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Warning(s): G, none
“You didn’t check the ingredients chart, did you.” His statement was flat, monotonous, and noticeably unimpressed. Hooded brown eyes seemed to bore into her despite looking so unquestionably bored, both judging her and unimpressed by so many variables that Sakura couldn’t begin to count. His moppy red hair only seemed to intensify his gaze.
Sakura grit her teeth in frustration at the puppeteer, who was a prodigy in Suna despite being only a year older than her. Already a Jōnin by the time she’d graduated the Academy and became a genin, his contempt for her was clear. Likely burgeoned by their masters’ rivalry that had fostered since the Second War, his grandmother and her Shisō, as head of the Puppet Brigade alongside Lady Chiyo, he looked down at someone like her who had just become Chūnin weeks ago.
And now, with the external and diplomatic affairs of said exams that had taken place in Suna needing to be ironed out, she, Tsunade, and Shizune, were stuck in Sunagakure longer than she would’ve liked to be.
“Okay, so how would you do it then, bigshot?” she snapped at Sasori, earning a self-satisfied smirk. Folding her arms, she fixed him with a contemptible glower.
Maybe it was the heat getting to her, Sakura thought ruefully. Though Suna’s dry heat was stifling, at least the village was commonly subject to winds that refreshed its streets and byways. The greenhouse itself was a confined place, the abundance of tropical blooms and plants spraying green fronds and leaves over their heads that draped in a canopy comfortably obscured most of the sun, at least. The babbling of an irrigated brook that spread water through all the plant life loaned a refreshing, cool tang despite how it made it utterly humid.
Sakura wasn’t eager to raise her arms, at least. For reasons relating to hygiene, mind you! Sasori, meanwhile, appeared totally nonplussed.
“And to think, your master is the one who foiled all of my grandmother’s poisons,” Sasori remarked laconically as he referenced the table of poison ingredients and dabbled through the array of hued liquids and powders they’d been building their cocotants—both failed and successful—from. It was with practiced speed that he worked, stirring them with a glass wand that clinked softly against the sides of the beaker he utilized.
Rolling her eyes exaggeratingly, Sakura watched him with a scowl as he began reaching for the shallow dish of ground ginger root, only to realize something amiss as she seized his wrist before he could add it to the beaker. He turned to her with scandalized indignance, silently demanding an explanation.
“If you add that on top of what you’ve already added, it’ll react and release noxious fumes that could close our windpipes shut if we breathe in too much. Milkweed would be a better substitute,” Sakura informed him with a serious expression, no gloating present on her features.
The teen’s brows furrowed as he wrenched his wrist away from her grip with a huff. “I knew that. Ginger root that grows in the Fire Country looks different from the species native to here. It’s simple to confuse with dried milkweed,” he countered with a scoff as he deposited the ground ginger back into its dish and wiped his hand on a dusty cloth he’d been using to prevent cross-contamination. “Seeing as not all of these ingredients are native to the Wind.”
It was Sakura’s turn to smirk. “What happened to being the greatest poisons’ expert since Lady Chiyo?” she taunted childishly, smirking devilishly.
“I don’t see how explaining my reason for a mishap makes me inferior to you or Lady Fifth’s expertise,” he replied with dry officiousness. “Unlike you, I can concede to mistakes.”
“ Really? ” Sakura egged him sarcastically, leaning in tauntingly and saw the redhead rear back with a faint blush on his bronzed features. Unless it was just her imagination? Bumping him away with her hip, Sakura filled the central space he had. “My turn. It’s only fair, right?”
Strangely mollified, it was Sasori’s turn to be the spectator as he folded his arms contemplatively and watched her with a hawkish keen. From what the kunoichi could see, Sasori was a little more than halfway through before she’d interrupted him, but it wasn’t difficult to pick up the slack. Running through a mental list of the ingredients he’d already used, Sakura resumed with the milkweed and continued.
“Do you even know what you’re doing?” Sasori broached bluntly, eyebrows raised archly.
“Do you know when to shut up?” Sakura returned tartly, the loud clinking as she stirred reflecting her irritable state. Until, of course, a devious idea sprang to her mind as the stirring leveled out. “If I get this, you’re going to take me out on a date and pay for it. No take-backs.”
Sasori’s arms slowly unfolded incredulously as he almost gaped at her, eyes wide enough that betrayed it well enough. “A date? If you get this right?” he echoed dubiously, reining in his initial reaction.
Well, he wasn’t saying no . “You heard me. Now, be quiet so I can concentrate.”
Surprisingly, Sasori didn’t bother snarking back at her after that. Truthfully, despite the rivalry between their mentors obviously transplanting in their disciples, Sakura did respect the older teen. She hadn’t felt so invigorated to excel past someone since Ino, and it was exhilarating. Something about having a rival put her mind in a place to work harder, and better. Then and there was no different.
Minutes would pass until she finished completing the concoction, huffing as the kunoichi knew it was the moment of truth. Stirring the solution that had a liquid base to begin with, with an eye-dropper did she take a miniscule amount to the smaller portion of poison isolated in a petri dish and dropped only one or two droplets, taking a healthy step back.
Though the mixture fizzed harmlessly, from its bubbling did it seem to metabolize the poison until its dark hue was rendered a benign off-white, apparent once the bubbling had subsided.
Once Sasori’s own intense concentration ceased, he tsked, but appeared satisfied. Even if it wasn’t enough to gain his admiration, she was sure. Not like Sakura had been holding her breath.
“So,” she ventured on a gloatingly chipper note after she removed her safety goggles, “how about we go out to lunch? I know just the place.”
Uttering a defeated sigh, it alone was a concession of defeat Sakura was proud to see. In time, she was determined to earn his respect, and then some. She had to keep up her mentor’s rivalry and do her proud, too!