||Eight: Usuratonkachi
It wasn't until eight months later when Sasuke returned back to the village after completing another top secret S-class mission that nobody seemed to know about, except for the sixth. His hair had grown out, and settled down—compared to the grumpy kid with the chicken-butt hair, Sasuke looked mature.
Naruto blinked as he saw a familiar cape walking towards him, who was currently sitting in Ichiraku's, inhaling ramen. "O-Oi! It's Sasuke 'ttebayo!" he screamed as he ran out, completely ignoring what Sai said.
"Damn, teme…" Naruto spoke thoughtfully, "You look different. Something's definitely off…" He took wary steps towards Sasuke, "But I can't put a finger on it!" He screeched.
Sasuke merely glared at the dobe, not even considering gracing him with a word.
"Maaannn… how do I know it's the real Sasuke?!" Naruto said as he lifted his cape up and looked, "One arm, check!"
"Naruto," Sasuke said irritably, as he shot him another displeased look. He tried hard to keep his fist to himself as Naruto held him by the neck and began sniffing him.
"Maybe you should kiss him to see if it feels the same as the last time." Sai remarked as he stood feet away, "I see you've returned, Traitor-kun."
"Aha!" Naruto said to Sai but merely blushed red at his remark. "S-Shut it, Sai! I would never kiss Sasuke-teme again 'ttebayo!"
Sasuke shuddered as he tried to remove Naruto from his body, failing to do so. "Dobe, if you don't get off me…" Sasuke warned, but couldn't finish, because Sai interrupted him, again.
"Speaking of first kisses, who was ugly's first kiss?" Sai said. The atmosphere seemed to have gotten thicker and cold wind blew.
Sasuke looked at Sai, who was ugly?
"Ne, Sai… I don't think you should call Sakura-Chan ugly if you fear your life." Naruto shuddered, as he let Sasuke go and ran a hand through his hair. "Man, I don't know whether this is Sasuke or not, but if it is, teme, I gotta say you've changed!"
"Sakura's first kiss eh?" Ino remarked as she popped out of nowhere and leaned against Sai. "You guys didn't know?" She said as she blinked innocently. Sasuke did not react, so Ino thought that she needed to try harder.
Now Uzumaki Naruto wasn't a very sharp person, he might have been called thick skulled by some but when it came to Sasuke, he knew when to run off and save his ass.
So he did.
"Aaa! I just remembered! Hinata is waiting for me! Bye Teme!" He ran off as fast as he could and there was an awkward silence.
When Ino started chirping again, Sasuke's eyes narrowed.
"What happened to dickless?" Sai said as he looked in the direction where Naruto ran off to.
"He's smart." Ino said with a laugh, "Of course! He wouldn't want to be in an awkward situation because of something that happened in the past, now that he's dating Hinata."
Sasuke looked at Ino incredulously, the dobe was dating Hinata? How could her feelings have reached his thick-skulled brain?
Sasuke stilled, the sentence sounded too familiar to him.
Oh the irony!
He started walking with a sigh, the Yamanaka girl was doing this on purpose, just to stir him up. He didn't have time to play such childish games.
"Why would he be in any awkward situation?" said clueless Sai and Ino laughed, raising her voice just a little bit more, just so it could still reach Sasuke.
"Oh! Because Sakura's first kiss was with Naruto."
Ino's smile stretched to form an evil grin as she saw Sasuke still for a moment, only to completely disappear.
Her message had been loud and clear for him to hear.
Sai looked at Ino, "Wow, that's weird. I didn't know dickless had it in him."
"He took the bait!" Ino grinned, completely ignoring Sai as she walked in the direction of the flower shop. Sai merely followed.
"What bait? Did you lie about the kiss?"
"Not at all. It's the truth." Ino said.
The next time Sakura saw Sasuke, he was glaring at her.
Naruto had insisted that they meet up for ramen, and Sasuke had not so politely rejected. He didn't understand why the Uchiha was being so grumpy, so he tried to push him.
But Sasuke snapped.
And this is how Sakura found them—Sasuke held Naruto by the throat as he lifted his katana, and Naruto merely tried to get out of the situation without turning it into another war.
"O-Oi Teme! What's gotten into you?!" Naruto said as he tried to get away from his hold, but Sasuke merely glared hatefully at him. Hinata stood near the two, fidgeting—
"Sasuke-san! I-I'm s-sure that you both c-can talk it out!" Hinata urged, but Sasuke seemed to ignore her altogether.
"Call Sakura!" Naruto yelled as he joined both of his palms in a sort of plea. Hinata nodded as she disappeared.
But Sakura's name seemed to have enraged him further. Sasuke glared at Naruto as he contemplated what he should do with the dobe. A chidori to the ass? Amaterasu to his hair? Or should he bring out Sussan-o? Maybe he would not use any jutsu and finish the dobe with his own hands.
"Shannarooo!" Sakura said as she balled her fingers into a fist. "You guys! Back at it again!"
"I d-didn't do anything, S-Sakura-chan! Sasuke seems to be in a bad mood altogether!" Naruto pleaded. He didn't even know how he got stuck in this situation, and he didn't want to convert it into a fight.
He just wanted to get off Sasuke's nerves without destroying the village, ne?
But since Sakura was here, he doubted getting off the hook without some physical damage.
"Sasuke-Kun" Sakura said in a threatening tone, "You will put Naruto down, right now!"
"And what if I don't?" Sasuke said with a tch and a grin. "Annoying woman."
"W-Wrong move, bastard!" Naruto yelled as the kunoichi punched the land underneath her.
The entire ground collapsed.
Naruto was able to save his ass from the madness in the process, and the last thing he saw before he ran off was Sasuke dragging Sakura off to somewhere by holding her hand.
Naruto grinned.
"Seems like the bastard finally decided to grow a pair, eh?"
"Grow a what, Naruto-Kun?" Hinata said as she dusted his clothes with an innocent face.
"N-Nothing dattebayo!"
"How dare you call me annoying!? Sakura yelled the moment Sasuke let her hand go. They were in the middle of some forest, Sakura was angry and Sasuke was glaring.
But it seemed like Sakura had grown to become immune to the glares which made people weak in the knees.
"How dare you kiss Naruto?!" Sasuke demanded, slamming his fist into the tree trunk next to her face. He spoke without thought, and stopped speaking when he realised what he said.
"K-Kiss Naruto?" Sakura stuttered, taken aback by his words. She had been truly shocked by his statement.
"You heard me correctly the first time." He said irritably.
Sakura's face turned pink as she stared at him with wide eyes, "Who told you?"
"The Yamanaka girl." He said angrily, not liking this moment a single bit. She turned pink at the mention of the kiss damn it.
Damn it all.
This is why he didn't want to form bonds.
But he didn't realize he had formed one with Sakura until it was too late.
"That pig!" Sakura muttered under her breath, her heart fluttered at the thought of seeing Sasuke so pissed off because of the kiss.
"Care to explain?" Sasuke demanded stubbornly, as Sakura blushed, thinking about how much the kiss bothered Sasuke. He stared at her blushing. Was the kiss that good? The thought made his stomach churn.
"I thought you didn't like to bother yourself when it came to me." Sakura said seriously, with a teasing tone.
"Aa. That still stands." He said, "You and I are merely ex-team members."
It hurt when he said that, but Sakura merely smiled through the pain, "Then why does this kiss bother you so much?"
Sasuke didn't say anything, he just kept glaring.
"If you and I are just comrades, then why did you get so touchy?" Sakura said. Why Sasuke kept insisting that there was nothing in between them? Even after everything, why did he still deny everything?
She placed her hands on the back of the tree trunk on which she had been leaning, there were tears brimming in her eyes. "Naruto was not my first kiss."
Sasuke looked at her incredulously, but his anger seemed to dissipate at the statement.
"I had performed artificial respiration on him, during the war. I don't like to call that "a kiss"…" She got quite after that, as she stared at her sandals, "The truth is, I haven't had my first kiss…yet."
"Well, if I have nothing to do with you as you always proclaim, then that answer should suffice, Sasuke." She said, her voice moments ago from breaking, he had noticed how she spoke his name without any feelings, not even bothering to add the suffix that she always used.
Something twisted in Sasuke's heart as he watched her retreat.
He hadn't meant for all this to happen, it was very out of character for him.
But he couldn't help but snap at the thought of Naruto, the obnoxious dobe, and Sakura kissing. He was repulsed by it.
"Say, Sakura." He said with a softer voice, as he held her by the wrist and pulled her back to her spot, he pulled her hands above her head and a faint smile crossed his features, "You haven't had you first kiss, ne?" he said as he planted a small kiss on her lips.
It was soft and sweet, nothing like what she had imagined. Sakura could not believe that Sasuke could be so gentle when it came to matters which didn't require battles or ninja skills. He held her by the chin as he gave her another exclusively-reserved-for-Sakura smiles.
Sakura touched her lip using her finger, it was surreal. It made her weak in the knees. Sasuke merely tapped her forehead lovingly, snapping her out of her thoughts.
She couldn't sleep that night.
Miss Kirei: Kind of out of character but I liked it, not my best but it was nice to see Sasuke snap!