Chapter Text
The silence between the two quickly became awkward; Sakura giggled uncomfortably as she would have done when she was younger.
“What’s funny?” Sasuke implored.
“It’s nothing, really!” Sakura shook her head with embarrassment. “It’s just a thing I do to break awkward silences. Not to say that the awkward silence was your fault, of course! It’s just a subconscious thing I do; I could have initiated the silence!”
Sasuke looked at her with a single eyebrow raised. She was rambling nervously as she tended to do. Still, Sasuke didn’t find it as annoying as he used to; now he understood Sakura’s reasons for rambling. She didn’t do it because she wanted to talk that much and irritate him, no she did it for the same reason that he blocked people out. She did it because she didn’t know how to get through to a person. “We should go back.” Sasuke stated dryly. He didn’t want to convey too much emotion, as always.
“Yeah, I guess you’re right.” Sakura agreed. “Let’s go then.” Pushing herself to her feet, she followed Sasuke through the dark forest and back towards Tazuna’s house.
Naruto waited patiently at the steps of the house. There were very few things he hated more than being left out; especially by his two best friends. Would it have killed them to invite him? Even if they’d yell at him he’d be happy; as long as he wasn’t lonely. Still, Naruto refused to be sad. He would take this in stride and be ebullient and happy. Wallowing in sorrow achieves nothing.
Naruto spotted two incipient figures. Plastering his best smile on his face, he jogged towards them.
“Teme, Sakura-chan!” He exclaimed, “What’s up? What were you guys doing?”
“Nothing much, Naruto.” Sakura brushed off his question, “We should all get to bed though. It’s pretty late. I hear Kakashi-sensei has something in store for us tomorrow.”
“I was thinking we could talk ab-” Naruto started.
Sasuke was having none of it. He had done enough talking to last him a lifetime. “Let’s just go to bed Naruto.”
“Yeah. Okay then. I’ll see you all tomorrow then.” He muttered, trodding dejectedly back to his room. Mentioning the topic to Sasuke and Sakura the following day would be useless, Naruto was sure; quickly, he deemed that the best solution was to completely forget about the event.
Sakura woke up the next morning, far more tired than she would have hoped. Groggily, she made her way to the kitchen where Naruto was fully passed out, his head on the table.
“Naruto,” Sakura muttered, poking her friend lightly, “wake up. We have to eat.”
“Go away…” Naruto whined, hiding his head in-between his arms, “I don’t wanna wake up!”
“If you wake up now, you’ll be up before Sasuke.” Sakura goaded, sitting down next to Naruto.
Naruto’s head popped up abruptly. “I’m up! I’m up! You can vouch for me Sakura-chan, right?!”
“Of course Naruto. Now let’s eat breakfast.”
“Haha, I can rub this in Sasuke-teme’s face for all of eternity! I’m more punctual than him! This is amazing!”
“It’s incredible how quickly you perk up…” Sakura chuckled to herself.
Sasuke entered the room several minutes later, fully dressed.
“Teme! I was up before you!” Naruto exclaimed, pointing his finger at Sasuke, “Sakura-chan can totally vouch for me!”
“I don’t care.” Sasuke shrugged, sitting on the opposite side of the table. “Get serious. We’re training today so that we can put up a fight when Zabuza comes back.”
“I don’t know man, Kakashi pretty much whooped his ass the first time.” Naruto shrugged his shoulders. “It’s his little teammate we gotta worry about ya know.”
“You can’t let your guard down.” Sasuke chided, glaring at Naruto, “You have to take this seriously .”
“Woah man, I am. I’m just saying, our chances look good.”
“You never actually know the chances!” Sasuke spat, his sharingan flashing for a second.
“Calm down!” Sakura exclaimed, meeting Sasuke’s gaze, “I agree that we can’t let our guard down, but that doesn’t mean you can lose your everloving shit!”
“I thought you understood.” Sasuke shook his head and looked down at his food.
“I-” Sakura stopped herself, “whatever. Look, we have to get along. We’re a team!”
“Stop trying to always fix things, Sakura.” Sasuke mumbled, “It’s not your job.”
“God every time I think I get somewhere with you, you find a way to make things worse! I’m sorry for everything that happened, but you can’t use that as an excuse to act like an asshole. Especially not towards the people that care about you.”
“What did I just say?” Sasuke didn’t spare Sakura a look. “Don’t tell me what to do.”
Sakura groaned and dug into her breakfast.
“Oh you’re already up?” Kakashi shuffled into the dining room and sat right next to Sasuke. “Boy, do I have a lot in store for you today!”
“Good.” Sakura grinned, “I hope it’s hard.”
“Well you don’t have to over-exert yourself Sakura-chan.” Kakashi said, wrinkling his one visible eye.
“What if I want to, sensei?” Sakura retorted, gritting her teeth.
“Well, I suppose I can’t stop you, but really, there’s no need.”
“Can you please take me as seriously as you take the boys?”
Kakashi looked taken-aback. “Are you sure you want that?”
“I’m incredibly sure.”
Kakashi nodded slowly, “Fine. You’re going to train the exact same way the boys will.”
Kakashi leaned on his crutch and pointed at the trees in front of him. “You will be climbing trees.”
“Psh, that’s easy!” Naruto exclaimed, “I climbed trees all the time in the academy when I was running away from kids who wanted to hurt me!”
“That is incredibly sad to hear, Naruto.” Sakura sighed, shaking her head, “Your academy years were pretty rough, huh?”
“Uh, I guess?” Naruto replied.
“Anyway,” Kakashi interrupted, “You will be climbing these trees without your hands. With only chakra.”
“Oh.” Naruto moved close to Sakura, “Can you explain chakra to me, Sakura-chan?” he whispered.
Quickly, Sakura gave Naruto an explanation.
“Thanks!”
“Go! Try it!” Kakashi commanded.
Immediately, Sasuke ran at the tree, getting up about three feet before falling back to the ground. Of course, he landed with cat-like grace. Next, Naruto tried, forgetting to plant his foot on the bark and just running face first into the tree. Sakura sighed and tried it for herself. It was easy, as she expected. She made her way up the tree slowly, making sure she didn’t look too comfortable.
“This is pretty easy, sensei!” She grinned, sitting on the top branch.
“Ah, would you look at that.” Kakashi pointed out, his excitement far from convincing. “Sakura-chan is the best at chakra-control. Well, you can go back to Tazuna’s now. You’ve outdone the boys.”
“Kakashi-sensei, you knew I’d be able to do this.” Sakura accused, “I’m not going home. Teach me the next step.”
“This isn’t like you to act so assertive.” Kakashi raised his eyebrow, eyeing Sakura suspiciously.
“You’ve been my sensei for only a few months. Trust me, you’ll learn a lot more about me.”