(no subject)

[askerian]

So, er, I'm losing ground on my NaNoWriMo story. I couldn't write enough two days ago, barely met my daily requirement yesterday... So today, really! I should be doing my best to work overtime on Liadan and Arun's story.



Setting up the seal, in Naruto's humble opinion, should have trumped cleaning the house a hundred times over.

Apparently the first was a good reason to do the second.

"I don't understand why I've got to clean up the bedrooms upstairs!" Naruto groused as he stomped back down the staircase with a bucket full of dirty water in hand.

Sakura looked up from her scrolls and sighed at him. "Because there's a layer of dust we could use as a mattress in there?"

"It's not that bad, really." Naruto opened a window, leaned out to check that Sasuke wasn't anywhere in sight, and dumped the contents of the bucket on the wilted flowerbeds underneath. "And beside we're not even using them. I mean, I wouldn't mind if it was going to be our bedroom, but they're barely big enough to fit two people and even then, they'll have to be real friendly, if you catch my drift."

"Since when do you mind that?" Sakura replied with a chuckle and a roll of her eyes.

"Well, I don't, but sometimes I like to sprawl all over the place. And what are we gonna do in summer? We'll roast alive."

"We could put futons on the gallery," she suggested, wistful. "I've heard that people with traditional houses do that."

"Bah. Sasuke won't. This gallery's turned toward the street. We'll be too exposed."

Sakura sighed. "Mmn."

"Yeah," Naruto commiserated, even though he didn't know what was so special about sleeping in the gallery.

"Yeah... Are you done with cleaning yet?"

Naruto grimaced, and waved the empty bucket around in annoyance. "I thought we agreed that it was useless! And boring! But especially useless. We not gonna sleep there, and we're going to do the seal thing in the dojo anyway."

Sakura glowered at him. "Well it needs to be done anyway, doesn't it? I'm not going to live in a house where there are doors you never open for fear of being eaten by a mutated dust bunny."

"Or buried alive under a landslide of broken things?" Naruto continued, chuckling.

"Or poisoned by a ramen packet that someone stacked in a damp corner."

Naruto stuck out his tongue at Sasuke, who was leaning against the door to the corridor and watching them. "It's not my fault it's damp everywhere in the kitchen."

"Like it's going to stay there long enough to get moldy," Sakura commented with a little laugh. "Did you need something, Sasuke?"

"Hm. Know where I can find a stepladder?"

Naruto scoffed. He wasn't giving up his. "Hey, you're a ninja, be creative."

"I don't feel like being creative with a bucket of paint in hand and my feet stuck to a rotting ceiling."

"... Man. The ceiling's rotting too?"

Sasuke shrugged. "Probably. I'm not about to test it out." He pushed off from the wall and stepped in the staircase.

Naruto yelped a protest. "Hey! You're not taking my ladder!"

"So you DO have one!" Sakura pointed at him, accusing.

"... Well... Yeah. But I'm using it, damn it."

Sasuke rolled his eyes and started walking up the stairs again. "You're a ninja, be creative."

"Asshole!"

"The bedroom ceilings are a lot lower. You don't need it. I do."

Naruto huffed and crossed his arms on his chest, glaring death at Sasuke's back. Sakura giggled in her hand; he pouted at her. "Mean."

"Don't be a baby, Naruto." Sakura rolled her scroll, stashed it to the side, picked up a sheet of paper covered in scribbles, and got up.

"What's that?"

"Oh, just containment seals to apply on the walls. They're not really necessary, but better safe than sorry, right?"

Naruto's smile softened a bit. No chance was too insignificant to bother with, huh. "You just want an excuse to have a romantic moment with Sasuke again."

She startled, freezing in her tracks. "What? I didn't --"

Oh, hell, now she looked guilty. Stupid! "Uh huh. And all those study dates were platonic, eh?" he asked, leaning closer and nudging her in the ribs knowingly. "You, him... A shiny scroll full of weird techniques..."

Now she was pouting. Naruto's grin widened.

"Aha! So nothing's ever happened? Oh, man, he sucks. Poor Sakura-chan, your other boyfriend is an eunuch. Don't worry, I'll give you all the loving you need."

She caught sight of his waggling eyebrows, and burst out in scandalized laughter. "Oh, that's horrible! He's not."

Naruto stared at her dubiously.

"... I'm pretty sure he's not." And now she was sighing. "Nothing has ever happened with him -- well, I mean, it was so -- so nice to have an occasion to talk with him like this, you know? So stimulating -- intellectually stimulating," she rectified as she caught Naruto's leer, "and I really do feel like we became a little closer... and it's really nice to know that he has such a high opinion of my intelligence..."

"But no making out."

Sakura reddened, and her shoulders slumped. "... No."

Naruto chuckled and wrapped an arm around her shoulders, pulling her against his side. "For such a smart girl, you're really silly sometimes."

"Hey! How come?"

"Well if you're waiting on HIM to make the first move, you're gonna die an old maid. No, seriously, I love the bastard to death, but he's frigid like somebody's great-grandmother. He's not just gonna wake up and say 'oh hey, wanna go on a date'. So next time, you should MAKE it into a date!"

Sakura blinked at him. "Make it...?"

"No, seriously. Start it. Molest him! He secretly loves it -- OW."

Sasuke had just brained him with the stepladder. He didn't stop for so little, he kept walking down the stairs and past the two of them, scowling and refusing to look their way. Naruto rubbed his head and glared at his back.

"Really should get laid more often."

Sakura shook her head, chuckling tiredly. "I should get back to work now. Thank you," she added, with a little smile, and a quick kiss to the corner of his mouth that made him grin goofily and forget his bump.

He watched her follow Sasuke through the door, and then sighed and made his way upstairs.