Sasuke's eye twitched with annoyance as he heard the doorbell ring quieter than Sakura's violent assault on his front door.
Tearing his eyes away from the heavenly view before him, he dragged himself to greet her, lugging open the door only semi-unenthusiastically, letting Sakura glomp him far more enthusiastically than he thought the occasion warranted.
"So~ what did you need to talk about?" said Sakura, pulling away at last as she started heading towards his living room.
Sasuke shook his head and pointed towards the door that lead to the patio with a sigh, "We'll be heading outside for today."
This sparked a vengeful curiosity in Sakura that Sasuke was already regretting igniting.
Their 'meetings' usually consisted of about an hour or so of talking from Sakura, the requester of the usual meet ups. Since Sasuke had actually taken the initiative to call HER and request that SHE come over, she was more than happy to bounce after her ex childhood crush and now-friend outside to the untameable garden he had refused to have renovated since it'd fallen into disrepair after his family's deaths.
She never understood why he kept it until she saw it through the patio's glass doors and the sight made her jump forward and launch open the doors to stare wide eyed at the splendour that had been cultivated from the mess behind Sasuke's mansion.
She gawked at the sight. The overgrown bushes and foreign trees had been somewhat tamed, made more natural and less crooked and menacing. They gave off a soft look that continued down the towering trunks, becoming hidden by the rainbow of plants that presented itself in the undergrowth.
"It's gorgeous," she breathed. "It's changed so much."
Sasuke vaulted over the patio fence, smirking back up at Sakura.
"Leave your shoes. I don't need you tracking gravel out here."
Glancing at Sasuke's discarded shoes, Sakura threw her's towards the door and practically fell over the fence in excitement, jogging to catch up to where Sasuke was almost completely hidden in the brushwood.
Grabbing the sleeve of his left arm, she watched as they rounded the corner and her breath hitched again.
Sasuke had always had a flurry of gardeners, trying to return the garden to its former glory, but this new employee, this steaming junk of a man, hadn't just returned the garden to its former glory – he had become one with it.
Working in the soil with tree saplings was a dashing young man with a lithe body. His only visible article of clothing was a pair of cargo pants and gloves, leaving him to lean on his knees, barefooted, as he carefully doted on the plant with calloused hands carefully wrapped in thick, brown, specialised gloves.
Sakura gawked at the hot gardener; the rest of the miraculous garden forgotten in the godly sight. Godly indeed, since there seemed to a halo around the tan man's head because of his blonde hair.
Oh, his hair!
It had a marvellously messy style, golden and perfect mix of soft and mussed.
Sakura roughly grabbed Sasuke shoulder, speaking in the most serious tone he had heard from her since the time that she had placed a bet that she could lift more than the local heavyweight champion of the neighbourhood, "Your gardener is really fucking hot, Sasuke."
Sasuke's smirk became larger at his childhood friend's observation, raising an eyebrow as he spoke, "Why do you think I hired him? A bonus is that he's managed to turn this dump into something worthy of the estate."
Sasuke led Sakura to a bench that was cosily nestled among a colourful bush, leaving without a word, though she presumed it was for sandwiches, or something of the sort.
Sakura smiled and played with a vibrant blue flower that leaned onto the bench.
She jumped as she heard a voice call out to 'the pink-haired girl', almost making her rip the flower straight off its stem.
"You can keep it if you'd like."
Sakura looked towards the speaker, finding Sasuke's new hot gardener leaning against a tree, fiddling with his gloves in a nervous gesture that wasn't betrayed by the rest of him.
Sakura looked back at the flower and decided against her initial thoughts.
"I don't want to ruin your work. Blue isn't really my colour, anyway."
She looked back to see the blond-haired man smiling warmly at her, whatever had been so interesting about his gloves apparently resolved.
He shook his head and thought to himself, "No, blue really isn't your colour. I wonder..."
He began wandering off as Sasuke returned with a big Tupperware box of sandwiches.
Sasuke raised an eyebrow at Sakura.
"Did you manage to scare him away already? Usually it takes until you at least until you start bench pressing twice their body weight for your male dates to run off."
Sakura shrugged, not sure herself.
"Here we go!"
The hoarse voice ran through the garden, quickly followed by Sasuke's grinning gardener. He had handfuls of fully bloomed red roses in his arms, all picked in what seemed like seconds.
He ran up to Sakura and held out his arms the best he could without dropping any of the crimson flowers.
"These should definitely work, right?"
Sakura beamed and nodded, glancing at Sasuke's resting bitch face as his gardener began carefully arranging the thick blooms in her hair, pinning them up in the fastest braids she had ever seen.
The flowers rested around her left temple, tucking away her hair behind her ear.
Sasuke felt a little jealousy burn through him as he watched his gardener begin to braid Sakura's long hair with roses.
"There, perfect!" the blond said, smiling like the sun at Sakura. "Beautiful like the queen you are."
Sakura didn't call out Sasuke's muttering, "If she breathes, she's a thot."
He was apparently very skilled in the elusive art of braiding short hair, because he had managed to pull Sakura's hair up into a bun, thinner braids interlocking with smaller white flowers that had appeared from another nearby bush.
Sakura began talking again, almost a little bit sheepish, "I'm sorry, I haven't even introduced myself! My name's Sakura."
The blonde grinned at her, speaking with unwarranted enthusiasm.
"Uzumaki Naruto, at your service! Literally, if you know what I mean." The playful wink that Naruto sent Sakura did nothing to quell the rage boiling over Sasuke, the only thing stopping an outburst being the fact he knew that Sakura had a girlfriend, though it wouldn't help if Naruto made them break up.
Sasuke froze when Naruto turned to look at him, a playful stare playing at his warm blue eyes.
"Would you like flowers too?"
Sasuke glanced at Sakura, who was trying in vain to conceal her fit of giggled.
He folded his arms and sighed, "Nothing purple."
Naruto smirked and ran off towards a spruce tree, disappearing again as Sasuke sat down.
Sakura smiled coyly at Sasuke, turning her body towards him.
"Look at you, Mr. Uchiha, I thought you were just going to say no! Does this mean you really like him~?"
Sasuke rolled his eyes at his best friend's antics, huffing in annoyance, "Of course not. He's just cute."
Naruto came prancing back from the foliage with an armful of white and pink flowers, which all had rather pastel, though not muted, colours.
Sasuke's resting bitch face amazingly didn't scare off Naruto who stood in front of him expectantly, making him drop his arms and turn around, unlike what Sakura had to do; her hair was long enough to be done from the front, and he internally growled at the injustice that she got to watch Naruto's chest, but he didn't.
Should I grow my hair out?
Nah.
Sasuke could feel Naruto's gloveless hands glide through his hair, playing with the unusually soft locks.
"I like your hair."
Sasuke shifted at the complement.
Feeling the intimate air between the two, Sakura began inching away, doing her best not to disturb the scene. Within a few minutes, she had slipped away, out of the garden, and left a note in the kitchen on her way out (it wouldn't stop Sasuke being mad that she stole a sandwich, but she'd take her chances).
As Sakura disappeared, Naruto relaxed properly and dragged his hands from the roots of Sasuke's hair, combing out all the flowers, making the Uchiha pout.
"I guess she approves."
Sasuke turned around, looking up at Naruto's taller figure as he laced his hands behind his warm back.
Naruto pulled Sasuke closer, burying his face in the blue cloth of his shirt, and Sasuke brought his hands up, using his thumbs to caress Naruto's collar, pushing him away by the jaw before pulling him back in for a kiss.
"Ne, would you two get a room?"
"GO AWAY, KAKASHI!"