Title: Work in Progress
Summary: Years of secret smiles, misunderstandings, and sexual tension leads to Sakura's most unique way of asking Sasuke out yet.
Disclaimer:I don't own Naruto.
Prompt:Rusty
Warnings:None.
Comments: Last one! Ahahahaha isn't my title ironic? Isn't it? (Please excuse my mood. I'm a little giddy right now because this is the first prompt I've really really enjoyed writing for a while.) The real author's note will come at the end, because I can't spoil anything here. T-T
Some days, Sakura loved her job.
Today was not one of those days. Chased by rogue nin through Amegakure, where it always rained and was mostly flat and treeless, consisted of putting one soggy, muddy foot in front of another while trying not to flinch at the loud squelch! that inevitably followed. She almost screamed in frustration when they heard the telltale bark of a dog from behind, but without hesitation (because this was a matter of caught and not-caught), she slid purposefully in the mud, making sure to roll so as to cover her entire body in the icky, smelly stuff. Sasuke was doing the same to her left. By the time they'd scrambled to their feet, both looked like walking poop monsters.
Probably smell like them too, she thought disgustedly, but at least it masked their smell.
They found shelter in a ditch off to their left. It was well hidden, and had it not been for Sasuke's sharingan they would have missed it as well. Veering sharply, Sakura had just slid in when the distant barking came into hearing. Hardly daring to breathe, they listened as the mutts grew louder and louder—and then softer and softer. The barks themselves grew sparser, as if the dogs were less certain about where their prey was.
"They fell for it," Sasuke confirmed with his rinnegan minutes later. "Let's go home."
Perhaps the one ray of sunshine during this entire mission had been returning home at a decent hour. The sun had only just begun setting by the time the two shinobi passed through the gates, ignoring Kotetsu and Izumo's suggestive queries about wrestling in the mud. It was enough time for Sakura to go home and wash off the mud caked on her skin and hair. She mentally calculated in her head how many times she would need to shower to get the many layers of grime off (at least three, she thought grimly), how her poor drain would clog with all that mud (would putting a a paper towel over it act as a filter or a stopper), and then how soon she could sleep (10 at the latest because she fully intended on getting ten hours of quality time with her mattress and soft pillows).
Mind made up, she stretched languidly, wincing when flakes of dried mud cracked over the stretched skin and then fell in a shower of browns, greys, and blacks around her. Sasuke automatically stepped away from her, nose wrinkling in disgust.
"That had to be one of the most disgusting missions I've ever been on," Sakura groaned.
"I didn't expect Amegakure to have so much rain. By all accounts, the weather there had improved with Konan's death," he agreed. "That mud had to be at least a fifteen centimetres deep."
She shuddered at the thought. "Let's not talk about how close we were to being swallowed alive by brown muck." Sasuke's derisive snort earned him a death glare. "All I want right now is a bath, maybe food–I'm so tired though, I might just skip that part–and my bed."
"Hn." They stopped at a split in the road, where they would part for their respective apartments. And despite her fatigue and self-repulsion, she was also reluctant to leave Sasuke. A week ago, she'd decided to try again, but since then, this was the first time they'd had extended contact. Sasuke stared back at her, eyebrows furrowed as if trying to discern her thoughts. They were the one feature on his face unobscured by mud, and Sakura was stunned yet again by how very expressive they were. Eventually, he relaxed, and a soft almost-smile graced his lips. "Bye, Sakura."
Sakura opened her mouth to say goodbye. "Well Sasuke-kun, I-Dyouwannagetdinner?" came out instead.
She clapped a hand over her mouth. She hadn't said that. Definitely not. Because asking him out was the last thing on her mind up until a minute ago when he'd begun staring into her soul. Moments later, she remembered that she hadn't washed it in a few days, and who knew what was mixed into the dirt., and promptly uncovered her mouth and spun around to spit out anything she might have ingested.
Sasuke watched on in a state of bemusement, shock, and not a little amusement. "Like a date?" he finally asked when her retching subsided.
He didn't need to see the blush hiding behind the mud to comprehend her look of mortification and panic. "Aha, no! No of course not! We'd just go as friends, cuz y'know, we're friends and stuff and it's totally a thing to eat dinner with a boyfriend. I mean, boy friend. Like guy friend. O-or if you want it to be more, it could be. A date, I mean. I don't care; I'm easy—I mean, not easy. You know what I mean! I'm okay with anything! Whether it's a friend thing or a date thing I—" she caught sight of his growing smirk, and she remembered her resolve to try. Taking a deep breath, she said very fearfully, but very clearly. "Yeah. Yeah like a date."
Sasuke raised an elegant eyebrow, though Sakura thought vaguely that the effect was marred by the thick streak of brown connecting his two perfect eyebrows. "Seriously, Sakura? We're covered in mud after a long, tiring mission and you decide to ask me on a date now?"
Sakura had the sense to look embarrassed. "Well…"
"What happened to the little girl who always needed to look her best around me, even on missions? That twelve year old was a hell of a lot smoother than you are," Sasuke teased, smile widening at Sakura's increasingly annoyed expression.
"So I'm a little rusty," Sakura grumbled, lip jutting out in a childish pout as she defensively folded her arms across her chest. "At least I had the guts to ask."
"You're so annoying." Her eyes snapped up to his at those familiar words, and she was stunned to see the genuine smile on his face. "I'll pick you up at ten. That should give us enough time to wash up."
A slow smile spread across Sakura's face, and two tears paved two lines of pale porcelain against her browned face. "I really want to hug you right now," she said in a constricted voice, "But I don't want to touch your dirt."
"Later then," he promised. "And if not today, then later soon. You'll have plenty of practice asking me on dates from now on."
"Nuh-uh, Sasuke-kun. I asked, I pay."
"Since when was that a rule?"
"Since tonight."
"Fine. Then I reserve all your free time from now until you die under a ubiquitous request to go on a date with me."
"Sasuke-kun, why are you so mean?"
Author's Note:
Thus ends my contributions to the 2014 Sasusaku month. Thankyouthankyouthankyou to everyone who reviewed, favorited or followed this! Writers say it all the time, but seriously reviews give me ridiculous, anime-like, smiles.
I hope you liked A World of Color! One of these days, I'll go back and edit this, but for now, I'm content. I've had this part of the story planned out since almost the beginning of the month. On the plus side, writing this was relatively quick because I knew where I was going. On the down side, it made the prompts leading up to this pretty hard since I had to somehow build their relationship to this point. I think it's safe to say I did a better job with some prompts than others.
I really wish I had more time to write for the rest of the month! I had some ideas for some (read: two) of them, and since I'm not writing them out, excuse me while I spoil my own story. Granted I didn't have everything planned out, but:
The Other Side of the Wall—Sasuke moves out of Naruto's apartment (where he'd been staying since the attack on his old one in prompt… 4?) and into the old Uchiha grounds.
Tattoo—they get matching tattoos of a quote and a date (haven't decided what the date would be/what it signified), but this is inspired by someone I know who has the date of his marriage and a celtic quote tattooed to his forearm. His wife has a matching one.
Okayokay. I'm done.
~dydshark