Chapter Text
Sakura let out a long sigh as she looked around the messy apartment. Everywhere she looked on every possible surface, ugly brown cardboard boxes made it their breeding ground. Said boxes consisted of stuff Naruto needed, crap that Naruto didn't need, or shit Naruto didn't even know he had. Today, Sakura had the oh so glorious job of deciding of what they would be taking with them and what would get tossed the fuck out.
The trio was in the process of moving Naruto out of this bad neighborhood and into Sakura and Sasuke's shared apartment. The two of them had long since agreed that they would have their blonde move in with them, but even though Naruto practically spent all of his time at the apartment, he refused to move in with them. It took every ounce of their being that they had to convince Naruto to submit, but after a verbal argument between her boys turned into a fist fight, which surprisingly overturned into an emotional confession, Naruto gave in.
Now, here she was in the midst of this chaos shifting through boxes upon boxes of useless items that should be discarded just because she said so. She then settled her eyes upon one particular box Sasuke tagged as, 'shit'. Going over, she tilted the box with her middle finger until it reached her view. Her nose scrunched up in annoyance as she discovered that the box was filled with random things that one could find under a bed...or between the couch cushions...or in the trash in front of a convenient store. She reached into the box of tricks and pulled out a toy that would classify as that one toy one would get from the dentist for being "cavity free". The toy was a red plastic ring with two tiny noise making white balls along with two tiny holes set a fraction of a centimeter apart from one another, the background consisted of an overly colorful picture of a purple seahorse with abnormally big eyes and goofy teeth. A tiny plastic shield covered the ring so the little balls could not escape. It didn't take a genius to understand how the life wasting gadget worked, nor did it take a genius to master the simple game.
Apparently, Sakura is no genius.
The tiny toy, now destroyed by the wrath of the pink haired beauty lays gone, but not forgotten in the 'Shit Box'. She didn't know whether to be mad that the stupid toy because it didn't work the way she wanted it to, or be pissed because she wasted precious minutes actually trying to desperately 'win'.
Deciding to get back on track, Sakura looked around the tiny apartment. Seeing that she hadn't gotten anywhere from ten minutes ago, 'Yes, ten whole minutes!' her inner voice shouted at her stupid decision, she decided to go at things a much easier, more lazy way.
"You go." Sakura pointed at a random, 'crap' box. "You stay." She was pretty sure she heard that, 'Eh..' box shout, "Yippie." She'd played about this strategy for about twenty minutes, mauling any offending Cavity Free Toy she found on the way, until she faintly heard Naruto and Sasuke arguing in the back under their breaths. She laughed to herself at their actions because she threatened them both to a week on the couch if they started a fight with each other during The Great Migration. She was already stressed out over the fact that she had this job in the first place.
"Well, it is my fault..."She said aloud after a brief moment. Sakura had given herself the job of The Keeper Taker Upper for the Migration. She would rather not hear Naruto's constant complaining of why useless things had to be banished to The Shit Box. She also rather not hear Sasuke insult Naruto for wanting to save said useless things from the eternal damnation of The Shit Box.
"Ouch, you bastard!" She heard Naruto half hissed, half whined under his breath. Knowing her boys by their tone of voices, Sasuke had probably hit him for something Naruto probably did. She could then hear rustling, then a loud thunk from the back, no doubt from Naruto getting his revenge.
"Strike one!" Sakura shouted loud enough for the two fighting men to hear.
"See! Look what you did, idiot!" Sasuke shouted at the blonde.
"Look what I did? If it wasn't for you hitting poor unsuspecting me, then none of this would have happened, teme!" Naruto retaliated.
"If you weren't being so stupid, then I wouldn't have had to hit you, dobe!"
"Strike two!" Sakura shouted over in the middle of their argument. "One more strike boys and you know what that means? It means couch time for the both of you." She said in a sing-song voice. With a smirk she learned from the Uchiha himself, she continued, "Oh, and you do remember there is only one couch, don't you boys?" After hearing complete silence, an understanding that the two clearly understood, she smiled to herself for having such authority over her boys.
Turning around on her heel, she quickly found herself with a throbbing middle toe. Her eyes went wide as tears gathered at the corner of her eyes. She felt a few words she learned from Tsunade-sama slip through her pink lips as she grasped her toes in hopes of relieving the pain. She could hear Naruto and Sasuke from the back drop whatever they had and rush to her aid. Hopping on her good foot toward the couch, she fell with her back onto the couch, clutching her aching foot close to her chest demonstrating her flexibility after years of training and yoga. Her green eyes scanned around for the culprit of what caused her foot a great deal of pain. She then, for the first time saw a big, brown heavy book. She couldn't make out the details of the book with her eyesight blurred from the pain in her toe that spread throughout her entire left foot.
"Sakura-chan!" She could hear Naruto shout, his voice full of concern. She brought her eyes up to see two sets of eyes, one pair onyx, the other sky blue, looking at her with worry. Sasuke squatted down until he was eye level with her. His dark eyes scanned her face carefully.
"Whats wrong?" Sasuke said evenly. Even though his voice sounded stoic, she could still hear the faint sense of worry in it. All three of them had a different way of expressing their emotions. Sakura, most of the time straightforward with what was bothering her, she wore her heart on her forehead and painted it purple; Both Naruto and Sasuke could read her like an open book with large font and bold letters.
"My fuckin' foot." She hissed through clenched teeth and tightly closed eyes.
Naruto was immediately by the wounded area. As carefully as he could, he pulled Sakura's grasping hands away from her throbbing foot. With precise eyes, he inspected the delicate area. From what he learned from years of being a shinobi, he could at least tell it wasn't broken. But he did notice the rapid swelling. Naruto muttered something about getting some ice then quickly disappeared into the kitchen. While Naruto went to go get the ice, Sasuke easily maneuvered Sakura off to the side of the couch and elevated both of the young woman's feet onto the cushions.
"This is why you are supposed to wear the appropriate attire, Sakura." Sasuke scolded her about the flimsy sandals she chose to wear for the occasion after he settled her in his lap.
"Well, I didn't plan on slamming my toe against a two-ton book!" She yelled back, one small hand still grasping her throbbing foot, while the other accusingly pointed at the alleged offender with blazing emerald eyes. If he wasn't an Uchiha, Sasuke would have laughed at the sight. Her breath came out in shaky gasps through her nose and her cheeks were painted a dark shade of pink with anger. He had to admit, he was a little turned on.
Naruto soon came back with a bowl of icy cold water. A small navy blue towel was thrown over his left should in a lazy fashion. He sat on the opposite side of the pair and set the bowl on the chestnut coffee table in front of them. Carefully, he lifted Sakura's foot by the ankle and set it in his lap. He then reached over, dabbed the towel in the ice cold water, then proceeded to wrap the towel around the toes of her foot. Sakura let out a surprised yelp and attempted to pull her leg away, but with Naruto's firm grasp, she couldn't.
"How did you manage to miss two toes and go straight for the middle one, Sakura?" Naruto asked as he attempted to lighten the mood.
As Sakura was about to answer with a slap to the back of the head before Sasuke interrupted, "Oi, dobe, what's this?" He said. Neither of them had even realized that Sasuke was no longer behind Sakura and was now squatting down beside the oversized book. The book was worn with age; the unusually thick pages from what he could see held a yellowish tint to them. The cover was crumpled at the edges looking as if its been through years of usage.
"Aw, sweet!" Naruto exclaimed with wide, sparkling eyes, "Sakura's middle toe found our photo album!" He flashed a toothy smile. He almost pushed the injured girl off of him so he could retrieve the item, but fortunately, Sasuke beat him to it.
"Our photo album?" Sasuke asked with a thin, raised eyebrow. It was more of a statement than a question. Opening the delicate book, his eyes widened slightly as he looked through the pages. Each flip of the page was filled with pictures with either, Naruto, Sakura, or himself. Some were a variation of the three. The pictures held all sorts of emotion; some were happy, some were sad, others were tragic..
He stopped on one picture in particular.
He couldn't help but smile as he took in the scene. In the picture was the wobbly Naruto on a pink bicycle with a white basket in front. The blonde's wide blue eyes held fear, excitement, and most prominent, determination. His mouth was open wide, probably from screaming like a boy going through the first stages of puberty. In the background, he could himself cheering the blonde on. Sakura was probably the one taking the picture. Considering how close the screaming blonde was to her, it was a last minute attempt at a picture before she could get out of the way.
"Hey, that's the time we taught Naru-chan how to ride a bike!" Sakura said, temporarily forgetting about the pain in her now cold, numb toes. She pulled herself up on her hands, the position considered awkward because her foot was still resting in Naruto's lap. She titled her head slightly tilted to the side to get a better view of the interesting picture. Her emerald eyes scanned the picture thoroughly taking in every detail as a smile found its way to her pink-tinted lips.
Suddenly, a loud giggle was heard. Naruto rolled his eyes as Sasuke started to laugh as a well. There, under the picture was another picture of the same scenery. Gone was the excitement from his face. Gone was the determination. All that was left was shock and disappointment. The blonde had somehow found his way into the nearby murky lake. He sat in the middle, with his knees poking out; his hands and feet disappeared into the murkiness. The only visible parts of the bike were the handlebars and part of the white basket. Naruto's face was covered with mud and water, while has hair was no longer oh so bright.
Sakura went from giggles to laughter as the humor in it all escalated. Her face was starting to turn pink as she grabbed her stomach and threw her head back.
"It can't possibly that funny, Sakura." Naruto said with a bored tone. He glanced at the pictures, then looked at Sasuke was chuckling low to himself.
"Oh, but it IS Naruto!" She defended, still laughing loudly, which caused Naruto to pout cutely. He gave a light squeeze to the foot he was tending, only until Sakura whined at the discomfort did he stop. He mumbled a "sincere" apology, then proceeded to reapply the makeshift footwrap.
"Come on, Naru-CHAN," Sasuke said clearly mocking the pouting blonde. "Don't you remember how cute you looked while trying to find your balance on a two-wheel device that only involved using momentum as its only solution?" he finished with a smirk.
"You're an asshole, you know that?" Naruto looked away blushing. He then took the bowl of now just cold water and went back into the kitchen. Sasuke looked at Sakura who was starting to come down from her high and her face gaining its natural shade of color back.
"Naruto, you know Sasuke's just trying to get under your skin."
"And in your pants." Sasuke added quickly. Too quickly.
Sakura pulled herself back up to a sitting position, careful not to move her wrapped foot from its place. She smiled as Naruto returned from the kitchen empty handed and sat down next to her with a plomp. She felt the couch once again shift as Sasuke sat on the other side of her.
"I know, he's just being a bastard." Naruto said with a half-hearted glare toward dark haired man. "A kinky bastard."
Sakura took the photo album from Sasuke. "Naruto, I remember this day perfectly..." She said studying the picture, reminiscing.