And They Were Seatmates

-5-

The playing field for a dodgeball game was quickly painted on the grass thanks to Naruto and his vandalizing ways—that kid always carried around a can of spray paint. Then Sasuke and Madara picked their teams.

Sakura found Madara's choices weird. Well, picking Chouji made sense, he was a big guy and had a lot of strength, but Hinata? The girl was a wallflower that barely said anything and her scores were average at best, from what Sakura vaguely remembered. It was so like Madara to be so arrogant and sure of his own ability that he didn't care if the rest of his team were all weak links.

"Pick me! Pick me!" Naruto chanted next to her, jumping up with a raised hand, but both Sasuke and Madara ignored him.

"Shut up!" she hissed in annoyance. "Yelling won't make them pick you any faster!"

But they weren't picking her too. She could understand Sasuke-kun, he had no idea about her improvement, but Madara?!

Shino went to Sasuke's team, with Kiba and Shikamaru among others, and the only ones left were Ino, Naruto and her. It was Madara's turn. Sakura crossed her arms with an expectant look. Now he had to pick her at last.

Madara's gaze bypassed her entirely. "Yamanaka," he called.

Sakura eyes widened in disbelief.

Ino groaned in disappointment and shuffled over to join Madara's side. She obviously wanted to be on Sasuke's team.

Now the choice was just between Sakura and Naruto and it was Sasuke's turn.

"Hey, bastard! Pick me finally! I want to play!" Naruto shouted.

"Sakura, come on," Sasuke said, ignoring the idiot that automatically got assigned to Madara's team.

While she should have been more elated that she got onto Sasuke's team, she was too preoccupied with Madara snubbing her in favour of Ino-pig to cheer on this victory.

Trust Naruto to provide a distraction just when she needed one.

"This works better for me! I'm going to smash that ball right in your face, Sasuke!" he taunted dramatically.

"Haaa?! I won't let you!" Ino shouted at him.

"Hey, whose side you're on?!" Naruto protested.

Shino and Hinata were sent to positions behind enemy lines to catch the ball when it would go out of bounds and attack from the back. Sakura was glad that she wasn't chosen for that role because she really wanted to see that pig's face when she hit her with a ball. Shannaro!

Then the match began.

Sasuke threw a hard, curved ball straight at Madara with intention of taking him out instantly in a humiliating way, but Madara easily caught it and returned the attack. Sasuke caught that too, establishing that, individually, they were evenly matched. With that out of the way, they switched to picking off others on the opposing teams first.

It became quite clear who was gunning for who when they started using ninja techniques to gain an edge. Shikamaru pulled off a successful combo with Sasuke and eliminated Chouji by putting him in a shadow bind, so he couldn't defend himself. Madara retaliated by throwing a couple shuriken with his other hand, so that Shikamaru couldn't dodge out of the way and got hit by the ball.

Over the course of the game, many others were eliminated, until somehow the ball found its way into Hinata's hands. The girl however messed her chance when Naruto distracted her with his loud cheering. She threw it too lightly and after a bounce, it was caught by Sakura. Before that she had solely targeted Ino who had evaded all of her attacks. This time Sakura first looked at the ball, then at the smirking, ready blonde on the opposite side.

Then she glimpsed Madara not even paying attention to her and something inside her snapped. With all her might, Sakura hurled the ball at him.

Despite having the element of surprise, Sakura underestimated Madara's speed. Without even a single handseal, he pulled off a flawless substitution.

Naruto bowled over as he was clobbered in the head by the ball. "Ouch!" he yelped. "What happened?!"

"You're out," Madara replied.

"What, but I was just over there-! You bastard, you took my place!" Naruto screamed in outrage, pointing a finger at Madara.

"Yeah, now scram," he only said with disinterest.

Naruto made a face and kicking up the dirt, stalked off the playing field.

Sakura felt a little bad for him, she didn't even mean to hit him, but it was all on Madara's shoulders. She honestly didn't expect he'd use his own teammate to take the hit for him. On the other hand, she was pretty thrilled that she pushed him so far. If only she'd gotten him with that surprise attack! That would have taught him a lesson!

"That was a good try," Sasuke said to her and she reddened instantly. That was a compliment, wasn't it?

"Thanks," she replied shyly.

He nodded towards the other team. "Better get ready."

Sakura bent her knees and focused back on the game. She really needed to figure out how to take out her rival. A buzz in her ear gave her a burst of inspiration.

"Ino! What's that gross bug in your hair? A new accessory?" she jeered.

"Bug, what bug? I hate bugs!" Predictably, the pig freaked out and started touching all over her head in a futile attempt to get rid of her imaginary passenger. Then, in her panicked thrashing, she noticed Shino, who was the opposing team member stationed behind her team and a known bug-lover. Stomping her foot, Ino approached him with murder in her eyes. "This must be your fault! Get it off me, now! Ow!" She stumbled when the ball slammed into her turned back. She whirled around and spotted grinning Sakura.

"You're out!" Sakura called triumphantly to her rival.

"Damn it, Forehead! That was dirty!"

"All's fair in love and war!" Sakura replied cheekily. "Don't worry, Pig, there's no bug. I almost can't believe you fell for it."

Ino straightened up and brushed her clothes off. "Ugh. Fine, you win this time. But next time I'll defeat you fair and square!" she declared, flipped her long ponytail back and left the field.

"It seems I lost all my teammates, except Hyuuga," Madara commented calmly and rolled his shoulders, unfazed by his situation. It was three to one, four if counting Shino waiting at his back to knock him out of the game if he allowed the ball through. Madara picked it up from where it fell after hitting Ino. "Well, it's time to get serious."

Before Sakura could question how he hadn't been serious before, if he'd even used shuriken and sacrificed Naruto, a thick cloud of smoke enveloped the field. Smoke bomb! she thought and realized in a flash that while her team now had zero visibility, Madara could pinpoint their positions by their chakra. They were easy pickings!

"Sasuke-kun! Watch out!" she called in warning and threw herself in what she hoped was his direction.

The last thing she saw was Sasuke's surprised expression and then pain exploded in the back of her head and turned everything dark.

.

"Sakura! Sakura, wake up!"

She sluggishly opened her eyes and winced from the pounding in her head.

There were blurry faces around her, but they moved around too much. She was going to be sick.

She groaned and turned over before doing just that. Her body shook like a leaf while she expelled the remains of her lunch and that delicious cake. If she wasn't so out of it, she'd have been mortified at being seen like this, but at the moment she didn't care.

Shouts rang around her but she couldn't understand the words as if they were on a bad recording. She fought another wave of nausea. A hand gripped her shoulder.

"Get up, I'm taking you to the hospital." The voice, she knew the voice!

"You?! You knocked her out!" another raised a protest.

"I didn't intend to. She jumped in front of that ball, I couldn't do anything."

"Says you!"

"Ask Sasuke or Hyuuga, she must have seen it with her Byakugan."

"You must be crazy to think we'd let you take her anywhere alone."

"Can you carry her all the way to the hospital?" A scoff. "I thought so."

The world was coming into focus. She still felt light-headed but she could see better. "Madara?" she asked weakly.

"Yeah, I'm here." He leaned closer and put one hand on her back and the other under her knees. "Try to hold on to me." With a grunt, Madara hefted her up. Sakura put her arms around his neck tightly, afraid she'd fall off, but he had a good grip on her. "We're going."

Their trip to the Konoha hospital passed for Sakura in a blur of wind as she clung to Madara and tried not to barf all over him. The medic there treated her for a severe concussion and she had to stay the night for observation, even though nausea and shaking were already gone.

"I want to go home," she complained as she reclined in the hospital bed. She felt fine!

Madara settled in a visitor's chair and crossed his arms. "What you did was pretty stupid," he said without preamble.

"Oh yeah? But if I didn't do that, Sasuke-kun would've been hit," she said. For her it was just an obvious thing to do.

"And he would've been fine. I wasn't aiming at his head and a little bruised ego wouldn't have hurt him," Madara pointed out.

Sakura pouted, but she wasn't backing down. "Well, maybe I didn't want us to lose," she replied.

"So you sacrificed yourself like an idiot?" Madara asked snidely.

She narrowed her eyes at him. "It's better than using your teammate like a meat shield," she shot back.

"It's not if it landed you in the hospital for nothing," he countered, returning the glare.

"It wasn't for nothing, we won! Two to one," she crowed triumphantly.

"Actually, it was probably a draw. Hyuuga took out Inuzuka after you were down. So it ended undecided with just Sasuke and me left." Madara dropped that bombshell on her without a trace of consideration for her delicate state.

"Uh…" Hot air escaped her and Sakura scrambled for something to save face. "At least I have honour!"

"And all it got you is a concussion," Madara pointed out harshly, then sighed. His next words were softer and measured, but somehow packed a lot more punch. "The point is to know if it's the right time and place before you go and sacrifice yourself. Will you jump into a flying kunai next time?"

Sakura wavered, finally understanding what he was getting at this whole time. "I… I didn't think about it this way…"

"Exactly. What you did was pointlessly reckless. Don't do it again."

"I won't," she agreed contritely and Madara nodded with satisfaction.

"Good."

Some tension bled out of his posture and he let himself slouch a little. In that moment he appeared thoughtful and worn out to Sakura, like a wise sage, not a kid only a few months older than her. She observed him through half-lidded eyes, thinking back on everything and realized that he was worried. But that didn't let him off the hook.

Sakura looked at the window which gave her a partial view of the Hokage Mountain. "Madara, why did you pick Ino for your team?" she asked idly.

He gave her a curious look. "No particular reason, I just had to pick someone."

"Then why didn't you pick me?" she demanded, letting her hurt feelings show on her face. She was his friend, not Ino…

"I figured you wanted to be on Sasuke's team…" he trailed off with a confused, helpless look so unlike the usual self-assured Madara she knew.

"Oh… Oh, yeah… I wanted to…" Sakura quickly rubbed her eyes. All that time she assumed he'd snubbed her on purpose and to find out that he'd been actually trying to do something nice for her! The relief was staggering. She couldn't help it—she sniffled. "Thanks for thinking about me… and for bringing me here, I guess." She gave him a watery smile.

Madara's face contorted before he let out a deep groan and rolled his eyes. "You don't have to cry about it, it's not a big deal."

"I know," she told him. "Sorry."

Madara grunted and got up. "I'm going to get some snacks. Do you want something?"

Sakura startled and reached for her purse. "Yeah, anything sweet will be fine. Do you need money?"

"No. It's my treat."

He opened the door and paused, then glanced over his shoulder. "By the way, you're welcome," he said quickly and left.

Sakura smiled after him, knowing full well that he wasn't referring to the snacks, but her earlier thanks.

Not long after, her parents came to see her and Sakura's most dreaded scenario had come to pass—they met Madara. However, contrary to her worst expectations, instead of wanting him to stay away from her, they were charmed. She was gaping as she watched him have a completely ordinary conversation with them. After he'd left, her mother even mentioned that it was fortunate that Sakura had such a polite boy for a classmate, no wonder, the Uchiha were an old and respectable clan.

Sakura was confused by this turn of events, but took it in stride. When she finally got home from the hospital the next day, she offhandedly broached the subject of her possibly training with "Madara-kun" so she could better defend herself from stray balls flying at her head at high velocity, he's the best student in my class, mom, you know. She got the permission pretty easily and could call off her arrangement with Ino before the pig came up with another idea for a payment.

The training sessions over the summer break went well and Sakura managed to avoid any more serious injuries. She became really good at hiding her presence, but Madara was even better at detecting it. The only way to get a drop on him were ranged attacks from outside his radius. Moreover, when he concentrated on sensing chakra, he was unable to perform any ninjutsu, which was a weakness he was working to overcome.

One day near the end of August they were about to start their hide and seek game, when Madara turned to her. "Did you know you were followed?" he asked. She didn't but he wasn't waiting for her reply. He cocked his head and looked up a tree. "Aren't you going to come down and say hello?"

Sakura eyed the tree warily, uncomfortable that someone was watching them and she had no idea, then gasped in surprise when a boy in a blue shirt jumped gracefully off the branch.

"Sasuke-kun!" she called his name, delighted. "Good morning!" she added, remembering her manners.

Sasuke put his hands in pockets. "Sakura," he acknowledged her presence like never before. On the outside she was wide-eyed and blushing, but on the inside she was dancing in victory. Clearly, she left the rest of her competition in the dust. Shannaro!

"Is there a reason you came all this way after Sakura?" Madara asked, looking amused.

Sasuke shrugged. "I was curious what she was doing around here. These are private Uchiha training grounds."

"Ah, so it has nothing to do with how you never thanked her after she saved you from being utterly decimated by me at dodgeball?"

Sakura goggled at him—Sasuke-kun was starting to resemble a tomato!

"Right…" he mumbled. "Thanks for… helping me out back then," he told her awkwardly, avoiding a direct eye contact.

"Ah, sure… You're welcome," she replied.

"And you wouldn't have decimated me, I still had a fighting chance," Sasuke added, defiantly looking at Madara, who only quirked his eyebrow skeptically.

"Yeah, right. You keep telling yourself that."

Sasuke gave him a hard, challenging look, which Madara smirked at.

"Um, Sasuke-kun, would you like to stay and train with us?" Sakura offered, breaking the tension between the boys. Allowing them to fight unsupervised by any adult seemed like an exceptionally bad idea. The boys gave her identical looks of surprise. "You see, Madara could use someone new to practice with, he knows my chakra too well. And I have extra onigiri packed for lunch, I wouldn't eat them all anyway, but I shouldn't waste food. What do you say?"

Sasuke considered her in a new way, then glanced warily at Madara. "Maybe another time," he replied and abruptly turned to go. "See you around," he threw a nonchalant goodbye over his shoulder and walked away.

"Bye!" Sakura called after him. When he was out of sight, she released a deep, forlorn sigh, slumping her shoulders in defeat. At least it was worth a try. Then she tossed a glare at Madara. "Did you have to scare him off?" she snapped.

"I didn't do anything, you saw he left by himself," Madara defended himself with a scowl. "I could use a new practice partner for chakra sensing," he admitted grudgingly. "Someone whose tricks I don't know."

"Hey!" she reacted to the dig.

"Face it, I know every trick in your book. It's either me getting a new partner or you getting a new repertoire," Madara said with a small smirk. He really enjoyed riling her up!

Sakura's eyebrow twitched. "You'll take that back when I nail you with my newest trick. You'll never see it coming!" she declared hot-headedly and despite in fact having nothing new to try. But that's what improvisation was for. She'd make do.

Madara took his stance, knees slightly bent, arms open, and grinning wildly. "Bring it on then," he said.

Sakura did just that.

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AN: Thanks for reading! Please let me know your thoughts about the chapter! :)

Until next time!