Disclaimer: I DON'T OWN NARUTO!
Omg…you people are the BEST! I tried writing a seto x serenity fic (YuGiOh)…but..THAT blew…so…I'm totally deleting it…
Anyways…needless to say…I am totally motivated by ALL your reviews…and am even ditching my current hw to work on this! YAY! Well…also…NEWS FLASH, ORLI LOVERS!—Orlando bloom is now #1 on the 50 sexiest guys! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHH!
NOTE! Sasuke's gonna be a little OOC here..but..they ARE grown up..so..many things have changed his way of thinking…he's grown quite fond of Sakura…although he doesn't like to admit it…and ultimately doesn't SHOW it…well…On with the story…
Winter Nights
Chapter 2-Lessons…
The next morning, everyone woke up to bright rays coming through their Venetian blinds. The pure, white snow glistening in the beautiful sun.
Sakura woke up with a start, being a bright, and early morning person she is. Giving herself a little stretch, she stumbled downstairs to the bathrooms. Running her hand through her loosely tied-up hair, Sakura turned the knob of the door, and walked in. She heard water dripping from the bathtub, and slowly opened her eyes.
Her irises adjusted to the light, and everything came t- wait…LIGHT! her eyes snapped wide open, and she saw Gaara, naked.
"AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Sakura screamed in her high-pitched voice.
Gaara pulled a towel around his waist, and rolled his eyes.
"AHHHH!" she screamed again, as she ran outside, slamming the door shut behind her. Sakura ran back up the stairs, only to bump right into someone with only a pair of boxers on. She screamed again, shut her eyes tight, and started to fling her arms everywhere. A hand went over her mouth, muting her piercing screams, and the other grasped her hands together.
Sakura looked up, and saw Sasuke's steel grey eyes.
"Sakura, stop screaming your ass off…you're waking everyone up!" Sasuke hissed, as he let go of her.
Sakura blushed a deep red, having seen two naked bodies in the morning.
"S-sorry, Sasuke-kun…" she looked down and turned to her bedroom. As she turned around, the same strong hand grabbed her by the wrist, and Sakura turned back around.
"Sakura…uhmm…never mind…" Sasuke slumped back into his bedroom.
Sakura confusedly went into her room as well, and decided to gather her things to the bathroom, once again.
Everyone took their turns in the three bathrooms located in the first floor, and soon, everyone was all dressed for a day of skiing/snowboarding in the living room. Sakura had avoided Gaara's and Sasuke's gazes, and kept talking to Sakura and Temari about Orlando Bloom, Ryan Gosling, Sean William Scott, Shawn Ashmore, Adam Brody, Brad Pitt…(I could just go onn and onn………)
Suddenly, Kakashi appeared with a poof, and announced that everything was set, all the instructors were booked, and it was time to head over to the main building to get their skis, and snowboards. He then disappeared.
Being the safe Sakura, she chose skis, along with Ino and Hinata. Temari, on the other hand, chose snowboard. All the guys, with the exception of Shino, Kiba, and Chouji chose snowboards as well.
Everyone, except the two most emotionless males in the world, were very excited, as they have never in the life skied/snowboarded before.
As they strolled out the door with their extra clothing, they talked excitedly about how good they were going to be.
When they got there, Kakashi and the other sensei's were all waiting for them, ready to assign the instructors. After learning the very basics of stopping, and turning, their instructors told them to move up a small hill, and practice stopping. After that, they quickly moved onto turns on a hill. Using a 'magic carpet', that brought them up a small hill, everyone followed the instructor, as he/she performed some sharp turns down the hill.
When everyone grasped the skills, they were told that they could go wherever they wanted, and ski down some beginner hills.
Sakura and Ino regrouped, and decided to go to one of the easier hills, as they were having so much fun.
"Yeah…my instructor was TOTALLY cute!" Ino exclaimed.
"Really? I got some fat guy…but…he was good…" Sakura said, disappointed.
"Ooh...too bad…Although he was cute…no one can match Shika-kun!" Ino said happily.
"Uhmm..Ino? I thought you HATED him before…and how, you talk about him as if he was a saint…"
"Well…I liked him a LOONG time ago…but…then Sasuke came in the picture, and you know…Plus, Shikamaru can be really sweet!"
"Riight…"
"Oh! I forgot…let's go get you some GUYS!"
"O..k….."
They skied around for a while, then joined Naruto, Hinata, Sasuke, and Shikamaru.
"Hey you guys!" Ino shouted out.
"Haha…I can snowboard so well!" Naruto yelled.
"Y-yeah…Naruto-kun is v-very good…" Hinata blushed at this point.
"Suuure…" Sakura said in disbelief as Sasuke rolled his eyes, annoyed.
"So, Ino…did you wipe out yet?" Shika joked.
"No! Of course not. My beauty just bounces me back up!"
Shikamaru snorted, "Riiight…Whatever you say, babe..."
Ino smiled brightly, as they stepped ahead to wait for the lift to pick them up.
"Well Sasuke-kun…I guess we'll be together on the lift…" Sakura said.
"Aa…"
Naruto and Hinata followed Shikamaru and Ino, and stepped up. Sakura and Sasuke did the same, and soon, the three pairs were up in the air, the wind blowing through their hats and scarves.
When they got up to the hill, they had to stop and decide where they were going to go. They chose a nice, sceneric hill with lots of trees covered with fresh snow. They all went down slowly, enjoying the moment, when all of a sudden, Naruto lost his balance, and crashed into Sakura. Sakura tried to regain her balance, but stumbled down. In front of her, there was a big drop filled with trees, twigs, and branches sticking out here and there at the bottom.
Hinata stopped immediately to help Naruto, as Shikamaru and Ino stopped a little in front of them just to wait. Sasuke, as soon as he saw the big drop Sakura was heading for, became frightened, and sped up to prevent her from falling. She was about to fall, but he couldn't reach her. Just as Sakura felt the ground beneath her fade to thin air, a hand caught her arm.
Still in shock, Sakura looked down, and saw that the ground had magically fallen down to 20 feet below. As she looked up to see who had caught her in time, she felt herself being pulled back up. Who is it? she asked herself. She saw a flash of red hair, and jade eyes, encircled with black.
"Gaara-san?"
He kept pulling her up, but struggled a little due to the heaviness of the skis. As Sakura collapsed on the ground, she whispered a soft "Thank you" and tried to stand up. Being on a snowboard, Gaara stood up without much difficulty, and stretched out a hand to help Sakura. "A-arigatou, Gaara-san…" Sakura blushed, as his naked body came into mind.
Gaara brushed off the snow that clung to his jacket and shivered.
"Are you cold?" Sakura asked with concern.
Gaara gave her one of his death glares, checked his buckles on his snowboard, and swished away.
Sasuke watched the whole thing standing a few feet behind them. Why? Why was Sakura so nice to him? He's a murderer that doesn't care about other people's feelings or emotions…why should HE get Sakura's attention!
Sasuke decided to play it cool, and slowly made his way over to Sakura.
"You ok?" he asked coolly.
"Y-yeah…just a little shocked…I should be more careful," she chuckled weakly.
"Don't laugh! You could have died!" Sasuke blurted out faster than he had expected.
"S-sasuke-kun…" Sakura was quite shocked. When did Sasuke-kun ever start NOTICING me, let alone CARE about me?...this is one weird day…
"Let's just go…" Sasuke sighed, and jumped so that his board was vertical, and slid away.
"Sakura! Are you ok!" Ino came rushing in as fast as she could without falling.
"Yeah…thanks to Gaara-san…"
"Well..he IS a little creepy..but..if he saved you..then he can't be THAT bad…I guess we should get going, ne?"
"Yes…let's go…" I wonder why he DID save me…he IS sort of a murderer…why would MY life be any different? But then again, it has been quite a few years.
"Wow! That was sooo fun!" Temari exclaimed.
"Yeah! I wonder what snowboarding is like…Skiing is REALLY free though…" Ino added.
"Yeah! Snowboard was a BLAST! You guys should try it!" Naruto joined in.
"Well…I don't know…it probably isn't as free as skiing though…" Sakura said, unsure.
"Yeah…but, it's a lot cooler…"
"Hmm…I guess so…"
"What are we eating for dinner?" Chouji asked, his stomach growling like as if he needed to growl to live.
"Let's go out for ramen!" Naruto suggested.
Typical… Sasuke rolled his eyes.
"Noo…how about…Steak?" Kiba blurted out.
"Yeah! Let's have steak!"
"Alllright! STEAK!" Chouji yelled.
They all piled through the door, save for Sasuke and Gaara, who decided not to go out for dinner, and walked towards the nearest steakhouse as fast as they could without slipping on the sheets of ice covering the floor.
As they ate, they all talked about all the slopes they went down, or which hot guy they saw. When they were all about to pay for the bill, being the considerate person Sakura is, she ordered some salad and two burgers for Sasuke and Gaara.
They strolled back to their condo slowly, on account of having full stomachs.
Sakura remained quite quiet as the others chattered away and thought about the things that went on that day. First, there was the whole naked Gaara and Sasuke-kun thing in the morning…And Sasuke-kun? STUTTERING! I'd hate to see what would happen when he hits 40…Gaara…saving ME! That's just totally confusing…I wonder if it's some sort of disease that's hit them…hmm…
They all walked into the house in different groups, who respectively went up to their bedrooms to get ready for bed. As they all took showers when they first got back to the condo before dinner, there was no need to take showers again.
"Here, Sasuke-kun" Sakura said as she stretched out her hand to give them the bag of food.
"What's this?" Sasuke asked.
"It's a bag filled with explosives! Don't touch it!" Sakura exclaimed.
The ninja jumped and crouched in attack position.
"Calm down, you paraniod. It's food. Did you really think I would bring you a bomb? I'm not about to kill the whole house, you know," she said earnestly.
"Oh…just leave it there…" Sasuke said, nodding at the table.
"'kay" Sakura walked over and set the Styrofoam trays onto the wooden table. She started to set the table up for them, and went upstairs to call Gaara.
She knocked on his door, and waited for an answer. Nothing…She knocked again.
"Yes?" said a deep voice from inside the room.
"Gaara-san? I brought you some food, it's downstairs on the dining table, ok?"
"Okay"
"Be sure to go down!"
Sakura walked down the stairs, still staring at Gaara's closed door. She took her hand off the railing to curl her pink locks behind her left ear, when she missed a step, and fell down the stairs, spraining her ankle in the process. Oww… Sakura winced.
Gaara's bedroom door opened slowly, and he stepped out. Looking down the stairs, he saw Sakura sitting on the landing, clutching her ankle as Temari, Kiba, and Naruto had popped their heads out of the kitchen to see what was going on.
"Sakura? Are you alright?" Gaara asked quietly.
"Yes…I think so…Ugh..I'm so clumsy today…"
Gaara felt his lips tug upwards a little, but kept it under control. He walked down the stairs, bent down, and helped Sakura up.
"Can you walk?"
"I think so…" Sakura replied as she limped down the stairs slowly. When she stumbled, Gaara would hold her closer, helping her down the stairs carefully, and Sakura would blush a deep red. By the time she reached the bottom of the stairs, her face was unrecognizable from a tomato.
"Are you not feeling well?" Gaara asked, seeing the redness.
"Oh, I'm fine…"
"Let's get you over to the couch…"
"Hai"
Feeling that it would take too long for Sakura to limp all the way over to the living room, Gaara put his right arm over her shoulder, bent down, and slid his left arm behind her knees, and carried her over to the green sofa bridal style.
"There…"
"A-ariga…tou…Gaara-san…" Sakura blushed…again.
He stared at her.
"Oh, please go and eat..the food's going to get cold…" Sakura insisted.
"Alright"
END OF CHAPTER
Okay..so..there really wasn't a lot of interactions between the guys themselves…but…guys are the type of species that don't talk to each other about the most random things…so…I dunno…plus, it's hard for me to juggle between situations…its…just really hard…. (for me anyway)
I didn't put Gai's team in, because there's already a lot of people in this story for my taste…not to mention the fact that they ARE a year older..so..they did this already…UU
And OK…Gaara was REALLY REALLY OOC…but…u know…pplz change…and…this story wouldn't be fun if he was totally the way he is in the show…ok?