Day Two: Part Three

"S-Sakura?" Choji stuttered pointing a finger towards her back.

"W-what is it…" Sakura turned her head stiffly afraid to look back then her eyes shot open suddenly and paused. Sasuke saw her shiver next and raised a brow at her. Then Sakura felt something twitch from behind her and screamed, jumping towards Sasuke. "KYAN! GET IT OFF! GET IT OFF! GET IT OFF!"

Sasuke caught her instinctively and from the force of her jump, knocked both of them to the ground.

"O-oi! Sakura! Get a hold of yourself!" He yelled at her while she still kept screaming and flailing about in his arms. The Uchiha proceed to wipe Sakura's back and managed to swat the bugs away with some difficulty. "Hey, they're gone now. Stop struggling you're punching me!"

She stopped automatically after Sasuke reassured her and rested her head on his heaving chest sighing. "Thank you Sasuke…" She sighed before she stiffened once again.

Sasuke, who was a bit out of breath from struggling the mega strength Sakura from struggling just a while ago was also heaving not knowing that all eyes were already towards them. Even Akamaru was jumping from behind the wall of shinobis just to get a glimpse on the very insinuating moment. He felt Sakura stiffened and quickly grabbed hold of her waist not wanting her to bowl him to death then yelled, "What is it Sakura? Is there another bug?"

He couldn't see Sakura's already red face since she was looking away from him and quickly stood up and walked hurriedly away towards the bathroom. Ino followed suit together with Tenten after nodding at Neji. That was when he noticed everyone surrounding him. With his flushed face, he stood up, and without looking at them, wiped his swimming shorts clean.

"Ne, ne, Sasuke. I never knew you had the hots for Sakura, eh?" Naruto said to him while nudging him.

"BAKA! What are you talking about?" He spat back, utterly red now.

"Yeah, yeah whatever. But if you ever hurt her feeling again, I'll make sure to pound your face!" He held his fist upward.

Although Naruto was an idiot, there were times that he showed maturity and virtue. This was certainly one of those days and Sasuke, getting his composure back, gave him a smirk and waved his hand at him lazily as he walked away.

"Aburame-sama, we all due respect that we would accommodate and give big margins in our part to cater for you special needs and wants, but…" The land lady now talking and was over Shino. "Your bugs. You really must control them!"

"H-hai Karinin-san" Shino gave an apologetic bow with a comical sweat drop on his head. He stretched his hand and like a dag to his master's signals the bugs all scuttled across the water back to their owner. "Sorry everyone, I couldn't control my hive's enthusiasm."

"Meh, that's alright Shino." Kiba reassured him.

The land lady then led Shino towards the kiddy pool so he can solo the whole place with his bugs. This garnered a few laughs from Choji and Naruto though, thinking how cute it must be to see Shino in the kiddy pool.

Sasuke in the meantime sat on his usual beach chair and leaned back, gazing the rim of his tropical styled umbrella. Somehow what Naruto just said gave a little pang of guilt in him. He admits that he has hurt her first and probably only girl friend in his entire life. He raised his hand above his face and realized that these hands just ran over her body. His palm still felt hot for some reason which Sasuke already deduced and tried not to admit it as much as possible even though he knew his subconscious was doing the separate thing. Falling in love. He closed his eyes and tried not to think more about it, but his very own imagination defied him. Scenes of day-to-day Sakura flashed before his eyes, when she's happy and smiling, when she's angry and pouting, the look she had when she's going on a comical rampage, when she's sad and crying, and many more.

Sasuke sat up from his supine position and vigorously shook his head. Just what was he thinking about!? He saw everybody else back in the pool and playing in the now bug free pool. He gave a big sigh of relief when he didn't see that familiar cherry blossom anywhere, until…

Splash

He thought so too soon. Sakura just did a graceful dive that judges would surely score a 10 for. Sasuke was left stunned, her cream smooth skin and slender body streaming in water was seductively captivating for the young Uchiha. He managed to gulp down as he started to sweat with his heart pumping hard as he watched Sakura swim some more. He didn't meant to stare at her, but he did and soon Sakura somehow noticed him staring and she abruptly stopped. Bobbing up and down, with her back towards Sasuke made his senses return to him. Realizing what blasphemy to his own code of character just happened, he cleared his throat as he feigned justifying his actions by making it look like he was trying to find something on the horizon. Alternately, picking up some map and blankly read it and looked beyond again before he thought that it was probably getting too hot for his own good to stay under the sun any longer.

He gave the cool waters another shot as he plunged into it and gave a few meters of swim time before he hit his head on something hard. Taking a gasp for air and rubbing his head he took a peak with his left eye and saw that he had bumped into Sakura. She too was rubbing her head and gave Sasuke a sheepish laugh.

"I-I'm…"

"No, it's alright Sasuke-kun." She told him and bobbed herself to the edge.

Sasuke, for some unkown reason, followed her. "H-hey!" She heeded and turned to him with a quizzical look, who in turn stopped dead in his tracks. "Damn she looks so cute GHA! What am I thinking!?" He mentally shook his head while thinking of a way out of this. "Earlier, I hope I didn't cause you any troubles… with the bugs." He finished.

"No, no you didn't do anything wrong." She waved her hand, trying to dismiss the topic. Her face turning red now, she look down to the water and continued, "I should be thanking you. You helped me get rid of them."

"Err, right." He nodded.

Now that Sasuke looked more at ease, the tension between them began to soften as Sakura looked straight at him now and smiled. Sasuke on the other hand felt his face beginning to get hot all of a sudden. Even though Sakura didn't have a good figure, she still looked very attractive on that two-piece bikini wear. Sasuke only managed to nod at her again, lacking anything else good to say to her.

"Well, no problem then." He finally said, nodding towards her again.

Awkward silence enveloped the two as no words escaped their lips. Sasuke was highly reluctant to say or do anything, his mind still concentrating at Sakura's slender figure.

"So, enjoying the pool yet?" She finally asked.

"Yeah…" He gave another one liner. The Uchiha was already frustrated, wishing how good it would feel to just run away.

"Hey, have you tried their sundaes? Ino and Tenten just had some a while ago and they said that they were good. Wanna go get some?"

Sasuke, thinking that this might be a good change from this awkward nonsensical of a conversation, agreed and off they went towards the food stands. Kankuro and Gaara were there. Kankuro being the 'benevolent' brother that he is, overturned, checked, and double checked every single burger patty, mayo, ketchup, bun, cabbages, and pickle in their orders.

"Kankuro, I really do think that all this is unnecessary." Gaara soflty told him with his monotone.

"Yeah, yeah. But we really can't take any chances. The last time I went on a mission, my genin just drop down fainted after eating one of those burgers while we were on a mission near Earth Country (Will henceforth be mentioned as Iwa or Iwagakure)." He explained while looking up on his own bun this time.

Overhearing the conversation, Sakura and Sasuke, who was only following the Haruno, went over to their table and Sakura said, "Well that's because Iwa beef are too tangy for local Sand Shinobi." She explained.

Kankuro immediately stopped inspecting their burger with a distinct look of shame. Gaara was shaking his head due to disdain and merely sighed.

"I told you so Kankuro."

"Alright, alright. I won't bother with it anymore." He pouted slamming his bun together, making it spurt some of the sauce and staining his bare chest. "ARGH! DAMN IT!"

Sakura merely giggled and waved goodbye to the two. They were in front of the ice cream stand now and an old man with a bushy mustache greeted them holding out the selections. Sasuke peered to his sides from time to time to look at Sakura's face. She gave looks of amazement, groaning, and disappointment. He gave a smirk and looked around the counter and at the ice cream selection. The vendor there was eyeing the two as Sasuke has noticed and when he met with the vendor's gaze. He raised his eyebrows and motioned his head towards Sakura. Sasuke, in turn, looked straight towards Sakura and then back at the vendor and giving him a blank stare. The vendor, feeling Sasuke's animosity, raised his pinky finger and motioned his head once more at Sakura, who was still busy trying to select her ice cream. Sasuke, fazed at his actions, took a step back and shook his head. The vendor shrugged, seemingly defeated at their nonverbal argument still gave Sasuke weird looks and looked at Sakura.

This made Sasuke irritated now and slammed his menu down and shouted, "I'll take the mountain sundae!"

The plan seemed to work now since the ice cream man began to prepare his order and Sakura looked like she made her mind too, right after she gave Sasuke a startled look. Placing her own menu down, she gave out her order at the ice cream man as well.

After a few minutes of cold fumes and finger tapping later, ice cream was served. Sakura gave awes of amazement at the sheer height of the mountain sundae, indeed a mountain alright.

"Wow Sasuke, you could really finish all of that?"

Sasuke sweatdropped at the sight from his ice cream, "how in the world can I finish something like this?" Anyhow, the best thing here was the he managed to get away from that nosy ice cream vendor. Sakura began to walk slowly away, afraid to topple her own sundae bowl, Sasuke was about to pick up his own bowl when the ice cream vendor suddenly grabbed his arm and whispered, "Hey kid, better not let that beauty get away from ya?"

With one last wink, he let him go and Sasuke merely scowled at him, picking up his own bowl and dexterously walked normaly without letting a singly scoop from his one foot tall mountain. He sat down opposite from Sakura's seat who was already busy cleaning out the chips and walnuts decorated around the rim of her bowl. Sasuke mindlessly playing with his spoon, twirling it around and around until Sakura noticed that his ice cream was already melting.

"Sasuke, your ice cream." She pointed out. Sasuke snapped back to reality after grumbling something about 'stupid vendor'. Sakura merely giggled watching Sasuke busily scoop up all the dripping ice cream all around his melting mountain. "Here, let me help you." She told him, taking out a quarter of his mountain and placing it on top of her's.

Sasuke didn't mind this at all and even thanked silently that the amount that he'll be eating was reduced. Sasuke still had to contend with the melting bottom part of his mountain, but taking out most of it would topple his mountain down. So he systematically ate the bottom and going up in a 3:2 ratio. After a little while of struggling with his ice cream, he finally got it stabilized and ate steadily now.

Sakura on the other hand was already almost finished with her's. She eyed him every now and then where Sakura would immediately retreat to her bowl whenever Sasuke was looking at her as well. Sasuke sighed to himself how he couldn't get a grip of himself. He wondered just why he couldn't stop looking at her; even though he more or less has an idea.

"Hey, Sasuke." She called him. He was still busy trying to catch up on her eating as fast as he could on his bowl – he already had it down to a couple of inches down.

Without looking, he merely answered with a grunt.

"Ow why bother, let me." She told herself and she stood up and held out her hand. Sasuke was slightly fazed at what he was doing and froze. She continued to held out her hand and wiped it around his lips. "There, all better." She smiled at him and continued to finish the remainder of her bowl.

Sasuke just blinked at her. He held his left hand up his lips and thought how soft her touch could be before realizing that his spoonful of ice cream was already dripping. He quickly mouthed it down an tried to distract himself by looking around. Kankuro and Gaara already left and when he set his eyes towards the ice cream vendor, he saw him holding out a thumb's up hand sign. Sasuke responded with a crinkled brows before he went back to finish his bowl.

They finally finished and Sakura seemed energetic, probably from the sugar rush. She skipped a few steps ahead of him and when she reached the door, she turned around, a few drops of sweat sprinkled around her with the cool air dancing through her hair. Overall, giving her a jaw dropping look, Sasuke merely bowed his head to hide a smile that crept up on his face before walking on again.

"Wasn't that the greatest? I wish we had that good ice cream back home, don't you think so Sasuke?" She asked now walking aback towards the pool.

Sasuke merely replied with another grunt and Sakura merely smiled, seemingly content with his response.

"Hey, you know wha…" Her last few words trailed on before Sasuke noticed that she was feeling dozy and loosing balance.

He quickly reached out and grabbed her before she fell. Sakura rested her head, feeling like it was lead or something as she clutched it with her right hand and gripping Sasuke's shoulder with her left for support.

"Sakura, what's wrong?" He asked. His tone fluctuating since he was trying to hide the growing concern towards her.

"Oww my head. I think I got a brain freeze." She replied to which Sasuke merely chuckled. "What's wrong? I ordered their Frost Shavings. I never knew how cold it was from the rest." She replied back giving a weak pout.

"Sure, sure whatever." He replied playfully and took up Sakura on his back – much to her shock.

"S-Sasuke! What are you doing? Put me down!"

"You're in no condition to walk, let me carry you until I get you into one of the huts back at the pool."

Defeated, Sakura laid her head on the Uchiha's back and closed he eyes, trying to bear with the brain freeze. Sasuke soon found out that perhaps, carrying the afflicted Sakura on his back proved to be… embarrassing. People who spotted him carrying Sakura and placing her in one of the huts gave wolf howls and cheers.

"OI TEME! You should get a room and not a hut! We can all see you!" Naruto shouted. Hinata, who was just beside him suddenly blushed and covered her face from his remark which made Neji glare daggers at Naruto.

"Sakura! No fair!" Ino squealed, although more like the giddy self she is for seeing something potentially scandalous – again.

Sasuke's face began to sink with irritation as he glared back at them. He was about to get out of the hut when Sakura mumbled a 'thank you' at him. Sasuke looked back a little and went out to enjoy the rest of the day tormenting and torturing Naruto as payback.