When it was all said and done, Sakura was livid. Naruto and Sasuke couldn't understand what the problem was but they wisely elected to stay silent as their teammate paced in front of them, snarling under her breath. Before Sasuke had left, he would have scoffed and ignored her and possibly have walked away but Sakura had changed in the years he'd been away. She had matured, gotten over her infatuation with him and most importantly, was now capable of making him stay put if she so desired.
And she so desired.
"Three and a half years," she ground out, rounding on them and finally, finally stopping her pacing. Naruto shrank back in his seat. Sasuke didn't, but it was a near thing. "Six months with a stupid rivalry before our first Chuunin exams, over two years of Naruto chasing you -" She jabbed a finger at Sasuke "- all over the continent, dragging me with him, and I'm not entirely convinced you weren't chasing him as well. You lost your arms together and now you're telling me that the two of you don't even have the decency to be soulmates?!"
Ah.
Well when she put it like that, Naruto could understand why there might be some confusion in the matter.
"No," Sasuke said bluntly, because that was the only way Sasuke did things and he also had no sense of self-preservation. The thunder cloud over Sakura's head grew darker. Naruto jabbed his elbow into his side. Sasuke scowled at him but to Naruto's relief, didn't say anything further.
"Sakura-chan," Naruto said brightly. "Sasuke is one of my best friends. Of course I went after him!" Sakura's eyes narrowed.
"No," she said slowly. "Kiba is one of your best friends. Kiba is the one who would ditch class with you. Kiba is the one who would share his lunch with you at school. Kiba is the one you always made a point to meet up with when you were back in the village. Sasuke is the one you fixated on and obsessed over for some reason that is no longer discernible because when he left the village you two barely tolerated each other and now you're not even soulmates!"
Her voice had risen to a shout again and Naruto spared a longing thought for Ichiraku's where Kakashi and Sai had quickly retreated to in the face of Sakura's rising ire. Cowards.
"Um...we have a bond that transcends soulmates?" Naruto tried.
"Get out," Sakura snarled. Sasuke and Naruto scrambled to obey before Sakura decided to do something like throw the couch at them.