Chapter 4: Pictures of You
"No matter how much you want to stop time, it has to go forward and move on to something else."
Sakura's eyes opened groggily.
"Oh, man." She rubbed her eyes trying to remove the sleep from them. She slowly got up and yawned. Sakura scratched the back of her head wondering why Ami didn't run in her room and start screaming at her like usual.
Ami…
Idate…
The images from yesterday rushed through her head, the hatred screaming from her like sirens and she felt the familiar pricks from the back of her eyes start again. Her lips trembled slightly, and she scrunched up her eyes in hurt and agony. Her chest tightened up in grief and pain. Her head fell limp next to her hand, and willed herself not to cry.
It was all interrupted with a light snore.
"Huh?" Sakura looked over to her side.
"What in the world?" She then took a second glance around her room.
It wasn't her room.
Almost immediately, his snore stopped by her whispers. He was lying on the floor with a single white sheet of blanket to cover him, protecting him from the cold. His one muscular arm was resting upon his chest as the other rested over his forehead, blocking the sun's radiation from hitting his eyes. His face was at peace. Sakura's hand itched to smooth out his eyebrows with her thumb and pat down the messy bob he calls a hair. Sakura looked closer to his neck to see that there was something black clinging to his skin. She didn't want to investigate for whatever it was would cost her life if she dared venture close to him. It seems as if he didn't even bother to change clothes after last night.
Shaking her head from side to side, Sakura, out of instinct, reaches in the pocket of her skirt for her cell phone. The sudden memory of dropping it at her house hit her.
There was no clock in the room to tell time.
"I gotta go home." Sakura whispered to herself as she slid out from the covers. Her feet silently hit the cold, hard floor and she began to walk to the door, hoping she could get out without waking up Sasuke. The creaks on the floor made her feel so much better about her weight.
Somehow she was able to walk out of the room and was soon walking down a hallway and trying to look for a restroom around this unknown area. After a few seconds of looking around, she entered the restroom, closed the door from behind and looked at her face in the mirror.
Her eyes were bloodshot from all that crying yesterday. Slight dark circles lay comfortable underneath her eyes on her sickly pale face. Her hair looked as if birds had made their permanent home in it. She touched her cheek and winced at the bruise the man from last night had given her. She hated the fact that she bruised as easy as an apple.
With a longing look in her eyes, Sakura looked at the shower. It wouldn't be THAT noisy…
Ten minutes later she stood in front of the mirror combing her hair with her fingers to detangle the knots. She still wore her school uniform with Sasuke's jacket on top. Her blouse, it appeared, was impossible to cover herself with. It tore from the collar of her neck to the sleeve and made a drastic turn across her back.
"Okay," Sakura smoothed out the jacket and looked at herself in the mirror. "I look good." She was trying to be as optimistic as possible, looking out for the positives on this wonderful day.
She looked like a drowned kitten.
Sighing, Sakura opened the door and walked into a wall: A well built strong wall.
Sasuke stared at her. Her hair was wet and she was scrubbed clean from head to toe. She smelled nice; she had a floral essence surrounding her as if it were natural. He clenched his teeth as he saw the bruise from the attack yesterday; he could taste the raw harshness of his anger. It was ugly, and the color purple mostly took up the space from her cheekbone, diminishing as it reaches the edge of her eye.
Sasuke grunted in satisfaction and walked down the hallway. Sakura slowly took in a deep breath, when she had forced herself not to flinch back as Sasuke narrowed his eyes at her. She couldn't tell whether he was angry that she took a shower without his permission or he was angry that she was still wearing his jacket.
Being with a foreign student sucks.
As she walked behind him, she noticed that he had changed his clothes from last time to his uniform. Sakura couldn't see what the black "thing" that was clinging to him, for the collar of the school's uniform covered his neck. Walking farther down the hall, Sakura saw Sasuke "preparing" breakfast. He grabbed California rolls from the refrigerator and laid it out on the table. Grabbing a glass from the cabinet, he began to fill it with water as Sakura stood awkwardly at the side. Sasuke placed it on the table and turned to Sakura. "Eat."
She stared after his disappearing figure as he walked down the hall into his room. She shrugged and started to eat the California rolls he laid out on the table for her. Within minutes, she finished half of it. She hasn't eaten anything since yesterday's lunch. She didn't even finish eating half of her ice cream and lunch yesterday.
"Here,"
Sakura turned her head and saw Sasuke hold a grey T-shirt in his hand, and held it out to her. She tentatively took it as he roughly handed it to her. He then looked outside of the window, his brows scrunching up in a thinking manner. "School 7:40 start. Time 7:00 now."
Sakura stared at him dumbfounded and confused; he was still trying to talk in Japanese. She smiled awkwardly because she didn't understand a word he said. "What?" She turned her head slightly to the right in question.
"Damn," Sasuke sighed angrily and combed his fingers through his hair in frustration. He stormed to his plain room and swiped up an American-Japanese dictionary from his desk. Gripping it tight in his hand, Sasuke walked towards the fragile girl and rushed through the pages furiously until he finally was able to say his thoughts.
"School starts at 7:40. The time is 8:00 now." He closed the dictionary with a snap that made Sakura's head flinch and she took a whole step back. "Hurry up and change into this, so we can leave for school." He pointed at the gray T-shirt she had in her hand and motioned to the restroom, indicating that she should go to the restroom and change quickly.
Sakura stood there for a moment, thinking slowly about what Sasuke was trying to say. Within a second, her mouth fell open and she gasped in horror. "Its 8:00 right now?" She whipped her head towards the window to see that the sun was high in the sky and the birds were chirping cheerfully. She streaked down the hallway and slammed the bathroom door shut to change quickly. "I can't believe I'm late!" Toeing on her shoes, Sakura rushed out of the house, and started running down the street.
"Hey!"
Sasuke snatched the girl by the upper part of her arm and pointed to his car. The idiotic girl doesn't even know where to go from his place to school. "I'll drive you to school." He said in English. He still held her by her arm and started to tug her to his car around the corner of the street.
Since she was near him, she was practically his responsibilities since he also sheltered her.
"Wait!" Sakura struggled against his tight hold. "I have to go to school or I'll miss notes and more important information for college!" She was getting frustrated that she didn't understand a single word he was trying to say and she was really desperate to go to school.
Sasuke clenched his teeth. He turned towards her and growled out. "School. Car. Go."
Forty three minutes later, after the silent long drive, they finally arrived at the prestigious school. Sasuke turned the off the engine to the car and leaned back in his leather seat, staring gravely at the school's building. He looked at the girl next to him to see that she was picking at the gray T-shirt he gave her.
After a moment or two, Sakura opened the door carefully and got out of the car. Before she closed it, Sakura looked at Sasuke with gratitude. "Thank you." She bowed low and then pointed to herself with a smile. "My name is Haruno Sakura. Sakura." With nothing more than a smile, she closed the door and walked on the sidewalk to the school.
Sasuke stared at her figure as she disappeared among the crowd of students.
"Sakura…."
Her name is Sakura.
Sakura.
"Where the hell were you? I called your house so many times to find you, only to hear your mom crying and practically bawling her e yes out hysterically! Where did you go after the ice cream we ate yesterday?" Tenten screamed when she reached Sakura, who was walking down the corridor the classrooms. Hinata and Ino were trailing after Tenten. Hinata looked at Sakura worryingly as any mother would, while Ino merely looked at her with a blank expression.
"I had to lie for your mom and tell her that you were sleeping over at my place!" Tenten whispered quickly so Ino and Hinata couldn't hear. "When she asked for you I told her that you were in the shower. I even had to have my mom lie a bit!" Tenten pouted and sniffed wistfully. "My butt turned as red as the bow in Ino's hair last night."
Sakura sighed in relief and gave her friend a small hug. "I owe you so much Tenten. Thank you."
"Yeah, yeah, you owe me an explanation and a tuna sandwich."
Sakura smiled and rolled her eyes at her random reward. "Okay, okay, but I'll tell you everything all later." After the girls entered the room, Sakura walked up to the teacher's desk to inform him why she was late. He nodded knowingly and waved her excuse to the side, not caring in the world why she was late. "Stay next to my desk for a while, I have to explain something to you." She nodded and stood aside.
"Okay class!" Kakashi-sensei clapped his hands three times, so that the students would settle down and give him his attention. "Now, get with your partners from yesterday." While the class was busy getting together with their partners, Sasuke finally entered the room; after thirty minutes Sakura departed from him.
"Ah, Sasuke come over here." Kakashi-sensei waved at him.
Slowly but obeying his teacher's order, Sasuke walked towards the desk. Behind Sasuke was Hideki who was following him meekly from a distance.
"So, yesterday, while you two suddenly disappeared," Kakashi-sensei explained with an arched brow. From his expression it seems as if the class had found out a better explanation for the two. Sakura's face flushed and she quickly put her hand to her face to try and make it disappear faster. "Every year, around this time of the year," Kakashi-sensei started. "I start with something that will benefit the class in the future," Reaching around his desk he pulls out an object out from a box that caught Sakura off guard.
A rubber doll.
"This isn't just a rubber baby, it is electronically able to cry and eat." He explains as he points out the one thing that's going to drive Sakura insane for the next few days.
Suddenly a possibility hit her and she cringed slightly as she eyed the object. "If the "baby" can eat and cry then does that mean that it's also able to," Sakura hesitated hoping to be wrong, but preparing for the worse. "Dispose of waste?"
"Correct." Kakashi-sensei nodded and pointed his finger at Sakura, and gave her a thumbs up. "You are very smart. Now, Sakura you are the mom and Sasuke is the dad in this little project. Each of you is required to keep the baby for a minimum of two days" He then looked at Hideki. "You'll just have to be the son/translator in this group. Sakura, Sasuke you have this packet for instructions. If you have any more questions, go ahead and ask me."
With a wave of his hand, Sakura and Sasuke were dismissed. They ended up sitting side by side at a desk close to Hinata and her partner, Uzumaki Naruto.
"EWW! It's pooping!" Naruto's blue eyes widened when a dark sludge leeked out of the baby's bottom.
"O-oh, g-g-god," Hinata stuttered. Whenever she was around Naruto, she began to stutter uncontrollably.
It was obvious that she liked him.
"Okay…" Sakura cough uncomfortably in her fist as she laid the fake baby on the table. She opened the manual Kakashi-sensei has given them for the project.
Turning to the first page it read:
CONGRATULATIONS! YOU HAVE A GIRL! NOW GIVE HER A NAME!
It took a moment for Sakura's mind to understand what the booklet was trying to tell her. She slowly turned to Sasuke, stared at him and then to Hideki. "We have to give the baby a name. Can you translate it to him?"
Hideki looked at Sasuke with wide eyes and translated it quickly in a soft, trembling voice.
He merely looked at him with his dark eyes and ignored his question. Sasuke crossed his arms across his chest and leaned back in his chair. He scrutinized his translator with those predator eyes. Never looking away.
Dark.
Studying.
Deadly.
Hideki fidgeted in his chair under those dark obsidian orbs. He pushed his glasses up his nose nervously and tapped the table with his fingers on an ongoing uneven rhythm. "I have to use the restroom." He choked and immediately, practically ran out of the room. He would be anywhere away from Sasuke.
"Wait, Hideki!" Sakura raised her hand towards him, but it was useless. In a second he was gone.
She sighed hopelessly and looked at Sasuke who started to stare at her with his brooding eyes. Her brows scrunched up in anger, Sakura stared at him back. His obstinacy was unbearable and inexcusable. She only sighed and looked at the baby; not wanting to fight him for something and get him even more angry.
"Fine, I'll name her." Sakura wrote the English American alphabet on a piece of paper from her folder. She then presented it to Sasuke. "Choose a letter."
He stared blankly.
"Choose." She pointed to the letters as she talked to him, hoping that he would somehow understand. No avail. He looked at her with those mysterious eyes and then looked away towards the window; eyes that held no interest in nothing at all.
Sasuke didn't want to do anything. He wanted to get school over with and go back to his place. When the girl, Sakura showed him the alphabet, he immediately recognized it. Learning it back in America, his friend was kind enough to teach it to him, creating a somewhat of a friendship between the two.
No, he was ordered to.
Memories flooded to his head, which sent his skull on fire. Sasuke silently turned away from Sakura and stared out the window so that she doesn't see the weakness in him he has hidden long ago.
The vulnerability in him.
"Sasuke,"
Sakura was finished trying to being nice and patient to a stone cold man. Yeah, he helped her and saved her from a bunch of muggers, but his manners and attitude was driving her insane to a point where she wanted to screw her eyeballs out. He was quiet, at a distant and ignores everyone around him. It was making her spin in a gyration.
"Pick a letter." She growled and rudely held the paper up to his face. She glared at him over the paper with her ferocious vicious eyes, determined to make him participate no matter the consequence.
Sasuke narrowed his eyes dangerously, glaring at Sakura over the edge of the paper. Amazingly, she didn't flinch; he had to give her credit for that. Angry, Sasuke viciously poked a hole in the piece of paper. He pushed his chair back, the metal scraping along the floor creating a scratchy shrill noise, bringing the attention from the class to them. He exited out of the room with a fluid motion to kill.
You don't knock on the devil's door, unless you want him to answer
Sakura placed her hand over her heart and took in a deep breath; it was still racing from the killer eyes he gave her before he left. Sakura put the paper down on her desk and just noticed how hard her hands were trembling. Getting a grip of herself, she looked down at the paper and saw a letter missing from the alphabet.
G
Now to pick a name….
Nothing came.
Sakura rubbed her head in frustration, trying to choose the name for the mechanical "being".
What kind of pretty name starts with a 'G'?
"If you're going through hell, keep going"