Slice of Life
Authoress: Skitter160
A/N: This was something I started awhile ago it's supposed to read more like a bunch of slice of life pieces than anything else. There is not a main focus to this fanfic each chapter will jump to a day (or days depending) in the life of the character or the day (or days) of an event. This first chapter sets up the setting for the rest of the chapters and the characterizations I plan to bring forth.
Summery: Not every day can be filled with missions and crazy village deserters trying to kill you. Some days are filled with friendship, hardship, and everyday needs. Not to mention something worth fighting for.
"You know I'm sure under all that spandex Lee has a great body." Ino said offhandedly while munching on a cookie. Hinata the host this week had created a recipe even she would eat, despite it not being a product of the Akimichi.
"What brought that on?" TenTen asked eying her friend with uncertainty. They did normally talk about guys when they met up on Girl's Friday, the second Friday of the month, but this was a new develop in Ino's normally 'pretty boy' oriented attitude.
"Ewwwww" Sakura coughed after gagging on her own cookie no one paid any mind staring at Ino for an explanation.
"If you think about it he's the fittest guy in Konoha because he can only use his body to get stronger. Meaning he's got one hell of a muscular system." Ino explained a starry look in her eyes as she shrugged finishing her cookie.
"That's covered in scars!" Sakura scowled cleaning off the counter where some crumbs had fallen in her coughing fit.
"Scars can be attractive." Hinata piped up pulling a fresh batch of cookies from the oven. Not looking back at the group of now jounin kounichi who were drooling like teenagers around her kitchen island seated on high top chairs.
"Like your man has any to speak of." Sakura retorted rolling her eyes not wanting to think about the orange clad monstrosity that was formerly her teammate and something like a brother in that context.
"He has some very small ones..." Hinata blushed lightly as she set the cookies down to cool taking off the oven mitts, they were a violent shade of orange that clashed badly with the rest of the kitchen's classy looks. "He just heals too quickly for any really big ones to form." No one missed the disappointment in her voice.
"Are his scars really that bad?" Ino asked turning to TenTen and steering the topic off of the loudmouth that gave Lee a run for his money and shared a similar bad taste in clothing just more in the orange variety.
"I don't know for sure." TenTen seemed queasy at the thought, setting her half eaten cookie on the counter to prevent any mishaps like Sakura's. "I don't actually look at Lee..." Her eyes started to take on the starry look Ino's had but she was interrupted before details could be shared about who she spent her time staring at.
"I don't want to know." Hinata and Temari, a rare visitor to Girl's Friday, both said in unison looks of disgust on their faces.
Temari was normally unable to make it to these gatherings but as luck would have it she was working closely with Shikamaru on a classified project for the next couple of weeks. "Neji may be a pretty boy but he is too uptight to even think about his body." Temari grimaced. "That being said anyone who mentions either of my brothers is dead." The little fan in her hand seemed to gleam in the light from the window above the sink despite not being made of anything but mere paper.
"I don't see why we would." Ino huffed offended by her man of choice being dismissed by most of the group. "So who do you think has the best body Temari?" She pushed taking another cookie from the plate praising Hinata mentally for a healthy cookie recipe so that she wouldn't look like a total pig eating so many. She wasn't keen on letting anyone know how she kept her figure.
"Hm... I don't disagree with Hinata and Ino that scars are indeed attractive but..." She thought about it a moment. "But if I had to choose the best body I'd pick Kakashi or Iruka." She looked dead serious as she spoke.
Hinata who was just now taking a seat almost fell out of the chair she was attempting to sit in. Sakura's eyes widened enough to rival Lee's and TenTen gagged on the cookie she had deemed it was now safe to eat. Ino spit out the tea in her mouth spraying the counter she had been studying and luckily nothing else.
"What's with the over dramatic reactions?" Temari smirked lazily snagging a cookie and they realized she wasn't serious.
"You-you!" Sakura growled color draining from her face with her anger instead of snapping she took a deep breath as the others watched nervously. After training with Tsunade her temper flared easily. Not wanting to ruin Hinata's beautiful kitchen with her fists she let her breath out and glared at Temari. "That's just sick." Her nose scrunched up in distaste as the other girls agreed with nods.
The sandy blonde gave a triumphant grin. They wouldn't be asking her such questions again.
After a moment of silence and much scrubbing of the mental imagine of ex-teachers bodies. Temari spoke again. "Why don't we test our theories?" She smirked as the looks of horror crossed their faces again. "Excluding Kakashi, Iruka, and of course my siblings."
Another moment of silence. "Explain." Ino was the first to speak a thoughtful look on her face.
"Picture evidence of why Naruto, Lee, Sasuke, or anyone but the aforementioned have the hottest bods." Temari smirked at the way their eyes lit up. "By next Girl's Friday."
"I don't really want to share." Hinata frowned.
"Don't worry Hina-chan no one wants to steal your man. You just have to prove he has scars." Sakura rolled her eyes thinking of the way her former teammate would pose for the pictures when he found out. "He'll be willing enough to pose and while your at it ask him to take some of the elusive Sasuke." The pinkette did her best not to scowl about how her boyfriend and Hinata's husband were spending more time together than he did with her.
"Can't you take that picture?" Ino chided. Everyone knew that despite asking Sakura out he barely paid her any mind but the pinkette refused to give in to the facts. Fact one Sasuke might as well be a-sexual when it got down to it, fact two he was using her to attempt to produce an heir, and the last fact being their relationship was a means to an end. Yet Sakura held hope after all it had only been three months since he had accepted her and six months since he had returned from Sound. It was something none of them could talk her out of.
"I could." Sakura stuck up her nose just barely stopping herself from sending her blonde friend soaring across the room. "But as you know Naruto is his commander and he won't take a picture without orders."
Ino shrugged as if to say fair enough before posing a valid question. "So besides Sasuke and Naruto how are we going to do this? Because Lee never removes his spandex anymore." She added with a sigh.
"Shikamaru isn't inclined to cameras." Temari added reminding herself of the incident last week from their project. He may be lazy but he put his mind into getting out of things he really didn't want to do.
"And Neji has that fear of sunburn ever since that one trip to water country." TenTen added with a bit of a pout. It had been one of their better missions with him posing as hired labor. Sadly he ended up with third degree burns from the sun, curse his delicate skin.
"No one has ever seen Shino take off his coat no matter the weather except maybe Kiba." Hinata heard Ino and Sakura gasp before she looked up from the cookie plate snagging the biggest one. "Just because they are like family now doesn't mean they always were." The bluenette added seeing the looks on her friends faces she told them with a decisive bite of her cookie. Mentally she praised the recipe she had created.
"Does Naruto know?" Sakura looked at her vaguely sister-in-law with a scandalized expression.
"I haven't told him everything." Hinata's eyes twinkled in that way that spoke of many secrets.
"Do tell." A male voice interrupted them from the doorway it was Sasuke. He said nothing more as he slid over to Sakura standing just a few inches from her looking quizzical. In the next room they could hear Naruto going on about something under his breath.
"Oi Teme don't wear your shoes in my house!" He shouted entering the room then quieted looking around at the gathering in his kitchen. he had half expected them to be gone already since today was his homecoming. As his eyes locked with Hinata's a small blush spread across her cheeks and they were instantly transported to their own little world. He was across the room in seconds kissing her cheek. "I'm home." He smiled happiness apparent on his face as he stared into her eyes in a way that made her knees weak.
"Welcome home." The bluenette looked nearly ready to faint as she returned his gaze. He steadied her with a gentle hand around her waist and pressed a heated and tender kiss to her lips staring into her lavenderiquse eyes all love and adoration between them.
"Ahem" Sakura finally reminded both of them that they were not alone and their eyes had no right to be doing 'that' in polite company.
"Way to ruin the moment." Naruto sighed stepping behind his wife to wrap his arms around her waist. Her shoulder was the prefect height for him to rest his chin on, despite being high chairs and Hinata's perfect posture.
"So tell us what is Hina-chan hiding?" Sasuke smirked looking rather nasty if you were to ask Ino at the moment. She wasn't fond of the way he acted around Hinata and Naruto and most especially not how he treated Sakura.
"Hina-chan isn't hiding anything." Naruto kissed her very red cheek. "I know all about her thoughts on her teammates." He gave them a knowing smile kissing her cheek again. "And fyi she thinks I'm the sexiest man in the village."
Sakura rolled her eyes looking at Hinata and her husband in an exasperated way. "We've been aware of that fact for years now Naruto. You were the one slow on the uptake."
"Don't worry I don't hold it against you." Hinata smiled sweetly recalling all the apologies through the years after he'd finally figured it out and gotten it together enough to ask her on a date. Which had lead to two dates, then three, and so on until it found them walking down the aisle. And left them acting like newlyweds despite being married for years.
Naruto beamed at her moving just slightly more into her shoulder to whisper in her ear. "Why don't you send the girls home and I'll kick Sasuke out so I can show you how much I appreciate that."
Everyone in the room, except Naruto himself, turned scarlet as he still, from time to time, forgot that no matter how low he whispered they could hear. Though for a moment their red faces were their only reaction.
"NARUTO!" Sakura wasn't the only one to bellow but the loudest.
"What?" The blonde pulled on an innocent face that was believable enough that it appeased them enough not to rip him a new one. It also helped seeing how embarrassed poor Hinata was.
"Just say those things behind closed doors." Temari snapped with a grieved expression. "It's bad enough having to watch you two ogle each other." She muttered.
"Oh." Naruto had the grace to blush as it dawned on him that they had heard. Leaning back away from Hinata he scratched the back of his head then grinned. "If you heard then why are all of you still here?"
Sakura was the first to pick her jaw up off the floor and say something intelligent rather than attempts at speech. "I think I'll be leaving." She snagged one more cookie, grabbed her belongings from the back of her chair, and stood to bid them farewell. "It's been a lovely time Hina-chan I'll see you tomorrow for the recipe." With that she grabbed her boyfriend by the hand and drug him out with her ignoring the way he seemed to drag his feet just a little bit.
"Well see you later! Don't forget evidence!" With that Temari, TenTen, and Ino followed suit on making a fast get away.
"Is it something I said?" Naruto gave his wife a puzzled look as he took a cookie to nibble smiling softly as he made an appreciative noise in the back of his throat.
"Not everyone shares your sense of humor." She mumbled into the counter where she had laid her head just after everyone had beat a hasty retreat.
"Well... Since they're gone..." He began lifting her from the counter. "Why don't we reacquaint ourselves?" He kissed her softly as he carried her bridal style to their bedroom.