A/N: Hi everyone(: This one was inspired by the sudden, early heat wave that hit my town this week. Luckily, I'm on spring break this week so I can actually enjoy the weather(: I wrote this one a tiny bit differently than I usually do, but I like the result. I hope ya'll did too!

Anyway, here's another NaruSaku one shot!

Heat of Battle

"This sucks," Sakura muttered under her breath, an annoyed expression on her face. "It's too hot out today." She leaned back against the lawn chair, wincing as the undersides of her thighs stuck to the rubber-y fabric. She recalled Ino and Tenten inviting her to tan with them on top of the Hokage building. She wondered how they weren't melting like butter into the hot concrete. She looked down at her pale, alabaster legs. Maybe she should have gone with them.

Naruto and Sasuke were collapsed beside her. Naruto didn't try and hide his exhaustion and fevered brow. Sasuke managed to act like he wasn't hot, but his hair pitifully wilting under the scorching summer sun said otherwise. Naruto pulled at his tight t-shirt and glared enviously at Sasuke, who had the idea of wearing a simple white wife beater instead of a dark green crew neck shirt like he had done. His wrist lightly moved up and down with his paper Uchiha fan as he oscillated himself out of the sticky humidity, pushing it towards Naruto's direction. His other hand held his cold glass of ice water. Before Sasuke could object, Naruto dunked his hand into the glass of water and whipped out two ice cubes. Sasuke muttered profanity under his breath at his team mate, to which Naruto responded by slapping the Uchiha's wrist, splashing all the water onto Sasuke.

"Haha! You deserved it!" Naruto cheered smugly.

Sasuke smirked triumphantly. "Idiot. It's near a hundred degrees out, that only served to help cool me off." Naruto's smiled drooped to a frown.

"Here," Naruto turned to Sakura and gave her an ice cube. "Rub it on your face; it'll cool you down," he told her, running his ice cube along his forehead. The biting cold of the ice cube seemed to sizzle on top of his flushed face, giving him pleasant relief. He looked over at Sasuke whose whole body was basking in relief. He stuck his tongue out at him. Sasuke pretended not to see it. Naruto shut his eyes and allowed the ice cube to melt small, icy droplets onto his long eyelashes and down the bridge of his nose. He heard a small sound from Sakura and opened his eyes. Sakura leaned against the back of the lawn chair, her head tilted all the way back, her big sun hat nearly falling off. She ran the cube repeatedly in circles around her face and sighed in relief as it cooled her. She moved it down slowly, sliding the ice over her chin and jaw. He watched as a small water droplet made a river towards her ear and slowly dropped off into her hair, which was cutely pinned back into two braids, one on each side of her head. She slid the ice cube over her collar bone and around her shoulders. Naruto watched the sheer white cover-up she was wearing get soaked with a few tiny drops, revealing the red bathing suit she was wearing underneath. When she finally opened her eyes and lifted her head, she saw Naruto gazing at her, his mouth open slightly.

"Naruto?" No answered. "Naruto?" she called again. He didn't even blink. Sakura smashed her fist into his skull and he let out a loud holler.

"No loud noises," Sasuke commanded in a low, monotonously vexed tone. In a few short minutes, his light clothes were already dry from the oppressive heat.

"I second that," Sakura added. Naruto hopelessly looked back and forth between his team mates as he rubbed the pain on the crown of his head.

"What's the matter, Naruto? Was I doing it wrong?" asked Sakura, in a tone that Naruto couldn't tell if it was genuine or sarcastic. Naruto shook his head, attempting to smile reassuringly while dragging his eyes away from the path of the ice, which was at present being pressed absentmindedly against the lower half of her slender collar bone. He matched her gaze again and reminded himself not to get lost in staring. It was a constant battle with himself, whenever he was near her; not only did he have to avoid falling for all of her oblivious physical charms, but he had to stop himself from kissing her senseless every time she said or did anything. Especially in the summer, where clothes became an option that could easily be switched out for a simple, much more revealing bathing suit such as the one hiding beneath her modest cover-up.

Naruto was so caught up in his thoughts he didn't notice Ino, Tenten, Kiba, and a few others had come over. Kiba was precariously balancing a large water balloon between his index finger and his thumb over, looming over Sakura's head.

"Kiba," Naruto warned, extending his hand and shielding Sakura's head.

"Aw, man! You blew my cover!" Kiba complained. "You should know the price of such betrayal," he smiled devilishly. Kiba was shirtless and only wearing swim trunks. 'Am I the only one over-dressed for the occasion?' Naruto thought, looking down at his dark green shirt and trademark orange pants. 'Oh well. At least Sasuke's keeping his shirt on. I won't feel like such an odd ball if I'm not the only one fully clothed.' Naruto looked over the lawn chair beside him. Sasuke was gone and walking over towards the small pond, pulling his shirt over his head and diving in, Ino secretly giggling and blushing and trailing behind him. Clearly she didn't want to swim, simply watch Sasuke swim. Naruto scowled. 'Jerk.'

As Naruto glared ominously at his best friend, who was too busy flipping his wet hair back from his forehead to notice, Kiba smashed the icy cold water balloon over his head.

"Hey!" Sakura warned, getting the spray of water from the balloon exploding on Naruto. She looked up at Kiba. "If you're gunna do that over here, at least give me one!" she laughed and jumped up from her lawn chair. Kiba tossed her a balloon and they circled Naruto. Sometime during the mix Sai had joined in.

"Is this cold water?" Tenten perked up, joining in. Sakura jealously stared at her tan legs. She switched over to Ino's direction. Also tanned legs. Sakura hated feeling like the odd ball.

"Yep," Kiba chuckled, bouncing his water balloon a few times in the air. "The coldest," he said proudly, displaying his whole basket of cold water balloons. "So why don't we use these wisely," he asked tauntingly, displaying a toothy grin.

"All right!" Naruto leaped up. "Every man for himself!" Before Naruto reached the basket of balloons, everyone pelted theirs at him. The balloons exploded in a frenzy, soaking Naruto to the bone. Before he could wipe the layers of water from his face and try and find targets through the splashing and the water, everyone else had grabbed all the balloons and darted off in different directions, hiding from the Uzumaki.

"Challenged accepted!" he smiled willingly. He grabbed a balloon off the ground that had managed to stay in tact, and ran off into any direction.

Sakura stayed high up in the tree branches. She knew where Kiba was - hiding in the bushes on the other side of the pond. She had run past Sai while he was hiding, but was unsure of where he had gone. She couldn't find Tenten. Sakura scanned the area, the only two visible people she found were Sasuke, who was casually bobbing around in the water, and Ino who was beside him, trying - and hopelessly failing - to start up a splash war between him and herself.

"Hey, Sakura-chan," a soft whisper came from behind her. She turned around at the start of her name, only to be hit directly in the face with a water balloon. She was sent flying out off the tree, but managed to land on her feet, nimble as a cat. Naruto doubled over with laughter, but was cut off when another balloon his him in the chest with the force of a bullet. He dropped from the tree like a rock, landing on his head, nimble as a dead cat. Sakura giggled furiously, and clapped her hands in glee.

"I got...you...?" Sakura trailed off as Naruto leapt up and disappeared into the forest. From an undefined direction, she heard Tenten and Kiba's yells, followed by many thumps and groans. Sakura looked in all directions, trying to grasp what was happening. Suddenly Tenten burst through the trees, soaked to the bone. Sakura prepared herself and readied her balloon, but Tenten ran past her.

"I surrender!" she called with a small amount of laughter, before splashing her way into the pond and diving under the surface. Sakura arched her brow. She surrendered? So soon?

Another thump and yelp came from the unknown and Sakura looked back into the forest. She heard leaves and branches rustling and cracking under pressure. She heard heavy panting before seeing Kiba emerge from the battlefield. He tried to walk slowly towards Sakura, a final water balloon in his hand. Sakura covered her face but the ammunition never hit her. She looked up in time to watch Kiba get knocked down a final time by a water missile, launched from her left. Naruto was nowhere in sight.

"Whatever," Kiba rubbed his sore neck and winced. "This is so not fair...only Naruto could turn a water balloon fight into a death match. I surrender," he whimpered, trudging past Sakura and headed for the pond where the others were at. Sakura looked behind her at her friends playing in the water. Sai must have surrendered too because he was now diving from a rock into the water.

Sakura shrugged off her confusion. She turned around to the direction the last balloon was shot from, and readied herself. "Oh, Naruto," she sang. "Come out, come out wherever you are. It's just you and me!" Sakura darted into the bushes, scanning everywhere her eyes could see for Naruto.

She was considerably more competitive than Tenten or Kiba, just secretly, and either way she hadn't noticed any particular ferocity in Naruto's attacks; then again, compared to the others, he wasn't being rough with her at all. Slowly, Sakura revolved, searching the trees and bushes for a flash of dark green, yellow, and orange. She detected someone to her right, but she was too late. By the time she extended her arm back to throw her ammo, Naruto tackled her to the ground, crushing a balloon against her head as he threw her down. The two rolled over and over, and one by one each balloon broken underneath them, soaking them both. With a semi-serious battle cry, Sakura abruptly grabbed Naruto's shoulders, pressing them to the ground strongly and curtly stopping their rolling.

Naruto couldn't have fled even if he had wanted to, which he hadn't. Because when he noticed that Sakura was straddling his hips, he looked up and saw her green eyes glinting with mischief as she flipped her wet bangs out of her face. Her braided pig-tails were still in a neat form, but also soaked. Naruto decided he didn't want to get away. Instead, he gingerly moved his hand from her deadlock grip and slid it towards the back of his head. Sakura clutched it and slammed it onto the soft, damp grass, and he laughed helplessly. Sakura was laughing too, leaning over his chest, tears beginning to stream down her cheeks and drop off the tip of her nose. Naruto began laughing uncontrollably also. It's not that something was necessarily humorous per se, but it was fun in general. It was adrenaline and happiness and contentment and joy. And maybe some heat stroke was getting to them, too. Whatever the reason was, neither of them cared. When they stopped laughing, they were nearly nose-to-nose. Sakura's eyes had yet to lose that mischievous glow.

"You destroyed all your weapons," she playfully accused, pointing to the trail of broken balloons and water puddles they had left behind.

"I destroyed all of yours too," he corrected, feeling rather smug until a teasingly triumphant look crossed her face. "...Didn't I?"

She flashed a grin. "Almost. You forgot one, though," she chuckled as she began taking her braids out and revealing her soft hair to be full of water and flowing with pink waves. Holding the soaked strands over Naruto's face, she began to wring them out.

"Hey!" Naruto whimpered through a guffaw, trying to flail his arms to block his face. Sakura laughed again as Naruto cried out, trying in vain to twist his face away from the cold stream of water. He caught onto her wrist and grabbed it, pushing it gently to the back of her head to keep it from his face. She let out a small, soft yelp as her face was inadvertently pushed closer to his.

"Uh..." she flushed slightly. "I won." Naruto smiled fondly and absentmindedly brushed a damp strand of pink hair behind her ear.

"Yeah, I guess so," he replied, intending there to be reluctance in his voice, but only a soft tone came. 'But so have I!' he thought, smiling as he pulled her in closer, brushing her lips on his. He felt the shock of warmth from her soft lips conglomerated with a sudden apprehension at what he was doing. He quickly leaned away to check her reaction, but before he got a chance to really look at her, she had sighed dreamily and pulled him in for another kiss. Naruto gently stroked Sakura's hair, moving his arms down around her shoulder so he could press her close to his body. Sakura shivered, and she wondered whether it was entirely due to the fact that she was completely drenched in icy cold water. She wrapped her arms around Naruto's neck and rolled onto her back, bringing him with her. The moment was short-lived, however, and a final water balloon popped against Sakura's lower back. She shrieked from shock and coldness, causing her to jump and knock Naruto backwards. She landed next to him, their legs tangled. After silently looking at one another for a few moments, they simultaneously burst out into laughter again.

When their laughter quieted down once more, Naruto softly stroked her upper arm with the back of his hand. He smiled and met her gaze. "Rematch?"