Enjoy! R&R please, it always makes my day! Oh and I've got a surprise for you guys…*laughs evilly* it's at the bottom of the chapter though.
Naruto felt like she was in grade school again.
Back when there were group projects and the teacher paired you up with someone that they probably shouldn't have, and then they refused to listen to logic and switch partners. It was eerie how similar the situations were now that she thought about it a bit more.
"I don't wanna." It was childish, she'd admit, but Naruto was not above using such tactics, especially in a situation like this. The betrayal. The utter betrayal of someone she looked up to, of someone she trusted, of someone- just wow.
Just throw her to the wolves why don't you? Oh wait, even better- throw her to the barista from hell!
She was pulled out of her over dramatic thoughts by the annoyed voice of the traitor herself, "Dammit Naruto! I didn't ask whether you 'wanted to'. Sasuke was the best option, so suck it up like an adult and deal with it! You should be glad he was willing to show you the ropes."
Yeah, definitely grade school.
A grumble came from the shadows, "I wouldn't say willing," Sasuke muttered, mostly to himself, the image of a stapled contract being torn flashing through his mind, but it was heard by the protesting blonde who used the comment to aid her cause.
"See! Teme does want to either."
Tsunade rolled her eyes at the woman and a mere second later, turned the wrath in her eyes to him, "Well the Uchiha isn't exactly in a position where I care if he's willing."
Sasuke merely arched a brow in response.
Naruto was quiet for several moments, silently sorting through her thoughts.
She didn't want to agree, if only because their first meeting hadn't exactly gone well, and on another hand he was an asshole. Plain, straight and simple.
. . .but even though Tsunade had felt the need to stick tem- her bad Sasuke- with her, she had said she would help out, and she would even if that inevitably meant. . .him.
Mind made up, she determinedly fixed her eyes on the woman sitting behind her desk, and gave a sharp nod. She'd treat this as a mission: help out baa-chan, make some damn good lattes, and turn the bastard less...bastard-y.
"Good, I'm glad you could see past your differences." Tsunade sounded proud.
Naruto snorted, "Hold the sake, I never said anything like that."
A grunt of agreement sounded from the back, "Hn."
Tsunade sighed, completely and utterly done with this conversation, "...just go make some coffee you two."
The afternoon sun was pouring through the glass windows, complementing the familiar colors of the cafe- turning the floor a warm chocolate and the hanging plants a vibrant green. The cafe was empty, as it was a national holiday, marking the end of the Third World war, save a lone employee wiping down the tables, and a newly minted mentor showing his intern around.
A pale hand pointed to a metal piece of equipment, armed with a stainless steel wand, which was currently expelling pressurized bursts of air and in the process making a high pitched whining sound.
"This is the foamer," Sasuke's voice was dry, "if you can't tell by the name alone, it foams."
"That. Looks. Awesome." From behind him, the blonde girl zoomed, practically a blur, hands already reaching out to touch it as she remarked, "Can I try it?!"
The Uchiha's hand rose and chopped downwards, swiftly smacking Naruto's hand away in one fluid motion, leaving the woman to yelp loudly and clasp the injured hand to her chest. She looked murderously towards him, but surprisingly bit her tongue, satisfying herself with muttering obscenities under her breath.
"No." His eyes were blank, leveled cooly at hers.
Like hell he was going to be held responsible when she burned the skin off her hands. Tsunade would probably try to add another month onto his contract. He would say no and then Mikoto would enthusiastically say yes.
No, he had the perfect job for her, one that even a dobe, couldn't screw up,
"You can grind the coffee beans." He pointed towards the far end of the counter where the coffee grinder sat,
"What? No! That's too easy, c'mon!" She argued indignantly, crossing her arms, "I can handle something more advanced, dattebayo!"
Sasuke narrowed his eyes, "Fine, show me what a medium grind looks like and we can move on."
Naruto plastered on a confident smile as she made her way over to the machine, measuring out a scoop full of rich chocolate colored beans and pouring them in, "Psshh, medium grind, child's play."
"Sounds about right then." He muttered under his breath.
She flashed a bright smile before turning her back towards him, her smile immediately melting away leveling a lost expression at the machine.
"Now what the hell is a medium grind?" She hissed to herself.
A big, black dial sat in the middle of the polished stainless steel. So simple yet so foreign. Her coffee machine had buttons on it to select the grind because no one had the energy to contemplate the merits of a fine grind vs an coarse grind first thing in the morning. But it couldn't be that difficult to figure out.
"After all, Sasuke-teme can do it." She muttered.
Famous last words.
"Order up!" Naruto slid a cup of coffee, emblemed with the Konoha Coffee logo, a loopy "K" and an interlocking "C", across the table towards the waiting man.
Sasuke looked up from his phone, dully eyeing the cup, not saying a word.
Naruto's smile faltered, "Well. . . aren't you going to drink it?"
He sighed, long and experated, black eyes meeting hers, "Did I ask for a drink?"
"Don't be ungrateful teme. Just drink the damn thing." She huffed.
He glared at her for a moment, but Naruto wasn't fooled by the dark look- she could tell his resolve was weakening (no one was immune to the allure of coffee). When he reached out to grab it she mentally added another tally to her side.
Sasuke: 1 Naruto: 1
Sasuke felt her eyes on him as he took his first sip. The first thing he noticed, with surprise, was it wasn't overly sweet. In fact, it only had the bare minimum of sugar, just enough to accentuate the robust flavor of the coffee but not enough overpower it and turn it into a cup of sugar- exactly how he liked it.
Drawing his lips away from the cup he inhaled softly, savoring the way the earthy aroma curled around his nose.
The man took another sip, letting the liquid wash over every inch of his palate, making sure he could assess the brew down to the smallest detail. It was admittedly good- not too weak, but strong enough to make his half-lidded eyes widen as the caffeine started to do its job. All in all, it was a sound first cup and Sasuke really couldn't find much at fault with it besides the maker.
He could tell she was fidgeting, growing antsier with every moment he sat in silence, mouth still on the warm brim, slightly smirking at her discomfort.
Finally the blonde gave in and asked the question, just like he knew she would, words spilling out impatiently,"...well? How is it?"
Sasuke sighed, "Regardless of how it tastes you didn't complete the task I gave you."
He fitted his fingers together making a bridge with them and rested them against the lower half of his face, " But for curiosity's sake, how could you tell how I liked my coffee?"
Nobody had ever gotten it right the first time besides Tsunade, but to be fair the woman had been brewing longer than he'd been alive.
Apparently he struck people as a "no sugar" type.
She ran her fingers through her hair and sighed, "I don't know...I can just tell, you know?" The woman glanced at him, willing him to understand.
Sasuke understood, mainly because he was the same way. It was almost like intuition, and looking at the person only cemented his original hunch. Whether their preference be coffee or tea, plain or 3 spoons of sugar, decaf or double shot.
It wasn't a superpower or anything, most people just didn't observe close enough, or hone the talent enough.
Maybe she had. Or it could just be coincidence.
Either way, she didn't get off that easily,
"Do I know? Why don't you use your words."
"Hey! Teme!"
Sasuke felt his smirk widen. Just a little.
Hope you guys like that...I actually had a way better ending planned but it was WAY to OOC and cracky to publish so there's this a nice, un-cracky, actually slow-burn compliant ending… but I didn't want to leave it like that. You guys may wonder why it takes me so long to write well there's a couple reasons 1. I'm lazy 2. I have freaking school and I take way too many classes with way too much homework 3. I literally finished midterms(read: hell) yesterday and I'm just exhausted and 4. I re write chapters too many times and I have multiple chapter drafts. FOR. EACH. ONE. Gah, any way most of them are way more awesome than what I actually post but for one reason or another aren't exactly story material and doesn't fit the pace or direction I want. So I've decided to share my half baked ideas with you all, either in a new story or under the chapters as bonus scenes and bloopers, let me know in the comments which one you guys would prefer. I'll post my first one underneath this note, it starts from something you guys already read to… eh you'll see anyway enjoy guys! Till next time.
He could tell she was fidgeting, growing antsier with every moment he sat in silence, mouth still on the warm brim, slightly smirking at her discomfort.
Finally the blonde gave in and asked the question, just like he knew she would, words spilling out impatiently,"...well? How is it?"
Sasuke sighed, "Regardless of how it tastes you didn't complete the task I gave you."
Naruto scowled, arms crossing defensively in front of her, "Are you serious? I gave you better than just coffee grinds, I made you a bloody cup of coffee!"
"But I didn't ask for a cup of coffee, did I? I asked for grinds." He said stubbornly.
"What? So you were going to drink coffee grinds?"
". . .think about that question for a second, I'm sure you'll figure out how much more of an idiot that made you sound."
"Baka! It's called sarcasm, it's a form of humor, not that you would know anything about that." Naruto huffed.
"I don't have to prove myself to you." Sasuke grouchily remarked. He could be funny when he wanted to be. And he knew tons of jokes like that great one, about… about...the chicken and the road! Priceless.
"Uhn, you keep believing that," Naruto shifted her eyes over and pointedly looked him up and down, raising an eyebrow, "More like funny looking."
Sasuke rolled his eyes, so now they were resorting to that. He knew that was nothing more than her jealousy talking because countless confessions he'd received said otherwise.
"-I mean seriously that hair.." Apparently she hadn't stopped with her comments.
His eyebrow twitched, "What about my hair?"
Naruto smirked smugly, savoring the moment, "You mean no one ever told you?"
The Uchiha scowled, "Told me what?"
"That your hair looks like a duck's ass, yeesh why did you think I was calling you that?"
"My hair does not look like a duck's ass."
"Yes it does…"
"No it doesn't!"
"Yes it does…"
"No it-" Sasuke trailed off as his eyes landed on the person wiping down the tables, a good distance away, "Hey, you!"
The man looked up, head whipping around both ways in confusion, trying to see who spoke, before landing on Sasuke, pointing to himself as if to say, Who me?
"Does my hair look like a duck ass?"
He turned around presenting the back of his head to the man for observation.
"W-well, the shape is um...unique and some might be of the opinion that um…"
"That what?" Sasuke glared at the man, why couldn't he just say what he thought?
The man shrunk back a bit.
"Sasuke stop looking at him like that dammit, you're glaring the poor guy into submission." Naruto commented from behind his shoulder.
He eased up on the intensity of the glare and was satisfied to see the man visibly regaining a backbone.
The man spoke again, this time more confident and firm, "Sorry, it looks like a duck ass."
The wild cackling behind him after the remark made him narrow his eyes.
He couldn't make out any words aside from "Duck Ass" and "Donald Duck would be jealous".
Sasuke eyed her weirdly from where she was shaking with laughter, desperately clinging on to a seat, in an effort to keep herself balanced.
What went through that woman's mind, he didn't want to know.
"Dobe you can stop laughing now."
The laughter only grew louder and the cleaner uncomfortably excused himself.
Sasuke sighed for the umpteenth time that day. He seemed to be doing that a lot.
Even amongst the glaring lights of downtown Konoha, Naruto stood out. Especially that orange hoodie of hers. Sasuke's black hoodie and leather jacket were much more suited to blend in with the growing evening shadows.
"I'd say I'm sorry about earlier, but I'm really not. Seriously, how could you not know?"
"Hn."
She gave him a side eye, "So we're back to monosyllabic answers huh?"
"Hn."
"It's fine, it's sort of like a language isn't it. The difference between 'hn' and 'hN' is apparent until you actually learn the language."
He raised an eyebrow at that explanation, he hadn't thought about it like that. It was just a thing all Uchihas did and understood.
"I'm going to learn it believe it!"
"Hn."
"I will okay? Stop doubting me."
People walking passed gave them strange looks. Naruto couldn't blame them, without any context this conversation must look ridiculous.
But honestly she didn't care.
"...do you like ramen?" Came the innocent question.
"It's okay, I don't eat it much."
The footsteps that were in pace with his, stopped.
Sasuke sighed and turned around, shifting his weight as he prepared for another one of her weird food moments.
Her blue eyes were widened with shock and pity. Why the hell was she pitying him?
She took a step forward, and then another and another and another until she was right in front of him.
Naruto looked sadly at him, "I understand now, you poor, poor soul." And then she hugged him.
Sasuke was stone still. Then-
"Get off of me you dobe!"
"No! I understand your cold exterior now, your need to filled the ramen shape hole in your soul with teme-ness. You don't have to live like this!" She said sympathetically, clinging onto him like a koala, despite his efforts.
"Stop trying to psychoanalyse me and let. GO!"
Finally she let go, Sasuke glaring, the mega watt version that had passersby cringing, "It's okay Sasuke. I know just the thing..."
"Shut up, let's just grab the old hag's sake and go back."
"Okay, okay...after you have ramen."