Disclaimer: Starberry Pie assumes no ownership of Naruto or any related characters.
Author's note: I really felt that, in comparison to the styles of writing I try to associate myself with, that first chapter wasn't up to par, though it definitely tore down the limitiations of propriety. Still, I can't thank you readers enough for your reviews and story alerts. Thanxabunch!
Kiba's shout wasn't loud enough to disturb the peace of the residents in the surrounding complexes, but it ought to have evoked some sort of an apology from the girl that nearly bowled him over. She was gone though, and honestly, it wasn't as though Kiba really cared. It wasn't a rare occurence anyway, being a ninja. Why'd he even have to shout? Where was the dignity in that?
Dignity seemed to be a rare commodity these days, especially after that humiliatiating defeat he was subjected to at Shino's hands. The boy still blamed his dog, who was fast asleep on his head, because it wasn't fair. Kiba and Akamaru were a team, which meant attendance at training was mandatory. It was unacceptable to sneak away during a fight, and then give no explanation upon later interrogation. A cool "ugh" was all he got from Akamaru for his mysterious disappearance, and even now, Kiba wasn't sure that he had gotten all the bugs off of him.
Kiba sighed. He couldn't stay mad at Akamaru. That was his best friend. Besides, he ought to be able to take care of himself from time to time, and to respect Akamaru's independence.
But... where the hell had he gone?
What was Akamaru doing that he couldn't even tell his best friend? It had taken Kiba about twenty minutes to track him down, and even then, it looked like Akamaru was returning to the training grounds; they'd met face to face, coming from opposite directions. And now that he thought about it, Akamaru did smell different... less feral and more domestic...
"Oi, Akamaru," he grunted.
"Uff," exhaled Akamaru. His answer could be loosely translated as something like "I'm listening," or "What do you want?"
"What's up with that smell?" the boy asked, making his way towards his family's compound. "Where'd you go today, huh?"
The dog scrambled nervously for a reply. He meant to return to training before Kiba realized he'd been gone too long to have been relieving himself, but he really lost track of time. Having come up with no plausible excuse, Akamaru settled on a defensive snort.
Kiba understood now that Akamaru was ashamed of something, and there were only a few things that could shame such a prideful dog. Since he still had his balls, and he didn't have a mate, that only left one thing...
"Akamaru," he began pensively. "...You haven't become some mutt's bitch, have you?"
In the combination of irritable barking and nipping at Kiba's ankles, Akamaru's response could be translated as something like, "Are you fucking kidding?!" or "I can't believe you'd ask me that!"
"Okay, fine, whatever." Kiba dismissed that idea, and reviewed the options.
And then it dawned on him...
Upon entrance into his house, the young shinobi was greeted by being pinned to the floor of the foyer.
"Ah, Kuromaru," he laughed, turning his face to avoid being licked on the mouth. Kiba reached up to pat his assailant, and Akamaru made a break for Kiba's room on the second level as Shiromaru padded over to receive pettings from Kiba too. Kiba indulged the dogs for as long as it took him to get up, and then departed for his bedroom immediately.
"Man, I can't believe you!" he fumed, removing his coat. Akamaru grinned sheepishly from the bed, batting at his nose in a form of apology. "Argh!" Kiba crossed over to his closet, frustrated. "Dude, I thought we agreed, 'bros before bitches!'" He ripped off both boots, slamming them onto the carpet.
Akamaru let out a sound that might be described as a hybrid between a groan and a whine, like...transcending from a whine to a growl. Loosely translated, it came out as a "Calm yourself," or maybe even an inquisitive "Is it really that serious?"
"Ah, you're right," Kiba sighed, discarding his shirt . "It's whatever. We're still good, right?"
Akamaru barked cheerfully in the affirmative. Kiba smiled, shedding his pants.
And as Kiba laid down to sleep in his boxers, he ran a hand through his hair.
"I can't believe Akamaru got a girlfriend before me," he pouted, thinking pointedly of his female teammate. As of late, Hinata didn't seem too hung up on that blond buffoon anymore, but Kiba hadn't really made a move yet. Now, it all seemed so intimidating, especially since Akamaru had scored and he hadn't. It was pretty bothersome, but Kiba resolved to grow some balls and ask Hinata out tomorrow.
Naruto was out and about the next morning, having shaken off Sakura's insensitivity. He made his way down the dirt path toward the Ichiraku. He'd decided on his game plan upon waking up; a light breakfast, and then some early training before Kakashi-sensei and the others arrived. His dedication to training would definitely make him look cooler. Yeah, yeah, it had to! It worked for Sasuke, seeing as he had Sakura-chan falling all over him.
His stomach gave a reproachful gurgle.
Perhaps not so light a breakfast, after all.
So Naruto walked briskly toward his favorite noodle stand, intent on stuffing himself.
The noodles smelled hot and good, like always, and as Naruto seated himself on his favorite stool, he was greeted by an old friend.
"HEY, BOSS!" Naruto turned his head to squint his eyes at his former charge.
"Oh, hey, Konohamaru. What are you doing here?" The twelve-year-old beamed at him.
"I JUST FIGURED," shouted Konohamaru, "THAT SINCE YOU EAT RAMEN HERE ALL THE TIME, I SHOULD, TOO!" Naruto blinked.
"...Why are you yelling?"
"What?!" asked the potential genin. "But... don't you yell all the time?" Naruto frowned.
"Three bowls of miso flavor, please," requested Naruto. The head of the stand nodded.
"THE SAME FOR ME, PLEASE!" yelled Konohamaru.
"A-Ano... Naruto-kun?" Naruto turned his head to the left to face the source of the quiet summon.
"Oh, hey, Hinata-chan," he said. "What's up?" Hinata tapped the tips of her fingers together nervously, and took a breath.
"E to... I was j-just wondering... whether you had free t-time this evening." Naruto cocked an eyebrow.
"Boss!" Konohamaru whispered loudly. "I think she likes you!" He grinned and raised a pinky, the nail of which was facing inward...
The "girlfriend" gesture.
"...Eh?"
"Oh," began Hinata, "It's j-just, Kiba, Shino, and I are h...hanging out this evening, and I th-thought you'd like to c-come."
Naruto glanced at Konohamaru, who was vigorously wiggling that little finger. Suppose his conjecture was correct, and Hinata was coming onto him? What about Sakura-chan?
His stomach clenched, as it often did when he thought of her. It definitely sucked to like her, and be rejected by her as many times as she'd been rejected by Sasuke. It was finally starting to get to him. She even made stinging comments, knowing he at least had feelings for her. It burned him searingly to think that she held such little regard for his feelings.
...Would she even care if he went out with Hinata-chan tonight? Well, upon further contemplation, three guys and a girl hardly seemed like a date, unless Shino and Kiba weren't telling them something...
"Yeah, sure, that'd be great," Naruto answered. Hinata beamed
"Domo arigato, Naruto-kun!" she squealed. "See you!"
When Naruto turned, he was faced with three steaming bowls of ramen and an over-eager thumbs up from Konohamaru.
Having nothing better to do, Sasuke meandered through the village until he found himself at the training grounds. There, he practiced sparring with some clones, a three-on-one match, while contemplating the previous night.
Curiously, Sasuke wondered whether Sakura would show up to training today.
A right jab whizzed past his left ear and was just as quickly retracted.
Had she told anyone about last nights strange events? Hnn...
He ducked a kunai, and thrust his knee swiftly into the abdomen of one of his clones.
POOF!
...Not likely. Judging by the way she ran away last night, she was probably too embarrassed.
He leapt into the air, avoiding some shuriken, and spun to the left to avoid a kick in the face.
...Not that he cared. Besides, for all her declarations of love, Sakura probably liked it.
Sasuke smirked, and charged with a raised fist toward a doppelganger. It disappeared.
He dared himself to remember what had happened. Did he seriously make her blow up her stomach and pretend to be pregnant?
"Haha..." He let a laugh escape as he jumped into a tree, concealing himself.
It had been rather silly, hadn't it? He'd even rubbed her belly and pretended with her, for a moment. "Do you like being pregnant, Sakura?"
Sasuke laughed, giving away his position. He was whacked in the back of the head as a consequence, and fell from the tree. The grass was soft on his back. He looked up at a smirking clone of himself, and rolled over to evade having his face smashed by the other one's foot. By the time it had landed, Sasuke was up and squatting. He whipped his leg out and sent the doppelganger falling backwards. It landed sprawled, grimacing.
POOF!
The whole thing was ridiculous, but Sasuke might not have lost his patience and patronized her if she hadn't confessed her love to him so potently. She came on too strong. Love this, babies that, and just when Sasuke thought she had finally calmed down.
The last doppelganger was no longer in the tree, which was to be expected, but Sasuke couldn't be sure. A ninja must look underneath the underneath. The last one was guaranteed to pull out all the stops in a valiant effort to nail him.
Whoosh!
...What was that?
Sasuke took a sudden backhand to the face. He let himself fall, somewhat embarrassed.
Yeah, it had been pretty embarrassing, just hearing all that. Such a passionate confession, and Sasuke didn't really doubt the veracity of it. But it was audacious. Sakura had begun to say she be honored, almost as though he had offered! A challenge to his autonomy...
Sasuke sprung upward off of his palms in the way of most karate films, and took a stance. Quickly locating the clone, he made the hand seals necessary to perform the air solidification jutsu, and focused his chakra. Charging at a nearby tree- actually, the one he had previously been knocked out of- he pushed his feet outward and used the tree as a means to rocket himself into the air.
For all he knew, Sasuke might just return to Konoha in the future and seek out Sakura. In all his fervor, he might even make love to her until babies poured from between her legs. But if he knew anything, it was that he would be the only one to decide his destiny.
Sasuke's sandaled foot touched on something hard, a surface he couldn't see. Quickly, he searched out his copy, focusing his chakra so as to hold the jutsu a little longer. It wouldn't last indefinitely, as Kakashi had taught the team the day before. He jumped up again, rising higher into the air. He relaxed his chakra, and the jutsu expired.
As Sasuke free-fell from the air, he blew a ball of fire into his hand and grasped it. And as he fell, he really looked like he might have come out of the sun. With as much force as he could muster, Sasuke drove the raging fireball into his doppelganger, and it smouldered away in a fiery "poof."
"...SHOWOFF!"
Sasuke dusted himself off and turned to see an outraged blond glaring at him from across the training grounds. He smirked.
"Knucklehead..."
Sakura had slept dreamlessly last night, and upon waking, she immediately regretted it. It was much better to be asleep. When she closed her eyes again, though, it was different, black behind her eyelids. She was alive, aware, and all she could do in her attempt to feign sleep was to substitute fantasies for dreams.
That didn't work out so good.
Her favorite fantasy was a simple one, yet she constantly found herself altering it to perfect it. It always began the same way, though; an older, pregnant version of herself was making dinner in a cheerful looking kitchen. It had green walls, upon which were hung brightly painted still life paintings, and elaborate white crown moulding. She was stirring something in a pot, miso soup, and it smelled amazing. She hummed to herself, swirling the soup with one hand while cradling her belly with the other.
The fantasy version of Sakura was totally oblivious to what would happen next, but the real Sakura knew that in any minute, Sasuke would slip through the door, remove his boots and wolf-themed ANBU mask- or maybe it should be raven-themed?- and sneak into the kitchen. It was then that he would rap his arms around her from behind, smoothly caressing her swollen belly, and inquire as to how his baby was doing.
Needless to say, that adorable fantasy had been ruined last night by Sasuke's condescedence.
So Sakura forced herself to throw off her soft, red comforter and go take a shower. She turned on cold water to make sure she didn't spend too long in the shower, but she ended up turning it to luke warm.
Having successfully staved off those embarrassing memories, she faced her kimoto. Ah, it was almost disgusting to look at it. It made her remember where Sasuke's hands had been.
She shuddered, and forced herself to pull it down over her head.
Try as she might though, she couldn't get away from the embarrassment. It followed her naggingly as she trekked toward the dreaded training grounds. She finally quit trying as she came to the intersection.
She'd spent the rest of the evening in her room, crying. It had obviously been too soon to reveal her desire to have his children, but did he really have to go that far? That... sucked, and it was startling how the situation mocked her favorite fantasy. Had been merely a coincidence, or had Sasuke already known...?
Sakura looked up from the dirt road to find see the park. In the daylight, children slid down slides, twirled over twirling bars, and climbed over jungle gyms. Sakura gazed over at the swings, and to her horror, noticed a young boy being pushed on the swings by his pregnant mother.
"ARGH!" groaned Inner Sakura. "What the hell?!"
The next time Sakura looked up, she realized she had reached the training grounds. A wave of fresh shame washed over her. In this open space, she felt vulnerable, awkward, violated, as though her thoughts really could be seen.
She already knew that even looking at Sasuke would be impossible.
"Hey! Sakura-chan!"
Her stomach dropped. If Sasuke didn't already know she was here, which was improbable, he and anyone within a five-mile radius knew now. Naruto's voice just carried like that.
"Hey, Naruto-kun," she replied stiffly. "Why are you here so early?" The boy grinned, and Sakura noticed that his face looked more mature. He looked older, and Sakura had to remind herself that he was sixteen now, not twelve, and that it wasn't so strange.
"I figured I'd get in some training before Kakashi-sensei got here," he answered. When had his voice gotten so deep...?
"I see," Sakura replied, taking in all the developments she'd ignored while obsessing over Sasuke. It wasn't so surprising that he'd grown taller, but everything else was fascinatingly different. "Good for you."
"Heh," Naruto laughed, scratching the back of his head.
Until Kakashi-sensei arrived, Sakura was Naruto's entranced audience. She felt oddly left out as she watched him sharpen his kunai throwing skills. His hands had even gotten bigger, and each time he glanced over to make sure she was still watching, Sakura found herself studying the definition of his face.
Naruto-kun looked... good.
Maybe ignoring Sasuke wouldn't be so hard, after all.
POOF!
"Good afternoon," drawled a lazy voice.
"YOU'RE LATE!" shouted Naruto, pointing. Then he realized he had shouted alone, and when he looked at Sakura, he noticed something...
She definitely wasn't staring at Sasuke.