It all started while they were doing another D-Class mission. Their mission was simple, really: carry all one hundred pieces of logs to the farm on the other side of the mountain along a rocky path that anything with wheels can't pass through and do it all before sunset.

Yes, the mission was easy.

...if the logs weren't so damn heavy!

Sakura wheezed as she took another step up the terrain, four pieces of thick logs balanced on her shoulders. There were three other women trailing behind Team 7, who were also carrying their own set of logs. They were the landlord's servants; Sakura remembered the landlord ordering them to help with the whole "log-transfer mission".

Sakura wheezed again, this time, Naruto looked back at her general direction and frowned.

"Girls aren't supposed to carry that anything that heavy!" the blonde said. Sakura opened her mouth to say, she was faring well, Naruto, so thank you for your concern, when Naruto moved past her and went to help the three women.

"Sasuke-teme, come here and help, too!" Naruto said, taking one log from each of the servants. Sasuke, although grumbling, took one from each as well, leaving the three women with only two logs to carry.

Sakura gaped at her two teammates. "What, so I'm not a girl?"

Naruto smiled meekly. "You know I don't mean that, Sakura-chan!"

Sakura frowned for a moment, but decided to not let Naruto's earlier statement offend her. (He probably meant that Sakura was stronger than any ordinary woman, anyway.)

That is, until Sasuke decided to scoff and walk away mumbling, "Yeah right, she's practically a man."

Sakura's face fumed. "What did you say?!" she snapped at the Uchiha. Sasuke, in turn, just rolled his onyx eyes at her and continued his walking.

Sakura dug her nails unto the crisp bark coating the logs she was carrying.

Practically a man, huh?

Angrily, Sakura stomped towards the three women (Who were cringing at her facial expression - not that she noticed.) and took one from each, imitating what her two teammates did earlier and added them to her load.

Huffing, she held her head high and brisk-walked until she was in front of both Naruto and Sasuke before she turned to glare at the both of them.

Naruto cringed as well, but Sasuke only glared back.

"Hmp!" Sakura continued walking, this time, with everyone else trailing behind her.

I'll show you manly!


Chapter 9: Haruno Sakuragi!


"Good morning!"

Naruto turned to face his teammate. "Good morning, Saku...ra-chan?" the blonde trailed off, observing said teammate from head to toe.

"What's with the get-up?" Sasuke, who was leaning on the railing in a cool manner (as usual) asked, before Naruto could. He chose to go to the Team 7's meet-up place on his own because Sakura had taken too long to finish in the bathroom earlier that morning.

"What are you talking about?" Sakura asked back, blinking innocently. She was wearing a loose red t-shirt with the Haruno insignia emblazoned on her back and a pair of ninja pants and ninja sandals. She also wore a pair of black leather gloves and her hair was pulled up on a tight bun. Her forehead protector, which she usually wore as a headband, was tied around her waist.

Sasuke just rolled his eyes and looked away.

"Hey, Naruto?" Sakura said, looking at the blond who was gaping at her attire. "Don't call me Sakura-chan from now on, 'kay? Call me Sakuragi!"

Naruto blinked at her in confusion. "O-okay, Sakura-cha - err... I mean, Sakuragi."

Sakura grinned boyishly. "Good," she said, while she turned to her other teammate. "You, too, okay, Sasuke-kun?"

Sasuke scowled, the beginnings of a sarcastic retort on the tip of his tongue, when a loud 'poof' was heard.

"Kakashi-sensei, you're late!" Naruto yelled, pointing an accusing finger at their sensei.

Kakashi scratched the back of his head sheepishly. "Well, you see, an old woman was anguishing over her back when -" Kakashi stopped in mid-sentence when he noticed Sakura's peculiar get-up. "Why, Sakura-chan, don't we look dashing today!"

"Thanks, Kakashi-sensei," Sakura said grinning again. "It's Sakuragi-kun now."

Kakashi raised an eyebrow and glanced at his students for an answer, but Naruto merely looked away nervously and Sasuke glared at him silently saying, "Don't you dare encourage her."

But when a mischievous glint in Kakashi's eye appeared, Sasuke knew he was doomed forever.

"You're welcome, Sakuragi-kun."

...Or at least until he convinces Sakura that her little dress-up game was beyond ridiculous.


Sakura found her make-over very fascinating. The world of men was indeed very different from the world of women. For one, she could actually just walk casually down the streets and not care about how her hair is. Secondly, she had the freedom to inhale ramen much like Naruto did. Naruto commended that she was doing good on her first try, but nobody could beat him at a ramen-slurping contest. Sasuke, frankly, was not the one to hide his disgust.

Sasuke was indeed looking very irritated that day, Sakura mused. He had been scowling more than usual and glaring at everything that caught his eyes. Once, it had been a baby who was coincidentally looking back at him. The baby had started crying... and the mother, well, she really didn't know what was going on.

Sakura could have scolded Sasuke, but then she remembered that she wasn't Sakura anymore so, instead, she thought of what Naruto would say and told the (very) annoyed Uchiha, "Even babies know how much of a bastard you are, oh, Holy Bastard-ness!"

Naruto was guffawing in the background and rolling on the floor; Sasuke couldn't have glared any harder.


When it was time for Team 7 to go back to the village after their harvesting mission, Sakura suddenly froze in mid-step.

The three, noticing that Sakura was no longer walked with them stopped to look at her quizzically.

"What's up, Sakura-chan?" Naruto asked. When Sakura didn't even bother to correct the blonde, unlike what she did the whole day, ("I told you! I'm Sakuragi-kun!") Sasuke knew there really was something wrong. Kakashi, noticing this, too, finally put down his orange book.

Sakura's green eyes looked up at the three, with her right hand unconsciously on her hip. "I think I lost my forehead protector," she admitted, frowning.

"Where do you think you lost it?" Kakashi asked, resuming his reading.

"I -" But before Sakura could continue, something cold and hard was shoved into her chest. She looked at the object - it was her forehead protector!

Sakura smiled broadly at the person who had handed her forehead protector back to her. "Thank you, Sasuke-kun!" she said cheerfully.

Sasuke grunted back at her. "I found it just before we left the farm," he said.

At that time, Sakura was so happy that she just about wanted to embrace the Uchiha in gratitude. But then she realized... Naruto most certainly didn't hug other boys when he was thankful, and Sasuke was too tall for her to ruffle his hair like Kakashi did, so she did the best thing she could think of:

...she slapped his butt.

"Thanks, Sasuke-kun!" she said again, catching up with Naruto and Kakashi, who had already resumed their walking.

Sasuke never looked more ready to kill.


After three whole days of pure hi-I'm-Haruno-Sakuragi-pleased-to-meet-you agony, Uchiha Sasuke decided that he had enough. And so, with a new found goal in his mind (Make Sakura stop this nonsense, hn.), he walked purposefully to the bathroom.

Sakura jumped in surprise when he entered. "Sasuke-kun, what are you doing, I'm not done yet!"

Sasuke ignored that she was only wearing her bathrobe (thank Kami she was wearing it) and her hair was still dripping wet and proceeded to grab his toothbrush and squeeze it with toothpaste.

"Hey, you can't just enter like that! I wasn't done changing!" Sakura yelled, punching him by his shoulder.

"So?" Sasuke raised his eyebrow at her. "You can change while I'm in here. After all, we're both guys, right?"

Sasuke watched as Sakura's face turned tomato-red and smirked at the fact that for the first time in three days, Sakura did not say anything about 'the beauty of being male'. Instead, she grabbed her clothes and stomped towards her room, her hair dripping water all over the floor.

He wished he'd done this "If you can't beat them, join them" tactic sooner.


Sasuke watched Sakura twirl a kunai idly in his peripheral vision. Kakashi had asked them to meet for another mission briefing that day and as per usual, Naruto and Kakashi were running late. They were sitting underneath a tree on the training ground when Sasuke thought about whether or not he should continue his plan of making Sakura come into her senses (well she was twirling a damn kunai, for heaven's sake) and after awhile, he decided that, yes, he should.

And so, sighing softly, Sasuke laid down on Sakura's lap. The contact immediately made Sakura stiffen.

"Sa-Sasuke-kun, what are you doing?" Sakura stammered. Sasuke had his eyes closed to protect his eyes from the sunlight that peeked through the leaves of the tree, but he really didn't need to open them to realize that Sakura was blushing.

"I'm resting," Sasuke answered simply.

"Wh-what are you doing?! Get off!" Sakura said, attempting to push Sasuke's head away from her lap, but to no avail.

"Surely you're not flustered," Sasuke said, finally opening his eyes. "Since we're guy buddies and all."

"You don't do this with Naruto," Sakura pointed out, glaring as hard as she could.

"Yeah, well, you're my best buddy," Sasuke said, closing his eyes once again.

Sasuke was surprised that Sakura had said nothing in return. Perhaps she was secretly happy about the contact, or perhaps not. Perhaps she was really that gullible to believe that guy buddies did this with each other. Either way, Sasuke opened his eyes again. He noticed that Sakura still had that kunai around her fingers, but she wasn't twirling it anymore. Sasuke didn't know if it was a good thing or a bad thing, but he decided to take his chances.

"Your eyes," he said; Sakura glanced briefly at him and then looked away again.

"What about them?" she said flatly. A slight pink still dusted her cheeks, but she looked more annoyed than embarrassed now.

Sasuke brushed his fingers against her cheek. "They're peculiar," Sasuke answered. Sakura blushed tomato-red again, just like that morning. Sasuke smirked to himself again. That meant he was winning.

"Sakura?" Sasuke said softly.

"What," Sakura said through her gritted teeth. She was still looking away from him.

"Look at me." She didn't. And so with his hand, he turned her head towards him. And the moment their eyes met...

"SAKURA-CHYAAAAN! SASUKE-TEMEEEEEE!"

...Naruto's loud, annoying voice echoed across the training grounds.

Sasuke was pushed away from Sakura faster than Naruto could say "ramen."

And when Naruto's perfectly-timed arrival finally came, a furiously blushing Sakura was stomping away and Sasuke was nursing a new bump on his head.


"Sakura," Sasuke called from the bathroom to the kitchen.

"What?" Sakura's distant voice echoed.

"We're out of towels," he answered.

"Wait, I'll get you some!"

Sasuke waited a few moments before he saw trace of pink hair by the stairway.

"Here you g - SASUKE-KUN! WHAT - WEAR SOMETHING WILL YOU!" Sakura shrieked, throwing a warm towel at his face.

Sasuke glared. Well, he was wearing his boxers for Kami's sake, what, did that count as nothing?

"I thought you were a man," Sasuke rolled his eyes. "Men don't get flustered over topless men."

Sakura had began saying it before she could stop herself. "But I'm not -!"

Sasuke raised an eyebrow expectantly when she halted at mid-sentence. "You're not what?"

Sakura glared at him and narrowed her eyes, completely forgetting the fact that Sasuke was still only in his boxers. "You're doing this on purpose, aren't you?"

"I don't know what you're talking about." Sasuke shrugged.

"Yes you do!" Sakura hissed. "You're flustering me on purpose, you bastard!"

"Well, you wouldn't get flustered if you were really a man," Sasuke countered. Somehow, his calmness only irked Sakura more.

"You were the one who said I was practically a man anyway!" Sakura yelled, pointing an accusing finger at him.

Sasuke's dark eyes narrowed in annoyance. "You know that wasn't what I meant."

"Then, what did you mean?" Sakura dared, looking at him expectantly.

"You're a shinobi and you're a girl," Sasuke answered, rolling his eyes. "You can do things other men can't."

Sakura raised one pink eyebrow and crossed her arms. "Is this your way of saying sorry?"

"No. It's my way of saying you're stupid," Sasuke said, walking towards the bathroom. Before closing the door, he called out, "You're a girl, Sakura."


The next day, Sasuke was more than happy to see that Sakura was back to wearing her normal clothing - a red dress and black shorts.

"Hey, Sakura-chan, what made you go back to being a girl again?" Naruto asked curiously.

Sasuke saw the pink-haired girl shrug. "I'm a shinobi and a girl, which means I am capable of things other men aren't capable of!" she said proudly.

Sasuke smirked to himself.

Mission accomplished.


A/N: un-edited; un-beta-ed

Here's to DSikitty2224 for noticing the equation I've been flashing in front of everybody since the beginning of this fanfiction!

Amegakure as Sakura's hometown + Sakura's clan being shinobi + Sakura's clan dead = something about the Akatsuki

I found writing this chapter very amusing. Writing in Sasuke-kun's perspective is so amusing it amuses me. (wat)

ALSO ALSO ALSO, follow me on tumblr! aminatsu032. tumblr. com

I love you all! Review xx