"Sasuki-chan!" Sakura entered the clearing and warmly greeted the newly returned member of Team 7.

"Oh, hello, Sakura." Sasuki drawled, barely glancing at her.

"Ah, I heard Tsunade-sama gave you a new apartment near Naruto's place. How is it?"

Sasuki shrugged. "It's fine, I didn't come back here expecting to live in a palace or anything."

"You're not mad right? At shishou, for being so harsh on you, telling you where to live and what to do, right?" Sakura asked with hesitancy. Her question brought the avenger to look her in the eyes, even if only momentarily.

"Frankly, I expected her to do much worse, so I can't complain." The raven-haired kunoichi admitted, crossing her arms in thought. "She's being quite generous, actually, paying for my first month of lodging."

"Oh, it's great you think that!" Sakura smiled at her friend who only nodded in response.

An awkward pause overcame the two as Sakura hoped the avenger would say something back. Getting no response, the medic-nin tried to kick start the conversation once more.

"So, um, this weekend, Ino and I were planning to meet up an-"

"No." Sasuki replied coldly, not even looking at the pink-haired kunoichi.

"Oh." Sakura cleared her throat to try and hide the hurt she felt. "Never mind then."

Sasuki looked over at her teammate and let out a sigh of frustration when she noted her despondent expression. "Sorry, Sakura…I'll think about it."

Sakura knew this was just a politer way for Sasuki to say 'No,' but she still appreciated the gesture.

The medic-nin thought of another topic and opened her mouth when Naruto entered the clearing by jumping down from some trees.

"Hey, hey! What's up guys?" Naruto's smile gleamed as he greeted both his teammates.

Sakura noticed the change in Sasuki instantly. Her posture corrected itself, her blank expressions slipped into a warm smirk, and the octave of her voice pitched just a notch higher.

Well that's what it seemed like, but Sakura thought such a drastic change for the Uchiha would be crazy. Sakura probably just irritated Satsuki with her question about hanging out. Yeah, that was it.

"Nothing much, loser. Just waiting for you and Kakashi."

"Hey, Naruto."

Naruto flashed his grin at Sakura before walking closer to Sasuki, inspecting her.

"What?" The Uchiha raised an eyebrow at Naruto's gaze.

"Just as I thought." Naruto said, he ran a finger along Sasuki's vest until it reached her collar. "Konoha clothing suits you way more than that weird snake shit you were wearing."

"Hahn?" Sasuki leaned forward, her eyes shooting lightning into the taller blonde's azure ones, however Naruto did not flinch. "If I'm not mistake, someone was really enjoying staring at my cleavage when I wore that 'snake shit'."

"Eh? You were wearing bandages!"

Sasuki smirked, "Ah, so you were looking."

Naruto sputtered, his face turning red. "Hey, now wait a second! I was-"

Sakura let out a loud cough, attracting the attention of the duo. "Naruto, it's not very appropriate to be touching a girl's clothing like that."

The medic-nin almost misses it, but she thinks the Uchiha sends her an extremely quick death glare as the whiskered ninja pulled away from Sasuki, his blush turning even darker.

"Oh, uh, my bad, Sasuki." He apologized while scratching his cheeks, now realizing how overly intimate his actions were.

"Don't worry about it, Naruto." The Uchiha mutters through clenched teeth. Once again, her dark eyes, hard with anger, quickly peered into Sakura's emerald ones, unsettling the medic-nin.

Before anything else can happen, their sensei appears in a burst of smoke.

"Hello my cute students! It's so lovely to see the three of you together again." They could tell Kakashi was smiling because the expression reached his uncovered eye.

"Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto saluted the man.

"Kakashi." Sasuki nodded.

"Hello, sensei." Sakura greeted absentmindedly, hear head spinning from the Uchiha's behavior.

"Well now, shall we go find a mission to undertake?"

"Yes, sensei." The three responded, making the masked man's smile wider.

A simple mission, monitoring a transport of goods toward a nearby village. It was labeled a B-rank mission because there was suspected bandit activity along the path they took, but nothing happened during the mission.

Sakura expected Naruto to make a fuss about how boring it was, but he preoccupied his time speaking with Sasuki. The more Sakura watched the two interact the more she realized it wasn't her imagination. It wasn't some illusion; Sasuki treated Naruto different than she treated anyone else.

With Naruto, the raven-haired kunoichi is always smirking at him, taunting him, yelling at him, or smiling at him.

With Kakashi and Sakura, it's a bunch of curt nods and short answers.

When Naruto makes a joke, the Uchiha usually laughs and calls him stupid. When Sakura attempts one, usually something mocking their blonde teammate, Sasuki hums if she enjoys the joke or grunts if she's displeased with it.

"Sakura, what do you think?" Naruto's boisterous voice cut through her musing. She looked at the whiskered youth, who catches her gaze with curiosity in his blue orbs. She also finds Sasuki looking at her with a much duller expression.

"I'm sorry, I missed what you were saying."

"Other than the Mission to the Land of Waves, which was your favourite mission we did, back when we were all genin?"

Sakura tucked her chin into her hand as she thought of the various missions the trio went on. The vast majority were simple D-rank missions where they did mundane chores. Really there was only one other choice, if she couldn't choose the mission to the Waves. And, truthfully, she didn't think she would pick that one anyway, Sasuki almost died on that mission.

"The one where we had to deliver the scroll and we spent the rest of the day at enjoying the festival. Seems pretty obvious, actually." Sakura commented, looking up to see Naruto's gigawatt smile and Sasuki frowning.

"See? Duh, your choice is so dumb. I don't even get it." Naruto stuck his tongue out the Uchiha. Sasuki smirked before her hand flashed out and grabbed his appendage before the blonde could withdraw it, causing Naruto to blush, Sakura to momentarily stop moving and watch mouth agape, and even Kakashi-sensei let out a hushed "Oh, my."

"What was that dead last?" Sasuki taunted him, wagging his tongue around.

"Yuuurr shooo suuuped!" Naruto sounded angrily despite his tongue being held. Sasuki released her grip letting out an uncharacteristic guffaw, apparently very amused by her own actions.

She wiped his saliva on her pants while Naruto rubbed his mouth with the back of his sleeve, making spitting sounds.

"That was so gross, bastard!" Naruto snarled, though his beet red face killed any intimidation factor he had.

"Relax, loser, my fingers are certainly cleaner than your mouth is." She jeered at the taller blonde who only huffed in response.

"Ah, what was Sasuki-chan's selection?" Sakura butted in, hoping to dispel whatever strange mood the Uchiha created.

"Get this Sakura, she thinks the Tora missions were the best ones!" Naruto gestured wildly to show his displeasure with Sasuki's choice.

"Tora…you mean the cat?" Sakura was equally bewildered. No one would actually pick such an annoying mission as their favourite, would they? "How come Sasuki-chan?"

"Because, Sakura, Naruto always had his face scratched up during those missions." The avengers smiled genuinely. "And that's very funny."

"Crazy bitch." Naruto muttered under his breath, but the entire party heard it.

"What was that?" Sasuki's Sharingan spun to life, cowing the whiskered shinobi.

"I-I was just saying we're almost home! Can't wait!" Naruto let out a fake laugh. His spineless response forming a smirk on the Uchiha's face.

Sakura turned toward her sensei, whispering to him. "Kakashi-sensei, I'm not crazy, right? That was weird, right?"

The copy-cat nin tilted gave the medic-nin a look of pity, patting her shoulder gently.

"Listen, Sakura, those two…their relationship has always been a bit…different."

Sakura knocked his hand off in a huff of anger. "Don't patronize me, sensei!"

Sakura's outburst caught the attention of the duo in front of them, but Kakashi waved at them, signaling that everything was okay.

"I'm really not, Sakura." Kakashi started again. "It might be hard to take in, but this could just be the natural evolution of their relationship."

Sakura frowned at her sensei's assertion and continued to watch the duo jaw at each other as they followed the path back to Konoha.

Their wallets full, the trio stood a few meters from the Hokage Tower. Kakashi-sensei having just bid them a good evening before parting.

"Hey, Sakura-chan, what were you going to do after this?" Naruto asked her with a smile.

Sasuki glared at the blonde with annoyance clear on her face. He didn't notice, but Sakura couldn't miss the expression.

"Oh, nothing much, Naruto. Why?"

"Well, me and Sasuki were going to train right now. Want to come with?" Naruto beckoned her with his chin, pointing to a training ground only a few meters away.

"Don't bother her dead last, I'm sure Sakura needs to go…talk to Ino or something." Sasuki tried answering for the pink-haired girl, quickly recalling the chat they had in the morning.

"Actually," Sakura began in a sickly-sweet tone. Once again it was something Naruto missed entirely, but the Uchiha began burrowing daggers into Sakura with her gaze. "I'm totally free right now. No hospital shifts, no training with shishou, not even hanging out with Ino today. I would love to train with you guys. Ah, if that's okay with you, Sasuki-chan."

"Of course, Sakura. I have no qualms." Sakura never felt competitive with the girl she once idolized, but seeing the Uchiha grit her teeth in such dissatisfaction brought a flame of contentment that filled Sakura's belly.

"Great! Ladies?" Naruto beckoned once more toward the training field and the three set off.

Sakura tuckered out first. Inevitable, really. Back in the day it was the same thing, and, even if she grew in strength and stamina, so did they.

She watched the two, essentially dance around each other, only using taijutsu to spar.

They looked really nice together, Sakura thought idly.

And it really made her sick.

The worst part is she didn't know which person to direct her jealously at, not really.

After fighting for a while, they finished their clash, Naruto on the floor, Sasuki straddling him before she delivered a flick to his forehead. The blonde cussed so loudly Sakura could hear him from her position under a tree's shade a few feet away. Sakura clenched her jaw unintentionally from the cute interaction.

Sasuki seemed to tell Naruto to do something, because he scowled at her before she rose off him. The whiskered boy blew a raspberry at the Uchiha just as he leapt away.

The med-nin found herself standing up as the avenger approached her position.

"Maybe you should have gone home if you were that tired." Sasuki unsolicited thoughts rubbed Sakura the wrong way.

"I wasn't tired when we started. You two are just freaks." Sakura tried to keep a smile on her face, but her words came out with venom in them.

"Oh." The Uchiha glanced at Sakura through hooded eyes before shrugging. "Naruto's getting some water, by the way."

"About, Naruto," This morning, Sakura lacked the courage to say such a thing to Sasuki, but the whole day seriously coloured her perspective, "do you like him or something?"

Sasuki did not avoid Sakura's eyes, her onyx ones meeting the medic-nin's own emerald ones unflinchingly, the stare lasted one moment, or two.

Naruto appeared with a soft landing and began walking toward the duo. Sasuki spared him a glance and a smirk before returning her gaze to Sakura.

"You didn't think I came back to Konoha for you, did you?"

Sakura felt a fire boil in her belly, stretching through her limbs and engulfing her neck and face, but the raven-haired girl already set off to meet Naruto halfway.

A/N: The Fem!Sasuke riff I promised. Just under 2000 words. As Choji said during the chunin exams: SAAAAFEEEE!