Ain't That a Kick in The Head?

9: Poker Face

An observant shinobi can tell they're quickly approaching Grass Country by the way forests of thick, tall trees have turned into the beginnings of a green plain sparsely covered with shrubs. The formation has changed, it's him and Sakura at the front with Naruto and Sai flanking the sides.

Not that Sasuke's complaining. He's honestly not questioning his easy release from the cage, especially since the conditions are as lame as 'prove yourself trustworthy'.

If he does listen to what Itachi said, it is possible to suck up to these losers without betraying his ideals. He'll just have to be in it for the long haul. Which'll be so, so difficult when all he wants to do is mount Danzo's head on a spike!

But if all he needs is for these morons to think he's one of them again...Maybe the bodyguard's advice of having patience wasn't so useless after all.

Tch.

This entire ordeal has been so humiliating.

(Naruto's behind him, and keeps trying to get his attention in increasingly aggravating ways– like shouting at him or throwing rocks at the back of his head. Sasuke refuses to look at him. Sasuke physically can't look at him. Then he'll have to kill him for real and that will delay his revenge.)

Sakura keeps staring at him.

Less lustfully than usual, it seems. More intensely.

If there's one thing he's learned about her actual personality in the past week, Sakura is intense.

Frighteningly so.

And currently she's got that scrutinizing glint in her green eyes that he recognizes from his time studying under Orochimaru, the one that says 'I will dissect you for your secrets.'

Sasuke has never liked that look. He always slept with one eye open and one hand on his sword on those days, just in case Orochimaru or Kabuto tried to sneak in and steal his eyes.

"So..." she tries, awkwardly.

"Hn." He picks his pace up.

Overhead, thick sheets of clouds are moving in. The sun peeks out warily behind the fluffy rippled wings of cirrocumulus clouds. The pale green grasses swish softly in the cool wind. As far as he can sense, their party are the only ones on this path for miles.

Sakura changes tactics, not realizing that he doesn't want to talk to her. She hurries to catch up to him and misses the foul look he gives her.

"So," Sakura tries again, "Naruto, huh?"

Sasuke stops dead in his tracks. "Excuse me?"

"I heard you talking to–"

"That was a private conversation," Sasuke snaps, pissed enough to actually look at her.

Sakura squirms uncomfortably and has the decency to blush in embarrassment. "So, you like-like him?"

"What?"

The pink tint on Sakura's cheeks deepens and she looks down at her feet shyly. "Do you want to go on dates with him? Hold hands?"

"Wh–" Sasuke feels his face burn. And a small stone collide into the back of his skull. He impulsively whips around to glare at the jackass perpetrator, who'd hollered a distant "Yes!" Then he realizes that he forgot that he was pretending Naruto didn't exist and rips his eyes away from the dumbass.

"You two always were off in your own little world..." muses Sakura. There's a sad smile on her face, the ends twisted up in lonely nostalgia.

"Why is this your business?" Sasuke manages to stutter out when he no longer feels like his face is going to burn to a crisp.