She woke up hungry.

No, not hungry. Ravenous. So much so that she had actually started gnawing on the edge of her pillow in her sleep, awakening to the taste of semi dried drool and feathers. Not her idea of starting the day off right, but it happened often enough that she got used to it.

When Sake Friday had first been put into effect, officially, she had tried to keep to her regular schedule. This meant getting up at around dawn for her morning exercise: a nice, leisurely 50 lap run around the village. It was then that she had learned that her newly acquired friend, the Alcohol, had a split personality named the Hangover if she got up before noon. And she was nothing if not a quick learner.

So, today, in her typical Saturday morning fashion, Haruno Sakura, respected kinouchi, widely renowned medic and personal apprentice to the Kokage herself, sluggishly rolled out of her cocoon of blankets and pillows at a little past 1 in the afternoon and stumbled clumsily to her bathroom.

"Ugh." She groaned unintelligibly as she spied her image in the mirror above her sink before turning the tap of her shower and let the water run warm.

Her appearance that morning was definitely ugh-worthy. Her long pink hair, usually silky and glossy was tangled and matted to the side of her face. Part of it had been unfortunate enough to get between her and the pillow at some point during the night and stuck to the side of her face in an unattractive pink clump. There was a trail of dried saliva between it and her mouth. Not to mention her make up, now smudged and caked, made her look like she just stepped out of a zombie movie. That, or a bingo book.

At least she had had enough presence of mind to take her clothes of before crawling into bed and promptly passing out last night.

After finishing with her teeth, which she had scrubbed viciously to get rid of the slimy, sticky feeling, Sakura rinsed her mouth and stepped under the hot spray of her shower. The water was almost too hot, making her body tingle in response, finally waking her up. She wasted little time in washing herself and her hair, but then lingered under the comforting sensation of water massaging her slouched back until the water turned tepid and then finally cold.

Wrapping a towel around herself, she stepped out unto the bath rug and glanced at herself again. That was more like it.

She quickly made a mental list of things she had to do that day. Cleaning up her place; breakfast; grocery shopping; dinner with the guys, if she could find them all. Her stomach rumbled anxiously. Cleaning and finding herself some pants could wait. She was hungry.


"Oiy, dobe. Over here." He sounded smug.

The voice was coming from right behind his left ear, but the boy didn't dare look. He'd fallen for this one before; he was not going to again. Instead, he continued to stare at his opponent, their arms straining from the pressure of their opposing forces. Each had a kunai in hand, presently clashed together in an attempt to overpower the other.

"Naruto-kun, why are you ignoring me?" A girl's voice spoke, sounding quiet and hurt and petulant.

"Please, Naruto-kun?" Hinata begged, shy, hopeful, somewhere behind him.

The voice and direction changed each time and his ears twitched in response.

"I'm just so lonely." Ino whined, closer.

"I'd do anything you want." Kurenai whispered, seductively throaty, on his left.

"Anything."

That was Sakura for that last "anything" right by his right ear, so close and softly moaned that he could almost feel warm breath on the skin.

The growl that had been building deep within Naruto's throat finally managed to escape past his lips, forming a sneer as he bared his sharp front teeth. He struggled against his opponent with renewed vigor, but the latter held fast, only losing a step or two before he adjusted his stance. And he was smiling. Sasuke was smiling.

Naruto rued the day that Sasuke had learned to throw his voice like that. He lost track of how many times the bastard had gotten him already. At first it had been small things that Naruto would never guess were faked, like hearing bear noises nearby while he was peeing in some bushes. That had caused him immense panic because of his vulnerable position and much embarrassment in front of his team later.

But lately, Sasuke had been using it more and more in training.

This wasn't like genjutsu. Unlike for most people, genjutsu was a lot simpler for him to deal with. Naruto could sense an opponent's chakra in the air and feel the false vibrations of artificial sound when it was a genjutsu and dismiss it. His ears were great like that.

But this, this was for real and his body had trouble not responding to such a realistic stimulus. It had thrown him off the first few times, but he was getting used to it. What was really killing him was that he still hadn't learned how the bastard did it.

Sasuke and Naruto had been going at it for a while now, since early morning. It was a relatively cool spring day, so they had decided on taijitsu for today's training. No Kyubi, no Sharingan, no nothing. Just pure strength, speed and skill.

But as the day wore on, their brutal blows and lightning quick attacks had deteriorated into grappling and shoving with an occasional mind-fuck, compliments of Sasuke. Sai had long since grown bored in the sidelines.

"Really dobe, I'm impressed. All these scantily dressed women right behind you just begging for your attention, and you don't even look."

Sasuke was speaking to him normally now, his voice smooth and unstrained, a small smile firmly planted on his lips. Oh, how Naruto would have loved to wipe it off for him, preferably with his fists. Sometimes he wished Sasuke had never acquired a sense of humor.

It had taken the dark haired boy a long time to develop into a real human being after he had come back to Konoha 6 years ago. He had been bloody, battered, half dead and had in his possession one Sennin-level, decapitated snake head. He had been cold and even more anti-social than ever back then.

After what seemed like months of interrogation and surveillance, ANBU had finally given him free reign of the village. It had taken the old Team 7 several years to really get back to where they were before in terms of their friendship and trust. It had taken longer still to get as close as they were now.

Not to mention how long it had taken for Sasuke to grow his own personality.

It was subtle; a sarcastic comment here, a wise crack there, spaced few and far between that you could dismiss them as attitude if you didn't know Sasuke any better. But since Naruto and Sakura did, they recognized it for what it was-- sense of humor. And they couldn't be any prouder. Except times like these, when Sasuke used his newly acquired ability for evil instead of entertainment.

"Hey bastard, shut up and fight." Naruto managed to grunt out between growls.

The bastard ignored him.

"Oiy, Sakura, is that a new outfit?" He asked 'Sakura" with faux curiosity, addressing an area of space just out of Naruto's field of vision. "You must be cold, wearing so very little."

Naruto's eye twitched.

"Not at all, Sasuke-kun." Replied 'Sakura'.

It sounded like 'Sakura' was walking towards them, feet just audible on the sandy ground. But Naruto still wasn't fooled. Last time he fell for that one he got a foot to the face of his own.

"Are we still on for dinner tonight?" The voice asked, closer now, off to the side and behind him.

"Sure." Sasuke answered effortlessly. How the bastard managed to not sound winded even though their training was visibly taxing them both Naruto would never know.

Sasuke turned his smug, smarmy gaze back to him.

"Naruto?" The feminine voice asked again.

He didn't respond. He wouldn't give that wretch the satisfaction.

"Naruto, I asked you a question." The voice was impatient now, very life-like. Sasuke smiled darkly, not breaking eye contact with Naruto.

He thinks he's so freaking great. I'll show him.

"What was that, Sakura-chan?" Naruto yelled, still not breaking eye contact with Sasuke as his face broke into a fox-like, gleeful grin. "I didn't hear you over how LOUD that outfit is."

He never saw the fist coming. All he knew was that suddenly, he was about 30 feet from where he used to be, slamming into a tree. It cracked under the force but Naruto didn't hear it, since the ringing in his ears was just way too loud. Rubbing his head, he tried to open his eyes and found a very angry and a very real Sakura standing over him, her fists on her hips.

"What did you say?" She hissed, hauling him up by his ear painfully.

Briefly Naruto noticed her change in wardrobe with the eye that was not presently swelling shut.

"Uh..." He laughed nervously and asked in a small, sorry voice. "When did you get here?"

She gave him a disgusted look as she threw him aside with a simple snap of her delicate yet deceptively strong wrist.

"7 o'clock, at the usual place." Sakura spat. "Don't you even dare be late."

She shot a narrowed look at Naruto and then Sai, who had sat up from his prone lounging position with interest at the new situation. Both quickly nodded in the affirmative.

Sakura cast one last glance at Naruto. Satisfied that he was properly punished she left the training grounds.

"Thanks a lot, asshole." Naruto snarled.

Sasuke just smirked.


As it turned out, Sakura was the last to arrive to the restaurant. She brushed off the maitre 'd as she made her way over to the guys, who seemed to be in deep conversation over something. They were in their usual seats, Naruto and Sai on one side and Sasuke on the other of the long rectangular table. She took the empty seat next to Sasuke, across from Sai, briefly noticing that the conversation halted abruptly.

"Sorry I'm late." She apologized with little real sincerity. "Had to buy groceries."

They each greeted her with different degrees of wariness and murmurs of hello. Good, she thought to herself smugly. They should fear me.

Sakura opened a menu even though she already knew what it said. They had come to this place often– it was one of the few places where the management didn't make them pay for damages when an argument between Sasuke and Sai got a little too heated.

"Did you order yet?" She asked without looking up.

"No, we were waiting for Kakashi-sensei." Naruto answered her.

That caught her attention and she glanced up in surprise as she asked, "He's coming tonight?"

Despite the fact that he had an open invitation to their weekly gathering, he had showed up maybe twice in the last year. Both times had been someone's birthday and both times she had had to physically escort him there herself.

While the rest of Team Kakashi, now including Sai, was almost inseperable, Kakashi himself was usually nowhere to be found. Sakura ran into him in the market sometimes, passing him by with a polite smile and 'Hello', him answering with a 'Yo' and his signature wave. That is, when he wasn't completely engrossed in the latest edition of Icha Icha Porn. If that was the case he would just walk right by.

She knew he still trained with Naruto or Sasuke occasionally, but Sakura herself never saw much of him. They just didn't travel in the same circles.

"I saw him at HQ today. He mentioned he might stop by." Sasuke said casually, like it was nothing, even though Sakura knew he had to be as curious as she was.

"I bet he's out of money and just wants to mooch off of us for dinner." Sakura speculated as she went back to reading the menu.

It wouldn't have been the first time. Hatake Kakashi was almost as well known for his cheap, get-out-of-paying-the-bill tactics as he was for his ninja ability.

"Maybe he just wants to see us." Said Naruto.

"Maybe he heard about Sakura's new outfit." Sai supplied helpfully.

Her head snapped up immediately and she took in both Sasuke's and Naruto's chagrined expressions.

"What. About. It." She bit out menacingly.

"We were just talking," Sai continued as if he hadn't made a serious, potentially life threatening faux pas. "And we're not sure if you actually put that shirt on the morning or just paint it on. Naruto says he can tell the temperature by how–"

He couldn't continue because the table was very violently and very suddenly in the way of his face.

Naruto and Sasuke's faces contorted into identical grimaces of pain and apprehension. Sakura's smoldering gaze turned on Naruto.

"Now, now, Sakura-chan," Naruto held up both hands in surrender. "We can't help but notice if your shirt happens to–"

A swift slap to one of his sensitive ears had him howling in pain.

Sasuke used all his willpower not to shrink back and melt into his chair when Sakura's hostile eyes fell on him. Hopelessly, he prayed that she would suddenly remember all those tender feelings she used to harbor for him when they were young. It was in vain.

"You," She snapped.

Sakura flicked his ear with 2 fingers, making sure to throw in a decent dose of chakra to really make it sting.

"That's for that 'cold' comment today. I thought you were really concerned."

The sight that greeted Kakashi as he made his way over to their table was 3 grown shinobi, all of them accomplished Jounin, ANBU even, groaning and rubbing their respectful injuries as they cowered in fear of their petite, pink haired friend. Pitiful.

As Kakashi approached the table, his exposed eye was immediately drawn to the profile of Sakura's form. He had seen the long shirt the night before at the bar, but not from this close up. It was a thin, stretchy black material that seemed to hug her body like a glove, revealing more than it concealed. He could see clearly the outline of the bindings on her chest, wrapped diagonally across her torso. They did nothing to hide her womanly attributes. The gentle swell of her breast was clearly defined, as was her currently pebbled nipple. The generous amount of thigh that her shorts failed to cover was also noteworthy.

Kakashi cleared his throat and forced his gaze up to look at each of their faces by turn.

"Yo." He finally greeted them, drawing Sakura's attention away from the guys, and simultaneously gaining their gratitude for his interruption.

She looked up at him and smiled sweetly, and he couldn't help it. His eye strayed.

"Nice shirt, Sakura."

Three grown men groaned pathetically in unison.


Ok, sorry, I know I promised plot but I kinda had to get it set up. I swear, in the next one. I mean it this time. So, uh, review?