A/N: Hello! Let me take this time to say Happy New Year! (12 days late.. I am a failure.) It's been two months since Naruto ended. I can safely say that I can still feel the effects of the loss. I kind of miss having to feel excited once a week for a new chapter. Sigh. Oh well. I guess I'll just have to wait for the miniseries. And dang it! Sasuke and Naruto didn't end up together (it was unlikely from the start but part of me still hoped) so Bolt and Sarada better damn well end up together! Give me at least that, Kishimoto! Until then, I'll be re-binging on Rurouni Kenshin.
Well... I'm done ranting. It's a filler, everyone. Aaaand it's short. Hehe. Hope you all like it. Oh and someone's a bit out of character here. You'll all know soon enough. Just a little heads up.
I'd like to give a shout out to SweetHunniiBunnii. Thanks for the continual support, dear!
*DISCLAIMER APPLIES*
BEFORE THE WORST
The Achilles' Heel
What was high school without the house parties?
Come on. The high school experience would never be complete without going to at least one of those wild kick-ass parties. Naruto was a firm believer of this. After all, she was impulsive; and what better way to attract an impulsive girl than to invite her to wild kick-ass high school parties.
There was a rumour earlier that day that Hozuki Suigetsu, Karin's rather complicated love-hate boy toy, was having a house party. Of course, it was natural in high school for gossip to spread like wildfire. It also helped that being connected with Sasuke meant that you were first to hear of any hot parties that were hosted by select members from the student body. If he wasn't invited by the host and/or hostess themselves then hearing countless painfully hopeful girls ask Sasuke to respective parties was another way of keeping in the loop of their little teenager-infested world. Sasuke, would of course rudely decline, to which Naruto would react by saying that 'hells yeah they were going to the party', even offering to pimp out her boyfriend once in a while as long as she got to go to so-and-so's shindig. She'd of course received a harsh smack on the head the few times she did decide to lend Sasuke off.
Going back to Suigetsu's party, attending the event seemed like the most excellent idea six hours ago. Suffice to say that presently, six hours later since six hours ago, she was abso-freaking-lutely sure that it had been a horrible idea.
"Narutooooooo! You so pretty!"
Because Sasuke was one helluva handful and one god damn annoying drunk.
She didn't know how this happened. Sasuke rarely drank and if he did drink, he made sure to be carefully about it; which was why Naruto was beyond dumbfounded over the fact that she was currently holding a tomato coloured-faced Uchiha up as she tried to get the both of them safely home.
"Babe? Babe? Babyyy? I want a kiss. Gimme a kiss." Sasuke leaned over so he could lay one on Naruto. The considerable shift in weight however caused Naruto to waver and lose her bearing. Impact against the concrete sidewalk was not the best definition of a wild kick-ass party by Naruto's books.
"Sweetheart? You okay?" Sasuke, no, whatever this thing was was starting to grate on Naruto's nerves. She didn't know whether she should chalk it up to Sasuke being unaccustomed to alcohol or whether to accept that Sasuke was just one aggravating drunk but whatever it was, she was sure as hell that she was ready to beat Sasuke drunk ass into the ground.
The sound of a vehicle rolling to a stop caught Naruto's attention. "Need any help, Nar?" Praise the gods! Sakura came to her rescue!
"Sakura-chan, please remove this thing from me." Naruto pleaded while she was struggling push Sasuke's face away from her own face.
Sakura giggled, turned off her engine, and exited her mini coop. "Someone must've slipped him some eggnog again." The pinkette rationalized in passing as she helped Naruto and Sasuke up. At some point through the ordeal of trying to get up, Sasuke thankfully passed out and was now, unfortunately, dead weight.
"Eggnog? It's fucking the end of February! Who the hell would still have eggnog?!" Naruto shouted to the heavens, hoping that the gods would shed some light on this mystery.
Sakura simply shrugged. "Never underestimate fangirls, Naruto, especially Uchiha fangirls. This is coming from experience."
Having Sasuke occupy the backseat of the car, Naruto decided it was the best course of action to sit beside the boy just in case he decided it was a good idea to start vomiting in Sakura's very nice car. Naruto held Sasuke's head up so he wouldn't end up choking on himself either. Sakura started the car and off they went to take Sasuke home.
"So I'm assuming you guessed eggnog because of that one Christmas party, Sakura-chan?" Naruto, in a rare demonstration of genius, put two and two together and asked straight to the point. She took advantage of the situation seeing as how this was the perfect time to ask about the Christmas incident that happened while she was away in Iwa.
"You caught that quickly, huh?" Sakura began to press on the brakes as the stoplight ahead turned orange then red, granting her enough time to say the gist of The Christmas Party. "The way he acted back then isn't all that different to how he's acting now. Of course, he was more subdued back then. It's weird because he only ever acts this way when he drinks eggnog. Must be a traumatic reaction to eggnog specifically because we've seen him drink other alcoholic beverages before and he seemed fine. It was just really funny because Kakashi was in the party with the other adults and Sasuke started doing to Kakashi what he was doing to you just now. There was also an incident with Kakashi's scarf and attempts to remove it were made. It's a shame that Sasuke was unsuccessful. Seeing Kakashi's face would be like finding the Holy Grail. Truthfully, I find it very strange that Kakashi hadn't mentioned it to you before."
The imagery of Sasuke going all kissy-kissy on Kakashi was hilariously priceless. She then began to crack up. Oh what Naruto would have given to be able to see that! "Knowing this bastard, he must've threatened Kakashi with something equally embarrassing to shut that pervert up!" Naruto surmised as she tried to contain her laughter.
The Haruno girl softly chuckled at the memory. It was a shame Naruto didn't get to see that. The light turned green and Sakura resumed their journey to the Uchiha household. A comfortable silence fell upon them, broken only by the sound of Sasuke softly murmuring Naruto's name in his sleep. It was sweet. Every so often Sakura would gaze at her rear view mirror to get a glimpse of the Uchiha-Uzumaki couple. The sight of Naruto lightly caressing the top of Sasuke's hand while the latter peacefully slept on Naruto's shoulder filled Sakura's heart with a substantial warmth.
"He really loves you, huh?" Sakura said this as more of an observation than anything while she turned a street corner.
"I'd like to think so." Naruto replied with a more sombre tone than she would like to admit.
"You'd like to think so?" The older female furrowed her brows in concern, completely not understanding the blonde's response. She failed to comprehend how Naruto would ever doubt Sasuke's feelings.
"I mean... he seems to love me. He's certainly not lacking in terms of action." Naruto paused.
"But?" Sakura vocally nudged the other to elaborate.
"But... well, I've never actually heard him say he loves me back." Now that she's voiced her concern, Naruto suddenly felt stupid. As the popular saying goes, actions spoke louder than words. Wasn't she just being childish for wanting to hear Sasuke say 'I love you' back?
"He's Sasuke. He's not really known for being vocal, Naruto." Sakura had a point. Maybe Naruto was just overthinking things too much.
"That's true. Sorry. I was being stupid. Ignore me." Naruto tried to brush the feeling off.
"I'm not on Sasuke's side either though, Naruto. I'm not saying that it's fine that he's not being vocal. I guess what I'm trying to say is just give him time. He'll get there someday, so don't sweat, 'kay? Besides, with the way he looks at you, I seriously doubt that him saying he loves you will take long." Sakura took one final turn at a corner to arrive in Sasuke's neighbourhood.
Naruto sincerely smiled at Sakura from the rear view mirror. "Yeah. Thanks Sakura."
Sakura rolled to a stop, signaling that they had arrived at the Uchiha residence. Sakura moved to press on the button that would release her seatbelt but was promptly halted by Naruto. "I got it from here, Sakura-chan."
"You sure? Sasuke's pretty heavy."
"Yup. I can take this dead weight on any day. Go on home and get some rest. Just text me to let me know that you got home safely." Naruto flashed Sakura a thumbs up before releasing hers and Sasuke's respective seatbelts. It didn't take much manoeuvring to get the both of them out of the car. Naruto waved her goodbye as Sakura began to drive away.
"Man, Sasuke. Maybe you should consider trying to look like crap so you're safe from your eggnog-harbouring fangirls." The blonde, who had Sasuke's arm around her should and supported the lad by using her other hand to grab a hold of his waist, murmured the suggestion in a futile attempt to get Sasuke to dress down.
To her surprise, Sasuke stirred from his unconsciousness, looked around the area and miraculously recognized where they were. "Elle, please stay over?"
Elle? Well that was refreshingly nostalgic. Naruto chuckled at the childhood pet name. "You haven't called me that in ages, Sasuke-bastard."
"Mmm. Stay the night, Naruto." He requested one last time before passing out once more.
"Yeah, yeah. Whatever you say, weak sauce."
To think that The Uchiha Sasuke was extremely weak against eggnog. Maybe Naruto should use the Christmas drink to her advantage next time and get Sasuke to profess his undying love for her? She sniggered to herself. Nah! She wasn't that desperate. And besides, Sakura made an excellent point back in the car. Naruto just needed to keep faith in Sasuke's devotion to her and he'd answer her back in no time at all.
But if that didn't work, well, there was always eggnog.