Sasuke was pacing quietly, keeping to himself as he always did, in Team 7's usual meeting spot for training.
It was early morning; the fog was just rolling out, so the sunlight was bouncing gently off of the leftover haze, creating a soft orange-pink glow. It had a mellow feel to it, and helped Sasuke remain patient as he waited for his teammates. He knew Naruto and Kakashi were always late, but Sakura generally arrived only a few moments after he would.
And he had been waiting for over twenty minutes now, he noted impatiently.
Early mornings became their time for socializing; not that Sasuke was one to do much of it. Sakura would usually chatter away just as fast as the swallows in the nearby cherry blossom trees. And the swallows chattered incessantly this early in the morning. He had started to grow fond of it though. She seemed breathless during their exchanges (if you could call them that, since Sasuke would sit still as a stone with a gruff mumble every now and again only to appease her ramblings), and he was sure she would continue until the end of eternity if it were not for his sensei and final team mate arriving.
But it was nice… their early mornings visits had become part of his daily routine. He felt a bit off if she wasn't there. Even though he found her to be a bit annoying, he had to admit that her presence was oddly soothing.
"Tch," Sasuke chided himself.
He had to get into a head space for training - it was the whole reason he began his mornings so early. He would use the extra time to do a meditative walk around the gardens - contemplating his intentions for the day, setting goals, evaluating his progress. He didn't have time to think about teammates, or girls, let alone Sakura Haruno. He couldn't afford to become distracted from his ultimate goal of revenge against his brother Itachi, or worse, let Naruto get the upper hand on him in combat.
He kicked at a pebble on the pathway and silently grumbled to himself, "Focus."
But he couldn't. Not today. Sakura hadn't arrived yet, and that was the only thing that currently had his attention.
"Hey, have you seen Sakura Haruno recently?"
Speaking of Sakura… it seems he wasn't the only one who had her on his mind.
Sasuke glanced at a few other genin's a few feet away who must have arrived for early-morning training as well. One boy had strikingly red hair, and the other a dull blonde. They both appeared to be about the same age as him. Having nothing better to do and no pink-haired distraction around, he changed direction and began slowly pacing forward in the direction of a conversation that had intensely piqued his interest.
"Her hair is so different!" The one red-haired boy exclaimed as he continued the conversation.
"Yeah!" The second responded. "I heard she cut it off herself when fighting those Sound Ninja!"
"That is so bad ass!"
Sasuke smirked, seemingly pleased that others thought highly of his teammate's skills. But his mouth quickly turned into a frown when he heard the next sentence roll off of the red-headed boys tongue,
"She looks amazing with that cut; it really brings out her green eyes."
"Right? She's gorgeous!"
"Dude, you totally have a crush on her."
"Shut up man, you're the one who brought her up in the first place."
The two boys began bickering back and forth childishly, and Sasuke immediately felt his face become heated. He narrowed his eyes into slits, shooting kunai at the two boys. But they were too involved in arguing over Sakura to notice. Irritated, Sasuke began walking coolly towards them with slightly clenched fists. He didn't exactly have a plan on what he was going to do when he got to the two boys, but he knew he couldn't stand to listen to any more starry-eyed words about Sakura all morning.
"Oh look! She's right there!" The blonde boy gasped.
The boys stiffened and Sasuke snapped his head to where the boys were staring. And there she was; Sakura, in all of her newfound short-haired glory. No longer trailing down by her waist, but slowly drifting around her face in the gentle morning breeze. It glanced off her round cheeks and danced across her piercing green gaze. It occurred to Sasuke just then that perhaps he preferred short hair over long.
"Act cool man!" The red head spoke nervously.
"Maybe she'll notice us…" the blonde whispered, nudging his friend encouragingly. They both (poorly) tried to act nonchalant, taking up a whistling tune and attempting to seem as though they weren't gawking at her every step and taking in the new adorable length of her hair.
But it was impossible to ignore Sakura's bright aura that stuck to you like honey even long after she had left.
"Sasuke-kun! Sorry I'm late!" She smiled warmly at him, not seeming to even acknowledge the presence of the other genin - much to their dismay.
That was good, he straightened his back confidently, no longer concerned with the genin boys who were only a few feet away from them. Aside from a small lump that had formed in his throat, the muscles in his body softened and lost all tension upon her arrival.
"You're here early, as usual." She commented. "And of course, Kakashi Sensei and Naruto are late…again." She grumbled, frustrated. She was always very punctual.
There was a lull as she waited for a response, until she noticed that Sasuke's dark eyes were fixated on something in the distance.
"Is everything okay…?" She followed Sasuke's gaze to the group of boys behind her curiously, only just now noticing them.
Without another word, Sasuke firmly placed a hand on Sakura's shoulder and brought her attention back to himself immediately.
Her face went red, her shoulder feeling electrified at his sudden touch, "Sasuke, wh-?"
"Sakura, let's go wait on that bench over there."
He stared into her eyes softly; his dark orbs never failing to persuade her.
He posed this to her so matter-of-factly that she was taken aback - she blinked and paused before responding (gleefully, he noticed), "Yeah, sure, okay!" Her face flushed bright pink, matching the intensity of her hair. Flustered, she answered with a few too many words but Sasuke didn't mind. Her chatter always filled his lonely mornings and seemed to make them a little bit brighter. Satisfied that she seemed pleased with his suggestion, Sasuke placed his palm in the small of her back to guide her towards the aforementioned bench – which just happened to be in the opposite direction of the genin boys.
As he looked back, he noticed the envious look being shot towards him from the two boys as they pouted from Sakura's absence. He couldn't blame them though; that sticky honey aura was hard to shake off easily; a person could bask in its afterglow for hours afterwards sometimes. He turned his attention back to the girl beside him, noting that the cut of her hair did bring out her eyes.
Sasuke didn't consider himself to be so much jealous as he was protective over her – as a teammate and her friend, of course - yet he felt more and more relieved the further away from the boys they walked.
When they reached the stone bench he sat down beside Sakura. Even though the morning air was brisk and the bench was cool still from the chill of night time, she had begun babbling away already about her morning and why she was late, unphased by the frigid slab of stone under their bottoms. Her hands flourished wildly in the air - almost unaware that Sasuke was only a few inches away from her.
He looked at his teammate. His gaze turned into an ogle as he started noticing how the shortness of her hair really, really brought out the green in her eyes, and wondering if her skin was as soft as it looked. After a few minutes he suddenly became aware of how attentive to her he had become; observing how cheerful she was, the particular way she scrunched her nose during an explanation, the perfect arch of her cupids bow above her rose coloured lips…
Perhaps it wasn't just the meditation that was containing his anger every morning.
Shaking his head at his teammate's antics as she continued flailing her hands every which way to the telling of her story, he chuckled and genuinely participated in the chatter with a few sentences here and there to replace his normal grunts, much to Sakura's delight. They chatted away until the other half of their team joined them shortly after - Sakura beamed brightly at them, throwing a hand up in acknowledgement.
As she swivelled her body around to greet her teacher and friend, Sasuke couldn't help but notice how nicely it sat above her shoulders.
Her hair cut really was nice.