A/N: This was an old submission for Sasusaku Month 2014 Day 3. Prompt: Phobia.

All weary and sweaty from the training session that afternoon, Team 7 rested underneath a large tree, sipping lemonade from their glasses. The sun was directly above them, shining brighter than ever.

It was a usual afternoon filled with laughter and small talks. They could talk about any topic that they had in mind. Well mostly Naruto of course. Somehow they ended up from talking about the hot weather to their fears and phobias.

"I'm not afraid of anything!" Naruto exclaimed as he rested his hands behind his head with a large proud grin on his face.

"Really? I thought you're afraid of ghosts." Sakura teased him.

"So what? Ghosts do exist." Unable to deny the fact, he just pouted and rested his hands behind his head.

"How about you Sai?" This one specific teammate was still a mystery to them, but they're determined to crack him open eventually. Even when they first met him, it seemed like he was emotionless.

"I bet Sasuke has a phobia too y'know!" Naruto suddenly spoke, causing Sasuke to smirk at him. "Hey what're you smiling at!"

"That's because I don't any, dobe."

"Nonsense! I don't believe you."

"Hn. Whatever."

"Hmph! Then I'll find out what it is!" Naruto looked at Sakura right away and moved closer to her, whispering something into her ear. Sasuke watched in displeasure as Sakura giggled. He couldn't tell what exactly was so amusing.

"Well Sasuke teme. Whatever it is, we'll find it! Just not now, we're all tired. Let's just go home." It was unanimous. Everyone started packing their stuff and headed home.

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"What other phobias are there?"

"Um.. there's fear of snakes?"

"Impossible." They almost said it at the same time. That was the last thing he could be afraid of.

"How about fear of closed space?" Sakura added.

"Hm.. Maybe?" They wrote down all the possibilities on a piece of paper and continued doing so.

"That's a lot."

"We'll just have to try them out one by one." Despite mocking Naruto for being immature most of the time, Sakura couldn't help but think she's the one being immature this time. Agreeing to do these childish things was not something a twenty-one-year-old Sakura would do.

"We'll try this one first tomorrow!" Naruto pointed out to one of the options on the paper. They agreed on it right away.

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The following days were filled with mischiefs, and Sasuke was their target. Sai didn't really take part in their pranks, but he couldn't help but feel amused at their efforts.

Sasuke felt annoyed. Very annoyed. It was as if Sakura and Naruto were children again. They first tried to scare Sasuke with a bunch of insects of all kind, but of course, no reaction from Sasuke whatsoever. He was clearly unamused.

Their second trial was to try to scare Sasuke with a "ghost" in the middle of the night, which was actually Naruto in disguise. Sakura had told Naruto millions of times that Sasuke would never buy into it, and he was just wasting his efforts. And it resulted with Naruto almost being hit by a chidori when Sasuke thought it was an intruder. Never again were they doing that again.

Several other attempts after that also turned out to be unsuccessful. They were about to give up when Sakura pointed to another option on the list.

"How about this?"

"I don't really know Sakura-chan. This is hard." Naruto was unusually being pessimistic.

"Well it's worth the shot?"

"We'll do it tomorrow then! After training."

"Okay!"

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"Sasuke, let's take a break first. It's really hot." Sakura said after their match. Sweat was dripping form their foreheads as they were panting.

"Hn. Fine." Just like any other day, they sat underneath the same tree to restore their energy. Just then, Sasuke felt a slight movement on his right shoulder. He turned his head only to be met by a large spider resting on his shoulder. His eyes widened in surprise before he quickly took a kunai from his pocket and slash the insect in half.

Seeing this, Sakura and Naruto couldn't help to hold their grin back. They exchanged looks that tell screamed, we did it!

"Of all the things, you were taken off guard by a spider?" Naruto was standing in front of him in a minute, laughing his guts out.

"Tch." Sasuke was shooting daggers at him, ready to pounce him anytime.

"So, are you going to tell us why you're afraid of spiders, teme?" Naruto smiled victoriously at that moment.

Releasing a loud sigh, Sasuke had no choice but to tell them. Tell them that he was once bitten by a spider that caused his hand to swell terribly. He couldn't forget the pain that spider caused him. He was only eight at that time. Ever since then, he had a certain fear towards spiders. Fear might had been an overstatement at that point. He was a grown ass man for Kami's sake, he could easily kill that thing in his sleep. But he couldn't deny the fact that the tensed for a second the moment he saw it.

"Well in that case, we'll make a note not to let spiders get near you." Sakura gave a reassuring smile at him, tapping his shoulders.

"Yeah relax Sasuke, your secret is safe with us." Naruto gave him a playful shove and stood up to prepare to leave.

"Today was fun. But I got a date with Hinata." Before they could say anything, their loud friend waved at them and left the training grounds.

"I should go too. I have a mission briefing." Sai bid his farewells before disappearing in a cloud of ink. With the two of them gone, Sasuke and Sakura were the only ones left.

"Aren't you gonna go home?" Sakura asked when they were all alone.

"Later." He glared at her before motioning her scooch closer to him. When she did, he wrapped his arms around her shoulder as she leaned on his torso.

"I can't believe you took part in this. Annoying."

"We're just curious that's all." She giggled at him and he shot her another glare.

"Then maybe I should tell them that you were lying about your phobia." Hearing that, Sakura's eyes widened and turned to Sasuke. He was the only one who knew about it. Well there's also her parents and Ino. He was satisfied after seeing her expression.

"Don't you dare Sasuke-kun!" She gave him a light punch to the arm.

They continued to sit there and watched the sunset unraveling before their very eyes.