Heatwave.
"Saku-chan. My darling, my angel, it is beyond agony to part with you."
The air around her almost crackled with electricity. Having been denied the pleasure of gutting one Uchiha Itachi, she was beyond eager to vent her frustration on one of the many men who made her life one big, fat, irritation. That, coupled with the anger at the fact that Itachi had fended her off with just a finger on her forehead, would make her a very, very dangerous person to be with.
"Stop following me," Sakura hissed, as she attempted to stalk away in her drenched dress.
Shisui obviously had no sense of self-preservation. "What would make you say such a thing, cupcake?"
None whatsoever.
"Shisui!"
"Yes, love muffin?"
"Love muffin?" she shrieked back, on the border of hysteria.
He stopped and gave her an appraising glance. Him; still in his perfect, un-creased shirt and formal trousers with his suit jacket slung far too casually over his shoulder. Her, hair plastered to her skull and dress sticking as close to her as the skin she was born in - so close she knew he could see every outline, every contour. She may as well have been naked. Shisui kept walking even after she had stopped; rage having made putting one foot in front of the other a horrendous challenge.
Looking back over his shoulder, his face was calm and almost bored looking suddenly.
"You're angry that he pushed you in the pond after you went for him."
Silence.
"With his finger."
Furious silence.
"Without spilling his tea."
Silence proceeding brutal stiletto related murder.
"Did you know he has pink boxers?"
The furious expression on her face melted away like ice-cream would on the sweltering-hot pavement beneath her feet. She struggled for a few moments, but it was in vain as she dissolved into muted laughter. That fact alone was almost infuriating enough to make her go at him with the kunai strapped to her thigh. As it was, she just took the jacket he had proffered and slung it over her wet shoulders to hide her cute, now fully visible, push-up bra. They walked along silently together, past the boundaries that marked the Clan compound.
"You're never going to let me live this down, are you?" Sakura muttered finally, when they drew to a halt just past the gates.
The look of smug satisfaction - the cat-that-got-the-cream expression - on his face made her want to claw it off.
"Never."
They stood for a moment in the warm darkness together before she turned and looked him in the eye.
"Does Itachi really have pink boxers?"
Putting over his heart, he grinned,"Yessir, due to an unfortunate washing mix up (that may, or may not, have involved my red sweatbands and his white underwear). Tight bastard won't throw out anything that's still serviceable though.
"I also think that you should mention that to a certain other baby cousin of mine."
"Sasuke...? Why would I do that, Shisui?" His games were far too fun – damn him for making it so easy to go along for the ride.
"Hmm, well," the wicked look on his face should have been illegal..."How would Sasuke think you came to know that, hmm?"
Putting her index finger to her pursed lips, she considered it with a deep frown creasing her large forehead. "How, indeed... I think I would have to have–"
"–Seen him in them, perhaps...?"
... ... ...
"Forehead, what the hell happened last night?" hissed Ino, hands firmly on her generous hips, deadly gleam in her eyes.
Sakura continued to sip her icy cool smoothie with what she would consider a calm, dignified expression on her face. Well ... as calm and dignified as one can look with their lips wrapped around a hot pink straw. Ino sidled into her seat in the manner of a deadly femme fatale and quickly flagged down an overly-eager waiter in order to ask for a low-fat, soya milk latte. Her eyes were like two hard shards of glittering ice.
"'It's far too hot for a coffee, Pig."
"Don't change the subject," she snapped, waving her bright red nails like a warning sign.
Sucking petulantly on her smoothie Sakura waited grimly for the ax to fall. Ino took every failed blind date as a personal insult. The fact that she had actually ditched Kazuo would have made her blond friend furious beyond belief.
"You left." Those two words held more menace than any number of death threats.
"Medical emergency."
"Don't you give me that "medical emergency" crap, Billboard Brow. Is this the thanks I get for trying to get you laid?"
"Ino!" One of the elderly women at the other table looked like she was about to faint.
She gave a ridiculously theatrical pout and began to daintily sip at her coffee without smudging her coral lipstick even a little. Sakura examined her chipped, pea-green nail polish with interest - noting the dirt crammed beneath the nails and promising to deal with it the moment she got home. Preferably with a lovely cool bath and a nice rom-com book that didn't require any higher brain functions.
"You'll never believe who I had to go and treat though, Pig."
Against her friend's will, she saw Ino's gossip antenna perk up a little. The waves of killing intent she had been giving off lessened a little as she looked over with her over-plucked eyebrows raised as high as they could possibly.
"Oh?"
Sakura actually felt a little smug for once - being on the other end of the ridiculously-hot-man-story. Even if it did involve the sub-human, name calling, Uchiha Itachi – asshole extraordinaire.
"Uchiha Itachi." She hid her smile by sucking on her smoothie.
Ino slapped her hands down on the table with a look of glee on her fine features. Kazuo was history in the mind beneath all that silky blond hair. She would never be set up with that bore again. The "details, details" look on the blond's face was somewhat reminiscent of a starving wolf staring at a giant, raw steak.
"Mhmm, and I have to tell you, Pig, he is one fine specimen."
"How much did you see?" Her voice had lowered to an almost breathless whisper.
"The whole top half. The muscle definition... Drool-worthy."
Suddenly, Ino's eyes were no longer focused on Sakura, rather behind her. That same ominous tingling feeling she had felt last night buzzed around her spine. Sakura felt the fine hairs on the back of her neck bristle as hot breath washed across the sweaty skin of her nape, exposed because of the fact that her hair was tied up and in a bun.
"Is that so?"
"Shi- Shisui. It's so good to see you." Whatever she had done, she surely didn't deserve this.
"Saku-chan? I didn't know that you and my baby cousin had gotten so far. Then again, you do appear to have coordinated your underwear with his..." His height gave him something of an advantage, she was sure he could see straight down her shirt's sweetheart neckline.
"What are you talking about, I'm wearing green–"
Too late did she realize what she had said. Ino's expression was one of rapture. The special portion of her cerebellum completely devoted to storing juicy gossip was whirring into motion, and nothing would stop her from sucking Sakura dry of every detail now. By the end of the day, everyone would be bound to think that she was engaged to Uchiha Itachi and pregnant with his psychotic spawn.
"–And he wears pink, I know. My mistake. Perhaps you only matched the bottom half?"
"Would you like to go in for a closer inspection?" Sakura muttered through clenched teeth, willing him to come closer so that she could crush his skull in her bare hands.
"Maybe later," he gave a saucy wink, moving a little further away from her. "I have training, I'm afraid – I just came in to get lunch beforehand."
Waving his take-out in front of them, he bowed fluidly and then escaped with a speed befitting his title; Shisui, the Body Flicker. The list of "Painful ways to kill people" Sakura had always favoured in these kinds of situations popped up in the forefront of her mind as a kind of defense mechanism for her sanity. She sucked the bottom of her glass clean before daring to turn and glance at Ino.
"I have to go and train now," she ventured.
Reaching out, Ino placed her manicured fingers carefully atop Sakura's hand - the tips of her pointed nails digging into several veins. To an outsider, this might look like a comforting gesture.
"We'll talk on that underwear shopping trip we have scheduled for tomorrow."
Her words may as well have been a death sentence.
... ... ...
Sensing a presence behind her, Sakura turned minutely to glance at the person approaching the long-range kunai targets ... and nearly dropped the kunai in her hand from a mixture of shock, irritation and a little (a tiny little – miniscule, really) bit of excitement.
"What are you doing here?" she blurted out, without thinking; such a stupid mistake. "I mean... I thought the Uchiha had their own training grounds..." Rich, elitist bastards that you are.
"That does not mean I am prohibited from using the other training grounds," Itachi replied mildly.
Sakura watched him hit every target with barely a flick of his wrist, nor a drop of sweat forming, and hated him for it. The heat bore down in sticky, claustrophobic waves on all sides as she too practiced her aiming. All the while, her eyes were dragged back to him as though by a magnetic force; watching the fluid movements of his arms and the muscles contracting and relaxing beneath his pale skin, and dragging her eyes across the tiny slivers of stomach and back exposed when his top flipped up the slightest amount in particularly forceful throws.
She swallowed heavily a few times – willing herself to just get a goddamned grip. As a medic – and as a shinobi – she had seen more than enough fully naked, perfectly toned, male bodies, so it was beyond ridiculous that this small encounter was having such a big effect on her. Pressing her mouth into a thin line, she gave a particularly vicious throw that left the kunai so deeply embedded in the tree behind the target that she would, no doubt, have to tear it to pieces to retrieve the weapon.
"You should really relax a bit, Sakura-san. You will hurt yourself if you continue like that," he murmured, tongue coiling around her name and almost caressing it - the mortifying nickname thankfully unseen.
Itachi was behind her, she knew. She could feel the heat of his breath - stronger even than that of the glare of the sun and the stale air around her - lightly washing across the exposed skin at the back of her neck. The hairs on her arms rose up and a prickling sensation tingled through her tense muscles as she picked out his slow, even heartbeat.
"It's just you... I make a point not to trust those of your Clan." Especially that little prick Shisui.
He made a throaty noise that might have been a chuckle that sent a sharp jolt of heat right down to the pit of her stomach that she didn't want to try and identify.
"Wise of you."
With a flick of her wrist she hit the target dead on again, pretending his presence didn't bother her.
"Is there something you want?" she hissed through clenched teeth.
"Want?" he echoed. "Perhaps ... that should be left to another time."
Spinning around in a flurry of pink hair she found him about two steps away - two very small steps away. His eyes were fixed intently on hers now, but with her innate female intuition she felt he had been looking somewhere else entirely a few seconds prior. If Sakura wasn't mistaken... Sasuke's very intimidating elder brother was flirting with her. A terrifying thought. Suddenly, she was far too aware of how small her shorts were and how much she had pulled down the zip of her top to try and get some air on her sweaty skin.
"Well, can you perhaps get out of my personal space. I can hardly train well with you hanging over my shoulder."
"That is true," he conceded politely, but didn't move.
Maybe it was the heat playing tricks on her eyes, but it looked like his were lightening a few shades. A sure sign of a very early stage of Sharingan. Her spine stiffened as she tested the air between them and found it heavy with chakra - unactivated. He seemed ready to spring a genjutsu on her at any given moment... Why? Her analytical mind whirred and considered the options; fight or flight – or something else entirely...
Shoving that thought away she narrowed her gleaming eyes at him.
"Is this another tactic to humiliate me, Uchiha-san? You did so quite well last night."
Jerking her arm, she hurled the kunai with enough force to add another split in the target and the tree. Her arm tingled a little as the muscles strained and pulled. The fact that she had forgone a warm-up in favour of simply working out her frustrations was showing, and she cursed that fact.
"You are offended by being perceived as close to me - as I implied with the usage of a nickname?"
"Yes, actually. Especially when I am not close to you, nor have any desire to be so. The fact that you pushed me into the pond might also have something to do with it."
There was a tense moment that seemed to stretch minutes when the line of his thin lips tightened a fraction and he took a single, measured step forward. Despite the heat Sakura felt something; a chill, a spark, a tingle. Too close, she thought, but not touching. If she leaned forward a little she could rest her head just beneath his collarbone and with an absolute, sudden certainty she knew their bodies would fit together like pieces in a puzzle.
"That's the first lie you've ever told me," he said, quietly, in that even voice of his.
She felt his chakra buzz around her and her mind drew up an answer even as she let out a skeptical snort and dropped her eyes from his gaze. He couldn't predict her. She had felt this kind of chakra before; mood-monitoring. A special favourite of one Morino Ibiki. His mild Sharingan activation; a device to monitor her body language down to the most minute detail. Sakura felt a rush of pride and power at the realization that he saw her as a wild card.
Turning around, she threw one of her last kunai.
"It is ... not polite in the slightest to turn your back on someone in the middle of a conversation, Sakura-san."
"Oh really, Uchiha-san? I was courteous enough when I asked you to move, but you chose not to," she hissed.
"If you answer a question of mine, I'll leave you be."
His words came close to her ear and she knew he was reveling in the goosebumps that had sprung up on the back of her neck. Some hideous little part of her felt exhilarated.
"There is an event of sorts in the Clan Grounds a week from now. I would like for you to accompany me."
Sakura choked on the air and promptly dropped her kunai. "What?"
He looked at her like she was the stupidest thing to wax lyrical on the stupid side of stupid. It was amazing how much ridicule Sakura could detect in his dead-pan expression. Years upon years of putting up with Sasuke had given her that skill, most likely.
"I said–"
"Look, I heard, but it's not what you said. It's what you said!" He looked both mildly disgusted and confused. " Did Shisui put you up to this?"
"No, he did not." There was a note of irritation and don't-go-there in his voice.
"But ... then why? Who? What?" It seemed her revered intellect had abandoned her before this ridiculously handsome man.
Something flickered in his eyes before he moved downwards slowly to pick up her kunai and put it back in her lax hand - curling her small fingers around it with his own. Despite the heat, his hands were cool, but they had a slightly worn feeling to them and were covered in callouses. His nails were closely cropped and clean.
Sakura wanted to scratch out his windpipe for a reason she couldn't quite identify.
"I barely know you," she spoke - more softly than she meant.
He didn't let go of her hand even when she gave a gentle tug on it.
"I am required to bring someone … of female company."
"So you chose me." Sasuke would be annoyed if she said yes; then he wouldn't have anyone to go with who wasn't likely to maul him with kisses.
Vaguely, she wondered why she wasn't angry - or feeling anything in particular. He may as well have declared her 'Most-tolerable-woman'. Considering the fact they had spoken properly for the first time just a day prior, she felt something close to pity and knew he could feel it because of his jutsu.
She saw his eyes narrow and felt delight flaring. It would be amusing to see if she could crack him.
"If you are willing." That mollified her somewhat - she was used to the ol' grunt and drag method once favoured by cavemen.
"Sure, that would be... fun."
Awkward, awkward - trilled her mind. Sakura wondered why she was suddenly so tongue-tied and air-headed. She blamed the hot weather (nothing to do with the hot man, of course).
"I will pick you up at your home around seven – if that is agreeable."
All she could do was nod and feel as though she was composed solely of noodles. The heat had never gone down well with her - it burned her fair skin and sapped her energy. By this time of the day, she was normally exhausted by it. His nerve-wracking, over-bearing presence didn't help in the slightest.
Giving her the slightest incline of the head, Itachi released her hand and walked off. Apparently, he had used up his "people time" quota of the day.
It took her another five minutes to realize that he had never been to her house, and she hadn't told him where it was.
Sakura managed to split the tree clean in two with the force of her throw.
The urge to claw out his windpipe had come back with a vengeance.
... ... ...
Two nights after that dizzying conversation, Sakura found herself balanced precariously on the tilting, round table. She was also completely (and quite happily) oblivious to the fact that Naruto was craning his neck in an attempt to see up her short, swishy skirt. However, his head was at an angle that made him exceedingly dizzy and likely to vomit at any time now, considering how much alcohol he had downed in the last half hour. He would have said that it was worth it, had someone asked.
The third member of their party - one Uchiha Sasuke - was similarly intoxicated and sported a bright swatch of red across his normally pale cheeks to prove that fact. Why Sakura felt the need to stand on the table as she was – swaying ridiculously and giving him occasional glimpses of underwear (pale pink with bows on the sides) – did not make sense to him at all.
"You're making a fool of yourself, Sakura," he groused, clamping onto one calf and trying to drag her back down.
Her muscles bunched under his fingers as she tugged herself away and kept singing to that god-awful music they were playing. Hissing insults at her might be better, he thought – clearly not rational thinking.
"I can see your underwear, Sakura. I know it's pink."
She stopped swaying as Naruto let out an both indignant noise and a half-chuckle at his comment.
"Well, Sasuke-kun, you know who else's underwear is pink, huh...? Your brother's." She hissed back, the gleeful look on her elf-like face was impish and entirely infuriating.
All of the blood in his body seemed to rush up to his head and cloud his eyes with a bright haze of red. His sluggish thoughts didn't stop the anger and disgust that welled up inside him at the thought of his giggly, pink-haired, monstrously-tempered teammate and his manipulative, cold-fish of an older brother in an intimate situation.
"...You didn't," he half-whispered, half-growled, slamming his palms into the table as he stood and sending her sliding towards him.
He could see down her top now as she leaned over, but it didn't mean a thing given the amount of times he had seen her in various states of undress while she was injured over the years. Naruto was taking advantage of this new position to improve his "view" and nearly having a heart attack while he was at it. She was grinning, and Sasuke could see the spark of challenge clearly in her eyes.
Inwardly, the young Uchiha felt a snap, a pang, at the thought of his ever-winning elder brother taking – winning – something else and grinding him into the dirt once more.
"Hmm...? And what if I did-did-did?" She said, rolling her tongue over the word with a wicked gleam in her eyes.
There was a tense silence that was punctuated by the appearance of the always-tardy forth member of their party.
"Late as use-youuuu-alll, Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto hollered - oblivious to the bloodbath about to commence.
"Jeaaalouss, Sasuke-kun," she mocked, in a furious whisper.
She wasn't angry at him, really. Not for going out with that hideous Karin transfer woman from the dissolved state of the Sound, who had come to join Konoha with many other refugees. Really. Not even with the fact that they were supposedly on a break from dating. A break didn't mean he could swan around with that stupid tart. No, no. Break didn't mean broken up.
"Sakura, get off the table - I can see your underwear."
"Don't look then, Kakashi-sensei!"
"Even my old ANBU buddies can see, Sakura, you're giving quite a show... Not that I'm objectionable to that idea."
Even when ridiculously drunk, she could land a decent, bone-cracking punch on his jaw for that kind of comment. It only clipped him, but she knew it would bruise. Alcohol always made her temper far more dangerous.
Suddenly, Sakura felt tired and drained. Too drained to deal with Naruto shrieking in her ear and Kakashi's perversion, and Sasuke's dark, furious eyes trying to tear away the emotional shields she had erected between them. It was so hot still - it drained her energy like nothing else.
"I have an early shift at the hospital tomorrow guys. I'm going to head home, okay?"
Naruto looked as though someone had drowned puppies in front of him, and Sasuke's glare increased tenfold. Kakashi just put a hand on her shoulder and gave her an eye-crinkling smile.
"Sure you don't want one of us to walk you home?" He said, more out of courtesy than anything else.
"Sure, sure, sure, Kakashi-sensei. Or do you need a matching bruise on the other side of your face to prove I'll be fine?" He put up his hands and slouched over to the table.
As she walked out of the tiny establishment, one of the ANBU seated in the booth near their table watched her leave - dark eyes flickering behind the omnipresent mask.
Sasuke followed – she could feel his chakra. Not sure whether she wanted to cry, or yell, or beat him to a pulp, she walked faster and had gotten half-way down the street before he caught up. Briefly, she entertained the idea of running, but decided against it. She wanted to sleep tonight in her own apartment, undisturbed by him.
"We were not done talking, Sakura," the tone of his voice was deadly.
"I think you will find you are, Ototou. Saku...ra and I have business to attend to." Said a smooth, lilting voice, cutting over her retort.
The way he caressed the word "business" suggested more the oldest business in the world than anything else. Sasuke's face turned an ugly blotchy colour she had never seen before as he whipped around.
"Aniki... Stay out of this!"
Back away slowly, Sakura. Let them fight and escape while they're distracted. Itachi's eyes snapped to her the second she took a tiny step back. This was going to get messy. The hiss of a kunai being drawn assured her of that fact. Sasuke was even more impetuous than usual when drunk.
"I can't believe you," he spat viciously, "you knew we were together!"
The underwear remark definitely backfired. Shisui was out there somewhere - laughing his soon-to-be-mutilated ass off.
"I was under the impression the two of you had separated."
That said, a pair of warm lips promptly slanted against hers and in her line of vision, she saw Sasuke's eyes blaze Sharingan red.
I completely forgot to add an author's note to this! Sometimes I think I have no brain. Hopefully the next chapter will be up soon! I'm a bit nervous actually because I have written very few action scenes in my time. Thanks to all the lovelies who alerted, reviewed, and favourited; you are indeed the shiz.
Beta'd by the fabulosity that is Sakura4eva - she has mad skillz.
- Silver.