Complex
Chapter 4 : I Will Be Your Friend
Weeks turned into months and for Team 7, time flew by in a whirlwind. Sasuke made chuunin with ease, and in turn he gained trust and reputation throughout the village as the team took on more dangerous missions thanks to Sasuke's new rank. The jounin of Konoha even seemed to warm up to him with each passing week. That may have been due to his more social tendencies, as he along with Naruto and Sakura frequented Yuuhi's at least twice a month. The three had regained that special bond of friendship they had enjoyed in their younger years, and with Sakura's transformation into the formidable kunoichi she had become one could say that bond was even stronger now than it had been in the past. The three watched each others' backs and complimented each other very well on missions, sometimes heading out even without Kakashi.
Once Sasuke reached the one year anniversary of being released from prison he became eligible to apply for jounin. Naruto had waited so they could apply together, and Kakashi and Yamato sponsored Sasuke and Naruto, respectively. The two boys passed the written exams (Naruto had surprisingly little trouble) and the practical exams at the top of their year. Now they were qualified to take on high-paying, high-risk A and S-class missions solo.
And Sasuke was that much closer to his number one goal.
At 13, Itachi had already been captain of his own ANBU squad, while Sasuke had hardly made genin at that age. But Sasuke felt he was finally catching up to his brother. He still lacked the fabled eyes which his brother requested of him in return for the right to be acknowledged as a formidable opponent in battle. But that didn't mean that Itachi couldn't be defeated without them. Sasuke was slowly forming a plan that depended on the beginnings of his clan's revival to be carried out with any degree of success.
Sasuke and Naruto decided together that their next step would be ANBU. After that, Sasuke would have little time to make his move. At 21, he was already nearing the peak of his career and he could feel it. Time was of the essence.
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Sasuke, ever calculating, decided to play it by ear and see how he could get Sakura alone. He didn't know any other women half as well, he determined, and he didn't even come close to admiring or liking anyone else in the village as much as he did Sakura. Not that he'd admit it. Every move must be cold and calculated, with a purpose. This was how Uchiha Sasuke operated. And before long, an opportunity presented itself and Sasuke's hideous plan began to unfurl.
Sasuke and Naruto sat outside one of the more popular dango shops in the village, Naruto munching happily on the multicolored sweets while Sasuke sipped on some unsweetened green tea.
"Have you talked to Kakashi about the ANBU recommendations?" Sasuke inquired between sips.
Naruto shook his head. "We just made jounin three months ago, Sasuke."
"I know." Sasuke smirked.
Naruto grinned.
"You think they'll take us?"
"With your sage mode and rasen-shuriken? Definitely." Sasuke blew on his drink.
Naruto's grin faded a bit. "What are you bringing to the table, Sasuke? Kirin?"
"Not just Kirin. Between Kakashi and myself I think I've mastered something like mangekyou sharingan." He imparted quietly, murmuring over his tea. "And remember, what comes easily to you and I, techniques like rasengan and chidori, take years for other shinobi to master. They are A-class moves."
"Cocky bastard." Naruto smirked mischievously.
"I could say the same about you." Sasuke sipped his bitter brew stoically. "We can definitely make ANBU. We passed the jounin exams with ease."
"ANBU is on a whole other level though..." Naruto looked doubtful.
"Who all are ANBU? We could kick their asses any day." Sasuke stated, setting his tea down. "I can count plenty of people. Neji, Kakashi, Genma. Sakura failed last year so we know she isn't at that level yet. We have definitely surpassed her in many ways. There are people in ANBU who graduated two, three years after us. The only ANBU I can think of who could maybe give me a hard time is Shikamaru."
Naruto nodded throughout the reassuring speech. "True, true. I've personally beat the crap out of Genma." Naruto smiled at the memory.
"It doesn't count if they're drunk and you're not." Sasuke reproached. "Before I make ANBU I need to get a girlfriend, Naruto." Sasuke allowed a small look of pain to cross his face. "What if I get sent on some deadly mission? I need to sow the seeds of my clan now, before it's too late." He sighed.
Naruto nodded halfheartedly. "If you get sent on some deadly mission that you don't survive then that means your brother will still be alive. I'm sure if you're not around he will try to revive your clan." Naruto blathered on insensitively. But Sasuke was used to his best friend's quirks by now. "I don't see Grandma sending the last Uchiha on some suicide mission anyway. She'll send me!" Naruto smiled, beaming, and pointed to himself with his dango stick.
Sasuke shook his head and sighed. "People run away from those missions, Dobe." he paused, letting that comment sink in for a moment. "Suicide for anyone but you I guess..." He muttered, then tipped his glass up downing the last of his tea. At that moment he caught a glimpse of pink out of the corner of his eye, far down near the end of the street. He set his cup aside on the table.
"Naruto!" He hissed, leaning across the table. The blonde ninja leaned forward a tad.
"What?"
"Sakura is coming. Look, this weekend I want to go for drinks with her. Encourage her." Sasuke's eyes narrowed with the sensitivity of the issue.
Naruto looked at his friend with equal intensity. "What are you trying to do to Sakura-chan?" Naruto wasn't buying the whole Sasuke wants to date Sakura bit his fellow ninja was trying to push.
"Look at me." Sasuke implored. "She loved me for... a long time." Sasuke's face twisted at the thought. "I'd like to have a chance... to see if there's still anything there." He danced dangerously close to having to spell out the words for Naruto.
Naruto nodded slightly, but his happy mood had completely vanished. "You had better not hurt her Sasuke. I'll rasengan your face into a bloody mess if you do." He was dead serious and it was written all over his face.
Sasuke nodded. "I'm not going to try anything." He reassured Naruto. "Look, I'll explain in more detail later." He promised, trying to placate Naruto. If Sakura saw him like this she'd never buy into anything Sasuke said. The inseparable trio played so heavily off of the others' moods, it was necessary for Naruto to not only act normal, but really be normal around Sakura, or Sasuke's plan would never find its footing. "The next time we go out, it'll be just you and me and I'll buy."
Naruto's face split into a fox-like grin. "Dinner too."
"Tch. Fine." "Fuck." Sasuke knew he was going to have to dig deep to cover his ass for this stunt.
"Ha! Gotcha Sasuke, you're so screwed!" Naruto laughed at the dark-haired man and pointed in his face from across the table. "There's no turning back now!"
At that moment Sakura arrived at the small shop. "No turning back from what?" Sasuke could almost swear she looked suspicious. He was reminded vaguely of the time the three of them had tried to trick Kakashi into showing them his face by buying him ramen.
"Sasuke and I are betting on who can get recommendations to ANBU faster." Naruto lied with ease, keeping his promise, but still mashing the bottom of his shinobi sandal onto Sasuke's foot brutally, unnecessarily. They were both ninja after all, trained in the arts of deception and cunning. Except for Naruto, maybe.
Sasuke looked blankly at Sakura, who stood shaking her head lightly. "You guys are dumb."
"What's dumb about it?" Naruto raged, standing to face her, missing her jealous pursed lips.
"You guys are dumb for betting about something so stupid!" She swung at him, and he ducked. "Don't duck!" She yelled.
"Don't hit me!" Naruto retorted.
Sasuke stood. "Cut it out, guys." His teammates stopped their bickering abruptly and turned to him. "What are we doing this weekend? None of us have missions?" He asked, anticipating Naruto's response.
"Hehe." Naruto smiled, embarrassed, palms turned forward. "I have to go to Wave again."
"Again?" Sakura exclaimed, surprised.
"Yeaaahh..." Naruto shrugged.
Sakura began to pout, but Naruto spoke before she could, right on time.
"Thank Kami..." Sasuke nonchalantly wiped the sweat from his brow.
"Don't let me put a damper on you guys' good time. You guys go ahead and have fun without me. You can make it up to me later." He grinned at Sakura, then Sasuke. He grinned at Sasuke for awhile actually.
"Little snot." Sasuke thought. "Hn." He grunted in agreement.
Sakura stood motionless for a moment. "O..kay, we could do that. Yes, that's definitely an option." the young kunoichi looked lost.
"Don't be a spoil-sport Sakura! You guys will have a good time!" Naruto encouraged.
Sakura smiled weakly.
Sasuke smirked. "You still owe me drinks remember?" She immediately frowned at him. "180,000 ryos' worth." His expression just did more to bring out her anger.
"It's your own fucking fault I pounded you that day! Are you seriously still giving me shit about that more than a year later?" Her hands balled into fists at her sides. "Where the hell do you get off acting like I owe you Sasuke?"
Sasuke wiped the smirk from his face. "Shit, too far! Regroup!"
"Nah, you don't owe me anything." He tried to be suave about the whole situation, which still seemed to be a sore spot for Sakura somehow. "It's just that I did pay for an entire shop's worth of merchandise, and a broken wall to boot." Sakura's eyes flashed. "The least you could do is be nice to me and hang out this weekend." Sasuke pulled his statements into a nice package and sealed the deal with a genuine-looking smile. As could be expected for one being both guilt-tripped and smiled at by an Uchiha, Sakura lost all sense of logical and rational thought in her brain and flopped back onto Inner Sakura's reflexes which, when involving Sasuke, always responded with a resounding...
"Yes, you're right Sasuke-kun. See you Friday at the usual place!" without coming off too sickeningly sweet, she threw him a suspiciously Kakashi-like eye crinkling smile and turned on her heel, beating Inner Sakura back with a metaphorical rake. "Damn him to hell! Him and that infuriatingly disarming smile..." She almost stopped in her tracks, but instead slowed her pace as she made her way back to her house, dreamily burning the image of a happy Sasuke into her brain.
The boys watched her retreating back disbelievingly. Naruto looked sidelong at Sasuke with an open mouth. Sasuke just hmphed and shoved his hands in his pockets, turned and stalked home, leaving Naruto alone in front of the dango stand to gawk at nothing by himself.
XXXxxxxxxXXXXXX
Sasuke leaned back in his chair, peeling an orange and staring at the clock. It was eight thirty on Friday evening, he had about twenty minutes before he had to leave if he didn't want to work up too much of a sweat running across the village. He popped a slice of fruit in his mouth and chewed thoughtfully. Instead of his usual cargo pants, shirt and jounin flak vest, Sasuke donned his old outfit with the yukata-styled shirt and lightweight pants, still wearing his hitae-ate. Luckily it didn't get too cold in November in the Fire country.
"Don't want to go too casual."
He munched some more.
"I really hope this works. I don't love her," he thought vaguely. "But I need her for this plan to work. I might be able to push this along in six months if complications don't arise." He threw another orange slice into his mouth leisurely. "After that I should be able to enact the next phase almost immediately. I'm lucky that she's still as hopeless as ever. One smile and she's putty in my hands." He smirked. Sasuke hated to smile though, so this still required some work from him. "I'll put my shinobi training to work for this assignment I've given myself, that's for sure. Fooling another shinobi is no joke." He would be careful not to underestimate the pinkette kunoichi. "However much I hate it, I will have to play the loving boyfriend at least until we get married. I have to keep my head too. No sex until she says, "I do!" I'll make her wait." Sasuke sighed heavily at the prospect of the facade he was going to have to maintain for the next few months around Sakura. Sure he could still be Serious Sasuke, but he'd have to make exceptions for Sakura, smiling softly when he saw her, making physical contact with her, maybe even kissing her. Even so, Sasuke knew in his heart that he would never develop feelings for her, and that his selfish little 'mission' would always come first.
It's very hard to love someone when the last time you did that the people you loved were murdered in front of you.
Sasuke righted the chair and stood, scooping up the orange peelings from the table and dropping them in the trash on his way out.
Meanwhile, Sakura sat in front of the tea house sipping on some hot green tea that she had ordered to go. It was a cool November night, winter was relatively warm this year. She admitted to herself that she was a little nervous. But then, Sasuke had never shown a desire to spend time with just her before. It was almost kind of like a date. "Still handsome..." Inner Sakura sing-songed. Outer Sakura kept her mouth upturned in a gentle smile and drank a little more tea. "He's changed." She thought. "He seems happier with us, a better person overall. I can't believe he's finally giving me a chance! I knew all that training with Tsunade-sama would pay off!" She cheered herself on. Then, she stopped herself. "We don't want to get hurt..." Inner Sakura warned. "I'll bet if someone better came along he'd go for them instead." Sakura frowned. In all honesty, she was one of the strongest kunoichi in the village, and surely the youngest of the strong kunoichi. That bolstered her spirits a bit. Still, she sighed, focusing intently on the cup in her hands. "I want to love him with all my heart, to show him how wonderful things could be for us. But I'll have to hold back for now..." She turned and looked up as she heard soft footfalls behind her. Sakura waved at the approaching figure and in turn, he raised a hand to her. As he came up to her, he forced his lips to purse into a small, if sad, smile. Apparently that was enough for Sakura.
She hopped up from the bench and smiled brightly, then downed the rest of her now lukewarm tea and tossed the cup into a nearby bin.
"Let's go!"
They walked side by side down the street toward their hangout of choice. Neither said anything, they just walked purposefully toward the establishment. Once they arrived, Sasuke held the door for her and she murmured an incoherent sound of thanks. Sasuke nodded and as the door shut behind him the two realized that several kunoichi, taken or not were staring at Sasuke with malice in their eyes. Some even cast disdainful looks at Sakura, who was taken aback by the sudden turn of events. She took a shuffling step backwards into Sasuke and felt the heat rising in her facial region. Without missing a beat, the stoic man grasped her shoulder firmly but reassuringly and steered her toward a booth. Both ninja could feel the eyes on them, burning.
They had never been here without Naruto.
They sat across from one another, Sasuke throwing an arm over the back of the seat, Sakura crossing her legs and sinking her back into the upholstery. She was doing her best to ignore the glares and glances cast their way, and after a few moments, the bar's patrons did indeed look away. She and Sasuke sat in relative silence for all of a few minutes. Sasuke examined her emotionlessly. Sakura in turn examined the table, still able to see the pale peachy color of the skin of his chest peeking out from between the juncture of his yukata as well as the large hand that rested on the tabletop. Finally, the waitress appeared.
"Shochu."
Sakura looked up at the other woman.
"Uh, warm sake. And a couple of those toasted dried fish."
Sasuke broke the ice with his interjection as he leaned forward.
"Make it four." He met Sakura's eyes. She smiled back, relaying her comfort at his proximity.
The waitress nodded and turned without a word.
Sakura leaned forward as well and rested her elbows on the table, cradling her face in her hands.
Sasuke stared at her, slightly bewildered. He didn't know what to say. Well, it wasn't so much that as he had nothing to say to her. "I'll let her speak first. She's good at that..."
Right on cue, she started with small talk.
"So, what did you do today? Did you train any?"
He nodded.
"Ah. Taijutsu?"
"No. Practiced with my sword for a couple hours then went for a run."
Sakura looked surprised. "He's actually speaking with me..."
"Where do you run?" She inquired. "I went running today too, I'm surprised I didn't see you."
"Around the perimeter of the complex." was his simple reply.
"Oh. Isn't it pretty flat there?"
"Hn."
She was grasping at straws now. Uchiha Sasuke was not known for his great conversation skills.
"Why don't you run around the village? It stands to reason that you'll improve with more realistic training. The whole world isn't flat, Sasuke."
At that moment, the waitress arrived with their snacks and drinks, which she deposited quietly onto the table.
Sasuke picked up Sakura's warm sake bottle and hastily she grabbed her cup with both hands. He poured it full, then poured himself a glass of shochu.
He glanced at her. "Fan girls."
Sakura made an "o" shape with her mouth, and then they both drank. Sakura sighed briefly as she put her cup down. "That's why I run in the evenings. Not because of fan girls I mean, because of Lee." She scrunched her nose.
Sasuke snorted. "He's still on that?"
Sakura nodded, finally they had fallen on something to talk about. "He's such a pill! He's always bringing me flowers and crap-" She took another swig of sake and a bite of fish. Sasuke refilled her cup. "He doesn't understand the words 'Leave me alone'!" She shook her head. "Sometimes he'll run in the evenings too though. And I'm not going to sacrifice my training just 'coz some loser is following me. But really, I seriously need to buy a music player." She grimaced slightly. "He won't shut up!" She exclaimed.
"You could run someplace else." Sasuke suggested.
"Where Lee won't find me?" Sakura cast Sasuke a disbelieving look. "That boy can find me anywhere in the village."
Sasuke shook his head. "Too subtle."
"Run with me in the morning?"
Inner Sakura's eyes bugged out of her head and her jaw hit the metaphorical floor of Sakura's brain.
"HELL YES!" her inner cheered.
Sakura just stared at Sasuke for a moment. "Why are you being so... friendly, Sasuke?"
"Tch." Sasuke slowly moved his hand over hers, giving her time to flee. When she didn't, they made contact there, his cold hand enveloping her warm, calloused one. "Don't ask why." Sasuke looked at her with those piercing dark eyes. "Just tell me if you'd like to." The words hung heavily between the two, carrying more meaning than he probably intended. The tension was almost palpable.
"If I'd like to what?" Sakura whispered, suddenly feeling eyes on her. Someone was looking again, but it didn't really matter at this point.
Sasuke smiled another tiny smile, slowly. "Run with me." This time the words really did carry a double meaning.
Sakura was still doubtful. She had to push it. She leaned forward and in a bold moment of insanity covered his hand with her other one, squeezing.
"When?" She asked in a low voice, eyes wide.
Sasuke felt so self-satisfied, so sated and powerful in that moment.
"Always." He brought his other hand to her face and brushed his fingers along her jawline, barely touching her.
She gasped at the intimate contact Sasuke was making with her cheek.
"Y-yes." She stammered. "I think its a good plan."
Sasuke nodded in acceptance. Not wanting to rush her too much, he leaned back into a more casual posture, but left his hand in between hers. She picked up that hand that covered his and downed the remainder of her drink.
Later that night, she and Sasuke left together as he'd decided to walk her home. Their hands were loosely entwined and the breeze typical of the temperate Fire country swept gently between and around them. The short walk was enjoyed in silence, Sakura was finally relaxed around Sasuke, be it the alcohol or her own acceptance of her situation that initiated the comfort. They finally reached her apartment and she broke their contact as she made to walk up the stairs. Sasuke followed her. She fished for her keys along the way. Reaching her doorstep she turned to him. Sasuke was slouched against the doorjamb, left leg crossed under the right which supported his weight. Sakura stuck the key in the lock without looking, and quickly leaned to Sasuke's face, her lips ghosting across his cheekbone. He didn't reciprocate, but he didn't resist either. She pulled away and cracked open the door to her domicile.
"Goodnight Sasuke."
He nodded, pushing off the wall.
"'Night."
He turned and walked away. In that same moment, Sakura went into her apartment and took her shoes off, all at an infuriatingly slow pace, controlled calm filling her mind as her heart pounded deafeningly. The door shut with a click.
"Sasuke."