Prologue
The war had been devastating for the alliance, more than half of the force had been wiped out. Torn between grief and joy, the shinobi world united once and for all in peace.
Rain pelted against Sakura's office window, the power was out, and all she had for light was a tiny candle that she managed to grope from her emergency desk drawer.
"Do I really want to go out into the rain just to get home?" she thought to herself as she gazed out her window. "It's not like I'm going to get much work done, especially with this sad excuse for a light source." Finally deciding she would rather sleep on her office couch, she stretched and lazily sorted her work into two piles: 'This is easy' and 'I will do this when I want to get a splitting headache'. The second pile overshadowed the first.
Glancing at her clock, she noted that it was well past 2 a.m.; she had been working since noon almost nonstop. Walking towards the comfortable couch in her office, she slumped onto its squishy cushions and leaned against the back.
"I'll just sleep here in the office… it's not like I haven't done it before and I have spare clothes and toothbrush stashed here anyway…" Using her cell phone, she set her alarm for 5, 5:15, and 5:30 a.m. "This should give me enough time to get up and get ready for training." Smiling contently to herself she laid down on her couch, pulled down the decorative throw blanket over her, shut her eyes, and slowly drifted to sleep.
To Sakura, it felt like had shut her eyes for 5 minutes when suddenly loud bangs woke her up. Startled, she opened her eyes, and reached for the Kunai under her couch. Just as a lighting bolt flashed, she saw a figure looming over her office window, casting a creepy ominous shadow into her office.
"SAKURA! OPEN THE WINDOW IT'S SO COLD OUT HERE!" a voice bellowed from outside. Recognizing the voice, she groaned and begrudgingly shuffled across her office to open the window. Squinting her eyes to get a better view at the visitor, she saw that she actually had two tall soaking wet and shivering visitors. Sighing, she opened her window and allowed the two to clime into her office and drip puddles onto her floor.
The first to come in was no other than Naruto Uzumaki himself. Now at the mature age of 24, he was less hyperactive, slightly wiser and more prone to thinking before acting. Beside him was the dark and cold Sasuke Uchiha, who observed his surroundings. His obsessive-compulsive disorder kicked in and he moved to straighten up Sakura's chaotic office, being careful to avoid eye contact with her desk.
Once he had foolishly reorganized the papers on her desk only to have his face slammed into the desk by an enraged Sakura.
"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?! YOU COMPLETELY MESSED UP MY PAPERS! YOU CAN TOUCH AND MOVE ANYTHING YOU WANT IN MY OFFICE BUT THE THINGS ON MY DESK! DO YOU UNDERSTAND UCHIHA? THE NEXT TIME YOU LAY A FINGER ON MY DESK I WILL BREAK YOUR FACE WITH THIS DESK!" Sakura shrieked as she slammed Sasuke's face onto her desk with every emphasized shriek. With a final slam and kick to the butt, she opened her office window on the 5th floor of the hospital and proceeded to drop the unconscious butt face out of her office. Sasuke could have sworn his face and butt were never felt the same after that incident… and he still flinched whenever Sakura touched his face.
Ignoring the Uchiha, Sakura stared at the dripped wet Jinchurikin in front of her. "What are you doing here...at 3:08 in the morning dripping wet?" she asked, crossing her arms across her chest as she stared sternly at Naruto who grinned in response.
"We were trying to see who would beat who in this kind of weather! GUESS WHO WON SAKURA-CHAN!" the jinchurikin bellowed, his eyes widening and pursed his lips. The boy tried to contain his excitement, however, before Sakura could even open her mouth, he screamed, "I WON!" He flapped his arms like a bird and spun around in circles.
Sakura sighed and glanced at Sasuke, finally noticing the bruises and cuts on the tall and dark ninja. She tried to ignore the way his clothes clung to his well-defined figure and the water droplets that fell from the ends of his hair and onto his face… down his chin… on to his neck… and down his Adam's apple… Sakura involuntary shivered and sent a glare at Sasuke as though it was his fault the water droplet distracted her and caused her to shiver.
Sasuke, who had noticed her attention smirked and resumed his task of organizing after eyeing the pink-haired kunoichi. She had grown a few centimeters after the war but was still considerably shorter than the two males in her office. The young woman had developed a shapely body, though not as shapely as her best friend, Konoha's own blond bombshell aka, Ino Yamanaka. Sakura had a less top heavy, innocent, and unique appearance that left many eyes following her wherever she went. After studying her figure, Sasuke resumed his task.
Reverting her attention back to Naruto, she raised an eyebrow and stared at him suspiciously. "So why are you guys here..? Why didn't you just go back to your mansion?" she asked.
Sasuke responded, "We also took a bet on whether you would still be here or not. I won."
Sakura glanced behind her shoulder at Sasuke only to notice he had finished organizing her office- excluding her desk- like an anal cleanliness monster. "Why would you guys make that kind of bet? So silly…" she muttered to herself before turning back to her comfy couch. "If that's all you guys wanted you should just leave. I'm going back to sleep."
"But Sakura-chan… We're cold and wet and we don't want to back outside into the storm!" Naruto whined and shot pleading eyes towards Sakura's turned back. She groaned and spun around.
"FINE! But you two are sleeping on the floor! But be sure to strip off your wet clothes and dry off before you guys go to sleep got it?" With that, Sakura lied back on to her couch and promptly fell asleep.
A/N: Not much to go on. But I hoped you guys liked it so far... I will include my take/prediction of how the war will pan out. I wrote up a whole background for this fanfic, hopefully I will be able to incorporate it into this story!
Also! I've written the background based on what happens in the manga up to chapter 638 because that was the last chapter I read before starting this fanfic.
Reviews and feedback are welcome.
Naruto original characters and plot belongs to the amazing mangaka, Masashi Kishimoto!
