Weeeeeellll, I got bit by a bunny. As you do. This will be in two parts. Rating is T for now but may go up depending on how naughty and/or nice I feel. I haven't forgotten about other projects that are pending from the old days, but my time to do anything is minuscule with a 9mo old and a full time job. Yarrrrrrrrrr.
Sweet midnight editing is sweet.
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, because dammit all if I did NaruSaku would be canon and there would be enough subtext for some really twisted GaaSaku out there.
"Smile!"
"I am!"
Sakura strained her mouth to the fullest, trying to answer Ino's demands for a selfie. It wasn't working, though, and she knew it as much from the way Ino was jabbing her in the side with a bony elbow as from the way her cheeks literally hurt.
"Tilt that chin out, you have as many chins as forehead wrinkles."
Sakura gave an answering jab to Ino, perhaps a little less kind than she meant it to be because the responding kick from her friend made her grimace.
"Why is this taking so long?" They were crammed together on a Thursday night of all things in front of some club because of cheap promotional drinks for ladies of a certain age bracket and it was cold. Sakura was using up one of her rare nights to herself off shift, and this whole activity seemed pointless from the uncomfortably high shoes to the uncomfortably high hemlines on her borrowed skirt.
"Haven't you heard the expression you catch more flies with honey?" Ino examined her phone as she flicked through the many pictures she had snapped to find one that was social media worthy. She pursed her lips together and many were discarded from her brightly glowing phone.
Sakura pulled her jacket closer around her as if that would generate more warmth. "Sounds like a waste of honey."
"Right?" Ino agreed with her, though Sakura knew from experience the cavalier 'I don't need a man' attitude would fade as the hours ticked by and drinks were consumed. When they were riding over to the club together Sakura had spied a picture of Chouji out of the corner of her eye, and if Ino was looking at pictures of her ex it was only a matter of time before something dramatic was going to happen between the two of them yet again.
A shout from inside the doorway had them turning their heads, but it just looked like some frat boys spilling out onto the street. Sakura thought that boded ill, since she wasn't really looking to get hit on by some guy who would spill his beer down her front and apologize by trying to feel her up immediately following.
"Are we in the right place, Ino? Like, not are we at the right location but…"
"You worry too much." With a wave Ino dismissed her apprehensions and instead concentrated on getting the perfect picture of their amazing girls night out posted. Sakura got the sinking suspicion that this ladies night was not for her benefit, or even Ino's, but really to goad Chouji into saying something. Lordy, it was news year's eve two years ago all over again.
"You're buying the first three rounds."
"I think you'll find that if you get that smile right neither of us will be buying any rounds. Why do you think I pulled out these skirts? Really, Sakura, have some sense."
"Sense?! Sense would have told me to tell you to go to hell the second you mentioned stilettos in the middle of winter. Sense is telling me that right now I could be at home, in pajamas, streaming something interesting and eating whatever I want."
Ino clutched at her heart. "You are going to kill me. I'm going to die right here of boredom just from the description of your pathetic life."
The frat guys that had spilled out onto the street had made their way over near them, and had gotten exponentially louder. Something was setting them off, and out of the corner of her eye Sakura saw a flash of red.
"Look, partying was cute when we were in school but now that we have normal jobs we need to think about, you know, maybe acting like adults."
"Adults have fun and get drunk, too. You're talking about acting like a boring person because you think that makes you responsible."
"Look here—" Sakura turned around in line to give Ino a piece of her mind and possibly stomp off for a while (or at least glide careful in her high heels a short distance away) when the circle of frat boys broke just enough for her to see a person in the middle, lips bloody and eyes rolling around in his head.
Some guy with a hat on backwards was pushing the man's shoulder, and she could see that the man was in a suit but everything was unbuttoned down to the waist, shirt half tucked in, a sleeve partially coming off of the jacket. He looked like he had been mugged and needed help and everything in Sakura told her she couldn't possibly ignore someone in trouble, no matter the odds.
Squaring her shoulders she walked out of line and towards the circle of men who were moving the swaying businessman into the street as he attempted to ignore them and move away. Ino, only glancing up from her phone because Sakura had suddenly walked away, started to shout a warning but Sakura was already up to the men.
"Excuse me," she started but then gasped and took a step back as the man who was turning to face her and in the middle of an expletive was grabbed by the hair and sprawled out before her. In moments the circle was a melee with the jeers of the frat boys turning to anger and then alarm as the businessman attacked them with a viciousness Sakura had only seen in hammy grindhouse movies.
He had taken down three of them, one of whom he had delivered a sharp kick to the back, when two of them grabbed his arms and pulled him back to allow a third to punch him in the gut. The frat kid only got in one good blow as the businessman gave what sounded like a howl and jumped up to use both feet to kick him in the chest and knock everyone down at once. On the ground and free again, he was fighting like a demon, biting and scratching as often as he was punching and kicking. It wasn't mindless, entirely, but it also didn't seem very intentional.
The frat boys were gathering themselves together and trying to make a quick exit when one, to get up from the ground more quickly, suddenly pulled on Sakura's arm. She stumbled forward, right into the path of the red haired demon, and his fist was flying towards her face when all those years of martial arts with her step-brother Naruto kicked in and her arm came up to deflect it. Instinctively, and filled with her own righteous fear and anger, she launched the counterattack she had practiced more times than she could count and she felt her knuckles split as her fist connected with the demon's jaw.
Behind her, Sakura heard someone go "Woo!".
Dread in her heart, she peeked over her shoulder to see every last person who had been waiting in line to get in the club had their phone out and was presumably recording what had just happened. Ino certainly was. Marching over to her friend, while people continued to film her in specific, she grabbed Ino's arm and dragged her in the direction of the limp man.
"Call an uber right now!" Sakura hissed through her clenched jaw.
"That was so cool. He came at you so fast and you were like… POW!" Ino said, opening the app faithfully.
"Shut up!" Sakura was blushing, mortified at the whole situation. She checked the pulse of the businessman, now laying in the gutter, and wondered how much he was going to sue her for the assault. Now that she was closer up, his suit and shoes looked expensive. Oh god, could she get fired from her job for this? All that video!
"Should I call the cops too?" Ino said, fingers poised over the phone.
"No!" Sakura yelled, then cleared her throat and calmed down. "No. Let's just get him somewhere safe and make sure he's ok." And see how much he remembers when he comes to….
"You're being stupid, why am I letting you be so stupid?" Ino said as she helped Sakura pull the still unconscious but now gently shivering man out of the car and into her secure apartment complex. Once past the door and into the elevator Ino shifted 100% of the limp man's weight onto Sakura and pulled Sakura's apartment key out of her tiny clutch.
"What if he tries to murder you the moment he wakes up? Did you think about that?" Ino waved a manicured finger in Sakura's face while Sakura struggled to balance on her heels and support the weight of the man. He wasn't particularly tall, but he must have been all muscle to be so hard to shift around. He smelled faintly of garbage, which given how she had laid him out in a gutter might have been partially her fault.
"From the way he's shaking I assume he's going through withdrawal and I seriously doubt he'll be able to lift a finger once he wakes up."
"He seemed pretty energetic earlier, is all I'm saying."
The elevator opened and Sakura hauled the prone form draped on her back towards the door Ino was opening down the hall.
"Hurry up, this is so embarrassing." Ino gestured for Sakura to hurry, which only made her gasp out a laugh.
Sakura found her voice in between balancing the man's weight precariously. "You're the one that said it wouldn't be humane to just leave him at a hotel lobby or something."
"Well I wasn't volunteering your place or mine!"
Sakura sprawled the man out on her couch even as Ino shut the door hastily behind and took a seat on the chair across from him with her knee jiggling and her phone out.
"Watch him while I get some supplies to clean him up." At Ino's bald look of panic she reassured her. "Don't worry, I have it all in a little kit it will only take a minute." She kicked off her shoes towards the door as she made her way to her postage stamp of a bedroom and pulled the tiny med kit out from under her bed. It was just a little kit, but she had learned long ago when Naruto was getting into more and more serious fights with bullies in middle school that it was better to keep it handy. Even though he wasn't crawling into her room to escape the scrutiny of their parents anymore, the habit had stuck.
Incidentally, she glanced down at her split knuckles and wondered how she would explain it away when she was back at work on Saturday. Trial kickboxing class? She washed her hands off and gave a quick bandage to her right fist before going back into the main room to relieve Ino of her anxiety.
The man hadn't moved, but Ino had picked up the metal lamp next to the chair as if she was ready for him to spring into action at any moment.
"Ino, just look at something on your phone or whatever. Calm down."
Setting to work she cleaned the blood off his face, noting that between the popped off buttons and the blood his cream colored suit shirt was toast. The pale skin that was peeking out from the open shirt told Sakura that her mystery monster had abs for days, and it seemed such a deeply inappropriate thought that she felt the blush wash over her skin hotly.
Tearing her eyes back to his bruised face she noted that his nose was slightly off center but not swollen, making her wonder how many fights had come before this. Once the blood was off his face, she noted the dark bags under his eyes and ridging of a scar on his forehead. It seemed to be making a pattern, but as she pulled back to try to figure out what it was she realized all at once that despite the bags, the split lip, and the bruise settling around his jaw, he was a startlingly handsome man. Not the kind of handsome she was used to, athletic and symmetrical, but magnetic all the same.
"You look like you want to lick him."
"Haven't you gone home yet?" Sakura snapped not unkindly at Ino while secretly wondering not for the first time if her friend was psychic or something.
"I'm just saying if you're so thirsty then we definitely need to go back to that bar next time you get a night off." Ino paused. "Well, maybe not that specific bar. But we need to get you lai—"
The man on the couch gave a low groan. He started shivering in earnest now, and Sakura jumped back as he opened one bloodshot eye. It was a minty green, not that far off from her own. But while her pink hair seemed ridiculously childish with her candy apple green eyes, his rusty auburn hair seemed to make his pale green eyes all the more striking.
"Where am I?" He checked the watch on his wrist, noting the crack down it with a grimace. Sakura desperately hoped she hadn't caused that because that watch looked more expensive than everything in her apartment put together.
"You got into a fight and my friend here tried to help you." Ino supplied. Technically true, even if it was missing an important detail.
Sakura had taken another step or two away, just out of arm's reach in case he did do something crazy. The man clutched his head like it was hurting him terribly.
"Is there someone we can call to come get you?" Ino gently continued to prod.
The man's gravelly baritone rattled off a number and Ino had already dialed before Sakura could caution her. Ino stood up and paced as she waited for someone to pick up. Meanwhile, Sakura went into nurse mode.
"Did you take anything? Is that why you're shaking? You should tell me in case we should be calling an ambulance right now."
The man groaned. Obviously unwilling to discuss this.
"Whatever you're feeling right now, it's only going to get worse if you plan on riding it out cold turkey."
He was mumbling something to himself and Sakura allowed herself to step closer only to hear a stream of nonsense.
"…lying tongues cut the out eat them eat them around the dawn is as good a time as any for revenge…"
He hugged his arms to himself closely, and Sakura's brows knit with concern. This man was seriously unwell, and he shouldn't have been wandering the streets in the cold when clearly he possessed enough means to have people who should be looking out for him.
Ino must have tapped her without it registering because next thing Sakura knew she was being yanked out of her reverie by the arm towards the tiny kitchenette. Ino pointed a shiny red acrylic at the ball of misery on Sakura's couch.
"There are people coming for him, but we need to get him to the front of your building in like fifteen."
"Who is coming?"
"Does it even matter? His people. He gave us the number. It's his business. And frankly, he shouldn't even be here. He should be in a hospital emergency room or a police station."
Ino wasn't wrong, but Sakura wasn't about to admit to that. "He needed help. And he needed help particularly because I had cold cocked him in front of a lot of people. Were you going to sit there with me while I explain that to police?" Ino put on her best 'you have got to be kidding me' face and Sakura relented a tad. "I wouldn't have done it if I were alone. It's only because you're with me that I felt safe enough."
Even knowing Sakura was buttering her up, Ino couldn't stay mad. "Come on, I'll get him on you back again so we can get him downstairs."
Sighing, Sakura stretched out her arms in an attempt to get at least a little more limber before she picked him up again.
A blond woman in a winter coat, a floral day dress that didn't fit the season, and combat boots got out of the driver's seat of a large luxury car that pulled into the loading zone in front of Sakura's building. From the passenger side came a man who looked very similar to the one slumped over and shivering on the sidewalk next to Sakura only his hair seemed browner in the dim lamplight and he was dressed more casually. The man's smile was a contrast to the woman's frown, but the family resemblance comforted Sakura. At least she knew they were probably his relatives.
"Where was he?" The man asked while the woman pulled a prescription bottle out of her jacket pocket and forced two pills into the shaking man's mouth.
Sakura didn't want to peel her eyes away as she watched the woman pull a half full plastic water bottle from another pocket. Maybe the red haired man wasn't an addict after all, maybe he was just off his meds.
"Outside a bar. There was a fight…"
A snort came from the woman crouched over the businessman. It sounded more amused than anything.
"We're so happy you found him, we've been deeply worried since we discovered him missing." Even though the words were exactly what Sakura would expect from a concerned relative, something was off about this whole situation. Maybe it was the man's too bright smile or the rough manner in which the woman hauled the businessman to his feet.
"Does this happen to him a lot?"
"Not anymore," the woman said before the man shot her a quelling glare. Giving him a wrinkle of her nose and a roll of her eyes she dragged the businessman towards the car without another word.
Sakura was going to offer to help when the man stepped in between her and her view of the pair. "You're not injured in any way are you?" He glanced down meaningfully at her bandaged hand and Sakura fought the urge to hide it behind her. She was not guilty of anything, even if she felt like she was guilty of a lot of things.
"I'm just fine." She stated with a confidence she wasn't sure she actually felt.
"Excellent," the man said, a little too quickly. "We'll be in touch."
He turned on his heel and she took that to mean she had just been dismissed. Sakura didn't like being treated so inconsequentially given everything she had been through for the past couple hours, and she didn't even notice how tightly she was clenching her fists until a drop of blood from her reopened wound dribbled down a finger.
The car pulled away with squealing tires.
"Well, that was something!" Ino startled Sakura out of her dark mood.
Worried for the man, unsure how she felt about her part in all of this, Sakura mumbled half to herself. "There's something deeply off about what just happened."
"You only just noticed?" Ino replied.
She knew she was in for it when Sakura awoke from a restless sleep to semi constant buzzing from her phone. Assuming friends were being annoying on a Friday morning over a group text, Sakura rolled out of bed feeling not at all refreshed and with hair sticking up from having slept on it wet from her late night shower. With a pot of uninspiring oatmeal on the tiny one burner stove, Sakura stirred her instant coffee and picked up the dreaded phone at last.
Picking out Naruto's name first, since hearing from him while he was deployed was relatively rare these days, strings of laugh crying emojis and thumbs up assaulted her. Following the trail of nonsense back to real words all she saw was "NOICE!" and a link to a video.
Dread pooled in her stomach as a youtube video buffered, frozen on a frame of the back of Ino's distinctive blond high ponytail. In the somewhat dark background her short pink hair stood out. As it played an all too familiar scenario she was happy to note that voices were indistinct, but the scuffle itself looked a lot more violent then what she had remembered and it lasted much longer as well. By the time it got to the part where she dodged the punch and laid out the businessman Sakura cringed in surprise.
After that moment the camera turned towards the guy with a funny goatee who gave two thumbs up and said "Noice shot bro!" and then the video cut out. "Noice shot bro!" was a viral sensation, with over a million hits in less than twelve hours of being posted and had spawned other minorly viral copycat videos showing crazy situations and ending in the stupid catchphrase. Sakura was just incidental, which was a bit of a relief, but it explained why her phone was blowing up. Ino and Sakura had been like peanut butter and jelly for their whole child and adulthood, and while there were lots of blond women and a fair number of pink haired women the combination was distinctive enough to fire her friends' collective neural pathways.
There was a whole day she could hide out, but at the same time the ominous words of the businessman's family last night came back to her. We'll be in touch…
Lost in her own internal life, the smoke alarm brought Sakura back to earth pretty fast. Breakfast was ruined and so was her pan, but it seemed like that was par for the course.
"So what's it like to be famous?" Ino met Sakura for lunch, at Sakura's request, even though Ino normally would work through her hour at the law firm. That meant Sakura would be paying for lunch, and given the ruined pan and the bloodstained couch that would need replacing, it was turning out to be an expensive day.
Sakura picked at her salad next to her sandwich and tried not to stare at her still bandaged knuckles. "I'm just grateful you can't see my face that well in the video."
"Just you wait until all the internet weirdos hunt you down. You'll be that badass fighting chick."
"I should just go into digital hiding. Delete all my accounts."
Ino was relishing the torture so wasn't about to stop. "Maybe a local news station will pick it up. You could become the face of self-defense for women."
"Have I told you lately that I hate you?"
With a chuckle Ino took a bite of her salad before changing the subject slyly. "Chouji called me this morning. He wanted to know if I was ok."
"You weren't even involved in the fight…" Sakura mumbled, knowing that wouldn't register to the pair of them.
"We're going to have dinner tomorrow, at his new restaurant." Ino preened a bit. "It's gotten great reviews."
Sakura used inhuman effort to keep her eyes from rolling. "I thought you broke up over him opening a new restaurant last time. You said he didn't have any time for you and you were sick of it."
Ino sniffed and pretended Sakura hadn't said anything at all. Lunch passed pleasantly enough after that with them comparing comments from their friends over the viral video and their featured spots in it and Sakura was feeling almost optimistic that this would blow over quickly when Ino stopped her at the plate return.
"By the way, I got a text from that number from last night. They said 'my pink haired friend' should come talk to them 'at her earliest convenience'. Like next week. There's another number to call to make an appointment."
Sakura almost straight up dropped her empty ceramic plate on the tile floor. "Why didn't you tell me this earlier?" she hissed.
"Obviously it would have ruined my lunch while you stewed in your own worry." Flicking imaginary dust off her wool work skirt, Ino was not meeting Sakura's eyes. After all the emotions of the past day Sakura was a powder keg ready to blow. "I'll forward you the number, unless you want me to call for you. But I warn you I work by the hour and my rates are exorbitant. I looked up the number, it's for a regular corporation… Suna something. I think it does taxes or finance or whatever."
"I'll call. Just forward it to me."
Lunch churned in her stomach, and Sakura wondered at how quickly a life could be put in disarray. She needed to go exercise or something to burn off all her anxiety.
It wasn't just some business, it was a huge business, was Sakura's first takeaway. Suna, Inc. took up its own skyscraper and not just a few floors but the whole building. It was in the financial district so it probably did deal with money, but it seemed to have its fingers in a lot of pies judging by its very low internet profile and polished corporate website.
This felt like a terrible use of her day off, but it would be better than spending another work shift stewing over what might happen. She had been so distracted she had attracted Tsunade's attention, and the stern warning had been deserved yesterday. When Sakura got careless at the hospital people could suffer.
Sakura gave her name to the receptionist who gave her a digitized visitor's pass that she was told would allow her to access the floor her appointment was on. It was a big number, and it sounded like the top of the building. She straightened her spine and thought again belatedly that the sweater dress and leggings she had chosen were too casual for this setting. Even the receptionist looked like she would be walking out of a glass office to a boardroom any moment.
Professionals getting on and off the elevators gave Sakura the side eye but politely ignored her as they went about their business. Slowly, the elevator made its way to the top floor and the doors opened to blinding sunlight. It was a clear day and the entranceway was expansive and seemed to be lined by windows and nothing else. Not many offices up here, just executives.
Another receptionist, who appeared to be the carbon copy of the woman Sakura had encountered downstairs, took Sakura's name and asked her to wait for a moment while she informed "Mr. Sabaku" of her arrival. Unsure of how she was supposed to respond or feel about the whole thing, Sakura just nodded and went to sit down.
There wasn't even a plant up here to keep her company, she noted, and the arid environment was making her thirsty. The recirculated air was too warm for her liking, especially in the sweater dress and tights. A bead of sweat was collecting at the base of her spine and she prayed she wouldn't pit out from the stress and heat.
No names on these offices, Sakura observed grimly. The people in these offices didn't need names. People probably just knew who they were.
"Please follow me," Sakura suddenly came back to the present where the receptionist gestured towards the central office. As she stood up she realized that she was a lot shorter than the woman escorting her, and by comparison looked rather round and dumpy. It wasn't something she normally thought, not being the kind of person to use comparative looks to make her feel any way in particular. But it seemed more relevant as the door was opened for her and the strikingly familiar face of the businessman came into view.
His lip was still healing and the bruise from her punch hadn't totally faded from his pale chin, but everything else was like a bizarre mirror image from the week previous. The brown suit was pristine, perfectly tailored, and his wing tip shoes had a high shine. The rusty hair that had been in total disarray was smoothed back, making him look older than he probably was. No bloody grimace on his face now, just a neutral line of thin lip. Those dark rings around his eyes were still there, though, and they hadn't entirely lost their bloodshot quality.
He met her halfway through the huge office, hand extended. Wiping her palm quickly on her hip, Sakura grasped him and wondered if it would be impolite to try to examine his knuckles. Instead she focused on his neutral grey tie and the shiny tie clip that held it in place. His handshake was as solid as years of practice could make it, no doubt.
"Ms. Haruno." He acknowledged, and the voice still caused her blood pressure to rise as her heart sped up. "Sit."
No please and thank you from Mr. Sabaku it would seem. The leather chair that sat opposite his gave her the impression of being called to the principal's office (something that had never happened to her, but a place she had picked up Naruto plenty of times after school). He sat down with a desk between them, but it didn't feel like enough space somehow. This office was bigger than her apartment, bigger than her apartment twice over, but the moment felt unsettlingly intimate.
"I prefer Sakura." She said. And then was forced to clear her throat as she gave a little cough from the dryness of the air.
"Pardon?"
"Call me Sakura." She repeated, louder, blushing despite there being no reason blushing should occur. It was only the unbidden and not entirely unwelcome memory of his abs that had spurred it on, and that was fully the fault of her traitorous mind. Saboteur.
The businessman blinked and waited just long enough to unnerve her before responding. "Gaara."
"Do you prefer Mr. Sabaku?"
"Not from you."
The sweat that had simply threatened itself earlier beaded up in earnest and ran down her back. Sakura shivered in the heat.