Sakura was a romantic through and through. She dreamed of being whisked away by her own Prince Charming or of being saved by a Knight In Shining Armor. She daydreamed about the Perfect Man. She built herself to be the Perfect Woman.

She had pink hair (as pink as traditional cotton candy) and green eyes (as green as, well, grass). She had been voted The Girl Boys Want To Go Out With for three consecutive years in her school (though she'd never been voted as The Girl Boys Want To Have A Relationship With). She was at the top of her batch (most males found her quite intimidating because of that). She could never hurt a fly (she punched Naruto everyday, but she had her reasons; he was stupid and annoying).

She fell in love quite frequently. Three males each month, really. Her feelings, not once, had ever been reciprocated.

But this time, she was dead set on having her feelings returned.

She had finally found the Perfect Man. Her very own Prince Charming.

Uchiha Sasuke was Type AB.

He was gorgeous. Whenever he walked in public places, there was sure to be one woman who'd worship his steps or someone cat-calling. Or someone asking him to go out with him, which was sometimes accompanied by desperate words such as "I'll kill myself if you don't!" Pathetic as it sounded, it was true.

He was smart. He was, after all, the top student in that elite all boys' school which could be found more than a couple of blocks away from the school Sakura was in.

He was rich. He was, after all, Uchiha Sasuke the son of probably one of the richest men in the world. The name Uchiha itself was almost always affiliated with well-known personalities.

He was... gentlemanly. In that coldly polite way. Though he'd only help people who really seemed to need it.

He was Sakura's next, intelligently put, prey.

They had first met (read as, Sakura first saw him) when he made a speech in their school. Sakura had forgotten what it was all about as she was far too busy checking him out.

"My name is Uchiha Sasuke." His voice made Sakura's eyes glazed. He was definitely the perfect man.

"I have been given the task to inform all of the students in this school that our school — which is, approximately, a thirty minute walk from here — will be having a fair..." And it was all bla bla bla. Sakura was sure that she'd be going to that fair though. She'd just have to look over the details once she found an information poster of it.

Oh, she would follow him anywhere!

She was sure that he was The One as never before had she been attracted so much by one person in just a single meeting. It wasn't even a one-on-one meeting! Uchiha Sasuke was someone different, oh she could tell it with her woman's intuition.

Ever since that day, she was hooked on Sasuke.

Naruto yawned.

An hour had passed since he was dismissed from school. He could've been in his house now, sitting on his sofa and eating a nice, steaming bowl of ramen. Instead, here he was on the sidewalk, accompanying his once-upon-a-time crush who was currently stalking her object of obsession.

Really, the things he did for the sake of friendship.

He'd decided that he should at least get a kick out of what he was doing. He should probably fluff Sakura's feathers a bit. That would be somewhat entertaining and time-consuming.

"Hey, Sakura, has anyone told you that you're starting to look like a real woman-lover?" Naruto asked.

Sakura glared at him. "What do you mean by that?" She sounded as if she was accusing him of some unforgivable crime.

"That you're a lesbian, I mean. You know."

"What made you think that?" She was sounding harsher and harsher by the minute. It wasn't as if she was against the idea of lesbians (why should she even care about the way people rolled?), she just didn't swing that way.

Naruto was getting the feeling that he should run away. But he continued anyway. "Well, if you think about it, the guy you're crushing on," he sounded rather sour at this part; he'd never been fond of this Uchiha Sasuke guy, "looks feminine." And, admittedly, looked prettier than most women, including Sakura. "So he might just be a way for you to vent out your female preference." He used air quotes when he'd said female preference.

"Sasu—" she blushed and coughed a bit, "Uchiha-san is not feminine-looking!"

Naruto shrugged. "Whatever you want."

She glared at him one last time before she went back to spying on Sasuke.

Who was now being surrounded by... thugs?! Thugs who were wearing expensive-looking black suits and shades. And they looked like they meant business.

Sasuke was scowling and telling them something.

Sasuke looked helpless! At least that was what was going through Sakura's mind.

"Naruto!" Sakura hissed as she tugged her friend's sleeve. "Look at that!"

Naruto looked at where Sasuke was and then snickered.

"Looks like you'll be the one doing the saving then," Naruto said, a wee bit amused. "And not the other way around."

Sakura glared at him. Then she remembered the situation at hand. Sasuke-kun!

"Go and help me, Naruto," she said, "we'll show those thugs a thing or two."

She stomped her way to where Sasuke and the evil men were with Naruto following behind her, hands on the back of his head.

"Stop it," she said, trying to sound as gruff as she could.

The men in black looked at her, a bit surprised. Sasuke was also looking at her, albeit he looked as if this was an everyday thing.

"What do you want?" one of the men asked.

"What are you going to do with him?" Sakura asked.

"We're taking him."

"Unhand him!"

"Missy, we're not even holding him."

True, true. They were just surrounding him. Sakura flushed as she shouted, "Well, go away from him then!"

Sasuke, amidst that apathetic facade, was probably scared. And Sakura just couldn't let her Prince Charming be scared without doing something about it!

"We can't. We've been given orders to bring him back with us," a man said.

Okay, that was it.

"Let's go, Naruto," she said as she cracked her knuckles. She wasn't a black belt for nothing. (And Naruto was, well, not an almost-yakuza member for nothing.)

In a blink of an eye, the two of them were indulging in a brawl with men far bigger than them. The fight seemed to be in their favor, too.

"What are the two of you doing?" Sasuke said, stressing each word rather meticulously, after a couple of minutes had passed.

Sakura momentarily stopped beating up the beefy man she was clutching by the collar to look at Sasuke. Naruto, who hadn't a decent fight in ages, carried on.

"Saving you, Uchiha-san," she said.

"They're my bodyguards," Sasuke said. "And the two of you are?"

Sakura gaped. Then, when she finally noticed that she was looking very undignified in front of the person she liked to attract the most, she closed her mouth, released her rather hard hold on the man, and dusted her skirt a bit, all of which were done with her sporting a blush.

"I'm Haruno Sakura," she nervously said.

Sasuke nodded. "I do suppose that I still need to thank you. At least you made them incapable of following." He looked at her.

She blushed even more. His gaze was so intense. She fidgeted a bit.

He then turned his back on her and casually walked away.

Sakura could've died on the spot.

She placed her hands on her chest and sighed.

Uchiha Sasuke remained to be the Perfect Man.

Sakura received a letter approximately three days after the accident. It seemed as if Uchiha Fugaku was seeking some compensation from her as she'd beaten up his son's bodyguards. He was asking her to come to his house so that the two of them could negotiate.

This was not the way she'd wanted to meet Sasuke's parents.

They probably thought that she was some sort of unsophisticated woman whom they'd wish would never ever approach their precious son.

She groaned. She was doomed.

"So, um, yes, I'm your new bodyguard," Sakura finished lamely.

She nervously laughed at the end.

"This is outrageous," Sasuke muttered, sounding a bit furious.

He walked out of the room, probably, Sakura thought, to confront his father. She frowned. Did he not like her around?

"I honestly can't believe this," Sasuke said.

He and Sakura were walking to school. Well, to be more exact, Sakura was walking him to school.

Apparently, he was still sour about the whole ordeal.

He glared at her and then said, "You honestly don't need to do this, Haruno. Your school, at least that's what your uniform says, is nearby. If you walked me to school, you'd be wasting your time."

Sakura resisted the urge to swoon. So he cared about her!

"It's really alright, Uchiha-kun!" she said.

He gave her this look that just screamed "Are you alright in the head?" Obviously, the notion of wasting time was something foreign to him.

In order for her to not appear like some sort of lovesick schoolgirl, which she was but that wasn't the point, she added, "It's my job anyway."

"No, it's fine. I won't tell my father," Sasuke said.

He started to walk ahead of her.

She swooned and went to her school like he told her to do.

Uchiha Sasuke really was a nice person underneath that seemingly cold exterior.

"Hey pig! Was that Uchiha Sasuke?!" someone screeched.

With a dreamy look in her eyes and a somewhat goofy grin, Sakura nodded.

"Why was he walking you to school?!"

Then came the long-winded interrogation of Sasuke's fan club.

It would certainly be a long and tiring day for Sakura.

It was raining that afternoon.

Out of the goodness of her heart, Sakura had lent her umbrella to Ino. The girl seemed to need it more than her anyway. She was, after all, meeting up with her father whom she hadn't seen in practically two years.

She didn't get to walk Sasuke back home, but at least she managed to help a friend.

Sakura sighed.

The things she did for friendship.

It seemed as if she would be braving out the rain for a while. Or at least until her parents started looking for her.

Really, of all the days she had to leave her cellphone, it had to be today.

She sighed yet again.

Ino ought to be enjoying her time with her father, or else Sakura would pummel her.

Oh, and Ino ought to give her back her umbrella safely, too. It was the only umbrella she had, and she really wasn't intent on borrowing an umbrella from anyone else in their house. They were all probably using it anyway.

After she sighed yet again and lamented her misfortune, she sat on the nearby bench and decided to study. There was no greater time-consuming activity than studying. Except, of course, Sasuke-sightseeing. But that couldn't be done since there was no Sasuke to ogle.

But, really, it seemed as if she'd thought far too soon.

A couple of minutes had passed when she saw someone standing in front of her. She looked up to ask what he — the shoes were a bit big for a woman's and there was something with the way the person stood that screamed male, oh, and, of course, the thing under the pants — wanted from her. She ended up speechless and staring.

"Haruno," Sasuke said.

"Uchiha-kun!" Sakura said, faintly surprised. "What are you doing here?"

"Picking you up."

Sakura blushed. She could've swooned then and there. She put her book inside her bag and stood up to talk to him in a more proper manner "But you didn't have to! I mean, I'm the one who's supposed to do that. Er, to you." She was stuttering. Could she have made any more of a fool out of herself in front of him?

"It'll be a waste of time."

"Oh." Sasuke really did have issues with wasting time.

"Let's go."

"Okay!" she cheerfully said.

She stepped under his umbrella and blushed a bit as they were so close. Close enough for her to feel warmth radiating off his clothes. Pocket heaters were the best. She just wished that she'd remembered to bring one today.

They began to walk.

"I thought you had an umbrella with you. It was hanging off your bag," Sasuke said nonchalantly.

Sakura nervously laughed. "I'd given it to a friend. She was running late for something."

"You're odd."

"Really?"

"You gave your own umbrella without having an extra one."

"Um, yes. I did." She sounded a bit sheepish there. Perhaps he thought that she was stupid, given his words and the tone that he'd used.

They were quiet for a while until Sakura spoke up again. "I'm disturbing you, aren't I, Uchiha-kun?"

He was the type of person who seemed as if they valued their personal space and alone time. She was probably impeding him from enjoying those aforementioned things.

"Yes, you are," he said.

Sakura winced. Well, she'd anticipated for the answer, but that didn't mean that she was wholly ready to receive it. And in such a blunt manner, too!

"I... I suppose that I should just," she said, breaking off in the middle of her sentence. She opted to let her actions talk; she walked out of the umbrella.

Just when she was about to run for it, Sasuke grabbed her hand and pulled her back under the safety of the umbrella.

"You're odd," he repeated.

She sneezed before she smiled at him. "Thank you."

"What for?" He quirked an eyebrow.

"For sharing your umbrella with me even though you didn't want to."

"My father thinks that I can get kidnapped anytime soon. If you were to get sick and unable to fetch me from our house, I wouldn't put it past him if he was to allow dozens of idiots in suits surround me again. This is why it's a priority for you to be healthy."

"... Oh." She was vaguely disappointed.

"Besides, I don't like dropping off what I've started."

"Oh."

Sasuke scowled. "Is that all you can say?"

"O— I mean no! I, er, that is to say, I just thought that, well, perhaps you wouldn't want me to talk."

"It's unavoidable. You're already talking now."

Sakura pursed her lips.

Sasuke sighed.

"Well, aren't you going to talk? I thought women were talkative," he said.

Sakura blinked. She then looked at him and beamed.

"Of course, of course!" she said. "Anything for Uchiha-kun!" Her eyes widened at what she'd just said. She flushed.

Sasuke quirked an eyebrow. "Talk then."

Sakura stared at him. Had he really not...? She smiled yet again. Whether or not he'd noticed probably wouldn't change anything. After all, she was his temporary bodyguard.

So then, Sakura talked and talked. Every now and then, she would see Sasuke give small nods, signs that he was listening to her.

(In the back of her mind, she thought that she was probably annoying him, but he'd soon grow accustomed to her babbling and her voice. She'd make sure of it.)

"Where should I leave you?" Sasuke asked after a while, interrupting her talking about what went on during her lunch.

Sakura thought, humming a bit as she did. She replied, "At the gate near that bus stop right there." She pointed to said bus stop.

Sasuke nodded.

Sakura remained quiet for the rest of the ten minutes they still had. She relished his presence. She thought about how nice it was having him right beside her.

Soon enough, Sasuke dropped her off the gate of her house.

She bid him good bye and Sasuke started to walk away.

Then she noticed something.

The moment was so right. It felt like it was something from some tragic, romance novel. The part wherein the hero was turning his back on the heroine whom he thought had not an important thing to say to him.

(Except, of course, Sasuke probably didn't care that she had anything to say, but this was something which she conveniently forgot.)

This was the time wherein she'd confess her innermost feelings. It was a do or die thing.

"I... I like you, Uchiha Sasuke!" Sakura said.

Sasuke stopped walking. He looked at her from his shoulder and said, "I noticed. And you're getting drenched." After that, he resumed walking.

Sakura blinked.

Sasuke was a very confusing character.

Was she supposed to take his response as a good one or a bad one?

A smile slowly bloomed on her face.

It seemed as if she would just have to find the answer to that tomorrow.

"See you tomorrow... Sasuke-kun!" Sakura shouted.

She saw Sasuke nod. And she thought that she was probably one of the happiest people alive in the world.

Sakura still ended up catching a bit of a cold the next morning.

Comments/crit would be very, very appreciated.

(I'm, er, very much new to, uh, the prospect of liking this pairing.)