Chapter Three; The Kiss
Sasuke and Sakura found their spots next to one another and waited for the wedding to start. However, Sasuke couldn't help but sneak a few glances at Sakura when she wasn't looking. Thankfully she was too busy looking at Kakashi that she didn't realizing he was currently staring at her butt. Sakura growled angrily at the fact that Kakashi was still studying his copy of Icha Icha Paradise.
"What?" he questioned her innocently before glancing up at her.
"How dare you be disrespectful by reading that shit at Naruto's wedding!" she hollered.
"Calm down, I'm not actually going to read it during the ceremony." He reassured her.
"Good! You better not! Otherwise I'm going to knock you into the middle of next week!" she exclaimed while shaking a fist at him.
"Threatening the hokage? Do you really think that that's wise considering your boyfriend already has black marks on his own record?" he inquired glancing over at Sasuke.
"Yeah right! As if Sasuke would be my boyfriend! He doesn't even like me!" she yelled before she turned her head over to look at him. Sasuke gasped and quickly turned his head away from her. "Sasuke?" she questioned him with uncertainty. "What's wrong?" she wondered.
"Nothing." He muttered before she reached a hand towards his.
"Come on Sasuke, you know that you can tell me anything." She told him soothingly as his eyes slowly met hers once again.
"Sakura, I,.. I have to tell you something." He began but before he got the chance to Hinata started walking down the aisle and Sasuke breathed a deep and heavy sigh. "Never mind. It can wait." He told her before they both turned around and started watching the ceremony taking place. Sakura quickly turned her head back around over at Kakashi and scowled clenching her fist again. Kakashi rolled his eyes before placing his book back inside his pocket.
"Hn." Sasuke said with a grin and a twinkle in his eye. Sakura widened her own eyes and raised her eyebrows as she stared at him.
"Huh? Is Sasuke actually flirting with me?" she wondered silently to herself.
.….
Sakura hunched her body over the railing of the balcony to the building where Naruto was having his reception and heaved a deep and heavy sad sigh. She thought about Sasuke and how much she had still loved him even though he had been completely horrible to her and had never shown her any interest up till now. Meanwhile, Naruto was inside over by the refreshment table and cutting himself a piece of cake.
Sasuke took a deep breath and sighed as he started walking towards him. "You idiot." He began. "That's your sixth slice. You could try saving some for other people you know." He told him.
"Oh really? What are you? My father?" Naruto questioned him before he took a bite. "What do you want anyway?" he wondered.
"Well first of all I just wanted to offer you and Hinata my congratulations. And second of all I wanted to know where Sakura was. I haven't seen her since the ceremony." He said.
"Oh, she's outside." Naruto began after he swallowed.
"Thank you." Sasuke began before he started to turn around and walk away.
"Wait Sasuke! Don't you want some more cake? There's plenty of it to go around you know." Naruto told him as Sasuke stopped and turned back over to look at him.
"No thanks. Maybe later. Right now there's something that I have to do." He replied before he turned back around and started walking towards the door. Sakura heaved another heavy sigh as Sasuke came up behind her. "There you are." He began as Sakura stood up and turned over to look at him. "Naruto told me that you were out here." He explained seeing her look of uttermost confusion.
"Oh. Hey Sasuke." She replied sadly before she turned around again.
"What's wrong?" he asked her. "Do you still think that I don't care about you?" he wondered as she slowly hung her head. "Listen, I don't blame you if you're upset. You have every right to hate me. After all, I'm sure a lot of people do. I know that I am one of them." He told her before to his complete astonishment and bewilderment she broke into tears.
"I don't understand! So much has happened between us, and you just act like everything is still the same! Just like when we were still a team!" she sobbed.
"No." he began as she quickly gasped and lifted her head to look back over at him with tears streaming down her cheeks. "Things are not the same, and they never will be again. Thanks to Naruto, things can be better than they were before." He told her.
"What? How can you say that!? How can things be better when I know for a fact that you tried to hurt me!? You could very well try to do it again!? And how do I know that you won't!?" she yelled.
"You really are annoying." He began before he took a deep breath. "The only reason why I tried to hurt you is because I was trying to make myself become stronger and you stood in my way,.. because you are my one true weakness." He told her as she gasped again while tears continued pouring down her cheeks and hitting the ground.
"I still don't understand, what are you trying to say Sasuke?" she asked him as he quickly bit his lip before a moment of silence fell between them.
"You still don't get it do you?" he questioned her back before he reached two of his fingers forward and tapped her forehead. "This was Itachi's way of showing affection towards me." He told her.
"You mean, that all this time you've been trying to tell me that you've finally fallen in love with me? That's what that was for?" she questioned him with bewilderment widening her eyes even more and staring at him while he stared back at her. "I thought you said that we have no reason to love each other." She said.
"That's right, I did. And I shouldn't have any reason to. However, you've always stuck by me longer than I ever could remember even though I didn't deserve it. You and Naruto were the greatest friends that I could ever ask for. However, everything's changed now. I'm sorry through all the pain that I put you through. If you promise to give me another chance, I promise that I will never let you get in harm's way again." He assured her.
"Sasuke I_" she began but before she could finish her sentence Sasuke placed a tender hand to her cheek and rubbed away her tears with his thumb before he tucked strands of her hair behind her ear and then tilted her chin up towards him. They both closed their eyes as their lips met for the very first time.