Title: Best Ma'am
Author: AppleL0V3R
Beta-reader: N/A
Fandom: Naruto
Pairing: Inuzuka Kiba and Haruno Sakura
Other Characters: Uchiha Sasuke, Yamanaka Ino, Uzumaki Naruto, (mentions of) Hyuuga Hinata
Theme: Wedding (15 Minute Fics)
Summary: She can't believe they're having this conversation, especially right there where her crush can hear.
Word Count: 2,750
Rating: T
Type: One-shot Collection – Complete
Genre: Humor, Romance (Fluff), Nakamaship/Friendship, Modern AU (College)
Warning: Innuendos and sexual themes
Disclaimer: If you've heard of it before, then it's obviously not mine.
Started: January 25, 2017
Completed: June 5, 2017
*.*.*
Shouldering her bag and adjusting the strap so that it rested comfortably across her chest, Sakura opened the beige flap so she could shove books and papers and pencils into their places as neatly as possible while still being quick. Friday, she relished in the idea because it meant freedom and fun outside of the pressures of school for two full days. Smiling happily to herself, she sauntered out of her homeroom and after a few hallways and a set of stairs she exited the front doors of her large elite college. The fact that her bag was weighed down with hours of homework did not slow her down in the least as she thought about her plans.
First stop was locating her best friends. Naruto would find them, she was sure, since the blond seemed to have a homing device built into his biology that allowed him to find them in almost every situation—except the ones where he tried to direct himself, and then he generally ended up more lost than Kakashi when he did not want to be on time.
Ino, on the other hand, was the president of a couple of clubs, not including the official gossip queen of the school, and could be just about anywhere. Though, what with her marriage date coming up impossibly quick, Sakura figured that the social butterfly would not be too far from her husband-to-be's side.
And Sasuke was always the easiest of the foursome to find. Sasuke Uchiha was a creature of habit, he was the starter for the soccer team and stayed far away from the most populated areas on school grounds. Right after class on a Friday? He would probably be grabbing his fiancée her caffeine fix and headed for his car to make as quick an exit as his other half would allow. So, if she hurried, Sakura would hopefully catch the couple at the school gates since Sasuke liked to park on the main parking lot as opposed to one of the side or back parking lots—i.e. the free spaces for poor college students.
She found herself proven right minutes later when she caught sight of Ino's platinum blonde hair in her signature high pony tail right next to Sasuke's wild and ruffled black hair. Helped that the two of them were leggy and therefore taller than enough of the students. With them in her sight, she slowed down and shouted loud enough for them to hear—if the way they both stopped and turned to look for her was any indication. Taking choir all four years of high school had done wonders for her ability to make her voice carry in a way it had not improved her ability to read and hit all the music notes.
She watched the couple glance at each other, say something, then step to the side so they were not in the student body's way while they waited for Sakura to take her sweet time getting to them.
When she did, Ino was the first to greet her. "No, you can't bum a ride home, Forehead. We have a date." Sasuke rolled his eyes at his perky fiancée.
Sakura snorted and shook her head. There was a reason the majority of the students in high school had pegged Ino as Queen Bitch, and not all of it was for her wardrobe and popularity. Still, the roseate was hardly offended. The two had been nearly inseparable since kindergarten, and she knew better than to mistake the rude, preppy comments out of the blonde's mouth for anything remotely resembling malice or arrogance. Ino liked to make people think she fit the dumb blonde stereo type so she could wipe the floor with them and laugh at their crucial mistake.
Unfortunately for her best friends, she did not have an off switch.
"Thanks, Pig," Sakura returned dryly, "But I think I'll pass on front row seats to your make out sessions."
Ino grinned even as Sasuke huffed. Sasuke was an intensely private person, while Ino was an unabashed extrovert of the highest order. Sakura had walked in on the two of them enough in the last few months to have seen far more of either of her best friends than she ever wanted to. And then, of course, Ino rehashed all of the down and dirty details whether Sakura wanted to hear about her best friends' sex life or not. She was happen of them, no doubt. She just did not want to hear or see them naked.
Clearing her throat, she opened her mouth to ask if they were still on for their plans this weekend—and more importantly some of the specifics of those plans—but found herself cut short by surprise when a pair of arms wrapped around her waist and hoisted her off the ground, bag and all. It took her less than a second to recover, though. There was only one person who liked to literally, not figuratively, sweep her off her feet. And when she twisted to get a good look at the daring person, she found herself proven right on both accounts. Naruto had found them easily enough, and he had decided the best way to enter the conversation was to haul her up in a weird baer hug.
Despite how common the interaction was, the engaged couple still laughed at them and Sakura still felt a swell of chagrin that had her trying to kick Naruto's shin in a bid to be put down. "Naruto!"
The blond laughed the laugh of the unrepentant and put her down before she could do any real damage to his person. Which did not stop her from half turning and socking him in the shoulder hard enough to having him simultaneously yelping and shrinking away from her. As Ino doubled over and Sasuke shook his head, Sakura shot Naruto a warning glare to which he responded to with a sheepish look. Somedays, she was sure they had been friends for way too long.
Agitation mollified for the moment, the roseate turned back to the other two to ask her question. "So, I wanted to ask, are we still going dress shopping tomorrow, Ino?"
Amusement over the last minute quickly turned to bright-eyed enthusiasm as the blonde woman beamed and nodded. "Absolutely, lunch at eleven, then shopping for the rest of the afternoon."
"Dress shopping?" Naruto asked, making a face that was as hilarious as it was irritating and it garnered a huff from both young women.
"Yes, Naruto, dress shopping. For weddings. You know, that thing that's coming up?" As soon as the words were out of her mouth, Sakura knew she goofed but it was too late to call them back even as Ino turned to her with raised eyebrows and a victorious smirk.
"You mean that thing where you still haven't officially agreed to be my maid of honor for?" Ino's eyes practically gleamed at having been able to put Sakura on the spot, but thankfully the reason why she had yet to agree piped up with an arch look of his own for the petite blonde.
"Ino." Sasuke's tone suggested his fiancée pump the breaks and as she met his gaze evenly Naruto shot Sakura a look that said he thought this was the funniest thing ever.
Much to Naruto's amusement and Sakura's bemusement the couple had yet to agree on who got which best friend for the two special positions in their wedding. Logic dictated that Ino would get Sakura as her maid of honor while Sasuke would get Naruto as the best man. And yet, thanks to one conversation on the heels of Sasuke's proposal, somehow it had gotten twisted. Surprisingly, the winner of the errant comment that had started it all was Sakura herself. Both best friends had been aware that Sasuke intended to propose before he even decided to, but still the couple had decided to officially tell them together. And after the round of congratulations Sakura had put her foot in her mouth by jokingly asking Naruto which role he wanted.
And now, months later, the foursome remained in the loop of not agreeing on who got who. It would have been funny if not for the fact that such conversations either got heated or they got dramatic. Between Ino's fierce personality and Sasuke's stubborn one, the potential for both disagreement and fireworks was always high; but in this case, Naruto and Sakura kept getting put in the middle. And Sakura knew from experience that the last place she liked to be was in the crosshairs of her childhood friends.
Thankfully, despite the back-and-forth that the two proceeded to engage in went much the same any argument between the two did, witty and without worry that it would be the one that damaged their relationship. Granted, after everything their relationship had weathered, Sakura thought the prospect of anything tearing them apart impossible.
It was the kind of relationship Sakura wanted. Single and a college student, her ideals of romances were less harlequin romance and more hapless. With friends who were a living example of imperfectly perfect relationships, it was hard not to let the bar for her own boyfriends stay impossibly high. Oh, she had been on dates before, had been kissed, but none of them had stayed for the same reason—none of them were her Sasuke or her Naruto or even held a candle to the twenty-plus years of happy marriage her parents continued to embrace. Hell, her parents still acted like newlyweds and children with their good-natured squabbling and heartfelt kisses. And no guy who had ever asked her out seemed to compare to that.
It did not help that the one guy she could see herself with was not available. Not unavailable in the taken sense, but more of the out of her league sense. She was far from unpopular or lower class or any such thing, but the idea of even approaching the guy she had developed a crush on seemed impossible, overwhelming. The very prospect made her admire Hinata for having the courage to not only initial a conversation with Naruto, but be the one to make the first move. Ino, was of the opinion that Hyuuga heiress would be the one to propose. Sakura had taken the bet more out competitive spirit than anything, and the knowledge that Naruto had, in fact, already had dinner with Hinata's father.
The two were soulmates, and when they finally stopped dancing around the issue, they would put a ring on it like Sasuke and Ino were.
Really, Sakura was more surprised it was the dynamic duo getting married first rather than the new sweetheart couple.
Nearly lost in her thoughts of woe over being the only single in her group of friends, Sakura noticed a familiar gray hoody fringed in black fur that was as signature as Naruto's bright orange jacket or Sasuke's hair style. She did not have to look in the direction to know Inuzuka Kiba, the man she had a crush on, stood within hearing distance.
Normally, that would not be a problem. But given the topic and the group of friends?
Foreboding began to take up residence in the pit of her stomach as right then, when the two seemed to be attempting to stare each other down, Sakura saw something all too familiar flicker in Naruto's eyes. Mischief. But before she could head it off, he was already acting on it. "Guys, why not just share her?" The couple turned as one to regard him, both bemused. "Sakura's great at multitasking, right?" He cut a look at her and with dawning horror she realized exactly where he was going with it. "So you can both have her."
Ino, the perpetrator of more than a few threesome and foursome jokes among them, was naturally the first to catch his meaning. And Sakura knew better than to hope she would not help dig Sakura's grave. Instead, she hoped that Kiba was with friends and not paying her group any mind. But with the unholy gleam lighting Ino's pretty blue eyes and knowing the way Sakura's luck tended to run, she knew that too, was but a pipe dream. So when painted purple lips curved like a cat with prey in its sights, Sakura resigned herself to digging that hole herself and crawling in it to die the death of the humiliated. "We could do that, right Sasuke? She'd be great in the middle, I think."
Sasuke had also caught on, no doubt realizing what the combination of faces that his friends were making added up to. Most people thought Sasuke was a straight laced stick in the mud, and while he was certainly capable of being a buzz kill, this was a conversation that he tended to add fuel to the fire on rather than smoother. "No, Ino, even if she can multitask, we agreed that you would be in the middle."
Sakura knew it was the awareness of her crush being so close that had her groaning and hiding her face in her hands because she was normally as wont to incite such conversations as the blondes were, enjoyed playing along. But she also had enough sense to know that any guy who got introduced to her in such a manner would get the wrong idea right off the bat. The closed the medical student had come to the male anatomy was on the test dummies, after all.
Channeling her inner cheerleader, Ino pouted at her fiancé, "Aw, but just think of what we could if we put her in the middle? Like, we could try—"
"Ino! TMI, we don't want to hear the down and dirty of your sex lives." In truth, Sakura was used to Ino spilling such details, but the idea of being dragged into it, even hypothetically, in such a situation had caused her to panic and blurt out the first thing she could think of.
When those pupil-less eyes slanted her way with that self-satisfied smile, Sakura knew she had lost this one anyway. Ino feigned surprise, "What are talking about Sakura? I thought we were discussing the wedding not the bedroom. Get your mind out of the gutter, geez." The extra huff was arguably a bit much and by the exasperation on Sasuke's face, he agreed but kept such opinions to himself.
Groaning again, Sakura knew better than to attempt to defend herself or point out that they had been insinuated the details of threesome. Ino would only twist any defense to her advantage, was to adept to be out witted in such matters. Shooting the imp a dirty look for her daring, Sakura conceded as gracefully as possible, "You're right, Ino, my bad."
Said woman didn't bother to hide her triumph, "You're forgiven, but really Sakura, if you wanted to experiment…"
"Ino!"
The blonde laughed even as her husband-to-be chided her for teasing their friend so much while Naruto grinned like he had achieved something particularly important.
Frowning at him, rather than the cause of her deep blushing, Sakura realized exactly why Naruto had started the whole thing in the first place. Kiba was looking at them, Naruto was acknowledging him with a nod. The pain in her ass had probably seen her crush at the same time she had and decided to play a prank on her. Oh, she was going to kill him for that. To her dismay, before she could successfully get her hands around his throat, the blond ducked out of her reach and ushered the engaged couple towards the parking lot with an excuse she did not catch due to happy fantasies of murder edging out the mortification just waiting to drag her into the ground so she could hide from Kiba forever.
A throat cleared, startling her out of her oscillating outrage and humiliation, and she jerked her head up to meet the dark brown eyes of her crush.
This was why she didn't gamble, she had her godmother's rotten luck.
But then Kiba smiled and held out a hand to her, "Hey, I know we've never talked before, but I'm Kiba."
Fighting not to make a fool of herself when the universe had obviously decided to cut her some slack, she clasped her hand his—found it big and rough and warm against her own—and gave him a shy smile back, "I'm Sakura, pleased to meet you."