Just What I Needed

By Sakura Uchiha

Disclaimer: I STOLE Naruto! Mwhahahaha- no.

[A/N: Ah, here it is at last, the long-awaited chapter eight of "Just What I Needed!" Sorry about the delays, I have been mucho busy! Thank you SO MUCH for all of the reviews! Special thanks are at the end of the chapter…and enjoy Chapter Eight: Grounded! But Not Really!]

"Sakura!"

"Huh? Who's there-"

Hatake sat on a motorcycle just outside of the alleyway, grinning.

"Need a ride?"

"AAAHHH! WHERE'D SAKURA GO!?" Shrieked Rock Lee. His eyebrows were arched in agony as he tore around Salmon Ella, looking for his beloved. Fan boys all around were searching for her, but to no avail. Where was she?

Sasuke jammed power chord after power chord on his guitar mindlessly. Where the hell did Sakura go? Did she try to walk home by herself?! She's just so damn stupid!!! Sasuke swore to himself right before leaning into the microphone to sing the chorus. The whole reason I'm stuck playing these stupid songs is her!

"Um… no thank you.." Sakura stammered, blushing. Her mother would be horrified if she showed up at the door with some guy on a motorcycle… with an eyepatch, no less!

"Aww. That's too bad." Hatake said as he revved up the engine. Well, if we're really careful…

'Ahhh, I changed my mind!" She shouted. Hatake stopped and gestured to the seat behind him.

"Well, c'mon then!"

She trotted over in her heels and jumped on the bike. "Let's go!" He grinned, and suddenly there was a whooshing sound in Sakura's ears as the streets of Konoha city flew by in a blur. The engine roared and Sakura hung onto Hatake tightly, squeezing her eyes shut. Nausea crept up her stomach. She hated this!

They came to the coastal road where all was silent save for the roar of the waves, and Hatake stopped the bike. Sakura placed a hand over her mouth to keep from vomiting. The world spun.

"I… live just up this road and to the right… You know where the temple is, right?"

"Oh, you live in that neighborhood?"

"…My family takes care of the temple." Sakura admitted sheepishly. Hatake grinned.

"That just makes this easier." With a loud VROOM they were off again, speeding up the coastal road. The low brush, high chain link fence, and ocean became one dark smear under the sky, while the cliffs on the other side loomed ominously over the road. It made Sakura even dizzier, and she found herself praying that the ride would be over soon.

Screeeeeeeeech! And the motorcycle came to a halt in front of Sakura's house. Sakura fell off the bike and landed on the sidewalk, the world of picket fences and pretty white houses spinning like a tornado around her.

"Heh, I guess you aren't a biker chick!" Hatake chuckled, but remained on the bike, looking down at Sakura while she moaned for someone to stop the ride, she wanted to get off! Finally the world came to a stop, and Sakura realized that the hem of her dress had ridden up and her underwear was all too visible. She blushed and jumped up, yanking at her dress. Hatake chuckled again.

"Th-thank y-y-you!" She stuttered, staring at the ground. (Thankfully it was no longer spinning)

"Anytime." He rubbed at the back of his neck and smiled at Sakura, his visible eye twinkling even in the darkness. She blushed even darker, and looked up. They stayed there for a moment, looking into each other's eyes before Hatake muttered something inaudible and sped off into the night.

Sakura blearily opened one eye to the sunlight flooding her bedroom, filtering in through the lace curtains and onto her braided rug. Ungh… I don't wanna get up… just sleep forever. She buried her face in her pillow, but couldn't ignore the fact that she had pulled the shades down over her window the night before. She lifted her head up, staring at the wall –painted pale purple- in front of her, and narrowed her eyes.

"Gaara? What do you want?" She didn't even have to look to know he was in her room. What a creep. Yeesh!

"Where.were.you?" She rolled over and turned around. Sure enough, there was Gaara, seated in her swivel chair by her desk across the room, arms crossed, and his left ankle resting on his right knee. She gave him her "I'm Trying To Look As Scary As Sasuke Or Maybe The Terminator But It's Not Working" glare, but he practically spoon-fed it back to her.

"Don't you have anything else to worry about besides your little sister?" She whined, sitting up.

"I have a wife, an insane younger brother, two near senile parents, a house, a temple, and two kids to worry about. Besides nuclear warfare, and my own personal aquarium full of Pepto-Bismol saturated goldfish." He replied tersely. Sakura rolled her eyes.

"You have too much time. I was just out on a date, that's IT!"

Gaara glanced at his reflection in her floor length mirror, and ran a hand through his spiky red hair. "Try again."

"Okay, so I was on a date with a different guy than the one who brought me home, but he was doing me a MAJOR favor! Would you have wanted me to walk home alone-"

"Without a helmet? Straddling a bike in that-" He gestured towards her dress from the previous night which hung on her closet door "-and the guy was wearing an eye patch?! The only person who was doing anyone any favors was YOU!" He yelled. Sakura winced and sighed.

"Look, he's my advanced calc teacher, and the other date just totally ditched me!" She fidgeted with her nightshirt. Well, actually it was the other way around, but no one needs to know that!

"YOUR ADVANCED CALCULUS TEACHER!?!!!??"

And really, it only went downhill from there.

Sakura tapped her fingers along the spine of her novel. It was bright and sunny out, but she was stuck inside, grounded. It wasn't my fault! But who ever listened to that anymore? Stupid Gaara. He just HAD to go and tell Mom and Dad! She glared, and put down her book. She had been reading for three whole hours, and it was only noon!

She folded her arms across her chest, and her mind went back to last night. What's wrong with me? I can't even have a normal date!

It was more of a date with Hatake than with Rock Lee, wasn't it? She groaned at the thought of Rock Lee asking her out again, because really, she did owe him a date. She had kind of just left him there…

I need to get out. I need to talk to Sasuke and ask him about Hatake. I NEED TO!! She jumped up, and checked herself in the mirror. Old sweatpants and a discolored tank top… This is horrible! Wait a second… this is just Sasuke… I CAN'T GO LIKE THIS THOUGH!!!

"Hm…" She grabbed a pair of straight leg jeans and a pale pink t-shirt and her favorite pink chucks, and yanked everything on as fast as she could.

She threw open her window and looked around to find an oddly convenient- yet climbable! – tree right next to her. Woo hoo, my ticket to Sasuke is right here!

Jumping from window to tree was harder than she had originally speculated, though.

"Owwwwwwwwwwwwwww!!" She moaned as she landed on the ground. SAKURA HARUNO WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU!?!?! THAT WAS SO STUPID!!!

She examined the point of impact, which was her hip. Nothing visible really, only it was kinda pink from the fall. She stood up… "What a miracle!" She whispered, rubbing her wound. "Owww…. Still hurts though!" She limped down the street, and reached the corner when she stopped and realized two things:

She didn't know where Sasuke lived. What if Gaara or her parents came into her room and saw she wasn't there?

"Ah… to hell with it. I'll just be in bigger trouble." She said to herself, leaning against a newspaper stand. But what to do about Sasuke? Hm… I know! I'll call Hinata and have her look him up in the directory!

She clumsily dialed Hinata's number (she new it from texting her in History of Konoha all those times) and smiled at her own brilliance. Perfect-o!

"H-hello, Hinata s-speaking!"

"Hinata! It's Sakura. I need you to do me yet another HUGE favor."

"Okay, s-sure… what is it?"

"Look up Sasuke's address for me. I'd do it myself but… ahhh it doesn't matter. Anyway, can you do it?"

"Way ahead of y-you! 403 East Ito Drive, flat number 7 on the 6th floor."

"Whoa, I know where that is! That's…" She looked up at the street sign. Her street was Akiko Ave., and it was perpendicular to Ito Drive.

"R-right along the coastal road, right?"

"Yeah… Well, thank you Hinata! I promise I'll call you later and tell you EVERYTHING about my date and leading up to now, but right now I have some business to take care of."

"O-okay, I'll talk to you later."

click

"Hm… " Sakura walked along Ito Drive, looking carefully at the address plates of each building. Her street was very suburban, but as she walked along this street it looked more and more urban and more and more expensive, until the address plates went from little signs to large, very sophisticated brass plates and the buildings became much taller and the tiny walkways to buildings were replaced by awning, carpeting, and doormen complete with uniforms standing outside. Sakura gulped. Was this really where Sasuke lived? In a fancy apartment-

She came to a very crummy looking alleyway, with a door on the side leading into a very ugly brown building. She looked at the very nice, expensive building next to it, and then the park on the other side.

"Hm… well, I guess this is it!" She opened the door to a drab lobby with a girl who couldn't have been much older than Sakura seated at the front desk. Why would such an ugly, crappy building even bother with a front desk?

"Hi… um, does Sasuke Uchiha live here?" She asked timidly. The girl glanced up at her, and blew a bubble with her gum.

"I dunno. I'm just here because this building is connected to the other one, you know, the art gallery? Apartment residents all are up those stairs. Be careful, they're pretty old and are going to be torn down soon." She snapped her gum and looked back at the glossy pages of her magazine. Sakura sighed, and turned to face the stairs that apparently led to Sasuke.

Here I go… She walked purposefully up the stairs and tried to remember what Hinata had said. Flat seven on the sixth floor… or was it flat six on the seventh floor? Ahhh I don't know. I'll just try both.

Well, there it was. She stood in front of the doorway, tapping her shoe against the floor. She inhaled, and reached out a hand to knock on the door, when she was stopped by a, "Hey, Sakura! What are you doing here?"

O.O

"H-Hatake!?" She stammered. It certainly was him, but… "Why do you have a mullet?" She blurted out, and clapped a hand over her mouth and blushed. Hatake chuckled.

"I needed a haircut, so I went to that place over on route 6, but how was I supposed to know that Shikamaru worked there?"

Sakura burst into laughter; she couldn't help it. The thought of Shikamaru cutting hair was just too weird. "So… what are you doing here?" He asked again. Sakura blushed.

"I needed to ask Sasuke about something…" She said slowly, looking at his door. Hatake nodded.

"Well, he works weekends so he won't be home until much later…" He gestured to the door across the hallway of Sasuke's. "That's my apartment, so I know." He laughed. Sakura blushed, and smiled. Funny… they seem to be a lot more connected than I thought before. "Would you like to come in for some tea or something?"

Sakura thought of Sasuke and Gaara and Hinata and the homework she had to do and being grounded, but all of these thoughts were pushed away when she said firmly,

"I would love to."

I'm really hungry. Sasuke tapped his fingers along the edge of the counter as he stared out the window of the store. And I miss summer.

Ah, summer, the best time of the year. He never had to worry about paying the rent because he had more time to work, which equaled more money, and he had more free time.

Sasuke faintly recalled a time a few years back when he and Hatake had gone surfing as a jeep with surfboards in the back flew by the window. The good old days. Before he got weird…

No one ever really came into the shop. It was a music store. Instrument rentals and sales, and a lot of sheet music. Most of it was classical unfortunately, but some of it was more recent rock.

He glared as his eyes fell upon a book of famous oldies, some of which he had played last night at the bistro. Dammit, Sakura! Why did you have to go off with Hatake like that?!

I would have taken you home.

The bell attached to the door of the store signaled the entrance of a customer, and Sasuke sat up, and glared when he saw who it was.

"Can I help you?" Sasuke said through clenched teeth. Rock Lee grinned that stupid, annoying grin that made his eyebrows join together and become one curved line, almost reaching his smile and making his face look like one big circle.

"Well, actually…" He puffed up his chest. "I wrote a song for Sakura!"

Sasuke's left eye twitched, but he said nothing.

"And… I just need an instrument to play it on. I was thinking I could sing it without any backup, and maybe add a few notes with my kazoo-" He pulled out a kazoo and feebly blew on it. "-But Naruto disagrees and right now he is across the street at that cd exchange that Shikamaru works at. He is going to buy the Titanic soundtrack! He will sing along to it during announcements on Monday morning. Ha! What an idiot. He doesn't even know that I already reserved all the extra time so that I could serenade the fair Sakura!" Rock Lee once again grinned, and once again, Sasuke's eye twitched.

"…Why don't you just tell her?" And spare us all from your singing/kazoo playing.

"Well I don't think that's enough, so I was thinking that I could also have an Arabian bagpipe in the background-" He stopped when the accordion caught his eye. "What IS this!?" He picked it up and was about to slam the two ends together when Sasuke grabbed it from him and stuffed it behind the desk.

"You know what, I recommend you try singing mute." Sasuke said quickly, praying that the idiot would go for it.

"Mute? How do you mean?"

"Eh, well, it's very simple. No instruments, no nothing. You just move your mouth. No sound. Sakura really likes that kind of singing. She has an entire cd full of mute songs that she's constantly listening to!" Please fall for it, please fall for it, PLEASE FALL FOR IT!

Rock Lee grinned even more than before, then faltered. He snapped his fingers. "Aw gee, I was gonna try out my yodeling skills, too… Does she really like that mute stuff, or whatever?"

O.O

"She LOVES it now why don't you go home and practice before Naruto can beat you to it?!"

"You're right Sasuke, thank you so much!"

And then he was gone. Sasuke sighed, and slumped down on the counter, staring at the setting sun. Somehow he had the feeling that this was not the end of Rock Lee's-

Eggs?

…Why was there a trail of eggs where Rock Lee had been…?

Okay folks, that's all for the eighth chapter of Just What I Needed, stick around for chapter nine: Sakura and Hatake are found in a compromising position… could this be the end of Hatake's career and Sakura's life? And what about Sasuke?