PLEASE READ NOTE BELOW :

So hi there everyone! Yeah, I said I didn't know when I was going to update, but that doesn't mean I should only get like minimal reviews if at all...Thank you to the few who reviewed! That is greatly appreciated (: I like how a few others put this story on alert, and umm...I get e-mails for the people who do that. So, I do know who put it on alert and who don't review. Not to scare you in any way. It's the beginning of a new story, I want to see your feedback, your opinions on it, and such. Is that too much to ask for the beginning of a story? I really hope not =/ I won't update until I get 20 reviews so...please do review. I need encouragement please \(O_O)/;;;;

OKAY. So, other things that are hindering me is : school, and I just recently got a surgery. I'm in my senior year, as most of you guys should know if you read my A/N from last chapter and the chapter before. I just got back from my first week of school, and the teachers are already putting me into a bullet train of information. Which means I have lots of homework, and...I need more sleep, because I need to focus and heal up my surgery wounds ASAP.

About the surgery, it's really not where you expect it, because it's not my arms or legs or midriff or whatever. I had to get a surgery around my tongue area. No, not wisdom teeth. So for the past...week, I've basically been living off liquid food, which is not very filling. I'm almost always hungry, and I'm REALLY wanting to eat ground beef burritos with lettuce and cheese. *cries* I want to eat sushi too. I'm Asian! I... have a very wide range of taste buds lol.

And the bad part about this surgery is that every time I move my tongue, it bleeds like mad. Not kidding. I can't speak, I had to play charades for the 3 days of school so far. Actually 2, 'cause I had to miss a day of school since I couldn't stop bleeding. I also have a throat infection, which adds to the uncomfortableness of the pain where a part of my tongue got cut. Every time I swallow, my tongue jerks, and my throat is killing me like mad. So, when I try to eat solid foods, I basically have to be on tylenol so I won't feel the pain. And, I dislike painkillers. Scientists claim they bring your intellect down. But, I guess it depends on the person, right? I try to eat them as little as possible. So far... after a week, I've only taken 5. Which isn't a lot. The dentist LIED to me TToTT. He said it'd feel like a big papercut. Ahem. Papercuts don't hurt this badly lol. SO, ENOUGH OF ME RANTING. Thank you to those who read this...really long note.


Disclaimer : If I owned Naruto, I'd make it end already. Not that I hate it, I wish an ending would just come out of it, instead of making new
enemies and another new plot like ten years in. I'm sorry, Kishimoto-sensei. I still love you :)... and Sasuke. Definitely Sasuke and Kakashi x]



- Two weeks later -

Sakura gripped the handle of a mop reluctantly as she swept the hardwood floor of the living room. She was not used to doing housework at all. When her mother was still around, she would do it and tell Sakura to study instead of worrying and doing chores around the house. After, Itoko would be the one telling her not to worry and still continue to do her studies. A maid was hired from time to time to keep the house and laundry clean. The broom was starting to hurt her hand; she must be gripping it wrong. The cut on her wrist had recently healed a couple days ago. Sasuke took the first opportunity to make her work when he could.

Speaking of Sasuke, he was lying on the couch with a medical book open on his stomach, propped up by his hands. His eyes were moving fairly fast along the lines in the book and he turned several pages before he spoke up.

"Eyeing me won't get the work done faster."

"You make it sound so easy."

"Hn. It's not. We both live here, so we have to make ends meet."

"Why can't I cook instead and you do the cleaning?" Sakura offered.

"Last time I let you cook, you almost burnt down the house." Sasuke retorted.

It was true. Sakura was trying to make fried sausages when she remembered that she had forgotten to put a tiny bit of oil in the sauce pan so the meat wouldn't stick to it. When she opened the cap, she accidentally spilled some oil over the entire stove, fuelling the red hot metal filament to burst up into flames. Sasuke had to dump the entire box of baking soda onto the stove to prevent the house from burning down. Oh, and the fact that the fire alarm went off and deafened both of them.

"It was only once…come on, people make mistakes."

"Yeah, the mistake could've caused both our lives." His eyes continued to absorb the fine print on the pages he was reading.

"Fine." Sakura grumbled and went back to work on the floor, turning her back to Sasuke.

Stealthily looking over the rim of his book, Sasuke took in Sakura's curves and compared them to the ones in the book. The section he was currently reading on was comparing anorexic women to average typed women. From how the book was explaining and portraying images of women with different types of eating disorders, he assumed that with the generous curves that Sakura harboured, she was definitely not anorexic. She wasn't fat, which was good; she wasn't skinny, which was another good thing. Best of all, she wasn't throwing herself on him just other women Sasuke had met before.

Sasuke didn't like being involved with women. He didn't have many good experiences with them. One, either they tried to seduce him to the point where he knew it was all an act to get him into bed. Or two, they just pretended to like things he liked, which was med; he hated fakes. He didn't try to hide how he hated women basically of the two sorts. Flaws would end up showing sooner or later no matter how hard they tried to hide them. Women would usually end up running away from him in tears or screaming something about a waste of time. Yep. Uchiha Sasuke is no lady's man. Well, he doesn't want to be. If he tried, he could probably do it. But he didn't want STDs, or rather STIs, in new medical terms.

(A/N : The new term for STDs is STIs, which is Sexually Transmitted Infections, but my friend and I made a small joke about this. We call it STIDs, Sexually Transmitted Infectious Disease. Please don't be offended. We just think that STIs sound kinda lame.)

Looking at the clock, Sasuke saw that it was 4pm. Putting a bookmark in the book so he wouldn't lose his spot, Sasuke closed the book and set it on the small table beside the couch. Stretching, he walked to the window-door that led out to the deck and the pool. It was a fine day, the sun was shining, not so strongly that it scorched his skin, but it was hot enough that made him want to dip himself in water.

"Hey, I'm going for a swim. You wanna join me?" Sasuke offered. He didn't have any perverted thoughts of any kind in mind at all. Honestly.

The next thing he knew, a broom was thrown at him and it hit his back and his head at the same time. The wooden handle of the broom just managed to scrape the part where he got the injury a few weeks ago. It stung a little but it wasn't strong enough to knock him out. His hand however, immediately went to his head as a reflex.

"Pervert." Sakura said as she stalked off towards her bedroom.

"Someone's sure got a temper." he mumbled as he put the mop beside the door and headed to his bedroom to change into swim shorts.


Sakura was under the covers of her bed when she heard Sasuke walking past her door. Thinking he was going to open the door, Sakura ripped the covers off her and decided to run to turn on the lock on her door. Tripping over a shirt she had careless thrown off this morning, she fell and landed on her face, causing a resounding thump throughout the house.

"Ughh." She reached her hand to touch her head in pain.

"Hn. Someone seems more excited than I thought." Sasuke smirked as he stood outside her door. Even though she couldn't see him, she could imagine the expression on his face. And it pissed her off to no end.

"In your dreams, Uchiha." Sakura acidly said as she pushed herself off the ground.

"Oh, so are we going by surnames now? Finish the mopping when I get back, or just join me in the pool. Fine days like these are hard to come by, Haruno." Sasuke said as he walked down the stairs and out onto the deck.

She obviously couldn't join him in the pool due to her…insecurities and lack of a swimsuit. Oh wait…when she opened the closet this morning, she thought she had seen something in the corner. Throwing open the door of her closet, she rummaged through it, and to her dismay, there were indeed swimsuits, but they were all two piece swimsuits. All speedo-looking too. It wasn't that she had a lack of rack or ass, she just didn't want a guy she'd just met to see her in such revealing clothing.

Slamming the closet shut out of frustration, she looked out the window that overlooked the pool and saw Sasuke swimming laps. Propping her head up on her elbows, Sakura continued to look at him and the muscles that flexed every time he would raise his arm to propel himself through the water. She couldn't help but be entranced by the living, breathing person one storey down. He had an aura of coldness and stinginess, but he also carried a feeling of mysteriousness. It seems as if he has a barrier that he's unwilling to let anyone pass; only certain someones can be permitted through.

An idea hit Sakura as she continued staring down at the pool and its only inhabitant. Throwing open her door and running downstairs, she quietly grabbed a frying pan and some leftover rice from last night. Setting the pan on the stove and turning it on, Sakura emptied the small tub of rice into the pan. Using a metal spatula, she split apart the huge clump of rice into smaller ones. Allowing the rice to slowly fry, Sakura went through the fridge and took out two small bowls of chopped up vegetables and pieces of meat.

'Good thing we have such an endless supply of food…' Sakura absentmindedly thought.

Turning around, she threw in the chopped up vegetables and meat in with the rice. Working the spatula like an inexperienced chef, she accidentally shoved some of the food onto the counter. Choosing to clean it up later, Sakura decided to add in the oil, afraid that she was limited in time before Sasuke came in after he finished his swim. Without even looking at the label on the bottle, she poured quite a bit of fluid into the pan. She quickly regretted it when an acrid smell reached her nose after she set down the bottle, causing her to drop the spatula onto the floor.

It smelled so bad, oh so bad. She felt as if her sinuses were on fire and that she wasn't ever going to breathe fresh air ever again. This was certainly the thing that's going to traumatize her for the rest of her life. Backing away from the stove, Sakura bumped into something solid. When she turned to see what she had hit with tearing eyes, an angry Sasuke loomed behind her. His face had a look of disgust on it, probably from the acrid smell and he quickly strode past Sakura and turned off the stove. He grabbed the hot pan and settled it onto one of the stove's cool filament after he put a pan lid on the pot.

He flipped on the exhaust fan as he walked around the house and opened all the windows, carrying an air of anger with him as he did so. Finishing with the task, he stood right in front of Sakura, making her feel intimidated with his menacing appearance.

"So, I don't think I even need to ask what you were doing, do I? Sasuke growled.

"I was…trying to cook dinner?" Sakura timidly replied as she tried to stop her streaming eyes.

"So instead of adding oil, you decided to add vinegar into a dish of what seems to be fried rice, and ended up ruining the dish as well as probably killing about five billion brain cells for each of us." Sasuke continued.

"Well sorry, I didn't know that I added vinegar into what I was frying. I thought that it was oil, 'cause last time I remember that was the place where we put our oil.

"Well if you tried to remember, that last fiasco with you and the oil basically almost burnt down the house and we ended up with no leftover oil, since you seemed to have fun dousing the stove with it. And we haven't received our two weeks' supply of food yet. It should be coming in any day now." Sasuke sighed and headed upstairs to change.

Sakura ran outside and onto the deck for fresh air. Inhaling large gulps of it, she got rid of most of the acrid smell within her sinuses, but a little bit still lingered. Sasuke silently followed her out onto the deck and shoved her into the pool without a moment's notice. Sakura went in hard, choking on water as she struggled to right herself so she could swim back to the surface. Her sweatpants dragged her down as she tried to reach the surface. Thrashing her legs, Sakura managed to get them off and quickly swam to the surface. Pulling herself up, Sakura started coughing up water as soon as she got a solid grasp on the side of the swimming pool.

Sasuke stood on the deck, looking at Sakura as she struggled to get back onto solid ground. He was worried and didn't know if she actually knew how to swim when he pushed her in. It was a gamble that he thought he would take, to teach her somewhat of a lesson to not fool around with the kitchen and whatnot. He also wanted to test how much of a fighter she was. But when she surfaced, holy shit did it take his breath away. The white off-shouldered shirt that already clung to her every curve when she was doing the housework already caught his attention, but this was totally different. The shirt was now see-through, and everything can be seen. The colour of her bra and her toned stomach muscles was all for Sasuke to see. When she lifted her leg to completely lift herself out of the water, Sasuke couldn't help but stare.

So slim, so lusciously long and pale. He could imagine how it would feel if those legs were entwined with his after a passionate night. The feel of her legs against him, creating friction that neither one of them could hold back. This was the first time that he's ever felt this way towards a woman. Don't get him wrong, he's not gay, but he's never felt such a strong urge to make one person his and his alone. Sasuke was snapped out of his reverie when a voice reached his ears.

"You…—" Sakura stopped as coughs erupted from her mouth.

Sasuke walked towards her and grabbed one of her arms, trying to help her out. She willingly let him and she sat on her heels after she got up, panting and trying to catch her breath at the same time when she wanted to throw curses at Sasuke like there was no tomorrow. Tearing her arm away from Sasuke's hand, she shakily got to her feet. When Sakura started leaning to the side, Sasuke thought she was going to pass out, but was caught off guard when she heaved her whole body's weight onto him, causing him to fall into the pool. With all his clothes on he had changed into quickly before he pushed her into the pool.

Sasuke re-surfaced, spluttering water as he did. Sakura looked at him with cold and satisfied eyes as she sat on the edge of the pool, her legs dangling in the water. Swimming right up to Sakura, Sasuke easily lifted himself out of the water and sat beside her, admiring the sunset with her. After half an hour, the sun had set, and the pale glow of the moon shone across the face of the pool.

To Sasuke's surprise, Sakura took off her shirt, exposing her upper half and bottom to the world, aside from the black underwear that she was sporting. Her body bending into a perfect arc as she went into the water, Sasuke was snapped out of his daze as a small wave of water soaked his partly-dried shorts from earlier. Looking into the middle of the pool, he was met with playful green eyes.

"Men are all the same." Sakura sighed, shaking her head. Her damp tresses lightly skimmed the surface of the pool, making little ripples in the water. She felt oddly calm, so at ease, she just knew that Sasuke wouldn't do anything funny to her.

"Hm… well, I can't say that all men are the same. You don't exactly see me going in after you and ravaging you till you can't stop saying my name." Sasuke smirked as he threw off his shirt and shorts onto the deck, leaving him only in his boxers.

"So then, can you explain what you're doing now?" Sakura lightly said as she easily treaded water to keep herself afloat.

"When a pretty lady's in the water, inviting a guy to swim with her, it's not very chivalrous of me to refuse, no?" Sasuke replied with a question as he slipped into the water.

"Cocky son of a—"

"You don't seem like the type to swear." Sasuke sounded surprised.

"Well, I can't say I'm a predictable person, either." Sakura nonchalantly said.

"Definitely not predictable. I thought you said you didn't want to swim with me earlier, since you called me a closet pervert. And if you really wanted to know, my intentions were quite pure." Sasuke emphasized the words that he thought mattered most in.

"Pure my ass."

"Hm? Did you just say that I'm allowed to touch your butt?"

"Now I don't believe you ever said your intentions were clean, Uchiha Sasuke." Sakura snorted as she swam towards the other side of the pool and grabbed a floatation device, away from Sasuke.

He treaded water for a few minutes while he thought about how she just said his name in the simplest but memorable way ever. It seemed so natural for his name to grace her lips, and he wanted to hear it from her again and again.

"Hey, Sasuke." Sakura said as the floatation device she was on neared Sasuke. One of her hands was trailing gently in the pool while she rested her head on the other one.

"Hm?"

It was so hard for Sasuke to keep his eyes off of her. It was like Sakura was playing tricks on him, lying on that floating bed, letting him see almost all of her. The moon made her skin glow a pretty white; it seemed like she was radiating her own light. The way her pink tresses were tossed carelessly over her shoulders made it look as if she was purposely trying to seduce him. All she had to do was straddle him and he would be hers. The idea might be crude, but it was true.

"What happened that day when I um…fell from the sky?"

"Well…let's see…" Sasuke said with a mischievous glint in his eyes. "I was on the floatation device that you are currently resting on. Then something fell from the sky and ended up flipping the bed like this—"

Sasuke swam underneath the floating bed and pushed up on one side of it, which caused it to capsize. Sakura went into the water face first and then under, bubbles rose to the surface as she choked on water once again. Sasuke went after Sakura and grabbed her around the waist and swam back up to the surface. Rescued person spluttered water as she tried to regain her breath. Pulling her along to the edge of the pool, Sasuke made sure that both her hands were securely on the side of the pool before he let go of his hands around her waist. After she'd calmed from her spasms of cough, Sasuke continued on with his story.

"Then I dove in after you to save you from the clutches of ropes and the prison of water. You started to bleed once I got the ropes off and the cut was pretty deep, hence the stitches you had earlier. My speakers got pretty damaged too. I miraculously found another one in another drawer…"

"Couldn't you just have—told me instead?" Sakura wheezed.

"Well…I could have, but it wouldn't have been this exhilarating unless you experienced it for yourself. You were rather unconscious when everything happened." Sasuke smirked.

"You're a jerk, you know that?"

"I've been told by very many women that they'd love to have my children. None of them told me that I was a jerk. But then again, you're unlike all of them."

"Whatever. I guess since I didn't die, it was fine."

"I wouldn't have let you die."

"I wouldn't know. As compensation for scaring me like that and just pushing me into the pool, you have to pull me around the pool." Sakura declared.

"…Why would I do such a thing?"

"'Cause I said so. It's not chivalrous to not listen to a lady." Sakura childishly smiled at him.

"…So what am I supposed to do?"

"Okay, hold on. Let me get on your back."

"…"

After Sakura was safely on Sasuke's back, Sakura gave the cue for Sasuke to start swimming. "Okay, go swim now." she smiled.

"For how long?" Sasuke mused.

"Until I'm satisfied."

"…That doesn't sound very good to me."

"Whatever! You just made me lose like ten minutes of breath back there, so I guess ten minutes." Sakura pouted.

"Okay, okay. Just ten minutes, got it?"

"Fine, fine! Just get going!"

Instead of ten minutes, it became half an hour, and then an hour. The two didn't know how much time's past, but they were happy to be in each other's company. The laughter that rang throughout the night only signified the fast developing relationship between the two and the hurt that will come when they separate.

Sasuke's debt : £ 485, 114
Sakura's debt : £ 9, 694, 073


So guys, can you please give me up to 20 reviews? That'd be greatly appreciated! You've read, so review. Writing is so much harder than just reading.

- Kanryu out 06/09/09 11:57am