Prompt: Sasuke helps Sakura on the battlefield.

Rating: K+

A/N: Obviously based off the recent chapters, so maybe slight spoilers?

"What the hell do you think you're doing?!"

The temptation to roll his eyes nearly overcomes him, but instead the man settles for a huff.

"Protecting you," he deadpans. "And helping you."

"I don't need your protection!" she bellows back, sounding utterly irritated. "Or your help!"

He raises an eyebrow and turns his head to look at her, a strange expression marring his face. She isn't that arrogant, is she? She couldn't possibly be. Sakura had to know she wouldn't have been able to get rid of those clones alone—they had been huge and numerous. They were nothing like their small counterparts they had previously been fighting.

Distantly, he remembers the way she happily called his name when he came to her rescue, and the pretty blush on her face. What happened to that? Didn't she always want him to be her knight in shining armor?

"You're getting it regardless," he finally says, looking towards the battlefield again and counting the number of clones rushing towards them.

Five, he thinks. But then his sharingan catches a sixth signature, and he corrects himself. Six. Six clones their size shouldn't be too hard to handle.

"I'm not weak!"

Sasuke freezes. Now he's confused.

Since when does needing help equal being weak? he wonders, narrowing his eyes in impatience.

He looks at her again. "I never said you were," he says slowly, shifting his body completely to face hers.

She stood from her crouching position, straightening her back proudly before pointing a furious finger at him.

"You protecting me means you think I'm weak!" she snaps, curling her the hand pointing at him in a tight fist.

He glares, feeling a little bit exasperated. Was that what the problem was? She'd mistaken his little defending act as her own confirmation of weakness in his eyes? She needed help and he gave it to her. He wasn't trying to protect her because he thought she couldn't. He was protecting her because it was in his blood, and he couldn't help it.

"It means I'm helping you," he growled, planting his chokuto on the ground and crossing his arms firmly on his chest. "Because you're my teammate," he added, almost like an afterthought.

"The weak teammate!"

It took everything in Sasuke not to groan. They didn't have time for this! The clones would be there in barely a few minutes! They needed to be ready to counter their attacks!

"You were surrounded, vastly outnumbered, and they were closing in on you," he grounds out. "I did what I had to do to make sure you would survive."

"Because alone, I obviously would have died!" she says, voice dripping with sarcasm. "Didn't you see me completely pummel hundreds of clones earlier?"

He takes a step forward. "This is different, Sakura. You wouldn't of had the time—"

"Oh, screw you! You just thought I couldn't handle it!" she yells, shoving him back.

He grits his teeth and lets out a long, frustrated sigh. "No, Sakura," he says, almost softly. "It's called teamwork. You have my back, I have yours. We protect each other. Work together." He uncrosses his arms, takes the kusanagi again, and lifts his lips in an almost-smirk. "Fight together."

She relaxes, slowly. "Fighting together," she murmurs softly, a light smile trying to make its way to her lips. It's almost nostalgic.

But then she winks. "I'll protect you too, Sasuke-kun," she says, crouching down again as she senses the clones approaching.

He huffs and turns towards the enemies. "I don't need it."

"But you'll get it anyway," she quips, giggling.

He nearly smiles. "Yeah," he says, getting back into battle formation, back to back with her. "But I'll get it anyway."

A/N: Don't ask me where Naruto is, I don't know. Pretend that something happened and the team needed to break off or he's off fighting with his dad or Hinata or something. He's just not there with them at the moment. I obviously don't think something like this would happen with just the two of them (maybe Team 7, though, I just didn't know how to incorporate Naruto without ruining the mood) but I hope it looked believable. Also, I don't think Sasuke is that OOC because he's been falling back into old habits so fast and Sakura always used to make him smile easily. ^_^

DeepPoeticGirl