Kakashi saves the day

Perhaps the real danger of being the only girl on a team with three guys isn't hormones, but being mistaken as "one of the guys".

Disclaimer: Characters are owned by Kishimoto – this guy who gets to sit around and draw and write stories all day. I'm so jealous…

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The Ruler and the String

Sakura was sitting in the sun enjoying some peace and quiet. She had been on a mission with Sasuke, Naruto and Sai for the last week patrolling the border of Rice country, which meant 18 hours days and very little sleep. The night before a different team arrived to take over patrol duty for a week and the four of them decided to travel through the night so they could get back to Konoha sooner. As dawn approached they ran into Kakashi, who was returning from his own mission. They decided to take a day off and relax since Kakashi hadn't seen any of them in almost three months. He had been in the southern end of Wind country helping the village hidden in the Sand track some missing-nins.

The boys had all gone off to swim in the river while Kakashi made a trip to a nearby town to get some lunch for everyone. It was a lovely late Spring day, in fact next week would be the start of Summer. A soft breeze blew up from the narrow river to the grassy hill Sakura was sitting on. It smelled wonderful and Sakura closed her eyes, memorizing the scent. It was so quiet she could hear only birds and insects and the grass and shrubs rustling in the breeze.

Suddenly alarmed Sakura sat up quickly and wondered why it was quiet. The guys weren't making any noise. Usually they argued. Sai didn't trust Sasuke, even though he had been back in Konoha for two years. Sasuke didn't care what Sai thought of him, which for some reason bothered the otherwise unemotional ex-Root member. Naruto trusted everyone, which bothered both Sai and Sasuke. In other words, they were friends for life and nothing could rip them apart. Except for their penchant for petty arguments. Loud, violent, and incredibly meaningless arguments.

Just as she was starting to consider standing up and walking down to the river to see if they had drowned each other she noticed them walking up the hill. They were sopping wet from the river and wore only their pants.

"Hmmm. Nice." Sakura drooled at the well formed 18 and 19 year-old men in front of her. Until they opened their mouths, that is.

"Sakura, we trust you, so we want you to resolve a bet for us." Naruto was serious and his face had a determined look to it. His blue eyes glinted as he furrowed his brow.

"We have a ruler so you can measure the length and a string so you can measure the width." Sasuke spoke in his usual monotone as Sai held up the two items with an air of boredom.

Sakura blinked twice, then gulped. She had a sneaky suspicion where this was going, and if she was right there would be three dead men in the next three minutes.

"What exactly is it I am to be measuring?" She asked in a deadly voice.

Naruto either blew her off or didn't notice her tone. "Our pe-"

"Ahhhhhh!" Sakura screamed as loud as she could as the three boys opened their zippers. She quickly covered her eyes. "You perverts! How dare you do something like that in front of a lady!"

Kakashi heard her scream and ran the short distance to find a rather disturbing site. Sakura was sitting on the ground, covering her eyes and yelling a tirade of insults while three men stood in shock with their pants open. He then noticed the ruler and string in Sai's hands. Sensing that he had about sixty seconds before Sakura attacked he put the take-out lunch carefully on the ground and turned to face the men.

"Oh. A measuring contest." His eyes scrunched shut as a huge grin appeared on his masked face. He reached down and opened his own pants, praying that Sakura kept her eyes closed for a few more seconds. "Can I play?"

Sakura stopped yelling and her mouth opened in shock. She tightened her hands over her eyes wondering what had gotten into her old friend.

Naruto, Sasuke and Sai's eyes popped out of their heads and, averting their gaze they slowly zipped up their pants. Embarrassed they mumbled apologies to Sakura and handed a total of 1400 ryou to their ex-sensei.

"You can open your eyes again Sakura." Kakashi smiled as he as he counted his winnings.

A very subdued Naruto, Sasuke and Sai ate their lunch while Sakura and Kakashi re-hashed old times and gossiped about current events. It was a very relaxing afternoon.

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I think 1400 ryou is around $14 (more or less). If it isn't just pretend… As usual with bets they were using pocket change.

I have no idea why I thought this story up. I could totally see Naruto and Sai doing this, Sasuke is probably OOC here, but who cares, I wanted to show him being a little childish for once

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