title: the road to romance
warning: road to ninja - au
summary: when they were children, he was bearable. now he's just plain freaking annoying.
When they were children, he was bearable.
When he was still Spoiled-Little-Shit-Sasuke-Inner Sakura’s preferred moniker-Sakura just didn’t pay attention to him. He was flirtatious, yes, and he asked her on more dates than she could count, but back then he was mostly something for her to roll her eyes at. He was strong and smart and aesthetically pleasing, but he also didn’t take much seriously. Then they grew up, and although Sakura didn’t see him during his days of puberty, she was sure he dealt with them well. While hers didn’t hit her until she was sixteen (which was rather inconvenient because no one wants to spend their first jounin mission suddenly growing a pair of breasts), Sasuke had this way of just handling things.
That. Bastard.
After the chuunin exams they took at age thirteen, Sakura impressed the legendary Tsunade enough to be taken on as an apprentice. She spent two and half years with the woman learning everything from poisons to healing to strength to basic exercises. When she came back to Konoha, she’d spent ten months showing off her skills on Team Kakashi before she was promoted to jounin.
Then, when Sakura turned seventeen, she had the honour of being placed onto Konoha’s Alpha Squad led by the legendary Uchiha Itachi.
But during the ten months Sakura had spent with Team Kakashi, Sakura’s distaste for Sasuke only grew.
He annoyed her.
Technically, both of her teammates annoyed her, but Uchiha Sasuke was just plain irritating. Sakura couldn’t stand the way he’d stare at her with that look on his face and that stupid silly smirk. It didn’t help that when she finally did look back at him (to glare, of course) he’d do this little not-a-snort but not-a-scoff yet not-a-laugh thing that made her insides melt a little and her face muscles want to actually smile. He was aggravating and she just could not stand him.
God.
“He’s nothing special,” Sakura mumbled to herself as she watched him and Naruto spar, silently cataloguing each and every move.
Sasuke seemed to have sense her taunt, Sakura deduced, when he paused between punches to remove his shirt and wipe away some sweat.
Sakura only scowled, cursing herself for blushing-
“Oi, Sakura-chan!”
Her teammates approached her. Sakura noticed a concerned look on Naruto’s face.
“What?” she asked.
Sasuke cupped her cheek to gauge her temperature. “Maybe you should stay out of the sun. Your face is getting really red.”
Sakura could only nod stiffly.
Annoying bastard.