A few days later Sakura found herself stooped over the fridge, scrubbing dirt from the corners of its shelves. This was the problem with leaving an apartment alone for two months: dust showed up in the most random places. Sakura had the day to herself, no meetings or other obligations, and here she was using it to clean.

She heard a creak behind her but ignored it, scrubbing the side of the fridge with renewed energy. Then someone poked her shoulder. Sakura whirled around, prepared to use her fists, only to find Sasuke standing there. "Asshole!"

He smirked and leaned back against the counter. "That's the welcome I get?"

Sakura threw her rag down. "That was not nice."

"Couldn't resist," he said. "Really into cleaning now?"

"Fuck you," Sakura said, stepping closer to him. "Why are you a day early?"

"Ended up taking a plane back instead of the bus. Wanted to surprise you."

"Yeah, well, you definitely did."

"Sorry," Sasuke said.

"It's fine." Sakura turned her back on him, picking up the rag again. She smiled to herself.

Sasuke shifted behind her. "You're seriously going back to that?"

She rubbed at a smudge, still hiding her smile. "What, is there something you'd rather be doing?"

Sasuke snorted.

"Sorry, you're going to have to put that into words."

"Jesus Christ, Sakura." She glanced behind her in time to see Sasuke pull off his shirt.

"At least let me wash my hands first." She grinned and went over to the sink. Sasuke followed behind her and slid his hands onto her hips as she turned on the water. "Sasuke."

"What," he murmured in her ear. And then bit down on it.

"Oh God." Sakura shut the water off and leaned into him, turning her face up so her lips met his. Sasuke locked his hands around her waist and lifted her up onto the counter so their faces were level. "I missed you."

"Missed you too," Sasuke said before he kissed her harder.

Sakura pulled back, frowning at him. "You look exhausted." He had dark shadows under his eyes, and was paler than she'd expected considering they had both spent so much time performing in outdoor arenas.

Sasuke shrugged. "Haven't been sleeping much. Always happens on tours."

"Yeah." Sakura leaned in again and kissed him gently. Then Sasuke's stomach rumbled. Sakura laughed. "I vote we put this on hold. I'm hungry and if you say you're not I'll know you're lying."

"Fine," Sasuke said, amused.

Sakura slid down from the counter and then grinned. "We should order pizza."

"Aa. Sure." Sasuke smiled and reached for his phone.

Half an hour later, the two of them were sitting cross-legged on the living room floor, a large pizza box between them. "This is so good," Sakura said through a mouthful of cheese. Sasuke smirked and reached over to wipe a smear of sauce from her chin with his thumb. Sakura grabbed his hand and scooted forward to kiss him. Sasuke couldn't care less that they both smelled like pizza. He leaned into her lips and slid a hand around the back of her neck, digging his fingers into her hair. It was long enough that it tickled his forearms as she moved into his lap. Sakura cupped her hands on either side of his face. They were doing some kind of puzzle with their bodies while sitting, which didn't quite work because Sasuke fell backwards and Sakura fell with him. He lay on his back with her above him, kissing her way up his neck to his lips. Sasuke pulled her down and Sakura locked her legs around his hips.

"How about right here?" she hissed.

"On the floor?" Sasuke wasn't exactly opposed.

Sakura found his lips with hers again and they kissed for ten seconds before she pulled back a few inches. "Fuck no, I'm not that desperate. Bed."

Sasuke grinned. "Okay." Sakura was still straddling him, her grip tight, and didn't make a move to get off. His entire body felt electrified, as if her every touch created a pulse. "We going now or later?"

Her mouth opened into a huge grin. "Now." She backed off his legs and stood up. Before either of them thought about it, Sasuke picked her up in his arms. She giggled. Sasuke pushed the bedroom door open with his shoulder and made to set Sakura down on the bed. "Wait, put me down on the floor," she said, voice breathless. "Not to spoil the moment, but I really don't want the bed to smell like pizza for the next six months."

Sasuke paused, frowning at her, and then started to smirk. Even at a moment like this, her rational side wasn't too far away. "Right," he said, pulling her into the bathroom. "Shower."

The two of them pulled off the rest of their clothes and left a crumpled pile on the tile floor. Sakura turned on the hot water before kissing him again. Water streamed down their faces and they both spluttered; Sakura looked at him and snorted with laughter, then couldn't stop. Sasuke couldn't help joining her. She pulled him out from under the spray and kissed him again, pressing him up against the wall. Sakura's chest brushed his torso, no layers of clothing to dull the feeling of her skin against his. One of her hands rested on his collarbone, the other rested on his waist, fingers digging into his skin. She sucked the water droplets from his neck.

"Clean enough for you now?" Sasuke murmured into her ear.

"Yeah," Sakura breathed.

They left their clothes in the bathroom and didn't leave the bed until the next morning.

Sasuke slept a solid nine hours and woke up around eleven to find Sakura curled in the blankets a few inches from him. Her hair had dried in a mess of waves that flopped every which way over the pillows. He moved closer to her, trying not to wake her up, but Sakura stirred, blinking.

"Morning." Her voice was hoarse and he smiled. "What time s'it?"

"Eleven," Sasuke said.

Sakura nodded and yawned. "Woke up at seven and then realized there was no reason to be up that early." She sat up. "You have anything today?"

"Have a meeting with Kakashi and the other guys at one, after they get back" Sasuke said. "Post-tour stuff. And Naruto wants to record a thing for some new song he's writing."

"This soon?" Sakura raised her eyebrows.

Sasuke shrugged. "He forgets things quickly and we couldn't lay it down on the road."

Sakura nodded and leaned her head on his shoulder. "I'm hungry."

"Pizza's still on the floor," Sasuke said, and she snorted. "Want me to make you eggs?"

"Yes," Sakura said. "Please." She smiled up at him, green eyes bright and clear. Sasuke was reasonably sure he would never be able to refuse her anything with that expression.

Kakashi had called a car to take him back to the band's apartment, and he let himself in. Naruto and Kiba were in the living room.

"How's Sakura?" Naruto asked as soon as Sasuke entered the room.

"Looks like you two had a good night," Kiba remarked before he could respond.

"How would you know."

Kiba snorted and Naruto chuckled.

"What."

"You've got two fucking huge hickeys, dude," Kiba said.

Sasuke immediately clapped a hand to his neck.

"Did you guys sleep at all?" Naruto grinned.

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "Yeah. We're sane." Though not sane enough to realize shower sex didn't work. He almost cringed when he thought about the two of them tearing off their clothes in the bathroom, but then realized he didn't regret it at all.

Shikamaru appeared in the doorway, rubbing his eyes. "I wish I slept last night."

"You missed the roughest highway in the country," Kiba said. "We were on it for like six hours."

"Hn."

The front door clicked and Kakashi came in, followed by a few people from their label. "Good, you're all assembled. Let's do this in the dining room."

The four of them followed him obediently, and they spent the next hour going upcoming concert dates and the studio's requests for new recording. They had time—the newest album had done extremely well both critically and commercially, and the tour had been incredibly successful. It gave them more leeway in terms of recording new material: they were no longer on a time crunch to prove they were still relevant. By 2:30, the label people had gone, and Kakashi left soon after them. By five, Shikamaru was gone as well. Sakura had agreed to come over around six for dinner; Naruto had pestered her with a stream of texts.

Sasuke and Naruto went to the music room to mess around as soon as the meeting was over. It felt good to be back there, especially after being reunited with his old guitar. Sasuke didn't want to think about the songs he'd played over and over again for the past two months; his fingers itched to play something new. He was glad Kiba and Shikamaru weren't there, because a break from the full band was definitely needed. As well as the four of them worked together, sometimes it was more enjoyable to play alone or with one other person.

Sakura showed up at six as promised, hair done and face made up.

"Hi, Sakura!" Naruto said.

"Good to see you again," Kiba said.

"Yeah, I missed you guys," Sakura said. Naruto and Kiba were wearing identical grins.

After a pause, Sakura raised an eyebrow. "Why are you two smiling like that...?"

"Just...In a good mood. Sasuke could tell you why." Kiba smirked.

Sakura looked to Sasuke. "They're idiots," he muttered.

"We were just being obnoxious," Naruto said. "We never expected Sasuke to come home with hickeys and not even notice." He clapped a hand around Sasuke's shoulders.

A deep blush descended on Sakura's face, but she rolled her eyes. "Are you guys like thirteen? Come on."

Sasuke smirked at his bandmates' chastened faces.

Naruto clapped his hands. "I'm going to go start cooking."

"I'll come with," Kiba said. "Not gonna third-wheel it in here."

"Good riddance," Sasuke muttered, opening his laptop to check an email Kakashi had mentioned.

Sakura sat down next to him, then glanced around, frowning. "Where's Shikamaru?"

"He's out with Ino," Sasuke said, frowning at his computer as he read over Kakashi's breakdown of their scheduled performances for the fall.

"What?"

He looked up, raising his eyebrows. "They went out for dinner. You didn't know?"

"I—No." She frowned slightly, gears clearly spinning.

"Huh." Sasuke frowned but didn't say anything. He hadn't given it much thought, to be honest. Shikamaru didn't tend to stay too attached to girls, and it looked like Ino was the same way. It hadn't seemed noteworthy to mention, and he figured Sakura already knew the intimate details that he would have no interest in learning. He'd expected Sakura to bring it up with him, but the thought had slipped away in the heat of last night's reunion. They'd barely said anything to each other the night before, let alone discussed their friends. Now, seeing Sakura's face, Sasuke felt like an idiot. Not that he was to blame for anything. God, he hated drama.

Sakura's mind went over the news again and again that night; she could barely focus on dinner, even though Naruto's cooking turned out to be a surprisingly good. Why hadn't Ino said anything? Sakura had talked to her on the phone recently. Well, two weeks ago, on the way back to Kumo. She knew Ino would be here, the two of them had planned to get together, but no specifics had been decided.

She was conflicted about what to do. She desperately wanted to call her and ask about it directly, but Ino clearly had her own reasons for not telling her, and Sakura wanted to respect that. But after a night of tossing and turning, Sakura decided to ask anyway. She called her best friend the next morning, after Sasuke had left for another meeting.

As the phone rang, Sakura felt a sense of trepidation that she'd never experienced before calling Ino.

"What's up?" Ino answered breezily after a few rings. "You gonna update me on your life, finally?"

"Come on, we talked a few weeks ago."

"All I know right now is rumors."

"Look who's talking." Sakura paused. Don't act like that, just say it. "I heard you and Shikamaru went out last night."

Ino coughed. "Oh. Who told you that?"

"Um…Sasuke? Who do you think?"

"Alright, yeah, we went out," Ino said tiredly.

"You don't have to hide it from me, you know," Sakura said.

"Yeah…I know. Sorry, Forehead, I don't know what I was thinking. We're supposed to tell each other everything, aren't we? Or at least most things."

"I just—Didn't know what to think. Were you worried about my reaction, or something?"

"I—I don't know. No. It was weird. I never thought something would come out of it, I guess I felt dumb. And I didn't want to get my hopes up, and if I told you, I would've. It's not like it's been going on for a long time," she said hastily. "Just a few weeks. I promise."

"I trust you. How did it start?"

"He texted me a few weeks after we all met in Ishi. It was late June, I think. I'd given him my number because I was just thinking 'What the hell, why shouldn't I be in Shikamaru Nara's phone.'" She laughed. "Anyway, we were texting and flirting, but we were never in the same city. He kept texting me back, though. Then Karui overlapped with Firestyle for shows in Taki a few weeks ago, and we met up for dinner. Yesterday was only the second time we've actually met in person."

"And it went well?"

"Yeah. I think so." Sakura heard her smile.

So are you two, like, an official thing?"

"Not really. I don't know. He's kind of noncommittal, you know? I'm going to have to ask him to, like, directly confirm our relationship status. Otherwise we'll just be dancing around it. He did ask if I'd come to Iwa with him in a few weeks, though. Karui's not performing so I'll be free."

"That'd be fun! This is awesome, I'm really happy for you."

"Really?"

"Duh. Why wouldn't I be?"

"Well, I'm, like, encroaching on your domain."

Sakura snorted. "Oh my God, Ino. That's ridiculous. I think you guys are perfect for each other."

Ino let out a half-laugh. "Ugh, don't start with that." She coughed. "I'm really sorry I didn't tell you."

"Don't apologize. We don't have to tell each other everything, I don't want you to feel guilty about it." Sakura thought back to her and Sasuke's brief breakup, which Ino knew nothing about.

"Yeah. So can we get together soon, then? I'm in Kumo until Saturday and then I go back to Konoha for like three days, and then to wherever Karui is to rehearse."

"Your schedule's busier than mine right now," Sakura said.

"Except I can get on a plane without being recognized by every single person."

"Oh, shut up. Want to come over to my apartment later this afternoon?"

"You and Sasuke's apartment?"

"Yeah, but Sasuke won't be here, he's over with the rest of the band. I've got a meeting at one but it shouldn't take too long." After a few days of quiet, suddenly her schedule was filling up again: she had meetings with Tsunade, new publicity people, and executives at Hidden Sound. As exciting as the new prospects for her future were, Sakura couldn't help feeling like she hadn't had enough time to reset after the nonstop push of the tour. Still, there was no reason to complain—this time around, she was sure to be in much better hands.

"How's 3:30?" Ino asked.

"Perfect."