3 - kanpai?
Tenten ducked under the banners at the entrance of the izakaya, pushing them aside to enter and spot Sakura, Sasuke, Ino, Shikamaru, Chōji, and Neji in their usual corner. Sakura and Ino had already started on the drinks, while Chōji was currently yelling for more food.
"Lee'll be here in twenty minutes or so," Tenten remarked as she slid into her seat. "He got caught up in one of his ridiculous challenges again." Although she rolled her eyes, the affection in her voice was obvious. Tenten cast a glance around, asking: "Is Team 8 on a mission? And where's Naruto?"
"Yeah, Team 8's out with Sai," Ino responded. (And oops, Tenten always managed to forget about Sai. She shook it off a little guiltily.)
"Naruto's finishing up with Tsunade-shishō," Sakura pitched in. "She should be here soon." As she said so, she took another shot of sake.
"Bad week at the hospital?" Shikamaru drawled.
"I had a rotation in pediatrics," Sakura groaned. "Terminal illnesses."
Those at the table winced in sympathy. Taking care of children with incurable diseases was always a little taxing on the soul, though someone had to do it, and those kids deserved the best that they could get.
Battling through a world war and fending off a potential apocalypse together is a fantastically effective bonding exercise, and after everything had settled down their generation of ninja still made an effort to meet up and catch up. It had somehow become a fast tradition for those who were available to meet at this izakaya on Fridays for dinner and drinks; even Sasuke managed to make an appearance most of the time (usually through the efforts of either Sakura or Naruto. If pressed, Sasuke claimed it was just because the location happened to have excellent rice balls, but Sakura suspected that he actually enjoyed their weekly get-togethers).
"And what's up with you, Ino?" Chōji asked. "Boy trouble?"
Ino turned to glare at Chōji. "I'll have you know that I had a tough rotation at the hospital, too," she sniffed. And then sighed. "And yes, boy troubles."
"Why is nobody surprised?" Shikamaru muttered under his breath. Chōji and Sasuke, both seated near him, snorted while Ino thankfully remained oblivious.
"Honestly though, I'm swearing off relationships for a while this time. They just require too much work and not enough reward." Ino flapped a hand dismissively, and then aborted the gesture to order another drink.
"What happened to—what was his name again—Ryō?" Chōji asked, while gnawing on a piece of karaage.
"Ryū," Ino snorted. "Big name to live up to, if you know what I mean, which unfortunately he did not."
"Ino!" Sakura punched her in the arm. "Too much information. Also, slightly shallow of you."
"Okay, I was mostly joking," Ino retorted, rubbing her arm. Not that it hurt that much, Sakura knew her own strength. "But kind of not. It was really just one more reason to add to a greatly accumulating pile of things. And I didn't have to put up with that, so I put an end to it." Ino shrugged. "Really, wasn't a loss."
"Well, if you're sure you're alright." Sakura eyed her carefully.
"Eh, just disappointed with most of the males I've dated so far. Sometimes I wish I wasn't so straight, maybe I would've had better luck with girls."
"You know that wouldn't necessarily be easier for you," Sakura said while deftly yet gracefully grabbing a piece of sushi with her chopsticks. "Look at poor Hinata."
"What do you mean?" Sasuke asked.
"Hinata-chan's been crushing on Naruto-chan for years, at least," Chōji said. "I still don't think Naruto's noticed."
"Does she even like other girls?" Sasuke raised an eyebrow.
"I wouldn't underestimate Naruto-chan that much, I'm pretty sure she has an inkling," Sakura mused absentmindedly, waving around a stick of yakitori.
"And didn't she have that crush on you during the Academy?" Ino asked, poking Sakura in the arm.
"Ugh, Ino-pig, cut your nails. And damn, that was so long ago, I've almost completely forgotten about it. She was still acting like a boy back then, right? I've never actually asked, I've always sort of assumed it was part of the whole act," Sakura speculated. "Why, you think it was genuine?"
"I think it's definitely possible," Ino said with a shrug.
"Why don't you just ask her when she gets here?" Chōji suggested.
"What, and be reasonable?" Ino rolled her eyes. "Chōji, how long have we been friends? Half the fun of gossip is scandalous speculation."
"Well, I don't know about you," Sakura announced while pointing at Ino with her now-chickenless stick of yakitori, "but now I wanna know."
At that, Neji paused in the middle of the conversation he had been having with Tenten at the other end of the table, having been listening in the whole time (not that any of the ninja at the table had trouble keeping track of multiple conversations).
"If so, do you think Hinata-sama might have a chance?" He asked, curious.
"Why, are you about to play matchmaker?" Tenten teased her long-time teammate and friend.
"Now that the war is over and Konoha has mostly recovered, we finally have the time to even contemplate more leisurely pursuits," Neji explained. "Naruto is one of my closest and most respected friends, and I only want the best for Hinata-sama, and of course I want both of them to be happy." He sighed, proceeding to take a sip of plum wine.
Right after Neji finished speaking, a certain pigtailed blonde came bounding into the izakaya, hand raised in greeting.
"Hey guys, what's up!" She waved at everyone enthusiastically, plopping down into an open seat next to Sasuke. "I am starving, Baa-chan held me up for way too long and I haven't eaten since I finished training."
"Wasn't that just three hours ago?" Sakura pointed out.
"Yeah, exactly!" Naruto nodded furiously. "I'm gonna die." She immediately grabbed for the menu while simultaneously yelling for one of the waiters to bring one order each of gyoza, karaage, agedashi tofu, and three bowls of ramen to start off.
Sasuke snorted, used to her antics. "Dobe. We were just talking about you."
"Oh yeah?" She eyed Sasuke slightly suspiciously, not sure where the conversation was going.
"Sakura and Ino were debating your sexual orientation," Shikamaru commented succinctly, looking as engaged as he normally was—that is to say, he looked like he was about to fall asleep.
"Oh!" Naruto rubbed the back of her head sheepishly. "Wait, that's… who I like, right? The kind of people I'm into?"
"Way to make it sound way more boring and weird than it was, Shika," Ino said, annoyed. "But that's essentially accurate. Actually, Naruto, do you remember when you used to say you had a crush on Sakura? When we all—well, except Shikamaru, apparently—thought you were a boy?"
"Oh yeah! That was back when we were all still genin! Man, those were the days."
Sakura smiled, reminiscing. "You used to annoy me so much, shouting 'Sakura-chan! Sakura-chan!' all the time."
"Yeah—hey!" Naruto huffed, while Sasuke smirked.
"For some reason you were just so much more annoying as a boy," Sakura sighed.
Ino continued speaking while Naruto made affronted noises in the background. "Anyway, we wanted to know whether that crush was real or not."
"What do you mean, real?" Naruto asked, confused.
"We mean, was it just an act to make you being a boy more convincing?" Sakura asked.
Naruto laughed. "No, I definitely really liked you at the time, Sakura-chan. I thought you were super cute—and you still are! Though I don't feel that way about you anymore. Actually, you were my first crush!" She tipped her head to the side, looking confused. "Why, is that weird?" Naruto looked down, her own insecurity showing on her face. "I didn't have anyone to tell me what was normal and what wasn't growing up, so I'm never sure about these things."
Everyone at the table became a little more somber—though not necessarily more sober—at the reminder of Naruto's neglected childhood.
"DO NOT WORRY, MY YOUTHFUL FRIEND!" Rock Lee shouted. "It only means that you are bursting in the prime of your Springtime of Youth, to have so much love to give."
Surprised, everyone turned to look at Lee, who had appeared abruptly, thumb already raised and teeth glinting in his signature Nice Guy™ pose.
"What the hell, Lee?!" Ino exclaimed.
"I only mean that our friend here should not worry!" Lee insisted.
"No, I think she was commenting more on your abrupt arrival," Tenten stated, amused.
"Lee's right though, Naruto-chan. There's nothing wrong with liking girls, it's just less common." Sakura reassured Naruto. "Wait, do you only like girls?"
"I've never really thought about girl, boy, whatever." Naruto shrugged. "I was actually in a relationship with Gaara for a bit, so—"
"—WAIT, WHAT?" Almost every head at the table turned to stare at the nine-tailed jinchūriki, who had apparently been with with the one-tailed jinchūriki without anyone the wiser. Which, yeah, she was a shinobi, but so were they all and this was Naruto. Subtlety really wasn't her forte.
Ino turned to stare accusingly at Shikamaru, who had been the only one to remain unsurprised. "You knew and didn't tell me?"
"Temari told me," he grumbled. "Troublesome."
Sakura turned to the original offender instead. "You never told me about this!" She clutched at her chest in mock betrayal, gasping dramatically. "How could you?"
Naruto looked at everyone in turn, eyes wide. "It slipped my mind?" She rubbed the back of her head again. "It was actually during the latter half my training trip with Ero-sennin. We got to exchanging letters and it just kind of… happened? Honestly, I said a relationship but we never really got any farther than a couple of sort-of dates and holding hands. And then he became Kazekage and since I knew I was still aiming for Hokage we decided to end it, especially since we never really got the chance to see each other as it was. We're still good friends though!"
Sakura groaned. "Ugh, that was so much less exciting than I expected."
"Once an idiot, always an idiot." Sasuke commented with a discreet snort. "And I thought you'd actually say something worthwhile for once."
"Shut up, teme." Naruto flipped a pigtail over her shoulder. "I'm not obliged to entertain you."
"Big words for you, dobe."
"Why, you wanna fight, bast—ooh, food!"
Naruto proceeded to completely ignore Sasuke in order to focus on her incoming feast. Chōji, who had finished all his dishes, began eyeing Naruto's speculatively.
Surveying the slightly younger group of Konoha ninja with an exasperated manner, Tenten sighed. "Why do we hang out with them again?"
Neji looked at the group, then back at Tenten blankly.
"More sake?"
"Sure, why not."
prompt: it could be real.
notes: sorry this took so long, finals week/the end of this semester is suffocating me one miserable day at a time.
ahem.
more notes at my tumblr, including a japanese glossary because I'm just that nice.