mischief's cracktastic shorts

A/N: for
yira_heerai

Pairing: team
seven

Warnings:
spoilers

--

“You two really are that stupid after all,” Sasuke sneered
at them through the bars of his cell.

In Naruto’s fist, his grip on the old, beat up hitai-ite
tightened until his knuckles were white, but it was Sakura who spoke up next.
Her voice was even and expression slightly sympathetic; there were no tears, no
honorifics, no declarations of undying love, just a simple, uncharged
statement.

“No one knows what’s going to happen, but we want you know
that we’re not your enemies, Sasuke.”

It somehow managed to raise his hackles even more.

Naruto set the scratched forehead protector on the ground
just outside his cell where the metal caught the overhead fluorescent lights
and reflected them toward him, making it look every bit the shining peace
offering it was. Sasuke snorted in disgust.

“I could tear it apart. Rip the faceplate off and use it to
slit their throats,” he grinned, nodding toward the masked guards who’d moved across
the hall in a farce of privacy when his ex-teammates had arrived.

“I’m sure you could do a lot of things, asshole.” Naruto’s
smile widened as the volume of his voice dropped a little. “I’m also sure you
never would’ve ended up here in the first place had you not wanted to.”

In a blink, Sasuke was up from his spot on the floor and
raging against the bars that separated them. The guards had weapons drawn
almost as fast, but Sasuke was already backing away from the bars, his
self-control back in place.

“Think you’ve got it all figured out, huh? Did you forget
whose hand went through your chest?”

He could feel Naruto’s chakra pulse dangerously for a moment,
but it seemed that even he’d learned some sense of control over the years as it
was pushed back down just as quickly. When he spoke next, the idiot had the
audacity to smile at him.

“Anyway, we’ll be back tomorrow. Might
even bring some cards or something.” He then mouthed conspiratorially, ‘Sakura-chan
always loses.’ The blond got a fist
to the top of the head for that one.

Sakura then turned toward him. “We’ll see you tomorrow,
Sasuke.”

He wasn’t sure if it was intentional or not, but the corner
of her mouth quirked up just a little before she grabbed Naruto by the collar
of his jacket and dragged him out of there.

Sasuke rolled his eyes. They were still idiots. They’d
always been idiots. He glanced down at his old forehead protector beaming up at
him from the cold concrete floor and hated it just as much.

“This is stupid,”
he muttered, but his feet carried him back toward the bars where he crouched
down and glared at the offending trinket. The metal was badly scratched, and
there were blood stains on the fabric that would never come out since too much
time had passed. Why would they think he’d want such a worthless thing? This
was idiotic even for them!

Sasuke reached through the bars and picked it up anyway. If
nothing else, maybe he could hang himself with it once their stupidity became
too much to bear.