Remember?

At least cry on my shoulder.

"I don't know."

Sakura stared at the mascot. His voice sounded rather uncertain, as if he was keeping something from her.

"So you're hopeless in romance too?" Sakura gave a soft snicker.

"You can say so." He replied monotonously.

Out of the blue, Sakura felt extremely interested in Sausage's love life. Maybe she can get some clue and figured out who the hell was he.

"Do you have any girlfriend?" Sakura smiled, putting her hands behind her back.

Sasori blinked. The way Sakura was smiling at him definitely wasn't the one he liked the best.

"No. I don't." The mascot gave a muffled reply.

Sakura sighed disappointedly, tapping comfortingly on the hot dog costume despite the fact that she wasn't doing that well in her love life either.

"Been in love?" She questioned.

There was silence.

"So you're in love!" Sakura beamed, clapping both of her hand before clasping them together. "Who is she?"

Still silence.

Sakura frowned before stroking her invisible beard and stood closer to him. "Who is he?"

"I'm not answering anything." Mr. Sausage drawled, not understanding why the pinkette couldn't get the hint that he was trying to avoid the subject.

She huffed, raising an amused eyebrow. "Oh well, I shall stop then."

"Why did you ask?" The mascot couldn't help but to question Sakura before they really move on to the next topic.

She fiddled with her blouse. "I'm puzzled about certain things happening today."

"The way you said it tells me you has met someone to make you feel that way." Sausage spoke.

Sakura blinked, turning to the hotdog man. Her eyes wide with earnest curiosity at how no one but him actually understood how she was feeling.

"Yeah." And then there were silence.

"I see." The mascot spoke quietly before turning slightly away from her direction.

Sakura was rather surprised that her friend didn't inquire about who she was actually referring to. But it was better this way though.

"Oh, I've almost forgotten." Sakura snapped her fingers. The hotdog costume stared back at her.

"Do they sell ice cream here? I'm craving for some lately but I don't really recall any stores selling ice cream in this town."

0o0

Days passed rather quickly when Sakura was actually enjoying herself at school for the first time of her life. Even her mother realized that her daughter was getting socialized with her schoolmates when Sakura was always radiating brightly with that cheerful smile every time she left the house for school.

Sakura had friends to talk to during changing of classes and break periods everyday. But no matter how school had started being fun for her, the pinkette always couldn't wait to hang out with that particular sausage man whenever she was walking back home school after studying for half an hour in the library.

Konan and Sakura were now partners in all classes that they both had the same together. They could be refer as best friends if people just actually notice how they often laughed and talked about every single thing, but mostly people just ignored Sakura and don't really give a damn about Sakura and her friendship business with anyone.

"How did you and Pein get together?"

Konan raised her head from her worksheet and blinked at the question, but she didn't ask Sakura why the sudden curiosity from her.

"It was a little chaotic, now that I remember." Konan's eyes were suddenly distant, as if she was thinking about the past.

"Pein was a little, or you can say, very bad at showing emotions and feelings. But eventually we got together, with a little help from the other guys." She gave a faint smile.

Sakura nodded and returned a smile. "But how do you know you were in love with him?"

The pinkette was never really in love once in her life. Once, Ino and her were both arguing about who fitted Sasuke the best and they sort of ended their friendship there.

Only about a week or so, both of them realized how foolish they were and they became best friends again. They even ignored Sasuke when he asked what on earth were they doing with those hugs Ino and Sakura often exchanged ever since they broke of their precious relationship.

The feeling Sakura had for Sasuke was just infatuation that lasted for a few days and nothing else. They had been best friends for years and feeling like this once in a while should be quite normal for girls around Sakura's age. But this matter occurred a long time ago and the rest of them never mentioned it ever again.

"It's something hard to explain." Konan spoke calmly, resting her chin on top of her palm while she placed her pen on the table.

Sakura had tried relating the feeling of infatuation she had for Sasuke and compared that weird feeling she felt around Itachi. But it didn't work. The feeling she felt was completely different.

"When I see him, I just knew." The mature female turned back to Sakura. "I thought of nothing but him, I wanted nothing but him. I just know that I wanted to be with him and no one else."

"No one but him…" Sakura echoed. The words were simple, yet it seemed like Sakura was getting nearer and nearer to her answer.

As the pinkette tried recollecting the moments she had with Itachi, she wasn't thinking or wanting nothing but him.

What she felt was just a weird feeling… a feeling of…

Ah!

The word Sakura been searching for clicked in her mind.

Déjà vu!

Sakura tried calming herself down inwardly. For a sudden, she just felt as if she had found a solution to an unsolved case.

Only when Konan's words pierced her, Sakura finally understood even when she was pondering about it for so long. When she was thinking about Itachi, it wasn't just only him and nothing else. Those times when the older Uchiha was in her mind, it always leaded to her fond memories of Sasuke, Naruto and the rest.

Sasuke was Itachi's brother. And technically, they were exactly the same. Their attitude, their calmness, their dry humor, their everything. Calling them brothers was not enough. They could have been twins if they actually change their hairstyle or something.

Itachi was just something that Sakura was holding on for so long. It was the only thread she had to remind herself the happy memories she had with her friends since Itachi resembled so much of her best friend, Sasuke.

After their conversation died down, Sakura was still staring in space while her Konan was already concentrating doing her work.

The burden of thinking that she actually liked someone suddenly lifted from her shoulders. She had never felt so free for once. Being locked up in a weird emotion that she can't describe at all was really killing her.

Hah, and there she was, being all panicking when she thought she was in love with Itachi.

Guess she was not after all.

0o0

Pieces of papers were passing around, from clique to cliques, from tables to tables. Loud chattering and laughter could be heard from everywhere all of the sudden.

When Konan and Sakura were slowly walking towards to their usual table together during break period which ended coincidentally when they were having the same lesson, the people they passed were all pointing at the pinkette and then they would start chortling to themselves before waving a piece of paper in the air.

Only after a few seconds than Konan finally lost her cool.

"Have you had enough of your sickening chuckles?" The blue haired student kicked the chair that was seated by the guy who was laughing nonstop.

"Chill. Konan." He said before handing the paper for her to see. "It's time for you to reconsider having a friend like her now."

She narrowed her eyes and snatched the paper from his hand. As Konan's eyes scanned through the paper for a second, she ripped the paper into shreds.

"Who the hell did this?" She roared and the cafeteria went in to silence for a second before getting noisy again.

Sakura slowly trudged beside Konan who was glaring at the crowd. She slowly bent forward and picked up the remaining pieces that Konan had tore from the original large poster. Even just by looking at one third of the torn poster had disgusted Sakura enough.

It was a picture of her lying on her stomach, arms crossed and feet swinging in the air seductively. Although she was wearing only a thin piece of hot pink bra, her large cleavage was enough to reveal everything.

"Alright who the fuck did this." At the table where Konan and Sakura were previously heading to, Hidan unexpectedly stood up and had one of his legs stepped onto the chair, his lavender eyes glaring at everyone threateningly. One of his hands was rolling up the piece of exact paper into a ball.

Next was Deidara who stood up. The blonde slammed his hands on the table and glared at everyone just like Hidan.

"Own up yeah! Asshole." The blonde swore out loud.

Sakura's green eyes were then drawn to the posters that were on the table where her only friends were sitting around.

She knew the photo was edited, she knew her friend understood that too. But why were her hands trembling and her eyes were starting to tear up?

Everyone was laughing

"Student by day, hooker by night."

Everyone was laughing.

"No wonder so many guys suddenly started hanging out with her."

Everyone was laughing.

"Whore."

Sakura suddenly became dizzy, her grasp was loosened and the paper slowly floated back onto the ground. She stepped back for a second as both of her hands cupped over her quivering mouth, refusing to let that small whimper escaping from her lips.

"I can't believe they are rooting for her." Sakura heard some say.

"What did that bitch done to make them go with her?" A girl from the other side of the canteen spoke to her group.

Soon, everyone was not talking about the poster anymore. The students in the cafeteria were all talking about how Sakura had influenced Konan's clique to support her.

"Sakura…" Konan turned to find the pinkette walking back and away from her. Konan wanted to reach for her female friend, to comfort her that everything was alright but it was too late.

Sakura whirled around and started to sprint towards the door. Before she pushed open the door to escape, Konan noticed Sakura was wiping something away from her eyes. Tears.

As people were walking from groups to groups to discuss about Sakura's attempt on befriending with one of the popular groups in their school, Pein and the rest approached Konan who was watching helplessly at the spot where she last seen Sakura.

"They certainly went overboard this time." Kisame commented.

"What a slut. Why bother?" A classmate of Kisame argued when he heard the said man spoke.

Sasori who was standing closest to him turned and grabbed onto his uniform, lifting him up from his seat and almost from the ground.

"That's right, punch him." Hidan cheered.

His chocolate-brown eyes narrowed into a slit as the helpless guy was staring back at Sasori with a little pleading look to tell him not to listen to what Hidan had suggested. Itachi pulled the redhead back to his place and pushed the guy who mocked Sakura back to his seat.

"It's worthless to waste your time on people like them." Itachi murmured, looking down at his schoolmate who was dusting his shirt off on his seat.

"You never lose your cool before yeah." Deidara noted. Sasori just ignored him and glared at nothing.

"I couldn't blame him when they had done stuff like this." Kakuzu gave an are-you-dumb look at the blonde.

Deidara just shrugged doubtfully.

After watching his girlfriend staring in space, Konan looked back at Pein before glancing at the two other guys who were standing beside the leader.

"Pein, Itachi, Sasori. Try to find Sakura before she does anything reckless." Konan whispered hastily as she gave them a push.

"The rest of us will solve the things here."

0o0

If Sasori could, he would have argued to stay.

He regretted not punching that guy who had shouted such a nasty nickname at Sakura.

But Deidara was right. He had never lost his cool before.

Sasori understood why was he reacting like this, but he couldn't believe how easily he exposed his anger right in front of everyone. Pushing those un-important things from his mind, he stared down the almost empty hallway and concentrated.

"Where could she be?" Sasori wondered out loud. Pein and Itachi had left searching for cubicles and classrooms while the redhead was still standing here and doing nothing.

He thought for a second longer until something clicked in his mind.

"Roof." Sasori whispered to himself before sprinting towards the flight of stairs.

0o0

Sasori pushed open the exit door and a huge gust of wind almost forced him to close the door before he could even take a step onto the rooftop. Shoving the heavy metal door to the wall, he walked forward, not bothering to hide his presence as the heavy door swung back to its original position with a loud slam.

The sobs that he previously heard before the door slammed back had abruptly stopped and he knew, the girl he was finding was here.

As Sasori tentatively trudged towards the usual corner behind a large wall, he spotted an elbow sticking out from the corner. He came closer and finally spotted a bright color; pink.

Sakura was sitting on the ground, knees to her chest and her head snuggling into her thin arms that were crossed over her knee.

"Sakura." He called out.

Knowing that she was discovered, the pinkette slowly lifted up her head and stared at the redhead who was scrutinizing her terrible state. Her face was extremely red, with dried tear lines and pink messy locks sticking onto her damped cheeks.

At first, Sakura was startled to actually see someone here in the first place when no one would come here during breaks, but she got an even ruder shock when she realized the one before her was none other than the quiet and calm redhead.

How did he…

Sasori bent his knees as he squatted in front of Sakura. He silently brushed her hair away from her face before putting his hand back to his side.

"Everyone is worried."

Sakura then realized it was the very first time Sasori called out her name and even talked to her. During recess, they would often give each other glances sometimes and Sakura would then smile and him politely while Sasori would just avert his eyes away from her, nothing more.

But when he first spoke to her with his angelic voice that he had never used on anyone else, she swore her heart just skipped a beat.

Yet when the images of her being ridiculed at in the canteen immediately brought tears in her eyes.

"I'm sorry." Sakura covered her face with both of her hands. "I'm so sorry for dragging you guys into this mess."

Sasori stared at the crying girl who had started hiccupping in between her sobs. The redhead had wished for a second that it was either Pein or Itachi that had found her and not him. He was thoroughly dumb-founded and shocked to do anything to comfort her at all. Itachi and Pein could use some of their experience in their previous relationship to help but Sasori just doesn't have any.

He bit his lips regrettably and stared in the cloudy sky before closing his eye. Sasori took a deep breath and extended his arm out and over Sakura's shoulder before pulling her into his chest.

Sakura hiccupped again, her eyes flung open in shock as her sobs went silent for a second. She quietly inched her head to one side to see Sasori's chocolate brown eyes staring back hers.

Her heart skipped a beat again.

"Sa-Sasori…" She mumbled.

It was now or never.

"If you want to cry, don't cry alone. At least cry on my shoulder." Sasori spoke, swearing he must had picked that line somewhere from a TV show or something, but those words just came out from him so suddenly that he didn't even realize what was he even saying.

"Sasori…" Sakura inhaled a large breath and tried to exhale calmly but a hiccup interrupted her as she looked away from his eyes. When Sasori began patting on her back, she could feel the tears forming and she started sobbing like a baby again.

This time, Sakura wasn't really crying because she was mocked at a while ago, she was crying because she suddenly missed her friends back in her old town. They would always be there to comfort her like how Sasori was doing now when she was down.

They were always there for her.

They were always…

There…

Mr. Sausage…

Sakura doesn't understand why the hotdog man actually appeared in her mind out of the sudden. But when she started thinking about him, more complicated thoughts invaded her mind. What if the man in the mascot was actually watching her in the canteen along with his other friends who might be mocking her?

Could he be trying to find me now or maybe laughing along with his friends?

The pinkette shut her eyes tightly, not wanting any more thoughts to cloud her thoughts. All she wanted was to cry her hearts out before she lost her chance to do it ever again. All the pain, all the misery Sakura felt and bottled inside her had to be let out sooner or later, if not she couldn't take it anymore.

And there, Sasori just kept her close to his chest and rested his chin lightly on the top of her messy pink hair.

"I'm…" Sasori gave a short pause before continuing.

"We." The redhead corrected himself as he said the rest of the sentence with confidence.

"We are here for you."

Author's Note:

I have to admit, the chapters that would be coming might be either the same length or longer a little bit. For my country, school is starting soon so I might not have enough time to multi task with my other ongoing story anymore. But luckily I have drafted them out so everything should still go on smoothly; I hope.

All I want for Christmas is you (reviews?)~
Merry Christmas Everyone! :D