"I'm not sure, Sakura... you know the saying, two's company, three's a crowd." Ino said hesitantly.
Sakura twirled her straw in her drink, listening as the ice clinked in the glass. She smiled slightly before turning her attention to Ino.
"Who says I don't like the crowd?" Sakura replied with a smirk. "Besides, it's just the way it turned out. Naruto wanted me, I wanted Sasuke-" her brief hesitation wouldn't have been noticeable to anyone but Ino, who knew her so well. "Sasuke wanted Naruto. This way we can all have what we want, with a little added bonus."
Ino sighed, slouching back into the booth. Though it was relatively taboo, it certainly wasn't the first instance of a three man team moving from the battlefield to the bedroom. Hell, she'd go as far as to say the majority had had at least a one time dalliance... certainly before Shikamaru had given way to the bother that was an out of town girlfriend there'd been a few occasions where...
She shook the thoughts from her head, returning her attention to Sakura.
"But the problem is always the same. Right now you're supported by the cyclical preferences. Each of you wanting another and accepting the presence of the third. Eventually one of you will shift based on the attention, or lack of, you're receiving and then someone is pushed to the outer. Are you sure you want to risk that?"
"Risk that? I'm counting on that!"
Ino raised an eyebrow at Sakura's enthusiasm.
"Sasuke tried to set out all these rules but it's simple. We get what we want in exchange for giving another what they want. I can have Sasuke and in exchange Naruto can have me. Often the stars align and we all share. It works. And don't think I'll complain about having two gorgeous men with incredible stamina at once."
Ino flushed slightly at the thought, crossing her legs a little tighter.
"That's all well and dandy, but what I'm saying is what happens when it's less equal threesome and more exclusive... twosome." She finished, for lack of a better word.
"Be reasonable. I'll never prefer Naruto over Sasuke. Naruto will never prefer Sasuke over me. The only thing that could happen is Sasuke grows tired of Naruto and favours me. Which, whilst I'd certainly miss some aspects." For the first time pink crept across Sakura's cheeks. "I would be more than happy to have Sasuke to myself."
Ino sighed again. She thought back to all the times she'd seen team 7 together. She thought back, to their Genin days, at the first stirrings of their hormonal interest in one another, to now, in their Jounin ones, so different, yet so very much the same as back then. It had been a roller coaster to get here. Sasuke leaving, his return, their reunion. The blood and sweat and tears they'd been through together. She'd spent her fair share of time watching Sasuke across those many years and there was one thing she knew for sure.
He had never looked at anyone the way he looked at Naruto.
She thought of the way Naruto would look back, eyes blazing in silent (or often not-so-silent) challenge. She imagined how that ferocity translated to the bedroom and needed to quickly divert her attention, grabbing a napkin to place beneath her nose.
"Just be careful, Sakura. Don't be the watcher."
"The what?"
"The watcher. The one left watching when the other two end up too tangled in each other to notice anything else."
Sakura scoffed. Naruto was straight as an arrow. She didn't know how he tolerated his time alone with Sasuke. He only had eyes for her.
It was much later when she and Ino finally said their goodbyes and she headed home, just a little tipsy and thinking tonight she wanted both her boys. She paused at the door to their apartment, adjusting her bra straps to pull her breasts a little higher, knowing that never ceased to grasp Naruto's immediate attention.
She slipped in, closing the door without a sound. The living room was empty, as was the kitchen. She briefly wondered if the boys had gone out for a late training session.
A sharp intake of breath from their bedroom caught her immediate attention, she moved closer, lips curling into a predatory smirk.
"I'm sorry." She stopped and frowned at the tenderness in Sasuke's voice. She'd never heard it before. "I don't want to hurt you, let's just do it normall-"
"Bastard." Naruto gasped. "It doesn't hurt. I want you to-" a guttural moan stole the words out of his mouth and Sasuke chuckled.
"See, being the one with a cock up their ass has its benefits." Sasuke purred.
Sakura flushed, imagining the position the two were in. She wrestled with the temptation to peek through the half open door.
"Just. Move." Naruto insisted.
She closed her eyes tight as the grunts from the other side of the wall told her Sasuke complied. Naruto had just confirmed what she already knew, that he had never let Sasuke do that before, their roles were always reversed. Naruto in Sasuke, sometimes while Sasuke was in her, or both of them in her, never Sasuke in Naruto. She assumed Naruto's sexuality wasn't flexible enough to allow that. Clearly that was no longer the case.
She chanced a glance around the door, eyes bludging at the sight before her. Naruto's head back in bliss, his legs wrapped high around Sasuke's waist as the brunette steadily drove himself into him.
"God, Sasuke, I'm going to-"
"Already?" Sasuke panted. "Don't think I'll stop until I finish, I'll-"
He was cut off by Nauto's moan, back arching as he was clearly overwhelmed. For all his big talk about continuing, Sasuke swore, hips twitching as he emptied himself into Naruto, before collapsing against his chest.
Sakura hid herself back behind the door, biting down hard on her lip. The reaction of her body was traitorous as she struggled to make sense of what she'd just seen through the desire that was clouding her judgement.
"I love you, Sasuke." Naruto's voice was hesitant, barely above a whisper. For a moment her heart stopped. For all the living together and the sex, Naruto had never said it. Not like that. Not to either of them. The silence drew out, Sasuke unaware that two people were hanging on for his response. "I'm sorry I shouldn't have said, you don't need to-"
"Idiot." Sasuke chuckled, with the same tenderness as before. She didn't need to look to know his hand was running down Naruto's cheek. "I love you too."
Sakura slipped back out, making her way to Ino's without a word. It seemed she was the watcher after all.