ficlet - Questions
Haruno Sakura arched her back, smiling when she heard several pops from her spine. The boat ride home was relaxing with the gentle rocking on the waves, but the wooden plank she sat on was killing her back and hips. The mission had been long, but she couldn’t say she hadn’t enjoyed it. It had been years since Team Seven had all been together again. Now, all jounin - with Sasuke, Naruto and Kakashi occasionally working as Anbu - it became increasingly rare for them all to be paired together for a mission. If one were called away for a mission, it was just that much easier to call another away at a different date. It had been almost a year since she had last seen Sasuke, as he had been so tightly woven into the ranks of Anbu. He had had to regain his status as a shinobi after coming back upon Orochimaru and his brother Itachi’s death and had predictably taken his place among the elite black ops. Naruto she saw from time to time at the Ichiraku, and she often trained with Kakashi whenever possible. Oddly enough, as she had spent very little time with Kakashi during the early years, she spent an awful lot of time with him now.
Still… She had missed her teammates. Uzumaki Naruto with his loud and energetic ways; Uchiha Sasuke with his ever-present look of indifference that occasionally made way for a small genuine smile; and Hatake Kakashi with his air of mystery and almost boyish humor.
They were her boys.
Sakura tilted her head and watched with amusement as Naruto sat cross-legged on the boat, arms crossed tightly over his chest and a deep-set frown of concentration on his face. She knew he only wore that expression when he was thinking particularly hard about something, and she almost dreaded to find out what it was.
“Hey, Sakura-chan,” Naruto said finally, still looking rather constipated but not quite as bad as before. “You’re a girl-”
Two years ago, Sakura would have pounded him into the ground for that remark. “How nice of you to notice,” she said dryly, eyebrow quirking in a way that suggested anger if he chose to be particularly stupid with his next remark.
“And a medic nin,” Naruto continued, not seeming to notice. “So you’d know, right?”
Sakura narrowed her green eyes at him. “I’d know what?”
“Ero-sennin said that you can never find a real virgin in a shinobi village, kunoichi don’t count. But that doesn’t make sense, ‘cause everyone’s a virgin before they do it, y’know? So how come kunoichi don’t count?”
Sakura sat back on the plank that served as her bench and stared at the blond jounin for a moment. She was only vaguely aware that Sasuke and Kakashi had subtly turned their attention to the other two, listening intently for her reply. If she had taken a closer look at her ex-sensei, she would have seen the gleam of amusement in his visible eye.
Of all the things Naruto could have asked, she never would have expected that.
“Well…” she said slowly, relaxing a bit as she tried to think of how to best explain it. She of course knew exactly why Jiraiya-san would have said this, but how to explain it to Naruto so he would understand? “You know what a hymen is, right?”
Sakura ignored the small choking sound that issued from Sasuke behind her and gazed seriously at Naruto, whose expression turned more serious as he thought. “That’s the barrier or whatever, right? Like what ero-sennin says in his books. Right?”
“Essentially, yes.” Sakura clasped her hands in her lap and ignored the fact that she now had all three of her male teammates’ undivided attention on her. “The hymen is a thin membrane that covers all or most of a woman’s vaginal opening. A ‘true’,” she made quote motions with her fingers, “virgin supposedly has that barrier still intact until it’s broken by a man during sex, thus taking her virginity. However, that isn’t the only way to break it.”
Naruto frowned, leaning forward and glaring at her. “What? How else can it be broken then? Masturbation?”
The pink-haired kunoichi smiled, somehow knowing that that would have been his first guess. “Well… I suppose so, but I doubt a girl would go through the pain just for that. No, it’s much simpler than that. Movement.”
“…I don’t get it.”
“It just takes a certain movement. Vigorous training, for example, stretching - the legs, mostly, riding a horse can do it. It doesn’t take much,” she explained, lifting a shoulder in a shrug. “So when Jiraiya-san said that kunoichi aren’t real virgins, he was in a sense right, although not really if you think about it. Just because the hymen is broken doesn’t mean that she has had sex.”
By now she could hear the light sounds rather reminiscent of choking that indicated Kakashi’s silent laughter and from the corner of her eye she could see the faint blush that colored the normally stoic Uchiha’s cheeks. Her own lips twitched with trying not to laugh along with the masked shinobi but she kept quiet when she saw the still-confused expression on Naruto’s face. “Just ask, Naruto,” she said exasperatedly. “I know you want to ask something else.”
“Then why do kunoichi say it hurts the first time if that’s gone?” he blurted out, leaning forward in his curiosity. Sakura was impressed but not all that surprised to see that there was no trace of embarrassment on his face - although the Uchiha was definitely sporting a rather vibrant blush.
“Because the first time is having muscles and tissues that have never been stretched before suddenly forced to, and quickly, to accommodate a much larger object. Although if she still does have one it hurts even more the first time than if she didn’t. Kinda like having something tear into your skin and then shifting around to keep aggravating the wound until it’s finally pulled out again,” she said brightly, smiling at the stunned - and pained, she was delighted to see - look on her teammate’s face. A loud snort sounded behind her from Kakashi as he found he couldn’t hold back his laughter anymore, as well as the rustle of fabric as Sasuke put his head in his hands. “Hurts like a bitch,” she added, just as cheerfully as before. “Why do you think all the guys in Jiraiya-san’s books always say they’ll be gentle when they’re handling a virgin?”
Naruto scowled, crossing his arms over his chest again. “Then why the hell do you girls let it happen?”
Now Sakura’s smile turned into an all-out grin. “’Cause it only hurts the first time, and maybe a little the next few times, or maybe not at all.” She didn’t have to turn around to know that Kakashi was holding his stomach to keep his silent guffaws under control. She leaned forward, her grin turning lecherous. “Once you’re used to it… it feels really good.”
The Kyuubi stared dumbfounded at her for a good long moment before launching himself back in his seat, pointing an accusing finger at her. “You’re a pervert virgin!”
Sakura sniffed indignantly and stood up, dusting off her medic skirt as she grabbed the rope on the starboard side of the boat and tossed it to catch on the dock as it approached. Her black boot lifted to touch the wooden planks and she used her weight to maneuver the boat in line. Without a glance back she stepped off and began walking toward the forest.
“I am not a pervert, Naruto. You asked a question and I told you the answer.” She paused, tilting her head to look at her three teammates who had managed to get off the boat to follow after her, Kakashi lagging behind with tears of laughter in his eyes and she knew beneath the mask was a mischievous grin. Sakura threw the Copy Ninja a saucy wink. “And I’m not a virgin either.”
Sasuke and Naruto halted, stunned, while Kakashi stuffed his hands in his pockets and sauntered after the kunoichi, visible eye creased in a smile. The two younger Anbu exchanged glances before they broke into a run.
“Wait, Sakura-chan! Who’d you do it with?”
Kakashi decided to hang back a moment, and rightfully so as Sakura whirled around and landed a hard punch to Naruto’s temple. “None of your business, baka!” she yelled, turning on her heel and stomping off in a huff to once again lead her team back to Konoha. Kakashi hauled Naruto up by his collar to start walking again, knowing that Sasuke was already following along behind, having wisely kept his distance and his mouth shut. Once he was sure the boys were in line, he turned his attention back to a certain cherry blossom, gray eye following the seductive sway of those perfect hips.
Thoughts?