Front-flip, double back-kick, upside-down roundhouse, right hook, left hook, three jabs, uppercut to the gut, flip back.
Sakura knew the routine well. She had been doing every day for training.
Naruto would always complain that she beat his shadow clones too fast, and she would argue that she was just efficient. This normally ended with her beating him into the ground and walking away as Kakashi sighed over the top of his Icha Icha Paradisu: Yoru ni.
She had to sigh at the mundane way her day went. At seventeen, this was a bit of a disgrace. She would rather have her hours at the hospital back, but Tsunade refused to, saying the young kunoichi worked too much when she had hospital hours, sometimes not sleeping for days straight.
Was it her fault she enjoyed being close to her mother and cousin, and did not enjoy being close to her father's idiots.
The day Sakura became in ANBU at the age of sixteen, the Harunos took her to the side and told her that they adopted her, and her real parents were Tsunade and Jaraiya. Tsunade and Jiraiya wanted Sakura to come live with them again, now that they were married.
"We're sorry, sweetie," she heard a hundred times. "We couldn't tell you before."
Sakura rolled her eyes as she climbed a tree to relax for another hour or so before lunch with Naruto at Ichiraku's.
"Sakura, can you forgive us? We only wanted you to be happy. We wanted to see you grow up with a real family. One that loved you and gave you their undivided attention."
And she was happy, albeit a little annoyed at the bullshit, because out of all the people that could've been her birth-parents, she would want it to be the perv and the godaime that helped raise her to be the kunoichi she was.
But things were different. Sasuke would be coming back to their team tomorrow. He was in critical condition and the Elders were no more. Those that survived or ran were quickly rounded up by the ANBU and were being held for questioning and punishment.
Tsunade had told Sakura when she came home the day before that Sasuke had been improving dramatically and would be in condition to start training and re-entering the team. She warned Sakura not to get hung up on him, and to enjoy whatever time she may have with her teammates as teammates only.
Sakura laughed in her tree as she thought of what that might mean. As if Sasuke would make a move at her. And Naruto was more of a brother than anything.
In fact, he was her godbrother. Jiraiya had taken the responsibility from his parents, though Jiraiya had gone missing in the mountains for a long time.
The kunoichi started to hum and soon lulled herself to sleep. After what seemed like five minutes she was being poked on the shoulder and she sighed as she swatted away the hand. "Not now, Naruto."
Silence.
"If I wanted to kill you, you'd have died without a fight," an apathetic voice replied.
Sakura's eyes shot up. "Sasuke-kun? Aren't you still at the hospital? Okaasan said you weren't being released until tomorrow."
He smirked at the fact she still used the -kun, his -kun, and shrugged stiffly. He would never tell her why he smirked, or that he was still hurt. "I was under the impression since I got here I would be released today. Tomorrow I will join the team again."
She smiled. "Like the good times," she said softly.
He rolled his eyes as the smirk disappeared. He got down from the tree and started to walk off. Sasuke heard Sakura land next to him in her soft, feminine steps and he kept moving. How could he make the kunoichi go away?
"So, what are you doing later?" she asked, wondering if she could talk him into having dinner with the team and their families, as they did once a week since Naruto was an ANBU at fifteen.
"Why?" he asked, apathetic to cover his disappointment. He thought by now Sakura stopped liking him. It was annoying and a hindrance to the team. Besides, he didn't like her.
"Do you want to come over?" she asked. "I'm making tomato soup with pasta and fresh tomato and basil sauce. It's like the only thing I'm good at besides instant ramen. And Hinata and I decided it was best to keep Naruto far away from it."
She smiled and laughed at the memory of the first night they had a Family Night. Naruto whined for hours that Tsunade had made some kind of meat and no ramen for him. The meal was very good, and even Naruto could reluctantly admit it.
Ever since, everyone would make something other than ramen, except for Naruto.
He forced them all to eat ramen on his night.
"Tempting, but no," he replied, walking away. Did she know he liked tomato? That was so unfair, to use his love of the red fruit to lure him into a date.
Sakura was crestfallen, but she would give up. It wasn't like she had never been rejected before, especially from her stoic teammate. "All right," she told him, shrugging.
She stopped and he did too, a few feet ahead of her. He could hear how hurt she was, but Sasuke couldn't understand why he felt bad she was hurt. It wasn't like he even liked the girl. She was a no-name brat that never did anything but cry and annoy him.
He turned to see her smile softly. "It's good to see you back, Sasuke-kun," she told him, earnest. "If you change your mind and you want some company later, don't hesitate to stop by Jiraiya's house. We'd love to see you."
She walked away and Sasuke's pride refused to let him go after her and ask why she was with Jiraiya, why she was asking him out if she was seeing...why she was seeing the hokage's husband. Maybe it was a threesome.
Or she was a research model for Jiraiya, and he was supposed to star in his next novel with Sakura.
But he was too smart for that. He would never let them use him, hurt him. He hadn't faced all the demons in the world just to fall to this one.
"What's a crush to do?" Sakura sang as she walked to the training field. She had just been listening to a band Temari told her about, and now she had the song stuck in her head. "I've got birds in my ears and a devil on my shoulders."
"Morning, Sakura!" Naruto replied. "You sound happy today."
"I am," she replied, smiling. She smiled at Sasuke. "Good morning, Sasuke-kun," she greeted, tilting her head and smiling softly as she looked at him. "Still brooding, huh? You should've stopped by last night. Sai and Yamato wanted to meet you."
"Who?" he asked, glaring.
So she was a whore now. And she still had a huge crush on him. A pity. She would've made a pretty wife. he would've asked her, too. He was the most comfortable with her out of all the females in Konoha.
And he would not ask Karin if his life and the future of the Uchiha depended on it.
Naruto filled in the gaps. "The guy that replaced you and the guy that led us when we invaded the Sound base a few years ago. Sakura and Sai are really close, 'cause she saved his life."
Sakura snorted. "Yeah, real grateful, too," she commented. "Can you believe he still won't stop calling me a hag?"
"I know. But he's been calling you a hag since you were little. How did you even know Sai as a kid? He randomly whipped out a photo album last night."
Last night, Sasuke thought. So naruto was there too. What the hell was Jiraiya trying to write about? An orgy?
She smiled softly. "You saw the pictures. We were friends through the Sand Siblings. I remember the day Sai went missing. Tema-chan wouldn't stop crying, and Gaara tried ordering a whole search party for him...Me and Kanku-chan knocked out in the corner. We didn't really care much."
Naruto laughed and sat on a tree branch. "Did you ever tell Sai?"
"Why do you think he calls me names?" she replied, sitting in another tree. "Kanku-chan and I knew he'd be okay, no matter where he was. It should've been a compliment to him that we weren't worried."
Sasuke sighed and looked around for the sensei. He couldn't stand anymore talk about how long Sakura had been a whore.
Since she was a child? And with the Sand Siblings?
"Kakashi, you're late," Sakura replied dully, lying back in the tree before she swung upside-down on the branch. "Did you leave Anko's panties at my house?" she asked, guilelessly.
Kakashi blushed and put Icha Icha Paradisu: Watashi to issho ni kite kudasai down. "Did Jiraiya give them to you to give back to me?" he asked, ashamed.
"Nope. He said that you had to go by later and pick them up so he could ask you something about his new book," she replied, flipping down off the tree. "I think Tousan wants you to read it before he publishes it. By the way, don't procreate in my room."
"But yours is the only one without cameras set up to watch the sex," Kakashi told her. "And you know how jittery Anko gets when we're on film."
Sasuke's eyes grew wide. Sakura had sex with Anko? And someone taped it?
"Ya think? I thought she'd slit my throat for recording the wedding, and you guys weren't even kissing," Sakura replied. "Just leave my room alone, or eventually Tousan will put cameras in, and I'll have to kill you because ew. My dad watching me change and shower just because he wants to watch you and Anko have sex?" she said, shaking her head disturbed. "I think you can leave each other alone once a week for me."
Kakashi looked at her and sighed. "Fine. For the sake of my goddaughter one day being able to have sex without the worry of being taped."
Sasuke consciously made an effort to stop his jaw from dropping. Sakura was Kakashi's goddaughter? And a virgin? Then Sasuke realized Sakura had been calling Jiraiya her father, and how the day before she called Tsunade her mother.
Was it possible he was wrong? About everything?
"Okay," Kakashi said, picking the book back up. "Since Naruto has a date, Sakura go practice with Sasuke for a while. First to take down all the other's clones, wins and doesn't have to host next week's Family Night."
"Family Night?" Sasuke asked Sakura when they went off on their own far away on the training field. "What's that?"
She laughed. "It's what I invited you to last night," she replied. "The whole team gets together and brings their family, and we pig out, and watch movies, and Kakashi and Anko have sex somewhere, and Naruto tries to deny there's food in the world besides ramen, and Hina-chan and I laugh over whatever happened in the hospital or what Ino and Shika-san did or Ten-chan and Neji-san were up to when she left. It's a ton of fun."
They both erected twenty-five clones and Sasuke asked her another question. "Why did you invite me to Jiraiya's house, then?"
"Because you would've shown up at the Haruno house if you did decide you wanted to come, and they'd be over at Jiraiya's, too." She gave him a look. "You do know Jiraiya's my dad, right? And Tsunade's my mom?"
He shrugged. "I figured that. But why would the Haruno be there?"
She laughed. "They're my aunt and uncle. Tsunade asked her sister to watch me as I grew up. Ichigo couldn't have a child, so she accepted without a hesitation." She looked at the clones. "Are we going to train or what?"
Sasuke smirked and they started.
Sakura did not have quite the same routine fighting Sasuke's clones as she did with Naruto's, and she was glad. But when she went to punch through one of them, she was shocked it was actually Sasuke.
He ducked the blow and came up to kiss her. She froze and suddenly a popping noise around her made her break away to see her lack of concentration destroyed all her clones. She gasped and growled, and Sasuke laughed.
"That's cheating," she told him.
"That's winning. So I guess next week you're stuck hosting Family Night," he replied.
Was it just Sakura, or was Sasuke smiling and...happy? That was so out of character for an emo kid. Someone spiked his pumpkin-juice. He started to walk away, then looked over him shoulder as if he remembered a last minute detail.
"By the way, I'm coming next week, so make something with tomatoes, okay?"
"Yeah, you bet," she replied, smiling.
"Dude, this isn't fun!" Naruto whined, looking at his plate. "Where is my ramen? I paid you off to give me ramen this week, Sakura!"
She smiled. "You promised you would keep silent for a week, Naruto. You broke that promise about two minutes later asking me if I was going to get you ramen."
He pouted and Jiraiya laughed as he punched his godson playfully. Tsunade and Sakura smiled at each other, knowing how close the two men were. Naruto even had a room in the house, that Hinata was never told was bugged, at her boyfriend's pleading request.
Sakura took a seat next to her new boyfriend and Jiraiya gave the boy as impressive a glare as one that Sasuke could give. Sasuke merely shrugged before he hugged and thanked Sakura for the meal.
Tsunade and Shizune cooed, and the Harunos smiled at Sakura's luckiness. Jiraiya snorted his disproval and started to talk to Kakashi about the newest Icha Icha Paradisu that he had in fact asked Kakashi to proof-read.
Sakura laughed and smiled at Sasuke.
He wasn't sure he wanted to come, even after his request the week before, but he was glad he did. Glad that Sakura talked him into it. Because she was right. This was his family now too.