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Stranger than the Wild	By : kiddattwell Category: Naruto > Threesomes/Moresomes Views: 30155 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto and I don't make any money off of it.

Chapter List
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Chapter 4

Sasuke

Sasuke stared across the field at Sakura, who had tied up her hair and had procured a jounin vest for their training today. Fighting without the sharingan didn't do much to hone his skills, but it did at least allow Sakura to push his strength and endurance. Her taijutsu was a little interesting; though her movements were often as sloppy and brutish as Naruto's, she was capable of subterfuge and often thought a few steps ahead.

"Go, Sakura!" Naruto shouted from his resting place in the grass. As soon as he spoke, she ran, her fists both tense and arms raised, but he sensed by her posture she was going for a kick. He was right and he blocked, grabbing her arm and slamming her to the ground.

He immediately dropped into a dead fall to slam her in the chest with his elbow, which she caught.

Damn! He thought, as she grabbed his other arm and felt her legs lock around him. Very quickly, he found himself flat on his back, staring at the top half of her head, both of his hands locked in hers at his side and her sitting on his knees.

He heard Naruto jogging over.

Sakura laughed as she leaned over him, "Why do you keep trying?"

Naruto's face was also soon in his, "I think he's just being stubborn, aren't you, teme? Just face it: you will never overpower her if you're grappling."

Sakura stood up and he shoved Naruto with his newly freed arms. Naruto rocked back on to his butt.

"I'm starting to think you just like her pinning you down,” Naruto laughed.

Sasuke leapt on to him, but Naruto was ready for it. They rolled in the grass, Naruto trying to gain some leverage while Sasuke went for the most painful hold he could find.

"Ow, ow, ow!"

Sasuke smirked at Naruto's quick concession, but as soon as he had freed him, Naruto rolled to his feet and was ready to pounce again. A pink blur came in between them and knocked Naruto back on the ground.

"I believe it's still my turn," she said.

"Hmph. Fine. Sasuke needs a lesson in how to beat you anyway."

Sasuke walked over to Naruto's abandoned spot in the shade by the tree line as his two teammates smiled at each other from across the field. Sasuke recalled from their genin days that they both liked a running start into a fight.

He watched the first volley of kicks and punches, Naruto keeping his distance and Sakura keeping her strength under control. They each had personal handicaps for taijutsu training.

No overwhelming chakra boosters from Naruto. Only controlled strength with Sakura. And of course, for him, dojutsu was not allowed.

But since it was his turn to watch, he turned on the sharingan.

She fought differently with Naruto- better. She left hardly any holes in her defense and she wasn't letting him control the pace of battle. With him, she flaunted her strengths.

Tomorrow, they'd be leaving for Suna, walking it, mostly. So many things had changed between them, but for some reason, he felt a bond with them that he hadn't felt since... Hell, since he was fresh from the academy. There had only been a brief few months where Sasuke felt calm in the presence of his team. The cat finding, potato picking days where all they cared about was what was under Kakashi-sensei's mask…

His plan to practice his social skills wasn't making much headway. Sakura seemed to forgiven him for everything for some reason, but he had a feeling that that would have happened anyway, even without his best efforts to be more outgoing. And of course, it was easy to let Naruto fill the need to socialize with anyone else ever.

But he supposed it was progress enough not be bothered by his own team. Especially when it contained someone as loud as Naruto. Sakura was tolerable sometimes… He would have never guessed that she was going to grow into someone so calm and efficient. Or someone who handled so much responsibility. Even though he knew he had no hand in it, it was nice to see her succeed.

A handful of genin boys, so young and fresh faced that Sasuke was sure they weren't a day over ten, appeared on the one end of the field and lingered, as though they were too shy to pass the fighters to get to an open space.

But that wouldn't be a problem for long as Sakura began to lose the fight. She didn't let on right away, but a blow Naruto landed on her leg was slowing her down. Then she took a punch she should have dodged and got herself cornered near the trees on the far side of the field. The kids crept closer to watch the fight.

Naruto halted what would have been a finishing blow and Sakura conceded. They spoke lowly to each other and Sasuke turned off the sharingan to listen to the kids gush about Naruto. As the two walked back, Naruto caught sight of the young trio and waved.

If that wasn't enough to seal his fate, when he reached Sasuke, he called, "Hi,” to them. They were on him after that.

Sakura sat down beside him as Naruto, after listening to the children’s effusive speeches of admiration, was carried off to teach them how to be great ninjas, which would probably involve him sending out shadow clones until the kids had exhausted themselves. Sakura used a healing jutsu on her leg.

"Do you think we'll get him back any time today?" Sasuke asked, sounding a bit more annoyed than he actually felt. But Sakura just laughed.

"Probably not. They look like they have a lot of energy."

"I'm going, then," he said, and stood. He barely had to force his next words.

"Do you want to come?"

"Um, yeah. Sure. Where are we going?"

He hadn't thought of that. He wanted to say his house, but then he had no idea how to make her leave when he wanted to be alone again.

"Lunch," he finally said, "For a chance to eat something other than ramen."

"Sounds good to me," she said and jogged over to Naruto. He began to walk to the edge of the grounds, feeling a little uncomfortable.

When she caught up with him, she said, "Four rounds of sparring each. Not bad for the day before a mission."

He nodded.

They walked in silence for a while, until he realized that neither of them knew where they were going. Sakura was probably just following his lead. He decided to duck into the first place he saw.

The village was mostly rebuilt. All but a handful of the temporary houses were down as Yamato managed to rebuild central Konoha. The restaurants were functioning too as the civilians began to come back and it didn't take long to run into one.

They went inside and sat down, Sakura across from him. Sasuke began to rethink his quick decision to invite her. Why did he randomly decide to subject himself to an hour of silent staring?

He thought Sakura might be thinking something similar, because she laughed in an uncomfortable way.

"Well, this is a first," she said, "Hm... So... Why to do you keep trying to pin me when we spar?"

Good. He could do training talk. "You leave a lot of openings for submission holds. When I see them by chance..." But actually, when he said it aloud, he realized she didn't most of the time. Only with him.

"You were setting them up on purpose,” he finally said.

She grinned, "Of course! It sure took you long enough to figure it out."

Sasuke didn't say that he didn't think she was capable of using his low opinion of her skills against him. Or pointing out that she must have had a good idea of what he thought of her abilities if she used such a simple trick and he fell for it so many times.

All he could say was, "I'll stop underestimating you."

She looked like she might start to glow with pride. Her pink ponytail had some leaves in it and her cheeks were still flushed from exertion. For the first time in five years, maybe more, he thought the word 'pretty' about girl.

Which was disconcerting for a moment, until he realized that he could think she was pretty and that could be the end of it. He relaxed again.

They only spoke a little, and Sasuke thought that she knew him enough to not worry that something was wrong. As the waiter left their table after bringing their entries, Sakura gasped, "Should we be nice and bring something to Naruto?"

The thought wouldn't have crossed his mind, but he nodded.

Back out on the street, he was holding the bag with Naruto's food in it, feeling a not totally unwelcome sense of ease, when a familiar face appeared.

"Sakura," Sai smiled, and it even looked real, "And..."

He felt Sakura tense beside him, but he had no intention of letting her stop the words that were about to come out of Sai's mouth. Nor would she stop the ass beating Sasuke was planning on giving Sai if he didn’t like them.

"Sasuke," Sai finally said, his smile expanding. Sakura staggered over to him and latched on to his arm, grinning like a parent who just witnessed their child's first step.

"Yes! W-what are you up to Sai?"

"Naruto told me you're leaving tomorrow and I want to have a conversation with you before that. And... I've read that these kind of conversations should be held in private."

"Oh... that sounds... interesting. Hm, we were just delivering this food, but how about…”

If Sakura dates this idiot I will never forgive her, even if he does look a little like me.

"I'll deliver it myself. You can have your private conversation with... Sai."

Sakura looked over at him, a little surprised, "Are you sure? I was about to say I could meet him at his place later."

Sasuke didn't even want to respond to such a stupid statement; he just said it was fine, didn't he?

"Why do you think I'd care either way?" He said, and turned away. And even though he was walking away, he felt a warm, powerful calm, all the way down to his core. And he knew why.

He hated Sai. And the warmth of that hate, the familiar tightness in his chest, had been missing the last few months. He walked faster, until he finally just gave up and leapt from building to building until he was back at the training grounds.

He felt like he was waking up from a stupor, like half of his senses had been asleep and he hadn't realized it.

He crossed the field where Naruto and a single clone were battling it out with the kids. He leapt into the fray, throwing a solid punch at the Naruto closest to him. Unfortunately, it only turned into smoke and disappeared.

The genin stopped short as Naruto turned to him.

"Wha-"

"You're lunch," Sasuke said, throwing the box haphazardly at Naruto, who caught it, but just barely. Without looking down at the box, Naruto narrowed his eyes.

"What's wrong with you? Where's Sakura-chan?"

"Probably on her way to do it with that guy you both love so much."

"What? Who?"

"Why do you care? It's not like she's ever been interested in you. Let's train."

The genin backed away slowly into the trees as Naruto paced forward, "What did you do to Sakura?"

"I didn't do anything, dead-last, I told you, she went with-"

"What guy?!"

"Sai."

"Oh," Naruto's posture relaxed and Sasuke literally felt the anger leave Naruto completely. How did he do that? Why would he want to?

But then Naruto gained a little back as he said, "You can't talk about Sakura-chan like that."

"Yeah!" Came a high voice from the trees, "And you can't call Naruto-sensei 'dead-last' either!"

There was a scuffling sound in the leaves as he was sure one genin was trying to force the other two to retreat.

He actually hadn't thought about what he was saying about Sakura. He had no idea what she was doing with that freak in “private”. He was only aiming for words that would piss Naruto off the most. But he wasn't about to admit that now.

"If you don't like it, why don't you do something about it?"

Naruto tossed his lunch aside, "Why do you have to be such an asshole?"

Sasuke answered by flinging himself toward Naruto. Naruto dogged as best as he could as Sasuke’s first round of kicks and punches would have easily broken something.

"Why are you so mad, anyway? Wait..." Naruto said as he continued to block his attacks and back farther into the trees.

"For once in your life, could you just fight and not talk?" Sasuke grunted.

"What about you? Could you just talk and not fight?"

A flurry of kunai answered that question.

"Fine! I'll just have to beat you to a pulp! Then you won’t be able to do anything else!"

It was hard, but Sasuke kept to sparring rules. If his sharingan leaked out, he pulled it back and every time Naruto started to gather massive chakra, he swallowed it down again.

After thirty minutes or so, he appreciated why elemental jutsu and genjutsu were developed. The body wasn’t meant to take these kinds of beatings for very long.

He was sure he had cracked a rib or two in Naruto, just as he was sure his right shin was splintered. Thanks to his habit of diving head first into things, Naruto's face was looking worse for wear and Sasuke was sure he had sprained a few joints in his arms. Trying to spare his leg made him more predictable, even to an idiot like Naruto.

But his anger was receding as his pain was growing. Naruto was receiving a little healing, but he knew it must be wearing on him too. But he wasn't about to stop. That was until he heard a shout and a whoosh of wind.

"I approve of the youthfulness of training in taijutsu, but it is even more youthful to pay attention to the needs of your training partner," Gai said, placing a hand on Naruto's back, just as he was about to swing, "Not to mention the example you set for your young comrades."

The genin team had been watching them openly at the edge of the grounds, moving away as needed, sometimes shouting encouragement to Naruto.

"Now, the two of you need to take care of your bodies with a trip to the hospital. And next time you want to train in taijutsu, you should ask for some assistance from Lee."

When Sasuke stood still, he felt the weight of his exhaustion. He only just then remembered that they would be taking a mission on foot the next day. He would absolutely have to go to the hospital. It was unavoidable. He began to trudge his way to the edge of the training grounds.

Naruto followed a little ways behind him, hearing Gai beginning to lecture the poor, hapless genin who apparently didn’t escape fast enough.

People seemed to take one look at their disheveled appearance leave them alone as they plodded to the hospital, but they still took care to travel on less crowded streets. Naruto finally asked:

"So what was that about?"

"Hn."

"Seriously. Why the hell would Sakura going to visit Sai piss you off like that?" Naruto asked when he didn't get an answer. Finally Naruto huffed and threw his arms in the air. He sped past him and contented himself to walk in front of him.

"It’s not Sakura," Sasuke said lowly, trying to catch up with Naruto on his bad leg. Naruto slowed his pace, but said nothing. Sasuke went on, "I just hate Sai. And when he appeared out of nowhere... I already wanted to fight him, but Sakura went off with him, so I couldn't. That's all."

"Then why'd you say all that stuff about Sakura-chan?"

"To rile you up, dobe."

His explanation seemed to do a good job of that too. Naruto spun toward him, probably hurting his ribs in the process. "But why were you that angry?! Sai never did anything to you!"

"It feels good to be angry," Sasuke said, lowly.

"What part of beating up your friends feels good to you?"

Sasuke thought about explaining it. The physical change in his senses, the clarity in his mind, but Naruto already knew about the power of anger, he was sure. The real problem was that Sasuke thought that those things felt better than anything else in the world. But when he gave in, he hurt his only friend.

"I'm sorry. It was wrong to take it out on you."

Naruto’s mouth fell open, his eyes wide.

Sasuke rolled his eyes at his exaggerated surprise and added, "I'll try to control myself better from now on."

Naruto leapt toward him and glomped on to his shoulders, laughing. Sasuke tried to elbow him off and was satisfied that he nicked one of the ribs he'd cracked, causing Naruto to let go for a brief moment with a grunt. Idiot. Why was he so happy over something simple like that?

Then Naruto knocked his leg against his shin while locking his arm around his shoulders again. And they continued like that all the way to the hospital.

--- --- --- ---

A/N: I want to reply to your lovely comments, but I'm kind of shy and I feel sheepish when I try. But I read them and appreciate them all the same! Love love!
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Stranger than the Wild