"Sasuke. Psst, Sasuke!"
He finished his kata and glanced over his shoulder. Naruto was peering past the corner of the house, throwing wary looks all around. Sasuke rolled his eyes.
"What?"
"Shh!" Naruto signaled frantically for him to quiet down. Sasuke rolled his eyes again and ambled his way through the grass to him.
"What am I hiding from Sakura this time around?"
Naruto stared at him. "How d'you --"
"Who else?"
"... Oh. Um. Yeah." Naruto ruffled his hair, embarrassed. "Alright um yeah. Er. It's, uh."
Sasuke tilted his head a little bit. Was Naruto blushing? Interesting. "Hurry up. I want to go back to training sometime today."
"I promised Kyuubi an afternoon out," he blurted out, just as Sasuke was gearing up to ask if he was trying to get Sasuke to play harem boy for Sakura again. (The answer would have been no, because he was no harem boy for anyone. ...Also they'd done it last month already, he didn't care how pregnant and grumpy Sakura was.)
"And, er, I mean, he did swear, and I'm gonna keep watch anyway and everything, and if I didn't trust his word by now I'd say no, no matter what, but... I'd still prefer if someone could keep an eye on him, and there's no one else who could even make him pause a minute. So. Can you?"
Sasuke didn't reply right away, less to make Naruto wait than because his throat was suddenly too dry.
"... Sasuke?"
"Nnh," he replied.
"...is that a no? Are you really -- shit! I knew the bastard hurt you more than you were saying last ti--"
"Okay," Sasuke interrupted. "Now?"
Naruto blinked. "I thought you were bus--"
Sasuke kicked him and pretended he wasn't starting to breathe a little fast. "Shut up and let's go already."
------
"I'm not healing you."
Sasuke couldn't have kept his eyes from hooding, his lips from stretching into a feline, satisfied smile if he'd tried. He settled gingerly on his cushion and stretched his legs under the kotatsu, leaned on both elbows, rounded his back until it popped.
"I'm not asking you to."
Sakura threw a pen at him. He let it bounce off his shoulder, not even moving, met her glare with barely veiled amusement.
"There are days I really hate you, Sasuke-kun."
"Mm-hm."
He was sore down to his little toes, and his bite marks still throbbed at odd intervals. As for sitting, even the cushion couldn't make that even remotely comfortable. He shifted to lean on his hip, eyelashes making the world hazy.
Sakura glared at him for a moment longer, and then stared glaring at her half-written letter. She was blushing.
"... Come here and massage my back already."
"Mm-hm," he acquiesced, and took the time to stretch his arms and
his back before he went, on hands and knees.