Fangirling

By Laura-chan

Pairing: Sasuke/Sakura, minor couples.

Rating: T

Summary: 'I won't fangirl Uchiha Sasuke, I WON'T FANGIRL Uchiha Sasuke, I ABSOLUTELY WILL NOT FANGIRL Uchiha Sasuke, who cares if he has a god-like body, amazing eyes, soft black hair... Crap.'

Disclaimer: Of course everything related to Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto-sensei, praise his genius! OOC characters and plot do belong to me.

Warning: I am Italian, English is not my first language, please forgive my mistakes.

CHAPTER X

My eyes were blank and unfocused as realisation settled in my mind.

I loved Sasuke. Great, good job Sakura. Falling in love with the only heterosexual guy who actually despised female's company (maybe he was asexual?), that must be your smartest idea.

What was worst was that he would never be able to see me as more than a friend.

My thoughts were quite bitter and Sasuke seemed to notice my change of mood.

"Are you okay?" he asked quietly and I shook myself out of my reverie.

"Yes." I tried to smile. "Just a bit tired."

He nodded and stood up, offering a hand to me; I ignored it, shaking my head, and stood up on my own. Sasuke raised an eyebrow, then sighed.

"C'mon, I'll take you home."

"Wait a moment, otouto."

We turned around and yes, Itachi-san was there, with a small smile on his face; his eyes were trained on me. "Sakura-san, my father wants you to know that you can come over tomorrow: he'll let you read the scrolls, but you must stay in the house – the scrolls are too valuable to be taken away from the library."

To say that I was shocked was an understatement.

"What!? But I thought..."

"Oh, your so moving speech actually hit him hard." Itachi-san looked quite smug. "So you'll be the first person not belonging to the Uchiha clan allowed to read our scrolls." Then he smiled at Sasuke. "After you bring her home, oyaji wants to talk to you otouto; probably wants to apologize." He chuckled.

Sasuke's eyes were wide open too. "He wants... what?"

"You heard me, baka otouto. Now go." Itachi-san winked at me. "Thanks Sakura-san. I'll see you tomorrow."

I entered the black Ferrari mechanically, my mouth still agape, a dumb expression on my face. Sasuke seemed as atonished as I was.

"I really want to know what did you say to him." He looked at me. "You really made him change his mind, and this is something only my mother accomplished before."

"I was really angry." I admitted. "I don't remember exactly what I said..."

Silence set between us for a few minutes, then Sasuke started laughing out loud; I stared transfixed at him, how carefree and young he looked. He covered his eyes with his hand as his laugh subsided. "I really can't believe it... He wants to apologize... that's unheard of..." his voice lowered until it was only a whisper and I heard something akin to a sob coming from him.

Shaking his head, he started the ignition and drove me home; he stopped in front of my house.

"Are you free tomorrow after school?"

"Eh... Yes." I answered after a minute of hesitation.

"Then I'll take you to my home, so you can start your work..."

I smiled brightly and nodded. "Ok, that's fine with me! See you tomorrow then!" I moved to exit the car, when a hand on my wrist stopped me. I turned to look back at him quizzically. "Yes?"

He wasn't looking at me, a bit of red tinged his cheeks; he opened and closed his mouth several times, like he was trying hard to say something but words wouldn't come out. In the end he was able to bit out, "Thank... you... for everything, Sakura."

I smiled and squeezed his hand. "Don't worry about it!" I knew Sasuke was a proud person and saying 'thank you' wasn't an easy thing for him – I could count of one hand the times he said it since I've known him.

He nodded curtly at me and lazily waved, as he turned the car around and disappeared from view: I hoped he and his father were going to have a long conversation... it hurt me to see Sasuke so depressed and... lifeless.

I still had to come to terms with the fact that I loved Uchiha Sasuke; as if liking him wasn't bad enough...

§

The next day Naruto sat down next to me with an unusual grave face. I blinked as he stared at me. "Naruto...?" I asked uncertainly.

"You must have said something shockingly to the Bastard." He said quietly.

I raised an eyebrow "Who?"

The blond rolled his eyes. "Sasuke's father: I call him the Bastard, with the capital B, since he's always putting Sasuke down. Well, he was. Seems like some things changed."

"Sasuke told you." It wasn't a question, but a statement. I had imagined that Sasuke was going to tell Naruto what happened the day before, after all he was his best friend: quite certainly he knew more about Sasuke's situation than I did.

"Yes." He answered simply. "I'm really happy someone managed to get some sense into his thick head... Mikoto-san is a good woman, and favours Sasuke over Itachi, but her opinion doesn't counts too much to her husband." He said grimly. "He thinks his relationship with his sons shouldn't concern her."

"He was very impolite yesterday, he's lucky I only yelled at him instead of punching him on the nose." I smiled slightly at the thought "He would have deserved it though."

Naruto laughed and I quickly followed his example.

"What are you two laughing about?"

We stopped only to see Sasuke looking at us with a raised eyebrow and a questioning expression on his face.

"Oh, nothing Sasuke." I said, waving my hand casually. "Don't worry about it!"

"Yeah, teme, don't worry your pretty head about something so..." Naruto and I exchanged grins, "...idiotic."

Sasuke snorted and sat down at my left. "He infected you." He said flatly.

"Not true!" we answered simultaneously, then looked at each other and crossed our fingers "Jinx!"

He rolled his eyes and muttered something like, "My teammates are morons..."

I wanted to ask how the conversation with his father went, but the classroom, full of prying ears, wasn't the right place; moreover, there was something about him, something in posture and face, he looked... lighter, more relaxed, in a way happier, as happy as Sasuke can be. Naruto seemed to agree with me because he didn't comment.

Instead he asked, "Tomorrow is the start of Summer Break: are you two going on holidays?"

I pondered on his question, even if I already knew the answer. "Well... I'd love to, but probably I'll be stuck here helping Tsunade-shishou and my father at the hospital. I was thinking of joining a club here at school, but nothing interested me, though Hinata and Ino joined the Swimming Club..."

Naruto tilted his head at Sasuke, who sighed. "I'll train and maybe join some missions with my clan, which I always do on Summer Break, as you know perfectly well dobe."

The blond shrugged and smiled slyly at him. "Who knows, maybe you changed your mind this year."

Sasuke glared at him and they seemed to hold a telepathic conversation, staring at each other's eyes. "Ehm, guys..." I began "You're freaking me out."

They broke the contact and Naruto rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. "Eh, eh, sorry Sakura-chan."

"And you?" I asked him. "What are you thinking of doing?"

He smiled brightly. "I'll go to the seaside! Shikamaru has a beach house and we usually go there for a week or two. Sasuke-teme always refuses to come." He glared at his best friend, who scoffed. "But I'm sure that if you have some free time, you'll be welcome too Sakura-chan!"

I giggled. "It would be great Naruto!" suddenly summer started looking more exciting.

"Of course I'll train too, Ero-sennin and I are going to the mountains for three weeks, he wants to teach me some kind of jutsu..." he seemed thoughtful "...he explained it to me, but I really wasn't following too much his reasoning..."

"Dobe..." muttered Sasuke, but Naruto didn't hear.

Anko-sensei, our Strategy teacher, entered looking odd as usual and put an end to our chatter; I was still smiling, anticipating the beginning of summer.

§

It was heaven. I was sure of that.

The Uchiha Library was a gift sent from the Kami.

Sasuke chuckled at my awed look, probably I looked dumb, but I couldn't help it: I loved to read, to learn and the library contained so many scrolls that I couldn't even imagine where to start. Then I remembered myself and cleared by throat.

"Where are the scrolls about the Sharingan?" I asked Sasuke. He raised an eyebrow, then brought me to a table where about three dozens of scrolls were ordinately piled.

"My father took them out: you can work on them as long as you want... if you want you can come over tomorrow, too."

"I think I'll need to." I whispered, a bit worried by having to read all those scrolls. Then I turned to him. "How... How did the conversation with your father go?"

His eyes flickered to me, then he adverted his stare. "Better than I'd have thought: of course Itachi is still the prodigy... but my father is finally acknowledging my worth – I found him looking at my awards in my room." Sasuke smiled bitterly. "He apologized. And that was much coming from him." He turned away from me. "I'm going to train: tell me when you have finished, I'll take you back home."

"Thanks." I smiled, sitting down, my fingers itching to get started.

I probably imagined the soft murmured, "No, thank you."

I turned back to him, but he had already disappeared back down the hall: I shrugged and looked ravenously at the scrolls. I took out my notepad and put it on the side, reaching for the scroll with a single horizontal line meaning "1" and opening it attentively: it was in exceptional conditions and I realized that probably the Uchiha clan transcribed their secrets on new scrolls when the previous ones were ruined or too old to be handled safely.

I soon submerged myself in the unbelievable world of the Sharingan and took no notice of the time that passed.

So, I was very startled when an annoyed voice came from behind me. "Are you going to spend the night in the library, or are you ready to go home?"

I whirled around and stared.
And stared.
And stared.
And continued to stare.

Apparently Sasuke was back, a frustrated look on his (handsome) face. And he was...
Half-naked.
Sweaty (probably from training).
...and he looked absolutely delicious, enough to eat.

'No bad thoughts, no bad thoughts, Sakura keep your hormones under control, you're no longer that stupid twelve years old girl. BAD THOUGHTS, GET OUT OF MY MIND!!!'

I managed to compose myself and reply very intelligently.

"Ah...uhn...ugh – I..."

Sasuke cocked an eyebrow, looking a bit worried (I would be too if suddenly a person before me would start stuttering and looking like an oversized tomato). "Are you okay?"

"Uh...I guess..."

Thanks brain for leaving me when I actually needed you!

"There's something wrong?"

I gritted my teeth and closed my eyes. 'YES, there's something wrong, YOU, YOU, YOU, bakaaaa!! Don't you realise your naked chest is probably a weapon of mass-destruction?!?'

I took a deep breath and looked at him straight in the eyes, being careful not to let my stare wander on his (bare, sweaty, perfect) chest. "I'm fine, just peachy, thank you. What do you want?"

Sasuke looked at me like I was crazy. "It's late. Do you want me to bring you home?"

Now I was sure I had this idiotic look on my face: I glanced at my watch and gasped. It was eight p.m.! I had been in the Uchiha library for five hours!

"Kami-sama! It's already this late?" I did warn my parents that I was going to a friend's house, but they would have expected me earlier.

Sasuke sighed and shook his head. "I'll go change and take you home, ok?"

Inadvertently I glanced – again – at his chest and blushed furiously: I stood up quickly and gathered my things, rolling carefully the scroll I was reading and putting it back in place with the others.

When I turned back to him, Sasuke wasn't looking at me: his arms were crossed on his (still bare) chest and he was leaning against the doorway. As always, he looked breathtakingly handsome. In my mind entered unbidden thoughts of him undressing, washing in the shower, changing...

My face was an alarming red as I passed him without looking at him, murmuring a pathetic "I-I'll wait for you outside!"

§§§§§

Sasuke stared at the retreating girl with a puzzled look on his face: she had behaved strangely since he had disturbed her. She'd gotten so red, maybe she had a fever?

As he uncrossed his arms, they brushed against his naked chest: he looked down at himself and realised what had Sakura so flustered. The dark-haired boy bit his lower lip to keep from laughing out loud.

He smirked wickedly as he looked in the direction the pink-haired girl had disappeared into. "Hn. So, you're not as indifferent as you seem, Sakura..."

Sasuke was extremely pleased.

Fangirling X – End

To be Continued

Author's Note: Next one is another bomb...

Reviews' Corner: OMG, I'm amazed by the number of reviews! I LOVE EVERYONE OF YOU. THANK YOU SO MUCH!

Nandy, ChristinaAngel, Misunderstood kunoichi, AzNAnGeL07, Arcaina (I understand… I have been in love with my best friend too and it was difficult), kirei na yukki, xteenuh, Akane Naomi, SakuraUchiha14, benswife, shinobusuraj, Bored Konoha Kunoichi, uchihakiriko, Merridaine (glad the chapter made you happy), JadeMesmerizedByOnyx, gladdecease (your reviews always warm my heart… Fugaku will redeem himself – I needed him to be mean, you'll understand later), Sw33t.Stuff.Sakura, Odat, jensepeon, miss.AnoniiemouSe, CrystalHeart27, RLO, HYPER ENOUGH TO BE NARUTOS SIS, Mittelan, Wingless-Crying-Angel, jessie6491, jess, serenity uchiha, sasusakufan2357, Snickerdoodle-sensei, Storm Midnight, ssdfdt5, rayray-rchl-chan, 2supersmart, Mariegurl, C.A.M.E.O., NinjaNita, Winter's Holly, Dark Shining Light, mintxrain, latoya, SpiffyCookie, Silvain Star, Pink Crescent Moon, silentscream16, Yoshikuni-Chiaki, Butterfingers123, tast3the3RAiiNBOW, Aminta, KathH, eleanaleone, VeRnAgUaY, Ur2tRoUbLeSoMe90, yourdarkdesire, KonohaNinja93, Maye Uchiha, failxsafexhumor, SasukexXxSakura, jjayno1, pichu2001, Heartless Ghostie, mk-chan160, Sarah Rebecca, Lady Tatum, kunoichi of darkness, 1010'jin, 2hott4u, dancing-leaf, slytherinxstar, Neko Grafic, prettypopularchick1, LaGringa20, NikkiRheHyugaChick, Aoi Hana9, SpillietehInkie.

Kaoru-chan: first of all, thanks for the very LONG review, I love those :D
Yes, I changed a bit Fugaku's attitude, but in the end I think that he REALLY was a bastard in the manga – first, he treats Sasuke like dirt and then, ONLY WHEN Itachi starts acting strange, he begins to care about his younger son! Sakura showed that she was able to yell at people when there was the need to, so I don't think she was OOC in last chapter. Still, thank you for your review!!