Uchiha Affairs

Sasuke slammed the door of his car, the sound echoed by Naruto doing the same. "This is ridiculous," he muttered as he walked up onto the sidewalk.

Naruto fell in beside him, chuckling. "Well," the blond said, "This is your sister we're talking about. You really expect anything less?"

"A sense of propriety befitting our family name?"

"From Karin? Dream on. 'Sides, it's not so bad! The caterers are doing a test run tonight, and I convinced your mom to let us sample some of the goodness! And this will totally be fast; I've known Ino and her family forever, and they're awesome. We'll be in and out in like, two seconds."

Sasuke sighed, and pushed open the door of Yamanaka Flowers. The shop was small, but filled to the brim with baskets and vases of flowers set both on the floor and on small shelves scattered about the space. Sasuke navigated around the blooms, and moved to the back of the store where a counter separated the display area from the back of the shop. Naruto continued rambling. "I know Ino's stoked you guys listened to me and used her shop; she's gonna make bank from doing this party. Dude! Check out the size of those tulips! They're huge!"

Sasuke glanced back to where Naruto was now ogling a vase of blossoms. He rolled his eyes, and continued back to the counter. No one was manning it, but beyond the counter sitting cross-legged on a large table was a girl with short pink hair. Her tongue stuck out the side of her mouth as she wrapped a thin wire around a mass of flowers.

Sasuke cleared his throat, and she glanced up. "Yes?"

"I'm here to check on the progress of the flowers for the Uchiha affair."

She gave him a distracted smile and picked up a small cutter to snip the wire. "You're looking at the progress. I'm working on the garlands right now."

Sasuke raised an eyebrow. "And how close to complete are you? I was assured this company would perform adequately."

The girl finished cutting, dropped the clippers, moved the flowers off her lap, and hopped down from the table. "You'll have to take that up with the pig. Hold on."

Sasuke watched her move over to a thick metal door. She opened it and yelled, "OY!" The rest of her sentence was muted by the thud of the door.

As Sasuke waited, Naruto finally appeared, fisting a bunch of the tulips. "Dude," he said. "I am totally getting these for Hinata. I mean look at them; they're massive!"

Naruto carefully lined the flowers up in a row on the counter, using his thumb to ensure the stems were evenly spaced. As he fiddled with the last two, the metal door flew open, and a breathless blond appeared. "Uchiha-san! Weclome! Oh, and you brought Naruto too."

Without pausing, she crouched behind the counter, and a series of shuffles ensued. A moment later, she reappeared with a thick folder. "I'm Yamanaka Ino, the owner of this shop and the one coordinating your order. Here are all the flowers for the birthday party. We are about eighty percent done. Here is a checklist." She handed a sheet over the Sasuke. "The garlands are almost completed, and after that, all we have left are the corsages, the nosegays—"

"Dude! Sakura!"

Sasuke turned his head from the sheet of paper to see Naruto hurling himself at the pink-haired worker who had just returned from behind the metal door. His friend almost bowled the petite girl over with his enthusiastic hug. Instead of huffing, as most girls were wont to do when confronted with Naruto's antics, the girl laughed.

A moment later, Naruto walked back to Sasuke, his arm wrapped around the girl's waist. Sasuke raised an eyebrow at the sight; Naruto was usually cautious about showing physical affection to any girl but Hinata.

"Naruto," the blonde behind the counter snapped. "Stop man-handling my friend."

Naruto laughed. "Please, I've known Sakura way longer than you, Ino, so put a sock in it. And Sakura! How did you get conned into helping with this mess?"

The girl giggled. "Well, I'm supposed to be studying for boards right now, but Ino has a couple girls out sick right now, so she dragged me in to help with this event. Good thing too; she knows I tie bouquets better than anyone."

"Bah," Ino scoffed. "You wanted a break."

"If I fail, I'm blaming you."

Sasuke turned to Ino. "You're understaffed? Will that affect the event?"

The girl shook her head. "Sakura has more experience in this business than anyone but me. If she hadn't decided to be smart and run off to medical school, I'd still have her working here."

The other girl winked, and detached herself from Naruto. "But then I'd be groveling for raises from you, and how would that affect our friendship?" She smiled at Sasuke. "And don't worry; Ino and I worked together for years. Everything will be perfect."

Sasuke watched her climb back on the table, showing surprising agility. Unaccustomed to being caught wanting to watch a woman, he returned his attention to the checklist. Ino had moved onto Naruto. "Are you really thinking of just giving her tulips?" At Naruto's enthusiastic nod, she groaned. "You are such a man. You need accent flowers and a pretty vase!" She gathered up the tulips, grabbed Naruto's hand, and dragged him back to the metal door. "Check these—" the bang stole her last words.

Sasuke finished reviewing the list and set it back on the counter. The girl had returned to working on her flowers. As Sasuke watched, she winced, muttered a curse, and started sucking on the tip of one finger. He frowned. "What happened?"

She raised her head, eyes startled, like she'd forgotten his presence. That bothered him, another disconcerting emotion. "Oh." She removed her finger and showed it to him. "Floral wire rips up your hands if you're not careful. I nicked myself, that's all." She returned to her work. "What the occasion, anyway? Throwing a party for your girlfriend or something?"

Sasuke shook his head. "My sister's turning twenty."

Sakura smiled in a way that almost looked sneaky. Sasuke almost missed it as she turned her head back to the garland. "She must have some kind of bash planned; she's ordered a full set of bouquets. I guess she just wants pictures or something?" Sasuke shrugged; who knew why Karin wanted anything. "Oh well," Sakura continued. "I remember when I turned twenty. Naruto bought me a cake, and then got really mad when our other friends took me to a bar and he couldn't come in. And then somehow he got in anyway; I never figured out how."

Sasuke frowned. "How do you know Naruto? He's never mentioned you before."

She glanced up from her work again. "Really? That's surprising. We've known each other since we were kids. He lived down the street from me. He's told me all about you."

Sasuke set his hands on the counter and leaned forward slightly. "Really. What did he tell you?"

He was met by a slightly inclined head and a sly smirk. "Why should I answer that?"

"Because it involves me."

"But what's the fun in that? It'll be more fun for me to keep you wondering what I know and don't know." She winked again, before reaching over and grabbing another set of flowers to work into her garland.

Was she flirting with him? Girls never flirted with Sasuke. Sure, all his sister's friends giggled when they saw him, and he knew women's eyes lingered on him sometimes, but people generally didn't talk to Sasuke. They talked about him all the time, but very few actually approached.

It was intriguing.

The metal door banged open again with a burst of frigid air, and Naruto appeared with a massive vase of tulips and several flowers Sasuke couldn't name. He brandished them at Sakura. "Hey Sakura! Check them out!"

"Nice! Hinata will love them!"

Naruto grinned, and Ino moved behind the counter to ring up his purchase. "Sakura," he called again. "You should double date with us again sometime!" He turned to Sasuke, and something that he saw made him grin even more. He leaned around his flowers. "You could even go with Sasuke! That would be awesome! Like to Karin's party! Hinata's gonna be there; you should stay after you set up the flowers!" He turned to Ino. "You too, Ino; bring Shikamaru!"

"Naruto!" Sakura said, "You can't invite people to other people's parties! That's rude!"

Ino whipped around. "Speak for yourself, Sakura! I want to see the fruits of my labor! That venue is going to be so pretty when we're finished! And it's an Uchiha affair!"

"Yeah, yeah, Sakura, Ino's right. And it's just Karin. She'll want as many non-relatives there as possible so she can really have a party. What do you think, Sasuke?" He smacked Sasuke on the back, who winced.

Once he recovered, Sasuke glanced at Sakura, who was stealing glances at him as she pretended to still be focused in her garland.

Her cheeks were pink. It was… Well, it was cute.

He shrugged one shoulder. "Do what you want. You will anyway."

Naruto cheered; and eagerly chatted with Sakura as Sasuke pulled out his card to pay the balance of his family's order.

Naruto led the way out of store, stepping carefully with his vase. Sasuke followed. Before he rounded the corner of the displays, he glanced back at Sakura. She was following him with her eyes.

She had beautiful eyes.

He sighed inwardly. What the hell? Why not? "What color is your dress?" he asked.

She blinked a few times. "Umm… Light blue."

He nodded. "Don't wear any jewelry."

He turned and left. He'd seen a set of blue diamonds the other day when picking up Karin's birthday presents. They'd suit her.

After all, Karin's extravagance came from somewhere. Uchiha's were infamous for their lack of moderation.

This could be amusing.


Notes

I noticed while re-reading this that I tend to have Naruto say, "Dude," a lot. Probably because that's how all the guys I hang out with start their sentences.

Fourth of five fics written for SasuSaku month over on LJ. The theme was Special Occasion, the theme was Birthday. Just meant to be cute and fun!

Don't forget, reviews are lovely!

SJ