Yola Mina! December is finally here! Hooray! I don't even know what to say.

Oh heck, here's an early gift!

Chapter 10

Crusher

After school Sasuke drove me home. There was nothing said throughout the whole ride.

'I really thought that he forgave me earlier but it look like he just felt sorry for me.'

We pulled up in front of my house but I dared not move as Sasuke shut off his car engine with the twist of his key.

"Is there any special reason why you left out that detail?" Sasuke asked with so much venom that I knew he didn't even want to breath Hisashi's name.

"It's not what you think!" I exclaimed looking at his face which was filled with an emotion I've seen him wear but couldn't define.

He raised an eyebrow in disbelief. "Oh really now, then what was it?"

I told him everything this time, from when I read the danger sign to when Itachi caught me coming out of his room. Sasuke sat there quietly during that whole time as I waved my hands and told my story. I felt as if a weight had been lifted off of my shoulders.

'Could it have been because I felt bad for keeping it away from Sasuke or could it be I trusted him?'

Sasuke was silent.

I was silent.

"You should have told me Sakura. " He said softly, looking at the steering wheel, hands still on it.

I stretched my hand out to touch his own. I felt like a horrible person for hiding the truth from him.

"Sasuke I-"

"You should get inside before it rains." He said as a dismissal.

As soon as I got out of the car, Sasuke drove off without another word. I didn't know if it was because I was so relieved or what but I had no hard feelings about what he just did because…

'Because I know he doesn't know any other way to deal with it.'

I had taken care of one of my problems and there was an instant need to fix the others. The feeling of being free of one of my burdens was overwhelming and I knew just which burden I had to get rid of next.

Whether I wanted to admit it or not, I did care about what happened yesterday between Hisashi and I. Something had to be done, it had to be fixed.

'Or else I'll lose him again.'

"Wait, what was I thinking? He's not Naruto!" I exclaimed as I shut the front door of my house.

I decided that it was time to mend our fragile friendship, so here I was, standing in front of Yahiko's house in a pair of jeans and a hoodie, body soaking wet as I didn't see the purpose earlier of grabbing an umbrella before leaving the house.

'Why is it that it always rains when something happens or is going to happen?'

I gave the door a few quick knocks in fear that if I left my hand on the door it would fall over. I was greeted by Hinata who looked at me as if I was a beggar darkening her door step. Nothing gave her the right to look at me that way especially since this wasn't her house and she didn't live there.

"What are you doing here?" she ask with so much disgust that it sounded like she was a guard dog, growling at me.

"I came to have a word with Hisashi." I answered calmly even though I was pissed off at how she answered the door.

"He's not here." She replied before closing the door in my face.

SLAM!

'The nerve of her!'

I knocked on the door once again, waiting for her to open the door and sure enough, she did.

"What?" she barked.

"Where's Hisashi?" I asked with my arms folded, annoyance echoing as I asked.

"I told you already. He's. Not. Here." She said through gridded teeth as she proceeded to shut the door but this time I wasn't having it.

I put my foot in the door way, stopping it from closing. I used my hands to wrench the door back open.

"I know that but what I asked, if you weren't so busy being a bitch, is where is he?" I asked hotty, not giving two flying squirrels about holding my temper.

"I-" Hinata stopped mid-sentence.

Normally when someone stops talking in the middle of saying something, it's because either someone or something cut them off or because they changed their mind about what they were going to say. But I knew for a fact that neither of the two were the case as I didn't say or hear anything that stopped her from talking and Hinata didn't have any reason to change her mind about saying anything to me.

The reason for Hinata, who suddenly stopped talking, was the same reason why I was here in the first place. It was Hisashi.

'Oh my God!'

My mind wouldn't process what I was seeing or maybe my mind couldn't keep up with my eyes.

Hisashi appeared by the door way, his lower body hidden behind the wall. Sweat dripping from his shirtless body, his face red from the heat emulating from his body. It was only then that I noticed what Hinata was wearing, which wasn't much. I was so absorbed in finding Hisashi that I failed to notice Hinata was sassing at me in nothing but a familiar jersey that clearly wasn't hers. Her face was tinted pink and her hair was suffering from a serious case of bed head…just like Hisashi…

'Oh my God!'

Once again it dawned on me, the pieces were coming together. The red faces, hazed eyes, the sweat, a shirtless Hisashi and a Hinata in a over sized jersey… They…

"I'll be out in a minute George." Hisashi stated as he shut the door.

'were having sex.'

The need to mend Hisashi and I's fragile friendship extinguished like a flame left out in the snow. I felt cold, oh so cold. The air around me had lost all its warmth and each breath I took, the cold air stabbed at my throat. This shouldn't have affected me so much to the point where I was shivering. It didn't make sense!

Creek.

The door creeked open and was shut quickly. I felt my arm being pulled in a direction but the cold absorbed me to a point where I had to close my eyes…

"Sakura-chan wake up! Stay with me!" I heard Naruto saying but then the voice changed and the words were different.

"Oi,George you gotta stay awake okay?"

I opened my eyes and the eyes looking back at me were not sky blue but moss green with blue seeping though.

"Hisashi?" I asked in whisper, my throat feeling raw.

"Look I have some clothes in a bag in the back, you could change in that instead of staying in those wet clothes."

At first I had no idea what he was talking about or where we were for that matter. All I knew was that I was in a warm place sitting in soaking wet clothes. But the more I focused on what was going on around me, the more I realized where I was.

I was in the passenger seat of a car and Hisashi was driving. To where? I had no idea.

"Sakura, hurry up and change before you close your eyes this time and really don't wake up." He explained as he put the bag on my lap.

The duffle bag was like a first aid kit, heavily stocked for almost any emergency. There was deodorant, clothes, a toothbrush, toothpaste, soap, extra clothes, shampoo and conditioner, socks, colon and a pair of sneakers.

'Wow, it just like the shit happens bag I have in school except better.'

I pulled out a shirt and a pants. I was hesitant to remove my clothes and put his on for two reasons. The first was that Hisashi would see my underwear and bra and I was not comfortable with that. The second was that after seeing Hinata in his jersey, how would I know these clothes were…safe?

'Or clean for that matter.'

My shivering body obviously didn't care about any of this as it just wanted to retain heat again but I'd rather freeze to death then wear dirty clothes.

"What are you doing? Hurry up!"

"Is it really okay for me to wear these?" I questioned.

"I told you to put it on didn't I?"

"But what about Hinata?"

He raised an eyebrow, "What does she have to do with wearing my clothes?"

"Well…um," I stuttered, "She was wearing your shirt just now so I thought…" I trailed off.

"Oh." He finally caught on to what I was talking about and chuckled. "We're not together."

"But she was wearing your shirt and didn't you two…you know." I stated pointedly.

He stopped the car at the red light and looked at me with a serious expression. "Yes, we did but it's not like that."

"Oh" was all I could say as a response to that.

It was all too shocking really.

'They did the deed but they're not together?'

"Just hurry up and change." The car went back in motion. "And don't worry, I won't look."

Changing in the car with Hisashi was very uncomfortable. Just having my Dad see me in a towel coming out of the bathroom was uncomfortable. There was no way I could change my clothes with a boy sitting right there.

'I'm sure it was no problem for Hinata.'

Just the thought left a bitter taste in my mouth. It must have been easy for her to undress in front of him and to…sleep with him even though he wasn't her boyfriend. But I couldn't do that because…

'I never did anything like that.'

I'm the girl that guys would think is boring, that is a plain Jane because I wasn't slutty, trashy, because I wasn't easy. I'm a girl who believed in waiting, in respecting one's self. I looked over at Hisashi to see if he was peeping and sure enough, true to his word, he wasn't looking.

'I'm not the kind of girl that Hisashi would even want to look at.'

Rage filled my veins and I could feel myself changing into the girls I loathed. I kicked off my shoes and began to remove my jeans. Then I stripped my upper body of the sweat shirt that protected my bra and bare skin from being seen. All I was left in was a pink panty and a black bra.

'Of all the days for me not to match. Wait, what was I thinking? This was so not like me to care about what boys thinking of me.'

I throw Hisashi's shirt over my head to cover my exposed body before he had a chance to fall into the temptation of looking. I pushed my legs into the holes of the pants as fast as I could so that my bare legs wouldn't touch the seat anymore.

Oh how I missed the feeling of clothes covering my body from the world's view for those brief seconds. Everything felt right in the world now that I had them on. I'm fingers felt clammy. It was a if I had just got out of the pool and put on dry clothes.

A towel appeared on my head, blocking my vision of the road before me. I pulled it off to look at the only person who could have done it.

"Dry your hair before you caught a head cold." Hisashi commanded, eyes not leaving the road.

I cracked a smile at Hisashi's kindness. He sure had a way of showing that he cared even though his tough guy mask was still on. Suddenly I didn't feel as bad as I did before. My need to mend our friendship was back.

"Why don't you take a picture, it'll last longer."

And the need was flushed down the toilet.

"Why is is that you always have to do that?" I snapped.

"Do what?"

"Ruin the moment." I shot back.

"What moment? The one where you were smiling at me like a pedo or the one where you looking at me as you strip off your clothes?"

"You know what? You're the pedo and I have had enough of you! All I came over to do was apologize about yesterday and go home but no. Instead I ended up getting soaked in the rain only to discover things I didn't need to know!" I exclaimed.

I could feel water flowing out of my eyes and down my cheeks, my breathes started and stopped in small burst and to make matters worse, the clothes I was wearing weren't mine. I was a hot mess, emphasis on the 'mess'. For the rest of the ride, in a car I didn't know Hisashi had, I remained slient.

Thought it was killing me on the inside to know whose car this was and where we were going, I opt to only say, "Stop the car."

Hisashi paid me no mind and continued driving.

"I said stop the car!" I yelled.

"No." was all he said.

I couldn't take it anymore. Being so close to him at the moment was too much. Everything I saw at Yahiko's was too much.

I was breaking again.

"Stop the car! Let me out of this car this instant Hisashi!" I screamed with all my might.

"Why don't you want to be near me Sakura?" he asked calmly or was it something else?

It didn't matter. I didn't care how he sounded even if I think it was sadness I heard in his voice.

'That sounded so much like Naruto's just now.'

I chose to focus on the question that was asked instead of the ghost of my past. "Because I can't be near you anymore. "

"Why not?"

"It…it does things to me. You make me rememb-" I couldn't finish it. I refused to finish it.

Hisashi didn't ask me anything else and I didn't ask him to stop the car. Before we knew it, we pulled up in front of my house and from the looks of it, my workaholics of parents still weren't home. I got out the car without a word.

"I need my clothes for a match I have in the next hour." Hisashi stated as he turned off the engine.

I stepped out of the car and walked away quickly, itching to get into my house, where things made sense, where I knew my place and my feelings.

I peeled Hisashi's clothes off of my body, stripping it away like it was sheding snake skin, like the unwanted clothes that they were. I wanted to believe that that's how I felt about his clothes, so it wouldn't hurt, to give it back, to remember what happened between Hisashi and Hinata.

'To forget whatever it is I'm feeling.'

"If only you were here Naruto. " I sigh and fiddled with my necklace. "I would know what to do."

The walk to Hisashi's car was the most dreadful walk, no, the second most dreadful walk that I ever had to experienced in my life so far. I didn't even want to think about the first one, the walk to his coffin. The only thing that was keeping me together was a single phrase.

'Look on the bright side Sakura, things can't get any worse.'

Low and behold, that things did get worse because stand in front of his car was Hisashi and standing in front of him, was Sasuke.

I could feel the air getting thicker as I approached the two brewing boys. My feet seemed to get heavier with each step I took, causing me to walk slower and slower the closer I got. The two of them looked to be having a heated conversation as they were too busy to notice little old me traipsing by. I thought I was going to get away by simply putting the clothes in his car and walking away, but today just wasn't my luckily day.

"And where do you think your going Pinky?" Sasuke questioned.

'Busted.'

"Hey Chicken Butt, didn't see you there." I greeted, trying not to sound as nervous as I felt.

Sasuke looked at me suspiciously, his onyx eyes showing me that he saw through my little white lie, then they traveled down south to my hands that were clucking the clothes I had just took off, inspecting them curiously.

"Whose clothes are those?" Sasuke asked.

'What am I suppose to say?'

I couldn't tell him that they were Hisashi clothes, that would cause Sasuke to think I was lying when I said Hisashi wasn't my boyfriend! I could lie to Sasuke either because I didn't want to have to go through what happened earlier in the car. I had no choice but to tell him the truth.

I took a deep breath. "-"

"There my clothes." Hisashi stated before I could say anything.

"Why do you have his clothes Sakura?" Sasuke questioned darkly.

I was scared to answer. Not because of the question but because of the way he said it with such anger. My name even sounded foreign in the tone he used.

"Her clothes were soaked so I lent her mine." Hisashi stated for me.

"Why do you keep answering for her? She could speak for herself." He glared and then turned his head to look at me, eyes softening, pleading for the truth.

"It's true Sasuke." I answer with as much conviction I could muster. "Hisashi lent me his clothes because mine were soak from walking in the rain and then he gave me a drive home. Nothing else happened."

"…" Sasuke had nothing to say, or maybe it is that he didn't know what to say.

"Look I would love to stay and finish see how this lovers' quarrel panes out but I got places to be and money to make." Hisashi said as his closing statement before walking towards the driver's side of the car.

"Remember what I told you and stay away from her Hisashi." Sasuke said darkly.

Hisashi stopped in his tracks and looked at me and smirked, " I've tried." And then he got into his car and drove off.

It didn't take much to know that the 'she' Sasuke was referring to was me. What I wanted to know was what did I have to do with their conversation and I wanted to know now.

"Sasuke, what was that all about?"

"Shouldn't I be asking you that Sakura?"

'There he goes, saying my name like that again.'

My heart was beating irregularly.

"I told you already. Now what the heck were you two talking about?"

"We were talking about nothing you need to worry about." Sasuke answered with a sharp tongue.

"Yeah right. Just tell me what I had to do with it." Was my quick responds to his vague answer.

"What are you talking about, we weren't talking about you."

"Don't lie to me Sasuke." I said softly. "Just tell me the truth."

Sasuke walked closer to me and put his hands on both sides of my face.

"If I tell you the truth, you wouldn't like me for it Sakura. You can't handle it." He said as he searched my eyes for something.

"Yes I can." I said, standing my ground as I kept my eyes on his.

The more I looked into them, the more I couldn't stop myself from getting lost in those bottomless pits. They looked so pretty, like shiny marbles. I could feel Sasuke moving closer to me but I dared not look away from his eyes that had me in a trance.

'Is he gonna kiss me again? I really hope he would...'

No! No! No! No! I wanted to scream but I couldn't move, it was to late. Any time now Sasuke would kiss me again and I would betray Naruto again. I closed my eyes waiting for the soft feeling of flesh pressed against my lips.

"See, you can't handle the truth yet." Sasuke whispered in my ear.

My voice hitched as I tried to find words to say in my defense. It was like my mind was a well without water, without a thought. It was as blank as my facial expression. Of course it started to rain again and of course my clothes got wet again but this time it wasn't my fault, I was still in shock thanks to Sasuke.

"Better get you out of the rain." Sasuke said as he led me into the house.

Sasuke seemed to have vanished into thin air and reappear with a towel in his hand, out stretched to me. I looked from him to the towel, trying to connect the dots. When I didn't take it, he threw it over my head and rubbed the water out of my hair.

"Must I do everything." He sighed.

I sat in silence as I let Sasuke dry my hair. There was nothing I could think of to say to him. My emotions were in too much of a frenzy for me to form a proper and complete thought.

'I should- but what if- could he-'

"I wasn't going to kiss you." Sasuke blurted out into the dead silence.

I looked from my fingers that were playing with the necklace around my neck to Sasuke's face, only he had a small towel covering it as he dried his hair.

"I know that you can't see me that way, that you don't…care about me that way and that's okay. I don't want to cause you any more pain than what you've already been through. "

At last I could think straight but all I could say was "Sasuke.." in a quiet voice.

But he heard me and looked at me, eyes gleaming from under the towel. "Please don't say my name like that Pinky…telling you this is hard enough as it is. " he paused. "I care about you so much and I want you to know that you're a very important person to me and you know I don't have a lot of people who are and I'm not about to lose any of them because of my own selfishness."

I wanted to prove him wrong, that I didn't not want him to kiss me, that I did care about him a lot more than I should but I couldn't because I still loved Naruto.

"Sasuke…I…" I didn't know what to say.

He rubbed the towel against his face before removing it from his head.

He smiled and said to me, "You don't have to say anything." He stood and walked towards the window to see if the weather outside had changed. "Well I should probably get going while the rain eased up a bit."

I knew his smile was false after so much months of having to put one on my own face and that it was still rain bullets as I could hear the hard drops of water hitting the roof like hail. Sasuke wantedezx to make me feel better but at the same time he wanted to get away from me and that hurt.

'Was this how Hisashi felt when I told him I couldn't be around him at the time?'

Oh how cruel fate was being to me at the moment but I didn't care, I had to try.

I walked up to Sasuke and peered out the window myself, ignoring how Sasuke seemed to inch away slightly from me." It's still raining heavy outside. You can stay here a little longer, until the rain stops falling." I stated hoping he would accept the offer.

But my hope was in vain.

"It would be better if I leave now before I can't control myself." He opened the front door. "I'll see you tomorrow. " and left.

I stood by the door,letting the cold breeze in as I wait for the sound of an engine roaring to life, tail light flashing on, painting the wet black ground red and yellow white. But there was none. Sasuke kept on walking further and further into the darkness until he vanished.

To Be Continued…

This chapter took a lot out of me. I hope you guys liked it and I'm sorry I had to make things a little emotional there. You know the drill, drop and give me twenty! Twenty reviews that is! lol Don't worry I was just kidding but some reviews would be nice.

Until next time people.

Ja ne Mina!