Girl Talk

Sakura sighed and sat back into the hot water. It had been a hard day, with lots of training and she was very exhausted, so the hot springs were just the perfect place to relax. She sighed again, much happier this time and let her thoughts wander. A few moments later they arrived at her favourite theme: Sasuke. No matter how hard she tried to forget the raven-haired boy, or even hate him, she never succeeded. No matter how often he had rejected her, she still loved him with all her heart and missed him so much it hurt. But he had been gone for such a long now Sakura started to doubt she would ever see him again. "What if he really won't come back?", she thought, "what if...?".

Suddenly, her thoughts were interrupted by a girl's voice behind her: 'Oh, sorry, I didn't know someone was in here. I think I better go now and come back later'. Sakura turned around to see who it was: 'Oh, it's you, Hinata. No, no, I don't mind if you stay.' Hinata smiled and stepped into the water and soon they were sitting beside each other and enjoying the warmth.

'Sakura?'

'Hmmm?'

'Can I ask you something?'

'Yeah, sure, go on.'

'Have you... Have you ever been in love?'

'What?' Sakura blushed.

'Sorry, I know that's a stupid question, never mind'

'No, it's ok, I'm just surprised, that's all. But why do you ask?'

Now it was Hinata's turn to blush 'Well, you know, I... uhhh...'

'It's Naruto, isn't it?'

Hinata blushed even deeper 'Y-yes. Is that so obvious?'

'Well, you always blush when you're around him, you start acting nervous, among many other things, so yeah, it's pretty obvious'

'Does he know?'

'I don't think so. He's a little... you know...'

Hinata giggled 'Yeah, I know what you mean. But I still... I still l-love him.' She was smiling now 'He is brave and strong, but also very cute and cheerful, even though he lost his parents when he still was a baby. Every time I see him my heart seems to skip a beat and then continue about ten times faster, and I feel incredibly warm inside. There's nothing I could do to change that, not that I wanted to, anyway. I hope that one day there will be a place for me in his heart. '

'Oh, I believe there already is.'

'You really think so? Thank you'

Then they were both silent. Sakura was glad that Hinata seemed to have forgotten her question, because she really didn't feel like talking about Sasuke. She thought about the things Hinata said, and she realized that her words almost perfectly described how she felt about Sasuke. But there was something else: An immense sadness she tried to keep under control by just blinding it out, but which overwhelmed her from time to time, just like right now. She felt a single tear running down her face and she hoped that Hinata didn't notice. She didn't want to cry in front of her, because that would make her feel weak and that was the last thing she wanted.

When the Hyuuga girl left about half an hour later Sakura just sat there and looked at the stars above. Then she started crying uncontrollably.