Ignorance is Bliss

Chapter 1: Snuffles and her laundry

Finally. The coast was clear. She hoped.

Sakura had been pressed up against her room door for the past 2 hours, just waiting for all signs of life to die down so she could run down to the laundry room. She'd needed to put her dirty knickers in like a week ago, but she'd been fluey for the past few days and so hadn't wanted to step foot outside her dorm room, not with the hellspawn that was Karin Uzumaki waiting outside to laugh at her snotty nose, and not with the chance of bumping into her (recent) ex Itachi. As Ino had pointed out, when you next see your ex after splitting up, it is literally a one hundred percent requirement to look good, otherwise you have failed at life completely and they have won. Sakura narrowed her eyes, recalling the words Itachi had said to her on the day he had dumped her. 'We're just too different. I think you need to mature, and I wouldn't want to hold you back from doing that.' Bloody Itachi. Holier than thou Itachi. Tears sprang into Sakura's eyes and she immediately shook her head, trying to make them go away. They hadn't even been together that long, only 6 months. She hadn't even met his family. Though since they'd broken up Sakura had begun to worry that was because she was embarrassing.

No. The girl steeled herself against these familiar emotions and self-doubts. This was not the time. She needed her strength for this. Whether snotty or not, Sakura Haruno was going to take her dirty laundry down to the shared laundry room at 2am in the morning and she was going to do it with pride!

Nodding silently to herself, Sakura yanked up her basket of dirty clothes and slowly edged open her door. She peered out, one large green eye gazing into the dimly lit abyss of the corridor. It was clear, as she had suspected. Usually everyone was out by 2am, or in, depending on the people. Sakura was doing medicine and so constantly had exams, meaning she was basically always in.

The girl stepped into the corridor fully, holding her laundry basket like a shield in front of her chest. She began making her way down. It was two flights of stairs. She'd get down there without anyone seeing her, right? The girl made a silent prayer to whoever was above her that this was the case. She was already known as the weird nerd girl that managed to bag Itachi Uchiha, she didn't need to be known as the weird nerd girl that managed to bag Itachi Uchiha who crept around at 2am while looking like a half goblin monster.

These thoughts in mind, Sakura began her descent down the steps. The occasional bout of laughter or drunken yelling could be heard from outside, but, for the most part, the building was quiet, and so the Haruno made it all the way to the bottom without encountering another soul. Feeling a bit more confident, she lowered the basket slightly and headed for the laundry room. For the whole building there were two laundry rooms, both of them shared by both sexes. Sakura wasn't completely embarrassed about doing her laundry in front of guys, but it wasn't something she exactly sought out. Not that she'd really have to worry about the issue of anybody being in the laundry room this time round she mused to herself. It was 2am, no one was going to be in there.

She pushed the door open with her back before attempting to walk in backwards. This move however ended up quite literally putting her on the back foot as one of her large pink slippers somehow managed to bend upwards, causing her to crash, in quite the undignified manner, into the room. She would have probably fallen completely to the floor if she hadn't managed to slam her laundry basket loudly onto a nearby washing machine, making the whole room echo with the clatter of plastic meeting plastic.

Eyes wide, the girl took a moment to breathe. Thank God no one was in the room to have witnessed that whole catastrophe. Why was she such a klutz!? What patient would let her come near them with a scalpel?

"Hey,"

Sakura froze. Pin pricks of doom running their way up and down her back and all over her arms.

"Are you ok?"

She wasn't alone. Somebody had seen the whole thing. Somebody had just witnessed a snotty goblin girl come crashing into the laundry room at 2am at night.

And she was the snotty goblin girl!

Feeling her dwindling headache take on a resurgence, Sakura turned stiffly, a taut smile on her face. All she had to do was assure the person she was alright, maybe make a light joke of it, and then she could go back to work and in about half an hour finally have fresh knickers to wear.

Yeah. That was the plan. That would have worked. If the person asking if she was ok hadn't turned out to be a gorgeous creation of art work brought to life.

"Ah…buh…" Words had no meaning anymore. What were words? What was going on? Why was there an angel in the laundry room at 2am? Nobody was meant to be in the laundry room at 2am, not even regular people. Sakura brought her hand up to her forehead, checking half-heartedly to see if she had a fever and was just imagining it. But no, there he was, a boy she had never met before, with a face so beautiful even the most stoic of men would cry at the impossibility, and her first encounter with him was crashing into the laundry room at 2am while looking like Dracula had just finished sucking out all her blood. Fine. This was fine.

Deep onyx eyes framed by long lashes peered at her in both confusion and concern. "What?"

Sakura couldn't answer. She just stared back at him dumbly.

There was a moment of silence. The boy's washing machine rumbled quietly. Sakura just stared, and then he quirked an eyebrow.

"Well, ok the-"

"I'M FINE!"

Crap. Silence once again descended as the male in front of her recoiled slightly, obviously a tad alarmed by Sakura's yelled affirmation. He quickly recovered however, and obviously despite himself, a small smirk made its way onto his face.

"Hn." He nodded his head. "Well, that's good." Then he turned back to watch his washing.

Sakura didn't move, continuing to simply stare at him, though a trickle of despair did begin to pour down the inside of her body like some sort of morose treacle. This beautiful boy was more interested in watching his laundry go round and round than pay attention to her, goblin that she was. Oh God, maybe Karin had been right, maybe Itachi had been a once in a life time thing that was never going to be equall-

"Is putting colours in with whites really bad?"

Sakura's head snapped up and she looked over at the boy again. He had a slightly concerned look on his face, his hands on his hips as he regarded his washing. After a few moments of silence, he cocked his head to look at her, apparently awaiting an answer.

Sakura, eyes wide, stood straighter. "Um, not one hundred percent of the time," she replied. She turned to regard her own laundry, considering whether she should start putting it into the washing machine while he was in the room. It was mainly knickers after all. God, what would Ino tell her to do? She narrowed her eyes slightly. Oh she knew what Ino would suggest. She'd say to just brazenly whip out the sexiest knickers and, very obviously, put them into the washing machine, bending down lewdly as she did so. Sakura pulled another face as she regarded her sad bunch of clothes. But she didn't own any sexy knickers…She tried to surreptitiously glance over at the boy, only to see he was still looking at her, seemingly thinking she had not finished. "Oh, uh. Just, sometimes they do and sometimes they don't. Did you look at the tags on the coloured things you put in? Sometimes it says that they run."

The beautiful angel pulled a slight face, his eyes flickering to the washing machine. "…no." He answered after a short while.

"And did you put it on hot or cold?" Sakura asked.

The boy stared at her for a few moments before pointing at the washing machine setting he'd put it on. Sakura advanced forwards and looked for a few moments. He'd put on regular heat. It was basically up to the washing machine gods to decide now.

"That's warm," she said, looking up and tucking a piece of unbrushed candy pink hair behind her ear. "It's really kind of hit and miss. I couldn't give you a solid answer."

"Ah," he nodded, looking sombrely down at his machine before glancing back up at her. "My name's Sasuke by the way."

"Sakura." Sakura introduced, trying to smile casually as her heart beat a million miles a minute. "I…I haven't seen you around here before…"

"Around the laundry room at 2am?" Sasuke checked, and when Sakura glanced over at him, he smiled slightly. "No, I agree, it's weird I haven't seen you around before."

"What do you study?" Sakura enquired.

"Maths. You?"

"Medicine. I only moved here last year, from another dorm building," the Haruno paused, thinking of how most of last year was spent at Itachi's place. "I tend to spend a lot of time in my room studying," she glanced down at her laundry again. "And I've been ill recently."

"I can tell."

Sakura look up at him, slightly taken aback.

"Uh, sorry." He tucked his hands into the pockets of his black jeans and glanced off to the side. "Just, cuz you sound like you have a cold."

Sakura scoffed slightly. "And I look like a goblin woman, you can say it." She glanced once again at her laundry.

Sasuke let out a small chuckle. "I don't know whether I'd use those words uh…ever, actually."

Sakura laughed a little too. "Well, they're accurate," she toyed with a piece of clothing in her laundry basket. "I wouldn't blame you."

Sasuke's eyes moved down to what she was touching in the basket. Sakura absentmindly brought her eyes down too, only to half screech when she realised she was basically caressing her ugliest pair of knickers.

"I…I NEED TO PUT THIS IN THERE!" She yelped and then grabbed the basket, slamming it to the ground and whipping open the washing machine door. She began hastily shoving things inside, hoping against hope she wasn't going to throw something in Sasuke's general direction.

Minutes began trickling by as Sakura pushed more and more knickers into the washing machine. How long had she owned this many!? There seemed to be an unlimited supply. Wait a minute. Sakura narrowed her eyes as she stopped and examined the lacy black thong she was now holding in her hands. Ino! This was not the first time the blonde had sneakily deposited her washing into Sakura's. The girl glanced up at Sasuke only to see he was very deliberately looking anywhere but at her hands, his mouth pulled into a slight pout.

"Th…"

Sasuke looked down at her as she went to speak.

"These aren't…they aren't m-" Sakura was cut off however when the door slammed open and a very drunk blond boy came careering in.

"SASUKE! I'VE BEEN SLAMMING INTO EVERY DOOR I COULD AND THIS IS THE FIRST ONE THAT OPENED!"

Sasuke's face immediately dropped. Sakura glanced round to look at the new entrée. He was clearly in their year, with huge blue eyes under a blonde fringe. Sakura had a vague feeling she'd met him somewhere before, but she couldn't be sure. Apparently however, the new boy remembered quite clearly where he'd seen her before.

"Hey!" He pointed at Sakura, his eyes narrowed slightly as he tried to focus properly through his drunken haze. "You're Ino's best friend right!? I slept round yours the other week!"

Sakura peered up at him and then her face stiffened. "Oh right," she agreed. "You're the guy that fell asleep on our kitchen table and then ate all of the potato salad in the fridge."

"Dobe." Sasuke muttered quietly, dragging one of his hands down his face.

Sasuke's friend, however, did not seem ashamed of this memory, rather he seemed excited that Sakura remembered him at all. "Yeah, yeah!" He nodded enthusiastically. "You remember me!? You're…Sakura, right? I'm Naruto Uzumaki!" He stuck his hand out for Sakura to shake.

Dumping Ino's thong back into the basket, Sakura placed her hand in his, only to wince as the boy levered it up and down excitedly, nearly wrenching her limb out of the socket.

"You're way prettier than I remember Sakura!" He exclaimed, releasing her hand and standing back to grin at her. "Thanks for letting me eat all your potato salad!" He then looked over at Sasuke, while Sakura pinkened at the compliment. "Sasuke!" He pointed at him, pouting. "You just abandoned our Mario Kart race! Was it because I was winning!? Dattebayo!"

Sakura turned to look at Sasuke who was looking exasperated as he replied. "No, you spilled ketchup all down my hoodie remember? And you weren't winning. I was."

Naruto paused, his finger drooping slightly. "Really?" He brought his hand back and scratched the back of his head, beginning to laugh. "Oh, well, all well! Anyway, I came down here to tell you that Kiba texted to ask if we want to go out!?"

Sasuke pulled a face and then glanced at his laundry again. Then his eyes moved to Sakura. The girl's own eyes widening as he looked at her thoughtfully.

"How about it?" He asked. "I know you're ill, but we could just go to a bar or something, if you like?"

Naruto looked from Sasuke to Sakura and then back again, and then a huge grin spread across his face. "Did I interrupt something?" He asked, his voice hiding barely concealed glee.

"You interrupted laundry." Sasuke returned dryly, before moving his gaze back to Sakura who was now staring up at him like a rabbit caught in headlights.

"I…I'm not dressed,"

"We'd wait for you!" Naruto exclaimed.

"You don't even know me,"

"I've stayed round your room!" Naruto disagreed. "And you and Sasuke have clearly met!" He grinned cheekily again.

"But I…I need to do my laundry…"

"Nonsense!" Naruto moved forward and grabbed up Sakura's basket, quickly dumping the whole thing into the washing machine. He snatched the communal washing powder off the top of the machine, dumped far too much in, slammed the compartment shut and then pressed a few buttons. "See!? Done!"

Sakura stared at him, open mouthed. Sasuke let out a sigh.

"I was going to say you didn't have to come if you didn't want," he cocked his head as Sakura looked up at him, shutting her mouth. "But it'd be cool to get to know you more," he glanced off to the side after holding her gaze for a few moments. "Maybe."

Naruto leant down next to Sakura. "That's Sasuke code for 'he thinks you're cute'." He informed in a stage whisper.

"Dobe!" Sasuke hissed, bristling, a slight pink hint on his cheeks.

Sakura, herself, after hearing these words, went the same colour as her tomato coloured pyjamas. A smile stretched across her face. "Really?" She hung her head slightly and trailed her finger across her empty laundry basket. "Well, I mean…I'd like to come," she glanced up at Sasuke, her eyes half hidden under her fringe. "If you'd really like me to."

"OK!" Naruto yelled, nearly deafening Sakura, who pulled away from him and shot Sasuke a look, the boy returning it with a defeated look of his own. "THEN LET'S GO!"

"Idiot," Sasuke sighed. "I need to wait for my laundry first."

"And I need to get ready," Sakura got to her feet and then looked at both of the boys inquisitively. "Where shall I meet you?"

Suddenly the door slammed open and a group of angry tired looking students in pyjamas became apparent.

"Do you want to shut up!?" Demanded one particularly angry looking brunette girl, aiming the comment at Naruto, who had swung round drunkenly.

"Are you the guy who was slamming on all of our doors yelling for Sasuke?" Added a moody looking boy, his long brown hair messy.

Naruto grinned. "Yeah, I-Seeya!" He suddenly bounded out of the room, pushing past the group of students and sprinting down the hallway.

The mob turned to look at Sakura and Sasuke. The pair shrugged in unison, signifying they were as bewildered by the situation as them.

"He's an idiot." Sasuke eventually offered.

The students began grumbling and then began making their ways back down the hallway, leaving Sakura and Sasuke to look at each other. The boy rolled his eyes and Sakura giggled, going pink again.

Sasuke smiled slightly. "What floor's your room on? We can meet you outside your room if you like? Walk down together?"

Sakura blushed an even deeper shade of pink and then nodded. "S…sure. I'm room 28 on the third floor."

Sasuke nodded. "See you in a bit."

Sakura gnawed on her bottom lip and then turned. "Yeah," she agreed. Her heart almost hurting it was beating so fast. "See you in a bit." She opened the door and stepped out, letting it close behind her. She almost wanted to slide down the wall. What was going on? Sasuke was one of the best looking guys she'd ever met, and he was nice on top of it? And he'd just asked if she wanted to hang out even while she looked like a pupating goblin larvae!? The whole situation was so unprecedented that Sakura was half inclined to think it was staged. She started up the stairs, grinning the whole way. Maybe she was going to enjoy this term afterall.

Around half an hour later, Sakura was dressed and ready and standing inside her living room, staring at the front door to her room, being far too eager but not caring. She'd had a shower, tied her hair into two piggytails. She'd managed to find a cute black dress and had grabbed a large pink cardigan to put over the top. Now she waited, her legs, clad in black cotton tights, squeezed together.

A knock.

Sakura waited a few moments, counting to twenty in her head. She was eager, but she didn't want Sasuke to know how eager. She'd had to employ this tactic when she'd been going out with Itachi. She'd quickly realised that hot guys found it kind of weird if you ripped open doors mere fractions of seconds after they'd knocked.

Once she'd hit twenty, she opened the door and peered out. Sasuke stood in the hallway, hands in his pockets. He'd changed too she noticed. Replacing his hoodie with a blazer over a white t-shirt.

"Hey," he looked her up and down. "You look nice."

Sakura blazed red. "So…so do you," she complimented. "Really nice."

The pair of them held each other's gaze for a few moments, a thousand wants and impulses flashing between them, but then Sakura stepped out of the room properly, closing the door behind her. No matter how much she wanted to jump Sasuke (a lot), she'd only just met him and while she had no problem with other girls having one night stands or having sex on the first time of meetings (Ino did this often), it just wasn't something she was cut out for.

Sasuke looked down the corridor. "Let's go find that dobe and head out."

Sakura nodded, and then the pair began down the corridor, heading for the stairs.

"I want to go to a club!"

This was the third time Naruto had exclaimed this. Sasuke, Sakura, Naruto, and Naruto's friends, Kiba, Shikamaru and Temari had been in a bar for the last few hours, all of them enjoying themselves as they chatted and joked. Naruto however, was so drunk that he didn't seem to be capable of proper human conversation anymore. He was currently dancing next to the group's booth, his face glum, which contrasted hilariously with his enthusiastic dancing.

"Naruto, you bonehead, for the last time, we're not going to a club. And you're too drunk anyway," Kiba, who was also extraordinarily drunk, snatched up his drink off the table, glugged it down and then wiped his chin aggressively. "You'd never get in!"

Naruto pointed at Kiba, incorporating the move into his dance. "I would too!"

Kiba however wasn't paying attention to Naruto as he was looking over the boy's head at a girl at the bar. Sakura followed his eye line and recognised the person as Hinata Hyuga, she'd stayed at the same building as Sakura last year. She was very sweet and very shy if Sakura remembered correctly.

"I bet if we both went to get into a club then you'd get rejected and I'd be told to go in becau-"

"He's not listening to you dobe." Sasuke interjected.

Naruto turned to look at his friend, who was sitting next to Sakura, his arm over the back of the seat. Sakura nodded in the direction that Kiba had shot off in, namely towards Hinata.

"What's he doing?" The Uzumaki slurred.

"I think he's gone to talk to Hinata." Sakura offered.

"Lucky girl if talking is all that Kiba's planning." Temari added in dryly.

"What a drag," Shikamaru sighed, looking up at the ceiling. "Well I'm not going after him if he starts humping her leg."

"Sometimes it is such an annoyance hanging out with team man whore." Temari muttered. She reached out and pinched Shikamaru's cheek. The boy shot up, rubbing the spot she'd grabbed.

"Ow." He complained.

"Team…man whore?" Sakura tried, her gaze flicking to Sasuke.

"Kiba and Naruto," the boy quickly muttered, apparently realising where her thoughts were going. "I've actually only recently got out of a…something."

Sakura quirked an eyebrow. "A 'something'?"

Sasuke shrugged, looking down at his drink. "I don't know whether you could call it a relationship," he glanced up at Sakura, raising his eyebrows. "Did you just silently accuse me of being in team man whore?"

Sakura put a finger to her chin and giggled. "You know what? I think I may have."

Sasuke smirked. "Hn. Not my thing."

They looked over at Kiba and Naruto, both of whom were now over at the bar with a startled looking Hinata, both of them seemingly trying to put the moves on.

"So what was her name?" Sakura asked, aiming the question at Sasuke, but keeping her eyes on Kiba and Naruto.

Sasuke sighed. "Tayuya. She lives in our building. It was a short thing." He grabbed his drink and took a sip, keeping his eyes on her face.

"So I'm not encroaching on anyone's territory or anything?" Sakura turned to look at him, reaching out to fiddle with her drink.

Sasuke cocked his head. "What do you mean?"

Sakura glanced over at Shikamaru and Temari, but the pair were not paying attention, as they chatted (or rather complained) about something together. The Haruno moved closer to Sasuke, looking up at him.

"Only, ok," she glanced down. "You're kind of out of my league don't you think? I'm just trying to make sure you're not using me as a rebound after being with a really hot girl or something…" God. Great. She'd just come across as an amazing insecure loser. Why was she so crap at dealing with boys? This was part of why Itachi had broken up with her. Sakura was very intelligent, and she wasn't completely socially inept, but when it came to boys, she was always second guessing herself, a product of being bullied about her looks when she was a lot younger. Sasuke still hadn't answered her, so she looked up. His brows were pulled together.

"You think I'm out of your league?" He questioned, genuinely sounding confused. He leant forward, his voice dropping in volume. "Do you not know how beautiful you are?" And then he pressed his lips to hers, his hands coming up to hold her jaw either side.

Sakura went dizzy, her eyes closing as she felt his thumbs stroke under her ears. She kissed back, her arms coming up to be around the boy's neck.

"HOW COME SASUKE'S GETTING SOME AND I'M NOT!?"

Sakura and Sasuke drew apart, Sasuke glowering. They both turned to see that Naruto and Kiba were drunkenly swaying in front of their booth, Hinata nowhere in sight.

"Dobe." Sasuke's head dropped and he pinched his brow. "I think it's time we go home."

"Another beer first!" Kiba called.

Sasuke slid out of the booth, leaving his phone and drink on the table. "How about water instead?" He moved over to the two boys, beginning to push them towards the bar. He looked over his shoulder at Sakura and smiled. The girl smiled back, feeling breathless. As Sasuke returned to his duty of dealing with team man whore, Sakura glanced down at the table, barely able to conceal her glee. She'd just kissed the cutest guy she'd ever met, and she hadn't even been single that long! CHA! Take that Karin, who's the loser now!?

Sasuke's phone on the table buzzed, Sakura just managing to hear it over the Barry Manilow ballad that the bar was currently blasting in an apparent attempt to make the drunken students still in it leave. Absentmindly, she glanced down at it. And her heart froze.

Sasuke, mum's asking whether you're coming home this weekend or the next. Hope university's treating you well.

The text was sent by Itachi Uchiha.

Itachi was Sasuke's brother?

Sakura stared at it. Her eyes wide. Her heart splintering.

She looked up at the bar, Sasuke was still there, trying to stop Kiba and Naruto from stealing a fellow patron's jaeger bombs.

She had to leave.

Grabbing her stuff, she began shuffling out of the booth.

"Hey Sakura, you're leaving?"

Sakura turned to look at Temari.

"Uh, y…yeah. It was nice meeting you." She squeaked, bowing her head slightly.

"You're not gonna wait for Sasuke?" Shikamaru questioned, raising his eyebrows.

"I've…I've…" Sakura's eyes darted around, trying to come up with a good explanation. "I've just got my period!"

Shikamaru pulled his head back slightly and shared a look with Temari. Sakura didn't wait to see their reaction. Panicking, she ran from the bar, 'Mandy' by Barry Manilow following her out.

End of Chapter 1