Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ The Sweetest Victory ❯ All's Fair In Love And War ( Chapter 5 )

A/N: I apologize for the wait. Hopefully, it’ll be worth it! And many thank yous to Sinari for the beta. ^^
Warnings: Yaoi! though nothing graphic
Pairings this chapter: SasuNaru/NaruSasu
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of its characters, although I absolutely ADORE Inner Sakura. <3

She had always dreamed vividly. How could she not when Inner Sakura ruled her nocturnal world with her typical ‘take no prisoners’ attitude unchecked? And while Sakura may not always remember her dreams after waking, the ones she did were indeed their own form of therapy.

Which was why she was utterly pissed when she was pulled from the wonderful depths of her subconscious where her asshole teammates had been tied up with chakra strands and were about to be beaten senseless.

I had just gotten to the spankings, damn it! Inner Sakura seethed. She’d really been looking forward to hearing the sweet, popping sounds of their overly-inflated male egos bursting. Her fury only intensified when she opened her eyes to find Naruto hovering over her, his expression uncomfortable as he lightly shook her shoulder.

“Sakura-chan?”

Her reaction was immediate.

Sakura wasn’t sure whether it was from the left-over hostility from her dream or the simple fact that she wasn’t ready to be woken up, but either way, her fist still ended up in Naruto’s face all the same.

“Ow! Next time I’ll just throw something at you from across the room when we’re about to leave,” the blond grumbled as his hand covered his left eye.

“At least I didn’t pull a kunai on you.” Ignoring the look of shocked hurt on her teammate’s face, Sakura quickly slipped past him and into the adjoining bathroom.

With a sigh, she turned on the faucet and began washing her face. The coolness was soothing, and with each splash, she felt a tiny bit of her irritation rinse away. ‘That was unfair of me,’ Sakura thought as she grabbed the towel off the rack behind her and pressed her face into it. “Ugh. What’s really unfair is that I feel guilty about that even after what they pulled last night,” she grumbled. Stupid boys. They probably had a nice laugh about it afterwards.

Dejectedly, Sakura tossed the towel back on the rack and began brushing her teeth hard enough to make her gums bleed. The sound of the door to their room opening and closing caught her attention as she spit a mouthful of pink foam into the sink.

“She punched you?” It was Sasuke; he sounded vaguely amused.

“Yeah,” Naruto sighed, and then in a hushed tone added, “If I didn’t know different, I’d say she was raggin’ again.”

She gaped for a moment and quickly took back all the apologies she wasn’t going to tell him.

“And how would you know when I am, Na-ru-to?!” she snapped, pointing her toothbrush accusingly at the door leading back to their room.

“Er…” Somebody mumbled something, but she didn’t even really care that she couldn’t hear it. Mortification over what she’d just screamed along with the confirmation that yes, they were aware of her cycles was slowly creeping over her.

“Damn it!” she growled quietly to herself as she attempted to shove Inner Sakura down and gag her. “Get ahold of yourself.” Subject matter aside – because she just wasn’t even going to touch that right then – biting everyone’s heads off was not the way she’d wanted to start off her morning. Yes, she was pissed, but they didn’t really need to know how upset she was.

Taking another deep breath to compose herself, Sakura rinsed her mouth out and quickly gathered her things. By the time she strode back into the room to put her toiletries in her bag, her calm mask was back in place. With her back to her teammates, Sakura went to work gathering her bedroll and making sure she’d left nothing else in the room.

The silence between the three of them was deafening.

It wasn’t until after her stuff was packed and she’d sat down to begin fastening her shin guards that anyone dared to say anything.

“Sakura-chan?”

Her only response was a soft “Hmm,” as she continued onto the next buckle without looking up.

“Um, well, are you…? I mean, about yesterday, I…” Naruto began but couldn’t seem to find the best way to say it. A snort from Sasuke interrupted him anyway.

Her eye twitched as Inner Sakura quickly clawed her way out of her box once again shaking her fist wildly and screaming, Oh, no, he didn't! Typical reaction or not, he really needed to learn when to keep his thoughts to himself. She turned to face her teammates then, intent on giving them a verbal lashing they’d never forget, but karma was against her yet again as Kakashi chose that particular moment to waltz into the room.

“So,” he began in that falsely-cheerful tone they’d grown so accustomed to over the years, “Everyone ready?”

“Definitely,” Sakura growled, snatching her bag up off the floor and storming out the door.

~*~

Naruto was watching her again, she realized as the group headed back to Konoha. It was different from their previous genjutsu where afterwards he’d been amusedly sneaking peeks at her every time Kakashi was near them. No, this time she could practically taste the worry radiating off of him.

Good, Inner Sakura growled. He should be worried.

Sasuke wasn’t. The only times he’d bothered to spare her a glance was when he pointed out just how far behind she’d fallen.

‘Of course,’ she thought as she rolled her eyes. But oddly enough, for once she was actually kind of glad. Sakura was already pissed at both of them; having someone like Sasuke pity her on top of that would only make it that much worse.

‘I can’t believe I’m actually grateful he can be a heartless bastard.’ But the more she thought about it, the more she felt it was better this way. Naruto’s attack of conscience was already annoying enough. And yes, she was rational enough to realize how irrational that was, but she didn’t care. She was tired and cranky and wanted nothing more at that moment than to curl up somewhere and sleep like the dead.

Sakura glanced down at her shadow as she trudged along the path. They’d been traveling a while; the early morning sun that had been on their backs when they’d left was now directly overhead. Sadly, they still had a long way to go, and she was already exhausted, she realized as she fought to not fall too far behind, yawning all the while. Damn, she was so freaking tired!

“Of all the nights for me to not be able to sleep,” she grumbled. It wasn’t for lack of wanting, of course, but when finishing guard duty found her in closed quarters with her teammates after what they’d done, agitation had been the only thing to come easily to her. She’d spent a good couple of hours glaring at the ceiling, Sasuke’s (admittedly delicious) back, and Naruto’s drooling, perfectly content face.

Sakura frowned at the growing gap between herself and the rest of the team and tried to pick up the pace once again. Her frown only deepened when Naruto took notice and declared loudly to anyone listening that he would imminently die of starvation if they didn’t break soon.

She wasn’t about to protest stopping for a while, though.

They found a nice shaded area a little further north, and Sakura dropped heavily beneath the nearest tree without even removing her pack. If she leaned her head just so, she might be able to catch a short nap.

She realized she would have no such luck when her ears picked up the sound of approaching footsteps followed by Naruto’s distinct voice asking, “So, is this chunk of rotten log taken?”

She cracked an eye open to glare at her teammate. Unfortunately, she didn’t look half as intimidating as she’d wanted to and blamed that on exhaustion instead of the fact that he was grinning in that way that tended to disarm people. Sakura made a mental note to kill whoever had taught him that.

“If you don’t mind sharing with the termites and possibly a snake or two,” she sighed

“Ha! As if some bugs could defeat the great Uzumaki Naruto,” he laughed as he sat down across from her and started digging through his stuff.

“Shino would take offense to that,” she dryly responded.

“Yeah, well, he’s not here, is he?” He flashed her a grin before taking a large bite from a muffin he’d pulled from his pack. She only raised an eyebrow. “Tell ya what. Can I buy your silence with one of these?” he asked, holding up his snack as he attempted to wave it enticingly in front of her. “Cause between you and me, his bugs are kinda creepy.”

She didn’t resist the urge to roll her eyes. “A half-eaten muffin? No thanks.”

Naruto chuckled as he pulled a fresh one from his bag and tossed it to her. Sakura caught it easily and glanced over at her teammate. It smelled good, and she noticed for the first time how hungry she actually was.

“How many of these do you have in there?” Sakura asked. “My silence might not be so easily bought.”

When he smiled widely, she knew the answer before he had the chance to speak.

“Well, I stopped by the kitchen on the way out and a whole tray might’ve found its way into my bag.”

Sakura laughed despite herself. “I’m starting to think you're a kleptomaniac on top of being an alcoholic, loudmouthed pervert.”

“Oh, kinky,” he replied.

Sakura shook her head and bit into her muffin.

Silence lingered between them as they ate. She had no real interest in making small talk even if she was too tired to really be utterly pissed at him at that moment. It was odd for Naruto to be so quiet, though, she realized a few minutes later. Glancing up from the interesting spot just in front of his feet, Sakura saw that his smile was gone. He was leaning forward, elbows resting on his knees, as he looked back at her with that same expression he’d worn half the morning.

“I’m sorry,” he finally said after a long pause.

And just like that, the tentatively stable ground between them was gone once again.

Sakura looked down and absently brushed the crumbs off her shirt before nodding and pushing herself up from the ground. She took all of two steps before Naruto appeared directly in front of her and grabbed her by the shoulders, his head hunched down so he could look her in the eyes.

“I mean it, Sakura-chan. We went too far.”

The only thought running through her head right then was, ‘he’s too close.’ Her skin crawled with the need to put some distance between them. They hadn’t been in such close proximity since yesterday morning when he’d shoved her against the wall of their room, and so much had happened since then. Feelings and images from the genjutsu quickly flashed in her memory. His hands large and heavy on her shoulders – in her mind at least, they’d felt her up the night before. Smells – some similar, some different – that had been so intriguing when she’d only associated them with Sasuke invaded her senses once again.

His lips – she could still remember the feel of them on her neck – were moving again, but damned if she heard what he was saying. Lost in thought, Sakura distractedly watched his mouth shift and curve to form the sounds, the quick glimpses of teeth and tongue, and briefly wondered if kissing him would be anything like kissing Sasuke.

As soon as that idea danced through her thoughts, Sakura’s eyes widened, and she pulled away from him like she’d been burned.

“Sakura-chan?”

‘I never kissed Sasuke!’ she vehemently reminded the traitorous part of her brain that apparently was out to get her. This was ridiculous. It was just like with Kakashi. She took another step back and readjusted the straps of her backpack, her face set in a scowl. ‘I just need some distance. Then everything will be back to normal, and I can forget this ever happened.’

“You okay?” Naruto’s expression was worried and apologetic all at once, and when it immediately reminded Sakura of the incident the morning before, she found she couldn’t stand to look at him. She’d be happy to never see that expression on his face again.

“Fine,” she ground out through clenched teeth as she brushed past him, reassuring herself once more that a little time and distance would fix it all, and marched back onto the trail that led home. “Are we going or what?”

No one argued with her, and for that she was grateful.

The rest of the journey was spent in near-silence on Sakura’s part. Naruto would occasionally comment on this or that. Things like, “That tree looks like the old hag’s face,” “Heh, did you see those two deer back there?” and “Yeah, Ero-sennin dragged me there once when he was drunk.” It was a brothel, and the very disturbing mental images that statement conjured made Sakura realize she was better off ignoring him completely.

Sasuke was… well, Sasuke: quiet, cool, and undeniably hot. Her eyes trailed over him as she slowly took in the outline of muscle visible through the fabric of his clothes with each movement. Occasionally a gust of wind would pull the material taut and cause her pulse to quicken and her mouth to go dry.

‘It’s not fair,’ Sakura mentally sighed, torn between wanting to just be near him and wanting to punch him in the face.

Over the years, she’d managed to convince herself that she was fine with just being a friend and teammate to Sasuke. She’d even somewhat convinced herself that her feelings were simply that of a childhood infatuation. After last night, though, it was obvious the very carefully pieced together wall of denial had begun to crumble.

It hurt to think about it, really. She’d dreamt of being in that situation for years, and for a few brief moments, it had been bliss. Was there truly no place Sasuke wouldn’t go to win?

It wasn’t until she noticed his eyes cut over to her that Sakura realized she was still staring at him. He didn’t comment, of course, but out of no small parts embarrassment and irritation, she felt the need to justify her intentions anyway.

Unfortunately, “You have something on your face,” was the only thing she could think of right then. Holy crap, that was lame! Inner Sakura complained just as soon as she said it.

Sasuke gave her a skeptical look but didn’t say anything, just turned his attention back to the path they were traveling. After mentally kicking herself a few times, Sakura blamed that too on her teammates’ back-handed genjutsu.

She frowned and kicked a rock. Why did they have to do that? Things had finally grown comfortable between them. Sasuke’s return had surprisingly been just as hard as his unexpected departure – old wounds had been torn open, bled dry, and had eventually healed even if they still itched from time to time – but now, everything was weird, their roles jumbled and lines blurred. Well, on her end at least.

Sakura wanted more than anything for things to go back to the way they were, where she wasn’t pining after Sasuke, where she wasn’t wondering if Naruto’s mouth was good for things other than talking, where she didn’t see the infuriatingly interesting sight of Naruto with a hard-on every fucking time she looked at the idiot, where she could talk to their team leader and not remember tracing his abs with her tongue as she went further down…

“Ugh! I hate you both right now,” she grumbled under her breath. A few days ago, things had been normal, and now, she couldn’t think of anything sweeter than the two of them getting a taste of their own medicine.

~*~

Naruto belched loudly and set his second empty bowl down on the bar. It was great to be home if for no other reason than eating at Ichiraku’s. No one could make a bowl of ramen like the old man. It was a simple fact.

After he and Sasuke had parted ways at the village gates – the jerk still wouldn’t admit that Naruto was the reason their mission had been a success – he’d wasted no time getting over here. He glanced at the empty bowls stacked on top of one another and briefly considered ordering a third. ‘Nah, I’ll swing by in the morning for breakfast instead,’ he decided.

“See ya tomorrow,” Naruto informed the owner as he paid for his meal. Nothing could ruin this evening; he was sure of it. He was home, had a stomach stuffed full of his favorite food, and Sakura-chan had been smiling as she walked through the gates – that alone had been a huge weight off his shoulders. All was right with the world, he decided as he brushed the curtain aside and stepped out onto the dirt road.

And that was when he saw Sasuke walking toward him with a bag of groceries dangling from one arm.

His cheerful expression almost faltered, but Naruto quickly recovered, reminding himself that nothing could get rid of his contented smile right then, not even his damn-near constantly grouchy teammate. He had the overwhelming urge to tell him as much, so he quickly fell in step with the Uchiha as he passed the ramen stand.

“You can argue with me all you want, but you won’t ruin my night,” Naruto boasted, hands behind his head and grin on his face.

Sasuke gave him a sideways glance and shook his head. “You’re the one who wanted to argue earlier.”

His tone was still carefree as he laughed, “No way, man. You totally started it.”

“…And you’re doing it again,” Sasuke pointed out with a smirk.

Naruto opened his mouth to respond but quickly shut it when he realized what he’d been about to say. Changing tactics, he simply replied, “I’m gonna ignore that.”

He then turned his gaze up to the clear night sky and noted the crescent moon was no longer low on the horizon. It was nice out - still warm enough to be comfortable but no longer muggy; a light breeze lazed its way down the street with them, which only seemed to reinforce Naruto’s mood, and a comfortable silence accompanied them a few blocks before it was broken again.

“Come over.” Sasuke didn’t ask. He never did, not that it really irritated Naruto. He was well versed in Sasuke-speak by now. He simply rolled his eyes and chuckled at the request.

“One of these days, you’re gonna have to learn to ask, man. What if I have a hot date or something?”

Sasuke snorted. “I’m as close to a hot date as you get, moron.”

“Well, aren’t we pathetic then? All we ever do is drink or fight or drink and fight. And you never put out. It’s quite sad,” he laughed as they continued their slow pace through the business district. When he noticed Sasuke wasn’t laughing with him, he glanced over at his friend. Usually comments like that at least earned him a disgusted snort. The expression on Sasuke’s face was contemplative, and Naruto didn’t know what to think. “Um?”

“And what if I did?” The question was quiet as Sasuke’s eyes stayed fixed intently on the path in front of him.

Naruto blinked and almost lost his balance when his foot found a pothole. Did he just…? Nah. No way. He had to have heard wrong. Or it was a joke, the blond concluded. Sadly, Sasuke pulling his leg was about as likely as Sasuke coming onto him, though.

Something was off. Maybe he didn’t hear all of it. Sasuke had been speaking rather softly after all. Yeah, that had to be it. “What if you did what?”

Frowning, Sasuke turned toward him, tension apparent in the tightly clenched muscles of his jaw. “Don’t make me repeat myself,” he warned.

“Look, I don’t have a clue what you’re talking about, so you’re gonna have to repeat it,” Naruto growled back, his aggravation getting the best of him.

Across from him, Sasuke’s frown deepened, and Naruto couldn’t help but mirror the sentiment. What the fuck was going on? Suddenly Sasuke closed the gap between them, going well beyond the Uchicha’s preferred boundaries of personal space.

“You don’t know what I’m talking about?” he asked skeptically. “You sure?” He leaned in closer, touching his chest to Naruto’s as he spoke directly in his ear. “I don’t think you’re really so stupid that you’d miss an offer when it’s made, Dead Last.”

As Naruto sat, fighting the urge to shiver at the sensation of warm breath ghosting against his ear, the large hand hovering just over his ass as if it wanted to grab but thought better of it verified what his mind was beginning to suspect. He’d heard right all along. Holy shit! Uchiha Sasuke, asshole extraordinaire, was coming onto him!

“Y…you’re serious?!”

“Ask again, and I’ll take it back,” he growled and, seeming to notice they were still in the middle of the street, stepped back and glared menacingly at Naruto. The blond only nodded mutely in response.

His first impulse was to do something to make the Uchiha revoke the offer and laugh it off as his usual idiocy. This was Sasuke after all, and while the idea of seeing his stuck up teammate cut loose for once was tempting, this wasn’t exactly the way he’d always imagined it would finally happen.

But at the same time, Naruto couldn’t quite bring himself to walk away, and the only reason he could fathom was simply that it was Sasuke. Sasuke wanted to… with him?!

Naruto wasn’t as ignorant in the way of sex as his female teammate believed. One didn’t spend three years ‘information gathering’ with Jiraiya and not learn a thing or twenty, but his previous experiences all had one important similarity (well, two if you count the fact that none of them had really known him): they’d all been female.

And yet, here he was. Sasuke, Uchiha Sasuke, his teammate, his rival, the friend who’d almost killed him, the lucky bastard who could make any girl instantly wet her panties just by looking at her wanted in his pants?! It was surreal, flattering, and quite honestly a little fucking weird.

In fact, Naruto realized now that he thought about it, it was too good to be true. His eyes widened as understanding slapped him in the face.

Sakura-chan.

He had no real proof – Sasuke had very much talked and behaved like Sasuke after all – just a gut feeling. This person standing in front of him waiting for some sort of response wasn’t real, couldn’t be real.

“Hey, bastard, what makes you think I’ll accept?”

Sasuke smirked at that. “Better than nothing, right?”

That was all the reassurance Naruto needed as his hands formed the seal for a kai. When he was alone a moment later, he wasn’t sure if he was relieved or disappointed.

He shook his head to clear it of that thought. “I need to find Sasuke.”

Leaping up onto the roof of the pastry shop behind him, Naruto glanced around.

“He’s probably not that way,” he said to himself, looking in the direction he’d been walking. “She wouldn’t lead me right to him if I’m supposed to think I’m already with him. That leaves… everywhere else. Damn, he could be at home right now for all I know!” he sighed.

He then turned the opposite direction. “Hell, it would probably just be easier to find Sakura-chan and make sure she’s not after Sasuke. She’s bound to be nearby.”

He leapt from roof to roof back toward the place where, as far as he knew at least, the genjutsu had started. Naruto landed on the roof of Ichiraku and didn’t bother trying to hide himself. If she didn’t take off the minute he broke the genjutsu, she most likely knew what he was doing, but that also meant she had to be close. A quick scan over the immediately surrounding buildings turned up nothing.

“Damn it! Where is she?”

He dropped down to the ground and started down the street, looking down each cross street he passed. When several blocks turned up nothing more than a few irritated villagers, a couple of stray cats, and a rather fragrant drunk leaning heavily against the building he’d just vomited on, Naruto growled in frustration.

“I’m not gonna find either of them at this rate.”

Up ahead, the street abruptly turned left with only a small alley veering off to the right. He paused long enough to glance down the alley, and Naruto practically sagged in relief when he did. There was Sasuke leaning against the side of a resale shop. Sighing, Naruto shook his head and started to close the distance between them.

"All that stress over nothing," he chuckled. When his eyes began to take in the condition of his teammate, though, he stopped dead in his tracks, unable to believe what he was seeing. Sasuke's eyes were squeezed tightly shut, his face twisted into a grimace, and as Naruto's gaze slid over the rest of him, it was hard to miss the fact that Sasuke was obviously aroused.

Oh, shit!

His eyes scoured the roof of the resale shop to his left and the restaurant on his right, and then the neighboring buildings with no luck, but when he looked a little further down the alley, though, he finally spotted a shock of pink on a third story fire escape. She was sitting half-shrouded in darkness; had it not been for a nearby streetlamp, he might not have ever found her, he realized. Not surprisingly, Sakura was sitting with her back against the brickwork, hands clasped in a seal he couldn't make out at that distance but could easily guess which one it was.

Naruto turned his attention back to Sasuke and began walking toward him, intent on snapping him out of the genjutsu even if it meant beating his ass right there in the alley.

He tried not to. Really he did, but it was damn near impossible to keep his eyes off the erection straining against his teammate's pants. Yes, Uchiha Sasuke, it seemed, was human after all. Who knew? The thought almost made Naruto laugh. Okay, yeah, he'd seen him sneak peeks at Sakura-chan's legs when he'd first returned to the village, but who wouldn't? Hell, he's seen other kunoichi eye her legs before, and while he realized the shin guards naturally just drew a person's attention, his fantasies would never allow him to believe anything less than them sexing her up with their eyes, of course. Many a night had been spent with visions of Anko or Ino (sometimes both) restraining and teasing his pink-haired teammate.

But then the sound of Sasuke (Sasuke!) moaning pulled his thoughts back to the teammate in question, though, and Naruto couldn't help but wonder what was going on in that genjutsu. Was Sakura-chan seducing him? A pang of jealousy hit him square in the gut at the thought, but turnabout was fair play, he supposed. If anyone deserved to be brought up and left hanging, it was Sasuke. But damn, he was gonna be pissy afterward, because whatever it was, Sasuke seemed to be enjoying it quite a bit! He paused, a good twenty feet still between them, as Naruto wondered if he should break the genjutsu or just let it run its course. Did he really want to be the cause of that sort of frustration? Not particularly.

“Uhn, just get on with it, Dead Last!”

Naruto blinked once, then twice before the full implication of that statement sunk in.

'EH?! Me?!' Somewhere in the back of his brain, the tiny part that was running on auto-pilot, Naruto realized his jaw was hanging open, but the rest of it had temporarily shut down. He stared, wide-eyed and more than a little surprised – fucking shocked was more like it – as his teammate’s hips began to move. It was subtle, only a faint rocking motion, but it was there. Naruto found himself strangely fascinated.

But when Sasuke’s hands came up to grasp… something (hair maybe?), Naruto quickly looked away.

‘That bastard! I can’t believe he finds nothing strange about that! If anyone should be on his knees, it’s him!’ He ran his hand through his hair in irritation. ‘And Sakura-chan!’ his mind screamed as he turned his gaze back on her. ‘Why would she do that? Why would she think we…’

Naruto trailed off from his mental rant when he noticed she was looking at him. Sakura’s arms were lax at her sides, her face no longer the epitome of concentration. ‘She quit the jutsu,’ he realized. A moment passed as they stared at each other, her expression blank and his questioning before he watched her turn away and leap down off the balcony.

As soon as her feet hit the ground, his eyes were back on Sasuke who was no longer leaning against the building, body taut with a type of tension Naruto never expected to witness personally. No, Sasuke’s fists were clenched, his back ram-rod straight and expression guarded as his eyes jumped from Sakura to Naruto and then away from them both.

Naruto could do little more than sigh and wonder just how ugly things were about to get.

~*~

TBC