~Phenomenon~
By Anyone but Sasuke
When she opened her eyes, the blood pounding in her temples made her visibly wince. Thank Kami she was Tsunade's apprentice…The tips of her fingers glowed the familiar green of her healing chakra, and she lifted them to her forehead. Slowly, the pain faded away, and she fell back, relieved.
Just in time too. Seconds later, the door swung open, and her blond teammate stood there in all of his orange-y glory.
"SAAAASUUKEEE!" Naruto yelled. "WAKE UP, TEME!"
Sakura jumped ten feet into the air. "Naruto!" she screeched. "What the hell?!?!?"
Naruto stared, and his jaw dropped. "Sakura! W-What a-are y-y-you d-doing in S-Sasuke's bed?" Sakura looked around, wondering how she hadn't noticed this before. Everything was so plainly Sasuke.
"I got a little tipsy last night 'during the mission,' and I couldn't go home. Ino's family would have told the world, you and Hinata were…uh…busy….Tenten was wallowing in self-pity, and Sasuke is the only man in the rookie nine that is close enough to a woman that none of us girls worry," she sighed. 5…4…3…2…
"Did you get the picture?" Naruto exclaimed, sitting down beside her. Sakura nodded, and he pumped his fist in the air. "Score! Team 7 rules! Great job Sakura!"
"Hn. You didn't do anything, dobe," Sasuke's voice floated through the open door, and both jumped. Sakura blushed, remembering the 'Sasuke is like a girl' comment. Naruto squeaked, his hands flying up to make the hand signs for his shadow clones. Sakura and Sasuke ignored him. The bed was big enough that they didn't have to move over when Sasuke sat down, and Inner Sakura frowned. 'Stupid rich Uchiha!'
Apparently, Naruto had the same idea. "Your bed it too big, teme." Sasuke glared at him long enough to make the blue-eyed boy flinch. Sakura giggled, and Sasuke turned to her.
"Let's see it." Under different circumstances she would call him a pervert, but she knows what he means. She thinks for a second, then reaches over beside Naruto, grabbing the picture off the nightstand. Realizing she had never actually seen him with the mask off, she unfolded it eagerly, and all three stared at it.
Kakashi's eye was widened in surprise, and a partial reflection of Sakura's hair showed in his forehead protector. His lips, swollen and red from all the kissing were slightly parted, and Sakura could see a bit of the bottom row of his teeth. But other than the stupid expression, he looked rather good. Hot, even.
'Damn,' Inner Sakura breathed. 'I kissed that. Why did I come back here?'
Naruto's face lit up, "this would make excellent blackmail."
"That is by far the smartest thing you have ever said," Sasuke informed him.
"Thanks Sas-HEY!!!"
To Kakashi's surprise, when he arrived at the third training field (where Team 7 usually met….Irony) Sakura, Sasuke, and Naruto weren't there. So he sat, waiting and reading his Icha Icha book.
Two and a half hours later, he had finished both his new one, and the one he kept in his back pocket in case of emergencies, like this one. He didn't remember a moment in twenty years where he had been earlier than anyone else.
It was a good thing Kakashi wasn't superstitious, because this was beginning to look like a bad omen.
When Sakura moved to get up, Sasuke took Naruto and dragged him out the door, shutting it pointedly behind them. Sakura blinked, then looked towards the window, A vague memory dragged her eyes downward to a pile of silver material on the floor.
'Ha!' she chuckled. 'That's the exact color of my dress!'
Suddenly, with lightning-fast ninja realization skills, she realized she was wearing one of Sasuke's t-shirts. Sakura buried her face in her arms and groaned. No wonder her teammates had disappeared so fast!
Cautiously, she slid out from underneath the covers, placing her feet on the ground and stood up. The sheets slid away, revealing a pair of what must have been Sasuke's boxers resting on her hips.
Sakura was too startled to move, but Inner Sakura was having a party. 'OMG WOOT!!! TWO HOT GUYS IN ONE NIGHT! WE'RE ON FIRE!'
Ignoring the part of her that was most defiantly mental, the pink-haired girl weighed her options. She could either put her dress back on and sneak home (not very likely with Naruto, Sasuke, AND Kakashi on her tail), or she could go downstairs in Sasuke's clothes, pray that they had all left, and make herself some toast.
When her stomach began to growl, she chose the second option. Toast it was.
When Naruto was the only one to show up for training, Kakashi had the distinct feeling that Sasuke knew about his rendezvous with a certain pink haired medic-nin the night before. He wasn't exactly sure, seeing as he had no proof, but it seemed very likely.
"But Kakashi-sensei," Naruto stammered, staring at the three full cups of coffee in his hands, " I don't know how I'm going to drink all of this! I already had a cup at Sasuke's, but he said I have to drink them all before I start training with you, because apparently the Uchiha's have special coffee and that's why Sasuke-bastard beat me last time!"
The blond looked so upset, Kakashi knew he had to do something. "What about using your shadow clones?" he suggested mildly.
Naruto's face lit up, and suddenly Kakashi out two and four together and got nine. Naruto plus coffee equals……
Well, about forty shadow clones shouting while the original and two others "chugged" the coffee.
Naruto plus four cups of coffee plus Kakashi equals major payback on Sasuke's part.
The silver-haired jonin sighed. Maybe he could get Gai to 'ninja-sit'?
Like the goddess of stealth that she was, the ninja peered out into the hallway. Seeing no one, she slid to the next room, ducking inside to stay hidden. She peeked out of the doorframe, praying her enemy would be nowhere to be found.
"What are you doing?" The familiar voice came from behind her, and Sakura screamed, spinning to face Sasuke. Suddenly, all the anger that had been building up since her teammate had even suggested this mission came spilling out, and Sakura would always blame it on Sasuke's mildly disgusted face.
"Oh yes, real mature, Uchiha. Like I don't have enough problems in my life, all revolving you and your stupid plan," the girl sneered, and Sasuke blinked in surprise. When had she started calling him Uchiha?
But the pink haired kunoichi wasn't finished yet. "And undressing the poor, helpless, passed-out female! That must have been fun, huh?"
Sasuke blinked again, and opened his mouth to protest. But Sakura rambled on, ignoring him completely.
Inner Sasuke sighed. He knew 250 ways to shut someone up, 83 of which involved death (probably more too, but 83 was a nice number. He liked 83). But, of course, Sasuke knew that Sakura's way of responding to violence was with violence, so he reacted with the only option left that did nothing to his dignity.
He kissed her.
It was just a quick meeting of their lips, but when he pulled away she was flustered enough that she couldn't speak. Sasuke smirked. Not bad for a guy who had never kissed someone voluntarily.
'You know, that's kind of sad,' his inner self commented.
Ignoring his inner voice (coughcoughdemoncoughcough), Sasuke watched as Sakura turned at least eight different shades of red. "Sakura," he murmured, hovering just far enough away that he could easily lean in and steal another kiss if he had to, "do you really think I'd undress you?" Her cheeks turned an even more interesting shade of red, and Sakura shook her head. Sasuke smirked, taking a step back.
"Good, because that was you. And it took a while to get you to wear the shirt too." Smirking even more, the Uchiha left the room.
Sakura, on the other hand, lost all the color in her face.
Sakura: *death glare* What did you do?
Inner Sakura: Heh heh heh… *sheepish look*
It was eleven o'clock, and Kakashi still hadn't found anyone to dump Naruto with. They had visited everyone the silver-haired jonin could think of: Gai and his team, Anko, Gaara (with Naruto being this hyper, they had made the three day trip in less than ten minutes, and that was with Kakashi getting a piggy-back ride), Asuma and his team, Tsunade, Shizune, Sakura (although this hadn't worked out as planned, because she wasn't even home), the ramen stand, Iruka, Kiba, Kurenai….the list went on and on.
"Kakashi-sensei, do you see the pretty lights," Naruto slurred, spinning in circles so fast it looked like he was standing still. Suddenly, the boy tripped, and landed flat on his face.
"OH MY GOD THE GROUND'S A NINJA!" Naruto exclaimed, and Kakashi sighed. Three hours of this was torture.
"Hinata!" the Kyuubi container exclaimed. Sure enough, the gorgeous Hyuuga appeared at his side.
"Wh-who gave you coffee?" she demanded, and Naruto hung his head.
"Shushke."
"Pardon?" Hinata raised an eyebrow, and Kakashi noticed that she didn't seem as shy as the last time he'd met her.
"Sasuke," the blond mumbled, his hands clasped behind his back, his right foot trying to dig a hole in his left. His sapphire eyes refused to meet Hinata's lavender ones, and Kakashi had to admit that Naruto's girlfriend seemed perfect for him.
Hinata, however, wasn't finished, "why did Sasuke give you coffee, hmm?" Her voice rose in pitch at the end, and the other man realized that the young byakugan user reminded him of a mother.
Naruto's lips twitched upwards, as if he was trying not to laugh. "Well, see, when Sakura decided she was over Sasuke, the teme realized he was in love with her! We've been trying to see Kakashi's face since forever, so Sasuke came up with the idea that Sakura should seduce Kakashi-sensei! But then she went back to teme's house, and she was drunk. Sasuke was mad and decided to use me as payback."
Kakashi blinked. He wasn't surprised at the story, just that Naruto knew all that.
Hinata sent a shy smile at her boyfriend's sensei, as if she was only noticing him for the first time. "He gets really smart when he's hyper," she stuttered quietly. Slowly, as if she was trying to do it without Kakashi noticing, she reached up and scratched behind Naruto's ear. The effect on the boy was instantaneous. Naruto's eyelids drooped, a lazy grin covered his face, and he pressed his head harder against her fingers.
Kakashi didn't even want to know how she figured that out.
To Sakura's surprise, Sasuke could make delicious waffles. To surprise her even more, the raven had melted chocolate in a sauce pan, and cut up strawberries and raspberries and bananas……yum…..
Uh….anyways….the result was an absolutely sinful breakfast sitting in front of her. For those of you who aren't fluent in Sasuke-ese, it was basically an apology on a plate. Anything that had happened in the last 24 hours, he was genuinely sorry for.
But Sakura was startled to find that she didn't regret a moment of it. It was probably Inner Sakura's influence, but really, it didn't matter that much to her. Much worse could happen with a mission, and she was glad her teammates were around to keep her safe. Okay, sure, she'd been kissed more in the last 24 hours than she had in her entire life, but really, hadn't she always sort of had a crush on both of them?
Smiling softly, Sakura's emerald eyes met Sasuke's. Was….Was he blushing? He seemed slightly less pale than he had a minute ago.
"Sasu…..Are you blushing?" The Uchiha tried to glare at her, but he only turned a darker shade of pink. Sakura grinned, and took a bite of her waffles. A look of pure bliss crossed her features: Sasuke could sure cook. She sighed, and continued eating. What had she been thinking? Of course the Uchiha wasn't blushing! They had established years ago that he didn't like her like that, why should anything have changed now?
The fork clattered against the plate, and Sasuke glanced up in surprise. He hadn't expected her to finish so quickly. He watched as she stood up, and moved to the sink to wash her plate.
"Thanks for the meal, Sasuke, but you don't have to feel sorry for me," her voice was sad, but he could still pick out her usual determined tone ringing through.
When she finished, Sakura moved towards his bedroom. Her plan was simple: Borrow a pair of the Uchiha's pants, go show off Sasuke's clothing to Ino-pig, then go home and cry, which was just dumb. She was over hi-
A hand clasped onto her wrist, and she was pulled to face Sasuke. "I don't pity you! I love you!" he blurted, and then his lips were on hers again, and she was showing him things she never would have learned of she hadn't kissed Kakashi.
Yep, no regrets at all.
On the other side of the village -
Naruto woke with a start, only to find he was staring deep into Hinata's eyes. And while that was very nice (he had spent hours at it before), he had something important to tell her.
"Hinata! I just that the strangest dream! Sasuke gave me four cups of coffee to get back at Kakashi-sensei!"
Hinata sighed. "Well……," she began hesitantly….
THE END
(Finally!)
Author's Note: So that's it! The entire series is finished. Um….It has been for a while. I just hate typing things up. But then I got sick and tired of having it on the side, and typed it all up n one go. Hope you liked it!
Oh, and if you like NaruHina, please check back to my profile in December! A friend of mine gave me her story December Cold, and there is a chapter per day scheduled.