Chapter Six: Desire


Naruto stared at his mostly full pint and tapped his fingers on the table.

He'd been the first one back in the bar after everyone had gone to their rooms to prepare for the remainder of the day. The girls were all going to the onsite spa to get some pampering and just have some girly time, and the men were … well basically gonna drink, play poker, make fun of each other and probably wind up in the pool.

Guy stuff basically.

Shikamaru and Temari's bachelor/bachelorette parties had been weeks ago and this weekend was more about blowing off steam and preparing for the special day on Sunday. There was nothing crazy planned as far as Naruto knew.

They'd already had the stripper surprise at the bachelor party and Chouji wasn't the type to pull that twice. Besides the woman he'd booked wasn't going to be surpassed on memorability. How were you meant to top a stunning red haired woman who played the flute while stripping naked?

On a purely technical level that was just damn impressive, even more so than the rest of her if you asked Naruto. Though as he'd said, stunning.

He also knew Temari's bachelorette party had had a couple strippers too. Ino was the maid of honour and she had been quite open about how Temari was gonna be in front of a lot of very attractive, very naked men. Sakura still wouldn't tell him about it and blushed whenever it was brought up.

So yeah, this weekend would be a whole lot more chilled.

Which was good, Naruto thought as he stared some more at his beer. Because the last thing he needed was to be all riled up by seeing a gorgeous woman strip naked and then have to climb into bed with the most beautiful woman in the world and not come onto her.

Yes, he was beyond happy to be sharing a bed with her, any straight man with eyes would be, but he didn't want to assume anything. Because his brain was already throwing enough assumptions about the pair of them sharing a bed and it was driving him crazy.

Mostly because he couldn't stop thinking about it. He still hadn't been to the room yet, the cases were already up there but he'd let Sakura go up first to get changed in privacy. He didn't need to change anyway and even if they did wind up in the pool … well he could hop in the elevator and come back down with his swimsuit.

The idea of going into the room he'd be sharing with Sakura, with both of their luggage, was just too much to process right now. Yeah they'd done it before, yeah they'd even shared a bed before but there was definitely, one hundred percent, something different about this time.

And at least a hundred things that could ruin any attempt at keeping their platonic date … well platonic.

Like what if he had a Sakura dream with her sleeping next to him? How was he meant to handle that in the shower when the shower they would share was literally attached to their shared bedroom? What if he got morning wood and Sakura woke up feeling that against her back cus they'd wound up spooning? Hell what if he wasn't quick enough covering himself in the morning and she saw it?

The longer he sat there thinking the more things he came up with that could happen, until he was basically playing out one of his grandpa's plotlines. And not his cheesy adventure work … the steamy erotica that his mother hadn't let him know that that's how Grandpa had made his money.

But while thinking about that stuff was making him have to shift in his seat while arguing it away as just natural attraction to an objectively beautiful woman … it was the less sexy stuff that was sending him into the a spiral.

The possibility of waking up snuggling Sakura, the domesticity of them getting dressed for their day together, ordering room service maybe and even just doing the things that people who typically shared a hotel room and bed would do together.

It worried him how happy the mere idea of it was making him. How right those things sounded. Because even he knew that the stuff he was picturing was not something you'd do with a friend you were sharing a room with. No, curse his brain, they were the things you'd do with a girlfriend.

And the idea of him and Sakura being here as an actual couple, was even more wonderful to him than the idea of screwing her brains out.

Both were good, excellent even, but being her boyfriend … ughhh.

Platonic date, sure. Trust him to ruin the whole damn idea with his resurfacing feelings.

He took a levelling swallow of his beer. He was fantasising like when they were in school again. These feelings were just going to hurt him later, because if Sakura had wanted him to be her boyfriend, she'd have done something about it by now.

That was one of the things he'd always liked most about her. That when she wanted something she damn sure got it. So what if they'd been flirting more lately? That she'd been blushing more than ever? They did that shit for fun, they'd once even kissed just to mess with their friends when they knew they were watching.

And okay, more than kiss when they'd been drinking.

But that was irrelevant. If Sakura wanted him to be hers, he'd be hers already.

He needed to let these feelings and hopes go. He'd done it once, he could do it again. Hell he had practice this time. Naruto had no intention of making what could be an awkward situation worse for Sakura by actively mooning over her.

His feelings weren't returned, and that was fine. It wasn't Sakura's fault that he was still nursing his teenaged crush despite his best efforts to get over it.

He drank more beer.

What if he wasn't the only one nursing a crush though?

Naruto stomped on that traitorous thought. He didn't need it, it wasn't coming from him. He'd just had years of all of his friends insisting that Sakura liked him back. Of course it'd stick in his head and pop up sometimes.

Sure Naruto, whatever you say.

He was saved from an argument with himself with the beaming face of his other best friend.

'Naruto,' Gaara said happily, well happily for Gaara, automatically earning a smile from Naruto. 'How have you been? I saw on the news that your suspect got life. Congratulations. You're staying for the whole weekend right?'

Naruto stood from his chair and hugged the shorter man, more like he took the impact of the auburn haired man colliding with his chest, but he laughed all the same.

'Yeah, he's going away for a very long time,' Naruto said, realising he'd barely thought of Orochimaru Hebi's court date since Sakura had come round the night after Naruto's testimony. 'Thanks for pulling some strings so we could get access to the witnesses in Suna by the way.'

Gaara shrugged and waved at the barmaid from earlier. 'It was nothing, we couldn't risk him being found not guilty because key evidence was being held behind jurisdictional preening.'

'And it helps I'm friends with Suna's youngest government representative ever huh?' Naruto teased as the barmaid came over to take their drink orders.

Gaara smiled and ordered another pint for Naruto and one for himself and the barmaid span away after a friendly nod and smile … at Gaara specifically. Naruto chuckled and raised his eyebrows at the other man.

'You noticed that right?' Naruto whispered as he sipped at his older beer. 'She's totally checking you out from the bar.'

Gaara rolled his eyes. 'Yes, I'm aware, she's been doing that since I arrived from Suna.'

'So you gonna abandon me tonight to chase some tail?' Naruto goaded as the two men drank.

It earned Naruto a slightly icy glare and a shake of his head. 'Are you really never going to stop teasing me about using that expression once?'

'Never. We'll be old men in nursing homes and I'll still be making fun of you for it.'

'Fine,' Gaara snorted and eased back into his chair. 'But no, I won't be. But I suggest you leave the teasing there.'

'Or what?' Naruto asked with an easy smirk around his steadily emptying glass. Gaara was a bad influence he swore.

'Or I will start making comments about how I noticed you and Sakura are sharing a room.' Gaara's tone was even, there was no obvious threat in there but his eyes man, the eyes promised pain. 'And you lose the last friend you have who isn't actively bothering you about dating her.'

Naruto opened his mouth and closed it again, raising a finger to point at Gaara, who was just staring at him expectantly. Naruto opened and closed his mouth a couple more times before sighing heavily. 'Fine. That was low Gaara.'

He shrugged. 'Don't care. I'm assuming the room share wasn't either of your choices?'

Which was Gaara for 'who pranked you?'

'Ino, looks like she's finally making good on her threat to lock us in a room, and not let us out til we, well you know,' Naruto grumbled, making rather indelicate hand gestures to get his point across.

It was easier talking to Gaara about this sort of thing than anyone else. His auburn haired friend knew not to push and having a friend who wasn't actively trying to set him up with Sakura was a godsend.

'Extreme I admit,' Gaara said with an incline of his head. 'But forgive me Naruto, the chemistry between the two of you is undeniable. Pour enough alcohol down each of your throats and lock you in a room … well.'

Naruto pulled a face at the other man. 'I thought you weren't trying to set us up.'

'I'm not,' Gaara said, draining his glass. 'I'm stating facts. What you do with them is unimportant.'

'Uh huh,' Naruto said, shaking his head. 'Whatever. How was your flight from Suna?'

The two men chatted lightly for another ten minutes as they waited for the rest of the guys to come down from their rooms to join them.

Gaara's flight had been perfectly adequate apparently. They'd had to fly commercial because you couldn't borrow government property just to attend your sister's wedding apparently. But they'd gotten business class so he and Kankuro had had a nice enough time.

He'd had more questions about Naruto's work. While Gaara never pushed Naruto on his relationship with Sakura, the same couldn't be said for his insistence that Naruto consider moving into politics. Whether it was just so Gaara had someone he could stand to be around at the government buildings his work life was spent in, or whether he truly believed Naruto was best suited for government was unclear.

But it didn't stop Gaara from insisting Naruto at least consider it every time they spoke.

And it was just between reason one hundred and six and one hundred and seven that Naruto was saved by a steady procession of the men of the wedding party showing up in the bar.

'Who's ready to get their drink on?!' Kiba cheered, both arms thrust into the air as he swaggered in, in just a pair of swimming shorts. 'Barmaid! A round of beers for all of us and keep them coming!'

Shikamaru rolled his eyes from his chair and waved the barmaid off, who was looking a touch annoyed, and winced apologetically at her. 'Or we could just go to the pool and see if they've set up the table for us?'

'Table?' Naruto asked, looking from Shikamaru to Chouji. 'Why's there a table at the pool?'

'For poker,' Chouji said simply. 'Not everyone wants to swim so I thought it'd be cool to have some options.' Kiba went to speak and was silenced by Shino plastering his long hand over Kiba's mouth. 'Yes Kiba, there's also beer pong.'

Kiba pumped his fist and grinned at Naruto who couldn't help but return the enthusiasm. It was infectious. 'And …'

'And yes there will be forfeits for losers,' Chouji said with a fond shake of his head. 'Don't worry, you'll have an excuse to launch yourself into the water like you're a feral animal.'

Kiba's grin didn't diminish an iota and Naruto suddenly wished he'd gone to the room to get his shorts. He felt a bit pathetic for not being able to face going to his room just cos Sakura was gonna be there.

'Shall we get moving then?' Neji asked as he readjusted a duffle bag on his shoulder.

'Yosh!' Lee shouted exuberantly, his bright green towel tucked under his arm. 'I will win every game with the power of youth! This will be a mighty challenge! I'm going to swim fifty laps to warm up!'

They collectively rolled their eyes and gave each other incredulous looks as Lee shot off on his own towards the pool.

'Or we could walk?' Shikamaru offered to the chorus of acknowledging laughter. 'Man, I like Lee but he's exhausting. How do you put up with him?'

Neji shrugged and started walking away. 'I have an energetic four year old at home, he tears around the house so fast he makes Lee look tame. Besides I can throw Lee in the pool if he starts bothering me without Tenten kicking my ass.'

Another commiserating shudder of laughter went across the men, especially the fathers, and they started making to move out of the bar.

'I'll have to catch up with you guys, left my swimsuit in the room,' Naruto said, trying his best to make it sound like he was just forgetful and not chicken. 'Forgot about the pool I guess.'

Most of the men just shook their heads or waved him off and Naruto almost got to skulk off and have a mini-breakdown about how stupid he was being undisturbed. Honestly, he'd been avoiding a room just because he was sharing it with Sakura? That was just stupid of him, resurfaced feelings or not.

The universe however decided it wasn't done fucking with him through people who were meant to be his friends.

'Oh, wait Naruto,' Sai said blankly, fishing around a duffle bag he had. 'You don't need to.'

'Er thanks,' Naruto said awkwardly, glancing at his friends who had turned to see what was going on. 'But not to be mean but I don't think anything of yours will fit.'

'I know,' Sai said simply. He made a soft sound of success and pulled a bright orange towel and a pair of orange swimming shorts. Naruto's bright orange towel and swimming shorts. 'Sakura gave these to me when I was leaving mine and Ino's room. She said you'd forgotten and to give them to you. Oh and to tell you to have fun. Are you sure she's not your girlfriend? She certainly acts like it.'

Naruto pointedly ignored the poorly covered laughing coming from the rest of the men as he quietly took the offending items off of Sai as kindly as he could manage. Which wasn't very, he damn near snatched them out of the man's hands.

'Yes. Thank you,' he said through his teeth and walked stiffly towards the exit of the bar.

'You know,' Chouji started with a small smirk. 'You're a real lucky guy Naruto …'

'Chouji, don't you dare.' Naruto said warningly.

'What? I'm just saying, when I forget things I have to go get them myself.' Chouji's face never even flickered. But there was an ocean's worth of amusement in his eyes. 'But you? Pfft, I should have married Sakura instead. Your wife is so much nicer than mine!'

'Shove it fat man,' Naruto hissed, his insult only making the chubby man laugh harder.

'Savour it while you can Uzumaki,' Kiba chimed in, nudging Naruto in the side with his elbow and grinning like some kind of stupid monkey. 'The honeymoon period only lasts so long.'

'I will kill you,' Naruto snarled as they all moved out, jabbing his finger at Kiba's chest. 'And I know how to get away with it.'

His threat against Kiba was met with about as much respect as his insult at Chouji.

'And make sure you get as much sex in as you can before the children come,' Neji opined, totally deadpan. 'Ever since Hideki was born, we've had to foist him on his grandparents if we want so much as a romantic meal.'

More laughter, this one again quite commiserating, and Naruto snarled. 'Shouldn't you be saying all this to Shikamaru? He's the one getting married on Sunday!'

The men all shrugged and this time it was the usually quiet Shino's turn to pipe up. 'Yes, but Shikamaru won't deny he's married to his wife.'

Naruto could have sworn the man's sunglasses shone just as he was landing the punchline and everyone, even Gaara the traitor, chuckled as Naruto simmered.

'I hate all of you.'

'Yeah, yeah,' Shikamaru said, slapping the blond on the back. 'Stop bitching and come lose at poker.'

Naruto grumbled obscenities that his mother would wash his mouth out with soap for if she caught him all the way to the pool area.


Sakura hadn't felt as relaxed as she did right now in days. Possibly weeks.

Which was a miracle given that the mere thought of her and Naruto sharing a bed for the whole weekend was stoking fires in her that she couldn't even begin to put out. Not that she wanted to.

She'd all but kicked platonic out the goddamn window, but he didn't know that yet and what if he did reject her making it more than platonic and that turned the fire into ice and she started to …

But! But, she had just spent the last hour or so having a very nice massage and having a lovely full body exfoliating and she felt absolutely amazing and chill and Zen.

So as the six women left the group massage room, all fluffy white dressing gowns and well soothed muscles, Sakura felt like she could take on the world. And she continued to feel that way when they were lingering over where to go next.

'Okay so,' Ino started, pulling out the piece of program the manager of the spa had handed her before the first treatment. 'We've done the exfoliating, the face masks and the massages, all we've got left are the saunas and then the manicures and the pedicures.'

'Um about the sauna …?' Hinata said sheepishly, gesturing at her belly and smiling. 'Our doctor said it was strictly a no-go for me.'

'Oh …' Ino said, deflating slightly as her plan, which she'd been really good at organising truth be told.

Sakura had been a bit surprised that Temari hadn't picked an old friend from Suna to be her Maid of Honour but then she'd remembered what the woman had said about how many friends she'd had growing up and it suddenly made sense.

Whether it was due to Rasa being snobby or just downright disruptive to his children's happiness or just the insular way he kept his family in general, Temari, Kankuro and Gaara had only really had each other growing up.

And Ino was made to be a Maid of Honour. She'd thrown an amazing bachelorette party, Sakura didn't remember most of it but she knew it was a good one because of photos. There had been one particular moment including lots of very attractive, very naked men, dancing around the group of women that had broken through Sakura's drunken memories of that night though.

How many times did you see a man who had tattoos of tongues on his hands stripping down to his birthday suit after all?

'Well we can skip the sauna right?' Karui offered to the group, wrapping an arm around Ino and rubbing her shoulder comfortingly. 'Just go straight to the pedicures and manicures?'

Ino gave Karui a slow Look, the look Sakura knew very well. She suspected something and she was trying to figure out what was being kept from her. Normally it was the look Sakura got after one of the many, many times she and Naruto had kissed on a night out while drunk.

Ino always ferreted the gossip out of her and proceeded to berate her for days after the fact. Longer even if the kissing had turned to something a little more handsy. The week after the one time Naruto had squeezed her ass while they'd kissed had been never-ending with how Sakura should go return the favour, and how that proved Naruto was definitely after something more.

So yeah … seeing that look on Ino's face and aimed at someone else, well it made her protective of that person. Not everyone could put up with Ino's constant pestering after all.

But before she had the chance to save Karui from her fate, Hinata stepped in.

'Temari?' Hinata spoke up gently but firmly. They called it her Mom Voice. Much like Ino's Look, Hinata had the Mom Voice down pat and always had. Ever since they were in school. 'It's your weekend, what would you like to do? It's not fair that all the plans have to change on your weekend just because I got pregnant.' Hinata smiled serenely as she touched her belly unconsciously. Which was just adorable and made Sakura want to happy cry.

The sandy haired woman chuckled. 'Yeah, shame on you and Kiba, don't you use protection at all?'

Hinata shrugged. 'A lady never tells nor does she ask.' She gave the other woman a sly look. Which coming from Hinata was always so jarring. She was meant to be the good girl, the butter wouldn't melt girl. And normally she was.

But Sakura had seen Hinata dancing when she'd had a glass of wine too many, and had one or two conversations with her over said wine that proved that when it came to it … oh the butter hadn't lasted seconds.

'Well, I would like to use the sauna, it's so gorgeous,' Temari said with a sigh, which was mirrored by all the women. The sauna really was amazing here. 'But we'd only be in there for what? Thirty minutes including cooling off and showering time? Forty tops?'

'About that yeah,' Ino said, her previous gusto returned. 'But we don't want to leave you on your own for that long Hinata.'

'I'll keep her company,' Karui said, just a little too quickly if you asked Sakura. Yeah, she was definitely hiding something. 'That way the rest of you can still do the sauna, I've never been a massive fan of them anyway, always dry out my hair too much.'

'That sounds lovely,' Hinata said kindly. 'Is that okay with you Temari?'

'Sure, but what are you two going to do?' Temari asked.

Hinata eyed Karui idly, still smiling. 'Well, even pregnant ladies can have warm baths, and the little pool they have in the spa is heated yes?'

'Yuh-huh,' Ino said, flicking through the program.

'Wonderful,' Hinata said happily. 'We'll wait for you girls there. Come on Karui, let's go.'

The two women smiled at the rest and wandered off in the general area of the heated pool.

The remaining women waited for them to be out of earshot before turning to each other and grinning.

'So Karui's pregnant right?' Tenten asked with a smirk.

'Definitely!' Ino laughed with a shake of her head. 'You should have seen her and Chouji recently, they've been trying to hide how happy they are. Failing miserably by the way.'

They started to make their way towards the sauna, laughing amongst themselves.

'You're telling me,' Temari said with a snort. 'Chouji might be worse than her, he flat out asked, totally hypothetically of course, if Shikamaru would be godfather of any future children the two had. Boy can't keep a secret to save his life.'

'Oh God,' Sakura giggled as they approached the showers stalls. 'So you think Hinata knows?'

'For sure, that warm pool thing?' Ino started undoing her robe and pulled loose her hair so it shimmered down over her shoulders. 'Karui's definitely about to get some mommy advice. Surprised she didn't ask you to go as well Ten.'

Tenten shrugged, her buns being undone and her brown hair falling to her neck. 'Hinata has more kids and let's be real, she's far more approachable than I am. Who would you rather ask for mothering advice? Hell, I wish I'd had Hinata to ask when I was pregnant with Hideki.'

Sakura had to give Tenten that, but she still thought Tenten would have some good advice too, she'd seen the woman with her son and it was just as adorable as Hinata with the twins.

'Okay then,' Ino said, slapping her hands together. 'Quick showers then we're in the sauna, titties out.'

'Ino …' Sakura admonished with a slight blush.

'What?' Ino said innocently, though she was saying it from inside her stall so Sakura had no doubt the blonde was grinning her ass off. 'It's the best way to experience a sauna isn't it Doctor?'

Sakura snorted. 'Yeah but you don't have to be so childish about it.'

Ino didn't reply and neither Tenten nor Temari added anything but Sakura still blushed a little. She'd been a little uncomfortable with being topless in the sauna when they'd first gone in as a group.

She might have had some body issues as a teenager and while she'd mostly got rid of them now … through both Naruto's gentlemanly encouragement and playful flirting and Ino's outright stating that she looked amazing with her clothes off … she'd not grown out of them the first time they'd all gone in a sauna.

And Ino never failed to tease her about it, even now. She always made the same jokes whenever they did, even if it was just the two of them. The titties out one was first and the other would come when they were in the actual sauna. There was no stopping it from happening either.

So Sakura just powered through her shower, deciding to get in there and let Ino get it out of her system. That way she could spend longer using the sauna for its actual purpose.

Relaxing.

Sakura finished her shower and wrapped herself in a towel from the pile the hotel staff had left out for them, tucking it under her armpit and making sure it was secure before stepping out. It might be coming off again once she got to the sauna but she'd rather not have her towel fall off while she was walking. It was only a short distance from the showers to the sauna but you never knew what staff member might happen to be passing.

So, towel secured and her hair being pulled back into a ponytail, Sakura stepped out to find her friends in the middle of the same process. They made a quick scoot to the sauna and slipped into the already gloriously hot room.

'Mmm, this is nice,' Temari said with a sigh, unhooking her towel around her chest and readjusting so she could sit comfortably on the wooden bench.

They all made noises of agreement, staking out spots on the benches so they were all in reach of the rocks making the lovely steam.

Sakura could feel Ino's eyes on her as she sat down and scoffed. She undid her towel, just like Temari had, and sat down with her towel covering her modesty from the waist down.

'Go on pig,' Sakura sighed as she watched blonde park her naked ass on her towel and cross her legs, modesty never having been a problem for her. 'Make the jokes.'

Tenten covered a giggle as she too followed Temari's lead and left herself covered from the waist down. 'You know if you didn't react she wouldn't make them right Saks?'

'Yes she would,' Sakura said crossing her arms over her chest and really trying not to pout. 'She thinks she's making me feel better about my body. Pervert that she is.'

'Hey now,' Ino said in the same innocent voice from the showers. 'Don't talk about me like I'm not here.'

Sakura shot the naked woman a dirty look and flicked her the bird.

Ino just grinned. 'Though now that I've seen the girls, I can definitely tell they need a man's touch …'

Sakura groaned as Temari and Tenten failed to cover their small laughs. Bitches.

The blonde woman leered a little more and winked. 'And just so you know … Hinata's might be bigger but I bet Naruto would say yours are prettier!'

The pinkette blushed scarlet and threw the only thing she had at her disposal at the cackling blonde. Her towel.

It hit Ino hard enough to knock her back but it did nothing to crack the smile on her best friend's face. 'My my Sakura, I think you're throwing your clothes at the wrong blond!'

Temari and Tenten, who'd been doing their best to hide their laughter finally dropped the pretence and doubled over in their giggles. All of which, along with the sudden realisation of Sakura being fully naked made the pinkette's blush spread all the way down to her toes.

'Shut up and give me back my towel,' Sakura grumbled as she snatched at it.

Ino winked again and after one time of pulling it just out of Sakura's grasp, let her take it back and cover herself.

'You really need to stop reacting Sakura,' Temari said with a rueful smile as Sakura sat primly on the bench and crossed her arms.

'She also really needs to jump Naruto's –'

Temari poured more water over the hot stones, making them hiss loud enough to drown out Ino, and reached over to pinch the shameless woman on the knee.

'Leave it alone Ino,' Temari said passively. 'You've already pulled enough pranks this weekend and it's only the first day. Today's for all of us to relax. Stop stressing Sakura out over him, you've already given her enough to deal with there.'

Had Sakura mentioned how much she loved being Temari's friend?

Cos she really did.

Ino held up her hands, still smiling of course, bitch, and Sakura finally let herself relax again. Ino had made her jokes and Sakura had made a bit of a scene. Now they could spend the rest of their time in here just enjoying the warm, moist air and destress.

At least that's what happened until Tenten went and ruined it by asking a stupid question.

And Sakura had just started imagining what it'd be like to be in a sauna with Naruto too.

With just a towel between her and his … modesty. And trying to hide just how much she was enjoying the idea, which admittedly was pretty easy in all the steam. Her face being red could be blamed on the actual steam instead of the steam inside her head.

'Wait, what prank?' Tenten asked, her fingers idly braiding and undoing her hair.

'Oh,' Temari said with a satisfied sigh, easing back against the bench and raising her arms above her head to act as a pillow. 'Ino rang up and got Naruto and Sakura stuck into sharing a room.'

Sakura, who'd let her eyes drift closed the more she'd thought about a steamy room alone with just Naruto, opened one eye to peer at a grinning, unrepentant Ino. She just glared back idly before letting her eyes drift closed again as she went back to her happy little daydream.

She couldn't shake the image of her idiot just staring at her sat topless in front of him. Truthfully she wasn't trying very hard. Naruto had always been a boob guy, he'd always been very honest about it when asked and she'd maybe dressed with more cleavage on display than she would normally, just to get a little more of the gorgeous man's attention.

It had done wonders for her ego she had to admit. He managed to keep a little reserve and gentlemanliness about him when he was sober but when Naruto got drunk … it made her shiver pleasantly to remember the look of hunger on his face when he was staring at her.

If he was in a sauna with her with her girls out? He'd be so entranced she'd probably be able to get him to agree to anything. And if he asked for anything while looking at her like that … he'd be given it in a heartbeat.

'That's hilarious,' Tenten said, leaning forward on her knees. The hiss of more steam filled the air. 'Guess you finally got sick of threatening them and actually followed through in locking them in a room together huh?'

Ino hummed lightly and stretched out on her bench too. 'Felt like the right time, especially after Sakura told me about their little plan for the weekend.'

The pinkette was too lost in her daydream of the things she'd let a mostly naked Naruto do to her in a sauna to really be paying attention though, too lost in the pleasant idea of his hands running over her heated flesh.

'What plan?' Temari and Tenten asked in unison.

Plan?

'Her and Naruto's plan,' Ino said, her voice sounding distant and pulling her rudely away from where dream-Naruto's lips were descending.

'You know how they're here together?' Ino asked, the tone begging for the women to ask for more detail. The teasing grin that Sakura could feel on her friend's face actually pulling her away from dream-Naruto and his hands just long enough for panic to set in.

'Course, they always do that.' Tenten waved it off and went back to reclining.

'Yeah but this time,' Ino said, with an excitement that you'd expect on a child talking about Christmas. 'They're here together together!'

'WHAT?!' Temari and Tenten both rushed forward and stared from the cackling Ino to the blissed out Sakura.

'We're on a platonic date,' Sakura said with faux-neutrality, playing it off like it wasn't important, trying desperately to drift back into the daydream. 'We thought it'd be a way to get you guys off our case so we could enjoy the wedding.'

'But it's a date? You two are finally on a date?!' Tenten said, scooting over to the almost horizontal Sakura and nudging her outer thigh. 'Spill Saks, if this is finally happening we need details!'

Sakura's daydream was slipping out of her fingers and she grumbled at the continued nudging. 'Do you mind? I'm trying to relax here.'

Tenten snorted and pointed at her nipples. 'Sure, stop fantasising about him and answer the question.'

'It's a platonic date,' Sakura insisted, sitting up and slowly coming back out of the fun haze she'd been in. 'We agreed to it when we were having breakfast at his place, so we're here together and we're gonna have a good time and you lot can finally stop going on about it.'

'Platonic?' Tenten asked, the sheer weight of her disbelief enough to crush anyone unlucky enough to be under it.

Ino mouthed 'platonic' while making dramatic air quotes with her fingers. Sakura rolled her eyes and snorted.

'Yes!' Tenten cheered and slid back to her bench. 'And you've got them in the same room?'

Ino nodded and grinned at Sakura who, now she was coming back to herself, was getting just a bit annoyed with Ino for spilling. But honestly, it wasn't a platonic date anymore and she'd be lying if she tried to say it was.

Besides, her desperately wishing the hands massaging her were his and that she was too excited to be going back to their room and to share their bed … no, there wasn't anything platonic about the date anymore. She doubted even Naruto thought there was.

She hoped.

'Oh you guys are so gonna hook up!' Tenten said excitedly, clapping her hands together like a little girl. It was kinda weird to see your twenty-eight year old friend, who was an Olympic athlete, mother, wife and currently naked, clap like a little girl but it was also kinda funny. 'Guess you win the pool Temari huh?'

Temari smirked, easing back into her reclining position. 'I knew you weren't too broken up about sharing a bed with him all weekend. I'm suddenly glad your room is at the other end of the corridor to mine. I don't want to have to compete to have the most energetic sex on my own wedding weekend. I'd kill Shikamaru trying to keep up!'

Sakura blushed and looked away from the three laughing women. 'Let's not get ahead of ourselves, just because we're on a date doesn't mean it'll go there. Hell it could go awfully.'

She could feel the collective eye roll but that didn't change the fact. This really could blow up in her face, because yes, she was finally ready to make a move on him, the conditions were more or less perfect, but there really was the possibility that he didn't want to risk their friendship or that while he was clearly attracted to her … the number of heart wrenching and libido revving conversations they'd had about that little fact were part of the reason she was even willing to try her luck … but it could end there.

Their romantic history with each other was spotty. There'd been mutual crushes she was sure of it, and more than a couple near misses ... and then there was his twenty-second birthday …

But if her idiot had wanted her to be his … he'd have done something about it by now. Yeah he'd never made the first move with anyone he'd been with, said he never wanted to assume and that was the soothing balm to her that implied that his inaction wasn't lack of interest but manners and respect for her boundaries.

Which really just made her want to ride him til she broke him all the more.

But in any other element of his life? Naruto Uzumaki dived in head first and worried about the consequences later. It was part of what was so damn attractive about him.

'You know Sakura …' Ino said with a slow grin, dragging her out of her depressing headspace. 'I do think this would be the best time for you to show up at your room naked with beer … it'd make your intentions perfectly clear to him.' Ino's eyes dragged over her almost naked form and she winked. 'Even he's not that oblivious and with how hot you are … he'd have you on your back before you said hello.'

Sakura blushed scarlet and turned away from the cackling blonde, looking beseechingly to her other two friends.

Who were similarly unhelpful.

'Don't look at me Saks,' Tenten said with a smug grin. 'I've been rooting for this since junior year. Put us all out of our misery and boink the man. We've been waiting for it long enough.'

'That's not fair,' Sakura said sourly. 'I've been waiting too.'

'Yeah but that sweet idiot wouldn't dare make the first move so you have to,' Ino said, the other two agreeing with nods and even Sakura's inner voice crowed it's agreement. 'Storming a crime lord's stronghold is nothing to him in comparison to finally admitting he wants to spend his every waking moment between your legs.'

'Ino!' Sakura shouted, her hands going to her mouth. 'The hell is wrong with you?!'

'What? He would!' Ino fired back, throwing her hands in the air exasperated. 'He even admitted it! I had pour like a quart of tequila down him to get him to admit it but he said it!'

The blush shot all the way down to her toes again so fast Sakura was amazed they didn't shoot off. Naruto never talked like that! Only in her dreams!

He was kind, and lovely and sweet and he never spoke so bluntly about sexual stuff. Even when they had talked about it he wasn't that blunt.

Temari snorted. 'You have got to be paraphrasing, what did he actually say?'

Ino slapped the wood of her bench and stuck out her tongue. 'He said that! He said if Sakura made the first move he'd take the next five!'

Sakura would happily let him.

'When did he say this?' Tenten asked, raising an eyebrow. 'Cos we've all been trying to get him to crack through his manners for years, he's never said anything like that to us.'

Temari nodded in agreement and her stare was so piercing Sakura was surprised Ino didn't have holes in her. Sakura would be staring too but she'd heard more than enough of these 'conversations' and Temari was right, Ino had to be putting words in his mouth.

If she said Naruto wanted to make love to her all night or something romantic like that … she'd be more inclined to believe her. But spend every waking moment between her legs? It was too blunt for Naruto, even drunk Naruto.

Fuck, did it sound hot though.

'Me, Sakura, Sai and him had a night out a couple weeks ago …' Ino said, suddenly a little sheepish and looked away from Sakura. 'While Sai and Sakura were drunk dancing like idiots I kinda cornered him.'

Sakura had vague memories of that night. Dancing with Sai had been hilarious. He might be able to draw beautifully but that was about all he could do creatively. He was the most robotic looking dancer and Sakura loved watching it. She'd feel mean if Sai cared, but he clearly didn't. He'd actually given her one of his rare smiles, it was nice.

But knowing that Ino and Naruto had been having this apparently blunt as hell conversation about how badly Naruto wanted to fuck her … well, she didn't know what to think.

Except that she was definitely gonna make a damn move now.

'Why didn't you tell me this?' Sakura asked, her tone small and honestly she felt kinda hopeful.

Ino shrugged. 'I've been telling you he wanted you for years Forehead, why would I think this time would be different.'

She had to give the blonde that. Ino had been claiming Naruto wanted her, that he loved her, that he looked at her like a starving man looked at food, for years. She wouldn't have believed her and probably told her to go to hell. But now … with the overpowering sense of different around the weekend and the lingering eyes and meaningful flirting …

'Holy shit,' Tenten said in a whisper-quiet voice, brimming with excitement. 'You're gonna do it, aren't you?'

'Do what?' Sakura asked, blushing crimson.

'Don't play dumb!' Ino hissed, bouncing on the bench with repressed glee. 'Temari, look at her eyes! She's finally gonna do it!'

Temari stared at her through the steam and smiled slowly. 'I'm gonna win the pool.'

'She's gonna jump his bones! Rock him like a hurricane! Do the do!' Ino cheered, dancing in place and cheering. 'You are right? Please tell me you're gonna finally hop on the good foot and do the bad thing?'

Sakura blushed even deeper somehow at each new euphemism, but as brain bombarded her with images of how her night would end … she smiled ever so slightly before nodding.

'Nah none of that,' Tenten said, equally bright smile on her and the other women's faces. 'Say it Saks, please fucking say it.'

Sakura wanted to melt into the floor right now, she really did. She was too warm for all this right now, too naked and way, way too horny for that goddamn stupid man of hers.

'Sakura …' Ino wheedled, moving onto Sakura's bench at the same time as Tenten and Temari got on the other side. 'Come on Forehead …'

'Fine,' Sakura said, much more firmly than she felt, her legs were damn jelly as the words trickled past her lips. Her face was burning as Naruto's grinning face swam in her mind's eye.

'Yes, I'm gonna jump his bones.'


Naruto smiled blithely across the table from Shikamaru and Neji, the only two players left in their game of poker.

Naruto picked up one of his chips, one of many, many chips he might add, and flicked it over his fingers. 'Come on Nara, I'm gonna die of old age here.'

'Can it Uzumaki,' Shikamaru said, over his considerably smaller pile of chips. Honestly the fact that he was still in the game at all was impressive. Shikamaru might be the smartest out of the men but he couldn't bluff for shit. 'I'm thinking.'

'Uh huh,' Naruto said with a slow grin, another glance down at his cards and at the river before him. 'Do I have time to get another drink then?'

'Kiss my ass!'

Honestly, it always surprised him that Shikamaru wasn't better at poker. There were elements of Shogi and no one could touch him on that. Or maybe it was just against Naruto that Shikamaru floundered. He'd only started to struggle once the less skilled or, in Kiba and Gaara's case, less interested players had been rendered chipless that the spiky haired man had started to struggle.

Between Neji' perfectly impassive blank expression, seriously trying to get a bead on Neji had always been difficult and it made him damn hard to beat at poker, and Naruto's ability to outlast the most despicable suspects in any interrogation room this side of Kumo … Shikamaru having two hundred dollars left on the table was impressive.

But the war of attrition was coming for him and given what little Naruto had been able to pick up on Neji's game stratergy … the long haired brunet was gonna go all in to end the game and go on to something a bit more energetic.

'Come on Shikamaru,' Neji said calmly, his own blank stare going from his cards to his prepped stacks of chips, just waiting to be shoved into the massive pot. 'Check or raise and let's get this over with. Then we can move onto something where you might actually win.'

'Fuck the pair of you.'

'I believe my sister would take exception to that,' Gaara intoned from next to Naruto, sipping on his beer slowly. 'On your wedding weekend I believe only she should be fucking you.'

Naruto crowed with laughter, Gaara smirking next to him as Shikamaru's cheeks went ever so slightly red. Even Neji chuckled lightly as he tapped his two cards.

'Naruto was a terrible influence on you Gaara,' Shikamaru said, a shred of awkwardness bristling his tone. 'Fine, to hell with it, check.'

Naruto nudged Gaara's arm with his own and clinked his glass with the auburn haired man's. 'What's it gonna be Hyuuga?' Naruto asked with a raised eyebrow.

'Hmm,' Neji hummed. 'I'm all in, let's see what you've been so smug about.'

With a clattering of chips, Neji shoved his pile into the pot, damn near doubling it and watched Naruto expectantly, ignoring Shikamaru's frustrated groan.

'You sure?' Naruto chuckled. 'What if I've got a royal flush and I've just cleaned you both out like I did Kiba?'

He raised his voice loud enough to make sure the dog lover heard him and was rewarded by an indignant litany of four letter swear words from somewhere in the pool. Apparently he'd just thrown off Kiba's shot in the impromptu water polo game the players who'd been knocked out had started.

'Eat a dick!' Kiba shouted angrily, an impetus splash of water over the lip of the pool making a couple of spots catch Naruto's legs. 'I almost scored!'

'Like high school all over again,' Neji chuckled quietly. 'Kiba striking out because Naruto was in the room.'

Everyone in earshot laughed, Naruto doing his best to not laugh too loud. But well … while he wasn't exactly a lady killer or anything in school, it was brought to his attention that Kiba had lost 'a sure thing' more than once because the girl had caught sight of Naruto.

It made him blush to think about it really. He also doubted it was actually true, no matter how many times his friends insisted.

More swear words came from the pool but they turned to a gurgle as Kiba was dunked under the water by Chouji as he tackled the other man for the ball.

'Enough distractions from the peanut gallery,' Shikamaru said tersely. 'Go all in already.'

Naruto held up his hands and chuckled before pushing his entire pile into the now humongous pot. There had to be at least a couple grand in there. 'Just remember you're the one who thought it was a good idea to play poker with a cop and a special agent.'

Neji chuckled lightly. 'Alleged special agent Naruto,' he corrected.

'Right, right, a cop and an alleged special agent.' Naruto grinned winningly at the steadily more frustrated Shikamaru.

He grumbled unintelligibly under his breath and shoved his remaining chips into the pot and revealed his cards. 'There, aces high flush. Smug pricks.'

Naruto managed to marshal his expression into passivity but he could already feel the joy building in his gut. As long as Neji didn't have a better hand than him … Naruto was gonna walk away from the table with ten grand.

'Very nice,' Naruto said with a grin. 'Neji? Am I getting a new car or are you adding more to Hideki's college fund?'

Neji snorted, both of them ignoring the very loud growl coming from the man of the weekend. 'If you've beat this hand Naruto, I'll buy you a new car to replace that scrap on wheels you call a car, then you can spend the money on a romantic holiday you take Sakura on, and the rest on the deposit of the Uzumaki-Haruno wedding.'

Naruto bit the inside of his cheek to stop himself from reacting any further than a furious frown.

The lot of them had been trying to throw Naruto off with stuff like that about Sakura. Even Kiba had scored a reaction once he'd hit on the fact that Naruto and Sakura were sharing a room this weekend.

He'd been as artless as ever about distracting Naruto with some very inventive imaginings of Sakura and Naruto's night time activities. So badly that when Naruto had suggested that when he cleared out the perverted prick at the table, he got to throw him into the pool by his neck, all the guys had agreed it was only fair.

No one else had been as blunt with their attempts to throw Naruto's mind to places it had practically been living in all day, especially as he drank more beer and he remembered that Sakura was a cuddler when she was asleep.

There'd been more than a couple of mornings where the two had had to share a bed that Naruto found himself with a face full of pink hair or with the feel of her body pressed against his back so much that he could probably guess what size bra the woman wore.

So thankfully for his poker game, none of them had been able to beat his brain for reminding him that both of those possibilities were almost certainly going to happen this weekend. Hard to distract someone who's already distracted.

It was about the time that Kankuro, who'd actually mistaken Sakura and Naruto for a couple when he'd first met them and was still convinced he hadn't been wrong, made a slight dig that Naruto had stopped playing poker for fun and decided he was gonna wipe the floor with all of them.

But his flared temper settled into a purr as he watched Neji's hand turn over and he swallowed the massive grin.

'Full house, aces over queens,' Neji slid his cards forward, lifting out the queen of spades and queen of diamonds from the river along with the ace of hearts. 'Beat that Uzumaki.'

Naruto allowed himself a slow grin as he stared down his sure of himself friend and winked at an already smirking Gaara.

Because of course he'd shown Gaara what he had in his hand the second he'd gotten it. Gaara had the best poker face out of all of them, there was no way he'd give away how good Naruto's cards were. Unlike Lee, who'd almost gotten Neji out of the game with his inability to withhold his excitement. Neji hadn't even waited for permission to kick the exuberant man into the pool, along with the chair he was sat on, when he'd ruined Neji's bluff one too many times.

'If you insist.' Naruto revealed his cards, the queen of hearts and the queen of clubs. He revelled in the look of utter shock fall over Neji and Shikamaru's faces. 'Think that means I win right?'

'Son of a bitch,' Neji muttered, shaking his head as Shikamaru head-butted the poker table. 'You better take Sakura somewhere nice with our money Naruto.'

'Go throw yourself in the pool.'

Neji smirked and pulled on his previously ignored drink. Almost draining it. 'So what's next? I don't really fancy joining in that … madness.' He gestured at the pool where Kiba and Lee where fighting over the ball while Sai swam idly around the goal. Shino, Kankuro and Chouji splashing water on the two fighting men and laughing like little kids not grown men.

'Well I don't know about you three,' Shikamaru said grumpily, marching over to the bar the hotel had left stocked with various brands of bottled beer and spirits for them to help themselves to. 'But after getting rinsed by him, I need alcohol. Oi Kiba!'

The drenched man turned, losing the fight for the ball. 'What?!'

'Get your wet dog smelling ass out the pool and make yourself useful.' Shikamaru lifted a pack of plastic red cups and ping pong balls from the bar.

'Finally!' Kiba cheered and made a beeline to the edge of the pool, making more of a mess than any rambunctious child could dream of. 'You're going down Uzumaki!'

'If Sakura's lucky,' Chouji snickered as he climbed out of the pool, ignoring the glare Naruto shot his way. 'What beer they got left Shika?'

'Ummm,' Shikamaru called from behind the bar, the only thing visible above the surface his pointy hair. 'Lots, who wants what?'

Kiba, who was already setting up triangles of red cups with the speed and ease of a veteran of any frat party, looked up from what he was doing and shouted to Shikamaru. 'Get the strong stuff Shika, we won't feel beer at this point, we've been drinking since the afternoon!'

Naruto had to give the man that, he'd had at least five beers already and with all the nibbles and assorted spreads of food the hotel had left out for them along the bar … he was only feeling slightly buzzed.

'Alright, alright,' Shikamaru called back, popping back up holding three mostly full bottles of Talisker, a whiskey that tasted awful unless you were drunk enough not to care and would knock your damn socks off, Captain Morgan Spiced, because if you were gonna have rum who better to trust than a pirate captain? And finally a bottle of what looked like tequila. He was only going on the bottle having a sombrero on it though.

'Okay!' Kiba said happily, taking the bottles off of Shikamaru and pouring very generous slugs of each spirit into the waiting cups. 'Who's up first?'

'Naruto,' Shikamaru said, nudging the blond around the table with swift jabs in the ribs until he was across from Kiba. 'The prick needs knocking down a peg. He won't be so smug when Sakura can't seduce him because she's too busy holding back his hair.'

The gathered men, towelling off and grabbing beers from the bar laughed and nudged each other with knowing grins.

He just sighed and shook his head at them, glancing down at the very full cups and then back at Kiba. 'Alright, but how about we make it interesting, I beat Kiba at this, and you lot stop with the Sakura jokes yeah?'

'And if Kiba wins?' Sai asked, his eyes flicking from both triangles of cups. 'He does seem the sort to be very good at this. I imagine he's spent many nights drunkenly throwing balls at cups and nothing else.'

Kiba puffed out his chest in pride at the comment of his prowess, and was clearly just a little too tipsy to register that it was a bit of backhanded compliment.

It probably wasn't helping that the rest of the men were snickering into their hands.

'If Kiba wins …' Chouji started, scratching his chin. 'Naruto has to … put up with Sakura jokes for a month?'

'He does that already,' Shino said quietly, pushing up his sunglasses from the edge of his nose. 'We need something he doesn't already do.'

'Sell his Jeep?' Kankuro offered, taking a pull from his bottle of beer. 'That thing needs scrapping. It's a health hazard.'

'Hey!' Naruto shouted, glaring at his nodding friends. 'None of you complained about the Jeep when you were getting lifts in it!'

'We were teenagers and it was ten years younger,' Shikamaru shot back. 'No, how about he has to give us back all our money from the poker?'

'He won fair and square,' Gaara said evenly. 'Don't blame him for your inability to bluff Shikamaru.'

Shika flushed slightly at that but didn't say anything. Wisely.

'I know!' Lee cheered, throwing his arms in the air. 'If Naruto loses he has to run around the hotel ten times!'

Naruto could do that … probably fall over a couple times, but he could do it.

'Naked,' Kankuro said smirking. 'Give the girls a good old eyeful eh Uzumaki?'

Okay … that was a little less doable, but he didn't think he'd actually lose so he wouldn't be against that, as long as the forfeits for the others got as outrageous. He wondered if he could convince Kiba to go for another sprint through the deer forest. There were more than a couple stag in there who'd like a second go at the stupid man.

Speaking of the dog lover though, he'd been suspiciously quiet through the whole time their friends were offering up more and more embarrassing forfeits. Too quiet.

'Guys shut up, I got the perfect forfeit for him,' Kiba said slowly, running the ping pong ball over his palm with his thumb. 'If Naruto wins, we stop the jokes for the rest of the weekend, and you know what? For good measure, he can throw me in the pool fully dressed.'

'Sounds good to me,' Naruto said with a cheeky grin.

'Just wait, this bit's gonna sound even better.' His smirk widened. 'If he loses, he has to make a move on Sakura and put us all out of our misery.' Kiba smirked and threw the ball he was holding at Naruto's cup, the ball landing square in the middle cup. 'Deal?'

The crowd of grown men suddenly forgot they weren't teenagers any more and Naruto and Kiba were surrounded by 'oooh's.

Naruto stared down at the floating ball in the cup of whiskey and frowned. 'That's fucked up Kiba, you know that's not how things between me and Sakura are.'

'Bullshit,' Kiba said sharply. 'You're the only person here who doesn't see how bad that woman wants you, and how badly you want her. And at this point Uzumaki, you're at a wedding, sharing a room and a bed with her and there's gonna be drinking and dancing and love is in the fucking air … if you don't make your move now, you never fucking will and the pair of you deserve to at least fucking try.'

The crowd had gone solemnly quiet, as if Kiba's words were coming from all of them and not just Kiba's rather acerbic manner of telling Naruto some perceived hard truths.

Naruto was so dumbfounded by the sheer abruptness of his friend's words he was still reeling when the shorter man barrelled on.

'We all understood why nothing happened at my and Hinata's wedding, that had to be kinda weird for you, ancient history or not, you two used to date, it would be weird to hook up with the woman Hinata was convinced you were gonna leave her for.' Kiba shook his head and rolled his eyes. 'If only you'd have listened to her back then. We wouldn't have had to watch you two dance around and waste each other's time cos you're too chicken shit to make the move. So I'm forcing your hand.'

Naruto glared at Kiba. Hard. He didn't appreciate Kiba's tone and the longer he had to settle into what was actually being said the knee jerk defensiveness was kicking into gear. But he never got the chance to answer as Kiba threw a ping pong ball at him.

'But hey, beat me and you don't have to. You still should, but we won't make you. Now … deal?'

Kiba splayed his hands in front of his cups and stared dead ahead at Naruto, never flinching.

In that moment, all Naruto could think about was how sweet it'd be to chokeslam Kiba into the fucking water. Screw everything else, he'd beat the arrogant bastard and then they'd all have to shut up about him and Sakura.

And he wouldn't have to admit how close to home Kiba had hit with his accusations.

It had left him reeling if he was honest. Kiba had maybe been a bit blunt about how he and Sakura should get together in the past but normally it was just the two of them and they were both a whole lot drunker than they were right now. And Kiba had never called him out in front of all of their guy friends like that.

The way all his friends had looked at him during Kiba's little speech was still kicking him a bit as well. Even Gaara and Sai were suspiciously quiet on the whole thing.

But despite Naruto's best efforts to deny it … he had to admit there was something to Kiba saying they were dancing around each other. That there was clearly something between him and Sakura and with all that had happened in the short time before the wedding and this morning …

He'd called her Sakura-chan, after they'd agreed to a date … even he had to admit that meant something. Even if he was scared to delve into specifics.

It was easier to push that aside for now though and focus on the task at hand.

Which was kicking Kiba's ass.

He picked up the cup the ball had landed in and drained it in one long swallow.

It burned his throat and made his eyes water a little but when he'd finish the cup he met Kiba's gaze.

'I hope you left your phone on the bar Kiba,' Naruto said, picking up the ball and tossing it at the triangle of cups before his friend. Grinning as it landed in the very front one. 'Cus you're going in that damn pool.'

Kiba grinned fiercely and necked the cup with a flick of his wrist, taking aim he threw the ball at Naruto's cups again.

Naruto's gut dropped a little when the ball landed in another one, the spirit sloshing over the lip of the cup slightly.

The creeping sense that he might have just fucked himself settled into his gut as he picked the cup up and plucked the ball out.

Kiba just grinned expectantly and suddenly Naruto was glad he had more cups to drink.

God, what had he agreed to?


Okay.

Okay, okay, okay.

She was gonna do it.

Sakura leant against the wall of the elevator as it climbed up to her floor. Her fingers tapping against the chilled bottle of wine, the coolness of the glass against her palm helping to soothe her racing brain. The two glasses in her other hand clinking as her fingers shook just a little bit.

This was crazy, she was crazy. But he'd said those things to Ino, and things were different between them. And it felt like a good different … a wonderful different. And yes she'd had a couple more glasses of wine with the girls once they'd gotten out of the sauna. And yes it was possible that the vodka cranberry had been a mistake when she was coming up to finally make a move on the most wonderful, beautiful, kind and hot man she'd ever known.

But it's not like she'd lost her damn mind in the planning. She was still fully clothed and showing up with a bottle of very nice wine and two glasses. As opposed to Ino's insistence she show up at the door of their room … fuck, their room … naked, carrying a six pack of beer.

She was being more romantic and less … horny about it. That was the smarter choice right? Naruto wasn't the kinda guy who just hooked up with someone and fucked off the next morning.

And besides that wasn't what she was aiming for here. If she thought her and Naruto could have just had a wham bam thank you ma'am … then she'd have jumped his bones the first chance she'd got.

Heaven knew she'd thought about it enough. One could say she'd been somewhat obsessively thinking about it. Taken very long showers over the thought of Naruto's strong yet somehow still gentle hands running over her body, dropping her into valleys and raising her to peaks of pleasure that she'd never experienced with anyone.

But that could never be their arrangement. It would have been so much simpler if it could be but the idea of trying to keep feelings out of any sort of thing with Naruto? It was so impossible it was laughable.

She loved him, and not just love as a friend, definitely not in the way you love a guy so much it's like he's a family member. The only family member of hers Sakura wanted Naruto to be involved rings and vows.

And broken mattresses.

She blushed at herself in the mirrored walls of the elevator as she giggled.

Would the hotel staff judge them too much if they wound up breaking the bed? Her and Naruto did have years of sex to make up for. And if the hints of Naruto's skills in bed that Hinata had drunkenly let slip in the past were anything to go by … the hotel would be lucky if it was just the bed they broke.

They'd forgive them. They were just young and in love and honestly, they should have been breaking beds together for years at this point. You could make the argument, hell Ino and Tenten had been quite vocal that her dating Sasuke and him dating Hinata should never have happened. That the two of them should have just gotten together in school and saved everyone the headache.

But they hadn't been the ones with the feelings. Because of course she'd had the feelings, they'd never really gone away, they'd been there when it was just a bit of girlish crush on her cute friend, they'd bloomed into a bigger crush when puberty hit and her cute friend had shot up and filled out and become her hot friend.

And the feelings had only grown as the years had gone on. Even through relationships they'd both had, through heartache and hardships and good times and celebrations, they'd always been there and while she'd always found him drop dead gorgeous in ways that only smutty fanfic could describe … if she even tried to pretend it was just a physical thing she'd be a damn liar.

How hard she loved that stupid, sexy man was unbearable. It was terrifying and exciting and unbelievable all at once. He did such sweet things, like show up at the hospital with lunch for them just to spend time with her on busy weeks or because she was down.

He'd never failed to send her flowers on her birthday and the one time he'd shown up in his police uniform at her hospital with flowers and chocolates and that stupid kissable grin on his face … she'd damn near thrown herself at him in the middle of the ward.

How she hadn't was still beyond her. He looked so fucking hot in his uniform. A little part of her was actually very upset when he'd gotten his promotion and could wear plain clothes to work.

Though it was probably a blessing in disguise at the time … if she'd had to put up with another year of him in his very flattering uniform … she'd have probably ripped it off him and rode him into oblivion.

Like she was gonna do the second she got through the door.

The elevator dinged as it reached their floor. The doors slid open and with a sure nod to herself, and a little bit of a fiddle with her hair and cleavage … God she wished she'd had the foresight to dress a little more revealing this afternoon.

If she'd only known she was gonna be seducing him she'd have worn her sexy undies, the dark green set that made her skin glow. Or at least what Ino had told her it would do for her.

But no, stupid her had thought she'd best dress for comfort. Oh well, he'd definitely been staring at her ass this morning when she was dressed for travel … she strongly suspected she could wear a black trash bag and Naruto would still find her hot.

Cus he did. He'd told her. It made her toes curl to think about it.

She steadied herself against the mirrored wall and once she was sure of her footing, she walked out towards their room.

The flutter those two words made really shouldn't be so enjoyable.

Though she knew that wasn't what was making her flutter.

It was probably the knowledge that if she was very lucky … he'd be making other parts of her flutter in their room all night.

She spotted their door and marched towards it, only swaying slightly as she reached into her purse for the key.

She tried not to giggle at the imagery of a key going into a lock and the innuendo her brain could make about that … she'd happily have his key in her lock … and out and in and out and in …

'Steady Sakura,' she muttered to herself, taking a deep breath and holding her hands out facing the floor. 'That'll come. And then so will you. A lot hopefully. Hinata did mention how generous he was. Though be honest, you're not surprised about that.'

Sakura giggled and blushed. She rested her head against the door, the key resting in the lock and took a few steadying breaths before going over her plan one last time.

'Okay so, let yourself into our room,' she whispered to herself.

OUR ROOM!

'Be calm and alluring as you sway in, he likes the way you sway,' she continued, shouting down her excitable hormones. 'Say hi, ask how his day was with the boys, tell him how yours was with the girls. Drop the fact that the sauna was best experienced topless, you know how much of a boob guy he is.' She held her hands up to her breasts like she was going to hold them.

'Then when he asks why you're up here, tell him when you asked the boys where he was they said he'd gone to the room and you wanted to check on him.' She smiled to herself and ran a hand through her hair. 'Try not to literally throw yourself at him, ask if he wants to have some wine with you and talk. Pray he says yes, sit on the bed, sit as close to him as you can Sakura, do not chicken out and ruin this for us. From there start talking about your feelings and him and his feelings about you and then … and then … then kiss him.'

She smiled some more to herself and bit her lip as she imagined his lips on hers … and lower. God please a lot lower.

'And if he returns the kiss, which he will because you know he loves you too … delve deeper and hopefully you'll be thanking Ino in the morning for insisting that you pack condoms. Yeah, yeah, that's what you're gonna do. That's the plan, we like the plan, it's a good plan. Okay.'

Sakura nodded, fiddling with her hands and fingers, checking her breath against her hand and with a final deep breath in she turned the key and tried not to squeak when the lock clicked.

As the door swung slightly open she was met with darkness. Not even lamplight from further into the room. If it weren't for the little red light on the TV and the light springing forth from the corridor, their room would be pitch black.

Well … the boys had said Naruto had been a bit worse for wear when he'd left them earlier and it was late. He could be napping.

That was okay, she'd just wake him up, it kinda ruined her 'sway in sexily' plan but that wasn't crucial. The talking was the important part … and the sex. Definitely the sex.

Shaking her head to clear the images suddenly flooding in, she needed to at least try to focus on the romantic element until the kissing started damn it.

How was she meant to focus on telling him she loved him when her brain was screaming at her to mount him like the stallion he was?

She felt around by the wall to try and find the switch for a lamp. The hotel had fitted switches for the bedside lamps at the door in case … well in case you were coming into your room when bright lights would be painful.

She flicked the switch and swore as the overhead light flickered to life.

Managing to shut it off again, thank God the hotel had moved over to energy saving bulbs, she doubted Naruto would have appreciated being woken up by blasting light.

Would kinda put a damper on her whole confess and seduce him plan too.

Deciding to just get in the room proper and sort out the light problem after, Sakura let the door slide shut gently behind her. She placed the wine and glasses on the table and tried to ignore its sturdiness for the time being.

Later, that could be thought about later.

She guided herself into the room by the wall, finding the double bed with her thighs rather than her eyes and swallowed a surprised curse.

Her eyes were slowly adjusting to the darkness the longer she was in it and she could just about make out Naruto, lying on his side under the covers. She could hear his gentle breathing and she smiled to herself.

As she got closer his face came into focus. He looked so peaceful sleeping like that. She let her finger trace over his jaw and smiled fondly as his lips turned up at her touch. It was almost a shame to wake him he looked so peaceful.

But they really, really needed to talk and other stuff. Her adjusting eyes trailed down his face to his very clearly bare shoulders and her brain was already sprinting ahead of her by wondering if that meant in his drunkenness Naruto had just stripped down and gotten into bed.

How far had he stripped down? It asked.

She didn't know but that would fall under the other stuff they needed to do. A list that was growing with every passing second.

'Naruto?' She said gently, reaching out to touch his shoulder, loving the warmth of his skin under her palm. It was so welcoming and lovely, she wanted to rub her face against it. 'Naruto, it's Sakura. Are you awake?'

But he didn't answer. Just kept breathing steadily, in and out, in and out, the motion making his chest rise and fall. His very nice chest she remembered from all the times she'd seen him shirtless.

Ogling could wait until after he'd woken up and she'd kissed him though. First he needed to not be sleeping.

'Hey, I know you're sleeping Naruto, but I need you to wake up so we can talk,' she shook him lightly by the muscled shoulder. She managed to catch herself stroking the muscle before too long.

But Naruto wouldn't wake up.

She frowned at the stupid, sexy, sleeping man and sighed heavily.

Leaning in so her lips were by his ear, his face so close to her neck she could feel his warm breath against it. It made her toes tingle.

'Naruto,' she dragged out in a sing-songy voice. 'I need you to wake up so we can talk about stuff.' She cradled his face and ran her thumb over his cheekbone. 'Come on, don't make me beg.'

But he still wouldn't wake the hell up.

Fine, he wanted the big guns? He'd get the big guns. He never failed to wake up when she tried this one. She knelt down so her face was parallel to his on the bed.

'Naruto,' she whispered, placing her lips against his cheek in a slow, lingering kiss. She even made a point of making the 'mwah' sound to add extra emphasis. 'Wake up sleepyhead.'

The blond smiled and Sakura's heart nearly burst out her chest. Had that worked? Was he finally waking up?

But all Naruto did was smile some more, rub his face into the pillow and smack his lips.

'Oh come on!' she whined, her head falling forward against his shoulder as she resisted the urge to fucking cry.

Why the hell wouldn't he wake up?! She got herself all prepared to finally tell him how she felt about him, worked up all the courage she could and made the most scary decision of her romantic life to stop denying the obvious and he didn't have the decency to. Wake. The. Fuck. UP?!

But as she knelt there glaring at his stupid, beautiful face she couldn't stay mad at him. He was too cute to glare at, and besides, it wasn't really his fault. He was drunk and he'd always slept like a rock when he was drunk.

'Ugh,' she groaned, turning and letting herself collapse against the mattress, facing away from his cute face. 'This is probably just the universe making fun of me for not acting sooner.'

She let her head fall back and glared at the ceiling and the heavens above it.

'I hope you're finding my romantic and sexual needs going unfulfilled as funny as you expected. Bet you're all a bunch of men up there, no woman would be this cruel to me.'

She gave the ceiling the finger and turned to look at Naruto, mostly to make sure he'd had the decency to stay asleep during that little tirade. If she was going to be cockblocked by him being asleep the least he could do was not wake up when she was bitching at the sky.

For the first time since she'd come in the room she was relieved to find him still asleep.

'Erf, fuck this.' Sakura forced herself up and guided herself around the wall to where she thought she left the wine.

Sure, she'd meant to share it with him, but as he was being rude and not waking up, she was gonna have to drink alone.

Besides, she thought as she glanced over wistfully at what had clearly been left as her side of the bed … she was gonna need at least one more glass of wine to help her fall asleep next to the sleeping Adonis that was a possibly naked Naruto Uzumaki.

She let her mind wander just a little bit, mostly around his ass area to be honest, and sighed to herself again.

Well, she wasn't going to let this little hiccup stop her from talking to Naruto about her feelings. If she had to try again tomorrow, then that was what she'd do. But before the weekend was out, she would tell Naruto how she felt about him.

And then she would ride him like a damn pony.

Wrapping her mind around that image and holding it very close, Sakura poured herself a glass of wine and started to undress.

'Tomorrow,' she muttered looking at Naruto's still sleeping form as she slipped off her jeans. 'Tomorrow.'