Previous Chapter Summary: Sakura and Sasuke's first basketball game ends well- though the Uchiha doesn't seem to think so. A new strange tension looms over him and Katsuya as the two of them antagonize eachother's presence. Sakura has a mini heart-to-heart talk with Hinata and Ino about her feelings for Sasuke, and she gains a little bit of strength after hearing a different perspective. When she goes onto the roof after school to look for the Uchiha, the two of them have their own moment of solitude despite having eachother's company..
A/N: And here's chapter 10! I haven't finalized anything yet, but the story is looking to be around 30-35 chapters at most, so I'm proud to say we're 1/3 of a way :')... /shootsself
I actually had to go and research whether or not watches existed in Naruto.. luckily, I came across a wiki that actually tells you what kind of technology is seen in the original Naruto series (o thank god)
Anyways, just gonna tell you from the beginning, Sasuke doesn't appear in this chapter. Sorry friends, he's just trying his best becoming a fried chicken master. Also it's late and I'm hella tired right now but I really wanted to post this before I sleep so I apologize for any grammatical errors or weird phrases because my brain is f.r.i.e.d
Naruto © Masashi Kishimoto
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Tokyo Tempest
Part X: Pink & Silver
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7 Trees, 20 bushes in the courtyard below.
The viridian-eyed girl closed her eyes, laying the side of her head on the cold desk after resorting to mundane methods of passing time. Where the heck was that Katsuya?
By this time, the classroom was empty, so she sat alone in her desk and listened to the tiny whirring of the fan from the ceiling while letting her mind wander elsewhere. She felt a bit nervous regarding planning this whole school festival thing. Could she really pull off this class president thing like she said she would? What if she completely botches it?
Whatever, man, I don't even belong here. She concluded, I'll just have to try my best for now.
She suddenly remembered Sasuke's words to not get too close to Katsuya. Now, if this were some hardcore love-story, she would've been thrilled to hear such concern from the person she wants the most. But it's not, and she knows he's just being overly cautious being the way he is, fearing the consequences of being too close with unassociated individuals.
She wished he would change that way of thinking. Getting him to renew his entire relationship with the Shinobi of Konoha is one thing, but he could at least try to let loose in a place like this. He's not so dumb as to think that mere civilians were able to hurt them.
"Are you dead?"
Upon hearing the sudden voice behind her, Sakura didn't have to turn around to know that the bastard had finally showed his face. After forcibly peeling her head off the table, she looked the other direction and noted the silver-haired boy settling into his seat beside her and pulling his own desk so that it was a bit closer to hers.
"It's rude to make a girl wait" Sakura poked. As he placed his bag down and ran his hand a few times through his silver locks, the pink-haired girl couldn't help but notice the tiny object he had placed on the far side of his table. Squinting her eyes, she noticed the item to be a small box wrapped delicately in pink ribbon with a matching note tag hanging from the side.
At this, Sakura raised an eyebrow and further questions its contents. Suddenly, her eyes grew wide in realization as she felt her heart beginning to beat faster. T-This bastard, don't tell me he's using this chance to suddenly confess to me while we're alone or something!? I'm totally not prepared for this!
As she began to squint harder, she noticed a tiny flap of the note had been left open, and there, inside, was a name.
Nami? The viridian-eyed girl found herself sighing in relief, earning a questionable look from Katsuya, who had been watching her the entire time. This guy actually has the audacity to go out and shop for a woman while making me wait!
"So even a guy like you has a girlfriend, huh?"
"You shouldn't say stuff like that, it hurts people." He replies in a nonchalant, sarcastic tone. At this, Sakura rolled her eyes, deciding not to probe further.
"So, we're going to do a cosplay cafe," She switches up the mood of the atmosphere.
Katsuya darted his attention back towards her, the two of them maintaining eye contact with the sheepish smile on Sakura's face as he waited for her to continue the beginning of her anticipated speech. Only thing is, she didn't.
Finally, he closed his eyes and sighed, leaning back into his chair. "You've never done this before, have you? Do you even know what a cosplay cafe is?"
Slowly, the pink-haired girl shook her head in shame, earning another groan from the silver-haired boy.
"This is what I get for being acquainted with countryside gals like you." He loathed, but continued to explain the foreign concepts. "Basically everybody in the class will be dressing up according to a particular theme- in our case, ninjas, and we'll be turning our room into a cafe where guests will be served by us, ideally in character as ninjas."
Is this how people of this world take us Shinobi who nearly died on the battlefield trying to save the world!? Sakura winced, inevitably appalled. In the end, are we only worthy as maids serving in a cafe!?
"Nevertheless, we have a week until the festival." Katsuya continued, unaware of the girls' true inner thoughts. "It'll be for the entire day, up till the evening, so there won't be any classes in session. Other classes will also be holding their own events, so you'll be free to go around and explore after you finish your shift in our class. At the end of the day, there will be a bonfire... I guess it'll be your first time experiencing something like this, right? Country bumpkin."
Aside from the ridicule of her people and somehow her new status as a countryside girl, Sakura couldn't help but feel a bit of stirring excitement for this whole festival thing. Like she mentioned before, it wasn't often that Konoha would hold events like this, and especially not throughout the past few years with the threat of the Akatsuki and Madara. There's probably going to be a lot of food! A lot of people! Games, and other new mundane things she would probably never experience back at home!
Katsuya cocked his head to the side, resting his cheek into his palm. He immediately noted the new shimmering light in her viridian eyes, even though she was clearly trying her best to hide her impeding excitement. At this, he couldn't help but feel the side of his mouth curl into a smile as well.
"So, what kinds of things should we have at our cafe?" Sakura asked, a new preppiness to her voice.
"Uh, I don't know, our class has a budget. But we'll probably need to get stuff like table covers, decorations-"
"Headbands!"
"Sorry?"
"We'll need headbands!" Sakura exclaimed, slapping the desk and leaning forward in case Katsuya couldn't hear, much contrary to actuality. "How else would people know which village we're from? It's a symbol of pride! Of our people! Also, we'll need to get each person a set of kunai and shuriken- absolutely essential in case ninjutsu- uh, since we don't have actual powers. I almost forgot, we'll need to practice proper Taijutsu or people will laugh at us. Did you see Shikamaru the other day? His form was totally-"
The pink-haired girl shut her mouth after noticing the amused smile on the silver-haired boy's face. At this point, she knew she had probably just given herself the crazy eyes as she blabbered on.
"I'm a ninjas enthusiast." She says quietly, taking a gulp. "That era is just fascinating."
Katsuya blinked once before letting out a low chuckle. "Okay, we'll go with those then."
Sakura felt her cheeks go red.
"The weekend is coming up. I can gather those who are willing to help out to come shopping on Saturday. The others can help out with making and setting up the props."
Shopping!? Sakura exclaimed internally, Oh, god, that sounds like so much fun. There's so many things I want to- wait, I don't have any money! Sasuke-kun and I can't just go spending all of our savings like that. What if we end up becoming homeless, how would we-
"-We can get most things from Daiso, if you want, since they have pretty cheap stuff."
Cheap!?
"Where is that?" Sakura inquired.
"What? You don't know where Daiso is?" Katsuya blinked, "It's literally in the middle of the city, the giant department store with huge letters. There's no way you'd have missed it. There's an entire street full of things too."
Again, Sakura hit him with a clueless look.
"..The one a street down from Yoyogi park?"
"I-I don't know where that is"
"Ah.. seriously?" Katsuya scratched the back of his head, clicking his tongue apathetically. Sakura watched as he then held an arm up and examined the white face of his ticking watch.
"They should be still open right now, if you feel like checking it out." The silver-haired boy looked up, "It gets really crowded on the weekend, so we might as well take a look at some materials beforehand."
Sakura appeared to be pondering this for a second. Katsuya does know the city better, she thought, after that, I can go straight to job-hunting..
"Alright, lets go for it then."
"..So much for it being crowded only on weekends, huh?"
Katsuya sighed, lifting his head back up to look at the circus in front of them.
As he and Sakura stood outside of the store, to their horror, it were as if giant masses of animals were stampeding within the place as if it were their last day on earth. Sakura stumbled a couple of times as people forcefully shoved their way around her and into the large glass doors, where a store clerk seemed to be having trouble organizing a systematic line of customers.
"I guess we'll just have to come here earlier on the weekend." Katsuya says dismissively, "Do you want to-"
As he turned his body towards the pink-haired girl, he realized she had already beat him to what he was about to say. Sakura looked straight behind the two of them, at a view that could be seen from their current spot. Rows of cherry blossoms aligned with eachother in clusters, the top of the trees breezing back and forth along with the light wind.
Katsuya studied her expression for a little while longer, slowly feeling a grin come onto his face as he noted how concentrated her glowing viridian-eyes looked.
"It's Yoyogi park. The cherry blossoms are in season."
Sakura blinked before turning to the silver-haired boy, who started his way opposite of the store and on ahead. "Let's go look."
At this, she coughed and wrinkled her eyebrows. "A-Alright! I didn't really want to go, but if you insist.."
Moments later, the pink-haired girl found herself practially skipping past the giant torii leading into the attraction site. As she entered the vast green area of the park encompassed by curving sidewalks and beautiful flowers on either side, she took a deep breath at the clean, fresh air of bark and flowery scents. The park itself was immaculate- a giant fountain could be seen placed in the center, a tiny bridge on the left side where children crouched down pointing fingers at the koi floating about in the iridescent waters below.
"Its breathtaking here," Sakura's smile only grew bigger as she lifted her head to admire the tall cherry blossoms from above, their petals slowly raining down as if they were dancing with the breeze.
"It's a huge attraction here, but I guess you wouldn't know that." Katsuya explains as the two of them continued along the sidewalk deeper into the sanctuary.
"Is it really okay for you to take me around like this?" Sakura smirked playfully, "Aren't you afraid of getting an earful from your girlfriend?"
At this, Katsuya merely shrugged.
"Ah.." The girl with the viridian eyes diverted her gaze to the right, grinning at the sight of three children, two boys and one girl, playing together and chasing eachother about in the grassy field. "I'll have to show Sasuke-kun this place later."
"Why's that? You like him or something?"
"No!" Sakura gave an emphasized laugh, slapping a hand at Katsuya's shoulder, surprising the guy with her sudden strength that managed to shift him over a step. "It's rude to assume things!"
Katsuya seemed to have doubts over her reaction, but didn't press on it further. Instead, he recalled the arrogant face of the other new student and their passive aggressive interactions, silently pondering what there was exactly to like about that guy in the first place.
Upon remembering these events, he couldn't help but refrain from haughty words at the mention of the Uchiha. "Would a depressing guy like that enjoy something like this, though?"
He watched her shrug. "Who knows. I'd still want him to see it, though. Hey look- its a pond area!"
Before he could give a response, the pink-haired girl had nimbled herself off towards a large area of water near the center of the park with a tiny gravel zone just before the water came in contact with the land.
As he approached the girl who stopped right before the wetness, he proceeded to bend down and picked up a nice, flat rock from the earth below. Sakura watched as he held it on the side, a little bit away from his body. She gave him a tiny eyebrow raise, and he smirked in return.
"Skipping rocks. Never done it before?"
After he said this, she watched as he flicked his wrist smoothly, sending the piece of stone across the water top as it bounced once, twice, three times over its surface. At this, the pink-haired girl dropped her mouth open in awe, her wide eyes meeting Katsuya's smug expression. And he doesn't even have chakra!
"It takes practice." He placed his hands on either side of his hips, holding his chin up proudly. "I'll teach you. The trick is two things: finding a good rock, the second-"
He didn't get to finish his explanation, though, as he witnessed from his periphery that Sakura was charging right past him and managed to shotput-style thrust a rock that was bigger than her palm straight into the water.
Lucky for him, being adjacent to the wetness, he managed to receive a nice welcoming splash of coldness onto his face and shirt.
"Oh.." Sakura covered her mouth, trying to hide her surprise. "That didn't work, did it?"
Instead of replying, Katsuya gave a large sigh and lowered himself down in defeat into a squat, ruffling his wet bangs. At this, Sakura gulped nervously. Is he mad?
"Sorry.." She whispered quietly, cautious of the looming man on the ground.
"I was saying," He finally spoke, nonchalant. "There's a second trick to a good skip."
He tilted his head to the side, lifting a finger in the air to inch her forward. Sakura nodded, maneuvering herself closer until the two of them were now crouched side-by-side. She leaned her head towards him, where he moved closer to whisper into her ear.
Sakura gulped. She could feel his gentle breath tickling her ear- and it was then that she became aware that he was dangerously close to her face.
"You messed up."
Suddenly, the pink-haired girl gasped as her eyes shut closed, her mouth hanging open in shock as a large scoop of cold water attacked her face, sending a giant shiver down her spine.
At this, Katsuya bursted out in unreserved laughter, letting his bottom fall to the ground as he covered his amused expression. "It looks better on you."
If Sakura weren't busy stroking the strands of wet bangs away from her face and biting her lip to abstain her brute strength of anger, she would've mentioned that this was the first time seeing this guy genuinely laugh. It was a refreshing change from his stuck up attitude.
"You're funny. I didn't think someone like you were capable of such child's play." She says instead in a sarcastic tone, giving him a tiny push in the shoulder. It'd be bad if she hit a human, after all.
Instead of responding to her mockery, Katsuya let the rest of his laughter slow to a halt before shooting an arm up in the air, wiggling his wrist a little bit before once again checking the time on his watch. At this, Sakura raised an eyebrow in curiosity, finding herself having to ask. "Do you have somewhere to be?"
"Uh.." He lagged for a bit, as if in thought. "Not really. But it'd be convenient for me to drop something off.."
"Oh, then let's go." I won't able to find my way out of this area on my own, anyway.
"..You sure? It's not really in our agenda."
"Yeah, whatever. We can continue looking at stuff after."
The silver-haired boy appeared to comtemplate this for a second, though he finally gave a nod and placed a hand on the ground to prop himself back up onto his feet. Just as Sakura were about to attempt the same, a hand showed in her periphery and she looked to the side, where Katsuya stood waiting for her to take his offer. After a few seconds, she took it with her own, lifting herself from the earth as they then separated and started down a different gravelled path.
In the following few minutes, the the two of them were no longer in the area of the park and vast stores, but to Sakura, it seemed as if she had once again teleported into a different world. Only, this wasn't a different world, but merely a different area of the city- as Katsuya had explained it. There was the central city, where all the big streets and flashy things are, and there was the side with traditional, Japanese-looking houses with long cement paths and tiny wooden gates enclosing the residential homes.
Sakura looked at these tiny homes, thinking she was definitely more used to seeing living quarters like these compared to the apartment her and Sasuke had managed to snatch. It wasn't long before the two of them reached the front of a cute place- a set of tiny stairs leading up to a wooden gate and then into a brief pathway before the main door. Sakura took a moment to admire the earthy colors of the exterior; clean sliding windows on either side with translucent curtains obstructing the view of the inside.
"You don't have to come in. I won't take long." Katsuya says, receiving a nod from the pink-haired girl as he disappeared past the gate and towards the door. Wait,
Sakura jolted her head to follow the silver-haired boy in realization. He lives here and we're at his house!? Is that weird?
She watched from afar as he appeared to have brought out a set of keys, shaking them into the knob before pushing the door open with ease. At this, Sakura couldn't help but wonder if he lived alone. She had just met the guy, and he seemed to be a mysterious one. After today, she could safely conclude that he really wasn't as stuck up as she initially thought. Just a little bit.
Her eyes suddenly caught sight of an older woman appearing at the opened doorway, seemingly welcoming him home with a warm smile on her face. His mother? They did look a bit similar. The biggest thing that set her off from concluding so was that her hair was a beautiful sleek black, nearly tied up into a high ponytail.
Suddenly, the woman's icy blue eyes met hers, catching Sakura by surprise. A moment later, she grinned and began waving her way, urging her to come in.
She saw that Katsuya attempted a protest; only to receive a playful slap on the shoulder in chastisement. By then, the viridian-eyed girl had already reached the front door. It'd be rude if I ignored her. How did this end up happening?
"Come in, come in!" The woman urged continuously, waving her hand once more to shuffle her inside.
"Sorry for the intrusion.." Sakura whispered, scratching the back of her head shyly.
"Intrusion indeed.." The silver-haired boy muttered, receiving another slap from the woman.
"You can call me Yuna," The lady gave a closed-eye smile, and Sakura noticed she had adorable wrinkles on the sides of her eyes when she did. "I'm sorry, my son thinks he's an entitled man."
At this, Sakura couldn't hold back a chuckle while Katsuya rolled his eyes, shoving his hands in his pocket. So she is his mom.
Just as she were wrapping the idea around her head, she noticed the presence of a tiny figure leering on the side of the wooden staircase beside them. She took note of a small girl looking to be around 5 years old with short, black hair just like Yuna, except it was nicely cut straight up to her jawline. Her icy blue eyes shone just like Katsuya's and Yuna's, though at the moment they spoke of curiosity and impatience.
Yuna appeared to have noticed her daughter lingering. "Nami, come say hi to this pretty onee-chan!"
Hold on, so she.. Sakura watches as the girl bounces towards them until she reached the back of Katsuya's leg, grabbing his pant and slowly peering an eye past to look at Sakura with great caution.
"This is Nanami." The silver-haired boy says, eyeing Sakura with a look that seemed to ridicule her misunderstanding from earlier, "My little sister."
"Ahh..." The viridian-eyed girl laughed nervously before crouching down to Nami's height, her clear blue eyes following her as she did so. The two of them exchanged looks with one another for a few seconds before Sakura cocked her head to the side, giving her a benevolent smile. "Hello, Nami. I'm Sakura, your brother's classmate at school."
"Hi.." The little girl spoke in a quiet, high-pitched voice. Sakura felt a warm feeling inside her chest hearing the sound of such a cute being.
Nami then eventually turned up towards her brother, giving his pant leg a gentle tug for his attention. The older brother diverted his gaze downwards to deliver so.
"Onii-san, Nami wants to go to the playground."
Katsuya paused for a second. "Nami, I still have some things to do right now."
At this, the little girl looked down disappointedly. "But it's Nami's birthday.."
Sakura's eyes travelled from the sad child to Katsuya, then back to Nami's upsetting expression.
"We can take Nami to the playground."
"Hah?"
"It's fine, right?" The pink-haired girl grins as the little girls' face slowly lit up, "It's Nami's birthday, after all. And it's not like we're able to get into the store right now anyways."
Hearing this, the saddened look on Nami's face immediately disappeared, replaced by a silly grin.
The next thing she knew, and to Katsuya's astonishment, the three of them bid goodbye to Yuna before strolling down the neighbourhood street opposite of where they came from, with Nami skipping up ahead of the two high schoolers happily, but within sight.
"Didn't know you were into babysitting." The silver-haired boy says nonchalantly, looking straight ahead at his sister.
"Kids are cute. And besides, it's her birthday. Are you really going to deny the simple wishes of a little girl?"
Katsuya rolled his eyes.
"Besides, I didn't know you had a sister in the first place."
"Was that something I had to report to you?"
The pink-haired girl pouted at his response. It was exactly at times like these that she couldn't really differentiate between him and Sasuke-kun. "Although she doesn't look like you all that much- even though you have the same eyes."
A following silence emitted in the air as Sakura's words were left hanging. A moment later, he sighed as if giving in.
"She's not actually my sister."
"What?"
"She's my cousin." Katsuya explained, "Yuna is my mom's sister."
"Oh.." The pink-haired girl drained, forcing herself to keep her eyes on the little girl still prancing up ahead.
"You don't have to be so reserved all of a sudden. It's exactly what you probably think. " He explains as a matter-of-factly, "My mom passed away when I was a kid. I don't know where my dad is. Nami is my cousin and Yuna has been taking care of me ever since."
"..Oh." Sakura replies, unaware that that was also the last thing she said. Maybe this was a topic she shouldn't have gotten him to bring up. Someone like her just wasn't good for matters regarding family crises. She was pretty sure everybody knew that, especially when it came to her and her two best male friends growing up.
At this, she still couldn't bring herself to look at him directly, but instead continued to gaze up ahead. Katsuya, though, took note of her rigid movements in her robotic-like walk. He watched her serious expression for a few seconds, then let out a carefree chuckle and reached to ruffle the top of her hair playfully.
"Don't give me such a depressed look. It was a long time ago."
"I-I wasn't!" Sakura stuttered, gently knocking his hand away.
"We're here!"
The two of them then came to a stop as Nami halted in front of a play area across from adjacent streets of retail stores. There was a large playground with a tiny pathway connecting its two parts; one of them a tinier area with teeter totters and a high house with a spiral slide escalating down. The larger playground had a set of bigger swings with an even bigger mock-house connected to another one with a tiny rocking bridge. Looking at this playground, Sakura concluded it was luxury for children, considering they didn't have anything as big as this back in her days at the academy.
"Sakura onee-san.."
The pink-haired girl peered below at the tugging to see Nami looking up at her with open blue eyes filled with anticipation. "Let's play Kei-doro!"
"Kei-doro?" Sakura repeated.
"It's a tag game- cops and robbers, where one of you is the cop and you have to try to catch the robber to bring them to jail." Katsuya explained, folding his arms passively, as if he had been through this time after time.
Sakura took a moment to absorb the concept of such a game. As Nami proceeded to tug the arm of her blazer, she had an unwarranted flashback of playing a game of similar nature back in her childhood days. Ino always managed to get her whenever she was it- and Sakura started hating it after awhile, though she was too afraid to say anything about it back then. She was really such a shy, reserved girl when she was younger.
The pink-haired girl smiled as she recalled the days that now seem so far behind.
"Sakura onee-chan, you're the Oni!"
"What!?"
Nami was quick on her feet to get away. Before anybody knew it, Katsuya's sister had made her way up the house on the big playground and went in hiding, seemingly out of sight from her crouched position. Sakura didn't lag further either; she immediately took character of the Oni and headed towards the little girl. For a moment, Katsuya stood idly from behind, watching as the pink-haired girl crept up on his sister and scared her from behind, her tiny feet falling back a little before she let out a giggle and ran away once more. An irrevocable grin displayed on his face at the sight before he, too, joined in on the play as a robber.
And with that, the sky eventually began to tinge a glowing orange, a tiny pink peering through the clouds that threatened to overshadow the scarce sunlight that slowly began to disappear. At this time, Sakura was now on the ground, her belly about to cave into the heavy weight that rested on it's surface.
"Nami," She gasped, "Onee-chan is tired. And you're heavy."
"Nami isn't heavy! Nami is tiny!" The little girl bounced a bit, causing the pink-haired girl to flex her abdominal muscles (thank god she had those), resisting impending doom.
The three of them had finished about three, four, no- who knows, really, how many games of Kei-doro they had gone through for the past three hours. The one thing Sakura now knew was that she could somehow stand hours and hours of endurance training from Tsunade, but not three hours of playground games with children.
Katsuya, too, layed on the grassy side of the playground next to the sidewalk in a starfish rest, his stomach heaving up and down as he attempted to catch his breath.
As he shifted his head to the side with the little energy he had left, he looked at the two girls on his far left, who seemed to be engaged in an ardent conversation about the game scores. He watched especially carefully at the intricate ways Sakura's facial expressions changed in conversation with his sister, as if she were an unpredictable current.
"Again, again!"
The silver-haired boy continued to watch with amusement at his sisters insistency, shaking the pink-haired girl's lifeless shoulders as Sakura shook her head with a groan.
He had to admit, a girl like that was great with kids. Even he, himself, could not stand Nami's games after the first thirty minutes, even. And it seemed like they really liked eachother.
"Nami."
The girl with the short black hair jolted her attention towards her brother, who waved a hand urging her to come over. He watched as Sakura mouthed something gratefully as the little girl bounced her way towards her brother in curiosity.
Cocking her head to the side, she observed as her brother then propped his upper body up from the grass and reached inside his pocket to pull out a tiny box wrapped nicely in pink ribbon. Seeing this, her face lit up in new excitement.
Sakura found herself also intrigued by this, remembering she had mistakenly thought it was for his girlfriend. As she forced her body up, she made her way over to the two of them as Katsuya grinned softly.
"Happy 6th Birthday, Nami."
"Ehehe..." A tiny tinge of red appeared on the chubby cheeks of the little girl before she reached out and gently took the gift into her small hands. She looked back at her brother inquisitively.
"Can I open it?"
"Sure, Nami."
Sakura leaned over the little girls' shoulder in curiosity, watching as she quickly tore the ribbon off impatiently and slipped open the boxed lid. To both of their surprise, a tiny set of hair-ties laid in the center of the pink paddening. As Nami took a closer look, she noticed a set of sparkling red cherries on either hair-tie with pressed daisies embedded on the inside.
"It's super, super, super pretty!" Nami exclaimed, taking the hairbands into her hand while leaving the box in the grass. Tiny drops of tears began welling in her eyes despite her evident excitement, and soon Sakura noticed she bit her lip hard as if trying not to cry.
"Nami?" The pink-haired girl questioned with growing concern. "What's wrong?"
"Nami can't wear these right now." The little girl spoke with a shaky voice.
"That's okay." Katsuya reassured gently, "Your hair will grow fast, Nami. You don't have to use them right away."
"NO, IT WONT! NAMI'S HAIR WILL NEVER GROW!"
Katsuya and Sakura nearly jolted back at the sudden outburst of his little sister, whose face quickly turned a deeper shade of red, this time in distress. The silver-haired boy glanced to the side at Sakura, who looked back at him in shock. Slowly, Katsuya inched himself closer to his sister and lowered his head so that he was eye-to-eye with her.
"Nami. I don't understand, you're not going to have short hair forever. Mom always says your hair is getting longer by the day."
"That's right, Nami." Sakura chimed in, also gently bringing herself in front of Nami in efforts to diffuse the little girl's heightened state. However, as she got closer and examined her properly, there was a growing feeling inside of her that told her that there was something more to it. Just as she was about to speak once more, Nami shoved the hairbands into Katsuya's hand impatiently.
"Nami." Katsuya deepened his voice, carefully taking his sisters tiny hand into his own and gently holding the hairbands back into her palm, holding them in place. "It's rude to do that."
"Nami, is there a reason why you're upset that your hair won't grow?"
At this, Katsuya looked at Sakura, who seemed to pose a strange question at this time. As the two of them searched the little girls' face for a response, Nami collected all of her strength as if she were about to burst and began to tightly clutch her brother's hand that covered hers.
"BECAUSE!" She yelled, "SHOU-KUN DOESN'T LIKE GIRLS WITH SHORT HAIR!"
And in this very moment, Sakura felt herself freeze at the little girls' words. Another quick wave of flashbacks seemed to speed through her mind, from the day she met Ino to when the two of them declared war on eachother for Sasuke-kun- up to the point where finally, the time came where having long hair suddenly didn't matter to her anymore.
Although, it was too late to voice these memories out loud, because the next thing that happened, happened in what seemed like seconds. All she saw was that Nami had struck Katsuya's hand away harshly, subsequently sending the two hair-ties flying onto the adjacent street beside them.
What made it feel like it was so fast was that Sakura had immediately jumped to her feet in response.
Time seemed to slow down for an eternity there. Katsuya recalled the pink-haired girl diving into the street, his peripheral vision picking up the rush of moving vehicles that seemed to be going quicker than they really were. It didn't matter, though, because they obviously moved fast enough for him to find the need to yell. And even so, his voice seemed inaudible to the girl crouching on the street.
And in the next moment, all he saw was red.