Note: This is set years after the latest manga chapter -that being 426 at the moment. The characters are supposed to be in their twenties in this story set after the war that ends in my own thought out way. Also, although this chapter contains tame content, this is indeed a rated M fic for Dub-con and the adult material to come. If you are offended by such things or if you are underage, then please feel free to turn back now. Otherwise, please enjoy the read. :)

The Many Uses of One’s Friends

“Shit!” Sakura cursed aloud, a hand feeling nothing but spandex covered thigh as she rolled end over end, away from the metal blade of the sword stabbing down into the ground where her body had just been. With her kunai holster laying feet away in the grass, the kunoichi yelled to her partner, “Sai!”

Without looking and without a second thought, the ink-user –caught in his own battle- unsheathed and tossed the short-bladed weapon from over his left shoulder to the unarmed woman, who was still rolling away from instant death, off to his side.

Sakura caught the tossed item by the hilt moments before the long piece of sharp metal from her opponent above came sailing down upon her momentarily stopped torso. Sparks flew as their two weapons crossed hard in an X formation with a loud clang echoing from the contact, the two ninja’s hands around the separate hilts shaking with the effort.

However, the kunoichi kicked out a leg, effectively sweeping the cloud-nin off his feet with a crushing kick to the side of the man’s ankle. The moment the bastard’s back hit the ground, the female was off her own, kneeling above with Sai’s weapon coming down toward the startled ninja’s chest with a force unrivaled by any. Death came quick to the grey uniformed one, whose body was pounded into that crater as ground cracked and exploded in a shower of dirt, under the kunoichi’s stabbing blow.

After ripping the dead nin’s scratched headband from his already growing cold forehead and yanking back the borrowed weapon from its trenched place, sunken wrist-deep into the now concave chest, Sakura moved to scale the hole’s steep walls that her own hands had created. Once her chakra stained heels had lead her back to the surface, the woman looked up to find her partner soaring through the air on the back of an inked bird toward her. Flicking her eyes in the direction Sai had just come from, Sakura saw that his own battle had been won even as she stuffed her cloth and metal prize into a pocket of her tan apron. The body lying in the other crater, between the many trees feet away, gave an evident clue that the unfortunate Cloud-nin was dropped by Sai from miles above.

Sakura immediately tossed back the borrowed item in her hand to the man currently hopping down from his minion, knowing all too well that Sai was never one to share unless eminent doom loomed over one of their shoulders.

Sai caught it easily as his feet touched ground, a splatter of blood from the tainted blade splashing onto his pale cheek in the process. Giving the kunoichi a distasteful twist of his lips at being contaminated so, Sai wiped his face off with the back of his single long sleeve, “You could have at least returned it in the same state it was given, Sakura.”

The female merely rolled her eyes, while walking toward where her cutaway holster lay, “Eh, slipped my mind.”

After a poof signaled the disappearance of the bird behind him, Sai added –much to her displeasure, “If you had taken care not to find yourself unarmed, then I would not have had to lend you my weapon in the first place.”

Sakura’s lips frowned before giving a weary, “Can it,” in return. Then, sighing, the kunoichi picked up her fallen bag, while giving an even heavier breath at the ruined strap that had been cleanly cut in two, “Damn it. And I had just bought this one too.”

“Maybe if you had-” Sai began to offer as he wiped the blood coating his weapon off on a handkerchief he had produced from a pocket, but was stopped by the bark from his partner.

“Zip your lips, you bastard!” Letting the ruined pack dangle at her side from a bit of strap, the female trudged off toward the dirt road a ways away, while giving a grumbled, “Shit happens, so deal with it,” over a shoulder.

However irked she was in that moment, the kunoichi still offered a thumbs up over a shoulder to the sighed, “Did you at least have the sense to pick up your proof of mission completion this time?” thrown her way.

The kunoichi stepped onto the country passage with the overgrown thickets on either side that led back to the large village they were currently staying at. Stopping and turning back to her frowning partner, she gave a wide-set grin as the slight wind blew the ends of her hair across her lit features –feeling in better spirits at their mission being completed, “You worry too much.”

“And you do not worry enough,” Sai sighed while pocketing the now stained handkerchief. Then after sheathing his weapon, he ran a hand through his dark hair, before resignedly following after the woman clearly not waiting for him.

Sai and Sakura’s newfound partnership was a strange thing, indeed.

Although it was true that their friendship of sorts had been tested to the point of fraying during the war, they had reached a certain understanding now.

With the passage of time, they had both come to overlook each other’s flaws in lieu of a consensual peace between them. Well it was more like they had to, after having been slotted beside each other in their current two-man cell within the ranks of ANBU three years before.

The pair of Leaf elite, finally treading back on the dusty road that led to the village they would be saying goodbye to the next morning together, still didn’t exactly know why the Rokudaime and their wood-using Section Commander chose to specifically placed them as such.

Then again, it was a fact that the current masked Hokage was famously known to mystify all that knew him to no end at times.

Sai looked over to the female, who was shaking the bits of grass and dirt from her hair, off to his side as they walked.

In truth, both he and she had been hoping to be paired with a certain kyuubi-container, after the three of them had decided to become the Hokage’s trusted hands and eyes, alongside most of the old Rookie 9 he had ended up befriending over the years –if you could call doing favors in return for his own befriending.

Even though they rightfully didn’t see eye-to-eye on most things outside of work, Sai had to admit that the woman beside him had at least turned out to be a rather efficient partner during missions. Her close range skills offset his mid-to-long range ones quite nicely. And unlike Naruto, he didn’t have to worry about her flying off the handle half-cocked during critical situations. Even though her anger produced fits of rage against his own person when he pissed her off, she never let herself become so emotional during battle. And he found himself more than thankful for that.

Besides those facts, from the placement of the other teams, much like Naruto and Hinata, TenTen and Neji, and himself and Sakura, Sai had discerned that each pair had been assigned at least one medic -an important factor that their last Hokage had rigidly stamped into place for good reason.

And with each of their skills having grown as they had, anything more than two members per team was severely overkill in most cases. They hadn’t earned the title of the Rokudaime’s trusted few for nothing.

Sakura looked over to her partner, who was currently silently staring at her with his trademark blank expression laced with a bit of far off wonder. The side of her mouth twisted up as her lips pursed on the side of her face with the action, “What?”

“Nothing,” Sai merely replied, before turning away, eyes back on the bit of buildings slowly coming into view in the distance before them.

In truth, he didn’t mind earning his pay and defending the village alongside Sakura now, even if she still griped about doing so herself. She had become tolerable enough.

But then again, they had all changed in some way after the war with Pein and Akatsuki. Body relaxed at their casual gait and the comfortable silence, Sai let the images of the past play before his suddenly day dreaming eyes as his sandaled feet carried him forward.

“What the hell are you doing?!” A blonde male yelled to the man standing behind a pink haired woman with a silver-bladed weapon at her throat in a rounded hall.

“I am stopping you from killing my master, Naruto,” The armed, dark haired ninja with the blank features replied.

A fist clenched as blue eyes hardened, “Let her go, Sai.” With a shake of blonde spikes, the whiskered shinobi furiously ground out from his place mere feet away in the corridor, “I know you’d never hurt Sakura-chan, so just-!”

However, the light draw of blood beneath metal told another story.

A muffled scream came from behind a pale bit of covering palm as black, gloved hands fisted at the hostage’s side, an audible stretch of leather being heard in the lingering bout of silence following.

“Damn it, Sai!” Tan lips growled, breaking the tension-filled quiet, “How can you do this after-!”

“You’ve said before that bonds should not be broken. Even before Nii-san, my first connection was with Danzou-sama, the man who said he found me, who then took me in, and gave me a name and a purpose.”

A hand around a hilt slackened at the end of a long pause, where dark eyes looked from the hard ones before them to the ground, “Should I not do what can be done to keep that bond as well?”

A growl trembled as limbs shook beside orange and black clad hips, “You’d want to keep the one with that bastard of a traitor?!”

A brow creased, “But do you not also wish to keep your own with the Uchi-”

Sapphire eyes flashed with a pained rage, “Your so called master let Baa-chan die just so he could become Hokage, you idiot! Do you really think he cares about anyone but himself?! He doesn’t care about the village or you! Don’t you get it?!” Pain was forgone for a calm stare as even calmer words spilled from tanned lips, “I don’t want to do this, Sai. And I don’t think you want to do this either.”

Suddenly, the wrist holding the brandished weapon was crushed just as the hand covering a mouth was treated much the same from the not so defenseless woman being held under them.

The kunoichi spun in her place, facing the pained features of her capture. Pink lips lapsed into a sardonic smile as feminine eyes stared into clouded and confused dark orbs, “Naruto’s right, Sai. You’re an ass, but you’re no betrayer. We all know this isn’t something you want to do.” Green eyes looked over a shoulder as the female continued to rendered the pale man helpless in her chakra enhanced grip, “Go do your thing, Naruto.” A jaw set, “Avenge my shishou,” A grip tightened, “And set this idiot free.”

Sakura… Sakura… Sakura….

Waking from a shake of her shoulders and another call of her name, the kunoichi found herself looking into the dark eyes that belonged to the man her hands had later beat some sense into all those years before.

Still gazing at Sai’s too close features through the haze of sleep, the groggy female, now holding no grudges, blurrily and halfheartedly scowled as she groaned, “Gra, I’m up, so move.” Irritably batting his impassive face away with an errant hand, the tired woman added as she rolled to her side on the full size bed they were sharing for the night –their current Hokage being more than a little stingy with the mission money, “Why’d you wake me anyway, you bastard?”

Sai slid away from the grouchy bit of woman that he had been hovering over, to go sit back in his previous position, that being the floor at the edge of his side of the bed, “You were grinding your teeth again.” Picking up his drawing utensil and his tablet once more from the cool wood paneling, he added as he righted himself in his sitting position with his back to her, “It was quite distracting and equally annoying.”

Raising her torso a little with an elbow to the mattress on her side, the kunoichi wearily looked out the closed window before them, growing angry at seeing the stars that littered the night sky through that fingerprint-stained pane of glass, “Gah! You ass! It’s still dark out!”

Then, Sakura’s sleep fogged, angry gaze caught a glimpse of the drawing over her partner’s shoulder. Emerald eyes rolled, before her flushed features hit her pillow as her strained elbow finally gave out.

Voice muffled by the plushness she had smashed her face into, the female grumbled unintelligible, “Mro Mra Mraw Mra Mroo Mra?”

The turned away male’s lips wrapped into a slight smirk as, sitting on the floor with his usual half-shirted uniform sans sandals, his gaze slid to the x-rated three-page fold out on the floor to his side, “I would feel inclined to answer that if only your speech resembled something closer to human.”

Sakura tiredly turned her head, repeating her words –completely disregarding the dig meant for her, “Do you have to do that?”

Flicking his eyes from the dirty magazine –an item he was using as a reference for his work- Sai looked over his shoulder to the sleep-mussed woman behind with a smile of clear falseness, “Does this bother you?”

Sakura turned away from the look that made her hackles raise with a few angry flops on the mattress, her actions much like a fish out of water. Then scowling at the peeling wallpaper she was now facing, her voice took on a dark tone as she stilled, clearly trapped in the now twisted sheets and blankets, “Don’t get cute. You know it does.” Struggling to pull up the covers that had become tangled around her body, Sakura gave a heavy sigh, “Can’t you do that on your own time?”

The shameless male replied, before turning around and going back to his sketching, “I believe this is what is considered as such. Besides that fact, I still do not understand what problems you seem to have with me doing so.” With a smirk he added, his current side-job leaving him all too knowledgeable in the procreation process –albeit never having physically done so himself, “It is not like I am choosing to self-fornicate beside you while you are trying to sleep.”

“Prepare to die if you ever try, you bastard,” Sakura weakly responded, clearly meaning her words, yet knowing the fool would never dare such deeds in her presence –at least that she was aware of.

Features falling, Sai concluded with an air of finality as he shook his head disapprovingly, “I am merely working on a commission that, might I remind you, is tasked by my employer to be completed before we return tomorrow.”

The woman, already closing her eyes to regain her dream-like state, mumbled in turn, “Chapter or cover?”

“Chapter,” Sai replied as his hand went back to work his magic again, adding shading to an inner thigh.

“Whatever,” Sakura said through contently smacking lips. Ending their conversation of sorts, the kunoichi advised through a breathy, exhausted tone, “Just turn off the light when you’re done and try not to steal all the damn covers this time.”

Dark eyes slid to the side of a head as the man they belonged to gave a soft chuckle, clearly speaking of the cocoon state their bedding had now been twisted into around a feminine body, “I do not believe that is possible at this point.”

With that, the white noise of the scritch-scratch of Sai’s work lulled the female on the bed to sleep, Sakura’s deep breathing being heard in a record forty-five seconds.

With a sleepy grunt from the female behind as her pink painted foot, poking from the covers edge, twitched unseen, Sai’s dark eyes scrutinized the nearly completed work resting on his raised lap. After a full minute of hard examination between his work and the picture of things animals usually portrayed during mating season in the magazine, Sai frowned while turning the sketch in his hands to a ninety degree angle.

His brows creased further after another thirty seconds, while turning the rather cold interpreted piece once more. Chin hitting his chest in defeat as a deep breath was expelled from his weary body, Sai inwardly lamented, speaking of his whiskered employer’s words about the lacking state of his usual submissions.

What is feeling and how exactly does one apply that to artistic depictions of erotica?

Two worn, scratched headbands were laid on the Rokudaime’s desk by a male, pale hand as Sakura handed over the mission report beside her partner.

“I see that you two have returned safely,” Hatake Kakashi, in white and red, high-collared Hokage coat over his usual green vested uniform, gave an eye-crease from behind his large oak desk.

Sakura smiled wide as she stepped back in her place standing before the one who had succeeded her late shishou, after the false Hokage had been taken down during the war, “Yeah, wasn’t too hard.”

“Good to hear,” Kakashi nodded from his place in the high-backed chair. Then he added with a droopy eye, “I thought you would like to know. Naruto and Hinata are scheduled to return around this time as well.”

Sakura crossed her arms as she gave a nod, “Yeah. I already figured as much since we caught ‘em before we left.” Lifting her own brow, she added pointedly, speaking to the man in charge, “I guess you’ll be happy to know that the idiots’ next release is almost done too.” Her eyes lit with humor as she addressed the now esteemed man as he so hated, “Huh, Kakashi-sama?”

Completely disregarding being called so formally in the way he loathed, Kakashi turned to the woman’s half-shirted teammate with all but a sparkle in his one exposed eye, “Is that right?”

The kunoichi suppressed her laugher as her old sensei turned village protector hung on Sai’s every word, “Yes, it seems from the outline I was given by Naruto, that this new chapter illustration I have just finished is indeed the last.”

“Well now,” The Rokudaime gave brightly, “It seems that is good news indeed.”

“For you maybe,” Sakura grumbled under her breath with an eye-roll.

“What was that?” Kakashi asked with a touch of foreshadowing danger behind that droopy eye.

“Nothing Hokage-sama!” Scratching the back of her head with a hand, she gave a few forced laughs with a sweaty brow, “Ah-ha-ha-ha!” After nonchalantly coughing into a hand, she asked, “So, are we done here?”

The silver haired man gave her an unamused look before giving a nod, “You’re dismissed.”

Sakura’s stomach growled as she headed toward the door with Sai silently in tow behind her.

However, the moment she opened it, she found herself staring into surprised blue eyes. Seconds later, she found strong, tan arms crushing her body with tufts of spiky blonde hair in her face and mouth, “Sakura-chan, you’re alive!”

“Stup- Blech!” Sakura rasped out, before trying to blow the bits of hair from her tongue, from behind the sudden ambush of friendly love. Hitting the shinobi on his orange and black clad back with the bottoms of her balled fists, the woman tried again, face purple, “L-Let go, you idiot!”

Yes, even three whole years of being entrenched in the masked –and sometimes not so masked- elite, Naruto’s worries for those he considered family still ran deep.

Hinata thankfully had the great mind to help pry the fool from Sakura’s person as Kakashi shook his head from behind the scene with Sai doing much the same off to the side.

Sputtering and coughing with watery eyes at having the breath forced from her body, Sakura moved aside to let her fellow ANBU members through the door, “O-,” A cough, “Of course we’re alive, Idiot. You seriously don’t give us enough credit, if you think,” Another cough, “If you think trash like that’s gonna do us in.”

“Indeed,” Sai added rather perturbed -only showing so with the slightest twitch of a brow.

Naruto pouted a, “Well, you never know,” as he and his teammate/girlfriend entered the room around them, with the two women nodding their hellos to each other in the process.

Wiping a watery eye with the back of her hand, Sakura next ruffled the blonde’s already unruly hair with her other as she managed a grin, “Yeah, yeah, you big softy.”

Pushing the woman’s hand away from his spiky doo with a further pout, not liking being treated like a kid from the one he had been forced to let go, Naruto turned his attention to the smiling male behind Sakura, giving his hello of sorts with a manly lift of his chin, “Sai.”

After Sai returned the gesture, the blonde asked with an expectant gaze, speaking of their near complete project, “You finish up?”

Sai nodded, giving an arrogant smirk and even more pompous words, “Of course.”

Naruto pumped a fist and gave an, “Alright! We’re so on schedule!” as the long haired woman beside him gave her own hello to the ink-user in turn.

Smiling, Hinata nodded at the other male, “Sai.”

Sai returned the gesture just as Sakura went about giving her goodbyes, the inconspicuous and rather interrupting cough from their masked Hokage reminding them yet again that he wasn’t one to be kept waiting, “Naruto, you gonna drag poor Hinata to ramen afterward, right? I’m kind of hungry myself,” Her stomach growled causing her to blush before she added, “So if you want, I’ll drag Sai along with me and we’ll wait for you two there.”

At the mere mention of food, the corner of Naruto’s mouth began to water. He nodded with a hunger glazed look in his eyes, “Oh yeah.” Wiping the drool dangling from his bottom lip with the back of a sleeve, he all but moaned in ecstasy with Hinata giggling behind a hand off to his side, “Sounds so good.”

“Alright, see you two in a few,” Sakura gave as she waved over her shoulder, already in the process of finally heading through the office door to the hall outside.

As Sai came up alongside her in the rounded corridor, after having closed the door seconds before Naruto began rattling off his own mission details, Sakura nonchalantly threw out a, “It’s not like you had anything else to do, right?”

Sai merely gave her a simple, “No,” in return.

Although he wasn’t exactly thrilled with the idea of his partner directing his activities for the next hour or so, he did still have to hand over his work to their whiskered friend. Besides, after last night’s pondering as the woman had tossed in her sleep, Sai felt he had some business to discuss with his Icha-Icha series co-owner as well.

“See ya!” Naruto, his belly rotund with great eats, called after his two favorite women, who were walking away together down the village main road under the evening sky.

Their dinner had been more than great in his highly biased eyes and the company had been exactly as it should be to him as well.

Then turning toward the other male standing outside the blue curtain hanging down from the ramen shop behind them, the blonde asked, before wondering off in the opposite direction with his hands in his pockets, “So, what’s up, Sai?” Naruto’s voice took on a derogatory tone as he asked the silent male following along, “This ain’t about another raise is it, ‘cause you’re stingy ass’s already getting fifty percent of the-”

“No,” Sai easily interrupted with an air of calm as he easily kept pace beside Naruto’s lazy gait.

“Then what’cha want ta talk about, huh?” The blonde asked the otherwise silent man to his side as the two of them continued down the road to their respective apartments together.

However, Sai’s pointblank, “I wish to have sex,” had the other man, befuddled, pale, and clearly sweating from the brow, stopping in his tracks.

Sheet-white as a ghost, Naruto stammered as he slowly backed away, “O-Oh man, please don’t tell me you mean-”

“No,” Sai gave an unimpressed look in turn, clearly knowing what the other was going to say.

“You know, you really shouldn’t just spring a thing like that on a guy,” Naruto replied with a relaxed look, his relief breathing life back into his features. After running his hands through his hair with a whoosh of breath spilling from his tan lips, Naruto picked up their trek again with Sai doing much the same, “You totally had me thinking the worst.”

The ink-user merely smiled in return.

In truth, Sai wasn’t foolish enough not to know that the blonde wasn’t exactly the best source to come to for help on such a matter. However, Naruto and Sakura were the only two he felt comfortable with directing his usual questions about life to in the end. He had grown close to them, even though, at times, he sorely wished he hadn’t. Besides, in such a case, he sorely doubted the kunoichi could point him in the right direction on such a subject –no matter how manly he thought she acted at times. More to the point, Naruto did have one thing over his female partner and himself that held weight in his book, that being that the fact that the blonde had seemed to snag himself a steady significant other.

“Is it such an odd request?” Sai asked.

A laughed, “Not as long as you’re talking about doing it with a girl, it’s not,” answered Sai’s pondering statement, before Naruto stopped and put a hand on the other’s shoulder with a knowing and understanding, male bonding gaze to Sai’s profile, “Actually, I kinda knew you were the V-word.” With a shake of his head and a chuckle Naruto added, “ With the messed up way your mind works sometimes, I just knew no girl’d have gone for letting you anywhere near her pants.” Then hanging his head, Naruto added with Sai’s features already looking derisive in nature, “It’s about damn time though. For a while there I totally thought you were ga-”

“I believe I have explained this countless times beforehand, Naruto, but my preferences do not run along the homosexual vein,” Sai wearily echoed as he brushed the other male’s hand from his shoulder, like lint from his uniform.

“Hey, hey!” Naruto placated with raised hands in his defense. Then looking over the half-shirted uniform before him, Naruto gave the other a pointed look –staring at Sai’s exposed belly and almost womanly hips, “Seriously, can you blame me?”

Even though he was having a little fun at the other’s expense, Naruto found himself feeling more than honored at the other male coming to him with such a thing –for no one else ever did. The blonde never minded helping out a friend, although he just hoped his advice didn’t land him in hot water –as they generally did when being misconstrued by his more than clueless old teammate and current business partner.

Sai chose to ignore the crack at his choice of uniform –that he had heard on countless occasions from the other in the past- as he explained his dilemma, “For research purposes to better my submission quality and my own personal gain, I wish to finally engage in the act of physical release with another person.” He added at the smirk the other male gave him, “Yes, with a female. Although, I am not looking to, as they say, fall in love.” With a shake of his head, he added, “No. I do not wish to start the type of relationship you have with the Hyuuga. I am simply looking for a willing participant in my experiment of sorts without an unfortunate means of acquiring what is referred to as a clinging hanger-on.”

“You mean a stalker,” Naruto snorted behind a wolfish grin.

Then with a sigh –ignoring the other again- Sai admitted, “However, as you have put it before, I lack the abilities to rectify the situation myself, as I have unfortunately read that legal action will be taken against those that force unwilling partners into the act.”

“Yeah, it’s called rape and I’d totally kick your sorry ass for even thinking about doing something sick like that,” The man beside him growled. Then further adding salt to the wound, Naruto gave an agreeing shake of the head as he too sighed, “But yeah, you’re not gonna find many women wantin’ to jump your bones after you open that mouth of yours, that’s for sure.”

Then, the blonde leered as he stopped, while putting an arm around the male’s shoulders and drawing him close –much to Sai’s dismay, “Well, don’t you worry. You’ve come to the right place, Sai.” Taking on a deep world weary tone, the blonde added, “You see, during the years before my beautiful Hinata-chan-”

“I do not wish to pay for services rendered,” Sai replied as he brushed away the arm around his person, having been forced to hear of the other’s escapades with many a hostess in their youth –for it seemed that Jiraiya had passed on more than just his jutsu to the now perverted, of age fool. With the two men walking again, the ink-user added with a clinical air, “I have heard it is unsanitary to do so. Transmittable disease is only one factor as to why that venue is not the one I wish to choose.”

Sighing at having his great –and only- idea blown to smithereens, Naruto’s shoulders slumped as he trudged on, “Well then, I don’t know what to tell you.” Then with a laugh, he brightened as he slapped the other man’s shoulder –much to Sai’s disapproval, “You could always ask Ino! Lucky for you, she doesn’t see you for the jerk you really are.” Tan lips pursed, “I keep saying something’s wrong with that one.”

Sai’s features took on an objectionable twist at that idea, “I would rather summon a clone and submit myself to a sordid affair of self-gratification than to lower myself to such a level.”

A blonde brow rose intrigued, “You know, that’s not such a bad-”

“No,” Sai cut him off, “I do not wish to debase myself to such an act either.”

“Hey, don’t knock it till you try it,” The one, meager stages below the great perversion that was his late mentor, replied with a serious air. Then stuffing his hands in his pockets again, Naruto hummed out, “Hm. Well, with your ways, Ino looks to be the only prospects you got going for ya at the moment.”

Sai frowned, “I do not understand. Who does one usually go to during these types of situations?”

Naruto laughed as his slumped shoulders stretched back with a creak of his bones in a stretch of sorts, “A girl you like or at least one you trust, I guess.” Blue eyes narrowed on the one beside them as he added with a touch of scorn at his previous idea being trampled, “If you’re not gonna pay for it that is.”

Ignoring that bit, Sai asked as tactless as ever, “Who was the unfortunate participant that fulfilled your request for such an occasion, Naruto? Was it indeed a prostitute?”

“Uh, no. It was,” Naruto paused as he looked away with a red heat warming the flesh over his cheekbones. Still feeling more than a little honored that the male had come to him in the first place with such a problem, the blonde didn’t feel too awful about reveling such information as he scratching the end of his nose, mumbling out a name of a woman -that he just knew would kill him if said information ever got back to her, “Sakura-chan.”

Two dark brows rose unseen at that bit of surprising information as Naruto added with a far off gaze of remembrance in his eyes, the blonde still looking off to the side, “It was only one time and right after she decided to stay here instead of following after Sasuke in his stupid self discovering journey after the war.”

Sai watched as the other’s gaze turned pained, the dark haired male’s surprise prying his lips open to comment, “I did not know.”

Naruto looked down then, that pained look lingering, “Yeah well, like I said, it only happened that one time and it’s what made me realize that I’m not the one for her. Even if she was…” The blonde trailed off before quickly coming back to himself. The kyuubi-container suddenly snapped his neck in Sai’s direction with narrowed eyes, “Anyway, if you ever tell her I told you, I’ll be forced rip your stupid lips off and stuff them down your stupid throat.” A sigh with downcast eyes, “Well, after she skins the both of us alive.”

“Of course,” Sai nodded with a smile. A silence stretched on further as the two men walked through the streets filled with the usual dwindling evening traffic of pedestrians and children playing alike.

However, Sai chose to break their comfortable hush as he echoed Naruto’s previously given information, “So, Sakura you say?”

Naruto turned his attention to the other rather sharply at that wondering tone, clearly negating any ideas that may have unwittingly popped up in the other’s brain, “Hey, hey, Sai. You know she hates you right?” Shaking his head, he added, “You don’t have a chance in hell.” Then realizing what he was saying, he growled out with that tinge of jealously coming back from days of old, “And, anyway, I’d kill you if you even tried. And then I’d find a way to do one of that bastard Orochimaru’s forbidden resurrection jutsu’s just so I could kill you again.”

Sai replied with a smile, “Do not worry. I fear you are too correct in your assumption. Sakura is indeed a dead end so to speak.” Then, with that same look on his face, the ink-user inquired further, “However, would the need to bloody your hands still arise, if say, I were not the one to do the accosting?”

A blonde brow quirked, “You mean if Sakura-chan were to…”

With tears of mirth welling up in his eyes, Naruto all but slapped a knee as he replied, “Yeah right! If that were ‘ta ever happen, I’d give you my full blessing and then some! Ha! But that’ll never happen!” Slapping the other’s shoulder hard, Naruto continued to have himself a good laugh at the other’s expense, “Never in a million years! Ha-ha-ha-ha! That’s a good one, Sai!” Another slap of the other’s shoulder, “Like Sakura-chan would ever- Ha-ha-ha!”

Finally coming to their opposite turn offs, Naruto, all but doubling over from laughter, gave a wave from over a shoulder as he struggled to walk away under his continuing, eye-watering fit.

Sai turned to his own street as portions of his and Naruto’s conversation echoed in his ears, with one standing out among the rest.

…at least one you trust, I guess.