THIS IS MY 2nd YEAR OF DOIN SASUSAKU MONTH!

I was really excited from all the positive reviews and stuff last year, so hopefully you guys will enjoy this one as well!

Title: The Bench

Summary: It's been a long day at the hospital, and all Sakura wants to do is sit down and rest her legs. Unfortunately, she was so distracted by her teammate that she failed to notice the "wet paint" sign…

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto

Prompt: The Smell of Fresh Paint (Day 1)

Rating: T

Warnings: none

Sakura sighed, running a hand through her messy pink locks as she walked through the hallways of Konoha's hospital. Since Tsunade was away on vacation, almost the entirety of the hospital's responsibilities fell onto Sakura's shoulders, and she certainly didn't appreciate that on top of her extensive training. Because of her newly achieved Anbu status, she had to stay in top form, and wasn't allowed to miss a single team practice.

"Miss Sakura!" a nurse shouted. "We need your assistance in room 2A! There's a chunin bleeding out and we need to perform immediate surgery!"

Sakura nodded before sprinting in the direction of the frazzled woman, not one to prioritize leaving early before tending to her patients.

Overall, Sakura had spent twelve hours in the hospital that day, not including the three hours of training she had done beforehand. She had been awake since 5am, and since her chakra was so depleted, she couldn't even perform a healing jutsu to restore her spirits. The only thing keeping her going was all the cheap black coffee from the hospital break room, and even that wasn't enough.

She left the hospital at 8pm, carrying a stack of paperwork as she walked her way towards her apartment on the other side of the village. Many civilians she passed by on the streets gave her friendly waves, and she felt obliged to force a cheerful grin in response. At times like this, she wished she was Sasuke, who was never expected to fake a smile or a sunny demeanor.

Speaking of Sasuke…

With a frown, she recalled this morning's events, when Sasuke joined her team's practice since he had just been allowed to join Anbu (two years since returning to Konoha after the war) and had not been placed on a team yet. Needless to say, it was a little awkward. Her team consisted of Sai and Kiba, and although she loved them to death, their dynamic was a lot different than team 7's.

Sai, of course, had his strange way of interacting with them. His insults ranged from annoying to downright frustrating, and sometimes Sakura forgot that it was his unique way of creating bonds. After all this time, she still flinched every time he called her "ugly," even though Kiba quickly yelled at Sai for doing so.

Kiba was probably Sakura's closest friend after Ino and Naruto, and for good reason. He was pretty much a mix of the two, being both stubborn and vain in the best way possible. To balance out Sai's attitude, he constantly complimented Sakura on practically everything she did, whether it be a new kickass jutsu or how "fantastic" her ass looked in her anbu-regulation spandex leggings.

Usually, she loved team practices. But with Sasuke there, it was just extremely awkward.

After the war, she had done her best to avoid seeing him as much as possible, which actually wasn't all that hard since he was always so busy with completing D- and C-ranked missions as community service to alleviate his sentence for his original betrayal of the village. Thankfully due to his help during the Shinobi War, Tsunade was very lenient, but that didn't mean the village accepted him with open arms. In fact, if he weren't so close to many high-ranked shinobi, the newly established council would've probably already petitioned to banish him already.

He came to the practice field twenty minutes early, which was coincidently also the time Sakura showed up to stretch her limbs and prepare herself.

Basically she just tried to go about her stretches as usual, just with the added pressure of feeling Sasuke's intense stare on her the entire time. Ugh…why does he always have to be so silent? she had thought nervously, forcing down the blush that sprung up once she saw him in the formfitting anbu uniform.

So by the time Kiba and Sai showed up, Sakura was already quite flustered and definitely not in the mood for physical exertion.

They paired up for the first half of practice: Kiba with Sakura and Sasuke with Sai.

"Sakura! How bout we stick to taijutsu so we can get a little physical," Kiba cheekily grinned, earning a light slap on the arm and an unexplained glare from Sasuke.

"How about some genjutsu so we can be as far away as possible?" Sakura teased back, causing Kiba's shoulders to slump comically.

"Ugh….fine," he grumbled before getting into a comfortable stance. He needed to improve his genjutsu anyways, so it made sense to work on it.

Meanwhile Sakura couldn't help sparing the occasional glance towards Sai and Sasuke, who also seemed to have decided on sticking to genjutsu. Though she'd never admit it out loud (her fangirl days were long over), Sasuke definitely looked his best in the midst of battle with his eyes narrowed and position strong.

Before she knew it, the hours flew by, and she found herself heading over to the hospital, excited to take a shower and change into some clean clothes before her shift started.

She was only a mile away from her apartment when Sakura saw the last person she wanted to see at the moment. So much for trying to de-stress after work…..

None other than Sasuke Uchiha was walking on the other side of the street, nearing her at a speed she deemed too fast for her liking.

It would seem very suspicious if she used a jutsu to poof away, not to mention she didn't have much chakra left. She would sprint away, but he was very used to her chakra signature, so he would be able to sense it immediately. And unfortunately, there was no open shop in close proximity where she could duck in and hide.

Salvation came in the form of a pristine white bench, placed ever-so-conveniently on the side of the path.

Sakura strode over to the bench in a matter of seconds, plopping herself down as inconspicuously as possible.

Her nose scrunched up with a sudden sensation. Why does my butt feel…wet?

Eyes widening with horror, she realized that she had sat upon a freshly-painted bench, ruining her black skirt as it was covered in white paint.

She yelped as she shot up, glaring at the "WET PAINT" sign she had failed to see before.

Nevertheless, her actions did not go unnoticed by a certain Uchiha.

Since the streets were nearly empty, the strange choking noise filled the late afternoon air, stopping Sakura's panicked thoughts as she searched for the source.

None other than Sasuke Uchiha, still clad in his Anbu uniform, was cracking up laughing, his face twisted into some sort of smile.

Needless to say, Sakura experienced a potent mix of awe and humiliation.

She was about to run away at breakneck speed, but Sasuke caught her arm before she could make her mistake.

The laughter stopped, but a slight smile remained.

"If you're making such obvious mistakes, I think you're working yourself too hard," he observed, more matter-of-fact than concerned. But Sakura knew from her years of experience that this was the closest to worried that Sasuke could usually get.

"It's not like I have a choice!" Sakura protested, a little insulted. "I can handle all of this! It's just temporary! Tsunade will be back in a week and-"

"—and you'll be hospitalized for chakra depletion by then if you keep going at this rate."

Sakura went silent.

"I'll walk you home."

She struggled to keep her mouth from falling open in surprise. "Uh—I really don't live too far away and you really don't need to trouble yourself and I know you live in the opposite direction and-"

"Sakura," he said sternly, cutting off her nervous rant. "I'm taking you home. And if you're going to be this tired the entire time Tsunade is away, I'll do so every night."

Sakura couldn't help her insides from turning to mush at that declaration. Try not to read too much into it….he is only making sure I don't fail at my anbu duties…try not to think too much….

She finally obliged, and they started walking without another word being spoken (Not like Sakura expected there to be much conversation. Sasuke had pretty much used up his daily quota of sentences for the day earlier).

When they finally reached the door of Sakura's apartment, she made sure to mutter a hurried "thankyousomuch" as she fumbled for her keys and unlocked the door. But as she walked into her apartment with the sole intention of heading her way to the bedroom to sleep for the next ten hours, Sasuke spoke, so quietly she almost missed it.

"And uh…white paint doesn't look so bad on your—ahem—you know."

wtf did I just write. Oh well, I'm more excited about the other prompts for the month anywayz.