The blonde's eyes glittered with excitement and Sakura found her anger dissipating in the face of his child-like enthusiasm.
"Sorry Naruto. It's classified," She said simply, turning to resume her walk home but Naruto caught her hand, refusing to let her go.
"Aw come on Sakura-chan. You know I won't tell."
Those big blue eyes looked an awful lot like a puppy's, all big and pleading, but she wouldn't let his pouting get to her.
"Naruto, I'm not going to tell you," she said with a finality that warned him he had better drop the subject.
Even as the years had passed, so much about Naruto remained the same. His body had matured, growing taller and more muscular as his strength increased and he was indeed a formidable fighter, but as far as maturity went, there were times when she imagined he hadn't aged a day. The thought was both refreshing and incredibly annoying.
"Fine," he sighed, giving up his quest to extract details from her. "But at least come to Ichiraku with me. The team is having dinner there and you have to go considering you're going to be gone for a while."
At the word "team", Sakura immediately tensed. He was no doubt referring to Team Seven which originally included Kakashi. After what had happened in Tsunade's office, she didn't think she was ready to face him just yet.
"Is Kakashi going to be there?" she asked, trying not to sound nervous, but lucky for her, Naruto was not the most perceptive of people.
"Nah, he said he had some stuff to do," he replied, crossing his arms over his chest and looking a little put out that his former sensei could possibly have something more important on his agenda than meet his grown students for ramen.
Sakura let out a breath she hadn't known she had been holding. At least something was going right today.
"All right, I'll come," Sakura agreed, turning to fall into step with Naruto. "But you're paying."
XXXXX
It turns out that Team Seven not only included Sasuke, but Sai as well, for they found the two of them occupying adjacent stools in uneasy silence upon their arrival.
It was no secret that the two of them didn't get along. Their relationship was even rockier than it had been between Naruto and Sai upon their introduction. Sasuke didn't like the idea that Sai had essentially replaced him and Sai thought Sasuke was no better than trash for abandoning his village. However, the two of them had agreed to at least act civil in each other's presence when Sakura and Naruto were around.
"Jeez, what took you so long?" Sasuke huffed, disliking that he had been kept waiting.
Sai on the other hand greeted the couple with a usual fake smile.
After ordering, Naruto tried his luck with Sakura again.
"So Sakura, what are you going to be doing on your mission with Kakashi?
The kunoichi rolled her eyes and took a sip of her tea.
"I already told you it's classified."
"Really?" Sai chimed in. "I was in Tsunade's office earlier and the folder for that particular mission was in the non-classified stack."
If Sakura hadn't had two bodies sitting between her and the artist on the other end, Sai would have felt the full force of her fist against his face.
She heard Sasuke chuckle quietly as her lie was revealed and felt her cheeks flush pink. When she got back from this stupid mission, she would make sure that Sai would pay for embarrassing her in front of him.
Just then, their ramen arrived and she silently prayed the steaming bowls would be enough to divert their attention off of her, but as she grabbed a pair of chopsticks from the container on the counter and broke them apart, Naruto tried interrogating her again through a mouthful of noodles.
"Come on Sakura, what's the mission about? It's weird you're being so secretive about something non-classified."
"It's probably something so embarrassing, she doesn't want to tell anyone," Sasuke sneered as he fished a piece of pork out of his bowl and ate it with much more finesse than Naruto who was wolfing down his food as if he expected it to disappear at any moment.
"Embarrassing?" the blonde pondered, slurping a noodle noisily. "Like rescuing puppies or something?"
"No you idiot. Why would Tsunade send two elite shinobi for that?" Sasuke scoffed, rolling his eyes and taking no notice that Sakura sat up a little straighter, her heart beating faster at the fact he had called her elite.
"Well then what do you think the mission is?" the whiskered man said, jabbing a chopstick at Sasuke's face.
The dark haired Uchiha was silent a moment, a smug smile spreading over his features as he paused for dramatic effect. Sakura ate her ramen and tried to act like she was ignoring them but Sasuke spoke loud enough for her to hear too.
"Maybe, they have to act like husband and wife, and they don't want anybody to know."
Sakura practically chocked on a noodle and when she looked over at him with wide eyes, his own coal orbs were trained on her, his lips twisted in a smirk as he gauged the effect his comment had had on the kunoichi, seeing if he could loosen those tight lips a little.
"What? Kakashi-sensei and Sakura-chan acting married? That's just gross!" Naruto exclaimed while Sai ate his ramen quietly, impervious to the whole thing.
"Think about it," Sasuke continued, his eyes never leaving her shocked face. "They would have to hold hands in public and act all affectionate. They would sleep in the same bed, and if they really wanted to keep up appearances, maybe they would even—"
"Shut up!" Sakura exclaimed, finally loosing her cool. "We are not acting like we're married!"
"Then what is your mission exactly?" Sasuke asked smugly. "Or would you like me to keep guessing?"
The kunoichi sighed in defeat. She didn't want to know what other humiliating scenarios he could conjure up so she might as well just spill it. They were trustworthy enough not to go blabbing anyways.
"All right, I'll tell you," she said, setting down her chopsticks and leaning in so she wouldn't have to talk so loud.
The boys leaned in as well and even Sai perked up and took an interest, waiting expectantly for what she was about to say.
"I'm going to city with Kakashi, pretending that I'm a…dancer."
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