Sakura was cold.

If she'd known they were going to be in Snow Country, she would have brought a freaking jacket. But it had been a last minute thing, a race across the border and no time to find a nice cloak or something- anything. Currently she was wearing Naruto's bright orange jacket, and had her sleeping bag wrapped around her. But it didn't provide much warmth- and what was she expecting, anyway? Naruto wore that thing every day in tropically hot Konoha. It was a light jacket that he wore merely because it was bright and orange.

But back to the point.

Sasuke looked just as cold, with his short-sleeved white shirt with the neckline dipping way low into his funny pants. Sakura would have thought he'd have changed his distinctive outfit after coming back to Konoha, but then again, she wasn't surprised. Sasuke always got stuck in ruts anyway.

She channeled her chakra through her system in the hopes that it would warm her up- chakra was just energy, after all- and it worked but she was worried about not having enough.

"So Naruto always does this?" Sasuke asked, looking bored.

By "this", he meant infiltrate enemy territory on reconnaissance and disappear completely only to send word a few hours later that he had gained their trust. They had just received word.

This meant that in a few hours, Naruto would reappear at the front of the gates, having been inadvertently found out (he could never lie convincingly), and being patted on the back by the previous enemy and handed the information he had asked for. By this point, he would have also solved their major problems, and caused them to rethink their evil ways, removed any chips from their shoulders and extracted any sticks from up their collective asses. Tsunade was used to this by now. Most of Naruto's enemies ended up being Konoha's allies after he was done with them.

It was just the way things worked with Naruto. He completely failed at the idea of mere reconnaissance and instead had to fix everyone's problems. The reason that he never learned to stop meddling? His way of doing things always, always worked.

"Yeah," Sakura said.

It was kind of quietly awkward, because this was one of the first missions the reunited Team 7 had gone on together. Sasuke had heard the stories of the Kyuubi jinchuuriki, and his partner the pink-haired, temperamental medic, just as Naruto and Sakura had kept updated as to Sasuke's whereabouts whenever they could.

But they didn't know each other anymore.

Sasuke had been unable to go on missions for about a year. During that time, it had been hard, but she had finally given up trying to reconcile the man that stood next to her with the boy that she had known.

The boy that she had known had left Konoha and all the people that cared about him to search for power. The man that stood next to her had come back of his own free will, wounded and scarred both mentally and physically.

And so, when Sakura looked at him, she no longer knew what she saw. She imagined he felt the same about her.

"Sakura..."

"Mhm?"

"Are you okay?"

"A little cold-"

"Looks like more than a little to me."

"I'm fine."

"Okay, then."

He turned away.

"How long are we going to be out here again?"

"What was that guy accused of?"

"Stealing from orphans. Big scale," Sasuke reread the mission scroll. "To fund a giant drug trade operation."

Sakura nodded sagely.

"Naruto could probably make him give everything back- with interest- in a few hours."

"A few hours?!"

"Or less."

Sasuke nodded, resigning himself to his new fate. She could feel his chakra, previously arcing through his body in high amounts, settle down and sort of thrum in the air quietly. She lowered hers, too. This couldn't be kept up for very much longer, at least not for her. She turned off her chakra. What if Naruto's charm didn't work?

They sat like that for a few minutes, which grew into a half an hour, which grew into an hour, which ended with Sakura realizing that her urge to take a nap was not due to her lack of chakra.

"I am starting to develop hypothermia," she announced.

He sort of stared at her.

"What do you want me to do about it?"

It wasn't sarcastic. It was an honest offer of help. And like she did every time he talked, she found herself comparing it to her Sasuke. New Sasuke was always a change for the better. Young Sasuke would not have offered his help, viewing her as weak. She wouldn't have announced it- afraid to be weak in his eyes.

But she realized now that the medic developing hypothermia was a much worse problem than appearing weak, and the best part was that Sasuke seemed to think so, too.

"Well, let's see," she said. "You could try channelling some chakra... but I don't want you to waste yours. I'm already running out, and the both of us out of chakra would be bad. I'm going to be delirious soon, by the way... I remember the symptoms, but I forget the suggestions for treating it."

He nodded, wondering where she was going.

She felt numbly warm and sleepy. Delirium would set in very soon.

How did you treat hypothermia again? She'd never encountered it...

"Or we both strip down to our underwear and climb in a sleeping bag. Under a blanket. Anything to try to share body heat."

There was a long pause on Sasuke's part.

"Is this the delirium?

"No."

"Okay, then."

"I swear I'm not trying to do anything weird."

"Good."

He undid his belt first.

Sakura almost started giggling at the irony. Only four years ago, she would have given anything to have Sasuke strip in front of her. Now, she couldn't care less.

She refrained from giggling, though, because... well, that would have just been creepy.

She removed her shirt, the skort, the socks, and the shoes, and climbed into the sleeping bag. Soon after, he followed her. It was a tight fit- Sasuke was, after all, all grown up and tall and broad-shouldered... and very warm.

She thought about it for a moment.

And giggled anyway.

He turned to look at her.

"This is so not sexy," she explained. "Isn't that funny?"

"Well, that's comforting," he said with absolutely no emotion. "Glad to hear one of us is amused."

"I can't tell if you meant that or not."

There was a brief pause.

"I don't know, either," he said finally.

"You're still very handsome, don't worry."

He acknowledged her with an twitchy nod that she took to mean "thank you".

"It's just..."

She trailed off, realizing this was probably the delirium setting in. But as she grew warmer, it faded. Sasuke really was very warm. She was no longer in danger of hypothermia, but she decided that for their own good they should probably stay in the sleeping bag.

"I know what you mean," he said.

Something about that was strange, and when she realized what it was after a few moments, she smiled. "I've never heard you say that before. You're so distant, I couldn't ever picture you saying that. I didn't think you'd acknowledge a connection to us mere mortals."

He shrugged.

"Well, no offense or anything, but I'm not exactly turned on by this either. That's probably not very human of me, considering you and all."

She had to pause to think.

"I have no idea what the hell you meant by that," she said finally.

"You're... very... popular among guys," Sasuke said slowly, clearly trying to figure out how to say it without being awkward. He failed miserably. "But I'm not attracted to you, either. No offense."

"I... think that was a compliment, actually."

"I'm not sure," he said. "It just... was."

It grew silent again. Sakura remembered a time when Sasuke actually smiled and spoke to people- he was never outgoing, but it wasn't awkward to talk to him. A very, very long time ago, before all that shit with Itachi and his family happened. She wondered if he'd ever be like that again. Like, human.

"I want to ask you something," she said finally.

"Hn."

"No- please don't clam up- it's uncomfortable, I know. But I just want to know... are you happy back in Konoha? As your teammate... or as your friend, if you can call me that, would you tell me just that?"

He sighed, but it was more of a thinking, pause-filling sigh than an exasperated one.

"Am I happy? Yes and no."

She nodded slowly, wondering if he would elaborate.

He did.

"I'm... telling you this because, as my teammate, I want you to know," he said finally. "As your teammate, a shinobi, I am not happy. Strong though I may be, I am nowhere near as strong as I was when I left the Sound. I defeated Itachi then, but now I know if I were to face him tomorrow I could not. Partly that is due to my wounds- you did an excellent job of healing, by the way, you are very skilled." It wasn't a compliment, it was a statment of fact. She refrained from thanking him. "But after a medic has done all they can the body still needs to heal. Mine is not back to where it was."

She nodded slowly.

"As my... friend-" the word was hard for him to say, but he managed it, "- as a friend, as a person, I want you to know that I am happy back in Konoha. There is so much I left behind, so many connections I shattered when I left that I'm not entirely sure I can pick up the pieces. I'd like to start over, though I don't know if it's possible. But I have- I have Naruto, and you... and that... makes it... better. Easier."

He'd been through a lot of stuff. A lot of people who died during Orochimaru's attack on Konoha had fiercely loyal friends and family who were also very angry that one of Konoha's own would turn against them like that. Most people didn't trust him. It was, in fact, a great deal like the way that the village had treated Naruto.

Only, Sasuke had once confided to Tsunade, and Tsunade had told Sakura, that he knew it was all his fault. Unlike Naruto who never did a thing to make anyone hate him in the first place (even if he hadn't helped anything by being an obnoxious little twerp).

"You will always have me," she said quietly. "You always have. Now I'm different- I'm sure you've figured out, I'm not the awkward girl who was in love with you so long ago. I am your friend, though. Even when you weren't mine... I punched a guy on your behalf once, did I ever tell you? With chakra, too... it's a long story."

"I heard it from Naruto. Someday, I'd like to hear your version of events, though."

"Someday I'd like to tell you," she said, and they glanced at each other. She smiled, and she watched as the corners of his mouth twitched up and he nodded awkwardly. Maybe sometime he'd smile for real, and maybe she'd be there to see it. She hoped so, anyway.

They sat in the sleeping bag for a little bit, with a silence that finally wasn't awkward having fallen over them, and then, about three hours later, Naruto appeared at the rendezvous point. He was so loud that they both jumped.

"Got the info, guys! And guess what?!"

"He wasn't so bad after all?" Sakura asked dryly.

It was what Naruto always said.

"Exactly! How'd you know?! Sakura-chan, you never told me you were psychic! Anyway, he gave all the money back and decided to turn his hideout into an orphan shelter."

Sasuke climbed out of the sleeping bag to pull on his clothes again.

"Dobe."

"Whoa, why are you both naked?! Did you have sex?! Sasuke! How dare you!"

Sakura had just finished pulling on her skort.

Naruto punched Sasuke, and Sasuke dodged. Sakura could tell that it was an act, that Naruto had intended for Sasuke to dodge.

Must be a guy thing.

"You deflowered Sakura!"

Sasuke made a funny snorting sound.

It was only after about two seconds of shock that both Naruto and Sakura realized it was a laugh. Or a chuckle, more like. When Sakura cracked up, Naruto lost it too and all of a sudden they were both giggling madly, and even Sasuke was continuing to make that funny snorting-coughing-chuckle.

Of course, she developed a terrible fever later on that night (why did she have to wear her little tiny medic-nin skort on a mission to the Snow Country? She was so much smarter than that!) and they had to carry her home. But in her delusion, Sakura could have sworn that it was Sasuke who placed her on her own bed and put a hand on her hair awkwardly, patting her once like she was a dog (but she appreciated the sentiment), with a concerned, serious Naruto dragging a tired Tsunade into the room to help.

And suddenly, even if they weren't all bestest friends forever, even if there was still shit to work out, even if Naruto was an idiot, Sasuke was an antisocial idiot and she was an idiot in the midst of the uphill struggle of overcoming cluelessness- when Sakura woke up feeling disgusting and sick, with Sasuke staring at her concernedly and Naruto holding one of her hands, she knew that they were her boys, and she was their girl, and that was a fact that she'd always be able to count on.

I am SO NOT in a fluffish mood today.

But I'm glad you read this story! If you're wondering, I came up with it in the middle of a first-aid class, when the topic was hypothermia and I remembered how there were all those awkward stories of people crawling naked into sleeping bags together to avoid the cold and then I was like heyyy, I can so totally picture Sakura and Sasuke having to do this and it being all awkward and them both being like wow, I am so not turned on by this, it's not even funny anymore. So that's where the story started, with Sakura's line about "Wow, this is so not sexy!"

And I like reviews. I like reviews a lot.

Almost as much as I like David Tennant.