.:Loud:.
She was loud, he thought. No, he knew it. Everyone knew it. Who couldn't, anyway, when she yelled all the damn time? It was annoying. More annoying than Naruto sometimes, even.
...Okay, so nothing could top the number one loudest ninja at being loud and annoying, but she came pretty close. Many times.
He found himself attracted to her somehow, still. Maybe it was the way she walked with an unmistakable air of confidence. Perhaps it was that she was stronger than any other young kunoichi combined. Or the way her hair glowed when the sun hit it just right. He found himself wondering what it would feel like to run his hands through that hair.
Or it could be the way she glanced at him almost seductively from across the road, but still managed to act as if she were ignoring him. He wouldn't be surprised if it were all his imagination, after all. She's loud; why would she not say anything if she felt something for him. Even if she were playing with him, one would think that she'd say something.
In fact, he realized, that they hadn't said a single word to each other since they fought years ago. Why, then? Why should he notice her now? After so much time, how had the tables turned? When he looked back, she did act like the others then with a crush on him.
Even a blind man could tell that she was gorgeous, with an exotic air around her. He would even admit that Sakura, who still annoyed him to this day, was beautiful. (He wasn't blind.) But she couldn't hold a candle to the girl--no, woman--from Suna.
He'd tried to say something to her before. 'Did you know you're beautiful?' didn't seem quite him. Who would have known he'd be shy? To be perfectly honest, he had about as much confidence in this sort of thing as Naruto had brains, which he swore was none.
'Swallow your pride,' he'd told himself. 'Just tell her you like her and get it over with.'
This was stupid. He knew it. How could the great Uchiha Sasuke be choked up over a blonde sand bitch anyway?
With a mental slap and a gulp, he approached her. "Yo," he said, voice calm as if he were greeting anyone else. Then he froze. Now what?
She looked up from her seat at a picnic table, hands still running along the length of her fan, cleaning it carefully. Those eyes brilliantly shining in the evening light. "Yes?" she asked, appearing to him as calm as he was desperately trying to be.
"I just wanted to tell you..." His voice trailed off. This was crazy, and he was backing out. His pride wouldn't allow him to either give up or go through with it. To finish that sentence would be to admit weakness, and backing out would hold the same fate.
As the old men say, he was, mentally, stuck between a rock and a hard place. Which was the rock, and was the hard place? It didn't matter.
"I just wanted to tell you that you have a goofy face when you clean that thing." Disaster averted, he hoped. He turned and almost power walked stiffly away, but stopped short when he heard her voice.
"You should know since you always watch me when I'm in town." He could feel her satisfied smirk.
Shit.
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I do not own Naruto or any of the characters associated with it. I do, however, own some keychains, but I fear that they do not count. v.v
