Two stories in two days, what on earth is happening to me?
Once again, some random thoughts popped into my head, I put it into a story and voila, here you are!
I own nothing. This is drabble/long-shot/whatever-it-is. Non-massacre. Enjoy!
If you would have asked her what her favorite color was, you would've been greatly surprised by the answer.
Whenever she responded to one of the most unimaginative questions in the world, the responses normally varied from the mildly surprised-
"Really? I would've thought otherwise..."
To the incredibly shocked-
"But you... that doesn't make sense... Shouldn't it be-"
To the improbably intrusive-
"Is there some horribly inane secret that keeps you from seeing things logically?"
To so many other responses that she couldn't keep her eyes from going cross-eyed. She would merely shrug and answer the question, wondering why people seemed to think it was so weird that her favorite color was not her namesake of sorts.
After all... Who would honestly like pink?
"I honestly love pink! I would say it's my favorite color in the whole wide world!"
The voice in question was Sakura's hair dresser who, even though she had the best intentions in the world and really was amazing at her job, had the loudest mouth in all of the village, Ino-pig included. It was all the young kunoichi could do to keep from rolling her eyes and berating her for not focusing on the task at hand.
If you had to be devil's advocate on the situation, you'd say she was focusing quite well. After all, hair was her job and Sakura's hair was the topic for today's chatter. Instead of adding fuel to the fire by trying to get her to change the subject, she merely nodded in response and forced out a rather haggard looking grin that to anyone else would've been a sure sign of defeat.
To the hairdresser, however, it only encouraged her to keep going.
"I mean honestly Sakura darling, do you remember the first day I met you? You came in here asking me to change this... this... art to some mundane, obtuse color that would have done nothing for your beautiful skin. Girls would kill to have this hue come naturally! No, I am so happy I was able to convince you otherwise!"
That comment definitely earned an eye roll.
You didn't convince me, you just refused to do it and wouldn't let anyone else touch my hair within the city.
Watching as a few loose ends were snipped from her bangs, the remnants of her quick trim fell to her shoulders and the rest on the floor. It was like a little carpet of cotton candy. Sakura immediately wrinkled her nose at the thought. She hated cotton candy. Not because of its taste or its texture. No. No, Sakura hated it because-
"All done, my darling! I still can't believe you ask me to cut your hair so short every time; you should keep it long and vivacious and girl, let me tell you, you would have those male shinobi hounding at the doors-"
"Okay, okay Minako-chan, I really have to get going!" Sakura interrupted suddenly, a furious blush spreading across her cheeks as she was yet again reminded of her dismal dating life. She sincerely doubted the length of her hair was the cause of her non-existent romances. Digging in her pockets as the tattered remains of her locks was brushed off, she counted out the appropriate money plus a bit extra for a sizeable tip. Even if Minako could talk a person to their grave, she did do a damn fine job.
Minako was able to get a few more quick words with her before she left, finally blowing her a kiss and reminding her to come back sooner than later so there wouldn't be so much damage to the follicles. Sakura grinned and shook her head as she walked out of the salon, feeling so much lighter now that her hair was back to almost at her shoulders.
Missions had been taking a toll on her lately and this last one had been a doozy. Gone for three months with both Sasuke and Naruto for a recon mission that had requested her to have the long hair in tact. After all, how feminine was a concubine (undercover kunoichi but same difference) with short, wiry hair? It had been a mission neither male had been too fond of their teammate being a part of.
Remembering the loud shouts that they had lobbed at Tsunade-sama about how Sakura was being deflowered in the minds of all the perverts that she would be interrogating, the kunoichi laughed to herself.
"Oi Sakura-chan, what's so funny?"
Her laughter trickled away happily as she gazed upward at the whiskered face of one of her best friends. She took an extra moment taking in the sight of him; he towered over her easily compared to when they had first become teammates seven years ago. He had bright blue eyes that rivaled her own emerald ones in intensity; his however never turned to that angry shade that hers seemed to do often. Ironically most times when he was nearby.
She grinned before throwing an arm over his shoulders, pulling him down to ruffle his hair as though he was the short one. "I was just laughing at how protective you and Sasuke-kun got over the last mission. You should've seen the looks on your faces!" she said with another laugh breaking out, almost losing it when Naruto immediately pulled away and pouted like a child who had been told no to his favorite treat.
"But Sakura-chaaaan, we were defending your honor! They were... You know, they were gonna look at you! And no one should be able to look at you. Except me. And maybe Sasuke-teme if I allow him to," he responded cheekily, dodging quickly to the side before Sakura was able to land a punch into the side of his face. "Hey, what does that mean, you two don't get to look at me!" she said with a rather impressive glare thrown in his direction.
"Aw come on Sakura-chan, you know I'm teasing! I just say that because we're your teammates! Unless you start dating someone, you're ours! And even when you date someone, you're still ours because I probably won't like them or approve of them."
Folding his arms over his chest, Naruto nodded a few times solemnly as if this had solidified into truth and law and Sakura should not argue such logic. Merely smacking him upside the head in response- "HEY!" -she took a step back and stuck her tongue out.
"What if I'm already dating someone and they've seen me?"
Naruto's eyes bulged momentarily, staring at her as if he had never truly seen her before. But suddenly a sly smirk sifted onto his face. "Well who is he, because I'd like to know if that pink is a... ahem, natural color.
His screams of pain and pleading echoed through the town.
It was a peaceful moment as they headed to the ramen shop. Sakura was humming some unintelligible tune under her breath, enjoying the breeze as it picked up and played across her skin like a back up harmony to her song. The thing that made it even better was that her companion was staying quiet as he moved in step with her.
As they passed by people they recognized and greeted them, the bruises and lumps on his face gave no cause of concern to them. After all, they had just heard his shrieks of agony about twenty minutes prior and also knew that Sakura took after their beloved Hokage.
Most likely, he deserved it. If he didn't, who was going to call her out on it?
Glancing over at her teammate as he walked next to her with that same whiskered pout on his face, Sakura tilted her head towards him as she gave him a nudge.
"Have we learned something today?"
Naruto grumbled incoherently, nodding slowly as they both came to a halt. "Yes Sakura-chan. Will you please heal my face now? How can I eat delicious ramen if my face hurts?"
Sakura gave him another quick smack against the head before placing her hands on his face and allowing her chakra to run through her fingertips into his skin and begin the healing process. As she did so, she felt a rather familiar signature nearby.
She glanced over her shoulder as a mere formality, already knowing who was standing there beside them. "Hello Sasuke-kun, ready for lunch?" she asked pleasantly, watching as he cocked a sleek eyebrow up at the sight in front of him but refusing to comment. Honestly it would've been strange had he said something about the situation. He knew both of them well enough however; Naruto had said something stupid and Sakura retaliated. Case closed.
"Aa."
Oh the ever so colorful vocabulary of the Uchiha member of Team Seven. Sakura translated it as "Why yes Sakura, I am quite ready to share such a splendid meal with my wonderful teammates".
Yes, that's what she translated it as and no, she would never be telling him this anytime soon.
As she finished healing Naruto, she watched as he tested out his jaw momentarily before a wide grin spread across his features. "Jaa, let's go eat, I'm starving!" he yelled out in a moment of excitement, looping each of his arms with a teammate and pulling them both without any regard to how they would keep up with his insurmountable energy. Sakura let out a shriek before laughing excitedly at his boyish enthusiasm over food; Sasuke only grunted in response but as a testament to their friendship, allowed himself to be pulled by the overzealous male.
Pushing them onto a table (a first in Sakura's mind; they normally ate at the bar) Naruto rushed off to order their food. Both Sasuke and Sakura sat at the table in easy silence, neither one of them needing to fill the air. They were both over their awkward stages of adolescence. Sasuke finally acknowledged that he had a pretty strong team and accepted the friendship of the two unlikely comrades without too much hassle. And while Sakura would admit she still found Sasuke just as attractive as she had as a pre-teen, she could easily say the same for Naruto. Instead of teenage hormonal crushes, there was a deep respect and love for them that was different than any conventional relationship she would find.
Sasuke tilted his head to the side with a slight frown marring his features before it relaxed again and he nodded seemingly to himself. "You cut your hair again." It was a statement more than anything, but it was Sasuke's way of telling Sakura that it would be okay to start a conversation if she wanted. He remembered how uneasy the last mission had been for her and realized he hadn't helped the situation with his over protectiveness. Allowing her to be Sakura, even for a few moments, was his way of apologizing.
And since she was quite fluent in Sasuke speak, Sakura accepted his apology by sidling into the conversation properly.
"Yeah, I'm not a fan of the long hair thing. Too much maintenance especially for missions. I went to see Minako to take care of it," she said with a small smile, toying with one of her shortened tresses momentarily before sighing. "I wish she would just stop commenting on the color every time I go. I tried to get her to change the color once, just once, and ever since then she won't stop reminding me how much she loves the color and that I'm crazy for not liking it."
"But Sakura-chan, I thought pink was your favorite color!"
The voice came from beside her as a bowl of pork ramen was placed in front of her, tomato ramen placed in front of Sasuke and ten bowls of various flavors in the remaining vacant spot. Naruto looked at her expectantly as he slid into his seat, immediately diving into his food with such gusto that she thought he would choke on the noodles.
She broke apart her chopsticks as she prepared to eat, assuming that his inhalation of said food had ended the conversation, but when she looked up and saw two pairs of eyes looking at her curiously, she realized she was incredibly wrong.
With a sigh, she set her chopsticks down on the placemat and shrugged. "No, pink is most certainly not my favorite color. Just because my hair is pink doesn't mean I like it," she said slowly as if she were speaking to a child about his ABC's. Naruto, bless his heart, didn't seem to catch on to the idea and looked at her with such a confused expression it took all her concentration not to laugh right in his face.
He finished off one bowl and started on the next, pausing in between one particularly huge bite to finally respond. "But it's... girly! And you're a girl. Girls like girly things. And your hair is pink. All girls like pink!" he stated matter-of-factly, looking over at Sasuke as if he would agree with him on his assessment. Sasuke, however, frowned again as he kept his gaze on Sakura. As much as he hated to admit it, he had been along the same line of reasoning as his blonde teammate. However, from the expression on the kunoichi's face, they were far off the mark.
Sakura rubbed her temples gently and squeezed her eyes shut, mentally debating how she should proceed with this. Finally it clicked in her head. She opened her eyes and although she was looking at Naruto while she answered, she would occasionally glance at Sasuke to include him.
"Just because my hair is pink doesn't mean I like pink. Do you like yellow because you're blonde? Or does Sasuke like black because he's got black hair? I don't believe so. If you do like those colors, they are for entirely different reasons. My favorite colors are colors that make me happy, not a color I was born with."
She seemed to get through to him this time and with a thoughtful expression, he began to dig into his food once again. Satisfied with this response, she picked up her chopsticks yet again and began to eat her ramen.
"I guess that means my favorite color is pink then!"
Sakura nearly choked on the bite she was taking, coughing frantically as Naruto ran over and began to smack her back roughly, all the while screaming out "Oh god Sakura-chan, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to kill you, I'm so sorry!"
Once she had regained oxygen back into her lungs, Sakura gave herself another few seconds before looking back at Naruto. "Now why on earth would your favorite color be pink?"
Naruto rolled his eyes (even Sasuke was listening intently at this point) and stared at Sakura as if she was the child being taught their lessons.
"You said your favorite colors are colors that make you happy. Well you make me happy, Sakura-chan!" he said enthusiastically, taking another big bite of ramen before adding as a side-note, "oh and blue too I guess. You both make me happy so my favorite colors have to be pink and blue!"
Sakura couldn't find any fault with his statement. She had never felt so flattered in her life. Here she thought Naruto was just her blundering idiot of a best friend and he had to go and say something incredibly sweet. She glanced over at Sasuke to see what his reaction would be.
His head was lowered momentarily, something he seemed to do whenever he was in thought, before he finally broke his chopsticks and set about his meal. He took a bite, chewed and swallowed carefully and methodically. He raised his head.
"Then I guess that means my favorite colors are pink and orange."
A wide grin spread across Naruto's face at the Uchiha's words, feeling the same warmth that Sakura had felt just moments ago. He took a minute to let it sink in before turning to Sakura.
"I don't think I have to ask but... Sakura-chan?"
So many people always asked her what her favorite color was.
Whenever she responded to one of the most unimaginative questions in the world, the responses normally varied from the mildly surprised-
"Really? I would've thought otherwise..."
To the incredibly shocked-
"But you... that doesn't make sense... Shouldn't it be-"
To the improbably intrusive-
"Is there some horribly inane secret that keeps you from seeing things logically?"
But the moment her two teammates would appear, all confusion would seemingly vanish from the expressions of those asking the question. While pink wasn't her favorite color, it was immediately obvious why she had different favorite colors.
"Orange and blue. What else could it be?"
I'm much happier with this story than I am the last one. I already feel like my writing is improving.
Constructive criticism and thoughts in your reviews, please. Thank you for reading!