I'm back. Here's another chapter. The exercise might seem quite confusing, but I tried to explain it. Well, I'm off to a party so Happy New Years.

Disclaimer: I forgot one of these last time. I don't ownzzorz

Jaded Sakura Blossoms

By: Wings (of Chaos)

Chapter 2: Exercise

Ino wasn't a very happy camper. Her team was disgraceful. She had a lazy baka and a fat pig on her team. Not her precious Sasuke, no, Sakura just had to have him on her team. Muttering, the blond girl stormed down the street with a black rain cloud hanging over her head.

While stomping down the street she bumped into said girl. Ino snapped her head up glaring into emerald eyes.

"You!" Ino shrieked drawing some people's eyes.

Sakura looked at the girl strangely, 'What is wrong with Ino?' she thought.

"Uh, hi Ino…" Sakura said cheerfully; completely oblivious of Ino's plight.

"Don't you say hi to me. You took my precious Sasuke-kun away from me!" Ino shouted, her eyes going wild.

"What?"

"Stop gloating, I know you secretly wanted Sasuke all to your self," Ino accused.

Sakura cocked her head to the side. 'Ah, Ino must be pissed because of Sasuke. Stupid Ino-Pig.'

Sakura silently walked away while Ino was screaming obscenities. "Bye Ino," Sakura said waving at Ino as she walked away.

*~*The Next Day*~*

Naruto's alarm clock shrieked in his ear at 6 in the morning. The blonde boy's yawn was an exaggeration of how big his mouth could get. He got up. He shuffled around his bedroom and picked up some pants, sniffed them, then put them on. He found a t-shirt lying on the kitchen table haphazardly, and decided to put it on.

His apartment was a big pigsty. Clothes and dirty bowls laid over once available surfaces. He shuffled to his one of his many cupboards and opened it. Inside were neat stacks of ramen cups lined up by ten columns and rows. Compared to his apartment, his cupboard was probably the only thing Naruto kept clean.

Gripping his chin in a thoughtful position he decided between the chicken and miso ramen. Hard choice. 'Chicken,' he thought.

*~*Sasuke*~*

Sasuke stared at his alarm clock.

6:00

His onyx eyes still staring at the alarm clock.

6:00

Sasuke looked like he was having a staring contest with his digital clock. The red lcd numbers never moving.

6:01

He sighed, "Whatever," he muttered and went back to sleep.

*~*Sakura*~*

"How was your sleep honey?" said a cheerful Mrs. Haruno.

"Hmm" Sakura muttered staring at her cold cereal.

"Did you have fun yesterday?" asked Mrs. Haruno.

"Hn," replied Sakura, she really wanted to go back to sleep.

"Oh, I wish your father would see you today, he would be so proud, wouldn't he Sakura?" Mrs. Haruno asked Sakura. When there was no response, she turned to her daughter. Sakura was faced down in her cereal, sleeping.

*~*Team 7 Spot: Bridge, 7:00*~*

Naruto whistled happily as he approached the meeting spot. When he got there, he saw Sasuke sitting down hunched over, like he was sleeping. Naruto grinned his fox like grin and approached him quietly.

Quietly he crept, slowly, slowly. When he was about 5 inches away a hand shot out and grabbed his shirt. Naruto squeaked in surprise and met one annoyed onyx eye.

"Naruto, please restrain yourself from creeping up on me. I am trying to sleep," Sasuke warned and let Naruto's shirt go.

Naruto hmphed and went on the opposite side of Sasuke. He didn't want that to happen ever again. He crossed his arms and leaned on the railing, bored.

Fifteen minutes later footsteps were heard. Naruto perked up wondering who it was. Even, Sasuke opened one eye looking to see if it was their sensei or their missing comrade.

Sakura stumbled to the meeting spot, she nearly passed out. She muttered to her two comrades hoping that they understood her. They didn't.

The blonde boy saw something on her face. He peered closer. "Sakura I think you got something on your face," he inquired.

She groggily looked at the boy. Naruto pointed to spots on his face where it was, afraid if he touched her he would get beaten. She missed every time poking at odd spots like her forehead and nose.

Sasuke suddenly stood up and took the offensive material off Sakura's face and ate it. Naruto gaped at Sasuke's boldness. The black haired boy never showed anything towards the pink haired girl.

Sakura blushed crimson. She never saw such behavior from Sasuke. "W-What was it?" she stuttered, trying to break the odd silence that fell over them.

"Fruit Loops."

"Well, that's nice," a mysterious voice said from above. Kakashi was perched up on the archway of the bridge.

Naruto yelled and pointed at their sensei, "You're late!"

"Yes, yes, I got lost," Kakashi said deadpan.

Naruto looked suspicious, "Uh huh, how old are ya?"

"My, my, Naruto I didn't think you were that way," Kakashi teased.

Naruto eyes widened, dramatically, "I am not that way. You might want to ask Sasuke though," he leered.

The said boy glared, "Shut up," and turned away, looking else where.

Sakura chuckled quietly. Kakashi then cleared his throat signaling for his subordinates to listen, "Today, we are going to work on team work. I could see from yesterday's events that we don't have any."

"We have teamwork!" Naruto protested; he didn't want to work on team work. It was usually boring and he wanted to learn new jutsu.

"Have you and Sasuke not fought?" Kakashi asked.

"Well…no," Naruto said quietly.

"Then that's it. If you guys cannot work together as a team then you won't be successful on any missions. Which is one reason why we won't be doing missions for three months," Kakashi explained.

Naruto's mouth dropped, 'No missions!' he thought. This would slow down his success of being Hokage. Unless…

"Alright," Naruto said in a new determination, "Let's get this done really, really fast. If we get this done fast then we can do missions early, right?" he asked their sensei.

"I suppose…"

"Alright, alright, let's go!" Naruto jumped ready for action.

"Aa, let's go," the silver haired jounin said. He vaulted off his perch and slowly walked towards their destination, reading from his naughty book.

"Weird," Sakura muttered following the hyper Naruto.

"Aa," Sasuke muttered quietly.

*~*Forest*~*

The noon sun was high in the sky. Its rays were filtered by the various limbs and leaves of the organic life below its hot rays. Three sweaty teenagers were cursing the sun's lovely rays.

"Go, go, go, go," Kakashi shouted rhythmically along with clapping of his hands. He bobbed his heads to his little beat. His team were lifting logs and moving them from point A to point B.

"What does this have to do with teamwork?" Naruto whined, huffing from exertion.

"You need to work together to the lift the log, right?" Kakashi pointed out.

"Yes," Naruto huffed out.

"Then you are using teamwork! Stop wasting time. Go, go, go, go," he continued his little beat.

Sasuke was breathing shallowly, he didn't feel too tired, but the log's weight was taking its toll. Sakura wasn't fairing well, she wasn't used to lifting and having her arms over her head, her poor limbs felt numb.

After a few more rounds, Kakashi called for a break. Naruto collapsed. He thought he couldn't feel his arms. Sakura leaned on a nearby tree feeling like she couldn't move a muscle. Sasuke looked like the exercise didn't have any effect on him. He sat cross legged between his two teammates.

"I guess you guys are tired," Kakashi said.

He barely got a 'yes' from his team.

"Well, you guys wouldn't be tired if you actually worked together," Kakashi pointed out.

"What!?" Naruto panted, "I thought we were."

"No, you weren't. You didn't balance out the log to equal proportions. So," Kakashi pointed to Sasuke, "You carried the less of the weight because you were tilting it and Naruto carried the most."

Naruto glared at Sasuke menacingly, no wonder he was so tired. 'Stupid Sasuke,' he thought bitterly.

"What about me?" Sakura asked.

"You tried to balance out the weight which in turn you used more energy than you should," Kakashi analyzed.

'Wonderful,' Sakura thought, 'Sasuke and Naruto still have problems.'

"Now, we are going to learn how to properly hold a log, come on let's go," Kakashi ordered clapping his hands.

The team assembled together. Naruto at the front, Sakura in the middle, and Sasuke in the back, they ready their positions, gripping the side of the log.

"Lift," Kakashi instructed.

The log went over their heads.

"Go."

The three shuffled from point to point (between fairly distant trees). Kakashi observed closely the balance of the log calling out how Sasuke was tilting it again and Naruto was doing the same.

Sakura was again not fairing to well. Because of Naruto's and Sasuke's stupidity she felt the weight difference making her arms more tired then usual.

"Stop," Kakashi shouted.

The log thumped to the ground and so did Sakura. The three males looked at the fallen girl, "Uh, I think it is time for us to go home," Naruto said nervously.

*~*Later*~*

Sakura felt like she was on something soft and warm. But what? She slowly opened her eyes to meet with a pair of onyx eyes.

"Sasuke," she said softly, thinking it was a dream.

"Yeah, it's me," he said just as softly.

"Where am I?" she asked, all she remembered was that she passed out after training.

"At your house," the black haired boy said bluntly.

"My mom?"

"Out."

"Figures."

The room lapsed into comfortable silence. Sasuke sat next to Sakura's bed on one of her many stools. The pink haired genin stared deeply into the onyx eyes, she was slowly drifting off to sleep. Seeing this, Sasuke began to get up. He leaned over and pressed his lips on Sakura's supposedly big forehead. Sakura felt his warm breath ruffling her hair.

"Sakura," he whispered into her ear, tickling her little hairs.

"Mm," she mumbled.

"I like fruit loops."

Sakura smiled and drifted off to sleep once the door closed.

I think Sasuke was a little bit out of character in this chapter. But he's not really the cold hearted bastard in this story, he is more of the mysterious sarcastic one. Lol. Anyway, please review. Thanks for reading.