A/N: So a few disclaimers... Very adult content here. I did not write this with the intention of actually posting it. It was a gift fic for AchikaMiyu who loves Naruto fanfic. She finally persuaded me to put it up.

Update 10/20/12: I appreciate all of the reviews and comments! Based on feedback, I feel I should go ahead and make something clear. Despite the coding as Sasuke x Hinata, Naruto and Sakura are also in the mix. This is not strictly Sasuke x Hinata! AchikaMiyu just wanted something spicy.

You have been fairly warned!

Teamwork

One for the Money

The battle was over. Teams across Konoha celebrated in bars. Not this team. They were not a true team anyhow. They had not been for years.

"You're not gonna eat anything, Sasuke? I'm starving," said Naruto, finishing his fourth bowl of ramen.

The first unspoken rule of their relationship had always been to never filter their opinions. He could call Naruto a drop-out loser all day. One day during their chunin exam, he did. He had not called Naruto a drop-out in a while, but he had called him a moron four times today alone. Still, Sasuke feared admitting he just did not like Ichiraku's miso ramen with extra pork. It was as though that one innocuous confession over a dozen teasing insults would do irreparable damage.

So, no ramen for Sasuke. He sat, content, with a cup of hot sake. The ramen made Naruto act more deliriously drunk than he. "Can I finish, moron?" That made the fifth time today.

"Go on."

Sasuke sighed. "So I looked Hinata straight in the eye and I told her, 'No. You don't understand me. You and I are nothing alike. I had to fight for my existence. For my honor. For my acceptance. Everything has been handed to you your entire life. The honor of your house. Your safety. Your acceptance in Konoha. And as for the honor of the Hyuuga, your father deemed you unworthy to have even that.'"

Naruto laid his chopsticks down across the rim of his bowl. Something about the look in his clear blue eyes made Sasuke pause. "Sasuke? Seriously? It was her wedding night."

Sasuke grimaced. "Yeah…"

"She was married to you!"

Sasuke finished his sake and then folded his arms. "Should I apologize?"

"Of course. Moron."

Sasuke scowled and prepared a retort when Akane approached. "Will you need anything else tonight?" the manager's daughter asked.

"Nah, I think we're good. Have a good night." Naruto tossed some ryo on the counter and stood to leave. Sasuke followed down the dark, dank streets of Konoha.

"Sakura doesn't mind you've been out so late?" Sasuke finally asked.

"She had to work late at the hospital. She's probably finishing up some leftovers right about now."

Sasuke became quiet. "It's not like she even loves me. We know that. All of us. The whole village knows. Do you remember back in the academy?"

"Mhm?"

"She was the one girl who wouldn't give me a second glance. In the entire academy. Now because Konoha wants more doujutsu users and her family needs to find some use for her… This stupid arranged marriage."

"Now you're just being a little bitch about it."

Sasuke glowered. "What?"

Naruto grinned like a fool. Some days that grin disarmed Sasuke. Others, it made him want to punch Naruto in the face. This time, he was somewhere in the middle and told himself it was probably just the ramen talking. That calmed him.

"She would have jumped at the chance to marry you."

Naruto's eyes twinkled. "Well… I'm taken now."

"Back when no one else in the village would acknowledge you, she idolized you."

"Hinata's a great girl, but she's always had three strikes against her. One: she isn't Sakura-chan. Two: she isn't Sakura-chan. Three…"

"She isn't Sakura. I get it." Sasuke quieted.

"This isn't like you," Naruto said. "What's the matter?"

The swirl of thoughts and feelings stopped Sasuke in the middle of the street. "I gave up everything to leave the village and then I gave up everything to come back. It's just not…" He stopped himself from finishing the sentence. He over most others knew life was not fair.

Naruto gave Sasuke a long, pensive stare. It was that stare that signaled he was deep in thought and, more than likely, preparing to say something really dumb. "We should hang out Saturday night."

Sasuke tried not to look surprised. "What?"

"You heard me. You and Hinata both."

"That's random."

"Well… I want to help. I'm sure Sakura would too. We need to see the damage."

"I'm not going to go out with you and Sakura so you of all people can play at being a marriage counselor."

"Who said anything about that? Besides, we haven't gotten together in a while. Sakura's been asking about you."

She would do that, Sasuke thought. "I don't need you two getting involved."

"So you aren't even going to try to make things work with Hinata?"

"I never said that."

"Or you'd rather just bitch about it at a ramen-ya once in a while?"

"I forget sometimes how damn stubborn you are."

Naruto chuckled.

"I'm the last of the Uchiha. We're one of the oldest, proudest clans in all of Konoha. Do you have any idea what that means?"

Naruto probably did not mean for it to come out as glib as it did. "The rest of you are dead."

Sasuke fought back a wave of rage. It was mostly on account of Naruto being right. What's more, we were known to kill each other for sport.

Sasuke remained silent for the rest of the walk, but suddenly, dinner with a pair of old friends did not seem so bad.

"Seriously? Sasuke hates ramen." Sakura glanced over her shoulder as she transferred her dinner plates to the sink.

"Sasuke hates everything, Sakura-chan."

True enough. Or at the very least, he had to put on a show of hating everything. Sakura accepting Naruto's feelings had been a breath of fresh air. "Still, that doesn't mean you can't go someplace different from time to time."

"Yeah. If he asks I will, but he never does."

Sakura began washing her plate: leftover donburi from two nights ago. She remembered the drive to become a domestic goddess. She had it for much of her youth. It seldom possessed her anymore. She had changed over the years in ways she rarely stopped to grasp.

"You invited both of them?" she asked.

"Sure. I mean, he didn't even say 'yes' yet. And yeah, that means Hinata too."

Sakura held her tongue.

Naruto chuckled. "Come on. She's not so bad."

"I know that. She's become a better kunoichi over the years. It's just that…"

"What?"

"It's just that I could never stand the way she stalked you from the shadows. Whenever she blushed and whispered, 'Oh, Naruto-kun!' there was just something so… I don't know. Annoying about it."

Sakura heard Naruto sneaking up on her. He may have been the least-stealthy ninja ever to have lived. His arms snared her. His body pressed her against the sink. "Would you have preferred if she'd spent her academy years fawning over Sasuke?"

Sakura spun and whacked Naruto on the top of his head. Sudsy dish water lingered in his hair as he spun away and retreated. "Naruto!"

He smiled his most disarming smile and Sakura felt her own expression soften. "I deserved that, huh?"

"I'm just saying. I think you two are more alike than you'd admit."

"So what if we meet and she and starts blushing…" She attempted her best mimic of Hinata's voice. "Naruto-kun!"

Naruto's grin widened. "I'd tell her I'm taken. And watch out for the pink-haired woman with the kitchen knives."

A flirty, mischievous smile flittered across Sakura's lips. "And what if I started to blush… 'Sasuke-kun.'"

"Then he'd need Hinata's permission."

Sakura leaned against his back. Her bottom pressed to his groin and she could already tell this was going to be one of those nights. "Don't I need yours?"

"Well, yeah. We did used to share everything as a team."

"But not that. Wouldn't you be afraid he might steal me away?"

Naruto laughed. "Nah. Wanna know why?"

Sakura spun around and wrapped her arms across his shoulder. "Hm?"

Naruto unbuckled his pants. They slid to the floor along with a thunk along with his boxers. "Because Sasuke doesn't have this."

Sakura sank to her knees. He brought out that behavior in her. She smiled. He was full-mast and then some. Her fingers could barely wrapped around it. "Oh. I'm pretty sure he does have one."

"But it's not this one."

"You're pretty sure of yourself."

"He's just not the same."

Many bad thoughts crossed Sakura's mind. "You've seen him?"

"Well… yeah. We're both shinobi of Konoha. We went to the academy together. It's not like I tried to look."

Sakura ran her tongue up and down. She lowered her head and let it slide deeper into her mouth. It was her first and only. As he became even more rigid and she tested the way he filled her mouth, she reflected on what a lucky woman she was. She knew from pictures he was quite well endowed. Still…

She pulled away. "What does he look like?" Sakura asked.

Naruto gave her a puzzled look. "Huh?"

"Sasuke's cock, silly."

"Not as thick. But long. Of course I never saw him hard. That would have made him longer."

Sakura giggled. "Like a snake?"

Naruto smirked. "Probably like a really long snake… coiling out to strike."

Sakura gasped and when she did, Naruto tugged her head back in place. She got the message. Less talk; more sucking. And suck him she did, until the moment he was ready to release, but then she pulled away.

He looked at her questioningly. He was always a ninja of great stamina. It was not as though his release would preclude later activities.

"I want every last drop inside me tonight," she whispered. "I want you to fill me all the way up."

He lifted her up and sat her on the kitchen counter. "It was a long night, wasn't it?"

She had been hoping not to talk work, but it was unavoidable. "There were a lot of wounded. Everyone survived who made it back to the clinic. A few didn't make it back."

He knelt to the kitchen floor. She lifted her bottom off the counter, allowing him to hook his fingers through the waist of her pants. He jerked them down along with what lay underneath in a fluid motion.

"Konoha owes you so much," he whispered. He brought her ankles to his lips in turn, massaging them. His tongue teased tracing paths across flesh and bone.

She whimpered. "You're one to talk. Without you, Konoha wouldn't even exist…"

"I saved Konoha a few times. You help Konoha every day. You're so tense." He divided her legs and bared her before him. Beneath soft, pink down, her flushed lips blossomed open for him. "Poor Sakura-chan." His lips glanced across the knots of her calves; the shallow of her knee; the warm plush flesh of her inner thigh. She felt her moist nectar coalesce.

She did not think of herself as "poor" very often. Not with him. Still… "Comfort me then…" she whispered.

His comfort entailed wet, tasting kisses and licks. Even before their first, desperate fuck, he had wanted to do this. It was a symptom of his worship of her. It was a worship of her every part. They had learned how to do this together and he had been a natural. He knew just when to tease her to a frenzy and at just the right moment, attack her, head-on, with tongue tip flicking across her hood, drawing it away and stimulating her to the core. When she writhed away, he drew her closer to the edge of the kitchen counter. When she feared she would fall, he clutched her more tightly, his face fastened to her hot wetness. She clutched his hair and pulled at locks of stiff blond hair, panting and heaving. Her pelvis dug into his lips until she could feel the impression of his chin against her soft, sensitive septum. She yielded to twitching, spasming muscles and pulled harder. The roots of his hair were tough. Maybe it hurt a little, but she knew he could take far worse pain than this.

She released and seemed to float in mid-air for a minute, her intimate connection to Naruto the only thing holding her to the earth. He would not let her go. He never would. She slumped and feared she would slide off the counter when he caught her, gripping her under her arms and holding her in a tight embrace.

He did not speak—only looked at her with affectionate eyes of clear blue. He stood and she lifted. She unleashed a yelp and wrapped her legs around his waist. The tingling in her body gave way to fresh lust. He knew. He always knew. He lowered her down his clothed, muscular body until she felt him barely part her outer lips. Her eyes widened. He kissed her and his lips tasted faintly of her.

Her wetness allowed his long, thickness to slide right in. His displacement inside her never ceased to satisfy. His fingers laced across her bottom. She dug her heels into his cheeks, bucking against him, driving him in and out of her in a frenzy.

He held her securely. A gentle smirk filled his face. When he was like this, she always thought there was a little bit of a beast within him. She could not blame the Kyuubi. He also had brought out the part in her that was more animal than woman. She fucked him, heels on ass, all the way to the dining room and didn't stop when she felt him ease her to the edge of the table. As she lay flat, he pulled up her shirt with such force the fabric snagged and made a slight, tearing sound. He pushed aside her bra and fondled her bare chest.

Did Hinata have it this good? No. Everyone knew about Sasuke and Hinata. Sakura rarely saw him anymore and Naruto did not discuss his personal business with her. You could tell just by looking. Poor Sasuke. Sakura had come to the realization it would have never worked out between them, but he deserved better. He needed a woman who could turn animal—who would love his maleness. Had Hinata ever teased him and played with him as Sakura did Naruto? What was it like for her? Did he look anything like Naruto? Did he taste like Naruto? Did he penetrate her with such wild abandon? Would he have had he really loved her?

If Sakura had offered herself to him, would he have taken her? Would he have ridden her across the dining room table cloth while she screamed loud enough to wake the neighbors and not stopped even when she knocked a glass onto the floor, shattering it?

"Is something the matter, Sakura-chan?" Naruto asked.

Sakura must have looked distracted. "Naruto… I need more."

He gave her a startled look, but the surprised subsided into lewd acknowledgement. "Kage bunshin no jutsu."

The shadow clone appeared in a puff of smoke strangely like Naruto—wearing his orange and black suit, but with trousers down, erect. Sakura scooted to the edge of the table and gingerly took the other Naruto into her hands. They had done this before, when the mood was right. Only this time, Sakura remembered long, lonely nights with the original team seven and all the strange things that could have been. If he had never left. If he had felt the same. And for once, she imagined the long, hard cock she drew to her mouth belonged to someone else—that it was long and snake-like.

When Sasuke entered their single-bedroom flat on the edge of Konoha, she was making rustling, clanking noises in the kitchen. He glanced into the dining room. A platter of steamed fish and a tray of vegetables in a dark sauce still sat on the table.

He never had called her and told her he would be late.

He said nothing, but made an effort to be noisier than usual. If he wanted to be, he could have gone unheard.

She craned her neck around the corner. Her glossy white eyes betrayed little feeling. She could have at least had the decency to act concerned. "Sasuke-kun?"

"Oy, Hinata."

"Is everything alright?" she asked.

"Yeah. I was out with Naruto. I…" He caught sight of the food once again. "I already ate. I'm sorry."

That seemed to elicit a little annoyance, at least, though she tried to conceal it in her voice. "Would you like to try some food before I put it away?"

Sasuke wandered into the kitchen and filled a little bowl from the warm rice-cooker. She led him to the table. The calf-length, purple and white dress suited the pale pink flush of her skin and her long, night-black hair. He would have said as much, but flattery was scarcely in his nature. It was not that she was unattractive. She was just… Hinata. No dress, no matter how complimentary, could remedy that.

If he had not left, he could have had any girl in Konoha. Any but this one. What cruel irony. The only one she had ever wanted was him. They had consummated their marriage in awkward, dutiful fashion the day after their wedding night. She was not his first. No, he had spent too much time amongst Orochimaru and his cohorts for that. He was hers, however. He tried to be gentle; tried to make it pleasurable for her, but in the one moment she seemed to be enjoying herself, she cried out someone else's name.

A month into their marriage, Sasuke was still a "kun."

Sasuke sat at the table and ladled some of the fish onto his bowl.

She joined him at the table and forced a smile. "So how is my husband tonight?" They did not really have pet-names. The closest they had were personal pronouns. When Hinata said "husband" and "wife," maybe she meant to make the words feel more real. Maybe she did it to stir some semblance of feeling in him. More likely, she was trying to stir some semblance of feeling in herself.

"It was a long day. But… we're back."

"How was Naruto-kun?"

Wouldn't she like to know. "He's alright." Sasuke took a bite of the fish.

"How is it?" Hinata asked.

"It's fine," Sasuke said.

"Oh. Okay. Fine?"

Would she have liked it better if he had said, "fair to middling?" It was a little bit bland, but otherwise reasonably-well-done. Hinata was not a bad cook, nor was she especially good. She had improved. But that was the Hinata he had married and the Hinata he had come to expect. She was a jounin and a respectable Shinobi. Just the same, she came from amazing pedigree, yet struggled. She was apt at many things, but made them all seem so hard.

Sasuke had to give her credit for trying. He knew he had to. He never liked feeling as though he "had to" do anything, however. "It's fine," he said.

She glanced down and her mouth twisted into a hard-to-read expression. "Oh." Whatever thoughts swirled through her mind she kept under lock and key.

Sasuke ate his dinner in silence. The wife he failed at loving sat unmoving in equivalent silence. It was a dinner just like every other since their wedding. When he first sat down, he committed to continuing that tradition. Whether it was something exceptionally pitiful in her expression or something from his conversation with Naruto earlier, he would never know. That night, his obstinence cracked. "Naruto wanted to get together sometime soon. You, me, Sakura, and him."

Her translucent eyes lit up. "Naruto-kun wanted to meet?"

No turning back now. "He suggested it. Unless you're not interested…"

"No…" Her affect changed. "I'd love to. I mean… we haven't been out since…"

Ever, really. "I'll call him tomorrow," Sasuke said.

That night they prepared for bed in the usual fashion. He changed in the bathroom and did not come to the bedroom until she was changed herself. It was a ritual he could not explain. He resented her and he resented their circumstances, but his body betrayed him when he saw her nakedness. Until their wedding, he had ever only seen her wear clothing that was unnecessarily big and baggy. The shock had been what lay underneath. It would have been the envy of any kunoichi in all of Konoha. Maybe this way it was less complicated.

They said goodnight without so much as a kiss and lay down in separate ends of the bed.

For once, Sasuke thought, There has to be some other way.