Chapter One—Pilot
It was the very height of summer time that found one Haruno Sakura smiling prettily into her bedroom mirror dressed in red and white clothing, a sundress to be exact. She was putting the finishing touches on her ensemble for a party she was attending. For it was July 23, Sasuke's birthday. And she had to be absolutely perfect.
Not that she had anyone to impress, well the birthday boy of course. But knowing him he probably wouldn't give her a second glance, she sighed. Still she had to look her best, even if it was for a sortakinda vain reason. Nonetheless, whether he looked her way or not, she looked pretty.
Nodding at her reflection, Sakura grabbed her present for the young boy and left the room. It was somewhat hard picking out a present for a sixteen year old turning seventeen who acted like he disliked everything but tomatoes. She was about three headaches away from giving him the plant. But with lots of thinking, elbow grease and painkillers, she was able to come up with something she thought he'd like.
A custom made…!
T-shirt that said 'I Heart Tomatoes' and if he didn't like it, well there was also a gift card to Starbucks in the bag as well.
She hoped he liked it but gosh she'd be pretty upset if he didn't. She worked hard on the blasted shirt, even had the bandages on her poor fingers to prove it. But that was beside the point, she guessed.
"Sakura-san, welcome!" Sasuke's mother, Mikoto, greeted the pinkette at the front door with a jovial smile. Sakura returned the gesture as she was ushered inside and towards the backyard where the real party was being held.
"Sasuke-kun! Sakura's here!" she announced. The other patrons looked up from the activities they were engaged in to see her entering. So far the only people there that she recognized were Sasuke's parents, Naruto, their sensei? And the birthday boy himself, of course. Well, she was kind of early.
"Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura called unsurely. He turned to her with a certain kind of mirth hidden beneath his mysterious mask at her questioning call.
"Ah it's nice to see you Sakura." He greeted with a small wave. She nodded hesitantly before moving away to set her gift down on the table. Just what in the world was he doing here, she wondered.
"Sakura-chan!" Ah! And there was Naruto! Sakura slightly backed away from his approaching figure. Naruto had always been a kind soul, if not a bit overbearing at times. And annoying. And loud. And a bit brash, but hey, who's counting faults?
"Man am I glad you're here! This party is so boring!" he exclaimed, slinging an arm around her thin shoulders. Sakura laughed nervously, just itching to sock the guy right in the gut for having the gall to put his arm around her as if they were old drinking buddies or something. The nerve of some people.
"No one's making you stay, idiot." Came the grumbling voice of Sasuke. "Hey Sakura."
"H-Hi Sasuke!" she nearly shrieked. He came out of nowhere! "Hap-Happy Birthday!"
"Aa." He acknowledged her celebration of his birth with a stiff nod and a two second glance at her before turning back to Naruto who, by now, had rested nearly his entire body weight of 175 pounds on Sakura's right side.
"Ugh, I'm dying!" he cried. "Sakura-chan save me!" he clawed at her dress, nearly exposing her.
That was the last straw.
"Get off!" then came the punch. Her fist shook with rage as Naruto recoiled away from her, clutching his stomach as he went. She sighed heavily before righting herself and turning back to Sasuke who was watching Naruto sulk across the yard with a little humor is his dark brooding stare. It was just beautiful to look at.
"So! Uh," she started but froze once his attention was on her.
"Hn?"
"It's uh some nice weather, right?" she laughed nervously.
"Aa." Gosh! Why was it so hard to talk to him? Biting her lip nervously she looked about the party, trying to pick somethinganything she could start a conversation about.
"Kakashi-sensei!" she cried out of nowhere. Sasuke looked at her strangely before she shook off her nerves. "What's he doing here?"
She could've sworn she saw him blush. But a couple blinks and the redness had visibly disappeared.
"No other reason than to annoy me." He replied, sending a silent glare to the silver haired man who, in response to Sasuke's daggers digging into his back, turned to the pair and creased his eyes at them. Sakura laughed lightly while Sasuke narrowed and rolled his eyes.
"Well I think it's nice that he showed up." She said with a smile. She had the whole cute routine going for her. The tiny smile, a little blush, the adorable hand clasp thing and the wind was even blowing a bit. It was simply-
"Sasuke-kun!"
Awful.
"Great." He grumbled. My sentiments exactly, Sakura thought with disdain as none other than Yamanaka Ino came bounding over to them dressed in what Sakura considered to be a sort of clothing meant to attract the attention of men.
"Hey birthday boy," she spoke in a sultry voice, throwing her arms around him and bringing her face uncomfortably close to his, tracing the top of his shirt with her pointer finger. And Sakura was reeling, wringing her hands around her dress as she did so, face nearly as red as her dress.
'How dare that scantily clad, spacing invading PIG just-just come out of nowhere and-and!'
"Why are you wasting your time with fivehead over here when you could be with me?" she asked in a pouty voice. Sasuke pried her freshly tanned arms off of him and stalked to the other end of the yard, thoroughly irritated.
"Ino…" Sakura growled just as he was leaving.
"Well, well, if it isn't Sakura. Trying to look pretty for Sasuke? Ha! As if he would ever look at you." The blonde snorted before swinging her ponytail just for good measure and sauntering away. Oh how that girl infuriated Sakura! And to think that they used to call themselves friends. Ha! Who would ever want to be friends with that, she sneered.
No matter, there was a table of food calling her name. She'd deal with Ino later, but for now she felt it was time to eat. As she was walking she scanned the party to see that quite a few people had filled up the yard since her arrival. Good, she thought. Even though she kind of wanted it to be just her and Sasuke, she was glad more of their friends showed up. She wanted him to have a good party.
Even if he was a tad antisocial.
"Oh Sakura-san!" someone called out to her just as she was about to grab a plate. It turned out that Mikoto was waving at her from the back door, beckoning her to come over. Sakura's brain was telling her to go find out what the older woman needed from her while her stomach was saying, 'Forget her and feed me!'
"Yes?" once inside, Mikoto led Sakura to the kitchen where an unfrosted plain white cake sat on top of the marble counter with a cup of icing sitting next to it.
"I'm about to frost Sasuke-kun's cake and I need your opinion." She beamed and Sakura was surprised. Sasuke's mother. The woman who gave birth to boy she had declared her love for at the age of twelve, was asking for her help. Can you say dream come true?
"You need my opinion?" She asked, utterly stunned.
"Yes. You see, Sasuke-kun doesn't like sweets so it's really hard to make his cake. Could you taste the frosting to make sure it's not too sweet?" she asked sweetly. Man, did she ever have the cute begging routine pegged. Sakura was a bit jealous of how well she pulled it off. So, out of respect for her flawless acting, of course she tasted it.
And resisted the urge to spit it out right afterwards.
"So?" she asked hopefully.
"It's so…bland." She replied with a distasteful frown.
"Perfect! Thank you Sakura-san! Now I just need to—oh! I forgot my piping tools. Could you start frosting until I get back?" she asked. Not giving her the chance to respond, she disappeared to another part of the house leaving Sakura there standing dumbfounded, not knowing the first thing about frosting a cake.
Sure she'd seen her mother do it plenty of times but she'd never actually tried it herself. But Mikoto was trusting her! And so was Sasuke, if only a little bit, and she couldn't let either of them down.
"Right. It's no big deal, just a cake. I can do this!" With that, she took the necessary tools lying around and set to frosting the tasteless dessert until Mikoto returned. It was simple enough, easy to evenly spread it over the top surface. The hard part came in the form of spreading it along the sides. Just as she was getting the hang of it, her elbow (traitorous body part) knocked over a package of flour sitting on the counter. And guess what?
It got all over Sakura's dress. Ain't life grand?
"Oh Sakura!" Cried Mikoto as she rushed in with a basket in her hands. And Sakura wanted to cry because it was her favorite dress and now it was all white instead of red and white and she had embarrassed herself in front of Sasuke's mother and the tears were coming.
"There's a bathroom down the hall for you to wash up in. I'll see if I can find some clothes for you to wear."
And that's where this very hot July day found one Haruno Sakura seated on the edge of the tub in the bathroom of Uchiha Sasuke on his seventeenth birthday. She had taken a paper towel and was trying with all her might to get the flour off without making it any worse than it already was. Sighing angrily, Sakura tossed the paper towel in the trash, deciding to give up and wait for Mikoto to bring her a change of clothes.
"This day couldn't possibly get any worse…" she grumbled, stepping out of the bathroom and right into the chest of someone much taller than her. Repelled backwards upon impact Sakura stumbled a bit before righting herself enough to gaze up at the human blockade who oh Gods when did Sasuke get so tall!
Wait…
"Sas—ah…" she stammered.
"Hm?" a deep voice, much deeper than Sasuke's, hummed in response to her stuttering.
"Sakura-san, I found this for you—oh! Itachi-kun!"
Itachi…kun?
"This is Sakura-san, one of Sasuke's friends from school." She introduced with a smile. "Sakura-san, this is my oldest son, Itachi."
"Nice to meet you Itachi-san." Still redintheface Sakura bowed while Itachi nodded with a small smile.
"Here, I hope this fits ok. It's one of my dresses. Hurry and change, we're going to cut the cake soon, ok? Come on Itachi-kun you can help me." With that, Mikoto pulled her eldest son with her to the kitchen, leaving Sakura to switch clothing and ponder what just happened and when did Sasuke get an older brother?
After closing the door to the bathroom, she just stood there with a dumbfounded look on her face, Mikoto's dress in her hands and noises from the party seeping in through the bathroom window along with a dry wind that swept passed her. So Sasuke had an older brother who looked almost exactly like him aside from the fact that he was just a bit taller.
"Wow,"
The dress fit snug, mostly around the hips which made the pinkette a little self-conscious. If it wasn't her forehead being teased, it was the size of her hips. It's not like they were huge or anything they were just very defined and she guessed defined hips was so last season. Still, there wasn't much she could do about it at this moment.
Sighing at her reflection one last time, Sakura walked out the bathroom and back towards the party. Just as she entered the yard everyone was gathering around the pure white cake with Sasuke standing right next to it with arguably the most annoyed yet pleased look she had ever seen on a human being.
"Start the song!" Naruto shouted.
"Idio-!"
"Happy Birthday to you!"
"Again!"
"Happy Birthday to you!"
"Again!"
"Happy Birthday dear Sasuke!"
"Agai-!"
"Naruto shut up!"
"-Birthday to you!"
Birthday candles, a little blowing, and several glares later Sasuke was ready to open gifts! And Sakura was ready to run and hide! Just what in the hell was she thinking? Making him a shirt? That just screams 'I'm poor and couldn't afford to buy you an actual gift so I made it!' She was panicking on the inside and showing signs of it on the out. Especially after seeing the expensive gift Ino bought.
Even Naruto had a cool gift.
'My life is over.'
"Oh look Sasuke-kun, this one is from Sakura-san." Mikoto handed over the present and Sakura's social death sentence. With each passing second, Sakura's heart was hammering in her chest making her feel as if it were going to burst. She couldn't take it. It was too nerve wracking to watch. So she retreated to the long sought after food table on the other side of the yard.
"Sakura, huh?" he smirked slightly, his eyes scanning the crowd for the pink haired girl. But he frowned when he didn't spot her.
While Sasuke busied himself with tearing through layers of dark colored tissue paper, Sakura was stacking her plate with food. The sound of laughter in the background did nothing to quell her nerves as she finished off her plate with a handful of potato chips.
"Why me…?" she muttered to herself.
"Did you make that shirt?" a deep voice, much deeper than Sasuke's, asked as Sakura planted herself in an open lawn chair.
"Huh? Oh, I-Itachi-san uhm-"
"I haven't seen him really smile like that in a while." He said. And Sakura just stared at him with that 'Oh my gosh, he's talking to me,' look on her face.
"I think you had something do with that." Itachi smiled before taking one of the chips off her plate and walking away.
Looking down at her missing potato chip, Sakura was able to smile. Because despite the fact Ino stole Sasuke's attention, she spilled flour all over her favorite dress, and risked humiliation by giving Sasuke a handmade gift it was a good day and there was a chance, and tiny itty bitty chance that he just may like the little present she spent her time and effort on.
Just a little.
And soon the party came to an end and all of Sasuke's little friends departed with waves and calls and whatnot. That left his two good friend's Sakura and Naruto helping out with the cleanup in their own ways. Naruto was cleaning out the food while Sakura cleaned up her dress.
In the laundry room.
"Stupid flour. Stupid dress. Stupid Ino and her stupid…stupid flour! Ugh!" growling will get you nowhere Sakura!
"You're quite strange, you know that?" there goes that deep voice again. It just kept coming out of nowhere.
"Itachi-san! Eh—I," she gulped, looking down at the open washing machine before throwing her dress inside along with a generous amount of detergent.
"Hmm," he hummed, leaning back against the dryer with his arms crossed over his chest. And Sakura blushed because he just looked so perfect and so beautiful and she was definitely ogling.
"You're in the same class as Sasuke." He stated.
"Yes." She replied in a small quiet voice.
"What do you think of him?" he asked, turning his head to look her dead in the eye.
"What do I think?" she stammered, looking around the small room unsurely as she gathered her thoughts. "Sasuke is…he's really cool and handsome and-"
"No," he stopped her, standing up from the dryer to stand in front of her. And suddenly Itachi was another adjective that he hadn't been before. Scary.
"I asked what you thought of him."
And he got closer. And closer. And even closer. And Sakura just backed up because he was making her uncomfortable and Sakura hated being uncomfortable especially if it was out of her control. And this was definitely out of her control. But she wasn't sure whether she liked it or loved it.
"I-Itachi-san?" she called unsurely.
"Well?" he asked, resting the palm of his hand just inches away from her head up against the wall behind her. Just why was her heart beating so fast? Why was her mouth so dry? Why was it suddenly so ridiculously hot in the once cool air conditioned room? And Gods, why was he smiling an oh-so-sexy smile right in her direction?
"I think-"
"Itachi, what are you doing?"
A/N: Whoohoo! Happy five years! Gosh I can't believe it's actually been this long. Haha I was fourteen and an awful writer. I still don't think I'm all that good but I've definitely improved! Practice makes perfect, right?
Now this is definitely a surprise. Usually when I start a new story the first chapter is very short and stuff. But with this one, I couldn't stop writing. I had to stop myself, haha! But yes! It is here! It has arrived and I love it! Already the suspense is building, it's mounting and it's glorious! Don't you love it?
Sorry for the cliffhanger, though. Yikes, that's pretty nerve wracking, huh? But I'll try my best to make the next chapters just as long. Stay with me on this one. I would love and appreciate any feedback you have to give me!
See you in chapter 2!
Krystal