Seasons Change

Sakura sat on a weathered tree stump, her arms folded, tapping her right foot impatiently.

"Where are they?" she wondered out loud, glancing at her watch and groaned audibly. It was 6:35 in the morning and she had groggily rolled out of bed and gotten to the training grounds on time - for once. Seems the only time she put some real effort into getting someplace on time, the rest of her team decided to sleep in for five blissful more minutes.

"Figures," Sakura mumbled to herself, pushing a strand of her pale pink hair out of her emerald eyes. She yawned and stretched her long arms above her head.

'I'll just wait five more minutes and if they're not here then, I'll catch up on some sleep,' she thought. Sakura eased her slim body onto the carpet of grass surrounding the stump and lay down on her back, hands behind her head. She looked up at the sky and the leaves above her. It was just that time of year when the leaves were beginning to transform into those early autumn hues - fire engine red, brilliant orange, and an indescribable shade of gold. You could just get lost in their beauty, and that's what Sakura was thinking of doing when she closed her eyes gently. It was a deep thought, and it made Sakura tired.

'The world is such an enormous place,' she thought. 'I'm just a tiny speck of life, a drop of water in a rainstorm.' She was in that calm space between sleep and consciousness. It was a beautiful feeling when you were aware of it. She was drifting off into a peaceful, quiet slumber.

THUNK.

Sakura was jolted awake and realized that, instinctively, she had rolled over at the noise. Her head was shielded with her arms. A little more aware, she pulled a kunai out of her belt pocket, even though she knew it was probably useless. If the person - whoever it was - was intent on killing her, either she was dead already or would be in a matter of seconds.

'Well,' she thought at one glance at the grass beneath her feet, 'at least I'll die looking like I put up a fight.' Not like she had been sleeping carelessly in the woods. By herself. In the dark. Ok, she really didn't want to think about this now. She looked up cautiously, scanning the area for attackers. She saw no one. Then her eye caught a flash of blue. A very familiar shade of blue. Still sleep-deprived and disoriented, she couldn't quite put her finger on what made that blue so familiar - until someone spoke.

"You shouldn't be sleeping out here by yourself. You'll get yourself killed."

Sakura spun around, surprised. Sasuke? Her heart gave the slightest flutter, but then she remembered that noise that woke her up in the first place. She spun around to face the stump she had been sleeping in front of. Buried halfway in the bark was a silver shuriken. She looked back at the raven-haired boy. Did he have the tiniest bit of a smile on his face? She looked back at the weapon, back at Sasuke, weapon, Sasuke, weapon, Sasuke.

"Did…at...your - who's...you…YOU!" Sakura stuttered, pointing an accusing finger at Sasuke's chest. His smirk grew wider.

"Wha –? You threw a freaking knife at my HEAD?" Sakura was steaming. Sasuke was still smiling.

"You could have - I mean - ugh!" Sakura was clenching her fists so hard her fingers were white. Sasuke snorted.

"It woke you up, didn't it?" he laughed. Sakura's eyes narrowed. Then she sighed. It was no use fighting him, verbally or physically. She hated admitting defeat, but it was better than being - in a sense - ruthlessly attacked.

Instead, she grumbled, "Way to almost kill me." She stalked over to the stump where the weapon was embedded and tried pulling it out. No use.

It was buried in further than she thought. Bracing her foot on the stump, she pulled on the throwing star as hard as she could. It came out of the wood unexpectedly, making Sakura stumble backwards and almost fall over. Her face turned the color of a ripe tomato, and she looked at her shoes as she handed Sasuke back his shuriken. Sasuke reached out to take back his weapon, and their fingers touched, but too briefly. Sasuke pulled his hand from hers and turned away, his raven hair curtaining any expression on his face. Sakura felt her cheeks grow hot, hand still outstretched. Like always, but wait. She was still holding his shuriken. "You forgot to take your…thing," she said, gritting her teeth.

'You can't even touch my hand for one freaking second to take back your weapon!' Sakura wanted to scream. 'What's wrong with me? Am I that gross? What's my problem?'

She was still venting inside when she realized that Sasuke was watching her with a pained expression on his face.

"Nothing – I – I mean. I'll take this, sorry," he stumbled over his words. He never lost his composure. Ever. What happened - oh, crap. Had she just said all that stuff she was thinking out loud? Sasuke snatched his shuriken away and sat on the ground several feet away from where Sakura was. No wonder. Sakura sunk to the ground next to the stump and leaned her head against it. Not getting enough sleep can do crazy things to you.

It was almost eight o'clock and still it was only Sasuke and Sakura at the training grounds. There was definitely an issue here. Sakura had spent most of the morning dozing on and off, but now it was getting to sunny to sleep. She probably wouldn't have been able to fall asleep anyway – her stomach was growling so loud she could swear it was echoing throughout the valley. It must have been somewhat audible because she saw Sasuke look over in her direction when it rumbled. She stood up and stretched her arms over her head. Flopping down on the stump, Sakura grabbed her bag and started sifting through its contents. She was sure that she had a protein bar in there somewhere. She pulled up a flattened wrapper and swore. Crumpling it into a ball, she threw it to the ground, grumbling. She smelled coffee and eyed Sasuke sipping an expresso out of a sweating paper mug. Sakura fumbled through her own bag again, this time searching for something to drink. When she came up with the empty glass bottle, her stomach rumbled exceptionally loud.

"God!" Sakura yelled into her bag. She heard a watery snort of laughter and looked over at Sasuke who have been mid-sip when he found her dilemma so amusing. He had somehow inhaled coffee up his nose, which he was now wiping off his face with the side of his arm. The smirk was still there, though.

Sakura crossed her arms and decided she'd go hungry, but her stomach thought otherwise. The intestinal growl sent Sasuke into a fit of poorly concealed laughter. He didn't know what hit him when Sakura dumped half of the coffee on his head. She was back down calmly, sipping the rest of his coffee while Sasuke gaped open mouthed at her boldness. It took a taste of the hot coffee on her upper lip for Sakura to realize what she had just done.

She jumped up, sending the rest of the hot coffee up into the air and showered down onto her. Ignoring the blisters on her arm from the hot espresso, she ran over to Sasuke, almost skidding into him on her knees when she knelt down to face him.

"Oh my gosh!" she yelled, pulling the hem of her skirt up to help wipe off the coffee running down his face. She could see the angry burns around his hairline and on his forehead. Sasuke was too shocked to say anything, but he pulled away from her touch and leaned back onto the ground, his hand on his forehead gingerly. His lips parted and formed a silent "ow". His eyes were closed. Sakura was too horrified to think and she tore the bottom of her skirt as a rag. She sprinted to the stream and plunged her ripped skirt into the current. She gasped at the cold water. After drenching her makeshift rag she ran back to Sasuke and squeezed the water out over his face. He choked when some dribbled into his open mouth and he sat up abruptly, coughing violently. Sakura replied with slapping her sopping, makeshift rag on his forehead. Sasuke gasped at the cold and stopped coughing. Sakura helped him lean back down and took the rag, gently dabbing at his face.

"Ohmagod! Ohmagod! Ohmagod! Ohmagod! Ohmagod! Ohmagod! Ohma-mph" Sakura had been muttering under her breath when Sasuke's hand shot up and slapped over her mouth. Sasuke's lips started moving, but Sakura couldn't hear what he was trying to say. She moved closer to him, trying to make out his words.

"—And so I was trying to catch that butterfly…" Sasuke had been explaining. He sounded like he had not yet turned eight years old. Sakura glanced around nervously. Was she about to get "Punk'd"? Then she smelled the alcohol. Had she imagined it, or did Sasuke's breath smell like –? She leapt up and ran over to the fallen coffee cup. Good, there was still a little expresso left in the bottom. Sakura ran her finger through it and put it to her tongue. Vodka?

"Oh my gosh," Sakura thought to herself. "Sasuke is so drunk." No wonder he had been acting so…nice. And talkative. She held up the empty mug so Sasuke could see it.

"How many of these have you had?" she demanded. Sasuke held up five fingers and waved them at her, grinning sheepishly. Sakura walked over to where Sasuke was now sitting up, and looked into his eyes. They were sparkling.

"Are you…STUPID?" she screamed, slapping Sasuke across the face. She didn't care if she hurt him now. Sasuke responded with a roar of laughter. Sakura had to chuckle herself. Gosh, he must be so wasted.

"Well," she thought, "at least he doesn't get mad when he's a…lot…tipsy. He actually seems pretty happy." But still. And she had a hard time believing he would actually do this to himself. But what else could she believe? She sighed and looked off into the distance and swore when she saw two familiar shapes. She couldn't let Kakashi and Naruto see Sasuke like this.

Kakashi and Naruto were in a deep conversation about the newest Icha Icha book when Sakura hurried past them pushing Sasuke by the shoulders. He had a wet rag on his forehead.

"Wait," Kakashi spoke almost absentmindedly. "We're here, you can't just leave." Sakura spoke breathlessly.

"Sasuke's really sick," she explained. "I need to get him home or something." As if on cue, Sasuke's mouth lolled open, exposing almost painfully straight, white teeth. They would have made a dentist jealous.

"What from?" Kakashi asked. He did not seem overly worried for Sasuke.

"Er…food poisoning." Sakura hadn't thought about this answer, so she sounded unconvincing. "Or…or something. I don't know!" she almost cried out. "But I'm really worried!" Okay, that was believable.

Naruto, who had been oddly quiet, blurted out, "Or was it alcohol poisoning?" Sakura's eyes widened, then narrowed at the blonde.

"How do you – I mean, why do you say that?" she sputtered.

"Well," Naruto began, grinning foolishly. "Last night I was bored and had a lot of energy –"

"I believe that," Kakashi interjected. Naruto stopped smiling. "Well, anyway, so –" This time Naruto interrupted himself with a chuckle.

"So, you know how the Starbucks is next to the bar?" Sakura nodded slowly. She had a feeling she knew where this was going. "Well, there's a pipe going to water from the Starbucks, and a small tube for alcohol from the bar."

"And —?" Sakura urged impatiently.

"And so I switched them."

"You switched them?" repeated Kakashi. "Mm…"

"So now all the water in Starbucks is vodka and all the vodka in the bar is water," finished Naruto, proudly.

"So all morning people have been flushing their toilets and washing dishes with vodka." Sakura crossed her arms.

"And making coffee with it!" Naruto laughed. Kakashi snorted, the farthest he could get from laughing.

"You know how many people buy coffee at Starbucks and then go driving to work?" he asked Naruto. The blonde stared at him blankly.

"So?" he replied. Then, after noticing the stares and raised eyebrows – and a complimentary crash and several screams from behind – his face fell.

"Craaap," he whined. His intellectual response was answered with a blow to the head. Even he could tell Sakura was mad.

"Sasuke drank five freaking coffees this morning, you…STUPID!" Naruto's eyes widened. Kakashi burst out laughing – Sasuke staggered and collapsed to the ground in a heap. Kakashi laughed harder, but shut up when Sakura gave him an icy glare.

"You could have killed him!" Sakura shouted louder this time. Naruto still hadn't moved from his stupor. She slapped him a second time, his only response a slow blink.

Pulling Sasuke to his feet, Sakura roughly pushed him forward.

"Are we going to the playground now?" he slurred. She lightly slapped him on the back of the head and led him away.

When the pair was finally out of earshot, Kakashi chuckled at what had happened. He pulled out his book and walked away from Naruto, who was still in the same position. When he finally came to his senses, his loud "ouch" was heard only by the few birds in the trees above him.