Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.
Warning: Contains spoilers and mild language.
Hi Everyone,
I'm trying to update as much as I can this week because the fall semester starts very soon for me. I will try my best to update at least once a week once the semester rolls around but we all know that sometimes life gets in the way.
So anyway here's the next installment of the story. I am beyond floored that you people are actually reading it much less enjoying it! Your reviews fill me with happiness and motivation. Please keep them coming and the chapters will follow.
I promise you that I will see to this story's end as long as people are still interested. Thanks for you time and please enjoy!
~L.H
Chapter Four: Flirting with Destiny
She swallowed thickly.
Of course this was not the first time she had ever seen him. The first time had been on the front lines, while she was healing Naruto. She had been amazed how similar Naruto and Minato looked.
But the Edo Tensei had not done the man justice. He was absolutely gorgeous. He was easily the prettiest man she had ever seen. He was prettier than her, Ino, and Hinata.
The Edo Tensei had gotten his hair, his build, but it failed to capture his eyes. They were captivating and Sakura found herself openly gawking at them. They were swimming with emotion and Sakura was unable to look away. Minato's cough was what brought her back to earth.
"I'm not leaving you because I know that it can't be easy to have made your decision." All traces of amusement and playfulness were gone from his expression. Her breath hitched with the pain of the memory.
"I didn't have much of a choice." Sakura's mood immediately darkened. She looked down at her hands. She had been chosen. She did not choose her path, it was forced on her.
"Of course you had a choice. Everyone always has a choice." Minato momentarily winced as he watched Sakura snap her head up to look at him. He could tell that she was about to protest so he cut her off before she could begin.
"If you had made up your mind to die, your body would have rejected the new chakra and you would have succumbed to your injuries. You're a medic. You could have easily taken your life before any of us could stop you. You made a choice Sakura-san, and you're living with it. You chose the interest of Konoha before your own and I find that truly admirable." He finished off with a soothing and comforting voice and it had Sakura clinging to every word.
Sakura stared at him with her mouth shamelessly agape. He was right. She did have a choice and she chose the right thing. She felt her insides warm at his words because she was not accustomed to people admiring her. Right or wrong people always saw her as the other member of Team Seven. To many she was just the weak link in the otherwise legendary squad.
Sasuke and Naruto always made her fell weak and useless either intentionally or unintentionally. They were untouchable; she did not even breathe the same air as them. But here she was being praised by the greatest ninja that ever lived!
'Kami, he's beautiful.' She was positive that her face as beginning to heat up from the thought that just entered her mind. And to her upmost horror her fear was all but confirmed when the serious look vanished from Minato's face and was replaced by a mischievous one. She watched with sick fascination as his lips tugged into a smirk. It was hypnotizing the way they moved as he formed words. 'Wait, form words? What?'
"Sa-ku-ra." Minato repeated her name for the third time but the pink haired woman seemed content to just stare at his lips. 'Well guess it's time for plan B' he thought as wicked smirk crossed his face. His eyes shone dangerously as he deliberately dragged his tongue across his lips slowly and that seemed to do it.
Sakura blinked as the dazed look disappeared from her face. "Sakura." He repeated again but this time more firmly.
"P-pretty. Huh?" Sakura blinked at him clearly confused and he could not help but feel arrogant. Sakura had unknowingly stroked his male ego and he was going to make her pay.
"So you think I'm pretty?" He schooled his features and raised his brow. Something told him that getting her riled up would promise to be a bucket full of fun.
"What? No! Where did you get that outrageous idea from?" She snapped at him. Her jade eyes were alive with heat and her face was red but for a totally different reason. She crossed her arms over her chest and refused to back down from his stare.
"Well you looked at me and said pretty. It doesn't take a genius to come to a conclusion." He said calmly as he casually crossed his arms and leaned back on the bed railing a bit. He watched greedily as her eyes widened and her jaw slacked, ah this was almost too easy.
"I wasn't referring to you, idiot!" She stuck her chin out at him defiantly. Her eyes were full of denial and her face was set in a hard line. She was the picture of stubbornness.
"Oh? Then what pray tell, were you referring to?" He watched as her confidence flattered. He had her cornered, she knew it, and he knew it.
'Damn him. Pretty boy has got me good. Pretty, what's pretty?' She quickly glanced around the room and to found nothing that could pass off as pretty. There was not even a damn flower in the room!
"Hm why don't I help you out, Sakura-chan?" Minato said thoughtfully. He tapped his index finger against his chin. His blue eyes looked so solemn and trustworthy that Sakura fell for the bait.
He did not know what possessed him to tease her but it was very entertaining watching her fumble for coherency. Something about her just made him want to keep going.
"Really?" She managed to say wearily. She was hesitant of him and her body language drove that point home. After all the things that she had been through, she could not help but feel weary.
Her emotions were going from depressed to grateful to happy to embarrassed faster than Naruto polishing off ramen. She eyed him guardedly. This man was so different from the Minato she had fought alongside with during the war.
That man was so focused, so levelheaded, so serious but the man in front of her was a completely different animal. He intimated her but she would never let that show.
She could trust him, right? Sakura bit her lip and took in his innocent, friendly facial expression. He wouldn't harm a fellow Konoha shinobi, right? Wrong.
Minato nodded his head in a manner that reminded Sakura of Naruto. He nodded like that when he was particularly proud of himself. That was a tell tale sign that she should run away and to run as fast as she could.
'Running from him is off the table. I'll never make it!' She looked at the door longingly. 'I'll never make it. He'll catch me before I even move.' Sakura swallowed audibly and waited her fate with a sinking feeling.
"Sure!" Minato said brightly. He gave her a dazzling smile before continuing. "There are plenty of pretty things in the room." Sakura stared at him incredulously but that did nothing to derail his enthusiasm. Her skin was beginning to crawl but she kept her calm façade.
"For example, I'm looking at something that's really pretty right now. Think you can find it Sakura-chan?" He asked her in childish manner. Sakura gave him a leveled look but he ignored it.
She was caught off guard by his arm darting out. He captured a lock of her hair before she realized what his intentions were. She watched mutely as he twirled it thoughtfully between his fingers. His eyes had darken and become much more intense. For the first time in a very long time Sakura found herself paralyzed with fear.
"Your hair, it's very pretty." His voice had dropped down a couple of octaves and it both burned her and froze her insides simultaneously. Her hands suddenly became very clammy and she found that she couldn't keep her lips moist enough.
She looked on helplessly as his hand released her captive hair and descended down her cheek. She felt his calloused fingers trance down to her jaw before his hand came to rest on her shoulder. Her skin was burning underneath the thin fabric that separated the skin of her shoulder from his fingers.
Her eyes shot up to meet his and his gaze captured her. "You'd be pretty too Sakura-chan. Shame that your forehead prevents that." He was leaning back again his eyes were unreadable. He waited for her reaction or more accurately waited for her to explode. He had a theory to prove.
And Sakura was never one to disappoint.
"I'm sorry. I didn't quite catch that. Could you say it again?" She said in an overtly sweet voice. She would make the bastard beg for his life. After all she was here in the past to change things.
Sakura was always an overachiever. She went above and beyond the call of duty. Her first self-appointed mission: knock pretty-boy down a few pegs and bring him back to earth.
Minato, the sad idiot, just smiled broadly at her. "I said you would be pretty if it weren't for that humungous fore-"He never got to finish his sentence. It was hard to talk when you had a broken jaw.
Minato felt his body fly off the bed and hit a wall. Sakura smirked at the satisfying thud he made. Wide blue eyes stared at her smug green with shock. He tenderly grabbed his jaw and glared daggers at her and that only served to make Sakura's smirk larger.
The pinkette shrugged her shoulders in a very casual manner. Regret and guilt were absent from her deposition.
"That'll teach you porcupine, not to mess with me. Next time I promise not to hold back either!" With that Sakura collapsed in her bed, turned her back to Minato, and pulled the covers over her head. She had dismissed him.
Minato groaned softly as he helped himself up and made his way to the door. He looked over his shoulder at the pink hair vixen and tried to grin. He was right. Riling her up had been fun. With one more glance he looked at her sleeping form and left the room. His life had just gotten a lot more interesting.
Later that night Sakura awoke with a cold sweat clinging to her skin. Her brain had just come to a sudden realization. She had just spent her first conscious day in the past unknowingly flirting with Naruto's father. And the man had shamelessly flirted back. She groaned and covered her face with her pillow and screamed into it. She was in deep shit.
