Disclaimer: I DO NOT own Naruto.

So I guess it's been way over a week since I've updated, but believe me it's been the week from hell. I had to babysit this 5th grade brat that made me take her to some moon bounce shit hole called "Monkey Joes" where the whole place reeked of urine and I had to sit there with nothing to do for 6 hours. I've also gotten a part-time job that lasted me one weekend before the waitress told the manager a lie that I never helped her and I was a horrible slacker because I refused to help her with one lousy drink order because I was cleaning a table for a family that was waiting on it. Bitches be trippin'. My boyfriend also broke up with me on my first day of work. He came to my work on Memorial Day and said that he thought we were going separate ways and wanted to split. He's just saying that because he didn't graduate with the rest of us because he's so goddamn lazy so he'll have to repeat his Sr. year in high school. I had a freaking brain tumor and still graduated. But I also had my heart cut in two cause fresh off the break-up block, I found I guy a liked. 4 years older than me, spent 72 hours strait with me as we house hopped and got drunk different places. He would always wind up taking me in his arms and planting kisses on my forehead when he thought I was asleep, but apparently he does that to a lot of people and it means nothing.

Long story short, I'm done with love. All it's good for is motivating me to shave my legs. To hell with it.

Sasuke woke up the next morning to find the pinkette on all fours hovering above him. Startled, he shot upwards causing them to bump heads.

"What the hell?" he growled rubbing his head wincing.

Sakura just grabbed her head saying, "ow ow ow ow owww!"

"That's what you get for sneaking up on me."

"I wasn't sneaking! I was waiting for you to get up! We have to go shopping today."

"Bite me"

Taking his words literally, the girl grabbed Sasuke's arm and bit it. She knew it was below her maturity but she was fed up with his sore ass attitude, and she wasn't about to take any of his shit.

"What the hell was that for?!" he growled as he ripped his arm away from Sakura with a little bit of blood dripping from it.

"You said to bite you. Don't tell me to do something you don't want me to."

"It's not a literal expression!"

"You're not a literal expression!"

"What are you? 4?"

"Doesn't matter, get up, get dressed, and let's go!"

"Leave." came his sharp reply as he angrily pointed to the door.

"But Itachi told me to take you shopping!"

"You can't make me."

"Oh yea? Watch me."

With that last remark Sakura left the room and Sasuke thought that he had won. A few minutes later Sakura came in dragging a bucket and dumped its contents on the sleeping Uchiha. It was horse poop that Sakura had mucked out of the stalls that morning.

"What do you think you're doing!" he shouted as he sprung out of bed holding his arms away from his sides looking at his soiled silk pajamas, "These weren't cheap you know?"

"Bite me!" Sakura shouted stomping her foot to show the Uchiha she could give him a taste of his own sass.

Sasuke then got an idea as he smirked and said with false sincerity, "Sakura, I'm sorry for all the mean things I've said to you since I came here. Why don't you come here and give me a hug?"

Sakura just put her arms our in front of her to keep the Uchiha at bay as she stumbled backwards yelling, "Oh no you don't! You stay right there!"

Sasuke ignored her as he tackled her and both squirmed all over the floor making a mess of themselves and almost everything else in the room. Just then Sai came creeping around the corner and looked into the room. When he cleared his throat the two teens froze and looked to see him standing in the doorway.

"If that's you guys' way to get it on, then good for you, but I'm not cleaning this mess up" Sai said with finality that made the two teens start bickering at each other again.

"This is your fault!" Sakura screamed, "You should've just taken a shower!"

Sasuke just glared at her as he replied, "Maybe you should've just kept the horse poop outside where it belongs."

Just then Itachi walked into the room and saw the two teens wrestling there, the brown hand and foot prints everywhere and brown streaks all over the floor, bed, and walls, as well as the horrible smell piercing the air in the room. He didn't even say anything for a few minutes so he could gain his composure.

"Clean it up" he grumbled before turning 180 degrees and leaving to go back downstairs.

"What the heck were those two doing up there?" Shisui asked looking up from his book on the living room sofa.

"If you're so curious then look for yourself." Itachi grumbled as he headed back outside to tend to some of the outdoor chores, it was too early in the morning for this shit.

Shisui shrugged then headed upstairs and turned the corner shriveling his nose up. Before he could even ask what the smell was he walked into the room and saw for himself.

"Oh goodness…" were the only words that could escape his lips at the sight of the mess, "Now I know why Itachi was speechless…"

The two teens were currently scrubbing the walls even though they, themselves, had remnants of the dried dung on their cloths. They didn't even bother to acknowledge Shisui, because he never really said anything constructive anyway.

"You have to admit" Sakura snickered after Shisui was gone, "That was pretty funny."

Sasuke just scowled. Nothing was appealing about being covered in horse shit, but he was sure that worse things were going to happen to him, so he wasn't going to get hung-up on this one thing. The two eventually got the place clean and changed the Uchiha's bed sheets. Then Sakura looked at herself and Sasuke as well.

"We really ought to clean up…" she grumbled as she walked towards her room to take a shower.

Sasuke didn't say anything back, but he headed to his shower to wash off all the fecal matter as well.

"This one!" Sakura shouted excitedly as she drug Sasuke into the nearest shop that looked like it had something good in it.

Sasuke cringed, it was just a standard t-shirt and jeans shop. How could Sakura get excited over this? Didn't she get spoiled by Itachi? Or is it that she chose to live like a barnyard banshee? No matter how hard he tried, he really had no way of getting inside this girl's head, or understanding her.

"You have enough fancy rich person cloths so we're going to get you some work clothes. That way you don't have to keep borrowing Sai's."

Sasuke just stood irritated while he watched Sakura scan over the sales rack. Why did it matter if it was on sale? Was it really important to save a few bucks? Had Itachi hit rock-bottom financially? Sasuke couldn't even fathom why the clearance rack was so important. It was just clothing nobody wanted anymore because it was out of season and out of style, i.e. clothing he didn't want.

"Go try these on" Sakura stated flatly throwing some jeans at him.

Sasuke grumbled and walked into the changing room and put on the pants. They were a few sizes too big and he sweat dropped to himself "does she really think I'm this fat?…"

Sasuke came out having to hold the pants up by the waist and Sakura had to hold back a chuckle as she asked, "You didn't tell me your pant size fatty, so I just assumed. What size are you?"

Sasuke wiped a frustrated hand over his face. He wasn't in the mood to deal with her shenanigans and underhanded insults, "34" he stated with irritation as he trudged back into the dressing room.

"God" she huffed under her breath, "What a pre-madona."

"I heard that" he grunted audibly from the changing room throwing the too-large jeans over the stall door right onto Sakura's face.

She had several more hours of this to go. God save them both because she wanted to kill him.

"How lovely" Shisui commented coming down the stairs looking at Sai's painting, "Too bad you don't see wild horse herds like that anymore. They've all been taken off of the government land and relocated to stables and domesticated."

"Not all of them" Sai said plainly as he swooshed with yet another stroke of his brush, "Some of them still roam around here if you look for them."

"Well Shenandoah is quite an exception" Shisui chirped.

"She's not the only one."

Shisui just gave Sai a quizzical brow. He hadn't ever seen any wild herds since they'd moved there. Most wild herds were taken into captivity from being on government owned land as usual, so it was extremely rare to see a wild horse. However that didn't stop Sai from the inspiration of his newest collection of commissioned paintings. Shisui left the artistic boy to his work and shuffled upstairs to see Kisame drinking a glass of water from the tap.

"You're all sweaty" he said with a disgruntled face as the fishy looking man leaned on the counter.

Kisame narrowed his eyes and retorted, "and you're all primp and prissy."

Shisui just threw the rag he was wiping the table down with at him to wipe off with, then throw in the laundry rag bin. The two of them didn't always get along, but those small skirmishes of insults were usually as intense as things usually got.

"So what's up with fish face?" Sasuke asked harshly as they sat at a food court table in the mall.

Sakura took on a very serious face and a displeasing look as she hissed at him, "Don't judge anyone by their appearance, you stereo-typing, egotistical prick."

Sasuke just kept a hard glare on her before asking, "You gunna tell me or not?"

"You're incredibly rude, you know that? I'm not your secretary. I'm not your maid. I'm not your mother, though I hope you don't treat her with the same, little amount of respect as you seem to treat everyone else with. And I am not your servant here to do your personal bidding and grant you every morsel of information you desire. Learn to ask nicely, and maybe someone might be willing to have a civil conversation with you. Living a life free of arrogance is worthwhile. You should try it some time."

Sasuke had never been lectured by a girl the same age as him before. He was used to all of his fan girls being on his side and agreeing with him and his dictating personality. However, it was obvious at this point to both Sasuke and Sakura that she wasn't going to tolerate it. The rest of lunch was silent because Sasuke refused to swallow his pride and ask "nicely," and Sakura was too irritated to find a new conversation topic. After two more stores Sasuke had a whole new wardrobe of work cloths and he and Sakura were back on their way to the ranch. Sasuke felt embarrassed to be riding in a beat-up, pick-up truck. It was bad enough to be driven home from the airport in it, but now this malarky too?

"You really need to grow up. There's no paparazzi following you around. You aren't famous here, no one out here cares about you besides your brother. Riding in an old truck isn't going to put you in a scandalous tabloid. Lighten up."

That was the second time today Sasuke had been lectured by this pinkette, and he wasn't in the mood for it either. He was in a bad frame of mind as it were, but her lectures were seemingly making it worse. The timing of each of them was impeccable and hit to the core. He was up to his boiling point and about to explode if he couldn't get away from this tyrant of a girl. It looked like the sun was setting as the sky turned orange and they pulled into the dirt driveway of the ranch. Sasuke got out and went inside while Sakura shouted at him to come carry his own crap into the house.

Eventually she got fed-up and took the bags inside herself but made sure to cover them in a sufficient amount of dirt and then throw them on his bed.

"What the hell?" he sneered from where he was sitting at his desk on the computer, "Why did you cover them in dirt? We just changed them this morning."

Sakura put her hands on her hips and got right in his face and hissed right back, "You need to learn to carry your own shit, and since I had to carry it for you this time, you're going to do something else. In this situation, I would say strip off you sheets and wash them. Don't you think carrying the bags would've been easier?"

Little did the two know that Itachi was standing in the doorway with a smirk on his face. When both of them broke away from their sinister staring contest to look at him he nodded at Sakura which basically meant she could make him clean them.

"What do you say we wash them by hand?" Sakura asked menacingly.

Sasuke was not looking forward to the rest of the evening and just put a hand over his face already feeling a headache setting in.

"There. Hang them up on the cloths line and use pins to keep them from blowing away."

Sasuke was beyond angry that she'd been breathing down his neck during the whole process making him work. Having to scrub his sheets on the washboard by hand made his shoulders ache almost as much as when they put up the corral. Sakura was satisfied that she'd taught the Uchiha a lesson the hard way and went inside to grab her riding boots.

"Sakura, dinner will be ready in an hour. Don't go out for too long, ok?" Shisui said cheerfully as he put a few pots and pans on the stove and began preparing dinner for everyone. Sai even came up from the studio downstairs and saw Sakura grabbing her boots and excitedly ran to get his.

"Wait" she told him somberly, "I was going to take the brat as a special treat. I promise I'll take you next time. I know how inspirational it is for you, so I promise next time it's just you and me, ok?"

Sai just crossed his arms like a small child with a dull expression and skulked back down to the basement. Sakura huffed. He really did love to go on rides with her, didn't he? Sakura grabbed her backpack and filled it with raw, whole carrots out of the fridge and ran outside to go hop on Shanondoah. She scurried to the barn, and Sasuke was rather confused as to why she was going out riding so late. She came out bareback on her horse as usual and rode over towards him.

"Here" she said as she took off her backpack and handed it to him, "Put that on and hop on behind me. I want to show you something."

Sasuke was hesitant but slid the small leather bag on over his shoulders and jumped up onto a nearby storage crate by the barn and hopped onto the horse behind Sakura and started wabling.

"How do I stay on this thing if there's no saddle?" he asked while trying to keep his balance.

Sakura smirked then said, "Just hold onto me, I guess."

Sasuke looked at his hands disbelievingly and slid them around Sakura's waist and the horse took off down several trails and Sasuke wound-up getting all kinds of leaves and briars caught in his hair as they zoomed through the woods. Eventually he comfortably rested his head on Sakura's shoulder blade and almost let a blush grace his face. Then they were suddenly riding in the wide open. Sasuke's head shot up looking around at the wide grasslands with a few trees around, then looked over to the side where it looked like there was some sort of gathering of animals.

"Did some of the cattle get loose?" Sasuke asked confused as to why there were roaming animals around outside the coral.

Sakura smiled as she said, "No. Those are wild horses."

Sasuke's eyes went wide as they rode up to the herd and he realized they really were wild horses, but for some reason they didn't flee from him and Sakura as they rode up.

"Go visit girl" Sakura said cheerfully as she slid off Shenandoah then helped Sasuke off and gave her horse a gentle slap on the flank.

Sasuke looked skeptically as Shenandoah took off towards the herd running around the open grasslands playing with a few of them.

"She… them?…" Sasuke asked further puzzled by the situation.

"She's one of them" Sakura said smiling, watching her horse, "I caught her out here and tamed her myself."

"Have you ever put a saddle on her?" Sasuke asked skeptically sitting down in the grass watching them as well.

Sakura sat beside him then let out a sigh and said "Never have, never will. She isn't a saddle horse, she's a my horse."

Sasuke didn't quite understand what she meant but it was obvious she had a lot of respect for the creature she rode on.

"Saddles create things like rashes and hot spots, so I don't like her to use them. I can ride on her without one just fine, but if I have to I can use a blanket or something soft."

Sasuke now realized that the reason she was so apparently good at riding bareback is because she probably had never ridden in a saddle, at least not on her horse.

"Why aren't they afraid of us?" He asked looking around at the wild stallions and mares just feet from where they were sitting.

"Because" she huffed standing up, "They see how I treat one of their own, so they consider me one of their own as well. And you're with me, so that's why they aren't shy with you either."

Sasuke noticed a few colts that came up sniffing the backpack and jumped a little. He was tempted to shout at them to quit chewing on his clothes, but he didn't want to frighten them. Sakura just laughed at him and his gestures of confusion and avoidance.

"They're doing that because they want what's in the bag" she chuckled walking over to him.

Sasuke took the bag off his back and opened it only to be surrounded by horses on all sides. Sakura pushed her way through the rough crowd and managed to grab a few of the carrots out of the backpack to distribute them among the many horses.

"How many are there?" Sasuke asked as he hand fed some of them carrots.

"Probably 30 or so" she answered casually then shouted, "Oh lookie!"

She ran off towards a particular horse that stood head and shoulders above the rest. He was black as night with a mane even darker than that. Sasuke thought he looked like some majestic horse out of a knights' tale.

"This is the head honcho" she cooed petting the large creature playfully, "I call him onyx."

"Wonder why" Sasuke grumbled rhetorically as he casually stalked up to the horse.

For some reason the horse found Sasuke displeasing and went on his hind legs neighing, causing Sasuke to fall backwards on his ass in the grass as a reflex.

"Woah boy!" Sakura tried to calm him as the horse huffed through his nostrils at the boy on the ground, "He's not a bad person, he just has a bad ego. I promise."

It was almost as if the horse spoke english because he turned around and kicked some dirt up on Sasuke before walking away towards some grass under a tree to graze on.

"What the hell is his problem?" Sasuke asked angrily swatting the dirt off his cloths as Sakura helped him stand back up.

She sheepishly grinned scratching the back of her head as she said, "Well, he doesn't take too kindly to people in general. He didn't even like me at first."

"So he likes no one?"

"He's always liked Sai."

"Sai's been here?"

"He comes all the time with me."

"Oh"

The two teens walked around the pasture and played with the horses some more. Sasuke found a particular black colt especially glued to his side. He was so dark that the moonlight made his coat look navy blue. Sasuke humored it and played with him a little, but he eventually decided that too much time had passed and that they needed to head back for dinner. He had to peel Sakura away from the horses, mostly because she kept feeding them and they wouldn't let her leave. However she whistled for Shanondoah, and as soon as both teens were mounted on top of her, it was obvious it was time for them to leave and the other horses quietly complied, pacified, as they rode away.

"I hope both of you filthy children washed your hands" Shisui scoffed as he set the food down on the table in front of everyone while the two took a seat.

Sakura rolled her eyes. They'd gone horseback riding, not cat fish noodling or something. On top of that of course she washed her hands.

"I'm weary of you since that little horse shit incident this morning" he added as he sat down himself.

"Language" Itachi sneered at his cousin giving him a cold stare from across the table.

To Be Continued….

I hope you enjoyed this chapter as much as I did! I take a week to proof-read and go over them so as not to have any spelling or grammar mistakes for your reading enjoyment! Please read and review! ^(^0^)^