37. Peculiar visitor

It was already late in the morning, when the five members of Team7 finally reached their hometown. It was hard to believe that they had been gone for no longer than two weeks and that their actual mission had merely taken them three days; they've spent the rest of the time with travelling and were glad to finally be back at a comparatively warm place, since the winters in the Land of Fire were always rather mild, completely unlike those in the Land of Snow.

After having passed through the huge maingate, leading into the Hidden Leave Village, the small group of shinobi came to a halt, as Kakashi addressed them: "You all did exceptionally well on this mission – I had some slight concerns considering your teamwork during this mission-" He inconspicuously let his eyes wander to the Uchiha, before he carried on in a pleased tone: "but you have convinced me of the contrary – I'm really proud of you."

He shot an almost paternal smile at them and stared into some beaming but also exhausted faces, so he added: "Allright – I'll go to Tsunade and tell her about the course of our mission, there's no need for you to come with me, just take your time to recover."

"Thanks Sensei!" Sakura replied on behalf of the rest of her team and watched how her team-leader vanished in a puff of smoke, before she turned to the rest of her squad: "Let's go then – I'm dead tired!"

"And hungry – I'll go straight to Ichiraku's! Who's with me?!" Naruto asked everyone around, however his enthusiastic pleadings just fell on deaf ears and while he still carried on begging and ranting, the rest of his team had already started walking into the direction of the Uchiha district.

"Ah come on – guys! Please?" He didn't stop his pleadings, until he suddenly caught sight of someone to his left and started hollering: "Hey! Neji! My ramen-friend! How about some soup?" He greeted the brown-haired Hyuga-heir excitedly, who started walking towards them, as soon as he noticed them.

"Your mission is over then?" Neji asked after he had welcomed the rest of Team7 as well, with a little exception though, since Sasuke hadn't bothered to stay there and have a talk with the Hyuga, but had walked obstinately ahead as if he hadn't seen him at all.

"Sure! That mission was way too easy, if it hadn't been that far away we would have been back ageeees ago…" Naruto boasted with a proud expression on his face, while Neji just closed his eyes and shook his head with a slight smirk on his face.

"Does that mean you really were successful?" He asked even though he already knew the answer, he just wanted to tease Naruto a little and received the very reaction he had anticipated to get.

"What?! - Of course we were! How can you doubt that?!" Naruto shrieked agitatedly and looked about with a confused expression, as sudden laughter started to break out all around him.

"Heh?" He looked at them like a little puppy, before he joined in the laughter, a little hesitant though, since he still didn't know what they were laughing about and they carried on walking again, all the time chatting with the Hyuga who had decided to accompany them a little, until Sayuri said: "Alright, I need to turn right here – still have to pick up Scootie from the Inuzukas. See you later then!"

"Wait, I need to go this way too. "Neji threw in and walked towards the girl that had stopped in her tracks after his statement. As he had caught up to her, he turned around and said goodbye to the others, before the two of them kept on walking off.

"Sooo, Sakura-chan…" Naruto turned to the pinkette with a weird expression on his face, the moment they were alone, earning an awkward and a little uneasy glance from her. "Now that we're all by ourselves, how about we go out and eat something… like… a date you know…" He said while he looked at his feet and twiddled his thumbs, waiting for an answer from his team-mate and that wasn't long in coming.

"Like hell I would go on a date with you!" The pinkette answered with a final edge to her voice, while she crossed her arms in front of her chest and turned away from the boy whose face dropped noticeably right after those damnatory words had escaped her lips.

"B-but Sakura-chan –" He pleaded again, but was cut off by the pink-haired Kunoichi once again: "No."

"But- "
"No!"

This game carried on, until they finally arrived the Uchiha-mansion, where Sakura went right into the kitchen and picked up a box of instant-ramen, which she then threw at the Uzumaki, who had kept on following her, not accepting a 'no' for an answer.

"There you got your damn Ramen – now be quiet for once." She barked at him, while she messaged her sleeves, trying to fight an oncoming headache, before she added in a calmer voice: "We don't have any 'real' food left – I'll go to the supermarket and buy something…"

And after these words, she went out again, leaving behind a blissfully feasting Naruto and a somewhere lost Sasuke.

…

…

About an hour later, Sakura was home again, storing the groceries she had just purchased, in the kitchen, before she went to her room, she was now again sharing with Sayuri, who was already busy with unpacking her things and putting them away, while her huge black dog was watching her attentively from a corner of the room, wagging his tail happily every time she turned to him.

"Hey." Sakura greeted her once-again room-mate and started stroking the dog, before she asked with a sugary smile on her face: "So… what did Neji want, huh?"

Sayuri stopped short in her movement, surprised how the pinkette was able to hit the nail on the head that quickly, before she answered tentatively: "Well… he asked me about a certain thing…some gossip, you know…" Sayuri shot an ambiguous glance at her room-mate, whose face took on a guilty expression, as she realized what the girl was talking about. "Oh, and he asked me to help him find a birthday present for Hinata, that's about it."

She started resuming her former activity, unaware of the smile that once again started to flash over Sakura's face and got broader and broader each passing second, before the pinkette eventually asked in a played sceptical tone: "But Hinata's birthday is still more than two weeks away - how come he wants to buy a present already? Or when does he want to go shopping with you?"

"Well today… I told him I was pretty tired, since I just got back, but he still insisted on going today… maybe he's assigned to a mission soon and this is the only opportunity he has… Anyway, guess I gotta go now" Sayuri said as she had finished unpacking her things and pulled a warm, fuzzy coat over her clothes.

"You think…?" Sakura hinted secretively, earning an uncomprehending look from her room-mate and then added, laxly pointing a finger at her: "You sure you wanna wear this?"

"Why? What's wrong with my clothes?" Sayuri looked down at herself, not understanding what the pinkette meant, since she was wearing her usual clothes.

"Well, nothing… it's just – don't you think these clothes are a little inappropriate for a date. Maybe you should wear something a little more special or do something with your hair for a change – I mean you could pin it up or something…"

"It's not a date. I'm just giving him moral support for his shopping tour – that's it." She defended herself, blushing a little, but Sakura just rolled her eyes and said in a sarcastic voice: "Of course it's not; anyway you should at least wear your hair loose then." The pinkette walked towards the girl next to her and pulled the ribbon out of her hair. Ignoring the protesting look on her roommates face, she then ruffled her hair a little, until she was satisfied and purred equivocally: "Well then, have fun…" And with a smile on her face Sakura let herself collapse into her bed, deciding to take a little nap, while she observed the departure of her team-mate, who again shot an insecure look towards her, before she finally – not tying her hair up again, left the room and went on her 'not-date'.

…

…

It was about seven o'clock, when Sakura finally woke up from her 'little' nap. She hadn't expected to sleep that long, but as it seemed, she had been even more exhausted than she had thought – if that was even possible - and after she had finally been able to lie in a warm and comfortable bed again, she apparently just got carried away…

She slowly erected herself and started to stretch her arms over her head, taking a look out of the window and realizing that it had already gotten dark outside. Dropping her arms again, she led them to her stomach, which felt completely empty and was bawling for food, so she got up and started walking through the corridor and down the stairs, until she reached the kitchen.

She was busy with rummaging through some of the numerous cupboards in search for the ingredients for her future-meal, when she heard how the door flew open and Naruto entered the kitchen with a loud yawn, which he didn't bother to suppress – apparently he'd had the same idea as her and taken a nap as well.

"Ah, Sakura-chan – you're making dinner?" He addressed her with an expectant look on his face, before he let himself fall to the ground and take a seat at his usual place.

"Tze – who do you think I am? Your personal cook? Do it yourself you lazy bum!" She nagged, while she shot a murderous look at the blonde, causing him to jump to his feet at once and rush to her side.

"B-but Sakura-chan, you know that I can't cook…" He whined in an uneasy voice, shifting from one foot to the other – there was no one, other than Sakura and Tsunade who was able to intimidate him like this; every time they started grumbling, he turned into a shy little boy and there was nothing he could do about it… but then that was probably the one and only way to behave when they were like this – at least if you valued your life that is…

His statement caused the pinkette to roll her eyes and heave a weary sigh: "Then help me at least – geez… I still don't understand how you managed to live on your own for the last couple of years …"
"Thanks Sakura-chan! So what should I do?" He enquired, clearly relieved that he didn't have to do things all by himself.

"How about you start cutting the vegetables, I'll take care of the noodles and the sauce…" Sakura instructed him, turning around to pick up a pot, when the stressed expression of her team-mate caught her attention.

"What?" She asked him a little impatiently, but the blonde just scratched his head and answered sheepishly: "You mean that greenstuff, right? How am I supposed to cut it? Do you want… cubes or slices or maybe little stars? – no twirls!"

"Oh you know what? I'll do that and you'll prepare the noodles, okay?" Sakura proposed, since she feared ending up doing everything by herself after all, in case the blonde wouldn't manage his task.

"Fine." He answered and so they both started preparing the food, when the last male member of their household also entered through the kitchen-door.

"What's for dinner?" The Uchiha asked, sceptically eyeing his two team-mates that were fumbling around in the kitchen.

With an indignant expression on his face, Naruto who was wearing a white frilly apron, with a couple of stains on it, turned around and crossed his arms in front of his chest, edgily pounding the cooking spoon he was holding in one hand against his other arm.

"If you want to eat something, you have to do something – we are not your servants! Right, Sakura-chan?" He nodded towards the pink-haired girl before he turned back to the pot with boiling water in front of him and started stirring it.

"Ah, don't mind him Sasuke-kun, we're almost done here – just take a seat." Sakura assured him with an abashed smile on her face, but Naruto didn't want to put up with that injustice.

"No way! I have to do all the work here and he gets rewarded for that?!" He shrieked enraged, pointing the cooking spoon at the raven-haired boy, almost hitting him with some noodles, which had clung to it.

"You did all the work?" Sakura asked him in a dangerously calm voice, while an artery started throbbing on her forehead. "All you did was keeping watch over the noodles and you even managed to let those scorch."
"Ah - they are not scorched… they are just… uhm… a little crispy… that's all." He defended himself and the results of his cooking skills, while he cast a sheepish look into the pot in front of him.

"Well I never heard of crispy noodles yet – did you?" The pinkette asked cynically, staring Naruto down, so he just shook his head in affirmation, with a constrained smile on his face, before he turned to his room-mate again and said: "At least set the table you slacker."

"Hn." The Uchiha, who had watched the two squabblers in silence all the time, finally muttered and really did as he was told, much to the surprise of Naruto, who had thought he'd have to come up with much more persuasiveness, so instead he just turned back to his noodles and started scraping them from the bottom of the pot.

As they were all done, they took their seats at the table and commenced their meal that didn't receive any compliments as it usually did…

Each time Sakura bit on one of the scorched and in fact crispy noodles, she regretted having assigned such an important task to the knucklehead ninja… But it were not only the noodles he had spoiled, he had messed around with the sauce as well, with the intention of turning it into a soup and now it was as thin as water gruel, if it wasn't for the weird lumps in it, she had no idea how he had managed to get done. Well at least the vegetables distracted a bit from all that…

About 30 minutes later, as they were still engaged in their meal, since it took them quite some time and above all overcoming to swallow down the inedible food, which would have been impossible if the hunger wouldn't help it down, Sayuri finally arrived home and joined her team-mates in the kitchen, which was slowly beginning to get crowded. With rising sympathy, she observed how they struggled to finish their food that even looked uneatable from a distance, since the burnt noodles were also turning the sauce dark, so everything had quite a weird colour and not to forget smell.

"So how did it go?" Sakura finally took a break and noticed in horror that she wasn't even halfway through her meal yet.

Leaning against one of the kitchen counters and still eyeing the plates with a disgusted look on her face, Sayuri answered: "Oh, it went fine; we found a really nice present for her, even though it was pretty hard… I've never met such an indecisive person before… and then he never came up with any ideas by himself so it took quite some time, but we found a nice bracelet, I hope she likes it…"

"Who?" Naruto enquired, while pieces of his half chewed food dropped out of his still full mouth.

"Ugh…" Sakura grimaced as she watched how the blonde clutched a hand in front of his mouth to keep further food from falling out, while he still looked at Sayuri, waiting for an answer.

Wrinkling her nose, Sayuri finally detached her eyes from the unpleasant sight and focussed them on his headband instead. "For Hinata of course – you didn't forget about her birthday, did you?"

"Wha- of course not! I'd never… … When exactly was it again?" He asked, scratching the back of his head sheepishly, while Sakura let out an irritated sigh: "December 27th, baka. Can't you keep anything in mind?"

"Ah c'mon, I knew that - I just wanted to test you… anyway are you hungry Sayuri-chan? We still have plenty of food left…" He looked at the food, trying to make it palatable to his team-mate, however he wasn't really convincing, since his glance was rather wary, it seemed as if he was afraid that the food would jump into his face, if he stared at it for too long.

"Yeah… I see that… but no thanks, I've already eaten…" Sayuri replied, sighing with relief that she wasn't in the position to sit at that table, so desperate from hunger that she'd actually eat that stuff.

"Really, have you… so it was a date after all, huh?" Sakura grinned with a knowing expression on her face and now the eyes of the boys turned towards Sayuri too, making her feel fairly uncomfortable and she felt the need to defend herself: "We just went eating because we were both hungry – that doesn't mean we had a date…"

"With whom?" Naruto asked, looking from one girl to the other with a curious expression on his face.

"Neji." Sakura replied, not noticing how the Uchiha's deep black eyes hardened at the mentioning of that name, however Sayuri did and it made her turn her head away from him at once, trying to hide another blush that arose on her cheeks, before Sakura turned back to her again, with a somewhat scary look on her face: "No date, huh? Let's see: Restaurant or snackbar?"

"Restaurant." The violet-haired girl answered brusquely, glad that short answers were possible, because otherwise she would probably get tangled up in her own sentences.

The pink-haired Kunoichi nodded, still with a weird grin on her face, before she carried on with her cross-examination.

"Cheap or expensive?"

"Uhm… I don't know, didn't look cheap…"

"Aha, did he pay?"

"Yes."

"WHAT?!" This time it was Naruto to pose a question and he did it in a volume that was impossible not to hear. "I can't believe it – that damn hypocrite! How many times have I asked him to come to Ichiraku's with me today and then he just goes into a restaurant with you?! And he has never EVER paid a single meal for me! What's with that?!" Naruto railed, sounding genuinely upset, while his team just eyed him a little dumbfounded and Sakura asked, still shaking her head in disbelief: "You're not serious are you?"
"I sure am! I just don't get it - what's the matter with that guy!"

"Well, maybe it's because he is straight…" Sayuri speculated with a raised eyebrow, hardly able to suppress a grin. You could literally hear the crickets chirp in the subsequent silence, until things were eventually dawning on Naruto and he started to stammer uneasily: "oh… OH! err… I see. Hmm, You might have a point there…So you and Neji, huh?"

"No! Of course not that's –" Sayuri started, but stopped in mid-sentence, as a small bird came fluttering through the window they had opened to let out the cooking fumes and especially the smell of the scorched food, and landed right on the kitchen counter, casting a perplexed look through the room it was in now.

All eyes were now focused on the little thing, as if expecting it to explain its sudden appearance, however the tiny bird just twittered happily, before it took wing and fluttered in large circles through the air, right above the kitchen table, only to land moments later in the luckily already cooled down cup of tea of the Uchiha.

"What's wrong with that bird?" Naruto asked, leaning his head straight over the cup and staring sceptically at the queer creature.

"Seriously, it's really uncommon for a bird to behave like that…" Sakura pondered aloud, furrowing her brow.

"Hn." The Uchiha merely grunted, attentively regarding the small bird that was now beginning to flap its wings, still inside of the cup and with that sprinkled its contents all over the table, while it had its head directed straight at the clan-heir and stared at him with an almost creepy intensity.

"Bad place for a bird bath, really - if you don't watch out you'll end up as a meat insert" Sayuri muttered to the bird, side-glancing at Naruto, while she carefully picked it out of the cup and closed her hands around it, to keep it from flying off again.

"What are you gonna do with it?" Naruto asked while he walked towards the violet-haired girl and bent down slightly, so that he could catch a closer glance of the little intruder.

"Don't know, we can't let it out just yet, wet as it is, it would freeze to death…" She mused and stroked her thumb over the birds head.

"How about we keep it as a pet?" The blonde asked, while he started to fiddle with his fingers in front of the bird's head that peeked out between Sayuri's folded hands.

"Hmph." The Uchiha grunted disapprovingly while he rose to his feet and walked out of the room without uttering another word.

Completely ignoring the actual owner of the house, Naruto already started thinking of names for the little bird and planned on constructing a bird house all by himself, when the bird suddenly started fluttering wildly in Sayuri's hands, trying to poke its way out of her grip with its head.

"Huh? What's gotten into it all of a sudden?" The blue-eyed girl asked sceptically and slowly opened her hands, watching the bird take flight at once and head straight towards the window it had come in through as well.

"Hey birdie – wait!" Naruto hollered and ran after his little friend, trying to catch it again, but before he could reach it, it had already flown outside into the darkness again and was nowhere to be found.

"You think it'll be okay?" He asked as soon as he entered the kitchen again, after having given up on his search.

"Guess so – it's used to living outdoors, it should be fine." Sakura assured him, while she put away her plate

"Hmm…" Naruto pondered, looking a little downcast, while he walked in an unusual taciturn manner out of the kitchen.

"You think he'll be okay?" Sayuri asked, sounding a little worried, after the blonde had vanished out of her visual field.

"Hmm… why not…?" Sakura mused, while she passed Sayuri the dirty dishes, which she then started to wash.

"He looks a little lonely though… maybe we really should buy him a pet…" The violet-haired girl proposed and was surprised to find the girl next to her stare into space with a pensive expression on her face, since she hadn't really been serious about that thing…

"Or we should just give him a leg up…" The pinkette ruminated, while a sly smile started to appear on her face. "Just imagine – him and Hinata and you and Neji – it would be perfect!" – aside from these, she also had another pairing in mind, but she didn't voice that one, since she didn't want to tempt fate…

"Could you stop hooking everyone up already? Seriously…" Sayuri sighed in frustration, but the look on her room-mates face made clear that she was nowhere near giving up on that topic yet, so the two girls remained in the kitchen for quite some time, more or less enthusiastically chatting about future-pairings and so on, when the blonde ninja came back into the kitchen again and let his eyes wander through the entire room, before he asked: "Have you seen Sasuke by any chance? I wanted to ask him something… um, something important, but I just can't find him…"

"Don't know… He shouldn't be gone this late, he's still under arrest, are you sure he's not here?" Sakura asked him in a slightly concerned voice.

"Of course – I've been running through the entire mansion for the last half an hour, but he's gone…"
"Hmm… maybe he took a walk or something – it's not that late yet… but if he shouldn't return by eleven o'clock we should go and search for him – I mean it's our mission after all, right?" Sakura asked, while a nervous laugh escaped her lips.

"Right… I'm sure he'll be back soon…" Sayuri assured her, however she had a queasy feeling about all this, especially since some certain memories started to come back again. She had almost forgotten about them by now… It seemed as if it had been ages ago that she had shared a room with him and woken up that one night, only to find his bed vacant. She had meant to keep a closer watch on him after that, but nothing suspicious had happened; except for some more recent events that had occupied and unsettled her mind even more… Anyway, if he had been gone at all that night, he had come back after that again, that's why she had never told anyone about it, but if he wasn't to return anytime soon, she would have to tell them about it, whether she liked it or not …

She just hoped for his sake that it wouldn't come to this…

…

…

Followed by a dark figure that moved as soundless and inconspicuous as a cat through the darkness, he seemed to be a part of, the small brown bird fluttered towards the, in spite of the season, still fairly thick wood at the borders of the Village Hidden in the Leaves and vanished between the numerous tree trunks, only to be brought back into the small clearing that was illuminated by the faint light of the full moon, by a noticeably huge, almost bearish seeming man on whose shoulder it had landed.
Wearing a long, dark grey cloak, the man was almost invisible, as he stepped out of the sombre forest; just the blue collar of the clothes he was wearing underneath it, formed a little contrast to the obscure scenery and his movements revealed his presence as well.

"That took some time – I was just about to send another one…" He stated in a soft and calm voice, while he used one of his large fingers to pat the little bird on his shoulder with astounding sensitivity, you wouldn't expect from a man of his size.

"Where are the others?" His opposite asked, not going into details, as to why he was late or anything, but letting his eyes wander the forest edge up and down, not moving his head while doing so.

"Over here!" Another man exclaimed noisily, while he jumped out of a tree and landed right beside the big, kind of clumsy looking man. He was wearing an equally long, dark cloak as the man to his side and yet he wasn't even nearly as inconspicuous as that one was: he also had his hood pulled deep into his face, therefore you could merely see the lower part of it, but the blade of the huge, obsolete sword he was carrying on his back, reflected the pale light of the moon whenever it broke through the cloud cover and threw it into various directions, so he was rather easy to make out in the darkness.

"Well, well if it isn't our boss… Say, how were your holidays? – must have been very relaxing, since you knew we took care of all your business here, right?" He directed his sharp eyes at the dark-haired man in front of him, the ever-present cheeky grin on his face making it hard to tell his actual emotion, but the accusatory undercurrent in his voice was almost impossible not to hear.

"This better be important-" The newcomer stated in a blank voice, scrutinizing the two men in front of him sceptically, until the one with the sword finally answered: "Tze… you should think that after all this time you'd have a little more trust in us…" He sighed affectedly, shaking his head with closed eyes to underline his consternation, before he carried on with a mischievous grin on his face.

"Of course it is – a lot has happened while you were gone… you'll be delighted…" He implied secretively, while some heavy clouds gathered in front of the moon again and threw their shadows over the whole area, so no one saw how the smile on his face carried on broadening.

…

…