A/N – Wohoo, I managed to do all my homework on the way to the city and back… kind of. I'll study for the music test in the night. So, right now, I get to write a bit and the only reason I'm doing that, is because all of those emails and reviews and alerts… ''sighs'' Thank you for those.

Chapter 7 – Tomatoes!

It had been three days since team 7 had arrived in the hospital and Naruto was starting to worry. Sasuke worried too, but he didn't show it nearly as much as Naruto, who kept wailing about losing his good friend and team mate.

Lee's team had arrived a day ago and Lee had joined their small group in the hospital wing. Tenten had come to see him every now and then, but Neji hadn't showed up not once. When Naruto asked Tenten about it, she explained that their team mate completely refused to come out from the bed after he walked against the glass door near the balcony.

The last three days had been less eventful than those before them. The two boys had mostly spent it in the hospital wing and when they left for fresh air, then only one by one, so someone was always near Sakura.

Naruto stood up from the chair and stretched. He shook his head slightly, before saying,

"I think I'll go get some fresh air."

Sasuke only shrugged in response. Naruto's wounds had been completely healed and he was as energetic as ever. Nobody was sure if it was a good thing.

Naruto rose and strode out of the hospital wing quietly since Lee was sleeping in a bed no.10.

As soon as Naruto left, Sasuke's eyes went back towards the window. He had been sitting in the chair next to Sakura's bed for hours, just staring out of that window. Nobody understood what he looked at, but whatever it was, it seemed to keep him busy.

Sasuke slowly turned his eyes after another hour. Lee was still asleep. He wasn't injured either and the only reason his team mates had dragged him here was exhaustion. But then again, he had used his secret jutsu and had been beaten around seriously.

Sakura… Sakura was still sleeping. Three days. She had slept three days, without even waking up once. She seemed to have some bad dreams every now and then, since she trashed around some times, mumbling, but she never opened her eyes. Chie said it was alright and that she'll wake up, but tomorrow they will start the third exam. Though Sakura had no injuries, would she still be able to fight even if she woke up in time?

Sasuke sighed and looked out of the window again. He slowly rose, thinking about sitting on the windowsill instead of that uncomfortable chair, when he heard Sakura groan. He turned his head around sharply and his eyes widened by an inch or two.

Sakura's eyes were open.

Well, a bit open. She opened them a bit more and blinked a couple of times. "Sasuke?" she whispered in a rough voice.

Though Sasuke fought against it with all his might, he smiled in a Sasuke way. Which meant that the corners of his mouth curled up a tiny bit. Well, he does have a reputation to keep here.

"Hn," he replied. Sakura blinked again. "Whe…" she coughed, her throat completely dry. "I mean…" she coughed again.

Sasuke stood there for a moment, before he shook his head at her and left. Sakura felt a bit hurt that he'd leave just because she couldn't talk properly and her inner self was already thinking of ways to repay him painfully, when he returned.

"Here," he said, placing a cup of water in her hand. She stared at the cup, as wondering if someone was playing a prank on her expense. Finally coming to a decision she tried to get into a sitting position to drink, but it was kind of hard with her one hand under the covers and other one having a cup filled with water in it.

Sasuke reached behind her and helped her up, fixing the pillows, while restraining himself from rolling his eyes. The look he got from Sakura made him wonder if he was usually that bad. He slowly pulled away and sat back onto the chair.

Still eyeing Sasuke carefully, Sakura drank the water. She couldn't feel any genjutsu around him or the water, so she just hoped that this wasn't a trick. She drank up everything and then placed the cup onto her bedside table with a slight bang.

"Much better," she thought, as she turned to look at Sasuke who was looking at her. "Where are we?" "Still a bit scratchy though…"

Sasuke smirked, of course she would get right down to business, "The tower," he replied.

As Sasuke smirked, Sakura felt relieved. It was him after all. When he said they were in the tower, her eyebrows were raised, "The Tower. How did I get here?"

"Naruto and I brought you with us," Sasuke spoke, "We need three members to advance to the third exam, you know?"

"Oh," Sakura spoke, still a bit uneasy. "Orochimaru?"

"Dead."

"Good."

Sasuke raised an eyebrow. "What?" Sakura asked, "I'm happy that the bastard's dead. He had it coming."

Sasuke sat back down at the chair, still looking intensely at Sakura. Sakura felt herself fidgeting under his glaze.

"You're not interested in him," Sakura thought to herself, "You're not interested."

"In that case I'm the princess of Thailand," her inner responded.

"I don't like Sasuke," Sakura repeated, ignoring her inner.

"You're not even convincing me and I'm a part of you," her inner pointed out. Sakura groaned mentally.

"Naruto?" she asked out loud.

"He went for a walk. He should be back soon," Sasuke responded. Sakura was surprised in the length of his responses today, so she asked, "What day is it?"

"It's the fourth day of the exams. The third exam starts tomorrow."

"WHAT?"

"Lee's asleep."

Sakura looked at the bed across hers and repeated in a whispered manner, "WHAT?"

Sasuke shook his head silently, as Sakura started to rant, still whispering, "One day, preparations, team, what about… and… if."

"Sakura, shut up."

For the first time that sentence was said by Sasuke without any hint of malice or annoyance, just amusement.

"Only five teams are here," Sasuke continued, "Some are still coming and they'll have even less time to rest than you. And you've had plenty of rest."

Sakura looked at him and nodded determinately, before her stomach crumbled loudly. She blushed.

Sasuke looked at the clock, "I'll go and tell the nurse you're up."

Sakura nodded, a pink tint still on her cheeks.

"Great, I'm embarrassing myself even more," she thought.

"What happened to – I'm not interested in him anymore?" Her inner self taunted her. Sometimes Sakura wished she could strangle it.

"SAKURA!"

Lee jumped up from his bed, his eyes opening with a snap. "I'll protect Sakura!"

"Naruto, you moron," Sasuke came back with a young woman in tow.

"Shut up, git."

"Make me, moron."

"Oh, I will."

"Boys, now, now, calm down," Kakashi said, his nose practically clued into one of those books again. This one was green and had Come, Come Paradise V written on it. "Oh, Sakura I'm glad to see you awake."

Everything was the same as always - Sasuke was smirking, Lee was confessing his love, Kakashi was reading his silly book, the orange blob was heading at her, the nurse was checking her… What? Orange blob?

"Argh!" Sakura moaned, as Naruto jumped at her and started to bombard her with questions, "How are you? Does it hurt? Are you feeling okay?"

"Can't… breathe."

"Chie! She can't breathe! Do something!" Naruto screamed, still hugging her as tight as he could.

Chie did. Naruto hit the floor with a bang. He rose up in a second and started to glare Chie, who grinned at him.

"Thank you," Sakura breathed, her heart rate normalizing. "Naruto, I'm fine. Just hungry."

"Yes, lunch time is coming soon," Naruto said happily, "What do you want to eat? We usually get ramen and chicken soup and bread and…"

The trays came right then, on time as usual. Naruto grinned.

"Wait. You eat here?" Sakura asked, surprised as she sat up more straight.

"They practically live here," Kakashi spoke, STILL reading.

"Why? Were you hurt?" Sakura enquired, feeling out of the loop. Three days. She had slept three days! What if the exam had started and she'd still be sleeping? She couldn't take exams while asleep!

"Not really," Naruto asked, sniffing around the dishes. "I say it's… ramen!"

"You always offer ramen," Sasuke sighed, as he also walked towards the trays. "I say it's tomato soup."

"…"

"Sasuke is there something you'd like to tell us about?" Kakashi asked, raising his eyes from the book for once.

"What?" The boy with raven hair asked.

Naruto raised his hands and started to tick off meals, "Our second meal you offered Tomato Salad, on the third meal you offered Tomato Sandwiches, fourth was pasta with Tomato Sauce, fifth was Tomato Balls with Ketchup, sixth was Tomatoes covered with Grill Cheese, seventh was Tomatoes filled with… oh yeah, Tomatoes and now Tomato Soup?"

Sakura's eyebrows rose. Now that she thought of it, Sasuke always ordered tomato juice and ate A LOT of ketchup.

Sasuke just huffed loudly.

Naruto shrugged, "I like ramen, he likes tomatoes, Kakashi would eat his book, if it made the two of them any closer… So Sakura what do you want for lunch?"

Sakura shrugged, "Right now I'd eat anything."

Naruto mimicked a drum roll as he pulled the cover off the food and his jaw hit the floor. It was tomato soup.

"Told you," Sasuke smirked, grabbing his bowl almost immediately and glaring everybody like they were trying to steal it from him. Sakura shook her head; her entire team was filled with weirdoes.

"Can I have some of that youthful soup?" Lee asked from his bed. He had gone back to it once he realized that Sakura was safe and not marrying Neji as he had dreamt.

"There are six bowls," Naruto said, nodding.

"What if I want more?" Sasuke exclaimed. Naruto stared at him.

"That bowl is in the size of a bucket and you can have a refill from the pot over there." Naruto said. He always ate much, but Sasuke usually only ate about one tenth from Naruto's amount. And this bowl was big enough so Naruto would be probably bloated after two.

Sasuke looked at the pot in the corner. His mouth watered, but he didn't let it show.

"Git, your saliva is dripping on the floor…"

Okay, he wasn't that good at not letting it show. It was just that tomato soup had tomatoes in it. TOMATOES!

Sasuke took his bowl and sat down, starting to eat almost immediately. Naruto shrugged and followed suit. Kakashi helped Sakura with her bowl a bit, before he also started to eat. Lee took the fifth bowl and Chie's bowl was sent into her room at the end of the hospital wing.

For some minutes the room was silent with the sounds of some slurping being heard. Naruto gained a few looks because of the slurping, but he was too busy eating to notice.

"I want more!" Both Sasuke and Naruto yelled after about five minutes. They glared each other immediately. Both Kakashi and Sakura had a sense of déjà-vu, but they couldn't place their fingers on it.

"You better not eat up my tomato soup," Sasuke said staring at Naruto who was refilling his bowl in front of him.

"What would you do if I did?" Naruto asked back, dipping the huge pot a bit so the soup flowed into his huge bowl.

Sasuke stared, not sure what he'd do, but these were tomatoes. If he saw tomatoes and couldn't have them, he'd go nuts. If he went nuts, he'd start to dream about tomatoes and those tomatoes would tell him to KILL!

Naruto finally finished refilling his bowl and Sasuke got his turn. He took off the lid and stared at the contents, grinning since it was still half full. Just as he put the ladle into the pot, two ninjas popped in and took a hold of the pot.

"Got to feed the librarian," they said and then popped away.

Sasuke stared at the place where the tomatoes had been a split second ago. He blinked, hoping that he had imagined it. When he opened them the spot was still empty.

"WHY, OH WHY? WHY DID YOU HAVE TO TAKE MY TOMATOES!" He cried, falling onto his knees. Tears fell from his eyes as he stared at the spot, which before had been the spot where the heavenly tomato soup rested, but now, it was just eerily empty.

"My tomatoes," Sasuke cried, "My poor tomatoes."

That's what he did in the inside anyways. On the outside, his eyes just twitched. He had a reputation to keep after all.

XxXxXxXxXx

A/N – Short, kind of pointless, but all I could come up with.

Coming Soon – Meeting the competition and the start of the third exam. Stay tuned for the time when I actually write something that matters! WOHOO! R/R!

Really OOC moment, but hey, Sasuke has to have something to live for, right:D

PS: I'm kind of buried under homework here, so maybe if I wake up at 8 am tomorrow, J could write for about three hours, before I start to tackle my pile of homework. If I get done you'll get the next chapter tomorrow. If not… then… umm, someday sound about right.