Author's Note: Timeline is a little fuzzy in this one, but let's just overlook that. I'm a sucker for Team Seven love and smut. You COULD consider this an alternate universe where Sakura actually talks to boys outside of Team Seven, and where Sasuke comes back to the village of his own volition – but really, it's just a universe I dreamed up in my head.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything in this fanfic. I don't own Naruto, or it would end up like this.
While they might be capable of pummeling each other to a near pulp, and sometimes to a pulp, the members of Team Seven were nothing short of inseparable. Even when Sasuke wasn't with them, Naruto and Sakura would always go to lunch and dinner with each other, and Kakashi had been known to join on occasion. On top of that, ever since Sasuke had gotten back to the village a few months ago (all red-faced, panting, and scraped up like he'd just ran for miles to get back to them), the four of them trained together, ate together, and even had sleepovers at Kakashi's apartment occasionally. That's why it went without say that something was up once Sakura stopped showing up to the training sessions, and never made an effort to go to dinner afterwards.
Oddly enough, Sasuke was the first one to point this out. Team Seven, minus their beloved pinkette, were sitting in the third training ground, taking a breather after a heavy bout of free-for-all taijutsu. The admittedly weary Uchiha took a swig from a leather flask, and wiped his mouth on the back of his forearm. He turned towards Kakashi and Naruto; the blonde was chugging the rest of his water bottle, and Kakashi was sipping from his own flask through his mask. Sasuke considered them for a moment, before they both turned their attention to him. Naruto crushed his water bottle, and threw it to his side.
"What's up, ya' bastard?" The jinchūriki questioned him amicably.
"I was thinking," Sasuke trailed off, "… We haven't seen much of Sakura lately."
Naruto broke out into a feral grin, "What, you come back and you just think you can have Sakura-chan just like that? Nuh uh, no way – I'm the one that's had to deal with all those beatings!" He was getting ready to pounce at that bastard, Sasuke, once again, before Kakashi intervened with a few sobering words.
"She doesn't belong to either of you," the grey-haired nin pointed out, then flashed a toothy grin under his mask, "… in reality, she's all of ours."
"Ew, you're gross."
"Really, you shouldn't say things like that. Pervert."
Kakashi could practically feel their judgmental stares pummeling the back of his head as he turned away out of shame. He cleared his throat and stared at his two pupils. "Although, Sasuke is right. Do either of you know what she's been up to?"
"Well, I heard from Ino-chan that Sakura-chan got a boyfriend," Naruto finally offered up.
Suddenly, he was staring into three eyes full of animosity, not necessarily directed towards him, mostly towards whoever dared to court Sakura without their permission. Suddenly, and with great reason, Naruto felt extremely cornered.
"How long ago did you find this out?"
"Why didn't you tell us when you found out?"
Naruto scrambled up, and standing, he backed away from the two men that were suddenly encroaching on his space. "I-I don't know," he stuttered, "I didn't think it was a big deal! Do you think that's why she won't hang out with us anymore?"
With that question, it looked like Kakashi and Sasuke wanted to grab him by the neck of his jumpsuit and shake him. "Are you stupid?" Sasuke squinted his eyes at him, looking him over like he was trying to find some sort of malady. "Of course that's why," their sensei took a deep breath and wiped sweat off his brow. A sudden, particularly loud growl from Naruto's stomach snapped everyone back to reality. It was about dinner time, and they were all a little hungry and irritable. "Guess it's time for dinner," Kakashi remarked matter-of-factly. "Ramen?" Naruto happily offered, nearly drooling. "Why not," Sasuke replied, as he had learned from years of being around his teammate, there was no use in arguing. "Fine with me," the Copy Nin agreed and so, they made their way to Ichiraku with a certain kunoichi still in the back of all of their minds.
"I'm tellin' you, man, there's no way it'll last too long. I'll make sure of that," Naruto exclaimed, spewing ramen broth and chewed up noodles in Sasuke's direction. The Uchiha grimaced, shot him a dirty look, and wiped himself off carefully. "It better not. I'm tired of her thinking she can skip out on training, and still expect to go on missions with us," Sasuke tapped his chopsticks against the table, not harboring as much of an appetite as Naruto. "Yeah, likely excuse. Whatever you say." Naruto rolled his eyes, smirking to himself at Sasuke's nonchalant exterior. He knew Sasuke was actually clamming up on the inside, at the thought of Sakura with another man. Kakashi was taking advantage of his student's back-and-forth banter to sneak bites of ramen beneath his mask.
"We should tell him about the time she peed her pants on that mission, because we scared her while she was hiding in a bush. Do you think he's a civilian or a ninja?" Naruto pondered ideas on how to scare him out of his wits and away from Sakura-chan.
"There's no way she would date a ninja," Kakashi reasoned, shaking his head. Upon saying that, all three of their moods darkened considerably, realizing that they were ninjas.
(Meanwhile, in a restaurant on the other side of the district, Sakura was sneezing uncontrollably at the dinner table. She apologized to her boyfriend and shot him a sheepish smile before continuing to explain what it was like to be a ninja, as he stared on in awe.)
"Well, whatever he is. We need to stop this before it gets too out of hand. Any plans?" Sasuke question grimly, looking between his two teammates. His hands were folded across a bottle of sake, and his chin rested on his hands.
Naruto slurped up the last of his ramen, and let his eyes wander around the ramen stand as he thought deeply. "We could sneak into her apartment. Like we do to Kakashi-sensei!" His eyes lit up and he exclaimed his brilliant idea.
"That's an awful, disgusting idea. She'd be upset with us." Sasuke shot another disgruntled look at Naruto, but he had to admit – he didn't really care if Sakura was upset with them, as long as she was safe and out of her boyfriend's probably harmful, tight, ugly grasp.
"Why didn't you care if you'd upset me by sneaking into my apartment?" Kakashi frowned, furrowing his eyebrows at the two of them. "It's not a bad idea," he decided with finality, and took a sip from his glass of sake.
"So, that's what we're gonna do, right?" The blonde grinned widely.
"Unless anyone can think of anything better." Kakashi might not be expressing it as wildly as his younger students, but he was suffering thinking of how that guy got to touch Sakura, his favorite student, in ways he never imagined… until now. The grey-haired sensei gave a thick cough, and downed the rest of his sake.
The three men of Team Seven began mapping out her apartment and how they would go about sneaking in. It wasn't too hard to figure out - all three of them had visited before, and a good ninja always cases their environment. They decided to go right after dinner, just in case Sakura had plans on bringing the guy back to her place. All three agreed not to intervene with a goodnight kiss, no matter how hard it would be. They also agreed not to knock him out, whisk Sakura away, or throw a couple of kunai at her and the boy as warning shots. The plan went like this: spy on them as much as possible, wait for Sakura to go into her house, and wait in her bedroom for her, so they could all give her a nice, in-depth talking-to for abandoning them the past few weeks.
The trio snuck to the roof of her apartment, and peered over into the street to watch for any stray pink-haired girls with any particularly ratty looking boyfriends. They actually had no idea what he looked like, but they liked to assume. It made them feel better. In a ninja village, it wasn't rare to see people on the roofs, during the daytime or the night. Although they had concealed their chakra, all of them made certain to stay low to the roof as Sakura was also a shinobi. The few odd scares of people with blonde hair tinted pink in the red lights of restaurants kept the three of them on edge. No conversation was released between any of them; they were used to stalking missions, after all. Sometimes even the slightest noise could put you in harm's way. In this case, if they were caught, harm's way was Sakura's fist connecting to each one of their skulls.
Finally, after about two hours of hunting with hungry eyes though crowds, Kakashi spotted the shock of pink and pointed quickly, so that the other two noticed as well. The impatient thought on all of their minds was asking them where she had been for so long, and who she had been with. The question was so close to being answered.
As Sakura thinned out from the crowd among the streets and walked towards her apartment, they realized a brunette man in civilian's clothes was following behind her and holding her pretty, delicate… soft hand. Naruto gave a quiet sigh at the thought of holding Sakura-chan's hand. Sasuke's eyes burned ferociously with his sharingan in tow. Kakashi narrowed his eyes, following that hand wherever it went.
Slowly, but surely, the couple made their way up to Sakura's apartment and stood on her balcony outside of her door for a moment. The boy had taken his hand from hers, and was now moving to brush her hair behind her ear while saying something about how much he enjoyed the night. Sakura was leaning into that very hand, clearly enjoying the prospect of what was coming next. The trio above them, looking on wearily, was on the literal edge of their seats. They were very close to falling off of that roof and pouncing on him and their beloved. "Well, goodnight, Ryo-chan, I really enjoyed tonight, too." Sakura hugged Ryo, and shot him a smile that made the trio's hearts melt as she turned away, even though that wasn't intended on her behalf at all.
Naruto looked like he might cry at any given moment. Sasuke was chewing his bottom lip. Kakashi's fingers wouldn't stop fidgeting against his pant leg. The suspense was chewing at them all. Sakura was ready to go into her apartment, but Ryo was clearly leaning in for a kiss, his lips protruding in almost a goofy-fashion. Clearly, this was lost on Sakura. He leaned in a little further. She backed up and flashed a more awkward smile at him, and gave a short giggle. "Well… Um. Do you want to see each other tomorrow?" She asked, still confused at what he wanted from her. Ryo didn't respond, instead he leaned even closer so that their faces were almost touching. Sakura took a step back, and raised an eyebrow. "Oh… kay. I'm gonna go now. Goodnight!" She pecked him on the cheek, and opened her apartment door and disappeared behind it.
The trio shared looks of elation as they made their way across the roof. Their well-trained ears heard Sakura tidying up her place outside of her bedroom, and they took that opportunity to carefully open the window and sneak through, only to sit down on her mattress promptly. Her three teammates didn't have time to be triumphant and laugh at Ryo, as they were too busy rehearsing their speeches in their heads. All of them were fidgeting.
Sakura took a deep breath and exhaled a sigh. She was absolutely exhausted from the long day of walking around with Ryo, visiting the market, eating dinner, and brushing off that awkward encounter a few minutes ago. Seriously, what had just gotten into him? He hadn't even answered her about tomorrow. Why did she have the worst luck with boys? She wondered as she made her way through the hallway that connected her bedroom to the living room. The pinkette opened the door to her bedroom, and switched on the light with her back to the room.
Author's Note: I am so so happy with how this is turning out so far. I should have the second chapter out very soon! READ & REVIEW, love you guys