Title: Apologies

Summary: If Naruto wants to keep living, he should probably learn to be a responsible adult.

Disclaimer: I am far too lame to own Naruto, which is owned by Masashi Kishimoto, and I have no affiliation nor do I profit from this fanwork.

"I'm really not that angry at him, Sakura-chan..."

"Nonsense! He needs to learn some responsibility!"

Sakura swore she heard scratching on her apartment door, soon accompanied by a pathetic wail of "Hinataaaaaaaa..." She strode over and punched hard on the door, smirking at the startled thump she heard outside.

"Get out of here, Naruto! Hinata's really upset with you!"

Hinata's eyebrows creased slightly upwards. "I'm not-"

"HINATAAAAAAA."

From the kitchen, Sasuke sighed. "Is this—whatever this is—seriously why you called me over so suddenly, Sakura?"

The young woman nodded. "I'll need back up, I'm sure. As Team Seven, we're a family. So we're kind of responsible for him, in a way."

Shaking his head, Sasuke made his way back into the living room, pulling Hinata with him as he passed, and sat on the couch, gently leading her to sit as well.

"Might as well make yourself comfortable. Knowing these two, we'll be lucky if they're done before dinner," he said. "Maybe I should turn on a movie..."

"Don't you dare try to get out of this, Uchiha," Sakura called from the doorway.

Sasuke shrugged, turning on the TV and flipping through channels. "No. No. No. Yukie Fujikaze movie? ...nah. No. No. Oh, nature documentary. On falcons?"

"Oh! I've seen this one. It's really interesting."

"You like documentaries?" Sasuke asked Hinata, surprise laced in his usually flat tone.

Hinata smiled. "I watched a lot of insect documentaries with Shino when we had just become members of Team Eight. I was a bit leery of bugs back then, but I wanted to get along with my teammate, so I worked hard to get that feeling out of the way as soon as I could. After that, it became a habit for us, and then I really started enjoying them and began watching them on my own."

Sasuke nodded and turned his attention back toward the TV. He found himself growing a bit curious, though, as the documentary droned on about the falcon's flight capabilities and how it captures its prey. "Hinata," he began, "how exactly did you get roped into this? Whatever this is. I still don't know what this is."

"Sakura-chan didn't give me a choice. She says that Naruto-kun needs to stop being so careless," she replied, and exasperated smile on her face.

Sasuke grunted in understanding, just as the falcon on TV swooped down to capture a field mouse. He understood very well.

"...and you can come back when you're ready to apologize!"

"But I am! Sakura-chan!"

Ignoring him, Sakura made her way into the living room, settling herself in the middle of the couch.

"That idiot, I swear..." she mumbled, blowing back pink strands that had fallen in front of her eyes.

"Sakura-chan, it's really not that bad. He seems like he's honestly sorry," Hinata said, glancing anxiously at the front door. Truthfully, she was surprised he hadn't broken it down yet.

"Hinata, we've talked about this before. You're way too easy on him. Like, super easy mode. I know you've only been dating for a couple months, but you gotta be strict on him sometimes! That's the only way a knucklehead like him learns, trust me."

Hinata sighed. "I know, but it's not like he hurt me or yelled at me or anything like that-"

"Of course not, because if he does, I'll make sure his face is carved into the Hokage Mountain, and not in the way he wants, either. Kirigakure might have the Great Naruto Bridge, but we'll have the Great Naruto Crater if that ever happens. Created by Naruto's face. The medium used was my fist," Sakura grinned, eliciting a laugh from the heiress.

"I don't think that'll ever have to happen, Sakura-chan."

"I don't know," Sasuke chimed in, tearing his attention away from the documentary. "I think it'd be pretty entertaining to see. I'm sure the dobe will do something stupid enough to provoke Sakura. Not to you. Just in general. Probably won't take much."

"Hey," Sakura glared at him, "what's that supposed to mean?"

The banging on the door started back up again before Sakura could interrogate him, and with gusto. "Hinataaaa! Talk to me!"

Hinata stood from the couch, worry creasing her brow more than before. "Naru-"

"Naruto, for the love of god, if you don't quit, I WILL call Kiba over here, too," Sakura threatened, walking over and punching the door again for good measure. The banging immediately ceased.

"That's harsh, Sakura-chan..." Naruto mumbled. Kiba's big brother instincts toward Hinata had always been fierce, but they seemed to intensify after they began dating. They got along well enough as they always had, but Naruto swore that he'd seen dogs following him sometimes. (He would later be proven incorrect. It was not Kiba's dogs tailing him occasionally to make sure he was worthy of Team Eight's precious sister, but Shino's bugs. He immediately paid to have his apartment fumigated.)

Hinata had made her way toward the door, but Sakura steered her back toward the living room. "Super easy mode, Hinata!" she chided lightly.

Hinata sighed in defeat. "Alright. I'll let you handle this, Sakura-chan. Do you mind if I take a nap or something? This will probably take a while."

Sakura nodded while Sasuke watched Hinata carefully. She stepped into Sakura's bedroom, some rustling and a creak could be heard, and all was quiet. Deeming the front door safe for now, Sakura claimed Hinata's spot on the couch, stretching out and propping her feet on top of Sasuke's knees. He promptly pushed them off, much to her dismay.

"You never told me what we were doing," Sasuke said, head tilted in Sakura's direction and arms guarding his knees from intruding feet.

"We're teaching Naruto a lesson in being an adult. It's for the sake of both him and Hinata."

Sasuke rolled his eyes. She made it sound like the most obvious thing in the world. "And that's our job because of what? 'Familial duty' or whatever you said?"

"Yup."

"Why?" Sasuke asked. He was convinced that if it weren't for the documentary, he would have gone back home after the first time Naruto started attempting to break the door down, or so it sounded like.

"Who else is gonna teach him? Naruto is strong. He's everyone's hero. He's a good guy, but he still acts like a kid. Do you know how often I still have to get on him to eat something with a vegetable in it? He and Hinata make each other happy, but if he wants to make it last, much less become Hokage one day, he's gotta shape up and start being more mature in everyday life, not just when he absolutely has to be, or when it's life or death or something."

Sasuke couldn't quite argue with that. He simply nodded and turned his attention back toward the TV. Sakura stretched out once more, this time opting to curl her knees inward to avoid the disappointment of an unwilling Uchiha foot rest. Maybe she'll take a cue from Hinata and get a little rest before the next round with Naruto began. He's been quiet for a while, so he must be plotting something, Sakura reasoned. She dozed off to the TV stating facts about the falcon's typical migration patterns.

Sakura stirred about an hour and a half later, opening her eyes to see Sasuke still enthralled in that falcon documentary. Just how long was this thing, anyway?

"Hey, why didn't you wake me sooner?" she asked, sitting up and smoothing her hair back down. "Is Hinata up? And has that idiot come back around? Although I doubt I would have slept through it if he did. Maybe I should make us some lunch in the meantime..."

"Sakura."

"What?" she paused, already midway to the kitchen.

"Hinata escaped out the window a long time ago."

"What?"

Sakura ran to her bedroom only to see that the window was, in fact, wide open. Sakura groaned and flopped onto the bed as Sasuke walked in behind her, chuckling lightly.

"Are you surprised?" he asked.

Sakura shook her head. "No, but... Ugh. Super easy mode, Hinata!"

With another short chuckle, Sasuke sat on the bed. "What did Naruto even do?"

"What didn't he do, Sasuke-kun?" Sakura grumbled.

"Well, yeah. But what did he do in this case?"

Sakura frowned, pinching the bridge of her nose. "First, she asked him to go buy groceries and at least half of it ended up being instant ramen cups. Then, she asked him to do laundry and he mixed the colors with the whites, and now her favorite shrug is dyed a light orange! She can't let him get away with messing up such simple tasks!"

It was here that Sasuke recalled something he saw when he had arrived. On the floor in the laundry room, there was a light orange shirt that looked just like the white one Sakura loved to wear often when she wasn't on a mission or on duty at the hospital.

"Sakura...this isn't about him being better for Hinata, is it?" he asked, though he already knew the answer. She scowled at him.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

The Uchiha simply pointed in the direction of the laundry room and waited for her to respond. After a moment, Sakura sighed.

"I loaned it to Hinata, but I didn't know that Naruto was gonna try and fail to do laundry and take her clothes down with it. She already apologized for him and promised to replace it when she brought it to me, but it wasn't her fault! It was my favorite shirt, too..."

"Drag the dobe with you when she takes you out to replace the shirt. He might be all bluster, but he probably does feel guilty. Make him pay for it," Sasuke replied. Sakura, pondering his words for a moment, agreed.

"He probably does. Nah, I know he does. If he even knows. Hinata may have pulled it out before he saw it, too. He gets a pass this time, but my point still stands. Though now I'm wondering how many shirts he wore when we were younger were actually supposed to be another color..."

Sasuke snorted, shrugging his shoulders. A few beats of silence later, Sakura sat up.

"So, make sure it's the most expensive shirt I can find in the store, right?"

"Hn."

A few streets over from Sakura's apartment, Naruto and Hinata sat at Ichiraku's. After what had to be amounting in the thousands of rapid fire apologies from Naruto and Hinata constantly insisting that it "really was fine, Naruto-kun, it was just a mistake, I'm not angry, you can stop apologizing," he insisted on buying her lunch. Which, of course, was ramen, but Hinata didn't mind.

"Hey, I really am sorry that I messed up your clothes. And bought way too much ramen. Again."

Hinata smiled, pecking him once on the cheek. "It's okay. Ramen makes for an easy meal after a mission. And I think that orange looks really good on me, anyway."