Warnings: foul language. And sorry if characters are ooc!

Pairings: not a whole lot

AN: thoughts and some back story in italics

Disclaimer: I don't own anything that's copyrighted

Chapter 10: To Know You

xxxxx

"Maybe I should call Itachi and have him come pick me up," Sasuke started as Sai led him into his bedroom. Sasuke assumed it was his bedroom at least. Pen and Ink pictures and portraits covered the room. For someone without a whole lot of personality, Sai's room was very original. The walls and ceiling looked like one large canvas bored, completely covered in Sai's creations. However, some of the duller aspects of his persona came out from the perfect wood panels that made up the floor, as well as his bare desk, and neatly tucked-in white bedspread.

"Give your phone to me, Sasuke," Sai said, his hand held out towards Sasuke; palm up and finger extended slightly, waiting.

"And why would I do that?" Sasuke asked, digging his hand in his pocket and retrieving his cell. He clicked the number two and was about to hit send, speed-dialing his older brother.

"Always running to nii-san for help? Before you call, I was hoping you could tell me who Hiko is?"

Sasuke flipped his phone shut. "Excuse me?" he gasped, his free hand flying into his pocket, searching for that damn piece of paper.

"Looking for this?" Sai waved the journal page slowly.

Sasuke's mouth dropped. "What do you want?"

"I want you…"

"Fuck no!" Sasuke cut Sai off. That was the last thing he was going to let happen. Pretending to be Sakura's boyfriend was one thing, but there was no way he was going out with Sai.

"…to give me your phone," Sai finished, an amused smile spreading on his face. "You overreact a lot, don't you?"

Sasuke sighed and handed his phone over to Sai. Sai's hand reached out to take the phone, but continued to extend onto Sasuke's own hand, grabbing it as well. He pulled Sasuke into an embrace, squeezing him close. Sasuke was shown how unnecessarily close in height the two of them were as his head was forced to rest on Sai's shoulder due to the sudden embrace.

"This is only a lot awkward Sai," Sasuke said, his teeth grinding into one another.

Sai pulled away but kept his hands on Sasuke's shoulders. "You don't have to hide your desires while you're in front of me Sasuke. I'm the same as you."

Sasuke looked at him perplexed. "What are you talking about?" Obviously Sai had to be getting his delusions from somewhere, but the only thing he knew about Sasuke was, well… nothing. 'Wait! The note?' "Sai, you are reading into that entry far too much."

"My bad," Sai said, "But Hiko is a boy right?"

Sasuke gasped. "Are you… Are you insinuating that Hiko and I are…" His eyes narrowed and without realizing it, he had clenched his hand into a fist and hurled it right into Sai's chin. Sai fell back a few feet, the back of his knees hitting his bed, bending him backwards, and causing his head to collide with the wall as he continued to be propelled away from Sasuke. The wall shook slightly, causing some of his art to fall onto the bed, un-dried ink marking the white comforter.

"But your note said 'he'. And that it's been-" Sasuke covered his mouth before Sai could keep going.

"I know what it says. But you need to look at this from a completely different perspective. What you're thinking was not at all what I was getting at." Sasuke sighed and removed his hand. He was going to take the note back but Sai had it hidden within his tightly clenched hand. "Can I please have it back?"

"Not until you explain everything to me."

Sasuke stared at Sai solemnly, but he understood that Sai was just confused and intrigued, he only hoped the blackmailing was over but with the whole Deidara and Sasori thing he wasn't sure. "Alright."

xxxxx

Thursday

'That was punishment right? Itachi's never seemed like that kind of a guy. Was he getting back at me for blackmailing Sasuke? Or was it because he thought I'd be that easy?' Sakura sat in Jiraiya's English class, continuously replaying yesterday's events in her head; over and over again.

"Sakura? Hello… anyone in there?" Kakashi asked her; lightly knocking on her head with the backside of his hand. Jiraiya was facing a lawsuit against a student's parents for incorporating inappropriate reading material into his curriculum so he and Tsunade were missing from school meaning Kakashi was standing in for both of them.

"What?" Sakura asked, snapping awake from her thoughts.

"The bell rang a few minutes ago. Look, Ebisu is stepping in as Jiraiya's sub while I take care of some things for Tsunade. Do you want to help me and maybe we can talk a little?"

Sakura agreed and followed Kakashi out of the classroom and towards the principal's office. Normally she would feel weird talking to one of her teachers but she had a special bond with both Tsunade and Kakashi.

She and Tsunade actually spent a lot of time after school together. When Tsunade realized Sakura's potential and desire to go into a field of medicine she offered to tutor her. She had once been a great doctor herself, but had to give up on her career when she developed a severe case of hemophobia after failing to save the life of her then boyfriend, Dan, from a bloody car crash.

Kakashi was a different case on the other hand. In retrospect, Sakura should have never developed a bond with him like she had, but four years ago, during her last year at the elementary school, she was one of the nine kids in her grade to be selected for a special project that was held yearly with the sixth graders. Nine children were selected yearly and grouped up with different teachers in order to strengthen their ability to work with others as a team.

The idea is to take children of different potential, backgrounds, and personalities and force them to work with one another so that they could learn and understand their peers better. She had been partnered with Sasuke and Naruto and their overseeing teacher was none other than Kakashi. After each of the children turned in their permission slips the teachers would be allowed to take them out of school and bring them on camping trips, where they were taught survival training, and recruit them to do odd jobs, like lemonade stands, working in different career fields, and doing community service. Sometimes they would do things in large groups with the other two teachers and six selected kids. By the time summer was over and seventh grade was coming up the group had developed a strong bond with Kakashi and each other.

Unfortunately Sakura had since had a falling out with Sasuke and Naruto, but she still felt comfortable enough to talk to Kakashi.

"So what's been troubling you Sakura?" Kakashi asked as he plopped onto the chair in front of Tsunade's computer.

"I don't know where to start," Sakura said melancholically. "I've been a terrible person recently."

"What did you do?"

She hesitated for a second but then slowly began explaining everything. Starting with her growing resentment towards Sasuke after the night she confessed her love to him, continuing to when she had found his journal on the floor outside of his locker. She had opened it to the front cover where his name was dumbly written in the top corner by his younger self, then flipped to the last page with writing on it purely speculating the contents.

Naruto's name, in the final entry, had caught her attention though so she decided, against her better judgment, to read it. Afterwards a boiling rage had crept over her. Why couldn't he have just told her his feeling back then? Didn't they trust each other enough to be honest? She was angry and her past was coming back to her so she ripped the page out and formulated a plan.

But eventually, like it always does, her plan backfired on her. She had finally obtained her goal and was dating Itachi, and yet even that had gone horribly wrong.

"It seems like you have a lot of unattainable requirements in your life," Kakashi said flatly once Sakura was done.

"What are you saying?" Sakura asked, she had started crying and was wiping tears from her cheeks and chin.

"Itachi's twenty-one, he does have needs. Who are you to judge him for wanting what an adult man would want?"

"Excuse me?" Sakura couldn't believe what she was saying. "I have my right to wait!"

"You do. And he has his right to want. If memory serves me correctly, although he was angry, you still got your way. Maybe he is being a jerk for what you did to his brother. But if you're going to have a relationship with an adult, you need to start looking at the relationship from an adult perspective. He's not going to wait for you to grow up."

Sakura stared at Kakashi. He wasn't really answering any of her questions, not that she really presented him with any. Then again, she shouldn't really be upset that he wasn't telling her what she wanted to hear. He hadn't told her she was acting like a slut. He hadn't said she was being a bitch. He hadn't said Sasuke was in the wrong for what he had done to her. All he said was to grow up. Was that it? Was she really just being immature?

"Thank-you for talking to me Kakashi-sensei," she said sheepishly before excusing herself and going to her class, the bell signaling the start of third hour.

xxxxx

In class, Sakura hadn't expected to be distracted by an onslaught of notes from Ino and Karin, who she also shared Biology with, all pertaining to why Sasuke wasn't in school. What was she supposed to tell them? She had no idea. She'd have to wait until lunch and ask Naruto, or wait until after school and ask Itachi. Something she wasn't necessarily looking forward to.

Sakura! What did you do to MY Sasuke! –Karin had scribbled angrily and then thrown at the back of Sakura's head. She ignored the note.

Is Sasuke feeling alright or did he have to stay home sick? –Ino had written neatly and perfectly, casually passing the note to Sakura while Kisame's back was turned. Sakura didn't respond to that note either.

I SWEAR IF YOU HURT HIM I'M GONNA HURT YOU! –Karin scratched into another torn piece of paper with her pink pen. Ten minutes had gone by before she decided to chuck that note at Sakura's head as well.

I'm kind of worried. He isn't answering any of my texts. –Ino added in another note a few minutes after Sakura had received Karin's most recent one.

'When does Sasuke ever answer Ino's text?' Sakura thought to herself upon reading it. Again, she didn't respond to it, but it did give her the idea to text him herself.

Sasu-kun, where r u? Every1s freaking out & were all worried. –She texted to Sasuke under her desk so Kisame wouldn't see. For the rest of the hour she received a handful more notes from Karin and Ino, but no texts from Sasuke. Then, in-between periods, as she was walking back to Kisame's classroom after putting her books from first through third period away, her phone vibrated.

Quickly she hurried to her desk and set her books, for fourth and sixth period, atop it before digging into her purse for her phone. Sneakily, she hid it away from Kisame's site and slid the phone's front screen up.

Was Sasuke in class with you? –Itachi asked in her newest text message.

She frowned. It wasn't from Sasuke but Itachi? Itachi didn't know where his brother was either?

No.. he wasn't. –She sent back regretfully. After their mishap she hadn't heard from Itachi, but now he was texting her about Sasuke. He must be really worried.

xxxxx

Fourth hour went by with less interruption. Itachi hadn't texted Sakura again and Ino and Karin had left for their next classes so Sakura sat alone, studying Kisame's lessons, and hoping anxiously that Sasuke would get back to her. He didn't, and soon lunch had started.

In the court yard outside of the cafeteria, Sakura sat with her back to a large old oak tree. Kisame had let her class head to lunch early and she rushed to get her food and hide from her peers. She didn't want to be questioned about Sasuke's absence anymore.

As the other students piled into the cafeteria and courtyard she noticed Naruto sitting at a lunch table with his friends, a worried look on his face. The others didn't seem bothered though. Sakura wanted to go over there and talk to him. Ask him why he and Itachi were aware that Sasuke was missing but why no one else was. What was going on? Why weren't her legs moving? 'When did we fall apart?'

She was afraid to go and talk to him. But why? A memory to an encounter she and Naruto had came to her and she sat a little longer, memorized by it.

"Naru-to! You shouldn't pick fights with Sasuke. You know he's just going to beat you," Sakura said, berating Naruto. He and Sasuke had just finished a fight and Sasuke had left him bruised and bleeding, lying in the grass with a split lip and a swollen cheek. Snidely, Sasuke had left him there and gone home. The group's activities had finished earlier and Kakashi had already left as well.

"Well he has to learn that he can't treat everyone else like shit just because he's going through some rough times! I'm sick and tired of him acting all superior than everyone and then acting like a bigger asshole when he's having a bad day!" Naruto said, spitting blood onto the ground and wiping any that remained off of his chin with the back of his hand.

-smack-

Sakura slapped Naruto upside his face. "Watch your mouth. What hard times is he going through?"

Naruto looked away sheepishly. "His brother is back."

"Sasuke has a brother?"

Naruto pushed himself off the ground. "I shouldn't be talking to you about this."

He turned to leave and head home but Sakura grabbed his hand. "Wait, how do you know all this?"

"Sasuke and I do more than just fight you know." Naruto stared at Sakura, disappointment showing. "We're actually friends, Sakura, how can you not see that?"

Sakura stood up and walked to Naruto's table.

"Hello sexy lady," Kiba said as she came closer to them; grabbing Naruto's attention so that he was now watching her.

"Where is he?" She asked him.

"I don't know," Naruto mumbled.

Sakura stared a little longer, thinking. "Where's Sai?"

Naruto looked at her confused. Then his head perked up and he stood, scanning the courtyard. He found Neji's group, but Sai wasn't in site. He turned back to Sakura and they both mentally agreed that there was a good chance Sasuke's disappearance was related to Sai's absence.

xxxxx

In the evening, Sakura sat at the edge of her bed.

Did u ever hear back from him? –She asked Itachi, half expecting him to ignore her but definitely not expecting his sudden reply.

No. Naruto and Kiba were out all day after school with Kiba's dog in hope of tracking him down; but no luck. –Itachi replied.

I'm sorry, If there's any way I can help you know I will –Sakura texted back.

There's no need to worry. Sai took me to see Hiko. Sakura's eyes widened. It was Sasuke! And he was fine. He was with Hiko all day, that's all.

I just heard from him and he's fine! He's with Hiko! –Sakura sent another text to Itachi, hoping this bit of information would calm his nerves.

She smiled, relieved, and left for the bathroom to get ready for the night. After a long shower and once she had finished brushing her teeth, she went back to her phone to find a new text, this one from Itachi.

Who's Hiko?

xxxxx

AN: Wow, it's been forever since I've updated this. To be honest someone recently commented on my story and it motivated me into updating. Just goes to show that comments are very handy. ty! Hope you all enjoyed this one.