Give me the Words

Warnings: Sakura!bashing and Sasuke!bashing, though it's not on purpose. They just are that way at the time.



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Summary: Time has passed and no matter what Sakura thinks, Naruto does understand. He does.



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Kakashi looks at Sasuke, Sakura, and Naruto, and wonders what the fuck he had been thinking. Taking these brats on a five-days survival trip? Fun.



Sasuke is sitting on a log and pretending to be waiting for his fish to cook, when in reality he's glaring at Naruto, who's happily slurping his instant ramen. Sakura is still not finished pitching her tent, which may be because she's too busy mentally undressing her teammates, but Kakashi doesn't want to judge (God, when's she ever going to grow up? Stupid girl.). Really, he doesn't.



"Alright," the man claps his hands, and two out of three jump in surprise. Shows how much attention they pay to their surroundings, if they haven't even noticed him coming back from the perimeter check. He wonders how they plan to survive the night.



"The perimeter is clear, so I'll go now. Don't forget to set up a night watch." Because if they forgot, their clothes would be missing in the morning and they'd have scribbles all over their faces. Sometimes, it was fun to be a teacher.



"Bye, Kakashi-sensei!" Sakura chirps, while Sasuke grunts and Naruto gives him one of his more quiet but honest smiles. The jounin does his trademark eye crinkle, then seems to vanish into the trees, when in reality he only got comfortable on a branch a few metres above their heads and consealed himself with genjutsu. He wants to see how they will deal with the situation.



For a long moment it's quiet in the clearing, each of the three young ninja busy with their own thoughts, then the girl takes charge. "Okay! I want first watch. Sasuke, do you want third?"



Kakashi frowns a little, unhappy with how Sakura just gave Naruto the most exhausting second watch without even asking him, but the blond doesn't protest as the Uchiha nods his agreement. Instead he gives his teammates an--even for the jounin--unreadable look, before emptying his cup ramen with one last gulp and slapping a grin onto his face.



"Great! So I'll take second watch. But hey, I don't wanna go to bed yet, it's barely dark out here. Want to play a game or something?"



"How childish," Sasuke snorts. "Have you forgotten that we are on duty? We can't play games."



Naruto raises an eyebrow in incredulity and Sakura looks a little disappointed, but Kakashi didn't expect anything else. The only thing Fugaku was ever really good at was educating his sons in the high art of having a stick up one's ass.



"Fine," Naruto sighs. "Do you need help with your tent Sakura?"



The girl's face lights up in relief, quite ready to hand the distasteful task over to someone else, but then Sasuke makes a little noise of disgust, and her expression quickly changes to one of anger.



"What makes you think I need help? I can do this just fine on my own!"



The blond blinkes, not expecting the harsh answer, and then shrugs nonchalantly. "If that's what you want. But accepting some help every now and then doesn't make you weak, no matter what loverboy over there says. Or grunts, now that I think about it."



Kakashi winces a little at the teen's blunt honesty, quite aware of the way Sasuke is glaring and Sakura is slowly flushing in anger. He still has the hope that one of these days, Naruto will wake up and realize that not everyone appreciates being told the whole truth to their face, no matter what Anbu procedure taught him.



"Take that back, idiot!" Sakura screeches, getting up from fiddling around with her tent and stomping over to the surprised blond. "Sasuke does not grunt, he just has a deep, manly voice! Unlike other people here!"



Naruto cocks his head to the side, unsure how to respond to her sudden anger. "What are you so upset about? I didn't lie, he does grunt occasionally."



"What am I so upset about? Just look at him!" She points at her crush, who is busy pretending to be completely uninterested in the conversation and not to know these two idiots.



"See?" She exclaims, her face suddenly a mask of adoration. "He's perfect! Of course you wouldn't understand, but to me, he's the most perfect guy in the world! So don't say bad things about him!"



Naruto looks at Sakura, at Sasuke, back at her, and then shakes his head. "I hope you know that he'll likely never return your feelings. The only thing he loves is his own reflection."



There's a loud screech, the cracking of splintering wood as the girl's fist hits the tree the blond was just leaning against, and from one second to the next Kakashi isn't alone on his branch anymore. The jounin doesn't know since when the other was aware of his presence, but the teen doesn't look at him and instead stares down at his raging teammate, a strangely wistful smile on his young face.



"But then again, he isn't the only one with that problem, is he?"



Kakashi wonders what his student means.



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