CHAPTER 9
Sakura was more than happy that she did not have school the next day. She did not know how to face Sasuke after what happened last night.
'He kissed me' She blushed at the thought. She shook her head and focused on the task at hand.
It was Saturday and Sakura decided to clean her apartment, not that she wanted it to be presentable when Sasuke drops by again.
After two hours of moving furniture, dusting and sweeping here and there, she was finally contented with how the apartment looks.
She felt uncomfortable with her sweaty body so she decided to shower. She sighed when hot water ran over her body, she felt relaxed. After spending 30 minutes inside her bathroom, she went out and picked a comfortable oversized shirt and shorts.
Sakura looked at her wall clock. It was almost noon, she still needs to prepare for lunch. She looked inside her refrigerator, undecided on what she should cook.
She was still thinking when her doorbell rang. She creased her eyebrows, who would be visiting her this time? She approached her door and slowly opened it, she almost closed the door again when she saw the person at her door.
"You're here... again," She glared, "with one of your buddies." as she looked at Naruto who was smiling wildly at her.
"Hello Sakura-chan!" Naruto greeted, Sasuke just rolled his eyes at Naruto and looked at Sakura. Sakura caught his look and remembered what happened last night. She reddened at the thought.
"If you're here for free lunch then you'd be disappointed, I have not prepared anything." She boredly said to them.
"Really?! That's great! Teme and I bought pizza for us!" He shouted, bringing up the pizza to her face. Naruto then walked inside her apartment, ignoring Sakura's glare as he comfortably settled on Sakura's couch. Sakura looked at him incredulously, completely ignoring Sasuke who was yet to enter her apartment.
"Close your mouth, you'll catch a fly." She felt his hot breath on her ear, and it gave her a tingling sensation throughout her body. She jumped away from him as far as possible. She glared at him, trying to hide her blush.
Sasuke entered her apartment and closed the door. Sakura sighed as he sat beside Naruto and opened the pizza. Her stomach grumbled when she caught the scent of pizza. She really must be hungry.
She slowly walked to them and grabbed one slice. She sat on the opposite chair and grabbed the remote to watch TV, with the intention of ignoring the two.
Naruto was talking loudly, without any answer from the two. Sakura went to her kitchen for a drink, oblivious of Sasuke's eyes following her move.
Sakura grabbed three glasses and a pitcher of water. She placed them on a tray and was about to leave when she bumped into Sasuke's hard chest. She almost dropped the tray, good thing Sasuke held on the tray and steadied Sakura by putting one hand on her waist.
Sakura stared at Sasuke's deep black eyes which hypnotize her all the time.
'Avert your eyes now!'
"Sorry I had to bring Naruto with me, I was planning to spend time with you, but he appeared in my doorstep and wouldn't stop bugging me." He explained, Sakura was surprised that he is explaining himself. She could only nod at him.
'He wanted to spend time with me? Isn't that sweet? Wait, why is his face moving closer to mine? Is he planning to-'
"Hey Teme! You're missing the show!" Naruto shouted.
Sasuke quickly moved away from Sakura and removed his hand from her waist and left with the tray. Sakura released a long breath that she was holding. She placed a hand on her chest to clam her beating heart.
It was almost 6:00 when the two decided to leave, Sakura wouldn't admit it, but she enjoyed spending time with them. Naruto was full of stories, she was laughing all the time that he was talking. And Sasuke as usual, would annoy Naruto and the two would start a fight. In which she would be the mediator.
"See you at school Sakura-chan! Hey Isn't that Kiba?! Oi Kiba!" Naruto shouted as he ran towards the direction where he saw Kiba.
Sakura just smiled at his back and looked at Sasuke who was standing beside her... standing too close beside her.
"You enjoyed Naruto's company, huh?" He said with that husky voice of his.
"Yeah, I thought he would just annoy me with that loud voice of his." She said thoughtfully, ignoring Sasuke's stare on her face.
"I was jealous." He said seriously, that made Sakura look at him, confused.
"You- ah... what?"
"You were laughing uncaringly when he told you stories, I want to be the only person to make you smile and make you laugh. But every time we're together, you are always annoyed and you always want to leave." He said, glaring at the ground.
'He's jealous?'
Sakura couldn't say anything about his confession, she was surprised herself that she laughed freely with Naruto, but with Sasuke, she's always nervous.
Sakura reached out a hand and touched Sasuke's arm, he looked at her, waiting for her to say something.
"You shouldn't be jealous of Naruto, he's really funny, and during the time I have spent with the two of you, I felt as if he is a brother that I never had." Sakura said quickly, then removed her hand from his arm but he caught it with his hand.
"You see him as a brother? How about me?" He asked, smirking at her, he closed the distance between them that she could feel the heat from his body.
"You? I- ah- hey, shouldn't you be going? Naruto's waiting-" Sakura stopped when he slammed both of his hands on the door, trapping her between the door and his body.
"Sakura? What do you think of me?" He whispered, she could feel his breath on her lips, he was that close. Sakura could not think coherently, all she could think of was that Sasuke was going to kiss her, she waited for it, he was close when-
"Teme!" Naruto shouted, Sakura pushed Sasuke away and put a far distance between them. Naruto was running back to her apartment.
""What dobe?!" Sasuke, obviously annoyed, shouted back.
"Kiba and the others are going to play at a court just a few blocks from here! Let's join them!" Naruto said excitedly.
Sasuke glared hard at Naruto and looked back at Sakura, his expression softened and nodded at her. Sakura just nodded back without meeting his eyes.
"Bye Sakura-chan!" Naruto said again as he dragged Sasuke to the court not far from Sakura's apartment. Sakura entered her apartment again with a red face.
'That Uchiha!'
Sakura awoke to the slight movement outside her window. She looked around her surroundings and found that she fell asleep on the couch. It was already dark outside. It was around 9:00 pm that time.
Sakura sat on the couch, not turning the lights on, she moved to her window where she heard a movement, she looked outside and saw nothing. She went to her kitchen to have a glass of water, she grabbed a glass and opened her refrigerator, the light inside the fridge revealed a figure at the corner of her kitchen. She gasped loudly as the figure jumped on her. The glass she was holding fell on the floor and the shards scraped her shoulder, drawing out blood.
She screamed in pain, the man covered her mouth and placed a knife on her throat.
"Scream again and you're dead" the man threatened her, Sakura stared with wide eyes at the man on top of her. He was wearing something that covers his face, only his eyes were visible.
Sakura stopped moving, scared of what the man will do to her.
"Are you ready to die, Sakura?" His voice made her blood ran cold. She was shaking, she couldn't move.
'It wasn't a dream, what happened the other day wasn't just hallucinations'
The man was looking at her, ready to strike when he stopped, a group of guys must have passed by the apartment because wolf-whistles and laughter were heard from inside the apartment. Sakura felt grateful for the interruption, she reached for a shard from the glass beside her and scratched the man in the face. He howled in pain and it gave Sakura and opportunity to kick him off her and run to her door.
But the man was quick to recover, he grabbed her hair and dragged her away from the door. She screamed again, the man threw her on the wall, her head hit the wall hard, making her dizzy.
"You're going to pay for that!" The man said, as he punched Sakura. He grabbed her neck and tried to strangle her. Sakura was wheezing, she could see dots clouding her vision.
Loud banging was heard from the other side of the door, surprising the man. The man let go of Sakura's neck and ran to her kitchen window to escape as the door was kicked open with force.
Sakura could no longer stay awake, so she let the darkness engulf her.