UPDATED 15/12/10 A/N: Remember to read the NEW authors note on the next page. I deleted the old one. I think the author's note on the next page will make everyone happy, hopefully.
Anyway, I'm so sorry for the lack of updating. Here's an extra long chapter for you guys. But yeah, I've been getting pestered by my lovely friends to do this. Maddie was one of them. Nicole was the second one. Sarah, you weren't too bad. Good girl. But anyway, here you are! CHAPTER… what chapter are we up to again?
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Naruto Shippuden or any of these awesome characters. They belong to Kishi. However, I do own this story and this plot. No stealing.
Last Chapter:
There was a slight movement and she felt his lips even closer to her ear, and for some reason, she just knew that this person was smirking.
That's when he spoke.
"I've found you," the heat tickled the back of her ear again, and her blush grew in realisation. "Haruno Sakura."
Prince Of The Hedges
Chapter Four: Bitter Chocolate
Her breath hitched uncomfortably, like a lump was stuck in her throat and wouldn't get out.
She could not breathe.
She could not speak.
She could not move.
His voice was not one you could easily forget, especially after how intimidated she was by it.
How she practically cowered in front of him that day.
What stupidity she had showed, and to a man she didn't even know!
His breath tickled the back of her neck and her ear lobe still, even and insouciant.
He wasn't panicked at all.
He knew exactly what he was doing and that didn't bother him at all.
It seemed as though he snuck up behind an innocent girl everyday, breathing down their neck and saying he'd 'found them'.
A possible way of how he could have met his current girlfriend.
A low grunt came out of his mouth and she finally realised that he was waiting for her to reply.
Apparently she wasn't meant to be completely frozen and scared while waiting to get butt-raped.
Sakura inwardly rolled her eyes.
She almost yelled: "My bad! Next time you come up behind me and breath down my neck like a divorced fifty-year-old horny fart I'll just bend over and lift my skirt up!" but quickly remembered that he'd probably help her do that if she said it, and pressed her lips tightly together.
Her reflection burst out laughing. "He doesn't want to rape us, lunatic. We have the counter between us. If he wanted to – which I wouldn't know why – he would have jumped over the counter already and started humping us like a dog."
Sakura grimaced at the crude language and looked away from the window, then sucked in a breath.
She opened her mouth, ready to tell him to let go, when the door swung open, and a soft sound – much like a snicker – made her snap her head around.
Evidently, Sasuke's head did the same thing.
A short boy stood in the doorway, holding an umbrella.
He was thirteen years old, with brown, spiky hair kept in place with a pair of goggles, and the scarf wrapped around his neck hardly hid the grin plastered on his face.
Sakura finally snapped out of her frozen stance and pulled herself from Sasuke's grip roughly.
Sasuke shoved both hands into his pockets and raised a black eyebrow at the boy standing in the doorway.
Sakura cleared her throat, making as much distance between her and Sasuke possible, and then folded her arms, setting a stern look on her face.
"Konohamaru! What are you doing here? Where's Yuudai?" She glanced at the clock on the wall and looked back at him. "He's late."
Konohamaru kept grinning. "Yuudai's got chickenpox so he got fired. You know how Anko is. Now I get to do his shifts while Anko looks for someone else! Hey, Sakura's boyfriend! Do you want a job? You guys can make out all you like when you're both on break." He proceeded to wiggle his eyebrows suggestively.
Sakura growled and clenched her fists. "WE ARE NOT DATING! I DON'T KNOW HIM! AND NO HE DOESN'T WANT A JOB!"
He laughed and walked in properly, closing the door behind him and putting his umbrella down. "That's not what it looked like to me!"
"I honestly wonder why you haven't been fired yet. You're a complete pain in the arse." She grumbled irritably.
"It's because I take after Boss, of course. How's Boss doing anyway? Haven't seen him in a while."
"Yes, I can see the resemblance. Loud, ignorant and annoying. Naruto hasn't seen you because nowadays he's usually locked up in his house trying to catch up with all the homework he hasn't done since we started High School. Which is everything. He hung out today though."
Konohamaru looked shocked. "Boss is failing School?"
Sakura smiled. At least some kids knew how important school was. "Yes. He might repeat if he keeps it up."
"Then why the hell am I trying so hard? He'll just repeat all the way back to my year and I'll just beat him at everything then!" He punched a fist in the air. "Sweet! I don't have to do that Geography assignment to surpass him anymore!"
Sakura sweat dropped. "Instead of trying to be like Naruto-"
She was cut off when Sasuke cleared his throat.
Sakura looked over and saw the annoyance crossed over his face clearly, and was surprised at herself that she even forgot that he was there.
At that same instant, a customer walked in, and Anko stuck her head out of her office door.
"KONOHAMARU! GET BEHIND THE COUNTER AND SERVE THE NICE LADY! AND SAKURA! RACK OFF WITH YOUR BOYFRIEND ALREADY!"
"Yes, Ma'am." They said in unison, and scurried off to their appropriate places.
Sakura was half way there when a hand clamped itself onto her shoulder and abruptly stopped her from moving.
She inclined her head slightly to stare into his eyes, already knowing whom it was.
"Get your things and meet me outside."
Sakura turned around quickly, opening her mouth to question his antics, but he was already out the door and into the downpour of rain, leaving her standing alone with only one question going through her mind.
What the hell is going on?
The door slammed shut and the rain hit her instantly, soaking her hair so it clung to both her neck and face.
Sakura looked around but could not see any sign of a dark looking fellow.
But then again, it was pitch black outside with nothing but lights reflecting from inside restaurants to lead the way of people passing by.
'It's better this way,' Sakura thought, nodding in silent agreement with herself. 'Karin probably just sent him over to annoy me or something.'
She looked around once more to make sure and started off down the practically empty street.
He really was nowhere to be seen, but she couldn't help but look around to make sure he wouldn't jump out from nowhere suddenly.
After all, he did tell her to meet him outside. So why wasn't he out there waiting for her, ready to do whatever the hell he wanted to do?
'Men.' She thought to herself in disgust and kept walking as the rain came down harder and the night sky gradually got darker.
She wanted to be home, she wanted to curl up in her bed, the doona wrapped around her securely and the electric blanket turned up to four out of six levels of heat. With her parents, and not with a car speeding around a corner and splashing water all over her already soaked clothing.
Her middle finger protruded at the P plater that was already near invisible against the downpour and shouted a string of colourful words that was inaudible against the crash of rain.
Sighing, she spared a glance over her shoulder and kept walking, still not seeing anyone following her. Distracted, her foot fell off the curb and she stumbled onto the road.
Headlights flooded her peripheral vision and she was temporarily blinded until her mind started processing what was happening.
Sakura heard the sound of the engine and muffled music pounding as if it was right beside her, and as she dared to glance over, frozen in place, she realised in horror that in just a few seconds, that example would become a fact, and then the Hummer H2 SUV that was flooring down the road at eighty kilometres an hour would squash her like a bug and she'd be left as road kill.
She was too frozen to move, and even if she could it would be too late.
Would the driver see her through the perennial rain? Would he be able to see her small, saturated figure over the enormous bonnet, even with the headlights blaring, highlighting her against the darkness?
It wouldn't matter either way, she mused.
If he slammed on the breaks now, he would hit her anyway and probably crash from the slippery tar and the fact that he was speeding, and if he decided to swerve around her, the end result would be the same.
Her life didn't flash before her eyes, but an inhuman grip suddenly grabbed her from behind, so strong that she wondered if the Hummer had already hit her.
It tore her off her feet so fast that she couldn't focus on anything properly, and she was pulled backwards in a blur of darkness.
Sakura felt the Hummer go right passed her. She felt the heat and heard the roar of the engine and the muffled music.
It was like a slap in the face.
And then it was gone, and she lay on the ground panting from the rush.
But the ground was breathing, panting too.
And she realised that she wasn't lying on the ground, but infact on a person. The person who managed to run onto the road, grab her and haul them both off just before it flattened them.
Impossible.
She rolled off of the person and looked at them. Then swore.
Uchiha Sasuke sat up and gave her a long stare. His lips did not move. He didn't utter a single thing. He just stared; fury and incredulity were etched onto his perfectly chiselled face.
And his eyes glinted from red back to onyx so quick that she just assumed it was the reflection of a light.
Sakura opened her mouth to question him, but when his glare intensified she quickly shut her mouth and watched him rise to his feet.
He grabbed her by the arm and wrenched her to her own feet roughly, making her stumble. But Sasuke was in no mood for an annoying girl's clumsiness, so he hauled her along, forcing her to properly stand, and headed back to his bags that he dropped.
Many questions flew through her mind as she stared at his back, his black shirt clinging tightly to his muscles. His hair was plastered to the back of his neck, but you could still make out a few subtle spikes protruding up, fighting against the rain.
She closed her eyes as they walked, the questions still jabbing loudly in her head, giving her a minor headache.
How did he know where I was?
How did he get here so fast?
How did he pull us both off the road so quickly?
Why did he even bother to save me?
Why is he so strong?
What did he want in the first place?
Why wasn't he outside and where did he go?
How is his hair still spiky?
Sakura decided to play it safe and asked quietly, afraid that he would get annoyed if she was loud, "Why weren't you waiting outside?"
He glanced back at her briefly and continued walking.
For a moment she thought he was going to keep ignoring her, but he finally opened his mouth.
"I went out the back to make sure you couldn't sneak out from there. You girls usually take a decade to get ready, so I took my time."
"Sexist and creepy," She muttered, which earned her a raised eyebrow. "So you came back and I wasn't there to hear your explanation of why you need to talk to me so bad?"
Sasuke rolled his eyes. "Aa."
"Right," Sakura suddenly tore her arm away from his grip with surprising force and folded them against her chest. "Well, even though you pulled me off the road - which I am grateful for - I don't really want to hear one of Karin's death threats because I punched her in the nose or whatever, so you can skip along home now like a good, obedient man whore."
He stopped suddenly, and she thought he was going to hit her or yell at her, until he leaned down and picked up the bags that he left by a bus stop.
Sasuke stood under the shelter and looked down at her after a moment, obsidian eyes giving nothing away.
"You talk too much," he said flatly. "Shut up."
Her eyebrow twitched in annoyance slightly, but her lips remained pursed.
He nodded, satisfied with the silence. "Point me in the direction of your house."
Sakura's jaw dropped. "You are absolutely not coming to my house!"
"I told you to shut up, that's why you were supposed to point. Do you not know the difference between hand gestures and talking?"
"I know this." She stuck up her middle finger.
Sasuke watched her, stuck between being amused or annoyed, and finally decided to ignore it. "Lead the way."
"I don't know you! You are not coming to my house! Go to Karin's!" She yelled exasperatedly and marched off, although he remained following her, leaving her to glance over her shoulder more than a few times and shout at him, which he all nonchalantly pretended not to hear.
After the repeated process of walking, yelling and ignoring, they finally stopped at the door to the small, two-story house. The grass surrounding was far too long and all the plants were either dying or dead.
Sasuke took note of the dull area as Sakura fiddled with her house keys, but didn't comment.
She finally opened the door after a few agonizingly freezing minutes and threw herself into the dry room, attempting to slam the door on her companion, whom quite easily blocked the door from shutting with his shoulder and slipped in.
Sakura pointed stiff armed at the door. "Out!"
Sasuke dumped his bags and smirked at her, raising an eyebrow.
Ticked off even more at the fact that he wouldn't even budge, she raised her tone at the amused man. "Sasuke! – That's your name right? – GET OUT! I will not repeat myself anymore!"
"Then don't," he agreed. "It would do me a favour."
"Doing you a favour is one of the last things on my list." She grumbled. "We don't know each other at all. Our only connection is your girlfriend. She's your sex buddy and she's my enemy. Hardly a reason for you to be here."
"I saved your life without knowing you."
She paused at that, and Sasuke didn't add in that he only did it for his own benefit.
He wasn't selfish. He was just desperate, and if everything went according to plan, he'd be back in his luxurious mansion in no time. He just needed a place to stay while he worked on it.
"Why did you do that, anyway?" She watched him intently, her lips curved downward into a tiny frown.
"It doesn't matter. The only thing that matters is that you owe me." He looked around, sucking everything in. It was homey enough, but small, even for a two-story house. "I hope you have a spare room."
"A spare room! A SPARE ROOM!" She spluttered, glaring. "No, there is not a spare room! There is my room and my parents room!"
He opened his mouth to retaliate, but she cut him off, which left him annoyed.
Why this girl of all the people in the world?
"YOU, my dear, can sleep out on the road for all I care! I don't know you! You didn't have to bloody well save me – and a matter of fact, I don't even know how you did that because about two seconds earlier I was looking over my shoulder and guess what? You were not there."
Sasuke watched her until she was finished, her cheeks now flushed, her eyes narrowed. She was panting. From anger or from screaming so much, he did not know – but he assumed both was the best answer.
"I have no reason to explain myself to you, however, I will explain why I am staying here, and that's it. After this, never ask me things that do not involve you – and that is practically everything besides this, because I do not wish to involve myself with you anymore than I already have." His tone was firm and icy.
"You don't make any sense at all, idiot! If you don't want to involve yourself with me then why are yo-"
"I feel like I have no other choice, so deal with it." This time his tone had a certain edge to it, and she knew that what he was saying was most likely going to dominate. His voice was completely cold and final.
She even opened her mouth despite that, but he gave her the most threatening look she had ever received (and she had quite a few psycho guys in her group that could pull off a mean death glare).
Sakura glared furiously, fighting with herself mentally as to try and not start screaming. Her head felt like it was about to explode from trying to comprehend what was going through this guy's head!
She came to agreement that Uchiha Sasuke was not someone you could honestly win an argument with, even if he was the one in the wrong.
She closed her eyes and breathed.
Calm down, Sakura. You're better than this.
With a small sigh, she re-opened her eyes and – with a whole lot of forced strength – willed herself to give up. "Hold on."
She disappeared into a corridor for a moment and then came back with two towels.
"Pink or purple?" She offered.
He stared at her blankly.
She sighed. "Oh come on. They're towels, man! Just take one for goodness sake."
"Hn." He made no move to grab one.
Sakura flailed the purple towel in front of his face for a bit, feeling that that was a manlier colour, but soon gave up, shrugging. "Suit yourself. You can freeze."
She wrapped herself in the pink towel and sat down on the lounge, then started to dry her hair with the purple. "Alright. Shoot."
Sasuke remained standing and closed his eyes, thinking of how he was going to explain all this. He didn't particularly want to explain a lot, but he had to explain enough so it would work. After a few silent moments, he began.
"I overheard that you needed someone to take care of your garden. By the look of things," He spared a glance out the window, where a tall, dying plant leant against it, blocking the majority of the outside view. "You weren't lying."
"Are you stalking me then?" Sakura inquired suspiciously.
"Stalking is a very forward word."
"Great," She muttered sarcastically. "It's always a pleasure to have a stalker in my house!"
"Actually, I saw you in the Pizzeria by chance and tried to talk to you outside, but I lost you in the crowd. Eventually I found your work."
Finding her work was a whole different story. He had replied to the text message Karin had sent him, though it really had nothing to do with getting her a kitty. It took him two hours to find out precisely where she worked. Then it took another hour to track down where Kono Café was and to actually get there.
To make matters worse, he couldn't let Karin find out that he was trying to find Sakura, so everything had to be done carefully and very subtly.
The first hour in texting Karin was trying to get her onto the topic of Sakura. The second hour was finding out where she worked.
And how much credit had he wasted? He had no idea because he was on a plan.
His father and mother probably forgot about it, but after the bill that they would be receiving, he assured himself that he wouldn't be able to text or ring from his phone any longer.
"Alright… so you want to be my gardener? I can't exactly pay you money. I can't even pay for things by myself, let alone give you money."
"Obviously. You're only, what? Sixteen?" Sasuke was starting to regret not taking one of the towels. He wanted to get dry and he was starting to get cold.
"Seventeen." She corrected flatly. "I don't think you're that much older."
He nodded slightly. "Seventeen."
"Then I don't see your point. I can't pay you for it, so there's no reason why you should want to be my gardener."
Sasuke pushed himself off of the wall and walked over. Finally, he snatched the purple towel from her hands, which earned him a disapproving "Hey!" and started drying himself off. "You can pay." He spared a glance over. "Just not with money."
Sakura stared at him for a long while, although Sasuke wasn't looking at her, so he had no clue that her face was starting to turn bright red.
In the window, her embarrassed features turned into that of entertained ones.
"I guess we were wrong!" Her reflection tittered gleefully, trying to hold back her obvious enjoyment of teasing her outer self. "He really is going to rape us!"
Sakura flashed a glare at the window. 'Shutup already!'
She focused her attention back on Sasuke, who was now watching her idiosyncratic behaviour with an odd expression on his face.
"What?"
"You're blushing." He pointed out, pointing his finger at her face lazily.
"No, I'm actually just sunburnt."
He crinkled his nose up at her failed attempt at lying, and Sakura tried very hard not to grin. His expression was kind of cute.
Kind of.
Not like OMGHE'SSOEFFINGCUTEOMGORGASMATTACK!$#^#&^%#%
Just Kind of.
Sakura couldn't stress the matter further.
Not even with her trusty italics, underlines and bolds.
"Right." He spoke, finally letting his expression go back to his usual. Blank.
Sakura looked away, silently praying that the blush would fade. "Well, anyway, what do you mean when you say I can pay without money?"
Please not with my body, please not with my body…
"You can pay in giving me a place to stay and food to eat. The worst I'll do is eat all of your tomatoes."
She smiled. So he did have human qualities besides being an asshole, and even better, he wasn't going to rape her! "You like tomatoes?"
He gave her a look but didn't reply.
"Well, I don't think that the lady helping me pay my bills will approve much. I don't really approve myself." She sighed irritably and stood up, starting to idly walk around the room, much to Sasuke's dismay.
He didn't like her walking around, because it made him start to watch her, going back and forth, back and forth, until she was actually pacing quickly and chewing her lower lip so much that he wondered when it would start to bleed.
She stopped suddenly.
"Why don't you stay at Karin's?"
He raised an eyebrow at her and then closed his eyes. "Hn."
"Too annoying?"
"Aa."
"She asked you to buy her a cat, didn't she?"
"…Aa."
"All her other boyfriends refused to buy her one and broke up with her… are you going to buy her one?"
"Hn."
"Cool. Going to break up with her?"
"Hn."
"What the hell happened to full sentences? You were speaking fine a moment ago!" Sakura exclaimed, resting her hands on her hips.
He opened his eyes, flashed a small smirk and then closed his eyes again.
And she was back to pacing.
After a few moments in silence, she stopped again, but turned to him this time.
"Oi, Uchiha."
Sasuke turned from the window he was currently looking out of and stared at her expectantly. Finally she had come to a conclusion.
"Give me my towel back." She ordered, one hand held out to catch it.
He almost slapped a hand on his forehead in disappointment, but threw the towel at her anyway. "Is that all?"
Sakura shook her head and disappeared for a moment with the towels. A few minutes later, she was back empty handed and the sound of a washing machine in another room was muffled through all of the walls in between the laundry and lounge room.
"I guess…" She started hesitantly, not bothering to sit down. "I guess you can stay."
He smirked triumphantly and stood up. Finally!
"But only for one night! Then I'll make my proper decision! And you have to stay on the couch." Sakura argued.
He sighed but nodded. At least he had a place to stay other than Karin's for one night.
"Tomorrow we'll determine if you're a good enough gardener or not. Depending on that and your attitude, I'll see if you can stay." She stretched and turned to look at his bags thoughtfully. "I'll get something for you to sleep in. I'll wash your clothes soon and put your bags out to dry in the morning."
"You're not going to give me some of your clothes, are you?" He snickered.
"Even though you'd look incredibly sexy in my clothes, Sasuke," She started, rolling her sea-foam green eyes. "I don't think so. I'm giving you my father's clothes."
"What a shame."
"I know. Anyway, you should have a shower. I'll get the bathroom prepared – I only use the one in my room so the one you're using doesn't really have anything in it – and then I will get you some clothes."
Sakura started to turn away, when she heard a low, inaudible grumble erupt from a certain person's stomach.
"And after that I'll make some food for inkle Sasuke." She teased, and starting to laugh, exited the room and made her way upstairs to grab her father's clothing.
His glare on her back when she left only made her laugh more.
After the outrageous events of the day, Sakura was becoming tired. She looked over at the digital clock on a table on the other side of the room.
9:02 PM flashed across the screen.
She sighed. It wasn't really even that late yet.
Standing up from her place in the lounge room, she snapped her book shut and walked over to set it back in the overflowing bookshelf.
It was a romance, her favourite romance book actually. This was her fifth time reading it – and it strangely never got old.
She liked realistic things. She didn't like fairytale happy endings anymore.
Happy endings were always what she had wanted, what she had thought existed.
Boy, was she wrong or what?
When she was twelve, she always followed boys around (in a kind of creepy manner) to try and get them to date her.
Sakura had been a fangirl. Even Ino used to be a fangirl.
They had made their own fan club of every guy they liked. Sometimes, it even resulted in the two best friends to fight over a guy (that they hadn't even talked to in most cases).
Sakura closed her eyes as she thought back. They had been so silly, without a care about the real world.
Chasing after boys, getting stickers on her completed homework every week, crying when she scraped her knee that time she went Rollerblading with Naruto and Ino – those memories seemed so far away to Sakura.
There were the good times and unfortunately the bad times, but she could always brush those little worries off after a call from Ino or Naruto.
Now that she was older, it was a little more complex than that.
Back then; she never really had a thought about her parents. Of what it would be like to have them. She had been with friends, and she had been happy.
She missed that.
Her eyes opened slowly and she suddenly smacked herself in the face.
"God! I'm so emo! SHUTUP SAKURA YOU BIG FOREHEADED DUMMY!" and she smacked herself again, and again, and again.
A hand clamped itself around her wrist and she looked up at its owner with a surprised expression.
Sasuke stood casually, clad in her father's slightly bigger white t-shirt and sweatpants. He was holding a tomato, which she assumed he had just taken from the kitchen. There was a big chunk missing from the side of it.
He raised an eyebrow. "Do you need medical help?"
She huffed and pulled her arm away. "No! I'm just yelling at myself! People do it all the time!"
"True," he agreed, taking another bite of the tomato. He chewed for a moment and finally swallowed. "When they're in the asylum."
"Buddy, you're not in my good books yet. If you want to stay here, you should be careful."
"Why be careful," he started, sinking down onto the couch. "When I know you like me and secretly want me to stay here?"
"Bah!" She spat. "You wish! I'm going to bed. Don't eat all of my tomatoes."
Sakura glared one last time before marching upstairs, making as much noise as possible.
Yeah, she was a drama queen. A childish drama queen.
But hey, she was offering an entire lounge room to some stuck up emo kid. She had every right to be a childish drama queen.
Especially if that emo kid hated, no, despised noise.
As Sakura slammed her bedroom door shut, Sasuke's eye twitched for the fifth time in about thirty-two seconds.
She was already in her pyjamas so she looked around the room, not entirely feeling like sleeping yet.
Suddenly, she turned back and watched her door.
"I don't have a lock," Sakura murmured to herself thoughtfully and kept watching the door, trying to think of something to do.
It's not that she didn't trust Sasuke… she just… okay, she didn't trust him. At all.
So she stood there, staring at her door for god knows how long… (Ten minutes and twenty-six seconds) until she pumped her fist into her other hand and grinned.
"Ah-ha! Perfect!"
Sakura proceeded to pull a chair over and prop it underneath the door handle, so it was leaning against the door, two legs raised.
It was ingenious! And slightly cliché.
She shrugged and jumped onto her bed. She was exceptionally proud of herself for something that probably wasn't even worth being proud for, but she didn't care.
At least if Sasuke decided he wanted to annoy her, murder her or potentially take her cherry away, then he could say hello to her door that wouldn't open.
It would be so worth it to see an overgrown chicken man ram a door and not be able to make it crash down onto the floor.
She had an image of Sasuke turning into the hulk, beating his large fists against his chest and screaming, "YOU WON'T LIKE ME WHEN I'M ANGRY!"
Creepy.
But then that made her think of how strong he was.
She hoped the door would hold.
Sakura's mind started to swim, and it settled onto the memory of her being on the road.
He never actually said why he was angry, but she was just left to assume that it was because she was an idiotic person who didn't move out of harms way.
But honestly, why would he care?
Maybe it was just because he needed to stay in her house.
Maybe it was just because he wanted to cut off all of her hair and sell it on Ebay.
She liked the latter.
Her eyes wandered around the room again. There, they found a small cabinet, which her small TV rested on.
She didn't get very good reception in her room, and the shows were always fuzzy and making an annoying static sound, but it was good when she wanted some light and noise in her room. She wasn't so lonely with the loud, crackling sound of people talking and laughing and crying on soap operas.
But her eyes were watching the cabinet.
Slowly, she stood up and walked over. Crouching down, she opened the doors and pulled out the contents: Folders, stuffed animals, makeup, diaries, books, notes from school and much more.
Now that it was empty, you could plainly see the secret compartment at the bottom, which had been neatly hidden with the overflowing items.
Tenderly, she opened it up, where a tattered old book with a dusty red velvet case lay neglected.
She ran her hands over the front, dust picking up onto her fingers and a bit of the brighter red coming through.
Sakura stood up from her crouch and wiped her hand on her pyjama bottoms to get rid of the dust.
Sitting down on her bed, she sucked in a breath and blew at the front cover.
Dust flew everywhere, floating into her eyes, nose and mouth. She was blinded and having a coughing attack, rolling around on her bed.
"Stupid…" She rasped and sneezed. "Stupid book!"
She continued rolling, until she met the end of the bed and fell to the floor with a loud crash and an even louder cuss.
Then came a sneeze.
"Ow!" She whined, holding her head. "Why did I get you out of your hidey hole? You're so stupid!"
She groaned and sneezed again. "Or maybe I'm so stupid."
The door suddenly opened, the chair falling onto the floor.
Sasuke appeared from behind the half open door and closed it behind him. "Yep."
Sakura stood up quickly, infuriated that he foiled her ingenious plans. "Dude! You ruined my lock!"
"Your lock wouldn't keep out a toddler."
"My lock is better than your face!" She yelled, frowning. Smooth.
"Ouch. Harsh. I'll retreat back to my couch now."
"Damn straight."
He turned to leave, but his eyes caught sight of the red book now lying on the floor beside her.
Nonchalantly, he walked over and picked it up.
"Diary?" He questioned her, running his fingertips over the markings.
"No! It's completely different to a stupid diary! Give it back!" Sakura stood up and reached for it, but to no avail.
He held it high above his head, pleased with how tall he was.
"Damn it!" She growled. She was so short! "Give my Friend log back!"
He raised a black eyebrow. "Friend log?"
"N-nothing!" She stammered and jumped up before he could look inside, snatching it right from his hands.
She instantly moved away from him and clutched it to her chest.
"Get out!" She yelled. "You don't want anything to do with me, remember? So move it! There's nothing to see here!"
He smirked and headed back to the door. "You get aggressive very easily." He noted out loud.
"Thanks Captain Obvious. Doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that you piss me off!"
"Your insults become less intelligent the madder you get."
"SHUT UP YOU… YOU… CHICKEN ASS!" She roared and threw the book at him.
Sasuke quickly slipped out of the room, starting to chuckle softly, and completely forgetting that she was mad, Sakura slumped down onto her bed and wondered how something so simple as chuckling could sound so brilliant.
Downstairs, not much later, a certain Uchiha sat on the couch of the living room, his lifeless obsidian eyes glued to the unusable fireplace.
However, his interest was not on the fireplace, but rather, the two picture frames in front of it.
Sunshine peeked into the bedroom through the slight parting of the green and pink curtains, where the sunlight splayed on the ground and on part of the bed.
A girl lay on top of the bed, still clad in the clothes she wore the day before and a book lay open on her stomach.
Her short pink hair sprayed out as far and messily as it could around the pillow and she curled up into a ball, shivering slightly for she was lying on top of the covers rather than underneath them.
She rolled over, her book falling onto the bed, and suddenly hissed in pain as she shot up into a sitting position.
Sakura looked over the room, her mind clouded by sleepiness. She looked over again, and then one more time, until she realised that she was in her room.
Looking down, she found what had caused her pain. She had been lying on top of a pen and it had stabbed into her stomach. Annoyed, she threw it off the bed, where it collided with the wall.
"Serves you right for attempting to murder my stomach." She muttered to herself and stood up, stretching.
Running a hand through her tussled hair, she looked over at her bedroom door and couldn't help but start to giggle to herself quietly.
The chair was placed back against the door, but it was now securely taped to it. The door handle was also taped so much that you couldn't even move it.
This is what happens when Haruno Sakura gets angry, she thought to herself.
"Now," she spoke to herself out loud, crossing her arms. "How am I going to get out?"
When no answer came from some intelligent being, (Even though she was the only one in the room apart from inanimate objects) she frowned.
Maybe she just wanted to be like Will from 'WITCH' and talk to psycho electrical appliances… but just with inanimate objects in general.
Finally, Sakura shrugged and glanced at the time. She had fourty-four minutes to get ready and make sure the depressed chicken was set.
Talk about stressful.
Gathering some clothes and undergarments, she walked into her bathroom ensuite quickly and hopped into the shower.
Ten minutes later, she was out, and sitting on the toilet lid, painting her nails and toenails green, still in a towel.
"Perfect!" She chirped and blew on her fingernails, her toenails already half dry. "Red is too formal for just going to school, and pink is boring to wear all the time… green is natural and cute!"
She paused for a second, cocking her head to the side.
"Wow, that was a seriously girly moment."
Sakura grinned and stood up, discarding the towel and throwing the School Uniform on. Walking out of the bathroom, she grabbed her red backpack and looked down at her bare feet and wiggled her toes thoughtfully, though partially admiring her freshly painted toenails.
Her shoes were downstairs.
She had two options; Bust down the door and pay for the damages, or climb out of the window without shoes on.
Sakura scratched her chin thoughtfully, and her eyes fell on the Friend log lying open on her bed.
She remembered writing about Sasuke – then nothing. She must have fallen asleep.
Quietly, she walked over and picked it up. Turning it over, she began to read the contents.
Uchiha Sasuke,
He is the definition of EVILLLL! How is he not evil? He's going out of with Karin and he's eating ALL of my stinking TOMATOES!
Tomatoes aren't my FAVOURITE food in the world but I still eat them!
How dare heee!
Blah.
The only time he talks is when he wants to prove that he's right, WHICH IS NEVER, since I happen to be awesomerer than him. Duh.
And I wish my Inner Self would shut her stupid, beautiful face. Inner, WE ARE AWESOMER THAN HIM! DON'T ARGUE!
Anyway, Uchiha Sasuke. Right. I don't even know why I'm letting him stay here. He's probably pulling a prank on me from Karin, but he kind of doesn't seem to like her. What's up with that?
This may be a Friend log, but this is the start to… THE ENEMY LOG! DUN DUN DUN! I should put Karin in here next…
But yeah. There's nothing good about Uchiha Sasuke. At all.
Apart from his arse. God.
Arse of the devil who transformed into a super hot model.
I seriously don't like him.
"Oh my god," she gasped when she finished reading. "I need to scribble that last bit out… that's so completely not true… I must have been really tired last night…"
Sakura started to look around for the pen that she threw, poking her head under bed and desk and crawling around on the floor.
She sighed when the pen was nowhere to be found, and sat up whilst underneath her computer desk, smacking her head on the wood.
She yelped in pain and fell onto her back, where her eyes fell onto the fish clock on her wall.
"Shit."
She shot up, completely forgetting about finding the pen to scribble out the embarrassing arse confession and pulled on some socks she had grabbed from the dresser.
Making her decision quickly, she opened the window and climbed out carefully.
She had no money at all to fix the repairs if she broke the door down, and un-taping her door could take hours.
The tape had honestly seemed like a good idea at the time.
Taking a deep breath, she grabbed hold of a brick that was slightly sticking out, and started to lower herself down the wall slowly, sinking her nails into spots that she could hold on to.
She hissed when the corner of a brick cut into her sock and foot, but continued on anyway.
"Don't fall, don't fall," she kept chanting to herself quietly, carefully manoeuvring herself down the wall. It was lucky that she had muscle, or she probably would have fallen already.
Sakura sucked in a breath. She was moving far too slow.
Deciding that she should find out how far away from the ground she was, she tightened her grip on the cracks, which her fingers were currently holding on to, and found a place where her feet could temporarily stay.
Bravely, she inclined her head slightly to see how far she had to go.
The ground seemed to shrink further away from her once she looked at it, making it look like the gap between her and the ground was expanding.
She suddenly felt dizzy. She wasn't even halfway there yet!
She scolded herself for the stupid idea of climbing out the window and decided to go back the way she came.
Sakura lifted a foot up, trying to find a crack or a brick slightly sticking out to stand on. Using her arms, she started levering herself up higher to continue her search.
She groaned loudly, cursing. Climbing down was easier than climbing up.
She was clinging by a wall, with small cracks here and there to hold on to. Better yet, she was stuck practically in the middle, so there was no closer option. She was in a tight spot.
Her arms ached from the strain and her legs were hurting from being in the same position for too long. She was also hungry and her feet were probably bleeding all over her white socks.
Sighing, she continued her search for a place to rest her foot. Finally, she slipped a foot into a gap and started to pull herself up. A second too late, she realised that her foot was too big for the crack, and it slipped out.
Overcome with shock, her hands slipped and she was falling mid air.
'First the car, and now this! How the hell do I get myself into these situations!' was her immediate thought.
Her second was, 'Grab onto something and stop talking to yourself, you idiot!'
Sakura didn't fall far, doing just as she told herself to do. Her hand grabbed onto the top of a brick, and her knees swung against the window as she stopped again, though not with enough force to break it.
Her legs dangled uselessly in mid air.
Inside the house, Uchiha Sasuke stared out of the window, his lips parted, ready to bite into the delicious, red vegetable he held. But it sat in his hand, unnoticed, for he was staring at the legs suspended in mid air.
Because that was completely normal.
Closing his mouth, he sat the tomato on the kitchen bench, and strode outside curiously.
He walked around to the outside of the window he had been standing at, and sure enough, there were legs outside of the window, but now he could see that they were attached to a girl.
A girl with conspicuous, vibrant pink hair.
He wondered who that could be.
"What are you doing?" He asked, leaning against the wall. He looked up at her through his dark bangs that were shielding his eyes from the sun.
Sakura squealed slightly in surprise and held on even more tightly. Glancing down, she glared at him. "Oh, you know! Just hanging around! What the hell do you think I'm doing?"
"Hanging around sums it up."
"Shut up and help me down!" She squeezed her eyes shut, afraid to look down anymore.
"Let go. You'll land in a bush."
"You're so cruel!" She screamed. "You could at least attempt to help! And if you haven't noticed, idiot, there are no bushes! Everything's dead!"
"Then you'll fall on the grass. Happy?"
"Why would anyone dangling from a wall be happy! Imbecile!" Sakura felt the need to slap her forehead in frustration, but that wouldn't be very logical in her current situation.
Sasuke smirked and ran a hand through his hair thoughtfully.
"Let's make a deal." He said imperatively. With things like this, Uchiha Sasuke did not ask questions.
"A deal?" She asked incredulously. "Are you mad? Have you not realised that I am practically HANGING BY BRICKS?"
He ignored her. The cards were in his hands now. "You agree to let me stay for as long as I need, I help you down."
"Oh you have got to be kidding me. That's foul play." She protested noisily.
Sasuke just remained silent, the smirk on his face never faltering.
She had no foothold. Her arms were aching so much from holding her body weight over a long period of time. Her fingers were bruised.
Sakura just wanted to break down and cry.
A finger slipped, and she desperately put it back on, only for another to fall off. The sun was higher in the sky by now, and she was sweating and struggling.
However, Sasuke still remained in his spot, not talking, not moving to try and help.
She started kicking her legs to find something for her socks to grasp on, but there was only the cool glass of the window.
Another finger slipped, and her arms were screaming in pain.
A whole hand fell, and her stubborn exterior faltered. "You can stay!"
In a flash, there was a tug from her legs and she was falling again. This time, an arm snaked its way around her waist, supporting her until it swiftly set her on the ground.
It was very quick, and for that split second she felt completely safe.
The arm was removed, and Sakura instantly collapsed onto the yellowing grass.
"Oh my… everything." She groaned, feeling the pain coursing through her.
"Welcome back to Earth. You are once again shorter than me."
She muffled something incoherent that rhymed with, 'Buck Foo'.
"Hey," Sasuke called, folding his arms. "You need to show me where all your gardening crap is."
She paused, and slowly, reluctantly, she rose from the ground. "I suppose. Follow me."
Sakura turned and walked into the house. Slipping her shoes on, she walked back out again and proceeded to walk around the house, while Sasuke followed along quietly.
Weeds, plants and trees grew in numbers the closer they got towards the backyard.
Sasuke wondered how a backyard could have gotten so out of control, but he was knocked out of his thoughts when they came to stop in front of a door.
"This is the shed." She explained, and opened the door. She walked in and flipped on the switch. It flickered briefly before lighting up the entire room.
"Okay well… I haven't really done this before so…" Sakura started.
"I expect that not many Seventeen year olds have." He deadpanned and walked inside. It was very small and crowded with objects.
There were spider webs in corners and dust was thickly coated along a table on the right side of the room.
The temperature in the room was also unusually cool.
She gave him a sour look and looked over the room. "Well first, you can start by cleaning this up."
"I came here to be a gardener, not a cleaner."
"If you want to be a gardener, you need to organize your crap first!" She argued, feeling partially embarrassed that she hadn't cleaned it up herself.
"Hn."
"Anyway, it'll be messy, so you should probably put on my dad's old overalls. They should fit you, if not a little big."
Sasuke crinkled his nose up again, and she tried very hard not to giggle.
"Oh come on. Let's go."
It took a whole lot of effort to get him into the house again.
She asked him nicely, she argued, she yelled, she ignored him, then she did the smart thing – she used her strength.
"GET YOUR ARSE INTO THAT HOUSE MAN!" With an arm wrapped around his neck, she dragged him into the house and upstairs.
Sasuke had put up a good fight, flipping her over the top of him about three times, and accidentally kicking her in the chest once (to which she cried, "MY CHESTICLES!"), but he wasn't the kind of person to hit women unless it was necessary, so he went a little easy on her, even if her strength could make the biggest pimp in the world cry.
Though Sasuke was no pimp. He was just a good-looking guy with a bad temper whom happened to have a fetish for tomatoes.
Sakura dragged him into her parent's room and started looking through the closets.
Under normal circumstances, by no means would she let anyone apart from herself into her parent's room – but she didn't want to have to go running after the idiot if he escaped, so she brought him along with her.
He was a lifeless fruitcake anyway, so he wouldn't really care or ask about her parents, which she was relieved about.
Honestly, she didn't feel like talking about it.
After a moment's searching, she finally found them. She had never washed them, had never had the heart to – oddly, it still smelled of her father, and there was a tug at her heart that told her to not give it to Sasuke, for he would change the smell with his own.
However, she knew that she was being selfish and handed them over.
"Don't destroy them." She warned, eyebrows knitted.
He replied with an, "Aa." And started to pull on the overalls over his clothes.
When he was done, he looked down at himself, dissatisfied with what he was wearing.
Sakura, on the other hand, was completely flabbergasted at how he still managed to look attractive even in something a few sizes too large, and a few years out of style.
"This isn't going to do," he grunted.
"You're going to be working in a shed for Petes sake!"
"Hn." Sasuke slipped the straps down his arms, shrugging them off completely. He then proceeded to roll the torso of the overalls down until they sat at his waist.
"You just look like a fool now. What does doing that even-" Sakura started but was cut off.
The shirt that Sasuke had been wearing underneath the overalls lay crumpled on the floor, and he stared at her, bare at the torso.
"Done." He stated, his tone monotonous.
Unknown to him, Sakura's hormones were raging like a PMSing pregnant woman craving for chocolate and ice cream.
"Okay then." She replied dumbly, and slumped out, trying to not seem interested.
The both walked out of the house in a partially awkward silence, and they stopped as the sun hit them both.
They turned around and looked back at the house.
Sasuke had his arms folded across his chest, leaning back on his heels and looking relaxed.
Sakura stood straight, her arms behind her back and hands clasped together. Her expression was calm.
"Well?" She asked, and turned her head to him slightly. "What do you think of the garden so far?"
"It's magical." He said dryly.
"Well, what did you expect? A fairytale garden?"
"Sure. That's why you asked me to be here. You wanted me to be the prince."
"Prince of the hedges." She mumbled inaudibly.
His eyebrows rose, and he turned to her. "Hn?"
"Nothing." She said quickly and started walking around to the back again.
He followed her, his pace fast but not rushed. He made no sound as he walked.
In an instant, he was in front of her, and she gasped, surprised that he had been so close because she had not heard him approach.
Sasuke smirked. "Prince of the hedges?"
She sighed. "It just popped into my mind! I just imagined you as a prince with that big ego of yours, and then I imagined you as a gardener too… and then, wah-lah! Prince of the hedges."
"You don't have any hedges." He pointed out.
Sakura paused. Then she glared at him and looked away.
"It sounded good in my head! Maybe I'll just rename you Prince of the weeds!"
"Please don't."
They both had started to walk around towards the shed again as they argued, and they had just re-entered the run-down, crowded space.
"What about Prince of the trees?"
"I'm not a hippy. I don't care what happens to trees."
"Prince of the belladonna!" She exclaimed.
"Deadly." He commented casually, running a finger across the dusty table. When he pulled it back, it was dirty and brown with dust.
"On second thought, I take that back."
He rolled his eyes and turned to her. "Then what?"
"I've got it! Prince of the big, fat, stupid, egotistical bastards who stalk people!"
"How original." Sasuke grunted. He then looked at her, and his eyes found her uniform. "Don't you have an educational facility you are meant to attend on weekdays?"
Sakura stared at him long and hard. Her lips were set in a thin, tight line.
How had she forgotten?
Finally, she asked, "what time is it?"
Sasuke pulled out his phone and pressed a button to make the screen light up. "It's eleven past ten."
Never in her life, ever, had Haruno Sakura been late to school before, and man was Tsunade going to be P I S S E D. Her friends, too, would have been worried. Sakura never missed a day of school, and suddenly not turning up one random day would worry them. But she was confused.
They hadn't called or messaged her.
After a few moments, Sakura then realised that her phone was in her bag.
She let her bag drop from her back and opened the front compartment, searching through all of her equipment until she finally found it.
Pulling it out, Sakura was met with five missed calls, thirteen messages and #101# had kindly told her that she had four voice messages.
In just a matter of a few hours, her life had taken a dramatic turn by one person, and as she looked through her pink bangs at him, taking in his hair, his face, his body, his personality, she wondered quietly if anything good – anything good at all – could come from said person.
He was like baking chocolate. At first, it looks sweet and tasty like any chocolate does and you try it out. Once it's actually in your mouth, you can taste the bitter taste come through.
Sakura had seen him as an attractive man (and an enemy because of Karin). In the less than twenty-four hours she had been with him, the after taste had struck. He wasn't sweet – he was cold and bitter.
Sasuke, simply, in two words, was bitter chocolate.
Fuck. So glad this is done.
Anyway, this is… almost 23 pages long. One full page was dedicated to the authors note so almost 22 pages.
Let's see… I tried to make Sakura in character as possible, same with Sasuke. I know Sakura is agro towards him. But it makes sense. She only really liked his ability and looks when she first met him. So right now, she only likes his looks – and even THAT frustrates her.
Yes, I put the Story name in here. I just felt like doing it. I also have no idea what the reference to Baking chocolate was about. Maybe I'm hungry.
And yes, I only made Sasuke wear overalls just so he could discard the top half. I'm sure some of you Sasuke-fangirls out there enjoyed that.
Uhhh… man… wtf… it's 3:03 AM. When the hell did THAT happen?
I still have to upload this shit.
Raggle fraggle.
Anyway I love you guys, and I'm very sorry. I'm sorry if I've lost fans for my lack of updating. It can't be helped.
I know I should talk about more stuff in it, but I am so dead. I need to upload this and sleep.
Please read and review (AKA give constructive criticism if you have any).
