Differential Chapter 6

Chapter Six: Grind

Sakura laid back on her bed, limbs spread out like a starfish and counted the glow in the dark star stickers on her ceiling. She had been home for three days already but almost none of her things were unpacked.

She had carried her things out of her dad’s car and just left everything neatly arranged in a corner of her bedroom. If she needed anything she would just pull it out of a box or her suitcase.

Mebuki had come in earlier and had reprimanded her for not working on putting her things in order. Sakura was supposed to be unpacking her things before her mother came back to check on her again but she couldn’t be bothered to worry about that.

Sakura’s phone rang and she looked at the name on the Caller ID. She rolled her eyes and muted the ringer. As soon as she turned it down there was a scoffing noise from outside her bedroom door.

“Oh, you did not just ignore me!”

“Go away Naruto!” Sakura groaned, covering her face with one of her throw pillows.

“No.”

Naruto opened her bedroom door and leapt onto the empty space of her bed. He scooped her into his arms and pressed his face between her shoulder blades.

“You’re supposed to be consoling me,” came his muffled complaint. “Why do you and Sasuke always do this? Give me attention!”

Sakura moaned in discomfort and struggled to get away but Naruto’s hold on her remained tight.

“You’re like an octopus.”

“Stop being mean to me I’m sad.”

“It’s your own fault.”

Naruto gasped and squeezed her tighter in retaliation.

“Take it back.”

“I won’t,” she groaned, resuming her struggling to get away. “It’s your fault. We told you you would get dumped one day.”

Naruto gasped again and released her.

“Why are you guys so mean to me today? You’re supposed to be the nice one.”

“I take it that you already bothered Sasuke today.”

“He said Gaara was lucky to be rid of me and then he kicked me out of his house.”

“Did you ask him for pity sex again? If he hangs you out of the tree house by your feet like last time I won’t save you.”

“It was a joke! I’m never serious about that. I don’t need pity sex I can get laid just fine thank you.”

“Isn’t that why Gaara dumped you?”

“Why are you being a bitch to me? Is Sasuke not doing you right?”

Sakura sat up and grabbed one of her pillows and started smacking him with it over and over again.

“Stop being such a pervert!” She smacked him on his head but Naruto shielded it with his arms. “Nothing is going on with me and Sasuke!”

“Still? God you guys are slow. I was so sure it would have happened before the holidays.”

Naruto sat up and stretched his arms over his head. Sakura noticed he was wearing his own Suna State hoodie for a change.

Gaara must have asked for his back. He was serious this time.

“How was your first semester of college?” Sakura asked deciding to humor him.

“It was fine but I wish you smarty pants didn’t go off to a school I couldn’t get into.” Naruto pouted. “It was already bad that Sasuke was a grade higher and then you went off and abandoned me by skipping a whole grade.”

“You should have studied more. It’s not our fault you didn’t do well in school.”

Naruto grumbled incoherently and dropped to the ground in front of her bed. He leaned his head back and grinned at her mischievously.

“So you and Sasuke really haven’t fu━”

Sakura slammed her pillow over his face.

---

With Naruto’s help she was finally able to put away all of her stuff from college. Sakura just had to listen to him mope about the state of his love life.

At least you had a boyfriend, Sakura grumbled inwardly.

It confused Sakura how Naruto so easily found people willing to date or hook up with him. Even Ino had taken a stab at him to figure out what the hype was all about.

“It was terrible,” was all she had to say about it. Karin had been so disgusted she refused to join their group chats for two weeks.

Sakura looked Naruto over as he continued to whine as he stuffed her socks into their designated drawer. He wasn’t what she would call good looking, average looks on a good day but she supposed he had a certain charm about him considering he was happy-go-lucky and ready to be friends with everyone.

Which was something Sakura had struggled with for most of her life.

Sakura’s first friend was Sasuke but that was more because his mother babysat her as her parents were always busy at work and Mikoto worked out of a studio in the Uchiha house.

Her friendship with Naruto soon followed because his mother was Mikoto’s best friend. Kushina and her bonded at Lamaze classes and they were thick as thieves ever since.

Even though she and Naruto were registered into class a year after Sasuke due to the cut off date, the three of them still hung out after school after Mikoto picked them up.

“She would probably make more friends if she wasn’t so weird and had to leave for her special classes all of the time,” Naruto had informed Sasuke once when they were ten and he had moved on to middle school. “Karin is like the only girl that gets along with her but she lives all the way in Kusa.”

Karin, being Naruto’s cousin, visited often during the holidays and summer breaks. She originally trailed after her cousin and Sasuke due to a crush on the latter but one day she sat next to Sakura who had been making a wreath out of grass and dandelions by the side of the Uchiha’s pool and declared, “You look funny. I like that. You’re my friend now.”

It wasn’t until the seventh grade that Sakura’s social life had changed.

Her parents went to a meeting with her guidance counselor and a week after that Sakura had been promoted one grade higher and entered the eighth grade. Due to an issue with her already taking courses in the grade above her and that she would have to take online courses the following year away from her peers, Kizashi thought it best she just move along up instead of having to be separated from the other students like she had been in elementary school.

And so Sakura bypassed seventh grade and found herself sitting in homeroom right next to Ino Yamanaka.

“Oh, no. No no no,” Ino had tsked, grabbing Sakura’s hand. She pulled out a purple makeup bag from her backpack and pulled out a file and seafoam green nail polish. “Don’t worry this is definitely your color.”

Sakura just sat there, shell-shocked, and let the blonde girl give her a manicure in the middle of homeroom. Thirty minutes after that she was getting her hair french braided and they were both getting scolded by their teacher about how they were supposed to use homeroom to study not to “play salon.”

Ino became her best friend from then on. She dragged Sakura to any outings and made her break out of her shell.

As much as she could.

Sakura was getting along with Ino and her friends and at last having a life but there was one thing Ino couldn’t help with and that was her love life.

---

“He’s not my problem.”

Sasuke crossed his arms in front of his chest and raised his eyebrow at Sakura’s stance. She mirrored his actions and crossed her arms in front of her chest, glaring up at him.

“He’s your best friend.”

“Says him.”

“Come on.”

“He felt me up last time we let him drink.”

“He felt me up too so quit complaining.”

“Are you guys making out in there?” Naruto’s question came muffled through Sasuke’s door.

Sasuke scowled at the door before turning his attention back to Sakura. It had been a while since the last time they were in the same room together and the only reason she was in his room now was because their moron best friend got dumped by his quiet boyfriend for the hyperactive kid that used to follow Sakura around until he realized he batted for the other team.

Sasuke found it ironic that Naruto had slept with Lee’s boyfriend back when they were in high school and then Lee was the one that Gaara left him for.

Their friend was a mess.

“Not in my room. There’s too much in here he can mess with.”

Sakura looked around his room and then scowled at him. He had boxes of wires and circuit boards just all over the place and falling all over the floor.

“We’re cleaning your room later.” She narrowed her eyes at him. “It’s a safety hazard in here.”

“Leave my shit alone Haruno.”

“We’ll camp out in the treehouse.”

“Oh ‘cause that’s not a safety hazard.”

“Bite me Uchiha,” Sakura bit out before yanking his door open and storming out, dragging Naruto by the collar of his shirt.

Sasuke sighed and closed his door, locking it. He straightened up some boxes so that none of the sharper items were on the floor anymore. After they were put away he straightened out his sheets and his pillows.

He searched blindly with his hand under his pillow and yanked on the strap of the object he had stuffed under there earlier that morning.

I should clean in here before she tries to do it. Or worse, my mother.

Sasuke opened up one of the drawers on his dresser and stuffed the bra under his boxers.

He was going to have to return it eventually.

---

“I didn’t know it was his boyfriend,” Naruto slurred. “I was drunk, face down into the mattress most of the time, how was I supposed to know who it was.”

“Naruto, you’re supposed to practice safe sex,” Sakura scolded him. “Try and make better choices. You are being safe, right?”

“Yeah, mom,” Naruto slurred some more, slumping over so that he was resting his full weight on her. They were only a few drinks in and he was already threatening to pass out on them.

“Aren’t you at all disturbed by how much of his sex life we know about?” Sasuke took a long swig of one of the Hurricanes and grimaced. “I sure as fuck am.”

“I’m friends with Karin and Ino and neither one of them have a filter.” Sakura snatched the bottle from him. “You get used to it.”

Sakura tilted her head back and downed the remaining liquid in the bottle. Sasuke watched her neck as she swallowed. He averted his gaze and turned his attention to the space heaters.

The tree house was barely four feet off the ground and was more of a shed that happened to fit around the tree between the Uchiha and Haruno property. Sasuke had always wanted a treehouse but the only proper tree to build one on straddled the property line.

He lucked out and Sakura had wanted one too so Kizashi used a couple of free weekends to construct the treehouse. When they got older and Sasuke started tinkering around with stuff, Fugaku bought them a generator so that they could have some more modern comforts while outside.

“God he’s so sloppy.”

Sasuke turned back around and caught Sakura adjusting Naruto’s body so that he was resting on one of the mattresses and covered him with a comforter.

“He was the one that wanted to hang out and he passes out first, as usual. Why bother?”

“He just didn’t want to be alone.” Sasuke finished adjusting the heater and grabbed one of the other blankets and another forty ounce before sitting back on the other mattress. “He was going to drink anyway so better he did it with us then alone where he would get into trouble.”

“True.”

Sakura stretched her arms over her head, realigning her back, before settling down next to Sasuke on the second mattress.

Sasuke felt her rest her head against his arm and curl up next to his body. She was always cold and attempting to steal his or Naruto’s body heat.

He wrapped his arm around her and scooped her up to move her between his legs. Sakura squirmed for a moment before finally settling when she realized how much warmer it was trapped against him and the blanket.

“Better?” Sasuke asked, dropping his head into the crook of her neck. He sighed against her skin. She still smelled like something fruity and fabric softener but there was a hint of lager.

Sakura shivered against him, when he exhaled again.

“Still cold?”

Sasuke wrapped his arms around her torso, pulling her closer to him.

“Is this warmer?” He asked, lips brushing against her neck.

“Uh, yeah…” Sakura answered. She hadn’t sounded so meek since they were in primary school.

“Why are you always so cold?”

Sasuke brushed his nose up her neck and pressed a soft kiss under her ear.

“Your hands are freezing,” Sasuke murmured, taking one in his own.

“Actually, women tend to have a higher core temperature than men do while their extremities are colder. I only feel colder to you because of your extremities, like your hands are slightly warmer than mine. On average it’s only a difference of about three degrees━”

“God, you’re such a nerd.” Sasuke chuckled right next to her ear and she shivered again. “Aren’t you drunk right now?”

Sasuke pressed another kiss, on her jaw this time. Sakura had a habit of babbling when nervous.

Sakura swallowed, and he felt the movement as his continued to press kisses down the line of her throat.

“Buzzed. You?”

“Buzzed,” Sasuke responded. “Maybe slightly more than buzzed.”

“Then, uh, maybe we should━ah!”

Sasuke sucked on Sakura’s pulse point and snuck a hand under her sweater. He stroked her stomach, careful not to tug on her belly ring.

“Hey.”

Sakura turned her head to look up at him and Sasuke pressed his lips against hers, softly at first, patient until Sakura parted her lips against his. Her movements were clumsy but she was soft, so soft.

“My neck,” Sakura murmured against his mouth.

Sasuke pulled away but quickly turned her around to face him, lifting her up from under her thighs and pulling her into his lap.

“Better?” He breathed the question against her mouth before parting her lips again.

He slipped his tongue inside her mouth and Sakura made a sound of surprise in the back of her throat. He rolled his tongue along hers and he tasted the lager they had been drinking.

Sasuke slid his hands up her thighs to her waist and dipped her lower, pressing her against his groin. He rolled his hips against hers and felt her hesitantly swivel her hips in slow circles.

“Like this,” he panted. He guided her with his hands until Sakura gasped out. Sasuke had angled her so that she was rubbing her clit against his hardening cock.

“Oh!” Sakura cried out, pressing herself harder against him. She rest her forehead on his and they panted in each other’s faces as they synchronized their grinding. “Sa-Sasuke! That feels━”

A loud snore interrupted her and halted their movements. Sakura’s eyes widened and her jaw dropped in horror.

“Wait, Sakura don’t━!”

Sakura fell backwards and crawled away.

“I-I gotta go.”

Sasuke adjusted himself and made to chase after her when a loud, grating snore caught his attention. Naruto was all askew on the mattress, mouth gaping open.

He headed back out the door but Sakura was nowhere to be seen in the backyard. He leaned back on the doorway and slid down to the floor.

“Some friend you are,” Sasuke grumbled, throwing one of the cushions at Naruto’s face.