I Think I

Chapter 18:Wrapped Flowers

She was herding her team towards the Hokage Tower when her eyes caught sight of a familiar head of spiky blue-black hair going in the opposite direction some distance away from her.

She felt her cheeks heat up just a little bit and her heart start going faster as she remembered last night. How this time she actually remembered lying back down in the bed, with him next to her. They hadn't touched, but her heart had been racing the whole time, and she couldn't sleep much.

Her head shot up as a thought struck her. Lie back down again? Does it mean that Sasuke had made her lie down? A voice brought her out of her thoughts, and she inwardly thanked Eriko for it.

"Sensei? Sensei!" the girl waved a hand in front of Naruto's face. Naruto blinked and shook her head.

"Huh?"

"We're here," Nichiro answered quietly.

"Huh? Oh." Naruto scratched the back of her head sheepishly as Ichiro rolled his eyes at her.

"What's with you today, sensei?" Eriko demanded, planting herself in front of the blonde jounin, staring searchingly at her face. Naruto flushed faintly and waved her hands.

"Nothing! Come on, let's go get our mission. I did promise a C-rank, didn't I?" she said quickly, hoping to divert their attention. Thankfully, it worked as Eriko cheered and turned around to lead them into the Missions Room.

What was Sasuke doing in this part of town? I've never seen him here before,thought Naruto. She felt unduly curious, so, as she lagged behind her team, she quickly created a kuso bunshin and shunshin-ed out of the Hokage Tower.

She had to cover quite a distance before she saw him again – that distinctive duck-ass blue-black hair moving at a good speed away from the throng of Konoha. She hopped a few roofs and landed beside him.

"Hey, teme. Watcha doing? Never seen you around this area before," Naruto commented bluntly by way of greeting. Instead of silence or the usual irritated 'Hn' she expected, he gripped the wooden bucket in one hand and the wrapped up bunch of what seemed like flowers (she couldn't see them properly because he held them downwards, but they were wrapped in the style in which one usually wrapped flowers) in the other hand a little tighter and said coldly, "None of your business, baka."

Naruto paused mid-step and gawked a little at him in surprise. "Tell me! I'm just curious, coz you'd never go to those shops on the west side of the Hokage Tower! I mean, what could you want from there?"

Sasuke kept walking, and Naruto kept pestering him, until he stopped short and turned to give her a cold glare.

"None. Of. Your. Business."

Naruto caught sight of green stems jutting out of the narrow end of the conical wrapping – they were definitely flowers. But what was with the bucket? She raised a cheeky eyebrow at him, although her heart was mysteriously (okay, maybe not mysteriously) aching. "Aw, Sasuke, you bought flowers? Who's the lucky girl, huh? Huh?"

It seemed the wrong thing to say, because the intensity of the glare increased and a little killing intent seeped out of him.

"Come on, Sasuke. I know you hate me and all, but you could at least tell me? I could give you advice on how to get her!" her voice was cheerful and mischievous but her heart was aching painfully at the thought of Sasuke buying flowers for someone else.

The killing intent flooded her senses, and she quickly raised her hands in a placating gesture as she felt the ANBU usually following Sasuke around make their chakra presences felt; a warning.

"Fine, fine, don't tell me! I don't care, it doesn't matter anyway! Go woo the poor girl you've chosen to be your little baby factory, bastard!" Naruto said grouchily, a little bitterly, and crossed her arms. Sasuke scowled darkly at her and turned away from her before continuing down the street at an even faster pace than before. The blonde stared after him for a while, admiring the view she had of his posterior, before giving herself a mental smack when she caught herself at it.