Ever since he returned, Uchiha Sasuke had been painfully aware of the fact that the little pink creature he once used to call a teammate was not the same as before. Strong and bossy, confident and independent, hot and aware of it, she was nothing like the weak thirteen year old fan-girl he had left behind.
Which was good, of course.
Although the two of them were not teammates anymore, they were now both ANBU; inevitably, they ended up being paired for missions every now and then, and he had to admit, it was nice knowing that he could actually focus on the task at hand, and not on her getting hurt, that he could rely on her like he should have always been able to do.
But her change—just like everything in the world—had a bad part to it, as well. And that bad part was mostly represented by her behavior towards him—because, well… she ignored him now. Not in the 'I-don't-want-to-see-you-I-don't-want-to-hear-you-I-don't-want-to-speak-with-you' kind of way, but that was irrelevant.
She ignored him and that was that.
She usually refused to make an appearance at Team Seven's weekly training sessions—apparently, she was too busy for them—and times when she willingly hung out with him were rare, too rare to be considered normal. Not only that, but whenever he managed to land himself into the hospital, she did not attend to him personally—he knew for a fact she did that with Naruto.
Hell, she barely even talked to him! Save for the occasional hello when they happened to meet, and the small discussions they always had when planning a mission, no other words were exchanged between them.
Years ago, he would have thanked every religious entity he knew for this type of behavior. Now, for some reason not even he could understand, it bothered him—a whole damn lot.
Which was the reason why he found himself, on a particularly sunny autumn day, strolling through the white halls of Konoha's General Hospital, heading towards her office. He needed to talk to her. He was unsure of what he wanted to tell her, but one thing was clear to him: this situation needed to be solved—the sooner, the better.
When he finally arrived at his destination, however, he realized that the pinkette was not alone.
"So, I decided he wasn't really worth it—and I broke up with him."
Sasuke would recognize that loud, high-pitched voice anywhere—and that was not a good thing.
"Don't you think you're changing them too often?" the calm, melodic voice that he now heard so rarely responded, and it didn't take him long to realize what was going on.
Sakura was chatting with Ino—about boys, from the sounds of it. Sasuke—being a man—had always considered this type of conversations to be stupid and useless. (He told himself that that had nothing to do with the fact that he considered any type of conversation to be useless.) But the simple fact that this particular one involved the enigma Sakura had become instantly lulled him in.
And so, Uchiha Sasuke began to eavesdrop—err, listen to what the girls were saying. Just to, you know, keep in touch with the world around him. Seeing as he didn't go out very often.
"At least I have them!" he heard Ino exclaim. "I mean, not that you don't have guys running after you, because hell, you have an entire fan-club! And yet, for some reason I cannot understand, you have never, ever gone out on a date with any of them! I mean, come on! Some of them aren't hard to look at—at all!"
"I'm a busy person, Ino," the pinkette replied calmly, as calculated as ever. "I don't have time for dates and whatnot."
"Correction: you don't have time for anything."
It was the very first time Sasuke found himself agreeing with the loud-mouthed blonde, and he was not proud at all to admit it.
"Whatever," she answered with a soft sigh, obviously giving up.
"It's not 'whatever'! It's not that simple!" her friend exclaimed, sounding near hysterics. "What is wrong with you?" A small pause ensued, which—Sasuke figured—gave both of the girls some time to contemplate the subject of their conversation. "Do you still love Sasuke, or what?"
This time, the pinkette's answer was instantaneous. "What? Of course not!" she said. Was it only him, or did she seem offended by the blonde's question? "I never loved him, in the first place."
"Oh, really?" Ino responded, a sarcastic edge to her voice.
"Really," she confirmed, and the Uchiha could almost see her rolling her eyes. "I had a crush on him, true. But I was thirteen at that time—my mind wasn't really functioning properly."
"And what about that time when you returned from your mission? You know, that one—when you guys tried to get him back, but didn't manage to."
A resigned sigh resounded from the inside, one that he recognized as belonging to Sakura. "What about it?" she asked.
"You were pretty down, so the girls and I took you to a club, remember? You got drunk and told us some very interesting details about your mission. The majority of them focused on Sasuke's six-pack. And do I need to remind you? You were sixteen back then."
"Oh, shut up," the pinkette chided softly. "That doesn't prove anything. Any other girl would have done the same, had she been in my place. He was one hot piece of meat and you know it."
Any ill feelings he might have had with regard to being the subject of their conversation vanished as soon as he heard those words, and so did the ones that concerned his sudden lack of manners—his choice of listening to their conversation uninvited. Because nowadays, there was just no other way he could ever receive such precious information from Sakura.
Yes, precious—that was the word. The pinkette could ignore him all she wanted, but if she still thought he was hot, she would eventually give in and turn back into her old, fan-girlish self.
And given the fact that he unreasonably missed seeing her blush every time he walked by, the Uchiha decided to do something that would hurry that process. He decided to let her know what an interesting conversation he had just heard.
So he patiently waited until Ino was forcefully kicked out of her office, before making an appearance himself, posture straight and a broad smirk on his features.
Sakura turned around at the sound her the door closing—seeing as her blonde friend always took care of slamming it—and raised an eyebrow when her eyes fell on the Uchiha, unsure of both the reason why he was there, and why he looked like he had just won the damn lottery. She didn't voice any of those questions, though; she knew they wouldn't be answered.
"Sasuke," she greeted shortly, before promptly turning her attention back to the papers spread out on her desk, appearing to be uninterested in his presence. "What brings you here?"
"I just wanted to congratulate you," he stated simply, moving closer until he closed in on her; with her back to his chest, she could feel his hot breath fanning against her ear as he spoke. "For someone who still thinks I'm "one hot piece of meat," you hold off pretty well."
The pinkette stiffened at his words, shock coursing through her veins. She soon regained her composure, though—at lease outwardly—and turned around to face him.
"Why, Sasuke," she stated after a few moments of silence, not sounding affected in the least, "I didn't know you were in the habit of eavesdropping."
The Uchiha simply shrugged. "There's a first time for everything," he answered.
"Oh, yes," she agreed with a nod. "And since you're still a beginner in this domain, maybe you should take up on my advice: always make sure you've analyzed each and every single word, each and every possible meaning, each and every small, seemingly insignificant detail, before you even think of using whatever you've heard as blackmail material—or anything else, for that matter. Always," she emphasized.
Sasuke raised an eyebrow, which caused her to let out a heavy sigh.
"Pay attention to the verbal tense, you idiot," she said, rolling her eyes. "You were one hot piece of meat. Now…" she trailed off as her eyes ranked up and down his body, "…not so much." And with that final statement, she pushed him out of the way and left the room, leaving him to gape at the wall before him for as long as he wanted.
That was the exact moment when he realized that winning her back would not be as easy as he had thought.
If that was what he was trying to do, that is.
A/N: Written for SasuSaku Month. A confused Sasuke and a witty Sakura always make a good couple, don't they? Haha!
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