Unconditional, a naruto fanfic

Disclaimer: Naruto and its characters created by Masashi Kishimoto

"If my arms get ripped off, I'll just kick him to death. If my legs get ripped off
I'll just bite him to death. If my head gets ripped off, I'll just stare him to death.
And if my eyes get ripped out, I'll just curse him to death. Even if it means
getting torn to pieces, I'm going to take Sasuke back . . . no matter what."
– Naruto, Chapter 303, page 17

Unconditional

When she first found out about them it was a shock, though she knew it shouldn't have been.

The signs had been clear. Hell, the signs had been blaring, forced into her face, waving flags and with neon blinking lights.

And when she thought about it, it didn't much surprise her that Naruto would choose to be with Sasuke. In the back of her mind, she had secretly suspected that his so-called friendship for the last Uchiha was a little less about friendship and a little bit more about infatuation.

He had that absolute refusal to give him up. And his remarks every now and then that showed he was still thinking of Sasuke.

Combine that with his almost maniacal aversion to homosexuality, and she should have guessed. And maybe she did, but could admit it even less than Naruto.

But it wasn't Naruto that had surprised her, not really. It was Sasuke.

She pounded on the door for what had to be the twentieth time that morning and still no answer.

"Hey Naruto, get up! It's eleven o'clock already!"

She folded her arms over her chest and pulled her lips taut. What was it with him anyway? She thought Shikamaru was supposed to be the lazy one.

Angrily, she drummed her fingers along her forearm. With a will known only to the unfortunate friends of difficult people, she restrained from wresting the door from its hinges. Her fist wanted to do just that. But she held firm and lifted her hand to knock once more.

The door opened.

Naruto stood there with his typical morning appearance. He had the uncanny and bizarre ability to show chubbiness in the morning the way other people sported bad breath or bed head. The oversized fox print pajamas didn't help him to look less stupid, either.

They might have been cuter if Sakura hadn't suddenly recalled what time it was.

"You're not up yet?!" She yelled with disgusted incredulity.

"Eh?" Naruto yawned and scratched his stomach. "I'm up, I'm up."

Sakura narrowed her eyes. "Yeah, right. Get dressed, would you?" She waved her hand disapprovingly at his attire.

Naruto's eyes bugged out of his head as though he'd been poked with a cattle prod. "Are we going on a date?"

Sakura's first impulse of course was to scream and set him straight, but she wasn't really up to it this morning. Instead, she drooped her eyelids and flicked her fingers dismissively. "Yeah, sure, whatever. Just get dressed."

The grin on Naruto's face nearly ripped his cheeks apart as he scrambled back into the apartment. Sakura rolled her eyes and remained outside in the safety zone. She was not at all tempted to risk life and limb in the disaster area pigsty that Naruto liked to call "home".

Naruto returned a few minutes later, looking what Sakura was sure he considered his best. She could tell by the extra attention he'd given to trying to tame his spiky hair with some sort of gelling product.

With one eyebrow raised, she asked, "Ready?"

The blond just nodded exuberantly so that Sakura was worried for a moment that he might give himself whiplash. But she just nipped her lips together and began walking away. Naruto was hot on her heels as if afraid that if he didn't practically bowl her over, he'd lose her.

"Can we get ramen?" The hopefulness and excitement was clear in his voice.

Sakura stopped and was nearly knocked down by the enthusiastic blond who barely left any space between them. She turned to face him. Unlike some people, she was not a devout worshipper of the great house of ramen and didn't particularly want any. Certainly not at this time of day. But when she saw the look on his face and thought about what she had to tell him, she answered, "Fine."

And Naruto, as per usual, was oblivious. His grin just grew wider and for good measure, he added a little skip and whistle to his step.

Despite herself, Sakura smiled.

"Aren't you hungry?"

Sakura blinked rapidly and came back to herself as she turned to look at her companion. Next to Naruto sat a stack of two empty bowls while he swiftly tackled a third.

The girl scrunched up her nose in distaste. "I hope that's your last one."

"Don't worry, Sakura-chan," Naruto assured her. "This is a date, so I'll pay."

"That's not what I . . ." She shook her head. "Never mind."

Naruto tilted his head quizzically. "Eat up," he said and grinned as if ramen held the solution to all the world's problems.

The kunoichi only picked at her food half-heartedly. But her "date" insisted on staring at her so she quickly put on a show of eating. As soon as he turned away though, apparently satisfied, she pushed the dish back. After the blond finished his third bowl, he leaned back and patted his stomach with satisfaction. Sakura huffed and smiled at how even though they were on a "date", Naruto was still refreshingly the same. She huffed through her nose and looked away only to see the proprietor looking at Naruto with perplexity.

And then she felt guilty.

If she hadn't have said anything, he probably would have had another bowl. She turned back to him.

"Just because I'm done, doesn't mean you have to be." She back-pedaled quickly. "Please, have another one."

But Naruto just looked at her and knit his brows for a second before grinning.

"I'm too full," he lied.

Sakura pinched her lips together.

"So what should we do next?" He was really into it now. Tipping his head back and crossing his arms, he frowned up at the ceiling. "How about a movie? That's date-y, right? Or we could . . ."

"Sasuke's back." She actually hadn't meant to blurt it out like that, but it was like a creature howling for freedom from its cage and she had to let it out.

Naruto's face was blank for almost a full minute as he processed this information. Then it split wide open with the gentlest grin Sakura had ever seen.

And something inside her twisted.

He would never smile at her like that; he never had.

"He is, is he?" That was all Naruto said as he gazed up at the ceiling with that contented look on his face. And Sakura could say nothing; breaking the spell he was under felt somehow like a sin.

But then it stretched on too long, as if Naruto forgot where he was and that other people were watching him.

Nervously, Sakura cleared her throat.

The blond inclined his head back down and looked to Sakura, immediately apologetic. "I'm sorry, Sakura. I think I spaced out there for a second."

"Naruto," she said, dismissing his apology. "Is that all you have to say?"

Her friend blinked and put on his faithful grin. "About what?"

The girl pursed her lips with not just a little aggravation. She stared at him only a moment before standing abruptly and almost making her stool clatter to the floor. All eyes, and luckily there were only three sets, but all eyes instantly turned on her. "We should go somewhere to talk," Sakura informed Naruto importantly. Then she nodded and ducked out of the stall.

"Uh, O.k.?" Bewildered, Naruto dropped his payment on the counter, thanked the owner, and chased down his date.

Now that she had gotten Naruto out of the ramen shop, Sakura wasn't quite sure what to do with him. She looked around for inspiration and spotted a bench neatly situated beneath a tree. With a sigh, she decided it would do. She took Naruto's hand and dragged him over for their talk.

"S-Sakura-chan!" In his confusion and excitement, Naruto couldn't speak properly. It was one of the few times Sakura had willingly held his hand.

Without ceremony, the girl threw him onto the bench in a daze and he watched her uncomprehendingly as she sat down beside him.

For a moment, Sakura bit her lip in concentration. But she always felt straightforward was best, so she resolved to handle it that way. She turned to Naruto, her hands primly folded in her lap. "He's been back for a week."

"What?" Naruto wrinkled his forehead as he looked at her.

"Sasuke," the girl clarified. "He returned a week ago."

"No, no," Naruto shook his head and looked out to the empty street, seemingly dumbfounded. "I mean, why would he be back a week and not tell me?"

Sakura wondered if a silver ring would look good in her lip because the way she was going at it, she'd pierce it any second. "It's been longer than that," she finally confessed. "But they kept him in custody for several months first, to monitor and question him." She didn't offer any further details because she didn't have them.

"Oh, well, I guess" Naruto floundered, apparently having little to say to the news.

For a long time, Sakura only stared at him, then gaped, then scowled, and then completely lost her composure. Jumping to her feet, she roared, "Is that all you have to say?!"

"Uh, um . . ."

Impressively, she put her hands to his shoulders and dug her fingers in. Her face was close enough to his that they could have kissed, but neither seemed inclined to do so. She loved him, but not quite like that. She shook him once severely, hoping to rattle some sense into him. "Do you understand what I'm saying? Sasuke is back."

"Yeah," Naruto answered dully.

She was flabbergasted. "It's been nearly five years," she said, as if she thought for a second that Naruto didn't remember this. "And all you can say is 'uh, um'?" She did a perfect impression of a dopey teenage boy.

But Naruto was unbothered by the insinuation. "What do you want me to say?"

Sakura let go of him and curled her lip. "Do you have a fever?"

"No."

"Then what's with the attitude?"

He shrugged.

"Don't you want to see him?"

"Of course." He stated it so plainly that there could be no doubt to the truth of it.

"Then why this?" Sakura asked, befuddled, making a vague indication of Naruto's demeanor with a cursory wave of her hand.

"Well," Naruto leaned forward until his elbows rested on his knees. "You agreed to go on a date with me. After almost six years of asking, I figure there's a reason. And the most logical explanation is bad news."

Sakura picked her jaw up from the ground and latched it back into place. She stared, blinking at her teammate for quite a while before she finally decided she needed to take a seat. Her body made an improper "thump" when she dropped herself down next to Naruto. Then she turned to him and considered her friend thoughtfully. "When did you get so smart?"

But Naruto only looked at her and gave her that smile that was so soft it was almost sad.

Sakura slapped her hands to her thighs and gazed off into the horizon. The sun was dazzlingly bright and high, making the blue sky bleached almost white. The few clouds that were determined to remain were thin wispy things, lost and insignificant in the greatness of space.

"So what is it?"

Not until Naruto spoke did Sakura realize she was daydreaming. "What?"

"About Sasuke?" He sounded casual, but Sakura clearly saw the way his fists clenched, pulling on his tendons. "Is he arrested? Did they lock him up?"

Sakura's pink head shook. "He's not in jail," she answered numbly. "But he is under arrest. They're keeping an eye on him at a safe house. He's not allowed to leave."

The blond merely looked at her and quirked an eyebrow, knowing there had to be more.

The girl sighed heavily. Then she looked Naruto straight in the face and spoke clearly and soberly. "He made the express request not to see you."

She braced herself for the tantrum, the yelling and screaming and throwing up of hands, but it never came. Instead, his entire body jolted once and his face pinched in as if he'd just been shot. But then the calm peace of death stole over him and his face was placid again.

He looked away and pressed the palms of his hands firmly together. "Oh." It came out as a rattling sigh and for a moment, Sakura thought he might cry.

And as he continued to do nothing except rub his hands slowly against one another, she wished he would cry. She would prefer it to this silence. She could feel her anger rising, burning, clawing for the surface. Her inner Sakura was screaming.

"And you're just going to accept that?" She bit it out, the words clipped and harsh.

"No," Naruto answered easily. He folded his hands together as if in prayer. "Of course not."

And Sakura took a moment to be surprised.

"Oh."

She had never truly thought about it before, but walking up to a pair of silent, masked ANBU was fairly intimidating if not downright frightening. But Naruto wore the same congenial smile he always did and lifted a hand in greeting.

"Hey! Can we see Sasuke?" He asked this as if the ANBU were receptionists rather than deadly sentries.

Sakura began to search through her pockets and packs, a bit frantically and definitely irritably, since she should have known Naruto would act like an idiot.

"Hello! Anyone in there?" Naruto waved his hand in one of the ANBU's faces as if he was a human statue.

Mortified, Sakura smacked the back of the blond's head with one hand and offered a scroll to the ANBU with the other. Naruto gave Sakura a reproachful look as he rubbed his head, which the girl ignored. The idiot deserved it.

Cautiously, the ANBU took the scroll and unrolled it, perusing its contents rather leisurely, at least in Sakura's opinion. Finally deeming the missive both valid and satisfactory, he tucked it into his pocket and with a snap of his fingers to his partner the two ANBU quickly and efficiently searched the younger shinobi. Naruto protested loudly, but Sakura merely sighed heavily. All their weapons – and there were a lot of them – were confiscated to be returned upon leaving, and they each were given a chakra inhibiting bracelet before they were allowed to enter.

Sakura politely thanked the ANBU, dragging Naruto behind her as he scowled furiously.

"Naruto," the girl chided as the blond grumbled under his breath. "They are just doing their job. Now stop being such a baby."

"I'm not a baby!"

The girl came to an abrupt halt so that Naruto crashed into her. Unruffled, Sakura turned around. "So, are you going to behave?"

"'M not a baby."

Sakura raised one thin, skeptical eyebrow in a silent repeat of her question.

Naruto pursed his lips and tilted his head in exasperation as if to say: "of course I'll behave".

Sakura could only sigh and head deeper into the house.

She was walking blind. The truth was that of course she had never been in this house before, so there was no way to know the floor plan. And it was dark. Nighttime dark. Creepy dark. An axe murderer might jump out of the shadows at any second and chop off your head dark. But either she was going the right way or Naruto didn't know any better than she because he was following faithfully without a word. She suspected the latter since she seriously doubted he'd had any reason to enter such a non-descript house before, but then one never truly knows with Naruto.

They must have gotten turned around because they ended up back at the kitchen, which Sakura was certain they had been to before and had found it empty. This time however, she spotted a figure sitting alone, in the dark, at the table. She wondered curiously if he had been there on the first pass and gone unnoticed, just another shadow among the others. Then she thought it was probably better if she didn't think about it too hard.

"Hello Sasuke," she said.

He made no response, which was really no surprise, and only continued to hold his teacup in his two cuffed hands and stare mindlessly out the window.

Then she felt Naruto move closer, stepping up to stand beside her on silent feet. "Hey, teme!" His voice was bright and cheerful and fake.

Sakura was watching very closely and that's why she saw the small seizing of Sasuke's fingers around the cup.

"What?" Naruto quipped. "Cat got your tongue?"

Sasuke's knuckles turned whiter against his pale skin. Even in the unnatural darkness of the room, Sakura could see he was too pale.

"Nothing sarcastic to say?"

Sakura's hands hurt and she realized she was clenching them tight. She loosened them, unburdening the pressure, as she looked anxiously from one boy to the other. It seemed a critical moment.

"Afraid you won't have a smart comeback?"

It was a wreck waiting to happen. She could see carts colliding, like in a slow motion reel, terrible and tragic and yet she couldn't look away. She was riveted, seeing it as clear as day, the wheels slipping off the road, the front of one cart buckling up with the back of another with each word that Naruto spoke.

"C'mon, teme." And she could hear the tinge of desperation in Naruto's voice, thinly overlaid with cheer. "It's been a long time. You must have some snarky thing to say to me."

She could see the smoke and dust float up when the carts tumbled over each other into one giant pile-up.

But then Sasuke let go of the cup.

Slowly, he placed his hands flat on the table and stood to face them. When his head lifted, his face looked the same as she remembered, old smirk and all. And yet it was unrecognizable.

"Dobe."

It was all he said.

And Sakura gaped. Then, carefully, she closed her mouth and swallowed back her shock.

It was as if Sasuke was holding up a sign for all the world to see. It couldn't have been any more obvious to her he was faking too.

Both she and Naruto left quickly following their first cordial meeting with Sasuke after nearly five years. They had exchanged a few inane pleasantries of little substance under a veil of extreme awkwardness and left with a plan to meet the next day.

And here it was the next day and Sakura was waiting anxiously outside the Uchiha's front door. She arrived a half hour early in order to meet up with Naruto, whose presence she hoped would instill some sort of normalcy, or at least levity, into the situation. In retrospect, she considered that it might have been his presence that had prevented both during the previous visit.

At about two minutes before the scheduled time, Naruto walked up appearing very agitated.

"What's with you?" Sakura asked uncharitably.

"N-nothing." He stuttered nervously. That clearly meant that something was wrong and he was going to pretend there wasn't.

The kunoichi frowned disapprovingly and crossed her arms, but Naruto just chuckled anxiously, danced around her and offered up his weapons to the waiting ANBU. He even stood with his arms and legs apart to be quickly frisked. Sakura followed suit without a word, all the while eying her teammate suspiciously.

But Naruto only gave her a quick smile and ducked inside. This just served to put Sakura's observation skills on high alert.

This time when they walked inside it was bright, light overflowing the rooms so that they could actually see where they were going and not bang into things or get lost like they did the last time. They found Sasuke sitting in a living room on the couch, staring at nothing. It was so odd and was that all he did all day? But then, Sakura thought, maybe there was nothing much else to do here.

"Hey." Naruto was unusually subdued.

If she hadn't been well acquainted with Sasuke, and if she hadn't watched him all those years, she probably wouldn't have noticed the slight jerk he gave upon hearing Naruto's voice again. But she did see it and it made her wonder.

"Hn."

Naruto grinned with relief and sauntered over to his old friend, sitting beside him on the couch rather closely. "C'mon. Aren't you happy to see me?"

Sasuke turned his head slightly in the blond's direction.

Sakura huffed and walked over to join them, taking a seat on a chair perpendicular to the sofa. "Don't bother him, Naruto," she scolded.

"I'm not bothering him," Naruto protested, leaning so far he practically fell into Sasuke's lap. The brunette angled away so that he wouldn't get hit. "Am I?" Naruto turned his head to look at Sasuke and it became evident just how close their faces were. Sasuke looked back.

A long tense moment spread out before them.

It made Sakura highly nervous as she watched something seem to pass between the two. "All right, all right. Naruto, give Sasuke some room."

The blond blinked and turned to her as if only just then remembering she existed. Sasuke slowly lowered his eyes and gazed at the floor.

"Oh, hey Sakura," Naruto offered strangely.

Her pink hair rose up as if she had licked an electrical outlet. "Don't 'hey Sakura' me. Idiot!" Then she turned to Sasuke. She wanted to put a hand on his arm, but didn't think it would be appropriate or welcome. Instead, she asked, "How are you?"

Deliberately, Sasuke raised his eyes and leveled one of his famous glares at her. "What do you think?"

Sakura flinched at the harshness of his response. She looked out the window, not knowing what else to say.

"Hey! She's only worried about you, teme!" Naruto chivalrously came to her defense.

Almost instantly though, he took up another thread. "Tsunade-baa-chan says that if you behave, you might get to go out soon."

Sasuke snorted. "Yay. And do what?"

"You could be on our team again and we could go on missions," Sakura supplied helpfully, if not exactly forcefully. "Like old times."

Sasuke snorted again.

"Well, you could stop sitting in here on your lazy ass, doing nothing!" Naruto yelled angrily, his body inclining further toward Sasuke, his hand on the couch between the two boys' thighs.

"Naruto!" Sakura yelled right back and fought the urge to hit him upside the head.

But Sasuke said nothing, only looked away.

Naruto flinched and moved again, a little closer still to Sasuke, and gave Sakura a wounded look. She thinned her lips, displeased, but kept silent. She understood Naruto's anger. Sasuke was being his normal difficult self, and Naruto had more reason than most to have no patience for him. After knowing the truth, the full extent of the actions at the Valley of the End, Sakura still had a hard time trying to understand how Naruto could sit here, begging for Sasuke's attention. As if the Uchiha had never betrayed him, had never tried to kill him on more than one occasion. Naruto treated the situation as if their fight had been nothing but a tiff over who should pay for ramen. It was like it didn't matter.

He just forgave him.

Sakura studied the blond for a moment, only then realizing just how close his hand was to Sasuke's thigh. She stifled a laugh, imaging the irrational, homophobic outburst Naruto would have if he accidentally touched his friend there. She looked to Sasuke to see if he had noticed the placement of Naruto's hand. He certainly had. He was staring at it, clandestinely, using only his eyes which were hidden by the long sweep of black lashes. Then, somehow knowing he was being watched, he lifted his head, stared at Sakura and then looked away from both his companions. But the expression he now wore was not emotionless as usual, or even angry or disgusted.

He tried to make it be one of the three.

But in reality he looked, of all things, pained.

A couple of days later, Sakura stopped by again. She was almost beginning to consider herself friends with the ANBU guards, as often as she saw them. Without reservation, she handed over her weapons and allowed the ANBU to check her for more.

The man nodded curtly to her and the girl smiled; she found it hard not to. She was about to enter the house when he stated, "Uzumaki is already here."

Taken aback, Sakura blinked at him. Naruto, early? That was unexpected. But it made her smile broader. It looked like things were finally getting better between those two. She entered the house with almost a spring in her step. The excited, chattering voice of the blond could be heard as soon as she walked through the inside. She shook her head. He at least sounded normal and it seemed to her that he and Sasuke were on their way back to friendship. And she was happy for Naruto, one of her dearest companions. She knew how deeply the wound of Sasuke's absence had cut and how eagerly he had anticipated the brunette's return, never doubting for a moment that it would happen. His continual optimism was almost infectious.

Naruto's love for all things was boundless and his friendship for Sasuke keen, constantly leaving Sakura in a state of awe. They were some of the reasons Sakura loved him.

She found the boys in the kitchen eating noodles. Well, Sasuke was eating noodles, delicately picking up a couple with his chopsticks and sliding them into his mouth. Everything the boy did was controlled and graceful and yet, as became clear to her in the years that passed, emotionless.

Naruto, on the other hand, was all emotion, all about loud, boisterous talking coupled with flailing hand gestures. Like he was doing the moment Sakura arrived. She also noticed that his one hand, cupped oddly over the top of the table, was very close to Sasuke's hand, nestled near his noodle bowl.

"Hey Sakura-chan!" Naruto burst brightly.

The girl giggled. "Hello Naruto." She turned to the other boy. "Hello Sasuke."

Sasuke turned to her with a look of both relief and anger, emotions whose source she couldn't place, especially in combination. But they vanished almost as soon as they appeared and Sasuke nodded in greeting and returned to his meal.

Sakura didn't have time to truly consider the strange look as Naruto piped up again. "I was just telling Sasuke about how we beat Kakashi that first time."

The kunoichi shook her head, remembering how ridiculously simple that victory had been. "Defeated by porn." She said and made a "tsking" noise. "I think there's a lesson there somewhere."

"You should've been there," the blond said, addressing Sasuke. "The guy practically had a conniption trying to get the latest volume!" Naruto laughed heartily and clapped his hand on his friend's shoulder.

Both Naruto and Sakura chuckled for a bit at the memory but then the joy in the air sobered as it always did with talk of Kakashi.

Then Sakura watched the boys as Naruto swiftly segued into a speech expounding his own greatness. The hand he'd had on Sasuke's shoulder was only now reluctantly pulled away. She wondered idly if he realized he'd done that. But then again, it had been nearly five years since they'd been together like this, after Sasuke slipped through their fingers so many times that it seemed he would remain forever elusive. It was understandable that Naruto would subconsciously want to hold onto him.

She continued to watch them; listening to the conversation but not taking part, letting them slowly find their way back to each other.

And because she was watching, she saw it.

As Naruto faced her, Sasuke gave the blond a look of intense, indescribable, despairing hunger, as if he would like to devour him right there.

Sakura's body jerked briefly with shock. Her eyes were wide as she stared at Sasuke and so deep was her astonishment that she didn't realize Naruto was talking to her.

"Earth to Sakura. You there?"

She blinked a few times and breathed again, directing her attention back to her friend. "I'm sorry Naruto, I didn't hear. What did you say?"

Naruto gave her a disbelieving "you didn't hear me?" look and repeated, "Have you heard anything about reforming a team?"

"Oh, uh." She was still trying to gain her bearings. "No, not yet. But I can ask Tsunade-sama when I go to the hospital."

Naruto sighed. "I hope it's soon."

Sakura nodded dumbly and attempted a smile, but her mind was elsewhere and remained there the rest of the afternoon. Her brain was too engaged in slowly trying to process the unassailable, undeniable fact that Sasuke was in love with Naruto.

It shouldn't have hurt. Sakura knew long ago that Sasuke would never pick her. He had never given her a reason to hope; he'd barely given her hope for a friendship, though she believed she got one. But Naruto? Of all people, Naruto? Not that she didn't love Naruto, because she did. And maybe that's why it really hurt.

That night she cried out all the hopes she had lost years ago. And she felt better. Her "love" for Sasuke had been a childhood crush, she knew that, but that didn't lessen its importance to her nor the pain caused by its loss.

But the crying helped.

It was cathartic and made her think more clearly.

Of all the people for Sasuke to fall in love with! It was doomed before it started because it would never start. Not only would Naruto not want to jeopardize his friendship with Sasuke, but she'd also seen his immature reaction any time the subject of homosexuality was even hinted at. Ridiculous and childish, but true.

Sasuke's love for Naruto was predestined to be a hopeless, unrequited affair.

And thinking on it this way, she could spare a few tears for Sasuke too.

After that, Sakura couldn't help herself.

Each time she was supposed to be having a conversation, she was only half paying attention at best. Her eyes were continually drawn back to Sasuke as he cast intense, lingering looks at his friend when Naruto couldn't see. And Naruto was oblivious.

It was no wonder that Sasuke didn't want to see him.

Sakura thought how painful it must be. Her sympathy for Sasuke grew every time she thought of the hopelessness of his affection.

And of course Naruto was clueless, just wanting to see his friend at every chance and talk his ear off about stupid, pointless things. And yet Sasuke took it all in stride like a professional.

It was almost pathetic to see.

The only thing she could be grateful for is that the blond was so unaware he thought her constant distraction was over her love for Sasuke.

In a way, it was.

But most of the time she just wanted to shake Naruto until his brain clicked to "on".

Over a month passed in this way and it was slowly driving her mad. Sasuke was not benefiting from the constant visits, that enough was clear. And the tension that permeated the air was evident to everyone but the person at the focus of it.

Today, she and Naruto arrived at the house together. They went through the same routine, entered the house and were met with a familiar "Hello."

"Yamato-taichou!" Naruto cried gleefully, running over to their sometimes leader. He cast a reproachful look back at Sakura. "How come you didn't tell me?"

"Tell you what? I didn't know, idiot," she snapped. Why exactly was she supposed to be privy to all the workings of Konoha politics?

But Naruto basically ignored her and looked happily to his former team leader. "Hey, this means we're going to be a team again, right?"

Yamato's dark eyes considered him blandly. "For a while. Just to get Sasuke readjusted."

Immediately, Naruto ran over to Sasuke and for a moment looked like he was going to bear hug him. Instead, he smiled and sat down at the table opposite him.

Now that all the men were already seated, Sakura decided to join them at the only free chair, next to Sasuke.

"You do realize, of course," Yamato started, "That this will be an unconventional arrangement."

The three younger ninjas just looked at him.

"Unfortunately you two," he indicated Sakura and Naruto, "Will have to go back to lower level missions, at least officially, until Sasuke catches up."

Sasuke scowled fixedly at that.

"That's all right," Naruto cheered. "We can do that for a while. I'm sure it won't be for long. Right, Sakura?"

Sakura shrugged and didn't argue. It was all right with her. Her medic-nin status kept her in the hospital most days and she hadn't been on a team or active mission in quite some time. A little controlled fieldwork could be to her benefit.

Yamato went on to explain the particulars, but Sakura was absorbing the information purely by osmosis. She couldn't stop the boy-watching she'd recently developed after realizing Sasuke's feelings. She wondered what he thought about having to work side by side with the object of his affection.

Then her eyes flicked to Naruto at the precise moment that he cast a look of such deep seeded longing in Sasuke's direction that it took her breath away.

She inhaled slowly as her heart pounded in her ears.

It couldn't be, could it?

It couldn't possibly be.

After all the protests he made, his disgust of homosexuality, the ultimate betrayal he endured at the hands of the Uchiha, could Naruto really be in love with him, too?

But that look could mean nothing else.

It was of a different flavor than Sasuke's, gentle and warm whereas Sasuke's was intense and fiery. But she could discern no difference in degree or depth.

She wondered if either knew. But those two only ever communicated with fists and violence; the sole way they'd discover one another's feelings would be if they slammed into each other.

She buried her lip between her teeth and doubted that outcome.

The new team began its training and while everyone tried to act like nothing had changed, the atmosphere was strained to say the least.

Naruto proclaimed his prowess and Sasuke begged to differ. Yamato monitored them critically easily fighting off any attacks sent his way as Sakura cast sidelong glances at the three of them. Naruto and Sasuke were too engrossed with each other to give Yamato a real fight and eventually wandered off alone. Normally all this would bother Sakura, but now it gave her the opportunity to observe.

The unacknowledged tension was so thick she choked on it.

There was the fact that this was the first they'd been together as a team since Sasuke left.

Then there was the fact that Sasuke had left. After trying to kill Naruto and then trying to kill him again.

And all the death and war they'd experienced since then.

And Kakashi was no longer with them, instead replaced by Yamato.

And now to top it all off, those two idiots thought they were in love, but neither knew the other's feelings.

She was being unfair. But the backs of her eyes hurt anyway.

There was a difference to their fighting today. There was a bit too much pause each time they touched each other, soon turned into an attack to hide it.

It was so obvious.

Sakura sighed. There was nothing she could do about it. They were too wrapped up in their "fight" to notice her even she toppled to the ground with a severed artery spurting blood through the sky like a geyser. "Yamato-taichou, wanna spar?"

The stoic jounin turned to her with controlled interest. "Why not?"

They took their stances and began. It was a distracted sort of battle, or so Sakura thought. She managed to dodge and get in a couple of hits, but nothing great. Deciding to raise the stakes since they were both jounin, she began to form a strengthening jutsu that would wrap her hand in solid chakra.

It shone and sparkled around her fist and she launched forward at her top speed. At that exact moment, Yamato stated matter-of-factly, "That's a strange fight those two are having. It's almost like flirting."

Sakura lost her balance as Yamato easily leaned out of the way. Her fist flew to the ground and created a huge crater, which she proceeded to fall into face first. Incensed and spewing up dirt she'd swallowed, now turned to mud by her saliva, she whirled on the man.

"Why would you say something like that?!"

But Yamato only raised an eyebrow and advised, "You can't let yourself get distracted in the middle of a battle."

Sakura gritted her teeth behind her twisted lips and flipped her dirty hair from her face. Getting to her feet, she dismissed all thoughts of stupid boys and determined herself to make the man pay.

Sakura cast another annoyed glance at her leader, sore after losing the fight to dirty tactics, but Yamato hadn't said anything further. He was quietly watching as the boys tried to pummel each other into the ground.

"It was just an observation," the man said.

Sakura wasn't exactly buying his innocent attitude. Yamato tended to say exactly what he meant and the truth was that she had been thinking much the same thing.

"What're you talking about?" Naruto asked excitedly as he ran up to them, sweaty and flushed. Sasuke followed quietly behind.

"Oh, I was just saying that . . ."

"Nothing!" The girl cut the man off before he said something she would regret. "It was nothing. Are you two done?"

"Yeah, I guess so." Naruto jerked his thumb backward. "Sasuke is sore 'cause he lost."

"In your dreams, dobe," Sasuke commented dryly.

"In yours!" The blond childishly stuck out his tongue.

Sakura hummed under her breath. Almost twenty and would he ever grow up?

Sasuke simply smirked and looked away. "Idiot."

"Hey, who are you calling an idiot!"

"The only idiot here."

"You must be talking about yourself then."

"Lame."

"I'll show you who's lame. Say that again and I'll break your leg, then we'll see who's lame."

"That was almost clever."

"Hey!"

Sakura growled under her breath and faced Yamato who lifted a disinterested eyebrow and shrugged. Sakura huffed loudly and left them all to their stupidity.

It seemed like everything went back to normal.

And it did, on the surface. But underneath all that, trouble was brewing.

Things continued on in this routine for quite some time. Yamato stoically observing, Naruto and Sasuke fighting at every opportunity, and Sakura somehow always sort of left out. But that was the norm.

She was even beginning to think she'd conjured those looks and their meanings from some misguided imagination. She had read some of the Icha Icha Paradise books recently. Except every once and a while she was certain that she still caught glimpses of those secret looks pass between the two boys.

But she could discern no other changes, just team normalcy.

She clenched her teeth and wanted to scream.

She had told them she was stopping by today, she was absolutely certain of it. And yet here she was, and no Naruto and no Sasuke. Sufficed to say, Sakura was furious. What irresponsible teammates she had, not bothering to leave a note or anything! So instead of waiting, she decided to leave the rude boys to themselves.

She had only begun to return home when she spotted Kiba walking down the street toward her. Figuring that it couldn't hurt to ask, she approached the boy and resolved to herself that if he didn't have the answer, she'd just continue on her way.

"Hello Kiba."

"Hello." He replied genially.

"Have you seen Naruto or Sasuke?" She tried to make it sound as innocent as possible.

The boy's face split into a wide canine grin. "Sure, they went to the training grounds about two hours ago," he supplied helpfully. "Number three, I think."

"Oh, they did, did they? Thanks." She should have guessed; all they ever had on their minds was sparring. Sakura knew she was a bit short with the boy and knew just as well that it wasn't his fault, but as stated before, she was furious. She turned on her heel and stalked away.

"Uh, sure. You're welcome. 'Bye." Kiba watched the pink haired girl stomp down the street for a minute, not envying either of the people she was hunting down for one minute. Then he shrugged his shoulders, dismissing it all since it didn't concern him, and went back to what he was doing.

Sakura stormed to the training grounds in a fury, but with a sense of purpose and more importantly, with a sense of righteous vengeance. How dare they go off and simply forget about her! Wasn't she important too? A part of the team? More so than Sasuke even, if one thought about it objectively.

She was ready to give them a piece of her mind as she came upon the training ground and heard their voices muffled through the heavy summer air. She stepped out of the woods to stand on its edge, knowing with Kiba's help just where to find them.

And find them she did.

But they were not training.

They were tangled up together, ivory white and golden tan, pressing deep into the soft grass and exposed dirt of the well-worn earth. Just out in the open in the middle of the day for anyone to walk up and see them.

Like Sakura.

And she watched them because she couldn't stop. Sasuke was almost entirely naked except for his sandals, still strangely on as if some kind of concession to decency, and his robe, similar to the one he wore in Sound but not quite the same, clinging determinedly to his wrists and pooling beneath his body like a makeshift blanket. But these did nothing to hide his body, glistening with sweat in the midday sun. His every muscle was tense and exposed, from his neck, to his chest, down to his stomach, and his hips, held tenderly but firmly in Naruto's large hands. Naruto still wore his shirt, pushed up slightly to expose the edge of his seal, a deep black swirl pulsing over his belly. Naruto's pants were shackled around his ankles, not bothering in the apparent frenzy to remove them, but then he didn't need as much freedom as he knelt between Sasuke's wide spread knees.

Their movement was rhythmic yet frantic, fast yet mixed with excruciating slowness.

Sakura's body heat rocketed and her palm hurt as the sharp edges of bark bit into her tender skin.

The noises they made, grunts and groans and growls, mixed in with the short, heavy gasps through Sasuke's open mouth and Naruto's clenched teeth could sound like fighting. Almost. And it almost was like fighting, violent and harsh and strikingly sudden each time that Naruto . . .

Sakura quickly spun around, ashamed that she had been watching, and for so long. And she had been watching, her eyes wide open to see the way Sasuke clawed at Naruto's arms and how Naruto's hands were gentle even with the force of his movement. The girl put a hand to her mouth as if she could hold in her shock. Until then, when she felt the warm wetness on her cheeks with the tips of her fingers, she didn't know she was crying. Her chest felt full, tight, as her though her ribs would crack, but they did not. Yet she found it hard to breathe. Like a child, she covered her ears with her hands to block out their low, panting voices. Her eyes squeezed shut, forcing her tears to flow freely, drenching her cheeks with the last of her childhood that she thought she'd cried out already.

That she should have cried out.

She let out one last strangled sob and ran.

As she sat alone in the darkness of her apartment, the same thing kept going through her head: Naruto and Sasuke, Sasuke and Naruto. The names drummed incessantly with a cadence much like their owners'.

How long had it been going on?

Was it new or a return to something started long before? Or was it somewhere in between?

She shook her head. It didn't matter.

She was a fool not to have seen it.

And she was a bigger fool to have ever thought it could have been any other way.

Yamato took them all out for dinner the next day as a "bonding exercise" or some other equally unbelievable excuse. Sakura felt exceptionally awkward, but she wasn't about to pass up free food offered by a man who rarely even spent time with them outside official business. Plus, it had been more of a threat than a suggestion, as his made his face darken like in a horror movie.

She regretted it almost as soon as she arrived. She ended up sitting next to Naruto and across from Yamato and Sasuke. And that was fine except that Naruto and Sasuke were directly opposite each other and obviously up to something under the table. Sasuke was acting too stoic, as if making an effort to seem disinterested, while Naruto kept shooting little smiles to Sasuke and jumping in his seat occasionally. Sakura thought about dropping her chopsticks and taking a peek at what was going on, but opted against it. She didn't really think she needed to know.

Yamato was either completely blind or a better actor than she. He spent most of the dinner staring nonchalantly at his plate or looking at her curiously with his eyebrows raised. Or making a speech about how they needed to start getting along or he'd be forced to take action.

Then he used his scary face again.

Sakura wanted to hit him.

Naruto balked and Sasuke gave a bored, incredulous look as though he couldn't understand how he got there.

Sakura had a difficult time looking at her teammates. Every time she did, all she could see was Sasuke, back arched, graceful like a bird, heels digging into the dirt, and Naruto, lips pulled tight in a strange grin like a wild beast, his hips pumping in and out . . .

There was a loud, offensive clatter when Sakura's chopsticks, glass and all tumbled to the floor. Embarrassed, she quickly bent to pick them up and while she was down there, she took a quick glance to see what was going on under the table. As it turned out: nothing. But that was probably due to the ruckus she caused as well as her present position.

"Sakura-chan, are you O.K.?"

Sakura looked up and saw concern and a little bit of confusion on Naruto's face. The kunoichi smiled guiltily.

"I'm fine, thanks."

That's when she saw it again. The expression on Sasuke's face of unmitigated desire as if he would tackle Naruto right there at the table, the rest of the patrons be damned. And then she saw the image again of his head thrown back, mouth open, neck straining . . . Sakura gasped, plunked her plate to the table and stood up in such a rush that she made herself dizzy.

"Y'know," she said, fumbling for words. "I, uh, forgot I promised to help my mother clean the house."

"You gotta go?" Naruto actually sounded disappointed.

Sasuke still had that look, lost to his own thoughts, unaware and uncaring of anything else.

"Positive," Sakura said decisively "Sorry. Uh, thanks anyway." She quickly said her goodbyes and raced out of the restaurant.

She could hear Naruto's confused question and Sasuke's disinterested answer as she ran out the door.

She would just have to learn how to cope. Her two teammates getting together was rather unusual, but it made a certain amount of sense.

Unfortunately, every time she looked at them now, her mind inevitably drifted to that afternoon of them entangled in the grass, doing what ought to be called "making love" since they were so clearly in love, but had looked a bit more like basic, carnal screwing.

She really had to stop thinking about it.

But she couldn't. It was a Pavlovian response. So after another week of training and another week of the film playing in her head, she accepted it. And then, eventually, it just sort of petered away. That's about the time that she started to get irritated.

Inner Sakura wanted to grab the two boys and crack their heads together and make them confess to her. Their attention to each other grew increasingly obvious with each passing day. Even the fact that a relationship had been established was hardly a secret. And yet they insisted on attempting to keep it one.

It was getting on her nerves.

She suspected it was more due to Naruto than Sasuke since Sasuke's looks and touches became increasingly frequent and overt. Plus, she doubted Sasuke would care since he never cared what other people thought of him. Naruto was the one who would want to put up a front.

The girl was sorely tempted to call him on it and be done with the whole thing, but if he was going to torture her, she was going to torture him right back.

It was only fair.

So now, whenever she saw the two of them ready to go someplace together, she would hop up and ask if she could join in or beg Naruto's help on something, feigning ignorance. And Naruto, being Naruto, always agreed, though not always with his usual affability.

Sasuke's reaction was what surprised her. After she had begun her "operation", it belatedly occurred to her that while bothering Naruto could be immensely entertaining, annoying Sasuke could be potentially life threatening. The odd thing was, Sasuke didn't get angry. He seemed almost amused and even on occasion encouraged Sakura when it made Naruto particularly uncomfortable.

So Sakura chose to continue until they would finally decide to tell her the damn truth.

Three of the newly formed team members were standing on the Konoha bridge in the early morning of a scheduled training day. Yamato was giving Sakura and Sasuke a lecture on the importance of punctuality, which neither was paying particular attention to since they were on time.

"Hey guys! Sorry I'm late!"

Naruto bounded onto the bridge, a disruptive force as ever he was, grinning and holding his hand behind his head in apology.

And he was late. The rest of the team had been waiting for nigh on twenty minutes for their errant member to decide to show up.

Yamato was still talking, or had begun talking, or at any rate was making some sort of noise, but Sakura couldn't actually hear him. The moment Naruto appeared, all her senses were transfixed by what passed between her two teammates. She watched in wonder as Sasuke stopped what he wasn't doing and raised his eyes slightly, still facing forward though all his attention was focused behind him.

Naruto laughed nervously and dropped his hand, but didn't move any closer. Yamato was saying something about how he could lock them all up in a wooden prison if they didn't start heeding him.

Nobody was listening.

Sasuke seemed to have ceased breathing and his eyes grew a distant expression. Then his fingers slowly spread out on the bridge's railing as he straightened up as though pulled by a string. Yamato was still saying something as Sasuke slowly turned his head to face Naruto.

Sakura caught her breath.

Suddenly, she and Yamato were no longer part of the same world as the two boys. Even though he was faced away from her, Sakura could see the intensity of Sasuke's gaze reflected in Naruto's face. The blond at the rail stared back, not intense necessarily, but with that singular look so soft and contented and filled with such love that Sakura found that it nearly toppled her.

Everything else disappeared in the time that they stared at each other, a protracted length that seemed to go on forever.

Sasuke turned to face Naruto fully and paused for five seconds. Sakura knew it was five seconds because she counted. Then without any warning, Sasuke took three strides, grasped Naruto's face in his hands, slammed the shorter boy to the rail and kissed him, all in one smooth move and with a violence that Sakura envied. Naruto smiled into the kiss and clutched at Sasuke's shirt, his tanned fingers burrowing into the deep black fabric.

For a moment, Sakura stared at them, her eyes glued to their utter hunger for each other, so great that it threatened to consume them whole. Her breath quickened and she realized in horror that she was being a crude voyeur. Hurriedly, she hunched her shoulders and bent her elbow, shielding her view with the flat of her hand although Sasuke clearly didn't care and Naruto seemed to forget anyone else was present, if where his hands were disappearing to was any indication.

"Yamato-taichou," Sakura whispered urgently. "Shouldn't we leave?"

"Hmm?" The older ninja looked up almost lazily to regard his subordinate. Unconcerned, he glanced back over his shoulder at the boys presently sealed together.

Sakura slapped his arm like a mother hits a child going for the cookie jar, was embarrassed for a second, but then recovered.

"Don't look!" The girl herself had to keep dragging her eyes away from this private scene taking place right out in the open.

"They don't care," Yamato pointed out judiciously.

Sakura hissed through her teeth. "Taichou!"

Yamato hummed again and turned away. "Very well." He began to walk the length of the bridge, Sakura nipping at his heels. "But I'm only giving them five minutes. We don't have time for anything more."

Images of Sasuke arching up, Naruto curling down instantly flooded Sakura's mind. Her face heated up and she rushed ahead of the older man, knowing full well what "anything more" was.

No matter how she tried to suppress them, the moving pictures began to once again replay themselves in her head.

Yamato and Sakura did return approximately five minutes later to find Sasuke leaning casual and smug on the railing while Naruto fidgeted anxiously in the middle of the bridge.

"Sakura-chan!" He cried upon seeing her and ran up to meet the girl.

The kunoichi raised her eyebrow and continued forward and past Naruto until they met Sasuke at the rail.

"Uh, um," Naruto hedged, looking to his boyfriend – yes, Sakura realized, it would have to be boyfriend now and she'd have to get used to it – for help that would clearly never come. Sasuke only smirked and kept his eyes apathetically closed. Naruto scowled at him and returned to Sakura. He bowed low, surprising her. "I'm sorry."

She smiled softly at her dear friend. The game had gone on long enough; all she had wanted was the truth and now she had it. She took Naruto's shoulder and he looked up pitifully. "For what?" She asked him.

Naruto straightened his back and glanced around helplessly. "You know, for, uh, me and Sasuke."

Sakura laughed. "Well, don't be sorry for that." Naruto blinked as she assessed her teammates, taking pity on them. What harm had truly been done to her? There had never been any promises or agreements among them except for friendship and she still had that. Such a thing as this could not change her feelings. "That's nothing to apologize for. Besides, I think you fit well together." And it was true; she did think that.

Blatantly relieved, Naruto sighed. "Really?"

The girl nodded. "Really." But then she hardened her expression. "What you should be sorry for is not telling me."

The blond had the grace to actually look abashed "Yeah."

Then Sakura leaned back and crossed her arms with another sigh. "Also, you should keep in mind that 'public training grounds' means that the public could show up at any time and see you."

There was a brief silence.

Then Sasuke let out one short bark of laughter as Naruto caught up with the insinuation and paled before turning absolutely crimson.

Sakura watched them curiously as the laughter slowly bubbled within her, building up momentum. It escaped rather suddenly in one giant burst. And she laughed and laughed until her sides hurt and her eyes watered, all to Naruto's weak, sputtering complaints. She finally regained control of herself and with a big sigh she wiped a tear from her eye.

Naruto regarded her nervously with shifting eyes that took a long time to settle on her. "S-so," he said, unnaturally meek and unsure, "Can you be happy for us?"

And Sakura smiled. She patted him gently on the shoulder and walked away, leaving the boys alone together at the edge of the bridge.

Idiot.

She was a member of the team, their friend, and would willingly kill for them or die for them. She could certainly be happy for them.

And she was.

Because her love was unconditional.