"No."

"But Sasuke-kun…"

"I said no."

"Teme…"

"NO. No. And just so you are sure: no" if Sasuke's look could kill, two of four Team Seven members would have died by now. Fortunately for them, their Uchiha teammate did master none of such skill.

For now. He would make sure to be prepared next time his so-called friends force their way into his apartment, claiming their rights to his floor, pillows, bed… and bowls, now filled with some stinking crunchy snack – they were delicious by the way – one beautiful Friday evening.

They've appeared at his doors with plastic bags full of snacks, fizzy drinks and movies from the video rental not far from his place. It didn't matter that he owned no video player, as Sakura did own one and – why, of course! – she carried the heavy, shiny thing all the way from her house. Already inside, she set it just right (which was kind of impressive, because Sasuke had no idea what all these cables served for), connected it to his TV and went through his kitchen closets in search of the already mentioned bowls for the snacks they brought. Meanwhile Naruto, noisy and clumsy as ever, managed to muss the blanket covering his bed, spill some coke onto it, break the frame with Team Seven's photo and eat one pack of cheese flavor chips on his own, stretching his limbs lazily on his pillows.

Annoying.

Well, that much he could survive, it wasn't the first time they did something like this after all. But HEAVENS, their choice of repertoire for the evening…! Of course he knew their preferences are divergent, to say the least, but THIS.

THIS was beyond any censure.

"WE ARE NOT WATCHING ROMANCE. PERIOD" he uttered through clenched teeth, doing his best to maintain Sasuke-like pose – and failing to do so more and more with each passing second.

"But Sasuke" the fact alone that Naruto called him by his name was telling a lot about the situation they ended up into now.

"I disagree."

"Saskue-kun" Sakura, very much not like herself, looked at him with an annoyed expression. "I and Naruto both would like to watch Extreme love instruction. In fact, we've planned to watch this movie for a while now, but it always was inaccessible. And now when we finally managed to borrow it, you disagree?"

"Hn."

"By the right granted to me by me I, Haruno Sakura, interpret Uchiha Sasuke's hn as NO and thus, I proceed to putting the video tape into the player…"

"SAKURA, I DISAGREE!"

"But I don't care" she shrugged, no signs of shame on her face. "Know the pain of being ignored, Uchiha."

"As if I don't by now" he rolled his eyes and glanced at Naruto, happily devouring the second pack of chips. "You."

"Hmmm?"

"Yes, you."

"Me?"

"Yes, you, damn it!"

"What the hell, teme, it's you who doesn't make any sense here!"

"Ugh" Sasuke face-palmed with both his hands and pulled them down, stretching his cheeks – and obviously exposing the white of his eyes. He registered stunned expression of his blonde friend. "Why do you want to watch a romance movie? What kind of a little girl are you?!"

"Hey, romance movies are just fine, you know!" Naruto crossed his arms rebelliously. "It's the best way to relax and detach from all the crap that's going on around. Besides there's plenty of action and fighting in this movie, and some killing, too!"

"Awesome."

"Come on, theme! Don't destroy our Team Seven evening…!"

"It's hardly our team's evening, Kakashi isn't here."

"He will be."

"HUH…?!"

"He will come" Sakura was busying herself with (many) buttons that covered the player. "He's just late, as always."

"You invited Kakashi to my place?"

"We invited our sensei to Team Seven bonding evening. It's a plain coincidence that we all gathered in your apartment."

"Coincidence, my ass… And all these snacks and drinks just miraculously happened to emerge from the air inside my living room" his brow was quirking like crazy, oh he could feel it…

"Glad you finally get it, Sasuke-kun."

"Well, if Kakashi is going to come over, then I won't be the only one to vote against this love crap."

"Yeah, right" Naruto snorted, some chips crumbs leaving his mouth and falling to the (once clean) floor. "He told us like three times not to forget about Extreme love instruction. He's wanted to watch it even before he became our sensei. Now he's just using us so he doesn't have to pay for it."

"As a matter of fact" Sakura stood up from the floor and opened a pack of onion-flavored chips with a loud bum! "He's wanted to see it so much that he gave me money for it."

"Whaaaaa…! He didn't!" Naruto stared at her shocked, his mouth agape.

"He did."

"Remind me, why are we having this sleepover, again?" Sasuke exhaled, praying for patience.

"Team bonding time."

"Well, why here?"

"Cause Sakura's parents are home and they would totally disturb us."

"And Naruto's place is much too narrow for four people."

"No, it isn't, I have been there."

"Sasuke-kun, let's just forget this discussion. We have two hours of an amazing action waiting for us" Sakura smiled cutely (but really, to Sasuke her smile seemed to be nothing but derisive this time…) and sat on one of his pillows in front of the TV. "Grab some chips for yourself over there, we got you two packages of tomato-flavored ones. We won't even ask you to give us back the money for it."

"That is, if you agree to watch Extreme love instruction with no more than five more complaints" Naruto muttered with his mouth full. Sasuke sighed deeply, sparing a glance at the book he was going to read before his friends burst into his apartment half an hour ago.

…well, at least both packages of tomato chips were huge. So fine, he would comply. He lay down on his bed avoiding the coke stain and focused his eyes on the screen. He didn't expect much from this movie, that for sure. No chance Uchiha Sasuke was going to particularly enjoy a romance movie.

Thus, no. Of course he didn't forget how to blink. He just trained his eyes to endure the lack of moisture. A ninja must be ready for all kind of situations.

"Yo!"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGHHHHHHH!" Naruto's chips crumbled all over the floor, when the blonde jumped suddenly, landing on his pink-haired teammate, who let a glass of coke slip out of her hand. The dark liquid stained the pillows as well as a corner of the bed blanked, and spilled widely on the floor.

"You're cleaning it" Saskue muttered, chewing tomato chips with his eyes glued to the screen.

"Hey, it was his fault!" Naruto pointed furiously at the newcomer.

"That's why I'm talking to him, dobe."

"You were talking to me?" Kakashi's eye-smile disappeared instantly.

"What, maybe I'm talking to Naruto?"

"Well…"

"You're late, you scare the idiot and interrupt the movie. For an ex-ANBU you're not very imperceptible."

"He didn't scare me…!"

"What did he do then?" Sakura pushed him off, judging the amount of destruction her coke caused. "Sasuke-kun, your pillows perished."

"Whatever, just undo the pause and Kakashi will take care of it."

"I am deeply touched with your rightful respect for your sensei, Sasuke" Kakashi said ironically, passing by the bed. He ruffled Sasuke's hair, clenching his fingers into it with such a force that the Uchiha fell to the floor with an unidentified sound of protest. Then, the jounin performed a couple of seals, making the spilled coke vapor in the air. "Done. Where shall I sit?"

"On the terrace" Sasuke muttered, climbing back to the bed.

"Maa, how nice of you" he rewarded the Uchiha with his eye-smile while preparing a comfortable seat on his student's bed. " You didn't wait for me?"

"No" three voices answered him at once.

"Come on, you three, I'm not that late…"

"You're one hour late, sensei" Sakura glanced at him over her shoulder.

"Well, you knew I wanted to see this movie, you could've started with another one…"

"That's exactly why we did not."

Sasuke snorted, watching his pink-haired teammate giving their sensei exactly what he deserved. He greatly cheered for her. Well, in his head, of course.

"Yeah, here you go, Sakura-chan!" right, in contrast to this blonde idiot.

"I think you three are going to run lapses around the village next time we train" Kakashi's eyebrow quirked.

"Yeah, sure. As if you'd spare any time to make sure we do" Naruto rolled his eyes.

"Fine, whatever, just press play and let's watch the rest of it…"

"Ha, ha, I got you there, Kakashi-sensei!"

"Dobe, shut up finally" Sasuke silenced him, pushing the back of his head.

"Fine, fine, keep your hands back, you bastard!"

"I can't hear the movie because of you!"

"Oh, you can't hear it? Does that mean that the Great Uchiha Sasuke actually likes some love crap?"

"I'll show you some love crap-"

"I'm waiting for-"

"Hell, YOU TWO! SHUT UP ALREADY OR I'LL MAKE YOU GIVE ME BACK THE MONEY I SPENT ON ALL THE SNACKS!"

"No, no, don't, Sakura-chan…"

„Hn."

„Can I have some?"

„No, you can't, you were late" Sasuke hissed, his sharingan on. "Can we go back to the movie already?!"

Just when he said the last word, the scene on the screen jumped, darkened and disappeared with a loud bum!, leaving the four members of Team Seven in absolute darkness. Nobody made a sound for a couple of seconds.

"You've got to be kidding me…" Sasuke stood abruptly from the bed and walked towards the entrance door with violent steps. Or, this is what he was going to do, if not for Naruto's leg that lay on his way. With a short yelp of surprise he fell to the floor… no. He fell to something bony and warm. And moving.

"What the… TEME, you get off of Sakura-chan right now or I'm gonna beat you to a pulp!"

"Let go, you idiot, I can't move when you're crushing me!"

"S-s-sasuke-k-kun…"

"See, you're hurting her, stand the hell up!"

"Let go of my arm and I WILL!"

"Get off of her!"

"I'M TRYING!"

"Ow!"

"What the- what did you do to her?!"

"NOTHING I'm trying to stand up! WHY IS EVERYTHING HERE WET AND STICKY, YOU'RE TOTALLY CLEANING IT LATER!"

Out of nowhere, the lamp on the ceiling got miraculously turned on… oh, no. Not miraculously. It was just Kakashi-sensei.

"Pick-a-boo" the jounin smiled at his three troublesome students. He didn't earn even a hint of smile back. "Aaaaand…" Sasuke tensed, when the man slowly pulled something out from behind his back, but the three genin only had enough time to blink or widen their eyes until a flash of white light rolled over the room "…here we have a picture."

"What the…"

"Whaaaa…?!"

"Hey, hold on a sec, Kakashi-sensei, this is my camera!" Sakura (from under Sasuke) pointed accusingly at the man.

"It is?"

"Well, YEAH."

"If you say so."

"Where did you get it from?!"

"Oh, I may have dropped by your place on my way here. Or may have not."

"You were in my… OH, YOU SO DID NOT GET INTO MY ROOM, SENSEI!"

"Why, of course I didn't. I would never violate your privacy."

"Yeah, right. Then how come you have my camera with you?!"

"Maybe your parents handed it to me, wishing us a great evening time?"

"They didn't, they have no idea I'm here, they're not even home."

"What do you mean by they are not home, then why did you drag this player all the way over to my place when we could just go to your house?!" Sasuke eyed her with rage.

"Because it's obvious that we would make a huge mess, no matter where we have a movie night."

"Right, so you decided that you can make a mess in my apartment, but it's not an option in yours?"

"Yeah, more or less."

"What the hell, Sakura!"

"First, my parents can be back at any hour. And I mean, ANY hour, last time they came back at four in the morning and started doing things in the corridor…"

"…yuck" Naruto winced.

"And besides, my mother is a cleaning freak, so if she noticed a single piece of snack on the floor, she would come to my room and wake me up JUST so I could take care of it. Would you like to see my mother waking me up in the middle of the night?"

"Hn" fine, that made sense…

"So" Sakura switched her glance to Kakashi once again. "How did you get my camera?"

"I asked Pakkun to get it for me."

"No, sensei, you didn't. I know that Pakkun told you not to call him at this hour unless you're in a life-or-death situation."

"…"

"You got into my room."

"…maa, it was for the good cause, you will thank me one day-"

"No, I won't. No snacks for you today."

"Hey, teme… can you finally get off of us?" Naruto tried to break free from the tangle of limbs they ended into some minutes ago. Sasuke carefully stood on his feet, honoring the floor with his glance…

"Who forgot to spin the bottle?" he uttered slowly. "Damn you guys, it spilled under the bed…!"

"He, he… oops…?"

"Ugh… I have coke all over my clothes" Sakura stood up from the floor and examined her dress and shorts. "Just great…"

"Wow, you really have it all over you…"

"Naruto, you PERVERT! Don't you dare stare at me!"

"I'm not… And Sasuke-teme is staring too!"

"No, I'm not!" Sasuke threw a wet pillow at him, desperately trying to hide a blush that appeared on his cheeks.

"You totally were… ARE YOU BLUSHING?!"

"AM NOT!"

"Yeah, you are!"

"Why, you…!"

"I suggest, Sakura, that you change your clothes" Kakashi's relaxed voice interrupted their yelling.

"W-what?" Sakura stuttered a little, her face all red, her eyes glued to Sasuke. "Oh, r-right. Um… But I've only brought my PJs with me..."

"Oh, no worries. I'm sure Sasuke has enough t-shirts to lend you one so you don't need to go back home in a ruined dress."

"And a pair of shorts, too" Naruto muttered absentmindedly. A second later a pillow landed on his face, sending him back to the floor. "Ow!"

"STOP STARING AT HER, YOU IDIOT, DON'T YOU SEE SHE'S EMBARRASED?!"

"And aren't you protective of her today, Sasuke…!" Naruto started to laugh madly, for once not answering his rival's pillow attacks.

Sasuke hissed at him furiously, hating any hint of a blush that stayed on his face. As the dobe was useless for a while, he abandoned his weapon and crossed the room to open the wardrobe. He tugged out a navy-blue t-shirt along with a pair of his old jeans shorts and approached Sakura with heavy steps.

"Here" he almost barked at her. "Go change to the bathroom."

"T-thanks… sorry…" she turned even redder and disappeared behind the wooden door.

"You" he threw another (wet) pillow at Naruto. "Get up from this sticky floor and start cleaning."

"Can't we just clean when the movie is over…?"

"NO."

"Ugh… bossy."

"I would like to remind you that this is my place, my floor, my pillows and my everything, so I have every right to act bossy here. Now get up, take the rag from the closet under the sink, rinse it and start cleaning."

"Why me…?"

"You can always ask Kakashi for help" he muttered, connecting the vacuum cleaner to the power supply.

"Hm?" Kakashi looked at them from over his Icha Icha with a confused expression.

"Right" Naruto rolled his eyes and obediently grabbed the rag and started to clean the liquid.

The boys moved the bed to dry the floor under it. Sasuke found another rag and, when they were done with spilled coke, vacuumed the crumbs. He spared an unfavorable look at the dirty pillows, deciding to just let them dry until morning. He left the dry ones on the floor for his teammates, threw all the wet ones to the corner of the room and took another ones out from the wardrobe. Naruto watched his friend passing him six new vividly-colored pillows in wonder.

"Maaan, where did you get so many pillows?"

"Here and there."

"Wait, why are some of them pink…? I love you?" Naruto examined each pillow meticulously. "No, seriously, teme, where did you get that from?"

"Valentine's."

"Girls were giving you pillows for Valentine's?!"

"Hn."

"Huh… Well, there is some use of them at least."

Naruto made another pillow bed for himself, oblivious that Sasuke watched him reading each and every lovely inscription they were covered with. Seriously, that idiot… Why would anybody care what's written on a pillow…? Just when the blonde was finished, the bathroom door opened and a very embarrassed Sakura got into the room. Kakashi blinked a couple of times and dived back into his book. Naruto looked at her over his shoulder, and Sasuke felt an unwanted heat coming back to his cheeks at the sight of his pink-haired teammate (friend), standing just in front of him in his favorite t-shirt.

"Hey, Sakura-chan, you look great!" Naruto smiled widely at her.

"…thanks" she mumbled, unconvinced. She slowly looked at Sasuke who (very unnoticeably) swallowed, clenching his teeth. "T-thank you for the clothes, Sasuke-kun, I'll make sure to give them back next time."

"S-sure…" Sasuke scratched the back of his head. "It's…"

An unexpected, loud click! was heard from his left. He blinked and glanced at Kakashi with wary eyes. He registered Sakura did the very same thing, when another click! sounded the room.

"Kakashi…" he uttered through clenched teeth, with his fists ready to punch his stupid sensei wherever he pleased.

"No need to thank me."