-1Err, it's been a while, hasn't it? Well, I just want to say thanks for the reviews!
Anyway, here's a new chapter! You guys DID know this was going to be the last chapter, right? No? Well then, now you do! Thank you guys SO much for reading!! And Sasuke's gonna be a little OOC, and Kakashi too, I guess…
Recap: "I was being selfish again. I haven't changed, even when I promised I would." He turns around to go to his room, but feels a small tug on his shirt.
"Don't go," she whispers.
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Our Precious Cherry Blossom
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Early in the morning, around nine o'clock, Sakura wakes up. Huh? But why do I feel so warm…?
She looks down and gasps; then blushes. Sasuke's arm was wound around her waist, and she was resting her whole body on him. Oh. My. Gosh! I can't believe I asked him to stay with me…But when I asked him, I thought he'd say no for sure. Instead, he just sat down and watched over me until I fell asleep… Her hand was clasped over her forehead; shaking her head, she tries to remove herself from Sasuke's grasp, but fails. He was holding on tightly, and whenever she tried to remove his arm from around her waist, he only tightened his grip. And he's still asleep. He must've been really tired yesterd-
"Yeeeek!" Apparently trying to get Sasuke to let go without waking him wasn't such a good idea. Still asleep, Sasuke pulls Sakura closer to him, if that was even possible; she was stuck to him like superglue. She was already resting on top of him, and now he had her in a very uncomfortable position.
Sakura blushed tomato red. Why did Sasuke have to be such a heavy sleeper tonight, of all nights? She had her eyes closed, afraid to open them and see the sight before her. And just why did I have to change into my pajamas tonight? I knew I was going to talk to him, but I still went ahead and changed!
Opening her eyes, she was right; Sasuke's face was not even two inches away from hers. She was about to shut her eyes again, but decides not to. He looked calm in his sleep, his face smooth, nothing like the always-on-alert expression he always had. Wow, I've never seen him sleep so peacefully. Actually, I don't think I've ever seen him sleep at all. During missions I was always too tired and fell asleep, so I never got the chance.
She sighs. Might as well get comfortable; it doesn't look like he'll be waking up any time soon. She rests her head on his chest, quickly falling into a deep sleep.
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Sasuke awoke an hour later, at first puzzled as to why he felt so heavy when he tried to get up. His first reaction to seeing Sakura on top of him was of some fan girl who had somehow broken into his house again (again?!).
He tries to get her off without waking her, but she would clutch his shirt tighter in her sleep every time he moved (sound familiar?).
He sighs in defeat. She looked too cute; he wasn't going to try and move her anymore. Caressing her cheek, he noticed how soft her skin was.
He draws back his hand. "Damn it, Sakura. You should know better than to let your guard down." He was a growing teenage male, after all. Hormones came whether he liked it or not. "This is just…too tempting," he whispers. It was taking all of his self-control not to do anything stupid. "Tch. This is stupid. She probably doesn't even know how I feel."
Having only her pajamas in between him and her wasn't helping much either. Any man would have caved in to his desired by now. Even the great Uchiha wouldn't be able to hold back much longer.
Sakura stirs in her sleep, mumbling, "Sasuke-kun…" Then settled down again.
Sasuke was about to wake her up, knowing it was the only way to stop himself, but Naruto beat him to it.
He came bouncing out of his room, yelling out, "Good morning, Sakura-chan!"
He had a (really) large smile on his face, but it faded to one of shock when he saw Sakura and Sasuke.
Sakura was rubbing sleepily at her eyes, having been woken up by Naruto's loud 'good morning'.
Sasuke glares at Naruto. "Tch, idiot. You woke her up."
She was still on top of Sasuke, of coarse, and Naruto pointed at Sasuke and yelled, "Baka! What're you doing to Sakura-chan?!"
"Huh?" Sasuke lightly moves Sakura to the side, standing up and walking over to the kitchen. "Does it seem like I did something to her, loud-mouth?"
"OF COARSE IT DOES! She was on top of you, sleeping, and you were awake!" He jabs a finger at Sasuke's chest. "You took advantage of her!"
Drinking a glass of milk, Sasuke says, "Ne, you're acting more stupid than usual. I didn't do anything to her."
Sakura walks into the kitchen. "He's right, Naruto. He didn't do anything to me. I was the one that asked him to stay with me for the night."
"A-All night?!"
"Well, not really. Sasuke-kun came home a few hours ago. I think it was around four in the morning, right, Sasuke-kun?"
He nods. Looking at Naruto, he says, "Hey, dope, stop being so annoying. You're staying here only because the Hokage asked me to let you."
"Yeah, well, go to hell, Sasuke-teme!" and with that, he storms out of the room.
Sakura sighs. "I'll go calm him down…"
Now only Sasuke remained in the kitchen. "That was really close."
Sasuke was off in his own thinking land, so he didn't notice a certain someone's chakra, looking at him through the kitchen window. It was Kensen, of coarse. He still had to kill that damn kunoichi and the blonde loud-mouth. His prey never got away, he made sure of that.
"Uchiha seems to be very…attached to the kunoichi." Kensen smiles, a creepy I-can't-wait-to-kill-you kind of smile. "This can work in my favor."
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"Sasuke-kun, can we go shopping? Please?" Sakura looks hopefully at him, using her charm to make him say yes.
"S-Sure." DAMN HORMONES. Did men fall victim to such women every day? No, as far as he knew, Sakura was the only one who could make him act this way. Oh well, what else could he do about that?
Out in the streets, Sakura and Naruto (now that Naruto wasn't mad) were running to every food display they saw, begging Sasuke to treat them to some late lunch. "You're already living in my house, eating my food. Make Naruto pay for it; I've never seen him use any of his money on us."
After treating them to food, Naruto wanted to walk through the park, a shortcut to Sasuke's house. "Hey, doesn't the park seem a little deserted? It's usually busy with people at this hour."
"I kinda like it this way," Sakura skips ahead, laughing at Naruto for tripping and falling over his own feet. She leans down and offers him her hand, smiling when he took it. "Now come on, you can't stay on the floor."
"Heh. Thanks, Sakura-chan."
"Aren't you three a little too relaxed?"
The three of them look up. Standing on top of a tree was Kensen. Sasuke glared, Sakura took a step back, and Naruto almost growled.
Kensen pretended to look hurt. "Aren't you glad to see me? I finally decided to get rid of you; I've already given both of you too much time to live." He jumps, landing three feet away from them. "Now, who wants to be first? Fox boy, or the kunoichi?"
Sasuke glared even harder. No way in hell was he going to let Kensen kill his teammates; his friends.
Kensen disappears. They look around, waiting for the slightest sound that would give away his whereabouts.
Sakura held out a kunai in front of her, ready for when the time came.
Sasuke activates his Sharingan. Seeing Kensen heading straight at Naruto, he moves to block him.
But Kensen swerves to the right at the last second, changing his target. Sasuke realized this too late.
He had Sakura by the neck, holding her above the ground. He kept her there, while she gripped at his hands, trying to get free. And she almost does, but Kensen hits one of her pressure points, knocking her out.
Sasuke lunged at him, but stops when Kensen holds out Sakura in front of him by the neck. "One twist of my hand, and she's dead. Do you want that to happen, Uchiha?"
"Let her go," he says through greeted teeth. There was nothing he could do; if he attacked Kensen, he would kill Sakura. He wasn't going to let that happen.
Kensen only smiled that same crazy smile of his. "I can't do that. But I have something better. I'll let her go…if you kill fox boy."
Sasuke looks quickly at Naruto. This had to be the worst trade he had to make. Sacrifice his best friend for the girl that he loved. What kind of psychotic request was that? But he couldn't let him kill Sakura.
Kensen laughed. It sounded more like a hyena. "Well, which will it be, Uchiha? Don't you want to save this kunoichi? Then kill him. It's as simple as that."
Naruto looks at Sasuke, shocked. What was he going to do? Sakura was in danger, but he would have to sacrifice himself in order to save her. Naruto scowled, irritated. But even if Sasuke did decide to kill me, what guarantee do we have that he'll really let her go?
Sasuke hated himself right now more than ever. In order to save Sakura, I have to kill Naruto… Who means more to me? Naruto, or…Sakura? "Tch. I can't let Sakura die, Naruto."
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Naruto looks at Sasuke carefully. He had never seen Sasuke look so frantic. What was he thinking? He's not really thinking of…killing me, is he? I mean, how do we know that Kensen guy won't kill Sakura-chan? But Sasuke wasn't thinking about that possibility. All he could think of was how is he supposed to save them both?
Kensen laughs again. "What'll it be, Uchiha? I admit, it's amusing watching you fret over this, but my patience is wearing out." He looks down at Sakura and runs his finger down her cheek, stopping when he reached the top of her shirt. "It'd be a waste to have to kill her." Sasuke's glare only made Kensen laugh again. "Can't do anything to save her, Uchiha?"
That's it. He was going to use Kensen's trick against him. If it worked, he'd get Sakura back; but if it didn't…well, he wasn't going to think about that one.
Naruto was taken by surprise. Maybe it was because he was too confident, or maybe because he thought Sasuke would never even think about betraying him, but either way, he was taken by surprise. Sasuke was actually aiming at him, running full force he was almost a blur. "Sasuke, wait!"
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Opening his eyes, he groans. Damn, why did his body hurt so much? What did happen to make him feel this bad, anyway? He couldn't remember--
"Sasuke-kun!"
Oh…He knew that voice; it was-- "Sakura."
Finally, he had the sense to look at his surroundings. Ah. The hospital. Why was he there, again? "Ow, Sakura, that hurts…"
Sakura lets go of Sasuke instantly, apologizing over and over, and then hugging him again. "Sasuke-kun! Oh, I have to go tell Naruto and Kakashi-sensei! They'll want to know that you finally woke up!"
"Wait-" Damn. She had already run out of the room in search of Naruto and Kakashi. Who was going to explain what was going on?
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"So you don't remember anything? Not even when Sakura was taken captive?"
"Sakura was…" Why can't I remember anything? The last thing I really do remember is when we were talking in the kitchen; Naruto got pissed off or something…We went shopping, then cut across the park to get to my house-- "You mean Kensen? What happened to the bastard?"
Kakashi raised an eyebrow at his younger pupil (even though they couldn't see it). "You defeated him, of course." He turns to look at Naruto, who was lying, bored, on the floor next to Sasuke's bed. "Naruto, explain what happened."
"Whyyyyy? Just because he was the hero! It's not fair…" Naruto jumps up suddenly, pointing an accusing finger at Sasuke's chest. "Teme! When you get out of the hospital, I'll challenge you!"
"Naruto! Stop yelling at Sasuke-kun and just tell him what happened!"
Naruto sighs. "Fine…You remember when Kensen took Sakura-chan and knocked her unconscious, right? Well, Kensen said that you had to choose: it was either me or Sakura-chan. You thought about it pretty hard, and I thought you'd think of a plan to defeat him and get Sakura-chan back, but you didn't. All you said was, 'I can't let Sakura die, Naruto.' and you throw yourself at me! I really thought you were gonna kill me, teme!" He glared at Sasuke, then laughed. "But you didn't; at the last minute, you turned and took Kensen by surprise. Sakura-chan was already waking up, and so right when you went at him, she broke free from his hold. But Kensen didn't give up then; he was gonna stab Sakura-chan with his katana. Of course, since you're pretty quick, teme, you protected Sakura-chan."
Sakura sat up straight on the windowsill, her eyes cast downward.
"Of course, since you're pretty quick, teme, you protected Sakura-chan. And that's what made you end up in the hospital."
Sasuke nodded. "You said I defeated him; how?"
"Grah, teme, stop making me say everything about your victory! Sakura-chan, you tell him!"
"Okay, okay, calm down, Naruto." She takes a deep breath before starting to say, "Sasuke-kun, the moment he stabbed you, you turned around and used Kakashi-sensei's move; the Chidori. Right, Kakashi-sensei?" He nods. "At first we thought it might have been a different jutsu; the Chidori, from what I've read, takes time to prepare. Even with your Sharingan, Sasuke-kun, you couldn't have made it so quickly. But right after you got hit, Naruto and a bunch of ANBU appeared to help you. So it was okay…" Her eyes grow watery, and everyone in the room stayed quiet. Sakura was now sitting on his bed, and she leans over to place a kiss on his forehead. Surprisingly, he doesn't move away, instead looking directly at her while she did it. She blushes. "A-ano, Sasuke-kun…"
On the other side of the room, Kakashi chuckled, dragging a yelling Naruto behind him. Before they were completely out of the room, however, he says, "Naruto. You already know, don't you? You really are better off finding someone who can return your feelings."
Naruto stops fighting. Sighing, he lets Kakashi drag him silently out of the room.
Somehow, Sasuke and Sakura don't even notice that they're alone in the hospital room. They didn't really care, anyway.
Sakura jumps off the bed and stands up, holding both hands behind her back. "Arigatou, Sasuke-kun. For saving me." She leans down to place another kiss on his forehead, when he surprises her, again, by moving so his lips met hers in a kiss.
"Ah, S-Sasuke-kun?" She blushes. This has got to be a dream! She makes to move away, but he places a hand on her cheek to keep her in place. "Um, Sasuke-ku--mmph!" He silences her with another kiss.
Finally letting her go, he murmurs against her lips, "Guys can't seem to keep their hands off of you, can they."
And Sakura couldn't help but smile, as she leaned down to meet his lips in another breathtaking kiss.
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"Kaaaakaaaashiiii-seeenseeeiiii!! Wait uuuuuuup!" Naruto wasn't watching where he was going, so he didn't notice the person standing right in front of him until he ran into her full force, literally knocking both of them off their feet.
"Ow…" Naruto rubs his head and opens his eyes, only to come in contact with two very wide purple-but-really-more-light ones. Hinata?
"Naruto, how long are you going to stay on top of her? If I didn't know better, I would've thought that you were doing something bad to her, you naughty boy."
Naruto's face turned red, the color reaching all the way to his ears. Shooting up faster than a bullet, he offers Hinata his hand. The moment their hands touched, Naruto thought it odd that, for some strange reason, her hand felt…good. Warm against his own.
"U-Um, N-Naruto-kun?"
"Hai?"
"C-Can you l-let go, please?"
He went ten times redder when he realized that he was still holding her hand. Letting go quickly, he smiles at her and laughs. The only other times he ever felt this nervous was when Sakura was around…weird. Teme, I'm leaving Sakura-chan to you. And the next time we're in a pick-one-person-and-let-the-other-die-kind-of-situation, you better pick Sakura-chan! She's our precious cherry blossom! "Hey, Hinata-chan, wanna go get some ramen?"
And Kakashi poofing off in the middle of it all didn't even register in Naruto's mind as he led the way to Ichiraku's.
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Cheesy, yes, I know…
I really AM serious; this is the last chapter! I was having a really hard time coming up with something to happen, so I decided to just end it here. Maybe in the future, I'll try making it longer…? There might be some spelling errors, since I didn't even go over it… But anyway, please review!