Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

"'Pears the little shithead's here often," said Tayuya.

Sasuke resisted the urge to throw his shuriken at the unannounced targe...visitor.

"Hn," he said instead, shuriken thunking into a well-abused log.

"That," said Tayuya as she seated herself comfortably in the nook of two branches, "was a lousy shot."

The next volley of shuriken landed perfectly on what would have been all the vital spots of an enemy shinobi. Who he was imagining that enemy shinobi as was perfectly clear in the gleam in Sasuke's eye.

"Not bad," she said, "if you plan to go around killing man-sized trees."

The smirk on Sasuke's face abruptly changed into a sneer.

"Seriously," Tayuya said, twirling her flute, "Don't know how a little shithead like you turned into Orochimaru's favorite little fuck."

Sasuke's fingers twitched by his holster.

Tayuya sighed dramatically.

"Hell, if I'd known that swaggering around with that I'm-too-cool-for-any-of-you-fuckers attitude would've made me the bastard's favorite, maybe I wouldn't be out here running errands," Tayuya said, tilting her head coolly at the murderous look in Sasuke's eye.

"Or maybe I'd have to be a little boy instead," she cooed.

Sasuke snapped, hurling an arc of kunai at her, and leaped himself after the knives. Tayuya simply somersaulted out of the way.

"Well, that there just disproved our little pederasty theory," she said from the branch above him.

Sasuke arched an eyebrow haughtily.

"Orochi-bastard-sama would never have been able to get around that tree trunk already rammed up your ass—"

Tayuya had to dodge another volley of weapons.

"Why," bit Sasuke, chasing after Tayuya, "does everyone," he snarled as he shoved the woman against a tree, "think I'm sleeping with that...that thing?"

"Seriously," said Tayuya, "you need to loosen up more. Little shithead."
"And this, coming from the Queen of Ice herself." The eyebrow was back with a vengeance.

"Oh, the man talks in words bigger than grunts,"

Sasuke smirked.

"Correction: the little shithead,"

The smirk disappeared for the obligatory snarl.

"Why do you keep calling me that?"

"What, other than the fact that you are one?"

Sasuke raised his hand to slap her, and stopped, his hand in midair. There was a long silence.

"What, your mama taught you not to hit women?" There was a dangerous sing-song quality to her voice.

"If only you didn't remind me of her!"

"Who? Your mama?"

"No, Sa..." Sasuke bit off the rest of the sentence, shoving away from her.

Tayuya watched the boy turn away, shoulder hunched in embarrassment, remorse, guilt...if only he didn't remind her so much of him

"Hey, nobody said it was easy coming here."

If fucking only…

"Seen a few guys crack from the guilt alone..."

The shoulders twitched sharply, and Tayuya felt her hands ball into fists.

"But hey, gotta keep your eye on your target. If you don't lose sight of your goal...

"I was pretty lost myself when I first came here. Didn't know what to do, how to cope. But I couldn't stop thinking of my goal, of him. The others who came with me quickly fell away. They didn't remember what brought them here, what kept them going. Some tried to run away, some...took matters into their own hands.

"You can tell which ones these are by the look in their eye."

The shoulders were beginning to lose their stiffness. Tayuya nodded. This was a good sign.

"So, what's keeping you going?"

"I need more power...for revenge," spat Sasuke. The boy's shoulders stiffened, but in a good way, as they were starting to square themselves. If only he... Sasuke whirled around, his eyes bright again.

"What's yours?"

"Huh?"

Tayuya was too struck by how much the boy looked like him to respond for a moment.

"Your goal. What keeps you going?"

"Ah, that. I'm going to crush them, for what they did to him,"

"Ah," he said, and smiled. Tayuya couldn't help but smile back, at the lively eyes that danced in that pale face.

"So, what're you here for?"

"Eh?" Tayuya blinked. Damned if the kid wasn't confusing her.

"You mentioned errands." The little shithead's smirk was firmly back in place.

"Ah. The bastard-sama needs to see you."

Sasuke nodded and Tayuya turned to return to the village.

"Hn. I think someone's getting soft. Those logs falling on you back then must have addled your brain."

Tayuya snarled and whipped around. But the shithead was already a blur of laughter hurtling towards the village.

Oh damned if she was going to let him get away with this.

A/N: It may be a little (a lot) OOC for the both of them, but I can't imagine there not being friendship between the two of them. Or maybe I'm just projecting the Ender world onto this...