Read My Mind

A/N: Another addition to Naoko Askikaga-Uchiha's collection of SasuSaku oneshots. This time, I'm not writing this as a songfic, but just a simple story. I base this fic on The Killers song, "Read My Mind". I don't think the story fits in with the lyrics of the song…maybe because I don't understand it. XD It's just based on the title, so enjoy.

Sasuke walked slowly down the semi-empty streets of Konoha on a mild, winter day. No snow has been falling in the past few weeks, although most Academy students are still hoping for white flakes to fall out of the sky. It was slightly cold, though Sasuke felt no shiver down his spine or anywhere else in his body. He had no apparent reason for this long exercise…just thinking about whatever's on his mind, I guess.

He continued walking, when he saw an old man sitting on the side of a building, drinking some king of drink from a bottle in a paper bag, and laughing by himself. He wore baggy, dirty clothes, like a hobo. He also had gray and white hair sticking out of a faded black cap. His scruffy beard and mustache covered his yellow snaggletooth. "Heya…kid…why don't ya come over here."

Sasuke looked up, finally, after staring at the ground for so long. "What do you want, old man?"

The old, probably homeless man, Sasuke thought, gestured him to come closer to him, and Sasuke obeyed. He stood about a foot away from him, and the old man again motioned for him to come down closer.

"You seem lonely," the old man observed. "Do you have…someone special to you?"

Sasuke blinked, and his head moved slightly toward the ground again. "My team…Naruto and Sakura…I must always protect them with my life if they're in danger."

"What about family? Anybody related to you that has a special feeling in your heart?"

Sasuke's fists clenched and he said nothing.

"Do you wish to read the minds of those that are special to you? You look like a man that needs a special woman by your side," the old man stated.

"I work alone."

"Here," he said, holding up the paper bag roughly shaping the bottle inside it. "Drink…it will make you feel better."

Sasuke shook his head. "I don't drink things from people I hardly know."

"Drink," the old man firmly said. "It's not poison, I swear…you can trust an old, dying geezer like me."

Sasuke still refused, being that he was always suspicious with people like the old man. Suddenly, he felt some kind of force, physically and mentally, to drink whatever was in the bottle in the brown paper bag. He tried fighting it, but couldn't. Sasuke grasped the bag with two hands, and sipped a small amount of the watery, fruit like-flavored drink with some kind of mystery ingredient, which made Sasuke slightly dizzy. He then gave it back to the old man's possession.

"The affect will only last throughout the day…so use it wisely. If you need anything, I'll be here," he gruffly said, drinking the mystery substance.

"What did I just drink?!" Sasuke demanded to know. He clenched his fists, threatening to beat the elder up if he didn't say what kind of drink he sipped. The old man just laughed and laughed.

"It's not about the drink, young one," the guy suddenly wisely said, clutching the paper bag, "It's about your thoughts…and that girl…."

"What are you talking about?!" Sasuke cried. He ran at him, about to grab his neck, but then the old man surprisingly jumped up so high, like a ninja, and faded in the clouds covering the sun. You could hear his laugh muffled within those clouds. Sasuke looked up, and he could no longer see the man anymore. He then shoved his hands in his pockets, held his head down yet again, and continued his endless-looking walk down the roads of Konoha.

-Meanwhile-

Sakura, being oddly quiet today, swung silently on the wooden swing hung from a tree branch. This tree happened to be near the Academy, where everyone was before they became Genin. She swung slowly without a sound but the creak of the wood moving to and fro. She faced away from the Academy, and looked down at her feet, which moved the swing ever so slowly.

"Why do I feel so alone today? Shouldn't I feel lonely all the time? Especially when Sasuke won't ever talk to me…." Sakura thought glumly. She frowned, when she unexpectedly heard footsteps coming her way. She happened to see Sasuke walking very slowly on the street. Sakura gasped quietly, so he wouldn't hear her.

"I can't act lonesome around him…he needs to notice my true colors!" Sakura thought again.

"SASUKE NEEDS TO OPEN UP, OR I'LL OPEN HIM UP FOR HIM!!!" Inner Sakura inputted.

"Hey! Sasuke!" Sakura shouted, getting up from the swing. Sasuke looked up, and saw his pink-haired teammate waving at him. Again, he felt the force that he felt before when he was urged to drink that mystery liquid from that was in possession of the old man sitting on the street. The urge now was to move forward and say hi to Sakura. Having no choice but to follow the uncontrollable force, Sasuke walked toward Sakura, and attempted to smile.

"OH MY GOD! HE'S COMING TOWARD ME! I KNEW HE WOULD COME TO HIS SENSES, CHA!!!!" Inner Sakura screamed inside. Sakura lit up like a light bulb with a large grin on her face.

"Hi," Sasuke flatly greeted. "What's up?"

"What's up?'" Sakura thought. "What the hell is going on with Sasuke? It's like he's being possessed or something…"

"I'm…feeling strange today," Sasuke, again, flatly stated. "It's like…I want to open up my feelings to somebody."

Sakura stared at Sasuke, who was still looking at his feet, making very little eye contact. She raised one eyebrow, and put her hands on her hips, just trying to think what's gotten into the guy.

"Wait, didn't I say that….?" Sakura thought.

"YEAH!!! IT'S ABOUT TIME SASUKE WOULD DO THIS!!!! Hmm…maybe he'd take me out to a snack or something," Inner Sakura shouted yet again. Sakura continued to stare at Sasuke, who made very few moves.

"Do you…" Sasuke word vomited, "Want to go eat something?"

"What's going on? I didn't mean to say that…geez, was it that drink the old man gave me?" Sasuke wondered himself.

Sakura, at this point, became extremely puzzled with Sasuke's question to go out to eat. "Can he read my mind…? Nah, can't be. There's no such thing, unless you're in battle! It's not a special power! Hey…speaking of food, I wonder if he'd treat me at Ichiraku's Ramen Shop…"

"Sure," Sakura finally answered out loud. "Where do you want to go?"

Sasuke couldn't think of a good eating place for Sakura and himself to go to. The first thing that came to mind was, for some reason, Naruto eating a bowl of ramen. "How about at Ichiraku's?"

Sakura nodded. "That's fine…."

"Maybe he can read my mind," Sakura finally thought. The two of them then walked slowly to Ichiraku's Ramen Shop. "To put this to the test…I feel like eating miso ramen with a little bit of cayenne pepper."

"HELL YEAH!!!!!" Inner Sakura excitedly stated. "SASUKE WILL BE MINE BY THE END OF THIS DAY!!!"

---------------

About ten minutes later, they arrived at the small shop. The two sat down right next to each other, and Ayame asked for their order.

Sasuke felt more word vomit coming out, and said, "One plain ramen and one miso ramen with some cayenne pepper."

"Yup…he probably sure can read my mind…he probably doesn't even know it," Sakura thought.

"I-I'm sorry," Sasuke surprisingly apologized. "I didn't know what you want, and I should've asked you…"

Sakura half-smiled. "Don't worry about it. Cayenne pepper would do just fine for me, especially when I'm feeling like I want some spicy food in my stomach."

Sasuke turned away from Sakura's face, and looked down on the table. "It's probably that drink for sure…Sakura must think I'm crazy."

"CHA! SASUKE'S ACTING CRAZY AS EVER AND I LOVE IT!!! HE ACTUALLY NOTICES ME!!!" Inner Sakura cheered. Sakura smiled to herself, although slightly worried about Sasuke and why he's actually trying to treat her to lunch. Not necessarily a snack, but lunch.

Ayame served the ramen to the two if-you-can-call-them friends, and they began eating the tasty noodles. Sasuke, feeling very curious about what Sakura's going to say, he asked, "Do you think I'm acting crazy right now? You know…just finally talking to you?"

Sakura choked on the noodle she was trying to eat, and managed to recover and swallow. She didn't plan to say anything about his strange and unusual gift until after lunch. The kunoichi responded, "I find it crazy, yes…but why now, Sasuke? Did something happen to you?"

"I-" Sasuke stopped what he said. He didn't want her knowing that some kind of magic drink from an old bum on the street would make him very woozy, spit out words he never intended to say, and make himself actually talk to some kind of fan girl that liked him ever since the Academy days. What kind of person would believe that crap? Sakura was too smart to believe this kind of thing. "It's nothing, really…I just feel…dizzy, that's all."

"Oh," Sakura disappointedly said. "Is that it?"

"Yeah."

"CHA! HE IS SO LYING! I SO THINK SASUKE WILL PLANT A BIG ONE ON ME BY THE END OF THIS DAY!" Inner Sakura excitedly thought, but Sakura didn't want to get too excited, or it might disappoint her again.

The two finished their ramen, and Sasuke paid Ayame. The two then walked slowly to where they saw each other, which was by the tree with the swing in front of the Ninja Academy. The two then stood face to face, almost nose to nose. Sasuke felt that force attempting to get him closer and closer to Sakura, while he didn't want to. He tried fighting it again, but he couldn't stop it.

"What's going on with me?!?!?!? I don't want to-"
Sasuke's thought stopped when his lips landed on Sakura's. His eyes were then forced shut, while Sakura's remained open.

"Oh…my….goodness…" Sakura just thought. "This is too surreal."

Sasuke finally backed away when Sakura did at the same time. "Sasuke…I have something to ask you."

The dizziness from the drink started to wear off from Sasuke, and he felt less tense around Sakura. "Yeah, what is it?"

"Can you read my mind?"

Sasuke stared blankly at Sakura.

"When you walked over here, I thought that you were finally going to open up to me, and you said that you wanted to open up more. I was thinking that you were going to treat me to lunch, and you asked me. You ordered exactly what I wanted at the place where I thought we were going to eat. I also thought after lunch that you would kiss me….and you did. Sasuke, I'm not lying. I thought of all those things, and you put it all into actions and words. Can you really read my mind?"

After hearing this, the Uchiha looked at Sakura's bright green eyes, showing that she wasn't lying about a word she said. It seems that he can't lie to her, either. After all, why would she think that he could read her mind, out of all people?

"No," Sasuke truthfully answered, adding sincerity in his tone of voice. "I can't read minds at all. Earlier today, I found a man on the side of the street drinking some kind of drink that made me feel dizzy. I was forced to do things I haven't done before, including buying you lunch. But…I have to admit…kissing you was one of my thoughts too in the back of my head."

Sakura smiled, trying not to say "Oh" about the whole "I can't read your mind" thing. She hugged him tightly, and Sasuke, not feeling any kind of force acting upon him anymore, grabbed hold of her too.

"Sakura…why is it that I can't ever speak to girls?" Sasuke randomly asked. This question wasn't answered, for more clouds began to cover the sky, and snow began to fall. Soon enough, Konoha was covered in a thin blanket of snow.

"It's what I wanted," Sakura said softly. "It finally snowed."

"Did you want it to snow when we first kissed?" Sasuke questioned.

Sakura smiled again at Sasuke. "Yes."

------------------

The next day, Sasuke ran back to the old man at the same spot he was sitting. Sure enough, he kept on laughing by himself and drinking that unnamed drink in a paper bag.

"Old man!" Sasuke pointed. The old man looked up at the boy. "You need to tell me what that drink was!"

"Oh, so you finally somewhat admitted to that girl that you liked her," he answered.

"ANSWER ME!" Sasuke impatiently shouted.

"Don't get so jumpy over some cheap bar drink!" The old man stood up, holding his arms up with the drink one hand.

"Wait…bar drink?" Sasuke asked, now confused.

"Yes, a bar drink! It's nothing but some beer, guava juice, and strawberries in a bottle I found on the street! What, you want some more?" The old man gestured to Sasuke, holding the drink toward his face. Sasuke shook his head.

"I thought that drink made me possessed and kissed the one I didn't even know I had feelings for," Sasuke stated. The old man, as usual, laughed with a light gurgle in his throat.

"You got it all wrong, boy. I just gave some to you yesterday because it looked like you were feeling down! You honestly think some 200 yen drink would give you magical powers?"

"Uhh…no," Sasuke lied.

"What the hell was I thinking? It's the drink…." Sasuke thought, rubbing his head.

"Well, sorry for making you feel drunk yesterday!" The old man apologized. "Gotta run…it's getting cold here!"

Sasuke waved, while the old man walked the opposite direction of where Sasuke was going. He then turned around, saying, "Hey old man-"

He was stopped when he didn't see him anymore. He knew that he couldn't walk that fast, being that the street didn't end until 20 meters away, though Sasuke could hear that laugh around him.

"Where did he go?" Sasuke thought.

"If you're wondering where I am…" the old man's echoing and fading voice said around Sasuke, "You'll never see me again!"

"Could he have read my mind?" Sasuke randomly said to himself.

END

A/N: Well, what do you think of it? Review please! I accept any kind, and I'm not like those people who are going to flame you back if you flame me. It's your opinion, and I'd like your input.

Much love,

Naoko