Title: And Fortune Smiles
Genre: Romance & General
Pairings: Sasuke x Sakura, Naruto x Hinata, Shikamaru x Ino, Neji x Tenten
Summary: It was only a fortune cookie; made in a factory, not a temple. No reason at all to suspect that anything that stupid piece of paper said was true. But that didn't quite stop her from hoping.
Warnings: There's some OOC on Sasuke's part, but not much. I resisted temptation. Slightly AU, as I don't acknowledge Sasuke's defection. Sorry about that, but this is angst free. Also, it may seem to be Naruto x Sakura, but it's not, haha. He's just slightly tipsy. And if that doesn't attract you…
Notes: This premise was taunting me. It's based on a true story. ;)

Disclaimer: Totally, absolutely not mine. It is my birthday though. One can hope…

Total, absolute chaos.

That was the only way Haruno Sakura could describe the scene in her living room, where she was currently celebrating her recent promotion with not-just a few of her closest friends. Ino, the sweetheart, had broken out the sake at around midnight. Now, it was three in the morning and—

"Party in my pants!"

Well, that just spoke for itself.

"Naruto! Put those back on, dammit!"

"Can't make me, Sasu-uke-teme!"

"Na-Naruto-kun, please listen to Sasuke-san…"

"Sakura-san!"

She turned to see Shino and Lee.

"We're leaving now. Thanks for the party!"

She pouted slightly.

"So soon?"

Shino nodded.

"We have a mission tomorrow morning."

"Oh, right! You're providing back-up for Chouji-san and Kiba-san, right? It's too bad they couldn't come tonight. Then, it would have been a reunion for all of us Rookie Nine."

She paused.

"Oh, and Gai-san's team as well."

Lee smiled.

"Indeed, Sakura-san. It was nice. We should do it again!" He flashed his blinding grin at her, and stuck his thumb up in the Nice Gai! pose he'd inherited from his beloved sensei.

"Definitely, you two. Give my best to Chouji and Kiba! And be careful out there. I don't want to see any of you in my ward anytime soon."

"Good night, Sakura-san!"

"Good evening to you."

And then, they were gone.

She locked the door behind them and looked again at the scene in her living room.

"Tennytentenny…ten," hiccupped the completely inebriated Hyuuga Neji, caressing a forest-green curtain rod. The weapons mistress, one of the precious few sober people left in the room, rolled her eyes. The Byakugan user would be getting more than just an earful from her tomorrow morning. Honestly, confusing her body, with that of a perfectly straight perfectly flat, inanimate object…

Just what the hell was he trying to imply?

Shikamaru and Ino were wrapped around each other in one of the darker corners of Sakura's living room. The medic-nin smirked. It was about damned time those two got over themselves and admitted to the attraction between them. Though, she winced as a deep groan broke through her best friend's otherwise occupied lips, they could have done it a bit more privately.

She snapped a few shots with the disposable camera that Hinata had bought for her, before pocketing it again.

Oh well.

They'd regret it tomorrow.

She'd barely just turned away when a sudden shock of black and orange obscured her vision. The fabric was soft, easy to move around in, and surprisingly light. It smelt vaguely of musk, and forest, and…

Wait a minute.

"Naruto. Get your pants off my head, or I swear to all that's holy, I will strangle you with them."

Unfortunately, Naruto was past the point of seeing the danger to his health, and instead grabbed her hands and sat her down in one of her dining room chairs. He removed the offending garment from her head, swaying all the while, and smiled idiotically.

"Sit down, Sakura-chan," he purred in what he must have thought was a sexy voice, but instead came out as a rather awkward attempt at seduction. She complied, vaguely wondering where Sasuke and Hinata had run off to.

"All right, Naruto. What exactly are you planning?"

He leered at her, and turned on her stereo. The sound of soft, slow, sensual music began to fill the room.

Unimpressed, Sakura did a quick check of the room's inhabitants. Shikamaru and Ino vaguely noticed the change in atmosphere, still so caught up in each other. Neji had passed out, and Tenten was in the process of dragging him to the boys' room for the night, taking little heed of the fact that his head was banging on the hardwood floor with each of her steps. She paused at the doorway and smiled mischievously at Sakura.

"Have fun," she said, gesturing to the stripping ANBU in front of her.

By this time, Naruto had slowly started to undo the fastenings on his coat.

"It's your time, Sakura-chan. I'm going to…take care of you."

She barely resisted the urge to snort.

"Just…relax."

He'd just removed his over coat, when Sasuke and Hinata came rushing into the room, both breathing rather heavily.

"Sorry, Sakura-chan. He got away from us."

The newly promoted jounin simply smiled.

"No problem, Hinata-chan. You should probably take him to the room."

The heiress nodded, and, in one smooth move, knocked her boyfriend over the head.

She's certainly grown a lot more confident since our years as genin, Sakura mused thoughtfully, as her friend dragged Naruto to his room. She never would have dared to smack Naruto like that, back then, when she was still so painfully shy. It's a nice change.

"Sakura?"

She faced Shikamaru, who was carrying a sleeping Ino in his arms.

"Where do I put this?"

She smirked wickedly at him.

"I'll let you decide that, Shika-kun."

He blushed, a faint pinkness shining through his pale skin, before muttering his trademark "troublesome," and walking to her room, the one the girls would be sharing for tonight.

That left Sasuke.

…And the obscenely large amount of trash to clean up.

Sakura padded off to the kitchen to get some garbage bags.

"Need some help?"

She started, and almost blushed before she remembered herself.

This was Sasuke.

Sasuke, her friend.

Sasuke, whom she certainly did not dream about, or still suppress the urge to giggle over when he was shirtless.

Sasuke, who'd grown more open since the death of his brother.

Sasuke, whom was not her ideal, not her standard, and certainly not her impossible goal.

Sasuke, who was so very impossible to get over.

"U-um..sure. Thanks."

"Hn. Maybe next time, you should do something like this where you won't have to clean up after it."

The pink-haired medic-nin smiled softly.

"Maybe."

Then, all conversation stopped, and the only sound heard was the rustling of post-party cleanup.

When they were finished, she'd smiled up at him, grateful for the help.

"Thanks again, Sasuke-kun. I definitely wouldn't have been able to get this all cleaned up with your help."

She thought she saw the hint of a smile in his eyes, but quicker than she could blink, it was gone again.

"Hn."

After a few more minutes of silence, he walked past her and into the boys' room.

A few days later, Hinata visited Sakura at the hospital. In her hands, was a yellow packet.

"Hi, Hinata-chan! What brings you here?" She furrowed her brows and gave her friend a quick once-over. "You're not sick, are you?"

The Hyuuga heiress smiled.

"No, Sakura-chan, I'm perfectly fine. I came by to give you these. I think youtook most of them."

Sakura blinked, before her memory came back to her, bringing with it, a rather evil smirk.

"Right. Thanks, Hinata-chan. I'll find use for these yet."

The girl, not having looked at the pictures before giving them to her friend, looked puzzled at the impish look in her friend's normally serious gaze, but decided not to question her. She waved goodbye, and left.

Sakura placed the potential blackmail material in her desk drawer, where it lay out of sight, and—for now, anyway—out of mind.

A few weeks later, the Rookie Nine, along with their sensei, as well as Gai's team, the irrepressible Beautiful Green Beast himself, as well as most of the Konoha jounin, were gathered at a Chinese restaurant to celebrate the birthday of one of the Legendary Sannin. Jiraiya had been surly when Tsunade had refused to allow him entry into one of the bars, but when Kakashi had told him gleefully about the sinfully tight uniforms of the waitresses…

Well, he'd gotten over his disappointment soon enough.

"Tsunaadeee-chan! Where are my birthday kisses?"

As the birthday boy flew overhead, the twelve youngest Konoha jounin were gathered around a table, one fortune cookie in front of each ninja. Each was eyeing the confection warily, as though it would pop up and poke them in the eye if they were not vigilant.

"Well…what are we waiting for?" With those words, Naruto ripped open the wrapper and broke the cookie apart. He'd just pulled out the strip of white paper when Ino reached across Shikamaru and Chouji to smack the cookie from his hand.

"Idiot! Everyone knows that for the fortune to come true, you have to eat the cookie before reading the paper!"

"They do? Why?"

"I don't know. That's just how it is!"

"Hm. That statement sounds like it should be coming from a 12 year-old genin, rather than a twenty year-old jounin."

Ino's eye twitched dangerously.

"What did you say, Shikamaru?"

"Troublesome female…"

Chouji looked at his fortune morosely, having already devoured his cookie.

"So that means I won't be having a lucky day tomorrow?"

At the other end of the table, where Kiba and Shino were sitting, the former looked puzzled.

"'Someone can read your mind.' What's that supposed to mean?"

Shino adjusted his glasses, and stared at his own strip of luck.

"Shino? What's yours say?"

"…'Don't kiss an elephant on the lips today.'"

There was no response to that.

"Why don't we just go around the table?"

Lee, who was sitting next to Shino, picked it up again.

"Mine says 'Your eyes will soon be sparking; keep them open.'" He smiled excitedly.

"So you suppose that's a reference to my flame of youth?"

Tenten, used to his strange mannerisms, simply nodded her head.

"Yes, Lee. I'm sure that's exactly what it means. Hmm…"

Her silence did not go unnoticed by the Hyuuga who sat next to her.

"Well? What does it say?"

She turned to him, a wicked smile on her face.

"Why, Neji? Going back to believing in fate again?"

"Hn."

"It says, 'The rubber bands are heading in the right direction.' Hm. How odd. All right, Neji. You, next."

"…This is stupid."

Unfortunately, before he could destroy his fortune, Tenten had snatched it, and after reading it her eyes sparkled with glee.

"Oh, this is priceless. 'Someone will invite you to a karaoke party.'"

Stunned silence greeted that declaration, as everyone tried in vain to picture the Hyuuga singing into a garish microphone, with bad acoustics and sappy lyrics…

After the laughter had subsided—due to the intimidating Hyuuga glare—the circle continued.

"Hinata, you're up."

"Um…it says…'A nice cake is waiting for you.'"

Sakura smiled.

"That's the first one that's made sense all night."

Naruto, who was sitting next to Hinata, badgered Ino for his fortune.

"Oh fine, Naruto. Here you go. But let me read mine first, ne?"

"All right, fine, fine."

"Yay! Let's see…'Magic is created when unconventional person comes.' I wonder what that could mean…"

Naruto looked impatient until he was finally given the go-ahead.

"I bet mine says something about being Hokage! The old lady's pushing, what? Fifty? Sixty? I'll probably be—"

He was cut off by a punch to the head. Dazed, he dropped headfirst into the remains of his eggdrop soup.

Tsunade stood over him, rubbing her knuckles as she walked away.

"That boy has one the hardest heads I've ever hit."

Shikamaru raised an eyebrow at that, shrugged, and read out his own fortune.

"So troublesome. 'You may attend a party, where strange customs prevail.'" He looked over at Jiraiya, who was lodged underneath two chairs, happily enjoying the view underneath a passing waitress' skirt. "Well, I suppose that one was true enough…"

Tenten turned to the only two ninja left.

"Sakura? Sasuke? Who wants to go first?"

As was his nature, Sasuke remained silent. Whether he thought the whole thing was stupid, was a mystery.

"Well, that leaves you, Forehead."

"Hardy-har-har, Ino-pig. Mine says…"

Sakura stared in shock—and a bit of flushed pleasure—at the tiny strip of white paper in front of her.

"Sakura? Earth-to-forehead. Have you been spending so much time reading your medical tomes and scrolls that you've forgotten how to read something silly like that? Hey, why are you getting all red? Hey, where are you going?"

But she'd already left.

Really, she should have been ashamed of herself. She was an elite jounin, the Godaime Hokage's apprentice, former student of the famous Copy Nin, and yet, she couldn't handle reading a simple fortune?

It's a fortune cookie. It was made in a factory, not a temple. No reason at all to suspect that anything that stupid piece of paper says is true.

So why was she so broken up about it?

Maybe because you wanted it to be…

She looked miserably at the innocent strip of paper that had started it.

"'Stop looking forever for happiness. It's right next to you.'"

Based on awkward sentence structure alone, I shouldn't be taking this seriously. And yet I…this is pathetic. Her gloomy thoughts kept her so occupied that she almost didn't hear…

"What did yours say?"

Some ninja. She hadn't even noticed Sasuke following her.

"Sa-Sasuke-kun! What are you doing out here?"

He ignored her question, obsidian eyes gazing at her with a strange intensity.

"What did yours say?"

"It's silly, really. I don't even know why I let it get to—"

"Mine said 'Stop looking forever for happiness. It's right next to you.'"

She stared in shock, her mouth gaping inelegantly.

"Um…well, that is, mine said—"

"The same?"

"…"

He smirked.

"Right then. Just wanted to make sure."

Suddenly, she felt it. A pressure so light against her cheek that, for a moment, she thought she'd imagined it.

Did he just…

As he walked away, she thought she saw the hint of a full-fledged smile.

"My happiness, huh…"

FIN.

I really ought to start working on finishing up my chapter fic. GAH. Sasuke x Sakura is such a bad addiction.

As for those blackmail pictures…well, that's another story.

No, really. Keep an eye out for it.

Hope you've enjoyed reading.

Please review. It'd make my day. :D