Fashionably Late

A few weeks earlier

"All right, kids. Or, should I say, Genin?" Iruka's eyes twinkled in humor as he announced the last of the team constellations. "Your Jōnin-sensei will come to pick you up after this lesson ends. Don't be too mad if they don't immediately show up. Nobody can always show up right on time. And they are busy people after a–"

He was abruptly cut off by three short knocks on the door, followed by a gloved hand sliding it open. A tall man with spiky, silver hair entered, long strides crossing the classroom in the blink of an eye. Coming to a stop next to a stunned Iruka and looking at the group of freshly promoted Genim, he called out to no one in particular,

"Team 7, gather at Training Ground 3 in eight minutes."

Then, right on cue, the Academy bell rang, signaling the end of the lesson.

The man, apparently having finished, left the room with a rather unspectacular Shunshin and a gust of wind where he stood a second ago. There was silence for a few short, awkward moments before Iruka cleared his throat.

"...right. I guess there is someone who will always show up on time."

The children started whispering to each other, some outright yelling to their friends across the room – they had been told to sit with their teammates – about the man from just now, and if their own Jōnin-sensei would be like him.  The chattering stopped suddenly, as a boy sitting at the back of the classroom stood up. He made his way through the room, whispers following him and glances being thrown at his back.

"Where is the rest of his team?"

"Poor Sasuke-kun, his team must've left already."

"Sasuke-kun is way too cool to walk with those losers anyway."

"I think the other two weren't here to being with..." someone muttered.

"Really? Well, I did think it was awfully quiet. It must be because the deadlast isn't here."

"Why'd he even get assigned to a team? I thought he failed."

Sasuke didn't bother closing the door behind him, the voices of his now former classmates becoming quieter as he walked further away from the classroom.

But it was true. Where were they?

"Where are the other two?" his new Sensei questioned him as soon as Sasuke got into hearing range.

He clicked his tounge. "Why would I know where those idiots are?"

"You are a team. It is your duty to relay any summons to your teammates." he said in an exasperated tone.

"You told me to be here in eight minutes. I wouldn't be on time if I had gone to search for them." the Uchiha scoffed in an equally exasperated tone. "Besides, I could've come here to tell you I'd begin searching for my teammates now. To make sure you don't think I'm purposefully late."

"You are required to notify me of such things immediately. The fact you waited this long to tell me would've been a breach of the rules." he shot back immediately, a stern look in his gaze.

"Fine. I'll go search for them." It was no use arguing with this old man.

"If you haven't found them by noon, report back to here."

"And what are you going to do while I do that? How about you search too?"

"That," he started, before making a handsign Sasuke hadn't seen before, "is not for someone of your rank to ask about, nor are required to be made aware of." A Clone of the man appeared next to him, the other Shunshin-ing out of the Training Ground. "But I will make an exception to ensure you will know when we're on missions." the Clone continued. "Any information given to this Clone will be relayed to the Original without delay. So, rest assured, you can begin your search now."

Sasuke grumbled, leaving the Training Ground.

"Where did they even go?" he muttered under his breath, as he turned a corner. Some people waved at him, others beckoning him over and 'For you, Uchiha-san, I'll even give you a discount.' 

It was always the same.

"Uchiha-san, you poor soul. Don't worry, that's on the house."

"Oh, of course, Sasuke-san, you won't have to pay for that. Though I can't say I wouldn't appreciate a favor from you."

"With how much time you must have on your hands now, would you mind meeting my daughter, Uchiha-san? She's a kind girl, a perfect match for you."

Sasuke didn't need their pity, nor their mercy, nor their 'kindness' that expected some ridiculous request in return. He didn't need any of that, so couldn't they shut up?

He pursed his lips and clenched his fists in his pockets, turning another corner without seeing either of his two teammates.

"How am I even supposed to know where they are?" This was getting stupid. He didn't become a Shinobi for this. He could've been training right now. He should be training. To become stronger.

If only to kill Itachi.

Some time earlier, morning

Sakura watched the unmoving body in front of her silently, one hand placed over the boy's heart at all times to make sure nothing could escape her noticing.

Narutos's brows were furrowed together, a pained expression on his face. Sakura was compelled to check again to see if she really hadn't missed some kind of hidden injury on this young, so very young, body of her best friend.

Well, would-be best friend.

Her legs were numb from how long she had been sitting like this, yet she didn't dare change her position, lest she accidentally stirred him awake. Lying in front of her, Naruto started waking up and groaned, putting a hand to his forehead as if to alleviate some kind of pain.

Finally.

Sakura ran her Chakra through his body once more just to be on the safe side, before backing off a bit and stretching her aching legs.

"Sakura...chan...?" Naruto murmured at the feeling of a familiar Chakra signature rushing through his pathways. A very familiar one at that.

"Yes, Naruto. That's my name." She grabbed the bottle of water she had brought with her for this exact purpose, pushing it into Naruto's hovering hands. "Here, drink. I know you're thirsty." She had been, too.

"Oh... Thanks, Sakura-chan." he quietly muttered with his eyes still closed shut, not yet completely awake and in the present (or rather, past). Then, he turned the bottle a full 180 degrees, pouring the ice-cold water (Sakura knew he liked it best like that) all over his face and upper body.

Naruto shrieked.

All at once, he was awake and upright, rubbing the water out of his eyes. He vaguely registered Sakura snickering next to him, still too stunned and soaking wet to be annoyed at his best friend's antics. She had seen him in worse states before. What was a little water anyway?

Said best friend threw a nearby towel at him, still quietly giggling at the sight before her.

"Stop laughing!" Naruto yelled while rubbing his face dry. The towel smelt of ramen. Why had he not washed it? "This is partly your fault too, you know? If you had warned me...? Huh–?"

As he – at last – let his towel fall to the ground and opened his eyes properly, no water clouding his vision, Naruto finally took in Sakura's appearance. Instead of the face of an adult woman with short, rose-colored hair and a Jōnin-west firmly tightened around her body, the person sitting before him was no more than a girl, long hair falling over her red dress – not combat-suited, he dimly noted – down to her mid-back.

"You... are young?" he slowly put together, mind comprehending neither the sight before him nor the words he was saying.

"Don't tell me you forgot." Sakura simply stated, eyes saying 'don't you dare'. Well, at least that matched with the Sakura he knew.

"Whaddaya mean, forgot? I don't– oh."

Images flashed before his eyes, memories of hours spent sitting in a cramped room, leaning over dozens of scrolls and slowly, slowly piecing together a solution, their last resort. Talking and speculating and arguing for an eternity about theories and what-ifs, trying to convince Sasuke that this could maybe work–

"Yes, 'oh' indeed." Sakura drily said, passing him the half-empty water bottle again. "Now, drink. We are going to talk. A lot."

"Wait– so, when did you 'wake up'?", Naruto asked her while leaning over a particularly large mountain of trash, beginning to fill his fifth trash bag. Sakura was grateful for Naruto being at least somewhat aware now of what hygiene meant, though that was only limited to 'actual trash' as he called it. For him, anything that didn't belong in the bin had no need to be cleaned up or picked up off the ground, which was, to be fair, reasonable, so she didn't comment on it too much.

"Me? I regained my memories Yesterday morning." Sakura said from her spot at the kitchen counter, washing juice off one of the four cups he owned. Somehow, they'd ended up in this situation, cleaning up Naruto's apartment.

Being energetic people, they both prefered to have an activity to keep their hands busy. And there was also the matter of having lived through war – the silence and peacefulness of the past she had once longed for was almost eery now –, having something fill those long moments of silence was much appreciated.

"Yesterday? I thought it'd be longer. You're way too chill for having gone through that just a day ago, 'ttebayo.", Naruto shivered at the thought of his earlier experience, the feeling of going from knowing only the here and now, to suddenly being aware of a whole different life had not really left his body yet.

Sakura put a cup on the counter, upside down, grabbing for a pair of chopsticks. "Yeah, it is pretty intense. But you know, I kind of felt it coming." She thoughtfully hummed. "I think... about three weeks ago, it started. Scars started to appear at random places on my body. It really freaked me out. I was beginning to think that my whole body would be covered by them soon – it was getting faster –, when the memories came back. The scars were the ones my other body had."

Naruto whipped his head around. "Scars?"

"Yeah. Did you not notice them?" Then again, Naruto hadn't noticed anything at this age.

"I didn't know a part of our – or at least your – physical appearance would come back." Naruto tied a knot into his trash bag, coming to stand next to Sakura and starting to wipe the tableware with a towel. "But why only scars...?"

"Oh, it wasn't just scars." Sakura added once she heard Naruto's confusion. "My hair turned short, too. But I grew it back." She let her hands flash green for a moment to imply the meaning that Naruto was just a bit too dense to get on his own. "It'd have raised too much attention. Couldn’t have that when I was still looking for signs of you two coming back."

"Signs?"

"Like the scars. I spent yesterday's class studying you guys' backs. That's how I predicted you would regain your memories – wake up – today."

"Waitwaitwait– I'm not following, Sakura. How did you predict it?"

"The scar around your neck." She pointed a foam-covered finger at his throat. "Right there."

"Huh?!" Naruto ran into the bathroom. Sakura heard another loud exclamation from there shortly after. "It's really there, 'ttebayo!"

"Why'd I lie, huh?" She yelled into his general direction.

"I don't know?!" Naruto slided though the door, nearly crashing into the mountain of filled trash bags he had accumulated over the past hour.

A thin line spanned around his throat, all the way around. It was from the late stages of the war, Kaguya almost having killed Naruto, only pieced back together by Sakura's Iryōninjutsu and the Byakugō. Back then, it was another reminder of their weakness and their powerlessness against Kaguya. But now, it was the reason she had known Naruto was close to fully awaking. The scars seemed to track a chronological order, with the newest ones appearing last. 

Sakura had broken into his apartment that afternoon, promptly knocking a ramen-eating Naruto unconscious to spare him of the worst parts of the process. She hadn't had anyone doing that for her when she had gone through it. So she had to somehow power through the experience of feeling all the pain of a lifetime, suddenly and all at once.

But Naruto didn't need to know that.

"So, Sasuke really isn't back?" Naruto asked. Her best friend, her comrade, her other half... no– not her other half, her other third, because one of them was still missing.

"No, not as far as I've checked. And, you know, the Rinne-Sharingan is quite hard to hide."

"That bastard. He's always gone when it gets to the important parts." Unlike his harsh words, he looked concerned, though. Noticing this, Sakura simply looked at him expectantly with a look that said 'go on'.

The blonde continued to look determined not to ruin the mood, but quickly gave in at Sakura's insisting gaze. Quietly, Naruto asked, "But– But Sasuke will eventually come back too, right, Sakura? What if– ... only... the two of us came back...?"

She sighed. Even as a grown man, Naruto sometimes had these moments of tenderness and softness, making her want to shield him from the world. She knew it was stupid, he was way stronger than her, could beat up (almost) everyone left alive in the world and walk away unscathed, and yet,

"I'm sure he will, Naruto. Sasuke-kun can't stand not sticking his head into everyone's business." 

she couldn't help telling him comforting words full of conviction she didn't actually have and assurance she needed herself. 

"I guess you're right. He does do that." Naruto seemed more convinced, at least.

"By the way," she said, trying to lighten the mood, "We're really late."

"To what? There isn't a meeting scheduled, right? Oh god, did I forget to attend the council meeti–?!"

Sakura cut his rambling and scrambling off mid-sentence.

"Naruto."

"...Sakura?"

"We aren't there anymore. We went back, remember?"

"Oh. Right." he lowered his hands that had started putting on his sandals. "What are we late for, then?"

"Team assignment."

"That was today?"

"You were the one most excited about it, and you already forgot?" She chuckled. "Well, Kakashi-sensei is always late, anyway. We can afford taking our sweet time."

"Yeah. He never shows up on time."

Sasuke climbed up the stairs to Naruto's apartment. He had seen Naruto enter it once, involuntarily, of course. Walking past several doors, he came to a stop in front of one of them. It had been this one, right? Sasuke wanted to slap himself. What was he even doing here?

Right. Looking for some loser that probably slept in on the most important day of his life.

Ridiculous.

He shouldn't be the one doing this. The idiot should face the consequences of his actions. He didn't know why Sakura, who was always ten minutes early, wouldn't show up, but there was no way Naruto had a valid reason for wasting his time. He knocked harshly, waiting for noise from inside the apartment.

It remained awfully quiet. 

"Fuck. That's Sasuke." whisper-yelled Naruto.

"He must've come looking for you." Sakura whispered back, the both of them not sure yet how to handle this unexpected development.

"Why would he do that–? But anyway, what do we do?"

"It's too late for me to leave now. He'd notice."

"Right, shit."

"I have an idea. Quick, ruffle your hair a bit. Make it seem like you just woke up." she ordered quietly, also messing up her hair, pulling off her socks, and throwing a towel around her shoulder for the 'didn't bother to look proper' look.

"Huh? Okay." Naruto followed her orders without hesitation, doing as he was told.

"Actually, this is the perfect opportunity to trap him and figure out if he's going to awake, if at all." she explained, trying to see the situation in a positive light.

"Yeah! We could do that!" Naruto seemed on board, too.

"Let's say we had a sleepover. It's unrealistic but not too unreasonable." she continued. "Naruto, we're going to have to lie to Sasuke for a bit. You slept in, got it?"

"I suck at lying." Well, at least he was self-aware.

"I know. That's why we are going to mix in the truth. Just follow my lead and agree with the truthful parts." Sakura hurried to the door, turning around one last time. "You can do that, right?"

Naruto nodded reassuringly. "I'll do my best."

Sakura opened the door.

"Sasuke-kun?! Good morning. Why are you here?" greeted Sakura sweetly as she opened the door to Naruto's apartment.

Why is Sakura here?, Sasuke wondered, taking in her ruffled appearance. Is this her apartment? And he had never been one to keep quiet about his thoughts, so he asked just that.

Putting on his best 'I'm not wrong, you are' look, he said, "And why are you here?"

"Sleepover!" she simply said, acting like that explained anything at all.

"What."

"Huh, but you got the message, right, Sasuke-kun? We were informed about our team assignment yesterday." Was he imagining it, or did she look smug? "We thought you didn't want to come, but I guess you just decided to show up later. Well, that works for us. Come in!"

Before he had the chance to turn around and walk away from this absurd situation, Sasuke was pulled into the apartment by a surprisingly strong pull from Sakura.

Inside stood Naruto, hair all messed up and still in his clothes from yesterday. Contrary to everyone's opinions, he actually seemed to own multiple sets of that jumpsuit. How he knew that? Sasuke had spent enough time sparring him and pulling him up by the collar to notice the bright red marker that scribbled the numbers one through six on the inside of his collar.

Once he took notice of that, he also recognized the slight color difference in each of his sets, some of the oranges being more on the red side, while some gravitated more towards yellow. But that was beside the point.

"I'm leaving."

"No, you are not." Sakura slid into the place between him and the door. "Why don't you stay a bit? We are a team, after all."

Sasuke glared. She didn't budge. Huh. That wasn't the shy and bend-over-backwards-for-Sasuke-kun Sakura he knew.

He scowled, turning around again and aiming for the window this time. But of course, Naruto-fucking-Uzumaki was there to block that route too, smiling brightly, as if he wasn't standing there in front of the window with his arms spread in a 'T'-pose.

"Why are you doing this?" Sasuke snarled, not accepting defeat against these fools.

Naruto exclaimed, "It's just as Sakura-chan said! We're a team, Sasuke."

"I never asked to be in a team with you, dumbass."

"We didn't ask to, either, bastard! And Kakashi-sensei didn't, too. We're all going to be stuck together now!"

That got his attention. "How do you know our Jōnin-instructor's name already?"

Even he hadn't known that. Not that he would ever say that out loud.

Behind him, Sakura quietly put a hand to her forehead. Taking matters out of Naruto's hands and into hers, she seamlessly chimed in, "The message, of course! Didn't you get it?"

"Message?"

"Uh-huh! Maybe it got lost, we both got one though. Didn't the others tell you?"

Not wanting to admit to being completely ignorant of the message, when everyone else apparently knew about it, he remained quiet and simply continued glaring. Sakura took her chance, closing in on him. "Hey, Sasuke-kun? You've got dirt on your arm."

"Don't touch me!" Sasuke whirled around to fucking leave this shit-show only to bump straight into Naruto, who had somehow crossed the distance between them in a few short moments. The blonde firmly put both his hands on Sasuke's shoulders and pushed him to stay in place. When had he gotten so strong? 

"This won't hurt, bastard. Just stay there and glare like always." Naruto cheerfully said, Sakura nodding strongly beside him. She took ahold of one of his arms, pushing the sleeve of his shirt up, and started examining his forearm. Sasuke didn't see any dirt on it, though.

"Let me go. I'm not putting up with your nonsense."

"It's not nonsense! Maintaining cleanliness is really important, 'ttebayo!"

"Says you." He demonstratively gestured to the state of his apartment with his free arm.

"We're working on it! See?!" Naruto, in turn, aggressively shook his head, nodding towards a few trash bags in the corner.

Sasuke wasn't impressed. "Who even lets their living quarters get to this kind of state?"

"That's not the point! Clearly, I'm not that person anymore, so can you shut–"

"Naruto!" Sakura suddenly cut in, yelling in something like excitement–? "The scar is there!"

Inexplicably, Naruto jumped at that statement. "Really? Let me see!" Unfortunately, he didn't quite let go of his grip on Sasuke's shoulders, leaving him to be gawked at by his strange teammates.

He angrily exclaimed, "Of course I have scars, we're shinobi! Quit looking at my shoulder!"

That didn't seem to calm them down, though. Naruto, after having finished inspecting some kind of scar on Sasuke's arm, just started to yell, "It's not the same, Sasuke! It's that scar! From the Valley of–" 

"Stop right there, Naruto." Sakura stopped him from completing his sentence.

What did he mean by 'that scar'? Sasuke didn't know if he was supposed to be angered or puzzled.

"Hm." Sakura was suddenly looking deep into his eyes, but not in the romantic way that he had gotten used to. She quietly murmured, "That means scars follow chronological order, while hair, eyes, and the likes only appear at the end. Interesting, indeed." Strangely, Sasuke was beginning to feel like a test subject, Sakura being a curious researcher.

Cursing his crazed imagination, he frowned and turned to Naruto. "Let me go now."

And he actually did. Naruto seemed overly happy for some reason, saying random things like 'He's actually going to come back, too.' and 'Ha, he shouldn't have doubted my seal, the paranoid moron, it worked so well.'

Instead of feeling relieved at finally getting out of the apartment and his teammates' graps, Sasuke only felt confused while exiting through the door. Just as he was about to leave the scene, the strict look on his Jōnin-sensei's face appeared before his inner eye, and he turned around again. "Sensei is calling for you two."

"Oh, that's so nice of you to tell us, Sasuke-kun." Sakura said in that sweet voice, the strange calmness of her earlier behaivor long gone, making him almost wonder if he had imagined it.

"Don't get me wrong." he humphed. "I only did this because I'm 'required to relay any summons to my teammates'. Don't expect me to do this every time."

"Yeah, sure. Whatever you say, bastard." he heard Naruto yell from inside.

Finally having enough, Sasuke walked away. What the hell was that?

"I expect to hear an acceptable reason from you two, explaining your lack of punctuality on the day of team assignments." was all Kakashi said when Naruto and Sakura showed up 10 minutes after Sasuke reported back to the Clone, which had then poof-ed out of existence, the real Kakashi appearing only a few seconds later.

Naruto rubbed the back of his neck, laughing nonchalantly. "Haha, go easy on us on our first day, won't you, Sensei? We're sorry for being late and all."

Kakashi didn't react. "An explanation." he repeated.

Sakura put an arm around Naruto's shoulder in a relaxed manner that seemed strangely familiar. Sasuke hadn't known they were that close. Yet – for some reason – he didn't find it strange. It only felt right.

"We had a sleepover." was Sakura's sing-song answer, not at all bothered by the icy tone their Jōnin-instructor's voice had taken on.

"Yeah, 'ttebayo! I had the wildest dream, you can't even imagine it." Naruto started shouting, gesturing wildly. "I was in a team with bastard and Sakura-chan, but our Sensei would always be hours late – no offense to you, because you were right on time and that's, like, really professional and cool –, but my dream-Sensei was never on time, except for when we got our first real mission, but besides that he'd never be on time because he had to save a lot of cats and help a lot of old ladies–"

Kakashi cut him off, the loud voice of his blonde student physically hurting his ears. "I don't need to hear the details of the dream. Why were you late?"

Naruto sighed dramatically. "Sensei, that's the point! The dream was way too cool to interrupt! I had to dream it to the end, 'ttebayo!"

Silence.

Finally, Sasuke asked, "What did you just say?"

Instead of Naruto, it was Sakura who clarified, "He had to finish his dream."

Naruto nodded enthusiastically.

Sasuke sighed, already fed up with their antics but half-used to it after... earlier. Kakashi, however, glowered.