Chapter 25: I've been staying here.
Sakura's house was dark and cluttered, having been unlived in for the past four days. Each step caused the floor to protest, groaning as each boot slid past one another until the smooth wooden door of her bathroom greeted him. He stripped in the darkness, letting his pants pool around his ankles.
The setting sun ricocheted off of the mirror, lighting up Sasuke's face and his purple rimmed eye. He leaned over the sink.
A thatch of unruly black hair tousled his head, jutting out every which way and falling into his face as he leaned closer. He had never really cared to look at himself—he had grown tired of the dead eyes and sunken cheeks that stared back. Tentatively, as if his lips had been split in half, he touched them.
Once more, he'd tried to kiss her.
Once more, he'd almost killed her.
The water ran too hot, but it washed away the grime easier and he thought that he deserved a bit of pain. After he and Naruto had fought for the last time, when Sasuke was sure he'd wake up in hell, one phrase stuck closely to his ear. Kakashi had said, all those years ago, that: Those who abandon their friends are worse than scum.
How did you wash away scum? Was it even possible?
He dug his nails into his forearms and watched a red trail mark the already pinked flesh. Steam swirled and his lungs filled—too often he'd taken breathing for granted.
Sasuke had always had a will—whether it was a will to live or a will to die, a will to destroy or a will to hate. He'd told himself that his sins needed to be absolved, and he left Naruto and Kakashi and Sakura to find himself in far off lands with unfamiliar faces.
He'd had sex three times in his adult life. Three times, with three different women, with three different names and faces he never cared to remember or ask for. There was nothing to it—no kiss, no touching, just a wild release. It didn't matter where he searched, he couldn't seem to find his inner peace among them.
He watched the water roll from his chest to the reddened patch of flecked, dried blood that belonged to Sakura. Sasuke places his palm along his abdominals.
Kakashi had taken him to the Hokage tower, told him of the strange mishap and how they couldn't do anything until Cy-Lan was defeated or one of them was incapacitated. Sasuke thought that this whole Jōnin Exam thing had been one huge shit show from the start—an unnecessary power flaunt.
The conversation had turned to other things—the female body and Sakura's womanhood and why she'd been bleeding from an unseen womb. Maybe it was stupid that Sasuke had been with so many women and never thought of pregnancies or periods or anything of the sort.
No, no, it was stupid. But none of that stuff mattered at the time, like it did now.
Sakura was a female—slight curves and soft skin and perfect in every way of the word. Living with her hadn't been so hard in the beginning.
But in the past few days, when it was only her and him against the world, Sasuke thought more of her womanhood and gender.
He'd sat next to her at a dinner table and conversed normally.
He'd seen her in that skimpy pair of shorts she'd been administered and he's thoughts never wavered—because it didn't matter what she wore or how she looked or what her proximity was.
Sasuke wanted her.
He wanted her in the frumpy fleece pajama bottoms she wore around him. He wanted her when she ate her meals and smiled a smile that only she could emit. He wanted her when she slept at night and dreamt of him. He wanted her all along, and hadn't even known it.
The front door opens and Sasuke jerks his head up. It wasn't quite night yet, but he'd expected Sakura wouldn't be back until later. He finishes his shower and steps out to towel himself off.
"Sasuke…?" She calls, tapping on the door softly.
He didn't bring an extra set of clothes in. Unabashed, he opens the barrier and blinks her figure into existence as the warm fog of the bathroom mixes in with the cold air of her home.
Sakura keeps her eyes on his face, because she's panicking and embarrassed and has a plan that mustn't fail. "I-I can get you something to wear. Hang on."
Before he can reach out to her she's gone, pounding up the steps to his room, to the old dresser that used to house all of her teenage outfits. She pulls out a dark shirt and bottoms that he'd folded and put away, and when she starts to head back down she's stopped.
"What did you need?"
His voice is smoky and tired, but not at all unkind. Ino had told her to play it cool—to act like he was nothing but a comrade and to suppress the butterflies in her stomach. So, Sakura brushes past him after shoving the cloth into his hands, pretending to not notice his almost nudity. "Get dressed, first. I'll make us tea."
When he's fully modest and sitting across from her, she opens her mouth to speak. The warmth of her drink keeps her fingers from shaking. "I'm going out with Ino tonight. I just thought I should tell you, in case we get back late."
Sasuke didn't like the idea at all. She'd just been shot at—by him—and had only been released from the hospital hours ago. Still, she was an adult and he was not her keeper. Her skin was flushed and healthy.
Before he can tell her to do as she pleased, the front door is thrown open and Naruto makes his grandiose entrance.
"Sakuraaa, where are you taking my wifeeee…." He bellows as he rounds the corner.
There, sitting in Sakura's girly little kitchen with stupid fake fruits and smelly, fragrant herbs was Sasuke Uchiha.
Naruto had heard they'd finished their round just hours after he and Hinata did. He'd bloomed with pride—Naruto Uzumaki had beaten chicken-ass-hair yet again. He hadn't even had a chance to gloat, because no one knew where he was staying and Naruto had been too tired to dig through every trashcan in Konoha to find him. So, imagine his surprise to see the bastard sitting across from Sakura with a cup of tea and a towel around his shoulders.
"What the hell?"
Sakura's eyes had widened almost impossibly. She stood, letting her chair fall back to the ground as panic flooded her veins. Oh no, why now? If Naruto finds out Sasuke's been living with me, Sasuke will leave for sure! "Naruto, what are you doing barging in like that!"
Hinata slowly makes her way inside, because she was polite and waited to be invited in. It seemed there were other things to worry about, however.
"No, you answer me first!"
"You don't tell me what to do! This is my house and you can't just run in here like you own the place!"
He pulls Hinata towards him, out from her hidden spot in the hallway. "I wanted to know where you and Ino and Ten-Ten were taking my sweet cinnamon bun!"
Sakura didn't know who Ino had invited. She assumed it would just be Ten-Ten to join their little outing, but it was nice to know that modest Hinata would be joining them. Sakura rubs the spot between her eyebrows, where the beginnings of a headache started to surface, and turned towards the pearl-eyed woman. "I'm sorry, Hinata. Would you like some tea?"
Naruto takes the chair next to Sasuke, staring daggers as Sakura prepares Hinata's beverage. "What is going on here? Are you trying to threaten Sakura so you get out of our little…arrangement?"
Though Naruto tried his best to whisper, his voice echoed all around, wafting directly into Sakura's ear. She squeezed the tea-kettle, ready to pelt it at Naruto and tell him to stop bothering Sasuke for once, but she's interrupted.
"I've been staying here."
The sun had finally set, letting a blue-black glow fill the kitchen even though all the lights were on. Crickets outside chirped relentlessly, as though someone had told a bad joke and they were the Gods of comedy.
But, this wasn't a joke.
"You're fucking with me."
Hinata gasps at his obscene language, because she's a respectable woman and had rarely been cursed around. She touches his shoulder, but finds that he's not tense or upset. He's smiling cockily.
Sasuke scowls, taking a sip of his drink. "I'm not laughing."
Naruto slaps his back, making the dark liquid splash out onto the table. Sakura's body moves on its own, grabbing a napkin to sop up the mess.
"No way, this is too funny! You guy are a thing now? I bet you even sleep in the same bed, you sly dog! Wait 'til Shikamaru hears about this—you're going to be the talk of the town!"
Before he can add more, Sakura speaks. Her hand scrubs diligently at the spot, wiping away nothing as she refuses to look up. "Don't tell anyone, Naruto. It's not a big deal. He just needed a place to stay."
She looks up and smiles unconvincingly.
"Should we head out?" She says, looking at Hinata. "Ino wanted to go by that new makeup store before we went to the party."
Sasuke never pegged her for the partying type. She was always engrossed in her studies and work. Her teacher had been Tsunade, and Sasuke had heard rumors of her drunkenness and gambling habits. Naruto hadn't turned out to be a pervert like Jiraiya, and Sasuke wasn't a long-tongued, snake-loving maniac, so he'd assumed Sakura would skip over the bad and leave with the good.
"Why don't we all hang out?" Naruto suggests, laying his head on his wife's shoulder. Hinata smiles and pats his short spikes like they belonged to a sweet, innocent puppy dog. "I'm fun, Sasuke's kind of fun, I can get you drunk in a flash and we can go to sleep and have sloppy, steamy se—"
Hinata covers his mouth with her hand, turning beat red. Sakura's thankful.
"Because, Naruto, we need a break from you two. Why don't you and Sasuke hang out here? I don't have any alcohol, but there's a store around the corner."
Naruto ponders the thought, and while he deals with the blow of leaving his beloved behind, Sakura turns to Sasuke. She takes his mug and beams down at him, hoping it looked genuine and carefree. "We'll be back late, so keep track of Naruto and lock up for me, please?"
She turns away, leaving him in the chair as she chides her blond teammate. "Don't break anything, don't throw up anywhere, and keep the yelling to a minimum. And If I come back and you two are missing another limb, I'll end you both myself."
"Yes ma'am," The kyuubi says with a mock solute.
When the front door is closed and it's only Naruto and Sasuke, the man turns serious and peers skeptically at his brother. "Let's get drunk and tell me why you're sleeping with Sakura."
"I can't get drunk." Sasuke replies. "We don't sleep together."
"Oh, bullshit. Bullshit to both,"
Naruto remembered their time in the sage realm. Sasuke had started a fight with a wolf-dog and downed alcohol like it water. He got absolutely wasted. "I'll invite Shikamaru over—and maybe Kiba. We can all get shitfaced."
Sasuke shrugged.
Before long, Shikamaru was over with a 30-pack of carbonated beer. He slammed the box onto the table and nodded at Sasuke, apparently over their quarrel. "They're cold already. Just put them in the fridge."
Naruto obliges and grabs a handful, passing them out as he makes his way to the living room. The television blasts and the throws his feet on Sakura's coffee table, swigging his alcohol as he thumbs through the channels.
Shikamaru is just as comfortable with the layout, tapping a cigarette out of its carton and lighting it expertly. He offers one to Naruto, who refuses, and to Sasuke, who accepts.
They're menthols—cooling Sasuke's lungs as the smoke rolls over his tongue and seeps out from between his lips. He didn't smoke often. He couldn't get addicted, and the nicotine did not give him any buzz. It was just a habitual relaxation that usually only came when he meditated. Sasuke liked to drink because it burned his throat, and Sasuke liked to smoke because it filled his chest.
"Where's Kiba?" Naruto asks, settling for a commercial that flashed his own face.
He'd become a popular man. People from all over traveled to meet him. It wasn't odd to see he was being used as the poster-child for the Jōnin Exams.
"He'll be over later," Shikamaru replies, telling him to turn up the volume.
The announcer is pretty. Her hair is short and her eyes are big and her lips are painted a shade of purple that didn't really belong on someone's mouth. "It seems that Naruto and Hinata Uzumaki were the first to finish the second round of the Exams! I've always had faith in him, you know? Such a strong man—and sweet to boot! Tell me, Joruri, who do you think will come out on top?"
Joruri was a balding, elderly man with a masculine build and fiery tufts of red hair. "Sasuke Uchiha, of course, no doubt about it—He and Sakura Haruno finished second, and let me tell you, the leaked camera footage is absolutely insane!"
Sasuke leans forward.
Kakashi had said that only battles would be recorded—but that was when they knew nothing of Cy-Lan and her mental prowess. Would their thoughts be broadcast when the battle aired? He took another drag, tapping the ashes out in a makeshift tray.
"Do tell,"
"Firstly, the dynamic between the spitfire medical ninja and the brooding defector is…to put it lightly…stunning. There was only a two minute scene disclosed, we'll play it for you now."
Naruto watches as he takes another crisp sip. The display wasn't fuzzy; it had been filmed with a professional camera and a steady hand.
"Stay close to me." Sasuke had said. There were subtitles covering the screen in white.
Sakura nods and stands, pressing her body against his. "I'll protect your vitals. Go in for the kill."
It was like watching some wicked-awesome ballet. Sakura kept herself flat against Sasuke as he moved, leaping towards that damn robot that had given Naruto so much grief. The Uchiha lifted and twirled her body like a weapon. When a limb swung his way, he dug his fingertips into her hipbones and tossed her up effortlessly.
"Holy shit," Naruto blurts out, laying his beer on the coffee table as he leans closer to the TV.
Sakura's uninjured leg ripped through the thick metal and her body fell away. The emotionless man caught Sakura bridal style. She rotated around him and perfectly balanced her whole body onto his left shoulder—catlike and agile.
The announcer belted out a laugh as the quick visual faded from their own display. "Would you believe me if I told you my sources say he's never actually trained with her?"
The female anchor looked shocked. "You can't be serious. You're telling me that was completely unscripted? They worked together perfectly! Who knew fighting could be so…erotic?"
Sasuke scoffs and pops the top to his own beverage, chugging it fully. It's cold, freezing his already menthol-coated throat. When the can is downed and he looks back up, he sees that both Shikamaru and Naruto have trained their eyes on him.
"What?"
"Was that supposed to be a fight or foreplay?" His brother asks, pointing an accusing finger.
Sasuke shrugs. He could admit that it was surreal, seeing himself work alongside her. Almost like it wasn't really him that weaved her around—like wasn't the man that held her that way. "Maybe it was both."
Shikamaru cackles and smothers out his cigarette before getting out a new one. With it balanced carefully, he flicks his lighter. "So, what, you've realized your unwavering love for her after three whole days?"
"Doubtful," Naruto responds for him. He's already guzzling his fourth drink, not bothering to savor the taste. "It's probably more like—"I'm horny, you're cute, let's do it."—don't you think?"
"Maybe it's both," he says again, standing up before Kiba has a chance to knock on the door. "I really don't know."
The dog-like man doesn't seem surprised in the least to see Sasuke. He immediately makes his way in, pulling out two bottles of hard liquor and Sake. "I just stole this from Ino."
Naruto jerks his head up. "Did you see Hinata? Is she alright?"
Kiba rolls his brown eyes and opens his brew, tipping the bottle back. After a lengthy sip, he offers the whiskey to Sasuke, who takes an even longer swig. "Yeah, yeah, Hinata and Sakura were curled up together while Ino toted them around. They were at that place by Ichiraku—I was leaving when they stumbled out. Ten-Ten's already got a suiter."
"What is my baby wearing?" Naruto mumbled. "It's not the red dress is it; the one with the slit up the side?"
Kiba sits down next to him and throws his arms back. "I don't know man. I was too busy looking at Sakura. She's in black and hella fine."
Sasuke sits down again, placing the alcohol on the table and leaning into the seat. It smells like her—everything in this house did.
"Be careful talking like that," Shikamaru says, taking the remote from Naruto. He rewinds it to the newscast, and Sasuke watches the scene all over again. "She's Sasuke's new love interest."
Naruto cackles when Sasuke turns to look at him plainly. The Uchiha hadn't really ever been teased.
Before long, they've all turned into stumbling fools. Sasuke's eyes are closed as he listens to some movie in the background, two men babbling on about who would kill the other to avenge their family. There's a smashing noise from down the hall—the bathroom—and he wonders what kind of eulogy he should prepare for Naruto at his funeral once Sakura finds out.
"Why aren't you acting all jealous?" The kyuubi says, sitting next to Sasuke and throwing his legs into his lap. "She could be making out with some guy right now and you're just as mellow as can be."
He hadn't thought of it. "I've no reason to be jealous."
Shikamaru's slurry voice is muffled from his face-down position on the couch. Sasuke was sure he'd passed out hours ago. "You like her, and she's out doing whatever she wants, and you don't even give a shit? That's not cool, man."
It was probably because Sasuke knew Sakura was not his. She didn't belong to anyone. Besides, it certainly didn't matter to him whether she'd had a past or not—he was tired of being a hypocrite.
The wet-dream that she'd unknowingly sent to him replayed behind his closed lids. It was just touching and kissing—not any type of insertion at all. It was practically PG-13. She was pretty innocent.
He stands to leave, making his way up the stairs to his borrowed room when he hears a loud, annoying snore that belonged to Kiba. He'd made his way to Sasuke's borrowed bed and knocked himself out. The curtains were tangled around him and the duvet was on the floor.
He shook his head, making his way back down to find that Shikamaru had taken over the sofa and Naruto, the recliner. Sasuke's eyes were starting to water from sleeplessness, and the kitchen table was calling his name.
Just as he removed the bowl of wax fruit and just started to stretch out, the jangle of a key met his ears. Sakura walked through her front door.
"What…the hell."