..::!Chapter 2!::..

Wither

It was late one night - way too late – when she stumbled into her apartment half-dressed and half drunk, carrying three plastic shopping bags from her local market.

Naruto was behind her.

They had gotten drunk that night on a whim because she was angry and sad and he was too.

So, in their intoxicated state, they decided that it would be infinitely amusing to make an elaborate five-course dinner, and then eat it all. And that lead to them having a footrace to the market, disturbing the quiet peace of the night, and then they literally knocked four carts and six stands over fighting about who won. (It was Sakura.)

When they finally made it to the market, they were laughing like buffoons and having a 'who can tell the dirtiest joke' contest. (Way louder than they should have been, by the way.) Naruto won that one, to absolutely no ones surprise. They gathered their ingredients at a less-than-snails-pace pace, much to the chagrin of the angry shop owners.

So, about half an hour later, they were there, stumbling into the small apartment, still yelling at the man who told them to shut up, even though he was long gone.

The bags spilt across the counter, boxes of pasta and crackers, tubes of spray cheese
(they still to this day, have no idea who thought that would ever be useful. They both agree that it was probably Naruto.) (It wasn't.) and whipped cream, cans of tomato paste and pineapple all rolling and sliding across the recently polished wood counter. With ninja quickness that only ninjas possess, Naruto leapt over the counter and heroically rescued all the store-bought goods in his well muscled and rasengan toned arms. Sakura stood there, a dumbfounded expression on her face.

Naruto's face split in a sunny grin, teeth gleaming. He threw the stuff back on the counter, and they began cooking, sorting out recipes and making a complete mess of the place. Somewhere between the cutting and stirring the head of lettuce was forgotten, in the bottom drawer of the fridge.

They were up for the next few hours, telling jokes and having battles in the kitchen like only best friends do.

Naruto fell asleep on the counter, face pressed against the fridge. Sakura passed out on the couch, but around four she fell off.

It was eleven forty-three when Naruto woke up to a messy kitchen and a lightly snoring best friend. He smiled at her, because she had rolled under the coffee table during the night.

It was twelve sixteen when Sakura woke up, under a light blanket and on her sofa. She stood up and cracked her back, running a hand through her hair nonchalantly. Yawning, she walked to her small kitchen, expecting the worst- only to find it sparkly clean.

Confused, she walked to her room. She found a note.

Sakura,

I cleaned your kitchen for you, because I love you that much.

No, actually it was because now you owe me one week of free ramen.

Love, Naruto

She read it through six more times before she grasped what the hell it said. When she did, she swore. She couldn't afford a week worth of ramen, not the way Naruto ate it, and not on a ninja's salary. She swore.

It was three weeks later when she was cleaning out her fridge, and she found the withering head of lettuce. She picked it up, and was struck with the strangest idea.

She wondered briefly what it would be like to watch Sasuke wither. If, when he came back, they got married (unlikely, she told her self. Way past giving herself false hope.) She wondered if they would get old enough for his hair to star turning grey. For his skin to wrinkle and sag. She decided that it would be weird. Entertaining. But weird nonetheless.

"Are you coming or not, forehead?" Ino called from the door. They were going out to lunch with Naruto and Hinata. (This was part of their plan to get them together. She and Ino would pretend to have forgotten about their hospital duty, and leave. It was clever.)

"Uh, Yeah… Hold on." She stood up, and giving the lettuce one last look, she tossed it out her window.

"Forehead!"

"Shut up, pig!"