A/N: Hey, guys! This will probably be the last update today. Here you go.

-Chapter 17-

Thankfully, the rest of the night proved to be without incident. Sakura woke up to Sasuke holding her tightly against him, his legs wrapped around hers - kind of like a body pillow, only less creepy.

She looked into his sleeping face, still somewhat disturbed from the night before, but at least this time he looked somewhat peaceful. His lips were parted slightly, his eyes relaxed.

She smiled at the sight before trying to break free of his grip. She first tried slowly slithering out of it, but when he only increased his hold, she stopped.

"Shoot. What would Naruto do in this situation?" She asked herself desperately.

An image of an enraged Naruto smacking him away filled her brain for a split-second, and she immediately chased it off. As unusual as it was to wake up to someone sleep-cuddling you like their favorite teddy bear, she was not going to disturb his sleep by waking him up by hitting him.

She finally resolved to lying there until he let go. She wiggled her arms free and wrapped them around his neck, burying her face in his hair.

Yeah, it was weird, yeah, he would probably freak out when he woke up, yeah, if anyone else was seeing this they'd start screaming, but at the moment, she didn't care.

"Besides," she thought with a fluttering in her stomach when he mumbled something and hugged her closer, "I want to keep him as happy as I can."

"I love him," She repeated to herself. An almost giddy happiness spread across her body like waves.

Even though the boy had grated her nerves with his annoyingly-cold attitude towards them, she could tell that after a while, at least she and Naruto had done some good in melting him.

He was growing softer towards them. Even if he never admitted it, she noticed the proud smile he gave Naruto when the blond managed to hit a perfect bulls-eye. Of course, he hid it with a hum of indifference, but she knew.

Kakashi had nudged her quite a few times about his feelings toward her. She would have to be the densest person on the planet to not note the way he was more gentle with her than with anyone else. The only person who ever came close to making him act soft was his mother, from what she'd managed to glean from their teacher.

She'd noted the way he tended to stare at her longer than others, and if she managed to catch him in the act, he'd look away, but she could swear she detected a hint of pink in his face.

No matter what he felt around her, he'd managed to get her heart. She felt inclined to protect him, especially from that stupid snake.

"I love him."

-

Sasuke woke up to something unbelievably warm and sweet-smelling snuggled up to him. At first, he thought nothing of it, but when he thought about it some more, he realized.

"Wait a minute."

He slowly opened his eyes, only to find his face in the crook of someone's neck. Said person breathed in and out slowly, so he guessed they were still asleep.

Momentary panic set it. "Oh shoot, did I-?! I'm too young for this! Mother won't even be asking until I graduate high school!"

Then he took a whiff of the scent. It was some sort of evanescent sweetness, something that pegged him as quite familiar, although he couldn't quite place it.

Something pink fluttered into his vision.

"Oh."

He realized that it was Sakura he heard sighing lightly.

"Ohhhhhh."

Somehow, he surmised, he must have grabbed her in his sleep. Well, at least that explained the pleasant dream.

Her arms had been wrapped around his neck, almost as if she'd realized halfway through the night that they were entangled. It was kind of uncomfortable for her elbow to be digging into his nape like that, but who was he to wake her?

He loosened his grip some and instead studied her face.

Her eyelids weren't littered with any blues, or purples, thankfully, and she looked very relaxed. He even thought that her mouth was upturned into a slight smile.

"Must be nice," he thought for a moment.

Had she been anyone else, he would've immediately pushed her away, but somehow she just kept growing on him.

Like vines creeping up the side of a building, she seemed to keep worming her way into his heart. It was annoying at first, but now...

He breathed in another lungful of her scents. She must've woken up during the night and washed her face or something, because she smelled like sweet cucumber.

He smiled, burying his face in her neck again. Now, her presence was a welcome one, a calming one. It seemed like she knew just what to do to relax him, even when Naruto was yelling something stupid at him to provoke him.

Out of everyone, the one girl with the weird pink hair had to go and make him her - at first - unwilling friend. Now he realized that maybe, just maybe, he didn't mind it so much.

-

Naruto woke up with Kakashi moving through the room. His eyelids opened only enough to where he could look at his teacher without him knowing.

Unfortunately, he wasn't unmasked. The blond fought back the disappointment and instead decided to let him know that he was awake by sitting up and yawning.

"Oh, good morning." Kakashi's visible eye crinkled into a smile. "I checked on the other two, and it looks like we're the only two awake."

"Heck yeah, we beat Sasuke!" Naruto thought with victory.

He gave the gray-haired adult a big grin. "What didja find out last night?"

That's when his teacher's pleasant face fell, and he turned to fully face the boy.

"We... we questioned him thoroughly, but we couldn't find anything." He sounded quite frustrated, even as he held an indifferent expression. "We may have gotten the wrong person after all."

"That sucks," Naruto sighed harshly. "Well, we'll just have to go looking for the other one!"

"I don't think that's the best idea." Kakashi shook his head. "You kids won't be safe in the forest. Just leave the looking to us."

While Naruto spluttered 'but's and 'that's not fair's, Kakashi ignored him and focused on looking through his pack. It looked like everything was there.

-

The group convened in the kitchen later in the morning. Sakura chirped a 'morning' to their teacher as she grabbed a plate from the cupboard.

Sasuke gave Naruto a nod of acknowledgement, and the boy grinned in return.

"So what's the plan?" Sasuke asked monotonously.

"Well," Kakashi paused after taking a sip of coffee, "I was hoping to begin training you three on some basic self-defense exercises."

Before Naruto could begin protesting, he continued, "And yes, I know that some of you have had lessons before. These are a little different."

"I'm certainly ready." Sakura came back to the table with a plate of eggs, bacon, and toast. She smiled determinedly. "Anything to make rescuing Hinata easier."

-End Chapter 17-

A/N: A little indulgent, but who doesn't like good fluff every once in a while?

Please tell me what you thought, feel free to speculate on what will happen next, and I'll see you guys later!