Sasuke couldn't believe what he'd said to Shikamaru.
Apparently this trip was taking its toll on him, and he was losing his mind. That was the only possible explanation for his moment of sentimentality.
In a slight panic, he called Sakura. Much more of this and he would go completely insane. Wandering around a kiddie playground in Kumo was a complete waste of time, and if Naruto or Kiba brought their noxious ass gas any closer to him, he was going to prison for double homicide.
Sakura answered on the third ring, and her voice sounded slightly raspy, like she'd been crying.
"Hello?"
"What's wrong."
"Sasuke-kun your questions never sound like questions. They sound like demands. Scary demands. Like I don't have the option not to answer."
"Hn. You don't. What's wrong with you."
"Eh. Talking about our families. Kind of a downer, but you can't run from your life forever, you know?"
Sasuke knew about Sakura's home life. In fact, he probably knew better than anyone what really went on at the Haruno household; back in Konoha, he spent a distracting amount of time monitoring the situation, ready to spring Sakura out at any given moment.
"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said that," Sakura apologized.
He frowned. "Why."
"The last thing you probably want to hear about is my family, when yours..." She trailed off, and there was silence. "I'm sorry to complain about it so much to you, Sasuke-kun."
Sasuke sighed. At one point, hearing about anyone's family problems would have put him over the edge. At least her parents were still alive, would have been his retort. But that was years ago. He'd come to terms with the reality of his parents' death. They weren't coming back, and resenting everyone who had a living family wouldn't make them come back.
At least he'd had the security of knowing his parents had loved him, cared about him, wanted good things for him. Sakura lived with her parents for eighteen years without that knowledge.
"Shut up," he said. "You're being annoying."
"Do you have any idea how annoying you are?" There was amusement in her voice. It had been years since Sasuke calling her 'annoying' had offended her. "Where are you guys?"
"Tch. You first."
"Not likely. Do you seriously not know the rules to this game?"
"This game that you invented."
"Exactly. Which the makes the rules unflinchingly rigid. I can give you a hint, though, if you ask me nicely."
"I will never ask you nicely for anything."
"Then it looks like you guys are shit out of luck, doesn't it? And by my calculations...eight days with Shikamaru, Kiba, and Narutard will have taken their psychological toll on you, Sasuke-kun. Admit it. You need me."
"Never."
She giggled. Even though he was thoroughly annoyed with her and her snarky attitude, he was glad to hear her laughing. Talking about the situation with her parents always brought her down.
"Well, we're not leaving Kumo just yet, if that helps. We've been rushing around so much trying to shake you stalkers that we haven't gotten a chance to do all the kickass things we've been meaning to do on our trip, so we're gonna stick around awhile."
"What car."
"That's your fault for not knowing. I'm not happy with what you did to that poor boy, Sasuke-kun. He probably got in a lot of trouble after you wrecked his windshield!"
She saw that? "Who's the stalker now, Sakura? And he's lucky I didn't wreck his face for helping you assholes."
"Okay, then. Anyway I'll talk to you later, it's my turn to drop."
"Drop?"
"Oh, right. That's your hint. See you soon!"
She hung up without explaining anything else. Sasuke cursed her stupid pink head to hell and entertained a graphic fantasy that involved Sakura lying face-up underneath the back tire of his Jetta while he gunned it in reverse, and pondered her (useless) clue.
"Oi, teme, did Sakura-chan say where they were going next?" Naruto wanted to know, having wrestled Kiba into submission.
"Hn. She said it's her turn to drop. No fucking idea what that means."
Shikamaru was unusually talkative today, because he spoke up, "It's obvious where they went. Remember what we did the last time we came to Kumo?"
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Sasuke flat out didn't understand why he'd even bothered to come on this trip in the first place.
He'd been slowly but surely working his way back into his group of friends since returning from Oto High two months before. Naruto had accepted him back instantly, and Sakura was next, after his impromptu rescue mission in the park. The others were coming around and he was warming up to them again as well. Going on this trip had been his way of making peace with everyone after his defection.
But if there was one thing Sasuke hated more than school trips, it was snow. So coming to the mountains of Kumogakure for a weekend ski trip had just been a stupid fucking idea.
The bus pulled up to the lodge at the very top of the mountain. Sasuke's ears popped and he hated the trip even more. With vitriole in his veins, he grabbed his backpack and stalked off the bus, the snow crunching miserably beneath his feet as he headed inside with the rest of the class.
"Hey, Sasuke-kun!" a friendly voice called. He glanced up to see Sakura coming towards him looking impossibly cute in a little white ski jacket and matching boots. A headband pulled her hair back out of her face and her hands were covered in little pink mittens, her cheeks flushed from the chill.
Okay, maybe it wasn't THAT bad.
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"They went snowboarding!" Naruto yelped, clapping a hand to his forehead. "We gotta get the hell up the mountains, teme! There's no way they can outrun us there!"
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"This was a fabulous idea, Hinata," Ino decided, modeling her rented skiwear for her friends. "Kumo has snowcapped mountains yearround. This is a totally badass way to spend the summer. Especially cuz once we head back down the mountain, we can hit up the hotel pool cuz it's fucking SUMMER down there, y'all."
Hinata flushed with pleasure that her idea had been so happily received. They hadn't been up to the mountains since that weekend trip with school two years ago, and after the downer of a conversation they'd had earlier, a couple hours of pure fun was exactly what they needed.
Sakura held a snowboard and her eyes shone at the prospect of height and speed and adrenaline. If Hinata was the sensible one and Ino the shopaholic, Sakura was the adventurous one. Thoughts of shitty home lives and frustrating boys and bad concerts and cheap hotels flew out of her mind as she eyed the massive hill.
"All right, ladies," she said. "Last one to the bottom buys dinner!"
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note.. Hey, everyone! Thanks for the reviews, I really appreciate the support! If you're looking for lemon, unfortunately, you're probably not gonna find it in this story. Yeah there's gonna be banging, but I'll cover the leading-up-to-it part and then suggest the rest, just because I have a lot of young'uns reading this whose innocent minds I cannot corrupt with my filthy thoughts.
That being said, if you have not already done so, go out and bang someone. I guarantee you will not be disappointed. KIDDING. (No I'm not. Seriously. Go have fun.)
See you soon!