Fitting Perfectly

"Sasuke, hold up your hand."

The brooding young man raised and eyebrow at his companion and grunted softly in declination.

"Please?" Sakura asked, clasping her hands together and pouting cutely. Now he was gonner. He definitely couldn't resist this… right?

He rolled his eyes and complied, if only to make her stop!

Success!! her mind screamed.

Sakura wrapped her hands around his wrist to keep it at eye level. He looked on, slightly suspicious. And then she stared at Sasuke's hand intensely for several moments. Just as he was about to pull it away, thinking that she was only wasting his time, she did something completely unexpected.

She put her hand on his.

Sasuke's eyes widened in surprise and yanked his hand back in reflex. Did she—has she—her hand and the—WHAT?? his mind stuttered helpfully, watching as her eyes narrow contemplatively. Was she trying to hold his hand? He thought that she understood their relationship dynamic by now! Comrades… maybe friends. But that was all. Right. Yes. Nothing beyond that.

Suuuure.

Catching, the look on his face (he looked like he was just told he was pregnant, or worse… weak), Sakura tossed her hair and rolled her eyes. He thought she was going fangirl on him again. Not a chance. Not that he wasn't handsome but—agh! No, bad thoughts. She was supposed to be over him. (Screw the fact she was failing miserably.)

And his hand didn't fit hers. So he failed.

"Not that Sasuke. I'm doing a little experiment," Sakura explained.

"… Experiment?" he asked suspiciously.

Sakura sighed. So much for him trusting her. "Never mind. Listen, I've got to go. Do you know where Naruto is?"

Hmm. "No," he answered shortly.

Sakura 'ahh'ed softly. And then said, "Okay. I need to go find him. Later." And then abruptly walked off.

What was that about? Sasuke thought, bewildered.

"Where could that little hyper-active ninja be?" an annoyed Sakura mumbled to herself. She'd already been searching for the blond boy for about half an hour, and for once, couldn't find any trace of him. It was a strange occurrence indeed. Usually his voice could carry for miles and miles… considering his softest voice was just a decibel louder than deafening. It was a real pain-in-the-ass on stealth missions, but it was handy for tracking him.

"Augh! Give me a sign!" she spoke to the heavens, pointing dramatically to the sky. Never let it be said that Haruno Sakura wasn't a little bit of a drama queen.

And then, to her great luck, she ran into something. A hard something. A big hard something.

Owwie. My poor smushed nose. It's not like I can get a new one of these.

"Uh… I'm sorry, sir. I wasn't looking where—Sasuke?!"

He glared down his nose at her (stupid boy tallness!), his eyes seeming to say 'you clumsy girl'.

It annoyed her.

"Oh shut up. You're the one that stood in my way when I was so clearly deep in thought."

Sasuke derisively raised one perfectly formed obsidian brow.

Sakura growled and stormed off. She didn't have to put up with him and his superiority complex!

"Sakura," he called.

Twitching, she turned to face him. "What?"

"Where are you going?"

She blinked. "To finish my experiment. Naruto's the last test subject."

"Hn. Let me come with you."

She triple blinked. "Uh—okay?" He was being awfully nice for once, escorting her. Not like him at all. "Wait… what's the catch?"

Sasuke rolled his eyes and walked off, not even bothering to answer.

"HEY! I WAS TALKING TO YOU!"

And so, the duo were off, with all intents and purposes to find the third member of their squad.

Forty-five minutes later, they found him chatting up a random girl.

".. but I totally kicked to ninja's ass when Sasuke went down for the count and Sakura—man, her iron fists are SCARY—came out and—"

"NARUTO!!" Sakura yelled, interrupting him.

"Eh? Sakura-chan?"

"C'mere for a second."

Sasuke looked on, bored, as Naruto looked at Sakura to the random girl and back again, clearly trying to make a hard decision.

"Narutooooo..." Sakura hissed dangerously.

"Gah! Okay. Bye… uh… what's your name again?"

"Chisuke!" the girl shrieked, insulted.

"Yeah, bye Chiyami!" he said as her trotted towards Sakura.

"CHISUKE!" she screamed at his retreating back.

Too bad she doesn't count at all, and so was ignored.

"So, Sakura, what's up?" he asked with his boyish grin.

"I need you to hold up your hand for me, kay?"

"Anything for you, Sakura-chan!"

It irritated Sasuke for some reason. Why the hell did Naruto have to flirt with Sakura? It was stupid. And insipid. And it clearly unsettled their team dynamic. And it really annoyed him that Sakura always casually flirted back.

Wait, what? What does that have to do with anything?

Sasuke shook those thoughts from his head as he watched Sakura repeat the same process with Naruto as she had done before with him. Her tiny hand looked like a joke next to Naruto's much larger, tanned one.

But unlike this morning, when she had just looked annoyed and walked off, a giant smile slowly unfolded across her face.

"Hey Naruto—wanna go grab a bite to eat with me at Ichiraku?"

"YEAH!" Naruto shouted immediately, clearly excited to go to his favorite restaurant with his favorite female.

She smiled and grabbed his hand and they walked off together.

Leaving Sasuke standing there completely confused and with some angry foreign emotion clawing at the pit of his stomach. Did she just ask Naruto on a date? Is she HOLDING his HAND? His heart burned.

Suddenly, he was missing the fangirl Sakura.

There was something—HAD to be something—wrong with Sakura today. Why else would she ask that stupid dobe out on a date? I mean, HE was more willing than Naruto to take her somewhere nicer than—

Crap.

No, no, he didn't mean that. Of course she was admirable, and pretty, and had a nice smile, and laughed at his sometimes-jokes, and was patient, and a good healer, and perfect, and everything.

That didn't mean he liked her.

Right.

Ugh, stupid hormones.

And then he realized that maybe—maybe—he did like her. A little.

A lot.

Naruto chattered happily to Sakura as he chowed down on beef ramen. Sakura smiled and laughed at all his stupid jokes—he WAS her best friend after all, and was additionally rather funny—but secretly couldn't help but wish that a certain dark-haired, dark-eyed avenger was sitting across form her instead.

Like he'd ever come on a date with me anyway.

Hff.

Stupid men. And Sasuke's hand didn't fit right anyway.

"Naruto," Sakura softly interrupted, "have you ever heard that when hands fit perfectly, the two people who have those hands are made for each other?"

"Huh?" Naruto tilted his head cutely in confusion.

"It's like the hands were created to fit each other. So it's fate, right? Destiny?"

Naruto scratched his head thoughtfully. "Maybe. But what if more than one hand fit yours? Then would you have more than one person destined to be with you? I think it's all a matter of chance, Sakura-chan. Not god intervening or cupid shooting arrows to make hands certain sizes. You should be with whoever you want to be with, without basing it on things like hand sizes."

Sakura stirred her water with her straw, deep in thought. Maybe he was right.

The blond Kyuubi-container looked curiously at the kunoichi. "Is that why you wanted me to come with Ichiraku with you? 'Cause my hand fit yours?"

The pink-haired woman looked up, startled. Slowly, she broke out into a grin. "When'd you get so smart?"

Naruto grinned sheepishly. "Aww, Sakura-chan, I've always been smart! You just haven't noticed before!"

Sakura giggled softly and then stood up."Okay, Naruto. Whatever you say. I've gotta go, okay? Have dinner with me again sometime soon?"

"Sure, Sakura-chan."

She smiled at him, bent down to kiss him once, softly on the lips, and then walked away. No sparks. So that hand-thing was false after all.

Sasuke stared Sakura and Naruto as she kissed him—on the lips!—with (and there was no doubt about it) jealously churning angrily in his gut.

How could she kiss him! That was—and he just sat there, enjoying her kissing—and she looked so happy—and ARGH. Someone was going to die today.

Probably Naruto.

Most definitely Naruto.

He strode angrily over to Naruto. "You kissed her," he hissed quietly.

Naruto swiveled around in his chair, eyes widened guiltily. "Uh, you saw that?"

"Yes I saw that you dobe. How could you?! I thought you knew that I—that I…" Sasuke stopped short.

"That you what?" Naruto prodded.

"Shut up."

Naruto scowled. Well, if that's how he was gonna be… "She kissed me, you know. Confessed that she had wanted to do it for a very long time. I guess tonight she got her courage up and—"

Sasuke twitched, his fists clenching, The idiot better stop if he knew what was good for him…

But of course, Naruto being Naruto, he continued, "—finally embraced how she really felt about me. I mean, we're almost perfect for each other, right? We've been best friends since forever and she buys me ramen and comes to me when she's sad… Maybe now, we'll finally be going steady. And then I get to kiss her all the time." Naruto watched as his other best friend's face contorted into an even darker rage. "Maybe I'll get to do more than that."

WHAM.

Naruto flew off his chair from the force of Sasuke's punch. He watched from the floor as the Uchiha's Sharingan flashed to life ominously, pure rage emanating from his every pore.

"Don't you dare talk about her like that. She's too good for you, Naruto." And then Sasuke stalked off, fists clenching with the effort to not beat up the dobe.

"Crap. Sakura's gonna be in trouble now…"

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK.

"Who could that be…?" Sakura mused. "Come in!" she shouted to the door of her apartment.

So he did.

Sakura gaped in surprise at seeing him here, in her apartment, for a few moments before she collected herself and noticed how pissed off he looked. "What's the matter, Sasuke?"

He covered the distance between them in three quick strides, glaring down at her. "You."

The kunoichi gulped. "Um. What?"

He pushed his face closer to hers, growling angrily. "You. You are what's the matter. You and your stupid actions and ruining the team focus and making me punch Naruto and you."

"What?! What do I do?!"

"You. Kissed. Naruto."

Oh. Um. Well…

She glared up into his eyes, now equally as angry and on top of that—confused. Which made her doubly as angry. "What's it to you? My love life is NONE of your business!"

Sasuke snapped.

"YOU ARE MY BUISNESS!" he roared, uncaring that she winced. "YOU'RE DESTROYING THE TEAM WITH YOUR BEHAVIOUR AND MAKING ME BECOME SO, SO ANGRY AT NARUTO FOR KISSING YOU AND—AND…" Sasuke slumped… anger evaporating into a sort of hopelessness he was unable to defend himself from. "Just tell me why."

Sakura was still in a state of shock from his outburst. "Why what?"

He glared at her half-heartedly. "Why you kissed him."

"Oh. Um. Because I realized something."

Sasuke steeled himself to listen to how much she loved him and how perfect he was for her.

"I realized that I wasn't being fair to the experiment. I wanted to see whose hand fit perfectly with mine—but realized that it wouldn't make me like that man anymore than I like…"

Moment of truth… suck it up, Haruno…

"… you…"

Sasuke jerked in surprise. "What?"

Sakura sighed sadly, thinking, Well now that I've lost his friendship, I might as well go all the way…

"Uh, yeah. I like you. Um. Surprise?"

Sasuke sat in stunned silence for a few moments.

"You… like… me…?" he asked disjointedly, as if he were trying to solve a particularly hard math equation.

Sakura winced at the disbelief in his tone. "Yeah…"

A surprised chuckle suddenly fell from his lips, leaving Sakura to marvel in the beauty of such a simple sound. But… what?

"And here I thought... Never mind. It doesn't matter." He ran his hand through his hair, happier than he had been for a while. She didn't like the dobe. Thank god.

Sakura raised her eyebrows in curiosity. "What?"

"Aah," he grunted, suddenly not wanting to expound. He was never good with words… what if he screwed up? It was kind of his only chance left…

She rolled her eyes. "Yeah, that sure clears things up."

He smirked very slightly at her. "Just… meet me tomorrow after training. You'll see then."

Moment of truth… suck it up, Uchiha…

She found, the next day, that their hands really did fit perfectly. When held together.

A/N: FINALLY! I got around to writing more than my bitter candy. Sorry if you were expecting angst, folks, but I was in the mood for… this. I'm such a sucker for romance. (Seriously. Look in my favorites. I've only got 10 stories (or something) there that AREN'T romance-related. sighs sadly Pathetic, thy name is Tsuki. And the ending of this thing sucked. SUCKED.