As usual, she was late. If she wasn't careful, she'd start talking about getting lost on the path of life and reading erotic novels somewhere other than the safety of her own bedroom. Sakura craned her neck around the hostess to see Shikamaru waiting for her at their table. At least, he appeared to have attempted to wait for her and then promptly fell asleep while doing so. She smiled as she approached him and reached out to run her fingers through his spiky ponytail.
A hand caught her wrist before she could touch him and she looked down to see his eyes slit open, grumpy look replaced by a sideways smile when he realized it was her. Shikamaru tugged her hand lightly and she leaned forward to greet him with a kiss.
"Mm, hello to you too." Sakura slid into the seat across from him, their hands still intertwined. He still had that same smile on his face. "What?"
"I'm just happy to see you." She squeezed his hand in delight. "That means I can eat now." Sakura laughed and pulled her hand away to throw a napkin at him. His eyes shone with humor as he caught the napkin and placed it on his lap, thanking her graciously.
"You're such a brat. I only keep you around for your good looks." He flushed slightly, embarrassed by her blunt comment. The waitress appearing with their preordered food and tea saved him from having to reply immediately. Sakura just grinned at him annoyingly. What a cute shade of pink. Now we match!
"Stop that." He poured tea for her and slid it carefully across the table.
"What?" She tried to appear innocent, but knew she couldn't fool him.
"I can tell you're being unbearably smug about something in your head."
Sakura gasped dramatically, hand pressed to her heart. "Shikamaru! The absolute nerve! I would never." His expression indicated that he was not impressed. She giggled and picked up her chopsticks, poking through all their options with delight. "Did you just order all of my favorites? How did you know all of my favorites?"
Shikamaru tried to downplay it. "It is an acquired skill when you have Chouji for a lifelong best friend."
"Mhm, yes, Chouji is definitely known for having a picky palate that you would have to cater to. Absolutely." She grabbed one of the umeboshi and popped it into her mouth, chewing happily. "Whatever, I'm in heaven."
"I didn't think the food was that good."
She swallowed heavily. "It is good, but after we had lunch my day took a turn for the worse."
"Oh?" She had his full attention, something she had enjoyed once she realized how rare it was. He was intensely focused on her now and she was unsure of how to tell him about Sasuke's descent into matrimonial madness.
"Shishou put me in charge of Sasuke-kun's health. Mental and physical."
Shikamaru grimaced, not bothering to hide his dismay. She wanted to try to be friends with Sasuke again, but she would never force him to do the same. He was the one who led the failed retrieval mission, after all. Sasuke was the indirect reason many of their peers had come so near death.
"Are you being punished for something?" Sakura had to laugh. He had perfectly echoed her own thoughts when Tsunade had dropped the news on her.
"I think it was mostly because Tsunade didn't want to do it herself." She took a deep breath. "But while I was performing a wellness check on his eyes today, he, uh, proposed to me?"
"… what." Shikamaru dropped his chopsticks into his rice and stared at her unblinkingly. "He did what?"
She was starting to panic a little now and rushed to reassure him. "I guess the Council has suggested that he start rebuilding his clan and I'm pretty much the only woman he knows, so he decided that I was the perfect choice to have little Uchihas with."
"And you said no." His tone was flat, but she could hear the underlying question.
She scowled and poked her chopsticks at her vegetables viciously, wishing they were Sasuke's stupid face. "Of course I said no! Like I would ever consent to just being some convenient walking uterus!" She reached across the table to grab his hand in both of hers. "And just as importantly, I told him that I was with you and I had no intentions of stopping."
His hand was slack in her grip and she looked at him worriedly. I'm going to murder Sasuke if he's ruined this for me before it's even started. I couldn't not tell him, but …
Shikamaru released a big sigh and squeezed her hand gently. "I never took myself for the jealous type." He looked surprised at his own admission. "Are you sure? I know that he was a big part of your life."
"I didn't even know the boy I thought I was in love with, Shikamaru. And now that he's back, I just want to try and build a friendship with him, one that we could have had if I hadn't been so hung up on beating Ino to something."
He snorted. "Yeah, I gave that up a long time ago."
Sakura rapped his knuckles and let go, both of them picking up their chopsticks again. She watched him take a bite of rice and said, "Besides, I'm thinking about trying to set him up with Naruto. What do you think?"
Shikamaru choked and hurriedly took a sip of tea. "Damn it, woman. You timed that."
She just smiled innocently at him, admitting nothing. "I'm serious, though. I think those two would be good together. Well, as good as anyone can be with Sasuke involved."
"Do they even like men?"
Sakura shrugged. "Sasuke certainly doesn't seem to be very interested in women. You should have seen that one girl who was part of the team he formed, Karin. She was crazy hot and he could have been made of stone for all that he cared." She leaned forward and whispered, "I know Naruto has, ahem, experimented with his clones."
Shikamaru raised an eyebrow. "Dare I ask how you know this?"
Her eyes lit up as she prepared to regale him with the story, but before she could speak she was cut off by their subject of interest shouting from the restaurant entrance.
"SAKURA-CHAN!"
Shikamaru sighed in defeat, already resigned to the fact that his girlfriend's best friend was the king of inappropriate interruptions. Naruto bounded up to their table, ignoring the hostess's happy greeting. He beamed at them and waggled his eyebrows.
"Oh, sorry, am I interrupting?"
"Yes." They spoke in unison and Naruto pouted at them, clearly expecting Sakura to reply in the negative. She rolled her eyes and stood up, pushing Shikamaru further down on his bench as she motioned for Naruto to take her spot. He instantly perked up and Shikamaru couldn't complain about Sakura's warm thigh pressed up against his.
"Sakura-chan, have you seen that asshole lately?"
She grinned at him and nudged Shikamaru pointedly. He grunted and kept eating his rice, ignoring the conversation for now. "Which one? You'll have to be more specific."
Naruto whined, drinking her tea and made a face at the bitter taste. "You know who I mean."
"If you were talking about Sasuke-kun, I had the pleasure of his company today at the hospital."
Naruto's eyes were wide as he froze in the act of stealing a piece of beef off the grill. "The hospital? Is he okay?!"
She laughed behind her hand. "I was just checking his eyes so that I can start treatment. Tsunade-shishou shoved that responsibility off on me."
The tension drained out of his shoulders slightly. "Sounds just like the old lady. How are they? His eyes, I mean."
"Well, I shouldn't discuss a patient's medical business with anyone without permission …"
"Sakura-chan! You know I can just beat it out of him eventually, just save me the trouble."
She snickered into her hand again, thinking of horribly dirty things that friends shouldn't imagine about each other. Shikamaru gave her a long-suffering look that said he knew exactly what she was thinking. Probably Ino's influence.
Sakura cleared her throat, a stray giggle escaping. "He'll be fine, Naruto. Don't you have faith in me?"
"Of course! I just don't want that bastard to die on me right after we finally get him home."
"Well, maybe you should go find him? He was my last patient and I was coming here to meet Shikamaru. I bet he hasn't even eaten yet, knowing him." She hinted heavily, hoping he would pick it up and leave them quickly.
Naruto grinned at her. "Great idea, Sakura-chan! I'll drag his ass down to Ichiraku's with me for some good ol' fashion nutrition. Just like old times."
"Yeah, Naruto, you … drag his ass."
He was confused when she wouldn't look at him, but he got up from the table to leave. He tossed a goodbye over his shoulder and Shikamaru raised a hand lazily to him, before dropping it around Sakura's shaking shoulders. He leaned closer to her and whispered, "You're such a pervert, Sakura-chan. I had no idea."
That was all it took for her to burst out laughing, startling the passing waitress into dropping the bundles of napkins she was carrying. Sakura wiped at the tears forming in the corners of her eyes, gasping helplessly.
Shikamaru leaned against the back of the bench, arm still casually looped over her shoulders. "You're a terrible person, Sakura. I could have lived my whole life without thinking these things about Naruto and Sasuke."
"But you see it, right?" She frowned a bit and tapped her fingers against the table. "To be honest, I can't see Naruto being happy with someone other than Sasuke. He's been a goal for nearly half his life at this point."
"A person is not a prize to win when you reach a certain milestone."
She shook her head. "No, of course not. But their relationship has always been weirdly personal. It only seems to make sense to them. Remember when he got that message Sasuke sent from Kiri? It said 'the fish here smell worse than you do, idiot', but Naruto was over the moon for a week."
Shikamaru did remember that, if only because Sakura had been quietly depressed that Sasuke hadn't bothered to send her any word at all. He'd be damned if he let the asshole send her back into that state of mind again. If that meant encouraging her matchmaking, so be it.
"You win, they're the perfect couple. Now what?"
She grinned at him impishly and placed her hand on his leg. "Now we get out of here. They've crashed our date enough."
They paid for their food and left, strolling through the civilian quarter hand-in-hand. Sakura pulled him to a stop in front of a stall selling colorful gardening implements. He looked at her skeptically.
"Not for me! Kakashi-sensei has this plant called Mr. Ukki and I think he would look just lovely in a new home." She browsed a bit before settling on a bright red rectangular planter. She haggled cheerfully with the vendor, quickly settled on a price they both were satisfied with. Sakura tucked the red monstrosity under one arm and grabbed his hand with the other. "Let's go perform some breaking and entering!"
Before he could reply, she had already dragged him up onto the rooftops. He had barely caught his balance before she was rushing ahead, laughing madly. He gave chase and caught up to her when she hopped down to land in front of an unfamiliar apartment building. Sakura looked up at him, eyes shining. "This is his building. He's still on a mission for another few days."
"You're not seriously saying we should break into your old sensei's house just to replace his planter, are you?" She said nothing, just looked at him hopefully. Shikamaru's shoulders slumped in defeat, helpless to say anything but yes to her. "Of course you are. Why did I choose you again?"
She leaned up on her toes and kissed his nose. "Because I'm adorable." She pressed a longer kiss to his lips. "And I chose you, genius."
"Hmm, you make a compelling argument."
"Good!" She grabbed his hand and they proceeded upstairs to the third floor, where she knocked in a circle around the keyhole. "Kakashi-sensei is paranoid and it's made me paranoid. He changes traps too often to get complacent."
Shikamaru stood away from the door, eyeing it like it was a venomous snake. "Exactly how often do you do this?"
"Hmm?" She looked up from where she was performing a controlled suiton jutsu at the fire that had sprung up from her poking around. "Oh, just enough to let him know I care."
"… your team is so messed up."
"Yeah, and I'm the normal one! Lucky you~" The lock clicked open and she walked in confidently, with Shikamaru hesitant to cross the threshold. He finally did, muttering "I'm honestly beginning to doubt that."
"What's that, Shika-kun?"
"You are a beautiful and talented woman, Sakura, and I am happy to be with you." While true, he couched it in sarcasm so it was easier for him to control the blush that threatened. She turned and smiled at him.
"That's what I thought." She patted his cheek lovingly. "You're such a sweetheart." He lost the battle with the blush, silently damning his pale skin.
"Oi, none of that while we're in the middle of something illegal."
"Spoilsport." She moved further into the single room, wrinkling her nose at the laundry scattered about. Sakura gently placed the planter on the bed and picked up the discarded clothing, placing it all in a nearby basket. She then grabbed Mr. Ukki from the windowsill and deftly replanted it in her recent purchase, stroking the leaves fondly. Shikamaru noticed the only two photos in the room right by the plant, one of which showed a young Team 7. Kakashi and Sakura looked pleased, while Naruto only had angry eyes for Sasuke.
He tore his eyes from the photo to see Sakura smoothing the shuriken patterned blanket, tucking the sides in neatly. "I think he's lived here since his father died. He never told us about him, but I looked up White Fang when Chiyo attacked Kakashi-sensei by accident. He was so little." She looked up at Shikamaru sadly. "My whole team is made up of lost boys."
He felt a little lost himself, unsure of what to do in the face her changed mood. He settled for pulling her into a hug and said, "Well, they have you now, for all the good it will do them."
Sakura's laugh was buried against his chest as she hugged him back tightly. "You always know just what to say."
Shikamaru was given the old planter as she grabbed Kakashi's laundry basket and they left the apartment. She reset the traps expertly and he wondered what other talents she had been hiding while he was too busy noticing her pretty smile and the graceful curve of her neck.
He couldn't wait to find out.