Chapter Seven

"Not surprised you wouldn't listen to me," Sasuke drawled as he opened the door and stepped inside, followed promptly by no one.

Wait.

Where was Ino?

Sakura jolted up and ran for the door, passing Sasuke to look down the hallway. No one there walking away or waiting to take the elevator down.

She turned back to him, annoyed. "Where's Ino?"

He levelled her with a stare. "Why?"

"While I was busy tonight doing your dirty work, you were off having a freaking date with her." She crossed her arms and set her mouth into a grimace.

"For your information, I was not with Ino tonight. I wasn't with anyone for that matter." He brushed her aside and dropped his keys onto a nearby side table.

"But Ino…"

Sasuke turned and rolled his eyes.

"She meant your brother," she deduced.

"Yes," his voice smoothed over her dumbfounded thoughts as his fingers worked to loosen the knot of his navy blue tie. "For whatever reason, Itachi has taken up relations with Ino Yamanaka. I don't know why."

Sakura rolled her eyes. "Whatever, I am not interested in her love life."

Sasuke caught her eye and slowly smirked. "Oh, but it seemed like you were very concerned that she would be with me tonight."

Sakura's body tensed, her face flooding with warmth. "That's...that's just because I was mad at you!"

"Careful, Sakura," Sasuke teased. "People may think you were jealous."

She huffed a few times, her chest expanding and deflating at an alarming rate. What was going on, this wasn't supposed to go this way!

"Sakura?" Hinata called out quietly from behind her, the shock in her voice bringing Sakura to break her state of hyperventilation.

Without saying a word, Sakura stared at Hinata. Anything to be able to look away from Sasuke and his stupid smugness for the moment.

Hinata's eyes widened at the state of her and she quickly rushed to her side. "Sakura, what's wrong?"

"Nothing," Sakura squeaked, her voice too high for her own liking. "What are you doing here?"

Hinata gave her a knowing look, calling her bluff in an instant. But, bless her, she dropped the subject. "Naruto and I are going to the movies. He was supposed to meet me at the front entrance, but that was a few minutes ago…"

Naruto gasped. He tapped his phone screen and groaned at the time. "I'm sorry, HInata! These two distracted me." He jumped up and grabbed his keys from the kitchen counter and shoved them into his back pocket. Grabbing Hinata around the shoulders, he began to escort her out.

Hinata twisted in his arms to look back at Sakura. "Are you going to be alright?"

"She'll be fine," Naruto answered for her. "Just a little lover's spat."

And he shut the door.

"It's not a lover's spat!" Sakura bellowed at the piece of wood, knowing that her scream could be heard even through the blasted object.

"Che." Sasuke didn't bother to correct anyone, he just started to meander down the hall to his room.

Sakura followed close behind. "Where's your comp - Woah!" She turned around at the sight of him unbuttoning his shirt. "Warn a girl next time!"

"Usually they tend not to complain."

Sakura could not think of a single thing to say to that. Instead, she covered her eyes with her hands, even though she was facing the opposite way already. Walking away, she could barely make out the path through her fingers, but she managed to make it back to the living room.

A few beats later, Sasuke came out dressed in some sport shorts and a black t-shirt. His lingering smirky smirk smirk face just made her mind do a repeat performance of his shirt opening button by button.

Before she could literally start fanning herself, she asked, "Where's your computer?"

Sasuke bent down to reach under the coffee table. He brought his hand back with a slim black laptop. He sat down on the couch beside her and flipped the device open, then wordlessly held out his hand to her.

She sighed and handed over her keys. He flipped them around so he could jam the flashdrive into the correct portal.

The laptop screen came on and he clicked through to get to the file about Konoha-Toon.

Sakura watched his eyes as they scanned the file's contents. Up and down, back and forth, until he finally turned to her.

"Thank you, this is everything I need."

The earnestness in his voice shocked her, she didn't think Sasuke capable of such sincerity. But there he was, actually thankful for her retrieval of the information.

"You're welcome. Now hand it over." It was her turn now to hold out her hand to him expectantly.

She felt a bit of victory as Sasuke stared at her hand in confusion for a few seconds. Though he quickly realized his mistake. His head snapped away and Sakura could have sworn that there was a twinge of pink adorning his cheeks. However, when he looked back at her, his face was completely normal.

HIs phone was in his hand, but he wasn't handing it over.

"Give it," Sakura urged, making to snatch it from him.

He pulled it out of her reach.

"Come on, Sasuke," Sakura whined. "You promised."

He unlocked the screen and pointedly made an effort of showing Sakura that he was going into the media app, scrolling until he got to the video and then he tapped the delete button. The small window popped up saying that the video would be deleted indefinitely, making sure that it was the action that Sasuke wanted to take.

He gave her a pointed stare, making sure that Sakura's eyes were on the screen. His eyes turned back to the task at hand, clicking the yes option, yes it was okay to delete the horrible, embarrassing blackmailing video from his phone.

Sakura let out a slow breath, putting her hand to her chest in relief. Finally, this terrifying chapter in her life was over, she could go on living her normal life. Well, whatever her life looked like these days.

"Thanks," Sakura said. "Now copy over the files so I can have my keys back."

Sasuke wordlessly followed her instructions for once, copying over the folders to his desktop. He then deleted them from her flashdrive and made to eject it, but then stopped, the cursor just sitting there on the eject button, but his finger had failed to actually click it.

"What's this?" he asked, moving the cursor over to another file on her flashdrive. "Bottling the Moon?"

Sakura lunged at him.

She had no control over her body, all she knew was that she had to stop him. And that involved tackling him to the ground, of course.

"Don't look at it!" she screamed, trying her best to keep him down while simultaneously yanking out the flashdrive from its port.

The door opened then, Naruto walking in only to stop at the scene before him.

"Uhhh…"

Sakura and Sasuke both looked at him from the ground. Sakura straddling the dark haired man beneath her, Sasuke's hands gripping her hips.

"I forgot my wallet," he lamely said, hand frozen on the door handle.

Sasuke got a hold of himself first, shoving Sakura back onto the couch as he righted himself.

Sakura couldn't help herself, tears sprang to her eyes at the awkwardness of the situation. Her fingers curled tightly around her keys and she ran out of the apartment, back to her own safe space.

She slammed her door shut and slid down to the floor. Her face overheating and tears slowly leaking from the corner of her eyes.

"What is wrong with me?" she asked herself, voice heavy and wet.

All these situations she's been getting herself into lately have all been so terribly mortifying. The video, Ino catching her in the janitor's uniform, Naruto walking in on her and Sasuke in a completely misinterpreted situation. Since when had her life just gotten away from her that fast?

She wiped her face off with her sleeve and shoved herself up off the ground. She stripped down right there to her undergarments, not giving a single shit since this was her apartment, she could do whatever she wanted in it. She reached up to grab a bottle of wine from her wine rack that was situated on the top of a bookshelf, unscrewed the cap and took a drink straight from the bottle.

The couch was inviting her over with its extra pillows and throw blanket, so she gladly accepted the invitation, wrapping herself up in the blanket while taking another drink. And she sat there. Sat there, sat there, sat there.

She wasn't even drunk and still she was already feeling so sorry for herself.

Normally, she wouldn't allow this behavior to overtake her. She wanted to always be the strong woman, the get up and go get 'em type of person. But, not tonight.

Tonight, she would mope and she would feel sorry for herself. She would feel sad over her and Sai's ended relationship, and she would feel sad for where she felt her life was at compared to her peers.

Why were so many people getting married? Buying houses? Having babies?

She was 25 years old. Her friends on FindFriends were always posting about how wonderful their lives were. Where was her amazing boyfriend? Why wasn't she married like them? How come she wasn't off and starting a young family yet? Everyone else seemed to be. And they were 25. Years. Old.

Every so often, Sakura caught herself thinking these thoughts in passing. But this time, this time she delved into them, allowing them to sink their unforgiving claws into her brain, tugging her this way and that way before her head felt like it would explode.

She finished the bottle of wine, rolling it between her hands then. The motion slowly ebbing away her thoughts, smoothing them over to match the texture of the clear glass.

A knock at her door sounded, but she wasn't going to get up to see who it was. She wasn't in the mood to deal with people. And if it was Hinata then the shy girl would announce herself.

Another knock. Sakura could make out the sound of knuckles against the wood, and then sliding down a few inches to wait for her to answer.

Nope, no way. If Sasuke wanted to apologize then he would have to grovel through the goddamn door.

The sound of something sliding under her door peaked her interest, but she didn't dare make a sound. She didn't want Sasuke to know she was home. Let him believe she was off living some exciting, daring life.

She waiting so long without moving that eventually she actually fell asleep. It wasn't until the sun filtered through her window the next morning that her eyes opened. She yawned and picked her head off the arm of the couch to look at the clock nestled above her TV.

11:03 a.m.

Sakura groaned, pushing the heal of her hand against her forehead, which was playing host to a nauseating headache. "That's what I get for drinking a whole bottle."

She shoved the blanket off of her and slowly stood up, afraid of aggravating her headache further.

Dragging her feet, she made her way to her kitchen, but then notice a piece of paper near her doorway.

Achingly, her body allowed her to bend over in order to retrieve it.

The page had a strong crease, but the paper itself was crinkled as if someone had fumbled around with it dozens of times.

Meet me at Slow Fire, 9 p.m. on Saturday night.

The mention of a bar made Sakura's headache instantly worsen. But, what was most definitely worse, was the familiar handwriting.

Sai.