Naruto and all characters found therein are (c) Masashi Kishimoto.

"This is all your fault," Sakura growled, squirming uncomfortably against the thick ropes that were currently binding her and her partner, Kisame, together.

"My fault?" he huffed. "Excuse me, Pinky, but need I remind you that it was you who volunteered for this mission at the meeting?"

Releasing a wordless sound of utmost discomfort and angst, Sakura proceeded to struggle with renewed vigor against the snakelike coils of the rope surrounding her shoulders. Under normal circumstances, both her and Kisame would have been able to break free of their bindings ages ago. However, these were no normal circumstances; these ropes, while being made of a curiously strong type of hemp, were also infused with an equally curiously strong jutsu which sucked away chakra from living beings.

Basically, they were screwed.

"You know," Kisame mentioned offhandedly. "The more you struggle, the more these ropes siphon off your chakra. You're wasting your energy."

Sakura continued her efforts as though she hadn't heard him. (She had, but being the contrary and hot-headed woman she was, she ignored him.)

"Seriously, Pinky."

More struggling.

"Sakura, knock it off."

No response.

Leaning his head back to gaze exasperatedly at the dark ceiling of whatever shed they had been tossed into, Kisame sighed. Desperate times call for desperate measures...

With some skilled maneuvering and a little bit of discomfort, Kisame managed to twist his arm and hand so that it made contact with Sakura's backside. He reveled in the brief calm before the storm (and the chance to touch one of his favorite body parts).

He had barely a millisecond to prepare for the rock-hard skull that came crashing into his spine with speed and strength even he had to admire.

"You're such an animal!" she shouted, attempting to scoot away from his hand (which had completely refused to move, and Kisame would swear it had a mind of its own).

"Oh, you have no idea," Kisame replied, a devilish smirk creeping across his lips.

He almost missed the mumbled "pervert" she ground out as she finally stopped struggling against the ropes.

A few moments of tense silence passed, until Sakura finally allowed herself to forget her pride and ask the dreaded question. "What now?"

She felt Kisame shrug against her back. Sighing in defeat, Sakura hung her head. "You'd think with your ridiculous amount of chakra these ropes wouldn't even phase you," she said.

"You'd think," Kisame agreed.

"And your strength alone is pretty impressive..."

Kisame twisted to look over his shoulder. "What are you getting at, Pinky?"

Sakura returned the gesture. "What do you mean?"

"Are you flirting with me?" he asked, and Sakura couldn't miss the flash of his sharp teeth in the dim light.

Snorting, she replied. "Hell no! I just figured maybe you could try to break the ropes. I mean, I'm strong, but my strength relies on my chakra. And I don't have nearly as much chakra as you do."

"Break the ropes? Oh, you mean like this," Kisame replied, and then proceeded to muscle the ropes apart as if they were nothing more than threads of silk. Sakura was stunned into silence as the ropes fell heavily around them.

Kisame watched as Sakura stared at the ropes, her mouth silently forming what he imagined would have been "what," if she wasn't currently speechless.

He was quite proud of himself, of course.

Suddenly, Sakura whipped around to face him. "How the hell did you do that?" she growled, and Kisame couldn't stop himself from chuckling at her.

"Simple. I waited until you were done struggling to start cutting the ropes with a kunai."

Sakura stared in open disbelief at the blade that Kisame proceeded to hold up. "But I didn't even hear it..."

"I'll admit," Kisame replied. "I didn't cut all the way through them. I wanted to impress you with my manly strength by breaking through them with my arms. Hot, huh?"

Sakura stared at him, her expression slowly deteriorating from a "how the hell did you do that" face, to a "you're a liar and I can't believe you didn't tell me sooner" face.

He brought his arms up to flex dramatically, raising an eyebrow in question.

She brought her hand up to her face in a tired gesture. "Can you please stop being so hot? I'm trying to hate you right now."

Kisame laughed. "Come on, Pinky. I think we've kept those guys waiting long enough."

Sakura grudgingly followed him through the entrance he'd created in the wall of the shed, mumbling all the way about sneaky, perverted sharks.

This is what happens when I'm at work for seven hours in front of a computer with no clients, no laundry, no phone calls, and nothing to do but eat my PB&J sandwich and drink some orange soda.

This was kind of a PWP, I suppose. Just no steamy sex scenes. Ew. (Aw who am I kidding? lol)

I'll work on LAL soon, I promise! And Shall We? is still working itself out. Ugh, writer's block is a pain in the arse.

As always,

Much love,

child_of_the_moon

XO