Adult-FanFiction.org : Naruto

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
- 4
- 5
- 6
Chapter 5

Sakura

"Sakura... chan."

"Oh, sorry, Sai. I was lost in thought. So this is your house, huh? I love these pictures." Sakura walked over to his wall where a dozen pictures hung in a collage.

"Sakura-chan, are you alright?"

"Huh?" She looked over at Sai, standing in his entryway, looking at her with the perfect example of an inquisitive face, "You never call me Sakura-chan."

"I thought it would be nicer, and also indicate that we were closer. Do you mind?"

"Not at all!" She said with a grin, "You've called me worse, after all."

Sai smiled and it looked sheepish, "I'm practicing being nicer, particularly with the female gender in mind. But Sakura-chan, I'm curious about before."

"Hm?" She said while trying to process the idea that Sai wanted to progress in ANY way with the female gender.

"Did Sasuke the dickless traitor hurt your feelings in some way?"

"Sai...!" She snorted, covering her eyes with her hands, "You were doing so well! You can't call him a traitor anymore and you certainly shouldn't add dickless to the mix!" She wasn't sure which part would piss Sasuke off more, but either way, any encounter that started off with a title like that would definitely end with a dead Sai.

"I heard women need to discuss their feelings and I'm personally curious as well. Did he? When he asked why you thought he would care, did it hurt your feelings?"

"It just surprised me is all," Sakura said, "He seemed mad all of the sudden and I don't have very many guesses as to why."

He either really hates you… or me, she thought, but wisely kept it to herself. You never know what Sai might repeat in mixed company.

But if she had to guess at Sasuke's feelings, based on his previous interactions with Sai, she was inclined to believe it was the first option, but sometimes she wondered…

"So what did you want to talk about?" She asked Sai, cutting off her own unhealthy thoughts.

"Ah, yes," Sai walked further into the room and asked her to sit, "It's a matter about relationships... Romantic relationships between men and women."

Please don't let this be a birds and bees talk. Please...

"Any two people in particular?" she asked, trying not to visibly cringe.

"Yes… specifically..."

To anyone else, it would have sounded like Sai was talking about something as boring as money or shuriken techniques, but to Sakura, who had been trying to detect emotional development in the guy for over a year, that one pause was equivalent to blushing and spilling his drink.

"Specifically...?" Sakura nudged.

"Myself," he said, "and Yamanaka Ino."

"Ino!" She shouted, then grit her teeth together to gain some control, "I see! Uh. When did this... happen?" How did it happen? We all thought you were still a eunuch robot.

"I know you said not to trust books because I'm too literal, but I underlined some passages..." With dismay, Sakura saw him pull out an all too familiar orange covered book.

"Here, it says, or I should say, Kojiro, the protagonist says, in internal narration,"

Get on with it! she thought, barely able to take the suspense.

"Yesterday, she was nothing to me, a criminal in my bingo book, a line to be crossed out. If I hadn't seen her by the river, she would still be only an idea, a name. But her body in the dark water with its storied scars and voluptuous curves struck me to the core. She is now a someone and I can never forget that now that I know it.”

"He continues,” Sai said, looking up from the book, “With his plan to redeem the rogue ninja’s name, but it's like that. One day she was no one, and then, suddenly, she was someone. Also, here, "My stomach leapt as our hands brushed." That has happened as well. And, "The sight of her leaning over the broad wooden bar, her legs slightly apart, her hips rocking to the music, had me tantalized. I felt myself grow hard-"

"No more! Nope! I got it! No need to read any more of the hips and the... ahhh," Sakura had jumped to her feet, prepared to flee if he couldn't be convinced to stop reading, but now that he was just looking quietly at her, she found she could sit again and pretend that she wasn't very freaked out about hearing Sai recite pornography.

"So you have a crush on Ino... What do you want to do about it?"

Sai flipped the book a few pages farther, but Sakura cut him off, "No more book examples necessary! Let's just... figure this out..."

Sakura was unsure how to lead Sai. Ino had expressed interest in him once and she often flirted with him, but she also had unresolved feelings for Shikamaru, even if she didn’t like to admit it, and with the trauma she'd been dealing with...

Sakura looked at Sai's smile. Though it was small, it was real and earnest, and slightly unsure. She couldn't resist helping him putting his best foot forward. At the very least, he would be a welcome distraction for the blonde. At most, someone Ino could really fall in love with.

"Ok, Sai. Get me some paper. I'm going to make a list of scenarios with little flow charts you can memorize and use if you are ever unsure of what to do or say around her!"

**** **** **** ****

Sakura packed while Ino sat on the bed, watching.

"I'm glad you're going," Ino said, making a good show of sounding airy and wistful, "It'll force me to get back out into society."

"It will. And you're good at society. It likes you. You like it back."

"People do like me," she said, slightly relenting on her passive aggressive guilt trip.

"Speaking of… people," Sakura said, holding in her sudden urge to laugh, "Will you look after Sai a bit? I think he'll be a little lost without me and Naruto and it would set back his progress to stay locked up without social interaction for a month and a half."

"Sai? I guess I can do that,” she said, staring absently at the long blonde ponytail that was twirled around her hand.

"I mentioned it to him when I ran into him today, so he might call in on you."

"Great," she drawled, but Sakura let it go.

Sakura plopped down on the bed beside her after she zipped her suitcase and then laid back to stare at the ceiling.

"This is going to be a long trip," Sakura sighed. It would seem even longer with her curiosity about Ino and Sai’s progress.

"Nah. You and your two hunnies, all shacked up on the road... You won't be bored for a minute."

Sakura contemplated telling her about Sasuke, how normal he was at lunch, then how he snapped at her... But she didn't want to make herself think about it anymore. If she didn't over analyze it, then she wasn't obsessing. And she really had to stop obsessing.

The problem was that she had no idea where the line was. How much caring was too much caring? Wanting to be with Naruto meant having Sasuke in her life. But how was she supposed to be a good girlfriend to Naruto if she couldn’t stop thinking about their moody third wheel?

What if she couldn’t and she wasn’t even fit to be with Naruto in the first place?

"God, are you falling asleep?" Ino snapped, jolting her from her thoughts.

“Oh, um… Yeah, I guess I was.”

Sakura felt Ino’s flailing shake the bed, "Nooo, I wanted us to stay up all night and hang out! You haven't even had dinner yet!"

"Okay..." Sakura said, knowing full well if it was only the two of them talking, there was no way she'd make it all night.

Ino dragged her into the kitchen where she banged around, looking for something to cook. Since they both lived with their parents before the war, cooking wasn't easy for either of them, but Ino felt that berating all of the food in the refrigerator was a helpful part of the process.

"Ew! What are you? Why isn't there anything good in here? Ugh, this is old!" Ino shouted, as though the food itself was personally responsible.

Sakura laid her head down on the kotatsu, suddenly very tired and world weary. But then there was a knock on the door. Her head shot up, heart pounding, while Ino tip toed around the kitchen bar into the living room. The two shared a glance, then Ino walked to the door.

Sakura relaxed when she saw Ino sigh. "Oh, Shika."

She heard his voice from the entry way, "Who did you expect?" before he walked inside, brushing past Ino.

Shikamaru, who had always been relaxed, seemed especially lethargic since his parents passed. While he had valiantly stepped up to the plate after he lost Asuma-sensei and then again during the last battle of the war, the death of his parents didn’t seem to have set a new fire inside of him in his day to day life.

He saw her and they exchanged nods while Ino circled him.

"What do you have?"

"Leftovers from Chouji. He's trying to document his old family recipes and he always makes way too much. Didn't feel like throwing them away this time."

"Thank God," Ino said reverently, "We were about to starve. We were going to go forage in the forest..."

Shikamaru, clearly used to Ino's dramatics, stood for a moment, then, seeming to latch on to Sakura's lack of energy vibe, he plopped himself down on the floor across from her, looking like he might also want a nice nap at the dinner table. Sakura, mirroring his weariness, placed her head on one arm to stare at him.

"So I'll just serve us all, shall I?" Ino asked sarcastically, walking past them into the kitchen,

"Not me. I just got done eating," Shikamaru said, choosing to miss the point.

"Pleeease, Ino-chan," Sakura drawled with her head still down, staring at Shikamaru.

"Fine."

"So you're going to Suna tomorrow?"

Ino chimed in before she could answer, "Oh yeah. I forgot to ask, do you want her to send any messages to your girlfriend?" Ino asked, managing to sound both cheerful and spiteful. It was almost like she was back to her old self.

Shikamaru leveled a stare at Ino that Sakura read as 'I'm too tired to play with you,' then simply said, "Baka."

And because of that, Sakura was able to stay awake a few more hours, watching part of another dysfunctional team argue until Shikamaru finally gathered the energy to leave. Then Ino kept her up, complaining about him, and it felt like they were all thirteen again,

**** **** **** ****

Sakura stretched and yawned as she stepped in the hot sand outside of the Sunagakure hospital for the last time. The blazing yellow sun was just now falling behind the rounded domes of clay and sand buildings.

It had been an interesting trip, to say the least. The Medic-nin of the sand had a lot of scrolls for her to look over- mostly Chiyo-san’s things. There was some interesting stuff on preserving the body, but personally, she liked Tsunade-sama's methods. The days she spent at the hospital flew by, but left her too tired to do anything other than eat with her team and the Kazekage and then pass out in her private quarters.

The trip getting there was a different story. On the road, there was so much bromance going on between Naruto and Sasuke that Sakura had trouble getting in a word edge wise. If she didn’t know better, she’d have thought something might have happened between the two, with the way Naruto was clinging on to their dark-haired teammate most of the time.

On the dating progress front, Naruto seemed to have entirely forgotten the couch incident. He wasn’t leaving any openings for her to hit on him and Sasuke’s presence was giving her zero chances to make an opening. They were like some special defense squad against romance.

The night before they hit the road, as she was falling asleep (Ino was nice enough to give her the bed on her last night before the trip) she had almost convinced herself that she was going to put Sasuke behind her once and for all and that she could not, would not, deal with the unexpected mood swings. In a small part of her heart, she had blamed herself for his constant rejection all those years ago. She’d convinced herself that, compared to him, she was shallow and annoying and so she deserved to be treated like that. But she had changed. He had not. Even though he no longer lusted after revenge, he was still an angry 12-year-old boy, lashing out for no reason.

But on the road, he surprised her. Aside from his new level of closeness with Naruto, he had this whole new relaxed aura. And on top of that, he had apologized. To her. In front of Naruto.

The morning they left Konoha, Naruto and Sasuke were already waiting outside the gate for her. There was still mist in the air and the smell of dew and dirt and grass was already making her nostalgic. Sasuke turned toward her as she approached and she felt her will to be chipper waiver slightly at his cold expression. But Naruto grinned and patted his shoulder and suddenly Sasuke was walking toward her, his face intense. He stopped an arm’s length away and Naruto circled behind them, presumably to get a better view.

"What are you two doing up to?" she asked while she forced a smile from her clenched jaw.

"Sakura," Sasuke said, then sighed, suddenly losing the tension from his frame. His brow furrowed and, in some strange, hereto unknown mix of pride and shame, he said, "I'm sorry I lost my temper. I was... mad at Sai, not you."

"It's ok!" she said quickly. Then Naruto leapt over to them and slapped him on the back, beaming. Then Sasuke tried to punch him and everything was back to normal. Or "normal".

There really was nothing like walking along, looking into the cool, autumn sunset with the boy you love by your side… And the other boy you love standing right beside him.

Trudging back toward Sand headquarters, she preemptively began to dread the coming week on the road.

She sat in the lobby of HQ, waiting for a cute chuunin boy to fetch Naruto, who was no doubt distracting Gaara from his duties. A few minutes later he was bounding toward her.

"Garaa is throwing us a goodbye party!"

“Oh, that’s nice,” she said as Gaara rounded the corner behind him. Naruto was already leaning in to her personal space.

“Yeah! I’m going to tell Sasuke! Do you want to come?”

“Uh, if we’re waiting on dinner, I think I’ll just go back to my room and wash up a little.”

“Ok! We meet here at six!”

Sakura nodded and glanced over to Gaara, who left the room without a word. He wasn’t exactly the most personable human in the world, but she was sure the dinner would be fine, she thought as she wandered back to her quarters, wondering if there was anything nice she could wear.

**** **** **** ****

The Sand had really outdone themselves with the feast. The massively long banquet table was almost collapsing under the weight of exotic dishes. At the head of the table where she sat close to her team and the Kazekage, were several bottles of expensive liquors. Half way through the meal, Naruto leaned into her side and said in an undertone, "Remember the last time we drank?"

"Don't remind me," she said, running her hands through her hair.

"You drank together?" Sasuke asked.

"Just once," Sakura grimaced.

"It was a special occasion,” Naruto said, before his face fell into a grimace, “I've never been that sick before."

"I've never been that embarrassed!" she exclaimed. She felt herself turning red at the thought of it.

Gaara, who was listening quietly, asked Sakura, "What did you do?"

Naruto opened his mouth, but Sakura reached over and pushed it shut again. "There's no way I'm telling the Kazekage my most embarrassing memory!"

Gaara simply blinked at her.

"I'd rather you keep your current perception of me," she explained, trying to give him a winning smile. But Gaara was as immovable as Sasuke, who, speaking of which, was looking pretty irritated just then. But a moment after she glanced at him, the look passed back into blankness.

"Have you ever drank alcohol, Sasuke?" Gaara asked quietly.

"No."

There was a lot of contempt in that single syllable. But then Sasuke reached across the table and grabbed a sake bottle.

"I've never tried it either. I was warned that it may agitate the one tail and make me more prone to blood lust or falling asleep,” Gaara said.

"But you're not a jinchuriki anymore!" Naruto said, "You could drink if you wanted!"

Sakura didn't like the way this conversation was going.

Gaara stared contemplatively at another open bottle as Sasuke filled his sakazuki with sake.

Oh well, she thought, at least that thing doesn't hold as much as the masu cups back home.

She looked around for allies. All the old men seemed to be talking amongst themselves, drinking and eating and generally celebrating being alive. It seemed the jubilance of survival hadn't quite worn out in the sand either.

"Here, if you have one, I'll have one too!" She heard Naruto say, and snapped back to attention.

"What about our oath? We swore we'd never drink again!" She said, snatching the bottle away from Naruto.

"Aww, Sakura-chan... You aren't really going to hold me to that forever, are you?" She glared and he whined, "Plus, Gaara wants to drink! And he's our host! And the Kazegage! It'd be rude not to!"

"Only because you're trying to tempt him!"

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Sasuke pouring another glass.

"But why should I care? Do what you want!" Sakura huffed, unsure which direction to turn to show she was ignoring them. In the end, she just had to look ahead at a minister who looked about two-hundred years old and was picking crumbs out of his long beard. But from the corner of her eye, she watched what they were doing.

Before long, she began to notice a problem brewing.

Firstly, the three were drinking way too fast, knocking back the plates in one gulp instead of sipping, refilling them over and over, all the while not keeping up with how much they were actually imbibing as servers replaced half empty bottles immediately.

Secondly, she, Sasuke, and even Naruto didn't have much of a taste for the food from the sand region, so they had hardly eaten at all. She also noticed that Gaara was, for whatever reason, a particularly light eater.

But thankfully, it looked like she was saved. A few old men got up from the end of the table, a little wobbly, and walked up to Gaara, thanking him for the banquet, and bowing and shaking Naruto's hand. This led to a chain reaction until it was only the four of them at the end of the table and a few rowdy jounin types down on the other end who were a little too "happy" to notice the party was winding up.

"Does this mean the party's over?" Naruto grumbled, then brightened, "Ne ne, let's go to Gaara's house! We can relax and keep drinking there!"

"Don't just invite yourself, dummy. He might have things he needs to do. Plus, you've drank enough,” Sakura said, which are words that almost always have the opposite effect.

Naruto looked at Gaara, who proved himself to be a normal young male after all when he said, "I don't mind. I can keep going."

Despite her protests (and there were many. “We have to get up early tomorrow,” “I've had a long day,” “You guys just go without me since I'll just ruin your fun,”) she found herself on a cloud of sand next to her teammates and the Kazekage, the night air streaming by her face. As much as she felt she should still be complaining, she had to stop and be amazed at the view as she looked down at the city on her way to Gaara’s house.

They didn't call the Kazekage’s home a palace, but it sure seemed that way to her. There were certainly no buildings like that in Konoha, pre or post war.

Gaara laid them gently by the entrance and Sakura felt the tiny grains of sand being pulled away from her thighs. She fought the urge to brush them off even further.

She had never been farther than his marbled front room, but now they followed him through halls and breeze ways until they found themselves in a huge, cold kitchen. It was kind of bizarre to watch Sabaku no Gaara dig around in cupboards for bottles of booze.

But as more and more began to line up on the counter in front of them, Sakura could only think, Not good.

She decided to try for a distraction.

"Um, so, do you live here by yourself?" Sakura asked, leaning against a counter top.

"No," Gaara said from inside a cupboard.

"So... your brother and sister live here too?"

He pulled himself out with a bottle of wine in his hand, "Yes. And some advisors. People important to the government," Gaara said while giving her a look that clearly said, 'why are you asking?'

"I was hoping Kankuro-san would return before we left. There's a few things in Chiyo-sama's scrolls that might interest him. You might be interested too, since she's your, um... relative."

"They will still be here when he returns. And I can peruse them at my leisure."

"It would have been fun to show him in person."

If Gaara had eyebrows, they would have been raised.

"She's just trying to distract you!" Naruto chimed in, putting his hands on Sakura's shoulders and steering her toward the refrigerator. She heard Sasuke snort.

"Ah," Gaara said, diving back in the cupboard.

"Sakura-chaaan, why don't you try to find something edible in here while I pour you a drink?"

"I’ll look for food, but I'm not drinking. I remember my vow."

"Ah, come on. Can't you just use medical jutsu to purify your blood if you get too sick or something?"

Maybe she could... Tsunade-sama could certainly heal her hangovers... She looked around the dark kitchen. Gaara seemed like he was done searching and satisfied with what he had found. They were all looking at her, waiting for her response.

"Maybe... one. But not like last time."

"Boo. I for one want you to get drunk and kiss someone."

"Naruto!" She grabbed his arms and lifted him over her head. He squawked and kicked his legs.

"You swore you'd never tell!" She cried, as she chucked him over the kitchen island, back into the dark hall. She heard the hiss of Gaara's sand running over the stone floor and a muffled thud where it cushioned Naruto's landing. But Gaara and Sasuke were both looking at her.

After a moment, Sasuke asked, "Who was it?"

"No one!"

Naruto crawled back in the room, "Sorry, Sakura-chan."

"Grrrr..."

"Now that we know, you might as well tell us who," Sasuke said.

Maybe she didn't like this new, more sociable Sasuke after all. But he had a point, she thought, and it would seem even more childish not to tell.

"I'll tell you... After Naruto pours me a drink."

"Yes mam'!"

"Let's take these into my room." Gaara said, grabbing two bottles of sake and walking into the hall.

As they walked, Sakura continued to jab at Naruto, but he dodged out of the way, shrinking into the wall.

Gaara's room was very formal. There was an entire living area with chairs and cushions and a table. Beyond it, an immaculate bed and giant windows and a balcony door. He turned on the light and a chandelier sparkled to life.

"Wow. The Hokage doesn't have anything like this,” Naruto gaped.

"Some of my predecessors took advantage of their power," Gaara said as he set the bottles on the table.

In full light, she could see Sasuke's pale cheeks were flushed quite pink. How much had he drank without her noticing? Naruto and Gaara seemed more than fine though. She did remember Naruto drinking a LOT more than her to end up in the same state all those years ago... Maybe it was latent jinchuriki tolerance to foreign substances in the body?

They all sat down on the floor by the table, Sakura next to Gaara and Sasuke so she could glare at Naruto from across the table and make him sweat a bit. Naruto picked up a cushion, then said, "Oh, we need cups."

"I thought we could do it like this," Gaara said, then uncorked the sake bottle and tipped it to his mouth, the rope of the bottle wrapped around his hand.

"Ohh! Then you're next, Sakura-chan!" Naruto chortled, waggling his eyebrows.

"Then you have to tell," Sasuke said, glowering at her.

"Humph," she pouted, but she took the bottle from Gaara when he passed it. She took a long drink, ignoring the burn and the taste, trying to hold her breath for as long as she could.

"Easy," she heard Naruto say, but she figured since this was her only drink, she might as well make it count.

When she came up for air and passed the bottle to Sasuke, she saw the boys were a little wide eyed, so she smiled a sparkly smile and batted her eyes sweetly at them while her stomach churned and the prickly warmth tried to crawl back up her throat.

"Drink up you all," she said in an overly chipper voice. I don't want you remembering any of this tomorrow.

Sasuke did, but as soon as the bottle left his lips, he said, "So?"

She sighed. Naruto snatched the bottle from Sasuke, then said, "I'll tell the story! You want me to?"

She glared at him, then rolled her eyes, "Since you want to so much."

"Ok, it was two years ago. We were what, 17 or 18?"

Sakura nodded.

"So it was teme's birthday-"

"Don't bring up that part!"

"But it's why we were drinking! Anyway, I saw Sakura-chan moping around the training field, so I took her to get some ramen and then the idea suddenly occurred to me. Why not forget our troubles for a while with booze? Ero-senin and Oba-chan did it all the time, so I figured it wasn't a totally stupid idea. So that's how I convince Sakura-chan into it. Not that she needed much convincing..."

Sakura raised her fist threateningly at him and he smiled and continued.

"So I steal the booze from Oba-chan and Sakura drinks half of this big bottle of sake and I drink the other half and also this bottle of some weird foreign booze. So we were sitting around, giggling at each other, when I have the brilliant idea to take a walk and see if we can find anyone else that wants to join us."

"So we go out, but the stairs outside my apartment were a freakin’ death trap. I had to catch Sakura-chan from falling while holding on to the hand rail for dear life, but then we were ok when we got to the street."

Sakura remembered it did feel ok. They were holding hands the entire time, her swinging away from him and then back while they laughed like it was the funniest thing in the world.

"We walked a long time, and ended up on the east side of town where we ran into Kiba and Shino. I don't really remember what we said... We were trying to convince them to drink with us and we told them it was Sasuke's birthday and we were celebrating for him..."

Sakura remembered more, though she wished she didn't. She had started to cry in front of the shocked Kiba and Shino, telling them her most personal story, about how she begged Saskue to stay or let her go with him while Naruto wiped away tears of sympathy.

But then there actually was a gap in her memory because at some point, the mood had changed and she and Naruto were drunkenly teasing each other, stumbling around in front of Shino and Kiba, using their whole bodies to emphasize their words.

"You loooove Sasuke," Naruto had drawled, waving his arms wide.

"No, yooou do."

"You do. You sooooo do. If you don't, then why don't you ever look at anyone else, huh? Yeh havena even had your first kiss yet!"

"And yooou have?"

Naruto smiled an odd, unfamiliar flash of teeth that threw her off, so she flipped her hair to hide it as he laughed. But the hair flip made her lose her balance and fall toward the curb. Kiba and Shino both dived toward her, but she regained her balance.

Back in the present, Naruto looked like he was struggling for details.

"Yeah, and for some reason, I dared you to kiss one of them! I don't remember why though..."

Shino had placed a steadying hand on her shoulder, while Naruto watched on with his chin cocked high.

"I bet you're saving it for Saauusuke!" He slurred, stretching his mouth wide with his fingers, baring his lower teeth in a mocking grimace.

She remembered she had feigned an air of casualness, shooting Naruto a withering glare (or as withering as she could manage while she was that drunk) then she threw her arms around Shino's neck and mushed their mouths together.

She held on for a few seconds before she fell away from the bug user, who was frozen in shock. Then she and Naruto laughed until she almost puked in the street.

Sasuke snapped her out of her reverie, "So who was it?"

"Shino!" Naruto shouted with mirth.

"He was closer," Sakura added dryly. The alcohol must have been kicking in, because she didn't feel nearly as embarrassed as she thought she would.

"Would you have preferred Kiba?" Naruto said, pulling on his face in a way that was very similar to the mocking one he made that night.

"Shut up, Naruto! You were the one taunting me that night anyway!"

"Taunting? I thought I dared you. Keh, anyway," he said, turning his attention to Sasuke, "The real victim is Shino. I don't think he's been able to look at her since then, although it's hard to tell, since he always wears dark glasses," Naruto said, cackling away.

"But then what happened?" Gaara asked.

"Ah... Well, we somehow got back to Naruto’s place and we fell asleep on the floor."

"And then we woke up so sick that Sakura-chan asked me to put her out of her misery!" Naruto said brightly, "and I would have asked her to do the same, but I couldn't stop throwing up long enough to make words."

"So we vowed to never drink again," Sakura said.

"And then your dad came and yelled at me," Naruto added sheepishly.

"What?"

Naruto smiled cheerfully. Too cheerfully, "Yeah, he came over and chewed me out for getting you drunk."

Sakura found herself rising to her knees, "I can't believe he did that! Why didn't you tell me?"

Naruto shrugged while she stared at him, looking for signs of emotional distress, but he seemed ok...

"It's ok. After he was done venting, he actually gave a good speech about looking out for your team mates and stuff. It reminded me of Kakashi-sensei."

"But you were still feeling bad that day! I'm going to talk to him about this when I get home."

"No, no, really, Sakura-chan! It's fine! Don't say anything!"

She frowned at him. He was showing a little of the drink. His tan skin wasn't flushing up like Sasuke's, but his eyes were bright and glassy.

Feeling a bit of light headedness creeping up on her as well, she decided not to go into it any more just then. She sat back down and said, "We'll see..."

The conversation turned a little lighter, back to some of the old mischief team seven got into as genin, some old battles. She wasn't sure how long they had been there, but she wasn't feeling tired. She felt bad for Gaara, and tried to lead the conversation back to him as much as she could, but it seemed like team seven was intent on reminiscing, at least, Naruto was. But he seemed ok just listening. She had no idea if the alcohol was effecting him or not.

The bottle went round and round until it was gone and a new one replaced it. She considered asking them to slow down, especially considering that Gaara had never drank and he wasn't sure what effect it might have on him considering his history, but she knew they would just ignore her anyway.

Then, suddenly, when there was a lull in conversation, she remembered something.

“Hey, Naruto, you never told me who your first kiss was."

"Huh?"

"Back then, that night, you said... Well, you implied that you'd already kissed someone."

Obviously a little thrown at the change of subject, he leaned back, rocking a bit.

"Hm... I don't remember mentioning it, but I haven't! Had my first kiss, I mean."

"Have any of you kissed someone before?" she asked the table.

When she was met with silence and staring from everyone, she had her answer.

"Oh my God! How did this happen?" How were they all still pure when she let herself be taunted into losing hers? It wasn't fair. It should have been Sasukes!

You mean Naruto's, her mind corrected, much to her chagrin.

"Well, I was hated by everyone in the village until kinda recently. Same for Gaara."

The red head nodded.

"Sasuke is the one with no excuse. He always had girls all over him," Naruto pouted, "Are you sure you didn't kiss some girls while you were away from the village?"

"I was busy," Sasuke said in his normal, serious voice, but there was this smirk on his face that didn't fade... It was almost like he was smiling.

How much had he had to drink?

"But the solution is obvious. If Sakura kisses us, then the problemss solved," Sasuke went on, slurring just a bit.

"I think not," Sakura said.

Sasuke took a gulp from the bottle, then set it down on the table.

"It's empty," he said.

Gaara was slumping further and further down onto the table while Sasuke leaned further back on his hands until he was practically lying down. Naruto still sat in front of her, their legs now touching under the table.

Sakura held her breath, but no one requested another one. Her heart did leapt when Sasuke suddenly stood, wobbling in place a bit.

"What's wrong, teme?" Naruto grumbled, his voice a bit gravelly from the alcohol.

Sasuke whispered something barely understandable, though Sakura caught the word bathroom at the end.

"Down the hall a few doors down. On the right hand side. There's no one else sleeping in this wing, so don't worry about going in the wrong door."

"Me too!" Naruto said, trying to jump to his feet, but loosing balance at the critical moment and banging his shins against the table.

"Ow..."

"Clumsy."

"Nyeehhh!”

And like that, Sakura watched them stumble after each other out of the room.

When they were gone, Sakura turned to Gaara.

"Sorry we're so rowdy. How are you doing?"

"I'm getting tired..."

"You seem alright. You probably pay more attention to your energy level than most people though."

"Yes," he said, staring across the room.

Sakura felt a little uncomfortable. She knew she would never have Naruto's ability for forming quick friendships with just about anyone, but Gaara seemed an especially difficult nut to crack. Heck, he made Sasuke seem polite and sociable.

Not that he was unpleasant and he definitely wasn’t scary anymore. He was just a little... different.

"Maybe we should get out of your hair soon," she said, smiling through her unease, "I don’t even think I’m tipsy, so I can wrangle those two out of here."

"No, you're still welcome," he said, "I..."

"Hm?"

"I wish I'd been able to go to the academy," he said simply.

Sakura realized that she was tipsier than she thought because her eyes welled up with tears. When she was just sitting with Gaara, it was easy for her to forget how hard his life was before... He wasn't just ostracized, he was treated like a demon. He hadn't had any friends, let alone a team to support him...

Gaara looked back at her and his mouth fell agape. She wiped her eyes, but another line of tears came down.

"Why?" was all he asked.

"You... You can be a member of Team 7 whenever you want, ok?" Just saying the words made more tears fall down, but Gaara seemed to understand. He nodded.

A few minutes passed and the boys hadn't reappeared.

"You're the first person who’s ever cried for me who’s not family... Although I think people have cried because of me," Gaara quipped, a small, unexpected smile on his lips. But this only set Sakura off once more. But Gaara didn't seem to mind. He actually looked pretty amused while he watched her.

She imagined that there was probably still a small sadistic streak somewhere in Gaara. At the very least, he didn't seem to mind a crying girl. That thought made her tears dry up somewhat, just in time to hear Naruto's voice, raised and echoing around the hall. She couldn't hear the words though.

Then there was a thud.

Idiots.

She and Gaara stood and to her satisfaction, she was stable, but Gaara swayed.

"Nnn," he grunted, and careened to the right. Sakura jumped over the table and caught hold of him as he started to fall.

"I think it's only now kicking in. The alcohol," he clarified. There was another thump, a yell, and a little shutter through the walls.

"Are you ok? I can see if I can do something with my medical jutsu. Alcohol does work a bit like a poison."

"It's ok. I just couldn't stand. Here..." She heard the hiss of sand come from somewhere and suddenly he was leaning back into a cloud of it. Her hands on his shoulders sunk into it as well.

"Are you sure that's ok?"

"My mind is still clear enough, I believe. My body just isn’t listening. Let's go see what the problem is."

Sakura felt her feet sliding lightly across the floor, so she relinquished her hold and him and ran ahead into the hall.

**** **** **** ****

Sakura adjusted Sasuke on to her back as they walked down the steps of the mansion and into the softly lit streets of Sunagakure.

“Drink a lot of water and sleep in,” Sakura said by way of good-bye as the Kazekage waved them off at his front door, still balanced against his floating cloud of sand. They had denied his offer to fly them back to their quarters; Sakura thought the flight might be a little more perilous this time and she wasn’t up for the excitement.

Naruto stared at Gaara for a good long moment, the Kazekage staring back with a sleepy expression. Sakura thought there must have some kind of manly, unspoken emotional osmosis going on, but then Naruto suddenly flung himself around Gaara’s shoulders. Sakura watched in bemused silence as Naruto mumbled something to him and the red head’s pale hands slowly rose to embrace him in return.

After he let go, Naruto stumbled down the step, rubbing his nose and squinting his eyes.

“Good-bye, Naruto.”

“See you around, Gaara,” Naruto said, turning too quickly and stumbling a bit, Sakura darting over to help him regain his balance.

It wasn’t totally dignified, but it seemed to be a good enough farewell to Sakura.

As they walked down the street, Naruto seemed to be able to manage by himself, although shuffling a bit here and there as he walked over uneven patches of road or sand. Sakura gently readjusted Sasuke so his face hooked over her shoulder instead of sliding around on her back.

"I never thought I'd see him this vulnerable. Ever," Sakura said, her voice seeming quieter on the deserted streets.

"But haven't you noticed? He's been opening up lately. A lot."

"Maybe to you. He's still the same old cold Sasuke to me."

"That's not true!" Naruto cried, his voice echoing slightly into the darkness. Sakura tried to shush him as he went on, "He talks to you now, without you having to ask him something. He looks at you. He talks ABOUT you, to me. He apologized to you. He's basically going out of his way to try and let you know you're important to him... Even though he would probably deny that's what he's doing," Naruto added thoughtfully at the end.

Sakura stared ahead and they walked in silence, aside from Sakura telling him to watch where he was going every now and then.

"I'm sorry I told him about the kiss,” Naruto said suddenly, “I don't know why I did. It's probably because I'm drunk.”

"I don't care about that. I'm angrier that you tricked me back then. I wouldn't have kissed Shino if you hadn't implied you had already kissed someone else."

"Ah... I actually don't remember that at all," he said grinning, "But I don't think Sasuke holds it against you."

"Yeah, but still. I would have rather had my first kiss with you," Sakura said.

Naruto lurched to a halt and she stopped as well.

Sakura found herself blushing at the intensity of his stare, at the casual way she mentioned kissing him, "It would have been right if it was you. I wouldn't have anything to regret, anyway,” she hedged.

"Sakura... I don't understand!" he suddenly yelled, causing another volley of shushes from Sakura, which he ignored.

"He's back! And I see you looking at him! But you keep saying stuff like this and touching me and looking at ME. I... don't know what you want.”

"There's a lot of things I don't know either... Naruto... I…”

She stared at him, his mussed hair and hurt expression, his hands clenched at his sides. This wasn’t the grand romantic moment that she had hoped for, but it seemed she had made him just as confused as she was, and he deserved to know the truth about how she felt.

“I love you,” she said quietly, the words frail and quavering on the night air. She tried to make her voice stronger, “I like being with you and making you happy, and ever since I realized how I feel, I’ve been trying to figure out a way to tell you about it. But… I'm afraid..."

Sasuke shifted on her back, seeming like he might sit up, pressing against her shoulders suddenly, but after struggling for a moment, he nuzzled his face in the hair at the base of her neck, his breath touching her skin.

Naruto was standing in the moon-lit shadow of a building, still waiting.

"What are you afraid of, Sakura-chan?" He asked, calm, but determined, like he could fight whatever it was.

"I'm afraid I won't be able to love you right... Because of him. And everything that's happened. And then I'll lose you forever. That's what I'm afraid of." She cringed just speaking the words. She could barely stand to meet his eye. But he deserved to know all of it…

Naruto stared at her for a long moment, and then he grinned, “You’re always worried about doing things right, Sakura-chan." He walked forward and clasped his hands around her arms, the arms that were holding up Sasuke.

"If you’re saying what I think you’re saying, then… it's enough that you love me. Everything else..." He trailed off, then shrugged. He was still smiling, and it was a gentle curve of his mouth that Sakura had never seen before.

“I never thought that you would really feel that way about me... do you really, really?” he asked.

She nodded, “Yeah. I do. Really really.”

Naruto took a deep breath and Sakura felt a swell of energy building up inside of him. She grabbed a tighter hold of Sasuke just in case she had to wrangle Naruto if he started shouting or racing up and down the street. But then he exhaled.

“Then there's no rush," he finally said, and began walking again, "If you need to think, you need to think. Unlike me and teme, you actually have a brain. One that's logical. So... just tell me when you're ready and we’ll pick things up from here.”

"Ok,” she nodded again, grinning herself, content to walk on the streets of Sunagakure with Naruto forever, bumping her shoulder into his and catching him glancing over at her from the corner of her eye. But after a minute Naruto stopped again and turned to her.

"There is one thing... that you said."

"What is it?" she asked.

"I guess it's kind of my fault that your first kiss wasn't special or anything, but... I'd really like for you to be mine, no matter what happens."

"I'd like that too," Sakura smiled.

So she stood there as Naruto shyly walked up to her. Their feet touched, then he put one hand on her arm, then another on her cheek.

"You sure it's ok?" he asked. His breath, tangy with alcohol, caressed her lips and suddenly it was more than ok. If he didn't kiss her, she wasn't sure what she'd do.

"Please," she said. And then she was floating, not quite remembering what was happening, just feeling his lips as his chest brush against hers. She shifted to get a better angle as Naruto pressed closer, but then he suddenly broke away, leaving the front of her body colder than it was before.

He smiled a ruefully.

"It's kind of weird with stupid teme breathing on my face," he said, shooting an annoyed look at the sleeping boy on her shoulder.

Then they laughed and Naruto held on to her wrist as they walked in the soft dark.

--- --- ---

A/N: Sakazuki: those flat, saucer like cups that people use to drink sake from.
Masu: wooden box cups that people also drink sake from (apparently, in the olden days, the wood tempered the flavor of the rougher tasting sake, but they're still used sometimes. I thought since Konoha was woodsy, it'd be cute if they drank from wooden cups.)
Just to round us out, an ochocko is one of those small, cylindrical cups that are used the most over here at restaurants. Thanks Wikipedia.
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Stranger than the Wild