, by all means, he should not be seeing. That didn’t make him any more able to move, though. This was a woman he worked with. She had saved his ass, and he had saved hers. They trusted each other. And he was watching her like a pervert, breaking that trust. All for his own…entertainment? No, that wasn’t the right word. He felt more like he was studying her. She was an enigma to him.
Unlike Sakura, who had Neji, Ino was completely single. She had no one to take her mind off of the crush she had once harbored. He wanted to understand. He wanted to know why she had suddenly decided that he was utterly unworthy of her attention. He supposed it was childish, in a way, to wish to be loved by everyone. It was certainly moronic to think that it was possible. But she had fought tooth and nail with Sakura over him, only to just…stop. What in the world had happened?
So here he was, trying to figure her out, and getting more than he bargained for. She removed the tie from her hair, and it went spilling down to her thighs, barely obscuring the pale skin of her body. Ino started running a bath, and Sasuke watched, fascinated, mesmerized, entranced. Steam filled the bathroom, and Sasuke could barely see her anymore. He only caught flashes of gold as her hair caught the light of the room.
He left soon after, his trance broken now that he couldn’t see her.
*****
It had been not for his entertainment. He felt that he could explain now. But there was the problem of how to do it without having her Shintenshin him into oblivion. Definitely a problem. Until his watch was through, he simply stared at her. Her chest rose and fell slowly, evenly, but she otherwise was motionless.
--
19:00 hours
Day 4, Mission to Tea Country
House of Green Leaves, an inn
“What do you mean, Sakura? How come I have to share a room with him? Why can’t I room with you?” Ino hissed, as she was dragged to the small bathhouse. Sakura made an annoyed noise in her throat. What the hell was she trying to do? If she was trying to force Ino to kill Sasuke, it might just work. If she shared a room with that hentai, there was far too much chance that he’d go and peep at her again. For that matter, what about now? There was nothing but a bamboo partition between the men’s and women’s sides of the bathhouse. He was already in the men’s portion.
“Damn it, Ino. Stop being so freaking paranoid. Now. We’re here. Get undressed. This will relax you, I promise.” Grumbling, Ino did as she was told. They had dropped Idate off at the daimyo’s yesterday, and were on their way back to Konohagakure. It was Sakura’s bright idea to deviate from their path by six kilometers so that they could sleep at an inn. Now, she was making Ino sleep in the same room as Sasuke. It went without saying that she was absolutely mutinous. She growled curses under her breath at Sakura as she tore off her clothes, and wrapped a towel around herself.
As she was fixing her hair into a braid, and then a bun, she saw Sakura eyeing her. “What?” she snapped, not really waiting for an answer before taking up one of the small wooden buckets and a cloth. These she took into the bath area, filling the bucket with cold water from the basin and taking it over to the steaming water. After settling herself into the water, she had to admit that it felt good. The small cloth, she dipped into the cold water and placed on her head. The difference in temperature had an interesting effect. She sighed heavily, leaning against one of the gently worn rocks next to the partition.
Her relaxed state was so far advanced by this time that she hadn’t noticed that Sakura had not shown up. Even if she had, she probably wouldn’t have moved to find her. It simply felt too wonderful. From the other side of the wall, she could hear the men talking. It was wonderful to be in her section of the bath all by herself. That way, she didn’t have to worry about anyone bothering her.
“Hey kid, you’re too young to look like that.” Ino heard the voice of an elderly (and rather jovial) gentleman float over the wall. Then, the ‘kid’ answered him in a voice that was familiar to her. It rumbled and flowed all at once. Sasuke.
“Look, mister, I’m trying to relax. Leave me alone.”
The elderly man’s laugh sounded deep and genuine. “Oh, come on, kid. It can’t be as bad as all that. Come on and tell me. What happened? Did your pet kitty die?” Ino nearly snorted as she heard the smile on the man’s face. The sound of water swishing, and a wet slap was heard, like a hand on stone, then she could hear Sasuke’s voice more clearly. It seemed he had turned his back on the man, and was now facing the wall. Right next to her head.
“No one died. At least not yet. If anyone did, it would probably be me.” Ino noted (with not a little satisfaction) that Sasuke sounded rather miserable.
“Was it one of those pretty little things you came here with? The one with the pink hair…hehe. She’s cute.” [Are all men perverts? Geesh.] Ino rolled her eyes. This guy was worse than Kakashi and Ebisu. When Sasuke was silent, the old man continued. “You’re not…are you?” Ino could imagine the hand gesture the man had used just then, and it wasn’t one she was happy to know. She was just about to get up and leave, completely disgusted, when Sasuke snorted.
“Hell no. The three of us work together. Sakura—the girl with the pink hair—is practically engaged. The other one, Ino, she’s not happy with me right now.” The water swished again. He must have turned back to face the old man. “I don’t know how to explain to her why I did what I did.” Another wet slap was heard. This time, it sounded like skin on skin. Had he smacked himself? “I mean, I know why, but if I tell her, she’ll kill me. Really. She will. Why are women so scary?”
“Look, kid, unless you tell her, she’ll probably kill you anyway. Happened with my sister. Her husband was cheating, she found out, and gave him multiple chances to tell her. He didn’t, so she beat him senseless, stripped him naked, tied him up, and left him at the nearest crossroads. I think he got picked up by the local circus.” The old man made a few derisive chuckles, presumably because of a face that Sasuke was making, and exited the bath.
“Damned bastards. Just because they have a few years on me…they don’t know everything.” Sasuke growled, and Ino heard a loud splash. It seemed that he was dunking himself. Ignoring the noises from the other side of the wall, she moved her hands over the water’s surface, and began to hum.
--
Sasuke came up from the third dunking he’d given himself, shook the water out of his hair, and leaned against the warm rocks. There was a light humming drifting over the wall. It got louder until a feminine voice began to sing a wordless tune, and he closed his eyes to listen. It was like the old stories his mother told him when he was a very little boy. “If you listen to the mermaid’s song, Sasuke-chan, you’ll be pulled in, and never return.” His mother had always told the best stories…
The voice became quiet, and then began again, this time in a low, brooding melody which, though it had no words, caused something in his chest to tighten. He could feel words trying to form, but not quite getting there. They were sad and angry, but never remorseful. The words that weren’t words flowed through his head, and he leaned his head back, letting the cool air of the room drift over him.
He would never be able to explain why, but he found a low musical sound coming from his own mouth, blending with that of the mermaid on the other side of the wall. Her voice caught for only a moment, then continued, lilting and mesmerizing, with his baritone forming the perfect counterpoint. For those few moments, he thought he knew what it was like to be happy, and to be at peace. When the voice from the other side of the wall suddenly stopped, he did as well, and then he heard splashing, indicating that she was leaving the bath. He smiled softly, opening his eyes.
He rose and got out of the bath, walking back to the changing room without bothering to get a towel. Sasuke was far too relaxed for modesty. The mermaid he’d heard had made sure of that. Taking one of the green (his least favorite color) yukata from the rack on the wall, he belted it around himself, and picked up the small basket that held his clothes and went to the room that he was assigned to. When he got there, he was just about to open the door when Sakura burst out of the room, smiling a little too widely. “Sasuke-kun, can I talk to you?”
“Sakura? What were you doing in my room?”
“Oh, um, about that. I was wondering if I could have this one. I can’t stand Ino’s snoring.” Sasuke’s eyes nearly fell from his face. She was trying to—[oh, no you don’t Sakura]. He shook his head. “Please? She’s a bear! The last time I had to room with her, I didn’t sleep at all. I get little enough as it is! Please, Sasuke?” [Oh, damn. Why did that pink-haired annoyance have to put it that way?]
Sighing, he said, “Fine. But if she kills me, it’s on your head. I’ll haunt you for all eternity.” Sakura smiled brightly, and shoved him into the room next door. He stumbled over his own feet, and had to catch himself on the wall to keep from falling. “Damned Sakura.” He set his things down on the small table, and then went to the futon nearest the window. It looked comfortable enough. When he lay down on it, he sighed. It was comfortable. Turning onto his side, he pulled the blanket over himself and closed his eyes, sleep taking him in a very few minutes.
--
A/N: So, what did you think? Next chapter will be up as soon as I finish editing it, and that will be the last one.
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Chapter notes: Hello, and welcome. This is another one of my attempts to figure out why Sasuke is the way he is. It's short. Only 2 chapters. Warnings...oh, yeah. Slight language warning, high angst warning, and uber-high devious Sasuke warning. Sasuke-lovers/fangirls might not want to read this, as it does tend toward bashing. I don't ABSOLUTELY hate the boy, I just think he's a jerk. A really big jerk. So, other than that, we get to see Ino and Sasuke pairing up habitually on missions, since oddly enough, she and Sakura are the 2 women in the village that AREN'T gaga over him. We also get to see Morino Idate, one of my favorite filler-characters. He's a minor plot device, people, and he will never be more than that, but he's a good kid. Oh, I almost forgot. For those of you who don't know, the Shintenshin is Ino's signature jutsu. And, I wanted to add that I use military time in this fic.
Legal Stuffiness: I don't own Naruto or any of the characters therein. Kisimoto Masashi, sole proprietor, and he owns my soul.
Huzzah for me being too lazy to learn how to use the html formatting! If you see
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this indicates a flashback. If you see
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it indicates Ino using the Shintenshin, and freaking the hell out of Sasuke. Have fun!