Sakura wondered what she was doing, standing in front of Naruto's door in the morning. She's never done this before; never gone to pick him up from his place.
It might be because she wants to see the whiskered youth.
It might be because yesterday left her feeling a bit lonely.
But, probably, she wants to see murder in Sasuki's eyes when she enters the clearing side-by-side with Naruto.
Either way, she knocks on the door to Naruto's apartment, smiling widely when the door begins to open.
"Hi, good morning, Nar-" Sakura almost swallowed her tongue when Sasuki appeared in front of her.
"Sakura?" Sasuki left the door half closed, only letting half her body peek through. "What are you doing here?"
"What the hell? Shouldn't I be asking you that?" Sakura sputtered, nonplussed by the situation.
"If it isn't obvious, I'm here to pick up Naruto." Sasuki drawled, taking a second to peek back behind herself. "He's showering, getting ready. You head to the meeting place, we will come soon."
Sakura stuck her foot out, blocking Sasuki from closing the door. Sakura clenched her jaw but tried to put on a smile. It came out strained. "I might as well come in and all three of us can go together."
Sasuki paused, obviously unhappy about Sakura's insistence, but knowing that trying to get rid of the girl now would be too much trouble. With a dissatisfied sigh, the raven-haired beauty opened the door and let the medic-nin in.
Sakura smirked internally at her small victory.
"Do you want tea? I was about to make some for myself." Sasuki asked dryly, but Sakura was still surprised at the polite gesture.
"Okay, I'll have some."
Sasuki nodded and opened a cupboard to take out two cups as well as tea bags. She set a kettle to boil water.
"You know where everything is?" Sakura tried to keep her voice neutral, but some irritation unintentionally seeped in.
Sasuki shrugged, trying to act nonchalant, but the corner of her mouth twitched a few times. "I've been here a few times."
The kettle hissing was the only noise as the duo fell into an awkward silence.
Once the water finished boiling, the Uchiha quickly prepared the tea and then place a mug on the kitchen table. Sakura sat to take it while Sasuki leaned against the kitchen counter sipping from her cup.
Sakura just noticed, as the raven-haired beauty brought her own cup to her lips, that the avenger's cup was new, with a cute chibi snake design on it. In comparison, Sakura's own cup was old and well worn, with a generic Konoha logo that had the edges chipped off from general use.
"That's a nice cup." The medic-nin muttered, blowing on her tea. Sasuki eyed her dully before speaking.
"Oh, this? Naruto bought it for me the other day, while we were shopping." Her voice was cool and even, to the point Sakura might have mistaken it for an innocent remark, if it weren't for the Uchiha fixating her gaze on the medic-nin, gauging her reaction.
Sakura felt a cold fire sweeping through her belly. She put on a fake smile before responding. "It's very cute. Meanwhile, the only other cup Naruto has is this one, right?" Sakura took a sip from the cup, watching Sasuki straighten up, eyes clouding with confusion. "Knowing him he probably doesn't wash it properly, ugh, I might get his cooties." Sakura punctuated her point by taking a particularly long swing from the mug.
The Uchiha's face didn't betray her emotion, still stoic and uncaring, but Sakura knew she shook the girl from the way her fingers turned white gripping the table counter.
"Hmm, that's foolish, if you paid any attention to Naruto, you would know he's quite cleanly." The raven-haired beauty sneered.
Sakura narrowed her eyes. "Well, I-"
"Yo, Sasuki, thanks for waiting. I'm alm-Sakura-chan?!" A boisterous voice came from behind Sakura, causing her to turn around in her seat.
Naruto did not towel himself off well. His hair was still damp, some droplets on the edges slowly dripping off and running down his muscular chest. Sakura's mouth went dry, watching another droplet somehow land on his toned abdomen and slowly crawl down until it reached the top of his thin towel.
"Sakura-chan?" Naruto calls her again and it breaks her from her ogling.
"O-oh, Naruto, I, just, uh, was around, thought I'd pick you up today." Sakura mutters using her willpower to drag her gaze up to his curious eyes. "Sasuki answered the door and let me in. We were just having some tea, waiting for you." Sakura glanced over at the Uchiha and almost fell off her chair.
The raven-hair girl stood, ramrod straight, her mouth agape, eyes flying furiously around the blonde youth's naked upper body. Her face only slightly dusted red, but from their childhood, Sakura knew that adding any colour to the avenger's face is an almost herculean task to accomplish.
Naruto finally seemed to notice that the usually cool beauty glued her eyes to his chest. He looked down at his chest, puzzled, until his eyes lit up with recognition.
"The necklace, right?"
Sasuki remained mute and Sakura found herself responding instead. "What?"
Naruto grinned at the pink-haired kunoichi. "I never really showed Sasuki the necklace baa-chan gave me." With that he walked over to Uchiha and, like yesterday, entered her personal space without a care in the world.
He took off the necklace and grasped one of her hands, putting it in her palm. "Here, you were staring at it pretty hard. It's a beautiful necklace, so take your time. I'm going to get ready."
The avenger still stood, frozen, her eyes now locked onto Naruto's azure ones. Sakura could see the raven-haired kunoichi's flush getting darker. The stunned look totally out of place on her normally regal bearing.
"Hey, your face is red. Are you alright?" Naruto asked, concern in his voice. That seemed to spur the Uchiha out of her stupor.
"Naruto," She rasped, placing a hand on his chest pushing him away slightly. "You should go a get ready. I'm fine."
Naruto stood silent for a moment, observing her.
The whole time, Sasuki kept her hand on his chest, and Sakura wanted to yell at her to take if off, but her words caught themselves in her throat and she had to choke back the lump that formed there.
Finally, satisfied, Naruto smiled at the Uchiha. "Okay, be back soon!" He left, humming to himself.
"Fuck!" The cuss came out harshly from Sasuki's mouth, and the kunoichi gripped the necklace against her chest with one hand and placed the other hand against her cheek, startled by how hot she felt. "Fuck!" she hissed again.
"You know," Sakura started, still seething, even more so from watching the raven-haired girl act so…affected from seeing the handsome blonde half-naked, "You didn't have to grope him like that."
"What?" The Uchiha growled, not taking kindly to the medic-nin's assertion.
"Naruto might be naïve, but you can't fool me." Sakura scoffed, her emerald eyes narrowed.
Sasuki's face twisted into a violent grimace and she opened her mouth to say something, before she abruptly stopped and gave the pink-haired kunoichi a once over. Then the Uchiha adopted a tight smirk and her posture eased up as she took her palm off her chest, letting the necklace hang out so she could admire it.
Sakura did not remove her glare and Sasuki finally met her gaze again, placing the necklace back in her fist. Her face lost its colour and her eyes lost their heat.
"Don't be jealous, Sakura." The avenger drawled in self-satisfied tone.
"Jealous!" Sakura barked, "Who would be jealous of touching, N-naruto?!" Her face unintentionally flushed as the image of the dripping wet boy came back to her.
The Uchiha snorted, seeing through Sakura's bravado. "Whatever helps you sleep at night."
Sasuki's assured tone rubbed Sakura the wrong way. "Don't get so cocky, just because he can touch you so easily. He likes me, you know."
The three tomoe spun so swiftly, they appeared to blend into a single circle, but Sakura held her glare, her bitter anger quashing any instinctive fear she had.
The moment seemed to last an hour, but finally Sasuki let up, her eyes reverting to their natural onyx, and the avenger took a step toward the unflinching medic-nin.
"Do you think you are special? Sakura? Do you think, because you spent a month or two extra with him, that he likes you more?"
"What are you trying to say?" Sakura spat, eyes flashing heatedly against the icy glare of her teammate. "He's liked me since we were genin!"
"Sakura," Sasuki took another step forward and her voice dropped into a murmur, "For the last three years he's been thinking about a woman, and it wasn't you." With that, Sasuki took a step back and her posture became loose. A smug smirk plastered itself across her face.
Sakura felt magma pour through her veins and she forced herself to bite back the bile that found its way up to her throat. She desperately wanted to smash in the confident look on the Uchiha's face and beat it into a bloody pulp.
Sakura clenched her fist tightly, breathing in and out slowly, calming herself down. But, the flames in the depths of her stomach still burned her.
"I'm going to make you regret coming back here, you bitch." Sakura promised through clenched teeth.
Sasuki did not respond and instead went back to inspecting the necklace, having no interest in interacting with her teammate at the moment.
"Alright, lets go!" Naruto came out of his room dressed and oblivious to the nearly violent interaction the two kunoichi had.
He took his necklace back from Sasuki, Sakura not missing how the bitch's fingers lingered in his palm far too long, and the three left his house to head towards their meeting place. Naruto constantly chirping about various things, while the other two kept silent. Sasuki frigidly ignoring Sakura and the medic-nin ignoring both her teammates to stew in her emotions.
A/N: Damn, I was writing this and was like, this story bombs the Bechdel test so badly lol.