o2. No animals were harmed in the writing of this one-shot. For Neon Genesis. SASUSAKU. Sequel to The Pinkish Green Saga.

Fandom: Naruto
Pairing: SasuSaku
Prompts: puppy-kicker, bottle glass, happy happy joy joy, boots

Sakura had new boots.

To Sasuke, they looked a lot like five other pairs of boots she already owned, but he wasn't going to point this out. Because his (adorable) girlfriend currently had a look of absolute fury plastered on her face. And Sasuke had decided that remaining quiet was an extremely wise option in terms of self-preservation.

Really, it was all a big misunderstanding.

"You kicked a puppy?" Sakura repeated. "A defenceless, adorable puppy?"

"Not deliberately," Sasuke murmured to himself.

If Sakura heard him, she ignored that. "Sasuke-kun! How could you?"

The story actually went something like this: Sasuke had overheard Sakura blathering on to Ino about a puppy she had seen in the pet store that was absolutely adorable and oh my god she wanted it. Sasuke, with amazing foresight, had decided to buy the thing for her birthday. However, the puppy hadn't liked Sasuke very much, and had peed on his shoes when he brought it home. Trying to get the dog to stop peeing on his shoes, Sasuke had shaken his foot and accidentally kicked the stupid mutt.

The puppy was fine. It had whimpered and hid under the couch, but it was fine. It hated Sasuke even more now, sure, but that was understandable. Sasuke had relayed the incident to Naruto, who had told Sai, who had told Ino, who had very delightedly informed Sakura. Sometimes he wondered why she had ever helped get them together, since her current mission in life seemed to be centred around terrorising him.

Sakura, oblivious to the fact the puppy was her birthday present, had stormed over to Sasuke's house to demand an explanation for his puppy-kicking ways. Sasuke was just glad the thing had decided to stay under the couch—Sakura's birthday wasn't until tomorrow, after all, and he didn't want the surprise ruined on top of everything else.

What Sasuke actually said to Sakura, considering all this: "… sorry."

Sakura was not impressed. "Sorry? You're apologising to me? Why? Don't you think you should apologise to the poor puppy and its owner?"

Sasuke tried not to sigh. Sakura often picked rather pointless fights with him, and he understood that kicking a puppy was some kind of mortal sin in her book, but it wasn't as if he went to the park and deliberately sought out puppies to kick. He was not some kind of psycho. He just objected to having a dog pee on his shoe, which he thought was quite reasonable.

Still. Sakura was his girlfriend. He had to be calm about this.

"… Ino didn't tell the story properly, anyway," Sasuke protested. "I doubt the dobe even remembered what I told him."

Sakura crossed her arms over her chest, looking mutinous. "So then tell me what happened."

"…I can't."

"Excuse me?"

Sasuke cleared his throat. "I can't."

Sakura frowned. "Why not?"

Sasuke did not respond.

Sakura narrowed her eyes.

He stared back impassively.

She glared.

He looked at the ground.

"Uchiha Sasuke, you are so annoying!" and then Sakura stomped off into the kitchen, presumably to throw out his tomatoes or something equally therapeutic.

Annoying? Sasuke didn't think that was very fair. Maybe he had moments of social ineptitude, but really, Sakura was the annoying one. Hadn't they already established this? She was the one who ran and hid in the bathroom whenever they had a fight—obviously the kitchen was becoming a popular option, too—and she was the one who insisted on giving him a moral lecture about accidentally kicking her birthday present.

He had suffered through that stupid dog peeing on five good pairs of his shoes, chewing his carpet, doing its business on his bed, chewing right through the recharger for his laptop and giving him a baleful expression whenever he went near it. Sasuke was just glad his father was not home, since he might have been disowned if he had been.

And did Sakura, his (loveable) girlfriend, appreciate any of this? No. Not even a little. To be fair, she didn't know about any of it, but wasn't she meant to have female intuition?

Sasuke was dragged forcibly out of his reveries when a smash and a scream came from the kitchen.

"Sakura," he frowned, running over there (although he would rather call it "quickening his pace"). "Are you all right?"

He found his girlfriend staring bewildered at the small puppy which was now whining due to a piece of glass being lodged in its paw. The bottle that Sakura had dropped in her surprise had smashed all over the kitchen, leaving glass fragments like a minefield for the poor dog. And Sakura's new boots only further crunched them into smaller pieces.

Sasuke just mentally kicked himself for ever thinking this birthday present was a good idea.

"Don't say anything," Sakura warned, in the car on the way home from the vet. She was cradling the puppy in her arms, pouting whenever she looked at the bandage around its paw.

"… I wasn't going to," Sasuke responded, but he had been tempted. In his book, cutting open a puppy's leg was much worse than kicking it—and really, he had just nudged the stupid thing, he wasn't even sure if it could be counted as a kick. It wasn't his fault that it was tiny and stupid and couldn't hold on to its bladder.

There were a few moments of silence.

"So he's really… my birthday present?" Sakura asked hesitantly.

Sasuke snorted. "So long as you don't abuse him more."

"I told you not to say anything!"

"…hn."

Sakura held the puppy tighter, pout worsening. "But really… I mean, you would really buy me a puppy as a birthday present? Now I feel kind of bad for what I gave you."

He remembered the 'cheer up emo kid' shirt. It was still buried at the back of his closet—he hadn't quite had the heart to throw it out. Of course, he didn't mention this to Sakura, because he had his pride and all.

"It's nothing," he said instead.

"But it is!" to his horror, she was on the verge of tears.

"Sakura, don't cry," he was alarmed. Since when did buying a girl a puppy end up with her bursting into tears... or at least looking like she would at any moment? He must be doing something incredibly wrong. Was there a rulebook for this sort of thing? Ugh.

"No one's ever done something this nice for me before," she continued. "And after everything that happened, it's really…"

Sasuke sighed. Sakura's guilt over the whole jealousy scheme a while back was a constant source of tension for the both of them. Despite the fact that Sasuke was grudging "friends" with Sai and they all continued to hang out together, Sakura couldn't accept that he'd forgiven her. Stupid girl. As if he could hold a grudge against her, of all people. Sakura, who might overreact about puppy-kicking, but who was pretty much perfect in all other ways—

"Shut up," he glanced across at her.

"….what?"

"Look... I love you," it was still hard for him to say the words—he'd only done it a few times before, but since he was giving her an early birthday present, he might as well give her the whole package early. "Buying you a puppy was really no big deal."

Sasuke also suspected he'd bought her the new boots, since one of his credit cards had been missing from his wallet yesterday. But he wasn't going to bring that up. It wasn't as if it mattered, anyway. He could afford some boots.

She smiled to herself. "I love you too," was her automatic response. Then she grinned. "Will you name him for me?"

Sasuke snorted. "Call it Dobe."

"Sasuke-kun…"

"It's just as annoying."

Sakura laughed. "Typical!" she paused and shook her head. "Fine. Dobe, then. Naruto'll love it."

Sasuke was admittedly surprised. It had mostly been a joke—although not really, because he had preemptively decided that the dog was the new Naruto in terms of being irritating—and he had not expected Sakura to take his suggestion seriously. Weird (but ridiculously cute) girl. That was why he loved her, though, even if he wouldn't admit it.

"Hn," was all Sasuke could muster in response.

Later, when Dobe was fast asleep on the couch downstairs, Sakura was curled up against Sasuke on his bed. He had tried to convince her that her mother might worry if she slept over at his house—without his parents there, no less—but Sakura had waved it off and said Ino was covering for her. Sasuke rolled his eyes at that. Of course.

He pulled her closer.

"Mhm, I'm sorry I yelled at you," she mumbled against his chest.

Sasuke half-smiled to himself in the dark. "Don't worry about it."

She yawned, starting to doze. "I'm really happy you… happy you… bought me the puppy…"

"I know," he kissed the top of her head gingerly. "Go to sleep."

"I'm not… tired…"

"Sure you aren't."

She didn't say anything else, and after a few minutes, Sasuke noticed that she had fallen fast asleep. Sakura could fall asleep just about anywhere, though, so it was no surprise—and he arrogantly decided to himself that his arms were better than anything else.

As he started to drift off himself, he could swear she muttered "happy happy joy joy". And, perhaps it was his half-asleep mind, but he found it suited them quite perfectly.

And the next morning, when Dobe peed on Sakura's new boots, she was considerably more understanding about Sasuke kicking him. All was right with the world.

ooc; SO... UM. I REALLY HAVE NO EXCUSE FOR THIS BEING LIKE TWO YEARS LATER. 8| Except that I just fell out of love with the Naruto fandom for the longest while, but I am hesitantly getting back on that horse. I WILL HAVE EVERYONE ELSE'S DONE SOON, I PROMISE. &hearts