I Do Not Own Naruto

Chapter 21

"We're playing 'Have You Ever…'," Temari announced as they sat at the drinking table that evening. Sakura just snickered over the fact that was not the name of the game as she prepared Tenten's tea and prepared the shots for them.

"No, no, Temari, it's I have never, not have you ever," Ino corrected. Sakura rolled her eyes then, it wasn't important what the name of the drinking game was it was only important that she discover what kind of a drunk Hinata was.

"So long as we drink, I don't care," Temari wisely decided.

"Alright," Sakura spoke up then as everyone was seated and she was told she was to start their game off. "Now the rules are simple, instead of lowering fingers, people who have done the implied never done event shall take a shot, everyone has three 'I have never' and then we go around the circle and on we go, round and round until we have our first pass out. or we run out of booze!"

They all chuckled as they cheered to the rules and Sakura settled in to get these girls all drunker than sailors, and give herself the pleasant buzz that a bunch of alcohol could give her. Sakura had found it very difficult to get drunk, even before she had unlocked the seal, her father said that was because Harunos had high tolerances, she didn't know if that was true or not but she had yet to get well and drunk. Even when she tried and wasted a month's rent at a bar.

However, she didn't drink often.

"I have never kissed a girl," she smiled deviously and saw Ino scowl as she took her shot. To her surprise Tenten also took a shot.

"Sexual experimentation," Ino declared.

"A dare from Neji," Tenten filled in and Sakura chuckled as she thought of another one Ino had done.

"I have never walked in public without my clothes," she declared hotly. Ino sighed, Temari chuckled but they both downed their shots and she laughed.

The night raged on as the never's got more obscene, and she laughed by the time Ino was in her striper drunk and dancing around in her underwear, she was dragging a giggling Hinata with her.

"You two are still sober?" Tenten chuckled.

"I'd be a shame to my master if I got drunk so easily on cheap rice wine!" she arrogantly. Temari was swaying a bit, and had a happy smile on her face.

"Please, Suna alcohol stronger!" Temari hiccupped which had Sakura and Tenten snickering. Sakura enjoyed the light buzz. Temari passed out and Ino and Hinata were laughing.

"I'm turning in," Tenten said then.

"See you for breakfast," Sakura said then as she picked up what was left of the alcohol and walked outside on the small porch. The weight was back and she couldn't ignore it as she stared up at the moon. Leaning on a post she sunk down and hugged herself as tears slipped by her again. Her breath hitch.

"Sasuke," she whispered silently into the breeze as she took another hefty sip of alcohol.

"Hey Captain Yamato!" Naruto bellowed as he entered the bar. Walking into the bar he was greeted by a man he had only ever seen but had never really met, Captain Yamato. Everyone settle quick enough and ordered drinks, he refrained because he had a feeling that it wouldn't work with everything twisting around in his head. That sounded paranoid but he didn't think he'd survive an alcohol twisted nightmare, and Kami knew he didn't get to sleep without a nightmare.

"Come on Sasuke! Get a drink!" Naruto nudged his shoulder and Sasuke winced noting that Naruto had downed his first drink.

"No," Sasuke shook his head then. Kakashi looked at him then and Sasuke felt everything suffocating him then as the others looked at him.

"Come on teme! It's a night out, a celebration that Team 7 is whole again! Well, everyone is here but Sakura…" Naruto said thoughtfully.

"I'm not drinking Naruto," he said firmly. His blood was pounding in his ears, and his heart was slamming mercilessly in his ribs as he looked around the crowded barroom then. Everything in him hated this, he hated this place, and he didn't want to be here. The weight of the atmosphere was crushing him and he couldn't breathe, he couldn't think. But he stayed where he was trying to be normal.

"Come on, it's fun! And nothing bad is going to happen! You're fine!" Naruto said carelessly and Sasuke flinched internally at those words. He wasn't fine.

"Hey, he'll have what I'm having," Naruto said to the passing tender.

"Alright," the girl giggled as she hurried off.

"Naruto I am not drinking," he grounded out through clenched teeth.

"Come on Sasuke, just this once don't be an ass," Naruto huffed out.

"Naruto! I said no!" he snapped and he surged away before everything crushed him as he tried to escape. A hand grabbed his sleeve that wasn't Sakura's and everything in him just reacted as he spun around and slammed his fist into the threat.

"Ow," Naruto groaned as he sprawled on the ground. Sasuke's eye widened and he looked at his hand then at the people now glaring at him, he darted out before anything else in his mind was released. He had wanted to do tonight, some small insignificant part of him had wanted to do this, but he couldn't!

Snarling he quickly walked the route to the safest place he knew as he dragged a hand through his hair and clenched his teeth against the cooling August night. Finally he stopped as his head fell back, his eyes closed and he tried to calm everything in him.

"Hey! Hey! Teme! Hey! Wait up!" his ears picked up and twitched at the familiar pitch of the voice.

"Kami you're quick!" Naruto panted out.

"What do you want Naruto?" he asked briskly, he still didn't trust himself at this moment.

"Hey, I came to apologize, I just… you have seemed better, a lot better lately and I thought that you'd be alright with this, and I guess that I was wrong. I'm sorry, Sai and Kakashi said that drinking was something you didn't seem to want to do and I'm sorry for pushing you," Naruto said.

Sasuke let his head drop as he stared at the ground then and shoved his hand in his pocket.

"Sorry for hitting you," he managed.

"Sakura hits harder," Naruto dismissed. "Look, can we try to be friends again."

Sasuke looked up to the dobe then and looked at the out stretched hand. Tentatively he withdrew his own hand and shook Naruto's in a silent agreement.

"I'd like that," he admitted.

"Well, this hasn't been a walk through the park for me either and… I'm sorry, I don't get it, but, I guess you win the fucked up contest if there ever was one," Naruto shrugged.

Sasuke snorted.

"You're way more fucked up than me," he informed the dobe.

"Eh," Naruto shrugged and chuckled then. "So we're good?"

"Good," he agreed.

"Where were you going anyways?" Naruto asked him.

"Home," he answered reflexively then internally winced at how that sounded. Mostly because he was thinking of pink rather than the apartment.

"Well, hey, why don't you just come hang out with us, and I promise not to force you to drink, but it'd be really nice if you hung out with us again," Naruto managed shyly.

Sasuke dragged his hand through his hair then.

"They don't want me," he said finally.

"Nonsense, Sai, Kakashi and Yamato were all concerned for you when you left," Naruto informed him.

"I meant everyone else," he clarified to Naruto. He wasn't oblivious to the fact that the villagers hated him. and hitting Naruto just now probably hadn't won him any points in their eyes.

"Well, they don't matter, and you're my best friend, come on," Naruto said. Reluctantly Sasuke found himself being herded back towards the bar.

"What's it like living with Sakura?" Naruto asked him as they walked.

"Annoying."

"Damn, I thought her walking around in her underwear would be sexy, not annoying," Naruto huffed out. Sasuke felt his brow twitch and his dark mind imagine the pinkette parading around her apartment in her underwear.

"She doesn't do that," he said flatly.

"She doesn't!? I thought girls did that sort of thing," Naruto grumbled. Sasuke frowned, the dobe had grown up into a closet pervert, which somehow wasn't that surprising.

They walked into the bar again. He ignored all the glares he was receiving as he again sat down at the table.

"Better?" Kakashi asked him point blank.

"Aa," he replied uncertainly as he tried to tune everything around him out and not to lose his mind again as a club soda was put before him.

"Kakashi, is it normal for women to never be quiet!?" Sai demanded breaking the tenstion.

"Yes," he and Kakashi answered simultaneously.

Sakura woke when the predawn filtered over the scenery. She looked around, her eyes felt a bit puffy, but she didn't feel tears on her face. Looking at the alcohol bottle in her fingers she stood up and walked into the room again. Setting it down she noted that Temari was still sleeping where she had passed out, Ino was in her undies on the couch and hugging her bra, and Hinata was half dressed under the table. Sakura silently made her way to the washroom and scrubbed her face before she could worry anyone. Exiting she saw Tenten seat herself where their breakfast was and Sakura joined her.

"They had fun," Tenten chuckled.

"Well, they're all still out and this deliciously warm breakfast is here, let's not spoil it," Sakura grinned. The weight which was crushing her was still lodged in her heart but she could shove it aside again as she and Tenten quietly ate their morning meal.

"How have you been feeling?" Sakura asked the pregnant woman.

"Well, I hurt, I hurt a lot, but I think I have a plan for moving forward," Tenten tentatively admitted.

"That's great, what are you going to do?" Sakura asked her as she took a bite of something hot. It tasted sweet.

"Open a weapon's shop," Tenten replied slowly. Sakura nodded and as they ate in silence she wondered how Sasuke was doing. It wasn't often she worried about him or what he was doing, but since she had gotten him back in the war she found herself wondering.

"Sakura?"

"Hmm?"

"Do you… did you, or do you, ever miss Sasuke, I mean you love him but is it a dull achy pain in your chest when he's gone?" Tenten murmured hesitantly.

Sakura slowly put her chopsticks down.

"Yes," she answered solemnly.

"Did you…"

"I missed him, Tenten, I miss him even now that he's back because he's not fully back. I will probably always miss him when he's gone, but… I want him safe, I want him happy, and I want him alive more than I want him with me. But yes, I miss him, I miss him all the time, and it's a hole in my chest," she clarified. "Do you miss Neji this way?"

"Yes," the weapon's mistress nodded weakly. Sakura reached across the table then and touched Tenten's hand then as she smiled gently.

"I'm not going to say it gets easier, it doesn't, but you'll get used to it," she assured Tenten who trembled a bit as she bit her lip.

"I just miss him," Tenten admitted.

"I know," Sakura assured the woman; that weight she was trying to ignore in her chest came back in full crushing force as it stole her breath away.

"Why does loving someone have to hurt?" Tenten whispered miserably.

"Because we love them," Sakura replied under her breath as they both silently continued with their breakfast. Temari let out a groan of pain and they looked to the grumpy blonde then.

"Ow," Temari managed.

"I have to admit, you are serious competition to my drinking title," Sakura lied with a bright smile.

Look, I tried to write Wrong Number, But Don't Hang Up! and Until the Day I Happen, but neither of them wanted to cooperate, so I wrote this instead.

That's all for now folks!

Enjoy Until the Day I Die! =)