Chapter 2

Ex-girlfriends.

Day One.

As I was saying, Haruno Sakura was walking and looking up at the clouds, thinking if she should go to her blind date or not. It was almost 1 PM, 12:45, to be exact.

She thought of yesterday, when she was at her house, deciding if she should go or not.

F L A S H B A C K

Then, a light bulb lit up in Sakura's mind.

She was going to go. How else could she find a date for Valentine's if she wouldn't go? Everyone she knew probably already had dates.

But in the back of Sakura's mind, she knew this would only cause her trouble.

Sakura thought hard. Then she remembered what Sasuke had said.

F L A S H B A C K I N A F L A S H B A C K

"Let's just see on Valentine's then."

E N D O F F L A S H B A C K I N A F L A S H B A C K

Once again, Sakura blamed herself for her stupidity and slapped her forehead. Sakura looked at her calendar and sighed.

She had no choice.

E N D O F F L A S H B A C K

She sat down on a bench, sighing. She looked around if there was anyone she knew who could see her. No one. Only some villagers.

Sakura let out a sigh of relief after assuring that she was safe.

After a few minutes, a guy sat down beside her.

Sakura stared at the guy. He had brownish hair with matching brown eyes. He smiled at Sakura and said, "Konnichiwa, miss. If I may ask, are you my blind-date?"

Sakura was still staring at him, and after a while, she answered, "Um, yes?"

"Oh," the guy said, nodding. "Why is a pretty lady like you going on a blind date? Don't other guys ask you out?"

Sakura blushed slightly at the guy's compliment. "For Valentine's," she replied.

The guy nodded again. "What's your name?"

"Haruno Sakura," she replied, looking back at the guy. "What's your name?"

"Matsukasa Ryoko. Nice to meet you and what a beautiful name you have." the guy smiled, again.

"He said I'm pretty and I have a beautiful name! Bwahaha! Cha!!" Inner Sakura yelled, smiling.

Sakura thought of things to ask him. "Um, where are you from?"

"I'm from Suna," he answered.

"Why are you here in Konoha?"

"To get away from my parents. They didn't really appreciate me there, so I left them instead of being a burden to them. All they cared for was my older brother. Sometimes I wonder if they've even noticed if I left."

"What do you do here?"

Ryoko looked at Sakura's forehead protector. "I see you're a ninja," he smiled at her. "I like strong girls."

Sakura wondered if his smiles were real or fake and ignored what he just said. She repeated the question. "What do you do here? I mean, how do you earn money, since I noticed you're not a ninja like me?"

"Well, I have a job," he said. "I don't go on missions like you do. Speaking of which, aren't you supposed to be on a mission or something?"

"No," Sakura replied. Duh, she thought. If I had a mission why would you think I'm here right now? She tried to think of other things to ask him. "Um, do you go back to Suna once in a while?"

Ryoko shook his head. "Like I've told you, my family probably isn't waiting for me there. But sometimes I do wonder how they're doing right now."

"So, don't you miss them? And don't you have friends back there?"

He was quiet for a while. "You ask too much questions," he told Sakura.

Sakura felt a bit embarrassed. "Sorry," she said. "It's, um, okay if you don't want to answer it."

"No, it's okay," he smiled at her, for the thousandth time. "I just noticed you keep asking me questions. Yeah, I do miss my parents sometimes, but a part of me always says that they don't miss me. So I don't go back, 'cause I won't be welcomed back with open arms. And yeah, I do have friends there. I told them that I'm here right now, but I told them not to tell my parents. They did try to stop me from moving here, but I told them it's pointless to stay there when you're not cared for by your own family. I'm thankful they understood me, and here I am now."

Sakura understood Ryoko's story, but she still didn't understand one thing. "Why didn't your parents even care for you in the first place? I mean, what kind of parents wouldn't care for their own child?"

"I don't know, actually. I mean, it's not just 'cause they love my brother more than they love me, it's 'cause they practically ignored the fact that I was with them, as if I didn't exist or whatever."

Sakura thought this blind-date was going well, she was quite happy with it, and if nothing goes wrong, she could go out with Ryoko on Valentine's to show Sasuke that she did have a date.

But Sakura wondered if it would just be okay with Ryoko even if he was just her pretend date.

Suddenly, Sakura's thoughts were interrupted by a yell.

It was a girl, screaming, "Matsukasa Ryokoooooo!"

Sakura looked at the girl as more girls joined her, yelling. She wondered why they were yelling his name. Then she looked at Ryoko, who looked uncomfortable.

"Sakura, I think we better run," he told her, grabbing her arm as they started to run.

The girl who screamed his name pointed to them and yelled out, "There he is! Let's get him!!"

Sakura didn't understand what was going on. "Who are they? Why are we running away from them?" she asked.

Ryoko ran faster as the girls started to chase after them. "I'll tell you when we're pant away from them."

Sakura remembered running like this before. It was exactly like this, being chased by girls squealing and yelling. It was the same except for two things. One, the girls who were chasing them were happy and excited, while these girls chasing them right now looked mad or something. Two, she was with Sasuke that time, running away from his fangirls.

Ryoko looked around for a place to hide in. Soon, he spotted an alley and they both ran towards it.

When they were in the alley, Ryoko stopped.

"What's going on?" Sakura asked, demanding for an answer. She didn't know what on earth was going on.

Ryoko sighed and looked at Sakura. "Those girls were pant my ex-girlfriends." Yes, with an "s".

Sakura felt like killing him that instant. Why didn't he tell her? He was going on a blind-date when he had those crazy creatures he call his ex-girlfriends on the hunt for him? "WHAT?!" Sakura yelled at his ear.

Ryoko tried to calm her down and explained, "Look, Sakura-san, I know you want to kill me right now 'cause I didn't tell you about them. But believe me, I didn't know they were able to follow me here. They came here from Suna. But I swear none of them are currently my girlfriend."

Sakura glared at Ryoko.

"I'll be honest with you," Ryoko looked at Sakura. "I originally planned on going on this blind-date to meet more girls to be my girlfriend and dump them the day after."

"But that changed when I saw that you actually cared for my situation with my parents and why I left them. All those girls out there didn't," he explained further.

Sakura was looking at him, trying to figure out if he was lying or not.

"Sakura, believe me, I'm not making this up," Ryoko told her, as if reading her mind.

Ryoko heard the girls coming. Sakura heard them too. "They're coming, fast," he said.

Ryoko thought of what to do. He saw two separate paths. He thought that he wouldn't let Sakura get involved in this, so he told her, "Sakura, go that way," he pointed to the path on the right. "I'll go the other way. That way those girls won't be chasing you."

Sakura looked at him. Was he seriously willing to risk himself for Sakura's safety? Wow. Sakura believed in him now.

"Now, go," Ryoko said, pointing to the path where he told Sakura to go to. "I hope we meet again Sakura-san, if ever I make it alive."

Sakura tried to stop him, but he was gone before Sakura could even say a word.

After a while, Sakura heard the girls coming and quickly ran to where Ryoko had pointed to. Soon, Sakura saw light ahead.

Sakura ran faster, and after a few seconds, she was out of the alley, safe and sound.

She looked behind her. There was no trace of the girls. Ryoko's plan had worked.

She was happy she got away safely, but she was a bit disappointed that she had lost Ryoko.

Sakura sat down on the road for a while, resting from that long run to get away from those merciless insane creatures.

"Those bitches sure could run. But they weren't able to catch us! Bwahahaha!!" Inner Sakura yelled again, giving Sakura a headache.

She felt really disappointed. Ryoko was gone. She had no date. Just when she thought she already had one.

Sighing, Sakura started to walk home. Guess I'll have to go to another blind-date tomorrow again, she thought. Hopefully there wouldn't be any crazy ex-girlfriends chasing after us again.

to be continued…

A/N: I don't know where I got the name Matsukasa Ryoko. Matsukasa meant something related to pine, like pinecone or something and I can't remember what Ryoko meant. I edited this chapter because it wasn't actually finished yet when I posted it. Haha. Anyway, REVIEW, okay? (: