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“What is she doing here?”
Akasuna no Sasori stood in his parent’s kitchen, glaring at the matriarch of the home, arms tightly folded across his chest. He was beginning to grow quite weary of this game she kept playing.
She sighed. “I don’t understand why you do this every time, Sasori. Sakura-chan is a sweet girl.”
A single red eyebrow cocked. “Was she sweet when she threw one of the medics you work with through a wall yesterday?”
His mother shrugged as best she could while dicing the vegetables, trying and failing to not grin. “It wasn’t as though he didn’t have it coming.”
“Unbelievable.”
Haruno Sakura was currently stationed in Sunagakure for the next six months to assist in improving the performance of the village’s hospital. As an apprentice of the Sannin and current Godaime Hokage, Tsunade Senju, the girl’s reputation as a highly capable medical ninja was known across the Five Great Nations. Her temper was also very well known, made all the more dangerous with the chakra-enhanced strength training Tsunade also instilled within her.
He first met Sakura at the joint Chuunin exams six years ago. She was hardly noticeable amongst her teammates and peers in ability, but what she lacked in skill she made up for in tenacity and attitude.
He had already been promoted to Jounin by that point; an impressive feat for a fifteen-year-old kid, but he had always been impressive. Their Kazekage was sending his three children to participate in the exams and was obviously worried about their trip. For all the bravado Temari and Kankuro, the oldest and middle children, tried to show, they were undeniably green to the ways of the world. As their cousin, Rasa felt it appropriate that he accompany them and keep them out of trouble.
All of Konoha’s genin were wholly unimpressive, her included. Even their 'prized' competitors, such as the Uchiha, their jinchuuriki, and the male Hyuuga, were subpar in his opinion. He had assumed the whole affair would be a colossal waste of his time, and it was until the third rounds.
As it would turn out, a Suna council member was colluding with another one of the Sannin, Orochimaru, to attack Konoha using Rasa's youngest son Gaara, their one-tail jinchuuriki, in an attempt to break the alliance. They nearly succeeded had he not gotten word of the plan via his spy network and casually warned some of the Leaf's top Jounin.
The battle wasn't difficult, just bothersome with the amount of fodder the snake man had brought along. In the end, while the alliance remained intact, Konoha suffered quite the loss in their Third Hokage.
The council had been so 'inspired by his performance' (their words, not his) in the invasion that they wanted to select him to take the mantle of Kazekage once the current one retired. And they certainly tried their damndest to convince him, especially his grandmother, but after he threatened to defect the village and then purposefully disappeared for a week for good measure, they had moved on to grooming Gaara for the role.
He’d amputate all of his limbs before he allowed himself to be trapped in anyone’s political nonsense.
It was approximately two years later that he saw Sakura again for Suna and Konoha's next joint Chuunin exams. She had been under Tsunade's tutelage for a while by that point, and her skills had evolved by leaps and bounds.
That was the first time he had been impressed by Haruno Sakura.
The second would come not even a year later when Suna was attacked by some ragtag terrorist organization. He was on a mission outside the village when he received a frantic missive that their shinobi were being poisoned with his formula and they needed him back to create the antidote.
Upon his arrival, he anticipated a massive dent in their forces (this was one of his creations, after all) only to see that no one had perished. The closest had been Kankuro, only because he had been the first infected, but even he was in full recovery. His mother was working the emergency center of the hospital, and he sought her out to get a run-down of the situation.
"Oh, Sakura-chan came in and figured out how to cure everyone. It was amazing! She's very talented."
He decided then to make it a point to pay close attention to Sakura. He found her in the hospital lab after that, grilling her on her knowledge and her process in devising the antidote. He was able to see her monstrous strength first-hand when they were given the task of retrieving Gaara.
The whole affair was, once again, resolved rather unspectacularly. Gaara was returned unscathed, the populace was saved, and the Konoha ninja returned home heroes.
They had run into each other off and on over the years since then. Sakura was always pleasant, kind-hearted. He had initially thought her a fool (what kind of shinobi acted out of selflessness like she did?), but he eventually found it to be quite an endearing trait in her.
In fact, he found everything about her endearing. Which is where the problem began.
He spent years denying it, especially to himself, but in time he had no choice but to acknowledge that he felt something more than friendly admiration toward the pinkette. While he enjoyed Sakura's wit and consideration of others, there were other traits that were becoming harder and harder to ignore: Her sparkling green eyes; her bell-like laughter that made his heart race; her mid-length pink hair that fluttered in the desert wind; her sweet, heart-shaped face and delicate features.
There were, of course, not-so-gentlemanly things he noticed about her as well.
He did his best to keep his feelings to himself, to continue appearing impartial to her, but it soon became clear that he wasn't being as stealthy as he assumed.
He recalled Komushi, his childhood acquaintance, barging into his workspace a few weeks ago, which in and of itself wasn't unusual. What was unusual was that he came with the purpose of bothering him about Sakura.
“It’s because everyone can see how obsessed you are with her,” he commented, pacing around behind him. “I mean, subtlety is usually your strong suit, Sasori. You’re slacking!” Komushi’s laugh was too loud in the small space.
He chose to not respond, instead intently focusing on carving the eyehole for his latest creation, hoping the other man would take the hint.
“Don’t ignore me.”
“I thought I told you to leave.”
He scoffed. “Don’t get huffy with me because Sakura-chan is oblivious to how in love with her you are.”
“Because I’m not,” he insisted, pointedly ignoring the heat rising to his face. “I could care less about her.”
“Suuuuure, Sasori. And I'm the next candidate for Kazekage.”
The brunette menace had been promptly and forcibly removed from his workshop via chakra string, yelling and complaining the whole way.
Unfortunately, Komushi was apparently dedicated to ruining his life because he had the brilliant idea to bring the issue up again in front of his parents.
Sasori has never been a particularly affable person. If he had been, it was usually used as some means to an end. So when he began conversing with Sakura more and sharing research discoveries with her, his mother was just ecstatic that he had willingly made a new friend. She was over the moon to hear that her only son was romantically interested in someone. The worst part was her insistence that she whole-heartedly approved of the Konoha kunoichi; they worked closely together at the hospital, and his mother was very fond of the girl.
His father was a rather silent man in general, yet had no qualms in making it clear he would be glad to welcome Sakura into their family unit.
To make matters worse, someone had brought Granny Chiyo into this grand scheme of hooking him and Sakura up.
It was humiliating.
Hence began these random family dinner rendezvous. His mother would invite Sakura over so as to facilitate a deeper connection between him and her, or something ridiculous like that.
He made a concerted effort to not engage in their little ploy, keeping his interaction as minimally normal as possible.
If he seriously wanted to pursue Sakura, he could do so without their assistance. Or so he told himself.
"I wish you all would stop meddling," he groused, leaning against the counter next to her. She had finished dicing and was sautéing the vegetables with the meat.
"We just want you to be happy, honey," she stated, leaning over to pull his head down closer to her level to plant a kiss on his forehead. "You two are a good match. And she likes you."
His brow furrowed at that. She liked him? In what way, he wondered.
His mother gripped the handle of the pan, flipping it over a bowl to deposit the sizzling food into it. "Can you take this to the table, please?"
He said nothing, just grabbed the hot bowl and walked it toward the dining table. Sakura and his father were already seated, huddled together and working on a crossword puzzle. He paused, taking in the scene.
This could be permanent, he mused. He and Sakura could come here once a week from their home and have family dinner. She could help with crossword puzzles or set tables or dice vegetables, and fit in with them like a missing link. He rather liked the idea, actually.
Perhaps he should be taking advantage of his parents' opportunity.
As he considered how best to approach her in the least creepy way, he heard the front door open and close. Any hopes he had of engaging in conversation with Sakura were dashed when he saw this grandmother waltz into the room; the two were weirdly close and could talk about Kami-only-knows what for literal hours.
"You okay, Sasori?"
His gaze swiveled to meet vibrant green eyeing him warily. He supposed he looked rather foolish just standing in the doorway with a bowl staring at her. "Yes," he answered, moving to place the bowl in its proper place.
He sighed imperceptibly. There was always next time, he guessed.
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Dinner was, thankfully, uneventful. Sakura's attention remained capitalized by his mother and Chiyo, as usual, with both of them roping him in as appropriate. As much as he enjoyed listening to her opinions and thoughts on a variety of subjects, he enjoyed challenging or debating her more. She would get so riled up, and it was equal parts amusing and captivating.
Food consumed and evening growing later, it was time for Sakura to leave. As per status quo, he was assigned the task of escorting her back to her lodgings. The family had congregated at the front door, saying their farewells to the pinkette as they put on their shoes.
“You know, Sakura-chan," his mother began, grasping the younger woman's hand. "It’s so hard to find anyone Sasori takes any type of interest in, let alone someone he’s interested in spending extended time with. You’re just so special!”
He felt all the blood drain from his body and his heart stop. Did she not realize what she had just done? “Mother.”
“Oh!” she exclaimed, releasing the hand to press her fingers against her mouth. “Oops. Forget I said that.” She smiled at Sakura before looking at him, eyes bright and too innocent.
He was seething: She knew exactly what she had done!
Needing to extract himself from this situation as quickly as possible, he silently grasped Sakura’s shoulders, steering her out the front door. She called a giggling “Have a good night, everyone!", exiting the home as he slammed the door behind him. Once outside, he removed his hands from her person and stuffed them into his pants pocket, staring determinedly ahead. They walked in silence until the building she was staying in loomed closer. He accompanied her to the doorstep, intending to promptly escape, but she stepped in front of him.
“So,” she started, hands folded casually behind her back. He felt like crawling under a rock for the rest of his miserable existence. “Is what your mom said true?”
“Nope,” he supplied, far too quick and far too obvious. “Not at all.” He prayed to whatever deity would take pity on him to strike him down so she couldn’t see how red his face was.
“Right,” she replied, lips curved in obvious amusement. “Of course.”
He stared off into the distance, ready for this torturously awkward moment to be over so he could find a suitable rock, when he felt her step forward and into his personal bubble. Confused, he shifted his focus to her in time to see her lean forward and place impossibly-soft lips against his cheek.
He was still stiff as a board when she stepped back, smiling softly with shining eyes. “I’m working until 5 tomorrow,” she announced. “You should join me for dinner.”
He paused, processing. Was this really happening? “I’ll come get you at 5:30.”
She hummed in response, looking contemplative. “Let’s make it 6. I’ll need time to freshen up from the smell of antiseptic and stress.”
Gods, this was really happening. “6, then. Don’t keep me waiting.”
“Wouldn’t dream of it,” she chirped before casually waving and disappearing into her village housing. He stood rooted in his spot, a maelstrom of emotions swirling inside him that he wasn’t ready to address.
He supposed he would need to thank his mother since he now had an official date with the girl of his dreams. Or maybe he would wait until after; make her sweat a little.
Turnabout is fair play, after all.