Shrugging back into his shirt, Sasuke snuck glances at Sakura as she scribbled in his file. The loopy smirk that always accompanied his sneaky peeks melted from his face when a crease formed on her forehead and her eyebrows scrunched.

That look.

That look meant Sakura was not happy. That look meant bad things. Sasuke tried to think back to when his last inoculations were and shuddered, hoping she wouldn't be breaking out the syringes for booster shots. The pain he could handle—he was a shinobi. It was the mortification of baring a cheek…to Sakura…

"Sasuke-kun?"

Here it comes, he thought, muscles tensed, waiting for the bomb to drop.

"There were a few…minor things that came up during your exam that we need to talk about."

"Minor? Then why are we talking?" He reached for his shoes.

"Sasuke."

He froze, a flicker of unease in his belly—Sakura never called him just Sasuke. He sat up straighter.

"Like I said, you have a few minor issues—elevated blood pressure, changes in your glucose levels, insomnia, and," she paused, looking from his paperwork to him, "irritability."

Sasuke grit his teeth. "I am not irritable, Sakura."

"Riiight. Sasuke-kun, these are all stress-related issues. If you ignore them, they'll snowball. You need to make some lifestyle changes."

He snorted dismissively as he pulled on his other shoe. "Listen, Sakura. There are three ANBU waiting at the gate for me to leave for Ame. Sign my clearance form."

She shut his file with a snap. "No."

His mouth hung open in shock. Did she say no? Missions were his only relief. When he was focused on the moment, on the danger, on the goal, everything else dissolved. The restless muscle twitching of inactivity, the weight of guilt that constantly crushed his chest, and the endless echo of cruel words he'd hurled at friends—all of it evaporated when he was flying through the trees, his sword flashing.

"What do you mean no?"

"I mean I'm not signing your release form." She softened, touching her fingertips to his white knuckles. "Sasuke-kun, this is serious. Sure, it seems like nothing now, but if you don't make changes, it'll become something much worse soon." When her hand closed around his fist, his breathing stopped—she was never this bold.

"I don't want that to happen to you. I want you to be healthy." She smiled and her whole face lit up. "And happy."

The part of him that wanted to command her to sign his form and then slam the door shut behind him shrank when faced with that smile. He deflated with a long breath. "What do you need me to do?"

She squeezed his hand and pulled out a small notebook and pen. "We're going to take small steps. One thing at a time. First, we'll work on your diet. I want you to take this notebook and write down everything you eat this week. Come back in seven days and we'll talk about how to make changes."

"I don't need that," he said, gesturing to the notebook with his chin, "or a week. I can tell you everything right now."

Sakura's eyes opened wider, but she nodded for him to continue.

"After my morning run, I have a bowl of rice with two eggs and shoyu. For lunch, I have five salmon onigiri and a few tomatoes. For dinner, I have another bowl of rice and egg…sometimes a fried fish. Except on Fridays." He didn't need to finish that thought. Sakura knew that they met Naruto for dinner at Ichiraku every Friday night.

"That's it? You eat exactly that every day?" Sasuke shrugged. Food was a necessity, not something he put any more thought into than what clothes he wore. "Well, then…that's where we'll make our first change. Come on."

Sliding from the examination table, he followed her out the door. "Where are we going?"

Striding with the determination of a woman on a mission, she said over her shoulder, "To the market."

"See. That wasn't so hard." Sakura set four plastic bags down on Sasuke's kitchen table. "You need more variety, that's all."

Sasuke started emptying bags. "Great. Variety." He pulled out a long, pale purple cucumber. "What the hell am I supposed to do with this?"

Giggling, Sakura said, "It's an eggplant. You cut it up and cook it."

"Yeah. Cook it." He tossed it aside and pulled out a bag of rice.

"Hey!" She grabbed the eggplant and waved it in his face. "This is full of good nutrition. You need to eat this."

Sasuke's eyes crossed as he looked down his nose at the vegetable Sakura was threatening him with. "You eat it."

"Sasuke-kun, you have to try!" She pulled out a wok and clanked it against the stovetop. "I'll help."

All the fight left him when she grinned. Damn her and that smile. He frowned. How do I say no to that? Sasuke mentally groaned when Sakura shyly bit down on her lower lip—if there was anything in this house he wanted to sink his teeth into, it was that full, pink lip. He took the eggplant in a sweaty hand. "How do I cut this?"

Cooking, it turned out, was not as bad as Sasuke initially suspected. With Sakura directing, he managed to stir fry something that was better than just edible. Afterwards, as he washed the plates, she moaned and patted her belly—his cheeks burned red and he was grateful for his turned back.

"You can cook for me every night, Sasuke-kun," she joked with a tired chuckle.

He grunted a laugh, but stopped on his way back to the table with a pot of tea. He looked around his kitchen as if seeing it for the first time. Night was falling—the purpling sky out the window contrasted with the pool of warm yellow light that held Sakura at his table. Every other room in his house was dimmed, making this one spot feel cocooned, insulated, comfortable. His hands pressed against the warm teapot and he closed his eyes, wanting the feeling to stay a little longer.

"Now what?" Sasuke asked, putting a lid on the pot of simmering curry.

"Now we wait."

"How long?"

"Umm…'bout a half hour." She stretched languidly, exposing her neck and collarbone, causing something to squirm in his stomach. "What do you want to do until then?"

Ears flaming, Sasuke thought he'd like to brush his lips down her pale neck. Instead, he shrugged and looked at his shoes.

"Got any cards? We could play Koi-Koi."

"Che. Koi-Koi's for kids, Sakura." He folded his arms and tried to shake the weird feeling in his belly.

"Well, do you have a better idea?"

Like a punch in the gut, an image of him pulling at her clothes, pushing her down on the table as she wrapped her arms and legs around him sprang into his head.

"Sasuke-kun?"

A ripple of embarrassed heat rolled down his body—when their eyes met, he felt like she could read his wicked thoughts. To cover his discomfort, he grabbed her wrist, saying, "Come on," as he took long strides down the hall to his bedroom.

"W-where are we going?"

Was that anticipation or anxiety in her voice? He didn't trust himself to reply—his throat was suddenly tight. He dropped her hand when they crossed the threshold and made a beeline for his closet. Shifting things around, he pulled out a big cardboard box.

"Oh!" Sakura crossed the room and helped him pull it open. "What's in here?"

"Just…old stuff." He didn't want to explain that this was everything he'd managed to salvage from the Uchiha district—a handful of photos, some sentimental odds and ends, and one real treasure.

He pushed his father's diamond-patterned police apron aside and lifted out a huge block of wood. "Here," he said, handing the block to Sakura while he fished for the two covered, mahogany bowls that went with it. When he came back to the living room, he found her running her fingers over the twisting dragons, their mouths full of fire, and the stylized uchiwa carved into each side of the square wood.

"Sasuke-kun, where did you get this? It's so beautiful."

Handing her a bowl, he said, "It was my uncle's Go board. He said that my father wasn't training us right because he didn't teach us how to play." He opened his bowl of ivory stones. "Tousan said it was only a stupid pastime. Hikaku-ojisan said it was a marital art, essential for every warrior."

"I love Go," Sakura announced, eagerly popping the lid off her red jasper stones. "Prepare to be beaten soundly."

Three hours and four plates of spicy sweet curry disappeared as they clacked stones against the rosewood board.

"Beat you again, Sasuke-kun. Guess you're not cut out to be a warrior," she joked. "Maybe you could make it as a curry chef." She ran her finger across her empty plate and stuck it in her mouth, humming. "So good."

He smirked. "You'd be my only customer."

"And you'd make me fat."

Sasuke watched her hips rock from side to side as she took their plates into the kitchen. The sound of running water in the quiet apartment lulled him. Sleep had always come with difficulty—a battle to be won or, more frequently, lost—but tonight, his eyelids were heavy and his limbs felt weighted. Feeling like he was floating, Sasuke allowed his eyes to close for just a second.

When they opened again, it was to golden sunlight streaming through the window and his comforter tucked around him. He sat up, stretching, yawning, and ruffling his spiky hair before he spied a note on top of the Go board.

Sasuke-kun,

I'll be by early today. I want to try something new.

Sakura

Something new? Sasuke's face twisted at the smiley face she'd drawn on her message. That was definitely not a good sign.

"This is ridiculous."

Sighing, Sasuke thought she'd made that opinion crystal clear well over an hour ago.

"Gardening was not on my list of things to do today," Sakura said, grunting as she pulled a weedy tree out of the middle of his lawn and swiped her forehead.

"I told you a hundred times already, I never use the yard." Sasuke was dripping wet from pushing the lawnmower everywhere Sakura told him to—and dangerously close to the end of his patience.

"Whether you use it or not, it's still part of your house, isn't it? And I thought you were the neat one on our team."

She planted her hands on her hips and began to survey the yard. Knowing she was looking for another job for him to do, Sasuke took the opportunity to duck into the cool house with a quick, "Be right back."

It took three turns at the sink to wash away enough dirt so that Sasuke could see the skin of his hands. Cracking ice into two big glasses, he wondered if spiking Sakura's water with some shouchu would make her stop working for the day.

His glass was half finished by the time he found her in the back of the yard, bent over an overgrown bush. "Here," he said, touching the icy glass to the back of her neck.

"OH!" She jerked upright, surprised, and flung the hedge clippers across the yard where they twanged, blades deep in the earth. "Sasuke-kun!"

He smirked, then chuckled as her face shifted between astonishment, anger, and embarrassment.

"Very funny," Sakura said, snatching the glass from his hand, pretending to be miffed. But Sasuke saw her hiding a smile behind her drink as she sat down on the newly shorn lawn. He fell next to her, fighting to keep the grin from his own face—and losing. She looked sideways at him and took another drink. "I'm so glad I'm here to amuse you."

He tucked a hand behind his head and looked up at the dusky orange sky. I am, too.

"That's enough. Get inside." Sasuke was tired…tired of mowing grass, tired of plucking weeds, but mostly tired of arguing with this stubborn woman.

"There's a tiny bit more I want to do in the front. Go take a shower, Sasuke-kun. Come get me when you're done." Sakura dragged the mower to the front of the house, effectively ending the debate.

"Annoying," Sasuke mumbled under his breath.

After a thorough washing, Sasuke dressed and found Sakura putting tools back in the shed. "Shower's empty," he told her as she neared the back porch. "I'm too tired to cook, Sakura. I'll get something from the noodle place. There's clothes on the bed for you."

"You're the best, Sasuke-kun. I'd hug you if I weren't so filthy." His hands twitched as she passed him, itching to pull her into his arms, despite the dirt smudged across her forehead and ground into her knees. "Get something with vegetables in it, okay?"

He rolled his eyes and nodded as they parted ways in the house—him to the front door and her to the bathroom. On his way out, Sasuke turned back, asking, "Do you want me to stop for…some…" Every thought ended and the words died in his throat.

Sakura had already started peeling off her clothes.

A tiny whisper of guilt swirled in his head as he watched her unlatch her skirt, shimmy out of her shorts, and wrest her shirt over her head. The whisper changed to a panicked alarm when her thumbs hooked into her panties and one side slipped down, exposing her bare hip. He wrenched his head around, feeling like it'd burst into flames, and stalked out the door. Sasuke was so agitated that he didn't lift his gaze from the road in front of him until he was back home, setting their dinner down on the living room table.

"That was quick."

Sakura was loping toward him with an easy grace, ruffling the dampness from her hair. She was wearing one of his t-shirts—knotted at her waist to cinch it in—and, instead of the long pants he'd left out for her, a pair of his boxers. They were too big for her and hung low and loose around her hips.

In a voice tight with frustration, Sasuke said, "What happened to the pants I put out?"

She froze and wrung her hands together. "Sorry. I didn't mean to go through your stuff. The pants were too big. They kept falling and falling and I tried to tie them, but it didn't help, so I…figured…"

Sasuke frowned watching Sakura crumple. "It's fine," he muttered, hoping that would be enough.

"Sorry," she said again, quietly, as she sat on the couch, tucking her legs beneath her and pulling at her shirt.

Now, he felt like a real idiot. He swallowed hard and plucked the smaller bag off the table and held it out to her, not daring to look. She was silent for too long, so Sasuke shook the bag.

"Is that…for me?"

The heat that crept up his neck choked his words, so he nodded once. Sakura snagged the bag off his fingers and he listened to the rustle of plastic and the soft pop of the cardboard box opening. A small gasp tugged on the corners of his mouth.

"Oh…dango! Sasuke-kun!"

Something big was swelling beneath his ribcage—so big that it pushed his lips up into a full smile. "Let's eat already," he grumbled, turning to hide his expression.

"Okay." Sakura moved closer on the couch. "Thanks."

He grunted and opened a take-out container. After a few minutes of eating in contented silence, he was struck with a thought. "What did you mean by something different?"

Sucking in the end of a long udon noodle, Sakura looked at him confused. "Something different?"

"From your note this morning. You said you wanted to try something different."

"Oh, right." Sakura blushed and Sasuke's mind raced—half excited, half nervous, but wholly ready for this something different. "I wanted to teach you shodo…a-and I thought it would be more peaceful in the garden."

His hope crashed. "You had us spend a whole day tearing up the yard so you could teach me calligraphy?"

"Not just calligraphy, Sasuke-kun," she said indignantly—he knew he'd bruised her academic ego. "Shodo helps you achieve a state of empty-mind, of non-thought. It's similar to when you fight. Your body knows what to do, right?"

He swallowed hard, wondering if she had any clue what his body wanted to do right now.

"Did you know that Sarutobi Sasuke swore by shodo? He said that practicing it taught him how to slip into the state of mind where, in battle, he became his sword, not a man wielding a sword." Caught up in the telling of her story, Sakura leaned closer to Sasuke—he could see the dilated darkening of her eyes. "Could you imagine being so lost in the moment that you simply act? With no need to think or analyze?"

She moved so close that he could feel her breath mingling with his, his lips burning. Then suddenly, Sakura seemed to remember where she was and jumped away, diving into her box of noodles.

The haze of arousal still clouded Sasuke's head, but the air was thick with unease between them. "Sounds…interesting," he said, poking at his dinner.

Brightening at his curiosity, Sakura said, "It is, isn't it? Here, let me show you. Pretend this is your brush." She wrapped her hand around his and, with grand, sweeping gestures with his chopsticks, explained the basics of shodo.

From calligraphy, they moved on to discussing shinobi history, getting lost in debates on battle tactics and the efficacy of different jutsu well in to the early hours of the morning. "Speaking of getting lost in the moment," Sakura said, standing up, "I think it's time I went home. It's after four."

Rubbing his raw, tired eyes, he said, "Stay here. I'm too tired to walk you home. You can have my bed."

"Psh. Sasuke-kun, in case you haven't noticed, I'm a ninja. I think I can make it home on my own."

Sasuke knew Sakura. He knew she'd wear him down until she got her way. He was too tired to argue, but worry prickled his gut, so as she stood to leave, he flipped her over his shoulder and shuffled to his room.

"Sasuke-kun!"

He yanked the covers open and dropped her on the bed. Then, without a word, he grabbed a pillow and headed for the couch. Settling in, Sasuke burrowed into his pillow. A quiet voice called down the hall.

"Sasuke-kun?"

Why can't she just be quiet and go to sleep? He grunted in response. Always arguing. Well, she's not winning this time.

"Good night."

A smile stretched across Sasuke's lips. "Night."

"Sasuke-kun! Did you see? The updated edition of Powerful Poisons is out!" Sakura squealed and pressed her face to the bookstore window.

Sakura said that evening walks would not only be good for him physically, but socially. Being around people, even if it was merely to nod and say hello, was a component of good health.

Sasuke thought it was an excuse for her to drag him along on her shopping trips.

Shoving his hands in his pockets, he sighed and waited until the argument Sakura was having with herself about purchasing the expensive volume was over and she ducked inside the store. A tingling on the back of his neck made Sasuke look up—he was being watched.

Across the road, a girl tried to appear casual as she fanned herself and snuck glances at him. Could she be more obvious? he sneered as she struck poses. He narrowed his eyes at her, hoping his angry glare would be enough to end this ridiculous flirtation.

"Whatcha looking at?" Sasuke jumped as Sakura appeared at his elbow.

"Nothing." He glanced quickly back at the girl, hoping she was gone, and then back at Sakura.

Her bright eyes missed nothing and Sasuke could see her putting pieces together in her head. "Oh, I see." The happy light left Sakura's face. "Well…" She forced a painfully fake smile. "She's…pretty. Why don't you go talk to her? I'll catch up with you later."

Stunned momentarily, panic flared and Sasuke jogged to catch up with her. "Sakura, I don't know what you're thinking, but—"

"No!" she said a little too loudly. She exhaled and turned that phony smile on him again. "No. It's fine. I can walk myself home. And…and this is good. This is what we talked about—social interaction. You need this. It'll be good for you to have a girlfriend." She repeatedly tucked hair behind her ear. "Having a person who's special to you can benefit your health in so many ways. There's the companionship, the mental stimulation, and, of course, the physical stimulation. So, yeah, it's good for you, Sasuke. A girlfriend is what you need."

Sasuke knew Sakura. The babbling, the hair behind her ear. She was lying. About what? he wondered. He chased the bubble of hope rising in his chest—maybe she still wanted to be more than a teammate, more than a friend—with a cold dash of doubt. He would test the waters before jumping in.

"A girlfriend?"

"Yes." Her brows knit and her fists were tight. "You do know what a girl is, don't you?"

Snippy and tense, he noted.

"So…" he began. "How would I get one?"

She turned narrowed eyes at him. "You need me to tell you? Don't be dense, Sasuke. You ask."

Angry. Irritable. He flinched. And just Sasuke?

The lack of endearing honorific left him feeling hollow, in need of some reassurance. "Let's say I do ask. What then?" He moved closer, casually grazing his knuckles over hers as they walked.

Sakura turned a flushed face to him and he smirked, a flood of giddy confidence rushing through him. I can still make her blush.

"Umm, I guess you'd go out to dinner."

"Out? I can cook now." He bumped her shoulder. "You said I could be a curry chef."

"You said I'd be your only customer," she mumbled to her shoes.

Her pain and disappointment were plain, and Sasuke felt a strange mixture of elation and remorse at pushing her like this.

"Besides," she continued, looking away, "it would be too forward to bring a girl to your house on your first date. She might think you wanted something more than dinner."

Sasuke stopped and looped his fingers around Sakura's arm when she continued to walk.

"I do want something more."

His chest felt heavy as her eyes glassed over. She nodded and hung her head. "Listen, I need to get home now, so…"

Panicked—she was not understanding him—Sasuke took her chin in his hand and smashed his lips against hers. Her teeth clacked and his upper lip swelled from the impact. He realized right away that he'd made a horrible mess of their first kiss. Sasuke pulled away and let his hands fall dejectedly back to his sides.

Sakura smiled and slipped her hands in his. "Sasuke-kun?" His heart beat faster at the return of the honorific. "Do you have something you want to say to me?" Her eyebrow rose in question.

"Sorry?"

"Wrong. Try again."

"Uhh…"

"Nope. One more chance."

"Sakura…"

"That's good. Keep going."

"Would you…" His face heated as she nodded eagerly. "Will you…bemygirlfriend?"

Pulling his hands around her hips, Sakura moved closer and slipped her arms around his neck. "Yes, I will." She touched his lips with hers and his heart thumped wildly. She kissed him softly once more before opening her eyes.

"Sakura."

"Mmm-hmm?"

He found her hand. She blushed when he wove his fingers with hers and started walking.

"Come home. I'll make dinner."

a/n: Thanks go to Unicorn Paige for, once again, righting my wrongs. Bacon star for you!