--- Chapter One: Intoxicated ---

-Sasu/Saku/Gaa-

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

Booming music was heard from inside the club, and the deafening sound would reach the ears of anyone who was standing a block away from the club. The club was packed with people. Laser lights illuminated the dance floor and it was difficult to see because of all of the smoke coming from the smoke machines. Most of the people were on the dance floor- grinding and dubbing, getting nasty and having fun. The rest were just getting drunk or hanging around and talking at a booth with their friends.

There was a girl sitting at a table, surrounded by some of her friends. She had beautiful long pink hair, skin smooth as a peach and emerald eyes that were easy to be entranced by. She adorned a tight, black, strapless top with a red ribbon on the front. Her bottom wear consisted of a black mini skirt, ruffled at the bottom, and on her feet were strapped black heels. She had marked her eyes with black eyeliner but other than that she only had a little blush and some pink lip gloss. The sight of her was quite breath-taking, yet she had a look of complete boredom on her face as she rested her head on the palm of her hand.

"Why did I come here in the first place?" she muttered.

"Oh Sakura-chan, stop being a party-pooper!" said a girl with long blond hair put into a ponytail and eyes that were blue and as deep as the ocean.

"Look Ino-chan," said the girl known as Sakura as she sat up and looked Ino directly in the eye. "I cannot afford to lose my job. I have no time for clubs and parties."

"But, you used to always have fun at clubs!" said a girl with brown hair put into one bun at the top of her head, and soft chocolate brown eyes. "You never cared about getting in trouble, you only cared about having fun!"

"Exactly, I used to!" said Sakura, now looking at the brunette, Tenten. "I have responsibilities now and I can't be doing this anymore. I'm sorry guys."

"You may have a job, but that doesn't mean you can't have fun once in a while!" said Ino stubbornly. "You're only 19 years old! You should enjoy your youth and have fun while you can!" The blond paused as a look of horror and disgust struck within her eyes. "Oh god, I'm starting to sound like that weird kid with bushy eyebrows."

"You mean Lee?" asked Tenten as she chugged down another beer.

"Tenten-chan," mentioned a girl with pearly-white eyes and midnight blue shoulder-length hair. "I don't think it's wise to drink so much alcohol."

"Don't worry about me Hinata-chan," reassured Tenten as she smiled at Hinata. "I know my limit. Back to Sakura- get your ass on the dance floor!"

"Seriously Sakura, we want to go out there and dance but, we don't want to leave you here alone," said Temari, who had her blond hair put into four bushy ponytails and beautiful aqua colored eyes. "You're getting a new boss in two days anyway. So, it's not like you would get fired if you end up going late or sober to work tomorrow."

"Please Sakura-chan," Ino practically begged. "Just for today, forget about your job and have fun. Only for today...please?!"

'I guess it wouldn't hurt. I do want to go have some fun and I am getting a new boss...' Sakura looked at Ino's puppy eyes and sighed, "Fine, I miss all the fun anyway."

"Yes!" cheered Ino, Tenten, and Temari.

Hinata didn't know what to think. Was this a good thing or a bad thing? Well, she'd find out soon.

"Now- let's go out to the dance floor and have fun!" yelled Temari over the loud music.

Sakura shook her head, what had she gotten herself into? Sakura and Hinata decided to first get some drinks at the small bar before dancing. They asked the bartender for two vodkas as they stood there waiting for their drinks.

"I'm glad that you're getting back out there again and having fun," said Hinata, almost screaming because it was hard to hear each other over the loud music.

Sakura just smiled and nodded her head, 'It's been a while since I went out to a club. Ino's right, I should just forget completely about my job today and only focus on having fun- the way I always used to.'

Sakura tapped her foot against the tiled floor and swayed her hips slightly to the beat of the song that was playing. Sakura felt a tap on her shoulder and turned around to see a man behind her, he had long brown hair and brown eyes.

'He looks cute,' thought Sakura.

He asked her to dance and Sakura looked over at Hinata, who only smiled and nodded her head to urge her on. Sakura turned back to look at the guy and nodded her head. He flashed her a smile as they made their way on to the dance floor.

At the other side of the club, a guy with long messy raven hair that was slightly spiked at the back was talking to his friends. His deep onyx eyes were beyond gorgeous and was young, strong, and quite tall. He was wearing jeans that hung low on his waist and a black dress up shirt that had the first two buttons unbuttoned, showing his muscular toned chest. His name is Sasuke. They were checking out all the 'hot' girls that were in the club that night.

"Yo, I'm tired of just sitting here," said a guy with spiky blond messy hair and deep blue eyes.

A guy with messy brown hair and dark brown eyes named Kiba, stood up.

"Yeah. C'mon, Naruto! Let's go dance with some sexy chicks," said Kiba.

"I'm going to go ask that cute girl over there to dance with me," said Naruto, pointing to a girl drinking near the bar.

Neji's eyes widened a bit for a second. "That's my cousin."

Naruto smiled. "Don't worry dude, I won't mess with her as much."

Neji glared at Naruto. "You better not."

"Troublesome," muttered a guy with brown hair put into a ponytail that looked somewhat like a pineapple, who was known as Shikamaru.

The guys all went out to the dance floor, quickly finding a girl to dance with. Almost all the girls latched themselves onto them but, only one lucky girl got picked to dance with the hot guys. Sasuke's eyes roamed the whole dance floor, looking for a girl that was attractive and could dance well. He smirked when he saw a girl with pink hair grinding with some man.

She's hot and by the looks of it- knows how to dance, thought Sasuke. I'm sure that guy won't mind if I steal her away.

Sasuke walked over to the two, pushing his way through the sweaty bodies of all the people that were dancing. He tapped Sakura's shoulder, causing the two to stop dancing.

Sakura began to look over at Sasuke with a raised eyebrow, and then froze for a split second as her breath got caught in her throat. His heavily-lidded onyx stare caught her eyes, making her heart skip a beat. Then her mind caught up with her body—she returned his look with her own lidded glaze and a seductive smirk of her gloss-glistened lips.

"Can I help you with something?" asked Sakura, over the loud music.

Sasuke nodded his head. "Dance with me."

Sakura looked over at the brunette, he shrugged his shoulders and Sakura agreed to dance with Sasuke. The song changed to a song with a fast rhythm. Sakura recognized this as her favorite song.

Sakura grinned mischievously, "Let's see if you can keep up with me."

Sasuke smirked, 'I like this girl already. Ha, let's see if she's as good as she's implying that she is.'

Before getting closer to Sasuke, Sakura started moving her hips to the beat, shaking her rump to the beat.

Sasuke seemed to be getting turned on by the way the green-eyed beauty was dancing. Her hips moved right on beat- as if she had been practicing how to dance to this song perfectly for years. He was quite amazed and knew that she really was as good as she had implied that she was. Now, he just had to show her that he could keep up with her. They got closer as Sasuke put one arm around her waist, his hand lightly on her back. Sakura put one arm loosely around his neck as she continued to dance to the beat of the song- with Sasuke now dancing with her.

They changed their position- Sakura was now leaning her back against Sasuke. Sasuke's hands were placed on her hips- their bodies close together. With their bodies closer together now, Sasuke was able to inhale her sweet scent. And yes—that's how it started, when he inhaled just a bit of her. She smelled like cherries, which he found himself enjoying being intoxicated by her scent. But even more so, he found himself enjoying dancing with her. She really was an astounding dancer. They had started grinding by now, his hands went lower; all the way down to her thighs. Sakura didn't seem to mind though, and to her surprise his hands were quite warm and gentle.

Well I'm not so surprised that they're warm, when you're in a club and you dance you start to get hot, thought Sakura. She already felt herself getting hot ; from the fast movement of her dancing and from the warmth she got from having her body pressed closely against Sasuke's. She really was quite impressed that Sasuke was actually able to dance this well.

Sakura was really enjoying herself, 'I forgot how much fun this was. Not only that- but....this guy is REALLY good. It's hard for me to find a guy who can dance well to this song, and keep up with me. He's quite interesting. Not only that but, he's hot.'

The two were both obviously enjoying themselves, unknown to both of them that their friends were watching the two in bewilderment. Instead of dancing- Naruto had sat down with Hinata and just conversed and drank a bit. Neji had gone over to see what was going on with Naruto and his cousin, while Ino, being nosy- walked over to see what the two guys were pestering Hinata about. Soon, most of them had gone to the small bar. They all ended up talking and started becoming friends. They were going to call Sakura and Sasuke over- only to be surprised in seeing the two dancing together.

"That's your friend Sakura?" asked Kiba with his mouth wide as he stared in shock at Sasuke dancing with the pink-haired girl. What surprised him most was that Sasuke seemed to be enjoying himself more than ever.

"Yeah," said Ino quite surprised herself. "Don't tell me that hot guy that she's dancing with is your friend Sasuke..."

"Yup," said Naruto cheerfully. "That's Sasuke-teme. The two seem to be having lots of fun. I've never seen him dance with a girl like that and enjoy it so much. In fact, I've never seen a girl dance that well! Nor have I ever seen a girl have pink hair and actually look good with it! Is it natural?"

"It's natural," said Temari. "And she really is a good dancer. I'm glad that she came out and had fun today."

"What do you mean?" asked Naruto with a raised eye brow.

Tenten sighed, "Ever since she got a job and....a few things happened to her- she has stopped being the girl she used to be. She became more serious and is usually fixated on work and only work. We were finally able to convince her to go out again."

"She looks like she should be in college...." said Neji absentmindedly.

Tenten turned to look at him, "She only went to college for a year. I don't think she'd like us to be telling you about her personal life though. And no offense, but we don't really know you guys anyway. Sorry..."

"It's okay, we understand," Neji replied, giving her a curt nod. 'I wonder what were the few things that happened to her... It seems like something happened to Sakura in the past.'

Tenten smiled, 'He's so polite....better yet- he's hot. I have a feeling I'll be seeing more of him since he's Hinata's cousin.'

"But, you're right when you say that she should be in college," put in Temari. "She skipped a grade- which is how Tenten and I met her. We're a year older than her. Ino and Hinata are the same age as her."

"So, she's smart," stated Shikamaru.

"Yeah," said Temari, looking at Shikamaru curiously. The raven haired male was sitting on the stool with his back leaning against the small bar. He was slouching back with his elbows propped up on the counter and a look of complete boredom on his handsome face.

"Shikamaru here is also a genius," said Kiba.

"Doesn't look like it," muttered Temari.

Shikamaru lightly glared at her but then sighed, "Troublesome."

"What did you say?" asked Temari dangerously.

"You're troublesome," repeated Shikamaru.

Temari clenched her fist as she got ready to punch him.

"Temari-chan, calm down," said Hinata softly.

Temari continued to glare daggers at Shikamaru, but did as told and calmed herself down.

"We all went to college for one year," said Kiba, going back to the first topic. "Except Neji, he went to college for two years because he's older than us by a year. Same with Sasuke although, he went to college for only one year because he's running a business."

"I think we should hang out sometime," Naruto suddenly mentioned. "Hinata and Neji are cousins...so they shouldn't live far apart. Why don't we all get together sometime?"

"I think that's a good idea!" exclaimed Ino. They all decided to exchange their numbers. "Sakura-chan and Sasuke will come too! Maybe the two can hook up." She let out a high pitch squeal before continuing on, "Is he single?"

"Yeah, but I doubt they will hook up," said Kiba.

"Why?" asked Ino with an arched eye brow.

"He isn't really interested in having a relationship right now," said Kiba.

Ino rolled her eyes, "Puh-lease, do you not see how much fun those two are having out there? If anything- he will have a hard time trying to get her to go out with him! That girl is hard-headed and like I said, she only cares about work at the moment. She won't want to have anything to do with him after tonight."

"Whatever," muttered Kiba, causing Ino to glare at him.

"Can everyone stop arguing?" asked Tenten in annoyance. "Just wait for them to find us and come over here. Then we'll decide what will happen."

--

The song had finally ended and Sakura and Sasuke were just standing together on the dance floor, surrounded by dozens of other people. Their breathing was a bit heavy from the exhaustion that dancing had brought onto them. They were staring each other in the eyes, and Sasuke seemed to be getting lost into her mesmerizing emerald orbs. Sakura also felt like she was getting entranced by his deep, mysterious, onyx eyes.

'What's wrong with me?' wondered Sakura. 'I haven't felt like this in a while. There's just something about him. I don't think it's wise for me to stay around him for so long. He's just too intriguing. I can't afford to befriend him and be close to him. I know for a fact that I'll end up liking him. I'm not ready for another relationship. I knew it was a bad idea to come here.'

"Well, congrats," said Sakura, breaking the small silence. Sasuke was confused, congrats on what? "You're the first to be able to keep up."

Sasuke smirked, "And you were the first to amaze me with your ability to dance."

"I know, I'm good like that," Sakura smiled, "What's your name?"

"Sasuke," answered Sasuke. "Yours?"

"Sakura," replied Sakura. "Well, it was nice meeting you Sasuke. I have to go find my friends now, bye."

For some reason, Sasuke felt quite disappointed that she was leaving. He didn't even know why he felt drawn to her, was it her scent? That suffocated him with the sweet smell of cherries. The way she danced? Her body pressed up against his as she moved to the beat of the song. Her personality? How she playfully challenged him, whether or not he would keep up. Her eyes? The fact that he easily got lost into the beautiful greenness of them. Her sexy body? The nice curves that she had, the smoothness of her skin, and the glow that illuminated from her pale skin. Her unusual pink hair? The softness of her pink locks, and the way it looked so good on her and made her unique. Maybe it was just- everything. He felt like he needed her. He just met her. Why was he feeling this way? What made her so different? He hated feeling confused. When he got out of his thoughts, he was surprised to see her gone. He looked around the dance floor, searching for someone with pink hair.

Sakura had quickly left once she found her friends. She had ran over towards the bar, where they were seated with a group of guys.

"Hey Sakura-chan, this is-"

"We have to go!" said Sakura quickly...almost frantically.

"What?" asked Ino confused. "Why? What's wrong?"

"Yeah, we wanted you to meet some friends we made," said Temari. "They're friends with that guy you were dancing with- Sasuke. Why are you in a rush?"

Sakura looked over at the group of guys and swallowed hard, 'If their friends with him and are now friends with my friends....they might hang out and I'll end up seeing him again. Fuck! No, this cannot happen. I can't see him again.'

"There is some paperwork due tomorrow that I forgot about," Sakura lied. "I really need to go. I'm not sure where they are at the moment which is why I'm in a rush. They are very important documents and I just really need to get home to make sure I have them. If I stay here and converse and just waste my time, I'll be freaking out. I'm sorry- maybe you guys can introduce me to them some other time."

"Sakura," said Ino a big angrily. "You promised that you would forget about your job and only have fun today!"

Ino was now standing in front of Sakura with her hands placed on her hips. She was looking at Sakura with a serious and quite angry look on her face.

"I didn't promise," said Sakura. "And either way- I said that before I knew that I had work due tomorrow. Please, I'm really sorry, but I have to go!"

'She really is fixated on work,' thought Kiba as he watched how frantic the pinkette was getting over not handing in her paperwork on time.

"I guess we'll talk to you guys later," sighed Temari as she got up from the stool.

Sakura sighed in relief as they quickly bid goodbye and left. When Sasuke had finally found her- surprisingly talking to his friends- he made his way over there. He cursed silently at himself when he saw her rush out of the club with her friends close behind.

"Why did she leave?" Sasuke asked once he arrived next to his friends.

"Are you talking about the chick you were dancing with?" asked Kiba, trying to make sure that they were talking about the same person. Sasuke nodded his head. "She said something about important documents that she needed to finish up for work tomorrow."

"Why was she over here?" Sasuke continued to question.

"We sort of became friends with her friends since she is friends with Neji's cousin," answered Naruto.

Sasuke nodded his head in understanding as he sat on the stool and asked the bartender for a beer.

'It's like she intoxicated me or something. Her scent, her body pressed against mine, it just won't leave my mind- she won't leave my mind,' thought Sasuke. 'It's starting to drive me crazy. I just met her and I have only been away from her for about a minute, and already I feel the need to be near her. But, why? I barely know her. Ugh, maybe after a few beers I'll be able to get her off my mind.'

The guys all seemed to notice that something was bothering Sasuke. Something that had to do with Sakura.

"There is definitely something that is bothering you," stated Kiba. "Does it have to do with Sakura?"

Sasuke didn't say anything as they gave him the beer and he started chugging it down and asked for another one.

"Did she do something?" asked Naruto. "Cuz we all know that she definitely has something to do with this. We also know that there's something that is bugging you."

Sasuke had chugged down his second beer and asked for another one.

"Dude, stop with all the beer," said Kiba as he took the glass away from Sasuke, which caused Sasuke to glare at him. But, Kiba remained unfazed as he continued trying to find out what was wrong with Sasuke. "What did she do to you?"

"Nothing," answered Sasuke calmly. "Just a bit worn out from all the dancing. So, what's up with you guys and her little friends?"

Shikamaru noticed that Sasuke was trying to change the subject, but decided that he wouldn't say anything aloud. If he didn't want to tell his best friends what was wrong with him- then obviously he just wasn't ready to tell them about his little dilemma.

"Neji's cousin, Hinata-chan, is really nice!" said Naruto, smiling at the memory of her. "It was kind of hard to hear her though, because the music is really loud and she speaks in a quiet voice."

"She used to be really shy," said Neji. "I guess her change has something to do with her friends."

'That girl....Tenten, she seems quite tough and is really outgoing,' thought Neji. 'She definitely has something to do with Hinata's change from being shy to outgoing.'

"Yeah, they're all really demanding, especially that Ino chick," said Kiba. 'Though she is really pretty. But whatever, she has such a loud mouth and is really bossy for no apparent reason.'

"Temari is just troublesome," muttered Shikamaru. 'But, I'll admit- she is attractive. Yet, she's still too troublesome. With her, I would probably never get to have a decent sleep. She'll probably just attack me or never shut up with all of her complaints and that smart mouth of hers.'

"Guess what Sasuke-teme?" said Naruto. Sasuke looked over at Naruto and waited for him to say something. "Since we got all of their numbers -except for Sakura's- we're going to call them up and ask to hang out. They're all about our age, because Neji said that his cousin is only one year younger than him. That means they're all our age. Well, Temari and Tenten are a year older but, that doesn't make much of a difference. The point is- Sakura is only one year younger than you."

"So?" asked Sasuke.

"So, now you won't seem like a pedophile when you're trying to get with her," smirked Kiba.

Sasuke smirked and shook his head, his friends knew him too well.

--

"Sakura, tell me the truth," demanded Ino as Temari drove towards Sakura's house.

Sakura was sitting on the passenger's seat and Tenten, Hinata, and Ino were sitting in the back seats of the car. They were now about ten blocks away from the club.

"What are you talking about?" asked Sakura, looking out of the window. She noticed the harshness in Ino's voice and the fact that she didn't add the suffix, -chan, at the end of her name like she usually did.

"Cut the crap," said Ino angrily. "Tell us the truth- why were you in such a hurry to leave the club? I know you Sakura- you're lying."

Sakura sighed, there was no use in trying to hide the truth from them now.

"I'm really sorry," apologized Sakura. "It's just- that guy...Sasuke-"

"Did he do something to you?" asked Tenten quickly. "Cuz if he touched you or something, you know damn right that I'll kick his ass!"

"No, no, no!" said Sakura quickly as she turned her head to face them. "It's just that he, I don't know- I felt myself being drawn to him. I didn't want to stay any longer and I don't want to see him again. I know that I may end up liking him and I'm just not ready for a relationship. It just scared me because, I barely know anything about him and already I felt like there was something forming between us. Imagine how much that feeling would have grown if I actually did get to meet him. I just can't do it. I'm sure you guys were starting to like his friends, and I'm sorry for ruining it. I just knew bringing me to a club was a bad idea."

Ino's angered expression faded away as she gave Sakura a small smile, "No, it's okay Sakura-chan. We understand, but you really should learn to give it another chance. Having a boyfriend won't distract you from work. Just give it another chance."

"You really seemed to be enjoying yourself with him," put in Temari, not taking her eyes off the road. "You really should try to get to know him better. It wouldn't hurt, you can't block yourself away from guys forever ya know?"

"I can't do it," repeated Sakura. "Just promise me- you won't try to get me to end up seeing him again."

"What?" asked Tenten incredulously.

"Promise me," said Sakura. "I don't want to see Sasuke ever again. I don't want to have anything to do with him."

"But, why?" asked Hinata. "I fully disagree with your decision! You finally seem to be starting to like a guy, and now you want to push him out of your life after your first meeting with him."

"It doesn't matter if you agree with my decisions or not," said Sakura. "I'm just asking you to keep this promise. Please, after I'm able to get enough money to go back to college- I'll be back to trying to find the right guy. I'll go back to being crazy and having fun. But right now, I just can't. Work is my first priority."

"But, what if he's the one?" asked Tenten. "What if he's the right guy and you're letting him go just because you're too afraid to take any risks?"

"Then I guess I'll have to learn how to deal with this one regret," said Sakura as Temari parked right in front of Sakura's house. "So, do you guys promise?"

They all sighed, not agreeing with what she was doing. She had never felt about a guy this way so soon, without even knowing him. They were sure that he was the one- and they weren't happy with the fact that she was trying to stay away from him. But, they had to promise her, otherwise she might end up avoiding them as well.

"We promise," they all said.

Sakura smiled, "Thanks, and I guess I'll talk to you guys tomorrow. Bye."

They all said bye as she stepped out of the car and made her way into her home.

A/N: Hope you liked the chapter- Please Review!(:

With Love&Care-

-XEmerald Goddess Of The NightX-