Reading Between the Lines
Chapter 1: The Break-up
Sleepless eyes pierced through the night, settling finally on the lithe form of a familiar female with her arm around a not-so familiar man. The holder of the eyes rises, downing the last of his goblet of Merlot in a single swallow. He follows the female, his female, back to her home, glaring daggers at the unfamiliar man the entire way. The female and soon-to-be-suffering male parted with a hug, and the man disappeared in the blink of an eye, dirt swirling a bit where he had been standing but a moment before.
The female walks into her home ignorantly, not noticing the man behind her until she is inside with the door closed securely behind her, the scent of his liquor-filled breath pervading her senses. She quickly backs away from him, knowing how he gets when angry, and sure enough he starts screaming at her about the man she walked home with.
"You're my girlfriend and you have no respect for me? Do you think I am dumb enough for you to cheat on me without my noticing?! Who is that man? He's not even a shinobi! You are sinking low enough to cheat on me with a common villager! I never want to see you with him again! You even had the nerve to start getting intimate with him right in front of me! You know what—" he yelled, but was cut off by the opening of the door.
"What is going on in here? Everyone is complaining about the noise," said the female's neighbor, a kind man in his late twenties named Rei. Rei's eyes narrowed as he noticed how close the other man was to his female neighbor and how his hand was raised as if to strike her. Rei appeared quickly behind the man and restrained him fast, dragging the man away from his neighbor.
"Not this time, Sasuke. I am done with pretending not to notice all of the yelling and how horribly you treat her," Rei hissed as he pulled open the door.
"Well that is good for you," Sasuke began, raising his voice to complete his sentence, "because I am sick of you anyway, our relationship is over, you can go rot in hell, you son-of-a—"
Rei slammed the door closed before Sasuke could finish what he was saying.
"I suggest you get out of my sight before I choose to revert to my better judgment and tell Tsunade-sama of your behavior, I am certain that she would not approve of how you have been treating Sakura. However, if I ever see you anywhere close to her home again, I will not hesitate. It is only out of respect to Sakura that I am not reporting you yet, so leave now," Rei said stiffly, as his speech always fell back to what Sakura called "boring lawyer mode" when he was experiencing a heavy emotion. At this instant, he had a murderous intent that any one of his neighbors could feel, whether they were an experienced shinobi or not, so the formality was to be expected.
Rei let out his breath slowly once the Uchiha faded from sight and he walked back to Sakura's house and knocked on the door.
The lock clicked open and Rei soon saw Sakura's face poking out from between the doorframe and the door itself.
"Sakura, would you like to talk with me about it?" Rei asked, not needing to specify what "it" was since "it" just happened. His voice was still in "boring lawyer mode," but that is what happens when you switch from being the best divorce lawyer in all of Fire Country to being a shinobi, and then go and get angry because Uchiha Sasuke is verbally abusing your best friend.
"Maybe tomorrow, Rei-senpai, but I need some alone time for now," the weary pink-haired maiden replied.
"Okay," Rei said, following that statement with a half-hearted mumbling of something that sounded like "How many times have I told you not to call me '-senpai,' I not that much older than you… you are a much better kunoichi than I am a shinobi… stop calling me '-senpai'"
And for some reason, Rei's mumbles made Sakura smile as she said, "Fine, Rei-chan," and slammed her door shut before he could reply. The smile slipped off of Sakura's face once the door closed and she slid into her favorite chair. She put her head in her hands as Sasuke's yells echoed through it, wondering if it was wrong of her to walk home with the boy and give him a hug. Was that against the common courtesy stated in the rules of dating? No, she'd seen Kiba give hugs to Hinata all the time and Naruto never seemed to care. So why was it so wrong for Sakura to give a hug to her friend? The boy was way too young for Sakura anyway, he was only twelve. Sakura supposed that Rei was right; Rei always said that Sasuke was a control freak, that he wasn't worth her time.
Sakura should not have ever agreed to start dating Sasuke, she knew that she felt nothing for him anymore, but she had felt that the feelings would return if they began to date again. They never did. In fact, Sakura began to think less and less of Sasuke to the point where she would have preferred dating Lee to dating Sasuke. Sakura smiled a little at the thought of the hopeless Blue Beast, who was now dating Tenten. Who would have thought that the two would be so perfect for each other? But that thought only made Sakura feel worse, as she felt she had failed Sasuke by disappointing him so much. She knew she hadn't done a thing wrong, but she couldn't bear hurting him, she still cared about him, just not in a romantic way.
She knew that moping would not be productive for anyone though, so Sakura slipped on a pair of shoes and walked outside, quickly returning inside to pick up her coat, as she had forgotten that it was 3:00 in the morning. Her feet subconsciously found the familiar path to the lake that she had visited when she was little. She sat down on the bank and took off her shoes, sinking her feet into the frigid water and laid back, closing her eyes, only to open them a few minutes later as someone sat down beside her.
Sakura bolted upright, fearing that the person was Sasuke, but she soon relaxed as she noticed the abnormally long hair of her new companion. It was Hyuuga Neji.
"Hello Neji-san," Sakura greeted.
"Good morning Sakura-san."
Sorry that it is an angst-y and somewhat boring beginning, but I felt that this was the right way to start this story off.
Please leave a review if you can and I hope to see you next chapter. Until then, here is a lame joke to entertain you: "I see," said the blind man as he picked up his hammer and saw.