Of Fate, Chance and a One more time

Of Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke

Chapter FOUR

Fate had done them a favor. Now, Team Seven had another four hundred and ninety nine favors to collect. Fate owed them more than Tsunade had ever lost in a single gamble, which was still a lot.

However, Naruto was feeling extra grateful that day, and decided to count this one favor as two. The moment he stepped into Ichiraku, he was forced into a bone crushing hug, chakra and all. It took everything in him, from his ninja training to his experience in the war, to not cry out in pain.

"Sa-Sakura-chan!" He whimpered. "It hurts."

He was instantly released, the arms around him replaced by a worried hand on his forehead.

"Oh gods, I'm so sorry. You're aren't hurt, right? No broken bones?" Sakura fretted.

Naruto shook his head, half to comfort his teammate, and the other to try and get rid of the tears forming at the corners of his eyes. If they were formed due to the bone breaking hug he had gotten, or from happiness at seeing his teammates, he wasn't sure.

"If you were so worried about broken bones, why did you hug me with chakra?" Naruto asked, rolling his neck to make sure that, yes, his bones weren't broken.

Sakura smiled at him sweetly, a smile he had come to be wary of. "I was just making sure. If you couldn't survive a hug of that level, you certainly weren't our Naruto."

Naruto decided not to point out the flaws in that statement. What if him-but-not-him (Basically the NOT time traveled Naruto) had died due to the sheer force of the hug. He didn't think the before him would have survived current Sakura's non-chakra hugs either.

"Hn. Dobe, are you crying?"

Ah, there. And that may have been the reason he was trying to get rid of the tears.

Naruto scoffed, rubbing his eyes. "You wish, Teme."

Sakura smiled at them both, then hugged Naruto again, this time without chakra. After a second, she reached out and dragged Sasuke into the embrace as well.

Sasuke's cry of annoyance was cut off when Sakura slammed his forehead against Naruto's. "Ops, sorry." She didn't sound sorry at all.

And that was the reunion of Team Seven.

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After watching the nostalgic scene of Naruto wolfing down at the ramen bowls he did, Team Seven sneaked into the Forest of Death. Having lived through a war, sneaking over a fence unnoticed was no biggie.

They soon came across a nest of huge leeches, where Team Seven didn't even glance at each other before they threw themselves into said nest, tearing through everything in their way.

"THIS IS US!" Naruto screamed, slamming against a leech with his forehead, sending it flying. "AND WE'RE AWESOME!"

Sakura cackled evilly. She crushed a leech with her hand, stared at the mess, and threw it at Sasuke, covering his slick hair with leech guts.

Sasuke yelped at the unexpected attack. Gooey stuff ran down his neck and into his shirt.

"Sasuke! A leech spat poison at you!"

Sasuke finally calmed down and casually kicked a dead leech at Sakura, who smashed it with a kick, sending more leech guts everywhere. "Haha, very funny."

Sakura huffed while Naruto just stared. He forgot all about the leeches and tiptoed over to Sakura and began rapidly whispering into her ear.

Sakura's eyes became serious and she nodded. Naruto's eyes widened and they both simultaneously turned to look at the annoyed Uchiha.

"What?" He snapped.

Naruto whispered into Sakura's ear again.

Sasuke stomped over to them, leeches completely forgotten. "What?" He repeated.

"We were just saying that...maybe you're not Sasuke." Naruto began seriously.

Sasuke raised an eyebrow and turned to Sakura, only to see that she looked just as serious. The kind of serious he would see when Sakura was working on a surgery.

"Because the Sasuke we know doesn't smile, doesn't laugh, doesn't tease, doesn't...doesn't..."

"Doesn't grin." Sakura chimed in. "I was thinking of that-"

"Okay, guys." Sasuke raised both his hands, and the back of his mind told him that that action wasn't 'Uchiha Sasuke' either.

Sakura and Naruto looked at him expectantly.

"...hn."

"That's more like it!" Naruto exclaimed. Sakura slapped Sasuke on the back so hard that he crashed into the ground.

The Uchiha gritted his teeth and slowly stood up, ready to chew them out, only to find that they were both gone.

"Those idiots!"

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"Oooo, Sasuke-kun! What happened? You're soaking wet! Do you want to come to my house? I have spare clothes-"

He had been forced to bathe in the lake before heading home. What would his mother say if she found him covered in blood and leech intestines? He didn't have any extra clothes or anything, so he was walking home in the clothes he had been wearing before. At least then, he could make up an excuse about falling into the river. Maybe he could say that he was practicing the fireball jutsu and he lit himself on fire by mistake and he jumped into the lake to extinguish the flames.

Sakura and Naruto's idiocy must have rubbed off on him.

"No." Sasuke shoved past the girl fawning over him, cringing. When one was around, there was usually a lot behind her...

"Oh, it's Sasuke-kun! He's soaking wet! Maybe he'll give me his shirt!"

That voice was so...

Sasuke wondered if 'annoyance' counted as an emotion strong enough to awaken his Sharingan.

There stood Sakura and Naruto, is his oiroke no jutsu, making googly eyes and pointing at him. It was Sakura who had called out, catching the attention of all Uchiha Sasuke fans in the area.

It must be a former-fan girl thing, because she got the tone and the pitch just right.

All the girls in the area turned to him like they were in some sort of trance.

Sasuke wanted to scream. HE WAS FIVE GODDAMIT!

Sasuke saw Sakura and Naruto slip away into the crowd as more and more girls (Was that a guy standing there, drooling?) gathered around. He tried to push the girls away to go after his teammates (So he could murder them), but more replaced them. They grabbed his hair and his shirt.

They just did not sic a horde of fangirls at him.

Okay, he had left Konoha and abandoned them. He had tried to kill them on more than one occasion. He had gone with Orochimaru. He had done thing that would put him on the list of most terrible friends ever. Still, not even he deserved this.

He was going to kill them, and at least this time, he would have a proper reason.