Ruminant

Bonus: Cloudy Sky AU - 2

Summary: Where Sasuke is a hopeless, pining tsundere.

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Uchiha Sasuke didn't have many fond memories of their current Rokudaime Hokage, Nara Shikari.

He always did consider her as - for the lack of better word - the bane of his existence.

Since he was but a child, Sasuke had seen Shikari as an obstacle. A hindrance. All the older girl ever did was to snatch his nii-san's attention away from him and bully him into playing nice with her brother, Shikamaru.

Calling him small animal. Being so damn condescending, it grated on his nerves. Patting his head like he was a dog.

Oh, how he despised her at that time.

For a long time, he remembered irrationally blaming Shikari for not being taken seriously by everyone. It didn't help that Shisui egged the thought on, because that's just the special kind of bastard that he was, and made it worse by dubbing him a cutesy nickname - Ducky-chan - inspired by Shikari's passing comment.

(He could actually still remember the remark she made the first time she met him.

It went something like: "How adorable, small animal. Your hair sticks up like a duck's butt."

Then she patted his head like she's his freaking owner.)

...He could still never quite forgive her for that.

Not that his nii-san saved him from his plight. His older brother was weak in face of his best-friend. He thought it was adorable and jumped in tease-Sasuke-till-he-turns-like-a-tomato brigade too.

It was frustrating.

And that state of affairs went on for a long time. It continued up until his academy days where Naruto, that dobe Shisui took under his wing, made the moniker popular because he's a little shit like that. And Sasuke-

Sasuke had no one, but his fangirls to defend his honor.

It was torture for a prepubescent-kid who thought he had something to prove, but Sasuke worked hard despite of it and he graduated at the academy as one of the top students of the year.

One of. Because he's not the only one who got the top spot.

...Sasuke didn't like to think about it. It's still a blow to his pride til now.

He was so sure he was free of the reputation Shikari subjected him with when he graduated in the academy, but, unfortunately, Sasuke just couldn't. get. away. from. her.

Shikari was his jounin-sensei.

And it was as difficult and grating as you probably can imagine.

He still wasn't sure how he and his teammates survived until now because the kunoichi wasn't, in any way or form, someone suited for teaching kids.

Seriously.

With torture disguised as training, Sasuke sweated and shed blood to reach where he was now.

He sometimes wished he didn't went through Shikari to be this way though.

Or at least that was what he tried to convince himself.

(Sasuke ignored the times when the older Nara's presence made him happy - valued. Because she always did see him for who he was. Not as a kid to be protected or sheltered. She believed in him - Sasuke, the Uchiha spare - in his capabilities that in face of ridiculously strong opponents, she trusted in him and his teammates to watch her back and reach her expectations. She's the first one who believed in him without question.

Even Itachi didn't do that. His older brother tried his best, but Sasuke knew Itachi found it difficult to see him for he is now and not for who he was.

...He pushed down the times when he could just stare, hopelessly bewitched at Shikari's overwhelming strength and charisma in battle. His awe at the sheer power her slight body was capable of. And every single thing remotely close to admiring who she was and what she stands for, because he didn't want to touch that issue with a ten-foot pole if he had anything to say about it.

It's no use.

Sasuke didn't have a chance anyway.)

Arranging the files Itachi forgot to give Shikari the other day, Sasuke sighed and shook his head.

How in kami's name did his nii-san fell in love with Shikari, anyway?

Sasuke could admit that she was pretty, but she - she wasn't that pretty. Shikari's brown hair and eyes weren't all that special in comparison to Sakura's pink locks and green eyes or Ino's own blond hair and soft blue peepers. She also wasn't that well-endowed compared to Hinata or Hana. She wasn't even what one would call a "wife-material". Shikari's crass, brutal, oblivious, overprotective-

(and so fucking beautiful, it hurts.)

Why?

Just why?

(...can't he stop thinking about her?)

"Sasuke." A high voice that infuriatingly sounded like bells starts lightly, interrupting his train of thought. "Hm. Thank you, small animal. I was waiting for that."

Sasuke could feel his face go red. "I'm not a small animal, sens- er Hokage-sama. Stop calling me that." He could feel himself - much to his horror - whine. "I'm an adult now."

Shikari smirked, putting her coat on her chair. "Of course you are." She said in a tone so patronizing Sasuke couldn't help, but bristle.

"I am." He insisted.

"That's what I said." Shikari put on her glasses - something Sasuke noticed she started wearing once she started doing her paperwork.

Sasuke could feel himself blush harder.

Shit.

Damn puberty. And hormones.

(Sasuke chose to ignore that he's in his twenties now and supposedly passed that phase already.)

Sasuke closed the door quietly and ran outside. He needed to release some tension. He wondered if Naruto or Shikamaru was up for a spar.

(He didn't have a chance damn it. Why was he torturing himself like this? Shit.)

(Damn it. She was for Itachi. Nii-san. His older brother tried to deny it, but anyone with eyes could see the soft look and fond smiles he wore when he's with Shikari.)

(Sasuke chest hurt.)