I don't own Naruto

Never Again

Chapter 3

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Sakura Haruno woke the next morning at ten A.M. She rolled over and saw that Naruto Uzumaki, her boyfriend, wasn't next to her. A little note was on the bed, along with a pink rose.

"Sorry I couldn't be here when you woke up, but the boss wouldn't let me come to work late, y'know? I helped Saki make you breakfast; she should be there with the food at around 10:15. —Naruto"

Sakura smiled and heard the clinking of dishes. She sat up and saw Saki, inching into the room with a tray full of food.

"Don't get up, mommy," She said as she carefully put one foot in front of the other. "I'm gonna do this."

After several minutes, Saki finally inched herself to her mother. Setting the tray down slowly on Sakura's lap, Saki stood at the edge of the bed, straight as a soldier. Sakura looked down at scrambled eggs, toast, bacon, pancakes (with whipped cream smiley faces, of course), a glass of orange juice, and a tiny cherry blossom in an itty bitty vase. Before a word escaped Sakura's lips, the buzzer for the doorbell rang.

"Don't get up!" Saki commanded, running out of her mother's bedroom and to the door of the apartment. Sakura heard a chair being pulled up and Saki standing on it. A happy gasp next heard, along with the chair being moved out of the way and the lock being unlocked.

Unlike Sakura was expecting, it wasn't her parents; her mother's over dramatic but cheerful "hello" was not heard, neither was her father's usual comment about the whereabouts of the ale in the penthouse suite where Sakura and her daughter lived. Instead, there was the sound of Saki giving someone a happy hug. Then shoes being removed and set on the mat by the door. The sound of a jacket being thrown onto the chair next to the door was heard next.

"Mommy's in here!" Saki said from the other room, taking the hand outstretched to lead to Sakura.

"Who is it, honey?" Sakura asked, craning her neck, in hopes of catching a glimpse of the guest. Instead of words, Saki entered, smiling brighter than she ever had in her life, holding the hand of Sasuke Uchiha.

"Sakura. It's nice to see you again. Happy birthday. What has it been? Almost eight years, hm?" The man said, his cold, dark eyes reflecting seven years of literal hell.

"Saki, why did you invite him here?" Sakura said, beckoning for her daughter to come sit next to her on the bed. Saki walked over and sat next to her mother. Sasuke stood, leaned up against the doorframe.

"I didn't." Saki replied, confirming Sakura's fear. "Why? Aren't you happy to see daddy?"

"I'm truly interested as to why you stayed here." Sasuke said to himself. To Sakura: "And yes, why wouldn't you be happy to see me?"

"You know why I'm not happy to see you, Sasuke."

"Why, mommy?" Sakura bit her lip.

"I… no, of course I'm happy to see him. It's been quite a while since I've seen him, after all. And… why did you call him your father?"

"Because I look just like him! And he told me he was daddy, so he is!"

"When did you talk to him?"

"At the park!" Sakura's eyes flashed angrily for a moment.

"Saki," She said, "Why don't you let me talk to your father for a few minutes. Go get dressed, okay, baby?" Saki smiled, pecked her mother on the cheek, and ran past Sasuke towards her bedroom, just down the hall.

"What are you doing here?" Sakura growled furiously at her former lover, the instant she heard her daughter's door close.

"I came to see my daughter since I was just released a week ago. They offered to let me out on good behavior three times, but I've done my time. I suppose I also wished to tell you happy birthday." He then repeated 'happy birthday' eight times. "For each time I've missed," he said. He then repeated Merry Christmas, Happy Valentine's Day, and Happy Anniversary to her eight times. He held up a bouquet of roses.

"I don't expect you to forgive me," He said, "Not at all. However, I do expect you to let me move back into my own apartment; since it is mine, after all. I'll sleep on the couch since Saki lives in the second bedroom and I'm assuming the guest bedroom is now an office of some sort?"

"No, it's still a bedroom. But you can't stay here. Naruto will be furious. He knows what I've been through, Sasuke. He's been here for five years."

"Five years?" Sasuke replied, actually semi-shocked. "How long we were together? Ten years, correct?"

"Nine years, ten months, seventeen days." Sakura whispered.

"Ah." Sasuke replied. "Well if I can't stay here, I'll simply move in across the hall and Saki can visit whenever she likes."

"There are a thousand other apartment buildings in a twenty mile radius from this building. Go stay somewhere there. Besides, there are people moving in there tomorrow morning."

"Yes," Sasuke replied, "Me. I was simply hoping that you could let me stay here so I didn't have to spend an unnecessary amount of money while I am already mostly paying for your rent. I'm perfectly fine with that, of course, I have enough to buy out this entire building and turn it into a shopping mall, but I'd rather be closer to my own daughter."

"Sasuke, you MURDERED a girl with your car! It was so blatantly obvious you killed her!"

"Sakura, do you know anything about Ino Yamanaka?" Sakura paused, passing a piece of bacon through her lips. After a minute, she shook her head.

"Ino Yamanaka is the kind of girl who, after being out of a relationship with me for almost ten years, knowing that I have a fiancé, and a pregnant fiancé at that, would track me down in the middle of the night in December, trying to get back together.

"Ino Yamanaka is the kind of girl who would find me, shopping in the middle of the night, trying to find those nose strips you like, and run out in front of my car, forcing me to slam on snow-covered breaks.

"Ino Yamanaka is the kind of girl who wouldn't get out of the way, even though I told her I had to get home to you. Ino Yamanaka is the kind of girl who would try to stick her hands in my car window. Ino Yamanaka is the girl who would refuse to get out of the way of my car so I could be home by one-thirty A.M. so you could have your nose strips. Ino Yamanaka is the kind of girl who would refuse to move even when I started up my car. Ino Yamanaka is the kind of girl who ended up getting hit and dying because I needed to come back to you." Sakura immediately diverted her gaze.

"I can't believe you." She said. "I can't. I can't believe you actually love me. After everything, you still killed a girl, whether by accident or not." Sasuke nodded.

"I didn't expect you to. But telling you the truth of the matter, that it was an accident and she wasn't supposed to die, or get hit for that matter, shows that I can at least tell someone who hasn't harbored feelings for me in years, the truth."

"That makes no sense." Sakura replied. "It's a jumbled sentence. I don't want you near my daughter: that should be easy enough to figure out."

"Just let me take her off your hands today." Sasuke said, a measure of pleading in his voice. "Just give me one chance. That's all I need. One chance." Sakura gave him a stern look.

Sasuke sighed. "It's your birthday, Sakura. Your thirty-fourth birthday. Go out, buy yourself lunch at a nice place, go to that museum we used to go to when you were pregnant. You loved that place, didn't you? Whatever it is, I'll pay for it. Just go live a little. I'll take Saki to the park, and run her through McDonald's for lunch. We'll be back by dinner time for sure, and I'll take you and Naruto out. I've made reservations for three at the restaurant down the road you used to speak to highly of, so I won't go." Sakura sighed. It DID sound nice to have a day by herself, no work, no Saki complaining about being tired or hungry, no Naruto to baby her with little gifts and things because he thought she couldn't take care of herself and Saki. Just her. Alone.

"I'm still apprehensive about this…" She said.

"Sakura, if I learned anything in prison, other than how to give tattoos with sewing needles and bench-press 310 pounds, it's that if you hurt a child and go to prison because of it, you will get the hell beat out of you every day until you either die or request to be alone constantly, and even then, you might not get it. If I lay a wrong finger on Saki, even the guys in the yard I used to be friends with would gang up on me. Nothing will happen to our daughter." Sakura felt a twinge of guilt. Our daughter, she thought. Our. A sharp breath escaped her teeth.

"Fine." She said quickly. "Saki, I know you're outside the door, come in here, honey." Saki's tiny figure crept into the doorway, standing next to her father.

"Daddy was in jail?" She whispered, looking up at her father.

"It was an accident." Her father told her, bending down to eye level. "It will never happen again."

"Do you pinky promise?" Saki said, holding up her tiny pinky.

"I pinky promise." Sasuke replied, hooking his pinky with hers. "Now, we're going hang out today, okay?"

"But it's Mommy's birthday! We always are together on Mommy's birthday!"

"Well," Sasuke said, leaning close to his Saki's ear so he could whisper, "we're going to go get Mommy's birthday present. It's gotta be a surprise, okay?" Saki pulled back and beamed.

"Okay!"

Sakura, at this point, had finished her breakfast and had now moved to her closet, pulling on some clothes. "Be safe," She said, "Don't do something ridiculous."

"Okay, Mommy!" Saki said. She turned to her father, who picked up his jacket and pulled it on.

"Alright, Saki-chan," He said, "Let's go."

-:-:-

Sasuke Uchiha walked with his daughter down the maze of streets known as Manhattan.

"So, Saki," he said, as they turned onto a street littered in shops, "what do you think your mother would like for her birthday?" Saki didn't even have to think.

"The dress!" She said happily, dragging her father towards the shop she'd been in so many times before with her mother.

"Ah, Saki!" The shopkeeper, a round woman with curly red hair and hazel eyes said, "And… Mr. Uchiha! What an honor to have you in!" The woman scuttled out from behind the counter to Sasuke.

"Hello, ma'am." Sasuke replied. "We're looking for a dress, I believe." He gazed down at Saki, who ran behind the checkout counter and retrieved the dress. She opened up the box and showed her father.

"Isn't it pretty? Mommy tries it on all the time. She looks sooooooo pretty!"

"I bet she does." Sasuke said. "We'll take it." He informed the woman, who, after much negotiation, agreed to only cut the price twenty percent, instead of the fifty percent cut she originally made.

"I'll come back and get it later tonight," Sasuke said, "It won't be put to use until then anyway." Before Saki left, the woman pulled her back and asked,

"Is that your father?"

"Yeah it is!"

"Alright then." She ruffled the girl's hair. "Bye, now sweetie."

"Where do you want to go next?" Sasuke asked.

"I'm kinda hungry." Saki said, clutching her stomach.

"Okay. Where do you want to eat?"

"I want pizza!"

"Okay. I know a couple really good pizza places. Let's go." Sasuke pulled open the door of his black Lamborghini and let his daughter climb into the back seat, the dress hanging up next to her. Saki readjusted the bow on her shirt and the car sped off.

-:-:-

At 4:30, Sasuke and Saki returned back to the apartment. Knocking on the door since they didn't have a key, Sasuke took the time to stick a bow on the bag the dress was in and write a little note to his former fiancé.

Sakura shouted, "Who is it!"

"Mommy, we're home!" Saki called back.

"It's open!" Sakura then finished her glass of wine, climbed out of the bath, and rubbed the green mask off her face. She dried herself off, put on a bathrobe, and exited the bathroom.

"Happy birthday, Mommy!" Saki exclaimed, colliding with her mother's form.

"Oof! Hello, Saki. Thank you." She looked at the light fixture above the kitchen table, which was being used as a rack for a bag. "What's this?" She asked, walking over to it.

"It's for you, Mommy!" Saki said happily, bouncing up and down around the kitchen.

"Stop that, honey, you're disturbing the neighbors." Saki quit immediately. Sakura opened the bag, and peered down at the dress she'd desired for over six months.

"Oh, my God. You didn't have to buy this, Sasuke."

"But I did. Saki told me you want it, so I bought it. It wasn't really that much. The cashier knocked off twenty percent."

"Age sure hasn't changed you, has it? Still getting money off of things, even all these years later." Sakura smiled at the dress.

"You also need something to wear to dinner with Naruto and Saki." Sakura nodded slowly, walking into her bedroom to hang up the dress.

A knock came to the door as soon as Sakura exited her bedroom. She walked over, peered through the peephole for a half second, and opened the door.

Behind the wooden door stood Naruto Uzumaki; a tall man, about 5'11", strongly built, with blonde hair and striking blue eyes. He was wearing a dress shirt and pants, having just got off work a half-hour before. He wore a happy smile and held in his hands a small bag, inside residing another charm for his girlfriend's bracelet, which he had gotten her a few days after they began dating and added another charm for each special occasion they shared.

"Happy birthday!" He said, kissing his girlfriend.

"Eww…" Saki said quietly, covering her eyes. Naruto pulled his lips from Sakura's and waved at Saki. His eyes suddenly caught the eyes of Sasuke.

"Hey Sakura, who's this?"

"My name's Sasuke Uchiha. I'm paying for your dinner tonight. Nice to meet you."


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DUNN DUNN DUNNNN! The boyfriend meets the ex-fiancée!

And also, thank you all for the positive feedback for this story. It really makes my day. —Chiharu

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