Summer:
This is when heat surrounds everything. The sky burns due to the power of the sun. A time best spent hiding from the heat and waiting for the coolness of night to come. This is when life would come alive, where creatures could finally move with ease until the next blazing day.
Sasuke hadn't thought much of Sakura's strange behavior. The girl was as different as her hair color. There wasn't another person on this plant who could annoy him just by existing…well just one other and he wore orange.
So there were two people whose natural ability was to be annoying. It is why after months of her ignoring him, refusing to acknowledge him, and to instead give her attentions to a stupid shop owner he had enough. That he, Uchiha Sasuke had to warn the poor fellow of one Haruno Sakura. He wanted to save the poor man the trouble of dealing with her. After all, the faults of Sakura were longer than his own.
Sasuke had appeared at the sweet shop and stared blankly at the owner known as Keiki Yamato. He was a man of average height and looks were average as well. Messy chocolate hair that matched the man's eye color, Sasuke couldn't help but to think how plain the man was. His hands shoved into his pockets the only Uchiha now alive stared continuously at the man.
"Can …I help you?" Keiki addressed him without caution. Without the fear that most of the villagers had, he was clearly an outsider who didn't understand who he was addressing.
"Yes. Stay away from Haruno if you want to live a long life."
The man's eyebrows knit together as if confused. What was this guy an idiot?
"I don't see how that is any of your concern." Again he stated without fear. What was with this guy?
"Look, she is dangerous and you'll only end up killed if you stay with her. So do yourself a favor and just drop out of her life." Sasuke spat at him.
Again the man just stared blankly at him. "I'm sorry I can't do that."
The Uchiha's eyebrow twitched upwards as he stared blankly at the dango man.
Keiki smiled and crossed his arms as if smug about something. "I think I'm falling in love with her and I really don't see why you have to warn me about something I already know."
The young man was about to retort that he was just an idiot but Keiki cut him off. God, he was as annoying as that dope or pink hair brat.
"I know she is a ninja, and I know if it is between me or duty she'll pick the duty. It doesn't change the fact that I want to get to know her more. She reminds me of spring." Keiki lifted his face upwards, the spring that just had fallen on Konoha only a month ago. "And I won't let you sway me because you're jealous."
Sasuke just glared at him but didn't answer. He was not jealous. So what if the girl avoided me as if he had some kind of plagued. So what if he just happened to see her smile happily at this idiot. So what if there was a nagging anger he wished to take out on the fool in front of him?
"Plus you have that red hair beauty on your arm. I don't see why you should be so focused on the girl on mine." Keiki smirked. That bastard just smirked at him.
Before he could do anything though the shop owner turned and waved to the approaching girl. Her pink head bowed as if ashamed of something.
And so he left, spiriting himself away before Sakura even saw him. After all, why did he care what she did? She meant nothing to him.
Really, she meant nothing.
Two months later
Summer had hit Konoha with a vengeance. Yet, it still didn't stop the youth of Konoha to live their young lives to the fullest! Or at least that is what Gai had told them when it came time to set up the annual Konoha summer obon festival.
Sakura smiled as she watched the sun set and the life in the city appear out of nowhere from her bedroom window. Dressed in her prettiest yukata Sakura pulled back her hair with a Japanese rose pin to hold the messy pink locks in place. She stood at the mirror and wondered what Keiki would think of her appearance? Grabbing her pink matching bag Sakura put on her getta sandals and went to meet her boyfriend of two months.
Even after the talk with Naruto about her happiness she wagered that it was worth the risk. After the fight with Sasuke, she knew it was worth the risk. She could be happy. She would be happy. Her eyes fell onto the civilian who had won her heart through her stomach. He stood there in a deep green yukata, his arms and hands tucked inside of his sleeves.
She had noticed that the odango maker had a bit of muscle that was shown off due to the cut of the yukata. He was lean but strong. While in any real fight Sakura would most likely protect him….she could however trust him to handle any street thugs who thought to hassle her. It made her smile as she approached just wondering what he was thinking.
Keiki was at a loss for words, the woman who stood before him looked beautiful in the classic yukata. Not that he would ever tell her but Sakura lacked the 'womanly' side at times. She wore mostly masculine clothes, talked like a man, and the fact she could fight and win against nearly everyone…. Well this softer side of her made his heart jump to his throat. The dark blue and orange flower fabric wrapped around her slight form held together by a red obi fashioned into a bit bow in the back. She was beautiful, he reasoned, right now just like this.
What didn't fit the image was the Japanese rose that sat in contrast to her pink hair. Part of him wanted to rip it out and just let the hair hang free but he reframed. Maybe sometime during the night he could get away with the action but for now he wanted to bask in her beauty.
"Shall we?" Keiki offered his arm to her and with a nod Sakura took it happily.
The night would have been prefect Keiki mused, if it wasn't for the dark brooding man who made it his mission to be Sakura's shadow. For the last two months Keiki felt like he was dating Sakura and Sasuke. Each time he would take her out the spikey hair man would not be far behind…and not far behind him was his stalker- a girl name Karin.
Now, he was a patient man. He could endure a lot. Yet, when their date became an unintentional double date almost every time, he was getting a little sick of it.
When he took her as his girlfriend, he understood she came with quite a bit of baggage. One of those bags consisted of a sliver hair teacher who loved his paper back porn. Another one of those bags was an orange hair ninja who swore he was going to be hokage and loved to smother his girlfriend in hugs and other strange affections. Hell, he even understood she was a ninja and that meant leaving for days or weeks for missions.
What he didn't sign up for was her personal stalker, and by proxy his personal stalker.
"Sakura…." He sounded pained as he pulled her off to the side. "We are being followed again."
The woman blinked up at him then sighed before putting her head against his chest. "I know I'm sorry….I don't know why he is following us –here-. Can we just light the lanterns and go back to your place?" Her green eyes drifted upwards to his.
A smile spread across his feature at the idea. She would never stay the night and would stop any adult fun from happening but… that was bound to change. He was in love with the pink hair woman who could make mountains bend to her will. So, he could wait, Keiki told himself as he let her guide them towards the vendor.
He could wait as they carried three lanterns to the pond's edge.
He could wait as he watched her let the paper lanterns go up into the air. One by one they escaped her small hands like lost souls going home.
He could wait as she turned to look at him with those tears.
He told himself he could wait.
Even as he pulled her close and his lips found hers, he could wait. His hands reached up into her hair and pulled out the horrible pin in her hair. Slowly as if scared she'll noticed his intentions Keiki ran those hands through her hair and let the pin fall into the pond's mud. He kept his lips to hers; taking everything she would give him.
He could wait….
That's what he told himself when he pulled her away from the pond. Turning his head chocolate eyes drifted to the pin still in the mud. The flower that meant a sad but beautiful death sunk deeper and deeper vanishing from sight.
The flower pin that was given to her on her latest birthday.
The flower that the Uchiha had given her.
He couldn't wait.
OoooOoooo
Sakura woke the next morning yawning and stretching out on the comfortable bed. The night before had been hard on her. She had lit three lanterns for the people she had lost, one for Neji, one for Jirarya, and one for all the souls who were lost in the war. Maybe that moment of weakness is why she let Keiki pull her into his comfortable safe apartment. Why she allowed him to touch her so passionately.
Why she gave herself to him that night.
It had been her choice right? It wasn't like she hadn't slept with a man before but this time there was something so raw about it that doubt and shame settled in her stomach. Calmly her green eyes shifted to the sleeping male to her right.
He looked so sweet like that. So trusting, Sakura thought to herself as she slipped out of the bed. She took a moment to dress back into her yukata and writing him a quick note Sakura vanished into the dawning morning.
It wasn't until she was half way home that she remembered something.
The pin.
Her eyes grew wide as she thought about the stupid accessory she had worn the night before. She had worn it to piss Sasuke off on her date. She knew he would see it, knowing that she was on a date with Keiki and showing that he had no say no matter how he tried to 'make up' in words of Naruto for what he did.
The pretty pin had been a peace offering from the two boys, but Sakura knew he was the one to pick it out. It was a pretty pin, reasoning at the time, so she didn't have the heart to throw it away. It just happened to match her yukata and so she placed the silly thing in her hair.
Now that she lost it, she wasn't sure how to take it. Would he be angry?
Why did she care?
A soft sighed escaped her bruised lips before making a turn to head back to the pond. Keiki must have knocked it out of her hair there and she was so distracted that she hadn't noticed.
In the morning light Sakura stared out at the pond. Water droplets sparkled like diamonds and a small smile crossed her lips as she walked towards the muddy edges. Kneeling down the pink hair nin felt around for the metal piece. "Damnit…where is it?"
And then she felt it.
Or more likely she felt him. His chakra spiked for a second and standing above her was the smug bastard she had been avoiding for the last year and a half. In his hand was the small decorative pin and his face looked down at her in a blank bored expression.
Muddled and disheveled Sakura sat back on her ankles and return the stare. "It seems you found it."
"It seems you are still useless."
"It seems you are still a dick."
"It seems you are still annoying."
For a moment there was a standoff, neither willing to give in their positions in this twisted relationship. "Give me the pin."
"Why should I? You seemed more than happy to let it sit in the mud." Sasuke toyed with the pretty thing with some fake interest.
"If you wanted it for your own use Sasuke all you had to do was ask." Standing, Sakura glared at him before crossing her arms.
She watched his eyebrow twitch in irritation. "What is your problem."
"What is your's?!" She shoved him slightly irritated at the morning interrogation.
"I am not the floozy who just spread her le-" Before he could even finish the statement the punch came at him faster than he had ever seen from the slight girl.
It sent him flying across the muddy shore of the pond stopping just before he hit the water.
"You have no right." Sakura hissed. "What I do in my life…it doesn't concern you. Not now, not ever! And will you stop stalking me! I am getting a little sick of it! I don't care how Naruto tries to tell me to cut you some slack; I don't care if Kakashi tells me you are just being YOU. I don't care anymore Uchiha Sasuke." Without meaning to hot tears prickled at her eyes. "You lost your right….you lost it. If you can be a friend I will be your friend. I will support you, I will be happy for you, but I need to live my own life." A life without you. The tears ran down her cheeks like small diamonds shattering into a thousand pieces when they hit the ground.
"I don't even get why you care….you never cared. Ever."
Sakura turned and ran from the pond, from the man who looked at her with a shocked expression, and from the man no matter how many times she said she didn't care…..
It was just a lie.
Sasuke could just stare dumb founded as he watched her go. For the first time he questioned his motives towards his former teammate. He reasoned he was just looking out for her. The shop owner would just be a passing fling and that in the end it would only end badly. So he followed her on those dates to see it blow up in her face.
He followed to make sure that she would regret it.
And to tell her he was right.
And to maybe punch the guy after they had broken up. Well drag Naruto with him and then punch the guy together. Team building right?
But, he didn't care about Sakura in the way Naruto accused him of.
Because Sakura was annoying, flippant, never listened, and most of all because….she was just Sakura.
Of course he hadn't noticed the blood dripping from his gripped fist, nor did he notice how the pin was crushed as if it was just a fragile flower and not made of metal.
He hadn't noticed that Karin was waiting for him outside the manor calling out "Sasuke-kun!".
Only thing he noticed was the irritation he had boiling in his stomach caused by one stupid pink hair little girl.
An irritation that would shimmer and boil until it exploded the next time he saw her with that stupid odango man.
OoooOoooo
A week had passed since the morning after obon. Sakura spent most of the week with Keiki, commuting from his far apartment to inner Konoha and the hospital. It was annoying but she did enjoy the calm nights spent curled up in her lover's arms and the way he would tell her about the day.
The gossip he would hear.
The people who came and visited him.
It felt so normal.
It felt so safe.
It felt so…boring.
It was why Sakura had dragged him out to town for some ramen with Naruto. She needed something different. She needed excitement.
And Naruto was for sure the go-to for that kind of thing right? Sakura fake smile twitched as she saw who her friend-brother brought to dinner.
"Naruto."
"Yes Sakura-chan?"
"Why is he here?" Sakura eyes pointedly went to one Uchiha Sasuke.
"Well you see…we were sparring and I said 'hey bastard! Lets go get ramen with Sakura!' and he grunted and I took that as a yes? And then I kind of forgot Keiki was coming but you're cool with it right man?" Naruto glanced at the brown hair man for a moment.
"Of course Naruto. You both are friends of Sakura." His smiled was a bit strained, she noted.
"Glad to see you have accepted us." Sasuke smirked at him arms crossed, but Sakura read inbetween the tone, they- both Naruto and Sasuke refused to accept him.
The energetic dinner she wanted would be turned into a blood bath.
Keiki planted himself next to Sakura as Naruto took her other side and Sasuke taking up the last stool.
"So how was training?" Sakura raised an eyebrow.
"Good, we could have used you though Sakura-chan. Your skills with your strength and medical attacks would be a good way for me to work on not getting stabbed so much. Or hit." Naruto laughed looking over at Sasuke, "And he needs someone 'normal' to fight against. He isn't going to be against super humans like me all the time, he could use a dose of how non-monsters fight."
Sakura just shook her head and hit him on the arm. "You aren't a monster. But I think I can tomorrow?" Naruto bobbed his head and grinned over at Sasuke. "This will be like old times!"
The broody man hn-ed softly then looked over at Keiki, "have you ever seen Sakura in battle?"
"No, she doesn't allow me to come to your trainings, no matter how many times I asked." Keiki gave him a humorless smile.
"Come tomorrow and see." There was something wicked in his eyes, Sakura noted with a frown.
"I don't think that's a good idea…." Sakura murmured softly.
"Scared we'll break him?" Sasuke only smirked at him, "Or he'll run away screaming?" The cruel man glared at Sakura as if picking up on her darkest fears.
" Jerk!" Sakura gritted her teeth and casted a glance at her boyfriend. "Do you really want to come?"
"I'll pack us lunch. We can treat it like a date." Carefully Keiki brushed back a few stray hairs behind her ear. "Plus I want to see your world too Sakura. I won't break."
Biting her lip, the nin wondered if she fell into some well-placed trap. "If you want…."
That was when she missed the identical smirks of her friends.
OoooOoooo
Sasuke was walking home with Naruto after ramen. It wasn't as horrible as he thought it would be. Since dating this joker, Sakura hadn't been running from him every second he walked into her general area. It however annoyed him how much PDA the two shared in public. The irritation from their pond encountered still bubbled in his stomach.
"So…bastard, I have a question for and answer me seriously." Naruto grabbed his shoulder and jerked the dark hair man to face him.
"Keiki, if he makes Sakura happy you'll back off right? I mean what I told you before. If you hurt her…I swear good guy now or not…I'll break every bone in your body." The blonde was glaring at him now, a protectiveness over the pink hair brat was rolling off him in waves.
"Hn."
"I'm serious! I mean Sakura is finally smiling and stuff and I know we – as in you me Kakashi and Sai don't agree this is good idea but…he makes her happy. So tomorrow, don't do anything stupid ok?"
"That's your department dead last" Sasuke just turned from him and continued to walk.
Sasuke just let the irritation simmer some more. He'll show Keiki what he was actually sleeping with. The little monster Sakura really was. He'll run for the hills and that'll teacher her.
OoooOoooO
The three teammates and one outsider walked onto the team seven training grounds. Keiki was set up under a tree with a blanket and bentos he had made for the team. He watched as they all warmed up and the friendly mornings banter that he couldn't quite understand.
Soon enough they had started. He watched with a sick fascination as they attacked each other as if to kill one another. This was her world, Keiki reasoned as broke their ribs, and had her own arm broken but not before she broke Sasuke's. He watched as she healed herself dodging the extra Narutos that came at her with a killer intent. He watched as she slid to defend Sasuke against one of Naruto's attack and the two worked together at one point against the blonde. Then he watched how easily Sasuke flipped sides to go against her with Naruto. He waited with baited breath as she slid back throwing up a protective wall before launching into another attack against the two.
He watched the struggle between them go on for what was forever.
And then it was over three hours later. Each of them was bloody and exhausted as they approached the small blanket. Sakura fell first moving to grab the water and drink its contents greedily. Naruto was laughing as he sat next to her doing the same thing. The dark hair one only hn-ed softly, before he sat on the blanket and reached for a tomato to bite into it silently.
Keiki watched them fall into something more normal now. Sakura offered to patch them up, to which Sasuke told her to work on herself first.
"I'm fine. Let me heal you two." Sakura just argued stubbornly.
"Are you deaf as you are dumb? I told you to heal yourself idiot." Sasuke snorted as he took a sip of his water.
"Hey bastard! Don't call Sakura dumb!" Naruto punched him hard in the shoulder.
"I can defend myself Naruto, Don't call me dumb jackass! If I remember right you are the idiot who fell into my explosion trap earlier." Sakura snorted and let her hands be engulfed by the bright green glow before touching Naruto.
"Che' whatever, at least I didn't fall on my sword." He spat.
"I didn't fall onto it!" Sakura hissed and Naruto cried out in pain as her control slipped. "Sorry Naruto."
"Sure." Sasuke just smirked and looked over at him, as if just remembering Keiki was still here. "Well? What do you think?"
Slowly all eyes turned to him. "You're as amazing as they say Sakura." His smile was soft but there was a nagging feeling in his stomach.
Was it fear?
There was a slight blush on her cheeks as she turned away to focus on the blonde boy in front of her.
Yet, even with the blush, Keiki realized, Sakura was a dangerous woman. She burned as brightly and as strongly as her monstrous teammates. But, she was human wasn't she?
They consumed and burned everything they did. They were like the blazing sun of summer.
She wasn't like them right? She was like her name sake. Gentle, short lived, but strong and something that endured until the next spring.
Or would she consume him in this heat of passion?
Keiki watched the three exchange tips for the next spar.
And for the first time, he felt like an outsider, too consumed with falling in love to notice the alarming differences between them. That he has been consumed by her. That in the radiance of her spring that summer had already come and gone, only to leave the passion fading into autumn.
TBC
Autumn
This is where change occurs. The change of the hot burning days that consume a person will fade into the dull continuous days of autumn. Each day, a new shade would appear, a new and different image would be painted when each time the sun rose. Change was so subtle at first it is hardly noticeable until it is too late. The once full trees of life would be barren before a soul knew it.
AN: I'll most likely have the next chapter sometime this week. I wanted to give Sakura a love interest that wasn't a ninja because in the end it is easy to forget about her past. When she was younger being a ninja wasn't really one of her top cares and being consumed with catching up with Naruto and Sasuke, Sakura became as monstrous as them.
She just doesn't see it.
Keiki is also the best way to illuminate Sakura's wish but fear of living a 'normal' life now that Sasuke is back. That she didn't want to acknowledge she may still be in love with the Uchiha. That she is trying to forget and forget but isn't able to.
Her best intentions often lead to bigger problems. As we have seen time and time again throughout the series.
As for Sasuke, he is bitter as he is selfish. He is still the twelve year old little boy who just can't let things go. He has to be the one who is right and the one who is in control. Sakura is refusing to give him the control and so now he has become obsessed with it. It doesn't mean he loves her or not. It all comes down to him being the one right and for her to see that.
Please review! I want to know what you guys think.
