Give a Little Time
"My mommy told me to give this to the girl I loved, when the time was right, so, here." said a blushing 5 year old, black chicken haired boy, as he held out the bracelet. The small 5 year old, pink hair girl smiled, and took the bracelet to examine it.
It was a delicate, silver chain, with Uchiha crest charms dangling off of it, it had diamonds encrusted on the thin line between the red and white of the fan. The girl smiled and put the bracelet on, but noticed that it would slide right back off, cause her wrist was way too small, so she frowned.
"Here." the boy held out his hand for the bracelet, the little girl put it in his hand as he bent down, then hooked it around her ankle. "Now it's an anklet." the girl smiled again.
"You said that your mommy told you to give it to the girl you loved."
"Yeah?"
"Does that mean that you love me?"
"Why do you think I gave it to you Sakura?" the girl giggled.
"Well then Sasuke-kun, I love you too." they smiled at each other, then kissed each other on the lips, they then stepped away from each other with disgusted faces. "Ew, kisses, I have to go get a cootie shot now!" the girl yelled.
"Me too!" the boy replied, they then ran off to get a cootie shot, but smiled at their silliness the whole time.
This image soon distorted into one of a distant, cold, 12 year old, black chicken haired boy, and a 12 year old, pink haired girl trying to get his attention. He glared at her, bent over and broke the chain off her ankle, and started yelling at her, making her flinch, start crying, and run away from his smug face.
I sat strait up in my bed, panting. A nice flashback had turned into a nightmare. I pulled the blanket off of my feet and looked down at my ankle. The charm bracelet was still there... I sighed, got up and got ready, then headed out the door, and too the bridge.
Like always, Naruto was just standing there, and Sasuke was leaning against the railing.
"Sakura-chan!! Good morning!" I refrained from glaring at him.
"Yeah right." I muttered sarcastically. I saw Sasuke look at me, but I quickly looked away from him, and leaned my elbows on the opposite railing, and looked into the river below. I heard a poof sound out behind me, but didn't flinch, for I was used to this.
"Yo."
"You're late Kakashi-sensei!" I hear Naruto yell like usual, but it was silent afterwords.
"Are you okay Sakura?" Kakashi asked. I sighed, and turned around.
"No, I'm not, what are we doing today?" That dream was really bothering me, I couldn't seem to get it out of my mind.
"Uh, we have a mission, it's a C rank, and we have to escort a boy named Akihiro to the next village, and protect him. He is waiting in front of the Hokage mountain." we all started walking to the mountain, this mission shouldn't take long, approximately 4-5 hours.
When we got there, a boy our age, was standing there, he had spiky black hair, tan skin, and baby blue eyes, he had a cute round face, and a pouting lip, when he saw us, the only person his eyes stayed locked on, was me, and I had no idea why.
"Hello, I'm Kakashi Hatake, the squad leader. This is Naruto Uzumaki."
"How do ya do." Naruto said
"This is Sakura Haruno."
"The pleasure is all mine." I smiled a somewhat fake smile.
"And this is Sasuke Uchiha."
"Hn." typical. The boy walked up to me and grabbed hold of my hand.
"Hello Miss Haruno, I'm Akihiro." he kissed my hand, and I had to refrain from grimacing. I slowly slid my hand out of his, so as not to offend him, and I laughed a little nervously.
"Please, just Sakura." I said as I pulled my hand behind my back and wiped the spot where he kissed on my dress.
"Okay, well, shall we go Sakura-chan?" he held his arm out, ignoring Naruto's furious gaze. I hesitantly looped my arm in his, and we all left on our way...
I was looking down at the ground in sadness, thinking about my dream earlier, was it possible that Sasuke could really be that mean? Would he really rip the bracelet off like that? And be smug that he made me run away crying by his harsh words? I didn't find it so impossible now. We had already escorted Akihiro to the village, with him making me promise to visit, and him promising that he would come visit.
Anyway, we had a run in with bandits, and I was unable to do anything but stand there, Akihiro was being protected by Kakashi, and the supplies and stuff we brought with us, was being protected by Naruto, one of the bandits had chosen to come after me, and Sasuke didn't even give me the chance to protect myself before he came to my rescue. And now, he was still mumbling about weak kunoichi's and uselessness, and I couldn't help but think the dream was a way of telling me I don't deserve to be treated like this.
As we walked past a very familiar stone bench I stopped and stared at it. Two harsh flashbacks ran though my mind; the day we were announced as team 7, and the how cruel he -the actual him- was, then the day he left, which was about a month ago, luckily Naruto was able to bring him back. The answer is yes, he really can be that mean, at least, I believe so. Naruto turned around to look at me.
"What's wrong Sakura?" I didn't reply, all I did was bend down, reach a little ways into my sandal -for it was hidden under the edge of my sandal- and pulled off the bracelet, then I walked up to Sasuke, and waited for him to turn and look at me, once he did, I reached for his hand and pulled it up. His eyebrows furrowed, and he tried to pull his hand out of mine, but I held it firmly, and opened his hand, then dropped the delicate chain in his hand, and spoke softly to him.
"Give it to someone you actually care about, cause that's obviously not me." he brought his shocked eyes back up to mine, but I turned around and started walking back to my house.
"Sakura..." I heard him say as I felt his hand grasp onto my upper arm, but before he actually had a good grip, I pulled my arm out of his hand swiftly and kept walking, ignoring the tears that leaked out of my eyes. What I had believed to be love when I was 5, I now know was a crush back then, but it did actually turn into love, that's what I believe. And all this time, I was fooling myself into thinking that ever since the massacre, he just hid his feelings, and he still loved me, but as it turns out, the joke is on me, he really did get over his love for me, or should I say, the crush he had.
As I lied in bed and fell asleep, more nightmares awaited me... ones that I dare not even think about, cause they were too horrid.
I awoke screaming when his blade had struck my abdomen. And when I saw him sitting there looking at me, I screamed even more and backed myself into the corner of my bed.
"S-Stay away from me." I said fearfully. I saw his eyebrows scrunched up in confusion. He then made his way closer to me, I pulled my legs in, brought my hands up as if to block some attacks, and closed my eyes. When nothing happened I slowly opened my eyes.
"What are you doing?" I heard him speak. I was confused now, I looked down at the stab wound that wasn't there, and sighed in relief, then put a hand to my heart.
"It was just a dream, Sasuke didn't stab you." I reassured myself, totally forgetting said person could hear.
"What?" I snapped my head up to meet his confused and shocked face.
"Oh, Sasuke, uh... What do you need? Why are you in my room?"
"I stabbed you?"
"No, no, of coarse not." I cursed at myself, I am terrible at lying to him. He gave me a oh-really look, I sighed. "Yeah, amongst other things."
"'Amongst other things'?" I nodded.
"Anyway, why are you here, in my room, while I was sleeping, watching me, at night, when my parents aren't here, when you c-"
"I get it Sakura. I came here to-"
"Sakura? Who's in there? I hear another voice!" I heard my mother shout through the door. "I'm coming in!" my eyes widened.
"Get out of here! She'll kill you!! And once she's done, you don't even want to know what my father will do!" I whispered harshly, his expression turned amused. "Leave!!" he was gone in a blink of an eye, just as my mother burst through the door.
"I heard voices." she looked at me suspiciously, then looked at the open window. "Someone was here."
"Nobody was here mom, I only opened the window cause it was too hot in here."
"But I heard-"
"Who... who..."And owl sounded out. I tried to keep the smile of my face, and tried not to laugh.
"Oh... Well... goodnight darling."
"Goodnight mom." my voice was laced with humor. After she walked out, I immediately went back to sleep, but was also wondering what in the world was the point in this odd dream...
After I had reached the bridge, I was not able to look at Sasuke at all, for what had happened yesterday was still in my mind, after so many years of having the bracelet, and loving him, thinking he loved me too, and then suddenly to have that crash down on me like that, was really painful. I mean, how could I have been so stupid and oblivious, I was just deluding myself this whole time! How long will it take for me to get over this? Will I even be able to get over this? I looked around for Naruto and Kakashi, they should be here by now...
"They're probably at the training grounds already." I nodded without looking at him, and headed out on my way. I might have heard him sigh, but thought it was my imagination.
When we got there, I saw that they weren't here, I sighed in exasperation, but soon I was shocked when someones hand grasped my arms and pulled me around to face Sasuke, who had apparently, been the one to grab me.
"What are you doing? Get off-"
"Sakura, stop."
"What do you mean stop? I'm not going to let-" next thing I know his lips silenced mine, but he pulled away before I could respond.
"Now that you're quiet-"
"You did that to-" his hand clapped over my mouth, effectively silencing me.
"I need to talk to you, now please be quiet." I instantly quieted, he must be serious if he said please. "I'm sorry," My eyebrows rose. "I haven't been very grateful for everything you've done," moments of when he would, or could have died had I not been there, flashed through my mind. "I haven't been very nice -actually that's an understatement- and I'm sorry for all that-"
"Sasuke... what's going on, this isn't like you... if you are Naruto..." I threatened.
"Sakura, it's me." I brought my hands up and made the hand-sign to dispel jutsu, but found that it was actually him, I then brought a hand up to his forehead.
"Okay, you don't feel like you have a fever." I knew very simple medical jutsu, so I sent some of my chakra in him to search if he was sick. "I can't find any illnesses, it must be a mental illness. Okay, come on Sasuke, I'm going to take to a place where you can get some help." he narrowed his eyes.
"I'm not sick in any way Sakura."
"Are you sure Sasuke, cause I-"
"Sakura..." He said in a warning voice.
"Okay, okay..."
"Give me your hand." I hesitantly brought my hand up in his, and soon found the same bracelet that I had given to him, on my wrist. "It no longer needs to be an anklet." my eyebrows rose, and after a minute or two, I shook my head, and brought my hand up to take off the bracelet, but he caught my hand.
"Sasuke-"
"Give me some time."
"W-What?"
"Just be patient with me."
"Are you telling me that I should give you time to... love me?"
"Something along those lines..." I smiled slightly and bit my lip to keep my excitement from rising. "By the way, about Akihiro..." I laughed a little.
"That's okay Sasuke, he may be really cute, but he kind of grosses me out."
"Cute?"
"Don't tell me you're jealous Sasuke-kun."
"So now we're back to the -kuns?" I stuck my tongue out at him. "Be careful now, I might take advantage of that." I immediately pulled my tongue in my mouth as he chuckled. "By the way, about what you said last night-"
"Last night? You mean that wasn't a dream?" he chuckled again and shook his head.
"When you said you opened the window cause it was too hot, if you want, I can give you a reason to feel hot." I gasped and my eyes went wide.
"S-Sasuke, I can't believe you-"
"Calm down Sakura, it was a joke." immediately my face scrunched up in anger.
"You jerk! You know what, I'm not going to give you a second chance!" I turned around and was about to stomp off to my house.
"What do you mean you're not going to-" I turned around and smiled at him in humor.
"Calm down Sasuke, it was a joke." his eyebrows rose before he smirked.
"You're going to get it now." I giggled and took of running.
"That's if you can catch me!" he took off running behind me, but every time he would have gotten me, I dodged right or left. "You know," I thought out loud, really really loud. " Now that I think about it, Akihiro was so very cute, maybe even cuter than you!! I think I'll go visit him tomorrow, and-" I suddenly found myself on the ground, with Sasuke staring, or more like glaring at me.
"You want to rethink that decision?"
"Do you want to help me?" suddenly his lips were on mine.
"Is that enough?"
"Maybe." I said mysteriously, his lips were back on mine. "Okay, I'm considering it." he kissed me once again. "Okay, I changed my mind."
"Yeah, I thought you would." I rolled my eyes but suddenly thought of something.
"Hey, where do you think Naruto and Kakashi-sensei were today?"
"They decided to let me talk to you."
"And Naruto agreed?"
"Let's just say Naruto sees things strait now, he wont be seeking your attention anymore."
"What did you do?" he smirked.
"Don't worry about that."
"But-" he kissed me, then he stood up.
"By the way, I saw your photo album last night, and look what I found." he held up a picture of me in a power-puff girl outfit for Halloween, as blossom. I gasped.
"Give that back!" I got up and he started to run, I then followed after him. "That's embarrassing! Give that back!!" Of coarse, I ran after him the rest of the day, but in the end... I still hadn't gotten the picture back, nor did I see that picture ever again. But what I learned over the years, is that if you just give a little time, you might just find that you're glad you did.