Author's Notes: In this story the Uchiha Massacre didn't occur, therefore Sasuke did not leave, and his personality might seem slightly OOC because of the fact that he doesn't have the avenger attitude. It is also in the Shippuden time, with the characters perhaps being slightly older at 18/19.
Disclaimer: All characters mentioned in this story are the property of Masashi Kishimoto and TV Tokyo, and the author of this story does not mean to imply ownership of said characters.
Sakura yawned, stretching her arms and shaking the sleep out of her eyes. It was just another morning in her favourite hidden ninja village, Konohagakure. Peeling the sheets off of her, Sakura jumped out and headed to the shower. The sun was shining, the birds were singing. Today was going to be a good day.
"WHAT?" Sakura exclaimed at her sensei, Kakashi. "A… a mission by ourselves?" she repeated. Her and her team were listening intently to their teacher as they stood within Konoha's training grounds. Sakura was used to being backed up by a higher-trained ninja, and being a medical-nin she was in high demand for many teams.
"Precisely." Kakashi nodded, his one visible eye travelling to his other two pupils, wondering if they would have the same reaction.
"YES! Time to prove my skills!" Naruto yelled, punching his fist into the air. Naruto instantly ran to the nearest tree, punching and kicking with all of his strength. "I'll show everyone what I'm made of!" he promised, slowly making dents in the tree.
Kakashi inwardly sighed. 'Some things never change.' he thought. With two reactions taken care of, he glanced at Sasuke, awaiting his response.
With a roll of his eyes, Sasuke asked, "So what exactly are we doing on this mission?"
'No surprises here, either.' Kakashi thought. Unrolling the scroll in his hands, Kakashi read to his students. "Konoha has been invited to a festival being held in the Land of Iron, as have all the other major hidden ninja villages." Kakashi read.
"Wait, the Land of Iron?" Sakura interrupted. "I thought ninja weren't allowed to go there. Some kind of ancient rule?"
Kakashi nodded, pleased that at least one of them knew of the ancient ways. "The Land of Iron is ruled by samurai, not ninja. They have never been involved in any of the shinobi wars. In fact, they've never been involved with ninja ever, until now." he explained.
With a confused expression Sakura asked, "So then, why now?"
Kakashi continued, "Because the Land of Iron was never involved, they are the perfect neutral ground. All of the village leaders can gather there without fear of one leader having the advantage of an army at their disposal." Kakashi rolled up the scroll, and paused in thought. "Well, that's the theory anyway. This year they are allowing three ninjas from each village to attend their annual festival, as representatives of the village."
Naruto stopped his attack and stared at Kakashi. "A festival?" he asked disappointedly, shoulders drooping. It wasn't exactly the hard-pounding fast paced action he had expected.
"Quiet Naruto! Out of all the ninja in this village, WE'RE being chosen? It's such a great honour!" Sakura gushed.
Sasuke took this time to speak his thoughts, in his usual calm manner. "The only reason they've chosen us is because they couldn't afford to send anyone better. I bet all the other ninja are some of their villages' best, and with an environment that has no interest in getting involved, it's the perfect location for them to strike, or at least gain some political advantage."
Kakashi nodded. "Precisely."
Sakura's eyes lowered, whereas Naruto stayed confused. "So, wait... We're going because... WE'RE THE WORST?" Naruto yelled in realisation.
Kakashi sweat dropped while Naruto fumed silently. "You're not the worst. You guys are the best we have when we eliminate all the senior members, jounin and other chūnin."
"THAT'S NOT THAT MUCH BETTER!" Naruto yelled again, furious.
"Calm down, Naruto." Sakura said, trying to calm the ninja down. "We're still travelling to a whole new location to represent our village. It's not that bad.. I guess.." she reasoned to him, and herself.
"Hn. Dobe." Sasuke muttered. Naruto faced Sasuke, steam ready to blow out his ears in his anger.
Kakashi put his hands up between them. "Yes, yes it's a great honour, and you leave in about two hours, so get packing." he said, almost pushing them away from the field.
Naruto turned away, arms crossing as he angrily muttered, "Teme." Unwilling to face Sasuke, he dashed off, going to get prepared.
Sakura and Sasuke stood at the Konoha gate, both with small packs over their shoulders. Sakura had her medical pouch attached to her hip, and was wearing her leather gloves, red top, pale pink skirt and red headband with the hidden leaf village's symbol. Sasuke wore his blue vest with the Uchiha crest and white pants, with his ninja utilties in a pouch attached to his thigh with his own blue headband and symbol. Sakura leant against one of the gates, annoyed that Naruto was taking so long.
In a cloud of smoke, Kakashi appeared in front of them, startling Sakura, and Sasuke to a smaller extent. Noting that Naruto wasn't there, Kakashi gave Sakura the map to the festival location, and prepared Sasuke with some of the information about the enemies they'd be facing.
"HEY GUYS! SORRY I'M LATE!" yelled out a blur of orange in the distance, coming from the village. The team members sighed, not surprised at all by their annoying and consistently late teammate. A puffing Naruto slowly came into view, clenching his stomach.
"Last-minute visit to Ichiraku's, Naruto?" Kakashi assumed, his visible eyebrow raised.
"You...betcha!" Naruto wheezed, in between pants.
With a sigh, Kakashi continued his instructions. "In a couple of days, you should reach the border between The Land of Fire, and The Land of Iron. The village should only be one or two more days in, but The Land of Iron is notorious for snowstorms, so make sure to find shelter each night, and a backup shelter if necessary during the day. Just remember to keep scouting for emergency locations, and you'll be fine."
Instructions given, Kakashi bid them all a safe journey, and encouraged them all to get going.
The trio looked at each other, instructions silently passing with each glance. Nodding at Kakashi, they left, beginning their walk along the path. Normally they'd travel through the trees, but the festival wasn't for a week, and by walking they would conserve their strength.
Sakura looked over at Sasuke, with his stoic face and unflinching gaze staring straight ahead, slightly ahead of herself and Naruto. Jogging slightly to catch up, she gently touched his shoulder to get his attention. Pointing at Naruto behind them, she suggested "Perhaps we should stop."
Sasuke glanced at Naruto and sighed inwardly. 'The dobe again...' he thought.
Naruto was walking, more of limping really, behind his two teammates. Clenching his stomach, and groaning constantly, he was surely a sight to behold. "So hungry..." he moaned constantly.
Sasuke sighed and ceased walking, patiently waiting with Sakura as the shambling ninja caught up to them. Feeling a little malicious, Sasuke asked, "Something wrong, Naruto?"
Whipping his head up to glare at the raven-haired jerk before him, Naruto merely answered his question with a long grumble from his stomach.
Sakura rolled her eyes at the sight before her. A ninja that can take out the leader of the Akatsuki could be reduced to this mess by simple hunger pains. Sakura nudged Sasuke. "Spare a little mercy for the number one hyperactive, knucklehead ninja." she said, taking pity on her friend. With a quick scan, Sakura spotted a tea house that wasn't too far of a walk away. "We can take a short break there, it has been more than four hours." she explained.
Sasuke turned slightly to face the pinkette in front of him. With a sigh, he nodded and began a quick jog. Sakura soon followed, with a grumbling Naruto not too far behind.
Sakura sighed in content at the tea she held in front of her. She was perfectly happy to just sit and enjoy what she had in front of her. Her teammates, however...
"Alright, one more bowl, then I'm done." Sasuke told Naruto, his pile of ramen bowls already stacked up neatly next to him, almost towering over Sakura, who was sitting next to him.
"Ha! Giving up so easily?" Naruto jeered, his own piles covering the table on his side.
"Not a chance." Sasuke smirked. "But I don't think your coin purse can handle it."
Naruto's grin faded as he looked inside his little frog pouch. Sasuke was right, he couldn't afford any more! His grin returning, he announced, "Alright, three more bowls. Winner is the fastest, loser pays." Extending his hand, Naruto waited, seeing to see if the teme would accept his deal. To his dismay, Sasuke's hand reached out and shook.
"Deal." he agreed, smirking again, calling for three more bowls.
Sakura looked at the two, seeing what 4 years of maturing had done for them.
"Ready..." Naruto started, watching the six bowls being set down in front of them.
She thought the answer seemed pretty clear.
"Set..." Sasuke continued, snapping apart his chopsticks.
All that time boiled down to...
"GO!"
Zip.
Naruto and Sasuke launched into their respective meals, attacking the noodles with admirable gusto.
Sakura watched as Naruto gulped down his food with the same force and need as when they had first entered the shop. Sasuke, on the other hand, seemed to be in an entirely different league.
He managed to somehow consume noodle after noodle with barely a second glance. How on earth was he storing all that food in his skinny body? 'Well..' Sakura thought, taking a second glance, 'Not totally skinny.' He had matured somewhat in the physical department, his muscles becoming more pronounced.'Why am I oggling him?' Sakura wondered to herself. She had gotten over that silly schoolgirl crush on him a while ago, finally realising she would never love or receive love when she was chasing after some guy like an ignorant fangirl. 'Perfectly natural to oggle,' she reasoned, 'I can find whoever I want attractive.'
Focusing herself back to the task at hand, she watched Sasuke and Naruto devour their bowls. Judging by the addition to their bowl towers, Sasuke was nearly done on his second, whereas Naruto had just started. As Sasuke placed his second bowl next to his tower, Sakura slyly thought to herself, "I wonder just how much he's matured..."
Her eyebrows nearly wagging as a villain would, she sneakily snaked her hand down by her side, resting between her and Sasuke. Just as Sasuke began his last bowl, Sakura lightly brushed her hand up against his thigh, causing a brief but noticeable pause in Sasuke's eating pattern. Silently giggling to herself, Sakura put her hand at the tip of Sasuke's knee, slowly running it up towards his thigh. Sasuke made a small choking noise at the back of his throat, glancing at Sakura, silently yelling "What the hell are you doing!".
Ignoring him, Sakura raised the hand to the top of his thigh, and made a figure eight with more pressure, but still light touch of her index finger. Sasuke suddenly coughed into his food, dropping his bowl to the table as he started a coughing fit due to the soup he swallowed.
Naruto saw this, and took it to his advantage, finishing his second bowl and gulping down his third. Sakura patted Sasuke's back as he kept coughing, watching as his chance of winning was reduced to 0, Naruto finishing his last bowl.
When Sasuke's fit subsided, Naruto saw his chance to gloat. "What happened, teme? You were doing so well for once." he said, patronisingly.
Sasuke glanced quickly at Sakura before turning his glare on Naruto. "Soup went down the wrong pipe." he muttered.
Naruto didn't really care as to how Sasuke had lost, the fact remained that Naruto had finally won one of his bets. "Pay up." he demanded, grinning.
Muttering, Sasuke took out the required amount of coins and offered them up to Naruto. Swiping them out of his hands, Naruto grinned even wider, heading off to find the waitress to pay for their meal, for once.
Satisfied that Naruto was out of earshot, Sasuke focused his attention to the frustrating pinkette beside him. "What the hell was that?" he demanded.
Sakura shrugged innocently before replying, "Naruto deserved to win for once." Inwardly smirking, Sakura turned and focused her attention to the tea in front of her, taking a small sip.
"You have an interesting way of showing it." Sasuke growled out, through gritted teeth. Turning away from the annoying woman.
Sakura grinned into her tea, and still holding the cup to her mouth mumbled, "You loved it."
Before he could respond, Naruto returned and announced that they were ready to go. The trio headed outside after bidding farewell to the waitress and the kind chef that had provided all the ramen. They were back on track to the journey that lay ahead of them. But Sasuke could only focus on the last three words Sakura had said. Maybe he had.
But she'd never know.
Author's Notes: Soooo how was it? :D This was my first ever SasuSaku fan fiction, I hope it wasn't too bad! Please leave any criticism by reviewing, or PM me. Any ideas, comments, anything would be appreciated ^^ Thank you for reading.