Uchiha Sasuke hated to be touched.
So when Naruto, his self-proclaimed best-his only- friend, slung an arm around his shoulder, he violently shrugged it off with a scowl. Naruto knew exactly how much Sasuke detested human contact, but he persisted in touching him, saying that he was helping him get over his "weird, antisocial phobias."
Sasuke shot him a narrow-eyed look of contempt. "Don't touch me, dobe."
"Aw, come on, Sasuke, how are you ever going to revive your clan if you'll never let anyone close to you? I think it's time we had a talk about the birds and the bees. You see, there is a good deal of touching involved…" He continued to drone on about "positions" and "intimate connections" while Sasuke pointedly turned his head away and tuned him out. A light chuckle to his right drew his attention away from studiously ignoring Naruto. He looked down at the head of bright pink hair at his side. Sakura's shoulders were shaking with suppressed laughter, her eyes alight with mirth as she watched Naruto make lewd hand gestures to accompany his explanation. Several passing jounin laughed and mothers covered their children's eyes and ears, hurry away with glares.
"And then you drive your-"
"Okay, Naruto! That's enough!" Sakura sharply cut off Naruto's lesson by reaching around Sasuke, careful to avoid touching him, and smacking the back of his head.
"Aww, but Sakura-chan! I was just getting to the important part," Naruto complained, lifting a hand to the back of his skull and rubbing sheepishly.
"Well, I'm sure Sasuke is perfectly aware of how it works," she replied, staring him down until he subsided. She turned from him, surveying Training Ground Three, her eyes becoming calculating as she surveyed the area, no doubt already formulating a battle plan that would drive her two teammates to their limits. She may not have chakra reserves as massive as Naruto or be as fast as Sasuke, but she was incredibly intelligent and could manipulate almost any situation to her advantage. Ruefully, Sasuke reflected on the first and last time he had underestimated her since his return.
It had been almost a year ago, and Naruto had finally succeeded in reuniting Team Three for a sparring session. Sasuke had written Sakura off as a tagalong to a more serious fight, and had intended to incapacitate her quickly before directing all of his attention to Naruto, who was to him the only opponent worthy of his time. As soon as they'd started, he'd leaped at her from behind, intent on jabbing the pressure point at the back of her neck. Much to his surprise, she'd somehow twisted her body, taking the sharp blow on her shoulder. Sasuke'd only had a split second to be surprised before his stomach had erupted in agony and he'd gone flying backward, crashing through four trees before smashing against the trunk of a great oak and collapsing on the ground, unable to move, let alone breathe. Shocked, he'd stared through the trailing of trees he gone through- they were completely shattered, he'd noted- at Sakura. She'd been walking casually toward him, face neutral. When she'd reached him, she'd crouched in front of him and told him to never go for that point on her body again. Then, completely contradicting the harsh reprimand, she'd moved to lift up his shirt.
Panicked that she was going to take advantage of his incapacitated state and molest him, he'd slapped her hand away. Rolling her eyes, she pushed him down and restrained both his arms in one hand, pushing his shirt up and healing him with the other. By this point Naruto had shown up and was beaming gleefully at him over Sakura's shoulder.
"Sakura-chan is strong, ne?"
It sounded like a taunt. Sasuke scoffed and turned his head away, ignoring the crawling feeling he got from someone else's skin touching his. It felt like hours before Sakura finished, though it couldn't have been longer than a minute, and she was nothing but clinically professional about it. Sakura stood and offered him her hand, which he once again batted away before standing on his own.
"Well, I'm going to go back to the hospital. I don't feel like training anymore. Thanks for the opportunity to stretch my legs, Naruto." It didn't escape Sasuke that she completely ignored him as she turned and kissed the idiot on the cheek. Then, much to Sasuke's surprise, Sakura turned toward him and said with just a touch of cheek, "Sorry for breaking your ribs. Let's all do this again sometime."
As she'd turned away, lifting a hand over her shoulder in farewell, Sasuke could have sworn he'd seen humor glimmering in her eyes.
"I've got you, bastard!"
Sasuke was jerked from his reverie by Naruto's obnoxious voice. He leaped backward to avoid a kick and retaliated by whipping a handful of shuriken at him. They struck with a thump, and the clone disappeared in a puff of smoke. Sasuke pivoted on his foot, sending a roundhouse kick at Sakura, who'd appeared from behind. She blocked it with her forearm, wrapping her fingers around his calf and flinging him at Naruto. He struck him in the chest with his feet, and bounded off the ground with his hands. The three of them stood in a triangle, panting lightly. Sakura tightened her gloves before drawing a fist back and driving it into the ground. Naruto and Sasuke leaped off the ground and into the trees, both staring down into the cloud of dust, awaiting her next move. Sasuke's eyes narrowed, detecting movement, and he leaped out of the tree to avoid the massive chunk of earth that came flying at him. Across the field, he heard Naruto yelp as he faced the same attack.
"Sakura-chan! You cant throw boulders! It's not normal!"
"I'll show you not normal, you baka!"
It seemed that their blond teammate would never cease to be amazed at Sakura's inhuman strength. Sasuke still had to hide how impressed he was at how easily she hefted four-ton boulders like it was nothing and swung trees at them like they are twigs. Speaking of. Sasuke shielded his face as splinters flew at him from the tree she had just shattered, the tree Naruto had been perched in not a moment ago. Sasuke landed on the ground; the three teammates were once again facing off in a triangle. He shifted his feet, squaring his stance, and they leaped into battle, engaging in rapid taijutsu.
Their forms blurred across the field, a body occasionally being thrown back before leaping back into the fray. Sweat beaded on Sasuke's face. His breaths came harshly. Occasionally one of his teammates would land a blow, touching him for a brief second before dodging away from an attack. This, he didn't mind. Contact with the express purpose of causing pain was tolerable.
Pain, he could tolerate.
Pain, he could understand.