Seven: Things Asked
As soon as Sasuke had moved a centimeter towards her she stepped back, happily admiring her work on his leg. She hadn't noticed he tried to advance onto her, for she seemed too happy and oblivious to these small motions.
"There," she looked up to see him looking at her funny. "How does that feel?"
Sasuke pulled his leg towards himself and moved his ankle around. "Fine." It felt incredibly sore, but there was no more stinging, agonizing pain. At his confirmation Sakura smiled bigger and began writing on her clipboard again. He watched her, aware that he was actually frowning, which only made him frown some more.
"You'll need to stay off that foot for a while." She motioned for him to get up off the bed. He watched as she just waited for him to get off the bed by himself.
"I need help." When he kept that scowl on his face instead and requested help Sakura was shocked. She had never known Sasuke to ask for help, especially in a situation he could easily handle himself. After all he did walk all the way to the hospital by himself. She eyed him carefully and left the room.
Sasuke sighed and scooted more towards the edge of the hospital bed. Her distance seemed to annoy him. He never thought he would feel this way, but the lack of Sakura throwing herself at him at any given opportunity was beginning to make Sasuke uncomfortable.
She returned with one crutch. Sakura watched as his annoyance seemed to increase with every passing moment. She couldn't help but giggle a little. "You'll be okay." She assured him.
"Hn." He took the support from her and stood.
"Does anything else hurt?"
He shook his head.
When they returned to the main lobby, her intern was nowhere to be seen. Instead, Ino was there with another patient. When she made brief eye contact with her best friend she had a look of "oh snap, something went down". Sakura motioned for Sasuke to stay where he was while she took his papers to Ino.
They seemed to be talking about something, and it could have been about him but judging by their straight faces Sasuke assumed it was purely work related. She shrugged off her coat and thanked Ino before walking towards his direction again.
She stopped in front of him.
Sasuke stared down at her, unsure of what she wanted. She was just standing there.
When she cleared her throat he realized he was standing in front of the exit. He coughed and apologized.
"Do you want me to walk you home?" he caught her as soon as she pushed the door open. She looked at him, surprised. "Your assistant told me you were going home before you treated me. It's the least I can do."
"Oh, yeah." Then she smiled, though he could see a hint of exhaustion in her face. "But wait, shouldn't I be the one walking you home?"
"I'm not completely incompetent." He pouted, hoping to show how annoyed that statement had made him. Instead she found it cute. "You shouldn't be out this late by yourself."
"I'm fine, Sasuke." She pushed through the doors and continued down the path to her house.
He was still following her, however. "I'm going your way anyway."
"You're really persistent aren't you?"
"I've been told."
Sakura sighed and slowed her pace so that he could catch up.
"You're very busy." He stated. "Does one have to be injured to see you?"
She looked up at him funny. That was a strange thing to assume.
"Well I do have a life outside of the hospital, contrary to popular belief. I get off at different times on different days but I actually have a consistent lunch break every day at 1:30pm." She added that last part to emphasize that she wasn't always busy, but she never imagined he would commit that to memory. As if he would care.
"What else do you do?"
Sakura was genuinely surprised at his curiosity about her personal life. What was he even playing at? She humored him anyway and told him the story of her everyday life anyway, but he could tell she was trying hard to sound happy for him. Sasuke could feel the tension as they walked and talked. But, he supposed, he should just be thankful she allowed him to accompany her home.
When Naruto excitedly grabbed everyone by the ear and dragged them out for "Team Seven bonding", the other four ninja didn't expect they would be painting houses to spend time together. If it weren't for the fact that Sasuke couldn't go do anything else but paint houses with his leg and punishment they wouldn't have agreed.
As expected, it was extremely awkward in the beginning. With the tension between Sasuke and Sakura, Sai still getting comfortable around the former, and Kakashi not wanting to make small talk, perhaps awkward was an understatement. Not to mention the secret eating at Naruto.
"Are you kidding me, Sakura-chan?" Naruto couldn't remember the last time he ever questioned Sakura's plans, but he seriously felt like she was stepping out of line with this one.
"No, Naruto, just please don't blow my cover okay?"
"That's the most immature thing I've ever heard you come up with." He frowned. "And I'm saying this because I care about you two."
"I know, I know," she answered hastily. "I'll fix it, okay?"
He looked at her skeptically.
"I'll figure it out, Naruto." She put her hands to her hips, irritated at his scolding. She really didn't need this right now. "Give me time."
So in order to still have his desired bonding time with his best friends, Naruto was forced to lie to Sasuke, claiming he had told Sakura he was bringing him, his childhood friend.
The blonde shook it off and looked at everyone else. He almost felt sorry for how uncomfortable everyone looked. Sakura was keeping her distance by hiding behind Kakashi who was more focused on his book than the task. Sai was intently focused on painting the house perfectly, and would go over any spots the rest of his comrades missed.
Much to their surprise, however, he was the first to speak after a while.
"So how long are you guys going to pretend like you're actually trying to paint this house before it stops being awkward?" Coming from anyone else that would have been rude and intended to be snappy. But Sai was Sai, and Sakura could only sigh at the truth of his words.
"Maybe if we all had better social skills, there wouldn't be a problem." She joked.
"Hey I'm sociable! Everybody loves me."
"Everbody knows you." She laughed at his insulted face. "There's a difference."
"You're the most sociable out of all of us, Sakura-chan." Sai spoke up again and she wished he hadn't. "You're the one who has boys trailing after you all the time."
As soon as he mentioned this, awkward silence and a much larger wave of tension flooded everyone. She could have sworn she heard Kakashi and Naruto chuckle at the awkwardness.
"They're just friends." She clarified for no reason.
"But you said-"
"Ne, Naruto, how's Hinata?" she turned around quickly, splashing paint on Sai's face in the process. He frowned, and went back to work. Much to her surprise she got an annoyed grunt instead of some happy, cheesy comment about said girl.
"She's having issues with her family and it's cutting into my time with her." He groaned quietly. It was a miracle he was heard.
"That sounds a little selfish, don't you think?"
"N-no!" he quickly recovered. "It's not that. I want to help her, I just don't know how. I'm tired of seeing her so sad and stressed all the time lately."
"Are you even courting her properly?" It was Sasuke's turn to surprise everyone by speaking up.
"Huh?" Everyone turned to him and Naruto looked at him incredulously. "What do you even know about proper courting?"
"Hn." He scoffed. "I'm an Uchiha."
Naruto made a sound of frustration and turned back to Sakura. "And then there's the issue of who's going to be the next clan leader."
Sai laughed again, "So if you get married to her Hinata-san you would be like the wife."
"Shut up, Sai."
Much to Sakura's surprise everyone began chuckling at the thought of Naruto being the housewife while shy, gentle Hinata ran things around their household.
"Oi, Sasuke." Kakashi finally lowered his book to speak to his former student. "It's strange not seeing you so serious for once."
"Yeah, for a while I thought your face was just permanently etched into a frown." Naruto told him between laughs. He earned a scoff from the Uchiha.
"Naruto, you shouldn't stress over that too much." Sakura chuckled. "What happens between Hinata and her family will happen. What you can do is take her mind off if it for a little while. You said you're tired of seeing her stress? Don't talk about the problems then. Just work for that smile."
"Yeah since when did you go from carefree and always messing around, to so serious trying to solve everyone's problems?" The white haired jounin added.
Naruto smiled at how nice this was. He hadn't felt this close to his family in a long time. Suddenly all his worries were gone.
"You're right." He grinned. It had been years since he last felt a genuine smile tug at the corners of his mouth. "I'll relax," he assured Sakura, then turned to Sasuke, "and find out how to court her properly."
"Are you asking for my help?" Sasuke raised an eyebrow.
Before Naruto could say no Kakashi laughed. "You're going to take dating advice from Uchiha Sasuke?"
They all erupted in laughter again.
The reunited Team Seven hopped from house to house, repainting old run down houses and laying fresh coats on newly build houses. They carried on lighthearted conversations and truly enjoyed each other's company. All was going well, Sasuke thought, until Sakura realized the sun was about to set.
"Oh, crap." She looked frantic.
"What's wrong?"
Sakura shifted uncomfortably. After all these were the boys she grew up with. No doubt they would get incredibly protective if she told them what was going on.
"I promised someone I would meet them before sundown." She explained carefully, watching everyone closely.
"Is it a boy?" Sai asked, genuinely curious. Sakura elbowed him in the ribs lightly. She saw Naruto and Sasuke tense up.
"That's not important." She stepped down from the ladder and put the brush on top of her can of paint.
"Well go ahead, Sakura-chan." Naruto took her supplies for her.
"This was fun. Thank you." She smiled at everyone. "I really missed you-" she saw the look on Sasuke's face: a mixture of confusion and hope. "three. And it was nice hanging out with you too, Sasuke."
She was off before anyone else could say anything. And as soon as the other two left too, Sasuke grabbed the opportunity to speak with Naruto alone.
"Naruto," Sasuke spoke up after a while. "Can we talk?"
"With our fists or…?"
"Hn."
"I'm joking, lighten up." He put his brush down. "You were just in a good mood. What's the problem?"
Sasuke hesitated for a moment, and as soon as he asked his question Naruto cringed. "Is Sakura seeing anyone?"
"Uhh not that I know of." He answered sincerely, but the awkwardness of the question had him looking nervous as hell. "She's not committed to anyone or anything as far as we know."
"Oh." He was quiet again for a while.
"I don't really like it either." Naruto spoke up. "All the attention she's getting from all these boys. I can't stand not knowing what they really want from her."
"Then keep them away."
"She won't let me."
"Then I'll do it." Sasuke snapped. Naruto stayed silent, surprised. A few minutes passed before he asked again, "How do I do it?"
"I don't know, distract her." He wiped the sweat off his forehead. "Take her out. It's easy! Just remember women love gentlemen. Hold the door for her," A smile began forming on his lips again. "Rip the door off its hinges. Use the door as a weapon to fight off other men and establish dominance." Sasuke glared death glares at his best friend for joking at a time like this.
"Sasuke you can't control what Sakura wants to do. She's a big girl now and she can take care of herself." Naruto paused. "Unless that's not it. You're jealous aren't you?"
As Sasuke tried to deny it Naruto's suspicions only grew and his laughter only got louder.
"Whatever," Sasuke scoffed. "Since you can't seem to protect her I'll do it then."
"Ne, teme, that's not it."
"You think it will blow up in my face." He saw right through his best friend and Naruto stopped laughing. It was true. Given, he knew something Sasuke didn't. Still, he actually was afraid everything would go wrong seeing as he now knew both Sasuke and Sakura were playing this game.
"That's not true either."
"Hn."
"She's just been vulnerable since this amnesia thing. It's been hard to get to her." Naruto explained, regretting every second of his playing a part in the lie. "What are you playing at anyway, Sasuke? Why are you acting like you don't know her?"
Sasuke grew annoyed at this question, mostly because he wasn't entirely sure himself what the answer was.
"I don't know," he sighed. "I guess I just wanted a fresh start."
Naruto looked at him with both annoyance and understanding. If this is what he chose to do then it would not be his fault if things went down the toilet. He wasn't sure why he kept trying though. He figured, if he could at least get to Sasuke he could still stop this madness. "Seriously? You don't see how it could backfire if she finds out you lied to her this whole time?"
"She won't," he remained stubborn.
"I don't know, Sasuke." Naruto sighed. "I have a bad feeling about this."
A/N: Wow I'm so sorry. I haven't given up on this I promise. I have like seventy percent of it planned out I just need to find time and inspiration to write. School has been hectic so that's one thing. And all these other things that have been going on in ma life. Don't lose faith in me though I'm going to finish this one for sure!
Honestly, checking my email and getting random feedback is what gets me to open up the damn file and keep writing. So keep it up! (:
