Okay, this is sort of an apology for super late updates on TCB for those that read it. Schoolwork comes first. I'm using canon pairings even though I'm more of a ShikaIno person. That's okay though.
This is between 699 and the epilogue. All of them have changed their outfits and hair to what they have in the last movie.
I didn't want to do a really serious oneshot. There are a ton of those already. So here's a somewhat more humorous one. Sorry beforehand if you think Sakura is OOC but this is FF and I am the author :D
I'm hoping The Last: Naruto the Movie gets released in the US. And I'm hoping that the last volume of the manga gets released in English soon.
Disclaimer: Don't own.
Once in a while, when Sasuke visited home, the original Team 7 went on missions. Sometimes Sai was included, when he could get away from Ino. Yamato slowly returned to ANBU but would join once in a while. Kakashi was never able to, which was sad, but they always bragged to him after the mission was over.
Well, anyway, this day was one of those times where they went on missions.
Sakura hadn't been able to talk to Sasuke yet. A mission had gone badly with some genin and they accidentally partly crumbled a sand tunnel on themselves. They were all alive, only some sand had been inhaled in their lungs, and one of them had a twisted ankle. However, that kept her busy at the hospital for about two days (mostly because of overly concerned parents). When she did see Sasuke, it was in Kakashi's office for the mission assignment.
It had been months since she last saw him and a couple of years since he had first left to redeem himself. Not too much had changed since them, although she had politely asked to address him without a honorific because honestly, it was one more syllable than she really needed.
When she walked into the Rokudaime's office, she wasn't surprised to see the spiky mop of silver (he had insisted it was silver) hair and a much shorter mess of bright blond hair. The familiar dark hair of Uchiha Sasuke was wrapped in a white sash-like thing (Sakura wanted to ask why but decided against it. Wouldn't it just affect his vision?)
"Sakura-chan! You're here!" Naruto gave her a short but still very sweet hug.
"As if that wasn't obvious," Sakura felt the need to say.
"You were really quiet! So, duh!"
Naruto had a 60% chance of understanding Sakura's sarcasm. One of the things that had attached onto Sakura from Sasuke was his biting sarcasm. Her comments were never as sharp as his, but she found it much less exerting than punching (though less satisfying). She would resort to punching once in a while.
"As comforting this reunion is, the client expects you to meet him in an hour so I'd advise that you let me explain," Kakashi said, a slight air of superiority around him.
Sakura slightly grinned when she realized the reason why: he was prepping Naruto. It was only a matter of years and she knew she could count on both hands.
"You are doing an escort mission. This is a B-rank-don't give me that face, Naruto." Kakashi gave his blond student a hard look. "Even if you are ten times stronger than the chūnin you took the exams with, it's not fair of me to give you a mission beyond your rank."
Sasuke smirked when Naruto groaned. He hadn't taken the chūnin exams at all and was going with them on the mission. The logical side of him kicked in and he figured that since he was kind of still classified as a missing-nin, he couldn't participate in any exam. His smirk was still present when he recalled that Sakura was being considered for jōnin rank since she had gained water and earth release.
"Gah! Fine!" Naruto surrendered, faster than he usually did, something that didn't escape Sakura's suspicion.
"Anyway, Sasuke, the destination is at the Land of Iron. If you haven't gone there yet, I suggest you do with caution. I don't think Mifune and the rest of the samurai are very happy with you," Kakashi continued.
The Uchiha slightly flinched thinking about that time.
"Your job will be to escort the client to the Land of Iron and back. Sakura, I'm sure if you weren't occupied by other thoughts, you would've seen him. He's not very happy with the team assigned to him, since you two-" Kakashi waved his hand at Sasuke and Sakura "-are especially troublesome."
"What kind of diplomacy is Shikamaru doing? He wouldn't go unless it's something really important. Are you keeping secrets from us?" Sakura peered at her former sensei with narrowed eyes.
"Of course we are," he answered as if it was in plain sight.
Sakura sent him a withering look while Sasuke sighed. Naruto looked annoyingly happy.
"Just go get packed and meet Shikamaru back here. He'll fill you in on the important stuff," Kakashi dismissed them with an all too happy wave.
Once they closed the door behind them, Naruto put on a thoughtful face (still with a smile) and said, "he's way too pleased with something. Does he have a girlfriend?"
Sakura snorted. "Yeah right. The day he gets a girlfriend, my hair will turn brown."
"What?! Really?!"
"I know you got the sarcasm that time, Naruto."
"Man, Sasuke made you not fun anymore!"
Said Uchiha frowned at that exclamation. Sakura looked questioningly at him but he was saved from saying anything by Shikamaru, who chose that time to show himself.
"Oi, Shikamaru! I thought you were a jōnin! Can't you just go on your own?" Naruto asked.
"Kakashi said I wouldn't move fast enough without someone to order me around. I don't even get why it has to be me," Shikamaru sighed out.
"He's obviously not sending these two since they'd just make things worse," Sakura pointed out the obvious, ignoring Naruto's gaping mouth and Sasuke's light glare. "You can actually hold your tongue."
Shikamaru looked somewhat pleased with that response. Naruto started to ask about how Gaara was, allowing Sakura to turn to Sasuke. "How are you?"
He gave a slight shrug. "Bored."
She grinned. "I figured that. Don't worry, I'm sure that with Shikamaru with us, it'll be so interesting."
Sasuke reached his hand up to give her a gentle poke in the forehead. A light dusting of pink appeared on her cheeks, making him smirk. Kind of hoping to avoid Naruto seeing her blush, Sakura quietly excused herself, leaving Sasuke with a soon-to-be Hokage and the laziest man in the village.
To say things weren't awkward between them sometimes would be an understatement.
Sakura packed her supplies in record time. Sasuke wasn't staying anywhere so he was probably waiting. Naruto was probably really looking forward to the mission (even if it was a B-rank) and was already done packing. Shikamaru would say it was troublesome, no matter what "it" was.
She didn't use any sort of jutsu or chakra to get to Hokage Tower faster, it was just a waste. Jogging was relaxing when she had a lot to think about anyway. When arriving, Naruto and Shikamaru weren't there but Sasuke was waiting in his normal position, hands in his pockets and back leaning on the wall. The sudden thought of how attractive he looked without having to do a thing sprang up in her mind.
"Where'd Naruto and Shikamaru go?" Sakura asked when she was within conversation distance.
"Kakashi's talking to Naruto about something and Shikamaru went to sleep somewhere," Sasuke replied.
She sighed for the nth time that day. They were already having problems and they hadn't even left yet. She nearly said out loud that she needed a vacation, but that would be selfish and Sasuke was the last person she wanted to be selfish in front of.
"Where are you heading to next?" she wondered, hoping to get a clear answer.
The Uchiha shrugged. "Wherever."
Yet another sigh escaped Sakura's lips.
A frown was prominent on Sasuke's face. She had sighed one too many times for his liking that day.
"Is something annoying you?" he asked hesitantly.
She glanced at him before shaking her head to dismiss the question. However, Sasuke remained staring at her and she complied. "I wish we could make things easier between us."
He raised an eyebrow as if to urge her to continue.
"I've never had a guy friend closer to me than Naruto and now there's you and...ugh, you get what I mean right?" Sakura crossed her arms in a tense position.
Actually Sasuke didn't, but he slowly nodded to pretend he did.
Unfortunately, Sakura had picked up the ability to read him and she sighed...again. "I don't know how to do this, Sasuke."
Much to her already inflating annoyance, he smirked. "We have years to figure it out, Sakura."
Maybe Sakura would've smiled at the statement if a certain blonde with bad timing didn't appear. "TEME, SAKURA-CHAN! I CAN'T FIND SHIKAMARU!"
Sasuke felt like facepalming at Naruto but held himself back from doing so. He didn't however, hold himself back the amused face when Sakura gave Naruto the death glare.
"Were you guys doing something?" the Hokage-to-be slyly asked.
Sakura froze up and crossed her arms before turning the other way. Sasuke suddenly just found the ground very interesting. Naruto had an all-too-knowing grin on his face (even if he didn't know what was going on).
"What's taking so long, troublesome people?" an irritable lazy voice questioned from the doorway.
"Shikamaru? Where were you?!" Naruto demanded, nearly speaking one syllable at a time. Sakura thought she detected some sort of unspoken act but dismissed it for now.
"Sleeping," Shikamaru said through his teeth and narrowed his eyes. Naruto seemed to mouth, "Gomen."
"Let's get moving," Sasuke muttered briskly, knowing all of them would hear him.
Sakura followed him as he walked out. Naruto and Shikamaru shared a look before chasing after them (one chased, the other sluggishly walked).
As for Naruto and Shikamaru, well...they have their own story.
Day prior to this day
"Something like that requires meticulous planning," the lazy genius pointed out to a pacing Naruto after the blonde explained his idea of getting Sasuke and Sakura to actually get together. Well, Shikamaru considered them to be together but according to Naruto, either of them could be "claimed."
Naruto just gave a confused look to Shikamaru's chosen vocabulary before resuming his pacing.
"Nothing will happen unless you do it yourself," Shikamaru said as a different approach.
"I know that! That's why I'm trying to come up with something!" Naruto exclaimed, frustration pouring over his words.
"Then come up with it. It's really troublesome having to help you."
The blonde didn't reply to his words and continued to pace. After what felt like hours to Shikamaru, Naruto slammed a palm on a nearby wall and shouted, "FAKEADMISSION!"
"Hm, did you say something?" Shikamaru raised an eyebrow.
Naruto ignored him and repeated his words in a much clearer tone. "A fake mission! It's perfect!"
...
...
"...How...?"
"Just hear me out! If we got them alone or something, don't you think they would actually get together instead of Sasuke just being a douche? Wouldn't it be less troublesome if they stopped being weird around each other?" Naruto tried to see Shikamaru's thoughts on the issue.
"But then it would get troublesome all over again. It always does."
"Yeah, yeah. You poor soul. What's your idea?!"
Shikamaru felt like walking out of this situation altogether. Against his will, he had already formed a plan in his head. If it was a good plan, he didn't know. But ultimately, the current situation would be improved if he could get Naruto to stop nagging him.
"You have to get them in a situation that Sasuke won't run from or lash out. Sakura just has to be angry with Sasuke and she won't be going anywhere."
"See, this is why you'll be good as my right-hand man when I become Hokage! You're smart and don't get your head stuck where it shouldn't and-"
"Flattery gets you nowhere."
Naruto froze with his mouth open. Once he regained his composure, he frowned. "You can't accept a fact?"
"That's not a fact. A fact is like you being desperate enough to use Oiroke Gyaku Hāremu no Jutsu if Ichiraku's closes."
"...Don't doubt the Hāremu no Jutsu. It has more capabilities than you'll ever know..."
Shikamaru gave him a strange look. "Not that it has anything to do with our situation."
"...You don't know that, you uneducated soul..."
His companion decided to leave just as Naruto's face began to darken. They figured everything out the next day when the Hāremu no Jutsu was forgotten. (A/N: Not saying the plan because that would spoil everything)
This day
"Did you get everyone in place?" Shikamaru asked in a hushed tone to keep the ever-so-watchful Uchiha ahead of him from hearing the plan.
"Except Kiba. He said there was more important stuff than trying to make Sasuke do something," Naruto imitated Kiba's voice as he replied.
The lazy genius facepalmed. "You should have threatened him, you baka. If something goes wrong, we need him to run to us so we know."
Naruto gave a dumbfounded look. "Oh...I thought that was Sai's job."
"It was but you were the one to change it."
"Yeah, but I thought Sai would just make it worse if he insulted any of us."
"Guys, we have to go!" Sakura shouted from up ahead.
The two realized how far they had fallen behind Sasuke and Sakura. Naruto jogged to catch up while Shikamaru simply walked the tiniest bit faster.
'Naruto, you baka. I worked way too hard on that troublesome plan to have you ruin it.'
I originally planned to have this as a oneshot but it was going to take waaaaaay too long so it will be a twoshot or threeshot.
TCB will be updated when I have less school work, sorry for the super long period of not updating.
Thanks for reading and please review! I haven't put anything on FF in a long time :(