Summary: "This is probably the most useless thing you've ever done to get my attention," she informs him later, as the sun begins to set. "And considering you shaved your head that time Chōji told you I liked boys with short hair..." [SasuSaku Festival 2017 – Day 9 – Prompt: "Community Service"]

Disclaimer: This story utilises characters, situations and premises that are copyright Masashi Kishimoto, Shueisha, Shonen Jump and Viz media. No infringement on their respective copyrights pertaining to episodes, novelisations, comics or short stories is intended by KuriQuinn in any way, shape or form. This fan-oriented story is written solely for the author's own amusement and the entertainment of the readers. It is not for profit. Any resemblance to real organizations, institutions, products or persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

All plot and Original Characters except for those introduced in the canon books, manga, video games, novelizations and anime, are the sole creation of KuriQuinn. (© KuriQuinn 2016- )

Rating: T

Warning: AUish. Deals with evens from the Naruto Movie Road to Ninja. OOCish. Because RTN version of our beloved characters.

Author's Note: Sasuke was very interesting to write in this one. It's like, the total opposite of who he is. And it was soooo hard to write Sakura! I have such a hard time imagining a world where isn't utterly smitten with him!

Beta Reader: Sakura's Unicorn

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Sakura arrives at Training Ground Three bright and early to find the familiar sight of Sasuke and Menma glaring at one another.

Under normal circumstances, she would brush it off as their never-ending competition—they are so alike in temperament and skill that they've always been natural rivals. Since the three of them were assigned to Team 7, it's been a constant string of one-upmanship. Sakura had to become Tsunade's apprentice just to keep up with them (although she usually tells them it's to get a break from the testosterone).

Today, though, when she approaches the boys, she gets the sense she's stumbled onto something else.

"Hey," she greets, inwardly preening a little when Menma is the first to glance her way.

"Sakura," he says quietly, nodding in her direction.

Sasuke turns around, brightening at the sight of her. "Hey, kitten. Haven't seen you in a while."

Sakura glowers at him. "Stop calling me that!"

Geez! He has to start right away!

"Ah, Sakura! There you are!" Kakashi declares, straightening up from the ground where he's been doing push-ups. She wouldn't have seen him except for the white shock of hair. "It's odd that you're late. I remember when we ran missions together; you were as dedicated to punctuality as Konoha's White Beast of Prey!"

"He still talks about himself in the third person?" Sasuke inquires with a yawn.

Menma nods. "It would seem so."

"He's right, though," Sasuke agrees. "You're never late." An expression of concern passes over his face. "Are you still tired from being stuck in that other world?"

"I'm fine," she shrugs him off. "I only found out from Lady Tsunade and Shizune just now that I had to come here. They wouldn't say what it was about, so what gives?" Menma frowns, looking down at his feet, and Sasuke scowls. "Have I missed something?"

"Not at all, my most esteemed and youthful student!" Kakashi declares. "For your sake, I will gladly repeat the mission! You see, in light of the recent attack on the village, Lady Tsunade has decided that you're all to be placed on probation!"

There's silence. Then –

"EHHH?!"

Sakura exclaims, "What? Why?"

"Tch. I guess it's better than I expected," Sasuke muses.

Kakashi rubs his chin thoughtfully. "Well, I imagine it has to do with the fact that one of you almost destroyed the village, the other went AWOL during an all-hands-on-deck emergency situation, and the third defaced Hokage Rock. I'll let you fine young people ponder who exactly did what."

Menma tenses, still looking at his shoes, and Sakura's gaze softens.

Since being back from her strange visit to another world, she's heard bits and pieces of what happened from Ino. How Menma somehow came to possess the Nine-Tailed Fox spirit that everyone thought was sealed inside his mother, and how it corrupted him. If it weren't for the other Sakura and Menma—No, wait, they called him Naruto, didn't they?—he might've been lost for good.

As it is, he's being treated like a pariah lately while the village tries to come to terms with what happened.

And he's not the only one...

Whatever happened while she was gone, the girl who everyone thought was her went missing during the attack on the village. Instead of organizing evacuations and directing field medics to help the villagers, her doppelgänger was nowhere to be found. But everyone thinks that it was Sakura who abandoned her post.

So that explains the first two offences, but not...

Her brain catches up with what Kakashi said and her head whips around to stare at the Hokage monument just visible through the trees. Lord Hashirama's sombre expression has been altered with several slashes of paint, and the blue and red that speckles Lord Tobirama's face makes him look like a prostitute. She didn't even notice this morning because she was in such a hurry to meet with her master.

If Menma was battling his doppelgänger and she was in another world, that leaves—

"What the hell, Sasuke?!" she demands, rounding on her teammate. "Why would you spray paint all over Hokage Rock, you stupid ass?!"

Sasuke is unbothered by her outburst and instead offers her his usual flirtatious smile. "So I could ensure I spent more time with you, of course. We haven't seen each other in a while—ow!" She bashes him on the head, only just reigning in her strength to keep it from turning it into a skull-crushing blow. "Come on, Sakura! I didn't—ow—do anything to your father's face—ow—you know I wouldn't—ow!"

"You two are an embarrassment," Menma sighs.

"Embarrassment or not, the Hokage has tasked us with an important array of community service tasks," Kakashi says. "With the village recovering, we've been put in a precarious situation. Anyone who might try to take advantage of Konoha in the interim needs to know we're still able to do our jobs! So, all our away missions must continue! And while our shinobi forces are dealing with that, it means there are fewer people here to fix the place up."

"And by fewer people, you mean no one," Sasuke says.

"Exactly! Until further notice, we will be carrying out community service missions that other shinobi don't have time to do. The responsibility falls to you three!"

"Correct me if I'm wrong, Kakashi-sensei, but if all of these tasks are so important, shouldn't there be more people doing them?" Sakura wants to know.

"Weeeeell, originally Lady Tsunade suggested a team of squads, but that wouldn't be a penalty—or a challenge—at all! I told her we could manage all of the work ourselves, and she should focus the efforts of the other teams elsewhere."

Menma, Sakura, and Sasuke groan in unison.

Typical...

"Besides, not only will it give us all time to re-forge our team bond, it will be character-building and boost morale among the villagers! After all, who better to lead by example than those who embody all the finest qualities of our immaculate village! The students of the Legendary Sannin!"

"You realise that name is more of a joke than anything else, right?" Sasuke deadpans. "More like the legendary monk, crone, and shut-in."

"Don't speak ill of the dead," Menma orders. "Lord Jiraiya was a great man and he sacrificed a lot to keep Konoha safe. Unlike your master."

Which is true, more or less. Orochimaru is basically a prisoner of the village these days, living in a library and reading up on obscure jutsu. The only reason he ever agreed to train Sasuke was because the guy hounded him every day for weeks after Menma left with Jiraiya. Orochimaru was once Akatsuki, which means he is the best link Sasuke has to his estranged older brother.

"And yet mine is still alive," Sasuke muses out loud.

More glaring.

"All right, you two. Put away the measuring sticks," Sakura grumbles, once again playing peacemaker. She addresses Kakashi. "Let's just get this over with. How long do we have to do this for, Kakashi-sensei?"

"Act as if you'll do it for the rest of your life!" Kakashi crows and brandishes a scroll. When he unfurls it, the list of tasks pools on the ground.

"Oh, man! I'm going to be older than Lady Tsunade when we finish all this," Sakura complains.

"I promise I'll still find you attractive," Sasuke informs her magnanimously.

A vein pulses in her temple and, with a growl, Sakura knocks him out.

ロードトウニンジャ

It's as if, overnight, their entire team has been demoted back to genin rank.

While the rest of their friends and the active shinobi corps carry out important jobs—rebuilding fallen structures, repairing collapsed watermains, organizing field clinics, and even leaving the village on away-missions—Team 7 is left with barely D-ranked missions.

They can't even complain to Kakashi about it, either.

The first day, he appointed himself as official messenger of the village, zooming around, bringing notes and memos to people. Then he got the bright idea to use his Sharingan to teleport himself across town to save on time, and knocked himself out for the next few days.

Idiot...

"So much for a team-bonding exercise," Menma mutters as they pack emergency supply crates to distribute later.

"Are you really surprised?" Sasuke challenges.

"Oh, admit it. You'd think something was wrong if he wasn't so enthusiastic," Sakura points out.

"I can't even imagine it," Menma admits. He pauses. "Was he like that in...in the other world?"

Sakura starts at this, realising suddenly she hasn't actually had a chance to tell her teammates about her strange experience. There's only been the debriefing with Lady Tsunade, and then she was sent straight to this community service punishment.

"I don't know. I didn't run into him while I was there. Maybe?"

"What else did you see?"

"It was completely insane," she tells them. "Think of the most backwards world you could think of, and that's what it was." She shudders. "Everyone was different. It was like I walked through a mirror."

"What do you mean?" Sasuke asks.

"Like...like Hinata was really shy and quiet and she was actually nice to me. Kiba got along with Akamaru, and Shino actually liked bugs and—"

"Hinata?" Sasuke snorts. "Nice? That is bizarre."

"There's nothing wrong with Hinata," Menma points out sagely. "She's the heiress to the Hyūga and the first woman to lead them. She's got a lot to deal with. And when you factor in that she's related to someone as perverted as Neji..."

Sakura's heart sinks. "You're defending her a lot stronger than usual."

"Never mind that," Sasuke interrupts. "What about me?"

"What about you?"

"Was I different in this other world?" he asks and then strikes a pose. "Or just as handsome and talented as I am here?"

Sakura rolls her eyes. "I have no idea."

"What? Why?"

"You weren't there."

"What do you mean, I wasn't there? Where would I be?" He is puzzled.

"Well, Ino said—the Ino from over there—she said that you were out of the village."

Menma frowns. "A solo mission perhaps?"

"How many chūnin do you know get assigned solo missions?" Sasuke counters.

"Maybe your alternate version is just a lot more talented than you are."

"Says the idiot who got his ass handed to him by his own doppelgänger."

"Guys!" Sakura snaps, cutting off the usual detour into bickering.

Luckily, the cart for the next supply delivery returns, and Sakura can busy herself with loading it up. All by herself, as usual, because the guys are such complete wimps when it comes to heavy lifting.

Angry grudge match to the death? No problem! Let's destroy an ancient waterfall! Moving a few boxes? Oh no, Sakura. We couldn't possibly. One of us might break a nail...

Still, as she loads the crates, she can't help but think back to that strange world she was pulled into.

She didn't notice then, being so busy trying to acclimate to new surroundings and regain her memories, but thinking on it now... The other Ino seemed sad and uncomfortable about how Sakura reacted to Sasuke not being there.

Like if he had been there, he would've jogged my memory or something? I wonder if it's possible that the other Sakura and the other Sasuke were...?

She shrugs and shakes her head. That other girl must have no self-respect, especially if the other Sasuke is as big a playboy as her Sasuke is.

My world's Sasuke, she corrects herself, and determinedly puts her focus back on the task at hand.

The next few days pass quickly.

Team 7 makes coffee and runs lunches across the village to all the workers then they wash dishes. One morning, they babysit a group of kids who are too young to be at the Academy, but whose parents are busy with the reconstruction process. They fetch groceries, do laundry, paint fences, mow lawns—

Even Kiba is more useful than we are, and he's running a Find-Your-Cat shelter!

They spend several days working at the soup kitchen that's been set up in the centre of town. The three of them are given aprons and hair nets to wear while they dish out mass portions of ramen. Menma spends most of that day sick (the smell of ramen always makes him ill) so they give him the job of cleaning up after people have finished eating. Sasuke isn't given the same opportunity to escape doling out noodles, and every time he sees one of his relatives in the area, he cringes.

Most of them don't say anything. According to Sasuke, they're all giving him the cold shoulder for embarrassing the clan with immature antics. But the curly-haired man named Shisui teases him something merciless. If it weren't for Sakura holding Sasuke back, he'd probably set his cousin on fire.

Then it's back to picking up litter, removing debris from the streets, painting over scorch marks on buildings, cleaning windows—one day they're expected to clean up the area around a busted sewage line.

The three of them stare at it until Sakura makes an executive decision.

"This one's all yours," she says, clapping both boys on the back and walking away. When Sasuke and Menma open their mouths to argue, she only has to crack her knuckles once and utter silence reigns.

The jobs are endless, and they are mind-numbingly boring. Sakura returns to her empty house every day without the energy to even eat, collapses on her bed, and sleeps until her alarm sounds. And then prepares for another cycle of never-ending, repetitive scut-work.

Given how busy she is, it's understandable it takes a week before realises the graffiti still hasn't been cleaned off Hokage Rock.

Understandable, but still unacceptable!

"It's on the list of things that need doing, but it's not a priority right now," Shizune says the next day when she asks about it.

"But it's an important symbol for the village!" Sakura protests.

"Perhaps in another week or two. Right now, even the smallest child is helping to restore our village, and the extra labour can't be spared. Even those of you on probation."

"The monument will be put to rights once I know everyone in my village is properly cared for," Lady Tsunade declares gravely. "If you want to fix it before then, you'll have to do it on your own and during time not spent carrying out the community service tasks you and your team have been assigned."

ロードトウニンジャ

In the end, that's what she does.

Sakura gets tired of seeing the graffiti all over the rock, even if her father's monument hasn't been touched. It's an insult to the office of Hokage, which she intends to become one day, and in her view, it's just as important as picking up litter and watching children.

And so, at the end of the next day, she stops at home to change into something old and worn, and heads for the caretaker shed behind the monument. There's bound to be tools and cleaning equipment there, and even if she can't get it all done, she can at least get started.

Which is why she's utterly shocked upon arriving to find Sasuke with several buckets of paint remover and water.

"Doesn't it defeat the purpose of doing it, if you're going to clean it off without someone telling you to?" she asks, climbing down to the scaffold in front of the Second Hokage's face.

"Who says someone didn't tell me to?" he counters. She raises an eyebrow and he grumbles, shoulders stooped. "No one told me to. I heard you speaking to Tsunade earlier and figured, if it meant something to you, I'd fix it."

"You wouldn't have to fix anything if you didn't do it in the first place," she reminds him, picking up a rag and dousing it with solvent.

"I admit: not one of my best ideas."

"So much for being a genius."

He knocks her shoulder with his, and for a while, they work in companionable silence. Sasuke isn't so bad when he isn't being the epitome of a hormonal teenaged boy.

"This is probably the most useless thing you've ever done to get my attention," she informs him later, as the sun begins to set. "And considering you shaved your head that time Chōji told you I liked boys with short hair..."

Sasuke scowls. "You promised not to mention that again."

"You promised to stop doing stupid stuff like this."

Sasuke scrubs furiously.

"It wasn't really to get your attention," he admits eventually. "I said that because Menma was around, and bringing up the real reason..." He shrugs. "He feels bad enough for being the cause of all this, and it wasn't really his fault."

"That's oddly magnanimous of you."

"Hey, just because I call him on his shit doesn't mean I don't recognise when the guy could use a break. And considering he didn't say anything when..." He trails off, shakes his head, and then tells her, "The Hokage hired Akatsuki during the attack. To rescue the other you."

Sakura's eyes widen. "Oh."

Itachi Uchiha is the black sheep of the Uchiha clan. Once hailed as a prodigy, the next clan leader, and possibly the first Uchiha who might wear the mantle of Hokage, he instead chose to flee the village at the age of thirteen and become a mercenary. His parents disowned him and for that reason, Sasuke is now next in line to be head of the clan.

It's a position that comes with a lot of expectations, and having met Sasuke's parents, Sakura knows it isn't an easy destiny. On top of all that, he and Itachi were close. She remembers the older boy picking Sasuke up after classes so he could train him.

"He was here and he didn't tell anyone," Sasuke continues now through clenched teeth, hands balled into fists. "It was just a damn job to him, and he didn't bother to... I just wanted to speak to him! If I'd known he was here, if someone had just told me—!"

"You would have dropped everything and gone after him," Sakura says gently. "Then there'd be more than one of us on this team who went AWOL in an emergency. And unlike him, you'd be considered a missing nin if you didn't come back."

The only reason Itachi isn't considered a criminal is because he sends reports back to the Hokage about the situations in other countries. Akatsuki's reach is far, and it offers him the opportunity to travel. She thinks this might make Sasuke more resentful than anything else.

"All I want is for him and my father to sit down and talk," Sasuke confides. "If they'd just do that, they could figure out this whole mess and things would be good again. And I wouldn't have to worry about my mother bursting into tears every time someone even mentions his name." He shoots her an apologetic look. "Never mind. I shouldn't be saying all this to you."

"No, it's fine. It's always best to talk about things that bother you. No one ever benefitted from bottling those kinds of feelings up."

"No, it's not that. It's just... You must think I'm pathetic, complaining about my family problems when you...you've lost yours. I'm being an ass."

"No, you're not. You care about Itachi. And your entire clan acts as if he's dead. You're allowed to be hurt. And who says my pain is more important than someone else's?"

Sasuke offers her a grateful smile, and for a moment, all is right with the world.

Then he reaches forward and swipes a thumb across her chin. "You've got a little paint just here—"

"Oh for the—! Are you serious!" she demands. "Why do you always have to cheapen the moment with your crappy pick-up lines?"

"That wasn't a line! You actually do have paint there. So what if I happen to capitalise on that fact?"

"You really can't take no for an answer, can you?" she groans. "Geez, you're so annoying."

"No, I'm persistent," he says, all charm.

"That's another word for annoying."

"I'm just being patient. If I wait long enough, eventually, you'll appreciate my feelings."

"You'll wait a long time then."

"Not as long as you'll be waiting for Menma," he quips.

Sakura chokes and rounds on him. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?!"

He ducks out of her way.

"Just what everyone else knows," he replies, apologetic. "He doesn't care for you that way. You're more like a sister to him. He knows as well as I do that you'd have a boring, unhappy life together if you settled for each other."

"S-settled?!" she sputters. "H-have you two been talking behind my back?" She lashes out and grabs the front of his shirt. "And what the hell do you mean, settled? As if he could do better than me? My father was the Fourth Hokage and I'm the apprentice of the Fifth Hokage! Or maybe I could do better than him? We're the students of Sannin, the top shinobi in our year. We're friends. We get along. We agree about everything—"

"Exactly," Sasuke nods. "You'd be bored within a week of actually being with him."

"So you say!"

"So I know," Sasuke snorts. "Trust me, kitten, relationships are my forte."

"You've never had a relationship!"

"Well, I've done a lot of research."

"Reading Gai-sensei's Icha Icha series does not count as research!"

"Spoken by someone who has no appreciation for the genre," he retorts. "The problem with you two ever being a relationship is that there's no passion between you. For a relationship to work out, one has to be able to bond—to fill in the parts of you that are missing with the parts of your lover."

Sakura's eye begins to twitch, her cheeks flooding with warmth. "Are you serious?"

"You two are both too focussed on success and results. You make decisions with your heads, but never your heart," Sasuke continues matter-of-factly. "Any relationship between you would be cold, or at worst, a duty."

She opens her mouth to protest, but she cuts off when he suddenly leans closer, his eyes soft and humorous.

"You deserve someone who'll bring a spark into your life. Someone who'll go to the ends of the earth to make you smile and laugh and cry. Someone who doesn't care what you look like when you roll out of bed, or who appreciates those tasteless, off-colour jokes you make under your breath when you think no one is listening."

She thinks her cheeks are rivalling tomatoes in colour right now.

"Th-this is ridiculous," she attempts.

"No, it's not. It's the kind of relationship you deserve. The kind my parents have. The kind your parents had."

The warmth in her face abruptly drains and she narrows her eyes. "Don't you pretend to know what my parents—"

"I'm not insulting your parents," he cuts her off, a note of exasperation in his voice. "I'm saying what they had, their relationship, was worth envying. They cared for each other, so much that your mother refused to leave your father's side even in the end."

Sakura looks away, angry. "Yeah, she loved him so much that she wanted to be dead instead of being with me."

"She wanted to give you your best chance. And going with your father, she was making sure that his sacrifice did what it was supposed to do: save the village. Even the most unpleasant members of my clan think she was honorable for what she did," Sasuke tells her. "And that love that she had...that's what I want some day. And I want it with you."

Her chest constricts, and her eyes snap to him, wide. She can't hide the shock at this because Sasuke flirts—he does that as easy as breathing—but he's never said anything as direct as this before.

"Don't look at me like that, I'm not expecting you to return my feelings right now," he tells her softly. "Menma is the one in your heart, I know that. He's the first guy you've ever cared for. I know that's not something so easily forgotten." He leans closer. "But one day, when you see for yourself that you two aren't suited, when you realise you're much better off as friends, I'll be there. Because I intend to be the last man you ever love."

Sakura makes a strangled noise in her throat.

"How can you...how can you say those things! When all you do is trawl around the village, flirting with every girl you see and handing out your stupid roses!" she snaps, shoving him back with one hand. "They hear you and think you're swearing to be with them forever, and then they get their hearts broken when they realise you say that to everyone!"

A bitter memory surfaces of their Academy days, clutching a broken rose and watching him blithely hand out others with the same pretty words he's given her. She vowed back then not to fall for anything Sasuke had to say ever again.

He raises an eyebrow at this. "So, you worry about who I give roses to?"

"Of course not," she huffs. "That's your business. I'm just pointing out the hypocrisy. You're talking about love, and you can't remember the names of the girls you go out with."

"I'm not trying to hurt anyone, Sakura. It's to make them feel special. Any girl having a bad day gets her spirits lifted when someone is nice to her and gives her a gift. And I have rose bushes behind my house, and a lot of them would just wither and die without being appreciated if I left them," Sasuke explains. "Why not give them out? For an hour, a girl can be happy, the centre of the universe. Is that so wrong?"

She shifts uncomfortably, not liking that she might possibly agree with that argument.

"Exactly," he says, taking her silence for agreement. "Making someone happy for an hour, it's such a small thing. But you—" His eyes become intense and she imagines flames behind them. It's as if, in this moment, there's no one else in the world but her. "—you deserve more than an hour. You deserve our entire lives. And one day, I'm going to give you that."

Her heart thumps against her chest, the utter conviction in his words faintly frightening. She's only ever seen Sasuke intense about one thing, and that's finding his brother. The idea that he believes she is as important as that...

She shivers, half-uncomfortable, half-thrilled despite her brain's tired insistence of but you like Menma!

"You...shouldn't say exaggerated stuff like that," she tells him with forced levity. "You're an Uchiha. You're the heir to the Uchiha. As the next head of the clan, your parents are probably expecting you to settle down with someone from the clan. Aren't you practically engaged to Izumi now anyway?"

Sasuke rolls his eyes. "That's my father's plan, not mine. He doesn't seem to get that Izumi won't agree to marry anyone while Itachi is still breathing somewhere in the world," he scoffs. "Even so, I don't want her."

"Because you're convinced you want me. You wouldn't if I was just some normal girl, I bet."

The intense look in his eye is back. "Even if you were a civilian, even if you had no talented shinobi relatives, and if you hadn't been a prodigy since our Academy days, I would still choose you. Because you are kind and good and strong and being around you makes the world better somehow. Even when it's horrible." His gaze softens, and his tone turns gentle. "There's no one else that I've ever felt like that about."

He leans over, their faces getting closer together, and Sakura finds herself frozen.

"So, I constantly live in hope that maybe..."

Oh my! He's going to kiss me!

"...just maybe..."

And I think...I think I'm going to let him!

Her lungs are tight, and she realises she isn't breathing, just waiting there in anticipation as Sasuke looks down at her. And just when she expects his lips to lower to hers—

Tap!

His index and middle finger rap lightly against her forehead.

"...maybe the next time we have this conversation, you'll have me in your heart instead of Menma," he concludes and calmly turns back to scrubbing paint off the rock.

Sakura gapes noiselessly at his back for several seconds, trying to reorient herself and figure out what the hell just happened. Then she emits a howl of frustration and throws the nearest bucket at his head.

"You...big...jerk! Shannaro!"

終わり

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Comments and constructive criticism are always welcome! I'm only able to keep writing as I do thanks to the encouragement of readers like you, so every bit of support helps! And be sure to check out my tumblr (Typewriter Ninjutsu) for content you won't necessarily find on this site.

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