Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. But Sasuke owns me!

It was the night after a tiring, and emotionally taxing mission. It was nothing difficult; Just a B-rank escort mission of a king of some country, but boy were the maidservants clingy. Sasuke was walking in a narrow corridor heading to his room when a group of maidservants caught up with him and began asking so many questions. Not wanting to be rude as he had already been criticized by the Hokage for his attitude towards the clients during previous missions, he stayed on for a few minutes to answer their petty questions on 'what it was like being a shinobi'.

Sasuke could tell that they were hitting on him, using curiosity as an excuse to keep a conversation going between them; it wasn't his first time experiencing this. Usually he would dismiss them and leave without saying a word but since he was on probation, he had to get into Tsunade's good books to be able to venture into missions that were actually of his level. And since the king they were responsible for happened to be a good acquaintance of Tsunade, if word got out about his attitude he was going to lose it. The current mission was one his first and highest ranked mission since his return to Konoha so far. This time, luckily enough, he got to do with former teammate, Sakura, as opposed to his previous missions where he was stuck with a couple of inexperienced genins and chuunins (still being a chuunin himself).

After excusing himself, he fled the flock of girls and continued his journey to his room for a well-needed sleep and hopefully a quiet place where he could vent out his frustrations on his damned situation. He looked around the corner. The coast was clear.

"Is that Sasuke-san? Look Ami, it's him, isn't it?" he heard whispers from a lady a few rooms behind him. Sasuke swiftly quicken his pace and as soon as he reached his room he flew into safety, shutting the sliding door with such force. With a sigh of relief he opened his eyes to realize that the room he just entered was in fact, not his at all.

"Sasuke-kun, can you explain what you're doing here in my room?" a lean pink-haired girl asked while munching on salted pistachios she bought on the way back to the palace. Sakura was sitting on the floor cross-legged in her robe and was seen to be reading a few scrolls laid across the floor.

Sasuke palmed his face in disappointment and not to mention, sheer embarrassment. What the hell am I doing barging into a girl's room? He was wondering this to himself. How could he have been so careless? He thanked Kami that they weren't put into an even more awkward social situation. It could have been worse.

Sasuke's loud face palm was hardly the answer that Sakura was expecting but as soon as she saw Sasuke's eyes darting to the door she had a rough idea of what was going on.

Standing up while smoothing out her robe she tucked a lock of her pink hair behind her ear. Emerald eyes, gleaming with amusement, she asked, "Having problems with the ladies, huh?" She gave a mischievous smile that reminded Sasuke a lot of Naruto's.

"Having problems trying to get away from them is more like it," the raven haired man answered in defeat. He didn't know how in the world he was supposed to politely decline them if they never accepted his decline. "Women in denial, always so troublesome", Shikamaru once said to him.

"If this goes on again I am going to burn this place down along with everybody in it. You want to join me?" Sasuke said sarcastically while running his fingers through his messy black hair.

"How sensitive of you to invite me, but I'll decline. I'd rather not end up in the bingo book," she answered mockingly, keeping in mind that Sasuke was once in the bingo book for being a notorious S-rank missing nin, "unlike somebody."

Sasuke let out a deep sigh as he slumped onto the floor. He let his legs lay straight on the floor while his hands support behind. "It's not that bad, you know?" he said with a dark chuckle under his breath. He was cracking jokes; he must have been real tired.

Sakura walked over to her raven-haired friend and offered him her salted pistachios, casually munching on some while she was at it. Sasuke took some and ate them intently.

Suddenly they heard a few whispers behind the close room door. Sasuke's eyes widened for a second then narrowed the next. When will this ever end? Now they were going to disturb him in what they thought was his room, too?

Sakura's eyes lit up when she thought of a brilliant idea. She began to untie her robe and mess up her short pink hair. Sasuke hissed, "What the hell are you doing?" He had no idea what Sakura had in mind but this was getting a little awkward. Sakura merely hushed him and mouthed out "You'll thank me soon enough," with a wink he had grown to fear.

The next thing he saw was Sakura pretending to be just putting on her robe and he was puzzled. Why take off something you wanted to put on the next minute? His eyebrows furrowed as he studied Sakura's façade. Halfway putting her robe on loosely, she let a part of her bare shoulders peek through the side revealing a thin lace strap of her dark blue camisole. She swiftly slid open the door showing to the guests a vision of a dishevelled, just-woken-up-from-her-beauty-sleep Sakura. She continued pretending to tug on her robe to supposedly cover herself up.

Stood in the doorway were two maidservants they had met before, a tall and slim brunette with a bandana tied as a headband, while the other was slightly shorter and a little on the chubby side. She had short and curly waves which were also decorated with a headband. Efforts Sakura was noticing as a way to gain Sasuke's attention, obviously as the last time Sakura saw them they were not so dressed up. Upon seeing a quite exposed Sakura just putting on her robe, the two girls gasped.

"We're so sorry for disturbing your sleep, Sakura-san!" they bowed apologetically.

Sakura sighed. She felt really sorry for these girls. If anybody were to understand the feeling of trying hard to garner the boy of your dreams' attention—and failing at that, she would.

"It's alright," she said propping one hand on the door frame. "What is it that you girls want?"

"Oh, w-we're so sorry but we thought S-sasuke-kun was staying in this room? We were just looking for him," the tall one stuttered.

"Oh, he is," Sakura said with a poker face. She saw their eyes widened as they looked at each other, both of their face bright red with embarrassment.

"In that case, Sakura-san, we are so sorry to bother you! Really, we apologize!" they said frantically.

"I'm sure you can ask him whatever he is you wanted to know tomorrow morning. He's very tired at the moment," she said with the most innocent smile she could give before she leaned in closer to them and whispered, "if you know what I mean," with a mischievous wink.

The shorter girl giggled in what Sakura saw as excitement, while the taller one blushed crimson red. They nervously scratched the back of their head trying to cover up their sheer disappointment. They bowed again, apologized for the third time and wished Sakura good night.

Sakura quietly closed the door.

"You just witnessed an Academy award winning performance by the Haruno—" she stopped midway when her eyes lied on a very tired Sasuke lying on the floor, head leaning against one of Sakura's bigger scrolls for support, one hand on his stomach.

Sakura placed both hands on her hips. She could do nothing to force her smile to disappear from her pink lips at the adorable sight of his teammate and friend. Who knew that this seemingly innocent sleeping creature could turn out to be someone every ninja would fear in a battle?

Sakura took out an extra futon in the closet of the room and place it next to hers. She then dimmed one of the lights and kneeled down next to Sasuke, her robe now neatly worn. She whispered, "Sasuke-kun, come sleep on the bed. You're going to get a sore neck tomorrow morning if you sleep like that."

With half opened eyes Sasuke slowly stood, threw himself on the nearby futon and continued dreaming.

The next morning

"You told them WHAT?" Sasuke asked in disbelief with an obvious higher pitch at the end of his question.

"Sasuke-kun, you're merely overreacting. Just look at the bright side," Sakura said while putting an arm over Sasuke's shoulder. They studied the newly changed situation that morning. They had packed their things and were ready to return to Konoha and throughout the whole morning, no maidservants were swarming him like they were earlier into the course of their mission. They still blushed and greeted him but none were asking annoying questions or flirting with him anymore. Sasuke figured it was because he was seen with Sakura the entire morning and especially because of what Sakura deliberately told the two maids from last night. News surely got around fast.

"See, you're not being swarmed anymore," Sakura added. "Thanks to me!" she flashed a smile at him, before setting off to their destination.

Sasuke followed her and eventually caught up with her by his side.

He shrugged. "Not bad, Haruno," he said looking impressed. "Not bad at all." Sakura answered with a bright smile.

If rumours were going to sprout about them being together, Sasuke thought, he doesn't think he would mind much at all.

End!

A/N: Wee I can't believe I actually wrote a new fanfic! I hope you enjoyed this one. I'm on a break now so I can probably squeeze out some ideas in the mean time.

For this fic, I thought of it as sort of the beginning of Sasuke seeing Sakura in a new light, maybe a beginning of a more proper friendship? (that could lead to something a little more serious, hehehe) Please review, I'd be glad to know of your thoughts, as well as any ideas or suggestions to help me improve. Sasusaku forevah! ヘ