chapter 4: lipstick rose

title: lipstick rose

word count: 1050

disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

note: Because Sakura doesn't strike me as the type of girl that would put makeup on and because Sasuke is a jealous person by nature. Lipstick Rose is from Frederic Malle Editions de Parfums.

Sitting in the ground floor of an okiya with the rest of the team while waiting for Sakura to get ready. It was at moments like this where Uchiha Sasuke felt like the jobs of shinobi were truly painstaking when their missions called for kunoichi.

While they were sure it wasn't necessarily Sakura who was the one taking ages and may actually be the woman of the house who wanted her to be irresistible when they were finished with her (as they had scoffed when Sasuke said that it wouldn't make a difference to how she looked).

Kakashi carefully sipped the cup of hot tea he was served, eyeing the boy in front of him thoughtfully.

'Sasuke, go tell Sakura to speed it up a little- whe'll have to get to the client soon.'

Scowling, the boy stood to get to the door, but not before throwing Kakashi a glare.

Sakura sighed as she tried tying up her hair as the rest of the women did around her. Dressed in their kimonos befitting of a princess, she thought she looked amazing.

But Sasuke-kun said it doesn't matter what I looked like and that nothing would change. What? Do I not look good in anything?

Failing to pin her hair down at the back, she opened her mouth to seek help, luckily someone came up to her, taking her pink hair in her hands before she had to ask.

'Sakura- dear- don't take what that boy said to heart. He just doesn't want someone else to look at you. He seems like the jealous type.'

Her hands went slack from all her past attempts at fixing her appearance. She discovered she had no talent in the business of applying cosmetics today. Even the simplest step of powdering her face resulted in her sneezing up a storm, moreover- painting three strokes of white on the back of her neck with out them being out of place without help? Impossible.

Hearing the unsheathing of the rice paper doors to the room, she was prepared to face whomever from her team was sent up to hurry up the process.

'Sakura.'

Refusing to turn to face him, she instead chose to peek at his reflection through the mirror placed in front of her and try putting on her lipstick, failing to keep it in the right heart shape it was supposed to be in instead of following her natural lip line.

'Look, what I said before. I didn't mean anything… degrading.'

Sasuke didn't think that implying that he was wrong to Sakura would ever be hard, but in a room filled with women who all looked at him disdainfully (for the first time in his life), he felt even more cornered than the time Kakashi and Naruto dragged him to the public bathhouse and they 'accidentally' stumbled across Sakura.

He cleared his throat before starting again when she didn't turn around.

'This stuff. The makeup and the clothes and the accessories. It's all just to fulfill a vision of glamorized femininity. You don't need them.'

And Sasuke feels like maybe he's out of his mind because it doesn't feel like him talking.

It must be the estrogen in the air.

Wiping away her unsuccessful attempt at applying her lipstick, Sakura turned to Sasuke skeptically.

'Do you really think so?'

The Uchiha looks at the girl sitting in front of him in the stool. Okay- so maybe the makeup and the clothes and the accessories make her look even more delectable than she normally looks. And he wants to steal her, lock her away and keep him to himself.

But he is an Uchiha and therefore is emotionally stunted. His quota of showing emotion is already way pass it's limit for the week.

'Is that a rhetorical question?'

And he is surprised that he still manages to control his voice and what would have normally came out as a snarling remark sounds teasing and smug.

It definitely is the estrogen in the air.

And he is glad that Sakura knows him well enough to not feel offended when he heard her sigh.

'Thanks Sasuke-kun. I'll try to finish up quickly. Just give me a minute, 'kay? I can't apply my lipstick right.'

Sakura murmured in defeat. Picking up the pot of rouge with the small brush in it to show her teammate, hoping that by showing him one of the feminine 'stuffs' he mentioned, he will usher himself out and give her sometime to calm down.

Instead, she finds that he has already taken hold of the small bowl of red powdery liquid that smells of roses and powders.

When he tilts her head up from her sitting position to look towards him, she feels grateful for the layers of white on her skin because she knows that her face must be redder than her hair.

'Sa-Sasuke-kun?'

'Close your mouth.'

And she shuts her mouth gently back together. Because he is staring at her lips so intently and she feels like-

this must be what the moments before getting kissed feels like.

Feeling the slight pressure from the brush touch her lips, she averts her eyes to look up at his eyes instead because she knows he can't see anything but her lips and it's making her nervous and skittish and excited and jittery.

And when he's done tracing out the perfect shape of what the other geisha's lips look like on Sakura, Sasuke feels proud of himself for resisting the urge to move closer and touch their lips and when he's done he looks up again and he doesn't expect to find Sakura gazing at him and he nearly jump backs.

'I'm going back.'

Her head is dropped as quickly as it was lifted, gently, but still- quickly.

'Poor girl, she's stuck with him for the rest of her life isn't she?'

Sakura turned her head over to look at the beautiful women behind her who had said that, she was facing another mirror and twisting her hair into a perfect updo.

'H-huh?'

They all looked at the still dazed girl sympathetically.

'Sweety. Any male specimen applying lipstick on you is doing a gesture more possessive than kissing you, the only thing more territorial would be doing that in public.'