Sakura bit into her thumbnail, for the umpteenth time that day, leaving it reddened and raw. Today was the day she would tell Sasuke about her feelings for him, and she was quite apprehensive. She had been planning it for a few weeks actually, so it was no surprise that she was nervous. Valentines Day was the day when a lot of girls would confess their feelings to the boys they liked. Sasuke was her classmate, and she really liked him. Her feelings for him were about the strongest feelings that any twelve year old girl could muster up inside of herself. Needless to say, Sasuke, being the class heart-throb, had been asked out more than once. He always turned the girls down. The girls loved him, the guys hated him. It seemed obvious to Sakura that he was holding out for that special person, and in her mind, that special person was her. In every other girl's mind, however, that special person was them. She was going to tell him today, after lunch and give him a small bag of cookies that she had made with her mom.

"S-Sasuke-kun?" She questioned while innocently approaching him from behind. Sasuke always ate alone, and then when he was done, he sat alone as well. He barely turned to face her, and it was quite unnerving. She clutched the small bag behind her back, and scratched her calve with her foot. He waited for her to speak again, although preferably in a coherent sentence. "Sasuke-kun," she beckoned with slightly more confidence.

"Hn?" he gave as a reply. This made Sakura's heart flutter, the very action of him speaking to her awoke her inner fan-girl. She smiled sweetly towards the boy in front of her, and fixed her gaze upon his feet. She might not have been able to make eye-contact, but she could at least look at him.

"S-Sasuke-kun..." She choked out again, quickly becoming frustrated with herself as her nerves got the better of her again. This time Sasuke merely cocked an eyebrow in response, he was quickly becoming unamused with the bumbling little girl before him.

"I..." She managed to force out. Oh! This was not going the way she had planned, she wanted to confess her feelings and hear him accept them. She would never get those three words out if she didn't stand her ground. She took a moment and summoned her courage, it would be now or never for her. She personally wanted now, because she could never have lived with the never.

"I love you!" she proclaimed to him loudly, her red hair ribbons flapping in the spring breeze. There was a pause between them, and Sasuke eyed her up and down. Sakura swallowed hard, she felt as if she was being scrutinized under a magnifying glass. Then, he simply turned around, stood up, and walked away. Sakura's blatant courage quickly faded away, and she was left with feelings of confusion, embarrassment, and hurt. How was she supposed to know if he reciprocated with her feelings, unless he told her? Had he accepted her confession or not? She was willing to place money on "not".

Quickly, she brushed away any tears that had swelled to the surface of her eyes. She had to maintain her composure, and not let anyone see her cry. At least, not until she was in private. In a split second, Sakura was on her way towards the girls bathroom. Sakura's face was flushed, and her eyes were growing more obviously watery as the moments passed by. Her usual cheerful smile was long gone, replaced with an awful frown and feelings of inferiority. Every few seconds or so she had to reach up to her soft features, and wipe away each tear as it made its way down her cheek. How could Sasuke do this to her? She had practically given up her best friend for him. Her face turned sour as the though of Ino rejoicing in her failure bubbled up into her mind. Ino wouldn't be that insensitive, though she would take pride in "winning" their competition for Sasuke even though Ino hadn't even made a move.

Sakura continued to run to the safety of the girl's bathroom, while silently suppressing the urges to cry, that were growing ever more dominant. This had really been a blow to her already low self-esteem, she bit her lower lip, surprised that she had actually just admitted that to herself. How could Sasuke be so cruel? What happened to that cute, lonely boy that always ate alone during lunch? Sakura wanted to be there for him, but it seemed to her that he wanted to be alone. Inside, she wasn't actually half-surprised. Why would she be so special, there were a lot of other girls that liked him.

Sakura's feet had finally stopped stomping on the dirt ground that surrounded the school, and began padding through the linoleum tile flooring leaving a "click-clack" in her wake. She nearly ran over two students while running through the halls, which was clearly against school policy, but, this was an emergency. She was sure that she could get away with it. She threw the door to the girls bathroom open, and darted into a stall freeing those tears that had threatened to spill all over the dirty ground earlier that day. She silenced her sobs as she heard someone else enter the bathroom, and make their way into a stall as well. She could hear someone collapse, and then loud sobs come through the thin walls in between each stall. She recognized the voice of the person who was crying, and she quickly wiped her own eyes to help a friend.

"Wh-who's th-there?" Sakura heard come from the other girl as she hopped down from her seat on the toilet. The other girl gasped as Sakura opened the stall and proceeded to hug her. Hinata could see Sakura's big puffy eyes, red nose, and flushed face. "S-Sakura, etto...w-were you crying a-as well?" She choked out. Sakura nodded quietly in response, with slight bewilderment that it was Hinata in here crying. She had no reason to cry had she? Boy trouble perhaps, for Hinata too?

"S-Sasuke, he..." Sakura said, while re-living the incident quickly, sorrow knitted in her brows. Nothing else was needed to be said. Hinata knew how Sasuke was, and about how often he turned girls down, it was ridiculous. He had obviously done the same thing to Sakura, in his own cold and heartless manner.

"Oh Sakura-san," Hinata started, immediately embarrassed that she had been caught in a moment of weakness. "I'm s-sorry if I w-worried you, I-I'm just fine, please do not w-waste y-your time concerning y-yourself with m-me" Poor Hinata, as shy and polite as always, even if it was completely obvious that she was in pain.

"Now what kind of friend would I be, if I did that?" Sakura asked kindly, while her jade green eyes peered into Hinata's lavender ones. Hinata looked down, a little taken back that Sakura was being so kind to her. "Do you want to talk about it, we could tell each other what happened to us," she offered. Hinata looked up, back into Sakura's eyes.

"O-Okay," she answered back. Without the strength to muster up her own courage to go first, she motioned to Sakura to start. Sakura shook her head no, it was okay if Hinata went first because she already knew the jist of what happened to Sakura. "W-Well..." she said with furrowed brows, remembering the events that happened earlier that day.

"T-Today, b-because it w-was V-Valentines Day, I...I" she stopped, and Sakura gave her a look of encouragement.

"You don't have to be nervous in front of me, Hinata-chan," Hinata seemed to grow more comfortable from those words, "And for goodness sakes, stop that god forsaken stuttering," Sakura added playfully. Hinata nodded, and continued her story.

"Well," she continued without a stutter, "Today I was going to tell Naruto-kun how much I liked him," Hinata's face was beet-red. There was no way that it was easy for her to talk about this, and tears began to form in the lower corners of her eyes. "When I finally mustered up all of my courage, and told him that I really liked him, he kind of laughed and said that he only had eyes for..." Hinata stopped, and tears were quickly evident streaming down her face.

"For?" Sakura questioned, now she was kind of interested in who Naruto, the class clown, liked.

"You..." Hinata half whispered.

"Who?" Sakura said loudly.

"You!" Hinata repeated sadly. Sakura was in a state of shock. She had no idea, and Hinata was particularly... well-endowed. What was it that made Naruto like her so much? And honestly, what would be so bad about Sakura giving him a chance? He was pretty cute, despite his lack of intelligence. Sakura blushed, and gave Hinata a hug.

"Don't worry Hinata, I'll go talk some sense into him," Sakura said while marching out of the bathroom with her head held high. If she ran into Sasuke on the way, though, that would be his problem because she had a few things to say to him.

She rounded another corner in the brick building, and eventually made her way outside. She needed to find Naruto! And surely, off a few yards ahead was the blond boy, sitting rather quietly in a patch of grass.

"N-Naruto-kun!" Sakura called, oddly unsure of what she was going to say.

"Ne~ Sakura-chan!?" Naruto said, rather surprised. She walked and sat down next to him, tilting her head in the opposite direction.

An awkward silence followed.

"Sakura-chan?" Naruto asked after several moments.

"Hai?"

"Did you come here to talk to me, or just sit there. Not like I'm complaining, but,"

"Naruto-kun?" Sakura interrupted, "What do you think about Hinata, romance wise?" This caught Naruto off guard, and he thought for a moment.

"Well, she's just not my type. I like someone else!" he proclaimed loudly. Sakura nodded, she'd expected as much. Oddly, she was relieved for herself and Hinata. Naruto and Hinata just wouldn't go together, and Hinata would just end up with her heart broken. It was probably for the best.

"Who do you like?" Sakura asked. She was going to make him say it, because she really wasn't sure. It's not like she didn't believe Hinata, but she kind of wanted to hear it from him. Oddly enough, he looked her straight in the eyes.

"You," he responded, in all seriousness. Sakura's face flushed red, and she wrapped her arms around herself. 'So, he really does like me,' she thought.

"Naruto, it makes me happy to hear you say that," she said quietly. Naruto's eyes grew big at the comment, had she just accepted his feelings?! "Sasuke, well, he turned me down earlier today," Sakura's embarrassed smile had turned into frown as soon as the words left her lips. Naruto frowned as well, how could anyone turn down someone as beautiful and wonderful as Sakura?

"But, I'm glad," she added. This left Naruto confused. "If he hadn't, I wouldn't have had the opportunity to talk to you today," She smiled sweetly at him, and he suppressed a blush that was slowly creeping across his face.

"S-Sakura?" He asked, she nodded in acknowledgement. "Can I kiss you?"

Sakura contemplated his request, and nodded after several moments. She faced him, and he turned towards her. He leaned in slowly, and pressed his soft lips against her light pink ones, holding them there for several seconds. It was short, but sweet. They pulled apart slowly, each had a very distinguished blush upon their faces. They interlocked their fingers, and didn't let go.

***

Hinata wasn't sure about what to do after Sakura left the bathroom, she supposed that she should head back to class, so she cleaned herself up and walked out of the bathroom. She hadn't expected Sakura to go try and convince Naruto to go out with her, in fact, she didn't want that. It would make her seem needy and stalker-like. She would rather just get over him. As she turned a corner down the hall, she bumped into Sasuke. 'Speak of the devil' she thought to herself. She frowned as she remembered what he had done to Sakura, and how cruel he had been.

"Gomen," she apologized emptily to him as she pulled away. As she turned, she noticed that his face was dusted pink.

"H-Hinata?" he inquired. She turned herself halfway, so he would only see half of her face.

"Hai?" she responded

"Here you go," he said with adverted eyes, and he offered her a red heart box. She gasped in surprise. The class heart-throb, was giving her chocolates on Valentines Day?! "You're the only one who doesn't obsess over me, and I don't know..." Hinata raised an eyebrow.

"You like it?" She asked, confused. He nodded, very slightly, leaned in, and gave her a peck on the cheek. Hinata brought her fingertips up to the place where his lips had just been, and blushed profoundly.

"That's a start," he said as he pulled her into him, and then proceeded to kiss her lips. A few seconds passed, and Hinata found herself enjoying the kiss. Sasuke, the boy who everyone liked, had picked her. She was okay with Naruto liking Sakura, she had Sasuke.