9:45 am

Sasuke and Sakura crammed their way into his bathroom. She began running the bath, as it filled she added the flea ointment.

"That smells like crap," he told her.

"Yeah but it should clean them up," Sakura replied.

"Hn. Why couldn't Naruto do this?"

"He probably doesn't even know they have this problem."

"Yeah," he bluntly responded.

"So, why don't you like cats?"

"They're annoying."

"Do you like any animals?"

"Eh, dogs are okay."

She laughed, "Ever have one?"

"No."

At this point they both noticed the water was about to overflow.

Sasuke and Sakura, "Oh!"

They both reached for the faucet and Sasuke accidently grabbed Sakura's hand. He reached away in a split second and she shut off the water.

"Wow your hands are—"

"Let's get the cats."

Sasuke stood up and stormed out of the room and Sakura followed him. In his living room they looked around to see nothing but hair the cats shed.

"Where'd they go?" Sakura asked.

Sasuke just scoffed and said, "I'll check my other rooms. You look around in here."

"All right," Sakura acknowledged before Sasuke left her alone.

She checked around every corner, under every ledge and on every surface. She noticed a few things poking around his apartment: he's very clean, the cats were nowhere to be seen and he has a binder labeled "Memories." She knew he wasn't a sentimental person, so she looked over her shoulder and didn't see him, so she pulled out the book and opened to a random page. It was a huge coincidence, but in there was the tattered Team 7 photo he turned down years ago.

"Sakura!"

Her whole body jolted. She turned around to see nobody there.

"Sakura come to my room!"

Both times were Sasuke, thankfully still in his room out of sight. She closed the book and quickly shoved it back in the shelf.

"Coming!"

She ran to his room to see Sasuke holding Fidel like a baby. He, of course, looked uncomfortable.

She said, "Good you found one."

"Both," he shrugged his right shoulder and squinted his right eye, "Kind of."

He looked to his right and Sakura followed his gaze to see an open window.

"Did the other one get out?"

"I assume so."

Sasuke sat the cat he had down, closed the window and began walking out of the room. He walked right past Sakura as if she wasn't even there. He went through the kitchen and into the living room before calling, "You coming?"

Her eyes brightened up, "Yup!"

She jogged up next to him and they walked into the morning air.

10:10 am

They were walking down a path in the middle of a park.

"It's like we're 12 again; searching for a lost pet or something else trivial."

"Hn."

As usual she had to do most of the talking, "If you were a cat where would you hide?"

"What kind of a question is that?"

"It's what people ask themselves when they're looking for something."

He just grunted in annoyance.

She continued, "Well, where do you think a cat would go?"

"I don't know and I'm starting to not care."

"Maybe we should post missing posters around town?"

"No."

"We have to do something. Naruto will never let us forget this!"

Sasuke kept walking in silence.

"Sasuke-kun, we can't do nothing."

Sasuke stopped dead in his tracks, turned to face Sakura and got down on one knee.

She giggled, "Sasuke-kun what are you doing?"

He cupped his hands together and placed them on his knee, "Giving you a boost."

Sakura looked up to see K-Jong sitting on a thin branch.

Sasuke explained, "The branch won't support much weight, so climbing it or walking up it won't do much besides scare it away."

Sakura put her hands on both of his shoulders, placed her foot in his hands and in one quick motion was lifted herself up, grabbed the cat with her hands and fell back to the ground.

"Ah! Here's the cute little—" the cat MEOWED loudly and unsuccessfully tried to scratch her because she held him at arm's length, "son of a bitch!"

This got a grin out of Sasuke, "Let's get him back."

It sounded kind of ironic coming from Sasuke, but he's practically rehabilitated himself.

10:27 am

The duo walked back into Sasuke's apartment.

"Bath time?"

"Hn."

Sakura bee lined it to the bathroom and Sasuke headed for his room. He quickly joined her in the bathroom with the other cat.

"Ok we need to be careful. Cats hate water," Sakura informed her crush.

"Eh, they're just cats."

Sasuke dipped the lower half of his cat into the bathtub and it instantly screeched a high-pitch meow, thrashed around and tried to scratch and bite and run. It kicked water onto both of them.

"Agh! I hate cats," Sasuke mumbled under his breath as he instinctively raised K-Jong up.

"I'm starting to too. Let's just do it quickly or we'll be scratching all day," Sakura coaxed.

"Fine. Let's not get too much water on my floor. On 3," Sasuke said, "1, 2, 3!"

They dunked their respective felines back into the water. The cats kicked and scratched at the water but the ninjas scrubbed them clean. They let them go and they ran off leaving Sasuke and Sakura soaking wet and sitting on the bathroom floor.

Sakura exhaled and stated, "Well, at least that's over.""

"Hn."

"It was kind of fun, though. Right?"

"Yeah I guess."

They sat in silence in what was the first extended one-on-one interaction they've shared since Sasuke returned 6 months ago. To Sakura's surprise it wasn't her who broke the silence:

"I did have a dog. A long time ago."

"What happened to him?"

"I don't know."

"Oh."

"Maybe you should go. Thanks for the help."

Sasuke stood up and offered a hand to Sakura. She grabbed it and he helped her to her feet.

"Yeah, yeah I guess I should get going."

Sasuke looked away from her, "Thanks for the help," he mumbled.

"Anytime."

They walked to his front door dripping water on his carpet as they moved. He opened the door for her and she walked out.

"See you later Sasuke-kun!" she cheered.

"Yeah. I mean, we should do something like this again…sometime."

Sakura smiled, "Definitely."

Sakura walked away from his apartment wondering if that was technically their first date.

12:22 pm

Sasuke was lying on his couch letting Fidel nap on his chest. He didn't have much to do these days and he didn't mind the company of something that couldn't talk. His stomach growled loud enough to wake the cat from his cat nap. He woke up and looked Sasuke in the eyes and if Sasuke knew the word 'cute' he would have used it. He reached in his pocket for his phone when he heard a knock at his front door. He sat up and Fidel ran off. He walked up and opened the door to see, not too surprisingly, Sakura once again.

"Hi Sasuke-kun."

"Hey."

"So earlier you said you have pizza delivery on speed dial so I figured maybe you wouldn't mind a change," she stammered and then held forward a basket with a large bowl of something and bread rolls around it.

"Did you—"

"Ooh, was this too much?"

"No, were you—"

"Because you said we should do something sometime and now that I'm here it seems like I'm coming on too strong too fast and you probably ate already and—"

"No, calm down. Thanks for the food."

"You're welcome. I made it all myself," she said as he took the basket from her and she continued, "I hope you like it."

"What is it?"

"Tomato soup."

"Come eat it with me."

Her cheeks suddenly felt warmer as Sasuke stepped to this side giving her room to come in.

"Yeah I'd like that," she accepted

They didn't know it then, but years later they would argue about what was technically their first date. It could be the homemade lunch they shared that day, or, it could be the next day when Sasuke asked her to have dinner with him.

The End