Cold Coffee

Chapter 1

Mouldy Walls And Introductions

SASUKE POV

I take a sip of the coffee in my hand and cringe as the too cold, too bitter substance slips down my throat. All watery and completely bland. To be honest, the slightly dirty styrofoam cup should have given it away, but...yeah.

I hate this place already. I mean, I knew I would, but this abysmal coffee has just sealed the deal. Well done, Du Café Noir, well done.

You see, I'm stuck here sipping cold coffee in the middle of France bloody nowhere land, because our company suffered terribly due to the recession. So the higher up's decided that, to save costs and maintain efficiency, they would combine two separate offices into one. So, here we are, on a 'company retreat', so we can make 'friends'. I know I sound bitter and that's because, well...I am. Huh. Things make sense now, right?

Anywho, apparently the higher up's idea of a 'retreat' is a grey block building in the middle of a forest, nearby a service station. I'm not kidding; a shudder actually ran down everybody's backs when we discovered where we'd be staying for two whole weeks. Deidara even tried to run away, but he was swiftly yanked back by my brother (I.e. our boss). So now we're stuck in the conference hall (that's what the 'hotel' people are calling it anyway. I think it's probably more likely a torture chamber. There's mould growing on the wall) waiting for the other office to join us.

Currently slumped next to me is Naruto, my best friend; Shikamaru, a friend; and Ino, who attempted a half-hearted flirt with me before slumping down on the table and sighing loudly.

Hidan and Deidara are entertaining themselves by shoving each other towards the wall of mould and cackling very loudly. Hinata, Neji and Choji are all sitting on the table next to us, Hinata glancing around nervously, Neji glowering at nothing and Choji eating. Rock-Lee's practicing karate in the middle of the room and Zetsu's texting and chuckling to himself.

Yes, the most efficient work force you'll ever have the privilege of laying eyes on...ahem.

I have no idea where Itachi's swanned off to. Knowing him, he's probably got his own hotel all to himself...bastard. My thoughts are interrupted when a guy with white hair, purple eyes and the sharpest teeth I have ever seen, jumps into the room.

"Waaaaasssssuuuuppppp?" he bellows as he jumps in.

We all just stare at him. Hidan and Deidara even stop playing their mould game to cast him bewildered looks.

"Suigetsu! I told you not to do that! Now look what you've done!" screeches a girl's voice from behind the boy. A fist comes flying out and clonks 'Suigetsu' around the head.

Naruto and I wince for the guy; that strike looked like it really hurt. As Suigetsu falls forwards, clutching his head, the owner of the fist becomes obvious to our eyes; it's a red-headed girl with glasses and a disdainful look on her face. Well, it's disdainful till her eyes meet mine and then she blushes before leaning down to hiss something at Suigetsu.

"That's the thing about first impressions, you only get to make one," declares an authorative voice from behind the two in the doorway and then a ginger guy steps into view.

Wow does this guy have a lot of piercings. He looks a bit older than the majority of us, so I conclude he's probably Pein, the other boss that Itachi told us about.

"Suigetsu, get off the floor," he continues, then he steps to the side and a bunch of people enter.

Our new 'colleagues'. As Suigetsu picks himself up and moves to the side, a good-looking blue haired woman enters. She's followed swiftly by a brunette with two buns in her hair. Then a brown-haired dude with red marks painted on his face. A guy with sunglasses. A red-haired guy. A guy that looks like a shark...um. A huge ginger guy. A tanned guy with shaggy dark brown hair. A blonde with her hair in four bunches, and then, following after her...I would have gasped out loud if I wasn't aware of how sad that would have been. The last person to enter is a girl about my age; her pink locks are tied up into a high ponytail, a few strands hanging loose and framing her immaculate, pale face. Bright intelligent green eyes blink under large dark eyelashes. She's thin, with an athletic stature. I'll admit it, I'm kinda sold.

"Wow, look at her," Naruto gasps, pointing at the very girl I'm looking at, "I wouldn't mind-"

I pinch him under the table and ignore the hurt look he shoots me with his big dopey blue eyes.

"Hush dobe," I instruct him calmly.

Naruto pouts at me, but keeps his mouth shut before turning to look at the door, just as Itachi arrives. He and Pein talk with each other for a while before Pein turns to look at us all.

"We're just awaiting the arrival of the team-building instructor," he informs us all. (I shudder at the words 'team-building') "So while we're waiting, why don't you all introduce yourselves and get accustomed to your new work mates?"

Everybody remains silent, gazing at him, and Pein's lot show no signs of moving; they stay standing, looking rather awkward.

Pein looks at them all. "...go," he motions with his hands.

Unsurely, all the other workforce begin making their way over to us, and I would have butterflies if I was anyone else, because pink-haired girl is coming right toward us. Naruto sits up quickly, jabbing me in the ribs a couple hundred times to convey his excitement.

I glower hard at him, "I get it," I hiss angrily and then pink hair is upon us. She glances around our table nervously and then blushes.

"H...hi," she murmurs before waving awkwardly.

I smirk and go to speak, but the dobe that is Naruto gets there first.

"Hey how you doin'?" he all but yells.

The girl looks a little startled and she casts me a wary smile before going to answer, except she's interrupted by Hidan yelling loudly in the centre of the room. More to the point, he's yelling at one of the guys from the other office. Trust Hidan to pick fights with a new workmate. As it turns out, he's actually picked a fight with the tall guy with shaggy brown hair. Everyone in the room goes quiet as we watch the altercation occur.

"Hey, watch where you're walking!" Hidan yells. "You just bumped into me you clumsy fucker!"

The other guy doesn't step down and, instead, looks down at Hidan with bored eyes.

"You walked into me," he retorts. "You watch yourself."

"What?" Hidan explodes. "You bumped into me! Deidara, back me up here."

Deidara steps forward, his mouth open. The guy from the other office looks down at him, his gaze hard. Deidara seems to rethink his course of actions and steps back, shaking his head.

"I'm...I'm alright hm."

"Deidara you little coward!" Hidan shouts.

Itachi drifts into the scene at this point. "Hidan," he says firmly, "Quiet down."

Hidan makes a noise of annoyance, flails his arms around once or twice and then sighs.

"Fine." he growls before backing off, but not before doing the 'I'm watching you' sign at the other guy.

After a while the room becomes filled with awkward chattering again. The pink-haired girl turns to look at us.

"Wow," she murmurs, "That was weird."

Naruto takes a breath, about to speak, but I slyly give him a swift punch, successfully winding him as I lean my chin on my hand and gaze at her.

"Yeah it was," I agree, "Hidan's a bit of a weirdo. Hopefully you'll get used to it."

"Hopefully," the girl agrees unsurely, before smiling, "Um, my name's Sakura by the way. What's yours?"

"I'm Sasu-"

"I'M NARUTO!"

I narrow my eyes at the back of my best friend's head as he bounces upwards, sticking his hand out for Sakura to shake.

"Hi Naruto," Sakura greets, obviously a little unsure of Naruto's over the top niceness.

Except, it's not over the top for him...that's literally what he's like. It can get annoying, but I guess if it wasn't for Naruto, I'd probably refuse to go out. It's not that I don't have a social life or that I find it hard to make friends...I just, generally hate people. So, Naruto is the one that convinces me that not all people are a waste of space. He's one of the only people in the world who...not understands me exactly, but he's fine with how I am, and doesn't question it. Yeah, Naruto's great, but he needs to move right now.

I'm not usually that interested in girls, but this Sakura girl...she's caught my attention. So I tap Naruto on the shoulder. My blonde friend turns to look at me questionably.

"I think Neji's calling you," I tell him, pointing over at Neji who is most definitely not calling him and is, instead, just sitting there, glowering at Rock-Lee, who is still practicing karate.

"He is?" Naruto looks over at Neji and then pulls a face, pouting and crinkling his brow in confusion. "No he's not Sasuke. What're you talking about?"

"He was a minute ago," I protest innocently.

Naruto casts me a doubtful look, but then shrugs and skips off over to Neji. Neji gives him an annoyed look and then a confused one as Naruto talks to him. The conversation involves a lot of head-shaking on Neji's part. Eventually Naruto shrugs and then joins Rock-Lee in his karate training. I turn to Sakura.

"Hi," I greet.

Sakura's cheeks stain pink and she smiles, "Hi."

"I'm Sasuke," I continue, "Sakura, right?"

"Yeah," Sakura affirms, "You've got some crazy workmates Sasuke."

"You're telling me," I nod, "And this isn't even the half of it."

"We've got some loonies in our office too," Sakura giggles.

I glance over at Suigetsu before nodding, "I noticed," I smirk.

Sakura smiles and then slowly her cheeks turn even pinker, "Well...I...um...I'm looking forward to working with you guys."

I smile at her, "Me too. Hey, want a coffee?"

She bites her bottom lip in a coy way before nodding quickly. I smile again and then get up, making my way out. This is pretty great. She seems pretty into me and I definitely like the look of her and at least she doesn't seem like one of those stupid, airheaded, bimbo's I have to deal with more than half the time. I reason this to myself as I cross over the road towards the service station and towards Du Café Noir. She seems...sweet, and intelligent...and I like her eyes; green with little flecks of black. Hm...this retreat could be more interesting than I first initially thought. I smile to myself as I buy a coffee (and the girl behind the cash register promptly faints) and begin the journey back to the hotel area and Sakura.

I re-enter the room, side-step another argument (this time between Deidara and a red-headed fella) and make my way back over to my table. Just as my seat is within sight however, that's when bloody Itachi swoops into view and presents Sakura with a cup of coffee. She sent him to go get her coffee? Why that caffeine whore. I shake my head and put on a steely glare as I approach my brother and Sakura.

"I'm Itachi. I felt I should introduce myself, considering I'm going to be your new boss after this," I hear Itachi saying as he hands Sakura the cup of coffee.

"Oh wow, um...thank you," she stutters.

I stay a few steps away and continue glaring. My hands slowly balling into fists.

"Oh it's no problem," Itachi smiles, "What's your name, may I ask?"

"I'm Sakura."

"Lovely name."

The styrofoam coffee cup in my hand is crushed. Thank God Du Café Noir's coffee is so freaking col-oh fuck, it's hot as shit. I wince, but determined not to lose my cool, continue standing where I am.

"Hey, uh, fella?"

I look to the side to see Suigetsu leaning backwards on his chair, looking at my coffee stained hands with concern.

"You've got some, ah, coffee on...all over you," he informs me before grinning.

I nod grimly at him before looking back to Sakura and Itachi.

"Gonna do anything about that coffee currently burning through your skin Sasuke?" asks Ino as she wanders over to me.

"He says he's fine," Suigetsu answers for me.

Ino looks from Suigetsu, to me, then back to Suigetsu, then shrugs.

"Hi, I'm Ino," she greets Suigetsu.

"Suigetsu," Suigetsu nods.

Once the burning sensation has left my fingers, I walk over to Sakura and Itachi, trying to maintain a casual air, leaving Suigetsu and Ino chattering behind me. Itachi and Sakura look up as I approach and Sakura's face turns to one of concern when she notices I'm covered in coffee.

"What happened Sasuke?" she enquires, nodding at my coffee soaked hands.

"Nothing," I reply nonchalantly, before seating myself back at the table.

"Looks like you spilled coffee all over yourself," Shikamaru wakes up and notes.

"I hope you didn't spill it everywhere," Itachi states, "I doubt that'll make a good first impression with the cleaners."

"There are cleaners in this godforsaken hell hole?" I ask, moodily wiping at my trousers.

Itachi shakes his head at my obvious attitude. Seriously, Itachi is the only one who can always make me lose my cool. Him and Naruto when Naruto's in a particularly annoying mood (I.e. playing Mario Kart and shouting enthusiastically when I was studying for my finals). There's a slight pause and then Sakura reaches out, taking one of my hands to examine.

"Are your hands ok Sasuke? I bet that coffee was hot," she says worriedly, her eyes scanning my hands.

At her touch, an electric shock runs through me, stunning me into a temporary silence. Yeah...not used to being the one who acts like a twelve year old in the face of a pretty girl.

"Um," I cough, managing to retrieve my voice, "I'm fine," I mutter, yanking my hands away from her.

I need to regain some more control of this situation and how else other than with a cool calm attitude? Itachi flashes me a look, but I ignore him and glance around the room casually, just in time to see a nerdy looking guy with a grey ponytail and glasses enter the room.

"Ah, that's the team-building instructor," Itachi announces before smoothly picking himself up and approaching the aforementioned man.

"Who's the nerd?" Naruto enquires as he returns to our table.

"He's our team-building instructor," Sakura answers, the expression on her face doubtful as she looks over at the grey haired guy.

I turn to look again, just in time to see Itachi half-turn and smile at Sakura. What? I turn back to look at Sakura, to gauge her reaction, and I hold in a sigh as I see her blushing.

"Hey."

Again I turn as I hear a voice beside me. I'm met by the sight of the brown-haired guy from the other office.

"Who's the nerd?" he asks.

"Team-building instructor," Naruto answers. "I'm Naruto by the way."

"Hey," brown-hair nods, "I'm Kiba. So what's-" Kiba is cut off when Pein begins talking.

"Everybody gather round. The team-building instructor, Kabuto, would like to talk to you all."

No one moves, but Kabuto doesn't seem to mind as he steps forward grandly, "Hello everyone," he greets, "As Pein said, I'm your team-building instructor. Now, I'm hoping that everybody will have introduced themselves already?" the nerd gazes around and his question is met by some half murmured affirmations or silence.

"Ah," he sighs, "Right then. I think an introductory lesson will be in order!"

This causes a chorus of sighs.

"So, after you've gone to your rooms and put your luggage away, then you can all come back down and we'll form the circle of trust!"

"Circle of trust?" repeats the blonde girl with her hair in four bunches, her face a picture of disgust.

"But, before all this, we must first understand why we're even on this retreat in the first place! So then, as you'll all be working together soon enough, this is what we'll be doing. Ahem. Number one, getting to know each other. We'll find out all about each other! From names to personal histories!"

This elicits more sighs.

"Number two," Kabuto continues, "Bonding and building trust. Helping a group to work better together, by becoming friends as well as colleagues,"

I see Deidara and the red-headed guy he had been arguing with earlier shoot each other a look.

"Number three! Conflict resolution. Helping to resolve conflict in a group, for example by allowing it to play out,"

I can tell from the looks on both Itachi's and Pein's faces they don't like the sound of that. Kabuto doesn't seem to notice however, as he presses onwards.

"Number four, pushing limits- growth through testing our own and each other's limits in a safe environment. Number five-"

"How many bleeding steps are there?" questions the girl with her hair tied up in two buns darkly.

"-Energizing. Changing the energy level of the group. In this case, waking up a sleepy group."

I watch as Choji visibly gulps.

"Number six, teaching skills such as leadership. Number seven, grouping people. Simple games to pick a group of people randomly. Number eight, healing or therapy- working through personal problems or traumas,"

Aha. No.

"Number nine, release. Games that let off emotions such as anger and frustration in a relatively safe manner,"

Suigetsu throws the red-headed girl who hit him earlier a nervous look.

"Number ten, deflating egos. Helping serious people take themselves less seriously and helping dominant people to see the value of others,"

Everyone, including the people from the other office, look at Hidan. The silver-haired man looks outraged at this.

"What the f-"

Kabuto overrides him. "And last, number eleven, the most important of them all; we're here to have fun!"

Everyone stares at Kabuto blankly. He doesn't seem to mind however, as he smiles widely at us all.

"Now, go put your stuff away and then meet me down here in ten!"

Everyone slowly begins picking themselves up and then we all trudge for the door. I make sure to wait for Sakura and she casts me a nervous smile as she walks along next to me. A noticeable blush starts engulfing her face. My eyes dart around quickly, looking for Itachi. Wondering if it's that weasel that's eliciting this reaction, but...no. He's nowhere to be found. I smile smugly to myself.

SAKURA POV

Oh hells yeah. Ten points to the little guy. Holla! Raise the roof, raise the roof! I catch myself doing little 'raise the roof' motions and stop myself quickly. Sasuke didn't see me thankfully, as he was glancing around the room. That's twice now that he's missed me being a complete spaz right next to him. Just as he went to get me coffee earlier, I had a little fangirl attack and nearly tipped the table over. Then Itachi –MY NEW BOSS. OH HELL TO THE YEAH- turned up with coffee and I had to act normal again. But how lucky is this? I can't wait to squeal to Karin. Two hot guys and they're brothers? Oh my God what is in their genes? Oh Lord, naughty thoughts. Restrain yourself Sakura, lest you bleed from the nose.

"So,"

I turn to look at Sasuke and then promptly trip over a suitcase.

"FUCK!" I yell as I slam myself headfirst into the concrete.

Oh holy fuck. Just...holy fuck.

This chapter was written by Gerkyhen :) I hope you enjoyed it! R&R