By some stroke of luck (or Sasuke's compassion), Sakura had ended up with the master bedroom of the house. She had tried to fight Sasuke on this, telling him it was his house, but he had simply scoffed and asked if she really wanted to share a bathroom and wall with Naruto.

The answer was an immediate no.

Sakura was sitting at the desk in her room assigning shifts and approving vacation time. She rarely used the desk in her room, preferring to do work at the bar in the kitchen so she could still enjoy time with Naruto and Sasuke. But scheduling required a lot more concentration than she would have if she was in the living area.

She didn't mind how chatty Naruto was in the evenings. She actually enjoyed listening to him and Sasuke exchanging stories about their days over late night snacks before they all called it a night. It had become an evening ritual that they would compete as to who had the craziest encounter of the day. Sakura or Sasuke typically won, but it was always fun to watch Naruto spin a boring budget meeting into an epic. His creativity occasionally had her shooting water out of her nose. This would cause Sasuke to let out a shocked guffaw which only made her - and Naruto - laugh harder.

But tonight, she needed to hunker down and get vacations approved so she wouldn't have to worry about it for the remainder of the summer. She was starting with the easiest approval: Botan and Akiko's month off for their wedding and honeymoon. She let out a long suffering sigh when she got to the next date. Five requests from medics in the same ward for the same week. She sifted through her papers to see who had requested the time first.

She was in for a long, boring night.

An hour in, and her vision was getting blurry. Dates and names were running together. This was her least favorite part of her job. She really should have hired someone to run the administrative side of things like Shizune and Ino had been badgering her to for months. Sakura rubbed tiredly at her aching eyes. First thing tomorrow, she was putting a new job listing up. Never again would she deal with trainees thinking they could somehow all be allowed vacation at the same time.

Her door burst open and she jumped in shock. She turned around, a kunai already in hand.

It was Sasuke.

A very injured Sasuke, leaning fully on her door frame with his left shoulder. The prosthetic part of his left arm was a strange purple hue, dangling uselessly at his side. Blood was flowing freely from somewhere above his hairline. His right eye was closed with two streams of blood flowing from it. His right arm was clutching his side, and she noticed blood pooling around his fingers.

He lifted his right hand up as if to assure her, it was him. She realized suddenly she was still holding the kunai up. She placed it back in the alcove below her desk and rushed to him. She reached to grab his right elbow to help him over to the bed. He let out a hiss of pain at the contact. Broken. His breathing was ragged. Maybe a few broken ribs as well.

"Sasuke, what happened?"

He leaned his weight more fully on her as she wrapped an arm around him. Healing chakra colored her hand green as she started staving off the blood flowing from his side while she got him to the bed. They made their way slowly to the bed. Sasuke let out a rough cough causing his whole body to tense up in reaction to the pain it caused.

Definitely a few broken ribs.

Sakura sighed and let him down gently onto the bed. A small part of her mourned for her crisp, white bedding as his blood began seeping into the covers. She placed her palms on his chest and scanned him. His torso and left arm were covered in severe burns. His shoulder was dislocated causing the transplant to begin rejecting Sasuke's body. He had four broken ribs, one pushing into his lungs. His right forearm was broken, the elbow shattered. His left side had been stabbed, but she had stopped the blood flow from there for now. The head wound looked worse than it was. When she finished the scan, she wondered how he had made it here or how he was still conscious. She looked at him again. His eyes were shut, and his breathing was still ragged. Sweat soaked his skin.

Sakura got to work. She focused on his lungs and ribs first to help him breathe easier for the rest of the healing. He definitely had some smoke damage to his lungs. It was nearing midnight, and she didn't have as much chakra as she would like for this level of healing. It would take longer and hurt more than it normally would.

He took a long, deep breath of relief when she finished with his lungs and ribs. He exhaled slowly. Sakura nodded. Good. His breathing was steadier now.

She checked his lungs again, and feeling confident she had cleared them enough, she moved on. She made quick work of his head wound and moved down to his right arm. Mending bones was one of her specialties. She took care of it quickly and moved to his left arm. He had been wearing his long sleeve police shirt. She'd have to cut it off. It was going to hurt.

She cut the shirt in half longways and sucked in a breath of air through her teeth. The parts that weren't burned on his torso were covered in deep purple bruises.

She very gently and slowly started to peel his shirt away from the burns. Sasuke's eyes flew open and he let out a gasp of pain, his right hand fisting in her comforter and his back arching off the bed.. "I know it hurts, I'm sorry, Sasuke, but I have to get this off before I can heal it," Sakura said.

He nodded, but didn't say anything, his eyes half closed. When she began peeling the shirt again, she felt him tense up. His left hand continued fisting in her duvet and he gritted his teeth letting out the occasional curse.

"Okay, got it off," Sakura said, tossing the shirt behind her on the floor. Her hands glowed green as she began healing the burns, starting with the worst one on his shoulder. She felt Sasuke relax under her. He threw his right arm over his eyes.

"I'm going to put your shoulder back in now," She warned.

Sasuke nodded. He tensed as she put it back, but otherwise, stayed silent. She moved her hands up to his forehead, but his eyes really didn't need much work from her.

"All done," Sakura sighed. "Now go take a shower."

Sasuke sat up slowly, his eyes barely open, and tipped slightly to the right as he did so. Sakura caught him, and tried to ignore how his skin felt under her hands without the excuse of healing.

"Do I need to wake Naruto up to help you?" Sakura teased.

"Sadistic woman…" he muttered under his breath as he righted himself. Sakura laughed. He turned to face her and tapped her forehead. "Thank you, Sakura."

"I'm glad you're okay," Sakura said, rubbing absently at her forehead.

He nodded and got to his feet with surprising ease and exited her room. Sakura looked at the mess on her bedding and let out a long sigh.

After stripping her bedding, letting it soak in a stain remover for a few minutes, and throwing it in the washer (hoping it didn't make Sasuke's shower too cold), she brought her work downstairs so she could hear when the washer stopped running. Not for the first time, Sakura cursed herself for failing to remember to buy a second set of sheets and blanket. Neither Naruto, nor Sasuke had a king size bed like she did.

She checked the time on the clock: 1:00 am. Healing Sasuke had left her completely drained. She decided to just finish her work in the morning. She didn't have to be at the hospital until noon, which meant she'd have plenty of time to finish before going in. That only left the problem of where she would sleep. She had worked a double, healed Sasuke, and just wanted rest, but would have to wait for her bedding to finish cleaning.

Or she could sleep on the couch…

It was a horribly uncomfortable and disgusting couch that Naruto had found on the side of the road. He used some complicated sealing jutsu to fuse it to the ground so she and Sasuke couldn't get rid of it. They had both realized they didn't care enough to try to unseal it, preferring the comfort of the loveseat anyway.

In total desperation, she was arranging a throw blanket on said couch when Sasuke padded into the kitchen. He was wearing a different uniform set and was tying his forehead protector on.

"You're not going back in, are you?"

"Ah," Sasuke said, filling up a glass of water. "I need to file a report and do some questioning. Unless my doctor hasn't cleared me for active duty…" He turned to her with the glass at his lips, one eyebrow cocked up as he drank.

Sakura shook her head. "It's fine with me, if you feel like you can handle paperwork."

"Unfortunately," Sasuke said, setting the glass in the sink.

"What happened?" Sakura asked, her curiosity getting the better of her. "Sorry, I know you're in a hurry."

Sasuke shook off her apology. "I busted a gang hideout today. I underestimated their abilities.."

Sakura tsked. "You mean you went alone and there were way more of them than you thought?"

"...Aa."

Sasuke's attention shifted to the laundry room when the buzzer went off. Sakura moved to switch everything to the dryer. When she returned, she went back to arranging a blanket on the couch. She tried to position it in a way that would keep her from actually touching the couch.

"You can sleep in my bed." Sakura's head shot back to Sasuke. He had a look of quiet horror on his face when he saw where she was planning to sleep. "I won't be home until morning."

Sakura nodded in thanks, too relieved to even think about fighting him. Sasuke lifted a hand in goodbye, and Sakura padded over to his room. She flopped onto the bed and snuggled deeply into a pillow, smiling as Sasuke's scent washed over her.

The door burst open and jolted Sakura awake. Sasuke let out a quiet curse. Sakura lifted her head lightly, looking at him with unfocused eyes. He was frozen in the doorway with his shirt halfway off.

"Sorry, Sakura, I forgot you were in here."

Sakura checked the clock: 6:00 am. He moved to leave, but stopped when Sakura scooted fully to the right side and patted the empty space next to her. He had been up all night, and she was far too tired to even think about moving to her own bed - still lacking in bedding. She expected him to put up a fight, but he finished removing his shirt and fell face first onto the side of the bed she didn't occupy with a heavy sigh.

His head was facing her on the pillow, but his eyes were closed.

He was already asleep.

Sakura chuckled and pulled the blanket out from under him, and placed it over him instead.

When she woke up again, the smell of Sasuke overwhelmed her. She burrowed in a little more to her cocoon of blankets and took a deep sniff. Sasuke was still passed out next to her and hadn't moved an inch. Sakura quietly snuck out of his room, closing the door as softly as she could. When she turned around she saw Naruto in the kitchen, his jaw hanging open in shock and his bite of ramen falling out of his chopsticks back into the bowl with a plop.

"Right under my nose?" Naruto whisper-yelled, indignant. "In the room I share a wall with?!"

Sakura turned red. "No!" she whisper-yelled right back rushing into the kitchen. "This isn't what it looks like!"

"You're telling me Sasuke isn't in that room right now…?" Naruto asked, pointing to the door with his chopsticks.

"Okay, yes, he is-"

Naruto gasped.

"-but you're just trying to make it scandalous with a question like that!"

"Sasuke!" Naruto shouted and Sakura heard the faint click of his door behind her. "How dare you use your frail body's injuries as an excuse to take advantage of our dear, sweet, innocent, Sakura!"

Sakura heard Sasuke let out a snort as he walked by her into the kitchen, opening the fridge to take out eggs.

"Or perhaps…" Sakura recognized the mischievous gleam in Naruto's eyes and knew they were in for one of his rants. She grabbed a yogurt cup out of the fridge and sat down. Better to just let Naruto get it all out. "This isn't the first time you've had your fill of dear Sakura?"

"My fill…?"

"How long has this been going on?" Naruto plowed on. "When were you going to tell me?"

Sasuke made the mistake of walking too close to Naruto on his way to the stove. Naruto wrapped his arm around Sasuke's neck and pulled him down, rubbing his fist in Sasuke's hair. "Is that what all the banging I've been hearing has been? Were you just expecting me to put two and two together and never actually tell me?" Sasuke rolled his eyes, but made no move to pull out of Naruto's grasp. Normally, Sakura would be mortified by the subject matter, but this was Naruto, and she knew he knew that nothing had happened. They would let him have his fun.

"Well, this was my first time sleeping with Sasuke. There was a tragic lack of banging," Sakura said while taking a thoughtful bite of yogurt. "So, if you've heard banging before, it definitely wasn't me."

Sasuke shot her a murderous look, and she winked in response.

Naruto shrieked "You shameless hussy, bastard!"

Sakura let out a hum, "Besides, I would have the good sense to make him come to my room so you wouldn't hear." Sakura didn't want to admit she had actually thought this through before. If she and Sasuke had ever become anything, there was no way it would be while sharing a wall with Naruto

"We were in your room last night, Sakura." Sasuke grunted, not missing a beat, finally pulling out of Naruto's arms, a smug smirk on his face. "I had already messed up your sheets last night. Frail as my body was, you couldn't really ask for more than that."

Naruto let out a dramatic gasp and turned his attention back to Sakura. Sasuke moved to grab a frying pan out of the cabinet looking extremely unbothered by the subject matter of the conversation now that he had turned it back on her.

"Sakura," Naruto began, but Sakura checked the time. She had to get ready for work, so she cut him off. There went her plan to finish scheduling before… She'd have to do it tonight or fit it in during her shift.

"Naruto, relax. I healed Sasuke in my room-"

"Sexually?"

A scoff from Sasuke.

She ignored them and continued "-last night. My bedding was covered in blood and the couch is gross, so Sasuke told me I could sleep in his room since he would be pulling an all-nighter at the station. He just forgot I was in his room when he got home this morning," Sakura finished with a shrug, getting up to throw her yogurt cup away.

Naruto let out a bark of laughter. "Yeah, like Sasuke is the type of person to forget telling someone they could sleep in his room. I'll have to try that trick with Hinata myself sometime…" Sakura turned to leave the room, her eyes rolling. She noticed Sasuke's posture seemed a little less relaxed than before. Thinking nothing of it, she ran down the hall and up the stairs to her room, and definitely didn't read into what she heard before closing her door.

"Idiot…!

"I don't know, Sakura, for once I think I agree with Naruto," Ino said the words like they were the hardest thing she had ever done: admitting to being on Naruto's side. "Sounds to me like Sasuke made a move on you."

Sakura stabbed uncomfortably at her salad. She had asked Ino to spend her break with her so she could have a female help dissect her night with Sasuke. Ino was supposed to be talking her down, not supporting the crazy thoughts Naruto had put in her head.

"But he seemed genuinely surprised to see me," Sakura protested.

"Yes, and I sometimes make Sai think I genuinely forgot he was coming over when I answer the door in a towel. We're shinobi, Sakura. Good acting is part of the gig."

"But why would he have woken me up if he knew I was in there?"

"Probably so he didn't freak you out when you woke up, and he was just in bed with you. Trust me, it's a lot easier to pretend you didn't know someone was in the bed when you enter the room, rather than when you've spent all night sleeping next to them."

Sakura didn't want to know why Ino spoke with such authority on the subject.

"But he was halfway done with taking his shirt off when he noticed me!"

"Go Sasuke," Ino said, nodding like she approved of Sasuke's brazenness.

"But he really was exhausted, Ino! He fell right asleep, so I had to shift the blankets for him…" Sakura trailed off at the look on Ino's face. "You're not saying you think he-"

"Pretended to be asleep so you'd tuck him in? That's exactly what I'm saying."

"That feels like a stretch, Ino."

Ino let out a long, frustrated sigh as if she had been waiting her whole life to say what she was about to say to Sakura. "Look, I've kept my opinions to myself because I know you've been trying not to get your hopes up and because you haven't asked my advice until now…

"The man all but promises you he'll take you on his next vacation around the world before he leaves. Then, he comes back and starts visiting you with sorry excuses like he was 'just passing through' when I know there's no way on earth that he had any reason to be in the area you lived."

"He was just trying to-"

"No interruptions. Auntie Ino is talking now. After weekly tea meetings for a half a year, he asks you to move in with him-"

"Naruto did that-"

"Naruto beat him to it, I'm sure. And I said no interruptions. I will also add that he chose your dream house, which I don't think is a coincidence. I think he's a lot more observant with you than you give him credit for. And then, after moving in with you, he starts walking you home and meeting you for lunch every chance he gets. So, yes, I think Naruto is right that there is no effing way that man forgot you were sleeping in his bed. I think he had had a long and exhausting day, and maybe was a little tired of being subtle with you, so he made. A. Move. On. You."

After a beat, Sakura said, "I still think that's all a bit of a stretch."

"Sakura, you're in love with the man. Give him some credit where credit is due." Ino laughed. "Mark my words, next time you're alone with him, you'll end up in his bed again."

"INO!"

Sakura tried to shove what Ino said out of her mind. There was absolutely no way Sasuke had been making a move. She arrived home that evening to find Naruto packing some dried rations from the pantry into a pack.

"Welcome home, Sakura!" Naruto greeted, enthusiastically.

"I'm home," Sakura responded. "Where are you off to?"

"I'm headed to a week-long mission in Kiri. First overnight mission in a while! I'm not leaving until early tomorrow morning though."

"How early? Because we've talked about this before, 9:00 AM is not early."

Naruto stuck his tongue out at her as the front door opened and closed.

"Welcome home," Naruto and Sakura greeted Sasuke at the same time.

"I'm home," Sasuke said quietly, stopping when he saw Naruto's pack.

"I'm leaving for a week in the morning," Naruto said, suddenly serious, noticing Sasuke's gaze. Sasuke looked up at Naruto and something quiet passed between them. Sakura was unsure of what either one was trying to convey to the other.

"If you want to say your goodbyes privately, you can just ask me to leave," Sakura said, trying to break the tension.

"If you leave me alone with this idiot right now, I'll never forgive you," Sasuke deadpanned. Sakura looked back and forth between them, and any trace of the intensity was gone. She questioned if it had even been there before. Had she imagined it?

"It's my right as a shinobi embarking on a dangerous mission to force you both to come eat ramen with me tonight!"

"You know we'd go with you if you just asked like a normal person," Sakura muttered.

"Playing messenger for the Kage is hardly a dangerous mission, idiot," Sasuke chided.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, just change out of your work clothes so we can go already!" Naruto whined.

"I've told you before, Naruto, me being out of uniform doesn't make you look like any less of a loser next to me," Sasuke sighed, but went down the hall to his room anyway, leaving Naruto cursing at his back.

The trio packed up and headed to Ichiraku. It was after Naruto's fourth bowl that Sakura realized Naruto would be gone for a full week. Since they had moved in with each other nine months ago, Naruto hadn't had any overnight missions. Now he would be gone for a full week.

It would just be her and Sasuke.

For a week.

Alone.