Try As They Might

A SasuSaku oneshot

'"'"'"'"

"WHAAAAT?"

Sakura recoiled as Ino's screech nearly ripped apart her eardrums. She growled slightly and then glared at the boisterous blond.

"Ino, there's no need to freak out so—" Sakura began to scold.

"No NEED?" Ino's loud voice interrupted. "Sakura Haruno do you know what you're saying?"

Sakura growled again. "Yes, oh rowdy one, I do. That's why I'm not blowing my top."

Ino reached out and shook the pinkette before her. "But – but - but, this is important! It's huge! You—are—freakin'—dating—the—SASUKE UCHIHA!"

Sakura reached up and pulled Ino's arms away. "Yes, yes I am."

"And you're not excited? Overjoyed? Freaking out over such a huge commitment?"

"Ino…we are not getting married."

"Yet."

Sakura blushed. "We are only seventeen. We're not ready for stuff like that yet. We haven't even kissed yet."

Ino froze, and slowly her eyes widened to the point they almost seemed to bulge out of her head. Sakura knew what she had said, and now she prepared for impact.

"You and Sasuke haven't KISSED YET?" Eardrums ruptured, shaken limbs out of sockets, irritated look on Sakura's face, check.

"Let me go, I'm gonna shoot you, let me go, it's no big deal."

"No big—? Sakura you are insane! This is some of the biggest news in history!"

Sakura's patience for her best friend had worn extremely thin as she reached up and removed Ino's firm grasp on her arms again.

"Alright Ino, enough screaming; I think the whole village has already heard you. We are taking it slow. We've been teammates for years, and so we don't want to ruin the friendly relationship we've built up if something were to go wrong in our romantic one. Rushing is one of the biggest ways to kill a relationship." Sakura explained.

Ino scowled. "But you've liked him for like…years. Now you've finally got him and you say you want to take things slowly when you yourself told me back when you were twelve you were all of an inch away from getting to lock lips with him. What happened in your head?"

"I became more mature, I got to know him better, and I became able to pace things rather than having the hasty nature I had back then." Sakura replied.

Ino scoffed. "I am amazed. You must be the only girl I know who likes Sasuke, but wants to take it slowly the second you actually get him. Any normal girl would have started making out with him the second he asked them to be his girlfriend!"

"And that's probably why he chose me rather than anyone else in the village, because I actually have that patient attitude. Sasuke hates it when those mindless fangirls suddenly jump on him like they own him."

Ino shook her head. "Fine, then when do you think will be the right time to finally kiss him?"

Sakura blushed again. "Like I know. The moment I think it feels right."

"Oh how right I bet it'll feel." Ino sighed dreamily.

"Back off Yamanaka," Sakura glowered.

"Oh don't worry, I'd never sink so low as to try and take another girls' man. I have morals too you know."

Sakura let out a deep sigh. "Right…. Well, I had better get going."

"Going to meet Sasuke?" Ino grinned mischievously.

Sakura's cheeks flared and she crossed her arms defensively. "Maybe."

"Hmph, and you say you're all for the slow way."

"Shut up, Ino." Sakura huffed, and then began to walk away.

Ino giggled as Sakura went on her way, her job was done.

'"'"'"'"

Sakura sat with her head resting on Sasuke's shoulder. The two were at his house watching a movie.

The credits began to roll and Sasuke turned off the television with a sigh.

"That was nice." Sakura commented.

Sasuke looked over at her, smirked, and then wrapped an arm around her. "Yeah."

Sakura shifted a little into a more comfortable position when Sasuke moved his arm. "It's nice getting to spend time together now without Naruto being around."

Sasuke nodded his head and then leaned in slightly on Sakura. "Speaking of him, I was talking to the Dobe earlier today."

"Did he freak out when he heard the news?" Sakura inquired.

"More like he exploded."

"Ino did the same thing to me. I thought I'd go deaf."

"Tch, but then he started ranting on and on about relationships."

"Ino kinda did the same thing. Though I accidentally told her how we haven't kissed yet, and she absolutely freaked on me."

Sasuke shook his head. "That girls' mind is always in the wrong places when it comes to romance."

Sakura nodded her head in agreement at first as Sasuke spoke.

"But I guess she does kind of have a point."

Sakura blinked once, twice, a third time. Then she finally looked up at Sasuke. "Huh?" Was all she could come up with to say.

Sasuke pulled Sakura a little closer and sighed. "Never mind, it's nothing."

Sakura pulled back. "No, I want to know."

Sasuke mouth twitched as if he was looking for the right words to say. "I mean…it's been a little while since we actually started dating. We just decided to wait till now to tell those two loud-mouth blonds. It's just…I kind of expected that by now…."

Sakura finally understood, and ran a soothing hand down Sasuke's back before she spoke. "Well…I was kind of waiting for a moment that felt right…but if you really want to…I mean...I'll be ready whenever you're…."

"I get it." Sasuke stated as he pulled away a little more and turned to face her.

The two stared at each other for a moment. Sakura waited for his first move, knowing what was coming. Sasuke then began to inch his way forward towards Sakura's face. Sakura's eye shut halfway as she began to move forward as well. Sasuke's eyes closed entirely as they both began to feel each other's breaths on their faces mingling together from the proximity. They could almost feel a connection.

Slam! "TEMEEEEE!"

Sasuke and Sakura abruptly pulled away from each other as Naruto's voice boomed through Sasuke's house. They both looked to the door and saw Naruto standing there with a big grin on his face that slowly faded away as he realized Sasuke wasn't home alone.

"Sakura? What're…oh yeah…you and Teme are dating now aren't you…." Naruto blinked.

"Dobe," Sasuke growled under his breath while Sakura tried to disappear behind the couch she and Sasuke sat on.

Sasuke stood up to face Naruto as Sakura sank deeper into the couch cushions. A few seconds later and she didn't know what Naruto would have walked in on. She wondered if he even realized what he walked in on, or almost walked in on, since they hadn't actually made full contact before Naruto popped in. The red blush that reached her face deepened.

"Dobe, what are you doing here?" Sasuke hissed, trying to hide the fact that he too wondered the same things Sakura had, and trying to suppress the red that threatened to reach his cheeks.

"I just…wanted to know if you wanted to come down to Ichiraku with me for some ramen." Naruto stated. "I didn't realize what I was going to walk in on."

"That's why you do the civilized thing of knocking before you enter someone's house." Sasuke seethed.

"Oh I do…for every house but this one. I mean, aren't we best friends? Brothers in arms? I mean unless I ever walked in and saw yours and Sakura's clothes on the floor then I may consider knocking. It's not like you guys were doing anything this time! You were just cuddling right?"

Sakura's face got redder and redder as Naruto spoke, and now she opted for pressing a pillow down on her face in her embarrassment. At least that was all Naruto thought was happening.

"Dobe, get the hell out of my house." Sasuke snarled acidly.

Naruto raised his arms up in surrender. "Alright, alright. I'll come by later, I'll knock on the door. Once Sakura's not here then we can go get some ramen."

Sakura took a deep breath, the red fading from her face, and stood up. "No, no, it's alright. I-I better get going now anyway. I have a shift at the hospital to cover in a little while anyway. I may as well start getting over there."

Naruto stopped when Sakura began to speak, and as she finished Sasuke's angered look turned to confusion as Sakura started to move towards the door.

Sakura stopped when she reached Sasuke, and gently squeezed his hand. "I'll…see you later." She then waved a good bye to Naruto and was out the door.

Sasuke continued to stand there for a moment, confused. His confusion turned into annoyance though once Naruto started to rant once more about going out to get ramen. Sasuke was really going to kill the blond one day for his lack of manners.

'"'"'"'"

Sakura and Sasuke walked down the road hand-in-hand. It was already very late outside, as the two had just come back from a dinner date.

They came to a stop at Sakura's house in front of her door. Sakura turned to look up at Sasuke. "Thanks for taking me out. I had a nice time."

"Yeah, it was nice." Sasuke agreed.

The couple stood there for a moment and simply gazed at each other. Ever since Naruto had barged in on them they had been too wary to really try anything. But by this time Naruto was probably already curling up to go to bed, and there was nobody out to disturb them. They began to move forward towards each other.

Only about four inches laid between them and their imminent first kiss when suddenly the door in front of them swung open and the two jerked their heads away in surprise.

"Sakura! You're home!" Sakura's mother exclaimed from the other side of the doorframe. "I was just coming out to grab the mail! Sasuke, how are you? I haven't seen you around in a while. How's the relationship holding up?"

Sakura blushed and face-palmed. "Mom."

Sakura's mother blinked and then looked at each of the two. "Oh…was I interrupting something? Oh, don't mind me. Go ahead and kiss her goodnight! I'll probably be seeing it plenty of times in the future!"

Sakura's cheeks resembled that of a ripe tomato as she tried to subtly give her mother hints that she didn't want her out with them at that moment.

Sasuke sighed, and then surprised Sakura when he swooped down and gave her a swift kiss on the cheek. "I'll see you tomorrow at training."

"Eh? Oh…yeah, sure. I'll see you tomorrow Sasuke." Sakura responded as Sasuke let go of her hand he was still holding and quickly disappeared down the road.

Sakura turned and met the beaming look of her mother. "I think he really likes you, you know?"

Sakura held in the urge to give her mother a lecture on privacy, and simply stalked up to her room, depressed.

"So close and yet so far…." Both Sasuke and Sakura thought.

'"'"'"'"

Sakura strutted briskly up the path towards Team Seven's training area. Ever since last night Sakura could barely stand the sight of her mother as every time she looked at her she would imagine last night's incident with Sasuke and would feel a mixture of depression and embarrassment.

Sakura reached the end of her uphill climb and was greeted by the open expanse of her team's training ground. She glanced around, no one was there.

Sakura sighed as she thought of how she'd have to wait for everyone to arrive now when suddenly she sensed someone not far behind her, and turned to see Sasuke making his way up the trail she had been on.

"Oh, hey Sasuke," Sakura greeted as Sasuke reached the position Sakura was at on the training grounds.

"Hey." Sasuke replied. "Uh…sorry about last night…I didn't expect that—"

Sakura shook her head. "It's not your fault. My mom just decided that was the moment she wanted to walk out to get the mail."

Sasuke huffed. "I still wish that didn't seem like such a Naruto repeat of what happened the day before."

Sakura nodded, she had to agree with that. "Well…we're…alone now, aren't we?"

Sasuke did a quick glance of the field as Sakura had done. It was true that no one else was around at that moment. Sasuke smirked, and almost immediately took a step closer to Sakura.

Truthfully, it wasn't a very romantic position, and definitely not on their top ten list of choices where they would want to share their first kiss, but it had to do. Sasuke grasped Sakura's hands with his and pulled her into him. They looked at each other for a moment before their eyes began to shut and they moved their faces closer together. The silence around them was almost deafening, like everything waited anxiously for the two to have their first real kiss.

"Hey! Sorry I ran a little late! Let's start training!"

Both of them froze, and both unconsciously gripped each other's hands a little tighter than necessary with the sudden wave of anger that took over the two. They both stepped away from each other and turned to see Naruto running up to them with his innocent grin on his face, this time totally oblivious to the fact that he had interrupted Sasuke and Sakura yet again.

Naruto reached the two of them and panted slightly as he caught his breath from his sudden sprint up the hillside. "So—pant—are you guys ready?" Naruto asked.

"Yeah…sure…." They both answered simultaneously. Naruto turned and began to walk away in preparation to train; completely unaware of the mental death threats Sakura and Sasuke were sending to the oblivious blond.

'"'"'"'"

After training was finished Sasuke and Sakura decided to go by Sakura's house, as no one was going to be home for a few hours. Sasuke had insisted on them taking the long way over to Sakura's place so they could walk together for a while. Sakura, knowing how much Sasuke enjoyed walks, accepted.

The two went on their way for quite some time. They skirted along the side of the forest and took a few back roads through the town. Everything was perfectly peaceful as they continued on their walk.

Aware of how tranquil everything had become, and knowing most people who would stop to talk to them were probably off in other places at that moment, Sasuke decided to stop Sakura by the foot of the village lake.

Sakura knew immediately that Sasuke wanted to try it again, and silently consented with the abrupt stop.

Sasuke did as he had at the training grounds with grabbing Sakura's hands and pulling her closer. He moved in, trying to be hasty in case of another interruption, but taking it slowly at the same time so as to take in every aspect of the moment. Both of them could just start feeling the tips of each other's lips, and thought for sure that this time they had succeeded.

"Sakura! There you are!"

The couple froze yet again, and Sakura immediately recognized who it was that called to her so loudly, interrupting yet another precious chance for her first kiss with Sasuke. She turned on her heel and was greeted by the bubbly and energetic form of Ino.

"Yeah, here I am." Sakura responded to Ino's former call.

"Yeah, I've been looking for you for a while!" Ino beamed. "Okay, so I was running the flower shop, and this one guy came in. He ordered like…a dozen freaking bouquets, and he wants them all delivered by tomorrow! It's crazy! I'm gonna have to work my butt off tonight and tomorrow!"

"Oh…so…what? You want me to help you deliver them?" Sakura asked, giving a wary glance in Sasuke's direction.

Ino noticed the glance, and only looked up at Sasuke for a second before she returned her gaze to Sakura. "Oh no, I wouldn't want to take you away from your boyfriend. I just really needed someone to vent to! And Hinata and Tenten aren't around so I had to find you!"

"O…kay." Sakura stammered.

"Right…well, I feel better now! Later Sakura!" Ino bounced, and suddenly she sprang off back in the direction she came.

Sakura turned and looked back up at Sasuke. "Sorry about that…it really spoiled the moment…."

"It's alright." Sasuke huffed. "Let's just get over to your place."

Sakura nodded, and Sasuke gripped onto her hand as the two went back on their way.

'"'"'"'"

Over at Sakura's house, she and Sasuke had situated themselves on the couch in her living room. They simply sat together wrapped up in each other's limbs, enjoying the other's presence and the sweet silence in the air.

Sakura let out a deep, contented sigh before she switched her position to look at Sasuke.

"So…you think maybe this time we'll get lucky?" Sakura asked as she moved one of her arms to rest on Sasuke's chest.

Sasuke smirked and already began to move forward. Sakura scooted in closer as she moved her face up to his. Once again they could feel each other's breath on their faces.

Riiiing!

Sakura and Sasuke tensed as the noise erupted through the house.

"Not lucky enough." Sasuke grumbled.

Sakura huffed and stood up. "It's the phone. I'll be right back."

Sasuke nodded as Sakura walked away towards the kitchen where the phone was located. He couldn't help the growl that escaped his throat as Sakura left the room. He had no idea how many times they had tried to kiss, but he knew it equaled to how many times they were interrupted. It was seriously beginning to frustrate the Uchiha greatly.

Sakura walked back into the room then, but she didn't walk back to the couch. She went to the front door and began to slip her shoes on.

Sakura looked up at Sasuke apologetically. "Sorry…that was Lady Tsunade. She needs me down at the hospital immediately."

Sasuke was silent as Sakura spoke, and then stood up. He walked over to Sakura and sighed. "Alright…just come by my house after you're done, unless of course you're tired or it's really late; then I'll see you tomorrow."

Sakura nodded. "I'm really sorry Sasuke…."

Sasuke shook his head. "It's okay."

It was silent between them as they put their shoes on. Sasuke really did want to try kissing her at that moment, but he knew Sakura was too riled up with having to get down to the hospital, so it wouldn't turn out as satisfactory as they've been pining for the past few days. The same thoughts went through Sakura's mind.

With that, the two walked out of Sakura's house, gazed at each other for a moment, and then turned to go their separate ways.

'"'"'"'"

Sasuke and Sakura walked along the road holding hands once again. They were headed to the training grounds together this time.

On the way over they crossed over the bridge that Team Seven used to meet on a lot in the past. They stopped as they reached the middle of the bridge and gazed out to the water below them for a moment.

"This place has a lot of memories, doesn't it?" Sasuke stated as they stood there.

Sakura nodded. "Yeah, a lot. It used to be a pretty popular meeting spot for us back when we were all Genin."

They both stood there in silence for another moment before Sakura turned to face Sasuke. Sasuke in turned shifted to look at Sakura. Sakura took in a breath, and both decided that now was yet another time to try. Sakura began to inch her way up to Sasuke's face. Sasuke took a quick look around before he paid attention to her approaching form, making sure that no one was around to interrupt them. Finding that no one was present near the bridge, Sasuke moved down closer to Sakura.

"Oh, Sakura! Sasuke! How are you two doing?"

Sasuke's last nerve just about snapped as they pulled away once again to see Lee running up the bridge towards them. Sasuke wanted nothing more than the painful destruction of the innocent boys' body.

"Oh Lee! It has been a while hasn't it?" Sakura greeted.

Lee reached the two of them and grinned. "Yes. Lately our paths have had bad luck in crossing, so as soon as I spotted you two I had to come and talk."

"Well we can't talk much right now." Sasuke blurted out roughly.

Lee looked up at Sasuke with a perplexed expression. Sakura gazed up at him as well. Sasuke tensed as he realized he needed to say something else.

"We…have to get to the training grounds. Naruto's probably wondering where we are right now." Sasuke finished.

"Oh, you're right." Sakura nodded, though inside she did kind of want to have a conversation with Lee since she hadn't seen him in a while. "We better be on our way. Hopefully we'll see each other again sometime, Lee."

Lee nodded. "Yes, hopefully. Say hello to Naruto for me!"

"We will." Sakura called back as she was tugged by Sasuke down the bridge and onto the trail.

'"'"'"'"

On the training grounds Sasuke, Sakura, and Naruto had done a two-on-one, Sasuke and Sakura versus Naruto, battle. Sakura lunged at Naruto with a fist ready. Naruto leaped back and Sakura's fist connected with the ground, sending a little debris flying.

Naruto landed on the ground and then pushed off towards Sakura with a kunai. Sasuke leapt in the way and caught Naruto with a kick to the chest, but the kunai grazed against Sasuke's leg and left a nasty little line of blood trickling down his leg.

Sakura stopped as soon as she noticed Sasuke's wound, but he told her it was nothing and continued on with their sparring match.

Sasuke and Sakura came at Naruto at once, both armed with a kunai. Naruto leapt in the air, summoned a shadow clone on the ground, and used that clone to give him a higher leap into the air over Sasuke and Sakura. He threw down shuriken which they both jumped to the side to dodge.

Naruto grinned as he realized his plan had worked. Sasuke and Sakura had inadvertently dodged the shuriken by going near the shadow clone he still had on the ground. The shadow Naruto pulled out his own shuriken and launched them at the two. Sakura dodged all the weapons, but Sasuke's injured leg lessened his jumping strength, and one of the shuriken stabbed his injured leg.

"Sasuke let me heal that before it gets worse!" Sakura chided.

Sasuke shook his head as Naruto hit the ground. "A real enemy won't give us a chance for you to heal me every time I get a scratch you know."

Sakura sighed, knowing he was right. "Alright."

As Sakura had spoken, Naruto put on a burst of speed and went straight towards them. Naruto rammed right into Sasuke, and leapt away as Sasuke stumbled backwards.

Suddenly, Sasuke's injured leg gave, and he swiveled to the side as his body weight brought him down right onto Sakura. They both fell and tumbled to the ground, Sasuke over Sakura.

And then they realized something, as Sakura's head hit the ground Sasuke's came down right on hers. Their mouths mashed together.

Naruto saw the two tumble to the ground, and started to cautiously approach them to make sure they were alright. Neither of them got up, and for a moment Naruto was worried that one of them may have gotten injured badly.

Then he noticed something. One of Sakura's hands were clamped onto the side of Sasuke's shirt, and one hand had weaved its' way through his hair. Sasuke's arms were parallel with Sakura's body, just keeping his full weight off of her. Then it clicked. They were kissing!

"Hey, uh…guys…guys." Naruto called. "Uh…hello? I'm still here."

Neither Sasuke nor Sakura could hear him. Both were far too absorbed in their first kiss. It had happened in a way they could never have expected or planned, but now that it did, they could really care less how it happened. The feelings overtaking them as they kissed overpowered any sense or care for whatever was around them. It was just the two of them.

"Hey guys, seriously, get a freaking room! Hellooo?" Naruto called, but still it was useless. Finally Naruto huffed and began to walk away.

A few moments after Naruto left Sasuke and Sakura pulled apart. Out of breath, the two simply stared into each others' eyes in their proximity.

Sakura smiled. "How's that for lucky?"

Sasuke chuckled and gave Sakura a slow, sweet kiss. He broke it and smirked. "Very, but I'd rather have kisses than luck."

"Don't jinx the luck, or we'll probably get interrupted over and over again for the next week."

"Hmph, then let's not give our jinxed luck any time."

Sakura grinned slyly as Sasuke began to move closer again. "I'll consent to that."

THE END

…Holy crap…I wrote this in one day. Hell, I don't even think I turned off my laptop the whole time I was working on this! I'll post this at some point this week. For now it's my oneshot in store for my stockpiling plan. The next chapter of CC is also all ready and waiting! But first off I'll wait till my traffic starts to go down before I put up anything. I got this done just in time, too! I'm going to school tomorrow and it's already late night! I'll hardly have time to proof this once! But at least now I have two things up my sleeve for you guys to read. That should probably satisfy you all long enough for me to actually finish CC and stockpile it, and then start working on chapters to other stories! So till then!