Prom was supposed to be the funnest night of Sakura's life. Instead she found it cold and bitter.
Let's see. Dateless, heartbroken, alone. That about sums it up, she thought, sighing as she watched her friends twirl and grind on the floor with their boyfriends.
She should be there with them. She knew it, her ex knew it, her friends knew it. But she couldn't do anything about it now. It's all your fault, Sasuke. If it weren't for you, I'd be happy right now.
Everyone knew it was true, and Karin Yamada was only too happy to be the reason they were apart. In her own world, she was the sole reason. Sasuke chose her over Sakura because she was the better woman.
"Hey," Ino greeted, smiling at Sakura as she sat down with her boyfriend, Shikamaru. "How are things?"
"They suck," Sakura replied, checking her text-messages again. "And now I officially go into hiding."
Karin and Sasuke were dancing so close to her at that moment, that Karin had to put her two-cents in. "Please. You should've gone into hiding a long time ago. Are you just now realizing you're ugly?"
Sakura rolled her eyes and flipped her off. "Have you ever realized no one cares about what you have to say?"
Sasuke cut-in, glaring at Sakura. "Knock it off, you two. Especially you. Sakura, you should know better."
"And you should know better than to cheat, but you still do it," she retorted, standing up. "Doesn't that make you a hypocrite?"
"Hey, Sasuke-kun is not some kind of animal!" Karin defended, making Sasuke wonder how he was stuck with such an idiot.
Sakura merely laughed and looked straight at Sasuke. "So you screwed around behind the valedictorian's back for someone that scored a two hundred on her SATs?" she asked, cocking an eyebrow.
"Hey, I scored a four hundred," Karin announced, proudly. "I did really well on the speech questions. Four hundred points worth."
"Sweetie," Ino started, pursing her lips to keep from laughing. "You get two hundred points for spelling your name right."
Her eyes bugged out and Sakura wondered how someone could be so dumb. "I could've gotten a six hundred if I spelt it Y-a-m-a-d-a instead of Y-a-m-a-t-a?"
Sasuke sighed and rolled his eyes. It figured how karma bit him in the ass.
He and Sakura were going strong, and suddenly he felt it was too strong, too intense. It had been an experiment, cheating on Sakura. He wanted to see if he could feel anywhere near the same intensity with someone else as he did with her.
She caught them mini-golfing, and he talked his way out of a break-up. But when a few dates and Sakura catching them again, she caught him with his tongue down Karin's throat at an ice-cream parlor.
Needless to say, she broke up with him on the spot and ran out of the shop crying her eyes out. He grimaced. Damn. She told me she loved me, and I broke her heart. I never got to tell her I love her, too.
It had been a month before prom, and he quickly got a date with Karin instead, though he still matched Sakura and her dress. A white outfit with platinum accessories that Hinata swore some boy named Yuki bought for Sakura.
She had arrived dateless, and he felt ashamed that he ruined her prom and she was unable to find a date. Especially since he had threatened every man that would've asked her out after the break-up.
He danced a few more songs with Karin, then couldn't stand the loss of so many brain cells in so short a time that he left her. Besides, it had been a month now, and he wanted--needed--Sakura back. Or at least make clear that he loved her.
"Sakura?" he asked. When she looked at him, he extended his hand. "Would you do me the honor of dancing with me?"
She snorted. "If it's an honor, then you don't deserve it."
Low blow, but he deserved it. "Please?" he asked.
She didn't understand why she agreed. Ever since she broke up with him, he was trying to make it up to her and get them back together, but she couldn't just let him back in after her hurt her, betrayed her, and mortified her.
So why did it seem so easy to let him back?
In the middle of their dance, someone tapped on Sakura's shoulder. She turned and groaned. "Yuki, why are you here?"
"The better question is why are you here when you're supposed to be rehearsing right now?" he asked, smiling. "Hey, how are you?"
Sakura hugged the older boy and Sasuke's eyes burned. How dare that dude go near his Sakura? "I'm good. And not going. If anyone else asks, I was abducted by aliens and couldn't make it."
"Nice try, kiddo. I reminded you, your mom reminded you, you promised you would come. Did I need your dad?" he teased.
"I only do what you tell me when Dad orders me to," she replied seriously. "And I made sure he didn't order me not to go to prom. Now if you'll excuse me, I was in the middle of dancing," she replied and started to dance with Sasuke again.
Over his shoulder, he smirked at "Yuki" and brought Sakura closer. "Hey, Sakura, can I talk to you?" Sasuke asked.
"About what?" she asked, hating how with every second she was with Sasuke she was starting to love him again. After she had placed a massive wall between those feelings she once had.
"Us," he whispered, gulping. "I was an idiot. I never should've cheated on you, and I'm sorry."
"If you want me back, you'll need better than a sorry," she replied, glaring.
"Well, that's the thing," Sasuke said, sighing. At least she wasn't completely against the idea. "I want you back, but I have no right to. I mean, this sounds really dumb, but I don't want to hurt you again. And I don't think I deserve to be with you."
Before she could say anything, Yuki was yanking her arm and dragging her towards the stage. "Sorry, kid. I need to borrow Sakura real quick. Sak--you need to change into your costume. Eiri has it for you by the doors."
She rolled her eyes and smiled at Sasuke. "I'm sorry. This'll only take a moment," she said as she was dragged to the exit of the ballroom the prom was being held in. She yanked her arm away and spun on Yuki. "What do you want?" she yelled.
"Sakura, people noticed I'm here. The entire band was here looking for you--we have to sing now."
Sakura's jaw dropped. "Aniki!" she whined.
Yuki shrugged helplessly. "I'm sorry. Is it my fault my baby-sister--"
"Half-sister," she corrected.
"--is such an amazing singer?" he asked, smiling.
Sakura rolled her eyes and rushed to change her outfit. Yuki Haruno was her half-brother and colead-singer of the Moonlight Crusaders. His friend Eiri was the other singer.
She had been singing with them on-and-off since she was twelve, and at the age of seventeen she was now going to start touring and singing in concerts with them. They would be Sakura and the Moonlight Crusaders, and eventually the plan was that she'd be able to break off into her own separate career.
Ten minutes later, Sasuke looked up from his table where he was sitting alone and miserable with his head on his hands. There was Sakura with Moonlight Crusaders--and there was that boy, Yuki!
Suddenly he recognized him as Yuki Haruno, the male lead-singer...and Sakura's half-brother. She had often complained about him, and been happy about him, and told Sasuke wild stories about him.
They hadn't met until she was ten and her parents divorced. She had visited her father, and Yuki was living with their dad.
"Hey, what's up people?" Yuki greeted, drawing the room and a few screams from female prom-goers. "I'm Yuki Haruno, this is my sister, Sakura, and we are Moonlight Crusaders!"
Everyone cheered, and Sasuke took special care to notice Sakura's outfit. It was still her white prom dress made of silk and tulle, with emerald rhinestones and glitter making sakura blossoms on the side. Why had Yuki made such a big deal about changing?
"Now, who wants to hear us sing?" Yuki yelled. The crowd cheered, and Yuki turned to Sakura. "Can I get a little skin, here? Sakura Haruno, singing her first solo-single. Everybody, 'When I Grow Up'!"
When Sasuke turned to Sakura, he gaped as she unzipped her dress and was wearing a silk blood-red strapless dress that ended on her half-thigh, and a giant white strip with a bow in the back.
Next on was "Lollipop" by the men, and then the two Haruno sang "Hot Stuff." If they had ended there, everyone would have been happy. But then they went on to sing "If I Never See You Again," "Heat," "What Have You Done," "4 Minutes," and their latest single, "Immortal."
"Immortal love is breaking the last bond," Sakura finished, hugging her brother and jumping up and down. "Now, in celebration of my seventeenth birthday, on the special day--"
"March 28," Eiri Miyagi added from his mike at the drums.
"I released my first solo album. Which--" she started, looking at Yuki's watch. She smiled and went back to the mike. "--it finally is. I'd like to give you guys the sneak preview. All you guys have been there for me over the years, so now I'm making it up to you. Everyone leaves with a copy of my CD."
Karin had the gall enough to shout out, "What if we don't want your suck-ass CD, or to hear your bitchy-ass singing?"
Sakura shrugged and smiled. "Suffer. Everyone, this is KONJOO NASHI, my solo album, in stores today!"
She was amazing, Sasuke knew. She sang new hits like "Human," "Baby Doll Gone Wrong," "Disturbia," "I Kissed A Girl," "Viva la Vida," and "Scream."
Then she came to a very emotional song. It was called "Blurry." She stopped before she started the song, and smiled. "This was the last song I recorded on the CD. I wrote the lyrics and music all by myself. It's my most-precious song because it's all mine--Eiji and Keiji"--she pointed to the bassist and guitarist--"did nothing to it. So, this is also dedicated."
She breathed and let it out. "This is for you, Sasuke."
He didn't know why he thought it would be romantic. After all, a month ago, he broke her heart. Still, it ripped him in two to know he affected her and her music in such a negative way.
"Everything's so blurry, and everyone's so fake, and everybody's empty, and everything is so messed up, pre-occupied without you, I cannot live at all. My whole world surrounds you, I stumble then I crawl.
"You could be my someone, you could be my scene, you know that I'll protect you, from all of the obscene. I wonder what you're doing, imagine where you are, there's oceans in between us, but that's not very far.
"Can you take it all away, can you take it all away? Well ya shoved it in my face, this pain you gave to me. Can you take it all away, can you take it all away? Well ya shoved it my face.
"Everyone is changing, there's no one left that's real, to make up your own ending, and let me know just how you feel, cause I am lost without you. I cannot live at all, my whole world surrounds you, I stumble then I crawl.
"You could be my someone, you could be my scene, you know that I will save you, from all of the unclean, I wonder what you're doing, I wonder where you are. There's oceans in between us, but that's not very far.
"Can you take it all away, can you take it all away? Well ya shoved it in my face, this pain you gave to me. Can you take it all away, can you take it all away? Well ya shoved it my face.
"Nobody told me what you thought, nobody told me what to say, everyone showed you where to turn, told you when to runaway, nobody told you where to hide, nobody told you what to say, everyone showed you where to turn, showed you when to runaway.
"Can you take it all away, can you take it all away? Well ya shoved it in my face, this pain you gave to me. Can you take it all away, can you take it all away? Well ya shoved it my face.
"This pain you gave to me.
"You take it all, you take it all away...This pain you gave to me, you take it all away. This pain you gave to me, take it all away, this pain you gave to me."
Sakura was shocked to see Sasuke still there after the mini-concert ended, looking miserable in his seat. She took pity on him and sat down. "Hey," she greeted. "Where's Karin?"
He shrugged. "With Suigetsu Fujimoto. I found them making out when I went to the bathroom."
"Sucks, doesn't it?" she asked, sympathizing with him.
He shrugged again. "Not really. I told her, I only needed a date so I didn't look so pathetic. We weren't even going out."
"But you were dating her when you were dating me?" she asked, confused and a bit disgusted."No. I mean...yes and no." He turned to Sakura, and she saw just how miserable he was. "Sakura, I feel so strongly about you. I know why, too. It's because I love you. But it was so scary to me--I didn't want to admit it. So I tried dating Karin to see if it felt the same.
"I felt nothing dating her. Not even a spark," he admitted, placing his arms on Sakura's toned upper arms. "So I figured, what would be the harm? Except I knew it was wrong. I felt sick to my stomach when I started kissing her, whenever I did. It didn't feel right. Because she wasn't you"
He groaned and banged his head on the table. "And then you saw. I swore when I started dating you that I would never put you through that kind of pain. But I did, and I felt like a monster."
"Sasuke--" she started.
"No. I knew it wasn't right. It didn't feel right. I know I don't deserve you, so I'm not even going to bother trying to prove that I do. I can't put you through that pain again."
Sakura started to cry and Sasuke froze. Shit, what did he do? Suddenly he felt a sting on his cheek and heard Sakura's words ring out. "Baka!"
It was like the night he was caught with Karin all over again. She slapped him, and yelled at him, then left him to pick up the broken pieces. He was ready for it, but it never came.
He looked at her, crying and seething. "What makes you think you have the right to chose what's best for me?" she yelled. "I love you, damn it! I love you, Sasuke Uchiha! Why do you think I deserve to be punished for your screwing up?"
"What?" he asked, confused and shocked, but hopeful.
Hopeful of what, he wasn't sure.
"I deserve you," she said, stubbornly, trying to stop the tears. She choked back a wet laugh. "You don't deserve me, but I deserve you. You don't have to prove it, because that's not something you need to prove. And I missed you. When we were apart, I decided, even if you're happy with someone else, I'd support you, because I love you too much. And when you love someone, you're happy when they're happy."
"Sa-Sakura," he stuttered. Suddenly he was kissing her, and she was kissing him back with as much passion. "I am happy. Right now, right here, with you. I've never been as happy in my life as I've been with you. I promise, I'll never cheat again, I'll never leave you. I promise. I love you too much."
"Don't make promises you can't keep," she said.
"Believe me, this will be easy to keep."
She smiled and his heart swelled. Finally, they would have their happily ever after.