SWAT Delinquents
"Big Trouble"
Kakashi quickly turned to see where the two were and couldn't help the curse that left his mouth. "I need a medic there right now!"
"Sir!" Without waiting for any respond from Kurenai or Kakashi, Sakura was already next to Sasuke, leaving Hinata no choice but to take over for the pink-haired medic.
"Ch. Lee needs your expertise more than I do." Sasuke said with narrowed eyes the moment Sakura arrived.
"I know more than Hinata does when it comes to these." She said, leaning a bit closer to inspect the wound, and once again, Sasuke's nose caught the scent of her hair. "Besides, she'd rather follow instructions than tend to wounds on her own."
"Hn." He sat up straight when Sakura asked him to remove his vest, and once it was off, she began to treat his wound when he pulled off his jacket and lifted his shirt up.
Neji stood up and took a look around in case a raptor would suddenly come charging.
"About the dinosaur comment…" She murmured, trying to distract him from his injury.
"Hn. I used to have a stuffed dinosaur as a kid." He answered. "I always wanted to see live ones back then; now, I'm not too sure I like how that wish came true."
She stifled a laugh at that.
"What's your shampoo?"
"Huh?" She blinked, stopping her work to look at him.
He turned from gazing at the wall across from him to Sakura's eyes. "Your shampoo," he said. "It… smells like Strawberries and Cream."
Her cheeks flushed slightly before she lowered her head and turned back to treating his wound. "It… it is."
"Hn." He closed his eyes and leaned his head back on the wall. "It smells…" she waited for him to finish while still wrapping the wound up. "Nice…" he breathed.
Sakura instantly turned red at his comment and looked at him once she was done treating his injury.
"Sergeant…"
He glanced at her, seeing her gaping expression.
"Hn. It does."
"Pfft. It just doesn't smell nice to him, Sakura." Neji commented, managing to hear their short conversation. "It's his favorite scent."
Sakura blushed while Sasuke tried to glare at Neji. "Got a problem with that Ma Bell?"
"Tease me all you want but I won't take back what I said." Neji kept his smirk.
"Hn." He closed his eyes and decided to take a break for a while. "I got addicted to that scent since I was thirteen."
Sakura blinked and looked at Sasuke.
"My mom uses the same shampoo, and… I just like how it smells…" he glanced at her. "It's a bit… intoxicating."
The pink-haired medic turned even redder at the double meaning of his words.
"Sorry about that Sakura," Neji spoke. "He's like that whenever he's tired and wounded, or when he gets caught up with the scent."
"O-Oh." She tried to move back, thinking it was a bad thing to be near Sasuke when her hair smelled like this, but she was surprised when Sasuke's hand gripped her wrist, making her stay. "But-"
"It helps him calm down and relax," Neji explained, seeing as Sasuke wasn't going to speak for a while. "Don't worry about it."
"Erm…" she blushed at her predicament and just ended up nodding. What else could she do? His grip on her wrist prevented her from getting up, and being so near the soldier wasn't making her frantic heart calm down.
…
Having feelings for Sasuke didn't help either.
But still, seeing him look so relaxed with his eyes closed and head tilted slightly downwards made her want to stare at him a little longer.
His night vision goggles now hung around his neck instead of acting as a headband like earlier, so his bangs fell over his face.
The sight of his left arm bleeding caught her attention, and she immediately pried his grip on her wrist off to tend to it, frowning to see how his earlier wound there just re-opened.
"You're so reckless Sergeant." She mumbled while removing the blood-soaked bandages and wrapping the wound up with a new one. "Your intentions are good, yet you're just too-"
"Hn. Reckless?"
She flushed. "Sorry."
"Don't be." He glanced at her as she finished tending to it. "It's the truth."
"Yeah, but…" she hung her head in embarrassment. "I'm not supposed to talk that way to a combat soldier, a higher ranking one too."
"Screw it." He snorted. "And for the record, I hate you calling me Sergeant, so if it's alright with you, just call me Sasuke."
"But-"
"That's an order," he smirked. "Corporal."
She flushed a bit and looked to the side. "Yes sir…"
He frowned.
"Erm… Sasuke." She corrected herself, sighing. "Anyway, I don't want you to go head on at those things again, so take it easy this time."
"Hn."
"Teme!" Naruto approached his fallen comrade when they were done dealing with the raptors.
"What?"
"Remember a while ago, we were wondering what happened to whoever did those claw marks?"
"Aa."
"Well, it wasn't a pretty sight in finding the body."
"Where did you find it?"
"It was sort of halfway from falling onto me from a railing…"
He cringed at what Naruto had said. "Ch. Damn imagination."
"…I thought you like gore?"
"I have limits."
"Right."
"Guys." Kakashi called their attention while keeping his gaze on Sasuke. "I want lesser wounds this time, got it?"
"Sir yes sir!"
"As for you," the Captain of the team approached Sasuke and bopped him on the head with his left knuckle. "Don't be a reckless idiot."
"Feh." He scoffed.
"Seriously." Kakashi glared. "I'd hate to be the bearer of bad news to your brother."
Sasuke smirked. "Don't you mean my mother?"
"Oh now you joke about it huh?"
"Get over it."
"You brought it up."
Sakura looked at Neji and Naruto, the former shaking his head while the latter had grinned.
"Kakashi's an old family friend of the Uchihas, let's just say that he got a little too close to the mother back in their younger years."
"I… I see…" Sakura looked over at Sasuke's scowl and Kakashi's twitching brow. "They sure act like kids…"
A few more dead Raptors later, the team was getting close to where they came in.
Tenten had mentioned of HQ sending over a copter to pick them all up, and Kakashi had announced it was time to leave, because their ride back home won't wait even a second for them to arrive if they do not make it by the said time.
If that wasn't bad enough, a missile will be fired to destroy this area.
"Feh. They're really trying to kill us."
Neji couldn't help but smirk slightly and glance at Sasuke who walked alongside him. "I liked you better when you were in a daze." He turned to the pink-haired medic walking ahead of them by a few feet. "Maybe I should call Sakura back?"
"Shut it." Sasuke hissed, trying to forget how much he acted like an idiot earlier.
As the team ventured onwards, most of them wanting to get home as soon as possible, a loud roar had caught their attention.
"We better get moving." Kakashi said. "That didn't sound good."
"Then let's go!" Naruto announced, before they started to run again.
When they finally got out just as they spotted the copter hovering above them and ready to land, Kakashi gestured Neji to climb up a tower to provide cover or be their eyes, just in case the raptors decide to attack.
By the time their ride was close to landing, Kakashi had ordered Shikamaru, Shino, and the girls to go first while they carried Lee, and tailing them were Naruto and Kiba, followed by Kakashi and Sasuke.
"Alright Ma Bell, you can-" a loud roar had caught their attention, and Kakashi and Sasuke looked at where it came from, seeing a raptor that was almost the size of a tyrannosaurus rex. It stomped, showing off its strength as it growled at them.
"Shit." Kakashi cursed.
Neji saw this and instantly fired at it, catching the attention of the large dinosaur as it growled and charged towards the tower he was at.
"Neji!" Kakashi was about to jump off of the copter when something flashed by him, and he saw Sasuke running.
"Sasuke get back here!" He tried to jump, but Kurenai grasped his sleeves and pulled him back.
"It's too risky right now Kakashi!" She said in a stern voice, earning a curse from the silver-haired officer as he turned back to Sasuke who threw a grenade behind the dinosaur, the explosion forcing the large raptor to cry out in pain as it tried to nurse its tail and leg.
"Sir!" Shikamaru handed Kakashi a rocket launcher. "We need to reload this if we ever want to save their asses."
Kakashi nodded once before he and Kiba assisted Shikamaru with it, while Naruto tried to calm Lee down who was panicking upon hearing the news of two of his comrades being in danger. Shino kept his eyes on Neji with the use of his binoculars, reporting the whole scene to the team in order to inform them if something has happened.
"Shit."
"What is it Snapper?"
"Well, good news is, Ma Bell's safe and heading for us, reluctantly."
"...And?"
"Sir, Reaper's being... chased by the dinosaur."
"...Goddamnfucking- ugh! That kid better stay alive!"
Sasuke cursed under his breath as he kept running, jumping over roots and swatting away large leaves and branches in order to not slow him down.
He skidded to a halt when he saw a cliff, and that there was no bridge or vine nearby to get him to the other side.
His ears twitched at the sound of the large raptor growing nearer, though it had an agitated growl due to its difficulty in moving within the jungle.
The young soldier tried to remain calm despite his palpitating heart, his dark blue eyes that were close to a midnight black hue lowered to the muddy ground, to the edge of the cliff, to how deep the fall would be, and then to the other side.
"I won't make it by just jumping..."
He scoffed and turned back, running a few feet before yelling a "fuck" when the raptor snarled and almost took a bite at him. Sasuke was thankful that the ground was slippery, since his sudden halt had caused him to fall back, making the dinosaur miss him by an inch.
Quickly getting back up, he ran towards the cliff, picking up speed as he was nearing, before jumping and shooting out his arm, where the gadget Shikamaru had made for them shot out a string, the end of it wrapping around a sturdy outstretched branch which secured him.
Sasuke swung to the other side, breathing heavily when he was back on solid ground. As he panted and slowly turned to the raptor, he saw it snarling at him, its head tilted to the side a bit, as if assessing what had just happened.
"Heh." A smirk broke onto his lips, and he gave a sigh of relief- until the dinosaur took a few steps back, ran, and leapt into the air towards him. "Motherfucker..!" and he broke into another sprint just as the deadly beast came running after him once more.
"Sasuke, do you copy?"
"Yes!" He huffed, still running. "I hear you loud and fucking clear!"
Kakashi sweated from the other line, knowing that Sasuke cursing loudlyonly meant that he was in need of help and was beginning to panic.
"Head back over here, understand?"
"Sir yes sir!" He made a sharp left turn, causing the dinosaur to skid to its side at the sudden change of location its prey made, before gaining back its footing and picking up speed to catch up with the running human.
Sasuke listened to the directions Shikamaru gave him as the lazy genius tracked his location on his laptop, telling him when to turn left or right.
"West." Shikamaru said as he rapidly typed on his keyboard. "Damnit Sasuke, run faster, he's gaining!"
"EASY FOR YOU TO SAY!"
The team winceed at how loud Sasuke had yelled, causing them to exchange looks before Neji muttered that it was his fault that his partner was being chased.
"Well fuck Hyuuga, don't go emo on me!"
Neji couldn't help the smirk as the others gave a light chuckle. "Just get your ass back here alive and I promise I won't do that again."
"Anytime now!"
Kakashi looked up after Sasuke said that, seeing him running towards them.
Kiba scrunched his brows as he peered behind Kakashi. "Hey, where's the dinosaur..?"
As soon as he asked that, something leapt out from the thick jungle trees behind Sasuke and landed directly in front of him, forcing Sasuke to halt and fall onto his ass.
"...Hell..." Sasuke twitched, glaring at the raptor as it slowly turned to face him, as if grinning at him.
"Sasuke, DUCK!"
He didn't have time to retort as Kakashi fired the rocket launcher and sent the dinosaur exploding. A thick smoke enveloped the whole area as the others coughed and squinted, trying to see if their comrade was still there there.
"Sasuke! Hey! Answer me!" Naruto yelled, a worried edge on his voice when no one returned his call.
The moment the smoke cleared, they stared, seeing a figure lying face down on the ground with his arms over his head.
"Sasuke..?" Kakashi asked, almost afraid of what the outcome would be.
"...Fuck you Kakashi." He snarled, lifting his head up to glare at their team Captain. "It would take me weeks to get the fucking stench off!"
The gang watched as he stood and dusted himself off, nose scrunching at the scent of dinosaur blood and gut on him. "Ugh."
And his teammates just broke into fits of laughter before he cursed them and walked over to the chopper, the pilot taking off as soon as the doors closed. It reported to HQ, and soon, rockets were sent to blow up the abandoned facility, destroying whatever evidence was left of its existence.
As Sasuke plopped to the metal ground of the spacious chopper, he leaned against the wall and sighed heavily, his heavy breaths an indication of just how tired he was, and he didn't like the feeling of his sweat mixing with the raptor's blood and sticking to his skin and uniform.
"I owe you one."
Sasuke turned to Neji. "Hn." And he raised a fist to greet his, albeit weakly.
Neji smirked when he spotted Sakura stand from her spot and knelt down in front of Sasuke to examine him, checking for any possible wounds or if his old ones had reopened.
"Geez Sergeant..." She mumbled, ignoring the sharp glare Sasuke sent her for addressing him as that. "Hold still, okay?" she unwrapped his old bandages and took out a new one after applying some disinfectant on them.
"...Sakura."
She slightly looked up from her work to meet his gaze before returning to bandage his wounds.
"Ever been kissed?"
Sakura blinked and looked up at him before shaking her head.
He gave a lazy grin, and she knew he was affected by the scent of her hair once more, and his next words caused her cheeks to turn red.
"Want me to be your first?"
And she accidentally tightened the bandage on her arm when he asked that.
Neji had chuckled at that. "Next time, keep away from him when your hair smells like strawberries and cream."
Apathetic Silence: ...I'm so sorry for the long wait, but... yeah, thesis is taking up most of my time AND what little free time I have.