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"I'm sick of waiting for him! Let's go do something!" Naruto's voice cut through their collective boredom.
They had been marooned on the training grounds since the first pale light of sunrise. Since then, Naruto and Sakura had cycled through every desperate attempt at entertainment. Throwing pebbles at targets, playing mindless word games, exchanging village gossip, until they were utterly exhausted by the heat and all out of ideas.
Sasuke had spent the first few hours trying to maintain his pride, standing frozen and stoic like a proper shinobi. But even his legendary Uchiha patience had a breaking point. Defeated by the endless waiting, he had finally abandoned his post, dropping cross-legged into the grass with an uncharacteristic, sullen slouch.
"Do what?" Sakura moaned.
She was sprawled flat on her back, sacrificing her pristine pink hair to the dust just to squeeze her head into a pathetic, shifting patch of shade beneath a nearby tree.
"We could go to Ichiraku's!" Naruto blurted out, his eyes lighting up.
Sasuke and Sakura let out a synchronized groan.
"No way!" Sakura snapped, rolling her head to glare at him. "The absolute last thing I want right now is a boiling bowl of ramen!"
Naruto's face fell into a pout, his lower lip jutting out. He crossed his arms, brows knitting together as he actually tried to think. Then he froze mid-pace, one finger shooting up.
"I know! I know! I'll take you to the coolest place in all of Konoha, Sakura-chan!"
From his slump in the grass, Sasuke let out a low, mocking snicker. "Like you would know where the coolest place in the village is."
Naruto's face flushed a volatile crimson, the whiskers on his cheeks twitching with rage. He whipped around, pointing an accusatory finger at the Uchiha. "I do know, because unlike you, I'm actually cool! And nobody's inviting you anyway, teme!"
"Whatever," Sasuke replied, voice flat, already closing his eyes.
"If Sasuke-kun isn't going, then I'm not going either!" Sakura declared and shot Naruto a firm look, leaving no room for argument.
Watching the blond's face instantly crumble into betrayal, Sasuke couldn't stop a smug smirk from tugging at the corner of his lips.
"Fine, he can come," Naruto grumbled, kicking a loose clump of dirt and crossing his arms so tightly it looked like he might cut off his own circulation. "But we need to make a stop first."
The sudden compliance caught Sakura off guard. The stubbornness faded from her face, replaced by a wave of anxiety. Pushing herself up onto her elbows, the reality of what they were thinking of doing sank in.
"Wait... are we seriously just going to leave?" she asked, her voice dropping to a panicked whisper as she glanced toward the empty path. "What if Kakashi-sensei does show up?"
"I don't care! That's what he gets for always making us wait!" Naruto threw his hands behind his head, chin jutting out.
Sasuke let out a sigh. He uncoiled his legs and rose from the grass, brushing a few stray blades off his dark shorts.
"He's not showing up."
Sakura's eyes darted between the two boys. She was still far from convinced that their sensei wouldn't rain hell on them if he arrived to an empty field, but Sasuke didn't wait for her to overthink it. Shoving his hands into his pockets, he turned his back on the training grounds.
"Are we doing this or what?" he called back over his shoulder.
Abandoning all lingering loyalty to the rules, Sakura scrambled to her feet, kicking up a small cloud of dust as she rushed to catch up.
"Alright! Let's go!" Naruto let out a triumphant cry, pumping his fist into the air to celebrate their rebellion, and led the march toward the village.
The midsummer sun was merciless, beating down on the cobblestones until heat radiated upward in waves. Sweat tracked a slow line down Sasuke's spine, gluing his shirt to his skin.
Usually, he was the first one on the grounds and the last one off, training until his body gave out, drilling the same jutsu over and over until it was perfect. But today, the weather was so brutal it felt exhausting just standing still. He had zero desire to be on a training field.
Not that he'd ever admit that out loud. Certainly not to Naruto.
They dragged themselves into the heart of the village shopping district, the air thick with the smell of street food and melting asphalt. Naruto suddenly stopped outside a storefront, a cryptic, toothy grin spreading across his face.
"You guys wait out here," Naruto instructed, winking as he hitched his thumbs into his pockets. "I gotta grab a few things, and then I'm taking you to this seriously awesome spot."
Then he vanished behind the shop's curtained doorway.
Sakura let out a long groan, wiping her brow with the back of her hand. "He better hurry up." She practically collapsed into the narrow strip of shade beneath the shop's canvas awning, leaning her head against the cool wood of the wall and fanning herself weakly.
Sasuke stepped into the shade beside her and pulled off his forehead protector, the metal plate burning hot to the touch. Desperate for even a phantom breeze, he raked his fingers through his damp bangs, letting the stifling air hit his forehead before shoving the headband into his weapon pouch.
A few minutes later, the shop curtains rustled. Naruto strutted out holding a crinkling plastic bag, hugging it close to his chest.
"Alright! Follow me!"
They took off again, any newfound energy in their steps fueled purely by the desperate hope that their aimless wandering was finally ending.
They veered off the main paths, heading toward the dense treeline stretching beneath the shadow of the Hokage Mountain. The trees offered little relief, the canopy only trapping the humidity, turning the forest into a sauna.
Naruto led the way, his nose practically in the dirt, scanning the ground like a dog hunting a scent. Behind him, Sasuke and Sakura were losing their patience by the second. There was absolutely nothing in this part of the village except wild overgrowth, rock, and dead ends. In a few more minutes, they'd hit the perimeter wall.
"Naruto, where are we going? There's nothing here!" Sakura’s voice carried their frustration through the quiet woods.
Naruto skidded to a halt and scratched the back of his head, a look of profound confusion washing over his face. He blinked at the trees, then at the rocks.
"It was somewhere around here… where was it? Hmm…" He began pacing in erratic circles, muttering to himself as he scanned the brush.
"Naruto!" Sakura warned, her fist clenching as a dangerous vein throbbed on her forehead. Sasuke shifted his weight, narrowing his eyes, fully prepared to help her leave a Naruto-shaped crater in the ground.
"Aha!" Naruto suddenly exclaimed. He spun around and pointed toward a pair of bushes nestled against a steep rock wall. "I knew it was here! Look!"
Sasuke stepped closer, squinting at the mundane patch of greenery. "What exactly are we supposed to be looking at, dobe?"
Instead of answering, Naruto grinned and shoved a handful of branches aside. Hidden behind the foliage was an opening in the stone — a dark hole barely large enough for someone their size to crawl through on hands and knees.
Before Naruto could celebrate his discovery, Sakura's hand shot out like a striking viper. Her fingers clamped down, pinching his left ear with a vengeful grip.
The boy cried out in a high-pitched yelp of agony, his hands flying up to shield his head.
"We have been walking for an hour in this miserable heat just so you could show us a hole in a rock?!" she screamed directly into his ear, her face twisted in fury.
"Ow, ow, ow! Sakura-chan, wait! Ow!" Naruto thrashed, tears pricking the corners of his eyes. "It's not just a hole in the rock! It's a cave! Konohamaru told me about it! Ow, ow, let go!"
With a final, exasperated huff, Sakura released his bright red ear and planted both hands on her hips, glaring down at him.
"I am not going into some cramped, dark, dingy cave that an eight-year-old told you about!"
"It's not going to be dark!" Naruto protested, rubbing his throbbing ear. "I thought ahead! Look, I got us flashlights!"
He ripped open the plastic bag to reveal two cheap flashlights rolling around at the bottom.
Sakura remained entirely unmoved. Sensing he was losing her completely, Naruto's eyes darted over to Sasuke, practically begging for backup. But Sasuke just stared back blankly. He was in absolutely no mood to get stuck in some claustrophobic hole to satisfy Naruto's curiosity either.
"Come on, guys! Please? Konohamaru told me that it's only tight right at the beginning. But then… then it opens up into this really big, cool place!"
Sakura glared at him, but Naruto immediately doubled down and unleashed his ultimate weapon. His lower lip began to tremble, his eyes widened into massive, watery blue pools, and he let out a pathetic whimper.
Sasuke watched the display, then glanced at Sakura. He could see her willpower crumbling under the sheer weight of Naruto's expression and rolled his eyes at her remarkably weak resolve.
"Alright!" she snapped and threw her hands up. "But if you get stuck, or if you slip and crack your head open, I am leaving you behind!"
Naruto wrapped his arms around her waist and squeezed her into a bone-crushing hug.
"I promise I won't, Sakura-chan! You're the best!"
Before she could punch him for the sudden physical contact, he pulled back, yanked the flashlights out of the bag, and tossed one to Sasuke, who caught the metal cylinder effortlessly in one hand. Naruto turned toward the rock face and began snapping away the stubborn branches to clear a path. Satisfied with his work, he dropped onto his hands and knees and dove headfirst into the dark opening.
A moment later, he had vanished from sight. Sakura lingered at the entrance, casting a hesitant look over her shoulder at Sasuke.
"Let's go," he said.
Sakura nodded weakly. Taking a deep breath, she dropped to the ground. Being the slimmest of the three, she slipped through without much trouble, her shoulders clearing the rock easily. As the soles of her feet disappeared into the shadows, Sasuke flicked the switch on his flashlight. Bracing himself, he got down on his hands and knees and crawled into the earth behind them.
The space was so narrow that standing was entirely out of the question. The air inside didn't circulate at all, heavy with humidity, and any chance of the cool relief they had hoped for evaporated. Instead, the heat of the earth trapped them like an oven, making the sweat on their skin mix with the fine jacket of dirt coating the floor.
As they crawled deeper, the natural light from the entrance bled away, swallowed by the stone walls. Soon, the outside world vanished completely. The only reality left was the bouncing beams of their flashlights cutting through a haze of kicked-up dust.
Sasuke kept his light aimed at the heels of Sakura's feet just ahead of him. The scraping of their knees against the rough rock and the ragged sound of their breathing echoed loudly in the confined space, making the tunnel feel even tighter, closing in on them with every inch they gained.
A few grueling minutes later, the passage spilled out into a chamber. It wasn't grand by any means — the ceiling was still low enough that they had to hunch over — but it was enough to let them stand slightly and relieve their aching bones.
Sakura immediately braced her hands on her knees, panting, while Sasuke stretched his legs, his jaw set in irritation. Directly ahead, his flashlight’s beam revealed a fork in the path: two dark tunnels carved into the rock.
"Konohamaru said we gotta take this one." Naruto pointed a finger toward the one on the right.
Sakura peered into it. "You've got to be kidding me."
This new passage wasn't just narrow. It was a horizontal slit in the rock. They wouldn’t even be able to crawl. The only way through was flat in the dirt.
Sakura was getting ready to launch into another well-deserved tirade, when Naruto threw himself onto his chest and began wriggling forward like a snake. Left with no choice but to follow or be left behind in the dark, she let out a miserable sigh and dropped down, with Sasuke bringing up the rear.
The further they crawled on their stomachs, the more hostile the environment became. The rough rock beneath them gave way to a cold and slick moisture. Water was weeping directly from the walls, turning the floor into a thick muck. Soon they were dragging themselves through mud that caked their clothes, hands, and faces.
Any remaining complaints died in their throats. The space was too tight, the air too stale to waste on words. The only sound left was the rasp of their breathing and the squelch of their elbows tearing through the mud.
After what felt like an eternity, they finally reached another chamber. It was even smaller than the last, the ceiling pressing so low that all they had room for was to sit huddled on their haunches.
Sasuke swept his flashlight across the far wall. The beam stopped on the next passage. His brow furrowed.
"Forget it," he said. "There’s no way we’re squeezing through that."
The gap was barely a crack in the stone.
"Come on!" Naruto fired back. "Konohamaru and his friends managed it! They said they went all the way to the end. If those little academy brats can do it, Team Seven can do it! Believe it!"
Sakura blinked at him, like she couldn't believe what she'd just heard. "Naruto! Konohamaru is literally half our size! Of course he and his little gremlin friends could slip through a hole like that!"
Frustrated and refusing to sit in the mud any longer, Sakura lunged forward and snatched the flashlight straight out of Naruto's hands. He yelped in surprise as she crawled right up to the mouth of the crack.
She angled the beam inside, squinting as she measured the edges against her body.
"Hold this," she mumbled, tossing her weapons pouch backward at Sasuke. She took a deep breath, trying to compress her chest. "I think... I might just be able to fit. If I can make it through, I'll tell you if it actually opens up."
Before the boys could protest, Sakura went forward and wedged herself into the gap, wriggling her way into the yellow stone.
The moment her feet disappeared, Naruto and Sasuke lurched forward on their knees, crowding the mouth of the hole. Sasuke clicked on his flashlight, aiming the beam straight into the dark.
"Ah… it's really tight, you guys," Sakura's muffled voice drifted back.
Sasuke's grip tightened on the flashlight. His pulse spiked, a cold rush prickling up the back of his neck. "Sakura, don't be stupid. Come back out."
"Yeah, Sakura-chan," Naruto chimed in, the bravado draining from his face as genuine worry took over. He leaned in so close his nose almost touched the rock. "Maybe… maybe there's another way around. Come on back!"
For a moment, the only response was of wet shuffling and the echo of her gasping. Then a sharp grunt of exertion sounded.
"Wait… if I can just push through here… everything is so slippery…" she muttered, her voice strained as she tried to wedge herself further. More scraping followed, and then a sharp intake of air and a scream. It bounced off the walls, amplified by the tight space until it rang in their ears — then cut out entirely.
"Sakura-chan!" Naruto yelled, shoving Sasuke aside as he rammed his head and shoulders into the opening. "Sakura-chan! Are you okay? Sakura-chan! Oh my God, I've killed Sakura-chan! Sakura-chan!"
Naruto yanked his head back out, face drained of color, hands shaking.
Before he could hyperventilate further, Sasuke took his place, shoving his face into the hole. He aimed his flashlight as far as the beam would go, his own heart hammering against his ribs.
"Sakura! Can you hear me? Sakura!"
He waited, holding his breath. No response. The only sounds drifting back were his own voice and the slow drip... drip... drip... of water deeper in the cave.
Sasuke inspected the throat of the hole. It was slick with mud, with a clear downward slope just past the tightest squeeze. He pulled back out, his expression hard. He turned to Naruto, grabbed his hand and slapped the flashlight into his palm, closing the boy's fingers around it.
"Naruto, listen," Sasuke ordered, his voice steady. "Go back to the last chamber. Take the other path and see if it leads anywhere. But don't try to push through if it starts closing in — the last thing we need is you getting stuck too."
Naruto nodded numbly, jaw tight, swallowing hard.
"If you can't find a way around, come straight back here," Sasuke continued. "If I'm not back, or if I'm not answering, or if I'm stuck — you turn around right away. Get out of the cave and find Kakashi-sensei or anyone else who can help. Understood?"
"Yes," Naruto nodded with determination.
Without wasting another second, Sasuke turned toward the hole.
It was an absolute nightmare. The stone clamped down on him immediately, pressing so tightly against his chest and back that he couldn't comprehend how Sakura had pushed through at all. Panic threatened to claw its way up his throat, but he ruthlessly crushed it down. He forced his breathing to slow, and began digging his toes into the ground, leveraging every bit of strength to shove himself forward inch by inch.
Finally, he reached the bend where Sakura had been before she screamed. He couldn't even expand his lungs to take a full breath.
Spurred by adrenaline, Sasuke took a few short, shallow gasps in the dark. Steeling himself, he gathered everything he had and threw his weight forward.
The fabric of his shirt tore along his spine. He could feel every edge of stone scraping against his bare skin, drawing blood, but suddenly the pressure vanished. He was free.
The ground dropped away beneath him and he found himself slipping headfirst down a steep, slick chute.
A scream escaped his throat. With the space opening up just enough to move, he crossed his arms over his face, trying to protect his head from the walls whizzing past.
The descent felt like it lasted forever before the momentum slowed. The incline leveled out and Sasuke skidded to a halt on a flat stone floor. Gasping, he opened his eyes and shook his head. He could see light ahead.
"Sasuke-kun!"
He gave one last push. Two hands clamped onto his shoulders, bracing against his weight and pulling him the rest of the way clear.
Sasuke blinked through the grime, breath ragged, limbs still trembling. Sakura was kneeling in front of him, covered head to toe in dirt, but completely unharmed.
He pushed himself up onto his elbows, his gaze drifting past her shoulder. His mouth parted in awe.
They had emerged into a colossal hidden cavern that felt entirely removed from the world above. Cascading down the far wall was a thundering waterfall. It emptied into a sprawling underground pool of crystal-clear sapphire water, so pure that Sasuke could see the river stones lining the bottom far below.
High above, cracks in the mountain's peak allowed shafts of afternoon sunlight to pierce the gloom. The beams struck the waterfall directly, refracting through the mist and scattering color across the stone walls.
"Pretty cool, huh," Sakura said, her voice tinged with disbelief. "Where’s Naruto?"
"He went back to find another way, or to get help," Sasuke replied distantly, eyes still fixed on the view before him.
"Well, we can't climb back up, I tried already. So I guess we just have to wait."
Sasuke nodded. He leaned back against the wall and closed his eyes, catching his breath. The roar of the waterfall filled the chamber completely, bouncing off the stone with a vibrating intensity. He understood now why Sakura hadn't heard them calling from the tunnel, and why her scream had been swallowed so abruptly. The crashing water drowned out everything.
Which meant that they wouldn't be able to hear Naruto either if he tried calling out from the other side.
Sasuke assessed their situation. They were safe, and the cool mist was already rejuvenating them. He estimated they could afford to wait here a while to regain their strength and see if Naruto — or a rescue party — would show up at the top of the chute. He looked toward the pool. The current from the waterfall had to lead somewhere, likely flowing outward under the mountain. When they were rested, and if no one came, they could swim through the basin, tracing the underground river until it spat them out into the woods outside Konoha's walls.
He stretched his legs out to get more comfortable, but Sakura had other plans. The dried mud against her skin, suffocating and itchy, had finally broken the camel’s back.
"I can't stand this anymore!" she bit out, her voice carrying over the roar of the water as she abruptly stood up.
Before Sasuke's brain could fully process what she was doing, she kicked off her ruined sandals. In one swift motion, she shucked off the mud-caked leggings she wore beneath her dress, tossing them onto the stone floor with a wet smack. Then her fingers found the hem of her red qipao. With an exasperated huff, she yanked the ruined fabric up over her head and dumped it beside her boots until she was standing wearing nothing but underwear and the tight white bandages binding her chest.
Sasuke swiftly tore his eyes away, fixing his gaze on a patch of rock on the far wall.
Without looking back, Sakura walked to the edge of the basin and dove in, sinking beneath the crystal-clear surface.
When she emerged a moment later, shaking the water from her hair, she was still streaked with mud. Gritting her teeth, she began scrubbing at her arms, legs, and face, working the grime out of her hair before dipping back under to rinse. She repeated the process until the caked-on dirt dissolved away into the current, leaving her as clean as she could be.
By then, Sasuke had abandoned his attempt to stare at the rock wall and instead watched her, a wave of jealousy washing over him. The drying mud on his own skin was itching fiercely, tightening against the scrapes on his back until it was practically unbearable.
As if sensing the weight of his gaze, Sakura turned around in the water. She offered a small, almost shy smile, lifting an arm to beckon him in.
That was all the invitation he needed. Sasuke stripped off the torn rags of his shirt and stepped out of his pants. Leaving his clothes in a pile on the shore, he waded forward and jumped in.
The cool water was absolute heaven against his raw, irritated skin. Taking a deep breath, Sasuke mirrored Sakura's actions, sinking beneath the surface to let the current dissolve the grime. He scrubbed methodically, working the stubborn filth out of his hair and away from the fresh scrapes lining his back.
By the time he was satisfied, the water around him had cleared, and the itch was entirely gone.
He wiped the water from his eyes and looked over. Sakura had drifted a few paces away, floating on her back. Her eyes were closed, her arms outstretched, an expression of pure bliss across her face.
In the water, her hair spread out in a wide halo, catching the light and throwing a faint pink glow across the rocks around them. It reminded him of something then — his mother's voice, reading him stories before bed, tales of pirates and mermaids he hadn't thought about in years. In this strange shimmering cave, Sakura didn't look like a ninja at all, but like one of the mermaids from the stories come to life.
Her muscles tensed and her body straightened in the water, breaking her drift. She swam a few lazy strokes closer to Sasuke, sinking to her shoulders.
"I wish we could stay in here forever, Sasuke-kun," she said, resting her chin near the surface of the water.
With her wet hair slicked back and out of her face, he could see the faint scatter of freckles dusting her cheeks and the bridge of her nose. Her skin was already slightly flushed from their hours under the sun. It would no doubt tan and peel in a few days' time, and she would complain.
He found himself back at the start of their day, in the musky morning air of the training grounds. Sakura had shown up last, her eyes still heavy with sleep. The very second she came into view, Naruto's entire face had lit up and he'd barely waited for her to reach them before loudly wishing her good morning and telling her how pretty she looked.
Sasuke, as usual, had barely acknowledged her arrival, letting Naruto's compliments wash right past him. The moron's blatant infatuation contributed nothing anyway. That Sakura was pretty by conventional standards was common knowledge. Nothing worth remarking on — just a fact.
Besides, if Naruto were truly paying attention, he would know that Sakura always looked pretty showing up to training — hair combed, forehead bare, purplish shadows under her eyes — not just this morning.
And if Sasuke were the type to remark on things, he might have remarked on the way she looked right now: water droplets caught on her lashes, pink lips curved in a smile. Or on the way she'd looked after Kakashi's genjutsu knocked her out during the bell test, when all that effort she usually put into how she held herself was gone, her face soft and unguarded, hair loose around her in the grass. Or back in the Land of Waves, when he'd opened his eyes after fighting Haku and found her already there, standing over him, eyes red and swollen, tears dried on her cheeks like she'd been crying long enough to run out.
Those were the times worth remarking on. When pretty didn't even begin to describe her. When she was so devastating it physically hurt to look at her, and somehow he could never quite look away.
Her eyebrows furrowed, a faint crease marring her forehead, and she blinked. The motion transferred a trembling drop of water from her lash to the top of her cheek. Sasuke's eyes anchored onto that single droplet. It caught the filtered light, glinting against her flushed skin as it traced a slow path downward.
Sakura took a step toward him, the water dragging against her thighs, waterline cascading down her torso, shifting from her chest to swirl lazily around her ribs, leaving her skin glistening in the air. She was so close now, he could see the faint moss-green streaks in her pupils.
"Sasuke-kun?"
A loud thud echoed from the side and their heads snapped toward the noise. Tumbling out of the narrow hole they had fallen through came a girl with two long blonde ponytails and bright blue eyes.
"Naruto!" Sakura exclaimed.
As if on cue, the transformation popped with a sharp plume of smoke, revealing their thoroughly disheveled teammate.
"There you are, guys! Oh man, you have no idea what I just went through!" Naruto yelled, instantly launching into a breathless tirade as he strode to the edge of the pool. "I went back, right? But there was absolutely nothing through that other tunnel. So then I came back here, but you guys were still gone! I figured the teme must've gotten himself stuck somewhere, so I crawled through to save him."
He paused only to wipe a streak of mud from his nose, continuing without taking a breath.
"But then I got stuck, and I couldn't hear you guys at all, and I couldn't even crawl backward! I started cursing Konohamaru, thinking I'm totally gonna kick his ass the second I break free..." He gestured wildly with his hands, nearly slipping on the slick rocks. "...and then I remembered what you said, Sakura-chan! About Konohamaru being half our size! So I got this genius idea and used my Sexy Jutsu, and all of a sudden I was way thinner and could actually move. My body just slipped right down the shaft, and boom — I ended up here!"
Sasuke and Sakura stared at him, mouths slightly agape. For all his boneheadedness, turning his most ridiculous technique into an escape plan was actually kind of brilliant.
Naruto finally paused to take a breath, his eyes darting around to take in his surroundings, and, more importantly, his two teammates standing close together in the water.
A slow grin split his face wide open.
"Sasuke-teme," Naruto drawled, leaning forward with a wicked glint. "You're redder than a tomato. Don't tell me my Sexy Jutsu actually got you bluuushing?"
Sasuke whipped his hand through the water, sending a spray straight into Naruto's face. "Shut up, loser," he snapped.
He could feel the heat in his cheeks flaring twice as hot, the comment inadvertently dragging his mind right back to the real reason his face was burning.
"Hey!" Naruto protested, sputtering and wiping the water from his face.
Sakura let out a laugh at their bickering. "Come on, Naruto," she called, gesturing with a wave of her arm. "Get in! The water is amazing."
"Aw, heck yeah!"
Naruto didn't need to be told twice. He stripped off his muddy gear, took a wild three-step running start, and dive-bombed into the center of the pool.
The splash sent a wave crashing over Sasuke and Sakura, thoroughly soaking them all over again.
The moment Naruto broke the surface, Sakura brought both palms flat down against the water and sent a wave straight over his head before he'd even caught his breath.
He came up coughing, and she hit him with another one.
"SAKURA-CHAN—"
Naruto's retaliation was immediate and completely indiscriminate. He scooped armfuls of water and flung them in every direction with no strategy whatsoever. Sakura shrieked and ducked beneath the surface, which left Sasuke, who had been standing two feet away wanting no part of any of this, to take the full force of it directly to the face.
He stood very still for a moment, water dripping from his chin, hair plastered flat against his forehead. Naruto's grin faltered.
"Wait, Sasuke, that was an accident—"
Sasuke's hand cut through the water once, sharp and precise, and the splash caught Naruto square in the mouth mid-sentence.
"Why you—!" Naruto lunged.
Sasuke submerged slightly, letting the blond's momentum carry him harmlessly overhead and straight into Sakura.
When they broke the surface, all fair play went out the window. Sakura slapped blinding sheets of spray across the water, Naruto charged like a boar at anyone within reach, and Sasuke moved quicker than a flash, ducking beneath their lunges and shoving them under the moment they overextended.
Sakura tried to blindside him, but Sasuke caught her wrist mid-stroke and pulled her under. She came up coughing, laughing too hard to tread water properly. That was when Naruto saw his opening. While Sasuke's back was turned, he drove forward to tackle him. Without even looking, Sasuke caught Naruto's slick forearm, twisted, and redirected the blond's own weight to send him plowing back into the depths.
Grinning, Sakura called it. "Truce! Before someone drowns!"
Sasuke conceded — but only after pressing a hand to Naruto's head as he surfaced, forcing him under one more time just long enough to make his point.
When Naruto's head finally popped back up, gasping and hacking, he wheezed that it didn't count.
"It absolutely counted," Sakura giggled.
And that was the end of that.
Sakura was the first to tip onto her back, arms spreading slowly through the water, floating the way she had before Naruto showed up, hair fanning out around her. After a moment she opened her eyes and smiled up at the ceiling, threading her fingers lazily through the surface.
“You know what? You were right, Naruto,” Sakura said. “This is so much better than waiting for Kakashi-sensei.”
Naruto let out a laugh. “It is, isn’t it?”
He glanced at Sasuke, his expression uniquely free of their usual rivalry. Then he simply fell away, spreading his arms wide to let the water support him like it was supporting Sakura.
Sasuke watched them, tracking the ripples expanding from their bodies. He leaned back and surrendered to the water too.
It rose over his ears, drowning out the ambient noise of the cavern and reducing the world to the thrum of his own heartbeat. The three of them drifted on the surface, their heads clustered close together at the center while their bodies splayed outward like the spokes of a wheel, turning in slow, lazy circles.
Sasuke closed his eyes.
Sakura had said that she wished they could stay in this place forever. And for the first time in five years, he felt a similar urge rise in him. To be stuck in a moment forever. He didn't want to move. Didn't want the sun to keep setting outside, didn't want tomorrow to come and pull him back into being whoever he was supposed to be. He wanted only this: the cave, the water, the peacefulness, all of it holding him exactly where he was, with the two of them, for as long as it would let him stay.